Book* Lj*„-^L 
 
 Author 
 
 Title 
 
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JPr*ioe Ten Oeixt«. 
 
 Dedicated to those who are neither too Sound" nor too Liberal" to be Candid 
 
 TIME 
 
 LOVE LUCIFER; 
 
 OR, 
 
 WHITE, BLACK AND GRAY 
 
 SPIEITS. 
 
 by y 
 
 -Lttlu£-<il<* Flu.'t^J^l, 
 
 CONTINENTAL MONTHLY. 
 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 
 
 119 & 121 NASSAU STREET. 
 
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 IK iIO«*MOI 
 
 boston Atl>en<Kea"y^ 
 
 ir2tt'« 
 
The Love Lucifer. 
 
 319 
 
 THE LOVE LUCIFER. 
 
 [The author of ' The Love Lucifer ' says in re- 
 gard to it : 'I enclose a narration of facts. Not 
 noted for assurance, I jet feel well assured that 
 its publication in The Continental 'will do 
 uses.' ' Should there be any among our readers 
 who have inquired into our modern necroman- 
 cy, they will not fail to recognize in the ex- 
 cited, wild, incoherent, and uncultured jargon 
 of the spirits of ' The Love Lucifer,' the same 
 style and character evinced by those to whom 
 they may have been introduced by the ' me- 
 jums.' The two Bulwers, the Hovvitts, Eliza- 
 beth Barrett Browning, the Halls, the De Mor- 
 gans, &c, have taken a deep interest in these 
 half-comic, half-serious, and always incoherent 
 demonstrations. 
 
 Perhaps the matter-of-fact experience of our 
 author may shield some of our readers from 
 ' obsessions, delusions, magnetic streams of 
 Od,' be they angelic, human, demoniac, or 
 Koboldic in their origin. — Ed. Con.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The things herein might well remain 
 in soak for one decade, at least. The 
 "writer certainly did well to let a dozen 
 sane, practical years pass between these 
 experiences and their narration. 
 
 I was a youth after the own heart of 
 my Presbyterian preceptors — proposed 
 to become a Presbyterian preceptor. 
 The son of a New York merchant, I was 
 schooled in the schooling of such ; and 
 was steadfastly minded to know no life- 
 purpose but the salvation of sinners. 
 But I was a little restive — felt that 
 the limits of the Shorter Catechism 
 were too short and strait for me. The 
 shadow of Schleiermacher's readjust- 
 ment of Christianity was upon me. I 
 felt that some old things were passing 
 away. In common with so many others 
 who inclined toward the sacerdotal 
 office, I was unconsciously turning my 
 back upon it, on account of the crudi- 
 ties contained in the only existing 
 creeds for which I had any respect. 
 American Protestant youth have not 
 been alone in this regard. Says the 
 London Times, ' The number of men of 
 education and social position who en- 
 
 ter into orders is becoming less and 
 less every year.' Let then ancient, 
 true, everlasting Christianity be speedi- 
 ly adjusted to modern facts, lest it fur- 
 ther lapse. 
 
 Free thoughted, earnestly disposed 
 toward the acquirement and dissemi- 
 nation of absolute spiritual truth, as 
 was not unnatural, I thoroughly inves- 
 tigated the ' Supernaturalism ' of the 
 day. I soon assented to the general 
 proposition that sociability with the 
 invisibles is practicable, if not profit- 
 able ; but ever held at a cheap rate the 
 philosophies and religions, harmonious 
 and other, which the full-blooded ghost- 
 mongers so zealously promulgated. I 
 still maintain that great good will re- 
 sult from these chaotic developments; 
 for instance, that the impartial mind 
 will find in them that scientific founda- 
 tion for belief in much of the supernat- 
 uralism (to repeat the absurd expres- 
 sion) of the Bible, of which the age 
 stands in such woful need. That this 
 generation does experience such a lack 
 is made sufficiently apparent in the 
 'Essays and Reviews.' On no other 
 point are the noble freemen who there- 
 in and thereby grope after the ' read 
 justment,' so utterly deaf, dumb, halt, 
 and blind, as they are in respect to- 
 Scripture miracles. In fact, these wri- 
 ters cast the most wondrous of the 
 actce sanctorum to the winds. Me- 
 thinks the more thoughtful and earnest 
 men of Christendom must, then, assent 
 to the proposition that we have press- 
 ing need of a new flood of such practi- 
 cal phenomena as sturdy old Baxter^ 
 gave to the Sadducees of his day, in' 
 his ' Certainty of the World of Spirits.' 
 Whether these strange doings gradually 
 cease, or take on new and more strik- 
 ing aspects, I doubt not they will helpr 
 to give a healthy vigor to our emaciated 
 faith in the existence of an unseen and 
 spiritual world. Let us not, then, ut- 
 
320 
 
 The Love Lucifer. 
 
 terly scorn the strange rabble who have 
 rushed headlong after this curiousest 
 curiosity of modern times — except the 
 rebellion — even though they may re- 
 mind us of ' the Queen's ragged regiment 
 of literature.' It should be taken for 
 granted that so startling a novelty 
 would attract the floating scum of so- 
 ciety, whether the solid folk heeded or 
 derided it. 
 
 Though the following narrative may 
 bring upon me an infinite derision, I 
 have long felt that it should be pub- 
 lished, on account of the light it throws 
 upon some of the most mysterious facts 
 of existence. Others may have had 
 similar experiences ; but, if so, pride 
 keeps them from confessing how utterly 
 they have been hoodwinked and en- 
 slaved by those invisible loafers who 
 form so large a portion of the new- 
 comers, and who are permitted— not to 
 put on too fine a point — to do the dirty 
 work <of cleansing the modern mind of 
 fits gross Augean Sadduceeism. The 
 only rtheory promotive of self-compla- 
 cency tthat I could ever concoct, as to 
 why liwas put through such an ordeal, 
 is, that I was suffered for my own and 
 the general benefit to see the dangers 
 of necromancy, and especially the aw- 
 ful psychodynamical methods used by 
 spirits -to obsess and gradually craze 
 human brains. I, at least, received a 
 scare that -made me careful, ever after, 
 how 'I called spirits from the vasty 
 deep, or elsewhere. After passing perils 
 manifold, both carnal and spiritual — 
 having gone, torrent-borne, through the 
 yawning chasms represented in Cole's 
 ' Voyage of Life ' pictures, I come into 
 calmer seas, the lines fall in pleasant 
 places ; and now I sit me down, in life's 
 high noon — having lighted on a certain 
 place where was a den (a pleasanter 
 than Bunyan's) — to write the strange 
 things that befell me in the seeming 
 long ago — the dew and freshness of my 
 youth. And though I be reckoned of 
 many a dreamer of dreams, he shall 
 not, I think, go unprofited, who can 
 rightly ' read my rede.' 
 
 To come, then, to the details. I had 
 been for several months, whether wisely 
 or unwisely doth not appear, a link in 
 one of those human chain rings sup- 
 posed to be as peculiarly receptive of 
 extra and super and ultra mundane 
 facts as a legislative ' ring ' is of the 
 loose change of the lobby; and had 
 sought in vain for personal contact 
 with the world to come, when one 
 afternoon a streak of the ' od ' light- 
 ning suddenly ran down my right 
 arm, as I sat in my private apartment, 
 and behold I was a ' writing mejum.' 
 The usual ' proofs ' of relationship were 
 given. Not being very credulous, how- 
 ever, I did not, at first, acknowledge 
 them as such. But as my time was at 
 my own disposal just then, I gave my- 
 self up to the influence for several days. 
 The consequence was, that I became 
 so thoroughly mesmerized, or 'biolo- 
 gized,' that I ceased to be complete 
 master of my own faculties, and was 
 forced to give a half assent to. all the 
 absurdities that were communicated. 
 Be it understood, then, that these ex- 
 periences are given as those of a person 
 whose will, whose very soul and pro- 
 prium had been temporarily subjugated 
 by some other will or wills ; and whose 
 natural powers of discrimination were 
 as much distraught as are those of the 
 subjects of the itinerant biologist ; who 
 are made to believe, most firmly, that 
 cayenne pepper is sugar, that water is 
 fire, that a cane is a snake. As for the 
 readers of this periodical who still in- 
 sist that even animal and spiritual 
 magnetism are humbugs, I can only 
 say, with the author of the ' Night Side 
 of Nature,' ' How closely their clay 
 must be wrapped about them!' For 
 one, I have generally avoided any wit- 
 nessing of marvels of this class — prid- 
 ing myself in believing in their occur- 
 rence because of the pure d priori rea- 
 sonableness of the thing. 
 
 It will be observed that in this, as in 
 most other alleged intercourses with the 
 invisible world, there is persistent, con- 
 tinuous attempt to excite the vanity of 
 
The Love Lucifer. 
 
 321 
 
 the mortal who is venturing the dan- 
 gerous experiment. If the secret his- 
 tory of all the modern mediums were 
 revealed — no matter what their natural 
 disposition to vanity — it would be 
 found that the vast majority of them 
 had been incessantly nattered by their 
 spiritual familiars, and each informed 
 that he or she was the very individual 
 of whom a forlorn, misguided world 
 had been all this while in anxious ex- 
 pectation ! This appears to have been 
 the history of necromancy from the be- 
 ginning. Flattery has ever been the 
 chief stock in trade of those beings 
 who are so properly called ' seducing 
 spirits.' 'Tis ever with glozing words 
 that these children of the wilderness 
 gain the ear and the affections, and en- 
 trance through the heart-gates kept by 
 Parley the Porter. Let me not be sup- 
 posed to include in this class all the 
 spirits who have been of late years so 
 busy among us mortal and immortal 
 Yankees. I consider that the old ex- 
 pression ' white, black, and gray ' fully 
 describes the denizens of the ' interior.' 
 In fact, all seers insist that human crea- 
 tures, in and out of the body, appear to 
 them white or variously shaded toward 
 black, according to their moral status. 
 It is probable that the reason why the 
 black and gray varieties have been so 
 almost exclusively heard from, of late, 
 is to be found in the fact, that it is con- 
 trary to the laws of God and nature 
 for us to seek society beyond the terres- 
 trial plane ; and that our only proper 
 course, in this regard, is to avoid the 
 supernatural, as a general thing ; and 
 when it is apparently thrust upon us, 
 to have only so much to do with it as 
 is quite inevitable. "When the authori- 
 ties of heaven have anything to say to 
 a mortal, they will force him to listen, 
 if necessary — even if they have to throw 
 him, like Paul, from his horse. 
 
 Well, I had embarked, like Virgil, 
 or Dante, on my perilous tour through 
 Hades. There was, at once, a crowd- 
 ing about my pathway (only a bridle 
 path) of ostensible, estimable deceased 
 
 relatives, who, after imparting a variety 
 of priceless information, started off in 
 the usual style, magnifying mine office. 
 According as their influence over my 
 rational faculties became more com- 
 plete, the proportions of their Munchau- 
 senisms increased. Unfortunately for 
 the duration of the fantasy, their 
 jumble of Scripture prophecies concern- 
 ing me — which was then made to ap- 
 pear nearly coherent — was so plainly 
 writ, that as soon as the blockade of 
 my faculties was raised, the illusion, 
 never more than half complete, was 
 dispelled. My ' great mission ' was not 
 fully developed at the first session ; but 
 when I had become perfectly clair- 
 audient (I never became clairvoyant), 
 and could dispense with the pencil, a 
 queer mixture of metempsychosis and 
 Parseeism was] poured into my ear. It 
 ran somewhat as follows : The two 
 beings first created were, a Lucifer pre- 
 dominant in love, and a Lucifer pre- 
 dominant in intellect ; whom we may 
 call the Love Lucifer and the Intellec- 
 tual Lucifer. The latter was the indi- 
 vidual who fell, who played the copper- 
 head in Eden, and has been kicking 
 up such a bobbery ever since. The 
 story ran, that these two persons — the 
 original Ahriman and Ormozd — have 
 been tilting against each other all 
 through earth's career — appearing in 
 the forms of the principal good and 
 bad men. Thus their quarrels gave the 
 outline and the skeleton to the whole 
 story of Adam's race. According to 
 this new l philosophy of history,' these 
 spirits of light and darkness have been, 
 from the beginning, striving for the 
 mastery ; on the one hand, in the per- 
 sons of the most eminent saints, from 
 Abraham to Augustine, and others not 
 yet canonized; on the other hand, in 
 the persons of the world conquerors 
 noted for heartless intellectuality, from 
 Nimrod to Napoleon (shall we add 
 Jeff. Davis ?). Well, I, great I, was 
 to enjoy the distinguished honor 
 of finishing the list of Love Lucifers ; 
 and, after winding up the small affairs 
 
322 
 
 The Love Lucifer 
 
 of earth, was to lock up the other big 
 dog — after he had appeared in his last 
 great role — and then inaugurate the 
 millennium — a new latter-day Jacob's 
 ladder having been established in the 
 centre of Africa to forward the work. 
 
 It soon appeared that there was a 
 tar, a prima donna, in this company 
 who — after adding a few loose planks 
 to life's little stage — were striving to 
 still personate mortals and put off im- 
 mortality. A deceased damsel, of 
 whom I had heard as ' a morning star 
 among the living,' appeared now, as 
 ' a Hesper among the dead ; ' and was 
 imposingly introduced to me, by a 
 quasi near * relative,' as being only too 
 happy to learn that she was one half 
 of the eternal unit of which I was 
 the complement. I began to be as 
 lordly and self-satisfied as the bewil- 
 dered sot in the ' Taming of the Shrew.' 
 After exhausting my small stock of 
 writing paper, I concluded to allow 
 my new friends to spend their lo- 
 quacity on some old college note books, 
 the handiwork of a relative — every 
 other page being blank. The vener- 
 able professors of Columbia College 
 would have had their dignity and pro- 
 priety quite frightened out of them, had 
 they seen what weird statements were 
 presently sandwiched in with their dry 
 disquisitions on science and philosophy. 
 Whenever an especially startling an- 
 nouncement was made, a furious gust 
 of the ' od ' would run down my arm ; 
 and each word would be made to cover 
 half a page. We went into the new 
 business regardless of expense. 
 
 My invisible charmer, who had — it 
 must be said, not very prudishly — pro- 
 posed for my hand, no soonsr got pos- 
 session of it, than ' she ' began to pro- 
 test that when she learned what a splen- 
 did fate was in store for her, as tender 
 to my royal highness, she could only 
 weep for joy for several days. Presently 
 she sent out through my captive digits 
 the following : 
 
 ' We have, indeed, a long journey to 
 travel together, most loving partner; 
 
 and how my innermost soul exults, m 
 view of that unending oneness, of soul 
 and spirit, which is to be our portion ! 
 .... Ah me, why was I chosen to 
 join my eternal being with yours ? 
 when innumerable seraphs would salute 
 you 'husband' with enthusiastic joj 
 and gratitude !....' 
 
 Here is one plain fact, whatever else 
 may be doubted. After conversing fox 
 two days with this extraordinary vis- 
 itor, I became most desperately in love 
 with her, or him, or it — as you please. 
 Though past my majority, my placid 
 nature had never before been thorough- 
 ly aroused in this direction. Now, by 
 reason of the tact and knowledge of my 
 nature, possessed by the invisible party, 
 and still more because of my state of 
 mesmeric subjection, I was sighing like 
 a furnace or a Romeo. Not Ulysses, 
 Circe tempted — not Sintram seeking his 
 Undine — not the hapless sailor wight 
 pursuing the maiden of the mer, was 
 more utterly enamored than was I. As 
 a proof that I was no bad specimen of 
 the ' gushing ' persuasion, at this period, 
 read the following expressive though 
 sometimes commonplace retort. I 
 do not profess to know, and do not 
 much care, whether it was the utter- 
 ance of an artful fiend, a misguided 
 saint, or one of those ' sympathetic 
 spirits ' of whom Swedenborg makes 
 frequent mention. According to his 
 statement, these beings are in such a 
 condition, that whenever they come in 
 contact with a mortal, they chime in 
 with and encourage the views and ten- 
 dencies of their terrestrial acquaintance ; 
 and often, without meaning it, lead him 
 into great errors — being themselves 
 used as cats' paws by decidedly evil 
 spirits. But here is the tender missive, 
 which I transcribe from between two 
 heavy pages of notes on the Aristote- 
 lian and Baconian philosophies : 
 
 ' I thought that I had experienced the 
 joys of reciprocal affection ; but never 
 until now have begun to realize what 
 an unbounded sea of bliss two kindred 
 souls can bathe in. Ah ! who could 
 
The Love Lucifer. 
 
 323 
 
 Lave convinced me that so much rap- 
 ture could be crowded into a few mo- 
 ments, as was mine while you were 
 pouring forth the inexhaustible treas- 
 ures of your mind upon my entranced 
 ear? Spare me the sudden transition 
 from mere esteem to such huge, melo- 
 dious, irresistible outpouring of affec- 
 tion. It takes away my strength; 
 while the expression of my warm feel- 
 ings can never so affect your sturdy, 
 much tried, trouble-scathed manhood.' 
 
 You see that the flattery is never for- 
 gotten. But adulation is an instru- 
 ment of the weak as well as of the de- 
 ceitful. The utterer of this may have 
 Deen innocent of fraud, and, like myself, 
 mesmerized into following the will of 
 a more powerful being. Again, the 
 purpose of this being may have been a 
 good one. Such, and so many, and so 
 great, and varied, and strange, seem to 
 be the possibilities and dangers of the 
 inner life. 
 
 A systematic series of attempts seems 
 to have been made — by some person or 
 persons to the deponent most emphati- 
 cally unknown — to get my cool, phleg- 
 matic nervous system and brain excited. 
 The two principal means made use of 
 to complete the obsession were, that 
 just mentioned, and the announce- 
 ment of a succession of ' big things,' as 
 about to occur — the biggest kind of 
 things — those the expectation of which 
 was best calculated to set my brain in 
 a whirl. It will be seen, in the sequel, 
 that, failing to thoroughly accom- 
 plish their purpose by such means, my 
 spirit friends or fiends, as the case may 
 be, undertook the bug-a-boo, frighten- 
 ing process ; which was apparently 
 working successfully, when their opera- 
 tions, in that style, were suddenly 
 brought to a final close, by some means 
 which must ever, I suppose, remain un- 
 known to me. The startling events 
 stated as imminent were generally made 
 dependent upon the clairvoyant open- 
 ing that had been promised me. 
 
 The first beatific vision that was to 
 greet my gaze would be, of course, that 
 
 one which I was to behold most fre- 
 quently throughout the aeons without 
 end — even the face of that radiant 
 being who had gone before, to await 
 me in the angelhood ; where, beaming 
 seraphic upon me forever, it was to be 
 to me the embodiment of all ideals of 
 loveliness, grace, refinement, love. In 
 its every lineament I was to read and 
 decipher an endless series of ever fresh 
 and most celestial arcana — was contin- 
 ually to find new proof of love and wis- 
 dom, and of the divine ability to adapt 
 human to human. Since the love of 
 the mate is next to the love of the 
 Maker, it is no profanity to say that, 
 
 1 When I'd been there ten thousand years, 
 
 Bright, happy as the sun, 
 I'd have no less days to sing its praise 
 Than when I first begun.' 
 
 Instead of through a fast-waning 
 honeymoon of love, that face was to 
 entrance me while the sun of heaven 
 stood in the zenith of heaven — and we 
 read that there is no night there, for- 
 evermore. Was not this promised sight 
 a sufficient cause for excitement ? What 
 prospect — save that of a vision of Deity 
 — could be better adapted to arouse the 
 loftiest and most exquisite emotions? 
 What better fitted to gather into one 
 all long-cherished feelings of admiration 
 and reverence for the noble of the other 
 sex — to aggregate and revive all those 
 chivalrous, gallant, elevating, purifying, 
 tender thoughts which we have ever 
 had, with regard to them, in our high- 
 est moments ? 
 
 Some reader may say : ' Why will you 
 thus attempt to dignify ideas that you 
 acknowledge were excited in a confused 
 brain, by apparently mischievous or 
 irresponsible spirits ? ' I answer, that 
 even if the immediate exciting cause 
 of this current of ideas was some ill- 
 designing being, the ideas themselves 
 were not, necessarily, either evil or un- 
 dignified ; and that only such portion 
 of the brain was addled as would be 
 likely to rebel against the obsession. 
 
 Waiting the appointed hour, I sat 
 
324: 
 
 American Finances and Resources. 
 
 imagining the scene. I saw myself sud- 
 denly rising (' sudden Ianthe rose ') 
 from the prone body and all circum- 
 jacent grossness — rising, through clouds 
 and darkness, to some delightsome 
 plane of the inner world. A dozen 
 yards in front of me, beside a graceful 
 tree, would stand ' the only.' We 
 would gaze at each other, with in- 
 tense scrutiny, for some moments. 
 Each would think, ' There is plenty of 
 time ; it is to last forever.' We would 
 even look about us, still saying nothing. 
 Being eternally modelled, fitted, fore- 
 ordained, and predestinated for each 
 other, love arrows would, of course, 
 have pierced our centres of palpitation 
 at the first mutual glance. Still, though 
 quivering with emotion, neither would 
 be disposed to lessen the distance. 
 Methought we would even seat our- 
 selves on the mossy banks — the dozen 
 yards still intervening — and, each lean- 
 ing back against a tree, would ' face 
 the enemy ' — the eternal joy-sharer, 
 sorrow-sharer, worship, wisqlom, love, 
 pity, wonder, use, sport, hope-sharer; 
 while, occasionally, a premonitory, 
 prophetic pang of rapture out of the 
 coming eternities of bliss would thrill 
 
 through us. I had even a fancy thai 
 there would be no interchange of 
 words, no lessening of the coy distance 
 of space and manner, during this first 
 interview. ' It is to last so long ! so 
 long ! ' Again, I fancied that we might 
 sit there only weeping, as we looked 
 and loved. ' So long ! so long ! ' Ten- 
 der, dewy eyes wandering naively, in- 
 nocently, over each feature of face and 
 form — inquiry, wonder, joy in them — 
 pleased surprise, that such and such 
 points of the vision should be as they 
 are. Indefinite longings becoming defi- 
 nite, as all things longed for appear 
 embodied, as faith is lost in sight. 
 Again, I imagined laconic speech might 
 ensue — like the single-line dialogue of 
 Greek tragedies. But here the wings 
 of imagination drooped, and I could 
 only see the separation. She would 
 glide toward me. Her warm finger-tips 
 would touch my palm, her tender azure 
 eyes would beam once fully and closely 
 upon me. One moment I would see 
 the inner heaven opened ; and the next 
 — the familiar furniture of my room 
 would be before me. Thus I imagined. 
 The curious may learn what actually 
 befell, on a future occasion. 
 
414 
 
 The Love Lucifer. 
 
 THE LOVE LUCIFER 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I find myself writing upon matters 
 connected, at least, with religion, with 
 the thought of saying something useful 
 — of presenting a valuable experience, 
 if not a valuable congeries of new ideas. 
 Most readers deeply interested in reli- 
 gion are, by this time, demanding that 
 I show my colors — present my creed ; 
 otherwise they will shut themselves up 
 from my influence. As I write, church 
 bells are ringing. I know that many 
 of those who now assemble to hang 
 with a deathly solemnity upon the lips 
 of preachers — while death, hell, heaven, 
 eternity, atonement are the themes — 
 will say : ' He treats lightly the most 
 serious matters : he treads with dancing 
 pumps on holy ground.' Now I claim 
 to be, above all things, an earnest, sol- 
 emn person. Yet do I verily believe 
 that there is a humorous side to all 
 subjects, that is not ignored by even 
 the loftiest beings ; and that, in a re- 
 stricted sense, it may be said of all well- 
 balanced persons, as a philosopher has 
 said of children : ' Because they are in 
 innocence, therefore they are in peace ; 
 and because they are in peace, therefore 
 all things are with them full of mirth.' 
 It must be admitted, however, that if 
 the 'orthodox' creed is wholly cor- 
 rect, we find in the Puritans and their 
 existing imitators the only consistent 
 Christians. In view of the inevitable 
 damnation of a majority of the race, 
 they set their faces against all mirth ; 
 would eat no pleasant bread, and wear 
 no beautiful raiment. I followed them 
 to the letter, till, the ' naked eye ' not 
 being wholly blinded, nor the ear deaf- 
 ened by theologic din, I saw that na- 
 ture, in all her guises and voices, was 
 firmly opposed to all such gloomy 
 dogmas. 
 
 In a word, then, as to creed, I find 
 no satisfactory platform save that of the 
 
 broadest eclecticism. The motto of 
 the old Greek , ' Know that good is in 
 all,' is mine. I am aware that the dan- 
 ger accruing from this style of creed is, 
 that one often gets, in the effort at im- 
 partiality, into the meshes of panthe- 
 ism ; and then your list of gods many 
 and lords many comprises all the chief 
 divinities, from Brahm and Buddh to 
 Thor ; you priding yourself the while 
 upon the consideration shown for ' local 
 prejudices ' by your not putting Christ 
 at the end of the list. But, after life- 
 long investigation, I am not ashamed 
 to say, in the words, though not in the 
 spirit of Emperor Julian, ' Galilean, 
 thou hast conquered ; ' with Augustine, 
 1 Let my soul calm itself in Thee ; I saj", 
 let the great sea of my soul, that swell- 
 eth with waves, calm itself in Thee ; ' 
 with De Stael, ' Inconcevable enigme 
 de la vie ; que la passion, ni la douleur, 
 ni le genie ne peuvent decouvrir, vous 
 revelerez-vous a la priere ; ' with prac- 
 tical Napoleon, ' I know men, and Jesus 
 Christ was not a man ; ' with a Chev- 
 alier Bunsen and a Beech er, ' Jesus 
 Christ is my God, without any ifs or 
 buts.' I can assent more decidedly than 
 does Teurlesdrock, in the ' Everlasting 
 Nay,' to the doctrine of regeneration. 
 I narrow the whole matter down to 
 these plain facts : Of all religions, Chris- 
 tianity is best calculated to elevate 
 man's nature; and of all Christians, 
 they reach the highest spiritual con- 
 dition who regard Christ as utterly di- 
 vine. 
 
 On this other matter that enters so 
 largely into my narrative — the conju- 
 gality of disembodied spirits — I cannot 
 forbear some further discourse before 
 proceeding historically. The absurd 
 idea is still prevalent that there is no 
 sex in heaven. Those who retain this 
 notion, despite the revelations of science 
 concerning the universality of sex 
 
The Love Lucifer. 
 
 415 
 
 throughout creation, cannot reason very 
 candidly. When we find in the earth 
 positives but no negatives, light but 
 no heat, strength but no beauty, action 
 but no passivity, wisdom but no love, 
 intellection but no intuition, reflection 
 but no perception, science but no reli- 
 gion, then, at last, may we expect to 
 see in the heavens men but no women. 
 
 Take the conjugal element from hu- 
 man creatures, and you have Hamlet 
 without the ghost. Excepting, per- 
 haps, the religious, it is the most pow- 
 erful, prominent, exacting part of our 
 nature. In ' man's unregenerate state,' 
 at least, the love story is the most in- 
 teresting book, marriage the most in- 
 teresting ceremony, true lovers' dalli- 
 ance the most interesting sight. For 
 the beloved, one relinquishes all else — 
 performs the greatest prodigies. Mar- 
 riage is the subject most thought of, 
 most talked about. Around it cluster 
 all the other events of life. Rejoice, 
 then, O ' romantic ' youth and maiden, 
 now in the days of thy youth ; for this 
 flitting romance — so soon interrupted 
 by care and grief, by shop and kitch- 
 en and nursery, by butcher, baker, tail- 
 or, milliner, and cordwainer — is about 
 the most genuine experience you will 
 have in this world. Therefore, say I, 
 cultivate romance. Devour a goodly 
 number of the healthier novels. Weep 
 and laugh over them — believing every 
 word. Amadis de Gaul, even, is a 
 better model than Gradgrind. Adore 
 each the other sex — positively wor- 
 ship ! Both are worshipful (in the ' aib- 
 stract'). 
 
 What healthy-minded person loves 
 not to behold the eye-sparkle of pure 
 admiration between young man and 
 maid ? ' They worship, truly, they 
 know not what.' In bowing down to 
 their ideal, they bow to the real human 
 — the purified man or woman of the 
 better land. The recluse is ever the 
 true prophet and seer, in this as in still 
 higher matters. Your modest-eyed 
 student, stealing glances of unfeigned 
 admiration at ordinary maidens, is not 
 
 such a simpleton as some suppose. His 
 seclusion has cleared his vision. He 
 sees on through the eons — sees things 
 as they will or may be — regards the 
 objects of his adoration as he will in 
 the angelhood. Why will so many de- 
 cry this admiration ? — when they see 
 that, not till the youth passes the purely 
 romantic age — fourteen to sixteen or 
 eighteen — and begins to have common- 
 place thoughts of the other sex, does 
 mischief arise. 
 
 The idea of eternal conjugality should 
 lighten all faces with hope, and should 
 have a most conservative influence in 
 society. Those who are not very well 
 matched, and yet are conscious that 
 the very highest earthly bliss comes of 
 a right mating, are not content to pass 
 through this life without enjoying this 
 bliss, if they suppose that it appertains 
 solely to earth. So, many of them break 
 bounds and bonds. Let these but ac- 
 cept the idea that conjugality is one of 
 the chief features of the heavenly life, 
 and they can settle down steadily to 
 the apparent duties of this sphere, con- 
 tent with ' peace on earth,' since now 
 they feel sure of rapture in heaven— a 
 rapture, too, mind you, of a kind with 
 which they are somewhat acquainted. 
 It is all very well to anticipate the joy 
 which ' eye hath not seen,' etc. But 
 men need the prospect of an eternal joy 
 they know of, as much as they needed 
 that awe-inspiring Jehovah should out- 
 work in love-inspiring Christ. In view 
 of this, among other joys set before 
 him, the extra-earnest worker, in public 
 or private, can more easily deprive 
 himself of that amount of social inter- 
 course with the other sex which he 
 craves. Such can suffice themselves 
 with occasional glimpses of the comple- 
 mentary portion of mankind ; and as 
 they hurriedly pass seraphic faces in 
 the street, they wave the hand of the 
 spirit after them, saying : ' I prithee, O 
 thou wonder, art human or no ? 5 ; O 
 you sweet beautiful ! ' the king's busi- 
 ness requires haste.' Providence has 
 set our lives so far apart we cannot 
 
416 
 
 The Love Lucifer. 
 
 hear each other speak.' But you will 
 be a woman, and I will be a man, for- 
 ever. In paradise, I will read wonderful 
 things in those and other such eyes, and 
 wonder at you forever. Vale I vale ! ' 
 
 There is a poet claiming to be of the 
 supernal life — especially of the supernal 
 conjugal — who has written ' epics ' and 
 ' lyrics,' of which I must honestly say, 
 as Emerson, I believe, once honestly 
 said of some of the writings of Sweden- 
 borg : ' I read them with an unction 
 and an afflatus quite indescribable.' 
 They lift one to the empyrean like 
 nothing else I know of outside the 
 Bible. There is such a saintly purity ; 
 such a wondrous, rich, mellow joyous- 
 ness ; such bounding elasticity of 
 spirit; such an evidently irresistible 
 gush of song in the heart ; such broad 
 catholicity of religion, that, to some, it 
 seems impossible that they could have 
 been written anywhere but under the 
 perpetual midsummer skies of paradise. 
 It may show poor taste, but to me, in 
 those regions of the upper ether where- 
 in Tennyson, Mrs. Browning, and Shel- 
 ley grow wing-weary, he soars on 
 strong, free pinion. His ' imaginings,' 
 if such they are, of immortal life, as 
 much surpass in plausibility and nat- 
 uralness those of Milton, Dante, and 
 Virgil, as the acting of a first-class 
 theatre surpasses that seen in the old 
 monkish 'mysteries.' This writer, T. 
 L. Harris, has won much recognition in 
 both hemispheres; would win much 
 more if he appeared simply as a poet, 
 and did not claim a seer faculty, mak- 
 ing many positive statements that can- 
 not be verified. He certainly comes up 
 to Aristotle's standard, where he says : 
 ' The object of the poet is not to treat 
 the True as it really happened, but as 
 it should have happened.' 
 
 And now the story. I left myself 
 indulging in reveries concerning the 
 expected sight of my invisible charmer. 
 The appointed hour came. I was quite 
 excited. I knew that the land was al- 
 ready full of people who claimed to 
 see the sights of the other world as 
 
 spirits see them, and fully expected to 
 have my clairvoyant faculty opened. 
 But I saw no * sudden Ianthe ; ' and to 
 this day have never seen even a kobold, 
 a wraith, or a doppelganger ! This 
 was doubtless fortunate ; fori was near- 
 ly driven into lunacy by the things I 
 heard before I reached the end of this 
 ' youthful adventure.' I should have 
 gone ' clean daft ' if the bugaboos had 
 been permitted to show me the sights 
 they presently promised. 
 
 Soon came again my collocutor with 
 explanations. 
 
 ' You were in such a state of excite- 
 ment that the united efforts of more 
 than forty of your spirit friends were 
 utterly unavailing for the opening of 
 your sight. We, too, became s<$fexcited 
 that we lost all control of ourselves, 
 and could only weep to hear your 
 mournful appeals followed by your sur- 
 render of all claims upon me.' .... 
 ' Do not think that I could ever hope 
 to bask beneath the sunshine of your 
 smile after having intentionally de- 
 ceived you.' 
 
 Then followed much similar feminine 
 beguilement ; the faculty for which 
 seems to be rather increased by the 
 Jordan bath. 
 
 It began to be a noticeable fact that 
 their magnetic power over me was such 
 that they could cast me down to the 
 borders of despair, and raise me thence 
 to rapture at will. Thus a few mo- 
 ments of such ordinary blandishments 
 as the following were the only appar- 
 ent means of raising my usually slow- 
 moving spirits from a very low to a 
 very high pitch. I was complaining 
 of the waste of paper, in writing words 
 of letters three or four inches high ; did 
 not think any law, even a law of nature, 
 justified the imposition of such an ex- 
 penditure upon a spouse in a separate 
 sphere. ' She ' promised to tone down 
 the expressions of attachment until she 
 could talk as largely as she pleased ; 
 and to some further suggestions, re- 
 plied : 
 
 ' Really, you are quite impertinent, 
 
The Love Lucifer. 
 
 417 
 
 considering the short time we have 
 been married.' .... 
 
 Slightly singular as it may seem to 
 those who think that this narration is 
 all gammon,' I had gone through the 
 usual course of acquaintanceship with 
 this airy nothing ; was first distant and 
 reserved ; then slightly thawed, though 
 still horrified at the thought of having 
 all my thoughts read ; and finally, after 
 I felt that the invisible eyes had read, 
 in my memory, every page of my his- 
 tory, was perfectly familiar and at ease 
 in the presence this finite searcher of 
 hearts. 
 
 I find, next in order, the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 ' So you wish me to prove that we 
 were married, do you ? Well, when 
 you become a denizen of this higher, 
 but none the less practical sphere, you 
 may read, if you please, where, with 
 wonder and strange emotion, I read, in 
 
 the heavenly records of marriages.' 
 
 [It was dated about the time of my 
 birth.] ' Your banter is not so agree- 
 able as your tenderness.' .... 4 You 
 are incorrigible. It will take me many 
 a long age to bring you to a due sense 
 of my importance,' etc. ' Some of my 
 friends are beside themselves with 
 mirth, at my vain attempts at taming 
 a spirit so rude.' Then came another 
 promise of opened vision. 'A truly 
 solemn scene is at hand. Spend the 
 interval in prayer.' 
 
 But again there was something 
 wrong about the spiritual zinc or 
 acid, and the electrical machinery 
 would not work. The fair or foul de- 
 ceiver (who knows ?) came up very 
 solemn after this failure. 
 
 ' ' Though all men forsake thee,' said 
 Peter, ' yet will not I forsake thee.' So 
 now, when the highest spirits of heaven 
 have fled in terror and dismay, your 
 poor darling will not forsake you. 
 Well might I sit, like Job's friends, 
 seven days, ay, seventy times seven, 
 in silent contemplation of him who — 
 wo is me ! — fears that I am but another 
 [Delilah, commissioned by his enemies 
 vol. v.— 28 
 
 to betray him into their hands. What 
 can I say ? what do ? Oh that I had 
 never seen the glorious light of the sun 
 or the pure myriads of my happy home, 
 rather than I should have beheld that 
 sight last night. How can I explain 
 the fact that he, whom I, at least, be- 
 lieve to be heaven's most supreme 
 (string of adjectives) favorite, is sitting 
 here with his unutterable but unrepin- 
 ing sorrow looking forth from his .... 
 eyes.' 
 
 Just here I caught a glimpse of my 
 asininity, and turning in wrath and 
 scorn to my Titania, said, mockingly : 
 
 4 ' While I thine amiable cheeks do 
 coy ! " 
 
 To this she replies : ' Do not heap 
 additional reproaches upon me, by any 
 such awfully ludicrous quotations.' .... 
 ' So you think that your Delilah is 
 striving to gain time by all these pious 
 and otherwise interesting remarks ? ' 
 . . . . 'Nay, do not with loathing 
 cast me from you as an an unholy and 
 hateful thing ! for then, oh, what I 
 should then do or be, I cannot, dare 
 not even think.' . . . . ' Again you see 
 my woman's heart cannot suppress its 
 emotions toward one who still hopes 
 
 that he has been talking with — 
 
 ; and who says that, for him to 
 
 be convinced of this, is to be convinced 
 that she who has been talking with 
 him has not intentionally deceived 
 him.' 
 
 She then wrought upon my feelings 
 by portraying her sufferings, until, in 
 my maudlin condition, I was casting 
 about to find how I should help her ; 
 just as you sometimes see a drunken 
 tramp striving to pull his drunken pal 
 out of a ditch. 
 
 ' So, most self-forgetful, you begin to 
 think that you ought to help me bear 
 my burden ; as you have planned sit- 
 ting there, with your little friend en- 
 circling you in her so warm embrace. 
 But why should I inform you of such 
 fact, as this last, until you are con- 
 vinced that all you have heard is not 
 the wily utterance of seducing and 
 
418 
 
 The Love Lucifer. 
 
 hellish spirits? Try not to entertain 
 such awful suspicions. As to the cause 
 of these lamentable failures, I can only 
 suppose that the Lord wishes to make 
 us, who wrongly prophesied, sensible 
 of our inabifity to foretell future events.' 
 
 Then came some bungled Scriptures 
 about my ' mission,' which roused my 
 ire. My taunts drew forth this re- 
 sponse : 
 
 ' Why do you love to ridicule my 
 tenderness, and speak so awfully to 
 one who has no other human source of 
 perfect happiness ? ' 
 
 The day following, the solemn dodge 
 was again resorted to. I began to feel 
 a sort of awe creeping over me. My 
 affectionate friend thereupon wrote : 
 
 ' What a change a few minutes have 
 wrought in you. Yes ! yes ! the morn- 
 ing light is breaking. The fiery trial is 
 complete. As I write there rests upon 
 your now placid brow a glorious and 
 marvellously beautiful crown. The 
 cup is drained. ' To him that sat in 
 the valley and shadow of death light 
 has sprung up.' And now awe seizeth 
 me : for there standeth, as yet a long 
 way off, one whose form is like to that 
 of the Son of Man. In a very little 
 while, now, the great event must inev- 
 itably occur. He who stands upon the 
 holy mount prepares to open your sight, 
 and give you your commission. How 
 can we see him face to face and live ! 
 Let not a passing suspicion of further 
 delay disturb you. Already you begin 
 to feel the influence of his approach. 
 Well may you heave a sigh — as one 
 who experiences a sudden and unlooked- 
 for relief. In less than ten minutes the 
 Lord will appear to you. So make 
 ready, in solemn meditation and pray- 
 er, for the most solemn event of your 
 or any other man's life is at hand.' 
 
 ' If the vision tarry, wait for it,' is 
 the only scripture that seems appli- 
 cable to my visions : for still they came 
 not. «Yet some very serious and sub- 
 stantial experiences now fell to my lot, 
 which shall be the theme of another 
 chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 As manager of this exhibition, I 
 would request the orchestra to play 
 something gloomy and grand, during 
 the remainder of the performance ; 
 something weird, mysterious; some- 
 thing in which you can hear the sough- 
 ing of the wind through the pines of 
 the Hartz Mountains or the Black 
 Forest. A passage from a Faust opera 
 or Der Freischutz might meet the case ; 
 for it began to be intimated to me, 
 now that I was sufficiently clairaudient 
 to be able to dispense almost entirely 
 with the pencil, that his Satanic Majesty 
 was no indifferent spectator of the prep- 
 aration of the man who was about to 
 interfere so signally with his plans and 
 pursuits. Thereupon there began to 
 steal over me for the first time, 
 
 ' A sense of something dreadful, something 
 near.' 
 
 However it was managed, from this 
 moment till the end of this phase of 
 life I am narrating, I had an almost 
 constant sense of the presence of ' genii 
 of the pit,' of vast intelligence, cruel as 
 ever Satan was imagined, relentless as 
 fate, cold as Dante's ice hells could 
 make them. At first, some influence 
 led me to review the traditional history 
 and prospects of my supposed distin- 
 guished visitor, at some length. I dis- 
 cussed the state of his case with no 
 little unction, though shaking in my 
 boots, and in momentary expectation 
 of being gobbled up, body and soul, 
 and whisked off in sulphurous smoke, 
 with only a sulphur-burnt hole in the 
 carpet to mark the spot where I saw 
 the last of earth. 
 
 Presently my inseparable companion 
 broke in with : 
 
 ' He hears you ! he hears you ! and 
 never may it be my lot again to look 
 upon — ' . . . . ' There he is again, 
 glaring with inexpressible rage upon 
 the comparatively insignificant man 
 who just now so plainly revealed to him 
 ' the true state of the case.' I am al- 
 most afraid to look upon that awful 
 
The Love Lucifer. 
 
 419 
 
 Tisage. * The state of the case is it ? ' 
 he exclaims. ' We will see what is the 
 state.' ' — 
 
 There is a break here in the manu- 
 script, which is resumed thus : ' You 
 have conquered ! frantic with rage he 
 has fled, never, I trust, to return.' 
 
 How will I remember what happened 
 during that awful pause? It was 
 spent, I supposed, in a hand-to-hand con- 
 flict with the Prince of Darkness ; the 
 agreeableness of which was not en- 
 hanced by my vivid recollection of the 
 ' bit of a disco oshin ' between Christian 
 and Apollyon depicted in the old 
 family Pilgrim's Progress. We are 
 truly 'the stuff that dreams are made 
 of.' What mattered it to me, on that 
 bland summer afternoon, since I was 
 of this opinion, whether it was Beelze- 
 bub himself or some departed ' blazing 
 tinman,' with a suit of his majesty's 
 old clothes on, while himself, all snug 
 at home, 
 
 ' Sat in his easy chair, 
 Drinking his sulphur tea/ 
 
 That was certainly one of the most 
 awful moments of my life, in which I 
 felt the first dreadful rush of this invis- 
 ible tiger. It seemed as if he swooped 
 toward me to annihilate me in a mo- 
 ment ; but was restrained by a higher 
 power. His coming was like the rush 
 of a fifteen-inch shell past one's head. 
 
 As soon as I saw that the first onset 
 did not destroy me, I gathered strength 
 to face the monster ; for a tongue com- 
 bat seemed all that was permitted him. 
 He put me through my theological 
 paces at an awful rate — using the So- 
 cratic dialectic — growling out questions 
 in the tones of a cathedral organ, that 
 made me shiver. Oh that I could re- 
 member that fearful catechism ! It 
 would make a tract for which the Tom 
 Paine Association would pay a high 
 price. He drove me — partly, I suppose, 
 by magnetic force — step by step, from 
 my cherished religious opinions. My 
 reasons for believing in the cardinal 
 doctrines of Christianity seemed to burn 
 like straw before his fiery rhetoric, and 
 
 to turn to dust beneath the ponderous 
 blows of his iron logic. He pushed 
 me away from all I had esteemed re- 
 liable in the universe, till I seemed 
 to stand on the verge of creation. 
 There I hung with the strength of ter- 
 ror. Then I found poet Campbell true 
 to nature, where he speaks of hope 
 standing intact ' 'mid Nature's funeral 
 pyre.' I insisted upon ' hoping,' in 
 spite of all his fiery hail. 
 
 After he had beaten down all my 
 defences, he began to jeer at me with 
 fierce sneers and goblin laughter that 
 froze my blood. ' So I was the con- 
 temptible manikin who dared to en- 
 tertain the idea of equality with him 
 — the Star of the Morning — one breath 
 of whose nostrils would wither me into 
 nonentity. So I presumed to stand 
 up and face him, who had, in his time, 
 scattered the hosts of heaven ! If it 
 were not for those cursed, white-livered 
 things (angels) that stood in the way, 
 he would swoop down and destroy me 
 in an instant.' 
 
 Having found and maintained foot- 
 hold for several minutes on the rock of 
 hope, I began to consider how weak 
 things had of erst confounded the 
 things that were mighty, and soon the 
 wirepullers behind the scenes (whoever 
 they were) had me smiting him hip 
 and thigh. I ' began in weakness, but 
 ended in power.' At first a few mut- 
 tered remonstrances, but finally whole 
 Ironsides broadsides, with the result 
 above named. The words of my antag- 
 onist, during this encounter, rang 
 through my brain with awful distinct- 
 ness. For a day or two I had been 
 communicating partly with the pencil, 
 and partly by clairaudience, eked out 
 by writing in the air with my fore- 
 finger. But this demon, or demon pro 
 tern., needed not to write his words : his 
 ' trumpet gave no uncertain sound.' 
 
 The thoughtful reader will perceive 
 what a strong point my magnetizers 
 gained by this scene. After disappoint- 
 ing me so many times, they could not, 
 with all their power over me, have kept 
 
420 
 
 The Love Lucifer. 
 
 me from throwing the whole thing over- 
 board, without resorting to some such 
 coup d'etat. Being, doubtless, on better 
 terms with the infernal than with the 
 supernal regions, these denizens of the 
 Intermediate Limbo (we will suppose 
 that my strange guests were mostly 
 of this sort of nondescripts) had per- 
 haps induced some dona fide demon to 
 act the part of the king of them all, ' for 
 this night only.' It certainly was an 
 ' immense success.' I, to be sure, had 
 not received the expected commission : 
 but had I not fought the great red 
 dragon, and, like another St. George, 
 pinned him to the earth, through su- 
 pernatural aid ? Here was a substan- 
 tial success. I write this merrily enough 
 now ; but was not often merry then — 
 was indeed acting great, real tragedy. 
 
 I was not long to enjoy this trumph. 
 The word came : ' Again he comes ! ' 
 Then I had another long, hard fight ; 
 but this time was not pushed so near 
 the wall. I was then told by my spirit- 
 ual adviser and Circe of the unbounded 
 admiration expressed for me by those 
 who had listened to this ' ever-memor- 
 able ' disputation. 
 
 The attempt to craze me, or — putting 
 the best face on it — to show me now 
 spiritists are generally crazed, now began 
 in downright earnest. All that night, 
 despite my entreaties to be permitted 
 to sleep, I was kept awake, and busied 
 with a variety of ' extremely important ' 
 business. I am naturally a solid, regu- 
 lar sleeper, and do not prosper upon 
 Napoleon or Humboldt portions of re- 
 pose ; but now could only suit my 
 persecutors by rising on one elbow in 
 bed, and ' wrestling ' for the salvation 
 of my next neighbor. They sedulously 
 poured into my mind all manner of 
 apocrypha concerning this gentleman's 
 shortcomings — about the necessity of 
 praying for and at him, and about the 
 effects of my efforts, i. e., bringing a 
 streak of celestial light upon him — until 
 I was almost ready to wish that he 
 
 might be 
 
 rather than that I should 
 
 have any such unseasonable work to 
 
 perform in his behalf. But they kept 
 me at it, straight through the night 
 and a large portion of the next day ; 
 and finally induced me to go, much 
 against my will, to reveal to him some 
 of my experiences, and to endeavor to 
 force from him an acknowledgment 
 that what I had heard about him was 
 true. 
 
 The attempt to cause at least a tem- 
 porary aberration of my intellect now 
 becomes very plain in the manuscript. 
 Every idea is uttered in the most ex- 
 citing manner. All statements and 
 prognostications about my neighbor 
 having proved false (he was amazed at 
 my procedure), the invisible busy bodies 
 boiled over thus : 
 
 ' He has lied ! he has lied to you ! 
 and if you would preserve your reason, 
 go and read the papers to him. He 
 had schooled himself to show no emo- 
 tion, and you showed enough to excite 
 his worst, most hideous fears. So go, 
 for Heaven's sake ! He quailed once, 
 and only once, before your not suffi- 
 ciently steady gaze. Woe ! woe ! woe ! 
 Now what shall be done ? ' . . . [Evi- 
 dently trying to get up a teapot tem- 
 pest.] ' Do not strive to unravel this 
 mystery in that fiercely keen way, or 
 this evil spirit will have to give place 
 to a more expert deceiver. God w r ill 
 certainly do something soon to set these 
 matters straight, or I shall cease to be ! ' 
 [She had said annihilation was pos- 
 sible !] ' Your father wishes to speak 
 to you.' 
 
 A fatherly spirit it was truly — was 
 for driving me mad offhand, but over- 
 shot the mark. 
 
 ' Son, this is awful ! I can only say 
 to you, be calm and cool, for you will 
 need to be both to get free from this 
 snare of Satan, so well conceived. Bet- 
 ter go to supper now (for appearance 
 sake) : after that, pray for help. When 
 you took away those books [after read- 
 ing extracts to the neighbor], the whole 
 crew of devils,' etc., etc. 
 
 This exciting language ' brought me 
 up with a round turn.' I saw at once 
 
The Love Lucifer. 
 
 421 
 
 the object of the person who was talk- 
 ing with me. So I brought the affair 
 to a full stop, as far as the use of my 
 hand was concerned. I simply added, 
 on that leaf— speaking now for my- 
 self: 
 
 ' I will hear no further. This part 
 of my discipline is finished.' 
 
 But I w*as forced to hear, whether I 
 wrote or not. I had come to this wis- 
 dom too late. I fully believe that, as 
 far as my ability to prevent the catas- 
 trophe was concerned, I was then and 
 there a possessed person — a slave of 
 spirits — as utterly bound to do the will 
 of my magnetizers as ever a ' subject ' 
 was. Though I cannot be persuaded 
 that all these beings, from whom un- 
 seen I had heard so much, were ' only 
 evil continually,' no ' harmonialist ' can 
 persuade me that those who now began 
 to play with me, as a cat plays with a 
 mouse, were other than evil. In all 
 imaginable ways, they strove to show 
 me how utterly I had lost self-command 
 and self-control. (I am esteemed ob- 
 stinate by nature.) 
 
 What is very singular, I now lost 
 sight of my ' prima donna.' It would 
 seem natural that a Delilah would, at 
 least, have come with a jeering ' The 
 Philistines be upon thee, Samson.' 
 But no, not till this great tribulation 
 was over did I hear from l her.' 
 
 That evening and night were spent, 
 mostly, in showing me that I was no 
 longer my own master. There was not, 
 however, that continuous hell-blast 
 upon mo that so scorched my soul on 
 the following afternoon. The cats were 
 tossing me in their velvet paws — only 
 occasionally protruding a sharp claw as 
 a reminder, until they could feel surer 
 of their victim. They would say to 
 me : ' Now we will exalt you to heav- 
 en;' and up I went, higher, higher, 
 higher into the empyrean, until I heard 
 the music of the spheres, and all things 
 were ablaze with light and glory. 
 Again they would say : ' Now go down 
 into hell ; ' and the scene changed as 
 suddenly as do those of a ten-cent pan- 
 
 orama, when a midnight storm at sea 
 or a volcanic eruption is about to be 
 rolled in view : I went down ad imis — 
 ' down to the bottom of the sea — the 
 earth with her bars was around me for- 
 ever.' Blank horror and anguish seized 
 me. Hope fled to its impregnable cor- 
 ner of my heart, till the calamity was 
 overpast. A hasheesh agony was upon 
 me, as before I had known its bound- 
 less bliss. And thus variously I fared 
 through all that second night of sleep- 
 lessness. They probably sent me up 
 and down this scale of sensation twenty 
 times during eight hours. This night 
 I was not at all sleepy. A few more 
 such would have finished the business ; 
 and there would have been ' another 
 awful effect of the spiritual delusion ' 
 to chronicle. The honest verdict of 
 the first century would have been : ' An- 
 other possessed of devils or devil-crazed.' 
 The wretches well knew that insomnia 
 is an excellent preparation for insanity. 
 
 Toward morning a new scheme was 
 invented. Some ostensible good friend 
 informed me, in a business-like way, 
 that the work of the morrow for me — 
 the new Saul of Tarsus — was to set out 
 for a certain town in Vermont, where 
 I should find my Ananias ; who ' would 
 show me what things I should do.' So 
 the faithful slave of the genii prepared 
 to obey. I packed a carpet bag, and 
 went early to the residence of a medi- 
 cal friend, who had been dabbling in 
 the same arcana. I gave him a sketch 
 of what I had experienced; yet, for 
 some reason, did not start for Vermont, 
 but remained with him all the morn- 
 ing. My invisible monitors sent me 
 out into the street several times, to find 
 people who could not be found. (Any- 
 thing to keep up their influence.) 
 
 Toward noon the fact came plainly 
 to me that an effort was being made to 
 disturb, if not destroy, my reason. I be- 
 gan to find my ideas becoming inco- 
 herent in spite of hugest effort. I 
 called my friend, and said to him, 
 through set teeth, but as coolly as pos- 
 sible : 
 
422 
 
 The Love Lucifer. 
 
 1 1 find myself to be thoroughly and 
 utterly a magnetic subject, an abject 
 subject of mischievous spirits. They 
 are striving to derange my faculties. 
 I am exceedingly alarmed to find that 
 they are trying, with much success, to 
 render my ideas incoherent. It is only 
 by a very great effort of will that I am 
 enabled to speak these words distinctly 
 to you. As far as my private power of 
 resistance is concerned, I am gone. Do 
 exert your powerful magnetism ; per- 
 haps you can drive them off.' 
 
 He was much distressed, and exerted 
 himelf mightily (he was a professed 
 electrician), combining will power 
 with that ancient agent, prayer, to ex- 
 orcise the evil influence. But his efforts 
 were useless, as the vagabonds well 
 knew, before they brought me there 
 on exhibition. They had not spent the 
 week in vain. I had sold myself to 
 them as squarely as fools ever did in 
 German legend. 
 
 When dinner was announced, the 
 doctor wished me to accompany Mm. 
 I refused, and he left me, to take a hasty 
 meal. Finding, when he was gone, 
 that I was growing worse, I went into 
 the street, determined that if I was to 
 be crazed, I would not sit there and let 
 him watch the operation. I walked 
 on, vowing that I would not turn to- 
 ward home until my faculties were re- 
 stored ; and execrating my folly in per- 
 mitting the enslavement! On, on I 
 rushed, my head all ablaze with ' od ' 
 that had no business there, and pray- 
 ing as I never had prayed before. I 
 took the Gowanus road toward Green- 
 wood. Perhaps it was some defunct 
 rogue there interred, who was leading 
 me on to ' rave among the tombs.' 
 
 Arrived at a spot where a little tree- 
 capped promontory overhangs the 
 beach, I turned aside, beneath the pro- 
 jection, and sat down on a log — like 
 Jonah under the gourd — and, gazing 
 out on the rippling waves of the bay, 
 desired that death or relief might come. 
 I was determined to sit there until God 
 or Satan made good his claim upon 
 
 me. Suddenly relief came. The fierce 
 onset upon my intellect ceased. I was 
 made whole. I ' leaped and walked.' 
 The means of my relief I never knew. 
 
 But my lesson was not complete. I 
 had but just informed my medical 
 friend of my deliverance (he had 
 scoured the neighborhood, and inform- 
 ed several of the cause of his fears), 
 when there were mutterings and growl- 
 ings of another approaching storm. 
 The messengers of Satan sent to buffet 
 me gave me to understand that they 
 had not abandoned their prey, but 
 were sure of it yet. They poured the 
 wrath of hell upon my defenceless head 
 that afternoon. I have not, hitherto, 
 attempted to offer much direct proof to 
 the uninitiated that my experiences, 
 in this connection, were other than hal- 
 lucination. That which now occurred 
 is, as it seems to me, in the nature of 
 such proof. Here was I thoroughly 
 alarmed for my safety, and extremely 
 anxious to get rid of my tormentors. 
 Yet, not for a single moment now, could 
 I close my mental ears to their horrid 
 clangor of threats and imprecations: 
 for, throwing off all restraint, they 
 flooded me with Billingsgate. They 
 cursed and damned me, and all per- 
 sons, things, and ideas esteemed by me, 
 in the most approved style. Indeed, 
 the swearing exceeded anything I ever 
 heard on the Mississippi and Alabama 
 river boats, when forced, for lack of 
 room, to sleep on the floor of the saloon, 
 almost under the feet of the chivalry, dur 
 ing their midnight gambling carousals. 
 
 The mode of speech is not easily 
 described. Sometimes the words came 
 slowly and distinctly. Again there 
 would be merely thought-panorama 
 presented. A complete statement or 
 view of things can be flashed into the 
 mind in an instant. Therefore the lan- 
 guage of spirits is of vastly greater 
 compass than that of men. These im- 
 mortal blackguards could vomit more 
 oaths and other blasphemy in five 
 minutes, than a mortal one could in an 
 hour. If it is difficult to translate from 
 
The Love Lucifer. 
 
 423 
 
 one earth-language into another, how 
 much harder must it be to bring the 
 ideas of an inner sphere into outward 
 forms of expression ! 
 
 They told me that it was their inten- 
 tion to open my clairvoyant faculty 
 now with a vengeance. For, having 
 fairly accomplished it, they would wor- 
 ry me to death or madness by the con- 
 tinual sight and hearing of all that hell 
 could show or conjure up. I only wish 
 that a few of those Sadducees who phi- 
 losophize all this sort of thing into 
 moonshine, could be, for a while, as 
 sore beset as T was on that eventful 
 day ! It would need but a few minutes' 
 parley with these ' fierce Ephesian 
 beasts ' to induce them to repeat the 
 language of an older sceptic, who re- 
 turned from the dead to the Mend who 
 had discussed immortality with him, 
 and who exclaimed, as he passed from 
 Bight : 
 
 ' Michael ! Michael ! vera sunt ilia ! ' 
 
 The scheme of the diabolians seemed 
 so feasible that I was greatly perplexed. 
 They had shown themselves able to 
 keep me awake the two preceding 
 nights ; and I knew that, if permitted, 
 they could accomplish their purpose in 
 that way alone. How much, then, 
 would the perpetual sight of fiery fly- 
 ing dragons, horned satyrs, and other 
 hideous half-human creatures, tearing 
 around, with mouths agape to take 
 me in — while other lost souls flitted 
 about as flying serpents, bats, and owls 
 — hasten the evil work. I thought 
 over all the horrible forms portrayed 
 in the Catholic purgatory pictures, and 
 described by delirium tremens subjects, 
 until I was a thousand times more anx- 
 ious to have the eyes of my spirit kept 
 shut, than I ever had been to have 
 them opened. 
 
 I tried to exorcise the foe by reading 
 the Bible ; but this only increased their 
 
 jeering at the ' fool,' whom they 
 
 had worked hard to get, had got, and 
 meant to keep, in spite of ' bell, book, 
 and candle.' Truly 'their mouths 
 were full of cursing and bitterness.' 
 
 Did space permit, and were it not that 
 the printing of oaths, which has be- 
 come so fashionable even in respectable 
 periodicals, is hurtful to morals, I could 
 fill pages with their jeers, taunts, blas- 
 phemies, threats, and execrations. 
 
 I left my private room, and went 
 among the household, in hopes that, 
 amid busy outer scenes, the hold of tho 
 invisible tigers would be loosed. But 
 then, while conversing on commonplace 
 subjects, I realized more fully than ever 
 upon what a fearful precipice the heed- 
 less spiritist is ever sporting. For, 
 clearer, more distinct, came threats, 
 curses, goblin laughter ; and ' Fool ! 
 dolt ! ' was the cry. 
 
 ' Simpleton, etc., think you that the 
 company of women and children will 
 save you, when the mightiest spirits 
 (angels they call themselves) cannot 
 now rend you from our grasp ? As 
 soon as we choose, we will tear your 
 silly soul out of your carcase; and 
 then we will make a veritable Lucifer 
 of you. ' Lucifer ! Lucifer ! star of 
 the morning ! how art thou fallen, and 
 become as one of us ! ' Ha ! ha ! ha ! 
 yes ! yes ! you must go with us. We 
 fancy you. For a callow priest, you 
 have a deal of music in you. Would- 
 be Samson, you must grind in oui 
 prison house and sport in our temple ; 
 the pillars whereof you can never cause 
 to tremble.' 
 
 They said that I was a ' coward — 
 dared not face a set of shadows, fig- 
 ments of the brain, empty nothings.' 
 I saw that ' vain was the help of man ; ' 
 and, retiring to my room, had an awful 
 season of worse than ' temptation com- 
 bats.' 
 
 Then came the last scene in the tragic 
 part of my unromantic experience. 
 One of the artful dodgers, having trans- 
 formed himself into an angel of light 
 (in my hearing, not in my sight), in- 
 formed me, at about eight o'clock in 
 the evening, that, though my destruc- 
 tion appeared imminent, there was one 
 way of escape left. My own prayers 
 were useless : but if I would get down 
 
4*4 
 
 The Love Lucifer. 
 
 on my knees, and repeat a confession 
 and supplication at his dictation, it 
 might avail. Enslaved as I was, I of 
 course complied ; and then underwent 
 a humiliation that, even in my horrified 
 state, was veiy bitter. I had always, 
 in my most puritanical days, kicked 
 at the doctrine that we are all such 
 abominable, hell-deserving, self -degrad- 
 ed creatures, responsible for our own 
 ruin, that it is the wonder of creation 
 that God would give our souls any 
 least chance of heaven. I had always 
 felt with Tennyson : 
 
 ' Thou wilt not leave us in the dust ; 
 Thou madest man, and Thou art just* 
 But now I was forced to change all 
 this ; and for once I uttered a perfectly 
 orthodox prayer. Slow and distinct 
 came the words, which I must perforce 
 repeat as slowly, though every one was 
 a bitter pill. I was made to say that I 
 was entirely mistaken in supposing 
 myself a Christian (in the ' evangelical ' 
 sense) ; that I had been a fool, a brag- 
 gart, a sort of impostor ; that my life 
 had been one series of shams and fol- 
 lies ; that I had disgraced my religious 
 profession, etc., etc., ad nauseam, wind- 
 ing up with the abject declaration that 
 I deserved to go straight to ' the city 
 of Dis, and the three-headed dog ; ' 
 and that if T was spared, it would be 
 ' a miracle of mercy.' 
 
 The higher powers must have thought 
 that I had swallowed enough of this 
 hell-broth ; for, at this juncture, the 
 dictation and compulsion suddenly 
 ceased. I stood upon my feet, no longer 
 a slave. It seemed as if some grand, 
 calm Ithuriel had touched w T ith his 
 spear-point the venomous toad that sat 
 by my ear, or the wily serpent that 
 4 held me (enchanted) with his glitter- 
 ing eye.' From that moment to this, I 
 have not been, for an instant, seriously 
 annoyed by invisible disturbers of the 
 peace. * 
 
 A sweet quiet came )ver me ; I ^ zvA 
 to bed and slept soundly. The nexl 
 day I determined to complete the exor- 
 cism by walking a dozen miles into the 
 country, to visit a relation. The only 
 trace of the fearful scenes through which. 
 I had passed, consisted in the fact that 
 my head was still all ablaze with the 
 foul, gross magnetic fluids (if my ex- 
 tormentors ; and was so hot that I 
 found it agreeable to walk with my 
 hat off. I was two days getting rid of 
 the heat. 
 
 Though I had no more sulphur tea 
 to drink, I was not yet w T eaned fiom 
 the invisible milk and water. I was 
 at once informed, by ' respectable ap- 
 pearing ' spirits, that my trials had ap- 
 peared necessary, because I had thrown 
 myself open to promiscuous communi- 
 cation with the other world — a thing 
 peculiarly dangerous in my case ; and 
 that I could now see the propriety of 
 never again surrendering my manhood, 
 my individuality, and my common 
 sense to any brigand in or out of the 
 body. I was also told that it never had 
 been intended to use me for any impor- 
 tant mediumistic purpose, except so far 
 as my experience might be useful. So 
 I gradually let the thing drop. Regard- 
 ing the new light as scientific rather 
 than religious, I long since pigeon-holed 
 it among my sciences. I sardonically 
 tell total Sadducees that I have placed 
 it among the exact sciences. 
 
 I am sorry that I am unable to en- 
 lighten the novel-reading reader further 
 concerning the ' prima donna ; ' but 
 that is a delicate subject under existing 
 circumstances. So presenting, here- 
 with, the bright and sulphurous end 
 of the Lucifer Match under the nose of 
 a discerning public, I w r ill watch tie 
 upcurling and dilating of nostrils. As 
 I pen these last lines, the live lady 
 looking over my shoulder suiih s scorn- 
 fully. 
 
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