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THE
SPIRITUAL PILGRIM:
^v ^T            of
JAMES M. PEEBLES.
BY J. O. BARRETT.
" MY NAME IS'PILGRIM:' MY RELIGION IS LOVE; MY HOME IS THE UNIVERSE; MY
SOUL-EFFORT IS TO EDUCATE AND ELEVATE HUMANITY."
THIRD EDITION.
BOSTON:
WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY,
BANNER OF LIGHT OFFICE,
158'ASIIINGTON STREET.
NEW YORK AGENTS:-THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY,
119 N.ASSAU STREET.
1872.




Entered; according to Act of Congress, in the year I871,
BY J. O. BARRETT,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Printed by Wizilam White &' Co.




$artb~r oa fi t n nge:
MADAME ELIZABETH PHILIPINE MARIE HELLENE,
OF FRANCE.








A FRIENDLY EPISTLE.
DEAR READER, -My object in writing this book is to encourage the world's
reformers.
In the fall of 1868, busily engaged in literary work at my residence, Mr. Peebles
related some of his experiences by way of pleasantry; when, deeply interested, I
playfully said, "Why, James, such incidents have a beautiful moral! you should
publish them for others' benefit." Urging the claim with cogent reasons, I succeeded in parrying off his jokes about it, but put myself in a dilemma unexpectedly,
for I must be the biographer! Embosomed in the faith of this brother's love, it
did seem a natural choice.
Meeting him again the next summer, on the shore of Elkhart Lake, Wis., in
that " Wigwam Bower of Prayer," I took the horsocope of his life,- the shadows
of fact cast in the light of the spirit.  Corresponding with some of his friendswhose kindnesses are gratefully acknowledged — to procure old and new letters,
and seizing upon his voluminous writings, I at length had a little mountain of
documents; and what a chaos! So checkered did I find his life, my greatest difficulty was to reduce this sketch to consistent bounds.  Much remains untold.
A biography, you know, is the hardest portraiture to delineate.  It is a slight
task to measure by rule, and quite a different art to impress the soul till sentences
think with words that burn. The writer must have sympathetically the experience
of his hero, - fight his battles, weep with his tears, rejoice with his joy, feel the
pulses of his heart.
Oh, for Natlre's art!  The poet's success is what he feels; inspired feeling
through a practical mind is divinely eloquent.  The painter needs more than an
an:l.tomy: lie must catch the soul of his subject, and stamp it upon canvas, or his
effort is a failure.  Sweden's song-birds, Jenny Lind and Christine Nilsson- poor
peasant girls once -enchant the nations; for theirs is the soul of music.
I never would have undertaken the honored task of writing the actual biography of a man whose life-line threads over all the world, and heaven too,
interlacing with the " New Gospel " in its most delicate and refined activities, had
I not been guided by a (enius higher than my own, by an angel familiar with all
the experiences of the " Spiritual Pilgrim."  Have I caught it,- the soul?
" Thy song, the joy and sorrow of all races,
Life's contradictions, harmonized anew "?
J. 0. B
GLEN BEULAH, WIS.
5








PREFACE.
BY EMMA HARDINGE.
TIME is the great and original touchstone of truth. When this impartial judge
has pronounced his verdict upon movements whose source dates back to periods
antecedent to our own, the records that are left us gain force and interest in our
minds in exact proportion to our information concerning the personages who were
instrumental in creating the events recorded. It is for this reason that biography
is esteemed as the most acceptable and analytical form that history can assume.
All human transactions originate in the influences of the human spirit, whether in
the visible or invisible world; hence we can only approach the problem of causation, when we begin to understand the nature of the spiritual forces that have been
brought to bear upon the events we trace. When the great spiritual outpouring of
the nineteenth century shall be submitted to the judgment of posterity, and the
criterion of time, unbiassed by passion or prejudice, shall determine its true
value to mankind, the more precious the record may become, the more eagerly will
humanity search for the footprints of its pioneers, preachers, teachers, media, and
martyrs. It is this tendency to identify all human interests with human individualities that has led to the errors of hero-worship, and god-men. Perhaps the best
corrective that can be devised for this species of idolatry is the calm and strictly
human record which biography presents; and therefore we know of no better service
that the writers of the present era can perform to posterity than to prepare for their
use truthful records of the various individualities that have been engaged in the
wonderful and world-wide movement known as " Modern Spiritualism."
Perhaps none of the phenomenal personages of this movement can furnish a
more striking, instructive, and interesting theme for the biographer than J. M.
Peebles.  His early education and connection with the ministry in phases of
religious belief utterly opposed to the great modern revelation; his long, patient,"
and self-sacrificing labors for the promotion of Spiritualism, when, Saul-like, he
became inspired as its apostle; his admirable and scholarly contributions to its
literature, and the vast geographical areas over which his experiences have been
extended in both hemispheres, - all contribute to render this biography at once
one of the most interesting and important that the movement can furnish.
Will the bright angelic visitors, whose presence here is now so clearly demon7




8                                 PREFACE.
strated, continue their missionary labors amongst earth's children?  Can they, if
they would, do so? or are these bright forerunners of our irmmortal destiny to
perform the work of building the temple of the new Zion, and then to pass away
from the longing eyes of mortality?
Will Spiritualism be absorbed by sectarian organizations, and used simply as
an agent for tile promotion of liberal ideas? or will it remain a concrete movement,
itself absorbing all other religious associations in the vortex of its irrepressible
powers of demonstration and reason?
Will the spirits continue to experiment until they have perfected their glorious
telegraph between heaven and earth? or, weary of our apathy, shortcomings, and
indifference, will they permit no glimpses only of the possibilities that lie dormant within the human soul, and then leave the earth to await the uprising of a
more faithful and spiritually-minded generation?
These are questions upon which the Spiritualists have formed widely diverse
opinions, and upon which no Cassandra's voice will be accepted as authority until
the results shall be proven in time; but, however these may ultimate, the immense
importance of clear, concise histories of what has been done, said, thought, and
suffered in the earlier phases of this movement can never be exaggerated.
The causes which operated to convert so many various grades of character and
intellect as Spiritualism includes should all be weighed and duly considered. The
world's reception of its spiritual teachers,- the effects of their unparalleled labors,
and too frequently of their sufferings, in the performance of their mission,- the
records of all this should be preserved as milestones on the road of human progress, without which the pilgrims of the future are liable to fall into precisely
the same toils and snares as have beset the paths of the pioneers.
The writer has herself proved the impossibility of condensing the events of the
world-wide movement known as Spiritualism  into any more comprehensive form
than a mere compendium; but, to do justice to the personages who have so faithfully and toilfully created the chain of spiritual history, nothing but individualized
biographies will suffice.
As a brother laborer in the cause of Spiritualism, as a writer whose pearls
of glowing eloquence and gems of historic research always formed felicitous subjects for quotation, the writer has long known and gratefully esteemed J. M.
Peebles.
As a laborer on the older soil of Europe, where the fogs of tradition and the
stern spirit of religious bigotry and conservatism weave a pall around the mind as
fatal to the new life of Spiritualism  as the panoply of the grave, Mr. Peebles has
been equally bold, indefatigable, and successful.
Returning to his native country, freighted with the rich treasures of knowledge
and experience gathered up in many lands and from  contact with many minds,
Mr. Peebles is eminently fitted to perform  his share of the mighty work of
knitting together in the ties of divine fatherhood and human brotherhood all
the broken and scattered lines of humanity distributed over life's ocean, from  the
farthest East to the remotest West.
The man that has stood on the last foothold of Western civilization, on
the golden sands of California, and wandered amongst the pioneer men whose
ancestors first numbered up the mystery of the solemn stars on the plains of Ara



PREFACE.                                      9
bia, - the man who has been enabled to compare the influences of the spiritual
outpouring over nearly all the vast breadth of the equatorial belt, and speak Spiritualism in the ears of the wandering Arab, the fateful Mussulman, the degenerate
Roman, the fickle Frenchman, the sternly orthodox Briton, and the inquisitive
cosmopolitan American,- such a Spiritualist, faithful in his belief and its expression to all persons and in all places alike, is an historical man whom the world
ought to know, and of whom  the ranks of Spiritualism  have just cause to be
proud.
That a scholar, a thinker, and a man of large heart, broad principles, and high
intellectual attainments has been inspired to the work of collating the materials
which form the subject of the following pages is also a source of congratulation,
and can not fail to secure for their perusal respectful and candid consideration.
The writer can not answer for the methods pursued by authors in general; but, in
her own case, she has more than once realized the advantage of writing a preface
after a perusal of the main body of the work.
Of course, this admission implies a recognition of some disadvantages in the
per contra of this system; still, the knowledge which we possess of the field of.resource to be traveled over, and the able hands in which that field of labor has
fallen, justifies us in anticipating a rich treat to the stadent of the following pages.
That the dear angels who have so tfithfully and tenderly guided their missionary through the thorny paths of an unpopular reform will themselves superintend
and inspire the transcription which bears witness to their divine achievements, we
can not doubt; hence we may confidently usher into the world the biography and
spiritual experiences of J. M. Peebles as one of the most important and remarkable contributions to the literature of the age of which the nineteenth century can
boast.








CONTENTS.
PAGE
A FRIENDLY EPISTLE.........  5
PREFACE.....  ~.,,,,, 7
CHAPTER I.
PLANTS, BIRDS, AND FLOWERS....,,    15
CHAPTER n.
SCHOOL-DAYS..........               19
CHAPTER III.
GETTING RELIGION. —THE MINISTRY...........25
CHAPTER IV.
THE SPIRITS.-RADICAL PREACHING.,,.          33
CHAPTER V.
STEPS TO FREEDOM.........                                           40
CHAPTER VI.
THE PROPHET MAN............ 57
CHAPTER VII.
"THY SINS ARE FORGIVEN THEE I "....... 63
CHAPTER VIII.
EL DORADO............73
CHAPTER IX.
THE CHAIN OF PEARLS AND SPIRIT-BANDS......81
CHAPTER X.
"GONE TO THE VWARS"........88
11




12                               CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER XI.
MEDMSP................90
CHAPTER XII.
THE GOLD THAT WEARS.......107
CHAPTER Xm.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH SPIRITS.                                                 120
CHAPTER XIV.
THE MOSAIC OF WIT........127
CHAPTER XV.
LITERARY LIFE.......... 131
CHAPTER XVI.
HEART-ECHOES..............149
CHAPTER XVII.
THE WORKER AND HIS WORKS......... 157
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE OBSESSED WOMAN.............. 165
CHAPTER XIX.
INDIAN SPIRITS AND THEIR BRETHREN WEST.                                      171
CHAPTER  XX.
LOVE-LIFE.                                                                   178
CHAPTER XXI.
ASCENSION INTO THE CELESTIAL HEAVENS..... 185
CHAPTER XXII.
"BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART.".                    190
CHAPTER XXIII.
(QUEEN OF MORN. -A VISION............ 198
CHAPTER  XXIV.
A NEW CYCLE......... 205
CHAPTER XXV.
APPOINTED CONSUL....... 209
CHAPTER XXVI.
IN FOREIGN LANDS........ 213




CONTENTS.                             13
PAGE.
CHAPTER XXVII.
"LA BELLE FRANCE".......221
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PILGRIMAGE IN THE ORIENT............228
CHAPTER XXIX.
NAPLES AND ROME.......240
CHAPTER XX.X
FLORENCE........ 249
CHAPTER XXXI.
WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.........         2.)9
CHAPTER XXXI.
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE........                                276
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE FAREWELL IN LONDON....... 285
CHAPTER XXXIV.
WATCHMAN, HO t., I  I                        ~,,,    294








THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
CHAPTER I.
PLANTS, BIRDS, AND FILOWERS.
"Flood the new heavens and earth, and with thee bring
All the old virtues."                  WHITTIER.
THE rough diamond polished in adversity, the child brained in
philosophy, the orator tongued in love, the pilgrim grayed in wintry
storms, the seer translated in a chariot of God, the ministering angel
now, - such is life, 0 exiles!
" Let all harmonies
Of sound, form, color, motion, wait upon
The princely guest."
Julius Caesar forced obedience in Britain,- centuries of discipline.
Then a colony of industrious citizens - paternally Roman, maternally
Scottish - settled a high elevation on the northern bank of the Tweed,
inland from  the sea, south from  beautiful Edinburgh, Scotland.  It
was democratically named Peebles, from  the Latin populi, many
people. It was the resort of the Scottish kings and queens during
the summer months.  Alexander III. sought its hunting-grounds,
when tired of war.  After the battle of Nevill-Cross, in which David
II. was taken prisoner, the town of Peebles contributed so largely for
his ransom  it was created a royal burgh; when titles were conferred
upon the families of Peebles, making them eligible to seats in parliament.  This continued till the passage of " The Reform Act."  Wal15




16                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
ter Scott frequently mentions Peebles in his works, and describes
"the rashness and impetuosity of John Peebles, an Earl."
Alexander Smith thus improvises a song, entitled " The Tweed at
Peebles: "
"I lay in my bedroom at Peebles,
With the window-curtains drawn,
While there stole over hills of pasture and pine
The unresplendent dawn.
"And in the deep silence I listened,
With a pleased, half-waking heed,
To the sound that ran through the ancient town, -
The shallow, brawling Tweed.
" Was it absolute truth, or a dreaming
Which the wakeful day disowns,
That I heard something more in the stream as it ran
Than waLr breaking on stones?"
About two hundred years ago, a branch of the Peebles family
moved into the north of Ireland, where they took an active part with
other Protestants against the wrangling Irish papists, and endured
much persecution.  In 1718 they formed, with others, an emigrant
party of one hundred, crossed the ocean, and settled in Massachusetts,
where the bigoted inhabitants gathered by night, and destroyed their
meeting-house.  After this, under the charge of Rev. Abercrombie,
they began a settlement in the town of Pelham.  Bringing from Londonderry " the necessary material for the manufacture of linen," they
were, as the historian avers, " industrious, frugal, and peaceful."
One of these adventurous Peebles's penetrated into Vermont, and
" drove down his stakes" in Whitingham, Windham  County, near
the Green Mountains.  Those days the girls were buxom lasses, 
muscular, daring, hearts sound as ringing bells.  Miss Nancy Brown,
daughter of " Deacon Brown," was a towering lady, refined, hazeleyed, intellectual, — " the school-mistress," dreamy as the morning
clouds hugging the shaggy necks of the mountains.  James Peebles
was sanguine, enthusiastic, intelligent, epicurean, benevolent, popular
with the yeomanry, being captain of the militia.  What of that
romantic courtship, on a granite rock, under the shadow  of an
ancient elm?  There the vows were plighted.




THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.                      17
In Whitingham is an old homestead on a hill-side. Babbling near
it is a little stream from springs, away to the south, in a nook so cunning.  Great-grandparents, so  ancient and nervous, graced. the
wide fireside, - drooping wintry willows, silvered with silow. The
mother, young and independent, was socially antipodal to their old
notions.  So the honey-bees in that domestic hive buzzed with an
angular industry. It was magnetic peril to " the welcome child." Did
not those maternal tears, redolent with high ambition, psychologically mold the unskilled heart of her pledge of love? The thread
of life undulates into solitudes. Is it not inwoven with trying hours,
like a telegraph to its battery? But the trial tempered that birdling to
daring ere it fluttered on the mother's bosom. Poor, but laborious;
distressed, but resolute; pensive, but heroic, she rose superior to her
surroundings, and gave the world an indefatigable reformer. Sunbeams and stars, flowers and gurgling waters, cast the germ-child in
the dies of beauty.  She was nature's guest, -Hagar in the wilderness, lonely, religious.  First the blossoming  summer, then the
quickening autumn, then the winter, white and pure,-these were
the "sacred months," under the life-veil of destiny. Prayer, music,
and meditation, the ancient clock, keeping vigils, were the " sisters of fate," that wove   a coat of many colors" for the future
prophet. Thus she bound her prisoner to a checkered pilgrimage.
James was born the 23d of March, 1822, Jupiter being the reigning star. The angels say they impressed that mother to call her son
so, mainly because of the love the apostle John had for his brother
James.  He was the oldest of five sons and two daughters, all diverse
in characteristics.  That mother's  prayer now, how like  Emily
Judson's over hers, " the fairest bird of Ind,""Doubts, hopes, in eager tumult rise.
Hear, my God! one earnest prayer:
Room for my bird in Paradise,
And give him angel plumage there "
The gospel of childhood, a blessed rough and tumble: it whets
the edge of character. Checkered as the landscape were those early
years, each trivial event limning soul on the canvas of life. One of
these may suffice to reveal the chemistry of the colors blending into
form.
"Jimmie" had a special liking for troughs, -one such was his
cradle when a baby, and about his only plaything when a boy. Grow2




18                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
ing bigger, seeing the other boys had sleds, he at length looked upon
his old trough with a haughty disdain, and importuned his father to
make him  a sled.  That ugly No!  A  sled educates to speed of
thought, and a kite to lofty purpose. Both refused.
One winter's afternoon, the snow-crust hard and glary, the lad
stole the bread-trough, and took a slide.  On it sped with a dash and
whirl, and struck against a stone, splitting it in twain. What was
to be done?  A moment of sad gazing, weighing consequences; and
in he rushed, eyes full of tears and heart aching, to make a confession. A sharp crack on the ears, and the boy felt true justice was
done.  Good orthodoxy that! An ample supply of playthings fdr
children, and persuasive discipline, are economies in household furniture.
This restless fellow did not take to muscular industry. He hated
grindstones, axes, churns, and hoes, when imposed as tasks. Awkward in the use of tools, he could not even construct a top.  "We
can never make any thing of James," was said more than once with a
feeling of despair. The truth was, they did not know the boy, nor
touch the pulse of his genius. But he was famous for looking after
young lambs.  With cold bare feet at daylight in springtime, while
the snow mantled the shaded rocks and hollows, he,was off into the old
pasture, to see if any young lamb had been chilled by the night wind.
His ambition ran in the channel of the brooks, full of babbles
and frolics.  That wild country enchanted him.  The flowers and
birds were his companions, maple-poles his ponies, red-sticks his
whips to drive them with, chips and leaves his sailing vessels in the
eddying pools..He gamboled with the minnows, and owned all the
butterflies and robins' eggs.  Unwearied were the swift hours as he
sat on his native hills, watching every thing, the stilly world at his feet.
What was that undefinable feeling, that mystic consciousness, that
genius attending him in all his rambles, which seemed to be a faceimage in the water-brooks and flames of fire, - a face bending benignantly over him when locked in slumber on his rickety bed in the
attic, close under the roof?
"While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped
Through many a listening chamber, cave, and ruin,
And star-lit wood, with fearful steps pursuing,
High hopes of talk with the departed dead."




CHAPTER II.
SCHOOL DAYS.
" I consider a human soul without education like marble in the quarry; which shows none
of its inherent beauties until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colors, makes the surface
shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs through the body
of it." -ADDISON.
THAT red schoolhouse, Just a mile -off, " round by the pond,"
shingled all over, -  what a tale it tells of" lads and lasses 0! "- of
snow-balls, poutings, whippings, and "turning somersets!"  How
changed now!  The saplings around it are tall trees; the incisions
in the bark where the scholars carved their names have grown over,
but the marks are there.  How like human life!  The wounds we
make only partially heal. Even the brook where the boys and girls
drank and fished, and built dams and saw-mills, once quite a river
in their eyes, has become beautifully less. In the soul's picturegallery is the portrait of all the boys and girls we knew; of all the
hills, streams, fields, beasts, birds; of dewy eves and morns; of
the stars we chose to rule our destiny; of first dreams, and first lessons of friendship.
A child never loves duties. When the genius of children is better
understood, and we employ the love-art of the mother-bird, that, by
example, woos her fledgling up into the sky, whippings will be at an
end.  "Jimmie's tricks," so innocent, so tormenting, were full of
morality.  They made the school healthy.  When five or six years
old, his uncle, Dr. Peebles, taught with ferule in hand, a birch-stick
on the desk!  Almost every day he got a flogging for his pranks:
every mishap charged against him. He bore it like a Christian martyr, however, never exposing a secret, unconquerable in his submis19




20               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
sion. The fighting boys appealed to him for umpire. He was the
defender of the weaker party always.
"I help the under dog in the fight."
Being an inveterate stutterer, he could not, or would not, read
loud. His temper was kept sharp by the grinding taunts of the " big
boys," ever laughing at his awkward articulation. In righteous indignation, he wished a hundred times there were never a school in
the world. Justly did he hate the hard-backed bench, so high that
his feet hung dangling for hours without rest. Glad we do not have
to live but once those flogging, aching, rambling days of auld lang
syne.
The next summer, Elizabeth Godfrey taught. One day, she sent
him with a little tin pail after some water. The path led by Azuba
Martin's garden (mother of Dr. O. Martin, a prominent physician of
Worcester, Mass.). As he peeped through the fence, his palate
could not resist the delicious currants, then red ripe. That little
hand again and again plucked the " forbidden fruit" -the first Adamic sin! In vain did he try to wash off the stains that betrayed him.
Oh, the agony! Entering the schoolhouse, he demurely went to his
seat; when the teacher, noticing his embarrassment, called him up.
" What is the matter with your hand, Jimmie? "
" Nothing, ma'am; not sore!"
"What! currant juice!  Been stealing?  Now, you go right
straight to' Aunt Zuba,' and confess you stole her currants!"
Exposed before the whole school as a "'little thief," what a
trying moment! Snail-like, he dragged his heavy feet back to Mrs.
Martin's, just the most humble and self-blaming lad, part mad,
much ashamed, half-crying. Aunt Zuba caught sight of him, as he
entered the gate, and, greeting him with a smile, seeing his sadness,
said very patronly, -
"What, my little man, come after more water a-ready?"
"S-s-sch-school-ma'am t-t-old me t-to come, and-and tell you II-I-st-stole your currants; and I-I-am sor-s-sor-sorry  "
" Why! come here, my darling. Were you hungry? We have of
currants plenty to eat. You should not steal, dear boy; but, when
you want any more, come and ask me, and you shall have all you
wish."




SCHOOL-DAYS.                       21
Then she patted him tenderly on the cheek, and laid her hand upon
his fevered brow so soothingly! The good aunt understood a boy's
heart. A faithful teacher's promptness in correcting the first mistake,
and a loving motherly sympathy from Aunt Zuba, impressed at the
right moment, gave a moral direction to his restless and persistent
spirit,- not to stain the hands with stolen juices, and always confess
a fault where it is due. Both these good women, in the higher
school of angels now, delight to recall the incident that channeled the
little rill of love, swelling since to a river of integrity.
Reason tests the strength of thought. "Jimmie's" mental powers were one day taxed to their utmost tension at a new idea, that
made him reticent for many weeks. His father's sister, Aunt Sally
Corkings, getting old, suddenly passed away. It was winter time;
snow deep. They put the coffin on a stone-boat, and dragged it with
oxen to the grave; the white mantle of nature and the black drapery
of the mourners forming a strange contrast, weirdly impressive to
the lad.
"What did they put her in the ground for?" he silently asked.
After the dismal funeral, he soberly went to his mother - always his
oracle -with the inquiry, -
" Will Aunt Sally sprout again, like corn and beans?"
"Her body, my son, will come to life again at the resurrection, in
the end of time."
" Well, what makes'em put her in a coffin? She can't get out!"
" The coffin will rot away, my son."
"And not the body rot, mother? Won't something then eat Aunt
Sally up, and she won't live again?"
The mother did not anticipate such an argument, and could only
answer in the usual orthodox way, -
" Oh, well, my son, these are God's mysteries! we must not ask
too many questions."
The next spring, there was a " revival of religion-" in Whitingham,
and " Aunt Betsey" was converted. Whilst witnessing her baptism,
James clung to his mother, and, in a trembling voice, asked, -
" What are they doing with Aunt Betsey, drowning her?"
"She is to be saved, my son."
" Saved? - what is that, mother?"
She then told him about a dismal hell below, and a beautiful heaven
above.




'22                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" What did God make a hell for, mother?"
Finding his mother evaded this question, he inquired again, -
" Have you been baptized?"
It was his turn to be silent, when she answered in the negative.
Thinking she should attend to this duty as soon as possible, he wondered what the difference could be between being baptized and " going
in swimming."
A few days after, seeing he was thoughtful, and believing he might
be under " conviction," she pursued her advantage, and told him
about a "recording book kept by a sober angel."  This hightened
his ideal fancy.  " How much," he said to himself, " he will have to
write about -me!"  He thought the book had gold covers, and was big
as a window.  He very orthodoxically conceived God to be a great
man, with a long beard, just like the picture of a prophet he saw in
the old family Bible.  When told about the " all-seeing eye," he
imagined it was in the center of God's forehead, looking straight at
him.  When he pouted, or played the truant (very innocently), that
night he dreamed God said to the angel of records, " Put all that down
against the boy! " These instilled ideas, bodied forth in corresponding fancy, tinged his first years with a shade of melancholy. " Theological mysteries" produce spiritual fevers.
How dreamily prophetic were the successive sabbaths, when this
youth walked beside his mother to church, holding her by the hand,
inquiring what it all meant. B. F. Taylor paints the picture of those
" meeting-times," -
"For a sprig of green carroway carries me there,
To the old village church and the old village choir;
When, clear of the floor, my feet slowly swung,
And timed the sweet praise of the song as they sung,
Till the glory aslant from the afternoon sun
Seemed the rafters of gold in God's temple begun.
You may smile at the nasals of old Deacon Brown,
Who followed by scent till he ran the tune down;
And the dear Sister Green, with more goodness than grace,
Rose and fell on the tunes as she stood in her place;
And, where old'Coronation' exultingly flows,
Tried to reach the high notes on the tips of her toes.
To the land of the leal they went with their song,
Where the choir and the chorus together belong.
Oh, be lifted, ye gates! let me hear them again!
Blessed song  blessed sabbath! for-ever, amen!"




SCHOOL-DAYS.                            23
Narrow valleys contract the mind.' Room, room, is what we need.
Seized with a " Western fever," the Peebles Family moved to Smithville, N.Y., then " the West."  Here new hardships presented themselves. Under the tuition of'Prof. Hurlburt, he was cured of stammering. What a joy! He used to put a pebble under the point of
his tongue to keep it down, and not flopping up against the roof of the
mouth.
Exuberant over his stammering victory, - scarcely knowing, like a
minnow just finned out, what to do with himself, —he thought he
Would fall in love with a pretty damsel; at the age of thirteen, writing love-sick poetry! After sending the palpitating verses to the
bashful girl, who, it seems, was "going to sea," the psychological
effusion suddenly vanished.  The animus of the poetry indicates at
this age the musical genius of the man: so we snatch it from oblivion.
The first poetry and first little shoe should always be, preserved.
" When the storm-god wildly rages,
And the foaming billows roar;
When thou art far away, my lady,
I'll think of thee the more.
Often friends in life deceive us,
Till we know not whom to trust;
But the links of love that bind us,
Oh! may they never, never rust!
Though oceans may between us roll,
Still will fancy love to trace,
In thy true, devoted soul,
Ever thy remembered face.
I'll think of thee when evening's ray
Is gleaming o'er the sea;
When gentle twilight's shadows play
On mountain, vale, and tree."
At Smithville, James attended a select school, taught by Amos H.
Bedient, naking rapid progress in geography, elocution, and roguery.
Proud of his proficiency, he resolved to return to Vermont in the
spring, to make money by teaching elocution! Suddenly appearing
in Whitingham, it did cause a wonderful expansion of self-reliance 
such as he needed - to hear familiar friends congratulate him on his
" lingual improvement."  But his " elocutionary fortune," -that was
verily " a will-o'-the-wisp." Above all expenses, he earned just fif



24                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
teen dollars. The disposal of these hard earnings is the sure index
of his sweet sympathies, running then quite at random, as do mountain streams, to bless the jagged fern. Meeting a poor, unfortunate
traveler one day, lame and sorrowful, his heart was touched; and he
impulsively emptied the whole fifteen into the beggar's grateful hand,
saying, " I am even now better off than he, the poor lame man!" Here
is the key-note to his nature, - sympathetic; sometimes imprudent in
giving. No money, no home, hungry and weary, he sat by the roadside, and ate a raw turnip for a supper, the tears flowing freely. Poverty stared him in the face, and haunted him a full year. His clothes
were threadbare, his health below par. Poor fellow! he wished himself dead.




CHAPTER  III.
GETTING RELIGION -THE MINISTRY.
To the Monkeys 
"Tell me, accursed whelps, what are ye stirring up with the porridge? "
Monkeys:
"We are cooking coarse beggars' broth." - GOETHE'S FAUST.
" Eyes are found in light; ears in auricular air; feet on land; fins in water; wings in air;
and each creature where it is wont to be, with a mutual fitness, - EMERSON.
MISFORTUNES in Vermont taught James to go ahead, not backwards. Wiser for the sorrows, he returned to New York a little
tamed. Placing himself again under the tuition of Prof. Bedient, he
soon won a high recommendation. He was now seventeen; and with
bright hopes did he enter upon the experiment of teaching a district
school in Pitcher, Chenango Co., N.Y., and was successful.  He
boarded at the home of a Baptist deacon, who had some very bad
children.  One morning, whilst the old man was praying with his
usual fervor, a boy of his made confusion with his feet, chuckling at
the same time. The deacon paused, and, getting roiled at the repeated
noise, sprung up from his knees with a flushed face, and shook the
"young sauce-box,'* accompanied with  a  desperate threat; then
knelt down again, and commencing at the " Jews," where he left off,
finished the prayer, his son groaning " Amen!"  This strange exhibition at a " family altar ".repelled the young teacher from religious
ceremonials.
About this time, a "revival" breaking out near Mr. Cole's, in
Smithville, Jerry Brown, a particular friend, got religion. Others
"got it bad." Being the only person who could specially affect "the
teacher," Mr. Brown talked with him most pleadingly, warning him
to "flee from the wrath to come." At length, he consented to go to
25




26                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
meeting.  The young converts gathered round him  with serious
looks and affectionate interrogations, such as, " Will you, James,
twill you not go to heaven with us?  Oh, come and kneel at the
anxious seats! Oh, seek the overtures of mercy! " The meek-eyed
girls besieged him, put their arms around his neck, pleading with
him so eloquently to get religion! How could he resist such persuasion? Consenting to make the trial-effort, he took a seat'at the front,
right under the droppings of the sanctuary. The prayer was furiously impassioned. The magnetic fire began to burn: " And the smoke
of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever! "  The pictures
drawn fAom  this text were frightful: hell was opened, the devil
let loose, the judgment set, the Almighty frowned, the dread sentence thundered forth, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!"
The scene that followed was terrible: eyes stuck out, hair stood on
end, women half-swooned, and men groaned.  This part'of the job
finished, Elder Bush descended from the pulpit with a consequential
air, and laid his fat hand upon James's shoulder, saying with a solemn
intonation, as if from  the vault of despair, " Young man I YOUNG
MAN! are you prepared for DEATH?"  The new converts pressed
closer, girls holding his hand, weeping.  The magnetic sympathy
was contagious. The young man wept too. When the " feeling felt
bad," the minister sepulchrally exhorted, -
"Oh, say you believe in Jesus; just say it.  Oh, say it, say
it!"
" Why, yes," replied James, "I believe in Jesus!"
"Yes, yes " shouted the Elder. " Glory, glory! let us shout
glory! for another soul is saved! glory, hallelujah! "
The rest laughed for joy; and there was a general hugging-time.
Snuffing the freer air out of doors, the " holy feeling" began to
subside, and speedily died out; for the Elder siddenly left his own
wife and children, and ran away with his hired girl, when religion
there went down to'a low ebb. James reflected. It was a lesson.
He doubted the sincerity of the clergy, became skeptical, entered
deeper and deeper into mental darkness, — a confirmed infidel,
regarding all religion as priestly imposture. To indicate his utter
disgust against the popular church and " its mock worship," as he
called it, he one evening secretly put cayenne-pepper on the hot stove,
and smoked the people out, when they assembled for another revival.
The choking fumes ventilated, he took his seat with the rest, so self



GETTING RELIGION. -THE MINISTRY.                  27
complacent, when the minister poured forth vengeance upon the head
of the perpetrator, and made hell so hellish the house became a general pandemonium.
Re-action from  "revivals of religion" is always to skepticism,
scorn, defiance.  Said the wise Hindoo, " Keep thy soul in moderation; teach thy spirit to be attentive to its good: so shall these, its
ministers, be always to thee conveyances of truth."
One winter, where young Peebles was teaching school, notice was
given that Rev. N. Doolittle (Universalist) would preach in that
locality the next Sunday. If interest be wanting, curiosity may
bring us..Always defending the persecuted party, he resolved to attend. When Mr. Doolittle rose to speak, our' infidel" noticed a
beautiful sincerity in his countenance, which charmed him to strict
attention. The text was, "The Lord is good unto all, and his tender mercies are over all his works."  The delivery was easy, the
style poetic, the inspiration fervent. The purpose was to show the
harmony of the God of nature with the God of the Bible, when interpreted in the light of reason. It made a happy impression: a ray
penetrated the inner darkness; a more charitable spirit sprung up in
his heart.  He read the Bible with candor; read "Ballou on the
Atonement," and other Universalist works, and, within a year, became a convert to the "new faith."  Attending conventions, then so
inspirational, he thought what delight he would take in demolishing
old dogmas of error.  On one occasion, the good Mr. Doolittle, as if
moved by an angel, left the desk, came direct to this youth in his'
seat, and, taking him by the hand, looking deep into his soul, said,
" You have a fine forehead: you should make your mark in the
world."  What did it mean?  Was it an angelic appointment?
"Each one hears what he carries in his heart."
Trace back the life-thread that mother wove from angels to her
heart, from her heart outward, veiling a soul for mediumship between
heaven and earth. Is not effect always true to its cause?
"Let us build altars to the Beautiful Necessity."
Ambition, once so fluctuating and disappointing, now burned with
steady fire. Scholarship was James's first aim. Teaching a high
school at Upper Lisle, N.Y., he was flushed with brighter hope.




28                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
The cloud of skepticism shivered into " silver linings."  For several
successive spring, summer, and fall terms, he was a close student at
Oxford Academy, New York.  By close application to books, while
yet teaching, he kept along with his classmates who were not compelled to provide for their own physical needs. Here he studied the
higher English branches, Latin and Greek.  Charmed with the
classics, the poetic prophecy whispered in his ear, " Thou shalt visit
those lands of heroism and art."
" The foresight that awaits
Is the same genius that creates."
He was a constant attendant upon the ministrations of Rev. J. T.
Goodrich, pastor of the Oxford Universalist Church.  When his
parents also found the rising star of Universalism, enthusiasm lent
him wings.  A walk of ten or fifteen miles to a conference or convention was a delight.  Fast young men derided him; for he would
not drink, smoke, nor spend his time idly.  Where now are those' Young Americas? "  Dissipation impoverished them; the few left
linger in obscurity; whilst the " student James," frailer in constitution, is still on the rising scale.  Our inspired Belle Bush foretells
the harvest:
"Sow ye on earth the blessed seeds,
That, springing up and whitening in the field,
A hundred-fold shall yield
Of fruits for human needs;
And men will bless you for those golden seeds,
And angels call you poet of good deeds."
About this time, he had occasion to act the lawyer. During a revival at Morrill's Creek, under the manipulation of Rev. Mr. Jamieson,
two lads were arrested for disturbing the meeting.  Disgusted with
such proselyting, sympathizing with the boys, he voluntarily plead
their cause in court.  "They are orphans," earnestly said the fervid
defender, " deprived of parental counsel; thoughtless, rather than
malicious; their first offense. Justice may condemn, but mercy and
forgiveness are more beautiful; for we are commanded to'forgive
even seventy times seven' to save a brother."
It was splendidly done.' After reprimanding, the Justice dismissed
the boys, whose gratitude to the young attorney knew no bounds.




GETTING RELIGION.- THE MINISTRY.                     29
In the summer of 1842, J. H. Harter, modest and verdant, came
to the Academy.  Poorly dressed, and Germanic in accent, certain
students made fun of him; but he excited James's sympathy, which
he showed in acts of encouragement.  He persuaded this devoted
student to attend a Universalist meeting, Bible in hand, to guard
against temptation, and afterwards managed to provoke him into a
debate defensive of Universalism, on the question of endless misery.
By his side sat his schoolmate, whispering now and then in his ear
what Drs. Clarke, Gill, and other doctors of divinity said upon this
and that hell-fire passage.
As might be expected, it was a commitment to Universalism. James,
now entitled to the appellation of Mister, was instrumental in converting him.  Their friendship was deep.  As he says, "they
roomed together, studied together, slept together, prayed together,
wept together, worked together, in reforms." Revs. J. B. Gilman
and J. J. Austin were associate students at Oxford during these
terms of studious romance.  Young Harter afterwards attended the
Clinton Liberal Institute, and finally entered the Universalist ministry, serving with marked ability.  Never the breath of slander
touched his garments. His ready wit made him a prince in the social
circle. After several years of successful labors in the ministry, he
was called to take charge of the business department of the " Christian Ambassador," as general agent.  Since 1850, having manfully
investigated the Spiritual Philosophy, his sermons have been wellspiced with the gospel of angel ministry, for which he has been
questioned by his sect, and, as he avers, and others know, " persecuted nigh unto death for his readiness in exposing ecclesiastic corruption."   He is now free, having resigned his letter of fellowship,
and steps forth a well-skilled officer in the army of Spiritual Reformers.
Writing Mr. Harter concerning those school-days, we received the
following affectional testimonial of early and lasting friendship:"AUBURN, N.Y., April 8, 1870.
"J. 0. BARRETT. Deaf Brother, — first made the acquaintance of Mr. Peebles in
the summer of 1842, when we were both students in the Oxford Academy at Oxford,
Chenango Co., N.Y.
" We soon became warm friends, and have been so from that time to the present, and,
without doubt, will so remain throughout the endless ages of eternity. During an intimate acquaintance of nearly thirty years, has never any thing arisen to darken or stain
the bright chain of friendship that has bound us together. We have both passed through




30                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
bitter and severe trials, but have been mutual aids to each other. He is one of the most
genial, companionable men I ever knew; strictly honest and upright; and, to be fully
appreciated, he is to be fully known.
" He was popular as a man and a minister, when among the Universalists, as our
papers and periodicals abundantly show. I hope he may long remain on earth to benefit and bless mankind.       Yours truly,
J. H. HARTER."
Christmas eve -laden with its happy memories, all faces smiling,
all hearts  speaking  "merry  Christmas " —was the auspicious
hour of Mr. Peebles's secret thought that had haunted him in dreams
and reveries.  The church in Oxford was beautifully adorned with
evergreens and burning tapers, the congregation large and intelligent.
Pale from a momentary agitation, Mr. Goodrich read with a subdued
voice the inspirational testimony of the prophet, so appropriate, -
" Who hath believed our report?"  It was not the minister, nor the
prophet, nor the occasion, that so peculiarly stirred him, but the
rising thought, finding echo in all these, of a commission to proclaim
the gospel.  "Who hath believed our report?" sounded in his ears
as an appeal from Heaven. Responsive to the question, a lady in the
gallery, playing upon the organ, sung with inspiring acclaim," There was joy in heaven!
There was joy in heaven! "
It thrilled him  through and through.  The whole house seemed a
Bethlehem of ministering angels.  He saw a more golden light than
others present. Then and there he resolved to consecrate himself to
the Universalist ministry. His purpose fixed, he began his theological studies with Rev. A. G. Clark of McLean, N.Y., and subsequently read with Rev. A. 0. Warren, now of Montrose, Pa.
Our anointed candidate was a perfect eye-sore to "revivalists."
He attended their worship, speaking, praying; always obeying, " Sit
down, sir," when too unorthodox. One day, on the Chenango River,
he visited E. H. Tillotson, an old acquaintance, a convert now from
Universalism to Spiritualism; and, of course, they must that night
attend the Baptist revival. Long cloaks were the fashion those days.
A dismal prayer, a nasal melody, singing -
"A charge to keep I have,"
and the spell of revivalism crept on, forcing tears, surging, sighing.




GETTING RELIGION. -THE MINISTRY.                    31
The minister became hoarse, and invited any exhorter or clergyman
to come forward and assist.
"That means me," said Peebles in a whisper to Tillotson; and
up he rose with such a dignity, marched straight to the desk, and fell
upon his knees and prayed. He walked the aisles, put his hands on
the heads of the young converts, exhorting and encouraging them to
persevere. There was a general weeping.  He sat down amid
" hallelujahs," the minister thanking him for his " effective work."
What a commotion, most blasting to the "revival," when it was
afterwards reported that " the young preacher is a Universalist
student at Oxford! "
The ministry, oh, the ministry! Were you ever in its ark of
safety, locked in, chained, sentineled, pampered, starved, loved, slandered, flattered, rebuked, tempted, betrayed, prayed in and prayed
out, proud of the " Rev.," ashamed of it, dying and living, blessed
in blessing?  The ministry. how grandly perspective - how realhow deep a prison -how great a freedom when the spell is broken!
" Not as I will, but as thou wilt," -that's the order.
Rev. James Martin Peebles -euphonious! Only twenty years old,
tall, slim, light hair, red cheeks, pretty in the eyes of the young
maidens, white cravat, and black kid gloves! Thus equipped and
qualified, he walked seven miles to a meeting in Gridley Hollow, and
on the way got his boots muddy. It was so mortifying to his clerical dignity! He preached his first sermon in McLean, N.Y., in the
presence of his theological tutor. That was a trying moment; but,
having his manuscript before him, he " did not lose his place."  It
was a success, as the sequel proved, for he was afterwards pastor of
McLean Church five successive years. His first permanent settlement was at Kellogsville, N.Y., for three years. He then had charge
also of two other societies at Genoa and Mottville, engaging Rev.
Harter and others to supply desks. 
Whatever Mr. Peebles undertaken, it is always with enthusiastic
zeal. His was an " earnest ministry."  A stray leaf from his diary,
like the hazel in the hands of the "water-witch," shows where and
how deep the fountain is. He sought to improve every possible advantage, to be first in his profession, without jealousy for others. Note
the little jets of earnestness:" TUESDAY, Way 25,1849.
"Started about eight o'clock for Scipio. Had a pleasant ride; reached there about eleven
o'clock. Put up with Bro. Hudson, anoble, good soul.




32                     THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" Had a fine session of the sabbath school this afternoon. Bro. O. A. Skinner and J. )f.
Austin's remarks were excellent. Bro. Sawyer preached this evening, and a glorious ser.
mon it was, -plain, logical, yet eloquent. His delivery is calm - sang-froid - yet impressive. Staid with Malachi Fish, one of God's best specimens of humanity.
"WEDNESDAY, May 26, 1849.
" A fine morning, with Malachi Fish. Bro. O. A. Skinner preached this morning an excellent discourse. I admire his fervidness. It seems to come from the heart. Bro. L. S.
Everett preached this afternoon; a good sermon. Oh, how many warm hands I have
grasped this day I Confident lam that few love their friends as I love mine. Bro. Skinner
preached this evening. He is a splendid speaker and-a good man. There is rich music in his
voice. Went home with Selah Cornell. He is a glorious soul."
Being a man of fashion then, -biblical, creedal, " constitutional,"he must, of course, be ordained in the best style. Put on the " yoke
of bondage! " Must we not ask the pope or bishop? Ordination in
ecclesiastic circles!  Alas for the  " salt that has lost its savor! "
Mr. Peebles'received his "Letter of Fellowship " at a session of the
Cayuga Association of Universalists, held at McLean, on the 25th
and 26th of September, 1844. For several years thereafter, he was
standing Clerk of the Association. On the 24th of September, 1846,
in  Kellogsville, he was ordained  to  the "work of an Evangelist."
The following was the order of services: -
" I. Prayer by Rev. J. H. Harter.
II. Sermon by Rev. J. M. Austin.
HI. Ordaining Prayer by Rev. C. S. Brown.
IV. Charge and Delivery of Scriptures by Rev. D. H. Strickland.
V. Address to the Church by Rev. J. M. Peebles.
VI. Benediction by the Candidate."




CHAPTER IV.
THE SPIRITS -  RADICAL PREACHING.
" The spirit world is not closed; thy sense is shut; thy heart is dead. Up, acolyte I bathe
untired thy earthly breast in the morning red I "- SAGE.
"Hark I for a voice of gentle tone
The answer to our cry hath given,
Soft as ZEolian harpstrings blown,
Responsive to the breath of even:
I have not sought a distant shore;
Lo I I am with you: weep no more I  " —LZZIE D OTEN.
THE "rappings"! come without our bidding; come to stay.  A
divine revelation, it is founded in natural law; and those who fight
it, fight all tangible knowledge of immortality, fight all natural answers to prayer, fight their loved in heaven, fight spirits, angels, and
the Almighty himself! It is a fearful battle. Priests had better at
once ground their weapons of rebellion. The church was heart-sick,
eaten with a dry rot. Skepticism was sitting in the seat of judgment, ecclesiastical religion begging at her high court.  Creeds, sermons, eucharists, baptisms, no longer furnished food for the thinkers.
The light on the church altars had gone out. A dark silence brooded
there.  It was midnight.  But a tide was setting in from  the other
side. The seers saw it coming. At length it touched our shore -
electric! " What was that?" asked the thinkers.  The MYSTIC RAP!
It echoed over the land, and " there was joy in heaven." Two decades ago, it startled the world from its long slumber.  What of the
ministers?  They laughed at it.  What of the philosophers?  They
affirmed, Man is immortal.  The rap shivered and burst into sunlight of day, and millions were entranced.  Then the church was
sober, gathered up its phylacteries, walked on silver slippers to worship God, crying out, " It is the devil!"  Shot from a transfiguring
cloud, Truth rent the vail of the church from top to bottom. Lo! a
8                                      83




34                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
shower fell; a river full, " clear as crystal."  A  refreshed world!
" Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the Waters!"
Continued imbibation at the denominational tap inebriates the soul.
Was this Mr. Peebles's condition?  Like many "Liberal Christians"
to-day, he was very emphatic about his independence; said so often,
" I am open to conviction," but failed somehow in finding the way.
The fact is, he did not investigate, " for fear of the Jews." So
"free" in the pulpit, so prudent in word and action, ministers are
generally the last to be converted. " Publicans and harlots shall
enter the kingdom of heaven before you."
During the last year of his pastorate in Kellogsville, Mr. Peebles
was invited by Hon. Vincent Kenyon, a Universalist of Quaker descent, spiritually inclined, to ride with him to Auburn, and hear the
spirit rappings. He consented, with the reserve, " that the appointment be fixed for some evening."  Nicodemus! The medium was
Mrs. Tamlin. The raps heard, he whispered to his friend, " A splendid trick!"  " Suppose you expose it," responded Mr. Kenyon.
" Please rap on the wall," said Mr. Peebles.  To his astonishment,
the wall seemed to speak.  On his coat collar, on his boots, on his
heart-strings!   "What?"  he asked.  That what meant a great
question.  When his spirit-cousin gave thus an intelligible communication, he attributed it to thought-reading. Well, thought-reading is
" The end of a golden string;
Only wind it into a ball,
It will lead you in at heaven's gate,
That invitingly opes for all."
After this, Rhoda Fuller, honest and intelligent, became clairvoyant, giving remarkable tests of spirit-presence. In due time he heard
an uneducated boy deliver a masterly lecture, entranced, upon a subject of his own selection, —' The Philosophical Influence of the
Nations of Antiquity upon the Civilization and Science of Modern
Europe and America."  Reporting it, he said, -
"The boy at' once stepped forward and commenced, and for one hour and threequarters one continual stream of history and philosophy fell from his lips. The beauty
of the language was astonishing, and the names of well-known and little-known sages of
antiquity fell glibly'from his lips. He began by speaking of the old Aryan race, and
spoke as if he had the whole history of India, Egypt, Greece, and Rome at his fingers'
ends. I knew the work necessary to get up sermons before they are preached, and
was perfectly astonished at the address given by the boy. I went home thinking that
there must be some power at the root of Spiritualism."




RADICAL PREACHING.                           35
Stirred by these discoveries, he ventured to preach a sermon in his
church from the text, " Go on unto perfection; " in which he alluded
to angels, and the spiritual gifts, as perpetual in inspiration. Mr.
Kenyon, hearing it, said to him afterwards, " Our denomination will
not stand such sentiment: you will have to leave it. You can fight
but poorly in Saul's armor; better cast it off."  This advice was
startling to our young minister.
" The crust o' the letter cracks; new life takes wing;
A strong ground-swell will heave, a wave will break;
The Eternal grows more visibly awake!t'
The eastern star before the morning, the Baptist before Jesus,
superstition before science; so radical thinking before spiritual development.  Too much light all at once will dazzle us to blindness.
Liberty may be driven to death.  The greatest virtue is to be qualified for practical use.   Be not in haste for angelhood.  Excess is
equal to the vice of defect.  Break not the shell ere the bird is
hatched.
"Those who greedily pursue
Things wonderful instead of true,
That in their speculation choose
To make discoveries strange news,
And natural history a gazette
Of tales stupendous and far-fetched,
Hold no truth worthy to be known,
That is not huge and overgrown,
In vain stern nature to suborn,
And for their pains are paid with scorn."
Those" spiritual exhibitions" unconsciously gave Mr. Peebles a
radical tendency of sentiment. " Despise not small beginnings." Mr.
Peebles read Volney, Hume, Voltaire, Paine -  how audacious! - and
Swedenborg, Emerson, Parker, and the like;' and was spoiled for
the sectarian Church.  What was the cause of the new habit, - the
argument first, and then the text? Bravo! When a minister puts
the text on a sermon after it is written, " look out for breakers."
During the years 1853-55, Mr. Peebles was pastor of the Universalist Church at Elmira, N.Y., where he found a boon companion in
Rev. Thos. K. Beecher, half-brother of Henry Ward Beecher.  Here
were a Universalist and a Congregationalist yoked together, bathing
together, lecturing together on temperance, and even together marrying




36                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
folks; Peebles marrying one of the couple according to Universalism,
and Mr. Beecher according to Congregationalism. A clipping from
an exchange says,"Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, one of the Beechers, who is pastor of a Congregational
Church at Elmira, N.Y., has been disfellowshiped by the Ministerial Union of that
place."
Mr. Peebles, in  chronicling  this  disfellowshiped  brother, thus
reviews those novitiated days of the ministry:"Being warm personal friends, both of us were considered by the denominations to
which we respectively belonged a little'shaky,' theologically. Brave enough to read
different periodicals and reviews, we frequently talked of the progress of'free thought,'
and the disturbing element of Spiritualism. Friend Beecher always said there was'a
fish at the other end of this line;' but of its real character - saint or demon - he was not
so certain.
"Pleasant and sunny the memories of those times. Together we rolled balls in ninepin
alleys, practiced gymnastics, took baths in Dr. Gleason's water-cure, hurled stones into
the valley at our feet, told mirthful stories of eccentric Christians, lectured on temperance, attended social gatherings for conversation and culture, and mutually, laughingly,
accused each other of being the rankest heretic. A dozen years or more buried in the
abyssmal past, and lo! we are both outside the'camp of the Philistines,' and the reach,
too, of all such theologians as feed on the crusts and crumbs of a cold, formal, creedal
Christianity. Over this chasm of time, we extend the warm right hand, and welcome
our old friend Thomas K. into the good and growing fraternity of the'great unchurched.'
May his shadow lengthen, and his heresy strengthen! Amen.
"  Humanity sweeps onward! where to-day the martyr stands,
On the morrow crouches Judas, with the silver in his hands:
Far in front the cross stands ready, and the crackling fragments burn,
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return,
To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn.
Truth for ever on the scaffold, wrong for ever on the throne;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God in the darkness keeping watch above his own."
"Illustrative of Mr. Beecher's style, when a fellow-boarder with us at the Elmira Water-Cure Institution, the following may serve as a sample: Sitting in the parlor one evening, some thirty present, listening to music, Beecher suddenly whirled around, and, putting his eagle eye upon us, said in his own felicitous way,' I've got an idea-must fire
it off.'
"'Well, if liable to rust from keeping, let us have it.'
"You, a heretic, speaking after the manner of the fathers, have traveled all over the
bills and through the valleys of Chemung County, preaching there's no hell —no hell —
no endless hell torments I And I've been around after you, preaching hell and damnation-hell and damnation I Now, we've both gone to extremes. You preach hell-or




RADICAL PREACHING.                               37
at least a little more hell - to those Universalists -they need it; and I'll not preach
quite so much to my church, and I think we'll both hit nearer the truth.'
"' Wouldn't you call that policy?'
"' Certainly not; but wisdom, — that wisdom which appreciates both justice and love
in the divine administration.'"
The brief epistle we here transcribe reveals the expanding force
of " our minister's " sodl, from  loving one to loving all.  "Thus in
our first years," says Emerson, " are we put in training for a love
which knows neither sex, person, nor partiality; but which  seeks
virtue and wisdom everywhere, to the end of increasing virtue and
wisdom."
" ELMIRA, N.Y., Jan. 7, 1853.' REV. D. S. B-. Dear Brother, -.. Will you now lay aside your commentaries
and clerical duties for a few moments, and listen to me? I have been writing upon a sermon from this text, " Verily, I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the
gospel's, but shall receive a hundred-fold now in this time, and in the world to come eternal
life" (Mark x).  What was Jesus' real meaning in this passage? It quite puzzles
me. Like the young man who had'kept the law,' I am'sad at the saying:' for I love
my brothers and sisters: there are six of them, - Emery and Elmer (twins), Leonard and
Lorenzo, Lovira and Luana, -all good, though in different ways and degrees; and in
my very heart I love them with a true fraternal love. Must I, as Jesus commands, leave
them? Memories of them are blissful. Are all fleshly ties of kindred temporal and
fading? Is spiritual love alone immortal and eternal? Love is the very life of my
soul....                                                  J. M. PEEBLES."
During all his public career, Mr. Peebles has been an earnest and
unflinching friend and apostle of temperance.   He was one of the
select committee that drafted the degrees of the Good Templars,
and was the National R. W. Grand Chaplain of this order.  At an
early period he also espoused the anti-slavery reform, Odd Fellowship, the dress-reform, and woman's rights.  He has a way, peculiar to himself, of enforcing unfashionable truth in the pulpit, without
offending to any great extent.  Of all men he is the greatest adept
in the art of cutting your head off without hurting, and then growing
it on again in better shape.
In May, 1855, resigning his pastoral relations in Elmira, Mr.
Peebles felt a rising force to question his ism. There is a vein of
spirit-life underlying these brief words, addressed to his Bro. Harter,
to whom he confided many heart secrets. Were the spirits burning
up his theological rubbish?  " Don't glory, my brother, in my independence. I want a long talk with you about Universalism, as an
ism, particularly as taught by the old school."




38                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Mr. Peebler takes to dignity as the pine to the mountain. His
pride is in the way.  While he was preaching in Oswego, N.Y.,
vigorous efforts were made to obtain a capacious Orthodox church,
for the celebrated Mrs. Bloomer, wherein to lecture upon " dressreform."  The officials refusing it, of course, Mr. Peebles secured
the Universalist house of worship.  To give it more respectability,
he was voted into the courtesy of meeting her at the cars. When on
a mission of duty, Mr. Peebles is thoughtless of reputation. This
is a marked trait in his make-up.  He is of the Fremont stamp,
not Lincoln. In his zeal, he sometimes blunders into a pit, but is
out ere he touches bottom.  He met the lady: she was attired in
" bloomer."  Why had he not thought of her costume before consenting to escort her into the city?  But there was no backing out;
against the grain.  Arm in arm they walked through the principal
street, followed by an accumulating crowd of rowdies who encored
them with shoutings, whistlings, and jeerings, to the hotel. He, however, bore this "great cross" quite manfully, and had the compensating satisfaction of seeing an enthusiastic congregation gathered in
his church, swayed by a woman's eloquent appeal for emancipation
from the thralldom  of fashion.  The victory over rowdyism  and
Orthodox conservatism was splendid, popularizing his moral independence.
He pressed in his "Literary Herbarium" this floating  thistleflower: -
"Learn for the sake of your mind's repose,
That wealth's a bauble that comes and goes,
And that proud flesh, wherever it grows,
Is subject to irritation."
Mr. Peebles's radicalism cost him much, trying his moral steel in
a thousand ways. Under the pressure of Orthodox prejudice and a
world of care, he would often fall into despondency, producing physical
exhaustion. Needing " school-day companionship," he sent for Bro.
Harter, and offered to pay his expenses if he would come and cure
him of the "blues."  Coming, he commenced his ready wit, - the
antidote for such sins, -when the depressed minister, the first time for
several weeks, began to laugh; the thermometer of joke rising to so
great a heat, Mr. Peebles offered him double pay, " considering lame
sides," if he would go home!
"Seek and ye shall find," was his text about this time. So uto



RADICAL PREACHING.                           39
pian, he needed a balance-wheel, a centripetal force.   Thus he
reasoned; and so others recommended.  In Mary M. Conkey, a
teacher of Clinton Liberal Institute, he found a very refined and
artistic companion. As a painter, she excelled; and in after years
became a spirit artist, whose productions are very beautiful. In a
" Pen Sketch of Reformers," published in Moses Hull's " Spiritual
Rostrum," Mrs. H. F. M. Brown writes,"Mary Conkey, the wife of our brother, has kept pace with him in all his progressive
ideas. However dark and rough the outer world has sometimes seemed, there has
always been light, peace, and a loving welcome in a home that Mary has beautified' by
her own artistic hand.  Clouds have overshadowed the home, but they were the
shadows of angel wings."
Sir Walter Scott says, -untruthfully?-" From my experience, not
one in twenty marries the first love: we build statues of snow, and
weep to see them melt." Oliver Goldsmith, adverting to his experience, says, " I chose my wife, as she did her wedding-gown, for
qualities that would wear well."  Our volatile young preacher had
often wept over " the melting snow," but sought " qualities that
would wear well."




CHAPTER V.
STEPS TO FREEDOM.
4 Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." - RIDDIE OF SAMSON.
" Sow ye beside all waters,
Where the dew of heaven may fall:
Ye shall reap if ye be not weary;
For the Spirit breathes o'er all.
Sow, though the thorns may wound thee:
One wore the thorns for thee;
And, though the cold winds scorn thee:
Patient and hopeful be.
Sow, though the rock repel thee,
In its cold and sterile pride:
Some cleft there may be riven,
Where the little seed may hide.
Fear not, some will flourish;
And, though the tares abound,
Like the willows by the waters
Will the scattered grain be found." —FRIENDS' REvIEr.
IN January, 1856, Mr. Peebles accepted a call to the pastorate of
the Universalist Society of Baltimore, Md.  The query rose in the
minds of some of his professed friends, whether he would there freely
advocate Northern principles. One-" jealous-pated fellow" reported
he had the "gag on;"  another, that he had  "lost his Northern
heart."   Writing a friend about this, he said,"I have not lost my Northern heart, nor Northern principles. You know I can neither
love nor apologize for human slavery. What I believe, I must speak out. There are
open opponents of slavery here, as in New York. It was the understanding from the
first, that I should be a pastor free and independent."
About this time, Mr. Peebles was already a defender of a certain
phase of Spiritualism.  Wedded to  his denomination, he was very
prudent in his language, careful to preserve the precious adjective
that renders all things respectable, -  Christian, -  a "Christian Spir40




STEPS TO FREEDOM.                               41
itualist."  Hopeful!  If we only get spiritual on the brain, growing,
it will soon burst the iron frontispiece of our caste. Evidently our
brother had been in good company, being guilty of all the heresies of
the day.  Note a private epistle dated from Baltimore, 
"I hear many complaints that' The Ambassador' is filled with'such trash as' TangleTown Letters!' The last two articles of the editor are down on the Spiritualists. Brother
Reynolds ought to know, and Brother Austin does know, that hundreds of Universalists,
and patrons, too, of' The Ambassador,' are Spiritualists, -not fanatical Spiritualists, nor'free-love' Spiritualists, but earnest, candid, Christian Spiritualists; such as are Rev. T.
J. Smith, and Rev. S. Cobb, of' The Freeman.' I met several intelligent Universalists in
Western New York, that have stopped' The Ambassador,' and commenced taking' The
Spiritual Telegraph.' This grieved me; because I love' The Ambassador' and Brother
Austin, and will ever do all in my power for its advancement among Universalists! We have
some old fogy Universalists among us, who treat Spiritualists just as the Orthodox have
treated us! The truth will finally triumph, call it by what name we may."
Successful, he was regarded by other churches as "a most dangerous man."  He issued several doctrinal tracts, which were.circulated
over the country, and received with general favor by liberal minds.
The Orthodox had  a "committee  on Sunday appointments."   Mr.
Peebles, addressing a polite note to the same, solicited the favor of
having his vacant pulpit supplied, one sabbath, by a Methodist minister.  It was refused!  He then wrote Bishops Waugh, Scott, and
Rev. L. F. Morgan, a pungent, kind epistle, comparing them  with
the rabbi of the Jewish synagogue, -
" Would to God that the narrow, proscriptive, sectarian spirit, so pointedly condemned in the Pharisees by Christ, had perished with them, instead of living, as it evidently does, the blight and curse of Christendom. Why not exchange pulpit services
with Universalists and Unitarians? Can you not preach as much truth to their congregations as they can error to yours? Or are you so popish as to doubt the propriety of'private judgment,' forbidding your people hearing all denominations, that they may
form a correct judgment upon the doctrines of Christianity? If you have the light, why
not let it'shine' from Universalist pulpits?  This reminds me of the following
circumstance: -
"'John Adams, upon being requested to give for the support of foreign missions,
made the following pointed reply: " I have nothing to give for that cause; but there are
here in this immediate vicinity sixty ministers, not one of whom will preach in the
other's pulpit. Now, I will give as much, and more than any other man, to civilize these
clergymen."
" The venerable Adams, with a severity that I would not employ, thought the civilizing
of those Massachusetts clergy a pre-requisite to Christianizing them.' But to the original inquiry, Why refuse a preacher for our pulpit? The apostle says
that' Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.''And how shall they
hear without a preacher?' And yet you declined sending us one, when you certainly




42                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
must have had nearly three hundred in the city unemployed, idling away their time.
Had the master visibly stepped into his vineyard on Sunday, would he not have repeated
his language of old,' Why stand ye here all the day idle?' And then how can you
give an account of your stewardship at the day of'final adjudication?' May not these
neglected Universalists (who are to be -damned, admitting your theology true) confront
you with the telling words:' No man hath cared for my soul;' Our blood be upon your
garments;'' The harvest is ended, and we are not saved.'
"I believe in God, in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in the inspiration of the Scriptures, the necessity of faith, repentance, the new birth,' experimental religion,' personal
piety, and that,' without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.' I believe in moral freedom,
in man's accountability, in a just punishment for sin, the atonement by Christ, the
resurrection of the dead, and the restoration of all men, during the mediatorial reign of
the Son of God. And, in all my ministrations, I press the importance of obedience to
God, a compliance with the conditions of salvation, and a more thorough consecration of
all the powers to the love and service of the Father.
" And yet I am not recognized as a Christian, nor permitted to receive the civilities and
courtesies of civic life from the Methodist clergymen of Baltimore.'Father, forgive
them.' God looks not at denominational names, but the heart. I cherish no malice toward you. The spirit of my faith, with the Master's lessons, induce me to return love
for hatred, good for evil, blessing for cursing, and to'pray for those who despitefully
use me.' I close by renewing the former request to the Conference, to supply my pulpit
next Sunday morning and evening.
" Yours, in the gospel of Christ,                    J. M. PEEBLES."
One orthodox minister, ashamed of his Baltimore brethren, -Rev.
H. C. Atwater, of Providence, member of the Methodist Conference,voluntarily supplied Mr. Peebles's pulpit "with power and eloquence,
and, I trust, with the approbation of God."
The mistletoe, loves the old oak. If pride of position hold us in a
fashionable dead-lock, if pampered priests cajole us into tame submission, then the gods will institute trials, and compel our freedom.  Mr.
Peebles was yet young, volatile, sanguine, companionable, playful as
a dancing lamb on the sunny hillside.  "He is a mischief," said the
staid  old women;  " very unministerial,"  said  the  denominational
"iron clads;" " too radical," said the political conservatives.  But
everybody sought his genial soul.  " Envy loves a shining  mark."
The lecherous like to victimize the poetic. The most suspicious of
others' virtue are almost uniformly themselves the most unvirtuous.
The depravity we see in our neighbors is ourselves reflected. Betrayal works when charity is asleep.
" The deepest ice that ever froze
Can only o'er the surface close:
The living stream lies deep below,
And flows, and can not cease to flow."




'STEPS TO FREEDOM.                               43
Free, jovial, heretical, affiliating with Spiritualists, of course, unwarranted suspicions sprung up.   " Stories," like  snow-balls rolling
down hill, gain in volume and momentum.  The poor man was unprepared for this first trial: disheartened, he sank into an alarming
sickness. Under the circumstances, he resigned his pastoral charge.
" The Boston Trumpet " thought " all was not right."  " The Ambassador " paid the following just compliment:"We learn that Brother J. M. Peebles has tendered his resignation to the society in
Baltimore. He does not consider his health sufficiently good to enable him to perform
the very great amount of labor required in Baltimore. For several sabbathspast, he has
held but one service in consequence. Brother Peebles is an excellent pastor, and therefore will not long be without a society suited to his strength."' The Baltimore  Sun"  noticed  the resignation  thus magnanimously, 
"We understand that the Rev. J. M. Peebles, pastor of the Universalist Church in
this city, has handed his resignation to that society. Mr. Peebles has been forced to
this step by declining health; and we are sure his society will regret the cause of this
determination. During Mr. Peebles's short stay in this city, he has won for himself
many warm friends; and the large and increasing attendance in his ministerial labors
are sure evidences that his society fully appreciate his talents. He will rest from his
labors for at least a year, hoping thereby to re-establish his health and usefulness."
Several leading clergymen, disliking the unwarranted suspicions
breathed by "The Trumpet," addressed the following letter to the
editor: 
BROTHER WHITTEMORE, — Having made inquiry concerning the report refen edto in
your paper o' last week concerning Rev. J. M. Peebles, we beg leave to say, that we
consider saidreport not warranted by the circumstances, and founded upon unauthorized and exaggerated statements.
"E. H. CHAPIN.
G. T. FLANDERS.
A. ST. JOHN CHAMBRE.
PORTER THOMAS.
B. PETERS.
HENRY LYON.
EBEN FRANCIS.
And others.
" ew York, Oct. 30, 1856."
Finding the report was founded upon "unauthorized and exaggerated statements," the ministerial busy-bodies began to fear they had
gone too far for the good of the denomination. There is a point of




44                      THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
traffic with unrighteous wares when "forbearance ceases to be a
virtue."   Not a few  of our Universalist ministers can testify to  this
from  personal experience, proving that our hunted  brother was not
alone in'his pilgrimage from bondage to freedom.*
After occupying  his pulpit two  or three  months succeeding his
resignation, Mr. Peebles  and wife left  for Canton, N.Y., the " old
homestead," where he soon received letters soliciting him to return
and build up a new society in Baltimore. Others urged him to accept his previous charge, as letters from  J. L. Camp, Geo. T. White,
E. L. Ironmonger, Marston, Marden, &c., at our disposal, testify;
but he declined every proffer of the kind, when his old society passed
unanimously the following resolutions: -
" BALTIMORE, Oct. 6, 1856.
"REV. J. M. PEEBLES. Dear Brother,-At a meeting of the Universalist Society
of the city of Baltimore, convened in the church, on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 5, 1856,
your resignation was received, and the following action had thereon: -
"Whereas, It has become necessary for our pastor, on account of his declining
health, to offer his resignatioh to the society over which he has held pastoral relations
during the past nine months, therefore, be it
" Resolved, That the resignation of Brother J. M. Peebles, as pastor of the second
Universalist Society of Baltimore, be received and accepted.
" Resolved, That we sincerely deplore the occasion which has led Brother Peebles
* Of Universalist ministers persecuted, or ex-communicated, for the heresy of Spiritualism, may be mentioned, Revs. T. L. Harris, E. B. Averill, J. M. Spear, J. P. Averill, S. B.
Brittan, T. J. Smith, L. P. Rand, J. B. Dods, Wm. Fishbough, Adin Ballou, Geo. Severance, B. S. Hobbs, J. H. Harter, Rev. Mr. Cravens, A. C. Edmunds, A. J. Fishback, Joseph
Baker, J. C. Crawford, R. Connor, &c. Mr. Connor was " cast out of the synagogue " for
disbelief in the plenary inspiration of the Bible, the resurrection of the physical body of
Christ, and other minor opinions. In February, 1869, by the State Committee of the Illinois
Convention of Universalists, the author of this biography, after twelve years ministerial
labor with that denomination, was excom municated from fellowship solely fordteaching the
gospel of angel ministry I The following was the " bull " passed against us: -
" And be it also known, that said committee, having cited the Rev. J. 0. Barrett to appear before them, and show cause, if any he had, why his letter of fellowship should not be
withdrawn, he having ceased to use it for the purposes for which it was given, and he not
appearing, his case is judged by default; and the committee do hereby decide and declare
his letter withdrawn. Be it known, that the above decision is not based upon moral causes.
W. S. RALPII, 
T. J. CARNEY,
B. N. WILES,
G. W. HIGGINS,
Committee of Fellowship, Ordination, and Discipline."
Patience, brethren I God is majority I Let us trust while we act the poet's idea, -
"Stand back, ye Philistines;
Practice what ye preach to me:
I heed ye not; for I know ye all.
Your-creeds are living, burning lies,
In the sight of God's pure truths I "




STEPS TO FREEDOM.                               45
thus early to dissolve the connection which has so happily existed between us as pastor
and people.
" Resolved, That, wherever his lot may be cast, when other friends are around him,
and when other scenes meet his eyes, our prayers will ascend' to the Giver of all good
gifts' to restore him to health and usefulness, and to lengthen his days on the earth.
" Resolved, That in all his relations toward this society, as pastor, friend, and guardian of the sabbath school, he has ever evinced a devotedness and untiring zeal, which
have conduced to rivet the bonds of affection between us and him more close and firm;
and we will not omit to say, that the cause of Christ has prospered in his hands.
" Resolved, That a copy of this preamble and resolutions be signed by the officers,
and transmitted to Bro. J. M. Peebles.
"JAS. L. CAMP, Secretary.' RICHARD MARLEY,
President Board of Trustees."
Mr. Peebles never held a pastoral relation with any society or
church that did not, at the dissolution, pass resolutions in his favor
with unanimous indorsement.
The wounded bird, hit in her own nest, returns not thither. Then
a hiding-place is sought, -
"Some boundless contiguity of shade."
Just there the angel finds the pilgrim. Strange, that in misfortune
we think to run away from the attendant spirit!
After remaining in Canton a few months, the hours of convalescence, dragging their iron fetters, Mr. Peebles one day resolved to
quit the ministry for ever. Was that the first time? How many an
apostle has thought it, said it!   In a few  weeks, he was on the
wing, en route for the West, to enter into business with his cousin,
Col. F. E. Peebles, banker and real-estate dealer, of W.inona, Minn.
We may go the length of our " cable toe."  Any farther?   What
did this man know about business?  A  pretty shift for a prophet!
Elisha whimpered under the juniper-tree. Oh, if he had only got
behind a counter, and dealt in " stocks and stones"!  If Jesus had
only thrown away his " knot of strong cords," and invested capital in
the "money-changers' business!"   0  Reformers!.    poor, perse.
cuted, wandering mediums!
" Happier to chase a flying goal,
Than to sit counting laureled gains;
To guess the soul within the soul,
Than to be lord of what remains."




46                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
On the way West, thinking to rest a while in Cleveland, Mr. Peebles found there a welcome home at Mr. Odell's, one of his Kellogsville friends.  Conversation immediately turned upon Spiritualism,
-" that unmanageable element of church discord."  In the main, it
appeared to him " as glittering, drifting sand, with now and then a
particle of gold, roiling the pure gospel."
The Davenport boys were then performing in the city; and, fortunately, a seance was appointed in a hall that afternoon. Among the
prominent lawyers, physicians, ministers, and other quizzing thinkers,
sat Mr. Peebles, eying the machinery with silent suspicion.  The
ropes were securely tied upon the brothers, flour put into their hands,
chalk-marks around their feet, and the room darkened; when instantly
the musical instruments moved swiftly round the room, played on by
invisible hands. Dreamy suspicion changed to earnest curiosity. He
was quite a philosopher now, thinking by what occult agencyodylic, magnetic, earthly, or spiritual —that strange phenomenon
was produced.  A few, more churchal, trembled, fearful  that the
devil was playing his tricks upon them; but James felt safe on his
shaky plank of bibliolatry.  When the circle was in good order, by
request of the mediums, the light, subdued and mellow, shone just
enough to reveal those instruments passing and repassing over their
heads, playing a tune; and there sat the Davenports, snugly tied in
their chairs. King, the hero-spirit, then spoke audibly through a
trumpet, startling them with the assurance that he would reveal himself to them in bodily shape.
The aural emanations of the circle were favorable to spirit materialization. Does not the germ of the rose, rooted in the warm bosom
of " mother nature," sun-fused to its almost pulsing heart, materialize
itself, incorporate vital elements around it, forming first the stalk,
then the lunged leaves, then the bud, bursting, some summer morning, into the many-tinted flower?  What is nature but the material
embodiment of spirit?  What is spirit doing here but constructing a
mirror for the angels to look through? Thus we identify ourselves.
Why can not spirits do the same by using like forces, governed by like
laws?
An orderly circle, with inquiring affections, evolves a sphere rightly
conditioned for the visible picturing of a spirit, -to produce a light
within a light, like Manoah's angel in the flame of the altar. A spirit
is not obliged to work up gross substance into finer form, as we do;




STEPS TO FREEDOM.                               47
but, acting through our mediumship, it grasps elements already refined, and invests itself with the spheral aura of physical and spiritual
organisms, - organ for organ, function for function, - a very spirit
manifestation.
Emma Hardinge, in her great work entitled " HISTORY OF MODERN
AMERICAN  SPIRITUALISM," thus presents the analytical testimony of
the spirits upon this subject:"In some long but interesting communications, written in the spirit-room, without
human agency, it is said that spirits, in their communion with earth, manifest through
two primitive elements; namely, first, an electro-magnetic element, of which the spiritual body is composed; next, a physical aura, which emanates from the medium, or can
be collected from material substances, analogous, it is supposed, to the element of'vitality' described in the preceding chapter. From the combination of these two,-namely,
the emanations of the spirit and the medium, - a third, or composite, is formed, which is
affected by the atmosphere and human emanations. From the preponderance of the
electro-magnetic or spiritual element, the laws of cohesion and gravitation can be overcome; and, through this, spirits are enabled to dissolve and re-compose substances with
great rapidity, heave up and carry material bodies through the air, and cause them to
float or sink, in proportion to the strength of the battery formed. It is this element which
enables some spirits, highly charged with it, to come into contact with matter, and thus
to use pencils, pens, etc., in writing, drawing, and playing on musical instruments. By
aid of the physical or human aura, -animal magnetism, —they cause concussions,
raps, shaking of furniture, and heavy ponderable bodies; by this, also, they produce
spirit-light, gathering it up so as to form an envelope of matter around their own hands,
condense sound so as to be heard, singing and speaking, and strike upon the heavier instruments.' The composite element is used more or less in all modes.'"
Mr. Peebles was not then able to understand this " spiritual alchemy," - could not even comprehend the simple fact, that his philosophy
of miracles could measure even the materialization of a spirit. He
had taught that a miracle, strictly speaking, is the action of a natural
but unknown law.  Here he actually probed the vein of spirit phenomena.  What Universalists and Unitarians had discovered, -  that
the laws of nature harmonize, and are one and identical with the
revealed laws of God, - is, in fact, the magic wand that opens to
view all the mysteries in heaven and earth, when, behold! we look
therein in the calm light of philosophy.
Mr. Peebles was " struck  with conviction," but still trying  to
"climb up the old way."   Scales were before his vision, and spirits
were "a wonder in a wonder-making world."    He had at first
doubted whether those instruments would  fly around their heads
without hands touching them: then the spirits permitted him to see




48                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
them moving, as if themselves things of life; yet more wonderful came the promise, that the spirit himself would be seen!  He
doubted.
The boys again were tied: all was dark, silent, gloomy; when, lo!
a flickering glimmer shot out, as a star at midnight, swelling larger
into nebulous mist, rolling up fleecy white, growing more and more
distinct, till, opening as "a door in heaven," there appeared the
spirit form of a strange man in large proportions.  The spirits had
done even more than they promised.  Was he now  convinced?
Our confounded, confounding brother cast himself again into the
"slough of doubt," to cogitate upon " occipital motion,"  "od
force," " unconscious psychology," and the like, - the bed of spikes
wilful skeptics delight to dream on.
Mr. Peebles said, " We read that an angel rolled away a stone
from Christ's sepulchre, and another angel unlocked Peter's prisondoor: if you be spirits, I defy you to do the same, or any thing
like it."
At Mr. Odell's, that evening, the room brilliantly lighted with gas,
the boys tied, he and all the company saw peacocks' plumes floating
over their heads, and books with sheets of paper moving without
visible hands. Sensing his mental re-action, the spirits approached
him, and suddenly jerked him out of the circle, throwing him upon
the floor.  This trespass upon his clerical dignity enlivened the circle to a general merriment; which the spirits enjoyed by a more lively
play, with the instruments whizzing musically around their ears.
Did he now believe?  He was sure of this much, that it was "no
mesmeric hallucination;" for his side was actually lame.
The Davenport brothers, J. K. Brown of Buffalo, and Mr.
Peebles, occupied the same room that auspicious night. Retiring,
full of frolic, he playfully, yet seriously, challenged the spirits to make
him a visit. When all was still, the blinds of the house open, the
moon shining brightly, and balmy sleep began to fold over the eyelids,
suddenly they were all roused at the sound of three raps upon the
door.  " Comein!" said our "chosen apostle,"-" Come in!"
very respectful in tone of voice. But no one responded.  "Come
in! " loudly called our brother.  Then the door gently opened, and
swung back to the wall. He looked up, gazed, scrutinizing through
the wide aperture; but nobody appeared. Rap, rap, rap! on the
floor, then on the walls.  The boys exclaimed, "The spirits are




STEPS TO FREEDOM.                       49
here! "  Just then Mr. Peebles remembered his challenge; when a
heavy hand struck him on his stomach, and a smart crack on his
head. " Oh, that hurts- hurts!" said our hero, in trepidation.
The boys laughed, and encouraged an " evening entertainment." The
moonlight itself seemed a saucy witness of Mr. Peebles's discomfiture.
The clothes sprung off the bed, the bed itself rocked; and confusion
generally ensued.  "For Heaven's sake, Peebles," said Brown,
"strike a light."  Mustering courage, he sprung out; and, as he
walked across the room, that same hand hit him solid on the back.
The blow was overpowering; and, in alarm and pain, he shouted,
" That hurts! Oh! Oh! I know you are spirits! I give it up! I will believe; but don't hurt me so! " Frightened, he scrambled into bed, pulling the sheet over his face, like a child at sight of a ghost. One of
the boys entranced, a voice from the air said, "You dared us. Get
your light: we'll do you no harm. Mrs. Odell, listening joyfully in
the hall below, exclaimed, " Good, Brother Peebles, good! they
will convert you before morning! "  Mr. Peebles inquired, " Why do
you handle me thus roughly, if you be good spirits?"  The intelligence replied, " To give you evidence of our power, and complete
demonstration of conscious immortality, that you may walk no
longer by faith, but by sight. You are appointed for a great work:
gird up your loins, buckle on your sandals, grasp the sword of truth.
Go forth!"
It was to him  a genuine knock-down argument.  The impression made by that seance was deep and lasting, awakening in after
years a heart-gratitude to the spirits controlling the Davenport circle,
for the solid proof of their presence when he was in most need of
angelic light.
Away from Eastern associations, dreamily sauntering along the
frozen shore of the "' Father of Waters," skimming now and then a
pebble over the ice, like a mere child; then at night, after an unidefined and undefinable business-attempt that was as awkward as his
chopping enterprises in old Vermont, tossing and twisting upon his bed,
asleep with one eye on bank-bills and the other on God! - such were
our hero's experiences in Minnesota.  He was nowhere, yet everywhere; thinking nothing, yet thinking every thing.  "James M.
Peebles, Banker and Real-Estate Dealer!" was his oft soliloquy;
"Ha! ha! ha!-real-estate, litigation, speculation,- money to'swim in.' All my early ambition leaked out: well, well!"  Poor
4




50                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
fellow! he dreaded the sign-board strangely. At length, a calm camp
on, the calm that follows a swift shower, - the time for an angel to
unroll the panorama of his life.  There it was, all in picture, - boyhood, school-days, romances, mistakes, prayers, deeds, ministries,
friends so many, enemies too, the work scarcely begun ere it is
blasted; oh, what lights and shades in that review! Then sinking
into a half-revery, he questioned himself, - questioned his ability,
questioned his fidelity, questioned God, Christ, Bible, every thing, -
questioned where he had been accustoned to pray with seeming faith;
and, listen! the question was laden with a new, startling answer,
that folded down upon him like a sun ray,-'" Go and preach your highest convictions of truth and duty! "
" Highest convictions," he repeated, -" highest convictions I " There
was a meaning here, never before so solemn and impressive. " Have
i stifled the truth?"  he asked: "have I compromised truth, or
shunned duty?" —' Go and preach your highest convictions! " was
the response.
Instantly his resolution was fixed. He would be henceforth independent, act the Parker, an agitator!'Tis easier said than done.
It is a great ways out of Egypt.  A sect holding us by education,
friendship, support, is as bewildering as a wilderness.  Its darkness
is visible,-when the soul pants for liberty. What are those cables
over the fitful waterfalls?  Gossamer threads!  What the apprenticeship?  Battle, agony, heart-ache!  To sever ministerial ties; to
turn oneself out of home; to be unsalaried; to be a lotrely Elijah on
the Sacred Mount; to be a Jesus tempted, betrayed, crucified; to
face a frowning church, full of howling and scorn, -that is something
to a minister once pampered and flattered.  But he must pay this
cost! He must traverse the gulf between liberal preaching and
liberal practice, losing from his shoulders the respectable burden
styled Christian.  Toleration in the pulpit is debasingly intolerant
out of the pulpit.  He must be the exception among ministers to
equipoise these antagonisms.  By a delicate art, the spirits write
upon the arms of some of their media electric letters of fire, speaking words of immortal love.  Such must now be engraved upon his
soul by afi angel's pen.
"The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about;
the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains:
the earth with her bars was about me-for ever; yethast thou brought up my life from cor



STEPS TO FREEDOM.                         51
ruption, 0 Lord I my God...  And the Lord spake unto the fish; and it vomited Jonah
up on dry land."
Scarcely knowing what to do with himself, he half-concluded to
return to Canton.  "What for?" he pondered.  There is a time in
life when the heart hugs its holy purpose with a fear and trembling;
when a vail shuts over our vision, and we onlyfeel destiny. Is there
not an angel of the " Over Soul," who hides future prospects from us,
lest our hopes may be too high, making us selfish; and hides adversity, lest we may, in our unschooled faith, refuse to advance?
" Oh, blindness to the future kindly given,
That each may fill his station marked by heaven! 
Liberty hangs by a delicate pivot: the slightest touch will tip it.
The spirits know this, and watch our vacillation with intense anxiety.
Unconscious to ourselves, we may be on the very point of turning;
and then come two counter-forces, to try our mettle.  "Thoughts,
like sun-fires, penetrate the world." Spirits of our plane, feeling the
disturbance in our bosoms, foreseeing consequences, drifting to us on
the wave-crests of this mental sphere, alarmed at any break in a link
of fellowship, rush with impetuous zeal to help their earthly companions keep their brightest stars in their own galaxy. Spirits of
higher life, hearing our prayer for deliverance, also gather near, to
lift us up to their society. To the candidate, it is a fearful moment,
- the neutral ground of battle between the old and the new.
This was our brother's experience now. By a blind instinct, he
had arrived at Chicago, where he received letters from influential
ministers and other friends, urging him to return to the " Universalist
ministry, where he belonged."  Why this pleading at this hour? Yes,
why? Ask those " powers and principalities of the air."  What was
the voice from  Elmira, Jamestown, N.Y., Baltimore, McLean,
Auburn?  "Return to your first love! Be less radical: preach good
old Universalism!"  Ah, James! had you known Delilah then as
well as you do now, would you even thought of having your locks
shaven, that the Philistines might conquer you?
This was Saturday evening.  That night, sleepless, worrying,
full of pleadings, will never be forgotten.  The  better angels
recorded it; and it will be read, by and by, to note how close came a
heavenly heart in an angel's hand to his troubled bosom, but could
not enter, for the casket was not yet cleared of impediment.




52                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
A stranger in a city on Sunday morning is at liberty to go where
his instincts lead.
Taking a humble seat in a Spiritualist meeting, he looked over the
happy audience, noticing prominent citizens, whom he afterwards
learned to be such men as Seth Paine, H. M. Higgins, Mr. Green,
&c.  " Not all fools, I trow," he thought.' Sooh a gentleman was
entranced, and came direct to him.  What did it mean?  All eyes
were riveted on him. No escape! Then the spirit calmly said, with
a kind voice of recognition," I see your devious and winding pathway of life, - thorns and craggy steeps. Recently, you have been on a rough and tempestuous sea: your craft was rickety and unsafe.
You leaped from it into the deep! Ah, ha! you are in a better vessel: you are alone in
it, - nobody to guide you over all this vast waste. But look above: there it is, a strong
hand that controls all! Nothing but a hand I see; and it guides. you so safe! You
touch the shore; and now your path winds up, up, over rocks! There are precipices
and perils; but the hand guides, and you are safe! You are commissioned from oN
HIGH! Go, teach the ministry of angels! "
" Methinks the air
Throbs with the tolling of harmonious bells,
Rung by the hands of spirits everywhere:
We feel the presence of a soft despair,
And thrill to the voices of divine farewells." -DICKENS.
The prophecy of that medium  in Chicago haunted Mr. Peebles
night and day. It made him reflective. His purpose seemed uncertain.  For what was he waiting? daylight to dawn?  Starting for
the East, through those busy streets, everybody's step poised to resolution but his own: so it seemed.  He  soliloquized: "What my
fate?  Rocks, precipices, perils! Alone I'll climb."-  "Alone?"
asked a voice. Then he thought of his ministerial companions, and
recalled a report that Rev. J. P. Averill, of Battle Creek, Mich., a
prominent Universalist, in full fellowship, had espoused Spiritualism.
The angels know whom to trust, - where the oases are! Experiences
not yet arrived at are spiritually as real as memories of the past.
We step forward where the soul sees.  The  spider casts its vital
thread ahead, to feel after a basis of support: so do we; but do not
unseen friends watch the forward end, and fasten it on the high cliffs
of heaven?
At Battle Creek, he called upon Mr. Averill, and found in him  a
sympathizing friend, who was also passing through the fire. Notice,
without his knowledge, was immediately given that "Rev. J. M.




STEPS TO FREEhOM.                       53
Peebles would address the Liberalists of Battle Creek, next Sunday
morning and evening."
"Why," said Peebles, " I do not want to preach!"
"Talk then," replied Mr. A.,  " talk! that's the best kind of
preach."
A goodly number gathered in the hall,- Spiritualists, Universalists,
Quakers, Free Thinkers, &c., " all of one accord in one place." The
congregation intelligent, their greetings so cordial, he was inspired
with the electric touch of soul to soul. His text was appropriate:
" If the truth shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."  It was
handled in a masterly manner, and found a happy response. Closing
that ever memorable meeting, the congregation gathering around
him, Joseph Merritt and Eli Lapham, both Quaker ministers, and
others, gave him their hands, saying, " We want to engage thee. Thee
need not call it preaching. Thee shall be free." Then and there he
engaged for a year; and he remained six years pastor of " the First
Free Church of Battle Creek."  His now happy wife had a home
again. Here they lived many years, dearly affiliated with that faithful people who loved him better than themselves. He shared in their
deprivations, and sorrows, - always a harmonizer; and in all their
troubles, sicknesses, and bereavements, was the ministering angel.
As the wave on the still lake widens out, so did our brother's
work, so arduous, augment upon his hands from year to year; first
a town, then a county, then a State. He was a seed-sower; and the
gardens he made are in blossom yet.
Those days, as now, many Spiritualists whom he visited in these
outgoings did not always remember the just claims of the faithful
teacher. Often did he travel miles on foot to his appointments, receiving not a " thank you." As often did he bear his own expense of
team. Poor gratitude that! In one of his " foot-appointments," he
traveled fourteen miles, after speaking, in a dismal night, and fell into
a ditch. "My God! " he exclaimed, " has it come to this? Horses
owned by friends in -, and I in this dilemma?"  There is a species of bipeds, in their worm-state, that assume a liberal name to
avoid taxation in illiberal relations. When just reward is demanded,
they appeal to the example of Jesus and his apostles, who " preached
the gospel without money and without price."  Was ever insult
greater?  Do they forget that the Nazarene said, "The laborer is
worthy of his hire." If they are so apostolic, let them " give all their




54                 THE SIIRITUAL PILGRIM.
goods to feed the poor," and " take no thought for the morrow."
Will they deny self?  The patience of Mr. Peebles with  such
" leeches " was sometimes too great to be a virtue. Be not too gentle with rotten teeth. Through all these tribulations, he faltered not.
He verily went to the "by-ways and hedges."  Where he sowed
seed in the cold, the summer bloomed. His was the reward: " He that
goeth forth, and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come
again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."
0 heart-aching church! feeding on the husks of fashion, what is
this power that snatches us from your " close communions," from fine
salaries, and drives us forth into thorny paths, to preach " the gospel to every creature," - in barns, halls, groves, and streets?  " He
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."... "I counsel thee to buy of me gold, tried in the fire, that
thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed,
and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear."
How can the river be locked in ice, when the summer sun touches
it with so many hearts of love?  Located among a people who appreciated his radical sentiments, favored with spiritual associations,
frequently witnessing new  and convincing developments of spirit
presence, our brother grew young again, -full of frolic and merriment, as in his school-days at Oxford.  How quick clouds vanish
when a sensitive soul finds its social home! How grandly the sinking ship of life rises high on the waves, when an angel hovers over it!
O blessed heaven! but for those who know and love us, what were
our changing world?  The cross buds when love is bleeding on it.
" The very flowers that bend and meet,
In sweetening others grow more sweet."
Mr. Peebles continued his well-begun work, winning friends everywhere  to  the standard  of spiritual liberty.  One, two, three
years rolled on, each laden with seed-time and harvest.  Then
dawned the hour of reconciliation.  Several Universalist ministers,
instrumental in circulating*" bad currency," having grown more liberal, made the amende honorable in private letters to him, asking
hi's forgiveness. Says Lamerais, 
" Love makes all things possible."




STEPS TO FREEDOM.                             55
The flower blesses the foot that crushes it. What a joy was his,
to give back a hand warm  with generous feeling!  Arm  in arm
again, joking over the past, they proposed that he return to his denominational motherhood!  Aha?  His Brother Harter proffered a
hand and heart.  Other clergymen wrote in similar style.
" CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR OFFICE
AUBURN, N.Y., March 19, 1859.
" BRO. JAMES, -Why not come right back into the old Cayuga Association, and get a
letter offellowship? I will warrant one for you. I want the true companion of my
boyhood to be a Universalist minister. Let me hear from you.
"J. H. HARTER."
His brother, J. L. Camp, of Baltimore, suggested the same step.
We extract from his letter, -
" 0 Brother Peebles! you did a wrong thing to leave B., where your usefulness was
just about being developed; and let me assure you (though I do not want to pamper
your vanity, but tell you the solemn truth), that, were our desk vacant to-day, and you
could be had again, you could get the unanimous vote of the society (save probably
one); and, if you do go back into the Universalist ministry, which I pray God you may,
do not make any permanent arrangement with any society until we have a chance."
What was Mr. Peebles's reply  to these  cordial  invitations?
" Come over and help us I "  When asked if he thought of returning
to the Universalist ministry, he asked, " Do planets go back* "
"Can ye drive young spring from the blossomed earth? "
During all his public labors, Mr. Peebles has never said any thing
against, but always for, progressive, liberal Universalism; among
whose defenders, he reckons some of his truest friends. No formal
denominational charge was ever brought against him: no ecclesiastical tribunal ever arraigned him. He resigned his letter of fellowship
in 1856.
Several years after, Mr. Peebles was invited to Baltimore by the
Spiritualists: then he went.  There he met old friends, -  Danskin,
Camp, White, and others.  How  changed!  After speaking  encouraging words of the spiritual cause, under the ministrations of
Mrs. F. O. Hyzer, he wrote, -
" We bid Universalism, as interpreted by its better and broader-souled exponents,
Godspeed; but this little picayunish, sectarian Universalism, that says,'Thus far and




56                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
no farther,' is only comparable to Martha's representation of Lazarus's body, four days
dead. We believe in Universalism still, as a faith; and, in becoming a Spiritualist,
have only obeyed the apostolic injunction,' Add to your faith... knowledge.' Whereas we formerly walked by faith, seeing through a' glass darkly,' now we walk by sight,
knowing, that, when this earthly house is dissolved,' we have a building of God, a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'"




CHAPTER VI.
THE PROPHET MAN.
"All are architects of fate,
Working in these walls of time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme." - LONGFELLOW.
THE  artist angels select their media for temple-service.  Fitness
to order is the rule of structure. The man before us, entering now
upon a higher work, is public property; and everybody has a right
here.   There  is yet to  be a  system  of " Spiritual Phrenology."
Engineers, conductors, treasurers, and  other candidates for public
positions, to whom  the safety of human life and property is intrusted,
will be selected with reference to mediumistic abilities.
Mrs. H. F. M. Brown gives the following  psychometrical reading: -
" Mr. Peebles's leading characteristic is, perhaps, individuality. He is independent in
thought and speech; condemns cowardice and jealousies without stint: he commends
where he can, never looking to see which way the tide is setting, or waits public approval.  But he is quite willing that others should live their lives, if principles are not
compromised. He is orderly, generous, social, mirthful, and a great lover of the beautiful. In personal appearance, he is tall, straight,.of slender form, brown hair, blue
eyes. his face is of Roman mold: his teeth faultless. He dresses with great care,
avoiding alike the dandy and the sloven.... He is tall and slim as a May-pole; as
fair and frail as a delicate woman. Consumption looks him in the face occasionally;
but, by sailing the world half round, he has eluded the unwelcome phantom. But, after
all, the mistake might have been in putting the right soul into the wrong body. Spiritwise, Mr. Peebles is a mountaineer. He is calm in a storm, laughs at the lightning,
and listens to the thunder as friend to friend. His thoughts, like mountain-streams,
gush forth with freshness, music, and originality.  If he is a thought-borrower, his
benefactions are the ferns, the dewy mosses, the wild-flowers, the cloud-crowned hills,
and green valleys of his native State. I said to my soul, while listening to him,
Emerson had this very man in his mind, when he said, -' In your heart are birds and sunshine: in your thoughts the brocklets flow.'
57




58                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
In 1858, J. M. Spear, entranced, gave Mr. Peebles the appropriate title of the " Elucidator; " because his. " mission is to catch and
elucidate thoughts, ideas, and  principles."  In  1867, at Blue Anchor, N.J., Mr. Spear gave him another reading, discovering material changes in his spiritual organism  during the interim  of about
ten years:" The element of reconciliation is just coming into the bud state. It will so open
that you will be able to reconcile apparent opposites, and to show the relation which
disapprovals must and do bear to approvals, and how a course of the opposites helps open
up into the divine and highest action."
In the trance condition, Mr. Spear also advised him to labor in the
sphere for which he was then best fitted, -  " the ministry of reconciliation," - to harmonize the belligerent forces of Spiritualism, and in
social and political life.  Travel he must in the Old World, to study
institutions, and trace the civilizing relations of nations, - to be no
longer a  nationalist, but a  cosmopolitan.   And  here  stands a
prophecy: -
" At a later period, you will have your chair in a contemplated college, whee, by
your elucidative and reconciliative power, you. will become a teacher especially adapted
to young women from eighteen to twenty-five years of age. There will be your forte.
You are therefore in process of culture for this closing labor of your life."
In 1869, Mrs. S. A. Waterman of Boston, dating from  the magnetism of the superscription on his letter, under spirit influence,
gave Mr. Peebles a very lucid delineation, indicative of rare mediumistic powers and appreciation of a true life.
Being in Providence, R.I., in 1860, lecturing on Spiritualism, he
one evening attended a popular course  of lectures on Phrenology,
by O. S. Fowler, who, at the close, permitted the audience to select
individuals for examination: when Mr. Peebles, then a stranger to
the professor, was loudly called to the platform, with results afterwards written as follows:"You, sir, have an organization of mark, and can hardly fail to be a man of mark.
"Your largest single organ is firmness; are well nigh obstinate; would be quite so, but
that large caution enables and disposes you to judge wisely before you decide, but,
once decided, are like the laws of the'Medes and Persians.'  So be sure that'you
are right before you go ahead;' for you can turn your attention to almost any thing but
bargain-driving..... Are a practical skeptic; doubt every thing until it is proved, and
worship the Deity in nature, but not at all in creeds and ceremonies. Are eminently,
even pre-eminently, reformatory, even radical. Have unbounded benevolence, and the




THE PROPHET MAN.                                    59
greatest desire to do good, and make those around you happy. But, sir, your prayers
are short. Are a first best judge of human nature; read a man right through; take your
snap judgment of every thing, of men included; do best on the spur of the moment; so
*take no thought what you shall say; for it shall be given unto you, in the hour thereof.'
Are logical, clear-headed, good in explaining, expounding; especially good in arguing, by
ridicule, and' showing up.' Are terribly sarcastic, and will be one of the best abused and
praised of men; for your enemies will hate you badly, and friends love you proportionately, even tremendously. Never stop; and, the greater the obstacles, the more determined
you pursue your course: obstacles only embolden you.
" Have all the elements for becoming a soldier, and ought to be a commanding officer.
I speak now of bravery, ambition, and endurance; would flinch at neither moral nor
physical danger, but face them boldly: yet moral courage predominates.  Are a most
potential advocate of the truth; with you, right and truth are paramount.  Are one of
thefew who dare to do their duty, and defy the consequences,- dare to speak right out....
Are not naturally mercenary; have no regard for dollars and cents; should learn their
value, and cultivate smallness.  Ought to have a salary, so that you can graduate
your expenses accordingly.  Will be cheated every time you try to drive bargains.
Ought to have an economical wife, and put the purse into her hands; for you are not fit to
carry it. Can never' Jew.up or down;' have no commercial talents; could succeed in
business only by intellect. Are infinitely better adapted to intellectual life; should be a
professional man; ought to be a speaker.  Have really superior talents for acquiring
knowledge, and imparting it. Have fine descriptive powers; are a little too apt to overdraw your pictures, - I mean, are given to hyperbole; use very strong expressions; are
versatile in talents"..
James Burns of London, England, in a philosophical dissertation
upon  climatic  conditions as molding mind, writes in his excellent
monthly, entitled "Human Nature," of July 1, 1870, —
" In America, we find a marked blending of the religious views of the native Indian
with the best parts of Aryan philosophy. The keen, natural intuitions of the red man,
his monotheistic creed, and consciousness of the' Great Spirit,' are ingrafted upon the
white man's culture and rationalistic tendencies; and, as a result, we have an improved
combination of the primary and recent, the natural and attained, the intuitive and rationalistic, the spiritual and intellectual. And where did these influences come from? They
have been derived from two sources: First, from the psychological influences impressed
on the soil, atmosphere, and objects of the country by its former inhabitants, and unconsciously perceived and absorbed by the present population. Second, from the spiritworld, through the action of the spirits of the departed race upon those who this day
occupy their places. We repeat, these considerations must become leading features in
~the investigations of ethnologists before the secrets of the wonderful transformations
which are going on, and have taken place, amongst mankind can be accounted for.
While anthropologists are mere physicists, - materialists, -they can only deceive
themselves, and mislead the world. Their anatomical facts and incidental narratives
are all good, so far as they go; but they are only children's stories and old women's
fables, when compared with that form of knowledge which exposes the hidden causes
from which objective phenomena proceed.
"We preface these remarks to a delineation of J. M. Peebles, as he is a well-marked
example of the law we are endeavoring to point out.  He is almost immediately descended from Scotch and English ancestors; yet, while he retains in the deeper strata




60                     THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
of his character some of the features of both, but more particularly the Scotch, he
very prominently exhibits peculiarities that belong to neither.  The more we see of
American mediums and Spiritualists, and the deeper we dive into their psychological experiences, the more are we iinpressed by the fact, that the unsectarian, natural, free
influence of Indian spirits has much to do with the broad liberality and untrammeled
love of spiritual truth which characterizes advanced Americans; and the work is yet
going on, intensifying from year to year. And, as new means of communication open
up between the various countries of the earth, we shall behold a wider extension of this
great principle of psychological action, which we believe is the great modifier of
humanity.
"Your brain [speaking of Mr. Peebles] is exceedingly active. The organs are sharp.
ly developed, and few of them are in a dormant state. Your body is eminently fitted for
action. It is the servant of the brain in every particular; and your bodily organs and
passions are entirely under the control of the mind, and subservient to its highest behests.
You are lacking in vitality: you do not love life sufficiently for its own sake. Physical
wants and animal necessities are disregarded by you; and you are entirely removed from
the sphere of sensuous pleasure and animal indulgence. You have scarcely sufficient
lung power, or arterial blood; but your peculiar temperament enables you to derive more
from spiritual than physical sources. You do not feel the want of these deficiencies of
the vital apparatus in the same degree as others would, of a grosser temperament. Your
nervous system is excellently harmonized and balanced by your locomotive apparatus,
which is long in development, and exercises much power of equilibrium over your exceedingly excitable nervous system; hence you can expend all your nerve-power in
useful acts, and are inclined to be busy, continually carrying your thoughts into action,
and doing a great deal of work with a very little wear and tear.
"The social organs are very fully marked. This region of the brain is indicative of the
feminine type. You have all the feelings of a mother, and, as it were, take a maternal
interest in those with whom you come in contact. Your affections are more of the
domestic than social type; hence you take everybody with whom you sympathize into
the close relationship of brotherhood, and take a real interest in all with whom you become acquainted.....
" You are very considerate towards woman. You harmonize with her spirit very truly,
and can influence the female mind quite favorably, if it is on the same plane as your
own. You are capable of making many female friends.
"Industry and promptness are striking characteristics. You are always busy, and can
not waste time, or take sufficient rest. You would be better with more hardness and
aggressiveness of character, to resist encroachments and protect self. Were it not forthe
fact that you have very little fear and restraining power generally, you would not have
sufficient resolution to accomplish the work of your life; but your mind is free from
apprehension or fear: hence you can advance with very little friction.
" You are exceedingly deficient in that which leads to policy, equivocation, and suspicion. You are too open and unguarded. You have moral forethought, which keeps you
straight with your conscience. You likewise manifest that quality of reserve and depth
of mind which keeps you from opening up your character at once to the greater number
of those you meet with; hence, though familiar with many, they may not know you
thoroughly, because of a certain delicacy which restrains you from manifesting yourself
beyond the limits of strict propriety.
" You are naturally proud and elevated, and conduct yourself with dignity and manliness; but you are somewhat deficient in self-reliance, and like to have a positive companion with whom you can associate and take counsel.




THE PROPHET MAN.                                   61
" The summit of your character culminates in your great integrity and stability of
moral principle, perseverance, and sense of duty; though you may, for a moment, feel
absorbed in individuals, and apparently succumb to their opinions, yet you maintain a
fixed inflexibility of purpose.
" You are not one of those circumspect people, who make every day of their life accord
with the others; but you are ready to renounce every thing you profess, if your discoveries of truth indicate such a course.
" You feel as if too much of the success of the world's struggles depended upon yourself and upon your works. Thus you do not enjoy so much spiritual beatitude and
divine fellowship as you find pleasure in doing the work and promoting the interests of
humanity. Your benevolence is exceedingly large and active: your sympathies are susceptible, almost to an abnormal extent. You can not come within the sphere of necessity
without feeling it as your own. Yours is the spirit of the true philanthropist.
" You have a prophetic and intuitive perception of the course of things, which leads
you on when your want of faith and hope would cause you to flag, and give up the contest.
Your mind is looking forward and backward at the same time. You see very clearly
the relations between the past and the future; and the present is to you a sphere of pro.
gressive activity.....
" Ingenious and versatile, you can readily turn your attention to a great variety of subjects. You have much taste and literary ability; and, as the inspirational faculty is very
active, you readily find material to cover the necessities of your case. You gather
knowledge accurately and to the purpose; and, having great power of recollection, you
have an inexhaustible fund of literary matter to fall back upon. You readily distinguish
special features of thought, and can make your selections according to your requirements.
"Your love of music and desire for harmony is intense.
" You are a great chronologist. Your sense of time, and your ability to determine the
relative dates of events, is goQd. Thus you are historical, and can mark epochs and the
lapse of eras almost intuitively. You are also a traveler: you love to peregrinate, and
visit the various parts of the world to collect their mental products. You do not notice
so much the phenomena of nature as you do those of mind. Your mechanical skill takes
a mental form; and you readily sketch out a subject as a builder would a house, and see
all the adjustments of your work.  Your sense of perspective, order, and arrangement
are very good; and there is an exquisiteness and artistic beauty about your speeches and
literary works.
" Your command of language is moderately good; but there is a greater fund of matter than there is a specialty of words in which to clothe it.
" Feminine and eminently spiritual in temperament, you are, from brain development,
constituted to view spiritual and religious subjects from the secular or humanitarian side.
Thus, while your inspirations are intensely religious and spiritual, your method is for
truth against priestly devices, and favorable to the unity of all human interests."
Buffon says, " Style is the man himself." In a man's writings do
we discover his fiber and ring of genius. In 1859, Mr. Peebles wrote
a popular pamphlet, entitled, " Signs of the Times," in which he defends Parker and Beecher, contrasts' the "old with the new," with a
scalpel opens the sore of Orthodoxy, to " cleanse the body politic."
These extracts show the pith of his thought: -




62                      THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"As well hush the winds of heaven as bid the currents of free thought cease circulating'mong the inquiring masses that walk'neath the noonday sun of the nineteenth century.'Light, more light!' is humanity's motto.  And yet every newly-conceived
truth, whether scientific, philosophic, or spiritual, must not merely be cradled in a manger, but baptized in tears, and crucified between the two thieves, authority and popularity, ere it can become an acknowledged power in the world. An ancient conservatism
gave Socrates hemlock, and crowned Jesus with thorns. And the same spirit of intolerance that burned Huss, Servetus, and Latimer, in the name of Christianity, persecuted
and hung the Quakers, accused and mobbed the Wesleys, stoned Murray, and dragged
Garrison through the streets, still lives, - lives to vilify and slander Spiritualists, Reformers, and all those liberal-minded Christians who are laboring for the redemption of
humanity.....
"There is nothing more evident than the immutability of God's laws; and, if it were
ever possible or ever permitted spiritual beings to communicate, the same law permits
them now. This principle is admitted by the inspired preacher: Eccl. iii. 15.-' That
which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been: and God requires
that which is past.' Not only is it possible, but probable; for the spirit, relieved of its
gross earth garments, retains all its faculties, forces, mental characteristics, and moral
qualities. It is a substantial, organized, individualized, and conscious entity, living,
thinking, reasoning, and loving the same as before the transition. Pure love is imperishable, and can not cease; immortal, and can not die: and would not the mother, freighted
with th6se warm, gushing emotions peculiar to her affectionate nature, delight, though in
spirit-spheres, to watch over her children? Would she be herself, or would heaven be
such to her in reality, if she could not? Would not the good father rejoice in being a
counselor to his sons in earth-land? and, free to roam the universe, would not the wiselyordained law of parental attraction oft call him into their presence? The spirit-world
is not located afar, in some infinitely remote region. It is all around us, as is the atmosphere we breathe; and intercourse between spirits in the body and out of it is just as
probable and natural also, as the oceanic commerce between America and the isles of
the Pacific."




CHAPTER VII.
i THY SINS ARE FORGIVEN THEE! "
" Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.... And these signs
shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak
with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and, if they eat any deadly thing, it shall
not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." -JEsuS.
"I have heard of a mystic organ, which God's own hand has sealed:.
Not a single note from its silent keys through the dim years has pealed.
The hands of angels are searching to waken the strains sublime
That shall make glad tidings re-echo through the corridors of time."
NIGHT reveals the stars.  Mud is the mother-bosom  of the lily.
The slime of a damp, over-trodden path in the outskirts of a neighboring town, composed of clay, sand, and soot, by the process of
individualization and co-operation, when left free to follow its own
instinct, becomes in time a sapphire, an opal, and a diamond, " set
in the midst of a star of snow."
About twenty-five years ago, a horde of bandits stole a bright-eyed
lad of obscure, birth, and carried him  to their retreat in " Black
Swamp," Ohio, to serve as their spy and chore-boy. Their business
was to steal horses, forge money, and pillage the country generally.
Active and clownish, intelligent and shrewd, he soon learned and
excelled all their tricks.  Twining vines around the daggers of the
robbers, he was the youthful Bacchus, whose waving spear cowed all
the game of the woods into silence. Satyrs, nymphs, and demons
were his guards, holding nightly orgies in the bandits' den.  He was
frequently shot at by citizens, whose marks are indelible.   He was
schooled ind the arts of profanity, gambling, and forgery.   Poor
boy! he was not responsible for his early associations. When these
fierce men scattered, he connected himself a while with a band of
traveling minstrels, and was a perfect adept in exciting the crowd,
and procuring money.  For two summers after, he was a circus-boy
63




64                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
and ventriloquist.  Educated at these popular colleges of vice, he
became a " wild; gay, rollicking, good-hearted, demoniac, affectionate,
fast young man."  Having served such an apprenticeship, satiated
with wandering, he settled down in Battle Creek, a companion of the
dissipating classes, of which he was an acknowledged leader.
No man attracted his attention like Mr. Peebles, nor was so often the
subject of satire. Seeing him on horseback, riding to his appointments, noticing his towering, gaunt form, he would dance a jig at the
door of the saloon, and, with a low chuckle to the " boys," shout,
" See old grandsir long legs! "  The English language was never
before so tortured into ludicrous blackguardism as against this " longhaired Spiritualist," and in so harmless, mimicking way too.
Some time in the winter of 1858, Prof. I. Stearns visited Battle
Creek, and commenced a series of popular lectures on Psychology.
The interest increasing, this quizzing youngster, taking the world
to be " a grand humbug," proposed to his coadjutors, that, the pending evening, he would " explode the whole thing;" and the programme was mapped out accordingly.  He was to go on to the
stand, the boys backing him, and feign magnetic sleep for a while,
and then betray the professor.
When all was ready, he stepped to the platform with an air of
resolution, and, facing the vast crowd, gave the boys the wink. The
professor scanned him a moment, and ordered him  off, stating that
he wanted to experiment with his old subjects, whom he required to
be immediately seatted. Young Dunn gave the wink, so well understood, and took a seat with the rest.  The professor ignored him
entirely.
"' Why not me, sir?"
"Because I have enough without you: leave the stand."
" Just as I expected: you dare not try me; you are a humbug, —
a humbug!" chimed in the youngster, glancing significantly towards
his chuckling companions in the secret.
" Perhaps not, sir; perhaps not! I'll try you: sit down here,
sir  "
That was what the young man wanted, negatively yielding. The
Dperator made a few passes, and ordered him to close his eyes, exclaiming, " You can't open them! "  The subject thought he would
just slyly peep out of one, and, making the effort, behold, they were
sealed!  He was then caused to hunt, fish, dance, &c. Soon he




"THY SINS ARE FORGIVEN THEEI"                     65
began to lose consciousness, indicating psychological phases entirely
outside the programme.  Using all his will-force, Mr. Stearns
shouted, "All right! "  No response. Another influence held the
boy! What did it mean? " All right! " came the command again,
but no obedience. In a moment, he was in a fit, -a species of
trance peculiar to disorderly mediumship. The people were excited.
Soon his hand moved, as if writing, when Mrs. A. A. Whitney,
comprehending the secret, came to the stand, and said, " The spirit
wants to write." Making a few passes, to induce a more harmonious
action, she gave him paper on which he wrote, bottom-side up, a
dashing sentence. Several hinted, "That is all gibberish! " Others,
"An unknown tongue!" Reversing the paper, Mr. Peebles deciphered
this, -
"I was killed on the Great Western Railroadnear Hamilton, C.W., two hours ago.
I have a wife and two children in Buffalo.
"JOHN MORGAN."
On the following morning, the papers brought the news of the
accident: two days later came confirming intelligence; and among
the names of persons killed was that of the very man who, the
evening before, made himself known as a spirit.
Ere the influence left the medium, a spirit beckoned Mr. Peebles
to come forward again; for there was something important to communicate. Obeying the summons, the invisible intelligence ith much
earnestness said through the lips of the medium," We want you to invite this young man into your study to-morrow, when we will
entrance him; and the object shall be made known to you."
When returned to external consciousness, Mr. Peebles took him
cordially by the hand, and spoke kindly; run his fingers through his
short hair, cut in pugilistic style, and, with soothing words, such as a
kind friend only can utter, added, "You have a good head; you
can make a man of yourself," and pressed his hand again with the
warmth of a brother's sympathy. Such tenderness was new to his
ear; and strange was the quivering in his soul. Mr. Peebles publicly
asked him to call at his house the next day. That was a sleepless
night to this initiated medium: a spirit was trying to touch the
tremulous chords of his heart, heretofore so cold and dead.
On the morrow, finding he did not appear at the appointed hour,
5




66                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Mr. Peebles, impressed  by a spirit-intelligence, sought him  in the
shop where he was working, and, not upbraiding him, asked why
he did not come, his eyes at the same time filling with tears. The
young man was embarrassed, and stammered out a half-conscious
excuse about work.  Taking a walk with  him, Mr. Peebles, asking
no questions about his antecedents, portrayed the beauty and joy of
an educated and upright life, with the persuasion of that confidence
which an angel feels in a mortal's latent goodness.
A few days after this, the young man, attiring himself as best he
could with  his thin, coarse garments, knocked at the door of the
man he almost dreaded to see.   Mr. Peebles was cordial, giving
the bewildered medium a little self-reliance. As he passed the pictures and library in his " study," his emotions were so odd, for it
was indeed a new world to him.  When sufficiently composed, he entered  the trance-state with  perfect facility, under Mr. Peebles's
magnetism.
"So gaze met gaze,
And heart saw'heart, translucent through the rays, -
One same harmonious, universal law,
Atom to atom, star to star, can draw:
And mind to mind swift darts, as from the sun,
The strong attraction and the charm is done."
A  spirit then addressed Mr. Peebles as follows:
"I am a stranger to you, but not you to me. My name is Aaron Nite. My birthplace is Yorkshire, England. I departed this life when nineteen, and have been in the
spirit-world about one hundred and seventy years. No fame attached itself to my
career; but my ancestors were in high repute. My brother, Rev. James Knight, was a
distinguished clergyman of the English Church. Some time hereafter, I will tell you of
my beautiful surroundings, -of the River Ouse, St. Mary's Abbey, York Minster, the old
rocks, lawns, and hunting-grounds.
" We have at last brought about this meeting of yourself and medium. Organically,
he is mediumistic. His tricks and athletic exercises were aided by spirits on his plane.
Through the psychological power of Prof. Stearns, he was thrown into our sphere; and
we have now a partial control. He is susceptible of great improvement. We place him
in your care. Be a father and elder brother to him on the earthly side; educate him;
lift him up: he willtstand by you in old age; and many blessings will return to you."
After this, a beloved sister of the medium, who departed when he was
an infant, took possession of him, manifesting the tenderest joy, and
with whispered words, set to poetry, so soft and melting, pleaded with
Mr. Peebles to be a faithful guardian to her-" dear brother." Such per



"THY SINS ARE FORGIVEN THEE!"                           67
suasion! such tearful pity! such solicitude and faith! coming from
heaven as the summer sun to wintry hopes! Then and there, in the
presence of those ministering spirits, Mr. Peebles solemnly pledged
himself to be to the young man a friend, a brother, a father, under all
circumstances, confident, as they averred, that he had the ingermed
elements of a superior mediumship and manhood.
Soon after this happy interview, Mr. Peebles's moral fortitude was
put to a test. Obsessing influences, generated by evil habits, absorbed the medium's very life-blood.  He was reckless.  Many a
time did this "spiritual father" sigh and weep over those unfulfilled promises; till, at length, he entered serious complaints against
the spirits having the medium  in charge, declaring, that, " were I a
spirit, I would compel this young man to desist from such practices!"
Then, in one of those deep trances, Mr. Peebles would get a lecture
that always made him  ashamed of his own littleness and want of
charity and of faith in God.  Those wise, calm  angels would say to,
him, -
"Remember, Friend Peebles, how much better have been your associations in life
than those of this young man. Had your lot been cast in the same channel as his, over
which you could have had no control, consider what might now be your character. He
has his failings in one direction, and you yours in another direction. Who shall judge
between you, as to moral worth? Measure his early advantages: measure yours. Are
your garments all clean aid white? Were your eyes open, you would discover as great
distinction between an angel's robe and yours, as between yours and the medium's.
Though you should sink into pollution, we will never forsake you. If you would have
an angel lead you, be an angel to this young man."
Such lectures, so beautifully variegated, melted the proud man to a
meditative silence, awakening the holier emotions of the soul; when
he would rise from such communion a wiser and better man.
When conscious of being in the wrong, that his complaints were
self-righteous, that he had caused distress by hasty remarks, his sorrow was deep; and no peace could he find, till his arms were-around
the neck of his boy, in mutual, tearful forgiveness.
One night, being at Hastings, Mich., in the beautiful home of Dr.
Russell, the medium became clairvoyant.  Far in the distance, he
saw a star of intense brilliancy, magnifying and approaching him.
When nearer, it widened out in theform of a cross with golden and
silvery colors, held in the hands of an Italian spirit, who gave his
name as Perasee Lendanta, and threw a magnetic, flowering wreath
around their necks, saying, —




68                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" In this, we emblemize the soul-sympathy uniting spiritual father and son in a life.
long fellowship. Walk hand in hand, thus encircled, and nothing shall separate you."
When a mortal, or immortal, is quickened for a higher life, the consciousness of defect is most painful. The holiest angels have a soulagony inexpressible, when they discover in their affections the least
stain; and rest not till it is bleached out by reform.  Light only reveals darkness.  So with  our "chosen vessel."   Heavenly inspirations burned down into his soul, awakening a moral torture, followed
by weeping.
" O Mr. Peebles! " he would say, " I am a poor, miserable devil,
not fit to be associated with you: your loftiness of character shames
me."  Then a warm  hand grasped his, and another rested in benediction upon his head, with words so  like the man, "No, my Charlie, not a devil: you are my brother.  Your tears are tests of virtue
and capacity."
"There are poems unwritten, and songs unsung,
Sweeter than any that ever were heard,Poems that wait for an angel tongue,
Songs that but long for a paradise birl.
Poems that ripple through lowliest lives,
Poems unnoted, and hidden away
Down in souls, where the beautiful thrives
Sweetly as flowers in the airs of May.
Poems that only the angels above us,
Looking down deep in our hearts may behold;
Felt, though unseen, by the beings who love us,
Written on lives all in letters of gold."
The following private letter to young Dunn, written  about this
period of his spiritual growth, is an index of paternal care and affection, breathing sentiments most encouraging to us all:" My dear Brother, - For some reason, unknown to myself, I feel inspired to write you
this morning. Nothing else can I think of. This thought comes to my mind: the certainty
of success if coupled with effort, and directed by wisdom. YoT or I may choose any honorable calling in life, and we are certain of success, though that success may be reached
only through poverty and thorny paths. Rogers, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, reached their
success through a martyr's fire; Jesus, through the tears-of YGethsemane to the crown
of thorns; Howard, and Payne, the author of the song,'Home, sweet Home,' through
persecution and poverty. Often what we, in our childishness, call success, is defeat.
Ease, wealth, luxury, praise, flattery, are all ggaide-boards on'the road of defeat, and




"THY SINS ARE FORGIVEN THEE!"                                69
sometimes disgrace added thereto. Were there no ocean-storms, there would be no skillful sailors. One of the grandest truths Jesus uttered to his discouraged disciples is this:'He that would lose his life shall save it.' You may have often asked yourself:' Shall I
succeed?' If you do not, with your exalted spirit-circle, the fault will be entirely your
own. No power in the universe can put me down but myself. Enemies can never defeat us. They often benefit us, by holding up our faults to public gaze: thus seeing
them, they disgust us; and we forsake the wrong. The worst real enemies we have are
within our own non-unfolded natures. Hence, he that conquers himself is greater in the
eyes of angels than he who conquers cities, or wears kingly crowns. Accordingly, what
are frequently termed defeats are eternal victories, and are so registered in heaven.
Saplings would like to be oaks, without the pressure of wintry winds or snows. I have
wished to stand on John's plane, without treading the rugged road of study, effort, and
self-sacrifice that have made him an angel; but how childish the wish! Your dear angel.
guide, you know: in me, too, you will ever find a brother's hand, a brother's heart, and a
brother's love, joying in your joys, and weeping in your tears. Added to these, my
soul's desire is, that you may ever have the approbation of your own conscience in every
thought, plan, deed, act.
"Yes, Charlie, you will certainly succeed in every worthy undertaking of life. Every
good deed done, every virtuous and beautiful seed sown, will surely germinate and
ripen. I shall succeed, even though I walk through peril, poverty, and persecution.
Then let us take heart, and be happy.' We walk the wilderness to-day; the promised
land to-morrow.'            "Good-morning, brother,
"J. M. PEEBLES."
When it was generally known that Mr. Peebles had chosen young
Dunn for his traveling companion in the ministry, there was a great
cry against him  in fashionable circles: "Your master eateth with
publicans and sinners!"   The Orthodox spoke of it very eloquently,
trying to weep big tears, but failed, saying, -
" What a shame! - Well, he's a Spiritualist! the legitimate fruits
of his teachings,   scapegoats and harlots for company!"
Even some of his own friends, catching the contagion, apprehensive  that Spiritualism  might  re-act into  disgrace, warned  and
entreated him, " not to make so much of that medium."  His prompt
reply was, 
" I am pledged to stand by him  till death; and all the powers in
earth and hell can not sever this sympathy."
How  beautiful is justice!  This pupil began a new  life.   His
angel-guides, so prudent, warned him, mortified him, baffled him in
his impolitic schemes, strengthened  him  by adversities, through a
bitter experience led him  higher.  Under the fostering  care of his
" elder broth        wther," with spirit-light burning in his heart, he girded
himself, redeeming  and redeemed from  dissipation, to be a swift
herald of the angels' gospel; then apprehension became admiration;
and Mr. Peebles at last was honored for his long-suffering charity,




70                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
which " thinketh no evil," and " endureth all things." Those faith.
ful spirits say so feelingly to Mr. Peebles, " The crowning act of your
life is the redemption of this young man."
" The shaken tree grows faster at the root;
And love grows firmer for some blasts of doubt."
For many weary years, Mr. Peebles had been sickly, and was
pronounced by the physicians as of short life. One of his lungs
nearly wasted away, leaving a large cavity in his chest to this day.
He spat blood quite profusely at times. Consumption set her red
signet upon him. But, when those healing spirits reached him, they
turned his dial back more than ten degrees, and promised him " a
long and trying pilgrimage."
A few years prior to this event, the spirit of the veritable Powhattan, of the early history of Virginia, visited Mr. Peebles, through
the mediumship of a lady in Albion, Mich., and thereby kept him
posted in the Indian wars, four or five weeks ere the news appeared
in the journals. In due time, he promised to find another medium.
One evening, he suddenly rang the war-whoop through young Dunn,
identifying his name and history, saying, -
" Me promise you medic: me come now!"
Powhattan is always full of life, wit, and frolic; delights to picture
the spirit hunting-grounds; warms into fervid eloquence, when
speaking of the Indian's forgiveness for the wrongs of the whites.
Such fun, "big talk," and " shaking up" magnetically, were verily
a balm of Gilead to Mr. Peebles.  Dr. Willis, formerly an eminent
physician of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Dr. Schwailbach of Germany,
celebrated in his time, are also in this healing circle; and, through
their art, his lungs were comparatively restored, and his whole
system renovated into electric action.
The medium had been accustomed to fits even before Prof. Stearns
psychologized him: these Powhattan effectually cured.  Whenever
either of them was sick or exhausted, this Indian, duly commissioned
in the spirit-world for this purpose, was always ready to direct and
find the right remedies. By association with these medical spirits,
the medium was developed to be a successful healer; when they
honored him with the title of " Dr. E. C. Dunn," duly diplomatized
in. the medical schools of the spirit-world. Powhattan had control of
the medicine-bags, and used the doctor's right hand (in a trance.




"THY  SINS ARE FORGIVEN THEE!"                        71
state) to select the right kind of medicine, giving Mr. Peebles
directions in preparing it for the patient.  The woods, fields, and
gardens were their laboratories.
" The silent ministers of healing crowd
About the broken heart and spirit bowed,
To stay the bleeding with immortal balm,
And still the cries with wings of blessed calm;
Out of the old death make the new life spring,
Our earthly, buried hopes take homeward wing;
And, to each blinding tear that dimmed our sight,
They give a starrier self,- a spirit of light."
Powhattan named Mr. Peebles " Preach."  One night he was
quite ill; when this Indian, always on the alert, ordered medicine.
"Take times (three fingers), once great dark " (midnight).
Mr. Peebles objected, stating he could not wake at that hour.
" Me risk," was the reply: " me wake you," ordering him to put
his watch on the table.
Just at midnight broke forth a voice, " Preach I Preach I I up get:
time by the tick thing."
Rousing, he at first thought he had been dreaming; when it spoke
again in his wakeful consciousness, 
"     Up get, Preach! tick thing, time up.  Preach  "
Taking the medicine in hand, he drank a toast to the faithful spirit,
and in a moment was locked in
" Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep."
During the healing and lecturing  peregrinations, the uniform
custom was, after retiring, to entrance the medium.  "Be not disturbed," said the spirits: " we know our own business." Perfectly
entranced, an invisible silver chord flickering over the silent body,
Mr. Peebles holding the pulseless hand, deeply anxious lest death
might rob its tenant, the spirits, taking the medium to lower planes,
would teach him lessons of warning, and thence higher, into medical
temples, instruct him in the laws of spiritual science and better
modes of healing.
The true spiritual teacher is a physician of souls. The leaf is
nourished by the root; so is the spirit-world by our healthful conditions.  The body is the crystal of spirit.  Heal at the life-springs.
Bring the balm of an angel's love. This healing band, in cases of




72                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
obsession, scattered the dark influences, regenerated the self-abandoned, brought wandering spirits into light.  Being at Port Huron,
Mich., *ir. Peebles was introduced to Dr. Hawkins, healing spirit
for Dr. S. D. Pace, a successful physician, who purposely per.
mitted several suicides to control him, that Mr. Peebles might address
them  from  the earthly side to which they gravitated.  With words
of hope, tenderly he alluded to their early days under the paternal
roof, to the moral uses of temptation resisted, closing with these
words, "If you would be angels, you must seek to make others
angels."  They listened; and how haliowed was their joy!
The curative agencies for obsession are thus happily delineated by
Mr. Peebles in one of his late pen-productions, -
"Kindness and firmness, aspiration and self-reliance, pleasant physical, social, and
mental surroundings, with gentle harmonizing magnetic influences from circles of
exalted spirits, through noble, pure-minded media, - these are the remedies. Speak to
the obsessing intelligences as men, brothers, sisters, friends; reason with them as members of a common Father's family; and at the same time, demagnetizing the subject,
bring a healthier, purer magnetism, and calmer, higher, and more elevating influences
to the patient's relief. This was Jesus' method: it should be ours."
Powhattan, once a fierce warrior, was converted to peace principles in the spirit-world.  He was at first very shy of the whites,
retaining a strong antipathy for many years. Occasionally, William
Penn, with his benignant face, with form so beautiful, crossed his
path on those "hunting-grounds;" but his selfish resolution not to
speak to him  was at length conquered by so much- sweetness of
sphere.  Penn all this while was seeking to reach his heart, "so
incased in the vestment of blood." Powhattan listened to his words,
felt their love, was softened and converted; since which time, he has
ever endeavored to inspire Indians with love of peace among themselves and the whites.  Every 4th of July, the day when first he
revealed himself to Mr. Peebles, he wished to celebrate the advent of
universal peace with him  and his medium, and such other spirits
and earthly friends as chose to be there. They used to assemble in
the woods, engage in solemn worship; Powhattan addressing the' red brethren " in the Indian dialect, and Mr. Peebles the " pale
faces" in English. The first celebration of the kind was held near
Leonidas, Mich.; where about forty citizens commingled their orisons
with those of a host of Indians gathered from  the spirit country in
peace council.  These were memorable anniversaries, ever fraught
with subdued inspiration, bringing the sympathizing whites nearer
the brotherly heart of the lone Indian.




CHAPTER VIII.
EL DORADO.
" Weary souls
By thee have been led up unto the fountains
Whence the deep tide of living waters flow,
And into that fair light of heavenly truth
Which like a blessed rainbow spans the future,
And bridges all the dark abyss of death." - FANNY GREEN.
NEARLY four years of toil in Battle Creek, each widening in influence, when the spirits advised a change of climate, to recuperate
his wasted health.  "Whither?" was the question.  "California,"
was the response.  That land had long haunted him.  "Go I must,"
was his resolute talk.
Upon the temporary suspension of his pastoral relations with the
" Free Church," resolutions were passed, speaking  of him  as " a
true teacher," having "purity of life and honesty of purpose;"
and prayers were breathed upon him  amid tears that welled up from
many hearts.
"The Jeffersonian," a secular paper of Battle Creek, thus noticed his
departure: 
" While we part with him, it is our desire to say, that few better persons are found in
this mundane sphere than Mr. Peebles and his amiable lady; for we know that this resolution on their part will effect a vacancy in our midst quite hard to be filled."
During his absence, his desk was supplied by such personages as
Warren  Chase, Benj. Todd, Bell Scougal, F. L. Wadsworth, of
whose labors he spoke with grateful credit.
Amid farewells and waving of handkerchiefs, he embarked for
California, on New Year's, 1860, in steamer " Ariel."
Ocean and island scenery invigorated him. When sea-sick, the angels visited him. He said in a letter to " Clark's Spiritual Clarion,"73




74                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" Whilst suffering from sea-sickness, I felt my spirit-friends continually around me;
and how delightful the delicate touches of their fingers upon my forehead; their impressions-how calming!
Crossing the isthmus of Panama, ideally reveling amid those groves of lemons
cocoas, and pqlms, I coasted the Pacific, recalling the words of Shelley, -
"'My soul is an enchanted boat,
Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float
Upon the silver waves of'thy sweet singing;
And thine doth like an angel sit
Beside the helm, conducting it.'
At San Francisco, he made himself known to Rev. A. C. Edmunds, editor of " The Star of the Pacific" (Universalist), who represented  him  as a " Universalist-Unitarian-Spiritualist,"  with encomiums as follows: -
" Mr. J. M. Peebles, of Battle Creek, Mich., arrived in San Francisco on the 25th ult.
(March, 1861), and is now temporarily tarrying in Sacramento. We bid him welcome to
California. He comes among us, not as the bearer of parchments from ecclesiastical
associations, but as one divinely commissioned by the Father to speak the truth according to the measure of his understanding, imparted by the Spirit and the inspiration
which the Fountain of Good has given to every man. We admire the platform of
Brother Peebles, believing that every man should think and act for himself.
"Bound to no party, to no sect confined,
The world our home, our brethren all mankind:
Love truth, do good, be just and fair with all;
Exalt the right, though every ism fall."
Among the friends that greeted him, there were Judge Robinson,
Senator E. H. Burton, V. B. Post and family; Fanny Green; the
poetess, who addressed him burning words of encouragerlent in his
reforms; and T. Starr King, the patriot and spiritualistic Unitarian, received him with heart warm as the baptism of that tropical
clime.
Mr. Peebles wrote several valuable articles for " The Star of the
Pacific," in which he gave spiritual interpretation to biblical lore, for
the benefit of the Universalist community, with a view of converting some to "a knowledge of the truth; " and was also a correspondent of A. J. Davis's " Herald of Progress," in which he reported his
spiritual experiences in California. Seeing the favorable notices in
" The Star," the Universalist papers of the Atlantic States reported
him  " as preaching Universalism  in California! "   " The Chicago
New Covenant" (D. P. Livermore) noticed him thus  -




EL DORADO.                                    75
"Rev. J. M. Peebles, of Battle Creek, Mich., formerly of our communion, and now
advocating a phase of Spiritualism that in no way conflicts with Universalism, is to
leave for California in November or December. He will probably locate at Sacramento.
His first object is health: that restored, he will resume preaching."
"The Universalist Companion," a statistical pamphlet, said, -
"The Rev. J. M. Peebles was preaching Universalist sentiments in San Francisco, by
last advices."
This  insult, " by last advices," Mr. Peebles reviewed in a letter
to " The Ambassador."
"Advices and reports are unreliable just in the ratio of individual negligence and
depravity. The millennium will be near when advices are correct, and men report what
they positively know.... The phrase,'preaching Universalist sentiments' is correct,
allowing the Protestant's privilege of private judgment and free expression. So do Unitarians proclaim' Universalist sentiments;' so do most of the Swedenborgian clergy; so
do lecturers upon the Harmonial Philosophy; so do all spiritualistic mediums, whether
normal or abnormal; so does Henry Ward Beecher, when in his highest and happiest
pulpit moments: and what of it? Simply this: It demonstrates the moral growth of the
race, and a general tendency of the thinking masses to embrace broader theological
views, touching the attributes of God, the administration of the divine government, the
soul's educational capacity, and the final destination of humanity; and certainly no
enlightened Christian gentleman, especially of the liberal school, would forbid the casting out of devils; i.e., the evils and errors of old sectarian theology, though under
other names than the one he may have seen fit to adopt."
Seeing favorable notices in Universalist papers, certain  Spiritualists alleged he had renounced Spiritualism; and  he drew  the sword
also on such.  Writing " The Herald of Progress," he said, —
" Supposing I had, the sun would shine, the stars glisten, the world move, - truth
would be truth, and bigots bigoted. No! I have not renounced Spiritualism, Universalism, Unitarianism, Quakerism, or rather the truths that underlie them: for each symbolizes a central truth; and all truths manifest the harmonic law of unity. Octave notes
do not jar; nor does unripe fruit contradict the mellowed fruitage of autumn. There
are a few one-idea, one-sided' Spiritualists,' who can perceive no truth in the universe,
unless christened Spiritualism; and they seem to think themselves heaven-appointed
watchmen, to gruffly growl around, and guard their imperfectly-conceived notion of
that' ism.' It becomes a' hobby;' and they ride the poor thing hoofless. I would as soon
accept the teachings of Pius IX., or sectarian churchdom, as authoritative, as communications from  spirits.... Every thinker, given to meditation, will discriminate
between use and abuse. To affirm there have been no abuses, no' froth nor scum,' under
the name of Spiritualism, manifests not only a most deplorable ignorance and imbecility, but the very quintessence of impudence.... I am indebted to spirit intercourse
for my knowledge - I say knowledge - of immortality, the location of the spirit-world,
the condition of the immortalized, the occupation of the loved gone before, and their
progressing toward the infinite. Those love-messages that have greeted me from the
thither side of death's peaceful river, I cherish above all price, and shall till I reach the




76                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
sunny shore of that'island home.' Still, I can be the exponent of no ism, to the exclusion of other and all great reforms that begin to glow upon the brow of this illustrious age."
Nor was Mr. Peebles exempt from the missiles of slander in California.  En'vy follows the brave.  Those of shaky reputations are
anxious to pull others down to their own level. " That red-mouthed
Irishman,"  as Capt. Soule of Sacramento  termed  him, who peddled the story, was forced to sign a paper, certifying he had libeled
Mr. Peebles.  Since returning to the States, Mr. Peebles has regretted that he did not compel two or three pseudo-Spiritualists to do
the same.  Every attempt of this kind to put him  down has re-acted
upon the guilty parties. Virtue needs never be disturbed. Slander is
its own  advertisement.   Henry Ward  Beecher says,'"He who
stops to kick at a barking cur delays his own progress."
Those times, California was Hades descended.  People  found
themselves there.  The " New-England Puritan churchite" donned
his " Mokanna veil." That tropical-clime quickened the animal instincts, chilled by Northern conventionalities, as burning sands do
crocodiles' eggs.  But what of our brother there?  The same reformer.  Commissioned a district deputy of the Good Templars, he
stormed. the strongholds of Bacchus.  The " Dashaways " felt the
force of his arrows.  He  culled truths and beauties from  caves,
mines, mountains, extinct volcanoes, mammoth trees, waterfalls, thermal springs, &c. Traveling in coaches, steamers, and on mules' backs,
among representatives from all human races, he lectured all up and
down those mountain fastnesses; and his trumpet voice seems to be
re-echoing in San Francisco, Sacramento, Petaluma, Santa Rosa,
Sonora, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Stockton, Montezuma, Jacksonville,
Columbia, Auburn, Eldorado, Clarksville, Folsom, and other cities,
villages, and mining districts.  Speaking of his strange experiences
there, he writes, —
"I have slept under the nightly sky, and the roofs of almost palatial mansions; have
collected specimens for a choice cabinet; have descended into mining-shafts; visited vineyards, one, Col. Haraszthy's, containing five hundred acres, with three hundred and fifty thousand vines; and roamed amid the ruins of old adobe cathedrals, erected by the
Spaniards long prior to the gold discoveries. I have met scores of noble souls; in brief,
have been blamed and blessed, occasionally'damned,' and quite often enough deified.
Such is pilgrim life. Lights and shadows are indispensable to pictures. Our enemies
work by inverse methods, to benefit us. Joseph's brethren, meaning evil, made him a
hero. Perfection precludes progression; and yet we ever meet self-voted saints, who, in




EL DORADO.                                    77
their'imputed righteousness' and excessive piety, are apt, as Artemas Ward says, to'slop over.' To wit, a Tuolumne County editor, in October last, complimented me thus
highly:-' A long-bearded, cracked-brained fellow, calling himself Peebles, has been edifying
our citizens upon the new-fangled philosophy, that men sprang from trilobites and tadpoles; that ghosts range the earth, muttering through mediums; and that, the salvation
of the soul comes by lifting one's self upwards, regardless of the grace of God, the blood
of the Lord Jesus, and church ordinances.... Such doctrines can only demoralize.
Has not Stockton Lunatic Asylum recently lost an inmate?'"
Being invited to lecture near the foot-hills of the Nevadas, - the
mining town about ten miles distant, -he adjusted his carpet-sack,
nomadic style, and, mounting a mule, off he rode in such dignity! his
feet dangling nearly to the ground, his long hair streaming out behind in wizard confusion; and his whole appearance so provokingly
ludicrous, the miners shouted after him, " There goes old Pilgrim's
Progress!   old Pilgrim's Progress on a donkey! "
A  few  extracts from  private letters to confiding friends are the
openings of an El Dorado in his very soul: —
" SACRAMENTO, July 25, 1861....  On the 4th of July, I delivered an oration in Yolo City, and made the Secessionists quite angry. Yet I do not justify the war. I am opposed to all war. It brutalizes men and nations, and places a low estimate on human life; arouses a degrading martial spirit in our children; inspires our youth to employ fire-arms; creates standing
armies; increases taxation; rushes thousands prematurely into the spirit-world, to say
nothing of the widows' groans and orphans' tears.... All bloody wars are wrong; only
dogs and animal men delight in blood, battle, and death. The devil can not cast out
devils."
"COLUMBIA, CAL., NOV. 12, 1861.... "My California life is strange. Hundreds of miles among the mountain ranges
have I wended my way on a Spanish horse, dispensing words of truth to the mountaineers, sometimes not paid one cent, and then again fairly remunerated. In Sonora,
they called me the'Prince of Fools.' So goes the world with the reformer... Only a
few weeks since, I talked with a learned Chinaman upon theology and the sacred books
of the Chinese. His name is Le Can. He made me ashamed of our boasted American
civilization and religion, when we claim, as we have, that it is so superior to the ancients. I feel that I must travel in Oriental lands, to learn the rudiments of Spiritualism."
" CLARKSVILLE, CAL., Dec. 17, 1861.
"My Brother, A. Smith: Thyvery welcome epistle of September reached me after
five weeks. It was thankfully received, and perused with a greedy gusto; for a friendly
letter from afriend and brother is ever a wellspring of pleasure to my soul. Nellie's
was also excellent, bearing the marks of inspiration, both celestial and terrestrial. My
good letters I tie up in a package with a ribbon, now soiled with frequent handlings; and,
during these long evenings, I untie and re-peruse them, and, for the time, live with lovea
ones far away: and my affectionate nature, tuned sensitively as the wind-lute, alter.




78                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
nately weeps or smiles. Human hearts are little known. Only the Infinite can sound
their deeps of bitterness, count their pain-throbs, plumb their wells of agony. Man is a
strange entity.  He only partially comprehends himself and his surroundings. Had
you looked hither the 9th of December, three o'clock, P.M., you would have seen me
in the city of Sacramento, numbering sixteen or eighteen thousand, upon a housetop,
with the water rapidly approaching the edges of the shingles. There were twenty-two
persons in the upper chamber. The whole city was flooded, the water ranging from
four to twelve feet deep, caused by a three-days' rain and the bursting away of milldams, embankments, levees, &c. A million and a half of property and some lives were
lost. My trunk, with contents, was submerged two days. I lost all my books and nearly
all of my manuscripts, lectures, &c., with a part of my clothes. But I have my head
left me, and good health; so it will all end well. It made me a little sad for a few days.
Oh, the charms of home and loved friends! A ranger in foreign lands appreciates
such. Well said the poet, -
Take the bright shell from its home on the lea,
And, wherever it goes, it will sing of the sea:
So take the fond heart from its home and its hearth,'Twill sing of the loved to the ends of the earth.'
" I feel that my mission to this country has not been in vain.
"I know that I have made some souls glad.... Poor Mrs. Munson (the trance-speaker
here), how much she suffered from slanderous tongues! She has since married Dr.
Webber, and retired. Sorrowingly the poet sings, -
Many a friendship has been broken,
Many a family's peace o'erthrown,
Many a bitter word been spoken,
By the slander-loving tongue.'"
Already the angels had taken to their heavenly nurseries the three
undeveloped buds of our pilgrim, too frail to blossom on earthly
soil. In that home at Battle Creek was weeping over broken links,
as if tears might possibly weld them; but when the angels, returning,
told the disappointed parents about the matronly spirits nursing and
educating their children, -that from the sacred moment of incarnation, when generative principles blend, a child is immortal,-a sweeter
sunlight dusted all the soul's dark drapery with living gold. But
what is home without an earthly  angel in  it?  They thought an
adopted child might live.  "Louie," as he was tenderly called, was
the precious gift of Rev. J. R. Sage, a dearly-beloved Universalist minister. Whilst recuperating in California, news came that this boy
had suddenly passed to the spirit-world.  It struck a tremor through
his whole being, giving it a silent polarity heavenward. For the
moment, he complained.
" Oh, I loved Louie! " said he.




EL DORADO.                                  79
" So did we," was the reply of the angel.
" But he was necessary to my happiness."
" So he was to others."          *
" I had superior claims."
" You think so, brother?  Where is your philosophy in the superiority of the spiritual over the material? "
" I could have made him  spiritual here."
" Suppose it be proved that Louie's departure is a mutual and
eternal blessing?"
"But I loved him from  my soul's depths."
"No doubt you did: the angels, however,loving him  better, transplanted him  into their heavenly gardens.
The angels have need of these youthful buds
In their gardens so fair:
They graft them on immortal stems,
To bloom for ever there.  "
" Well,;I go mourning over the world, now that Louie is gone."
" Go mourning, O  philosopher! to  render him  and you  more
unhappy?  Somany beautiful buds, flowering out on  the immortal
shore to prepare a paradise for you?   So unhappy over it, child?"
This spiritual interview calmed him to a star-like silence, sweet as
the night-rest. Hear what he says in letters to friends, and note how
the angel rules the human at the saddest of losses:"SACRAMENTO, CAL., March, 1861.
" Dear Mrs. Brown,... I am sad; oh, so sad and tearful, to-night, Frances! None,
however, see my tears. There may be something of pride in this; but I long ago resolved that no shadow upon my face should ever filch the sunshine from others. Why
sad, do you ask? Aye, last week's mail brought the tidings of the severe sickness and
departure to the better land of our darling Louis, - a precious bud, transplanted to
bloom in the garden of God, Oh, how I pity my poor wife! Lonely must she be without the echoes of his dancing feet, and the lyric cadence of his voice. He was a promising, a beautiful child of hardly ten summers, and the very idol of our hearts.
" This deep affliction will weigh heavily upon my wife. I shall hasten home on her
account. Home! how many sweet associations cluster around the endearing word!
Put me in my library-room, and I'm happy; and yet, dearly as I love books, family,
home, and home-comforts, a divine voice is ever saying to me,' Go forth,- go among all
nations; preaching the ministry of spirits, and the principles of the Spiritual Philosophy...
" Though gifted in intellect, Frances, you are equally sympathetic, and will readily
understand the sorrow that will come over me like a cloud upon crossing my threshold
in Battle Creek, - my wife glad to welcome me, gratified with my improved health, but
mourning for Louis. It is all well. He has gone to join and become a companion of our




80                     THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
own three dear little ones, who left the mortal ere earth's ills had tinged the gossamer of
their spirit-garments with a single stain; Angels are their teachers; progress their eternal destiny. Oh, how blessed is Spiritualism i; all the trying scenes of life! Would I
had a thousand tongues to tell its glories and sing its praises! To its promulgation under
the inspiration of a circling band of spirits, I have consecrated my powers, dedicated my
life. So have you, and many, many, other noble souls.
" Deeply do I sympathize with reform-workers, lecturers, and media, negative and
sensitized from the heavens. Oftitimes their sorrows are many, their joys few. Beautiful are the crowns that await them in the glorious hereafter.
"Were it not for the feeble health of my wife, and sudden departure of Louis, I
should remain here at least a year, and do earnest missionary work in behalf of Spiritualism. I am stopping in an excellent family, Victor B. Post's; the spirits have named
them'Peace and Harmony.' These, with many other dear friends, entreat me to remain another year; but duty calls me home.
" I must tell you, by the way, that I have formed the acquaintance of Mrs. Eliza W.
Farnham; met her in the lunatic asylum, Stockton, California. She is the matron;
End her brilliant, solid intellect, boundless benevolence, and deep comprehension of principles, charmed me. During several evenings, she read from unpublished volumes she is
preparing, -read me select passages from Walt Whitman's'Leaves of Grass,' and
several European poets. She told me she delivered the first lecture upon Spiritualism
ever given in California. She spoke highly of you, Mary F. Davis, and others of her
sex laboring for woman and the great interests of reform. And, only think, - little,
anxious, jealous souls, hardly worthy to unloose her shoe-latches, have tried to traduce
this great, noble woman. Blessings upon her! I'm proud I ever clasped her hand, a
prelude to abiding friendship."
" PETOLUMA, CAL., Jan. 15,'62.
" Dear Charlie,- Accept my thanks for the love-message sent me from'Louie'
through you. Oh, the dear pet child, how I want to clasp him to my bosom upon my
return home! You know, Charlie, that I am enthusiastic in my love nature; loving
not only children, but music, flowers, and friends, almost to distraction.
"The news of Louie's leaving the earth-life almost overcame me at first. I was
not prepared for it; for I had just been to a mountain-village, by stage, to preach a
funeral sermon, and had gatherings in my ears, making me nearly sick: but I was sustained by two spirits, and made to feel that it was not only right, but' all for the best,'
as my dear brother Nite says. I have heard from him through J. V. Mansfield of Boston.
Accept my thanks for the promise that I shall hear from Louie often through you. It
will cheer me in my lonely pilgrimage along the Pacific coast."




CHAPTER IX.
THE CHAIN OF PEARLS AND SPIRIT BANDS.
" Have ye heard, have ye heard, of the angel of love,
Who, with glory of princess and grace of a dove,
Leaves her seraph abode in the sunsets of even,
Gathering pearls on earth for crowns in heaven,Have ye heard of this angel of love? "- SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" The mortal world may be divided, but the nobility of intellect of the spirit-world is
sne." - HUDSON TUTTLE.
MANY a spirit outside of Mr. Peebles's band had promised him
great things,- decking his pathway with prophetic flowers. The
intention may be as pure as a little child's, that brings us the roses
without the thorns; but it indicates that such ministration is unschooled in the moralizing rudiments of adversity, and unreliable. A
flattering spirit, so far from being a guide, should be guided.
About a year and six months in California, and Mr. Peebles returned  to Battle Creek, greatly recuperated, and was received with
hearty welcome.  Absence only strengthened the bonds of fellowship.
When he stepped upon the stand to renew his ministerial labors,
amid so many smiling faces, the choir sung two original songs, com.
posed by Mrs. D. M. Brown, reviewing the departure and return: --
"We would welcome thee, our brother, -
Welcome thee from o'er the sea;
From the perils and the trials
That we know attended thee.
And we come, we come, to greet thee,
Safe returned from distant lands;
Feeling thy inspiring presence
Binds us close in friendship's bands.
And we love, we love, to welcome,
Welcome thee from distant lands."
It was a thrilling moment.  The words and the music of "welcome" and " response" changed thought to heart; and heart was in
the hand of greeting to their dear pastor.
6                                         81




82                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
When once more put in direct communication with the spirits,
through his long-tried medium, he felt confident that the way would
open more propitiously. Thus far, he had battled for a certain attainment of spirituality, so often required by his heavenly guards.
Now  that his health had improved, he sanguinely asked them  if
the life-line would not be straighter, drawing him nearer a sunny experience.
"I have been to California," he added, "under your approval;
have done my work there; have a more practical appreciation of
human needs; have returned, as you see, quite vigorous and full of
faith, -what say you now? are not matters more promising? "
Perasee had mentally forecast the trial-scenes rising in view, and
showed them to his brother Nite, then speaker for the silent band:"No, friend Peebles," said Mr. Nite, "your pathway is begirt with thorns, and jagged
rocks will pierce your feet: your horoscope just before us is rough and stormy. We
throw around your neck a chain of pearls, - pearls which reflect your life, your plans,
thoughts, purposes, deeds. All things are dual. These spiritually reflect your outer
life, as your spiritual sensorium reflects your inner life. Symbolically, you are chained
by these beautiful pearls.
"A lady friend of yours, clad in robes of purity, known among us as,' Queen of
Morn,' and in your world as'Madame Elizabeth,' sister of Louis XVI. of France,
from this chain, which I put around your neck, has suspended a cross, indicative of
trials and crucifixions in your pilgrimage. But be of good cheer, you shall overcome,
and every sorrow will give fragrance to the bud that blossoms over your heart."
Not many months after, Madame d'Obeney, a celebrated traveler
and Spiritualist, met Mr. Peebles in the East, and surprised him
with a gift, significant of the pearls mentioned by the spirits, consisting of a string of beads, carved from the wood of an olive-tree
that grew on Mt. Olivet, in the very garden of Gethsemane, where
Jesus had his "strong crying and tears."  He then had a cross
made, after the pattern shown by the spirits, -  the front of it of
beautiful pearl, the back of pure gold, on which were engraved the
names of spirits in his band:LORENZO PEEBLES.                     HOSEA BALLOU.
CANA.                               I MOZART.
JAMES LEONARD.                       PERASEE LENDANTA.
MADAME ELIZABETH.                    AARON NITE.
JOHN W. LEONARD.
This circle of sympathizing spirits are not authority to him whom
they inspire.  Constitutionally skeptical, he can accept no authority
but the God of truth and wisdom, love and purity, manifest in himself.  "Judge ye of yourselves," said Jesus, " what is right."




THE CHAIN OF PEARLS AND SPIRIT BANDS.                83
Mr. Peebles wears the string of olive beads around his neck,
screened from the public eye, but the cross is exposed. Many an
iconoclast has jeered at his cross, taunting him with the sobriquet
of " Catholic," " Episcopal priest," " Your Christian Highness,"
and the like; and in one instance a jealous aspirant proposed to
send him  a string of Catholic beads. From all such Mr. Peebles
kept his own secret, conscious it is imprudent to " cast your pearls
before swine."  Those olive beads continually remind him  of the
spiritual chain of pearls which the spirits put around his neck, admonishing him as to his "life, thoughts, purposes, and deeds,"how tokeep these unstained.  Oh, the cross! the pearl of wisdom,
the gold of love! every name thereon engraved is associated with
trying and hallowed associations. It has ever been to him his Urim
and Thummim, - life light and shade. These he will wear to the end
of this rudimental pilgrimage, when, tendered to another worthy of
the trust, he will behold its counterpart,  the living pearls, the
"treasures laid up in heaven," —what spiritual beauties he has
unfolded amid earth's tears and self-denials.
Let the profane jeer at these symbols; the good and true will revere this sibylline oracle which only the pure in heart can interpret.
But whose the hand that wove the chain and twined it round his
neck? whose the voice that bade him be " hopeful, trustful, faithful? " whose the heart throbbing in those pearls?
When in New York, soon after this interview with spirits, Mr.
Peebles called on W. P. Anderson, spirit-artist, who drew  a likeness of Madame Elizabeth.  To his surprise, a chain, similar to the
one she had pictured to his mental vision, was around her neck.
The artist paints her in one of her aspirational moods, wearing upon
her beautiful brow a gemmed crown.
Soon after procuring the much-prized likeness, Mr. Peebles was
one day indifferently walking the streets of Boston, when, of a
sudden, he wheeled into an antiquarian library, having no thought of
being spiritually influenced, and was impressed to search for the
Bhagavat Geeta. Failing to find it, he turned to go out, and, in
passing, was drawn instinctively to  the'French  Department."
There he was whirled round with a shock, and caused to stoop down
and put his hand on a history of Louis XVI., in which was a likeness
of himself and his sister Elizabeth, resembling that of her in the
spirit-painting, —hair the same, chain of pearls around her neck,




84                 THE SPIRITUTAIT PILGRIM.
with a cross attached.  Dr. G. Haskell and others, being present,
saw  in a moment the correspondence between the two pictures.
This strengthened Mr. Peebles's faith in his guides, and made him
buoyant in spirit.  The question recurs, Whose the hand that led
him to that history? The same that twined the cross with the string
of pearls?
" Love reflects the things beloved."
Spiritually, our fathers and mothers, -  Who are they? who
our educators?  "Wiser than we know,"'by birthright we are represented in the high councils of immortals. Many-fold as nature is,
sphered in spheres derived from all planes of life, past and present,
we are constitutionally banded with spirits of other races and ages,
just as the webs of our being run.
"Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow for ever and for ever."
After Mr. Peebles became more conscious of angel-presence, he
began to inquire into the history and identity of spirit-bands and
their special work.
Through the trance-mediumship of Dr. A. P. Pierce of Boston,
by whom ancient spirits are writing histories and philosophies unknown in the libraries, he conversed with erudite spirits of millennian ages, and with Jehovah, the Lord of the Hebrews, identified
as an Egyptian priest, who instructed him in the ministries of angels
at that remote period.  At other times he talked with Brahman
seers, Egyptian hierophants, Chinese moralists, Persian fire-worshipers, Druidic priests, Platonic philosophers.  Associated with
these ancients, under their inspiration, he has for years been on a
pilgrimage to caves, ruins, geological relics, moss-grown records on
monuments' and obelisks, and antiquarian libraries.  From instinct
he is thus a student of Nature, ruins, and arts. Force of circumstances also molds his love to flow in such channels.  Organically
spiritualbattling with adversities, so often assailed, so disappointed
in a thousand expectations, he courts solitude, and finds in pensive
meditations a soul-joy.  In that beautiful story of " Paul and Virginia," over which we all used to weep when boys and girls, the
historian says, "All suffering creatures, from  a sort of common
instinct, fly for refuge amidst their pains to haunts the most wild and




THE CHAIN OF PEARLS, AND SPIRIT-BANDS.                85
desolate; as if rocks could form a rampart against social misfortune; as if the calm of Nature could hush the tumult of the soul."
Is there not also a " Virginia " for our Pilgrim? Surely some angel
leads him, a wanderer over the earth, a child-learner, dusted with
the undimmed truth-light that sparkles even under the debris of extinct civilization.  Dreamily he there studies, gathering up the
precious lore, bringing it forth into the living present, till it breathes
again, and thinks and loves. Thus his reading, up into the spiritworld, casts him into the cycles of the golden past, when lo, he says,' Immortality blossoms all around, and Eternity is Now / "
There are two intertwining bands associated with our Pilgrim's
sphere of life acting mainly through the mediumship of Dr. Dunn,
-one more physical, the other spiritual, corresponding with the
body and spirit. The first is hygienic, practical, perceptive; the
other interior, souled in. love, " God with us." Conspicuous in this
physico-spirit-band are, Aaron Nite the Speaker, Powhattan the
Magnetic Cleanser, Pawnee Chief the Assistant, and Drs. Schwailbach and Willis the Analyzers; all of whom  guard his forces of
body and brain with the strictest vigilance, infusing the very beds
and rooms he sleeps in, and the food he eats, with the aura of spiritpresence.
We must not forget'to mention Michael O'Brien,-a quaint, witty
Irishman, — who, years ago, disturbed Mr. Peebles by his slang
words and obtrusive designs, sometimes driven off when too boisterous, but afterwards tamed down by the voice of our brother's love
to educate himself.  Such gratitude as he shows towards his earthly
benefactor! His rollicking wit is most refreshing. He obeys Aaron
Nite with the trust of a child. Orderly, principled in integrity, the
discipline of this band is most excellent, ranging up, as flowers from
the root, into administrative affiliation with the more interior band.
These spirits have been identified repeatedly by different media.
Betsey Howard, whose funeral discourse Mr. Peebles preached in
California, once controlled J. V. Mansfield, in 1863, and clearly
manifested herself with gratitude for his favors. There appeared in
this band - having their names written in dazzling, electric light on
their foreheads - Henry Ware, jun., Ephraim Peabody, W. E. Channing, and Eliza W. Farnham, who addressed him in vigorous words,
with this closing admonition, " Oh, my brother, be true to the light
within you! Say the same to Bros. Davis, Mansfield, Harter, and
others; that they have for their purpose truth! "




86                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
The spirits whose names are engraved upon Mr. Peebles's cross of
gold and pearl are more intimately his " guardian angels."  Lorenzo
Peebles is a loving  brother; Hosea Ballon is the sermonizer;
Cani, the positivist; Aaron Nite, the elucidator; Madame Elizabeth, the love-angel; Miozart, the  musical harmonizer; Perasee
Lendanta, the scientist; John, the beloved, around whom the whole
band revolves as planets around their central sun.  This spirit, controlling John W. Leonard, a clergyman, of Edinburgh, Scotland,
whose identity has been traced in history, so signed himself for
years, lest the real, when given, might engender a pampering pride
in Mr. Peebles's mind.  He prefers to be impersonal.  We have no
permission thus to announce his name; but from  at sense of justice
we take the responsibility, the better to unveil the wonderful discipline of spirits.  " John" was first discovered through the mediumship of Mrs. W. P. Anderson.  Scores of other mediums said the
same; but Mr. Peebles doubted, until, by accumulating evidences
from myriad sources, the statement was confirmed, that this is none
other than John, the beloved disciple, who leaned on the bosom of
Jesus.
The characteristics of the leading spirits in this dual band are
plainly indicated by their sentiments, tinged more or less by the
mediumistic channel.  These were communicated in Rockford, Ill.
We take each communication from  the world of spirits for what
it is worth to us.  Reason is the voice of God in our soul, and no
truth is truth to us till born into our self-consciousness as such.
It will be seen from the following, that each spirit retains, to a
certain extent, the peculiarities of the earth-life.   The Indian is the
Indian still.  The poet is the-poet still.  The philosopher delights to
pursue his philosophic investigations; the astronomer, to measure
those stellar worlds which dot infinity, and sift their silvery beams
through unfathomless space. So the artful, scheming, sordid, and
malignant of earth are such upon the other shore, till, through remorse, repentance, restitution, and varied experiences, they progress to higher and holier conditions.
"Let love be the diadem upon thy brow,- a comfort and an inspiration to thy spirit
in earth-life, and a beacon-light to guide thee in the pearly paths of wisdom along the
infinite future." - JOHN.
"Prepare yourself to live, and in the noble work of preparation you become prepared to die." - AARON NITE.




THE CHAIN OF PEARLS, AND SPIRIT-BANDS.    87
"Earth's poetry is Heaven's prose: strive, therefore, to perfect thyself in earth's
poetry." — QUEEN OF MORN.
" Have confidence in the Father; for in thus doing you have confidence in humanity,
as they are but parts of the universal whole." - HOSEA BALLOU.
"Endeavor, brother, to chase the wolf of discord from thine own soul, as the musician would chase it to the remotest portion of the instrument." - MOZART.
"This life is but the horoscope of the future: try then and make the present as glad
and golden as the future you would like to see." - MORNING STAR.
" Let thy brain be a pool of knowledge, and desire the angel of wisdom to often
trouble it." - JAMES.
"Let the council-fires of peace burn brightly in thy breast; for the tomahawk is
ever buried with the warrior." - POWHATTAN.
"Master mind, and you've mastered the universe." - PERASEE LENDANTA.
"Let the chase for the wild deer be done, and the chase for wild thoughts and Nature's higher truths be begun." - PAWNEE CHIEF.
" Strive to make thyself a master-builder; and, ever baring thy breast to the sharp
point of truth, let each stone be a word of kindness, and the key-stone to the arch,
wisdom." - DR. WILLIS, the mason.
" Man is aspecies of flower that buds in earth, to bloom on spirit-shores; and as the
flower-bud is nurtured, so will the blossom testify." - MADAME THERESA.
" Wouldst thou study geology, physiology, astronomy, and the deeply hidden sciences of matter and mind, study the wonderful combinations of man."
SCHWAILBACH.
" Remember that the heaven of man is the harmony of his own soul: then prepare
thy heaven now, that thou mayest enjoy it the more in the grand hereafter."
THY BROTHER.
"As there is coin in the golden bar yet to be coined, so thou, living in the world, are
yet to be born; then prepare thyself for the higher birth and the mint immortal."
CANA.
Mr. Peebles is quite a critic with the spirits of his band, but yields
to them  as a  child for instruction.  He is not infected  with  the
" aching palm" to control the spirits, -  as our Halleck sarcastically
says, to -
" Check and chide
The aerial angels, as they float about us
With robes of a so-called wisdom, till they grow
The same tame slaves to custom and the world."




CHAPTER X.
"GONE TO  THE WARS."
" War is the concentration of all crimes." - CHANNIG.
" War is a denial of human brotherhood, and justice is in no respect promoted by it."
SENATOR SUMNER.
WHEN  in California, popular with  the  soldiers, a  regiment of
that State  voted  him  their chaplain.   On  visiting  them  at their
" Camp Donney," noticing  the machinery of battle, he courteously
declined, convicted in his own conscience that a commission of this
kind would make him an accomplice of bloodshed. Returning home,
he found the very air charged with war. Every thing centered here,
to crush the rebellion. Though a lover of his country, patriotic, the
idea of shedding a brother's blood shocked his love of peace.   Long
he pondered upon his duty, and came to the sober conclusion that he
must go, -a clerk under Capt. D. Y. Kilgore.  He wished to see life
in all its phases, and administer comfort to the sick, wounded, and
dying  soldiers.   The following  extracts from  his letters tell the
story of his experiences and moral impressions of war: —
"BRIDGEPORT, ALA., Dec. 7, 1863.
" I can only write to-night from the text,' And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in
torment!'... There are over twenty thousand soldiers encamped here now, all in cloth
tents. I am now writing in a tent, with the top of a valise for a writing-desk. The soldiers
are on half-rations. It is almost impossible to get food for so many. Destruction lines
the wagon-roads. The weather is warm and beautiful. Blue-birds sing in the morning.
How homesick I have been!... I went to work the next day after my arrival, copying
papers, drawing orders, issuing forage, &c., &c. It is perfectly earthly and worldly. I
look into no book; see no'Banner of Light,' nor' Herald,' nor Northern paper of any
description.... Soldiers and officers gamble and drink horridly.... I saw four
thousand of the rebels that Gen. Grant took in one squad, and talked with a number of
them. They looked dirty, ragged, and homesick. Poor brothers! How strange my
life-experiences! Poor prodigal I, from John's and Aaron's house, spiritually speaking. Say nothing to my wife about the hardships and exposures before me."
" NASHVILLE, TENN., Jan. 14, 1864.... "Oh,'tis sweet to be alone! Never did I so long for solitude. The eternal bustle of business, of jarrings, antagonisms, swearing, cheating, that so prevail, make me
sick in soul. My body is wearing away under the pressure. I feel it, know it. Either
I must leave, or my bones will whiten under an Alabama sun.... Tell Powhattan
to help his' Preach.'... Oh, the deceit and hypocrisy of certain spirits who promise
88




"GONE TO THE WARS."                                  89
officers great positions! They purport to be Washington, Jackson, Clay, controlling a
young medium here.  How intensely I love and appreciate Bro. Nite for his honesty!
He came to me, not a god, or a Franklin, or a Washington; but simply Aaron Nite, —
once a poor coach-driver in England. Now he is an angel, and I would gladly sit at his
feet for instruction.... Rebel soldiers, erring yet sincere, lie frozen to death on our
hands.  A poor woman was frozen, -is dead.  The dead carcasses of mules are lying
over the graves of our soldiers. Only those that have seen have any idea of this war."
"BRIDGEPORT, ALA., Jan. 21, 1864... "Last evening, about 9 o'clock, I returned from Chattanooga in a private car,
with Bishop Simpson, Gen. Howard, Gen. Cook, Col. Donaldson, and several chaplains... I went up the Tennessee River, in charge of some commissary stores, by order
of Capt. Kilgore. Capt. Jett, a Mississippian professor, went with me on to' Lookout
Mountain,' over the late battle-field. Picked up bullets, pieces of shell, and other
trophies. He and several soldiers engaged in the battle told me anl about it. I went
several times to Gen. Howard's head-quarters. Generals were as thick as were the frogs
in Egypt.'  I have no respect for gaudy trappings... Heaven help our poor soldiers!
Their sufferings are terrible. Oh, the effects of army life upon two-thirds that go
thither!... The weather is pleasant now. The birds sing. The ground is covered
with dead mules and horses. Reckless soldiers travel this way and that, day and night.... I can not write. The office is full of folks; some for gain, some for clothes, some
to have unruly soldiers arrested.  It is' Babel!' the last place on earth for a refined
organization'. My only happy moments are when I walk away from every human being.
I am alone, all alone, although in the midst of an army of men! "
In-response to a letter of inquiry, we received this cordial testimonial from his army friend and brother, who is one of our sterling
Spiritualists, -a reform  lawyer, defending justice and truth: —
"605 WALNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 1, 1871.
"J. O. BARRETT: Dear Sir, —In answer to your note of inquiry respecting the
army life of James M. Peebles, it affords me pleasure to say it was unexceptionable and
thoroughly consistent with his peace principles.
"In the winter of 1863-4, he was employed by me as a clerk in the quarter-master's
department at Bridgeport, Ala. During the time he continued in the service of the Government, we occupied the same tent, and most of the time the same couch.
" Such was my confidence in him, that he was intrusted with the most responsible
duties; and although property amounting to tens of thousands of dollars passed through
his hands daily, no mistakes were found in his accounts, and not a penny stuck.
Though often placed in the most trying circumstances, he never lost his equanimity, nor
evidenced a disposition of retaliation toward those who had wronged him; but, on the
contrary, he everywhere manifested, by word and deed, a gentle, forgiving, and loving
spirit, coupled with that sterling integrity which never sanctions wrong.
"The example of such a man is always good; but in the rough experiences of army
life it is invaluable.
"At the end of about three months' service, his health declining, he was obliged to return home, much to the disappointment of all who knew him. I am glad to hear you are
preparing his biography; for the life of such a man will be of service to humanity. He
is one of the saviors of the nineteenth century.
" Faithfully yours,                   DAMON Y. KILGORE."




CHAPTER XI.
MEDIUMSHIP.
"Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold." - LOWELL.
"And he set the rods which he had peeled before the flocks in the gutters;... and
the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle, ring-streaked, speckled, and
spotted." - BIBLE.
"It seems that every creed or tribe of earth
Conceives a God, and gives him form and birth
Possessing all the traits of every tribe:
Thus, while portraying God, themselves describe;
And as they each advance in reason's light,
And have more just conceptions of the right,
A God of like improvement then appears." - BARLOW'S " VOICES."
SPLICE  the hemlock, oak, and pine, can we make a new tree?
Wait till each, fulfilling its mission, crumbles into dust: now there
is a union of the elements; out of the improved soil rises another
species of tree, - matter progressed, -which no art can construct.
At a Universalist Convention held in Janesville, Wis., in the summer of 1864, were three radical ministers, Revs. R. S. Sanborn, A. J.
Fishback, and J. O. Barrett.   Having spiced  and peppered the
"bread of life" quite successfully, we sinned "the sin of heresy."
Secreting ourselves, we attempted to draw up a platform for a new
religious movement; but the spirits dashed the creed-making business
to the ground.  Thinking we had not got the right patterns, we concluded to "wait on the Lord" by calling a convention of" Liberal
Christians" in Beaver Dam, Wis., Rev. H. A. Reid  (Unitarian)
being afterward enlisted as a co-operator. But who would bring in
the Spiritualists?  Note how the spirits came to our rescue.  We
went to Palmyra to preach a chowdered theology. By invitation of
Dr. Ridell, an old schoolmate, Mr. Peebles was announced to speak
there the next Tuesday evening.  "Mr. Peebles," we asked, "of
Battle  Creek, the writer of Spiritualism  in Universalist papers?
90




MEDIUMSHIP.                          91
That's the man we must see." He had just closed a month's labor in
Milwaukie. We clasped hands for the first time at the residence of
Rev. C. F. Dodge of Palmyra, Wis.  Being then a "respectable
Universalist minister," we looked him over very carefully, endeavoring to call him out, particularly upon the subject of " free love;" for
we staidly asked, if " Spiritualists generally are free lovers! " Agreeably surprised at his positive remarks, advocating a moral life far
above our actuality, we were taken back again by a most awkward
Indian jump he made, with a war-whoop yell, when we spoke kindly
of the Indians; but the next moment all this " ministerial impropriety" (in our estimation) vanished, when he discoursed so feelingly
about the rights of the Indians, and of the down-trodden of all races.
When we had inspected each other, - he with a sort of careless sooiability, we with a coy and ver c  and        churchal questioning, - he said, when
alone, to test the heart-blending, " Bro. Barrett, I see your inner life
and struggles, the drift of your love, and impending fate as a Universalist minister.  My sympathy goes out to you: we are brothers in
oneness of spirit."  The manner of this remark, tinged in every
cadence with a sweet confidence, Shot through us a sunbeam. Then
and there we laid before him our darling project, soliciting co-operation. He responded with a hearty readiness, consenting to represent
the Spiritualists, and enlist all possible influence from that source.
This happy interview was introductory to a most enlivening correspondence with him, which became the principal agency in emancipating us from a sectarian prison. In the mean while, the prime
actors, noticing the great meeting in the churchal and spiritual presses,
received responsive letters from eminent divines of the Unitarian
sect, - such as David Wasson, Drs. Ellis, Livermore, Clarke, Bellows, E. C. Towne; and from J. S. Loveland, Moses Hull, Adin
Ballou, and others of tle Spiritual ranks; but none of marked note
from  the UniversalistS - except Revs. J. H. Harter and George
Severance -who gave any encouragement to the undertaking.
Soon after, attending a convention of Spiritualists at St. Charles,
Ill., we publicly stated the object, advocated union, and invited Spiritualists present to attend our meeting at Beaver Dam, when E. V.
Wilson sprung to his feet, and lashed the proposition with a commendable fury, shouting the prophecy home, that brought a laugh
from the electrified audience and a blush to our cheek, pointing at us
with a rebuking sarcasm, " And you, sir, kicked out of the Universalist sect, where you deserve to be!"




92                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
The auspicious hour arriving, these " heretics" (Peebles and Fish.
back absent on other engagements) met at Beaver Dam, -five Unitarian clergymen, two Universalists, one lone Spiritualist representative (Dr. J. E. Morrison of Illinois).  The convention was meager,a mongrel. The batteries opened; all was brotherly, when, of a sudden, a growl was heard. The true symbol of the meeting was a spotted
hyena. Mr. Morrison was covertly ignored.  Spiritualism  must be
cast out of the kingdom, " the dirty thing!"  Rev.     of Janesville had " conscientious dislikes against Spiritualists: they are
loose, seditious. Mr. Peebles and other restless clergymen are a
fair specimen, having been for years under the ban of their denomination." No proof was adduced to substantiate this statement. It
was cowardly, FALSE. Indignant, we poured in grapeshot. A battle
ensued. The fire was hot. Injustice had been done, and the rebuking angels scattered us. Blasted in this our most sanguine effort,
but hoping for union in another State, we fled to Battle Creek,
where Mr. Peebles had been trying his art of cementing liberal elements in conventional fellowship. Pursuant to due notice, the peo.
pie assembled. Any Universalist ministers? any Unitarian?  Not
one, except our heretical self. The meeting was mainly Spiritualistic
in representation.  Moses Hull, William Baldwin, and others, gave
a ready hand of support. It was inspiring, embosomed this time in
the loves of the angels. The folly of amalgamating incongruous elements was apparent. The lesson which the spirits taught us was
severe, but beautiful.  "No alliance with the dead!"  "What fellowship hath Christ with Belial?" is written on ruins. Exhume no
damaged titles! "Let the dead bury their dead! "  So we both
said, " and so endeth the second lesson."
The morality of mediumship depends upon the plane to which we
key it.  If sensuous in motive, developed by " filthy communications," its mold of character is of the same low degree, -" carnal
and devilish." No stream can rise higher than its source. Descending from the spiritual, cultured in the moral, restraining in the'passional: then we have what holy angels expect, -reform and progress.
Said the pure-minded Nazarene, looking to the mediumistic discipline
of his apostles, " In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto
you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."
On the arches of the spiritual temple faithful mediums have such
names engraved: PURITY, CHASTITY, FIDELITY, CHARITY, PATIENCE,
-just as our leading virtues are.




MEDIUMSHIP.                               93
Stormy, blasting-shivered  by lightnings:  March  winds from
melting winter!  So Mr. Peebles's mediumistic experiences during
1857-63.  What of his horoscope?  Clouded with doubts, red with
battles, purpled with victories!
Such is the way for all of us. Jesus had his seasons of temptation,
destruction, " strong crying and tears," martyrdom; the after calm
of " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." What of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plotinus, Apollonius of Tyana, Hildebrand, Friar
Bacon, Joan d' Arc, George  Fox  the Quaker, Swedenborg  the
Mystic, 3urray the Preacher? - lights in the zodiac of solar truth,
mingling their glory with the new-made planets of our age, they
shine at last over the chaos of their pilgrimage. Thither the journey
lies; through the hells of self, up the heights; veterans of moral
heroism!  " Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; I have set
thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked
up and down in the midst of stones of fire."
" E'en his vices leaned to virtue's side."
Unsuspecting as a child, confiding as a woman, believing humanity
is divine, Mr. Peebles awoke from soul-slumber in objective life to
plunge into the magnetic whirlpools, tempest-tost, and riven as a lost
mariner at sea.  " He is mine," said a voice; " nay, mine," said a
loving angel.  Oh, the " conflict of ages"!  Here our brother fought
against spirits, against mortals, - himself the chief enemy to himself.
The following letter to a friend betrays the secret of every spiritual
soul, -  the balancing pivot, - Mohammed's hair-bridge stretched over
the abyss on which Allah's children must walk to heaven: —
"DEC. 28, 1861.... "It may be that my conscience is becoming exceedingly sensitive; for at times
I feel impelled to rush along the track of my whole past earth-life, unsaying and undoing every thing said and done amiss. Forgiveness is out of the question. Restoration
and reconciliation, crowned with wisdom, are the only saviors. The very things, that,
in the depths of my soul, I hate, I am tempted to do; thus being a puzzle to myself. It
is quite clear that we must die to the earthly before we can live to the spiritual. My
aspirations, Heaven knows, are high enough; but they are never realized: and yet I
complain of no one but myself; nor would I make others miserable on my account.
The world shall only see my smiles.
"' I am weary, I am weary,
I am longing for my home,
Looking through life's wildering mazes
For the rest which ne'er doth come;




94                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
But sometimes there cometh visions,
Faint, yet beautiful to me,
Of the home for which I'm longing,
In " the land beyond the sea."'
" True, there are some flowers blooming along my pilgrim pathway; but they grow
fresh in Nature's garden, and jut out from the mountain sides, rather than from the
masses of souls I meet.
"' Grief is deepest laid
On hearts that deepest feel and deepest love.
" Perfect thro' suffering," mounting thus above
The sense of wrong, the soul is steadfast made.'"
Must we have experience on the plane where we stoop, ere we can
sympathize with the fallen? Must we explore every hell, ere we can
open a full, free heaven to the unfortunate? Does the human heart
select a life of shame, or is it forced by circumstances?  Ask the
gamblers.  Ask our erring sisters.  Ask the blasted hopes, the aching consciences, the bitterness of hearts. Cherish it, —the sweet
truth, - that human nature is pure by birthright as the budding rose;
or will you reckon that its beauty is to blame for the blighting frost
or heat?
Mediumship! what a power this, that touches all the souls in the
world; that feels all that mortals and angels feel, drawing the pilgrim
up to higher love: but oh, the perils, the perils I Can the medium,
confiding as a child, descend into the hells of self and not be contaminated, or tempted to err?  Such may sin, and not be sinful; may be
snared, to learn wisdom!  0 beautiful charity! drop a tear on every
heart-stain, and out of the roots of woe will spring the truest love.
Afterward the descent can be made by an angel of light, the mental
darkness furnishing fuel for a greater moral splendor.
Muscular contortions, painful trance, the Dervish dance, are not
criterions of evil influences, but simply the processes of removing obstructions.  The mediumistic phases vary according to organization.
Frenzy of body may prevent injury to the inner life. Too much illumination of the spiritual senses might induce phantasy. The opening
of the spiritual forces, until we are wholly balanced, subtracts from
the material. There is a magnetism in a smile, a frown, a gesture, a
kiss, a heart-throb. Psychological action of the nerve-organs mediumizes for the supremacy of the spirit.
About this time, Mr. Peebles was easily controlled. In psychological, half-dreaming consciousness, he often traveled miles, and found




MEDIUMSHIP.                          95
himself in strange localities, whither he had no intention of going.
Thus led to libraries, he took down books, and turned to passages
utterly foreign to any plan of his own, the purpose of which he afterward discovered. Unconscious of the fact at first, he was known to
give excellent spirit-tests, as in the instance of a funeral discourse.
Whilst picturing the glories of the future life, over the lifeless remains
of Dr. A. S. Hayward's wife's mother, in Boston, he seemed to hear
the spirit-voices; for he repeated, word for word, the dying testimony
of the departed.
This mediumistic sensitiveness, quickening every latent force of
character, giving preponderance to his organic spirituality, awoke an
over-anxiety to gain a moral victory in angel-life, incidentally inducing a wish, thousands of times expressed, to die, and ascend to the
celestial heavens; as if a closer contact with spirits, the very causes
of his battles to develop him, would be a safer retreat! The road to
wisdom is the knowledge of our weaknesses.
When in Oswego, engaged to lecture, guest of J. L. Pool, a lady
friend, simply relating'the current news, said to him," Well, Brother Peebles, we used to think you were a good man
when pastor of our Universalist society here; but we hear terrible
stories about you in the West."
"What's up now? " asked Mr. Peebles.
" They say you have got to be a drunkard, a beastly drunkard,
wallowing in the streets of Battle Creek."
Astonished and morally indignant, Mr. Peebles exclaimed, "It
is a lie, a malicious, vindictive lie! I belong to the Good Templars
of Battle Creek, and am  Chaplain of the Lodge.  This is a lying,
wicked, slanderous world. I am sick of it. I wish I were in the
spirit-world, away from all this social corruption! "
When these two brothers were alone, Aaron Nite approached,
deeply entranced Dr. Dunn, and said, —
"Well, Friend Peebles, we have been listening to your description
of the slandering, wicked, backbiting world in which you live; and,
while hearing, we thought of our own, so beautiful, orderly, loving,
and happy."
"I know that," answered our Pilgrim; "I understand all that:
hence my desire to die and be with you in your spirit-home."
~" Ah, Friend Peebles! " replied the spirit, smiling through the medium's face,  we don't like to pluck green fruit in our country. You




96                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
never saw an apple want to fall from the bough in July, when it is
sour, green, bitter, unfit for use; but, seemingly wiser than you,
wants to hang on till long in October or November, -  till it gets
ripe, full, luscious, matured, when there comes an opportune breeze,
and it drops off, born into individuality, a natural and beautiful separation.  So we want you to hang to the bough of life on earth till
your work is done, and you are fully ripe for the spirit-world; then
we shall call for you, and meet you at the entering in."
After this lesson, so aptly given, the " Spiritual Pilgrim" was not
in such a hurry to die; but to live as long as he could, battle bravely, face all slanders and falsehood with heroic fortitude, and remember " green fruit."
In these earlier stages of Mr. Peebles's mediumship, we discover
the same mistakes we all have made. Fear of mischief from a spirit
engenders a spheral antagonism; a weakness this, which entangles
worse than the snayl of such relationship.  When we are spiritually
self-poised, whether in this or the next world, we can neither be
insulted nor imperiled nor injured.  The balanced mind is invulnerable. If we fear no evil, think'no evil, harbor no evil, nothing but
the good will seek us for protection. If we are balanced up, every
force of life coronated in the flower of spirituality, our sphere
is so sweet and sunny, so like the lily with a golden heart full of
fragrance, whatever touches us then is transformed into divine likenesses.
Lecturing in Portland, his eyes inflamed from over-reading, and
otherwise ill, he was led blind-folded to the hall every Sunday.
Taking advantage of this condition, a cunning spirit, not of his band,
introduced himself through a friendly medium, proposing certain
plausible schemes.  Mr. Peebles writes to Dr. Dunn," Though K. brought his medium one hundred and sixty miles on purpose to see me,.
I did not stay with him a night,- refused to sit in a circle with him, refused to be
magnetized by him, refused to ask him into the desk with me; in fact, dreaded his
magnetic influence. This figure comes to me: though the spirit did not enter my premises, or my house, he stood aloof and threw mud on it. The medium is naturally a
good man, and interested me deeply in his travels in spirit-life.
"You ask,' What will K. do next?' Perhaps injure me! You say,'Had we not
better yield before it goes farther?' Why did you write that? Do you know me?
Have you not had enough exhibitions of my firmness? I am never conquered, never
defeated; and, if subdued, love only can do it. I know not that I ever attempted to reach
a moral stand-point in my life and failed. Oh that word'yield!'-no, never! My
fraternal love for you is deeper than the ocean, divine as God. Millions of K.'s can not




MEDIUMSHIP.                                  97
change it. Why do you indulge him in those talks? He thinks he is holier and wiset
than John. I have no fears of his breaking our friendship; for the angels encircled us
in a wreath of immortal love."
Note the following incidents, as reported in his private letters,
indicative of the special care of angels over their brother at this
period of his mediumship: -
"MILWAUKIE, WIS., April, 1865.
"Lastnight the hall was densely packed; and when pronouncing the benediction, I
felt a hand upon my shoulder, and supposed it to be Mr. B.'s, the sexton who lights the
gas. For a moment it annoyed me; and yet I felt inspired to pronounce a much
longer benediction than usual. When through, I turned round to speak to him; and lo!
nobody was there, nor had there been anybody on the platform. It was a spirit-hand,
probably Perasee's, as I had been speaking of his putting your hand into a blaze of fire
without injury.... I am a strange creature, -perhaps, a medium. The other day,
my window being raised, a dollar-bill dropped down before me. In Chicago, a man
(almost an entire stranger) handed me twenty dollars. I refused it. He said,'You
are a medium, working for humanity: take it!' and I did. Two men in New York
did the same thing, and one lady. Why is it? Is it their spirit-friends, or mine? "
The experience of our brother is not uncommon.  Many a medium, when distressed for means, has been likewise favored  in ways
unmistakably proving a spiritual agency. In our saddest hours —
if we lose not our faith to draw them - angels interpose in our behalf.  Thousands can testify to this.  Was Elijah fed by the ravens
under spirit direction?  Was the widow's cruse of oil replenished
through the mediumship of that prophet?  About a century since,
lived a Catholic medium  in Paris, the'Cure of Ars,' by whom  the
spirits supplied bread to starving children. Money was also tendered, if we may credit the historian: -
"He recommended his dear little ones to the compassionate heart of the holy mother
of God, who is also the mother of the poor. His prayer'was speedily answered; for
suddenly a female form appeared to him, and said,' Are you the Curd of Ars?'-' Yes
my good lady.' -' Here is some money which I am desired-to give to you.' -Are they
for masses?' said the curd.' No: it is sent in answer to your prayers.' Having emptied her purse into his hands, she left him without saying where she came from, or
whither she was going. In this way, says M. Monnin, did money come providentially,
in some secret way, at the very time when it was most urgently needed."
Lecturing in Indiana, among philosophical minds, the question
incidentally suggested  itself, whether Christ did really walk upon
the water.  The spirits declaring it probable, Mr. Peebles demanded
a test.  Assenting, they added, "Certain conditions are first essen7




98                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
tial: the medium  must fast several days, and avoid hard labor.
This will clear the brain, and fit the whole system for proper control."
Appreciating the necessity of the mind's being free from worldly
cares, Mr. Peebles would slyly put a dollar or more, every night,
into the medium's pocket. Fitness to use is when the mediums are
justly protected.  Having faithfully complied with the required conditions, one evening, the light burning, Mr. Peebles and others had
the satisfaction of seeing the medium carried up by spirits, perfectly
afloat between the bed and ceiling.  The test called to mind the
words of the Nazarene: "All power is given me in heaven and
earth."' Powers there are
That touch each other to the quick, in modes
Which the gross world no sense hath to perceive,
No soul to dream of."
On another occasion, Mr. Peebles inquired of the spirits if the
three  Hebrew  children (Daniel iii.) did actually pass through
the fire unharmed, as is stated in the Bible.  Perasee assured him
the event was a probability, being in consonance with spirit-law.
Mr. Peebles demanded a test; and the Italian chemist again demanded in turn a faithful compliance with the conditions of fasting.
This obeyed, one afternoon the medium was deeply entranced in Mr.
Peebles's library room, and his hand held in the burning flame of a
kerosene lamp for five minutes. The smoke was on the hand; which,
being removed, lo, not a particle of the skin was burned or blistered!
The test satisfactory, Mr. Peebles asked for the philosophy. Perasee,
informing him  of the barrenness of our language to elucidate the
truth, gave an analysis of the chemical ingredients, stating that
" light, heat, electricity, are modifications of a fluid held in common,
individualized as separate existences. We gathered from the atmosphere an antidotal element that neutralized the effects of the fire.
Coating the hand with this, we protected it safely.  This is the
subtile substance, embodying itself in vision to Nebuchadnezzar, as
the' fourth like the son of man.'"
One June evening, in Rockford, Ill., Mr. Peebles and his medium
were sitting side by side, holding each by the hand, enjoying the
fresh breeze laden with fragrance. Instantly what seemed a sunlmer
bug flew in, circling round and round from wall to ceiling, with a
musical buzz, and at length lit on the vest of the doctor. Noticing




MEDIUMSHIP.                           99
it carefully, Mr. Peebles exclaimed, " Don't brush it away! why,
it's not a bug! "  Two beautiful fresh buds fell to the floor, both on
one stem, plucked by the spirits from an adjoining garden.  How
gratefully were they cherished, pressed between the leaves of the
Bible!
Lock the " sweet Pleiades" in silver chains; bind all waters and
gases, the odors of leaf and flower, the gushes of music, and the
arts of beauty! This is the business of mother Nature to educe birth,
change, and progress. No escape from the law that holds us? None.
The divine government is inexorable in justice. Lioense is abhorred
by wise spirits. Eternal vigilance to order is the path to " the perfect law  of liberty."  There are " spirits in prison," "locked in
chains of darkness," keptiander strict guard for the protection of the
innocent and their own redemption.
"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven."
This truth was happily illustrated in frequent instances where certain departed clergymen, not yet outgrown their Church dogmas,
would enter Mr. Peebles's congregations with designs to enforce
their sentiments inspirationally through his mediumship. Whenever
such could succeed in forming a battery, the effort of Mr. Peebles
was labored.  The presence of such spirits, -  whom, of course, we
should invite, when sufficiently positive to control ourselves, - accounts for failures with some of our more negative speakers in
mixed audiences.  Spiritualists are largely responsible here, in neglecting to form counter-acting batteries. The churches have their
confederates in the first spheres of the spirit-world, who, unseen
save by our media, seek the control of our inspirational forces; and
do sometimes drag, now and then, an unguarded negative victim
into their fold, when they are inevitably lost, their identity swallowed
up.
One Sunday, lecturing in Sturgis, Mr. Peebles stormed the old
citadel of the " Christian Atonement," Aaron Nite being the presiding genius of the spirit audience. The medium, clairvoyant, saw
at the right, in the distance, a spirit dressed ia black, with a white
cravat, -a very dignified clergyman, who was gesticulating,  and
gathering around him  a few friends, and influencing others in the




100               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
audience, pointing with serious scorn at Mr. Peebles, and quoting
Scripture with eloquent gravity, saying, "That man is preaching
damnable heresies. Hear what saith the word:' But there were
false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privilyshall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction.'" This spirit then preached to his auditors about
the resurrection of the body, the second coming of Christ, and the
atoning blood. "As proofi" said he, " that I am of God, see those
long-bearded Grecians listening approvingly to the ribaldry of that
speaker. No heathen philosopher hath part with Christ."  The
effect of this harangue was a division of sentiment in the meeting,
and a general feeling of social jar. 
When about to commence a lecture in Oswego, noticing his medium (seated with hiniin the desk as usual) was clairvoyant, and
gazing round the room  as if spying every nook and corner, Mr.
Peebles asked him what he saw.
" An old, positive man," was the reply, "ugly and fierce, approaching the desk." The spirit took a seat in the third chair, when
the doctor conversed with him, unknown to the gathering audience.
" Who is there, Charlie?" inquired Mr. Peebles.
" I know him," answered the spirit:." I used to discuss with him
in the streets of this city, when he preached here as a Universalist."
The medium described him accurately, " Positive, dogmatic, still
a member of the same church, one-eyed "" Yes, I know him well," broke in Mr. Peebles; " he annoyed me
much: what is he here for? "
A  commotion among the spirits: that man's friends pressed
nearer, and insisted that Mr. Peebles should be controlled by him
(this very one-eyed minister), and be " compelled to tell the truth
this time!"  Mr. Peebles's spirit-friends were disturbed, for the
wrong man was in the circle. Instantly one of his faithful guides
telegraphed to Perasee Lendanta, who was then busily engaged in a
distant portion of the sidereal heavens. The telegram was charged
with a feeling of imperative urgency, - the very soul of thought
which spirits easily sense, - and he hastened to obey the summons,
bringing with him a band of ancient spirits, supposed to be mainly
Persians, for they wore the Persian spirit-costume, long robes, shining girdles, and white, snowy pyramidal hats, or plumes. A large




MEDIUMSHIP.                       101
company of Indian spirits also assembled, amused and wondering,
ready to obey orders. In a moment the nucleus of a battery was
formed; and the magnetism of the atmosphere changed to a positive
condition, involving belligerent forces. Trembling from exhaustion,
the medium turned to Mr. Peebles with the startling statement,
"You will doubtless break down! "
This remark made Mr. Peebles nervous and apprehensive, producing a more negative state, when the "one-eyed" spirit, seeing his
advantage, rose and pressed his hand toward Mr. Peebles's shoulder,
unable to touch him, yet succeeding in imparting a mental force that
caused confusion of ideas, dragging him, as with chains, -- a captive 
He shuddered and shook, and prayed for deliverance.
Watching the sequel, the medium saw the appearance of a wall,
rising slowly in vivid compactness, as if alive, forming at length a
high cone-like rampart.   Aaron Nite stepped inside, taking both
Peebles and his medium with him, safely inclosed from all intrusion.
The moment the top of this cone folded up, as if a netted sheet, Perasee drew his hand down quick, and cut off that old fellow's magnetism, pushed him one side, made another cone around him, then
moved him in his prison off to one corner, where he chafed like a
caged tiger, under the eye of Indian sentinels. Mr. Peebles, now free
again, opened grandly with his discourse under the loving inspiration
of John, Perasee presiding, and governing the batteries of mind.
The lecture closed, those spirits let their prisofier out, when Perasee
gave him some good advice, "Never to undertake again what he
had no capacity for or association with." The ashamed minister,
receiving a blessing to be for ever remembered, and quailing under a
just criticism, went off shivering in every nerve to find his own
place.
This is not the only instance where it was morally necessary to
imprison, or control, interfering spirits. Deceiving spirits, seeking
to decoy, were struck dumb and blind for the time being, as Paul
did Elymas the sorcerer, till " there fell on him a mist and a darkness."  How beautiful and startling are the uses of the psychological
laws! They are the constitutions, the codes, the enforcements, of the
republics of spirits. We no longer wonder at John's vision, when he
"saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand," with which he bound a
deceiving spirit in power, — " bound him a thousand years."




102                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"All my soul
Was thrilled and filled with music, and I prayed
To be let loose, that I might cast myself
Upon the,mighty tides, and give my life
To the supernal raptures.i
Fly with electric life the fiery steeds, the ied blood in the human
body, to vitalize every part. Carrying the spheres of angels, impelled to action, the spiritual heralds have circled through all the
country, shocking the bigoted, fighting effete theology, sowing precious seed watered with tears. A large moral experience and a large
charity: true ratio this.  To minister to mortals on their diverse
planes of suffering, we must " be touched with the feeling of their
infirmity." To understand the spirit-world and its claims in wholeness, representatives of every plane of life need be introduced to
us; and thence we gravitate where we belong, serving as we are
served. This was our Pilgrim's discipline now.  Let the sequel
show how well he conned the lessons.  By the mediumship of Dr.
Dunn, the spirits taught him every possible art of spiritual health
and culture; by Nellie J. T. Brigham, Sarah M. Thompson, Mrs.
S. A. Horton, Mrs. Reid Knowles, /mma Martin, Jennie S. Rudd,
they breathed into his soul the music-words of immortality; by the
Andersons and Mumlers they revealed  the artistic galleries of
the better world; by Maggie Patterson they portrayed perils to,
escape and successes to gain; by L. G. Smedley, H. Slade, and A.
P. Pierce they instructed him in the laws of spiritual healing; by
A. B. Whiting they showed him glimpses of the superior wisdom of
ancient seers; by S. B. Brittan they proved how  a sunny heart
sweetens the home till the angels nestle there; by Mrs. Victor Post
they impressed in stillness of thought the peace-words of a happy
life; by Nettie M. Pease they visioned him in the flash of heaven
that veils the face in the beauty of hope; by E. V. Wilson they
were repeatedly identified, saying " Doubt not;" by Mrs. J. H.
Conant they inspired him  with the heroism  of the Parkers and
Pierponts; by Sarah A. Byrnes and Mrs. J. G. Wait they rimmed
the solitudes of his life with the rainbows of trust; by Fannie B.
Felton they sent into his bosom the merry heart-beats of healthful
spirit ministrants; by Mrs. F. O. Hyzer they demonstrated that perseverance conquers, and
" Love is the transmuter of all outer things;"
by the Davenports, Annie Lord Chamberlin, and Maud Lord they




MEDIUMSHIP.                          103
materialized themselves comprehensible to every sense; by L. C.
Howe they opened to view the divine of Nature and the harmonies
of worlds; by Abraham  James they apprenticed him  in the more
practical of the spiritual gospel; by Mrs. M. S. Townsend Hoadley
they revealed the beauty and graceof freedom; by Elvira Wheelock
Ruggles they disciplined him  in the gospel of woman's fidelity and
independence; by Thomas Gales Forster they demonstrated to him
the correlation of matter and spirit; by Hudson Tuttle they read to
him the philosophical solution of historic problems of religions; by
Mrs. Cora L. V. Tappan, they unveiled the mysteries of mind and
the glories of the upper kingdoms of God; by Olive -- too modest
to be known - they promised an " Eden of rest for the weary Pilgrim; " by Nellie Smith they sung the melodies of the fair enchantress who is preparing a home " up there;" by Emma Tuttle they
exemplified how fidelity wins, how the ideal must be " my Jesus," in
the real man of sunny soul, to whom she sings, -
" Ye won it by no false pretense;
Ye did not daze by gems and gold,
Nor buy by flatteries sweetly told;
But by the soul's magnificence
And kinship to thy God maintained,
Our spirits unto thine are chained."
Remembering these lessons, he often quotes his friend Preuss, -
"With weak and mole-ish vision.
We work our way below;
But sure our souls are building
Much wiser than we know."
One day, at Albion, Mich., Mr. Peebles fell into a most frightful
dilemma, whilst magnetizing Dr. H. Slade, the celebrated test medium and healer. Asking Wassoo, the Indian spirit controlling the
doctor, about the method, he was permitted to make a trial of his
skill, the spirits retiring to a distance.  Mr. Peebles commenced
operations, and threw his subject into a perfect trance; when, to his
astonishment, the medium imitated his every motion, repeated his
words, articulated his ideas, till he seemed to be a part of himself, -
verily, himself repeated.  Getting somewhat alarmed, he made reverse vertical passes, but to no purpose! In his bewilderment, he
invoked the aid of Perasee, who, coming to the rescue, taking pos.




104               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
session of the medium, instructed him to make passes horizontal as
well as vertical; " for," said the Italian, " in the perfect trance, like
this, the psychological rays center from  all directions; hence the
counter-currents must be made in reverse lines to scatter the entrancing sphere." The success of the ever-to-be remembered lesson was
beautiful.
Up to 1864, Mr. Peebles, like the rest of us, maintained that the
age in which we live casts all other ages into tile shadow of its
knowledge. Everywhere he was grandiloquent about " the greatness of the nineteenth century." At a lecture in Princeton, Ill., on
the subject of Progress, he wound up his electric lecture with a splendid peroration upon the inferiority of the past and the superiority of
the present; and went to his boarding-place elated with the proud
consciousness that he had done something really worthy of the flattery
he received. When alone in his room, his medium, suddenly entranced, made a strange bow, after the Asiatic style, and, after a
series of earnest devotions, stood up before Mr. Peebles with closed
eyes, and inspecting him from head to foot, with a pungent sarcasm,
said, -
"Well, you are about the homeliest man I ever saw. What's your
name? "
" Name?" replied Mr. P., with a wit in his cadence; "my name
is Pee-bles."
" What does Pee-bles mean? " said the spirit with gravity.
"Don't know."
"Don't know your own name? you a teacher, and don't know the
meaning of your own name?  Well!"
" Is that any thing strange?  You seem to be thunder-struck at a
mere name.  All people have names.  In China the people are
called Chinese."
"What does Chinese mean?"
" I don't know."
"Why use words you do not know the meaning of?"
"What may I call your name? " asked Mr. Peebles.
"No matter as to that: you seem to have but little knowledge of
names; but you may call me Aphelion, if you like. Do you know the
meaning of that word?"'"I think it is an astronomical word, signifying the greatest or
least distance from the sun; I forget which."




MEDIUMSHIP.                       105
The spirit betrayed not an emotion, but looked him over again
very gravely, and said, -
" I lived on your earth, in an Asian province, about sixteen thousand years ago. We wrote in what corresponds with the Egyptian
hieroglyphs: every dot, point, symbol, and curve meaning something,
conveying some distinct idea. Sixteen thousand years ago was the
dark age of which you spoke so eloquently to-night."
When the spirit said " sixteen thousand years ago," Mr. Peebles
laughed outright.
" What do you laugh for? Philosophers seldom laugh. Imbeciles
giggle much. You disgust me with your ha, ha, ha I - mouth wide
open."
" Have not you, as a spirit, a brain," asked Mr. Peebles, " and an
organ of mirthfulness? "
" Yes," said Aphelion with dignity.
" How do you exercise it?"
" In a calm, pleasurable sensation, that permeates our whole being...   momentarily listened to your temperance lecture, the other 
evening. The people cheered you by shouting, and stamping, and
clapping hands; and you were proud. Such appreciation disgusted
me. When on your earth, I was a medium, teacher, and lecturer;
and, when uttering a great truth, the people' rose and stood silent,
gazing with an inspired, enraptured look that seemed to penetrate the
very heavens. They would shade their eyes under the palms of their
hands, as if the better to see and examine the truth.... On the 4th
of July, that sultry day, I heard you speak on Independence, during
which you said defiantly,' I care not what the people say: I will be
myself, -free.' There you stood with thick boots on, and black
coat, sweltering in the sun. You should have been barefooted, or, at
least, sandaled, wearing a white, trailing robe. But you do not care
what the people say! In glancing over your country, I have not seen
a true man or woman. None live up to their highest ideal. You
are a nation of cowards.... You are aware that the ancients had
a cement of which the moderns know nothing; that they could transfuse color through glass, which you moderns can not; that there are
many lost arts and sciences; that the sculpture of three and four
thousand years since is copied by modern artists. Sixteen thousand
years ago, our navigators propelled vessels by electricity.... Plato's
account of the sinking of the New Atlantis'Isle is nearly correct. I




106                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
was acquainted with several inhabitants of that island, then so famous
for its fine arts and high degree of civilization. Records establishing
the facts may yet be found in the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, or in
the beds of the ocean. Cities buried by sand or volcanoes will yet be
exhumed and re-inhabited. History is ever repeating itself, and progress is in cycles."
Taken down to a more modest mein, Mr.. Peebles, after this, was
less boastful and boisterous about modern civilizations.  He then
began the study of ancient spiritual literature and science with a
keener relish than ever.  His exclamation was:
"Let no one presume originality. Let us pierce the inflated balloons of Bros. Davis,
Brittan, Denton, Tuttle, Owen, Howitt, and Peebles especially; sit at the feet of the NeoPlatonists, Hindoo Gymnosophists, Egyptian Hierophants, Persian Magi, Chinese Philosophers, and learn wisdom; for'of such is the kingdom of heaven.'"




CHAPTER XII.
THE GOLD THAT WEARS.
" And the preaching of this preacher
Stirs the pulses of the world.
Tyranny has curbed its pride;
Errors that were deified,
Into darkness have been hurled;
Slavery and Liberty,
And the Wrong and Right, have met
To decide their ancient quarrel.
Onward, preacher; onward yet I
There are pens to tell your progress,
There are eyes that pine to read,
There are hearts that burn to aid you,
There are arms in hour of need.
Onward, preacher I Onward, nations I
Will must ripen into deed." — NEWRY EXAMINE (IRELAND).
When  Mr. Peebles had labored six  years  in Battle  Creek, the
spirits impressed Warren Chase to say, " You are prepared for greater work.  Go East, West, North, South, and teach this gospel to all
the people." It was reiterated through other media. Earnestly did he
obey.  Humanity needs magnetizers,* as the earth needs comets.
* Talking with Mr. Peebles one day, about our speakers and " magnetizers," he said, -
"Proud of them, sir, proud of them, they have vim; have I not worked with them?
When the' Angel of Accounts' demands the jewels, I shall hand in such a list of names I
and among them will be Joel Tiffany, S. J. Finney, Warren Chase, Dean Clark, E.
S. Wheeler, Frank H. N. White, C. B. Lynn, A. C. Robinson, Lydia Ann Pearsall, A. J.
Kutz, Mrs. F. A. Logan, Wm. H. Johnson, Mary J. Wilcoxson, W. F. Jamieson, J. T.
Rouse, A. C. and E. C. Woodruff, Laura Cuppy Smith (whom I helped into spirit-light),
E. V. Wilson, Addie L. Ballon, E. Winchester Stevens, Joseph Baker, Thomas Gales
Forster, A. A. WVheelock, Lizzie Doten, Hudson Tuttle, L. 0. Howe, Abraham  James
E Whipple, A. B. French, A. J. Davis and his Mary, Wm. Denton, Adin Ballon, J. O.
Barrett, H. P. Fairfield, A. T. Foss, J. G. Fish, F. O. Hyzer, I. P. Greenleaf, S. B. Brittan,
M. H. Houghton, E. C. Dunn, Moses Hull, A. B. Whiting, John Mayhew, J. H. Powell,
H. B. Storer, A. E. Carpenter, Cora L. V. Tappan, H. F. M. Brown, Emma Hardinge,
M. S. Townsend Hoadly, Elvira Wheelock Ruggles, Susie M. Johnson, Laura de Force
Gordon, Nettie M. Pease, C. M. Stowe, Lois Waisbroker, S. A. Horton; and ascended
saints, such as Henry C. Wright, J. B.Ferguson, Alcinda Wilhelm Slade, John Pierpont,.
Achsa C. Sprague, L. Judd Pardee; and I shall hand in some of our poetical jewels too, -
E. S. Ledsham, L. B. Brown, T. L. Harris, Mrs. C. A. Fenn, Mrs. C. J. Osborn (who sung
to me the song of the' Spiritual Harp' ) Mrs. H. N. Green, Mrs. M. A. Archer, Mrs. J. S.
107




108                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
All over the country his trumpet voice has rung, - an Ezekiel
prophesying in "the valley of dry bones," breathing the breath of
the Spirit that brought forth life from  the dead.  Everywhere a
resurrectionist, he has made verdure spring from the desert and
water from the rock.  Having, these later years of his spiritual mission, become a constructionist, he studiously avoids the " revival
system," falsely ycleped "spiritual lectures," believing it engenders
-an unstable and intemperate social character.  His is the calm
argument now of loving wisdom; and it strikes deep in the soul like
the silent sunlight that warms all hearts to life and beauty.  He
maintains that a speaker should never swallow up his listeners in a
whirlpool of psychological sensation, but use this law with prudence,
appeal to the rational judgment with a serious reverence for truth,
and, by the sweet persuasion of reason and love, draw the people to
a higher altitude of character.   An audience should be induced to
discriminate.   A  speaker who drives an unbeliever farther away
from Spiritualism  fails, - signally fails, -  however'great the sensation he creates.  Whilst we are aggressive against error, is it not a
nobler accomplishment to attract into higher light, to set souls aglow
with loftier aspiration, and lead the truth-seeking with a loving
hand into the temple of heavenly wisdom?
Wherever he has spoken, he has been cordially invited to come again.
He has lectured in all States of the American Union but three,New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Boston,
Charlestown, Lowell, Portland, Worcester, Troy, Rochester, Buffalo,
Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Rockford, Milwaukie, Springfield, St.
Louis, Topeka, Lawrence, Omaha, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, San Francisco, Sacramento, New Orleans, Mobile, 
the principal cities, and in innumerable villages and country districts
in every compass of the land, - also in Canada West. He has attended
nearly all the National conventions, multitudes of State conventions,
associations, and mass meetings. He is scarcely ever enabled to supply
Adams, Frances D. Gage, H. Clay Preuss, Mrs. J. H. Conant, Emma Tuttle, S.. Coffin.
berry, Amanda T. Jones, Belle Bush, and Lita Barney Sayles who charges me, -
"' Guard well thy head; nor trust thy life's refrain
To Reason cold.
Consult the heart; their verdict then shall keep
Thee young when old."
A&] these, I know, have a friendly word for the' Pilgrim,' their wandering brother.




THE GOLD THAT WEARS.                            109
the demand upon his services. In some places he has spoken the third,
fourth, fifth, and even sixth time at monthly engagements, and in no
city is he so popular as in Battle Creek. He has exchanged pulpits
with a Congregationalist, with Rev. Mumford and other Unitarians,
and with Unilersalists; bul in other instances the latter refused their
pulpits in Milford, Mass., Neenah, Wis., and Auburn, N.Y., &c.
During an able speech delivered in the latter city, in the opera-house,
reported by " The Daily News," he aptly said, " Ordained by a former
pastor of that congregation in this city, and cherishing a home-like
feeling for the citizens of this section, I am  reminded of the Nazarene's words,'He came to his own, and his own received him  not.'
If universal salvation shuts out men from the churches here, would it
not, narrowed down in its creedal tendencies, shut out men from the
great Church triumphant in the heaven of heavens?"  Incident to
so vast a work, he recoils within himself at times, patient in his
impatience, but trustful as Polycarp, who, going to martyrdom, heard
a spirit-voice say, " Polycarp, be firm!"   In a letter to a friend,
he says, -
" I will drink the cup that destiny holds to my lips, and labor on manfully and bravely,
till the earth-life is finished, and those harpstrings from the summer land beyond the
river welcome me home."
In the fall of 1867, Mr. and Mrs. Peebles moved from  Battle
Creek to Hammonton, New Jersey, hoping for a more lucrative locality for a living. The parting hour will never be forgotten: the
"good-byes" were genuine, such as angels never say but ever feel.
A slip from  " The Banner of Light" expresses the deep  love the
friends there always cherish for them both: -
" BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Nov. 4, 1867.
"MESSRS. EDITORS, - The name of J. M. Peebles has long been inscribed on the folds
of" The Banner of Light; " and I now ask you to let that of his excellent wife bccupy a
small space for a brief season, as it has long held a high place in the hearts of her friends
here, where they have so long made their home. Mrs. Peebles is an efficient co-worker
in the cause of truth with her most able and widely-known husband, though in a more
contracted sphere; and we feel that our society is losing one of its brightest ornaments
in her departure for her new home in the East.
" A few evenings since a' surprise' was given her by a few of her friends, and a small'token' of regard was presented on the occasion, when the following address was read,
and very neatly and appropriately replied to by Mrs. Peebles: —
"MRS. PEEBLES, — We, your friends of the society with which you have so long
been identified, have met here this evening to express our sorrow that you are no more
to be with us in our meetings or social gatherings. During the years you have been




110                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
with us, we have ever felt that your noble and true life shed a holy influence on all with
whom you were brought in contact; and, that in you we had a faithful adviser, a genial
companion, and a true friend. You have ever been earnest to aid us in every good work,
and we know we shall not soon cease to regret your absence from outl midst, or find
your place adequately filled in our association. We beg you to accept this slight token
of our affectionate regard. May you, in your new home, find contentment and happiness amid other friends who will appreciate your true worth.
"'It seems appropriate that one so much beloved should receive this notice.
D. M. B."
"November has come, and with it dreary autumn days, - days of gloom and sorrow
to some, brought around by every departing summer. BRt a deeper, darker cloud has
come over us, - the departure of Brother Peebles and his dear wife for a new home in
New Jersey. Brother Peebles has been with us most of the time nearly eleven years,
and during all those years has been steadily gaining influence and friends among all
classes of citizens, and, I will say, all who ever' progressed upwards.'  J. B."
From  the many testimonies of love, we clip this little gem  written
by Hudson Tuttle, then editor-in-chief of "The American Spiritualist: ""J. M. PEEBLES. - This well known author, student, and speaker is the St. John of
the New Dispensation. If we desired a portrait of that loved disciple of Jesus, Brother
Peebles should sit for it. We hope the beloved of Old equaled that of the New in allembracing charity, unselfishness of character, and a love which extends from the highest to the lowest."...
George A. Bacon, of the editorial corps in same paper, says of our
Pilgrim: " —
" We now recall no other writer in all our rahks who has given so many smoothlyflowing, richly-colored and beauty-laden expressions. They thickly adorn his every
page, as the glittering stars gem the heavens. His sentences are replete with musical
cadences, and seem to flow as naturally as birds warble. They are not only rhetorically
felicitous, but what is additionally better, they bear the seed-grains of deep thought and
profound truth....
" Infinitely superibr to all the dazzling sheen of verbal euphony, is the simplest utterance of an eternal, immortal truth. Our brother does not forget this cardinal point.
Notwithstanding his tendency to pictorial speech, he believes with St. Jerome, that'truth told inelegantly is better than eloquent falsehood.'"
Corresponding with friends to glean  facts for this work, we received the following: —
" BATTLE CREEK, MICH.
" BROTHER BARRETT, -.. When Mr. Peebles took charge of our society in 1857, we
were proud, - proud of our leader and members. He has always been an honor to Spiritnalism. I do not know of an exception where any one that ever knew him, however
low or inferior, so called, but felt he was a friend... I would to God the world had
more such men I May his star never grow dim!.. 
"Your Sister,                         RHODA A. LOOiMIS."




THE GOLD THAT WEARS.                                  111
" DEAR BROTHER BARRETT, -... Indentified from its early day with the cause of
modern Spiritualism, with unparalleled fidelity, Mr. Peebles has adhered to and announced the convictions of his soul, manfully braving the battles of opposition through
which this new and blessed religion, by the help of the angels, has been developed into a
moral and spiritual power now infiltrating spiritual life, strength, and vitality into all
organized religious bodies of whatever name, character, or profession, —and that, too,
though they despised, denied, and rejected these glorious truths.
" Endowed with fine natural qualifications as a poet, moralist, reformer, and teacher,
he has also added the rare graces of scholarship and culture; and, better still, has beautifully developed those inward graces of the spirit which exalt and refine life, and
make expression, thought, and act, lofty, loving, and true.
"With admirable zeal, all these rich endowments and choice attainments are consecrated to the good of humanity and the cause of truth and right everywhere. What
better consecration than this? What brighter fulfillment of the soul's highest promise?
A life of aspiration, love, prayer, purity, and earnest practical work will alw.ays lead to
the heavenly paradise prepared for the sainted upon earth.
"Your friend with esteem,
"ELVIRA WHEELOCK RUGGLES."
"J. 0. BARRETT: My Dear Friend,-... J. M. Peebles has been instrumental
in leading me, as he has a host of others, into spiritual freedom. He is a full-orbed
man, versatile. His secret forte as a speaker and writer, and his success in building up
spiritual societies and banding our people together in great brotherhoods and sisterhoods of peace and harmony, lie in the fact that he blends the excellence of intellect
and culture with the sublimities of the ideal and spiritual. His many disinterested kindnesses and tender charities have blessed hundreds; his broad, fraternal sympathies have
given him a wonderful universality, endearing him to thousands. He ever succors the
weak, strengthens the weary, encourages the down-trodden, resurrects into newness of
life the morally dead. He is an advocate of temperance, woman's equality with man,
freedom, -social, political, and religious; and, soaring aloft into the pure ether of love,
he takes strong ground against war.          Yours, very fraternally,
" CEPHAS B. LYNN."
"DEAR BRO. BARRETT.... Pre-eminent among Bro. Peebles's public services
are his great and indefatigable labors in the cause of Spiritualism. With voice and pen
he has been one of its foremost as well as ablest advocates and defenders. Brave and
fearless, where many have been proved cowards; faithful among the faithless, let the
fair-browed angel of memory plant a rose-wreath of sweet recollections, gathered from
the holy inspirations of love, truth, and beauty, which, for all time, the bright examples
of a noble, pure life must ever inspire.       Sincerely yours,
"ADDISON A. WHEELOCK."
Recounting the agencies at work in the Great West, Emrqa Hardinge says, in her estimable work, "The History of Modern Spiritualism  in America," —
"Another of the 4 Western Institutions,' and one which has wrought an incalculable
amount of good and use in the community, is Mr. J. M. Peebles. By his scholarly writings, and indefatigable labors as a lecturer, Mr. Peebles has been a gigantic lever in
moving public opinion in favor of spiritual belief, and the repudiation of the effete superstition of old orthodoxy. Being a graceful and accomplished orator, Mr. Peebles's ser



112                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
vices are in eager demand throughout the whole community; but, as the scene of his
earliest and most widely-diffused efforts, the West undoubtedly claims him for her own,
and as such he is numbered amongst her jewels, and forms a distinguished part of her
spiritual wealth."
If Mr. Peebles is injured, he lays it to heart, grieves over it, feels
resistaece and the "late remorse of love," defends the right, confesses
the wrong; but is sure to forgive and ask forgiveness, when the good
angel attends in the way of reconciliation. His is the spirit of the
venerable Victor Hugo, in his address to the German people, when
they were sending an army to bombard Paris:"If you assault Paris, we shall defend it to the last extremity; we shall fight with
all our strength against you; but we declare we shall continue to be your brothers.
And your wounded, do you know where we shall place them? in the palace of the
Nation. We shall assign the Tuilleries in advance as a hospital for wounded Prussians.
There will be the field-hospital of your brave, imprisoned soldiers, and it is there our
women shall go to care for and succor them. Your wounded shall be our guests; we
will treat them loyally, and Paris will receive them into her Louvre."
Writing  Dr. Dunn, who had lost valuable property by fire, Mr.
Peebles, sealing his promise with a generous donation of life-long
duration, says, -
"As flax never begins to be useful till pulled and laid out to die and rot, so I intend
to be of more service to you when my old body is rotting than I possibly can be now..   You lost not a truth, not a useful fact, nor scientific formula. Your furniture
is gone, but not your reputation. This latter is much harder to gain than the former.
Your books may have been burned; but so much of their contents as by faithful application you had stored away in your brain remains unharmed. All the disappointments
and losses of life teach us the importance of laying up treasures in the intellect and soul.
Such are beyond the destroying hand of earthly elements. Such only can serve us when
the death-angel knocks, bidding us lay down the pilgrim-staff, and plunge beneath the
waves of the rolling Jordan."
Again he says, in another letter, intended only for the eye of the
recipient -
"I wept when reading your letter. It took me back to Battle Creek, where first I
met you;and showered upon you my very soul-tenderness. Even the occasional thorns
of those times have faded from remembrance, and only the flowers freshen into sweet
remembered realities."
A  healing physician, of great success, tried to tempt him  by proffer
of money to travel with him in Europe. The man was gaining at the
rale of sixty dollars per day.  Mr. Peebles declined.  His reasons
were given to a bosom  friend in a private note:



THE GOLD THAT WEARS.                                113
"He certainly performs most wonderful cures; but his sphere is morally repellent.
He smokes, drinks, &c. I will sooner go without money than form the alliance. In a
few years, I shall be where money is of no account. Purity and goodness are the coin
of heaven."
These jets of loving sarcasm, falling like quickening shivers of
lightning from the cloud, engraving the image of soul upon paper,
were called out by our trials in the Universalist ministry, when, like
a little boy, we sought a hand that had been sinewed by similar
storms and labors., What buoyancy in the words which Mr. Peebles
showered upon us!  We recall them  into  form  -for the benefit of
others who may be likewise sentenced to crucifixion:" PROVIDENCE, R.I., Oct. 26, 1865.
"MY SON JOSEPH, -You ought to be persecuted, - accused of beinga'wine-bibber
and a seducer;' ought to be compelled to wander about in' sheepskins and goatskins,' to
be'cast into prison,' and then let out to eat' grass' like your brother Nebuchadnezzar.
Thdh you would begin to be worth something for the use of God and his angels.
" All higher births are through sorrow and suffering. Such is the divine order. Hence
my prayer is,'Mortals, pierce him; angels, give him thorns to tread upon: for feet that
bleed are on the way to see the head crowned! Great Father in heaven, hold him tenderly, lovingly, in thy hands; for he is a dear child of thine and brother of mine, just
pluming his wings for a flight into the realms of the gods! Amen.' "
Again he writes, in a letter from Cincinnati, dated Dec. 5, 1866:-.  "Your trials, my dear brother, have truly commenced. You will find God's
grace sufficient, and his angels ever, ever present. They never forsake the true soul.
You say you have' already been sold, betrayed.' Jesus was betrayed before you. Yes,
persecution must come; and I feel just now like preaching a sermon to you from this
text in Rev. i. 9:'I, John, who also am your brother in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.'
" And did not Jesus say to the disciples,' In the world ye shall have tribulation; but
be of good cheer, I have overcome the world'?' Which of the prophets have not your
fathers persecuted?' asks one of the anciently-inspired men. My brother, you must
expect all these things. It is God's method. Martyrs' feet have always bled; but oh,
the brilliancy of their crowns in heaven!
" This life, at best, is but the shadow of that more substantial life to come. Let us
live for the future by beingpatient, true, brave, and independent in the present."
4
Trials make heroes.  Tempted, yet sinless, is true progress.  Sublime is Mr,. Peebles's moral indignation. He spares not a shred of enmity to right. During his lecturing in Detroit, -vast congregations,
working in beautiful order, - the new constitution of the Spiritual
Society was sent to the Detroit " Tribune " for publication, when the
editor appended some belittling criticisms to please the Church, no
8




114                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
doubt. Taking these comments into the desk, Mr. Peebles lashed
that editor with a whip of scorpions. When wrought up, his sarcasm  and invective are scathing as lightning!    Earnest in  his
righteous wrath, he threw the paper upon the floor, stamped upon it,
and shouted home fhe charge: "Republicans, take the' Post'! Democrats, take the * Times'! "  Then the crowd, electrified, hurrahed with
a vim.. 
Glancing into a letter addressed by Mr. Peebles to Mr. Wilson, of
Harmonia, 1859, we clipped out the following:... "By the way, one of the last slanders on the docket is this: I was seen to get off
from the cars in Detroit with a woman, and go with heron board the. steamer for the
Canada side. Horrid! This occurred last summer: it leaked out a while since, and
turned out to be my wife on her way to St. Lawrence County. The Presbyterian' babbler,' whenfaced about it, confessed that he did not know Mrs. Peebles, but thought it
was some strange woman. Surely, if the best fruit is the most clubbed, I am ripe, mellow, fallen, and ready to be eaten. No matter, let us comfort ourselves with the words,' Blessed are ye when men shall revile,' &c. How beautiful God's law that sends slanderer and slandered, the wrong-doer and the wronged, each to his appropriate place.
The heavens and the hells await each and all."...
Hearing of wicked conduct practiced in certain circles, Mr. Peebles
severely rebuked the parties.  One of these, envious and " filthy
still," trying to screen himself, reported Mr. Peebles as a patron of
such circles!  His indignation knew  io bounds.  When the leerish
fellow also declared that Mr. Peebles had forsaken his wife, making
it common talk, he reviewed the man and his villainy before his
audience, and gave him  such a " dressing-down," and all connected
with him, that the congregation surged like the stormy sea. That
was the last of the story.  The  culprit wished a millstone were
around his neck to carry him down to oblivion.
"Outlooking eyes that seek and scan,
Ready to love what they behold;
Quick reverence for his brother man;
Quick sense where gilding is notgold."
On another occasion, whilst in an Eastern city, a Unitarian minister, professionally liberal and radical, careful not to spot his garments
by touching against a Spiritualist, reported him  as infidel to his
domestic responsibilities, and a "brazen free-lover, who did not live
with his wife! "  Coming from such a source, it had its influence; of
course, to forestall his success. Hearing of the lie, and believing that




THE GOLD THAT WEARS.                        115
mincing minister morally needed a lesson to study (having before
learned of his cunning to entrap Spiritualists, in Janesville, Wis., by
promising a free house to them, as well as others, if they would help
build it, and afterward shut the door in their faces, and virtually
drove them out), he went direct to a distinguished lawyer, who addressed the " divine" a letter.  The sequel is described by a pure
and noble woman, -Mother Whittier, of Fox Lake, Wis., - in a
communication to "The Spiritualist: "" Alf honor to that wise man, J. M. Peebles! While in an Eastern town, about to
lecture, one of the present Sanhedrim, -just as potent as the old Jewish -said to individuals,'Don't go to-hear that man; he is licentious, lives with another man's wife,'
&c. Brother Peebles just stepped into a lawyer's office and commenced an action. The
result: a humble acknowledgment, which condemned the man as a liar and slanderer."
Mr. Peebles was invited to lecture in Earl's Grove, Ill., just after
a revival of religion. Instigated by the manipulations of the Church,
the boys hurled stones at the schoolhouse, and, peeping in at the windows, yelled, "Put him  out, - put out the old blasphemer!"  Mr.
Peebles then poured grape-shot upon the falses of the Church-system
in so heroic a manner persecution changed to admiration.
Whilst lecturing in Princeton, Ill., on the "atonement,"-arguing that Jesus was begotten like other men, in harmony with the relational laws of life, and that he would be ashamed to slide into
heaven on the merits of another,-a churchman, scenting heresy,
bounded to his feet, brandishing a green umbrella, and exclaimed,"You are a bold blasphemer, an infidel: you will have to answer
for this in the day of judgment.  I yonder the Almighty does not
strike you speechless! "
"I hope the brother," calmly remarked Mr. Peebles, " feels better
after being relieved of so much pious nausea."
This exasperated him; and he rushed out, stamping his feet, slamming the door after him as he departed. The confusion having subsided, Mr. Peebles playfully said, -
"The chaff always flies before the gospel fan!"
Notwithstanding a rare refinement of character, and a deep sense
of politeness, Mr. Peebles is awkwardly forgetful and habitually absent-minded, being absorbed in the ideal kingdom which sucks him
up like a sponge.
He had an appointment in Indiana, - was then at Chicago; the




116              THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
train would start at ten o'clock precisely. Having an hour at his
command, he seated himself in the sitting-room of the Union depot,
reading a book of ancient religion, and forgot appointment and cars;
oblivious to the confusion around him, till one hour beyond the time.
"Pretty business this!" he exclaimed; " this living in two worlds,
fitted for neither." When he has "just peeped out of the shell," as
he calls the dying process, and happens to find an ancient history
"lying round loose," it is conjectural whether he will not miss the
train for heaven. We suggested such a fate to him; and his answer
was, -
" Well, the other place, then! to build an under-ground railroad
up to the New Jerusalem! "
" Maybe they'll make you superintendent of that department," we
added,  " an appointment you are well qualified to fill."  Looking
at us from head to foot, he rapturously replied, -
/' And I will appoint you prime-conductor of the train loaded with
spirits from hell bound for eternal glory! Did not Jesus preach to
spirits in prison? Then let us bear a hand in their redemption."
Being at our residence one summer, the weather wet and chilly,
the wind blowing in upon him through a broken glass, he took a
sheet of paper, whistling and thinking, and beating time with his
foot, and nicely pinned it to the sash.
" There, Olive," he said at last, " see how well I have fixed the
window for you! "
Olive, glancing at it, laughed outright.
"What are you laughing at, girl?"
"Why, you have fixed the wrong pane: that one is whole!"
"So I have," he replied, jumping up, Indian style; so I have,just like me! Don't tell Joseph."
During a lecturing June month, in Rockford, Ill., he and Dr.
Dunn boarded at T. M. Clark's, an earnest Spiritualist. Greens
were a great rarity then. Succeeding in getting barely enough for
dinner, Mrs. Clark nicely prepared them, that each might have a
share from the big pie-plate on which they were richly piled. Mr..Peebles was earnestly descanting upon Mohammed's flight to heaven.
Passing tlie plate to him, Mr. Clark asked, -
"Have some greens, Mr. Peebles? "
"Oh, yes! I'm very fond of greens, — thank you;" and politely
took the plate, set it beside his own, put on pepper and vinegar, and




THE GOLD THAT WEARS.                    117
deliberately devoured the whole contents. The doctor looked; Mrs.
Clark blushed; Mr. Clark thought, "How queer he is!"  Nothing was said, of course, about the impoliteness; but when theSe two
pilgrims were in their room, the doctor asked, " Peebles, how's
greens?"
"How's greens! what do you mean?"
"Why, you ate up all the greens: I wanted some, and so did the
rest."
"Did I do that? I did, Charlie, - what shall I do? Eat all the
greens, - all, - all?"
The joke was too good to be suppressed; and Mr. Peebles made
an apology so handsome, thAt it became a by-word to say, " Peebles,
how's greens? "
One winter's evening at Galva, Ill., Mr. Peebles and his medium
were sitting together in their room, awaiting the lecture-service.
About an hour before the time, a spirit said, -
" You should center your mind on your subject: we inspire only
the active brain."
"What subject?' thought Mr. Peebles.
" The relations of the finite with the infinite."
He paced the floor, catching the light, for a few moments; and put
on his overcoat, gloves, and furs, head drooping in meditation.
Starting at a brisk pace, they passed three or four blocks, -when the
doctor chanced to look up.
" Ha, ha, ha, J. M.! where's your hat?"
" Sure enough, no hat on!" and back he ran through the busy
street, like a frightened boy.
Returning, he laughingly said, " The foxes have holes, and the
birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath no hat for his
head! - What's a hat? You are all after hats and gewgaws.'The
head is not for the hat, but the hat is for the head,' says Henry C.
Wright; and have we not a right to take it off, or put it on, as we do
theology? In the' day of judgment' it will not be asked,' How's
your hat?' remember that, my boy!"
Lecturing in Sturgis, Mr. Peebles discoursed upon " hell." In
the heat of his eloquence, he exclaimed, " Were I a saint in heaven,
and friends, humanity, not there, I would look down the battlements
into hell, lay aside my golden robe, cast my crown at the feet of the
Almighty, shock the heirs of glory, rush into the fires of damnation,
and seize my doomed brother!" -




118               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Grasping the doctor by the hair of his- head, he lifted him with
one hand from the sofa. The congregation in a titter, Mr. Peebles
seemed to rush the angels in, transporting hell to heaven!
" Macaulay remarks that absent-mindedness is the mark of either
a genius or a fool. A  man's mind may le so intensely occupied
with lofty intuitions and inspirations, that his senses, seemingly, are
scarcely awake to the realities of this tangible world."
Sir Isaac Newton, it is said, being intent on some great subject,
requested that the fire be moved.  "It would be easier for you to
move," said his servant.  " Oh, I did not think of that! " replied
the philosopher.  One day, Pere Gratry, director of the academy in
Paris, when going to the Sorbonne, where he lectured on theology,
imagined he had forgotten his watch, and took it out of his pocket
to see if he had time to go and fetch it. But this hardly beats Mr.
Peebles. In Philadelphia, he purchased a new work, entitled, " The
Bible in India," by Louis Jacolliot, a French judge. Waiting for
the cars in the depot, he became completely absorbed in it, when,
hearing the bustle, he rushed up to the ticket-master, and, looking
him staringly in the eye, exclaimed, -
" The Bible in India  "
" What?" said the ticket-master.
" Price of the Bible in India! "
Just then another gentleman asked for a ticket, and he came to
himself, so chagrined; and blushingly and meekly he said, -
" Ticket, good sir, for Chicago."
Mr. Peebles besieges heaven and earth for truth. He moves the
Spirit, that the Spirit may move him. His devotions rise into fireflashing billows that bear him aloft. He pens what he gleans, and
voices them  in speech and papers and books. -He is a spiritual
economist, making all his wares think. He speaks by inspiration;
but the nimble pen is sure to indite what saith the Spirit. By such
discipline he is able to stir the people, and engrave his identity upon
the age.  In the effort to hide himself, he finds himself.  This
modest verse of Emma S. Ledsham's pleases his ideal of imper.
sonality:"Names and titles are but snowflakes
Melting on Time's storm-swept shore:
When we cross the silent river,
They are known no more."




THE GOLD THAT WEARS.                      119
What Mr. Peebles reads must be practical,- have a moral significance for'the age.  Time is too precious to peruse defunct theology. He admires the good sense of Ernestine L. Rose. Professor
Bush once made her a present of Swedenborg's treatise on " Heaven
and Hell."  "Thank you, Professor," said she, putting the book
under the cushion of the sofa, " my daily duties are enough for me: I
shall attend to heaven or hell when I find myself in either."
In style, it is said, Mr. Peebles's writings resemble the floridness and
diction of S. B. Brittan's.  He almost lives on books. He has by far
the best library containing the philosophies of the "Mystics" and
Neo-Platonists, in America. Ensconced in his library, with his angel,
he is just the happiest man, -like a child in a garden of flowers.
Never shall we forget his joy, which he actually indicated in kisses
upon the books, when he received from England, at a great expense,
the  "Anacalypsis," " Bhagavat Geeta," " Rig Veda  Sanhita,"
"Asiatic Researches," " Divine Pymander," " Proclus," " Plotinus," and several volumes of the Mystics.




CHAPTER XIII.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH SPIRITS.
"There's a land far away'mid the stars, we are told,
Where they know not the sorrows of time;
Where the pure waters wander through valleys of gold,
And life is a treasure sublime.'Tis the land of our God,'tis the home of the soul,
Where ages of splendor eternally roll,
Where the way-weary traveler reaches his goal,.
On the evergreen mountains of life."-JAMES G. CLARK.
MORE childlike in habits, the law  of mental telegraphing practically understood, and correspondence with spirits will be as common,
and reliable  as is our every-day life.   It is something worth  the
struggle and the cost of social purification, to establish spirit-batteries
in different parts of our globe, as news-depots from the heavenly
countries, concerning the new institutions, expeditions, conventions,
world-congresses, arts, sciences, children's convocations, discoveries,
and general improvements peculiar to spirit-life.   Such intelligence,
constantly opening upon us, will quicken the inhabitants of earth
to loftier, diviner ambition. It is coming! let us be patient in welldoing.
The few letters subjoined are both real and beautiful, throbbing
with living thought most fascinating to the reader who loves to feel
the very souls of the angels breathing around us. Mr. Peebles frequently held correspondence with  spirits through J. V. Mansfield,
but these we give were through the mediumship of Dr. Dunn:" EARTH-LIFE, PAINESVILLE, OHIO, July 9, 1864.
"BROTHER OF THE BETTER LAND,... The name of your spirit home,' PearGrove Cottage,' charms me; it is musicalwith thought. Plant me a tree near the borders
of the garden, fronting your cottage, that, when I drop the staff and put off the pilgrim
sandals, I may sit in your presence, beneath its foliage, listening to your words of wisdom.... What of pre-existence? I believe it. What of re-incarnation? It's a question....  Am glad you spoke of my impressions. Could I draw the line of demarcation
between impressions of spirits and the workings of my own mind, it would be more satis120




CORRESPONDENCE WITH SPIRITS.                              121
factory. But I can not, will not, palm off my own for those of spirits. It will not be
honest. Until I can draw it, I must remain silent.... All worldly things are as husks,
shells. Earthly fame, popularity, honor, fashion, glory, will fade away as mists. I am
sick of fame and flattery; but sigh, oh! how my soul doth sigh for knowledge, truth,
all things substantial and eternal! I beg of you, as a circle, pursue that course with methat will result in the greatest good to humanity, and my own spiritual unfoldment; be
it thorns, chains, or prisons, it will be for the best, - the cup I drink!... Bear my
love to John: he is my soul's divine ideal. Wonder if he will permit me to examine his
massive library?, ifPerasee will allow me to accompany him on exploring expeditions
to the stars? if you, - Aaron Nite, will assist me to control the medium, and continue the
converse with humanity?... Having heard your voice so much, I feel well acquainted
with you; but of John, I must say with the poet, -
"' I know thee not, -I never heard thy voice;
Yet could I choose a friend from all mankind,
Thy spirit high should be my spirit's choice,
Thy heart should guide my heart,
Thy mind, my mind.'
"A word to dear Powhattan: Did you not walk with me on that stroll into the woods,
the other day, where I plucked the red berries and wild flowers, cut the hemlock bough,
and preached to the forest trees? Oh, when shall I clasp your shining hand, look into
your calm eyes, handle your spirit-bow, plumed with peace arrows?..  I have lately
received a letter from Father Beeson of Washington, asking me to devote more time to
the benefit of the Indians. Yes, I will do all in my power. God bless the Indians!
Remember me to the' Pawnee Chief,'' Red Jacket,''Black Hawk,' and others. Good
night, precious brothers!              Affectionately,
"J. M. PEEBBLES."
Traveling so extensively, and taking on so many diverse influences,
Mr. Peebles was perplexed relative to the promised wonders of different media. Pleased with the wisdom of certain spirits, and contrasting it with pretended revelations, he exclaims," Oh, the twaddle and flowery flattery in certain circles! I am strongly inclined to
Swedenborg's position. Great men are modest. When they come from the spirit world
egotistic and dictatorial, the reflective mind naturally doubts. Now,' by their fruits ye
shall know them.' This the equation: spirits the unknown quantity, media the
known quantity, what the result? Are we not justifiable in asking, Do not media,
accustomed to control, reflect in their lives the moral status of their spirit-guides? "
These moral queries, suggested to Aaron Nite, drew out the following response: -
"MORNING LAND, PEAR-GROVE COTTAGE,
In the year of earth-life 1867, 5th month, and 16th day.
"FRIEND PEEBLES,-.. You say you are growing skeptical. This is a very
essential element in the soul of man. When a man ceases to doubt relative to men and
spirits, he must attribute to them more than fallibility... You speak despairingly of




122                    THtI SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
the cause you have espoused. Do you remember the prediction I made several years
since, respecting the separation of the good from the evil? The difference can only be
learned by each one's serving in his true position.... The faith of thousands must yet
be shaken, ere they can awake to the moral necessity of this sifting. You often mentally
ask,' What shall we do?' I answer, move; sooner the letter. You have' overdone' in
your spiritual organizations; re-action must come: remember what I say! You have
ignored from your platforms articles right in principle and necessary to union. When a
man becomes a guest of your house, are you not morally responsible for his acts? Apply this rule to society. It is not the name, or claim of a man, that gives him caste in
society, but a majority of his acts.... Spiritualism has suffered more at the hands of
its friends than from its opposers. A large proportion of your present manifestations is
the voice-of spirits from the lower planes. There are flattering spirits from our side as
from yours: therefore,' try the spirits;' exercise your own judgment upon their teachings. Think of these things, my dear friend. Trim your lamp; for the night cometh,
and beyond the darkest night is the morning.       Thy brother,
"AARON NITE. t"
In silence Mr. Peebles often questioned " John." Without any verbal solicitation, Aaron Nite, acting as spirit-medium, communicated
the answers through Dr. Dunn:- -
" ROCKFORD, NOV. 8, 1864.
" BROTHER OF EARTH, - Often do I approach thee, listening to thy soul-questions.
Even though thou hast not asked, I will answer.
" 1. Yes, my brother, I am grateful to the Father for the experiences of a lengthened
earth-life. Had I the power to re-live those years, I would strive to have them more in
harmony with divine law. But, as eternity rolls on, I more clearly see how the soul-.trials which imbittered earth, only served to sweeten the delicious draughts of heaven.
"2. Yes, I was educated in a Jewish school, my governor being an eminent sage,
within whose bosom were locked the mysteries and symbols of the past.
" 3. Certainly, I have been thy real spirit-guide from thy birth, though not so direct
during thy early years of diverse disciplines; for then thou wert passing through the initiative steps preparatory to the higher principles of wisdom. Thy many disappointments,
developing a sterner manhood, will achieve for thee the crown of life.
"4. In regard to the Gospels, I will briefly answer: We, the apostles, so called, never
wrote the purported histories of Christ. The imperfect records you have are the treasured sayings of the apostles, as kept in the memories of Jewish scribes and sympathizing Galileans.
" 5. Thou askest,' Could not Joshua, now called Jesus, write?' Certainly. But you
say,'Then why did he not, and why did not the apostles?' Because in that period
there were scribes appointed to this calling. Thou canst set type; but this business is
left entirely to printers.
" 6. Thou askest me about the Eleusinian mysteries. Schooled in the Aryan philosophies, I had knowledge of those Egyptian and Grecian rites, and understood many of
the ancient dialects.
"Brother, complain not of thy abiding-place, the earth; for it is well that thou
shouldst see the cloud bedimmed sun, also hard and diverse experiences, that thy very
soul's sinews may be wrought upon, preparing thee for the tasks that await thee in the
future. Work well thy mission, then, while on earth, and sweet shall be thy reward in




CORESPONDENCE WITH SPIRITS.                              123
heaven; and bright shall be thy hopes, and light thy burden in days yet thine, which
mortality has not numbered; and sweet thy rest, leaning upon the bosom of thy
brother- when thou art worthy.                 Thy guide,            " JOHN."
Spirit-power is always limited by the organism through which it is
manifest, and therefore has the mental measure and. idiosyncracies
of its media. One evening in September, 1863, Mr. Peebles being
at home in his library-room, the medium was entranced, when Hosea
Ballon appeared, took down the Bible, turned to the 9th chapter of
Daniel, where it speaks of the angel Gabriel who touched the prophet
" about the time of the evening oblation," and added, with a sweet
dignity in his manner, " So, my brother, shall an angel appear to
thee this night." This spirit retiring, another descended to the medium, giving his name " John," at that time unknown to Mr. Peebles,
who delivered the following address to Aaron Nite, and Aaron Nite to
Powhattan, and Powhattan word for word in labored accents to Dr.
Dunn, and he to Mr. Peebles, requiring two hours in its articulation  --
"BROTHER OF EARTH, -I come from the Elysian fields of the blest to greet a brother
bound to me closely by the infinite law of attraction, -bound by a golden-textured web,
woven from those ethereal substances that float in the ocean realms of space, which can
never be decomposed or changed, only to bind more firmly the cords of affection.
" Brother, I delight to descend from the spirit-regions of beatific bliss to aid and instruct you. The cord of affection that unites us is divine. It can never be severed; but
the rapidity of your ascension must necessarily be in exact ratio with your aspirations
and minglings with me in purity, love, and wisdom.
" Dear brother, let not thy rising spirit sink. In moral, as in mathematical equations,
opposites are indispensable. The universe must be balanced; pictures must have shadings; only stormy seas can make skillful mariners, and thou, consciously gifted with
soul-power, shouldst master the lesser circumstances, control conditions, and defy moral
defects. Sometimes thou thinkest thy pathway strewn with piercing thorns; then again
in visions thou perceivest that fragrant blossoms outnumber them, and confess that thou
art blessed beyond all blessing. Remember, that sufferings are the chariots that bear
balms and beatitudes to the super-sensuous man, dwelling in the courts of the inner
temple. The sweetest flowers are mingled with briars; and why shouldst not thou, O
child! occasionally suffer-the stings that may pierce thy hands, when permitted to look
forward to the beautiful roses thou shalt ultimately pluck along the margins of summerland gardens, -roses moistened by dewdrops from the angel-world, and leaflets fanned
by the waving of angelic wings? Oh, that I could portray, or give thee some faint conception of, the surpassing splendor and beauty of the objective scenery that makes so
radiant the table-lands of immortality! But the winged pen of imagination tires, and
mortal language utterly fails to impress upon the physical retina the brilliant and
resplendent homes of the'pure in heart.' Nought but the divinest ideas can interpermeate the ever-increasing loveliness and imagery of our celestial abodes.
"  It doth not yet appear what we shall be.' Angelic beings hardly recognize time or




124                    THE: SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
space, — their garments have been washed to crystal whiteness in the baptismal font of
self-sacrifice; and, in the quiet of dewy evenings; they delight to sail adown the electric
streams that thread the spirit-land, freighted with love's sweetest messages to gladden
the inhabitants of earth. Encircling and embowering their harmonial habitations in
deathless foliage of ever-varying hue, -flowers that shed perfumes sweeter than those'vials of odors' seen by,an anciently inspired one in heaven; landscapes, begemmed
with rubies and carpeted with emerald; and pearly streams ever flowing o'er glittering
sands, every gurgle of which is like psalms from seraphic choirs.
" Brother of earth, go on; thy mission is beautiful: bear all thy trials and tribulations with a strong, manly heart; for, as'twas said in the past, by the'sweat of thy
brow shalt thou earnmthy bread;' merit the reputation of a moral hero, - a walking epistle
of well doing, and that, too, though thou treadest the wine-press alone. When wearying in thy earthly pilgrimage, and tiring of thy uneven journey, reflect upon the New
Jerusalem that awaits thee. Let thine eyes be cast toward heaven: let the key-note to
thy nature be love; thy guiding star, wisdom. Let thy soul go forth in aspirations of
purity, holiness, and truth. Let thy hands be extended toward angels to' bear thee up;'
and though the earth should cease to move, and stars to shine, thy spirit shall ever shine
like those brilliant stars of night that receive light and warmth from the many central
suns of the great univerccelum; and this central sun illumining thy spirit shall be inspiration, poured from the spiritual world, to guide thee to the portals of peace, where, when
thine earth-mission shall have been well wrought, thou shalt recline on mounds of velvety moss, thy brow be intwined with myrtle, and decorated with rose-buds, and in the
golden future thou shalt partake of the honeydew of eternal life and blessedness.
"Now, my dear brother, go on thy way rejoicing, for, though I depart from  thy
physical senses, I ever dwell with thee in thy spiritual or inmost sphere; and, in a few
short years of ripening experiences at most, thou shalt travel the shining shores of the
heavenly existence, hand in hand with me, and thine attending spirit-band.
"JOHN."
In Portland, 1865, whilst physically sick, Mr. Peebles employed
a; leisure hour in writing the following reminder of spirit-presence.
Weeping and praying as he wrote, there came at last this missive
of love, his " Guide John responding: "  "Souls, like flocks of white
winged doves, descend, that they may ascend, leading others upward
and homeward to Paradise."
MY SPIRIT-GUIDE.
"In celestial spheres above me,
There's.a spirit bright that loves me,
And, white-robed, he turns earthward in evening-time;
When surrounding souls are cheerful,
Mine all sorrowing and tearful,
He speaks musical as sainted vesper chime:
"'Tell me, brother dear, why weep ye,
Since a teacher comes to greet ye
With seraphic words of love from realms afar?'
Then with shining hand upon me,
He pointed starward, above me,
E'en to a golden temple with gates ajar.




CORRESPONDENCE WITH SPIRITS.                             125
" Domes I saw, with arch and portal,
Shimmering o'er a home immortal,
Where bridal harpers breathed music soft for them,
Who, through soul-felt aspirations,
Trials deep and tribulations,
Were found' worthy' of the New Jerusalem.
" There,'heath skies serene and golden,
With saints, seers, and sages olden,
Dwells an angel-brother, my immortal guide;
And though his soul circle throneward,
And his upward march is onward,
He comes to cheer in the gray of eventide.
" His calm presence now is near me,
And his magic touch Infills me
With a harmony so holy and divine,
That my soul with his seems blending,
While a pleading prayer's ascending:
O thou blest inspirer I seal me ever thine.
" As a brother speaks to brothers:'Thou art mine, and not anothers,
And I'll guide thee till life's journeyings are o'er;
When thy mortal's tending earthward,
And thy spirit bounding birthward,
I will meet thee at my open temple door.'
"Then was gone all earthly sadness,
And I sung for very gladness,
When fell the promise, as evangels of yore,
Soft as dews on eastern mountains,
Sweet as flowers by Kedron's fountains,
Still breathing,' Brother, I guide thee evermore. "
VISION.
One evening in 1865, weary and nervous, Mr. Peebles sat in his
study, sighing for light and rest, when a spirit, flooding the room
with a golden atmosphere, pictured before the medium an arch, under which was unrolled a scroll, whereon was inscribed, -
"PILGRIM BROTHER, -Be not discouraged while traveling in the valley of doubt
and despair; for though the uncongenial rays of disappointment's sun may shine upon
thee in thy wearied journey, and though hard may be thy tempest-tossed barque and
storm-exposed couch, still thou dost gather bright pebbles of experience along thy unwelcome journey."
Looking beyond, the medium  saw this " Pilgrim" under a shade,
fainting in his journey, and over him stood an angel, bathing his
forehead with crystal water, and pointing upward to fruit on the
over-shadowing tree; and she said, -




126                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" Then, 0 Pilgrim Brother! having passed the valley of doubt and despair, and having so long gazed upon the evergreens that bedeck the mountain-sides of peace and rest,
thou shalt in the bright hereafter be sheltered beneath the branches of fadeless foliaged
leaves upon those mountain-sides of peace and love, there to partake of the fruits of everlasting life, and drink from the crystal fountains of wisdom and love. These, all these,
shall be thine, when thy weary earth-pilgrimage shall have been ended, and the explorations of satisfactory research shall its unending course begin.       E."




CHAPTER XIV.
THE MOSAIC OF WIT.
"True sympathy, a light that grows 
And broadens like the Summer morn's;
A hope that trusts before it knows,
Being out of tune with all the scorns.
"For such a leader lifts his times
Out of the limits of the night,
And, falling grandly, while he climbs,
Falls with his face towards the hight."- M. B. SMEDLEY.
SINCE becoming a Spiritualist, Mr. Peebles has a wonderful tact
at balancing himself, as an eagle poised for battle. If his brain is
exhausted and a playmate is handy, instantly he is in a frolic, boisterous as the whirlpool-winds of summer. Then he is refreshed for
another mental labor.  Often have we sat with him at a table, writing, intent upon some great subject of value to us both, waiting, and
thinking to see it in its true light for incorporation into expressive
words, when there would come the quaintest joke or the sharpest hit
of the ludicrous, that would'seem to scatter the ideal into shreds, till
it appeared so little! When the uproarious season subsided, then the
brain was luminous with new force, and back would rush the exiled
thought clothed in golden drapery so enchanting, as if it had just
bathed itself in a, fresh fountain of immortal beauty.
His correspondence abounds in witticisms. When alluding to trials
or disappointments, he often turns all into a focus of sunlight to burn
up the darkness, and in this way keeps himself in better balance.
Burns is one of his favorite poets; and he delights to quote his hits
against popular theology like this:" Auld Orthodoxy lang did grapple,
But now she's got an unco ripple;
Haste, gie her name up i' the chapel,
Nigh unto death.
See how she fetches at the thropple,
And gasps for breath! "
127




128                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Addressing us a letter reviewing the checkered scenes of life, he
says, -
"I am a pilgrim. Have here no continuing city. God is my father; Earth is my
mother; Jesus, my elder brother; John, my spirit-guide; and among my very distant
cousins is Je-ho-ka, the ancient spirit-guide of Moses."
Finding him more attached to Pagan philosophers than Christian
churchmen building up sects, we playfilly criticised him in a private
letter, which suggested the following: —
" A clerical brother, for whom we cherish a deep heart-fellowship, writing us a while
since, commenced his fraternal epistle thus,' My Dear Heathen Brother.' The appellation charmed us. If We are to find the legitimate nleaning of' Christian' in the prevailing Christianity of this age, with its wars and pious wickedness, and if Pythagoras and
Democritus, Empedocles and Aristides, Confucius and the Neo-Platonists of later times,
were types of heathenism, count us ever a' heathen.'
" Will not our' Christian' brother join with us in singing a new doxology? -
"' To Chrishna, Plato, Jesus,
With mystics, seers, and sages,
Be honor and glory given
Through everlasting ages.'"
Mr. Peebles is an Aristomenes, sure to escape caverns of his own
digging by the leadership of some stray fox.  During one of his
speeches in Decatur, Mich., he ascended to a pitch of defiant eloquence, and then thundered down upon his hearers after this style:
"Let no man who swears come within four feet of me; six feet,
who chews tobacco; ten feet, who drinks whisky."
After this explosion, he cooled down a little, and touched the kinder
sympathies of his auditors. In the rear of the house, sat a dignified
judge, somewhat " over the bay," amusing himself at the orator's
somersets.' Rising, he deliberately came toward  the desk, commented upon " the eloquence of the speaker just seated," and suggested that he be paid for his services, " as no man can travel and
work so without money, and I propose to make him  a donation."
Putting his huge hand into his pocket, he drew out a half-eagle, and
stepped back from  the desk just four feet, saying, "I sometimes
swear."  Then stepped back six feet, —  I chew tobacco;" then
ten feet, —" I drink whisky;" and at that distance held out his
long arm toward Mr. Peebles, looking him complaisantly in the eye,
squealing out, "Here is a half-eagle, sir! " and then quietly put it
into his pocket, with the air of a Chinese sovereign.  There was no




THE MOSAIC OF WIT.                          129
chance for a retort; the house was in a perfect uproar, his own
laughter loud as the rest; and, when still again, he dignifiedly thanked
the judge for his " generous donation, - a gentleman whom he would
never forget."  And he never did.  The severe joke taught him not
to defy men by measure of distances; but to take them by the hand,
and hold upon their hearts till they twain shall be one spirit.
As is his custom in visiting places where he had previously labored,
he called, at Oswego, upon a dear old woman whom everybody styled
"grandmother," and, after the usual greeting, she said, -
" Why, Mr. Peebles, I knew you when a little boy!  Your folks
were Baptists; and you were a blessed Baptist.  After you grew up
to a man, you came here a Universalist minister; and now you've
come again, this time a Spiritualist.  Well, I never! and where will
you go next?"
Peebles was too full of a roguish courtesy to disturb her mind, except by an occasional encouraging word:"Free your mind, grandmother: it will do you good."
"Why, you will drag us all down to hell! "
" No danger of you, grandmother," he coaxingly said, patting her
on the shoulder: "don't you believe the Bible?  We nowhere read
of the damnation or salvation of women."
" Well, now, that's just like you; always turning sacred things
into fun; always just as full of your sin as you can be. Dear James,
why don't you repent?  Why don't you, before it is too late?  A
Baptist, a Universalist, a SPIRITUALIST! where will you go next?"
" Where? ha, ha! if there is any thing better, I am  going; come
on! I am going, going, going, for ever going! "
Seated in our wigwam on the shore of Elkhart Lake, one afternoon,
he full of frolic, we in serious intent of feeling, for we were talking about the hour of death, when he exclaimed,"When I kick out of this old shell, I want my head cut off, and, after being cleaned
up, the skull given to Dr. Dunn for use in his lectures, he stating to the audience whose
it once was, whilst hitting it a ringing crack to arrest attention. This disposal of my
head is understood by my wife and sister, Mrs. C. C. Beach, who consented to my plea,
amid tears, at which I laughed. At my funeral, I want a brass band playing a lively air;
and for bearers I want an Indian, a Scotchman, a German, a Frenchman, an Englishman,
an Italian, an Arperican, and as many other national representatives as can conveniently
be selected. Now, remember! Put the body in a white coffin. Be sure and have singing at the grave. Engage two inspirational speakers, one of whom I shall entrance to
address the people. You may be there, J. H. Harter, Elder Evans, Dr. Dunn, and Mrs.
S. A..Horton; and I shall be there!  Will not that be a good time? Then plant upon,
9




130                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
my grave no marble slab or monument, but simply flowers and a fruit-tree, that even my
very dust may be of practical use still in blessing those who stand there and wonder
whose the owner."
Writing a poetical article for " The  Banner of Light," Mr. Peebles says,"WHEN I GO HENCE.
"Life and death are two golden links in the chain of endless being; demonstrating
the goodness of the Divine Existence. That was a beautiful superstition, those everburning lamps in ancient tombs, imaging immortality, and the upward tendency of all
things. Death is but the severing of the physical and the spiritual, - a passing point in
the drama of each soul's endless experiences, -a withdrawing of the curtain to show us
those we love. It may be likened to a star, that, fading from our skies, illumes some
summer clime in the sidereal heavens; or to a rose twining up the garden wall to bloom
the other side; or to a grand triumphal archway, through which millions yearly walk to
those sunlit islands of God, where, among the mountains of the beautiful and delicious
perfumes, praises ascend with matin and vesper. Musing thus, I sung in better rhyme
than rhythm: -
"When I go, let no wail in the mansion be heard,
No wavelet on soul-sea or heart-chord be stirred;
But may calmness and trust their faith-offerings bring,
To blend with the triumph,' O death! where's thy sting?"
"Let the hour be morn: while the first breeze is stealing
O'er forest and flower, in sweet voices revealing
The soul's aspirations, like hymns in the air,
That rise with the incense of flowers bent in prayer.
"O'er the tomb let no willow in minor tones moan,
Nor the false phrase,' died,' be carved on the stone;
For such breathe not the truths that gleam through the portals,
That gladden evermore the homes of immortals.
-' Oh, these death-scenes are sweet! fbr the soul then receives
Vast volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves;
While each throe of despair, of sorrow and pain,
Will have burnished the links in Life's mystical chain.
" Let the harp of the'morn-queen' be newly re-strung;
There's mirth to be made, there are songs to be sung;
For a mortal has passed from the care-lands of earth
To the realms of the loved, where music had birth.
" Oh!'tis joy to stand near this glorified throng,
Whose goodness and love are the themes of each song;
Where the cross proved a crown, that to angels is given,
With the' worthy' who glide through the azure of heaven.
"Rockford, Ill., 1864."




CHAPTER XV.
LITERARY LIFE.
" He finds the laurel budding yet,
From Love transfigured and tear-wet:
They are his life drops turned to flowers
That make so sweet this world of ours I "
IN June, 1866, Mr. Peebles was unexpectedly invited to the editorship of the Western  department of "The Banner of Light."  The
spirits as the oracles of this stable paper so ordered. Adapted to this
work, heartily sympathizing with the reforms of this journal, he entered upon his mission here with enthusiasm, winning laurels by his
pen, touched with burning love.  "The Banner " became more popular than ever.  It was a success.  We extract from  his editorials
some of his thoughts, bubbling with the freshness of insoiration: —
"SALUTATORY.
" Readers, grace be with you from the Infinite, peace from the angel-world, blessings
from those beautiful spirits commissioned to minister unto mortals, and a conscious fellowship with the good, the beautiful, and the true, be yours now and evermore!...
" Earnest in the advocacy of what I deem right, true, and reformatory, I shall be tolerant to differences of opinion; holding the olive-branch of peace; exercising that charitn
which thinketh no evil; encouraging all mediatorial persons whose aims are highly purposed; and glorying ever in that freedom of discussion so natural to Western life and enterprise, -yet insisting that it be conducted in the spirit of sincerity, kindness, and
brotherly love; considering myself responsible for only such articles as I may furnish."...
The "Banner" firm -Wm. White, chairman  of circle-room;
Luther Colby, editor-in-chief; Isaac B  Rich, treasurer; in connection
with the others interested editorially or officially with this leading
spiritual journal, and Mr. Peebles " editor of the Western department "-were indeed a " band of brothers," confiding as school-fellows, faithful as teachers, true to the polarity of that institutionthe ministry of spirits - to which they ever appealed for advice in
181




132                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
matters of importance. The reminiscences of those councils together
in the  " circle-rooms," whose  central figure  is Mrs. J. H. Conant,
are all beautiful with affections best known and felt in the heaven of
heavens.
I MEDIUMSHIP.
"As friction from the contact of flint and steel eliminates the spark, so mind is the
result of two conditions of substance, physical and spiritual. Essential spirit, the positive principle, is everywhere dependent upon matter for the production of manifestations, and the molding of forms visible to the sensuous eye. Births from blendings
is the universal law.
" Though absolute spirit can not become less than spirit, and though philosophically
true that nothing can affect it in its nature and essence, it is equally true that it may be
buried, clogged, and its legitimate aims and efforts for a season be thwarted. It is generally conceded by sound thinkers and scientists, that gross thoughts, gaming saloons,
alcoholic drinks, and licentious practices, not only destroy the health and harmonies of
the body, but ruin the mind; that is, ruin it practically for high, divine uses.
"The organ that manifests mind in the highest degree is the brain, and the nerves are
the channels through which it transmits to, and receives impressions from, all parts of
the vital domain. Moreover, the delicate tissues, nerves, fluids, and forces of the human
mechanism are so connected with the brain, that whatever affects one must necessarily affect the other. Mediumship, as well as physiology and psychology, demonstrate
this. Psychologic, impressional, and inspirational mediumship has vastly more to do
with the brain than the body; but the brain can not be well balanced, healthy in action,
and harmonious in relation, when the body is physically diseased or contaminated with
immoral practices. It is very important that mediums understand this. Some have
already lost, while others have greatly impaired, their mediumistic gifts, through perverted appetites and passions; while others, from love of gain, for selfish ends, and varied
misdirections, have come into sympathetic relations with less unfolded, evil spirits, opening the way for obsessions and temporary mental shipwreck. Compensation is certain;
as mortals make their beds, whether of thorns or roses, so they must lie.
"The blessed spirits, the very tread of whose white feet make music in the heavens
that overshadow us, are anxious, oh! so anxious to have their mediums live in strict accordance with the physical, mental, and spiritual laws of their being; for upon favor#ble conditions and the purity of mediumistic life depends, to a very great extent, the
character of the communications, - the body being the sounding-board, and the brainorgans the keys and strings to the instrument.
"Place in the hands of Vieux Temps an elegantly made, rich-toned, four-stringed
violin, and give to Ole Bull a broken, rickety, shattered, ill-fashioned fiddle: while
one would discourse most delicious music, the other would only grate out wretched discord; and yet both excellent musicians. Well, the body is that exquisite instrument
upon which the mind plays; and both body and mind combined as one- wheel within
a wheel —constitute a mediumistic instrument for angelic fingers to touch in demon.
stration of immortality, and sweet communion, too, from the loved dwellers of the hea.
venly land."
GO FORTH.
"The apostles did not wait in Jerusalem for' calls' to go and preach the gospel of
the risen Nazarene, but a divine enthusiasm, streaming like golden glory into their souls,




LITERARY LIME.                                  133
forced them to go into all the world, dispensing evangels of truth and love. Did Peter
the Hermit, with bared head and sandaled feet, wait for a'call' to go and rescue that
sainted Syrian tomb from the ruthless hand of the Turk? Did those Jesuit fathers in
Louis's time, all afire with the missionary spirit, wait for invitations from India and
China? This waiting to be invited, waiting to get a call, is hardly in keeping with the
glowing inspiration of the new dispensation.
"My brother, start, strike out; take up your carpet-sack and walk! Up and away,
making every school-house, hall, and church resound!..  Cold hearts require re-kindling; the dead, buried in worldliness, need raising; the sleepy, awakening; the shiftless,
arousing; the indifferent, a new baptism. The time is auspicious. The world is cqying for our liberal, loving gospel, fresh from the spirit-world. It does not want doubt
and fear. but demonstrations of immortality, devotion, trust, love.... Here's our hand,
brother, warm, cordial. List, go forth, work for the truth; live it each day; rise to
the height of the occasion; lift and bear others' burdens; make full proof of your ministry,- and friends will flock around you, while, from the arched heavens, angels will
shower upon you unfading blooms and immortal blessings."
"YOUNG SPEAKERS.
"We desire to see more encouragement given to our young speakers, those just coming before the public. Many in the field are bearing the marks of age, - will soon pass
to the land of the' Hereafter;' and our young brothers and sisters must be encouraged
and supported.  Committees should give them warm hands, and cheering words of hope
and confidence. Among lecturers and mediums there should be no envy, no jealousy,
and no rivalries, save only as to who shall do the most good. We are all workers upon
the spiritual temple. Frescoing and tinseling are less important than laying the foundation stones. Each in place, and all for the general good. Such life-consecration should
be the divine aim..
" Charles Dickens, writing of Thackeray the humorist, says,'He had a particular
delight in young boys, always wanting to give them sovereigns to aid them in their
literary course.' Thde are young men and women in the range of our acquaintance,
gifted; inspired, entranced at times by spirits, waiting for some friendly hand to be
extended, helping them to start, helping them to finance and the means of culture, preparatory to achieving distinction in the lecture-field. Will not wealthy Spiritualists
help such? A little aid at the proper time, and these young media may become stars in
the horizon of thought, lighting, beckoning others up the mountains of the beautiful.
"Our older speakers, - those long in our ranks,- banishing all jealousies and unworthy ambitions, should manifest a deeper interest in young lecturers. Youth is no
crime. The more aged are doubtless the better counselors; but all the gathered lore
of the ages is not hived in their craniums. Under the entrancing an  inspiring power
of angels, these youth often completely eclipse their seniors; and this should and will
gladden the soul of every true disciple of the Spiritual Philosophy."
"ONLY FIRST-CLASS ENGAGEMENTS.
"Not wise and energetic, as most of our sister-lecturers, a brother speaker writes
from the East:"' Can't you get me a series of first-class engagements in the West?  If so, I should
like to undertake the journey as far as the Mississippi.... What do they pay per
Sunday, and provide entertainment?'
" The phrase'first-class engagements' seriously puzzles us. Were Jesus' of this
character, when, with a Syrian sun-scorched face and sandaled feet, he walked home



134                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
less by Galilee's shores doing good? Were Peter'the Hermit's, who, thrilled by the inspirations of the hour, traveled, fasted, and preached till faintihg by the wayside? Were
Wesley's, preaching by roadsides and in the graveyards of England? Were John Murray's, lifting up his voice in mud-hovels, school-houses, and'stoned' at that?  Pray,
what your grade of clay? what the superior constituents of your being?
" Brother, get up from your bed of easq: pray the gods to infill you with wisdom,
energy, enthusiasm; then, putting your'pants in your boots,' taking your carpet-sack
in your hand, start light-hearted as a bird for the great, glorious West. The angels
know their commissioned; the people are sensible and appreciative. The way will open
as you journey. The' pay' is generally good, - considered spiritually, it is absolutely
sirendid. The entertainment, though diverse, is excellent; social circles are cordial,
and Western hearts warm. The moral fields are white, and hundreds of harvesters are
needed  Any true and faithful man or woman could build up and sustain a congregation in almost any locality. But that sentence,'first-class engagements,' rings in our
ears. Had we been privileged a walk in Judea some twenty centuries since, we should
have hinted to Jesus the addition of another beatitude, - Blessed are the modest, for they
shall bepromoted."
" FOLLOW YOUR STRONGEST ATTRACTIONS.
"Yes, follow them, and go to the' d-.'' Do not rivers flow toward the ocean?'
Do not steel and magnet follow the law of attraction?''Do not birds in spring-time,
and four-footed beasts mating, follow the law of attraction?' Certainly.
" If men and women are nothing more than rivers, magnets, needles, and four-footed
beasts, they will do well also to follow their attractions. Are they no more? To ask, is
to answer the inquiry.
" Men and women are moral actors, made in the divine image. They are conscious
beings, endowed with reasoning and rational faculties; and, instead of being psychologized, or blindly following their attractions, they should be guided by reason, and the
spirit's highest, purest promptings. Weighing every motive, exercising the best judgment, and following the Arabula, - the Christ within, - they should be careful to distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of passion.
" Rocks roll down hill because they are rocks. Obedient to gravitation, they follow
their' strongest attractions.' It is well for alkalies and acids, well for minerals, to seek
their/affinities. Such seeking becomes the mineral plane of existence. Birds, beasts
of the forests, and the Adamic propensities, sitting like sirens in the back-brain department of the soul-house, are ever clamorously inclined to follow their attractions. There
are diviner counsels. God, Christ, angels, philosophy, and science, considering men
and women intellectual, moral, and responsible beings, unite in saying, Be guided by
reason and the soundest practical judgment."
"CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
" Capital punishment, a relic of barbarism, as a governmental policy, is at once mistaken, ruinous,and unwarranted. The history of criminality proves its inefficiency to
secure the results desired; and, moreover, every sympathetic prompting of our nature
inclines us to intercede in behalf of the unfortunate murderer, that he may live out his
natural life. A prison punishment, disciplinary and reformatory, is not only more efficacious for good, but infinitely more in keeping with the gentle spirit of Jesus and the
humane tendencies of the age.
" Hanging kills no one. It is simply a retaliatory Mosaic method of punishment, -
an unnatural process of severing the co-partnership existing between the earthly organ




LITERARY LIFE.                                135
ism and the real spiritual man. Parties thus thrust into the spirit-world, sometimes innocently, and then again all dimmed, stained, and blackened o'er with crime, retain
their individualities, and follow, too, their leading bent of mind, till they learn by observation and experience, with the unfolding of the wisdom-principle, that happiness is
attained only through obedience and right-doing. And the phrase learn, implies effort,
process, time.
" Hence, hanging people to get them out of the world, is, more literally, getting them
into the world by widening their range among men for the exercise of such influences
as they may choose to exert. This life determines the commencement of the future.
All,'over there,' gravitate by virtue of fixed spiritual law to their own appropriate
planes of action; act they will, and the effect of such action is felt in both the mortal
and immortal realms....
"The highest inspiration of the hour, the genius of the age, and the progressive tendencies of all nations, are against it. This method of punishment is entirely abolished
in Tuscany, Portugal, Oldenburg, Bremen, Venezuela, the Danubian Principalities, and
in the Swiss Cantons of Freiburg and Nurenburg; in Michigan, Wisconsin, Rhode Island,
and, we think, one or two other States. There have been no executions in Portugal
for ten years; in Freiburg for thirty-four years; and in Tuscany for thirty-five years.
Russia, standing as it were, with one foot upon the frozen ocean of the North, the.other
well along toward Central Europe, has not only abolished capital punishment, bUt
flogging with the knout. Thus moves the car of Progression, bearing onward the cause
of humanity."
" THE ORTHODOX CLERGY.
" Are not evangelical clergymen guilty of serious derelictions of duty for not dwelling
more fervently upon the' terrors of the Lord,' and the torments of sinners doomed to hell?
They seldom preach hell now as in our forefathers' day. Though taught in their creeds,
they pass it over trippingly. Perhaps the mitigation, softening down, and bridging
over of hell, form no exception to the general improvements of the age.
" The Orthodox clergy, -' fat, oily men, with a roguish twinkle in their eyes,'- opening gold-clasped Bibles, and preaching to drowsy people pressing softly-cushioned pews,
certainly take the matter very easy. Why, they smile, walking right over this crust
of hell; they crack jokes; some of them drive good bargains; others loan money, almost
forcing' infidels' to believe them insincere.
"Poetry, painting, music, art, science, commerce, telegraphic communication, in
connection with the phenomena and philosophy of Spiritualism, have all exerted their
liberalizing tendencies upon the times. The monstrous dogmas of "endless hell-torments,''personality of the devil,'' total depravity,' and kindred falsities, are being cast
away as rubbish from the minds of the truly enlightened; have become effete, barren,
dead. This living age calls for original thoughts, sublime ideas, and broader, grander
truths than were ever conceived of by Scribe or Pharisee, Moses or Calvin.
"' Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The age is going, let it go;
Ring out thefalse, ring in the new.'"
"SILENT GOSPELS.
"Every individual we meet, every emergency into which we are thrown, leaves its
impress, slight or powerful, upon the soul, just as every particle of food we take and




136                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
every breath we inhale contributes to the support or injury of the physical organism.
Of this we may be unconscious, as we are of the play of the lungs, the flow of the blood,
and the operation of the forces that digest and assimilate our food. So our moral natures
derive the elements of health or injurious growth from each of the occasions of life.
We absorb from those with whom we associate. What we see, hear, think of, converse
about, aspire to, - all these moral elements are digested and worked into our spiritual
natures, the very substance of our being, by forces that play without our knowledge,
and quite independent of the control of the human will....
" There is not a pure purpose breathed, nor earnest desire uttered, in the sacred sanctuary of home, but that steals through the walls and infills the atmosphere. Thought
impregnates thought, and sphere the spheral surroundings. Words of sympathy and
gifts of charity in lonely streets sprinkle genial influences upon the frosty air that beats
around the dwellings of the sordid. Nothing is lost. Kind deeds crystallized into character make the presence of those thus doing more sweet and divine."
SPHERES.
" Each mortal has an aura peculiarly his own; so has each mountain, tree, and
flower, and rocky stratum. The atmosphere of some houses is fresh with the elixir of
life. It is wholesome to breathe it, for the very breath of the inmates is aglow with the
balm of health and harmony.
"Who does not delight to meet good souls? When allowed their intimate fellowship,
you feel a personal baptism. You come away better from magnetic association, your
heart beats lighter, and your hands seem cleaner from having shaken theirs.  Such
choice souls are the star-rays and sun-beams that gladden the earth. Send us more,
Father!.
" Those particles of musk, permeating the walls and floating in the atmosphere of the
room, so impinge upon and impregnate adjoining particles, the odor is retained for
years. In a method somewhat analogous, mortals magnetize their beds, rooms, dwell
ings. Magnetism  is refined, etherealized substance.  Sensitives sense its grade. It
remains in rooms after the occupants have left. This proffers the key to unlock the
mysteries of haunted houses."
"THE CHILDREN'S PROGRESSIVE LYCEUM.
"Youth is the golden time, the impressional period. The child's mind, like the
daguerreotypist's polished plate, naturally receives impressions from the surrounding
objective and subjective worlds; hence the necessity of liberal and exalted teachings
to beautify youthful natures, preparatory to the Harmonial Age, of which the Spiritual
is but the John the Baptist. Thanks to the angels for the inauguration of these Lyceums,
-schools in celestial lands; and thanks to A. J. Davis for being the mediumistic instrument of importation to earth, and translation of these educational principles into
form, making them  interesting and practical for the growth of the young in their
earlier years!
"The aim of the Children's Progressive Lyceum  is to cultivate the whole being,
physical, mental, and spiritual, in harmony with music, law, science, - with the beautitul principles of nature."
"STRIKE!
"Inconoclasts will be necessary so long as there's rubbish to be removed. Jesus
came anciently to abrogate the ceremonial law, and abolish Jewish rites and creeds,




LITERARY LIFE.                                 137
leaving not' one stone of the temple upon another.' Now Christ, the spirit, comes again;
comes in the'clouds of heaven;' comes attended by'ministering angels;' comes in
the influx of ideas and principles; comes the grand constructor of the age. The temple
is spiritual. These are the progressive steps: investigation, phenomena, knowledge,
dissolution, recombination, inspiration, progression, brotherhood, harmony. Out from
these sectarian schisms, political partisanships, and social antagonisms,- out from the
chrysalis of old forms, trembling, tumbling, are emerging living men and women,
armed and winged to do the work demanded, during the closing decades of the Nineteenth Century."
"FLOWERS ON DESKS.
"Blessings upon the fingers that pluck, weave, and decorate the home, the schoolhouse, and the church. Flowers are God's divine bibles; and sweetly do they inspire
speakers with loftier thought, uttered with deeper fervency of soul. Jeremiah Brown, a
prominent Spiritualist of Battle Creek, his home embowered with shrubbery and roses,
appreciates the beautiful as well as the utilitarian. His good lady-companion, famous
for refined taste, conscious of our needs, fowarded by express, each Saturday, bouquets
and baskets of flowers for the speaker's stand in Library Hall, Chicago. Accompanythg one of them were these impromptu lines: —
"' May their beauty weave a spell'Round thee, in which naught can dwell
But the purest, holiest feelings,
Wrought from truth's divine revealings!'"
" PRAYING.
"'Pray for me!' How horribly shiftless that sounds! Would you not like to have
us prepare your food, fan you to sleep, dust your pathway, and carry your groceries?
To one constitutionally lazy, is it not sweetly bewitching to trust in a vicarious atonemeit that saves through the'merits' of Jesus Christ? Is not this one secret of Orthodox
success in cooping converts?
"Pray for you! No: pray for yourself; pray with your hands, feet, legs, —Fred
Douglass-like; macadamize your own roads; construct your own bridges; plow your
own fields; earn the bread you eat; digest your own pabulum; heal your own hurts;
get to heaven by your own merits; work out your own salvation, - be somebody! "
"SPIRITUALISTS AT FUNERALS.'When the mortal sleeps the sleep of death, and the soul is marching on to the sunnier homes of the angels, the eyes of the loving left behind are tearful, and their hearts
heave and ache. It may be a tender father or mother, sister or brother, that in life professed and prized the blessed principles of Spiritualism. The day of burial comes; and
who ministers at the altar of consolation? A Spiritualist teacher? a seer with vision
open to the glories that glitter in the temple of the Eternal? Oh, no! but a sectarian
clergymen is invited, - a man that knows nothing of the nature of death; nothing of the
condition of the departed, or of the activities and heavenly beauties that make radiant
the spiritual world. Is this showing a proper respect to the ascended soul? is it honoring
the-truth? is it honoring our principles? and, unless we honor them, how can we expect
others to'?
" From our soul's depths we forbid.any sectarist shooting off his sepulchral mouth at




138                     THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
or over our corpse, charged with the doubts, dogmas, and superstitions of the past. If
Spiritualists desire or claim the respect of a thinking, cultured community, they must
first respect themselves, respect their principles, and practice them in letter and spirit.
Enthusiasm for an idea, enthusiasm for eternal principles, is grand beyond description.
The public speakers employed in voicing the truths of the harmonial philosophy are
peculiarly adapted to minister words of comfort atfunerals, and woads of beauty at the
marriage altar."
" PRE-EXISTENCE. -ETERNAL EXISTENCE.
"Souls, as mathematics, have their axioms. Circles only are endless. Geometry is
of universal application. Every particle of substance follows the line of its strongest
attraction. All subjects, modes of motion, proceed in straight lines, unless controlled by
intervening forces. That can not be spiritually or philosophically false which is mathematically true. Parallel lines can never meet. Beginnings imply endings. Conditions
that form may, by the introduction of foreign conditions, depolarize. Could circumstances constitute or create living, conscious entities, other and mightier circumstances
might'uncreate.' An eternal past existence, then, is the only basic foundation upon
which to place the fulcrum to demonstrate a future endless existence....
" What is man?  Analytically, he is body, soul, spirit. The least of him is body;
the most, spirit, the essential inmost. The best of man, then, is spirit. But what is
spirit, human spirit? It is both substance and formi —essential primal substance and
essential form, - God the Infinite finited.
"Man, as body and soul merely, is the man of the theologic schools. As such, he is
mortal, sinful, dies. But the divine eternal man is neither mortal, sinful, nor dies; that,
is, man in the third, the Deific degree. The scale runs, beginning with the lower, outermost, intermediate, innermost, a trinity in a seven-fold organization. If God is the fountain, man is the drop. If God is the infinite soul, the infinite consciousness of the universe, man is the finite. Man, then, in the best and divinest definition, is the synonym
of God, and necessarily as eternal. This is the'Divinity that stirs within,'
mhe quenchless fire that burns on the celestial altar, the eternal potency that incarnates
itself for mighty destinies. The universe alive with God, and embodying the positive
and negative, something as the opposites of a mathematical equation, descension and
ascension, must of necessity be the methods of evolution, - the ever-continuous modes
of infoldment along the segments and up the spiral circle of endless being. Synthetically, man is unitary, and trifold in manifestation.
" Man being, then, what we have defined him, hi strict eternity follows as a matter
of necessity, and his pre-existence is clearly proven. All conscious mortals, in their
inmost spirits, being essentially Deific, they must have existed during the whole past
eternity, and will, for the same reason, through the whole future eternity. Analogy,
revelation, manifestation, have little to do with future immortality, except to illustrate
and make it known to the outer and sensuous. They do not create the truth. In fact,
pre-existence itself, when logically and fully demonstrated, is not positive proof of immortality, in the sense of endlessness, disconnected from the Deific; for the idea of preexistence itself goes no further back into principle than the creation of essential man,
which, once admitted, his dissolution is just as logical, and follows as a matter of course.
From nothing, nothing comes. Creation and annihilation are but necessary counterparts
of each other. Admit the one, and you embrace the other. Creation is only apparent,
not real; annihilation is the same. What is termed creation is merely incarnation,




LITERARY LIFE.                                139
formation, or change of state. It is the clothings that spirit gives itself in its descending
cycles of movement.
"That men live on when their mortal bodies are dissolved, Spiritualism abundantly
demonstrates. But this fact affords only the feeblest proof of their immortality, in the
sense of eternity; for, though they live after physical dissolution as they lived before
birth, yet, being created, and having a beginning, they may, yea, should, for the same
reason, have an end. Absolute endlessness can be affirmed only of circled being. All
that begins, ends. The line that has a beginning has its ending. If doubted, extend
the line till imagination tires; tread it till you faint, then retrace your steps and you
find an end. The sea ebbs and flows. The sun that rises has its setting.,All that is, is
substance, spirit. Matter is phenomenal, and was precipitated from spirit. It ends
again in spirit. The darkest worlds opaque started from spirit, - translucent, transparent, making their grand cycle of movement. As worlds, they end; end because they
began. It is their nature. It is law; the law of change, precipitation and ascension,
outflowing and inflowing, electrical and magnetic,- the latter relating more to the
soul, the former to the body constantly, the ponderables gathering from the imponderables, and as constantly the ponderables becoming imponderables again.
" For ever man goes forth. Outgoing, incoming, is the eternal law; descension and
ascension following each other in eternal movement, and in orderly succession. Thus
ever onward lies the progressive pathway of man, taking on the more etherealized in
each grand cycle of his being, yet never exhausting the eternal fountain, for it is infinite.
" Celestial man grows outwardly from himself as spirit into six degrees of expression,
his seventh degree being himself, most internal, most Deific in the special or analytical
sense. But man is most Deific, in the unitary sense, when making his upward cycle
of movement; for then he excretes his negatives, his superficial and artificial characteristics, and makes himself more consciously immortal in wholeness, - in the seven degrees of his trifold being, conscious of his past consciousness, -a harmonic trinity in
unity. How wide the circular sweep! how vast, how mighty, the destiny of humanity!"
While Mr. Peebles was editorially connected with  " The Banner
of Light," he took strong grounds, as the above article shows, in favor
of pre-existence.  His positions were pointedly but kindly criticised
by W. A. Danskin, Baltimore, Md., a sound thinker and able writer.
In reviewing the reviewer, Mr. P. said, -.
"Do not connect this position of ours, relating to pre-existence and eternal existence,
with transmigration as taught in China, with the metempsychosis of Egypt, and the theories of old Asiatics. It has little or nothing common with those superstitions, from
which originated the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Matter, through
processes diverse and inverse, continually ascends to higher degrees of refinement; but
souls, divine souls, allied to the infinite something, as drops to an ever-flowing fountain.
descend."...
Quoting  Jesus  and  Plato, the most distinguished  philosophers,
seers, poets, and authors of antiquity, with several writers of the
present favoring the hypothesis, he continued, -




140                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" Against this strong array of positive testimony, from representative minds both in
the past and present, all the negations to the contrary ever breathed, or booked, amount
to no more than the hum of passing insects. What is it to astronomers, though a thousand blind men testify they. never saw dark spots upon the sun's surface? That Homer
was sightless was Homer's misfortune.
" Something or nothing are the only two possible postulates. If something, substance;
if substance, eternal; for all substance has in itself the divine energy or quality of endlessness. Therefore, once in existence, always in existence. Forms only change. The
converse is equally true: once out of existence, never in existence.' Ex nihilo nihilfit;'
from nothing, nothing can come. If an individual, then, were absolutely once out of
existence, as a conscious individuality, tell us how he' got' into existence. The telling
will solve the startling and heretofore inexplicable phenomenon of something from nothing,- somebody from nobody.
"Again, if a fortuitous concourse of atoms, or pre-arranged conditions, circumstances, or relational incidents, conspired to make this thinking, conscious individuality,
MAN,-' mark well,' man (not his physical tenement, not his more etherealized, spiritual body, but man,- essential, divine man),- may not future, pre-arranged conditions,
or more potent circumstances, conspire to unmake him?  May not beginnings have
endings?  Our position remains then: man apre-existent being; man an eternal being!"
"  NEITHER DO I CONDEMJN THEE.'
"'Abandoned women,'-that's the phrase in common parlance.  Abandoned of
whom?  Not of God, for owning, loving all, -'his mercy endureth for ever;' not of
Jesus, for from that pure, affectional soul there still comes the gentle words,' Neither
do I condemn thee, go and sin no more;' not of the angels, for there continues to be'joy in heaven' when, through angelic pleadings and intercedings, an erring one is
brought to repentance; not of the spirits of the'just made perfect,' for they delight to
minister to the least and lowest for redemptive purposes; not of philanthropists or reformers, of the good or the true. Abandoned of whom?  If by anybody, by those
passional men instrumental in their temporary ruin, and such of their sister sex as,
from a vivid consciousness of being themselves human, with a taking tendency to the
weakness of yielded temptation, put on the extraneous airs of a purity too exalted to
touch, or snatch from further degradation, a sister once pure as the crystal snow, and
still God's child, bearing the divine image.  These pretensions, not Jesusonion, are
thoroughly Shakespearian, -'If thou hast no virtue, assume to have it.'
" In the sight of God, angels, heavenly hosts, and constellations of philanthropists on
earth quite unknown to fame, there are no abandoned women, no abandoned men;
for God, heaven, sympathy, mercy, love, and redemptive efforts are over and around all.
" Under the oily crust of city life, there lies half-concealed a huge, hideous vice, that
often those who are too delicate to talk about it are not to delicate to practice. It is frequently termed the' social cancer.' With venemous roots pushing out and down in every
direction, it is the destroyer of inward peace, the enemy of happy households, and
fatal to the mental and spiritual growth of the soul....
"With the more positive and guiltier sex, it is generally animal indulgence and
violent outbreaks of passion, rooted in ante-natal perversions, often intensified by rich
diet, tobacco, liquors, and other stimulants. Relative to the other sex, in a majority of
cases, the primal causes are ante-natal tendencies, psychological susceptibilities, and
stern life-necessities. Not choice, but poverty, love of costly dress, temptations to
indolence, harsh treatment of parents, sensual grossness of husbands, and the wiles
and false promises of seducers, -these are the more immediate and prominent causes.




LITERARY LIFE.                                 141
"Full one-third of the women wandering in towns and cities, under the gaslight, are
driven into the streets, and dens of pollution, from pressure of poverty and extreme
want. Think of it! Woman, with the original seal of innocence and sweetness upon
her countenance, compelled to choose between starvation and prostitution!
" Society, - another name for gilded sham, - and even women in the higher walks of
life, of whom we are heartily ashamed, will, while smiling upon, waltzing and flirting
with the libertine, full-fed and gay, turn sneeringly away or mercilessly trample
upon the starved victim of his lust., To the fallen sister their language virtually is,'I
am holier than thou!' Heaven save us from a pharisaic self-righteousness!  NKone
is good' (absolutely good) said Jesus,'but one; that is God.'  A boasting, satisfled, selfish, do-nothing purity will find itself outside the walls of the city celestial,
long after negative, erring women have, through fiery trials and severest discipline,
been permitted to pass into those upper kingdoms of God to put on robes of beauty.
Sainted sisters, ye who are safe from terrible temptations, because moving in circles
above penury, and walking in the sunlight of noble souls, be sparing of the stones
you hurl at those who fell, through miserable wages, psychological influences, and a
fashionable world's crushing coldness!
"Efforts of Magdalen Societies in this country have done something; but the' Midnight Meetings' of London have done more for this class in England. A living writer
tells us that, -
"' To one of these meetings an afflicted mother sent her own daguerreotype, in hopes that
her erring daughter would recognize the face, and be won by its mute pleadings to a better life.
The picture was passed around in several meetings, until at last it met the eye for which it
Was intended, and the guilty girl burst into tears and set off for the home of her childhood.
" The evil is patent. Where and what the remedy? Centralized into a sentence, it is
this, -The independence of woman! Make her, or help her to make herself, socially,
maritally, politically, and financially independent, and you have laid the ax at the root
of this deadly upas-tree. Systematized, the method will bear this general statement:
Afull recognition of woman's primal equality with man....
" The constituents of our social edifice should not be cemented by the force of interest, habit, or circumstance, but by virtue, integrity, purity, justice, sympathy, and love,the mightiest principles in the universe of God. Society, constituted of individuals,
should look after the highest interests of each member, remembering that whatever
benefits even the least, benefits a world-wide humanity.
" Theorists must make their reform-theories practical.' What have you done?' is
the question the angels ask. To gossip, tea-party fashion, about these'unfortunate
women upon the town' amounts to nothing.  Up, and do something! To talk about
their condition deploringly, to pray for them devotedly, to think of them tenderly, to
shun them in the streets gracefully, to speak of them sisterly, is talk, - cheap talk!
nothing more.  Away with this silver-tongued hypocrisy!  Do something.  Redeem
them; and the blessings of the angel world shall be yours! "
MY PEACE.
"This is recorded of Jesus, in the tenth chapter of Matthew,' Into whatsoever town
Dr city ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till ye go thence....
And, if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it; but, if it be not worthy, let
your peace return to you.' Whenever the inmates of a house are exacting, selfish, angular, and inharmonious, —when their rooms are badly ventilated, beds unwholesome,
apartments tobacco-scented, dishes pork-pickled, and pastry even swimming in swine




142                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
juice,' my peace returns to me.' and I can not' there abide;' for six things, to speak
biblically,'doth my soul hate,' yea, seyen things are an abomination unto me, viz., tobacco, whisky, pork, feather-beds, coffee, razors, and sectarian theology. And when
the fragmentary letters and epistles of the spiritual dispensation are collected and voted
canonical by those who in future years shall minister at the altar of freedom, may the
above portion of gospel according to Peebles share no such fate as did many of the'manuscripts' at the Nicene Council. Amen."
" WHY AWAY FROM THE SPIRITUALISTS' MEETING?
"'Because they act so!' Who are they? If you are all right, holding papers of canonization, the greater the necessity of your being an active worker among the' they,'
helping them to become right also. A retired saint is something new under the sun.
Would it not be wise to widen the influence of your saintship, thus aiding others to become saintly? Jesus ate with sinners, and God's sun shines into marshes and miry
pools. We are not scolding our inconsistent brother; for, by way of contrast, we love
him, - love him something as we admire the background to a picture, or the mud from
which spring and bloom beautiful lilies.
"'Well, I attend when they have a very fine speaker.' Indeed! what a condescension. The fastidious prince that sought the golden chariot sat on the sod. Quakers
frequently consider their' silent meetings' the most profitable. You, my brother, are
not only devoid of principle, but have yet to take your first lessons in the school of moral
obligation, and the inspiring effects of right influences and examples."
" CHURCH INFIDELS.
" Christians swallowing all the scriptural camels of the Jewish ages: believing that
God made the world in six days; that he walked in the garden in the cool of the day;
that he came down to see the city and the tower; that he made woman from one of
Adam's ribs; cast down great stones out of heaven; took off the Egyptian's chariot
wheels, and sent the she-bears to eat the children; believing that the waters of the Red
Sea opened for the passage of the Israelites; that the quails fell around the camp some
three feet in a single night; that the walls of Jericho fell at the sounding of a ram's
horn; that Samson caught the foxes, and carried the gates of Gaza; that Elisha's ax
was made to swim, and the sun and moon to stand still: believing, too, that the
whale swallowed Jonah, and all because booked and labeled holy! They believe those
ancient occurrences, though purporting to have happened two, three, and four thousand
years ago, among those old, selfish, warlike, and murderous Jews, and then traveling
down to us through a corrupt Roman Catholic priesthood! And yet, while piously believing the above, with other theological monstrosities, they reject the evidences of their
senses; reject the trances, visions, healings, and spiritual gifts of the present; reject the
candid testimony of Thomas Say; reject the testimony of Judge Edmonds, Robert Dale
Owen, Senator Wade, yea, hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands, in our midst whose
integrity, eminent social positions, and high moral worth are an honor even to this Nineteenth Century. Great God, have mercy on the souls of these Church Infidels I For
them, we promise to'pray without ceasing,' as enjoined by the sainted apostle."
" MARRIAGE.' True marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship; and there can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity, and no integrity without
love. Love is marriage, and without it there is no marriage.'
"Steel to magnet, bud to sunbeam, require no chemical formula; neither does soul




LITERARY LIFE.                                143.o goul need a Romish ritual or mere formal ceremony; for what God by the fiat of cmniptence has joined together will remain together, and what he has not, no priestly
mimery or conventional legislation can keep together only in the external. The letter
killeth, said the apostle. But beautiful, divine, holy, the true monogamic marriage,man and woman; positive and negative; two halves of a circle! own to own; heart to
heart; soul to soul, in a sweet, divine duality, embosomed each in each."
"HUMAN RIGHTS,
"Ignoring such specials as' woman's rights,'' man's rights,'' freedmen's rights,''Indians' rights,''Chinamen's rights,''children's rights,' we prefer that better term, at
once broad and comprehensive, HUMA5N RIGHTS! As related to woman, they may be
classified in this wise: —
" I. The right to vote, hold office, and select that life-vocation'best adapted to her
glowing genius.
" II. The justice and moral necessity of paying her the same wages paid to men for
the same amount of labor accomplished.
" III. The exercise of the same privileges that are granted to men in such civic advances as look to friendship, courtship, love, and the marriage relation.
" IV. The creation of such a high public sentiment as shall gladly guarantee equal rights
to all, with no rivalry save that which would strive to build up, beautify, and bless the
most souls."
Immediately after returning from the war, Mr. Peebles was called
by S. S. Jones, Esq., to  a great meeting of Spiritualists in  St.
Charles, Ill., where he delivered an earnest speech, of which the
following  is an  extract, published in  "The  Religio-Philosophical
Journal: "
"Wars darken the horizon in every direction. They are the seeming necessities of
existihg conditions. Destruction ever precedes the diviner construction. Wars have
their uses on certain planes. Nevertheless, my soul shrinks from war and all inharmonies. The divine within me calls for peace. War can never quench the war-spirit.
The North, its armies and navies, has not yet taken the first step toward subduing the
South. You may conquer, or even exterminate, the sons of the South; but that is not
subduing them.
"Bonaparte conquered, but did not subdue, Europe; Russia conquered Poland; Austria, Hungary; and England, Ireland: but so long as an Irish heart can throb, or a sprig
of shamrock remains green, so long will the sons of Erin hate English oppressive
rule. Only love and wisdom can subdue. Moral power only is employed by God and
angels to uplift humanity.... All the races compose one universal brotherhood, and
armies with white banners, palms, and olive-branches would tend to make the atmosphere so positive with goodness, - yea, they would so infill the air with the moral magnetism of love, justice, and truth, that the rebels would be struck dumb as by flashes of
light from angel hosts. It was this power that felled Saul to the earth, and turned the
prodigal to his father's house. It is the Christ within, - the mightiest redemptive power
in the universe."
" REFRESHING PREACHING.
"The clergy frequently announce their subjects these days, as a sort of stool-pigeon
edticement to draw in the fluttering, floating crowd. A late Washington Sunday Morn



144                     THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
ing' Chronicle,' - a paper, by the way, that refuses to publish notices of Spiritualist meet.
ings under the head of' religious meetings,' -contained the following notice undeAhe
head of' religious intelligence:' -                                          1
"Subject of discourse at Dr. Gray's church (E-street Baptist), to-night will be:' The
incidents of the flood; the ark; the builder; description of the ark itself; its stormy
passage; the place where it anchored; the first morning of a new day.'
"Important'religious intelligence,' truly!-incidents of the flood; the ark; the
builders of the ark, and its stormy passage! This and similar evangelical intelligence
the Washington'Chronicle' generously publishes.
"With all due deference, we seriously inquire what the people of this country care
about Noah's Ark, or other of those old myths and legends that characterized the Jews.
Is it not more legitimate to deal and do with American steamers, their passages, the
accidents occurring, loss of life, and causes of the same?
"No matter how the Israelites were fed: are the -poor of this country- each city,
hamlet, neighborhood - all fed? No matter about the number of horns on John's mystic
beast, or the mechanism of Paul's tents. We have to do with the living present; the
lessons of this day; the necessities of this age. Oh, for living men and women to occupy
the pulpits and rostrums of this hour! speaking words that flame with holy fire; words
that convince; words that touch the heart's deepest affections, moving the masses up on
to that broad humanitarian plane of toleration and justice, sympathy and fraternity."
"THE PRISONER MY BROTHER.
"Loitering, a few days since, with a friend in a rear yard of Auburn State Penitentiary, I saw, jutting through the window-grates of a prisoner's cell, trailing vines, and
flowers in full bloom, placed there by pale hands in morning's time, to catch the sunshine; and I said,' He can not be a bad man!' My sympathies were touched. I wanted
to extend to him a warm hand, call him my brother, tell him I loved him, and would
fain come unto him. Be sure, in an impulsive Tnoment, he may have committed a
crime, and infinitely greater criminals may have pronounced upon him the stern sentence. Did not Jesus say,'Go and sin no more?' Gladly would I have borne him
on loving wings into the realm of better conditions, placing him amid summer surroundings, and, calling angels to guard him, bid him look hopefully toward a smiling and
peaceful future."
" GOD, FATHER AND MOTHER.
" Ignoring the fetich gods of Africa, the repenting, jealous God of Judaism, the clanging, angry-getting God of Catholicism, the partial, malicious God of Calvinism, the masculine, miracle-working God of Universalism, we find infinitely higher conceptions of
Deity in the definitions of Plato, Proclus, Jesus, Parker, and Davis: -
"' Of good there is one eternal, definite, and universal cause,- the infinite soul.'
"' God is spirit, and spirit is causation underlying all things.'
"' God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth.'
"' To God, our Father, and our mother too, will we ascribe all praise.'
"' The great positive mind of the universe, Father God, and Mother Nature.'
" Spiritualists believe in the Divine Existence, the Infinite Esse, embodying and enzoning all principles of mind and properties of matter; all wisdom and love; life and
motion:'God manifest in the flesh,' and every thing else, from sands to solar systems.
This is the spontaneous concession of the world's consciousness. Egypt's Osiris, India's
Brahma, Judea's Jehovah, the Grecian's Jupiter, the Mussulman's Allah, the Platonist's
All-Good, the Theist's Deity, the Christian's Our Father, the Northman's Odin, the




LITERARY LIFE.                                  145
Indian's Great Spirit, express more than glimmerings of universal beliefs in that God
whose altars are mountains and oceans, and whose pulpits are fields, earths, orbs, and
circling systems, perfect in order, musical in their marches, and flaming with holiest
praises.
" Rejecting the human-shaped, prayer-hearing, personal God of evangelical theologians' —because personality logically implies locality, and whatever becomes localized
in space is necessarily limited and imperfect, - to us, God is the Infinite tpirit; soul
of all things; the incarnate Life-Principle of the universe, immanent in dewdrops that
glitter, and shells that shine; in stars that sail through silver seas, and angels that delight
to do the Eternal's will. When we designate God as the Infinite spirit-presence and substance of universal Nature, from whose eternally-flowing life wondrous systems have been
evolved, we mean to imply in the affirmation all divine principles, attributes, qualities, and
forces, positive and negative, - spirit, and matter as a solidified form of force, the former
depending upon the latter for its manifestations.  The masculine'can not create. There
was never a higher formation without the two forces, positive and negative."
" CONCEPTIVE IMMORTALITY.
"All newer and higher formations result from the blending of positives and negatives.
So, upon the plane of humanity, when the positive and negative relational forces unite,
then and there is the divine incarnation. From that moment, the embryonic child is an
immortal being; the divinity has taken on humanity; God is manifest in the flesh. Whoever destroys that germinal man or woman is a criminal in the eyes of all seers on earth
and angels in heaven. Nature absolutely never takes a retrogressive step."
" MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.
" Better to be deceived by mortals, now and then, than deprived of the real joy and
beauty of calm, deep faith, in our kindred kind. All have their angel side."
" Have you portions of God's green earth you call your own? Do you rent, even?
Put out the choicest fruit-trees, decorate them with rare and symmetrical shade-trees, and
embower them in trailing vines and roses. Angels delight to visit such beautiful homes."
" The system of evangelical religion, toggled up in the dark ages of popery, is purely
a policy religion, full of adaptations and worldly expediences, counting on profits and
losses at the judgment-day, and is completely mechanical, having hells and devils for motive
powers."
"The highest and holiest are tinged with melancholy.... Seers are sadder than
others."
"As Spiritualists, we regard dancing, at proper hours and places, a harmless and
pleasant amusement, conducive to health and a genial flow of t~e soul-forces. It imparts
an animating influence to the brain, and conduces to a proper balance between the muscular system and mental activity."
"Grand is God's old rock-book, -a Bible that never required a'revision;' a gospel
never bound in calf, nor man-lauelled'Holy.' The masses, with open eyes, go blindly
through the world, kicking aside the stones that reveal in their formations the history
of countless ages past."
" It is terrible, - this chaining by law a living, progressive, spiritual woman to a dead,
masculine corpse! "
L" DEATH.
" Death, a divine method, is sleep's gentler brother.
"Death, a severing of the physical and spiritual copartnership, is life's-hhieSt proph.
ecy of future progress.
10




146                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"Death is the rusted key that unlocks the shining portals of immortality.
"Death is the glittering hyphen-link that conjoins the two worlds of conscious existence and holy communion.
" Death is like opening rosebuds, that, in ever-recurring Junes, climb up on garden
walls, and, blooming, shed their sweetest fragance upon the other side.
" Just as well ask the blade of wheat to return to the kernel, or the singing birdto its
old shell, Is a freed, immortalized spirit to the disintegrated physical body at some supposed future resurrection-day.
" Behold Faith, trimming her lamps in the darkness of the grave! Tears are crystallizing into celestial dews.
"All of earth's mortals enter the future state of existence mentally, morally, spiritually, as they left this, retaining their identity. Death imparts no new faculties.. It is
no saviour; only a transitional agent, introducing pilgrims and students into some higher
department of the Father's mansions. Salvation is a process, a divine method of the
soul's unfoldment, attained through obedience to the perfect laws of God."
"THE DEPARTURE OF CHILDREN.
"' Did the angels have a funeral, mother, when I left heaven, and came to earth to
live?' asked a precocious child. It was a soul question, a cognition of pre-existence.
The coming and going of infants, like descending and ascending waves upon a measureless ocean, are parts of the Infinite purpose. Nature would not have all the buds and
blossoms of orchards mature in ripened fruitage: so the tree of life lets some of its tenderest buds droop and fall, to bloom in the gardens of the angels. Those airs are more
soft and balmy, those climes more sunny. There is no lovelier sight than an infant's
form  encoffined for the tomb.  Spirits, through trance and inspirational media,
should speak upon such occasions. The burial should be in morning time. No dark
procession, no tolling of bells, no gloomy looks, should mark the quiet passage to the
grave; but, dressed in holiday attire, and garlanded with the freshest, brightest flowers
of spring, the sleeping body should be borne to rest. Glad songs should be sung; joyous
music should ring out upon the air; and pleasantly, as to a festival, the gathered group
should go its way, feeling that the child is not dead, but gone before, - gone to the loveland lyceums of heaven.
"Weeping, mourning, and darkened drapery are no signs of intense sorrow; but
rather of doubt and atheism. Much of mourning is rooted in selfishness. The more
external, the more conspicuous the weeping. Displays at funerals are as common as
unchristian; sham and show, going with the superficial to the very threshold of the
sepulcher. There are sorrows too deep for tears, as there are prayers too divine for
utterance. The fond Mexican mother, relying upon weird, ancestral traditions and the
teachings of Nature,' who has household treasures laid away in the campo santo, - God's
sacred field, — breathes a sweet faith only heard elsewhere in the poet's utterance,' or
the Spiritualist's philosophy of immortality. Ask her how many children bless her
house, and she will answer,'Five; two hqre and three yonder:' so, notwithstanding
death and the grave, it is yet an unbroken household; and the trusting mother ever lives
the thought, -
"' We are all here, -father, mother,
Sister, brother, all who hold each other dear.
"When children are disrobed of the earthly, their spirits are borne to spheres of innocence, and there received by heavenly matrons and good angels to be educated. Oh,
how those angelic beings, full of affection, delight to teach infants and little children,
such as Jesus took in his arms, saying,' Of such is the kingdom of'heaven'! Variety




LITERARY LIFE.                                  147
is a necessity in all worlds. Heaven would not be heaven without children. It would
lack the joyousness of childish innocence and educational progress. Our departed children,-aye, ours still, -buds of spirit-beauty; lights in the windows of heaven; the
angels of the future! "
"A SONG FOR THE SAD.'" Our heart is brimming with songs to-night. We would sing them to the sad. Take
my hand, weary pilgrim: it is a brother's. Off with all masks; away with reserve.
Tell me of life's uneven voyage, -its blighted hopes,.piercing thorns, trials, losses, defeats, struggles, and disappointments. There is profit in confessions that bare soul to soul.
Neither of us has secrets.  All lives are unrolled scrolls, open to spirit inspection.
Each is his own recording angel, and memories are immortal. What you are, I am, or
have been. What you have felt, I have felt in my dual life-experience along some segmentary portion of the endless circle of being. Go on: I sense, feel, your life-history. * It
is wild, weird, witching, and big with the blessings of suffering. Now, all told, the good
and ill measured, with their necessary compensations, has it not been glorious to live, -
to live a thinking, reasoning, conscious, and immortal individuality, with infinite possibilities before you? Could you afford to lose the rusted links even from the chain that
connects past and present? Have you not gathered and treasured rich experiences, that
will serve, through you, to strengthen others in their weakness and their peril?  Have
you not seen more flowers than thorns; smiles, than tears; suns, than clouds; and have
you not heard more blessings than cursings, and a thousand merry peals of laughter for 
a single groan?
"Has thy life been stained and blemished?  None are perfect; the best have their
failings: despair not; the good of earth, and the sainted in the heavens, delight to aid
the aspirational.' Come unto me,' said Jesus. The angels echo the song, come,' Come
up higher.' Look not to the past with painful regrets. In ascending a ladder,-the wise
never look down to the broken rounds. Every step the prodigal son took in the outward
from his father's house was spiritually a step toward it. Husks helped bring him to'himself.' When himself, he was right, human nature being innately good. This prodigal's bitter experiences of hunger, want, suffering, proved eminently salvatory. The
good father loved the repentant son nonethe less for his wanderings. God, angels, all
good men, love the erring. A mother's prayers pierce dungeon bars. The philanthropist hopes for all, loves all, has faith in all.
"No oak, lifting its head, catching and kissing the sunbeams, regrets that it was once
an acorn, and fell, - fell into the mud, to be buried, bruised, chilled, and frosted with
snows. Progression implies a lower condition to progress from. It was wisdom not to
commence conscious life on the physical side perfect. Those fixed stars, that gild measureless distances, shine and sing all the sweeter from having been nebulous fire-mists,
floating in oceanic space: so noble-purposed souls, tempted, falling like the child in the
effort to walk, yet rising, wiser for the pain, stronger in will-power, treading the winepress of the world's wrath alone to-day, stopping by the wayside to-morrow to help the
more unfortunate, will find their path ultimately widening, brightening, and opening at
last into the shining portals of immortality, where peals of victory shall blend with the
grand oratorios of souls long housed in the heavens: -
"'Men saw the thorns on Jesus' brow,
But angels saw the roses.'
"The Nazarene, though ever attended by ministering angels, shrank from the pain
of the thorn-crown. Father,' Let the cup pass;' thus he prayed: thus ever prays earthly




148                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
weakness.'Not my will, but thine, be done,' responded the divinity, the Christ-princi.
pie within.
" Carbon shrinks from the fierce chemical fires that transform it to diamonds. Flaxfields tremble at the transitional methods necessary to white linen napkins; and youthful
sailors would fain shun the rough oceans requisite to making them skillful mariners.
Mortals are but children in the eyes of the angels. Beautiful is the divine plan, with its
infinitely-diversified methods of soul-discipline. There was never a birth without agony;
a beautiful bloom without an aching, swelling bud; a musical instrument, —lute, lyre,
or harp, - without grating, tuning processes; and even'craftsmen,' and mystics in their
upward pilgrimages, meet with' ruffians,' rough roads, repulses, and fiery ordeals, ere
they pass the' vails,' sit in the council chambers of the worthy, or rest in patriarchal
tents. Aspiration and effort are the soul's jewels. Courage, brave ones: the gods help
those that help themselves. Oh, it is grand to build the road we travel on; erect the
ladders by which we ascend; carve our own mental statues on living, conscious forms;
and construct our own homes in the upper kingdoms of beauty and blessedness!
" Come, then, barbed arrows and dark-winged sorrows! Ye are all masked angels,
leading souls oft by strange, inverse ways through thorn-encircled doorways into the
inner courts of the beatified; the golden temples of the gods, whose every soul-tear will
be transformed to a pearl; every groan die away into music; every sigh prove to have
been a fore-gleam of a seraphic smile, and the sweetest, divinest ideals of earth, the imperishable reals of eternity! Courage, then, fainting soul! Every winter hath its spring;
every ocean, its glittering gems; every frost, its shining crystals; every thunder-storm, its
compensating health; every cloud, its silver lining; every ruin, its twining vines; every
wave-tossed ark, its dove; every blood-stained cross, its flower-wreathed crown; and for
every paradise lost, there are thousands to be gained! Patiently wait, then; wait and
labor; wait and trust. Yea, be courageous, brave, hopeful, joyous, happy; for a good
God reigns. Eternity with its infinite glories is stretching in mellowed radiance before
you; ministering angels are beckoning you onward, upward; and loving archangels,
standing upon evergreen mountains, and amid the matchless splendors of summer-land
scenes, with wreaths, palms, and glistening robes, are inviting and singing,' Here's rest
for the weary, and crowns for the worthy.'' All these, and infinitely more than tongue
can tell, shall be thine, 0 children of earth  when ye are worthy,' saith my angel.
Good-night, dear pilgrim friends. Sweet dreams to you, and kind angel-watchers. We
shall meet again."




CHAPTER XVI.
HEART-ECHOES.
" It is a little thing to speak a word of common comfort,
That by daily use hath almost lost its sense;
Yet, on the ear of him who thought to die unmourned,'Twill fall like choicest music."
LETTERS to our loved ones, not intended for the public eye, like
words spoken in the ear with the music of love, always have soul in
them.  Artless is friendship; and how beautiful are its life-pictures!
No one surely has a tight to refuse the world the aroma of these
flowers, all a-drip with the morning light.
Mr. Peebles's private correspondence has been immense, with people
of every profession of life. One of his bosom friends, with whom
he has had intimate relation, both in letters and direct co-operation, is
Hon. J. G. Wait of Sturgis, Mich., of whom  he delights to speak
" as a counselor and solid pillar in the spiritual temple." He loves
to recall the happy interviews with Revs. Higginson, Towne, Frothingham, Henry Ward Beecher, and with  the political honorables
who rendered him favors connected with the spiritual gospel, - Sec.
Fish, Howard of Michigan, Harris of Louisiana, and Prof. Worthen, state geologist of Illinois.
" COURTLAND, N.Y., Jan. 31, 1863.
"DEAR MR. PEEBLES, -Have you forgotten taking a young man aside in Courtland, several years ago, and telling him the very thoughts of his soul? Oh, those kind,
hopeful words! God only knows how much I owe you for the interest you manifested
at that trying period of my life. All that I am, or nearly so, I am indebted to you for... Our publishing house is in a flourishing condition.
"Most sincerely,                        H. S. CLARKE."
" LA CROSSE, Wis., Sept. 3, 1863.
"MY DEAR PEEBLES, - This morning I received a kind letter from you, which took me
in the arms of memory like a child back to the olden days of budding anticipations.
Am glad to hear from you. My heart sinks down into old scenes, memories, and incidents, as one sinks to rest in a bed of down. The printing-office; the ride to Athens;
149




150                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
the scared woman whose babies and pigs we did not run over; the visit to Towanda;
the improvement to your sermon! Well, well, time has borne those days to the rear, and
still the Aght goes on.
" I am older than when last we met. My eyes are wider open. The world and I have
skirmished and battled; but, on the whole, I am ahead. Glad to hear you are coming
out this way. The heart is still in the same friendly place for you as of yore....
"I shall publish one or two books before spring; and, as you will read them, you will
hava an idea of what kind of a man (in theory) the boy you used to speak so kindly to in
the East makes in the West. Write me....
"With the best, earnest wishes for your health, happiness, and prosperity,
*'I am the same,                    MARK M. POMEROY,
" Otherwise'Brick' Pomeroy."
A lady friend, M. E. Tillotson, of Binghamton, N.Y., in a letter
of Oct. 2, 1864, recalling the dreamy past, sends Mr. Peebles this
poetic billet-doux -' I mind me of a quiet home
By sweet affection warm;
I mind me of a cozy nook
All sheltered from the storm,
Where oft in childhood's hour I sat,
And mused upon the story
Of a Saviour in a manger born,
The cross his crowning glory."
The following note from  Bishop  Clark  (Episcopalian) was addressed our " Peace Brother," L. K. Joslyn, who introduced Mr. Peebles to him  as a " Representative Spiritualist: "
" PROVIDENC, Dec. 10, 1864.
"DEAR SIR, - I shall be happy to see the Rev. Mr. Peebles at any time that he may
find it convenient to call. I expect to be absent from town on Tuesday, and until the
latter part of the week. I mention this in order that he may not call while I am away
"Respectfully yours,                   THOMAS M. CLARK."
Speaking of the conversation with Mr. Clark, about the truth of
spirit manifestation, Mr. Peebles reports him as saying, -
"' You are just designed to traverse the country, and scatter seed to get the golden
fruit: but I,' said the bishop,'instead of scattering the seed, am content to graft into
the old trunk; and, if I put in too many grafts, they will absorb the juices and spoil the
whole tree.'"
The author of this is the wife of Rev. C. F. Dodge (Universalist).
She accompanied it with an accurate and interesting psychometric
delineation of our Pilgrim's attributes of character: —




HEART-ECHOES.                                 151
" PALMYRA, WIS., June 19, 1865.
DEAR BROTHER AND FRIEND, -.. I thank you for the interest manifest m our
behalf. I hear the words,' Come up higher;' but the way I know not. I felt strengthened
by your presence and teachings, during the brief visit, and felt then as if I would say'out loud,''I am a Spiritualist.' If I understand my own heart, I have but little sympathy with the creeds now prevailing, - can not feel the interest in denominational matters that I once did.  The scale seems to me an ascending one...   Your visit here
was a streak of sunshine to my sister, Mrs. Bunker, as well as to us.
"Truly yours,                               C. H. DODGE."
Wishing to post himself in the standard  ancient works, Mr. Peebles, in the fall of 1865, called on Ralph Waldo Emerson, the  NewEngland Plato, whose life-philosophy is so spiritual. Giving him the
desired  literary  information, these  moralizers  talked  about  the
" Spiritual movement."   Writing of this happy interview, Mr. Peebles reports, -
"This' Sage of Concord' said,' The universe is to me one grand spirit maifestation;...but as to the minor, the specialities so to speak, I shall have to refer you to Mrs.
Emerson, who is much interested in these spiritual matters.' "
" CHICAGO, March 10, 1866.
" DEAR BROTHER, - I was just thinking how patient God must have been to wait so
long for fullest working out of ultimates from commingling primates. And then I thought
the reason why is obvious enough; because He sees aprinciple. Those only lack faith
and get out of patience, who have not entered into' the holy of holies' of ever-unfolding
life. To understand aprinciple is eternal life. No man can have pure'Platonic love,'
unless he has climbed the topmost peak of unfoldedprinciple....
"  The truth shall make you free.' The unfolding of principle shall make you free.
Nobody can bear and forbear, up to the divine standard of human needs, unless he sees
clearly into, and all the way through, the principle, or the nature, of things. Nobody
can comprehend the divine standard which turns the'other cheek,' except him who has
learned beyond the region of approximates.... You are the vacuum of appreciation
into which my spirit can flow and find a resting-place.         SETH PAINE."
STURGS, MICH., June 24, 1866... "MY DEAR BROTHER PEEBLES, -Yes: I think we shall have a good time at
the State Convention in Battle Creek. We certainly shall if we are all in the right spirit;
if we seek not any personal end, but only the amelioration and elevation of ourselves and
our fellow-men. I know you, at least, will so seek the precious good of our dear humanity. My country is the world; my kindred, all mankind; and, though we are all imperfect, I feel thatmost of us who will gather there will come to the great work of the age.
"Cordially,          SELDEN J. FINNEY,"
" CHICAGO, Sept. 21, 1866.
"ESTEEMED BROTHER J. M. PEEBLES,-...How cheering! we have in our
midst noble souls, whose tested morality, purified sympathies, and holy affections combine in earnest, practical work, - whose influence casts the shadow of sunshine...
Were it not for this fact, the bitterness of the dark side of Spiritualism would cause us to




152                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
retire from public labors, sorrowful at the tardy movements of so-called reformers. But
the issues of the hour bid us be faithful at the post of duty, discriminating between the
true and the-false, within and without.                    ALCINDA WILHELM."
"PUTNAM, Oct 9, 1866.
"DEAR BROTHER PEEBLES, -- God bless you for your kind letter, so much needed.
How I love your beautiful teachings! It seems as though you are my elder brother;
and I can come to you for counsel.... Thine,              A. E. CARPENTER." *
"BRIDGEWATER, VT., Oct. 12, 1866.
" BROTHER PEEBLES,... You say you are' almost a Shaker in theory, perfectly
so in practice;' that the idea of freedom of the affections' has been a bone of contention,"
&c. I believe in freedom of affection; but not indulgence of lusts under the name of Love.... To me, the honest recognition of this philosophy of soul-union is of the utmost
importance. When men believe it, they will not degrade their manhood, and insult the
brute creation with such indulgences as now fill the land with depravity.... There
then will not be as many divorce cases as now.... May the dear angels bless you and
keep you as pure, true, and good as I know your soul desires to be!
"M. S. TowNSEND."
The following extract was written just after the stormy convention
of Spiritualists in Chicago. The author was formerly one of the editors of " The Spiritual Age." Has not the able brother told us the
truth?  Has there not been a " daubing with untempered mortar?"
L W/TASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 25.
"DEAR BROTHER PEEBLES,-... An organization is not to come by throwing
together a heterogeneous mass of antagonistic materials, expecting them to fall into order
and harmonious combinations. Nature's method, God's method, is different. A little
seed, or nucleus of life, is deposited; and this attracts to itself such materials as are fit
and proper to constitute the body to be built. So, if there is to be an organization among
the crude materials of the Spiritualistic field, it must come of the deposit of a germ of
vital truth, first in individual hearts, - or, perhaps, in an individual heart, - so vital as
to attract around it by slow concretion the individual particles that will form a living
and powerful body. I have no faith in the Convention-al method. It will eventuate in
nothing but the formation of, at best, a lifeless body, an external shell, not pervaded by
the living spirit. Let these little nuclei begin to be formed, and I slall have some hope.
But these must not be mere financial organizations, - "to sustain a free platform," -
on which a babel of contradictions may be enunciated. There must be a basis or center
of vital yet catholic truth, -something positive, and not merely negative,- something
which shall be esteemed of more value than all things else, - something which shall
pervade and control the daily life of the believer...
" Our meetings are got up too much on the star system of theatrical managers. Speak
ers are employed.to draw, not to tell practical truths, or to develop a practical form of
faith, or lead the way to a divine life.... I earnestly recommend you for Washington,
and am glad you are engaged. I anticipate much from your coming.
"Yours truly,                   A. E. NEWTON."
* This brother has been for years the efficient missionary for the Spiritualists of Massa.
chusetts.




HEART-ECHOES.                                 153
These words of our sister, an efficient physician, have a ring of
perfect steel, pure  and  clear in  fiber, divinely practical.  Millions
will thank " Lucinda" for this beautiful letter, thus, to her surprise,
made justly public: —
" DETROIT, MICH., NOV. 28, 1866.
"DEAR BROTHER PEEBLES, - Your last two sermons in Detroit gave me inexpressible joy and hope; because of their plainness upon that subject which, it seems to me,
lies at the foundation of human progress. I mean the righteous generation of human
beings. I want to bless you for your bravery in ascribing the beauty of Christ's character, to some extent at least, to his antenatal conditions.
"But (pardon me) in the evening, when you spoke so forcibly, and I think so truly,
of the sin against blasted human buds, did you not stop just where it might be inferred
that the guilt rested mainly on the mother?
"I know your heart is right here as everywhere, and doubtless your head too; and
I will not say it is your duty to go farther in public: you and your guides know best.
But I have felt impelled, for the sake of the thousands of overtaxed, unloved, suffering,
must I say outraged wivds, to beseech you to be faithful to husbands. If not in public,
then in private, arrest their attention in some way. Men can control this whole matter
if they will; and I have faith enough in human nature to believe'tis not so much depravity as ignorance that prevents. Then give them light. When women have no unasked children, there will be no more murdered ones. If the soul becomes immortal at
conception,'tis but a step to the truth that there should be no waste of the life-forces. I
am glad, thrice glad, that you accept that truth. I almost think, when that is generally
accepted in heart and life, the world will be saved.
" Am I presuming in giving you these hints? if so, my love for humanity, my earnest
desire to see the race lifted from ignorance and death into light, life, and happiness, must
be my apology.
" Now, permit me to say, not to flatter, but to inspire, -few, very few are so well prepared to handle this whole subject as yourself. Your psychological power over an audience, your personal purity and delicacy, fit you admirably for the task. I can not but
feel that this duty, in a peculiar manner, is resting upon you, and, when well performed,
one of the brightest, sweetest buds in the wreath placed by the archangel on the brow of
the youth, will have unfolded to shed its beauty and fragrance on a grateful world.
God bless you, in the inner and the outer man, and make you ever more and more
useful, is the prayer of             Your friend,
"LUCINDA S. WILCOX."
" CROWN POINT, IND., Feb. 15, 1867.
" MY DEAR BROTHER, -... As time bears us on through this world, I feel more
and more your brotherly spirit. There is one soul linked with another in golden chains,
riveted with the saintly hands of angels. All that I am lowe to you.
"LT. H. E. LUTHER."
"MOUNT LEBANON, May 17, 1867.
" J. M. PEEBLES: My Esteemed Friend, - I have just read an article in the Western
Department of " The Banner of Light," which no man in the outer court of the temple
of the Lord on earth but yourself could write.
"You are a blessing to your race, a living spring in the desert of Korah. It is truly
comforting to my sin-wearied soul to read such words as the article referred to contains




154                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"Go on; and be it your mission to teach the holy truth of the existence of a Resur.
rection Order, of which Jesus was but the type to this generation; and many will hear
and read, and believe and bless. When they find that on earth they may rise with Christ,
or rather Jesus, into an angelic estate to love God with all their hearts, and that they
have no need of any lust of the flesh or mind to make them complete in happiness in
time as in eternity.
"I send you my love, for your love of purity.
"We have just received a visit from an editor of the Agriculturist Department of
"The Tribune," N. C. Meeker, a man like minded with yourself.
"Your friend,                   F. W. EvAN."
" PENN YAN, N.Y., Nov. 5, 1867.
"MY DEAR BROTHER J. M. PEEBLES, -It is now nearly ten years since you came
to me in Battle Creek, and kindly laid your hand upon my shoulder, speaking in my ear
the first words of true, manly friendship that I ever heard. I then doubted you. I
judged you by my past experiences; but you taught me the world is not all pretension.
I oftentimes think that my life was a stupendous vision, or half-wakeful dream, up to
the very hour I first met you. Then and there the sunlight of usefulness shone upon
me. Then my guiding star wheeled me into a new orbit, while over your luminous
path I cast a dark shadow. Faithful to the charge intrusted to your care by the angel' Morning Star,' you held out firm to the end, until time by its reward proved your labors
not in vain. With a heart overflowing with deepest gratitude, I remember all this....
" My audiences are increasing. May the blessings of God's ministering angels rest
upon you!
"Thank God and the good angels, the battle is past, the race is won, and the victory
is ours!                    "Your sincere brother,             E. C. DUNN."
"BUFFALO, N.Y., Jan. 17, 1868.
" J. M. PEEBLES: Dear Sir,-... I must tell you how deeply I have been pondering your little sermon,'An apple is good for nothing, if it falls off before it ripens.' So
I mean to hang on; for Heaven knows I am green enough..
I" You spoke to me of a volume yoa expect to issue,'Spiritualism among the poets.'
Pardon me for asking if your attention has been particularly directed to William Blake,
artist and poet of Queen Elizabeth's day, I think. He claimed to get both poems and
pictures, you recollect, from angels; and gave proof enough in his works, I should judge,
of the verity of his claim.
" When I was a little girl, his simple rhymes that prefaced' Mary had a little lamb,'
were sweet to me as wild honey. You recollect, -' Piping down the valley~ wild, -
Piping songs of pleasant glee, -
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he, laughing, said to me,' &c.
Fit beginning for a poem with so heavenly a moral,' Why, Mary loves the lamb, you
know.'                   Very respectfully,            AMANDA T. JONES."
"NEW YORK, Sept. 11, 1868.
" MY DEAR BROTHER J. M. PEEBLES,... If you can use me in any way, only
say so. Time, money, the legal profession, any thing at your command that man can
accomplish, I will promise to do for you.... With the-help of higher power, ere long,




HEART-ECHOES.                                155
I trust, you may hear of your young disciple, whom you caused first to look into this
great and glorious subject of Spiritualism....
"Yours fraternally,                 GEO. M. DAIFORTH."
"NEW YORK, Sept. 26,1868.
"DEAR FRIEND PEEBLES, -HOW  often I think of you, of your blessed work.
You saved me spiritually.... Your articles in " The Banner," replete with thoughts
ennobling, afford me much happiness. The one concerning'Demons, obsessions,' &c.,
I read with great interest. Bless you, brother! The angels, I believe, from the choice
fields of thought and wisdom, cull for you both blossoms and the sweets to shed upon
your life, - so full and abundant does it appear.
" Your very true friend,          MILTON RATHBUN."
Rev. Geo. Severance, of Glover, Vt., Universalist, corresponded
with Mr. Peebles. In a letter of June 13, 1869, after a kind allusion
to Rev. Eli Ballou, editor of " The (Universalist) Repository," as a
Spiritualistic  brother, whom   Mr. Peebles  favorably  noticed, he
said, 
" The value of Spiritualism consists in the fact, we have access to the other world,
and can judge of the nature and character of its inhabitants. The revelations of Spiritualism on this point are worth more than all the bibles and treatises that have been
written from the old point of view. We can see now how the sacred books of the Oriental nations originated. We can look upon Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, Mohammed, and
all the old worthies, not as impostors, but as men moved and inspired by the spirit-hosts
of the departed of their respective nations."
When N. B. Starr had painted  " John"  for Mr. Peebles, he, the
artist, gave him these words: —
" Go forth, my son, in the might and power of truth. Dare, and do all things for God
and humanity; and so am I ever vith thee. Amen!                      JOHN."
"EAGLE HARBOR, N.Y., Sept. 26, 1870.
"MY DEAR BROTHER PEEBLES,-... You speak of my being at McLean, the
scene of your labors. Yes: I heard of you everywhere; and, in preparing for your saintship, it would be well to settle the still open question, where you preached your first
sermon? I was assured, at Kelloggsville, that it was there. At McLean, I was informed
by several, that your first public utterance was heard there; and when I got to Mr.
Larned's, at Peruville, he assured me that I was in the house and the identical room in
which the said first sermon was delivered. Well, wheresoever it was, I was delighted
at so much hearty appreciation....' Yours truly,    A. C. WOODRUFF."
Emma C. Odiorne and her friend Carrie M. Grimes, " literary,
and pure in heart," called Mr. Peebles " Spiritual Father," because
of his kind  counsel and moral instruction.  "Emma,"  now  living




156                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
in the spirit-world, addressed him beautiful poetry, from which we
quote: -
" Steady, earnest, firm of purpose,
Thine the power to aid and guide
Souls, that, wavering, stand beside thee,
Trembling on Life's rolling tide."'Mediums —dear sufferers in  this fighting world, precious links
in the living chain let down from angels - everywhere receive Mr.
Peebles's deepest sympathy and co-operation. Better than all others,
they sun themselves in the spheres of the benevolent.




CHAPTER XVII.
THE WORKER AND HIS WORKS.
" Some souls are descended directly from the line of archangels who have tasted the fruits
of the gods, and are alone immortal."- CORA L. V. TAPPAN.
THOUCG taxed with labors in a thousand ways, connected with " The
Banner of Light," correspondence, lecturing, and other duties, Mr.
Peebles resolved to edit a book on " Spiritualism," whose historic
materials he had been gleaning for years. We suggested that another
work was then more essential for the spiritual public, - a singingbook. Both of us seemed to be blind to the responsibility. A certain angel was accustomed to play upon a harp; so he said " Call it'The Spiritual Harp.'"  One year of great toil, with the co-operation
of Prof. E. H. Bailey, and the brain-wearying task was performed.
It appeared in the market Sept. 1, 1868: Wm. White & Co., publishers.  " It is a success," said Theodore Tilton, of the New-York
" Independent;" and so it has proved.
The " Harp " finished, Mr. Peebles immediately wrote a sparkling
pamphlet, entitled, "' The Practical of Spiritualism: a Biographical
Sketch of Abraham James, and Historic Description of his Oil-Well
Discoveries in Pleasantville, Pa., through Spirit Direction."  Here
was a happy blending of the spiritual with the practical, demonstrating that the spiritual philosophy is destined to open up the hidden
wealth of earth in mines, oils, gases, plants, jewels, and be, in the
hands of inventors and mechanics, the science and rule of new improvements in human industries.
In September of 1868, full of enthusiasm as ever, Mr. Peebles determined to complete his great work, and came to our " sweet home "
in Sycamore, Ill., with his huge piles of manuscripts and monster
trunk, whose weight of precious books has caused many a hackman
and porter to swear with an unction of blessing right in his face, one
167




158                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
fellow suggesting that his punishment be to " carry that trunk on hi,
back all over hell once a year! "  Traveling with many books is a
sin against muscles and economy.  " Light luggage as possible with
convenience " was the after motto of the " Pilgrim: "   beware how
we provoke profanity! " Sundays he lectured in Chicago to increasing audiences; week-days he was at our table, both working, vis-avis, under a power of inspiration that seemed to open the flood-gates
of heaven.  In four weeks the manuscripts of the " Seers of the
Ages" were in the hands of the printers.  Presto change  Off
again he flew to St. Louis for a masterly effort there, lecturing on
the angel gospels.  " Seers of the Ages " is read in every part of the
enlightened world, and is cherished with gratitude to the author for
his " pure and lofty sentiment."
When all these books were in the market, another duty was imposed by the angels. It was a " Thus saith John." We both felt a
cloud of tears that burst overhead.
The " Lyceum Guide," whose name " suggested itself," is " the
prophetic charge, battle, and victory."  With this promise we pressed
forward, the angels selecting for us the necessary help to give it diversity.  James G. Clark, the American ballad-singer, and Emma
Tuttle, the sweet poetess of Berlin Heights, Ohio, were added to the
band of authors. With perfect harmony we all wrought, each in an
appropriate sphere, for a full year; the patterns being given " on the
Mount," with instructions to preserve the Lyceum  system, projected
from the spirit-world, and impressed upon the sensitive mind of A. J.
Davis and others. It has made its debut in the critical market, and
is running the race demarked by the heavenly counsellors: Adams &
Co. of Boston, with J. Burns of London, imprint, its guardian publishers.
We extract- from " The Banner of Light," Mr. Peebles's summing
up of labors, simply for one year: 
After alluding to his public writings and private correspondence,
and the books just mentioned, he says, -
" Have attended several grove-meetings, three State conventions, and the National
convention in Rochester, N.Y. Lecturing each Sunday, save one, have spoken in these
different localities: Hammonton, Philadelphia, New York, Brooklyn, Charlestown, Boston, Worcester, Buffalo, Pleasantville, Titusville, Milan, Battle Creek, Omaha, Springfield, Topeka, Chicago, and these last two months in St. Louis. Have attended twentynine funerals, and have been present at eight weddings, performing the ceremony.
" Hope to accomplish more during 1869. The field is the world. Spiritualism is the




THE WORKER AND HIS WORKS.                               159
great living movement of the age. Its watchword progress, its triumph is certain.
What the recompense for untiring labors in the reform-fields of the times? Let the
patriotic and self-sacrificing Garibaldi answer:  In recompense for the love you may
show your country, I offer you hunger, thirst, cold, war, and death; who accepts these
terms, let them follow me.'., "The future is all star-gemmed and rainbow-crowned. Let us on, then, brave soldiers, fighting the good fight of faith, wielding the sword of the Spirit. Under and in
sympathy with the bannered hosts of God over us, let us on to victory."
The following, from  friendly letters meant only for private  eyes,
index the business of the man in the sphere he fills; whose example
here will certainly evoke ambition to " Go thou, and do likewise: " -
" BATTLE CREEK, Dec. 29, 1858... "The day is dark and dull, but my spirit is bright and strong to battle for the
right, and the upbuilding of the Harmonial Dispensation. Last Sunday, labored in
Chicago. Had a good time. Saw Mr. and Mrs. Anderson of Lasalleill., mediums.
He is a spirit portrait-painter. Through him, in an hour and about three minutes, I got
a picture of Powhattan, my dear Indian friend. He is a noble-looking spirit, though an
Indian all over. Tell'Nellie' to send back my sister's heart. Spiritualists should not
steal."
" NORTH COLLINS, PA., July 5, 1864.
" MY DEAR CHARLIE,-..   My lectures in New York (thanks to John and the
circle) were a perfect success. When I was through the second evening, Brother A. J.
Davis came on to the rostrum, and said these kind words:' You dear brother, you have
baptized us with the very love-dews of heaven. You have twined yourself around all
our hearts, and left your blessing with us for ever.' I had a splendid time at his house.
His nature combines the simplicity of a child with the metaphysical acumen of the
philosopher. I spent some timewith Judge Edmonds and Madame d'Obeney, the greatest woman traveler of the age. Her description of Mt. Vesuvius and the Pyramids was
grand. Oh, I almost want to run away, and travel in Asia! "
" PROVIDENCE, Dec. 14, 1864..    Senator Sprague is a Liberalist; his mother, a very devoted Spiritualist. Tomorrow I spend the afternoon at their green-house. In winter a green-house is next
door to heaven.'
"NEW YORK, Feb. 9, 1865.' J. M. is himself again. Has passed the' second watch, and, though roughly handled,
trusting in his guide, reached' Mount Repose.'...
"Last Sunday, ten mediums gave me their cards, offering to give me their'sittings;'
but I think some of them, in their souls, wanted me to' puff' them in' The Banner of
Light' more than any thing else. Still, I appreciate their kindness, and should more,
if they did not' daub' on the flattery so thick. I am not' an angel scattering sunshine,'
but an angular and inharmonious man, doing what I can, as aided by my circle, for
humanity....
" Oh, that I had a body that my soul could use! The truth is, I am too submitting,
too much afraid of making people trouble.... It was very kind in you, brother, to inquire after my' purse.' I need somebody to keep it for me, and always did. It costs
me nearly all I make to pay traveling expenses.
"Be cautious, my brother, what you say to women and men. Think before you
speak."




160                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" MILWAUKIE, April 10, 1865... "The bells are ringing and cannon thundering in honor of the surrender of Lee's
army to Grant. Well, I shall rejoice in peace; for deep in my soul do I love it."
" SHEBOYGAN FALLS, WIS., April 20, 1865.
~.. "My life has been a struggle, a battle. It probably ever will be, though
mediums are continually volunteering their services to point out flowers, smiles, and
prosperity just ahead. I am coldly unmoved and skeptical to their beautiful pictures.
It is Emersonian to accommodate one's self to fate.... I would rather talk with Aaron
Nite than eat, or drink when thirsty; but I find I can live and enjoy myself without any
verbal conversation with him. It is probably at times best, as it inspires me to entertain myself, and further acquaint myself with the knowledge and book-wisdom of this
world, knowing there is an eternity for me' Over the River' to study its. mysteries
under the teachership of' John the Beloved.' I suppose the self-poised, well-balanced
man is never alone, never inclined to give up or despair; for he feels that law, destiny,
fate, are over all, and' all is for the best.'... I laugh at each pang.' Better that I
suffer than cause any one else to suffer;' so says John."
"BATTLE CREEK, June 16, 1865... "My more ancient spirit-friends have kept me among the rubbish of old historians with reference to the ancient civilizations, say twelve and fifteen thousand years
ago....
"I am crowded with business, - so crowded that I know not which way to turn.
During last week, I had invitations to attend four grove-meetings (Dewitt, Charlotte,
Livonia, and one in Indiana). I refused them all, and also a pressing invitation to attend
the two-days' anniversary in Sturgis this week, - Saturday and Sunday. Must write,
instead of tramp, tramp, so much!
" On the Fourth, I deliver an oration in Laphamville, Mich.; am also urged to give a
temperance address in Valparaiso, at a festival. There's no end to these calls: I should
like to be in the spirit-world, and have about five mediums to control; think I could
keep them all busy, after getting the' hang' of the machines."... "I like some of Dr. C. A. Andros's spirit-controls much. One, an ancient Jew,
is keen anid sharp as steel, and he fairly got the better of me on one point in an argument."
"BOSTON, MASS., Monday after Convention at Providence, R.I...  Am weary and worn out, tired of shaking hands, tired of being on committees, tired of talking, and sigh for the quiet of a pleasant old pine forest. The convention was a great success: you ought to have been present. It accomplished much.
Report will be in the' Banner.'... The convention was high-toned. Father Pierpont
was in his glory. He has since gone to glory! Dear saint, he: I loved,- still love
him."
" WORCESTER, Aug. 23, 1865... "I have visited m; dear parents, spending several days, and shall go again.
Father is feeble.... I am with Dr. O. Martin, where I always enjoy myself gloriously.
His garden is full of pears, reminding me constantly of Brother Nite; his house full of
books; he has always a seat for me in his carriage. He has removed the obstruction in
my ear, just forward of the tympanum, with an instrument and by syringing with warm
water, so that I can hear all right. The doctor knows something; but I would give
any thing to have Dr. Schwailbach take him'down the banks'-medically -just
once.




THE WORKER AND HIS WORKS.                                 161
"Next Sunday I am to speak in Plymouth, ever memorable as the landing-place
of the Pilgrims. It is the Mecca of the Congregationalists."
"BATTLE CREEK, Dec. 20, 1865.
"BROTHER  * * * *-Home at last; dearest spot to..... Found your letter
awaiting me. God bless you, preserve you, and angels hold you in charge! You are
my soul-brother. I love you, and can not help it: hence there is no merit, is there?
Wish you were here to' lay hands' on my weak eyes; that would test your apostleship.
They are some better, however. You say'rest, rest.' Dear brother, there's no rest this
side the grave. Calls and correspondence are continually widening. How true,' Life
is real!' My unseen angel and inspiring influence tell me, that we have yet a work to
do in concert: I believe it."
"BATTLE CREEK, Aug. 3, 1866.... "The State Convention passed off finely. Finney, Whipple, Jameison, Wadsworth, Barrett, Wheelock, Harrison, Andros, were present as speakers; and all spoke
well. Being sick, I rode down to every session, and sat in a rocking-chair. I fully appreciate what you say about my body's being frail and tender. More and more I am
conscious of it; and I tell you, it is not worth' fussing' with much longer. Only think,
forty-four years I have borne around the shell. It's about time I' kicked' out of it.
Only the consideration of work undone reconciles me to patch up the frame and tarry."' WASHINGTON, D.C.. Ja.. 18, 1867..  "Last week I went to the President's reception; shook his hand. To-morrow, I
go to his residence with Maj. -    a friend at court, to spend a couple of hours in conversation. Senators, and more or less members of the lower house, attend our Sunday
meetings regularly. Ross, chief of the Cherokees, called on me night -before last. He
brought with him' Bushy Head,' and another Indian chief."
"BATTLE CREEK, April 19, 1867...  "I shall expect to edit a paper for earth, when I cross Jordan, - why not?...
I went to Chicago the first of this week - sent for in haste - to be a pacificator. They
are all in a'mux' in' The Spiritual Republic.'"
"DETROIT, Aug. 13, 1867... "Sunday evening, after I was through speaking in Detroit, I was so weak - my
lungs sore- I could hardly get home to my room. It annoys me, because I will not be
able to do much, or say much, at the Cleveland convention. Already I have received
several letters, asking me to frame certain resolutions, and put forward certain matters
of importance. These conventions are far below my ideal."
"BATTLE CREEK, Oct. 22, 1867... "Am engaged'packing up' for Hammonton, N.J. Out into the world! It
chills me. I go West to-morrow; first to Springfield, then to St. Louis.... Have had
a good time speaking here this month. Sunday eveningthey could not all get into the
hall. Had I been a stranger-speaker here, it would have been natural enough; but living
here eleven years, and speaking so much, it seemed good - or queer. The work broadens. Where is the end?... Some time in December next, the young men (Unitarians);
of Meadville College want me to come and give them a course of lectures on Spiritualism.... Say to Brother Nite that he will post himself in regard to Zoroaster. I propose
to ask him to let his light shine.
11




162                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"BUFFALO, Dec. 7, 1867... "Christmas Eve, I am to marry a couple in Boston; Christmas Day, the spirit.
artist, N. B. Starr, comes to meet me. Next day shall be in' Banner' office, settling up
year's account. Friday eve, lecture before a literary society in Ashland. Sunday,
speak in Taunton. Newo Year's, in New York; marry a couple there,- Dr. M. H.
Houghton to an interesting lady of Vermont. Then to Hammonton, N. J., to see family;
and thence to Washington for a month. So I go through the world, writing on the
wing."
"DETROIT, Feb. 6, 1869... "Am in the midst of a spiritual revival. The Lord is on the'giving hand.
Our choir is magnificent, -congregational singing. Read a service from the'Harp,
morning and evening. It is beautiful."
6
It is a spiritual law, that whom we defend in adversity we love.
There is a place in our Pilgrim's soul for the names of Charles A.
Hayden and Herman Snow.  Speaking of them  in  a  private  note,
Mr. Peebles says, -
" Brother Hayden, good and aspiring. It is noble in him, or any young man or lady,
to seek the advantages of scholarship. The shield of character is all the tougher for some
shafts of scorn.... We have bled in the same cause.... And there is Brother Herman Snow,- brother of our Lyceum sister, Mrs. J. S. Dodge of Chelsea, Mass., - once a
Unitarian clergyman, now a Spiritualist of practical good sense.... We have fought in
the same army, under official commissions from the angels. Up there, I shall be a
witness on the defensive when the celestial court tries him! And this will be my plea:'Worthy of admission, for he belongs to the divine church of humanity, having prayed
in deeds of love. Let him in, Brother Peter! "
"BOSTON, June 4, 1869.... "Why don't you write an editorial in' The American Spiritualist' defensive of
the poor Indians? See Hudson Tuttle's late article. Let us have all sides of the question. The Indians are God's natural children, and mybrothers. Theyare fading away,
however, as the red sunsets of autumn."...' LOWELL, MASS., May, 1869..  " Sunday in Lowell, city of spindles!  Had a good meeting. Saw your friend,
S. W. Foster.... I am more and more interested in the Shakers: they are so quiet,
unassuming, neat, and pure-minded.... I pray God to keep me out of the lower strata
of Boston magnetism. Oh, I look beyond for my support! and find repose, as J. H.
Powell so gracefully says, in his' Life Pictures,'"'In bowers of God, - where the citron and pearl,
Coral and crystal, diamond and beryl,
Passion-flower, pride of the spirit I and rose,
Gleam in a glory for ever that glows, -
Bright angels are waiting with love in their eyes;
Waiting for thee,
Where cedar and myrtle and lemon arise,
Under deep azure and gold-gleaming skies;
Waiting and singing, gayly and free,
Waiting for thee.' 




THE WORKER AND HIS WORKS.                                163
"ST. Louis,.Dec. 16, 1869.
"FRIEND JOSEPH, - On thy forehead the angels have written the words,' True and
faithful.' The world is full of good men, good women. Why did you send me that
proof just now?  My inspiration is at a low ebb. Each has at times his Gethsemane.
Just at present I am under a terrible cross-fire from the East and West, because of my
articles defending the Indians. Kansas Spiritualists think my charity for the Indians is in
excess of my justice or wisdom. There is seemingly a legion of Indian spirits about
me now. They are to me physical life.... Have the within'Memorial' in behalf of
the Indians filled as soon as you can, and forward to Washington."
Naturally the query rises, What is the power that enables a frail
mortal to accomplish  so much?   What the love-genius whispering,
" Thus only canst thou win the heart of the angel who is thine?"
"'The battle of life,' says our Pilgrim,' in a majority of cases must necessarily be
fought up hill. To win the victory without a struggle would be to win it without
honor. While difficulties intimidate the weak, they act only as stimulants to men of
energy and resolution. A whining shiftlessness is absolutely despicable! Give us a
stirring demon in preference to an easy, slow, sluggish, self-righteous saint.
" Upward evolutions are through effort. Every thing that grows - grasses, grains,
forests —pushes upward against the law of gravitation. The higher is attained only
through struggle. All the diverse experiences of life serve to demonstrate, that the impediments thrown in the way of individual advancement may be overcome by steady
good conduct, honest convictions, active perseverance, and a determined resolution to
surmount all difficulties, and stand up manfully against all misfortunes.
"Leaning, everlastingly leaning, upon somebody is soft and waxy as putty. Would to
heaven we could infuse a moral decoction of spinal stiffening into the American multitude! Bless the man or woman that dares say no, and say it squarely! Strike out!
Planting your feet upon the platform of eternal principles, fight Life's moral battles earnestly, sincerely, bravely; certain then will be the victory.
"'By the thorn-road, and no other,
Is the mount of triumph won.
Tread it without shrinking, brother:
Jesus trod it; press thou on I "
Comparatively, Mr. Peebles is poor'as to this world's goods.  He
loves not money, only for its beneficent use. He is a spiritual artist, -
" Building better than he knew,
The conscious stones to beauty grew."
There is a story told of a poor man of unbefriended association,
honest and modest, faithful and pure-hearted, who was one day visited
by a heavenly guest, a charming  angel, clothed  in the  glories  of
exalted mind. He could find no language to picture such beauty to
delight the world; and yet he felt a rising purpose thus to invite his




164                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
fellows into the heaven he had entered by enraptured sight. With
overwhelming inspiration, he attempted to carve out an image of that
angel from  the pure marble.  He never lost the heavenly expression; for that angel came again and again, in divine posture, for him
to copy.  Long years he toiled, with diligent hand  and delicate
touches, and yet it was not finished; for a life-time could not thus
delineate such beauty. One morning, his neighbors found the poor
man dead beside his statue: his spirit had fled, his body was cold as
his marble.  Everybody said, " What a fool, to spend so much time
so vainly! " But the angel looked into his soul, and lo! the image
was there, fully developed; and he took it away to the heavenly temple, where it belonged, -a living form of spiritual beauty. is not
our Pilgrim working on the marble of character? Behold it, by and
by!
" Build thee more stately mansions, 0 my soul!
As the swift seasons roll,
Leave thy low-vaulted Past I
Let each new temple, nobler than the last
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outworn shell by Life's unresting sea  "




CHAPTER XVIII.
THE OBSESSED WOMAN.
" Pause I her story soon is told:
Once a lamb within the fold;
Stranger voices lured her thence
In her spotless innocence."
OH, the life-drifts of the human heart! oh, its tempest-tost waves,
shivering cold upon the rocks!  Whither bound upon this sea?  A
feeling may be the compass;  a look  enspheres.   The  smile that
intoxicates makes room for a tear.
" Those tears will run
Soon in long rivers down the lifted face,
And leave the vision clear for stars and sun."
Read the inward law, so fearfully moral: " He that looketh bn a
woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in
his heart."   The commerce of spheres, even in thought, is illicit, if
the heart is lustful. Beware of the web the wary spirit weaves to
steal virtue!
William  Howitt, clear-headed and morally religious, after summing up an  array of stubborn facts, says, in reference to " infesta
tion: " 
"Nothing has become better known through the physico-spiritual experiences which
have been taking place in thousands of spots on almost everr-quarter of the globe during the last twenty years, than that we can not only' call spirits from the vasty deep,'
but that they can come, when we do call (and too often when we do not), if they can but
once quaff the vital spirit of the blood through us as mediums. They will come in
legions, and in armies, only too glad to renew their connection with the material
world.... They will come as if delighted to feel their hold once more on material
force.... They will come with all their old characters, passions, and weaknesses, and
revel in lies, in pretenses, in mystifications, and often in lawless fun, or even wicked
and diabolical annoyances; showing that the regions lying close on the other side of the
invisible boundary betwixt matter and spirit are still the counterpart of the regions on
this side.
165




166                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"Nothing is clearer than that those spirits who are haunting the very edge of this
earth are still too much allied to it; are still earthly in mind and desire; are still longing, with a backward glance,' for the flesh-pots Of Egypt.' Like the souls of Gray's' Elegy,' they have left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, but cast a longing, lingering look behind. As the tree falls, so it lies. As on earth they cultivated only.the
spirit and tone of the earth; as they gave up to it their whole soul, hope, ambition, and
exertion; as they molded and incorporated their tastes, feelings, yearnings, and passions into its nature; as they heaped up its riches as an eternal trophy from which
nothing could sever them, -they have stepped into the spirit-regions as aliens, having
no possible heritage or enjoyment in them, except in so far as these resemble those from
which they have lately been ejected. An intense and agonizing yearning draws them
back to the old haunts and conditions of being; and they snatch with frenzied and convulsive fingers at whatever and whoever affords them the mediumistic means of regaining something, more or less, of the taste and consciousness of earth-life. Hence all the
phenomena of possession and obsession which history has recorded, and which moder
times have shown terrible examples of; hence the wild and frantic demonstrations of
Morzine; hence cases of the most awful spiritual persecutions of particularly susceptible persons of to-day. These woful spirits, drenched with the sensuous elements of the
life which they led on earth, - selfish as they were then to the very inmost depths of
their natures,- rush with a reckless and gluttonness appetite into the tissues of unfortunately open constitutions, and exult in breathing, drinking in, gustating, with a cruel
and relentless ardor, the sensations and odors of this mortal life once more... But the
vast inspirations from the malevolent and destructive which we have been remarking
on result from no cultivation of Spiritualism. They operate unconsciously and independently on the masses, credulous or incredulous, educated or uneducated, refined or
vulgar. The calamities of war, of intoxication, and the other self or mutually inflicted
crimes and follies of mankind, are too hideous and extraordinary to result from any
mere natural cause. They are, as the apostles tell us, set on fire by hell, and by the'powers and principalities against whom we wrestle, not against mere flesh and blood;
by the rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual wickedness in high places.'
Those human excesses which pollute and desolate the earth from age to age, in spite of
religion, and in spite of the highest reach of civilization, are too monstrous and too mad
to result from any simple incentives of human infirmity. They proclaim their origin
from the accumulated sorceries of the pandemoniums of the past."
Whilst in 3Boston, in the summer of 1868, editing " The Spiritual
Harp," we had frequent opportunities of being with Mr. Peebles in
many an interesting experience. One day, he called at the office of
" The Banner of Light," asking if we would like to " see a case of perfect obsession." Arm-in-arm, we threaded our way through the crazy
crowds, and entered a boarding-house kept by a Spiritualist lady.
We knocked at the door of the room  occupied  by the unfortunate
woman.  No response.  We pressed the door open; and there she lay
alone on the hard floor, covered with her shawl (her kind attendant
sister being absent for a moment), frothing at the mouth, and muttering strange sounds.  "Pity, oh, pity! " was our mutual ejaculation.
The landlady could not have her there: " she must leave!"   Who




THE OBSESSED WOMAN.                       167
would befriend her? We roused her from her stupor; and Mr. Peebles, kindly offering his arm, accompanied her to the United States
Hotel, assuring the clerk that the bills should be paid. Procuring a
suitable room, we endeavored magnetically to soothe the poor creature,
and succeeded to that degree that she calmly told her history with
tears of sorrow.
A fascinating girl, she had many suitors, who flattered her with
vain ideals of life. One she loved as woman's heart can love.
Parents refused the banns, and by social considerations consummated a marriage with one she instinctively repelled, though he was
rich and high-bred. The loss of her own lover, killed on board " The
Essex," in the late rebellion, and marriage with her oppressor, who
compelled her to murder her babes, ere they breathed the air, to
gratify his insatiate lusts, at length fell crushing her soul, maddened to gloom and despair.  In her sorrow, she sought the spirits.
Ignorant of magnetic subtilties, corrupted by promiscuous circles, cast
off a lost woman by the Christian Church, stained by forced lusts till
the very fountains of life were the nest of Eden's serpent, she incidently entangled herself in poisoned influences, and finally was completely enveloped in the magnetic coils of demoniac possessions. The
manifestations were plainly spiritual, but disorderly.
In a moment of sanity, she caught an impression, doubtless from a
spirit, that she and her sister must go to Boston, and, if possible, secure the aid of the spiritual battery of " The Banner of Light." It
would not do. The editor of that paper saw the peril of such a sphere,
introduced for covert designs. Mr. Colby was guard against that
influence, like a faithful sentinel; Mr. White, full of charity, pondered
upon his duty; Mr. Crowell was severe, and determined to expel that
medium and her band from the city.  The general caution, however,
linked us all into a mutual responsibility. We engaged a healing
physician, Dr. Greenwood of Boston, to expel the obsessing spirits;
but the spirits saw the intent, and threw her into spasms to baffle
our purpose. The poor girl, as if conscious of one open valve of
escape from  the serpentine spheres of her obsessors, entwined her
arms around Mr. Peebles's neck, and chained him fast, breathing into
his face, and winding those fiery cords around him, till at last she
imparted to him the burning in her soul; when he tore away, burlened with the dark miasma, —the moral death-sphere of Hades
itself. He was the clean cup to drain the poison, eating the body




168               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
and soul of the poor woman. With a quick step he rushed into the
open air, evoked his orderly spirits, went to his room in Charlestown,
bathed himself, prayed for divine help, and fell asleep so trustfully;
when the angels overshadowed him with folding wings, awaking
hopeful dreams till morn, when he rose refreshed and happy. Meeting us the next day with a cordial hand, he said, " Come, Joseph,
we must go to another house, that our spiritual strength may not
break under this awful pressure." He led us to the residence of Dr.
A. P. Pierce, a spirit-healer, by whose mediumship obsessed persons
and houses are cleansed, and better influences introduced; and here
we rested, as if baptized in dews of the summer land! Thus rejuvenateO, Mr. Peebles, a few days after, was urgently sent for to see this
poor woman at the United States Hotel. The very hells had broken
loose upon her; madness, fury, insanity, were as "legion" in her
brain; her husband cursed, her departed lover invoked, her helplessness deplored, her clothes torn and ruined, and the despair of horror
stamped upon her face. But the presence of Mr. Peebles partially
calmed her; when she gave, at her better moments, beautiful tests,
described spirits, presented fine drawings, improvised and sung exquisite poetry under spirit-influence. Mr. Peebles advised them to return
home to Connecticut. She and her sister yielded at last. Messrs.
White & Co., with Mr. Peebles, paid the bills.  Having destroyed
her bonnet, she asked for something to protect her head; and Mr.
Peebles tied his handkerchief over it, and then, with hair dishevelled
and glaring eyes, she took his offered arm for the cars across the
street. In the mean while, the police had gathered into the hotel;
and all the clerks, maids, and waiters were on the qui vive at the confusion of the " insane woman," - the " fruit of Spiritualism!" as the
genteel orthodox said of it.  As Mr. Peebles and the woman, attended by her weeping sister, passed through the office, the crowd
jeering in suppressed jokes, one of the clerks exclaimed, " There goes
the old, long-haired Israelite! "  No chance for a just rebuke, he
silently led her out, provoked at the taunts, but resolute to protect the
unfortunate till the cars started. We both resolved, " We will never
patronize that hotel again." The next morning, he was astonished to
receive a telegram from Warren Chase of New York, asking him,
in emphatic words, why he had sent that crazy person to him. Mr.
Rich, of " The Banner of Light," promptly exonerated Mr. Peebles
from any blame, assuring him that she was expected to haveegone




THE OBSESSED WOMAN.                               169
home.  But the spirits were evidently wiser than the rest.  The obsessed was influenced to say, " Send me to S. B. Brittan." This
experienced Spiritualist, thoroughly comprehending the case, immediately sought the assistance of Dr. A. S. Haywood, who undertook
the task of restoring order. Meanwhile, a prudish lady (?) of New
York, whose services were sought as a necessity, declared, "The woman is base; and here is the evidence of it," she added, with a toss of
the head, " in this handkerchief: see the name of a man on it, -  Peebles!"   So she  reported  Mr. Peebles to her slandering associates
"a bad man."   Did not that handkerchief tell the story?  Could
wickedness descend to greater depths? Thus do the vile seek to turn
our good against us.  Dr. Haywood was successful.  The obsessing
influences left her: she was in her right mind, and soon after wrote
a letter of great gratitude to Mr. Peebles for his philanthropic protection  during  her days of distress.  From   reliable authority we
learn she is now happy. Thus self-sacrifice is always rewarded; and
every kind act, like a wandering minstrel, blesses some dependent soul.
Writing on the subject of demons in his " Seers of the Ages," Mr.
Peebles says, -
"Like attracts like. Every door must have a hinge to swing upon. No evil spirit
can approach us unless - morally weak - we possess a magnet within, attracting corresponding influences. This, so painful to endure, is the lesson of our frailty, teaching
the moral necessity of fostering better conditions for more heavenly relations.
"Sensitiveness to psychological influx, susceptibility to mediumistic control, implies
higher and lower use and abuse. Will not the tender flower be touched by the frost as
well as by the sunbeam? The greater the capacity to rise involves a similar capacity
to fall. The charm of a darkened demon is as potent as an angel's, where a point of ingress is possible. Then, according to the apostolic injunction of John, trust not, " believe not every spirit, but try the spirits! "
"If spirits uncultured and evil. impress, and at times completely obsess, mortals, is
not the practice of phenomenal Spiritualism dangerous? Yes, dangerous as the sunshine, that, falling alike on flowers and thorns, the just and the unjust, produces an
occasional sun-stroke; dangerous as the spring rain. that, sweeping away old rickety
bridges, carries rich alluvial to the valley below; dangerous as steamers, that now and
then send bodies down to find graves under green sea-weeds, whilst on their beneficent
missions of international commerce; dangerous as mining, railroading, telegraphing,
which develop the hidden wealth of a nation. Shall we therefore dispense with them?
Shall none pursue geological pursuits because Hugh Miller committed suicide? Briars
abound where berries grow. It is one of the offices of guardian angels to protect their
mediums from the inharmonious magnetisms of unwise, perverse spirits, and the psychological attractions of depraved mortals."
Respecting the curative agencies of obsession, a Christ-like spirit
thus speaks through the mediumship of Emma Hardinge:



170                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"A good spirit will not attempt to take and hold unwarrantable possession of a mediumistic organization: hence you may rest assured of what class it is fronm whence the
phenomenon of obsession proceeds. Now, if the infesting spirit were not magnetically
stronger than his subject, he could not maintain possession, however he might once gain
a temporary ascendency. The true processes of cure, therefore, are obvious and dual.
First, let all possible means be taken to strengthen the health of the subjects, and render
their minds positive to the control of others. Good air, good diet, change of scene, association, and constant employment, pleasant society, and cheerful, active occupations,
are the physical means, which steadily resorted to may alone effect a cure. If these fail,
use in connection with them the aid of a strong-willed, powerful, and virtuous magnetizer. Let him continue with unflinching constancy to exert his will, and add thereto
magnetic passes over his subject, and we will pledge our faith and word that he will
speedily dispossess the enemy, though he were the fabled Beelzebub in oppria personce."




CHAPTER XIX.
INDIAN SPIRITS AND THEIR BRETHREN WEST.
" Better trust all, and be deceived,
And weep that trust and that deceiving,
Than doubt one heart, that, if believed,
Had blest one's life with true believing."
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE.
WHEN alone in Nature's solitudes, Mr. Peebles frequently talks
aloud with the spirits.  One evening in California, stars as sentinels, he ascended a terrace of the Nevadas, and,. standing there
rapt in mystery, as an Apollo, addressed a vast concourse of spirits.
His voice of persuasion echoed wildly through the rocky caverns and
arches, leaping up into heaven, till it verily seemed that the entranced angels heard it, trembling.  Several miners, passing the
trail beneath, startled at the strange ideas, reported, as Aaron Nite
afterwards said, that they " heard a crazy man on a mountain talking
with the ghosts."
In July, 1869, Mr. Peebles, Dean Clark, and ourself were the
speakers at a mass meeting of three thousand persons held in
Plymouth, Wis., -H. S. Benjamin, President, and E. W. McGraw,
Secretary.  Just as Mr. Peebles composed himself for a rest of
brain, he was suddenly called on to speak. For a moment it roused
a feeling of murmuring; he was about declining, when a gentle
wave of inspiration swept over him.  Hidden from  the waiting
crowd, tears trickled down his cheeks. He was listening to spiritvoices, which said so tenderly in sad music words, -
" James, have we been so long with you, and yet you doubt our
presence to aid you?   See these hungry souls: rise, and speak;"
and he obeyed with a power.  " Have we been so long with you? "
rang in his ears for hours.
During his visit at our rustic home on the forest shore of Elkhart
171




172                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Lake, Wis., near Glen Beulah, he made a speech to the Indian
spirits who years agone inhabited that picturesque locality.   Here
we built a wigwam for literary work. He thus describes it:" Impressed from the heavenly'hunting-grounds' of the Indians, Brother Barrett
had been moved, ere we reached those regions, to fashion a quiet and beautiful retreat
near the margin of these musical waters, by bending and twisting saplings, shrubs,
and larger trees into a crowning cone-form, constituting a wigwam bower of prayer,
a veritable temple of inspiration."
One starry evening, prior to the mass meeting, the lake waves
patting the wood-tangled banks, the leaves overhead keeping up a
rustling tenor, several friends assembled in this wigwam; when, after
a few moments of silence, he rose, and, facing the lake, gazing off into
the peopled space, addressed the Indian spirits, reminded them of
their sufferings, of the bloody resolution of the whites to exterminate their brethren in the West, and of his determination to defend
their rights by the establishment of industrial systems of peace.
How  strange it seemed, that speech! and  yet responsive  to the
soul.  After the Plymouth meeting, Brother Clark was entranced by
an Indian spirit who most cordially thanked the " pale-face " for his
" big talk in wigwam." Such gratitude!
Were there responses to these speeches? yea, in the deep silence
of impression, too eloquent for human language.  But how  often
did the Indian spirits talk to the " pale-face " through a medium,
telling him  all his words and deeds of love were known in the
"hunting-lands," where they were making a " fine wigwam"'for
him, where a "pretty squaw was waiting till he come! "
Being at a seance when lMr. Peebles was present, with Dr.
Dunn for medium, we asked Powhattan about his earth and spirit
life: 
"Me had one squaw," he said; "one pappoose, Kanawaubish,' pretty water:' you
call my pappoose Poc-a-hon-tas!
" Me Indian; me no speak like white man; me got nice wigwam, nice canoe, and bow
and arrow; me hunt; me sleep under sky; me have for me bed the Big Spirit HuntingGround; me blanket is the bue heaven; me music is the breath of the Big Spirit, as
he blows leaves of trees. In morning time, the Big Spirit look out from his windows
[eyes], and the Indian kiss the dew from his forehead."
In the winter of 1868, Mr. Peebles lectured in St. Louis and cities
farther west, where his whole soul was stirred to  intense action
in defense of the Indians, whom the whites in all that region were




INDIAN SPIRITS AND THEIR BRETHREN WEST.  173
determined to exterminate.  It called  down upon him  the ire of
officials and pseudo-Spiritualists.   He had been years before vicepresident of the Universal Peace  Society, and  a  most efficient
worker.  True to his instincts, he went forth  on his love-errand.
He wrote the following letter to his friend, A. H. Love, president of
the society: -
" Passing down the main street of Leavenworth, I saw a recruiting office; and reaching Topeka, on board the train for Lawrence were four cars loaded with cavalry officers.
I saw the whitened tents of the soldiery. The army was awaiting orders to march
upon the Indians. Oh, how my heart ached and my soul bled! Constituting myself a
peace commissioner, I immediately called upon Gov. Crawford and the State marshal,
and protested, in kindness yet in greatfirmness, against this proposed movement to be
conducted by Gen. Sheridan. I went on still west from Topeka, towards Colorado,
conversing with Judge Humphrey, Col. Smith, and other army officers. It seemed as
though God's angels aided me in thought and speech. These officers admitted the
wisdom and beauty of my humanitarian position; but they were' Utopian, and impracticable,' they said;' and adapted to times a hundred years hence.'...
" Perhaps I am too enthusiastic for the red man, our brother, God's child. Perhaps
I am too enthusiastic for peace throughout the world. But my soul's sympathies are
stirred; and now, while I pen these lines, my eyes are suffused with tears.
"Can not there be something done to flank this Western war-movement? It must
start in the East. The extreme West is red for blood.
" I am sorely tried. The Commissioners, save Col. S. F. Tappan, seem inclined to
take retrograde steps. It is impossible to get to the Indians now personally: they suspect every body. If there could be a delegation gotten up in some way, in connection
with the' Peace Commissioners,' having the sanction of Government, I think something
might be done; but between now and spring, how many will be shot down by a barbarous soldiery! I sometimes feel like flying away from this Christian civilization, so false
to Justice and benevolence, and going off alone into their country, devoting my life to
their good."
About this time, reporting his Western experiences to " The Banner
of Light," he tells the story in these stinging words: -
"Stopping at the Planters' Hotel, Leavenworth, Kan., a very intelligent gentleman,
just from Denver City, informed us, that, in an.adjacent village, the citizens a few
weeks previous had'burned Gen. Sherman in effigy,' because connected with the Indian Peace Commission. He further said, it was the general purpose of the people in that
region to kill indiscriminately Indian men, women, and children; for, he added, it takes
but a little time for' pappooses to make warriors."
"In several Kansas cities recruiting offices were in full operation. Our train from Leavenworth to Lawrence had four cars filled with cavalry horses, for the coming war of extermination. Just to the north-east of Topeka, in full view, was the tented soldiery of the
19th Kansas, waiting the arrival of other companies for further orders. Inviting a gentleman to accompany us to the Indian country and the Western forts, he refused, because
of the nightly depredations of the soldiers tenting near Topeka.' Why,' said he,' they are
stealing every thing they can lay their hands on 1' Strange, thought we, that Government




174                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
should send out a thieving Christian soldiery to exterminate thieving Indians. It is the
old Bible story and practice of the Israelites going into the lands of the Canaanites and
Moabites to pillage and destroy. Our Christianity is galvanized Judaism; and our political policy, greedy for power and pelf, winks approval at the most horrid injustice.
Whither are we drifting?
" Gov. Crawford of Kansas recently issued a proclamation savoring little of the
tender, loving, forgiving spirit of Jesus, - good for evil, love for hate, blessing for cursing. Here follows the closing paragraph:"' Longer to forbear with these bloodyfiends would be a crime against civilization, and
against the peace, security, and lives of all the people upon the frontier. The time has
come when they must be met by an adequate force, not only to prevent the repetition cf
these outrages, but to penetrate their haunts, break up their organizations, and either
exterminate the tribes, or confine them upon reservations set apart for their occupancy.
To this end the Major-General commanding this department has called upon the Executive for a regiment of cavalry from this State.
" Mark the phrase,'bloody fiends,' and the executive threat of'extermination,' if
they are not forced on to reservations!
" A professed Spiritualist of Lawrence, in a tongue-battle with us touching the solution of the Indian question, exclaimed,' I would to God that every one of those Indian
Peace Commissioners [among which were Gens. Sherman, Harney, Augur, Terry, and others]
was obliged to go out on the plains, and be scalped by the red-skins!' Are such sentiments in accordance with the genius of Spiritualism? Would it not be wisdom in Spiritualist lecturers to devote more time to educating and spiritualizing thousands of nominal Spiritualists, rather than encompassing sea and land to make new converts, who,
when converted, often need re-converting every six months by a fresh batch of tests?
Quality is often preferable to quantity."
The next winter, Mr. Peebles, lecturing  in Washington, D.C.,
was invited to a position as volunteer in the " Congressional Indian Peace Commission,"-  consisting of Gens. Harney, Sheridan,
Sherman, Sanborn, Taylor, Col. Parker, and Col. S. F. Tappan, - to
visit the Indians, then fighting with the whites in the Sioux and Rocky
Mountain  regions; for the purpose of organizing treaties, stopping
the shedding of blood, and befriending them  in their natural rights to
a living on the American continent.  He gathered up  the testimony
of Senators Doolittle, Foster, Nesbith, Sherman, Gen. Pope, and
others, who averred, that, if the facts of the whites' rascality to the
Indians " were published to the world, they would disgrace us in the
eyes of all civilized nations." He quoted from the speeches of Indian chiefs, asking for justice; talked with W. P. Ross, chief of
Cherokees, and other educated Indians, who demonstrate their capacity to be civilized; consulted John Beeson, the Indian's friend; and,
with  burning words, said, in  an  editorial of  " The  Banner of
Light,"" Our Saxon face is mantled with shame, and soul humbled in deepest humiliation,
at the individual and associate crimes that blot the escutcheon of this great, wicked




INDIAN SPIRITS AND THEIR BRETHREN WEST.  175
Christian country, called United States of America. Crimes red as blood, vindictive as
death, and black as the cinders of Pluto's pit; crimes willful, determined, and continuous too, against the Indian tribes of the West, North-west, and South-west! Is justice,
is philanthropy, dead? Is progress a dream? and sympathy a mere historic legend?
Our heart aches; our tears flow. God, angels, American citizens of the better thought
and life, tell us what we can, what we ought, to do to check this nation from further
cheating, swindling, sacking, shooting, slaughtering, and murdering, through its officers, superintendents, and agents, the three hundred thousand remaining aborigines of
this country? A government is responsible for the agents it employs and pays. In this
country the people, with ballot in hand, are the government: accordingly you, readers,
directly or indirectly, are responsible for the defrauding and murdering of those red men
west of the Mississippi.
" This Indian question is all the more grave at present from the consideration that
the two waves of population between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts are soon to meet.
Wa-stations will dot Western mountains. A railroad will span the extremes, and a
peaceable transit through these mountainous regions will be indispensable. The only
way to secure such will be by the exercise of blended justice and kindness, - kindness
and sympathy, not revenge; love, not hate; mercy, not vindictiveness; integrity, sincerity, and peace; deeds of purity and fraternity, rather than murderous acts of extermination.
"William  Penn had no difficulty with the Indians.  They knew- know- their
friends. The English government in Canada has never had an Indian war, nor has a
life been lost. by an Indian massacre. They live in peaceful relations with their white
neighbors. Tribes have centered into Indian villages, around which the grass is green,
and orchards bud, bloom, and bear their fruitage.
"'Our Government must give those three hundred thousand Indians the protection of
law; must give them a civil-rights bill; must treat them as men; must give them indi.
vidual and permanent right in the soil; must grant them their annuities, and guard them
against thieving agents, trafficking vagabonds, and a murderous soldiery: for they are
God's children, and our brothers.  This course pursued, and a continuous peace is
secured with pur red brothers of the West, - brothers originally noble in nature, firm in
their friendships, and keen in their perceptions of the principles of natural justice.
"Though treated as they have been by the whites, those that tread the shadowlands of eternity are returning good for evil by descending from their hunting-ground
homes in the heavens, with balms of healing, and words of love and cheer. Hours,
days, months, in the past, have we talked with Powhattan, through the organism of a
medium friend, relative to the past, present, and future of the Indians upon this continent.'Tis only justice to say, we have ever found this chief the very soul of simplicity,
tenderness, truthfulness, and a genuine magnanimity. Blessings be upon Powhattan,
Red Jacket, Tecumseh, Black Hawk, Thunder, Logan, Little Crow, Antelope, and all
Indian spirits that are shedding their healing magnetisms and peace-influences upon the
inhabitants of earth."
In April, he started with these commissioners for the Far West,
This is an extract from an editorial reporting his experiences: —
"In Dakota Territory, near the confluence of the north and south forks of the Platte,
we were privileged to sit with the Commission in an Indian Council. It was a novel
scene, and every movement deeply interesting. The first glance at the Brulle Chief'Spotted Tail,' the sub-chiefs and warriors present, inclined us to silently exclaim,'What splendidly-molded forms! How dignified their bearing!  These are truly men
of health and of muscle; men of very large perceptive faculties, and magnificent noses,




176                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
— the Roman prevailing.' The tip-up and stub-noses that disfigure so many Hibernian
faces characterize the features of none of the eighty thousand Sioux..The Cheyennes
and Sioux are the enemies of the Pawnees. They fight very much like Christians.
" At the preliminary meeting the more prominent of the tribe, dressed in native costume (fancy colors as in our fashionable female society predominating), came in, decorated in beads, bones, buffalo-teeth, and glittering ornaments, -such as coils of brass
wire, bands of silver upon their arms, and feathers in their hair, together with a long
string of circular metallic pieces, graduated in size, and fastened to a leather strap
attached and suspended from the back hair like a Chinese queue. The length of this is'
proportionate to an Indian's wealth and bravery, and, furthermore, indicates a sort of
challenge. Thus adorned, they extended fraternal greetings, through the interpreter,
to the Commissioners, Father De Smet, a Catholic priest, and others present. A general running talk then followed.
"At twelve o'clock, the Council met, the Commissioners fronting a rude table,
interpreters and reporters at the sides, and the Indians in circular form. Spotted Tail,
Little Thunder, and White Eyes, facing Gen. Harney, Gen. Sheridan, Col. Tappan,
and the others, formed the inner circle. Back of the chiefs were the warriors; and
behind these, in half-moon form, a large number of women and children.  Having
filled a huge pipe with yellow willow-bark and other ingredients, the Indians passed it
from one to the other, each taking a whiff. It was the famous pipe of peace. All becoming quiet, Mr. Sanborn, acting chairman of the Commission, stated the purpose of the
present mission from Washington, and the further peaceable aims of the Government
toward the red men of the Western plains and mountains.
"Sanborn having closed his pleasant remarks, Spotted Tail, sitting a while in perfect stoic silence, at length replied, through Leon F. Pallarday, an interpreter twentytwo years in theIndian country. The speech, moderate, distinct in enunciation, and
full of gestures, showed great practical common sense and sound thought mingled with
much native shrewdness. He said in substance, -
"'We are glad to meet the representatives of the great father in Washington. I
remember the talk we had together last year I have kept my word: neither my old
warriors nor young braves have fought the white man since. I have tried to make the
chiefs of the bands to the north understand that peace was better for all parties than
war. I want peace; for all of us are brothers, and the Great Spirit smiles upon us all
in the sun and stars alike. My daughter loved the whites, and is buried among them
at Fort Laramie. I like peace. My old men and squaws like peace the best. I have
unstrung my bow, broken my arrow, laid aside the war-paint, and felled trees across the
war-trail.
"' Your great father must be rich, or he could not build the long, fiery trail, and send
his braves so far to our council. We are poor; our pappooses' hearts cry with hunger.
White men have killed some of our chiefs, destroyed our game, burned our timber, and
dug our lands; and now you must give us a big heap of presents. We take the words
you say to us in our hands; but some things you promise slip through. White men do
not always keep their word. They cheat, and their presents are not good. Our fathers,
many moons in the past, gave white men meat, buffalo-skins to keep them warm, and
guided them through the mountain-passes toward the far-off sunset. Our hands to-day
are warm, and our souls true to all true and peaceable pale-faced men; but we are
poor.  You must give us.blankets, arms to shoot the game, hatchets to hew. poles
for tents, and many presents; for our squaws and pappooses are hungry, and rain comes
from their eyes.
" My braves are not children. They do not fear to die. They do not ask for pity or
sympathy; only forjjustice and good feeling. Remove your soldiers from our hunting



INDIAN SPIRITS AND THEIR BRETHREN WEST. 177
grounds, and peace would come to us all. I will go with you to Laramie ta induce Red
Cloud, chief of all the war-parties, and Ogallala, to make peace, as Satanti, Black Kettle, and other chiefs have done. The old chief, Man-afraid-of-his-horses, is for peace;
and he gave Red Cloud his daughter in marriage, early last fall, to keep the peace. I
do not want to see the white man's blood flow, but want to live in peace with him, and
in peace with all my brother tribes, and, dying, enter the peaceful hunting-grounds of
my fathers. Tell your great father we were glad to see you. It made our hearts feel
good. The Great Spirit looks down into our peace-council, and is pleased.'"
"God has written upon every conscious heart the divine command,' Thou shalt not
kill.' The noble, eloquent words of the editor-in-chief of' The Banner' should be republished in every paper of the Union,- in allusion to this great question, - namely,
that, -
"' We (Americans) should have learned ere this that justice to all - red, white, and
black - is the highest statesmanship, the greatest political economy, the safest foundation of a government, the surest guaranty of peace, liberty, progress, civilization, and
order; the grandest conception, and most sublime action (as it should be the greatest
pride) of a free people.' 
"Sitting by the side of a staff-officer who was fixing the strap to his pistol-casing, he
inquired of us where we joined the Commission?
"'At Omaha, Nebraska.'
"'What for an outfit have you?'
"A little verdant in the army style of conversation, we replied,' A shawl, and trunk,
containing some clothing, books, papers, &c.'
"  Oh! I meant implements of defense, such as they use out here to pick off the redskins.'
"' I never carry fire-arms, and could not be induced under any consideration to take
the life of a human being.'
"' If those hostile Indians knew that, they'd have your scalp.'
"' Well, they could not take my spiritual scalp.'
"'What in the devil is that?'
"'Why, you know the apostle Paul speaks of there being a "natural body and a
spiritual body," clearly implying a physical and spiritual organization throughout;
and accordingly, though the earthly head were scalped, I should still live immortal, and
could perhaps better serve the Indian and others of the down-trodden in spirit-life
than this.'
"'Then you are really a non-resistant.'
"'In the sense of killing human beings, I certainly am, -believing that any true
man unarmed is the most thoroughly armed; his motto being, it is better to endure
wrong than to do wrong; better to be murdered than to murder; and better to suffer
unhappiness than to make others unhappy.' "
Suffice it to say, that this expedition, though beneficent in design,
accomplishing some good, was soon  followed by renewals of war,
being instigated by the whites' depredations.  After Gen. Grant was
installed President of the United States, Mr. Peebles wrote several
articles indorsing his policy in sending to the Indians a band of
peaceful Quakers, under Col. Parker's superintendence; and there is
a lingering hope.
12




CHAPTER XX.
LOVE-LIFE.
"Sing to my soul the sweet song that thou livest I
Read me the poem that never was penned, -
The wonderful idyl of life that thou givest
Fresh from thy spirit, O beautiful friend I"
" Love was free,
Nobly unselfish, as an angel's pure." - BRISTOL.
THERE is a religion in which all agree, -the religion of the love of
truth, beauty, music, goodness, purity. No theology can destroy or
stain it. It belongs to all eras, all races, all worlds. It is the heart
of heaven. It is as free as the sunlight; free as the fragrance of
flowers, the bird's song, and the angel's dream.  " Now, Jesus loved
Mary and Martha."  Was not that love free and holy?
v " Whereso'er he met
The soul of a true woman, beautiful
In innocence, and heart devoted to
Humanity's high interests, -and, withal,
Upon her breast humility's pure pearl, -
He worshiped at that shrine, as true men must
Who meet with such a spirit."
In all his speeches and writings, Mr. Peebles is careful to draw
the distinction between animal desire and spiritual love.  His moral
indignation is intense when he reads or hears an argument defensive of a loose and unrestrained socialism.
His idea is, that the functional uses of the passions are administrative subordination under the guidance of an enlightened morality,
to develop and spiritualize the whole being, and the propagation of
the race obedient to the dictates of the highest wisdom, that all
children may be welcomed and cherished  as earth's angels, born
right, and therefore living right.
This extract from  an article written for "The Progressive Age,"
1863, is a true transcript of his opinion on this subject: —
178




LOVE-LIFE.                                 179
"In cerebellum soil are the germinal types, buds even, of lilies and oceanic
flowers, struggling to rise from their sedimental graves into the free, fresh sunlight of
heaven; so are there mortals that live away down in the back-brain apartments of their
soul-house. Let us aid such to ascend to the summits of the moral and spiritual faculties into which angels delight to gaze!..
"Physical gratifications can never supply heart-wants. Spiritual loves, pure and holy,
can fully feed the strong soul..
"If spirits teach' promiscuity,' it speaks sadly for the medium, and a thousand
times worse for the controlling influences. Such spirits must be recently from the central sinks of New York, or the' Seven Dials' of London.
" All the brain organs and germinal forces of the soul are beautiful and divine.
Even amativeness, disrobed of earthliness, resurrected  and actualized in angelic
life, is the synonym of love,- love pure and divine as God's; working with and inspiring the morality and spirituality of those higher faculties for all us mortals who can
comprehend the purity and divinity of love. The fountain is infinite. It flows out spontaneous from regenerated souls towards all humanity,-man, woman, child; field, flower,
mountain, and star; free, full, and unconfined."
His is the sentiment of " our brother" Geo. S. Burleigh: —
"By the loves which mark us human
We are verily divine.
True Messiah is every true man,
True Madonna each pure woman,
And theif home the holiest shrine."
He  is  perfectly  charmed   with  the  child-like  affection  of  the
Shakers; maintaining that they live the nearest to an angelic life of
any sect in the world, everywhere advocating their cardinal principles as respects the freedom and function of love. He has frequently visited them in their homes to sun his soul amid their spiritual
purities, and returns to the' outer court,' as he calls our social life,
like Jesus from the sweet cottage of Mary and Martha at Bethany,
invigorated in body and mind for a loftier work.  At their great
meeting in Boston, in 1869, when their doctrines and objects were
defined before the thinkers of that city, Mr. Peebles, by their special
invitation, and agreeable to his deepest convictions of privileged duty,
was present on the stand to indicate his heart-interest. His speech
on the occasion so defensive of their system was admirable.
We can almost feel his heart beat in ours as we read his words,
frst published in the " Religio-Philosophical Journal: ""The apostle John said he knew that he' had passed from death into life, because
he loved the brethren.' This love can never degenerate into license, nor such liberty
into anarchy; for it is a principle disrobed of passion,- a resurrection even of the
low brain organs, on to the plane of divine purity and use. All men are my brothers;




180                  THE  SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
all women my sisters; all children my childrep; and I am every mortal's child. I have
an interest in every child born into earth-life. Its destiny is linked with mine.
"' One family, we dwell in Him,
One church above, beneath;
Though now divided by the stream,The swelling stream of death.'
"My country is the universe; my home, the world; my religion, to do good; my rest,
wherever a human heart beats in harmony with mine: and my desire is to extend a
brother's helping hand to earth's millions, speaking in tones as sweet as angels use; thus
kindling in their breasts the fires of inspiration, and aiding them up the steeps of
Mount Discipline, whose summit is bathed in the mellowed light of heaven. All the
love that can be attracted from my inmost being belongs to the poor and the crushed;
to you, the world, the whole universe. Some may not specially call this love out; neither
can lead call fire from flint. The fault, however, is in the lead. Transmute it to steel,
and see the bright fiery effect! It takes some conservatives a lifetime to learn the folly
of trying to twist ropes from sand, or of coaxing ice to kiss buds into May-blooms.
Jesus said,'411 mine are thine, and thine are mine;' and during that precious Pentecostal hour, when the divine afflatus streamed from angelic abodes, not only' many
believed,' but they were so baptized into those unselfish influences that obtain in the
spirit-world, that they resolved to have'all things in common.' When these universal
love-principles are outlived, the soil will be free to all to cultivate as is the air to
breathe; gardens will bloom for the poor, highways be planted with fruit-trees and
orphans find homes in all houses. Bigotry, too, will perish; superstition furl its crimson flag; prison-walls crumble to dust; tyranny die on the plains of freedom; and the
cannon's mouth be wreathed with white roses, - symbols of perpetual peace.
An alleged weakness (?) in the character of Mr. Peebles is his
"giving, for ever giving," as the worldly charge'runs.   Never a
beggar called at his door in vain; never a poor soldier did he meet
but he had something for him, if it took his last cent, and also a
word or look of love; never a needy man, woman, or child asked
of him  a favor, but he granted it, if in his power.  Hundreds of
dollars has he loaned to his co-workers in the Spiritual cause; hundreds has he so lost, misfortune overtaking them; hundreds upon
hundreds has he given away.  When his sympathy is touched, tears
flow, and the pocket laughs with a benevolent wink, if there is any
thing in it. Thus, thousands are endeared to him, feel under obligation to him; and everywhere is he blessed with earnest greetings
and gifts. His earnings therefore, in the main, are large these days:
but he keeps nothing, above family expenses; all is expended upon
the unfortunate, or the enterprises of public improvement.   How
many Spiritual speakers and mediums are indebted to him  for favors!
Attracted by his sphere, young speakers are known to follow him
from place to place, like the steel chained to its magnet, devel.




LOVE-LIFE.                              181
Dping  them   to  be  "chosen vessels"  of truth  to  the famishing
world.
From  the many testimonials we quote from  a private  letter of
Cephas B. Lynn's:" His lindness toward young media, more especially those struggling for usefulness
on the rostrum, has been a marked feature in his career as a teacher of the Spiritual Philosophy. In fact, he is looked up to with the utmost reverence, and loved most tenderly,
by scores of young lecturers in our ranks. I could name ten or twelve who acknowledge
that Mr. Peebles has been the leading instrumentality in advancing them in Spiritual
graces, and inducting them into active public labors. Blessings upon him for this! I
gladly affirm my indebtedness to him in this respect; and my prayer is, that the Spiritualists of the country will see the wisdom of placing funds at his command; so that
through him young media suited for the Spiritual ministry may receive that discipline
and culture so essential to success."
Seemingly he sometimes errs on the side of charity. To encourage
a beginner, or a luckless brother or sister, amid the poverties and
perils of mediumship, -  victors at last, —he  has spoken words
through the voice and pen higher sometimes than'just merit would
sanction,-  merit as viewed from  the world's angle of criticism.
Like the Nazarene, he  has so  often  taken others' sins upon  his
shoulders; and with his " stripes were we healed." He has always
been sure to see the angel side of human nature, and clothed it with
deserving garments, that the world might feel the heart of the crushed
and fallen to be as pure and heavenly as his own. His errors are
errors of charity; and are they not virtues?   In the judgment every
day acting, how large are the credits in the life-book of his soul!
Listen to his testimony again:
" Beautiful in effect is the medium of love to the morally diseased. It works by an
infinitude of methods, but always to redemptive ends. When fires, fagots, clanking
chains, and gloomy penitentiaries had all failed to reform, the'still, small voice'
of love and sympathy has touched the heart-strings, opened a new fountain, and redeemed the most obdurate.  Says a European writer,'Love is the instrument that
the Almighty reserved to conquer rebellious man when all the rest had failed. Reason
he parries; fear he answers blow for blow: but love it the sun against whose melting
beams winter cannot stand. This soft, subduing influence wrestles down the giant:
there is not one human being in a million, not a thousand in all earth's huge quintillion,
whose stony heart can withstand the power of love.' This principle, wielded by William Penn, tamed the Indian's soul, and tuned his heart to throb alone in kindness;
wielded by the benignant Howard, it made prisons in Europe schools of ref)rm; by the
great-hearted Oberlin, it transformed many by-corners of pollution in the old world into
gardens of beauty; and, by and through Elizabeth Fry, it filled the inmates in houses of
refuge and' asylums of outcasts' with those higher thoughts and purer ideas, as sure
to produce those elevating influences as are tie lightnings to do their missioned work.




182               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Physicalforce may override, and powerful nations may conquer weaker ones; but love
as a motive power combined with wisdom can alone subdue, promoting that harmony
so indispensable to spiritual growth. It is all the power ever employed by God, Christ,
or angels in the divine order of subjugating;  being the deepest, divinest, and mightiest
principle in the universe."
Wherever he goes, he is in the habit of taking little children into
his arms, laying his hands upon their heads in blessing, as did the
Nazarene, conscious that " of such is the kingdom of heaven;" and
long he holds them to his bosom to catch the glow of their innocent
hearts, when he rises refreshed for work again, like a bird that has
slept in a bower of sunlight to be inspired with the loves of a sweeter
song.  In Battle Creek, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and other
cities, he has christened children in the name of the angels by the
laying-on of hands, and sometimes by sprinkling pure water; and
such occasions are most hallowed and melting, scorned, of course,
by the croakers, but approved by all who love the envelopment of
spiritual spheres.
Walking the streets of Boston with him, locked arm in arm, he
humming a tune as we elbowed our way through the jostling crowd,
we met a youth, just in his teens, pale, nervous, and emaciated.
" Boy," he said, with a piercing look and a tender tone of voice, " eat
coarse bread, drink pure water, bathe in it every night, sleep on a
hard bed, rise early, and work temperately.  Remember, boy! for I
love you."  Going a few  steps farther, we met a humbly-dressed
woman, with her basket of fruit in her hand, passing to her marketstand for sales.' Well, my sister," he exclaimed, patting her gently
on the shoulder, " now for business."  She turned and met his gaze;
and the feeling of rebuke changed to a blushing courtesy, and, determined not to be outdone on short acquaintance, seized him  by the
arm, and laughingly said, " Yes: come on; I need your help, - come,
my brother;" and he had to tear away with a kind shout back, " I
will risk you alone in your honorable fruit business." Walking the
streets of St. Louis, he met a bright-eyed little girl, tripping along at
a dancing pace, humming a tune and swinging her arms.  Though a
stranger, he stopped her, spoke a tender word, lifted her to his lips,
pressed a sweet kiss, and bid her " Be good; for you are an angel of
love."  The girl was so happy! and he moved thence with a free,
buoyant step.
In a Portland audience, 186:, where Mr. Peebles was lecturing,




LOVE-LIFE.                            183
sat a negro contraband, John N. Still, listening most earnestly.  At
evening, the sable brother timidly introduced himself, stating that he
saw him in a vision three years ago as the " Horace Greeley of Spiritualism;" that he was a school-teacher of Virginia; was ordered
by the Spirit to " Go North, go North!"  His spiritual experiences
were most remarkable. After hearing them, and delivering his lecture, Mr. Peebles brought the Southerner to the stand, briefly telling
his story for him, saying, " The Indian is my brother, the white man
is my brother, the Negro is' my brother;" and then he appealed to
his auditors with a pathos that probed the very fountains of their
hearts, raising for him a generous contribution; when Mr. Peebles
bade him go on his way again to the South, rejoicing  to " sow the
seed of this gospel among the freed blacks." The good brother wept
with joy, made a happy speech, and, under that light, returned to his
task.
Here are some of the word-seeds sown in the bosoms of true friends,
which we have found in forgotten letters. The clergyman referred
to below is Rev.:"PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 6, 1869.' Bitter were the tears I saw him shed more than once. His education in the English Church, and then as a Baptist, made him what he is. Spirits are trying now to unmake him, for the purpose of making him over in part; but I believe him a truthful,
honest, sincere man, having about him streaks of vanity and other follies. Who is perfect? If the laziest devil in hell should roll over in his brimstone bed, and ask for help, I
should help him. The public might not approve; but I know of no' dear public' not
constituted of individuals.' It may be a weakness in me, but everybody must be aided, saved, Dy somebody;
and then I have a deep sympathy for clergymen leaving the old shells of theology."
Our Pilgrim has passed into that degree of love which Jesus actualized: " Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven,
the same is my brother and sister and mother." Beyond the family
circle, beyond church, sect, party, nationality, he enspheres humanity
in his spiritual fellowship; and yet the fountains of this oceanic love
are to him more sacred than ever, and cherished with a deeper retrospective reverence.  Visiting his native home in Vermont, —that
old framed house, that running brook, that forest and rocky height,
where the silver cord of life first pulsed the latent music of his soul, -
he mused and dreamed awake, and penned the poesy of his thought
thus:




184                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" To-day I sit'neath the paternal roof, and, in shadowy memories and quickly-shifting kaleidoscopic presentations, re-live the past, all gemmed in those earlier years with
the dewy freshness of childhood's sunny morning. How mystic life's wel! How strange
the voyage, freighted with flowers and thorns, smiles and tears, defeats and victories,
making it rich in experiences! A divinity truly'shapes our ends,' a certain destiny
overshadows each of us, and fate proves to be a mighty wrestler. The pathway may be
crimsoned with bleeding feet, or baptized in tides of tears: yet beyond this mortal realm
the star of eve shines, and the' Queen of Morn' pours forth celestial harmonies, making'music over all the starry floor;' and there earth's divinest ideals become the soul's
eternal realities....
" Oh, how many pleasant associations cluster around that word mother! Some one
has said that'mother, home, and heaven' are the most beautiful words in the English
language  I almost venerate my parents."




CHAPTER XXI.
ASCENSION INTO THE CELESTIAL HEAVENS.
" I think of that city; for oh I how oft
My heart has been wrung at parting
With friends all pale, who with footfalls soft
To its airy heights were starting I
I see them again in their raiment white
In the blue, blue distance dwelling;
And I hear their praises in calm delight
Come down, on the breezes swelling,
As I dream of the city I have not seen,
Where the feet of mortals have never been." -EMMA TUTTIE.
IF a plant or dew-drop is dusted and quickened by a sunbeam, it
has virtually been to the sun.  What matters it whether we have
spiritual experiences through our own organism, or that of another
through whom we derive a greater fullness of angelic truth?  Spherally the medium we love is ourself conjoined with spirits. Where
every interest is mutual, and magnetic touch responsive, our medium is the telescope through which we look at heavenly worlds.
Dr. Dunn the medium, Mr. Peebles the spiritual astronomer: these
brothers attended vast conventions of angels and archangels, heard
discussions upon the best methods of mediumistic control, ate by imbibation of the fruit that grows in those upper paradises till nourished
in the substantial vitalities of spirit-life. Always the pre-requisite
for these interviews was temperance, fasting, purity of habit. At
one time Aaron Nite informed them  of his home, " Pear-Grove
Cottage," in the spirit-world; and Mir. Peebles expressed an, earnest
wish for the medium to visit it.
" Comply, then, with conditions," replied Aaron: " temperance in
all things, fasting, and purity; read inspired poetry; attune your
affections to the music of angel spheres."
In due time, obeying the request, the medium visited that heavenly
residence, whose first forms of beauty were budded in the scenes of
185




186                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Yorkshire, Eng., and described it so accurately and charmingly,
Mr. Peebles exclaimed," Plant me a tree in Aaron's garden: let
it grow large and broad; for I shall sit with him under its shadow
some sweet noonday of that happy world!"
Not long after this visit, the medium was deeply entranced, the
body seemingly dead, pulseless. A momentary blank, and he found
himself standing beside his body, -a very spirit clothed in shining
garments, - when his guide, appearing, said, "Now you will accompany us."  They went south-east, toward the tropical lands of
morning; spiritually, the love-life of truth: and at length reached a
real world of busy populations, and, in their rapid journey, caught
glimpses of lakes of the most enchanted beauty, forests teeming with
fruits, gardens in bloom, mountains encircled with prismatic clouds,
that dropped down fragrant showers upon the prolific valleys, and
crystal rivers, roseate with flowers and redolent with the music of
birds; the inhabitants industrious, beautiful, and happy; a conscious
harmony of ambition actuating every one to make those homes most
beautiful and sunny. Charmed and electrified with such atmospheres
and scenes, he arrived safe and invigorated at the residence of Aaron
Nite, where he was required to change his garments for something
more ethereal. Properly vestured, they ascended, piercing those atmospheres and terraces of light, till in the distance they discerned a
brilliantly white sphere, that opened at length, when there stood before them two men and two women, clothed in purple robes, their
countenances radiant with serenity of soul, and bearing in their hands
flower wreaths of varied form, hue, and fragance.
"I will go with these four spirits," said the guide," while the rest
of our circle will have to return."
Separating, the medium  queried why that was necessary.  The
question in thought was immediately answered by the spirits in
accord, the voice of one being the opinion of all:" Because their spiritual bodies are not sufficiently ethereal. The
laws of instincts are moral gravitations here: we can go only where
minds are one in affection. There is a truth in the parable with
which our friend and fellow-pilgrim is familiar.  The one who had
not on the wedding-garment, being on a lower plane, could not
remain.  They must first evolve from  holier affection this higher
sphere, ere they can find this rest. You, dear brother, could not advance one step with us, did we not weave around you our aura, - the




ASCENSION INTO THE CELESTIAL HEAVENS.    187
vestment of angel-love. Guard well thy mediumship, if thou wouldst
behold the glories to come!"
Taking the medium's hand, they approached a forest of surpassing
loveliness, bordering which was a fountain, its banks adorned with
sensitive flowers; for they reverently bowed as the spirits passed.
Reaching the fountain, they found it.three-graded, dashing a rainbowed spray, having colors no earthly art can picture, or sunbeams
paint in the cloud. In this the medium-was baptized; and a sister
spirit gave him a nectar to drink.  The spray of this "Fountain of
Purity," as it was called, inspirited him with a hallowed feeling.
"Be calm now," said the guide, "for we are approaching the
sphere celestial of that immortal teacher for whom we have the
most profound reverence."
Journeying onward amid new scenes, philosophizing by the way,
the band paused, saying, -
"WVe can go no farther: other guides must now take you in
charge."
Six spirits appeared, led by "Queen of Morn," all clothed in
white, having golden girdles clasping their robes, and enflowering
wreaths on their foreheads, with beauty of form  and expression
known only in immortal lands. Throwing a soft electric light around
the medium, and giving him a " white vesture" like their own, they
passed to an imposing mansion, arch on arch, glowing with splendor
aflash with living mottoes.  Dome above dome, circle encircling
circle, —east, west, north, south, — all lit up with glory.  High
above the rest was a tower, consecrated to the fine arts. A door
opening, they entered, and were greeted by a teacher of music, who
said she had sung often to her "Pilgrim  Brother."  Here were
musical instruments of strange construction, giving melodies such
as angels only can execute; and sculpture and painting by artists
long since departed from our world.  Ascending a spiral stairway,
they entered a department consecrated to science, poetry, and wis
dom, where venerable sages were conversing with their pupils in the
most soul-fraught enthusiasm. After inspecting all these attractions,
the guide beckoned him to follow, and led him up spirally to a lofty
dome, adorned with paintings and statues of ancient seers and
sages; among which were those of the Nazarene, with a burning star
over his forehead, and of the apostles, occupying niches in fine
view, each having a sentiment circling overhead significant of his
mission. Translated, they read thus,



188               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
SIMON PETER, -" Wisdom to be sought of God."
ANDREW, — " Christ the Corner-Stone."
JAMES, - " Let thy Prayers be unto all Men."
JOHN, -" Charity is the rule of God's Judgment."
PHILIP, -" The Truth giveth Freedom to the Soul."
BARTHOLOMEW, -" Righteousness is the Glory of All."
THOMAS,- "Knowledge expels all Doubt."
JAMES, SON OF ALPHEUS,-' The Truth that dwelleth in us shall be
in us for ever."
MATTHEW, -  God's Mercy is over All, and to All."
THADDEUS,-" The good Shepherd is alike mindful of all his Flock."
SIMON, -" The Tree that hath no Root shall wither away."
JUDAS, -" Fulfillment of the Law."
Here also was a rich library of ancient dialects, religious and philosophic. Many of the books were set in circular, movable cases,
easy of access, by simply whirling the library round in search of the
books sought. Near one of these, at a table, sat the celestial guide, 
the loving disciple who leaned on Jesus' bosom, clothed in a white robe,
glittering like burnished silver.  His look was grandeur itself; calm
in gravity, the same love-nature, swayed more by wisdom, that
seemed as a light and glow of a heavenly sun. Though easy in
manner as a child, persuasive and musical in tone of voice, there
was an apparent, graceful reserve, inspiring reverence, that prevented
any hasty approach.  He recognized the medium and his relation
with our pilgrim, and held a most happy conversation with his guide,
respecting the wisest methods of spirit-control.  This mansion, or
temple, seemed to be a great central battery for spirits and mortals.
The medium's guide had served in the capacity of a spirit psychologist
for many years; and to him the spirits there assembled appealed as
to an oracle for conclusive measures.  Their earnestness upon the
subject of mediumship was most serious and fervent, knowing as
they did that it is pregnant with the most sacred hopes of all worlds.
"What can be done to avert so many abuses? what to institute better
conditions? what to inaugurate more spiritual and fraternal governments on earth?" were among the practical questions for solution.
During the conversation of John with this guide about this allabsorbing theme, allusion was made to our Pilgrim, as well as to
others, stating that his organic sphere is receptive of influence from




ASCENSION INTO THE CELESTIAL, HEAVENS.   189
that temple; that " John and James blend in affection: " and he would
impress his brother of earth not so direct, but mainly through the
mediumship of associated spirits, projecting upon his brain a loving
thought, whenever the social conditions demand, the better to reach
souls that " hunger and thirst after righteousness."  Then, as if his
words were direct, this beloved spirit said in language so oft-repeated,
so lute-like in sweetness, to our pilgrim, -
"All these shall be thine, child, when thou art worthy.  To him  that
overconieth is the promise of the blessed inheritance."
"  hearts of love! 0 souls that turn,
Like sun-flowers, to the pure and best I
To you the truth is manifest;
For they the mind of Christ discern
Who lean like John upon his breast I
" What doth that holy guide require?
No rite of pain, nor gift of blood,
But man a kindly brotherhood,
Looking where duty is desire, -
To Christ, the beautiful and good."




CHAPTER XXII.
" BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART."
"The tears of the compassionate are sweeter than dewdrops falling from roses on the
bosom of earth." - BRAHMINIE.
"' od hath been gradually forming man
In his own image since the world began;
And is for ever working on the soul,
Like sculptor his statue, till the whole
Expression of the upward life be wrought
Into some semblance of the eternal thought." - GERALD MASSEY.
THE confidence of men and women in our brother is most beautiful.
Never did a child come closer to a maternal bosom than a troubled
brother or sister to his heart.  Eternal secrets contain sometimes
the holiest morals: they always indicate the under-currents of love.
We do wrong to hide the rarest pearls.  Let the world see how good
is man's or woman's heart, when guided by an angel's wisdom. Oh,
how divine it is to trust the divine of human nature!
The case is one of unhappy marriage in: the man warmhearted, the woman antipodal; both in a domestic hell.  He loved
another, - loved a maiden who reciprocated the heart's call in sacred
trust. Unschooled in the philosophy of magnetic spheres, confiding
as a nestling-bird, whatever the spirits said was to her law and gospel.  When alone by themselves, he was unconsciously entranced by
a positive spirit, who, " for the sake of health," as runs the subtile
plea, suggested an utter disregard of the legal tie that imprisoned the
unhappy husband and wife. It was temptation. Rallying her moral
courage, she waved the allurement as woman only can. The thought
would have been as disdainful, it is said, to him in his normal state
as to her; but the entrancement was repeated at other opportunities,
and the tempter was there with persuasive voice.
Again and again she parried the dart, tipped with a grain of sor190




"BLESSED  ARE THE PURE IN  HEART."                      191
row.  Love holding her, she faltered, wept, prayed, but kept her virtue.  Her secret love had been whispered to Mr. Peebles, whom  she
chose as her spiritual guardian. In her trouble, she wrote him; told
him  all; asked advice; declaring with tender words that she was
sinking, - sinking in spirit, death seeming inevitable under such
pressure, if she did not yield. This letter, shown us when fresh with
the pulsing aura of the hand that wrote it, was touching, sweet, pleading, heroic as a halting child that loves the flowers where the stinging bees are culling honey.  Mr. Peebles's reply was, " Resist; die
first in the struggle rather than plunge into an entanglement of even
the legal claim of an unloving wife."  He portrayed the social perils,
the need of reverence to self-denial, the glory of martyrdom, such as
angels love to witness, the divinity of such a death rather than the
ignominy of such a life.  " Weave not," he said, " your chords of
holy love into the meshes of a domestic quarrel; wait until God and
man shall sunder the false, and your triumph of heroism will give
you, oh, such a rest of soul, approved by high heaven!"  This counsel was what she anticipated. She rose from negation, feeling new
tides of life-force through her whole being; her gratitude was inexpressible; her spirit, now buoyant, infused health into the deadened
channels; and angels wrought to consummate a legal union on a
plane where they meet, - in the purity of spiritual affection.
Read this heart-pleading letter and its answer.  We weep over
them.  How the human heart can bleed, and yet live!  How woman
can suffer, and yet hope and love!  When will men be watchful, enzoned in moral integrity?  When shall we learn the perils of obsessing spheres?  Oh, the soul-accounts to balance by and by!  The
sister who writes this is a beautiful medium, faithful and true, who
has treasures in the spirit-world. Let all such, - so many such! 
wrestle with the weeping angels:" DEAR BROTHER PEEBLES, - I write to you for aid, sympathy, and influence. My
husband has become so infatuated with a young lady, that he says he does not love me,
and that he will never live with me again. This is a terrible blow. I love him as dear
as I ever did, yet I can have no control over him. I think he is either obsessed, or deranged. He has left me perfectly destitute; no home. I am now a dependent upon my
friends, which, you know, is very humiliating to me. And now, dear brother, I want
you to help me establish my home again, happy as it has been. It can, I feel; it must be
done. He must not bring this reproach on Spiritualism, and a curse like this on his
family. See him, and turn him right. For God's sake, help me! As I look at our four
helpless little ones, it almost crazes me to know that I am left alone to protect and care
for them. Dear brother, let me hear from you soon. I feel you can and will help me,




192                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
and save him. I feel that the good and true spirits will, and are trying to aid and help
me. I will not despair, though all seems of inky darkness, and the gulf impassable; yet
I hope. Please let me hear from you at once; for my heart is almost broken.
"Your sister in trouble,
"CLEVELAND, O., Jan. 6, 1871.
" MRS.. Dear Friend, -Your communication of    lies before me, inciting
sadness of spirit. It is only one among many of a similar character reaching me each
year. This social problem is to me a continual puzzle; and, while I mean to be charitable, I must be just. How your husband, possessing the instinct common to humanity,
could thus leave you destitute; how he could leave those four little children, whom he
had been instrumental in bringing into the world, leave them to look up with tearful
eyes and call in vain for a father, a father to love and counsel, savors of a reckless inhumanity, bordering upon mental insanity. It is not the work, my sister, of Spiritualism,
but rather of demonism, - a psychological infatuation thrown around him by the serpentine charms of that' young woman.' Is he dead to common justice, dead to duty, dead
to those holy and paternal relations that should unite father and child? He will awake
some day, in this moral maelstrom, to feel those bitter, biting, galling regrets, - to feel
that anguish that no painter can put on canvas, so sure as God is, so sure as there is
compensation. He would evidently say to me, in pursuing this course,' I am seeking
happiness.' So does the slimy serpent, when leaving his frosty den to catch the first
sunbeams of spring. Happiness based in selfishness can not succeed; neither can the
priceless boon be obtained at the expense of a wife's happiness, and injustice done to
four little children. Every child born on this earth has the right to demand honorable
recognition, care, and counsel from the father as well as the mother; has the right to be
loved by both parents; and the right to a sound, practical education.... Gladly would
I assist you, were it in my power; but I do not know where Mr.     is, nor have I
the means of finding him. Could I lay my hand upon his shoulder, and plead for those
children, - those olive-branches, that need to grow up under the sunshine of home and
sweet home influences,- perhaps I might induce him to return, prodigal-like, to his
family. Does he not know there is such a principle as self-sacrifice? that it is noble to
forget self for others' good? Rest assured that you have my sympathy, and may command my services in any possible way that will bring about reconciliation, and help
secure the good of all concerned.... Most truly thine,
"'J. M. PEEBLES."
Is  there  not  a  homeopathy  in  the  spiritual science?   What
but this shall cure our magnetic gluttonies with which we are surfeited?  This getting drunk on the spheres of spirits!  Promiscuous
magnetism are the hells of mediumship,- inductive to sensual pollution!  The sun is coldest when nearest in winter.  The fleshly contact may be the farthest from  heaven.  The most potent healing is
when the mediumized hand touches not the person. Physical nearness may be spiritual distance.  Hand to hand may be  earthly; soil
to soul is heavenly,  The sensuous will jeer at this: let them!  The
hand is magnetically charged with the voiceless language of the heart!
By thy hand thou shalt be known; by its touch thy secret shall be
revealed. The kiss of the sensuous lip gives coloring to character.




"BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART.                               193
The sacramental wine  of fashionable  Christians, touched  by their
dainty fingers, effervesces with pride of caste, and every participant is
tainted with vanity: it is indeed the blood of idols. Beware of a
magnetic satiety: it is a spiritual fever!
In a valuable article  published in  " The American  Spiritualist,"
making distinction between mere " Spiritists and  Spiritualists," Mr.
Peebles says, 
" If in any way given to constructive thought, they [Spiritists] place the base of the
pyramid in the air, and then seek to adjust the physical forces and relational magnetisms
to the neglect of those divine principles that take hold upon heaven and eternal life.
They insist that their bodies are their own, and they have a right to use them as they
will. Another way this of asserting the right of'passional promiscuity.' The slavering,
staggering drunkard admires the argument.'Have I not a right,' he indignantly exclaims,'a right to use my body as I choose? to put any thing into it I please?' and
down goes the poisoned dram of liquor! To state is to refute such a monstrous position....   Through suffering, discipline, and painful experiences, these social errorists
will learn that liberty is not license; that love is not lust; that psychological influence is
not spiritual attraction; and that gratification is not happiness, nor the right way to obtain it, in any realm of existence where intelligences exist as moral beings. To  him
that evercometh' is the paradise of purity promised. Our angels teach us that sensualists, stung with mental suffering, people lowest conditions in the tartarean spheres of the
after life. It is not much - it is not all- to be a mere Spiritist. Multitudes of wild
Indians are Spiritists; millions of Chinamen have been Spiritists from remotest antiquity;
the polygamy-practicing dervishes in Mohammedan countries are Spiritists, and their
tests are absolutely astounding. Some Mormons are excellent clairvoyants Spiritists.
But clairvoyance, tests, facts, phenomena, all combined, have not made them philosophers, - have not saved them. Alone, they will never educate nor spiritually redeem
humanity...
" On the natural plane, considered from the Adamic side of life, it is well and wise to'multiply and replenish the earth;' and every child thus born has the right to demand an
honorable recognition from the father as well as the mother,- has the right to be loved
and cared for by both parents, and the right to a sound, practical education. Finally,
these selfish, credulous, pompous, exquisite, faint-hearted, shiftless, sensuous, flirting
Spiritists, generally quite content with the alphabet of disorderly phenomena, need the
quickening influences of the Divine Spirit, need religious conviction and moral culture,
need conversion to, and baptism into, the heavenly principles of Spiritualism...
"Genuine Spiritualists, - there are multitudes of these. They already constitute a
vast army. Bearing upon their foreheads God's seal of manhood and womanhood, they
daily walk the Mount of Beatitude, and commune with the transfigured who glide along
the love-lands of heaven. Having trust in God, faith in the possibilities of humanity, and
a blessed knowledge of immortality, through the present ministry of spirits, they are a
moral power in the world. They live to-day as though conscious of being already in
eternity. They are above the commission of unworthy acts. Seeking neither praise
nor fulsome flattery, they are practical reformers, doing good for goodness' Fake. Candid and sincere, they take no selfish advantage of others' weaknesses. Broad and catholic, they can work with Unitarians, Free Religionists, Liberalists, all true workers. In
method they are more constructive than destructive. Relating to books, Bibles, and
spiritual teachings, they exercise their own judgment. Administering reproof in gentle18




194                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
ness, slow to believe ill of others, they forgive as they would be forgiven. Accepting
Spiritualism as expressing the outflowing love of God, the brotherhood of man, the
divine principle of holiness, the indwelling Christ of love and wisdom, the Comforter
promised in the New Testament, the divine guest crowned with immortality, — genuine Spiritualists, in this and all lands, strive to live pure, practical lives, that others
may see their good works, and thus be induced to accept the truth of heaven."
" Touch me not with profane fingers," says the delicate rose, fortified among thorns.  " Touch me not; for I am not yet risen to my
Father," said Jesus to Mary.  Retard not the spiritualizing work.
" Let thine eye be single " is Mr. Peebles's motto now. His prayer is,
" Give me a sunny room, pure air, pure water, orderly associations, flowers, a clean forest or glen, a Gethsemane under the palms
for meditation, a mountain for transfiguration, an angel's breath
soothing my fevered brain to sleep, and my loved angel waiting
there, silently distilling dewy dreams of an'Eden Home.'"
We have a lady friend in Greenbush, Wis., whose mother, pure
and tender as a seraph angel, made her house-plants her pets to love.
Watering with care, touching them  often, and speaking child-like
names, they grew  thrifty and beautiful.  When she sickened, the
plants, though cared for with equal attention by her daughter, also
wilted; and when she physically died, they too died, -no art could
save them.  Did she not take their souls with her?  So our brother
would do: be so spiritual, so close now to the souls of flowers,
birds, children, men, women, angels, that, when emancipation comes,
he may still be wedded to their souls, to make his heaven.
In his earlier years of mediumistic growth, Mr. Peebles requested
to be entranced, that he might see and hear for himself, and so be
more efficient in the work of the spiritual ministry; but his guides
have demonstrated, that, with his refined organism, it would unfit
him, though it might not others, for earthly use, and that the highest
spirituality is, when every faculty is celestially polarized, leaving the
mind in outward consciousness, too, for the attainment of fullness,
wholeness, perfectness.  He has sometimes been oblivious to this
wise injunction of his band, more particularly in the presence of
clairvoyants.
At a meeting in Fond du Lac, Wis., immediately following the
"Wilson and Haddock Discussion," when the former gave public
tests oif spirit-presence, Mr. Peebles was completely enveloped in
the magnetism  of the dominant sphere, neutralizing that of his
attendant angel, when some other materialistic spirit partially psy.




"BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART."                  195
chologized his brain. On the way from the meeting, he demanded
of his spirits to entrance him, that he might the better convince the
doubting world, seeking the light of this gospel. We argued against
him. Instantly a ray shot through the obsessing sphere, and scattered it as the outburst of a sun from the cloud; and he reeled under
it, like Saul on his way to Damascus, when "there shined round
about him a light from heaven." Powhattan then bathed him in the
rosy influence of sympathy; when he drooped his head, and wept,
holding us by the hand tremblingly, and praying under the silent
stars to be forgiven his mistrust of divine wisdom. That night, in
a company consisting, besides us two, of Raymond Tallmage and
wife, Mrs. Julia T. Ruggles (daughter of Gov. Tallmage), and Mrs.
Barrett, Mr. Peebles was strangely influenced by an Indian, then
by " Queen of Morn;" when he laid hands of benediction upon all
present, whispering a prayer, till hearts melted into teare, and tears
were windows of soul to see the angels. Never was reward for
faith in love so beautifully and divinely illustrated.
Mr. Peebles encourages spiritual circles for the " manifestations,"
as a basis of mediumistic development; inspires the mediums to
perseverance, and the people to protect them  in their beneficent ministry of love from the angels, but demands order, sincerity,
charity. Truth is sacred; and credit is due to all its revealers, of
every age and race and calling.  This position of his is ennobling.
Divine is character, when its soul gives justice where it is due, -to
books, mediums, governments, and religions.
Lecturing in, he was importuned several times to sit in a
promiscuous circle that was really repulsive to him.  Knowing his
own.sensitiveness, he politely declined.  "No," said his friends,
" you help the circle so much: you are too particular, too proud."
Yielding, just to accommodate them, he became entangled in a magnetic web. It was earthly, painful, darkening.  Unable to resist it
there, and realizing his moral peril, he seized his hat, rushed from
the room, and ran at night two miles through the city; where, reaching a lonely spot by a great rock, he kneeled down and prayed and
wept like a child, speaking the language of Jesus in his temptation,
"Get thee hence, obsessing spirit! "  Then fell that gentle wave
of light from his band, breaking the spell; and with a whisper a
voice said, "Brother, the lesson is well: be wiser; keep pure the
white vesture with which thou art robed."




196               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Natural to his refined ideal, Mr. Peebles recommends that a congregation assembled for spiritual communion be arranged in the
order of a spiritual circle, alternately negative with positive, the
more mediumistic in front, as on the armature.  He wants the hall
a sanctuary, consecrated as a " holy of holies," and used for no other
purpose; for a variety of uses is incipient to obsession. Like the
temple of the soul, it must be single to holiness, orderly, architecturally beautiful, airy; no somber shading, after the Episcopal style,
but full of light and the fragrance of flowers. Boxes, pulpits, and desks
intercept the magnetic circulation.  " Away with them, and give me
a broad, free platform."  He earnestly advocates settling educated
and trustworthy speakers in yearly engagements.  He is in favor of
alternate readings between speaker and people, with the interblendings
of congregational singing, harmonizing into oneness of spirit. This
method he has tried with brilliant success. Only one speaker on the
platform at a time is his demand. Forehead to forehead is the line
of inspiration. He would have the exercises simple and impressive,
lifting the soul to diviner purposes.  He cares nothing now about
proselyting: is more constructive than destructive.  How shall we
convert the world?  By living example! " We have enough believers," he says, " three millions genuine. Is the world the better for
it? That's the question!"  Risen above the chronic egotism and selfinflation of mere sensation, to attract idle curiosity, he calmly waits
his hour of heavenly illumination, and does his duty, and enjoys his
privilege, scattering truth-seed, criticising severely, and lovingly
replenishing. Making an effort in --  to engage there a month's
labor for one of our worthy young speakers, he was refused, on the
ground that it would not command " big houses."  This species of
spiritual hydrophobia, poisoning so many city societies, every sensible
Spiritualist deplores. Alluding to this matter in a private letter, he
writes, -
"The saying,'Draw,' provokes me. Dancing jacks and fighting
dogs often draw crowds."
In moments of trial, when all seems to go wrong, our brother
writes to a confiding brother, showing his child-like trust in the
higher life: " I am sick in heart, sick in soul, sick of the world,
sick of grasping Spiritualists, but not sick of God, heaven, angels,
Spiritualism, or you." This said and felt, he rises as an oak that
has taken deeper root, indorsing the poet: -




"BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEERT."                   197
" In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale
Are around and above, if thy footing should fail,
If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart,
Look aloft, and be firm and be fearless of heart."
It injures a magnet to let it lie beside pieces of iron and steel. It
should be suspended alone, with armature on. Understanding this
law, Mr. Peebles, these days, guards against introductions, just before speaking, as far as it is possible with the rules of courtesy. From
some ante-room, where he sits silent to catch the inspiring force, he
prefers to pass direct to the rostrum, so that the angel-sphere, inflamed by the sympathy of the audience, may envelop him; for the
touch of an angular hand may depolarize the influence. Owing
largely to this habit, Emma Hardinge holds so perfect sway over her
hearers, lifting them up by the power of heavenly truth. If a speaker
is submerged in the combined spheres of a mixed audience, no higher
thought is uttered than what floats through the general mind; therefore little or no good is done except to equipoise the magnetism.
The speaker on the rostrum should be spiritually insulated, handing
down the truth from the ministering angels. When such worship is
closed, and the hearts of the people are warmed in love of a purer
life, he greets them most cordially, adopting the Quaker style of shaking hands with everybody, imparting in that friendly grasp the virtue which the spirit imparted to him. Truthfully said the Nazarene,
adverting to this law, "And the glory which Thou hast given me I
have given them, that they may be one, even as Thou and I are one."
As an instance illustrative of his strict fidelity to order, may be
mentioned his experience at Sturgis, when dedicating the " Spiritual
Church," some of the brick of which he carried in his own arms.
When the vast congregation was seated, he noticed just in front of
him a woman of gross sphere, dark to him  as a " case of obsession."  The occasion demanded his best efforts. The woman was a
sister, whom he would not offend for his right hand.  What should
he do?  To rouse undue will-force might be combative; there was
danger of a failure. Mustering moral courage, he sent a request for
her to vacate the seat, to be supplied by another, better adapted to a
spiritual circle. The woman, understanding the law, gave heed with
a commendable grace, which touched his sympathy and brought her
immediately into the sphere of inspiration, when the house became a
Pentecost, the Spirit hovering on the people as with "tongues of
fire."




CHAPTER XXIII.
"QUEEN OF MORN."- A VISION.
"Heaven rests on those two heaving hills of snow."
"And like a lily on the river floating,
She floats upon the riyer of his thoughts."
" B the night visions," " In a deep sleep," " I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's Day," " And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as snow!"  What meaneth all this?  The angel
knoweth, not philosophy; and the angel, without our volition, hath
ushered us within the pavilion of the Spirit to see and hear.  Have
we not touched the spheres of heaven?  By some prophet-guardian,
we have seen " signs in the stars," writings upon scrolls, celestial
scenery, and angel forms arrayed in the beauty-light of immortality;
have heard the mystic voices, and the music of seraph choirs; have
had the perception of principles, and felt the deep impression of soul
in the silence of spirit-thought, too holy for utterance. With Paul,
we sometimes think the words heard " are not lawful to utter." God
help us if we sin the sin of presumption.
Under such guidance, we have seen that nuptials in heaven are
keyed to qualification.  " When thou art worthy," is the invariable
rule of the " Beloved John;" " They that are accounted worthy to
obtain that world " is the moral lesson of Jesus. In spirit-life hearts
are to be ecrned at a great price. Some dear angel looks down into
our soul, and loves there divinely, and then weighs our soul in the
scale of justice, poised on the pivot of harmony. Is it faithful? is it
pure? is it the echo-voice of sacrificing love? Ah! what a sin to weep
over, if we are jealous because a sainted angel loves that soul more
than we do! Who have the strongest claims? They who love us the
most morally, the most wisely, the most tenderly, the most sacredly,
the most spiritually. So the hearts we would hold in our bosoms must
198




QUEEN OF MORN.- A VISION.                       199
be preserved with eternal vigilance. To win victory is to love with an
ever watchful self-denial. What a momentous truth! what a solemn
warning in our reckless, guilt-impassioned world! What saith the
angel by our side? 
" There are exiled hearts, disappointed hearts, bleeding hearts,
bruised and riven hearts, forgiving hearts that have secrets, -hearts
so mournful, so spiritual, that when we hither come to see their puri-.
ty, behold, it is to witness a crucifixion more pitiful than that of
Calvary, -  hearts never mated in your world, but kept in reserve till
the bride or bridegroom cometh from the house of many mansions to
meet the emancipated prisoner of earth, - hearts that are doves going
forth from the ark with olive-branches to humanity, whose very oil
of love is pressed out by suffering for others' good, blessing everybody else, but ever pleading to see face to face, and hold hand within
hand, whpm Divine Wisdom  has anointed for' nuptials in heaven.'
Under the dissolving crimson of life's setting sun, it is indeed a privilege to be friendly to such hearts, to touch them down to the springs,
and be silent. Here is a " Paradise Lost," whose melancholy solitude
ispleasure; for the tears that fall there are dews, and forth from
their refreshing will unfold an Eden in which the betrothed Eve shall
walk to greet her beloved'neath the Tree of Life."
Whilst in Washington, Mr. Peebles one' day called upon his esteemed friend, H. Clay Preuss, who, in spiritual entrancement, improvised a beautiful poem, entitled " Isle of the Blest," soon after published  in "The Banner of Light," and set to  music in " The
Spiritual Harp."  The psychometric connoisseur will recognize here
the corioboration of our vision:
"I see an isle, like woran's smile,
That blooms on a silver sea;
And from its groves of angel-loves
Swells music wild and free.
"Prefigured here, in marriage sphere, ~
We catch faint gleams of bliss, -
Of the sweet control of soul o'er soul,
When sealed by.God's own kiss."
No one, not even Mr. Peebles himself, ever unveiled to us the
secret hidden in his interesting editorial in " The Banner of Light,"
entitled, " The Two Star-Sisters of France."  -It is another witness
of the truth of our vision.  He outlines the life-history of Ernest




200                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Renan and  his sister Henriette, and  Louis XVI. and  his  sister
"M.adame Elizabeth."    Henriette accompanied Ernest and his wife
on his scientific mission into ancient Phoenicia, where brother and
sister were both seized with a malignant fever.
"They were two souls warm with harmonious thought, and hearts beating as one.
She went with him on'to the loftiest pinnacles of Lebanon's mountains, and across the
desert sands that line the Jordan, exchanging ideas with him, and living his very life.
" A French writer says,'Notwithstanding her delicate health, she traveled to average
eight leagues a day, being both a sort of private secretary who divined her brother's
thoughts, and a sister of charity who watched with angelic tenderness over a precious
existence, which she justly considered as the effulgent glory of her family and her
name.'  Though these long, tiresome journeys greatly fatigued her, she continued to
assist her brother in writing' The Life of Jesus,' till she felt the approaches of malignant fever.  The symptoms grew worse; she was dangerous: yet her courage, for a
brother's sake, seemed to defy the death-angel's touch. Ernest, hastening from' Le
Caton' with the surgeon, fell dangerously ill with the same fever.  There they lay,
brother and sister, sick and alone in a foreign land, the brother summoning all his
energies to minister to his sister; the sister hiding her agony, concealing her sufferings,
and struggling against the fever that was burning to her being's core, to watch by her
brother's sick pillow. They fought death together, fought for each other, fought till
they became unconscious. The sister awoke in heaven.  Owing to Renan's robust
constitution he survived; and, coming to consciousness, his first incoherent words were,
Where's my sister?' The tearful eye of the surgeon told the story!  Here my pen
may drop. A recent writer of France says,' Hunting in a friend's library, I came upon
a pamphlet whose every line drew a tear.  I know nothing more touching, sadder, or
more beautiful, than the master-piece of a great thinker who bids a last farewell to a
noble soul,' - that a sister! "
In telling this touching  story, Mr. Peebles evidently intends to
compare himself in thought to Renan, traveling in quest of truth,his sister, his angel-guide, who passed on before him, long before
him, but, returning found his heart beating with her own the same
musical concord; and " lo! she is by his side, traveling with him  to
the land  of Adonis, near the holy Byblus and  the sacred waters
where the women  of the  ancient mysteries came to  mingle their
tears,. to rest in the bosom of God."
The  second stat of France is  Madame Elizabeth, " Queen  of
Morn," the harbinger of Mr. Peebles's pilgrimage over this strange
world of ours.
" The Queen of Morn," and " The Spiritual Pilgrim! " this relation is the enchantment of the life he lives, this the soul of experiences, that threads life's silver chords round the world whither he
goes, this the " Chain of Pearls" that blossoms ever upon his bosom
to  make his pilgrimage beautiful and  fragrant with  a love that




QUEEN OF MORN.-A  VISION.                              201
descends dove-like from heaven. We must let him tell the story of
Madame  Elizabeth, as gleaned from  the history he found in that
antiquarian library in Boston: —
" Just prior to the stormy days of the Revolution, there arose in the French firmament
another star, shedding a silvery radiance over the royal family and the entire kingdom
of France. We refer to the princess, Madame Elizabeth Marie Hellene Capet, sister of
Louis Capet, the noblest of the Bourbon line. and known in history as Louis the XVI.,
the martyr-king. Louis ascended the throne loving his people with a fatherly tenderness. His warm heart throbbing for the best welfare of France, he inaugurated a system
of reforms that resulted in his dethronement and death. So popular was he with the
poorer classes and the more benevolent of those in the higher walks of life, that a number of the most eminent jurists and advocates in France presented themselves, soliciting
the glory of defending Louis XVI. Among them were Cazales, Necker, Nicolai, LallyTollendal, Malouet, Mounier, &c.  Thomas Paine defended Louis in the Assembly.
The illustrious Schiller sent to the Convention from Germany a memorial in favor of the
kink. Other petitions from scholars and counts reached the French capital, pleading
for his life. But the decree of death had gone forth. Louis was aware of it by a
presentiment.  He hai seen a female form, clothed in white, walking in the royal
apartment, and then disappearing, - signal that a reigning Bourbon was to depart to the
land of the just.
"During his imprisonment in that gloomy tower, the Princess Elizabeth left her
brother's presence only to comfort Marie Antoinette and educate Louis's two children, -
the Dauphin (Louis Charles), and Marie Therese. In one of the king's last conversations
with his counsel, he spoke of the kind and tender consolations he had received, and
especially of the happiness derived from the caresses of an affectionate sister. He said,'I will not speak of my children now, nor further of my sister, whose life has been one
unvaried course of devotion, courage, and affection. Her alliance was sought by Spain
and Piedmont; and, at the death of Christina of Saxony, the canonesses of Piedmont
wished to elect her their abbess; but nothing could separate her from me. She clung
to me in my misfortunes as others attached themselves to my prosperity. But I wish
to speak of what gives my heart keenest pain, -the unjust opinion entertained by my
subjects of the queen.'
" Madame Elizabeth's devotion to her brother and family, while incarcerated in that
dungeon prison, - mending their garments in midnight hours, administering medicines,
speaking encouraging words, forgetting self, breathing prayers of trust and hope, and
catching each stray moment to educate the children in music, drawing, and the fine arts,
and conscious all this time that she was under the ban of The National Assembly, and
almost certain of a death upon the scaffold, - challenges an equal in all the historic ages.
And withal, how brave! When the mock-trial of the king was in process, the Princess
Elizabeth was the only member of the royal family able to get near him. This, being
inspired with a sister's love, she accomplished by rushing from window to window, with
all the daring of an Indian maiden. The furious mob, in the name of liberty, seeing
her near the king, mistook her for the object of their hate, Marie Antoinette, and shouted,' There's the Austrian woman, the queen: slay her! slay her!' The soldiers of The
National Guard who were surrounding the princess endeavored to undeceive them; but
the noble-hearted heroine turned to the soldiers, face calm as an angel's, and exclaimed,' No, no! Undeceive them not! Let them slay me! Let their bayonets drain and drink
my heart's blood, if'twill save the queen!'
Deep tPials refine the soul-forces; and human nature, thus refined, and outlived in




202                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
its highest estate, brings heaven down to earth. This princess looked upon her poverty
and sufferings, all for her brother's sake, as blessings in disguise. She felt that sorrow
was but the prophecy of diviner joy; and, the nearer she approached the fatal close of
life, the more radiant grew the brightness of her virtues and the glory of her martyrdom. Her prayers, beatific in angelic fervor, were full of forgiveness for her brother's
murderous enemies; and such of her letters as were preserved reveal a soul all aglow
with purity and affection.
"' Every sentence, oh, how tender I
Every line is full of love.' "
"To a friend, she closes a letter thus: -
" I enjoy, by anticipation, the pleasure you will experience in receiving this pledge
of friendship and of confidence. To be once more with you, and to see you happy, is
all I desire. You know how deeply I love you. I embrace you with my whole heart.
"'ELIZABETH M'ARIE.'
" This beautiful woman, so full of sisterly affection, persuasive tenderness, divine forgiveness, pious enthusiasm, and genuine heroism, was guillotined soon after her brother,
upon the'charge of corresponding with the king's brothers, and being an accomplice to
the crimes of the Bourbon family, as' heir apparent' to the throne of France. Twentyfour others shared a like fate at the same time. Her composure and touching resignation edified and astonished them all. It seemed her mission tb minister unto others
She continued to encourage them to the last with words of cheer, and the exhibition of
a noble moral heroism. Passing before her, they all bowed low as they ascended the
scaffold. Madame Elizabeth's turn had come. Behold the scene! -tenderness in her
eyes, love on her dewy lips, life in her warm veins, and purity on her white bosom, that
so gently, tremulously'heaved. The executioner tears aside the robes from her chaste
form. Her dark hair hangs loose and wavy. She kneels. Her fair, beautiful neck lays
upon the block. The axe glimmers, falls: the princess is in eternity!
" The last words of her counsel's defence were,' She who at the qpurt of France
was deemed the most perfect model of every virtue can not be the enemy of Frenchmen.' The historian, De Beauchesne, says,' She was the best and most holy of friends,
who, wearing heaven in her heart, and love in her eyes, soothed the most cruel pangs
with the balm of her words, and with her angelic gaze ever re-assured the soul....
Her whole being was too beautiful, too lofty, not to forget itself when any other interest
presented.  Hers was the purest expression of that single-hearted candor, of that holy
affection, which Raphael has given to the mother of Jesus, - an angelic grace, a Christian serenity, that never occurred to the imagination of antiquity.'
" Now, encircled in light, she treads the fairest fields of heaven. Her robes, reflecting her soul's purity, are bright with glittering sprays from the' River of Life,' that
John saw proceeding from the throne of God. Her harp breathes only harmonial
thoughts, and the sweet love-strains of undying melody. Her tears have been crystallized into pearls, to adorn the faithful. Her sorrows have ripened into holy and heavenly sympathies; and, through her poverty-experiences of earth, she is better enabled
to now enrich millions with wisdom.
" Souls do not forget. All love is immortal. Doubtless she oft descends to earth with
holy evangels, to cheer the sad as they journey o'er the sands of time, yet trustingly
look upward to the evergreen mountains of promise, and to those ever-flowing fountains that dot the plaza-lands of paradise."
Closing  the recital of this sad history, so feelingly told by Mr.
Peebles, our best thought is found in silence, meditating upon what




QUEEN OF MORN. —A VISION.                              203
the angel said, " There are exiled hearts! "   The elegiac words of
Phebe Cary, let us quote them  for our " Pilgrim: ""  my friend I 0 my dearly beloved I
Do you feel, do you know,
How the times and the seasons are going?
Are they weary and slow?
Does it seem to you long in the heavens,
My true, tender mate,
Since here we were living together,
Where, dying, I wait?'Tis long years, as we count by the springtimes,
By the birth of the flowers:
What are years, ay, eternities even,
To love such as ours?"
In the " Isle of the Blest," the " Queen of Morn" is associated in
Mr. Peebles's spirit-band with " Celestia" and " Morning Star,"" Sisters of purity;" who play together upon " the harp, lute, and
lyre; " whose music, though not often heard by our " Pilgrim," yet
is itfelt, soothing his spirit, and lifting his affections to the life they
live with the child-angels of God.
At the gray of a summer's evening, this angel of all his years,
whose hand had touched  him, whose influence  had  so  often  enchanted his hopes, this " Queen of Morn," vestured in white, accompanied by her sisters, rapt in the poesy of song, whispered in the
clairaudient ear of Mrs. Nellie  Smith  of Sturgis  these  precious
words, addressed direct to our weeping pilgrim:" Come with me, 0 my beloved! come away for a season from thy cares and weary
work! I will await thee on the green banks of the beautiful river, and give thee love's
welcome.
" I'll tune my harp to its richest measures, and sing thee to sweet repose.
" Life of my life, for ever near, for ever dear, light is darkness without thee,
and music is mourning.  Knowest thou something of love?  I will teach thee more;
will perfume thy throbbing heart with ecstasies of which thou hast not known.  Oh I
what can I not promise thee? Rich gifts are in my keeping, but through love alone.
"My beautiful, I have watched o'er thy steps, and have exulted in thy soul's fair
expansion; have seen the tides of feeling accumulate force, and noble aspirations take
loftier flights: while love, the crowning palm of thy rich nature, has sent its roots
deeper and deeper into the region of thy soul's mines of iron and gold and gems, exhaustless and indestructible. I know thee well, true love of mine; and all thy yearnings
for the perfect life are cleaj to my spirit-gaze.  Earth does not satisfy thee, nor
should it. Will my love in measureless waves allay thy thirst? Ah! what can I give
thee more?  What askest thou?  Speak!
"' We have held nothing back when thou hast called: we have robed thee in angel
royalty, have filled thy brain with poesy's true spirit, and touched thy lips with flame.
We have set thy feet in high places, and have given souls into thy hands. What wilt
thou still? Love, praise, and honor are at thy feet as myrrh and incense. Ask, if thy




204                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
deep soul desires jught else, and I'll fly through Nature's vast domains to do thy bidding,- to bless thee, loved and treasured one. Perhaps the humblest instruments only
may be at my command: do not disdain them.  The Father's love overshadoweth all.
In love alone can I approach thee, to touch the springs of thy own love-nature. Yet
ever am I near: in thine orisons and meeting, I sing solemn symphonies, and chant
the high Te Deum. Like the sparkling waters round a golden isle would I circle thee
with sleepless vigils. Ever the burden of my song is love."




CHAPTER XXIV.
A NEW CYCLE.
"Life hath its harvest morns,
Its tasseled corn and purple-weighted vine,
Its gathered sheaves of grain, the blessed sign
Of plenteous reaping, bread and pure rich wine,
Full hearts for harvest times." -ISA GILBERT.
AFTER four years of faithful service in the Western department of
"The Banner of Light," Mr. Peebles resigned his editorship, which
the publishers of this stable journal reluctantly accepted.   Yielding with a most friendly spirit, the editor-in-chief, Luther Colby,
penned a very beautiful tribute, fraught with tender words, and with
angels' blessings invoked upon his attached brother. In his valedictory, Mr. Peebles says, -
" Though life is fraught with varied changes, — meeting to-day, and parting to-morrow, — friendship, inhering as a principle in the human soul, never perishes. It is only
a germinal bud on earth, blooming into a sweeter, fresher- fragrance in heaven. Cordial in our nature, never can we forget the friends cherished, hands clasped, or
acquaintances formed during the several years of our editorial connection with'The
Banner of Light.'
"If competent of self-judgment, it has been our aim, our soul-purpose each week,
to be just and impartial, -to benefit humanity by elucidating the phenomena, the
philosophy, and practical tendencies of Spiritualism. If, in so doing, a sarcastic word
has carelessly slipped from our pen, or a severe thought taken form on the eighth page,
wounding a sincere soul, we deeply regret it.' To err is human; to forgive, divine.'
"Not a link inthe chain of mutual sympathy and good feeling between us lies severed
or rusted. In the business capacity and strict integrity of Wm. White & Co., we have
the most perfect confidence; and only the hope of wider usefulness inclines us to enter
a somewhat different and more diffusive field of action."
The "field" to which he refers was the general supervision of
another weekly, " The Universe," published by H. N. F. Lewis,
then in Chicago, subsequently in New York. In entering upon this
task, to which he was so cordially invited, as editor-in-chief of this
radical paper, he says, -
206




206                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" Freedom is the watchword of the age, and as applicable to periodicals as to speech;
still, this freedom must not be allowed to degenerate into anarchy, nor liberty into wanton
license. A brotherly interchange of the most diverse sentiments, however, is educational, beneficial, and beautiful in practical results. Full of faith in the divine consciousness of the race, and trusting much to the noble instincts and innate worth of
each and all individuals constituting our common humanity, we shall nevertheless bear
the responsibility of only our own weekly productions. The thoughts that throb for
birth into outer life shall flow from our pen in earnest words. If they warm the heart,
gladden with sunshine the soul, and, removing the rubbish, plant roses along the rugged
pathway of life, well; if not, they must move on, the guests of more receptive
natures."
Some of Mr. Peebles's choicest gems of thought were published
in "The Universe."   We make a few extracts:
" Senators, representatives, and other officials of high degree, rise to power through
political corruption.  Is the candidate avagable?-that's the question. Court decisions are carried by intrigue. Money, or a' valuable consideration' as the equivalent,
has become the underlying method of conducting public affairs. Will it pay? is the inquiry. Human integrity, justice, are among the'lost graces' in political circles: the
question is,' What will it cost to get the office, and what can I make out of it?' The
late war intensified this demoralization. The back-brain inspiration, so thoroughly
aroused by it, still lingers..
" Education, justice, equality, are the watchwords of all advanced thinkers. Education should be not merely the learning of words, but integral, - a cultivation of the
intellect, of the affections, of the emotions, of the higher intuitive powers, - all those
qualities that make the good man, the good woman.  The sexes should be educated
together, each assisting in the mental and moral development of the other. The education of the future, if in accordance with the genius of the age, will popularize hygiene,
art, music, indriftry, integrity, peace, freedom, and sanitary reforms.
"Science is rifting theologies. Buried Asiatic cities are being exhumed; Central
Africa is bein, explored; cables are girding the globe; and the Rocky Mountains have
dwindled almo ta to sand-hills for the laying of the iron trail, along which schoolboys
will soon fly tieir kites, and over which graceful summer swallows will sing their
vesper praiser.  With steam for breath, and lightning for brain, the winds and seas
conquered, tba rock-ribbed mountains at our feet, now who will give us an air-ship,
some aerial v locipede, that, swiftly cutting those clear atmospheric strata that look down
upon northern ice-belts, shall land explorers upon the inner shores that fringe the polar
seas?  Is not the Columbus born, that, leading the way, will enable us to clasp the
hands of those inhabitants who, in isolation, have so long summered and wintered in
the frigid regions of the North Pole? Every acre explored, the whole earth is to become
the servant of man, with palms and dates Nourishing in deserts, flowers blooming
along the highways, and fruit-trees bending with matured sustenance, wide and extended
as the avenues of travel.
"There is a coming millennium for humanity. It will be a practical age. Men and
women will be kings and queens,- exact equals, and laws unto themselves.  The
principle of love will link heart to heart, hearth to hearth, hamlet to hamlet, and nation
to nation, —a banded brotherhood and sisterhood of interests, restoring the poet's
Eden....




A NEW CYCLE.                                    207
"It is grand to contemplate optimism from the standpoint of the deep thinker; but
any loose, illogical, illy-explained system of optimism - that lumps moral qualities and
immoral tendencies into one conglomerated mass, that seeks the destruction of all distinctions between vice and virtue, and inferentially says, that pirates, murderers,
thieves, sensualists, vampires, impostors, are'doing their work,' thus implying that
their work is legitimate, orderly, beautiful, and divine - is deserving of little consideration. The advocates and adherents of such a theory are entitled only to pity.
"That pirates, impostors, and all such characters, are doing a'work' is very
evident; and so is the inebriate doing a work, when he pours into his body poisoned
liquors. This work fruits out in flotches, diseases, poverty, wretchedness, and a general dwarfing of the moral nature. Had not all such work better be left undone?  Is
there no way to the enjoyment of the heaven of temperance, purity, and harmony, save
through the winding way of drunkenness and debauchery?  Such a dogma is, -
A monster of such frightful mien,
That to be hated needs but to be seen.'
It is quite time for Spiritualists to sift the chaff from the wheat, the sense from the
nonsense, afloat in their name, and, gathering up their precious truths, now'lying
around loosely,' put them into shape and system, for acceptance and practice.
"The organizing of harmonial associations -banded brotherhoods and sisterhoods,
based upon equality -would, while destroying all antagonisms between. stolen capital
and daily toil, make labor attractive. Furthermore, sinking selfishness into self-sacrifice,
they would do away with isolation, and this crushing poverty that so fearfully obtains
in the great cities. Those united societies termed' Shakers' have no poor; and, on the
day of Pentecost, those baptized from the heavens were inspired to hold' all things in
common.'
" Three important needs are constantly pressing themselves upon the masses. They
are necessities, and may be denominated by the common terms, physical, social, spiritual.
As legitimate, looking to the supply of these needs so universally felt, why not organize
associations, thus reducing the better theories upon this subject to practical life?  Of
what avail the ideal, unless it fruits into the real?
"Under physical needs may be classed home, food, clothing, labor, amusements;
under social necessities may be mentioned families, friendships, sympathies, iusic,
art, literature.
"Under the head of spiritual needs may be designated moral culture, education,
progress, spirit-communion, and such inspirations at shall help each and all to near the
heavenly life on earth.  How many sweet associations cluster around the endearing
word'home,' —  a home possessing all the foregoing comforts and requirements, a
home ever vernal with heart-flowers of beauty, a home with cordial hands to clasp
our own, a home where wisdom guides, and love is law!
" These homes, with agricultural products for a physical basis, would afford the
choicest opportunities for mental and moral culture. Manufactures would express the
forms of use connected with such progressive movements.  Commerce would be a
means of supply, or, rather, a transfer of commodities, upon the basis of equivalents.
Certain homes of the brotherhood would necessarily be mostly agricultural; others,
manufacturing; and others still would combine the two in connection with the educational. A chain of sympathy and common interest, looking to the good of all, would
thus grow up between these homes. whether located in this or foreign countries.
"A  social order, possessing these and other beneficial tendencies relating to the




208                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
equality of the sexes and the strict administration of justice, will ultimately prevail
throughout the world. The angels so teach; and those who have tasted the first-fruits
of the kingdom, or rather the republic, of heaven, actualized on earth, so believe. The
Shakers, Essenians of the nineteenth century, are already in the vestibule of this
temple.
" Such homes should have one common and elegant building in the centre, for lectures, music, educational pursuits, gymnasium-exercises, amusements, &c. Around,
and branching outward from this, there might be a system of cottage-buildings, all in
form and order.  Purity the reigning principle, and culture the common aim, the
interests of one should be felt to be the highest intewests of all. Each should seek' another's wealth,' -that is, another's good, —and find supreme delight in serving all; and
those entering into such an enterprise should do it with a life consecrated to human
good and happiness."




CHAPTER XXV.
APPOINTED  CONSUL.
" Better be cheated to the last,
Than lose the blessed hope of truth."
"Let this suffice
To show why I my pilgrim patronize.
It came from my own heart; so to my head,
And then into my fingers trickled." - BUNYAN'S PILGRIM.
SINCE being associated with spirits of the Eastern world, Mr. Peebles felt an unquenchable longing to travel thither in quest of truth.
The discipline, thus far morally enforced, taught him that the spiritual
beauties of Oriental Spiritualism lay hidden under the debris of more
modern literature. He dreamed awake; awake he acted: go he must.
His whole soul burned with a flame of love for classic lands, for ancient ruins, for Asian mountains, for the poesy and song that throb
the sunniest under the rising sun. Like the other major events of his
life, this purpose, evoked by the spirits, cast its shadow into his horoscope, and there was seen by different clairvoyants long before his
plans were matured.  While lecturing in Detroit, Mich., he met
Mrs. R. G. Murray, now in the Summer Isle, whose husband was
formerly a Presbyterian clergyman, but an earnest and noble Spiritualist now, ripening for the great harvest. This lady, upon becoming entranced by an Indian spirit, calling himself " Big Thunder,"
said, "A bright, pale-faced spirit tells me to say to you, brother, that
you are to go over the wide waters before the leaves become many
times green and sere again. You are to go in a great ship-canoe, and
in an official capacity." He inquired, " Why do you say that?" The
spirit replied, " Because the pale-faced guardian so says, and because
I see in your hand state-papers, sealed with red wax, and circled
with red tape."
About four years prior to Mr. Peebles's travels to the East, the fol14                                 209




210                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
lowing vision was given to him by a clairvoyant medium in Philadelphia, Dr. H. T. Child, an experienced Spiritualist and writer, being
present. The lady entranced, looking into a rock crystal of peculiar
shape, said, 
"I see you in a foreign country. The people must be English; for their dress and language nearly correspond with the American. You are traversing the country on some
interesting mission. Now you stand beside a singular vehicle: it resembles a wheelbarrow. A lady —it is Mrs. Hardinge -with yourself grasp the handles, and seem
trundling it up the hillside.  How faithfully, zealously, you toil!  How strange!
This vehicle seems loaded with books, pamphlets, and periodicals. A short, stirring, sincere, and enthusiastic individual seems to be loading the wheelbarrow. Mercy! how
he works!' If it be true that the worker wins, a golden harvest must await such consecration to a holy purpose." It needs no supernatural gift to identify in this worker
Mr. Burns, of the Progressive Library, London.
Seasons came and passed.  Mrs. Murray spoke to him  several
tidies of her vision, expressing perfect faith in its fulfillment; but he
then was doubtful, deep as was his desire to prove her a true prophetess. Our life-lines, do not angels hold them, and fasten them where
they belong, from the past out into the future?
Some time in July, 1869, Harrison Barrett, Superintendent of the
S. and F. R. R., invited Mr. Peebles to lecture in Sheboygan, Wis.
Through the generous auspices of Rev. Mr. Howard, the Unitarian
church was open to him. At the close of his lecture, he informed the
people that he should start in a few days for Europe. That was his
last lecture in America before leaving. There we parted with mutual
blessings invoked. Soon his resolution was reported to the Spiritual
papers.  Col. D. M. Fox, editor of " The Present Age," then President of the National American Association of Spiritualists, thus
spoke of his intended departure, -
"We are sorry to learn that Brother Peebles can not postpone his embarkation for
Europe until our Annual National Convention, as we very much desired the calm counsel and genial influence of one who has been so long identified with the Spiritualistic
movement. Our best wishes go with him; for we know how long and anxiously he has
desired to visit the scenes of the Old World, and his intense desire to delve in its grand
old libraries, containing their millions of volumes of ancient lore. With us, thousands
of American Spiritualists will unite in saying, -
"' Where'er thou journeyest, or whatever thy care,
My heart shall follow, and my spirit share. "
Hearing of his design, friends in Washington  and elsewhere procured for him a consulate to Trebisond, Asia. It was not expected.
Mr. Lewis, of " The Universe," said,



APPOINTED CONSUL.                                211
"We announced last week that Mr. Peebles was to set sail on Saturday, July 81,
in the steamship' City of Brooklyn,' for Liverpool, intending to visit the various countries of Europe, and, if possible, to continue his journeyings into the Orient. It has been
Mr. Peebles's fervent desire, for years, to visit the Holy Land; but it has been uncertain
whether he could accomplish this on the present trip. That doubt has now been removed.
"We have the pleasure of presenting our readers with the following note from Damon
Y. Kilgore, Esq., of Philadelphia, received after the issue of our last number, which will
convey gratifying intelligence to thousands: -
"PHILADELPHIA, July 30, 1869.
"H. N. F. LEWIS, ESQ. Dear Sir,-You will be pleased to learn that I have just received a telegram from Mr. Davis, Assistant Secretary of State, at Washington, stating
that J. M. Peebles, editor-in-chief of'The Universe,' has just been appointed Consul
at Trebisond..... Our good brother left my office yesterday for New-York City, in
the best of spirits. God bless him!                       DAMON Y. KILGORE.
" Trebisond is a leading commercial city of Turkey in Asia; and the personal advantage to Mr. Peebles of this appointment will be at once seen. It is needless to say that
the official duties of the post will be conducted with scrupulous fidelity. This appointment affords an instance of proof, that the United States government does not bestow its
favors entirely upon political aspirants."' The Banner of Light " congratulated the appointment thus: —
" It is a wonder he was not rejected on account of his belief in Spiritualism. This
appointment gratifies us exceedingly, as it is a proof that bigotry is lessening its hold on
the minds of men in authority, and that justice is sure to achieve victory in the long
run. How will our ecclesiastical friends like this appointment? Not remarkably well,
we opine. Progress is ever onward, however; and those who attempt to retard it,
through selfishness or bigotry, will surely be crushed by its ponderous wheels. May
success attend Brother Peebles in his new mission is the sincere wish of his hosts
of friends!"
E. S. Wheeler, of " The American Spiritualist," wrote, -
" We were made aware of the action in favor of the appointment of friend Peebles
when in Washington this spring, and are not surprised at the result.  We do not consider it'a wonder he was not rejected on account of his belief in Spiritualism,' happening to know  it was rather a strong recommendation in some official quarters.
Among the most respected and trusted government officials are open and avowed Spiritualists. The administration persecutes no phase of religious sentiments; and, in our
opinion, this ceaseless cry of the unpopularity of our philosophy, the poverty of ourselves, and the persecution we meet, is as much out of taste and time as foreign to the
general truth."
It saddens our soul to say, that, after Mr. Peebles had left for
Europe, studied efforts were made by two  or three individuals to
underrate  the  beneficence of his  mission.   His  friends sent him
letters of unfaltering friendship.  He received scores of them, con



212                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
demning the cowardly innuendoes.  It was a trial moment, which
centered his trust in heaven.   " The American Spiritualist" justly
said,"The laurels he has won are well earned, At a great price of self-sacrifice, - laurels of
fidelity, not of pride; and they who tear them would also rend the stars from heaven, if
they shine not specially for them...
" He has gone there with the noble intention of gleaning historic truth, under the
guidance of his ministering spirits, from ancient ruins of once flourishing cities that
projected a world's civilization, from the hieroglyphics of buried tombs, from obelisks,
and the rocks of consecrated mountains and shrines, of exhuming psychologically the
hidden pearls of wisdom, embodied again in living form, to add a new luster of moral
wealth to the spiritual temple we are all trying to construct for a shelterless and impoverished humanity."
Just before Mr. Peebles started, we received a letter, from which
we clip this sparkling gem of faith, -
"The time draws near for sailing, Hallelujah! Up or down among green seaweeds,
all the same. The Lord reigns. In him and angels is my trust. Sail Saturday."




CHAPTER XXVI.
IN FOREIGN LANDS.
"Horsed on the Proteus,
Thou ridest to power
And to endurance." - EMERSON.
IN steamer " City of Brooklyn," - swift plow of the main, propelling three hundred miles per day.  "Adieu, sweet native land! " 
"Adieu! " is the shout of parting friends, waving their handkerchiefs, the hearts' white flags of truce. On board this nautical commonwealth were Sir John Barrington, Ex-Lord Mayor of Dublin;
Judge Field, brother of Cyrus W. Field, alias "Atlantic Cable;"
artists and actresses, poets and philosophers,-a literary world in
miniature.  Our " pilgrim" caught the civilizing psychology of the
ocean. The waves were mad, the winds frowned, the steamer staggered.  "Heigho!" was his shout.  The passengers slunk away
into their berths. Jonah's fish was not half as vigorous; for he
challenged the storms and waves, rushed on deck, gloried in the
ocean's revelry, and escaped the sea-sick contagion. " Grace aside,"
he writes, " it is grit that leads to glory on the ocean." At midnight
he was out watching the stars, sailing under sidereal bowers, the
spirits leading. lIe stroked the beard of old Neptune, and mounted
on his shoulders, thence up to that other realm," Out on the sea of eternity."
On the 18th of August, the " Brooklyn" touched at Queenstown,
Ireland, and in a few hours more landed at Liverpool, - the solid
city that defies all time.
Letters sent from the Old Country by our brother are so admirably.
descriptive of his experiences there, we publish them almost entire.
213




214                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
LIVERPOOL, Aug. 23, 1869.
DEAR BROTHER, - Am  safely in the Old World, yet feel new and fresh. Every
thing seems unique, substantial, and solid. Liverpool looks cold, stone buildings being
large and dingy. Visited St. George's Hall, Birkenhead Park, planned by Sir Joseph
Paxton. How magnificent! Mine host is James Wason, an eminent barrister; who has
taken unwearied pains to show me Liverpool in its greatness and beauty, and Chester,
an old walled city, abounding in ruins. The walls were laid in the time of Julius Caesar.
The Cathedral here interested me deeply. In it are the remains of distinguished personages, even the sarcophagus of Henry IV. of Germany. English friendship is peculiarly attractive to Americans, as I find it in Judge Wason. Through his kindness, I
was invited into the criminal court, where I saw judges and barristers attired in robes,
wigs, and bands. Ancient, grave, they appeared, when spiritually sensed, as heartless
as dignified....
Isn't it queer to be under the government of woman?  Wonder if I shall see the
queen, - an English sister of mine?"...
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, Aug. 27, 1869.
MY AMERICAN FELLOW-WORKER, -The railway journey to Manchester is through
a garden of hedgerows and flowers. English cultivation is admirable. Saw women in
the harvest-fields,-women's rights! Traveling here is un-American: the engines are
smaller, but more fleet. The English tunnel their hills and mountains.... Manchester is the Lowell of England.  It numbers four hundred thousand.  Its manufactures
are vast; and its black-throated chimneys breathe out volumes of smoke, which, descending, cast a gloom over the city and its suburbs.
A century gone, the religious authorities of this city persecuted Dr. John Dee, permitted the rabble to indecorously treat John Wesley, throwing mud in his face, and
imprisoned mother Ann Lee, the patron saint of the Shakers....  Yesterday, in
company with Mr. Bealey, a poet and scholar, visited the palatial mansion of John
Bright of Rochdale, — name dear to every American.  He is a rare man, perfectly
easy, approachable, and agreeable; in fact, I find this is the case with all English gentlemen. Our conversation was mostly upon peace, - the peace-movements of England
and America. He intimated that the surest way to maintain peace, under the present
status of civilization, is to maintain large standing armies. In this we differed. Standing armies imply readiness for war; and this incites the spirit of bloodshed.  He spoke
of American institutions in the highest terms...      I have lectured in Manchester
several times on Spiritualism: but the mental soil seems hard and unimpressible. But
few attended.  Oh, how unlike those inspired meetings in America, where hundreds
and thousands gather under the green forests and hills, to hear the angels' gospel!..
I find in Rev. John Hodgson a good, Methodist minister, who preaches Spiritualism:
when attacked by secularists, he manfully defended my positions.... My mind to-day
turns continually upon Aaron Nite and Dr. E. C. Dunn. Wonder if I can certainly
identify Aaron at Yorkshire?  Knowing as I do that there are obsessing spirits who
assume false names for selfish ends, if I fail in this attempt, it will be the first time that
I have doubted his individuality for many years. I shall go there, and thoroughly test
the matter....
YORK CITY, ENGLAND, Aug. 30, 1869.
MY TRANSATLANTIC BROTHER, - As I wrote you the other day, one all-absorbing
thought has been on my mind. "To Yorkshire" has haunted me. "I must," I said, "see
the ancient home of my spirit-brother, Aaron Nite." And here I am. It seems to me a
sacred city. Am I a spirit-worshiper? - not worshiper, but loer. Eleven years since,
Aaron told me about these very scenes which are now before my eyes. How wonder




IN FOREIGN LANDS.                                  215
ful! Here are the River Ouse; St. Mary's Abbey, in ruins; the Minster; the beautiful
window-designs; the location of the Virgin Mary, with the serpent under her feet; the
rocks and lawns where he played when a mere boy, -all exactly as he many times
pictured them.
Accompanied by Robert Green, Lsq, of Brotherton, I hunted to-day in the "Annals
of York," but failed to get any clue of identity, until a venerable antiquarian directed
us to the" Will Office; " where, securing the services of the clerk in overhauling *he records, I asked him to go back two hundred years, and search for the Knights, —a
family famous for its clerical distinctions. He did so; and, to my joy and delight, he
found the name of Rev. James Knight, the identical brother of Aaron. The test was
perfect. Let me never doubt. He insists upon spelling his name in Anglo-Saxon style,
-Nite. The original name was McKnight; and the family was connected with the
McKnights who commented on the Gospels. I procured a full copy of the original
record, with this translation from the Latin, -
" Twenty-fourth of October, 1714. James Knight, A.M., was ordained deacon in
the Savoy Chapel, London, and priest in the same chapel on the following Sunday." -
From the Institution Book in the Archi- episcopal Registry, York, England.
Oh, I rejoice in the fact that I have tasted of the ministry of angels!..
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, Sept. 1, 1869.
BROTHER OF THE WEST, —.... Am in Scotland,- dear old land of my ancestors. It thrills my soul with joy to tread these hills, pluck the heather, ramble these
woods, reminding me of Burns' "Cotter's Saturday Night,'" — of the homeward cotter
from his rustic toil. Reflecting upon the configurations of this country, I can well
understand what made a Burns, a Wallace, a Bruce, a Marvelle, and a Hugh Miller,
who, in a vain attempt to reconcile the Book of Genesis with geology, became mentally
unbalanced, and passed by his own hand to the better land.... My meeting on Sunday at Glasgow was a success: hall packed, Prof. J. W. Jackson in the chair. Stopping now with friend Nisbet. The Clarks, Browns, and Duguid, the spirit-artist, have
called upon me: they are all good, genial Scotch. I already love them. Wonder if I
shall think as much of the Londoners.... Should like to describe to you the scenes
and my emotions whilst passing up the Tweed to Berwick Castle, and by the old town
of Peebles, mentioned in Burns's poems, and rendered famous in Sir Walter Scott's
novels.... Of Edinburgh, - what a beautiful city! - it is truly entitled to the appellation of " Modern Athens."  After repairing to the publishing-house of William and Robert Chambers, I visited John Knox's house, one of the oldest buildings in the city....
Did I tell you that I was in Farnley Iall, seeing the paintings of Vandyke, Rubens,
Turner, and other masters?  They are superb., I saw Cromwell's broad-brimmed hat;
the table at which he dined the day before the battle of the Moor, in 1644; the swords
of that hero, and of Lambert and Fairfax... Our " Day Out " down the Clyde, among
the lakes, nestling among the mountains, how beautiful, sunny, sweet! The scenery
equals any thing I have seen, though not on so magnificent scale. Queen Victoria was
on the lake the same day; had a fine view of her majesty's highness. She is a good
sister, a trup mother, and, as ruler, exerts a good moral influence, and is dearly beloved
by her subjects.... I have written Mrs. Peebles all about this, descriptive of the
heather hills that bore on their ragged bosoms the hearts of our progenitors, and particularly of the good queen.                Ever thine,             J. M. PEEBLES.
London!   the great world  of brain, the  heart of commerce.
"These high things are lost and drowned and dimmed,
Like a blue eye in tears."




216                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"So thou  art, old city, for me, too, a wandering  minstrel; who
shall delight thee with  a song, O Mother of nations? "   Our "Pilgrim's" reception  surprised  him,   unlike American  style.  Less
notoriety would have suited his taste; but he was taken by storm,
and had to surrender to British  tact.  We clip the following from
"The London Human Nature: "
" The readers of that veteran and stanch exponent of Spiritualism,' The Banner of
Light,' have long been agreeably attracted towards the last page of that journal; on
which was, till lhtely, printed the'Western Department, - J. M. Peebles, editor,' - in
which capacity this gentleman has been chiefly known to British readers. As a lecturer,'The Banner' has Also introduced him to this country by the copious reports of his
orations on the Spiritual Philosophy which it has given from time to time....
"Mr. Peebles reached the metropolis on the morning of Sept. 6; and, after an interview with Mrs. Hardinge, previous to her departure for Liverpool en route for America,
he t9Ok up his abode at the Progressive Library and Spiritual Institution, desiring quiet
and retirement, that he might prosecute his literary labors. A committee of leading
London Spiritualists quickly resolved on giving their distinguished guest a public reception; and, accordingly, a circular signed by J. Burns was issued to the prominent Spiritualists of London and  the provinces, stating that'the arrival of Mr. J. M. Peebles, of
America, in this country, has suggested the desirability of entertaining him at a meeting
of welcome, on the occasion of his visit amongst us, and give a representative gathering
of London Spiritualists the opportunity of exchanging fraternal greetings with an American medium  and leading Spiritualist of culture and experience.' The meeting took
place at the Spiritual Institution, 15 Southampton Row, W.C., on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 15; when a most influential and harmonious gathering met to do honor to Mr.
Peebles, and the movement and nation he represents. Amongst those present were
Mrs. Macdougall Gregory, widow of the late Prof. Gregory of Edinburgh; the Countesr
Paulett; Mrs. George Thompson, whose husband is so well known in England ana
America for his active sympathies with the cause of human freedom; Mr. and' Miss
Cooper; Mrs. Tebb; Miss Santi; Miss Houghton; Mr., Mrs., and Miss Dornbusch; Prof.
Palmer of St. John's College, Cambridge; Mr. Russell of the University, Cambridge;
Rev. M. D. Conway; Rev. S. E. Bengough, M.A.; B. Coleman, Esq.; A. B. Tietkens,
Esq.; Dr. R. Colquhoun; Dr. Wilmshurst; Mr. Hannah; Mr. Mawson, Mr. Armfield, &c.
" Letters from eminent Spiritualists were read, -from William Howitt, D. D. Home,
J. W. Jackson, Dr. Nichols, Rev. F. R. Young, S. Ca Hall (editor of' The Art Journal'),
and others.
"Mr. Coleman, in opening the proceedings, said, -
"'LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, -I have just been requested to take the chair on this
occasion. We are met here, as you are aware, to give a welcome and greeting to our
friend Mr. Peebles; and, to those who are acquainted with American literature, his name
will be familiar. I have known him by reputation for many years; and4I am free to
say, I know no man more unselfish or more earnest than our friend Mr. Peebles. I may
also say, that though I cordially respect my friend, and highly appreciate his earnest
working in the cause, yet I might not be able to agree with him in all the views he
might take of our movement; but as we can all agree to differ, and respect the differences of opinion which exist amongst us, that does not prevent us from thanking him
for his presence amongst us this evening in the cause of Spiritualism.'
" Mr. Tietkins was then called upon to read the following




IN FOREIGN LANDS.                               217
"' ADDRESS TO MR. J. M. PEEBLES, OF AMERICA, BY THE SPIRITUALISTS 01
LONDON.
"'DEAR SIR AND BROTHER, - We have the greatest pleasure, on the present occa.
sion, in welcoming you amongst us, and in extending the w&rm hand of brotherhood to
you, as an eminent representative of the millions on the Western hemisphere who share
with us the beautiful teachings derived from spirit-communion.
"' Peace, wisdom, and inspiration be with you, and the highly-enlightened nation of
which you are a distinguished citizen! We perceive in your life-work, as inspirational
medium, teacher, author, and editor, an apt illustration of the genius of modern Spiritualism. In your learned researches, you have shown that the stream of human progress
has been fed ever, in all ages, from spiritual sources; that this divine influx is inexhaustible, and ever present; that it is confined to no age, race, sect, or form of belief; and
that its redemptive work will yet extend to the complete development.of man from all
angularities and imperfections.
"  We welcome you also as an authorized delegate from the friends of peace in America, and as an active promoter of individual and social reform and human welfare in
every sense.
"' We shall be glad to hear from your lips some account of the present position of
Spiritualism in America, its upward struggles, its achievements, and its future tendencies; also the status of mediumship most prevalent and useful, and any other informa.
tion which the impressions of the moment may furnish.
"' We shall be glad if you can extend your sojourn amongst us, and help us in the
great work which we have scarcely yet begun. We cordially invite you to our platforms in the metropolis and chief cities of this country. The people require much
teaching concerning our principles and motives; and the leaders of our movement
would be benefited by your guidance in the matter of organization, and the best means
of promoting the popular diffusion of Spiritualism.'
"' Wishing you a prosperous and safe journey to the consular appointment in Asia
which your government has been pleased to confide to you, and praying that you may
be the recipient of those blessings (in this and other worlds) which flow from the soul's
most cherished treasure, - the possession of truth, - we are sincerely yours.'
"Mr. Tietkins concluded by moving a resolution that the address be adopted by
the meeting, and presented to Mr. Peebles.
" The Rev. S. E. Bengough, M.A., of Christ's College, Cambridge, seconded the resolution, and at the same time desired to say a word with regard to his own feelings in welcoming a gentleman from the Far West. He owed a great debt of gratitude to the mind of
America; because much that had led to his improvement, and added to his manhood in
the truest sense, had been derived from those writings which had emanated from the
other side of the Atlantic. He thought no Englishman could become conversant with
such writers as Emerson, without being the better for it. He was very anxious indeed
to become acquainted with the book on the table, entitled,' The Seers of the Ages.' In
looking over its pages, it promised a rich feast. From it he observed that Spiritualism
has been known in all ages, and to all nations, - in Persia, Greece, Rome, and Palestine;
and this led him to notice one fact with regard to Spiritualism: It seemed that we could
not possibly separate opinions from national character, and that our national character
influenced our conception of every thing, and Spiritualism among the number.' How
very different, for instance,' said Mr. Bengough,' is the tone of French writers on Spiritualism to those born in England, and partaking thoroughly of the English spirit. This
holds true of every nation. Then in what respect are we to derive especial advantages
from American Spiritualism? They speak our language, while at the same time theit




218                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
thoughts are not confined within the barriers which of necessity confine, in a certain
measure, our own, and prevent the true development of the spiritualistic idea; and I
think, therefore, when we have brought prominently before us by the first minds of
America these great truths, we are likely to have many of our narrow opinions broken
down, and new life imparted to us. Therefore, for my part, I shall listen with great
interest to Mr. Peebles.'
"Miss Houghton said,' We are most happy to see Mr. Peebles, and'to welcome him
to this country.'
"Rev. M. D. Conway being called upon, said,' Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen,
- I have great sympathy with you in giving welcome to a genuine American thinker and
laborer in good works. Not being a Spiritualist, I have no claim upon the generosity
which has invited me here except the great respect I have for truth. I am more friendly
with Spiritualists than with spirits; and I acknowledge a large number of very dear
friends in that body. There has not yet been a complete and thorough attempt to bring
the scientific men of London to the point of testing the great and important claims of
this movement. No one can travel through America or Russia, and mix in any company, but he will find a Spiritualist present, -persons perhaps of great intelligence
and refinement, -barons and princes, and persons who have studied in all languages;
and no individual can for a moment doubt their integrity. The subject has not been
sufficiently decided by men of science and culture, except such as were Spiritualists;
and few are capable of strict scientific investigation. The most of people can only believe
what they can bite: more, they can not understand. Of course I know what the Dialectical Society has been doing; but the public will have no more faith in them than they
have in any of you, gentlemen: and, when they come out with their report, no one will
respect it. The only thing in the world for the skeptic mind of this age will be when
two or three well-known scientific men can report that they have seen the manifestations. As for Mr. Peebles, I have long known him as a liberal American and an earnest
man; and I am obliged to those gentlemen who have so kindly enabled me to meet
him."'
3Mr. Burns also addressed the meeting in a most felicitous manner,
also C. W. Pearce, both alluding to the progressive library for the
diffusion of Spiritual literature.
" Mr. Coleman then put the address to the meeting, which was carried with unanimity.
" Mr. Peebles then rose, and in an off-hand manner said, -
"'MaR. PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN, -The privilege of meeting you
upon the present occasion affords me intense pleasure. Personally strangers; yet for
years I have known some of you, - at least through your public lectures, authorship, and
contributions to the English and American press: and I am exceedingly happy this
evening in the privilege of clasping your warm hands, looking into your earnest
faces, and coming into closer relationships with you socially and spiritually. Delegated
by the "Universal Peace Society of America," planting my feet upon your soil, I held in
my earnest right hand the olive-branch of peace; and the other day, numbering one of
that thirty or forty thousand assembled in the Crystal Palace, and seeing suspended over
those eight thousand choralists the national flags of England, Ireland, Scotland, and
America, responding seemingly in holy quietness to the melody of Oliver Wendell
Holmes's peace-hymn, so touchingly rendered at the Peace Jubilee in Boston, and




IN FOREIGN LANDS.                                 219
immortalized melodies from Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Rossini, and other
masters, my soul throbbed in gladness and for the moment I fancied myself in Syrian
lands, listening to the echoing refrain, " Peace on earth, and good-will toward men."
Your own Lord Brougham said, " I abominate war, as unchristian. I hold it the greatest
of human crimes." England and America, as elder and younger brother, united by the
common sympathy of race, speaking one language, and connected by thousands of
commercial interests, should never breathe the word war. All nations should settle
their civil and international differences by arbitration and congresses of nations.  The
genius of the age calls for the practice of these divine peace-principles.".. "' I am very happy this evening in seeing before me Mrs. George Thompson.  I
speak of George Thompson as an old friend, never forgetting the pleasant conversation
we held together At the residence of J. C. Woodman, Esq., Portland, Me.: in fact,
there is a common sympathy, which tends to make our philosophy, our science, our
spiritual gospel of reform, in this age a practical one; and we should bring it down to
every-day life, and live it, that others may see "our good works, and be led to glorify
God." The principles of Spiritualism are marching on rapidly in America, and gaining
attention in every circle of society. It has been estimated that there are eleven millions
of Spiritualists in America: this, probably, includes those still in the churches, and
whose religion simply recognizes the fact, that spirits can communicate. The lowest
estimate, however, is four millions. We have a National Association, several State conventions, hundreds of organized societies and progressive lyceums, which that highlyillumined seer, Andrew Jackson Davis, first saw in the spirit-land. In these progressive
lyceums, to the importance of which many of our American Spiritualists are not yet
educated, our children are taught to develop their whole being, mentally, morally, physically, and spiritually. The great power of the sectarian churches consists in warping
and training the young in their superstitions and dogmas; and the Roman Catholics
know, that, if they can get the charge of the children for the first few years, they need
have no fear of their becoming Protestants, -a hint which Spiritualists should turn to
good account. If we would liberalize the race, we must educate the young; and this
Spiritualists should accomplish through children's progressive lyceums, progressive
libraries, new educational institutions, the support of our periodical literature, and
the encouragement of nrfediums and speakers: and thus the work of progress would go
forward on a broad liberal basis of sympathy and harmony, laboring to educate and
spiritualize ourselves and our race.
"'The Rev. Mr. Bengough, M.A., of Christ's College, Cambridge, who has just
taken his seat, deeply interested me, as did the subsequent stirring words of Rev. M. D.
Conway, so well known in the Unitarian circles of America. His well-timed sentences
reminded me of a half-day spent in the library of Emerson....
"' Whittier says, " The destroyer should be the builder too;" and Carlyle insists, that
he who "goes forth with a torch for burning,:' should also carry a " hammer for building."
Many have yet to learn the full import of the term  toleration, the meaning of the word
charity. Intellectually we may, we necessarily must, differ; but our hearts, all touched
and tuned to the Christ principle of love, may beat as one.  The angels do not ask,
What do you believe? but, What do you do? what are you life-aims? what practical
work have you wrought for humanity?'
Mr. Peebles published editorially in " The Universe" lively descriptions  of English  scenes, entertainments, institutions, and  civilizations, continuing them throughout all his Eastern travels, - enough




220               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
to make a large volume, unlike any thing ever before written. Because
of their historic researches and psychological conclusions, they are
invaluable. At our suggestion, he contemplates writing a series of
works, dating from his past and future travels, entitled, " The Spiritual Philosophy of History."
Learning that there are a hundred and sixty-five thousand paupers
in the city of London, with their concomitant degradations glaring out
on every side, - observing the rule, where royalty is, is poverty,
the two extremes of society, -and painting an editorial picture of the
cost of monarchical crowns, that of Queen Victoria being worth
a hundred and twenty-one thousand pounds, he exclaims, " O Christian England! feed your hungry, educate your ignorant.... Queen
Victoria, sell your crown, and give the proceeds to the honest,
struggling poor! "
At the house of Mrs. Gregory, a literary Spiritualist, Mr. Peebles
saw the photograph of the Catholic sister who was the instigator of
the " Immaculate Conception."  Her name is Bernadette, of Lourdes, among the Pyrenees, in the South of France. Mediumistically
she saw the Virgin Mary seventeen times in a vision, who told her
she was " immaculate."  Priests hearing her confession, and perceiving the idea could be made a dogma profitable to the Church, declared her a saint. In grave council, the Catholic dignities pronounced
it a dogma; and quite sensible it is, provided it applies to all children
conceived in spiritual love.
In London, Mr. Peebles had an opportunity to corroborate the
affirmations of his ancient spirits respecting civilizations, recalling
his conversation with " Aphelion," who "lived 16,000 years ago."
Calling on Dr. Birch, the Egyptologist of the British Museum, then
reading hieroglyphs relating to the " Books of the Dead," he was
informed, that, " the farther we go back in Egyptian history, the
higher is the culture and civilization."




CHAPTER XXVII.
"LA  BELLE  FRANCE."
" Star of the brave I thy ray is pale;
And darkness must again prevail I
But, oh, thou rainbow of the free I "  BYRON.
LEAVING London about the 1st of October, Mr. Peebles crossed the
English Channel, from Dover to Calais, in a steamer good as the best,
which he styles " filthy, and positively detestable." The project of
tunneling the channel he made a matter of scientific prayer. The
French soldiery, the peasants in their harvests, the luxurious gardens,
the entrance into.Paris, -  " Queen of the Beautiful," -  assured him
he was surely in a foreign land.  " How unlike England " he exclaimed. "There all is solid: here all is gay and volatile."  During
four weeks' residence in Paris, delighting his senses with the purity
of its air and the floral exuberance of its fashionable streets, walking
the Boulevards in  meditation, he thus  summed up the warning
lesson of his prophecy in a letter to " The Universe," dated Oct. 6,
1869, -
" Paris is France. Sundays are its gala-days. The citizens are proud of their fountains, gardens, beautiful Boulevards, and massive libraries, -all open to the public.
Under this display and grandeur, however, lies a maddened volcano. Its fire and flame
already cause a half-subdued rumble. Gog and Magog are sharpening their weapons.
That Napoleon's health is frail, none dispute. The sins of his youth are fruiting out into
fearful pains and penalties. The grave invites his body to hasten: a rich worm-feast
is promised. Then comes another revolution: mark the prophecy! "
Ere a year rolled by, what he prophetically foresaw is now fulfilling in the unparalleled war between France and Prussia, —Napoleon a prisoner, the empire broken, Paris in a siege, a republic organized; and struggling for life, and all Europe in a political ferment.
What the augury?  Ask the spirit oracles.  "Poor France! weep
for Paris! weep for the slain of thy sons and daughters!  She will
rise again rejuvenated I"
221




222                  THE.SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Whilst in Paris, Mr. Peebles was the guest of Mr. Gledstanes, an
English gentleman of position, engaged in Spiritual literature. Having traveled extensively in India and China, he gave him many valuable items of Oriental politics and religion, for future discourse. He
says, " I am ever at school, - a pupil."
Leon Favre, then Consul-General of France, brother of the distinguished Jules Favre, both Spiritualists, became his fast friend.
They locked arm in arm, embosomed in deep friendship, his French
brother descanting so fervently upon the " new  religion."  "  Fifty
thousand, Monsieur Peebles, -  fifty thousand Spiritualists in Paris
alone! " exclaimed he, with a rapture of light in his countenance;
and then, in graver aspect, he informed him  of   a reign of blood
close to the doors,"    scenes which the spirits had sketched in prophecy, exactly as impressed Mr. Peebles whilst before walking the
Boulevards.  America had to emancipate her slaves on a crimson
sea, ere the Spiritual religion could be planted: so France, with the
guilt of fashion staining her moral character, enervated by luxury,
can rise only by the force of arms, breaking her monarchy, and
marching to education and liberty.
In company with Mr. Gledstanes, he strolled into Petite Peres,
Church of " Little Fathers; " where M. Jean Baptiste Vianney, Cure
D' Ars, exercised his wonderfil gifts of healing by the laying on of
hands in the name of the Virgin Mary.  The names of thousands he
healed are there inscribed on elegant tablets: so the place was holy
to him, not because of the temple, but because there holy deeds were
done by spirit-power.
But these deeds of the Catholic healer he found equaled, if not excelled, by those of Henri Auguste Jacob, of our Spiritualistic times.
"' Jacob was a Zouave and musician, playing upon the trombone while in the army.
Having avoided intoxicating drinks, soldiers' slang, and other vices common to military
life, and, withal, being very kind-hearted, he was exceedingly popular in the ranks of his
fellow-soldiers. He is nearly six feet high, has black hair, dark hazel eyes, regular features, and a head rounding up in the coronal region, something like that of A. J. Davis.
He is about forty years of age, and in religion nominally a Catholic. He sees spirits, feels
their presence, and, guided by their inspiration, prays to them and God. Some twelve
years since, while marching through the streets of Paris with his regiment, he saw a
poor crippled child being drawn in a carriage by its parents. The child had not put its
feet to the ground since it was two years of age. An irresistible influence seizing Jacob,
he went to the child, and, placing his hands on it, said firmly,'Get up and walk;;' which,
to the joy and astonishment of the parents, it did. Hundreds who were standing near
witnessed this. The next day a score came to him, all of whom were healed or improved.




"LA BELLE FRANCE."                                223
"The French are an excitable people. Soon hundreds flocked to him daily from all
ranks of society, troubled with' all manner of diseases,' as in Christ's time. It is calculated that he cured fifteen out of every twenty who came to him. Impossible to receive
the crowds in the barracks, a friend, M. Dufuget, a prominent citizen and merchant in
Rue de La Roquese, opened his house, business-place, and workshop for the reception of
sufferers. A thoroughly good man, M. Dufuget himself became developed as a healer
The throngs eventually increased to 2,000 a day. This blocking the streets, he was
warned to desist. Not heeding the policemen's warning, he was arrested,,and thrust into
prison, -all of which might have been expected in Imperial France. How it reminds one
of those old apostolic times, when Peter, James, and John, and others, exercising spirit aal gifts of healing, were' cast into prison!' Through the influence of friends, he was
after a time released, remaining incog. If using his gifts, it was in private. Prejudice
gradually gave way....
"Five minutes before the hour for healing, he steps into the room, takes a peculiar attitude, clasps his hands, requests perfect silence, and, asking them all to engage in silent
prayer, he departs. He is naturally a reticent man. Coming into the presence of his
patients the second time, he looks at each intently (not allowing them to speak or point
out their ailments), and then touching each, tells what he can and can not do for them.
His powers are much greater when there is a throng present. He does not insist that
people are healed when they are not. His remarkable powers, he continually affirms,
come from God, through good spirits and angels. The masses that come to him are of the
common people. It was the' common people' in Bible times that' heard Jesus gladly,'
- fishermen and herdsmen. This is the' second,' the continuous coming of Christ...
" None accuse him of being mercenary. His mission is an important one; and he is
working it out beautifully, for the good of humanity. Blessings upon the French
Zouave!"
Knowing  that the enlightened  governments are Spiritualistic, in
America the people accepting the new religion, and in Europe the
kings and queens, he writes, " Alexander II., of Russia, is worthy
of his title, -' liberating father.'  The emancipation of millions of
serfs was concordant with the genius of Spiritualism.  The angels
ordered it: they are our saviors  "
Departing from England was leaving brain; coming to France was
finding heart.  With  M. Pierart, the scholarly editor of the " Revue Spiritualiste," and author of the popular "Drama of Waterloo,"
he enjoyed a feast of soul, -everybody was so polite, so obliging!
Anna Blackwell, a lady of high social position as a literary writer,
introduced him to Madame Kardec, the " beloved " of Allan Kardec,
whose works are  so valuable for reference on the question of reincarnation; and there he procured, and. subsequently published, the
remarkable career of this medium, known for his virtues.
Introduced  to M. Pierart, a scholarly Frenchman, he was again
reminded  of the truthful words of " Aphelion," inspiring deeper
confidence at every step in life in the wisdom and fidelity of his




224                THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
spirit-band, encircling him  so lovingly during those foreign experiences. This savan said, -
"Egyptian civilization was in a hight of glory 15,000 B.C. There was no adultery.
Marriage was probationary seven years: if then agreeable, to continue fourteen years;
and then, if desirable, through life. After fourteen years, no separation.  Children of
divorced parents took the mother's name, and were the intellectual and moral property of
the government, educated at the public expense.'Plato,' he added,'drew his best
conceptions from those ancient Egyptians.' "
On hearing these statements, Mr. Peebles exclaimed to himself, -
" O Egyptian hierophants I lead me to your sunny clime, and teach
me the wisdom of modesty!"
Under the courteous escort of Baron de La Taille des Essarts,
celebrated for mediumship, Mr. Peebles rode through the panoramic
scenes of the country, passing the Park St. Cloud, the River Seine,
Montmartre, Arc de Triomphe, Place de La Concorde, Notre Dame,
Hotel des Invalides, the Pantheon, flower-gardens, and fountains.
He said of this journey to Versailles, "In fulfillment of a spiritprbphecy, this is one of the happiest days with which the Infinite
Father has ever blest me."   A prophecy?  Yes: long years ago, in
his early Spiritual experience with Dr. Dunn, Madame Elizabeth
promised him the privilege of visiting the scenes of her earthly home
in the palaces of the kings in Versailles.  Thither now!  " Is not
destiny a reality?" he asks.  "Are we not the subjects of higher
powers?  Do not angels shape our lives as do geographers meridian
lines?"
He walked in those " six miles of picture-galleries in these old
Bourbon palaces, - finest in the world! " Here he found a picture of
the angel as she was in her girlhood, copies of which he procured
for such a worship as a loving heart only knows how to offer in acceptable service. Mr. Peebles argues the claims of the Bourbons!
Why? Ask " Queen of Morn "- why.
" There is a grandeur in the soul that dares
To live out all the life God lit within."
Weeks rolled by with the swiftness of days amid the gayeties of
Paris; but "Stay no longer " came the spirit-order: "hurry to Asia."
On the way, vid Lyons, he entered the valley of the Rhone, charmed
with its beauty, ruined walls, and castles of feudal times, querying
as to the cause of such blight; when, tracing it to the Church, he exclaimed, "God save America from Roman Catholicism, or any other




"LA BELLE FRANCE."                          225
priestly power! "  In that manufacturing city, after visiting the museum, botanical gardens, halls of sculpture, and St. Pierre University,
- the " redemptive agencies of Lyons," - he paused before the Place
de Serreaux, where in 1794 so many were sacrificed to the so-called
Goddess of Liberty by the guillotine; when the shout of " Down
with the Bourbons! " was followed by a dynasty more fearful and
bloody.  He seemed to hear the cry of martyrs from  the ground,
pleading " for free education to all the masses as the only safe guarantee of equal rights.  Change the shout to' Down with Popes!'
and burn all guillotines!"
Stopping a few hours at Marseilles, he improved them by a survey
of its spacious harbor, its vineyards, and olive orchards, the crowds
of idle men and women, the Catholic priests parading the streets in
gorgeous gowns and robes, himself the gazed of all the gazers; for his
disgust of such lassitude made him taller in dignity than ever.
His steamer, classically named " Ilissus," was to him the world in
miniature; for among the passengers were Sicilians, Frenchmen,
Greeks, Nubians, Syrians, Arabs, Armenians, himself a  longbearded " Spiritual Pilgrim," of America, - all attired in their several national costumes. That suited him exactly, -' unity in diversity: there I studied God!"
Selecting from the many idioms, he there most heartily indorsed
the opinion of Madame de Stael; who said,"If I were mistress of fifty languages, I would think in the deep German, converse
in the gay French, write in the copious English, sing in the majestic Spanish, deliver in
the noble Greek, and make love in the soft Italian."
Entering the straits of Bonifaccio, they sailed by the shore of Corsica; when the very air seemed to report the destiny of bloody
heroes, of which the fated Napoleon the First is an example. Remembering he was commissioned to the Old World as a peace representative, he wrote, -
"My mind reverted to that'man of destiny, born and nurtured on this rugged
shore, whose star, after culminating to the zenith, sank extinguished in blood at Waterloo, to rise no more. Was war well for him? was it well for English Roundheads to
behead Charles I.? was it good in the excitable French to murder Louis XVI., Maria
Antoinette, and the sainted Madame Elizabeth?.... Kindly-tempered justice, goodness, and love are the only redemptive powers in the universe.' Love your enemies:
bless, and curse not!' said the sweet-souled Nazarene."
Seeing Caprari on the north  and  east, where Garibaldi retired
15




226               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
to the quiet of a farmer's life, after gaining a crown for Victor
Emanuel, he said in one of his letters, "Italians will never rest
in spirit till Pius IX. is dethroned, and Italia's sun shines upon a
united Italy, with Rome for its capital."   Little did he then think,
whilst sailing the Mediterranean, that within a year nearly all these
prophetic words would be literally fulfilled.  Let us keep records
of prophecies: they are banners of liberty to the revolutionists.
What a history soon rolled wave-like over the memory! Pireus,
the port of Greece, beckoned him: there was Salamis just past it;
and off that coast the valiant Greeks defeated the Persian fleet of
Xerxes, 480 B.C.  In imagination he saw the battle, and saddened
at the thought, that two thousand years of Christianity have not since
obliterated the curse of war. Has not the force that built up Greece
blasted its prowess?  So he reasoned.  Landing and sensing the
decay around him, he exclaimed, " The Greeks of to-day are ancient
Greeks no more! What wrought the change?" —"Ask dead
priests!" solemnly whispered a spirit by his side.  He stood before the Acropolis at Athens, passed up the propillion, or grand
entrance, and surveyed Mars Hill, where  Paul preached the " Unknown God" to the Athenians; touched the massive pillars of
Bacchus, spiring above the ruins; gazed down into the subterranean
passage leading from this temple of spirit-rites into the vast amphitheater.  What a hollow sound! Do not the dead voice their sorrow here?
"Let there be light I said Liberty;
And, like sunrise from the sea,
Athens arose I - Around her born,
Shone like mountains in the morn,
Glorious States; and are they now
Ashes, wrecks, oblivion? "
He  found  the ruins of the  temple of Minerva, the temple
of the Winds, the temple of the Muses, and the temple of Jupiter
Olympus, "many of whose proud columns," he writes, "having
defied the storms and devastating forces of time, remain as standing
signals of architectural splendor and perfection."  There, too, were
the remains of Hadrian's Arch, the bed of the Ilissus, the monument of Lysicrates, the theater of Bacchus, the temple of Theseus,
the magnificent Parthenon, and the shattered arts of Pericles and
Phidias, "stripped by Venetian, by Turk, by earthquake, by time,
by Lord Elgin for the. British Museum, still serene in their indestructible beauty."




"LA BELLE FRANCE."                                227
" Fair Greece I sad relic of departed worth I
Immortal, though no more; though fallen, greatI... Oh I who that gallant spirit shall resume,
Leap from Eurostas' banks, and call thee from the tomb?'
Studying the causes of such magnificence, even  in  ruins, tracing
the life-links of civilizations to configurations and climatic magnetisms of country, shaped and toned into practical order by civil and
religious institutions, he credited the master spirits that anciently
inspired scientific Spiritualists to think, to construct, to  dare.  He
writes, -
"Under the shadow of an unspiritual church, science was neglected, the oracles
abandoned, and Grecian civilization recoiled into brooding silence among these ruins!
What is required, then? Philosophy with phenomena, science with marvel, and reason
crowning all. I stood over the prison-cave where the Greeks confined the Spiritualistic
Socrates, the iron gate still there, —a gloomy den, to converse with a Crito and an
Alcibiades. Judea and Greece awarded to their inspired teachers crosses and hemlock
draughts. Such was gratitude! Have the times only in methods greatly changed?...  It seemed strange to walk the streets of Athens, and compare its sparse and
degenerate five thousand inhabitants with its enlightened and cultured populace of long
ago. There stands the Parthenon, unrivaled still. There are to be found the relics of
architecture, poetry, and sculpture, that tell of the transcendent genius of those departed
masters. To-day our scholars and our devotees of the fine arts flock to that ancient
seat of genius and learning, to borrow the inspiration that seems even yet to sanctify
the place. From these testimonies to intellects whose incarnate forms have long since
vanished off the earth, we turn and look upon the present living people, and ask ourselves, Is this progress? -these degenerate descendants of illustrious ancestors? Progress, triumphant elsewhere, stands aloof from Greece; only retrogression there. From
Athens I desired to go back to Marathon and Corinth, but was told that it would be
unsafe; for brigandage is rife in that region, and is secretly countenanced by the officials
of the country."
Boarding the steamer again, he entered the Dardanelles, the ancient
Hellespont, and glided close to the crumbled ruins of historic Troy,
where blind Homer begged his bread, -a beggar once, now  what?
Oh, why must all great geniuses be crucified, ere they can be justly
esteemed?  Up the Hellespont.  "There, right there, is the locality,"
said the captain, " where Byron  swam  across these waters, May 3I
1810, from  Sestos to Abydos; where the young Venetian, Leander,.
years before him, performed the feat, to secure the hand of his lady*love." Byron records it, -
" He swam for love, and I for glory."




CHAPTER XXVIII.
PILGRIMAGE  IN  THE  ORIENT.
"'Tis the clime of the East,'tis the land of the sun I
Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done? 
" Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence: the paytces of kings are built
on the ruins of the bowers of paradise." - THOMAS PAINE.
ONE  October morning, at its first gray, our "Pilgrim " sailed
around the Golden  Horn, and lo, Constantinople!  Describing the
scene in an editorial, he says, 
"The sun now colors the eastern sky with gold. Rising, it tips and turns the minarets
to fire. The buildings, the vessels, the mosques, are all illuminated.
" If Geneva has been called the proud, and Naples the beautiful, Constantinople may
rightly claim for herself the title of magnificent. Seated in gardens, it is not strange
Constantine should have desired to have removed the capital of the Roman Empire to
the site occupied by this imperial city. No soul alive to the beautiful in nature, or the
exquisite in art, could fail of admiring its lofty and imposing position, its domes, its
minarets, its sheltering groves of cypress, its hills in the distance, now crimsoning into
the sear of autumn, and the blue waters that lie at the feet of those Moslem splendors.....The Sea of Marmora is deep and beautiful.... What a magnificent harbor it
would make, with Constantinople for the central capital of Europe, Asia, and Africa! "
The conception of such a capital is grand: the future will tell
whether it is prophetic.   Surveying  the tower at Pera, the flotilla
upon the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus with  its suburban villages,
the palaces of the Sultan, the  peopled  hillsides  upon  the Asian
coast, the hospital scene of Florence Nightingale's womanly work
during the Crimean war, he shouted aloud on the deck of the steamer,
" What a  great, cosmopolitan  city!  my soul thrills with  intense
delight! "   But
" Distance lends enchantment to the view."
Landing, the spell vanished.
228




PILGRIMAGE IN THE ORIENT.                               229
"No omnibuses," he says, "no conveyances of any sort, offered us their accommodations; only sedan-chairs were on hand for the ladies, and hammals for the carrying
of trunks. The most obvious'feature of this city is its dogs.  Constantinople is the
dog's paradise. There are two ways in which you can insult a Turk, viz., spit on his
beard, or kick a dog; for that animal is sacred: the bark of a dog once saved the city,
by betraying the enemy."
Of his observations and experiences in Constantinople, this is his
statement, reported in " The Universe,"
"The religion of these Moslem millions, little understood and frequently misrepresented, is in one of its theoretical aspects, at least, eminently Unitarian.  Their first
article of belief declares, that' God is great: there is but one God, Allah!' Mohammedanism is not a comparatively new religion. M. de Percival, speaking of its antiquity, says,' This was not a new religion which Mohammed announced, but the ancient
religion of Abraham restored to its primitive purity.' The prejudices of Christians are
heartless and soulless. That the followers of Mohammed' do not believe women have
souls'is an imported missionary falsehood, black as night; that they do not permit
their women to go into their mosques for prayers and worship is another pious falsehood
equally malicious. With a good pair of eyes, we saw them bowing, kneeling, worshiping in the Mosque of St. Sophia, and also in that magnificent, one erected by Sultan
Ahmed. That they practise polygamy is true, though in a moderate degree compared
with the'wisest man' of the Bible, - Solomon. They profess to get their authority for
having a plurality of wives from the Old Testament. Christian writers have approved
of it. St. Augustine observes, that' there was a blameless custom of one man having
many wives; which at that early time might be done in a way of duty.' Pope Gregory,
in the year 726, justified polygamy in some cases.  Bernardo Ochinus, a Christian
writer of the sixteenth century, published dialogues ih favor of the practice.  The
celebrated Christian poet, John Milton, defended polygamy in his'Treatise on Christian
Doctrine' (p. 237, et seq.). After quoting several passages from the Bible in favor of the
practice, he says,'Moreover, God (Ezek. xxiii.) represents himself as having two wives,
Aholah and Aholiah, -a mode of speaking which Jehovah would by no means have
employed, if the practice which it implied had been intrinsically dishonorable or
shameful.' Spiritualists do not advocate the right, nor believe in the practice, of such
sensualism.
"The Mohammedans recognize both dispensations, - the Jewish and the Christian.
The more intelligent followers of Mohammed always speak reverently of Jesus of
Nazareth, regarding him as an inspired prophet, sent to teach. Mohammed, they assure
-,, was the promised'comforter' that'should come.'  They insist that our Christian
Scriptures have been thoroughly corrupted in the original text.  This few scholars
doubt.  The Moslems further say, that in the palace, the old Seraglio, there were,
among others, a hundred and twenty large Greek manuscripts and important commentaries upon the New Testament by the early church fathers.  The Roman Catholics
believe this, and have offered large rewards to obtain them.  The Koran is made up
largely from the Old and New Testaments, united with the doctrines of the Magi and
Soofees, of Persia and Arabia, and the teachings of the angel Gabriel, who frequently
visited the prophet Mohammed.
"Literally speaking, the Sultan is the head of the Mohammedan religion. He never
fails of repairing to the mosque on Friday. Next to him come the moolahs and muftis,
corresponding to churchal bishops, and then the ulemas, who are their priests. They




230                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
have no fixed ritual.  In all countries worshiping the Crescent, they bow towards
Mecca, the Holy City, and put their faces to the ground when pronouncing the word
Allah. Friday is their holy day. With the face toward Mecca, the worshipers bow
forward, placing their hands at the sides of the head, covering the ears, signifying,'May no depraved word reach my ears!' then bow forward again, covering the eyes,
meaning,'May no sight of evil reach my eyes!' then the hands are laid upon the
breast, the body bent reverently forward as before, in token of acknowledgment, that'Mohammed is the prophet of God;.' last, the hands are extended toward the ground,
the body lower bent than in the previous positions, indicating adoration of Allah,' There
is no God but God; and Mohammed is his prophet.'"
So beautiful and significant is this prayer, our " Pilgrim" delights
to repeat it in deep sincerity, and to adopt the Moslem form of
social greeting, placing the hand quickly upon the forehead, recognizing God as witness; then upon the heart, recognizing Mohammed
as an inspired prophet of God; then grasping a neighbor's hand so
cordially, as if to say, " I greet thee in peace."
One day, near the hour of twelve, x., he ascended a minaret, surveying the city below; when the muzzein came out from near the summit, summoning the people to prayer, intoning the words in a plaintive
cadence, "Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, La illa il Allah, Mohammed resoul, Allahf Allah, Akbar   "  He knew not the meaning; and  yet
standing in silence, he caught the spirit of devotion from the high minaret, and repeated in English, "God is great. There is no God but God,
and Mohammed is the prophet of God.  Come to prayer: come to security and peace.  God is great.  There is no God but God."  Mornings he beard the muzzein's cry, "Awake, awake, and pray I It is
better to pray than to sleep. There is no God but Allah." And the
spirit of the summons he invariably obeyed, feeling the need of a
similar custom in Christian lands, - a call upon the people to prayer
with the angels; and he would have this trinity evoked,-  God, angels,
humanity: " God is love, angels are his messengers, and humanity
is his prophet.'  Speaking of the character of the Mohammedans,
he writes, —
" All good and true Mussulmans go to some mosque; where there is something corresponding to a discourse, although the most of the service consists in repeating and
chanting portions of the Koran.  The Turks are perfectly Catholic in feeling, freely
tolerating all religions in their country. It is universally conceded here in the East, that
the old Mohammedans, in no way tinctured with the Christian civilization of Europe,
are the most honorable people in the world.  The present Sultan neither smokes, nor
tastes of liquors nor wines. I should feel infinitely safer in a dark midnight hour, wandering among straggling Turks, than in the drunken'Five Points' of New York, the' Haymarket' of London, or anywhere in Christian Spain.... Among the nativa




PILGRIMAGE IN THE ORIENT.                      231
here, I met many who are Spiritualists, and was the recipient of their hospitality.
The Turks are a wondrously hospitable people. When you enter the house of a Turk,
he provides you with a mat, urges you to partake of his coffee and fruits, saying,' My wives are your servants. I am your slave. My house is your house. All I have is
thine. I greet thee in peace.' Such is the hospitable nature of these people, that today I could travel all over Turkey at little or no cost beyond the pay of an interpreter. The better classes, however, live back in the country."
Having received his Exequatur from the Turkish government, in
recognition of his consulship, he was now able to find access to political
and religious authorities, moving in their ranks, the better to glean the
information for which he came to Oriental lands. The Suez Canal
was about to be opened. The occasion brought to Constantinople several imperial dignitaries from Europe; and among them was Francis
Joseph, Emperor of Austria; also Prince Amadeus, son of the king,
known as Duke of Aosta, since elected king of revolutionized Spain,
and the Crown Prince of Prussia, alias Frederic William, with all
of whom  he had the pleasure of forming acquaintance.  Prince
Amadeus wished information concerning the different phases spiritism
had assumed in America.
With the Crown Prince, standing unshod, he witnessed the worship
of the dancing and howling Dervishes, cutting themselves with knives
in monstrous gashes, but the next moment healed by the magnetic
touch of the sheik.  They walked upon the sick, pathetized them,
made them put their hands within " Mohammed's brass hand," and,
wonderful to know, were instantly restored! On talking with this
and other venerable sheiks, on other occasions, he was surprised to
learn, that these wild worshipers fasted before coming into these sacred circles; that the origin of their worship was spiritual, in obedience to the same laws practised in America and Europe, under the
enlightenments of science. Taking notes of these and other facts,
he there resolved to write the " Spiritual History of the Mohammedan Religions," that the Christian world may no longer falsify with
impunity the Spiritualism of Mohammed.
The Crown Prince stood by Mr. Peebles in the Mosque of St.
Sophia: they conversed freely and responsively of the " new religion." The Prince invited his friend to Prussia. Mr. Peebles looked
deep into his soul, as if there to read the future destiny of his gallant
country. They parted in the Crescent City, - the "Pilgrim" to go on
his errand of peace, the Prince to prepare for war against France!




232                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
The French Empress having arrived in Constantinople en route for
the Suez Canal, Her Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Austria, and
other official personages, were specially invited to attend worship with
the Sultan on Friday, the Mussulman's Sunday.  Just before twelve,
from the minaret of the palace, the muzzein called the faithful to
prayer at Dolma-Baktche; then moved the  grand  procession, according to rank, - Empress and Emperor, Dukes, Princes, Ambassadors, Ministers, Consuls, Pashas, on Arab steeds, the Sultan with
body-guards from  all races in the Empire.  How  strange a sight! —
Mr. Peebles among  these officials, attired  in courtly Turkish  costume, going to the worship of Allah!  Writing of this pageant, Mr.
Peebles says, 
" The shipping was gay with colors, flags, and banners. Everybody seemed to be in
the narrow, dirty streets, - cripples and beggars pleading for piasters, flaunting their rags
in the presence of lace, red tape, and royalty: it reused my American blood to a high
pitch of excitement. How long, oh! how long, is pampered royalty, kingcraft, and
priestcraft to crush the lowly, continue caste, and curse the earth?... Remember that
Christian nations uphold this Sultan's throne as the French bayonets do the pope's!...
Can there be a more hateful theological mongrel, a more horrid moral spectacle, than
effete Mohammedanism veneered and polished with French Catholicism?.
" It was little pleasure to see, and less to be officially' toted round,' mingling in that
gay throng of rulers and diplomats. The forms of reception, the display, the pageantry,
were so anti-American; the salutes from the land-batteries, the thundering of cannon,
the flag-dressed men-of-war, were so repulsive to my peace principles, - saying nothing
of the military bands, and the review of thirty thousand Turkish troops, - that I longed
to get away from plumes, feathers, and epaulettes,' away from gilded buttons, dangling
swords, red ribbons, and the glittering trappings of royalty, away into my library, or
on some mountain, with God, angels, and birds.  Is the story, -the Christian world's
prophet-stngs of the' Prince of Peace,' and a millennium of love and harmony, - all a
dream? What hinders the consummation? Kingcraft, priestcraft, ignorance.  Down
on them! Too long have they cursed this world, made so beautiful by the Father of all.
Put down kings, and put up the people! People implies men and women. I repeat,
Put down all princes, potentates, and powers that subsist upon the sweat of honest industry! put them down, not by revolutions, not by frantic mobs, not by sword and
blood, but by educating the people, all the people -to govern themselves, self-government lying at the foundation of all government.
" Though forced by circumstances, now and then, into the midst of consulate officials
and princely rulers, my heart is with the poor, with the suffering, with God's dear
humanity.  If this is not good consul talk, it is certainly practical, and comes from a
soul that throbs in deepest sympathy with every conscious intelligence of earth and
heaven.'Wandering by the classic river
In its soft mysterious flow;
Murmuring, as it rolls for ever,
Of the myths of long ago.




PILGRIMAGE IN THE ORIENT.                            233'From many a proud cathedral,
Turkish mosque and minaret,
Turn mine eyes with fond devotion
To the brow of Olivet.'
" They turn thither, because from under those olive-trees speaks a brother; whose
voice, echoing along the uneven spaces of nearly two thousand years, says,' My kingdom
is not of this world.'' I testify of myself.'  My peace I leave with you.' "
Among other happy acquaintances formed in Constantinople, he
mentions M. Repos, a French  attorney, a zealous Spiritist; and
M.  Sillerman,  a   Spiritualist, in  a  German  mercantile  establishment,  and  from   them   learned  how  rapidly  Spiritualism   is
diffusing itself in Asia Minor and Syria.  IHe found excellent media
in Constantinople, and, invited, addressed the Spiritualists in the hall
of the Ghambre de Commerce; and their interest was truly inspiring.
In   Stamboul,  the  Turkish  portion  of  Constantinople, Mr.
Peebles noticed an Egyptian obelisk, having inscriptions engraved
five hundred years before Christ, freshly representing the Delphian
Tripod. There, too, was a spring once flowing, over which the Tripod
was placed; on which sat a mediumistic priestess, invoking some god
or goddess of  Delphi, uttering  oracular words  of inspiration.
Everywhere he found the relics of ancient Spiritualism, reviving
now in more practical form.
It is Mr. Peebles's custom in visiting cities, especially in foreign
lauds, to inspect their cemeteries; where the traveler accurately can
decipher in the inscriptions upon tombs and graves the plane of religion, and the hope of the bereft. He thus poetically relates an
incident coming under his eye whilst in the cemetery of Scutari,
near Constantinople,- 
"It was a calm October day, afar up the Levant. For several hours I had been
wandering in that famous Mohammedan burying-ground, Scutari, Asia.  This cemetery, three miles in length, and somewhat irregular in shape, is tastefully surrounded
and beautifully shaded with tall cypresses. The scenery was so strange, so half-entrancing, that time passed unheeded. The sun now low in the West, I left the speaking
monuments of mortality around me, and hastening to the shores of the Bosphorus, to
take the steamer for Constantinople, saw a venerable appearing Turk, tall and turbaned,
distributing coins and fruits to a group of ragged children standing by the wayside
begging. The beneficence was as suggestive as patriarchal. When through with the
deed of mercy, several of the children, stepping forward, bowed, and kissed the giver's
withered hand. Smiling, he asked Allah to bless them, and then passed quietly on his
way.  The scene, purely Oriental, so touched my heart that my eyes were immedi.
ately suffused with tears. It was a moment of transfiguration. Under the inspiration,
my soul so warmed into love and sympathy for humanity, that I, too, in spirit, kissed




234                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
the old man's hand, -  jsed, knowing it to be the hand of Ishmael,wrongfully said to be
against every man.'  Ay, God, whether known as Brahm, Allah, or Father, is good.
Human nature is good: all is good; and love is omnipotent.  Seldom offending the
critics with attempts at rhyme, because believing most efforts to voice sentiments in poetry
could be better expressed by the use of plain, substantial prose, I trust to the kindly
nature of the reader this once for the following: -
"The Orient sheds its shimmering haze
O'er field and garden, sea and isle;
And Asia's arch is red with rays
That turn to gold each Islam pile.
My heart is filled with warmth again:
I feel for Moslems in their thrall;
I only hate the hate of men;
I love the heart that loveth all.
Each soul hath stemmed some fearful storm;
Each heart is chafed with wasting scar:
My life-boat wrecked in manhood's morn
Now drifteth like a shooting star.
But oh I I have not lost the power
Of sympathy at sorrow's call;
For love inspires each fading hour, -
That love which feels, then gives to all.
Oh I think it not a vain conceit,
That angel-echoes linger still
In hearts whose chords of music sweet
The pangs of earth can never chill.
Ay, there are souls with holy love,
Who like the circling stars may fall;
But, falling, rise to heaven above:
I kiss the hand that helpeth all."
About the 1st of November, 1869, Mr. Peebles expected to arrive at
Trebisond, Asia, to enter upon his official duties. He soon grew
restless, in these Turkish cities, of so much filth. He reports himself  to  American  readers, through  ".The  Universe,"  after this
style:" Are not Americans naturally nomadic? A year ago last March, I sat in an Indian
peace council, with the Congressional Committee and several army generals, at the confluence of the North and South Platte Rivers, in those Colorado regions.  The week
following I was on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, standing on the highest
railroad eminence between the two oceans. To-day I am near the eastern extremity of
the Black Sea in Asia; and what of it?  Where next?  Why live in the world and
never see it?
Behold, we live through all things,- famine, thirst,
Bereavement, pain, all grief and'misery,
All woe and sorrow: life inflicts its worst
On soul and.body; but we cannot die,
Though we be sick and tired and faint and worn.
Lo I all things can be borne.'




PILGRIMAGE IN THE ORIENT.                                235
"Trebisond is an important fortified seaport town of some fifty thousand inhabitants,
over thirty thousand of whom  are Mohammedans. The old city was built upon a
sloping hill, facing the east. The lower portion is horribly shabby and filthy. The
Turks have been on the descending portion of the cycle of progress for centuries.
Within the walls are old ruins and mossed monasteries, - remnants of Grecian and
Mohammedan wars. The nationality of the city is Turkish. The intermingling medley
is composed of Persians, Arabians, Georgians, Armenians, and some Mesopotamian
wanderers. It is a choice place to study the Shemitic world in its decline. The English
shipping is comparatively small, the American virtually nothing. The houses are of
stone, and in style Asiatic, with roofs nearly flat, covered with tiles. They are generally surrounded by small gardens, some of which are very neat, and tastefully arranged.
The business streets'are narrow, crooked, and disgustingly filthy.  Packs of dogs -
sacred animals with the more ignorant Turks - are the scavengers.  The city contains
twenty mosques, and nearly as many Greek churches, the worship in which corresponds with the Roman Catholic. The Greek Christians, however, deny the authority of
the Pope and the papal power of the West. From the year 1203 till the subversion of
the Eastern Empire, Trebisond was the capital of an extensive dominion, reaching from
the Phasis to Halys.
"Mr. Palgraves, the gentlemanly English consul in Trebisond, and a ripe Oriental
scholar, has been to Mecca, explored Central Arabia, and made himself thoroughly acquainted with Persia, together with the nations lying east of it. He speaks thirty
languages. No one would do well to talk of Greek originality in his presence. Have
the so-called enlightened ages given the world any thing new in the line of morals or
metaphysics for the past two thousand five hundred years?   That's the question.
Russia, France, Prussia, and other European nations, have consuls located in Trebisond.
"The American consulate was created with the design of opening an extensive
trade with Persia and contiguous nations.  Treaties and methods to this effect were
discussed under Buchanan's administration, but never adopted. The position is of
little importance. compared to that of Constantinople. A railroad is now in process
of construction from the eastern borders of the Black Sea to the Caspian. One hundred
miles are already completed. Russians own the stock. Besides vast quantities of
bitumen and kindred substances south-east of the Black Sea and along the borders of the
Caspian, there are petroleum oil-springs bubbling up in various localities, thus prophesying of inexhaustible stores. They are worked, so we are informed, in a most
clumsy manner. The Turks are very jealous of the' Franks,' and fearful of English
and American enterprise.  American ingenuity and energy may yet develop these
treasures, and others, under Asiatic skies. Asia Minor is exceedingly rich in minerals
of various kinds. The coal-mines are immeasurable. Lead ore yields seventy-five per
cent. There are silver and copper mines. Wild fruits, figs, pomegranates, olives, grapes,
&c., abound in great luxuriance. There is perhaps no country upon the globe, if we
except Africa, so little understood or appreciated as this portion of the Asiatic world...
" Decline and decay characterize the present Turkish nation. A deathly torpor has
seized its vitals. It is truly the' sick man' of the Orient. Russia wants the vast domain. England and France say,' Hands off!' Prussia and the central nations of
Europe think it well to maintain the balance of power as it is.   May not the more
modernized phase of Turkish theology have something to do with this stupor?  The
Moslems arefatalists.  One article of their faith reads thus (see J. P. Brown's Derv.,
p. 11., pars. 6-6):"' It is God who fixes the will of man; and he is therefore not free in his actions. There does
not really exist any difference between good and evil; for all is reduced to unity: and God
Is the real author of the acts of mankind.'




236                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"These are square statements. We relish them, because entirely free from those
bungling twistings and turnings that distinguish Calvinists and certain Spiritualists,
who hold and advocate the same doctrine. Fatalism in this bald form is considered by
a large class of progressive Moslems as an innovation, however, and other than an original dogma. The only hope for Turkey is, to inaugurate a vigorous system of education.
The Sultan, when visiting France, doubtless became aware of this; accordingly, within
a few weeks. a new educational code has leapt, like Minerva, fully armed, from Sultan
Abdul Aziz-Khan's brain.  The course of public instruction marked out by the Porte
is exceedingly elaborate, including primary and preparatory departments, normal
schools, and universities."
Noting the hospitality of the Turks, their earnest devotions, their
fidelity to nationality, their natural vivacity and honesty, their abstinence from  " swine's flesh and wines," their religious toleration, their
mediumistic qualifications, their revered relics of an original, pure
spirituality, and contrasting these with governmental corruption and
bribery, with enormous taxation upon the people to build and support
palaces and harems, with the insipid condition of the women, - the
future mothers, enslaved to men's pleasures and passions, - surveying all this, and considering a remedy, he prints these telling words, -
"The complete overthrow of all authoritative polygamy-sanctioning Bibles -such
as the Old Testament of Jews and Christians, and the polygamy of the Koran —is
the first step towards inaugurating reform movements in these Eastern countries. Then,
instead of sending whining, lazy, money-making missionaries from America, to convert
Mussulmans to sectarian Christianity, send the American plow and the American
schoolhouse, American enterprise and American Elizabeth Stantons, to advocate woman's rights, woman's suffrage, woman's equality with man."
Smyrna, where was located one of the seven churches of Asia,
to which the apocalyptic angel promised" a crown  of life " if she
continued  " faithful," contains  150.000  souls;  and  among  them
walked one day our lonely " Pilgrim," in quest of Polycarp's tomb,Polycarp, the martyr and bishop, and " friend of John the Beloved."
Mr. Peebles stood over it in deep  reverie.  What emotions thrilled
him'!  He seemed to hear the voice of the burning  bush  at Mlount
Horeb, " Take off thy sandals; for the place whereon thou standest is
holy ground!"   These were some of his inspirations: -
" At my feet have lain matchless ruins, and rolled tideless rivers; around me have
stood monuments of valor and patriotism, and the scattered remnants of Hellenic grandeur; such was Greece to me: but here, under Asian skies, on this November day, mountains bear winter upon their heads, spring upon their shoulders, autumn upon their
bosoms; while summer, with bud and blossom, is ever resting at their feet. How natu.
rally adapted all these regions to poesy and prophecy! Such lands ever produce seers.
seeresses, and sibylline oracles. How sacred is this place! "




PILGRIMAGE IN THE ORIENT.                     237
At Smyrna he found several Spiritualists, -M. C. Constant and
M. E. H. Rossi, the more prominent, - who hold spiritual seances
during the winter months, the angels organizing their forces at the
seat of one of the " seven churches"!
" God sends his teachers unto every age,
To every clime and every race of men."
Dining at the home of Mr. Smither's, the American consul, so
hospitable, he reclined upon the Turkish divan, and relished the rich
soup, the seedless raisins, nuts, grapes, pomegranates, figs, apricots,
and oranges,-all native to that sunny clime. " Asia Minor," he said,
"is the paradise of fruits." Turks, Albanians, Persians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Americans, were represented in this city, all much
inclined to Turkish habits. With the rest, he wore the fez, and occasionally the Turkish costume,-which he brought home, - and talked
with the Persians, through an interpreter, about the land of the " fireworshipers," - the most stately and graceful people he ever met,
so tall and dignified, attired in their pyramidal-shaped turbans, and
long dresses girdled with gaudy sashes. All his boyish school-ideas
about a caravan were realized here; for ope came into the city, hundreds of camels in a train, - patient creatures, led by a lazy Turk, -
heavily burdened with cloths, madder-root, olive-oil in goat-skins,
opium, figs, &c. These products opened to his vision the vast resources of wealth in that country, waiting for American emigration
and industry to develop.
Riding donkeys is in fashion there: so he mounted one when going
to see some ruins.  " My''cavasse,'- Turkish guide, - insisted,"
he says, " upon my riding his animal, as my lean, half-fed horse had
several times stumbled.  Ay, Americans, you ought to have seen
me upon that long-eared fellow!  Carefully surveying my long legs
and general build, I came to the sage conclusion, that I never could
look graceful upon the back of a little donkey! "  We wonder those
Smyrnians did not shout, as the miners did in California, " There goes
old Pilgrim's Progress! "
Conversing with Mr. Macropodari, a native of Boston, a wealthy
resident of Smyrna, as they rode together through the gorgeous
scenery of the city suburbs, he learned that "less crimes are committed by the Turks than any people in the world: their word is good.
A shake of the hand closes a contract, to be kept strictly as any writ



238                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
ten document."   AU  American and English consuls with whom  he
talked say the same.  But the Turks, like our poor Indians mingling
with the whites, are being vitiated by Greek and Roman Christians,
— by "shrewd, cunning, money-getting Christians  "
Ephesus, the old Ionian city, famous for its stadium, theaters,
and temple of Diana, recipient of a Pauline epistle and the personal
ministry of the apostle John,-that he must visit.  The journey
lay sixty miles into the country.  Hiring a " cavasse," armed like a
brigand, he started, and soon stumbled upon a party of Americans,
bound for the same place, all from Chicago, -  Dr. J. S. Jewett, Lecturer in the Medical University; Charles G. Haskins and Wells C.
Lake, —traveling thither in quest of information, gathering cabinet
specimens, exploring ruins, and taking a general topographical survey
of the country.  Our "Pilgrim"  was overjoyed.  Americans are
closer brothers in a strange land.
The following beautiful letter, bubbling over with soul, addressed
from that Asian city, must ever blossom in the memoryof the reader:"EPHESUS, ASIA MINOR, Oct. 25, 1869.
" Brother -,... The sun of the New-Testament epistles is John, - the sainted
John, that lovingly leaned upon Jesus' bosom. In youth, he was my ideal man. To-day,
he is that angel in heaven whom I most love. Not Arabia, then, nor Palestine, but classic Ephesus, is my Mecca.
"'  Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth
the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.'
" A pilgrim under a scorching Asian sky, I rested this afternoon, leaning upon one of
thepillars that Christian and Moslem tradition unite in declaring marks the apostle's tomb.
It was a consecrated hour! Its full history will in the future be written. While standing
by this tomb, on the verge of Mount Prion, looking down upon the marbled seats of the
Ephesian theater, - relic of Hellenic glory, - with my feet pressing the soil that pillowed
the mortal remains of the' disciple that Jesus loved,' ere their removal to Rome, no painter
could transfix to canvas, no poet conceive suitable words to express, my soul's deep emotions. The inspiration was from the upper kingdoms of holiness; the baptism was from
heaven; the robe was woven by the white fingers of immortals: while on the golden
scroll was inscribed,' The first cycle is ending: the winnowing angels are already in the
heavens. Earth has no secrets.  What of thy stewardship?  Who is ready to be revealed 
Who, who shall abide this second comiAg t  Who has overcome?  Who is entitled to the
mystical name and the white stone?  Gird on thine armor anew, and teach in trumpet tones,
that the pure in heart, the pure in spirit only, can feast upon the saving fruitage that burdens the tree of paradise.'..'  From the summit of Mount Prion, the Isle of Samos may be distinctly seen.
Gazing at this in the distance, and nearer to the winding course of the little Cayster
towards the sea, at the scattered remnants of temples, marble fragments, broken friezes,




PILGRIMAGE IN THE ORIENT.                               239
and relics of every description, I could not help recalling the prophetic warning of John,
in the Book of Revelation,'I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candle.
stick out of its place, except thou repent!' -(Rev. ii. 5.)
"It is generally admitted that the apostle John lived to be one hundred and four
years of age; and all we know of his later days is linked with Ephesus, - accurately described by Herodotus, Pausanius, Pliny, and others, - outside the records of the church
Fathers. It is not known how long St. John resided in this portion of Asia: suffice it,
that his memory still lingers here, enshrined even in the Turkish name of the squalid
village about two miles from the ruins of the old Ephesian city, -' A.yasolouke,' which
is a corruption of the Greek' Agios Theologos,' the holy theologian, the name universally given to this apostle in the Oriental Church.
" The mosque here, which is magnificent, even though in partial ruin, was undoubtedly an ancient Christian church, probably the identical one which the Emperor Justinian built on the site of an older and smaller one, dedicated in honor of St. John; who
at Ephesus trained the disciples Polycarp, Ignatius, and Papius to preserve and dis
seminate apostolic doctrines in Smyrna and other cities of Asia. In the erection of this
church edifice by Justinian, upon the spot where the venerable apostle preached in his
declining years, were employed the marbles of Diana's temple. Visiting these scenes -
Asian cities and churchal ruins —strengthens my belief in the existence of Jesus, the
general authenticity of the Gospels, and the profound love-riches of John's epistles. It
is the land of inspiration, of prophecy, and of spiritual gifts. Even the skeptical Gibbon,
writing of the'seven churches in Asia,' virtually admits the fulfillment of the apocalyptic visions. After recounting the final subjugation of the provinces of Bithynia by
Orchan (A.D. 1312, &c.), he proceeds:' The captivity or ruin of the seven churches of
Asia was consummated; and the barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the
monuments of classic and Christian antiquity. In the loss of Ephesus, the Christians
deplored the fall of the first angel, - the extinction of the first candlestick of the Revelation. The desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana, or the church of Mary, will
equally elude the search of the curious traveler. The circus and three stately theaters
of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes. Sardis is reduced to a miserable
village. The god of Mohammed, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of
Thyatira and Pergamus; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign
trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy or
courage. - At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all
sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above fourscore years, and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the
Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect, - a column in a scene
of ruins, -- a pleasing example that the paths of honor and safety may sometimes be the
same.' - (Gibbon's'Decline and Fall,' chap. lxiv.)..  "Eusebius and others tell us of the profound reverence that all the early believers
in the doctrines of Jesus had for this aged and loving saint; who sorrowed with Christ
in the garden, stood by him at the cross, received in charge Mary the mother of
Jesus, and clairvoyantly beheld him ascend to the homes of the angels. This sentence
from his pen will live for ever,' God is love.' When he had become too weak and infirm to walk to the old primitive church edifice in Ephesus, his admirers, taking him
in their arms, would bear him thither; and then, with trembling voice, he could only
say,' Little children, love ye one another.' These and other well-attested historic recollections, rushing upon my mind, lift me on to the mount of transfiguration. I am happy.
Could I have my library and a few congenial souls present, should be resigned to live
under these soft, clear skies of Asia, till, putting off my pilgrim's sandals, I hear the
voice,' Thou hast finished thy course: come up higher I "




CHAPTER XXIX.
NAPLES AND  ROME.
" Oh, for a touch of the Olympic games I 
FINDING Turkish countries socially uncongenial, the autumn and
wintry winds from the Black Sea injurious to his lungs, his spiritual
nature unsatisfied, he obeyed the inspirational promptings of his
spirit-guides by resigning his consulship.  Through our consul-general at Constantinople, Mr. Goodnowe, of Portland, Me., the resignation was accepted, but not until after his commission had received
confirmation in the Senate. Leaving Turkey, he took an extensive
tour through Asia Minor.... "'Mid evergreen isles waves a
sapphire sea. I am entranced in meditative delight," he said, as his
steamer circled westward, bound through the Archipelago, -" classic
sea of antiquity."   Sailing out of the Dardanelles, there was Clazomene, once a famous center for commercial cities; then Scio, Byron's " rocky isle," where the Christian crusaders massacred the
Turks in the name of the " Prince of Peace;" then Samos, home
of Pythagoras; then Cos, of mountain-peaks; then sainted Patmos,
where John was banished, but was " in the spirit on the Lord's Day;"
and Rhodes, too, with its ruined Colossus; then classic Syracuse,
which Strabo said was once " twenty-one miles in circumference,"
sacred to the memory of JEschylus, Demosthenes, and Archimedes;.
then Mt.,Etna, Sicily, belted below the equator with snow, towering
up eleven thousand feet, with three distinctive zones of vegetation.
Full of enthusiasm, he started with his guide to ascend; but the
weather, changing, imperiled li'fe: so he retraced his steps, pondering
whether the New Atlantis, sunk nine thousand years before Plato's
time, was not located in that volcanic section of the Mediterranean.
Other islands are gradually sharing a similar fate. Santarena has
nearly disappeared. Dating these facts, he called to mind the promise of that ancient spirit, " Aphelion," that media would yet clair240




NAPLES AND ROME.                               241
voyantly disclose a submerged continent, the relics of its civilizae
tions still preserved in its swashing brine.
He was now on Italian soil, in the city of Messina, Sicily, the guest
of Mr. Behn, the American consul, - land of Tasso, Columbus, Galvani, Perasee, and other geniuses ascended! were they not his companions?  The very thought of it hallowed every instinct to grateful
meditation.   Noticing  the  papal  monasteries  and churches, the
superstition of the lower classes, removing their hats before the priests,
the devoutness of the wild brigands, " equal to American Christians
at eight-o'clock prayer-meetings," and invoicing the French bayonets
that guard the papal throne and the Romish machinations of Empress
Eugenie, "the Pope's Imperial Nuncio," he concludes his lesson in
these memorable words, -
"Educate the people, permit women to vote, and republics like
Edens -will cover all isles and continents."
This feeling was evoked mainly by the following experience  in
Messina, an episode which he afterwards related in one of his American lectures upon his " Oriental Travels: "" The sound of a band of music attracted me to the street, where I saw a small procession carrying sacred images, and surrounded by a crowd, which idleness, curiosity,
or religious enthusiasm had induced to swell their ranks. It was St. Agatha's Day; and
being a stranger, and curious to know what was going forward, I joined the procession
as it entered the Plaza, and there witnessed the performance of a variety of ceremo.
nies. Not seeing as distinctly as I wished, I mounted a block, steadied myself in my
place by a branch of a tree, and, to use an American phrase, was' enjoying it hugely,'
when all at once I became cgpscious that the attention of the crowd was diverted to and
concentrated upon me. They began to talk to me: I couldn't understand them. They
gesticulated fiercely, -for the Italians, like the French, talk as much with their hands as
their tongues, -still I did not know what they meant, nor what to make of it, and made
up my mind that I had better retire from the scene. With this intention, I stepped
down from the block; but the throng pressed round me with louder words and wilder
gestures, as if to frustrate such an attempt. Then I thought of calling the police to my
aid. I had learned Italian enough for that: it was an essential that I took care to
acquire the first thing after my arrival. I shouted till I brought one to the ground,
and he, too, began to.talk to me with an astonishing severity; which, incomprehensible as
it was, warned me that I must look further for safety. In this strait, a lucky expedient
suggested itself. I threw open my coat, displayed the badge of the Progressive Lyceum
that I fortunately wore, struck it with the air of a man who proclaims himself to be
somebody, and signed the policeman to follow me to the'Hotel de Victoria.'  The
effect was magical. Impressed with a sense of my importance, and a conviction t~at
there was a mistake somewhere, the throng fell back, the policeman at my urgency
accompanied me to the proprietor of my hotel, by whose aid I succeeded in making
him understand that I was an American consul. The explanation of this popular
demonstration against me was, that they had mistaken me for Father Gavazzi, who
was reported to have recently landed on the island, intending to harangue the people
16




242 E                 THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
against the pope's infallibility. Gavazzi, you may recollect, was at one time a priest;
but, latterly apostatizing from the church, he drew upon himself the righteous fury of
all its devoted followers. For some unaccountable reason, I was regarded as in league
with Garibaldi,- the very unruly anti-churchman; and so I was! and the excited
mobs were shouting,'Down with the agitator! Away with Padre Gavazzi!' The moral
to be derived from the adventure is this: If you would insure your safety in a foreign
country, keep out of crowds."
Voyez Naples et mourez.  "I  change the traveler's motto,"  said
Mr. Peebles,  " See  Naples, but never die!"   Boarding  a  neat
Italian  steamer, he  was among  the  monks; — cowled, cwssed,
cloaked beggars I  "They not only looked fat and sleek, but drank
wine and smoked cigars very much like sinners in* gin palaces, dirty
and lazy too!"   Passed  close to volcanic Stromboli, the  ancient
-Eolus, revered by Pliny, the exiled home of Charles Martel, famous with the Crusades;  and, landing, he found rooms in the Vico
Carminillo, -  frmer residence of Robert Dale Owen while American
minister there. The odor of his good name still lingers in that city.
At rapid glances, he analyzed the kaleidoscopic scenery; and his soul
enlarged in reverence for the beautiful of other days, still blooming
amid ruins.  We catch some of his sunbeams of thought, 
" The waters of the Bay of Naples have a cerulean tint, crescent-shaped, backed by
an amphitheater of hills and mountains, with rocky slopes covered with sunny villas,
sprinkled with orange and lemon, fig and oleander; Capri, loveliest of isles, in front, -
a silver slipper; caves and grottoes in it; Sorrento, gleaming through the waves,home of Torquato Tasso; the streets narrow anl dingy, paved with lava; badly constructed dwelling-houses, iron gates, flat-roofed; insolent carriage-drivers, - villainous
misrulebf Catholics! 
" 0 Pius IX! you so rich from hoarded taxes, - Peter's pence and foreign purses
laid at your feet, - feed the people!... Get your sleek bishops and priests to plowing, sowing, and cultivating the fields for your beggars' sake, instead of mumbling
prayers for' Christ's sake.' Who with brains cares a fig for the decisions of your Ecumenical Councils? The people are above all councils. Who cares whether there be one,
three, or thirty thousand gods, provided they are all good ones? Who cares whether
Jesus was begotten by a holy or unholy Ghost, allowing he Was well- begotten, and lived
(as I believe he did) a beautiful and divine life? Who cares whether Jonah, of Nineveh memory, swallowed, or was swallowed by, a whale, providing the bones of neither
obstruct the navigation of the Suez Canal? Pope Pius, no more of your dictatorial bulls,
nor muttering of formal prayers in Latin! FEED THE BEGGARS! EDUCATE THE PEOPLE!
No more pretensions to infallibility, or wasting of kisses upon that brazen toe in St.
Peter's. FEED THE BEGGARS! EDUCATE THE PEOPLE! No more bowings. twistings,
crossings, before a speechless image or golden cross. FEED THE BEGGARS! EDUCATE
THE PEOPLE! No more confessions from sinning Catholics to equally sinning priests
and popes. FEED THE BEGGARS! EDUCATE THE PEOPLE!"
With Samuel Guppy and lady and others, -  all intelligent, hospi



NAPLES AND ROME.                       243
table Spiritualists, of high-toned character, - Mr. Peebles improved
this Neapolitan visit in inspecting the historic places and ruins in and
about Naples. Starting on a warm December day, they soon reached
Virgil's tomb. Over it he stood and mused, reading the inscription
to his memory, best engraved upon the hearts of all scholars. Reaching a mountain, they rode through the Grottb di Posilipo, cut by the
ancients, - magnificent, arching eighty to ninety feet, and two thousand three hundred and sixteen feet long, and twenty-two feet wide,tunnel for a railroad'; drove to Pozzuoli, - Cicero's " Rome the lesser," founded 558 B.C., now dim in its ancient splendor; stood on the
jutted mole Whereon rested the famous bridge of Caligula; saw the
remains of the temple of Augustus, with its fragments of Corinthian
columns; studied the figures in basso relievo upon the white marble
monument in the square of Pozzuoli, personifying the fourteen cities
of Asia destroyed by an earthquake. As these were executed two
or three thousand years ago, he inquired naturally, " How and in
what direction have men progressed? Has this century produced any
thing original in art or metaphysics?"  Pozzuoli was the ancient
Puteoli of Paul (see Acts xxviii. 13), who here walked; and here
he may have preached the re-appeared Christ.  "Brother Paul
fell into a trance; was a missionary in Ephesus, Rome, and the
Isles of the Mediterranean; had visions; was a healing medium."
The amphitheater, there it was, amid the mold of Pozzuoli! - the
place of Nero's. gladiatorial sports, himself in the arena when Tiridates, king of Amedia, was his royal guest. Five hundred feet in
length, one hundred and forty in breadth, in form of an ellipse inclosed in a circle, it could seat fifty thousand spectators! Our " Pilgrim" walked over it, - a silent spectator now, - the very stones
voicing his thoughts of this strange world of ours, - life budding on
the stalk of death! He ascended its marble steps and over its four
tiers of seats. Far below, under the marble flooring, were the stalls
for the bears, lions, and tigers; the deep wells; and on the sides
were the visible entrances for the gladiators and animals. There, too,
was the imperial seat, distinguished by Corinthian columns of black
marble. What brooding meditations were his!— " Where dead men
Hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around,
He lingered, poring on memorials
Of the world's youth."




244               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
SiDyl's cave, beyond the ruins of Baiae! how weird to our " Pilgrim!"  Over the earthquaked soil, —over Lake Avernus in the
socket of an extinct volcano's eye, - hot water boiling up from its
center; on its verge the cave, eight feet wide, and six feet arch; " it
was a deathly-silent retreat." He describes it, -
"The mosaics, the old Roman fresco inscriptions on the stone stairway, the rock-hewn
path, the weird throne on which the sibyl sat while giving the oracles in a trance ecstasy, together with the niche and aperture for the use of the individual receiving the
oracular responses, were to us deeply interesting. Many of those sibylline oraclesancient Spiritualism -are still extant, and have often been referred to in s&tling
church controversies."
Nero's baths!  He penetrated thither, several hundred feet into
the winding passage of a mountain, narrow and black. " The stream
is hot; boils eggs in three minutes. The descent is certainly fearful:
few go down to the edge. Bathing my forehead in the boiling water,
and examining the rocky bed on which gouty, rheumatic old Nero
used to rest after his bath, I came out quite exhausted."  Mr. Peebles plunged into Nero's dungeons, cut in the tuffa-stone mountain,
" where this cruel emperor used to imprison rebels and captives."
What a somber spell came over him  as he inspected them! How
they psychologically voiced the long ago!  "How," he thought,
" does rock and stream record the deeds of men, never to be effaced! "
"History is a grand lie!" said Voltaire.  A truer statement was
never made. Only the Spiritual psychometrist can correctly write it.
He alone can unriddle its fables and its churchal hypocrisies, written on so-called " sacred books."  "Who is able to loose the seals?"
The psychometrist!  Said M. Dupotet, "Whatsoever thou shalt
have thought shall be known to all who wish to know of it." Said
Prof. Babbage, "The air is one vast library, on whose pages are
for ever written all that man has ever said or woman whispered."
Said Wim. Denton, the Spiritual scientist, " The very rocks drink in
the character of the people of the country in which they exist,"startling truths, which the Spiritual Philosophy reveals! Most wonderful will be its developments, when wisely-disciplined media, standing on the places memorable in history, inspired by the acting spirit
risen to heights of perspective, shall read the " soul of things" and the
soul of events, magnetically engraved on ruins, rocks, and dust.
The Catacombs, - subterranean burial-places, those of Naples
anciently extending nine miles in one direction  and thirteen in




NAPLES AND ROME.                       245
another, entered now by the church of Gennero dei Poveri: down,
down, he and his friend D. descended to this " nether world,"led by two
solemn-visaged guides, -" the living city over our head, a dead city
of bones under our feet."  There they were, " coffins,  sarcophagi,
tiers of tombs, rotten boards, rusty nails, nameless heaps of skulls,
spines, arms, ribs, - a frightful aspect! There, too, were urns, vases,
crosses, and the remains of the altar and church of St. Januarius,
of the third century.  This saint and his believing companions,
being Christians, were thrown into the arena of the wild beasts, by
order of Emperor Diocletian, but were not harmed.  " Some psychological or spiritual influence may have saved them, as in the case
of the prophet Daniel."  In the year 305, he was beleaded on an
eminence between Pozzuoli and Solfatara. He is the patron saint of
Naples.  "During the festival days that commemorate him, —
the 3d of May and 19th of September, —his preserved blood is
said to liquefy in the presence of the people. That the liquefaction
takes place, Protestants admit; but is it blood, the genuine blood of
the martyr, or a chemical preparation? That's the question. The
purported miracle is performed in the cathedral."   Mr. Peebles
wanted to take away a skull as a relic, but was refused.  " They
are the skulls of Christians," said the monkish guide: " it would be
sacrilege! "  Afterwards finding a nice skull down several hundred
feet, having a large frontal development, he convinced the guide, " it
is Pagan, because of large reasoning faculties and full benevolence
and conscientiousness:" so he was permitted to take it. Whose the
skull, he has hope of yet tracing mediumistically, with a history
therewith connected.
Solfatara, —the Forum  Vulcani of Strabo; what a sight to our
" Pilgrim! " It is nearly extinct; but, near the edge of the crater, he
noticed "a fearful, fiery orifice, belching out steam, gas, and sulphur-impregnated smoke, half strangling us."   He cast down a
stone upon the crater-flooring: hearing its deep echo, and looking
over, he called it the " mouth of hell.'  He thus suggests a Yankee
enterprise,  " Let Elder Knapp and other revivalists ship this firemountain to America, and exhibit it as a foretaste or practical illustration of the bottomless pit.  The Church could make money out
of it."
Vesuvius, - volcano of the centuries! Mr. Peebles stood upon its
summit, and gazed down into its awful vortex. There rolled before




246                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
him visions of the past, time's tides, life's beats, civilization's cycles,
religion's decay and resurrection; " and I, -  am I a fated child too? "
he asked.  He walked the streets of exhumed Pompeii, and, with torch
in hand, descended into buried Herculaneum, wondering at the grandeur of the amphitheater whose columns have braved the decay of
two  thousand  years.   In Pompeii, every thing  seemed fresh, of
yesterday.
"I am brought," he writes, " into actual relations with the temples, altars, paintings,
mosaics, pavements, houses; and social life of men and women that thronged these
chariot-groved streets two thousand years ago." In the wonderful museum in Naples,
he found "Papyri, Etruscan vases, surgical instruments, agricultural implements, necklaces, ear-rings, brooches, chains, combs, gold lace, and ornaments of every kind; loaves
of baker's bread, with name of the manufacturer thereon stamped; honey-comb, grains,
fruits, eggs, bottles of wine and oil, hermetically sealed,- all these preserved since the
eruption of 79, showing the high state of civilization the Pompeians had attained before
the Christian era."  Well does he exclaim, "Life is everywhere!  Living men are
constantly touching responsive chords that will vibrate for ever! The kingdoms, cities -
ruins of the agone ages —are many-tongued and voiceful. The present is the hyphen
that connects the past and future." 
" Yet this is Rome,
That sate on her seven hills, and from her throne
Of beauty ruled the world I....
Hear me, ye walls, that echoed to the tread
Of either Brutus I - once again I swear
The eternal city shall be free I"
"Is this Rome the seven-hilled, the mosaic of St. Peter's, the
eternal city? " was our " Pilgrim's" thought, on his first waking in
the morning after his arrival, -"  Rome! still proud and  imperial,
the moss-fringed panorama of prostrate  columns, tumbling arches,
splendid  palaces, ivy-encircled  towers, -  Rome! relic  of  nearly
thlree thousand years of the world's history?"
Here meeting Prince George de Solms and Dr. F. H. L. Willis,
"the true-souled brothers," the latter traveling in Europe in quest of
health, he felt at home. Together roamed they the city: stood on
Palatine Hill; talked in spirit with Romulus, -  who marked the boundaries of the city with a plow, -  with Cicero, Numa, and  Tarquin,
with Brutus and Cassius, with Caesar and Mark Antony; ascended
to the roof of the Capitol, and surveyed the square city,-   " the ruined
Forum, the Temple of Jupiter, the Temple of Concord, the Arch of
Septimus Severus, the Temple of Antoninus, the Arch of Titus, the
mighty Colosseum, the Appian Way, fringed for miles with the tombs




NAPLES AND ROME.                      247
of the citizens of old Rome, and the Seven Hills on which the city is
built, dotted with churches, convents, palaces, gardens, fountains and
tropical plants."  They saw the "Tiber rolling along its muddy tide,
as in old historic periods;" on its banks, the columns of Trajan and
Antoninus, crowned with the statue of St. Paul, the dome of the
Pantheon; over the bridge, Hadrian's Mausoleum, and the old palace of the Vatican, " whence have gone edicts shaking kingdoms,
and making crowned heads tremble. Thank God and the good
angels, popish bulls are quite harmless now."..." Oh, the towering dome of St. Peter's, mightiest of earth's temples, reaching
toward the sky!"  Within the walls they noticed the old aqueducts
and baths, each more than a mile in circuit.  Away stretched the
eye over the Campagna, — the gently-sloping Alban  Hills, the
Apennines with crests piercing the blue sky, the Sabine Hills suffused
with dark purple, and the Etruian plains extending far beyond the
vision's reach." 
The next day they visited these noted places for minute inspection,
and found a world of art, ruins, beauty, filth, beggary; and everywhere the tracery of ancieft glory and renown. They crossed the
bridge of St. Angelo; paced the Borgo Nuovo; stood under the
Piazza; and there was the gorgeous St. P6ter's! covering eight acres,
on the spot where Nero had his Circus, just where the apostle Peter was
martyred.  " See the unspeakable grandeur! " writes Mr. Peebles.
" Stand under the firmament of marble, and cast your eye along the
richly-ornamented nave, along the statue-lined transepts, and up
into that circling vault, that wondrous dome, supported by four
piers each two hundred and eighty-four feet in periphery, and then you
feast upon the fullness of its magnificence.... It occupied a period
of one hundred and seventy-six years in building, and three hundred
and sixty years to perfect it! "  They saw the papal throne, the master paintings of the renowned artists,-  Raphael's andAngelo's,the " Gift of Tongues," the " Feast of Pentecost," and the " Transfiguration," -thelastgreatworkof Raphael; " who seems to have been
conscious then of standing upon the very verge of the summer-land."
Walking out to the Protestant burial-ground, beset by Catholic
beggars as usual, as if there they might breathe a freer air, they
found the.tomb of the poet Shelley, having the simple inscription,
"Concordium;" and beyond it that of the poet Keats, bearing this
inscription, -




248                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
" This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet;
who, on his death-bed, in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious
power of his ennrmies, desired these words to be engraven on his tombstone,' Here lies one whose name is writ in water.'  Feb. 14, 1821."
Commenting upon this, -  for the record touched his heart, -  Mr.
Peebles writes home,"A pack of prowling, cowardly critics, incompetent of writing poems themselves
and actuated by a low ambition, - a sort of mental dropsy, - pounced upon the sensitive
young Keats, and hunted him into his grave. He lives: they are forgotten."
The Ecumenical Council, the  twenty-first of the Latin Church,
that pronounced the Pope " infallible," was holding its sessions during Mr. Peebles' visit to Rome; consisting then of fifty-five cardinals,
eleven patriarchs, six hundred and forty-seven primates, archbishops,
and bishops, six abbots, twenty-one mitered abbots, and twenty-eight
generals of monastic orders. These fathers he saw in St. Peter's on
Christmas Day.  Speaking of the august ceremony there performed,
and of friends, he writes in a private letter to us, dated Rome, Dec.
26, 1869,-...  " Two of these days in Rome I have spent mostly with Prince George, - a magnificent man, every inch a prince.  He accompanied me to the Vatican, St. Peter's,
ruins of Caesar's palaces, the Pantheon, Pincian Hill, and several of the most distinguished churches. On Christmas Day, saw, the Pope borne through the broad aisle of
St. Peter's upon eight men's shoulders, the Catholics dropping suddenly upon their
knees as if he were the Almighty himself.  Saw the seven hundred bishops kiss the
brazen toe.  Beholding the miters, crosses, imperial robes, and heartless ceremonies, I
said,'Is this the religion of Jesus, the meek and.lowly? ".. 
" My dear brother, Dr. Willis, is with me. How happy our acquaintance in years
past, when we were laboring together, he in Cold Water, and I in Battle Creek, Mich.
"Kindred natures indulge in few formalities.  Especially is this true when meeting
in foreign lands. Our evenings in the city are generally spent together in fraternal
fellowship.. Unseen visitors - unseen to self, at least - are often in attendance, with heavenly words of truth and love.  The panoramic vision of the spiritual temple, with the
mediumistic workers engaged thereon, given to the doctor upon one of these occasions,
is literally ablaze with all the characteristics of a revelation. Heaven grant his speedy
restoration to health I "




CHAPTER XXX.
FLORENCE.
"All houses wherein men have'lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors." —
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
GLORY of the middle ages! Florence! beautiful, freshened by
the Arno, whose banks Milton trod; the spiritual battery once of
the fiery Savonarola, hurling thunderbolts at the Pope; famous for
sculpture, painting, and poesy, — how charming to the "Pilgrim"!
He hastened to the Franciscan convent, and then to the Old Bastion,
and gazed and gazed enraptured.  He visited the pride of the Florentines, - the Santa Maria del Flore, of which Michael Angelo said,
"I may equal, but I can not surpass thee.' He walked its solemn
aisles, "haunted with pious, speechless ghosts," the gloom  like
its theology.    The old masters have paintings here: one is
"Paradise;" opposite "Hell," black and fiery; and "Purgatory" is quite " respectable, showing genuine benevolence in the
artist."  What is the attractive power of the Catholic Church?
Delaage, a zealous Catholic, answers,' The sublime and ravishing
harmony of her chants, the bluish wreaths of her ascending incense,
the pictures and statues with which she adorns her cathedrals and
churches, and the magnificent and impressive ceremonies of her
worship!"  Is there not a lesson for Spiritualists to learn here?
Goethe says, " The beautiful is higher than the good; for the beautiful includes the good within it, as a part." In the Church of Santa
Croce he walked amid tombs, and " conversed with souls that yet
speak through the sister arts, —painting, sculpture, architecture."
He read on some of the monuments the names of Galileo (over whom
the church begins to repent), Boccaccio, Marsuppini, and Michiavelli.
249




250                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
What memories thrilled him as he read the registry of their virtues,
and caught the baptismal light of their spirit-presence!  And did
he not there sense the soul of Dante, once frantic under the abuses
of enemies, now dusting his brow with poetic glory?  Here was that
Spiritualist's favorite retreat, near this church.   Our " Pilgrim"
visited the spot, and felt what kindred souls only feel, and recalled
Rogers's words, —
-" On that ancient seat,The seat of stone that runs along the wall,
South of the church, east of the belfry-tower,
(Thou canst not miss it) in the sultry time
Would Dante sit conversing, and with those
Who little thought that in his hand he held
The balance, and assigned at his good pleasure
To each his place in the invisible world;
To some an upper region, some a lower:
zany a transgressor sent to his account
Long ere in Florence numbered with the dead."
He entered the galleries of painters' portraits. Here were Titian's
face of " deep  expression; "  Leonardo Vinci's, "full of beauty,
grandeur, and majesty;"  Michael Angelo's, "sour, harsh,'and
gloomy; "  Raphael's,  "easy  and  graceful;"  Angelica  Hauff-,
4nan's, " young, dreamy, and winning;" Joshua Reynolds's, " hard
and stern."
" A writer in' Household Words' says,'The face being the outward index of the
passions and sentiments within,.the immortal dweller fashions and molds the plastic
substance of his home, and helps form and alter the architecture of its house, like the bees
and birds.... The spiritual principle writes its own character on its exterior walls, and
chronicles from time to time its upward aspirations, or its more complete abasement.'"
Understanding this spiritual art, another thought suggested itself
to the mind of our brother, whilst philosophizing upon these symbols
of soul, whether the molding influence of the love of the beautiful is
not often measurably neutralized by the adversities of life? True,
no doubt!  The touch of early frost destroys the violet's beauty and
sweetness. Artistic geniuses, soaring above the sensuous of earth,
" dreamy and impractical," as they are called, sensitive to every
touch of mind, persecuted for their innovations, inevitably clash with
popular opinions and consequent misfortunes, that render passion
a battle, and love a storm: so that a sweet spirit, limning itself in
physical form, may appear as Angelo's, "sour, harsh, and gloomiy;"
but, in the freer world of angels, be as the Nazarene's,-" shining
VUI 9   VEVV  ~IU   I 0Y




FLORENCE.                            251
as the sun.'  Let Spiritualists, then, institute their educations and
their social relations in such a manner as shall foster, reward, and
protect true genius; then shall we see the robe of divinity and the
privilege of angels in our redemptive world.
The leaning tower of Pisa, of boyhood's wonder! he sat under
its shadow; "take care, surely it must fall!"   He mounted the
spiral staircase, one hundred  and eighty-seven feet, and looked
off upon the city of fifty thousand, once double that, once the rival
of Genoa, and the competitor of Venice for the sovereignty of the
sea.  But the tower!  "While on this elevation, your thoughts
naturally revert to Galileo, who used the inclination of the tower to
find the measure of time, and develop his theory of the fall of heavy
bodies. Here, too, he demonstrated that the earth sails round the
sun.  Daring man, -  a heretic! The Church has ever persecuted
the scientists."
In Cimiterio Inglese he found the grave of Theodore Parker.  On
the way, he passed the monument erected to the memory of Mrs.
Browning, the poetess and Spiritualist.  All that is on it is, "E.
B. B."  So the sculptor nearly remembered her own wish, so sensible," A stone above my heart and head,, But no name written on the stone."
"Under the cypress-trees, and having a plain brpwn marble monument, repose in
th' cemetery all that is mortal of one, who, not only in America, but in all enlightened
lands, lives on earth immortal. The slab has this inscription,"' Theodore Parker, born at Lexington, Mass., U.S.A., Aug. 24,1810; died at Florence,
May 10, 1860."'
What emotions thrilled his heart! He recalled the Church's persecution against him, and the Church's repentance, now that his truth
and justice prevail.  " I am  proud," he says, "that I had known
him in life, - proud that he was an American.... The true worker
continues his work in the land of souls."
Wherever Mr. Peebles goes, he is sure to find the principal literary
characters, and sound the depth of their minds, to learn their worth
in the world. Such acquaintances are so many steps to the paradise
of universal truth. At Florence; he was introduced to T. Adolphus
Trollope, son of the celebrated Mrs. Trollope, who years ago traveled in the United States, on a tour of observation, writing a book
of us and our institutions.  He is an author of literary fame.  Mr,




252               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Peebles visited his elegant mansion, gardens, and massive library;
which, he says, "bound my soul as with a magic spell.  Books,
books I Bury this frail body under a pyramid of books!"  He found
this gentleman an earnest investigator of Spiritualism, having witnessed remarkable tests of spirit-presence through Dr. Willis, at
Villa Trollope, Ricorboli.
Stepping into the studio of Hiram Powers, the world-renowned
American sculptor, he studied the gospel of the fine arts,- their
influence upon national character. With Mr. Marsh, our UnitedStates minister, he listened in rapt delight to Mr. Powers's practical
good sense upon the necessity of developing in young minds a loving
ambition for sculpture and painting, as a most powerful instrumentality of national progress. Our carving of the beautiful carves
the soul in its divine image. The busts of "Eve," the very perfection of art, and " Our Saviour," so exquisitely finished, were only
companions of Longfellow, Everett, Webster, Franklin, and Jefferson. This is right, -
" No high, no low, no rich, no poor,"
in the kingdom of the good and true. Mr. Powers, a firm. Spiritualist, "w,ould see our spiritual literature of the highest order."
Baron de Guldenstubbe, "is the unassuming and thoroughly individualized."  Through this gentleman's mediumship, Mr. Peebles
obtained new phases of spirit-writing most wonderful.  "Placing
writing materials upon monuments, sarcophagi, in the Louvre, and
places consecrated to certain saints, he obtained proofs of spirit identity. He published sixty-seven fac-similes. The handwriting of
Marie Antoinette and others was immediately recognized."  The
baron  published these writings in "Thoughts from* beyond the
Tomb," and the " Reality of Spirits."
Salvadore Brunetti, formerly a professor in a Syracusean College
in Sicily, is a brother in whom he found a friend of liberty; imprisoned
by Francis II., emancipated by Garibaldi, and now a wandering
improvisatore, - a poor and homeless medium, blessing the world by
his spirit songs and poems.
Baron Vincenzo Caprara is a great scholar, imprisoned for republican sentiments, persecuted by the Catholic priesthood, succored by
the angels, disinherited by mortals, enriched by the gods. "Pleasant
are our memories," says Mr. Peebles, "from writing and mingling




FLORENCE.                           253
with him in the social circle. If Italians do not, future history will
do him justice."
Girolamo Parisi is editor of " The Aurora," in Florence, a periodical devoted to the spirit sciences.  A " truly generous man," writes
Mr. Peebles, remembering his many kindnesses.
Signor G. Damiani, of ducal family, a political agitator like the
rest; once a Catholic, now a radical Spiritualist; "a daily missionary of uncommon scholarship, preaching the ministry of spirits
in the best social circles of Italian, English, French, and German
society," inviting and challenging the greatest scientists of the world,
such as Profs. Lewes and Tyndal, to a trial of Spiritualism, -— how
highly does our Pilgrim prize him!
Baron Kirkup, venerable and noble, a painter, friend of the beautiful William Blake, his daughter a brilliant medium, his library
priceless, his genius most golden, his attendant angel Dante, crowned
by the king of Italy as a "'knight" [La Corona d'Italia], for his
restoration of the painting of Dante, under the inspiration of the
poet himself, is soon to be crowned by the angels in the gallery of
paintings in the spirit-world.  " How I love this generous brother
of large soul!" exclaims our " Pilgrim" again.
" He who would be the tongue of this wide land
Must strike his harp with chord of sturdy iron,
And strike it with a toil-embrownbd hand.
Such, such, is he for whom the world is waiting,
To sing the beatings of its mighty heart:
Too long hath it been patient with the grating
Of scandal-pipes, and heard it misnamed art."
" The Anti-Ecumenical!" As this council runs parallel with that
of the Roman, that pronounced the Pope "infallible," — a council
that was the outburst of free thought, prophetic of papal decline
from that very hour, - we publish its entire proceedings as reported.
The following note was tendered Mr. Peebles whilst in Florence:"ASSEMBLEE DES LIBRES PENSEURS
DEVA1T SE REUNIR A NAPLES
LE 8 DfCEMBRE 1869.
BILLET D'ADMISSION.
ORDBE DU JOUR DE LA StANCE D'OUVERTURE.
"1. Discours d'inauguration;'2. Compte-rendu du Comitd provisoire, et lecture des principales lettres d'adh-.
sion;




254                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"8. Appel nominal, et enregistrement des membres presents;
"4. Election du Comitd central ddfininitif.
"Mr. James M. Peebles, B qui le present billet d'admission a dtd ddlivrd, pourra se faire
reprdsenter par un ddl6gud, dont il dcrira le nom au dos de bette feuille, en le faisant suivre
de sa signature. I est prid, en outre, d'accuser reception de ce billet dans le plus bref ddlai,
en 6crivant B Naples k M. J. Ricciardi, Dpputd au parlement d'Italie, Riviera di Chiaja,
No. 67.
" Pour subvenir aux frais considdrables de lceauvre, un droit dentrde de 50c. sera payd
par le porteur du present billet.
" Le lieu et l'heure de la reunion seront indiqu&s par les journaux."
Previous to this meeting, Mr. Peebles was introduced to Count
Riccardo, through Signor Damiani, and spent several evenings with
him and other distinguished cosmopolitan gentlemen; during one of
which  the Count, turning to  him, and  speaking  in  plain  English,
said, -
" America and American institutions are not convulsed with the intrigues of Church
and State.  No, sir  liberty is the American watchword.  Freedom, political, social,
and religious, constitutes our' Trinity.' We have letters of sympathy from distinguished
men and women in all parts of Europe, from St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukie,
and other portions of the United States; but as you are the only personal representative,
so far as I am aware, we should be happy to have you sit and deliberate with us in our
public council."
We clip the following from the Naples and Florence "Observer:"" SATURDAY, Dec. 14, 1869.'MEETING OF THE ANTI-CONCILIO, OR CONGRESS OF FREE-THINKERS, IN NAPLES.
"The first meeting of the'Anti-concilio,' organized by Count Ricciardi as an opposition and demonstration to the Ecumenical Council now being held in Rome, took place
on Thursday in the theater San Ferdinando. The stage was occupied by the foreign
delegates, the president, his secretaries and supporters, and the representatives of the
press; amongst whom we noticed Mr. Daniel, the special reporter of'The New-York
Herald,' U.S.A.; Mr. Peebles, United-States Consul to Trebisond, Asia, and editor of'The Universe;' M. Carl Ludeking, correspondent of two German-American papers,
and other foreign correspondents....
" Then followed reading of telegrams from several cities in Italy, from Vienna,
from France, from Trieste, Temesvar in Hungary, from Spain, and from other European
cities.  That which came from Trieste was received with great warmth, as also were
the Hungarian. and the Spanish, some passages which censured-in bitter terms the
French occupation of Rome, producing the most unbounded applause.
"A very spirited speech was then made in Italian by M. Ovary, a Hungarian
delegate, in which he alluded to the stupidity of propounding the syllabus in the nineteenth century. He said,'The papacy is the principal obstacle to liberty, and the
scourge of society.'
" Personally he was there intrusted to represent the opinions of twenty-five thousand of his fellow-countrymen; and a friend, also present, was delegate for an equal
number. He protested against the iniquities of the papacy, and ended by reading a




FLORENCE.                                   255
short address in Hungarian and Italian; which stated that the Magyar race were heart
and hand withlCount Ricciardi in the work he had undertaken.
"A letter from Gen. Garibaldi was then read. Ot was written in the usual pungent
style of the general, alluding to the priesthood, commencing with' Rovesciare il mostro
ppapale.' He said, moreover, that he belonged to the religion of truth, and the true
religion of God; expressed his concurrence in the object of the meeting, and regretted
his inability to attend. Letters were then read from Henri Martin, Victor Hugo, Edgar
Quinet, Michelet, the German professor Moleschott, and other savans of Europe.
" Gen. Mata read an address in Spanish, and was saluted at the close by cries of' Viva
il Messico..
" The roll-call was preceded by some few speeches, one of which was by Mr. Peebles, editor of "The Universe," Chicago, U.S.A.; another by Mr. Carl Ludeking, of
St. Louis; another by an aged German professor; a fourth by a young republican from
Belgium; and a fifth by Garibaldi's old chaplain."
In his admirable report of the council, Mr. Peebles writes to
"The Universe," —
"At the general opening of the anti-council, the president delivered the address,
which was pronounced learned and logical. His gestures were graceful and easy. The
Italian language is music itself. Closing, he submitted the following questions to the
Congress assembled, as suggestive of discussion: -
" I. Of religious liberty, and the best means for rendering it full and permanent.
"II. Of the complete separation of Church and State.
III. Of the necessity of a code of morals, independent of religious belief.
"IV. Of the establishment of an international association to promote the principles
of freedom, and the general good, intellectual and moral.
" The officers chosen and committees appointed, the secretaries read letters of adhesion and approval from Garibaldi, Victor Hugo, and many other distinguished patriots,
authors, thinkers, in Europe, Mexico, United States, Brazil, Chili, West Indies, the
Grecian Isles, and important cities in Asia and Africa. Between two and three thousand
individuals' names were enrolled, a majority of whom, being in attendance, answered
for themselves when called by the secretaries.  Occasionally, when some celebrated
lady arose, and responded' present,' or offered a few encouraging remarks, the cheering
of the multitude would be deafening.
" The vast audience, so orderly, yet so enthusiastic, presented a magnificent spectacle. It has never been our privilege to behold a nobler class of youth than those Italian
students in attendance, representirg universities and other institutions of education
in the kingdom of Italy.  The women that so bravely answered to their names were
mothers, wives, sisters, that do not fancy the manipulations and liberties that Romish
priests often take with their daughters at private confessions.  In the United States,
Roman Catholicism, gentle, cooing, and cunning, presents upon the surface a very amiable
and dove-like appearance; but, under that silken plumage, there skulks the demon of
despbtism, superstition, and a bloody inquisition, waiting a hoped-for ascendency in
America.                                                            - 
"A Polish patriot, who fought with the Italians against the Austrians, was greeted
upon taking his seat *ith prolonged applause.  His burning eloquence thrilled every
heart present.' 
"A soldier, whose body bore the scars of many battle-fields, spoke against kings,
popes, and priests with the same earnestness that he fought for a united Italy.




256                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"When Garibaldi's old chaplain arose to speak, the clapping of hands and enthusiastic shoutings seemed like the'voice of many thunders.'  He decaimed against
Church and State, Popish infallibility, the baseness of a French soldiery in Rome, the
advantageetaken by priests in' confessions,' and the despotism of the Catholic Church.
"Mr. Peebles called, he addressed the meeting, the president translating a portion
of his remarks, -
"ITALIANS, BROTHERS,- Made, by virtue of an invitation extended by your distinguished president, a member of this Congress of free-thinkers, and requested to
participate in your deliberations, I most deeply regret my inability to address you in
3 our native language, - a language so naturally adapted to music, to the sentiments of
poetry, and the principles of philosophy,  Freedom  of conscience underlies the very
foundation of the American declaration of independence. Our Constitution, giving the
preference to no religious creed, does not even mention the word God. Rightly interpreted, it considers man above all institutions, - man and his innate rights above cardinals and popes, churches and kingdoms. With the exception of a few clergymen and
their willing dupes, the united voice of America is eloquent in behalt of the inalienable
rights of man, -the right of each to think, to hear, to believe, and to judge for himself upon all questions, civil, political, and religious; and no priest has any business to
say,' Why believe ye?' or,' Why do ye thus and so?'
"History warrants the declaration, that, wherever papal influences and Bibles have
gone, there have followed in the wake war, persecution, bigotry, and oppression. Sectarian Christianity has deluged the earth in crimson streams for opinion's sake. It kindled
the fires of Smithfield. It bolted the dungeon doors of the inquisition upon Savonarola.
It rung bells of rejoicing on St. Bartholomew's Eve. It persecuted Tasso, Copernicus,
Galileo, and stabbed to the heart other apostles of science and men of letters. It sacrificed two millions of men during the Crusades. Christian steel has drunk Christian
blood in all lands. The sword of Pope Pius IX., upheld by the bayonets of a Christian
nation, is already edged for further rapine and death. Only two years since, he decapitated young Tognetti for alleged political conspiracy. This youthi fired with the inspiration of freedom, loved Italy, loved human rights, more than the temporal power; and, by
the Pope's order, he was executed: and his two brothers are in this assembly as mourners
to-day. Down on such Christianity as this! Down with your red-handed popes, and
up with science! Down with priests, and up with the people! Down with bigotry, and
up with toleration! Down with churchal authority everywhere, and up with individual
freedom! Italians, send American, all missionaries, back to their native lands with
their Bibles and rot-eaten tracts, and invite them to return with patent washing-machines,
school-hpuses, and libraries, with the ax, the spade, and the plow, and, when returning,
use them with ungloved hands. Practical industry cools missionary zeal.  Shame on
these American bishops who go from a country of freemen to papal Rome, to vote the
Pope infallible.  Such assumption is the quintessence of impudence on their part,
weakness and dotage on his.
" The central idea, the prime thought, of cultured Americans, is free speech, free
press, and free religion. The generous hearts of at least twenty million trans-Atlantic
citizens beat in full sympathy with yours to-day. As an individual, I tender you the
affections of a warm heart, the clasp of an open hand, and the fellowship of a soul
that has sworn eternal hate to priestcraft and oppression.
"President, I am a mystery to myself.  When I'would dogood,' like an apostle,'evil is present with me.' When I would subdue by love, then, looking down upon an
assemblage like this, and listening to the icital of wrongs, of chains, of prisons, and
of papal murders, my tongue, my lips,, break out, On with the battle! On with fire and




FLORENCE.                                    257
word and the black-throated artillery of death!  Thepeople are the Christ of this century; Rome is the cross; popes, cardinals, and priests are the crucifiers.  Down, then,
peacefully if possible, but down, with despots and tyrants! Then the.coronal brainregion -the divine nature gaining the ascendency, my soul speaks - speaks in tones
equally firm, but more humane and angelic, On as the highest wisdom may dictate!
On with the artillery of tongue and pen! on! remembering that love-the divine
principle of love-alone subdues!
"Reason is God's seal of true manhood. Though there are socialists and secularists,
rationalists and materialists, the Spiritualists, numbering several millions, form the
central column in the progressive religious movement of America. Scientists and radical Unitarians constitute the right and left wings of this army.
"Not empowered to speak authoritatively, I feel that I do the free-thinkers of my
native country no injustice in the declaration, that negatively they deny the fall
of man,''the trinity,''total depravity,''vicarious atonement,''endless punishment,'
a general judgment;''the plenary inspiration of the Bible,' and the personality of
either a human-shaped God or devil.
"Affirmatively, this aggressive body believes in the divine existence, the intelligent life-principle of the universe; in  the innate  moral worth and progressive
tendency of humanity; in the certainty of a compensation, ever acting in consonance
with the fixed laws of nature; in political, social, mental, and religious freedom; in a
true life, founded upon the highest intuitions of the soul and the moral consciousness
of the race. Because more intimately connected with it, I feel a more perfect freedom
in speaking of Spiritualism as a great motive power in America:.
"Under some name, and in some form, Spiritualism, as demonstrated through phenomena, and substantiated by unimpeachable testimony, has constituted the basic
foundation and been the motive force of all religions in their incipient stages. The
Spiritualism  of to-day, in America, England, and all enlightened countries, differs
from that of eighteen hundred years since, in Judea, only in the better understanding
of its philosophy, the general conception of its naturalness, and its wider dissemination
through the different grades of society. It has been and is God's visible seal of love
to all climes and ages.
"As a general definition of Spiritualism, the following is submitted:"Its fundamental idea is God, the infinite spirit-presence, imminent in all things.
"Its fundamental thought is joyous communion with spirits and angels, and the
practical demonstrations of the same through the instrumentality of media.
"Its fundamental purpose is to rightly generate, educate, and spiritualize all the
races and nations of the earth.
"Spiritualism, considered from its philosophical side, is rationalism; from its scientific side, naturalism; and, from its religious side, the embodiment of love to God and
man, -a present inspiration and a heavenly ministry. In the year 1900, it will be the
religion of the enlightened world.
"It underlies all genuine reform movements, physiological, educational, social, philanthropic, and religious; and, spanning all human interests with holy aim, it seeks to
reconstruct society upon the principles of a universal brotherhood and the strict equality
of the sexes.' Desirous of greater knowledge touching the relations of spirit with matter, and of
men with God, and the intelligences of the surrounding world of spirits, Spiritualists
study and reverently interrogate the laws and principles that govern the phenomena and
occult forces of the universe, the histories of the past, and the experiences of tbepresent, anxious to solve those psychologic and spiritual problems of The ages, - man's
origin, capacity, duty, and final destiny.




258                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"Interrelated with spirit and matter in their varied evolutions, and with the highest
interests connecting all worlds, Spiritualism is neither supernatural in philosophy nor
sectarian in tendency; but broad, catholic, and progressive, - the voiced truth of God
through nature to the rational soul, - a science, a philosophy, and a religion.
"Contemplated from the mount of vision, it may be compared to a temple whose
outer foundations are upon earth and whose golden dome is in heaven. Its facts, its
workmanship, are embellished by the fingers of angels; and its principles are upheld by
the hand of God.
"Thanking you for your patience in listening to a stranger in a language that few
of you understand, I close with this sentiment:"May Italians speedily possess all Italian territory! May proud, historic Rome be its
capital! May capital and country constitute one united republic! and may that republic be sustained by the enlightened influences of education, justice, universal suffrage,
the equality of the sexes, and the beautiful peace-principles of love and wisdom."
On a rich silken banner or standard, behind the platform, were inscribed the names
of the countries represented by delegates, or. letters of approval. The motto upon the
banner was decidedly significant:-' THE NATIONS OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD MADE BROTHERS BY FREE THOUGHT."
The word Rome, though in gilded letters, was veiled in black crape.
" Near the close of the second evening's session," writes Mr. Peebles, " while.a talented
French delegate was speaking eloquently of Republican institutions and free religion,
declaring that Rome was kept from the Italians against the will of Frenchmen, hundreds
of voices joined in the cry,' Long live Republics, liberty of conscience, free religion!'
" When up rose an officer, scarfed and ribboned, and said,  In the name of the laws I
pronounce this meeting dissolved!'
"Murmurs half-suppressed, agitations, intense feeling of indignation, as though a
fearful mental storm was ready to burst, and President Ricciardo rising said,' I beg of
you to disperse quietly, - quietly, and in good order.'
" It seemed like a dream. An immense assembly in attendance - a French orator
in the midst of a thrilling speech, an enthusiastic people cheering and rejoicing, the
meeting dissolved, the lights extinguished, a horde of policeinen prowling about,
the people crowding into the streets.
" Shame on such despotism!  My whole being was on fire. 0 beautiful, sun-kissed
Italy!  O wretched, bleeding, pope-cursed Italy!  I mingle my tears with yours,
with Perasees and the angels, asking how long, oh! how long, before your day of deliverance?"
At this council, Mr. Peebles was awarded with a significant and
splendid medal for his speech, and the interest he manifested in its
grand objects, and was afterwards elected an honorary member of the
Societa  Florantina de Spiritismo, presenting him  a diploma written
in Italian, and dated Feb. 28, 1870.




CHAPTER XdXI.
WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.
"'Tis the voice
Of infant Freedom! and her stirring call
Is heard and answered in a thousand tones
From every hill-top of her Western home I " - GEO. D. PRENTICE.
"Character is what God and angels know of us." -THOMAS PAINE.
LEAVING the Neapolitan cities of Italy, Mr. Peebles returned to
London in January, 1870; and, obeying the promptings of his spiritfriends and the invitations of English Spiritualists, with J. Burns proceeded immediately to the organization of Sunday meetings at the
Cavendish Rooms, Mortimer Street, Regent Street.  His first lecture was delivered on the third Sunday in January, to a comparatively small audience. He continued his Sunday labors four months
in London, and week evenings in the provincial cities, the interest
constantly augmenting into fine assemblies, composed of the best
English minds.  He instituted order by religious services interspersed with music, allowing inquirers at first to question him at
the close of his speaking.  The evening meetings were the more
inspirational; and frequently plenty of rappings were heard near seats
occupied by media, but not loud enough to interfere with the proceedings.
Occasionally absent in other cities, his desk was supplied by J.
Burns, E. D. Rogers, F. R. Young, H. D. Jencken, A. C. Swinton,
T. Shorter, and others, with excellent success. The general drift
of his thought, and the good accomplished in that brief time, will be
found in these summary extracts from the British Spiritual press.
The following are from that able journal, " The Spiritualist," edited
by W. H. Harrison:"Mr. Peebles, according to a system he has long carried out in the United States,
preceded his lecture with a short religious service; and he began by giving out a hymn,
259




260                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGIIM.
which was sung by the large number of Spiritualists and others present.  He then
offered up a short prayer to the Almighty, giving thanks to him for the blessing of direct
communication with departed friends, and for having planted within every human being
the seeds of endless growth and eternal progression.
" Mr. Peebles then said, that, in one of the epistles of Paul, there is language something
like this,' Be ready to give to every man a reason for the hope that lieth in thee.' Reason, he said, is a divine gift,- one of the greatest characteristics of true manhood; and,
as God has been pleased to make us reasonable beings, we ought to exercise these reasoning powers to the best advantage. We should sanction no theology, no moral teaching,
and no deduction of science, till we ave brought the subject to the test of reason.
Wherever there is an effect, there must have been a cause; wherever there is motion,
there must have been something to produce it; and, wherever there is a house, there must
have been a builder: so, where we see millions upon millions of bright and glorious
worlds circling in their orbits, there must be some intelligence guiding them by immutable laws....
"Mr. J. M. Peebles, American Consul at Trebisond, lectured at the Cavendish rooms
on Sunday evening, Feb. 27. He commenced, The inspired Psalmist once said,'Oh,
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!' It is not more in harmony with nature
for water to seek its level, or the mystic needle to point to the North Pole, than for man
to worship. Wherever man has been, he has left marks of his worship of God. The
power to ask the question,' What is God?' implies to some extent the power to answer
it; and God is infinite life and truth and gladness and intelligence and love. God has
implanted in man a belief in a superintending existence, guiding all worlds. We do not
comprehend him: we can not even fathom ourselves.   We can only grasp and digest
what is inferior to ourselves. He supposed that God is not a personal being with a
definite shape, but that God is in the universe, and just as much present to-day as in
the days of the patriarchs. Directly you personalize God, you localize him: whatever
you localize you limitize; and whatever you limitize is imperfect, and maybe destroyed.
He could only say with Jesus,'God is a spirit.' He thought that man physical is the
ultimate of the rest of the earthly creation, and that all the lower forms of life and
matter are focalized in him, from the oyster to the monkey upwards. He did not mean
that man is made of the primates, but of the spiritual ultimates of the primates. There
is reason to suppose that there is a portion of the Spirit of God in every human being,
and that this divine portion never becomes impure: it is only when this innermost
purity tries to externalize itself through the spirit body and the material body, both of
them containing and being surrounded with inharmonious conditions, that troubles and
sorrow and suffering afflict the progressing mortal.
" The lecturer next stated, that the condition of man is one of endless progression.
If they asked,' Is God a progressive being?' he would answer at once in the negative.
But if God does not progress, and man does, will not man in the end reach him, and be
lost in him? No; for the progression of man is finite, and no number of finite movements will reach the infinite. It is a fact capable of mathematical demonstration, that
two lines may continually approach, yet never meet; also in the attempt to divide the
number ten by three, on the decimal principle, one may keep on carrying figures until
the whole universe is filled with them, yet never get to the end. No aggregation of
finites can make up infinity. A man should never bow down in sackcloth and ashes
before his Creator, but stand up in the glory of his manhood, as a being destined for
eternal progression in the spheres. Spiritualism does not teach that God is a tyrant and
angry with man...'"Spiritualism does not say,' Believe my creed,' but'Feed my sheep;' does not say,




WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.                            261'Worship in my church,' but,'Worship as your own conscience dictates;' does not
insist so much upon the saying, as the doing of prayers, that the heart's best affections
may be baptized into alove holy and heavenly: in fine, Spiritualism  is that'other
angel,' that the revelator John saw'flying in the midst of heaven,' and preaching the
everlasting gospel of immortality, - the gospel of' peace and good-will to men.'
"He loved the living gospel of Spiritualism, because it shows so much of the kindness and love of God. Pain is only an angel, leading us back to nature and truth: sickness purifies the physical organization; and disappointments strengthen individuality of
character. Even Jesus, it is said, was purified by suffering; and there is no eternal
endless evil in the universe. He was so organized that he could not love a hateful object. Human love is a thing which comes out like the flowers, to drink in the dewdrops, and to rejoice in the sunlight of heaven. Human love is a great reforming
power; and its binding influence was never more plainly shown than when William Penn
made his treaty with the Indians, by the rolling river, under the old elm-tree's shade."
"The  Medium,"  a  chaste, pungent sheet, edited by J. Burfs,
reports the evening service, -~
"Mr. Peebles's discourse at the Sunday-evening services in the Cavendish rooms, on
the 27th ult., was one of the most powerful, in some respects, that we have ever listened
to. The subject was' Heaven and hell: what are they? where are they?' which was
characterized by cogent reasoning and great moral power. A curious fact should not
be overlooked in estimating the cause of the singular influence which this address had
on the hearers. Several seeing mediums who were in the meeting gave corroborative
descriptions of spirit-forms which were seen behind the speaker. A venerable-looking
sage, with very long hair and beard, stood on a mound apart from the speaker, the space
between whom and this spirit was filled with a white ethereal substance. A female
spirit stood to the right, and a male spirit to the left of Mr. Peebles, while an Indian
stood right behind him. Streams of light proceeded from the grave-visaged sage to the
attendant spirits; and, when the ideas were bright and forcible, the color of these
streams was golden; but when of an ordinary kind, they were silvery in appearance.
The attendant spirits took hold of the streams of light proceeding from the sage, and
placed them on the head of the speaker, sometimes in the region of ideality, and sometimes that of veneration and benevolence.  The Indian spirit made very long passes
with his hands all over Mr. Peebles's body, from the head downwards, as if to give him
force. These are very interesting facts, and require no comment."
At this meeting he electrified his audience by relating some of his
experiences with the Indians during his tour with the " Peace Commission," -
" Some one thousand Indians met in council, drawn up in half-moons, near the confluence of the Rivers North and South Platte: the discussion then began; and old grievances were brought up. Gen. Sherman, a kind-hearted man, but shrewd withal, put
some questions about one point, in which the Indians had broken a former treaty; and
these questions rather puzzled the chief speaker on the other side, who was known to
the whites as' Old Spotted-tail.' Being puzzled, he refused to give an immediate
answer, and summoned to his side a young Indian, who directly afterwards ran away;
and, for nearly one hour and a half from that time, not a single word would the old
Indian chief, or any subordinate chief, lisp: but, when the young man came back,




262                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Spotted-tail made a most eloquent speech. He (Mr. Peebles) afterwards ascertained,
that, nine days before the council met, a celebrated medicine-man among the Indians
had  begun to prepare himself to hold converse with the Great Spirit, and to give advice
to the tribes. By being calm, meditative, and taking little food, he became passive and
negative enough to enter the clairvoyant state; and thus the advice was given. There
was not a single Indian youth to be seen in all that council; and, on inquiry, he was told,
that, three days before it began, orders had been issued that all young Indians should
absent themselves from the camp, because the chiefs did not wish them to become contaminated by the vices of the Christian whites."
Finding Spiritualism in the British Isles nearly as rudimental as
in America a number of years ago, Mr. Peebles was thrown back
to first principles, and, being well versed in them  from  large experience, was able to cope with any difficulties.  As a general rule, the
spiritual manifestations excelled those he had formerly witnessed in
his disciplinary years.  Among others he mentions those of " seeing
spirits in crystals;" upon which Prof. Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, discoursed, at the rooms of J. Burns.  Mr. Peebles wrote home, —
" Magic rock-crystals are exceedingly expensive. The late Earl of Stanhope, who
nearly completed the great reflecting telescope, six feet in diameter, and longer in focus
than Lord John Rosse's giant instrument, gave much time to crystal seeing. A crystal
mirror, or crystal spheroid, is placed before the eyes of the sensitive or medium, who
first sees a dense cloud form in the mirror, followed by total blackness: afterwards
come flashes of electric fire or light; and then come psychologic visions of distant
places, persons, and spirits.  The crystal, giving the condition of passivity, affords at
times wonderful tests. It is a species of clairvoyance."
On the evening of April 11, a seance was held at the house of Mr.
Everitt, 26 Penton Street, London, attended by Mr. Peebles, Mr.
Maurice, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, Mr. MIylne (from India), Mr. Scott,
&c., and mediums, Mrs. Everitt, Mrs. Burns,  and  Mr. Shepard,
when the spirit " John Watt" spoke in audible voice.  The spirits
scattered perfumes through the room. The seers saw a female spirit
standing by Mr. Peebles; and he himself heard her gentle voice. She
was recognized as the spirit "Josephine."  The  spirits wrote  on
paper and walls without human  hands; and, in several instances,
they carefully lithographed messages.  They shook the house, partially shattering it, till it required repairing.
On other occasions the spirits spoke through tubes, played on instruments, and scattered again the delicious odor of spirit-flowers.  " Mr.
Peebles was suffering from pain in one of the lungs; and three Indian
spirits were seen to approach him.  Mrs. Burns and Mr. Shepard
distinctly saw a spirit drawing out a dark, diseased substance from




WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.                           263
Mr. Peebles's breast; after which, another spirit flooded him with a
white substance, which soothed the pain, and re-invigorated him."
At a meeting of Mrs. C. Berry's circle, on Wednesday evening,
Jan. 19, Mrs. Perrin and Mr. Child, media, together with  other
ladies and gentlemen, including Dr. Ashburner and  N. F. Daw,
Mr. Peebles had an interview with John King, by audible conversation. This spirit identified himself as the King who struck him those
heavy blows at the seance, in  Cleveland, Ohio, of the  Davenport
boys, in 1856. The spirit also re-called the interesting incidents of
that occasion; when Mr. Peebles remarked to the astonished circle,
" To John King I owe my final conversion to Spiritualism."
Thomas Reeves, reporting Mr. Peebles's and Dr. Newton's successes, in "The American Spiritualist," —flowers from  the seeds
these. gentlemen  sowed, -  among others mentions the names of
John Blackburn and J. Morse, as mediums, and the spiritual demonstrations following the agitation of Mr. Peebles's lectures:... "It is certain that the impetus given by this gentleman's visit has imparted an
activity to Spiritualism that was not previously possible.... "The spirit-voice is heard at quite a number of circles; and, at Mrs. Everitt's,
the curious manifestation of lights has been seen by all sitters, including those who are
in no degree clairvoyant. A few evenings since, balls of fire were observed much larger
than heretofore; and those in whom the spirit-sight was somewhat developed were able
to see the spirit form emerge from the lights, and enlarge itself to the size of a human
being. Mrs. Berry's circle is also sitting weekly; and Mr. Robson, at Mr. Weeks's, has
obtained some very curious communications from spirits of olden times, including poets,
writers, politicians, artists, musicians, and the whole array of developed intellect, as
well as from soldiers from the battle-fields of the Continent.
"But Spiritualism is rapidly going beyond the mere phenomenal or matter-of-fact
phase. The Children's Lyceum is budding, and bearing fruit. A lyceum instituted
during the past summer in the new lyceum building at Keighley, Yorkshire, is being
pushed on with great vigor; and the leaders and children are anxiously awaiting the
arrival of the new' Lyceum Guide,' which is being imported from Boston. This movement is being imitated in other places; and, indeed, before the season is over, these
schools will be materially increased.
" The labors of the Hon. J. M. Peebles have borne fruit; which will show itself more
and more as time goes on."
At Bradford, after an electric lecture, a lawyer popped up, and
said, " The able gentleman has told us about spiritual things: now
we would like a test.  Show us the ghost, and we will believe;" and
Bat down, amid a sensation.  Mr. Peebles, seldom at a loss for a reply, rose and replied, " The gentleman believes in God: will he show
us God?   He believes in Jesus Christ: -will he show  us Jesus




264                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
Christ?"   The audience was in a perfect foam of enthusiasm  at this
happy hit.  " I am  a lecturer on Spiritual Philosophy," he added:
" my mission is to instruct by the gift of knowledge, not to show a
ghost."
Walking the street the next morning, his ears were greeted with
jeers and taunts; one man vociferating, "There goes the long-haired
devil-rapper " "
An English clergyman, special reporter for " The London Daily
Telegraph," a paper in the interests of the crown, gives quite an
elaborate review of Spiritualism, represented by "three remarkable
spiritual mediums, -  Dr. Newton, Jesse B. H. Shepard, and Rev.
J. M. Peebles." After summing up the doctor's beneficent mission,
and Mr. Shepard's musical seances, all in a most sarcastic style, he
dispatches our " Pilgrim " thus: -
"The Rev. Jabez Burns, D.D., a Baptist minister of Paddington, considerably surprised
us all by mounting the platform, and indorsing the claims of Dr. Newton and the teaching of Mr. Peebles. So very complimentary was he to Dr. Newton, that the doctor
could not bottle up his beneficence, but begged pardon for interrupting the speaker, and
greeting him with a brotherly kiss! Mr. Peebles spoke little; lut what he said was a
multum inparvo. As the mission of Dr. Newton is fatal to pharmacopoeias, so is Mr.
Peebles destined to demolish doctrines, creeds, and churches, at one fell swoop...'Mr. Peebles, at the Cavendish Rooms, succeeding to the mantle of Mrs. Emma
Hardinge, discourses of Spiritualism to the accompaniment of approving raps, presumably from Hades."
" Human Nature," a scholarly monthly journal, edited and published by J. Burns, says, among other important reports of spiritual
movements, -
" The work is extending itself into the provinces. Mr. Peebles has visited Norwich,
and addressed earnest, intelligent, and influential meetings. He is invited to Halifax;
and other places are making arrangements. Where there are two or three Spiritualists
in a place, they need be under no misapprehensions in making arrangements for Mr.
Peebles. The first two meetings should be called by special invitation, and be held in
some gentleman's drawing-room or parlor. Another Spiritualist might invite his circle
of friends to his house on the following evening; after which, a modest public meeting
might be ventured on, to be followed by a second, which might be considered enough
for a beginning. From such safe and agreeable proceedings, useful organizations would
certainly spring up, and great good be effected. Mr. Peebles is just the man for this important work, - a work which is sternly demanded in England, and which every earnest
reformer sighs for."
" The Norfolk News" reports his lecture in St. Andrews Hall,
Norwich, on Thursday evening, Feb. 15, as a news-item. At the




WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.                              265
close, some one rose and asked, "What is the use of Spiritualism?"   Mr. Peebles replied, 
"That is a Yankee question. [Laughter.]  We should not say,' What is the use of
it?' but,'Is it true?'  The use of it is to show that there is a future life, and to
corroborate the Bible histories. The use of it is to roll up the curtain, and show to
us those we love.  It teaches us that there is no death. The lecturer, in conclusion,
made some telling observations in relation to the restraining influence that would be exercised over the viciously inclined by the thought that there are present with them,
watching them in all their doings, the pure spirits of those who love them."
Noticing some portly gentlemen, who, it might be inferred, were
accustomed to wine, evidently desirous of having the spiritual gifts,
he related an incident of California experience; when a person of animal habits interrogated him,"' Can I become a medium?' I replied that it was needful, in the first place, that he
should cleanse his body; secondly, avoid liquors; thirdly, take no tobacco into his mouth;
next, avoid swine's flesh, and all coarse and gross language; and then three evenings a
week go into his closet, and sit down in prayer, passive and calm, for one hour: and, before six months had rolled away, he would see the loved ones, or hear their voices, or
have some other demonstration of their presence. The man went away sorrowful; for
he could not endure to do all these things."
Reporting the efforts at Halifax, Yorkshire, the editor of " Human
Nature " says, 
"On Monday morning, March 14, we left Mr. Peebles at the Great Northern Railway, en route for Halifax. where he has had a most successful course of lectures. The
friends of Spiritualism in that town are thoroughly active and in earnest, as all Yorkshire men are when they take up a good thing. They accordingly hired the finest public
hall in the town —the Mechanics' Hall —for Mr. Peebles's lectures, charged Is.,
6d., and 3d. for admission, Sunday, 2d. The meetings were small to begin with, and it
is an immensely large hall; but the interest increased: and much excitement was created
by the free discussion and questions answered by the lecturer each night. It is reported
that five clergymen were present on one evening, and three on another, one of whom
had the good breeding and' Christian' charity to call the lecturer an' infidel' to his
face. The consequence of all this is, that the committee have cleared their expenses
with something over; and everybody is extremely pleased except the' devil and the
Orthodox.'
" Spiritualism has attained a position in Yorkshire which is not dreamed of by the
people of the South.  The Sunday meetings at Halifax are held in a nice snug hall,
capable of seating three hundred, has a fine organ, and some one that can play on it.
Similar good news hail from Keighley. Mr. Weatherhead is building a handsome hall
at his own expense; and this ancient headquarters of progress seems determined to
maintain its supremacy.
" We rejoice in the success that attends the labors of our friend Mr. Peebles: no
man can more fully deserve it. We require such a speaker and mediator between truth
and the people amongst us at all times. Those who desire a visit from him should
make arrangements without delay."




266                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
When that minister at Halifax called Mr. Peebles an " infidel," he
rose calmly and said, -
" You call me an' infidel.'  Sir; do you believe in Jesus Christ?"
" Yes," answered most emphatically.
" Do you believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, promised to believers?"
"I do most assuredly," replied the minister very coolly.
"Very well: I test you by  Christ's own words,'These  signs
shall follow them that believe, They shall cast out devils; lay hands
on the sick, and they shall recover; make the blind see, the deaf hear,
the lame walk,' &c.  Do these signs follow you, sir?"
"Ahem, - well, - no!"
" Very well; then you are not a believer: you are an infidel  "
At this crisis, another clergyman, seeing the predicament of his
brother, volunteered his services, saying, "I wish to ask the speaker
one question.  You took your text from  the New Testament.  Are
you a believer in Jesus Christ?"
" Most assuredly, my brother," replied Mlr. Peebles.
" Do any of these spiritual gifts follow you, Mr. Speaker?"
"Certainly: and, among others, I have' the gift of knowledge,' and
have come to teach you," answered  Mr. Peebles, as the audience
surged in laughter, and cheer on cheer echoed through the extensive
hall.
A writer in the " Unitarian Herald," London, thus speaks. of Mr.
Peebles and his Halifax lecture:" Mr. Peebles is a tall man, with a high forehead, large features, and a long grayish
beard; which, joined to his strange dress, give him a look that is not of this world. The
shape of his head and face reminded me much of Mr. Baxter Langley, in spite of the
difference of manner and complexion.
"I heard Mr. Peebles's lecture at Halifax during one of his provincial sojourns; and
he left on my mind a strong conviction of his sincerity and originality.  I believe that
I saw before me a man who had studied human life and religious ideas in strange and
unwonted aspects; had dared to read God and nature with his own eyes, and to tell the
world what he had seen there. I had met men before who had the courage to think
the truth, and one or two (possessed of large private fortunes and very submissive
wives) who even dared to speak it; but I have never seen a man who would give up his
life to the work of spreading an unpopular religion over two continents.  I listen respectfilly when Strauss, Renan, Hase, Neander, Prof. Seeley and Mr. Liddon tell
me all that they have found out of manuscripts and lexicons as to what the life of
Christ must have been; but I shall drink in every word that Mr. Peebles, resting from his




WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.                               267
apostolate, will tell me as to what the life of Christ is, and perchance find in'Jesus,
Myth, Man, or God,' a living solution of the greatest of life-problems.
"He expatiated on the diversity of religions that he had seen in his Eastern wanderings, and the multiplicity of sects amongst Christians. He sketched several of the
sects sarcastically, not sparing even the poor Unitarians; and finally,'There is
the English bishop, a nice man, with very white hands, and a very fine house, and a
fine park, and a very fine fortune. He drives every Sunday in a very fine carriage to
the church, where he will ascend a very fine pulpit, and preach with eloquence and
vigor from the text, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.'"
"He said to us,' You call yourselves Christians, and profess to believe in Christ and
the literal truth of all his sayings. If there is a Christian within the sound of my voice
who has sold all that he had, and given it to the poor, let him get up and shake hands with
me. He paused; but all was quiet.  He added, shaking his head,'I am sorry to find
that you are all unbelievers.'
" He read several curious passages from old sermons, to illustrate the belief in eternal
punishment. One described the satisfaction of the saints at the sight of the tortures ot
the damned in hell. and said somewhat as follows,' The redeemed husband shall see
the damnation of the wife that lay in his bosom, and shall shout Hallelujah! and the child
shall cry Amen to the tortures of the mother who bore it!'  And he read the once popular American hymn, concluding, -'And hell is crammed
With infants damned
Without a day of grace.'
"6 The most interesting part of the evening was the discussion which followed the
lecture. Several warm opponents attacked Mr. Peebles; and the dexterity with which
he answered, or at times evaded, their arguments, was a curious contrast to the earnestness of his earlier manner.  The vociferous enthusiasm with which several female
auditors received all his sayings, even the most destructive, was highly amusing, and
somewhat significant.
" One man got up and said,'How can you say that Christ never taught the doctrine
of an eternal hell, when you know the text, " Where their worm dieth not, and their fire
is not quenched"?' At this the gallery - the gallery was acidly Orthodox- felt that a
poser had been launched, and applauded vigorously. Mr. Peebles looked up at them
and said,' The gentleman has quoted a text which he thinks, and you think, says that
most men will suffer horribly to all eternity; and, as soon as you hear it, you applaud
with great joy. I am sorry you.find any cause for delight in such aprospect.'
"One opponent demanded if Mr. Peebles believed in the Bible, and expressed great
horror when the latter answered, that he believed such parts of it as his reason and
conscience approved. Peebles then said,' Does my questioner himself believe in any
more? I will ask him if he believes the passage I am going to read.' He then turned
to the chapter in Numbers, and read the precept, to slay the Midianites with their wives
and children, and to reserve the young women for the benefit of the Israelites. The
passage took us all by surprise; and there was an audible and very general cry of horror
from the audience as he read it.'Does my questioner really believe that God ever
ordered such a thing as that?' The man got up very much puzzled, and very cross at
the turn things had taken!'It is disgraceful to quote such a passage as that. No' infidel could use a baser quotation.' Here a woman's voice, audible throughout the room,




268                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
softly said,'But isn't it the Bible?' and a universal laugh followed.  However, the
Orthodox champion went on:  I do believe that passage; I do believe that God gave
that order. And I believe that the Judge of all the earth must do right, although Mr.
Peebles may not understand the manner of his working. This is just the sort of text
that infidels quote; and Mr. Peebles is simply an infidel in disguise.'  When all was
quiet, the lecturer said,' The gentleman has just called me an infidel. I fancy the
children of Israel said that Moses was an infidel, when he suggested that they should
leave Egypt. Certainly the good, temple-loving, synagogue-going, hypocritical old
Pharisees said Jesus was an infidel. And so the priests and monks said about Martin
Luther; and so the Church said about John Wesley: they were all infidels.  I am
much obliged to my friend for putting me into such good company.'
On Monday, March 21, James Lingford and others invited Mr.
Peebles to lecture in Leeds, a city of about two hundred and twenty
thousand  inhabitants, out of which about a dozen  only  could be
gleaned willing to hear the truth. But the good seed was sown in
some honest hearts, to be gathered when we are old. He also lectured
in Corporation Row, Clerkenwell, with great power of conviction.
R. Pearce, Secretary of the Association, sent him a handsome letter
of thanks for his " able services."
Continually questioned about the " indignity of the manifestations,"
M3r. Peebles furnished his enemies with the following " biblical pill"
in " The Medium: "" It is often said by the opponents of Spiritualism, that the moving of furniture, the
producing of rappings, and all physical manifestations, are utterly unworthy work for
immortal intelligences. Will such consult the following passages of' Sacred Scripture?'' At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off
thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot; and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.'Isa. xx. 2.'And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men
builded.'- Gen. xi. 5.,'And it came to pass that in the morning-watch, the Lord.... took off their (the Egyptians), chariot-wheels that they drave them heavily.'..  - Exod. xiv. 24, 25.'And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, behold, I will put a
fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the
earth besides, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand.'And it was so; for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and
wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.' - Judges vi. 31, 37, 38.
"Now, then, if the Lord, according to the Scriptures, commanded Isaiah to go barefoot and'naked,' came down to examine a'tower' that men had built, took off
the Egyptians''chariot-wheels,' and wet Gideon's'sheep-fleece,' it certainly should
not be considered either undignified or unworthy of exalted spirits —our immortal
brothers -to lift furniture, and' rap out' communications in demonstration of immortality. Any thing that can subserve divine use, or tend to the amelioration and spiritual
enlightenment of humanity, is by no means unworthy of an angel from heaven."




WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.                           269
At London, Mr. Peebles received a lengthy and terse criticism  on
his " Seers of the Ages," by E. S. Wheeler, of " The American Spiritualist," who claimed that Jesus is nothing but a made-up character;
also a criticism, equally pointed, by William Howitt, who, admiring
the work, regarded one feature of it as Christianly unsound, in that
it teaches the Unitarian doctrine of the humanity of Jesus. Christian Spiritualists in and about London also criticised him  severely,
because of his " anti-Christian teachings."   Some one sent him  the
following letter: -
"BISHOPSGATE STREET, March 15, 1870.
"MY DEAR SIR, — It is not from a desire tovound your feelings, but to serve the
truth, that I write to you upon this occasion.
"' Spiritualism, to become successful in the kingdom, must be managed by men of
cultured minds, and with a becoming Christian prudence. We neither want the re-incarnation theory of French Spiritualism nor the infidel Spiritualism of America preached
in our midst.
" I have heard five lectures from you during the past few months; and in not one of
them did you mention Christ, - Christ as the only name given under heaven whereby
we must be saved.
" Any teachings of Spiritualism not in strict harmony with Christian doctrines and
influences, though taught in fluent American style, and by a United-States consul, will
not be received by our English people. This was Mrs. Hardinge's fatal mistake: with
her lecture against the Trinity, comparing the Triune Godhead to the Rule of Three, arfd
her remarks upon Christ's sacrifice for sin, went her influence for good. Also there
are very serious objections to reserving seats, giving shilling sdances, and paying salaried
speakers, even though imported from America, which erroneously claims to have originated SpiritualismI Paying mediums leans to deception, and the practice of trickery
for gain. 
"I can not give my adhesion to the most pretending of the spiritual arrangements,
as they are now being manipulated in London. I do not question your sincerity nor
ability to teach; but your doctrines are not acceptable to the Christian portion of true
believers.                                              Respectfully yours,
"AN ENGLISH SPIRITUALIST."
Under these criticisms, Mr. Peebles proceeded immediately to write
a book, entitled " Jesus, Myth, Man, or God," published by J. Burns.
He gave it his best thought; enriched it with historic research, furnishing proof of the personal existence of the man Jesus outside of
the Christian Fathers or the Gospels; reviewed Trinitarianism without
quarter, and exposed the corruptions of the Christian Church, from
the time of Constantine to the present. He subpoenaed the priesthood,
and charged them with atrocities and vices- from which there is no
escape.  The book is interspersed with sharp hits like this: —
"Warned, therefore, by the blood-crimsoned banners that have floated and still float
over Chistian lands, in the-name of the imprisoned and beggared, the burned and




270                    THE.SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
persecuted for Christ's sake, in the name of the skinless skeletons of fifty millions of
slaughtered victims, slaughtered and piled on the bony back of churchal Christianity,
I protest, as one among sympathizing millions, against having C Christian' dragged in
and imposed upon Spiritualism!
" Sectarian Christianity is becoming more and more a moral stench in the nostrils of
all great and noble souls.  Scientists in every enlightened country spit upon its creedstuffed and priest-patched carcass.  Profound thinkers make merry over its shattered,
withered, and soul-less body!                              0
Thus using the two-edged sword against anointed falsehood and evil, the author,
defensive for purity, crediting a man for what he is morally worth, says, " Jesus' sympathetic character was certainly sweeter than that of the masses of men.  His aspirations were exalted: angels breathed directly upon him.  No continued moral perversions impaired the delicate perceptions of his nature, chilled the fountain of his feelings,
nor the currental flow of his soul's a-fctions. Married by the inexorable law of affinity
to humanity, he could not be chained while on his missioned work to another individuality. Quick to feel the sorrows of others, the sensitive tendrils of his loving
heart, constantly attuned and tremulously responsive, vibrated to every child of human
suffering. He identified himself with sorrow and disgrace, with humanity in its lowest
estate, that he might the more successfully exert the healing, saving love-power of his
soul in the redemption of the erring."
Being evidently somewhat disturbed at the wrangling over the term
Christian, as a proper prefix to Spiritualism, and wishing to strip the
word from all unnecessary adjectives, he said in one of his London
lectures, in words that seemed to pulse in  the hearts of his hearers,
" But differ as we may in our theories, when pushed into the mythic realm of speculative theology, our facts are one. On this common ground, then,'this broad platform
of tolerance and good-will, let us stand a banded brotherhoo of true souls, -stand like
polished shafts of light and truth in the temple of the eternal
"As a Spiritualist, striving to conserve the good found in all religions, past and
present, seeking constantly to lead a holier life, looking trustingly for higher unfoldings
of truth and fresher developments in the fields of science, I extend the fraternal hand
of fellowship to each and all; and in this hand buds and blossoms the olive-branch of
peace..' By this,' said Jesus,  shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have
love one'for another.' What matters nationality, clime, or dogma to God, who beneficently' sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust?' What cared the Good Shepherd
of Judea about the color or names of the sheep constituting the flock?' Other sheep I
have,' said he,' which are not of this fold: them also I must bring; and there shall be
one fold and one Shepherd.' What will it be to angels when the curtain of immortality
is uplifted, and you stand in the presence of those glorified hosts? The question will
not be asked, Were you a Christian Spiritualist, a radical Spiritualist, or a re-incarnation
Spiritualist; but did you live up to the light you had received as soul-convictions?
Were the heart's affections right, and the life-purposes pure? Did you feed the hungry,
clothe the naked, provide for the orphan, sympathize with the sorrowing; or, scriptually
expressed, lid you' go about doing good'?"
During his stay in London, Mr. Peebles received  the following
note from Mr. Sen, the distinguished Hindoo temperance advocate,
scholar and divine:



WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.                              271
"4 WoBURN SQUARE, W.C., 20th April, 1870.
"MY DEAR SIR, -I shall be happy to see you here on Tuesday next, at any time
between two and five, P.M.                   I remain, my dear sir, yours truly,
" KESHUB CHUNDER SEN.
"J. M. PEEBLES, Esq."
"The Medium" reports the intervjew  that succeeded  this  cordial invitation:"Our readers will have heard of the arrival and cordial reception in London of this
gentleman, who is a native of the East Indies, and an enthusiastic religious reformer. His
object is to establish the primitive religion of a belief in the one spiritual God, and a
practical duty of education, and works of progtss and philanthropy. Already a number
of churches are in existence in Hindostan; and thg movement is being carried on with
great enthusiasm, renouncing idolatry in every form, breaking down caste, and promoting knowledge and mental freedom. On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Peebles and Mr.
Burns had an interview with this distinguished visitor, and gave him to understand, in
the name of the Spiritualists of Britain and America, that they deeply sympathized
with his mission; which was in most points identical with the objects sought by Spiritualists. They informed Mr. Sen that Spiritualism had the same monotheistic basis as
the'Brahmo Somaj,' of which he is the distinguished leader, and that Spiritualists
labored to disinthrall mankind from sectarian caste, social caste, property caste, and
from the galling bonds of ignorance and superstition, forged for society for many ages
by an ignorant, bigoted, and self-interested priesthood, and the slough of misery and
vice entailed on the people by the unwarrantable dominance of rulers and aristocrats
over property and personal liberty. Our friends found in Mr. Sen an intelligent man,
and a brother, whose social and theological views are far in advance of the poptlar
theology of this country. Mr. Sen gave some information respecting the supernatural
beliefs of his countrymen; who are superstitious, and require to be educated and
directed. He is well acquainted with Spiritualism, knew our departed friend, the late
Mr. Nelson of Calcutta, also Peary Chand Mittra of Calcutta, the leading Spiritualist
of India. We wish India could afford to send over a good supply of such missionaries,
to teach the true religion which thousands of years ago originated on the banks of the
Ganges, but which Pagan emperors, licentious kings, popes, bishops, priests, and parsons have degraded into a mercenary trade, to suit their selfish interests."
An aristocratic wedding: of course he would attend. This note
was cordial:
"Lord and Lady Otho Fitz-Gerald request the pleasure of the Rev. J. M. Peebles's
(United-States consul) company at St. Martin's Church, on Thursday, 12th of May, at
eleven o'clock, and to the wedding-breakfast afterwards at one o'clock, at No. 8 Carlton.
House Terrace."
About two hundred distinguished guests assembled, - lords, dukes,
reverends, honorables, marquises, marchionesses, &c.; who lavished
choice presents upon the bride, step-daughter of Lord, Otho FitzGerald, comptroller of her Majesty's household, and also upon the
bridegroom, "The  Rev. George Cockburn  Dickinson, married to




272                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
the Hon. Ursula Elizabeth Denison."  Their bridal tour was to the
Holy Land.  The " consul" enjoyed it vastly, thinking all the while
that hearts are all royal where true love is.
The merits of our brother's work were recognized in Paris, by
making him  an  honorary fellow  of the  " Societe  Parisienne  des
etudes Spirites," as will b#setn by the following letter: —
" The Paris Socidtd for Spiritual Studies. Founded at Paris on the 1st of April, 1858,
by Allan Kardec, 27 Rue Moliere.
" PARIS, May 28,1870.
"SIR AND DEAR BROTHER, - The Itris Society for Spiritual Studies desires me to
thank you for the present which you have made them of one of your excellent works,:The Seers of the Ages.' One of their members will report on it at a forthcoming
dance of the society.
" They, moreover, are gratefulto you for the intention which you appear to have of
making the books of Allan Kardec known in America. You are thus working towards
a unity of belief which can only be accomplished to the extent that the lofty doctrine
of re-incarnation is made clear, on the basis of a rational theory concerning life and
progress.
" It seems to us a matter of great importance, that, without regard to differences of
nationality, all those Who share in a common belief should be in constant communion
of heart and intellect, and that Spiritualism should take an international character.' Our society would be proud to count you among those belonging to them. They
beg you to accept the title of honorary and corresponding member, which they are
pleased to offer you. Accept our, &c.
" E. BONNEMERE,
"President of the Paris Society for Spiritual Studies, Member
of the Literary Society, and of the Society of Dramatic
Authors. 31 Rue de Boulogne, Paris.
"MR. PEEBLES."
Mr. Peebles was invited into literary circles represented by the
Brights, Masseys, Howitts, Tennysons, Ashburtons, Jacksons, Burnses,
Tyndalls, Lockyers, Varleys, Crookes, Wilkinsons, Cooks, Wallaces,
&c., and was  unexpectedly elected  a member of a  scientific society of distinguished  influence.  "The Medium  and Daybreak"
says, 
"When our friend Mr. Peebles went to the East last autumn, he had instructions
from the Anthropological Society of London to gather whatever facts came under his
notice relative to the science of man. To this end he was appointed a local secretary
for the East. His speedy return to Britain prevented his credentials reaching him in
Asia; but, since he arrived in London, he has attended some of the meetings of the
society, and has been presented with a diploma of honorary fellowship and of local
secretary for Trebizond or elsewhere. Mr. Peebles has ample scope for making anthropological observations in America, where he has come much in contact with the Aborigines."




WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.                             273
The following is a copy of his diploma:"ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
FOUNDED IN 1863.
"The Anthropological Society of London, at a meeting held this day, elected J. M.
Peebles, Esq., United-States consul, a Local Secretary for Trebizond, Asia; in virtue
of which the present diploma is delivered.
"J. M. PEEBLES, F.A.S.L., Honorary Fellow.
" JOHN BEDDOE, President.              J. BARNARD DAVIS, Vice-President.
DUNBAR ISADORE HEATH, Treasurer.   C. STANISLAND WAKE, Dep. Director.
"LONDON, NOV. 30, 1869."
Availing himself of the courtesies of the Royal Institution, Mr.
Peebles attended the meetings of this scientific body. The London
" Pall-Mall Gazette " reports one of the lectures upon " The Solar
Spectrum;" which to our Pilgrim  was of great utility, illustrative
of the effect of spirit-spheres upon mortals,"Last Saturday afternoon, Mr. J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., delivered his third lecture,
at the Royal Institution, upon' The Sun.' Prince Christian presided; and among the
listeners were her Royal Highness the Princess Louise, Lady A. Stanley, Prof. Tyndall,
Lady Ashburton, Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., Mr. J. M. Peebles, American Consul at
Trebizond, and Sir Henry Holland, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., President of the Royal Institution.
"A parallel beam of light from the electric lamp was passed through a vertical slit,
from which it emerged into the dark theater. A glass double-convex lens was then placed
in the path of the light; and, after passing through the lens, the rays were sent through
two hollow glass prisms, filled with bisulphide of carbon. By this arrangement, the
different colors in white light were disentangled from each other, and spread out upon a
screen; where they appeared like a slice cut out of a rainbow, with the red color at one
end, gradually melting in succession into yellow, green, and blue, till the violet of the
other end of the spectrum was reached. He then told how the white light of the sun,
when similarly treated, does not give quite a similar spectrum; for, instead of the colors
being continuous, they are cut here and there by vertical dark lines, of which two in
the yellow part of the spectrum are very prominent. Incandescent gases do not give a
continuous spectrum under ordinary conditions; and ignited sodium vapor gives a spectrum consisting of two bright yellow lines only and no other color. The two bright
lines of sodium fall upon exactly the same part of the spectrum as the two dark lines
in the spectrum of solar light; and it has been discovered, that the two dark lines just
mentioned are produced by sodium vapor between the eye of the observer and the
sources of the light of the sun. In proof of this, Mr. Lockyer threw a continuous spectrum upon the screen, the carbon points inside the lamp being well impregnated with
sodium, to intensify the yellow rays.  Then outside the slit, and in the path of the
rays, he burnt some metallic sodium; so that the light from the lamp had to pass through
the ignited sodium vapor before reaching the screen. It was then seen that the vapor
absorbed some of the yellow rays, so as to produce a dark band upon the screen; but it
18




274                     THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
did not intercept rays of any other color. Incandescent vapors, therefore, have a ten
dency to absorb the rays which they themselves emit; wherefore the two dark bands in
the yellow of the solar spectrum are believed to be caused by an atmosphere of sodium
vapor between the eye of the spectator and the source of a portion of the yellow light
of the sun. On the same principle, the presence of other substances in the sun has
been proved."
These private letters to us from Mr. Peebles are so descriptive
and fraternal, we deem them worthy of a place, -
" LONDON, Feb. 24, 1870.
"DEAR FRIEND AND BROTHER,- ~ ~.  Am now speaking every Sunday in London,
attempting to build up a society. It is the first continuous effort to establish spiritual
meetings upon a religious basis. All previous took the form of lectures.... " Next week I purpose visiting Victor Hugo, the French exile. He is a reputed
Spiritualist: certainly his words are all aglow with soul. In funeral orations, I think he
excels all other men..... " Soon as possible I desire to write a book on " Mohammedanism and Spiritualism
of the Orient." It would delight my soul to live in some Oriental country. There
could I find the promised rest to the weary.
"Love to Olive, Henry, Hattie, Freddie, Willie, - buds on the life-tree.
"I received letters from my dear Dunn, my bosom boy and brother; and how do I
delight to hear about his excellent wife and two intelligent, sunny children! Our world
is so full of loves, it ought to be beautiful and good."              * * *
" LONDON, April 3, 1870.
" FRIEND JOSEPH, -..  One sentence in yours pains me. You ask,' Have you forgotten the obscure brother, living away here among these snowy hills of Wisconsin?'
Forgotten! do you not yet fully know me? I have never yet forgotten a friend. Would
sacrifice any thing for you, for your family, for all friends.... I am tired, weary. It is
exhaustive, tlis speaking in London Sundays, and week-day evenings in the provinces.
I admire these Englishmen.  All my prejudices have faded away like the morning
mists. There is a solidarity in the English character. Slow, but sure, their friendship
is permanent. Next week I purpose to visit the Isle of Wight, seeing the poet Tennyson, and speaking perhaps one evening. It is rumored there are several Spiritualists
upon the Isle. Last week, visiting, I tarried a day and night with William Howitt and
family.  Mary, his wife, is an angel.  His library is very extensive.  His lawn and
garden abound in beautiful walks. His head is a living cyclopadia, filled with the wise
sayings of thinkers in all ages. Next autumn they celebrate their golden wedding.
Their home seemed to me an earthly paradise."...
* * *
" LONDON, April 17, 1870.
"BROTHER, -.. The wise man and just considereth all circumstances and contingencies before he scoldeth (Gospel according to James, chap. i. verse thousand.)
i' Your favor of March 30 unbottled its vitriol upon me; the 17th, I was glad to get
bottle, vitriol, and all. The effect was as delightful as storms and whirlwinds. The
sky evidently feels better after spilling out hurricanes. Doubtless you are in good
health now. You tried to complain in your last, but did not succeed. The Christ in
your composition is continually gaining victories over Adam. Surely, when you would
do evil, good is present with you.... "Dr. Willis left us yesterday for America. He took a good portion of my heart
with him."...   




WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES.                              275
"LONDON, April 18, 1870.
" DEAR BROTHER, -.. Spiritualism has performed its first cycle.  Curiosity for
the phenomenal is subsiding. Another angel will soon-sound an alarm in the heavens.
This will awake us to the moral necessity of embodying the practical with the fundamental principles.  Thinkers and scientists are searching for the harvests of these
twenty years' sowing....'Watchman! what of the night?' I am recruiting a
week in Hammersmith at the home of Mrs. Morris, a cousin of Robert Dale Owen.
She has a private library of four thousand volumes. What a feast! "
*   ~
"LONDON, 15 SOTrHHAMPTON  ROW, W.C., May 13, 1870.
" DEAR BROTHER,- A veil, a deep veil, has hung like a pall over me for several days.
Causes, great mental labor and earnest opposition to my efforts from secularists and a
few Christian Spiritualists. When shall we all learn to practice toleration? Some
Spiritualists here believe in the vicarious atonement and other churchal dogmas! How
long must I, a peace-man, be forced to fight with tongue and pen?  I confess I
weary of life's battles, and sigh for a hermit home with only books, paintings, flowers,
and my sweet angels..... My inspiration leads me to ignore all prices for speaking;
to go into the by-ways and lanes and the very church-doors, crying aloud, and sparing
not. My heart is with the people. I take no pleasure in preaching to saints. Are
there any?  Did not Jesus come to'save sinners, of whom I am chief?... Tomorrow I return to the residence of J. Burns and family, -good, faithful workers. Never
can I forget their kindnesses. Note the beautiful penmanship of my amanuensis, Thos
Reeves. He is the soul of integrity."                                 *   *




CHAPTER XXXII.
EUROPEAN  CORRESPONDENCE.
" Life can be as lovely as fts best moods....
ID the wine of love is the truth of life." - GAIL HAMILTON.
EARLY in 1870, Hudson Tuttle proposed to Mr. Peebles that they
publish "A Year-Book of Spiritualism;" the former editing the
American department, and the latter the European and Asiatic.
Appreciating its need, these gentlemen corresponded with the leading
Spiritualists throughout the world, and ushered in 1871 with a beautiful eclectic work, published by " The Banner of Light" Company,
statistical, representing Spiritualism in all its phases by its scholars
Each year they will issue a new volume, marking the progress of
the angels' gospels.
Mental impressibility, conversation, and public speech, epistolary
correspondences, and the press, are the methods of Spiritual commerce. Mr. Peebles employs them all. Whilst in Europe, his correspondence was immense, as in America. At times he was obliged
to engage an amanuensis. Aside from the personages herein noticed,
he received valued letters from Mrs. DeMorgan, author of " From
Matter to Spirit; " M. Martin Tapper, author of " Proverbial Philosophy; " Mrs. McDougold Gregory, wife of a distinguished professor
of Edinburgh College, who, in the spirit-land, sends to her the angels'
wisdom; Mrs. Max MUifer, wife of the great Sanscrit linguist; Gerald
Massey, the Spiritual poet; Tennyson; Baron von Schickh, the
Austrian Spiritualist; Baron: (uldenstubbe; Rev. John Page Hopps;
Robert Chambers; Prince George de Solms, introducing him to his
grace, Bishop Bugnion, who is one of the greatest scholars in the
world. These  ememetos of love, flowering with Spiritual thought,
and so beautifully haloed in friendship, we have no right to publish.
276




EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE.                               277
" FLORENCE, Dec. 13, 1869.
" MY DEAR PEEBLES, -.. I am very impatient to meet you. I have told you
before how my soul has been drawn towards yours.  But do try and stay weeks in
Rome: in two or three days you can see literally nothing of its many wonders. I shall
want to be with you nights while you are there, and share the same apartment with
you: for there will be so much sight-seeing days that we shall have no time to give to
the discussion of the many matters I wish to talk with you about; and I love dearly
to talk a while after retiring. I hope you will not deem this a very strange request.
The Guppys are very kind-hearted and generous.
" I was persuaded into giving a stance the other night at the villa of a beautiful
countess here,-one of the loveliest women I ever saw.  The manifestations were
most marvelous.... I shall want you to see Prince George de Solms while you are
in Rome. He is genial. Our acquaintance has ripened into a sincere friendship. I have
aletter from him every week. He bears his princeship in a sensible way. Give my
love to Damiani....  God bless you, my dear brother!    Fraternally thine,
"FRED. L. H. WILLIS."
"FLORENCE, Jan. 1, 1870.
"MR. J. M. PEEBLES: Dear Sir, -Under the guidance of the spirits, charged by
Providence to direct the movement that will conduct humanity to regeneration, you are
perhaps the chosen instrument in America. Could I, in my naughtiness, trust to the
many assurances of my Spiritual guardians, I might believe myself to be a chosen one
for this side of the Atlantic.  Vanity, self-love, pride, have nothing to do with the
thought: the belief to be such an instrument may be cherished without any sentiment
of worldly purpose; and what if erroneous, if it gives a holy strength to perform what
tends to explore and work out always for the diffusion of truth, if it induces even to
the sacrifice of one's self to attain the glorious aim?
" Well, dear Mr. Peebles, if you have for the arduous work the confidence in my aid
that I feel entirely in yours, let us work together, you from the West shore, I from this
side of the ocean; and we shall in spirit stretch our arms, and meet to grasp strictly our
hands, and form the bridge upon which, according to the ardent wish expressed by the
spirit of Allan Kardec, may be laid the chain of union between the American and the
European continent-schools of Spiritism.
"' The Aurora' (' Daybreak') will be ready about the 15th or 20th of this month. I
will direct some numbers by post to Mr. Burns; and a parcel of fifty I may send from
Leghorn to New York, directed, if you will let me know. In America are many Italians, through whom much good may be done in the way of spreading our dear doctrine.
An opportune distribution gratis will be the best means.
"Believe me, dear sir, yours very sincerely,
"GIROLAMO PARISI."
" 16 RUE DE LA BIENFAISANCE, PARIS, Thursday.
M MY DEAR FRIEND, - I envy you; wish I could be as useful in this great Spiritual
movement as yourself. It is a glorious thing to be doing God's work, and help extricate humanity out of its benighted darkness. You can have the five works of Allan
Kardec for ten shillings... "I will try and get you a~ photograph of Favre. The young Baron did not send
you the one he promised, because he could not procure it as expected.
"I shall be glad to be kept posted as to your movements in the East. I have not




278                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
relinquished the idea of visiting America, and should like nothing better than to
accompany you to that land of promise.
"I would like exceedingly to hear your lectures in London. Remember me to the
worthy Burns and family.     I am, my ever dear brother, yours very sincerely,
" GLADSTANES."
"Our Sargent," of Boston, traveling then in Europe to recuperate
his health, is a full-orbed Spiritualist of literary rank, being author
of    Peculiar," "Planchette," "The Woman who Dared," and other
popular works. His letter is sunny with good sense and energy: —
" CANNES, A.M. (FRANCE), March 21, 1870.
" MY DEAR MR. PEEBLES, -... I see that the Spiritualists of England have given
you a most affectionate welcome; and I cordially wish you prosperity in your gallant
efforts to spread the truth as you see and understand it. If more men and women had
but courage to speak their convictions, how many social and dogmatic shams would
have their day of death accelerated! Bat there is so much fear of treading on the toes
of conventionalism! The great work of Spiritualism will be, to emancipate thought,
to take us out of time-worn ruts, and make us breathe the exhilarant, divine air of
liberty, calling no man master, and swayed neither by spirits in the flesh nor out of the
flesh (though their name be Legion) to accept what violates our reason and our sense
of right.
" But the wide, the unbounded prospect spreads before me. I must close.
" Affectionately and sincerely,
"EPES SARGENT."
Countess Mde. Medina Pomar, a devoted Spanish Spiritualist, in a
friendly note of encomiums upon Mr. Peebles's labors in London,
adverts thus to the doctrine of re-incarnation," We were much disappointed not to have the pleasure of your company last Sunday, whom we waited for so long in vain. Can you not come next Sunday evening?
I am anxious to meet you, and have a long conversation with you upon that branch of
Spiritualism entitled re-incarnation."
" STRADA FIORENTINE, No. 9. NAPLES, April 12, 1870.
" MY VERY DEAR BROTHER, -...' The Year-book' you intend publishing appears
to me to be a great boon to Spiritualists....
-  You ask a paragraph from me on the state of Spiritualism in Italy.  I will write
as you wish, at the first opportunity, if it be only half a page. I shall also do all in my
power to contribute to the financial success of your' Annual.'
" I have read with intense interest the accounts of your Sunday-evening discourses in
the metropolis of England. Oh, how I regret not being present at those rich feasts of
mind! Go on, dear brother, with the grand work of re-generation; and may the dear
spirits strengthen your body, thus rendering your task easy!
"You have no doubt by this time seen the good queen of England; whom, I am sure,
you must have admired for her great affability: but, if she had none of those graces
which distinguish her, the fact of her being a Spiritualist forms her greatest claim to
our love and admiration.
"Pray, take care of your precious health, and believe me to be your true friend and
brother,                                                      G. DAMIAI."




EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE.                              279
Elder Frederick W. Evans, English by birth, through the church
into materialism, and this into Spiritualism, and thence by his
own  mediumship  into  the  "resurrection  state of true believers,"
termed Shakers, -  the Essenes of this century, -  addressed Mr. Peebles a lengthy communication whilst in England. We extract from
its sweetness,"MT. LEBANON, April 29, 1870.
"J. M. PEBBLES: My much esteemed Friend, - I often think of you since you began
your Old-World ramblings; am glad to learn that the'Auto' reached you safely.  I
know of no one whom I should prefer to have it. You are one of a class of souls who
are inspired from the seventh heaven! Spirits from thence follow you continually; and
once in a while, in the stillness of your soul, they minister the elements of the' Harvest
Home,'- a joyful sound in the rural districts of Old England.  Grand idea, beautiful
type is that, when the last load of wheat from the harvest-field is coming in with
the laborers, on the top of the golden mountain, as it moves along towards the garners
of the husbandman, joyfully shouting at the top of their voices, 4 Home, home, harvest
home!'
"But what language of mortals shall describe the unutterable joy and glory of the
final harvest home of earth's inhabitants, when the last sheaf, a human soul, shall be
brought into the resurrection state, and'the end,th end, has come?'The harvest is
ended, and all are saved I shall be shouted from one heaven to another.' Home, home, at
last! The harvest of earth is gathered; and we shall all together raise the shout of
Harvest home!'..
"Accept of the love of our order, and of your friend the writer in particular. Good
angels have you in their keeping, and will guide your feet aright towards the Zion of
God as your final home; and in due time after you will come the souls whom you
have quickened in their spiritual germs to seek a new life.
"Farewell. From your brother laborer in the Lord's vineyard,
"F. W. EVANS."
This German correspondent is a scholarly Spiritualist; and " Luos"
referred to is a most powerful spirit of rare intelligence and auteness, 
" BADEN, GERMANY, May 13, 1870.
"FRIEND PEEBLES,-.. It is a great blessing to be in communion with such an
elevated spirit as'Luos,' who has now been in communication with us for about fifteen years, and who formerly enabled my wife to perform wonderful cures by the layingon of hands.  Spiritualism has only a beginning here, through our initiatory means;
but at Leipsic it is all rife through the energy of Count Poninski, who has been lecturing there. I am told a circle has been formed at Dresden, and a Spiritual journal pubLished in Saxony by Dr. Berthelen. At Vienna a Spiritual circle exists; but progress is
exceedingly slow at present in materialistic and priest-ridden Germany.  You have
done great things in England; and it is therefore a misfortune you are obliged so soon
to return to the United States.  Clerical, sectarian orthodoxy is a sad dead-stop to
progress; but it will have to give place eventually to the divine revelations of Nature,
and the teachings of the'angels of the Lord who encamp round about them that loe
him.'




280                  THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"My wife unites with me in expressing to you that loving attachment which only
real Spiritualists can be truly sensible of.                   Ever yours,
"A. KYD."
Invited by influential citizens, Mr. Peebles intends at some future
day to visit Australia, " The Continental Isle," and sow the Spiritual
seed.   Messrs. Naylor and  Terry speak  of many efficient media
there.   Mr. Naylor is editor of the new  Spiritual journal, "The
Harbinger of Light,"" MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, May 15, 1870.
"J. M. PEEBLES: My dear Sir, -... I read your' Seers of the Ages' with avidity,
and made use of your valuable information in several lectures; which I delivered last
year, copies of which, together with' Glow-worm,' shall shortly be forwarded to you.
" I am, my dear sir, yours fraternally,
"B. S. NAYLOR."
"MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, May, 1870.
J. M. PEEBLES, Esq.: My dear Sir, - Spiritualists here are not very demonstrative:
but we have many earnest workers, preparing the ground, and sowing the seed; which
is already springing up in many unlooked-for places. We wait our time to organize,
and expect, when we do so, to have the requisite material to secure strength and cohesion.                        "Yours fraternally,             W. H. TERRY."
Making inquiry of Anna  Blackwell about the Kardec books, Mr.
Peebles received a beautiful letter, from which we extract a few
thoughts.  Her writings grace the pages of English magazines.
"PARIS, Wednesday, 1870.
"  EAR MR. PEEBLES,-... These views of re-incarnation purport to be given by
the spairits of the Evangelists, sent by Christ (our planet's presiding sidereal spirit), to
explain what the ignorance of the time compelled him to leave under a veil.... Christ
lived right from the beginning, which we have not done; he reached the sidereal degree
eternities before us; he is divine only in the figurative sense in which we all shall
be when we reach that degree, thus giving its final death-blow to the polytheism of
which the first Christian form of belief is the last example. For, when once the world
comes to see that that most glorious and beautiful spirit is no more " God" than we are;
that he was made, tempted, educated, just as we are, though " without sin," - there will
be no danger of any other polytheistic notion obtaining credence!... Yours very truly,
" ANNA BLACKWELL."
Inquiring of Mr. Sammons about Spiritualism  in  South Africa,
Mr. Peebles was informed there had been a little agitation in that
isolated spot.  We extract a paragraph: —




EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE.                             281
" CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, SOUTH AFRICA,
CAPE TowN, May 20,1870.
"J. M. PEEBLES: Dear Sir, -... I have followed you in many of your sayings
and doings, since you have been in England, and read with great pleasure the object
and first attraction that drew you there, - which was a singular proof of faith and confidence....                       Believe me, dear sir, your obedient servant,
"W. L. SAMMONS."
"SAGNA LA GRAND, ISLE OF CUBA, Feb. 14, 1870.
"MY DEAR FRIEND, -... Spiritualism is not widely known here, though many are
inquiring. I have long known you through' The Banner' and your published works.
While wandering, why not come to us, bringing with you a good test-medium? thus
giving us both phenomena and philosophy. You would meet with a cordial reception
in this country.... I am a Spaniard, coming to this country fourteen years ago. I
have been in your country twice. I am anxious to become developed as a medium;
then I should have the knowledge within myself. I am very anxious to form yoifr personal acquaintance....                                Most sincerely thine,
"EULOGIO PRICTO."
The following, addressed to Mr. Peebles in deep mourning, indicates the appreciation in which he was held in London by those
especially most in need of the heavenly light.   Mrs. Morris is an
esteemed cousin of Hon. Robert Dale Owen.
" 8 THERESA TERRACE, HAMMERSMITH, W. LONDON.
" MY DEAR FRIEND, - I am honored and delighted to find that you will come and
visit a poor widow, who will give you a hearty welcome to her humble, quiet home....
How I prize your glorious work'The Seers, &c.'! Your Spiritualism is exactly, I
think, like mine. What glorious thinkers and writers you have in America!... There
is so much Orthodox Church cant and all kinds of uncharitableness against those who
do not swallow, or rather pretend to do so, all the absurdities of Trinitarian doctrines,
that the Spiritualists form here two antagonistic branches.
"How beautiful was your discourse last Sunday! It ought to have been preached in
some of our grand empty city churches. With God's blessing, may you soon recover
is the prayer of your friend!                        CAROLINA H. MORRIS."
As we read the following, the soul is stirred, for we think of the
ancient brother-seers who made "Vishnoo"  a study.   India is a
soul-mother of religion. May the morning-sun of the Spiritual Gospel rise again upon her sacred lands!" CALCUTTA, 11h June, 1870.
"J. M. PEBnLES, Esq., Southampton Row, London.
"My dear Sir, -I must ask you to pardon me for the delay I have made in replying to your favor of the 4th April last. Though I have been a Spiritualist for many
years my knowledge of the Spiritual circles existing in the different parts of the country
is very limited, and I fear I can not be of mucn use to you. I have never taken any interest in external manifestations, and have devoted my entire attention to the study of




282                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
my soul and its varied phenomena in connection with the external world, and the
nervous system, and its subjectivity by itself, or by freedom from phenomenal states.
This study is ennobling inasmuch as it raises us above all creeds and sects, and brings us
into intimate communion with God, his will and providence. I have got to say a
great deal on the subject of Spiritualism from my own experience; which with me is an
accomplished fact. Though I have read a large number of books on Spiritualism, I confess I have found in most of them a great deal of error, or, in other words, what I have
known otherwise from my own experience. I shall be delighted to see you here.
" Yours fraternally,
"PEAR CHAND MITTRA."
"Sept. 25, 1869.
U MY DEAR SIR,-.. Thank you for your very splendid lecture on Spiritualistic
belief. Of course, we do not agree in all points; but we do in the grand principles of a
spirit intercourse, and that will progressively open up to us all the rest.
"Wishing you a prosperous journey, I remain, my dear sir, yours faithfully,
"WILLIAM HOWITT.
" J. M. PEEBLES, Esq.
" P.S. We had a most interesting stance at the Everitts'.' John Watt' talked like
a philosopher, and, what was better, like a Christian philosopher. The Everitt mediumship is eminently satisfactory.  *                                 "W. H."
The following is an extract from a note sent Mr. Peebles by a distinguished professor of Oriental languages in one of the English
Universities  -
" SEPT. 25, 1869.
" MY DEAR MR. PEEBLES, - I have been for the last few days so much engaged with
the NawAb of Bengal, that I have been unable to write to you before.... Should you
come here, which I hope you will soon, I shall be happy to show you all the attention
and hospitality in my power. I will keep a look-out for any traces of Spiritualism in
my Oriental reading, and send you them from time to time. For the present I send you
two instances, which I think will interest you.
" Mr. Pearce tells me you have been good enough to give him a copy of your' Seers
of the Ages' for me. I am extremely obliged to you, and shall read it, I am sure, with
much pleasure, and because it is memorial of a very pleasant acquaintance which I
hope will continue."* * *
Having visited Scotland and Wales, Mr. Peebles resolved to know
something from personal observation of " The Emerald Isle." Writing, he received the following from two distinguished gentlemen of
Dublin, both patriots and  liberalists, the one ex-lord-mayor,  Sir
John Barrington:" GENERAL PRINTING-OFFICE, DUBLIN, IRELAND, April 30, 1870.
" JAMES M. PEEBLES, Esq.: Dear sir,... So you have a touch of the' Roundtower-aphobia I' I had a slight attack once myself, but a dose of sound practical sense
recovered me. I am a disciple of O'Neill, who says,' They were evidently built by
the ancients to puzzle the modems.' There was never a greater success. In the libraries of the British Museum is his great work on the'Ancient Crosses and Round
Towers of Ireland.' Command my services at any time....  Truly yours,
"IVER MCDONNELL."




EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE.                              283
"DUBLIN, May, 1870.
"J. M. PEEBLES, UNITED-STATES CONSUL, IN LONDON: Dear sir, -I was glad
when I read your note this morning, and to find that you had not forgotten your
promise to visit Ireland. I shall be happy to see you, and do what I can toward
showing you any thing of interest in Dublin and its neighborhood.
"Believe me, yours faithfully,
"JOHN BARRINGTON."
Through the mediumship of Dr. Dunn, the spirits affirm that these
"Round Towers" were erected by the ancient Medes, though built
about the time of the origin of Christianity. The crosses sometimes
found near or in connection with them refer to the cross-bows used
in the warfares of the Medes and Persians. The openings at various
distances were  simply lookouts, and apertures for arrow-shooting
upon the approaching enemy.
After a close scanning of the conditions of the Irish, during his
rustications in their beloved country, Mr. Peebles indites the following, -
" DUBLIN, IRELAND, May, 1870.
"MY DEAR FRIEND, -... Though my rambles over this city and into the country,
and my observations in other localities, are quite limited, yet at a glance can I discern
the general grade of the English government here, and of the Irish character. 0 my
soul! come into judgment. How I pain over misrule! The eagle becomes filthy when
caged: give him liberty, and how grand on the wing! The history of Ireland is the
index of her capacity. Such poets as Thomas Moore, such patriots as Robert Emmet,
O'Connell, O'Brien, and the like, are the magic of her redemption yet. But look at her
degradation now; at the ignorance and superstition of her toiling millions; at the grinding, debasing effects of Papacy upon her devotees! My God! is there no spot on our
green earth where the oppressor's foot has never trod?... When will legislators learn
that governments are for the people, not people for governments? and that no government on earth is worth a single human life? Come, angels, and help us reverse the rule;
making man, as Henry C. Wright says,' superior to his incidents.' It is so strange
to me that kings, queens, and presidents do not see this simple law, - that fealty is best
secured where the people's rights are best secured.  Guaranty by law, executed in
fidelity, the God-endowed right to' life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' to all
the people, and educate them up to a just appreciation of these principles, and behold
the grandeur of patriotism and the peace and prosperity of the nations!
" Whilst walking these streets, I seemed to be touched with the fire of the immortal
Emmet, who, when condemned to the gallows by grave judges because he struck for
Irish independence, asked for no epitaph over his grave, but' the charity of its silence.'
What burning words in his last plea before Lord Norbury, ringing still in every Irish
heart that loves Erin's isle! -'  When my country takes her place among the nations
of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written.' The execution of
that orator smothers my soul: but it finds vent in tears when I remember his love for
the daughter of Curran, the great Irish barrister, -how he imperiled his life to breathe
one word of affection into her soul; how she wilted and died in far-off Sicily when her




284                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
hand was given to another; for she loved only as woman can love the patriot Robert
Emmet. I recall the mournful melody of Erin's poet, Thomas Moore: —' She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps.'
" Pardon me my deep feelings, brother; for I am hopeful as I weep over martyr-dust.
Defeats will yet prove successes. Our William Lloyd Garrison, America's friend and
patriot, suffered a thousand deaths whilst fighting for Afric's sons and daughters; but
he triumphed at last; our nation rose to glory, and his name is now sacred. Our tears -
oh, may they spread a rainbow over this isle of the British sea!'  Erin, my country I thy glory's departed;
For tyrants and traitors have stabbed thy heart's core.
Thy daughters have laved in the streams of affliction;
Thy patriots have fled, or are stretched in their gore;
Ruthless ruffians now prowl through thy hamlets forsaken;
From pale, hungry orphans their last morsel have taken;
The screams of thy daughters no pity awaken.
Alas I my poor country, thy Emmet's no more'
" Thy brother,        J. M. PEBBLE"




CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE FAREWELL IN LONDON.
" Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost." - JESUs.
" Storms purify the air we breathe. Rains that rust the corn revive the grass. The refuse
of the yard makes the peach and pear grow more luxuriantly. Stars that fade from our
skies only pass to illume other portions of the sidereal heavens. The dewdrops that glisten
in morning-time from million plants are only exhaled by sun-kisses, to form clouds in aerial
regions, to fall in copious showers gladdening the earth, while moving onin rills and rivers to
the ocean again. Nothing is lost. Our loved ones, whom the world calls dead, have only
passed to the Summer-Land before us, to return again as ministering spirits."
How applicable these words of our Pilgrim  to himself!  Hardships
in Asia, fogs and  damps in London, together with severe mental
labor, had bleached his locks to a venerable gray, -a change in which
he takes a strange pride; longing for the day, close at hand, when they
will be white as snow.   Friends in America entreated his return
home.  Friends in England with equal assiduity plead for him  to
remain, if consistent, thinking the summer-flowering might recuperate his wasted energies.  He carried the question up to the oracles;
listened to the still voices of his ever-faithful guardians; and concluded to return, for there were pressing duties in the Spiritual work
claiming service in his own America.  Learning his purpose, the
Spiritualists of London resolved upon some token of their gratitude,
and appreciation of his labors in the Queen's realm.  His farewell
address, delivered on Sunday the 29th of May, was replete with his
most inspired thought.  We select an extract to indicate its drifting
wave: -
"The philosopher sees in the falling and decaying of a leaf, even, the action of lifeforces, which speak eloquently of resurrections and reconstructions upon the higher
planes of vegetable existence. Newton, in an autumn day, lying beneath a tree laden
with golden fruit, saw an apple fall to the earth; and the law of gravitation flashed
across his mind. Franklin, with kite and string, called the electric fluids from heaven,
and threw an eternal fact into the face of all past ages.
"Now cables stretch across oceans, and magnetic wires girdle the globe. A psycho286




286                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
logic star appearing in the Syrian skies of the East directed the clairvoyant eyes of
wise men- magi, or seers -to a lowly manger, within which lay concealed causes that
should ultimately usher in a better and more harmonial era.
"A tiny rap was heard in the Fox family, near Rochester, N.Y., —in and of
itself, a minute event; and yet behind those mystic sounds were hidden living, tangible
demonstrations of a future existence through the present ministry of spirits.  The
rapidity with which this truth has diffused itself into poetry, history, philosophy, and the
theologies of the different denominations, astonishes even its most enthusiastic advocates.
Its banner floats to-day beneath all skies. It is kindling a new light in Asia, shining
in beauty upon the hills of Hindostan, sparkling over the plains of Farther India,
beaming in splendor throughout the courts of Europe, sounding an alarm from the
distant isles of the ocean; and each tone is musical with the living fact of immortality,immortality for all the races of men. The army of Spiritualists is constituted of millions of devoted followers. It is throwing from the press, constantly, books, pamphlets,
monthlies, and weeklies. It has in America six weekly organs, and others which devote
some space to the subject; between one and two hundred organizations, denominated
Children's Progressive Lyceums; besides a National Association, several State Conventions, and thousands of societies supporting regular Sunday-services. The soundest
jurists, the most logical thinkers, some of the most distinguished Congressmen, and
certainly the most eminent of American poets, are Spiritualists.
" In England you publish' Human Nature,'' The Spiritual Magazine,'  The Spiritualist,' and last, but not least, the stirring weekly,  The Medium and Daybreak.'
Each admirably fills its own legitimate position; and in the kingdom of Great Britain,
the realm of thought, there is room for them all. The Macedonian cry comes from all
quarters,' Come over and help us!' Send us mediums; forward us periodicals; furnish
us lectures; give us food, - even that bread of God that cometh down from heaven, and
giveth life to the world. Our friend Burns is sending books, not only to the Continent,
not only to Australia ind New Zealand, but to the farthest isle of the ocean. Surely
the heavens are opened, the angels are in the clouds of heaven, and ministering spirits
are working with us for the world's redemption. Lift up your heads, 0 faithful souls I
for your redemption draweth nigh.
"The apostle Paul, when about to leave an Asian church for Rome, wrote thus:'Only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ; that whether I come
and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one
mind, with one spirit, striving together for the faith.' And, as I am about to leave you
for my native land, I feel, while appreciating your many kindnesses, to beg of you to
let your conversation -that is, your daily moral deportment - be such as to honor the
divine principles you profess; so that whether I come and see you, or be absent, I shall
hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, and that the spirit of harmony and
charity, with a mutual co-operation for the upbuilding of Spiritualism. It seems not
only opportune, but providential, that Dr. Newton, at this particular hour, with his
wonderful healing powers, and yet abounding with the love of the angels, the gifts of
the spirit, should appear in your midst. But gifted and consecrated as he is to the
apostolic work of causing the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, he (like
the gentle Nazarene) has not where to lay his head.  O London, London, busy,
bustling, selfish, sordid city of millions, how little you appreciate the brother whose
hands are as palms of healing for the nations of the earth I It matters not what the
people, nor what a catering public press, may say: God and God's angels are with him,
and that to bless humanity.




THE FAREWELL IN LONDON.                                  287
~"I see before me Mr. Shepard, who, aided and instructed by immortals, has himself
become the very soul of music: I further see Mr. Morse, ever controlled to breathe
trance-utterances, rich in philosophy and wisdom; Mrs. Everitt, whose mediumship has
convinced thousands of immortality; and other mediums who are also present, and are
sowing the seeds of heavenly harvests. And, further, I can not let the moment pass
without speaking of the Progressive Library, under the supervision of our friend James
Burns. This is' The Banner-of-Light' institution of Great Britain.  It is a center, a
grand rallying-place, for Spiritualists from every point of the compass; and as you love
Spiritualism, as you love the promulgation of truth, and as you appreciate my feeble
labors during the past four or five months, I beg, I entreat of you, to sustain and
encourage Mr. Burns in his noble work. Few know his labor, his self-sacrifice, and
devotion to the principles of our philosophy. In early morning he is at his post of duty;
and often the midnight hour and the small hours of morning find him inditing articles,
furnishing editorials, planning stances, and devising other means for the propagation of
a broad, free, unsectarian Spiritualism.
"But now comes to me the saddest hour of the past several months.  It is to thank
you for individual and social kindnesses, and confess to you a deeper appreciation of
Englishmen and English character the more thoroughly I have been brought into social
relations with you for the advancement of a common cause. Not a jar has marred our
general harmony. Those who were faint-hearted when these religious meetings commenced are now strong and united, awaiting the return of the distinguished worker,
Mrs. Hardinge, to carry them on to still greater victories. Though far across the blue
waters, I shall delight to hear of your affairs, - to learn of your temporal and spiritual
prosperity, and know that Spiritualism has become an acknowledged power in this great
world's metropolis. With me, friendship is no idle word: I do not like, but I love my
friends with a true soul-affection. Such friendship buds upon earth only to bloom in
heaven. I shall never, never forget you, good friends, nor the many happy hours that
I have whiled away in your society as a fellow-worker; and from my heart of hearts I
can only exclaim,' God and his good angels keep and bless you!' If in the enthusiasm
of my nature I have said one harsh word, or breathed one unkind thought, forget and
forgive.' To err is human; to forgive, divine.' 
"' The Medium and Daybreak" thus reports one of Mr. Peebles's
Sunday meetings in London: —
"It would be difficult to imagine a place more completely packed with human
beings than the Cavendish Rooms were on Sunday evening. Dr. Newton was expected,
and the Spiritualists and sympathizers turned out in a body to meet him. The usual
attenders dropped in early; and the arrangements were so admirable, and the friends so
helpful, that no discomfort or disappointment was experienced. Thanks are due to Mr.
Humphrey for his efforts to seat the hall as thoroughly as possible.   Mr. Peebles
delivered an admirable sermon, exactly suited for the occasion, of which we can give
only a few extracts.  He said that in the Gospel as recorded by John, we find this
language:' You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.''As I lift my
eyes as far as I can, and take a moral survey of the universe, I see, or seem to see, men
thrusting out their soul-feelers, and asking anxiously for the highest and best form of
truth. It is no more natural for water to find a level, it is no more natural for the magnetic needle to turn to the north pole, than it is for the human soul to search for truth;
and it is a fact,that truths must not only be born in mangers, but they must be crucified




288                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
and that, too, frequently between thieves. They must be baptized in tears before they
can become mighty forces, swaying the masses, and leading them on step by step to
higher and more divine planes of mental and spiritual life.  We are created in God's
own image; and it thus becomes us to use those reasoning faculties that we thereby
inherit. Hence we should sanction nothing fresh in science, no dogma of the past or
present, until the same has been carefully investigated and candidly weighed in the
balance of reason; and thus we shall be ready at all times to give to every man a
reason for the hope that is within us.' Mr. Peebles said that the natural man is composed of two elements, - the physical and the spiritual. The physical body is merely
an echo of the more real one it represents. The flesh, blood, bones, and hair are
merely the outward signs of an inward and spiritual man. When Crito came crying
and weeping to Socrates, just after he had drained the hemlock cup, and asked where
they might bury him, Socrates, though in the agony of death, smiled, and said,' Verily,
just where you please, if you can catch me.' Socrates knew they could not bury him;
only his shell. Spiritualists sometimes speak of burying a person: but this they should
not do; they should speak out and live out their philosophy, that others may hear and
see it. Spiritualism gives us a correct idea of a spiritual man and the spiritual life. In
stating that there is no such thing as death, Mr. Peebles said he had lately been shown
a leter from Mrs. Hardinge, in which that lady said she had recently been speaking in
Bridgewater, United States, where lived a Mr. Kingman, a venerable old man, who was
an ardent admirer of Mrs. Hardinge, and who had expressed a wish, that, whenever he
passed away, Mrs. Hardinge might attend his funeral. On the evening of her address,
the old man went to the hall before it was open; and with much enthusiasm he took
his seat with his family; and, just as Mrs. Hardinge entered, he fainted. Some one told
her that Mr. Kingman had fainted: but she said,'No: he is dead.' They replied, it
was iot possible; but neither water nor fanning nor magnetism could bring him back to
physical life. He was in the spirit-world; and yet he spoke to Mrs. Hardinge within five
minutes of his departure, saying,'I shall hear your lecture now;' and, during the
lecture, there came two tremendous sounds upon the desk, that startled the whole audience. Mr. Kingman had been an excellent man, and much respected, and his friends
wished that Mrs. Hardinge should speak a few words to the mourners; but the churches
were refused for that purpose. At length one was procured, but on the condition that
only ladies should have admission. The address was announced; and a great number
of persons came to hear, the road being literally filled with carriages: and in that
church Mrs. Hardinge delivered a grand and eloquent discourse, and withal so simple
and touching, that nearly every eye was bathed in tears; and, when she arrived home,
she heard the volce of Mr. Kingman say,'I have heard every word of your lecture.''Thus,' said Mr. Peebles,' there is no death. The immortal loved ones live, and walk in
white; and, if we would live more spiritual lives, we should be able to walk and talk
with them more readily than we do now, and thus be able to prepare ourselves for the
future life.'"
One Thursday evening, June 20, a meeting, convened to bid farewell to Mr. Peebles before his departure, was held in the Cavendish Rooms;. I. D. Jencken, barrister-at-law, presiding.
The ladies had arranged all in exquisite order for song and recitation between the intervals of the speeches. Mrs. Varley, Miss Keene,
Mr. Shepard,  Mr. Peele (reciting a poem  of Mrs. Mary  Howitt),




THE FAREWELL IN LONDON.                                289
Mrs. James Hicks, Mrs. Morris, and others, constituted a musical and
recitative orchestra of a most enlivening inspiration. The room was
beautifully decorated under the artistic management of Mr. Lander,
Mr. Taylor, Mr. Slous, Mr. Hockley, Mrs. Berry, Mr. Henderson,
Mr. Dixon, Mr. Duguid, Mr. Everitt, Mrs. Varley, Mr. Rippon,
Miss Hay, Mr. Childs, and Mr. E. T. Bennett, who contributed objects of interest.
The report of this ever-memorable meeting is from  "The London
Spiritualist: "" The president, in his opening remarks, stated the purpose for which the meeting
had been called, and spoke highly of the capacity for work and the disinterestedness of
Mr. Peebles. He told how Mr. Peebles had organized the Sunday-evening meetings in
the Cavendish Rooms, and that not upon a sectarian, narrow type, but upon principles
which would admit all kinds of Spiritualists. Hehad also aided similar institutions in
other towns, and had been endeavoring to found Children's Lyceums for the education
of children....
" Of late years, Spiritualism has been spreading very rapidly in England; and he was
indebted to Mr. Harrison, who sat by his side, for the idea that at first Spiritualism, like
a stone thrown into the water, made only a small ring, but gradually threw out larger and
larger circles, till at the presenltime it covers a very extensive area, and before long it
will begin to clash with vested interests. When that is the case, there will be considerable agitation and disturbance."
The president read the following resolution:" That this meeting heartily expresses its warm appreciation of the distinguished services of Mr. J. M. Peebles as a lecturer, author, and eloquent expounder of the important truths and high moral teachings of Spiritualism."
In his commendatory remarks, Mr. Thomas Shorter said,... " He (Mr. Peebles) has presented truth in the spirit of truth, which is the
spirit of charity. He has given us an example of absolute mental independence, - the
utmost freedom of thought and expression, combned with the most reverential feeling,
and with all respect for those whose theological opinions may, in some important respects,
differ from his own. He has shown not only that these qualities are compatible, but
that they blend in perfect harmony; that the one is the natural product of the other:
for an enlightened reverence, that highest reverence we owe to God, naturally leads us
to respect all whom he has formed in the image of his own divine nature, and who,
therefore, are measurably partakers of his Spirit. This union of knowledge and reverence, this blended action of free intellect and religious feeling, seems to me preeminently the great need of our present age. We have many men who know much of
many things; who can count the stars of heaven, and classify the products and inhabitants of the earth and of the sea; who can tell you why the grass is green, and why the
sky is blue; and talk learnedly of the genesis of life and its developments; but who
seem touched with no sense of awe and unutterable wonder at the mystery which life
presents, no feeling of reverence as before an Infinite Presence, a Holy and Eternal Love,
which, like the blue sky, bends over all: One in whom we live and move, and have our
19




290                     THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
being; One with whom we can hold communion, and in whose faithfulness we can trust,
-a consciousness which, when deeply felt, thrills the heart, causing it to raise the grate.
ful prayer, or hymn of praise, or to muse in silent worship. On the other hand, how
many persons there are of sincere and fervent but narrow piety, with no ample stores
of varied knowledge, no large and liberal culture, no intellectual expanse, with horizon
stretching out toward the infinite, but who sluggishly move through life, pacing round
and round, and never passing out of or beyond the old narrow tracks of custom and
tradition I We want neither an undevout science nor an ignorant devotion.  It is not
good, but most harmful to the individual and to society, for either the spiritual offertories or the intellectual faculties to remain thus torpid. Let us not pamper any one
portion of our nature, and allow another to go lean and starved. We want both mindculture and soul-culture.
"' Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell,
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music.'
"He has sought to allay irritation of feeling, to soften the asperities of controversy, to
exorcise the evil demons of anger and resentment, to do the blessed work of the peacemaker, and to enforce the importance and urgent need of working out those essential
truths in which we agree, instead of wrangling over those things concerning which we
differ. There is one consideration which qualifies the pleasure of our present meeting.
This is afarewell soiree. There is always a tone of sadness in that word farewell. And
yet it has another side. It is a word very beautiful, and ful of meaning: with us, at least,
I am sure it is most appropriate and expressive; for wherever our friend may be, whether
personally present with us or absent from us, our hearts' sincere wish toward him is,
and ever will be, fare you well! It is true, we anticipate with lively satisfaction that
our friend will ere long return, we hope with renovated health, to carry on the good
work he has so well begun, not only here in London, but in the provinces. It is, however, barely possible that all within the sound of my voice will ever on earth meet
again; but it is one of the consolations of our philosophy and our faith, that no bodily
absence, no mountain-barrier or interposing ocean, or even change of worlds, can effectually separate those who are one in sympathy and in soul. The'communion of saints,'
affirmed by the Church, is but the theological form of expression of a universal truth.
It is to me one of the most beautiful and beneficent dispensations of Providence, that
gradually, as we advance in life, the balance of attraction changes, drawing us, with
steadily-increaing force, rom the natural to the spiritual world. In the early hours of
our brief day of mortal life, we are sulounded by kindred and playmates, and friends
and lovers. All is hope and promise. Flowers spring up in our path; the lark carols joyfully his matin-song; and no cloud dims our bright, blue sky. But as the sun passes its
meridian, and the shadows lengthen before us, and the cool hours of eventide draw on,
friend after friend departs; the father's protecting arm is no longer around us; we feel not
the mother's nightly kiss upon our cheek, nor hear the ringing laughter and the merry
voices of our early home: the balance has turned, and now dips ever more heavily to
the other side. As this world recedes from us, the other looms larger, and draws nearer:
and, as our pilgrim-feet near the broad and shining river that rolls between, loved voices
call to us, and the angel-forms of the departed stretch forth eager arms to welcome us;
and we are ready to exclaim with Simeon of old,'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant
depart in peace.' We need not, however, wait for the death-angel to usher us into the
heavenly kingdom: we may, if we will, enter into heaven here and now; or, rather, we




THE FAREWELL IN LONDON.                                291
may let it enter into us; for, as a great philosopher has said,' Certainly it is heaven upon
earth for a man's mind to move in charity, trust in Providence, and rest upon the poles
of truth.'
"Mr. W. Tebb then seconded the resolution, and reviewed the work performed by
Mr. Peebles during his stay in London. He said that Mr. Peebles had given his hearers
most hopeful views about the other life, although he had said little about such dogmas
of worship as total depravity, original sin, and endless misery, and, instead of such subjects, had said a great deal about those divine enunciations contained in the'  Sermon on
the Mount.' Mr. Peebles also had said very little about the sins of the Jews, and a
great deal about the short-comings of Spiritualists  which plan he thought quite as calculated to do good as those teachings which the English public are accustomed to hear.
(Hear, hear.) At the present time, there are certain political difficulties between this
country and America; and if there is one nation to which we are bound by closer ties
than to another, it is America. He, however, had no doubt that the differences would
be amicably settled.
"The chairman then put the resolution to the meeting; and it was carried amid loud
applause. He afterwards read the second resolution, placed in his hands by the Rev.
Jabez Burns, D.D., of Paddington: —
"' That Mr. Peebles be cordially invited to return to this country again as soon as
convenient to him, to further the good work of Spiritual enlightenment and organization
in London and the provinces which he has so devotedly and successfully inaugurated
during the last four and a half months.'
" Dr. Burns said that he was exceedingly pleased with both the resolutions which had
been read by the chairman; and that he had listened with very much pleasure to the
address which had been delivered by Mr. Shorter, for it met his own views as to the
right method of promulgating truth of any and every kind. He had not heard much
that Mr. Peebles had said; but with such of his teachings as he had read he was delighted. Whatever was true in Spiritualism would abide; and whatever was not true
in the movement, those who were listening to him did not wish to abide (hear, hear, and
overwhelming applause): therefore he (Dr. Burns) was of the same opinion as themselves.
All being thus desirous to gain truth, it must be remembered that truth is never gained
except at a sacrifice; and, in buying the knowledge of truth, many cherished and
preconceived views must be surrendered. As for the theologies of. the day, he wished
that every form of theology might perish that had not truthin it. Just in proportion
to the amount of truth which they contain should those theologies live: when they are
not true, let them die; and the sooner they die, the better. (Applause.) Those who
have truth should be manly enough to profess what they believe, and not be ashamed
of it; though this course of action sometimes requires great courage to follow. He was
very much pleased with what had been said in Mr. Shorter's address about charity and
love; for these virtues should be used even in the promulgation of truth. Mr. Peebles
had once done him the honor to come to a meeting over which he (Dr. Burns) presided;
and, directly he saw Mr. Peebles, he fell in love with him at first sight: for many years
ago he had learned some phrenological truth; so that, when he looked at Mr. Peebles,
he could not help admiring his noble head, with so much benevolence and affection
written thereon. At the present meeting, he had marked with delight the gentleness of
countenance which Mr. Peebles displayed to everybody. He loved him because of his
lovable spirit. He felt that there was communion of mind between them; sid should,
for one, be rejoiced to hear when Mr. Peebles came back from America.....He prayed
for uninterrupted peace between America and Great Britain. He would rather have
the healing power to remove sadness and sorrow from human beings than be the monarch of the universe.




292                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
"Mr. J. Burns seconded the resolution, and spoke of the devotion and labor of the
ladies in getting up the meeting, which was entirely their work. He did not repine at
Mr. Peebles's leaving them, but was rather thankful that he ever came: to grieve woul&
be selfishness, ingratitude. His heart was full of joy and gladness at the wealth of affection
which he felt for the guest of the evening. Mr. Peebles had done a great work, not only
in England, in London, but throughout Europe and the East. He was a living embodiment of the cosmopolitan genius of Spiritualism, which owned all men as brothers, and
the wide universe of God as the home of the human soul. Every man gave off an influence
as he moved about in the world; and, if it were one of love and goodness, then to travel
amongst various nations would unite them all in one bond or net of sympathy. He
hoped to see Mr. Peebles in London again soon. His return had been predicted by
spirit-agency. Mr. Peebles was in every respect a Spiritualist: he called his teaching
by no other names, and kept it pure from all creeds. He was almost constantly under
spirit influence and direction as regards his writings and speaking on this subject. Even
in matters of health and daily life, he was the special care of dear friends in the spiritworld, who, through him, had a work to do for humanity. He felt, therefore, that it
would be well with their friend wherever he was.  God and good angels were with
him.
"Dr. Newton said that in Mr. Peebles his hearers had received not only a righteous
man, but a prophet who had given them evidence that the same power exists now which
existed years ago. Among the spirits aiding him in his (Dr. Newton's) work of healing
the sick was Jesus himself.'These signs shall follow them that believe, -they shall
lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover.' Are these signs in the churches?
Do they follow the churches? He (Dr. Newton) had been sent to this country more for
spiritual healing than for healing the pains of the body; and this power of healing would
do a great work in England. The dough has already been raised: soon the bread will be
put into the oven, and be brought forth for the benefit of those hungry souls who have
been fed on husks, and who dread an angry God and a burning hell. It is a happy
knowledge that the brightest spirits that ever walked the earth are with us by day and
by night, and that their love becomes more intensified because they are in spirit-life.
"Mrs. C. F. Varley then stepped upon the platform, and presented Mr. Peebles
with a handsome purse upon a crimson cushion, saying,'I am desired by the ladies
of the committee to present you with this purse as a mark of gratitude.' The purse
contained rather more than twenty-five pounds, the proceeds derived from the sale
of tickets of admission to the meeting. The chairman repeated Mrs. Varley's words, to
the audience. As this was totally unexpected by Mr. Peebles, he was for the moment
evidently overcome, and unable to collect his thoughts. Some friends present also
presented him with an album containing good portraits of many of the chief celebrities
in Europe.
"Mr. J. M. Peebles then said,'Mr. President, ladies, and gentlemen, it seldom
falls to the lot of a mortal to experience a moment so full of real enjoyment as this,
when rising to return thanks for the honor you have done me upon this occasion, - an
occasion to me of both joy and sadness. It is not so much myself you intend to honor
as the heavenly principles of the Spiritual philosophy of which I am but a humble
advocate. Your terms of commendation, I fear, a7e above my deserts, however sincerely
and conscientiously I may have advocated the truth, and discharged my duty as a
public teacher. Still, fully appreciating them, I shall most gratefully treasure your kind
works and expressions of good will in the silent memory-chambers of my soul's sanctuary, - treasure them as the generous overflow of hearts that beat in unison with mine,
and whose aspirations are to promote the best mental and spiritual interests of a common
humanity. It is not my purpose to make a speech: infinitely do I prefer listening to




THE FAREWELL IN LONDON.                                293
others. Looking around, it quite overjoys me to see so many familiar faces, so many
noble-minded Englishmen, some of whom have already made their mark upon this
illustrious age in science and literature; so many kind-hearted and earnest believers
in the ministry of angels, - those angels of God who delight in returning to earth to
demonstrate immortality, and to aid their mortal brothers and sisters in their weary
journeyings toward the shores of the betterland. The sympathy and friendship of such
a congregation as I see before me this evening -constitute the proudest laurels a man
can win. Be assured I shall wear them in my heart of hearts till I meet you in the
upper kingdoms of eternity, where affection is power, where love is life, and life a perpetual growth in the good, the beautiful, and the true. The address of the chairman, so
clear and cogent; of Mr. Shorter, sound and well-timed; of Mr. Tebb, breathing the
spirit of sincerity and good-will; of the Rev. Dr. Burns, rich, racy, eloquent, and full
oft charity; of Mr. James Burns, earnest and truly heartfelt, - these, coupled with the
excellent remarks of others, bountiful in expressions of a general soul-sympathy, all tend
to bind your better natures to mine with that threefold strand not easily broken. The
presentations are most acceptable. I shall endeavor to prove myself worthy, not only
of your friendship, but of the valuable gifts which you have been so kind as to tender
me. The address of the Rev. Dr. Burns, when speaking of Whitefield, reminds me of this
anecdote. Whitefield, when speaking once in one of the States of America, suddenly
stopped, and, turning his eyes heavenward, exclaimed,'Father Abram, are there any
Baptists in heaven?' -'No,' was the response.'Are any Methodists in heaven?' —'No.' -' Any Presbyterians? -' -'No.' -'Any Churchmen?' -' No.' -'Any Unitarians?'-' No.' -' Who are in heaven, then?' - Father Abram replied,' They are all
Christians; that is, good men. They have left their sectarian names and dogmatic theologies all behind them.' It is not faith, not metaphysical belief, but works and good
deeds, that entitle to happiness. Beautiful is this spirit of charity which crops out from
progressive souls in all landandn climes. I can not let this occasion pass without thanking
the ladies for their efficiency in conceiving and executing the arrangements upon this
occasion. It has been truthfully said that woman is first in every good word and work: it
is certain that she was last at the cross, and first at the grave of the risen Savior.
Woman's influence has swayed scepters, dethroned rulers, and ever exercises an uplifting, a healing, and holy influence. Though oceans roll between us, though mountains lift
their hoary heads to separate us, I shall never forget the warmth of English hearts, nor
the social enjoyments of English homes; and, though I should never meet you again
face to face upon the shores of mortality, it is to me a beautiful thought, that I shall meet
you, know you, and love you, in that world of immortality where farewells are never
heard, and where friendships and soul-unions are eternal."'




CHAPTER XXXIV.
WATCHMAN, HO I
"Watchman, what of the night?..
Lo I the morning cometh! "
" There is a tide in the affairs of men."
" Awake, thou that sleepest I - arise from the dead I 
ALL souls we touch into quickened life are ours to love. Improve
the opportune moment; ride in upon the rising wave; let the pulse
of inspiration rebound in thy soul.   Shall thy enemy occupy thy
sacred rights?  Beware of procrastination: it steals' from  reform.
Behold, another angel is flying in the midst of heaven; and her voice
is as the voice of a trumpet on the Mountains of Transfiguration,"Come hither and build!"
After a rough and stormy voyage in the steamer " City of London,"
from Liverpool, Mr. Peebles arrived in New York on the evening of
the 21st of June, 1870. The Spiritual press of America welcomed
his return.  "The Banner of Light," his old tried friend, said, -.. "Mr. Peebles remained in London four and a half months, where he lectured
on Spiritualism with marked effect; and much good will be the result. He will be
warmly welcomed by his many friends on this side of the water. He left New York
immediately for his home in Hammonton, N.J.; where he will remain a week or two,
and then proceed to Washington on bqsiness connected with the Government. It is
Mr. Peebles's intention, we believe, to return to Europe at no distant day, there to continue the good work he has begun." 
Emma Hardinge immediately sent him the following kind greeting.
She has since, with her husband, gone to London, further to perfect
the work inaugurated there by Mr. Peebles, and with vast success.
" CHICAGO, June 24, 1870.
"MY DEAR FRIEND, -..   Accept my most hearty congratulations on your trip, its
results, your safe return, and mental satisfaction with all that has passed. You have
surely done a most noble work in my native country, for which God and angels will
bless you."
294




WATCHMAN, HO!                         295
Saddened over the suspended life of" The ULiverse," but " patient
in tribulation," ever preserving the equanimity of charitable fortitude, he went right to work again, after a few days' rest in his own
home, with renewed energy and resolution.  Westward, lecturing by
the way in Milan, Ohio, in Battle Creek, he arrived in our " beautiful
retreat," in Glen Beulah, the last of July, for quiet and literary labors.
"Rest? "- as well'ask the ocean to rest under the Euroclydon of
America's free air. Under the auspices of the Missionary Movement in Wisconsin, he was with us at great mass-meetings of Spiritualists held in Manchester, Ill.,   " The feast of continual baptism,"
-  and in the Wisconsin towns of Fond du Lac, Glen Beulah, Omro,
Neenah, Fox Lake; and, week-evenings, lecturing in other towns on
"Social Life in Turkey;" everywhere commanding-popular patronage, and enforcing the truths of political and domestic liberty.
On the evening of Aug. 14, during the mass-meeting in Omro,
being then at the residence of E. Thompson, a circle was held, consisting of Mr. Peebles, Dr. Dunn, and our self; when the Indian Powhatan appeared with Dr. Schwailbach, Dr. Willis, and Michael
O'Brien, each of whom entranced the medium, and spoke in his characteristic dialect. Powhatan demagnetized the room, and introduced
a spiritual atmosphere, hanging up magnetic curtains in the corners
to protect " distinguished visitors" from  mundane influences, and
with great reverence ushered in " John," "Queen of Morn," and
" Morning Star," whom he seated in magnetized chairs behind these
invisible curtains. As usual, Aaron Nite was the speaker. That
hour was hallowed: a holy awe pervaded our souls. Life was reviewed; its pilgrimage made golden in reminiscence. Their address
exceeded even our thought to grasp its deep spirit-eloquence.  A
lever of light lifted us higher.  We were in heaven! They said a
council of many spirits had recently been held in their world to devise ways and means for the inauguration of a more "efficient system of culture " among Spiritualists. In the summary, they suggested 
two principles in the "social structure: "1. That the basis be moral spirituality, as the fundamental force of
education; to which Spiritual phenomena shallbe simply incidental,
as streams from its fountain.
2. That the outward sign and seal of such society, or system of'
union, be a declared disposition to attain such spirituality.




296               THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
On the occasion of his last lecture in Omro, portraying the hidden
beauties of angel ministry, and the imperative duty of cultivating
them, ennobling life with its divine virtues, he seemed, as Sister
Brown of Ripon said, " the apostle John, acquainting us with God
and heaven."  But an hour before, we had retired like a turtle within its shell, self-condemning, weeping, in fact, over our mistrust, for
the moment, of higher inspirations, yet yearning to be freer in expression of soul to help bless the starving millions with this manna falling
from the angel-skies. For this we received a deserved rebuke, and
encouragement to overcome a "sinful modesty," as he called it.
When rapt in the pathos of his theme, the vast congregation eager
and grateful as flowers in the baptismal sunlight, and his mind rose
higher on wing. of ecstasy, just as he was using a beautiful figure to
illustrate the burning thought, he was suddenly wheeled round ere the
sentence was finished, and rushed to us upon the stand, and spreading his hands in benediction upon our head, unconscious of his act or
words, saying aloud in the hearing of the people,' Brother, brother I
never, never, NEVER again mistrust thyself!  Let thy light shine!
Give to mortals thy inspired truths! for God hath chosen thee.
Bless the needy, relieve the distressed, heal the sick and wounded
hearts, console the sad, forgive the unfortunate, and show forth the
record of a faithful ministry in the gospel of the angels." Then he
passed to Dr. Dunn, and invoked a blessing upon him, charging him
with counsel exactly adapted to his spiritual needs; praying that we
might both bear the mantle of peace together, after he, " the Pilgrim,
has passed higher."  That melting scene will never be forgotten, nor
its wise lessons imparted by the inspiring spirit.  "Never mistrust
thyself" is a text that will ring in our ears, even when we cross
over to the reward of duty done.
Following his successful labors in Wisconsin, Mr. Peebles went to
Chicago, filling a monthly engagement, enforcing the ardent object of
his heart, - the construction of Spiritualistic society upon a basis of
moral and devotional culture; from Chicago to Battle Creek and
Sturgis; and thence to Cleveland, and there, too, pursuing the same
policy, that the gazing world may soon be gladdened with the better
fruits of Spiritualismn.  Cleveland was his radiative point in all
directions; lecturing nearly every week-evening, during the fall and
winter months, in Norfolk, Ohio, Clyde, Kelley's Island, &c.
In January, 1871, by the urgent request of the parties concerned,




WATCHMAN, HO 1                               297
Mr. Peebles entered into the editorial copartnership of " The American
Spiritualist" with Hudson Tuttle, A. A. Wheelock Managing Editor;
hoping, as he says, "to  aid that faithful organ  in its great struggle for the position it deserves." It bears the imprint of his great
love-nature, taking broad and fraternal ground with " The Liberal
Christian," "The Index,"'" The Radical," and public organs and
speakers and mediums that have hearts as offerings for humanity.
The following incident, appearing in his editorial column, contains
so fine a moral recommendatory to fidelity with all reformers, we
extract its general wave-thought:"An amusing scene occurred the other Sunday evening at our Spiritualist meeting in
Cleveland. Reaching Lyceum Hall, a gentleman said to us,'A lady has gone into the
hall after you in great haste.' -' Ah! any one sick or dead?' -' No; but Mrs. -   wants
you and your audience to adjourn, and go over in a body to the Universalist meeting in
Garrett's Hall.' Entering Lyceum Hall, we saw our excellent sister - a firm Spiritualist
-zealously engaged in persuading Spiritualists to leave their meeting, and attend that
of the Universalists. Some had left. At length, approaching, she pleasantly urged us
to dismiss our meeting, hinting that it would necessarily be'very slim,' and all go over
and hear Mrs. M. A. Livermore preach a Universalist sermon. Our comic side was
touched. The missionary-business is ever in order; but for a Spiritualist to serve as a
missionary for recruiting a sectarian church finds its parallel in the man who'put a
penny into the urn of charity, and took a shilling out.'
"Taking our seat upon the rostrum, wet and drizzling as was the weather, we found
there were a hundred and seventy present. When rising to speak, the number had increased to over two hundred. Voting is testing. We asked all who favored adjourning
to Garrett's Hall to rise: not one arose I When ready to commence speaking, there were
full three hundred present. The lecture finished, Mr. Lawrence, a firm and consistent Spiritualist, rising, and making some very happy remarks, complimenting the assembly for
their adhesion to principle, and the speaker's good sense of propriety, asked such as approved of the lecturer's course to rise; and, with the exception of something like half a
dozen, the entire audience rose to their feet, and rose, too, with a right good will. It
was a complete triumph for consistency, decision of character, and fixedness of principle."
After canvassing the treatment which several Universalists received
from their sect, and the creedal basis of their belief, mentioning
among other practical things the folly of an unstable policy, he quotes
from  " The Cleveland Leader" a paragraph of Mrs. Livermore's
discourse, with a review:" The good man and the bad each have their punishment here. For the future of the former
nothing need be feared; no more for the latter: their eternity is alike. When the bad man
enters the other world, he leaves his body, his sins and mortal part, behind, and goes a new
soul, and commences under the tutelage of God to live a new life."
" Every Spiritualist (says Mr. P.) who believes or realizes any thing of spirit-communion knows that these creedal positions are false; and yet they are invited to listen




298                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
to and sustain them by their influence and money. Many Spiritualists are doing this
silly thing to-day all through the country....
" Spiritualism is progressive and catholic, embracing the good and the true of all
creeds, climes, and worlds."
Bui Ls's " Holy Fair " seems appropriate here.  The Peebles of his
time has evidently lost no virtue in his representative brother of today: -
" In good time comes an antidote
Against sic poisoned nostrum;
For Peebles, frae the water fit,
Ascends the holy rostrum:
See I up he's got the word o' God,
And meek and mine has viewed it."
Mrs. Livermore, a patriotic  and vigorous agitator of Woman's
Franchise, and elevation to the highest trusts in the gift of the people,
is a consistent example of the very wisdom Mr. Peebles recommends, -
concentrative, constructive, defensive  of her own  "household  of
faith;" and therefore succeeds, honoring, no doubt, the man who thus
contends for the triumph of what he believes is truth and right:-...Things should be called by their right names. This worldly policy is
contemptible. The clown that made the attempt to ride two horses at once fell into
the mud.
" Sects we repudiate. Paper creeds are hardly fit for spittoons. Whenever Spiritualists fix upon a form of belief, and pronounce it a finality, they may count us out.'Good for this day only' should be the first article of every confession of faith. For
radical Unitarians, Free Religionists, Shakers, and Liberalists, in all lands, we extend
the warm fraternal hand of fellowship, and ask to be considered their co-worker.
" Had every mortal left the hall, Sunday evening, we should have remained at our
post. With God and angels present, none are alone. When Spiritualists support genuine
mediums; when they will cease chasing up every passing novelty, and stand by their
convictions of truth; when they will cease supporting sectarian churches, and sustain
regular meetings of their own; when they wilt encourage lyceums, good music, order,
liberal giving, religious culture, acknowledging and working with God's ministering
spirits for redemptive purposes, - then will Spiritualism become a mighty moral power
in the world."
During his successful labors in Cleveland, a mass convention of
Spiritualists and Shakers was held, about the beginning of the year
1871, in the Lyceum  Hall of that metropolis.   Mr. Peebles was
elected president.  Among the very interesting  incidents  connected
with this meeting, " The Cleveland Herald" reports:"Rev. J. N. Still (the same* brother who met Mr. Peebles about two years before in
Portland), a colored itinerant Spiritualist, arose in the audience. He was invited to the
stage, and made a few remarks. He told of what he had seen through visions, saying
among other things that he saw' that brother' (the chairman) in the spirit three years




WATCHMAN, HO!                               299
before he saw his face; and he was led from the wilds of Virginia to Portland to meet
him. He also had a clear view of all the events in the history of Spiritualism that are
now taking place; and he wrote a book about it. Ever since he saw that new light, he
had been traveling every day upon his great mission, begging his bread wherever hi
went. He believed Spiritualism to be the great system that is to enlighten and purify
the world. He felt a burden of spirit upon him for his own race; that he was the apostle
commissioned to tell them the glad tidings.
"As he closed he was loudly applauded. The chairman said he met him (Mr. S.)
some years ago, and believed him to be a true and faithful advocate of Spiritualism,
acting under the control and direction of the spirits. As he descended the stage, an
elderly Shaker gave him his seat, the man sobbing at the general expression of sympathy."
Here were gathered representatives of a class of-Spiritualists under
the once-ignominious name of Shakers, that hold property in common,
having " no saloons, no brothels, no swearing, no manifestations of
ill temper, no rant, cant, nor hypocrisy, - a people living quiet, simple, spiritual lives, always devout, happy, and serene." Upon the
stand were Elders William  Reynolds and Oliver C. Hampton, of
Union Village, Warren County, 0.; Elder Frederick W. Evans, Mt.
Lebanon, N.Y.; Elder George Albert Lomas, Watervliet, Albany,
Elder James S. Prescott, North Union, 0.; Elder Ephraim  Frost,
Lebanon, near Dayton, 0.;  and several elderesses; besides a fine
band of singers, and thirty or more Shaker laymen from  North
Union; also W. W. Bloom, Carrie Lewis, Mr. Peebles, and other
Spiritualists. 
This conventional action of the Shakers indicates the moral heroism of their inspiration. Coming from their recluse to win some to
their simple-minded purities is the experiment which an angel may
try at his peril. If their virtues corrode not with this magnetic
touch, it will prove that here is power of redemption against which
"the gates of hell shall not prevail."  But it is the divine way:
good shall not be hidden.  The sweet bud must blossom, though it
die in the expending of its fragrance.
The sentiments of these speakers are so lofty in spirit, under the
hearty indorsement of Mr. Peebles in the chair, we deem a few extracts a beautiful adornment here: 
" Love is of God, - pure, holy, free. Lust, apostolically speaking, is'earthly, sensual, and devilish;' and those who could not and did not distinguish between love, free
love, and lust, only reveal the degrading depravity of their natures. Love, under the
guidance of wisdom, is the great redemptive power of the universe.' If ye love me,'




300                    THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
said Jesus,'ye will keep my commandments.' Freedom and love walk hand in hand in
the resurrection-state, -a state attainable in this present life through self-abnegation,
and holy consecration to the good and the true.
"Shakers and Spiritualists are one in their knowledge of immortality and the primal
objects of existence. Through the influence of Spiritualism, sectarianism, with its
bigotry, intolerance, and tyranny, will be swept away. Neither Spiritualists nor Shakers
should be afraid of abuse, slander, and ridicule; for, if their doctrines were correct, they
could only be strengthened by opposition. Believers -meaning the Shakers -have
come into order. Their baptism is from the heavens. The disorderly, disintegrating
fanaticisms prevailing to some extent among Spiritualists bring dishonor upon the truth.
There is no point upon which the Shakers are so misunderstood as marriage. This is the
lion in the way. But believers are not opposed to those on the Adamic plane in the
world'marrying and being given in marriage.' This is well. But there is a Christ plane
of purity above it. Their warfare is against the'abuses of marriage, the expenditure of
the seminal forces, the social evil, and the monopoly of private property.
" The Children's Progressive Lyceum is a live institution, bound to progress as one
of the reforms of the nineteenth century. It doth not yet appear what it will be. God
bless the effort!
" The Bible is a compendium of the history and literature of the Jewish people, and
is no more the word of God than is the bible of any other nation. Let us accord the same
respect to the Koran of the Mohammedans, the bible of the Chinese, or that of any other
people.
" When woman shall have attained her full social and political rights, she will be the
balance-wheel of government: wars will cease, and the political arena will be purged of
its uncleanness. Shakers do not fight: they are an example of what would be the result if women were put on an equality with men. The' social evil' is everywhere perplexing the legislatures and municipal authorities. We declare against war, -the killing
of hundreds of thousands of men, and entailing untold suffering upon widows and
orphans, to gratify the whims of politicians. There is in every human soul the germ of
a spiritual life, that, when quickened into activity, will lift persons up into the Christ
sphere, where the animal natures and propensities are entirely subdued.
"It is perfectly right and proper, that, on the earthly plane, people should have husbands and wives, as much so as that they should have wealth; and they only sacrifice
that for something better in the higher sphere. There is wealth enough in the world to
give every human being enough to place him above want. The Shakers have proved
that, under the community system, all have enough and to spare. We yearly feed thousands of poor who never do a stroke of work for us.
"When  these principles, of fraternity become practicalized, the long-promised age of peace and plenty, of love and good will to men, will have dawned; yea, it
will have been fully inaugurated upon earth, angels walking hand in hand with a regenerated humanity. Spiritualism is a call for higher religious observance in life: hence we
find the highest class of Spiritualists organized in the heavens and on the earth, with
self-denial as their savior, a divine life their basis, and the practical operation of the
Sermon on the Mount their religion. True Spiritualists do not under-estimate self-denial:
they see the elements of eternal life in a celibate life, and freedom from war, slavery,
sickness, and destitution, by living a life above the plane of mere earthly loves and sensual excitements. Let Spiritualists organize on the principles of eternal, never-changing
life, and they will see the shackles of marriage, war, private property, and disease, - all
the relations and conditions of temporary corruption, -fleeing as does the dew before
the rising sun, - the sun of the millennial day. The great lights of Spiritualism admit
two distinct orders of life, - the natural and the spiritual: the one belonging to the earth,




WATCHMAN, HO!                               301
earthy; the other to the heavens, heavenly. And, as heaven is a condition of purity and
holiness, it should be inaugurated on earth. This was the prayer of Jesus, -' Thy kingdom come.' This divine kingdom, or high spiritual condition, had come to Jesus. It
will come to all, when, like the believers called' Shakers,' they appreciate and enterinto
the resurrection-state.' I am the resurrection and the life,' said Jesus."
Working  faithfully in  Troy, N.Y., then  in  Boston,  lecturing
before the popular audiences of Music Hall, Mr. Peebles, by urgent
request, went to  New  Orleans, La., sowing  there  and  in  other
Southern localities " the precious seed." The interest was electric.
The Southern heart is exceedingly genial.  Freed now  from  the incubus of oppression, the Caucasian and sable races, under the domain
of the same " stars and stripes," are greeting this morning of a new
day with hallelujahs that find tongues in the very waves of the great
Gulf.  East, west, north, south!-so rolls on the tide of inspiration;
and the lilies of our truth are blossoming in every isle, continent, and
sea.
The city papers favorably noticed his successes there. The friends
were  encouraged.   In  "Editorial Etchings,"  published  in "The
American Spiritualist," he writes,-... "Our rooms are in the St. Charles Hotel. Have already met several of the
friends. The Southern heart is warm and generous. How easy to find the good, the
beautiful, and the true, when we search for them!... There are many Spiritualists in
New Orleans..... They need, as everywhere, system, method, and unitive work....
We have met noble, ay, royal souls in this city. The South abounds in them. It has
gladdened our heart to clasp their hands, receiving favors and personal kindnesses. Acquaintances of this character ripen into enduring friendships. All the memories of the
month, connected with our lectures upon Spiritualism, are pleasant. Long will they remain in the treasure-chambers of the soul's sanctuary. Dr. J. W. Allen, a most excellent man, is the president of the Spiritualist society...    A confession. —At two
o'clock, accompanied/by a friend, long known to us in Michigan, started for a Spanish
cock-pit, to witness some gaff and spur gymnastics. It was daylight: why not see all
sides of the world? The building, at the corner of Roman and Dumaine Streets, bears
some resemblance within to a theater. The patrons were mostly Spanish and French,
with a fair sprinkling of city officials, and three members of the legislature. Though
the fowls fought well, the sight was disgusting and hateful beyond description. The
young lads smoked; the men betted, cheered, and shouted. A strange world, -cocks
fight in New Orleans, bulls fight in Spain, and men fight in France; the motive force
and purpose of the combatants being victory. Those French and German Christians
did bloodier fighting, however, than do trained birds in the South, or bulls in Spain.
Civil and national wars will prevail just as long as the animal predominates over the
moral nature. War for any cause is utterly opposed to the whole genius and tenor of
Spiritualism. No practical Spiritualist can buckle on the martial armor, and go out to
murder.his fellow-beings."




302                   THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.
We quote again, from  a private letter to us, dat.ed Goldsborough,
N.C., May 4, 1871.... "So, brother, I have visited every State in the Union, except Arkansas, Texas,
and Florida. Spoke in Mobile on Monday evening. Had a pleasant time in Maysville,
S.C. Here is a military school. Had a pleasant argumentative interview with some
of the military students. The contest was on peace and war. They thought if all
Northern men had cherished and practiced'peace principles,' there would have been
no war, North and South.
"Last evening I spoke in Goldsborough, -expect a crowd to-night. Bros. N. F. White
and E. V. Wilson have spoken here to large congregations.... "I ought to have said, that in Mobile, Ala., a gentleman, John Bowen, threw
open his parlor-doors, and we had a large and enthusiastic meeting. On the whole, I
am delighted with the South. The people are cordial, warm-hearted, and noble, and
very liberal in theologies... "I have just dined with Rev. H. Bain, Universalist minister here in Goldsborough. He is a firm and out-spoken Spiritualist, and his daughter is a medium.
Love to Olive,' Uncle Harry,' and children."
Lecturing a month in Baltimore, his old battle-ground, now enflowering from the spiritual seed of his sowing, Mr. Peebles returned
to Cleveland, from which city he writes in private: —
" Brother, I am going to Europe again; sail 1st of July. The London people insist upon
my speaking while I am there. Oh, my dear English friends, how I love them I They
beg of me to come and spend the winter, as Emma Hardinge returns to America. This
I can not do, as I am engaged for October in Louisville; then for four or five months in
Memphis, New Orleans, Mobile, and Washington. Bro. A. J. Davis has just written
me a long and beautiful letter, full of good words to bear to the English Spiritualists,
&c. It was dated, Orange, June 11, 1871. In it he says, -
"' Mary and I always read your articles in the different journals and books you publish, and find you surely on the right side of truth, justice, and love. I was particularly
interested in your late article in " The Present Age," on " Pymander," showing how
exactly the human mind makes a circle every three or four thousand years in the perceptioa and declaration of ideas.'" This letter reminds me of William and Mary Howitt of England, whose hearts are
in their hands. When shall I see them again? There is not a wrinkle on their souls;
and, owing to a pure life, their foreheads are so spiritually beautiful, we forget, and
scarcely see any wrinkles there."
Sunday evening, June 25, " The Children's Progressive Lyceum,"
of Cleveland, with other generous friends, accompanied Mr. Peebles
to the cars, where with " Angels bless you" he started  for Europe.
He is now in England, making arrangements for the publication of
"Higgin's Anacalpysis,"  gathering  facts for the "Year-Book of
Spiritualism for 1872," consulting English and French Spiritualists
relative to a future world's convention of Spiritualists, and lecturing




WATCHMAN, HO!                             303
there occasiolally.  Elder F. W. Evans, editor of " The Shaker,"
published under the auspices of the Mt. Lebanon Association of
Shakers, is with him in England, - two brothers in the spirit.
As Mr. Peebles physically wears away, and approaches the spiritworld, he is more sensitive and sympathetic, distressed at times over
the raging waves of human passions.  This life looks to him  more
and more an exile from his native land. In a private note to us is
this ebullition of soul,.. " Earth is hell, rimmed now and then with a scattering rose-bush: a valley of dust
and dry bones, touched now and then by a breath from the summer-lands of heaven.
Marching through this valley, I often weary and faint. O my brother! when will our
labors end?. " In one of your letters you ask,' When are you coming home?'
" How much meaning in that question!
"Home  strange word, inciting in my bosom queer and quivering emotions! My
earthly home is in Hammonton, N.J.; my spiritual home is in Rockford, Ill., under the
white wing of Dr. E. C. Dunn's spirit-circle; my celestial home is in the Shaker fraternities, where reigns the Christ-spirit of purity and peace; and my general home is
the universe. To-day I am at home in New Orleans, this Crescent City of summer
flowers and sunny skies; but I sigh. Oh! how my soul sighs for that home above,
eternal in the heavens! "
" Thy earthly work," say the angels to the " Spiritual Pilgrim"
"has not yet reached its zenith; thy cup is not filll; more trials
await thee; thou art not spiritually ripe. Be patient for the harvest,
when we shall call for thee. "
Wherefore are the rocks clad in blossoming vines? wherefore is
the trodden dust so fragrant? A spirit has walked there; immortal
pilgrims have carried there the virtue of their light.  " How beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings of good "  An
exiled John has been in every clime, " in the spirit on the Lord's
Day."  He bears the burden of duty as a joyous privilege.  Grayed
by the storms of adversity, with staff in hand, his eye scanning the
terraces of progress, his head dusted with the evening sunlight, he
is rapidly nearing the spirit-world; he is climbing the mountain of
life, on whose crest is his " Angel of Love," beckoning, " Come up
hither!"
O ye faithful! take courage in the battle. Our bloody sweat enriches the Gethsemanes of human sorrow; our tears are mirrors to
see the glory to come.  Plant love-seeds where our dear brother has
wrought in the hours of spring.  Lo, the birds of paradise are in
grand oratorio!  The celestials say of us," BEHOLD THE CHAIN OF PEARLS!"