: >* * : '» ^°- ... v^'V °v^>° V^*': .♦fife- ^ ^ -^Va\ ^ c** . % *Stok ^ .* o^ «V7V7» A ? .•L^L'. *> 9-* ♦...' ,*T **** r ^0^ * *T ■y me. The tissues are built up out of the ^ible life of the nervous system. But what m:: s the nervous system? These physical physicians can e the nerves. But there is some hidden principle within the nerves, within the electricity and dynamic of the nerves, r'.ihin the mellow magnetism which 5ts the fine electricity — something within everything in jroa that is human and interior — a principle of recu- peration known only by the power you feel, and by the occasional -ense of immensity in your personal ex: :- ence! This hidden principle lies sequestered in y lea st nerves, in oar finest points of life and sensation. It gives you all your prodigious power of will. From it flow all your moral feelings. It throbs througL all parts of your being : it cleaves through its magu:-::: and electrical ve^: u . ~. ;ts :n the nerves, out-breathes and condenses the tissues, and ultimately and suc- sessively elaborates all the physical organs which make up the corporeal system. N ] W, the principle of growth is identical with the unfoldment 6f the Summer-Land. I do not wish to lin you upon this point, but merely lesire to Bx your thoughts on the terrestrial dynamics of the plain ts. Terrestrial magnetisms, terrestri I : I a :: icities, and lever else men call "imponderables, constitute the n jrvc is system :■: this physical universe. The univri il nervous system holds the same relation to matter as the nervous system of the spirit to the physical pairs : body. Every physician knows that the first .lining a human being is a point of nerve wrapp-:. : matter. This point of nerve is the starting-poini 36 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. life. Next come the tissues, the fine thickness on ths outside, then the blood begins to flow, and so on, more and more concrete, until the full equipped outer body itself is formed and ready for parturition. The spiritual world is made from life-points sent out from the chemical coalitions of the planets. Thus the Summer-Land becomes a literal truth in harmony with the nervo-astronomy of the universal system. It may seem to your imaginations that this spiritual world is afar off — that it must be a vast and remote existence, because astronomers have not peered into it. Lut it is my belief that astronomers, with their physical instruments, will, one of these fortunate future days, recognize the Summer-Land, and I believe, furthermore, that astronomers will see landscapes and physical scenes there more clearly than those vague images which arc now revealed through telescopes, as existing upon the moon and different rolling stars. No, the spirit- world is not remote. We move every moment in its presence. This earthly planet itself rolls in its orbit under the observation of the inhabitants of the Spirit-Land. The vast includes the little. The Summer-Land is the comprehensive sphere. Astro- nomically speaking, the earth is on one side of that vast galaxy of suns and planets termed « the milky-way," and directly across this great physical belt of stars, we find the sublime repose of the Summer-Land ; and this is but the receptacle of the immortal inhabitants who ascend from the different planets that belong to our so- lar system. These planets all have celestial rivers which lead from them toward the heavenly shores. As sach organ in the human body holds its physical rela- SCENES EN" THE SUMMER-LAND. 37 Hon to the brain by means of nerves and blood-rivers, so these different planets in the physical universe hold a currental, magnetic, and electrical relation to the Summer-Land, which corresponds to the brain. How is it that strength rises to the brain of a man from what he eats ? It is by means of circulation. And this cir- culation is regulated by the law of attraction and repulsion ? How do spirits travel from these physical globes to their homes in the Summer-Land, and re- versely, from the Summer-Land to persons and placea on the planets ? Answer : By circulation. And here, too, magnetic river-circulation is regulated by attraction and repul- sion ! Thus the analogy may be extended ad in- finitum. I did not particularly notice until 1853, that differ- ent seasons of the year, and different positions of our planet in its orbit around the sun, yield a different clairvoyant vision of the Summer-Land. I found that an observation made in mid-winter afforded a very dif- ferent aspect of the Spirit-World from that which would be obtained in May, July, or November : and further- more, in the same year, I first noticed that the condition of the observer made a difference in what was visible ; therefore it became necessary to adopt methods and conditions which would enable the clairvoyant to mark the particular sections of the Summer-Land that came within the range of vision in accordance with the dif- ferent months of the year. From that time to this, I have been regulated by the discovery that the rolling of this terrestrial planet, in its orbit around the sun, affects the sweep of the clairvoyant sight in many in- 38 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. stances, furnishing unexpectedly a new conception of a familiar scene, and bringing to light other territories in the heavens before unknown. The Spirit-Land has a firmament. It is circular, and its vast firmament is filled with stars, suns, and satellites. It rolls in the blue immensity. The sky there is not without its clouds. They change very much like the clouds of our tropics; yet they do not much resemble them. The changes are like those in southern skies ; but the clouds themselves are very different. Among my first observations in the direction of the Spirit-Land, I discerned a river which seemed to flow across the open aerial space and pour into the far dis- tant bosom of that heavenly world. It was a river made of various streams that flowed out from planets, which blended and widened and expanded into a great sea, and thus became the flowing element of perfect beauty in the land of spirits. That celestial river is as visible to the clairvoyant perception as the Hudson, the East River, or any other water that can be seen by the natural eye on the globe. It flows away far beyond any distance that I have power to trace. It seemed like a celestial Gulf Stream, " but whither it goeth I know not." I only know that it is one of the sources of unutterable melody. It seems to give out music from all its variegated margins, and to yield lessons also, because . on several occasions, vast congregations were visible on the shores, learning something beautiful con- cerning its harmonious sounds. What they learned I cannot tell. I only saw that after listening and con- versing and reposing for an hour for what seemed to me to be that length of time,) they rose all at once; SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 39 they seemed to be many thousands — a vast assemblage — and then also arose their songs, and those songs, blending with the music of that wonderful water, seemed to me to fill the whole universe with melody J So full of joy was my heart that I lost all spiritual power either to see or hear ; and so suddenly did I re- turn to the common state that I could not but ask the person who just then entered the room, whether he had heard that music ! " No," he replied. " Indeed !" said I. " Didn't you hear anything V " No." So real and so distinct was the sound I could scarcely believe my friend's denial. In 1854 I had an opportunity, for the first time, to contemplate a celestial garden. It was unlike any- thing I had ever seen in this world. The Garden of the Hesperides, of which we dream, only vulgarly rep- resents the beautiful fact. When I saw the immense landscape and the innumerable beauties that come up from the soil, and the labyrinth of leafage which gathered upon the vision to the right of the scene, I could not but ask, " Will some one tell me the extent V 9 After a few moments a cerebro-telegraphic dispatch came into -the mind, whispering distinctly, " It would reach from here to Scotland — near four thousand miles in length — five hundred miles in width." It seemed to be a far-extending avenue of flowers and beautiful trees, and there seemed no limit to the number of persons that were walking leisurely, lovingly, arm-in- arm ; and oh ! tke thousands of beautiful children that were at play through the devious labyrinths of that vast heavenly park ! Now let us reason for a moment. Christians be- 49 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. lieve, or profess to believe, that, " In our Father's house are many mansions/' This faith is based in reality, or else it is false, and there is, or there is not a mansion or a house " eternal in the heavens." Is that Scriptural language figurative, or is it literal ? Does it mean anything ? You, who so strenuously believe the Bible, say that I am an infidel. But I now ask you who is the infidel ? Your Christian poetry says: " There is a land of pure delight, Where saints immortal reign ; Eternal clay excludes the night, And pleasures banish pain." Now I ask every professed Christian, Do you stand prepared to repudiate the fact affirmed in your poetry ? Who is infidel to-night ? Your highest authority in the Church and in the Bible said, " In my Father's house are many mansions." He said also that that house was built without hands. Do you believe it ? Do you be- lieve anything on the subject ? If you do, then you have at least the rudiments of an education which you ought to have perfected by this time into some reasona- ble comprehension of what the Father has, " without hands," spanned out for you beneath the unfolded heavens. But to return. In the trees of that vast celestial Park I heard the songs of birds, such as I had not heard from any species of birds in this world. In 1855 the songs of these birds first caught the clairaudient ear. This power of hearing, superadded to the telescopic, gave all the more perfection and actualness to the ob- servation. These birds resemble, to some extent, the birds of this planet under the equator. In plumage, SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 41 however, they were unlike. I saw celestial birds that excluded all rays except the yellow. They were singu- larly, wonderfully yellow — quite different from the hue of the canary. It seemed as though composed of yellow crystalline air. I could see the nervous systems of these birds — their whole physical interior — they were so transparent. They were, I observed, swift in their flight. I also saw a bird which excludes all rays save that of blue, and that looked like a diamond cut out of pure, ethereal immensity. I never could have imagined anything so marvelously expressive of pure, immense, heavenly love ! This particular bird was a representa- tive, I saw, of universal private affection. The yellow bird was also a representative. It had a great mean- ing — the mellower affection which comes from wisdom. The songs of these birds echoed from the Concilium — a place where minds who had gathered from the past, occasionally meet as in a Brotherhood for delibera- tions. 1 inquired concerning the flowers, of which there were innumerable varieties, different from any that I had seen on earth, except one, which somewhat resem- bled the violet. All others were new and wonderful. There were also curious vines that grew all over very lofty trees ; instead of leaves, the vines gave out count- less throbbing flowers. Each corolla pulsated like a harp, and when I looked more intimately and carefully, 1 saw that every flower seemed to be conscious that it was part of a Divine life and plan. Along the River, of which I first spoke, I saw what appeared" to he grasses, but they were not such as I have eeec on. earth, and yet they were emanations from the 42 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. heavenly soil. They were what might be termed mossy- grasses, but the fibers were silken, and reflected the rainbow-colors of the diamond. The exquisitely fine fibers, composing the mossy grasses along the margin of the aerial Gulf Stream, gave off a purple brilliancy which was mellowed softly down, until it seemed to lose itself in a sort of atmospheric immensity of its own ! As I gazed, it seemed to blend and lose itself within innu- merable seas of color ! I have tried to get some repeti- tion of the effect of that color by visiting our Galleries of Painting ; but I have seen nothing like it on canvas in the pictures of any earthly artist. Church's " Heart of the Andes" — the deep, rich, immense colors of the Cordilleras, and the infinite repose expressed in the marvelous depths of that picture — seem to be the merest physicalism compared with that which, in 1855, was first reflected upon the cerebro-telescopic eye ! And then, to make sure, twice in that year it was sought and seen again, and also several times since ; and in every instance it only became more perfect, different only in additions — no disappearing, no transformations, no "shifting scenes." Sometimes I have visited the scenic transformations, as exhibited in the New York theaters. I once went to Laura Keene's, to see if I could, by witnessing the representation of fairy lands, &c, get something like a hint of that better country. The display was unsatis- factory, though brilliant and successful. In those dra- matic representations of spirits, and in attempted supernatural exhibitions on the stage, I have never seen anything at all to be compared with what is positive reality in the other world. The dissolving views 5 whki SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 43 are exhibited on the stage as best illustrations of the spiritual, I have never seen in the Spirit-Land. The magical opening and closing of flowers, for example, and spirits coming out of unfolding plants, and the elves and little sprites which are dramatically represented, as in the myths and superstitions of Ireland and of the ancient Britons, are nothing like the permanent repre- sentations of the Spirit-World. Flowers never magic- ally open there, and plants do no't give off little human beings. I never saw trees changing their location or leafage ; never saw anything that looked like transmu- tation or enchantment ; but instead, solid, sturdy life and progressive growth in the " house not made with hands." There is an Island, which I first saw distinctly in 1857. I was in Buffalo at the time. I found by con- versing witli a Brother who had gone there — James Victor Wilson — that they called it the Island of Akro- panamede. It takes its name from the purposes to which it is devoted. It is situated in a very vast body of what would be called « water" in the earth-land. There is a spring on that island which they call " Poril- leum," and there is a beautiful cluster of springs some distance to the west which they name " The Porilla ;" and every one of these springs gives off exceedingly sweet musical sounds, which are full of unutterable sig- nificance. Those harmonious notes blend with the streamlets which lose themselves in a beautiful river that flows along by the flowery paths of the Hospitalia. This name is given to one of the temples where persons who had become attached to some particular thing in this world, so that it had become an infatuation with 44 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. them, are taken to be cured. It is one of the many at- tractive sanitary temples of reform on that beautiful Island. The infatuation of a person is named " Toleka." When a person from earth has an infatuation so strong as to preclude his taking interest in anything else, he is invited to these springs and to the temples. The teacher-physicians who are appointed on that Island are called " Apozea." I never heard or saw such words before, and do not know whether they correspond with any earthly language. I obtained the orthography of the words from Brother Wilson, who pronounced them over and over again in my listening ear. [See end of this volume.] There are many spirit-physicians on the Isle of Akropanamede. In a very different portion of the Spirit-Land, seen in the year 1856, I saw an island called " Rosalia," which is a region of great splendor in the midst of islands of less attractiveness. On that island dwelt; persons who had never lived upon the planet Earth. It was said that there were on that attractive spot per- sons who were from the just maturing planets of Mer- cury and Venus. The description of that island, which I cannot now give in detail, would interest you, since it was so different from everything else that was then visible. One of the attractive islands near Rosalia is called «'• Batellos," because some educated Greeks sought its retirements, soon after their arrival in the Spirit-Laud, as a suitable place to celebrate the advent on earth of Plato's doctrine of the Deity, including his theory of "Ideas." "Poleski 5 ' is an island, seen for the first time in SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 45 1857, situated in another part of the Spirit-Land. It is frequently visited by former inhabitants of this earth, especially those who are still searching for " ancient wisdom,"' and who believe not at all in the theories and education of the moderns. They think that God's truth must be learned from those who lived in the remote past. To such that island is a favorite haunt — not the " haunt of Poets," but of those who still seek for wis- dom through ancient views and old opinions. There is another island called "Alium," intimately related to the one just mentioned, where certain ancients went to form themselves into a Brotherhood, composed of persons who were born long prior to the origin of the Old Testament. " Lonalia" is the name of an island, seen for the first time by me in 1859, which is inhabited by young- persons from the earth who died as Orphans. On this heavenly spot they are introduced to those who are their parents in spirit, but of whom they were not al- ways physiologically born on earth. In this behold a mystery. In the Spirit-Land countless families are visible. It seems that certain spirits are even more gregarious than are people in this world. Many have strong attach- ments of consanguinity at first, and then, forgetting or losing such earthly attachments, they seem to dwell, like old persons, in memories, and particularly enjoy revelations from and conversations with those who have lived in the Spirit-Land for many centuries. If you should get a communication from any one of these spirits, telling you that he lived in a particular house, in a certain street, you might be considerably 46 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. misled, because, although they live in the Spirit- World, and in plain sight of this earth, yet they believe in memory only, and do not take interest in present actual things and circumstances. The royal circle of the Foli is a Brotherhood very much resembling our American Shakers. On one occa- sion it was observed that the members of this Brother- hood corresponded in spirit and faith with the Shaker communities, and that these were really baptized thus with the presence of what men call the Holy Ghost, making them feel more deeply assured that they were right in religious and communal matters. From this circumstance you see that people after death do not become instantly endowed with wisdom and freedom. The Spirit- World, in short, is just like this world, on a higher plane. There is a temple called the " Concilium," which, I believe, means the temple of affectionate thought and practical wisdom. In this Concilium are frequently and mostly heard the voices of women. They believe and teach principles different from those peculiar Greeks who gathered upon the distant islands. In this temple very cultured spirits assemble for the purpose of ac- quiring information concerning what is best to accom- plish upon the planet Earth, or upon Mars, or Jupiter, or Saturn — for all these planetary populations need to be frequently visited — and there, in that beautiful tem- ple, are gathered the wisdom, intuition, affection, hopes, love, poetry, and music, of multitudes of the sweetest, happiest, truest, most earnest and philanthropic women that have lived on the planet Earth. These women, SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 47 with their companions, gather there occasionally for information and deliberation. There is a class of persons in the Spirit- World who are great travelers. They are almost like our gipsies. They form themselves into affinitive groups, and, har- monizing with the circulating rivers between the dif- ferent planets, go on protracted journeys through innu- merable scenes, and do not return to their pavilions for many years. Katie, my former companion, came to me, (as reported in the " Penetralia,") and said that she was then to start upon a journey ; she knew not whither, nor when she would return, and she immediately began the journey, and has not yet returned, or I should have heard from her. She had joined the group of excursionists, without knowing whither they were going. Mothers have inquired to know concerning their little ones; whether children born before perfect matu- rity become persons in the Summer-Land. It is found that infants born from six to eight weeks before Na- ture's time, continue on in the Spirit- World, slowly and surely acquiring the personal growth they would have attained had they lived in the body the full number of years. Mothers, therefore, who go to the Spirit-World to meet their little darlings, must be somewhat intuitive to know and recognize the child that was spirit-born without a moment's earthly life. Again, there are wo- men who have had many children, who have, neverthe- less, never been mothers I I was amazed when first I learned this, and I looked into the subject day after day, and persistently inquired with the greatest par- ticularity, in order to ascertain the exact truth. In 4S SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 1858 I found, to my astonishment, that there were on earth certain women and men with families who have never yet known maternity or paternity. 1 found that real mothers conceive with the whole life and love of the heart, and that real fathers produce from the vitalic energies and magnetisms of the whole brain ; and that no blood-and-passion relations amount to anything to the progenitors beyond the tomb. So, as a consequence, it is seen that all the offspring of your legalized de- baucheries, your blood-and-passion, are likely to be strangers to you, and the real children of others. And the legalized marriage, unless it coronate the spiritual fact, melts, like all temporary error, at the door of the tomb. Your offspring, unless they be of and from your spirit, and therefore from God, are only physiological productions, so far as you are concerned— for they find their true parents in other homes in the eternal heavens. Thus those who were unmarried in this world, after death meet both their true mates and their spirit- families. I wish to speak a few moments more with reference to social life in the Summer-Land. I found, on inquiry, that certain kinds of idiots die like blossoms on trees that produce no fruit ; children who are hybrids in their phrenological organizations — having not even the germs of a mind, but only the sanguine propulsions of the blood which give them the instinct of the animal, causing them to open their mouths to eat, and to drivel in sign of a desire for drink ; such are but the vestiges of a worn out, miserable, passionate, but legalized marriage. These useless offspring come from those who are permitted to be debauched by the rum-holes, cesspools SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 49 of intemperance on earth, with no law or civil regula- tion positively to prevent the evil. Much of this agony of child-bearing results in nothing; only so much or- ganized clay that must go through the chemical hopper again, and be wrought up in the combinations of the physical world. Such is the fate of certain kinds of idiots who come from passion and intemperance. But in the Spirit-Land I have seen hosts and groups of beautiful children that were gathered to learn lessona from birds, and trees, and rivulets, and flowing streams. These happy children were each gathered according to a name which represented the group, and over each assemblage was appointed an "Apozea." That is just what, in a very crude way, we shall endeavor to rep- resent in our newly-organized Children's Lyceums. If possible, we will have a little of the kingdom of heaven on the earth. Let us try in our " Lyceum" to make some human progress like that which is rolling in beautiful groups beyond the stars. In the Spirit- World I noticed a vast congregation of persons who were in this world known for their phi- lanthropy. Age is not represented in the physical aspect of a person in the other life, but wholly by the expression of the eye and the temper of the mind. " Age/' as we call it, is not seen or known there. Those philanthropic persons receive delegates from the battle-fields of America. For ages those celestial Sa- maritans have gathered the soldiers as they came, in large parties at a time, direct from the cannon's mouth or the bayonet's point. The new-comers are slowh introduced to a new and a different life ; and this is done with such gentleness, with such beautiful and graceful methods ! 50 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. But those of both sexes, who are engaged in these philanthropic labors, wear clothing of various appear- ance and of wondrous fashions, different from anything you would or could imagine. I have never yet seen any silken gauze or gossamer fabrics to compare with the garments there used. Many wear a peculiar flowing dress, which, in a moment, can be either wound about the person in graceful folds or taken off. This gar- ment, for either man or woman, is appropriate and beautiful beyond all imitation. And then the feasting which is sometimes visible in the Summer-Land, would give you a great joy to be- hold. I verily believe that never a man or woman would partake of what is called the " Lord's Supper" — never partake of the crude elderberry wine and the very carefully prepared unleavened bread — if they could see the feasting of hundreds of thousands at the Lord's Supper spread out "on those islands, and along the fringed margins of those beautiful and musical rivers! I never before so well knew what was meant when your authority and our Brother, the great Spiritual Reformer, said, " Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these." The beautiful truth contained in that passage was exemplified to my mind in my first vision of the scene of a great feast in the Spirit-Land. Verily, no man, or woman, or child, in the higher life, careth for the immediate source — 'that is, they do not give themselves thought and great care for the food they receive and enjoy at appropriate seasons. What was called " manna" in the Old Testa- ment is there a literal manifestation, dropping like snow SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 51 from the bosom of the heavenly realm ; and as it falls it covers those beautiful and mossy fibers, and slowly becomes like the purest honey distilled from the depths of the upper air. The beautiful substances made from this manna are in all possible forms and shapes, and each form and shape possesses a flavor and an odor of its own ; out of the one substance all forms and varie- ties of food are made — an art in chemistry which men "will discover in this world one of these future golden days. For be it remembered that the immense riches of an apple are not yet known, much less those of a peach or a berry t Mankind are but just learning to preserve their fruits and common berries. When we get where aerial emanations are granted for food, and when we know how to gather and " bottle up" the spiritual particles that float in the invisible ether amid the heavens, then we shall live the life of the " lilies." The Spirit- World is thus brought into our actual experience, and the very life of it is seen and realized. Many of these visions of things would require most delicate descriptions to make them acceptable to the common sense of the world. But I tell you that the existence of the Summer-Land is not more mysterious than the formation and existence of a man's body out of the invisible life of his nerves. You may not see the philosophy of what I have here uttered, but it is as positive a science and is as literally true as that twice five make ten. And I fully believe that the existence and actualities of the next sphere will become a part of science, and that its philosophy will be as plain as the existence of such planets as Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 41 That was not first which is spiritual, but the natural ; afterward the spiritual." If you will permit a little autobiography, I will again refer to my own past. There are persons who, I think, know nothing of my personal investigations with respect to the existence, circumstances, and scenes, of mankind's future life. They have only heard. Those who do know, will, I trust, excuse me for speaking to those who do not know concerning my personal rela- tions to this subject. It is known and it can be demonstrated (the wit- nesses are nearly all living in this world,; that this subject of the future life came upon me years ago. I stand before you educated, to some extent, by that advent. It has made me acquainted with questions which are not common to merchants, and men who work, and think, and have their whole being parallel with society, and with the laws of ordinary business enterprises. The realities and scenes of the future came to me more silently and gradually than the flower unfolds from its earliest germinal beginnings. There was no shock in the advent. I was very much of a child in mind and body, and in years also, when the Spirit- World was first opened to my vision. So far as I myself was conscious, it came without any preparation, without any expectation, without any theory whatever, SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 53 and without any imagination with reference to what man's future state was, and would be. And not only so, but I was for years shut out from any external memory or other acquaintance with the wondrous facts that were delighting and intellectually enchanting the witnesses who were present when these things were delivered at 252 Spring street, New York, in the winter and spring of 1847. (See "Introduction to Nature's Divine Revelations.") Now, if I stood before you as an intellectual specu- lator, a theorist — as a person who had pre-determined to wrest historical facts, to twist them, to mold them, to fashion them by the legerdemain of an anti-conscientious intellect, and by the force of imagination shape my facts to suit a foregone conclusion — then indeed I should not be for one moment worthy your respectful attention. Because, in such case, I should be an imaginationist and a perjured witness, self-condemned, and I could not longer speak ; the words of my native tongue would cleave to the roof of my mouth, and I should be inter- nally forced to breathe in the midst of self-consterna- tions, and I know no power that could extricate me from the terrible embarrassment that would overwhelm my whole soul. But I do not stand before you in any such capacity. I am not a theorist ; not an imaginationist ; not a law- yer, My position is that of a person, who, without forethought or intellectual preparation, became slowly acquainted with realities and scenes that were trans- mitted, or " impressed," day by day, from a higher sphere, until two whole years had transpired ; and then, at the end of those two years, by a blessed mental 54: SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. unfolding, which only the spiritual metaphysicians can truly explain to your understanding, the beautiful memories which had been thus gradually deposited within me came out and stood in the foreground, and said, " Remeniberest thou these things?" — instantly my external life, with its memories, was blended and married sweetly at the altar of the " superior condi tion!" So well do I remember it! In the city of beautiful Poughkeepsie, vividly, indeed, like a conscious flower, pulsated the clear facts of that new birth. And I stand before you as one who has continued -these sub- lime investigations every forenoon, whenever my physical and external conditions were favorable for an entire cerebral abstraction — by which the physical world is shut out, and the spiritual senses opened — and then pictures and scenes of immortal beauty have been painted on the spirit's retina, such limpid realities as no pencil can possibly imitate on canvas, nor poetry transfer in lan- guage, to the mind of man. I appear before you, not as testifying in support of a theory, but to relate what I have seen as literal celestial verities. No theory can long exist which does not walk in the track of these indubitable facts. Nor can any philosophy long stand unless it comes to you just as these celestial facts came to me, in a logical sequence, following like flowing water along the un- changeable channels of Cause and Effect. Pardoning so much self-history, you will, I think, allow me now to ask your attention briefly to a philosophical basis for what I shall relate. In the year 1850 I began a chapter by asking the question: "Is human nature immortal ' ?" The same SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 55 question is before me now. Who is the infidel among you '/ Christians ! you who profess to believe so much better and finer and truer things than I do, you who pass current in the outward world for being " orthodox" in your persuasion, I ask you : " Is immortality a part of your conviction ?" If it is not, then some other method, and some stouter proof, will be necessary to implant it in your judgment. But if it is, then I ask you : " Is immortality possible except on the supposition that you are to continue forever to be yourself?" Is human nature, the individuality, to be changed in the twinkling of an eye ? Can your personal nature be supernaturally changed. and converted into something different ten minutes after death, or at the moment of the Resurrec- tion ? — can such a metempsychosis take place and you still continue to be yourself? What kind of an immor- tality is that? For you. James and Mary, to be immor- tal, it is immutably necessary that you should continue to be James and Mary, and not others. When your neighbors, relatives, and intimate acquaintances arrive beyond the grave, they must be to you, and to them- selves, the continuation of the individual life-chapters here commenced to be written, otherwise they are utter strangers to each other — in all logical effects they would be new persons — and thus the doctrine of im- mortality would be nothing, although individuals might forever dwell in the higher realms. If immortality be a truth, then Christians cannot with reason say to me that I am uttering one word con- trary to the divine system of the celestial, spiritual, and physical universe. If they repudiate immortality, then [ am the Christian — that is, the believer. I do not wish 3* 56 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. to arrogate the former term ; for, as the so-styled Christian world now goes, I do not think the name is either much of a compliment or recommendation. The doctrine of immortality is in the world's religious faith. If it be accepted by the intellect, it must be on the principle that mankind continue the life begun in this world. How can a man be after death what he was on earth, unless he be distinguished by the same structure, unless the same general mental conformation continues, unless he remains possessed of the same general phy- sique, and the same general arrangement of faculties and dispositions of temperament, which give him individu- ality and a marked personal position with reference to others in this world ? This reasoning I take as the first layer of basis, which may render the idea of immortality somewhat philosophical. Again I ask you who are openly avowed " Deists" — I mean those Unitarian Christians who believe in God — ■ whether, if there be a God, who, as they say, is " with- out variableness or shadow of turning" — is He to be, or appear to be, an entirely different Person or Power in another state of being ? Can an omnipotent, un- changeable, deathless Deity, be something entirely dif- ferent when mankind ascend beyond the present, " nearer to God " ? You know that Deity, in the world's theologic conception, is a perfect, single man- large, vast, beyond all measurement, yet a man ! and that the emanation from his holy spirit goes out to fill, and thrill, and vivify the illimitable spaces of the universe. This last diffusion of the holy spirit is what some Christians call " th.j Divine proceeding," the orn- SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 57 nipresence of the spirit of God, taking the name of the " Holy Ghost." Now I ask you whether, in your honest opinion, it be possible for an unchangeable God to change his na- ture and his balance? If he does not, it being intrin- sically impossible, then would it not be natural and reasonable to suppose that another existence adapted to mankind would be simply another section, or a higher degree, of the existence begun here ? Is it not logical to believe that what is primary here would correspond to something primary there — that what is here meant by "justice," and "truth," and "liberty," would there be represented by something exactly the same, perfectly identical ? If things begin here with roots and grow to summits, then, God not changing, and the vegetative laws and systems being the same, would you not sup- pose that all future growths occur in harmony with the inspiring principle? Otherwise, with a different philo- sophy, you are all afloat! You can have no common sense in matters of religion, unless you take the basis which is here given: it gives solid, fertile soil, and strong, firm roots, to all your ultimate reasonings and contemplations. You send your children to the primary schools. What for ? So that when they are old enough to take a higher position in the scale of learning they may be prepared to take all their rudiments of thought up into a more practical mental development. For this end the primary schools are established, and that is why you consent to send your children to them. Now, what is this earth ? It is a primary school. It is primary in the physical as in the spiritual ; just as much in the 58 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. social as in the intellectual. The universe changes not, because God is unchangeable; therefore what you begin to Learn here in the rudiment, you will be certain to ascertain there in the ultimate Life ; what is germ here is FLOWER there ; ami so you can trace upward all the consecutive ami unbroken links by which germs reach onward to fruition, and thus bloom out naturally on the summits of the great trees of Truth. Otherwise — thai is, with a different notion — you have no philosophy and no science in your religion — only a dumb, shallow, idiotic heathenism, blundering and stumbling- headfore- most into the absurdities of Supernaturalisin. Mystery and tear are what the olden ministers consider the best stock-material in their stupendous trade. The high calling of every Reformer is to make Truth a simple Unity and a sublime Reality ! We have science and philosophy beneath our feet, truth in our principles, and reason in our propositions; and nothing is true to our minds because any particular individual has "said it" — no authority to us in a "thus saith the Lord." I appear before you to testify to celestial facts that came to me without a theory or a philosophy, without foregone conclusions, without any logical points to make out, or any favorite positions to affirm and main- tain. If you can demonstrate my personal history in these particulars not to be real, publish it in your papers, and I will agree to pay you one hundred dol- lars for every line o\^ such demonstration. The wit- nesses can nearly all be reached, and probably with the expense of from two to live dollars. These external remarks are for the lawyer and for the man who can't believe except he steps on solid ground. Therefore I SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 59 say to such minds, try, and see for yourselves whether these things be not as I have told you from the first. Prove these declarations to be utterly unfounded, and you shall be forever thanked by the sectarians of Christendom. After ten years' acquaintance with the Summer- Land, I made the inquiry, on one occasion, why it was that so many names of places there had Latin roots and Greek terminations. I had learned, on frequent inte- rior occasions, to know what a Latin or Greek word meant, and how it was originated by scholars. By writing from the interior, I found that there is a kind of immortality in the Greek and Latin Languages — more than there is in the Hebrew, the Arabic, and some other tongues more oriental and ancient. There is a great root- vitality in some of what are called the "dead languages/' It seemed very curious to' me that the Asiatic and Chaldaic languages were most represented in some of the spiritual brotherhoods ; also the lan- guage spoken first on the American continent by the earliest inhabitants, by the Aborigines, and those more singular people who preceded them — that there are communities in the Summer-Land which really do con- tinue to hold the words and memories of that language as precious. And hence it may be remarked that the Shakers, when under their peculiar inspirations — the celestial afflatus which pervades a congregation of wor- shiping Shakers — speak fluently in what are called " un- known tongues." (Of course on this point I need not stop to argue with and persuade Christians, because they have all read Paul, and know from such authority that such singular things used to be done — that all 60 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. kinds of persons, in Pentecostal times, were uplifted and made to speak in u unknown tongues.") And it seems that the spiritual language of the Shakers is cha- racteristic of the speeck of certain brotherhoods in the Summer-Land, composed of minds who yet retain their " first love" for the words which characterized their nationality — in which all Jheir national history and re- ligious developments were written. They affectionately linger in it, and dwell in it, as bees in hives by the roadside. Why ? Because human nature is human still: death not radically changing either the heart or head. There is, as I have before said, a beautiful mount called " Starnos." A brotherhood of affiliated souls is seen upon the west of it, situated near a celestial pa- vilion called by the beautiful word, " Connilium." This wondrously beautiful pavilion is not to shelter persons from the tempests and storms, as we design and use buildings on earth. There is there no occasion to prepare for winter nor for great heat of summer. Different portions of the Summer-Land have different temperatures, but no such climate as we have in any part of the earth, be- cause that Land is made by the fine material contribu- tions and gravitation of atoms of all planets in the solar system. Hence it is the product of many, and not of one * the earth being but one atomic contributor to the material formation of that existence. Only portions of that Land, therefore, can retain the peculiarities of the earth, of which such portions are naturally more perfect representatives. This Connilium is a structure of exceeding beauty. SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 61 It seems, to look at it, like a. building made of trees, flowering shrubs, and countless vines. To the clair- voyant eye it is full of undescribable, beautiful colors. It seems to be composed of- flowers that cast rays oi lights and shadows like precious stones. And I won- der not that John, when standing on the Isle of Patmos and gazing into the upper sphere, seeing this marvelous Pavilion, called it " the New Jerusalem." Such gorge- ous beauty, resplendent with wh&x seems to be precious stones, is not often painted upon Jif upturned eyes of the clairvoyant. Flowing along this side of that b.^uviful Pavilion is a river (I obtained the pronunciation of tLis 1 word with great care) called " Apotravella." Tiie/ sing to itr tides. There is in that Brotherhood a p.'eoe of music written to the life of the Apotravella. And 'here are times when the vast multi-arched Connilium throbs like a harp, responsive to the historical musical revelatioi of that beautiful celestial stream. " Ali-Nineka" is the name of the Turk who is chief in that temple — still a follower and a believer in Ma- homet. One would suppose that by this time he had outgrown his creed, but he has not. He often sees and adores the gifted man who represented Mecca. The dwellers in this temple still believe that the populations of other portions of the Summer-Land will yet take great interest in Mahomet, the prophet of God. Thus, heathenism, (as men call it,) continues after death, and missionary workers, and even Spiritualistic meetings, will be necessary in the Upper-Land ; because human nature is not supernatural, but continues to be human — outgrowing its errors either slowly or rapidly, 62 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. in keeping with motives and temperaments. Some im- mediately improving and progressing in free truth; others remaining unimpressible and conservative for very long ages. " Martillos" is the young, bright wife of Ali-Nineka. Martillos, who has lived centuries in that world, ia "Morning Devotion," which is the significance of her name. She is filled with the spirit of the master-mind from whom they get their musical education. The doc- trine of polygamy, which was so popular in Turkey and throughout all Mahommedan countries, is not practiced in this Brotherhood. This beautiful girl seems to have been the savior of Ali-Nineka. They constitute the central objects of talent and beauty, and are the host and hostess of that vast pavilion. In 1855, when I was writing something concerning that Christian sect which flourished in the second cen- tury, called the "Gnostics," I realized a warmth and observed a little purple ray that was spread and trem- bling over the paper on which I was writing. It sig- nified that there was some person present in spirit who would testify ; and so, casting down my pen and yielding to that invitation, I received testimony from a man who called himself "Ephelitus." He said that he was a scholar and a propagandist in that early sect. He remarked that the race of Gnostics is almost extinct, but that there are a few of them remaining, who still believe that they had " the truth/' and they accordingly continue to advocate it. Ephelitus himself lived in a very different section of the Summer-Land. " Ori," he said, gives the sound of a word which signifies the name of his lovely valley — the Ephelitus region— where SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 63 still a few Gnostics, like the Quakers of earth, meet to exchange civilities and to hold social conferences or religious conversations. Is it strange that persons who go across the ocean into Europe should meet and talk over American affairs ? Is it strange that when the old man walks down into the twilight of his personal history, he loves to sit and tell over to younger persons what happened to him three-score years before? Always keep in remembrance that human nature is human, both in this world and in the Summer-Land. In the valley of Ori, the oldest Gnostic, Ephelitus, holds his levees, and gathers about him those who wish to hear him tell of scenes and toils in Rome seventeen centuries ago. They listen to the "tales of a grand- father," and learn of the eventful century when Gnosti- cism first gathered its followers, when it grew, and became, for the time, a religious and local power. "Zellabingen" is a vast German Association, which was also seen in August, 1855. This Association in the Summer-Land was located, when I first observed the assemblage, parallel with the rings of Saturn with reference to the path of the sun. That is, if you were at that moment a member of the Zellabingen Associa- tion, and stood in its location, pointing northward at the time I mention, this way from the Summer-Land, you would have indicated a point in space directly parallel to the situation and plane of the rings of the planet Saturn. To have pointed earthward would have nearly reversed the direction of your vision. This vast Association is musical throughout. It is composed wholly of persons who had not, before death, 64: SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. acquired the power of song, but who yet possessed en- thusiastic and ardent love for musie — souls whose desires for song had not been gratified in the earth. The Zel- labingen Association is to them the glorious actualiza- tion of what here was ideal and perpetual disappoint- ment. They each one said, " I have now no voice for song, but I will yet sing ; it is in me ; I can silently sing ; my spirit sings ; and time will bring me song." How many German maidens, and how many German young men, have become members of the Zellabingen Society! There they are, in the Upper- World, some of them centuries old, as our almanac would make it, yet younger than any grown person on earth. To them every morning is the beginning of a new day. By which I mean that every change in the cycle of their lives is to them the beginning of a new age through which they have never passed. They are fresh and new, spontaneous and beautiful. It was this Zellabingen Society that first adopted the beautiful movement called " The Children's Pro- gressive Lyceum." They began, as we. have, by the distribution of twelve Groups. The Groups were de- signated and regulated according to the ages of their members ; that is to say, according to the ages of those who love music and song, and not according to ages kept by the almanac. For if you were measured and classified according to your spiritual age, you would, perhaps, be not more than two or three months in some things ; others among you, though past life's meridian, are just born to a sight of spiritual things ; and some of you, although voters on election days, are not yet born in wisdom and true faith ; while others, years old SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 65 m spiritual faith, are not a month old in matters per- taining to true knowledge. No — the soul is not to be measured by the almanac, but by its development from a state of darkness to a state^ of knowledge. In + he Summer-Land there is no other account of time. A young man may, perhaps, know nothing of chemistry, but the same mind may be more than a century old in music. Youth is so perfect a principle in spirit that decay cannot come upon it. Every spirit, in the Upper life, becomes a spontaneous spring of ever-recurring youthfulness. The Zellabingen Society, I again observe, origin- ally adopted the Children's Lyceum Groups in the Summer-Land. The Groups first represented notes of music. Then each Group was an octave. At length the Groups multiplied and numbered up higher and higher, until they constituted an orchestra with a thou- sand octaves ! The master-spirits, standing among the musical Groups, so that every one could be reached, evoked such magnetic inspiration, that when a splendid piece of historical music rolled out from those accord- ant voices, the heavens seemed for the moment to be only music ! It seemed to me, when I first heard this celestial concert, that the people of Brooklyn, where I then resided, could not shut their ears against it. At the time I was in ckirvoyance on the corner of Fulton and Franklin Avenues, in a room on the third floor, and it seemed that the busy inhabitants of New York, and all the cities round about, did certainly hear every note that was sounded. The lowest, the highest, and grandest notes were heard, and then the deep, deep bass, which seemed to come up from the profoundest starry 66 SOCIETY IN TTFE SUMMER-LAND. depths ; so that it seemed as though the harp of old ocean was attuned to perform a part of the melody. It seemed as though, had I had paper and pencil by me at the moment, 1 might liave traced many parts of this wonderful historical music of the Zellabingen Society. But let us now speak of others. Lindenstein and Moraneski are Russian and Austrian Associations. The Lindenstein Association is more remote from the Zella- bingen Brotherhood than is England from America. It is situated very far away to the right. The Russian Association seemed to be immersed almost wholly in matters of history with reference to races of planets, no matter whether of this earth or others in space. They have lost a great deal of their attachment to their native globe. They are peculiarly truthful, unselfish, and disinterested. -They are almost Teutonic in their studious methods. They often associate themselves in large assemblies. And when I first saw them, on a particular occasion, it seemed to be their time of meet- ing. They were interested in, and debating upon, historical questions. The uses and lessons of such celestial conventions and deliberations will be seen at some future time. "Moraneski/' the Austrian Assembly, or Society, is a very different Brotherhood. They were, at that time, concerning themselves almost entirely with the formation of the best governments for the different tribes and peoples of the earth. They are politicians in their methods, but do not seek to exert political influence over kings and emperors. Monazolappa is the only exclusively African realm that I have ever seen in the Spirit- World. And here, SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 67 for the first time, I saw that progeny of parents, of whatever race, not born perfectly organized in the formation of the inner brain, do not obtain an indi- vidualized representation after death. It seems that there was a very large percentage of the progeny of the early inhabitants who never attained to immortality. According to the testimony of the Monazolappa Asso- ciation, myriads of the progeny of the semi-humans, who prevailed in the early ages of the globe, went down out of sight into the vortices and laboratories of matter. There was there no voice of lamentation. They said that their true children were not lost ; for every human child naturally born is there; only those, who, taking on the shape of man, but not yet internally organ- ized up to the human, were excluded from the upper spheres. Two years previous, in 1853, I was led (by a very beautiful incident which I may not now relate,) to see for the first time a Brotherhood on the north of what I first called Mount Starnos — a beautiful Spanish Asso- ciation, more numerous than the population of America, called " Acadelaco," or " Eco del Eco" — the name as near as I can remember to pronounce. And there was round about- that beautiful Starnos a lake that seemed to be of pure limpid amber ! It was flowing, yet not heavily liquid as is our earthly water. It seemed to be more like flowing liquid atmosphere than like water, and it had the peculiar property of giving off a refresh- ing fragrance instead of a suffocating fog. And once, soon after this vision, in crossing the East River to New York on the Brooklyn ferry-boat, I saw a painful contrast; for there we wandered, and floated, and 68 SOCIETX IN THE SUMMER*] IND, steamed about for three-quarters of an hour, in a, had .1 remarkably bad smoll. Ami 1 had just arisen from the studio in which that entire spiritual truth had been developed, with the recollection of the emanations Iroro the amber-like river to the north of Starnos! What 6 contrast between the two worlds 1 Hovering over the bosom o( the heavenly river was a >m countless flowers* \ gentleman who is an expert in science says that ite that the aphic instrument ran raph invisible substances. Dhus mankind olish the aumts. Art has ►aoh to painting- unsubstantial . so that the human eye can, with admiring m them, Pe - manner, s, Art w agrance o a o or to say, " Is it possible . I centuries immemorial we have I aing, while now vre can ; . I w ill . er-river w > thej Pouriei . ■ west V I hit- Society < SOCIETY IN TIIE SUMMER-LAND. 69 upon that scene and not worship the Infinite Mind ? Every human mind would in one moment be moved to feelings of purest devotion and highest adoration. Our rainbow here is a philosophical fact, unless the system of Nature be a fraud; and the spiritual counterpart is a continuation of this on a grander principle. The fact exists in science, and you cannot dodge the conclusion, that, in other spheres, similar phenomena may occur. " Miantovesta" is an Italian Brotherhood, in a very different section of the Summer-Land. This Brother- hood is distinguished by some of the most beautiful women that ever lived on the face of the earth. It is one of the most celestial and attractive. And behold what hospitalities the Miantovestaians receive when they visit the Zellabingens! They journey to the latter Brotherhood from time to time; and there the sweet singers of the Miantovesta join the anthems of the Groups, and their voices rise up and blend like drops of dew in the air. I wonder not — having heard the music of this great Association — that many Christians conceive the king- dom of heaven to be a perpetual singing-school — a pro- tracted Methodist meeting — continuing years and centu- ries, while they adore God, with hymns of praise, grati- tude, and thanksgiving, in this manner occupying their time throughout the infinite periods! And this is the orthodox Christian's conception of heaven! Human nature must be entirely changed at death to make it possible to realize such a conception. Nay, nay. It is a philosophic, scientific, phrenological, affection al, logi- cal, spiritual, religious absurdity. Yet, remembering the effect produced when the Zellabingen Society joins 70 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. its wondrous, magnificent melody with the Mianto- vesta — then I sometimes think that, from this celestial fact, the early Christians may have obtained their con- ception that the eternity in the kingdom of heaven is devoted to the cheerful works of music and praying. " Pialoleski" is another Russian Association. It is peculiar, and distinguished for its musical properties. Having heard the songs of these musical gatherings, I feel the impulse to urge our Brothers and Sisters to open their mouths and bring forth the joyful hymns of progress and praise. No wonder that I would have song poured from everybody's mouth ! It has almost lifted me up to the thought of having nothing cultivated in this world save music. When I first heard the Anvil Chorus, it seemed after all as though the multifarious sounds of noisy cities would one of these days be " set to music." I had no appreciation of such a combina- tion of sounds and parts as constituted an "opera" until these celestial sounds came through the clairaudi- ence of my own spirit, thus educating the *nind to breathe in the significance of music, as well as to com- prehend somewhat of its physical vesture. Senelocius and Helvetius are celebrated even in the Summer-Land for their logical peculiarities and intel- lectual endowments. Baron D'Holbach, too, and those who believe in his doctrines, seem to think the time will come when men's minds will wholly outgrow any idea f G d — that there is no necessity and no philosophy for such an impossible Being. They believe and teach many about them that God is a supernatural absurdity; that there is no super naturalism. They sometimes think the absurdity itself is absurd, and they advocate among SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 71 themselves, and fearlessly in the presence of those about them, the same fundamental thoughts that ruled the affections of the earthly society which they formed before they left the earth. Professor Webster, of the Dr. Parkman history, went among such minds, not by invitation, but in asso- ciation with others who were going to see and to listen. And when he first appeared to a circle in Springfield, Mass., he there reported a peculiar doctrine which the medium was afraid to write or have reported. It was really the doctrine of the Helvetian School, much modi- fied, but essentially the same. Swedenborg truly says that, in the Spirit- World, the different associations, nationalities, tribes, and reli- gious sects continue. The philosophers of the Atheistic- al school — especially Senelocius — make these notions a matter of society, so that the children of parents who think as they do, and the wives of those men who so think, and persons in other Brotherhoods, have large sentimental gatherings, where they enjoy festivities and conversation. Human nature here is human nature there. We have here a New England Society, the Western Association, or the Knickerbocker Associa- tion, &c, and the different Clubs. It is the same thing there, only on a grander and more harmonious scale. " Archilarium" is the name of an open pavilion where these teachers gather the multitudes who want to listen. When this assemblage was witnessed by me in 1858, it seemed like avast convention : not, however, characterized by the turbulency of earthly gatherings. They all seemed to take a great deal of interest in everything said and done. It was a celestial Conven- 4 72 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. tion held out in the open fields of heaven — beautiful, fair, mossy, and bedecked with every variety of flower- ing plants. " Vivodario" is the name of that Oratorio — of that beautiful section of river — to which I referred in the early part of this discourse. And the beautiful Octo- lonia is the angel-writer and poetess — a gifted lady in the Summer-Land — who developed and arranged the sublimest piece of music in the whole Brotherhood of Zellabingen. It was written long after death by this beautiful German lady-spirit. Octolonia is the name given to her in consequence of her great attainments and accomplishments. Her name is her coronation ; it shines from her brow ; it sparkles and shimmers through her beautiful locks. She seems to be radiant with the music of which she was the authoress. " Ulcemira" is the name of a traveler who had ar- rived just at the time when this clairvoyant observation was made. Ulcemira, too, is a most beautiful woman, who, in this world, had desires for journeying which had never had any gratification. But when she felt her feet free upon the green fields of Paradise, she openly declared and made an oath that " she would have her soul gratified with excursions." And verily, this beau- tiful woman, Ulcemira, has traveled twenty times farther than from here to the sun. She had just arrived from one excursion, and, with the poetess, stood where the music was just about beginning : and that was the glorious scene, and the time, when I heard the grandest music possible to imagine. The social scenes in the Summer-Land, which I waa enabled to see two, days after what is above mentioned SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 73 and which included the enchanting festivities, were be- yond all verbal description. I will not detain you by a single word upon them ; they may come up, perhaps, in a future reference. "La Samosata" is the name of a Convent, or what would here be called a Monastery. There are persons who still verily believe that the Roman Catholic faith is God's exclusive religion. Such spirits hover over their congenial earthly congregations. Therefore the Roman Catholics do experience real inspirations — not revelations, remember, because revelations open and en- lighten the judgment, whilst inspirations excite, vivify, and warm our spirits to action. Many persons are truly inspired who have not common sense. In fact, they may be very highly inspired, and still be very un- wise in their externals. On the other hand, when a man has a real revelation — which gently expands and opens the faculties of thought, and which also brings propor- tion, and depth, and solidity — then inspiration becomes to that man's faculties what sun-heat is to the flowers, and grains, and grasses. It is a cause of growth and of steady fertilization. Now these Catholics of our earth really feel the hovering indorsement and benedictions of the La Samo- sata — the tenants of a vast Convent. It is a place shut in by mountains that fill the distance away off, like Alps upon Alps (only not with those abrupt and pointed summits,) but like innumerable oceans they seem to roll down to the garden of the Convent. If the earthly astronomer could but gaze upon this scene with his telescope, it would seem to him as though he was contemplating new star-fields in the heavens, in 4 74 SOCIETY IN TTIE SUMMER-LAND. beauty and magnitude far beyond his ability to transmit in language, or to map down for the longing eyes of his waiting fellow-men. The La Samosata, instead of being o place where a i'cw thousand can gather, may con- tain all the Roman Catholics who have gone into the Spirit- World lor many past centuries, and hence it is vastly larger than the States of both Illinois and Wisconsin. You ask, " Do they all live there V I answer by asking, "Do you suppose that there is coer- cion ? Is the internal government of the Spirit-Land more arbitrary, more despotic than this? Will you not there be more, instead of less, generous and kind to all forms of faith ? Will the good Father and Mother send policemen or missionaries armed with rods and whips to drive men who do not believe the exact let- ter V No, no. Human nature continues the same. Therefore Roman Catholic Associations in the next sphere are just as inevitable and natural as anywhere on the face of the earth. I will speak of other things. A great white flower was seen in the same month. It is called the " Archi- bulunr"— a beautiful word, meaning the white temple of the children. And there, near the garden containing these flowers, are persons we read of in the Bible. There 1 observed those who would not be comforted — Rachel, and also very many beautiful Jewesses, and the Israelitish women who were called heroines in the old Hebrew Scriptures. The Archibulum is a vast white flower, so constituted as to represent the image of beau- tiful children grouped directly at its center. It seems to grow full one hundred feet from the earth. Many admir- ing spirits seem to think they see in the flower's center a SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 75 beautiful representation of the son of Mary and Joseph, when he said, " Suffer little children to come unto me." It is the divinest flower of all that section of the Sum- mer-Land. And the early Hebrew women look with great delight upon the Archibulum, with the picture of an assembly of children at its center — one of the most marvelous floral developments in the garden of God. Do not forget, friends, that I am speaking to you of scenes in the Summer-Land — the next-door neighbor to all this circle of planets, of which the earth is a member. What would you say if you should hear somewhat con- cerning the third Sphere, of the one beyond that, or of another and still higher ? I have seen mediums who think they receive communications from the innumera- ble upper places ! No. Many of them have not heard from the gifted in these Brotherhoods. Now and then some one of them says, " Oh, that is nothing, the next spirit-world is nothing ! I get communications from the seventh heaven — away up out of sight I" That is all ecstatic inspiration, without any analyzing judg- ment — no revelation to balance the mind in truth. Men and women get more humility when they get more wis- dom. Pomposity of intellect is the best proof of its shallowness. When a truly sublime idea comes to you, then, " expressive silence" is alone natural and worthy. Words are an impertinence. " Aurealia" is the general name for a class of pulsat- ing lilies. These golden and graceful plants grow by the peaceful homes of those pure souls who wish them. Au- realia represents " new hopes," or freshened hopes. It grows by the heavenly homes of many good, hign-bori 76 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. souls, in the spirit-world. Some persons who have lived in New York, and some who have departed from among our households, have been seen where these beautiful pulsating indications of "freshened hopes" vibrate in the soft, beautiful zephyrs of the immortal sphere. " Oahulah" is the name of a brotherhood of Sand- wich Islanders, which I saw almost by an accident, when I was looking for something very different. The circumstance may interest you. I took up a newspaper and saw the name of Aaron Burr. I had never read anything concerning him. I had heard that he was a peculiar man, a politician, &c. I had also heard some conversation about him. I said, " I wonder if I cannot get some information with reference to him." This was early in the first year of the Herald of Progress^ — about three years ago. The question occupied my thoughts for three different mornings, and, on the third session, clairvoyance was complete, and the vision opened, but I did not see Aaron Burr as I expected to, but I saw a much smaller man, with a brow that was not yet clear of a singular shadow, which immediately drew my attention, and I said, " I wish I could know what it is that so shades that man's brow." I saw nothing above him that could cast a shadow, nor had he any- thing upon his head. He was surrounded and conversing with a great many others. They were seemingly inter- ested in something pertaining to the war then approach- ing on earth, and with reference to some persons who were their earthly relatives, whom they knew would soon be among them from the battle-fields. But above all, this man's shaded brow drew my clairvoyant atten- tion. I wished to know who he was, and to learn what SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 77 the shadow meant. At length I saw that he was Alex- ander Hamilton. In his company I saw none of the early American statesmen ; but there were many, intelligent persons with him, and of different races. Soon Mr. Hamilton unvailed his memory and began to think, and I could see the thoughts roll out at the front part of his mind, and each was as clear to my inward vision as is any object to the physical eye. I saw in his memory a place that I had seen on earth. At first I could not recognize it sufficiently to locate it. But presently it grew more familiar. I had seen the trees, and the walks, and the grass, and the mountain, and the Hudson River! I looked again, and thought for a while, and then I remembered that it was Hoboken ! In a few minutes some eight men appeared, and he among the rest. And now I saw in his thought a regret that he had been weak enough, low enough in the moral scale, so actuated by pride and a false code of honor, as ever to have permitted Aaron Burr to send him, " before his time," into the Summer-Land. And I could see distinctly the figures 1804 — the year in which Burr shot him : twenty-four hours afterward he passed, a duelist, to the After-Life. For days he was in a deep, dreamy slumber. When he awoke, he found upon his brow this shadow ! The cause of his regret dates back half a century ; still there is a shadow just over his brow and upon his head. The lesson is impressive and easily learned. It is best for all to be right and to do right. No man or woman is wholly innocent ; no one perfect. If you are not good and strong enough to save and prevent another from doing you a wrong, the weakness goes with you, 78 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. and its effects will shade you somewhere, either in person or in spirit, and you cannot conceal a weakness so per- fectly as you can in this world. The Oahulah is the association of Sandwich Island- ers where Alexander Hamilton was temporarily sojourning, which I saw by an accident, so to say, when trying to find Aaron Burr. Oahulah was constituted of persons who had passed on from those earth-islands into the spirit-world. " Wallavesta" and " Passaeta" both are realms of various peaceful and affiliated tribes of Indians. The hatchet is really buried, and the pipe of peace is smoked. At last the red man has found his hunting- grounds. The sachems and the wigwams, the great forests and the regions of beauty to traverse, and the shining lakes for bathing and fishing — these ideal dreams of the old Indians are more than actualized in the Summer-Land. The immortal Indian, " whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds and hears him in the wind," is just as good a Christian as they who sat at the feet of Jesus, because the Eternal breathed infallible in- stinctive truths into his unfettered mind. In the depths of intuition he obtained foreglimpses of the beautiful immortal realm, not like these barren wastes and rude territories granted by government, but a land given by the Great Spirit to the "red man," who is as much a child of God as is any member of the Zellabingen, as much as the highest archangel who dwells in yet higher spheres in the spiritual universe. SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things V It appears to me that . the foregoing words are peculiarly applicable to the subject-matter of this dis- course. The third chapter of John opens one of the richest mines of Platonic Philosophy. You remember that the doctrine of the " new birth," or what is theologically called " regeneration," is there introduced in behalf of persons who were imperfectly generated and badly born to start with — minds only half or two-thirds made up, " sent into this breathing world" full of physiologic- al mistakes and psychological errors ; which must be either voluntarily outgrown, or else involuntarily ago- nized through to a successful issue — "regeneration" being theologically prescribed as the true medicine, the only Divine plan, projecting over immense sins, short- ening the road to Abraham's bosom, economizing or transcending the methods of justice, and saving the sin- ner from the pit of eternal and well-merited punish- ments. But I believe that all who voluntarily leave the world, the flesh, alcohol, tobacco, and the other devils, practically set their spirits and their bodies sailing toward the immortal Future. Such pay the genuine 4* 80 SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. coin at the ticket-office of repentance ; they comply with the conditions, and are guaranteed a safe and happy voyage to the heavenly kingdom. But look at the Church plan. From the many pro- bations that are granted and accepted, and judging from the many false steps and moral mistakes made bv the converts, it is probable that multitudes run off the track. Notwithstanding the fact that they voluntarily enlisted in the spiritual army, purchased tickets in the pew-department, and started with all the best sympa- thies of the brothers and sisters in Jesus, with the com- bined prayers of a mighty congregation to keep their souls steady toward the goal ; still great numbers switch off and run for years in the world's popular tracks. Nicodemus could not properly understand the mys- terious simplicity of a spiritual birth. I never saw a Nicodemus that could. A materialist, a man who believes only in the obvious, in weights and measures, who acquires his knowledge through the external, is a man whose thoughts extend only to the question which was put by Nicodemus. One of the most beautiful Sons of the Infinite Father replied to him in astonishment : " Art thou a master in Israel" — that is, art thou a learned lawyer, a doctor of divinity, a responsible pub- lic man, a governor over many people — " and knowest not these things ?" Think of a leader of the people, standing up in authority before multitudes, influencing their feelings and conduct, and yet knowing not that 4< that which is flesh, is flesh, and that which is spirit, is spirit." To be born of " water" as well as of " the spirit," is SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 81 too much like the hydropathic system of cure to be con- genial to most persons. It is supposed to be more pleasant and less laborious to be " born of the spirit" — of sentiment, of good endeavor, and of the conscious possession of high motives. But it is quite too practi- cal to be also born of a clean body, which means " water." I am rejoiced and grateful that some such man as John the Baptist — the " forerunner" — perceived the beautiful emblematic induction, and made the demonstration that the physical temple is the basis on which the intellectual and spiritual superstructure must be erected — that a true " new birth" begins in the body department. " If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ?" That is to say, if a person, when testifying of common earthly things, is known to be as truthful and unimpeachable as others who believe a very differ- ent creed — known to be as reliable in his speech and in character as his orthodox neighbors — why can you not as readily believe the same person when he soberly speaks of elevated things, which exist out of and beyond the sensuous sphere ? The question is very simple. Nicodemus, not being acquainted with the science of electricity and meteorology, could not understand what caused the wind to rush from one place and blow into another. Inasmuch as he could not comprehend the law of the blowing tempests, nor the wafting of the gentle evening zephyrs, how could he understand the wimple mystery of the " birth of the spirit" ? The pro- gressive growth of the spirit in truth and right is more mysterious than the coming and going of terrestrial 82 SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. winds. Inasmuch, therefore, as most men are yet igno- rant of the common phenomena of the physical world, is it not presumptuous in them to stand up in the midst of this temple of God and proclaim their superficial skepticisms concerning profounder, deeper, vaster more elevated things ? Hundreds pompously denounce spiritual things while they know little or nothing of the underlying laws and refined conditions by which these marvelous visions and rich experiences are obtained. Such minds arrogantly presume to sit in final judgment upon the spiritual experience of others. The Naza- rene when answering Nicodemus, was compelled to raise the question of personal veracity. " If," he said sub- stantially, " I am worthy of being believed when telling you of ordinary things — if I am entitled to be trusted in earthly things — why should not my testimony be accepted when I speak of things elevated, supersensu- ous, celestial, and heavenly V Every mind intuitively recognizes the eternal value of pure purposes. The converse of the proposition is as self-evident — i. e., the eternal disadvantage of immoral purposes, nesting and breeding in the centers of indi- vidual life. We should urge this statement of the question, were it not true that the divine constitution of the material and spiritual universe so works, that out of darkness light is born — out of evil, good — out of lowest imperfections the flowers of purity bloom on the high summits of all things, principalities, and princi- ples. Were this progressive redemptiveness not true, it would then be true to say — as do the orthodox, who see only absolute and irreconcilable opposites in the structure and method of the Divine government— that, SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 83 inasmuch as eternal value is stamped upon the soul with pure motives, so is there " eternal condemnation" writ- ten upon the soul that is moved with immoral motives. In all statements, you perceive, there are some items of truth. The material point of the present discourse is now reached — viz., the influence which immoral motives and impure purposes exert upon man's interior — upon the centers of his life, character, endowments, and faculties of his inmost, deathless spirit. High purposes invaria- bly expand and exalt the best powers of the immortal mind — giving harmonial roundness, symmetrical beauty, and celestial completeness of inward growth. Pure motives go before the individual like a divine magnet — • drawing the impressible spirit pleasurably onward, over all surrounding evils and prevailing embarrassments. There can be no defeat in that spirit which is actuated every day and in all moments by the largest, highest, purest purposes of which it can conceive. It has been clearly shown that the rich and powerful Jews, who persecuted and finally killed the body of the poor divine friend of humanity, supposing themselves successful the while, were really and totally defeated— bankrupt and overthrown in every exalted sense ; but the Man, who passed so completely through the terrific ordeal, was victorious every instant of time — outriding the tempta- tions of passion, quelling the storms of the ages, and stilling the tempest of cupidity and selfishness. The Jews, successful in worldly matters, were in all other respects utterly defeated. Behold the effect of that martyrdom upon the world. It is teeming with beauti- ful sentiments of love and charity — with glorious civil 84: SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. and educational institutions, that have cropped out and blossomed from the fertile influence of that one example of a good Man dying that his truths might live. High purposes alone presided. If the Infinite Father was so moved from the interior — this is the orthodox proposition — as to prepare and send to earth his only begotten, then the Father was actuated by the highest, deepest, and most heavenly purpose. He intended good to all and harm to none. Orthodoxy makes a sad theory of it. But the spiritual thought, within the crude doc- trine, is not destitute of truth. The theory of the flow- ering out and incarnation of the Divine Spirit in a human being, exhibits love infinitely higher than force, and broader than intellect, and more influential — sub- duing enmities, overcoming evils, and banishing from the earth, passion and strife and war. This is the spiritual picture within the theoretical incarnation. In this light the incarnation has been a success. Practi- cally and philosophically, he alone is truly successful who is capable of embosoming and exemplifying those high motives which Mary's Son felt, inculcated, and manifested in the far distant past. The infallible history of each person is written in the Summer-Land. A man who lives for himself, loses himself. If he wishes to gain the world, he as certainly loses it. The death-dealing immoralities of his purposes demoralize all parts of him, curtail his beautiful powers, paralyze his natural energies, and defeat him every step of the way, from the cradle to the coffin. But a consolation is at hand. Death is a chemical screen — a strainer, a finely-woven sieve— through which, by the perpetual flow of the laws of Mother SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 85 Nature, individuals are passed on to their true stations in the Summer-Land. The squares in the death-sieve are so exceedingly fine, that only finest particles and certain powers and principles can go through; while on the earth-side is peeled off and cast down a lifeless mass of bones and fleshly corruption. A process of refinement is this wondrous chemi.co- sieve death-experience. The spirit with the encasing soul, hidden centers of life, all the characteristics that have distinguished, and all the motives that have influ- enced the person — all these easily pass through the death-strainer, the screen or sieve ; while the physical body and its particles, which cannot pass through, are dropped : and what is more gratifying, with the physical body are left behind many of those hereditary predis- positions and abnormal conditions which gave rise to discordant passions and false appetites, called demons and unclean spirits. The causes of these demons and unclean spirits remain on the earth-side of the death- strainer, while the effects, which those causes exerted on the soul, being so fine and so mixed with the soul- substance, pass through, and remain with the individual long after he has attained to his social center in the Summer-Land. Persons, or, rather, individualities, are not therefore destroyed by death. Nothing is changed save the dense physical form and the low material world in which they live. This chemical screenage, this extraordinary refining process and preparation, is one which all have to sub- mit to at the end of the present life. The effect there is like the birth of each into the present world. Much is elevated to the world into which we come at birth ; 86 SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. while, at the same moment, and by the same process, much is left behind in the reproductive sphere. In the temperaments and characteristics of the indi- vidual are laid the foundations of the different " Social Centers" that exist in the different mansions of the Father's house that was not built with hands. Those mansions, or, to continue the figure, the different rooms, are inhabited by classes of persons who have taken with them, through the death-strainer, different intellectual, spiritual, and social characteristics — integral attributes and temperamental individualities of character — ruling affections, and the effects of propensities that have been generated and strengthened by long-continued practices in this world before death. Regeneration is a spiritualizing process, the same after death as it sometimes is before. If the person starts from earth interiorly cleansed, he will arrive at the next sphere in a corresponding condition. If the persons start from their death-screener with the earth, the flesh, and the demoniac influences impressed upon their souls, they will arrive at and sojourn in appropri- ate " Social Centers," with the accumulated effects still influencing the inner life and the manifestations of the affections. Thus radical differences in men and women cause different societies in the next sphere. Are there not many persons about you, perhaps dwelling every day in your homes, who have " no part or lot" in your cherished sentiments and happiest experiences ? You sit at the dining-table, you look into the eyes of a per- son on the opposite side, and lo ; you are strangers by leagues, perhaps you are whole ages asunder. Different sentiments, different attractions, and different social SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER- LAND. 87 habits, give rise to different societies. Perhaps husband and wife, or brother and sister, though living in this world in the same house, eating at the same table, will become members of spiritual societies as far apart as the poles asunder. Society would be everywhere monoton- ous, both on earth and in the succeeding sphere, if indi- viduals were all alike, all cast with the same combination of temperaments. You begin plainly to comprehend, I think, that if these things are true on earth — about you and in you — death not destroying you, there must be great "diversi- ties" among the inhabitants in the Summer-Land. These various super-mundane societies are predicated upon the continuation of the radical distinguishing cha- racteristics of men and women. There are, conse- quently, societies embodying many of the effects of the immoral motives and degrading purposes by which women and men have been actuated and made miserable in this world. This is an important and momentous truth. The Summer-Land is a natural state of human existence — growing out of the universal system of causes and effects, laws and ultimates, just as logically and scientifically as to-day grew out of yesterday. Are you not to-day, in all parts of your being, the legitimate result of what the laws, conditions, and experiences of yesterday made you ? You are dead to yesterday. Your life is here and now. All you know of yesterday is remembrance. No man or woman can live in any past hour, except in the chambers of intangible memory. You live now, and thus it will be innumerable ages hence. The uni- versal verdict of reason will be this ever-present con- 88 SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-L1ND. sciousness of existence — the Past a ghost of the memory ; the Future an unfinished picture, illuminated by the inextinguishable lights of eternal hope. Throughout innumerable ages, the Past will appear like a dream; while the Future will be a subject of curiosity, of sur- prise and attractiveness, in the succeeding ages of eter- nal life. To-morrow is new and attractive to those who live truly in the Present. None can tell with absolute certainty what will happen to-morrow. There is, never- theless, an universal confidence in its coming, because of the immutable and perpetual flow of Nature's laws, causing the revolution of the planets and the rising and setting of suns — thus all men believe that to-morrow will surely come. Now 1 will put a question : If your common reason tells you so clearly of earthly things, why can you not believe your wiser intuitions and their superior logic when they tell you of heavenly things ? If ye believe that the progression of months and years will surely bring you up to the chemical screen called Death, why can ye not also believe that the shining river which flows skyward, in harmony with the noiseless rotation of this planet, will float you through that screen to a Social Center in the Summer-Land ? All men go for- ward with their thoughts and anticipations — believing, with the simplicity of very young children, that to-morrow will come. This, I say, is the uprising voice and irre- pressible logic of Intuition, aided and confirmed by experience, and made practical by the constant, habitual exercise of the reasoning faculties. All men naturally expect to live over the present, into To-morrow. Thus mankind buy lands, and hire carpenters, and build SOCIAL CENTERS IN" THE SUMMER-LAND. bU beautiful houses, and nicely furnish their new-made homes, as though everything, including personal exist- ence, was vouchsafed to last forever on earth. But this is the usual experience : After all is completed and full} prepared — the house garnished and swept, and every- thing put in order for a long, luxurious physical life on earth — then the death-screen drops, the interior person passes through " in the twinkling of an eye," and the rich, lawful heirs are left to weep, to put away in the ground what the screen refused, and to live as long and comfortably as they can upon « the property of the deceased." It is easy for the human mind to fix its imagination upon a long life in this world. So common was this inverted testimony of the fancy, that the ancient Jews supposed " the kingdom of heaven" was certainly coming "on the earth." Mankind, they thought, were not to ascend a progressive Jacob's ladder. The heavenly kingdom was to be drawn down out of the supernatural realm and made literally manifest here — a fancy in reli- gion to which Adventists are strongly attached — so that great wildernesses would blossom, animals internally opposed to each other would become harmonious, and lions and lambs would, in peace and friendship, lie down together. Christians, with more Ideality, put a spiritual interpretation upon the literalness of the Hebrew Scrip- tures, and thus made tolerable common sense of what thousands of Jews believed to be true from a very differ- ent standpoint. In the Lord's Prayer, which contains many Jewish thoughts and expressions, we find this double-meaning allusion to the kingdom of heaven. Now what, think you, was intended by that prayer? 90 SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER- LAND. This answer seems correct: It was designed to float the mind out of materialism into spiritual thought and holy aspiration. " The kingdom of heaven," to the soul that uttered the prayer, was a condition of intellectual, social, and spiritual harmony ; in which mental condi- tion pure truth would reign triumphant, even as it pre- vails in every beautiful and harmonious family in the Summer-Land, with whom dwell harmony, peace, and eternal happiness. The Lord's Prayer is a conception which, interiorly viewed, does fully harmonize with the deductions of philosophy ; but it was as legitimate a development from the Jewish basis of literalism as flow- ers are natural growths from the germs which precede them. The prayer was constructed with a literal "kingdom of heaven" in it, so that the Jewish mind could grasp it, and adopt it in its rituals, and thus pray for the down-coming and universal expansion of the spirit's beautiful truths. Now this is my testimony : The Summer-Land, as to the origin of the social centers, is made of persons from all parts of this inhabitable globe not only, but populations also from far-distant planets that are con- stituted like this earth — each globe producing an infinite variety of radical personal characteristics and tempera- mental differences. All these individuals carry upon the life within their faces, as well as in the secret chambers of their affections, the effects of life on the globe that produced them. If the person has been moved and governed by high and beautiful motives, he naturally and instinctively seeks association with those who have been similarly actuated and developed. If, on the other hand, the person has been led by low SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 91 and demoralizing motives, he as naturally seeks those, who, before death, had been correspondingly influenced. There a man can elect his friends and gravitate to his own congenial Social Center — in fact, he can tell before he goes, by looking through the death-screen, or strainer, with what manner of minds he will probably live ; at least until the redemptive evangel of " regeneration" through repentance and progression reaches his affec- tions, until perfectly pure purposes are born in him ; the same in effect whether he starts from a Methodist prayer-meeting in New York City, or from the center of some spiritual society in the fragrant groves of the Summer-Land. Progression out of imperfection is a purely spiritual transaction, growing out of the same general causes and resulting in the same internal effects upon character. Societies, in general terms, are natural exponents of the interior realities of the societies of men and women on different planets. There is there a society or province called " Alto- iissa.'' Persons have returned from it and testified that they were, while dwellers of earth, almost wholly influ- enced by the idea of gaining money, position, power among men. And it would seem that these invisible characters are influential still among those who are similarly organized and influenced in this world. When persons are actuated by the selfish motives to accumulate wealth, power, position, and influence, they become mediums to some extent. As the violet absorbs all but the blue ray, or as a red flower absorbs all but the red color, so is the mind of man in its impressibilities and mediumship. He will take on all that for which he has affinity. He will absorb from each society in the Sum- 92 SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. mer-land precisely such influences as are in accordance with his magnetic powers, and he will exclude all other influences, from whatever source. Now if the death-strainer, or screen, was not per- fect — if, when passing through the chemical change, we do not leave the causes of appetites and passions behind us — then, in truth, men in this world would really be injured and degraded by contact with the unseen popu- lations. But men are benefited, and not injured, by such contact. Now and then men are stimulated some- what in their course ; but they are not degraded, are not made worse by the contact; only patted on the back, flattered by unwise spirits, and sometimes approved, as a too fond mother approbates her pet child even in its errors. So men, moving in very low and demoralizing circles in this world, will sometimes experience a sort of self-satisfaction and contentment. They do not have those " fine compunctions" of conscience, which so many pious people imagine they must necessarily have ; these feelings are for a time laid aside, not by the use of tobacco, alcohol, and opium, but by sympathetic con- tact with those spirits who are not wise and grown in purity. Such characters on earth absorb the rays of spirit- life that are congenial to them, and exclude all the others. Thus you see men moving as earnestly against the truth as for it. It is a matter of astonishment to many Northmen how the Southerners can have their religious meetings and political gatherings, appoint " a day" for sincere " prayers" to be sent to the kingdom of heaven, and do all thrngs just like the " loyal" and " religious" people of the North. Do you suppose that SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 93 men who have gone from the ranks of Rebeldom, and who have passed through the screen of death, suddenly lost all religious and political notions on the death-bed ? ' No. The rule works both ways. They have a political scheme and a religious experience, and both were to ! them genuine. These return to their brethren in the South. When earnestly engaged in devotion and prayer, jj the Southerner feels as heaven-approved as the Northerner. You know that the discordant man, who walks Broadway with murder in his heart, can see the sun as clearly as can the man of peace. A morally bad character can physiologically eat and drink and sleep just as well as can the best. The laws that operate in your physical being operate the same in his. He goes round with the planet, experiences the flow and recession of emotions ; but he can only absorb those influ- ences from society with which he has affiuity, and he knows nothing of what others experience. Suppose,for example, that I should " exchange pulpits" with the evangelical Brother who lectures every Sunday in Grace Church. The ladies and gentlemen there would absorb from me ' only those thoughts and sentiments for which they have an educational sympathy. They would reject every- thing else. There would be between us no sympathy, no fellowship; yet they are constituted just like our- selves, and in ten years from this they may come to feel as we do ; but it is not at all likely that we shall ever feel as they do, because souls cannot go back. Hence those who go to the Summer-Land cannot return just as bad as they were before they started. Going through death cleansed them largely of causes, conditions, and temptations, leaving with them the 94: SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. results treasured up in their affections, in their sympa- thies, in their antipathies, inclinations, disinclinations, loves, hates, attractions, and repulsions. Of course they have sympathy only for congenial associations in that better life ; but such associations are, necessarily, on a higher plane than though they were of earth. The " higher plane," however, is so little removed, so slightly shaded off from that in which they lived while here, that it requires but little change to feel themselves " at home." True, contradictory characters often go to the Sum- mer-Land. Sometimes imagination gets the start of conscience. The youth feels, thinks, hopes beyond his powers to grasp or attain ; but as the years roll through the spirit, he grows gradually solid, and strong, and practical. Conscience is not fully born in some souls until after death ; that is, the idea of right and wrong is to them " a theory." I have seen persons, who, having a very large sense of right and wrong, wondered how their most intimate acquaintances could do things dia- metrically antagonistic to such sense without being sur- prised or astonished, and still live among folks just as though nothing had happened. It is because the con- scientious part of the spirit had not yet been fully born. The person might have been born on three or five sides of his character, and yet there remain other parts not born from error and wrong, and hence the defective- ness ; hence, also, the monstrosity which the character and conduct of such a person presents — deceiving, mur- dering, robbing — yet thinking nothing more of the self-condemnation of his crimes than most men do of transacting their ordinary business. It is because these SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMEK-LAND. 95 men have not as much light in principles as you ; they do not yet perceive the white ray of pure justice ; they cannot take it in, any more than a red plant could take in the red ray. So a man who cannot absorb the princi- ple of justice is a man who cannot comprehend its requirements. Society is constructed so as to require regeneration and progression. The Christian system prays for the better time. Nicodemus asked how a man could be taken out of his defects — brought out of the flesh and made as pure as spirit. Jesus did not answer him in common words, but told him that as he could not under- stand the ordinary phenomena of Nature — the blowing of the wind, for example — he certainly could not under- stand that which was interior and far more extraor- dinary, like the birth of the spirit. It has been ascertained by multitudes of witnesses, by experiments, and by conversations with those who have returned from the Summer-Land, that those. who have demoralizing motives in this life have the greatest density on their arrival. In Altolissa, the section where many persons go, who, in this world, lived wholly under the influence of selfishness, the population seems about as comfortable as general society on earth. Jews still believe in the doctrine of their fathers — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: the Roman Catholics hold the same views they did before death; and there are other sects in Altolissa who think and believe in the same things and forms of faith they learned on earth. The sects will long continue in their various sympathies and educa- tional associations. Of course, progressively and quite imperceptibly, this world will grow better and more 5 96 SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. harmonious. Men will intuitively differ less and less upon fundamental principles. But in the " details" — in the ramifications of thought — this endless variety of convictions and affinities will prevail. The foundations for countless and various societies in the Summer-Land are thus laid and established. Death is largely a cleans- ing process, and is the hope of the world, not its point of darkness. 80 beautiful are its sittings, strainings, and other processes, that the active causes of passions and appetites are dropped and left on earth with the gross materiality. So beautiful is the law of Progress, that even the active effects that accompany the individual cannot be perpetuated (as evils and discords) through- out eternity. Why ? Because in the center of the universe a positive power reigns, breathing its spirit throughout the illimitable spaces: and, and by the slow workings of its progressive laws, it cleanses all person- alities of their transient imperfections. Only eternal good can eternally exist. There is a universal gathering of all spirits and angels — not in one place, under the blaze of one heavenly central sun, but under the influ- ence of musical distributions, of harmonious varieties, each adding completeness and happiness to the other. Many persons are harmonized in this world when they are " born again," and thus lifted out of their low motives and consequent imperfections. Hundreds and thousands of " things" that annoy, vex, and wear the spirit, before it is thus born, cease to exert any bad effect. Such minds grow sweet, and gentle, and loving, under the new life ; before, the same persons were hate- ful, discordant, and full of consuming passions. The evil woman, who had " seven deviis" cast out of her, is SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 97 an instance of what good can be accomplished by exchanging bad motives for good ones. How many hateful propensities, how many demonic habits, and how many unladylike characteristics were cast out of her by the psychological power, is left to every one's imagination. The Catholics believe that each purified soul has " died" to the influences of this world. The Shakers hold a similar white banner over the redeemed — - " Come in and dwell with us, put on the plain garb, renounce the world's evil habits and cruel customs, among other things the evils of marriage and marriage itself, and you will be saved ; for thus you die to the world." Nuns enter convents under the psychological impression that before death they can leave the world and its sins, become spiritually sweet and beautiful, and acceptable brides for the only Son. There is a poetic sublimity in the thought. Now there are persons yet in the world who know that they can put their crushing heel on the serpent's head. They have learned that they can resist striking a brother, in passion ; and, what is far better, they can resist the passion which would suggest the blow. Strong, vigorous, full-blooded men, have conquered the demon of passion. Such conquering heroes would not go among the Heenans who live in sections of the Summer- Land, except as Moral Policemen, as philanthropists, but never in the capacity of associates. And yet you know that there are men, and women, too, who " hugely enjoy" the Heenan style of life ; they like the very thought of it, the exciting manifestations of it, and the large, beautiful, abandoned animality which it displays 98 SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. and indorses. If they enjoy it, how do they enjoy it ? Do they by means of their physiological or phrenologic- al organs ? They enjoy it by means of those talents and faculties which live within physical organs, and which the screenage of death does not refine away and crush out of the person. Therefore there is a great individual work here to be done. The ounce of prevention is wanted which will make the tons of cure unnecessary. Each person can start on the right track before death ; this is the best place to get under full sail for a happier harbor. To-day is better than to-morrow. The sooner you begin, the farther you will find yourself in the path of harmonious life. This is the doctrine which we are impressed to teach. I think all should commence at once to see what can be done toward preparing for a better, sweeter screenage at death, and to insure a beautiful entrance into superior societies. No one can hurt the Infinite Father nor the Infinite Mother — you can per- manently injure -only yourself. This being the truth, we have but to proclaim, " Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is" — next door, just beyond, on the other side of the death-screen, through which each must sooner or later pass. How many persons will feel, after attaining the elevation of self-control, that they have begun anew ! But how many cross, sour counte- nances, there will be while going through the trial of trying to be good. If Nicodemus could have under- stood that to be " born of water" was a natural and indispensable forerunner of being " born of the spirit," he would have first given attention to the correction SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER- LAND. 99 of his personal habits and physical appetites. Thus he would have had more harmonious, more sweet, and more beautiful bodily sensations. He would have become a better neighbor and a truer Governor in Israel, a more agreeable companion ; and there would have been a cheerful, buoyant, juvenile flow of light, joy, and peace, within his lifted spirit ; in short, he would have soon experienced the difference between a son of God and a son of Belial. I know it is a hard doctrine to preach, that now is " the accepted time." But this death-screen, which hangs before us, is as certain to fix upon each the effects of habits and mental conditions as that to-morrow will be the natural result of the causes and conditions of to-day. Each person can in this world select his associations after death. It is, therefore, important to get a passport to harmonious central societies in the Summer-Land. You should feel no enmity toward any human being, however much you have been injured. The lion and the lamb lie down together only within the purified human spirit. The hidden, cave-like cere- bellum, the back-brain, is a den full of untamed animals. Spiritual Truth is the only conqueror that can enter and still the passions, tame them to peace, and hold them in abeyance until the outward disturbance is gone. Motives, when high, lift up the soul, which is thus pre- pared to be a better neighbor and more successful in all the genuine enterprises of present life. All true progress brings an immediate and glorious satisfaction. We discourse upon " life and immor- tality," not because it is a spiritual fact, but because it is the foundation and inspiration of immediate personal 100 SOCIAL CENTERS IN THE SUMMER-LAND. improvements. It stimulates us to beautiful effort, and causes us to teach practical reforms. We can bring innumerable tests and mathematical evidences that these things, which we relate with respect to the other sphere, are true; but time will supply you with all necessary testimonies ; many of them you have already heard, many of them you know by heart 3 and ask for nothing more. Now, therefore, the time has come for each to step upon the solid rock of Truth — of eternal principles — which will surely stand, while the spirit makes substantial progress toward higher and more beautiful societies which blossom beyond the stars. WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND "Open tby soul to God. O Man, and talk Through thine unfolded faculties with Him Who never, save through faculties of mind, Spake to the Fathers." Portions of the New Testament are opulent with hints of eternal truths. They are parts of the unspeaka- ble harmonies of God and Nature. In the writings of John (chap, xix., v. 2,) there is a beautiful, social, spiritual affirmation, which begins, "In my Father's house." Like a child he speaks of his father's posses- sions in a pleasant and grateful spirit. "In my Father's house there is one immense room — no separate chambers and no compartments — adapted to only one family of one mind and one faith." Does it read so? No; but it would suit the orthodox sectarians if the verse were so written. The passage reads thus : " In my Father's house there are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you." Yes, if there were not " many mansions" in the house of God, the intuitive Nazarene would have known the fact. Multitudinous human hopes and tender aspi- rations have sailed over the river on that beautiful barge — on that mystic affirmation — which, floating on 102 WINTER-LAST) AND SOMMER LAND. the flowing sea of the olden time, comes very near tc our hearts to-day, not valuable because it is laden with priestly authority, but because it comes indorsed by the spiritual discoveries and positive facts of the last fifteen years. " In my Father's house there are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you." How tender and beautiful, how simple and true, how childlike and sublime ! The earth is the Land of Winter, of storms and sorrows ; but the second sphere is the Summer- Land of repose and infinite blossoming. Many apart- ments in the Summer-Land for different peoples and races of men. Various localities and spheres for dif- ferent inclinations. Provision is made for the com- plete gratification of the diversities of spiritual desires in human character, so that all races and all states of mind will be " at home" in the Father's house which is eternal in the heavens — friendly brotherhoods all, though billions, trillions of leagues apart ! Whose heart does not beat in melodious harmony with that beautiful sentiment from the Iutuitions of long ago — with that ever dear and lovingly sweet affirmation from the source of positive revelation? It comes clad with the majestic authority in which all truth travels to mankind. It stamps the spirit with an inward con- viction of « eternal reality." On this globe there are high mountains yet utter strangers to human footsteps. Those grand old monu- ments of matter, with their tops perpetually cloud- vailed, have been for centuries innumerable unknown to human intelligence and contemplation. Storms are beneath their lofty summits. No man's foot has pressed WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 103 their dizzy hights. The tempests are lower down. So our mariners report of storms on the vast oceans. But down deep in the waters all is still ; high enough in the air, all is calm. The middle ground is where the fierce battles of the elements are fought. The conflicting- powers meet and pass each other, never to meet again. Sometimes they meet and fight with such terrible energy as, for the moment, to shake the neighboring earth and cause the bending heavens to tremble as though they were to be rolled together as a scroll. And yet deep enough in the inanimate apartments of the physical world all is still and peaceful ; high enough in the ethe- real space all is equally silent and without commotion. Indeed, so perfectly still is the air above at a certain hight, that the stroke of a hammer on a log's end could be heard from New York to California. The slightest accent of the human voice could be there heard for hundreds of miles. Persons might converse with the Atlantic between them, in a voice not louder than is usual, if they were high enough up in this ethereal realm. The sun that shines with such glory and splendor, distributing warmth and fertilization over the earth's bosom, playing so sweetly and tenderly with the flow- ers and laughing with the rivers that come flowing down from the mountains, exerts no influence upon this upper sky-region. Go up fifteen to twenty miles, and you find utter night, notwithstanding the noontide glory and blaze of the sun's rays on the face of the earth. The effect of the sun's rays is altogether terrestrial, not atmospherical ; that is, the manifestation of its light and warmth is attributable more to mundane than to solar causes, 5* 104: "WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. The wonders of the physical atmosphere, within the fifty miles, would be a tax upon any one's faith. And yet I ask you to ascend in your thoughts millions and billions of miles beyond our earth's atmosphere. In the physical world you find works and wonders inexpressi- ble. How expressive of the spiritual grandeur and omnipotence of the Infinite Soul ! How can you but be filled with adoration and most glorious contemplations when the celestial truth is brought to your mind, that " in the Father's house are many mansions." If it were not so, the seers and mediums would have told you. Let us think of the physical aspect of the Summer- Land. Many persons have understood me to have said that it is a globe. I do not mean to be so understood. The beautiful Land, as I have frequently seen it, and as many have testified concerning it, is a solid belt of land, or zone, round in form like the tire of a wheel, but it is not a globe — is not spherical nor inhabitable in all directions. Imagine a belt extending above the earth two-thirds of the distance from the sun, and say seventy millions of miles wide. Imagine that belt to be immea- surably larger than the sun's path around Alcyone in the deep of immensity. Suppose this belt to be open at the sides, and filled with worlds and crowned with stars and suns, and overhead and all around a firmament just like these heavens above the earth. Look in that direction and you will see just what you see on earth, only everything further unfolded and more perfect. There is exhibited the perfections of the plans of the infinite temple which here is only fractional and frag- mentary. Thus you may somewhat imagine the appear- ance and shape of the Summer-Land. WINTER- LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 105 What is called the " Milky Way" is really a belt of suns, and planets, and satellites. There seems also to be branch-fields of stars, setting off sidewise from the body of the belt. Then when the telescope is pointed in certain directions, where the unaided human eye can see nothing, there are developed, first nebulae-cloudy regions ; next, if the telescope be strong enough, like Lord Ross's, it reveals the fact that what were sup- posed to be only star-clouds, are immense fields of stars, suns, and lesser bodies. Those star-fields open here and there and make a vista, and, looking through, there is revealed a black space which no telescope has yet been able to dissolve ; but clairvoyance has made the promise that when the telescopic power is adequate, what now appear to be only empty portions of immensity will turn out to be as full of those orbs as the great meadow is full of spears of grass. There are large islands of atmosphere between the planets. These air- islands serve as silken cushions (so to say) to keep the rolling planets supplied with electricity and also to pre- vent the friction which would exist were all the spaces occupied with worlds. So that there are really "atmo- spheric islands" (as I am impressed to term them) as well as immeasurable star-systems, in the far-off immensity. Now the Summer-Land is in harmony with this physical circle of planets called the " Milky Way." It is a belt, a zone, or girdle, of real, substantial matter. It is beyond the Milky Way only in the sense of its being far-off according to our habits of using language. When liberated at death, we do not move on toward the sun, nor drop downwards into some dreary depth of dark- ness ; we embark on a sidewise voyage, directly above 106 WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. the southern extremity of our planet, and thence onward until we reach the Summer-Land ! What shore do we gain ? We gain the shore of a land just like this earth, if this earth were a stratified belt composed of the finest possible particles that you can imagine thrown from all the orbs composing the universes. Pulverize and attenuate the finest particles of matter on this earth ; then bring them together in chemical relations ; make them coalesce and form into an immeasurable golden belt with all the visible suns and stars, and you have the Second Sphere in its substance, position, and forma- tion. Do you not comprehend that that Land is as sub- stantial to those who live there as this earth is to its inhabitants ? The proportions and the adaptations are the same. The Summer-Land, so far as the surrounding immensity is concerned, is bounded on all sides by aerial seas. Suppose you should go down to any of those high points of land along the coast, and look off on the watery expanse of the Atlantic ocean. What would you see ? No islands are visible ; only an atmosphere over- head ; clouds are floating in the blue sky, and all the rest is water. Now suppose you had never seen, or read, or heard of such a spectacle. What would be your first impression? Your first sensuous impression would be that all the immensity beyond was water, as all above is sky, and that, if you should sail off on that dreary waste, you would be lost utterly to land and to human society. Such, I say, would be your impression or apprehension on the supposition that you had no pre- vious knowledge of any such spectacle in Nature. Now imagine yourself standing on one of those WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER- LAND. 107 shining shores on the margin of the Summer-Land, Looking toward the Earth, and Sun, and Mercury, and Venus, what would you see ? If you were not a far- seeing clairvoyant, but was contemplating with the first opening of your spiritual eyes, you would see an illi- mitable ocean of twinkling stars overhead and zones of golden suns shining, and you would realize a holy, celestial atmosphere, bounding your existence on all sides, and from your feet the departure of an ocean without shore or island, without form, and void of all relations. If, however, your clairvoyant sight was opened — if your spiritual eyes had the light of far- penetrating clairvoyance in them — you would instantly perceive that the aerial ocean, which flows out into infinity from your feet, ripples off and divides into beau- tiful ethereal rivers, and that those rapidly flowing rivers lead away to the planets, even to this Earth, whence you departed, while another river flows onward to Mars, another to Jupiter, another to Saturn, and other celestial streams to other more distant planets belonging to other systems of suns ; and so on, and on, throughout the star-paved regions of the firmament, you would behold, in every imaginable direction, streams running musically down these gentle atmospheric declivities, just as tangibly as the rivers that run down the mountains and flow through the spaces in the rough landscapes of this more material world. I wish ! oh how I wish ! that I could picture to you the reality of these musical rivers of the heavenly spaces. They are musical to the ear that can hear them flowing between the constellations. Pythagoras and his school believed in the deathless " music of the spheres." Did 108 WINTER LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. not the students of Pythagoras listen to catch that compound symphony ? And was it not this very star- melody which caused them to be such enthusiasts in Music ? Did not some of them in the far-off olden time have clairaudience enough to hear through the physical, and also clairvoyance sufficient to see that "in the Father's house there are many mansions" — many happy and beautiful places — many apartments or spheres of human life — and that these different apartments in the celestial temple were so many local scenes and land- scapes, belonging to the Summer-Land, which breathe eternal harmony throughout infinitude — "the music of the spheres" ? Now suppose you were this moment standing on the shining shore of the Summer-Land and looking this way, the out-flowing sea would appear about the same to your sight, without the light of clairvoyance, as would the Atlantic Ocean to the natural eye from the promonto- ries of Nahant. It would, perhaps, at first, be no more of a startling spectacle of incomprehensible sublimity. Very many persons depart every day from this Land of Winter for the Summer-Land. When they are led through the celestial gardens and down by the shining shores, and when they begin to hear the lapping of musical waves as they ripple in from the very remote planets, bringing upon their throbbing, undulating bosoms, new persons who had but just died (left their gross bodies) on those planets— the scene Operates upon them (because yet uninitiated) just as though you were to see spirits with beautiful forms suddenly coming from off the water by the seaside, or persons walking and riding upon the surface of the waters at Nahant, or down WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 109 here on the ocean near the rocky shores of Long Island. I say the first exhibition astonishes them as much as such a novel scene would surprise you of this world. I will now relate a true story : A little girl, who had lost her darling playmate, dreamed about the Summer-Land. This sweet little weeping dreamer lived in Boston. I knew her well. Death had taken her beautiful mate away. The funeral procession went by the door of her father's house. Her mother owned a cushioned seat in a fashionable church, and of course the little daughter had a fashionable, religious direction given to her thoughts. What were her thoughts on death ? She thought all of her little mate was put " into the ground" — laid low in the cold, loveless earth ; and that when the insensate gravel, stones, and chilly soil, were thrown from the spades upon the coffin, they covered all that there was of her, and all there would be of her, until that mysterious " trump" would sound in the "resurrection morn," when Jehovah would call those long-sleeping "jewels" that were particularly his own, to himself. Well, little Mattie stood weeping by the front- window as the pageantry went solemnly through the street toward the green retreats of Mount Auburn. She asked her mother what it all meant. Over and over again the mother answered that they were going to bury the little girl " in the ground" ! This seemed to strike Mattie, for the first time, as something horrible to think of. She had, perhaps, never thought seriously of it before ; the dread reality of this false view of death never touched her affections till now. She had seen funeral processions ; but this particular funeral went 110 WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. out of her saddened heart to the silent cemetery. Her mother said that God always did so ; it was his own mysterious way. When people die they are put into the ground, then the ground is thrown over them, and the grass and the ages grow over them ; when the time comes, they arise from their long sleep and hasten to God, if they are called; if not — you know the rest of the story. Mattie sadly swallowed all this religious error, and shuddered. She was a beautiful girl then — a young lady now. Two weeks after that funeral there was a fashiona- ble party in Boston. Mattie received an invitation. Her parents were very rich, and she had gold rings and chains, and many beautiful dresses ; but she now wanted another and a more attractive ring, which she had acci- dentally seen down in Washington street. It was a splendid ornament. She wanted it in time for the party. Her parents shook their heads and opposed her wishes. They said she had so many ornaments, was always so beautifully dressed, and so elegantly and expensively arranged in her person, she ought not to ask for anything more. It was difficult for parental love to deny her, an only child ; but they did, neverthe- less, refuse to purchase the ring. Disappointed and grieved, Mattie hastened to her room and thought it over ; and on the second day in the afternoon, as her mother chanced to be looking out of the rear window into the garden, she saw the child working away with a little flower-spade, digging a small, deep hole in the ground. The mother watched for a while, and then went down to her and said. WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 11] " Mattie, my child, what are you doing ?" Mattie blushed. Already she had deposited in the ground a letter, and was throwing the fresh dirt upon it. She was embarrassed at her mother's question. She feared that she could not quite explain herself. In explanation she at length confessed that she wanted that « letter to go to God." She had secretly written, praying and entreating her heavenly Father to influence her fathei and mother so that they would consent to buy that beautiful ring for her. Her plan was, to send a letter " through the grave to God." Now Mattie got the splendid ring; but I think she was never quite certain whether it came in consequence of having " buried" the letter or not. She did not then see why a letter could not go to God through the earth. But in the course of the same year little Mattie had impressed upon her mind a beautiful dream. She told it next morning with a full rose in her cheeks and a new light in her eyes. She saw her playmate! She was in a beautiful place, standing by the side of a great silvery sea. The water was shining and twinkling in every part like a lake of white light. She said it seemed that the sun was sending a golden shimmer through the vast space of glittering waters. Mattie described the scene very finely, and said that her playmate was standing up there and sending kisses to her way down that silvery river. She declared that she felt every kiss as it fell upon her lips! And then she added, "She told me that I need not bury anything to go up there, and that I would myself come there and play with her in that beautiful place." Now this little girl knew nothing whatever of the 112 WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. Summer-Land. I was at that time a great many leagues away ; and her mother, whom I knew, was very cautious to never so much as "whisper" the slightest word favorable to truths of the Harmonial dispensation. Visions like Mattie's have been duplicated and tri- plicated over and over throughout this new country. Of course they have been modified and varied in a large variety of ways, but the testimony from different minds is invariably the same — viz. : that there are up there lands, rivers, mansions in the Father's house, temples of beauty in the home of the living God ; that countless people live there as naturally as they do here — with the difference that up there are not the earthly customs, nor this routine of daily fret and fight for physical necessi- ties, neither a continuation of the vexations consequent upon men's spurious desires and appetites. Yes, kisses have been sent down the shining rivers to the lips of many human hearts. A little girl in Bridgeport, in 1853 was moved to utter words of wisdom which only an archangel could authorize. She spoke under a celestial afflatus from the Summer-Land. " Fools confound the wise," when the former are under the inspiration of heavenly minds. Thus, sometimes, the most ignorant grow wise in ten brief minutes. All such mediums and spontaneous " sensitives" describe rivers of light ! This is supposed by materialists to be poetry. They are right. It is poetry. In essence all poetry is immutable truth, and essentially false imagination is a philosophical impossi- bility. Take the crudest and most grotesque supersti- tions of the past, and at their deepest heart you will find, if your own ability to discern is deep enough, reve- WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 113 lations " pure and undefiled" of the realities and inhabit- ants of the Beyond. I have frequently called your attention to the naturalness of the Summer-Land. Its reality is among the philosophical discoveries of the present out-folding century. The most ancient Spiritualists, in the very earliest centuries, be it ever remembered, gave inspired sentences, and made intuitive statements, and wrote line revelations of these same celestial wonders and post- mundane verities. Let us now contemplate some of the " Scenes" in the Beautiful Land. Approaching the shining shore upon one of these silvery rivers, that sets out from the southern extremity of this globe, you behold thousands of " Pira- dela," or grottoes and natural temples of clustering foliage, vines, and flowers, closely resembling lace- worked chapels. In these peculiar pagodas, or family prayer-grottoes, you behold persons who still believe in Ammon Ra, the original. Egyptian name and conception of the Supreme Being. I have already mentioned that the Egyptians had chosen a star," Guptarion," and that they have long seasons of worship, of joy and festivity, equal to an hundred years of restful Sabbaths, or as long as the star of their choice, Guptarion, shines over that particular portion of the Summer-Land. When the great star (sun) of their destiny sinks out of their sight, they cease their worshipings and festivities and return to other and less religious interests. They are about the same people they were while living in the valley of the Nile; only they are now in a higher Egypt, clothed in spiritual bodies. Many of them con- 16 114: WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. tinue their old-time worship just as though they would always remain Egyptians. It is marvelous how immobile and persistent are some of the human temperaments! In some races they yield almost nothing in the course of a thousand years. The prevalence of other opinions, other thoughts, and other conceptions, exert no remodeling effect in some minds. Now many persons think this statement is unreal. Well, look at the Jews of this generation. Are they not still the Jews that they were eighteen hundred years ago ? The variations and improvements are very slight. The Rabbinites and the Talmudians are the same. Look at their physiognomy, too. and look at the combinations of their characteristics, their inclinations in religion and in trade, and you will find them the same unaltered people. Or, look at the Roman Catholics. You may think that they are greatly modified. No, they are not. There has scarcely been an alteration in them from the first days of their faith. Those who come to this coun- try, are occasionally modified by Protestant influences. But the great Catholic establishment is characterized by a constitutional immobility. It is based in the fixed temperaments of those peculiar minds who belong to it. Protestants still revert to the Catholic Church. Such minds belong to the sphere of authority. They believe in religious system, and they seek and find 'it in the original establishment. They believe that Protestant- ism is all afloat ; that there must be some " tying-up place," or there will come chaos and destruction in morals and religion. Such persons need some place of discipline and worship where they can «• hire their WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 115 thinking done for them/' according to authority extend- ing backward over centuries to holy Saints and holy Fathers whom no Protestant ever undertakes to impeach. In this way this state of mind becomes fixed and im- mobile. Now suppose such a person should die: what is the next step? Are such minds instantly changed? Are they ever suddenly re-molded from within ? True, they are changed from a natural body into a spiritual body in "the twinkling of an eye." But are they not the same persons, with the same education, and influenced by their long-accustomed thoughts? Many such after death still believe that somewhere, beyond the bright fields of beauty, and even beyond the trials of purgatory, they will find the burning pit. They frequently think that if they should walk off but a few hundred leagues, they would find something worse than purgatory. They naturally enough understand that they are in purga- tory, and thus the fact dawns slowly upon them, that they are in their appropriate private places, and are receiving the just discipline of Progress in the moral government of God. So these ancient Egyptians, born in the valley of the Nile — strange children of a strange, sandy, symbolic country — erect countless little " pyramidalia," or tem- ples of festivity and worship, dedicated to their long- chosen planet Sirius — sometimes called the dog-star ; but up there they name it " Guptarion" — a large sun in the distant heavens, which our astronomers call a "star of the first magnitude." It rises and sets in the firma- ment over the Summer-Land once in twenty-seven of our centuries ! Suppose a bright orb about one-tenth 116 WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. of the apparent size of our sun, rising and shedding its rays over a particular portion of the Beautiful World, and you get a conception of the star of destiny in the Egyptian Brotherhood. The pyramidalia are natural vine-draped grottoes grouped along the shore of a deep river that branches from the one which flows thither from our globe. You will keep in memory how this earth of ours sends off its main celestial river which flows off south- wardly in the upper air, and which, being a magnetic combination of imponderable elements, ascends very gracefully in the channel of its flight, terminating and mingling with the silvery sea that bounds the Summer- Land. The planet-rivers flow through the vast expanse of sea as the Gulf Stream flows through the Atlantic Ocean. Thus through this vast celestial sea of mag- netic atmosphere the planetary streams flow directly to the shining shores of the Summer-Land ; but nearest to that shore which is nearest the earth, and along the inland lake called " Mornia," which is filled with attractive islands, you will find these embowered chap- els and prayer-grottoes of the Egyptians. In 1853 I was enabled for the first time to see them. I continued to investigate and to make inquiries until I got at the motive for the cultivation and con- tinuation of these pyramidalia. They said that those fragrant floral structures are little statuettes, or minia- ture pyramids, dedicated to the celebrated dog-star, Sirius, or " Guptarion," being the accredited home of Ainmon Ra. I seem to be impressed with the desire to urge upon your understanding the entire naturalness of the next WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 117 state of human existence. It seems desirable that you should see that the inhabitants there live in harmonious accord with each other, because of the omniscient sys- tem which is adapted to the infinite varieties of human character and consequent diversities of destiny. When you arrive there — and you may embark thither before '< the end of this year — you will not be a stranger, for vou will have cultivated some prescience of the "house" I 1 constructed with different " mansions/' Have you not had fore-gleams and intuitions of what I I now relate? Have you never had thoughts or impres- sions — in your dreams and visions of the night — of ij floating or flying through the air? If the thousands of seeresses and clairvoyants and true dreamers could rise jj up to-day and relate their "experiences," I should have unimpeachable accumulative testimony, sufficient to over- j whelm all the skeptical clergymen and logical lawyers ! in the wide world. You occasionally read the New Testament, do you j not? I suppose that you believe somewhat in the Pentecostal experience which is therein recorded. It seemed that, in that joyful day, they all arose from their seats — and then what? They spoke in "unknown tongues" ! Of course unknown tongues were tongues not understood. The manifestation must have been gib- berish and fanatical to those who witnessed and recorded the circumstances. Suppose that in these days there should be a public repetition of that ancient spiritual " experience." In- stantly some mediums would begin to discourse in Per- sian, others in Indian, others in Chinese, others in Japanese, others in Latin, others in Greek — would it 118 WINTEfJ-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. not be " all Greek" to the most of us, and more espe cially to spectators and non-sympathizing minds ? What would we say ? And what would the people say ? This: "Give us something that we can all understand." Yes, that would be the popular demand. But just step back into the New Testament and read the statement over again. In Pentecostal times or seasons there was a general uprising or condescension of the celestial spirit. " The spirit of the Lord" was poured out without stint. Of course you know that every sweet or powerful influ- ence from the firmament was called the " spirit of the Lord." Influences from the concentrated minds of millions in the Summer-Land could cause the largest human audience to rise to their feet in an instant. Then would occur manifestations according to individual gifts. Some would exercise the magnetic power and make passes over the sick ; others would hasten off on sweet missions of mercy ; some would declaim in unknown tongues; while others would fall prostrate and swoon into a trance, and physicians would say, " Oh, that is only excitement and hysteria." And all this would be analogous — identical — with what you so reverently read in your Testament. Now if this Bible statement be true, it is interesting and applicable to us only just so far as it is known and corroborated by spiritual expe- rience in the manifestations of these days. If modern minds were consulted, many would say, " we have seen something of what you relate." " In the visions of the night, when deep sleep cometh upon meu," many a sensitive soul would say, "I have seen beauti- ful landscapes." These visions come and depart sud- denly. Sometimes, indeed, they are nothing but the WINTER-LA.ND AND SUMMER-LAND. 119 play of a fertile ideality ; but in most instances they are real glimpses of scenes in the Summer-Land. True, you might imagine a tree to be where there is no tree ; but your ideality obtained its first lesson from seeing a tree which was real. One man may be able to imagine in his dreams just what another man cannot imagine with- out first seeing. So that the one man would have an actual objective experience, and the other only an ideal subjective experience. And it is philosophical that there should first be an object outside to impress the surfaces of the mind with a correct notion of its exist- ence. Certain constituted minds go into the "superior state" in the natural slumber of the night, and never during their ordinary and waking condition. Never, during the day, can such minds be quiet enough. But at night, when all is very still, then the sensitive mind and soul for the first time have an opportunity to realize a sort of independence of material surroundings, then the person's spirit rises up from beneath and attains to a finer state of thought and feeling. This higher con- ception of spirit-life comes through a vision. But when morning comes, and the business of the world is resumed, the dream may not remain to cheer the weary heart. But if the same person should enter a corre- sponding state, even if it be after the lapse of weeks or months, the mind will instantly revert to and go on with the corresponding previous experience. The long time which may have elapsed between the two experiences, does not break the chain. To the spirit, years seem like fleeting moments; for spirit, you will remember, "Lives in deeds not years; In feelings, not in figures on a dial." 120 WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. The spirit realizes no time between an experience of ten years ago and a corresponding experience of last night or to-day. Once I stood, while in the clairvoyant state, by the overwhelmed brain of a large man in an apoplectic fit. I examined him both physically and spiritually. I watched by his bedside until he recovered from the apoplexy. Being in clairvoyance, I saw the working of his spirit, and could easily understand the state of his mind. He had, in the midst of his sufferings, a clear and truthful vision of the Summer-Land ! When he recovered from the fit and came out of " the state," he knew nothing of what had happened. And I too, at that time, when I came out of the magnetic state, did not recollect what I had seen. (I remember everything now.) In the clairvoyant state, subsequently, I examined him a second time. He was then in a deep coma. I plainly saw what he was seeing, and might have felt what he was feeling. His mind was connecting the experience of six months previous with his present vision. He saw his heart's own happy companion — the loved wife who had gone before him — coming to welcome his spirit up the shining way. lie saw the beauty of her coming, and / saw the beauty of her coming. The doctor put his ear down to the sick man's mouth to catch his whisperings. A joyful thought tried to gain utterance through his paralyzed physical organs. He wanted to tell his vision. But in a few moments he passed into the World of spirit. Before he went he did not realize the six months which had intervened between his first and second vision of the silvery rivers and the scenes of immortal beauty. WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER- LAND. 121 A traveler may suddenly turn a corner in a ncAV road and see a house and bridge before him, a few trees, a stream pouring through the grassy meadow and some farm-houses in tire distance, and, though the load and the country are really new to him, somehow the whole scene is familiar to his eyes. He knows that he never saw it with his physical eyes before, and yet he is not surprised. He is surprised only when he realizes that he was never in that region before. Now 1 find that the picture of that scene was perfectly transferred to the sensitive canvas of his faculties while his body was in a deep sleep in the night-time. While in your " superior state," your spirit takes on its impressions of distant objects and scenery. This experience has misled many into the hypothesis of pre-existence. So the life of the spirit is natural. Your spirit does not realize any difference in feeling, whether you are dreaming or in a state of wakefulness. You travel about in the sleep-state just the same as though you were awake and in open day. You visit people, you go into houses, you cross rivers, or take a long voyage, just as satisfactorily as though you had your physical body around you. Now this experience arises from a projection of your consciousness into the open world about you. ' This will explain the wondrous phenomena of the whole interior life. It may not explain the pri- vate double-consciousness of some persons. One mind may see a real tree, another mind may imagine a tree to be where no tree is ; but the latter is a subject of impression in which a tree is involved. Some peculiarly organized minds have the most hor- rible dreams. Such dreams are reflections from the 122 WINTER-LAND AND STUMMER-LAND. structure and state of their minds. And there are per- sons who live rightly and abstemiously, who also have horrible dreams. Why is this? Because they have not yet outgrown or overcome the influences from the tem- peraments of their ancestors. They are representatives of branches of temperamental roots, which go far back and down in the ancestral soil. They still vibrate and' pulsate in the living generations. This fully accounts for the " night thoughts" of many who are pure and beautiful, and who think beautiful thoughts during the daytime. These same persons sometimes dream the most repulsive dreams. Ancestors predominate in their personal consciousness, and they have not will-power sufficient to keep down the rising hereditary impressions, especially during the less guarded hours of slumber. Already I have said something concerning the "battle between the spirit and its circumstances," showing how all may acquire the power of conquering the unpleasant inheritance from their ancestors. I have somewhat conquered the discordant temperaments of my ancestors. (I do not know who they remotely were, and I am not anxious to know.) I have a fair- minded, honorable father yet in this world, and I know that I had a true, and sweet, and beautiful, and saintly mother, who now resides in a celestial community. But there were certain hereditary influences and predispo- sitions which I found absolutely in my spirit's way. Those inheritances stood sternly up in my presence some- times when I wished most to be utterly quiet. When I would gather spiritual strength and restore my exhausted physical powers, then up would pome some hereditary "imp of darkness," who would propose to WINTER-LAND AND SUMMER-LAND. 123 carry me into discordant thoughts and scenes. At such times I would dream that I was where strange, mur- derous-looking people were secreting themselves in dark passages, or some other equally unpleasant dream- ing. It has been so with some of you. You need not claim that you have always had harmonious, splendid, and attractive dreams. Human nature is organized on identical principles. And the action of the human faculties, under a given set of circumstances, is the same, and the experiences arising from such action is the same in all structures of mind. Some men think there is essential truth in astrology. Well, I once visited an astrologer, with a desire to test the possibilities of destiny. A distinguished professor described to me the influences of the several stars. He drew my horoscope, according to the day and hour of my birth, and then went on to tell when I was sick, or when I should have been ; that certain planets were my ruling stars, both for weal and for woe ; and that when certain planets came into conjunction with the body of Mars, f them, and they are not known, named, nor bowed to is " distinguished persons." Great men, so styled on earth, are of no consequence in the Summer-Land; neither king nor queen, nor prince nor princess, are known as such ; for all go there clad in their true peri-spherical garments, and not in the costly habili- ments you procure at Stewart's. When arrived, you will appear dressed and adorned, plainly or otherwise, 138 LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. in rigid accordance with your internal nature and status. Thus Henry Clay, when he reported himself in the city of New York more than ten years ago, said that his " great earthly (political) attainments had not availed him much." This distinguished American gavo a message to a number of personal friends. His com- munication, which was perfectly verified at the time, shows the mental condition in which the statesman found himself soon after his arrival. HENRY CLAY'S MESSAGE TO A NUMBER OF FRIENDS. In July, 1852, the following, with much more of high significance, was delivered : " My worldly wisdom availed me not when my new life commenced. It is very beautiful to become a little child again ; and now I understand the meaning of the words: 'Ye must be born again ;' and in true sincerity and gratefulness I feel that I am born again — in a life where the vanities of earth have faded from my view, and the bright glo- ries of heaven are opening upon my soul. " soul made pure, be thankful for thy high estate, and adore thy God who hath endowed thine eyes with light, and thy soul with the ability to enjoy the pure beauties which crowd upon thy new existence I And yet how I am overwhelmed with the foreshadowing of the glory which is yet-in wait lor me ! But now a form of brightness appears, and saith unto me: ' As thy day is, so shall thy strength increase ; and thou shalt grow and wax stronger in the stature of wisdom and the might of love.' "I am surrounded by those who are, like myself, exploring the wonders of this heavenly land. The realities become more and more transcendently sublime as we proceed. And the beauties of knowledge are increasingly unfolded; more vast and commanding becomes the wide-spread plain of glory, as we travel on in our heavenly path, guided by wisdom supreme and love unbounded." LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 139 The mind is « overwhelmed," as Henry Clay- expresses it, with the unexpected naturalness of the post-mortem existence. Persons- who read this, I think, will not be as much astonished as was the "Sage of Ashland, 51 who ascended from the Old Kentucky State. He was not " astonished" in the Halls of Congress at Washington — he could easily grasp the great rising propositions before the Government of his country — but when he entered another mansion in the Father's house " not made with hands," then he became as " a little child, guided by wisdom and love." Persons sometimes change their views rapidly, and they hasten to return, saying that they have experienced a " change" in their convictions. Dr. Emmons, who was a preacher of the old-school doctrine of eternal punishment, comes back after having thoroughly investi- gated the geography and government of the Summer- Land, saying that there is no place hot enough to suit his sermons. A MESSAGE FROM DR. EMMONS, IN BOSTON, 1851. " You of the earth may pretend and think you believe ever so strongly in eternal punishment; but when you bring it home to your own hearts, and those you love, the strongest terms you dare to use are : ' We leave them in God's hands. He doeth all things well!' Yea, verily, I respond to that with all my spirit powers — ' God doeth all things well ! 5 Amen and amen forever ! saith the spirit of Dr. Emmons. Does not that very remark imply a doubt in the minds of those that thus speak ? You could not better express your doubts, if you would ; your firmest, strongest believer in eternal punishment, dare not say of the one he loved : He or she hath gone to hell ! In plain words let us speak ; for you that believe it may not shrink 14:0 LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMED LAND. from speaking it. I was one of the old-school, a strong, 1)0 Id preacher of the doctrine of eternal punishment ; would that those sermons were buried in oblivion ! They are a curse to the world, a dishonor to the memory of him who could believe or utter such sentiments, a libel on the character of a just and holy God. And yet, as my spirit returns to the friends and scenes of my earthly days, often do I hear the words I uttered in life brought forth as the faith of a good old man ; and by those, too, who cherish my name and memory with almost holy reverence. I long to make my voice heard in tones of thunder, that they may know the truth, and not grope in darkness longer." Again, the celebrated American author, J. Fennt- more Cooper, in the year 1850, gained access to an elderly gentleman in Western New York, and reported in brief as follows : " I little thought, when, a few months ago, I was investigating the developments that were interesting some of my acquaintances, that I should so soon be seeking an opportunity to make my identity manifest. I was astonished at what I then witnessed, and was afraid to investigate, lest I should find true what others said, and what had been so marvelous to me, because I dreaded the scorn of those whose good opinion I valued. Hence, you see, I was not well prepared lor a high mansion in the spirit-life; for I felt ashamed to seek the truth wherever it might be found, and such cowards are not fitted for high enjoyments in the Spirit-World. Yet I was introduced into a state far better than I deserved, for which I feel thankful ; and that feeling of gratitude, as it is cultivated, 1 feel advances me." Some spirits report themselves as they were, or as they appeared just before death, in order to satisfy their remaining relatives that they are still in existence, and LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 141 that death was not the extinguishment of their person- ality. A remarkable case is reported by Professor Brittan, eleven years ago, showing how entirely simple, yet terribly impressive, is the method which some departed ones adopt, to cause their identity to be fully known to acquaintances who yet live in the body. CASE OF IDENTIFICATION. Mr. S. B. Brittan, in the year 1852, put on record the following: "Last winter, while spending a few days at the house of Mr. Rufus Elmer, Springfield, Mass., I became acquainted with Mr. H. , a medium. One evening H , Mr. and Mrs. Elmer, and myself, were engaged in general conversation, when — in a moment and most unexpectedly to us all — H was deeply entranced. A momentary silence ensued, when the medium said: 'Haunah B is here.' I was surprised at the announcement; for I had not even thought of the per- son indicated for many days, perhaps weeks or months, and we parted for all time when I was but a little child: I remained silent ; but mentally inquired how I might be assured of the actual presence. Immediately the medium began to exhibit signs of the deepest anguish. Rising from his seat, he walked to and fro in the apart- ment, wringing his hands, and exhibiting a wild and frantic manner and expression.* He groaned in spirit, and audibly, and often smote his forehead and uttered incoherent words of prayer. He addressed men in terms of tenderness, and sighed, and uttered bitter lamentations. Ever and anon he gave utterance to expressions like the following: « ' Oh, how dark ! What dismal clouds ! What a frightful chasm! Deep — down — far down — 1 see the fiery flood! Hold!. Stay ! — Save them from the pit! I'm in a terrible labyrinth! I see no way out! There's no lii^ht! How wild! — g-loomv ! The clouds 142 LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER LAND. roll in upon me ! The darkness deepens ! My head is whirling ! Where am I V "During this exciting scene, which lasted perhaps half an hour, I remained a silent spectator, the medium was unconscious, and the whole was inexplicable to Mr. and Mrs. Elmer. The circumstances occurred some twelve years before the birth of the medium. No person in all that region knew aught of the history of Hannah B , or that such a person ever existed. But to me the scene was one of peculiar and painful significance. The person referred to was highly gifted by Nature, and endowed with the tenderest sensibilities. She became insane from believing in the doctrine of endless punishment, and when I last saw her, the terrible reality, so graphically depicted in the scene I have attempted to describe, was present, in all its mournful details before me." Now, the testimony of Professor Brittan would probably be taken as unquestionable and trustworthy on any other subject, and perhaps at this late day his word will also be accepted in this direction. In the whole realm of psychology, or of sympathy of mind with mind, there is no known law that will explain the effects he delineates. But those who have held commu- nication with the Summer-Land, find that those who still earnestly desire to communicate, take the first opportunities to stamp the impression which would pro- duce the strongest conviction of personal identity upon the remaining relative or friend. I suppose there are two thousand instances, all of them substantiated so far as human testimony can go, showing that spirit-com- munications are " literal facts'' recorded in history beyond the possibility of refutation. Some minds who on earth were intellectually inter- LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 143 ested in " Ideas," on entering the Second Sphere, begin to communicate, as soon as possible, to impressible per- sons remaining, the fact that, in their cogitations, they had conceived of something like what they now behold, and that they are so glad to find that the realities of the higher life are even more gratifying than they had dared to expect. To illustrate this point, I refer you to the testimony of Margaret Fuller, given in 1852 — a year remarkable for the outpouring of this peculiar description of communications : TESTIMONY OF MARGARET FULLER, OTHERWISE COUNTESS OSSOLI, DEC. 5, 1852. " My sojourn on earth seems now as an indistinct dream, in comparison with the real life which I now enjoy. And I regard the raging of the elements which freed my dearest kindred and myself from our earthly bodies, as the means of opening to us the portals of immortality. And we behold that we were born again — born out of the flesh into the spirit. How sur- prised and overjoyed was I when I saw my new condi- tion ! The change was so sudden — so glorious — from mortality to immortality — that at first I was unable to comprehend it. From the dark waves of the ocean — cold, and overcome with fatigue and terror — I emerged into a sphere of beauty and loveliness. How differently everything appeared! What an air of calmness and repose surrounded me ! How transparent and pure seemed the sky of living blue! And how delightfully I inhaled the pure, life-giving atmosphere! A dim- ming mist seemed to have fallen from my eyes — so calm and so beautiful in their perfection were all things which met my view. And then kind and loving friends approached me, with gentle words and sweet affection; and oh, I said within my soul, surely heaven is more truly the reality of loveliness than it was ever conceived to be by the most loving hearts! Already are my 1 144 LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. highest earthly impressions of beauty and happiness more than realized." Here you remark a vivid contrast between this communication of Margaret Ossoli's and that reported by Professor Brittan. In Margaret you see a mind retaining its characteristics in the transcendentally ideal. She reports the intense gratification which came over her idealizing faculties immediately on her introduction to the Better Land. But the other lady came back pur- posely to impress upon Mr. Brittan's thoughts and feel- ings the fact of her presence — not through ideality, but through the frightful gesticulations and paroxysms of a pain fully-remembered insanity. Traveling in the post-mortem Sphere is at first just like pilgrimizing on earth. But the higher inhabitants have acquired what we shall never be able perfectly to imitate in this world. They have the power, without wings, to rise up and put themselves iu harmony with the currents that sweep through the atmospheric spaces. With the spread of light they ride on those currents millions and trillions of miles. It is accomplished by the marvelous power of inherent Will. The ability of the will to check the pulse is a promise of ultimate achievements. It is possible to develop and educate this inherent power of Will. By it, in this world, we lift our heavy bodies from beds or chairs, and cause them to move on the ground through low space.. It is a men- tal power holding insensate muscles to its rule. This executive energy of the arisen human spirit, instead of •wings, is the secret of its lightning flight. I do not say that spirits travel by a continuous exertion of the will. They seek the upper currents by will, somewhat like LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 145 the balloon excursion which occurred some few years since between St. Louis and the northern part of this State. Professor Wise speaks positively of the exist- ence of an unvariable current, and thinks that if the venturesome aeronaut could strike it, he would be rapidly and safely carried from west to east. His first experi- ment was a failure, as all first experiments usually are; but it sufficiently illustrates what is the universal method of traveling in the Summer-Land, when they depart on their far-away excursions. They gain that particular current which sweeps away through the spaces between the orbits of the planets, and which takes them " with the celerity of thought" to the destination which they desire to reach, however remote it may be from their point of departure. We shall not obtain that method in this life, save by uncertain balloons. We see the lesson and the example in birds. But that is done by a direct exertion of the will, and by sympathetic contact of their swift-moving wings with the electricity of the air — part float devel- oped by friction, and part momentum developed by Will. Just as a message of intelligence can be sent through space by vibrating the telegraphic current over thou- sands of miles, so the spirit-body and Will can, by the vibration of the celestial rivers which flow between the Summer-Land and the different planets, mount and float and ride upon them with inconceivable speed, and gain .any desired destination. Traveling there is social. In the New Testament you read with wonderment and with longing the report of the Pentecostal expe- riences. How could such things be unless there were spirits invisible, who gathered as in convention, and, 146 LANGUAGE AM) LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. by one united effort, baptized with sublime zeal whole congregations of Spiritualists in Syria, in Palestine, in Rome, or wherever the upper Pentecostalians happened to be in contact with the lower assemblages of sympa- thizing and impressible minds. The spiritualistic con- gregations of the old time were supposed to be baptized by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit from the great Jehovah himself. That was the shortest explanation furnished by the converted Pharisees. They always furnished the most literal explanation of spiritual phe- nomena. Thus Moses imagined that he never could be visited by any power less exalted than the great Creator himself. That was the Hebrew mistake. Many of them have not yet unlearned the error in this world; and some in the Summer-Land have not changed their sentiments. But the truth is, that a combination of minds, just like ourselves, coming in contact with earthly congregations, pour out the spirit of real love, uplifting, elevating, giving inward gladness and unity of feeling " in the bonds of peace." By permanent magnets I sometimes illustrate the law that spirits impart communications with whom they can enter into direct contact, and with none others. Hence some have passed all the way through life with- out receiving a single evidence that any such tiling as a spirit exists; while others have felt it and known it from their earliest recollections. I well know that there aie minds who have not felt the blissful influence of such spiritual contact, and of course, have no evidence whatever of the truth of these things. And yet such persons are many times helped and saved by proxies. Guardians cannot reach them, save through the agency LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 147 of other parties— a succession of intermediates — the way a great variety of special providences come to pass. As an example, I give the case of an African woman, to show that the benevolent in the beautiful Brotherhoods of heaven still watch over the lowly and unhappy of earth : HOW A FAMISHING AFRICAN WOMAN AND CHILD WERE SAVED BY THEIR GUARDIANS. The case is cited from the Moral Instructor of 1850. It exhibits interposition, sympathy, and calculation, to a remarkable extent : " A lady medium in this city, whose name we are not at liberty to pronounce, while walking in the streets, in her usual physical and mental mood, was approached and controlled by a spirit, caused to enter a bakery and purchase some victuals, thence led out of the city by a circuitous route into the suburbs, where she met a colored woman sitting by the roadside, weeping, with a small child by her side. She was traveling to find friends, and, destitute and exhausted, she had sunk despondingly down to bewail her condi- tion. Using the organ of the medium, the spirit said to the sufferer : « Sister, why weepest thou V The reply, in substance, was, that she was away from friends, and had no means of procuring food for her famishing child ■ — making no mention of her own privations. She said she had knocked at the doors of those who appeared abundantly able to bless, but had been refused even the morsels that fell from their tables, and now despaired of succor. The spirit then gave her the bread, telling her that her afflictions were known, and that he was an angel sent to minister to her wants. Overjoyed, the poor woman fell upon her knees, essaying to offer the spirit a prayer of thanksgiving. But he said : i Thank not me, but God that sent me." "The medium was then conducted home, having been unconscious during most of the transaction, and retaining only an indistinct recollection of the bakery, 14:3 LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMEE-LAND. one or two points in her road, and the meeting with the woman." Many a man has been saved from committing sui- cide, by. his guardians, by the intermediate method of approach. Why are not all men saved from their temptations and indiscretions? Because they can be neither directly nor intermediately reached. Of neces- sity all such must walk through great agony to a higher intellectual and moral condition. It is the impulse of their inward being. Guardian angels see that it is better for some children to fall down a whole flight of stairs than to be rescued; for the one sad accident or stumble may save them from the misfortune of forty other worse falls and blunders in the course of their lives. The saving and protecting arms are not thrown around some gentle natures simply because there is no contact. But what a beautiful law and system of providences are sometimes displayed! Here is an example : A MAN SAVED FROM SUICIDE BY THE INTERPOSITION OF HIS GUARDIANS. The following authentic case was reported by a New Haven gentleman, in 1852: "Many years ago a couple of gentlemen, who were room-mates, graduated at Yale College, and became ministers of the gospel. At an after period they settled in the ministry in dif- ferent States, and carried on a friendly epistolary cor- respondence during a large portion of their lives. One of them was in the habit of receiving impressions upon his mind of that vivid character which usually con- strained him to comply with the dictate of the moment, or suffer loss touching his wonted peace. And though he was seldom able to divine in advance what the result of his compliance would be, he was always obedient to LANGUAGE AND LIFE IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 14:9 the dictate, and afterward saw clearly that he had only done what duty or interest would have demanded. " Among the many occasions upon which he was called to act in obedience to this higher power, the fol- lowing is singular and instructive, and shows, in the language of Cowper, after he had been foiled twice on the same day in his attempts at self-destruction, that ' God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to per- form' — that he accomplishes his purposes by ways and means unthought of by man. A vivid impression came over his mind that he must, without delay, get upon the back of his horse, and with all possible speed reach New Haven, a place which he had not seen since he left col- lege, and one that was many miles distant. As had been his custom, he was obedient to the impulse, and reached the place at the midnight hour of a dark night; and finding it greatly altered from what he had ever before seen it, and not descrying any suitable place to stop at, he was induced to ride to the door of a small house, in which he discovered a dim light at the attic window. After knocking and waiting a considerable length of time, he heard footsteps upon the stairway advancing slowly; soon it opened, and a man with a lamp in his hand, and with a stern countenance, and corresponding voice, demanded : ' What do you want here at this unseasonable hour of the night V The messenger of life, as he proved to be, replied : ' I can scarcely inform you what I came for; I am a stranger here ;' after which a short pause ensued, and the man with the lamp, in low aud quivering accents, said: