vegetable life is different in its three known stages, so that we may assume the manifestation of all these four kinds of life will differ in an advanced state from their present ones. And as the higher quality of life has always a tendency to improve those qualities of life, which are subjected to its sway, so the inferior qualities will improve throughout eternity, approaching nearer and nearer to perfection. Thus the idea of a capricious annihilation of life will be avoided, and thus only a reasonable and systematic government of the world is explained. We do not see spiritual life, or animal life, or vegetable life, existing in an independent or free state; all these manifestations of life become apparent by their connection with all the qualities of life inferior to them. All life, therefore, is immortal absolutely; and matter is eternal from the human point of view, for as man's minds cannot grasp the extent of time during which matter did exist, or will exist, much less can they grasp the conception of a phase prior or posterior to matter.

Animal life, having run its course as souverain of vegetable and elementary life, enters its second phase as aide-de-camp to spiritual life; and the latter, after its supreme sway on earth, will occupy a secondary position in the next phase. Not as if by this means these qualities were degraded. Quite the reverse. The animal calls its life supreme simply because it does not know of a higher one, and we call our spiritual life supreme, simply because we cannot here conceive a higher one; but in reality the animal life, as adjunct to spiritual life, is superior to the same in its state of independence, because it is necessarily influenced and improved through contact with greater excellency; for instance, the will of man is refined, strengthened, and invigorated, and is hardly recognisable as the same quality, which we call animal volition; and, in the same manner, our spiritual life, the dictator of all our motives, when occupying a secondary position with regard to some superior manifestation of life in another existence, will be moulded and shaped by that more excellent quality; for it is evident, that being second in Rome is better than being first in a small town, whatever Cæsar may have thought.

Now, the difficulty we have to deal with, is to imagine an existence of life separate from matter. We know life only by its manifestation, i.e., in connection with matter, and life in the abstract is above our comprehension. Indeed, we may say that as all the world believes, in the immortality of the spirit, ie., in a continuance of our spiritual life, separate from matter, so we believe likewise in the continuance of our four-fold life separate from matter. But we are not satisfied with setting up a theory; we desire to comprehend its meaning and significance. Materialist call the activity of the brain, soul; and hold that, when this activity ceases, it, i.e. the soul, ceases also; and there are many people, especially such as lead a life of misery and hardship, who consider this theory the most comforting : "When we die, then all will be over! No, we do not wish for a repetition of the miseries, our passions, our wants, our loves and hopes and fears were the cause of." Again, he who is roused from a state of coma, be it a natural or artificial one, he who awakes from a

trance, during which the connection between body and soul had been severed, cannot relate any interesting adventures, his spirit met with, while roaming at large in the world of spirits. Somnambulists remember nothing of their nocturnal excursions. But is it said that, on the strength of these practical experiences, we must give up our theory of the souls' immortality? During the frost of winter, the plant is also insensible, but is it to be called dead on that account? How can we, with certainty determine, whether a separation of body and soul has actually taken place? And unless we can decide this question undoubtingly, we cannot speak of death. The death of an organic being is not to be determined until putrefaction has set in; and putrified bodies have never come to life again, as far as we know, for, even in the case of Lazarus, it is not said, that his body stank, but it is only stated, that Mary suggested, he might stink. And, until the body stinks, it is premature speaking of death; so that, in instances of comatose, asphyxiated, or somnambulent conditions, the principle of life must have been still present, as otherwise corruption would have set in. Nevertheless, we are told of instances, in which the human spirit had apparently so far thrown off the encumbrance of matter, as to have become, to a certain extent, an independent agent. The individual's vegetable life might have been still fettered, but the spirit and the soul had already commenced a journey away from it. In some cases the activity of the external senses has absolutely ceased, the eye has become insensitive to the strongest glare; the ear to the loudest sound, while other senses still manifested, a reacting faculty. The medium of the magnetizer is sunk into a somnambulent state, in which, though the involuntary functions of the body continue, every sense seems to be deprived of life; the vegetable life alone remains, while soul and spirit are on an excursion away from their home. A similar state is sometimes met with in people, who are on the point of death; and, in these cases, the subject concerned will give utterance to sounds and sentences, which suggests the idea, that their spirit communicates information from another world. As the perception of the senses becomes fainter, as the influence of the lower nature decreases, be it through fasting and castigation, through disease or magnetism, the higher nature frees itself and grows independent; and as to the degree of completeness in the separation of spirit from matter, will be the liberty of the spirit. It then only remains to find a means, by which the spirit, in its free state, may be persuaded to still employ the physical organism as a means, in order to represent different degrees of clairvoyance. This faculty proves unto us the possibility of an independent state of the spirit. Certainly we experience it only through the vegetable life still remaining in the body, but it leads us to the conclusion that, if we have an exhibition of the life of the spirit separate from the body, to some extent, and under evident disadvantages, there is every reason to believe in the possibility of life of the spirit in absolute separation from matter.

It appears that, at the time of death, the different qualities of life will take their departure in the reversed order, in which they made

T

their appearance; and as elementary life came first, then vegetable, then animal, and lastly spiritual life, so, spiritual life will first become independent, and will be joined by animal, vegetable and elementary life in due course; for physiological observation demonstrates it, and not only so, but logical deduction will come to the same result. Whatever is most intimately connected with matter will be least eager to leave its tabernacle; so that elementary life adheres to the body, long after its three sisters have taken their departure.

Our theory of the eternal connection between the four qualities of life in our nature, may seem capricious and unfounded; but we regard it as an inevitable one, in order to reconcile the phenomena of our lives with divine wisdom and love.

(1.) "He who gave such a lengthy existence to matter, cannot be imagined as the fell destroyer of life.

(2.) It is inconceivable that the four qualities of life in our individuality should be separated, for they have grown up together, and have been dependent on each other, improving and perfecting each other during their earthly career.

(3.) A spiritual progress after death is not imaginable, unless the lesser component parts of our nature participate in it, and our lower classes of life are essentially those factors, which are confided to the higher manifestation of life for education and guidance.

One may object that, though there are some reasons for assuming, that spirit and soul can exist separated from the body, it is impossible to believe vegetable and elementary life, existing independently of matter or inheriting eternal life; but this is an objection which cannot possibly have any weight. If the superior two kinds of life can exist free, and if matter itself can exist free (as in chaos) where lies the difficulty of ascribing a like faculty to vegetable and elementary life? May not the one easily be deduced from the other; especially as there is nothing in it to make it prima facie unreasonable. The other objection that might be raised, namely the improbability of the departure of life successively, is answered by the fact of the gradual and successive arrival of the different qualities, and this permits the conception of a similar process of departure, which, besides, is proved by experience, as actually occurring. We know that God cannot desire anything but progress in our moral being, and in our capacity for happiness. So that, as this life with its temptations and trials, was an initiatory school to our spirits, so we shall enter into the academy above to submit to a fresh course of acquisition of knowledge. "Secure, in this or any other sphere

To be as blest, as we can bear:

Safe in the hands of the dispensing power,

Or in the natal, or the mortal hour."-(A. Pope.)

CHAPTER XIII.

THE WORLD OF SPIRITS.

THAT a world of spirits or a spiritual world exists, requires no proof; for God himself being a spirit,* and we ourselves being conscious spirits, we should have to deny our existence and that of God, in order to decline adopting the belief in spirits. But we do not mean treating here on the nature of either of these two species of spirits, but on a third one, namely on beings, with which belief in the supernatural, has peopled space, who are supposed to exercise a more or less powerful influence on human affairs, and who are supposed to visit, every now and again, these sublunary realms. These spirits are classified, by poetic imagination, according to the degree of power, of which they are supposed to be possessed, or according to their good or evil propensities; and you have, in consequence, among the monotheistic creeds, Archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, angels, and the spirits of departed saints, on the one hand; and devils of classes, demons, ghosts, and spectres, on the other hand; and among the polytheistic religions, a number of spirits are believed in, which are called gods or devils, according to their disposition towards humanity. All these are spirits, the belief in whom is sanctioned by dogma; but there is, moreover, a crowd of spirits of an illegitimate offspring, with darkness for a father and fancy for a mother, and among these we may mention the Mohamedan Jhins, the Teutonic Gnomes and Kobolds, the Grecian Nymph and Satyr, the fairy of the orient, etc. The belief exists, that some of these spirits may be brought into subjection by man, that others are entirely beyond his control. The former may be subdued by means of some mysterious process, involving incantations, charms, and prescribed ceremonies, in order to make them obey man's calls and behests, at a most extraordinary sacrifice to their own convenience and comfort.

The witch (place aux dames) and the wizard, are the favored individuals, who stand in direct intercourse with this kind of spirits, while the priest is supposed to be the mediator between the visible world and the world of such spirits as are sanctioned by dogma. There is naturally an antagonistic feeling between these rival mediums, which vented itself from time immemorial in mutual curses. Moses threw down his staff before Pharaoh, and it turned into a snake by the instrumentality of God; Pharaoh's enchanters threw their staffs down, and they became serpents through their occult art. The Egyptian professors of necromancy and astrology, and the Indian joghee (juggler) applied the same means to the same end, that Moses and Paul did, and all their successors in the office of priesthood and prophecy.

The astrologer ascribed a spiritual life to the planets and certain other stars, and he was in this not diverging so very far from the Christian and Hebrew ideas of divinity. Everything contained in

*God is a Spirit, John v., 24.

Spirits, 1 John iv.

the Bible tends to show, that the writers regarded God as a God of this earth_only; for, even if the stars are mentioned as having been made by God, it is done only cursorily, as a matter of small import. The stars were too far off, and concerned them too little, to be a matter of speculation to these writers. But if the star which we inhabit has its own God, the creator of heaven (the atmospheric zone)* and earth, what prevents our believing, that He was appointed by some central God, who also appointed gods for all the other stars, that stud the firmament? Following the system of "division of labor," that the ancients applied to the different manifestations of God's activity on earth, in these enlightened times, when we know so much more of sidereal matters, it would be but natural to assume, that each individual planet has its own particular God, the governor of its sphere, and its own particular scheme of salvation for the beings inhabiting it. Again, to continue the speculation, there would be required a superior god (a Governor-General) to superintend the working of the solar system. He would occupy himself with provincial affairs, while the gods of the planets would have to mind merely district matters; and again, on the central sun, there would have been placed a god, managing all the solar systems of which it is the centre. In this manner only, the Christian scheme of salvation becomes comprehensible; only in this manner, we can succeed entering into God's (our own peculiar Gods, the God of the earth) presence, immediately after death; only in this manner we could account for the delineation of God's character given in the Bible; for as the earth's distance from the last and central sun of all worlds, so much would the God of the earth be removed in perfection from the great supreme God of the Universe. If we assume the possibility of this arrangement, then we should have to consider the heaven (Paradise) promised to man, as the heaven of this earth, which either may be located in the space between the earth and the next star, or else we may regard "heaven" as a promotion to the sun, as if a civil servant be removed from the Council of the Governor-General of India to the Indian Council in London-a preferment looked upon as a very heaven by many an old Indian. Then also, instead of imagining the son of the one god, travelling from star to star on his benevolent mission, which would make his life a very laborious one, each stars' Governor could send his own son, whenever necessary, and at his own discretion.

But enough of these profane speculations, provoked by the narrow conceptions of the Deity, as stereotyped in humanity's creeds. Astrology held always an important place in the estimation of the orient, and on it was founded the religious belief of the Magii; it found introduction in Europe at the time of the crusade; and it had at least this good effect, that it led men to the study of astronomy which has revealed to us the wonderful magnitude of God's household. It led to the invention of the telescope, and subsequently to that of the microscope, and we stand mute with adoration at the contemplation of the infinity of God in what we call

"The angel armies of the sky" (Hymn.)