H B C Y 
 
 ■«! 
 
y 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 7 ST 
 
 SLolf KSf 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMEKICA. 
 
THE 
 
 LIGHT OF PROPHECY, 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 .. HO 
 
 EDWIN A. HOLBROOK. 
 it 
 
 JUL 20 '882))/ 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 COLBY & RICH, 
 
 1882. 
 
T5» n3<» 
 
 COPYEIGHTED BY EDWIN A. IIOLBKOOK, 1SS2. 
 
TI-IE LIGHT OF PROPIiEOY. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 INVOCATION. 
 
 Immortal chieftains of the ages past, — 
 Who struck for truth, nor yielded to the last, 
 And then your thoughts in human hearts enshrined 
 As guides and benefactors of mankind ; 
 Who on the heights above the valleys stood, 
 And viewed all evil in the light of good ; 
 With eye prophetic hailed the noontide day. 
 In whose bright light the shades shall pass away ; 
 Who from the sunny side of nature took your view, 
 Eliminating from the false the good and true ; 
 Who saw dark streams of passion surge below. 
 And into seas of blood and carnage flow ; 
 Those set apart to good, the vile to win. 
 Apologizing in the ranks of sin ; 
 Proclaiming love and peace as man's true aim, 
 Yet foremost in the ranks of war for fame ; 
 
4 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 He danger met, pain to alleviate, 
 
 And without murmur yielded to his fate. 
 
 His own soft hand had soothed the fevered brow, 
 
 Though to the malady his will must bow. 
 
 His life a mirror of the age to come, 
 
 His name prophetic of millennium ; 
 
 His love, his sacrifice the world admire. 
 
 His deeds, his life, his thoughts my pen inspire. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 John Howard's name is great, for lie was good, 
 Kevered ; for it is linked with brotherhood ; 
 He ranks as one of England's truest sons. 
 Whose heart beat warm for all her suffering ones ; 
 Who gave the wealth that he inherited 
 That hearts in sorrow might be comforted ; 
 Bequeathed his health, his strength, his life, his all, 
 And died administ'ring to mercy's call. 
 Being himself imprisoned for the right, 
 The prisoner to cheer was his delight. 
 For earth's unfortunates he dungeons braved, 
 And many lost to penitence he saved. 
 Salvation from earth's evils was his theme. 
 His effort proved his theory no dream. 
 Through peace he saw a nobler goal for man ; 
 And peace and mercy formed the God-like plan 
 To elevate a world from sin's dark thrall. 
 Imbue its laws with equal rights for all. 
 
6 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 Wtio wrote of grace and peace in prose and verse, 
 Then eulogized with lips the blist'ring curse, — 
 As ye looked down upon a world below. 
 And saw the conflict of man's weal and woe, 
 And viewed the darkness in the light of day. 
 And gave us records of your grand survey. 
 Exalted now upon the mountains higher, 
 Enlightened now by love's transfig'ring fire, 
 Who in the glory of celestial light. 
 That knows no shades of intervening night, 
 Can view the valley of life's grov'ling plain. 
 Its contrasts reconcile of joy and pain. 
 Its bursts of passion, unrequited love, 
 The murd'rous falcon and the cooing dove. 
 The full soul longing for the reign of peace, 
 But mocked and jeered until its efforts cease ; 
 Ye shades of heroes, now with vict'ry crowned, 
 Who lived to solve life's mysteries profound, 
 Draw near to one who would discern the law ! 
 Be ye my guide, assist my pen to draw 
 The line where mercy, truth, and justice meet. 
 To make the law of recompense complete ; 
 Lead me in wisdom where the truth transcends, 
 And means are viewed with reference to ends : 
 In realms of light beyond this narrow view. 
 Give me, ye shades, the vision that is true. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 7 
 
 Thus yearned my soul for wisdom and the light, 
 To know the law and to be guided right. 
 While struggling toward the inner light there fell 
 Upon each outward sense a mystic spell ; 
 And on my spirit sense in glory shone, 
 A light, revealing things before unknown : 
 Worlds sprang to light adorned with zones and 
 
 spheres, 
 And myriad spirits from the vale of tears ; 
 And from below, out of the vast unknown, 
 Rose plains of life ascending with each zone, — 
 With habitations wliere the spirits dwell. 
 Commencing down within tlie lowest cell ; 
 With dark surroundings, incomplete and crude, 
 That looked the dread abode of solitude ; 
 Yet where immortals, still in love with ill, 
 Together mingle of their own free will. 
 And waiting for the voice from circles higher 
 To break the spell and waken new desire. 
 
 I saw each zone linked to the zone above. 
 And to it looking for more light and love ; 
 Where homes and habitations grow more bright, 
 Ascending upward until lost from sight ; 
 And spirit forms grew bright and brighter still. 
 Clothed in the products of their own free will. 
 
 My spirit longed to interview more near 
 Each spirit form, and learn of its career, 
 
8 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 Each subtle tie that linked it still to earth, 
 
 Each circumstance of death, of life, of birth, — 
 
 All bearing still, with more or less degree, 
 
 Upon each soul to shape its destiny ; 
 
 And in each sphere to learn what mem'ries blend 
 
 Of deeds that hinder, or that upward tend ; 
 
 To know what born of throes of earthly strife 
 
 Are here the elements of real life ; 
 
 To learn how sure is compensation's law, 
 
 A chain without a missing link or flaw. 
 
 Thus musing, inspiration's fires burned. 
 My spirit more the spiritual discerned ; 
 Sweet voices broke from out the ambient air, 
 As though in answer to my inmost prayer. 
 Before me stood a form of heas^enl}^ mien. 
 His robes of light seemed glory's very sheen ; 
 The halo of his presence seemed so bright, 
 'T was but an object for celestial sight ; 
 And brilliant stars seemed in the halo wrought. 
 As emanations from his inmost thought ; 
 Yet, viewed more closely, counted one by one. 
 They seemed but records of the deeds he 'd done. 
 He 'd lighted up with cheer the pris'ner's cell, 
 Removed the cause by which the victim fell ; 
 He 'd to the fallen lent a helping hand. 
 And had a brighter future for him planned; 
 
THE LIGHT OF PKOPHECY. 9 
 
 Had dropped soft pity's tear o'er human woes ; 
 Deemed those his friends whom others deemed as 
 
 foes, — 
 Seen their surroundings, knew their adverse lot, 
 Against them all the past remembered not ; 
 And when stern justice had her victim claimed, 
 In pity wept while others only blamed. 
 
 And now these stars had formed a circle bright, 
 And ranged themselves in words of golden light, 
 " He lived the Universal brotherhood ! " 
 I knew that Howard's form before. me stood. 
 And then his spirit to my spirit spoke : 
 *' Out from the circle that your prayers invoke 
 I come in answer to your inmost prayer ; 
 As prayers are answered only when and where 
 The humble spirit in its firm desire 
 Moves other spirits in the circles higher ; 
 And then the light as from the central sun 
 Through others comes to thee : His will is done. 
 Spirits are messengers to do His will. 
 To answer prayer and prophecy fulfill ; 
 When strength through harmony with these is 
 
 sought, 
 The soul finds help although he changeth not. 
 Thus much of prayer, I saw 't was in thy mind. 
 To know how prayers are answered to mankind." 
 
10 THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 "And now I come to be thy angel guide, 
 Descend with thee into the vasty deep, 
 Where lowest flow of lowest human tide 
 
 Begins its ocean journey tow'rd the shore, 
 
 Where grov'ling spirits listless dream and sleep, 
 As though the life begun would soon be o'er. 
 
 " Then we '11 ascend upon the spiral road, 
 
 And learn the lessons of the circling spheres, — 
 Each soul's surroundings in its own abode. 
 
 Its progress upward from the spheres below. 
 Gained through experience and toil of years. 
 What 's proved man's friend, and what has been 
 his foe. 
 
 And now transported by my will alone. 
 In faith relying on my heavenly guide, 
 I had descended to the lowest zone. 
 
 Where spirit life begins its upward course, 
 Struggling intent to keep the out-bound tide, 
 And sometimes ebbing backward to its source. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 11 
 
 I asked my guide to solve the mystery, 
 Why life must struggle on so low a scale, 
 For years must labor through the first degree. 
 
 Must pass through discipline the most severe, 
 And even then may in its efforts fail. 
 And trembling backward shrink in servile fear. 
 
 Said he : "All life in lowest forms began, 
 As nature's outgrowth when the world was crude, 
 A germ of progress to develope man, — 
 
 From rudimental rounding out complete. 
 In each degree the old life is renewed. 
 The new is added, and the chain concrete. 
 
 "And transmigration is the doctrine true. 
 To lower forms that to the higher tend ; 
 Life from the old is added to the new : 
 
 The old and new linked in the circle higher ; 
 Neither is lost but mutually ascend. 
 And higher forms arc born of new desire. 
 
 " But when the life developes to a soul, — 
 A soul that 's one and rounded out complete. 
 With will and wisdom that can hold control, 
 
 And self-sustaining like the w^orlds in space, 
 In which the elements of nature meet. 
 As self-controlling planets keep their place, — 
 
12 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " There 's from below no transmigration then ; 
 Souls are transmitted as the bodies are, 
 Of parents born, and are the sons of men, 
 
 And if they 've reached the self-sustaining line, 
 They pass to spirit forms and circles, where 
 The soul must upward tend toward the Divine. 
 
 "Though all is dark, no memory extends 
 To former states on transmigration's line ; 
 With this new consciousness sweet mem'ry 
 blends, — 
 Joys, sorrows, friendships of this vale of tears. 
 By it transmitted with the life divine. 
 Shall sweeten friendship's tie through all the 
 spheres. 
 
 " On transmigration's plains, towards the higher, 
 All rudimental souls in parts remain ; 
 Transmission's plain brings mem'ry and desire, 
 
 Of faculties complete these are the last ; 
 
 These rounded up shall in full self-hood reign, 
 Cognizant of the future and the past. 
 
 " But here no arbitrary line is drawn 
 
 Between the brute below and human kind ; 
 Where blend the two immortal light may dawn, 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 13 
 
 Each by its rays be guided for a time, 
 
 Each with some wisdom, will, and strength of 
 
 mind 
 May leave the earth and seek the spirit clime. 
 
 ^'And for a little season well they run. 
 
 The lower tending always back to earth; 
 
 And when their work in spirit form is done, 
 Their mission ended in the circles lower. 
 
 Their higher progress comes through human 
 birth, 
 
 And then returning to the spirit shore. 
 
 " Likewise some spirits that you here behold 
 Are men who prematurely entered here. 
 And now give signs of growing feeble, old ; 
 
 Their spirit force of love and light is gone. 
 
 And soon will end their dark and sad career, — 
 See tow'rd the earth some now are journeying on. 
 
 " These will to earth, and for a season seek 
 New habitations for a place of rest, 
 Use earthly forms, through others' organs speak, 
 
 Their limbs distort, their forms depress to earth, 
 Dethrone the reason of the one obsessed, 
 And seek at last another human birth. 
 
14 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 ** As demons by the sea of Galilee 
 
 Their victims left before the Voice Divine, 
 Then from the path of progress sought to flee, 
 
 And hoped to eke out life a little span, 
 By using bodies of the herd of swine. 
 Ere they anew progressive life began. 
 
 " And now, returning from the earthly shore, 
 I saw a band of spirits circling near. 
 Who 'd entered on their spirit life before, 
 
 And prematurely sought to reach the goal; 
 But these seemed tending to a higher sphere. 
 Through greater strength and harmony of soi:l. 
 
 " But on this dark and lower plain I saw 
 Dark spirits gather from the world of sense, 
 The victims of progression's broken law. 
 
 Striving to reap where they had never sown. 
 In disappointment making recompense. 
 No spirit guides, — forsaken and alone. 
 
 " As in the hive built up by industry, 
 
 With honeyed sweets, the fruit of summer's toil, 
 As winter's food for but the faithful bee. 
 
 And none but those that labor well can thrive, 
 The drone attempts to fatten on the spoil. 
 And finds himself ejected from the hive. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 15 
 
 "These are the hells with raging fires within, 
 Where clashing elements in conflict dwell, 
 Where souls grown limp upon the fruits of sin, 
 
 Striving in vain to pluck forbidden fruit. 
 
 Breathe from themselves the atmosphere of hell, 
 Whose pleasures are in common with the brute. 
 
 " The fires here continually do burn ; 
 
 Their fuel from the earthly sphere supplied ; 
 
 While many spirits back to earth return. 
 The few, refined as gold from out the dross. 
 
 Have strength in spirit progress to abide, 
 
 'And saved, though they themselves have suf- 
 fered loss.' 
 
 " This is the lowest sphere of life, between 
 The zones of outward and of inward life. 
 Where both the penitent and weak are seen ; 
 
 The one advancing but by slow degree. 
 The other tending back to earthly strife, 
 A hell, from which all struggle to be free. 
 
 " This state, as sometimes seen by modern seers, 
 As Dante, Swedenborg of much renown, 
 A state of evil fixed to them appears, ' 
 
 And not permitted to the view beyond. 
 The outward seeming, is a sinking down 
 In endless sin, with hells to correspond. 
 
16 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " But deeper vision sees the fires expire, 
 Wtien each soul wills no longer to remain, 
 But flee the place, or cleave to circles higher, 
 
 And leave to coming souls to take their place ; 
 As thou perceiv'st there is no lower plain. 
 No final evil to the good efface. 
 
 " That good enstamped upon the human sense, 
 And lived in prospect when the human germ 
 Was in the lowest planted, and from whence 
 
 'T was destined upward in the scale to rise, 
 And made life sacred in the grov'ling Avorm ; 
 Ever the evil as an end defies. 
 
 " There is a depth to which man's sin may lead. 
 But goodness bounds for aye all depths below. 
 So back through evil may the soul recede. 
 
 And step by step its errors may retrieve, 
 
 But through the bounds of goodness cannot go, 
 Deceive itself, but love cannot deceive. 
 
 " 'T was from the low, the higher to evolve. 
 That God incarnate in progressive forms. 
 Caused systems, worlds, and planets to revolve ; 
 
 To law and order brought chaotic strife ; 
 From molten seas and elemental storms 
 Carved out the myriad grooves of sentient life ; 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 17 
 
 " Fixed cycles for the outward life to run, 
 Progressing upward as the worlds mature, 
 Returning oft to where it first begun ; 
 
 And inner cycles fixed to correspond 
 For inner life that shall for aye endure, 
 And seek its source through progress far beyond. 
 
 '' Though step by step the progress may be slow, 
 And life's experiments may often fail, 
 The soul turn back in bitterness and woe. 
 
 Yet as it cannot in inaction rest, 
 Another trial will at last prevail, 
 'T is Wisdom's plan, and Wisdom knoweth best. 
 
 " But wisdom only acts through wise design, 
 And that design defies all incident ; 
 And since the planning wisdom is Divine, 
 
 No force exists but by His mighty will. 
 Hence none can baffle the Divine intent. 
 Nor change the end designed from good to ill. 
 
 " Though hells are many, yet their fires of wrath 
 Are not consuming, as to thee appears ; 
 They but remove the stubble from the path 
 
 Where harvests have been sown and gathered in ; 
 And though the soul may sow and reap in tears, 
 Still unconsumed remains the good within. 
 
18 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " The love of evil ma}^ predominate, 
 And social life may also correspond, 
 And thus upon a plain degenerate. 
 
 Pleasures may correspond to that degree ; 
 The soul feel satisfied, nor look beyond, 
 But where the evil is the good shall be." 
 
 And here the valley intermediate, 
 
 The under-world of spirits, passed from view, 
 And mem'ry lingers o'er its saddened state ; 
 
 Its horrid specters haunt my spirit still. 
 And only contrast with the good and true, 
 Viewing as good in less degree the ill, — 
 
 As fore-ordained in wisdom's forming plan 
 To bring from lower states to higher goal 
 Th.e crowning good, — creation's capstone, man, 
 
 Through Love Divine and wisdom incarnate 
 In lower forms, the great embodied soul. 
 My soul is satisfied, resigned to fate. 
 
 But trembling still between life's hopes and fears, 
 I from the pall of darkness turned away ; 
 And light, down-streaming from the upper 
 spheres. 
 
 Revealed new scenes of brighter joys above. 
 As through the night the mourner waits the day, 
 And comfort seeks in everlasting love. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 1^ 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 My guide upon my meditation broke, 
 
 And beck'ning tow'rd tiie upward winding way, 
 
 I from my painful revery awoke, 
 Obeyed his bidding, and the power of will 
 
 Soon brought us to a higher plain, where lay 
 
 An open vista bordered by a rill. 
 
 Low grasses, strange and stinted shrubs appear, 
 A few moss llowers from tiny buds begin 
 To partly open ; and the atmosphere 
 
 Exhales some incense as the flowers ope ; 
 
 First stream we 'd seen for the parched tongue 
 
 of sin ; 
 First flowers to cheer the longing eye of hope. 
 
 By quick ascent we gained a rising ground. 
 
 A plain of life appeared o'er which I gazed, 
 
 Of vast extent, no finite eye could bound. 
 Stretching away beneath still brighter skies ; 
 
 Far in the distance suns and planets blazed ; 
 
 Progress was here with all the word implies. 
 
20 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 For serried ranks of beings walked the plain, 
 All moving onward tow'rd the heavenly light, 
 Each striving to some higher good attain, 
 
 Whereby from circles low they hoped to reach 
 Ever throngh merit the next circle bright 
 In deeds of good, each being help to each. 
 
 And now I longed some interview to gain 
 
 With beings here who from the earth had passed. 
 And from each soul to learn what earthly stain 
 
 Still to it clung, its progress to impede ; 
 What virtues had its destiny forecast 
 With light and love the soul to upward lead. 
 
 Then said my guide : '' None here return to earth 
 Except upon some useful errand bound, 
 They 've passed the line of transmigration birth. 
 
 Yet some researches they neglected there. 
 Easier and sooner with success are crowned. 
 Than in more subtle life and regions, where 
 
 " Results from cause are disconnected quite. 
 And though results may follow in the spheres, 
 Requires a nearer view to guide aright, 
 Where truth with grosser form and substance 
 blends 
 And moments there are sometimes more than 
 
 years, 
 In subtler climes to which the soul ascends. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 21 
 
 " And then the soul is anxious still to find 
 What deeds of good are to its credit placed ; 
 How far they 've served as blessings to mankind, 
 
 And can be made to weigh on virtue's, side ; 
 How far results of evil can be traced, 
 What remedy to them can be applied, — 
 
 " As when the worker views the work he 'd done, 
 To know if he has builcled ill or well. 
 If he as builder confidence has won ; 
 
 Or if the work some finish still require, 
 That in his future interest shall tell, 
 And prove the lab'rer worthy of his hire. 
 
 'And in this sphere sometimes, to make amends 
 For error past, or confidence betrayed. 
 They travel ear tli ward to their former friends, 
 
 And often cause them to their will obey, 
 In checking discord that their sin has made. 
 And make more calm and bright their upward 
 way. 
 
 " Thus must the spirit for results atone, 
 Although repentance may remove the sin; 
 Must reap in sorrow from the field it 's sown. 
 
 And bear its share in all that it may yield ; 
 And only when the sheaves are gathered in 
 Can the immortal reaper quit the field. 
 
22 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " This sphere to earth is bound bv many ties, 
 And has from earthly homes arrivals, more 
 Than other spheres, and lessening as they rise, 
 
 And heavenly visitants to earth, grow less. 
 Of friends and kindred who have gone before, 
 As they advance in grace and holiness. 
 
 " This sphere is childhood's home, and voices sweet 
 Of innocents snatched from paternal care 
 The mother's heart doth cheer, and often meet 
 
 The mother and the child, bereft of all. 
 Each for the other fills the vacant chair. 
 And love and duty blend at childhood's call. 
 
 " And so the mother finds sweet substitute. 
 In guardian care of infant life begun ; 
 And with her charge will journey in pursuit 
 
 Of Aveeping mothers, that her hand may bless, 
 To mother's arms return the little one, 
 Until perchance she feels the soft caress. 
 
 " Behold, what tender love and sympathy 
 Imbue the circles of the second sphere ! 
 What deeds of love to bring to harmony 
 
 Each circle with itself, and to prepare. 
 By discipline and constant culture here. 
 For higher spheres and sweet communion there. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 23 
 
 " All progress seems arranged to this great end, 
 As guardian spirits from each higher plain, 
 Upon the forms of lower life attend 
 
 Good resolutions strengthen, and direct 
 The falt'ring soul to rise in strength again, 
 And walk in virtue's upward path erect. 
 
 •' Creation's plan was to protect the good, 
 And in it incident defects to cure, 
 Through means of a progressive brotherhood. 
 
 By its great agency dispensing light. 
 To make the law of compensation sure. 
 With an eternity the wrong to right. 
 
 " And so the circles of the worlds were made. 
 To give to good eternal, ample scope. 
 To be to evil as the sun to shade ; 
 
 All darkness in its warmth and light dissolve. 
 And in the sunlight of celestial hope 
 Immortals circle as the worlds revolve. 
 
 " His image mirrored in the myriad forms 
 
 That people worlds and realms of life unknown. 
 Gathered and gathering from the winds and 
 storms. 
 
 And tempests where the evil passions surge. 
 And seas of death on which life's bark is thrown. 
 That from this ill may lasting good emerge. 
 
"24 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " Thus disciplined, there 's good in evil's power : 
 Without it virtue has no dwelling place, 
 And in the graces charity no dower ; 
 
 The highest gifts that render life sublime 
 Would all be wanting ; and a heai'tless race 
 Cleave to its end within the bounds of time. 
 
 " There could no immortality endure 
 In finite beings, worthy of a God, 
 Y/ithout earth's pressing evils to mature 
 
 The inward faculties of heart and mind. 
 And but an aimless, listless, inert clod 
 Would be the highest type of human kind. 
 
 " Nor would the glory of the upper spheres, 
 To him be glory, if he 'd never wrought 
 Into his soul, by discipline of years. 
 
 The fine appreciation, and the sense of right, 
 And carved through adverse fate the grooves of 
 
 thought, 
 As night prepares the soul for morning light. 
 
 " The crowning glory of the Infinite 
 
 Lies in the products of his mighty will, — 
 In, out of darkness, bringing v/orlds to light, 
 
 In bringing motion from chaotic rest ; 
 
 In work, the mighty void v/ith forms to fill : 
 So man in toil of heart and brain is blest. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 25 
 
 " Then think not, mortal, of a means of grace 
 To brmg thee blessmgs without care and toil. 
 For thee is work, and nought can take its place ; 
 
 By work the soul was destined for the skies, 
 A substitute the plan Divine would spoil 
 Himself in forms to individualize. 
 
 " Electric force is but the great world's breath, 
 With countless positives and negatives. 
 As myriad points of life and points of death, 
 
 The positive in everything prevails ; 
 'T is thus the universe itself still lives. 
 And warmth and life drinks in, and death 
 exhales. 
 
 "And w4th the world's pulse beat each atom 
 breathes. 
 And with all atoms beats in sympathy. 
 Each ever force inhales and force bequeatlies ; 
 
 In friendly interchange both forces meet. 
 And space cannot destroy the harmony 
 When these electric circles are complete. 
 
 " The light and darkness are but varying phase 
 Of this great element throughout all skies ; 
 And in it suns and planets burn and blaze, 
 
 For this electric force itself is light, 
 
 Where atmospheres the molecules polarize, 
 And come in contact with the nerves of sight. 
 
25 THE LTGIIT OF PKOPIIECY. 
 
 "So, in the subtler realm of mind and thought, 
 All harmony results from active force ; 
 Through will-power positive is v.-rouglit, 
 
 And labor for adjustment must be done, 
 So that the mystic fluid in its course 
 May freely flow, and bind all hearts in one. 
 
 "As atoms must obey the same great law 
 By which the planets move in harmony, 
 And inner force alone has power to draw, 
 
 And positive to all opposing incident. 
 
 Through truth and love without hypocrisy, 
 Souls form a union of self-crovernment. 
 
 o 
 
 "This sphere of being is a fleld of work ; 
 
 And none who join it from the spheres below 
 Can in a thought .or deed their duty shirk. 
 
 Nor pass this circle to the one above 
 
 Except their faith and zeal for truth they show 
 In thoughts of goodness and in deeds of love. 
 
 "Hypocrisy, deceit, come of the ground. 
 
 And without fruit of good must back return, 
 As tinkling cymbals and an empty sound 
 
 Arc prayers but simply for the form of prayer : 
 The fires of love that on tlie altar burn 
 Will smell of incense where angels are. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 27 
 
 "And deeds that come of over-soul desire, 
 Breathed for the fallen and the destitute, 
 Will raise a soul toward the circles higher ; 
 
 And prayer is answered in more hearts than one 
 When, though the very lip and tongue be mute, 
 The spirit breathes the prayer, 'Thy will be 
 done.' 
 
 " When prayers of love are crystallized to deeds, 
 And all the altars of the soul are briixht. 
 And in the realm of human wants and needs 
 
 The spirit strives and bears its genial sway, 
 The spheres in harmony of will unite. 
 And double blessings follow when we pray." 
 
28 THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 
 Kind reader, think not that I dwell too long 
 On scenes near earth when glories beam beyond ; 
 So many objects here my vision throng, 
 
 So many them.es of thought arrest the sight, 
 I can but to their urgent call respond, 
 I hear the word and in obedience write. 
 
 Before me lie the bounds of life's short span. 
 And as I 'm nearing my three score and ten, — 
 The twilio-ht eve that bounds the life of man, — 
 
 Still more intent I dwell upon the shore. 
 As does the mariner, storm-beaten, when 
 The beach he sights and knows his voyage is 
 o'er. 
 
 And if my vision in thy soul can wake 
 A firm reliance, as it has in mine,— 
 If thou with me the feast of joy partake. 
 
 And find thy faith and hope in good renewed, — 
 See in the path of duty wise design. 
 Thou may st forgive me that I thus intrude. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 29 
 
 Some wise men think it fore-ordainecl of Heaven 
 To close the future life from mortal view, 
 And so to mortals there 's no sign been given, 
 
 Lest with the present it might interfere. 
 And so must rest on faith to deem it true, 
 And trust the vision of the ancient seer. 
 
 That light too much might cause the soul to pine, 
 And long for glories of the higher spheres. 
 And man no lon^^er could his soul resign 
 
 To all the evils that surround him here. 
 
 By self-destruction he 'd cut short his years. 
 And leave this vale of tears without a tear. 
 
 But such was not creative wisdom's plan. 
 To link with life a goal of destiny 
 So inconsistent with its sphere in man 
 
 That from the one the other must be hid. 
 And all the glories of eternity 
 Be to his waiting, longing soul forbid. 
 
 Such are relations of that life to this, 
 And in the progress so connected are. 
 With all the means that lead to holiness. 
 
 That certain knowledge of the life beyond 
 Must lead to greater effort to prepare 
 The soul by deeds that to it correspond. 
 
30 THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 
 
 Each sphere of life in harmony must be 
 
 With Avhat the knowledge of the future brings ; 
 Each part must with each other part agree, 
 
 So that the knowledge of a higher sphere 
 Will guide the soul aright in earthly things, 
 And give it strength to live its duty here. 
 
 If life beyond w^as but a life distinct 
 
 From that on mortal, dying man bestowed, 
 And with the lives and acts of men not linked, 
 
 A gift of glory and an act of grace 
 
 That down to passive man in glory flowed, 
 His life and deeds to end and take their place. 
 
 Then man might rush unbidden to the feast, 
 And, if the feast before the sight were spread. 
 His soul might long from earth to be released. 
 
 To end the ills within his pathway placed. 
 Consign the mortal to its cold clay-bed. 
 And onward to the feast of glory haste. 
 
 But all the light and joy to be attained 
 By finite beings must from action flow. 
 Through evils conquered and through knowl- 
 ledge gained. 
 
 Through strength acquired, appreciation keen, 
 The blessings surely come, however slow. 
 Nor can be ever prematurely seen. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PnOPHECY. 31 
 
 So let the suicide tlic lesson learn, 
 
 Life not to spurn, bat patient live its length; 
 
 With greater zeal his heart to duty turn, 
 Nor think to rush to blessings not his own ; 
 
 Greater the conflict, greater is his strength. 
 
 Greater the harvest of the field he 's sown. 
 
 Could men with open face the future view, 
 
 And lind their faith and hope to knov/ledge 
 
 turned. 
 Behold the state of those to duty true, 
 Could see the blessing from the soul withheld 
 Until through deeds of love the prize is earned, 
 How soon all wrath and wrong would be ex- 
 pelled. 
 
 The future then would be reality. 
 
 And form a portion of life's earnest plans. 
 No longer doubting immortality ; 
 
 That knowledge with his acts would correspond, 
 He 'd make life joyful here with willing h^-iads, 
 By deeds that live to bless the life beyond. 
 
 Let but the miser view the upward road, 
 
 That leads through golden light to bliss untold. 
 How soon he 'd drop the sordid, crushing load, 
 
32 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 Recount his gains as alms, the poor to feed, 
 His soul advance in value more than gold, 
 And be from sin and selfish folly freed. 
 
 And give the proud aristocrat to know 
 That all distinctions in the race he makes 
 Are false and damning as the hells below ; 
 
 That man is valued for his heart and mind, — 
 When he the good promotes, the bad forsakes. 
 He takes a higher rank among mankind. 
 
 When all shall learn that man's oppressors here 
 Their own soul's future upward course retard, 
 With all their gains they 're sadly in arrear, 
 
 And the oppressed will lead them on their way. 
 The voice of justice they will then regard. 
 And equity shall on the earth bear sway. 
 
 So when the world's great mystery 's unsealed, 
 And, in the light of true progression's laws, 
 The pathway of that progress stands revealed. 
 
 And man his future destiny there reads. 
 
 Can see effects, and trace them back to cause, 
 'Tv/ill more than governments and laws and 
 creeds 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 33 
 
 Exalt the low, from pride bring down the high, 
 Attune earth's discords into harmony ; 
 'T Avill heal the nations, hush the battle cry, 
 
 Sweet love and charity no longer fail, 
 And equal rights with truth and honesty 
 Will in the social ranks of men prevail. 
 
 All hail, the dawn ; millennial glory, hail ! 
 
 Forseen by prophets, ancient bards, and seers ! 
 
 When love and wisdom shall adjust the scale ; 
 The dawn shall come as darkness flies apace, 
 
 And man shall see the glory of the spheres. 
 
 And seek therein through love his dwelling 
 place. ^ 
 
 And men v/ill meet upon the Sabbath day. 
 And without fee will call upon the Lord ; 
 And some will volunteer to preach and pray, 
 
 And all their words shall crystallize to deeds ; 
 And charities bestowed shall bring reward 
 More than the millions spent on human creeds. 
 
 And in one body without creed or ism. 
 And in one spirit shall all parts unite. 
 And this shall be the church without a schism. 
 
 In which one standard and one rule is known. 
 Not of believing, but of doing right. 
 With faith in goodness for its corner-stone. 
 
34 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 And true religion Avith its friendly aid 
 
 Shall bless with homes the poor and fatherless ; 
 
 When all the millions now for dogmas paid 
 Shall be supplied to succor the distressed ; 
 
 Earth's pleasures shall increase, its w*oes grow 
 less, 
 
 As giver and receiver both are blest. 
 
 And mercenaries shall no more cry, give ! 
 That they themselves be sleek and plethoric, 
 Until their victims may but barely live. 
 
 Then give them homilies about the poor. 
 And send them empty to the needy sick. 
 With prayers to render their salvation sure. 
 
 But Christian truth a substance shall become. 
 Its love and kindness not a mere ideal. 
 Its holy place a sinecure to some. 
 
 While others languish for their daily bread ; 
 Its living shrines and altars shall be real. 
 And not commemorative of the dead. 
 
 A hireling priesthood shall be known no more. 
 Nor gorgeous palaces with spires and domes. 
 Where men shall outwardly the Christ adore ; 
 
 No more their wealth shall feed their vanity. 
 But be bestowed on needy hearts and homes, 
 The world have faith in true Christianity. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. iJi) 
 
 Christians shall meet Avith honest faith and zeal, 
 And not to boast of special holiness ; 
 For others' wants, and woes, and wrongs shall 
 feel, 
 
 And bring their surplus stores to their relief ; 
 'T will be an offering that the Christ shall bless, 
 Without regard to shade of men's belief. 
 
 The days primeval of the church return, 
 
 When truth for progress asks no purse nor scrip, 
 When love's bright flame shall on the altar burn ; 
 
 When human hearts again shall be inspired. 
 And deeper words than flow from tongue or lip 
 Of hireling priests and prelates be required. 
 
 A true religion from the soul shall spring ; 
 Its zeal and love shall every tongue inspire. 
 And none shall tribute ask for priest or king ; 
 
 No price be laid upon the words that flow. 
 
 For warmth and light from love's baptismal fire 
 On every altar of the heart shall glow. 
 
 Religion shall with science be combined. 
 
 And youth be students in transmission's laws. 
 Till better bodies for immortal mind 
 
 Shall tread the flow'ry walks of this fair earth, 
 And all enlist in nature's holy cause 
 As man's redeemer from the taint of birth. 
 
36 THE LIGHT OF PFtOPHECY. 
 
 And, freed from all hereditary sin, 
 
 In heavenly images these forms of clay — 
 Temples of the Divinity within — 
 
 Shall to a higher plain of life ascend, 
 
 The world be saved as men these laws obey, 
 Till Heaven and Earth shall in communion blend. 
 
 And truth alone shall be authority. 
 
 And spirit teachings pass for what they are ; 
 Man's normal plain, his will, identity. 
 
 With reason ever his true friend and guide, 
 Shall be the field of culture and of care, — 
 By these alone all spirits shall be tried. 
 
 Hail, op'ning vistas ! hail, immortal light ! 
 
 The highest boon and choicest gift of Heaven ; 
 
 Whose rays shall guide at last the world aright, 
 More glorious than the wheeling orbs of day ; 
 
 Last revelation, best to mortals given. 
 
 To lead them upward on the heavenward way ! 
 
 On primal man its first faint rays were shed, 
 Then woke the latent gift of prophecy ; 
 From bondage to the land of promise led. 
 
 On Bethle'm's plains it shed its genial rays. 
 And quickened faith along fair Galilee, 
 Then oped the spheres to its resplendent blaze. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 37 
 
 For this prophetic age the world must wait, 
 Must seek the new and still conserve the old, 
 Till higher truth the mind shall elevate ; 
 
 Then hungry souls shall eat the bread of Heaven ; 
 The word of life, that 's neither bought nor sold, 
 Shall freely be received and freely given. 
 
38 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 CANTO V. 
 
 But here the intruding thought my soul inspired 
 Reluctantly I from the page dismiss ; 
 Back to the theme from which my pen retired 
 
 Would now return, and to the second sphere 
 Reserving others till we 've done with this, 
 And let us seek for entertainment here. 
 
 The hoping soul on thoughts of Heaven dwells, 
 And each draws fancy pictures of its own ; 
 And some draw fancy pictures of the hells, — 
 
 As men have fancies of their dwelling place, 
 One fore-ordained of fate a burning zone, 
 The other granted by an act of grace. 
 
 Haply the truth between extremes doth lie, 
 
 And there 't is found when by the reason tried ; 
 Thus far we 've seen this simple rule apply : 
 
 In upward progress human good and ill, 
 Both work and grace, in union are allied, 
 And blend in one the purpose to fulfill. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 39 
 
 So come with me, — the field is ample, wide ; 
 
 Workers and work in multitude appear ; 
 
 We '11 join again the living, moving tide, 
 And may, perchance, the useful lesson learn, 
 
 By studying well each motive hope and fear, 
 
 How loss through evil may in good return. 
 
 Thus spake my escort : " From this lower vale, 
 Arise degrees of life in varying phase, 
 Circle on circle in the upward scale ; 
 
 And in each circle are degrees and plains. 
 Such as the motley field of earth displays. 
 Where to the eye but seeming discord reigns. 
 
 " Each mental state has its own atmosphere, 
 Where those who 're in like quality of mind 
 Together dwell, and find good grace and cheer, 
 
 And so each local circle has its bound. 
 
 That corresponds with those among mankind, 
 Where the peculiar bliss of each is found. 
 
 " The heaven of each must truly correspond 
 
 With its peculiar quality of soul ; 
 
 None can enjoy the higher bliss beyond 
 More than the lower pleasures they 've outgrown ; 
 
 As youth no pleasure sees in manhood's goal, 
 
 Nor childhood's toys, but seeks and makes its 
 own. 
 
40 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " So to the dweller in a higher sphere 
 A far off lower plain may seem a hell, 
 Because to him the mental atmosphere 
 
 Is such for him to breathe it would be woe ; 
 And 't would be misery for him to dwell 
 In plains above, or mental states below. 
 
 " The hells are heavens but differing in degree. 
 As more or less of good and truths abound ; 
 The more expanded the capacity, 
 
 The love and truth the more can enter in, — 
 The soul becomes more heavenly, glory-crowned, 
 And what was heaven becomes the hell of sin. 
 
 " Here in this sphere where zones with earth unite. 
 And lives of each so oft in common blend 
 In deeds of love to guide each other right. 
 
 Much can be learned unfolding wisdom's plan, 
 Of means ordained progressive to the end. 
 And vindicate the ways of God to man." 
 
 And now a multitude seemed circling near 
 Of varied forms in groups and companies ; 
 They seemed from lower circles of the sphere, — 
 
 Some on a mission to their friends on earth, 
 Some being taught in science of degrees. 
 Some meeting friends, arrived through spirit 
 birth. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 41 
 
 I saw these last on taking spirit form 
 
 Came weak and trembling from the twilight 
 
 shade, 
 And loving hearts of guardians beating warm 
 Received their spirits from the earth-cold clay, 
 With helping hands that gave them strength 
 
 and aid, 
 And led them forth rejoicing on their way. 
 
 Saw groups of youth in all their graceful charms, 
 Whose fornis had grown more beautiful and fair 
 Saw gleeful infants in their mothers' arms, 
 
 And infants that their mothers' arms had left. 
 Content and happy in the guardian care 
 Of loving matrons, of their own bereft. 
 
 The golden links of love are thus kept bright. 
 The selfish loves of human hearts expand. 
 And when the hearts bereaved again unite, 
 
 Broader and wider has the circle grown. 
 
 As those to each unknown meet hand in hand, 
 And hearts they knew not claiming for their own. 
 
 As souls arise to plains of heavenly joy. 
 
 As kindred loves the more expand and grow. 
 And universal love without alloy 
 
 Must crown the glory of celestial spheres. 
 
 These streams of love that rise in earth below 
 Are thus expanded through affection's tears. 
 
42 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 And soul to soul becomes the more endeared, 
 And in one circle stranger-spirits meet, 
 For they are friends whose soothing voice hath 
 cheered 
 
 Loved ones, unconscious given to their trust ; 
 Thus are our souls more rounded and complete, 
 And thus " affliction cometh not from dust." 
 
 All real progress only can advance 
 
 Through all the subtle agencies of means. 
 Nor is it left alone to grace or chance ; 
 
 Bat hearts to others linked in the great scale 
 Each intertwine in life's transpiring scenes, 
 And love prevails and progress cannot fail. 
 
 Thus is life real in its attributes. 
 
 The faculties of mind are not in vain. 
 
 But each must bear its share of golden fruits. 
 
 An active agent in a growth Divine, 
 
 Whereby the soul to fruitage shall attain. 
 And still more bright in radiant glory shine. 
 
 Thus is the life a fixed identity, 
 
 And has the mainspring of its power within ; 
 
 Its states of growth may differ in degree. 
 But through the will, as moved by higher truth, 
 
 The soul shall rise from ignorance and sin. 
 
 The young mature, and age renew its youth. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 43 
 
 These golden links are counted one by one, 
 
 And form the steps o'er which all feet must pass; 
 Each step attained marks well some duty done, 
 
 Each easier taken when the last we gain. 
 As guides and teachers of a higher class 
 New combinations of the truth explain. 
 
 For guides and teachers dwell in all the spheres. 
 Both of a given plain and plain above, 
 A guide for youth and childhood's tender years, 
 
 To lead in ways experience has learned. 
 
 Expound the Power, the Wisdom, and the Love, 
 And show how these may be to progress turned. 
 
 Without these agencies no soul could rise 
 
 Above the knowledge that is gleaned from earth, 
 No channel found for heavenly supplies ; 
 
 A fun'ral pall would on the scene descend. 
 Silence and death, without a second birth. 
 Would brood o'er all things and proclaim the 
 end. 
 
 As wisdom, knowledge, on the earth would die 
 If in them man had no inheritance, 
 And had no teachers to the want supply. 
 
 To point the truths thus far in man's pursuits. 
 Blank ignorance would fill the void of sense, 
 And men descend and travel back to brutes. 
 
44 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 My guide here paused, and I in vision saw 
 A few bright spirits from the earth appear, 
 Who seemed imbued with knowledge of the law, 
 
 Who 'd lived on earth subduing earthly strife ; 
 These passed the lower circles of the sphere 
 And onward pressed direct to higher life. 
 
 My friend here placed his hand upon my brow, 
 A moment paused, then said : " To thee 't is 
 
 given 
 To see the light where saints in glory bow, 
 
 To hear the music of the hosts on high. 
 
 The highest vision mortals have of Heaven," 
 And then appeared far in the upper sky 
 
 A dazzling splendor far above the sun, 
 And palaces and domes of crystal white. 
 Whose walls seemed but of deeds that men had 
 done, 
 
 With open gates, and streets of golden hue ; 
 All seemed transparent in the golden light 
 And stretching onward until lost from view. 
 
 And spirits came and went on wings of thought, 
 Some down descending to the realms below, 
 And to the lower peace and comfort brought ; 
 
THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 45 
 
 While some returned with messages of love, 
 And cords of light with glory seemed to glow 
 Betv/een the waiting souls below and friends 
 above. 
 
 Each dwelling seemed as of transparent glass 
 Through which the rays of golden glory shone, 
 Through which immortals seemed at will to 
 pass ; 
 
 From all, and each, there seemed to radiate 
 
 A light more dazzling than from sapphire stone, 
 Or tints that from the diamond emanate. 
 
 And multitudes of forms were dwellers there, — 
 A mighty host no mortal tongue could count, — 
 Each bearing floral gems from gardens fair ; 
 
 And, crowned with love's immortal diadem. 
 More bright than on transfiguration's mount, 
 Before me was the New Jerusalem. 
 
 And then the song of the redeeming love. 
 
 As though from earth below, from land and sea. 
 And from the air and circling spheres above ; 
 
 It seemed as though the all-inspiring word 
 Had struck great nature's chord of harmony. 
 And the grand music of the spheres I heard : — 
 
46 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " All glory, glory, to the Highest be, 
 
 For death, for life, for immortality I 
 
 Glory, for the gift and light of prophec}^ ; 
 
 All glory, glory be to God on high, — 
 
 The Saviour triumphs^ man shall never die ! — 
 
 " Glory, for strife and war and sin shall cease ; 
 Then glory, glory, for the soul's release ! 
 All honor, glory, to the Prince of Peace ! 
 All glory, glory be to God on high, — 
 The Saviour lives, the soul shall never die. 
 
 " Hail, day of universal love and light ! 
 Kindness shall rule the worlds instead of might ; 
 Wrong be subdued, and conquered by the right, — 
 All glory, glory be to God on high ! — 
 The Saviour lives, redemption 's ever nigh. 
 
 " All glory for the evil and the good ! 
 
 The mission of the evil understood. 
 
 The bond of- universal brotherhood ; 
 
 Let worlds below the spheres, and worlds above, 
 
 Join in the song of the redeeming love I 
 
 " Let praise and glory from all hearts ascend, 
 And from all forms of life in chorus blend ; 
 The good shall live, the evil have an end, — 
 Then from all being let the anthem rise, 
 From spheres and zones, to the celestial skies ! " 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 47 
 
 Here from my sight the vision passed away 
 With all the glory I had seen and heard ; 
 The lower sphere of life before me lay, — 
 
 My spirit guide, the busy multitude, — 
 All, so confused and strange, appeared 
 The moment the abode of solitude. 
 
48 THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 
 
 CANTO VI. 
 
 And, now, another object claimed my sight, 
 
 And in my mind strange interest awoke ; 
 
 It seemed investigation to invite, — 
 A spirit with a history to relate, — 
 
 Apj^roached more near, and plaintively thus 
 spoke : — 
 
 " I seem the victim of an adverse fate. 
 
 " My birth was on the lowest human plain, — 
 
 As though where brute and grov'ling manhood 
 meet,; — 
 
 And life from this view was a pang of pain ; 
 No father's smile, no mother's sweet caress. 
 
 No path of virtue for my wand'ring feet, 
 
 I see it now, a moral wilderness. 
 
 " All my surroundings a debauch of sin, — 
 No light of love or hope from overhead, — 
 The portals closed where joy might enter in ; 
 
 And bacchanalian riot ruled the hour, 
 My mates but corpses of the moral dead. 
 My soul spell-bound and in the demon's power. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 49 
 
 " My life was but a drunken, grov'ling hell. 
 I 've been a sprite in other hells, beside 
 The inmate of a dungeon, prison, cell ; 
 
 But parents of that pre-existence birth 
 I 've never seen, and doubt if they reside 
 In self-sustaining form in sphere or earth. 
 
 " I see it now, a pre-existent state, 
 
 On which I am permitted back to look, 
 Its strange weird ventures recapitulate ; 
 
 Though I the picture feign would turn aside,— 
 I pray some day it be a sealed up book, — 
 A past that to my mem'ry be denied. 
 
 " Of life my first faint recollections are 
 
 Of squalid filth, hunger insatiate. 
 
 That, like a haunting specter of despair. 
 Still mocked me when for bread I humbly plead, 
 
 And of a hand that gave a scanty plate ; 
 
 The next is of a guardian, drunken, dead. 
 
 " Then the beginning of a life of crime, — 
 When my adopted matron gave me free 
 Lessons in theft, and how to steal a dime, 
 
 And how a pocket I might pick with ease. 
 And then a chast'ning for delinquency,— 
 How my success would this strange being please ! 
 
50 THE LIGPIT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 "And in return she viewed me with strange 
 
 pride, 
 And for me built air-castles fair and bright, 
 But had no word that leaned to virtue's side ; 
 I came to view the world as lawful prey ; 
 Success in wrong to me became the right, — 
 I knew no better and no upward way. 
 
 "Associates in crime I did not choose; 
 
 They grew up with and claimed me as their 
 own ; 
 
 'T was deemed a wrong their counsel to refuse, 
 And deemed a virtue to their will obey. 
 
 Thus lost to good, to evil only prone, 
 
 The night of sin grew deeper, and no ray 
 
 "From sun, or star, from circle, sphere, or zone, 
 To quicken conscience or resolve awake. 
 Through all the gloom upon my pathway shone. 
 
 The very breath of demons filled the air, 
 And evil only to my conscience spake. 
 And left its bane of deadly venom there. 
 
 "And then I drank, mere shallow drafts at first, 
 To keep for deeper crime my courage up ; 
 And soon I felt a burning, growing thirst, 
 
 A quick'ning of unhallowed low desire. 
 I in my madness drained the poison cup, — 
 It woke new thirst, and set my brain on fire. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 51 
 
 "And then I slept; at first oblivious sleep, 
 My being paralyzed in every sense ; 
 Then gradually, as from the dark and deep 
 
 Of some strange under-world, I seemed to rise ; 
 It seemed as though my day of recompense 
 Was dawning in the far-off upper skies. 
 
 "As further from the nether depths I rose, 
 And of my senses had gained some control, 
 I thought me nearing to a band of foes ; 
 
 For voices came down through the uj)per deep, 
 And fiendish shapes, — a night-mare on my soul ! 
 Then woke to comprehend a drunken sleep. 
 
 "And then I slept again, and slept and dreamed; 
 My dream of all the mem'ries of the past. 
 And all my evil thoughts, a reflex seemed, — 
 
 Of robberies, of thefts, and burglaries, 
 Of victims ruined, standing pale, aghast, 
 Of ribald song, and of midnight orgies. 
 
 "And then I dreamed of bacchanalian feasts. 
 Where j)assion base ran riot, uncontrolled, 
 Where beasts aped men, and men appeared as 
 beasts, 
 
52 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 With pond'rous jaws, clieeks high and foreheads 
 low, 
 Haggard and wrinkled, prematurely old. 
 Eye-balls protruding with a fiendish glow. 
 
 " Had I a soul full born to live for aye. 
 Released from brute-life, individualized, 
 That to the lower could not fall a prey, — 
 
 Possessed of wisdom, will, and power to rise, 
 Through love perfected and immortalized, 
 To spheres of glory in celestial skies ? 
 
 "Then hear the story of a mortal doomed! 
 Whom fate had destined to the furnace-fires. 
 In sepulcher of living death entombed. 
 
 To reap the harvest his own hand had sown, — 
 The consummation of his low desires. 
 Receiving back and feasting on his own ! 
 
 " From crime to crime in sin I deeper sank. 
 
 And more abandoned grew from day to day ; 
 
 Insatiate for gold, of blood I drank ; 
 While in pursuit of victims and of spoils, 
 
 A traveler I met on the highway 
 
 And slew him, took his gold, and then the toils 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPPIECY. 53 
 
 " Of law and justice and a prison's cell 
 
 Were round about me ; then the trial came, — 
 The anguish of that hour no tongue can tell ; 
 
 'Twas conscience struggling, wakened from within; 
 The spark I knew not of became a flame ; 
 My thoughts conspired to taunt me with my sin. 
 
 "• The verdict, — ' Murder in the first degree I ' 
 
 My reeling senses heard the words unmoved ; 
 
 They added nothing to my agony ; 
 I only longed to cease to be, — to die ; 
 
 And what I longed for that my heart approved ; 
 
 To this curst life 't were well the end were nigh. 
 
 " And then came priestly aid, — a grave divine, 
 Calling for penitence for deeds I 'd done ; 
 Spoke of a suff ring Saviour ; called him mine ; 
 
 To seek his aid in this my dying breath : 
 And then I, too, as did the Spotless One, 
 Redeemed, would rise triumphant over death. 
 
 " 'T was strange I found the first good company — 
 And who religious, moral precepts taught, 
 Who proffered to me good society, — 
 
 When every claim to life I 'd forfeited ; 
 
 That this sliould also come to me unsought, 
 As did the vileness I inherited. 
 
54 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 "Although for this frail life too late to ask, 
 Yet I could ill one breath so pure become 
 That in eternal sunshine I might bask 
 
 With saints in glory, who 'd been saints on earth ; 
 With lease of an eternal life to come. 
 And I, of course, would covet such a birth. 
 
 " Such growing wortli I failed to comprehend, — 
 Myself to such conditions how adjust? 
 And then I thought of the untimely end 
 
 Of one I 'd slain, who, unprepared by grace, 
 Could never join this circle of the just, 
 Although I felt he more deserved the place. 
 
 " But then the moral sense in me was weak, — 
 To equity I 'd long a stranger been, — 
 And one who seemed so humble and so meek 
 
 Must by such frailty be presumed to know 
 How joys eternal can be built on sin. 
 And modest virtue be the base of woe. 
 
 " And then I thought it strange the human world 
 Had so ignored, belied, so good a cause. 
 When it from earth and life the victim hurled ; 
 
 And held that warring on him to the knife 
 Was safer, — more protection to the laws, — 
 Though born of grace, unfitted for this life. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 55 
 
 "But then I grasped the crucifix, as though 
 There might be virtue in atoning blood 
 To wash from earth the stain of human woe, — 
 
 Not only of the blood my hand had spilt, 
 But all that sin had rolled in as a flood, — 
 And prove an antidote for deepest guilt. 
 
 " And so the forms of penitence and prayer 
 My mind and grov'ling faculties observed 
 To fit me for the closing, and prepare 
 
 My stinted soul for angels' company, 
 
 Under a better master than I 'd served, — 
 The priest and gallows had prepared for me. 
 
56 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 CANTO VII. 
 
 " The hour of doom ! the iinal prayer ! the crash ! 
 
 The pangs of all life's agonies in one ! 
 
 The thunder's roar, the piercing lightning's 
 flash ! 
 As earth and heaven in conflagration met; 
 
 And then forgetfulness ; oblivion ! 
 
 My light of life a blank in darkness set. 
 
 " A glimmer of returning consciousness, 
 
 Of darkness, and a few faint streaks of light ; 
 A sense of lassitude and weariness, 
 
 Of also falling in a boundless deep ; 
 
 Of foes pursuing, and no power of flight, 
 The nightmare of a weird and broken sleep ; 
 
 " A body for an almost blasted soul 
 
 Preparing; with life's bound'ries undefined ; 
 
 A will-power faltering in control ; 
 To struggle back to life or cease to be ! 
 
 To either was my aimless soul resigned, 
 
 I 'd but a glimpse of immortality. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 57 
 
 " My life a struggle was, a war with fate, 
 
 And would sometimes tow'rd angel life incline ; 
 My new-formed body, so attenuate. 
 
 Was incomplete, and wanting in each part, — 
 Too frail to hold so gross a soul as mine. 
 Half formed by nature, half supplied by art. 
 
 " ' Tis well, perhaps, I 'd counseled with the priest. 
 
 It wakened thoughts of angel life in me ; 
 
 It made me more a human, less a beast, — 
 Better, perhaps, I 'd sought direct my place, — 
 
 But as to that exalted company 
 
 Of angels I had gained through gift of grace 
 
 " I searched in vain to find ; the eyeballs glared 
 Of darker spirits I had known before ; 
 And as for feasts, my soul no better fared 
 
 Then when I feasted on my stolen gains ; 
 
 I 'd missed by many leagues the golden shore, 
 I found no Saviour's blood had cleansed those 
 stains ! 
 
 "Those bloody stains! the deep and damning 
 guilt ! 
 They would not out ; but still my soul upbraid ; 
 There could no blood atone for blood I 'd spilt ; 
 
58 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 And as for angel life, the question was 
 Whether I lived at all, or gained control 
 Of that frail spirit form through spirit laws. 
 
 " I sadly learned the struggle on that line 
 Where souls in bodies may immortalize, — 
 Where love and wisdom with the will combine, 
 
 And with an effort barely gain the goal ; 
 Or wanting power to individualize 
 Must seek through other forms the growth of 
 soul 
 
 " That shall in bodies spiritual survive. 
 And positive to forces of decay 
 Shall for the better and the upward strive, 
 
 And with the angel band join company, 
 
 Though not by blood that washes guilt away, 
 But through the use of every faculty. 
 
 *" Friends I had many who would lead me on, — 
 Who far too friendly in earth life had been, — 
 And when my strength of will was nearl}^ gone 
 
 Would some new thought or theme or act propose ; 
 And higher spirits strove my life to win 
 In vain ! I felt it drawing to a close. 
 
 " In that first sphere, the under world of woes. 
 Close joined to all that 's low and vile in this. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 59 
 
 Through which the tide of moral death still flows, 
 The stream of evil seeks its lowest bed, — 
 Its lowest pleasure is its highest bliss. 
 And none so helpless as the moral dead. 
 
 " The wahton murd'rer of his fellow man 
 Can for his soul no outward body gain. 
 Embodying angel love ; and never can 
 
 To higher forms of spirit be allied 
 'Till transmigrated to a higher plain, 
 ' In him doth no eternal life abide.' 
 
 "This truth I felt, when guilt my conscience 
 stung. 
 And sometimes struggled to avert my doom ; 
 I knew 't was death, and still to life I clung ; 
 I clutched at earthly forms to find relief. 
 
 And looked through others' eyes to light the 
 
 gloom. 
 And into human forms stole as a thief; 
 
 *' Subdued their will and consciousness to mine, — 
 Spoke through them, wrote my undeveloped 
 
 thought, — 
 Dwelt on things heavenly, loves divine ; 
 
 On sacrifice for sin, and means of grace, — 
 Such as the priest before to me had taught, — 
 And felt at ease in my new dwelling place. 
 
60 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 "Friends gathered round, companions in my woe, 
 And all upon the same strange errand bent, 
 And multitudes of earth ran to and fro ; 
 
 And so to eke our weird existence out 
 
 With them we oft in darkened circles met, 
 And from their minds removed the load of doubt. 
 
 " Our lying thoughts we through their organs 
 spoke ; 
 Described the beauties of our spirit home, — 
 And in their willing minds strange fancies 
 woke, 
 Of meeting with us in our own blest sphere ; 
 From which we never could consent to roam 
 Except to bring to friends on earth good cheer. 
 
 " We personated friends and kindred lost, 
 And ponderable substances we moved ; 
 We gave them gospel, without fee or cost. 
 
 In rappings, tippings, — and the tests we gave 
 To doubting minds the pleasing doctrine proved 
 That there 's immortal life beyond the grave. 
 
 " We used deception and hypocrisy ; 
 
 Without them our last hope and prop must fail ; 
 Had we disclosed our true identity 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 61 
 
 As demons, witches, we 'd been exorcised, 
 And driven back to our own bodies frail. 
 And our approaching fate have realized. 
 
 " But these were only moments of relief ; 
 
 We roamed the earth for other forms of clay ; 
 
 And in the desperation of our grief 
 We seized the weak of feeble will possessed, — 
 
 Their forms distorted, reason stole away, — 
 
 Consigned to lunacy by fiends obsessed. 
 
 " Some here in love with ill revenge still seek. 
 And roam the earth their instruments to find; 
 With forms effeminate and will-power weak, 
 
 Who '11 do their bidding and their victims slay ; 
 And to the Booths and Guiteaus of mankind 
 The good and innocent may fall a prey. 
 
 " With earthly life resentments may not end. 
 And from the murderer you are not free. 
 Whom unrepentant from the world you send. 
 
 All wreaking in his vengeance and his sin ; 
 On God you cannot shift responsibility 
 By means of gallows or the guillotine. 
 
 " Would you reform the vicious and the weak ? 
 In durance hold them to their conscience still. 
 If for them you true penitence would seek. 
 
62 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 Until their vengeful passions are subdued ; 
 Obedient to the word, ' Thou shalt not kill,' 
 Less hands would be in brother's blood imbrued. 
 
 " To thee, O man, are given love and power, 
 And heavenly wisdom in degree is thine, 
 Thy fellowman to save, not to devour ; 
 
 Thy duty do ! 'T is base and cowardly 
 To force the Wisdom and the Love Divine 
 To do the work that should be done by thee. 
 
 " At length the doom of destiny drew nigh. 
 
 The homicide is dying in his sin ; 
 
 I saw I had a second death to die, — 
 My will to conquer human wills had failed, — 
 
 I sought brute forms, and feign would enter in, 
 
 And then all objects on my vision j)aled. 
 
 " And such the world might deem the final end 
 Of undeveloped being steeped in crime ; 
 But since in nature all things upward tend, — 
 
 The subtle as the gross is not destroyed, — 
 Though efforts seeming fail, 't is left to time 
 The effort to renew and fill the void. 
 
 " To me 't is given that frail life-line to trace, — 
 From that last conscious, sad, and gloomy hour 
 I gained no angel-life by gift of grace ; 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 63 
 
 But in a genial form I did a soul appear, 
 
 O'er which the second death hath no more 
 
 power, 
 Another earth-life passed, and now am here. 
 
 " 'T is well oblivion throws the friendly veil 
 O'er all such lives of dark and adverse fate, 
 Lest as the first the second life might fail ; 
 
 The soul finds its responsibility 
 
 Enough without a pre-existent state 
 Menacing it with its delinquency." 
 
64 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 CANTO VIII. 
 
 " The earliest memory of the life anew 
 Is of a childhood, joyous, pure, and free ; 
 Of loving j)arents to their duty true. 
 
 Of brothers, sisters, round the fireside, — 
 Disporting with a merry, merry glee, — 
 The cherished objects of paternal pride ; 
 
 " On Christmas morn of starting with a bound 
 From beds so warm at the first peep of day ; 
 Of Christmas gifts in well-filled stockings found, 
 
 Of toys that made the heart of childhood glad. 
 The sunny hours of prattle and of play, — 
 We saw the good, and thought not of the bad. 
 
 *' The well-filled baskets for the needy poor, — 
 Whose wants called forth sweet heart-felt sym- 
 pathy,— 
 The welcome greeting as from door to door 
 
 The ' Merry Christmas' was with smiles returned ; 
 I learned the noblest gift was charity. 
 Such was the flame that on life's altar burned. 
 
THE LiailT OF PROPHECY. 65 
 
 " Was taught that heaven is in the loving heart, 
 Its bliss unfolding but by slow degrees ; 
 That of its riches each must gain his part 
 
 By acts of goodness and in loving deeds ; 
 It comes not e'en to downy beds of ease 
 Where'er the ear is deaf to human needs. 
 
 " It comes not dazzling to the outward sight, 
 In outward form through faith and grace. 
 Unless the glory with the inner light 
 
 In correspondence and communion blends, — 
 Is not confined to world, nor time, nor space. 
 But where the soul through love to glory tends. 
 
 "Although I could not in my former state 
 By prayer and penitence to glory rise. 
 And join the circle of the good and great 
 
 With heart and hand in brother's blood defiled. 
 Yet I might gain the far-off heavenly prize 
 By first becoming as a little child. 
 
 " Toward the progress all things seemed to tend. 
 All my surroundings peace and harmony. 
 In each wise counselor I had a friend, 
 
 And all example was on virtue's side ; 
 As brethren dwell in peace and unity. 
 One common sympathy our souls allied. 
 
66 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " In intellectual lore I was not taught, 
 Except the practical to be applied 
 To real life ; and so my mode of thought, 
 
 As of my parents, was by labor bound ; 
 But still my intuitions seemed to guide, 
 And soon a broader field of thought I found. 
 
 "My mother was of nature sensitive. 
 Her power of will was easily controlled. 
 Her thought and reason seemed intuitive. 
 
 She saw things real that to other eyes. 
 And other natures cast in diff'rent mould, 
 Were only fancies clad in truth's disguise ; 
 
 " Beheld at distance by her inner sight 
 
 Events and scenes transpiring on the earth. 
 Time proved her each prediction to be right. 
 
 All without knowledge of her outward sense, 
 Which may explain my transmigration birth. 
 And of my origin the why and wlience. 
 
 " This nature plastic I inherited. 
 
 And from my neighbors, sisters, brothers, all, 
 I differed in the things I thought and did ; 
 
 Events I viewed by some strange inner power ; 
 If on the group some evil were to fall, 
 I gave the fact, the place, the mode, the liour. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 67 
 
 " I see now how when human life began, 
 Ere soul-transmission had become the law, 
 How intuition was the guide of man. 
 
 And, wanting outward precepts to direct. 
 Drew from the inner world, and visions saw. 
 And to the inner law became subject; 
 
 " But learning more to study and reflect. 
 Less passive and more positive his mind. 
 Truth comes through reason and the intellect, 
 
 With more of wisdom as his powers expand. 
 And though now far less common to mankind 
 The intuitions more sublime and grand. 
 
 " T is not for outward man the truth to know. 
 The median line where form and substance meet. 
 Or through what channels spirit force may flow. 
 
 The links unseen that form the mystic tie. 
 That must unite to make the chain complete. 
 And in each seeming want the void supply. 
 
 "And could men backward trace each human life, 
 And trace the elements that gave it form, 
 Behold in them the struggle and the strife 
 
 To individualize upon the human plain. 
 Divine affections in hearts beating warm, 
 In place of blame mild charity would reign. 
 
68 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " My motlier, though to earthly form allied, 
 Seemed breathing of another atmosphere, — 
 She seemed on earth a spirit glorified. 
 
 At middle life she left her form of clay, 
 
 Passed through this circle of the second sphere, 
 And now my guardian on my upward way. 
 
 " Severe the blow ; my soul was bowed with grief, 
 A tie mysterious was snapped in twain, 
 But soon my stricken spirit found relief. 
 
 The messenger of death my pathway crossed, 
 'T was welcome, and I gained the spirit plain, 
 And joined the sainted presence I had lost. 
 
 " I linger here but for a little space, 
 
 My strange, sad pre-existence t(5 review, 
 My higher being from the lower trace ; 
 
 A task to which perhaps few may incline, 
 A gift that seems but granted to the few. 
 That soon in higher life will not be mine." 
 
THE LIGHT OF PKOPHECY. 69 
 
 CANTO IX. 
 
 '^ The Buddha taught of bemg's wondrous sea, 
 On which the waves of life their courses run, 
 And never from the ocean fully free, 
 
 The giver back receiving what it gives ; 
 So souls return, and with the Giver one, 
 ^ Unto Nirvana where the silence lives.' 
 
 "The dew-drop slips into the shining sea;" 
 
 There lost, that sparkling jewel is no more ; 
 
 But man has hold upon identity 
 By will-force, not the outward force of wind ; 
 
 Waves are propelled and break upon the shore ; 
 
 Man is not God, but God in finite mind. 
 
 " These forms in infinite variety 
 
 From fields celestial to the lowest zone 
 Are but the will and thought of Deity, 
 
 Wrought out by beings as you here behold 
 On plains of life, each working on its own. 
 And thus the God-hood faculties unfold." 
 
70 THE LiaiTT OF PKOPHECY. 
 
 So spake my guide, and then my eyes beheld, 
 Stretching away from where the darkness dwells, 
 Far tow'rd the city where love's anthem swelled, 
 
 In vision, spirits of the countless dead, — 
 
 Some from the earth direct, some from the hells. 
 But all were hung'ring for more heavenly bread. 
 
 I saw the hindrances to their advance, 
 
 And traced them backAvard to an earthly source. 
 Saw no condition was the sport of chance. 
 
 But through perversion of progression's laws, 
 Perverse volition or from outwaixl force. 
 And each legitimate effect from cause. 
 
 I saw the stern oppressors of the race 
 
 All upward struggling from the hells below. 
 And on the outward boundary of grace 
 
 Asking of their oppressed a helping hand. 
 
 Praying that grace from out the depths of woe 
 The chastened contrite spirit might command. 
 
 Beheld the strange reverses in the lot 
 
 Of those who mingled in earth's busy strife. 
 That deeds of good and ill were not forgot. 
 
 But, as a faithful monitor within. 
 Retarded or advanced the spirit life 
 As good or evil the earth life had been. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 71 
 
 Some who on earth were sinned against and 
 wronged, 
 Misjudged, and wrongly by the world con- 
 demned, 
 Had borne the shame that rightfully belonged 
 To others, gladly lent their friendly aid. 
 
 And those who wronged them were with grief 
 
 o'erwhelmed, 
 Repentant, till the penalty was paid. 
 
 I thought me, oh, that mortal man might see 
 The real wealth that must the soul adorn ; 
 How all earth's surplus gains are vanity, 
 
 And must retard the real life beyond ; 
 The only riches with the spirit born 
 Are those that to the heavenly correspond. 
 
 I thought how men would after goodness strive 
 
 Could they but know good deeds alone are blest; 
 
 That he who wrongs a neighbor cannot thrive 
 Till all these wrongs in penitence and prayer 
 
 Receive forgiveness from the wronged, op- 
 pressed, 
 
 Then with the wronged the golden glory share. 
 
 The golden age by prophecy foretold 
 
 Will come ; and right shall take the place of 
 
 wrong. 
 When all the latent human powers unfold ; 
 
72 THE LIGHT OF PKOPHECY. 
 
 When hope that 's weak, and faith that has no 
 power, 
 Shall yield to knowledge. Man has waited 
 
 long, 
 But prophecy has fixed the day, the hour. 
 
 The light is streaming from the spheres above, 
 
 And multitudes have caught its golden beams ; 
 
 And soon the warm baptismal fire of love 
 Shall down descend, the glory be revealed ; 
 
 The truth undimned shall take the place of 
 dreams. 
 
 And life 's great mystery shall be unsealed. 
 
 And then the wolf shall gambol with the lamb, — 
 The hurtful passions be to good subdued, — 
 With Christians as with followers of Brahm ; 
 
 For light and glory to all faiths shall come. 
 None on the rights of others shall intrude. 
 And this shall be the world's millennium. 
 
 Then on the circles of the upper spheres 
 
 Shall dawn a brighter day to souls oppressed ; 
 For, looking backward through the earthly years, 
 
 Their faults and follies will be counted less ; 
 The soul in nobler deeds approved and blest, 
 Shall rise to higher plains of holiness. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 73 
 
 But here there broke upon my reverie 
 
 A spirit form I 'cl known in earthly gni^e, 
 Who seemed the subject of a history, 
 And anxious to his inner thoughts reveal, — 
 He 'd seen the glory, struggled for the prize, 
 And plaintively and sad he made appeal. 
 
 It seemed to give his soul a sweet relief. 
 His past and sad life-hist'ry to confide 
 To one who in his earth-experience brief 
 
 Had seen and known him in his best estate ; 
 And known, when by a worldly standard tried. 
 His moral value by that estimate. 
 
 I knew him well ; he 'd banks, and stocks, and 
 -lands. 
 Counted in millions, on the day he died, 
 And all the product of his brain and hands ; 
 
 He never took unlawful usury, — 
 No one his strict integrity denied, — 
 Sometimes responded to the call of charity. 
 
 Money his all, — he took no broader range, — 
 In his purview of human wants and needs ; 
 He watched from day to day the stock exchange, 
 
 Counted his chances in investments made. 
 Reviewed his mortgages and title deeds. 
 His chances in some bargain, sale, or trade. 
 
74 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 His inner life he never recognized, 
 His outward physical to him was all, 
 For what it gave to this his wealth he prized ; 
 
 And lived as though he viewed all else as vain. 
 And knew not that it on his sense must pall. 
 And that true godliness alone is gain. 
 
 Wealth was his god, he worshiped at its shrine, 
 Its golden glory was his soul's delight ; 
 And to his eyes its glow incarnadine 
 
 Was more than all the subtle gems that glow 
 In azure space, and crown the brow of night. 
 Or sparkle in the light through realms below. 
 
 By this he measured every human worth, — 
 All thrones and empires to this shrine must 
 
 bow, — 
 The governments and laws that rule the earth 
 
 Must all be gauged his int'rests to subserve ; 
 Hence, his stern civil code could not allow 
 The golden rule on earth, — men to observe. 
 
 The poor sometimes received his charity, 
 
 And this he claimed to be their highest right. 
 They might enjoy it as a rarity ; 
 
 But to inquire what WTong had made them poor 
 Would be to give his riches wings for flight 
 That they to others' comforts might inure. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 75 
 
 And so he lived, and in his riches died, 
 And in this lowest circle of the sphere 
 He found himself witii spirits low allied, — 
 
 Scathed and bereft of all his soul had prized, — 
 And wept to see their glory disappear, 
 Yet with a feeble soul immortalized. 
 
 This was the burden of his sad lament. 
 He veiled his face before us as in shame ; 
 But viewed us as some guardian angel sent 
 
 To lend a helping hand of strength and aid ; 
 He bowed in rev'rence at great Howard's name, 
 As though his every thought the will obeyed. 
 
 What blest his life on earth had proved a curse, — 
 He spoke it with a saddened sigh of grief. 
 He feign would to the poor his wealth disburse, 
 
 Could he but be permitted to control 
 
 As when on earth ; and thus would find relief, 
 And lift the sordid burden from his soul. 
 
 He 'd tried in vain his will-power to divert 
 From those who heired his rich inheritance. 
 And think of heavenly things, but found inert 
 
 His powers of mind in all his faculties 
 
 When drawn from dollars, sliillings, pounds, 
 
 and pence 
 To dwell upon life's true realities. 
 
76 THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 
 
 " But now too late the vital truth I 've learned, — 
 The rich are not more blest than are the poor, 
 Unless their riches are to blessings turned 
 
 In deeds of love that make the giver blest, 
 
 Crowning his soul with wealth that shall endure, 
 With conscience evermore a welcome guest. 
 
 "No one great riches can accumulate 
 
 But some one somewhere is oppressed and 
 wronged ; 
 
 I now see millions crushed by adverse fate. 
 Their means of sustenance held by the few ; 
 
 When, if by right it fell where it belonged, 
 
 Joy, peace, and plenty would for these ensue. 
 
 " Could men but know how this eternal thirst 
 For wealth that perisheth e'en in its use 
 Has made men poor, their very being cursed 
 
 In spheres of life where love alone is gain. 
 How soon they 'd learn to use without abuse 
 The gifts of earth for pleasure without pain. 
 
 " When I review the past, and know that I, 
 By hoarding riches far beyond my needs. 
 Have been the cause of many a tearful sigh. 
 
 And souls have pined in poverty obscure 
 
 Who might have been renowned for worthy 
 
 deeds 
 But for the penury doomed to endure, 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 77 
 
 " My soul is sad, oppressed, and lingers still 
 Amid the scenes of suffering and woe ; 
 I feel I have a mission to fulfill — 
 
 To lift some burden from some weary heart — 
 Ere I can leave these scenes of want below, 
 Of which my very being seems a part." 
 
 My guardian replied : " This grievous sin 
 Is but the common error of mankind. 
 The very bane of social life has been ; 
 
 'T is by the law of might wealtli rules the earth, 
 Riches are in the hands of few confined, 
 Without regard to merit or soul-worth. 
 
 "Wealth centralized the poor man's suffrage 
 buys ; 
 
 It traffics, gambles, in the souls of men ; 
 
 Honor and justice and the right defies ; 
 Corrupts and poisons every source of power ; 
 
 It talks of equal rights and freedom when 
 
 It lays its schemes its victims to devour. 
 
 " Insidious and hypocritical, 
 
 It claims to be the poor man's faithful friend ; 
 
 That labor is the source of capital. 
 And is the capital the mass possess ; 
 
 And that all governments and laws should tend 
 
 To make the burden of earth's toilers less. 
 
78 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " It leads ; the masses follow and applaud, 
 And ere tliey are aware are in its toils ; 
 They recognize, alas, too late the fraud ! 
 
 They 've granted power to never more recall, 
 And capital rejoices in its spoils. 
 And men as serfs before the Molocli fall. 
 
 " Men labor for the wealth that perisheth ; 
 
 Substance perishable is their reward ; 
 
 The spirit finds no bread that nourisheth. 
 In deeds of love, in place of selfish gain, 
 
 The soul can find the kingdom of the Lord, 
 
 And eat the bread of life that can sustain. 
 
 Yet wealth with proper use may benefit 
 The world at large, each individual bless ; 
 A nobler heritage it may transmit 
 
 By giving labor to productive thought ; 
 
 Gold 'shall itself be turned to righteousness, 
 That hath the labor of the needy bought. 
 
 '' Of all bereft that was on earth thine all. 
 
 Go seek the bread on which thy soul shall live ! 
 Go listen to the needy when they call ! 
 
 Meet those in kindness who for selfish ends 
 You turned away till they your sin forgive, 
 And for the past make honorable amends 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 79 
 
 " By guiding others in the way of good, — 
 Impressing on their minds susceptible 
 Tlie heavenly law of human brotherhood ; 
 
 In blessing others shall thyself be blest ; 
 The light thou bringest to the skeptical 
 Shall guide thee also to a sphere of rest. 
 
 "' Teach thy companions in the spirit-land, 
 Who as thyself bereft are poor indeed, 
 The priceless value of the great command — 
 
 To love the Lord with heart, and soul, and mind 
 By aid substantial in a brother's need; 
 Thus serving Him, by serving well mankind. 
 
 " Do this and soiil-life thou shalt live for aye ; 
 
 It never is too late a life to mend ; 
 
 The Great Soul-Father will not close the way 
 Against the progress of one soul that strives ; 
 
 His mighty love and wisdom will befriend 
 
 The life that seeks the good of other lives. 
 
 "'Tis true this progress with more ease is gained 
 In contact with the scenes of life below ; 
 And when through sad experience attained, 
 
 With less facilities to right the wrong. 
 
 More poignant the regret and pang of woe, 
 The labor tedious and the path seems long. 
 
80 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " But go, my friend, the goal thou 'It find at last. 
 True riches are laid up for thee in store ; 
 Brood not upon the follies of the past. 
 
 But onward press, and one by one you '11 find 
 Jewels more bright than monarch ever wore, 
 Purer than from earth's mines of gold reiined." 
 
 We left him, and a smile was on his brow ; 
 He felt a nobler life to his had spoke. 
 And from his lips we heard the solemn vow 
 
 To henceforth follow in the path of peace, — 
 New resolution in a soul awoke. 
 That from a heavy burden felt release. 
 
 This interview a double blessing seemed, 
 A loving soul in blessing had been blest ; 
 Around my guide a brighter glory beamed, 
 
 Around me seemed a purer atmosphere ; 
 I felt new sympathy for the oppressed. 
 And would that earth the precious words might 
 hear. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 81 
 
 CANTO X. 
 
 We passed beyond this multitude so vast, 
 
 Now ling'ring, trembling near the shores of 
 
 time, — 
 Sadly adjusting errors of the past, — 
 
 And gained the second circle of the sphere ; 
 Farther removed from the results of crime, 
 A band of happier spirits circled near. 
 
 But these had passed the furnace and the fire. 
 Been in the crucible of penance tried. 
 Had gained through discipline the circle higher ; 
 
 Some more direct, and some through weary years. 
 But now more closely to the good allied, 
 All were attracted tow'rd the upper spheres. 
 
 Refreshing streams meandered through the vale, 
 Bordered with garlands of unfading flowers. 
 Sweet evergreens, whose fragrance never fail -, 
 
 And birds of beauty sang their matin lays, 
 
 Joyous and free in heavenly woodland bowers. 
 The very air seemed redolent with praise. 
 
82 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 I thought me then how favored, blest, are they 
 Who 've gained the peace and rest of this fair 
 
 land ; 
 Who from earth's darkness turn towards the day, 
 And meet the angel hosts who down descend, 
 With brighter visions of the glory planned. 
 In whose bright beams the soul shall upward 
 tend. 
 
 Anxious to know the past of dwellers here 
 I gazed upon the throng in thoughtful mood ; 
 And soon, as through my will, a form drew near, 
 
 And with a voice of cheer the silence broke. 
 And, as my inmost thoughts he understood. 
 Yielded his will to mine, and thus he spoke : 
 
 " This plane I 've reached through years of weary 
 toil. 
 And was the victim of another's will, 
 I reached the human in the serpent's coil, 
 
 Environed in the serpent's deadly slime. 
 And to the damning poison of the still 
 I owe against myself the blasting crime. 
 
 " The bane of evil I inherited 
 
 In every fiber of my being lurked ; 
 I bore the woes that others merited, 
 
 Was by the author of my being cursed ; 
 The foe insidious destruction worked, 
 I lived the victim of transmitted thii'st. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 83 
 
 " In all but this I seemed to goodness heir, 
 All other virtues I could emulate, 
 E'en temp'rance was to me a goddess fair ; 
 
 I looked with loathing on the drunken sot, — 
 It was the soul rebelling against fate, — 
 To love the thing I hated was my lot." 
 
 Strange contrast in a weird and weary life ! 
 That demonstrates divinity within. 
 That longs for harmony, yet yields to strife. 
 
 As something needful to effect the cure ; 
 Forefending virtue in the end shall win. 
 And for the present sin and shame endure. 
 
 " My early childhood through a mother's care 
 Was shielded from the ready tempter's wiles ; 
 I shuddered at the drunken, vacant stare. 
 
 The swagg'ring form, that on the circle broke, 
 And little thought the curse the earth defiles 
 Would to my neck adjust the galling yoke. 
 
 " I thought me drunkenness may do its worst, — 
 My soul by this shall never be defiled, — 
 And yet I yielded to the burning thirst 
 
 That on the sense of tender childhood palled, 
 But now my manhood faculties beguiled. 
 My life o'erwhelmed, and every sense enthralled. 
 
84 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " One draft aroused the latent appetite, 
 
 Another woke strange fancies in the brain ; 
 
 Of drink I loathed the very thought and sight, 
 And vowed I 'd nevermore the poison taste ; 
 
 And yet the cup was passed, I drank again 
 
 Until my being was a moral waste. 
 
 " But for a season youthful love prevailed, 
 And romance o'er me held a magic sway ; 
 A maiden's charms the citadel assailed, 
 
 And seemed the strongest force my steps to guide ; 
 I with fair promise bore the prize away, — 
 A happy, trusting, and confiding bride. 
 
 " But, ah ! she little knew the boist'rous sea 
 
 On which she 'd launched a frail and tender bark; 
 
 What tempest storms were gath'ring on the lee, 
 That must the voyager of life overwhelm ; 
 
 What threatening skies, what clouds as mid- 
 night dark ; 
 
 How frail the hand she 'd trusted with the helm ! 
 
 " The story of that life I need not tell : 
 
 Though lives of millions might be told in mine, 
 'T is but a history that 's known too well ; 
 
 Too many hearts the woful record bear 
 
 Of those ' who long have tarried at the wine,' 
 Too many broken vows of love are there. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 85 
 
 " I 'd children that inherited my name, 
 
 Who shared the grief of one to me too true, 
 Who learned to bear with love the sin and shame 
 
 Of one who should be pitied more than blamed ; 
 Whose thirst was with his being born, and grew. 
 And by hereditary force inflamed. 
 
 " My appetite in them did not appear. 
 
 Such is the law of man's perverted taste ; 
 
 But in some birth to come what 's in arrear, 
 Although a generation passing o'er. 
 
 The insidious foe of mortals can be traced, 
 
 It seizes on its victim as before. 
 
 " Those scenes of shame, of suffering and want. 
 That made domestic life a fearful hell. 
 That sometimes now my higher being haunt, 
 
 I trust the veil of time will hide from view. 
 
 With other scenes on which I 'm loth to dwell. 
 I now more brief my history pursue. 
 
 " My last on earth was in a drunken brawl, — 
 The world had no regretful tears to shed, — 
 A few hearts mourned o'er my untimely fall ; 
 
 And those who never blamed still wept for me. 
 And o'er the mem'ry of the early dead 
 They threw the friendly veil of charity. 
 
86 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " The first low circle of the second sphere 
 Received my soul, awoke to consciousness ; 
 And, vacillating between hope and fear, 
 
 I entered spirit-life. In that strange realm 
 My first sensations were of weariness, 
 On billows tost with no one at the helm. 
 
 "At length the mists before my vision cleared ; 
 From curiosity strange forms drew near, — 
 And in the circle some old friends appeared ; 
 
 And then my thirst returned with pangs of pain. 
 In vain my comrades proffered friendly cheer, 
 I longed to be in my old haunts again. 
 
 "And there were those who deeply sympathized 
 In these my longings for the flowing bowl ; 
 And when the change I 'd fully realized. 
 
 They led me back that I again might share 
 The sparkling beverage that blasts the soul. 
 Follows to spirit-life, and haunts it there. 
 
 "Again I mingled with the drunken crew. 
 
 And round my home where sympathy still 
 
 dwelt. 
 And near the hearts that still for me beat true ; 
 
 I drank potations from the poisoned air. 
 
 And, from the breath inhaled of comrades, felt 
 Somre mitigation of my sad despair. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 87 
 
 " And here for years I 'd will-power over men ; 
 My cup of grief at length less poignant grew 
 As good I recognized. I left the den 
 Where demons gathered at their hellish feast. 
 Then passed from earth my youth's companion 
 
 true ; 
 New glory beamed, — my burning thirst had 
 ceased. 
 
 " But, oh, th€ torture of those years of hell ! 
 
 The dreadful ordeal of a soul debauched ! 
 
 Worse than confinement in a felon's cell ; 
 Where thirst, remorse, and ling'ring hope combine, 
 
 And for one ray of light, through darkness 
 watched. 
 
 Itself is hell, and such a hell was mine. 
 
 " And yet I realize it more of late. 
 
 So much all grades of life some comfort find 
 Adapted to their own peculiar state. 
 
 And present satisfaction to them give, — 
 Which is the highest heaven of the mind. 
 Until in higher plains it learns to live. 
 
 '^ That sainted soul ! I saw it pass from earth. 
 And saw tlie band of loving hearts attend; 
 I saw the glory of true spirit-birth, — 
 
88 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 From weary night a spirit hail the morn. 
 I knew across life's border I 'd a friend ; 
 In that bright moment were two spirits born. 
 
 " Her presence gently led me from the vale, 
 As from the shadows of a weary land. 
 I learned that though all other friends may fail 
 
 One heart alone is true, who knew me best, — 
 Enough that she could lend a helping hand. 
 And guide the wand'rer to a home -of rest." 
 
 Here at his side the bride of youth appeared. 
 Her smile was one of love and victory ; 
 She added : " Many hearts to us endeared 
 
 Rejoice that now our union is complete ; 
 Our cherished ones on earth we often see. 
 And bring some inward light to guide their feet. 
 
 '^ Let mortals learn less censure and less blame 
 For errors that the human heart beset ; 
 The spark of love may kindle to a flame. 
 
 Consuming from the native ore the dross. 
 
 And save a soul ; the world will learn it yet, — 
 The soul that true life gains must suffer loss. 
 
 " The deeper that it down in sin descends. 
 Deeper the agitation it must find 
 To gain the point where agitation ends, 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 89 
 
 Till from its surface pure it shall reflect 
 
 The image heavenly ; and the soul, refined, 
 Shall be as burnished gold without defect. 
 
 " The love that must the soul regenerate 
 Is love divine, and from the fountain pure. 
 But from the finite soul must emanate ; 
 
 As it received to others must impart ; 
 
 The soul the saviour of the soul must be ; 
 The heart that loves must renovate the heart. 
 
 " And who shall mark the line of man's demerits. 
 Where outward force and his volition meet ; 
 How much of moral ill his soul inherits. 
 
 As does his body physical defects ; 
 
 How great his power with evil to compete. 
 How great the moral sin of his neglects." 
 
 Thus closed an interesting history 
 
 Of frailty, and of love's redeeming power. 
 
 It with me left a sacred memory. 
 And there were other list'ning souls that heard. 
 
 The songs of birds seemed sweeter in the 
 bower, 
 
 A heavenly treasure in each golden word. 
 
90 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 CANTO XI. 
 
 The vision passed ; another form appeared, 
 And he 'd a solemn hist'ry to relate ; 
 'T was of a childhood in the cloister reared, 
 
 A manhood that the outward world abjures, — 
 A piety most pharisaic, straight, 
 That, hating this, a better world secures. 
 
 " My memory of earth brings sad reg]*et ; 
 
 I left it with a bright expectancy ; 
 
 And when I woke sad disappointment met ; 
 The mists of doubt my very being chilled ; 
 
 The glory that through faith awaited me 
 
 I saw not ; but in place the skies were filled 
 
 " With clouds that seemed to veil the face of Him 
 My faith had taught me 1 'd in glory see ; 
 I tried in vain to pierce the shadows dim ; 
 
 But faith and hope no longer could avail. 
 And still were changed not to reality, 
 And thus my prop I saw when tested fail. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 91 
 
 " I had been taught that faith was all the strength 
 My soul would need for passing through the 
 
 vale ; 
 That firm reliance was the breadth and length 
 
 And depth of what a Christian life requires 
 To reach the highest bliss within the pale 
 Of grace divine, to which a soul aspires. 
 
 " I saw bright forms, in deeds of goodness rife, 
 To touch whose garments I 'd no power of will ; 
 I saw that mine had been a vacant life, 
 
 Empty of all life's jewels gathered in ; 
 
 With nought but faith the inner blank to fill 
 I 'd merit less than many a child of sin. 
 
 " I learned that vain are dogmas, faiths, and creeds, 
 Although a recluse innocent and pure ; 
 That only as these crystallize to deeds 
 
 Of loving kindness in the brotherhood 
 They can have potency in making sure 
 The glory that awaits the true and good. 
 
 *^ By justice man is judged ; and he receives 
 For what he is in all his faculties. 
 For what he does, and not what he believes ; 
 
 When what he is determines what he does. 
 And his good deeds proceed from what he is, 
 He 's no upbraiding conscience to accuse. 
 
92 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " His life is then a life of harmony, 
 
 With every sense subjected to the right, 
 And in his word there 's no hypocrisy ; 
 
 In him the graces in communion meet, 
 
 His very thoughts and deeds as one unite, — 
 Such is a spirit glorified, complete. 
 
 " A deed though evil may not as a whole 
 
 The real nature of a soul express ; 
 
 And so when love of self is in control 
 A deed of goodness may predominate ; 
 
 And though the one may curse, the other bless, 
 
 Yet neither gives the soul's true estimate. 
 
 " Oh, sadly did I feel the vacancy 
 
 When loving spirits plead in my behalf. 
 And 1 'd to give them but my formula 
 
 Of what by education I was taught ; 
 My soul seemed but an ancient cenotaph 
 That, empty, for a real tenant sought. 
 
 " What I had learned to prize of most account 
 
 I found to be the very least of all ; 
 
 My laid-up treasures proved of small amount 
 When by the standard of true value prized ; 
 
 The widow's mite would in the balance fall 
 
 Against all worldly ease I 'd sacrificed. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 93 
 
 " I 'd placed small value on the things of time, 
 But heavenly wealth, as taught, well under 
 
 stood ; 
 Sins of omission were my greatest crime ; 
 
 My early training seemed at fault in this, — 
 Did little evil, and but little good, 
 And trusted to another's righteousness. 
 
 " There seemed no blame ; no one of faults ac- 
 cused. 
 
 No arbitrary penalties I met. 
 
 No outward frown for faculties misused ; 
 But my unfitness met me face to face ; 
 
 For what I had not done I felt regret ; 
 
 That what I might have done I 'd left to grace. 
 
 " I 'd prayed for all the needy and. distressed. 
 As though in some way some one might provide, 
 And never dreamed I further must invest 
 
 To help the cause I 'd left to grace alone ; 
 And not one luxury myself denied. 
 Since grace had resource so beyond my own. 
 
 " So, through the years, at disadvantage sore, 
 1 've labored faithfully to make amends 
 In deeds of love I should have done before ; 
 
 Though my experience is sad and dear, 
 
 Some progress on the humble work attends, — 
 1 've reached this circle of the second sphere." 
 
94 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 I saw the sorrow from each law man breaks, 
 Also the fruits he reaps of his neglect ; 
 That he can live but in the world he makes ; 
 
 Beyond himself he never can progress ; 
 
 What e'er his faith, his doctrine, creed, or sect, 
 His heavenly plain is his own righteousness. 
 
 Man builds himself liis heaven, — each golden gate. 
 Each wall of sapphire, and each dome of pearl ; 
 'Tis localized where his own mental state 
 
 Sees all the beauties it can understand ; 
 
 Sweet flowers smile, the balmy breezes curl, 
 To beautify the work of his own hand. 
 
 And this is heaven ; not made and localized 
 For man, through arbitrary forms to gain ; 
 But is the form, in wisdom crystallized. 
 
 Of his own thoughts, his loves, his words, and 
 deeds ; 
 And is the product of his hand and brain. 
 The outgrowth of his will, his wants, and needs. 
 
 I saw the hypocrite, of base desires. 
 
 With downcast look and melancholy mien, — 
 Self condemnation with its fearful fires. 
 
 Consuming still the stubble and the dross ; 
 And from the glow his feeble soul was seen 
 Emerging, mournful o'er its utter loss. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 95 
 
 In his extremes lie 'cl sought for sympathy, 
 And gamed companionship and confidence ; 
 Tlirough friendly aid had reached prosperity ; 
 
 Then turned on those who 'd been his friends in 
 need, 
 Struck at the hand that gave him sustenance, 
 And honest men fell victims to his greed. 
 
 He 'd talked of faith, of grace, and holiness ; 
 . Joined in benevolent fraternities ; 
 By his feigned meekness and his lowliness. 
 
 The good and unsuspecting he 'd deceived. 
 Till all the virtues they had deemed as his, 
 And in his honor many had believed. 
 
 I saw how cunning, low hypocrisy. 
 
 When in control through sordid greed for gain, 
 Gives but return of dearth and poverty ; 
 
 And, missing oft its longed-for goal on earth. 
 Brings to the soul but agony and pain 
 In all its struggles tow'rd a higher birth. 
 
 He who through craft his fellow man deceives. 
 By claiming saintly virtues not his own. 
 And confidence and favors thus receives. 
 
 Then lies in wait his victim to supplant. 
 Finds when upon his real merits thrown. 
 And measured for himself, the pattern scant. 
 
96 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 The muse thus at a venture draws the bow, 
 And aims the arrow at the hypocrite, 
 Who fills the world with misery and woe, 
 
 Who with a kiss will innocence betray, 
 And if a stinted soul on earth feels hit, 
 'T is but because he 's standing in the way. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 97 
 
 CANTO XII. 
 
 Now from a higher circle light down shone, 
 And in its genial rays we upward rose 
 To realms more free from taint of earth, — a 
 zone 
 Where the desires and thoughts more upward 
 tend, 
 Where spirits far less dwell on human woes, 
 Except in means of cure assistance lend. 
 
 I noticed higher as the circles rise. 
 
 And more of heavenly beauty downward beams. 
 
 The soul looks upward for the heavenly prize. 
 And though the light may to the earth reflect. 
 
 And souls on earth may catch a few faint 
 gleams, 
 
 They come through lower minds and indirect. 
 
 And when the highest thought to earth descends 
 A scintillation onl}^ is received ; 
 It with so much that 's undeveloped blends, 
 
98 • THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 And so partakes of grosser forms of thought, 
 That that which is and that which is believed 
 Are so unlike there 's much of error taught. 
 
 Bright forms drew near in wisdom dignified ; 
 
 They seemed a social group in purpose one ; 
 
 And one whose visage seemed most glorified 
 Was the acknowledged leader of the rest ; 
 
 And, said my guide : " This is our Washington." 
 
 The truth already had my mind impressed. 
 
 To hear from him the golden words of life, — 
 From him, a nation's counselor and friend, 
 Who 'd passed through war and governmental 
 strife. 
 
 And now the friend of all humanity, — 
 
 Who from these frail beginnings sees the end, — 
 Whose life had neither pride nor vanity. 
 
 Except in bliss of seeing others blessed ; 
 
 Whose patriotic love is love for man ; 
 
 Who "d been among earth's counselors the best; 
 To listen to such wisdom from the spheres 
 
 Was joy complete ; and far more precious than 
 
 Earth's teachings, or the visions of its seers. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 99 
 
 Surrounded- by that patriotic band, 
 
 Whose friendships staid him in life's gloomy- 
 hour, 
 Who struck for freedom, and with outstretched 
 hand 
 Wrote and maintained the chart of liberty ; 
 I hailed him as a source of moral power, 
 A leader in the golden age to be. 
 
 And he drew near and welcomed Howard's name, 
 As though familiar friendship made them one, 
 And knew his mission, whence and how he 
 came ; 
 
 For they were soldiers in one common cause, 
 For in the work the one on earth begun 
 They were a unit by attraction's laws. 
 
 Howard, the great philanthropist and guide, 
 On earth was less than freedom's patriot deemed, 
 But in the progress on the spirit side 
 
 He leads the leader of the battle-field. 
 And by the patriot leaders is esteemed 
 For deeds his true humanity revealed. 
 
 With inspiration from such souls as these 
 
 My hand though palsied could but trace the 
 
 theme. 
 And write the thoughts and words of love with 
 
 ease 
 
100 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 That came up sparkling from a fountain pure, 
 As healing waters from life's flowing stream, 
 A balm of love that shall the nations cure. 
 
 Then said my guide : "I here a friend have 
 brought, 
 That he may carry back to minds on earth 
 Some useful lessons from the field of thought. 
 Gleaned from the circles of our spirit land, 
 That may be treasured and of value worth 
 When their frail bark shall leave its mortal 
 strand." 
 
 So much his love for earth, his love for men, 
 
 His visage with a heavenly halo glowed ; 
 
 As when some theme awaits the prophet's pen, 
 Until the voice from Heaven commands to write ; 
 
 Then from his lips the words of wisdom flowed ; 
 
 My soul became receptive to the light. 
 
 " Not as a statesman, nor a soldier true. 
 Nor champion of governments and laws, 
 Nor from a nation's patriotic view. 
 
 Have I the stars of freedom's flag unfurled ; 
 I labor in a broader, nobler cause. 
 Its motto brotherhood, its held the world. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 101 
 
 " And of the institutions of mankind 
 I take cognizance, and these analyze 
 In light of freedom for the human mind ; 
 
 To free the world from that Avhich burdens most, 
 That 's been its bane, its peace to tantalize. 
 Its sin-accusing and upbraiding ghost. 
 
 '^ A brother's blood, from veins of Abel spilt, 
 Down to this hour of sanguinary strife 
 Has been to man the damning spot of guilt 
 
 Afiainst which murdered freedom pleads in vain, 
 As with the savage code of life for life 
 He would excuse or hide the guilty stain. 
 
 " The greatest evil that has cursed the race 
 
 Is war, — the fiend of darkness and of Hell! 
 
 On God's fair earth its last abiding place ; 
 Known in no other world, or sphere, or plane. 
 
 Its depth of misery no tongue can tell ; 
 
 What joys and hopes lied buried with the 
 slain ! 
 
 " Yet nations claim, in order to adjust 
 
 Their laws and governments to human needs. 
 Their manly forms they may command to dust. 
 
 And shed the blood alike of friend and foe, 
 Then eulogize their brave, heroic deeds 
 To compensate the wailing and the woe. 
 
102 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " In name of liberty what deeds are done ! 
 
 Freedom to him who has his brother slain ! 
 
 Freedom to him who smites his only son ! 
 And sees the fatal wound, alas, too late ! 
 
 Freedom through friendship's crushed and broken 
 chain ! 
 
 Freedom with thirst for blood insatiate ! 
 
 " There never yet has been adjustment made 
 
 Through war's deep wounds of wrath, of sighs 
 and tears, 
 
 That e'en a moiety its cost has paid ; 
 Its added burdens on the burdened fall, 
 
 It brings the world its billions in arrears, 
 
 Defies humanity and conquers all. 
 
 " The basest of the passions it enlists, 
 And crushes the divinity within, 
 On hate for hate in place of love insists, 
 
 The blessed golden rule of life disdains, 
 It leagues with darkness, is a child of sin. 
 And every nation's heart to wrath inflames. 
 
 ''It every soul with thoughts of evil fills. 
 Psychologizes every mind with hate, 
 Transmits itself with all its blasting ills, — 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 103 
 
 For children born by wrath psychologized 
 Make up a generation cursed, ingrate, 
 To murder prone from natures brutalized. 
 
 " War nothing settles, save that greater force 
 Has right the lesser force to overawe ; 
 That might may rule and conquer in its course ; 
 
 All love ignore, that should the parts unite ; 
 That States may from the other States withdraw. 
 That prove themselves the strongest in the tight. 
 
 "" Its fated victims year by year increase, 
 Its implements improve and multiply, 
 Though burdened millions cry aloud for peace. 
 
 And grave divines espouse her righteous cause, 
 Then shout for war, while Christian brothers die. 
 Join chorus with the rest, and shout applause. 
 
 " The world's sweet dream of peace has been in 
 • vain ; 
 
 Prophets and seers its advent have foretold ; 
 
 While still the demon with the mark of Cain 
 The duties of the brotherhood disdains ; 
 
 And in his ranks the millions are enrolled ; 
 
 The voice of brothers' blood from all the plains 
 
 "Speaks from the ground its withering menace; 
 As from the widow's tears and orphan's woe, 
 To pierce the conscience of a guilty race, 
 
104 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 And fix upon its brow the brand of shame, 
 Out from wliose presence it can never go, 
 And in all climes still bears its guilty name. 
 
 '' That name is war, — a name of nameless woes ; 
 
 By wild, rude savages at birth 't was given ; 
 
 And by them armed and pitted 'gainst their foes, 
 Then, to excuse its murderous intent. 
 
 Claimed that the christening was done in Heaven, 
 
 And that the christened was divinely sent, — 
 
 " Lauding the sin of their vile passions born. 
 Claiming its source and parentage was God, 
 Holding their fellow beings up to scorn, 
 
 Branding as infidels the true and good. 
 
 Who dared denounce and spurn the pious fraud. 
 And plead for human rights and brotherhood. 
 
 " For peace the prophets of the Lord have cried, 
 Which puts to shame this claim to origin ; 
 For peace the glorious Prince of Peace hath 
 died. 
 
 War was a demon only to devour ; 
 
 To save to peace was but to save from sin. 
 Not from Divine but from the despot's power. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 105 
 
 The Mighty Ruler never war ordained, 
 As wisdom's plan to human laws adjust, 
 For then the institution had remained ; 
 
 Nor seer, nor prophet, would its rule arraign, 
 For what 's divine is ever wise and just, 
 Man needs no saviour from its heavenly reign. 
 
 '' But Christians still unsheathe the blade of war, 
 And on each other death and carnage pour. 
 And with a zeal a savage might abhor 
 
 Pursue their victims in fair freedom's name. 
 What could the heathen savages do more ? 
 Their sense of right and justice is the same. 
 
 '' Yet Christians for their saving faith have claimed 
 Its power of love to meet and conquer all, — 
 That it the fierce and savage heart hath tamed, 
 
 And brought him humble to the Prince of Peace ; 
 Has freed his savage mind from sin's dark thrall, 
 And to his captive soul brought sweet release. 
 
106 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 CANTO XIII. 
 
 In this the Buddha and the Christ unite, 
 And all great philanthropic souls agree, 
 That might determines not the rule of right ; 
 
 Right holds its realm by its attractive force. 
 
 Through which wild chaos sprung to harmony, 
 And suns and worlds and planets keep their 
 course. 
 
 " 'T is the enlightened mind in right believes. 
 From this comes all responsibility. 
 Because the brute no moral sense receives ; 
 
 He 's not subjected to a moral law, 
 
 And man would in the scale no higher be 
 With but brute force his mind to overawe. 
 
 " In this attractive force each parent deals 
 Whose soul is guided by the inner light ; 
 In moulding character for life he feels 
 
 That tender love must never jdeld to hate. 
 
 That loving kindness must maintain the right, 
 And never wrong for wrong retaliate. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 107 
 
 " Philanthropy is teaching man the same, 
 With love to season penalties for crime ; 
 'T was this that made our generous Howard's 
 name 
 
 A synonym for what is good and true ; 
 
 His name is known, revered, in every clime, 
 Its mention fans the flame of love anew. 
 
 " He had compassion for all human guilt, 
 For he its causes and surroundings saw. 
 And in the heart that brothers' blood had spilt 
 
 He saw the victim of depravity. 
 
 Whose soul was tainted by transmission's law. 
 And sunk to crime by its own gravity. 
 
 " Hence, self-protection is the only end 
 
 Society should ever have in view ; 
 
 And law should e'en the criminal defend 
 When self-protection is by law attained ; 
 
 Who 'd make life sacred must to life be true. 
 
 And law itself should not by blood be stained. 
 
 " To kindle to a flame the spark within. 
 
 Though buried deep beneath its earthly mould. 
 And from a soul to help remove its sin. 
 
 Is something worthy of the Church and State ; 
 To out of evil see the good unfold 
 Is heavenly work, with good to compensate. 
 
108 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " Man may protect, but cannot punish crime, 
 Yet retribution 's sure no one need doubt ; 
 'T would never slumber though 'twere left to 
 time. 
 
 And law should fail its victims to detect ; 
 His sin will follow close and find him out, 
 Justice will never fail by man's neglect. 
 
 "Vain man; protect thyself from crime, then leave 
 
 Results with him who searcheth deep all hearts ! 
 
 Who hath ordained that every soul receive 
 The fullest measure for its own iniquity ; 
 
 Ever the world receives what it imparts, 
 
 And suffers woe for its obliquity. 
 
 " Trust then the Power alone ordained to rule. 
 That rules all rulers and defects supplies. 
 Thy feet make bare to tread the vestibule 
 
 Of the great temple of His love and praise ; 
 Burdened with hate thou hast no power to rise, 
 And love alone can lead in wisdom's ways. 
 
 " Man's inner sense and intuitions lead 
 Toward the golden rule the life to guide, 
 And in affairs domestic ever plead 
 
 For charity, forgiveness, not for wrath ; 
 Why not this rule to nations be applied 
 Till warriors' feet forsake the bloody path. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 109 
 
 " What is this boast that ye so loudly claim, 
 That from the church millennium shall come ! 
 That war shall cease at the Redeemer's name, 
 
 While to the battle-field that name you bear, 
 And pray for help ; the oracles are dumb, 
 A mockery, — a sacrilegious prayer ! 
 
 " Where shall the Christian reign of peace begin ? 
 
 So long as Christian governments rely 
 
 On force to drive in place of love to win ; 
 And tax their genius, energy, and skill 
 
 To means of death improve and multiply ; 
 
 Their greatness measure by their power to kill 
 
 " In that short life and frail, that springs from 
 dust. 
 And back again so soon to dust returns. 
 That 's only given to the soul in trust 
 
 To gather jewels for a higher life. 
 
 And where the soul but gathers what it earns, 
 How vain, O mortals, are this war and strife ! 
 
 " Ye stars, look down in pity on a race 
 The tenants of a few, frail, fleeting years. 
 Who thus debase their brief abiding place 
 
 Into a charnal-field for beasts of prey ; 
 
 And sow the sin-cursed soil with blood and tears. 
 And teach new generations how to slay. 
 
110 THE LIGHT OF PKOPHECY. 
 
 " Man has one rule for the domestic hearth 
 To bind a brotherhood in friendly ties, 
 And then, instead of brotherhood for earth, 
 
 Another rule not based on worth of mind, 
 
 But what from changed conditions outward rise, 
 That grants him right to prey upon his kind. 
 
 "A nation with foundations based in blood 
 
 May some day reel and topple to its fall, — 
 
 Its enemy will come in as a flood ; 
 What he has lost he 's waiting to retrieve ; 
 
 Blood that is shed for blood again will call ; 
 
 The mete he measures out man must receive. 
 
 " The kingdoms boast of military power, 
 And for the prestige with each other vie, 
 And yet they know not of the day or hour 
 
 The scepter from the ruler may depart ; 
 The boasted warrior may prostrate lie ; 
 How soon the sword may pierce the nation's 
 heart ! 
 
 " Famed England stretches out her line of coast. 
 And claims the field by blood and carnage 
 
 gained, 
 And * Rule Britannia ' is her proudest boast 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. HI 
 
 In distant climes and on the ocean wave; 
 
 But minds and bodies, fettered, are unchained, 
 And seas of blood her boasted altars lave. 
 
 " There is no safety in the law of might, 
 It holds on man an arbitrary claim, 
 It has no standard for the rule of right, • ■ 
 
 But changes with each outward circumstance. 
 It has no fixed, no high, exalted aim. 
 And leaves its own self interest to chance. 
 
 " When built on virtue and a moral force. 
 Based on consent of earnest, willing minds, 
 A Christian nation starts upon its course, 
 
 And of the greatest number seeks the good ; 
 And all its sovereigns by attraction binds 
 In recognition of the brotherhood, 
 
 " And implements of war repudiates. 
 
 And for its foes has nought but love and peace ; 
 
 Strength shall be added to her golden gates. 
 Her foes disarmed shall shrink in servile awe ; 
 
 All opposition from the world shall cease. 
 
 And nations learn the worth of moral law. 
 
 '' But when in human blood the base is laid 
 The militar}^ power becomes its strength ; 
 And though its laws are outwardly obeyed 
 
112 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 The arbitrary power asserts its sway, 
 Curtailing liberty, until at length 
 The ruled refuse the rulers to obey. 
 
 " Then comes collision, and the forces meet 
 With clashing steel, and lead, and iron hail ; 
 And then the conquered at the conqueror's feet 
 
 Declare allegiance to power again, 
 Consent and will become of no avail. 
 And bleeding freedom pleads her cause in vain. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 113 
 
 CANTO XIV. 
 
 " It may seem strange, but, as I view it now, 
 Your revolution had its grave defects ; 
 I claim no laurels for the conqueror's brow ; 
 
 I see beyond my patriotic zeal 
 
 A tie more potent, that my soul connects 
 With freedom truer to a nation's weal. 
 
 " Those fields of blood ! the loved in battle slain, 
 The mourning hearts, the forms of weeping 
 
 woe. 
 Have left upon your government a stain ; 
 
 And made the law of force a precedent 
 That aims at liberty a mortal blow. 
 And stays the progress of a continent. 
 
 " Never before had patriot or sage. 
 
 Or Christian statesman, so propitious field 
 On which to forecast a true Christian age ; 
 
 A reign of love and peace inaugurate, 
 
114 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 Through which the waiting nations might be 
 
 healed, 
 And Christian kindness renovate the State. 
 
 " Love would have conquered haughty Britain's 
 power 
 Had men a generation more foreborne, 
 And saved the world the dark and gloomy hour, 
 When freedom's goddess bathed in blood her 
 form ; 
 The Christ again was from her altars torn, 
 And love went down beneath fierce passion's 
 storm. 
 
 " A kingdom founded both of earth and heaven. 
 Had they but waited as the Christ would wait ; 
 The power and the dominion had been given, 
 
 To rule a land in peace and righteousness. 
 Its power not soldiery to guard the State, 
 But wisdom, love, and freedom of the press. 
 
 " Her cause had favor found in Parliament, 
 In her petitions to the British crown ; 
 The plea for independent government, 
 
 In English hearts would soon have favor found, 
 As it had statesmen reached of high renown, 
 And soon success would have the effort crowned. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PKOPHECY. 115 
 
 " 'Tis not in reason that a continent 
 Could long be subject to the British isle, 
 Its increased millions feeling discontent 
 
 By the broad waves of ocean separate, 
 
 Still non-resistent, cheered by love's sweet smile. 
 With peace in league, peace to inaugurate. 
 
 " No seeds of dissolution had been sown. 
 No last resort to arms had been declared ; 
 His country's good, by seeking well his own. 
 
 Each would have sought, and, with a willing heart, 
 Each, by consent, had in the blessing shared. 
 Each of the government a willing part. 
 
 "And brotherhood would then have bound the 
 j)arts. 
 And each have learned his neighbors' value more. 
 And charity would more have reached all hearts ; 
 
 Each would have studied others' wants and needs ; 
 The land had not been drenched in human gore. 
 And sown with tears, to harvest widows' weeds. 
 
 " A union grand and mighty in its strength. 
 That binds all hearts in trust and willingness. 
 No discord known in all its breadth and length ■ 
 
 With no intent of using force to bind. 
 
 No dogmas of man's vain self-righteousness. 
 No pharisaic code to curse mankind. 
 
116 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " Had such a spirit fallen on the land, 
 
 And gained control and conquered Britain's 
 
 power, 
 And in its warmth the government been planned. 
 None of the States the compact would have 
 spurned ; 
 Or had they peacefully retired, the hour 
 Was near they would repentent have returned. 
 
 " Not long can men or governments contend 
 Against the law of kindness to them shown ; 
 As friend not willingly will part with friend. 
 
 As brother will not with his brother vie, 
 As heart will beat in fondness for its own. 
 And for the loved, and lost, and absent sigh. 
 
 " What new baptism had the world received ! 
 On England first the western light had shone, 
 And then the nations would have seen, believed ; 
 
 The burdens had been lifted from the poor, 
 For hoarded millions were a thing unknown, 
 And want have vanished from the poor man's 
 door. 
 
 " The world must wait, the reign of peace must 
 come. 
 Men will of war and tribulation tire. 
 But, ere the advent of millennium, 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 117 
 
 States must no more coerce nor be coerced ; 
 On freedom's altar love must light the fire, 
 And war's grim heathen idols be dispersed. 
 
 '' No sister State must use the law of force 
 A fancied wrong or grievance to redress, 
 As from a union true there 's no divorce ; 
 
 It is a bond that holds by love divine ; 
 
 Then guard it well by precept, pen,- and press. 
 As pure religion guards its holy shrine. 
 
 '' When from the spheres light on the world shall 
 break, 
 And knowledge take the place of feeble faith, 
 And man shall to his destiny awake. 
 
 And lay up treasures for his spirit home. 
 
 He '11 hear the voice of what the spirit saith : 
 E'en now the spirit and the bride say come. 
 
 " I trust that yet the western world may lead, — 
 May learn through discipline the wrath to shun. 
 And that the night may pass of selfish greed, 
 
 That day may break, true freedom's sun arise. 
 The glory shine, the will Divine be done. 
 And freedom bring to peace her sacrifice. 
 
118 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 CANTO XV. 
 
 " A new departure was the wise intent, 
 Of patriots who freedom's charter drew, 
 To form a union with the free consent 
 
 Of men and States, with no compulsive force. 
 But as the needle to the pole is true, 
 And as the worlds attract and hold their course. 
 
 "From nature's laws they wisely drew the plan. 
 From wheeling orbs a system they evolved ; 
 As worlds are ruled, so governments for man 
 
 May be the protot3^pe, and nature's laws 
 
 Applied to mind present the problem solved. 
 And all the product of a subtle cause. 
 
 " And as each world around the central sun 
 Moves freely in an orbit of its own. 
 And has its circle well defined to run. 
 
 No power that 's central with it interferes. 
 
 By which one world is from its balance thrown, 
 So States were hidependent in their spheres. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 119 
 
 " The charter has their orbits well defined. 
 
 The bounds between them and their central sun, 
 And there can be no other power to bind; 
 
 Let either from the other power absorb, 
 All must to chaos and confusion run, 
 As ruin would attend a wand'ring orb. 
 
 " Then let the rule by States intact remain, 
 Each local right be left within the sphere 
 Of each proud sovereign, that he may maintain 
 
 Within his grasp the rights to him bequeathed, 
 E'en as his life and liberty- are dear, 
 As precious, as the air the fathers breathed. 
 
 " To make your great elections pure and free. 
 The people must the one-man power withdraw, 
 And must themselves in each locality 
 
 Their servants choose the offices to fill. 
 And have in place of this old kingly law 
 A government based on the people's will. 
 
 " Between despotic and the people's rule 
 There is no interchange or compromise, 
 You need no mongrel governmental mule 
 
 On which aspiring patriots ride to power. 
 
 But modest worth must take the glitt'ring prize. 
 While peace, not anarchy, shall rule the hour. 
 
120 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 " No president should patronage dispense 
 To greedy applicants throughout the land ; 
 True freedom's sons must rise in self-defense 
 
 Mast save their liberties from jeopardy, 
 Their rulers' lives from the assassin's hand, 
 By choosing men who shall their servants be. 
 
 " Let but attractive moral force be known, 
 That shall of many make a people one ; 
 In human rights let each claim but his own ; 
 
 A brotherhood of States, — my last appeal; 
 Such was the farewell of your Washington, 
 For man such is the love that fires his zeal. 
 
 " No warriors mailed, required for self-defense. 
 Where each has rights and int'rests of his own ; 
 With life and freedom for inheritance, 
 
 A title to the soil that yields them bread. 
 Men are invincible ; on these alone, 
 May rest all power 'gainst the invaders' tread. 
 
 " The moral force would hold the world in awe, 
 And soon would cease all effort to intrude, 
 As even vice respects the moral law, 
 
 And Avould its victims choose among the vile ; 
 So nations, by the law of love subdued, 
 Would not fair freedom's name with blood defile. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 121 
 
 " And soon they too would learn to sheathe the 
 sword, 
 And turn their genius to the arts of peace ; 
 With this example they could ill afford 
 To seek for conquest by the law of might, 
 
 And so all vengeance from the heart would 
 
 cease, 
 And nations, guided by the law of right, 
 
 " Would meet in peace and friendly interchange ; 
 A brotherhood would soon o'er earth prevail, 
 As human thought should take a wider range ; 
 
 True science would her mysteries unfold. 
 Its truths applied to life be of avail. 
 And at its close unbar the gates of gold. 
 
 " In this third circle of the second sphere 
 I 've waited that I might my errors mend; 
 My country's patriots are gathered here ; 
 
 And hoping still men's errors to correct. 
 We in the nation's councils oft appear, 
 And by our will sometimes their will direct. 
 
 " We 've lingered near the horrid field of blood, 
 And viewed the error as result of ours ; 
 Have nurtured each bereft and tender bud, 
 
 Whose parent stem had withered in the blast ; 
 To stay the tide, exerted all our powers. 
 Pleading for love and mercy to the last. 
 
122 THE LIGHT OF PPtOPIIECY. 
 
 " And when the serried ranks in death went down. 
 We met their spirits on the battle-field ; 
 We strove to gain for them a brighter crown : 
 
 We knew no North, no South, but brothers all, 
 With them our covenant of love was sealed. 
 And angels sighed o'er their untimely fall. 
 
 " Sad scenes like these still bind ray soul to earth, 
 Because in them I took an active part. 
 While Howard here has passed to liigher birth ; 
 
 'Tis well, he wrath and blood for blood disdained, 
 That vengeance found no refuge in his heart. 
 And to the last he peace and love maintained. 
 
 " And so to circles higher, without regret. 
 
 He passed through circles of the lower spheres ; 
 But oft in sweet communion we have met. 
 
 With other souls who to our call respond. 
 Who journey with us to the world of tears. 
 But whose attractions are the fields beyond. 
 
 " If peace prevail, then each to each must yield, 
 
 And in the heart no bitterness must rise, 
 
 « 
 In compromise the compact be resealed, 
 
 All rights respected, to convince of wrong, 
 
 Then union pure, with all the word implies, 
 
 Shall in all hearts be cherished and gmw strong. 
 
THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 123 
 
 " Go, say to partisans tlirougliout the land 
 Another freedom's battle must bo won ; 
 The flame of wrath, by passion's hot breath 
 fanned, 
 
 Must be subdued ; and strife and war must end 
 Before the spirit of your Washington 
 Can upward to celestial plains ascend. 
 
 " The gods e'en speak through oracles long dumb, 
 And from the heathen temples voices break 
 In revelations from the life to come ; 
 
 A light reveals the paths of destiny ; 
 
 And each must choose the better path to take, 
 Through golden gates, — the path of charity. 
 
 " Nations shall by the revelation learn 
 
 To meet each other on the plane of peace, 
 And for each evil learn to good return. 
 
 While evils and oppressions shall grow less, 
 And through wise councils bloody war shall 
 
 cease. 
 And thus millennium the land shall bless. 
 
 " That day shall come, but not by grace alone. 
 For man must work, and angels help to guide, 
 Must heed the light that on the world has 
 shone, 
 
124 THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 
 
 And human hands must wipe the falling tear, 
 From human hearts must floAV the healing tide, 
 And human tongues must speak the words of 
 cheer. 
 
 " The patriot's work shall be philanthrojDy ; 
 No narrow limits shall his vision bound, 
 His field the world, his theme humanity ; 
 
 With commerce free, and friendly interchange, 
 The nations shall abide in peace profound. 
 And jealousies no more their hearts estrange. 
 
 " The Christ that is to come shall raise His voice 
 Against war's tribute unto Csesar paid. 
 And in his strength the people shall rejoice ; 
 
 In tribute paid to peace the poor shall share. 
 No more on them be heavy burdens laid, 
 For others' burdens each shall help to bear. 
 
 " Then wait, O earth ! for compensation wait ! 
 
 Justice Avill come though she may travel slow ; 
 
 And in adjustment Mercy may be late, 
 But her soft hand of love shall be revealed. 
 
 And be amid earth's closing scenes of woe 
 
 The balm by whicli the nations shall be healed." 
 
 The vision passed, and twilight veiled the sky ; 
 The words of prophecy here ceased to flow, — 
 1 lose their inspiration witli a sigh ; 
 
THE LIGHT OF PEOPHECY. 125 
 
 Earth looked more cheerful as I downward gazed, 
 And from above I caught the golden glow- 
 That from the higher spheres of glory blazed. 
 
 Then said my guide : " Behold the higher zone, 
 Where more exalted love has fixed its seat ! 
 Where wisdom more celestial has its throne, 
 
 The vestibule of freedom's temples bright, 
 Where lovers of celestial science meet, 
 To search new truths in fields of dawning light." 
 
 I looked, and, lo ! the starry diadem 
 
 Shone brighter round my guardian angel's head 
 Than when I first beheld the sv/eet emblem 
 
 Of deeds of love a noble life had crowned ; 
 
 A brighter light seemed on his pathway shed, — 
 My willing feet had reached more holy ground. 
 
 An incense sweeter than all earthly balm 
 
 Distilled its grateful fragrance on the air ; 
 
 And music lent its sweet and mellow charm ; 
 In bowers enchanted birds their gladness sang, 
 
 And joy and gladness triumphed everywhere ; 
 
 Contentment rested on each brow, no pang 
 
 Of sorrow or regret ; each loving heart 
 
 Had through exalted wisdom found its own ; 
 Each soul was to some other counterpart, 
 
126 THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 Although no vow or pledge had made them one ; 
 But pure and bright the ties of union shone, 
 As rays of light from life's celestial sun. 
 
 I saw the law of compensation sure, 
 
 The evil but a transient incident ; 
 
 The good that shall eternally endure 
 More lovely, comely, for its conquests gained 
 
 By years in mitigating evils spent. 
 
 O'er earthly woes my soul was no more pained. 
 
 The night is but the shadow of the day ; 
 
 The tempest brings the air a purer calm ; 
 
 Behind the darkest clouds the sunbeams play ; 
 The dew-drop is the image of the sea ; 
 
 Man's power the product of a mighty arm, 
 
 An integration of eternity. 
 
 Now back to earth, with strength of will renewed, 
 I wait to hear the boatman's muffled oar, 
 And trusting that the scenes in vision viewed 
 
 I may review ; upon this truth I rest 
 
 To evil's problem solve, and ask no more, — 
 Eternal Love and Wisdom knoweth best. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
DREAM-LAND. 
 
 There's a land of delight, with its evergreen 
 portals, 
 
 That opens to view in the shadows of this ; 
 As a fore-taste of glory, bequeathed unto mortals, 
 
 Its fair regions border the gardens of bliss. 
 
 Its mountains and vales are the soul's own crea- 
 tions, 
 Its blossoms so sweet but conceptions of mind ; 
 And bright forms that greet us are but incarna- 
 tions 
 Of beautiful thought and reflections refined. 
 
 This beautiful dream-land is left to the keeping 
 Of bright, fairy angels, to mortals unseen ; 
 
 Its glories awake as the senses lie sleeping. 
 
 And the starlight of peace tints its borders of 
 green. (129) 
 
130 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Of our brighest ideals it is the fruition, 
 In fairy delights to the spirit portrayed ; 
 
 And its grandeur and glory but ope to the vision 
 Of those who 've the laws of true being obeyed. 
 
 Of this land of delights not a soul takes pos- 
 session 
 Unless from the burdens of sin it is free ; 
 -'T is when there 's no outward or inward trans- 
 gression, 
 From whose frightful specters no mortal can flee. 
 
 And so when in death our mortality slumbers, 
 Far brighter fruitions will ope to the view. 
 
 If no taint of passion the spirit encumbers, 
 
 And the evergreen fields will be real and true. 
 
 The soul shall find rest from each trouble and 
 sorrow ; 
 More bright than in dreams our dear loved ones 
 shall seem ; 
 The rest shall be sweet, nor awake on the morrow 
 To find life's best pleasures have proved but a 
 dream. 
 
IN MEMORTAM. 131 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 We have wept o'er the form of our precious and 
 dearest ; 
 We have mourned, and our tear-drops have 
 fallen like rain ; 
 And we 'd almost forgot that her presence was 
 nearest, 
 And an angel to cheer us was pleading in vain. 
 
 We 'd almost forgot that our souls were not parted ; 
 
 That our faith and our hope had for us rent the 
 
 vail ; 
 
 That the love of our Alice, the true tender-hearted, 
 
 Was our solace in life, and in death could not 
 
 fail. 
 
 We had almost forgot that the dark-flowing river 
 Was bright in the distance, with lights on the 
 shore ; 
 And as free as it came from the hands of the 
 Giver 
 A beautiful spirit had passed on before. 
 
132 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 In the beautiful spring-time, ere roses were bloom- 
 ing, 
 As buds were beginning their leaves to unfold, 
 "While the fingers of nature the dead were un- 
 tombing. 
 Our sweet bud of promise lay stricken and cold. 
 
 Meet, — yes, we shall meet when we pass the dark 
 water ; 
 Already a bark waits to carry us o'er. 
 The love that is true of companion and daughter 
 Beams bright through the darkness, a light on 
 the shore. 
 
 Meet, — yes, we shall meet where lights, trimmed 
 and burning. 
 Reveal sparkling gems from the valley of tears, 
 Where the forms of the aged to youth are return- 
 ing, 
 And souls are not bowed 'neath the burden of 
 years. 
 
 Meet, — yes, we shall meet, for already we 're 
 meeting, 
 And more hallowed the ground where her youth- 
 ful feet trod ; 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 133 
 
 More sacred the halls and each place of our 
 greeting ; 
 'T is her presence sustains, — we pass under the 
 rod. 
 
 And the sweet bud she 's left in the vase of affec- 
 tion, 
 
 More dear than the casket that bore her away, 
 We will watch as it blossoms, — a link of connection 
 
 That binds her still near to the casket of clay. 
 
 Ah, many sweet jewels earth holds in her bosom, 
 But lovelier far are the gems that have fled. 
 
 Too frail for so sweet and so tender a blossom, — 
 We cleave to the living and not to the dead. 
 
134 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 THE ADIRONDACKS. 
 
 Ye famed Adirondacks, the pride of the land, 
 Your green summits wreatlied with white gar- 
 lands of snow, 
 
 In your primeval glory and grandeur still stand, — 
 The font of life's nectar, the source of its flow! 
 
 Where are steep frowning cliffs, whence the cool 
 shadows fall. 
 From whence the proud eagle rounds up tow'rd 
 the sky. 
 And the 'plaint of the loon gives response to his 
 call, 
 As his shriek of proud freedom is heard from 
 on high. 
 
 Where nature's sweet perfume distills from the 
 pine. 
 And the spruce and the tamarac odors impart. 
 That are borne down the vale, as the breath of 
 the wine 
 Of nature's distilling to gladden the heart. 
 
THE ADIRONDACKS. 135 
 
 Where the hare and the bluebird in solitude dwell, 
 And the foot of the hunter hath never yet prest, 
 
 And the sound of the rifle with tremulous swell, 
 Coming up from the valleys, can never molest. 
 
 Where the storm gathers first from the ether afar, 
 And the elements marshal in battle array, 
 
 And the thunder's fierce bolt, nature's missile of 
 war. 
 Follows quick on the flash of the lightning's 
 fierce play. 
 
 Where the streamlet that 's born as the child of 
 the storm. 
 And nurtured by nature's omnipotent care. 
 Starts forth on its mission His will to perform, 
 Tow'ds its mighty proportions all beauteous 
 and fair. 
 
 Now it gathers in silence as night dews distill. 
 Now it ripples soft music as waves on the shore. 
 
 Now it speeds on its course from the warbling rill. 
 Till its music is lost in the ocean's wild roar. 
 
 Let the storm and the tempest still gather around 
 
 Thy proud summits, O mountains ! ye ever shall 
 
 be. 
 
 Mid the elements' roar and the stillness profound, 
 
 The pure life-giving fountains and wealth of 
 
 the free. 
 
136 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Let your green, shady parks round your foot-hills 
 remain, 
 That their cold, icy caves may be shadowed for 
 aye. 
 'T is the fountain of life ; dry ye not up the vein ! 
 Let the forest remain to the tempest a prey. 
 
 Around your bald peaks let the fierce lightnings 
 play; 
 Down your gorges and canyons the bright 
 waters flow. 
 Dispensing life's blessings away and away. 
 
 All sparkling through meadows and valleys 
 below. 
 
 Let the battlements rock with wild throes if they 
 will, 
 Let the shivering bolt the tall hemlock lay low, 
 So the wine and the nectar of health but distill, 
 And the deep stream of life be left free in its 
 flow. 
 
 Let the fisherman's boat o'er the bright waters 
 glide. 
 Let the clattering hoof from the hill-side 
 resound, 
 Let the deer and the elk in their fastness abide, 
 Or lead the wild chase of the hunter and hound. 
 
THE ADIKONDACKS. 137 
 
 Let the elements gather from regions afar, 
 
 Let the tempest and storm their dread carnival 
 hold ; 
 Yet let not the ax of the pioneer mar 
 
 This fair Ophir of wealth, of more value than 
 gold. 
 
 Let the streamlet flow on over valley and plain, 
 And the soft showers gather that gave it its 
 birth ; 
 
 Still o'er our broad land let the forests remain, 
 The fountains, God-given, of blessings to earth. 
 
138 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 THE ORPHAN'S HOME. 
 
 A home for the orphans, how precious the word, 
 How much of the virtues of life are inferred, 
 
 How many kind hearts are presented to view 
 That by the sad pleadings of want have been 
 stirred, 
 
 And proved to the call of humanity true. 
 
 Oh, blest are the souls that with blessings o'erflow, 
 For these waifs that have drank of the chalice of 
 woe. 
 From the cup of misfortune with bitterness 
 filled ; 
 We never can feel and we never may know 
 
 Of the woe from the fountain of anguish dis- 
 tilled ; 
 
 Of the fond mother's grief whose last pleading 
 
 prayer 
 Commended her all to the pitying care ; 
 
 Of some heart in the furnace of sorrow subdued, 
 Whom fortune had blest with a bountiful share. 
 
 With heavenly meekness and kindness imbued. 
 
THE ORPHAN S HOME. 1^9 
 
 Thrice blest is the life with such memories filled 
 That has been by the pleading of innocence 
 thrilled, 
 And the lips that have drank of the fountain 
 of bliss, 
 And the heart that has quaffed of the fragrance 
 distilled. 
 When the cheek is embalmed with the dear 
 orphan's kiss. 
 
 And sacred the walls by humanity reared, 
 And the matronly heart to the lone ones endeared, 
 And the toilers who gather with bountiful hand, 
 Their names and their deeds shall by men be 
 revered 
 While the wail of the orphan is heard in the 
 land. 
 
 May the choicest of blessings forever descend 
 
 On those who have proved to the friendless a 
 friend. 
 While the word of approval from Heaven shall 
 be 
 As reward to the faithful e'en unto the end, 
 " Kind deeds done the orphans ye 've done unto 
 me." 
 
140 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 TO MY GRAND-BOY. 
 
 What theme is this inspires my pen, 
 
 And thrills my very being through, 
 And makes tliis old heart throb again , 
 
 With impulse strange and new ? 
 Two little eyes that beam delight, 
 
 Two dimpled cheeks all rosy red. 
 The soul's bright joy and household light,- 
 
 My darling little Fred. 
 
 Bewitching smile and roguish laugh. 
 
 That drive dull, anxious care away ; 
 A kingdom for a photograph 
 
 Like this to keep for aye ! 
 The patter of his tiny feet 
 
 In contrast with my weary tread, — 
 With what a thrill of joy I meet 
 
 My darling little Fred I 
 
TO MY GRAND-BOY. 141 
 
 It may be foolish ; but a spell 
 
 Comes o'er this weary heart of mine ; 
 It may be wisdom, — who can tell ? 
 
 A touch of life divine. 
 But somehow as the shadows fall, 
 
 And other lights of life have fled, 
 A star seems shining still o'er all 
 
 In darling little Fred. 
 
 Perhaps 't is but a wdse design 
 
 That age and careless youth should" greet, 
 As childhood comes with life's decline 
 
 The union is complete. 
 I only know for this tired heart 
 
 A younger seems to beat instead, — 
 My life in some way has a part 
 
 In darling little Fred. 
 
 And if to be a child again 
 
 Means peace and innocence returned, 
 I feel life's struggle not in vain, — 
 
 A crown of joy well earned. 
 Though all the world were cold to me. 
 
 And I to it were cold and dead. 
 My eyes a heavenly kingdom see 
 
 In darling little Fred. 
 
142 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 'T is hard to think that bitter tears 
 
 Must blot youth's brightest, fairest page, 
 The rosy hue of childhood's years 
 
 Must wither into age. 
 Yet prattling innocence remains 
 
 To soothe and cheer the hoary head ; 
 With this I '11 meet what fate ordains 
 
 My darling little Fred. 
 
A TRIBUTE. 143 
 
 A TRIBUTE 
 
 DfSCEIBED TO THE PAEENTS OF THE LATE HENET KEEP FLOWEB. 
 
 How sad and liow lonely our hearts are tonight 
 As we sit in the shadows in silence and tears, 
 Our souls bowed with grief 'neath the ruin and 
 blight 
 That have crushed the fond hopes we had garn- 
 ered for years. 
 
 And we ask why the bright bud of promise so 
 
 fair, 
 
 The sweet consummation of love's early dreams. 
 
 As its petals w^ere thrown to the pure morning air. 
 
 Is but dust in the glow of affection's bright 
 
 beams. 
 
 Oh, why, as its beauties began to unfold. 
 
 And it promised in blessings for earth to mature. 
 
 Should it yield to the blast, to the blight, and the 
 cold. 
 And to memory leave a frail blossom so pure ? 
 
144 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Oh, may we not clierish the thought as divine 
 
 That the blossoms of childhood can never decay ; 
 That in caskets more bright they still brighter 
 shall shine 
 From the blush of their morn to the fullness of 
 day? 
 
 And the tendrils that bound to the casket of clay 
 Can never be severed but brighter shall grow; 
 
 And the light of affection in each golden ray 
 More closely shall bind with more warmth ki 
 its glow. 
 
 May we yield then in trust, though in sorrow we 
 bow. 
 Our loved and our lost to the angels' sweet care, 
 Who will wreathe brighter garlands of love for 
 his brow 
 Than those of earth's blossoms from gardens 
 more fair. 
 
 Those virtues and graces are all gathered there, 
 As jewels more precious than gold from the 
 mine, 
 
 And yet to be valued as treasures more rare 
 When counted again in the life more divine. 
 
A TRIBUTE. 145 
 
 Let us cherish the faith that our loved ones so 
 dear 
 
 Have never forgotten affection's sweet kiss, 
 And await in that world with the sunlight of cheer 
 
 To dispel the sad gloom and the shadows of this. 
 
146 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 SONG OF LABOR. 
 
 Here 's a health to the laboring million, 
 
 A hand for the right hand of toil ; 
 A heart for companion and children, 
 
 Of brothers who delve in the soil : 
 To fathers and mothers and children, 
 
 In every department of toil. 
 
 The wealth of the world is its labor, 
 The right arm of genius and skill ; 
 
 And each for himself and his neighbor 
 Must rally and work with a will ; 
 
 In the rock and the soil ho must labor, 
 A workman of genius and skill. 
 
 A welcome to brain, nerve, and muscle. 
 
 That luxury bring to the board, 
 That amid earth's commotion and bustle 
 
 Have conquered more wrong than the sword. 
 A health to nerve, sinew, and muscle. 
 
 That bring us a plentiful board. 
 
60XG OF LABOE. 147 
 
 Through labor and toil of true genius 
 The metals of earth have been forged; 
 
 And forms far more lovely than Venus 
 The secrets of time have disgorged ; 
 
 And greater creations of genius, 
 Are waiting in turn to be forged. 
 
 The world for the worker is waiting. 
 And wealth seeks investments in vain, 
 
 While genius and toil are creating 
 New fields for percentage and gain ; 
 
 The rich and the proud are still waiting 
 And wealth without labor is vain. 
 
 The wealthy must work, or their riches 
 Will fly like the winds and the waves ; 
 
 They 've more care than the delvers in ditches, 
 To masters more cruel are slaves. 
 
 Joy comes, not unminged from riches, 
 Uncertain as winds and the waves. 
 
 There is health in hard muscle and sinew, 
 A freedom that flows through the veins, 
 
 A uniting of hearts to continue, — 
 A wealth that abiding remains ; 
 
 No gold is as precious as sinew, 
 And health flowing free through the veins. 
 
148 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Then live not cis slaves to the wealthy, 
 Though over supply rules the hour, 
 
 But seek out some region more healthy. 
 And trust to your right arm of power ! 
 
 Be never a slave to the wealthy, 
 
 Nor yield up your manhood one hour. 
 
 The 'world is a workshop, and working 
 
 Is part of the system divine ; 
 No laws were established for shirking, 
 
 But each must work out its design, 
 Then be not despondent at working. 
 
 For by v/ork we become more divine. 
 
 Then a health to the patrons of labor. 
 To the toilers, where'er they may bo. 
 
 Who 'vc a care for themselves and the neighbor, 
 To the hearts that are lionest and free ! 
 
 To the men and the women who labor. 
 And their loved ones where'er they may be. 
 
A EOUNDED LIFE. 149 
 
 A ROUNDED LIFE. 
 
 EEAD AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE 80TII CIETUDAY OP 
 MRS. KOXANA T. STRONG. 
 
 At friendship's call we meet tonight, 
 The lamps fraternal burning bright, 
 
 To lay our offerings at the feet 
 Of one whose days of four-score years. 
 Through earthly trials, hopes, and fears. 
 
 Have grown more rounded and complete. 
 
 The rising sun of life's gay morn. 
 
 In which youth's budding flowers were born, 
 
 Hath glint the hill tops with its glow ; 
 And now the length'ning shadows fall 
 O'er scenes fond mem'ries still recall 
 
 In lights and shades of long ago. 
 
 And all along the path is bright ; 
 
 Nor storm nor cloud can quench the light 
 
 That shines from virtue's noonday sun. 
 A life well spent in doing good, 
 That feels the ties of brotherhood. 
 
 Hath o'er the world the victory won. 
 
150 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Sweet peace the solace of the night I 
 Sweet hope that bathes the world in light 
 
 That lifts the veil as loved ones fall ; 
 With faith, triumphant evermore, 
 Still pointing to the golden shore, 
 
 The soul is conqueror over all. 
 
 What though 'tis evening, twilight, now, 
 And feebled age, with wrinkled brow, 
 
 Gives outward signs of sure decay; 
 To inner life it is but morn, — 
 A spirit from the earth reborn, — 
 
 The dawning of a brighter day. 
 
 A thankfulness for noble deeds, 
 Done in response to human needs, 
 
 Upon thy memory shall rest ; 
 Of those who feel thy guardian care, 
 And thy beneficence still share. 
 
 Shall children's children call thee blest. 
 
 From life's fair field may it be ours 
 To crop as sweet and cherished flowers, 
 
 To cheer the days of our decline, — 
 Look backward o'er a life as just. 
 And forward with as calm a trust 
 
 As grace these eighty years of thine. 
 
MEMOEIAM. 151 
 
 MEMORIAM. 
 
 Lovingly bear the dear f(jrm to its rest, 
 
 So lovely, so young, and so fair; 
 Tenderly lay the rude clods o'er her breast, 
 
 For the hopes we had cherished are there. 
 
 Softly, tread soft, o'er the green buds that cling 
 With a tenure so frail to the earth ; 
 
 For silently opes one sweet blossom of spring. 
 And angels await on its birth. 
 
 Sadly and tearfully give back to dust 
 The form that the throbbing heart prest 
 
 Hopingly, lovingly, yield up in trust 
 The soul to the home of its rest. 
 
 Trustingly pass through the darkness profound, 
 
 The mystery still unrevealed; 
 Sorrow though deep cometh not of the ground, 
 
 Nor thence is the wounded heart healed. 
 
152 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Lonely, how lonely ! God knoweth the grief I 
 The darkness ere morning shall dawn ; 
 
 But there's light, there is love, and a balm of 
 relief, 
 And a meeting with loved ones who 've gone. 
 
 Then trustingly, hopingly lay her to rest, 
 
 So gentle in life's early morn ; 
 Hallowed the places her welcome feet prest, 
 
 And the shrine whence a spirit was born. 
 
SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE. 153 
 
 SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE. 
 
 Oh, that the slumb'ring world might wake, 
 And from its drowsy fetters break, 
 
 The light to see ! 
 Might catch the glory of its beams, 
 That brings to view, in place of dreams, 
 
 Reality ! 
 
 Fitful the shadows of the night ; 
 
 But morning dawns with calm delight. 
 
 The world is fair : 
 But life is but a flick'ring breath. 
 And anguish, sorrow, pain, and death 
 
 Are everywhere. 
 
 In vain are grandeur and estate ; 
 But dust remains of all the great 
 
 Men bowed before : 
 Conquered and conqueror come to nought. 
 The hand that toiled, the brain that thought, 
 
 Are now no more. 
 
154 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 The heir of haughty pride and lust 
 Now mingles with the self-same dust 
 
 Of those he scorned ; 
 By spring-time op'ning bud and flower, 
 Born of the sunshine and the shower, 
 
 Both are adorned. 
 
 Vanished the pictures from the walls, 
 With fame's fair temples, save the halls 
 
 Of memory, 
 Where deeds and thoughts engraved remain, 
 All else from dust is dust again, — 
 
 Equality. 
 
 The wealth that follows craft and greed 
 Has proved to man a broken reed 
 
 To lean upon ; 
 His stay in life, his strength and shield, 
 To waiting kindred he must yield, 
 
 And all is gone. 
 
 There is no outward thing of earth. 
 In tracing back from death to birth, 
 
 Can give him rest ; 
 Bereft of all he called his own. 
 Sadly he enters the unknown, 
 
 By hope unblest. 
 
SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE. 155 
 
 Behind the darkness there is day, 
 
 So dwells beneath these forms of clay, 
 
 Reality ; 
 It is a world with all that 's true. 
 With all that mortals should pursue, 
 
 Or strive to be. 
 
 He who bequeaths one deed or thought 
 To guide man right, or cheer his lot. 
 
 Does for his kind 
 More than the millionaire who grieves 
 As he departs, and only leaves 
 
 His wealth behind. 
 
 So live that, when thy day is done, 
 Calmly shall sink life's setting sun 
 
 In cloudless skies ; 
 And, guided by the inner light. 
 Behold through shadows of the night. 
 
 The morn arise. 
 
156 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 CONSOLATION. 
 
 "If the dead rise not, let lis eat and drink, for tomorrow wc die." 
 
 There is a sensuous life, but 't is not all ; 
 
 Its highest triumphs ne'er can satisfy, 
 Its highest pleasures on the senses pall, 
 
 Its highest mission is to feast and die. . 
 
 It is not all, for an existence higher, 
 With higher aims, is man's, from deity ; 
 
 And heavenward tending is each fond desire, 
 Its goal of triumph, — love eternally. 
 
 And this is all : let man his nature know, 
 And in this heavenward life his duty learn ; 
 
 Do well his work appointed here below. 
 And on the spiral upward road return. 
 
 Yes, this is all ; and to this heavenly end 
 Loved ones await us in communion sweet ; 
 
 Though lonely now, we have not lost a friend, — 
 This truth shall be our solace when we meet. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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