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 INSPIRATIONAL. 
 
 BY J. P. C. 
 
 -000- 
 
 SYRACUSE, N. Y. : 
 
 MASTERS k LIE, STEAM BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 
 
 18«T. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, 
 
 By miss J. F. C, 
 
 In the Cl§rk'« OflBlce of the District Court of the United States, for the 
 
 Northern District of New York. 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 This work is respectfully dedicated to those, who appre- 
 ciating the Natural Laws of (rod, like to study manifesta- 
 tions of Love and Wisdom, as they are exhibited through 
 Matter and Spirit. 
 
 As these Inspirations have instructed and cheered the 
 writer," so may they comfort the reader, until divested of 
 the iVlaterial Casket, we become better prepared to test 
 their truthfulness. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 The Birth-Day Gift, - - - - 9 
 A Song of the Bereaved, - - - - ' 9 
 
 Consolation, - - - - - 11 
 
 Friendship Immortal, - " - ... 12 
 
 Progress, - - - - - 13 
 
 Reminiscence, - - . - - - 14 
 
 Life has Joys yon have not Tasted, - - 15 
 
 Rob not that Heart, - - - - 16 
 
 Sweet Meniories, . - - - - IT 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 Thoughts on Health, - - - - 21 
 
 Thoughts on Beauty, - - - - 34 
 
 Thoughts on Immortality, ^ - - - - 46 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 SPIBIT VOICES FROM THI BELOVED DEPARTE» TO SURVIVING FRIENDS. 
 
 First Yoice, - - - - - 61 
 
 Second Voice, - - - - - 64 
 
 Third Voice, ... . - - 66 
 
 Fourth Voice, ..... 68 
 
 Fifth Voice, . .... 69 
 
 The Shining Shore, ----- 70 
 
THE BIETH-DAY GIFT. 
 
 Years pass ! and friends to thee would give 
 
 Some token of their love ; 
 And those, who from the mortal sight, 
 
 Have passed to courts above, 
 
 Around thee linger as of old, 
 
 Some gift they would impart : 
 They cannot bring an outward gift, 
 
 As token of the heart. 
 
 But light immortal they would shed, 
 
 And truth to guide thy feet. 
 Until in brighter realms above, 
 
 The friends long parted meet. 
 
 Then press thy way through birth-days here, 
 
 To brighter birth above : 
 Where heaven's richer gifts shall shower 
 
 On thee in light and love. 
 
 -f-e-- 
 
 A SONG OF THE BEEEAVED. 
 
 Where are the friends whom oft I greeted, 
 And who on me such love bestowed ? 
 
 Whose well known footsteps, ever welcome, 
 Increased my joy, and quelled my woes ? 
 
10 A SONG OF THE BEREAVED. 
 
 Where is the brother, whom in childhood, 
 I loved with heart so kind and true ? 
 
 Who proudly spoke the name of sister, 
 More proudly, as we older grew ? 
 
 Alas ! They're gone ! Sometimes in sadness 
 I think upon the days, passed by ; 
 
 And dwell on those sweet hours of gladness, 
 Until I breathe the rising sigh : 
 
 And feel almost alone, deserted, 
 
 By the dear loved ones of the past ; 
 
 O I were it not for truth immortal, 
 Cheering my soul by clouds o'ercast. 
 
 And opening to my spirit yearnings, 
 A world all radiant with delight, 
 
 Those sad, dark hours would linger longer, 
 And overwhelm me with their blight. 
 
 But ah, the morning dawns upon me ! 
 
 Friends of my childhood, linger near ; 
 Though they long, long ago departed. 
 
 They still return my soul to cheer. 
 
 And messages of peace they bring me 
 From the bright land beyond the sea, 
 
 Of discord, passion, darkness, sorrow ; 
 They come to make my spirit free. 
 
 And the dear brother is not absent. 
 Though still unseen, he lingers near, 
 
 He fain would see his sister happy : 
 He fain wculd quell each rising fear, 
 
CO^TSOLATION. 11 
 
 And see her soul all full of music, 
 Harmonious with the spheres above ; 
 
 Where discord from his soul is banished, 
 By the bright reign of peace and love. 
 
 -•8-+- 
 
 CONSOLATION. 
 
 Know you not that all is passing, 
 Changing, fleeting, like a dream ; 
 
 That beyond this world of sorrow, 
 Ever changing is the scene ? 
 
 Yet true friendship is not fickle ; 
 
 True love cannot pass away. 
 Chastened heart, ever remember. 
 
 Change gives place to brighter day. 
 
 Though some loved ones have departed. 
 They are dwelling in the light ; 
 
 Ever changing in condition. 
 
 Makes them beautiful and bright. 
 
 Upward rising, onward fleeing, 
 
 From the weight their souls did bear ; 
 
 Know you not that sweet communion 
 Can be had with them by prayer ? 
 
 Prayer shall dissipate the distance, 
 Trust and love will bring them near ; 
 
 Let not anguish rend your spirit, 
 Upward press without a fear. 
 
12 FRIENDSHIP IMMOETAL. 
 
 Soon the pearly gates will open, 
 Then true souls will fully blend. 
 
 Cheerfully and lovingly, 
 Pass along. Your angel friends. 
 
 Of your sorrows not unmindful. 
 Wait to help you on your way. 
 
 ! believe that truly, surely. 
 They approach to those who pray. 
 
 ■He-- 
 
 FRIENDSHIP IMMORTAL. 
 
 Do not withdraw the Friendship 
 
 Which you to me have given ; 
 It is a chain to bind us, 
 
 More firmly to that heaven 
 From which pure souls descended, 
 
 To dwell in forms of clay. 
 1 then in sweet communion. 
 
 We'll work on day by day. 
 
 Though absent oft in body, 
 
 We're one in spirit still ; 
 The same pure inspiration 
 
 Our waiting souls does fill. 
 While Christ and holy angels. 
 
 Do beckon us to rise 
 To those divine conditions. 
 
 Where friendship never dies. 
 
PEOGEESS. 13 
 
 PROGEESS. 
 
 This life, so brief and fleeting ; 
 
 By our spirits active made ; 
 Is ever onward tending 
 
 To that life beyond the shade. 
 Death does not change the spirit : 
 
 But its surroundings change ; 
 And in its new condition, 
 
 It has a wider range. 
 
 Departed ones are with us ; 
 
 Only, witii deeper love, 
 And wiser, holier impulse. 
 
 They on our souls do move. 
 They fain would lead our spirits, 
 
 To the loves which angels bless : 
 They're with us now as ever. 
 
 Only with holier caress. 
 
 And drear, dark spirits linger. 
 
 Around this world of ours ; 
 We should not let them lead us, 
 
 To passion's withered bowers ; 
 But we with strength of spirit, 
 
 Should labor to impress, 
 The weary ones, corrupted, 
 
 And lead them unto rest. 
 
 The rest which none but loving. 
 
 Obedient souls do know ; 
 The rest, which in well doing, 
 
 Great joy on us bestows. 
 
14 EEMINISCENCE. 
 
 The rest, wliich here does give us, 
 A foretaste of that joy, 
 
 Prepared for the obedient, 
 In spheres without alloy. 
 
 -g-2- 
 
 EEMINISCENOE. 
 
 I've been dreaming, wildly dreaming 
 Of the bright days, past and gone ; 
 
 When so much of life that's real. 
 Only bore for me the thorn. 
 
 What is life when spent in sadness, 
 When no joy the heart can cheer ? 
 
 When our cherished loved ones. 
 Cannot dry our bitter tears ? 
 
 I will weep n*o more, nor murmur ; 
 
 Time once spent who would recall ? 
 But the present, the true present, 
 
 Is within the reach of all. 
 
 Gratefully I'll grasp its fullness, 
 I am stronger in this hour — 
 
 Angel visitants attend me. 
 
 And my soul with hope empower. 
 
 In the present, the true present, 
 I will live, and act, and love ; 
 
 Not alone in purpose striving. 
 Ever aided from above. 
 
LIFE HAS JOYS YOU HAVE NOT TASTED. 15* 
 
 I will wend my way in gladness, 
 Strewing flowers where were thorns, 
 
 Helping disappointed mortals, 
 To outride Earth's darkest storms. 
 
 -2-4- 
 
 LIFE HAS JOYS YOU HAVE NOT TASTED 
 
 Life has joys you have not tasted : 
 Life has sweets you have not known : 
 
 Yet the buds of love and wisdom, 
 On strange winds to you have flown. 
 
 Cherish them, for they are sacred, 
 
 They will open into flowers : 
 Flowers of precious, holy fragrance. 
 
 Cheering all your fleeting hours. 
 
 Had life been a scene of pleasure. 
 Spent in friendship's sacred bowers. 
 
 Where a just appreciation 
 Hallowed every passing hour. 
 
 The dear friend whom you've attracted 
 To your home, for thought and rest. 
 
 Could not left her bower of pleasure, 
 To become your grateful guest. 
 
 And the buds which she has brought you, 
 Have been borne on sorrow's tide. 
 
 By strange winds, till they have clustered 
 Closely, closely by your side. 
 
16 ROB NOT THAT HEAET. 
 
 Thus God's agents of progression, 
 Are of earthly goods deprived, 
 
 That condition may attract them, 
 To become the faithful guides, 
 
 Of the suffering, human beings, 
 
 Who have strayed from paths of joy ; 
 
 For the buds of love and wisdom. 
 Blessing give without alloy. 
 
 I be bright with hope overflowing, 
 Life has yet a zest for you ; 
 
 Precious joys which never weary, 
 Gems of truth forever new. 
 
 --e-e- 
 
 EOB NOT THAT HEART. 
 
 Rob not that heart by care oppressed, . 
 
 To you its fondest throbs were given. 
 Ere time's rough storms had bowed the head, 
 
 By breaking the bright dream of heaven. 
 
 It may not be ! The love she bore 
 For you, when in your youthful prime. 
 
 Has shone with clear, unceasing ray. 
 Up to this day, of life's decline. 
 
 ! twine for her the halcyon wreath. 
 
 Of true devotion ; brighter far 
 To woman's heart of tenderness. 
 
 Than moon, or sun, or glittering star. 
 
SWEET MEMOEIES. 17 
 
 Onward and upward press yonr way, 
 To where frail passions cease control ; 
 
 Where love, renewed in innocence, 
 Confirms the ties of youthful souls. 
 
 -e-8- 
 
 SWEET MEMOEIES. 
 
 It seems but a few days since I was a child, 
 And gathered with sister, flowers growing wild 
 By the banks of the stream, which flowed so free : 
 Then care was a stranger to her and to me. 
 
 Our dog and pussy seemed to take delight 
 In joining our slow walk, or quite rapid flight ; 
 And when the hills echoed with our merry shout, 
 They looked, as if asking, What laughing about ? 
 
 We picked boquets by the banks of the stream, 
 And bore them to mother, who with air serene, 
 Saluted her children's return with a smile. 
 Saying you are tired, come rest you awhile, 
 
 And then with fresh diligence go to your work, 
 Finish father's garter, or help make his shirt. 
 Then kind dog and pussy would watch by our side, 
 As if they feared evil us might betide. 
 
 Or, rather they chose to be by us in work, 
 When knitting a garter, or making a shirt. 
 They fancied they formed an important part 
 In the circle of duties around our hearts. 
 
18 SWEET MEMOEIES. 
 
 And when we had finished our stent or more, 
 We would lay by our work, and roam as before ; 
 Not as in the morning, over hill and glade, 
 But in the orchard, hj the apple-tree's shade . 
 
 Then in the garden we would gather flowers, 
 Which opened so brightly after showers; 
 And look at the birds' nest on the big tree; 
 To see that it still from all evil was free. 
 
 These hours so propitious, long since passed away 
 Early my sister abandoned the clay, 
 For a home with bright spirit's of happier clime ; 
 Yet she's my sister and will ever be mine. 
 
 I shall join her rambles, where death is not kn@wn, 
 And share in the glories of her brighter home. 
 May patience and fortitude ever control. 
 Till I meet sister in the home of my soul. 
 
 -e-e- 
 
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THOUGHTS ON HEALTH. 
 
 The most desirable thing in this wide world, ia a sound 
 mind in a sound body. Of all studies which should engage 
 our attention, the most important is that of human philos- 
 ophy, or an investigation of those established laws, which 
 operate in each human being, and in his associations with 
 all other human beings. 
 
 To fully understand that course of action, which will 
 insure the greatest amount of true happiness, physical, 
 intellectual, moral and spiritual, is to have reached the 
 summit of human knowledge. Who, among the vast mul- 
 titudes of human teachers, have reached that position ? 
 
 Among those who claim to be teachers of health and 
 practitioners in medicine, do not the advocates of each 
 system, claim for themselves a degree of skill, which they 
 do not fully possess, and for their system a power of pre- 
 serving or of renewing health, which it does not fully pos- 
 sess ! However, almost if not every system of practice 
 which gains largely and permanently the sympathies of 
 the people is an improvement on past theories. Hence, 
 may we not hope that health, is by and by to be the es- 
 tablished condition of human beings ? Any mode of treat- 
 ment, which can drive corrupt elements from the system, 
 and induce therein a condition favorable to the reception 
 and assimilation of healthful elements, will prove benefi- 
 cial. Vitality, or the life element, ever seeks to renew 
 itself. But place an individual out of the reach of that 
 which creates vitality, and he cannot be expected to gain 
 it. We derive it from food, air, e^eircise, rest, sleep, bath- 
 
22 THOUGHTS ON HEALTH. 
 
 ing, and association. That system of practice which will 
 regulate all these, will surely promote health. 
 
 Health is a term equally applicable to body and mind. 
 Lose in either the balance of action, and you lose health 
 in proportion. Health is the result of equilibrium. Equi- 
 librium is productive of power. It is necessary that pow- 
 er be in proportion to the requisite conditions of the being 
 possessing the power. The healthy babe posseses the re- 
 quisite power of the babe. It breathes, sleeps, takes nour: 
 ishment, digests, moves the tiny members of its darling, 
 little frame with perfect facility. The dear little thing 
 does not dream of trouble ; but lives in the enjoyment of 
 the healthful action of its being, until it is mismanaged by 
 unskillful nurses. Prick the body, and you interrupt, in a 
 degree, the natural circulation through the affected part. 
 Jolt it too much and you interrupt the circulation still 
 more; let it get cold, and you occasion a still greater in- 
 harmony in the action of some of the delicate organs of 
 life. Treat the baby in this way until you m^ke it quite 
 sick, and the balance of action being destroyed, the health- 
 ful baby power will be wanting. It does'nt eat, sleep, 
 laugh, or move as usual, because harmonious action is want- 
 ing; some organs being overcharged, and others impover- 
 ished by this lack of equilibrium. The baby's face loses 
 its bright tint, its love lit eyes grow dim, its tiny 
 hands, which recently grasped with so much avidity every 
 toy within its reach, fall powerless by its side. Darling 
 child! tears must soon bedew the lifeless casket of your 
 unoffending spirit, unless harmony can be restored through- 
 out the wonderful mechanism of your little frame. How 
 ncscessary that all learn of the laws of health. Writers 
 ate somewhat inclined to put this responsibility entirely 
 
THOUGHTS ON HEALTH. 23 
 
 upon the mother ; but who knows where in this life of change 
 it may appear. The mother may pass from earth, ere she 
 could care for her babe. All should study the laws of health 
 that they may care for themselves, if not required to take 
 especial care of others. Who does not require mending ? 
 Who enjoys perfect health ? Who does not have to take 
 care to keep the balance ? The student exclaims. Oh! how 
 my head aches! I study, and study, but cannot master this 
 and that difficulty. Poor fellow! you are like a man tug- 
 ging a load which he has not muscular strength to move 
 without overdoing, you are trying to accomplish as much 
 as some of your class-mates who possess twice your capac- 
 ity of endurance. Rest your brain, if you would increase 
 its power. ! I cannot bear to do that replies the student, 
 I will not be out done. Well then, work away until you 
 loose all power of working and learn wisdom by sad expe- 
 rience. We like to be able to pursue with unremitting dil- 
 igence the favorite schemes of life; but we must remember 
 that patience is a most essential ingredient in human hap- 
 piness. We cannot always control the varied circumstan- 
 ces attending us ; but- we can make the best of them. Do 
 the best we can under existing conditions, and if we can- 
 not do much, we certainly cannot fail of doing well, and of 
 reaping our reward in the possession of a clear conscience 
 and of a mind still more unfolded in wisdom. Some peo- 
 ple have a great dread of difficulties : when they find them- 
 selves assailed by them, they spend their energies in sor- 
 row, instead of looking for the best course to take. We 
 may avoid unpleasant surroundings when we can; but find- 
 ing ourselves in them, the grand watchword is not grief 
 but action. 
 Difficulties prevent our capabilities from stagnating : 
 
24 THOUGHTS ON HEALTH. 
 
 they call out our strength and thereby increase it. The 
 greater they become, the more deeply do they make us feel 
 our need of powers above ourselves to inspire us for the 
 conflict; thus fulfilling the glorious purpose of leading us 
 into nearer communion with the spiritual and Omnipotent. 
 If we claim divine assistance under difficulties, wt3 must not 
 act unreasonably, and overtax our natural powers. When 
 by the force of circumstances, over which we have no con- 
 trol, difficulties arise, then may we pray. Father help us ! 
 But when with our eyes open, we have run into trouble, 
 we can only regret our error, and pray for strength to re- 
 frain in future from the abuse of the natural laws. Man's 
 passional nature has everything to do with his health and 
 happiness ; for when viewed in its broadest sense, it is 
 co-extensive with his being. Thus we hear of a man's 
 possessing a passion for such and such sciences ; for the 
 poetic ; for beauty, wealth, fame. But when the term pas- 
 sional nature, is narrowed to its smallest limits, phreno- 
 logically speaking, we confine it to combativeness, des- 
 tructiveness, alimentiveness, and araitiveness. These ele- 
 ments, in their individual action, seem especially essential 
 to the fulfilling of a part of our earth mission. Yet they 
 are not to act independently of the higher faculties. They 
 cannot without serious detriment to their possessor. The 
 moment that destructiveness gets the start of benevolence, 
 conscience, reason, that moment the individual is out of bal- 
 ance, and reckless of consequences. The moving spring of ac- 
 tion being destructiveness, he is impelled to its gratification. 
 Come what may, he is resolved to destroy the object of his 
 resentment. This state of afi*airs precedes passional murder. 
 In deliberate murder, the will acts powerfully with desrtuct- 
 iveness. Murderers usually possess large destructiveness 
 
THOiraHTS ON HEALTH. 25 
 
 with a deficiency of moral development. Who will say that 
 such organizations would not have been improved by prop- 
 er training? and who will say that the child of such or- 
 ganization, growing in the midst of injurious influences, 
 could really be expected to become a good man or woman? 
 By the strength of every virtue within us, wo should seek 
 to benefit such persons, gaining access if possible to the 
 germ of love within, covered as it may be by the rubbish 
 of depravity. Alimentiveness, when not controlled by rea- 
 son, is destructive of human health. He who eats and 
 drinks immoderately because he likes to, eats and drinks 
 destruction. The food taking faculty being essential to 
 one's existence, growth, and continuance in health, all must 
 exercise that faculty, and should do so with due moderation. 
 In the same manner should we exercise every faculty, if 
 we would not suffer the loss of mental and physical health. 
 Who would be willing to make himself stupid by taking 
 too much or improper food, or who would suffer the abnor- 
 mal condition occasioned by taking to excess of intoxicating 
 drinks? What reasonable being would be willing thus to per- 
 vert his faculties for momentary gratification; and that of 
 a much lower order than the exercise of the higher facul- 
 ties is capable of yielding? The pleasure of eating moder- 
 ately is all right, but the enjoyment of excess is a thousand 
 fold overbalanced by the physical and mental suffering oc- 
 casioned by such excess. How many have been ruined by 
 intemperance? Yet others follow the same dark pathway. 
 Reason! Reason! Take thy throne and lead men to vir- 
 tue and to God. Reason beautifully corresponds with the 
 teachings of Christianity. Said Jesus "It is written, man 
 shall not live by bread alone; but by every word that pro- 
 ceedeth out of the mouth of God." True! the higher fac- 
 
26 THOUGHTS OH HEALTH. 
 
 ulties must be fed by the higher food. Eat to nourish the 
 physical, that it may be sustained for the action of the un- 
 folding, ever progressing spirit. The sciences and arts, 
 the divine laws and divine loves, shall feed these higher 
 powers, until it shall be said to the ripened soul " well 
 done thou good and faithful servant, enter into higher joys." 
 The great conditions of health are equilibrium and change. 
 These conditi(ms apply equally to physical and mental or- 
 ganizations. When the receptive or casting off physical 
 powers are weak or diseased, this law of change is viola- 
 ted and equilibrium is lost. So with the mental powers — 
 They, like the physical, require food and exercise. How 
 absurd to think of narrowing the mentality of an individu- 
 al by keeping him ever in a routine of business, which fur- 
 nishes perpetual drudgery to his faculties: a routine to 
 which he is not adapted, and for which he has no taste. 
 Such a course is destructive to physical and mental health. 
 The law of change is violated, for the best energies being 
 spent in an uncongenial employment, there is little strength 
 or room for the reception of new and grand ideas on con- 
 genial themes. Woman suffers much, very much, by the 
 violation of this law. In the present arrangements of so- 
 cial life, the domestic and fashionable arena do not furnish 
 work enough of the right kind to keep the minds of all 
 women in health. Many are left with only a part of their 
 mentality called into active service. No wonder that list- 
 lessness so early writes its impression on them. Dormant 
 faculties except for purposes of rest, never grow vigorous. 
 Variety is essential to health. This is evident from the 
 fact that we are constituted with varied capacities, not 
 one of which was designed to lie dormant. All should be 
 brought out by the appropriate stimulus. Unmixed litera- 
 
THOUGHTS ON HEALTH. 27 
 
 ture will not do. Affection, taste, playfulness, should be 
 fully brought out in every character and perfectly tempered 
 by reason. We do not like to hear people talk of woman 
 as if it was a necessity of her nature to be all heart or im- 
 pulse with little reason. If reason is necessary to guard 
 the heart in man, is it less so in woman? Some people seem 
 to contemplate woman as a being of unmixed impulse ; full 
 of feeling and sympathy in whatever direction their supe- 
 rior power may choose to call it out, — capable of loving, 
 and doing, and being, wha't, and only what, men fancy their 
 necessities require. We believe it in every sense true 
 that woman was created for man. It is no less true that 
 she was created by a power that understands man better 
 than he understands himself. Man needs a companion, a 
 help meet, a better half if you choose so to term it, not 
 only in one, two, or three but in all the departments of life. 
 You can no more consistently narrow the sphere of one sex 
 than of the other. Taste and capacity, restrained by mor- 
 al rectitude are the true guides in the choice of pursuits. 
 
 We do not like to hear the phrenologist say to a woman 
 " yov have a man^s head," for if we ask him to explain, he 
 replies, " she has large intellectual powers: is capable of 
 planning well, would with her active mind, tire of the mo- 
 notony of domestic life." Does it follow that large intel- 
 lectual powers unfit her for the appropriate duties of her 
 sex? We think large intellectual powers in her favor. The 
 morie reason the better, when it is balanced by the univer- 
 sal faculties. An unbalanced head is no better in one sex 
 than in the other; a lack of reason in either is equally un- 
 fortunate. Woman was created for man; but not merely 
 to administer to his sensuous nature, to cook his food, 
 wash his clothes, and listen to his oracles, until she loses 
 
28 THOUGHTS ON HEALTH. 
 
 the little individuality he deigned to award her. Woman 
 is an individuality, possessing within herself, not only af- 
 fection, but a world of faculties to be unfolded. She may, 
 and must, for this is her destiny, walk with man in the arts 
 and sciences, and governmental, as well as in the affection- 
 al department. This idea of woman is not the result of 
 vain ambition; not the misguided opinion of a few of her 
 sex; but founded in the stern necessities of human nature, 
 and hence the all wjse Father's will concerning her. 
 
 We do not like to see people void of the love of adaptation 
 or suitableness, or in other words, of reason balanced by 
 conscience and the universal faculties. An individual in 
 possession of sufficient reason and conscience loves to do 
 right. No amount of intellectual power, or love of litera- 
 ry research, can make such a woman neglect her duties. 
 She will say *' it is unreasonable for me to go there, or to 
 do that, I have imperative duties at home." The law of love 
 is paramount, and must be fulfilled at all events. If for a 
 moment she should seek to gratify herself by the neglect 
 of actual responsibilities, who would not perceive that her 
 mind was unbalanced? We should say that too little, rather 
 than too much reason, had unfitted her for the sacred duties 
 of domestic life. Said a consistent young man, " It would 
 be my highest pleasure to travel, but it is unreasonable for 
 me to think of it. I have my way to make unassisted by 
 father or friends. I am in a business which affords a liv- 
 ing, and promises to patient industry, wealth. I have no 
 prospect of doing so sure a work by traveling. Hence, as 
 a matter of prudence and right, I shall at present banish 
 the idea. Some women seem to imagine that they only are 
 circumscribed in choice of pursuits. It is not so. Many 
 men contiune in employments not agreeable, because it is 
 a necessity, or under existing circumstances for the best. 
 
 I 
 
THOUaHTS ON HEALTH. 29 
 
 Yet men are circumscribed more from other conditions, than 
 from the prejudices of society. Women have been hindered 
 in employments suited to their natural character, because 
 popular opinion cried out " It is no place for woman.'' So 
 it has been said of her as a lecturer. We ask by what 
 good reason she should be excluded from speaking, either 
 public or private? If ever a being loved to talk, and could 
 talk incessantly without tiring, it is woman. I never sup- 
 posed conversational proclivities were sins. The immoral- 
 ity or the virtue of talking, consists in the spirit of the 
 words spoken. Consistency is properly styled a jewel. 
 Whatever is best for us to do, we should like to do, though 
 under different circumstances we might choose quite an- 
 other course. It has been said that whatever is worth 
 doing, is worth doing well. When called to the responsi- 
 bilities of house-keeping, we should attend to its minutest 
 details: but when out of the employment, the minutia may 
 for a time pass from our minds. If some housekeeper eager 
 to test our knowledge of ''woman's sphere," should ask us 
 how to make a good pudding, we need not loose our self- 
 possession, if it takes us longer to remember, than to re- 
 hearse the process, after calling it to memory. It simply 
 shows that we have not been idly poring over previous 
 knowledge ; but have been feeding the mind in new, and 
 perhaps quite as important fields of thought. 
 
 It is not only essential to perfect health, that the body 
 and mind be in themselves harmonious, but also that they 
 be adapted to each other. A strong, capacious mind in a 
 weak body, and a strong body in connection with a weak, 
 inactive mind, seems not the most happy arrangement, and 
 yet such a condition is frequently observable. When the 
 mind is too vigorous for the body, it rapidly exhausts the 
 vital energies. Such a mind should train itself to rest and 
 
30 THOUGHTS ON HEALTH. 
 
 recreation, until the body has renewed its energies. Are 
 we to suppose the mind ever inactive, or actually asleep ? 
 It is frequently unconscious, as it regards the external 
 world. It is so in sleep. Sleep rests the body because the 
 mind ceases to act through the material organization. When 
 we say the mind is tired, do we speak correctly ? Should 
 we not say that the organs through which the mind oper- 
 ates are tired ? Sleep rests those organs, and the mind acts 
 through them with new vigor. There are instances when 
 mentality seems insufficient for bodily power; such persons 
 should discipline their minds to activity: thus inducing a 
 balance of mental and physical energy. The last named 
 class are liable to suffer physically from a want of action, 
 rather than from too rapid expenditure of vitality. Such 
 should eat moderately, and exercise abundantly. Different 
 constitutions find it necessary to adopt somewhat different 
 habits. When health, mental or physical, is wanting, as- 
 certain where is the lack of equilibrium; restore that, and 
 you restore health. Religionists have sometimes suffered 
 from extreme activity in the organs of conscientiousness and 
 veneration. In this direction, the mind has become so unbal- 
 anced as to produce insanity. Hope and imagination are 
 beautiful powers ; but even these may be too large and ac- 
 tive to harmonize with other portions of the brain. These, 
 when the basilar brain is deficient, leave people to dwell too 
 much in the aerial regions, for inhabitants of the mundane 
 sphere. However, the base of the brain is more liable to be 
 immoderately active. When such is the case, the effect is 
 most unfavorable to the purity, happiness and growth of 
 the individual. The mind should be kept unmarred by the 
 perversions of animality . Then, though from physical weak- 
 ness, intellect may not manifest its full powers, it will 
 grow vigorous, unfolding more and more until it plumes 
 
THOUGHTS Oli HEALTH. 31 
 
 its bright wings for free skies. Health ! Blissful angel I 
 Child of beauty and of love ; Sensitive you are ; Shrinking 
 from the least rude touch. You dwell with harmony, 
 purity, truth. Whatever disturbs those elements, disturbs 
 you also. Prosperous being ; Teach us your laws. 
 Impress us with your matchless worth ; Raise us with 
 you to the peerless heavens, where uninterrupted in 
 your ministry, you lead us to the elysian fields of im- 
 mortality. People sometimes talk of health as if it was 
 a condition distinct from mentality. It cannot be so. 
 The mental and physical existing as they do in inti- 
 mate relation, act and react on each other. Therefore 
 mental and bodily conditions become doubly important. 
 The physical should be cared for that it may favor men- 
 tal health. Both important in themselves and doubly so in 
 each other. Inseperable to the gates of death, we should 
 strive to make their companionship mutually profitable. 
 
 Says one, "My mind is active, but my poor body keeps me 
 back." Mind, we are sorry for you and for your companion. 
 Try to sustain her until her natural existence shall expire. 
 It is not meet that you despise her. Make her happy if you 
 can. She cannot suffer and leave you exempt therefrom. 
 Cherish her as your best earthly friend. Says another, 
 " My body is pretty well ; but my mind is s(J anxious, 
 I'm sure that my physical being cannot long bear this 
 terrible conflict of mind." You are right. And what a 
 miserable individual is he whose mind and body are both 
 disorderd. For a diseased mind, travel and new and 
 pleasant scenes are a gracious restorative. Do not wait 
 until the body is so affected by mental conditions, that you 
 cannot make her your servant. When you find the mind 
 unsatisfied, gloomy, bitter, seek as the first object to 
 restore her to peace. Minds should not remain uncomfort- 
 
32 THOUaHTS ON HEALTH. 
 
 able for lack of employment of the right kind to call out 
 all their capacities. God made us for progression. 
 
 Intellectual gifts are divine, being bounties from the eter- 
 nal source of intelligence. Dont hide your gifts, they grow 
 only in feeding and using them. Exercise them, and the 
 one talent shall become two, and the five talents ten. The 
 body and mind love to work together. They canot bear to 
 act in opposition. They love each other and yet by a kind 
 of mutual misunderstanding, they sometimes disagree. 
 The body enters into engagements which cramp the mind, 
 and not having room sufficient to grow as fast as nature in- 
 tended, she is uneasy and gets the name of being a diffi- 
 cult, disagreeable personage. Give her room and air, and 
 ajl her nature requires, and she'll be well enough. Do not 
 pamper her with unsuUsantial food. Do not oppress her 
 vitals by impure air. Give her just as much proper exer- 
 cise as her companion, the body, will agree to. Let her 
 also have society in other minds congenial to her own. 
 One powerful source of mental growth and discipline, is 
 proper intercourse with other minds. Self control is a 
 beautiful result of suitable mental discipline. In a well dis- 
 ciplined mind, every power acting in its proper place, and 
 in due degree, greatly promotes physical health. The pas- 
 sions belong in the basement of the soul. It is quite as 
 much out of place to put them as leading powers, as it is 
 to build a house with the kitchen, pantry, and wood-shed 
 in front; such an arrangement would be considered sadly 
 out of taste and convenience. A man or woman led by the 
 passions is a reproach. 
 
 Health has three rules which should be religiously ob- 
 served. First, Enter into pursuits to which you are or can 
 
 become adapted; Second, Cultivate symmetry of develop- 
 
THOUGHTS ON HEALTH. 33 
 
 ment, by resting those powers already too active, and bring- 
 ing out the more dormant. Third, Work and grow bright. 
 
 I would not work an atom, 
 
 Said sloth to me one day. 
 You'll surely loose your courage, 
 
 And faint upon the way. 
 
 And there is opposition 
 
 With stern and bitter words. 
 There's scoffing and derision, 
 
 And many more, In herds. 
 
 They follow earnest workers: 
 
 And strew with thorns their paths. 
 
 And there is no computing, 
 The fierceness of their wrath. 
 
 Ah! Sloth you are mistaken. 
 
 If you think them bold and strong. 
 
 Before the power of Truth they fall. 
 Singing a different song. 
 
 Behold they^ve lost their courage. 
 
 Truth's weapons bright and fair. 
 Have torn their ranks asunder. 
 
 And scattered them in air. 
 
 INVOCATION. 
 
 Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. Our pattern of 
 obedience. Like thee may we do the work our Father has 
 given us to do. 
 
 Like thee may we be obedient to every mandate of duty 
 though it lead us to prison or to death. 
 
 Like thee, while we work in the outer world, may we 
 commune with the spiritual and immortal, that growing in 
 love and wisdom, we may be prepared for the pursuits and 
 enjoyments of a higher life. 
 
THOUGHTS ON BEAUTY. 
 
 Beauty is an important constituent in orderly creations. 
 We can conceive of it in undying glory and perfection. It 
 is in regions where our Father's laws are perfectly obeyed, 
 that beauty exists unblemished. Yet even here, where man 
 is ever corrupting himself, all the elements or first principles 
 of that beauty exist, which constitutes the attraction of 
 of the celestial and immortal spheres. This has been styled 
 the age of beauty ! or rather the commencement of the reign 
 of the love of the beautiful to the exclusion of the supreme 
 reign of .the love of mammon. These two ruling powers 
 cannot, in a high degree of development, exist in harmony. 
 The love of riches in gold, except for purposes of 
 beneficence is a dark, withering afiection. The love of 
 beauty for its own sake, is elevating to the human soul. 
 The controling influence of the love of wealth may be 
 considered synonomous with the controling influence of sel- 
 fishness unenlightened. There is an enlightened selfishness, 
 which while it seeks to cultivate, improve and perfect self, 
 fully appreciates the fact that it can do so most effectually 
 by studyii^ and obeying the laws of equality, sympathy, 
 and charity, toward every member of the human race. 
 This course, involving what we from a lack of understand- 
 ing fully the beautiful arrangements of our heavenly 
 Father, have been wont to consider self-denial, cannot fail 
 of reward ; extending through all future time, crowning the 
 conquering soul with laurels of everlasting beauty. Jesus 
 taught people to take up their cross and follow him as a 
 condition of discipleship. Many, were led to do this in view 
 of the exceeding great reward attending the following of 
 
THOUGHTS ON BEAUTY. 35 
 
 Jesus. Could this be considered self-denial, or enlightened 
 selfishness ? Is it not the latter ? What are a few short 
 lived pleasures, when weighed in the scale of everlasting 
 joys ? The martyrs of history understood this. 
 
 They knew that the wrath of man worketh the righteous- 
 ness of God. The wrath, putting them to death could be 
 allayed only by the sacrifice of their material existence ! 
 The Father saw that through scenes like these, man would 
 some day emerge into the peaceful arbors of obedience and 
 beauty. Hence for the good of men corrupted, he permitted 
 the temporary sufferings of the righteous. Our Father 
 never designed that we should be willing to suffer, except 
 for the purpose of a higher good to ourselves or to our race. 
 
 Good is so diffusive, that it cannot be confined to an 
 individual. I cannot benefit another without benefitting 
 myself. When I give of temporal goods to the needy, I exer- 
 cise a spirit of good will which enlarges with that exercise, 
 bringing me nearer to him who owns all the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge ; and on whom I depend for all that 
 makes me joyous. Martyrs for truth, conferring a great, 
 perpetual benefit on humanity, receive in the unfolding and 
 growth of their spirits, benefit, before which the treasures 
 and joys of this rudimental sphere are as nothing. Yet 
 the enjoyments of our present existence are not to be 
 lightly esteemed : and never sacrificed, except to fulfill the 
 mandates of universal love. Not forgetting the assertion, 
 " Love is the fulfilling of the law. " 
 
 Beauty has a close relation to health ; for as perfect 
 health cannot exist without equilibrium, neither can perfect 
 beauty. An insect may feed on the leaves of a healthy rose, 
 interrupting the circulating fluids which naturlly flow so as 
 to create the requisite equilibrium, even of the minutest 
 parts of the plant. The result is not only a loss of the parts 
 
36 THOUGHTS ON BEAUTY. 
 
 eaten, but a withering of the edges of the leaves, and a 
 final destruction of the health and beauty of the flower. 
 So in the human org-anization : as health declines, beauty, 
 one of the pleasing results of healthful action, gradually 
 -fails. " Says one, some very healthy persons are also very 
 homely. " True ! It is also true that organizations un- 
 balanced to a great degree, cannot be fully handsome. 
 They often are, from the fine quality of temperament which 
 may characterize them, handsome with exceptions. In 
 criticisms of such, you say, " the head is too large for the 
 body, or the body for the head. The countenance is too 
 restless, or there is a lack of expression. " 
 
 Something is ever at fault in really unbalanced temper- 
 aments. That well balanced healthful people are some- 
 times homely, may be attributed to the quality of organi- 
 zation. Such are frequently characterized by dark com- 
 plexion, coarse skin and hair, and firm muscles. I do not 
 call them homely ; because I see within them admirable 
 elements of power and endurance. I care not how hand- 
 some the soul casket may be : 
 
 If unaccompanied by an orderly mind, it cannot continue 
 in beauty. If the soul is not kept vigorous and pure, 
 physical beauty loses its charm, even its claim to the 
 title, and becomes like the letter which without the spirit 
 killeth. 
 
 Beauty is twofold ; Spiritual and Physical. The casket 
 of the soul in every human being, is originally moulded by 
 the quality and proportions of the soul which it contains ; 
 If the soul is beautiful, and physical balance is perfect, 
 the body will also be beautiful. 
 
 Beauty is not only absolute, but relative. An object 
 may be perfect and beautiful in kind, while a higher object 
 is perfect and beautiful in a degree proportionate. The 
 
THOUaHTS ON BEAUTY. 37 
 
 former possessing beauty ; the latter a larger beauty. 
 The violet is beautiful. The rose possesses more wealth 
 of beauty. Though you cannot make the violet more 
 beautiful as a violet, the rose delights you by its more 
 bounteous beauty. 
 
 That vicious people sometimes possess a good share of 
 beauty, only proves the elasticity of beauty and that it takes 
 time to destroy it. In fact in its principles and manifes- 
 tations it is immortal and consequently cannot be destroyed. 
 In its relations and combinations in this material world it 
 may be driven about and almost banished from objects by 
 nature peculiarly its own. Beautiful souls sometimes 
 dwell in bodies, which have not much claim to physical 
 beauty. This is usually attributable to the ravages of 
 disease, and the various causes of inharmony, which afflict 
 us in this rudimental state. 
 
 In regions where inharmonies are unknown, are man- 
 ifestations of ever increasing beauty. We can conceive of 
 every thought there as beautiful in truth : of every sound 
 harmonious in its spirit of beauty ; of every form but the 
 expression of the spiritual idea of beauty. Endless in 
 duration, and infinite in manifestation, it is one of the 
 constituents of the all in all. 
 
 We may personify and call it one of the guardian angels 
 of our dark planet earth. Thanking our father for her 
 soothing, refreshing, purifying ministry, we will worship 
 her as an emanation from the eternal. 
 
 Those manifestations in the natural world, which 
 especially gratify the organ of sublimity, express more 
 immediately divine power and grandeur, while those which 
 especially gratify ideality, express divine gentleness and 
 love. As power and gentleness ever blend in the divine 
 Father, so grandeur and beauty in the outer world, are 
 
38 THOUGHTS ON BEAUTY. 
 
 but expressions of the same spiritual elements. Poetry 
 owes its charm to these elements and may be personified 
 as a daughter of imagination. 
 
 When she assumes a position of power, she is more grand 
 than gentle. When she robes herself in love she soothes 
 and sways by gentleness. As an angel of love we address 
 her as follows : 
 
 Sweet spirit of celestial birth ! 
 Who has commissioned you to earth ? 
 Who bade you wing your radiant way, 
 To cheer inhabitants of clay ? 
 We know you come from climes above ; 
 And that your messages are love, 
 Yet you are still a mugic spell ; 
 Even to hearts that love you well. 
 How do you act upon the mind ? 
 How yield pleasure so refined ? 
 . Leading us from earth^s toilsome way, 
 To sweet, elysian fields of day ? 
 Tell us dear spirit ! Then we'll find 
 In closer union with your mind, 
 Free access to your streams of joy ; 
 And drink fresh draughts, without alloy. 
 What means that smile upon your face ? 
 What means those airs so full of grace ? 
 One would suppose you free to tell. 
 That we would like to know so well. 
 Yet you are silent, radiant one. 
 Our questions do not loose your tongue : 
 Until you strike a cheerful lay, 
 And on your bright wings soar away. 
 Henceforth, content then we must be, 
 
THOUGHTS ON BEAITTY. 39 
 
 To guess fair things concerning you. 
 To love and cherish you the more, 
 As seas grow rough and tempest roar. 
 Thanks to our Father that you come, 
 To lead us to a brighter home. 
 We^ll not forget your gentle sway, 
 When on us dawns a clearer day. 
 
 We are astonished at the grand, while we love the 
 simply beautiful. The former strikes us with awe, while 
 the latter woos us to her bowers. Persons who possess 
 the element of sublimity larger than ideality, if benevolence 
 and reason do not exert full power, are inclined, in divine 
 worship, to dwell more upon the majesty than the goodness 
 of God. 
 
 We should know that we may not judge of the Eternal 
 by the inharmony of our development. We are to view 
 him as a being not unbalanced like ourselves. In aspir- 
 ing to be like him, we should labor for harmonious, spirit- 
 ual development. We can feast our imaginations some- 
 what on the beauty of the unseen sphere. We may also 
 be inspired with infusions of truth therefrom. These in- 
 spirations are not to be concealed, or to float in an atmos- 
 phere away from human society. They are to be brought 
 home to human understanding, and made to serve man. 
 
 Order divine, assert your claim ; 
 And usher in the glorious day. 
 
 Of Beauty's reign. 
 Truth, Wisdom, Beauty, all agree, 
 To swell the song of Liberty, 
 And Peace, Love's daughter ' 
 
 Smiles again in bloom : — 
 
40 THOUaHTS ON BEAUTY. 
 
 While war expires and sinks into the tomb. 
 Love's brow grows radiant with delight ; 
 She joys to see the world all right. 
 
 Beauty may not only be abstractly considered, but 
 viewed as a quality entering into relations, and hence depend- 
 ent upon conditions for self preservation. 
 
 In other words, we would say that what is beautifully 
 adapted to one condition, may be quite unsuitable for 
 another, and hence in the relation not beautiful. 
 
 Beauty personified is ever the same ; but becomes when 
 viewed as a principle, the counterpart of propriety. There- 
 fore, that which is not suitable under the circumstances, 
 is not beautiful, though under different conditions and 
 entering into different relations, it might be altogether 
 beautiful. To illustrate. An elegant wardrobe appears 
 beautiful on a person in the parlor, but out of taste when 
 on an individual who is scrubbing a kitchen. The dress 
 remains beautiful ; but the act of wearing it at an improper 
 time, is ridiculous. A symmetrical child is beautiful ; but 
 the sight of it in the hands of a demon, is revolting. Or- 
 naments are beautiful, but increasing vanity by wearing 
 . them is disgusting. 
 
 It detracts more from the beauty of the inner temple 
 than it adds to the fine appearance of the outer. An ex- 
 pensive, tasteful residence is beautiful. Yet if reared by 
 means unlawfully gained, it is but a monument of shame 
 to its builder. 
 
 That mode of dress is really the most beautiful, which 
 while it is true to the laws of grace, is also true to the 
 laws of health. To the philosophic mind, those passions 
 which conflictwith the natural laws, are neither graceful nor 
 beautiful. Health, being a powerful promoter of beauty, if 
 
THOUGHTS ON BEAUTY. 41 
 
 in the arrangements of dress j'ou disobey her laws, you are 
 but bringing about the destruction of that beauty which you 
 are laboring to promote. To admire beauty is inherent 
 in every human breast. The child eagerly surveys her. 
 
 Gray colors, harmonious sounds, and gentle words, are 
 not unheeded by the babe. They all possess an element of 
 beauty which finds its echo even in the soul of a child. 
 
 Principles and actions are beautiful or otherwise, as 
 they correspond with the divine elements of truth, love, 
 wisdom. You cannot build beauty on slaughtered 
 truth, or develop it on violated reason. It flourishes, 
 when the electric connection between it and the entire 
 sisterhood of virtues is unimpeded. Love, wisdom, know- 
 ledge, truth, grace, and beauty, are emanations from the 
 same fountain of perfection : and who so seeks to increase 
 beauty by trampling on any of these , will find himself 
 baffled in his efforts. The natural laws are instituted to 
 sustain all the virtues. 
 
 The love of the beautiful is not only right, but indispen- 
 sable to the healthful progression of humanity. Yet, like 
 the love of other things, it may be perverted. Faculties 
 are perverted, when seeking to gratify themselves, they 
 assume antogonistic relations to important principles. 
 Thus, acquisitiveness is perverted, when it gratifies itself 
 at the expense of honesty. Language is perverted, when 
 it gratifies itself at the expense of charity. All cases of 
 slander are instances of perverted language. Lips which 
 should bless are laden with bitter words. 
 
 Amativeness is wofully perverted when trampling on 
 reason, justice and benevolence it becomes the author of 
 destruction to the unwary. Approbativeness is perverted, 
 when it seeks to please man rather than God, Destructive- 
 ness is perverted, when directed toward truth rather than 
 
42 THOUaHTS ON BEAUTY. 
 
 error. Veneration is perverted, when it acts independently 
 of reason. Harmony of action is essential to purity of 
 action. Leave a faculty to act alone, and it disgraces 
 itself. Even reason insists on being accompanied by the 
 other faculties. 
 
 Without reason they have no director. Without them 
 she has no pupils and her province is to teach. The chief 
 danger in our love of beauty is that we make it a material 
 deity, administering almost exclusively to our physical 
 senses. Being a pervading element of every God like 
 principle, she has her dwelling place in reason, justice and 
 all the virtues. Her manifestations in material forms is 
 but the shadowing on the outer world of what exists in 
 the inner. 
 
 Were not beauty a constituent in the inner temple of 
 the Most-high, we should not behold it so gloriously shad- 
 owed in his works. We may not forget the giver, while 
 we admire the gift. Neither should we forget that it is an 
 element pervading all the graces, and that to adore it 
 apart from, and contrary to their precept, is to deprive it 
 of life, and hence of itself. Beauty can become mortal 
 only by ceasing to be itself. It is immortal, pervading 
 the celestial, eternal spheres with its exquisite presence . 
 
 Man from the combined action of constructiveness, ideal- 
 ity and reason, invents works of beauty. While reason 
 directs in the construction of the beautiful, it should also 
 direct in the use of the beautiful. 
 
 A feast may be got up at a great expense, and in a 
 most beautiful style. Though the outward of the feast is 
 beautiful, the sacrifice of principle which possibly it may 
 involve is hideous. It is well if it is sanctioned by all the 
 virtues. It is not well if it is given in the midst of poverty, 
 without regarding the sufferings of those who possess not 
 
THOUGHTS ON BEAUTY. 43 
 
 even the comforts of this mortal existence. It is not well, 
 if it was instituted to gratify the inordinate action of ali- 
 mentiveness . To make one's self sick at a feast is certainly 
 not advisable. To our spirit perceptions, there seems a 
 continuous chain of relations through all orderly existence. 
 Break this chain and confusion is the result. When a 
 young lady views her beauty as a thing peculiarly her own: 
 as a thing for which she is to be praised and admired above 
 others : when she allows her beauty to be prostituted, she 
 forgets that beauty is divine and can flourish only in har- 
 mony with God-like elements. It is said that handsome 
 persons are usually vain, seldom wise, and often immoral. 
 When these conditions are manifest, it is because the indi- 
 vidual becoming absorbed in the idea of his beauty, forget- 
 ting that beauty exists most perfectly with reason. Tear it 
 from the graces to which it belongs, and like a branch sep- 
 arated from the vine, it withers and dies. 
 
 When the action of any faculty in the human organiza- 
 tion favors the existence of an element opposed to beauty, 
 beauty must retire in proportion to the degree in which the 
 opposite element assumes the field. Would we cultivate 
 beauty in its harmonious proportions, we must seek to 
 know and obey the Creator's laws. It is meet that we 
 walk in obedience, since obedience alone can insure to us 
 happiness and the ever increasing pleasures of a higher 
 life. Who does not desire to be obedient ? Who does not 
 regret his former disobedience ! Who would not labor to 
 bring all his powers into subjection to those laws, wisely 
 instituted for his benefit ? The spheres of light, love, and 
 life, invite us to obedience, assuring us that it is the path 
 to the wealth of immortality. Reason, veneration, con- 
 science, hope, ideality, sublimity, and every exalted 
 element of our nature is persuading us to obedience. Let 
 
44 THOUaHTS ON BEAUTY. 
 
 us watch, pray and labor, until like practical Jesus, we 
 have finished the work our Father has given us to do. 
 
 This world in which we live is a world of beauty ; but 
 not of unmixed beauty. Disobedience must be subdued, be- 
 fore unmixed beauty shall strew its thornless flowers throuh- 
 gout our pathway. Beauty ! child of our Father's love ! 
 we fold you to our hearts, imploring you to dwell there, in 
 connection with all the divine principles which may dwell 
 in the human heart. Some good people have been dis- 
 affected with material beauty. They have seen that to 
 worship it in material things, is pernicious. Hence they 
 have almost cast it out, as an enemy to man's spiritual 
 good. Could they perceive the connection which exists 
 between it and every holy principle, they would see that 
 it is the admiring of it as an abstraction, which creates 
 the difficulty. 
 
 Separating it from the vine of spritual goodness, it loses 
 its vitality, and in withering becomes an impure thing 
 unfit to nourish man's spiritual and immortal nature. 
 
 INVOCATION. 
 
 Bands of the beautiful ! may we so live as to commune 
 intimately with you. In the infusions of your purifying 
 influences, may we be led to higher, holier planes of thought. 
 While happy in the belief that the pure and beautiful are 
 condescending to teach us, may we be equally glad to 
 teach our brothers and sisters of a common humanity who 
 may not yet have been favord with light equal to ours. We 
 are desiring happiness and journeying to the world of reali- 
 ties. There, if not here, we shall see that the divine laws 
 cannot be violated with impunity. Father save us in the 
 spirit of obedience. 
 
THOUGHTS ON IMMORTALITY. 
 
 Immortality, in its broadest, fullest sense, may be defined 
 the continuous growth of life. Two of the most promi- 
 nent results of life, are health and beauty : and as perfect 
 Jbealth of body and mind cannot exist without balance or 
 harmony throughout the physical and mental organization, 
 so immortality in its full sense implies entire harmony of 
 spiritual development. Immortality, in its full sense, also 
 implies perfect beauty ; because unmixed beauty is the 
 out-growth of harmony, unblemished, even by the smal- 
 lest degree of irregularity. 
 
 Our Father will not accuse us of undue ambition in the 
 selection of our theme, neither will he upbraid us for 
 desiring fuller manifestations of the joys that await us on 
 the shores of everlasting existence. We would not rend 
 the vail, if we could, which hides from us the everlasting 
 beauty of the everlasting hills ! but we would cultivate 
 our souls, seekiug to have them purified and renewed in 
 strength, that they may perceive more and more of the 
 wealth, beauty, and grandeur of the invisible world. 
 
 Saith scripture, " The things of the spirit are spiritually 
 discerned. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath 
 it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love him. Never- 
 theless, he hath revealed them unto us by his spirit ; for 
 the spirit searcheth all things ; yea the deep things of God." 
 We read that there is a world of immortality. In our 
 investigation of causes and relations, we conclude that 
 there must be a world of immortality ; but in spirit only, 
 do we feel that there is a world of immortality. 
 
46 THOUaHTS ON IMMOETALITY. 
 
 Foretastes of a glorious future, sometimes fill the believ- 
 ing with extatic joy ; and in exchanging their mode of 
 existence they have not unfrequently, broken the bars 
 of the tomb, with songs of triumph and shouts of redemp- 
 tion and glory upon their lips. Can we doubt that the 
 result of their faith, was a vision of the fadeless shore ? 
 Many have expressed themselves as beholding beings clad 
 in light, waiting to convey them home. Many have heard 
 singing, and some have seen, or though they saw chariots. 
 Happy departures from earth are truly encouraging to us 
 who yet reside in tenements of clay, teaching us of the 
 power of Hope, Faith, Love, and Purity, to triumph over 
 the last enemy : That the culture of all that is true and 
 noble within us, will strengthen our souls for every conflict. 
 
 Divine revelation teaches the immortality of the soul ; 
 hence we infer that all the faculties thereof are immortal. 
 When we talk of the human soul in connection with its 
 immortality, we mean the human soul harmonious, exist- 
 ing in the divine image, according to our Father's ideal of 
 a human soul. All perverted affections are in a spiritual 
 sense, death to the soul. Inasmuch as they are permitted 
 and nurtured, does the soul bec^ome a mass of corruption. 
 Hence we read, " The soul that sinneth shall die." We do 
 not expect that any of the pernicious elements or iregular- 
 ities, woven into our soul-growth, will live or can live in 
 heaven. We enjoy heaven here, so far as our souls are 
 orderly, harmonizing with truth and righteousness. How 
 sad a spectacle does the soul perverted exhibit. There are 
 all the affections, all the intellectual facualties, and every 
 element essential to the existence and growth of the soul. 
 Reason is dethroned. The intellectual, moral, artistic, and 
 kindly elements, are trampled upon by instinct, which was 
 in the base of the brain to feed, serve, and empower the high- 
 
THOUaHTS ON IMMOETALITY. 47 
 
 er faculties. Instinct has assumed an improper position and 
 claims to take the lead ; and alas I it leads to the destruction 
 of the organism, which in its true position, it would enrich 
 with life, health and power. A soul thus disordered, is 
 out of balance, and hence out of health, and being out of 
 health, where is the guaranty of its life ? The diseased 
 soul keenly suffers. Who would not strive for health of 
 soul ? Disease of soul, sooner or later, leads to a loss of 
 physical health. The life of man cannot die ; though his 
 soul may be dead in trespasses and sins. The soul germ, 
 imparted by Omnipotence to every human being, must 
 live. It is Eternal, being an emanation from the Eternal, 
 and so far as it becomes a permeater of the soul is it a 
 sanctifier thereof. In some this germ seems sleeping in 
 the depths of the soul, not having received light and heat 
 congenial with itself, or what amounts to the same, not 
 'having received wisdom and love sufficient, to unfold and 
 diffuse its beautiful power throughout the soul of its pos- 
 sessor. His surroundings have perhaps been of a wither- 
 ing, corrupting tendency. Yet the divine germ is there, 
 constituting us all children of our Father, and Mother, 
 God. • 
 
 We read in the Bible that " God is the Father of all men, 
 especially of such as believe." Said Jesus " He that liveth 
 and believeth in me shall never die." Confidence places us 
 in receptive conditions. We open our souls, because we 
 expect to receive, while unbelief would shut them against 
 the gift of our Father. The soul, as it is harmonized by 
 the divine elements of love and wisdom, becomes angelic 
 in the possession of orderly affections, and though an in- 
 habitant of earth, by virtue of the material body, in spirit 
 a communicant with the skies. We may not leave the 
 Father, Son, and holy angels to do all that is to be done 
 
48 THOUaHTS ON IMMOETALITY. 
 
 for disorderly human spirits. Each of us, in proportion to 
 the light we have received, have our work to do, and only 
 in doing cheerfully this work given us to do, can we be- 
 come disciples of him who was obedient unto death. I 
 consider it a crime to put our light under a bushel, or to 
 hide our talents in the earth. They will die there : but in 
 the joys of an immortal existence, they will ever increase, 
 when properly used. Said Jesus, " Not every one that 
 saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is 
 in heaven." Have we a neighbor, a friend, or even an en- 
 emy, who seems to us in need of help, and within the sphere 
 of our assistance, we should seek to impart to him the light 
 of truth and the warmth of love. Inasmuch as we do good 
 to one of the least of the children of humanity, we do it to 
 Christ, who was, and who still is the great sympathizer 
 with human suffering, the result of conditions created by 
 human disobedience. While we look to the Father, Son 
 and holy angels for our ministry, let us never neglect those 
 who seem often forgetful of this infinite source of benefit. 
 Sentiments of love and truth, uttered by the lips of a kind 
 friend, may prove effectual to lead the wanderer to the 
 fountain of light, love and life. 
 
 We believe that all the inherent faculties of the human 
 soul, will be retained and unfolded in the glorious world 
 of immortality. What fields of knowledge for the intellec- 
 tual powers to feed upon, may we expect to find in those 
 regions of eternal life. Heaven would seem imperfect, 
 without the play of all those faculties, which are so essen- 
 tial to our happiness here. 
 
 Phrenologists having classed the elements of the human *" 
 mind into groups; we will consider each group separately. 
 " in relation to its activity and use in spirit life. 
 
THOUGHTS ON IMMORTALITY. 49 
 
 First, the Perceptive Faculties. These are Form, Size, 
 Equilibrium, Color, Order, Number, Eventuality, Locality 
 and Time. 
 
 Language and Tune I place among the artistic elements, 
 and not among the perceptives, as some phrenologists have 
 done. What scope for the activity of Form, Size and Color, 
 in combination with the artistic elements of Constructive- 
 ness, Ideality, and sublimity, do the majestic landscapes of 
 the unseen world furnish. 
 
 We believe there are arbors and fountains, hills, planes, 
 valleys, birds, flowers, and fruits, which are but faintly 
 typified in this grosser world. We believe that all forms 
 of beauty here are but faint pre-figurings of the forms or 
 expressions of beauty there ; for as beauty is a spiritual 
 element, existing in the divine mind, we must believe that 
 expressions of beauty in the celestial and orderly spheres, 
 are more real and intense than they can be here, where 
 man has corrupted his ways. Father, draw us to paths of 
 obedience, that our world may more abundantly bloom in 
 health and beauty. 
 
 Equilibrium, Locality, Number and Order, must also find 
 abundant scope in that world of varied beauty. Time, re- 
 garding condition and changes, must also be brought into 
 use there. Probably it is not measured by seconds, min- 
 utes, hours, days, weeks, months and years, as we measure 
 time here ; but marked by periods, states and progressions. 
 The artistic elements called by some phrenologists the 
 semi-intellectual faculties, we enumerate as Language, 
 Tune, Imitation, Ideality, Sublimity and Constructiveness. 
 These must find ample exercise in the blissful bowers of 
 immortalit5^ We believe that spirits there dwell in con- 
 verse sweet, and ranging with the rapidity of thought over 
 those floral planes,, we doubt not that it is a source of high 
 
50 THOUGHTS ON IMMOETALITY. 
 
 gratification to them to interchange ideas. We believe 
 that the more developed are permitted to teach others. We 
 do not pretend to say that they use spoken language, as 
 we do, yet we doubt not that their language is more beauti- 
 ful and comprehensive than we can here imagine. Being 
 separated from diseased, material forms, their spiritual 
 discernment is so quickened, that they are undoubtedly 
 enabled to converse without audible expressions. Tune, 
 or the faculty by which we appreciate and perform music, 
 is undoubtedly a source of rich and unbounded pleasure in 
 those regions of gladness. We can imagine the celestial 
 world enraptured with refined and exalted symphonies. 
 The very essence of music is there. Here we enjoy but 
 the faint shadowing, of what exists there, in all its beauti- 
 ful and sublime reality. Our most exquisite music here, 
 but feebly echoing that of the spiritual, celestial spheres. 
 We believe that persons who here were proficients in mtisic, 
 have there an unbounded field for the exercise of musical 
 genius. We belive that Mozart and others, who were 
 called from earth in the midst of arduous and beloved 
 pursuits in this refining art and science, are most happy 
 in finding the world of spirits beautifully adapted to their 
 further progression in this field of beauty and grandeur. 
 
 Constructiveness, an element of the all-pervading spirit, 
 is also an element of the human soul. The Father's Con- 
 structiveness is manifested in the infinitude of his creations. 
 Man's constructiveness is manifested in works of art, which 
 contribute to his comfort and pleasure in this rudimental 
 sphere. 
 
 Constructiveness is also important to a speaker or writer, 
 as beauty and strength of language, imply the action of 
 ingenuity or constructiveness, as well as of language. 
 
THOUaHTS OK IMMOETALITY. 51 
 
 Elegance of expression also calls into action the artistic 
 power of imitation, as well as of Ideality and Sublimity. 
 
 Musicians and all artists, should possess Oonstructive- 
 ness full and active. So in the spirit world, that noble 
 power will continue to unfold more and more. Some may 
 inquire if we suppose that musicians there write music, as 
 we do here. We do not by any means. We know little 
 of that prospective world : but as we have before said, we 
 believe it to be that which exists here only as shadowy and 
 transitory. Shadows are fleeting. Realities are immortal. 
 So our present existence is passing ; bringing us nearer 
 and still nearer the promised land, where roses fade not 
 and where music never ceases to charm. The reasoning, 
 moral, and devout elements, must be vigorous there. 
 The social nature in its varied manifesfations, will be there 
 purified and exalted, but in no measure annihilated. 
 
 Did we love with devotion here, we shall love with purer 
 devotion there. We believe friendship is an all-pervading 
 clement in those spheres of harmony, and love in her pure 
 and exalted individuality, a beautifier of consonant spirits. 
 What a glorious state ! not one faculty lost ; but all puri- 
 fied in increasing power. 
 
 Upward we'll range those fields of pleasure, 
 . Joying to know that still above. 
 Are ever new and fadeless treasures, 
 Gifts of our Father, full of love. 
 
 Sad mourner, wish not back your brother, 
 To tread with you these mortal shores. 
 
 Prepare to join him in those mansions, 
 Where sickness, grief and death are o'er. 
 
 Fond parent, dry those tears of anguish : 
 
 Your child lives in a brighter clime. 
 Be pure in heart, and you shall meet him, 
 
 Within those mansions, so divine. 
 
52 THOUaHTS ON IMMOETALITY. 
 
 Then call not back the soul departed ! 
 
 Though dear as life it was to thee. 
 Haste, haste, to meet it all immortal, 
 
 When from these mortal shores you're free. 
 
 When fond ones leave us sad and lonely, 
 
 Let us reflect, 'twill not be long, 
 Before like them, we cross the valley, 
 
 And enter the immortal throng. 
 
 ! let us strive to be quite ready. 
 
 To hail the message with delight, 
 Which summons us from earth's dominions. 
 
 Into the realms of endless life. 
 
 The element of Acquisitiveness must find pleasurable ex- 
 ercise there, in acquiring stores of love and wisdom Self- 
 esteem, acting with veneration, affords pleasurable views 
 of ourselves and others, as beings capable of continuous 
 progression. Approbativeness, working delightfully with 
 the elements of Reason and Conscience, makes us love to 
 abide by all the divine laws, thus pleasing the All- wise and 
 all-loving Father. The element of Secretiveness combined 
 with Caution, acting with Reason and Justice, tends here 
 to make people wise and prudent ; so there, the same pow- 
 ers find ample scope for action. The disembodied are not 
 idly roaming those regions ; but are working. We -pre- 
 sume they work without fatigue. They all have a mission, 
 in the performance of which they require wisdom. Vita- 
 tiveness, or tenacity of our present state of existence, is 
 brought into use there. Beyond and above those fields on 
 which the enfranchised soul first enters, there are those of 
 grandeur so much greater, that it might neglect the pres- 
 ent, in panting for the future , were it not restrained by the 
 love of present existence. This power, acting with inhabi- 
 tiveness, adhesiveness, and concentrativeness, keeps the 
 
THOUGHTG ON IMMOETALITY. 53 
 
 spirit attached to positions most favorable to its develop- 
 ment, until it is prepared to rise higher. The propelling 
 and executive powers, including Oombativeness and De- 
 structiveness, are also necessary there to the soul's rapid 
 progression. Not acting as they often do here, as aggres- 
 sive forces, but in the power of appropriate courage, urging 
 the soul to higher and still higher planes of truth. 
 
 Immortality ! Theme beautiful and grand. The philos- 
 opher, poet and orator, may spend upon you their most en- 
 chanting expressions, and soon be obliged to retreat, for 
 the simple reason that language fails, and imagination 
 faints, while attempting to appreciate your delights. The 
 best eulogy we can bestow upon you, is to prepare for you. 
 What a delightfal reflection that we all can call God our 
 Father, and feel assured that each, by virtue of birth, is 
 entitled to a share in the riches of immortality. Yet the 
 wealth of that country is wisely distributed. There is 
 nothing given to lie idly, or to be wasted in useless expen- 
 diture. We shall have all we can appreciate and use 
 wisely, and no more. The inheritance we shall receive on 
 entering there, will be proportionate to the preparation we 
 are in. Jesus has admonished us to lay up treasures in 
 immortality. Where can we obtain the treasures ? They 
 are from the bounty of our Father in heaven. The more 
 we watch and pray and work in the spirit of earnest obe- 
 dience, the more abundant and beautiful are the treasures 
 which flow to the human heart from the divine. Do you ask 
 " Is God partial ?• Why does he not bless all alike ?" He 
 does cause the sun to shine on all. He sends rain on all. 
 He robes the land in verdure, beauty and plenty. All who 
 can, may appreciate the beauty. All who labor may eat 
 of the fruits of that labor. Want exists in our world, not 
 
54 THOUGHTS ON IMMORTALITY. 
 
 because our Father has failed to bestow sources of comfort 
 and also of luxury upon it. Human perversion, somewhere 
 and somehow, is the cause of all the misery and all the 
 want. Individuals who deserve a better lot, sometimes 
 suffer the inconvenience of worldly poverty, from the inhar- 
 monies which exist, to a greater or less degree, throughout 
 the present fabric of human society. Our Father bestows 
 with an impartial hand the general blessings of the present 
 existence. Particular blessings require adaptation in the 
 recipient. The nature of spirit communion is extremely 
 delicate. Material blessings for the material nature, are 
 appreciated more or less by all men inhabiting the body. 
 They are often craved to an unnecessary extent. One 
 man pushes another off that he may have the more. Spir- 
 itual blessings must enter and become immortal treasures 
 in the human soul, through a kind of agreement on the 
 part of the recipient. 
 
 The soul must draw near to God. Says a materialistic 
 friend, " God is all-pervading. How can I draw nearer ?" 
 Friend, your question implies that you do not appreciate 
 the delicacy of spiritual attractions and repulsions. Are 
 you not aware of the interesting fact, that you may be in 
 earnest conversation with another, and your spirits not 
 mingle ? Minds and hearts mingle, only in the degree in 
 which they become adapted to each other, or in which they 
 become capable of assimilating with each other. We do 
 not say they mast be alike, but simply that they must pos- 
 sess attraction, or as chemists express it, affinity for each 
 other. 
 
 The human soul in order to be receptive of the divine] 
 elements of love and wisdom, must be passive ; a willing 
 pupil of the infinite mind. I will and I wont, have no place i 
 
THOUaHTS ON IMMOETALITY. 55 
 
 in him who would be taught. The soul submissive, must 
 have full confidence in the almighty teacher. Confidence 
 in the laws, by which he would control and keep his entire 
 creation in the most perfect order. Our Father's govern- 
 ment ever leaves man free to act ; but not free to choose 
 the consequences of his actions. Our Father does not com- 
 pel us to obey his laws. If he did, there would be no virtue 
 on our part, in obedience. He invites us into paths of obe" 
 dience, assuring us that they are the true paths, and that 
 in walking in them, we shall not be disappointed in our 
 expectations of peace here and hereafter. If we do not 
 obey the divine laws, whether we will or not, we must 
 suffer the penalty which always exist in the corresponding 
 action. Repeated acts of disobedience stamp upon the 
 soul their blighting impression, and so harden the naturally 
 sensitive soul, that it becomes unconcerned in the midst of 
 perversions at which once it would have recoiled. The 
 individual is miserable ; and seems not to know why. Re- 
 peated acts of disobedience, have blinded the understanding, 
 as well as corrupted the moral nature. 
 
 1 let us turn from paths so dark and wretched ; 
 From cheerless marshes whence corruptions rise. 
 The sun of hope is gracing the horison. 
 And light all pure, is beaming from the skies. 
 
 Mortal, your spirit lives to be immortal I 
 1 do not quench it in it's upward flame : 
 Help it by truth divine, to gain the portal , 
 Where toiling spirits do not faint again. 
 
 Skill, power, truth, wisdom and love unbounded. 
 In all the Father's matchless laws do shine. 
 We'll see the wisdom, while we share the blessing, 
 Of firm obedience to the will divine. 
 
56 THOUGHTS ON IMMOETALITY. 
 
 Here, let us seek to walk in sweet subjection, 
 Knowing the all perfect cannot be unkind : 
 What'er he wills, with gladness let us welcome, 
 We'll see the cause when we our heaven find. 
 
 All will be well, if we but walk in order: 
 To strict obedience the reward is sure, 
 The great, celestial portals ever open. 
 To welcome spirits, contrite, constant, pure. 
 
 To lay up treasures in heaven, is to store the soul with 
 sentiments and purposes of love and wisdom. These pur- 
 poses, when they are real, manifest themselves (as far as 
 circumstances will permit) in actions. ' ' The tree is known 
 by its fruit.. A tree which bears excellent fruit, we expect 
 to bear more excellent fruit, when transplanted into a rich- 
 er soil. The object in transplanting is not to change the 
 kind, but to improve the quality. A pear tree will not be- 
 come an apple tree, but simply a better pear tree, by re- 
 moving it to a richer soil. So, if here, we carefully culti- 
 vate our souls, seeking to attract to them pure, immortal 
 elements, we shall have them laid up as treasures iii the 
 kingdom of heaven within us. We shall find them bright 
 and fadeless in the world of immortality, where moth and 
 rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through 
 nor steal." Spiritual attainments, mental growth and . 
 wealth, are worthy of attention, since they are immortal. W 
 Deck the material form in robes of beauty, and they soon 
 become faded and worn. Not so with robes of spiritual 
 beauty. They grow brighter for the wearing. True men- 
 tal culture sickens and dies not, when the frail tenement of \ 
 clay sickens and dies. The soul retains all the truth and 
 all the beauty, that it has atracted to itself in this rudimental 
 sphere. In the impressive words of Long-fellow, 
 
THOUGHTS ON IMMORTALITY. 57 
 
 " Let us then be up and doing, 
 With a heart for any fate : 
 Still achieving", still pursuing, 
 Learn to labor and to wait. 
 
 Life is real : life is earnest : 
 And the grave is not it's goal. 
 Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 
 Was not spoken of the soul." 
 
 The power of firmness is very important in human char- 
 acter. We think it will lose none of its effectiveness in the 
 future world Acting with concentrativeness, it will keep the 
 spirit loyal to every trust, and victoriously achieving every 
 undertaking. No weariness or fainting there ; but eter- 
 nal health, activity, and beauty. Stores of infinite life are 
 the inheritance of the immortal spirit. We should not 
 crowd ourselves here, or impair our health by overdoing. 
 The cycles of unending ages are before us. Yet it is all 
 important that this, our rudimental existence, be diligently 
 improved. As mind in the outer world, operates through 
 the physical faculties, to crowd the mind beyond physical 
 capacity, must destroy the harmony which we should aim 
 to promote between mind and body. 
 
 To make our mental achievements profitable to our co- 
 temporaries, we need sufficient strength of physical organ- 
 ization, to constitute us good conductors for the unfolding 
 power of the soul. We may possess minds equal to those 
 of Franklin or Newton ; but if the physical system is weak 
 or diseased, we shall fail to act with the efficiency which 
 would otherwise characterize us. Strong minds in weak, 
 diseased bodies, pass into the spiritual sphere, without 
 having done in the outer world half that they would have 
 done, under more favorable conditions. However the weak 
 
98 THOUGHTS ON IMMOETALITY. 
 
 should not repine ; but do the best they can to preserve 
 harmony between body and soul. 
 
 The day of deliverance draws near. We should not 
 despise the body. It is the spirit^s agent. Neither need 
 we fear to emerge from it, when it is unable to serve longer. 
 
 What we term death is but a change, 
 A transit of the soul ; 
 A living on in endless life, 
 The spirit^s friendly goal. 
 
 INVOCATION. 
 
 Holy Father, we would remember that the present life is 
 the commencment of our immortality. We would live 
 purely. Live to do good. Live to grow strong in spirit. 
 Live not to ourselves ; but to him who died for us and rose 
 again. In living to him and for the perpetuity of his 
 ministry, we shall live in love and peace, and according 
 to our ability, in active service to our race. Then we need 
 not fear to tread the pathway to a higher life. Jesus has 
 blessed it ; and is ever waiting to welcome the obedient to 
 the joys of the spiritual world. 
 
4)i;^iL^>^4 
 
 ^ (^-^ -^^ (i^ ^ 
 
 COQ 
 
 Spifffit^ 'W®a©(B^ fir(S)iM A© 
 
 BELOVED DEPARTED to SURVIVIIIG FRIENDS, 
 
FIEST VOICE. 
 
 EKOM A YOUNG MAN. 
 No. 1. 
 
 Farewell to the links which bound me to earth, 
 I dwell in the regions where love had its birth. 
 No longer I wander with heart heavy and sad, 
 With longings and sighings to be cheerful and glad ; 
 I dwell in the region of knowledge and truth. 
 And bask in the beauty of unfading youth. 
 I would not again be encased in clay : 
 Though you do not behold me, Pm with you to-day j 
 And at noon, and at evening's sweet, hallowed hours, 
 I come and en wreath you with beautiful flowers, 
 When sadly you're mourning my absence on earth, 
 Remember, Pm dwelling where Love had its birth. 
 
 Calm be your souls I prepared for the hour, 
 When over you also, the propitious power 
 Which teachers of old, have termed deaths shall arise, 
 To bear you to dwell with the good and the wise ; 
 
 ! cease all your mourning my absence on earth, 
 
 1 dwell in the region where love had its birth. 
 
 Farewell I but not forever ; 
 
 For to each loved one, I bring 
 And place upon the finger 
 
 A pure and signet ring ; 
 A pledge that PU be with you 
 
 While you of earth remain, 
 And lovingly will greet you, 
 
 In the spirit world again. 
 
62 SPIRIT VOICES. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 'Tis sweet to rest the form in mother earth ; 
 To enter into spirits' higher birth. 
 The soul regrets past follies, it is true, 
 And on truth's altar it begins anew. 
 
 ! h'appy hour whieh first did welcome me, 
 To listen to the spirit minstrelsy ; 
 My soul absorbed, forgot its care i\nd pride, 
 With guardian angels ever by my side. 
 
 They had always watched over my steps, 
 Would that I'd known it, but I'll not regret — 
 The past has been reviewed, ail wrong forgiven, 
 And never sighing more I dwell in heaven. 
 
 Waiting to welcome to this fairer clime, 
 The darling friend, who loved me so in time ; 
 The mother's yearning love, and father's care. 
 And precious more than all, their humble prayer 
 
 Have not been lost. Eich treasures ! they were given 
 In pain to bring me to the birth of heaven. 
 And when again I pen some thoughts to you. 
 They shall be of the beautiful and true. 
 
 Casting away the shadows of the past. 
 While as we journey on, we firmly grasp. 
 The loving, beautiful, and pure and true ; 
 I'm with you, ever on your way pursue. 
 
 Until we meet in richer bowers above, 
 Where every action is a proof of love. 
 
SPIRIT VOICES. 63 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 Our loved ones in Earth life are passing along, 
 And the time of re-union cannot be long ; 
 Our hearts swell with joy when we think of the hour, 
 Which shall bear you in peace to our beautiful bower. 
 
 The soul all immortal cannot sleep in the clay, 
 
 I'm with you in spirit, not in Oakwood* to day j 
 
 The emblems there planted which are green all the year, 
 
 Speak gently, sad mourners, we bid you not fear, 
 
 * Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, N. Y, 
 
 For your loved onces departed, cannot sleep in the clay, 
 They arc with you in spirit, not in Oakwood to-day ; 
 The emblems there planted are your souls to cheer, 
 For the plants of our kingdom do bloom all the year. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 You may not mourn my absence, for lam with you still j 
 And when you feel this fully, I can your spirit fill, 
 With a measure of the calmness, the peace, and joy and love 
 Which ever come meandering from higher courts above. 
 
 And you'll be happy mother, when your soul is reconciled, 
 And feel my presence with you, your own, your darling chid, 
 And we will clasp hands mother, and each the other greet, 
 With even more affection than we were wont to meet. 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 When morning o'er the earth her brilliant carpet throws, 
 And sweetly, gaily bloom, the lily and the rose, 
 Do you think me far away from your loving hearts so true ? 
 Ah no I I'm with yon then, and I'll ever dwell with you. 
 
6i4 SPIRIT VOICES. 
 
 For in these sunny isles, far, far beyond the sea, 
 Which you of Earth call death, I live all bright and free ; 
 I bring you flowers of love, and flowers of wisdom too ; 
 I am not far away, but ever dwell with you. 
 
 Then bright and happy be in your earth home so fair, 
 
 Let woes be forgot in humble, trusting prayer ; 
 
 Our Father is so good He doeth all things well 1 
 
 Let this thought fill your hearts with joy, words cannot tell* 
 
 And yet loved ones all, it gives me joy to know, 
 That you on me so oft, do thoughts of love bestow ; 
 That you often think of me with afiection^s tears ; 
 
 ! let this much suffice, and banish all your fears. 
 
 You no more should mourn for me so blessed as I ; 
 Escaped from every snare, and beyond the sky, 
 Of discord, care and pain, from sin forever free j 
 
 1 wait with joy to greet the friends who think of me. 
 
 SECOND VOICE. 
 
 FRON A YOUNG LADY. 
 
 I'm waiting for you mother. 
 In spheres of bliss above ; 
 Where we know not pain in parting, 
 Though hearts are full of love. 
 
 Our souls no more in anguish. 
 Pass dreary hours away : 
 We're dwelling in the light, mother, 
 Of everlasting day.- 
 
SPIEIT VOICES. 65 
 
 You we often visit, 
 
 And labor to impress, 
 
 Your stricken heart with calmness, 
 
 And lead your soul to rest. 
 
 Blooming bowers, mother. 
 Of beauty, love, and truth. 
 Are now for you preparing. 
 Here you'll renew your youth. 
 
 Now your soul is rising 
 From the weight it did bear ; 
 For patient and confiding. 
 It has became in prayer. 
 
 The drear past, dear mother, 
 Let us put far away ; 
 It may no longer haunt us, 
 In this pure clime of day. 
 
 Neither on earth, mother, 
 Should it your joy consume ; 
 Your souls should dwell in gladness, 
 As we do beyond the tomb. 
 
 We bring floral emblems 
 Of all that's true and fair ; 
 To wreathe your souls in beauty, 
 And make you happy there. 
 
 I could you know the love. 
 We on your soul do shed ; 
 The care with which we guard you, 
 You would soon raise your head, 
 
66 SPIRIT VOICES. 
 
 To droop no more in anguish ; 
 For spheres of light and truth, 
 Could come so near your spirit, 
 As to make it bright like youth. 
 
 Though blessed with experience 
 Which many years have given. 
 The thorns would be extracted. 
 And your soul bloom in heaven. 
 
 Then upward rise, mother, 
 And brighter grow each day ; 
 All pleasant things remember, 
 But the dark past put aivay. 
 
 THIED VOICE. 
 
 FEOM A YOUNG LADY. 
 
 Mine was a happy life, mother, 
 I knew not much sorrow or care ; 
 
 I gathered bright flowers growing near me, 
 And wove many sweet garlands fair. 
 
 I grasp'd the fond hand of friendship. 
 And love was not strange to my heart. 
 
 I danced in a fountain of pleasure, 
 Not dreaming but that it would last. 
 
 My morning so bright and happy, 
 Grew brighter, as higher it rose ; 
 
 Advancing toward noonday meridian, 
 When a tempest foretold its close. 
 
SPIRIT VOICES. 67 
 
 That storm so shook our bark, mother, 
 You trembled and could not be calm ; 
 
 I arose on the pinions of angels, 
 And harbored remote from alarm. 
 
 The wise and loving conveyed me 
 
 To this boundless haven of bliss ; 
 And wisely they watch o'er the changes 
 
 Less known in your world, than in this. 
 
 For change gives breadth to the spirit. 
 
 And opens wide fountains of joy. 
 It raises us higher in wisdom, 
 
 And frees us from spurious alloy. 
 
 I would come nearer dear mother, 
 When you weep to drive sadness away, 
 
 And to deck you in garlands of beauty, 
 Whenever in anguish you pray. 
 
 I'm sad in seeing your sadness, 
 
 Dear mother, be happy like me ; 
 Earth would be an eden of beauty, 
 
 Were its children unselfish and free. 
 
 Know that I still live to bless you. 
 
 And to draw you nearer to me ; 
 As you on the wings of progression. 
 
 From sadness are aiming to flee. 
 
 Bright winged teachers, my mother, 
 Would have you all happy and free ; 
 
 For they by the power of progression, 
 Are bringing your nearer to me. 
 
68 SPIRIT VOICES. 
 
 FOURTH VOICE. 
 
 FROM A YOUNa SOLDIER WHO RECEIVED DEATH- 
 WOUNDS IN BATTLE. 
 
 Pm far away from the planes I trod, 
 From the field of war and blood ; 
 
 The banner of peace waves over my head, 
 And Pm harbored with my God. 
 
 No more I hear the bugle sound, 
 
 To summon men to strife ; 
 Pm in the summer land so fair, 
 
 And drink of the springs of life . 
 
 Dear, loving ones who bravely bore 
 
 The tidings of my doom, 
 My heart is with you now, as when 
 
 You watched my boyhood's bloom. 
 
 And nearer still I come to you, 
 
 When you are bowed in prayer, 
 And whisper thoughts of hope and peace, 
 
 And loving angePs care. 
 
 I bravely fought — I bravely fell 
 
 For the country held so dear, 
 And you dear ones have bravely strove 
 
 To dry the gushing tear. 
 
 And think of me with thoughts of peace, 
 
 Sweet resignation's power, 
 To you celestial comfort gives, 
 
 In every trying hour. 
 
SPIEIT VOICES. 69 
 
 Such bravery shall be recompensed 
 
 In brighter world above ; 
 When we, a happy band, shall meet 
 
 Around the throne of Love. 
 
 FIFTH VOICE. 
 
 FEOMALADT. 
 
 Loved ones, we're dwelling in gladness, 
 
 On this balmy, beautiful shore ; 
 Three sisters, united forever. 
 
 In a sphere where grief is no more. 
 
 I never had dreamed of the beauty, 
 
 Which ever unfolds in this clime ; 
 Where our teachers of love and of wisdom. 
 
 Help us every woe soon to resign. 
 
 I would not return to the cold world, 
 
 To languish in sorrow and pain ; 
 Though Ive passed from your sight dearest Parents; 
 
 Your loss is my infinite gain. 
 
 The world seemed to me cold and heartless ; 
 
 And thorns in my pathway were strewn ; — 
 But now I have passed far above them. 
 
 To a sphere where strife is unknown. ^ 
 
 The calm, peaceful waters of Freedom ; 
 
 The sweet air of Justice and Peace ; 
 And the bright flowers of Truth blooming round me, 
 
 Is not this a happy release ? 
 
70 
 
 SPIRIT VOICES. 
 
 I join in my anthem of praises, 
 
 To the giver of infinite life ; 
 Death to me was a flood-gatie of blessing, 
 
 For it lead me from sorrow and strife. 
 
 THE SHINIKG SHOEE. 
 
 AN ADDITIONAL POEM FEOM THE FIRST VOICE. 
 
 Can I describe the Shining Shore, 
 
 Where moments of sadness forever are o'er ? 
 
 Can I sing of this land of light ? 
 
 Can mortal language express the delight, 
 
 Which ever unfolds in this land of the blest, 
 
 Where the faintest and saddest find comfort and rest ? 
 
 ni try, though words poorly express 
 The scenes of this brilliant shore ; 
 
 And yet they may lead your mind to dwell. 
 On beauties unthought of before. 
 This Shining Shore is a scene of repose, 
 Where the spirit casts off its load of woes : 
 And dwells in light serene and pure, ' 
 ' In the midst of pleasures which ever endure. 
 
 Here are gems so bright ! 
 
 Here is a constant flood of light ! 
 
 Here are pearls so clear, 
 
 And flowers which bloom throughout the year. 
 The roseate hue of gladness o'er you steals. 
 When thinking of the radiance of this shore : 
 And its pure inspirations 
 On you pour. 
 
SPIRIT VOICES. 71 
 
 Inhaling its rich truths iu a degree, 
 Your soul grows strong, your spirit bright and free. 
 Here is no age, but that of true development. 
 Wrinkles are lost, and care-worn looks exchanged 
 For smiles of joy. 
 ! live in freedom, love and truth, 
 
 Till Earth become a shining shore, 
 Where mortals tread 
 
 In pleasures evermore. 
 Not pleasures of a low consuming power. 
 Pleasures of sense which wither in an hour ; 
 But these conformed to wisdom's priceless plan, 
 Given to enhance the eternal peace of man. 
 Here Milton ranges in his thought sublime, 
 And Cowper ample scope here finds for Rhyme. 
 Melancthon in Theology does roam. 
 And Shakspeare finds in richer Plays his home. 
 Mozart in Music revels with delight. 
 And Washington's great theme is Human Right. 
 John Howard, visits yet the prisoner's cell. 
 And seeks unfortunates where'er they dwell. 
 Joan of Arc with noble warrior's power, 
 Holds truth, and virtue steadfast every hour. 
 Ne'er swerves from duty on the shining planes, 
 For sure she did it well in earth's domains. 
 And spirits of great truth and justice, never 
 Lose in these points, when from the form they sever :J 
 While those of virtue less, in these bright climes 
 May choose the right, and all their sins resign. 
 They cannot downward grow mid truth so clear, 
 They must receive of virtue, when so near 
 She comes to them with Love and Wisdom true. 
 They must exchange the dark past for the new 
 
72 SPIEIT VOICES. 
 
 The bright and shining garments of the free. 
 
 Who can resist the fruits of life's fair tree ? 
 
 True, some are long in learning to explore 
 
 The mines of wealth, which from truth's sources pour 
 
 But all at length must come to know full well, 
 
 The priceless riches of salvation's well. 
 
 Rejoice with me ! Its waters cleanse my soul. 
 
 And make me upright stand in self-control, 
 
 Through power divine to you in truth I come, 
 
 To tell you of the glories of my home. 
 
 And many whom I learned much to admire, 
 
 Milton and Byron, Shakespeare, clothed in fire 
 
 Of poetry and music, deign to come 
 
 And grace with truth and harmony your home. 
 
 .Spirits of greatness on this shining shore. 
 
 Words cannot name them; they are legion, sure. 
 
 When poets enter these immortal planes 
 
 They cease their rhyming for sweet music strains 
 
 Musicians turn their thougths to painting fine 
 
 And sculpture in its turn absorbs the mind. 
 
 For in earth life, few can at once excel 
 
 In all these gifts, though they within them dwell. 
 
 These changes are for growth, and when complete 
 
 Each revels most in that to him most sweet. 
 
 All study mind. The laws which it control 
 
 Is the great study for the human soul. 
 
 Whether in earth life, or in higher state. 
 
 It only can make human beings great. 
 
 Great in good deeds and in sweet charity : 
 
 It makes man upright, courteous and free. 
 
 Respect unto the least of human kind 
 
 Is the true index of a noble mind. 
 
 And dearest ones the love I cherished 
 
SPIRIT VOICES. 73 
 
 Has brighter grown on this sweet shore ; 
 And in devotion still increasing, 
 It links nie to you evermore. 
 
 Why linger by the grave, 
 As though I could be there ? 
 All that made that form 
 Living, bright, and fair. 
 Has passed to higher life ; 
 A spirit body wears. 
 
 I linger by tbe grave, 
 
 But in it enter not; 
 
 I only hear your sobbings, 
 
 Telling Pm not forgot. 
 
 I fain would reach my hand, 
 
 And wipe away the tears : 
 
 Pd whisper to your spirit, 
 
 Soothing away its fears ; 
 
 Pd bid you tearless, fearless press. 
 
 To this immortal shore. 
 
 Where the grave is lost in victory, 
 
 And triumph evermore. 
 
 Beauty is so abundant 
 
 On this delightful shore, 
 We gaze and gaze upon it, 
 
 And could scarcely wish for more. 
 
 When lo ! it comes so richly. 
 
 Bringing a fervent glow 
 Of such sublime rejoicing, 
 
 As mortals never know. 
 
74 SPIEIT VOICES. 
 
 We must become immortal, 
 Ere we can be prepared 
 
 For visions of the beautiful, 
 Treasured in our reward. 
 
 Stored for those who labor, 
 To gain the heights of truth ; 
 
 They're stored for those who love 
 With the innocence of youth. 
 
 Of childhood not perverted, 
 
 Of youth not linked with wrong ; 
 
 The beautiful, the beautiful. 
 Shall finish our glad song. 
 
 We see it in the rivulets 
 Of this immortal shore : 
 
 In chrystal drops of glowing light, 
 It comes fore verm ore. 
 
 They are the dew-drops of our land, 
 Making our flowrey lawns 
 - Such scenes of varied beauty, 
 As never Earth adorn. 
 
 But ah ! you have enough on earth 
 For the rudimental sphere, 
 
 The earthly form could never bear, 
 The pleasures we taste here. 
 
 The soul would break its casket 
 Amid supreme delight ; 
 
 And soar to these blest regions 
 Of everlasting light. 
 
SPIRIT VOICES. 75 
 
 Then cherish all tne beautiful 
 
 Our Father gives to earth : 
 And all the inspiration 
 
 Which is of heavenly birth. 
 
 Soon shining bands will meet you, 
 
 And greet you on this shore; 
 Where beauty in abundance, 
 
 Will bless vou evermore. 
 
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