UNIVERSAL SPIRITUALISM 
 
UNIVERSAL 
 SPIRITUALISM 
 
 ^pfrit^Communion m au 3lse)3 
 among au iSatioitjS 
 
 By IV. J. COLVILLE 
 
 Author of" Old and New Psychology;' " Spirit- 
 ual Science of Health and Healing," *' Life and 
 Power From Health Within," Etc., Etc., Etc. 
 
 <g 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 
 1 8 East Seventeenth Street : New York 
 
'U 
 
 EDUC. 
 
 PSYCH, 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Copyright, 1906 
 
 By 
 
 R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 
 
 Universal Spiritualism 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 Introduction ...... 
 
 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 I. The Question of Spirit Identity 
 
 II. Bird*s-Eye View of Ancient and Modern 
 Spiritual Philosophy . . . . 
 
 III. Differing Aspects of Spiritual Philosophy 
 
 — the Righteous Claims of Egoism and of 
 Altruism ..... 
 
 IV. The Spiritual Faith of Ancient Egypt 
 
 V. ' Influence of Egyptian Thought on Jewish 
 Views of Immortality 
 
 VI. The Jewish Kabala — Its Teachings Concern 
 ING Immortality .... 
 
 VII. Persian Theories of the Soul and Its Des 
 TINATION ..... 
 
 VIII. Greek and Roman Views of a Future Life 
 
 IX. Hindu Conceptions of the Soul and Its Im 
 mortality ..... 
 
 X. Vedanta Philosophy .... 
 
 XI. Scandinavian Beliefs Concerning the Spirit 
 UAL Universe ..... 
 
 XII. Etruscan Views of the Future Life . 
 
 XIII. Spiritual Conceptions in China and Japan 
 
 XIV. Mohammedan Views of the Soul and Its 
 
 Destiny ..... 
 
 PAGE 
 
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 15 
 39 
 
 57 
 
 67 
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 86 
 
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 106 
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 139 
 157 
 
 178 
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 192 
 
 203 
 
 410526 
 
8. •'.*,•-' ' ' Introduction 
 
 of rational philosophic Spiritualism can in these days be 
 upreared. 
 
 Much that passes for religion may be hypocrisy, much 
 that is dignified with the name of science may be but 
 transitory speculation, yet science and religion live, thrive 
 and grow despite all mistakes and errors. Likewise does 
 Spiritualism outlive and triumph over every outward at- 
 tack and every inward weakness, so much so that though the 
 very word has often been considered a reproach, not a 
 year passes but a fresh list of noble and influential names 
 have to be added to the illustrious company of Spiritualists. 
 ^ There are in reality but three conceivable philosophies, 
 viz . : Spiritualism, Materialism, Agnosticism. Concerning 
 the latter, it may well be said in the words of the learned and 
 thoughtful Prof. Felix Adler, of Ethical Culture fame, '' Ag- 
 nosticism is no finality. ' ' Materialism is practically dead in 
 scientific circles, and it has never been able to claim such 
 renowned philosophers as Herbert Spencer, Thos. Huxley 
 or any others among the exceptionally brilliant men of 
 science and of letters who made the 19th century illustrious. 
 
 Spiritualism, broadly interpreted and divested of all ab- 
 normal excrescences, is the only philosophy which has stood 
 and still continues to stand the searching test of impartial 
 scrutiny. Idle is it to point to the farces and follies per- 
 petrated in its name, these, deplorable though they may be, 
 detract nothing from the philosophy itself but only serve to 
 exhibit the pitiable weaknesses of undeveloped types of hu- 
 man character. No sensible person rejects gold or any 
 precious metal because it is taken out of the earth mixed 
 with alloy. Even as gold is sifted from all which accom- 
 panies it before being transferred to the mint for coinage 
 or employed in the manufacture of articles of worth and 
 
Introduction 9 
 
 beauty, so must the grandest, noblest, most inspiring and 
 consoling educative system of philosophy of which the hu- 
 man race has ever conceived, be stripped of all foreign 
 matter that accompanies it before being transferred to its 
 mint for coinage or employed in the manufacture of articles 
 of mental worth and beauty, so must this grandest, noblest, 
 most inspiring and educating system of philosophy of 
 which the human race has ever conceived, be stripped of 
 all accretions and unbeautiful surroundings and accepted 
 only in so far as it commends itself to reason and to intui- 
 tion, the two chief guides of humanity. 
 
 As the reader journeys in the following chapters from 
 period to period, and from clime to clime, from ancient 
 Egypt and India to modern Britain and America, one dom- 
 inating conviction must lay hold upon the mind of every 
 impartial student and that a conviction no less than the 
 stupendous thought that the human race has sought and 
 found convincing evidences of its immortality. 
 
 The great importance of the modern Spiritualistic move- 
 ment, even though it be dated only from 1848, is too vast 
 to be estimated, and it is beyond dispute that in conse- 
 quence of marvelous and utterly unexpected occurrences at 
 Hydesville in New York State and elsewhere in America 
 during that memorable year, and in the momentous years 
 which immediately followed, a complete revolution was 
 started in the minds, not only of the American, but very 
 shortly after, of European populations. 
 
 Liberal religious views were indeed prevalent in many 
 distinguished circles before the world was thrilled by the 
 audacious declaration that the gates were not only ajar, 
 but in many instances wide open, between the two states 
 of existence we are still accustomed to call two worlds. 
 
lo Introduction 
 
 This tremendous affirmation ought not to have surprised 
 Bible students or professing Christians of any denomina- 
 tion, for nothing is more self-evident than that the Hebrew 
 and Greek, in common with all other venerated Scriptures, 
 distinctly proclaim the constant fact of the intercommunion 
 of earth with spirit-spheres. But every one who is the 
 least acquainted with the sad tale of ecclesiastical bigotry 
 and blindness knows that organized religious parties fought 
 desperately against the new revelation, thereby greatly 
 weakening their own hold upon the masses and laying the 
 foundation for vigorous iconoclastic onslaughts upon creeds 
 and churches and diverting the tide of inspiration very 
 largely away from all recognized denominational institu- 
 tions. 
 
 The early history of modern Spiritualism has been copi- 
 ously recorded in the standard works of Emma Hardinge 
 Britten and other faithful chroniclers of the trials, hard- 
 ships, defeats and victories of the stalwart pioneers who 
 often literally took their lives in their hands to proclaim 
 the new gospel which was to them more precious than 
 their earthly all. The work of the magnificently coura- 
 geous men and women who stood in the front rank of the 
 Spiritualistic propaganda during its earlier decades on both 
 sides of the Atlantic and also at the Antipodes, can never 
 be overestimated. Some of those zealous champions of 
 spiritual free thought may have been at times over intrepid 
 and occasionally indiscreet, but they did their work heroic- 
 ally, and the light they braved everything to kindle and 
 to sustain will not easily be extinguished. 
 
 In later years other movements, not Spiritualistic in 
 name, have attained and received much attention and 
 have unquestionably succeeded to a large extent in enlist- 
 
Introduction 1 1 
 
 ing the sympathy and arousing the interest of many intel- 
 ligent persons to whom the name of Spiritualism was not 
 attractive. 
 
 The Theosophical Society founded in New York in 
 1875 and started by prominent Spiritualists, — for such 
 Col. Olcott and Mme. Blavatsky undoubtedly were — 
 drifted at one time into seeming antagonism to the cen- 
 tral doctrine of Spirit communion, but has always been in 
 reality an upholder of spiritual philosophy against material- 
 ism and is now, in the persons of its most representative 
 leaders, throwing much light, through study and practice 
 of clairvoyance in particular, upon the actual condition of 
 the Spirit world which interpenetrates as well as encircles 
 this material globe. 
 
 The popular New Thought movement, though not 
 avowedly Spiritualistic in any pronounced degree, has 
 always numbered among its leading exponents distin- 
 guished men and women whose public writings leave no 
 doubt as to their knowledge of the main facts for which 
 all Spiritualists are steadfastly contending. The chequered 
 history of the Spiritualistic movement all over the world 
 has presented many bright and more than a few dark 
 features and it is not seemingly possible to unify all Spirit- 
 ualists or to bring them into substantial accord any further 
 than to acknowledge the one great essential of spiritual 
 intercommunion. 
 
 It is not necessarily regrettable that no uniformity seems 
 possible on anything like an extensive scale because it is 
 the obvious mission of the great modern spiritual revela- 
 tion to break the fetters of assumed authority and set the 
 individual spirit free. The idiosyncrasies of many indi- 
 viduals and the dubious character of much alleged phe- 
 
1 2 Introduction 
 
 nomena, together with the unsatisfactory nature of many 
 purported spirit communications, continues to present a 
 series of serious difficulties in the path of many conscien- 
 tious enquirers and investigators, and with the rapidly 
 spreading acknowledgment of limitless telepathy the old 
 simple confidence in direct communion with our departed 
 friends and kindred has been in many quarters greatly 
 shaken. 
 
 The writings of the noted Prof. T. J. Hudson, whose 
 name will always be associated with the "Two minds" 
 theory, have been erroneously construed by many readers as 
 undermining the fact of Spirit communion when in reality 
 no evidences of telepathy can possibly do other than 
 strengthen reasonable confidence therein. The enormous 
 interest taken at present in what is termed Psychical Re- 
 search is only interest in Spiritualism under a slightly 
 different name, this every impartial student must admit, 
 especially after perusing that monumental work by the 
 famous F. W. H. Myers entitled ''Human Personality — 
 its survival of bodily death." A still more recent work 
 by Prof. Hyslop of Columbia University, entitled '' Science 
 and a Future Life," and indeed a perfect host of volumes 
 by more or less distinguished authors, written in many 
 different languages and all testifying to the constantly 
 accumulating proofs of spirit intercourse demonstrated in 
 a great variety of ways and under a vast variety of con- 
 ditions, but serve to further illustrate our main position. 
 
 Though the old theory of the Satanic origin of spirit 
 communications is no longer preached as formerly, there 
 are still those among us who see the devil in everything 
 which seems supernormal that does not conform with anti- 
 quated, and indeed barbaric, notions of the unseen uni- 
 
Introduction 
 
 '3 
 
 verse, aud apart from oid school theologians who continue 
 to employ old-fashioned terminology there are quite a 
 considerable number of modern writers who do not hesi- 
 tate to descant upon the perils attending mediumship and 
 the dangerous ground upon which all are treading who 
 venture to seek to lift up the veil which divides mundane 
 from supra-mundane existence. 
 
 Tennyson's warning in his beautiful lines entitled <'The 
 Angel Guest," a choice excerpt from **In Memoriam," 
 are indeed applicable to all who would seek to peer behind 
 the mystic curtain and commune with beings ordinarily 
 invisible from the earthly standpoint. The poet truly sings : 
 
 " How pure in heart and sound in head 
 With what divine aft'ections bold 
 Should be the man whose thoughts would hold 
 An hour's communion with the dead." 
 
 These stirring lines, and the three verses which follow, 
 were sung at a great meeting in Brighton, England's most 
 famous seaside resort, on the evening of May 24, 1874, 
 when the writer of these pages, then an inquisitive child, 
 was attracted to an "inspirational oration" delivered by 
 Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond (then Mrs. Tappan) at a time 
 when Spiritualism was exciting great attention in Great 
 Britain. 
 
 That wonderfully gifted speaker in some mysterious way, 
 while addressing an audience of 1,500 people, was an in- 
 strument in the hands of the unseen for opening the flood- 
 gates of illumination for this curious child, who was imme- 
 diately fascinated by the grace and dignity of the orator 
 and deeply impressed with the mighty import of the in- 
 spired and inspiring message delivered so impressively in 
 so unique a manner. Years have come and gone and the 
 
14 Introduction 
 
 wondering child has grown to be a widely traveled lecturer 
 and author, but never unmindful of the impetus received 
 on that ever-to-be-remembered evening. 
 
 In the autobiographical narrative which the writer has 
 been importuned to incorporate in this volume, personal 
 experiences are necessarily introduced to illustrate the 
 propositions which it is desired to elucidate and to unfold. 
 It has been almost impossible to refer the reader in all 
 cases to authorities which would further sustain the facts 
 related in the successive chapters of this book, but fnodera- 
 tion as well as accuracy of statement has been the author's 
 constant aim, and though conscious of many defects in 
 style and limitations in subject matter, it is confidently 
 hoped, and indeed expected, that this comparatively hum- 
 ble contribution to the voluminous literature of Spiritual- 
 ism will serve at least the useful purpose of providing at 
 reasonable price, in not excessive compass, a textbook for 
 enquirers and a work of ready reference for those who 
 have neither time nor opportunity for searching massive 
 records when desirous of taking a bird's-eye view of the 
 spiritual conceptions and experiences of widely-scattered 
 members of the human race. 
 
 Lights and shadows have alike been dealt with, but the 
 tone of this work is avowedly and intentionally optimistic. 
 To liberalize thought, to increase fraternal feeling, to re- 
 lieve the depression which overhangs the thought of pass- 
 ing into the mysterious ** unknown," and most of all to 
 show how reasonable it is to have confidence in human 
 immortality, have been among the prominent objects the 
 author has held constantly in view. 
 
 W. J. COLVILLE. 
 
 New York, igod. 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 If I am to relate faithfully, even in barest outline, my 
 experiences with " unseen helpers," I must go back to my 
 very early childhood, when my '' mediumship " originally 
 declared itself. I was practically an orphan from birth. 
 My mother passed to spirit life in my infancy and my 
 father was called by important business to travel in lands 
 remote from England, where I was left in charge of a 
 guardian. My childhood was singularly unchildlike, as I 
 was separated from children altogether, and compelled to 
 associate exclusively with persons of thoroughly mature 
 age. 
 
 How I first came to see my mother clairvoyantly I do 
 not know, but I distinctly remember becoming vividly 
 conscious at frequent intervals of the gentle, loving pres- 
 ence of a beautiful young woman, who invariably appeared 
 to my vision gracefully attired in light garments of singular 
 beauty. The head of this charming lady was adorned 
 with golden ringlets; her eyes were intensely blue; she 
 was tall and of rather slender build, and manifested many 
 attributes of almost ideal womanhood. I cannot recall to 
 mind any occasion when this lady spoke to me as one ordi- 
 nary human being on earth converses with another, but I 
 distinctly recollect that when I saw her most plainly and 
 felt her presence most distinctly, I was intensely conscious 
 of information flowing into me. I can only liken my ex- 
 
 15 
 
i6 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 perience to some memorable statements of Swedenborg 
 concerning influx of knowledge into the interiors of human 
 understanding. 
 
 I should probably never in those early days have thought 
 of such a problem as clairvoyance, had it not been for the 
 surprising fact that what I saw perfectly other people did 
 not see at all. I was first led to realize the unusual char- 
 acter of my vision when I mentioned the presence of the 
 "beautiful lady in white " to two persons who were with 
 me when I saw her very distinctly, and they declared that 
 we three were the only occupants of the apartment. The 
 mystery of the fourth inmate was for me greatly intensified 
 when it appeared to me that the other two persons, besides 
 her and myself, could pass through her and she through 
 them, while they appeared completely unconscious of each 
 other's presence. An elderly lady, with whom I was liv- 
 ing, who was a devoted Church woman, summed up all my 
 singular visions, when I related them to her, in the follow- 
 ing words: ''Well, I can't account for it, but it must 
 be the work of either God or Satan." Though not many 
 months over five years of age at the time to which I am 
 now referring, I had already heard Satan called the '' father 
 of lies" and had also been taught that truth belonged to 
 God and came from heaven ; so my youthful intellect was 
 not perturbed with dread of any power of darkness, as I 
 found that all the information which flowed into me when 
 this beautiful spiritual being manifested to me was correct 
 in every particular. I was, therefore, quite content to be- 
 lieve, with simple faith supported by reasoning, that my 
 dear mother was watching over me as a guardian spirit. 
 I often heard of guardian angels, and I was sometimes 
 taken to a children's service in a church where a favorite 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 17 
 
 hymn before the catechising began with the following in- 
 vocation : 
 
 " Dear angel ever at my side ! 
 How loving must thou be 
 To leave thy home in heaven to guard 
 A little child like me." 
 
 Instead of conjecturing angels as well-nigh incompre- 
 hensible beings belonging to an order in the creation en- 
 tirely different from ourselves, I rested satisfied with the 
 simple, reasonable conviction that the messenger from un- 
 seen spheres who watched over me most intimately, was the 
 dear mother whose physical presence had been withdrawn 
 from earth long before I had reached an age when I could 
 have consciously appreciated it. I do not forget the 
 strange shock I felt when some one said to me : *' It is im- 
 possible that you should see your mother ; you have no 
 mother; she is dead." Such vulgar, brutal words made 
 no other impression on me than to set me thinking along 
 psychic lines, far more often pursued by little children than 
 adults generally suppose. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that I was an isolated and 
 often a lonely child, thrown very largely upon my resources 
 for amusement and enjoyment. This circumstance may 
 suffice to suggest instructive thoughts regarding conditions 
 singularly favorable to mediumistic development. Is me- 
 diumship a gift or a natural endowment ? is a query often 
 raised. To answer this inquiry it is surely necessary to re- 
 call the two distinct senses in which the word " gift " is com- 
 monly employed. We speak of natural gifts, of the uni- 
 versal gifts of God to humanity, as well as of particular be- 
 stowments vouchsafed to those who are sometimes segre- 
 
l8 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 gated in our philosophy from the '' common herd," and des- 
 ignated a '' chosen few." Having used the term " clairvoy- 
 ance " in connection with my own earliest spiritual experi- 
 ences, I wish to define it in ray own case as applying to ex- 
 tended vision of three distinctly different, though closely 
 allied, varieties. The first evidence of my own clear vision, 
 which came to me so spontaneously and unexpectedly that 
 for a considerable season it caused me no astonishment 
 whatever, related to beholding a form of real, consistent 
 substantiality, existing on another plane of being than the 
 one usually termed terrestrial. This form was completely 
 and symmetrically human in every detail of outline, and 
 was attired in artistic dress, not foreign to ordinary worldly 
 convention, but vastly more beautiful and graceful than 
 the customary mortal dress fashionable in the sixties of the 
 nineteenth century, which included the crinoline and the 
 chignon. The second evidence of clairvoyance did not 
 refer to sight, even on the psychic or astral plane, as sight 
 is ordinarily understood, but to mental enlightenment or in- 
 tellectual illumination, and this, not only of a general but 
 also of a particular character, as the knowledge which en- 
 tered into my understanding related not only to topics of 
 usual information, but went deeply and precisely into 
 manifold details of private family history, and included 
 many revelations which brought great consternation to the 
 hearers when I reported my experiences, seeing that the 
 people among whom I was being reared were very desirous 
 of hiding from me many facts connected with my parents 
 of which my spirit mother undoubtedly wished me to be- 
 come aware. The third feature in my clairvoyance was 
 the actual predicting of coming events, and I use the term 
 "coming" in the precisest possible manner for the very 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 19 
 
 events I was led to foretell had, in many instances, actually 
 occurred in one sense, and were on their way to occurring 
 in yet another. A single example will illustrate. 
 
 My grandmother's sister in Lincolnshire had decided to 
 visit Sussex, but had not communicated her intention to 
 any one, though her mind was fully made up. Though I 
 had never seen my great -aunt, and had rarely heard her 
 mentioned, I distinctly saw her in the house where I was 
 then living, and accurately described her appearance, even 
 to the strings of the cap which she actually wore a few 
 weeks later when paying her sister a visit. Two questions 
 naturally arise at this point : First, how is it that we can 
 see people who may be thinking of us, or perhaps only of a 
 place we are inhabiting, when they are not consciously or 
 deliberately projecting their thought, or an astral likeness 
 of themselves, to us ? Second, how is it that we see articles 
 of wearing apparel which those persons may not be actually 
 wearing at the time when we behold them ? The follow- 
 ing reply may serve to elucidate, at least in part, the fore- 
 going mystery. When Herbert Spencer many years ago 
 criticised somewhat adversely the notion of clothing as per- 
 taining to the spirit world, he evidently overlooked a very 
 important consideration, to the effect that our clothing is all 
 mentally designed before it can be physically confected. 
 A new fashion in dress is impossible except as an outcome 
 of a new mental concept of apparel. Not only Sweden- 
 borg, but Shakespeare also, clearly illustrates the close con- 
 nection which must ever logically exist between the wearer 
 and the garment worn ; and in no case do we find the sug- 
 gestive doctrine more clearly taught by inference than in 
 the play of *' Hamlet," where the father of the Prince of 
 Denmark appears in spirit, clad in armor, at the very time 
 
20 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 when he is seeking to inspire his son to make war against 
 an uncle who has incurred the fierce displeasure of the dis- 
 carnate king. Not only do we clothe ourselves physically 
 in such raiment as becomes our immediate mental state, 
 but we often unconsciously supply, gratuitously, portraits 
 of ourselves doing things we intend to do, things, indeed, 
 which we have spiritually already done, and which we shall 
 certainly ultimate materially unless our plans are unexpect- 
 edly frustrated. It generally simplifies the mystery of prog- 
 nostication if we do but consider that seership is a faculty 
 which enables a seer or seeress to actually behold what exists 
 on a plane of ultimation prior to the physical. 
 
 As I grew from childhood to rather riper age, and in the 
 meantime attended schools and became interested in many 
 external pursuits and objects, my singularly spontaneous 
 mediumship became less prominent, and with the excep- 
 tion of an occasional prophetic dream of rare lucidity, 
 which always came as a needed warning, I gradually drifted 
 into a more prosaic state of life, from which I was suddenly 
 aroused by the presence of the world-renowned Cora L. V. 
 Richmond (then Mrs. Tappan) in England during the 
 seventies of the last century. When I was nearly fourteen 
 years of age, and a member of a church choir, Mrs. Tap- 
 pan greatly excited the population of Brighton, where I 
 was then residing, by her marvelous discourses and poems, 
 and singularly erudite replies to all kinds of questions, 
 which she claimed were not due to her own erudition, of 
 which she made no boast and to which she laid no claim, 
 but to the action through her instrumentality of a band of 
 guides who were ready to speak through her whenever 
 their services were in demand. May 24th, 1874, was, in- 
 deed, an eventful day in my history, for though my public 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 21 
 
 career as a lecturer and globe-trotter did not begin till 
 nearly three years later, it was on the evening of that beau- 
 tiful Whit-Sunday that I experienced the first thrill of con- 
 sciousness that it was my principal lifework to travel nearly 
 all over the earth, guided by unseen but not unknown in- 
 spirers, who would carry me safely over all tempestuous 
 oceans and protect me from all dangers by land if I would 
 but be faithful to the mission entrusted to me by wise and 
 kindly helpers. ^ I have always greatly disliked the word 
 "control," and I dislike it still, for in my ears it savors of 
 coercion, and I have never been coerced by my inspirers, 
 who have ever proved themselves faithful teachers, coun- 
 selors, and guides — veritable *' invisible helpers," to use 
 Leadbeater's felicitous expression, a title we may well ap- 
 ply to those numberless assistants who render multifold serv- 
 ices to us of which we are often quite unconscious, but 
 from which we derive inestimable benefit. 
 
 The record of my original introduction to the work of 
 inspirational speaking is now an oft -told tale ; in brief, I 
 may sum it up as follows : When I was walking home 
 after greatly enjoying Mrs. Tappan's wonderful eloquence, 
 I registered a vow that if any good and wise intelligences 
 in the unseen state would inspire me as they were wont to 
 inspire the marvelous lady who styled herself their ''in- 
 strument," I would most gladly take service with them and 
 go whithersoever their counsels led me. I earnestly de- 
 sired and confidently expected that inspiration would come 
 to me if it were genuine at all, and come it did that very 
 evening and within an hour from the time when I invoked 
 it. Had no obstacles been placed in my way, I should 
 have darted forth meteorically as a speaker before my four- 
 teenth birth anniversary, but my legal guardian refused to 
 
22 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 grant permission until I was at least two years older, though 
 she did not prevent my occasionally appearing at private 
 gatherings, nor was she able to deprive me of some won- 
 derful experiences of mesmeric or hypnotic character, 
 which opened my eyes in my early teens to many of the 
 marvels of psychology which are now demanding and receiv- 
 ing attention from distinguished savants the wide world 
 over. 
 
 Hypnotism and its dangers, like Spiritualism and its 
 dangers, is now being discussed at every turn, and I am 
 often greatly interested to hear discussions on these re- 
 condite themes, when the debaters are people of experi- 
 ence, but whose experiences have been largely unlike my 
 own. I do not presume to settle any question for my 
 neighbors, I merely speak in the first person singular when 
 I declare that I was never hypnotized against or even with- 
 out the full consent of my own will ; and as spiritualistic 
 literature abounds with references to the virtual identity of 
 hypnotic influence with spirit control, I deem it advisable 
 to bear personal testimony in this connection. Shortly 
 after my discovery that I could speak inspirationally, and 
 even be spoken through by an unseen intelligence, to 
 whose words, uttered through my lips, I could attend as a 
 quiet, interested listener, 1 made the acquaintance of a 
 brilliant young nobleman who was both an operatic singer 
 and a practicing psychologist. This young ''star" was 
 introduced to me as desiring to conduct some delicate 
 mesmeric experiments for which he needed the services of 
 a lucide, or natural clairvoyant; or failing to discover 
 any one who would entirely answer to the above descrip- 
 tion, he considered it highly probable that his experimen- 
 tation would be successful if he could meet a sensitive 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 23 
 
 young person who was thoroughly willing to yield to his 
 suggestive influence. My first ejaculation when the sub- 
 ject was broached to me that I might serve for the experi- 
 ments, was '^ I should be delighted, and feel sure they will 
 be successful." Though all the experiments were con- 
 ducted in strict privacy, so far as the general public were 
 concerned, many distinguished persons high in the learned 
 professions took active part in many of the most satis- 
 factory of them. It is not usually supposed, at least by 
 the uninitiated into psychic mysteries, that the words 
 passive and negative are quite as correctly qualified by the 
 terms wilfully and willingly as are positive and active. 
 We are frequently told that mediumship is impossible 
 without passivity, and such is doubtless the case, but vol- 
 untary rather than involuntary passivity or negativity con- 
 duces to the most reliable results. Operator and subject 
 are terms of double import, but such terms as sender and 
 receiver or transmitter and recipient are clearly not open 
 to valid objection, seeing that they in no way imply 
 enforced surrender of one individual to another. During 
 the nearly three years which intervened between my first 
 insight into my capabilities as an inspired lecturer and my 
 debut before a London audience, I had many opportuni- 
 ties for witnessing extraordinary phenomena, as I became 
 well acquainted with many prominent Spiritualists, who 
 treated me with great kindness and consideration and 
 placed many exceptional advantages at my disposal for 
 witnessing manifestations of all varieties. Some of these 
 appealed strongly to me, others did not. I had many 
 opportunities for sitting in circles with Williams, Heme, 
 Monck, Eglinton, and other extraordinary mediums, who, 
 at about that time, were either in the inception or at the 
 
24 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 zenith of their fame. Though I was told repeatedly that 
 I was a physical medium, and though I sat in many seances 
 where tables moved and furniture in general behaved 
 grotesquely, I never knowingly officiated as a physical 
 medium, though planchette has worked for me repeatedly 
 and automatic writing has been often with me quite an 
 every-day occurrence. During the greater part of 1877-8, 
 I was privileged to investigate the evidences of phenomenal 
 Spiritualism all over England. The most private gather- 
 ings were open to me, and I was times without number 
 privileged to sit with the most distinguished mediums 
 under thoroughly satisfactory test conditions ; but though 
 /I saw enough to convince me a thousand times over that 
 \some mysterious occult force was operating, and the 
 spiritualistic hypothesis alwaj^s seemed to me more reason- 
 able than any other, I do not think, with my peculiar and 
 naturally sceptical cast of mind, that I could ever have 
 been completely convinced of the truth of spirit-com- 
 munion had it not been for experiences of my own which 
 absolutely forced me as a rational individual to accept the 
 only sane conclusion. 
 
 When I first took the platform I felt very much as I 
 had often felt in more private places when voluntarily 
 obeying the silently expressed dictation of the talented 
 psychologist who could transmit to and through me any 
 information he desired to convey when I was in a suscep- 
 tible condition ; but though he declared that I was perfectly 
 his *' subject," and I was quite willing to be such, I could 
 not be induced by any professional mesmerist, or practic- 
 ing physician, who was engaged in the conduct of hypnotic 
 experiments, to receive or transmit anything, simply be- 
 cause I did not choose to make myself passive or sus- 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 25 
 
 ceptible. I remember well sitting on the platform in old 
 Doughty Hall (a Masonic edifice no longer in existence) 
 on Sunday evening, March 4th, 1877, and gazing out upon 
 a large concourse of people gathered to hear the "kitten 
 orator," as I had been called because of my youth, dis- 
 course on a subject to be selected by their own vote. A 
 hymn was sung to open a semi -religious service, and then 
 I rose and offered a prayer, the words of which formed 
 themselves in my mouth without forethought or conscious 
 volition of my own. After a second hymn the presiding 
 officer — the long celebrated James Burns, editor of the 
 Medium and Daybreak — announced in my hearing that 
 the youthful occupant of the platform was prepared to 
 discourse under inspiration on any theme the audience 
 might think proper to select. I heard this without the 
 slightest internal trepidation. I had become tense, callous, 
 self-assured, but completely confident that an intelligence 
 beyond my normal own would certainly render me entirely 
 equal to the occasion. A subject was quickly decided 
 upon by show of hands, and I rose to lecture. I spoke 
 unfalteringly for fully an hour, and resumed my seat unex- 
 cited and unfatigued. A third hymn was sung, and then 
 Mr. Burns called upon the audience to mention topics for 
 an impromptu poem. Three or four subjects were given, 
 and no sooner was a decision reached by the chairman as 
 to which topic had received the greatest show of hands, 
 than I rose for the third and last time that evening, and 
 heard myself reel off a number of verses as easily and 
 fluently as though I liad them well committed to memory, 
 though I am certain they were nowhere in print, and I was 
 listening to them for the first time. The report of that 
 memorable meeting created a great sensation those many 
 
26 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 years ago ; but events crowd thickly upon each other in 
 these days, and a new generation has risen since I was a 
 ''youthful prodigy," ''one of the marvels of the nine- 
 teenth century," and much else, according to the news- 
 papers, which I have long since forgotten. 
 
 Immediately after my appearance in London I was 
 called to all parts of England. I went as an inexperienced 
 child to places rough and smooth, aristocratic and un- 
 couth, clean and dirty, refined and vulgar, religious and 
 atheistic ; and wherever ^I went I found my unseen 
 prompters ready to help me in all emergencies and to pilot 
 me safely over many difficult and unpleasant places from 
 which I should certainly have shrunk had I seen before- 
 hand what awaited me. During the nineteen months of 
 my touring as a lecturer in England, between March, 1877, 
 and October, 1878, I certainly saw the world in a large 
 number of its varied phases, and though many episodes in 
 my career during that eventful period were extremely en- 
 joyable, as I met kind and true friends almost everywhere, 
 I could, without the slightest difficulty or exaggeration, un- 
 fold many a tale which might amuse or startle more than 
 it would edify the listeners. My constitution was not con- 
 sidered naturally robust and I had to encounter many 
 hardships from which many a stronger person would have 
 fled in dismay, but though I cannot say that I quite en- 
 joyed all the harsher features of my travels in all weathers 
 to all sorts of places, instead of succumbing I grew steadily 
 stronger physically as well as mentally, so that when I left 
 England for America near the close of October, 1878, my 
 constitution was quite equal to endure the strain of a sin- 
 gularly tempestuous, though not dangerous, ocean passage 
 and the rigors of a New England winter, to the severity 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 27 
 
 of which the fickle climate of Albion had never subjected 
 me. I well remember my departure from Liverpool for 
 unknown Boston across the wide Atlantic, whither I was 
 journeying entirely alone save for the clearly distinguished 
 presence of those faithful unseen helpers who never de- 
 serted me. 
 
 One of the clearest visions of my life attended me dur- 
 ing the night prior to my departure from Liverpool. I fell 
 asleep about 3 a. m., apparently as a result of fatigue fol- 
 lowing upon intense excitement, but my seership asserted 
 itself triumphantly in a manner which I was soon able to 
 verify, even to the minutest detail. I saw myself stand- 
 ing on a wide platform which was covered with thick red 
 carpet, in a great hall, with high windows on either side. 
 There was an organ in a choir gallery over the entrance 
 to this audience room, and surmounting the rostrum on 
 which I stood was a fine bust of the great New England 
 preacher, the famous Theodore Parker. In that hall I saw 
 a very fine audience numbering from 600 to 800 persons ; 
 and in the midst of the assembly the dignified figure of 
 Dr. J. M. Peebles, whom I had met in London some 
 months previously, loomed large before me. The vision 
 impressed itself indelibly on the tablet of my memory ; 
 then I fell into a dreamless slumber, which continued until 
 I was called to partake of my last breakfast in England for 
 many a year to come. On reaching America I found that 
 not only had my advent been heralded in the columns of 
 the Banner of Lights the oldest spiritualistic paper in the 
 world, but the friend who met me at the landing stage 
 (Robert Cooper, of Eastbourne, England, who was then a 
 prominent worker in America) informed me that Dr. 
 Peebles had just completed a lecture engagement in Parker 
 
28 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 Meaiorial Hall, and that he had announced me as his suc- 
 cessor, the committee having accepted me for that large 
 and prominent position on the good doctor's kindly rec- 
 ommendation, though I was only eighteen years of age and 
 entirely unknown to the directors of the Parker Hall lec- 
 tureship. No sooner had I landed in America than I was 
 quite at home on what was in no sense to me a foreign soil, 
 for there I heard the same language spoken, and, with 
 minor exceptions of no definite importance, soon discov- 
 ered that England and America are at least first cousins, 
 if not still nearer relatives. In Boston my work quickly 
 grew apace ; then I was called to New York, Philadelphia^ 
 and other mighty cities, not excepting Chicago, where I 
 filled Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond's platform for an ex- 
 tended period, while she was filling an engagement in Bos- 
 ton. Nearly five busy years had sped their course when, in 
 1883, I found myself again in England, taking up afresh 
 the work which I never laid down, but only temporarily 
 suspended when I was led to cross the ocean and become 
 a prominent worker in America. In 1884 I returned to 
 the United States, and in 1885 again revisited England. 
 During those years I accomplished a large amount of lit- 
 erary work in addition to extensive traveling and constant 
 lecturing. In 1886 I visited California for the first time, 
 and spent five delightful months on the sunny Pacific slope, 
 in which charming country I addressed daily audiences 
 often numbering many hundred persons, and saw wonder- 
 ful results from the practice of mental healing, of which I 
 had by that time become, and of which I still am, an un- 
 compromising, though I trust not a fanatical, advocate and 
 exponent. 
 
 At the close of a lecture which I delivered on a camp 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 29 
 
 ground bordering on Lake Merritt, adjacent to the city of 
 Oakland, California, a lady who had long been a cripple 
 handed her crutches to her husband, walked home, and 
 did not resume the use of artificial support subsequently. 
 This ** miracle " of healing took place unconsciously to me, 
 for I did not know there was a crippled woman in the as- 
 sembly. I do not claim any part in the accomplishment 
 of this marvel further than to declare that I was led to say 
 before I concluded my exposition of the philosophy of 
 healing, '* You can use your limbs if you determine to use 
 them, no matter how long they may have failed to serve 
 you." I had no idea that I was addressing anybody in 
 particular, and no member of the audience was more 
 greatly astonished than myself when the ''miracle" oc- 
 curred. My explanation of it is twofold ; I firmly believe 
 that there was an influence at work with that afflicted 
 woman beyond my consciousness, and I feel also con- 
 vinced that through her own auto-suggestive act she greatly 
 facilitated her recovery. This case is thoroughly authen- 
 ticated, and is now in print in the supplement to my old 
 standard work, "The Spiritual Science of Health and 
 Healing," under the heading, '-'Testimony of Mrs. Lily 
 Bothwell." 
 
 During that marvelous summer of 1886, which was in 
 some respects the most astounding in my whole career, I 
 received pressing invitations to visit Australia, from which 
 far-distant land cablegrams came to me in quick succession. 
 Nine years previously, at the very outset of my public work, 
 I had been assured by my unseen preceptors that there was 
 a great work for me to accomplish at the Antipodes after I 
 had crossed America, and I may here mention that 1 had 
 daringly announced in a London paper, in 1885, that I 
 
30 Autobiography of W. J. Col v ilk 
 
 was going to California in consequence of a communica- 
 tion to that effect having been written through my hand 
 when I had no earthly prospect of pursuing my westward 
 way further than New York and Boston. My disappoint- 
 ment was singularly keen when obstacles arose, mountain 
 high, to forbid my leaving America on the completion of 
 my first season in California. Duty called me back to 
 Boston, and reluctantly I obeyed its call, with heavy heart 
 and doubtful mind, for I was beginning to suspect that my 
 unseen directors had been in some way thwarted in their 
 plans for me, 1 having been solemnly assured by them that 
 I had a mission to fulfil in Australasia ; and now after a 
 way had plainly opened, the door had been ruthlessly 
 closed and by no voluntary act of mine. On the way back 
 across the American continent, when I paused to lecture in 
 St. Louis, a message came to me with unmistakable clear- 
 ness, ''You are going to Australia and New Zealand but 
 not just yet ! plans are ripening but not yet matured ; have 
 perfect confidence in your inspirers, for though there is a 
 seeming delay there has been no hitch in the arrangements." 
 ''But when shall I go?" I inquired eagerly. "We can- 
 not tell you just now ; you would think the time too long 
 did you foreknow its duration ; but rest content ; you are 
 going, and you will fill a large place while you reside there." 
 With that assurance I had to remain content, for I could 
 receive nothing further concerning the Southern Hemis- 
 phere though many directions were given me concerning 
 my continuous work in the Northern. For ten years I saw 
 nothing of England, and it was through the joint instru- 
 mentality of Lady Caithness, Duchesse de Pomar, in Paris, 
 and the special excursion of the World's Women's Chris- 
 tian Temperance Union from New York, in June, 1895, 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 31 
 
 that I revisited Europe after ten years' unbroken residence 
 in America. Those ten years had been very busy and 
 highly eventful ones ; my singular experiences during their 
 highly checkered course would fill many a bulky volume. 
 I had scoured America from Canada to the Gulf of Mex- 
 ico, and had met with warm receptions and enthusiastic 
 audiences everywhere, though let no one imagine that a 
 prominent public life means constant resting on a bed of 
 roses; roses abound but thorns are often their intimate 
 neighbors. I had produced a number of books, edited 
 several periodicals, and contributed many hundreds of arti- 
 cles to magazines, besides having written thousands of let- 
 ters to newspapers, in addition to musical work, before I 
 again set foot in England after my departure in 1885. 
 
 What first led me to turn my attention back to Europe 
 during the winter of 1894 was a psychic or telepathic in- 
 cident well worth repeating, though it has been previously 
 recorded. I well remember December 8th, 1894. On 
 that day, between 2:30 fair and 3 p. m., I was seated at 
 a desk in New York writing an article for a periodical 
 which demanded copy at short notice. I was scribbling 
 away at full speed, writing "against time" as literary 
 hacks describe the process, when I was suddenly arrested 
 by a vision of Lady Caithness, whom I had not seen for 
 over nine years, seated at an escritoire in a sumptuously 
 furnished boudoir, the most conspicuous feature of which 
 was a magnificent painting covering nearly the whole of 
 one side of the wall. This painting, which I saw dis- 
 tinctly in my vision, represented ''Jacob's Ladder," and I 
 remember being particularly impressed with the singular 
 beauty of the faces of the angels. Lady Caithness was 
 elaborately dressed, and engaged in writing to me; it 
 
32 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 seemed as though I could see ink falling from her pen on 
 to the paper, while she informed me of many interesting 
 events connected with the erection of her ducal palace, 
 "Holyrood," to which she had recently moved from the 
 fine old house in an older quarter of Paris, where she had 
 hospitably entertained me and where I had held several 
 conferences during 1884-5. The letter she was then 
 writing embodied the request that I should without delay 
 contribute an article for a periodical she was then editing, 
 and it also expressed a fervent hope that I should see my 
 way clear to accept her offer of an engagement to deliver 
 a course of lectures at ''Holyrood" during the ensuing 
 June. For nearly thirty minutes this vision continued with 
 me, and then, before the letter appeared finished, it sud- 
 denly vanished, and I resumed my interrupted article. I 
 went to Boston for Christmas, and while there, on Decem- 
 ber 24th, I received, among other letters from New York, 
 the identical letter from Lady Caithness, dated *' Paris, 
 December 8th," which I had beheld in my extremely 
 vivid vision. In the course of the letter I learned that it 
 was indited between 7:30 and 8:00 p. m., Paris time, 
 which is five hours ahead of New York, and therefore the 
 time coincidence was as nearly exact as it well could be. 
 
 I have been repeatedly asked to describe the difference 
 between telepathic and spiritual messages, and I frankly 
 confess that I have rarely been able to clearly distinguish 
 between them. And this statement suffices to introduce 
 a consideration which is in my opinion a matter of great 
 importance. Take, for example, Thomson Jay Hudson's 
 much-discussed theory of two minds and two memories. 
 Hudson avers that the subjective mind is the sole seat of 
 the telepathic faculty, and in his three celebrated books, 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 33 
 
 "The Law of Psychic Phenomena," "A Scientific Dem- 
 onstration of the Future Life," and *'The Divine Pedigree 
 of Man," he industriously undertakes to prove that, though 
 the objective mind with its memory may perish with the 
 decease of the physical organism, the subjective mind with 
 lits memory continues to live on in the life of immortality. 
 If this premiss is sound, then Hudson's conclusion, as put 
 forth in his curious article (February, 1902) in the Era, 
 a well-known American monthly, is quite unwarranted ; 
 and it is the height of absurdity on his part to declare 
 that Spiritualists are ''fighting in the last ditch," because 
 recent experiments in the ample field of psychical dis- 
 covery have abundantly proved the rehability of just such 
 telepathy as Hudson and many others intelligently vouch 
 for. My own experiences in numberless instances have 
 completely satisfied me that in nine out of any average ten 
 instances when psychic communion between friends can 
 be clearly demonstrated, it is almost impossible to discrimi- 
 nate exactly between a message received from a communi- 
 cant on earth and from one who has passed to the other 
 side of existence. What, indeed, is that ''other side" 
 but the side to which telepathy is indigenous ? And can 
 we afford to be sure that when we are functioning tele- 
 pathically we are not behaving just as we should continue 
 to behave were we suddenly divested of our material envel- 
 opes ? If the physical frame be but a sheath or vehicle 
 of the abiding entity, which is the true individual, then 
 all these fascinating evidences of thought transference, or 
 mental telegraphy or telephony, accumulating everywhere, 
 are but so many convincing proofs of the reality of our 
 spiritual nature in the here and now, which will prove 
 continuous in the hereafter and the future. Evidences of 
 
34 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 psychic presence and spiritual guidance having attended 
 my steps from infancy, I cannot speciaHze any particular 
 season when I have enjoyed the greatest number of dis- 
 tinct proofs of super-terrestrial guidance, but such have 
 always been most distinct and multiple when the need for 
 them has been greatest. 
 
 I will now select, almost at random, a few notably 
 striking instances of warning, guidance, and simply inter- 
 esting seership, which stand forth prominently in my recol- 
 lection as my thoughts revert to days gone by. 
 
 Once in California, when I had arranged to lecture in a 
 theatre in Los Angeles while I was yet in San Francisco, I 
 purchased a ticket and secured a berth on a steamer leav- 
 ing on a Thursday, and due at San Pedro, the port of 
 Los Angeles, by noon next Saturday. It was summer 
 weather and the coast steamers were almost invariably 
 punctual to schedule time. Feeling perfectly sure that I 
 should reach Los Angeles at least twenty-four hours before 
 I needed to appear in the theatre, I felt no apprehension, 
 after securing my tickets, as to fulfilling my engagement, 
 and therefore I was greatly surprised when, while walking 
 up Market Street, I heard a voice saying distinctly beside 
 me, '-'Change your ticket; go by train: boat will not 
 arrive till Monday." At first I paid no attention to this 
 strange admonition, and was simply perplexed to account 
 for its origin ; but after it had been twice repeated I re- 
 solved to run no risk of disregarding a valuable counsel, 
 and I therefore returned to the office where I had secured 
 my passage and changed my tickets from boat to rail, 
 despite the positive declaration of the booking agent that 
 the boats were always on time, and that I could rely on 
 meeting my engagement if I adhered to my first intention. 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 35" 
 
 Having procured a railway ticket in compliance with the 
 urgent request of the unseen monitor, I mentally asked, 
 ''What will cause the delay?" to which I received an 
 answer, clairaudiently, with great distinctness, ''Accident 
 to propeller ; no danger, but vessel will have to return for 
 repairs; it will arrive safely on Monday." On arrival in 
 Los Angeles on the Saturday morning, friends remonstrated 
 with me for having forfeited a pleasant water journey at 
 a season when boats were far preferable to trains in that 
 vicinity ; but I insisted that as I was announced to deliver 
 two lectures on the following day it was imperatively neces- 
 sary for me to arrive before the steamer, which I was 
 certain would be belated. Saturday and Sunday both 
 passed and no steamer arrived. I addressed two great 
 audiences before the boat finally got in on the Monday 
 morning, telling a tale of broken propeller and return to 
 port of departure for repairs. 
 
 Another incident of quite a different character, but none 
 the less phenomenal, even though less practically useful, 
 concerned an acquaintance I formed in London in 1897, 
 during a course of private midnight seances I was privi- 
 leged to attend at which conditions were exceptionally fine. 
 To accommodate the several professionals who were mem- 
 bers of the circle, we assembled twice a week at midnight 
 and continued our sittings till from 2 to 3 a. m. Our chief 
 focus of attraction was a huge crystal placed in the centre 
 of a large library table. The crystal was as large as an 
 ordinary globe for containing goldfish, and into this bril- 
 liant object we all quietly but intently gazed, with a view 
 to increasing concentratedness of thought and vision. 
 After we had become susceptible to psychic vision we let 
 our eyes close if they seemed so disposed, and we described 
 
36 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 whatever came before us. Among a multiplicity of telling 
 incidents connected with that circle, I remember describ- 
 ing accurately scenes then being enacted in a house in 
 Brighton occupied by the parents and other relatives of a 
 young army officer whose regiment was soon afterwards 
 ordered to India. Some months later, when this gentle- 
 man was in Calcutta and I in New York, I saw him as 
 plainly as though he were physically beside me, and on the 
 occasion of his birthday, when some friends presented him 
 with a handsome pair of ivory-backed military hair brushes 
 on which his monogram was richly chased in blue and 
 gold, I saw those articles as plainly as though he and I had 
 been actually in a room together, inspecting the birthday 
 presents. A letter which came to me from him a few 
 weeks later described those brushes precisely and contained 
 the words, *'I am sure you are receiving a telepathic des- 
 patch from me at this instant." 
 
 Though I have narratives to relate which would fill many 
 a volume, all illustrative of the great question of psychic 
 intercourse between friends yet on earth and those who 
 have *' passed over," as well as manifold descriptions of 
 most convincing telepathy where both parties have been 
 incarnate, I must reserve for future opportunities the nar- 
 ration of other striking incidents. But now that I have 
 rounded out nearly thirty years of public service, I 
 feel it a solemn duty as well as a high privilege to bear 
 unequivocal testimony to the always beneficial effect which 
 mediumship such as I have developed has had on me from 
 all standpoints. Mentally and physically I owe immensely 
 much to those very endowments and experiences which 
 mistaken people imagine are weakening to mind and body. 
 That there are dangers and drawbacks I do not deny, but 
 
Autobiography of W. J. Colville 37 
 
 through all my varied and protracted experiences on and 
 off the platform, for more than a quarter of a century, I 
 have invariably found that the directions given me from 
 /unseen helpers have been sound, elevating, and truthful to 
 ' the letter in all particulars ; while the telepathic incidents, 
 at which I have scarcely more than hinted, have been al- 
 j ways interesting, never mischievous, and invariably calcu- 
 i lated to throw bright light on many a mystic problem. 
 During the nearly two years which I spent south of 
 the Equator, I still pursued my way unflaggingly and un- 
 tiringly in all varieties of climate and in a great variety of 
 surroundings. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to friends, 
 seen and unseen, for the many tokens of their care and 
 kindness which have brightened all my journeyings and 
 rendered possible of accomplishment the widely extended 
 mission which took me to the Southern Hemisphere. 
 Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle, and 
 many smaller places in great Australia, I shall ever feel 
 united with as centres of work which I know has already 
 borne good fruit in numerous ways. Auckland, Welling- 
 ton, and Christchurch in picturesque New Zealand will al- 
 ways remain equally sacred in my memory. During all 
 my Antipodean wanderings I found my psychic faculties 
 fully as clear and as much in evidence as in other lands 
 where the Southern Cross is an unseen constellation. I 
 am now assured that my traveling days are not yet over, 
 and that I still have oceans to cross, and continents to 
 traverse, before I can honorably retire from active service, 
 if such retirement shall ever be my portion. The dangers 
 of Spiritualism are in my judgment greatly overrated, 
 while its blessings are often minimized ; for though I have 
 been since 1890 a member of the Theosophical Society, 
 
38 Autobiography of W. J. Colville 
 
 and my acquaintance and connection with the Mental 
 Science movement is a matter of pubUc knowledge, I wih.h 
 publicly, emphatically, and irrevocably to bear my testi- 
 mony to the irrefutable truth of spirit communion. With 
 the peculiar theories advocated by some Spiritualists I have 
 no sympathy ; and I dare say there are tricksy spirits, as 
 well as unreliable people on this side the mystic border ; 
 but though I must remain the ''free lance " I have ever 
 been, and work wherever I am called to operate, and there- 
 fore cannot pose as exclusively a Spiritualist, inclusively I 
 am as thoroughgoing an advocate of Spiritualism as any 
 of its most enthusiastic representatives. I owe nothing to 
 developing circles, and comparatively little to spiritualistic 
 literature, or to phenomenal mediumship of an objective 
 type ; therefore my assurance of Spiritualism's central claim 
 can never be weakened by any controversy which may rage 
 concerning dubious phenomena. I have seen the unmis- 
 takably genuine, the ambiguous, and the fraudulent, and 
 having seen so much I am prepared to testify to this effect, 
 irrevocably — that Spiritualism is based on truth, and no 
 matter how many barnacles may have to be swept from 
 such institutions as are devoted to its special advocacy, the 
 twentieth century must and will witness a spiritual reveal- 
 ing for which all the wonders of the nineteenth, stupen- 
 dous though they have been, have only paved the way. 
 
Universal Spiritualism 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE QUESTION OF SPIRIT IDENTITY 
 
 The vexed question of spirit identity is one which is al- 
 ways liable to occasion considerable discussion, chiefly by 
 reason of the fact that what appears thoroughly conclusive 
 to some types of mind seems inconclusive to others. It is, 
 therefore, necessary to approach this immebse and vital 
 subject not only entirely free from prejudice, but also for- 
 tified with clear understanding of the actual worth of the 
 various theories now submitted for popular acceptance as 
 substitutes for what is often termed the spiritualistic hy- 
 pothesis. 
 
 We are often asked whether it is possible for us to ex- 
 plain clearly how we discriminate between telepathic and 
 spiritistic messages. Frankly, we admit that it is often 
 quite beyond our present ability to discriminate completely 
 between them, but this lack of ability always to discrimi- 
 nate, far from weakening the testimony favorable to simple 
 Spiritualism, only necessitates a reconsideration of the en- 
 tire problem of our human constitution before we attempt 
 to formulate an inclusive theory to explain the entire bulk 
 of our diversified psychic experiences. A very large num- 
 ber of thoughtful readers have been much impressed by 
 Thomson Jay Hudson's five celebrated books: ''The 
 
 39 
 
40 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Law of Psychic Phenomena," " A Scientific Demonstration 
 of the Future Life," ''The Divine Pedigree of Man," 
 '* The Law of Mental Medicine," and *'The Evolution of 
 the Soul," in which the hypothesis known as the dual 
 theory of the human mind is very fully and forcibly ex- 
 pounded. Professor Hudson, in common with many other 
 able writers, labors to some extent under a burden of pre- 
 conception adverse to Spiritualism, which often mars the 
 beauty and consistency of his otherwise excellent literary 
 work. /The evidence for telepathy which this author puts 
 forward is very strong and in some instances unimpeach- 
 able, but the alleged evidence against Spiritualism is 
 rationally inadmissible, because it is of a singularly nega- 
 tive and supposititious character. We must face our prob- 
 lem bravely, not attempting to disguise the fact that dur- 
 ing the past several years much evidence has accumulated 
 in favor of simple telepathy which some over-enthusiastic 
 Spiritualists may have been liable to undervalue because 
 it has been erroneously supposed that, if accepted, it would 
 tend against the interests of the cause which is nearest of 
 all to their hearts. A better understanding of telepathy, 
 and a fuller comprehension of what is logically involved in 
 Hudson's "two minds" theory, may serve to set many 
 doubters at rest. We must not forget that the title of 
 Hudson's second book is utterly misleading and an entire 
 misnomer, if the evidences of telepathy prove communion 
 between friends on earth but throw no light on the condi- 
 tion of those who have '' crossed the border." / The author 
 persistently claims that of our two minds, which he per- 
 sistently designates objective and subjective, the former 
 (perishes at the time of physical dissolution, but the latter 
 /lives on and finds a sphere for fuller and more perfect 
 
The Question of Spirit Identity 41 
 
 functioning than it ever enjoyed on earth. ; This theory 
 accounts for telepathy as a sort of foretaste of the method 
 of communion between friendly entities which will prevail 
 unceasingly in the future life. The only flaw that we have 
 been able to detect in Hudson's chain of reasoning is the 
 poor opinion he seems to entertain of the moral integrity 
 of the subjective mind, coupled with the utterly founda- 
 tionless assertion that overwhelming evidence of unre- 
 stricted telepathy will drive Spiritualists, ere long, even out 
 of that ''last ditch" in which they are now desperately 
 fighting (according to Hudson) to save a lost cause and 
 rescue a forlorn hope. 
 
 Reasonable identification of telepathy with direct spirit- 
 communion, instead of introducing a new perplexity and 
 further complicating an already complicated situation, in- 
 troduces us for the first time to an orderly, harmonious, 
 and easily comprehended interpretation of many analogous 
 facts and parallel experiences which have long perplexed 
 the average student of psychic phenomena, though there 
 have always been singularly luminous exponents of mental 
 and spiritual science and philosophy, who have gone a 
 long distance on the road which must lead eventually to 
 universal understanding of man as a spiritual being. 
 
 We have frequently been asked to define clearly wherein 
 consists the difference between a message received from a 
 friend yet on earth, and a similar communication from one 
 who has ''passed over." Spiritualistic literature has 
 largely been encumbered with two oft-repeated phrases, 
 "spirit return" and "spirits coming back to earth." 
 These phrases are to a large extent misleading, for, though 
 there are instances where such language may accurately 
 and adequately describe the nature of certain manifesta- 
 
42 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 lions, such expressions do not by any means correctly 
 serve to describe the actual experiences of the great ma- 
 jority of seers and seeresses of ancient or modern times. 
 Intromission to the spiritual state is a phrase full of deep 
 significance, and, were it used more frequently, it would 
 serve to elucidate many a problem of clairvoyance, clair- 
 audience, clairsentience, and psychometry. Professors 
 Denton and Buchanan, in their learned dissertations con- 
 cerning psychometry, illustrated by numerous recitals of 
 personal experience, have insisted that a true psychometer 
 perceives the aura of an object, and can at times distinctly 
 see into the spirit-world and become consciously en rap- 
 port with denizens thereof. Such quickened perception 
 may fairly be considered as in some degree an anticipation 
 of the means of intercourse we shall enjoy one with 
 another when we have bade farewell to our robes of flesh. 
 We may surely claim that if we are called upon to iden- 
 tify those intelligent beings with whom we are in commu- 
 nication, we must apply the same laws of evidence to this 
 matter as to questions of individual identification when 
 only mundane matters are involved. To identify a fellow- 
 being in any world is not always easy, and indeed it often 
 is found to be extremely difficult when we rely solely on 
 outward tests. '^The hands are the hands of Esau, but 
 the voice is the voice of Jacob " is a vivid Scriptural in- 
 stance of the extreme difficulty experienced by an ancient 
 patriarch in deciding which of his two sons was actually 
 in his presence. The blindness of Isaac is easily typical 
 of the condition in which most people are found when 
 some sort of deception is successfully practiced upon them. 
 Evidences of two kinds are presented together. One set 
 of evidences appeal to feeling, the other to intelligence. 
 
The Question of Spirit Identity 43 
 
 We judge people very often by outward appearances which 
 we subsequently find to have been altogether deceptive, 
 and if it be admitted in any degree that there are deceiv- 
 ing spirits who sometimes visit us, we are obviously placed 
 in precisely the same position with reference to them as 
 with regard to persons yet on earth who play us false be- 
 cause we are open to deception. The difficulties attending 
 spirit identification are not necessarily greater than those 
 surrounding the identity of persons who are yet encased in 
 mortal garments. 
 
 No purely external tests are always valid. Indeed, to 
 place extreme reliance upon such alone is to encourage 
 swindling, and play into the hands of forgers who are 
 usually very capable of simulating perfectly the outward 
 garb of those they seek to personate. Testimonials, refer- 
 ences, and letters of introduction constitute no infallible 
 criteria, as these may all be counterfeit or stolen. The 
 only sure way to identify any one absolutely is by culti- 
 vating psychic perceptiveness, and this is more apt to be 
 strongly developed in highly sensitive persons than in any 
 others. Deception is, however, less likely to be practiced 
 on the spiritual than on the material side of existence, be- 
 cause the motive to deceive is far less strong. Expectation 
 of worldly gain urges most deceivers on earth to ply their 
 nefarious vocation, and it may be safely assumed that at 
 least ninety per cent, of all deception would vanish from 
 the earth if no financial or other ulterior gain could accrue 
 from it. To palm oneself off as another would be object- 
 less folly in which very few people would care to indulge 
 did they not think they saw in such deception a means 
 for self-enrichment or aggrandizement. 
 
 It may with some fairness be assumed that when com- 
 
44 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 municating intelligences who display only very meagre in- 
 telligence profess to be very celebrated and illustrious per- 
 sonages, they may be hankering for the incense of adula- 
 tion, but when no great names are given and no pretentious 
 claims are made, it is difficult to see what reason could be 
 fairly given for simply stupid masquerading or deliberate 
 misrepresentation of any sort. We know from experience 
 that auto-suggestion on the part of the alleged recipient 
 of a spiritual communication may account for some in- 
 stances of falsification, especially when such self-deception 
 tends largely to self-glorification or the gratifying of per- 
 sonal vanity. A great drawback to untainted spirit-com- 
 munion is the prejudice and vanity of many sensitives, but 
 this very foolishness on their part sometimes serves to re- 
 veal an aspect of truth which is frequently neglected, viz., 
 that there may be perfect sincerity and frankness on the 
 side of the unseen communicator, while the person to 
 whom the communication is made may be the sole sug- 
 gester of the deceptive element. 
 
 A lady in one of the Southern States of America de- 
 clared that she was in direct communion with George 
 Washington, the first President of the United States ; but 
 her friends as a rule laughed at her claim, because by 
 means of automatic writing through the lady's hand, and 
 by means of trance speaking through her lips, <' George 
 Washington " expressed himself most ungrammatically and 
 in negro dialect. On a notable occasion when "George 
 Washington" was speaking through this lady's medium- 
 ship, he was distinctly seen by a fine clairvoyant who had 
 been invited to a seance, and at the conclusion of the ad- 
 dress this seeress described what she had witnessed during 
 its delivery, which was the presence of a very decided 
 
The Question of Spirit Identity 45 
 
 African of Ethiopian tint and cast of feature, and who ap- 
 peared strongly attached to the lady through whose me- 
 diumship he had been able to deliver a lengthy message. 
 On being requested to describe all she saw, the seeress 
 went on to give particulars of a venerable old servant who 
 had been named '' George Washington," who had been a 
 faithful retainer of the family prior to the Emancipation 
 Proclamation issued in 1865, and had in that year steadily 
 refused to accept his freedom, as he dearly loved the old 
 estate and was devotedly attached to his master and mis- 
 tress, parents of the lady through whom he was then able 
 to communicate and whom he had often nursed during her 
 earliest girlhood, ere he passed to spirit life, when she was 
 not over eight years of age. That simple incident served 
 to explain the entire problem, and it afforded a thoroughly 
 rational explanation of a phenomenon belonging to a class, 
 by no means uncommon in America, which have led to 
 denunciations of fraud where none existed — theories of 
 wicked personating spirits, and many other vagaries of un- 
 balanced judgment — to say nothing of the would-be clever 
 remark made by people who were more "smart" than 
 wise, that it must be a terrible thing to die if in our post 
 mortem condition we so quickly and sadly deteriorate. 
 An instance like the foregoing will bear thorough sifting, 
 and it is surely much easier to explain such an instance in 
 the light of direct spirit communion than by straining an 
 auto-suggestive or telepathic hypothesis to the breaking 
 point to invent an improbable, in place of a probable, in- 
 terpretation. Had the lady referred to suggested the mat- 
 ter to herself she would certainly have been fairly gram- 
 matical, as she was a comparatively well-educated woman, 
 and not being a negress she would not have clothed an 
 
46 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 imaginary message from George Washington, as she con- 
 ceived of him, in negro dialect. Admitting telepathy, 
 mental telegraphy, or telephony, or aught else that is in 
 any measure psychical, nothing can well be more likely 
 than that a good old negro who had been for many years 
 a faithful servant to the family residing on that particular 
 estate, should seek an avenue of communion with it 
 through the agency of a member to whom he had been 
 greatly attached just before he passed into the realm of 
 spirit. 
 
 It is doubtless true that many spirits leave the earth and 
 all pertaining to it, very shortly after the demise of the 
 physical body, while others remain closely connected with 
 the scenes of their earth existence, not because they are 
 earth-bound in the sense of being unhappy creatures who 
 cannot, on account of their sensual vices, rise above the 
 mundane level, but because their affections still cling to 
 persons and places with which they have enjoyed pleasing 
 associations up to the latest moment of their terrestrial ex- 
 istence. » Andrew Jackson Davis, as well as Swedenborg, 
 and many other gifted seers, have said much concerning 
 the many spheres in this solar system encircling the various 
 planets, which have often been numbered from one to 
 seven, and then again divided and subdivided into circles 
 within circles, like wheels within wheels in Ezekiel's vi- 
 sions ; and those who have become strongly attracted to such 
 teaching — and their name is legion — have brought forward 
 the revelations of these prophets to disavow the declaration, 
 made from a somewhat different standpoint, that multitudes 
 of spirits cannot return to earth as they have not yet taken 
 their departure from this planet's immediate atmosphere, 
 or even from the exact localities where a large portion of 
 
The Question of Spirit Identity 47 
 
 their earthly days were spent in work or amusements in 
 which they took a decided interest. 
 
 When indulging in personal reminiscences, I often narrate 
 an instance of what seems to me clear evidence of spirit 
 identity. When I was in Austraha, in 1 900-1, I fre- 
 quently employed the services of a bright, enterprising 
 young man, who was an excellent typist, and to whom I 
 dictated portions of several books and numerous magazine 
 articles. Before taking my last earthly farewell of this 
 young gentleman, on the eve of his departure for New- 
 Guinea, whither he went to occupy a post of trust and in- 
 fluence, he said to me that he hoped when I returned to 
 England he might accompany me on the ocean, as he 
 much desired, though by birth an Australian, to visit the 
 Mother Country, which, though 12,000 miles distant, is 
 invariably called "home" by Australasians. My reply 
 was that though I could not definitely foresee my own 
 plans for the near future, and could, therefore, promise 
 nothing, I held myself in full readiness to fall in with his 
 wishes should opportunity occur to favor the carrying out 
 of the project. Shortly after his arrival in New Guinea in 
 full possession of health, and seemingly of vigorous con- 
 stitution, he caught the local fever, and in three days he 
 had made his exit from the mortal body. I cannot say 
 that he was very frequently in my thoughts, or that his loss 
 would seem to me irreparable ; still there was a link of 
 sympathy between us which evidently made it possible for 
 him to manifest his presence to me on more than one oc- 
 casion during three distinct stages of my voyage from Syd- 
 ney, via New Zealand and across America, to England. 
 The first time he attempted to make himself known to me 
 was between Sydney and Auckland, but as I was seldom 
 
48 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 alone during the four brief days that voyage occupied 1 
 cannot remember any very definite evidence of his identity, 
 though I was fully conscious of his presence. The second 
 visit which I know he made me was en route to California, 
 when I had a large cabin to myself on the So7W7na and 
 not being much acquainted with any of my fellow passen- 
 gers I had many opportunities for quiet silence and unin- 
 terrupted meditation. I well remember distinctly feeling 
 the presence of my young friend with me, just as I had 
 known him in Australia, and so real and tangible was the 
 sense of that presence that it seemed exactly as though 
 another person was sharing the cabin with me. I was 
 quite awake, perfectly calm, and fully able to determine 
 all he said to me, and yet I am certain I heard nothing 
 with my external ears except the motion of the vessel pass- 
 ing through the water. Not only did I feel, or sense, his 
 presence, but he gave me information concerning his situa- 
 tion in New Guinea, and the circumstances of his life 
 there, which I subsequently learned, through corre- 
 spondence with a mutual acquaintance, were correct in 
 every detail. On the third occasion, when I as strongly 
 realized his presence, I was nearing Plymouth on my voy- 
 age from New York in February, 1902, and on that occa- 
 sion he gave me information concerning his present state 
 and occupation, and told me several things in regard to my 
 own near future, which have since been fully verified. 
 Such definite, direct, and truthful communications cer- 
 tainly do not proceed from lying spirits, nor do they em- 
 anate from my own sub-self, whose reputation for veracity 
 and sanity I am naturally interested to maintain ; and 
 when 1 speak a good word for m.y own subjective mind — 
 which is to live hereafter when my objective mind has per- 
 
The Question of Spirit Identity 49 
 
 ished — I stand up equally for the corresponding sub-selves 
 or subjective minds of all my neighbors. It is immeas- 
 urably more rational to maintain a reasonable spiritualistic 
 version of such facts as I have just related than to invent, 
 and uphold at all hazard, a contradictory and extremely 
 complicated theory of the mysteries of telepathy, which 
 serves to befog far more than to enlighten rational inquir- 
 ers. In seeking to reply definitely to the very natural in- 
 quiry whether there is any marked difference in appearance 
 between the psychic, or astral, body of a person yet on 
 earth, and of one who has parted company with earthly 
 raiments, I venture to suggest that only when the factor of 
 clairvoyance is added to telepathy is this clearly deter- 
 minable. Usually the appearance to psychic vision of one 
 who has left the flesh is more ethereal than that of one who 
 is still connected with it, but when only a sense of pres- 
 ence is realized, and intelligence is inwardly communicated, 
 it is often impossible to decide whether the despatch in 
 question is being received from a friend yet on earth or 
 from one who is more frequently designated a '' spirit." 
 
 Unnecessary difficulties in the way of rational spiritual 
 identification are created by many persons who evidently 
 mistake identity which pertains to abiding individuality for 
 the most external incidences of ever-fluctuating exterior 
 personality. Such questions are often raised as, ' ' If you 
 see my father can you describe his appearance ? does he 
 wear a beard? how is he dressed ? " and much else of the 
 same almost ridiculous character. A little sober reflection 
 must convince the veriest tyro that such questions, an- 
 swered one way or another, cannot determine identity. 
 We all know that fashions alter and habits change with 
 wonderful rapidity, and it is by no means difficult for a 
 
50 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 man to remove a full beard in a few moments, or let one 
 grow in a few weeks, thereby completely altering one 
 aspect of his appearance. Black hair easily turns white, 
 stout persons grow thin, and slender persons become stout, 
 very frequently, while changes wrought by passing years 
 and varying emotions frequently suffice to render old pho- 
 tographs, once speaking likenesses, no longer discernible, 
 unless to the acutest students of physiognomy. It is, how- 
 ever, continually declared that clairvoyants see our spirit 
 friends as they were when we last beheld them or as they 
 appeared when we were most intimately associated with 
 them. And such testimony, founded as it often is on actual 
 fact, needs to be interpreted in the light of other knowl- 
 edge than that obtainable by simple and often mysterious 
 clairvoyance. Astral pictures are often beheld in the air 
 of old houses, where certain people have lived long periods, 
 and to which they have become greatly attached, and 
 these psychic photographs are often mistaken for the actual 
 presence of departed spirits by persons who rely on sight 
 as evidence apart from feeling or manifest intelligence. A 
 fact in my own experience may serve to illustrate two 
 features of this portion of the subject of spirit identity. 
 
 Some years ago I was sojourning in an old country 
 house which had been the abiding place of a single family 
 ever since its erection. The room assigned me as a sleep- 
 ing apartment had, as I afterwards learned, been for many 
 years the special working and reading room of a maiden 
 aunt who had been quite a second mother to the family. 
 In that room she had spent a great part of her time during 
 her latest years on earth, and one of her favorite occupa- 
 tions was knitting stockings by the fire. For four nights in 
 succession, during my occupancy of that room, did I see 
 
The Question of Spirit Identity 51 
 
 that quiet elderly lady, with knitting in her hands, seated 
 before a fire in the grate, which was at that season of the 
 year filled with a summer ornament. At first I thought I 
 must be actually in communion with the kindly, placid 
 dame, and that she might have a message to convey 
 through me to some member of the household ; but, con- 
 centrate my thoughts and attention intently as I could 
 upon the vision, I could detect no animation, nor could I 
 receive even the faintest intimation of intelligence. The 
 people with whom I was residing were not at all averse to 
 Spiritualism, and when I told them exactly what I had 
 seen four nights in succession in that particular bedroom, 
 they all agreed that it was an exact description of their 
 aunt, even to the smooth bands of brown front hair, and 
 the cap with lilac satin ribbons tied under the chin ; but 
 they, in common with myself, wondered why, if I could 
 see their aunt so clearly, I never saw her move and could 
 obtain no impression of her intelligence. On the fifth 
 night of my occupancy of that apartment I experienced a 
 totally diff'erent sensation in connection with the same 
 apparition, which I again beheld stationary and unrespon- 
 sive as before ; but on this occasion, hovering over the 
 astral picture I beheld a radiant, youthful form bearing a 
 certain family resemblance to the abiding simulacrum, but 
 instinct with the fire and energy of active life and oper- 
 atmg intelligence. Contemporaneously with this new addi- 
 tional experience, information clearly flowed into some 
 receptacle of my consciousness, causing me to become 
 aware that the original of the portrait desired her nieces 
 and nephews to find in her old writing desk certain papers 
 she had written long ago and which she desired should be 
 revised, edited, and published. Following the minute 
 
52 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 directions given me by this guiding intelligence, I accom- 
 panied several members of the family to a lumber room in 
 which many discarded articles of furniture had long been 
 stored ; and there among them stood an ancient escritoire, 
 in which we found a completed story setting forth a roman- 
 tic and highly edifying history of marvelous episodes in 
 what the world would doubtless have looked upon as a 
 secluded and uneventful career. After this startling con- 
 firmation of the veracity of my vision, we formed a private 
 family circle for further investigation, and thereat, by 
 means of automatic writing, supplemented by clairvoyance, 
 we verified many extraordinary statements made by this 
 living relative of the family, who assured us that she was 
 no longer sitting by a fire engaged in knitting, but most 
 actively employed in spiritual occupations, which did not, 
 however, alienate her in the least from her old associates 
 but, on the contrary, kept her in close vital touch with all 
 of them, though in a subtler and more ethereal manner 
 than before she had quitted the material frame. 
 
 Another interesting experience of my own dates back 
 to the autumn of 1899, shortly before my first visit to 
 Australia. I had long known Mrs. Emma Hardinge 
 Britten, but my first interview with her was in 1877, at a 
 lecture delivered in Manchester, when she was a middle- 
 aged woman, dressed in much the same style as she con- 
 tinued to adopt till she finally withdrew from the public 
 platform. Since her passing to spirit life, this earnest 
 worker has occasionally made herself distinctly known to 
 me, both on and off the platform, and in November, 1899, 
 I distinctly saw, in connection with a most forceful real- 
 ization of her close proximity, the Hkeness of a radiant 
 maiden with light golden curls, somewhat resembling the 
 
The Question of Spirit Identity 53 
 
 earliest pictures of Mrs. Richmond when she was Cora 
 Hatch, but in no way suggesting Mrs. Britten to me by the 
 appearance. I never could have understood that vision 
 had I not visited Mrs. Wilkinson (Mrs. Britten's sister), 
 about a month later, and, while her guest in Manchester, 
 been shown a picture taken many years ago, representing 
 Emma Hardinge in youthful costume as ''Queen of the 
 Fairies." This picture represents the young lady who 
 afterwards became Mrs. Britten with flaxen ringlets, and 
 in every way precisely as she showed herself to me on the 
 occasion of my vision. Had I suggested to myself a 
 similitude of Mrs. Britten, I should certainly have con- 
 jured up from the depths of memory a likeness of her as I 
 had known her; and when I interrogated her spiritually 
 through the mediumship of automatic writing, subsequent 
 to beholding the portrait at Mrs. Wilkinson's, the follow- 
 ing message was communicated : ''I knew you were going 
 to my sister's ; therefore, I wished to give you a singular 
 test of my identity, which I find I have succeeded in 
 doing ; and there is another reason why I showed myself 
 to you thus — I wished to impress you with the knowledge 
 that I can now show myself in various forms to my friends, 
 and my present appearance far more closely resembles that 
 of my youth on earth than that of my later age." 
 
 '' How do we know each other here ? " is quite as grave 
 a question as ''Shall we know each other there?" I re- 
 member some years ago, in New York, being asked by a 
 mutual friend to meet a gentleman who was returning to 
 America after ten years' residence in Germany, and who 
 was described to me from a portrait as a slender man with 
 jet black hair. And such he doubtless was when he em- 
 barked for Germany, but during the decade of years he 
 
54 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 had spent in Europe, he had grown decidedly corpulent 
 and his hair had become positively white. I nevertheless 
 knew him by instinct, though I had never met him pre- 
 viously, and I accosted him by name, greatly to his sur- 
 prise, directly he had left the steamer. Had I been slar- 
 ishly governed by my physical senses instead of trusting 
 to some surer and subtler faculty of discernment, I should 
 certainly have failed to acknowledge him, so greatly did 
 he differ in appearance from the description I had been 
 given of him. We cannot expect that when we change in 
 outward aspects thus rapidly on earth, we shall remain 
 stationary in external aspect in the world of spirits. There 
 is, however, this to be said concerning relatively fixed ap- 
 pearance in the life beyond. We are not there, as here, 
 so greatly affected by outward climate, and outer appear- 
 ance changes only as it indicates alterations in our interior 
 state. Such is the unanimous and unfaltering verdict of 
 spiritual testifiers wherever they have made their presence 
 known. 
 
 And now, finally, concerning the weighing of evidence 
 in the scales of reason. We may certainly maintain in the 
 face of all opposition that every individual communication 
 should be judged on its particular merits, and neither be 
 accepted nor rejected on the merits or demerits of any 
 other submitted message. We cannot believe, unless we 
 part company with reason, that we are victims of stupid 
 or wicked deception in cases where the teachings given 
 are of the highest moral import, and where the informa- 
 tion offered is proved correct in every detail as far as we 
 can possibly verify it. The crude and intricate theories 
 now afloat to discredit evidence of spirit intercourse are 
 far more difficult and far less probable than the plain sat- 
 
The Question of Spirit Identity 55 
 
 isfactory conclusion long ago reached by all intelligent and 
 dispassionate int^uirers — that we do on many occasions re- 
 ceive convincing proof of the identity of communicating 
 spirits. In conclusion, let us look for an instant at the 
 mental characteristics of a few of the typical students of 
 psychic phenomena who during recent years have become 
 thoroughly satisfied that in many instances, though not in 
 all, proof positive of spirit identity has been obtained. 
 Professor Hodgson and Mr. Myers were thoroughly satis- 
 fied at length, through Mrs. Piper's mediumship and that 
 of other sensitives ; and so were Miss Lihan Whiting and 
 Rev. Minot J. Savage, as well as many other representa- 
 tive and cautious investigators. These famous persons 
 had nothing to gain and possibly something to lose, by 
 outspoken advocacy of Spiritualism ; and in the case of 
 Dr. Savage it is well known that his tendency of thought 
 was decidedly agnostic, and for many years during his 
 popular ministry in Boston he was largely a champion and 
 exponent of the philosophy of Herbert Spencer. It is dif- 
 ficult to see why people should prefer the devil to their 
 own friends who have passed beyond the mystic portals, 
 and it surely cannot be easier for normal intellects to be- 
 lieve in imaginary evil demons, of whom we know practic- 
 ally nothing, except on unsupported hearsay, than in the 
 presence and activity of the very people whom we have 
 known on earth as real personages, and who reappear with 
 their own well-known characteristics. Telepathy and all 
 other demonstrable phases of psychic phenomena, must be 
 freely admitted by every student of psychic science, and 
 it has now become the imperative duty and solemn privi- 
 lege of all who have knowledge in this direction to eluci- 
 date as far as possible the truthful doctrine of the close re- 
 
56 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 semblance and intimate relation of telepathy to Spiritual- 
 ism. Simple telepathy throws much clear light on our 
 present spiritual abilities, and spirit communion transcends 
 mundane telepathic experience by carrying telepathy across 
 the unseen border into those sympathetic realms of spirit- 
 ual activity where the powers and functions of our ''sub- 
 selves " or " subjective minds " are more fully unfolded and 
 more freely and extensively exercised than they seemingly 
 ever can be during terrestrial embodiment. Let us be 
 open to all classes of evidence, and construct theories to 
 account for facts, but never seek to squeeze facts into 
 grooves of premeditated theory. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 
 
 To the searcher of ancient records who endeavors to 
 diligently compare the views entertained by philosophers 
 of remote antiquity with those of the present time, the 
 truth of the famous saying, *' There is nothing new under 
 the sun," is forced home with remarkable force of dem- 
 onstration, for notwithstanding the claims for novelty and 
 the boasts of originality which meet a student at every 
 turn, whenever we candidly compare the newest theories 
 with the oldest, we soon discover that the new are very 
 old and the old are very new. 
 
 This discovery, far from disheartening, should greatly 
 encourage our endeavors to find a common basis for phi- 
 losophy rooted deeply in the essential constitution of hu- 
 manity, therefore capable of subsisting through all ages 
 and reappearing on the surface of human thought period- 
 ically, as wave after wave of spiritual excitement testifies 
 to the working of a cyclic law in the history of human 
 progress. 
 
 Spiritual philosophy is truly Spiritualism as properly dis- 
 tinguished from Materialism and Agnosticism, its only two 
 serious competitors. Spiritual philosophers base all their 
 conclusions upon certain fundamental premises, first 
 among which is the cardinal postulate of spirit. 
 Whether infinite intelligence or any other specific term 
 be now employed to designate the absolute reality, the 
 fundamental premise must always be an acknowledgment 
 
 57 
 
58 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 of INFINITE ETERNAL LIFE, supreme consciousiiess, beyond 
 all comprehension, yet surely apprehended by human in- 
 tuition and revealed in measure to human understanding. 
 
 It is idle to speculate concerning the Unconditioned 
 ABSOLUTE, as we are living in realms of relativity and can 
 only deal with finite concepts and limited experiences, 
 yet are we compelled to predicate the illimitable, no matter 
 whether we name the Infinite or leave the Infinite un- 
 named. 
 
 Herbert Spencer, who is always ranked as a foremost 
 agnostic, did not hesitate to say that philosophers had al- 
 ways been divided into schools of Materialists and Spirit- 
 ualists, some interpreting universal phenomena in terms of 
 Spirit, others in terms of Matter. 
 
 It is not the object of the writer of these pages to enter 
 upon any labored endeavor to refute materialistic state- 
 ments seriatim, but rather to present in consecutive order, 
 as far as possible, some reasons for faith in the spiritual 
 nature of the universe which render invalid all denial or 
 negation of human immortality. And even should it be 
 contended that no philosophy explains all facts or solves 
 all problems, granting that such an assertion be correct, 
 the acceptance of its verity by no means necessitates our 
 acceptance of a philosophy which accounts for fewer in- 
 stead of embracing one which explains satisfactorily a 
 much larger number of the facts with which we are all 
 compelled to wrestle, if we seek to solve the problem of 
 existence with the aid of any working hypothesis. 
 
 We find ourselves in an objective world, but in a sub- 
 jective region also. We experience much through our 
 five external senses which, however, we can by no means 
 limit, therefore such terms as clairvoyance, clairsentience. 
 
Ancient and Modern Spiritual Philosophy 59 
 
 psychometry, and other words coined to express our con- 
 sciousness of enlarged perceptions and experiences, are 
 quite as much a part of a legitimate vocabulary as the 
 much commoner words, sight, hearing, feeling and other 
 terms universally employed to designate experiences of 
 which all average human beings in normal condition are 
 unmistakably conscious. 
 
 Nothing can be more self-evident than that our range of 
 observation is practically limitless, for no one can decide 
 how much wider or narrower may be another's range of 
 observation than his own. We speak glibly enough of five 
 senses, and talk of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell, 
 and unless some of us are abnormally deficient in common 
 faculties we all understand well enough what is meant by 
 the terms we so familiarly employ. But when asked how 
 much do we see, hear, taste, touch or smell, an amazing 
 difference is found to exist among seemingly normal indi- 
 viduals, so much so that anything like an average extent 
 of knowledge obtainable through the five universally ac- 
 knowledged avenues seems almost impossible to reach. 
 
 Once let this admission, which is actually self-evident, 
 be estimated at something like its adequate worth, and we 
 shall cease to cavil and demur when told of seers and 
 seeresses who see, or otherwise become conscious of, far 
 more subtle phenomena than meet the ordinary gaze of 
 the average man, woman or child. 
 
 To the average human being of to-day, living in a state 
 of so-called civilization, and engaged in ordinary secular 
 employments, a spiritual realm seems an unknown if not 
 an unknowable region. And it cannot be truthfully as- 
 serted that the rank and file of religious teachers are much 
 more open to conscious acquaintance with the realm of 
 
6o Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Spirit, than is the bulk of the laity whom clergy seek to 
 instruct in spiritual mysteries. 
 
 A very large proportion of religious leaders rest all their 
 vaunted knowledge of a spiritual universe and a spiritual 
 revelation upon doubtful historic evidences, many of which 
 are now seriously discredited in scientific circles. Though 
 modern biblical criticism is often unreasonably iconoclastic, 
 we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that it does certainly 
 seem reasonable to deny that events of a highly mysterious 
 character ever occurred in the past if such are never dupli- 
 cated in the present. And it cannot be denied that a 
 large section of the Christian Church has resolutely con- 
 tended against all claims to a present-day revelation, while 
 insisting upon the verbal accuracy of every biblical record 
 of spiritual manifestations which occurred i,8oo or consid- 
 erably more years ago. 
 
 " It must of necessity be extremely difficult to verify facts 
 many of which are said to be 2,000, 3,000, and even 
 more years old, particularly when we are told that nothing 
 like them can take place to-day. But no sooner is such 
 an insane position abandoned and a reasonable doctrine 
 of the persistent continuity of spiritual revelation substi- 
 tuted, than the chief objections vanish and the greatest 
 difficulties are dispelled. Not one Bible only, but many 
 Bibles must be searched and studied side by side before 
 we can fairly claim to be acquainted, even in barest out- 
 line, with the bulk of testimony which long ages have 
 afforded to substantiate the primal claim of all Spiritualists, 
 that we as human beings are not mere mortal existences, 
 but immortal entities clad a while in mortal garb. 
 
 Our first enquiry must be into the nature of humanity 
 itself, then let us proceed to points of variation which serve 
 
Ancient and Modem Spiritual Philosophy 6l 
 
 to distinguish individuals and races from each other. 
 Every human being, so far as we have opportunity to 
 judge, is endowed with affection, desire to Uve, and many 
 other distinctly universal attributes which humanity does 
 not, however, exclusively possess, as the entire animal 
 kingdom gives evidences of sharing these emotions. 
 
 Evolutionists of the materialistic school, headed by 
 Prof. Ernst Haeckel of Germany, lay much stress upon 
 the fact that many animals (dogs especially) display quali- 
 ties which we are accustomed to call moral, and if we 
 claim immortal life for human beings, we must be pre- 
 pared to concede some future existence for the higher 
 animals as well as for ourselves. 
 
 With such a proposition, thus mildly stated, we are 
 prepared to take no issue, and were that doctrine the sum- 
 ming up of Haeckel' s teachings, we should offer no protest 
 against conclusions reached in *'The Riddle of the Uni- 
 verse." But its author emphatically denies that there is a 
 true human entity or a persistent soul surviving physical 
 dissolution, either in man or animal. It is not with any 
 affirmative declaration concerning animals, but with negative 
 statements concerning humanity that we take decisive issue. 
 
 If certain animals are conscious of yearnings after con- 
 tinued life, and are capable of sharing and enjoying it, 
 they will certainly have their portion in a state beyond the 
 grave; but to grant continued existence for certain animals 
 is in no sense to deny, or even to call in question, human 
 immortality. 
 
 With the purely philosophic view of immortality, be- 
 ginningless and endless individual hfe as proclaimed by 
 Socrates, according to Plato, comparatively few modern 
 Spiritualists attempt to deal, although there are some who 
 
62 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 declare with the world-renowned Cora L. V. Richmond, 
 that inspiring intelligences of great experience and pro- 
 found wisdom affirm that the soul is an ^^ eternal finite 
 entity'' Be this as it may, we can none of us deny that 
 the doctrine of preexistence as well as future existence 
 has been taught by illustrious seers and sages in almost 
 every age and clime. And this fact is vouched for by 
 Dr. J. M. Peebles and other veteran Spiritualists who be- 
 long to a school which opposes the doctrine of repeated 
 embodiments of the soul, and does not hesitate to attack 
 vigorously the views of many prominent Theosophists. 
 
 On all points of speculative philosophy, both as con- 
 cerns man's past and future, it appears that there is as 
 much difference in the spirit-world as there is on earth, if 
 we may credit the testimony which the ages have brought 
 concerning teachings received from the other side of the 
 mortal veil which hangs between the earth and spheres of 
 existence capable of manifesting individual life through 
 other than physical vehicles. But on one point all spirit- 
 ual testimony seems agreed, viz. : that life on the inner 
 side of the mystic veil is subject to the same great uni- 
 versal law which regulates the course of individual exist- 
 ence on the outer earth. 
 
 Human nature is not changed by death, for death only 
 removes an outer covering (the most external sheath of 
 personality) leaving the entity and its psychic vehicle en- 
 tirely unmolested. Shakespeare's expression "When we 
 have shuffled off this mortal coil" has never been im- 
 proved. As centuries roll on and testimonies accumulate 
 concerning spiritual existence, we can still revert to Ham- 
 let and ponder over the marvelous insight displayed in that 
 immortal tragedy. 
 
Ancient and Modern Spiritual Philosophy 63 
 
 The description of Hamlet's father clad in armor is one 
 of those unmistakable evidences of world-wide belief in 
 the actual objectivity of the psychic realm which crops 
 out wherever any attempt is made to vividly portray a 
 condition beyond death ; and though there are, to some 
 minds, grave difficulties connected with this dominant and 
 everlastingly persistent faith, it is, when closely analyzed, 
 found to be entirely rational and in complete accordance 
 with all that we have a right to expect. 
 
 In Shakespeare's day belief in purgatory was undoubt- 
 edly strongly ingrained in the mind of the British nation, 
 even though the Protestant reformers had vigorously in- 
 tveighed against it, and the thirty-nine Articles of the 
 Church of England distinctly repudiates what it styles the 
 *' Romish " form of the doctrine. 
 
 But theological disputes aside, the idea of suffering for 
 purposes of spiritual purification beyond the grave is com- 
 mon to all religious and philosophical systems at their base, 
 though there have often been times when a reactionary 
 movement has set in against a reasonable doctrine, in con- 
 sequence of perversions and abuses such as the ''sale of 
 indulgences," which at one time gave great scandal in 
 many parts of Europe. But protest as we may against 
 accretions which may be fairly termed excrescent, we are 
 not justified in casting any slur upon the essentials of a 
 I doctrine which is at root reasonable and moral in the ex- 
 \treme. 
 
 Hamlet's father had been a good king, a faithful ruler 
 beloved and honored by his subjects, and it seems at the 
 first glance not quite fair that he should be a sufferer in 
 the unseen world, because it was only Hamlet's mother 
 and uncle who had committed grievous wrong. It takes 
 
64 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 but a very little psychic insight, however, to perceive that 
 Shakespeare was teaching forcibly the all-important truth 
 that no spiritual rest or bliss is possible while thirst for 
 vengeance vitiates the heart. 
 
 Hamlet's father was seeking, so the tragedy declares, to 
 force his son to be revenged upon his wife and brother, 
 but though those individuals had proved guilty of atro- 
 cious crimes, there could be no peace for the spirit which 
 haunted earth with such an object in view as that of work- 
 ing bitter, even though not unjust, retaliation. 
 
 Recompense is meted out to all by infinite equity, and 
 it is sound doctrine that assures us that we are rewarded 
 by our virtues and afflicted by our vices. But let the 
 mills of destiny do their own most perfect grinding, it is 
 not for us to interfere, and we cannot seek to interfere, 
 without wrecking our own happiness, with the outworking 
 of the changeless plan which causes every word, deed, 
 and even secret thought, to be its own rewarder or 
 avenger. 
 
 The armor worn on the psychic plane by the spirit who 
 is still in will a warrior, describes with glowing accuracy a 
 fundamental proposition of universal Spiritual philosophy, 
 a truth attested by every seer and sage who has spoken 
 definitely on the mighty subject of the relation of subject- 
 ive causes to exterior effects. 
 
 When the old English poet, Spencer, in his ''Faerie 
 Queen," tells us 
 
 "The soul is form, and doth the body make, 
 For of the soul the body form doth take," 
 
 that bard of olden days, with keen spiritual discernment 
 such as poets frequently make manifest, found himself far 
 
Ancient and Modern Spiritual Philosophy 65 
 
 more knowing in the realm of deep philosophy than his 
 illustrious nineteenth century namesake, the philosophic 
 Spencer, who found a mighty obstacle in the world's per- 
 petual belief in what he called "the immortality of clothing." 
 The plastic substance of the psychic plane, which is 
 matter of a less gross grade than that of the external earth, 
 lends itself far more readily than does the grosser sort to 
 every psychical emotion. Therefore have the seers of all 
 ages informed us that the state of conscious existence 
 which survives physical embodiment, and is the next state 
 following immediately upon the present, does not differ 
 very radically from the earthly plane in any important 
 particular. 
 
 The concensus of statement among seers and sages may 
 be summed up in a single sentence used by Dr. Lyman 
 Abbott many years ago, " We do not die and live again, 
 we simply go on living." And long after that phrase had 
 become familiar, as an expression in harmony with what 
 was at one time called " new progressive orthodoxy " came 
 /the monumental work of Prof. Frederick W. H. Myers, 
 ■bearing the title " Human Personality, its survival of 
 bodily death." In the course of two massive volumes ex- 
 tending to 1,360 pages, that able, conscientious, tireless 
 worker in the field of "psychical research" gave to the 
 world as a most valuable legacy, a carefully kept record 
 of experiences extending over from twenty to thirty years, 
 during which long period Prof. Myers was a co-investi- 
 gator with Sir Wm. Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, and many 
 other illustrious men of brilliant scientific attainments who 
 never hesitated to bend their best energies to an enquiry 
 into the mysteries of what the gifted journalist and author 
 Wm. Stead calls "Borderland." 
 
66 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 And it is along the border line between two planes of 
 conscious activity, often called two worlds, that most mod- 
 ern investigations in the psychic field are industriously 
 conducted. Beyond the border, few seek, or dare, or 
 even know how to venture. The typical Spiritualist who 
 prizes phenomena and delights in "tests," no matter how 
 conscientious and upright he or she may be, seeks and finds 
 only the fringe of the border of that immeasurable spirit- 
 ual universe which stretches to infinity. 
 
 With all becoming modesty, therefore, scientific ex- 
 plorers claim to be agnostic regarding what lies very far 
 ahead of immediate conditions directly connected with or- 
 dinary life on earth. Beautiful and blessed are the conso- 
 lations, and valuable indeed the lessons which borderland 
 experiences can teach, but there are adventurers, bold en- 
 quirers, intrepid souls who falter not because of difficulty 
 or of danger, who have in all ages (and their race is not 
 extinct to-day), crossed the mystic bar, transcended the 
 occult threshold, and sailed forth upon the unfathomed 
 ocean of transcendentally spiritual existence. 
 
 "Such are the Illuminati, the master-spirits to whom we 
 are assuredly indebted for the highest instruction to be 
 found in the world's many bibles whose arcane significance 
 remains unguessed by the teeming multitudes who con the 
 letter but seek not to crack the shells of spiritual nuts, for 
 they dream not of the delicious and nutritious meat within. 
 As we trace the history of spirit- communion through the 
 ages, we shall catch occasional glimpses of a dazzlingly 
 fair transcendent realm beyond, though very often our eyes 
 will be directed only to the border and what lies just be- 
 yond our present physical existence. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 DIFFERING ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAL PHILOS- 
 OPHY—THE RIGHTEOUS CLAIMS OF 
 EGOISM AND OF ALTRUISM 
 
 Quite recently the statement has appeared in pubUc 
 print that in addition to the '* Iron " rule of conduct which 
 bids us render evil for evil; the "Silver" rule which 
 counsels us to return good for good; and the "Golden" 
 rule which urges that good be rendered in exchange for 
 evil, there is still another rule which should be the guide 
 of all who accept modern spiritual philosophy, a "Dia- 
 mond" rule which exhorts us to do "all for others." 
 Beautiful and ennobling though the sentiment may be 
 which is couched in such uncompromisingly altruistic 
 language, there seems room for dispute as to whether such 
 a precept is truly practical or altogether desirable. The 
 charms of altruism consist in its avowed unselfishness, and 
 we are often told that to be saintly we must be selfless. 
 But is this counsel entirely sound ? Will it stand the test 
 of rigorous investigation, or is there somewhere a defect 
 which renders it less than perfectly satisfactory? Egoism 
 is doubtless far more ancient than altruism ; it is indeed 
 the most primitive of all philosophies, entrenched as it is 
 in that stronghold of self-preservativeness which is the 
 primal instinct of every living creature. " I must pro- 
 tect myself," says every form of animate existence, and 
 human entities offer no exception to the universal rule. 
 Egotism is a corrupted and insufferably conceited form of 
 
 67 
 
68 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 egoism and does not rank among philosophies, therefore 
 we need not now discuss it, but simple egoism or individ- 
 ualism must be reckoned with as a permanent factor direct- 
 ing human conduct. Altruism is extremely difficult to 
 comprehend though mutualism, which is pure philanthropy, 
 is readily comprehended. Even Tolstoi, the most nearly 
 altruistic of all great characters now in the public eye, 
 must pay some heed to his own requirements or even he 
 could not sustain existence on the earthly plane. But the 
 question evidently raised by advocates of the *' Diamond " 
 precept is can we not still care for ourselves but only 
 because we know that by so doing we are helping others ? 
 The answer is readily given that we can, but this granted 
 is it not well to inspect -our motives a little closely and put 
 ourselves on guard against exaggerated statements which 
 may lead us unconsciously into the quagmire of hypocrisy. 
 That there may be a few exceptional individuals who do 
 all with a view to the good of others is quite conceivable, 
 but we need, when formulating a practical philosophy, to 
 adapt it to the rank and file of honest aspiring human 
 beings, not to render it acceptable only to a very small 
 minority of exceptionally spiritualized individuals. '/A 
 highly respected English bishop, late of the See of Peter- 
 borough, said that the '' Sermon on the Mount" was never 
 intended for ordinary humanity but exclusively for special 
 disciples who, to use theological language, had been called 
 to transcend the way of the commandments and walk in 
 the narrower path of the counsels of perfection. ' That 
 there is some justification for that view cannot be gainsaid 
 when we remember the peculiar circumstances amid which 
 the body of doctrine thus designated is said to have been 
 enunciated, and research into earlier and contemporary 
 
Differing Aspects of Spiritual Philosophy 69 
 
 literature by no means disposes of the idea that exceptional 
 teachers sometimes gave exceptional teaching to exceptional 
 disciples. The doctrine of extreme non-resistance advo- 
 cated in such familiar sayings as " whoever would deprive 
 you of your coat let him have your cloak also " and " who- 
 ever would compel you to go one mile, go with him two 
 miles" is susceptible of more than a single interpretation. 
 It therefore becomes us to endeavor to grasp the widest 
 possible application of such counsels if we profess any re- 
 gard for their authority. 
 
 With the state of the Roman world and the Jewish peo- 
 ple eighteen or nineteen centuries ago we are not now 
 immediately concerned. We cannot, however, afford to 
 entirely neglect historic features if we are to clearly grasp 
 the genuinely practical import of teachings which are said 
 to constitute the original basis of Christian ethics. Judea 
 was a Roman province and Caesar's eagles were displayed 
 in Jerusalem as a sign of Roman supremacy at the begin- 
 ning of the Christian era. Then, as in many later as well 
 as earlier times, certain Jews were extremely ready to take 
 up arms and fight to rescue Zion from servitude to Rome. 
 /The more spiritually-minded teachers in a community are 
 always averse to warfare, and the wisest among them, 
 owing to deep spiritual penetration, are able to clearly fore- 
 tell the literal uselessness as well as barbarity of a fierce 
 material contest. They consequently use their utmost en- 
 deavors to proclaim a policy of non-resistance by brute 
 force, but they never hesitate to advocate mental and 
 moral resistance to iniquity.) The over -valuation of 
 material things leads many a man and woman to think 
 very highly of the surrender of coats and cloaks and all 
 sorts of material goods and chattels, which in the eyes 
 
o Universal Spiritualism 
 
 of seers and sages are of very little value. A neighbor 
 may be in destitute circumstances and require certain 
 garments of which you have an over-supply. Let him 
 have them if he wants them, says the spiritual master, but 
 never give up your honor. Your extreme generosity may 
 win for you the good- will of many who would be otherwise 
 your persecutors; your readiness to make even more inno- 
 cent concessions to your reputed foes than they demand 
 may obtain for you their good opinion and prevent cruel 
 massacres. Seeing that there are many sacrifices you can 
 make without lowering your moral standard, make them in 
 a spirit of true philanthropy and thereby you may convert 
 enemies into friends, oppressors into advocates. Such 
 counsel is sound as well as politic and reflects the highest 
 possible credit upon whoever may have been the first to 
 announce it to the world. The only possible controversy 
 concerning such magnificent and thoroughly practical 
 doctrine centers around the comparatively unimportant 
 question whether the hero of the Christian gospels was or 
 was not the original enunciator of so sublime a set of pre- 
 cepts. Many Jews who highly endorse the sentiment attrib- 
 uted to Jesus, declare that Jewish literature much older than 
 the beginning of the Christian era emphasizes the same 
 vital rule of conduct. Students of Indian philosophy also 
 come forward with a similar declaration concerning 
 Buddhistic teaching which antedated the origin of the 
 gospel manuscripts by several centuries. Historical re- 
 search alone is competent to deal with controversies of 
 such a nature, but it is clear to the eye of all impartial 
 students that no really important point is raised by such 
 discussion as to the ethical value of the doctrine submitted 
 for consideration. Judging from the recent action of a 
 
Differing Aspects of Spiritual Philosophy 71 
 
 widely advertised " Interchurch " movement which has 
 excluded Unitarians from fellowship one can see that it 
 may be considered vital in the interests of strictly orthodox 
 Christian theology to separate the teachings attributed to 
 Jesus entirely from all other counsels given to mankind, 
 for by so doing support may be seemingly lent to the 
 doctrine of exclusive divinity claimed for the great Master 
 of Christendom, but aside from the peculiar interests of 
 controversial theology there is nothing gained, and pos- 
 sibly much lost, by insisting that in one collection of 
 valuable scriptures alone can we discover the highest moral 
 guidance. To the universal religionist it is a source of 
 delight to discover that the very highest standard of 
 morality has been upheld in many lands, in many ages, 
 by many illumined teachers, and surely in days when the 
 frightful effects of religious bigotry are so awfully manifest 
 that American citizens and British subjects regardless of 
 creed, when imbued with the spirit of humanity, have 
 sought to induce the President of the United States and 
 representatives of British authority to urge upon the 
 Russian government the necessity of putting an immediate 
 stop to outrages upon unoffending Jews inspired by race 
 prejudice and religious fanaticism of the worst imaginable 
 sort, it will prove a boon to all humanitarians if scholars 
 can give the Christian world to understand that the noble 
 and glorious rules of conduct emphasized in gospel records 
 are not to be found in the New Testament alone but are 
 the common heritage of enlightened humanity conveyed 
 through the illumined and inspiring seers and sages of 
 every race and age. We hear very much in these days 
 about the relation between religion and business and it is 
 well that pulpits ring with protests against commercial dis- 
 
y2 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 honesty and that preachers urge upon congregations every- 
 where the supreme importance of a spiritual life which can 
 be lived every hour of every day, every day in every year. 
 "Tainted money " and *' frenzied finance " are phrases 
 which many seek to conjure with and doubtless much that 
 is extravagant is often said when these highly sensational 
 topics are being passionately dealt with, but the great 
 cause for thankfulness in this generation is that there is a 
 palpable renaissance of morals now everywhere in evidence. 
 Mammon worship is going out of date. The still mighty 
 dollar is no longer believed to be almighty and a sense of 
 responsibility towards moral order is surely taking the place 
 of conscienceless search for naught but material gain. 
 Nothing is so pleasing or so hopeful, nothing so cheering to 
 the heart of genuine philanthropists as to note how in- 
 creasingly sensitive the public conscience is assuredly be- 
 coming. Churches are doing much good work in this 
 direction, but the ethical sentiment is quite apart from all 
 ecclesiastical affiliations and is demonstrating its sov- 
 ereignty in many movements which are founded upon no 
 dogmatic theological basis. The work of Felix Adler of 
 New York, and all associated with him in the interests of 
 simply Ethical Culture, which is entirely distinct from any 
 special kind of theology, is quite sufficient to convince all 
 who use their reasoning faculties to-day that in church and 
 out of church, in college and out of college, men, women, 
 youths and maidens are beginning to feel intensely that the 
 mere holding of great wealth is no passport to the esteem 
 of right-minded people anywhere. We know it can be 
 argued, and it often is, that John D. Rockefeller, Andrew 
 Carnegie, and other multimillionaires are almost wor- 
 shiped wherever they appear, even if it be at a Bible 
 
Differing Aspects of Spiritual Philosophy 73 
 
 class, but it ought not to be overlooked that the chief cause 
 for admiring those unquestionably remarkable men is the 
 prevalent belief that they have been more industrious and 
 have evinced more intellectual ability than have the bulk 
 of their contemporaries. It is not necessary to prove 
 whether such a belief in those particular instances is well- 
 founded or ill-founded, the fact remains that that section 
 of the public which almost adores the very wealthy indi- 
 vidual of to-day professes to see in the object of its vener- 
 ation not so much money as enterprising will and intellec- 
 tual ability. 
 
 Now comes the higher standard. We have worshiped 
 intellect too much ; we are seeing that intellect alone can 
 be cruel, unjust, tyrannical, and from cold intellectuality 
 we are turning our affection towards a purely spiritual 
 type of morahty. By spirituality should never be meant 
 sentimental piety, which is the very reverse of heroic piety, 
 but that true saintliness which is soundness, symmetry, 
 holiness in the true meaning of the term. ^^ Do all for 
 others " sounds well and it contains the germ of a mighty 
 truth, but it is an ill-chosen sentence by reason of its non- 
 applicability in its obvious form to the actual nature of 
 humanity. The American Declaration of Independence 
 signed in 1776 served a needed purpose then, and still 
 contains much that is permanently valuable, but were we 
 to draw up a declaration now we might frame it around 
 the greater word i?iterdepe7idence which truly embodies the 
 idea of righteous fellowship between nations as well as 
 individuals. 
 
 Selfishness and unselfishness, or selflessness, are words 
 which are pitted against each other as though one was 
 entirely wrong and the other entirely right. The utterly 
 
74 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 selfish person (if he exist) is a monster not a normal human 
 being, while the utterly unselfish or selfless person conveys 
 the idea of one who is impracticable. Self-culture is cer- 
 tainly not selfishness, but it springs in measure, though 
 not entirely, from self-regard and it seems almost impos- 
 sible to draw such very subtle lines as would need to be 
 drawn in economic teaching if a class in social science 
 and political economy had to be taught by a professor of 
 sociology from the standpoint of unqualified altruism. 
 The mutualistic position is sane, safe, sound, sensible, and 
 has the great merit of being easily understood. If any 
 thoroughgoing altruist assum.es the middle way of Mutual- 
 ism to be a " compromise " then it is not for him to theo- 
 retically advocate it, but even he will discover, sooner or 
 later, that as no radical or essential change can be expected 
 to take place in human nature his efforts will be productive 
 of far less generous fruit than those of his equally conscien- 
 tious, though less sentimental, neighbor who unblushingly 
 acknowledges that he takes human nature as he finds it 
 and deals with it accordingly. Self-interest itself is not 
 the shocking vice which altruists infer it to be, nor are we 
 obliged to mourn over inate depravity before commencing 
 to instruct young people in mutual obligations, for many 
 more unkind and unjust deeds are performed thoughtlessly 
 than with malice aforethought ; and because we know 
 this to be so we are not so depressed and weighed down 
 with a sense of the world's exceeding , sinfulness as are 
 many of our "altruistic" neighbors. /We do not see in 
 simple self-love a sin but only a natural instinct, not the 
 highest or sublimest instinct of humanity, only the earliest 
 and most rudimentary, a good and tangible instinct never- 
 theless and one which Swedenborg has assured us con- 
 
Differing Aspects of Spiritual Philosophy 75 
 
 tinues to inhere in even the celestial angels who are human 
 beings entirely regenerated according to Swedenborg's 
 philosophy and theology. As members one of another let 
 us seek to live up even to the altitude of the Beatitudes. 
 ^ "Blessed are the pure in heart" and ''Blessed are the 
 peacemakers" are two of the loveliest, truest, and most 
 inspiring sentences in any literature. For beauty and 
 simplicity of statement they are decidedly unsurpassed and 
 they may fairly be selected as among the choicest gems in 
 the casket of ethical philosophy. It remains then only to 
 consider what may be reasonably intended when those 
 great sayings are set forward as "counsels of perfection." 
 When a distinguished bishop of the English Church said 
 that business could not be conducted in strict conformity 
 with the Sermon on the Mount he merely resorted to 
 Jesuitical casuistry, and this every Jesuit teacher will ad- 
 , mit, for Jesuits have never hesitated to declare that there 
 ( are lower than saintly standards of morality which can be 
 \ safely tolerated in the secular state though a much higher 
 / rule must prevail among all who give themselves up to a 
 / technically " religious " life. The same distinction is made 
 / in India among Brahmans, and this is freely admitted by 
 ^ Annie Besant in articles which appeared in the T/ieo- 
 sophical Review during the summer of 1905, at a time 
 when the terrible war then raging between Russia and 
 Japan called forth protest of the most vigorous kind 
 against warfare in all directions. Katherine Tingley, from 
 ^'Lomaland" in Southern California, inveighed against all 
 justification of warfare and in her very interesting and 
 instructive periodical New Cejitury Path she called atten- 
 tion to the self-evident, but often unheeded, fiict that war 
 is not simply an outlet for impurities in the planet's body 
 
76 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 as many Theosophists and others not unreasonably aver, 
 but it is a means of generating fresh disease, and from 
 that standpoint it is certainly well for us to regard it. 
 Children are brought up to fight, they are taught the 
 brutal art of physical self-defense, to call which ^' manly" 
 is absurd because every animal practices it and there can 
 be nothing distinctly human in doing what every quad- 
 ruped does also. Henry George in his masterly work 
 "The Science of Political Economy" has called needed 
 attention to a greatly neglected aspect of tliis vast theme, 
 for he teaches unequivocally that we know ourselves to be 
 truly human only by discovering and exercising super- 
 animal traits. We all know that warships and guns have 
 long been blessed by prelates, that weapons of warfare are 
 taken to church services and that arms are presented by 
 soldiers at the most solemn moment in a Military Mass 
 even in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. But 
 there are some people among us who are daring to hope 
 that new thought may lead to new action and that these 
 old practices which are supported by ages of established 
 precedent may in the present century become defunct. 
 True it is that a Boy's Brigade conducted by clergymen 
 of the English church may teach boys who belong to it 
 useful lessons in obedience and self-restraint and they may 
 be much better situated with a view to general moral train- 
 ing than are soldiers generally in barracks, but it is a poor 
 comment on established Christianity with all its vaunted 
 following of the *' Prince of Peace" that it can show no 
 higher than a military ideal to the unchurched and un- 
 christianized multitudes. Complaints are constantly made 
 of an alleged decline in religion based upon the supposed 
 extreme self-seeking of this age, but despite all gloomy 
 
Differing Aspects of Spiritual Philosophy 77 
 
 views, which some facts seem largely to substantiate, the 
 bright side of the present outlook is clearly manifest to all j 
 
 who take adequate account of the earnest protest against ' 
 
 iniquity and the outcry for justice and humanity which .\ 
 
 has never been louder or stronger than it is to-day. The ; 
 
 signs of the times at present point unfalteringly to the 
 opening of a dispensation of clearer light and fuller equity 
 than the world has yet enjoyed within any historic period, 
 and to usher in the glad new age the ancient trumpet 
 sound is heard anew : Zove thy neighbor as thyself. Than i 
 
 this there is no higher precept, for herein we trace the true 
 meeting place of science with religion, a genuinely syn- i 
 
 thetic philosophy satisfying alike the conscience and the • 
 
 reason of the human race, blending self-improvement with j 
 
 loving service devoted to the good of all. Such we claim i 
 
 is the unanimous teaching of illumined teachers Oriental 
 and Occidental, ancient and modern alike. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE SPIRITUAL FAITH OF ANCIENT EGYPT 
 
 Thanks to the enterprising spirit of the present enquir- 
 ing age, we need not remain in serious doubt as to what 
 was the faith of those mysterious ancient people who were 
 old as a nation long before the Joseph of the Pentateuch 
 was appointed to high station under one of the Pharaohs, 
 native princes of Mizraim. Though the very greatest in- 
 terest has long centred in a single monument, the Great 
 Pyramid at Gizeh, whose splendid and exact mathematical 
 proportions are still a living wonder to the chief among 
 modern Egyptologists, it is by no means a thankless task 
 to wander far from that unique structure, which stands un- 
 rivaled, internally if not externally, among the world's 
 discovered monuments, and gaze upon the numerous 
 erections which thickly stud the Delta of the Nile, all 
 bearing testimony to the faith and life of a mighty and 
 curious people who largely influenced Greece, and through 
 Greece the entire civilized world, after their own supremacy 
 among nations had been utterly extinguished. 
 
 ''The Book of the Dead," which contains an enormous 
 mass of fascinating information for students of ancient be- 
 liefs and customs, can now be obtained in a partly English 
 dress without much difficulty, and it is from that extra- 
 ordinary volume that we can gather enough concerning 
 ancient Egypt to familiarize us pretty thoroughly with the 
 Egpytian theory of the soul and its transmigrations enter- 
 tained long before the period of the Israelitish Exodus. 
 
 78 
 
The Spiritual Faith of Ancient Egypt 79 
 
 The remarkable silence of the Old Testament concerning 
 the state of the departed soul is not so much due to the 
 materialistic tenor of early Hebrew thought as to the close 
 acquaintance with Egyptian Eschatology which un- 
 doubtedly prevailed among the people who were led by 
 Moses out of Egypt to found a new nation in Palestine. 
 
 Though considerable superstition, some of it beautiful 
 and some of it repellent, attaches to this old body of doc- 
 trine, it has for the most part a noble moral tendency, as 
 the entire philosophy of a future Hfe elaborated in ancient 
 Egypt exalts character far above belief; and the influence 
 of this early faith upon the Jewish mind is easily traced by 
 even the most casual reader of the Pentateuch. Life was 
 in ancient Egypt, exactly as it was in later Palestine, a 
 continuous round of religious duties. The universe was 
 regarded as living, and all the forces of Nature were looked 
 upon as spiritual agencies. ''Therefore there was no athe- 
 ism or infidelity, and very little scepticism, rationalism, or 
 \agnosticism among Egyptians, and there is very little 
 among their descendants to-day. The average Christian 
 from Europe or America has an utterly false idea of Solar 
 worship, and also of Sex worship, two of the very oldest 
 forms of worship of which any traces have been found ; 
 and though boasting of exceptional culture, and the pos- 
 session of a perfect divine revelation, Christian nations 
 until very recently have been engulfed in superstitions of a 
 materialistic type, such as pagan peoples never entertained. 
 
 William Rounseville Alger in his long famous work, 
 '' The Destiny of the Soul ; A Critical History of the Doc- 
 trine of a Future Life" informs us that the ancient 
 Egyptians can only be understood, as to their views con- 
 cerning a future existence, when we have comprehended 
 
8o Universal Spiritualism 
 
 the motives which led them to lay the immense stress they 
 laid on embalming the dead. Contrary to many wide- 
 spread opinions favoring the gratuitous assumption that in 
 early Egypt belief in a literal physical resuscitation of the 
 corpse prevailed we are led, alike by analogy and testi- 
 mony, to conclude that the Egyptian theory of resurrection 
 was far more nearly in accord with some modern ideas 
 attributed to Theosophists than with the old school ortho- 
 dox Christian conception of a literal physical re-animation. 
 Herodotus declares that the Egyptians of old believed that 
 after the dissolution of the flesh the soul passed through a 
 /round of transmigrations, and eventually reassumed a 
 iphysical human body, but not the same body that it had 
 ^laid aside. This is an ancient view of reincarnation, a 
 doctrine which in one or other of its varied aspects is con- 
 stantly cropping out in modern literature and laying hold 
 upon popular thought. 
 
 The body which was embalmed was always seriously 
 mutilated ; the brain was extracted, and the skull stuffed 
 with cotton. A most important section of the anatomy 
 was therefore unpreserved. This fact alone is sufficient to 
 prove that the resurrection of the identical physical struc- 
 ture was not a primitive Egyptian anticipation.! The real 
 object of embalming may fairly, in general outline, be 
 stated as follows : 
 
 While the practice of embalming was clearly not con- 
 nected with any idea of a future physical resuscitation, it was 
 'intended to keep constantly in vision the images of the de- 
 parted, much as we employ portraits and statues without the 
 (Slightest expectation that our departed friends will incarnate 
 (within them ; though it is quite generally believed in India 
 that sacred images do, in a certain sense, possess magical 
 
The Spiritual Faith of Ancient Egypt 81 
 
 qualities, and that they furnish Hnks of communion, more 
 or less direct, between us and those who are represented 
 by the images. Therein is a mild explanation of much that 
 is commonly called idolatry, a view which frees a good 
 portion of idolatrous practice from actually reprehensible 
 associations. This view, now quite widely entertained by 
 students of Oriental beliefs and practices, furnishes a con- 
 siderable clue to the Egyptian customs of embalming, 
 which were by no means confined to human bodies, but ex- 
 tended to all venerated animals, a fact clearly attested by 
 the presence of mummied cats in the British Museum in 
 London. 
 
 Modern research among Egyptian antiquities is revealing 
 with constantly increasing clearness the spirit of the relig- 
 ion of that curious ancient land whose extant monuments 
 furnish overwhelming evidence in favor of the doctrine of 
 immortality couched in the symbolic language of figura- 
 tive art. Cats, dogs, beetles, and other ** sacred " creatures 
 were not probably venerated to the extent that compara- 
 tively modern Christian critics have supposed, but they 
 were undoubtedly used as reminders of certain definite 
 qualities, and often regarded as links with some of the 
 lesser divinities. Mummy-cases are, in very many in- 
 stances, profusely decorated w^ith scenes intended to 
 represent the experiences of souls in Hades (an inclusive 
 term intended to include many varied conditions of post- 
 mortem existence, ranging from very gloomy to almost 
 glorious states). The god Thoth is frequently described 
 leadmg the soul into Amen, the underworld in which souls 
 polluted by grievous sins suffer greatly, but which holds no 
 terrors for those who have led pure lives. The soul of the 
 newly departed is often represented kneeling and inter- 
 
82 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 ceding before the forty-two assessors of Osiris. The final 
 trial takes place in the Hall of Two Truths, one of which 
 approves, and the other condemns. Another name is the 
 Hall of Dual Justice, which metes out rewards and penal- 
 ties. Three divinities, Horus, Anubis, and Thoth, weigh 
 every soul in an unvarying balance. In one scale an 
 image of a female divinity is placed, in the other a heart- 
 shaped vase, symbolizing the heart of the departed with all 
 the actions of the earthly life. Thoth notes the results on 
 a tablet, and the soul advances with it to the foot of the 
 throne of Osiris, who pronounces sentence, which his 
 assistants execute.*^ A condemned soul, one whose evil acts 
 outweigh the good, is either sent back immediately to be 
 re-born as a repulsive animal or reptile, or driven into the 
 atmosphere at the mercy of the tempests, till all sins are 
 expiated; after which another terrestrial human life begins. 
 '^Unacceptable though this doctrine may be to some modern 
 philosophers, it is immeasurably superior to any view of 
 endless useless torment such as many benighted Christian 
 theologians have proclaimed, for the simplest reasoning 
 must suffice to prove that any penalty which ultimately up- 
 lifts the one who undergoes it may be benevolent at core, 
 while unending misery is a conception for which there is 
 neither rational explanation nor apology. 
 
 Ancient Egyptian theories of cosmogony are distinctly 
 worthy of consideration, particularly in consequence of the 
 side-light they throw upon the familiar accounts in Genesis. 
 The divisions of the universe popularly accepted in the 
 Egypt of long ago included the earth, considered as a 
 place of trial where all live a probationary existence, and 
 an atmosphere in which all sins are punished, and where all 
 offenses may be expiated.. The spiritual realm is described 
 
The Spiritual Faith of Ancient Egypt 83 
 
 as a serene blue sky where the blessed dwell in peace and 
 happiness imperturbable. 
 
 Many allusions to Egyptian beliefs are discoverable in 
 several of St. Paul's epistles, and his mention of the 
 " Prince of the Powers of the Air " clearly refers to some 
 continuation in early Christian thought of a primitive 
 Egyptian belief in Pooh the ruler of the realm of storms 
 and the overseer of souls in penance. The sun is always 
 conceived of in Egyptian theology as the central sphere of 
 life and the abode of the mightiest of deities, and all 
 planets are regarded as spiritual spheres robed awhile in 
 physical habiliments, much as human souls are' robed in 
 forms of exterior matter during certain periods in their 
 history. 
 
 The number 12 figures very largely in Egyptian symbol- 
 ism the upper realm of spiritual existence being divided 
 into twelve sections, at the entrance to each of which a 
 sentinel-divinity is stationed. To each of these gods the 
 newly arrived soul must present satisfactory credentials or 
 it cannot pass the portal. The twelve sections of the 
 higher realm correspond with the twelve day hours, while 
 the twelve sections of the lower realm correspond with the 
 twelve hours of night ; the holy hours ranging from six 
 A. M. to six p. ivi., the unholy from six p. m. to six a. m. 
 
 The picturesque and highly impressive symbolism con- 
 nected with the venerable Sun-worship which found its 
 central home in Egypt through many generations, served to 
 impress upon the public mind the idea that this is indeed a 
 spiritual universe, and though the esoteric .theories and 
 customs which prevailed among the populace suggested 
 geocentric rather than heliocentric astronomy, every student 
 of the inscriptions upon the ancient papyri, and the still 
 
84 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 older monuments, cannot fail to discern a far wiser and im- 
 measurably sublimer view of universal order than could 
 possibly be gathered from a simple investigation of those 
 superficial modes of thought and practice which character- 
 ized the belief and practice of the uninitiated multitudes. 
 Astronomy and astrology (the two were never separated) 
 constituted a vital part of Egyptian theology, for the stars 
 were regarded literally as spiritual orbs dressed in material 
 garments, a concept which raises the ancient science of as- 
 trology to a place of dignity which it can never enjoy in 
 modern days until its essential propositions have been en- 
 tirely rescued from fanatical and fatalistic accretions. 
 Though some authors tell us that the great planets were 
 anciently regarded as deities, we may not find sufficient 
 grounds for accepting that assertion without some discount. 
 A better definition, and one far less liable to serious dis- 
 pute, is that the various planets were regarded as^homes of 
 deities who presided over the life of the worlds placed un- 
 der their immediate charge. 
 
 Wm. R. Alger rightly says, "There was much poetic 
 beauty and ethical power in these doctrines and symbols. 
 The necessity of virtue, the dread ordeals of the grave, the 
 certainty of retribution, the mystic circuits of transmigra- 
 tion, a glorious immortality, the paths of planets, gods and 
 souls through creation, all were impressively enounced 
 dramatically shown. The solemn linking of the fate of 
 man with the astronomic universe, this grand blending of 
 the deepest of moral doctrines with the most august of 
 physical sciences, plainly betrays the brain and hand of 
 that ancient world." '' That such a system of belief was 
 too complex and elaborate to have been a popular develop- 
 ment is evident, but that it was really held by the people 
 
The Spiritual Faith of Ancient Egypt 85 
 
 there is no room to doubt. Parts of it were publicly en- 
 acted on festival days by multitudes numbering more than 
 100,000. Parts of it were dimly shadowed out in the 
 secret recesses of temples, surrounded by the most as- 
 tonishing accompaniments that unrivalled learning, skill, 
 wealth, and power could contrive. Its authority com- 
 manded the allegiance, its charm fascinated the imagina- 
 tion of the people. Its force built the pyramids, and en- 
 shrined whole generations of Egypt's embalmed population 
 in richly adorned sepulchres of everlasting rock. Its sub- 
 stance of esoteric knowledge and faith, in its form of exo- 
 teric exhibition gave it vitality and endurance long. In 
 the vortex of change and decay it sank at last, and now it 
 is only after its secrets have been buried for thirty centuries 
 that the exploring genius of modern times has brought its 
 hidden hieroglyphics to light, and taught us what were the 
 doctrines originally contained in the altar-lore of those 
 priestly schools which once dotted the plains of the Delta, 
 and studded the banks of eldest Nile, where now, disfigured 
 and gigantic, the solemn 
 
 ' Old Sphinxes lift their countenances bland, 
 Athwart the river sea, and sea of sand.' " 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 INFLUENCE OF EGYPTIAN THOUGHT ON 
 JEWISH VIEWS OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 Though it has been boldly asserted in some quarters on 
 many occasions that until after the return of the Jews from 
 exile in Babylon, they, as a people, entertained no clearly 
 defined belief in a future life, such a declaration appears 
 incredible in the light of Israel's general history, and the 
 extremely large amount of Egyptian influence which en- 
 tered into the composition of early Jewish doctrines. 
 Judaism has been from its inception a moral system of faith 
 and practice, laying far more stress upon a righteous life 
 than upon any amount of simple creed or doctrine, and it 
 stands to reason that so eminently ethical a faith as that of 
 Israel must appear, in the eyes of many, to undervalue the 
 extreme stress laid upon a future existence which has char- 
 acterized a very large amount of accepted Christian teach- 
 ing. There seems good historical foundation for the time- 
 honored tradition that a multitude of Hebrews at one time 
 lived under Egyptian rule, and that they at length went 
 out of Egypt and gradually established themselves as a 
 nation in Palestine. But, as the book of Exodus unmis- 
 takably informs us, the people who accomplished their 
 exodus at the time of the overthrow of the Pharaonic 
 dynasty were a '' mixed multitude," by no means exclu- 
 sively of Hebrew origin or of Israelitish faith. 
 
 The Old Testament does not seem greatly concerned 
 with any definite theories of a future life, though it abounds 
 in narratives which, if accepted in any degree literally, 
 
 86 
 
Jewish Views of Immortality 87 
 
 teach spirit-communion in an unmistakable manner. It 
 should never be forgotten that the Mosaic law was intended 
 to be a practical guide to life on earth regardless of what 
 particular views of a hereafter might be entertained, and 
 one of the most palpable reasons for much silence concern- 
 ing the future life may have been the excessive attention 
 paid to beliefs concerning it by the Egyptians, whose spir- 
 itualism had doubtless greatly deteriorated and become 
 largely mingled with highly objectionable practices. But 
 though it is often urged that the Old Testament is, as a 
 whole, at deadly variance with all attempts to communi- 
 cate with the spiritual world,^uch an inference is entirely 
 unwarranted, and it has grown out of a most erroneous 
 habit of confounding simple spirit-communion with those 
 abominable necromantic practices which are degrading 
 and revolting in the extreme wherever practiced, and with 
 which all that rightfully pertains to_S])iritualism has never 
 had the least affinity.^ There was never a time when 
 prophets in Israel believed only in the possibility of hold- 
 ing unlawful intercourse with the unseen spheres, but when 
 they most scathingly denounced iniquitous customs, they 
 surely condemned them because they were perversions and 
 desecrations of faculties and powers which should be 
 righteously employed instead of prostituted. Shortly be- 
 fore the period of the Exodus, magic in Egypt had so far 
 fallen from its primitive high estate that the priests and 
 wonder-workers connected with the temples not only often 
 resorted to trickery, but frequently endeavored to cast un- 
 holy and injurious spells over all who came into collision 
 with their schemes and interests ; and as it can never be 
 ^successfully denied that occult agencies are dangerous 
 V weapons in the hands of the unscrupulous, the prophets in 
 
88 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 I'irael were doubtless actuated by the noblest motives, 
 looking_toJthe general welfare, when they vehemently pro- 
 tested against wizards, witches, sorcerers, necromancers, 
 and all others who were seeking to intimidate the fearful, 
 and in some instances to practice the Black Art, which in 
 modern France is known as Satanism^ 
 
 The trial of strength recorded in the book of Exodus as 
 having taken place on the banks of the Nile, between 
 Moses and Aaron on one side and Pharaoh's soothsayers on 
 the other, is clearly intended to call attention to the dis- 
 tinctly doubtful character of all bewildering phenomena 
 which are not accompanied or followed by some beneficent 
 result. The Bible tells us that equal success, phenomenally 
 speaking, was secured by both parties, and it was only 
 when the good work of healing the afflicted was to be ac- 
 complished that Moses and Aaron triumphed and their 
 antagonists met with complete defeat. However valuable 
 may be all psychic phenomena from a strictly scientific 
 standpoint, as throwing light upon the workings of some 
 hidden force in Nature and latent faculty in man, from all 
 ethical view-points we must attach value only to that which, 
 in some direction at least, is calculated to really confer 
 benefit on man or beast. 
 
 Spiritualists to-day, in common with many who do not 
 rank themselves in that category, are rapidly arising to a 
 sense of responsibility for the sort of phenomena they en- 
 courage, and are coming clearly to see that many facts 
 may be wonderful yet undesirable. Egypt had had a won- 
 derful and glorious past, references to which are made in 
 the book of Genesis, which describes a happy situation 
 when people of different nationalities and occupations hved 
 and worked side by side, cooperating rather than com- 
 
Jewish Views of Immortality 89 
 
 peting. In those palmy ancient days we are told that 
 Pharaoh the Egyptian monarch and Joseph the Hebrew 
 counselor worked together in beneficent accord. The 
 stress laid upon dreams and their interpretation in that 
 older time is specially significant, as it throws a flood of 
 light on noteworthy psychic experiences which were then 
 and there almost universally credited. /To foretell coming 
 events through the agency of night visions was no uncom- 
 mon experience with seers of old, and though the Pharaohs 
 themselves seem not to have been able to clearly define the 
 significance of their own visions, they did not hesitate to 
 have recourse to interpreters more clairvoyant or clair- 
 sentient than themselves. The Hebrew is a psychic race, 
 and the Bible deals very largely with incidents in the lives 
 of noble prophets which tally closely with much that is 
 now exciting scientific interest the wide world over. 
 
 To say that any useful and elevating phase of spiritualism 
 is condemned in the Pentateuch is to utter an absurdity, 
 though there are laws and precepts therein which de- 
 nounce iniquitous practices in unmeasured terms. Legis- 
 lation in the ancient Jewish state may have been excessive, 
 but its entire tendency was to increase rather than to cur- 
 tail liberty, (^fhe practice of sorcery was intended to 
 wreak vengeance, to work mischief generally, to curse 
 one's neighbors or to injure their belongings, and for that 
 cause it was placed under the ban. But sorcery has no 
 connection with any innocent or normal exercise of any 
 psychic gift or spiritual endowment. As the general trend 
 of Egyptian belief in a future life was clearly in the inter- 
 ests of morality it was not condemned in the Mosaic code, 
 and because of its wide-spread acceptance among the peo- 
 ple it needed not that any legislator should specially in- 
 
90 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 struct the masses concerning it. "We may fairly infer that 
 in early days of Jewish communal life in Palestine the 
 prevailing views entertained concerning life beyond the 
 grave did not differ radically from those enunciated and 
 elaborated in that fascinating compendium of Egyptian 
 doctrine, "The Book of the Dead," a fair English trans- 
 lation of which, at least in its main features, is published 
 both in New York and London. In that marvelous tran- 
 script of ancient ceremony and philosophy we find much 
 that is in complete accord with the famous Jewish saying, 
 " God's people are all the righteous," and we know that 
 modern English scholars of high renown, notably Thomas 
 Huxley and Matthew Arnold, have laid great stress upon 
 the Jewish concept that righteous life alone, not race or 
 creed, is a passport to blessedness with the Eternal. 
 
 Egyptian philosophy was in essence monotheistic, with 
 a polytheistic accompaniment. The many subordinate 
 divinities of Egypt are not necessarily at variance with the 
 different orders of Sephiroth acknowledged in the Jewish 
 Kabala, and indeed also in the Ninety-fifth Psalm and in 
 many other places in Hebrew sacred literature we find the 
 Eternal One spoken of as a great King above all gods, 
 having supreme dominion over all lesser divinities. 
 
 Much that must appear contradictory to the cursory 
 student of the Bible is readily elucidated ^s soon as we ad- 
 mit its distinctly Spiritualistic element. (We are told that 
 the Supreme Being is always invisible, but God's angels 
 are seen by men and hold conversations with them.*^; 
 Three angels appear as young men to Abraham, two of 
 whom go on to another place while one remains with the 
 patriarch. There are but two possible explanations of 
 such a narrative ; either the theory that those angels were 
 
Jewish Views of Immortality 91 
 
 spiritual beings sutficiently materialized for Abraham and 
 others to behold them, or that they were inspired men suf- 
 ficiently open to spiritual influx to be rightly called God's 
 special messengers because they had apprehended spiritual 
 order to a much greater extent than ordinary. It seemed 
 nothing singular for the spiritual world to break in, so to 
 speak, in patriarchal times upon common scenes of daily 
 living, yet the actual number of people who were sensitive 
 enough to take cognizance of these psychic irruptions 
 seems to have been but small. The same mistake is being 
 made to-day that was often made of old, viz., that of fail- 
 ing to discriminate between lawful use and illicit abuse of 
 psj^chic potencies. A witch meant a poisoner, and partic- 
 ularly one who sought to accomplish the ends of malevo- 
 lence by invoking the aid of charms and incantations and 
 purposely affiliating with such occult influences as could be 
 used for evil ends. But the woman at En-dor whom Saul 
 consulted, and who declared she saw the departed Samuel, 
 is described in the text as only an innocent clairvoyant. 
 Much has been made, by commentators averse to Spiritual- 
 ism, of the sin of Saul in consulting this woman, whereas 
 the narrative itself distinctly shows us that the unhappy 
 king's missteps before he went to her had already brought 
 him into such condition that, so far as his earthly career 
 was concerned, his fate was sealed already, it was there- 
 fore in vain that he sought to " disturb " Samuel. 
 
 Samuel had been Saul's counselor on earth for many 
 years, but the wayward monarch had time and time again 
 rejected the prophet's warning, then, when the conse- 
 quences of his repeated errors had made his throne so in- 
 secure that it had already virtually slipped from under 
 him, Saul in desperation sought to gain an interview with 
 
92 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Samuel, hoping to be shown a way to avert an impending 
 catastrophe. Samuel could not help Saul to retain his 
 earthly throne, for it was then too late to undo the mis- 
 chief that had been accomplished. Such is the narrative 
 in outline. 
 
 That much-abused story serves to illustrate a mighty 
 verity and to enforce a greatly needed moral lesson, that 
 we be wise betimes ; but it does not justify any of the dia- 
 tribe indulged in by fanatics, who wrest from it its obvious 
 ethical instructiveness and misemploy it as a weapon which 
 they seek to direct against all attempt at communion with 
 friends departed from the range of mortal vision. 
 
 It is indeed true that individual human immortality 
 is not very clearly taught in the Old Testament, but it is 
 inferred in many places, and Jewish rabbis of ripe scholarly 
 attainments have not been lacking through a long course of 
 centuries, who have found in original Hebrew texts, of 
 which we usually get but very poor translations, what they 
 consider conclusive evidence that nothing but the fleshly 
 tabernacle was ever believed to pass away or to be des- 
 troyed even if a heaven-sent deluge came and swept away 
 *' all flesh wherein was the breath of life." 
 
 The so-called pessimistic book known as Ecclesiastes, 
 though it apparently denies the immortality of the soul, at 
 least in the opinion of many of its critics, does not actually 
 do more than contrast the inevitable outcome of divers 
 ways of living, and in one famous passage, in which it 
 seemingly makes man and brute synonymous, it really 
 raises the question of who knows enough to discriminate 
 s between the man and the animal, and who can explain 
 ' why the breath of the one floats upward and the other 
 I downward when each is living normally. 
 
Jewish Views of Immortality 93 
 
 Here again we have a recurrence of primitive Egyptian 
 teaching. The sensuaHst and the egotist, even though 
 such may have gathered much external information of 
 which they are extremely proud, find at length that self- 
 indulgence and intellectual conceit yield finally only the 
 bitter fruit of weary dissatisfaction. They, on the other 
 hand, who have chosen a life of righteousness find peace 
 and satisfaction. 
 
 Greek philosophy is present in Ecclesiastes, but much 
 Greek thought was continuous from Egypt. ''Out of 
 Egypt have I called my Son," is a phrase which admits 
 of considerable wealth of explanation, for though Egypt 
 literally declined and its glory was scattered between 
 Greece and Israel, — Persia and Rome were also indebted 
 to '' Mizraim " for much of their philosophy. That mys- 
 tic, ancient land so graphically referred to in Isaiah (es- 
 pecially in Chapter XIX) lives to-day not only as a 
 monument to departed glory, but as a fruitful field from 
 which scholars are now busily gathering information which 
 throws enormous light upon the history of the ancient 
 world and reveals the roots of much modern philosophy 
 and theology freely accepted in Christendom. 
 
 The famous school of Philo of Alexandria embodied 
 very much of the ancient Egyptian spirit at its best. ( Philo 
 sought to unite Hebrew with Greek philosophy, combining 
 stern righteousness as set forth in an uncompromising 
 moral code with the charming beauty with which Hellenic 
 thought endowed all with which it came in contact. 
 
 Judaism to-day, with its many schools and parties, 
 ranging from extreme orthodoxy to radical reform, still 
 preserves many traces of the " ornaments " and other val- 
 uables which tradition says the Israelites took out of Egypt. 
 
94 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 "They spoiled the Egyptians," is not a mere reference to 
 the removal of earthly goods from one country to another. 
 The phrase has deeper reference to the passing of Egypt's 
 philosophy, together with much ceremonial accompaniment, 
 out of the Nile country to the banks of the Jordan. 
 
 Saul of Tarsus, known to the Christian world as Paul the 
 Apostle, made multitudinous references in several of his 
 epistles to the faith of Egypt, and when he wrote to the 
 Corinthians, (Corinth being a Grp:ian seaport having much 
 trade with the Egyptian coast), he refers to the Egyptian 
 scriptures far more frequently than to the Hebrew Law. 
 If we carefully compare i Cor. "^ with much that is con- 
 tained in ''The Book of the Dead," we shall find a strik- 
 ing similarity between the views expressed in both places 
 concerning our inner and outer bodies, and also as touch- 
 ing the nature of the resurrection. No hint is given that 
 the identical physical robe is to be resumed, but quite the 
 contrary, the comparison between the body left behind and 
 the body to be made manifest is as between bare grain or 
 seed and the fruitage which eventually it yields. 
 
 Some sort of resurrection from the dead has always been 
 taught in Israel, but Jewish sages, like the illustrious 
 Moses Maimonides, — wlio in the twelfth century of the 
 present era drew up the famous thirteen articles of Jewish 
 faith, — have always contented themselves with saying sim- 
 ply that the resurrection will be when and as God pleases, 
 leaving details completely aside. 
 
 .-'As the Unity of God and a righteous life are the only 
 two essentials of Jewish religion, we can well understand 
 how natural it is that there can be different parties in 
 Jewry and different views on many points and yet Israel can 
 remain a solidarity. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE JEWISH KABALA,— ITS TEACHINGS 
 CONCERNING IMMORTALITY 
 
 So mysterious a work as the Kabala cannot be reviewed 
 as one reviews ordinary literature for the original claim 
 made for the Kabala is that it is in every sense a revelation 
 to earth from heaven. 
 
 One tradition concerning its origin is that a society of 
 angels constitute a Theosophic school in Paradise and that 
 they chose seventy elders in Israel as their mouthpieces on 
 earth and through those elders alone, it was claimed, a cor- 
 rect knowledge of the esoteric meaning of the Torah could 
 be obtained. But regardless of legends concerning its 
 origin the Kabala is unquestionably a marvelous produc- 
 tion well deserving serious attention. Written for the wise 
 alone it has seldom occurred that an extensive translation 
 into English has been attempted, though a valuable book 
 entitled ''The Kabbalah Unveiled" was issued by S. I. 
 MacGregor Mathers, published by George Redway of 
 London in 1887. This fascinating volume was dedicated to 
 those two remarkable authors Dr. Anna Kingsford and 
 Edward Maitland who were deep students of ancient 
 mysteries and producers of really extraordinary literature, 
 of which '' The Perfect Way or Finding of Christ " is the 
 best known portion. The Kabala may reasonably be 
 styled the handbook of esoteric Judaism, and though it is 
 largely discredited among Jews of the modern school, it is 
 unquestionably a source from which many prevailing 
 Jewish ideas and ceremonies have emanated. The Kabala 
 
 95 
 
96 
 
 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 has long exerted an intense fascination for all lovers of the 
 profound and the mysterious, and though at first sight its 
 claims appear too stupendous, and its introductory prop- 
 ositions well nigh bewildering, it thoroughly repays an 
 earnest painstaking study conducted in a spirit of impartial 
 examination. The twenty-two letters of the Hebrew 
 alphabet must be interpreted somewhat mystically before 
 one is prepared to read their significance when employed 
 Kabalistically. 
 
 The following table may aid all who desire familiarity 
 with the outlines of the subject. 
 
 Nanie 
 
 Equivalent 
 
 Significance 
 
 Numerical Value 
 
 Aleph 
 
 A 
 
 Ox 
 
 I 
 
 Beth 
 
 B 
 
 House 
 
 2 
 
 Gimel 
 
 G 
 
 Camel 
 
 3 
 
 Daleth 
 
 D 
 
 Door 
 
 4 
 
 He 
 
 H 
 
 Window 
 
 % 
 
 Vau 
 
 V 
 
 Peg or nail 
 
 Zayiu 
 
 Z 
 
 Weapon or sword 
 
 7 
 
 Cheth 
 
 CH 
 
 Enclosure or fence 
 
 8 
 
 Teth 
 
 T 
 
 Serpent 
 
 9 
 
 Yod 
 
 I 
 
 Hand 
 
 ID 
 
 Caph 
 
 K 
 
 Palm of hand 
 
 20 
 
 Lamed 
 
 L 
 
 Ox-goad 
 
 30 
 
 Mem 
 
 M 
 
 Water 
 
 40 
 
 Nun 
 
 N 
 
 Fish 
 
 t 
 
 Samekh 
 
 S 
 
 Prop or support 
 
 Ayin 
 
 
 
 Eye 
 
 70 
 
 Pe 
 
 P 
 
 Mouth 
 
 80 
 
 Tzaddi 
 
 TZ 
 
 Fishing-hook 
 
 90 
 
 Qoph 
 
 Q 
 
 Back of the head 
 
 100 
 
 Resh 
 
 R 
 
 Head 
 
 200 
 
 Shin 
 
 SH 
 
 Tooth 
 
 300 
 
 Tan 
 
 TH 
 
 Sign of the Cross 
 
 400 
 
 Thousands are denoted by a letter of increased size, thus 
 a large Aleph signifies not one, but 1,000. In stating num- 
 bers beyond 400 and below 1,000 recourse is had to finals. 
 
The Jewish Kabala 
 
 97 
 
 Final Caph stands for 500. Final Mem for 600. Final 
 Nun for 700. Final Pe for 800. Final Tzaddi for 900. 
 Students of Kabala declare that the most mystical 
 and highly figurative portions of the Old Testament, no- 
 tably the books of Daniel and Ezekiel, also the New Testa- 
 ment Apocalypse, are quite intelligible when we are fur- 
 nished with the Kabalistic Key though without it the in- 
 tricate symbols are, to the bulk of readers, meaningless or 
 else suggestive of wild and lurid fancies such as are fre- 
 quently indulged by would-be interpreters whose particular 
 delight is in predicting awful world-wide catastrophies. 
 [Among European mystics of a recent period in whose eyes 
 the Kabala has appeared extremely sacred may be mentioned 
 Cornelius Henry Agrippa the famous philosopher and phy- 
 sician (1486-1535), John Baptist von Helmont the remark- 
 able chemist (1577-1644), Robert Fludd (1574-1637), 
 Dr. Henry More (1614-1687). These highly learned and 
 profoundly philosophic men have eulogized the Kabala in 
 the strongest and most enthusiastic terms displaying their 
 glad acceptance of its claim to a Divine origin. The 
 story of the Kabala is an intensely romantic one and one 
 that taxes the credulity of modern scholars to almost the 
 breaking point. After man's fall from primitive innocence 
 into a state of partial alienation from God, though there 
 was no longer such close communion of earth with heaven 
 as had been enjoyed in the primitive age of man's sojourn 
 on this planet, the angels of the Theosophic school in Par- 
 adise who were the custodians of the celestial truths re- 
 vealed in the Kabala, graciously arranged to communicate 
 them through chosen instruments on earth for the ultimate 
 good of all humanity. These angels appointed or selected 
 certain men as *' Protoplasts " beginning with Adam and 
 
98 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 extending, through Noah to Abraham, who is said to have 
 emigrated to Egypt where he allowed a certain portion of 
 the mysterious doctrine to become approximately public. 
 Moses, we are distinctly told in the Bible, was learned in 
 all, the wisdom of the Egyptians, but though he imbibed 
 much instruction in the land of his birth, tradition states 
 that it was only during forty years wandering in a wilder- 
 ness, and by means of instruction specially imparted by an 
 angel, that he became qualified to take the exalted place 
 among seers and sages which he has occupied for so many 
 centuries in the estimation of a vast number of both Jews 
 and Gentiles. 
 
 When considering the interviews of Moses with the Angel 
 we are soon led on to familiar Spiritualistic ground, and it 
 seems impossible to attach any literal significance whatever 
 to much of the Bible narrative without indorsing the sim- 
 ple theory that an angel is a spiritual messenger qualified 
 and commissioned to impart instruction to selected pupils. 
 
 In four out of the five books which constitute the 
 Pentateuch, it is said that the esoteric doctrine which 
 Moses imparted to the sacred seventy elders is contained, 
 but it is absent from Deuteronomy. We are further told 
 by traditional authorities, that David and Solomon carried 
 on an unbroken line of Kabalistic tradition, but Kabala 
 was not committed to ordinary writing until the days of 
 Schimlon Ben Jochai who lived during the period of the 
 destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi 
 Eleazar, his son, with the assistance of Rabbi Abha, his 
 secretary, and some of his disciples, collated the treatises 
 of Schimlon Ben Jochai and composed out of them the 
 celebrated Zohar, a title meaning splendor. The Kabala 
 is visually divided into four sections : Practical, Literal, 
 
The Jewish Kabala 
 
 99 
 
 Unwritten, Dogmatic. The practical portion deals with 
 talismans and the general details of ceremonial magic. 
 This is kept very secret and is not considered edifying for 
 the multitude. The other sections known as the esoteric 
 significance of the Law are considered highly profitable for 
 Rabbinical edification, and through the Rabbis the congre- 
 gation of Israel can be enlightened, and through Israel 
 eventually all Gentile nations may be made recipients of 
 universal wisdom. 
 
 The principal doctrines of the Kabala are designed to 
 solve every problem in the universe beginning with the 
 nature and attributes of the Supreme Being. Cosmogony, 
 the creation and destiny of angels and men, the nature of 
 the soul, descriptions of demons and elementals, the import 
 of revealed law, the transcendental symbolism of numbers, 
 the mysteries of Hebrew letters and the '' equilibrium of 
 contraries " are some of the principal topics dealt with in 
 the Kabala. 
 
 The '' Book of Concealed Mystery " deals with the '' equi- 
 librium of balance." Equilibrium is said to be "that 
 harmony which results from the analogy of contraries." 
 It is the central point, the '' point within the circle " of 
 ancient symbolism, the living synthesis of counter-balanced 
 power. Eliphas Levi, an eminent Kabalist of the nine- 
 teenth century, says in his ''History of Magic" that 
 Kabalists have a horror of whatever savors of idolatry ; they 
 however ascribe the human form to God, but only hiero- 
 glyphically. 
 
 The Kabalistic definition of Deity is '' the intelligent, 
 living, loving, Infinite One." God is in all, but disthict 
 from all, immanent but not inherent in the manifested 
 universe. The Kabalistic idea of a trinity as a manifesta* 
 
loo Universal Spiritualism 
 
 tion of Deity is of Kether (Crown) Chokmah (King) 
 Binah (Queen). The universe is spoken of as *'born 
 from the union of the crowned King and Queen." Before 
 the complete form of the Heavenly Man (the lo Sephiroth) 
 was produced primordial worlds were created, but they 
 could not very long subsist because the equilibrium of bal- 
 ance was not perfect. These are called ** Kings of ancient 
 time " and " Kings of Edom who reigned before the 
 monarchs of Israel." Edom means a world of unbalanced 
 force ; Israel signifies the balanced Sephiroth. 
 
 The archetypal world (Olahm Atziloth) gave birth to 
 three other worlds in a descending or decreasing scale of 
 brightness. The second world is termed Olahm Ha-Briah 
 or world of creation, an immediate emanation from the 
 first, a realm of pure spirit. The third world is called 
 Olahm Ha-Yetzirah, the world of formation and abode of 
 angels who are draped in luminous substance and who 
 appear in human form when they communicate with men. 
 The fourth world is designated Olahm Ha-Asiah or world 
 of action. Here are to be found the Demons or '' Shells " 
 which are the grossest and most deficient of all exist- 
 ences. There are ten varieties of Demons answering to 
 the decade of the Sephiroth, but in inverse ratio. The 
 Demons have a prince named Samael, the original of Satan. 
 Kabalists lay great stress upon the unpronounceableness of 
 the true name of Deity by the multitude, the secret of 
 its pronunciation being the greatest of secrets known only 
 to a very few illustrious initiates. 
 
 The famous saying, " He who rightly pronounceth the 
 Divine Name causeth heaven and earth to tremble, for this 
 is the name which rusheth throughout the Universe " ac- 
 counts for the fact that no devout orthodox Jew will 
 
The Jewish Kabala loi 
 
 attempt to pronounce the name formed from the sacred 
 consonants Yod, Heth, Vau, Heth, but makes a slight 
 pause or substitutes Adonai, which is customary when read- 
 ing from the scrolls in synagogues. The ineffable Name 
 has twelve transpositions, all conveying the same meaning, 
 ''to be." It is the only name that will bear so many 
 transpositions without involving a change of meaning. 
 
 These twelve transpositions are called '' banners of the 
 mighty Name " and have a reference to the twelve signs of 
 the Zodiac which are also the twelve major sections into 
 which the human body is divisible. 
 
 The Sephiroth of the Kabala are called both persons and 
 attributes of God, some of which are male and some 
 female, for no Kabalist ever does violence to the central 
 truth of the equality of male with female in Divinity. 
 
 The clear teaching of the first chapter of Genesis (vide, 
 verses 26, 27, 28) is never forsaken for a false interpreta- 
 tion of the second chapter which has long obscured the 
 true idea of the union of masculine and feminine in the 
 eternal Godhead as set forth in all esoteric treatises. 
 'While we cannot possibly understand a trinity of three ex- 
 clusively male personages at the root of a creation which 
 displays male and female expressions of life conjointly, we 
 can in some measure comprehend the idea of a Divine 
 Father and Mother begetting offspring. In the Kabalah 
 the ''Ancient of Days " is expressed as Father and 
 Mother and thus begets the Child. In Egypt the concept 
 of Osiris and Isis begetting Horus, and Horus being pre- 
 sented for contemplation under a dual aspect of son and 
 daughter, agrees exactly with the entire teaching of the 
 Kabala which is, in main features, scarcely distinguishable 
 from the Hermetic philosophy which at one time had its 
 
102 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 home in Egypt. The ten Sephiroth are divided into three 
 divisions called Pillars. The right-hand pillar is Mercy ; 
 the left-hand pillar is Justice or Judgment ; the middle 
 pillar is Mildness. In their total unity the ten Sephiroth 
 signify the Archetypal Man, Adam Kadmon, the Protag- 
 anos. In the form of the human body is found the Te- 
 tragrammaton. The sacred letters Yod, Heth, Vau, Heth, 
 are distributed as follows : The head is Yod ; the arms 
 and shoulders are the first Heth ; the trunk of the body is 
 Vau ; the lower limbs are the second Heth. In consider- 
 ing the three great divisions of the inner Hfe of humanity — 
 Neshamah, Ruach, Nephesh — the first is the spiritual 
 realm, the second the rational, the third the sensuous. 
 All souls are declared preexistent in the archetypal world 
 and are in their original state androgynous, but when in- 
 carnate upon earth they are separated into male and female 
 and inhabit different bodies. The doctrine of counter- 
 parts is clearly taught in the Kabala, but there is no sug- 
 gestion given anywhere that one expression of the soul — 
 male or female — is any sense superior or inferior to the 
 other. 
 
 Eliphas Levi in his dissertations upon the Kabala drew 
 the following inferences concerning the nature of the soul. 
 The soul is a veiled light ; this light is triple. Neshamah 
 is pure spirit ; Ruach is the rational soul ; Nephesh is the 
 plastic vehicle. Nephesh is immortal only through de- 
 struction and renewal of forms. Ruach progresses through 
 the evolution of ideas. Neshamah is without forgetfulness 
 and not susceptible to dissolution. The book of Ecclesi- 
 astes read in the light of the Kabala no longer appears sad 
 or pessimistic for the various questions it raises and the 
 statements it makes are all intelligible and acceptable when 
 
The Jewish Kabala 103 
 
 we are aware of the differing planes of consciousness and 
 states of existence to which the analytical preacher so 
 searchingly refers. Souls when perfected on earth pass to 
 ether planets and eventually they reach the sun ; then 
 they ascend to a superior universe and begin another 
 career from planet to planet and from sun to sun. In the 
 suns they remember all their experiences, but in the planets 
 they seemingly forget. Solar lives are days of eternal life 
 and planetary lives are nights in which the soul dreams. 
 Angels are luminous emanations personified by divine in- 
 fluence and reflex. . . . Angels desire to become men 
 for the perfect man is above all angels. Planetary lives 
 are composed of ten dreams each lasting for one hundred 
 years. Each solar life lasts one thousand years, therefore 
 is it said that in God's sight one thousand years is as one 
 day. Every " week," /. e., every fourteen thousand years 
 the soul ''bathes itself and reposes in the jubilee dream." 
 On awaking from which it remembers only good, for good 
 alone is worthy of remembrance. Spinoza was a deep 
 student of the Kabala and in his Ethics summed up its 
 teachings with much insight and ability. Among Spinoza's 
 definitions the following are especially luminous : **By 
 the Being who is the Cause and Governor of all things, I 
 understand AinSoph (Supreme Wisdom) infinite, without 
 attributes." "By Sephiroth, I understand the potencies 
 which emanate from the Absolute, all entities limited by 
 quantity." ''AinSoph is both immanent and transcend- 
 ent." "The Sephiroth are emanations not creations." 
 " As AinSoph is perfect the Sephiroth proceeding there- 
 from must also be perfect." The great mystery of Ma- 
 croprosopus and Microposopus, the greatest and least 
 countenances, is elaborately treated in the Book of Con- 
 
104 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 cealed Mystery which few modern scholars attempt to ex- 
 plain though, to all who are disposed to search for profound 
 verities below the surface or behind the veil of archaic 
 symbolism, jt is a treasure-house of wisdom rich beyond 
 compare. (In the books of Greater and Lesser Holy As- 
 sembly studious Christians will find the roots of the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity and indeed of practically all the mystic 
 doctrines which the esoteric Christian Church has dogmat- 
 ically formulated, insisting upon their acceptance by the 
 multitude to whom they are indeed unexplained and seem- 
 ingly inexplicable mysteries. The great offense of dogmatic 
 theologians has been the persistence with which they have 
 forced dogmas upon the masses as necessary to salvation 
 while the Kabala only sets forth propositions and condemns 
 no one who fails to comprehend them. The ^' Three 
 Heads " are alluded to frequently in the Kabala and it is 
 not difficult to surmise from what source the Athanasian 
 fathers derived their precise definitions concerning a 
 trinity of persons though God is absolute unity. 
 
 How widely different is the Kabalistic view from the 
 perverted doctrine which multitudes of Christians have 
 unthinkingly accepted on the basis of alleged authority is 
 clearly evident when we find in the Kabala no threats of 
 damnation for those who fail to perceive a truth veiled in 
 august mystery, but only a statement is made that as the 
 soul advances in enlightenment it comes to perceive a truth 
 '' hidden from the foundation of the world." 
 
 Were the Anthanasian creed revised by enlightened 
 Kabalists its so-called ^'damnatory" clauses would be 
 greatly changed, for instead of implying that souls " perisli 
 everlastingly" if they do not endorse a mysterious doc- 
 trine, the Kabala declares that as man becomes increas- 
 
The Jewish Kabala 
 
 105 
 
 ingly illumined or regenerate he gradually comes to an un- 
 derstanding of mystic verities, the knowledge of which is 
 an evidence of an advanced stage in the progress of illu- 
 mination or regeneration. There is no perdition taught in 
 the Kabala, but on the contrary only a continual rising of 
 the soul from sphere to sphere, casting off error and re- 
 taining truth alone. Enigmatical the language of the 
 Kabala may be, cruel and unreasonable it decidedly is not. 
 As Swedenborg in his voluminous treatises revived the 
 similitude of the Human Form as the form of all the 
 heavens, and his theological works, in particular, are in- 
 dustriously circulated by his admirers to-day, the language 
 of the Kabala is gradually becoming measurably familiar 
 to the general public. We have no space in this volume 
 for further discussion of it, but we commend a perusal of 
 this marvelous and fascinating literature to all students 
 who have leisure and disposition to peer beneath the sur- 
 face of familiar Scripture, to divine the deeper truths 
 which long have been veiled beneath the guise of seem- 
 ingly but doubtful ancient history. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 PERSIAN THEORIES OF THE SOUL AND 
 ITS DESTINATION 
 
 Though to-day if we wish to learn of Parseeism, the 
 origin of which is attributed to Zoroaster, we must visit 
 India rather than Persia, and seek for information in Bom- 
 bay, where a famous Parsee colony has enjoyed an un- 
 broken continuity of existence for over 1,200 years, it is to 
 a still remoter period than that which marks the founda- 
 tion of that ancient and venerable colony that we must 
 turn if we would inspect any of the roots of the still flow- 
 ering tree of Parseeism, a religion which disputes the 
 palm for antiquity with even its eldest contemporaries. 
 The story of Zoroaster, the reputed founder of the Parsee 
 faith, is veiled in considerable mystery, and until quite 
 recently scholars have had much difficulty in attempting 
 to reconcile seemingly conflicting dates, which have been 
 found so divergent as to prove ultimately irreconcilable on 
 any basis of belief that there has been but one great teacher 
 in all time who has borne the title of Zoroaster, as his 
 period has been placed as early as the days of the Jewish 
 Abraham and as late as the time of the Greek Pythagoras. 
 It is now beginning to be understood that there has been a 
 long line of highly enlightened spiritual teachers, running 
 through the ages, and that Zoroaster is a title of dignity 
 rather than a proper name. 
 
 That very instructive writer and lecturer on theosophy, 
 Annie Besant, has in one of her many books, *' Four Great 
 
 106 
 
Persian Theories of the Soul 107 
 
 Religions," sought to explain how one after another, as 
 the ages have rolled by, highly illumined teachers have 
 appeared on the stage of the world's great theatre and im- 
 parted instruction specially adapted to the times and places 
 when and where they have ministered, then left the good 
 seed they had sown and watered to germinate and bear 
 fruit, which it always does at the end of a cycle, at which 
 time there is demand for another great enlightener who 
 comes in his turn as his predecessors have come and gone 
 before him. 
 
 According to this theory, which is authenticated by 
 almost universal testimony furnished by students of the 
 Mysteries the wide world over, we have swept away the 
 major portion of the perplexing difficulty concerning 
 Zoroaster and have found that Parseeism is founded, like 
 many other ancient systems of religion and philosophy, 
 (not upon one sole teacher but upon a succession of spiritual 
 ienlighteners who, according to universal theosophy, are 
 /commissioned by celestial guardians of this planet's destiny 
 Ito convey to a special section of this earth's inhabitants 
 isuch portions and aspects of heavenly wisdom as they are 
 ^ready to receive, assimilate and propagate. Though Par- 
 seeism is not an ideal system as we find it expounded by 
 its best known modern exponents, and some of its doc- 
 trines, as set forth by its appointed delegate from Bombay 
 at the World's Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 
 1893, seem inferior to the highest inculcations of prophetic 
 Judaism and Christian Universalism, we must admit that 
 the sacred books of the Parsees termed Zend-Avesta 
 abound in excellent teachings, and also present a view of 
 good and evil far more reasonable than that which over- 
 spread beclouded Europe in the mediaeval period, and 
 
io8 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 which still survives as a blighting element in orthodox 
 phases of Christianity. 
 
 We hear and read much of dualism whenever we hear 
 of the Parsee or Iranian religion, but the dualistic theories 
 of all Zoroastrians are resolvable into an original and ulti- 
 mate monism, because the contending forces of good and 
 evil, even when these are personified in their respective 
 fountain-heads, Ormuzd and Ahriman, are only finite and 
 temporal. There is no such absurd belief as faith in 
 sempiternal evil in the Parsee creed or doctrine, for it 
 teaches that Ormuzd and Ahriman are brothers who have 
 had a dispute and are now engaged in works of diametric- 
 ally opposite character, but as the two sprang from one 
 source so they will return to the state of harmony which 
 was originally their blissful portion and from which they 
 have fallen, not everlastingly, but only for a limited pe- 
 riod. 
 
 The Persian Ahriman and the Hebrew Satan (Accuser) 
 are so practically identical that we may well discover 
 traces of Parseeism in the book of Job, one of the most 
 instructive and comforting of all the books which make up 
 the Hebrew Bible. This book of Job commended itself 
 very largely to the sympathies of Thomas Paine, who 
 alludes to it in a friendly spirit in that much abused 
 treatise, ''The Age of Reason," which contains many as- 
 saults upon much that the Bible contains but never calls 
 in question the unity of God or denies a good hope of 
 human immortality. 
 
 If Milton when he wrote ''Paradise Lost " was not 
 familiar with the Zend-Avesta, he at least shows famiharity 
 with much of its incidental teaching, though the English 
 poet never rose high enough in his theology to reach the 
 
Persian Theories of the Soul 109 
 
 spiritual altitudes which are the peaks and crowns of the 
 Zoroastrian faith. The Christian apostle Paul, who was a 
 classic as well as Hebrew scholar, shows much familiarity 
 with the essentials of the Iranian as well as of the Egyptian 
 religion in his noblest utterances, for after having con- 
 ceded to the ''powers of darkness" all that any well -in- 
 structed Parsee would attempt to claim, he launches forth 
 into those glorious and magnificent declarations of faith in 
 the perfect triumph of infinite goodness which are simply 
 paralyzing to all believers in the possibility of the ultimate 
 victory being gained, even in a single instance, by any 
 spirit which opposes itself to the rule of the perfect right- 
 eousness which dwells at the centre of the universe. 
 
 Even Robert Browning's perfect optimism as expressed 
 in '' Abt Vogler " is none too grand for a consistent Parsee 
 to endorse, for should one make an earnest and searching 
 study of the Zend-Avesta he might well rise from his re- 
 searches with the jubilant exclamation on his lips, *' There 
 shall never be one lost good, and for evil so much good 
 more." Browning may speak of a few "musicians " into 
 whose ears divine secrets are specially whispered, but who are 
 those sublimely privileged and singularly enlightened ones 
 but they who have learned the mighty lesson of transmuta^ 
 tion, and have indeed resolved discords into harmonies, 
 thereby proving that evil is only misplaced good, that evil 
 is a state or condition only, never a fundamental reality or 
 an essential of universal life. 
 
 Quite a number of modern metaphysicians would be 
 helped to greater clarity of statement if they would study 
 the Parsee doctrine which, when rescued from degenerate 
 accretions, is found to be an ambitious, and by no means 
 unsuccessful, attempt to explain the origin, nature and 
 
110 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 destiny of relative discord in a universe which is absolutely 
 good at core and in essence. 
 
 To give some idea of the antiquity of the fame of 
 Zoroaster we have only to be reminded that PHny, agree- 
 ing with Aristotle, asserts that Zoroaster flourished 6,000 
 years before Plato. Gibbon, Volney, and many other dis- 
 tinguished historians concur largely in this view, which, 
 as we have already intimated, is easily accepted on the 
 basis suggested by Annie Besant and other theosophical in- 
 terpreters; for when we consider that several illustrious 
 teachers have borne the same high appellation among the 
 followers of the doctrines they proclaimed, we should not 
 be staggered if we discovered statements to the effect that 
 Zoroaster lived even 100,000 years ago, perchance in the 
 mighty island-continent Atlantis, which was probably in 
 the height of its glory while the lands we now call ancient 
 were resting beneath the ocean waves, precisely as Atlantis 
 is now slumbering. Many historians have assigned Zoro- 
 aster to a period as recent as about 700 b. c, when no doubt 
 some great enlightenment came to the Iranians and a revival 
 of ancient wisdom took place among them, led by a special 
 master-guide. However ancient may have been its origin, 
 or however comparatively modern, it is certain that 
 Parseeism flourished in the Babylonian Empire and that 
 Judaism was largely tinctured with it during the time of 
 the Babylonian Exile. 
 
 Portions of the book of Isaiah were undoubtedly written 
 after the Jews had returned from Babylon to Palestine, and 
 the author who is often styled ** the second Isaiah " (vide 
 Isaiah 45) protested vehemently against the infiltration of 
 Babylonian doctrines into the Jewish creed, at least in so 
 far as those tenets were out of harmony with the simple 
 
Persian Theories of the Soul 1 1 1 
 
 faith of ancient Israel, which admitted no rival with God 
 upon the throne of the universe. Though much of the 
 ancient history of Zoroastrianism may be draped in un- 
 certainty, scholars have not encountered anything like 
 insuperable difficulties in their endeavors to trace the 
 history of the Parsee faith during the Christian era. 
 
 Max Miiller — whose monumental contributions to the 
 science of comparative religion and philology entitle him to 
 rank among the very greatest scholars of the nineteenth 
 century — has thrown much light on this interesting subject 
 in the course of his elaborate commentaries upon the 
 various sacred writings of the East, and to his voluminous 
 and fascinating works we advise all of our readers to turn 
 who have both desire and leisure to pursue their studies to 
 a far greater length than is possible for those whose occu- 
 pation is such that they can only find time for a study of 
 the briefest condensations. For our immediate purpose we 
 need only refer to a few important facts which throw light 
 upon the special subject we are now considering. In the 
 fourth century b. c, Alexander of Macedon overran the 
 Persian Empire and with his rule the old faith and ritual 
 declined or became obscure. In the following centuries 
 this decadence became more and more marked, and it was 
 not till about 700 years later that a great revival of 
 Parseeism occurred ; this was in the days of Ardeshir, who 
 overthrew the Parthian dominion in Persia and established 
 the Sassanian dynasty. To quote the words of William 
 Alger, " One of his first acts was, stimulated doubtless by 
 the surviving Magi and the old piety of the people, to 
 reinaugurate the ancient religion. A fresh zeal of loyalty 
 broke out, and all the prestige and vigor of the long- 
 suppressed worship were restored." 
 
1 1 2 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 The Zoroastrian Scriptures were now sought for, whether 
 in manuscript or in the memories of the priests. It would 
 seem that only remnants were found. The collection, such 
 as it was, was in the Avestan dialect, which had grown 
 partially obsolete and unintelligible. The authorities ac- 
 cordingly had a translation made of it in the speech of 
 the time, Tehlevi. This translation — most of which has 
 reached us written in the original, sentence after sentence 
 — forms the real Zend language, often confounded by the 
 literary public with Avestan. The translation of the 
 Avestan books, probably made under these circumstances 
 as early as 350 a. d. is called the <' Huzva-resch." It 
 is probably from this source rather than from one of 
 greater antiquity that floating theories concerning the 
 original Parsee faith are commonly drawn, therefore it 
 would be unwise to speak dogmatically, when scanning 
 such translations, concerning the highest and purest con- 
 cepts of a remote original. 
 
 To quote once more from William Alger, ''The source 
 from which the fullest and clearest knowledge of the Zoro- 
 astrian faith, as it is now held by the Parsees, is drawn, is 
 the Desatir and the Bundehesh. The former work is the 
 unique vestige of an extinct dialect called the Mahabadian, 
 accompanied by a Persian translation and commentary. 
 It is impossible to ascertain the century when the Mahaba- 
 dian text was written : but the translation into Persian was, 
 most probably, in the seventh century of the present era." 
 After descanting upon the improbability that those specula- 
 tions are well-founded which seek to attribute the teach- 
 ings of modern Parseeism to Jewish, Christian, or even 
 later Mohammedan origins, Dr. Alger proceeds to summar- 
 ize the tenets of Magian theology and from that summary 
 
Persian Theories of the Soul 
 
 113 
 
 ('< A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life," 
 pages 133 et seq.) we have compiled the following ex- 
 tremely abbreviated narrative. In the deep background of 
 Magian theology there looms belief in an infinite first 
 Principle-Zeruana Akerana, the meaning of which is Ab- 
 solute Duration or Indivisible One. But the beginning of 
 vital theology furnishing the actual ethics of Zoroastrian- 
 ism is the idea of the antagonistic forces — Ormuzd and 
 Ahriman — which constitute the first emanation from the 
 Absolute. These are said to divide between them the un- 
 resting striving of the universe. Ormuzd is the principle 
 of light ; Ahriman is the principle of darkness. From Or- 
 muzd proceed all virtue and all beauty; from Ahriman 
 proceed all wickedness and deformity. There is some 
 dispute as to whether these antagonistic powers have al- 
 ways been at variance ; different views have doubtless pre- 
 vailed at different times, the more pessimistic theories be- 
 longing, no doubt, to an age of spiritual declension and 
 mental obscuration, the more optimistic ground having 
 been always taken by the more enlightened in intellect and 
 the more advanced in spirituality among the numerous ex- 
 ponents of Zoroastrianism who have risen from age to age, all 
 claiming to interpret the original faith no matter how 
 widely, in some instances, their commentaries may have 
 departed from it. 
 
 Dr. Alger holds to the view entertained by clear-sighted 
 students in general and emphasized most powerfully and 
 beautifully by Marie Caithness, Duchesse de Pomar, in her 
 splendid treatise, ** The Mystery of the Ages, Contained in 
 the Secret Doctrine of All Religions," in which valuable 
 volume we are informed, on the basis of deep spiritual in- 
 sight coupled with profound scholarly research, that un- 
 
1 14 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 corrupted Parseeism teaches that Ormuzd and Ahriman are 
 indeed true brothers, originally harmonious, but during a 
 long age called a Gahambar they are in a state of active 
 antagonism, though when the cycle ends they will become 
 fully reconciled, then Pralaya or the Golden Age will re- 
 sult from their return to harmony. 
 
 Dr. Alger does not omit to trace the close connection 
 which certainly exists between Ahriman and the Satan of 
 the book of Job, which is a splendid epic poem, intended 
 to set forth the glorious ancient doctrine that no spirit of 
 evil in reality exists, as Satan (or the Accusing Angel) is 
 only a messenger of Heaven and receives a commission 
 from the Most High, or he could work nothing among 
 the inhabitants of earth. Job personifies the typical 
 human soul, individualized in every human being, and as 
 the poetic narrative most clearly shows, its author's object 
 was to convince all readers that nothing befalls humanity 
 except for ultimate good and when we see what looks to us 
 like unmitigated disaster we are, in our temporary blind- 
 ness, misinterpreting some perplexing phenomena which 
 will yet be explained to us as a part of our education, a 
 means of discipline the outcome of which will be a glorious 
 and wonderful enlightenment, impossible of achievement 
 except through its seemingly evil though, in reality, benig- 
 nant agency. 
 
 The Parsee delegate at the World's Parliament of Re- 
 ligions had no hesitation in telling the multitudes who 
 heard his speech or read the published report of it, that 
 Parsees to-day believe that every noxious creature and 
 poisonous plant is the work of Ahriman, while all that is 
 amiable and wholesome is the work of Ormuzd. This is 
 -an easy disposition of phenomena, and it may not be an 
 
Persian Theories of the Soul 115 
 
 incorrect stalement, but even though Ormuzd and Ahri- 
 man have each created a multitude of emissaries and sent 
 them forth to people this material globe, the ultimate ques- 
 tion of the final outworking of all for good remains quite 
 undisturbed. All that we have need to consider, even if we 
 accept this popular version of Parsee doctrine, is a method 
 by means of which the goal is reached, the object finally 
 accomplished. 
 
 /I'he Parsees' teaching that every soul embodied on earth 
 is attended by a light and dark unseen attendant, (a ferver 
 and a dev) and that every star is peopled with spirits of 
 light and darkness, is in complete accord with the almost 
 ;universal opinion of mankind, though such a doctrine is 
 easily subject to so much rational modification that it may 
 eventually be accepted, as already taught in many schools 
 •of theosophy, only in the sense that light is positive and 
 j symbolizes wisdom, while darkness is negative and symbol- 
 izes ignorance. Gerald Massey ' s able pamphlet, ' ' The Devil 
 of Darkness," bears a title which throws much light on the 
 primal question which still sorely perplexes the bulk of en- 
 quirers into the nature of the universe — Whence cometh 
 evil ? We cannot falter in our own allegiance to the blessed 
 concept that absolutely good is all hi all, and we find 
 nothing, even in Persian Dualism, to shake our confidence 
 in the truth of that mighty declaration, nor do we discover 
 any historic evidence that any truly illumined teacher ever 
 taught the contrary. Only a corrupted priesthood allied 
 'with a similarly corrupted temporal power ever invented 
 the false, hideous, irrational dogma of an endless, and there- 
 fore useless, hell together with the insane and frightful no- 
 tion that God was an angry tyrant who doomed a large 
 portion of his own creation to everlasting misery. The 
 
li6 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 nightmare theology which seeks to enslave and terrify the 
 world with such atrocious fictions may have its origin in 
 the dark land of shades, in which the unenhghtened dwell 
 until they have risen out of the murky shadows in which 
 their ignorance and ill-will may have plunged them ; but 
 never once has a radiant messenger from any sphere of 
 light suggested anything to humanity which casts a slur on 
 the character of the Almighty, or that leads sensitive 
 natures to despair, while it arouses the worst passions of the 
 cruel and the relentless. We make no apology for con- 
 demning the doctrine of endless or perpetual evil, whether 
 personified or not, as an insult to intelligence as well as a 
 flagrant contradiction of all that enlightened morality is 
 willing to accept. That there are unsolved problems and 
 mighty mysteries in the universe no sane thinker will for 
 an instant dispute, but to make capital out of these for the 
 purpose of exploiting a doctrine of sempiternal evil is a 
 crime against humanity and an insult to our common sense. 
 The precise views which Zoroastrians entertain concern- 
 ing the future life are rather difficult to describe in limited 
 space, but it may safely be decided that there is an idea of 
 purgatory among them, and also some idea of hell, though 
 not necessarily any idea which is at variance with the 
 ultimate salvation of every spirit in the universe. Parsee- 
 ism, in common with practically every other religion, teaches 
 concerning a great variety of states or conditions in the workl 
 beyond death, and, as Dante has taught in the Divine 
 Comedy, if it take four or five centuries, or even longer, to 
 purge a soul from the dross of avarice, envy, or any other 
 stain, so long must it be subjected to some cleansing dis- 
 cipline called " purgatorial fire." -^ The root of the doctrine 
 of purgatory is found in all religious systems, and if it be 
 
Persian Theories of the Soul 
 
 117 
 
 separated from all belief in damnation, with which the 
 thought of purgation is never properly allied, it may well 
 be accepted as a means of illustrating the consequences of 
 error, and the purifying ends of penalty. 
 
 Having already taken a glance at Egyptian eschatology, 
 we find Persian views of life beyond death extremely 
 similar and we must not forget that after the overthrow of 
 the Pharaonic or native Egyptian dynasty Egypt became 
 /subject to Persia, consequently the religious beliefs and 
 j symbols of both nations became greatly intermingled. 
 I The bull, always greatly venerated in ancient Egypt, looms 
 large upon the Persian horizon, the origin of all manifested 
 life being presented under the figure of that powerful 
 animal. Among Persian practises throwing light upon the 
 popular belief concerning the future life, is the ancient 
 ** Festival of the Dead," which is still celebrated by 
 Parsees during the last five days of every year, at which 
 season it is believed that the sinners in the spirit-world who 
 are undergoing expiatory penalties proportioned to their 
 offenses, are permitted to visit their relatives and friends 
 who are yet on earth, after which respite those who are 
 not sufficiently purified to pass on to Paradise must re- 
 turn to '* Dutsakh." Annually, it is taught, " Ormuzd 
 empties hell," and at this great solar feast (observed by 
 all Occult Societies the world over, which can boast of 
 any respectable antiquity) multitudes are finally released 
 from the shadows of Hades and conducted to brighter 
 realms on their way to the ultimate bliss of Heaven. 
 V To every student of comparative religion who is not 
 swayed by prejudice, the striking similarity of one creed to 
 another must prove convincing that prevailing Christian 
 doctrines are all derived from earlier sources, and that 
 
1 1 8 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 this is the case the gospel narratives themselves most clearly 
 testify. In the Apostle's Creed (usually regarded as the 
 oldest, as well as the simplest and concisest, of all the creeds 
 of Christendom) the much-disputed passage (which some 
 Protestants disapprove of and omit), " He descended into 
 hell," shows unmistakably the complete sympathy which 
 existed between primitive Christianity, which was highly 
 eclectic, and other older and widely prevailing faiths. 
 j^'Again do we insist that in their original purity or sim- 
 plicity all religious systems taught the purification of de- 
 parted souls, through suffering indeed whenever such is 
 necessary, but never final extinction or, what is far worse, 
 endless misery. The Parsees of old declared that the 
 present order of the world was fixed at 12,000 years 
 duration, divided into four equal parts. During the first 
 three thousand years Ormuzd reigns triumphantly, during 
 the second three thousand years Ahriman reigns. The 
 third three thousand years is occupied in strife between 
 them, and the fourth three thousand years is to be a period 
 of Ahriman 's victory, when the earth will be the scene of 
 all manner of awful tragedies. This dark period will, 
 however, be triumphantly overcome, for Ormuzd will rise 
 in majestic might and put a complete stop to all calamities 
 and all atrocities. Ormuzd will send to earth a saviour, 
 Gosiosch, to deliver mankind and to bring the arcn-enemy 
 to judgment. Then comes the resurrection, when all the 
 departed will reappear and friends will gladly recognize 
 each other. Great difference of opinion among scholars 
 still prevails as to the exact nature of the resurrection, but 
 all agree that Parseeism teaches individual immortality. 
 
 Every doctrine taught in Christendom concerning the 
 disobedience and fall of man can be found paralleled in 
 
Persian Theories of the Soul 119 
 
 Parseeism. Though it seems fairly dear that Dualism is 
 inextricably interwoven with the Zoroastrian faith, Rawlin- 
 son argues — and sustains his argument by powerful proofs 
 — that the Dualistic doctrine was a heresy which broke out 
 among primitive Aryans who were the ancestors of subse- 
 quent Iranians and Indians. It is contended, almost 
 universally, that the Jewish Scriptures are honey-combed 
 'with Persian doctrines but the only book in the Old 
 Testament which lays any clear stress upon the doctrine of 
 resurrection is Daniel, which is replete with Chaldean and 
 Persian allusions. This apocalyptic treatise (which the 
 book called Revelation or Apocalypse in the New Testa- 
 ment strongly resembles) is usually attributed to a period 
 not earlier than 200 b. c. The spiritual idea of the 
 resurrection which prevailed among thoughtful and edu- 
 cated Zoroastrians in the days of the famous Plutarch is 
 clearly shown in his quotation from Theopompus who gives 
 it as the opinion of the Magi that when Ahriman is sub- 
 dued and men are restored to life " they will need no 
 nourishment and cast no shadow." Such is undoubtedly 
 the original Magian doctrine and it comports well with 
 the idea of a purely spiritual body not dependent upon 
 material elements for sustenance and not subject to the 
 limitations of time and space. 
 
 Every reader is doubtless familiar with the Towers of 
 Silence, the Parsee burying places, and many travelers 
 have seen them. The dead body is not permitted to be 
 thrown into water or fire or to be buried in the earth lest it 
 contaminate an element, it is therefore placed at a high 
 elevation above the ground and subjected to the action of 
 birds of prey, which Parsees believe have a necessary 
 mission to fulfil and are properly endowed with a taste for 
 
120 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 carrion. The dead body is treated with no indignity by 
 these scrupulously cleanly people who make cleanliness an 
 essential part of their religion. Bodies are placed in dry, 
 pure, open places upon a summit where fresh winds blow 
 and the vultures which devour the flesh, leaving the bones 
 completely harmless, are accounted sacred. 
 
 Though there is much attributed to Parseeism which is 
 not altogether charming, a stern sense of justice, coupled 
 with a proclamation to the effect that righteousness alone 
 will eventually triumph, runs through all doctrines which 
 claim Zoroaster and the Zend-Avesta for their source. At 
 the time of judgment a complete separation will be made 
 between the virtuous and the vicious, but though the latter 
 will be condemned to penal sufferings their anguished cries 
 will rise to heaven and find pity in the soul of Ormuzd, 
 who will eventually release all from their sufferings. The 
 awful words in a Christian gospel, attributed to Jesus, 
 ** Depart ye cursed into everlasting (aionian) fire, prepared 
 for the devil and his angels," though by no means delight- 
 ful reading, are susceptible, and that without the slightest 
 straining, of a reasonable and even a benevolent meaning, 
 for we have a right to challenge theologians to debate the 
 question : For what purpose is the fire prepared ? Who 
 shall dare to deny that a just Deity has wisely prepared it 
 for the express purpose of purifying and enlightening those 
 who are unclean and dark in their spiritual condition ? 
 Fire enters largely as a highly expressive symbol into all 
 religions, and as fire accomplishes on earth three useful 
 and beneficent ends — it enlightens, it warms and it puri- 
 fies — we have not the slightest right or reason to suppose 
 that Zoroaster, Jesus, or any enlightened spiritual teacher 
 or Messiah at any time in the world's history, ever in- 
 
Persian Theories of the Soul 121 
 
 tended to teach any other doctrine than the ultimate en- 
 lightenment and purification of every individual spirit in 
 the universe. 
 
 Parseeism is essentially in union with Universalism, and 
 though the Universalists of to-day would probably refuse 
 to endorse a good deal they might find in ancient Parsee 
 documents, they have publicly announced in two great 
 sentences, included in the Confession of Faith of the 
 American Universalist denomination, their complete 
 agreement with the essence of Zoroastrianism, for they pro- 
 fess belief in the certahity of retribution, and the fi)ial har- 
 mony of all souls with God. Here we have arrived at a 
 complete synthesis of acceptable spiritual philosophy and 
 no matter how widely some of us may differ among our- 
 selves as to the means whereby universal harmony may be 
 effected, we can all endorse the noble sentiment voiced by 
 Hosea Ballou, the father of American Universalism, in a 
 still popular hymn : 
 
 " In God's eternity, 
 There shall a day arise 
 When all of Adam's race shall be 
 With Jesus in the skies." 
 
 And equally in the glorious words of Epes Sargent, the 
 stalwart Spiritualist, which are also found in many well- 
 compiled hymnals : 
 
 " The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die, — 
 Die to the sin that did its life confine." 
 
 Again quoting from Dr. Alger, we will sum up our all 
 too superficial glance at the Parsee faith. In the follow- 
 ing sentences we behold a glorious picture of the future 
 
122 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 which awaits our planet and its multitudinous inhabitants : 
 " The earth- wide stream of fire, flowing on, will cleanse 
 every spot and everything. Even the loathsome realm of 
 darkness and torment shall be humbled and made a part 
 of the all-inclusive Paradise. Ahriman himself, reclaimed 
 to virtue, replenished with primal light, abjuring the mem- 
 ories of his envious ways, and furling thenceforth the sable 
 standard of his rebellion, shall become a ministering spirit 
 of the Most High, and together with Ormuzd, shall chant 
 the praises of Time-without-Bounds. All darkness, false- 
 hood, suffering, shall flee utterly away, and the whole uni- 
 verse be filled by the illumination of good spirits blessed 
 with functions of eternal delight. In regard to the fate of 
 man — 
 
 " Such are the parables Zartusht addressed 
 To Iran's faith, in ancient Zend-Avest." 
 
 To this subUme picture we invite the earnest, prayerful 
 attention of every benighted traveler along earth's high- 
 way, who doubts that '' Good will be the final goal of ill." 
 Universal salvation is the only salvation conceivable in a 
 sane universe, and it has been the glorious mission of 
 modern, as of ancient. Spiritualism to proclaim this blessed 
 /truth, not only as a postulate of philosophy or a reasonable 
 Veligious faith, but as a demonstrated certainty based upon 
 (progressive life in the immortal spheres of Spirit. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 GREEK AND ROMAN VIEWS OF A 
 FUTURE LIFE 
 
 Once more acknowledging indebtedness to the splendid 
 work of Dr. Alger, from which we have already quoted 
 freely, we again present our readers with a fine descriptive 
 passage from "A Critical History of the Doctrine of a 
 Future Life," (pages 175-6), as it serves our purpose so 
 exactly at this particular juncture in our progressive nar- 
 rative. "The disembodied soul, as conceived by the 
 Greeks, and after them by the Romans, is material, but of 
 so thin a contexture that it cannot be felt with the hands. 
 It is exhaled with the dying breath, or issues through a 
 warrior's wounds. The owner passes through its unin- 
 jured form as through the air. It is to the body what a 
 dream is to waking existence. Retaining the shape, line- 
 aments and motion the man had in life, it is immediately 
 recognized upon appearing. It quits the body with much 
 reluctance, leaving that warm and vigorous investiture for 
 a chill and forceless existence. It glides along without 
 noise and very swiftly, like a shadow. It is unable to 
 enter the lower kingdom and be at peace until its deserted 
 body has been buried with the sacred rites ; meanwhile, 
 naked and sad, it flits restlessly about the gates, uttering 
 doleful moans." 
 
 Unsatisfactory though such a picture unquestionably is, 
 if we apply it to all humanity, it certainly is not without an 
 
 123 
 
124 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 element of truth if we restrict its application to those who, 
 while on earth, have failed to pay any adequate attention 
 to the supersensuous demands of life. 
 
 The Greeks and Romans, as peoples, were during a con- 
 siderable portion of their externally prosperous history de- 
 voted far more to sensuous than to spiritual ideals ; conse- 
 quently the highly gifted seers and seeresses among them, 
 of whom there were many, soon came to perceive that the 
 state of the soul, immediately following physical dissolu- 
 tion, was not extremely enjoyable in a majority of instances, 
 though hopeless misery was no part of the Greek or Roman 
 creed. The importance of burial rites was purposely ex- 
 aggerated by an ambitious priesthood and various orders of 
 tradespeople, who to this very day, almost all over the 
 earth, profit greatly, not only financially but in the sense of 
 upholding the dignity of their respective offices by the 
 superstitious regard almost universally entertained for fu- 
 neral services and their elaborate collaterals. There is, 
 without doubt, even some spiritual foundation for funeral 
 and memorial rites, and we would be far from discourag- 
 ing them totally ; at the same time it is clear to see that all 
 unnecessary expenditure upon orgies for the departed is a 
 waste of means and effort, and it also tends to encourage 
 necromantic beliefs and practices in place of aiding us to 
 outgrow our slavish dependence upon external forms to help 
 us in seasons of extremity. 
 
 Such mighty minds as Socrates, Plato, and a few other 
 superb philosophers, entertained almost nothing of the pop- 
 ular belief, and one of the chief causes which led to the 
 condemnation to death of the highly honorable Socrates by 
 Athenian judges was the fearless outspokenness with which 
 he inveighed against the slavish devotion to externals which 
 
Greek and Roman Views of a Future Life 125 
 
 prevailed in his day, even as it prevails in ours to an ex- 
 tent which is almost incredible. 
 
 The Greek Mysteries were (and are) sublime beyond 
 compare, but their magnificent symbolism was often 
 shrouded in pitiable superstition before the gaze of the mul- 
 titude. The splendid dramas in which were enacted the 
 story of the descent of spirit into matter, its gradual ascent 
 through matter to a higher self-conscious immortal life than it 
 had previously enjoyed, and its final participation in the 
 bliss and glory of life celestial, were regarded by many only 
 as religious spectacles, like the famous Passion Play in 
 Bavaria, which has drawn enormous crowds to the cele- 
 brated village of Ober Ammergau whenever it has been 
 presented. 
 
 The people at large, in all centuries and through all ages, 
 have seen the shell but have not even imagined the kernel 
 within, and when true philosophers (lovers of wisdom) 
 have determined to penetrate to the core of symbolism and 
 unveil a mystery they have been greeted with execration 
 and doomed to execution by a fanatical mob prompted by 
 a corrupted priesthood. A few faithful disciples have, 
 however, always gathered about them, and these have pre- 
 served, even though but imperfectly, for future generations 
 the mighty saving truths which the world's greatest thinkers 
 have, at the peril of their earthly all, uncompromisingly 
 enunciated. Some of the early Greek ^uthors described 
 the universe in highly fantastic language and gave to the 
 world descriptions of the unseen spheres of spirit which are 
 to-day generally regarded as merely fanciful speculations. 
 Imaginary though the bulk of these undoubtedly are, there 
 is much in them which repays attention as they are a 
 strange combination of the results of genuine seership and 
 
126 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 the workings of undisciplined imagination. Though 
 many of the joyless scenes depicted by early Greek rhap- 
 sodists as belonging to the world of departed souls would 
 be sad indeed to contemplate were they presented as en- 
 during conditions, we must not forget that the doctrine of 
 reincarnation prevailed in ancient Greece among those who 
 could see little brightness ahead of any one in the " land of 
 shades," thus, while they did not expect much joy or sun- 
 shine in the unseen realms, they looked forward to a glad 
 return to earth provided the life previously lived merited so 
 felicitous a consequence as another earthly existence supe- 
 rior to the former. 
 
 Modern Theosophy teaches many doctrines which are as 
 near of kin to early Greek as to Hindu concepts, even 
 when leaders in the Theosophical Society draw their teach- 
 ings avowedly from Hindu sources and freely decorate their 
 speech with Sanskrit words and phrases. This is not diffi- 
 cult to explain when we have once grasped the idea of a 
 universal doctrine and symbolism which runs through all 
 ancient and modern creeds and rituals. We must not for- 
 get that when dealing with views of the future life enter- 
 tained by Greeks of old, we are more often presented with 
 poetical rhapsodies than with anything claiming to be a re- 
 cital of unembellished fact, and this is precisely the case 
 with Christian legends also. We turn to Virgil and to 
 Homer to study classic views and to Dante and Milton to 
 grasp the ideas of Christians of a later age. In both in- 
 stances we must make allowance for '' poetic license " and 
 not take too literally much that may have originally been 
 intended as an allegory. Allegorical teaching is not prop- 
 erly fictitious, it is illustrative, representative, dramatic, in 
 form, and intended to present vivid tableaux by means of 
 
Greek and Roman Views of a Future Life 127 
 
 which the picture- loving multitude may be led to embrace 
 certain moral truths which they might not so readily heed 
 were they presented without theatrical accompaniments. 
 
 That the Greeks expected to recognize their friends in 
 the spirit-spheres is evident from the words of Sophocles 
 who reports the last words of Antigone : * ' Departing I 
 strongly cherish the hope that I shall be fondly welcomed 
 by my father, my mother, and my brother." Plato, in 
 common with others among the greatest of Greek philoso- 
 phers, endorses the Socratic doctrine, which is noble, 
 rational and true, that one who has lived an upright life 
 on earth has no need to fear death or aught that lies beyond 
 it. This ancient philosophic doctrine has found its way 
 into modern religious poetry, as witness a beautiful and 
 highly optimistic hymn found in Unitarian and other 
 rational, though spiritually minded, hymnals : 
 
 " Fear ends with death, beyond it 
 I nothing see but God." 
 
 Extravagant though such a sentiment may be if we seek 
 to apply it universally, — and a sternly just spiritual philos- 
 ophy may insist upon modifying it, — it is immeasurably 
 superior to the awful reasonless outcries of the bigots and 
 fanatics who '' preach into hell " all who have not accepted 
 their creed, or who may have wandered from the path 
 which they in their impudence and arrogance have de- 
 clared to be the only road to heaven. 
 
 Hades, or the underworld of the Greeks, was not a state 
 or place of banishment because of sin or in consequence of 
 any broken law in the plan of the universe ; it was merely 
 a state into which all must pass after they had completed 
 their term of physical existence upon the surface of the 
 
128 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 earth, if their souls were too feeble to climb to Olympus 
 and dwell among divinities. But we must not be unmind- 
 ful of the important part played by the irrepressible idea of 
 retribution for all righteousness and for all iniquity which 
 is formed in the very essence of human nature, and which 
 blossomed forth in Greece in a contrasting Elysium and 
 Tartarus, the former being the blissful abode of the right- 
 eous, the latter a penal settlement for the ungodly. 
 
 The distribution of poetic justice as set forth in the Plays 
 sometimes borders on the ludicrous and reminds us of bur- 
 lesque, precisely as we can scarcely avoid laughter when 
 remembering some of the fantastic mediaeval means em- 
 ployed to teach moral lessons and lead the illiterate to for- 
 sake their vices and pursue a path of virtue. As accom- 
 modations to an undeveloped mental condition on the part 
 of the ''vulgar" these representations may be pardonable, 
 but we must seek far beyond them to discover the higher 
 ideas of the learned aesthetic Greeks, whose extreme culture 
 is to this day universally acknowledged. There can be 
 little doubt that the gods and goddesses of Greece and 
 Rome were glorified heroes and heroines who had been, to 
 use a Christian phrase, "canonized as saints" and after- 
 wards promoted to the rank of deities, though there is also 
 a decidedly astronomical element in all mythology. 
 
 Ignatius Donelly, in his interesting book "Atlantis," 
 declares that the Greek divinities were founded upon the 
 rulers of Poseidon, that latest fragment of a once enormous 
 island-continent over which the Atlantic waters for many 
 millenniums have rolled. Be this as it may, mythology dis- 
 tinctly reveals to us a popular belief in communion with indi- 
 vidual beings who had once lived on earth, and who still re- 
 tained the distinctive features of their respective individu- 
 
Greek and Roman Views of a Future Life i 29 
 
 alities, but as astronomical elements are found in every 
 theological and theosophical system, we find the names of 
 the diiicreiit planets given to divinities and attributes 
 ascribed to them not unlike those which modern astrologers 
 assign to Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars and Mercury when 
 they engage in casting and reading horoscopes. Turning 
 to Ovid, we find him summing up the cream of Greek and 
 Roman thought concerning the hereafter in the following 
 illuminating words, which clearly show that differing 
 planes of existence were acknowledged and that the fate 
 of the lower was not ever confounded with the destiny of 
 the higher. 
 
 •• Terra tegit carnem ; tumulum circumvolat umbra ; 
 Oreus habet manes; spiritus astra petit." 
 
 A free translation of which may read, 
 
 Earth hides the flesh ; the shade flits round the tomb ; 
 
 The image is received by the underworld ; the spirit seeks the stars. 
 
 Euripides declares that each element in man seeks af- 
 finity with its own ; thus comes the saying, " the body to 
 the ground ; the spirit to the ether." Sublime indeed are 
 many classic accounts of the promotion of ennobled souls 
 to rank among the gods in the Elysium. As human souls 
 still retain distinctive individuality, they were portrayed 
 as exercising sway over the destinies of earth, and this 
 rational faith undoubtedly was shared by all among the 
 truly enlightened philosophers, seers and sages of antiquity. 
 Plotinus has told us that "Whoever has wisdom and true 
 virtue in soul differs but little from superior beings, in 
 this alone being inferior to them — that he is in body." 
 Such an one dying may therefore say with Empedocles, 
 
130 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 "Farewell! A god immortal now am I." Vespasian in 
 his expiring moments said, "I shall soon be a god." 
 These and many more expressions of similar character 
 easily culled from the riches of the classic treasure house, 
 must prove beyond dispute that the pure, upright and 
 valorous of earth had no doubt as to their reception among 
 divinities when they had finished their earthly course and 
 passed on to their inevitable reward. 
 
 Among devoted friends between whom the bond of 
 friendship has been extremely strong, though one has been 
 manifestly intellectually and morally the superior of the 
 other, fears have been expressed lest the apotheosis of the 
 heroic one should completely banish him from the society 
 of his less-developed comrade who could not be trans- 
 ported to the ''Blessed Isles." In many such instances a 
 hero is said to have voluntarily foregone his beatification 
 that he might still remain united with the companion to 
 whom he was devotedly attached. In esoteric confra- 
 ternities where the Mysteries of Eleusis are fully under- 
 stood, the praise of this voluntary self-immolation for the 
 sake of another is highly extolled and the declaration is 
 made that whosoever makes this voluntary sacrifice is not 
 only not deprived of his own merited exaltation, but is en- 
 abled to so minister from the Elysium to his friend for 
 whom he wished to sacrifice his own promotion that his 
 friend is soon redeemed from the land of shades and en- 
 titled to join him in the bliss of Paradise. 
 
 Though the barbaric notion is not absent from classic 
 literature that Elysian rewards are bestowed arbitrarily by 
 gods upon their favorites, this crude and decidedly unjust 
 opinion must not be taken as other than a corruption of 
 the classic faith, and it was always discountenanced, and 
 
Greek and Roman Views of a Future Life 131 
 
 often vehemently inveighed against, by moral teachers who 
 unanimously insisted that all happiness and glory in the 
 hereafter resulted solely from virtuous life. Seneca satir- 
 ized in the most biting language what he considered a de- 
 moralizing doctrine and travestied the supposed deification 
 in the future life of those who were not worthy of such 
 distinction, even going so far as to sarcastically describe 
 the reception of Claudius among celestial "pumpkins." 
 Pindar, the glorious Theban lyrist, takes cheerful views of 
 the state of the departed in general, though he never fails 
 to draw a sharp and equitable line of demarcation between 
 the righteous and the insincere after their exit from mortal 
 bodies. In the various dialogues of Plato many different 
 doctrines are reviewed, but we may reasonably believe that 
 the teachings of his illustrious preceptor, Socrates, were 
 those which he really accepted and transmitted to the 
 world. 
 
 It cannot be disputed that Plato has expressed a firm 
 religious and philosophical faith in the immortality of the 
 soul, his thoughts, indeed, were constantly directed to this 
 transcendent theme, and such pure meditations had a great 
 effect upon his wise and useful life. Plato's faith rested 
 not alone or chiefly upon traditional doctrines but upon 
 metaphysical reasonings, in which he took elaborate de- 
 light. The sincerity of his reasoning is self-evident as he 
 always seeks to draw practical inferences which tend to 
 ennoble conduct and lead his pupils to live more sanely 
 and seriously than though they had been bereft of their 
 counselor's sage precepts. Plato's philosophy is at times 
 obscure but it is always moral and his teachings concern- 
 ing reembodiment are fully up to the standard of many 
 modern Theosophical deliverances. The soul is always 
 
132 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 essentially pure, only its vesture can be soiled or muddy. 
 The physical body is sometimes alluded to as a prison- 
 house and the whole material world to a place of humilia- 
 tion, which is in direct contrast with the materialistic 
 theory, very prevalent in Plato's day, that this external 
 world is the place of joy and blessedness and the state be- 
 yond death a dreary unlighted wilderness in which the 
 waning shades of the departed gradually lose all conscious- 
 ness and eventually pass into extinction. 
 
 The immense variety of views entertained by ancient 
 Greeks and Romans were no more numerous and conflict- 
 ing than those put forward at the present time, for this 
 enlightened twentieth century, with all its boasted culture 
 and refinement, has not outgrown materialism on the one 
 hand or ecclesiastical fanaticism on the other, though both 
 are surely and rapidly declining. Present day spiritual 
 revelations do not serve entirely to dispel confusion, in- 
 deed they sometimes seem to add to it, though to the really 
 thoughtful examiner of the many diverse communications 
 alleged to proceed from ''departed spirits" the conflict of 
 statement is only superficially apparent. 
 
 We cannot presume that all who pass from earth to 
 spirit-life are equally enlightened or that all share identical 
 experiences, nor can we suppose that messages from spirit- 
 spheres are always accurately transmitted or correctly in- 
 terpreted. Now, as in days of old, there must be an 
 immense amount of difference in the condition of souls who 
 have ''crossed the border " even as there is practically in- 
 calculable difference between one state of humanity and 
 another here on earth. Again and yet again are we com- 
 pelled to reiterate the just and solemn truth that dropping 
 a physical body does not transform a character, and no 
 
Greek and Roman Views of a Future Life 
 
 133 
 
 belief in vicarious atonement can produce results in the 
 hereafter which it certainly does not produce on earth. 
 
 Stern yet loving is the decree of Deity made manifest in 
 all worlds equally. As the individual sows so must the 
 individual reap. It is a matter of small moment whether 
 we agree or not as to the means whereby the law of equity 
 is universally fulfilled, but to acknowledge that law and 
 trust undoubtingly in its universal fulfilment is to equip 
 ourselves with a moral philosophy which will stand the test 
 of every assault that can ever be made upon it. 
 
 How far Plato in the " Phsedo " has given us an all- 
 satisfying philosophy of life we leave our readers to decide 
 among themselves by supplementing these meditations of 
 our own with a portion of one of the finest dialogues which 
 the famous Grecian sage has transmitted to posterity. 
 
 Socrates is preparing to quaff the hemlock and in view 
 of an almost immediately impending change of state, from 
 earth to spirit life, discourses thus among his friends who 
 have remained faithful to their teacher to the last, despite 
 every calumny and every blast of persecution. 
 
 "Answer me, then," he said, '' what that is which, when 
 it is in the body, the body will be alive? " 
 
 '' Soul," he replied. 
 
 "Is not this, then, always the case?" 
 
 " How should it not be ? " said he. 
 
 " Does the soul, then, always bring life to whatever it 
 occupies? " 
 
 "It does indeed," he replied. 
 
 "Whether, then, is there anything contrary to life or 
 not?" 
 
 "There is," he replied. 
 
 "What?" 
 
134 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 "Death." 
 
 *' The soul, then, will never admit the contrary of that 
 which it brings with it, as has been already allowed ? " 
 
 " Most assuredly," replied Cebes. 
 
 * ' What, then ? How do we denominate that which 
 does not admit the idea of the even ? " 
 
 " Uneven," he replied. 
 
 ''And that which does not admit the just, nor the 
 musical ? ' ' 
 
 ''Unmusical," he said, "and unjust." 
 
 "Be it so. But what do we call that which does not 
 admit death ? ' ' 
 
 "Immortal," he replied. 
 
 " Therefore, does not the soul admit death ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Is the soul, then, immortal?" 
 
 " Immortal." 
 
 "Be it so," he said. "Shall we say, then, that this 
 has been now demonstrated ? or how think you ? ' ' 
 
 "Most completely, Socrates." 
 
 "What, then," said he, "Cebes, if it were necessary 
 for the uneven to be imperishable, would the number three 
 be otherwise than imperishable ? ' ' 
 
 " How should it not?" 
 
 " If, therefore, it were also necessary that what is without 
 heat should be imperishable, when any one should introduce 
 heat to snow, would not the snow withdraw itself, safe and 
 unmelted ? For it would not perish ; nor yet would it 
 stay and admit the heat." 
 
 " You say truly," he replied. 
 
 " In like manner, I think, if that which is insusceptible 
 of cold were imperishable, that when anything cold ap- 
 
Greek and Roman Views of" a Future Life 135 
 
 proached the fire, it would neither be extinguished nor 
 perish, but would depart quite safe." 
 
 ** Of necessity," he said. 
 
 ''Must we not, then, of necessity," he continued, 
 " speak thus of that which is immortal? if that which is 
 immortal is imperishable, it is impossible fur the soul to 
 perish, when death approaches it. For, from what has 
 been said already, it will not admit death, nor will ever be 
 dead ; just as we said that three will never be even, nor, 
 again, will the odd ; nor will fire be cold, nor yet the 
 heat that is in fire. But some one may say, what hin- 
 ders, though the odd can never become even by the ap- 
 proach of the even, as we have allowed, yet, when the odd 
 is destroyed, that the even should succeed in its place ? 
 We could not contend with him who should make this 
 objection that it is not destroyed, for the uneven is not im- 
 perishable ; since, if this were granted us, we might easily 
 have contended that, on the approach of the even, the odd 
 and the three depart ; and we might have contended in 
 the same way with respect to fire, heat, and the rest, 
 might we not? " 
 
 ''Certainly." 
 
 "Wherefore, with respect to the immortal, if we have 
 allowed that it is imperishable, the soul, in addition to its 
 being immortal, must also be imperishable ; if not, there 
 will be need of other arguments." 
 
 " But there is no need," he said, " so far as that is con- 
 cerned ; for scarcely could anything not admit of corrup- 
 tion, if that which is immortal and eternal is liable to it." 
 
 "The deity, indeed, I think," said Socrates, "and the 
 idea itself of life, and if anything else is immortal, must be 
 allowed by all beings to be incapable of dissolution." 
 
136 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 "By Jupiter!" he replied, " by all men, indeed, and 
 still more, as I think, by the gods." 
 
 ** Since, then, that which is immortal is also incorrup- 
 tible, can the soul, since it is immortal, be anything else 
 than imperishable? " 
 
 "It must, of necessity, be so." 
 
 " When, therefore, death approaches a man, the mortal 
 part of him, as it appears, dies, but the immortal part de- 
 parts safe and uncorrupted, having withdrawn itself from 
 death?" 
 
 "It appears so." 
 
 "The soul, therefore," he said, " Cebes, is most cer- 
 tainly immortal and imperishable, and our souls will really 
 exist in Hades." 
 
 "Therefore, Socrates," he said, "I have nothing fur- 
 ther to say against this, nor any reason for doubting your 
 arguments. But if Simmias here, or anyone else, has any- 
 thing to say, it were well for him not to be silent ; for I 
 know not to what other opportunity beyond the present any 
 one can defer it, who wishes either to speak or hear about 
 these things." 
 
 "But, indeed," said Simmias, "neither have I any 
 reason to doubt what has been urged ; yet, from the magni- 
 tude of the subject discussed, and from my low opinion of 
 human weakness, I am compelled still to retain a doubt 
 within myself with respect to what has been said. " 
 
 "Not only so, Simmias," said Socrates, "but you say 
 this well ; and, moreover, the first hypotheses, even though 
 they are credible to you, should nevertheless be examined 
 more carefully ; and if you should investigate them suffi- 
 ciently, I think you will follow my reasoning as far as it 
 
Greek and Roman Views of a Future Life 137 
 
 is possible for man to do so ; and if this very point becomes 
 clear, you will inquire no further." 
 
 '' You speak truly," he said. 
 
 '' But it is right, my friends," he said, " that we should 
 consider this — that if the soul is immortal, it requires our 
 care not only for the present time, which we call life, but 
 for all time ; and the danger would now appear to be dread- 
 ful if one should neglect it. For if death were a deliver- 
 ance from everything, it would be a great gain for the 
 wicked, when they die, to be delivered at the same time 
 from the body, and from their vices together with the soul ; 
 but now, since it appears to be immortal, it can have no 
 other refuge from evils, nor safety, except by becoming as 
 good and wise as possible. For the soul goes to Hades 
 possessing nothing else than its discipline and education, 
 which are said to be of the greatest advantage or detriment 
 to the dead, on the very beginning of his journey thither. 
 For, thus, it is said that each person's demon who was as- 
 signed to him while living, when he dies conducts him to 
 some place, where they that are assembled together must 
 receive sentence, and then proceed to Hades with that 
 guide who has been ordered to conduct them from hence 
 thither. But there having received their deserts, and hav- 
 ing remained the appointed time, another guide brings them 
 back hither again, after many and long revolutions of time. 
 The journey, then, is not such as the Telephus of ^schylus 
 describes it ; for he says that a simple path leads to Hades ; 
 but it appears to me to be neither simple nor one, for there 
 would be no need of guides, nor could any one ever miss the 
 way, if there were but one. But now it appears to have many 
 divisions and windings ; and this I conjecture from our re- 
 
138 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 ligious and funeral rites.' The well ordered and wise soul, 
 then, both follows, and is not ignorant of its present condi- 
 tion ; but that which through passion clings to the body, 
 as I said before, having longingly fluttered about it for a 
 long time, and about its visible place,' after vehement re- 
 sistance and great suffering, is forcibly and with great diffi- 
 culty led away by its appointed demon. And when it ar- 
 rives at the place where the others are, impure and having 
 done any such thing as the committal of unrighteous 
 murders or other similar actions, which are kindred to 
 these, and are the deeds of kindred souls, every one shuns 
 it and turns away from it, and will be neither its fellow - 
 traveler nor guide ; but it wanders about, oppressed with 
 every kind of helplessness, until certain periods have 
 elapsed ; and when these are completed, it is carried, of 
 necessity, to an abode suitable to it. But the soul which 
 has passed through life with purity and moderation, having 
 obtained the gods for its fellow-travelers and guides, settles 
 each in the place suited to it." 
 
 The foregoing extracts are taken verbatim from a literal 
 translation of Plato's " Phaedo " made by Henry Gary, 
 M. A., Worcester College, Oxford, England, and contained 
 in a very convenient edition of ancient masterpieces en- 
 titled '' Pocket Literal Translations of the Classics " issued 
 by David McKay, Publisher, Philadelphia. 
 
 * It is difficult to express the distinction between data and vo/jt£,ua. 
 The former word seems to have reference to the souls of the dead ; 
 the latter, to their bodies. 
 
 * Its place of interment. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 HINDU CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL AND 
 ITS IMMORTALITY 
 
 Though during recent years Europe and America have 
 been flooded with Oriental teachers, and translations of San- 
 skrit literature have been industriously and widely dissem- 
 inated, the enormous variety of views entertained in eastern 
 Asia concerning all spiritual problems is so bewildering that 
 India and Ceylon, chief centres respectively of Brahman- 
 ism and Buddhism, are still storehouses of an immense 
 amount of knowledge as yet unappropriated and uncompre- 
 hended in the West. Max Miiller styled the " Rig Veda " 
 the oldest book in the world, and it maybe clearly seen by 
 all who are attempting to fathom Oriental philosophy, that 
 Vedic teachings lie at the root of almost every modern 
 philosophic system. India has always been a land of en- 
 trancing mystery which only the very keenest among Anglo- 
 Indians have ever sought to penetrate. 
 
 British rule in India has been something of a blessing, 
 and it may have saved the country from a far worse fate ; 
 but the average Briton, until quite recently, even when 
 fairly, and sometimes highly educated, has taken so con- 
 temptuous a view of the religion of all '' heathen " peoples 
 that he has regarded India only as a field for missionary 
 effort, not as a school in which all peoples may profitably 
 study the foundations of religion and philosophy. 
 
 The Sacred Books of the East are now fairly accessible 
 to the reading public the world over, and ever since Max 
 
140 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Miiller lectured in Westminster Abbey, by invitation of 
 Dean Stanley in 1870, the stupid prejudice which formerly 
 existed against Oriental doctrines and religious practices 
 has, in some measure, subsided even among the most con- 
 servative Christians. Much more recently the work of the 
 Theosophical Society, and in a very marked degree the 
 lectures and writings of Annie Besant, who always com- 
 mands a large and attentive hearing, has served to dispel 
 much of the gloom and misrepresentation which formerly 
 hung like a funeral pall over the spiritual and intellectual 
 treasures of the mighty East. 
 
 Brahmanism and Buddhism are the two great aspects 
 and embodiments of Oriental religion and philosophy 
 which naturally receive the largest share of popular atten- 
 tion. These are not at root antagonistic ; for, as Sir Ed- 
 win Arnold clearly proved in his magnificent poem *' The 
 Light of Asia," Gautama the Buddha was not an iconoclast 
 who sought to destroy the Brahmanic faith, but a reformer 
 whose sole aim was to purify it. The caste system, which 
 seems an integral part of Brahmanism, is not the wholly 
 objectionable thing which many of its traducers still im- 
 agine it to be. It is indeed essentially quite reasonable, 
 though liable to gross corruptions ; and against perver- 
 sions of it, and against such only, did the hero of **the 
 Great Renunciation " forcibly protest. The Absolute 
 Being Para-Brahm, being beyond all related definition, — 
 and all peoples demand some concrete views of Deity, — 
 we find three expressions of Infinite Life, called Brahma, 
 Vishnu and Siva, prominent in Indian theology ; as we 
 find Osiris, Isis and Horus in Egypt, and Father, Son and 
 Holy Spirit in Christendom. '' Three Persons and one 
 God " seems to be the first endeavor on the part of 
 
Hindu Conceptions of the Soul 141 
 
 religious leaders to put into something like intelligible 
 phrase the idea of one Supreme Being manifesting in a 
 threefold manner — as Creator, Preserver and Transformer. 
 
 The ancient symbols of the Circle and the Triangle are 
 common alike to India and Egypt ; indeed we find them 
 everywhere, the former intended to denote the Infinite- 
 Eternal and the absolute immortality of hfe itself; the lat- 
 ter intended to deal with manifested Being in measure 
 comprehensible by human faculties. 
 
 Sir Monier Williams, whose work on Hinduism has 
 been published by the British Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge, has very frankly stated that the 
 primal doctrine of Brahmanism is one Infinite Eternal 
 Spirit. All that seemingly exists separate from that Spirit 
 is illusion. This statement should not be taken to mean 
 that there can be no individual existences distinct one 
 from the other; but, though they are distinct, they are 
 essentially inseparable one from the other and are all de- 
 rived from the Infinite One. We may well remember the 
 words of Mabel Collins in "Light on the Path" where 
 she informs her readers that " Kill out the sense of sep- 
 arateness " is a direction given to all who are seeking to 
 enter within the charmed circle of Eastern (esoteric) 
 wisdom. 
 
 Annie Besant, in "A Study in Consciousness," throws 
 much light on the true significance of such a precept, and 
 employs many telling illustrations to elucidate the Oriental 
 idea of unity expressed in multiplicity. Readers of 
 Swedenborg will be quite familiar with this distinction be- 
 tween " separateness " and ''distinctness" upon which 
 the illumined seer and sage of Sweden voluminously dwells. 
 "God is the First (original) of every man" is one of 
 
142 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Svvedenborg's highly important declarations; and we must 
 not forget that he tells us that many thousands of years be- 
 )fore his time there were those on earth who knew and 
 treasured the holy truths which he was commissioned to 
 redeliver to mankind in the eighteenth century in Europe. 
 In Great Tartary he says a portion of the ''Ancient 
 Word" remains concealed, and he informs us that as the 
 world grows more and more enlightened, as a new dispen- 
 sation of truth advances on its way, long hidden mysteries 
 will be revealed for the edification of humanity at large. 
 
 Brahmans and Buddhists alike conceive of the universe 
 on a gigantic scale, and not only are their ideas of size, 
 but also their ideas of time, magnificent. Mount Meru 
 rises to a height of two million miles from the centre of 
 the earth. On its summit is the abode of Brahma, occu- 
 pying a space of fourteen thousand leagues, surrounded by 
 the splendid dwellings of celestial regents. Between Meru 
 and the extreme circumference of the earth are seven con- 
 centric circles of rock ; between these are continents and 
 seas. We might easily go on to paint a wondrous picture 
 of glories and horrors, all contained within this vast ex- 
 panse, were it our purpose to give to our readers a detailed 
 account of how Oriental imagination has pictured forth 
 its concepts of this universe (one out of a countless multi- 
 tude of universes) in which we are now abiding, — and 
 through it all a moral purpose runs. But we have no space 
 for such enormous wealth of detail, nor do we undertake 
 to decipher so many graphic hieroglyphics or attempt to 
 point the special lesson which each sublime romantic 
 tale is designed to teach. Suffice it to say that the cos- 
 mology and cosmogony of India are so intricate and won- 
 derful, and withal so well in keeping with the latest 
 
Hindu Conceptions of the Soul 143 
 
 findings of Western astronomers, that when stripped of 
 picturesque imagery and translated into the sober prose of 
 English speech, we might well accept the claim to supernal 
 wisdom made for the original authors of the Vedas by 
 those who firmly believe that India's sacred literature and 
 immensely ancient traditions embody a system of science 
 and philosophy unequaled elsewhere on earth. 
 
 Brahmans and Buddhists alike, sharing faith in an 
 illimitable cosmos, declare that gods, men, demons and 
 every form of animal life occupying a countless host of 
 worlds, all constitute one family. The totality of animated 
 existences, from glorious Indra to the most insignificant in- 
 sect, constitute one vast fraternal race. We read in the 
 Vishnu Parana: ''The Universe, this whole egg of 
 Brahma, is everywhere teeming with living creatures, all 
 captives in the chain of acts." '' Elder Brethren of the 
 Race " is the appropriate tide often given to Masters and 
 even to Devas (the shining ones) by modern students of 
 Asiatic philosophy, which, when delivered from the 
 shackles of repugnant superstitions with which it is even 
 yet deeply shrouded, will be found to contain a doctrine of 
 Cosmic Consciousness satisfactory to head and heart alike. 
 
 The vexed question of the transmigration of souls from 
 body to body until Nirvana is attained, must be considered 
 under two widely differing aspects. With popular credulity 
 we are all measurably familiar, and we can well credit the 
 tale told by H. P. Blavatsky, in her book of travels entitled 
 "In the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan," where she 
 describes an ignorant family mourning over the incarna- 
 tion of the soul of a member of that family in the body of 
 a vampire bat. Wild, foolish, and repugnant though such 
 superstitions are, — and no one works to abolish them 
 
144 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 more earnestly than intelligent Theosophists who make a 
 special study of Oriental philosophy, — even such a fate for 
 a human soul is mild and merciful indeed when contrasted 
 with belief in endless misery ; for a bat will die in a few 
 years, if it be not killed prematurely, and then the tem- 
 porarily imprisoned human soul is liberated and allowed 
 another opportunity to pursue an onward way. Such be- 
 liefs are, however, exclusively the property of the ignorant 
 and form not any portion of the faith of the learned in 
 Hindustan. This H. P. Blavatsky most positively declares, 
 and Colonel Olcott, president of the Theosophical Society, 
 whose headquarters are at Adyar, has many times con- 
 firmed this declaration. James Freeman Clarke, in his 
 splendid treatise on *'Ten Great Religions," suggested 
 \ that the right interpretation of transmigration was evolu- 
 
 tion. In a '* backward cipher" the scientific knowledge 
 of Eastern Asia has been often written ; so that when we 
 reverse the order of the literal statement we shall not look 
 forward to incarceration in the bodies of lower creatures, 
 but shall look backward down the ages and trace the life- 
 tide ever rising higher and higher through the mineral, 
 vegetable and animal kingdoms up to man ; then on from 
 stage to stage in human development till at length the pro- 
 gressing spiritual entity clothes itself in garments of celestial 
 glory and manifests as a bright shining Deva, as far beyond 
 the highest human stage with which we are acquainted on 
 earth as that stage is superior to the lowest type of savage. 
 India's ancient philosophy is indeed intricate, but its 
 intricacies are practically unavoidable, for it aims at noth- 
 ing less than a definition of the universal Cosmos. We 
 advise our readers to peruse "The Ancient Wisdom " and 
 *<A Study in Consciousness," two wonderful books by 
 
Hindu Conceptions of the Soul 145 
 
 Annie Besant, if they are desirous of gaining further in- 
 sight into the mysteries of Oriental philosophy. Mrs. 
 Besant's works are quite profound, and at the same time 
 sufficiently popular in style to commend her writings to 
 the attention of all seriously disposed people, particularly 
 to all such as wish to know how a studious Englishwoman, 
 who was for many years a public exponent of Materialism, 
 has found in Indian lore a satisfactory answer to all her 
 doubts and cavilings. We do not wonder that many 
 travelers in the East, not excepting some who are highly 
 intelligent, have supposed that Brahmans and Buddhists 
 alike look forward to the ultimate obliteration of all indi- 
 vidualized existence ; but such a view is not taken by those 
 who penetrate deeply into Oriental doctrine. A single 
 Sanskrit term, Fara-Nirva?ia, is sufficient to prove that 
 Nirvana cannot mean extinction of individual life, or 
 there could be no state beyond ; and Fara means a higher 
 state. When, in the Christian Scriptures, we read of a 
 condition of blissful existence in Paradise which *'eye 
 has not seen, ear has not heard, and the heart of man has 
 not conceived," we are confronted with a truly Oriental 
 concept, and a thoroughly reasonable one; for nothing 
 can be more absurd than to suppose that those spheres of 
 existence which immediately encircle, and also inter- 
 I penetrate, this earth, and are the present dwelling places 
 of the vast multitude of excarnated human entities who 
 constitute the unseen population of this globe, are the 
 ultimate abiding places of humanity, or that they repre- 
 sent or can make manifest anything higher or larger than 
 the 7iext state, the immediately succeeding link in the 
 mighty chain of progressive individual existence which fol- 
 lows directly upon physical disbodiment. 
 
146 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Though the idea of reincarnation pervades all Hindu 
 ' literature, there is no mistaking the fact that all Hindu 
 philosophers have spoken of a glorious condition when the 
 soul shall be no longer chained to the " wheel of change." 
 Births and deaths and rebirths are necessary until all lessons 
 have been learned which incarnations can teach, until the 
 soul has become so fully purified from carnal desires and 
 selfish purposes that it is no longer attracted earthward. 
 
 But, even when it has fulfilled its allotted tasks, assigned 
 to it by these benevolent ''Fires of the Kosmos " and 
 '' Lords of Karma " who superintend all the winding paths 
 of man's terrestrial existences, the soul may then, if it so 
 wills, incarnate voluntarily on a mission of good will to 
 humanity, making a voluntary renunciation of the bliss to 
 which it is entitled, and plunging again into the vortex of 
 the earthly maelstrom that it may teach, heal and bless 
 those who are yet struggling on lower rungs of the ladder 
 of attainment. (Such is the motive which brings to earth 
 a Messiah or Avatar. Christ, ' ' emptying himself of his 
 glory ' ' and descending to earth to save humanity, is a 
 very familiar thought among all who are diligent students 
 of Asia's profound philosophies. Christians, particularly 
 if they are intelligent Universalists, may do much good in 
 India and help to lift the native populations out of the 
 dreary apathy into which millions have sunk, and out of 
 the superstitions which a degraded form of religion has 
 tolerated if not actually fostered ; but missionaries from 
 the West must never forget that they are ministering among 
 V a people whose traditions are filled with the noblest ethical 
 /precepts, which need only to be revived and restated, not 
 \ to be supplanted by the jargon of an alien creed. 
 
 When perusing much of the accessible literature which 
 
Hindu Conceptions of the Soul 147 
 
 attempts to explain Hindu philosophy and makes quota- 
 tions from the Vedas, Puranas, and other venerable tomes, 
 we are reminded of beautiful pictures executed by truly 
 great masters (such as we often find in Italy), blackened 
 by candle-smoke, festooned with cobwebs, overlaid with dust 
 and grime, but only needing restoration by a cleansing 
 process which shall remove accumulated debris to show 
 themselves anew in pristine glory, as they first appeared 
 when the great artists who produced them had finished 
 their exquisite work. Slowly, but surely, the West is begin- 
 ning to understand ihe East, and with the certain downfall 
 of sacerdotal assumptions and ecclesiastical fallacies in 
 Christendom, revised philosophies which do indeed in- 
 terpret the universe both spiritually and rationally will 
 come prominently into view and take the places now being 
 left vacant by the decline of dogmas which the intelligence 
 of Europe and America has certainly outgrown. We need 
 not attempt to vouch for figures, all of which may have a 
 symbolic and esoteric meaning, but even w^hen we are told 
 that four billion, three hundred and twenty millions of 
 years constitute a day of Brahma, during which a mani- 
 fested universe exists, and that this is followed by a Night 
 of Brahma, during which it sleeps, we can only exclaim 
 that such stupendous periods agree far more with the find- 
 ings of modern astronomers than did the ridiculously small 
 numbers, extending only to a few thousand years, which 
 our forefathers believed marked correctly the duration of 
 a solar system, because they took every word in Genesis 
 literally and had no knowledge whatever of the figurative 
 style in which all Oriental books are written. 
 
 Hindu philosophy is centred in the idea of Karma^ 
 which is relentless equity, allowifig no place for such par- 
 
148 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 don, forgiveness or vicarious atonement as the orthodox 
 Christian world delights to picture ; but stern and unre- 
 lenting though the Karmic law appears, it is truly described 
 by Sir Edwin Arnold in those memorable words — ''.the 
 heart of it is love," which should never be forgotten by 
 any who seek to penetrate its august mysteries. The 
 most orthodox of Christians love the beautiful text from 
 the first of John's Epistles — '' God is love,'' but such words 
 are a mockery in the ears of heart-stricken mourners, who 
 have been newly bereft of some beloved friend who has 
 passed into the unseen state ''unconverted " or " unregen- 
 erate," for a wicked belief in endless misery does not 
 tolerate even a hope that such poor souls shall ever be re- 
 leased from misery. *' God has decreed otherwise" is the 
 blasphemous utterance of many a deluded and deluding 
 preacher, who controverts what Tennyson expressed as 
 " the larger hope." Though so frightful a doctrine is not 
 nearly so common as it used to be, it is still preached, par- 
 ticularly at revival and mission services, but never with 
 any permanently good effect. If all Christians were Uni- 
 versalists we could listen in complacent silence to their 
 attacks on some aspects of Oriental philosophy, and even 
 then we would mildly suggest that there is something yet 
 to be learned from Asia, but the most savage attacks upon 
 the allied doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation have come 
 from types of missionaries into whose darkened minds the 
 light of Universalism has never shone. It may not be 
 pleasant, while the suffering lasts, to pay the penalty due 
 to one's misdeeds, but the result is well worth all that it 
 has cost to reach it ; this the Christian New Testament, 
 equally with Hindu Scriptures, unequivocally declares. 
 Many Spiritualists antagonize the thought of reembodi- 
 
Hindu Conceptions of the Soul 149 
 
 ment, while others fervently proclaim it, but all teach 
 retribution and progressive elevation. We may dispute 
 over ways and means, but we can all agree on one point, 
 viz., that as we sow we reap. The law of sequence 
 ;(Karma) does not permit of inequity in the universe. All 
 is adjusted perfectly throughout the immensely complicated 
 fscheme of worlds of which this earth is one. This is a 
 [teaching common to Spiritualism and to Theosophy, and 
 its roots are deeply grounded in ancient Oriental doctrines. 
 Our attention having frequently been called to the 
 necessity of having clear English equivalents for Sanskrit 
 terms which are now often freely mentioned among students 
 of spiritual philosophy, and wishing to present our readers 
 with as clear and concise an outline as possible of Hindu 
 teaching, we have drawn the following interpretations from 
 " A Study in Consciousness " by Annie Besant (Theosoph- 
 ical Publishing Society) in the hope that the few extracts 
 we have taken the liberty to make from that erudite volume 
 will lead many of our readers to procure and study it 
 themselves. Though the sub- title of the book is '' A con- 
 tribution to the Science of Psychology," it is widely 
 different, alike in tone and subject matter, from works on 
 psychology in general, as it is based on Hinduism, and 
 then branches out into all the many fields which Material- 
 ists equally with Theosophical psychologists seek to study. 
 Mrs. Besant says '' We have learned that the matter in a 
 solar system exists in seven great modifications, or planes. 
 On three of these, the physical, emotional (astral) and 
 mental — often spoken of as the three worlds — the well- 
 known Triloki or Tribhunan^^m of the Hindu cosmogony is 
 proceeding the normal evolution of humanity. On the 
 next two planes, the spiritual — those of wisdom and power, 
 
150 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 the Buddhic and the Atmic — goes on the specific evolution 
 of the Initiate, after the first of the Great Initiations. 
 These five planes form the field of the evolution of con- 
 sciousness, until the human merges in the divine. The 
 two planes beyond the five represent the sphere of divine 
 activity, encircling and enveloping all, out of which pour 
 forth all the divine energies which unify and sustain the 
 whole system. They are at present entirely beyond our 
 knowledge, and the few hints that have been given regard- 
 ing them probably convey as much information as our 
 limited capacity is able to grasp. We are taught that they 
 are the planes of Divine Consciousness, wherein the Logos, 
 or the divine trinity of Logoi, is manifested and where- 
 from He shines forth as the Creator, the Preserver, the 
 Dissolver ; evolving a universe, maintaining it during its 
 life-period, withdrawing it into Himself at its ending. We 
 have been given the names of these two planes : the lower 
 is the Anupadaka, that wherein no vehicle has yet been 
 formed ; the higher is the Adi ; the first, the foundation 
 of a universe, its support, the fount of its life. We have 
 thus the seven planes of a universe, a solar system, which, 
 as we see by this brief description, may be regarded as 
 making up three groups : i. The field of Logic manifesta- 
 tion only. 2. The field of super-normal human evolution, 
 that of the Initiate. 3. The field of elemental, mineral, 
 vegetable, animal and normal human evolution. We may 
 tabulate these facts thus : 
 
 1 . Adi I I. The field of Logic manifestation 
 
 2. Anupadaka | only. 
 
 3. Atmic I II. The field of super-normal human, 
 
 4. Buddhic \ evolution. 
 
Hindu Conceptions of the Soul 151 
 
 5. Mental \ III. The field of elemental, mineral, 
 
 6. Emotional I vegetable, animal, and normal human 
 
 7. Physical ) evolution. 
 
 As we are indebted to Mrs. Besant for this summary of 
 Hindu teaching concerning the system of worlds in which 
 we are at present living, she in turn acknowledges indebt- 
 edness to a Sanskrit manuscript called Pranana-vdda. 
 Here we have a very ancient and truly profound exposition 
 of the seven states, or spheres, which are continually being 
 mentioned in connection with spiritual existence. The 
 number seven is the number of the system to which this 
 earth belongs, and throughout all sacred literature, and 
 persistently in spiritualistic statements does this number ap- 
 pear. In the first chapter of Genesis the work of Elohim 
 is accomplished in six periods of activity followed by a 
 seventh period of sublime repose. In the Apocalypse there 
 are seven spirits of God or divine emanations from the In- 
 effable One, seven seals which have to be broken before the 
 contents of the mystic book can be made known, also a 
 rainbow about the throne, another allusion to the number 
 seven. The Beast and the False Prophet can never attain 
 to a higher numeral than six ; therefore six hundred sixty- 
 six, denoting imperfection of statement and failure to at- 
 tain to completeness in any direction, is given as the num- 
 ber of all that is doomed in time to pass away. Whoever 
 will study the Christian Scriptures side by side with San- 
 skrit documents will find a wonderful agreement between 
 them, and it is surely not presumptuous to suggest that the 
 younger have more likely drawn from the elder than that 
 the more ancient have been copied from those of later date. 
 Investigations of Hindu documents reveal the roots of 
 
152 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 every doctrine which has been set forth as original with 
 Christianity, and though perversions are found in India as 
 well as in Europe, and we should be foolish indeed did we 
 bow slavishly to all the theories we might pick up in India, 
 the venerable sources whence Brahmanical and Buddhistic 
 doctrines and institutions have sprung are truly wells of 
 living water at which thirsty travelers may refresh them- 
 
 .selves to-day, even as did the ancient Aryans long before 
 that decadence set in under which degraded India has suf- 
 fered for so many centuries. Though it is continually 
 asserted by opponents of Hindu philosophy that its incul- 
 cations are mainly responsible for India's degradation, we 
 answer emphatically no / though we admit that a corrupted 
 priesthood has had much to do with the servility and 
 despondency of a large section of India's teeming popula- 
 tion.. But Christendom cannot boast of freedom from the 
 same bhght, seeing that the beautiful teachings of the New 
 
 ^, Testament have been equally travestied and perverted, and 
 nowhere have people been kept in greater ignorance than 
 
 . during some periods in Christian countries even when a 
 dominant church has had the power in its hands to change 
 
 ' conditions at its dictation. 
 
 Prophets and priests have always been at variance. It 
 was Buddha the enlightened prophet who revolutionized the 
 religion of India in his day, from 500 to 600 b. c. Not 
 against the Vedas did he utter protest, but only against 
 pervjerse practices and a falsification of the ancient faith. 
 
 The caste system of India can easily be justified and it can 
 as easily be condemned, for there are two diametrically 
 opposite views of caste still extant. The four great castes 
 are all said to proceed from Brahma. The highest or rul- 
 ing caste proceeds from Brahma's head ; the two inter- 
 
Hindu Conceptions of the Soul 153 
 
 mediary castes from Brahma's body; the lowest caste 
 from Brahma's feet. At first sight it seems that such a 
 classification necessarily leads to the exaltation of some and 
 the humiliation of others, but a deeper study of the state- 
 ment serves to dispel that illusion, because we are at once 
 reminded that a divine body is equally good in all its 
 parts, therefore to proceed from divine feet is to be in- 
 trinsically as holy as though one had issued from the divine 
 head. The four great castes are intended to do distinct 
 kinds of work in the world, and are qualified accordingly ; 
 and as all useful work is honorable, no one can be degraded 
 or should any one be despised because he does any por- 
 tion of it. 
 
 Then again, when the doctrine of reincarnation is con- 
 sidered it may be fairly argued that those now in the 
 highest caste have come up through a succession of lives 
 from the very lowest, and those now in the lowest are des- 
 tined to make their way upward even to the highest. 
 Such a doctrine is consistent with the claim of universal 
 brotherhood, and has no connection whatever with Calvin's 
 misconceptions of election which made the teaching of 
 Paul hideous through such gross perversions of its mean- 
 ing. We hear much of the inferior place assigned to 
 women in India, and we are told that the Hindu Scriptures 
 sanction female degradation. Here again we protest that 
 only degraded notions and practices have obscured the prim- 
 itive faith and practice, for if we but remember that the 
 .same soul is said to live alternately on earth in male and 
 jfemale bodies, it is ridiculous to assume that either man or 
 'woman can be the higher of the two. Sir Monier Will- 
 iams has told us that all the gods of India have wives, and 
 that goddesses hold equal rank with gods in Hindu mythol- 
 
154 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 ogy. This is so, and it is equally the case with Egyptian, 
 Greek and all other mythologic systems, though, as in the 
 history of Judaism and Christianity, there have been times 
 when an exclusively male priesthood has monopolized all 
 religious functions, and never without introducing bar- 
 barity and bloodshed. There are no venerable Scrip- 
 tures extant which do not give abundant evidence that men 
 and women, in days of pristine purity, were regarded as of 
 equal rank and dignity in the eyes of heaven and earth ; 
 we therefore rejoice in every effort made in India, as in 
 other lands, to reinstate woman in her rightful place as 
 man's coequal, neither higher nor lower than her brother. 
 If we find practices in India which are revolting to our 
 sense of equity, let us protest against them, but let us not 
 fall into the foolish popular error of confounding decadent 
 ibeliefs and customs with the original sublimities of Vedanta 
 philosophy. 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that the Theosophical Society, 
 which soon after its formation in New York, in 1875, es- 
 tablished its headquarters in India, depended more upon a 
 woman (H. P. Blavatsky) than upon any man for the in- 
 troduction of Eastern philosophy to the West, and to-day 
 another remarkable woman (Annie Besant) is unveiling 
 the ancient Hindu doctrines to the Occident. We are 
 quite well aware that there are Hindus who resent and 
 oppose the work of a woman, born in another land, who 
 gathers disciples around her in ancient India and unfolds 
 to them some of the mysteries of their own most venerated 
 books; but it has never occurred in the history of any 
 renaissance and reform that some self-interested and ultra- 
 conservative element has not arisen to put obstacles in the 
 path of the reformer. We must not judge Hindu phil- 
 
Hindu Conceptions of the Soul 155 
 
 osophy in its original purity by the encrustations which 
 have long obscured it ; and considering the attitude of 
 the average Briton to the native population of India, we 
 need not wonder that suspicion is aroused in some quar- 
 ters whenever a member of the invading and conquering 
 race appears as a friend of the ancient religion which 
 Christian missionaries have sought in vain to overthrow. 
 To purify from foul accretions is a noble work, and one in 
 which enlightened people of all nations can unitedly en- 
 gage ; but to substitute orthodox Christianity for Hinduism 
 will prove an impossible attempt, as the philosophic Hindu 
 mind can never be induced to accept it. In Ceylon, 
 where the Theosophical Society long ago established an 
 excellent school for Buddhist girls at Colombo, the same 
 kindly feeling has been spreading between the British and 
 .the Cinghalese which was largely promoted by Sir Edwin 
 Arnold, whose " Light of Asia " was accepted by the chief 
 representatives of Southern Buddhism as a truthful ex- 
 position of the Buddhist faith. To the Western intellect 
 that well-known and greatly admired poem fails to make 
 quite clear what Buddhists really believe concerning the 
 destiny of the soul ; but this at least is clear that they 
 have a distinct conception of an ever-ascending life, and 
 though there are agnostics and pessimists among them, 
 their real faith is quite in harmony with the Unitarian 
 declaration concerning the progress of humanity onward 
 and upward forever. Tradition declares that Gautama 
 reached Nirvana while yet he lived on earth, and as Nir- 
 vana only means conquest over every selfish appetite and 
 personal desire apart from the life of others, we can readily 
 see how easily one may believe that a true Master may 
 have entered a state of serene blessedness, at one with all 
 
156 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 life, and still retain individual self-consciousness in this or 
 in any other sphere of Spiritual activity. 
 
 In the next chapter we present the views of one of the 
 Hindu delegates to the World's Parliament of Religions, 
 expressed in a lecture presented to us by its author, the 
 genial Swami Vivekananda, who after returning to his 
 native India soon peacefully quitted his earthly condition 
 and passed into the ranks of those unseen ministers who 
 keep faithful watch over the progress of incarnate human- 
 ity and, oftener than any of us think, inspire our efforts to 
 reach the goal that they, with us, are still pursuing. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY 
 
 The following lecture on *' The Atman," by the Swami Viveka- 
 nanda, delegate to the Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893, was 
 originally delivered under the auspices of the Brooklyn Ethical As- 
 sociation, February 2, 1896, and presented to the author of this 
 volume by the gifted lecturer, who has since departed to spirit life. 
 In 1899 at Greenacre, a charming resort on the border line between 
 New Hampshire and Maine, conducted by Miss Sarah Farmer (a 
 true philanthropist) we were privileged to sit under the trees and 
 listen to the following philosophy : 
 
 Ci) The Differentiated : Persoyial God. 
 
 (2) The Partially Differentiated : Immanent God. 
 
 (3) The Undifferentiated : Impersonal God. 
 
 Many of you have read Max Miiller's celebrated book. 
 *' Three lectures on the Vedanta Philosophy," and some 
 of you may, perhaps, have read in German, Professor 
 Deussen's book on the same philosophy. In much that is 
 written and taught in the West about the religious thought 
 of India one school of Indian thought is principally repre- 
 sented, that which is called "Advaitism," the monistic 
 side of Indian religion ; and sometimes it is thought that 
 all the teachings of the Vedas are comprised in that one 
 system of philosophy. There have, however, been various 
 phases of Indian thought, and perhaps this non-dualistic 
 form is in the minority as compared with the other phases. 
 From the most ancient times there have been various sects 
 of thought in India, and, as there never was a formulated 
 
 157 
 
158 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 or recognized church or any body of men to designate the 
 doctrines which should be beheved by each school, people 
 were very free to choose their own form, make their own 
 philosophy and establish their own sects. We, therefore, 
 find that from the most ancient times India was full of re- 
 ligious sects. At the present time I do not know how 
 many hundreds of sects we have in India, and several 
 fresh ones are coming into existence every year. It seems 
 that the religious activity of that nation is simply inex- 
 haustible. 
 
 Of these various sects, in the first place, there can be 
 made two main divisions, the orthodox and the unortho- 
 dox. Those that believe in the Hindu Scriptures, the 
 Vedas, as eternal revelations of truth are called orthodox, 
 and those that stand on other authority, rejecting the 
 Vedas, are the heterodox in India. The chief modern un- 
 orthodox Hindu sects are the Jains and the Buddhists. 
 Excepting these, the orthodox Hindu sects comprise 
 nearly the whole of the Hindu population of India at the 
 present time, and all admit the authority of the Hindu 
 Scriptures, the Vedas. Some of them declare that the 
 Scriptures are of much higher authority than reason ; oth- 
 ers, again say that only that portion of the Scriptures 
 which is rational should be taken and the rest rejected. 
 
 They, also, form various sects. These sects were di- 
 vided into three groups — the Sankhyas, the Naiyayikas 
 and the Mimamsakas. Of these three groups two, the 
 Sankhyas and the Naiyayikas, although they existed as 
 philosophical schools, failed to form any sect. The one 
 sect that now really covers India is that of the later Mi- 
 mamsakas, or the Vedantists. Their philosophy is called 
 Vedantism. All the various philosophies are based on the 
 
Vedanta Philosophy 159 
 
 Vedantas, the Hindu Scriptures, but the moiusts took the 
 name to themselves as a specialty, because they wanted to 
 base the whole of their theology and philosophy upon the 
 Vedas and nothing else, and in the course of time they 
 prevailed, and all the various sects of India that now exist 
 can be referred to some form of these Vedantists. Yet 
 these Vedantists are not unanimous in their opinions. 
 
 We find now that there are three principal variations 
 among the sects. On one point they all agree, and that is 
 that they all believe in God. All these Vedantists also be- 
 lieve the Vedas to be the revealed word of that God, not 
 exactly in the same sense, perhaps, as the Christians or the 
 Mahommedans believe, or the Buddhists, but in a very pe- 
 culiar sense. Their idea is that the Vedas are an expression 
 of the knowledge of God, and as God is eternal. His 
 knowledge is eternally with Him, and so are the Vedas eter- 
 nal. There is another common ground of belief; the be- 
 lief in the creation in cycles ; that the whole of this crea- 
 tion is appearing and disappearing ; it is projected and be- 
 comes grosser and grosser, and that at the end of an incal- 
 culable period of time the whole thing becomes finer and 
 dissolves, and subsides, and then comes a period of rest. 
 Again, it begins to appear. They admit one material, 
 which they call ''akasa," something like the present ether 
 theory of the scientists, and a power which they call 
 "prana." About this prana they declare that by its vi- 
 bration all the universe is produced. When a cycle ends, 
 all this manifestation of nature becomes finer and finer and 
 dissolves back to that akasa, that ether, which cannot be 
 seen or felt, yet out of which everything is manufactured. 
 All the forces that we see in nature, either as gravitation, 
 or attraction, or repulsion, or as thought, as feeling, as 
 
l6o Universal Spiritualism 
 
 nervous motion — all these various forces resolve into that 
 prana, and the vibration of that prana ceases ; in that state 
 it remains until the beginning of the next cycle. Prana 
 then begins to vibrate, and that vibration acts upon the 
 akasa, and all these forms are thrown out in regular suc- 
 cession. 
 
 The first sect about whom I want to speak to you is 
 that which we style in India the ''Dualists." The Dual- 
 ists are those who believe that God, who is the Creator of 
 the universe and its Ruler, is eternally separate from na- 
 ture, eternally separate from the human soul. The souls, 
 according to all the different theories, are eternal, God is 
 eternal ; nature is eternal ; so are all souls. Nature and 
 the souls become manifested and change, but God remains 
 the same. According to the Dualists, again, this God is 
 personal, in that He has qualities, not that He has 
 body. No sect believes that God has body, only that 
 He has human attributes ; He is merciful ; He is just ; He 
 is powerful ; He is almighty ; He can be approached ; 
 He can be prayed to; He can be loved; He loves 
 in return, and so forth. In one word. He is a Human 
 God, only infinitely greater than man; He has none 
 of the evil qualities which men have. '* He is the 
 repository of an infinite number of blessed qualities " ; 
 that is their definition. This God is creating this universe 
 out of nature. He cannot create without materials, and 
 nature is the material out of which He creates this whole 
 universe. Some of the Dualists are what they call the 
 " Atomists," who believe that this nature is nothing but an 
 infinite number of atoms, and God's will, acting upon 
 these atoms, creates. The Vedantists deny the atomic 
 theory ; they say this theory is perfectly illogical. Sup- 
 
Vedanta Philosophy l6l 
 
 posing there were atoms, according to the theory atoms 
 must be indivisible. They are like geometrical points, 
 without parts or magnitude, but something without parts 
 or magnitude, if multiplied an infinite number of times, 
 will remain the same. Anything that has no parts will 
 never make something that has parts; any number of 
 zeros added together will not make one single whole num- 
 ber. So, if these atoms are such that they have no parts 
 or magnitude, out of such atoms the creation of the uni- 
 verse is simply impossible. Therefore, according to the 
 Vedantic Dualists, there is this nature, which they call 
 indiscreet or undifferentiated, and out of that God creates 
 this universe. The vast mass of Indian people are Dualists. 
 Human nature ordinarily cannot conceive of anything 
 higher than this. We find ninety per cent, of the popula- 
 tion of this earth of ours who believe in any religion are 
 Dualists. All the religions of Europe and Western Asia 
 are Dualistic ; they have to be ; they cannot think of any- 
 thing which is not concrete. Man naturally likes to cling 
 to that which his intellect can grasp. That is to say, he 
 can only conceive of higher spiritual ideas by bringing 
 them down to his own level. He can only grasp abstract 
 thoughts by making them concrete. This is the religion 
 of the mass of mankind all over the world. They believe 
 in a God who is entirely separate from them, as it were, a 
 great king, a high, mighty monarch. At the same time 
 they make Him purer than the monarchs of the earth ; 
 they give Him all good qualities and remove the evil 
 qualities from Him. As if it were ever possible for good 
 to exist without evil ; as if there could be any conception 
 of light without a conception of darkness ! 
 
 With all Dualistic theories the first difficulty to present 
 
i62 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 itself would be, How is it possible that, under the rule of a 
 just and merciful God, the repository of an infinite number 
 of good qualities, there can be so many evils in this world ? 
 This question has arisen in all Dualistic religions, but the 
 Hindus never invented a Satan as an answer to it. All of 
 these sects, with one accord, lay the blame on man him- 
 self, and it was easy for them to do this. How ? Because, 
 as I have just now told you, they do not believe that souls 
 were created out of nothing. We see in this life that we 
 shape and can form all our own future ; every one of us, 
 every day, is trying to shape to-morrow. To-day we fix 
 the fate of to-morrow ; to-morrow we will fix the fate of 
 the day after to-morrow, and so on. It is quite logical 
 that this reasoning can be pushed backward, too. If, by 
 our own deeds, we shape our destiny in the future, why 
 not apply the same rule to the past ? If, in an infinite 
 chain, a certain number of links, repeated alternately, 
 eternally recur, then, if one of these groups be explained, 
 we can explain the whole chain. So, in this infinite length 
 of time, if we can cut off one portion and explain that por- 
 tion and understand it, then, if it be true that nature is 
 uniform, the same explanation must apply to the whole 
 chain of time. If it be true that we are working out our 
 own destiny here within this short space of time, if it be 
 true that everything must have a cause as we see it now, 
 it must also be true that that which we are now is the effect 
 of the whole of the past; therefore, no other person is 
 necessary to shape the destiny of mankind but man him- 
 self. The evils that are in this world are caused by none 
 else but ourselves. We have caused all this evil ; and, 
 just as we constantly see misery resulting from evil actions, 
 so we can also see that much of the existing misery in the 
 
Vedanta Philosophy 163 
 
 world is the effect of past wickedness in man. Man alone, 
 therefore, according to this theory, is responsible ; God is 
 not to blame ; He the eternally merciful Father is not to 
 blame at all. " We reap that we sow." 
 
 Another peculiar doctrine is that every soul must eventu- 
 ally come to salvation. No one will be left. Through 
 various vicissitudes, through various sufferings and enjoy- 
 ments, in the end, each one of them will come out. Come 
 out of what ? The one common idea of all Hindu sects is 
 that all souls have to get out of this universe. Neither that 
 universe which we now see and feel or even that which we 
 can imagine, is the right, the real one, because both are 
 mixed up with good and evil. According to the Dualists, 
 there is beyond this universe one where there is only hap- 
 piness and only good and, what is much dearer to them, 
 where there will be no more necessity of being born and 
 reborn, of living and dying. No more death there ; no 
 more disease. It will be eternal happiness, where they 
 will be in the presence of God for all time and enjoy God 
 forever. They beheve that all beings, from the lowest 
 worm up to the highest angels and gods, will all, sooner or 
 later, come to that world where there will be no more 
 misery. But this world will never stop ; it goes on in- 
 finitely, although moving in waves and falls. Although 
 moving in cycles, it never ends. The number of souls 
 that are to be saved, that are to be perfected, is infinite. 
 Some are in plants ; some are in lower animals ; some are 
 in men ; some are in gods, but all of them, even the high- 
 est gods, are imperfect, are in bondage. What is the 
 bondage ? The necessity of being born and the necessity 
 of dying. Even the highest gods die. What are these 
 gods, again? They mean certain states, certain offices. 
 
164 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 For instance, Indra, the king of gods, means a certain of- 
 fice ; some soul which was very high has gone to fill that 
 post in this cycle, and after this cycle he will be born again 
 as man and come down, and the man who is very good in 
 this cycle will go and fill that post in the next cycle. So 
 with all these gods ; they are certain offices which have 
 been filled alternately by millions and millions of souls, 
 who, after filling that office, all came down and became 
 men. Those who do good works in this world, help oth- 
 ers, but with an eye to reward, hoping to reach heaven or 
 to get praise of their fellow men, must, when they die, 
 have the benefit, the reward of these good works, so they 
 become these gods. But that is not salvation ; salvation 
 never will come through this hope of reward. Whatever 
 man desires the Lord gives him that. Men desire power ; 
 they desire prestige ; they desire enjoyments as gods, and 
 they get these desires fulfilled, but no effect of work can 
 be eternal ; the power of any work will be finished after a 
 certain length of time ; it may be eons, but after that it 
 will be finished, and these gods must fall down again and 
 become men and will be given one more chance for libera- 
 tion. The lower animals will come up and become men, 
 become gods, perhaps, again become men, or go back to 
 animals, until will come the time when they will get rid 
 of all this desire for enjoyment, this thirst for life, this 
 clinging on to the " me and mine." This '' me and mine," 
 according to the Hindu sects, is the very root of all the 
 evil in this world. If you ask a Dualist whose child this 
 will be if it is not mine, he will say, ''It is God's " ; if my 
 property is not mine, *' It is God's." Everything should 
 be held as God's. 
 
 Now, these Dualistic sects in India are great vegetarians, 
 
Vedanta Philosophy 165 
 
 great preachers of non-killing of animals. But their idea 
 about it is quite different from that of the Buddhist. If 
 you ask a Buddhist, "Why do you preach against killing 
 any animal?" he says, '*We have no right to take any 
 life," and if you ask a Dualist, '' Why do you not kill any 
 animal?" he says, ''Because it is the Lord's." So the 
 Dualist says that this " me and mine " is to be applied to 
 God and God alone; He is the only "me," and every- 
 thing is His. When a man has come to that state that he 
 has no " me and mine," when everything is given up to 
 the Lord, when he loves everybody and is ready even to 
 give up his life for a little animal, without any desire for 
 reward, then his heart will be purified, and when the heart 
 has been purified then into that heart will come the love of 
 God, which is inherent in every soul. This God is the 
 very centre of attraction for every soul, and the Dualist 
 says, " If you take a needle and cover it up with clay that 
 needle will not be attracted by a magnet, but as soon as 
 the clay has been washed off, the needle will be attracted 
 by the magnet." God is the magnet, and the human soul 
 is the needle, and his evil works the dirt and dust that 
 cover it. As soon as the soul is clear it will come by its 
 natural attraction to God and remain with Him forever, 
 but will remain eternally separate from God. Each soul, 
 if it wishes, can take any form ; will be able to make a 
 hundred bodies if it wishes or to have no body at all, if it 
 so desires. It will be almost almighty, except that it will 
 be unable to create ; that belongs to God alone. None, 
 however perfect, can manage the affairs of this universe ; 
 that belongs to God. But all souls, when they become 
 perfect, become happy forever and live eternally with God. 
 This is the Dualistic statement. 
 
l66 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 One other idea the Dualists preach. They protest 
 against the idea of praying to God, *' Lord, give me this 
 and give me that." They think that should not be done. 
 If man must ask some material gift he should ask inferior 
 beings for that ; ask one of these gods, or the angels, or a 
 perfected being for such things. God is only to be loved. 
 It is almost a blasphemy to pray to God, " Lord, give me 
 this and give me that." According to the Dualists, there- 
 fore, what a man wants sooner or later he will get, by 
 praying to one of the gods, but if he wants salvation he 
 must worship God. This is the religion of the masses of 
 India. 
 
 Above them are what we call the quahfied non-Dualists, 
 with whom the real Vedanta philosophy begins. They 
 make the statement that the effect is never different from 
 the cause ; the effect is but the cause reproduced in another 
 form. If this universe is the effect and God the cause, it 
 must be God Himself — it cannot be anything but that. If 
 any nature exists separate from God Himself, it also will be 
 infinite ; so will be time and space. Thus multiplied, 
 there will be millions of infinite and independent exist- 
 ences, which is not reasonable. They start, therefore, 
 with the assertion that God is both the efficient and material 
 cause of this universe ; that He Himself is the Creator, and 
 He Himself is the material out of which the whole of nature 
 is projected. The word which is ** creation " in your 
 language is, in Sanskrit, exactly *' projection," because 
 there is no sect in India which believes in creation, as it is 
 regarded in the West, a something coming out of nothing. 
 It seems at one time there were a few that had some such 
 idea, but they were very quickly silenced. At the present 
 time I do not know of any sect that believes this. What 
 
Vedanta Philosophy 167 
 
 wc m«an by creation is projection of that which already 
 existed. Now, this whole universe, according to this sect, 
 is God Himself. He is the material of this universe. We 
 read from the Vedas, " As the uranabha spider takes the 
 thread out of his own body and draws it in, even so this 
 whole universe has come out of that Being." 
 
 If the effect is the cause reproduced, the question is, 
 how do we find this material, dull, unintelligent universe 
 produced as the manifestation of God, who is not material, 
 who is eternal intelligence ? How, if the cause is pure and 
 perfect, is the effect quite different ? What do these quali- 
 fied non-Dualists say ? Theirs is a very peculiar theory. 
 They say that these three existencies, God, and nature, and 
 the soul, are One. God, is, as it were, the soul ; and 
 nature and souls are the body of God. Just as I have a 
 body and I have a soul, so this whole universe and my soul 
 also are the body of God, and God is the soul of my soul. 
 Thus God is the material cause of the universe. The body 
 may be changed — may be young or old, strong or weak — 
 but that does not change the soul at all. It is the same 
 eternal existence, manifesting through the body. Bodies 
 fall off one after another, but the soul does not change. 
 Even so this whole universe is the body of God, and in 
 that sense it is God. But the change in this universe does 
 not affect God. Out of this material He creates this uni- 
 verse, and at the end of a cycle His body becomes finer, it 
 contracts, and at the beginning of another cycle it becomes 
 expanded again, and out of it evolve all these different 
 worlds. 
 
 Now, both the Dualists and the qualified non-Dualists 
 admit that the soul is by its nature pure, but through its 
 own deeds it is made impure. The qualified non- Dualists 
 
l68 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 express it more beautifully than the Dualists, by saying 
 that the soul's purity and perfection become contracted and 
 again become manifest, and that what we are now trying to 
 do is to manfest the intelligence, the purity, the power 
 which is natural to the soul. Souls have a multitude of 
 quahties, but not that of almightiness or all-knowingness. 
 This is the nature of the soul. It has become contracted 
 through past misdeeds, every wicked deed contracts the 
 nature of the soul, and every good deed expands the nature 
 of the soul, and these souls are all part of God. '' As from 
 a mass of fire millions of sparks fly, of the same nature, the 
 same ingredients, yet not the same, so even from this 
 infinite Being, God, these souls have come. Each has the 
 same nature, yet not the same." Each has the same goal. 
 The God of the qualified non-Dualists is also the Personal 
 God, the repository of an infinite number of blessed 
 qualities, only He is interpenetrating everything in the 
 universe. He is immanent in everything and everywhere, 
 and where the Scriptures say that God is everything they 
 say that that means that God is interpenetrating every- 
 thing, not that God has become the wall, but that God is 
 in the wall. There is not a particle, not an atom in the 
 universe where He is not, both internal and external. 
 The souls are all limited ; they are not omnipresent ; each 
 soul is very, very limited, but they get expansion of their 
 powers and become perfect. No more is there birth and 
 death for these souls ; they live with God forever. 
 
 Now we come to the Advaitist, the last, and what we 
 think the fairest flower of philosophy and religion that any 
 country in any age has produced, where human thought 
 attains its highest expression and even goes beyond the 
 mystery which seems to be impenetrable. This is thenon- 
 
Vedanta Philosophy 169 
 
 Dualistic Vedantism. It is too abstruse, too elevated to be 
 the religion of the masses. Even in India, its birthplace, 
 where it has been ruling supreme for the last three thou- 
 sand years, it is not able to permeate the masses. As we 
 go on we will find that it is difficult for even the most 
 thinking man and woman in any country to understand 
 Advaitism. We have made ourselves so weak ; we have 
 made ourselves so low. We may make great claims, but 
 we naturally want to lean on somebody else. We are like 
 little, weak plants, always wanting a support. How many 
 times I am asked for a " comfortable religion ' ' ; very few 
 ask for the truth. Fewer still dare to learn the truth, and 
 fewest of all dare follow truth in its practical bearings. It 
 is not their fault ; it is all the weakness in the brain. Any 
 new thought, especially of a high kind, creates a disturb- 
 ance, wants to make a new channel, as it were, in the brain 
 matter, and that unhinges the system, throws men off their 
 balance. Then come a hundred sorts of surroundings, a 
 huge mass of ancient superstitions, paternal superstition, 
 class superstition, city superstition, country superstition, 
 and beyond this all the vast mass of superstition that is in- 
 nate in the human being. Yet there are a few brave souls 
 in this world who dare conceive the truth, who dare take it 
 up, and who dare follow it up to the last end. 
 
 What does the Advaitist declare? He says, if there is a 
 God, that God must be both the material and the efficient 
 cause of the universe. Not only is He the Creator, but He 
 is also the created. He Himself is this universe. How 
 can that be? God, the pure, the spirit, has become this 
 universe ? Yes ; apparently. That which all ignorant 
 people see, this universe, does not exist. You and I and 
 all these things we see, what are these ? Mere self-hypno- 
 
lyo Universal Spiritualism 
 
 tisms; there is but One Existence, the Infinite, the ever ex- 
 isting One. In that Existence we dream all these various 
 dreams. It is the Atman, beyond all, the Infinite, beyond 
 the known, beyond the knowable ; in and through That we 
 see this universe. It is the only reality. It is this table ; 
 It is the F aience before me ; It is the wall ; It is every- 
 thing, minus the name and form. Take the form of the 
 table, take away the name ; what remains is that It. The 
 Vedantist does not call It either He or She ; these are 
 fictions, delusions of the human brain ; there is no sex in 
 the soul. People who are under illusion, who have become 
 like animals, see a woman or a man ; living gods do not see 
 men or women. How can they who are beyond every- 
 thing have any sex idea ? Every one and everything is the 
 Atman — the Self — the sexless, the pure, the ever blessed. 
 It is name and form that makes the difference. It is the 
 name, the form, the body, which are material, and they 
 make all this difference. If you take off these two differ- 
 ences of name and form, the whole universe is One ; there 
 are no two, no three, but One everywhere. You and I are 
 one. There is neither nature, nor God, nor the universe, 
 only that One Infinite Existence, out of which, through 
 name and form, all these are manufactured. How to 
 know the Knower? It cannot be known. How can you 
 see your own Self? You can only reflect yourself. So all 
 this universe is the reflection of that One Eternal Being, 
 the Atman, and, as the reflection falls upon good or bad re- 
 flectors, good or bad images are cast up. So, in the mur- 
 derer, the reflector is bad and not the Self. In the saint 
 the reflector is pure. The Self — the Atman — is by its own 
 nature pure. It is the same that is reflecting itself from 
 the lowest worm to the highest and most perfect beings, 
 
Vedanta Philosophy 171 
 
 the one Existence of the universe. The whole of this uni- 
 verse is One Unity, One Existence, physically, mentally, 
 morally and spiritually. We are looking upon this One 
 Existence in different forms and creating all these images 
 upon it. To the being who has limited himself to the con- 
 dition of man this world is what he sees. Po the being 
 who is on a higher plane of existence it may become like 
 heaven. There is but one Soul in the universe, not two. 
 It neither comes nor goes. It neither reincarnates nor 
 dies, nor is born. How can it? How to die? Where 
 to go? All these heavens and all these earths, and all 
 these places are vain imaginations of the mind. They do 
 not exist; never existed in the past and never will exist in 
 the future. 
 
 I am standing here, omnipresent, eternal. Where can I 
 go ? Where am I not already ? I am reading this book of 
 nature. Page after page I am finishing and turning over, 
 and one dream of life goes away. Another page of life is 
 turned over ; another dream of life comes, and it goes 
 away, rolling and rolling, and when I have finished my 
 play I let it go and stand aside, throw away the book, and 
 the whole thing is finished. What does the Advaitist 
 preach ? He dethrones all the gods that ever existed, or 
 ever will exist in the universe and places on that throne the 
 Self of man, the Atman, higher than the sun and moon, 
 higher than the heavens, more infinite than this infinite uni- 
 verse itself. No books, no Scriptures, no science can 
 ever imagine the glory of that Self, that appears as man, 
 the most glorious God that ever was, the only God that 
 ever existed, ever exists, or ever will exist. I am to wor- 
 ship, therefore, none but my Self. ** I worship my Self," 
 says the Advaitist. Whom to bow down to ? I salute my 
 
172 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Self. Whom to go to for help ? Who can help me, the 
 Infinite Being of the universe ? These are fools' dreams, 
 brain hallucinations ; who ever helped any one ? Never. 
 Wherever you see a weak man, a Dualist, weeping and 
 wailing for help from somewhere above the skies it is be- 
 cause he does not know that the skies also are in him. He 
 wants help from the skies, and the help comes. We see 
 that it comes ; but it comes from within, and he mistakes it 
 as coming from without. Sometimes a sick man is lying 
 on his bed, and he hears a tap on the door. He gets up 
 and opens the door. Nobody. He goes back to his bed, 
 and again he hears the tap. He gets up and opens the 
 door. Nobody. At last he finds that it was his own heart 
 beating, which he interpreted as a knock at the door. 
 Thus all this vain search after the gods above, gods of the 
 skies, gods of the water, after it has completed the circle, 
 comes back to the point from which it started — the human 
 soul — and man finds that the God for whom he was search- 
 ing in every hill and dale, for whom he was seeking in 
 every little brook of water, in every temple, in little 
 churches, in worse heavens, that God whom he was even 
 imagining as sitting in heaven and ruling the world, is his 
 own Self. I am He, and He is I. None but I was the 
 God, and this little I never existed. 
 
 Yet, how could that perfect God have been in this delu- 
 sion ? It never was. How could a perfect God have been 
 dreaming? He never dreamed. Truth never dreams. 
 One cloud is there ; another comes and pushes it aside and 
 takes its place. Another comes and pushes that one out. 
 The very question where did this illusion arise is absurd. 
 Illusion arises from illusion alone. There will be no illusion 
 as soon as the truth is seen. Illusion always rests upon il- 
 
Vedanta Philosophy 173 
 
 lusion; it never rested upon God, the Truth, the Atman. 
 You are never in the illusion ; it is illusion that is in you, 
 before you. "As before the eternal blue sky clouds of 
 various hue and color come ; they remain there for a short 
 time and again disappear, leaving it the same blue, eternally 
 standing, even so are you, eternally pure, eternally perfect ; 
 you are the veritable gods of the universe ; nay, there are 
 not two ; there is but One." It is a mistake to say you and 
 I ; say ''I." It is I who am eating in millions of mouths ; 
 how can I be hungry ? It is I who am working in an infinite 
 number of hands ; how can I be inactive ? It is I who am 
 living the life of the whole universe ; where is death for me ? 
 I am beyond all life, beyond all death. Where to seek for 
 freedom, for I am free by my nature ? Who can make me 
 bound, the God of this universe ? What are these books for 
 me ? These Scriptures of the world are but little maps, 
 wanting to delineate my glory, who am the only existence 
 of the universe. Thus says the Advaitist. 
 
 '^Know the truth and be free in a moment." All the 
 darkness will vanish. When man has seen himself as one 
 with the infinite Being of the universe, when all separate- 
 ness has ceased, when all men, all women, all angels, all 
 gods, all animals, all plants, the whole universe has been 
 melted into that oneness, then all fear disappears. Whom 
 to fear? Can I hurt myself ? Can I kill myself ? Can I 
 injure myself? Do you fear yourself? Then will all sor- 
 row disappear. W^hat can cause me sorrow? I am the 
 One Existence of the universe. Then all jealousies will 
 disappear ; of whom to be jealous ? Of myself ? Then all 
 bad feelings disappear. Against whom will I have this bad 
 feeling? Against myself? There is none in the universe 
 but me. And this is the way, says the Vedantist, to this 
 
174 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 knowledge. Kill out this differentiation, kill out this 
 superstition that there are many. ** He who, in this world 
 of many, sees that One ; he who in this mass of insentiency 
 sees that One Sentient Being ; he who in this world of 
 shadow catches that Reality, unto him belongs eternal 
 peace, unto none else, unto none else." 
 
 These are the salient points of the three steps which In- 
 dian rehgious thought has taken in regard to God. We 
 have seen that it began with the Personal, the extra cosmic 
 God. It went from the external to the internal cosmic 
 body, God immanent in the universe, and ended in identify- 
 ing the Soul itself with that God, and making one unit 
 Soul of all these various manifestations in the universe. 
 This is the last word of the Vedas. It begins with Dual- 
 ism, goes through the qualified monism and ends in the 
 perfect monism. We have seen, also, how very few in this 
 world can come to the last, dare believe in it, and fewer 
 still dare act according to it. Yet we know that therein 
 lies the explanation of all ethics, of morality and all spirituality 
 of the universe. Why is it that every one says, "Do good to 
 all others " ? Where is the explanation ? Why is it that all 
 great men have preached the brotherhood of mankind, and 
 greater men have preached the brotherhood of all lives ? 
 Why is it so ? Because, whether they were conscious of it 
 or not, behind all that, through all their irrational and 
 personal superstitions, was peering forth the eternal light of 
 the Self, denying all manifoldness, denying that there are 
 two existences in the universe and asserting that the whole 
 universe is but One. 
 
 • Again, the last word gave us one universe, which, 
 through the senses we see as matter, through the intellect 
 as souls and through the spirit as God. To the man who 
 
Vedanta Philosophy iy_j 
 
 throws upon himself evils, which the world calls wicked- 
 ness and evil, this very universe will change and become a 
 hideous place ; to another man, who wants enjoyments, 
 this very universe will change its appearance and become a 
 heaven, and to the perfect man the whole thing will vanish 
 and become his own Self, 
 
 Now, as society exists at the present time, all these three 
 stages are necessary ; the one does not deny the other ; one 
 is simply the fulfilment of the other. The Advaitist, the 
 qualified Advaitist, does not say that Dualism is wrong ; it 
 is a right view, but a lower view. It is not wrong. It is 
 on the way to truth ; therefore, hurt none ; let everybody 
 work out his own vision of this universe, according to his 
 own ideas. Hurt none, injure none, deny the position of 
 none ; take man where he stands, and, if you can, lend him 
 a helping hand and put him on a higher platform, but do 
 not injure and do not destroy. All will come to truth in 
 the long run, ''when all the desires of the heart will be 
 vanquished, then this very mortal will become immortal " ; 
 then the very man will become God. 
 
 Comment is unnecessary. The Swami has spoken for 
 India as well as for himself. This is a first-hand utterance 
 of a native Hindu who has uttered faithfully the tenets of 
 his faith. We offer as a supplement to this setting forth of 
 Oriental philosophy some beautiful verses by a Western 
 poet, Richard Realf, which impress us as a beautiful con- 
 necting link between the best thought of the Occident and 
 the best thought of the Orient. 
 
176 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 SPIRIT AND ITS EXPRESSION 
 
 Fair are the flowers and the children, but their subtle sug- 
 gestion is fairer ; 
 
 Rare is the roseburst of dawn, but the secret that clasps it 
 is rarer, 
 
 Sweet the exultance of song, but the strain that precedes it 
 is sweeter; 
 
 And never was poem yet writ, but the meaning outmastered 
 the meter. 
 
 Never a daisy that grows, but a mystery guideth the grow- 
 ing; 
 
 Never a river that flows, but a majesty sceptres the flowing; 
 
 Never a Shakespeare that soared, but a stronger than he did 
 enfold him, 
 
 Nor ever a prophet foretells, but a mightier seer hath fore- 
 told him. 
 
 Back of the canvas that throbs the painter is hinted and 
 
 hidden ; 
 Into the statue that breathes the soul of the sculptor is 
 
 bidden ; 
 Under the joy that is felt lie the infinite issues of feeling ; 
 Crowning the glory revealed is the glory that crowns the 
 
 revealing. 
 
 Great are the symbols of being, but that which is symboled 
 
 is greater ; 
 Vast the create and beheld, but vaster the inward creator ; 
 Back of the sound broods the silence, back of the gift 
 
 stands the giving ; 
 Back of the hand that receives thrill the sensitive nerves of 
 
 receiving. 
 
Vedanta Philosophy 177 
 
 Space is as nothing to spirit, the deed is outdone by the 
 
 doing ; 
 The heart of the wooer is warm, but warmer the heart of 
 
 the wooing; 
 And up from the pits where these shiver, and up from the 
 
 heights where those shine, 
 Twin voices and shadows swim starvvard, and the essence 
 
 of life is divine. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 SCANDINAVIAN BELIEFS CONCERNING THE 
 SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE 
 
 Though the old Norse mythology has become largely 
 familiar to frequenters of modern opera, — thanks to the 
 mighty genius of Richard Wagner, who has drawn freely 
 from mythologic sources and endowed the old heroic tales 
 with new life and vigor, — it was not till Marie Corelligave 
 us her fascinating Norwegian story ''Thelma" that the 
 people of England and America came to realize that the 
 race of Vikings may not be yet extinct in rugged pictur- 
 esque Norway, where the majestic fjords and the general 
 sublimity of natural scenery form an appropriate back- 
 ground for those splendid, but tragic, beliefs and cere- 
 monies to which Olaf and his clan still cling with undy- 
 ing tenacity. 
 
 We cannot study the religion and philosophy of India 
 without becoming soon convinced that the warm, and often 
 depressing, climate of the peninsula and its adjacent 
 islands has had much to do with the introspective tenden- 
 cies of the inhabitants. The temperature is usually high, 
 the heat often intense, and in such conditions external ex- 
 istence often seems a bore rather than a blessing. Amid 
 such surroundings has grown up a profound theosophy and 
 also a sense of indifference to all external things, which, 
 when carried to its extreme, has begotten distaste for all 
 physical exertion. 
 
 In Greece, one of the loveliest countries of the earth 
 178 
 
Scandinavian Beliefs 179 
 
 and blessed -vvjth a charming climate, grew up an aesthetic 
 cult, heroic on the one hand (as in Sparta), effeminate on 
 the other. Lx)ve of life reached its maximum point in the 
 Greece of classic days, and this led to a distaste for the 
 idea of any cessation of physical existence. 
 
 Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, the ancient homes of 
 Norse mythology, differ very widely in all respects from the 
 placid Orient and from beauteous Greece and the lovely 
 islands of the Mediterranean ; and, as Professor Tyndall 
 was wont to declare, climate has very much to do with 
 religious sentiment and all phases of its expression, we are 
 not surprised to find that Scandinavia has proved the seat 
 of a war-like faith, which, though hard and tempestuous, 
 like the physical aspects of the country, in many of its 
 details is by no means destitute of sterling heroic qualities 
 which may profitably be incorporated as a much-needed 
 backbone for many modern creeds. 
 
 Though at root all religions and philosophies are one, — 
 for all start from the same point, viz., human endeavor to 
 decipher the hieroglyphics and solve the riddle of the 
 universe, — the multifarious endeavors of humanity to ac- 
 complish this herculean, and always unfinished, task have 
 given birth to the innumerable speculations which divide 
 the world into sects and parties, which can never be 
 harmonized except on the basis of a truly synthetic 
 philosophy. 
 
 Taking, as we do, a sympathetic rather than a harshly 
 critical view of the world's many creeds and doctrines, we 
 see good in all, but the whole of truth in none ; therefore 
 do we consider it irrational and impious to seek to con- 
 vince the whole earth that one form of religious doctrine 
 and worship is entirely true, while all other cults are 
 
i8o Universal Spiritualism 
 
 dangerous and false. When Christianity began to make 
 headway in northern Europe it freely incorporated Norse 
 traditions, which still prevail to some appreciable extent, 
 even as in southern Europe this same eclectic Christianity 
 took to itself the temples of paganism and gave the names 
 of saints to the older gods and goddesses. The Christian 
 church has proved extremely flexible and adaptable when- 
 ever it has been ruled by an accommodating priesthood, 
 though whenever some few men of stern prophetic temper 
 have held for a while the reins of command, no temporiz- 
 ing or conciliatory policy has been tolerated. The genial 
 side of Christianity is soft as butter and smooth as oil, but 
 its relentless, persecuting aspect is sharp as steel and 
 remorseless as flame. We cannot understand so complex 
 a system as the Christian, ranging as it does from simple 
 Theism to revolting phases of idolatry, without tracing its 
 many origins to the manifold earlier systems from which 
 it freely borrowed and out of which its hybrid aspects 
 grew. 
 
 But, protest as we may against inconsistencies, we can- 
 not shut our eyes to the fact that human nature itself, as 
 well as the elements all around us, are extremely incon- 
 sistent in behavior, giving rise to a belief in many con- 
 flicting deities, even though all may originally proceed from 
 one ineffably good source and eventually make manifest 
 the goodness of their origin. Those are not wanting who 
 claim that Norse mythology is of Atlantean origin, and 
 that it closely resembles the mythologies of Greece and 
 Rome, which were derived from the same source. Those 
 of our readers who wish to pursue this interesting question 
 are advised to peruse ''Atlantis" by Ignatius Donnelly, 
 and also a work on the same subject of profound arch- 
 
Scandinavian Beliefs i8l 
 
 geological interest by Scott Eliott (Theosophical Publishing 
 Society). It is not our immediate purpose to peer into 
 such remote and necessarily dim origins, but simply to 
 briefly map out a few of the leading features of the ancient 
 Scandinavian religion which has left many a trace in those 
 popular parts of northern Europe which afford delightful 
 summer camping-grounds and opportunity to gaze upon 
 the wondrous glory of the midnight sun. Dr. Alger says 
 that ^' many considerations combine to make it seem likely 
 that at an early period a migration took place from 
 southern Asia to northern Europe, which constituted the 
 commencement of what afterwards grew to be the great 
 Gothic family. The correspondence of many of the 
 leading doctrines and symbols of the Scandinavian 
 mythology with well-known Persian and Buddhist notions, 
 — notions of a purely fanciful and arbitrary character, — 
 is too peculiar, apparently, to admit of any other explana- 
 tion. 
 
 " But, the germs of thought and imagination transplanted 
 thus from the warm and gorgeous climes of the East to 
 the snowy mountains of Norway and the howling ridges 
 of Iceland, obtained a fresh development, with numerous 
 modifications and strange additions, from the new life, 
 climate, scenery, and customs to which they were then ex- 
 posed. The temptation to predatory habits and strife, 
 the necessity for an intense though fitful activity arising 
 from their geographical situation, the forceful spirit 
 nourished in them by their actual life, the tremendous 
 phenomena of the Arctic world around them, — all these 
 influences break out to our view in the poetry, and are 
 reflected by their results in the religion of the Northmen." 
 Following this telling quotation, may we not add also that 
 
l82 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 as the spirit-world with which we are all in closest touch 
 is the temporary home of those of our own race and kin 
 who have recently laid off their mortal robes, we do 
 actually receive impressions from this surrounding 
 psychic zone which builds up still further a system of be- 
 lief and practice congenial to the immediate condition of 
 ourselves and our unseen coadjutors? That one con- 
 sideration, estimated at its due worth, would almost suffice 
 to answer the innumerable queries constantly propounded 
 concerning the diversity of views expressed by communicat- 
 ing inteUigences, who, in every land and to every race, 
 have some special message to deliver which does not al- 
 together tally with what is elsewhere received from the 
 denizens of the world of spirits. Again and yet again are 
 we compelled to insist that communications may be 
 thoroughly genuine and yet at variance with each other, 
 because the act of dropping a material body neither trans- 
 forms character nor introduces the freed spirit to any greater 
 possession of knowledge than is warranted by previous 
 growth and aspiration. 
 
 A war-like people enter into close communion with de- 
 parted warriors with whom they are in intimate affinity, 
 and just as the Japanese now declare that warrior spirits 
 assist them on the battle-field, and that these are often 
 their former comrades, so did the hardy Norsemen in days 
 of old declare the same. Valhalla, the hall of Odin, 
 chief of Norse divinities, is pictured in the Eddas as a 
 place of judgment as well as of glory. Some of the de- 
 scriptions are martial and terrific in the extreme; spears 
 and all instruments of war figure plenteously in Odin's 
 magnificent, though barbarous, abode. Valiant souls, 
 who while on earth were the heroes in distinguished 
 
Scandinavian Beliefs 183 
 
 battles, are received with great honor at the celestial 
 court ; these are the elect of Odin, who causes the 
 Valkyrs, white-clad virgins with flowing ringlets, to wait 
 on them as cup-bearers. Every morning at cock-crow 
 these heroes go forth to battle, and are often seriously 
 wounded in their desperate encounters, but every evening 
 their wounds are completely healed and they are furnished 
 with a luxurious banquet. Such, no doubt, was regarded 
 by the ferocious Norsemen as a blissful life in Paradise, 
 and as they loved fighting on earth, so they conceive that 
 they would fight in heaven. 
 
 It was from Sweden, a land in which such vivid myth- 
 ologic ideas had taken abiding root, that Swedenborg 
 came forth to give to the astonished peoples of Europe in 
 the torpid eighteenth century his graphic delineations of 
 many heavens and many hells all constructed upon the 
 plan of dominant affection at their base. Valhalla con- 
 tains no women, only the most valiant among heroic men ; 
 but it is by no means the whole of heaven. Vingolf, the 
 Hall of Friendship, stands beside the Hall of the Slain, 
 and here are troops of noble women, for there are goddesses 
 as well as gods in Norse mythology. Then there are the 
 still higher and far more beautiful heavens, the abode of 
 the rarely-named Omnipresent One, the true All-Father, 
 who will finally come forth when this manifested universe 
 shall cease to exist, and build a new and yet more glori- 
 ous one. 
 
 Concerning terms of admission to any heaven or banish- 
 ment to any hell, we are told that the path to glory is only 
 through cultivation of all the heroic virtues, while the road 
 to infernal states is always through the practice of deceit 
 and falsehood. Not unreasonably did those hardy people 
 
184 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 associate strength with goodness and feebleness with vice, 
 and in so doing they taught a doctrine in complete accord 
 with our common word virtue, which is but a translation 
 of the Latin virtus^ which certainly implies both strength 
 and courage. Those who die in arms are called the 
 "Chosen of Odin"; all who pass from earth after lives 
 of ** despicable ease " or who die of sickness have no 
 bright future immediately awaiting them ; such souls find 
 themselves in Hela, a gloomy cavern where there seems 
 to be but little active misery, though there is no active joy. 
 Perjury, adultery and murder are considered hateful 
 crimes, and for these offenses penalties of a severe character 
 are meted out in the future state. Stern morality, though 
 consistent with a barbarous code, is proclaimed in Norse 
 mythology. 
 
 As in the Zoroastrian faith, so in the Scandinavian also 
 do we find one supreme note triumphing above all others — 
 the ultimate destruction of evil and the everlasting per- 
 petuity of good. There is to be a universal battle, and at 
 the end of the " Twilight of the Gods," a term applied to 
 the present divided creation in which light and darkness 
 are constantly at strife, all discord will cease and harmony 
 prevail forever. 
 
 With the quaint and peculiar superstitions of the Norse- 
 men regarding their finger and toe nails and other minute 
 particulars, we need not greatly concern ourselves ; there 
 is doubtless a symbolic meaning to be attached to the 
 statement that no one should die with unpaired nails, — 
 this probably means that no slightest duty should be 
 neglected, for the entire life produces its result even in 
 minutest matters. 
 
 The beautiful story of '* Baldur the Good" reminds 
 
Scandinavian Beliefs 185 
 
 us of many other tales of self-sacrificing heroes who will- 
 ingly die that others may enjoy a larger and more glorious 
 life. In Bohn's Antiquarian Library we find a masterly 
 edition of Percy's translation of Mallet's ''Northern An- 
 tiquities," in which the scholarly editor, Blackwell, argues 
 with conclusive force in favor of the view we strenuously 
 hold that the Norsemen looked forward to the ultimate 
 glorification of the entire human race, though the virtuous 
 in^'Gimle" and the vicious in '' Nastrond " would re- 
 spectively experience joys and sorrows of indefinite dura- 
 tion previous to the glorious age of unmarred felicity which 
 awaits the whole creation. 
 
 No writer has better described the funeral customs of 
 the Vikings than has Marie Corelli, who shows us Thelma's 
 father sailing out to sea in his burning ship, departing 
 from his robe of flesh triumphantly, as his ancestors had 
 gone before him, while the vessel burns around him, and 
 when he has expired the ship he had loved so well sinks 
 at once into the waves. No suicide, no thought of self- 
 destruction mars the heroic splendor of this awe-inspiring 
 scene. The aged warrior has grown feeble and knows that 
 his earthly end has come. Not till it is evident that his 
 moments are rapidly nearing their close does he call upon 
 his ever faithful attendants to bear him to his ship ; then, 
 when the life within his frame flickers so feebly that at any 
 instant it may expire, he gives the order that the ship put 
 out to sea and be ignited, and the brave soul has left its 
 earthly tenement before it is possible that the blazing ves- 
 sel can sink into the ocean. Cremation, rather than burial, 
 has always been the choice of heroic peoples. To bury 
 the dead into the ground is to pollute the earth, and en- 
 danger the health of the living, and it seems to encourage 
 
l86 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 and perpetuate materialistic and gruesome practices which 
 encourage mental morbidity as well as physical disease. 
 The crematories of to-day in all civilized countries, which 
 are rapidly supplanting burial grounds or cemeteries, are not 
 only highly sanitary and therefore most commendable, they 
 are also calculated to do much to end the necromantic 
 rites, and the hideous beliefs connected with them, which 
 invariably cluster around a place of interment. Not every 
 one would like to see a beloved parent go out to sea in a 
 ship of flame, knowing that his flesh had descended into 
 the depths of the ocean, whether buried or otherwise ; but 
 so romantic an ending of the earthly career was only in- 
 tended for the naval warriors even in the old Norse days. 
 The sea-kings were not the only heroes, and amid the 
 snows of Norway many another type of warrior was buried 
 with his splendid horse and all the accoutrements of battle. 
 Thomas Carlyle summed up his glowing description of the 
 old Vikings in these majestic words: ''Worthily bury 
 the old hero at once in the sky and in the ocean." No 
 doubts were entertained by their survivors that these men 
 of valor and renown entered upon a glorious life beyond 
 and still took interest in the affairs of earth, a faith which 
 has persisted through all ages and lives to-day unquencha- 
 bly in the inmost heart of our humanity. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 ETRUSCAN VIEWS OF THE FUTURE LIFE 
 
 Among ancient peoples who have long since ceased to 
 figure among the active nations of the earth, the inhabitants 
 of old Etruria have left the most copious monumental 
 records of their spiritual faith behind them. Written an- 
 nals we cannot consult, for these have not been discovered ; 
 but Etruscan sepulchres remain, and from these we can 
 gather an immense amount of curious and satisfactory in- 
 formation. Monuments are often far older than docu- 
 ments, and frequently much more reliable, as they are not 
 so subject to transcription and interpolation, a fate which 
 has befallen a large portion of the comparatively ancient 
 manuscripts now placed at our disposal. 
 
 The Etruscan tombs are hewn out of the living rock of 
 cliffs and hills : they therefore bid long defiance to the 
 ravages of time and storm ; and though many millennia 
 old, still remain in so good a state of preservation that they 
 are easily deciphered by any visitors provided with the 
 necessary scholarly equipment. 
 
 Etruscan burial places were invariably outside of city 
 limits, and often beyond a city's walls existed another city 
 of tombs. Stone-hewn sepulchres, of massive and imposing 
 design, are not infrequently discovered ; but the ordinary 
 ''house of the departed" was built on the plan of the 
 abodes of the living, though on a smaller scale. 
 
 All sorts of clothing, ornaments, and implements were 
 taken to these reposing places of vacated earthly forms, 
 
 187 
 
l88 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 and much of this accessory material has long outhved the 
 pulverization of the body to which it was once considered 
 tributary. Dr. Alger, from whom we again quote, says 
 that ''an important element in the religion of the Etrus- 
 cans was the doctrine of genii, a system of household 
 deities who watched over the fortunes of individuals and 
 families, and who are continually shown on the engravings 
 in the sepulchres as guiding, or actively interested in, all 
 the incidents that happen to those under their care. It 
 was supposed that every person had two genii allotted to 
 him, one inviting him to good deeds, the other to bad, 
 and both accompanying him after death to the judgment 
 to give in their testimony and turn the scales of his fate. 
 This belief, sincerely held, would obviously wield a power- 
 ful influence over their feelings in the conduct of life." 
 Etruscan views of divinities were similar to Egyptian 
 and to Roman concepts, and we may well believe that 
 the latter were largely influenced by the former. A mul- 
 titude of deities were honored in Etruria, each having 
 some particular station and office, a special form of rep- 
 resentation, and a cycle of traditions. The Goddess of 
 Fate was pictured with wings to indicate her swiftness, 
 and with hammer and nails to show that her decrees 
 were unalterably fixed. The supreme divinity Tinia re- 
 sembles the Roman Jupiter Tonans with thunderbolt in 
 hand. Twelve ''consenting gods" compose Tinia's 
 council and bear the august title " Senators of Heaven." 
 These awful beings reside in the innermost recesses of 
 Heaven, and it is not lawful to pronounce their names. 
 They were not considered eternal, but only of very long 
 duration, and beyond them were the yet more mysterious 
 and awe-inspiring " Shrouded Gods," who ruled all things. 
 
Etruscan Views of the Future Life 189 
 
 These were much like the inscrutable '< Necessity" which 
 constituted the dim background of ancient Greek theology. 
 
 The Etruscans also indulged in weird conceptions of an 
 Underworld, ruling over which they imagined two mysteri- 
 ous beings, Mantus and Mania. 
 
 Animal sacrifices were frequent, and human sacrifices 
 occasional, among these strange ancient people. 
 
 We can readily understand many references to the aw- 
 ful heathen rites of many gentile nations which occur in 
 the Psalms and elsewhere in the Bible, when we learn from 
 Macrolius that in Etruria boys were sacrificed at an 
 annual festival in honor of Mania, queen of the Under- 
 world. ♦* They offered their sons and their daughters 
 unto devils," — thus did Hebrew prophets and minstrels 
 summarily dispose of the abominable orgies against which 
 the seers in Israel waged constant and unrelenting warfare. 
 In later days and milder times these awful propitiatory 
 rites were supplanted by innocent offerings of flowers and 
 vegetables to the divinities ; poppies and onions were 
 especially popular in Etruria for the later sacrificial rites. 
 
 Belief in future existence unmistakably exercised a 
 dominating influence over the Etruscan mind, and, as with 
 all other peoples, the realms beyond death were pictured 
 as extremely various, ranging from a paradise of bliss to 
 dark and frightful regions where penalties were meted out 
 according to the gravity of the offenses which had called 
 them forth. Death-bed scenes are depicted most vividly 
 on Etruscan tombs ; patriarchs are represented surrounded 
 by weeping groups who can scarcely endure the pain of 
 parting from such wise counselors ; friends wave mournful 
 farewells to their weeping loved ones ; some of the departing 
 are represented as quite resigned to their departure, while 
 
igo Universal Spiritualism 
 
 others go shrinkingly, as though reluctant to leave the 
 earth and fearful of what may lie beyond. In this respect 
 the experiences of humanity seem to have been about 
 equally varied among all peoples in all ages, so much so 
 that Cardinal Newman in ''The Dream of Gerontius " 
 attributes to a dying man — though a devout Catholic calling 
 upon the sacred names of Jesus and Mary in his extremity, 
 — the same feeling of terror at the approach of the disrup- 
 tion of bodily consistency, as has been experienced by 
 pagan peoples on whom the light of the gospel according 
 to Christianity had never shone. 
 
 There are but two reasonable interpretations of this 
 world-wide reluctance to leave the material body. First, 
 a natural shrinking from a change which is never fully 
 understood. Second, an unconquerable conviction that 
 the soul will get its just deserts, whatever such may be, in 
 the future world. And as a large percentage of lives are 
 by no means flawless, even in the estimation of the livers, 
 it cannot be wondered at that in the solemn moment of 
 transition, while bidding farewell to the accustomed 
 earth, and often to near and dear friends from whom to 
 part must always be a painful wrench, the soul should 
 tremble somewhat at the mysteriousness of the undis- 
 covered, even though the realms beyond be guided by the 
 same unerring purpose and directed through the changeless 
 operations of the same great law which guides us now 
 and will continue to guide our path forever. 
 
 There are no proofs that the Etruscans believed in the 
 translation of human souls to the heavens of the divinities, 
 but they clearly portrayed much that was beautiful and at- 
 tractive as awaiting the upright in the world to come. 
 Into the realms of bliss many gates are shown surrounded 
 
Etruscan Views of the Future Life 191 
 
 by emblems denoting welcome ideas of deliverance from 
 trial and the enjoyment of rest. While the guilty soul is 
 terror-slricken at the approach of some spectral shape 
 which comes to escort it to a place of darkness and grief, 
 the heroic soul is transported through the " Eighth Gate " 
 into the charming regions of the blessed. 
 
 In this brief mention of the Etruscan faith revealed 
 through art, we have but added one more testimony to the 
 numberless array of testimonies everywhere accumulating, 
 all pointing to humanity's world-wide and ineradicable 
 confidence in a life beyond physical transition, and also in 
 many diverse conditions obtaining in the spirit-world. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 SPIRITUAL CONCEPTIONS IN CHINA AND 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 Though the home of Buddhism was originally in 
 India, it is in Thibet, China and Japan that we must now 
 look to find its hundreds of millions of adherents. This 
 form of religion, — though very pure at its fountain-head, 
 and truly philanthropic in its every original sentiment, as 
 it emanated from that great spiritual teacher with whose 
 illustrious career Sir Edwin Arnold has made the entire 
 English-speaking world familiar, — did not long retain its 
 pristine simplicity, but like many older and younger faiths, 
 it soon became overlaid with superstitious doctrines and 
 ceremonies most of which were reversions to old beliefs 
 and practices rather than newly invented acquisitions. 
 
 The three chief varieties of Buddhism, which divide it 
 into Northern, Middle and Southern, represent considera- 
 ble difference of thought as well as of practice. Northern 
 Buddhism seems more inclined to take on a heroic aspect 
 than does Southern, and this is easily explained when we 
 refer simply to geographical situation, for climate always 
 affects, to some degree, the feelings and the conduct of a 
 people. 
 
 China, the mysterious '' Celestial Empire," and yet 
 more mysterious Thibet, — the enclosed and awful country 
 concerning which we hear much that is startling and for- 
 bidding, — are two lands of Asia which seem peculiarly 
 out of touch with Western thoughts and habits, but Japan 
 
 192 
 
Spiritual Conceptions in China and Japan 193 
 
 is a fricudly neighbor to America and all English-spcdking 
 people are disposed to treat the Japanese as brothers, while 
 they look with suspicion upon ''John Chinaman," 
 particularly in the United States, though he is very 
 prominent nearly all over America, particularly as a 
 laundryman and in California as also a cook and general 
 domestic. The Chinaman looks so unlike a European or 
 an American that we are always apt to emphasize the word 
 " foreigner," and the much more disagreeable term 
 "alien," whenever we see his costume, watch his manners 
 and listen to his conversation, and most of all when we 
 gaze upon the curious characters w^hich denote his lan- 
 guage. Our Japanese neighbors present no such very 
 unusual appearance, because they readily adopt a western 
 dress and manner, and generally adapt themselves, ap- 
 parently without much difficulty, to the new state of affairs 
 which at once confronts them when they have left their 
 Flowery Kingdom for lands remote across the seas. 
 
 That the Chinese have a religion of their own, partly 
 Buddhistic and partly Confucian, — though Confucianism is 
 an ethical and philosophical rather than a distinctively re- 
 ligious system, — is well known to all who gain their confi- 
 dence or watch their doings. The gaudy "Joss Houses" 
 which constitute one of the popular sights of " Chinatown " 
 in San Francisco and wherever there is a Chinese colony, 
 represent only the crudest and shallowest expressions of the 
 religion of China, precisely as the tawdry pictures and 
 images in Mexican churches exhibit only the most superfi- 
 cial and uninviting aspects of Roman Catholicism. To the 
 Oriental intellect subtle metaphysical abstractions appeal, 
 even though the surface of Oriental life is often tawdry 
 and squalid in the extreme. Cultivated Chinamen, who 
 
194 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 may often be met in Washington and other American 
 cities, are frequently Confucians and very often they are 
 rational philosophers entirely free from the superstitious be- 
 liefs and customs of the ignorant among their compatriots. 
 Wong Chin Foo and several other highly intellectual and 
 cultured Chinamen who have contributed in the English 
 tongue to many periodicals enjoying world-wide circula- 
 tion and fame, have presented us with doctrines in the 
 name of Confucius which have proved on examination to 
 be fully as noble morally, and as enlightened spiritually, as 
 any which have proceeded from any other sources. But, as 
 Confucianism does not speak very definitely concerning 
 any future life or communion with the spirit-world, it is not 
 easy to gather precisely the views of educated Confucians 
 on these important themes; we may, however, safely con- 
 clude that by far the largest proportion of the Mongolian 
 race not only venerate ancestors, but distinctly believe in 
 their constant presence as guiding, protecting and inspiring 
 influences. In the war between Russia and Japan, which 
 ended with the close of the summer of 1905, news came 
 constantly from Japanese officials confirming more and 
 more the fact that the brave Japanese were greatly sus- 
 tained in their heroic warfare by their unfaltering spiritual 
 faith, and by faith we do not mean mere traditional belief, 
 but confident certainty that spirit-friends were sustaining 
 them in hours of conflict, and giving unmistakable signs of 
 approval when heroic work was done. AVarfare is not the 
 highest human occupation, — and we may all sincerely trust 
 and devoutly work as well as pray, that a happy time may 
 speedily come when war will be unknown, — still we cannot 
 dispute the fact that spirit-helpers are often present on bat- 
 tle-fields where they once fought and, so long as they have 
 
Spiritual Conceptions in China and Japan 195 
 
 not outgrown their belief in the justifiability and even 
 necessity for strife to settle disputes and prevent incursions 
 of tyranny and the loss of national integrity, they will un- 
 doubtedly continue to afford efficient aid to those who are 
 nerved to more successful combat when buoyed up by the 
 sublime assurance that they are not fighting alone, but in 
 the presence of their heroic ancestors and with their full 
 approval. Some touching incidents have been related to us 
 by friends who have lived in Japan and entered sympathet- 
 ically into the life and feelings of its people. At eventide 
 the ancestral spirits and those who have recently departed 
 from the physical frame are said to gather in some ap- 
 pointed place and receive offerings from those who admire 
 and venerate them. No festival domestic or national is 
 kept without this ceremony. 
 
 Many of the Chinese and Japanese practices intended to 
 honor the departed are crude externally, but they are often 
 beautiful when stripped of unnecessary accretions and 
 readily commend themselves to our sympathy and esteem. 
 Even the offering of food and libations to the departed, 
 which is a very ancient and almost universal custom, is not 
 reprehensible in the least when we consider that Oriental 
 pliilosophers have always taught that all external substances^ 
 are but veils which hide an incorporeal element. As the 
 physical body is sustained by the grosser part, so is the 
 psychical body fed by the inner substance. This teaching 
 accounts for all the sacrificial offerings made to divinities 
 through all ages and in all countries. It is surely not nec- 
 essary to slay animals, much less to slaughter human 
 beings, to appease hungry divinities : such barbaric orgies 
 have no place in any refined system of thought or practice ; 
 but simple offerings of fruits and flowers to the national 
 
196 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 heroes, and to friends in general, is a gentle poetic custom 
 which serves to keep always before the mental vision of 
 those who make the offerings the thought of the intimate 
 nearness of the spiritual to the material world. 
 
 Japan, especially since the marriage of Sir Edwin Arnold 
 to a Japanese lady and her reception as a welcome guest in 
 the highest British society, has seemed quite near to the 
 cultured elements in the English-speaking world, and 
 though many Japanese now profess a modified form of 
 Christianity and express great readiness to assimilate them- 
 selves with western life and thought in general, the native 
 of Japan nearly always retains a large amount of his an- 
 cestral faith unless he becomes a confessed agnostic, as 
 some students do, in which case he is apt to pride himself 
 upon his lack of knowledge concerning all spiritual ques- 
 tions, a species of extraordinary intellectual pride which 
 characterizes also the pretentious culture of the west during 
 a certain early period in scientific research among too easily 
 self-satisfied investigators. 
 
 To obtain as nearly authentic a statement as possible of 
 the actual religious condition of Japan at the time of this 
 writing we refer our readers to an intensely interesting let- 
 ter written by the well-known American presidential candi- 
 date, William Jennings Bryan, sent by him from that 
 charming country and published in the Cleveland Plain 
 Dealer J February 18th, 1906. 
 
 Little that could be added to what is already generally 
 known would throw any new light upon the faith or prac- 
 tice of the inhabitants of eastern Asia ; they are now freely 
 mingling among us and as we become better acquainted 
 with our interesting brown and yellow neighbors we shall 
 assuredly cease to feel any sentiment of estrangement to- 
 
Spiritual Conceptions in China and Japan 197 
 
 wards them. The splendid and enormous ships which now 
 cross and recross the Pacific waters with amazing speed 
 and regularity have already brought Japan almost to the 
 door of America. From San Francisco, Seattle and Van- 
 couver we can go in comfort in a very few weeks into the 
 very heart of eastern Asia, and when we get there we shall 
 find very much to interest us and more than a little to ad- 
 mire, though also much which we may not be able to approve. 
 
 The glory of true Spiritualism is that it breaks down 
 barriers and unifies humanity wherever its ennobling 
 teachings are accepted and made the guide of life. We 
 cannot, and we do not, profess to believe that spiritual 
 communion is, or ever has been, the exclusive property of 
 any church or sect ; it is the common heritage of the entire 
 human race. Though the Occident rather than the 
 Orient is the head-centre of present-day revelations, this is 
 only because during the revolution of the cycles first one 
 country and then another becomes prepared to be the chief 
 enlightener of the world. In days of old Asia was the 
 source whence spiritual light radiated over the globe; then 
 there came a time when Europe, and finally America, took 
 precedence of all other continents as the head-centre of 
 spiritual enlightenment. Now we see unmistakable signs 
 of the rapidly nearing approach of a truly universal illu- 
 mination in which all continents will participate. Asia will 
 be revivified, Africa will be no longer dark, Europe will be 
 united and pacified ; America will be redeemed from 
 Mammon-worship and set truly free ; Australia will become 
 a great new seminary for the bringing forth of a truly 
 eclectic spiritual philosophy. 
 
 Such are the signs of these stirring and eventful times. 
 Never again can old superstitions enslave humanity as 
 
198 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 foinierly, for the hour has already struck which has 
 awakened humanity from its lethargy and called it, in 
 stentorian tones, to shake off the lethargy in which it has 
 so long been wrapped. If the modern spiritual movement 
 has done no more it has certainly compelled a searching 
 investigation of the foundations upon which faith in im- 
 mortality must rest. At this late date to endeavor to 
 prove that there is communion with the spirit-world seems 
 in many centres an altogether superfluous task ; but though 
 multitudes are fully assured of life's endless continuity, 
 there are very many yet who still sit in the shadow of 
 doubt and some who dwell in the caverns of positive 
 denial. Let those who know proclaim their knowledge, 
 and let those who as yet know not hold themselves ready 
 to be informed. 
 
 The following intensely interesting account of Japanese 
 life and spiritual realization is taken from an article from 
 a brilliant contributor to the Ba^iner of Light, who 
 signs himself Mime Inness ; his contribution was published 
 February 24, 1906. 
 
 Karma and Shintoism in Japan 
 
 When Admiral Togo, after his successive victories, took 
 occasion to thank, in the most formal way, the spirits of 
 the dead for their assistance in the war in which they had 
 lain down their earthly lives, to most Americans it seemed 
 an act of Eastern barbarism, strangely injected into 
 modern hfe. 
 
 How could a great naval captain like Togo be so 
 superstitious, so ignorant? 
 
 It is, however, not strange that one reared, as is every 
 
Spiritual Conceptions in China and Japan 199 
 
 Japanese, in the Shinto philosophy, should take occasion, 
 as a thank offering, to recognize one of the most prevalent 
 of Japanese ideas. 
 
 The Japanese is reared not only upon the doctrine of 
 Shinto, which is peculiar to his people, but the Buddhistic 
 doctrines of preexistence and Karma enter equally into 
 the make-up of his religious life. We in the West have 
 but an indistinct idea of preexistence. Theosophists 
 maintain the doctrine, but ordinary Christians, especially 
 those reared in Calvinism, have spent all their religious 
 lives in an effort to save their own individual souls from 
 a hereafter which is represented to be so horrible that 
 escape from it is the one " consummation devoutly to be 
 wished." 
 
 But Oriental philosophy takes care of all this sort of 
 thing in an entirely different way, a way which is almost 
 inexplicable to the self-seeking Occidental. 
 
 *' In the first place," says the Jap, '' my own soul is not 
 a single thing. It is a term of reproach to me when one 
 tells me derisively, ' I can see that you have but one soul.' 
 My soul cannot exist for an eternity hereafter unless it has 
 already existed for an eternity before this life. 
 
 ** Eternity is an endless thing. Nothing can be endless 
 if it have a beginning. The Occidental talks of a life in 
 the future which has no end. Then it can have had no 
 beginning ; for an endless thing with one end is endless. 
 I must, therefore, have existed from all eternity if I am to 
 live to all eternity. 
 
 ''Therefore, I know that my soul, in its preexistent 
 states, has passed through many earth-lives, has had all 
 the experiences which those preexisting lives imply. It is 
 not, cannot be a single thing, one soul. It is a composite 
 
200 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 of all the experiences of all past ages through which it has 
 lived. In me to-day exist consciously the souls of all my 
 kindred by heredity, and no small part of those other lives 
 with which I have lived and by contact have partaken of. 
 Hence, my ancestors, being those to whom I owe, not my 
 existence alone, but all those attributes which make my 
 soul what it is, are certainly worthy of my highest regard 
 and worship. 
 
 " Not only this " (and here comes in the Spiritualistic 
 idea), *' but these ancestors, as is natural, take in me and 
 my living, the deepest interest. They surround my daily 
 pathway, seeking in every way they can to enhance for me 
 the good and to ward off the bad. What is more natural 
 for the parent who dies than to maintain his interest in his 
 child? You western Christians believe in a heaven to 
 which a dying father goes and shuts from his knowledge 
 everything in which, two minutes before he breathed his 
 last, he was most deeply concerned ; or if you believe that 
 he still has knowledge of the lives of his children, he is 
 yet powerless to affect those lives for good or ill. This is 
 still worse than total ignorance. For what is more 
 devilish, what could be a greater hell, than to be com- 
 pelled to sit supinely by and see the tortures of a child 
 and be powerless to aid ? We know better than this. 
 When we die and slough off the flesh, we do not change. 
 We still love, and love implies aid. We still hover near 
 and help bear the burden or share the joy of our children, 
 making it greater by the sharing. 
 
 ** So, while we worship our ancestors, we know they are 
 worthy of worship. Do you Occidentals still wish an 
 angry God to punish sin ? He does punish it, not as one 
 angry, but as one who is just. Sin is not like the naughti- 
 
Spiritual Conceptions in China and Japan 20l 
 
 ness of a child, to be punished by a slipper. It is a 
 breaking of God's laws, which breaking always bears its 
 own consequences. If I violate the law of gravitation and 
 walk off the roof of the house, I fall, not as a punishment 
 for violating the law, but because a violation of the law en- 
 tails its own consequences. 
 
 ''So if I do wrong, I suffer. No pardon, no repent- 
 ance avails to wash away the sin. It entails its own 
 punishment, leaves its own scar. Thereby I am taught 
 not to sin. 
 
 " But the consequence of my violation of God's law is 
 that the scar remains. I may not work out my own 
 redemption, until death has seized me. The consequences 
 of that wrong go on just the same, and when next my un- 
 dying soul seeks physical embodiment, the stain of my 
 sin is still on it, the law is still operative and justice still 
 demands of me the working out of my own redemption. 
 The ' sins of the father are visited upon the children ' is 
 true, not as a punishment, but as a simple, just working- 
 out of the rule of the law. This is Karma. Evil in my 
 life I know is just, not for what I have done in this em- 
 bodiment, but for what I did in another body. Joy is 
 mine, not always for my own merits, but for the good I 
 did when here before. Is not this justice? Is not this 
 right ? Does not this explain why life is as it is ? Is not 
 this a good and sufficient reason for my ancestor wor- 
 ship?" 
 
 This is why the Japanese see so little that is attractive in 
 Christianity. This is why they are Spiritualists. This is 
 why Shintoism and Buddhism are to them the living forces 
 that they are. 
 
 This is why this life, seeming such a trifling part of the 
 
202 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 real life, is with so little hesitation thrown away by a 
 Japanese in battling for a good cause. 
 
 If Western civilization could take a leaf from the book 
 of the little men of the islands, creeds might suffer, but 
 the real life of Christ would be more purely lived and then 
 indeed would '* death be swallowed up in victory," being 
 no longer the ''King of Terrors." 
 
 Such, in brief outline, is a fair sample of Japanese 
 spiritual conceptions. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 MOHAMMEDAN VIEWS OF THE SOUL AND 
 ITS DESTINY 
 
 Sale's widely-circulated version of the Koran having 
 famiharized multitudes with the text of the faith of Islam, 
 it is generally presumed that the fairly educated public is 
 everywhere aware of the leading tenets of the faith pro- 
 fessed by the several hundred millions who follow the 
 prophet of Mecca and worship God under the name of 
 Allah. Such, indeed, in barest outline, may be the case ; 
 a searching scrutiny of Mohammedanism will, however, 
 reveal an esoteric as well as an exoteric faith. Sir Edwin 
 Arnold's beautiful saying : 
 
 •« All is love 
 Viewed from Allah's home above " 
 
 Strikes a very different note from that harshly sounded by 
 those who see only the literal surface of the Koran, which 
 closely resembles the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures in 
 much of its external form, and from them it was indis- 
 putably, in large measure, compiled. 
 
 Mohammed's career was a most remarkable one, and no 
 matter from what viewpoint we may attempt to study it, 
 we can only remain convinced that the Arabian camel - 
 driver, who became renowned as the founder of a system 
 of religion which to-day numbers its adherents by hundreds 
 of millions, was a man of no ordinary capacity or common 
 
 203 
 
204 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 enterprise. Like all personal founders of systems, he who 
 founded the faith of Islam was one who could and did ac- 
 commodate himself, with extraordinary readiness, to the 
 demands of the age in which he lived and the people 
 whom he sought to influence. There are many dis- 
 crepancies in the Koran, and many fanciful tales and 
 floating legends, but so there are in all Bibles ; therefore, 
 in this respect the Koran and its teachings cannot be re- 
 garded as in any sense unique. 
 
 Mohammed has been called an impostor, an epileptic, 
 who imagined his distorted ravings to be heaven-sent 
 illumination, a wily schemer who only sought his own 
 aggrandizement, and much else that is uninviting and dis- 
 creditable. But, though this wonderful " prophet " was 
 by no means an immaculate hero, he was undoubtedly a 
 man of many excellent parts, though vice as well as virtue, 
 and weakness as well as strength, figured in his character 
 and influenced his career. 
 
 Upholders of strictly monogamic marriage relations can- 
 not endorse polygamy, even in the restricted sense in 
 which Mohammed taught or, at least, permitted it; but 
 when we remember that in his day polygamy and polyandry 
 ran riot in those very lands in which he sought to spread 
 his influence, we may trace the hand of a shrewd states- 
 man in the teaching of a man who limited the wives of a 
 ''true believer" to four, and was perfectly willing that the 
 "faithful" should live in a strictly monogamous relation 
 if they so preferred. Had it been the aim or mission of 
 Mohammed to fashion a restricted cult adapted only to a 
 limited section of humanity, his system would probably 
 have been far less ingenious and complex than we find it 
 to be. James Freeman Clarke, in " Ten Great Religions " 
 
Mohammedan Views of the Soul 205 
 
 classes Mohammedanism among missionary and eclectic 
 systems, in which category he also places Buddhism and 
 Christianity, while Brahmanism he places among the 
 purely ethnic cults which seem indigenous to a certain soil 
 and incapable of successful migration or transplantation. 
 
 As Mohammed's period was about six hundred years 
 after the inception of the Christian system, he had much 
 material to work with which had been partly Christianized 
 but had not accepted the authority of the institutionalized 
 Christian church, which, by that time, had grown numer- 
 ous and powerful, and in many districts oppressive also. 
 
 There is a strange fascination attaching to the earlier 
 years of Mohammed's ministry, for it was not till after 
 thirteen years of peaceful endeavor to propagate his sys- 
 tem that he had recourse to the sword or even permitted 
 warfare as a means of religious propaganda. It was only 
 — so all reliable historians have declared — after the failure 
 of peaceful measures that Mohammed allowed his band of 
 devoted, though decidedly ambitious, followers to resort 
 to intimidation to convert ** unbelievers" to the prophet's 
 creed. At one time Spain was a stronghold for Moham- 
 medanism, and it must be admitted that the Mussulman 
 was often a better civilizer than the Christian, and cer- 
 tainly not more bigoted or fanatical. At present no 
 European nation, except Turkey, is under Mohammed's 
 sway, but large portions of Asia and Africa are completely 
 given over to the faith of Islam, and in many instances 
 that form of religion seems well adapted to the general 
 need. 
 
 There are two great Mohammedan sects or parties ; one 
 called Sunnees, the other Sheeahs. The former are usually 
 very rigid in their adhesion to the letter of the Koran and 
 
2o6 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 the observance of every ceremonial lujuuction of their 
 faith; the latter are more elastic in their interpretations 
 and applications and are regarded as somewhat heretical 
 by their more strenuously observing brethren. Turks, 
 Arabs and Tartars are nearly all Sunnees ; Persians are 
 usually Sheeahs. The most bigoted among both parties 
 lay great stress upon minute ritual practices and indulge in 
 uncharitable comments upon all who differ from them in 
 even the smallest particular; but all highly intelligent 
 Mohammedans, and there are many such, while holding 
 fast to what may be termed the fundamentals of their faith, 
 are by no means rigid in the case of minor details, nor do 
 they condemn everybody whose practice differs from their 
 own. 
 
 Mohammedan tenets as expounded in Chicago in 1893 
 were quite liberal in many respects, indeed, Alexander 
 Russell Webb, who had become a convert to Moham- 
 medanism and was authorized to proclaim its teachings at 
 the Parliament of Religions, said very little that would not 
 be classed as liberal teaching in modern America. It is a 
 great mistake to suppose that the devotees of any system 
 are all narrow-minded or bigoted, or that any religion 
 traced to its foundation is devoid of charitable and reason- 
 able sentiments. The Sufis, who are Mohammedan The- 
 osophists, constitute an esoteric party and put the same 
 sort of symbolic interpretation upon the Koran that Philo 
 of Alexandria placed upon the Pentateuch. Sufism is 
 Gnosticism, and from the Gnostic standpoint every holy 
 saying has an interior meaning which is discoverable by 
 the apphcation of a system similar to Swedenborg's doc- 
 trine of Correspondence, which is employed as an all- 
 sufficing key to unlock the inner mystery contained in 
 
Mohammedan Views of the Soul 207 
 
 even the obscurest and the most outwardly revolting state- 
 ments and commands attributed to Deity or to some of the 
 heavenly messengers who figure as prominently in the 
 Koran as anywhere else in reputedly inspired literature. 
 All Mohammedans believe in angels of various ranks and 
 degrees, ranging from infernal to celestial. Eblis cor- 
 responds to Satan, and the story of his fall from heaven 
 agrees well with popular Christian tradition. 
 
 Predestination is also a cardinal point in the faith of 
 Islam, and often it is so taught that absolute fatalism is the 
 only conclusion one can draw from the utterances of Mo- 
 hammedan teachers ; there are, however, those among 
 them who greatly modify this doctrine until it comes to 
 bear a close resemblance to the Jewish doctrine as set forth 
 in the Talmud, which declares that everything is regulated 
 by divine providence except human conduct ; and, unless 
 this exception be made, it is impossible to see how any 
 idea of vice or virtue, punishment or reward, in this world 
 or any other, can possibly be entertained. It is unthinka- 
 ble that any soul can be held responsible for purely auto- 
 matic action, and if Allah has decreed every event so that 
 whatever occurs is divinely necessitated, it is impossible to 
 believe that the Supreme Being, or even any tutelar di- 
 vinity, can be displeased with the carrying out of his own 
 will and the fulfilment of his own purpose. Calvinism is 
 a Christian phase of the worst features of Mohammedanism 
 as any student of the Koran can readily perceive, and no- 
 where has a more monstrous absurdity been taught than 
 that God punishes, or is angry with human beings for 
 acting automatically in accordance with divine decrees. 
 
 There is, however, a bright side to the doctrine of pre- 
 destination which Theists and Universalists have often 
 
2o8 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 gladly perceived, and that is the idea that the whole uni- 
 verse is subject to the sovereign sway of a perfectly benefi- 
 cent ruling intelligence, and that in consequence thereof 
 the lot of every individual is divinely appointed and ap- 
 portioned ; therefore, though at present it appears to our 
 dim vision that some are God's beloved and others objects 
 of divine disfavor, when we see more clearly we shall come 
 to know that those conditions we call hells are just as 
 necessary to cosmic harmony as those we call heavens, 
 and that when the purpose of all events is clearly -per- 
 ceived every one will be satisfied with the condition to 
 which he has been assigned. 
 
 It is said that Mohammed, in a vision, beheld a mighty 
 tablet whereon was inscribed every event which Allah had 
 decreed must occur before the Day of Judgment. There is 
 no possible reconciliation between God's absolute sover- 
 eignty and complete control over every event between the 
 dawn of creation and the end of the world, — a doctrine 
 taught with the greatest possible insistence by Mohammed, 
 — and the other doctrine which is strenuously advocated in 
 the Koran that God rewards obedience and punishes dis- 
 obedience to his will. Without some degree of freedom to 
 act as one pleases there can be no disobedience : there can 
 be only automatic fulfilment of a predetermined purpose ; 
 it stands to reason, therefore, that limited human freedom 
 must have been one of Mohammed's concepts, otherwise 
 he taught what was evidently self-contradictory, and must 
 have been too intellectually blind, as was Calvin, to realize 
 the contradiction in his own most positive assertions. The 
 cruel and foolish statements of Calvinism and Mohammed- 
 anism are all of a piece, for they all alike grow out of the 
 iXionstrous attempt to teach two diametrically opposed 
 
Mohammedan Views of the Soul 209 
 
 doctrines in one breath. This same fatal absurdity mars 
 the theology of the Athanasian Creed, which has long been 
 the source of bitter controversy among members of the 
 Church of England, clergy and laity alike being hopelessly 
 divided in their views concerning it. Augustine fell into 
 the same error as did Mohammed and Calvin, and the great 
 mistake of them all is in seeking to reconcile what is essen- 
 tially irreconcilable. Predestination can be accepted 
 rationally in one of two ways : we may believe that God is 
 perfectly satisfied with the condition of affairs throughout 
 the universe because it is the divine will that things should 
 be as they are ; or we may believe that foreordination only 
 concerns the immutable relation between cause and effect, 
 — therefore that God has not predetermined what exact 
 course any individual shall pursue, but has only so reg- 
 ulated the course of events that our reaping in this, and 
 in every other state of existence, must be in exact accord- 
 ance with the nature of our sowing, because it is the in- 
 evitable outcome thereof. Either of these doctrines can 
 be held by a devout and rational mind, but no one who 
 yields to reason or employs sane logic can possibly hold a 
 fatalistic doctrine to the effect that man is merely a 
 machine for executing God's designs, and though all parts 
 of the machine equally fulfil the divine purpose, the 
 creator of the machine is pleased with one part and re- 
 wards it, but is angry with another part and condemns it. 
 
 Neither can any reasoning mind believe that we are 
 saved by believing certain doctrines and condemned if we do 
 not believe them, and at the same time hold that those 
 who have do7ie good shall enter heaven, and those who 
 have do7ie evil shall be cast into a hell of fire. Doing 
 good and doing evil, as every observer of human conduct 
 
210 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 knows, is something totally apart from believing or disbe- 
 lieving some theological doctrine, even though it be con- 
 fessed that all beliefs must, to some extent, exert an in- 
 fluence on conduct ; and for that reason no belief seriously 
 entertained is altogether unimportant. 
 
 To grasp fully Mohammed's doctrine of the spirit-world 
 one must make such allowance for the glowing imagery in 
 which he clothed his speech and the intensely material 
 models on which he founded his descriptions of the bliss of 
 Paradise. Suffice it to say that when denuded of all 
 superfluous accretions Mohammed's detailed accounts of 
 the life to come are founded upon a close acquaintance 
 with the demands of undeveloped human nature, not yet 
 emancipated from the grip of sensationalism ; and these ac- 
 commodations are supplemented by a considerable amount 
 of knowing contact with the " borderland," beyond which, 
 in spite of all his rapturous claims to communion with the 
 highest heavens, we do not believe Mohammed ever really 
 penetrated. Those who have read Swedenborg's " Heaven 
 and Hell " and believe in his seership can readily credit 
 Mohammed's glowing accounts; those, on the other hand, 
 who fully endorse Emerson's essay on Swedenborg will cer- 
 tainly discredit a large amount of Mohammed's particular- 
 ization. For our own part, we believe the Mohammedan 
 system to be a strange compound of truth and error, en- 
 forcing many moral lessons, temperance in particular, with 
 great earnestness, but not presenting as a whole any very 
 edifying views of the spiritual universe, unless we accept a 
 purely esoteric interpretation of all Koranic metaphors. 
 
 Concerning the final judgment, we must admit that 
 Mohammed's account of it is not destitute of ethical value, 
 for he evidently, when discoursing on that stupendous 
 
Mohammedan Views of the Soul 211 
 
 theme, has forgotten his fatalism and brought to the front 
 the true and solemn doctrine of each soul's individual re- 
 sponsibility. Allah is pictured as relentless but supremely 
 just. Every soul is rewarded or punished in precise ac- 
 cord with the amount of good or evil done by thought and 
 word and deed, and the Scales of Justice are adjusted to 
 weigh as accurately according to the Koran as according to 
 the Egyptian Book of the Dead. 
 
 Mohammedans who are strictly orthodox, profess to be- 
 lieve that on the day of judgment the entire human family 
 will be assembled before the judgment seat. Mohammed 
 will lead the procession, and will appear as intercessor on 
 behalf of all who have professed the faith of Islam. Proph- 
 ets of other religions will also appear and intercede on be- 
 half of their respective followers. Gabriel, the mighty 
 archangel, who figures with equal prominence in Christian 
 mythology, will hold a balance so stupendous that when 
 suspended one scale will cover heaven and the other scale 
 will cover hell. The Koran declares that at the judgment 
 seat all shall be judged with such exact impartiality that no 
 deed, good or evil, 'nhe weight of an ant," shall be over- 
 looked. No one soul shall be able to obtain anything on 
 behalf of another. There is no vicarious sacrifice to 
 plead, no substituted or imputed righteousness in Moham- 
 med's creed, but every soul is weighed and judged in 
 exact accordance with individual righteousness or demerit. 
 Mohammedanism in this respect teaches a doctrine which 
 certainly has its roots in Judaism rather than in Christian- 
 ity, and from Jewish sources it was without question 
 largely derived. 
 
 Predestination is utterly absent from Mohammed's 
 picture of the judgment, for the sentence passed on every 
 
212 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 soul is utterly without favoritism, though, as it is claimed 
 that *<true believers " have lived less wicked lives, for the 
 most part, than unbelievers, they as a rule receive the 
 milder sentences. There is a teaching to the effect that 
 no Mohammedan will remain in hell forever, though 
 idolaters may never escape from a place of suffering if by 
 their wicked lives they have earned the doom of entering 
 it. Idolatry had to be extirpated, so said Mohammed, and 
 he found no surer way for creating a profound horror of it 
 than by declaring that it was the one sin above all others 
 which would receive most awful condemnation at the day 
 of judgment. 
 
 So great is the discrepancy among Mohammedans 
 as to the duration of the period of judgment that some 
 have contended that the judgment of the whole human 
 family will be completed in * ' the twinkling of an eye, ' ' 
 while others have stretched it in their imagination to 
 fifty thousand years. All souls must eventually cross the 
 bridge Sirat, which is described as " thinner than a hair 
 and sharper than a razor," and that bridge spans in one 
 frail arch the immeasurable distance over hell from 
 earth to paradise. Curious interpretations are given of 
 Sirat, ranging from the purely metaphysical to the grossly 
 literal, evidencing, in the case of Mohammedanism, as 
 with all other cults, the influence of refinement and bar- 
 barity of thought upon the same symbolism. 
 
 Once again we acknowledge indebtedness to Dr. Alger 
 for a vivid word-picture which he has drawn in the follow- 
 ing sentences taken freely from the Koran. ''As soon 
 as the righteous have passed Sirat they obtain the first 
 taste of tlieir approaching felicity by a refreshing draught 
 from ' Mohammed's Pond.' This is a square lake, a 
 
Mohammedan Views of the Soul 213 
 
 month's journey in circuit ; its water is whiter than milk 
 or silver and more fragrant than to be comparable to 
 anything known by mortals. As many cups are set 
 around it as there are stars in the firmament ; and whoever 
 drinks from it will never thirst more. Then comes 
 paradise an ecstatic dream of pleasure — filled with spark- 
 ling streams, flowing fountains, shady groves, precious 
 stones, all flowers and fruits, blooming youths, circulating 
 goblets, black-eyed houris, incense, brilliant birds, delight- 
 ful music, unbroken peace. A Sheeah tradition makes the 
 prophet promise to Ali twelve palaces built of gold and 
 silver bricks laid in a cement of musk and amber. The 
 pebbles around them are diamonds and rubies, the earth 
 saffron, its hillocks camphor. Rivers of honey, Avine, 
 milk and water flow through the court of each palace, 
 their banks adorned with various resplendent trees, inter- 
 spersed with bowers consisting each of one hollow trans- 
 parent pearl. In each of these bowers is an emerald 
 throne with a houri upon it arrayed in seventy green 
 robes and seventy yellow robes of so fine a texture, and 
 she herself so transparent, that the narrow of her ankle, 
 notwithstanding robes, flesh and bone, is as distinctly 
 visible as a flame in a glass vessel. Each houri has 
 seventy locks of hair, every one under the care of a 
 maid, who perfumes it with a censer which God has made 
 to smoke with incense without the presence of fire ; and 
 no mortal has ever breathed such fragrance as is there 
 exhaled. 
 
 *' Such a doctrine of the future life as that here set 
 forth, it is plain, was strikingly adapted to win and work 
 fervidly on the minds of the imaginative, voluptuous, 
 indolent, passionate races of the Orient. It possesses a 
 
214 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 nucleus of just and natural moral conviction and senti- 
 ment, around which is grouped a composite of a score 
 of superstitions afloat before the rise of Islam, set off 
 with the arbitrary drapery of a poetic fancy, colored by 
 the peculiar idiosyncrasies of Mohammed emphasized to 
 suit his special ends." 
 
 We have no reliable information concerning the atti- 
 tude of Mohammedans in general as to their views on spirit- 
 communion, though we know that they often lay stress 
 upon the ministry of angels and do not hesitate to aver 
 that the faithful on earth are attended by celestial spirits. 
 There is much to admire and much that is repugnant 
 in Mahommedan theories of the spiritual universe, but 
 sifting out its best elements and discarding what is un- 
 worthy of credence and not calculated to advance any 
 ethical purpose, we may well maintain that the prophet 
 of Mecca deserves to be ranked among those intrepid 
 religious leaders who have not been destitute of concern 
 for human welfare, even though swayed by much personal 
 ambition. 
 
 When men arise in our own day like Joseph Smith who 
 founded Mormonism, Cyrus Teed, the founder of *'Ko- 
 reshan Science," John Alexander Dowie with his scheme 
 of non- Jewish Zionism, and other powerful and dominat- 
 ing intellects who sway a multitude quite easily, we can 
 understand something of the nature of Mohammed's in- 
 fluence. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 ANCIENT JEWISH AND EARLY CHRISTIAN IDEAS 
 OF THE SOUL AND OF SPIRIT-COMMUNION 
 
 Without some knowledge of Jewish beliefs and practices, 
 it must always prove extremely difficult for the average 
 enquirer into primitive Christian doctrines and cere- 
 monies to understand at all clearly what many of them 
 signify or from what sources they have been derived. 
 Far from being opposed to spirit-communion of an ele- 
 vated type, a very large percentage of orthodox Jews have 
 always affirmed it, though often only to a limited extent, 
 and only in the case of very notable individuals. The 
 much- disputed Bible story of the appearance of Samuel to 
 Saul, which the fine American actor Wright Lorimer has 
 deftly interwoven with the plot of his famous play "The 
 Shepherd King," serves as a good illustration of very 
 ancient Jewish tradition, and the modern playwright who 
 makes the woman of En-dor declare that the apparition is 
 through no art of hers, has interpreted aright the prophetic 
 teaching concerning communion with departed friends and 
 teachers. Jewish seers and sages always protested ve- 
 hemently against necromantic arts and witchcraft. They 
 condemned every form of sorcery, but this did not effect 
 direct communion with the spirit-world apart from the 
 practice of rites or incantations forbidden in the Law. 
 The much-perverted picture of the soulless witch whom 
 Saul consults, is taken, so far as stage-setting is concerned, 
 far more from Shakespeare's *' Macbeth " and from mediae- 
 
 215 
 
2i6 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 val fancy than from any words contained in the Bible 
 record of Saul and his ultimate downfall. The woman at 
 En-dor told no falsehood and behaved in no unseemly 
 manner, and it is absurd to blacken her reputation, as 
 many preachers have frequently done, in order to force 
 into a narrative statements it does not contain in order to 
 read them forth again as alleged divine warnings against 
 Spiritualism. Such pulling cover over half-opened eyes is 
 a dishonest trick, and has brought into deserved contempt 
 the unfair attitude taken towards Spiritualism by sensational 
 declaimers, notorious rather than famous, who have made 
 capital among the unthinking and the too-easily influenced 
 among their hearers, out of garbled and distorted versions 
 of obscure ancient Biblical incidents. Samuel could not 
 rescue Saul from the inevitable results of his own misdoing ; 
 it was therefore useless for the rebellious king to " trouble " 
 the departed prophet when it was already too late to profit 
 by that prophet's warning. But, far from Samuel con- 
 demning Saul to everlasting perdition in consequence of 
 his earthly crimes and follies, he contents himself with 
 predicting that both Saul and Jonathan would '* be with 
 him " on the following day. No other reference can fairly 
 be gathered from the story, if it be credited at all, than 
 that Samuel in spirit-life could see a little further ahead 
 than could those still on earth, and he knew and did not 
 hesitate to reveal, that David was already appointed Saul's 
 successor, and it would be vain at that late hour to make 
 any attempt to keep the crown on the head of a monarch 
 literally, when it had already fallen psychically. 
 
 Two of the most notable instances of undying belief in 
 spirit-communion among Jews who have not relinquished 
 the traditions of their ancestors is the behef that Elijah 
 
Ideas of the Soul and of Spirit-Communion 217 
 
 presides at circumcisions, and a seat is kept vacant at a 
 festive board for Abraham on the first night of Succoth, 
 the feast of Tabernacles or Booths. It is declared that, 
 though unseen by mortal eye, the patriarch is spiritually 
 present in the booth, or wherever the Succoth feast is 
 spread, and if a stranger appears on that occasion he is 
 regarded as sent by Abraham to represent him at the 
 board, a stranger on such an occasion is therefore treated 
 with extraordinary hospitality and his presence is regarded 
 as an omen of good to the family of whose bounty he 
 partakes j Elijah is also believed to spiritually preside at 
 the Seder service on the first and second evening of the 
 feast of Passover. Should modern criticism dispose to a 
 large degree of the personal Abraham or Elijah of pious 
 tradition, the spiritual sense of a guiding presence need be 
 in no degree disturbed, and it is indeed far easier to grasp 
 the thought of many spiritual beings presiding at different 
 festive boards in different parts of the world than to think 
 of but one highly influential spirit presiding at the same 
 time at so many banquets. But, should the personality 
 of Abraham and of Elijah be rigidly adhered to in the 
 most strictly orthodox sense, we are then only called upon 
 to believe that spiritual radiations from a master-mind can 
 be sent forth far and wide, and such is no doubt the case 
 when we are successful in our oft-attempted demonstra- 
 tions of mental telegraphy or telepathy. 
 
 Prayers for the departed enter into every Jewish liturgy 
 and form part of every regular Jewish service, and though 
 the time-honored "Mourner's Kaddish " does little more 
 than express faith in God and offer prayer for blessing on 
 all Israel, it proves convincingly that the departed are not 
 forgotten. " Only the body perishes " is a familiar phrase 
 
2i8 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 from a popular introduction to the Kaddish, found in the 
 Union Prayer-book employed by a very large number of 
 congregations in America. 
 
 Primitive Christianity owed its origin very largely to the 
 intrepid zeal of Saul of Tarsus, who, as Paul the Apostle, 
 is more widely quoted by doctrinal preachers than are even 
 the Words of Jesus as recorded by the four evangelists, 
 and it is from Paul's epistles that nearly every dogma of 
 the Christian belief has been gradually upbuilt. The two 
 Letters to the Corinthians set forth in general outline the 
 doctrine and practice of those early Christian congrega- 
 tions which, — during the formative period of Christianity 
 being composed as they were partly of Jews and partly of 
 Gentiles, — were often disunited internally and needed a 
 strong disciplinary bond to organize and federate them and 
 prevent their being destroyed by schisms. Paul was un- 
 questionably a strong leader, a man of indomitable per- 
 severance and of decidedly a fiery temper, capable of 
 sustaining enormous burdens, even though handicapped 
 (probably), by a physical constitution far from robust. 
 His was one of those phenomenal careers which serve to 
 demonstrate to a highly exceptional degree, the power of 
 spirit over matter ; for, though seemingly weak in frame 
 and afflicted with defective sight (so nearly all traditions 
 tell us) despite his " thorn in the flesh " which he described 
 as "B. messenger of the adversary which buffeted him," 
 
 She performed heroic work of many kinds and in most try- 
 ing circumstances through that indomitable spiritual 
 energy which he styled ''the power of an endless life." 
 No one can read the Paulinian epistles with any sort of 
 penetration without seeing at a glance that their author 
 was an uncompromising Spiritualist and a thoroughgoing 
 
Ideas of the Soul and of Spirit-Communion 219 
 
 Univeioalist. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
 shall all be made alive," is a text containing quite enough 
 in itself to prove distinctly where the writer stood who 
 penned such bold and definitely affirmative statements. 
 To the mind of Paul the whole creation was safe in the 
 keeping of the Almighty, and he certainly knew nothing 
 of the nightmares of a false theology which, in later 
 centuries, wrested the teaching in the Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans to the upbuilding of a doctrine of election and 
 reprobation which no Jew would ever have invented, 
 and Paul never forswore Judaism : he merely added to it 
 a Christian supplement. Beginning as an extremely 
 orthodox Pharisee, an ultra-ritualist, this wonderful man 
 went on to a point where he left all matters of ceremonial 
 to the conscience and judgment of individuals. ''Let 
 every man be fully persuaded in his own mind " was Paul's 
 doctrine ; but let him never seek to thrust his personal 
 convictions upon his neighbors. 
 
 The story of Saul's conversion, as recorded in the 
 "Acts " is a thrilling spiritualistic narrative. Journeying 
 between Jerusalem and Damascus, he undergoes a 
 spiritual experience which changes the entire current of 
 his thought and life. Some radiant spiritual presence ap- 
 pears to him and asks him why he persecutes the innocent 
 at the instigation of the priests and magistrates. Like 
 many highly emotional sensitives, he is completely over- 
 whelmed with this amazing and altogether unexpected 
 manifestation, and for three days is without sight and in a 
 very precarious condition. On his recovery he is a 
 changed man, and becomes the warm friend and ardent 
 supporter of those whom he aforetime had relentlessly 
 persecuted. 
 
220 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 It should always be remembered that Paul was the chief 
 exponent of the resurrection of Jesus, and he never 
 claimed to have seen any risen flesh, but only to have 
 held communion with the Master in a purely spiritual 
 manner. Those highly intelligent English clergymen who 
 are now outspoken in their advocacy of a purely spiritual 
 view of the resurrection are not ''heretics"; they are 
 simply reiterating what the New Testament declares, for 
 neither the gospels nor the epistles contain a fragment of 
 evidence sufficient to prove that the primitive Christian 
 church held any carnal doctrine of resuscitation, such as 
 was forced upon it at a later date by those beUigerent creed- 
 makers who out-voted the more spiritually-minded in 
 certain famous ecclesiastical councils and foisted upon the 
 church a repulsive and irrational dogma entirely at variance 
 with the earliest Christiap faith. 
 
 We submit the following propositions to the discomfiture 
 of all who insist upon a carnal instead of a spiritual view 
 of the resurrection. ist, the gospels tell us that the 
 reappearance of Jesus after his crucifixion occurred 
 within about forty hours after his physical decease, and 
 that the very watchers at the cross who remained to the 
 end, on Friday afternoon, did not recognize him in any 
 physical manner when he showed himself to them, near 
 the sepulchre in which his remains had been placed, at 
 daybreak the following Sunday morning, and, moreover, 
 when two disciples walked with him to Emmaus on the 
 same evening, a distance of several miles, they did not 
 recognize him by any physical test, but only as did the 
 women in the morning, by purely subjective or internal 
 evidences ; or when he specially made himself known to 
 them by some essentially characteristic word or act. 
 
Ideas of the Soul and of Spirit-Communion 221 
 
 2(1/ The solidification of the apparition to Thomas the 
 skeptic was clearly an instance of what, in these days, is 
 termed materialization, and the language of the gospel 
 which records it is such as to prove abundantly to every 
 unprejudiced reader that there was a distinct difference 
 between the grosser nature of that demonstration and the 
 more ethereal character of the appearances vouchsafed to 
 the other disciples whose spiritual perceptions were more 
 open than were those of Didymus. 
 
 ' Spiritualists among the clergy, like Archdeacon Colley 
 and others who have made an earnest investigation of 
 psychic phenomena for several decades of years, em- 
 phatically testify to the reality of spirit-materialization as 
 well as all other phases of spirit-manifestation described in 
 the New Testament; and though such men are "thorns 
 in the side" of those literalistic theologians who can see 
 nothing in the scriptural doctrine of resurrection deeper or 
 niore spiritual than physical revivification, their influence 
 is continually spreading and that influence is becoming too 
 great to be effectually offset by any endeavors on the part 
 of bishops or any other dignitaries to lead the people back 
 to outworn superstitions. Quite a sensation was created 
 in London during the summer of 1904 by the action of the 
 bishop of the diocese, who refused to permit a clergyman 
 to preside at a lecture delivered by Mrs. Besant on *' re- 
 incarnation," which is the oldest form of the doctrine 
 of resurrection of the flesh, and the only form in which it 
 can reasonably be accepted by thoughtful minds. We 
 can possibly believe that in order to work out a cycle of 
 experiences we may need to take on successive bodies 
 until at length a perfect structure is upreared. This was 
 one of the doctrines preached by some primitive Chris- 
 
222 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 tians, though there appears never to have been a time 
 when the entire Christian church was unanimous in this 
 regard. 
 
 This doctrine, strenuously advocated by modern Theos- 
 ophists, is at least thinkable and to many minds is highly 
 credible ; but the attempted enforcement of an unthinkable 
 dogma of physical resuscitation can only meet with total 
 rejection at the hands of thinking clergymen as well as 
 laymen. Nothing can be more disastrous to the cause of 
 true religion than any endeavor to bolster up incredible 
 assertions in religion's name, and this the wiser among 
 church people are now beginning to see quite clearly. 
 Even if the physical resurrection of Jesus was completely 
 proved, it would throw no light whatever on the question 
 of the raising of ordinary human bodies at the 'Mast great 
 day," and that for two very significant reasons: ist, — 
 that Jesus is reported to have been in the tomb only forty 
 hours and his body did not see corruption — this is insisted 
 upon by orthodox Christian theologians; 2d — that it is 
 expressly taught by the same expositors that he was not 
 born in the ordinary way ; therefore so exceptional a 
 body raised under such exceptional circumstances could 
 offer no proof of the resurrection of ordinary bodies which 
 have already seen corruption. 
 
 Physiologists of the old school are wont to claim that 
 the physique changes completely every seven years, and 
 the celebrated French astronomer Camille Flamarion said 
 long ago in his well known treatise " Dieu dans la Nature " 
 that a physical organism can be completely reconstructed 
 by natural physiological processes in less than one year, 
 some parts of the structure changing within thirty days 
 and other portions at different intervals, never extending to 
 
Ideas of the Soul and of Spirit-Communion 223 
 
 much over eleven months. If ^fcirie Corelli's statements 
 in " A Romance of Two Worlds " are to be credited, there 
 is an electric germ at the centre of every organism around 
 which the body is formed and which escapes at the time 
 of physical dissolution, though it never dies. This 
 **germ" may be identical with the ''permanent atom" 
 vouched for by many Theosophists who are reincarnation- 
 ists ; and this may be the nucleus of the new body which 
 is to rise at the close of a cycle. The writer heard a very 
 similar idea broached by English clergymen many years 
 ago who, when seeking to expound the creedal phrase ''I 
 believe in the resurrection of the body," said that there is 
 undoubtedly some germ at the centre of the organism 
 which never dies and which constitutes the foundation of 
 the "resurrection body." With such doctrines we have 
 no dispute, but they bear no resemblance to the crude 
 fancies of the poet Young, who, when describing the resur- 
 rection, uses such grotesque expressions that much of his 
 poetry is often looked upon as satire by thoughtful readers. 
 Take the glowing imagery of Ezekiel 37 in which we can 
 easily detect the prophetic view of the resurrection enter- 
 tained in ancient Israel. A vision is described, in which 
 description glowing metaphor is introduced. The whole 
 House of Israel is represented under the figure of dry bones 
 in a valley, to which the prophet effectually appeals, urg- 
 ing them in the name of the Most High to come forth 
 "out of their graves," — a purely symbolical expression, 
 the significance of which is transparent, for the vision is 
 interpreted in the very chapter in which it is described. 
 
 It would be quite as reasonable to interpret Peter's 
 vision described in Acts 10 literally as to insist that 
 Ezekiel 37 predicts a corporeal resuscitation, and there are 
 
224 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 people blind and stupid enough to see nothing grander 
 in Peter's vision at Joppa than permission to eat pork 
 and shellfish and other table <* delicacies " forbidden by 
 the Mosaic Law. Peter's vision, however, is explained 
 and applied in the chapter which narrates it, wherein it 
 is shown to teach a valuable and still greatly-needed lesson 
 in universal brotherhood. 
 
 The terms death and dead, as well as raised and resur- 
 rection, are used frequently in Paul's epistles in a mystical 
 or esoteric, and at the same time truly practical, sense. For 
 example, people are described as ''dead unto sin" and 
 "raised to righteousness." Paul himself '' dies " daily, 
 and exhortations are given to those who are already 
 "risen with Christ " to walk worthy of the high vocation 
 to which they have been called. 
 
 Much salutary spiritual and ethical teaching can be 
 gathered from all such expressions, and we are fully justi- 
 fied in making use of them, but they teach a far different 
 doctrine than the irrational and carnal views which have 
 been foisted upon the world by a secularized church in 
 periods of degeneracy. 
 
 As to communion with the spirit-world there seems no 
 doubt on one point, viz., that it was on no other basis than that 
 of conscious spirit-communion that the Christian Church 
 was originally based. Not hearsay evidence, but actual 
 living proof of intercourse with at least one who had actu- 
 ally passed through death and demonstrated immortality. 
 " Because I live ye shall live also " ; "I am he that liveth 
 and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore." 
 These and many other passages of similar import may be 
 cited to show that individual immortality conclusively 
 demonstrated was the cQrner-stone of early Christianity. 
 
Ideas of the Soul and of Spirit-Communion 225 
 
 In an elaborate work by Crowell, *' The Identity of Primi- 
 tive Christianity with Modern Spiritualism," an enormous 
 array of proofs are marshaled to sustain this proposition ; 
 and similar facts are arrayed in an equally conclusive 
 manner in the writings of S. C. Hall and many other 
 cultivated and brilliant writers of the nineteenth century, 
 who did not hesitate to show that only a spiritualistic view 
 of the New Testament explained its reasonableness. 
 
 The many instances of spiritual manifestations recorded 
 in the gospels cannot reasonably be explained away un- 
 less we are prepared to deny that the so-called " miracles," 
 and many other phenomena, have any other than a purely 
 figurative or subjective meaning ; and though such a view 
 may prove acceptable to rationalistic Unitarians, it will al- 
 ways be met with determined opposition by all who seek to 
 uphold traditional Christianity. 
 
 , Mrs. Besant, in her "Esoteric Christianity," in which 
 she discusses the "Lesser Mysteries," deals largely, but 
 not exclusively, with the symbolic aspects of gospel narra- 
 tives, and to such a volume many people are now turning 
 who are eager to escape the unsatisfactory alternative which 
 has often been presented, either to endorse the crudest or- 
 thodox literalism or else to deny in toto the marvelous tales 
 with which the gospel narratives abound. When Strauss 
 published the first edition of his "Life of Jesus" while a 
 very young man, he satisfied some of his skeptical col- 
 leagues, and gave much delight to many people outside of 
 Germany as well as within its borders, by insisting upon an 
 altogether mythical view of the alleged fniraculous, but so 
 feeble an interpretation of the origin of several " myths " 
 as Strauss attempted, served to cast serious discredit upon his 
 conclusions, at least among inquiring people who are never 
 
226 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 likely to rest content with mere dismissal of a difficult 
 problem in an extremely commonplace manner. No better 
 illustration of the defect of Strauss* method can be given 
 than its attempted explanation of the tradition that Jesus 
 walked on the water by deciding that he simply walked 
 on the seashore and from that trivial circumstance, — 
 which could have excited no reasonable wonder, seeing 
 that to walk by the sea is a familiar everyday occurrence, — 
 there arose the legend that Jesus was seen by his disciples 
 walking on the waves. " Credulity is heavily taxed to ac- 
 cept so far-fetched a solution, because it is well known that 
 mythical stories are built upon unusual and surprising 
 events which appeal strongly to imagination and for which 
 no scientific explanation has yet been offered ; and so sim- 
 ple a fact as a man walking by the sea is utterly inadequate 
 to set a wonderful story floating, as the circumstance is so 
 common that no one would think twice about it seeing that 
 there is no mystery connected with it requiring any ex- 
 planation whatever. 
 
 Far easier is it to credit the romantic theory of Renan 
 than the skeptical theory of Strauss, though Renan 's por- 
 trait of Jesus is at times so weak as to fall far below the 
 necessary heroic standard. That Jesus stands at least for 
 a Master, and was so regarded at the beginning of the 
 Christian era is a fact beyond reasonable dispute, despite 
 the fact that Dupuis, Gerald Massey, and many other dis- 
 tinguished authors, in their determined endeavors to prove 
 Christianity identical with a far older Solar Cultus, have 
 sought to disprove utterly all historical foundation for the 
 gospels. The three gospels attributed to Matthew, Mark 
 and Luke, commonly styled Synoptic, undoubtedly record 
 historic incidents, so does the mystical Fourth Gospel, 
 
Ideas of the Soul and of Spirit-Communion 227 
 
 though in less pronounced degree ; for, unlike its prede- 
 cessors in the Canon, it commences with a Gnostic disser- 
 tation concerning the Logos which Theosophists declare 
 ''ensouls " the universe. 
 
 In John 14 we have a striking illustration of the con- 
 tinuity of earlier teachings, when the Master says to his 
 disciples "In my Father's house are many mansions 
 (abiding places), if it were not so I would have told you." 
 Such language seems perfectly to confirm an already ac- 
 cepted truth but does not serve to enunciate a new doc- 
 trine. ''Whither I go ye know and the way ye know" 
 may also be fairly taken as another proof of the complete 
 agreement which subsisted between the primitive Christian 
 gnostic teaching and the more ancient teachings with 
 which primitive Christianity was in complete accord, and 
 of which its distinctive doctrine was a continuation. 
 
 Many strange allusions to "baptism for the dead" and 
 other ancient rites, found in the epistles of Paul, show to 
 every student that early Christian practices were in many 
 respects identical with pre-Christian customs which had 
 been long established and which were intended to confer 
 aiivantages alike upon those yet on earth and their departed 
 brethren. In the Apostle's Creed, Jesus is said to have 
 " descended into hell," which is often translated Hades, — 
 the general abode of departed spirits. Here is an unmis- 
 takable evidence that when that early creed was compiled 
 no such ideas as a hell of endless torment had entered the 
 Christian mind, for no Saviour would minister among the 
 irrevocably lost. 
 
 The early Christian assemblies were meetings of devout 
 and fraternal persons who exercised their various spiritual 
 gifts one by one in open conference, and it was only after 
 
228 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 some of these meetings had become disorderly and sober 
 discipHne had been relaxed, that it was necessary for Paul, 
 as overseer of many federated congregations, to rebuke 
 disorderly practices and insist that all things be conducted 
 '' decently and in order." '^ The spirits of the prophets are 
 subject to the prophets" is a clear reference to the orderly 
 exercise of spiritual gifts in an assembly, and surely not 
 even one who seeks, in these days, to attribute all spirit- 
 communion to "evil" influences will be found ready to 
 concede that the faithful, self-denying early Christians who 
 jeopardized their earthly all by fidelity to their convictions 
 and stood ready to shed their blood, if need arose, for the 
 Christian cause, were possessed with devils. Only the 
 rational view of spirit-communion, which we are taking, 
 /explains phenomena recorded in the New Testament, and 
 'if it come to comparison between ancient and modern 
 marvels and mysteries little difference can be discerned be- 
 tween the two. Wherever we turn for confirmation we find 
 that orderly and disorderly conditions contemporaneously 
 prevail, and it ever has been and still is intensely neces- 
 sary that we should uphold the former and not let the lat- 
 ter go unreproved. 
 
 To understand at all clearly the attitude of the earliest 
 Christian church towards spirit-communion we must never 
 allow ourselves to forget that the first impetus given to the 
 Christian movement was its claim to have demonstrated 
 human immortality in an age and in countries where faith 
 therein had well nigh expired or where doubt was gaining 
 so great a foothold that the path to the hereafter was so 
 deeply veiled in shadow as to make the hour of dissolu- 
 tion one of impenetrable gloom. ' Jesus brought life and 
 immortality *'to light" — such was the early Christian 
 
Ideas of the Soul and of Spirit-Communion 2 2g 
 
 claim, and this he could not have done unless he had will- 
 ingly surrendered himself to crucifixion when his opponents 
 desired to crucify him. ♦' Have no fear of those who can 
 kill the body, for that is all that they can do" is a text 
 which announces spiritual, not fleshly, immortality in terms 
 of unmistakable lucidity. It was not a physical but a 
 spiritual body which arose and appeared to many and ulti- 
 mately ceased to manifest on earth except in such rare in- 
 stances as that of the appearance to Saul of Tarsus at the 
 time of his conversion. 
 
 ' It is absurd to argue that Jesus did not sanction spiritual 
 communion because he told Thomas that it was more 
 blessed to be endowed with spiritual perception than to be 
 dependent upon tangible external demonstrations, for such 
 it ever must be. 
 
 The men and women of nineteen centuries ago who 
 were led to embrace Christianity in its pristine period 
 were human beings like ourselves, with deep affections 
 and yearning aspirations such as we are conscious of. 
 /Neither in the established Judaism or Paganism of their 
 day did they find the evidences or the consolation which 
 they sought, any more than people find either to-day in a 
 hard institutionalized ecclesiasticism or in a scientific 
 agnosticism which is always its close companion, though 
 seemingly its direct antagonist. 
 
 No amount of bewildering speculation can ever satisfy the 
 cravings of human love, for in hours of bereavement people 
 are not seeking to know whether by some vaguely defined 
 alchemistic process they can eventually *' cheat the under- 
 taker," they are striving to receive proof that their beloved 
 friends who have departed are still alive and loving and 
 capable of communing with them still. To the early 
 
230 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Christians, who were in ronstant peril of losing theii' 
 earthly all, all material things (fleshly bodies included) ap- 
 peared of very little value. They were in constant danger 
 of underrating rather than of overvaluing the material world 
 and all that it contains. While we cannot find ourselves 
 entirely in accord with all primitive Christian views and 
 practices, any more than we can sympathize entirely with 
 the beliefs and ways of modern Spiritualists, we do affirm 
 that the early Christian rehgion was founded upon demon- 
 strated individual immortality, and that it taught a pro- 
 gressive continuous life for every human being after drop- 
 ping the external organism. Mourning for the departed 
 received no sanction in the early Christian church ; white 
 robes, not black, were worn on occasions of transition, and 
 at the service of holy communion it was generally believed 
 not only that commemoration of the departed should be 
 made and prayers for their continued progress offered, but 
 also that they were often truly present with their fellow 
 communicants and still took part in the blessings of the 
 united spiritual feast. 
 
 Slowly, but surely, is modern Christendom returning to 
 the ancient esoteric faith; one by one clergymen, now 
 branded as heretics by their materialistic and ritualistic 
 confreres, are coming to the front with outspoken declara- 
 tions which strike the less spiritually-minded but pro- 
 fessedly "orthodox" among their brethren with indigna- 
 tion and alarm ; but the old fallacy of a fleshly resurrec- 
 tion has to die and it is surely dying, and not slowly, that 
 in its place may rise a spiritual conception of immortality 
 in which science and religion can unite their wedded 
 hands. The following utterance from a distinguished 
 English clergyman is amply sufficient to show the drift 
 
Ideas of the Soul and of Spirit-Communion 231 
 
 of modern religious thought, back to primitive spiritual 
 conceptions and forward to new and nobler definitions of 
 life and its endless continuity. We offer no comment, we 
 agree so perfectly with the quoted words that we prefer to 
 leave them without addition of our own to make their 
 salutary influence felt upon every attentive reader's mind. 
 The author of the following quotation is the Rev. Forbes 
 Phillips, vicar of Gorleston, who has dramatized Guy 
 Thome's popular book, '' When it was Dark." 
 ^'*'For my own part I declare plainly as a high church 
 clergyman, who indeed wears vestments and lights candles 
 on the altar, that I do not consider it an article of Christian 
 faith that his body did rise from the tomb. On the con- 
 trary, I believe it did not. I believe if we were to make 
 careful exploration in Palestine to-day we might actually 
 come across the sacred tomb and discover within it the 
 precious body of our Lord ; or, at all events, dim remains 
 of it as it was hidden away by Joseph of Arimathea. 
 
 " Christ rose in spirit. It was the spirit that appeared 
 to the disciples so constantly after the crucifixion. It 
 was a spirit that ascended into heaven, and it is a glorious 
 spirit that appears and has appeared during the long cen- 
 turies to thousands of wearied Christians here on earth." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH IN MODERN EUROPE 
 
 Under the name of psychical research the phenomena 
 of SpirituaUsm are being carefully and cautiously investi- 
 gated in Great Britain, and also, to a very great extent, in 
 France, so much so, indeed, that in Paris it is almost im- 
 possible to avoid meeting talented and influential people 
 who are actively engaged in this important and alluring 
 study. When the writer, in 1895, was the honored guest 
 of Marie, Countess of Caithness, Duchesse of Pomar, — 
 known all over the literary world as a learned and enthusi- 
 astic exponent of Spiritualism and Theosophy, — at the 
 magnificent palace in Ave Wagram, named Holyrood in 
 honor of Marie Stuart, Queen of Scots, whom the duchess 
 believed to be her spiritual guardian, all sorts of interest- 
 ing people gathered in the splendid salon to discuss all 
 conceivable aspects of psychic science. It was then that 
 many of the movements which have now grown to large 
 proportions were in a comparatively incipient stage, though 
 even then Spiritism asset forth by ''Allan Kardec " was 
 a well established cult, possessing an extensive literature 
 and represented by many gifted men and women of high 
 social standing and far more than average intelligence. 
 Three of Allan Kardec's works — ''The Mediums' Book," 
 "The Spirits' Book," and "Heaven and Hell"— had 
 long been translated into excellent English by the famous 
 Anna Blackwell, and still another — "Genesis" — trans- 
 lated by the present writer, had appeared in America. 
 
 232 
 
Psychical Research in Modern Europe 233 
 
 These four books constitute the leading text-books of 
 European Spiritists, who nearly all accept the doctrine of 
 reincarnation as well as spirit-communion. The work of 
 the Leymaries has long been widely and favorably known, 
 and at the headquarters of the organization of which P. G. 
 Leymarie (now succeeded by his son) was long the head, 
 every phase of mysterious phenomena is persistently and 
 critically investigated. 
 
 The fine premises known as 42 Rue Saint Jacques, are 
 the centre of spiritistic operations participated in by many 
 of the most famous scientists in Europe, for in France and 
 Italy scientific men of recognized high standing are fore- 
 most in the ranks of psychical investigation. The works 
 of Flamarion, the world-renowned astronomer, have done 
 very much to popularize enquiry into everything *' occult " ; 
 his splendid collection of well authenticated facts, pub- 
 lished as ''L'Inconnu" (an English edition of which 
 bears the title ''The Unknown ") has served to open the 
 eyes of very many who might never have been led to inves- 
 tigate had it not been for the prestige given to the enquiry 
 by so great a scientist. 
 
 Victorien Sardou, the famous playwright, for a great 
 
 many years has been a prominent advocate of Spiritualism, 
 
 and it is well known that Victor Hugo and many others 
 
 \ among French ''immortals" have vouched for the reality 
 
 I of spirit-communion. 
 
 The Martinists and various other mystic orders have in- 
 fluential membership in Paris which, despite its frivolity on 
 the surface, has a deep undercurrent of genuine spirituality, 
 which no skepticism or indifference has ever been able ef- 
 fectually to quell. 
 
 We hear of " Satanism," which is Black Art and alto- 
 
234 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 gether opposed to true Spiritualism, Occultism and Theoso- 
 phy, but that is but a sad perversion of a mighty and 
 glorious force which, when rightly understood and wisely 
 /handled is capable of contributing enormously to human 
 'welfare. Despite the constantly reiterated assertion that 
 France is atheistic in its modern tendency, nothing can be 
 further from the truth so far as its most enlightened citizens 
 are concerned. The Republic has indeed exalted State 
 above Church, but, in so doing, though it has completely 
 secularized education, it has cleared the way for a new and 
 perfectly unfettered investigation of the secret forces of 
 Nature which can now be fearlessly conducted, without fear 
 of interruption, unless deeds are performed so much at 
 variance with common rights and liberties that the arm of 
 civil law must be invoked, in which case the wrong-doing 
 of clairvoyants, palmists, astrologers and others must be 
 jusdy dealt with precisely as similar misdemeanors com- 
 mitted by other classes of society. Clairvoyants in France 
 are numerous and often very reliable, though too many 
 seers and seeresses are unduly given to enlarging upon the 
 dark side of whatever they psychically discern. France is 
 a curiously impressionable country ; its very atmosphere 
 seems favorable to psychical development, and the ready 
 impressionability of its inhabitants makes it far less diffi- 
 cult for spiritual views of life to gain a footing there than 
 in lands where the temperament and habits of the people 
 incline to the solid rather than to the volatile. 
 
 The influence exerted by the Duchesse de Pomar was ex- 
 ceedingly great, as she combined with ample means and 
 high station a superb intellectual equipment for literary en- 
 terprises in which she magnificently excelled. For many 
 years the fine monthly magazine she edited L'Aurore 
 
Psychical Research in Modern Europe 235" 
 
 was the paper par excellence in which might always be 
 found the latest and most brilliant utterances of the greatest 
 thinkers in Europe who undertook to treat on psychic 
 themes. When that truly noble lady passed to spirit-life 
 in the autumn of 1895, no one was found to exactly fill the 
 place the good duchess had left vacant ; but, though such 
 was literally the sad fact a perfect host of honorable and 
 capable men and women have arisen on all sides to sustain 
 and further develop interest in all that pertains to the 
 psychic side of human nature. That very popular Ameri- 
 can periodical, Everybody' s Magazine^ published a 
 finely illustrated article (March, 1906) by Vance Thomp- 
 son, entitled ''The Invisible World," in which the pubUc 
 has been treated to an insight into spiritualistic and occult 
 doings which must have proved a great eye-opener to those 
 belated people who do not know that this scientific 
 twentieth century is most keenly alive to the evidences of 
 life immortal and that European as well as American and 
 Australian capitals are centres of investigation, leading 
 rapidly to results which are completely demolishing 
 materialism and putting to rout at the same instant per- 
 verted religious dogmatism. A photograph of Spiritualist 
 Headquarters in London shows a fine building in Hanover 
 Square, a most fashionable West End district, the seat of 
 the famous St. George's Church, famed as the historic 
 fane in which countless aristocratic marriages have been 
 celebrated. The next illustration shows us the interior of 
 the great hall in Rue d' Athenes, Paris, where a highly 
 distinguished company of learned men and women are 
 seen seated at a conference of the Society for psychical 
 Research, of which Professor Charles Richet is president. 
 This body has had in its presidential chair at different 
 
236 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 times Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, and others 
 among the most distinguished scientists of the present age. 
 Such men are neither charlatans nor the dupes of tricksters, 
 and it is they, and others like them, who are now conduct- 
 ing intricate and elaborate investigations which are bearing 
 abundant fruit, though the measures employed seem often 
 unnecessarily slow and laborious to convinced spiritualists, 
 for whom these tedious proceedings appear not to be neces- 
 sary ; but such should never lose sight of the important fact 
 that the scientific world is not made up of lucides or sensi- 
 tives, and the outside non-sensitive public is demanding a 
 record of scientifically conducted experiments prior to 
 accepting as proven the stupendous, though intrinsically 
 simple, facts for which these learned savants are prepared 
 to vouch. 
 
 Another photograph shows Flamarion lecturing on some 
 phase of Spiritualism in which he has been deeply and 
 critically interested from his youth. Celebrities and their 
 endorsement mean much to many minds, and rightly so in 
 some senses, for men who are devoting their lives indus- 
 triously to the pursuit of any branch of science, provided 
 their researches are being honorably conducted, are justly 
 entitled to our attention and esteem. It takes the trained 
 observer and experimentalist to carefully weigh all minor 
 points in evidence, and if these are neglected, testimony 
 otherwise valuable often remains decidedly inconclusive. 
 
 Major Darget's portrait is also presented as one interested 
 in matters occult, and he as discoverer of the '* N Ray " 
 has long been one of the brilliant and highly-honored 
 lights in French scientific circles. 
 
 A comparatively new word is now in constant use — 
 metapsychicaly which undoubtedly means much more than 
 
Psychical Research in Modern Europe 237 
 
 the old metaphysical and it has a congenial companion in 
 supernormal, which has largely driven from the vocabulary 
 of culture the ancient supernatural. Terms are valuable 
 to the extent that they clearly express ideas, but no further, 
 and if the new word metapsychical proves a successful 
 candidate for scientific honors, scientific men who use it 
 must be prepared to define exactly what they mean by 
 psychical, and then go on to define meta, which properly 
 means beyond. That extremely foolish phrase "uncon- 
 scious mind," which we regret to discover is holding high 
 carnival in reputable literature, conveys no intelligible idea 
 to the average thoughtful reader. Super and sub, mean- 
 ' ing respectively higher and lower, may be allowed to stand 
 as expressive prefixes, but un is a negative term, and there- 
 fore definable only as an expression of negation. There is 
 no unconscious mind, though the mind may be expressed 
 on various planes in diverse manners. 
 
 The savants of Europe who are busy wrestling with 
 occult problems, are certainly on their way to many 
 valuable discoveries, but many of their present positions 
 are purely tentative, and as they honestly and fearlessly 
 admit, they are not afraid to propose hypotheses tem- 
 porarily and then abandon one hypothesis in favor of an- 
 other when further knowledge compels the taking of some 
 more advanced position. ''Everything is possible; 
 nothing is proved." Such is the introductory statement 
 likely to be made by the scientific researcher who, stand- 
 ing on the threshold of a vast unknown, refuses to pro- 
 nounce anything unknowable. In like manner are we 
 dropping from our vocabulary, when we seek to be rigidly 
 scientific in our choice of terms, such familiar, but often 
 misleading, words as invisible, inaudible, incurable, in- 
 
238 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 corrigible, and many more of the same family. As substi- 
 tutes for the terms we are discarding we are bringing rightly 
 into prominent employ such reasonable and useful words 
 as unseen, unheard, uncorrected, and many more of like 
 import which do not close the door upon any sort of in- 
 vestigation, but only describe an immediate and temporary 
 agnostic attitude, which may at any moment yield to a 
 gnostic position as a result of successful new discovery. 
 
 Much stress is laid in many quarters upon the dangers to 
 ill-balanced minds resulting from too close attention given to 
 things mysterious ; but, though caution is doubtless needed, 
 and there have been some sad catastrophes resulting appar- 
 ently from unwise dabbling in the ''occult," it must not be 
 forgotten that scientific research in general, as well as the 
 pursuit of further application of the principles of mechanics, 
 has never been unattended with some degree of danger as 
 well as difficulty. It is therefore only puerile to cry out 
 against investigation because danger and difficulty, to some 
 extent, surround the gate of the temple of higher knowl- 
 edge. Where would have been the great railways, 
 canals, electric cables, and a thousand other valuable ap- 
 pliances in the modern world if inventors and explorers 
 had been scared from their work by the parrot-cry of 
 those whom Longfellow well described in his poetic gem 
 "Excelsior," but to whose croakings and warnings the 
 intrepid Alpine climber would pay no heed ? Timid peo- 
 ple whose nerves are weak and whose hearts are in a 
 i pathological condition must move very cautiously in all 
 ^directions ; but the stronger and healthier members of the 
 Ihuman race will never content themselves with follow- 
 ing directions adapted only to the needs of the weakest 
 (specimens. But though there are dangers as well as 
 
Psychical Research in Modern Europe 239 
 
 difficulties along the road of psychical investigation, the 
 uncanny aspects of the question are greatly exaggerated, 
 and in almost all cases where insanity and crime have been 
 attributed to psychic investigation or to the development 
 and exercise of " mediumship," it has been found after 
 more close examination that quite other causes than those 
 alleged by the enemies of Spiritualism had been manifestly 
 working to produce disastrous ends. 
 
 . Religious revivals and all forms of emotional excitement 
 are very dangerous for some people, and much as we may 
 wish to reform Spiritualistic methods, as we certainly de- 
 sire also to reform religious propaganda, we cannot do 
 either by holding up to unreasonable execration an entire 
 system because it manifests certain grave faults which 
 greatly need correction. Ella Wheeler Wilcox gave ex- 
 cellent advice to multitudes through the medium of the 
 Hearst newspapers when she counseled astrologers, 
 palmists, clairvoyants and all to whom the public go to 
 "get their fortunes told," to exercise great wisdom in 
 plying their vocation, for her good sense and wide experi- 
 ence in the world had fully assured her that people will 
 enquire into the mysterious, precisely as they will visit 
 doctors, lawyers, and many other classes of people when 
 they are in doubt or trouble. We certainly cannot prevent 
 the exercise of psychic gifts or the investigation of aught 
 that is ''occult" in private, even though the law should 
 put down its public practice, we are only reasonable, there- 
 fore, in so far as we determine to accept an existing situa- 
 tion and seek to make the best of it in the truly practical 
 way of setting to work to improve and refine what cannot 
 be abolished. 
 
 The darker aspects of Parisian Occultism have no con- 
 
240 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 nection whatever with scientific research or with Spiritual- 
 ism, and though they are getting a good deal of advertis- 
 ing they exercise only a very slight influence in any other 
 than the most morally depraved circles of society. Spirit 
 pictures, drawn automatically through the hand of the 
 distinguished etcher Ferdinand Demoulins, have excited 
 much attention among Parisians, and spirit photographs 
 vouched for by the famous Col. de Rochas are also objects 
 of considerable interest. 
 
 All these things are very wonderful, and the attention 
 they excite is more than transitory, but even these marvels 
 pale in genuine importance, in the esteem of many, in the 
 presence of the wonderful works of healing which are 
 constantly attested by competent witnesses, who know of 
 the immense benefit derived by many sufferers through the 
 agency of psychic treatment or psycho-therapy, often 
 clumsily designated hypnotism, which is a misleading term 
 unless applied exclusively to methods which induce sleep 
 or are in some way connected with it, as hypnosis from the 
 Greek hypnos must always properly mean a state of 
 somnolence, and very many cases of psychic cure have 
 nothing whatever to do in any sense of the word with any 
 somnambulic condition. 
 
 Professor Durville, one of the leaders of the Magnetic 
 School (L'Ecole Magnetique, — 25 Rue Saint Merri) has 
 recently achieved much prominence, and there are many 
 others in Paris to whom the suffering public is greatly 
 indebted for relief from distressing maladies. If it be as- 
 serted that nervous cases and diseases of the imagination are 
 almost the only types of malady which are successfully 
 treated by psychic methods, then be it so, if such shall 
 prove the case, but even did we make so exaggerated an 
 
Psychical Research in Modern Europe 241 
 
 admission we should still be compelled to gratefully ac- 
 knowledge that a beneficent agency is at work which is 
 grappling successfully with many of the obscurest and 
 most distressing ailments which baffle at every turn the 
 skill of the most eminent physicians. 
 
 Telepathy is pronounced *'an acquired certainty" by 
 those who have studiously proved it, and instead of Spir- 
 itualists displaying wisdom by fighting shy of it as though 
 it were an offset to spirit-communion, it is found to be ex- 
 actly the reverse as further researches in psychology are 
 constantly demonstrating with ever-brightening conclusive- 
 ness that the telepathic faculty survives physical dissolu- 
 tion, and can be and often is employed by our discarnate 
 as well as by our incarnate friends, when seeking to com- 
 municate. Vance Thompson tells us that while accepted 
 Science does not go quite so far as Occultism, it certainly 
 sets forth the following propositions : 
 
 I St. There exist in Nature certain unknown forces 
 capable of acting on matter. 
 
 2d. We possess other means of knowledge than those 
 of reason or the senses. 
 
 This second statement applies to the subjective phe- 
 nomena of ''metaphysics," which includes telepathy, 
 second sight, clairvoyance, and all else that is closely 
 allied with such a broad general classification. 
 
 While speaking of French institutions, we must not for- 
 get to mention the temple of the Martinists (the cult 
 founded by Claude de Saint-Martin) in the Latin Quar- 
 ter (13 Rue Sequier), of which Dr. Encasse, generally 
 known as " Papus " is the leader. This society has spread 
 the world over, and has recently established itself quite 
 successfully in America under the leadership of Mrs. 
 
242 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Margaret Peake, whose home is at Sandusky, Ohio. As 
 author of ''Born of Flame," " Zenia the Vestal," and 
 other thrilling occult stories, this gifted woman is quite a 
 literary celebrity, and in Boston, a city she often visits 
 and where she is highly esteemed, with the cooperation of 
 Dr. F. J. Miller, a prominent teacher and practitioner of 
 mental and spiritual therapeutics, a Martinist lodge has 
 been established ; the opening sessions of which were held 
 in the office of Dr. Miller in the Oxford Hotel, Hunting- 
 ton Avenue, late in 1905. Sardou has done much to 
 popularize Spirituahsm by his famous plays, and we see 
 no cause for reasonable doubt that ere long the stage will 
 prove one of the most efficient aids to helping forward a 
 knowledge of psychic forces as the morality and miracle 
 plays in the time of Queen Elizabeth were influential in 
 spreading the religious and ethical opinions of that period, 
 and it cannot be successfully denied that at the present 
 time strong plays which introduce a psychic element are 
 very popular. 
 
 In Italy all phases of psychic phenomena are undergoing 
 close examination. The eminent Lombroso and other 
 world-renowned scientific celebrities take prominent part 
 in psychical investigation, and very persistent as well as 
 rigidly analytical investigators do they prove to be. 
 * Fanatical churchmen may howl '' devil," and material- 
 ists may scoff at every attempt to unseat their favorite 
 fallacies, but Spiritualism has come to stay, and though in 
 many quarters it has been unhappily saddled with excres- 
 cences which need removing (and are even now being re- 
 moved) it is beyond question that a comprehensive spirit- 
 ual philosophy is the coming philosophy, uniting, as it 
 does, science with religion, and restoring knowledge of a 
 
Psychical Research in Modern Europe 243 
 
 spiritual, universe coupled with acceptance of all that ex- 
 perimental science can reveal. Europe is undergoing a 
 spiritual renaissance, and France is heading the advancing 
 hosts which are patiently and industriously marching for- 
 ward to ever-increasing victory. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SLEEP AS AN EDUCATOR— ITS SPIRITUAL 
 PURPOSE AND VALUE 
 
 The most thoroughly universal means extant for ac- 
 complishing communion with the unseen universe is un- 
 doubtedly through sleep, which though commonly regarded 
 as only a physiological necessity, providing opportunity for 
 recuperation through periodic rest for brain and muscles, 
 is in reality a most blessed means for enabling all of us to 
 enjoy fellowship, one with another, regardless of distance 
 or any other material barrier. 
 
 The accepted ''Masonic" division of time into three 
 periods of eight hours each, in every twenty-four, is cer- 
 tainly wise in the average, for it is found by experience 
 that excellent health and mental vigor can generally be 
 maintained if we devote eight hours every day to our reg- 
 ular business occupation, eight hours to eating, dressing, 
 bathing and all varieties of recreation including active 
 outdoor exercise, and eight hours to sleep. 
 
 Sixteen hours by this arrangement are well accounted 
 for as spent in action, and it is easily possible for every one 
 to see how during those two thirds of time, we are receiv- 
 ing instruction or are at least capable of receiving it ; but 
 the remaining third, the eight hours spent in sleep, is 
 looked upon by many people as practically wasted so far 
 as education is concerned, consequently many people of 
 active temperament and ambitious nature, grudge the time 
 they devote to sleep, and seek constantly to shorten it, 
 
 244 
 
Sleep As An Educator 245 
 
 with what disastrous results we are all familiar, but nothing 
 can well be more self-evident than that lack of sleep is a 
 highroad to insanity. 
 
 This pitiable contempt for ** Nature's sweet restorer, 
 balmy sleep " is a product of feverish unrest occasioned by 
 an ultra-physical idea of life, into which no spiritual ele- 
 ment is allowed to enter as an appreciable benefit. We 
 are not exercising any of our physical senses while we are 
 sleeping, and with those who bind themselves to the sad 
 belief that knowledge can be obtained only while we are 
 wide awake and actively exercising our material senses, 
 there must be a sense of repulsion felt to any phenomenon 
 which takes us away from the active outward life in which 
 we are so greatly interested that we desire to devote to it 
 our every energy. 
 
 Were false beliefs concerning the spiritual and intel- 
 lectual uses of sleep confined to confessed Materialists, 
 there would be no occasion for wonder, but the reputed 
 religious, Bible- reading world is no less astray than any 
 Secularist community in this respect, and it certainly does 
 seem curious that any who credit Bible doctrines should 
 disparage sleep or doubt that dreams are often both sig- 
 nificant and prophetic. 
 
 Two of the most remarkable Bible characters bear the 
 honored name of Joseph, one in the Old Testament, the 
 other in the New Testament, and though they are intro- 
 duced to us as having lived many centuries apart, they 
 were equally noteworthy for the wonderful nature of their 
 dreams, and for their marvellous faculty of interpretation. 
 
 Joseph who wears the coat of many colors or "long- 
 sleeved " coat as the Polychrome Bible expresses it, to dis- 
 tinguish him from his brothers who were less enlightened 
 
246 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 than he, was according to Genesis, the only man who in 
 time of scarcity of crops had possessed sufficient insight to 
 so harvest the grain when it grew plenteously, that there 
 was abundance in store to prevent famine in time of dearth. 
 
 Pharaoh, the native king of Egypt, could dream as all 
 men can dream, but he could not tell the significance of 
 what he dreamed, consequently his dreams though highly 
 significant in themselves, would have proved useless to 
 him, had it not been for Joseph's interpretations. 
 
 Dreams are usually couched in symbols or allegory. 
 Seven years of plenty are represented by seven full ears 
 of corn, and seven well-fed cattle, while seven years of 
 scarcity are represented by seven wasted ears of corn and 
 seven starving cattle. 
 
 To see fourteen years ahead seems truly marvelous, but 
 it is not altogether unusual, for even in recent times and 
 before great interest had been reawakened in psychic 
 problems, it has often happened that sensitive people have 
 clearly seen events a long while before they actually oc- 
 curred. It is not, then, with simple dreaming, but only 
 with interpreting of dreams that highly gifted seers are 
 specially concerned. 
 
 There is always some degree of difficulty associated with 
 any prediction of the future, because it may reasonably be 
 asked, how can any seer, no matter how phenomenally 
 gifted, possibly see something which has not occurred ? 
 
 Ingenious explanations of reading the past may readily 
 occur to us, and it seems quite feasible that Nature keeps 
 a book of remembrance in which all events are faithfully 
 recorded, and to that scroll of record, seers and seeresses 
 enjoy particularly easy access. 
 
 "The future lies hidden in the womb of the past." 
 
Sleep As An Educator 247 
 
 This is an occult saying worthy of deep consideration. 
 Causes have been already set in motion which are even 
 now bringing forth results which must proceed forth in 
 orderly, inevitable sequence. Admitting this proposition, 
 it is by no means impossible to formulate an intelligent 
 working hypothesis to account for the frequent fact that 
 coming events are constantly being foretold. 
 
 Rash guesses and arbitrary statements based on the pe- 
 culiar views which some people entertain concerning the 
 most highly mystical portions of the Bible, can never be 
 reasonably included in the catalogue of prophecies, because 
 the foolish and decidedly unfulfilled predictions based 
 upon such arbitrary dogmatism display no spiritual insight 
 and such predictions are of no practical value. 
 
 All truly prophetic sight has a use and its use is sus- 
 ceptible of demonstration as in the case of the Josephs of 
 both Testaments. The New Testament Joseph is said 
 to have seen an ** angel of the Lord " during his sleep, and 
 whilst he was dreaming he received from that celestial 
 messenger information of great importance upon which he 
 could and did successfully act. When we are soundly 
 sleeping, our minds disengaged from all ordinary business 
 activities, we may hold conscious converse with spiritual 
 beings whom, at other times, we do not hear or see. 
 
 The angels who appear unto us at certain times are not 
 necessarily nearer to us at those times than on other occa- 
 sions, but our receptive state enables us to become aware 
 of their presence. 
 
 The phrase "unconscious mind" is very nearly unin- 
 telligible, though Dr. Schofield and other learned and able 
 men employ it, but while we cannot reasonably speak of 
 mind as unconscious, we can quite fairly claim that mind 
 
248 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 can function on various planes of consciousness, so much 
 so that when we are wide awake on one plane, we are 
 sound asleep on another. 
 
 The two states — waking and sleeping, are so distinct 
 that they are rarely unified, thus, in one sense we are un- 
 conscious of what is going on, on one plane of action, 
 when we are completely engrossed with what is occurring 
 on another. Perfectly sound refreshing sleep may be 
 quite unconnected with ordinary dreaming, yet when we 
 wake we find ourselves wiser as well as refreshed in conse- 
 quence of our profound repose. 
 
 Memory soon grows weak and fitful if sleep is broken, 
 and there can be no worse habit than to get in the way of 
 sleeping as people say <*with one eye open." Both eyes 
 ought to be completely closed and the mind allowed to 
 betake itself to other regions of contemplation than those 
 in which it moves during the hours of the business day. 
 
 Joseph the carpenter, attending to his daily work, might 
 not have been known as a seer in Nazareth ; had any visitors 
 met him while he was engaged in his accustomed manual 
 task they would have seen only an industrious workman 
 absorbed in his employment, but after business hours when 
 the shop was closed and Joseph had retired for the night, 
 he was no longer carpenter but prophet. A valuable book, 
 " The Mystery of Sleep," by Dr. John Bigelow (Harper & 
 Bros., New York and London) is prefaced with the follow- 
 ing quotation from Psalm 119, *' I have remembered thy 
 name, O Lord, in the night, and have observed thy law," 
 and this passage from lamblichus, **The night-time of the 
 body is the daytime of the soul." 
 
 Dr. Bigelow quotes considerably from Swedenborg with 
 whose philosophy he is greatly in accord, and we may well 
 
Sleep As An Educator 249 
 
 remember that the gifted seer and sage of Sweden de- 
 clared that the spiritual world is the realm of causation, 
 the material state being only a region of effects, and he 
 distinctly taught that while we are asleep bodily we can be 
 awake spiritually. 
 
 Dr. Bigelow insists that *'It is not consistent with any 
 rational notion of a Divine Providence that we should pass 
 one third of our lives under conditions in which we could 
 experience no spiritual growth or development, as would be 
 the inevitable result of absolute rest." Then he continues, 
 "Sleep does not represent or imply rest in the sense of 
 inactivity or idleness, psychical or physical" but <' the 
 suspension of our consciousness during sleep simply in- 
 terrupts our relations temporarily with the phenomenal 
 world and shelters us from its distractions and fascinations, 
 without which spiritual growth and development — the 
 divine purpose of our creation — would be impossible." 
 
 The foregoing sentences are worthy of deep perusal and 
 we particularly commend them to all those professedly re- 
 ligious persons who accept historically all Bible narratives 
 concerning illumination during sleep, but reject the testi- 
 mony of present-day seers to the same phenomena. 
 
 Dr. Bigelow is consistent with his religious faith and at 
 the same time eminently scientific, when he tells us that 
 ** neither the physical nor psychical changes which we are 
 conscious of having undergone during the hours devoted 
 to sleep can be realized or accounted for if the activity of 
 those faculties, respectively, were suspended " and he 
 further states that "the involuntary subjugation of the 
 senses periodically to sleep is one of the vital processes of 
 spiritual regeneration, without which such regeneration 
 would be impossible, as is evidenced by the fact that the 
 
250 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 most important events in the history of our race were in- 
 itiated during sleep," 
 
 The latter is a boM statement but we believe it to be 
 correct, and were we to devote more study than we do to 
 the origin of great movements which have led to general 
 enlightenment, and also to the testimonies of really influen- 
 tial men and women concerning their own sleep and 
 what it has brought to them, we should revise our judg- 
 ment concerning the use of this great initiator into spirit- 
 ual mysteries. 
 
 One of Dr. Bigelow's strongest statements is irrefutable, 
 for no one can deny that ^' all virtues favor sleep, and all 
 vices discourage it." The further declaration that "the 
 difference between sleep and death may be more a differ- 
 ence in duration than condition " receives much confirma- 
 tion, alike from seers of ancient and of modern time, though 
 it is often strictly denied by people who fail to discern 
 / that man is here and now a spiritual entity, and that 
 deprivation of the material body implies no more than 
 absence of a material instrument. 
 
 Dreams are certainly only experiences which we en- 
 counter while passing from one state of consciousness to 
 another. That is why it is that, when we wake hastily, 
 as when aroused by an alarm, we rarely remember any 
 of our dreams distinctly, but when we awaken gradually 
 we often remember distinctly every detail. 
 
 In seeking to cultivate what George du Maurier in 
 *' Peter Ibbettson" calls '' Dreaming True " we must accus- 
 tom ourselves to passing into the sleeping state contemplat- 
 ing serenely and assuredly some definite object with which 
 we desire to be related during sleep, or with some friend 
 from whom we should be glad to receive some tidings. 
 
Sleep As An Educator 251 
 
 There are many friends who though separated physic- 
 ally are very near together spiritually, and though oc- 
 casionally they receive some inkling of psychic association, 
 their general feeling is that material circumstances are 
 holding them apart. A very extreme case is that of the 
 two leading characters in Du Maurier's fascinating story 
 which was founded on genuine autobiography. It is not 
 very often that a man like " Peter Ibbettson " is con- 
 demned to a life sentence of imprisonment, or that a 
 woman like ** The Duchess of Towers " remains so many 
 years completely faithful (even in thought) to a childhood's 
 companion under such exceptionally trying circumstances, 
 but dramatic high lights are necessary to duly enforce 
 the doctrine which Du Maurier has elucidated. 
 
 For well on to thirty years this man and woman held 
 nightly communion in their charming fairy palace which 
 fell into ruins when the good woman passed to spirit 
 life ; but though in the post-mortem state she could no 
 longer commune with her lonely, sorrow stricken friend, 
 as in days of yore, it was not long before means of com- 
 munion were established, and spirit-communion in the 
 fullest sense of the term became in their careers a dem- 
 onstrated reahty. 
 
 The revised version of the Psalms gives a much clearer 
 idea of the original than does the old translation, which 
 though not necessarily inaccurate is often obscure and 
 unsatisfactory. " He giveth his beloved sleep " is a beau- 
 tiful motto, but Psalm 127, from which it is taken, really 
 says a great deal more, for it declares " he giveth unto 
 his beloved in their sleep," distinctly teaching education 
 during slumber. 
 
 It is often admitted that remarkable enlightenment may 
 
252 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 come during periods of ecstasy or trance, but true ec- 
 I stasia or entrancement differs scarcely at all from ordinary 
 f profound repose, except, as in the case of Swedenborg 
 \ and a few other exceptionally phenomenal seers, when the 
 I two states of consciousness — waking and sleeping — were en- 
 joyed simultaneously. 
 
 Nothing can be more significant to the gospel student 
 than the case related of Jesus soundly sleeping through 
 a storm upon one of the Galilean lakes, while his dis- 
 ciples who were in the boat with him were unable to 
 sleep because they were in dread of shipwreck. 
 
 That most unwholesome teaching, which some hysterical 
 people have taken up with, to the effect that as we grow 
 more spiritual we shall do without sleep, is uncanny and 
 untruthful in the extreme, and such doctrine is always 
 associated with a morbid fear of losing or wasting time, 
 as though strenuous external activity were a perpetual ne- 
 cessity — which it decidedly is not. 
 
 People who grudge time for rest never retain their waking 
 powers to a ripe age, and the work they accomplish be- 
 trays marks of feverish haste or painful lassitude. The 
 more spiritually-minded we become the more tranquil are 
 our slumbers, and no one who is a keen observer need 
 look far afield to trace the origin of that pleasing and 
 popular expression '* they are sleeping the sleep of the 
 just." 
 
 Wherever there is spiritual destitution there is great 
 need of physical vigilance, therefore, sleep is dreaded as 
 an enemy which puts us off our guard, but so soon as we 
 have grown into a sweet consciousness of spiritual repose 
 our bodies enjoy that calm natural slumber which is always 
 the friend of health and the destroyer of insanity. 
 
Sleep As An Educator 253 
 
 To employ artificial aids, such as poisonous drugs, to in- 
 duce sleep is decidedly erroneous, and the visions which are 
 conjured up during the artificial sleep induced by opium, 
 hasheesh or any other powerful and deadening narcotic are 
 usually unreliable. 
 
 Hypnotic treatment which induces artificial somnambu- 
 lism is a subject of much criticism, and there is but one 
 way to settle its claims intelligently, and that is by dis- 
 criminating clearly between statements made by professed 
 advocates and also by defamers of all hypnotic methods. 
 The remarkable Avork accomplished by Dr. John Quacken- 
 bos of New York, has brought the word hypnotism into 
 great dispute, largely on account of calling a process 
 hypnotic (sleep-inducing) in cases where the intention and 
 result were entirely in the direction of arousing a patient 
 out of a protracted sleep which, had it continued longer, 
 would have resulted in physical dissolution. 
 
 Dr. Quackenbos was largely reported (during February, 
 1906), as having restored to health by suggestive treatment 
 a young woman who was actually dying, and was sum- 
 moned back to earthly existence by the doctor's imperative 
 call, to which she responded. This, though wrongly ad- 
 vertised in many papers as a case of successful hypnotism 
 was exactly the reverse, and called forth the following ex- 
 planatory comment from Miss S. C. Clark, a prominent 
 practitioner of spiritual healing, which, she insists, is some- 
 thing quite distinct from hypnotism, and so it is, for while 
 in some cases spiritual treatment induces needed sleep it 
 never forces it, and the unpleasant feature of hypnotism has 
 always been the idea of more or less mental coercion con- 
 nected with it. 
 
 The following extract from Banner of Lights February 
 
254 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 17, 1906, presents the case so fairly that comment upon 
 Miss Clark's explanations would be superfluous : 
 
 **In the Banner's issue of February loth an instance is 
 given by Dr. John D. Quackenbos of the healing of a 
 young woman as the result of hypnotic suggestion, under 
 the heading ' Hypnotism Conquers Death.' 
 
 ** The writer begs leave to take exception, and emphasize 
 the fact that hypnotism, pure and simple, formed no part 
 of the cure related. Hypnosis — as the word implies — is an 
 artificial sleep, in which state the soul of the subject is only 
 semi-conscious, and obeys the dictation of another and 
 stronger will. In this instance, however, there was simply 
 an appeal from a strong, healthy soul to the sluggish, torpid 
 soul of the patient to arouse, to assert itself, which dormant 
 consciousness then responded to the call and came to the 
 front to resume the control and inspiration of its own or- 
 ganism. The mind awoke instead of being put to sleep, 
 the opposite condition from hypnosis. This is spiritual 
 healing, the power of the regnant soul made manifest, and 
 is exercised constantly by those who do not practice hyp- 
 notism, who can ' show you a more excellent way,' those 
 who serve gladly as willing instruments through whom 
 divine agencies can bring a baptism of health and strength. 
 
 " A prominent professor of Harvard, himself an advocate 
 of hypnotism, once affirmed that ' the effects of hypnotism 
 are always superficial and temporary.' The worthy Dr. 
 Quackenbos (perhaps unconsciously), possessed doubtless 
 a strong healing gift, an imperative soul ; for the mind, per 
 se, has no healing power, the efficacy of the human will is 
 limited, but the possibihties of the enfranchised spirit, in 
 its at-one-ment with Omnipotence, are boundless." 
 
 During natural sleep it is often possible to accomplish 
 
Sleep As An Educator 255 
 
 great good in the training of children who are often highly 
 amenable to right suggestions when asleep, which appeal 
 directly to their higher consciousness, which is then awake. 
 The methods to be employed are various, but it is never 
 necessary either to waken a sleeping child or to put a 
 waking child to sleep, in order to give a suggestion. 
 
 When a child is naturally sleeping, you may approach 
 the bedside and begin talking to the sleeper in a gentle but 
 decided voice. If the child awakes continue your con- 
 versation, but do not raise your voice to any excited tone 
 or speak in a high or aggressive key. Speak to the sleeper 
 quietly, kindly, firmly, with assurance in every accent, 
 and as all suggestions, to be effective, must be purely affir- 
 mational, mention only those good habits which you desire 
 to aid the child to practice. 
 
 The inner consciousness of the sleeper receives will- 
 ingly the good suggestions you kindly make, and these 
 sink into what some modern psychologists call the '' sub- 
 self" or ''subjective mind," and having found lodgment 
 therein, they form a base for future outward conduct. 
 
 It cannot be denied that we often enjoy spiritual com- 
 munion during the night, and it is altogether wrong to 
 deny that when we are soundly sleeping we receive infor- 
 mation which we often possess and utilize during our day 
 hours, though we may not recollect when or how we re- 
 ceived it. 
 
 The chief difficulty with those who postulate uncon- 
 sciousness during sleep is that they do not realize that we 
 may be temporarily forgetful of experiences which we have 
 enjoyed in sleep, and though for a while unmindful of 
 them still capable of recollecting them. Memory and rec- 
 ollection are not identical. We are all possessed of more 
 
256 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 memory than recollection and when people study to " im- 
 prove memory ' ' they are really seeking to gain a fuller 
 mastery over recollection. 
 
 We all know how frequently we remember, forget, and 
 remember again. We are all conscious of how completely 
 certain facts have slipped our memories, often for a long 
 time, and then quite unexpectedly these memories revive 
 without apparently any external stimulus. These facts 
 ought to be weighed much more carefully than they gener- 
 ally are, and a careful weighing of them will of necessity 
 result in our accounting for them in one or the other of the 
 following ways — we shall either admit that we contain a re- 
 ceptacle of knowledge far greater than we credit ourselves 
 with possessing, or we shall have recourse to the theory of 
 unseen spiritual prompters who may afford the necessary 
 stimulus to reawaken our dormant consciousness. 
 
 A great many interesting and valuable results are obtain- 
 able while we are sleeping, and among them we should note 
 the benefit and enlightenment we often gain while sleeping, 
 provided that before going to sleep we have rightly disposed 
 our minds for the reception of knowledge. 
 
 A few notable historic cases of truly celebrated in- 
 dividuals may serve to aid the reader in an honest en- 
 deavor to verify our main contention. Shakespeare's 
 plays abound in allusions to sleep, and among the most 
 striking passages we may refer to the incident of Brutus in 
 Julius Caesar, who cannot sleep immediately he begins to 
 entertain the thought that Caesar must be put to death that 
 Rome be liberated. 
 
 Then in Henry VII we have these thrilling words de- 
 scribing the result of mental distress in depriving the King 
 of sleep : 
 
Sleep As An Educator 257 
 
 " How many thousand of my poorest subjects 
 Are at this hour asleep ! O gentle Sleep, 
 Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee 
 That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down 
 Nor steep my senses in forgetfulness ? " 
 
 A prevailing misapprehension is almost universal that 
 we can gain no good in church, at a concert, or while 
 attending a lecture if we are sleeping. Such an error 
 needs to be emphatically denied and all persons truly in- 
 terested in the cure of nervous ailments should be the very 
 first to protest vigorously against so nerve-wrecking a 
 delusion. 
 
 There are many well-meaning people who would greatly 
 enjoy attending evening functions of various kinds, were 
 they not deterred by the fear that they might sleep during 
 public exercises. These misguided folk need to study the 
 literature of classic times and learn how much good suf- 
 ferers were wont to receive while sleeping in consecrated 
 temples; and as modern churches invite the public to 
 enter for prayer, meditation and rest, church edifices may 
 well be employed for all these uses, separately and 
 collectively. 
 
 Working people are often sleepy in the evening but they 
 need a change and recreation, and this cannot be obtained 
 by remaining in the house when a strong desire is felt to 
 go elsewhere. ^ A new atmosphere filled with joyous and 
 vigorous mental currents is often necessary to recuperate 
 the weary, and after two or three hours spent in so vitaliz- 
 ing a surrounding the no longer tired workman or work- 
 woman can return to home or lodging and sleep peacefully 
 throughout the night. 
 
 We often hear people exclaim that they are too tired to 
 
258 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 sleep, and that is precisely the case, but this tiredness can 
 often be speedily overcome in a changed and pleasant 
 environment. Dr. Bigelow very wisely tells us that ** it is 
 not uncommon for those who have no habit or inclination 
 to sleep during the morning hours of secular days, to be 
 overcome with somnolency in church, soon after the 
 devotional exercises are begun, and who find it impossible 
 to derive any edification from them until they have lost 
 themselves for a moment or two in absolute unconscious- 
 ness. 
 
 ''Then they have no difficulty, sometimes a lively pleas- 
 ure in attending to the exercises which follow. The wor- 
 shiper is then withdrawn from the familiar excitement of 
 customary avocations. It is idle to suppose that in these 
 few moments of repose, upright in his pew, he has rested 
 enough, in the common acceptation of that word, to re- 
 pair any waste of tissue that would explain the new sense 
 of refreshment that ensues. 
 
 '* He has received in that brief retirement from the world, 
 some reinforcements which manifestly are not dependent 
 upon time or space for their efficacy — spiritual reinforce- 
 ments only. He has removed himself, or been removed 
 further away, out of sight or hearing or thinking, so to 
 speak, of his phenomenal life, and nearer to the source of 
 all life." 
 
 Strabo referring to Moses, whom he calls an Egyptian 
 priest, speaks of his having led those who followed him 
 out of cities to the open country because there they might 
 more readily commune with Deity, and also speaks of a ^ 
 sanctuary without idols in which great blessings were con- 
 ferred on those who slept within it. 
 
 The famous Greek temple dedicated to Esculapius is 
 
Sleep As An Educator 259 
 
 said to have healed multitudes who slept in it. On many 
 instances the presiding divinity is said to have revealed to 
 sufferers during sleep the means they should pursue in 
 order to get free from the ailments which oppressed them. 
 One of the most famous instances on record of remarka- 
 ble enlightenment received in sleep is two thousand years 
 old. 
 
 Cicero made the record and Macrobius discovered it 
 after it had been supposed lost for fifteen centuries. The 
 vision of Publius Cornelius Scipio, the second Scipio 
 Africanus, while he was military tribune in Africa and 
 guest of Prince Massanissa, gives striking confirmation 
 of the illumination we may receive while we are spiritually 
 detached from all relation with the phenomenal world in 
 which we spend our waking consciousness. 
 
 Scipio relates that after much talk about politics and 
 government, and especially of his illustrious ancestor the 
 first Africanus, a deeper sleep than ordinary came over 
 him in which his ancestor very distinctly appeared to him 
 and told him that the preservation of the country de- 
 pended entirely upon him ; at the same time the younger 
 Scipio was informed by his ancestor that many perils con- 
 fronted him, but he was assured that if he were faithful in 
 the discharge of his every obligation, a special state of 
 blessedness awaited him after death. 
 
 Scipio declares that though terrified, not so much at the 
 prospect of death as at the thought that trusted friends 
 were proving treacherous, he interrogated the spirit con- 
 cerning his father Paulus, and others whom he thought 
 had died; the spirit answered him in these words " They 
 are alive indeed, for they have escaped from the fetters of 
 the body as from a prison." 
 
26o Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Then Scipio enquired why, if the Hfe beyond death was 
 more glorious than this present existence, he should not 
 hasten to it, but he received the faithful reply from Paulus 
 who also appeared to him : ' ' Not so, my son, unless that 
 God, whose temple is all this which you behold, shall free 
 you from this imprisonment in the body you can have no 
 admission to this place : for men have been created under 
 this condition, that they should keep that globe which you 
 see in the middle of this temple, and which is called the 
 earth. 
 
 ''And a soul has been suppHed to them from those 
 supernal fires which you call constellations and stars, and 
 which, being globular, are animated with divine spirit, and 
 complete their cycles and revolutions with amazing 
 rapidity. Therefore you, my Publius, and all good men 
 must preserve your souls in the keeping of your bodies, 
 nor without the order of that Being who bestowed them 
 upon you, are you to depart from mundane life, lest you 
 seem to desert the duty of a man which has been assigned 
 to you by God." 
 
 After this exordium against suicide, much good doctrine 
 was given by the father to the son, and as the spirits 
 vanished, Scipio awoke from sleep. We have in this fine 
 old testimony only one out of many striking narrations 
 proving how distinguished men in all ages have enjoyed 
 spiritual enlightenment while asleep, and what has oc- 
 curred in days of old is occurring now also, and can and 
 will continue to occur whenever opportunity is given for 
 its occurrence. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 SPIRITUAL MEDIUMSHIP— REASONABLE VIEWS 
 OF MEDIUMSHIP CONTRASTED WITH POP- 
 ULAR FALLACIES CONCERNING IT 
 
 Many readers of current literature dealing with psychic 
 questions in general must be very much confused on ac- 
 count of the bewilderingly divergent views expressed by 
 different writers who attempt to deal with the intricate 
 question of human sensitiveness by recourse to a single 
 strained hypothesis. These discording hypotheses of 
 different theorists are often gravely set forth as final and 
 authoritative, in consequence whereof many superficial 
 readers, who are easily captivated by pretentious claims, 
 commit themselves without any first-hand investigation to 
 whatever theory is set forth by some author whose opinions 
 they chance to favor. Since the publication of Hudson's 
 ''Law of Psychic Phenomena" a number of writers and 
 lecturers have arisen who on the basis of Hudson's famous 
 theory of " Two minds " have undertaken to explain away 
 all spiritualistic evidences by calling upon the ''subjective 
 mind" to account for everything that could not be ex- 
 plained by trickery. Given a theory which admits of no 
 limitation, and a resolute determination to explain every- 
 thing by means of it, the way is at once clear for the 
 demolition of every evidence which may be in conflict 
 with it. Hudson has written many good things and his 
 contribution to the literature of modern psychology is de- 
 cidedly valuable, but his views on Spiritualism often border 
 
 261 
 
262 Universal Spiritualism . 
 
 upon the absurd and they are certainly not endorsed by 
 any truly scientific men who have conducted independent 
 investigations. Hudson's most ridiculous conclusions, 
 which are certainly not warranted by his original prem- 
 ises, are endorsed by Henry Frank and many other popular 
 speakers who make statements with great enthusiasm in 
 public addresses and through the press which when sub- 
 mitted to impartial examination are found to be so utterly 
 one-sided as to possess very little if any, philosophic value. 
 Suppose we now accept as true the hypothesis of a dual 
 mind, which is by no means unreasonable, even if we use 
 Hudson's terminology and insist upon ''objective" and 
 ''subjective " as terms to be universally employed, there is 
 still no solid ground whatever for denying spirit-com- 
 munion or for speaking adversely concerning mediumship. 
 Hudson's second popular book in his series of five, is en- 
 tided "A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life." 
 In that volume he has endeavored to prove that the " sub- 
 jective mind " is the seat of the telepathic faculty and that 
 1 its chief field of functioning is in the life beyond death. 
 Accepting this statement at its full value it can lend no 
 support to any denial of spirit-communion for no author 
 has vouched for the facts of telepathy more valiantly than 
 Hudson. Granting that two "subjective minds" are so 
 en rapport that one can communicate intelHgibly with the 
 other while both are still associated with "objective 
 minds " prior to physical dissolution, there is no reason 
 for supposing that the same "subjective" communion 
 cannot continue after the " objective mind " in the case of 
 one of the communicating parties has passed away with the 
 demise of the physical body. 
 
 Though the word "mediumship" is placed under the 
 
Spiritual Mediumship 263 
 
 ban and treated by many authors who indulge in sweeping 
 assertions as allied with insanity and all manner of path- 
 ological and even criminal conditions, a sane consideration 
 of its true nature and real import will enable every rational 
 student of psychology to discriminate without much diffi- 
 culty between healthy and unhealthy symptoms. We will 
 admit that highly sensitive persons are usually of high- 
 strung nervous temperament and if subjected to unpleasant 
 and unwholesome surroundings they are apt to be afflicted 
 with distempers common to their type, but such an ad- 
 mission only counsels to caution, it never logically leads to 
 condemnation of mediumship in its entirety. If we can sift 
 out the kernels of wheat from the mass of chaff and eliminate 
 the wholesome grain from the enormous growth of tare or 
 cockel which we find in such books as ** The Great Psycho- 
 logical Crime," which Henry Frank pronounced authori- 
 tative (^Banner of Lights Boston, January 13, 1906) we 
 shall find that the basis of all outcry against mediumship 
 is that it exposes the medium to control and coercion from 
 an unseen, and often from an unknown source, and that 
 such submission of one will to another is detrimental to 
 health and character. ^That there is some degree of reason 
 in such a statement no reasonable person will deny, but 
 we are prepared to entirely refute the insinuation that 
 , mediumship is necessarily anything other than a voluntary 
 (sensitiveness enabling two or more friends to enjoy com - 
 ' munion with each other. Accepting the phenomena of 
 telepathy as legitimate, and neither Hudson nor his fol- 
 lowers ever seem to condemn it, it logically follows that 
 simple mediumship involves no more than the practice of 
 telepathy extended into the post-mortem state which, if 
 Hudson's theory be correct, is only the survival of a func- 
 
264 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 tion of the ''subjective mind" which is always involved 
 in every telepathic transaction. It seems impossible for 
 some people to get anything like a clear idea of what the 
 so-called "next" or ''future" state of man can be, and 
 because a crude theory is invented, which has no founda- 
 tion in fact or reason, that some marvelous and inconceiv- 
 able change occurs at the instant of physical transition, we 
 are either told that it is extremely dangerous or positively 
 wrong to commune with our friends who have left their 
 earthly bodies or else that it is impossible for us to do so. 
 Neither F. W. H. Myers in his monumental work " Human 
 Personality, its Survival of Bodily Death," Minot J. Savage 
 in his "Life Beyond Death" and " Can Telepathy Ex- 
 plain ? " or Professor Hyslop in his " Science and a Future 
 Life" have fallen into any such error, and we advise a 
 careful perusal of the books mentioned on the part of all 
 who desire to read the sober utterances of unprejudiced 
 men of high intellectual ability who have not allowed 
 prejudice to warp their judgment. That a word of caution 
 should be given to excitable and unreflecting dabblers in 
 psychic experimentation we fully admit, but words of 
 caution need to be cautiously uttered and they must be 
 voiced without prejudice if they are to prove salutary. 
 Mediumship intelligently viewed presents two distant phases 
 or aspects which are, in a sense, diametrically opposed, and 
 we suppose it must be with only one of these that opponents 
 of mediumship are acquainted. The objectionable or un- 
 desirable aspect of the question borders upon what 
 Dr. J. M. Peebles and many other influential Spiritualists 
 designate "obsession," which means that one mind is so 
 far under the dominion of another, and that other a very 
 crude or distorted one, that individual mental liberty is 
 
Spiritual Mediumship 265 
 
 impossible until the ''obsessing" influence has been re- 
 moved. Miscellaneous public circles, in which people 
 gather with all sorts of mixed motives and all varieties of 
 moral, mental, and physical conditions, are sources of 
 grave danger to highly sensitive people who are of weak 
 and yielding disposition and have not developed around 
 them a protective aura. We can also conscientiously in- 
 veigh against all attempts to exercise any psychic gift or 
 faculty for any other than a noble purpose, and were con- 
 demnations of mediumship or mediumistic practices 
 directed solely against pernicious customs we should 
 heartily endorse even an anathema directed against per- 
 versions. But we must not permit ourselves to confound 
 the innocent with the vicious, or the helpful with the harm- 
 ful, though that is exactly what is done by sensational de- 
 claimers against mediumship at large. Very much good 
 is often accomplished through clairvoyance and very much 
 more good by means of clairsentience, and oftentimes aspirit- 
 message conveyed through an entranced medium brings 
 comfort to the sorrow-stricken and needed instruction to 
 the perplexed. Home circles properly conducted in a pure 
 atmosphere and where aspirations are noble are productive 
 of excellent results, and it is abundantly shown that me- 
 diumship exercised in such surroundings conduces to 
 enlarged health and increased mental and ethical develop- 
 ment. The claim has been made that Indian spirits always 
 manifest themselves during early stages of mediumistic de- 
 velopment and that this is an evidence that the ''sub- 
 jective mind" is remanifesting some ancestral states, the 
 remains of which are contained with it, and it is further 
 said that this proves retrogression or reversion to some 
 primitive condition. In reply to that stupid and almost 
 
266 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 foundationless allegation we have but to call attention to 
 the fact that nowhere except in America do Indian spirits 
 usually manifest, unless some American medium travels to 
 another country and introduces her unseen escorts to a 
 foreign audience, and further let it be remembered that a 
 very large percentage of people of American birth are not 
 descended from North American Indians any more than 
 are natives of European countries who rarely, if ever, un- 
 earth Indian spirits from their subconsciousness during 
 incipient stages of mediumistic development. Whence then 
 the proof of Atavism ? The real distinction which should 
 always be emphasized between a sort of sensitiveness which 
 may be a kind of relic of the past, and a totally different 
 variety which foreglimmers a higher condition for the future, 
 is that the former is always involuntary or sub-volitional, 
 though not invariably harmful, while the latter is always 
 voluntary or volitional. Sensitiveness needs to be regu- 
 lated and controlled, we should never permit ourselves to 
 be governed by it. It is high time that intelligent Spir- 
 ituaHsts take a firm stand on this question, and in view of 
 the immense amount of controversy still waging around the 
 pros and cons of mediumships it ought to be feasible to 
 publish some moderately tempered manual setting forth 
 what is and what is not desirable along the path of me- 
 diumship and its development. It seems difficult to reach 
 a happy middle path between two extremes, as most peo- 
 ple are influenced by emotion rather than by logic, the 
 work however needs to be done and we must bring to the 
 task of doing it no other spirit than that of utterly im- 
 partial open-mindedness. Wherever we witness signs of 
 disease and degeneracy accompanying the exercise of 
 mediumship we should search fearlessly for the cause^ but 
 
Spiritual Mediumship 267 
 
 not blindly fling a sweeping accusation against medium- 
 ship in its simplicity or entirety because certain aberrant 
 accompaniments are sometimes found attending it. 
 
 Had we, as a people at large, less disposition to yield to 
 fashions and submit to customs and conventionalities, no 
 matter how foolish or haruiful such may be, we should soon 
 behold a soul-cheering diminution of those abnormalities 
 which do indeed sometimes accompany mediumship, but 
 are in no true sense its legitimate or necessary offspring. 
 Control or coercion may well be warned against, but willing 
 susceptibility to communion with spirit friends and helpers 
 is no sign of degeneracy and constitutes no step in the direc- 
 tion of insanity. Though notes of reasonable warning need 
 often to be raised, warnings must be directed against abuses 
 only ; they are senseless and must ever miss their mark 
 when they take the form of wholesale denunciation. 
 Mediumship is good, only its abuse is evil. To the im- 
 partial student of the literature of modern Spiritualism, 
 which began to accumulate almost immediately the 
 "Rochester Knockings " created a world-wide sensation 
 in 1845, it must appear that never in any previous period 
 of this planet's history has there been fuller evidence 
 established than was collected and authenticated during 
 the nineteenth century to convince, even the most sceptical 
 among enquirers, that physical dissolution is not the end 
 of our conscious individuahty. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE SPIRIT WORLD— AS SEEN AND DESCRIBED 
 BY ONE WHO HAS VISITED IT FREQUENTLY 
 
 Charles W. Leadbeater serves a highly valuable pur- 
 pose as a teacher and illustrator of spiritual philosophy, 
 finding much in common between Spiritualism and The- 
 osophy when both are rightly understood. We have in- 
 troduced this record of wonderful clairvoyance between 
 chapters devoted to our own statements on these and 
 similar great questions to give to our readers independent 
 testimony which agrees very substantially with the views 
 of the author based on closely similar experiences. 
 
 The following truly remarkable statements are taken 
 (slightly condensed) from articles published in Chicago 
 during February, 1906, first in the Tribune, then in the 
 Progressive Thinker. We take particular pleasure in pre- 
 senting these extracts to our readers because they serve to 
 vividly illustrate the kind of visions of the spirit world 
 which modern seers are frequently beholding. 
 
 " In my visions and dreams the bright jasper walls I 
 can see," sang the poet of ''The Home of the Soul." 
 But C. W. Leadbeater, in full waking consciousness, sees 
 all that eye hath not seen or ear hath heard on earth of the 
 glories of the heaven world. He has seen and known the 
 seventh heaven. And what he has done he says all can do. 
 
 It is only our lack of development, affirms Mr. Lead- 
 beater, only the limitation imposed upon us by this robe 
 
 268 
 
The Spirit World 269 
 
 of flesh, that prevents us from fully realizing that all the 
 glory of the highest heaven is about us here and now, and 
 that influences flowing from that world are ever playing 
 upon us if we only will understand and receive them. 
 *'Do not complain and cry," said a great teacher of old, 
 "but open your eyes and see. The light is all about you, 
 if you would only cast the bandage from your eyes and 
 look. It is so wonderful, so beautiful, so far beyond 
 what any man has dreamed of or prayed for, and it is for- 
 ever and forever." 
 
 Mr. Leadbeater, as a trained Occultist, has cultivated 
 his higher senses, his occult faculties, whereby are visible 
 to him the heavenly spiritual regions which are shut out 
 to carnal eyes. These heavenly regions are worlds of 
 subtler substance than the physical world, interpenetrating 
 it, and therefore all about us. Heaven is the world of 
 thought, the mental plane, as Occultists term it, supremely 
 a state of consciousness, the " kingdom of heaven " being 
 "within you." The astral plane is the world of feeling; 
 the physical plane, the familiar earth of the senses, is the 
 world of action. The body of action is the physical body, 
 the body of emotion is the astral body, the body of thought 
 is the mental body. The immortal soul, which lives for- 
 ever, in the heaven world, communicates with the physical 
 world by means of physical impacts transmitted to the 
 physical brain, thence to the astral, and thence to the 
 mental body. The soul is the immortal thinker and ego. 
 
 Scientific Occultism trains the faculties of the higher 
 bodies which enable us to see these heavenly regions lying 
 all about us. It was thus that Mr. Leadbeater learned to 
 journey up througli the seven heavens. A radiant sense 
 not only of the welcome absence of all evil and discord 
 
270 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 but of the insistent, overwhelming presence of universal 
 joy is the first and most striking sensation experienced by 
 him who enters upon the heavenly world, reports the visitor. 
 And it never leaves him so long as he remains there, and 
 the man who has once experienced it in full consciousness 
 will regard the world with widely different eyes forever 
 after. 
 
 Let a man imagine himself with these feelings of intense 
 bliss and enormously increased power floating in a sea of 
 living light, surrounded by every conceivable variety of 
 loveliness in color and form — the whole changing with 
 every wave of thought that he sends out from the mind, 
 and being as he presently discovers, only the expression of 
 his thought in the matter of the plane and in its elemental 
 essence. For that matter is of the same order as that of 
 which the mind-body itself is composed, and therefore 
 when that vibration of the particles of the mind-body 
 which we call a thought occurs, it extends itself immedi- 
 ately to this surrounding mental matter and sets up corre- 
 sponding vibrations in it, while in the elemental essence it 
 images itself with absolute exactitude. Concrete thought 
 naturally takes the shape of its objects, while abstract ideas 
 usually represent themselves by all kinds of perfect and 
 geometrical forms. 
 
 If the visitor wishes to observe the plane upon which he 
 finds himself it will be necessary for him carefully to 
 suspend his thought for the time, so that its creations may 
 not influence the readily impressible matter around him and 
 thus alter the entire conditions so far as he is concerned. 
 He begins to realize that all this magnificence is not a mere 
 idle or fortuitous display ; he finds that it all has a mean- 
 ing ; a meaning which he himself can understand ; and 
 
The Spirit World 271 
 
 presently he grasps the fact that what he is watching with 
 such ecstasy of delight is simply the glorious color language 
 of the angels — the expression of the thought or the conver- 
 sation of beings far higher than himself in the scale of ev- 
 olution. 
 
 / By experiment and practice he discovers that he also 
 can use this new and beautiful mode of expression, and by 
 this discovery he enters into possession of another great 
 tract of his heritage in this celestial realm — the power to 
 hold converse with and to learn from its loftier inhabit- 
 ants. 
 
 If the visitor wishes to carry his analysis of the plane still 
 further and discover what it would be when entirely undis- 
 turbed by the thought or conversation of any of its in- 
 habitants, he can do so by forming round himself a huge 
 shell, through which none of these influences can penetrate, 
 and then, holding his own mind perfectly still, examining 
 the conditions which exist inside his shell. He is now able 
 to perceive another and entirely different series of regular 
 pulsations. 
 
 These evidently are universal. They cause no change of 
 color, no assumption of form, but flow with resistless regu- 
 larity through all the matter of the plane, outward and in 
 again, like the exhalations and inhalations of some great 
 breath beyond our ken. 
 
 There are several sets of these, clearly distinguishable 
 from one another by volume, by period of vibration, and 
 by the tone of harmony which they bring, and grander than 
 them all sweeps one great wave which seems the heart-beat 
 of the system, a wave which, welling up from unknown 
 centres on far higher planes, pours out its life through all our 
 world, and then draws back in its tremendous tide to that 
 
272 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 from which it came. In one long, undulating curve it 
 comes, and the sound of it is like the murmur of the sea ; 
 and yet in it and through it all the while there echoes a 
 mighty ringing chant of triumph, the music of the spheres. 
 The man who once has heard that glorious song of nature 
 never quite loses it again ; even here on this dreary physical 
 plane of illusion he hears it always as a kind of undertone, 
 keeping ever before his mind the strength and light and 
 splendor of the real life above. 
 
 The sense itself by which he is able to cognize all this is 
 not the least of the marvels of this celestial world; no 
 longer does he hear and see and feel by separate and 
 limited organs, as he does down here ; instead of these he 
 feels within him a new, strange power, which is not any of 
 them and yet includes them all and much more — a power 
 which enables him the moment any person or thing comes 
 before him not only to see it and feel it and hear it but to 
 know all about it instantly inside and out, its causes, its 
 effects, and its possibilities. He finds that for him to think 
 is to realize ; there is never any doubt, hesitation, or delay 
 about this direct action of the higher sense. [If he thinks 
 of a place, he is there ; if of a friend, that friend is before 
 him. Every thought and feeling of his friend lies open as 
 a book before him. All knowledge is his for the searching 
 — all that does not transcend even this lofty plane ; the past 
 of the world is as open to him as the present ; the indelible 
 records of the memory of nature are ever at his disposal, 
 and history, whether ancient or modern, unfolds itself be- 
 fore his eyes at will. 
 
 Not only can he review at leisure all history with which 
 we are acquainted, correcting, as he examines it, the many 
 errors and misconceptions which have crept into the ac- 
 
The Spirit World 273 
 
 counts handed down to us ; he also can range at will over 
 the whole story of the world from its beginning, watching 
 the slow development of intellect. Nor is his study con- 
 fined to the progress of humanity alone ; he has before him 
 as in a museum all the strange animal and vegetable forms 
 which occupied the stage in days when the world was 
 young ; he can follow all the geological changes which 
 have taken place, and watch the course of the great cata- 
 clysms which have altered the face of the earth again and 
 again. 
 
 The lowest heaven has for its principal characteristic, af- 
 fection for family or friends, unselfish but usually some- 
 what narrow. One of the first persons Mr. Lead beater en- 
 countered in heaven was a mother who had died about 
 twenty years ago and left behind her two sons, to whom 
 she was deeply attached. Naturally they were the most 
 prominent figures in her heaven, and quite naturally, too, 
 she thought of them as she had left them. ■ The love 
 which she thus poured out ceaselessly upon these mental 
 images was thus really acting as a beneficent force 
 showered down upon the grown up men in this physical 
 world. 
 
 Along these lines only is conscious communication pos- 
 sible between those still imprisoned in the physical body 
 and those who have passed into this celestial realm. A 
 soul may be shining out gloriously through his image in a 
 friend's heaven life, and yet in his manifestations through 
 the physical body on earth that friend may be entirely un- 
 conscious of all this, and so may suppose himself unable 
 to communicate with his departed friend. But if that soul 
 has evolved consciousness to the point of unification and 
 can therefore use his full powers while still in the physical 
 
274 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 body, he can then realize even during this dull earthly life 
 that he still stands face to face with his friend as of yore, 
 that death has not removed the man he loved, but only 
 opened his eyes to the grander, wider life which ever lies 
 around us all. In appearance the friend would seem much 
 as he did in earth life, yet somehow strangely glorified. 
 There is a reproduction of the physical body. 
 
 The dominant characteristic of the second heaven may 
 be said to be anthropomorphic religious devotion. This 
 phase of devotion which consists essentially in the perpet- 
 ual adoration of a personal deity must be carefully distin- 
 guished from those higher forms which find their expres- 
 sion in performing some definite work for the deity's sake. 
 Some of the most characteristic examples of this plane are 
 to be found among women, who indeed form a large 
 majority of its inhabitants. A quaint and pretty example 
 of the heaven life of a child, aged seven, showed him oc- 
 cupied in reenacting in the heaven world the religious 
 stories which his Irish nurse had told him down here, and, 
 best of all, he loved to think of himself as playing with the 
 infant Jesus, helping him to make those clay sparrows which 
 the power of the Christ-child is fabled to have brought to 
 life and caused to fly. 
 
 The chief characteristic of the third heaven may be de- 
 fined as devotion, expressing itself in active work. The 
 Christian on this plane, for example, instead of merely 
 adoring his Saviour, would think of himself as going out 
 into the world to work for him. It is especially the plane 
 for the working out of great schemes and designs un- 
 realized on earth — of great organizations inspired by re- 
 ligious devotion and usually having for their purpose 
 .some philanthropic object. On this plane the higher 
 
The Spirit World 275 
 
 type of sincere and devoted missionary activity finds ex- 
 pression. 
 
 The fourth heaven is arranged into four main divisions 
 — unselfish pursuit of spiritual knowledge ; high philo- 
 sophic or scientific thought ; literary or artistic ability exer- 
 cised for unselfish purposes, and service for the sake of 
 service. We find here many of those noble and unselfish 
 thinkers who seek insight and knowledge only for the pur- 
 pose of enlightening and helping their fellows. 
 / Here we find all our greatest musicians ; Mozart, Bee- 
 thoven, Bach, Wagner, and many others are still flooding 
 the heaven world with harmony far more glorious even 
 than the grandest which they were able to produce when 
 on earth. It seems as if a great stream of divine music 
 poured into them from higher regions and was specialized 
 by them and made their own to be sent forth through all 
 the planes in a great tide of melody which adds to the bliss 
 of all around. 
 
 V Those who are functioning in full consciousness in the 
 heaven w^orld will clearly hear and fully appreciate this 
 magnificent outpouring. 
 
 Here also was one of earth's failures — for the tragedies 
 of earth-life leave strange marks even in heavenly places. 
 In the world where all thoughts of loved ones smile upon 
 man as friends he was thinking of writing a great book 
 and for the sake of it had refused to use his literary power 
 in making mere sustenance from paltry hack work ; but 
 none would look at his book, and he walked the streets de- 
 spairing, till sorrow and starvation closed his eyes to earth. 
 He had been lonely all his life — in his youth friendless and 
 shut out from family ties, and in his manhood unable to 
 work only in his own way, pushing aside hands that would 
 
276 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 have led him to a wider view of life's possibilities than the 
 earthly paradise he longed to make for all. Now, as he 
 thought and wrote, though there were none whom he had 
 loved as personal or ideal helpers who could make part of 
 this, his mental life, he saw stretching before him the 
 Utopia of which he had dreamed, for which he had tried 
 to live, and the vast thronging impersonal multitudes whom 
 he had longed to serve ; and the joy of their joy surged 
 back on him and made his solitude a heaven. When he is 
 born again on earth he surely will return with power to 
 achieve as well as to plan, and this celestial vision will be 
 partially bodied forth in happier terrene lives. 
 
 Is it contended that in heaven we make our own sur- 
 roundings and for that reason see only a part of heaven ? 
 Surely down here also the world of which a person is sen- 
 sible is never the whole of the outer world but only so 
 much of it as his senses, intellect, education, enable him to 
 take in. What does he know as a rule even of the more 
 recondite physical facts which surround him and meet him 
 at every step he takes? The truth is that here as in 
 heaven life he lives in a world which is largely of his own 
 creation. He does not realize it either there or here, but 
 that is only because of his ignorance, because he knows no 
 better. 
 
 Is it said that in the heaven world a man takes his 
 thoughts for real things ? He is quite right ; they are real 
 things and on the thought plane, nothing but thought can 
 be real. There we recognize that great fact ; here we do 
 not ; on which plane, then, is the delusion the greater ? 
 Those thoughts of his are indeed realities, and are capable 
 of producing the most striking results upon living men — 
 results which can never be other than beneficial because 
 
The Spirit World 277 
 
 upon that high plane there can be none but loving thought. 
 Thus it will be seen that the theory that the heaven life is 
 an illusion is merely the result of a misconception and 
 shows imperfect acquaintance with its conditions and pos- 
 sibilities ; the truth is that the higher we rise the nearer we 
 draw to the one reality. 
 
 The fifth heaven is the true home of the soul and by far 
 the most populous of all the heavens. Here are present 
 almost all the 60,000,000,000 souls who are said to be en- 
 gaged in the present human evolution — all, in fact, except 
 the comparatively small number who, by their purity and 
 knowledge, are able to pass into higher heavens. It is the 
 true home of the souls of nearly all mankind, and here 
 lives the soul while the lower mind and body dwell in the 
 coarser physical and astral worlds. 
 
 Souls connected with a physical body are distinguishable 
 from those enjoying the disembodied state by a difference in 
 the vibrations set up on the surface of the globes ; it is 
 therefore easy on this plane to see at a glance whether an 
 individual is or is not in incarnation at the time. The im- 
 ( mense majority, whether in or out of the body, are but 
 /dreamily semi-conscious ; (those who are fully awake are 
 radiant exceptions standing out amid the less briUiant 
 crowds like stars of the first magnitude, and between these 
 and the least developed are ranged every variety of size 
 and beauty of color, each representing the exact stage of 
 evolution at which he has arrived. 
 
 ^ Passing from the fifth to the sixth heaven is like going 
 from a great city to a peaceful countryside ; for at the pres- 
 ent stage of evolution only a small minority of individuals 
 have risen to this loftier level, where even the least ad- 
 vanced is definitely self-conscious and also conscious of his 
 
278 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 surroundings. The soul on this level is aware of the pur- 
 pose and method of evolution ; he knows that he is en- 
 gaged in a work of self-development, and recognizes the 
 stages of physical and post-mortem life through which he 
 passes in his lower vehicles. The personality with which 
 he is connected is seen as a part of himself, and he en- 
 deavors to guide it, using his knowledge of the past as a 
 storehouse of experience from which he formulates princi- 
 ples of conduct, clear and immutable convictions of right 
 and wrong. These he sends down into his lower mind, 
 superintending and guiding its activities. 
 
 The seventh heaven, the most glorious level of the men- 
 tal world, has but few denizens as yet from our humanity, 
 for on its heights dwell none but " Masters of Compassion 
 and Wisdom ' ' and their initiated pupils. Of the beauty of 
 form and color and sound no words can speak, for mortal 
 language has no terms in which these radiant splendors may 
 find expression. Enough that they are, and that some of 
 our race are wearing them, the earnest of what others shall 
 be, the fruition of which the seed was sown on lowlier 
 planes. 
 
 From this highest heaven come down most of the in- 
 fluences poured out by the Masters of Compassion as they 
 work for the evolution of the human race, acting directly 
 on the souls of men, shedding on them inspiring influences 
 and energies which stimulate spiritual growth, which en- 
 lighten the intellect, and purify the emotions. Hence 
 genius receives its illuminations ; here all upward efforts 
 find their guidance. 
 
 As the sun's rays fall everywhere from one centre and 
 each body that receives them uses them after its nature, so 
 from the Elder Brothers of the race fall on souls the light 
 
The Spirit World 279 
 
 and life which it is their function to dispense, and each 
 uses as much as it can assimilate and thereby grows and 
 evolves. Thus, as everywhere else, the highest glory of 
 the heavenly world is found in the glory of service. They 
 who have accomplished their mental evolution are foun- 
 tains from which flow strength for those who are still climb- 
 ing. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 TELEPATHY AND CLAIRVOYANCE 
 
 There are few thinkers and still fewer experimentalists 
 in the field of psychical research who are ready to draw 
 a hard and fast line between one phase of psychical 
 phenomena and another, for so closely interblended are 
 various phases of psychical activity that it seems practic- 
 ally impossible to separate them, so persistently coex- 
 istent even through distinct are they. As Telepathy 
 means feeling at a distance, and Clairvoyance means clear 
 sight, we may not incorrectly add that one of the principal 
 meanings of Clairvoyance is seeing at a distance, a dis- 
 tance so much greater than ordinary as to make its range 
 of vision appear decidedly peculiar. In cases of simple 
 Telepathy the general inference is that a message is 
 distinctly conveyed from one place to another, and from 
 one person to another, by some far subtler agent than is 
 recognized in the ordinary affairs of common Hfe. AVhen 
 the factor of Clairvoyance enters, the phenomena be- 
 comes complicated, demands further investigation and 
 presents a far more intricate problem for solution. It is 
 sufficiently marvelous for most people to be told that a 
 person, a thousand or more miles distant, can transmit his 
 thought accurately, causing you to understand his mean- 
 ing as though he were actually by your side physically and 
 conversing with you face to face, but as in the case of our 
 own experiences, with Lady Caithness and others, vision as 
 well as feeling, and mental perception have to be taken 
 
 280 
 
Telepathy and Clairvoyance 281 
 
 into account. Though such experiences have been 
 designated telepathic, they include additional evidence in 
 support of Clairvoyance. G. F. C. Grumbine in his 
 book entitled ''Clairvoyance," includes under that single 
 heading almost all that we are accustomed to refer to as 
 illumination, insight, intuition, etc. The use of the word 
 '' Clairvoyance "in so broad a sense is probably no viola- 
 tion of etymology, as clear vision is certainly the bulwark 
 of every seer or seeress, and those titles were continually 
 applied to prophets and prophetesses in days of old, as the 
 Bible abundantly testifies. The chief difficulty en- 
 countered in any endeavor to demonstrate telepathic com- 
 munion is the obtuseness of many people to psychic im- 
 pressions when the limitation is not found on the side of 
 the would-be transmitter of information psychically. 
 Concentration of thought and of gaze are very closely 
 allied ; the former is the great essential to success in 
 Telepathy, the latter is equally necessary for the culture 
 of Clairvoyance. 
 
 The successful telepathist is one who can and does 
 definitely fix his mind on one object to the exclusion of all 
 others ; he has acquired the excellent all-important habit 
 of thinking of just one thing at a time, never permitting 
 two thoughts to become entangled. The seer or clairvoy- 
 ant is one who as resolutely gazes upon one thing at a 
 time, never allowing his vision to be confused, or his 
 attention distracted, no matter how great the provocation 
 or temptation to eye-wandering may be. Though there 
 certainly are authentic instances on record of children 
 whose Clairvoyance has been wonderful, though they 
 have undergone no training whatever, these little ones 
 Seem not to be subject to the need of those mental ex- 
 
282 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 ercises which the majority of adults find necessary, first 
 to get them out of bad habits and then to get them into 
 good ones. In the case of the remarkable children we 
 refer to, there are no obstacles to be overcome and they 
 are by nature of a quiet contemplative turn of mind or 
 else so extremely alert that we may safely decide that their 
 extremely transparent mental organization furnishes ex- 
 actly the instrument needed for demonstrating to less 
 enlightened people the reality of a spiritual universe. 
 Grown people are for the most part anxious and fussy, and 
 to the extent that they have allowed themselves to become 
 apprehensive or careworn they have unconsciously built a 
 wall or barrier around them psychically, so that they have 
 become opaque or obtuse instead of transparent or diaph- 
 anous as to their auric envelope. Theosophists dwell 
 much upon auras and a consideration of what affects the 
 human aura is always an important study. The aura of a 
 human being resembles closely the atmosphere of a planet. 
 No less an astronomer than Dorman Steele undertook to 
 suggest an interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis 
 based on astronomical considerations, tending to the 
 thought that the work of the fourth creative day — viewed 
 from the terrestrial or geocentric standpoint, from which 
 the author of the Pentateuch was viewing the universe — 
 had no reference to the creation of the sun or the starry 
 hosts, but only to the clearing of the earth's atmosphere 
 to such an extent that during the fourth great geologic 
 period the sun's rays began to penetrate and dissipate the 
 dense fogs and vapors which had long encircled this 
 planet, and thus the star-bespangled firmament became 
 visible from an earthly viewpoint. Whether any of us are 
 interested or not in the essentially historical question raised 
 
Telepathy and Clairvoyance 283 
 
 by the foregoing opinion on a much disputed document, 
 the illustration serves remarkably well to enforce a true 
 and reasonable view of how the clairvoyant faculty can be 
 developed or, we may say, how it often presents itself as 
 already actively existent. 
 
 The auric belt or zone which surrounds an individual is 
 dense or bright in proportion to the mental clearness or 
 fogginess of the one who generates the aura. People who 
 live mentally in the cellars of their nature, never rising in 
 thought above the contemplation of material foibles may 
 develop a very crude sort of clairvoyance, scarcely worthy 
 of so dignified a name, but the higher and distinctly en- 
 nobling aspects of the faculty are entirely beyond them, 
 beyond their experience because far above their interest. 
 Clairvoyance is by no means an unmixed blessing though 
 it is capable of being so used as to prove always and only 
 an advantage to its possessor and to all who are privileged 
 to share in its revelations. The wise prophets of ancient 
 Israel, who were themselves seers of the highest rank, 
 knew enough of Chaldean and Babylonian psychism to 
 be able to warn the people to whom they preached against 
 a misdirected agent, which because of misdirection oc- 
 casioned untold and inestimable misery. 
 
 Narrow, prejudiced commentators are very apt to exercise 
 no discrimination whatever when expounding the letter 
 of biblical text, but thoughtful unbiased students never 
 fall into the error of supposing that invectives hurled against 
 witchcraft and necromancy had any reference to simple 
 and profitable Clairvoyance. Every great and accepted 
 prophet has been renowned as a clairvoyant, but when 
 unscrupulous people desecrated a noble faculty, not only 
 for money, but to serve the ends of malice, there arose an 
 
284 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 outcry against the very gift itself which had been thus 
 prostituted. It was nothing but shameless sensuality, often 
 of the most revolting types, which drove many well-mean- 
 ing teachers to proclaim asceticism as the highest good ; 
 in like manner abuse of psychic endowments has led to a 
 blind, ignorant terror-stricken denunciation of those noble 
 and beneficent psychic endowments which have ever 
 characterized by their high presence the greatest moral 
 teachers of our race. 
 
 Sir Wm. Crookes, one of England's most illustrious 
 scientific men, has on several occasions given publicity to 
 his theory of brain-waves and to a kindred conception of 
 an ether-substance, along which intelligence can be trans- 
 mitted at an almost incalculable rate of speed to practically 
 interminable distances. The sensitive man or animal who 
 can feel the quivering or vibrating of this ether is 
 " mediumistic" to an unusual extent in the estimation of 
 investigators in the psychic field who are not personally so 
 susceptible to impressions. 
 
 Animal worship as indulged in by the ancient Egyptians 
 and many other historic peoples is largely to be explained 
 on the basis of their great admiration for psychic demon- 
 strations and their wish to unfold psychically themselves. 
 Witnessing the extraordinary sensitiveness of dogs, cats 
 and other familiar animals they supposed these creatures 
 to be in close and favored communion with divinities with 
 whom they hoped to curry favor by showing honor to the 
 animals who were the recipients of their singular esteem. 
 It is well worth any student's while to read such portions 
 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead as have been translated 
 into English for the sake of understanding the probable 
 origin and certain animus of several peculiar religious cults 
 
Telepathy and Clairvoyance 285 
 
 which are attracting great attention now that the world 
 seems on the lookout for a new religion, and while search- 
 ing for an acceptable one is devoting much time and 
 thought to a reexamination of the oldest as well as the 
 youngest which can be offered for contemplation. A 
 study of animal life is always entertaining and instruct- 
 ive, and as in some directions certain animals excel 
 us in our present stage of development, we should not be 
 too proud to observe our four-footed companions with a 
 view to learning all they are able to suggest to us. It is 
 noticeable everywhere that those animals which display 
 the most remarkable sagacity, evince ability to discover 
 lost children, and render other services of priceless value, 
 are very thorough in all they undertake and enter into 
 whatever they do with zest and earnestness. They take a 
 great interest in life; they are thoroughly on the alert 
 when anything is going on which in any way interests 
 them, and at the same time they are fond of periodic ease 
 and can be just as lazy when they are resting as they are 
 active when engaged in some pursuit. An excellent rule 
 for everybody is : Do whatever you do with all your 
 heart ; throw yourself unreservedly into all your under- 
 takings one after the other ; make yourselves completely 
 at home, wherever you may be at present. When you eat 
 enjoy your food thoroughly, cultivate a due appreciation 
 of the pleasures of the table, give the organ of alimentive- 
 ness an opportunity to expand normally ; then when a 
 meal is over go to your business or study, whatever that 
 may be, and throw your whole energy and interest into 
 the work in which you are then engaging. AVhen you re- 
 tire for the night, give yourself up wholly to sleep ; ap- 
 preciate the boon of slumber, never permit yourself to 
 
286 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 think contemptuously of repose or wish it were un- 
 necessary. Such brief, concise directions as the foregoing 
 must be mastered and lived up to before any one is found 
 ready to normally or healthfully pursue the path of 
 psychical ascension into the upper realms where Clairvoy- 
 ance is as normal as our ordinary lesser sight, common to 
 every-day people, is normal on its lower plane of expres- 
 sion. Saul was sent to seek his father's asses which had 
 strayed ; Samuel set Saul's mind at rest, through Clairvoy- 
 ance, concerning the asses and then immediately proceeded 
 to unfold matters of immeasurably higher moment than 
 the whereabouts of a few donkeys. Clairvoyance includes 
 the lower as it rises to embrace the higher. It is doubtful 
 whether public professional clairvoyants are generally ac- 
 curate in their visions, not because they are other than 
 honest men and women, but by reason of the impossibility 
 of complying with necessary conditions in the surround- 
 ings in which most of them live and work. There may be 
 a few people in every community who have arrived so 
 near to the stage of adepts that they can afford to snap 
 their fingers at such conditions as most sensitives find 
 necessary for the exercise of their gift, and should we 
 encounter one of these exceptionally developed people we 
 should no doubt be greatly astonished at the revelation 
 made to us in a surrounding apparently incompatible with 
 the exercise of lucidity. When, however, the clairvoyant 
 is only a tyro it is highly essential that the mental as well 
 as the physical atmosphere during a '* sitting " should be 
 held as quiet as possible. Mental pictures are often 
 projected on the screen of ether which we ordinarily speak 
 of simply as the air of the room. The atmosphere is like 
 the screen at a stereopticon exhibition and must be held 
 
Telepathy and Clairvoyance 287 
 
 steady if the pictures displayed upon it are to appear with 
 sufficient distinctness to make the exhibition a success. 
 Crystal-gazing, or even looking quietly into a glass of clear 
 water, is an introductory help to many embryo sensitives. 
 Any practice, indeed, which serves to induce comfortable 
 passivity of mind and body is favorable to the display of 
 Clairvoyance, but by passivity we do not mean what a 
 great many people suppose is intended by that much 
 abused word. Activity of desire and expectancy must 
 precede passivity in action. There must be an end or 
 object in view or there is little reason in the attitude of the 
 clairvoyant. It is not usually very profitable to simply sit 
 gazing into vacancy, ready to see anything which may 
 present itself in a crystal ; there should certainly be some 
 definite end in view or object to be gained if the exercise 
 is likely to prove profitable in any determinable direction. 
 There are a great many things we wish to know which 
 transcend the scope of material discovery, and if our 
 quest for this additional knowledge is legitimate it is 
 perfectly reasonable to believe that we are endowed with 
 some means or faculty whereby we can make these dis- 
 coveries. Once let the idea of Clairvoyance be brought 
 down from the clouds of mysticism in which it has so 
 long dwelt and psychical investigation will be so far 
 simplified and rationalized that the exercise of Clairvoy- 
 ance will be as natural and regular as the employment of 
 physical eyesight. Cleared or clarified vision is necessarily 
 extended vision and the thought of extension applies 
 quite as much to insight as to farsight or foresight. 
 Science is now rapidly demonstrating the presence of 
 myriads of objects unseen by the average eye yet capable 
 of being discerned with the aid of a microscope and often 
 
288 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 photographed without the employment of other or more 
 deUcate apparatus than that in constant use among 
 photographers. If a clairvoyant says, "I see a form or 
 object beside you which you do not see because you are 
 not equal to discerning it," there is nothing more wonder- 
 ful in that augmented vision of the human seer than in 
 the proof afforded by photography or microscopy of the' 
 presence of the same objects. The present age is happily 
 one in which man is coming to believe in himself as well 
 as in something external to himself and in consequence of 
 this ever enlarging view of man universally the old glamour 
 of supernaturalism is waning, while a lawful recognition 
 of psychic phenomena is gaining ground continually. 
 Culture of the psychic faculty is not so difficult, neither 
 is it so very easy, as some suppose. It requires persistent 
 attention rather than laborious effort just as the close 
 attention we pay to anything often rewards us far more 
 than toilsome attempts to force ourselves to acquire knowl- 
 edge. Night and darkness have been frequently associated 
 with Clairvoyance, because night and shade do not afford 
 opportunity or invitation to excessive physical exercise and 
 we cannot as a rule do two things well at once. One by 
 one our tasks must be fulfilled ; one by one our occupations 
 must be dealt with, and as it seems impossible to be awake 
 and asleep at the same instant, so does it seem almost 
 incredible that we can be seriously occupied with ma- 
 terial cares and at the same time keenly alive to what lies 
 beyond external ken. Another consideration of the means 
 whereby Clairvoyance can be developed, occurs to us as 
 we call to mind a narrative concerning some good people 
 on the Pacific coast to whom the Klondike excitement 
 brought spiritual development. 
 
Telepathy and Clairvoyance 289 
 
 A happily married couple who had long been interested 
 in psychical matters, but had registered no personal evi- 
 dence of their own susceptibility to unseen influences, 
 were for several months completely separated in body as 
 the husband went to Alaska and the wife remained in 
 Seattle with her mother. When the man had reached the 
 gold fields he could not communicate with his wife in any 
 material way as neither telegraph, telephone nor post-office 
 was available, and though he had no cause to be anxious 
 on her account, as she was a healthy woman living at 
 home in a comfortable house among friends, she was 
 greatly concerned for his welfare as many alarming ac- 
 counts of the dangers and sufferings of miners in a district 
 near where she believed her husband to be working had 
 reached her ears. Determined to put to a practical test 
 the statement often made to her by "sensitives" of her 
 acquaintance, that she was an excellent clairvoyant po- 
 tentially though actually she had never cultivated her en- 
 dowment, she resolved upon devoting some time late every 
 evening just before retiring for the night to the liberation 
 of her psychic faculty. For three or four nights she sat 
 quietly in an easy chair in her sleeping room for over an 
 hour but received no evidence of seership. However be- 
 fore a week was over she felt herself capable of discerning 
 the dim outlines of a mining camp, and shortly the form 
 of her husband distinctly appeared to her. Describing 
 her experiences to friends (she was always willing to re- 
 late them), she declared many times in the most positive 
 terms that she had no sensation at all akin to traveling in 
 an ''astral body" or of being transported through space; 
 on the contrary she felt thoroughly at home in her own 
 organism, but her vision pierced all intervening space and 
 
290 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Alaska was as near as an adjoining dressing-room. When 
 her husband returned well and strong and with a larger 
 pile of treasure than many miners brought with them, he 
 was, to use his own words, " literally dumbfounded " with 
 the contents of his wife's diary which she had kept faith- 
 fully and which contained minute records of his own ex- 
 periences in Alaska while she was in Seattle, and the 
 most satisfying and at the same time amazing portions of 
 her entries were thoughts of his which had clearly amounted 
 to perfect mental messages. 
 
 After closely inspecting the diary and noting the dates 
 of the different entries he discovered ,that whenever he 
 had particularly wished to communicate some piece of in- 
 formation to his wife to ease her mind concerning his 
 health and safety she had received a specially clear and 
 strong picture of himself and of his whereabouts, while at 
 other times when he had been thinking less intently of his 
 home and its inmates her sight of him and his surround- 
 ings had been far less distinct. Evidences are everywhere 
 multiplying which go far to prove that even so wildly 
 romantic a tale as George du Maurier's " Peter Ibbettson " 
 may have been built on actual fact, for it does occur that 
 when two people are devotedly attached to each other and 
 circumstances hold their bodies rigidly apart, the soul- 
 sense we may well call Clairvoyance, in company with a 
 train of kindred senses beyond our common ken, assert 
 themselves right vigorously and afford a present day ex- 
 planation of the telling words of Lovelace, '' Stone walls 
 do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage." 
 
 We are now on the very verge of Spiritualism proper 
 and we have only to say that though a mass of error has 
 been mixed up with its history during the past half century 
 
Telepathy and Clairvoyance 291 
 
 and more, there is so much of truth in it as a demonstra- 
 ble philosophy that through the steady and rapid advance 
 of scientific study of all psychic problems now in progress, 
 there are arising new and noble phases of mediumship 
 convincing the inquiring multitude that physical dissolu- 
 tion is in no sense death in the old blind barbaric meaning 
 attached to that ancient word. We are here and now 
 spiritual beings and we remain such hereafter. " Death 
 hath no power to part the fond, they are together still," is 
 a perfectly true statement, and equally true is it that no 
 possible terrestrial barriers can separate effectually those 
 who are truly linked in the bonds of sincere affection, and 
 are therefore united one to the other in spiritual ways, 
 which earthly changes can never have power to rupture. 
 There are other aspects of clairvoyance apart from those 
 we have been touching upon, which are less easily dealt 
 with, because they are often mistaken for something they 
 certainly are not. We allude to the sight of what are often 
 termed ''astral pictures " which inexperienced sensitives 
 cannot very readily explain, but which deeper students of 
 clairvoyance find no difficulty in accounting for. Nothing 
 can be more unreasonable and unkind than stamping with 
 the brand of falsehood visions which we have not yet 
 learned to interpret scientifically. Clairvoyants often 
 claim to know nothing of the real nature of what they see, 
 consequently they are not justly chargeable with even 
 making mistakes if they describe scenes which seem to us 
 incongruous and which we may misinterpret in our present 
 ignorance of what such visions truly signify. We are 
 often greatly pleased with descriptions of absent or de- 
 parted friends which strike us at first as extremely accu- 
 rate, but when we look more deeply into the question, we 
 
292 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 are beset with grave difficulties. A good clairvoyant once 
 gave exactly the following description of a departed brother 
 to a gentleman in London who was then beginning to seri- 
 ously investigate the claims of Spiritualism : "I see a 
 young man with you ; he is very much attached to you, 
 and is constantly with you ; he appears about twenty-eight 
 years of age, certainly not over thirty ; he is dressed in a 
 gray tweed suit with a blue cravat ; his hair is light brown, 
 rather thin and parted in the middle ; he has a moustache 
 but no beard or whiskers." The gentleman in question 
 went to another clairvoyant in another part of London two 
 or three days later, and received an almost identical 
 description which he declares answers exactly to the ap- 
 pearance of his younger brother who passed away quite 
 suddenly while on a summer tour in Norway rather less 
 than two years previously. The facts in the case are, that 
 these two young men were greatly attached to each other 
 and that the survivor keeps in his room on the mantelpiece 
 a picture of his departed brother very differently dressed, so 
 that had either clairvoyant seen the photograph she would 
 have described a black suit and a white necktie. When 
 the surviving brother last saw the one who has passed 
 over, that young man was attired exactly as the two clair- 
 voyants have described, but no material portrait has been 
 taken of him in that dress. Now comes in the investi- 
 gator's difficulty. Do we on passing into spirit life (he 
 inquires) permanently retain the exact appearance, even 
 to details of apparel, which we presented just before leav- 
 ing the mortal frame, and if not why are we told that our 
 friends present just such appearances? There are but two 
 rational answers to this most natural question, and they 
 are as follows: i. Many clairvoyants see into our sur- 
 
Telepathy and Clairvoyance 293 
 
 rounding aura and behold imprinted thereon the pictures 
 of events and circumstances which have greatly impressed 
 us and which we carry about with us quite unknowingly, 
 it may be, as a relatively permanent portion of the contents 
 of our psychic picture gallery. 2. Our friends in spirit- 
 life when seeking to make known to us the reality of their 
 continued interest in us and in our welfare, often show 
 themselves to clairvoyant vision in a manner most sure to 
 strike us with a conviction of their identity. In the former 
 instance we are very unlikely to receive any definite in- 
 formation and are apt to feel perplexed and saddened be- 
 cause, though our friends are thus accurately described as 
 being with us, we never seem to derive a glimmer of in- 
 telligence as to their condition or to enjoy any comforting 
 assurance that they are truly in communion with us. In 
 the latter instance we invariably either receive some char- 
 acteristic message, or we feel in some subtle spiritual way 
 that we are truly in communion with one whom we love 
 and by whom we are loved. All phases of psychic phe- 
 nomena are now being considered both critically and sym- 
 pathetically by large numbers of intelligent people to an 
 extent utterly unprecedented in comparatively recent times, 
 and as it is always desirable to be cautious ere we admit too 
 much, though we should be ever ready to accept the logic 
 of evidence from whatever direction it may come without 
 the slightest prejudice, we feel properly thankful for all 
 attempted definitions of so wonderful and far-reaching a 
 faculty as clairvoyance which help in any way to afford a 
 basis for a rational interpretation of its true nature. The 
 public is indebted to that fascinating author, C. W. Lead- 
 beater, for the following summarization of Clairvoyance 
 which we quote from his very popular work, '' Man Visi- 
 
294 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 ble and Invisible," the sub-title of which is " Examples of 
 Different Types of Men as Seen by Means of Trained Clair- 
 voyance." Chapter three, entitled ''Clairvoyant Sight," 
 ends with these words, — " The clairvoyant is simply a man 
 \who develops within himself the power to respond to an- 
 j other octave out of the stupendous gamut of possible vibra- 
 Itions, and so enables himself to see more of the world 
 around him than those of more limited perception." That 
 ' statement surely applies with equal force to the telepathist 
 who feels rather than sees, and to the clairaudient also 
 whose especial sensitiveness is in the field of hearing. In- 
 creased sensitiveness is the key to the mystery in all cases 
 and this can be successfully induced by living a quiet, 
 wholesome life, free from undue excitement, subsisting 
 upon simple nutritious food, taking a good amount of out- 
 door exercise, and above all by determining to live a life 
 of untarnished truthfulness, so that the "auric envelope " 
 may be kept unsullied as a reflecting medium. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 SPIRITUALISM IN ALL LANDS AND TIMES 
 
 Selected from the Writings of Dr. J. M. Peebles. 
 
 " I exist as I am, that is enough. 
 If no other in the world be aware, I sit content. 
 And if each and all be aware, I sit content." 
 
 —Walt Whitman. 
 
 Consciously do I feel that this life, with all its 
 shadows and struggles, is really worth the living. And 
 such, I think, is the general testimony of human experience. 
 During many wanderings in savage, semi-civilized, and 
 enlightened lands, I have seen a thousand smiles for a single 
 tear, and I have heard ten thousand merry peals of 
 laughter for a single groan of suffering. Surely, God is 
 good. 
 
 But if death, as the atheist contends, "ends all," then 
 this life is a little more than a tempest-tossed, tantalizing 
 dream. If men rich in possibilities become, in dying, 
 only dust and drifting gases, then hope, sympathy, aspi- 
 ration for immortality, and all the soul's transcendent attri- 
 butes, are nothing but heartless, pitiless mockeries. 
 
 This world is of very little importance unless there is 
 another and a higher with equal opportunities and vastly 
 better facilities for unfoldment ; another world or worlds 
 to look forward to in the future. And the word " future " 
 implies faith. '-' The inspired soul feeds in a measure upon 
 faith. It is faith in Infinite W^isdom, in Nature's laws and 
 faith in man, that moves tlie wheels of enterprise. And 
 
 295 
 
2g6 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 it is faith in a future existence that, during all the ancient 
 ages, gave energy and public spirit to earth's teeming 
 millions. 
 
 Navigators sailing, Columbus-like, under the inspiration 
 of a lofty faith, have discovered new islands and continents. 
 Hardy toilers plow and sow and plant in a trusting faith 
 that the sun will shine and the harvests come in due season. 
 Tradesmen transact business with a confiding faith in 
 their fellow-men. Faith is an all-inspiring force in the in- 
 ternational relations of foreign commerce and in all the 
 higher walks of social and intellectual life. Faith in the 
 great, throbbing heart of humanity is sublime, and faith in 
 God — the tender, loving, ''Our Father who art in 
 heaven," — is the divinest, most restful, satisfying emotion 
 of the human soul. 
 
 But man cannot live by faith alone any more than by 
 bread alone. Faith, while the substance of things hoped 
 for, looks towards the mountain top of the ideal and cries 
 for light — more light. " Add," said the apostle, " to your 
 faith knowledge." This he himself personally did, ex- 
 claiming, "For we know that if this our earthly house were 
 dissolved, we have a house not made with hands eternal in 
 the heavens." With the true Spiritualist, as with the 
 great apostle, faith buds and blossoms, and has its fruition 
 in the absolute knowledge of a future conscious existence. 
 
 How did Paul know of '' a house not made with hands 
 eternal in the heavens," or of those higher spheres of im- 
 mortality ? (He knew because he had visions ; because he 
 was caught up to the third heaven, and because, when en- 
 tranced, he heard a voice — a spirit — speaking to him out of 
 the unseen. In brief, he knew of a future existence in the 
 heavens because he was a Spiritualist — a spiritualistic me- 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 297 
 
 dium. The disciples were all mediums. That is the 
 reason why Jesus selected them. His clairvoyant eye saw 
 in them the outputting potencies of marvelous spiritual gifts. 
 This period in Jewish history was the opening of a new 
 cycle — a new and more spiritual dispensation. 
 
 " God sends his teachers unto every age, 
 To every clime and race of men." 
 
 Spiritualism, in some form, has obtained through all the 
 ages and among all races. When a maiden died among 
 the Senecas of the North American Indians, the heart- 
 stricken mourners imprisoned a young bird until it began 
 to sing ; then, loading it with caresses and loving messages, 
 they released it over the maiden's grave, bidding it not to 
 fold its wings nor close its eyes until it had reached '' the 
 happy hunting grounds" of heaven; and then, feasting in 
 silence under some mossy rock or moaning pine for three 
 days, these sad-hearted Indians expected responses from the 
 loved one by dreams or visions or in the low murmuring 
 songs of the night-bird of the forest. 
 
 If Spiritualism means simply converse with departed 
 mortals, then it is as ancient as remotest antiquity. Pro- 
 fessor Boscowen, the noted archaeologist, says in his 
 "Records of the Monuments": ''In dream and visions 
 the primitive Akkadians no doubt saw, as they declared, 
 the shadowy forms of departed human beings, which led 
 them to regard them not as simply vanished, but still ex- 
 isting as shades in some dark, far distant, subterranean 
 place." He further adds : "The inscriptions, as early as 
 B. c. 3800, on the tablets show belief in ghosts and a wor- 
 ship of a ghost god, ancestral ghosts, the nisi, or spirits, the 
 anunas, the friends they once knew, sitting upon their 
 
298 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 thrones as master spirits, or traversing the vaporour, 
 underworld, hailing each newcomer with the cry, *' Didst 
 thou become weak as we, and dost thou realize life as now 
 do we? Welcome — welcome to our abodes." This is 
 almost the exact phraseology of one of the lately discov- 
 ered Babylonian tablets. 
 
 I repeat, if Spiritualism means simply belief in converse 
 with departed mortals, then India's throbbing three hun- 
 dred millions of to-day are Spiritualists. /Their whole re- 
 ligious literature abounds in communications with gods, de- 
 vas and pitris — their departed ancestors. These latter they 
 propitiate. Every household has its familiars. The vo- 
 luminous Sanskrit manuscripts, the Vedas and the Upan- 
 ishads, frequently mention the Bhutas, Pritas, and Pisachas 
 — especially the Pritas — as familiar ancestral spirits. Their 
 sacred books describe their abodes, their obsessing in- 
 fluences, their general characteristics, and how to avert 
 their control by mantras and invocations. 
 
 During my several visits to India, I never conversed 
 with an intelligent Hindoo Pundit who did not believe 
 that the invisible regions were filled with different grada- 
 tions of conscious intelligence, and that certain classes of 
 spirits had the power to communicate with and infest hu- 
 manity. They do not encourage spirit communications 
 — they fear them. I spent days in Southern India in cast- 
 ing out demons — that is, in demagnetizing the Hindoo 
 mediums who were obsessed by undeveloped spirits. 
 
 In Ancient Egypt, Spiritualism was the very foundation 
 for the national religion. Their hierophants taught the 
 initiated that the soul is immortal ; that during several 
 lives it passed through several zoether zones, all of which 
 were processes of purification. Hermes taught that the 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 299 
 
 visible is but a picture of the invisible world — that this 
 earth was surrounded by circles of ether, and that in these 
 ether circles the souls of the dead lived and guarded mor- 
 tals. Strabo states that in the temple of Serapis at Ca- 
 nopus, " great worship was performed and many miraculous 
 works wrought, which the most eminent men believed and 
 practiced, while others devoted themselves to the sacred 
 sleep ' ' that is, the unconscious trance. The consecrated 
 temple at Alexandria was still more famous for its oracles, 
 consecrated sleep, and the healing of invalids. 
 
 Berosus, in transcribing the early legends of Babylonia 
 and Chaldea, describes the gods of heaven and the lower 
 elementaries who were in sympathy with them, and often 
 influenced the inhabitants of earth both for good and ill. 
 They had magical directions for dispossessing disturbing 
 demons and for inviting the protection of the good genii 
 — in other words, the more exalted spirits. 
 
 A tablet in the library at Nineveh describes seven su- 
 preme gods, iifty great gods of heaven and earth, three 
 hundred spirits of the lower heavens, and six hundred of 
 the earth. These latter were invoked to bring messages 
 from the invisible shores of immortahty. 
 
 The master minds of Greece, such as Thales, who lived 
 some six hundred years b. c, thought that the universe 
 was peopled with daimons, who were the spiritual guides 
 of human beings and the invisible witnesses of all their 
 thoughts and actions. 
 
 Epimenides, the cotemporary of Solon, frequently re- 
 ceived divine revelations from the spiritual heavens. 
 
 Zeno declared that tutelary, or guardian, spirits inspired 
 his speech and directed his actions. 
 : Socrates was constantly attended, as every reader of 
 
300 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 .'history knows, by his demon guide, with whom he con- 
 versed, and whose advice he was proud to receive and 
 ( acknowledge. 
 
 Apuleius, the Roman historian, assured the people that 
 the souls of men, when detached from their bodies and 
 freed from their physical functions, became a species of 
 daimon, or lemurs, who gratified their beneficence in 
 watchfully guarding individuals, families, and cities. 
 
 Homer, in the twenty-third book of the Iliad, describes 
 the spirit of Patroclus as appearing to Achilles, and ad- 
 juring him to bestow the last funeral rites upon the body 
 of his friend, that he might the sooner commence his 
 spiritual advancement. 
 
 In the eleventh book of the Odyssey, Ulysses is de- 
 picted as visiting the underworld regions of the Cimmeri- 
 ans, and as conversing with the spirit of Tyresius Elpenor 
 and his own mother, from whom he received most encour- 
 aging tidings. 
 
 The poet Hesiod, whose verses were so prized by the 
 old Greeks that they committed them to memory, be- 
 Mieved that each conscious soul was a potential portion 
 (of God, the ''Oversoul." Recognizing the conscious ex- 
 / istence of these souls, or spirits, he thought they were 
 ; drawn earthward from the higher regions by the desires of 
 their friends. 
 
 Plutarch informs us that those who aspired to be brought 
 into sympathetic communion with the higher intelligences 
 of the shadowlands were expected to renounce the follies 
 of the world and to practice self-denial, and to bring the 
 lower functions and faculties of their natures into complete 
 subjection to the spiritual. 
 
 Cicero tells us that the mysteries, which were symbol- 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 301 
 
 ically allied to spiritual invisible presences, enkindled and 
 [ inspired a knowledge of the future life, and made this life 
 more pleasant by filling the mind of the dying with beauti- 
 ful ideas of cheerfulness and resignation. 
 
 Pythagoras, who visited India, Persia, and Egypt, and 
 who had been initiated into the inner court of Isis, was 
 one of the most astonishing mediums of antiquity. His 
 psychic powers were attested by Claudius ^ian. Porphyry 
 of Tyre, and Jamblichus, the Neo-Platonist. 
 
 Plato, the favorite pupil of Socrates, and prince of phi- 
 losophers, held precisely the same ideas in regard to spirits 
 and their communion with mortals as did his great teacher. 
 ^* There are," he said, " daimons, the souls of those who 
 ' have died ; and each human being has a particular spirit 
 with him, to be his tutelary and guiding genius during 
 his mortal lifetime ; and when the physical life is ended 
 this spirit receives and accompanies the enfranchised one 
 to its future destiny, the Elysian Fields of immortality. 
 
 The Old and New Testaments, the Apocrypha, and the 
 Talmudic writings — all abound, more or less, in angel 
 ministries, spirit communications, trances, visions, and 
 apparitions. 
 
 ^ Origen, a celebrated bishop, and one of the most learned 
 and illustrious that graced the early Christian centuries, 
 wrote thus in his '' De Principiis" : ''What shall we say 
 of the Diviners, from whom — by the working of those 
 spirits (demons) who have the mastery over them — an- 
 swers are given (to those who consult them) in carefully- 
 constructed verses ? Those persons, too, whom they term 
 Magi (magicians) frequently, by invoking demons over 
 boys of tender years, have made them repeat poetical 
 compositions and give poetical improvisations which were 
 
302 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 the admiration and amazement of all. Now these effects, 
 we suppose, are brought about in the following manner : 
 As holy and immaculate souls after devoting themselves to 
 God with all perfection and purity, and preserving them- 
 selves from the contagion of evil spirits, and purifying 
 themselves by long abstinence, by these means they assume 
 a portion of divinity and earn the grace of prophecy and 
 , other divine gifts. The result of this is that they are filled 
 with the working of those spirits to whose service they have 
 subjected themselves. ' ' 
 
 This erudite Christian Father, Origen, in writing against 
 his atheist antagonist, Celsus (200 a. d.), says : '' Celsus 
 has compared the miracles (spiritual manifestations) of 
 Jesus to the tricks of jugglers and the magic of Egyptians, 
 and there would indeed be a resemblance between them if 
 Jesus, like the practitioners of magic arts, had performed 
 his works only for show or worldly gain." 
 
 In his celebrated work, '' De Anima," Tertullian says : 
 *' We had a right to anticipate prophecies and the continu- 
 ance of spiritual gifts, and we are now permitted to enjoy 
 the gift of a prophetess. There is a sister among us who 
 (possesses the faculty of revelation. Commonly, during 
 religious service, she falls into a trance, holding then 
 ; communion with angels, beholding Jesus himself, hearing 
 'divine mysteries explained, reading the hearts of some 
 , persons, and administering to such as require it. When 
 /the Scriptures are read, or psalms sung, spiritual beings 
 \ minister visions to her. We were speaking of the soul 
 jonce when our sister was in the spirit (entranced), and, 
 ,the people departing, she then communicated to us what 
 (she had seen in her ecstasy, which was afterwards closely 
 inquired into and tested. She declared she *had seen a 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 303 
 
 soul in bodily shape, which appeared to be a spirit, neither 
 empty nor formless, but so real and substantial that it 
 might be touched. It was tender, shining, of the color of 
 the air, but in everything resembUng the human form.' " 
 
 For three hundred years after the apostles, visions, 
 apparitions, healing gifts and spiritual marvels abounded 
 in all Christian countries. Believers, in the name of 
 Christ, cast out demons, made the lame to walk and the 
 blind to see. And all along down the centuries to the 
 Reformation there were rifts in the clouds, lights from 
 above, and messages from the invisible world. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Church has never denied the 
 miracles — the spiritual manifestations of the ages. All 
 the religious movements of the past originated in spiritual 
 manifestations. Take as a sample, George Fox, the 
 founder of Quakerism ; Ann Lee, the founder of Shaker- 
 ism ; the Wesleys, founders of Methodism, and Sweden- 
 borg, the founder of the Swedenborgian or New Church. 
 Swedenborg held open intercourse with the spiritual world 
 during a period of twenty-seven years. The world's re- 
 ligious epoch-builders were all possessed of marvelous 
 spiritual gifts. Elder Frederick Evans, a distinguished 
 American Shaker preacher, used to often say, ''Quaker- 
 ism began in the spirit, but is ending in the flesh and in 
 the worldliness of the world." Sir James Macintosh says 
 of Fox's Journal: *'It is one of the most extraordinary 
 and instructive narratives in the world — which no reader 
 of competent judgment can peruse without revering the 
 eminent virtue of the writer." 
 
 This Journal reminds us of, and is a fitting companion 
 to, Swedenborg's Diary. The following statements are 
 condensed from it : 
 
304 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Born in July, 1624, Fox was naturally, when young, of 
 a rather grave deportment. When about nineteen he be- 
 came annoyed by the frivolous and profane conversation of 
 the young, and spending a night in prayer, he heard a 
 voice saying : ^* Thou seest how young people go together 
 in vanity and old people into their graves ; thou must for- 
 sake, be a stranger to, all, and be guided by the spirit." 
 
 Traveling to London, and listening by the way to many 
 preachers, he remarks : *' I was afraid of them, for I was 
 sensible that they did not possess what they professed." 
 After relating to the clergymen that at times he "heard 
 voices and felt the presence of spirits, ' ' one of these jolly 
 old clergymen of the Anglican Church told him to " smoke 
 tobacco and sing psalms." Another advised him to ''go 
 to a surgeon and lose some blood." Turning to the Dis- 
 senters, he " found them also blind guides." 
 
 Wandering often in quiet places ; fasting frequently with 
 Bible in hand ; meditating and battling with doubts and 
 temptations, he at last *' fell into a trance that lasted four- 
 teen days, and many who came to see him during that time 
 wondered to see his countenance so changed, for he not 
 only had the appearance of a dead man, but seemed to 
 them to be really dead. But after this his mind was re- 
 lieved of its sorrows, so that he could have wept night and 
 day with tears of joy, in humility and brokenness of heart. 
 In this state," he says, ''* I saw into that which is without 
 end, and things which cannot be uttered ; and of the 
 greatness and infiniteness of the love of God." 
 
 When at Mansfield he *Mvas struck bhnd," so that he 
 could not see, after which, he says, '*I went to a village 
 and many people accompanied me. And as I was sitting 
 in a house full of people, I cast my eyes upon a woman and 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 305 
 
 discerned in her an unclean (undeveloped) spirit. Moved 
 to speak sharply, I told her she was under the influence of 
 an unclean spirit. Having the gift of discerning spirits, I 
 many times saw the states and conditions of people, and 
 could try their spirits." 
 
 He frequently healed the sick by laying on of hands. 
 To Richard Myer, who had long had a very lame, rheu- 
 matic arm, he said: ''Stand upon thy legs and stretch 
 out thine arm." He did so, and Fox exclaimed : " Be it 
 known unto you and to all people that this day you are 
 healed." Although Macaulay sneers at Fox's casting out 
 devils and performing miracles, many remarkable cases of 
 this kind are recorded in his Journal, and were witnessed by 
 thousands of people. In his "Life Sketches" he uses 
 "Lord," "angels," and "spirits" interchangeably, as do 
 the old biblical writers. 
 
 " Coming to within a mile of Litchfield, where shepherds 
 were keeping their sheep, I was commanded," he says, "by 
 the Lord to put off my shoes. I stood still, for it was win- 
 ter, and the word of the Lord was like a fire in me. So I 
 put off my shoes and left them with the shepherds, and the 
 poor shepherds trembled and were astonished. Then I 
 walked on about a mile, and as soon as I was within the 
 city the word of the Lord came to me again, saying, 
 * Cry, Woe unto the bloody city of Litchfield ! ' So I 
 went up and down the streets, crying with a loud voice, 
 ' Woe to the bloody city of Litchfield ! ' It being market 
 day, I went into the market-place, and to and fro in the 
 several parts of it, and made stands, crying as before, 
 ' Woe to the bloody city of Litchfield ! ' And no one 
 laid hands on me ; but as I went thus crying through the 
 streets, there seemed to be a channel of blood running 
 
3o6 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 down the streets, and the market-place appeared like a 
 pool of blood. When I had declared what the spirit put 
 upon me, I felt myself clear. I went out of the town in 
 peace, and, returning to the shepherds, gave them some 
 money and took my shoes of them. 
 
 " After this a deep consideration came upon me. Why, 
 or for what reason, should I be sent against that city and 
 call it * the bloody city ' ? But afterwards I came to un- 
 derstand that in the Emperor Diocletian's time a thousand 
 Christians were martyred here in Litchfield. So I was to 
 go without my shoes, through the channel of their blood in 
 the market-place, that I might raise up the memorial of 
 the blood of those martyrs which had been shed a thousand 
 years before. The sense of their blood was upon me." 
 
 These were among the common sayings of the inspired 
 George Fox while preaching : " Verily, I heard a voice ; ' ' 
 "The spirit was upon me; " ''I saw in visions; " " The 
 prophecies were open to me." *' When, at a meeting of 
 Friends in Derby, there was such a mighty power of spirit 
 felt," says Fox, **that the people were shaken and many 
 mouths were opened to testify that the angels of God do 
 minister unto mortal men." 
 
 The original Quakers, like the post- Apostolic Christians, 
 were Spiritualists ; but our latter-day Quakers, denying or 
 deadening their spiritual gifts by selfishness and worldli- 
 ness, have crystallized, and so are a dying religious 
 sect. 
 
 In the old Wesley residence, Epworth, England, marked 
 spiritual manifestations occurred for years. An account of 
 these was written by the Rev. Mr. Hooley, of Haxey, by 
 Dr. Adam Clarke, by a writer in the Armiman Magazine 
 and others. It is pitiable that modern Methodist preachers 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 307 
 
 do not mention them as among the present demonstrations 
 of a future existence. From a large volume by John 
 Wesley, entitled "The Invisible World," pubhshed over a 
 hundred years ago, I make the following quotations : 
 
 '* It is true that the English in general indeed, most of 
 the men of learning in Europe, have given up all accounts 
 of witches and apparitions as mere old wives' fables. I am 
 sorry for it, and I willingly take this opportunity of enter- 
 ing my solemn protest against this violent compliment 
 which so many that believe the Bible pay to those who do 
 not believe it. I owe them no such service. I take 
 knowledge these are at the bottom of the outcry which has 
 been raised, and with such insolence spread throughout the 
 nation ; and in direct opposition, not only to the Bible, but 
 to the suffrage of the wisest and best of men in all ages 
 and nations. They well know (whether Christians know 
 it or not) that the giving up of witchcraft (the control of 
 undeveloped spirits) is in effect giving up the Bible. And 
 they know, on the other hand, that if but one account of 
 men with separate spirits be admitted, their whole castle in 
 the air (deism, atheism, and materialism) falls to the ground. 
 One of the capital objections to all the accounts, which I 
 have known urged over and over, is this, ' Did you ever 
 see an apparition yourself?' No, nor did I ever see a 
 murder, yet I believe there is such a thing. Yea, and in 
 one place or another murder is committed every day. 
 Therefore I cannot, as a reasonable being, deny the fact, 
 though I never saw it, and perhaps never may. The tes- 
 timony of unexceptionable witnesses fully convinces me of 
 both the one and the other." 
 
 ''Elizabeth Hobson was born in Sunderland in 1774. 
 Her father dying when she was three or four years old, her 
 
308 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 uncle, Thomas Rea, a pious man, brought her up as his 
 daughter. She was a serious child and grew up in the 
 fear of God ; yet she had a deep and sharp conviction of 
 sin until she was about sixteen years of age, when she found 
 peace with God, and from that time the whole tenor of 
 her behavior was suitable to her profession. On Wednes- 
 day, May 23d, 1788, and the three following days, I 
 talked with her at large. But it was with difficulty that I 
 could prevail upon her to speak. The substance of what 
 she said was as follows : 
 
 ''/From my childhood, when any of my neighbors 
 died, whether men, women, or children, I used to see 
 them just before, or when they died, and 1 was not at all 
 frightened, it was so common ; indeed, I did not then 
 know they were dead. I saw many of them by day and 
 many of them by night. Those that came when it was 
 dark brought light with them. I observed that little 
 children and many grown persons had a bright, glorious 
 light around them, but many had a gloomy, dismal light 
 and a dusky cloud over them.' " 
 
 ' '' Perhaps the glorified spirits of just men made perfect, 
 may, like the angels, be employed in carrying on the pur- 
 poses of God in the world. It is said of them, ' His serv- 
 ants shall serve him.' " (Heb. 22.) 
 
 ''Possibly, as ministering spirits, they may minister unto 
 the heirs of salvation, and watch over the interests of those 
 who on earth were dear to them, either by the ties of nature 
 or religion. One of them was employed to converse with 
 the Apostle John and explain to him the wonderful things 
 he saw in his visions." (Rev. 22.) 
 
 " The sentiment for which we are pleading has the sanc- 
 tion of the highest antiquity. Philo speaks of it as a re- 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 309 
 
 ceived notion of the Jews that the souls of good men offi- 
 ciate as ministering spirits. The Pagans, in the earliest 
 ages, imagined that the spirits of their deceased friends 
 continued near them, and were frequently engaged in per- 
 forming acts of kindness, hence the deification of their 
 kings and heroes, and the custom of invoking the names of 
 those who were dear to them." 
 
 '' Cicero makes a better use of the doctrine, when he 
 endeavors to comfort a father for the loss of a son by the 
 thought ithat he might still be engaged in performing kind 
 offices for him. And it is not improbable that the idea, 
 though perverted by the heathen for the purpose of idolatry, 
 might, like the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, be 
 derived from a divine source." 
 
 <'A few years ago, a gentleman of most correct char- 
 acter and serious carriage, who resided near St. James 
 and lived very happily with his wife, was taken sick and 
 died, which so effected his dear left companion that she 
 sickened also and kept her bed. 
 
 '* In about ten days after her husband's death, as she 
 was sitting upright in bed, and a friend and near rela- 
 tion sitting near her, she looked steadfastly towards the 
 foot of the bed, and said with a cheerful voice, < My dear, 
 I will be with you in two hours.' The gentlewoman 
 that was with her (and who firmly attested the same 
 as most true) said to her, ' Child, whom do you 
 speak to?' (for she saw nobody). She answered, ' It is 
 my husband, who came to call me hence, and I am going 
 to him ; ' which surprised her friend very much, who, 
 thinking she was a little light headed, called in some one 
 else, to whom she spoke very cheerfully and told the same 
 story ; but before the two hours were expired she went on 
 
310 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 and up to her dear companion, to be happy together 
 forever, to the great surprise of all present. 
 
 " The soul receives not its perfections or activity 
 from the body, but can live and act out of the body ; yea, 
 much better, having then its perfect liberty, divested 
 of that heavy incumbrance which only clogged and fet- 
 tered it. 'Doubtless,' saith Tertullian, 'when the soul 
 is separated from the body it comes out of darkness into 
 its own pure and perfect light, and quickly finds itself a 
 substantial being, able to act freely in that light and par- 
 ticipate in heavenly joys. ' ' ' 
 
 The former historical references prove that the facts 
 and the fundamental truths of Spiritualism were in re- 
 motest antiquity similar to those of to-day. And why 
 not ? — since there is but one God, one law, one Divine 
 purpose, one historical continuity, one brotherhood, *'one 
 spirit," with, as Paul says, '* a diversity of gifts." 
 
 A traveler in nearly all latitudes 'neath the northern 
 star, or summering under the Southern Cross, I have seen 
 neither races nor tribes, white, brown-skinned, or black, 
 without sympathy for their kindred — without cemeteries 
 for their dead — without altars, however rude, for their 
 worship, and without dreams, apparitions, visions, and 
 methods of some sort for communicating with the dead. 
 Uncouth, vague, if not rude and vulgar to us, they may 
 have been ; yet, they foreshadowed the soul's immortality, 
 and brought to sorrowing, trusting souls, that piece of 
 mind that passeth understanding. 
 
 These spiritual marvels, natural to the plane from 
 which they proceeded, have, through all periods of time, 
 appeared as echoing openings from the silence, as lights 
 from the inountain-tops, necessarily assuming various 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 311 
 
 forms, according to the period, the temperament, and 
 racial development of a people. They were, and are, 
 all in the line of evolution. They were, and are, God's 
 living witnesses of a future existence. To deny them, to 
 destroy them, is to plunge the world into the thickest 
 darkness of materialism. 
 
 The Spiritualism of this age was no modern in- 
 vention of either spirits or mortals, but rather a discov- 
 ery — the re-discovery, of a fact, or range of facts, in 
 perfect accord with natural law. It did not spring into 
 birth full grown, like Minerva from Jupiter's brain. It 
 was seemingly feeble at first. It is youthful yet, when 
 compared with Protestantism and its swarming sects. 
 And yet, it is a-fire with truth, and a-flame with infinite 
 possibilities. I'Atheistic materialists and sectarian priests 
 might quite as well think of dethroning Divinity as of 
 checking the onward march of Spiritualism. 
 
 Christianity started from a dream (Matt, i : 20) ; Spir- 
 itualism from a mystic rap. Angels and spirits were the 
 potent powers behind them both. The mightiest results 
 often follow from the minutest causes. Newton's falling 
 apple pointed to that hidden law that holds suns and 
 stars in their circling orbits. That little puff of steam 
 from Watts' boiling kettle foretold of railways and 
 steamers girdling the globe. How insignificant to proud, 
 imperial Rome was that Babe cradled in a Bethlehem 
 manger. And yet, there lay concealed mighty causes 
 that in less than three hundred years shook the whole 
 Roman Empire to its very foundations ; and later planted 
 the Cross, symbol of life, upon the hills and mountains 
 of every civilized land. So, those little half-muffled 
 sounds, those gentle, telegraphic tickings that came to 
 
312 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Hydesville like messengers from the tear lands of the 
 tombs, came to bring messages — messages of holiest 
 memories. This was the Epiphany, the Easter morning 
 of the thinking, stirring nineteenth century ! It was 
 the golden dawn, the opening cycle of a newer and 
 higher dispensation, ringing the death knell of a dreary 
 materialism and a creedal, soul crushing sectarianism. 
 
 In the Judsean dust-buried past, women were last at 
 the cross and first at the grave ; so, in this age, women 
 — the Fox sisters — after hearing the sounds, were the 
 first to discover the new alphabet — the first to translate 
 those rappings into intelligent language, thus cabling the 
 ocean of doubt, and bridging the chilling river of death, 
 thereby enabling mortals and immortals to stand con- 
 sciously face to face, re-clasping hands — the white hands 
 of their dead — and reaffirming their undying loves and 
 affections. As God is the soul, the spirit, interpermeating 
 all nature. Spiritualism is necessarily naturalism. Nature 
 is a divine unity. The chain of causes has no missing 
 links. Law is as continuous as it is immutable. All the 
 good of the old times remains. Principles never die; 
 and so of human beings — there are no dead. The Spir- 
 itualism of to-day has absolutely demonstrated this to be 
 a fact. Shout, then, O ye nations, the song of triumph ; 
 for Death, the King of Terrors, is conquered ! Creeds 
 are doomed. The devil of mythology is defeated, and 
 the fiery scarecrow, hell, is transfigured into lovely 
 Gehenna gardens and vineyards, where purpling grapes 
 grow in richest luxuriance just outside the walls of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 A few years since I was in the Judaea of the ancient 
 Scriptures — in old Bethlehem, near Jerusalem: and re- 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 313 
 
 cently, on March 31, 1898, I was in the new Bethlehem, 
 at Hydesville, near Rochester, N. Y. This has now be- 
 come consecrated ground — consecrated and sacred to 
 moral, mental, and spiritual science, to the brotherhood 
 of races, to the immortality of divine truth, to the match- 
 less grandeur and glories of a present angel ministry, and 
 to a sweet converse with those higher, heavenly intelli- 
 gencies that make radiant the highlands of immortality. 
 Hydesville is America's Mecca. 
 
 " The philosophy of modern Spiritualism and the phi- 
 losophy of Christianity during the first three centuries 
 are in perfect accord. Spiritualists believe in God — a 
 personal God, basing that personality, not upon form, or 
 shape, or mere avoirdupois, but upon consciousness, in- 
 telligence, will and purpose. They believe in Jesus 
 Christ, accepting Peter's definition — ** Jesus of Nazareth, 
 a man approved of God among you by wonders, and mir- 
 acles and signs, which God did by him." Jesus' sym- 
 pathetic character was certainly sweeter, diviner, than 
 that of the masses of men. Angels daily walked and 
 talked with him. Subordinating the earthly to the 
 spiritual, fraternal love with him soon bloomed out into 
 the universal. Quick to feel the sorrows of others, the 
 sensitive tendrils of his loving heart, constantly attuned 
 and tremulously responsive, vibrated to every sound 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, sav- 
 ing, love power of his soul in the redemption of the 
 erring. 
 
 Considered with reference to religious cycles, Jesus 
 stood upon the pinnacle of Hebrew Spiritualism, the great 
 
314 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Judaean Spiritualist of that era. As God is Spirit — that 
 is, the Infinite Spirit-presence acting by the law of me- 
 diation — an apostle, with a singular clearness of percep- 
 tion, pronounced the Nazarene a '' Mediator " — that is, 
 a "medium" — between God and men. The persecuted 
 and martyred mediums of one age become gods in suc- 
 ceeding ages. Such manifest the world's lack of both 
 justice and wisdom. 
 
 But if Jesus was only divine man, elder brother, 
 wherein, then, you will perhaps inquire, consisted his 
 moral superiority over others of that era ? If I rightly 
 understand his essential and peculiar characteristics, his 
 preeminent greatness consisted in his fine harmonial 
 organization ; in a constant overshadowing of angehc 
 influences ; in the depth of his spirituality and love ; in 
 the keenness of his moral perceptions ; in the expansive- 
 ness and warmth of his sympathies ; in his unshadowed 
 sincerity of heart ; in his deep schooling into the spiritual 
 gifts of Essenian circles ; in his soul-pervading spirit of 
 obedience to the mandates of right manifest in himself; 
 in his unwearied, self-forgetting, self-sacrificing devotion 
 
 /to the welfare of universal humanity, and his perfect 
 
 ' trust in God. 
 
 The leading thoughts ever burning in his being for 
 acceptance and actualization were in the divine Father- 
 
 jhood of God, the universal brotherhood of man, the per- 
 petual ministry of angels and spirits, and the absolute 
 necessity of toleration, charity, forgiveness, love — in a 
 word, good works. These, crystalizing into action as a 
 reform-force for human education and redemption, I de- 
 nominate the positive religion, and consider it perfectly 
 synonymous with Spiritualism — Spiritualism as a definition 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 315 
 
 and practical power in its best and highest estate. This 
 pure religion and undefiled, established in men's hearts 
 and lives, and not on "sacred" parchments, would soon 
 be felt in states and kingdoms, promoting peace, justice 
 and charity; rendering legal enactments wise and human- 
 itarian, and causing the sweet waters of concord and 
 good-will to flow over all the earth for the spiritual 
 healing and moral uplifting of the nations. 
 
 Few Spiritualists have yet reached the sublime altitudes 
 of that positive or universal religion whose co-assistant is 
 science, whose creed is freedom, whose psalm is love, and 
 whose only prayer is holy work for human good. The 
 best have not yet entered the vestibule of perfection. 
 The ideal stretches afar in the golden distance. That 
 there are extravagances, frauds, wild theories, and moral 
 excrescences sheltering themselves under the wide-spread 
 wing of Spiritualism, is freely admitted. This is com- 
 mon in all new movements involving the activities of the 
 emotional nature. Let only the sinless stone the erring. 
 ** Jesus," says the record, ''came into the world not to 
 condemn, but to save the world." Because the millennium 
 has not dawned during this first phenomenal cycle of 
 modern Spiritualism; because the temple with its inner 
 glories is as yet only seen in vision ; because our fondest 
 hopes are not realized, nor our lofty ideas attained, shall 
 we go back to the beggarly elements of the world, and 
 seek spiritual nourishment from rechewing old sectarian 
 husks? Only in weakness and blindness does human 
 nature seek a return to the flesh-pots of the past. If 
 Spiritualists are not free, generous, tolerant, and prosper- 
 ous ; if they are not above the level of the age in good 
 works in order and fitness, in reform effort and general 
 
3i6 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 culture ; if they are not the ready recipients of the freshest 
 fruits of science and philosophy ; if they are not full- 
 grown, harmonial men and women, the fault is not in 
 Spiritualism, but in themselves. '' Examine yourselves," 
 was a good old apostolic injunction. Spiritualism can 
 gain nothing by aping the ecclesiastical customs of other 
 denominations. Awkward combinations are ever to be 
 avoided. While it is true that master-builders are con- 
 structionists. Spiritualism must never adopt any measures 
 for cramping the unfolding intellect, nor strive to utter the 
 shibboleth of any man-made form of faith ; for, in the 
 introduction of this modern wave of Spiritualism upon 
 earth, the angels of heaven purposed the formation of 
 no new sect. Their aim, higher and holier, was to edu- 
 cate, enlighten, and spiritualize God's dear humanity. 
 
 These are among the divine enunciations of that positive 
 rehgion, based upon the immutable principles of justice, 
 goodness, and human rights : 
 
 God immanent and active in all things ; 
 
 Man above all institutions ; 
 
 The strict equality of the sexes. 
 
 *' Pure religion and undefiled before God and the 
 Father is this : to visit the fatherless and the widows 
 in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the 
 world." 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart." 
 
 ''By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, if 
 ye have loved one another." 
 
 Self-abnegation being the first law of life, the highest 
 good consists in aiding and doing good to others. 
 
 "Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 foundation of the world ; for I was an hungered and ye 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 317 
 
 gave me meat ; thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; a stran- 
 ger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me ; 
 sick, and ye visited me ; in prison, and ye came unto 
 me. . . . Inasmuch as ye have done these things to 
 the least of one of these my servants, ye have done them 
 unto me." 
 
 This is the religion of Jesus, the religion of the soul, 
 the inborn religion of all men. Its witnesses have been 
 the luminous suns and stars along the ages. When 
 J. G. Whittier, accompanied by an English philanthropist, 
 visited that eminent Unitarian, the Rev. Dr. Channing, 
 for the last time in Rhode Island, their themes of con- 
 versation were reform, progress, peace, toleration, and 
 human sympathy. Whittier, referring to it afterwards, 
 wrote these tender lines : 
 
 " No bars of sect or clime were felt — 
 
 The Babel strife of tongues had ceased — 
 And at one common altar knelt 
 The Quaker and the Priest." 
 
 Thus may, thus do, the hearts of the good and erudite 
 ever blend in union. Such fellowship constitutes heaven 
 upon earth. When the white feet of the venerable Will- 
 iam Howitt pressed the sunny slopes of the summerland, 
 the angels that make radiant the upper kingdoms of God 
 did not inquire, " Were you on earth Catholic, Protestant, 
 Spiritualist, Materialistic Spiritualist, or Christian Spirit- 
 ualist? " but ''Were you a true man, a lover of humanity, 
 and a brother of mercy ? " " Then shall the King say, 
 Come ye blessed of my Father." Love was the test of 
 discipleship in Christ's time. Purity was and is the test 
 
318 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 of heavenly acceptance in all spheres of existence. 
 Listen : 
 
 "Lovest thou me ? " 
 
 *' Love is the fulfiUing of the law." 
 
 "Love worketh no ill to its neighbor." 
 
 ** If ye love me keep my commandments." 
 
 " Not every one that saith Lord, Lord ! shall enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of 
 my Father who is in heaven." 
 
 If you cannot walk peaceably and religiously with your 
 brother, good reader, go your own way, kindly leaving 
 the road. Heaven, as London, may be reached from 
 different directions. 
 
 Made subject to vanity, experimenting and journeying 
 through the world of shadows, all need the staff of 
 prayer and the lamp of faith — need to feel that God is a 
 constant presence ; that Christ is the light of truth ; and 
 that loving angels are waiting to minister to our spiritual 
 wants. A life without love and trust, even if it be of 
 the strictest morality, or of a continual ascetic struggle 
 after Divine communion, will never bring the individual 
 really into the Inner Temple. Little children symbolize 
 the receptivities of the heavenly life. The humble heart, 
 sheltered from the storms of passion, and all vestured 
 with the fragrant blossoms of sweet human affections, is 
 often nearer in spirit to the angels than the cold 
 philosopher. Love inspires, wisdom guides, faith opens 
 the gate, and self-sacrifice leads the way into the City 
 of Peace — the City of God. Oh, come, let us worship in 
 this temple of Spiritualism — this temple of eternal religion 
 — a temple whose foundations are deep and wide as the 
 nature of man, and whose dome, reaching into the heaven 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 319 
 
 of heavens, shall shelter and overshadow the races with 
 millennial glory. 
 
 When genuine Spiritualism — the universal religion of 
 love — shadowed in twilight by Indian sages, seen in in- 
 creasing sunlight by Syrian seers, and consciously felt 
 to-day by the more highly-inspired — becomes actualized 
 in and out wrought through the personal lives of earth's 
 surging millions, it will no longer be selfishly said, 
 ''Mine, mine," but "Ours, yours, all who appropriate it 
 for holy uses." Then our country will be the universe, 
 our home the world, and our rest wherever a human 
 heart beats in sympathy with our own, and the highest 
 happiness of each will be found to consist in aiding and 
 blessing others. Then will the soil be as free for all to 
 cultivate as the air they breathe; gardens will blossom 
 and bear fruit for the most humble ; orphans will find 
 homes of tenderest sympathy in all houses ; the tanned 
 brows of toiling millions will be wreathed with the white 
 roses of peace; and the great family of humanity will be 
 obedient to and trust in love, law, liberty — God ! In 
 holiest fellowship with Jesus and the angels, with loved 
 and loving spirits, and upon the tender bosom of the 
 Infinite, is my soul's rest forever ! 
 
 / Probably the best medium that graced the nineteenth 
 century was W. Stainton Moses. Educated at Oxford, 
 and for a time connected with London University College, 
 he was a clairvoyant, trance, clairaudient, automatic- 
 writing medium. His mediumistic superiority consisted 
 largely in living a good life and adding to his medium- 
 ship culture and scholarship. He was for years editor of 
 London Light, pages of his automatic writings appearing 
 in its columns. Honored by his friendship, I take pleasure 
 
320 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 in presenting the following communications from his spirit- 
 friend " Imperator " : 
 
 "It is part of our mission to teach the religion of the 
 body as well as of the soul. We proclaim to you and to 
 all that due care of the body is an essential prerequisite 
 to the progress of the soul. Jesus was a physician to 
 both body and soul. Man has gradually built around 
 the teachings of Jesus a wall of deduction, speculation, 
 and material comment similar to that with which the 
 Pharisees had surrounded the Mosaic law. It is our 
 task to do for Christianity what Jesus did for Judaism. 
 We would take the old forms and spiritualize their mean- 
 ings and infuse into them new life. Resurrection rather 
 than abolition is what we desire. We say again that we 
 would not abolish one jot or tittle of the teachings which 
 the Christ gave to the world. We do but wipe away 
 man's material gloss and show you the hidden spiritual 
 meaning which he has missed. 
 f ''This was the mission of Christ. He claimed for 
 \ himself that fulfilment of the law, not its abolition or 
 ( abrogation, was his intent. He pointed out the truth 
 which was at the root of the Mosaic commandment. He 
 stripped off the rags of pharisaical ritual, the glosses of 
 rabbinical speculation, and laid bare the divine truth 
 which was beneath all, the grand principles divinely in- 
 spired which man has nearly buried. He was not only a 
 religious but a social reformer, and the grand business 
 of his life was to elevate the people, spirit and body ; to 
 expose pretenders, and to strip off the mask of hypocrisy ; 
 to take the foot of the despot from the neck of the 
 struggling slave, and make man free by virtue of that 
 truth which he came from God to declare. *Ye shall 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 321 
 
 know the truth,' he told his followers, 'and the truth shall 
 make you free; and ye shall be free indeed.' 
 
 " He reasoned of life and death and eternity ; of the true 
 nobility and dignity of man's nature; of the way to pro- 
 gressive knowledge of God. He came as the Great Ful- 
 filler of the law; the man who showed, as never man 
 showed before, the end for which the law was given — the 
 amelioration of humanity. He taught men to look into 
 the depths of their hearts, to test their lives, to try their 
 motives and to weigh all they did by one ascertained bal- 
 ance — the fruits of life as the test of religion. He told 
 men to be humble, merciful, truthful, pure, self-denying, 
 honest in heart and intent ; and he set before them a living 
 example of the life which he preached. 
 
 *' He was the great social reformer, whose object was at 
 least as much to benefit man corporeally, and to reveal to 
 him a salvation from bigotry, selfishness, and narrow-mind- 
 edness in this life, as it was to reveal glimpses of a better 
 life in the hereafter. He preached the religion of daily 
 life, the moral progress of the spirit in the path of daily 
 duty forward to a higher knowledge. Repentance for the 
 past, amendment and progress in the future, summed up 
 most of his teaching. He found a world buried in igno- 
 rance, at the mercy of an unscrupulous priesthood in mat- 
 ters religious ; under the absolute sway of a tryant in mat- 
 ters political. He taught liberty in both. He labored to 
 show the dignity of man. He would elevate him to the 
 true dignity of the truth — the truth which should make 
 him free. He was no respecter of persons. He chose his 
 apostles and associates from the mean and poor. He lived 
 among the common people ; of them, with them, in their 
 homes, teaching the simple lessons of truth which they 
 
322 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 needed, and which they could receive. He went but little 
 among those whose eyes were blinded by the mists of or- 
 thodoxy, respectability, or so-called human wisdom. He 
 fired the hearts of his listeners with a yearning for some- 
 thing nobler, better, higher, than they yet possessed, and 
 he told them how to get it. 
 
 " The gospel of humanity is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 It is the only gospel that man needs ; the only one that can 
 reach his wants and minister to his necessities. ' ' 
 
 We continue to preach the same evangel. By commis- 
 sion from the same God, by authority from the same source, 
 do we come now as apostles of this heaven-sent gospel. 
 We declare truths, the same as Jesus taught. We 
 preach, through this medium, his gospel, purified from the 
 glosses and misinterpretations which man has gathered 
 around it. We would spiritualize that which man has hid- 
 den under the heap of materialism. 
 
 '' I inquired," said Stainton Moses, ''whether I rightly 
 understood that the work of teaching, a section of which is 
 under the direction of Imperator, derived its mission from 
 Christ." 
 
 '* You understand aright. I have before said that I de- 
 rive my mission, and am influenced in my work, by a spirit 
 who has passed beyond the spheres of work into the higher 
 heaven of contemplation. . . . Jesus Christ is now 
 arranging his plans for the gathering of his people, for the 
 further revelation of the truth as well as for the purging 
 away of the erroneous beliefs which have accumulated in 
 the past. 
 
 "This is the second coming — a coming in power and 
 glory — a coming of ministering angels and spirits — a com- 
 ing to morally and spiritually enlighten all conscious intel- 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 323 
 
 ligenres. It is the overshadowing return of the living 
 Christ. There will be no such personal return as theolo- 
 gians have taught. This will be, and is, the spiritual re- 
 turn to his people, by the voice of his messengers speaking 
 to those whose ears are open ; even as he said, ' He that 
 hath ears to hear, let him hear ; and he that is able to re- 
 ceive it, let him receive it.' " 
 
 Spiritualism is the opposite of, and strongly antagonistic 
 to, materialism. When scientists talk of the potencies in 
 matter, of co-relations and polarities, they are talking all 
 unwittingly of spirit ; for all potency as a finality belongs 
 to the almost incomprehensible realm of Spirit, which is a 
 factor in every phenomenon of nature, and is essential to 
 the ascertainment and record of every natural law ; and the 
 knightly champions of science are just beginning to under- 
 stand it. 
 
 The Kosmos is a unity, threefold in manifestation. Sub- 
 stance is the One, the All Spirit, Soul, matter 1 We are 
 spirits now — spirits vestured in material, everchanging sub- 
 stances. We are spirits with souls vibrating in touch with 
 the Universal Soul — with Immortality. A man can no 
 more help being immortal than the buds can help unfold- 
 ing and blowing beneath spring's refreshing showers and 
 the sun's genial rays. Who that has drunk from this foun- 
 tain of eternal life — who that has held an hour's commun- 
 ion with departed loved ones does not say to the world, " I 
 am glad, oh ! so glad, that I am a Spiritualist ! " And 
 who does not say, *< Blessed, ever blessed be this divine 
 truth of Spiritualism ! " 
 
 Spiritualists ! the eyes of the civilized world and of the 
 angels above are upon you ! Conduct yourselves, then, 
 like men. So guide your barques that, though they 
 
J 
 
 324 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 flounder in the tempestuous seas of temptation, they may 
 soon right themselves for a better, safer, voyage. Live to- 
 day for to-morrow, for eternity. Be above the commission 
 of an unworthy act; indulge in no ignoble insinuations; 
 \ take no selfish advantages of the weaknesses of your fellow 
 men ; sacrifice coveted comforts for the good of others ; 
 seek no praise nor fulsome flattery ; intrigue for no office ; 
 \ partake of the bread of honest labor only ; administer re- 
 I proof in gentleness and love ; forgive as you would be for- 
 l given ; be kind to the poor, the unfortunate, the sick, the 
 dying ; live to lift them to higher planes of health and 
 happiness; live to brighten the chain of human friend- 
 ships ; live to educate mind, heart, and soul for the realiza- 
 ^ tion of a heaven on earth ; plant gardens of love in 
 y unhappy bosoms ; scatter gems of good will and roses of 
 \ kindness along your daily walks of life ; think only good 
 / thoughts, and ever welcome the angels to your hearts and 
 to your souls as the loved messengers of God. These are 
 the teachings and principles of practical Spiritualism. 
 
 The above magnificent address is presented to our 
 readers as a splendid example of the attitude taken to life 
 in general by the most widely traveled of all American 
 Spiritualists, the venerable and gracious '* Spiritual Pil- 
 grim." 
 
 During Dr. Peebles' third trip around the world, he 
 studied and noted the laws, customs and religions of 
 nations and peoples, giving special attention to Spiritual- 
 ism, Magic, Theosophy, and reform movements. He 
 visited Ceylon, India, Persia, Egypt, Syria, and the conti- 
 nent of Europe, and secured much material, which has 
 been embodied in a large octavo volume, containing thirty- 
 
Spiritualism in All Lands and Times 325 
 
 five chapters, and treating on the following subjects : 
 Home Life in California ; My third Voyage ; The Sand- 
 wich Islands ; The Pacific Island Races ; Ocean bound to- 
 wards Aukland, New Zealand, Melbourne, Australia ; From 
 New Zealand Onward ; A series of Spiritual Seances upon 
 the Ocean ; The Chinese Orient ; Chinese Religions and In- 
 stitutions ; Cochin China to Singapore ; Malacca to India ; 
 Spiritual Seances on the Indian Ocean ; India : Its History 
 and Treasures ; India's Religions, Morals, and Social 
 Characteristics; The Rise of Buddhism in India; The 
 Brahmo-Somaj and Parsees ; Spiritualism in India ; From 
 India to Arabia; Aden and the Arabs; The City of Cairo, 
 Egypt ; Egypt's Catacombs and Pyramids ; Appearance of 
 the Egyptians ; Study of the Pyramids ; Sight of the Great 
 Pyramids ; Ancient Science in Egypt ; Astronomy 
 of the Egyptians ; From Alexandria to Joppa and Jerusa- 
 lem ; the City of Joppa ; City of Prophets and Apostles ; 
 Jesus and Jerusalem ; Present Gospels ; the Christianity of 
 the Ages ; Plato and Jesus in contrast ; Turkey in Asia ; 
 Ionia and the Greeks ; Athens ; Europe and its Cities ; 
 Ceylon and its Buddhists ; the India of To-day ; Hindoo 
 Doctrines of the Dead ; the Mediterranean Sea ; Egypt 
 and Antiquity. Price, $1.50. 
 
 Dr. Peebles' address is Battle Creek, Michigan, where 
 his highly valuable works are published. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 DR. J. M. PEEBLES ON THE NATURE AND 
 PREEXISTENCE OF THE SOUL 
 
 Non Mi Ricordo, '' I do not remember." Granted — 
 but that does not disprove an eternal past existence. You 
 do not remember your past foetal life, nor your nine months 
 placenta life; nor do you remember your baby life, 
 nor your early childhood life. But this counts for noth- 
 ing against your existence during all these periods. You 
 nevertheless have access to an ample amount of evi- 
 dence that your existence traversed all these stages — 
 evidence that your personality was prior to your conscious 
 memory of it. Because this inmost spirit cannot project 
 itself through its clumsy, clayish environment into the ex- 
 ternal with sufficient vividness to remember the past and 
 express it, is no evidence that the individualized spirit did 
 not exist. Non-existence is unthinkable. And yet think- 
 ing is as natural as breathing. Only circles are endless. 
 All beginnings in time and space necessarily have their 
 endings. A creature which has its beginning in time is 
 incapable of perpetuating itself or being perpetuated through 
 eternity. A line projected from a point in space has a 
 further limit which no logic can carry to infinitude. 
 Whether or not "God geometrizes, " that cannot be mor- 
 ally and physiologically false which is mathematically true. 
 Though on different planes of thought morals and mathe- 
 matics harmonize. The universe is not a dual-verse of 
 infinite inharmonies. 
 
 326 
 
Nature and Preexistence of the Soul 327 
 
 I may here remark that two fundamental assumptions 
 lie at the threshold of man's introduction into this world. 
 The first is, that his subjective existence antedates his 
 objective appearance. That as an ego he is coexistent 
 with the universe, and participates in that universal and 
 eternal life which is perpetually manifest in the kosmos. 
 
 The second assumption, is that man as to his essential 
 form or personality is derivative ; that his earliest intro- 
 duction into the world and the universe is when he is born 
 of a physical mother ; that his conscious entity is depend- 
 ent upon and dates its beginning with the visible appear- 
 ance of the physical organism. According to this assump- 
 tion the material atoms and forces which have transiently 
 converged in the human organism, with no promise of 
 anything more than a limited persistence, were once con- 
 glomerated with the cosmic mass as a portion of its undif- 
 ferentiated substance. And this derivative hypothesis 
 further assumes that the purpose of this single birth is to 
 specialize a portion of the organizable pabulum of the 
 general kosmos into human shape, that it may manifest the 
 attributes of self- consciousness. The personality is coex- 
 istent with this body organism, commenced its existence 
 with it, and must have its share in its vicissitudes and final 
 destruction. Is it surprising that such a materialistic 
 philosophy should yield its abundant crop of atheists ? 
 
 With the wisest of the Greek philosophers, diversity, 
 individuality, was as fundamental as unity ; but with our 
 modern scientists, individuality is purely derivative. The 
 Darwinian school of writers assume that our world and 
 solar system, together with the kingdoms of life, nay, even 
 the genius of Homer, Raphael and Shakespeare were once 
 latent in a fiery cloud. All specific forms, say they, came 
 
328 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 by development, they arose by insensible modifications 
 wrought in an originally homogeneous substance. That 
 also was the philosophy of certain ancient Hindoos. That 
 was the philosophy of Spinoza. That, too, is the philosophy 
 of Herbert Spencer and of Darwin's disciples. Darwin's 
 qualification to the effect that God originally, and, I may 
 add, miraculously, created a few germs, as a basis from 
 which to evolve future distinctions and organic formations, 
 does not redeem his theory from that pantheistic conception 
 which is its very root and essence. And what is more, it 
 is the pantheism of materialism. 
 
 Spinoza and the pantheistic philosophers of India taught 
 in harmony with the logical implications of their philosophy. 
 They were materialists. Inasmuch as types, or essential 
 forms, with them, were not coexistent with substance, but 
 effects, or derivative results, consequent upon the differ- 
 entiation and integration of substance ; so these beginnings 
 necessitated endings. Forms were ephemeral. Their des- 
 tiny was to suffer resolution into the primitive substance. 
 / Future immortality implies a preexistent, or past im- 
 /mortality. And the attempt to reconcile man's future 
 immortality with Darwinism is much like Hugh Miller's 
 effort to reconcile geology and Genesis. It seems clear to 
 me, that if a protoplastic formation originated, evolved and 
 built up essential man, involving the personal identity, it 
 may, and necessarily must, by the law of involution, return 
 again to protoplasm. 
 
 It was precisely upon this point that Agassiz took issue 
 with Darwin. The former held with Plato that ideas and 
 ultimate forms were coexistent with substance. He taught 
 that they had a spiritual basis, antedating their material 
 embodiments. It is not sufficient to say that man existed 
 
Nature and Preexistence of the Soul 329 
 
 in essence before he became a personal identity. If that 
 identity was produced, if it be a result, an effect, conse- 
 quent upon molecular action, or material change, then no 
 <* key-stone" in the arch-way of organization will insure 
 that identity from final resolution into that " fiery cloud '* 
 in which Tyndal informs us the genius of Raphael and 
 Shakespeare were once latent. 
 
 Individuals favoring the Darwinian school of materialism 
 and believing derivative personality ask for facts in proof 
 of preexistence, by which they doubtless mean facts ad- 
 dressed to the perceptive intellect. But I submit that facts 
 of the sensuous order are quite incompetent to prove or 
 disprove /truths which address themselves to the highest 
 reason. ^ To me the facts of consciousness and intuition 
 are more authoritative and imperial than those appealing 
 to the fallible senses. 
 
 Scholars, thinkers and metaphysicians of all schools 
 recognize three orders of evidence which may be com- 
 petent to influence the judgment. 
 
 1. Evidence addressed to the senses. 
 
 2. Evidence addressed to the conscious understanding. 
 
 3. Evidence addressed to the higher reason in the 
 form of axioms and intuitions. 
 
 The demand for facts of external observation in proof 
 of those higher truths of relation and of consciousness 
 which can only be apprehended by the higher reason, will 
 not be gratified, at least, in the present condition of hu- 
 manity. The problem of preexistence is included in the 
 provinces of mental science, metaphysics and religion, 
 rather than in that of the physical sciences. , Science may 
 afford important aid by revealing the laws of movement ; 
 but its sphere being limited to the order and sequence of 
 
330 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 phenomena, it can never reveal the nature of things in 
 themselves. I have no expectation that the problem of 
 man's first estate will ever have any clear light thrown 
 upon it by recourse to such data as material science will be 
 able to furnish, for it involves an ultimate ground that lies 
 beyond the pale of experimental research. A strong pre- 
 sumptive evidence in favor of the truth of a proposition is 
 to be found in the extent of its diffusion and in the degree 
 of its persistence. This is an axiomatic truth with Herbert 
 Spencer, ( Now the belief in the soul's preexistence — the 
 belief in God and the immortality of man have survived 
 the rise and fall of empires, thrones and races. Nor has 
 modern enlightenment succeeded in driving them into the 
 dreamy haunts of superstition, but it has welcomed, ex- 
 tended and fortified these beliefsy They may be accepted, 
 therefore, as foreshadowing, or rather, as the synonyms of 
 ultimate verities. 
 
 v^ I believe the Soul to be an eternal entity, or unit from 
 eternity. The Soul is immortal and has its state of 
 being within God. The Soul is absolute. Nothing 
 can be taken from it or added to it. Its manifesta- 
 tions in time proceed from sources that are within. 
 The Soul in its quality is like unto God. It is a Ray 
 which proceeds from God as a central sun. Its being 
 is in God, yet it is not God. The essential nature of God 
 cannot be communicated through the medium of human 
 speech, for it is only known within the Soul. Knowledge 
 proceeds from the known to the unknown. Revelation 
 proceeds from the unknown to the known. The conscious- 
 ness of the universe is God ; the consciousness of man is 
 the soul. The soul is the only preexisting entity except 
 God, having its being in eternity and its existence in time. 
 
Nature and Pre existence of the Soul 331 
 
 Existing in time the soul is subject to limitations, but God 
 is the Absolute Being transcending all limitations. The 
 soul is a complete circle, having neither beginning nor end- 
 ing. God is the sphere in which the circle is repeated to 
 infinity. But while the soul abides in the Infinite it is 
 never lost therein. There are no new souls added to the 
 universe; none taken therefrom. The soul in its primal 
 nature does not exist in time or space, but in eternity. 
 Only its movements or manifestations fall within the 
 province of time and space. 
 
 It will hence be seen that the soul in its first estate is a 
 purely subjective being in the human form. In this primal 
 state it embodies all the attributes and qualities which we 
 can conceive of as embraced in the kosmos. It **is in 
 little all the sphere." It is Plato's '' One and Many " — a 
 unity in which is embraced a multitude. All numbers, 
 forms and series inhere in this microcosmic entity. Love 
 and Wisdom are the substance and form of its existence. 
 Love is its substance and the subjective ground of its being. 
 Wisdom is its form of existence and quality of limitation 
 that distinguishes it from all other human entities. Viewed 
 in one aspect the infinite multitude of souls in the universe 
 form one complex and unitary body, each sharing the same 
 divine qualities with his fellow, which is the ground of 
 their sociality. But viewed in another aspect, souls pre- 
 sent an infinite diversity, no two being alike, no two pre- 
 destined to perform identical offices. Thus all souls co- 
 here in one social solidarity by virtue of the principle of 
 Love which inheres alike in each. And then again each 
 soul is a Form per se, distinguished from all other souls 
 \by virtue of its principle of Wisdom or quality of limita- 
 'tion. Hence each soul is endowed with a specialty of 
 
332 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 genius which qualifies it for a particular function and form 
 of service, as a unit in an affiliated series of the Societary 
 Man. But before the soul can become equipped to con- 
 sciously serve in its predestined place in the universe, it 
 must perfect for itself a Body Form through which it can 
 fully express its subjective wealth of faculty. This Body 
 Form will be the final summing-up of the Soul's pilgrim- 
 ages in matter. But this branch of the subject I will leave 
 for discussion in my second paper of this series. 
 
 " A keel grated on the sand, 
 Then a step was on the shore — 
 Life awoke and heard it, 
 A hand was laid upon her. 
 And a great shudder passed through her. 
 She looked up, and saw over her 
 The strange, wide eyes of Love, 
 And Life knew for whom 
 She had been waiting, 
 And Love drew Life up to him, 
 And of that meeting was born 
 A thing rare and beautiful — 
 Joy, First Joy was it called." 
 
 — Olive Schreinrer. 
 
 Identity has a deeper ground than the material shape 
 which we associate with the human body. It is far deeper 
 than the trend given to character through the laws of he- 
 redity, having its basis in the self-conscious ego. True, 
 the body to some extent is a mirror or reflection of the real 
 identity, but is neither its cause nor ground of permanence. 
 The body is an aggregation of ever fluctuating molecules. 
 Its entire structure is changed at least once in seven years, 
 and the brain, nerves and glands are changed several times 
 within that period. I repeat, our identity is in the soul 
 
Nature and Preexistence of the Soul 333 
 
 and not in the organic structure. It is in the realm of mind 
 and not in the realm of matter. Hence our identity is not 
 a residuum — a something left over when the material body 
 is cast aside. It is not a ghost or shadow which the or- 
 ganism has bequeathed to the man, but a persistent form 
 having only a temporary residence in the body which body 
 is the real shadow or ephemeral appearance. 
 
 Individuality in its primal meaning is monadic existence. 
 The Latin Individuus is the opposite of Dividuus. It em- 
 braces that which cannot be further dissected. It signifies 
 the being a one. We are here brought back to what I said 
 above regarding the nature of the soul, namely : That by 
 virtue of its wisdom-principle the soul is a form per, se, 
 and distinguished from all other souls by its quality of 
 limitation. Individuality is single — the unit distinguished 
 from all other units and from the total aggregate of units. 
 Therefore each individual soul, in its primal estate is en- 
 dowed with a specialty of genius which qualifies it for a 
 particular place and function in the universe. 
 
 Personality in its common and outward acceptation is 
 usually associated with appearance and outward character ; 
 but with such writers as Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, 
 Frohschammer, Elisha Mulford, Lotze, etc., Personality 
 has a far deeper meaning. The Latins used Persona to 
 signify personating, counterfeiting, or wearing a mask. 
 But Personality in the sense in which Emerson employs it, 
 signifies true being, both concrete and spiritual. It alone 
 is original being. It is not limited. Personality is that 
 universal element that pervades every human soul and 
 which is at once its continent and ground of being. Dis- 
 tinction from others and limitations by them results from 
 Individuality, not Personality. 
 
334 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Elisha Mulford says : *' There is in personality the 
 highest that is within the knowledge of man. It is the 
 steepest, loftiest summit towards which we move in our 
 attainment." 
 
 Emerson says: ''The personal within man is the soul 
 of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to 
 which every part and particle is equally related. . . . 
 The personal is not an organ, not a function, not a faculty, 
 it is the background of our being — an immensity not pos- 
 sessed and that cannot be possessed." 
 
 We are here again brought back to what was said above, 
 that all souls cohere in one social solidarity by virtue of 
 the principle of Love which inheres alike in each. Per- 
 sonality therefore pertains to the substance of the soul and 
 individuality to its form. 
 
 The magi of Persia, the priests of Egypt, the Brahmans 
 of India, and Buddhists of the East, each and all held to 
 some form of the general doctrine. (. Jesus recognized his 
 own preexistence when he spoke of the "glory he had 
 with the Father before the world was_^y'' Again he said : 
 ''Before Abraham was I am." 
 
 Ammonius Saccas, founder of that school of eclectic 
 philosophy known as New Platonism, and among whose 
 fdisciples were Longinus, and Origen, was a believer of pre- 
 ( existence. 
 
 V Plotinus, an eminent Greek philosopher, an adept in the 
 doctrines of the Oriental sages, and a teacher of philosophy 
 at Rome from 645 a. d., until his death, was an advocate 
 of preexistence. '^ 
 
 Proclus, a student of Olympiodorus at Alexandria, and 
 of Plutarchus at Athens, and for a time at the head of the 
 New Platonic schools, believed in preexistence. 
 
Nature and Preexistence of the Soul 335 
 
 ^ ApoUonius of Tyanna, a Pythagorean philosopher of the 
 first century, venerated for his wisdom by his conlempo- 
 raries, and whose thriUingly interesting Ufe was written by 
 Flavins Philostratus, was a believer in and teacher of pre- 
 existence. 
 
 Many of the most enlightened minds of all countries 
 have taught that man's conscious self-hood is as much a 
 matter of the past as it is to be of the future. Pythagoras, 
 the founder of the Italic school of Greek philosophy, pro- 
 fessed to have a distinct remembrance of a previous life or 
 lives. 
 
 Plato believed that all the knowledge of laws and princi- 
 ples we seem to acquire in this world is simply a recovery 
 or reminiscence of knowledge which the soul possessed in 
 a previous state of existence. Readers of Plato will re- 
 member the reference to " Meno," where Plato introduces 
 Socrates as making an experiment, by way of putting a 
 series of questions to a slave of Meno, eliciting from the 
 uneducated youth a geometrical truth. This done, Socrates 
 triumphantly observed to Meno, '' I have not taught the 
 youth anything; but simply interrogating him, he recalled the 
 knowledge he had in a previous existence." Plato further 
 taught that all ideas, types and ultimate forms both pre- 
 cede and succeed their material embodiments. 
 
 V "Our soul," says Plato, " is a particle of the Divine 
 Breath, and therefore we are related to God. Our soul's 
 divine ideas are natural, and are created by the contem- 
 plation of divine things. Before it was associated with 
 the body, it existed in God ; even now, though enveloped 
 by the body, it may participate in that divine contempla- 
 tion through the subjection of the passions, and through a 
 contemplative life." 
 
33^ Universal Spiritualism 
 
 In the song of Amosis we read : " Lord thou hast been 
 our dwelling-place in all generations ; before the mountains 
 were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth 
 and the world." 
 
 The most learned among the Christian fathers, such as 
 Origen, added to the doctrine of preexistence, the doctrine 
 of Brahminical reincarnation, contending that souls having 
 sinned in their previous lives were condemned to reenter 
 human bodies in this mortal life to expiate their former 
 guilt. 
 
 Jerome (340 a. d.) said of the above dogma which 
 prevailed in India and Egypt: "This impious and 
 wicked doctrine was anciently diffused through Egypt and 
 the East, and now prevails in the secret, as in vipers' 
 nests, among most, and pollutes the purity of those regions ; 
 and as by a hereditary disease glides in the few to pervade 
 the many." 
 
 , Clemens of Alexandria, in his Eclogues, advocated the 
 soul's preexistence, but stoutly denied the doctrine of re- 
 incarnation — and re-reincarnation of human souls. He 
 contended that the passage: ''There was a man sent 
 from God ' ' meant that the soul of John the Baptist was 
 older than his body, and was sent from his former state. 
 
 Clement of the second century, educated in the Pla- 
 tonic philosophy, and afterwards a disciple of Pantenus in 
 Alexandria, said : ''Do we not love God this first, that we 
 exist, that we are said to be men ? That descending from 
 the regions of light, or sent by Him, we are held in these 
 coiporeal bodies." 
 
 Pamphilas, who established a flourishing school in Csesa- 
 rea, who vindicated Origen in five books, and was martyred 
 309 A. D., was a strong advocate of the soul's preexistence. 
 
Nature and Pre existence of the Soul 337 
 
 "Does matter create the soul?" he asked. ''The house 
 resembles the idea that preceded it, and the entrance by a 
 path from the mountains resembles the descent of souls 
 from heaven to their lodgment in bodies." 
 •^ Synesius, a Neo-Platonic philosopher and disciple of 
 Hypatia at Alexandria, wrote largely in favor of preexist- 
 ence. When the citizens of Ptolemais had invited him 
 to the bishopric among them, he declined that dignity, in 
 a letter to his brother on the subject, for this reason among 
 others, that he cherished certain opinions which perhaps 
 all would not approve, but which he could in no wise ab- 
 jure, as after mature reflection they had struck their roots 
 deep in his mind. First among these he mentioned the 
 doctrine of preexistence. *' Assuredly I can never think 
 it right to believe the soul an after-birth of the body." 
 Vestiges of this belief are openly discernible in his writings, 
 as, for example, in the hymn of which the following is a 
 paraphrase : 
 
 '• Eternal Mind, thy seedling spark 
 Through this thin vase of clay. 
 Athwart the waves of chaos dark 
 Emits a timorous ray ! 
 
 «« Far forth from thee, thou central fire, 
 To earth's sad bondage cast, 
 Let not the trembHng spark expire — 
 Absorb thine own at last ! " 
 
 The doctrine of the soul's preexistence was held by the 
 Jews, both before and cotemporary with the Apostolic 
 period. It was certainly held by the later Jews living after 
 the times of the Babylonish captivity. Among their proofs 
 they quote this from the Book of Wisdom ; 
 
338 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 "I was an ingenuous child, and received a goo«i soul ; 
 nay more, being good, I came into a body undefiled." 
 
 Writing of the Essenes, Josephus says : " For the opinion 
 obtains among them (the Essenes) that bodies indeed are 
 corruptible, and the matter of them not permanent ; but 
 that souls continue exempt from death forever ; and that, 
 emanating from the most subtle ether, they are enfolded 
 in bodies, as prisons, to which they are drawn by some 
 natural spell. But, when loosened from the bonds of the 
 flesh, as if released from a long captivity, they rejoice, 
 and are borne upward. . . . This company of dis- 
 embodied souls is distributed in different orders. The 
 law of some of them is to enter mortal bodies, and, 
 after certain prescribed periods, be again set free. But 
 those possessed of a diviner structure are absolved from all 
 local bonds of earth." 
 
 , Leibnitz, the most profound philosopher of the seven- 
 teenth century, held the doctrine of preexistence as one of 
 his cardinal beliefs. And to-day, in the full blaze of 
 scientific discovery, there are hosts of men famous for their 
 knowledge of the sciences, and eminent in religious culture, 
 who believe in a preexistent state of conscious existence. 
 Among these are Prof. Redfield, the author and distin- 
 guished physiognomist ; Charles and Edward Beecher, lately 
 departed to the higher life; G. Groom Napier and Sir 
 Thompson of England. 
 
 . Nearly the whole body of French Spiritualists, includ- 
 ing such men as Figuer and Camille Flamarion, the 
 astronomer, hold to the doctrine. The great Fourier 
 taught it. The Spiritualists of the Orient, and, to a very 
 large extent of Continental Europe, accept it. 
 
 Conscious communion with spirits, not proving immor- 
 
Nature and Preexistence of the Soul 339 
 
 tality in the sense of endless existence, does prove a con- 
 scious existence after death. And then, those long inhab- 
 iting the better land of angelic blessedness, that is to say, 
 ancient spirits almost uniformly teach preexistence. I 
 cannot this moment call to mind a case to the contrary. 
 It is admitted that spirits of the spirit world differ upon 
 this subject ; and further, that the testimony of spirits is 
 authoritative only so far as it corresponds with intuition and 
 the highest reason. Still, the persistence of an idea and 
 the potency of intelligent majorities necessarily influ- 
 ence convictions. And I am certain that the general 
 tenor of the teachings of wise and highly intelligent spirits 
 upon this subject favors a preexistent state of being. Aaron 
 Knight, two hundred years in spirit life, and whose iden- 
 tity I took the pains to establish when in England several 
 years since, teaches, with the "brotherhood of ancient 
 sages," preexistence in the most positive manner. 
 
 It is very clear to profound thinkers that once in exist- 
 ence as divine man, always in existence. The converse is 
 equally true ; once absolutely out of existence never in ex- 
 istence ! This logical bulwark has never been successfully 
 assailed. 
 
 In the phrase, once in existence, always in existence, I 
 am referring to conscious, or rather to divine man, and 
 not to sticks and stones, nor to growling animals and sting- 
 ing insects. These are fragments — imperfect structures — 
 unfinished temples. And no one gifted with intelligence 
 speaks of a conscious rock — a divine wolf, or a righteous 
 dog. These are not, and never were in existence as con- 
 sciously rational and morally progressive beings. They 
 have not the Spiritual Keystone. They are not religious ; 
 neither are they conscious of their subordinate conscious- 
 
340 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 ness ! And certainly, no logician ever affirms of a part, 
 what he does of a whole. A slice, slashed from a golden 
 orange, thin, irregular, ill-shaped and seedless, is not equal 
 to, nor should it be compared with the well-rounded 
 orange. Animals, serpents, and noxious insects, are but 
 parts, bearing the same relation to man that passing 
 thoughts bear to ideas, or shadows to substances. Animals 
 and insects were never in existence, as perfect structures, 
 as divine entities ; but rather as fleeting organisms serving 
 temporary uses. 
 
 Divinity is eternal. An essential man is constituted ac- 
 cording to Plato, of divine substance, form and germ ; and 
 further, with this prince of thinkers, essential forms, types 
 and ideas, were the same. Types, or ideas, in fact, were 
 subjective realities. Outworked they became partially vis- 
 ible. Still, the type preceded and succeeded the visible 
 appearance. The material contents of form as in the oak 
 or animal, are fleeting, changing ; but the hidden essential 
 form, which is the type, or idea is enduring and im- 
 mortal. 
 
 Every argument against preexistence, is so far as entitled 
 to the name, an argument against the immortality of the 
 soul, and a help to cold combative rnaterialists. And 
 materialism, in its last analysis amounts to this — a sprawl- 
 ing puppy and a royal souled sage — a beefsteak, a prayer- 
 book, and a divine soul, are all the same originally — atoms 
 — protoplastic atoms, adjusted and arranged for specific 
 aims and ends by non-designed and non-intelligent molec- 
 ular force. And so all conscious life — all noble aspira- 
 tions for eternal unfoldment — begin and necessarily end in 
 matter. A stream cannot rise above its fountain. Thank 
 God and the good angels, Spiritualism, in connection with 
 
Nature and Preexistence of the Soul 341 
 
 / the rational doctrine of preexistence, saves from the slough 
 \of despond. 
 
 If the sum total constituting J. M. Peebles were once ab- 
 solutely out of existence, putting him into existence would 
 be equivalent to creating something from nothing. I am a 
 firm believer in the soul's eternal preexistence. The theory 
 is the rational stronghold of the soul's immortality. But 
 preexistence and reincarnation are by no means identical. 
 They are not predicated on the same philosophical basis. 
 And any writer who confounds these exhibits either his ig- 
 norance, or his pitiable impudence. 
 
 Of the doctrine of reincarnation I am not convinced — 
 and yet, am open to investigation and arguments in its favor. 
 
 Only a few can clearly recall events and experiences oc- 
 curring in a preexistent state of being. Many did, how- 
 ever, in the more meditative past. And some in the pres- 
 ent can do this ; and their testimony upon the point is di- 
 rect and positive. I have space to name but a few. 
 
 Judge Boardman, well known in Wisconsin for many 
 years as a thoughtful, influential Spiritualist, repeatedly as- 
 sured me that he could distinctly remember many things 
 that transpired in his preexistent life. 
 
 Judge Elliott, quite as much of a mathematician as jurist, 
 used to interest his friends by similar direct statements. 
 
 Harold Harring, the Polish scholar, author and personal 
 friend of Dr. Redfield, the New York physiognomist, often 
 affirmed in the most positive manner, that he could remem- 
 ber many acts and events occurring in his preexistent home 
 in the heavens. Others testify to the same facts. Preex- 
 istence is to them positive knowledge. Negative testimony 
 upon this subject is of little account. That blind men do 
 not see the sun is their misfortune — nothing more. 
 
342 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 Theodore Parker said in Music Hall, Boston, in 1857: 
 ** We thank thee, oh, Father, for this atom of spirit, a par- 
 ticle from thine own flame of eternity which thou hast 
 lodged in this clay." . (" Bible of the Ages," p. 322.) 
 
 "A strain of gentle music," says Charles Dickens — 
 ** or the rippling of water in a silent place, or the odor of a 
 flower, or even the mention of a familiar word, will some- 
 times call up sudden dim remembrances of scenes that 
 never were in this life ; which vanish like a breath ; which 
 some brief memory of a happier existence, long gone by, 
 seemed to have awakened." 
 
 Poets in their more inspired moments often sing of pre- 
 existence : 
 
 " I have dreamed 
 Of sinless men and maids, mated in heaven 
 Ere yet their souls had sought for beauteous forms 
 To give them human sense and residence." 
 
 —Holland. 
 
 " And in the spheral chime they hstening heard 
 
 The soul's high destiny, virhich, being sunk 
 
 Into this fleeting life, through obscure paths 
 
 Must wander, fighting still a Godlike fight — 
 
 Victor, through death ! " 
 
 — SCHELLING. 
 
 " Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; 
 The soul that rises with us, our life's star, 
 Has had elsewhere its setting, 
 And cometh from afar, 
 Not in entire forgetfulness. 
 And not in utter nakedness, 
 But trailing clouds of glory, do we come 
 From God, who is our home." 
 
 — Wordsworth. 
 
Nature and Preexistence of the Soul 343 
 
 As a fitting close to this essay, I quote from Schiller's 
 "Mystery of Reminiscence," which is a surpassing poem 
 of the soul's recognition : 
 
 " Were once our beings blent and intertwining 
 And for that glory still my heart is pining ; 
 Knew we the light of some refulgent sun 
 When once our souls were one ? 
 
 " Round us in waters of delight forever 
 Ravishingly flowed the heavenly nectar river ; 
 We were the masters of the seal of things 
 And where truth in her ever living springs 
 Quivered our glancing wings. 
 
 " Weep for the godUke life we lost afar 
 That thou and I its scattered fragments are : 
 And still the unconquered yearning we retain, 
 Sigh to renew the long and vanished reign 
 And grow divine again.'' 
 
 The foregoing was placed in ^V. J. Colville's hands by 
 Dr. J. M. Peebles March 6, 1906, during a delightful visit 
 to Battle Creek in the course of which W. J. Colville ex- 
 pressed an earnest desire to embody in this volume some 
 Statement of conviction or confession of faith from one of 
 the most highly venerated, widely traveled, richly educated 
 and generous-hearted Spiritualists in the world. The 
 career of Dr. J. M. Peebles is known and honored the wide 
 world over. At the ripe age of eighty- five years we found 
 this stalwart veteran hale, hearty, energetic and brimming 
 over with good will and resolute determination to still fur- 
 ther continue his work and travel in the interest of the 
 
344 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 great cause to which he has nobly devoted his unusually 
 long and singularly useful life. Blessed by such advocates 
 as the veteran " Pilgrim," the advocacy of Spiritualism is 
 indeed secure. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 CONCLUSION—STRIKING INCIDENTS RE- 
 LATED BY WELL-KNOWN WITNESSES 
 
 In submitting to our readers such startling incidents as 
 the following we make no claims whatever for the narra- 
 tives, which are simply inserted at the close of this volume 
 as contributions from the highly respectable narrators who 
 vouch for what they describe over their respective signa- 
 tures. All honest testimony deserves consideration. 
 
 New York City, March jo, igo6. 
 
 Mr. W, J. COLVILLE, 
 
 Care of Banner of Light, 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 My dear Mr. Colville : — Having read your request for 
 authenticated evidences of Spirit-communion in the 
 Bajiner of Light of recent date, I take great pleasure in 
 sending you herewith a few of our many experiences, and 
 to assure you that you may make such use of this letter 
 and its contents as you may see fit, using my name in full. 
 Our small circle awaits with eagerness the publication of 
 your book, to which we have had the pleasure to be among 
 the earliest subscribers. 
 
 To those who may doubt the truth of the statements 
 made below, I wish to say that if they will apply their 
 time and money to the investigation of these and kindred 
 phenomena with as much liberality as they devote to 
 purely material pleasures, devoid of any mental, moral or 
 spiritual advantage, they will find the truth of the purpose 
 of a more spiritual than material life and truths and 
 marvels much greater and purer, than are contained in any 
 
 345 
 
34^ Universal Spiritualism 
 
 system of theology or philosophy. I simply state facts 
 and leave it to the reader to make his own deductions. 
 
 With best wishes for your welfare and an enthusiastic 
 reception of your book, 1 have the honor to remain, 
 Yours very sincerely. 
 
 Dr. V. VON Unruh. 
 
 Materialization 
 
 Two seances were held at our own house with two well 
 known media. There being present our little circle, 
 consisting of my friend, Dr. H. and his wife, my wife, 
 myself and my wife's sister, who were all well known to 
 the media, no strange influence was expected to disturb 
 the phenomena. 
 
 The remarkable incidents worthy to be mentioned were 
 the following : I was called in front of the improvised 
 cabinet by the medium and saw his wife seated in a chair 
 inside the cabinet in a deep trance. Around her feet 
 there were two distinct accumulations of what seemed to 
 be lace, interwoven with sparkling lights, and presently 
 growing larger, stouter and taller until suddenly they were 
 lifted up as if by invisible hands, and assumed the shape 
 of a toga, within which I beheld at the same moment the 
 shape and figure of a man and a woman, who then stepped 
 out of the cabinet. This all was done by the light of a 
 small red photographer's lamp, which we always use dur- 
 ing our seances and which gives light enough to dis- 
 tinguish the pattern of the wall paper eight feet distant. 
 Then there appeared a form, strange to us, who swinging 
 her hands and arms above and around her head and 
 occasionally rubbing the palms of her hands together, 
 began in this way to weave out of the air a piece of lace, 
 
Conclusion 347 
 
 increasing in size every moment until it was about six by 
 eight feet square. We were then told to grasp it at the 
 margin and span it tightly across the space between the 
 cabinet and our semicircle in front of it. Then slowly we 
 let go of the lace which the spirit gathered in in the same 
 manner as described before, and finally showed us her 
 empty hands. We were anxious to retain a piece of such 
 lace and asked for it ; but were told that such lace made 
 out of the air would soon disintegrate, yet if the spirit 
 were given some silken fabric she would take out of it 
 one thread and make a piece of lace which would keep 
 forever. I gave the spirit my necktie from which she took 
 one thread, still standing outside of the cabinet and began 
 the same manipulations as before and after about thirty 
 seconds handed back my necktie within which was en- 
 closed a piece of lace, which is still in my possession, 
 mounted between two slabs of glass. That there are 
 spirits who lack the politeness of better- bred earth folk 
 was also shown us at this seance. The medium outside 
 of the cabinet received a sudden slap in the face, which was 
 audible as a loud handclap all over the room ; we did not 
 know what to think of it until the medium said, some foolish 
 spirit had slapped him in the face, but that he took such 
 things good-naturedly, because resenting had done no good 
 in the past and the evil-doer always apologized stante pede ; 
 but as the medium's spectacles had been broken I thought 
 that such pranks were altogether out of place. Then we 
 witnessed several materializations and dematerializations 
 outside of the cabinet. In the seance room then appeared 
 directly at our feet a small cloud of light, dangling and 
 dancing as it were, on the carpet, then around that cloud 
 the luminous and sparkling lace and the two uniting fold- 
 
348 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 ing over a form in less than half a minute. After greeting 
 and a few private remarks the spirit, claiming to be that 
 of my friend's mother, stepped back about two feet and 
 collapsed, her feet disappearing first and her head bowing 
 down forward touching the carpet after which all disap- 
 peared into nothingness. — An Indian, "Little Eagle Eye" 
 who came to me at every seance told me, that he would 
 like to have a pair of moccasins to take them to spirit- 
 land. I bought a pair and wrote on the sole of each 
 moccasin ''Little Eagle Eye" in ink which at writing 
 showed up blue, but which turned black after a day or 
 two. I gave them to him at this seance, four days after. 
 When he appeared he said to me, ''What you got for 
 me? Me know, me see you write my name on them, 
 blue like war paint." He at once put them on, and when 
 he dematerialized they also disappeared and I have never 
 seen them since. On a subsequent occasion I asked him 
 what he had done with the moccasins, he replied that he 
 had taken them to spirit-land. — There also appeared for 
 me a man, wearing a high cone-shaped hat which was so 
 illuminated as to dazzle one. He said he was " Pardee," 
 lived under the second Egyptian dynasty and came to tell 
 me that he was my musical guide. In this connection I 
 wish to narrate what will be to Non-Spiritualists a very 
 remarkable incident. A young gentleman acquaintance 
 who came to dine with us one evening, fully a year after 
 the aforementioned seance, and for whose entertainment I 
 was playing the piano, turned suddenly to me and said : 
 "Do you know anybody by the name of Pardee? I see 
 him standing by you and he turns to me and says : I am 
 Pardee, — and then he points with his hand towards you." 
 We had not seen this young man for more than a year and 
 
Conclusion 349 
 
 by DO possibility could he have known of the aforemen- 
 tioned seance or the name of Pardee. This did not 
 astonish us, as we knew the young man to be a clairvoyant. 
 This could not have been Telepathy, for the young man's 
 description of the appearance of the spirit agreed with our 
 knowledge of the materialized spirit Pardee. — I must re- 
 late one more incident that happened at our seance. 
 " Lucy," the guide of the medium came out of the cabinet 
 first as usual and then disappeared for quite a long while, 
 perhaps twenty minutes. When she appeared again she 
 said, "Friends, I must tell you something very funny; I 
 have just been over to Mr. X's house in Brooklyn, where 
 they were getting ready to begin their seance ; when the 
 medium in the cabinet was about to seat himself in his 
 chair he tripped and fell on the floor and all the sitters 
 were laughing." Lucy herself seemed to be quite amused. 
 The next morning my telephone rang and the unfortunate 
 medium asked me whether Lucy had told us about it and 
 I answered that she had. He then said that his fall had 
 been a quite painful one and that he had difficulty in 
 walking. 
 
 Apport 
 
 For the benefit of those, who distrust professional 
 mediums, I will give an account of one of our own family- 
 sittings, composed of myself and wife, our two children, 
 aged ten and eleven, and my friend and his wife, all liv- 
 ing under the same roof. On December 31, 1905 (Sun- 
 day), we held our usual weekly seance. Soon after the 
 beginning of our seance I felt something touching my hair 
 and mentioned this. A few minutes after my forehead was 
 touched by a small, hard object, which instantly dropped 
 
350 Universal Spiritualism 
 
 on the glass cover of the music box in front of me. On 
 examination we found it to be a genuine case of apport, 
 the object being a solid gold cross in the form of an 
 Egyptian crux ansata, surmounted by an Ibis. The 
 dimensions of this object are about two inches in height 
 and one inch in breadth. 
 
 V. VON Unruh. 
 New York City^ March lo, igo6. 
 8j7 Lexington Ave. 
 
 Dr. von Unruh is a dentist established in New York 
 many years with a large and influential practice. 
 
 A Spirit has Her Portrait Painted 
 
 When my book, *' In the World Celestial," was in press 
 I met the heroine of it. Pearl, at a seance. She assured 
 me that the scenes and conditions of the spirit world, as 
 described* in the book were substantially correct, and that 
 the story as a whole, is true to life. I said to her, ^' My 
 dear Pearl, I should very much like to have a portrait of 
 you for the book." She replied, '* I will try to have one 
 painted for you." She did not succeed, however, in get- 
 ting a satisfactory likeness until the fourth edition of the 
 book was about to be issued. On the evening of Jan- 
 uary 25, 1905, Pearl met me at a trumpet seance 
 and made an appointment with me to meet her at the 
 home of two sisters, famous psychics, the next day, where 
 she felt confident we would succeed in getting a portrait 
 of her. My wife went with me to that appointment, and 
 will sustain the statement of facts I herewith submit. 
 The two sisters and ourselves entered the seance room, 
 
Conclusion 3^ i 
 
 at three o'clock m the afternoon. I selected from a 
 number of others an artist's canvas on a stretcher, twenty 
 by twenty-four inches, which was placed in front of a 
 south window, through which the sun was shining. One 
 of the sisters seated herself on one side, and the other on 
 the other side of the window, and each grasped the edge 
 of the stretcher next to her with one hand. My wife and 
 I seated ourselves immediately in front, and within easy 
 reach of the canvas. We kept our eyes steadily fixed 
 upon it to carefully witness any phenomena that might be 
 presented. In about three minutes a cloud passed over 
 the canvas and settled upon it, forming a pearl gray 
 background for the picture. A few minutes later the 
 outlines of a form appeared. This grew gradually more 
 distinct until in about forty minutes, from the time we 
 had taken our seats, the picture was complete. It was the 
 portrait of a beautiful woman, in the full bloom of mature 
 womanhood, with golden hair and blue eyes, a perfect 
 blonde. I had known Pearl when she was a girl, and 
 this portrait bears a striking resemblance to her as I 
 remember her. I have met her at seances since, and she 
 has assured me that the portrait is a correct likeness of 
 her, as she appears in her present development. I had 
 her picture reproduced for the fourth edition of my book, 
 in the style known as photogravure, a new process by 
 which photographs are made direct from the negative 
 on white plate paper. 
 
 This experience settles the matter, with us, that spirits 
 can have their portraits painted, by some occult process 
 which is beyond the ken of mortal artists. Art critics 
 who have seen this picture pronounce it above criticism 
 as a work of art, and they are puzzled to know by what 
 
35^ Universal Spiritualism 
 
 process it could have been produced, as it is different 
 from any style of painting with which they are familiar. 
 
 T. A. Bland. 
 
 Dr. Bland is Secretary of the American Medical Union. 
 Address, 231 Hayne Ave., Chicago. 
 
 Oneonta, JV. Y., March gth, igo6. 
 The soul-inspiring truths of Spirit-return, wafted on 
 the wings of love after the transition of my dearly beloved 
 mother Julia Pond, have been a well-spring of joy to us. 
 Being isolated from all people of this cult, and never 
 having been in sympathy with the thought of Spirit- 
 return, not having read any literature of that nature ; my 
 experiences have been phenomenal, first conceiving it 
 imaginary, subsequently developing clairaudience. We 
 feared dementia, not consulting a physician, but pros- 
 trated for several weeks, after which unconscious entrance- 
 ment, when my husband apprehended death (as we inter- 
 preted transition). After a hard struggle, the vision was 
 made clear, highly developed instructors were brought, 
 embellishing me with gifts which I of myself have never 
 sought. Singing in all voices where mortal voice of its 
 own volition has never reached. Instruments coming 
 through the vocal organs, also inspired writings. These 
 manifestations proving to us the continuity of life, and 
 the thin veil between the two worlds interpenetrating 
 each other's lives like one great family. This innovation 
 in our lives has been an education as well as inspiration 
 to reach out after the aggrandizing truths which are 
 given us through the realm of Spirit. 
 
 Rose B. Helm. 
 
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