OR,
T HE DIVINE GUEST.
CONTAINING
A NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS.
BY
ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS,
AUTIIOR OF SEVERAL VOLUMES ON THIE "IIARMONIAL PIIILOSOIIPHY.
"Within thee is the all-wise, ever-loving Arabula."
DEATH AND THE AFTEPR-LIFE, P. s8.
THIRD THOUSAND.
BOSTON:
WILLIAM WHITE & COMPANY,
158 WASHINGTON STREET.
NEW  YORK:
BANNER OF LIGHT BRANCH OFFICE, 5&4 BROAiDWAY.
1868.




Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1867, by
ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the
District of New Jersey.




INTTRODUCTORIY.
THIS volume is, to some extent, a continuation of the
author's autobiography, entitled, "The Magic. Staff."
But, chiefly, it contains a faithful record of experiences which, it is believed, are far more representative
than exceptional. The exceptions occur in that private realm where the individual differs, as each has an
undoubted constitutional right to differ, from  every
other.
A  new  collection of living Gospels, revised and
corrected, and compared with the originals, is herein
presented to the world.
The alternations of faith and skepticism, of lights and
shades, of heaven and hades, of joys and sorrows, are
familiar to the human mind. The causes of these
mental states are considered.
May the Arabula be unfolded in the heart of every
reader.
A. J. 1).
NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 1867.




INDEX TO THE GOSPELS.
CHAPTER L.
CONTAINS INSPIRATIONS FROM  THE FOLLOWING NEW  SAINTS:
PAGE                                    PAGE
St. Rishis.................. 303  St. Theodore............... 326
St. Menu.................  308  St. Octavius..............  3- 0
St. Confucius.............   310  St. Samuel.................  332
St. Siamer............. 31-2  St. Eliza................... 334
St. Syrus................. 313  St. Emma................. 336
St. Gabriel..............  315  St. Ralph.................  338
St. John..................  317  St. Asaph................. 340
St. Pneuma........... 319  St. Mary................. 342
St. James................. 323  St. Selden................. 345
St. Gerrit...............  324  St. Lotta................. 353




THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER I.
THE LAMENTATION.
OH, the heartless contradictions in human nature!
MIan, in his present state, is only a tamed savage. His
best development of civilization rests upon a broad and
ever-enlarging basis of brute instincts and savage attributes. All his monumental labors for the world's
advancement are mixed with the unsubdued and undisguised propensities of selfislness. Civil society is
but an entangling medley of antagonistic self-interests
and immoral expedients.
Therefore no man is happy. Selfishness, the primal
instinct, drives happiness out of the temple. The
perplexities and contradictions of selfishness generate
excessive laws in the tyrannical intellect. 0, the deathless anguish of the wounds inflicted by man's struggling
passion for wealth and power! His blunders and blindness are forgiven; but his lynx-eyed, self-justifying,
willful intellect, which would crush millions to gain
power and wealth, is anathematized and forever excluded from heaven.
And what is man's knowledge? Who believes that




6                  THE ARABULA.
it is wise? The millions walk in the false and hollow
thoroughfares of ignorance and priest-supported superstitions. Mammon-serving myrmidons crowd upon the
paths of selfish knowledge. Ignorance first builds lightexcluding palaces, and then dedicates them to the mysteries of an impracticable religion. And man, in the
plenitude of his shameless inconsistencies, prides himself upon his devotion to mystery. With commanding
dignity, he styles his religious mystery, "Knowledge
of God's Will."  Wherefore, in the boundlessness of
his ignorance, he assumes the possession of rare intelligence. The slanting rays of science, a sun that has not
yet risen, he applauds as the full blaze of absolute truth.
Moralists disappoint their intimate acquaintances.
Their virtues are best seen in the shrouding profundities and hair-splitting distinctions they exhibit in the
science of morals. They exhaust themselves in preaching and expounding the laws of virtue; they consign
the duty of practicing morality to the uneducated multitude. The profoundest theorist in morals is impelled,
by an ever-increasing tendency, to transgress, in daily
dealings, his fundamental maxims of justice, truth, and
virtue. The primal instinct of selfishness surmounts
and crushes the holiest proclamations of eternal truth.
The contradictions of human nature cover the earth
with a blighting, desolating darkness.  A man who
preaches the precepts of peace is not often a comfort to
his family. His wife is a great skeptic in his theory.
Her eye is upon the manifestations of the eloquent
expounder's life. Peace-laden principles flow out from
his word-skilled tongue, and the tender glances of pure
and undefiled religion fall from his heaven-lifted eyes;




THE LAMENTATION.                7
yet his family, sailing in the weather-beaten bark of a
selfish society, compounded of conflicting interests, longing for love to direct the helm, can remember the trials
and wounds of fierce wars at the fireside.
If you want Justice, do you appeal to robed and
ermined power in the State? If you seek Religion, do
you adopt as final the magnificent mummeries and
cabalistic ceremonies of the Established Church? If you
seek consistency, do you take as its embodiment the man
of civilization; only a tamed savage, with positive
selfish instincts, and the profoundest intellectual disregard of others' rights and liberties?
Crucify the redeemers of the world; put them through
nameless miseries; banish the reformers into interminable mountains of frost, desolation, and sorrow; kindle
the fagots of wrath about the pioneers of infinite benefits; condemn to dungeons the brave heroes who have
resisted the organized selfishness of powerful governments; starve the saviors of slaves, who have, during a
sad lifetime, toiled without reward, under the blistering
lash of crime-promoting task-masters; turn deafened
ears to the sighs of fallen women, who have, under the
magnetic touch and bewildering persuasions of hypocritical love, erred within the burning passion of some selfgratifying human savage; cover, with inextinguishable
contumely and misrepresentations, the fearless teacher,
who would overthrow the world's errors in religion,
bring a rational conception of God, and initiate principles of higher degrees of existence. 0, intelligent, selfish, tyrannical, savage, contradictory man! What shall
increase your capacities for consistent, benevolent, magnanimous living 




8                 THE ARABULA.
Most vulnerable is he who makes boast of-his high
impregnability. No man is more cowardly than he
who prides himself upon his valor. The immeasurable
fool is self-sustained with the sweet consciousness of
being the wisest man in town. The richest merchant
in the city cannot afford the luxuries common in the
household of his chief clerks. The inimitable comedian,
whose simplest speech and gesture convulse with merriment an audience of two thousand intelligent people, is
the epitome of independent and incurable melancholy.
The infinitely happy lady, whose street habiliments and
evening-party deportment are unapproachably perfect,
carries a heart well-nigh bursting with wounds and
disappointments. The honest citizen is unjustly living
upon heavy profits filched from the daily toil of hopeless men and women. The virtuous trader gratifies his
savage rapacity by overpassing the boundaries of justice
in every bargain with less keen, but really honest men.
The pious preacher, whose voice is for the extermination of sin and every other form of evil, is profane when
anathematizing the enemies of his creed. The politician is the faithful servant of the State so long as the
emoluments and accruing fame are: commensurate with
his magnanimous selfishness. The physician's interests
are inseparably allied with the pecuniary health of his
patients. The family of a professional philanthropist is
most threatened with visitations of poverty and inhuman
neglect.  An eloquent champion of the equal selfownership and political rights of women, was a tyrant
at home, trampling upon the personal liberties of his
resistless wife, and giving his sons an education superior
to his daughters.




THE LAMENTATION.                9
0, the contradictions of human nature!  Might is
mistaken for right; brute force is made to do the work
of love; folly is substituted for the hints of wisdom;
hypocrisy is more fashionable than innocent virtue;
whited sepulchers attract thousands of worshipers, who
habitually neglect the temple of the spirit; wealthy
vice is more courted and sustained than poor virtue; a
bold robbery is sparingly punished, while the halffamished outcast is imprisoned for petty larceny. A
crazy actor is murderously executed for a single assassination, while an intelligent plotter of a nation's destruction, in whose war-prisons loyal soldiers are dying inch
by inch, with the unutterable pangs of hunger, and
with the nameless agonies of disease, is granted the
freedom of the world; while the rich are growing richer,
in the very heart of a so-called Christian civilization, the
poor are becoming poorer; and crime and misery prevail where peaceful industry an~d progressive happiness
might exist.
1*




10                THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER II.
REFLECTIONS.
INQUIETUDE pervaded my thoughts-feelings freighted
with concernment, not for myself-a holy seriousness
full of prayer, to learn the causes of man's universal
selfishness.
Is selfishness a fundamental principle of human nature? Is the foundation of man's mind composed of
incurably self-seeking and savage instincts? The bloody
wars-do they originate in principles of war in human
nature, or do these cruelties crop out of conditions and
circumstances? Does man err only; or, as some affirm,
does he sin? He acquires knowledge through reflection and experience; but why does he employ his
knowledge to accomplish his selfish ends? If the selfish
instinct is the.basic law in man's mental constitution,
can the originator of such a crude and cruel constitution be revered as a power of perfect wisdom and perfect
goodness? What are called man's innocent and rational
amusements?  Such as baiting the hook and jerking
from their native element the beautiful fish; or hunting
to death the aftrighted hare; starting savage dogs after
the foxes; slaughtering the graceful and harmless deer;
shooting the singing robins and the playful squirrels;
running horses until the innocent animals drop dead;
or brutal men fighting with each other like goaded
beasts;. or men of this breed training dogs and cocks to




REFLECTIONS.                 11
enter the ring and to fight until one or the other dies,
applauding meanwhile with howlings and profanities
too fierce and maddening to be repeated.
Distressing and disgusting as all this is, yet the depth
of man's brutality is not reached until he tramples upon
woman; when, taking diabolical advantage of her weakness and timidity, he bends and breaks her upon the
wheel of his ungovernable lust. No theorizing or philosophizing can mitigate the unutterable treachery of
such a man. He covers his nature with the corrupting
blight of an unpardonable sin. The beasts of the field
and the fowls of the air are spotless angels compared
with him.
Man's injustice to children, too, is unspeakably detestable. They are born from the unseen world of
causes, are gentle as evening music, bringing into embodied life the infinite possibilities of deathless existence; but selfish man treats them as interlopers and
unwelcome servants, whips them instead of reasoning
with their intuitions, stifles their sobs with his fist, and
fills the heaven-life of the little angel with lamentations
too sad for the long-suffering heart of woman to bear.
Are these accumulating evidences of man's inborn
selfishness insurmountable?  Can you give any relief to
your doubts?  The construction and capabilities of his
mind-its immense breadth, its grasp of thought, its
intellectual abilities to meditate, plot, elude, attack,
retreat, countermarch, counterfeit, decoy, capture, imprison, assassinate, burn, rob, murder, and end in suicide; all this, taken together, apparently gives an overmastering weight of evidence deplorably against the
redemptibility of human nature.




12               THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER III.
THE PRAYER.
WITH thoughts and feelings overwhelmed and intertangled by the foregoing reflections, and fatigued with
waiting for responses to interrogatories so earnestly put.
I entered the secret closet of the more interior, and
prayed" Heavenly Father! Hear, I beseech thee, the spirit
of the words I would breathe in thine ear.
" O, Fount of Eternal Good! Lift from before mine
eyes the vail of mysteriousness, which shuts out of my
understanding the light, by which I would behold,
divested of errors and uncertainties, the unbroken beneficence of thy government.:" Spirit of Infinite Truth! O, breathe upon my mouth
once more, and aid my tongue to utterance; inspire
my bosom with the myriad tendencies of wisdom; make
my blood instinct with thy universal laws; and impart,
0, I pray thee, to my brain the balance whereby truth
can be weighed as by the hand of Justice; and to my
heart, whose chambers are filled with thy love, an
insight that shall discern thee at all times and in all
things.
"Father of All  0, let me fearlessly approach thee,
as a son would in reverential love draw nigh unto his
earthly parent, and ask for divine light and unselfish
knowledge. Humbly.I would ask —s1 the universe




THE PRAYER.                 13
perfect in thy sigit?  Was the universe any less perfect millions of centuries ago?.Will it be any more
perfect millions of years hence?  Answer, I beseech
thee, 0, Fountain of Knowledge! iDidst thou foreknow all things from the beginning? And before thou
filledst the world with forms and animation, didst thou
foresee the selfishness of mankind? Didst thou make
man to follow the impulsions of passion-to grow in
intelligence and in experience, and to profit by both in
devising ways and means to overreach and cruelly to
trample upon the rights of his fellows?
" Reveal thy Truth, O, Eternal Source of All things I
Enlighten man's reason with thy reason! Give of
thine abundance. Shine like a sun of everlasting righteousness. Let, O, let mine eyes behold the consistency
of thine attributes. Make me to see how perfect Love
could consent to fill the world with suffering; howperfect Goodness could originate a being so savage and
selfish as man; howperfect Wisdom could have justified itself in constructing a nature apparently so imperfect as man's; how perfect Justice could institute a
fixed government in which the strong is permitted to
crush the weak; how perfect Truth could ever be triumphant in a universe where hypocrisy is fashionable,
and false professions succeed on every hand; and finally,
I pray, 0, Father of All! to comprehend howperfect
Power can exist in thy nature, and, with thine other
perfect attributes, suffer to be perpetuated, year after
year and age after age, the innumerable evils and miseries which afflict the hutnan race.
", help me to bear my part oflife's work. Strengthen
my heart. with increasing love toward earth's wretched




14                 THE ARABULA.
millions. Guide to my side the feet of some angel mind,
so that I may be taught the lessons of infinite truth.
Help all who struggle into the light; and bless, with
the fullness of au everlasting blessing, all thy children
everywhere."




LIGHT IN DARiNESS.             15
CHAPTER IV.
LIGHT IN DARKNESS.
MAINF days and nights have I waited, overshadowed
and darkened in spirit-waiting for some response to
my prayer.  I look with dismay on the dense and
stifling atmosphere pervading the wretched and suffering world of human nature. I behold the dark breathings of universal selfishness —poisoning ttie very air
with evil emanations —blinding, polluting, degrading,
and filling with torment and consuming anxiety all
human hearts.
The gates of wealth are closed against the poor and
desolate. Sin and error walk abroad hand in hand.
They enter the temples of religion, and worship openly
the crafty supporters of superstition. Ignorance, selfishness, grossness, materialism, sensuality-the evil spirits
of civilization, dressed in the bright livery of wealth and
fashion-reside like princely demons in every human
habitation. Dwarfed and deformed, and burdened with
the mournful consciousness of living unworthily, appear
the people of every clime and country.
My inmost heart, I feared, was, with its latent energies and fond affections, rapidly withdrawing its sensibilities from mankind. For days did this heavy weight
rest upon my mind. What a mournful gloom! I began
to imagine that every person meditated mischief to promote selfish ends. It seemed to me that craftiness and




16                 THE ARABULA.
over-reaching keenness of perception were the chief
characteristics of my fellow-men. I felt miserably hopeless! The world was so crowded with sin, error, disease, wretchedness. Hell was not so bad, after all!
The saving ordinances and fiery doctrines of the most
fanatical adherents of orthodoxy seemed less offensive.
Without a shudder, I cried "fire!" "fire!"-the fire
which burns as an oven-the burning hell of God's
consuming vengeance-not too hot a fate for the beasts
and brutes and demons that make up the human race.
At length, after so long a night, blacker than Egyptian darkness, a grayish morning light streamed into
my soul's wilderness. For days and days I had but
feeble and shadowy gleams from truth's altar-fires.
There was no depth, no breadth, no vitality to my
thoughts. A miserable irresolution, an uncontrollable
chaos, a feeling of vague foolishness, and a dreary faithlessness, not to say worthlessness, pervaded and possessed my entire consciousness. Wails of grief, suggestions of indescribable despair, indifference toward my
dearest friends, an irresistible impulse to fret and quarrel with my circumstances-these, and unnumbered
other psychological states and temptations, accompanied
the approach of light.
My prayer was still unanswered. But " the answer
Qvill surely come!" I will possess my soul in patience.
A mysterious presence, like a divine and immortal
essence, floats in upon the whispering air. Surrounding forms and familiar objects seem more interesting.
Trees and shrubs in the garden, little flowering vines
by the window, the grasses on the lawn, the plumage
of birds in the cherry-trees, and the faces of my asso



LIGHT IN DMXKNESS.             17
ciates — all' things, both present and distant, seemed
touched and bathed with a sweet and tender light as
from the morning stars.
The refinement and beauty of this experience surpass
the power of language. Slowly, day by day, during
weeks of waiting and searching, the transforming light
crept in-so stealthily, at times, and so exquisitely sensitiv.e did it seem to be to the least interruption, I was
many times troubled with fear lest it would be withdrawn. It came upon me as sunlight gradually works
its way into the buds of little flowers in early springtime. My blindness was almost imperceptibly removed.
The vast void of space was being filled with the light
of innumerable worlds. It rolled over the earth like
the enkindling breath of God. The watch-fires in all
lhuman hearts burned with melodious effulgence. Men's
minds seemed to bloom with a holy significance, and
the life of the whole humanity emitted a fragrance that
suggested the celestial and everlasting. The effect of
the lig/t was like enchantment. The whole world was
pictured as in a mirage; lakes, groves, forests, castles,
oceans, cities, delightful landscapes, villas, beautiful
mansions, and the peoples of all lands walking by
streams, or workting in green pastures, toiling in fields
and in stores and factories, cultivating the hills, gardenizing the islands-all came up by the mirage-law
of reflection, and seemed as perfect in the immediate
atmosphere as the same delightful sceneries and human
beings would appear were they presented in an extended
landscape within reach of your ordinary sight.




18                THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER V.
THE CONFLICT.
UNDER the enchantment of the Light, which I have so
imperfectly described, the whole world seemed a fruitful
and ever-blooming land of inconceivable beauty and
immortal delights. I yearned to dwell fbrever in the
magnetical radiance of that celestial Light. My inmost
feelings glowed responsive to that incomprehensible
golden illumination. And yet, I was not at rest; was
far, far from the happiness I sought.
True, my feelings, which had grown misanthropic
and indifferent toward humanity, were lifted from their
dark and dismal dungeons of doubt, to a youthful love
of every thing human. But my intellectual principle,
which had covered my soul with a shroud of wintery
clouds, had not been answered. By its cold, accurate
perception of facts, I realized that men are selfish, false,
crafty, hypocritical, brutal, diabolical. With Shelley,
I acknowledged that "War is the statesman's game,
the lawyer's jest, the priest's delight, and the hired
assassin's trade."
Thus, while in heaven's holy radiance which shone
upon my heart, my intellect continued in painful darkness. The insignia of death appeared along the bloodcovered pathway of empires. Cupidity and ambition,
with robbery and death, looked out from every throne.
Crowned heads, inspired by pride and thirst for power,




THE CONFLICT.               19
the root of which is selfishness, forcing millions of men
into opposing armies, intent upon each other's destruction; while the kings and emperors, safe in strong castles above the work of death, look exultingly down upon
the smoky scene of young men, husbands and fathers,
struggling, shrieking, bleeding, slaughtering, cursing,
despairing, dying! With nly intelligence I perceived
these unspeakable calamities all through human history-the manifestations of man's selfishness, savage
cruelties, and brutal instincts.'Tis said that there is a joy in grief when peace dwells
in the breast of the sad. "But sorrow wastes the sorrowfil," said Ossian. "They fall away like the flower
on which the sun has looked in his strength, after the
mildew has passed over it, when its head is heavy with
the drops of the night." And such consuming sorrow
was mine, day by day, although the Light with peaceful radiance continued to shine upon every thing around
me. Have you not had a conflict between your heart
and head? Has not your bosom said "yes " to what
your brain said " no?" Had I believed in " faith," as
thousands in the world's pagodas unquestioningly do,
how easily could I have reposed my restless intellect.
But I could in principle surrender no part of my consciousness to the bewitchments of sentimentality and
hopeful faith. Once, yea, often, I had clearly seen, as
I thought, the solution of the problems now beclouding
and acidulating my being. Perhaps, methought, my
bodily condition is unholy. This reflection recalled the
saying of Pythagoras:  "That whatsoever obstructs
divination, or is prejudicial to the purity and sanctity
of the mind, to temperance, chastity, and habitual




20                THE BA-ABULA.
virtue, should be shunned; also that which is contrary
to purity and defiles the imagination at any time. That
the juvenile age should make trial of temperance-this
being alone of all the virtues, alike adapted to youths
and maidens and women, to all of advanced life; and
that it comprehended the goods both of body and soul,
and also the desire of the most excellent studies. He
thought boys were especially dear to divinity, and exhorted women to use words of good omen through the
whole of life, and to endeavor that others may predict
good things of them." Again, one of his disciples has
said: " Our first duties go abreast, comprehending the
care of the mind along with the body. Parents are
protectors of families and States; they stand for comfort, for nobility; for earth-husbandries and man-culture, not as Cattle Gods and Pantry Providences only;
but for State and family interests largely considered
and beautifully combined; for temperance, for thrift,
humanity, and the future." Investigation, however,
assured me that- the conflicts were not caused by my
habitual drinks and foods; but that I would find the
true causes of my trouble in the selfishness and limitations of intellect.




THE TRANSFORMATION.             21
CHIAPTER VI.
THE TRANSFORMATION.
THE conflict continued, day by day, until the Light
had almost gone! The fierce war of selfish intelligence
and unselfish intuition. The preponderance of intellect
was massively on the side of debasing selfishness and
all-absorbing personal interests.
Yet, thanks to Omniscient goodness! under the sunlight stealthily slipped the supernal star-shine of impersonal purity and unmixed justice. It flooded the fields
untder the sunlight, so to speak; it lifted the colors of
flowers; it flowed, like a river of liquid jewels, over the
wavy bosom of streams; it made music in the careless
songs of wild birds; it spread a carpet of velvety gold
under the living green grasses of field and lawn; it
loaded the air with holy, healing fragrances, like the
breathings of unnumbered flowers; it cushioned, with
bright green mosses, the cold stones by the roadside;
it diffused a sacramental wine through all the waters
of well and spring; it poured a glorious Sabbath through
the hours of every day; it emitted marvelous music
through the AEolian harp of wide-spread elms, and
dark, tall pine-trees; it imparted an indescribably loving tenderness to the voices of my friends; it filled
with a beautiful gladness the laughter of children; it
invested domestic animals with attitudes and expressions more wondrous and varied than was ever imagined




22                THE ARABULA.
by Phidias; it changed all manhood into Apollos of
matchless grace and beauty; and all womanhood it
transformed into Minervas of wisdom, love, freedom,
truth, purity, and harmony. And I prayed" O, Omniscient Father! I beseech thee to let this
Light become part of my soul's possessions.  With
words, my soul can neither approach nor worship thee;
with thoughts, I cannot tell the boundlessness of my
tearful, joyful gratitude. Translate, 0, I pray thee, all
these wonder-working living lessons into my reasoning
faculties. Permit me, very reverently, to perceive
intellectually the plenitude of the truth within this
Light."




WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE.          23
CHAPTER VII.
WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE.
THE blissful hour lived in that world-lifting Light
made the succeeding hours-when Intellect was preeminently positive, politic, active, and selfish-exceedingly dark and dismal.
0, the memory of the pain of that reaction! What
despairing disappointment, when, coming out of the
enchantments of that holy Light, I realized that my
thoughtful brain was not nerved anew, as I had so fervently prayed and hoped, for the impending conflict of
the Right against the Wrong.
Indeed, I was alarmingly proud and: willful. To
the Truth I had no objection, if it only came as I
wanted it; if it was not inconvenient; and if it did
not command me to sacrifice any worldly possession or
personal conmfort. And thus I reasoned:
There is no disguising mankind's groveling and revolting selfishness. Prominent influential men-capitalists, monopolists, slave-dealers, money-changers-are
heartless, cruel, villainous. What care they for the
divine Light? "Practical righteousness," in the opinion
of such stone-hearted oppressors, consists in systematically worshiping the " almighty dollar," and constructing a Parthenon of aristocratic nabobs, by which the
poor working classes shall always be kept poor, and all
through the strong arm of the church and government.




21               THE ARABULA.
If I turn reformer, I must BREAST all this mighty array
of money and interlaced power. In place of" money"
I must offer arLn; in place of " falsehood " I must present Y'r-uth; instead of "fashion" I must preach Freedon,; I must substitute for " lust" the holy principle
of love; instead of " war," my voice must ever be for
Peace; and in place of " parties " in government and
" sects " in religion, I must insist upon unmixed Princ;ples, and the familyhood and equality of all members
of the human raoe.
"What!" indignantly exclaimed I-" Does the reformer's work require me to breast this stupendous
opposition? Am I called upon by an incomprehensible,
an unreasoning, a mysterious' Light' to take a public
stand, like a living monument of sacrifice, or like a
target, inviting the arrows of every popular pimp of
church and government, and receiving the bitter scorn
and unconcealed contempt of every urchin, because he
is safe in the fortifications of established society?"
The prospect was becoming darker and darker every
moment. And the Light! Alas, that was GONE; and,
what is worse, I scarcely remembered it; my intellect
was keen, and so logical! So capable of philosophizing
on the question of duties and consequences! iy understanding of men, and my knowledge of the fate meted
out to the world's saviors, cautioned me. " Don't make
a sacrifice of the best years of your life, Jackson," wisely
whispered my bright and practical intellect. And thus
it continued, looking every moment more and more like
the sovereign pontiff of worldly sagaciousness.
"Now examine the question. in all its bearings. Of
course, being benevolent, you love humanity, and wish




WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE.           25
it well, and all that. Sentimental young men usually
experience impulses of generosity, and ofttiines long to
engage in deeds of disinterested benevolence, but a few
years of contact with the solid facts of the world effectu.
ally dissipates their reformatory propensities. In fact,
if you can but wait ten years, he who was an ardent
reformer at twentv-five, will unblushingly decline taking an open, active part in unpopular questions. In
substance he will confess, thus:"'True, I love freedom; I think slaves are human
beings, and therefore ought not to be held in bondage;
I am progressive in sentiment-but, but, but I can't
act with you; indeed, I am deeply engaged in the
church; I am very much engrossed with our political
party; I am absorbed in business; in other words, I
have taken,unto mysef a vwife, aid t-erefore canswt
come.'"
"'Why, my dear Sir," continued the wise-headed
magistrate, " your common sense of what is prudent
and expedient will convince you that your demand, that
educated, professional, and business men should be
reformers, is, in the extreme, absutrd. They are- involved in new interests, have'taken unto themselves
wives, and have devoted their talents and energies to
new responsibilities. This is about what the best of
men, once warmly engaged in reforms, will, with some
sarcastic mortification, privately confess:' Oh, I cannot
but think favorably of your reforms, although I dare
not publicly avow my favorable opinion. Yet I am so
absorbed in what the world calls religion; so intent in
looking after God's interests and glory, I cannot attend
to man's wants and interests; and inasmuch as I have
2




26                THE ARAIBULA,
sold myself-soul and body-to my party, sect, and
business interests, together with my desire to attain
wealth and social position, I cannot engage in that
which is unpopular, and which requires earnest thought
and manly action."'




BECOMING AN ATHEIST.           27
CHAPTER VIII.
BECOMING AN ATHEIST.
THE Light! The Light! Where is it? O, where
is that river of celestial amber which.flowed like music
through the meadow slopes; which so illuminated and
pictured the earthly solitudes; which wreathed willowy
groves and pond-lilies in dreamy beauty; which brooded
over the boughs of trees, like the golden haze of autuinnal splendors; where —O, where is the Light that filled
all the world with clusters of eternal love and beauty?
0, soul-enchanting Light! 0, kindling, unfolding, floating, flooding, pleading, saving Light! Where art thou?
Without thee I am covered with a thick cloud of intellectual selfishness-verily, I am plunged in a bottomless
vortex of " outer darkness," where naught is heard but
the fiendish conflict of human passions, the murderous
antagonisms of strong men against strong men-an
outer world of woe and hopelessness, with "w eeping
and wailing and gnashing of teeth."
I have prayed-with my whole intellect and heart, I
have prayed. Why am I not answered? If there is a
God, if,; in the far-off imnmensity, there is an intelligent
Omniscient brain, called God, ewhy, in God's name, does
not that brain answer my brain's qucstions 2 Why does
not God's heart give rest to my painful heart? Truly has
it been said, "by searching none can find out God."
Why not, if, there is a God? Is it not true that the




28                THEE ARABULA.
most strenuous God-believers confess that it is only a
belief with them; that they really know nothing on the
subject?  Where shall we search for the existence of
God? Enter the material world; ask the Sciences
whether they can disclose the mystery?. Geology
speaks of the structure of the earth, the formation of
the different strata, of coal, of granite, of the whole
mineral kingdom. It reveals the remains and traces of
animals long extinct, but gives us no clue whereby we
may prove the existence of a God.
Natural History gives us a knowledge of the animal
kingdom in general; the different organisms, structures,
and powers of the various species. Physiology teaches
the nature of man, the laws that govern his being, the
functions of the vital organs, and the conditions upon
which alone health  and life depenld.  Phrenology
treats of the laws of the mind, the different portions of
the brain, the temperaments, the organs, how to develop
some and repress others to produce a well-balanced and
healthy condition. But in the whole animal economy
-though the brain is considered to be a " microcosm,"
in which may be traced a resemblance, or relationship
with every thing in Nature-not a spot can be found to
indicate the existence of a God.
Mathematics lays the foundation of all the exact
sciences. It teaches the art o combining numnbers,
of calculating and measuring distances, how to solve
problems, to weigh mountains, to fathom the depths of
the ocean, but gives us no directions how to ascertain
the existence of a God.
Enter Nature's great laboratory-Chemistry.  She
will speak to you of the various elements, their corn



BECOMING AN ATHEIST.           29
bimations and uses, of the gases constantly evolving
and combining in different proportions, producing all
the varied objects, the interesting and important phenomena we behold. She proves the indestructibility
of matter, and its inherent property —motion; but in
all her operations no demonstrable fact can be obtained
to indicate the existence of a God.
Astronomy tells us of the wonders of the Solar
System-the eternally revolving planets, the rapidity
and certainty of their motions, the distance from planet
to planet, from star to star. It predicts, with astonishing and marvelous precision, the phenomenon of
eclipses, the visibility on our earth of comets, and
proves the immutable law of gravitation, but is entirely
silent on the existence of a God.
In fine, descend into the bowels of the earth, and
you will learn what it contains; into the depths of the
ocean, and you will find the'inhabitants of the great
deep; but neither in the earth above nor the waters
below can you obtain any knowledge of His existence.
Ascend into the heavens, and enter the " milky way,"
go from planet to planet to the remotest star, and ask
the eternally revolving systems, Where is God? and
echo answers, Where?
The Universe of /Matter gives us no record of his existence. Where next shall we search?  Enter the Universe of Mlind, read the millions of volumes written on
the subject, and in all the speculations, the assertions,
the assumptions, the theories, and the creeds, you will
find that Man has stamped an indelible impress of his
own mind on every page. In describing his God, he
delineated his own character; the picture he drew




30                 THE ARABULA.
represents in living and ineffaceable colors the epoch
of his existence —the period he lived in.
It was a great mistake to say that God made man
in his image. MIan, in all ages, made his God in his
own image; and we find that just in accordance with
his civilization, his knowledge, his experience, his taste,
his refinement, his sense of right, of justice, of freedom, and humanity,-so has he made his God. But
whether coarse or refined; cruel and vindictive, or kind
and generous; an implacable tyrant, or a gentle and
loving father; —it still was the emanation of his own
mind-the picture of himself.
It is pretended that God made man perfect. But
after he pronounced the world "good," which included
the human pair, he suddenly found that ncan was desperately wicked!  Then it is pretended that God invented different plans for the redemption of man. He
first tried the universal flood-process; but the human
world was not one whit improved. Then he was forced to
resort to the last sad alternative of sending " his onlybegotten son," his second self, to save manlkind. But
alas! "his own received him not," and so lie was oblliged
to adopt the Gentiles, and die to save the world.  Did he
succeed, even then? Is the world saved?  Saved! from
what?  From inorance?  It is all around us.  Fromn
poverty, vice,  crime sill, shanle, and misery?  They
abound everywhere. Look into your poorhouses, your
prisons, your lunatic asylums; contemplate the whip,
the instruments of torture, and of death; ask the murderer, or his victim; listen to the raving of the maniac,
the shrieks of distress, the groans of despair; mark the
cruel deeds of the tyrant, the crimes of slavery, the




BECOMING AN ATHEIST.               31
suffering of the oppressed; count the millions of lives
lost by fire, by water, and by the sword; measure the
blood spilled, the tears-shed, the sighs of agony drawn
from the expiring victims on the altar of fanaticism;and tell me from  what the world was saved.  And
why was it not saved? Why does God still permit
these horrors to afflict the race? Does omniscience not
know it?  Could omnipotence not do it?  Would infinite wisdom, power, and goodness allow his children
thus to live, to suffer, and to die? No! Humanity
revolts against such a supposition.
Look around you, and confess that there is no eviidence of intelligence, of design, and consequently of a
designer? I see no evidence of either. What is intelligence? It is not a thing, a substance, an existence in
itself, but simply a property of matter, manifesting
itself through organizations.  We have no knowledge
of, nor can we conceive of, intelligence apart from
organized matter; and we find that from the smallest
and simplest insect, through all the links and gradations
in Nature's great chain, up to man —-just in accordance
with the organism, the amount, and quality of brain, so
are the capacities to receive impressions, the power to
retain them, and the abilities to manifest and impart
them to others, —namely, to have its peculiar nature
cultivated and developed, so as to bear mental fruits,
just as the cultivated earth bears vegetation-physical
fruits. Not being able to recognize an independent
intelligence, I can perceive no design or designer except
in the works of man.*
* The foregoing is the substance of a Lecture by Mrs. Ernestine L.
Rose, delivered in Boston, Mass., 1861. It is an able and eloquent
statement of the argument for Atheism.




32                 THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER IX.
PARTS AGAINST THE'WHOLE.
EMBODIMENT" of all wisdom, is the human Intellect!
Its conceits are stupendous, its grasp is gigantic, its
sublimations of argument truly marvelous, its selfimportance —ah, that is greatest of all!
Intellect, knowledge, is, after all, but on e-third of
that wondrous organization called the human mind;
and it is also the poorest third of the conscious mentality; and, for this reason, probably, it is the most
pedantic and self-asserting.  The roots of intellect
[Knowledge, see Gt. Har. vol. 4, et seq.] start from
Experience.  The trunk, branches, and fruit of the
knowledge-tree, constitute Memory. Of itself destitute
of vitality. Its possessions are acquired from the realm
of things without. 3Much knowledge in a man's mindthe details whereof have no existence save in Memoryis like much furniture in his house. It may serve him,
and promote his' selfish interests, or it may oppress and
stultify his entire nature.  Unfashionable knowledge is
as mortifying to pride as are unfashionable clothes, or
furniture in the mansion out of date.
The highest discovery of intellect is fragmentary and
fleeting; the hour-fact rooted in the hour-experience;
the rest is the c/C.an.ce that through memory and judgment, the individual may be profited.  Only a highler
alculty than intellect in man can discern the limits of




PARTS AGAINST TIHE WHOLE.           33
the powers of his intellect. The voice of the whole
nature can alone reveal what the whole nature yearns
to possess.  The whole can alone sit in judgment upon
the testimony of the parts.  The intellect can in its own
right freely criticise, condemn, or justify the instincts;
but the instincts have the advantage of being radicals
(or roots), while intellect is nothing but the furniture
and accumulated trappings of sensuous experience.
The instincts naturally rise, like birds of paradise, into
the mind's higher imponderable atmosphere; and there
they rapidly change from " creeping things" into angelwinged INTUITIONS, with clairvoyant powers and boundless aspirations. The policies and limitations of intellect shrink away from the higher powers like aftrighted
fowls beneath the lofty courage of the soaring eagle.
These reflections disturbed my atheistic conclusions,
but these reflections did not come until I had passed
through what is described in the next chapter.
2*




34               TIHE ARABULA.
CHAPTER X.
THE ARABULA.
FOR a few days I was mentally plethoric with the
intellectual negation of atheism.  While puffed with
this self-satisfying conviction, that I had argumentatively annihilated the stupid superstition of a God,
I enjoyed my mind comfortably. The idea of seeking
"Light" out of the usual course was given up forever;
and with it went the correlative idea of sacrificing my
personal interests to promote the interests and happiness of others. My conclusion was, "I will do what I
can for others' benefit when it does not cost me more
than others bestow; in other words, I will do all I can
consistently with my idea of the opportunities and
abilities I may have for doing." In short, my philanthropy was narrowed down to thinkiny benevolently and
acting as selfishly as any Turk or Christian in the
neighborhood.
Alas! what darkness settled upon my feelings.
Wretchedness was my lot. One day I walked away, f'ar
away up the mountain-a godless and hopeless mortal;
and there, away from the world, and forgetting my profound atheistic arguments, I bowed my spirit in prayer!
"Light, more Light!" was the burden of my supplications.
My temples throbbed with birth-throes; and my
unhappy heart, weighed down with feelings of unfaith



THE ARABULA.                35
fulness to truth, seemed to lose its pulsating power;
mry breath was suspended, and a holy silence reigned.
Lo, the Light! In a moment it seemed to flood the
mountains with an indescribable glory.  Through
green  meadows, overflowing  waters, between the
overhanging branches of forest-trees; everywhere it
floated and tremblingly baptized the world.
My intellect was for a brief period marvelously
enlarged, or, rather, l'fted into a new perception of
things. I thought of resisting, but my will was not
with my thought, and so, like a bird in the viewless air,
I sped away into t/he light —INTO THE LIGHT!
Strange to relate! My thoughts roamed over passages in different books, in which the expression
"light" occurs, and with the expression I instantly
comprehended an impressive signification. "The light
of wicked men shall be put out."  The truth of that
I had tested; for when I was selfish, I was in darkness.
"To the upright ariseth light in darkness."  That was
my experience then. "Thy light Shall break forth as
the morning."  I prayed that it might be so. "Let
your light shine before men." My intellect said, "No;"
but the remaining two-thirdCs of my being said, "Yesp,"
"What communion hath light with darkness?"  I
thought there could be no intercourse between the two
states. "God is light, and in him is no darkness."  I
prayed to dwell in Him for evermore.
While occupied with these passages and meditations,
and breathing joyful thanks for my deliverance, I heard
a voice, saying, "I am Arabula;  I am the light of the
world; he that followeth me shall have light and life;
he that loveth me keepeth my commandments."




36                THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER XI.
THE MYSTERIY.
THAT night I could not sleep.  A new problem was
pressing for solution. 0, that low, sweet voice! That
still, small voice! Was it spoken by the tongue of
some personality?  What angel-lipped being was it
that said, "I am the light of the world?" As I heard
it I seemed to be sitting by the ancient fountains of
inspiration. The infinite presence of an indefinable
intelligence brooded lovingly upon all around me.
The distance-softened music of the human world, like
the breathing whisperings of gently waving pine-trees,
floated through the trembling air, and filled my receptive soul with brave and faithful love toward the
family-hood of man.
Delightful and chastening as was my experience,
and fresh and youthful and new-born as were my feelings, yet the problem —' Did that low, sweet, still'small voice come from the mouth of a person?"-prepossessed my thoughts. It did not sound like a human
voice, nor like the voice of any spiritual personage, but
rather like the voice and language that one's imagination might give to flowers; or like, in your fancy,
making the air to think and speak as though it were a
person. There was in that voice the vagueness I have
described, but in no other respect or quality. By
association of ideas, very naturally, my mind could not




THE MYSTiRY.                37
but think of s "Jesus."  Sacred history records that
such a personage made use of many of the words I
heard.
But the expression, " I am Arabulca " —words which
seemed, like the others, to have spontaneously formed
themselves in my mind as the true definition of the
quality of the Light-started the whole train of questions now under review.
Can a person be everywhere at the same moment?
Is it possible for a person to flood the whole world with
Light  Can a person be omnipresent in history? Could
a person have taught the primeval Greek intelligences,
Socrates and Plato, intuitively to know all wisdom?
When Prometheus lay chained to the rock, and the
Mhuses were instructing the gods, and the colossal Sphinx
of black basalt in the Libyan Mountains was being
sculptured to represent what is inscrutable and inexorable in the universe, was all the Light in the brains
and b1osolms of men derived from one person?
The serious-hearted world is yearningly praying for
Light. " I am the light of the world," says the Arabula. "Ile that loveth me will keep my commandments."  This Arabula is the world's religious mystery.
It appears in the philosophical, moral, and spiritual
teachings of Persians, Indians, Chinese, Jews, Greeks,
Romans, Christians. It is peculiar to no people; to no
religion; to no- sect of believers; to no epoch or era in
human history. It invariably enters the world by birth
of a virgin state of mind; it performs wonders in healing the sick; it is powerful in overthrowing kingdoms;
it everywhere dies upon the cross; and it, for a time,
leaves the world by ascending above the world. It is




38                 THE ARAIBULA.
worshiped as a God by some; is denounced as a Devil
by others. It is practically peaceful; yet it divides families, sunders States, and destroys governments. It loves
the companionship of the down-trodden and wretched;
yet it enters the temples of rich priests, and holds controversies with the chief dignitaries of the empire. It
is powerful with words; preaches sermons on mountains
and in cities; fearlessly rebukes sin, forgives the lost
women; stills the tempest, brings the dead to life; and,
lastly, having no power over evil chieftains of the State,
it falls into the hands of executioners, and dies, forgiving
its enemies and blessing every thing human.
Is this mystery a person? Do you not perceive its
presence in all the good men do, and in all the truth
they speak? When a volume of Light shines into the
world, regardless by whom or by what it shines, do you
not discern the samne q'talities, though differing in
quantity according to person, circumstance, condition,
or country? Verily, in all this there is a mystery; which
demands research and further elucidation.




MOUNTAIN MEDITATIONS.            39
CHAPTER XII.
MOUNTAIN MEDITATIONS.
FROM wanderings long and wild, from society and its
mockeries, from selfish thought and bitter speech, I
come, like an over-wearied child, to live forever in the
Eternal Life of God. The soft, low voice, that still
whispering witness in my heart, calls me, and-I come,
I go, I am thine.
Henceforth, whatever is selfish will be visited with
my fiercest anathema. The soul that would live for
itself alone, is a libel on God's noblest work.  The
stagnant pond is typical of selfishness. It is still and
slimy, and gathers to itself from earth and sky, giving
nothing freely but disease and death.  Selfishness is
morbid and evil-thinking. It generates misfortune and
diffuses the seeds of desolation.
But hills and lakes and mountains are typical of
benevolence and boundless hospitality. They welcome
the world. The smiles of unnumbered suns lie upon
their honest faces. Their palpitating bosoms are filled
with the divine life. The winds breathe upon them.
Thlley tenderly touch every bending leaf and drooping
flower. The songs of the day dwell among the hills.
The ineffable melody of mountains is akin to the
majestic anthem of ages. A sweet and pensive sadness floats into the listening soul. The ethereal music
of harmonious dreams pervades the hills and the moun



40                THE ARABULA.
tains. Like the incense of true worship from a thousand
hearts, like the holy music of the world of celestial stars,
are the sacred sounds of the everlasting hills.
0, beautiful and grand is the vesper song of Nature.
Let my spirit flow into thy spirit —my life and thine
blend-my heart and thy heart be one through eternal
ages. I would pillow my head upon thy bosom. MIy
soul would inhale the immortal fragrance of thy bright
and beautiful flowers.  Amid thy grandeur my soul
feels its divine origin, and holds unspeakable communion
with immeasurable things.  The breathings of the
mountains are like the soundings of the distant sea. My
soul catches the inspirations of long-departed ages, and
my thoughts tenderly touch the thoughts of angels, who,
with the light feet of dancers, tread the celestial mountains of light away in the clear blue. The sweet fieshness of their breath comes like the gentle ministrations
of fields. The ringing brook and the singing bird come
over the hills. The green arches of the woods are full
of heavenly music.
But the charity of mountains is vast and unsympathetic. Snow lingers long on their summits. Cold and
frosts dwell with them. They breast the winter ternpests, and keep the warmth of summer long waiting in.
the valleys. The sun smiles genially upon gentle slope
and verdant vale, while the mountains catch few of his
golden blessings. Yet the world without the templed
mountains would be poor and mean. Overwhelming
symbols of God's omnipotence are the earth's mighty
masses of rocks, towering heavenward, clad with trees,
and set amid lakes and fields of eternal beauty and
abundance. They teach that nothing lives for itself.




MOUNTAIN MEDITATIONS.            41
They elevate man's soul to heavenly heights. Lowlands
and murmuring brooklets receive their verdure and
music from the mountains. Rain descends from lofty
places. The gentle dew is distilled upon highest slopes.
The teeming harvest-fields owe their wealth to the high
lands and sterile peaks.
Go upon the mountains, O my soul, and learn of God
-the Universal Father and Friend-and of Naturethe Mlother and Lover of countless hosts. Speak to
me! Tell me the sublime story of your origin. Lift
my reason in gratitude to its divine source. Cause tile
lessons of infinity to occupy my thoughts. I would
dwell with ye, O holy mountains! There is grandeur
in the expression of your significance. In the wildness
and freshness of your unchangeable leisure my soul
takes ineffable delight. Heaven's repose is symboled
forth by your immovable stillness. The beautiful sky
bends lovingly over ye-like the spiritual heights, with
their unmeasured opulence, spanning the fields of Paradise. The realms of the mountains, with their everlasting tranquillity, attract the lovers of wild woods
and untraversed ravines. Earth's savage beasts cling
to the mountains. The Father gave them his grandest
forests. They roam amid waterfalls and roaring cataracts,
sleep upon the shoulders of beetling cliffs, build their
beds amid craggy gorges, on the sides of mountains.
And wild fowls scream, while gentle birds pour forth
their harmonious melodies in worshipful gratitude to
the Infinite Father. They live and sing among the
mountains, to help on the world of matter and mind.
Not one lives for itself.  The lesson of charity-of




42               THE ARABULA.
free and boundless benevolence-is taught by every
thing.
O, my soul, look up and learn of the mountains. Go
upon the hills of God.




HAPPINESS NOT COMPLETE.          43
CHAPTER XIII.
HAPPINESS NOT COMPLETE.
FOR many days after the interview with the mysterious " Arabula," my whole nature seemed light as
the air and thoughtless as an innocent child. Every
thing was "good "-the nighlt, for it brought out the
holy stars —pairn, for it unfolded the infinite blessings
of pleasure-seflshqness, for it revealed the divinity of
benevolence-briers, for they shielded and protected
flowers while blooming-skepticism, for it compels the
soul to search and learn the lesson of fundamental
principles-darkness, for it brings out the spirit's inherent love of everlasting Light.
And so I was exultingly enjoying religion! I had a
bewildering, dreamy, luxurious " faith in God," which,
methought, nothing could disturb or darken.  The
familiar rills in the meadow laughed with joy. The
abundant weeds in the garden were performing a hallowed mission. With new eyes I looked upon human
wretchedness.  I was not troubled, although battlearrayed men were that moment fiendishly slaughtering
each other in bloody war! Trustingly and lovingly,
like a child led by its fond and faithful mother, I
walked with God in the flowery garden of all-harmonizing truth. And day by day I rejoiced exceedingly, was light and glad beyond expression.




44                THE ARABULA.
But, alas! one morning I came from my slumbers
with a heavy, cloud-covered heart. I could not account
for it. "Am I not happy 2" thought I. "Have I not
beheld the flowery mount of God's inextinguishable
Nwisdom? Do I not t'ust all his ways, and walk therein
nnquestioningly?"  And  thus, in  my unexpected
wretchedness, I complainingly interrogated for the
causes of the change in my feelings.
Before the evening of that day, I had found the
secret of my unrest and depression. It was this (and
the confession is made with reluctance and mortification): I was not cured of nztellectucd seflshhness.
fNow, look at my case: I was happy, was comfortably
and contentedly situated in my daily circumstances at
home, was knowingly surrounded withl the heavenly
influences emanating from angel realms of life; and
thus (I fain would think), all unconsciously to myself,
I was like a sordid and piratical miser, selfishly subordinating and appropriating the whole to my individual
benefit and gratification.
Concerning the world outside, I said: "Let the
world take care of itself. It's all about right as it is.
What's the use of fretting about what others say, or
think, or do?  Take care of yourlself! If every one
would but take care of one and that one himself or
herself, the world would get along comfortably, and
everybody be contented and happy. Now, Jackson,
don't disturb yourself about other' folks' welfare.
They don't care a farthing whether you live or die.
Every one lives and dies on his own'hook! This effort
of yours, to liberate by education the children of indifferent parents, who don't half protect and care for




HAPPINESS NOT COMPLETE.           45
themselves, is a mistaken benevolence. You can do
better by looking after your own children. If you've
got money to spare, spend it all on your own family;
make your garden beautiful and your house elegant;
indulge in a first-class horse and carriage; wear plenty
of the best jewelry; and dress yourself and f'amily in
silks and fine linen, and eat and drink the best you can
get. Yes, you've got'the light' now; you are now
happy; now let well enough alone."




46                THE ABZr ULA.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE DIFFERENCE.
My patient and thoughtful reader, doubtless, already
understands my state better than I myself did. It
must appear manifest that "The Arabula"  had
entered with truth's amazing splendor, and lifted my
intuitions and affections far above the bonds and ties
of the world; had disintegrated my personality from
all entangling terrestrial associations; and had put me
in sacred communication with the Divine Principle,
which is THE CENTRAL GOOD of all persons, places, times,
institutions, religions, states, observances, impressions,
convictions, and inspirations.
But is it necessary to record that my Intellect-the
third, poorest, experience-rooted part of man's mental
structure-was not correspondingly unencumbered and
enlightened. In that quarter I was not saved; was
still atheistic and selfish; was local in my perceptions,
temporal in my tendencies, and individual in my
appetites and desires. Intellectually I could hold no
rational communication with the rest of my consciousness. Therefore, as quick as the Arabula's low, sweet
voice was still, the loud-mouthed words of pompous
Intellect sounded authoritatively in my thoughts. In
substance he said:
" Be not deceived. Instead of solid argument beneath




THE DIFFERENCE.-             47
you, and deductions based upon the experimental
demonstrations of science, you go headlong into sentimentality. Poetry is all well enough in its place; so
are painting and music-and the Fine Arts generallyvery good pastimes; but, man! what can they give to
satisfy your skeptical Intellect a Come, stand up for
yourself; look facts in the face, and confess there is no
God."
Thus Intellect, wily and unprincipled per se, perplexed, tpampered, and harassed me; and 0, how
fearfully did its protests damage the touching, impressive teachings of Arabula!
The depredations and intimations of Intellect were
fatal the moment I lost communication with the
interior illumination. It seemed to me that this conflict was unnecessary; that it was attributable to lack
of balance; but, in this respect, I found that I had, in
the world about me, plenty of company.
And these counterparts, strange to say, were mostly
in the churches. I noticed that there was so much of
the world in the churches, it was impossible that the
churches should ever improve the world. Selfishness
had invaded the sanctuary.  Every member was
anxious to secure his ozon salvation, from the machinations of an imaginary personal devil (the personation
of wily selfishness) and from an everlasting hell-the
fabled conservatory of what was too bad to be redeemed
by omniscient goodness.
I noticed, furthermore, that the churches were supported by men, who, bent on their own salvation,
habitually shut their ears to the pressing wants of the
world's working and hell-going millions. The churches




48                 TIHE ARABULA.
claim to be the reservoir of all private worth, of all
publlic virtue, of all sinless charity.  But behold!
The broad, comfortable pews are loaded with the
heartless devotees of hlot-house aristocracy; with commercial gamblers; with the villains of speculation;
with languid, listless, indifferent, godless dyspeptics;
with cloistered, convented, lip-serving dogmatists;
with atonement-seeking cowards of traditional piety,
who deare not imitate the example of Jesus-the public
physician, the unconventional preacher, the associate
of publicans and sinners, the philanthropist, the open
friend of the poor and unfortunate!  If religion consists in conveying, by acts, God's life into the life of
society; if it consist in enlarging and spiritualizing the
streams of public morals; in ministering to the necessities of the sick, the outcast, and in alleviating the conditions of the struggling millions of poor men and
women; in improving the structure of society, which,
by its present selfishness and shameless injustice, generates one hundred criminals to one saving angel; if it
consist in practical efforts to prevent the insane, rash,
and reckless struggle for wealth; in overcoming the
heartless extravagance about the persons and in the
homes of the so-called higher classes-if true religion
consist in these works of righteousness, and in loving
your neighbor as you love yourself — then, then-why,
the plain truth must be acknowledged, there is no true
religion in the established churches of the nineteenth
century.




A GEOGRAPHICAL GOD IMPOSSIBLE.       49
CHAPTER XV.
A GEOGRAPHICAL GOD IMPOSSIBLE.
ANY metaphysical revelation that violates the
positive requirements of the intellect, is no aid to
human progress; yet, there is in man's mind a
power-call it the INTUITION of all his thinking and
feeling faculties-which transcends the perceptions,
capacities, and attainments of his Intellect; a faculty
of PURE REASON, to which the knowledge-acquiring
faculties are constitutionally subservient, while they
protect and guard the whole mental nature from myths
and sentimental delusions.
The chief error of the religious world consists in
heeding the mysterious intimations of the higher and
intuitional, to the exclusion of the legitimate offices and
truly friendly guardianship -of the intellectual part.
Hence the discrepancies and vagaries of supernaturalism, so repugnant to every philosophical mind, because
they are impossibilities in the very nature of things.
The intellect has a self-ruling and self-governing power,
which, while it brings to its possessor a sure and perfect
knowledge of its own limitations, acts beneficially and
conservatively in protecting the higher faculties from
error and extravagance.
It was an error in my interpretation of the "Arabula" to suppose that it was a person who addressed




50                THlE ARABULA.
me. And yet it said, or, rathler, I made it say, " I am
come a LIGIIT into the world, that whosoever believeth
on me should not abide in darckness."  In  thle
presence of that illumination I realized the existence
of a fundamental, unchangeable, and impersonal PRINCIPLE-which also seemed like an invisible personagewhich could, would, and did judge me not only, but all
mankind, and also possessed the power of saving me
and all who would love him (or it) and follow his (or its)
commandments. Without Intellect I should hereafter
be superstitious, and a believer in the supernatural;
with it, guided by the more profound love of eternal
truth, I am saved and reconciled.
To say that the Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world, emanates from a person, is to
annihilate all relation and proportion between cause
and effect.  Give God:geographical limitations and
you destroy his infinite existence; in other words,
Intellect detects your absurdity, and proclaims your
atheism. A special history, limited to time and space,
with local associations and worldly events, are compatible to finite beings. The shocking absurdity of
Christendom consists in affirming the philosophical and
scientfilc impossibility that the Infinite once had a
local, special, finite expression. Until that stumblingblock is removed, there will be, in the religious and
theological world, no progression. Intellect, without
trying to enter the saving light-realm of Arabula, will
advance the Arts and.Sciences; and, adhering resolutely to its positive requirements for experimental
knowvledge, will end in atheism, selfishness, and disgust.




IMkPERSONALITY OF ARABULA.       5S
CIIAPTER  XVI.
IMPERSONALITY OF ARABULA.
LIKE the " desire of the night for the morning" was
my persevering prayer for one prolonged communion
with the white golden Light, which had burst through
the selfishness of Intellect and enfranchised my-being.
One afternoon far spent, when the sun was gathering
in its evening urn the ashes of its day of golden burnings, I walked to a sequestered seat beneath the dark
nlaples, and resigned my soul to the voice of Eternal
Light.
The dawn's rays, awakening the depths of intuitive
life and love, entered my being and blessed me. Father
Eternal! Thy universe is loaded and flooded with love,
light, hope, and harmony.  The dismal darkness of
selfishness has departed. All is charity, faith, unfathomable goodness, infinite perfection. Moments, days,
years, ages! They appear and disappear like the lights
and shadows among flowers and trees. Persons, famnilies, races, empires! They come and go like tile rise
and fall of waves upon the ocean's bosom. Heavenly
Voice of Light! O, let me askINITELLECT.-" I-Iow can I comprehend thee?"
ARABULA. — " By studying my manifestations."
INT.-" HOW am I to commence 2"
ARA. —" With the history of mankind."




52                THE ARABULA..
INT.-" Does the history of mankind contain evidences
of your presence."
ARA.-" I am inseparable from human life; for I am
the LIGHT, which lighteth every man that cometh into
the world."
INT.-" How can I comprehend this mystery a?"
ARA.-" It is no mystery. hIy life is your life; my
light is your light; my existence is your existence."
INT.-" Do you mean that heaven lies about man in
his infancy; or, that we are nearer God when innocent
and youthful?"
ARA.-" Not that alone. I am born into man's intellectual consciousness only through the virgin motherthe love of the soul for truth."
INT.-" IS the soul's love for Truth an evidence of its
virginity?"
ARA. —" When the soul loves Truth for selfish purposes, it is lustful and corrupted.  A virgin soul is
single-eyed for Truth, and in the love of such a soul the
Saviour is born."
INT.-" What Saviour?"
ARA. —" The Light."
INT. —" From what does the Light save man?"
ARA.-" It judges his actions, approves his virtues,
condemns his evils, rewards his obedience, punishes his
transgressions, shines into his darkness, rebukes his
selfishness, overthrows his skepticism, lifts him above
the animals, and makes him immortal."
INT.-" What are the circumstances under which this
virgin mother brings man's Saviour into the world?"
ARA.-" In the utmost simplicity-a manger of natural relationships is the cradle, wherein the holy mother




IMPERSONALITY OF ARABULA.           53
reposes her babe, to the surprise of worldly shepherds,
beneath the wandering stars of power, compelling the
admiration of proud magi in Science, and rejoicing the
hearts of watching angels."
IINT.-" Why do you speak after the manner of a received history of the birth of a personage.?"
ARA. —" Because that history is the familiar drapery
worn by an Eternal Verity."
INT. —" What Eternal Verity?"
ARA.-" This!'That that Light,'which is the light
of the world,' the living Emmanuel in the minds and
hearts of men, is born of a virgin, is cradled in simplicity, preaches to the world, works wonders among
the selfish, is too certainly,crucified, dies into temporary darkness, is most loved by women, is guarded
by angels, is resurrected, is revealed in greater glory on
the mountain of experience, and in clouds of light
returns to continue the work of salvation among
men."
INT.-"IS Christ the name of an historical personage?"
ARA.'Christ is an ancient title for the present
word,'Arabula'-an idea, the mystery of Judean religionists, the sacred Shekinah of the Oriental secret
sects, the holy name for the Pure Presence, the Word,
the Logos, the Symbol, the Holy Ghost, THE LIGHT OF
THE WORLD."
INT. " What is meant by the other title, Jesus?"
ARA.-" Jesus is the name of a personage, in whose
half-mythical history is mixed the mysteries of the secret
Christ. The error of sacred history, is this mixture of
personalities and events with ideas and principles."




THIE A ABULA.
lINT.- 6 Did not Jesus manifest all that is attributed
to Christ?"
ARA.-" It is impossible for any one person to display
the full glory of Eternal Light, but every one according
to his love and capacity for Truth."
INT. —" Then all men, of all countries, and in all conditions, may manifest more or less of Christ, if they
will?"
ARA.-" It is Life, and is seen in all life; it is Love,
and is manifested in all love; it is Truth, and is present
in- all truth; it is Light, and is visible in all wisdom;
it is God, and is embodied in whatsoever is good,
beautiful, and everlasting."
INT.-" Is this feeling, this holy yearning of the spirit
for the Light, common to all men 2"
ARA.-" There is a feeling, there always was a feeling,
that the Infinite had its place in the soul; that God,
however much He may have been elsewhere, was most
truly in the breast of His child; that however iagnificent His temples of stone and gold might be, the temple
He best loved to be worshiped in was the heart. There
was, and is, a vague, dim belief that the human somewhere
melted into the Divine, and that the Divine somewhere
melted -into the human. The inward being of man was
always reaching out after God, and always returned
from its reaching to find out that no reaching out was
necessary, that God was nestling close to the heart. In
all times, under all skies, men have had fleeting intimations of the presence of Deity, sitting vailed, shadowy,
shrouded in the dark corners of their souls. One side
of their being touched the Infinite-was the Infinite.
Coenscience was the eye, the voice of God."




IMPERSONALITY OF ARABULA.           55
ITr.I "In studying history, is it best to look at the
items and the specialties in the biographies of distinguished personages, or at the quality and amount
of Life and Light (love and wisdom) they manifested 2"
ArIA.-" Great souls require no history.  It is of
no consequence where they were born, where they
lived, what dress they wore, what fortune they met.
Of some of them it may be said that they had no history
whatever; hardly a cord of trustworthy tradition holds
them to the earth. We have them nevertheless; they
lived, they are ours, they are we; —the scantiness of
their clothing permits us to see the majestic grace of
their walk. The muse of history never introduced anybody to a Son of God."*
INT.-" The Eternal Light, as I now understand it,
lifts a person out of and above self. And furthermore,
I understand that conwscious individuality is based in
selfishness, which is incompatible with the true birth
and growth of Arabula in the soul "'
ARA.-" The Spirit (Christ) must be born a living
Emmanuel; man must know, by the heart's interior
witness, of the Divine in his own nature. The Christ is
revealed- in the human through these three elements,
these three principles, viz.: (1) the vital connection of
man with the Eternal through the affections of his
heart and the laws of his conscience; (2) the vital connection of:man with man by force of a common origin,
a common nature, a common discipline, and a common
* See Sermon on "The Birth of Christ," by Rev. 0. B. Frothingham,
1861.




56                THE ARABULA.
destiny; (3) the vital connection of man with himself
by virtue of that sacred individuality which invests his
personal character with supreme and inviolable worth,
and makes his personal dignity and development the
end of all his experience.



FROM HEAVEN TO HADES.            57
CHAPTER XVII.
FROM HEAVEN TO HADES.
WHILE in the superior condition I had no difficulty in
comprehending the underlying principles of ancient
mysteries and modern myths in religion. Immersed in
the waters of everlasting truth, I did not marvel at the
emblematic ordinance called " baptism."  Neither did
I marvel because the Arabula had said, and was always
saying, to man's materialistic intellect: " You must be
born again."  Indeed, intuitively realizing with my
impersonal consciousness, as I reverently did, the
existence of the grand cardinal ideas and the inherent
omniscience of the unchangeable principles of infinity, I
should have marveled if the Light had not said to human
ignorance and selfishness, "Ye Inust be born again." Tile
universal allegorization of physical events, and changes
in the sun, moon, stars, and other heavenly signs —the
early custom of clothing, with oriental material splendors, the undefinable religious mysteries of birth, life,
death, immortality, rewards, punishments, God, Paradise, pandemonium, and spiritual communications -all
was made plain to my exalted understanding, even
down to the very origin of all religion among the
earliest of earth's inhabitants.
O, the ineffable harmony of that Superior Condition!
in which the faculties of the human spirit immortal are
3*




58                THE ARABULA.
awakened to their native conscious relationship with
the heavenly love and omniscient goodness of the INiNITE WHOLE!
The Eternal Arabula-divine goddess of the spiritlifts the thoughts to heaven's highest orbs. From her
golden lips flow silvery sermons, like flowery balm from
the life-trees of Elysian; and in her voice is heard the
mlurmuring, mellow, deathless music of immortal love.
The illimitable expanse of sublime Summer Landsthe choral birds, the whispering breezes, the melodious
streams, the gentle groves, and ever-fragrant flowers of
the heavenly clime-with the poet's deathless strain,
the tender reciprocations of angels, once earthly men
and women, and the ravishing love-laughter of sweet,
rosy-lipped, ever-beautiful childhood — all, all, and
unutterably more, is brought into the spirit's essential
consciousness by the presence and voice of Arabula.
Yea, all is harmony, and enchantment, and sunlit love
to him who, from the transfiguring mount of awakened
Intuition, sees the fundamental, impersonal, infinite
principles.of the universe. The dark night of
ignorance and the wily imps of selfishness are vanquished by the full-orbed heavenly daylight of undying Truth. 0, that the spirit could at once enuter
unerringly upon its true association with God's fatherly,
motherly life!
The next day I began to review the answers of
Arabula.
The perpetually appearing and disappearing of the
divine light in persons and events, I could not comprehend. I am not a principle, but a person; how, then,
am I to, understand a principle? I am in space, bounded




FROM HEAVEN TO HADES.             59
and educated by its limitations; how then am I to comprehend infinity, which is the annihilation of space?
IDreaming does not satisfy my intellect. You tell
ine that a principle is eternally at work in the
human heart, yearning to make itself manifest in the
flesh, dividing itself up unceasingly without divisibility,
touching and impressing and departing, like day into
night; and, knowing that I possess no faculties akin to
such a principle, you tell me that I must perceive it, and
preach it, and live it!
Let us not be deluded by chimeras. Matter I am;
therefore, matter I can comprehend. I can be extended,
solidified, liquidated, divided; therefore I cannot understand matter, which has extent, solidity, levitation,
gravitation, and divisibility. But of an infinite being,
what can I know?  Shall I say, with Spinoza, that
men are modes of the manifestation of the infinite
intelligence 2 Therefore, I must conclude that the
absolutely indivisible essence is divided and organized
into men, which is admitting that the mathematically
impossible is possible.  Will, design, power! Are
they qualities of the absolute essence? or, are they
evolutions of the dynamics of that substance men call
Matter?
No answer! No answer! Where is the Light now?
Darkness, thick blackness, covers the face of the deep.
0, why do I not remember the lessons of Arabula?
Vagueness profound presses the eyes of my intellectual
powers. It is the old-time demon, an incubus-the
return of selfishness-the enemy of the goddess of
Light.
0, the night-life of this under world! Who can- paint




60                THE AKABULA.
the scenes of this horrible hadean world?  Faintly
come weeping memories of joys once tasted in the
beautiful garden. Baldur, the beloved son of Odin,
never descended to this low estate. Here live Loki
and Ahriman, the arch-enemies of Ormuzd, the prince
of goodness, and the Light of the world. Here prowl
and howl the selfish men whom the dread Anubis has
consigned to judgment and the terrors of justice. The
Thammuz of Chaldea sent all his evil genii to this
nameless place of passion and despair.  Here, in
grandest misery, in a style of elegant wretchedness
most magnificent, resides the opponent of Arabulathe devil of Selfishness, who fought and fled the presence
of "the Light of the world."
HIades is the habitation of the passions. The spirits
here are "spirits in prison."  The heavenly Arabula,
the Adonis of the inner life-" the Light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world "-descendeth
here, clothed in the effulgent splendor of myriad-sided
Truth, Love, and Wisdom, and, addressing the imprisoned spirits, says,-'" Repent ye! repent ye! Marvel
not that I say unto you, ye must be born again."




HOPEFUL SIGNS.                  61
CHAPTER XVIII.
HOPEFUL SIGNS.
INTELLECT, without the lifting light and holy loving
eyes of Intuition, is a poor player; he " frets and struts
his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more."
He is limited in power; proud as limited; jealous as
proud; selfish as jealous; and demoniac as selfish; and
thus, Othello-like, he atheistically says, first, " Put out
the light, and then-put out the Light."
The selfishness of the inferior conditioned Intellect
is the original sin.  Its possessor thinks only for himself. To compass sea and land, to trample on the rights
and liberties of others, to triumph over the downfall of
compeers, to erect fortunes on the hopeless ruins of opponents; these are a few of the countless crimes of this
part of man's nature.  It eats and drinks and sleeps to
gratify the selfish instinct.  Marriage, habitation, pictures, furniture, children-all sought and secured for
selfish gratification.  Nothing is sacred-not husband,
not wife, not children, not love (for of love it can know
nothing), and not even human life is sacred; for it will
spoliate, burn, and assassinate, to accomplish its special
selfish ends. It is cunning, tricky, stealthy, insinuating,
treacherous. It is the enemy of the beautiful spirituality
and unapproachable purity of Arabula. It ridicules
the intangible; it condemns poetry as useless; it appreciates music as a voluptuous sensation; it values mirth




62                THE ARABULA.
as the antidote for the still small voice of Arabula; it
prizes the duration of bodily life beyond the wealth of
Crcesus; it sees in sexuality no meaning but a means
of varying the instinct of pleasure; it lives in the present,
with no hope, no heaven, no God, and is crazed at the
thought of death.
I have described no one civilized man's character;
only painted the selfishness of Intellect, when it is not
" born again;" when it is a proud, overbearing stranger
to the superior condition; when it persistently resists
the influx of that holy Light, which floods with eternal
beauty and harmony the infinite universe.
In myself I found hopeful signs. Although I could
still intellectualize, and pick flaws in the logic of Arabula, and philosophize disparagingly on the undefinable
affirmations of Intuition; yet, somewhat to my surprise,
my negative theories and materialistic criticisms, after
imparting a momentary fbeling of triumph, because 1
had perplexed and silenced the inner angel, reacted
upon mly soul like the alarm-chill of a sudden cold. I
no longer took pleasure in combating the angel of
Light!  "Why persecutest thou me 2"-sounded in the
sanctuary of my spirit.
Was not this a foregleam of the possible resurrection
of my Intellect? I was subdued, thoughtful, prayerful,
hopeful.




GLIMMERINGS OF LIGHT IN MYSTERY.       63
CHIAPTER XIX.
GLIMMERINGS OF LIGHT IN MYSTERY,
M.YSTERY! O0 thou bountiful mother of blessings,
evils, faiths, skepticisms, piety, cruelty, hope, wretchedness, progress!  Mlystery! the vehicle of all ancient
systems of religion; the material clothing, the seamless
garment, worn by the Angel of Immortality on her first
visit to earth. Spurn mystery; refuse to entertain its
most extravagant tales; shut from patient observation
its philosophically impossible feats of miracles; repel
its large-eyed and loquacious stories of the gods, of the
phenomena in nature, of the marvels of the four seasons,
of the meanings and movements of the celestial bodies,
of the signs, and secrets, and solemn ceremonials,
vestments, enchantments, imposing tableaux, pomp,
anthems, mechanism, lighted candles, cymbals, ringing
bells, incantations, prayers, pilgrimages-spurn these,
repel these, turn away scornfully from these, proudly
trample over these up to the summit of mount Science
-and you forsake the m-other of all religion, you leave
to perish miserable the gorgeous goddess of unnumbered
spiritual benefits, you turn, like an intellectual ignoramus, like a pedantic inductionist of the Bacbnian
school (which is perfect in its place), and, in that one
act of treachery and stupidity, you shut out the Light
of God, and take down the spiral stairway which leads
through the thorny experimentally-paved avenues of




64                TIE AR ABULA.
knowledge to the royal road, the straight and beautiful
way of eternal principles within and without your
existence.
Mystery! Are you not a miracle?  If you are not,
then there never'was a miracle. Is it not marvelous'
that you should be so ignorant of the universe? Here
you are! born but yesterday, on the high table-land of
the infinite past, at whose base lie the skeletons of
countless hosts, a hecatomb of humnan ashes, once animated, like your own chemical bodies, with feelings,
instincts, passions, thought, activity, grief, pleasureand yet, with all this opulent repository of history and
learning at your very feet, you are ignorant of the
latent meaning in religious mystery!
It is to-day a mystery to me how, yesterday, I could
so drop below the superior condition as to irreverently
question the positive declarations of the world-enlightening Arabula. 0, the blood-sweat agony —O, the
darkness over the face of Nature —O, the fiendish power
of the spirit of selfishness! Why did a little worldly
care, some external anxiety in business, an act of
injustice by a neighbor, so rapidly drive me out of the
peaceful, musical, flowery garden of harmony?
Why did I not say yesterday, as my light-lifted soul
now says, to the unspiritualizing propensity of groveling, unredeemed Intellect —" Cursed art thou; upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the
days of thy life."  Is it not a religious mystery?'And
is it not a miracle that you, refined and noble-natured
as you are, do not at once accept the Light and " be
born again'? Verily, it is more marvelous that you do
not, than that you should.  0, you do not want to




GIIMMIERINGS OF LIGHT IN MYSTERY.       65
"change your base" of operations in religion!  Yes,
you self-aggrandizing and consistency-worshiping foe
of progress!  You are seen, as you are!  You have
married a society-wife, and therefore cannot march in.
Truth's army. And, moreover, it is so agonizingly
"hard" to be born again; it is, likewise, "inconvenient;" it is, also, exhaustingly "expensive;" and,
here's the rub, it is painful to your fashionably-religious
"relatives;" for are you not bone of their bone and
flesh of their flesh.?
O, ye typifiers of the mimicking quadrupeds of the
tropical forests!  Do you not ape the monkeys of
fashion? Are you not living on the "' lost sheep" side
of eternal Light? —That is sinless, the pure, the spotless,
the unselfish; it is good in the sight of God; it bears
our burdens; it carries our infirmities; it is the angelpresence in the devilhood of our unprogressive mental
states; it is the infinite inherent perfection, ever-preaching, "Be ye perfect;" by it we absolutely see that
"there is no man good-no, not one;" it unceasingly
says, " Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest;" it does not give us stones when
we ask for bread, but, opening its life-larder, says,
" Here is my body, and here is my blood-take, eat;"
this is the dispensation of " holy spirit;" it descendeth
from the heaven of " many mansions;" it taketh manifold forms, variable historical incarnations, but is immutably one and the same Light; it bringeth a harmonious gospel through antagonistic systems of religion; and, as the Light has before written, it is the
same to the Indian as to the Judean; it is not given to
one and withheld from another; but it descends upon




66                TIIE ARABULA.
the devil as well as upon the angel in us, and upon
every intermediate condition of life; it moveth upon
dark waters, and upon bright and shining oceans;
it rideth upon the storm and flieth upon the whirlwind,
and it broodeth over the placid lake of the soul; it is
not here nor there, but everywhere; it melteth the
stony heart that it may become a heart of flesh; and
poureth oil and wine into the wound of the earthly
traveler; it is the good Samaritan, who will pay two
pence for the healing of his brother's sores, and it will
come again to see if more can be done for the sufferers
of earth; it is the star of the East guiding wise men to
the young child, Arabula, who will hold out His hands
to them, laden with the spiritual blessings the Light
alone can bestow. This is the Holy Spirit of truth that
shall guide you into all happiness. This is the Comforter; this is the "baptism of fire" with which every
one shall be baptized.




TEE PAINS OF MEMORY.            67
CHAPTER XX.
THE PAINS OF MEMORY.
INTELLECT is an imbecile without Memory, as it is an
evil genius without the uplifting spirit of Arabula.
Too well do I recall the warnings-the sympathetic
shadow-winged prophecies-of the stern saint of Light.
It told me day by day to'wash away my sins of selfishness. Day by day it imprinted the Cain-mark of shame
upon my brow, because I wanted to substitute for a
cross-bearing life of public usefulness a flower-crowned
life of private idleness and luxury.
Like you, my reader, I wanted a thousand things I
did not need; in truth, my wants, besides being expensive and unnecessary, were taxing the time, talents,
labor, and patience of others. I wanted to have a servant at my call, who would brush my clothes, black my
boots, comb my hair, spread the table with rich viands,
and fan away the flies while I ate. I wanted a living
without working for it! I wanted to be rich, and did
not care if it was made by profits sheared, by the legitimate scissors of trade, from commodities sold as necessities to the poor. Of society I wanted nothing but
what was conducive to personal gratification. Do you
see yourself in this mirror?
Do not say that I must first merit the Good, the
Fine, and the Beautiful; no, no, I am impatient for
happiness; therefore, first supply my greedy wants, and




68                 TiHE ARABULA.
if "I like it I'll take some more."  0, bright Angel
of the Spirit! how selfishly did I " want " to live, while
thou wert suffering "on the cross."  Forgive! forgive!
Ravines, rocks, forests, birds, with setting suns and
summer skies, and the
"Beautiful flowers round Wisdom's secret well,"
with the affections of earth and the final beatitudes of
heaven —all, I was willing, yea, anxious to appropriate,
without so much as once thinking that "' I ought to be
thankful " for the possession of the senses by which the
appropriation was possible.
Like my penitent reader, who, by this time, should
be serenely living in good works, I recall all selfish
impulses with miserable distinctness. To-day I sit
meditatively "'dreaming over the past," and all too
easily remember the  "wholesome smart"  and the
"remorseful stings" of hours wasted, in life's springtime, vainly looking for happiness in self-will, selfseeking, self-gratification. But, glory be to God! the
night is past, the storm clouds dispersed, a boundless
blue sky enfolds the world, the feet of angels press
once more the celestial pathway, my chastened spirit is
obedient to its laws, and my affections, with my redeemed Intellect, are hospitably open to the influx of
the Infinite.




HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.      69
CHAPTER XXI.
HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
THE constant, and yet inconstant, glimmerings of the
divine Light, in the materialism of religious history, can
be seen by those only who " have eyes to see." Voltaire,
who was steady in his devotion to the Light (?) of the
Intellect, set forth, in his Philosophical Dictionary, the
obvious beginnings of the Christian religion, as follows:In the years which immediately followed Jesus Christ,
who was at once God and man, there existed among'the
Hebrews nine religious schools or societies,-Pharisees,
Sadducees, Essenians, Judaites, Therapeutse, Recabites,
Herodians, the disciples of John, and the disciples of
Jesus, named the " brethren," —the "Galileans," —the
" believers," who did not assume the name of Christians
till about the sixtieth year of our era, at Antioch;
being directed to its adoption by God himself, in ways
unknown to men.
The Pharisees believed in the metempsychosis. The
Sadducees denied the immortality of the soul, and the
existence of spirits, yet believed in the Pentateuch.
Pliny, the naturalist (relying, evidently, on the
authority of Flavius Josephus), calls the Essenians
"gens mterna in qua nemo nascitur;"-" a perpetual
family, in which no one is ever born;" because the
Essenians very rarely married. The description has




70                THE ARABULA.
been since applied to our monks, and to the "Shakers"
of -our day.
It is difficult to decide whether the Essenians or the
Judaites are spoken of by Josephus in the following
passage: —' They despise the evils of the world; their
constancy enables them to triumph over torments; in
an honorable cause they prefer death to life. They
have undergone fire and sword, and submitted to having
their very bones crushed, rather than utter a syllable
against their legislator, or eat forbidden food."
It would seem, from the words of Josephus, that the
above portrait applies to the Judaites, and not to the
Essenians. " Judas was the author of a new sect, completely different from the other three," that is, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenians.  " They
are," he goes on to say, "Jews by nation, they live
in harmon-y with each other, and consider pleasure
to be a vice." The natural meaning of this language
would induce us to think that he is speaking of the
Judaites.
However that may be, these Judaites were known
before the disciples of Christ began to possess consideration and consequence in the world. Some weak
people have supposed them to be heretics, who adored
Judas Iscariot.
The Therapeutse were a society different from the
Essenians and the Judaites. They resembled the Gymnosophists and Brahmins of India. "They possess,"
says Philo, " a principle of divine love, which excites in
them an enthusiasm like that of the Bacchantes and
the Corybantes, and which forms them to that state of
contemplation to which they aspire. This sect origina



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.        71
ted in Alexandria, which was entirely filled with Jews,
and prevailed greatly throughout all Egypt."
The Recabites still continued as a sect. They vowed
never to drink wine; and it is, possibly, from their
example, that Mahomet forbade that liquor to his followUrs.
The Herodians regarded Herod, the first of that
name, as a MIessiahll, a messenger from God, who had
rebuilt the temple. It is clear that the Jews at Rome
celebrated a festival in honor of him, in the reign
of 1Nero, as appears from the lines of Persiis —" Herodis venere dies," &c. (Sat. v. 180.)
" King Herod's feast, when each Judean vile
Trims up his lamp with tallow or with oil."
The disciples of John the Baptist had spread themselves a little in Egypt, but principally in  Syria,
Arabia, and towards the Persian Gulf.  They are
recognized, at the present day, under the name of the
Christians of St. John.  There were some also in Asia
Minor. It is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles
(chap. xix.) that Paul met with many of them  at
Ephesus.  " Have you received," he asked them, " the
holy spiritS?"  They answered him, "We have not
heard even that there is a holy spirit."-" What baptism,
then," says he, " have you received?" They answered
him, " The baptism of John."
In the mean time, the true Christians, as is well
known, were laying the foundation of the only true
religion.
He who contributed most to strengthen this rising
society was Paul, who had' himself persecuted it with




72                THE ARABULA.
the greatest violence.  IHe was born at Tarsus in
Cilicia,* and was educated under one of the most celebrated professors among the Pharisees, Gamaliel, a disciple of Hillel. The Jews pretend that he quarreled
with Gamaliel, who refused to let him have his daughter in marriage. Some traces of this anecdote are to be
found in the sequel to the Acts of St. Thecla. These
Acts relate that he had a large forehead, a bald head,
united eyebrows, an aquiline nose, a short and clumsy
figure, and crooked legs.  Lucian, in his dialogue
"Philopatres," seems to give a very similar portrait
of him. It has been doubted whether he was a Roman
citizen, for at that time the title was not given to any.
Jew; they had been expelled from Rome by Tiberius;
and Tarsus did not become a Roman colony till nearly
a hundred years afterwards, under Caracalla; as Cellarius remarks in his Geography (book iii.), and Grotius
in his Commentary on the Acts, to whom alone we
need refer.   *              All the first believers
were obscure persons. They all labored with their
hands. The apostle St. Paul himself acknowledges
that he gained his livelihood by making tents. St.
Peter raised from the dead Dorcas, a seamstress, who
made clothes for the "brethren."  The assembly of
believers met at Joppa, at the house of a tanner called
Simon, as appears from the ninth chapter of the Acts of
the Apostles.
The believers spread themselves secretly in Greece;
and some of them went from Greece to Rome, among
the Jews, who were permitted by the Romans to have a
* St. Jerome says that he was from Giscala in Galilee.




HISTORY OF CHRISTIANOR  OF   RELIGON.  73
synagogue. They did not, at first, separate themselves
from the Jews. They practiced circumcision; and, as
we have elsewhere remarked, the first fifteen obscure
bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised, or at least
were all of the Jewish nation.
When the apostle Paul took with him Timothy, who
was the son of a heathen father, he circumcised him
himself, in the small city of Lystra. But Titus, his
other disciple, could not be induced to submit to circumcision.  The brethren, or the disciples of Jesus,
continued united with the Jews until the time when St.:
Paul experienced a persecution at Jerusalem on account
of his having introduced strangers into the temple.
He was accused by the Jews of endeavoring to destroy
the law of Moses by that of Jesus Christ. It was with
a view to his clearing himself from this accusation that
the apostle St. James proposed to the apostle Paul that
he should shave his head, and go and purify himself in
the temple, with four Jews, who had made a vow of
being shaved. "Take them with you," says James to
him (chap. xxi. Acts of the Apostles), "purify yourself
with them, and let the whole world know that what has
been reported concerning you is false, and that you continue to obey the law of Moses."  Thus, then, Paul,
who had been at first the most summary persecutor of
the holy society established by Jesus,-Paul, who afterwards endeavored to govern that rising society,-Paul
the Christian, Judaizes, "that the world may know
that he is calumniated when he is charged with no
longer following the law of Moses."
St. Paul was equally charged with impiety and
heresy, and the prosecution against him lasted a long
4




74                THE ARAnBULA.
time; but it is perfectly clear, from the nature of the
charges, that he had traveled to Jerusalem in order to
fulfil the rites of Judaism.
He addressed to Faustus these words (Acts xxv.): " I
have neither offended against the Jewish law, nor against
the temple."
The apostles announced Jesus Christ as a just man
wickedly persecuted, a prophet of God, a son of God,
sent to the Jews for the reformation of manners.
"Circunlc.ision," says the apostle Paul, " is good, if
you observe the law; but if you violate the law, your
circumcision becomes uncircumcision. If an uncircumcised person keep the law, he will be as if circumcised.
The true Jew is one that is so inwardly."
When this apostle speaks of Jesus Christ in his
epistles, he does not reveal the ineffable mystery of his
consubstantiality with God. "We are delivered by
him," says he (Romans, chap. v.), " from the wrath of
God.  The gift of God hath been shed upon us by the
grace bestowed on one man, who is Jesus Christ.
*    *    *    *    Death reigned through the sin
of one man; the just shall reign in life by one man, who
is Jesus Christ."
And, in the eighth chapter-" We are heirs of God,
and joint-heirs of Christ;" and in the sixteenth chapter-" To God, who is the only wise, be honor and
glory, through Jesus Christ.    *    *    *    *
You are Jesus Christ's, and Jesus Christ is God's " (1 Cor.
chap. iii.).
And in 1 Cor. xv. 27 —" Every thing is made subject
to him, undoubtedly excepting God, who made all
things subject to him,"




HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.          75
Some difficulty has been found in explaining the following part of the epistle of the Philippians: —' Do
nothing through vainglory.  Let each humbly think
others better than himself. Be of the same mind with
Jesus Christ, who, being in the lilceness of God, assu.ned
not to equal hinse7lf to God."*  This passage appears
exceedingly well investigated and elucidated in a letter,
still extant, of the churches of Vienna and Lyons, written in the year 117, and which is a valuable monument
of antiquity.  In this letter the modesty of some
believers is praised.  " They did not wish," says the
letter, "to assume the lofty title of martyrs, in consequence of certain tribulations; after the example of
Jesus Christ, who, being in the likeness of God, did not
assume the quality of being equal to God."  Orige.n,
also, in his commentary on John, says: " The greatness
of Jesus shines out more splendidly, in consequence of
his self-humiliation, than if he had assumed equality
with God."  In fact, the opposite interpretation would
be a solecism. What sense would there be in this exhortation: "Think others superior to yourselves; imitate
Jesus, who did not think it an assuimpt2ion to be equal
to God?"  It would be an obvious contradiction;
it would be putting an example of full pretension for an
example of modesty; it would be an offense against
logic.
Thlus did the wisdom of the apostles establish the
* Our English version gives the foregoing passage-" Who being in
the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God."-See
Epistle to Philippians, c. ii. to 6th verse-a directly contrary translation.
Voltaire, the context, the Fathers, and the ancient letter, versuzs the
English translation.




76              - -ITHE ARABULA.
rising church. That wisdom did not change its character in consequence of the dispute which took place
between the apostles Peter, James, and John, on one
side, and Paul on the other. This contest occurred at
Antioch. The apostle Peter, formerly Cephas, or Simon
Barjonas, ate with the converted Gentiles, and among
theml did not observe the ceremonies of the law, and the
distinction of meats. He and Barnabas, and the other
disciples, ate indifferently of pork, of animals which
had been strangled, or which had cloven feet, or which
did not chew the cud; but many Jewish Christians
having arrived, St. Peter joined with them in abstinence from forbidden meats, and in the ceremonies of
the Mosaic law.
This conduct appeared very prudent: he wished to
avoid giving offense to the Jewish Christians, his companions; but St. Paul attacked him  on the subject
with considerable severity.' I withstood him," says
he, "to his face, because he was blamable."  (Gal.
chap. ii.)
This quarrel appears the most extraordinary on the
part of St. Paul. Having been at first a persecutor, he
might have been expected to have acted with moderation; especially as he had himself gone to Jerusalem to
sacrifice in the temple, had circumcised his disciple
Tiumothy, and strictly complied with the Jewish rites,
for which very compliance he now reproached Cephas.
St. Jerome imagines that this quarrel between Paul
and Cephas was a pretended one. He says, in his first
homily (vol. iii.), that they acted like two advocates
who work themselves up to an appearance of great zeal
and exasperation against each other, to gain -credit



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.      77
with their respective clients.  He says that Peter
(Cephas) being appointed to preach to the Jews, and
Paul to the Gentiles, they assumed the appearance of
quarreling, Paul to gain the Gentiles, and Peter to
gain the Jews. But St. Augustin is by no means of
the same opinion. " I grieve," says he, in his epistle
to Jerome, "that so great a man should be the patron
of a lie" (patronurm nendaci).
This dispute between St. Jerome and St. Augustin
ought not to diminish our veneration for them, and
still less for St. Paul and St. Peter.
As to what remains, if Peter was destined for the
Jews, who were after their conversion likely to Judaize,
and Paul for strangers, it appears probable that Peter
never went to Rome. The'Acts of the Apostles make
no mention of Peter's journey to Italy.
However that may be, it was about the sixtieth year
of- our era that Christians began to separate from the
Jewish communion; and it was this which drew upon
them  so many quarrels and persecutions from the
various synagogues of Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Asia.
They were accused of' impiety and atheism by their
Jewish brethren, who excommunicated them in their
synagogues three times every Sabbath day.  But in
the midst of their persecutions God always supported
them.
By degrees, many churches were formed, and the
separation between Jews and Christians was complete
before the close of the first century. This separation
was unknown by the Roman government.  Neither
the senate nor the emperors of Rome interested them
selves in those quarrels of a small flock of mankind,




78                THE ARABULA.
which God had hitherto guided in obscurity, and which
he exalted by insensible gradations.
Christianity became established in Greece and at
Alexandria. The Christians had there to contend with
a new set of Jews, who, in consequence of intercourse
with the Greeks, were become philosophers. This was
tile sect of gnosis, or Gnostics. Among them were some
of the new converts to Christianity. All these sects, at
that time, enjoyed complete liberty to dogmatize, discourse, and write, whenever the Jewish courtiers,
settled at Romle and Alexandria, did not bring any
charge against them  before the magistrates.  B3ut,
under Domitian, Christianity began to give some
umbrage to the government.
The zeal of some Christians, which was not accord
ing to knowledge, did not prevent the church from
making that progress which God destined from the
beginning. The Christians, at first, celebrated their
mysteries in sequestered houses, and in caves, aRd
during night. Hence, according to Minutius Felix,
the title given them of 6lcifegaces. Philo calls them.
gesseens. The names most frequently applied to them
by the heathens, during the first four centuries, were
"Galileans " and  "Nazarenes;" but that of "Christians " has prevailed above all the others.
Neither the hierarchy, nor the services of the church,
were established all at once; the apostolic times were
different from those which followed.
The mass now celebrated at matins, was the suppen
performed in the evening: these usages changed in
proportion  as the church strengthened.  A  more
numerous society required more regulations, and the




HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.'t9
prudence of the pastors accommodated itself to times
and places.
St. Jerome and Eusebius relate, that when the
churches received a regular form, five different orders
might be soon perceived to exist in them —superintendents, episcopoi, whence originate the bishops-elders of
the society, presbyteroi, priests-diaconoi,   servants or
deacons-pistoi, believers, the initiated; that is, the
baptized, who participated in the suppers of the agapoe,
or love-feasts-the catec/umens,  who were awaiting
baptism —and the energunmens, who awaited their being
exorcised of demons. In these five orders no one had
garments different firom the others, no one was bound
to celibacy: witness Tertullian's book, dedicated to his
wife, and witness also the example of the apostles. No
paintings or sculptures were to be found in their assemblies, during the first two centuries; no altars; and,
most certainly, no tapers, incense, and lustral water.
The Christians carefully concealed their books from the
Gentiles: they intrusted them  only to the initiated.
Even the catechumens were not permitted to recite the
Lord's Prayer.




-80                THE.AR'ABULA.
CHAPTER XXII.
RELIGIOUS SIGNS AND MYSTERIES.
IT is the office of enlightened reason to investigate
all mysteries, to search their meanings, to strip off all
the tales and trappings of supelstition; and, finally, to
discern the under-current of Truth, the spirit of Light
and Deity, in the contradictory and apparently irreconcilable events and personages of history. There is in
the world (says a writer) a distinct class of books, written "within and without," Ezek. ii. 10; or, "within
and on the back side," Rev. v. 1; that is, they are symbolic books, having a double sense; and they have proceeded from the members of esoteric societies in different ages of the world, who have written under the restraint of an oath of secrecy. What is the true key to
these books? It is a state of the soul, and is not a
transferable possession.  "In thy light shall we see
light," Psalm xxxvi. 9.
We shall never make any real progress in understanding the Scriptures until we advance so far as to
recognize principles in the persons represented. The
seeming historical persons must be regarded as shadows
passing before us, to draw our attention to the spiritual
truths or principles by which they were, or rather, by
which they are perpetually cast: for if there is any
thing in the Scriptures which is not true to us, and to
our time, it can have no importance to us. The value




RELIGIOUS SIGNS AND IMYSTERIES.        SI
of the Scriptures lies in their application to life; but no
application is possible, except a perverted one, when
the truth is not recognized; and to recognize the truth,
the Scriptures require to be interpreted; yet not as history, but as parables.*
1M. Renan, with philosophic calmness, and a truly
majestic and pure style of criticism, conducts his readers
to the same conclusion.  He is not lost in the limitalions and killing associations of the letter, but, perceiving tMe interior light sought to be conveyed by the
gospels, does much to rescue the Testaments from the
utter oblivion to which, long since, the fact-loving
intellect had consigned them.
Sir Philip Sidney said there, were no writings in the
world so well calculated to make a man wise as those
of Plato: and yet this is not because Plato has anywhere defined GOD, or wisdom, or virtue, or justice, or
love, or beauty, or goodness, or truth; for this was not
the purpose of his writings; but he has nevertheless
written so about all these things, that an attentive student may find something to satisfy his reasonable long
ings, even though they shoald reach out after immortality; while the unapt or careless reader may wonder
why so wise a man as Plato has advocated a system in
the Republic, which, taken literally, would destroy any
society in the world.  We ought to see that for thlis
very reason the Republic is a piece of ancient esoteric
writing, needing interpretation.  If we call the intellectual qualities masculine, and the affectional feminine,
wre may finally discover in what sense they may live in
* This is the opinion of 3M. Hitchcock, a careful thinker and writer.
4A




82                  THE ARABULA.
a blessed comnznmlty, in which, in Scripture language,
the lion and the lamb shall lie downl together.*
Socrates called his art of teaching the art of the midwife; because, according to his philosophy, no man
could learn any thing who had not a seed of the
knowledge in himself: and the art of Socrates consisted in bringing the seed into life and action.  A
soul, therefore, acquiring great truths, was compared to
a woman in labor; and Socrates compared himself top
his mother, who, he tells us, was a mid wife.
Mysteries in religion will continue until man's Intellect is lifted and sanctified, so to speak, by the unselfish
impersonal Light of God.  Goethe iemarks: "There is
something magical at all times in perspectives.  Were
we not accustomed from youth to look through them,
we should shudder and tremble every time we put
them to our eyes. It is we who are looking, and it is
not we; a being it is whose organs are raised to a
higher pitch, whose limitations are done away, who has
become entitled to stretch forth into the infinite."
Now it is every man's privilege to look in "perspectives " in the fields of spirituality.  But whether he see
an infinity of absurdity, or an infinity of truth, will
ever be determined by the amount of intuition he lets
into his eyes.
The Arabula began at the beginning of human history to incarnate itself, and to utter itself in all human
relations, feelings, and interests. It comes forth in the
incarnations of Brahm, in Kreeshna, Budha, in Osiris,
* For further thoughts on this subject, see a chapter on "Christ the
Spirit," by.tho author referred to.




RELIGIOUS SIGNS AND MYSTERIES.        83
in Ormuzd, in Adonis, in Apollo, in Bacchus, in Jupiter,
in Pythagoras, in Socrates, in Plato, in Confucius, in
Jesus. Says an author: "Thl  most important of these
mysteries were those of Mithras, celebrated in Persia;
of Osiris and Isis, celebrated in Egypt; of Eleusis, instituted in Greece; and the Scandinavian and Druidical
rites, which were confined to the Gothic and Celtic
tribes. In all these various mysteries we find a singqular
Vunity of design, clearly indicating a common origin,
and a purity of doctrine as evidently proving that this
common origin was not to be sought for in the popular
theology of the Pagan world. The ceremonies of initiation were all funereal in their character. They celebrated the death and the resurrection of some cherished
being, either the object of esteem as a hero, or of devotion as a god. Subordination of degrees was instituted,
and the candidate was subjected to probations varying
in their character and severity; the rites were practiced
in the darkness of night, and often amid the gloom of
impenetrable forests, or subterranean caverns; and the
full fruition of knowledge, for which so much labor was
endured, and so much danger incurred, was not attained
until the aspirant, well tried and thoroughly purified,
had reached the place of wisdom and of light."
The secret doctrines of the Egyptian rites (according
to the Lexicon) related to the gods, the creation and government of the world, and the nature and condition of
the human soul. They called the perfectly-initiated candidate Al-om-jah, from the name of the Deity. Secrecy
was principally inculcated, and all their lessons were
taught by symbols. Many of these have been preserved.
With them, a point within a circle was the symbol of the




84                 THE ARABULA.
Deity surrounded by eternity; the globe was a symbol
of the supreme and eternal GOD; a serpent with a tail
in his mouth was.emblematic of eternity; a child sitting
-on the lotos was a symbol of the sun; a palm-tree, of
victory; a staff, of authority; an ant, of knowledge; a
goat, of fecundity; a wolf, of aversion; the right hand,
with the fingers open, of plenty; and the left hand
closed, of protection.
In Dr. Oliver's account of the Mysteries of Bacchus,
we read:  "The first actual ceremony among the
Greeks was to purify the aspirant with water, and to
crown him with myrtle, because the myrtle-tree was
sacred to Proserpine; after which he was free froin
arrest during the celebrations. HIe was then introduced
into a small cave or vestibule, to ble invested with the
sacred habiliments; after which his conductor delivered
him over to the mystagogue, who then commenced the
initiation with the prescribed formula, Exa;, Exa,, Ea-,e
#s~IrAoe, Depart hence, all ye profane; and the guide
addressed the aspirant by exhorting him to call forth
all his courage and fortitude, as the process on which
he was now about to enter was of the most appalling
nature. And being led forward through a series of
dark passages and dismal caverns, to represent the
erratic state of the Ark while floating on the troubled
Surface of the diluvian waters, the machinery opens
upon him. He first hears the distant thunder pealing
through the vault of heaven, accompanied by the howling of doos and wild beasts.   *      X   *   These
terrific noises rapidly approach, and the din becomes
tremendous, reverberated, as it doubtless was, in endless
repetitions, from the echoing vaults and lofty caverns




RELIGIOUS SIG-NS AND M~YSTERIES.     85
within whose inextricable mazes he was now immlred.
Flashes of vivid light now broke in upon-hllim, and rendered the prevailing darkness.more visible; and by the
momentary illumination he beheld the appearances by
which he was surrounded.  Monstrous shapes and
apparitions, demoniacal figures, grinning defiance at
the intruder; mystical visions and flitting shadows,
unreal phantoms of a dog-like form, overwhelm him
with terror. In this state of horrible apprehension
and darkness lie was kept three days and nights."
From  the Lexicon may be gleaned other details,
shlowing the strugglings of the Divine Light in man's
nature for utterance; and how, when its pure promptings are not comprehended by minds inll darkness, it
ultimates in painful superstitions and mysterious ceremonies. " The Grecian rites were only a modification
of the mysteries of Bacchus or Dionysus, and were thus
called, because it was said that Orpheus first introduced
the worship of Bacchus into Greece from Egypt. They
differed, however, from the other pagan rites in not
being confined to the priesthood, but in being practiced
by a fiaternity who did not possess the sacerdotal functions. The initiated commemorated in their ceremonies,
which were performed at night, the murder of Bacchus
bly the Titans, and Khis final restoration to the supreme
government of the universe, under the name of Phanes."
*  *+    * "~'In the day, the initiates were crowned
with fennel and poplar, and carried serpents in their
hands, or twined them around their heads, crying with
a loud voice, enos, sabos, and danced to the sound of
the mystic words, hyes, attes, -uttes, Ayes. At night the
mystes were bathed in the lustral water, and having




86                THE ARABULA.
been rubbed over with clay and- bran, he was clothed
in the skin of a fawn, and, having risen from the bath,
he exclaimed,'I have departed from evil and have
found the good.'"
As to the use of the term Jehovah, the same authority
remarks, that "an allusion to the unutterable name of
GOD is to be found in the doctrines and ceremonies of
other nations, as well as the Jews. It is said to have
been used as the pass-word in the Egyptian mysteries.
In the rites of Hindostan it was bestowed upon the
aspirant, under the triliteral form AUIM, at the completion of his initiation, and then only by whispering
it in his ear.  The Cabalists reckoned seventy-two
names of God, the knowledge of which imparted to the
possessor magical powers. The Druids invoked the
omnipotent and all-preserving power, under the symbol
I. O. W.
"In fact, the name of God must be taken as symbolical of truth; and then, the search for it will be
nothing else but the search after truth. The subordinate names are the subordinate modifications of truth,
but the ineffable tetragrammaton will be the sublimity
and perfection of Divine Truth.
" The doctrines of the Druids were the same as those
entertained by Pythagoras. They taught the existence
of one Supreme Being; a future state of rewards and
punishments; the immortality of the soul, and a metempsychosis; and the object of their mystic rites was to
communicate the doctrines in symbolic language."




LIGHT Ii THE'WINDOW.           87
CHAPTER XXIII.
LIGHT IN THE WINDOW.
MAN'S intellectual powers, led by the hand of Arabula, naturally solve the mysteries of religion. The
mystery is revived, however, the moment the individual's
higher consciousness is suspended, or descends to the
hades of selfishness, to live on a plane with the intellect's atheism and utter disbelief in things spiritual.
But however dark and thorny man's mind may be at
times, there is ever a Light burning in the window of
his inner existence, saying,;" I am the -may, the truth,
and the life; follow me!" By giving a tongue to this
inherent celestial guest, and then listening with heart
and intellect to what it says, the message would substantially be, " Hearken to me, I speak not from myself;
I speak only the words of my Father. If you love me,
you will keep my commandments, and then you shall
know whether what I teach be of the intellect, or of
the Father that is in me. Then you shall know that I
am in the Father, and the Father in me. If ye continue
in my word (the light), then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth
shall make you free. To this end came I into the
world (into yotu externals), that I should bear witness
unto the Truth. Every one that is of the Truth (in the
Light of God) heareth my voice. Obey my voice, and
then we shall all be one; as the Father is in me, and I in




88                TluiE ARAIB3 —L i.
the Father, that you may also be one in us; for the
essence of all spirit is the same.  Tile words that I
speak are spirit and are life. Fear not them which kill
the body (the forms and doctrines), but are not able to
kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to
put both soul and,body in hell, by the logical trickls of
the selfish intellect.  Take my interpretation of life,
and ye shall find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is
easy, and my burden light. This yoke is easy usefulness when the spirit acts instinctively from  within
outward; but it is a burden when the duty is imposed
by priesteraft or fashion, from without."
That the whole Light should be manifested.in one
person, is conceived to be impossible. To affirm this of
Jesus, as modern theologians do, is to say (in the
language of Zobert Collyer, a true preacher) "' that he
knew infinitely more of every thing than all the great
masters knew of any thing; that his sense of what befitted the Messiah alone held him back from announcing
the most important facts that have come in the opening
ages; and from doing, by a single act of the will,
greater things than have been done by the loftiest souls
that came after him. And I mean by this, that the
compass, the printing-press, the locomotive, the steamboat, vaccination, Peruvian bark, chloroform, ether,
iodine, subsoil plows, photography, anthracite coal,
air-tight stoves, horseshoes, infirmaries, sanitary commissions, cheap window-glass,, the art of engraving, tea,
coffee, and savings banks, were just as clearly present
in the mind of the Saviour then, as they are present in
the world now.
":Now, I think you will not accuse me of trying to pusl




RE'LIGIOUS SIGNS AND MYSTERIES.       89
my statement unfairly, when I say, that if this theory
-that Christ on the earth knew all things, his mind a
perfect encyclopedia of the universe and of time-be
true, then the greatest of all the mysteries in his life,
greater than miraycle and prophecy, is this mystery, that
he should be here, with that heart so full of pity, that
hand so ready in the labor, and that tongue so wise in
the wisdom of the divinest love; should foiresee all the
sorrow, and agony, and death resulting from ignorance,
through long ranges of centuries; should see all the
steam escaping, all the poor barks creeping along the
shore for want of a compass; in a word, the whole difference between that world and this-yet should maintain a resolute silence I I know it will be said that these
things could not take root until the true time; and, if
this was not the true time, it were useless to reveal
them. But I answer, that the possession of a secret that
will benefit the world is the obligation to reveal it. We
judge that man criminal who has found a sovereign
remedy for cholera, and yet buries it in his grave. We
say lie did not love his fellow-men; and so, in defending
his silence, if he knew of a preventive for the small
pox, and did not tell it; or of chloroform, to assuage
extreme human agonies, and did not tell it -we assume
the ground, that, being in the likeness of a man,he was
less than a man. And if you say,'But God the Spirit
did not reveal these things until our time, and so why
should you expect that God manifest in the flesh would
do it?' I answer, God the spirit is surrounded by
mystery, his ways are past finding out. 1 accept the
nystery just as it is, and hold on by my faith until I
can do better. But the ultimatum here is, that there is




90                THE ARABULA.
no mystery at all about it. The mystery was, how
shall these things flash across the brain, and be revealed
by the tongue, and done by the hand of a man? Now,
here is a brain in which these unutterable philanthropies
are a quenchless fire, you say; and an eye seeing into
the eighteenth century, how to prevent the small-pox,
how to save human life, human beauty, human every
thing; a tongue crying,'I am come not to destroy life,
but to save it.' And in that mind a secret how to save
life, beside which the cures that he did (apart from their
spiritual influence) were as nothing-yet he refused to
tell it! So that the mystery is not in the possession of
divinity, but in the want of humanity, if this claim be
true. And so I do not reallysorrowbecause he did not
build a railroad or a steamboat, or the dome of St.
Peter's, or anticipate the Riverside Press in printing,
or the WValtham chronometer. There may be questioning about those things: there can be no question about
these other things. By all the holiest institutions and inspirations of the human soul; by the loftiest teachings of
our own, and, so far as I know, of all other Bibles; by the
greatest utterances of his own holy, loving, and divine
nature-if he knew every thing, he was bound at least
to tell this, because he had the face and touch and pity
and love of a man, or his divinity was not so good a
thing as a decent humanity."




STORIES OF EARLY PERIODS.           91
CHAPTER XXIV.
STORIES OF EARLY PERIODS.
THE infancy of the race, like the period of infancy in
the individual, is excessively productive of grotesque
fancies in the supernatural, which is the philosophically
impossible. But this term  "supernatural," under the
interpretations of the wisdom-light, is a perfectly harmless word, meaning the unpositive, the speculative, the
metaphysical, the realm of unfbrmed ideas and semipoetical sentiments; in which boundless realm, before
the era of the inductive and exact sciences, the human
spirit freely roamed, regardless of the limitations of
sense or the remonstrances of intellect. And, strange
to say, these mythical fancies were invariably connected
with religion. St. I-Iippolytus relates, for example, that
St. John the Divine is asleep at Ephesus, awaiting the
great trumpet's twang; and Sir John Mandeville, in
his " Travels," gives the circumstance as follows:"From Patmos men go unto Ephesim, a fair citee
and nyghe to the see. And there dyede Seynte Johne,
and was buryed behynde the high Awtiere, in a toumbe.
And there is a fair chirehe. For Christene mene weren
wont to holden that place alweyes. And in the toumbe
of Seynt Johne is nonghte but manna, that is clept
Aungeles mete.  For his body was translated into
Paradys. And Turkes holden now alle that place and
the citee and the Chirche. And all aise the lesse is




92                THE A1IABULA.
yclept Turkye. And ye shalle undrestond, that Seynte
Johne did make his grave there in his Lyf, and leyed
himself there inne all daryk. And therefore somme
men seyn, that he dyed noughte, but that he resteth
there till the Day of Doom. And forsoothe there is a
great marveule. For men may see there the earthe of
the toumbe apertly many tymes steren and moen, as
there weren quykke thinges under."
The wandering Jew and the circumstances connected
with his doom, vary in every account; but all coincide
in the point that such a person exists in an undying condition, wandering over the face of the earth, seeking rest
and finding none. Though S. Baring-Gould, the author
of a curious manual on " Curious Miyths" (from which the
following extracts are made), thinks the Jewish cobbler,
who would not let Jesus sit on his door-step, may have
been kept alive to fulfill the words, " There be some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the Son
of Man coming in his kingdom," yet. there is no mention
of the Wandering Jew, either historical or mythical, till
the year 1228. In the sixteenth century he was an
assistant weaver in Bohemia. Next he appeared in
Western Asia, as Eliiah.  The Bishop of Schleswig
examined him carefully, and believed in his story of
having seen Jesus and all the centuries. In the days
of Cromwell he was in Leipzig. In the next century
he appeared in England, traveled into Jutland, and
vanished in Sweden. He has been explained as a personification of the Jewish race. Some have identified
him with the Gypsies. In Swabia he is a wild hunter.
Prester John was a Priest-King reigning in unimaginable pomp somewhere in Asia, over a country




STORIES OF EARLY PERIODS.         93
whose bourne widened and contracted according to the
geographical knowledge of the age. He was a conceited pope, rather condescending and gracious to the
one on the Tiber; but the latter rebuked him, and
quoted, " Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord,"
&c. Orthodox Alexander, Vicar of God, believed in
the mythical sovereign of the emerald palace, and sent
him a letter; but the messenger never returned, and
who can imagine the loss to enthusiastic antiquaries!
The myth may have grown out of Nestorianism; and
may have fbundation in fact.
The divining-rod is full of wonders; and all the facts
cannot be treated with levity.  That Aaron's rod
budded and brought forth almonds is rather doubtful,
but the evidence is not easily set aside that Jacques
Aymar's rod helped him to find criminals. Tacitus
speaks of a queer sort of German divination by the rod.
The Greeks had their rhabdomancy.  Even. Jacob
cheated his dames of the sheep-pastures with them.
The Frisons had a law that murderers should be discovered by the rod. A great many doubters who
sought to expose impostors of well-finding have converted themselves to the contrary view; and, on the
other hand, a large number of the wonder-makers
have failed when taken before the curious and the
great in large cities. The power is said to languish
under excitement; the faculties are to be in repose,
and the attention- concentrated.  Bleton went into
convulsions when standing over running water. Angelique Cottin, a poor girl, was so highly charged with
electricity, that any one who touched her received
a violent shock. Mdlle. Olivet had -conscientious scru



91L               THE ARABULA.
ples against her own power. A priest and prayer got
her out of the faith, and her power was gone.
The story of the seven sleepers is very beautiful.
They remained unconscious in a cave of Mount Celion
during three hundred and sixty years. Being persecuted Christians, ilnagine their surprise when one
of their number returned, after what he thoug1ht a
night's rest, to find the gates of his native Ephesus
decorated with the cross and the name of Jesus
honored.  The charming story is fruitful of poems
and dramas; and Mahomnet has put it in the Koran,
with the improvement that the sleepers prophesy his
coming, just as Dr. Cumming and others patch up
prophecy after the event. In the _Museum at Rome
is a curious and ancient representation of them  in a
cement of sulphur and plaster.
But the myths of this kind are without number. St.
George rose from his grave three times, and was thrice
slain. Charlemagne sleeps in Mount Odenberg in HIess,
seated on his throne, with his crown on his head, and
his.sword at his side, waiting till the times of Antichrist, when he will wake and burst forth to avenge the
blood of the saints. Frederick Barbarossa is in the
great Kyff'llhausenberg in Thurin-gia. A shepherd crept
to the heart of the mountain by a cave, and discovered
therein a hall where sat the emperor at a table, through
whose stone slab his3 red beard had grown and wound
itself back toward his face.  Rip Van Winkle slept
twenty years in the Katskill Mountains.  Napoleon
Bonaparte is asleep somewhere. Mandeville says St.
John yet sleeps at Ephesus, and the earth kindly swells
and sinks to the rhythm of his breathing.




STORIES OF EARLY - PERIODS.       95
It is remarkable that through all these tales the
number seven has such prominence. Barbarossa changes
his seat every seven years. Charlemagne stretches himself at similar intervals. Olger Dansk stamps his iroln
mace on the floor once every seven years.. Olaf Redbeard of Sweden opens hi eyes at precisely the same
distance of time. The curious coincidence has been
thought to have some relation to the winter months of
the north.  But this does not explain the HIebrew
seven s.
There is a myth that Moses drove the man to the
moon who gathered sticks on the Sabbath. In Swabia
a wood-chopper cast brambles in the way of churchgoers, and all old woman made butter on Sunday. For
their heinous crimes both were banished to tile moon,
and there they are to this day, bramble-bundle and
butter-tub on backs. The man in the moon, tile woman
and her tub, the dog, the pole, the crime, the whole
myth is of very ancient origin, probably reaching back
to the worship of the heavenly bodies.
The terrestrial paradise has been located in China,
Japan, some continent east of Asia, within three days'
journey of Prester John's empire, an island in Australia, Ceylon, an unapproachable fastness in Tartary,
the top of a very high mountain in the East, Armenia,
trans-Gangic India, all toward the rising sun; while
the ancient classics put the deathless land to the west.
In his travels Sir John Mandeville comes to paradise
and tastes of the waters of life; indeed he tells Englishmen he had'" dronkeni three or four sitles " from the
fountain. The.~edieval preacher Meffieth, who denies
the immaculate conception, refuses also to accept the




96                THE ARABULA.
Euphrates paradise, and hoists it above the possibility
of Noah's flood. Its four rivers rush down to earth
with such roar as to make coasters deaf. Eirek went
to Constantinople and learnt of the emperor that the
earth is a million of miles in circuit, and a hundred
thousand and forty-five miles'from heaven. But Eirek
found the goal of his journeyings, and after bravely
meeting the dragon that guarded the bridge, he marched,
sword in hand, into the open maw of the beast, and in
the transformation of a moment found himself in the
world of beauty and everlasting life.




THE OLD AND THE NEW.               97
CHAPTER. XXV.
THE: OLD AND, T.1ER NEW6STREAMING through all these curious. religious fancies,
is the liygt of the immortal destiny of spirit.  Thus
spirit perpetually declares its attractions, and prophetically announces its affiliations.  It belongs to the
eternal world of individualized, unselfish life; and its
crudest- intuitions. and most infantile revelations point
thitherward as unerringly as does "the needle to the
pole."  The grand. old Hindoo poem, The BhagvatGeetct, according to Mr. Ripley of the Tribune, has
been reprinted for Mr. G. P. PPHILES, in the beautifultypography of the: -Bradstreet Press. It was originally
translated' from. the Sanscrit, toward the close of, the
last: century, at. the.instance of W arren Hastings,, while
Governor:General: of India, and the present issue is a.
fac-simile. of the English volume.  The "Bhag.vat
Geeta," forms an episode of a.much larger work, which
has. been supposed to date friom more than.two thousand
years before the Christian era, and containing an epic
history of an ancient Hlndoo dynasty. Oriental scholars
hlave al vays found a favorite study in this poem, as
illustrating, the theological and ethical system of the
ISrahlmins,-a form of religious mysticism congenial to
the intellect of the East, and which has also been often
knowqi to, captivate the imagination of more sturdy
thinkers in European civilization.  The work is in the




98                THE ARA tiBULA.
form of a dialogue between Kreeshna, an incarnation
of the Deity, and a favorite pupil, whom he instructs in
the mysteries of creation, life, virtue, and immortality.
In its ethical spirit it approaches the sublime stoicism
of Marcus Antoninus and Epictetus, while its theology
is founded on the conception of an Infinite Power and
Godhead, that is the ground of all finite existence and
consciousness, with which it becomes identified in act.
"'I am  the sacrifice," says Kreeshna; " I anm the
worship; I am the spices; I aml the invocation; I am
the ceremony to the manes of the ancestors; I am the
provisions; i am the fire, and I am the victim; I am
the father and mother of this world; the grandsire, and
the preserver. I am the holy one worthy to be known;
I am  the journey of the good; the comforter; the
witness; the resting-place; the asylum, and the friend.
I am generation and dissolution, the place where all
things are reposited, and the inexhaustible seed of
all nature. -I am sunshine and I am rain; I now draw
in, and I now let forth. I am death and immortality;
I am entity and non-entity."  The problem of human
destiny, in its moral aspects, is solved in a similar manner. "A  man being endued with a purified understanding, having humbled his spirit by resolution, and
abandoned the objects of the organs; who hath freed
himself from passion and dislike; who worshipeth with
discrimination, eateth with moderation, and is humble
of speech, of body, and of mind; who preferreth the
devotion of meditation, and who constantly placeth his
confidence and dispassion; who is freed from ostentation, tyrannic strength, vain glory, lust, anger, and
avarice; and who is exempt from selfishness, and in all




TIlE OLD AND THE NEW.            99
things temperate, is formed for being'Brahm.' And
thus being as'Bralm,' his mind is at ease, and lie
neither longeth nor lamenteth. He is the same in all
things, and obtaineth my (Kreeshna) supreme assistance; and by my divine aid he knoweth, fundamentally,
who I am, and what is the extent of my existence; and
having thus discovered who I am, he at length is
absorbed in my nature."  The principles of the " Blhagvat-Geeta" have become familiar to students of the
history of philosophy by the admirable illustrations of
IM. Cousin, and readers qf. Emnerson and Theodore
Parker can trace both its ideas and its phraseology in
some of the most characteristic writings of those authors.
Thus the Arabula shines, with a blaze of oriental
conceptions of divine ideas, in the propositions and
teachings of the Shaster and Vedas; manifesting the
eternal glory of its presence as perfectly in the Indian
as in the European consciousness. But new thoughts
and new inspirations have penetrated the land of" The
Bhagvat-Geeta," and the Light is appearing in new
forms and higher human expressions.
ALPHgNSE EsQUIRos, a French writer (to use the
editor's preface), has written an admirable work on
Religious Life in En!gland, which contains a striking
passage or two on the state of things in India. English
ideas respecting liberty of conscience have loosened the
bolts and bars of the old faith; the Indian temple
tumbles into -ruins in the sun, and ancient gods lie
moldering in  their wooden representatives, at the
bottom of the wells, and nobody cares for them. But
the new lHindoo is a " free inquirer;" and the English
missionary who thinks he has only to fight with the




100                THEE ARABIJLA.
Buddha in. that Hindoo, finds:- that;Voltaire,  Colenit,
Michelet, and Renan. are as well known to the HIindoo
as they are tp-freely inquiring.: Europeans. As a consequence, this is, ow  we. stand,. religiously, abroad;
after claiming, a certain amount-of, triumnpl 
"But Christians must. not, be too precipitate in
rejoicing: at; this triumph; for the breaking. up of tile.
col]ossal: edifice of, IHindoo superstition seems but little
likely to. result in. much profit;.. to: their: own faith.
Under various names, such as Brahmo-sijah, BrahmosOmaj, and Veda-somajam, a new sect has lately arisen,
which stands aloof' fiom  all relations, true- or false.
The members. of- these Indian. fraternities agree. with:
each other in one point only —the belief in a, Supreme
Being..  Opposed as they are. both to Christianity and
to the religion of the Hindoos, and finding, or thinking
that they find, in. the Bible, as well as in the Yedas,
passages which, are inconsistent with science, they
determined, as. they. themselves say, to, cut; the.l: cable
which connects the minds of other men with supernatural authority.  These disciples of rationalism. are also
distinguished by a liberal spirit of toleration, and they
mutually engage to respect.every' opinion.  They sometimes have to.observe various customary ceremoniies, as,
for instance, in marriages and. burials.; but they only do
this to avoid wounding the feelings of the community in.
which they live. With the exception of these trifling
sacrifices to, existing prejudices, their course of action
indicates the;greatest freedom of thought; they openly
declare, that in alliforms of religion which go beyond
pure Deism, they caa recognize nothing but -the lifeless
relics of worn-out superstitions, _Associations such as




THE OLD "A:D TIPE NEW.          101.
these, surrounded by all the eclat which intellect and
wealth can give, cannot fail to exercise a powerful influence over the educated youth of Bombay, Madras, and
Calcutta.  Thus a generation of thinkers is being
formed, who astonish'the English'missionaries by the
boldness and comprehensiveness of their philosophical
opinions. When they speak at public meetings, the
high moral tone which they assume defies the -censure
of the very Christians themselves.; without making any
distinction of race or country, they quote, in sLippirt of'their ideas, all those authors, travelers, and savants'who
have, as'it were, brought together the uttermost:parts
of the earth, and smoothed the way for the unity Of the
human race."
As some men are tleained'and sagacious without
attending a university, so some men are religious and
spiritual without attending "a -church.,And the time
will come when all men shall see and know  the Light,
"from  the least to the greatest:;" and unto it every,lnee "'shall bow and every tongue confess," saying':
"Behold, the height, length, breadth, an; depth df True
Religion are revealed and fulfilled in the union of man:with the:love, justice,. power, and beauty of Omniscient
goodness."




102                THE ARABULA.
CHIAPTER XXVI.
LAMPLIGHT AND SUNLIGHT.
INTELLECTUAL light, whose oil is sensuous observation and external experience, is lamplight; but the light
of Wisdom is the light of the sun. By intellectual
light we perceive and value the "things of sense;"
while by the light of Wisdom, whose oil is derived from
the immortal essential principles of all life, we perceive
and accept the "truths of eternity."
Contemplate yourself! Do you not find "life" in
your affections, and " death " in your sensuous interests?
By the exercise of your intellectual faculties and perceptions, do you not achieve all your terrestrial and
temporal success? When you use them exclusively, in
conjunction with your selfish instincts, or ordinary
affections. and interests, do you not realize, at times, that
the higher powers of your spirit are covered with a
blinding skepticism concerning invisible things? Dark
indeed is that temple when the "lights in the upper
chamber" have gone out!
Now the instincts, which are the roots of the affections-the latter, when in full-orbed development,
becoming INTUITION-are derived from the fountain of
all life and light.  But they are first radicals or
roots —the same principles in animals as in men-and
receive very properly the title of "instincts."  Next,
by a process of progressive development, they become




LAMPLIGHr AND SUNLIGHT.            103
refined and less selfish-looking after the interests and
guarding the welfare of their own offspring and chosen
darlings-and, still tlie same in animals as in mankind,
they are known by the higher and more appropriate
term i" affections."  ]Next, by a continuation of the progressively developing process, when they have rounded
out into ultimations, magnanimous and beautifulhlaving "grown large, and public," and unselfish, but,
above all things, loving whatsoever is Good, and Beautiful, and True, divine and eternal, with universal LOVE
in their hearts, and everlasting LIGHT in their eyes,
occup3ying the higlhest chambers in the temple, holdingo
open converse with the very soul of Poetry, Music,
Painting,  and MIathematics - then they receive the
lofty and significant title of " INTUITIONS."  But the
charmed  and  most holy name for them-which is
above all other names for human endowments, signifying  at once the possession, the exercise, and
the fruitlon of the intuitive seers of the spirit —is
WIsDOM.
The opponent, the sworn antagonist of Wisdom, is
Intellect.  The instincts, in themselves the very quintessence of selfishness, are the natural allies of tlie intellectual faculties.  Wisdom  is a} strange, supernatural
faculty when viewed and measured by the earth-looking
eyes of' the Instincts. Even the " affections," properly
so called, do not understand the royal nature and heavenly characteristics of Wisdom. The Affections rise
like fruit-bearing branches out of the solid trunk of
the tree of instinctive life. Therefore they sustain the
same relation to Wisdom that is in natlre established
by the body of a tree, which is the sustaining and grand




104                THWE nARA.\ULA.
transmitting column of'strength'andl growth, midway
between the roots (or instincts)in'the'earth beneatll
and'the fruit-boughs (or intuitions) in the heavens
above. As it is impossible for the greater to'be compr6hen'ded by'the less, so is it impossible for the instincts to sympathetically fellowship with the Intuitions.
And inasmuch as the in-stincts and the'Intellect are'natural allies, as the affections'naturally take —sides with
Intuition, so is there a controversy, a struggle, perpetually going on in man's nature, as between tle poweirs
of darkness and the powers of light.
Why'this antagonism should exist, in'an organism,elaborated by' Omniscient goodness, I do not n'ow halt to
consider. Let'us first discover the facet;;tlhen, under
greater ligit, let us utilize the fact;'thus, lastly, the
origin and the wle'reforei6f the fact will be revealed.
The theologians and religionists, and, indeed, the
world's profoundest philosophers, seem  not to'have
made this discovery. In classifying the human mind,
the religionists and philosophers alike adopt tlhe short
definition-Sense, Will, and'UnIderstanding.   Then
&chuirchmen bring; in an'indictment fiom the Grand
Jury of old theology, to the effect tlmt man's soul has
offended God, by breaking one of his eternal laws.
Wherefore a new  definition  is published: ";Man's
heart is desperately wicked, depraved totally, and his
thinking powers'are t wisted and blighted by the curse
of God."  On this finding man is arrested, and'brought
for trial before the tribunal of'Old Theology;  whose
throne is oriental mystery, whose history is the'history
of human tyranny and wretchedness,'whose policy is
opposed to all progress'in science:and knowledge, whose




LAMPLIGHIT AD'SUNLIGHT.         -T05
lever works on the fulcrum of human ignorance, whose
power is almighty  among the.cow-ardl y and superstitious, and those governm-enit on:earth Will; endure as
long a's there shall:ist. a million mrndis iot toitched by
the spirit-lifting light of Wisdom.
The church's definition, therefore, is the church's
explanation of this antagonism in man's spiritual constitution. Under their definition, what can they do, if
they are logical, but trim their lamps and fill them with
oil from the rock-fountains of St. Peter? The wondrous
"light of other days" is their sun and their salvation.
"The soul's return," not the soul's progress, is the
burden of their evening prayer. They believe it was a
person who said, "I am the light of the world." On
this belief they all rush in "where angels fear to tread,"
and attempt to light their "humble tapers" by the
lamp carried almost two thousand years ago by a
Nazarene! With such belief the Christians cannot
improve themselves, nor allow of improvement in others.
They neither enter heaven, nor let others enter, but
swing their Peter-oil lamps, and shout: " The curse of
God is on thee! Haste ye! Haste ye! Bow down
at the foot of the cross! Lay all your sins at the feet of
Him who died to save the world!"
But the millions do not hear, and thousands of millions, they think, will never behold the " Light of God."
They think heaven's blight and curse (O, beautiful consistency!) have passed over this hapless age; that the
Eternal God has sent a strong delusion among men, that
they might believe it and be damned; that the shipwrecking monsoon of Jehovah's Omnipotent wrath has
swept through the world of human hearts; that, in a
5*




106               THE ARtABULA.
word, the whole family of man is at enmity with the
spirit and purposes of God, and that this, and this only,
will account for the antagonism, the darkness, the
evil and misery in man's intellectual and spiritual
constitution.




GOD IS MY LIGHT.            107
CHAPTER XXVII.
GOD IS MY LIGHT.
"GOD is my Light," the motto of the University of
Oxford, "Deus illuminatio mea," originally slipped
from the beautiful tongue of Arabula. Only the white
light of Wisdom could have uttered the motto, which
eternally shines with the golden rays of innumerable
suns on the banners of all alumni now dwelling in
Summer Lands.
"Ignorance is the curse of God," said the great
dramatist, " but knowledge the light whereby we reach
to heaven."  Substitute the term  "Wisdom" for
knowledge, and how distinctly do you hear the voice
of Arabula! What is that which is "without father,
without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life?" Who was, who is,
this mysterious impersonation called "Melchisedek,"
without beginning, reft of age and place, wandering all
through the earth, yet above the world, independent,
self-poised, gentle as an angel, with a universal heart,
never sick, performing cures instantly, with a word
and a breath, binding up the broken-hearted-this highborn noble impersonality, this friend of humanity, this
sacred presence in the-soul-Who? What? Whence 
Whither?
No man's intellectual lamplight can bring this mys
terious presence into photographic visibility. Wisdom,




108                TH ARAILA.
with her impersonal intuitions, is the only artist who'can throw the image of the Angel-Arabula upon
the burnished plate of the enlightened reason. Only
that inextinguishable Light, which " lighteth every
man that cometh into the world," can paint the formless personality of Melchisedek. Without this lifting
light, " my soul is among lions;" without it, " I lie even
among'the'children  f men,'that are set'ohn fire,'-Whose
-teeth are spears and arrows, and'their'tonge Pa sharp'sword;" without this light "-my  ays  re full of darkness,"'the swet life'of "my God:has:orsaken me,"'and I;"walk:in a vain shadow" from T -day to:day in'my lon'ily journey,down, dow  to ithe "l1and of the
silent."




FRoM DBVATH TO LIFE.           1009
CHA-PTER. XXVIII.
FROM DEATH TO LIFE.
TiAT the'gave ave n'open and':the "::dead arise," I
know; for my Irntellect, although impelled:and fiattePed
by rthe primal selfish instincts, "'heard the Master's
voice;" and:I:came'forth clad in garments of purest
white light; and then, 0, how my whole heart:payed;that I might be spared another'journey back:to dismal:hades!  There is no -deeper, -damning Ad-eath-"to'the
great powers of man's immortal mind-thn thathat:death'which stills and kills every emotion -and impulse, save'the -instiinct of:selfpreservation:and sef-gratification-:an instinct that works for Self-cost what it may to
others.
My grave:was dug not so deep:as are -the graves of.some, for'my death'was only that of Intellect ver8sus
Wisdom:; in:the n:aterialismis:of wtiich, the light. of the
angel of In tuition was well-nigh extinguished. But, Oh,
joy! I: saw the living light,: and heard the love'laden
voice of-:Ara~bulaa.  It:was a burning and "a shining
light," and its voice was the voice of infinite'and eternal
Truth.  "Marvel not at this," it said, " for the hour is
coming in the which all that are in their graves shall
hear my voice." Oh, glorious hour! when all the dead
intellects and selfish animals in the shape of men shall
hear the voice of' the Light of God. I was fully prepared to believe that they who had tried sincerely to do




110               THE ARABULA.
good would come forth, as I did, to "the resurrection
of life "-beautiful, free, progressive, loving life! While
they who had employed their intelligence and selfish
instincts to do evil would experience "the resurrection
of damnation," - shameful, tyrannical, stultifying,
shriveling, hateful death. Even this moment I shudder at the remembrance that, once, merely as my own
selfish private luxury, I was " willing for a season to
rejoice in the light " of the pure and holy Arabula.
But I had a positive evidence that my resurrection
was true and perfect, and, I hoped, everlasting. My
evidence was this: I had unfolded in my affections a
powerful, sweet, pure love for every thing humran. And
I remembered that Arabula had said long, long ago:
"We know that we have passed from death unto life,
because we love the brethren."  Oh, how beautiful is
Truth! It is death-dark, chilling, diabolizing, damning death-to hate a human being. Arabula is. the
perfect, the eternal love-light and light-love of the
universe; and when it dwelleth in our superior consciousness, we not only love it without fear, but also
love tenderly all humanity, and even the least and
lowest things of the earth, and the earth itself; and
likewise all things in the starry heavens, with a love
that is unutterable, mysterious, sublime, and blossoming
with happiness.




LOVE WORKING FOR OTHERS.            111
CHAPTER XXIX.
LOVE WORKING FOR OTHERS.
IT is no part of my testimony that the Intellect, per
se, is the source of all the follies and wickedness that
have been perpetrated in the world.  I would not
weaken man's confidence in the natural excellence and
inwrought integrity of his powers and endowments. It
is against the fruits of the unresurrected intellect, which
is based in selfish instincts and fed by experience solely
derived through the five senses, that I protest with all
my might.
Soon after my glorious intellectual resurrection,when, hearing the awakening voice, I passed from
"death unto life,"  I entered upon the work of serving
and saving others. My pen and speech said: "Oh,
brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother." The
holy fire began to burn on the altar of my heart. When
the Omnipotent power of fraternal love shall be felt by
every one"Then shall all shackles fall; the stormy clangor
Of wild war music o'er the earth shall cease;
L6ve shall tread out the baleful fire of anger
And in its ashes plant the tree of peace."
No love seemed to me at that time so all-embracing
and so heart-purifying as the love fraternal.  Like the
glory of the morning light, and yet more like the
fertilizing warmth of the noontide sun, seemed that




112                THE AABULA.
love which bound heart to heart, raised to the angelstate of unselfishness. Sounding in my soul were the
familiar words"How blest the sacred tie that binds,
In union sweet, accordant minds."
In all moments, and in all places, I could feel the very
life of the injunction, "Love ye one another."  It has
been truly said that one' of:he hmost:beautiful words
which our language has borrowed from  the Greek is
Philanthropia; or, a's we; have-it, Ph-ilantAropy,; signifying the "Love of Man."  It has a musical sound; and
the very utterance of it begets pleasant thou-ghits, and
inspires prophecies of good. The truith it t1iifolds,
and the lesson it teaches to the thoug]htf-ul, when we
come to look into its meaning, make, as -it twere, a
golden:link in the:Chain which Ibinds us:to Ithe good
and the great of the past.  Theyihad:their inspirations,'those old men; they saw more or less cearly,'at'times,
what ought to be amdng the nations, and cauglit sight
of:that sublime truth which:recognizes the unity;f;ur'race. This word PhilanAro2y shows:so miuch as this:
A  vision, however:far off, of:he relation existing
between all men, as members of one great family:;'the
duty and -pleasure of loving -and:helping one the other;
the dwelling together of the niations in peace, as being
of the same'flesh and blood and bone, and bound
together by'the ties of a common brotherhood and
a common interest-these are the thought's:and;feelings-which must have lived-somewhere, in asome leaits,,in the olden time:; and which, struggling -for utte;nce,
ga;ve birth to -this beautiful and musical speech.:P1Mai




LOVE WORKING:FOR OTHERS.           11 i~
is it that "to some true souls in the far-off ages  f' tlie
Past these great triths'were- partially'visible —iat least
a glimpse of them had been'caught else we nhad not
known that noble and brave word Phil/ant/hropy.  iLet
us rejoice in its'existence, nd seek to give a divine
second birth in action.
Under the plenum  of this holy power of love- the
eternal tie, unselfish, which is the happiness;of angels,
and the principle which conjoins men and angel's to
God-under the blaze of this holy fire, with which my
entire intellect accorded, I issued a call to  all who
would, if they knewhow, " overcome evil with good."
Policy, self-guarding cautiousness, I did not consult.' Grown wiser for the lesson given,
I fear no longer, for I know:That'where the share is deepest driven,
The best fruits grcw."
The fact cannot be disguised, I said, that modern
theories of sin, evil, crime, and misery are numerous
and extremely conflicting. Not less antagonistic are
existing laws, systems, and institutions respecting the
rearing of children, and the treatment of criminals.
The vindictive and coercive code has been for centuries
administered to the workers of iniquity; yet vice and
crime seem to be increasing in proportion to the spread
of civilization. The progressive and benevolent everywhere begin to believe that this prevalence of crime
and suffering is mainly traceable to erroneous doctrines
respecting man and his acts, out of which have been
evolved equally erroneous systems of education, tyrannical institvlions, and depraving plans of punishment.
Therefore it is believed that a true philosophy of




114               TIIE ARnlBULA.
human existence will ultimate in more ennobling institutions and philanthropic systems of education.
All thoughtful and humane persons, of every profession or form of faith, were invited to a convention,
with a platform perfectly free to all who could throw
what they believed to be true light upon THE CAUSE
AND CURE OF EVIL.
It was urged that the question should be presented
in all its aspects.  And it was recommended that
persons should comeprepared to treat this subject with
dignity and wisdom, from every stand-point of observation and discovery-the physical, social, political, intellectual, theological, and spiritual. The presence and
influence of all true friends of Humanity were invoked,
to speak and to hear dispassionately upon the causes of
evil and misery; so that the best principles and truest
remedies might be discovered and applied.




THEE SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD.        115
CHAPTER XXX.
THIE SPIRIT OF BROTIERHOOD.
THE voice of Fraternal Love was heard by many, for
the ltight had reached and resurrected hosts of women
and men not only, but a multitule of little children
also, and the assemblage was large and influential.
We gathered in the spirit of the " Progressive Friends,"
who said:-Mingling with the chime of church bells,
and with the tones of the preacher's voice, or breaking
upon the stillness of our religious assemblies, we heard
the clank of the slave's chain, the groans of the wounded
and dying on the field of bloody strife, the noise of
drunken revelry, the sad cry of the widow and the
fatherless, and the wail of homeless, despairing, povertydriven
" By foul Oppression's ruffian gluttony
Forth from life's plenteous feast;"
and when, in obedience to the voice of God, speaking
through the holiest sympathies and purest impulses
of our Godlike humanity, we sought to arouse our
countrymen to united efforts for the relief of human
suffering, the removal of giant wrongs, the suppression'
of foul iniquities, we found the Church, in spite of her
solemn professions, arrayed against us, blocking up the
path of reform with her serried ranks, prostituting her
mighty influence to the support of wickedness in high




11i 6                 ThaE <ARA3tALA.
places, smiling complacently upon the hauglhty oppressor, "justifying the wicked for a reward," maligning
the faithful Abdiels who dared to stand up for the
truth, and  to testify  against popular crimes,-thus
traitorously  upsetting  the very  foundations  of the
religion she was sacredly bound to support and
exemplify, and  doing in the namie of Christ deeds
at which humanity shuddered, obliterating her indignant blushes only with the tears that welled up -from
the deeps of hergreat, loving heart.
In —the  plenitude of omniscient truth, and aided by
the insight of intuition, I felt, although, intellectually,
I did not fully concur with Byron, that"-They: neverz fail'who' die
In a grat' cause. The block may soak their gore;
Their theads may sodden in the sun; their limbs
Be strung to city:gates an'd castle'wallsBut' still their spirit'walks abroad. Though years:Elapse, anid 6thers share  as dark a' doom,
They but augment-the deep:and Sweeping thoughts
Which overpower all others, and conduct
The world at last to freedom."
It was a sad, foreboding thought that miy intellect did
not, even after all my interior trials, quite come up in
perception:to  the lof't:yst-ansdard:revealed by Arabula.'Oh, must I ever again go down into'hades?, Am  I,
intellectually, yet unborn:?  No, no; keep me'from the
hollow cave of doubt:!  Help, help, 0 ye angels of the
-sacred Summer:Land! help me to st'and -on-thesolid
rock of Wisdom, which gardenizes the earth, enlighteneth'the intellect, pours light 7through,;all:the ties and
affections, and leadeth to God.
But the fear was bornt of the'alarmed instinct:of




TIHE SPIRIT OF. ]RQOTIERIOOD.      117
caution.  "I am not in darkness" said I; and " I will
not borrow trouble."
At that very moment the love fraternal was beauti
fully burning and shining in my heart. Filled with its
bounty, as the ocean is formed by uncounted rivers
from  mountain  streams, I realized that the worldredeeming spirit of BROTHERHOOD had descended from
higher spheres.
Practical worlks of benevolence, deeds of fraternal
love, efforts to overcome evil with good, labors for the
uplifting of down-trodden millions, combinations for
deepening justice and diffusing liberty throughout the
land, mark the present day, and: this, too, notwithstanding the mighty wars wbhiclh now distract and threaten
to disintegrate the nations, and in spite of. the demon
of sectarianism, that would overthrow the temples of
brotherly love in every land. Truly said the poet"We are living, we are dwelling,
In a.. grand,. ev.en.tful time,
In an age on ages. tellingTo be living is sublime."
BROTHERHO6D, the sun ofuniversal unity, beams with
gladness over land7 and: sea. A; mighty spirit stands in
the heavens before humanity, calling nations to repentance. and urging individuals to action.  Fraternity
comes w.ith the, new morning, kindling a golden lovefire in every gentle heart, inspiring with new life: and
joy thousands who dwell far away beyond. gilded hills
and mountain summits, and strengthening mighty hosts
with truths at once beautiful, heaven-revealing, heartuplifting, and  harmonioiu.s:  The angelic song of
"Brotherhood"  comes from  surro-u'ding  Summer



118                TIHE ARABULA.
Lands, and streams like a holy river through desert
souls and humble homes-causing the very earth to
rejoice, and the people to sing the hymnsof gratitude.
Heaven's kingdom comes to mankind through man.
It comes through manifestations of brotherly affection,
through unselfish love, and through the saving deeds of
unfolded wisdom.  Chance and change, and the decay
of ages, cannot efface from the soul tile impress of fraternal love. Its changeless goodness is steadily poured
into the open heart-causing it to swell like a fountain
brimming over with the living waters of the Father's
wisdom and the 3Mother's love. Such love brightens
the spirit's sky, and lightens all life's burdens. In misfortune it enters at the open door, and saves your failing and falling soul. In sickness its gentle hand is outstretched to soothe and heal you. In loneliness it traces
out your silent steps, and extends to you the hand of
faithful friendship.
Believe mne, the human heart is full of kindness, and
is ever ready to overflow with angelic affection.  Only
in moments of blindness and impatience do men spurn
one another, and violently trample down the fragrant
flowers of fraternal love.  Hand in hand, heart to
heart, soul clinging to soul,-all equal children of God
and Nature,-travelers in the path of one destiny,-all
facing the same way,-all progressing together toward
higher realms of life; thus, thus fraternally working and
o iward marching are mankind, —governed by the laws of
necessity, —regulated by similar interests —and influenced to better growth by unchangeable principle.
Let the world become better acquainted with itself, for
you will find that




THE SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD.          119
"There is no dearth of kindness
In this world of ours;
Only in our blindness
Take we thorns for flowers I
Cherish God's best giving,
Falling from above;
Life were not worth living
Were it not for LOVE."
Thus was born " THE ~MORAL POLICE FRATERNITY."
Fraternal men and women enrolled themselves beneath
its broad banner, bearing the motto: " LFT NO ONE CALL
GOD, FATHER, WHO CALLS NOT MAN, BROTHER."  The
members, while receiving and enjoying the co-operation
of mlinds who inhabit higher spheres, held that natural,
persistent, progressive agencies were required to bring
the heavenly state on earth. The effect of the fraternity was to harmonize the ideas and sentiments of its
members, and to direct their benevolence and labors
upon individuals in discord, in misfortune, in sickness,
in prison, in poverty, in crime, in ignorance, and in
misery.
A humanitarian movement so natural and fraternal,
or something akin to it, I thought, would build its
altars throughout civilization. Its plan of operation
was broad, comprehensive, philanthropic, and practical.
The ends of charity and justice to individuals can be
surely and quickly accomplished through the instrumentality of -a self-moving body so simply and effectively organized. I thought that every person would
wish to become a "member" of an organization in
which no one member could " suffer " without attracting the attention and securing the Sympathy of " the
whole body."  Unlike many self-protective and bene



120.               THE ARkAULA.
ficial societies, this pla,:. did not; exclude. Woman from
any of its departments, privileges, or: benefits. A solemn
covenant was thus made between man's., spirit-inmost,
the universe of Angels, and: the.Most High.
It was urged that a lost and " a shipwrecked Brother"
could not be reached, and, saved. unless, the Body had
"living members" in every part of the, land.  Fraternities, with few signs and secrets, should multiply, and
they will. Darkness and, despair will roll away from
human hearts on, the., approach of these redeemed
Brothers and Sisters.  The lamps of HIope will once
more shine o'er. marl's, bewildered lot; in the secret
chambers of long-suffering hearts.: a. new life will come
forth; and homeless women, young and old, under
equal care, and blest, by faithful justice, will stand
resurrected by the side of their noblest brothers.
A mighty. lever for accomplishing good among the
millions was thus born,-a Christ in the manger, over
whom the angels sang "glad tidings of great joypeace on earth, good-will to all men."  iWho can do
more for the individual than a loving-hearted woman or
man.   "Though wandering in a stranger-land," the
truly fraternal is the sure medium of loving-kindness, to
a Brother or a Sister in affliction.  The morning stars
did not more harmoniously chant the songs of truth.
Just think of overcoming evil, and shedding, whenever
you can, light and love in desert hearts!, To prevent
crimes, to lessen evils, to remove ignorance, to lift the
fallen, to brighten the weapons of truth, to oppose
intemperance, to resist sectarianism, to overcome passion, to strengthen virtue, to dethrone tyranny, to promote progress; to do all the good you can to whomso



THE SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD.          21
ever and wheresoever. What mission more full of
human sympathy and love, or more grateful to griefstricken, time-tossed, joy-bereft, suffering, saddened
humanity? Your spirit will grow under the warmth
of heavenly blessings.  With wide-extended arms it
will impartially embrace the acquaintance and the
stranger, and freely shower fertilizing influences upon
kindred, neighbors, foes, and friends.
6




122               THE ARABULA.
CHIAPTER XXXI.
A CHILLING WIND.
A'EW kindred ones residing in the metropolis, into
whose inner life the light of Arabula had penetrated,
engaged actively in the work; and seven of the number
were, by the people interested, elected trustees and managers of the institution for the first year. They procured
the legal certificate of incorporation, under and by virtue
of an Act passed by the Legislature of the State of
New York, in the year 1848, entitled, " An Act for the
Incorporation of Benevolent, Charitable, Scientific, and
Missionary Societies," and Acts subsequently passed.
And it was declared in the application, that " the business and objects of said Association are to furnish aid to
the destitute, instruction to the ignorant and degraded,
and employment and homes to the poor and friendless,
and thus take away incentives to crime."
The few workers hoped much and accomplished
much. There was a beautifulness in the righteousness
of their free offerings. It was felt to be a glorious
privilege, and not a hardship and a dry duty, to work
for those in poverty and disease.
But the imp of Selfishness arose like Apolyon in our
path; not in the associated workers, but in those for
whom  they worked.  Impostors, simulating'abject
poverty, attempted to avail themselves of our bounty;
ten of this class would apply for assistance, to one real
case of sorrow and despair. We found these real cases,




A CHILLING WIND.             123
and exposed the impostors, by a: careful system of visitation. The name and residence of every applicant
were entered upon a journal. Then letters bearing
such name and address were immediately sent to two
members of the association, requesting the recipient to
forthwith investigate the case recorded.  Care was
specially taken that neither had knowledge of the
other's intended visit. The object was to get fiom two
investigators (one a man and the other a woman) of
the same case, testimony which could be compared and
made a basis of work in the applicant's behalf. The
facts and the fictions developed by the visitors were
elicited by asking the applicant's occupation? Age?
Place of birth? Whether married, widowed, or single?
Htow long in country, or city? Number of persons:for
whom relief is asked? Whether relief is received from
any relative or acquaintance-? Whether assisted by any
charitable institution, and how much.-Any means of
support, and what are they?  Member of any:Church or
religious society? If any sick:; how many, and how
long? These questions were put by each visitor.
The cupidity and:rapacity of the instinct of Selfishness came out in bold relief. It being ascertained that
ten-elevenths of all applicants were self-seeking, dirty,
idle, aimless social impostors, the members changed
their labors somewhat, so as to search out and help the
really;slffering. I need not dwell upon the amount of
holy work performed by this quiet method. We did not
let our right hands know what our left'hands acconmplished —; and although the good done was:not large, the
quality was like the love of angels.
Our usefulness was limited by the lack of money in




124               THE ARABULA.
our treasury.  One day, while walking through the
street, "filled with an ever-shifting train," I met a
wealthy merchant acquaintance, who kindly asked,
" What are you doing now days?'
" Many things," I replied: "Editing and publishing,
lecturing twice on the first day of the week (usually
called Sunday), superintending a Progressive Lyceum
full of children, acting as president and treasurer of the
Moral Police Fraternity, and constantly and courageously
searching for truth."
"Well" (with a -cold, practical, hardened, selfish,
sarcastical expression spreading over his honest countenance), " you've got a damn big job on hand."
"Yes," said I, just a little thrown back upon myself; "yes, but before me lies all eternity, and you,
know I do not like idleness."' What are you trying to do with that Fraternity?"
" We are trying to help those in trouble, and to prevent crime, by helping the poor (specially poor women)
to remunerative employment."
"' That sounds very well, very well, very well indeed;
but, my dear sir, it won't amount to a row of pins."
And he sent the atmosphere of his cold eyes upon me,
with an arrogant, self-conceited positiveness which produced an effect analogous to a northwest wind suddenly
blowing upon one's warm flesh in the middle of August.
But I replied: " We have already done many charitable things, helping and saving more than one homeless girl and boy, and aiding many wounded soldiers
on their weary way to anxious friends at home."' I'll tell why you won't succeed," he rejoined. " You
are not doing your work in the name of Jesus Christ."




A CHILLING WIND.             125
"True, neither do we work in the name of Lincoln,
President; nor in the name of Napoleon, emperor; nor
in the name of Confucius, philosopher; nor in the name of
Socrates, psychologist-but, instead, we work in the presence of God and angels, and in the name of Humanity."
"You don't understand me," resumed the merchant.
"What I mean is, it matters not how pretty your
language is, your charitable plans, and all that.. If
you don't work under the wings of some established
religious denomination, your institution will be bankrupt in six months."
" We propose," I answered, "to work independent of
any sectarian body, and do good where we can to a Hindoo
the same as a Christian, making no difference on account
of country, sex, color, or belief. And yet the Fraternity
affiliates and co-operates, as far as practicable, with the
municipal police, all charitable institutions, school systems, and industrial associations, in accordance with
objects set forth in the'Letter of Instructions,' for the
detection and overthrow of ignorance, poverty, injustice,
corruption, and tyranny-for the overcoming of evil with
good, and the development of the Kingdom of Heaven on
earth."
"All that's well enough, well enough, but you can't
succeed.''
"Our treasury is rather low," said I. "Cannot you
do something?"
" No, I have as much as I want to do to take care of
my own family. They must go to meeting somewhere,
and I am now paying all I can afford for that purpose."'
And the feathery fumes of his first-class cigar covered
my face, and so besmoked the air I could scarcely
breathe. I said: -




126               THE ARABULA.
"Allow me to ask you a question?"
" Certainly, certainly, my dear sir —go on."
" Do you smoke cigars every day?"
" Yes; every day for the past ten years; my cigars,
and a glass of lager now and then, is about all the damn
comfort I have during business hours."
" Well, be kind enough to tell me exactly how much
your cigars cost you per annum 2"
" Well, let me see. Oh, I don't smoke all I buy, you
understand. A gentleman must always look out for
the comfort of his friends, you know. Well, let me
think. Excuse me, your question is rather impertinent,
ain't it 2"
" Oh, no; not at all. Not being a smoker myself, I
am naturally a little curious to know."
" Well, well; all right. Three times ten are thirty,
add five; multiply thirty-five by twelve, makes four
hundred and twenty. Yes, that's about it. Four hundred and twenty dollars a year I pay for cigars."
"Now," said I, kindly, "I shall not say one word
about the filthiness, the uselessness, the unwholesomeness of tobacco; but this proposition I make to you:
That you pay into the treasury of the Fraternity every
year just halcf the money you spend for cigars, and you,
having an expensive and fashionable family, need not
increase expenditures, if you will smoke just half the
amount of the narcotic weed."
The merchant smiled scornfully, not to say bitterly
and revengeful, looked at his watch, stiffly bowed,
blushed with a momentary sense of unworthiness, and
rapidly walked away.  But I felt a chilling wind
whistling and shrieking around my heart.




STRENGTH OUT OF WEAKNESS.          127
CHAPTER XXXII.
STRENGTH OUT OF WEAKNESS.
THE merchant was a true prophet. He was, he is,
a positive, selfish, intelligent, go-a-head man of the
world. All matters of public financial interest engage
his best powers.  He spends twelve thousand dollars a
year for a fashionable family life and household conveniences. IHe is a decided force in the great city of
America, and he knows it.  He is majestically self-conceited, arrogant, dogmatic, and yet blest with a large
nature, and, being full of warm  animal, social, convivial instincts, he is a first-rate club man, a successful
merchant, influential in political circles, always gets
elected to a high office under the City Government,
attends a rich up-town church once every Sunday.; and:
jyet, in secret, is four-fifths an atheist; but, in the
reserved fifth part of his nature, longs for the celestial
light of Arabula, and takes every opportunity to investigate the scientific relations between mankind and the
inhabitants of the Summer Land.
But he sent a thrill of horrible doubt into my warm
heart. The dreary darkness of hades once more opened
before me, but I did not enter there.  The Arabula
had' beautifully spoken to my soul through Emerson:
( Or strength grows out of our weakness. The indignation which arms itself with secret forces does not
awaken until we are pricked and stung, and sorely




128               THE ARABULA.
assailed. A great man is always willing to be little.
Whilst he sits on the cushion of advantages, he goes to
sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has
a chance to learn something; he has been put on his
wits, on his manhood; he has gained facts; learns his
ignorance; is cured of the insanity of conceit; has got
moderation and real skill.  The wise man throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest
than it is theirs to find his weak point. The wound
cicatrizes and falls off from him like a dead skin, and
when he would triumph, lo! he has passed -on invulnerable. Blame is safer than praise. I hate to be
defended in a newspaper. As long as all that is said is
said against me, I feel a certain assurance of success.
But as soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken for
me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his
enemies. In general, every evil to which we do not
succumb is a benefactor. As the Sandwich Islander
believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he
kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the
temptation we resist.    I    *    *    *    Let a
stoic open the resources of man, and tell men they are
not leaning willows, but can and must detach themselves; that with the exercise of selfttrust, new powers
shall appear; that a man is the word made flesh, born
to shed healing to the nations; that he should be
ashamed of our compassion, and that the moment he
acts from himself, tossing the laws, the books, idolatries,
and customs out of the window, we pity him no more,
but thank and revere him,-and that teacher shall
restore the life of man to splendor, and make his name
dear to all history."




THE FACE OF -HUMAN LIFE.         129
CIHAPTER  XXXIII.
THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE.
THE face of 1human life is:more wondrous and beautiful than imagination can paint,:when seen in the
tender and holy " light":which cometh frorn above.
Though sundered far, yet, as by an ineffable tie of
imitation, all men come viery near together, and consociate kindly as members of one family.
Onle morning, not long *after the last conversation,
the tranquil deep and quickening "light" filled the
world with golden grandeur. It seemed:to illuminate,
with a sweet expression of unusual gladness, "'the melancholy face of human life."  Streams of golden beauty
flooded the lowest caves of poverty and wretchedness.
In that beauty I saw descending a spirit of mercifulness,
a magnetic rain of holy tenderness, dripping through
the Stygian  darkness that hung  over our rudimental sphere.  It changed the hideous night of
human evil into a bright, happy day.. The rivers of
life swelled with the fullness of gladness, and the
oceans of love ebbed and flowed musicAlly, with. the
reciprocal rhythmical tides of infinite wisdom.
In that light I contemplated society in different parts
of the world. And there and then was born in my
bosom, with a grander power for work, an infinite: hope
and trust; yea, a higher knowledge of. the possibilities
and achievements in the future history of human nature
And- I saw that:
6*




130                 THE ARA]BULA.
" No radiant pearl, which crested fortune wearsNo gem that twinkling hangs from beauty's ear;
Nor the bright stars, which night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns, that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such luster, as the tear that breaks
For others' woe, down virtue's manly cheeks."
But knowing that some of my fellow-workers did not
perceive the "i face of human life," either in its " better
or worse" aspects, I went to my desk and painted the
picture, and mapped-out the field of work for philanthropists, thus:
i. VAGRANT CHILDREN. —Thousands are born  and
cradled amid scenes of drunkenness, beggary, sensuality, and crime. They are early taught the low
vices of the rum-hole, dance-house, and brothel. Talk
with them in the spirit of an angel's love.  Find out
where they sleep, what they do day by day, and by
what means they obtain their subsistence.  Miany of
them beg, others peddle, some pilfer, and too many sell
themselves to secure a living.
2. ORPHANS.-Many, having  ignorant  and  vile
parents, are orphaned from their earliest moments.
Their  tenderest  and  most spiritual impulses are
crushed; their tongues are trained to the language
of ignorance cruelty; and vice; houseless, forsaken,
hungry, dirty, and immoral, they are orphans, and, like
those who have- no parents, need your solicitude, lovingkindness, and protection. All such want good homes
in the country.  The warmth of spiritual hearts will
elevate their affections and purify their lives.
3. IDISEASED.-Give to such a few words of instruction concerning the laws and conditions of Life and




THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE.          131
Whealth. Caution them against the evils arising from
-he use of alcohol and tobacco. Encourage them to
abandon all habits which tend to prostration, sensuality,
and disease. A few words mayv, in after years, take
root and save the little sufferer. Bestow healing from
your magnetic hands. Let no opportunity of doing
good escape you.
4. STREET QUARRELS.-Children whose birthplace
was in the midst of dissipatioti and crime, are quarrelsome and profane in the streets. Never fail to speak to
either boys or girls when you see them disputing, or hear
them using vulgar and profane language.  Step in
between them at once, but invariably with great gentler
ness. Ascertain, if possible, the cause of their quarrel
and fighting. Explain the better way. Instruct them to
walk in the paths of wisdom. They will feel and
acknowledge that you love them; and that, though a
stranger, you are a truefriend to them.
5. DESTITUTE WoMEN.-There are multitudes of this
class-young girls, and women of all ages-who need
timely counsel and wise assistance. They want faithful
friends, and opportunities to gain their living by honest
toil. Superintendents of the Poor, the Commissioners
of Emigration, and the Governors of the Almshouse
have great duties and responsibilities in behalf of this
class of women. You should know what can be done
with and through these Institutions. You can point
out to many a lone heart the way to industry, purity,
and happiness. Be a true guide to the stranger, and a
source of strength to the poor and fallen.
6., UNFORTUNATES.-M-any have gone into misfortune
and crime. They wait your healing friendship. They




132                 THE ARABULA.
have had no, society but that of vice-incrusted   ene —swearers, drunkards, thieves, profligates, and criminals.
They want you to speak to their souls the words of
fraternal welcome to a higrher life.  Give ther  knowledJge of the angels.  Unfold to their minds the Father's
wisdom and the Mother's love.  Find a:kind home for
the honest-hearted girl, and procure profitable labor for
the impoverished and broken-spirited woman.*   She
is your unfortunate Sister.   She is pure and beautiful within.  You will meet'her after death in the
Summer Land.  Fail not to do her much good.
7. IMPRISONED. -Hundreds of wom.en have:abandoned
themselves to low  vices-petit  arcenies,::auperisnm,
and: other misdemeanors from  which yOU can:arrest and
wholly redeem  them.  By the sentence of the Cjurt,
under the laws of the State, such Sisters are imprisone'd
like masculine criminals of deeper depravity.  Tlus
they fall beneath self-respect, into a moral Condition
below the state from which they offended the interests
of society.  They need your timely aid. If'possible,
keep them from prison.  Stand between them  and the
requisitions of the law.  Shield them from the impertinent questionings of lawyers.  Let your fraternal love
wrarm the heart of the crimninal woman.  Let the lig ht
of your better faith shine upon her pathway.  No part
of your work can be more successful.
8. INTEMPERATE IMEN..- The rum-shop is the deatlh~
gate of society.  It is the fountain of want, wretched* Recently a movement has been inaugurated for " Working Women"
in New York, which, if it can be kept non-sectarian, will accomplish
desirable results. What is now most needed is a "Temporary Home",r girls and young-wo.men who seek aid to rise fiom evil.




THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE.             133
ness, beggary, vice, cruelty, crime, and sensuality.
Sore-eyed, dirty, filthy,- houseless, forsaken, hungry
children are born and cradled in the hovels, garrets,
damp cellars, and loathsome alleys which are sought
by the victims of intemperance.  In this city the youthful population-the offspring of intemperate parentsconsists of "newsboys,"  " street-sweepers,"  "dockboys,"  "beggars of cold victuals," "cinder-snipes,"
"peddlers of'stolen  articles,"  " boot-blacks,"  and
"dead-rabbits."  There are fifty thousand children in
New York who never enter any place of instruction.
The cause of this over-population of unfortunates is intemperance.  Thousands of children originate in sensuality.  Of 32,172 men sent to prison in one year,
30,200 were victims of alcohol. These men want your
fraternal arms to arrest them  in their career. They
can be saved through love and truth.  Instruct them in
the laws of life and immortality.  Impress them with
-the" consequences" of their bodily and mental habits.
Teach them  concerning the life after death-of the
realities of the Summer Land-where the results of the
practices in this life are revealed as parts of the individual's character.
9. CRIMINALs.-This class is large and increasing.
They are for the nmost part men who emanate from
foreign penitentiaries and foreign poor-houses.  Such
characters are shipped to thlis country, and ourjails Stateprisons, almshouses, and'as ylums become filled with
them.  Yet they are children. of Fatller God,-the
offspring of good M]5~other nature,-and: are destined to
live and bloom in the gardens of eternity.  They are
Irish, Germans, Italians, English,:French, Polanders,




134               THE ARABULA.
Welsh, Portuguese, Hungarians, Scotch, and Africans.
The cost to the people of the United States, of arresting, convicting, and punishing these criminals, is enormous-being not less than $19,000,000 (nineteen million dollars) every year. The combined salaries of the
lawyers amount to $35,000,000 per annum. Tobacco and rum —the active agents of vulgarity and crime
-cost one hundred and forty millions ($140,000,000)
every year.  Of course criminals are being rapidly
multiplied. Intemperance is at the bottom of it all.
The condition of these criminals calls fbr your fraternal love and good works. From their imprisonments
they beseech you to visit them. Eternity alone can
reveal the good your ministrations may do for them.
Some of them are weary and broken-hearted; others
are bitter toward their enemies, and vindictive; the
first need strength, and the latter demand the lessons
of wisdom. You can convey glad tidings to their grateful hearts. Lead them out of darkness, and obtain their
pardon. There will be joy in heaven when one such is
redeemed from his discords and evil.
10. DISABLED ANMALS.-AAl ways be ready to assist the
fallen, whether animal or human. The lower kingdoms should feel the gentle, healing love of your justice
and harmony. The harmonial age should descend, like
a universal blessing, to the fishes, birds, and animals.
They live for us, and serve us day by day, and are susceptible to the law of kindness.
11. THE ABUSED.-Cruelty and injustice should not
be meted out to dependent creatures.  Whipping,
stoning, maiming, teasing, or otherwise abusing creatures beneath man, should not be permitted. It is




THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE.             135
your duty to arrest the attention of men or boys whenever they transgress the law of kindness.
12. FIGHTING.-It is especially your mission to separate animals, as well as men or boys, who may be engaged in fighting.  Street fights and neighborhood
quarrels come within your sphere of operations. Always
be peacemakers.*
"All history shows," says a magazine writer, " that
familiarity with the sufferings of inferior animals infallibly leads to cruelty toward one's own species. Tastes
are vitiated, hearts hardened, minds brutalized by
such acts, till they acquire an appetite and thirst for
blood. Thus the barbarities of the Coliseum, where
polished Romans sought their sport and pastime in the
savage rending and dying agonies of brute animals, led
in due time to the demand for hecatombs of human
sacrifices; and who can tell how often from such scenes
as these veterinary amphitheaters of France, reeking
with the warm blood of writhing victims, may'have
gone forth a Nemesis to mete out the same measure to
the sons and daughters of the land?
"In the hideous catalogue of cruelties which have
marked  each successive revolution in that country,
human creatures have, in numberless instances, been
mangled, mutilated, and tortured to death with equally
ruthless indifference.' Murders were committed wholesale,' as one of their own writers has observed,' not from
any lust or revenge, or avarice, but merely from the luxury to the perpetrators of seeing their victims die, to feast
* Since the suspension of the Moral Police, "A Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals " has been duly organized in New York,
and is doing great good,




136               THE ARABULA..
the ear with their groans, and to delight the eye with
their contortions,' till these fiends in human form
attained to such a refinement of cruelty, that witnesses
of their deeds are known to have died with horror.
"Time was, as Pope tells us, when our:huntsmen
passed upon the ladies of quality who were present at
the death of a stag, the savage compliment of putting
the knife into their hands, to cut:the throat of a helpless, trembling, and weeping creature; but times and
manners hlave: changed. Our women are now cast in
softer mold, and loathe the infliction and thle in fictor
of cruelty. The bare recital of these atrocities moves
them to tears.:Surely in' the land where Rosa Bonheur
has shown upon the glowing canvas —in touches of
nature which make us feel'the whole world kin'how like ourselves horses;may be in their affections and
their joys, there are not wanting' noble women who can
feel that, like us, these poor. dumb fellow-creatures of
ours have their sufferings, too-miseries enough from
the injustice and ingratitude of man, without any
aggravation of them  from  his wanton barbarity.
Surely in a country which sends forth her Sisters
of Charity in thousands, to minister, with unwearied
self-devotion, to suffering humanity, some good angels
will be found to set about this work of mercy-a task
which will win for them the honor of the good and the
brave, and be not unremembered of I-Tim whose' tender
mercies are over all Iis works.'"
Of criminals much might be written. The history
of Windsor Prison (Vt.) was investigated, and the following testimony on the religious question is submitted:
"It has been very often said that the convicts of State




THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE.          197
prisons are either Atheists, Deists, or IUniversalists,
than which, however, nothing call be further from the
truth. I have known as many as five hundred while
they were in confinement, and I have always made it a
practice to learn the religious opinions of all with whom
I have conversed, and what I am going to write may be
depended on as the actual result of my personal inquiries.
" Those whom I have known have been educated in
the doctrines of the endless punishment school, and but
few have departed from these doctrines. I have found
only two Atheists, not one Deist, and but one Universalist.  The doctrine of endless punishmert'isstrongly and broadly speaking-the orthodoxy (f State
prisoners. I am confident of the truth of this statement, and I make it not by way of slur, or insinuation
against any sect of Christians, but as a fact which all
denominations may use as they may have occasion.
Very many of the convicts have been members of
churches, and a few of them have been preachers.
This is a subject of painful reflection; it shows how
extremely liable the best of men are to be overcome
temptation, and says to those who glory in their
strength,' Let him that thinketh he standeth tal'
lest he fall.'"




138               THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE GREATEST WONDER OF ALL.
THE bells of Time tolled solemnly one evening, and
I heard a voice, which made me- tremble through and
through-a voice which poured out of the sky like the
mellow-throated nightingale, yet sad with the holy
depth of an angel-mother's love-the same voice that I
had heard years and years ago, when first journeying
up and down the mountains with the Magic Staff, saying: "Gather-in-the-Childrern; th ey-will-bring-to-earththe- Ki'ngdom-of - Heaven.
" Thanks! thanks!" I exclaimed.  "Your voice,
mother, never before sounded so sweetly; never did it
impart a message more welcome.'
And from that hour my work was specially directed
to the discovery of the laws and needs of the spirit of
Childhood. The brightest blossoms in the land, I saw,
were children. The greatest angels were planet-born
and reared by terrestrial parents. Little children die,
but they at once ascend in the arms of their celestial
friends, and by them are led into heavenly paths, where
love and wisdom bloom with all immortal beauty. The
sky-schools must be discovered, revealed, and instituted.
The starry ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness.
Let us look clairvoyantly into " those mighty spheres
that gem infinity;" let our eyes convey inwardly the




THE GREATEST WONDER OF ALL.          139
high meanings of the mountains, the leaves, and the
streams of the Summer Land.
Panoplied by this consecration and positive resolve,
the rough squalls and chilling winds of adult selfishness could no longer visit me. The haughtiness and
limitations of the questioning intellect could not now
return. Pure white clouds began to float in the clear
blue of my spirit's sky.  They were filled with the
dewy blessings of skies infinitely more lofty and superpernal.
The work was before me, extending into the future
like an unlimited landscape, and I accepted it.*  All
my friends wondered, and many objected to the misappropriation of time and powers susceptible of a wider
range. It seemed to them that I had deserted the army
of great progressive labors, and gone over to the trifling
occupation of "keeping a Sunday-school."  But the
"light"'shone around me unceasingly; the Magic
Staff was firmly in my grasp; and so, whether understood or misunderstood, my path was straight, my
work was beautiful, and the yoke easy to bear.
Very soon I discovered that the greatest wonder in the
world is a baby. It is a little world of miracles, a little
separate sphere of infinite possibilities, incognizant of
the world around it; with wondrous eyes wide open;
its screaming, laughing, sighing mouth; its fair, sweet,
round form; the autocratic impatience of its tiny
hands; its flower-like unfoldings from day to day; the,
future-feeling hand of its whole instinctive nature; yea,
* What was discovered and practically put forth, the reader can find in
the author's Manual for " Children's Progressive Lyceums."




140               THE ARABULA.
the greatest wonder is a little, a very little child-lying
trustingly, sleeping, waking, crying, crowing, on the
ever-welcoming bosom of its mother.
How expressive the words of an English writer, Mr.
James Martineau:- " There is no sentiment more natural to thoughtful minds than that of reverence for childhood. Many sources both of mystery and love meet in
the infant life. A being so fresh from non-existence
seems to promise us some tidings of the origin of souls:
a being so visibly pressing forward into the future,
makes us think of their tendency. While we look on
the'child as father of the man,' yet /cannot tell of
w/hat kind of man-all the possible varieties of character and fate appear for the moment to be collected into
that diminutive consciousness; that which may be the
germ of any, is felt as though it were the germ of all;
the thread of life, which, from our hand that holds it,
runs forward into instant darkness, untwines itself there
into a thousand filaments, and leads us over every track
and scene of human things; —here through the passages
where poverty crawls; there, to the fields where glory
has its race; —here, to the midnight lake where meditation floats between two heavens; there to the arid sands
where passion pants and dies.  Infancy is so naturally
suggestive, it is the representative of such various possibilities, that it would be strange did we not regard it
with a feeling of wonder.
" There was a theory in ancient times, and somewhat
revived in these days, that the souls of all men come
hither from a pre-existent state, where they dwelt within
the shelter and near the light of God; where truth and
love were as affluently poured on perception, as light




THE GREATEST WONDER OF ALL.          141
and sound upon the senses here; and the sublimest
thoughts of beauty, of virtue, of science, of Deity,
streamed amid the spirits of that purer air, like sunbeams amid the clouds, bathing them in glory.  Birth
into this world was the transference of the mind from a
celestial to an earthly life; its benumbing contact with
material things; its retirement from the boundless and
brilliant freedom of a spiritual life, to the dark and narrow cave of a corporeal being. The further it advanced
into the interior of its mortal existence, and the more
skilled it became in groping along the ways of experience, the more faint grew the impression of the immortal region it had left, and the more dim were the rays
of reminiscence that yet painted a divine vision on its
path.  Education was a process of forgetfulness; the
gradual extrusion of the godlike by the human; the
drowning of abstract truth in experimental knowledge;
the tapering-off of sublime perceptions of the universal
into mean individual sensations. When, under the influence of this doctrine, Plato looked upon a child, he
saw through that shell of life an intelligence fresh from
God; it was a star dropped from its sphere. Still filled
with dreams and memories of the invisible, half present
still in its divine abode, it was a thing of sanctity to
behold; for its orb of existence floated yet on the margin of the unknown world, and, though creeping on to
be eclipsed by the shadows of mortality, had its edge
yet illumined by the past.
" But childhood presents not the wreck, but the elements, of a heavenly existence; not the ruin, but the
design, of a temple not made with hands.  Its glory is
not of the past, but of the future; its experience is to be




142                rIE ARABULA.
not a loss, but a gain, of truth and goodness; its education here, not a vain:struggle to preserve memories
that inevitably vanish, but an aspiration, which can
never disappoint the willing heart, after mental and
moral excellence, rising always to more godlike forms.
It were a task of sadness to take up the infant life, as if
it were the fallen petals of a celestial flower, borne to
our feet by the stream of things, and'every moment
fading more; but it is a task of gladness to accept it as
the seed and germ of an everlasting growth, which,
planted in the rock, and strengthened by the storms of
earth, shall bloom at length in the eternal fields.
"To educate a child is an office of:which no one can
think lightly. To administer perceptions, and unfold
the faculties in their season and proportion; to give
power to the affections, without impairing their symmetry; to develop, in their right order, and to their
full intensity, the great ideas of duty and of God; to
exhibit human virtues and relations in so beautiful an
aspect, that the soul may pass from them with ease to
the venerating love of the Infinite hMind, is a task of
responsibility so solemn, as to invest every parent's life
with the sanctity of a divine mission.
" If the philosopher's doctrine had been the "true one,
and the soul had been like a bird fallen from the skies,
-its plumage soiled in the dust, and its forces drooping
in our heavier air-it would seem  a cruel office to
stimulate it to ascend again, by convulsive efforts, to an
element native, but natural no more. But as the truth
really stands, we have not to provoke a strength jaded
and expiring, but to aid and develop one that is half
formed; ourselves to bear it awhile into the heights' as




THE GREATEST WONDER OF ALL.        143
upon eagles' wings;' and then launch it from the precipice alone, to sweep down the gale, and soar into the
light it loves.
" Many, however, have but a feeble impression of the
delicacy and responsibility of this task —of training the
early mind to aspire, by the power of the noblest ideas.
There is no department of education in which wrong
hmethods are so fatal; —in which the conveyance of
a thought into the mind at an unhappy moment, or
by an unhappy process, may leave a more indelible and
prejudicial effect; in which the penetrative and considerate spirit of sympathy —which is the true secret of
educational as of all other moral power-is more absolutely demanded; in which different minds more require
to have their individuality consulted; yet is there none
to which a more hard, technical, and wholesome system
is applied."




144               THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
MOODS AND TIDES.
THE new work prospered and expanded over the
land, because its spirit-foundations, holy aims, and attractive methods harmonized with the rational sense
and the primal instincts of every non-sectarian father
and mother. BtIt infinitely more will it prosper and
bear the fruits of righteousness in the great future of
humanity.
Oh, the happy, happy faces of the thronging children!
Oh, their songs of gladness! Oh, the warm kisses of
spontaneous, innocent, unselfish affection!  Oh, the
free, tender touch of their open hands! Oh, the tuneful
tread of their marching feetr I do not wonder that
Pythagoras, and Plato, and Jesus, and John, all true
men, and that all true mothers, love, welcome, worship
children.  There can be no "kingdom  of heaven"
without these little angels of immortality!
Who can, who will, paint the picture of an outcast,
vagrant, lost child?  "We reformers," writes a friend
of children, "who are mindful of what we seek, find
none that are enti'rely bad.  There is always to be
found, by those who diligently search for good, a ray
of moral light, or truth, or beauty, even in the most depraved, revealing that link in the chain of being which
connects the Divine Mind with the lowest, the most
unfortunate of His children. And these poor creatures




MOODS AND TIDES.              145
are not to be blamed because they are vulgar, and
licentious, and profane-no more than because they are
hungry, and their clothes are ragged, and their skins
dirty; for good moral example and teaching could no
more be found in their miserable attics and cellars, than
wholesome food, and tidy garments, and pure water.
And now, as I look at them more closely, I can see an
expression of discontent —of strange and vacant wonder,
as if at the present distribution of things; and their
large wild eyes look out from the tangled meshes of
their shadowing hair with a longing earnestness, as if,
in the face of all experience, they had faith, yet, that
sonime good-a little good-would come-even to them.
The expression was infinitely touching; and as I continued gazing on the poor little creatures, my whole
soul dissolved within me.
T How quickly they were sensible of the interest I
felt; for the perceptions of these wretched itinerants
are necessarily, educated; and while they were again
clamorous for charity, or their sweeping fees-for they
had been, for a moment, hushed-one of them looked
up, with the largest, bluest, saddest eyes I ever saw,
holding out her little hand with a silent gesture of
entreaty. There was something so beautiful in the act,
so gentle, so imploring, and at the same time so sweetly
confident of help, that my heart was filled with a strange
and pleasing wonder, and I forgot to reply to her
demand, but stood gazing earnestly into the depths
of those uplifted eyes.  There was nothing wrong
there. They were clear, and deep, as the living wells
of Truth-but, oh, how sorrowful! She returned my
gaze by a look that seemed struggling to utter, in a'1




146                TrlE ARArEULA.
single moment, all the brokenness of that little suffering heart; and then the lids fell with a sweet and
modest expression, and the long fringes rested upon 
cheek which I could see through the spatters of mud
was pale as marble. I whispered to her, as I placed in
her hand a shilling, asking:' Where is your home, my
little girl?' —'orne' she repeated, in a voi-e that
seemed the concentrated melody of sorrow,'indeed I
don't know i'  It was the saddest voice of a child I ever
heard; and the saddest sight I ever saw, was the poor
little desolate creature weeping-the tears carrying the
mud in stripes down her pale face-and unfeeling boys,
and ladies, too, laughing jocosely at her appearance, as
they went by. But I knew  there was a sad story
behind those beautiful eyes."
Another child-lover says:-" When little three-yearold sister lays her fair cheek against mine, and, with
dimpled arms clasped around my neck, prattles in her
innocent way, don't I think of the path her little feet
must tread?  Are there any thorns to pierce themany pits into which she may fail. Now I think of it,
I must tell you of her little speeches. I think she is so
cunning-though perhaps I am partial; if so, pardon.
One night last week she crept into my lap, and, ere I
was aware of it, fell asleep. I took her up to her little
bed, but before putting her in, I said-' Nellie must
not forget her little prayer.' She commenced-' Now I lay me down to sleep.'
"' Dod knows the rest,' she murmured; and the white
lids closed over the, bright eyes, and she was asleep
again.'




MOODS AND TIDES.                     14 i
Wondrously picturesque is the harnmonious glrouping
of children! The scene is suggestive of the tented
fields of the Summer Land, where all things prove
Plato's saying, "]Poetry comes nearer to vital truth
than history."
But, externally, the work slowly wore its way into
flesh  and blood; especially when combined with the
care and toile inseptarable from the issuance of tle
h1erald of Progress.*   The object of that publication
was plainly expressed in its motto:' "The Discovery
and Application   of imltrt.'   The editors and conductors of that paper proposed, in general terms, an object
not much unlike that announced by Pope in his introduction to the inimitable Essay on Man:" Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us, and to die)
Expatiate fiee o'er all this scene of mail;
A mighty maze; but not without a plan;
A wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot,
Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.
Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the coverts yield;
The latent tracts, the giddy leieghts explore,
Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;
Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise;
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
But vindicate the ways of God to man."
The central principle was PROGREss. This' principle
is the "Philosopher's Stone," which converts all metals
into pure gold, and explains all the " ways of God to
* The title of a weekly journal in New York, edited by the author
three years, now suspended.




148               THE ARABULA.
Mlan." If, however, the reasonings and illustrations
advanced by them  seem  to others inconclusive and
illogical, they invited a candid examination and expression of opinion from readers and correspondents, no
matter how widely and painfully their convictions
might differ from and antagonize with each other.
They felt no fear of public opinion, and cherished no
love for the fleeting applause of the multitude; therefore, their eyes were at all times open to every department of human concern, and were ready to portray any
evil in high as in low places, and to prescribe the
remedy, as far as it was comprehended. Being actuated
by the principle of Progress, their faculties unfolded more
and more by the industrious and fraternal uses they put
them to. To help on the world's advatlcement toward
peace and unity, and thereby promote all spiritual progress, was their paramount aspiration.




THE GREAT REBELLION.          149
CHIAPTER XXXVI.
THE GREAT REBELLION.
THE great rebellion had to come, because there is
matter, and in man an infinite Perfection. The natural
modes of the operation of that infinite Perfection are
called " The laws of Nature." These laws operate perfectly in the world of Politics, as they operate perfectly
in the empire of Principles. The statutes and creeds
of men are but the surface manifestations of the surface
motives, operating through surface materials, for the
accomplishment of surface ends; the root of all being
the selfish instincts, acting, with more or less glimmerings of wisdom and benevolence, through the exercise
of the intellects of prominent men pre-eminently gifted
with the selfish propensities and perceptions of meum et
ttuum.
Associated and mingling with all selfish instincts, is
what men term "Religion "-the voice of the evercoming, never-come, omnipresent, indistinct, ever-visible, never-fully-incarnated Arabula-the Spirit inmost
to all " natural laws;" the watchful Providence behind
and within all events; the omniscient Cause at the heart
of all effects; the holy virgin Mother of infinite Love in
the maternal affections of all propagating and prolificating powers; the supreme Father of Wisdom in the
paternal forces of all centrifugating and executive organs
and functions —called "God " by some; by others,




150               TEE "ABUvLA.
"Nature;" by yet others, "Providence;" but, under each
and every name, it is unchangeably in human nature that
ever-pressing consciousness of a yet higher consciousness,
-the irrepressible intuition of a yet higher destiny than
to live and die an everlasting death-which is generally
termed " Religion."
I think the wings of Arabula hovered and brooded
upon the spirit of Theodore Parker, when he wrote:
"In its primitive form, Religion is a mere Emotion; it
is nothing but a feeling; an instinctive feeling; at first
vague, shadowy, dim. In its secondary stage it is also
a Thought; the emotion has traveled from the heart
upward to the head. It is an Idea, an abstract idea,
the Object whereof transcends both time and space, and
is not cognizable by any sense. But finally, in its ultimate form, it becomes likewise an Act. Thus it spreads
over all a man's life, inward and outward, too; it goes
up to the tallest heights of the philosopher's speculation,
down to the lowest deeps of human consciousness; it
reaches to the minute details of our daily practice.
Thus Religion wraps all our life in its own wide mantle.
So the sun, ninety-six million miles away, comes every
morning and folds in its warm embrace each great and
every little thing on the round world. Religion takes
note of the private conduct of the individual man, and
the vast public concerns of the greatest nation and the
whole race of mankind."
And-so, as the infinite Light taketh knowledge of " the
concerns of a great nation," even as it does of " the private
conduct of the individual,"-because, simply, it is never
separate from the inmost of an individual's or a nation's
life —so, the Great Rebellion had to come! It came as




THE GREAT REBELLION.             151
agonizing pains come to a man surcharged with disease;
and it died, too, as inexorable death comes to close the
eyes and draw the breath of the man who will not turn
from his consuming sins.*
But let us look a little more closely into detail, and
see, by a brief survey of under-lying fundamental causes,
the effects of a nation's transgressions. A true and genuine Democracy, which is the dream of the great Western world, is founded on JUSTICE. Justice regards and
rewards all men equally and impartially. There is, in the
eyes of Justice, a perfect harmony between endowments
bestowed and individual responsibilities. Obligations
are equal to powers conferred. All men are born alike;
not equal. All men are alike independent; but not to
the same extent. A full measure of "independence"
is given and guaranteed to each; but each does not go
to the fountain with the same measure to be filled.
True Democracy, therefore, is as natural to a just man
as health is natural to a harmonious man.
But American Democracy, so far, is a sham, is based,
nevertheless, on the beautiful dream  of the idea of
Justice. The dream  recognized the right of each to
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  In political dream-life, "all men are born free and equal."  The
true future government is to derive its just powers
"from  the consent of the governed."  No taxation
without representation is another dream; so very beautiful and dreamy is the democratic theory of American
government and administration.,.......;......
* In a volume by the author, entitled, "Answers to Questions," the
subject here mentioned is familiarly elucidated.




152               THE ARABULA.
Therefore, for generations upon generations, how has
America violated humanity, and crushed the best hopes
of enslaved millions! What injustice, what aristocracy,
what tyranny, what oppressions, have marked her
course!
Democracy, when genuine, recognizes the social individuality of each, and the political equality of each
also; if he can reason intelligently, is not imbecile, and
act with a conscience. False Democracy, or that which
really exists in the administration of either party, denies
the manhood of a black man, rejects the political individuality of woman, however refined and intelligent,
and exalts the ignorant, the brutal, the swindler, and
the drunkard, to the commanding position of'" American citizens," entitled to vote at elections, and to have
a voice in the enactment of laws for the government of
sober, docile, intelligent Africans, and also our white
mothers and daughters, who are equal, often superior,
to the white fathers, sons, and brothers of the world.
This crime, this inherent inconsistency, which hlas
been continued from the first day of American independence (?) to this hour, had grown into mighty proportions, and merited a punishment of equal magnitude,
and this punishment offended Jastice was rapidly concentrating upon the Government and the people.
Rebellion is a disease incidental to an evil social condition, brought about by political inequality and oppressive forms of injustice. The obscene, the fiendish, the
burning and murdering riots which, in 1863, disgraced
American civilization in New York, were natural outbursts of wrongs and oppressions long pent up. Idleness, intemperance, false democracies, political chica



THE GREAT REBELLION.             153
neries-all selfish imps, broke loose with the first excuse
and opportunity.  The Government, notwithstanding its
beautiful professions and published dreams, had long
degraded the honest, industrious, modest, docile black
men —had denied to them the "right " of being represented-had, instead, given prominence to selfish, itgnorant, and dishonest characters (because their sk'ins
were vwhite), and, as a sequence, what more natural than
the development of a murderous Rebellion?
Wise people, who carry the light of Arabula in their
hearts, do not generate discords. Injustice does not,
because it cannot, flow from equilibriums.  Anarchy
is the opposite of order. Rebellion, which is ntot revolution, is the antagonism of Justice. If, therefore, there
be discords, injustice, discontent, and rowdyisms in
society, the causes may be traced to unwise (or selfish)
statesmanship-to loss of equilibriums, a consequent
persecuting fight, between labor and capital-and, in a
word, to injustice in the workings of the political
mechanism; however beautiful the dream of its original
inventor, and however high-minded his immediate heirs
and administrators.
When a Government is intrusted with an'anjUSt
power, another selfish party is immediately organized to
get hold of it, and, as a counteracting movement, an
opposition party is engendered, which, without designing it, acts conservatively and beneficially by preveuting the exclusive use of the power. Thus, happily,
there can be no perpetual monopoly in politics on this
Continent.
Time unjust power in American government was, and
still is, exhibited in the enslavement of the innocent, in




154:               THE ARA:BULA.
the political rejection of womnan's individuality, in the
establishment of bad institutions, and in the enactment
of unjust laws, by which the best are kept practically
beneath the selfish masculines who swarm and wallowabout the grog-holes of great cities.
Party strifes, guided by the selfish intellects of public
men, result in elections by which the unjust power
changes hands. Now one sect in politics is ill power, and
now another-the so-called "~ Democrats " for a term of
years, next the so-called  "Republicans;" still the
" unjust power " remains, and the imps of Selfishness
continue to get offices. So long as there remains a
single " unjust power" in government, so long will
there be party strifes, corruption, injustice, and rebellious developments in the social body.
Self-government in the individual is possible only in
that state of mind which rests upon Justice-upon the
unselfish Light of eternal Love and Wisdom. The
same is true of a nation.  All is arbitrary and discord,
until the absolute requirements of Justice are fulfilled.
" Careless seems the great avenger;" but history's pages
show, that
"Ever the truth comes uppermost
And ever is Justice done."
Selfish developments will not cease till government
is based upon Justice —to black as well as to white-to
woman and to man alike —providing for the la~rgest
growth of freedom in the individual.  Property questions, and the inseparable relations of Capital to Labor,
will all be gradually answered by, and adjusted to "the
laws of Nature "-after the Government is established




THE GREAT REBELLION.             155
upon the largest Liberty, which is the only true Democracy.  Local injustice, special corruptions, isolated
evils,-social inequalities, party antagonisms, will vanish
under the rays of a Government founded on righteousness.  0 that the American Continent might unfold
the sublime realities of its glorious dream! The resistance of the State to injustice, to the Rebellion, must be
carried forward to the destruction of selfish conditionsthe worst form of which is the slaveholding power —for
it works to establish a terrible despotism,t~on the ruins,of human liberty!




156                  THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER XXXII.
A MEIMORABLE VISION.
TaIERE was, in the early stages of the Great Rebellion, a strange, prophetic, fearful, mystical, memorable
day, never to be effaced from the history of nmy innerlife; but, rather, always to be remembered, and hallowed, and reverenced, as marking the period of a vast
movement among higher powers in behalf of the earth's
inhabitants.
In the morning of that day (the first Tuesday in
November, 1861), I felt peculiarly unfit for either thinking or writing, notwithstanding thle large packages of
letters, and the numerous contributions for our Journal,
which demanded  immediate attention  and  editorial
labor. There was a complete solstice in my mental
machinery.  INot a thought-wheel would  turn  that
morning. Being thus disqualified for study and labor
at the desk, and just then having "nothing to do'"
about the house or in the garden, I went motivelessly,
listlessly, forth for a ramble-" anywhere, anywhere,"
on the solid earth beneath the autumnal sky.
My favorite resort was, and is, away among the hilly
slopes and mountain-paths of Llewellyn Park,* one
* This Park was conceived by a public-spirited gentleman of Orange,
N. J., Llewellyn S. Haskell, Esq., who has by industry, and by faithful love
to forest, flower, and mountain, opened up nine miles of shaded paths and
carriage-ways, attracted New Yorkers to build mansions therein, and
influenced the whole township to become a beautiful rural city.




A i:MEMORBE, VsION.            15 7
mile west of our home in the beautiful village.  From
the sheer force of attraction and habit, one would
naturally think, my steps would have involuntarily
turned thither; but, unthinking and objectless still,
and contrary to the routine of custom  in rambling,
I went through the village eastward, in the direction
of Newark, following the railroad as far as the Bloomfield Station, and there took the side-path leading
toward a grove of almost leafless trees.
At length observing a beautiful rock near the corner
of an open field, I hastened to its side, and rested
tranquilly for many minutes.  Those moments were
filled to the brim with a peculiar happiness. Strains of
distant bands of music seemed to touch the very fibers
of the brain, thrilling each organ with thoughts and
sensations of melody-more delicate and enchanting
than any emotions ever awakened by the music of
earth.
The reader will not require me to apologize for the
length and particularity of these prefatory remarks,
inasmuch as, without them, no one could conceive why
the day to which I have alluded made an impression
so memorable and prophetic.  If I had been long
laboring in mind to solve the problem of the war with
the Great Rebellion then going on, or if I had been
considerably anxious to get at the ultimates of the
recent naval expeditions, the following vision might be
in part accounted for on common causes, like dreams
and visions of the night, after a day of intense mental
activity, anxiety, or suspense.  The case with me was
exactly the reverse.  I had had no great anxiety or
curiosity about the operations of the army, nor any




158                THE ARABULA.
sleepless hours over the results likely to flow from the
bosom  of Destiny, during the terrific struggles and
exceedingly sorrowful experiences of the people, in
their patriotic efforts to preserve the present form of
government.
Natulally enough, when the music reached the outer
ear, stirring the waters of my inner life to wavelets of
corresponding harmony, I turned my eyes in all directions, looking oQver the adjoining fields, to discover the
authors of such exquisite strains. Language will not
convey any just conception of that music, which was
wafted over the earth like the melodious breathings of
celestial seas. No earthly compositions exactly resemble
any of the combinations of sounds that floated dreamily,
musically, sacredly, through the upper air; and yet
there was, now and then, a strain that reminded me of
certain national hymns, and of choice fragments of
operas, which I have had the happiness to hear from
human lips and instruments. There was a wonderful
blending of vocal with instrumental sounds. I thought
of earthly minstrels whom I had heard; of anthemnal
music from the sweet singers of cathedrals and church
choirs; of bands of music in the street, concerting with
the sustaining voices of a singing multitude; but all
such thoughts were soon swallowed by the incomparable melody which pulsated and waved throughl the
heavens.  The delicious sensations that bridge over
from physical consciousness to spirit life, crept stealthily, dreamily, musically, over my individuality; and,
as thousands of times before, the curtains of the interior
world were rolled up, disclosing a scene of beauty and
grandeur far beyond the power of words to picture. It




A M1E1MORABLE VISION.         159
would' require the pen of a "Cready writer," and the
descriptive powers of a Shakspeare, to convey to mankind the realities of that Vision.
Facing the east, and looking with spirit eyes into the
upper immensity, I beheld an ocean filled with islands.
They arose one above another, and between each other,
as far as clairvoyant sight could reach, apparently
beyond the path of the planet Saturn, millions upon
billions of leagues away into space, until lost in the
mystical and unexplored depths of infinitude.  The
islands were barren of vegetation-dark, rough, rocky,
desolate —with not so much as one bird of night to
redeem the dreary solitude. The waves of the ocean
gently kissed their craggy lips, and gave forth a musical
sound as of many waters laving the rocky sides of a
distant shore. But the music before heard was heard
no more. A sad sound of low, wailing, mournful
melody went up from the feet of those desolate isles,
and died away with innumerable echoes, or was lost
amid the dreary distances and empty spaces of the
immensity.  "Alps on Alps" arose before my vision,
and I began very earnestly to ask for interpretation, or
else a change of scene.  *    X    *       *
Months seemed to depart-oh, how long I waitedere the scene was changed. During all those weary
weeks I suffered intensely, in body and in soul, dying
daily, and being resurrected again with the sound of
mournful music vibrating through ear and brain, until
the clouds, and isles, and oceans melted away into
chaos, and the heavenly music first heard again filled
the air and world.
The heavens opened all the way across from the




160                THE ~ABR-ULA.
north to the south, in the form of a vast rainbow,
spanning the entire eastern section of the sky, the
clouds sailing rapidly behind each other, and floating
off in mountainous masses toward the northwest and
the southwest, until the open bmenct-vistca to the east,
bleneath the over-arclhing rainbow, was renovated and
gorgeously arranged for the exhibition of some new
scene. PMeanwhile the whole heavens were filled with
the sounds of that first most marvelous music, emanating froen performers and vocalists not yet visible to the
eyes of the spirit, and every preparation was made for a
stupendous development.
Behold! In tile dim  distance, beneath the manycolored archway, emerging from the remote infinity,
was visible what seemed to be the shining vanguard of
a mighty army, with all the precision of military order,
keeping step to the sound of the indescribable music:
onward came the resplendent host.  The golden light
of an unseen sun shone on their armor, and upon their
beautiftil faces and symmetrical forms, producing an
effect the most inexpressibly enchanting and bewildering to the beholder. As the celestial army drew nearer,
it was easy to discern all the system and discipline of
an  arny —generals, colonels, captains, lieutenants,
and subordinate offcers-at the head of brigades, battalions, reginments, companies —away, far away, as
remote as the eye could trace the divisions and persons.
And as the hosts marched nearer still, the features
of many faces became distinct enough to recognize, and
lo!  I beheld manry whom I knew well i.n priv:tte lfie.,
and renowned characters also, with celestial smold and
nmilitary manners-Ellsworth, Winthrop, Lyon, BEaker,




A MEMORABLE VISION.             161
and others, who were yet in this world,* all at the head
of immense battalions, obedient to the sublimity of
a divine impulse, marching above the world of lmen to
encounter foes yet unseen in the wilds of mind and
Iatter.
It seemed to me that hours were consumed in marching from the encampments of an unexplored infinity to
the front, beneath the gorgeous archway of many colors.
Arrived at the foreground, the advance guard separated
in equal numbers, and marched harmoniously to the
right and left of the rainbow, halting at each extreme of
the arch. The central column continued its march, in
time with the music, and as they approached, the faces
of other acquaintances shone with the radiance of enthusiasm.
All this seemed to occur in the upper heavens, centrally over the Atlantic Ocean. As the army drew
near the base line of the grand arch, the white-clad
soldiers, with armor unspotted, and their two-edged
swords unnotched by crime, divided into four separate
and independent columns or armies, and stepped out
into the atmosphere over the continent of America.
One of these armies slowly marched over a portion of
Connecticut, over a part of the State of New York, and
as it wended its way toward the extreme Northwest,
it seemed to take in only a part of Ohio and Indiana,
all of Michigan, and a part of Illinois, Wisconsin, and
Iowa, and reached all the way to the Pacific shore.
The second of the four armies marched directly west,
* It is remarkable that all distinguished Generals and prominent military men seen in this vision, though living at the time, either died or
were killed in battle during the war.




162               THE ARABULA.
until it reached Illinois River; it then turned soutllwest, crossed Missouri and Kansas, and disappeared far
over the mountains of California. The third army
marched directly north, separated New England from
New York and New Jersey, and disappeared in the
clouds over Canada. The fourth division of the mighty
host, obedient to its commanders, who were then recognized generals in the Southern army, marched to the
South, separated Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware,
Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee from more Southern
States, and disappeared in the clouds over the land of
Mexico.
Still the invisible bands and choristers continued to
pour music upon the scene. When the different armies
had disappeared, there suddenly formed beneath the
arch a regiment of white-clad soldiers, each with a deep
blue sash about his waist, and each in his'left hand
carrying a book, and in his right hand a small gold
hammer of exquisite workmanship. These were venerable men, beautiful in their faces, exceedingly intelligent and refined-their uncovered heads and snowwhite brows radiant with light. The music sounded
grander than before, and new strains of inexpressible
sweetness filled the whole temple of the heavens as
these venerable soldiers commenced their march toward
Washington.
They reached the capital of the country while Congress was in session, and halted in the air just above
the palatial edifice. At a word of command, each man
raised his strong right arm, halmmer in hand, and with
the quickness of lightning each hammer fell upon the
-vast structure, which, as if rent by an earthquake,




& MIEMORABLE VISilON.         163
trembled, reeled, crumbled, and was scattered into
countless fragments over the soil! A cloud of dust
filled the air, and there were some faint sounds of
suffering and shouts for help. But rapidly the dust
departed on the winds, and the place where the capitol
stood was grassy, and looked like the land of the Silent.
It was suddenly changed into a burial-place, or
cemetery, of great solitude and quiet beauty. Amid
the trees and flowering shrubs which ornamented the
grassy slopes, I beheld the tombs of all the Senators
and Representatives who had assembled in the capitol.
Their names were distinctly carved on the little
marble tombs that covered the sacred dust beneath.
Meanwhile, above, in the air, calmly stood the venerable soldiers who had wrought all these wonderful
changes. They seemed to bend down over the grave
of each Congressman with beaming countenances.
While stooping thus, each, at a word of command,
lifted his book and dropped it upon a grave. Each
buried politician was thus provided with a book from
the sky. Again the hammner of each soldier was uplifted high in air, and simultaneously each gravestone
was struck as by lightning, when lo! the grass opened
in wide folds, and each Senator and Representative,
dressed in white, with pale face and uncovered head,
walked forth from his tomb, armed with a book in his
left hand and a golden hammer in his right.
The whole heavens were again filled with music, and
a sound of rejoicing came up from the surrounding
country; while distant people seemed to express great
consternation, and trembled with fear. A great thunder-stormn now arose in the east. It rolled violently




164:              THE ARABTULA.
through the rainbowed archway, which was thus effaced
firom the sky. The storm-cloud seemed to be filled with
armed soldiers from other countries. They sped onwarld,
amid peals of thunder, over New York, and rolled
toward Washington. Instantly, in the West, the Capitol became visible. The seats were all filled with the
newly-arisen men, each with a book and a hammer,
and the storm passed over the land like a whirlwind,
terrifying the people, destroying their crops and cattle,
but without injuring the New Capitol, or disturbing
the Resurrected Men.
Suddenly all the music ceased, and there was nothing
more exhibited. And the Vision was thus terminated,
even before one question could be asked as to interpretation, and immediately I returned to the ordinary state.
The first impression was, that I had been from home
several nionths, lost in a journey of observation and
enchantment; but, on reaching my study, I found that
only -three hours of life had passed in this manner.
That there is a world of prophetic meaning in the
foregoing I cannot doubt; and that something mnore
will be yet given, by way of interpretation, I fully
believe.




A NAME IN THE SKY.            16i5
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
A NAME IN' THE SKY.
Fon many years I had been urged to secure the
establishment and publication of a weekly-journal or
magazine, devoted to tile exposition and advocacy of
the Facts, Ideas, and Principles of Harmonial Philosophy. There seemed to be a need of; if there was not
a want for, a popular form of disseminating knowledge
concerning the new facts and inspirations. Speculation
of Sensation and Logic had apparently reached its
highest triumphs in Hegel, Kant, Fichte, Schelling,
Spinosa, Feuerbach, and Schiller, in Germany; and
the profoundest penetration to the interior essence of
history, ideas, and things, with the largest magnitudes
of scientific and philanthropic Thought, had been
achieved by Comnte, Cousin, Renan, Colenso, Hugo,
and Emerson; so that, unless the limitations of sense
and the semi-intuitive speculations of high-cultured
intellects could be surpassed and assisted by the telescopic powers of independent clairvoyants, and by the
microscopes of spirit-mediums, it seemed that the acme
of all divine knowledge had been reached, and mall
could attain to nothing positive in the realm of Spirit.
With this view many friends urged me "to start a
paper." I agreed with them in the main. But steadily
did I decline taking the "editorial chair," and yet more
dreaded assuming any "business responsibility."  All




IG6                 TIRE ARABULA.
my feelings and undefined impressions were opposed to
the proposition, and for honest personal reasons which I
need not mention.  Readers of the " Magic Staff'"
will recall " the shadows " visible to my mother's eyes
whenever "something was going to happen."   Although, whenever the plan of publishing a paper was
broached, the way was always light, yet a dark shadow
hovered in my front whenever it was urged that I
should take the chief position.
"Whence the strange inborn sense of coming ill,
That of times whispers to the haunted breast,
In a low tone that naught can drown or still,
Midst feast and melodies a secret guest?
Whence doth that murmur wake, that shadow fall?
Why shakes the spirit thus?'tis mystery all 1"
Let the reader for a moment step into the " Confessional."  I ask, Did you never, guided by the plausible cogitations and logical conclusions of your intellect, go counter to the admonitions of the "low, sweet
voice" of Ca light more interior?  And were you not,
in every such case, beset with difficulties, crippled, and
ultimately defeated?  Your reply, I know, will be in
accordance with your ideas of what constitutes "sue
cess."  But, with an idea that there is no success in
any thing that does not promote the highest ends of
spiritual development in yourself and in others, you
will answer-" I was never successful, either in business
or in any other interest, when, following my intellect, I
went counter to the inward monitor."
Again and again I invoked the suggestive hints of
angel friends.  " O, help me to understand the signifi
* The title of the Author's Autobiography.




A NAME IN TIHE SKY.            167
cance of'the shadow.' Why cannot I see my way
clearly?  0, aid me to discern the right; for, seeing,
ye know that I will pursue it."
Instead of voices from the Summer Land, there rushed
into my mind the reply of Carlvye, when asked by a
student what course of reading he thought best to ma.le
hlim a man: —" It is not by books chiefly that a man
becomes in all points a man. Study to do whatsoever
thing in your actual situation, then and now, you find
either expressly or tacitly laid down to your chargethat is, stand to your post; stand to it like a true
soldier."
On this_ principle I resolved to act in the work proposed, and thus I accepted all that followed. But first,
what name?  Of all funny things, the funniest, as well
as the most perplexing, is hunting up a suitable title for
a new paper, or magazine! There were at least six
"beautiful, blue-eyed, laughing babies" in the neighborhood beautifully named before we could begin to
feel satisfied with captions suggested for the journal.
One suggested "The Plain Truth."  The other objected, because there was somewhere published a paper
called " The Plain Dealer," which did not always tell
the "plain truth."  "We want something new-something taking," said a worldward —looking speaker.
Call it the "Spirit's Advocate "-or, the "Messenger
of Light "-or, the " Standard Bearer "-or, the " Spiritual Reformer "-or, but I need not multiply suggestions. The name that was finally accepted appeared
to the writer, in all the colors of the rainbow arching
the sky, revealing far more of beauty than promise.
Title fixed, an announcement of the forthcoming "Ii er



168               THE ARABULA.
ald of Progress " was made public by suitable advertisements. All the time, interiorly, feeling a painful
reluctance. Mentioning this feeling to a gentleman of
education and experience, he remarked: "Doubtless,
you feel embarrassed because the position is novel to
you. Go ahead; you are to have, you know, talented
editorial associates."  And now, added to Carlyle's
wholesome advice, I remembered a maxim of the old
Levitical Law: "T at which is gone out of the lips,
thou shalt keep and performn."  Yes, the advertisements
had gone forth, subscriptions were rapidly coming in from
beloved friends, and I said (yet all the time irresolute),
" It's too late to back out now; I am the last man to
keep the word of promise to their ear, but break it to
their hope." And so, with not a dollar of stock paid
in, out of thousands that were supposed unfailingly
pledged to the enterprise, when it should start, the
little ship was prematurely launched upon the troubled
waters, in 1860, while the business of the country was
still struggling to overcome "the Panic of'57," and
just when the Government and popular politics were
afflicted with the approaching shadows of the Great
Rebellion.




AMlhS AND EFFORTS.              169
CHAPTER XXXIX.
AIMS AND EFFORTS.
THE birth and objective appearance of the paper had
been postponed from time to time, because, of the: existence, or probable development, of certain well-conducted periodicals; each dedicated, more or less distinctly and positively, to the elucidation and iniculcation;
of those all-comprehensive truths which we cherish and
profoundly reverence.
But we thought " the time" had now come' for the
establishment of a journal wherein the facts and principles of " PROGREss"   might be justly presented, irrespective of the- social, political, or religious prejudices
that everywhere exist in and sway society.  To meet!
the present needs (not to say " wants ") of the world, an
reform  publication should not only be cosmopolitan in,
character, but it should be absolutely loyal to the.
demands of progressive Truth, and not afraid to attack
whatever is proved to be evil in time-honored systems
and institutions.  It should airm at a position of equasl'
altitude to that exalted standard of social, philos}lphical,
and spiritual progress, which advanced and enlightened'
minids have everywhere erected. Instead of panderina
to, or re/ectizMg-the popular sentiment merely, and seeking, from selfish desires for success, to harmonize with prevailing modes of thought and feeling-instead, it should
8




170               THIE ARABULA.
strive to educate the world out of its multiform errors
and unrighteousness. Any magazine or journal which
is pledged to advocate the interests of particular sects or
parties, or which, because lacking something, either in
purse or in principle, attempts to maintain positions
of amiable veutrality on questions of great moment to
all mankind, is a publication which travels and performs its labors far beldnd the inherent needs and aspirations of the world.
On the other hand, a periodical which perpetually
harps upon and exaggerates, beyond its intrinsic importance, any one particular branch of progress and reform,
while other branches of equal magnitude and moment
(called by such persons " side issues ") are either wholly
overlooked or greatly underrated, fails in a just perception of the unity and sacredness of all truth; and
hence the eternal Truth cannot impress her heavenly
image and likeness on the world's great heart through
the columns of such a periodical.  It seems to us that
there is demanded of the Press-that mighty agent of
influence upon the bosom of the "' tide in the affairs of
men "-a mission which is as yet barely prefigured —a
work impartially grand, world-wide, and universally
redemptive.
To such a mission, we undertook to promise, the new
journal would be sacredly and earnestly devoted.
But all work of this kind) like the principle of electricity, presents a negative and a positive side. To
detect and expose error and superstition; to proclaim
against the existence of moral wrongs and wretchedness; to paint and portray in vivid colors the miseries
of the ignorant, degraded, and down-trodden —is only




AIMS AND EFFORTS.             171
the negative pole of the true reformer's mission; his
positive and self-rewarding work is seen in the discovery
and application, and strenuous inculcation, of those
gracious Truths and essential Reforms which strike at
the minutest rootlets of evil within the soil of sects, systems, institutions, and individual life.
Behold, O, ye men of the world!  The holy, harmonious " light" of another sphere has descended and
diffused its immortal radiance upon this! Oh, how
true it is that only those who "have eyes" singled to
Truth can discern it; and none comprehend save those
attentive ones who have "the heart to understand."
Yet thousands of human minds, in consequence of that
heavenly " light," have arisen, as it were, from the
dark-age sepulcher of ignorance and despair. Inspired
with a divine courage; and appreciating, to some extent,
the intrinsic dignity of individual existence, they have
thrown off every clog and chain with which theological
superstition had fettered them.  Such emancipated
intellects freely and fearlessly think and propound
questions upon almost all thinkable subjects. In the
spontaneous freedom of their newly-awakened aspirations, and in the yet unsystematized exercises of their
so recently unshackled reason, not a little extravagance
and extremism are manifested. These intellects, however atheistic they may seem, are nevertheless the rLeal
friend(s of humanity. They ask important religious
questions — sometimes without much reverence for
either the problem or the solver of its mysteries; but,
notwithstanding, they are stout and stubborn in their
determination to have all sides investigated. "Give
the facts to the world!" they exclaim; " Let each man's




172                TRE ARABUL.A.
reason first see the facts, and then he may candidly
render the verdict."
This unpopnular, unsectaria:n, important, and impartial
task of. discovering gind justly reporting Truths. in all
possible; directions, I had thoughtfully, reluctantly, yet
deliberately assumed.. The many and weighty responsibilities incident to such a position I also assumed,
and resolved to, deserve the possession of both light and
strength to promote the objects: at which all persons.
co-operating' would aim their' efforts.
And it was furthermore declared that the conductors of
the journal had: at heart greater aims than the foregoing
-in harmony, as they fully believed, with the desires
and aspirations and labors, of all the good and true of
every age and denom-in:ation-first, the harmonization of
the Individctal;; secondly, the hactrmonization of;uman
Society.  For the unfoldi,7g7 of these blessings they
would unceasingly pray and untiringly labor. But
they frankly differed widely from  the convictions of
sectarians and  politicians, regarding  the mqean.s of
obtaining these sublime results.  If it were not so-if
our convictions: and inspirations had flowed into the
popular form —the journal would not have been proposed. But we: held,~ and still hold, that the development and establishment of the kingdoml or government
of heaven, all over the, globe: on which we: live,- is possible only by and' through maan;'s spiritual interior —tie
elevation and harmzoni-zcatioWn~ Of ALL THE FACULTIES AND
AFFECTIONS OF TIE: INDIVIDUAL.
Realiziing that mankind's physical and spiritual needs
(not their'" wants,  remember): are identical with: the
ample supplies, in Nature's bosom, and appreciating




AIMS AND EFFORITS.           I 3
that the beautiful laws of the universe are the uncllangeable tloumgd.ts of the Eternal Intelligence, and
believing that " true religion " consists in reverencing
and harmonizing with the Divine Will-which is perpetually flowing forth through all spheres, revealing itself to
human reason only in, and by means of impersonal
Ideas and the fixed laws of Nature-so perceiving, and so
believing, we promised to endeavor to live and to work
out the true life on earth, and from week to week to
instruct and encourage our fellow-men to believe,
think, and do likewise.




174                THE ARABUmA.
CHAPTER XL.
THE PICTURE IN OTHER EYES.
IT is always beneficial to take lessons in war from
candid,. intelligent opponents; for such, in most
cases, are better helps to progress than hosts of indiff'erent soldiers in the rear of your army. "It seems a
very easy thing," says a writer, "to look at both sides
of any question, and yet, practically, nothing has been
found to be more difficult, in respect to all matters of
importance; and even when you get over this difficulty,
it is no easy matter to acknowledge what you really see
on both sides. In the case of the lawyer pleading a
cause, it is his duty, or at least his business, to conceal
what he sees on one side.  He is like the moon with
the earth-he always shows one side to the Bench; the
other side he keeps out of sight. And the lawyer is
merely like the rest of the world in this respect, only
with him it is more professional. He acknowledges it;
and allows that he cannot afford to be candid; he must
plead for his client. If you belong to a party, or a
sect, you must do the same; you are witness of it, not
judges of it; and if in a mere mood of indifference you
fall into controversy at a dinner-table, it seems so natural to take one side or other, that you do it as a matter
of course, and plead as if you were a professional lawyer pleading before a bench of judges, hiding what you




THE PICTURE IN- OTHER EYES.         175
think will weaken your argument, and adducing what
you think will gain the case."
One day I chanced to meet in the street an acquaintance, a kind-hearted, sensible, thorough-going New
York business man, who, at the same time, had a
decided taste fobr liberal ideas and progressive literature.
I ventured to ask his opinion of our publication (the
paper), for I knew that he read it; or, rather, "L looked
it over," every week, while the Choir was singing at
Dodworth's Hall.
"4 Oh, pretty well," lhe replied, looking at the moment
perfectly lukewarm, and yawning, too, as much as to
say —" It's a great bore, though."  But he knew that I
was a friend of" free-thought and free-expression," and
so added:
"I have, however, one criticism  to make on it.
There is not enough Spiritualism in it. The people
want facts, facts, faets-well-authenticated facts."
"Yes," I replied. "We have a department in our
columns containing every week some account of 1"spiritual manifestations."'
" True, very true; but those prosy reformatory articles
by correspondents, remind me of the description I once
read of a Fourth of July celebration:'The procession
was very fine, and nearly two miles in length, as was
also the prayer of Rev. Dr. Pelry, the chaplain.'"
"But," I responded, " we promised free columns to
all well-written articles on any important question or
progressive subtject."
"Well, what of thctaf l?   y judgment is, you can't
publish such a paper much longer.' You can't afford
to keep your columns open to political controversies,




176               TTHE ARABULA..and to other topics not conneoted with Spiritualism.
Why, your paper is scarcely any better than a reform
paper, a woman's rights paper, an infidel paper, giving
very few well-authenticated facts in Spiritualism. You
must show more of your own side. Print more facts,
more facts-.that's what the people want, facts.''




AN ANGEL IN THE HOUSE.           177
CHAPTER XLI.
AN ANGEL IN THE HOUSE.
THOMAS FULLER said, "God sends His servants to
bed when they have done their work." The shadows
thickened over my head and all around me. No man
ever spoke truer than the criticising merchant: "You
can't publish such a paper much longer."  Health
failed, and I prayed, "Oh, "Oh, Mother, Oh, Fater, take
my weary and wounded feet from this weed-tangled
and stony field. The world's winds shiver and chill;
the waters are bitter, and my thirst is not quenched."
No prayer was ever more promptly or thoioughly
answered. True thought is devotion, and true devotion
is thought. "Is not prayer also a study of truth," asks
Emerson; "a sally of the soul into the unfound Infinite?
No man ever prayed heartily without learning sometlling. But when a faithful thinker, resolute to detach
every object from personal relations, and see it in the
light of thought, shall, at the same time, kindle science
with the fire of the holiest affections, then will God go
forth anew into the creation."
Tlhrougll all these years, and through all the toils and
trials and joys of these years, there walked by my side,
withll patient, self-poised, and faithful step, gh/e comnpawnion' of wmy leCeart!  Fed by tile crystal fountains of
supernal affection; true as the stars that in heaven
shine; gentle in feeling- as the breath of song; with
8*




178                 THE ARABULA.
divine sympathy in her eyes for needful child, or
woman, or man; a truthfill thinker, with a holy love
for truth-she steadily performed her part, cheerfully,
bravely, buoyantly, as angels labor in the immortal
Lands of Love.
Happy the man, and happy the woman, who is blessed
with a spirit MIate! To every loving one, uncompanionated, life is cold and dark. Sadly roams and moans the
unloved soul. But like an angel of beauty seen through
the gloaming, into which the soul is roaming, cometh the
true adorer and savior of the longing heart. Whether
waking, whether sleeping, sacredly the heart is keeping
its boundless love for its deathless lover; and with earliest
thought, with latest prayer, the resting spirit blesses, and
presses to its bosom, the holy fellow-angel of its immortal life.
The shadows of evening came damply upon my
weary form. Disease invaded the citadel of life. The
sun of eternal light did not shine; only the white moon
silvered my path down the valley. " Thou shalt rest
and slumber in thy home," said Mary; " a bed is prepared for thee more soft than clouds." And thenceforth,
in the morning as at evening, in our room, for many
nionths, the healing hands of the "Angel of the House"
were magnetically bringing back to my form the breath
of life. Whether quietly resting at home, whether
guiding the steps of grouped children in the great city,
NoTE.-The readers of the "Magic Staff" will be rejoiced to learn
that Time, who heals all wounds, brought to Mary her beloved children,
Fannie and Chlarlie; they came two years ago, and came to stay; they
have grown up healthy, well-educated, industrious, harmonious, and
full believers in the gospel of Progression.




AN AiNG'EL IN THE IIOUSE.                 179
whether writing or laboring, in poverty as in abundance,
the same sweet soul, like the atmosphere of many flowers,
filled all parts of the house with affection.
During this period, which  embraces the varied experiences set forth in these chapters, she wrote many
beautiful things; one of them, "The Mountain Path,"
which is biography as well as poetry, I must bequeath
to the reader:Shadows crept along the valley, sunshine played upon the green,
On the boughs the leaflets parted, showing flecks.of cloud between;
Dimpling brooklets floated onward where the wandering breezes sigh,
Flowerets breathed their sweet-toned welcome to the children passing by.
In that valley, shadow-haunted, listening to the water's chime,
Listening to the many whispers, telling of a fadeless clime,
Suddenly my soul was lifted as on amber-tinted wings,
And my heart was filled with sunlight, such as joy supernal brings.
For a voice broke on the stillness, full of tenderness and truth,
Breathing words my spirit pined for in the years of blighted youth,
Calling me to leave the valley and the mists that roll belowLeave the dim, sequestered arbors, and the water's plaintive flow.
Eyes there were that beamed upon me, through the pale and pensive
light,
Earnest, loveful, calm, and holy, like the stars upon the night;
And a voice of sweeter music than the song of bird or tree,
Whispered: " Darling, leave the valley, climb the mountain-top with me."
Silently we sought the pathway Nature's loving hand had wrought;
Sweetly fond the gentle tokens by her forest-minstrels brought;
Glad and gay and hushed and tender were the notes she chanted there.
And the mountain path was sacred as a holy shrine of prayer.
I-Hand in hand we hasted onward; where the eagle led the way,
Scaled the grand and glorious summit, resting in the lap of day,
Stood'upon the moss-grown carpet, stood where man has seldom trod,
And, with reverent brows uncovered, in that hour we worshiped God.




180                THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER XLII.
SPECIAL PROVIDENCES ANTND OBITUARIES.
ComuknIoN of Spirit with Spirit, or deep answering
unto deep, is the ultimate fact of consciousness. By the
senses, man comes in contact with the tthings of sense;
by the reasoning processes, man comes in contact with
the reasonable processes of Nature; and by Intuition,
man's whole nature comes in contact with the Absolute
and Essential, where he rests tranquilly on the bosom
of Love and Wisdom.
The special providences and facts of guardianship,
which occur in the realm.of sense, flow from intelligent
causes which the senses cannot detect. It is my experience that, while faithfully engaged in life's serious
labors and difficulties, there are invisible hands ever
stretched forth to aid one's will in ordering and suqbduing outer circumstances, and in tempering one's
petty annoyances; so that harmony may stream, as
music flows from an tEolian lyre, through the ten thousand cords of present terrestrial life. Prayer and its
fulfillment, desire and its gratification, want and its
supply, interior aspiration and beautiful communion,
like the interlaced relations and fixed equilibriums of
cause and effect, go hand in hand throughout the life
and government of the Infinite Reason. Blessed is that
spirit, whether in earth or in heaven, who can interchange emotions and exchange thoughts and benefits




SPECIAL PROVIDE-NCES AND O03ITUARIES.    181
with the SPIRIT.OF ALL ideas, principles, essences, laws,
persons.
To come to personal relations-to sense, leaving the
realm of communion-my testimony, based on numerous experiences, is: That, by some agency, not always
cognizable by the senses, when one is doing, or is trying
to do, his best, friends or strangers will be influenced
to come with open hands to help lift the load. Many
times, when weary waiting in the valley for the coming
light, or when, through the heavily shrouded morning,
wre were trying to reach the hills of Beulah, a letter
wo.ld come, or an almost-forgotten acquaintance of
former years would ring the door-bell, when lo! the aid
which we that very day pressingly needed had arrived!
A shower of plenteous blessings falls just in time to save,
the soul from the death-stings of petty cares, loss of.credit, empty larder, broken health, and killing despair.
Oh, the entrancing goodness of hearts beating inll the
music-bosom of the Sunmer Land!
But, believe me, I do not attribute all manifestations
of human kindness to interior spiritual causes. Only
some instances, which are not coincidences, occurring
under circumstances which admit of no explanation by
the usual laws of sensuous contact, are properly attributable to our kindly watching guardian angels.
Human goodness must be recognized and appreciated
in justice to human nature. But how shall it be done a
How say, while a person is still "' above ground," just
the grateful and glorious words that are his or her due?
Is it not an absurd and a barbarous custom, often a
source of wretchedness to the living, which prohibits or
discountenances the utterance of just and appreciative




182               THE ARABULA.
sentiments; until, perhaps, through lack of the encouragenlent which the expression would have afforded,
the heart breaks, and the victim is buried by a weeping
multitude with "pomp and circumstance!"  Neglect
and abuse him, or her, until death suddenly slams the
door in your face; then, Oh, then, how black your dress,
how tearful your eyes! You recall the friendly smile, the
tender words, the noble bearing, the sweet scenes, the
hallowed associations; and-Oh! Oh! Oh! your grief is
great to behold! During the deceased's lifetime you
seldom spoke a comforting word. You would croak
over little failings and exaggerate common faults,
never whispering an approving word for fear of " flattering" or "injuriously complimenting" the familiar
one; but now that the beloved form lies stretched and
cold before you, your heart is breaking with grief!
Alas! Alas! And you desperately want the minister to
hold the cross before you, to breathe the prayer of consolation; and you also want him to loan you, at least
for a few days, his holy anchor of hope in this hour of
sorrow! Rather quaintly it has been said, that " death
is the consoler of the lowly, the Nemesis of the mighty,
the avenger of all wrongs. Death robs the wicked of
their prosperity, and delivers the good from all evil.
Death takes away the sting of poverty and the need of
wealth. In the grave the poor shall possess what they
desire, and the rich shall lose what they possess; the
portion of both shall be rottenness and nothingness.
The grave is a garment for the ragged Lazarus, and
nakedness for the purpled Dives. Death is the heir of
all earthly sovereignty, and, in this world, the king that
never dies."




SPECIAL PROVIDENCES AND OBIT'1UARIES.    183
Under the embarrassments of custom, I am forbidden
to render in plain English an expression of the gratitude we feel toward certain individuals in this world.
Suppose, for example, it should be related that a gentleman (who, of course, must be nameless), knowing that
our hearts and labors were consecrated and devoted to
the Lyceum  for children, and knowing also that we
then had not a dollar of income from any souree —and
mark! plenty of wealthier men knew all this just as well
as he —went, with tender humility and true modesty, to
an intimate acquaintance of ours, ascertained fiom him
how many dollars per week would cover our home
expenses, then deposited in the bank the amount
required for almost a whole year, and thus put us above
temporal anxieties, so that we could give free lectures,
write letters, compile the Lyceum  Manual, organize
Lyceums, and, in a word, give our whole time and
energies to the work for children, which was, and is, so
all-important in our feelings and understanding.
If that gentleman's physical form was now quietly
reposing in the cemetery, and if his superior soul-form
had entered upon its mission of being forever the
temple of the spirit, then it would be most becoming.and appropriate for me to write his obituary; in which
I could freely set forth his "kindness,"' his "intelligence," his " virtues," &c., &c.; but now, because
he is living among men, in good health, and trying to
become very wealthy, just like all the other selfisll sinners, I will only say: "Sir, we are very much obliged
to you. We think you did just right, and nothing
more. You were a friend of children (there are to-day
fifteen thousand in the Lyceums), whom  you may meet




184               TUE ARABULA.
for the first time in the bright Summer Land. We think,
on the whole, that you are no better than you should
be. We hope that you will'keep your health' and be
fruitful in all laudable undertakings."
While on this subject, post-morltem praise, perhaps it
may be instructive to observe, in the language of a
cotemporary, " that some of the most affecting episodes
in the lives of literary men ]lave been connected with
domestic bereavements."  These accounts demonstrate
that human conjugal affections, when not raised to the
superior condition by an unfolded intelligence, guided
by true spiritual insight, are first surcharged with
grief, and subsequently inconstant; yet how beautifiully
tender and touching and true when writing obituary
reminiscences orpost-morltemz eulogies! The tribute of
Sir James Mvackintosh to his wif-e (says the compiler of
cases) is among the most remarkal)le in the language.
" I was guided in my choice," he says,'' only by the
blind affection of my youth. -I found an intelligent
companion and a tender friend, a prudent monitress,
the most faithful of wives, and a mother as tender as
children ever had the misfortune to lose. I met a
woman who, by the tender management of my weaknesses, gradually corrected the most pernicious of them.
She became prudent from affection; and, though of the
most generous nature, she was taught economy and frugality by her love for me. During the most critical
period of my life, she preserved order in my affairs,
from the care of which she relieved me. She gently
reclaimed me from dissipation; she propped my weak
and irresolute nature; she urged my indolence to all
the exertions that have been useful or creditable to me,




SPECIAL PROVIDENCES AND OBITUAIRIES.    i85
and she was perpetually at hand to admonish my heedlessness and improvidence. To her I owe whatever I
am, to her whatever I shall be,"
It detracts somewhat firom the romance of the case
perhaps, that Sir James became consoled for his loss, in
just one year from the time of his great bereavement,
by a second -marriage. And here we may venture the
somewhat obvious remark, that the domestic histories of
remarkable men are the most pleasing records of literature, for the reason that, in these matters, every reader,
however humble, has a sort of personal interest in the
narrative, readily recalling his own feelings in similar circumstances, or the history of his own friends, and so having a community of joy or sorrow with distinguished personlages of other times. It must be confessed, too, that
the cool and business-like wayin which biographers
sometimes dispose of affecting domestic events is noticeable, especially when, as in the case just mentioned,
the reader has hardly got over his emotions of sadness at
the end of one chapter, and is told at the commencement
of almost the next one of the happy marriage of the man
for whose intense grief his eyes are still moist. It rarely
happens that a man who is his own Boswell does not
manage this matter with more delicacy. The case of
the Rev. Dr. Spring may hbe regarded as a remarkable
exception. This well-known octogenarian lhas recently
favored the public with lively Personal Reminiscneces
of his Life and Tinles, in which he copies extracts from
his private journal that are not seldom " rich and rare."
Thus, under date Aug. 7, 1860, he writes: "This morning, at half-past 8 o'clock, my sweet wife was released
from this scene of debility and suffering." And, after a




186               TnE ArnABULA.
particular account of her sickness, and a statement that
she was the mother of fifteen children, he indulges in a
strong expression of his feelings-not unnatural, but
perhaps as well suppressed in the printed volume-and
winds up with some verses in which the soundness of
doctrine is more remarkable than the poetic expression.
Just five pages further on, in the very next entry in the
diary, the worthy Doctor, after admitting that his
C" sweet wife was too valuable a woman ever to be forgotten," and that he "never thought lie could love
another," says that he had advanced beyond threescore
years and ten, was partially blind, and needed a helper
fitted to his age and condition:"No one needs such a helper more than a man in
mly advanced years. I sought and God gave me another
wife. A few days only more than a year after the death
of Mrs. Spring, on the 14th of August, 1861, I was
married to Abba Grosvenor Williams, the only surviving child of the late Elisha Williams, Esq., a distinguished member- of the bar. She is the heiress of a
large property, and retains it in her own hands. She
is intent on her duty as a wife, watchful of my wants,
takes good care of me, is an excellent housekeeper, and
instead of adding to the expenses of my household,
shares them with her husband."
In addition to which remarkable circumstance, the
autobiographer asserts, that
" Not until after our mutual engagement was entered
into, did we know that we were descended from the
same stock, and that our grandmothers were sisters."
A French author gives an account of a nobleman who
lost his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, and




SPECOIL PROVIDENCES AND OBITUARIES.    187
with thoughts occupied only with the hope of joining
her in another world, shut himself up for three years
in a religious retreat.,He uttered a prayer to God,
which some may be surprised to find in the mouth of a
French marquis: "d'aceroiltre mno  courage et de nme
la'isser mnc douleur."  Give me strength, but diminish
not my sorrow! Certainly a most delicate and poetical
sentiment. But the bereaved husband was still young,
and after three years of retirement, he quits it, marries
again, and plunges into political intrigies and the
worldly ambition of his class. The writer from whom
we derive the account remarks, with calmness and
placiditv: " This is one type of our inconstant nature.
B3ut here the very intensity of one feeling seemed to
forebode the reaction of the opposite; and the change
appears so natural, so almost inevitable, that we rather
sympathize with it than otherwise."  In other words,
those widowers who apparently and demonstratively
suffer the most under such circumstances are the surest
to be early consoled by a new arrangement. They may
not, like Dr. Spring, s" ask God for another partner," but
they are pretty sure to find one, nevertheless.
The dedication of Mill's book on Liberty is familiar
to all:"To the beloved and deplored memory of her who
was the inspirer, and in part the author, of all that is
best in my writings-the friend and wife whose exalted sense of truth and right was my strongest incitement, and whose admiration was my chief reward-I
dedicate this volume. Like all that I have written for
many years, it belongs as much to her as to me; but
the work as it stands has had, in a very insufficient




188               THIE APABULTA.
degree, the inestimable advantage of her revision; some
of the most important portions having been reserved
for a more careful re-examination, which they are now
never destined to receive. Were I but capable of interpreting to the world one-half the great thoughts and
noble feelings which are buried in her grave, I should
be the medium of a greater benefit to it than is ever
likely to arise from  any thing. that I can write, unprompted and unassisted by her all but unrivaled
vision."
HTorace Mann thus wrote of his deceased wife-the
daughter of Rev. Dr. IMesser, of Brown University, who
lived but two years after her marriage:
"She supplied me with new strength for toil and new
motives fqr excellence. Within her influence there
could be no contest for sordid passions or degrading
appetites; for she sent a divine and overmastering
strength into every generous sentiment, which I cannot
describe. She purified my conceptions of purity, and
beautified the ideal of every excellence. I never knew
her to express a selfish or an envious thought; nor do
I believe that the type of one was ever admitted to
disturb ithe peacefulness of her bosom. Yet in the
passionate love she inspired, there was nothing of oblivion of the rest of mankind. Her teachings did not
make one love others less, but differently and more
aboundingly. Her sympathy with others' pain seemed
to be quicker and stronger than the sensation of her
own; and with a sensibility that would sigh at a
crushed flower, there was a spirit of endurance that
would uphold a martyr. There was in her breast no
scorn of vice, but a wonder and amazement that it




SPECIANL PROVIDEFNCES AND OBITUARIES.    18 9
could exist. To her it seemed almost a mystery; and
though she comprehended its deformity, it was more in
pity than in indignation that she regarded it; but that
hallowed joy with which she contemplated whatever
tended to ameliorate tlie condition of mankind, to save
them from pain or rescue them from guilt, was, in its
manifestations, more like a vision from a brighter world,
a divine illumination, than like the earthly sentiment
of humanity. But I must forbear; for I should never
end were I to depict that revelation of moral' beauties
which beamed' from her daily life, or attempt to describe that grace of sentiment, that loveliness of feeling,
which played perpetually,Alike lambent flame; around
the solid adamant of her virtues." The period which
elapsed before Mir. Mann's second marriage is not
stated in his biography. It appears to have been
something over ten years-a length of time which is
very unusual in such cases.




190               THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER XLIII.
MOURNERS AND CROAKERS.
OMNISCIENCE has implanted a propensity in the principles of man's mind-and to discern it clearly is to be
benefited, and not defeated, by it-in the selfish gratification of which all men, consciously or unconsciously,
wisely or otherwisely, are full of lamentations and croakings for what in story is called "spilled milk."
I croak, thou croakest, we croak.  Yea, we mourn
the degeneracy of the human family. (" Present company always excepted.") There is, in these days of
mediocrity, of mental shallowness, nothing, nothing,
and nobody, to compare with even the babies of the
Past!  As poets, we mourn, yea, we croack, that, in
these days of soft sentimentality and silly rhyming, we
find no Homer, no zEschylus, no Cervantes, no Shakspeare, no Milton, no Cowper. Our Bryants, Longfellows, Whittiers, Lowells, Emersons, Brownings, are nobodies. They cannot furnish the great poetry demanded
by our great minds. And we mourn and mourn, and
we croak and croak!
Carlyle is mourning for the good old heroic days of
Frederick the Great. Military gentlemen gaze away
admiringly, adoringly, to the era, departed era, of the
great Napoleon. As artists, we croakingly mourn that
we did not live in the days of Angelo, Rubens, Titian,
and the great masters of the nmediaeval ages. No artists




MOURNERS AND CROAKERS.          19L
in these times! The great-minded contemporaries of
Shakspeare cared so little about "' The Great iDramatist,"
and left in books so little in his favor, that it is now, as
some scholars affirm, exceedingly difficult to demonstrate by the laws of history that there ever was any
such man. But we mourn and mourn, and we croak
and croak!
IReligionists mourn that they did not live in thle
glorious and holy days of Jesus, and John, and Paul.
Then they could have heard language and witnessed
miracles in keeping with their lofty tastes and great
capacities for comprehending such things. The so-called
inspired utterances and spiritual manifestations of these
weak days cannot meet the religious demands of minds
so exalted, and hearts so full of truth. And they mourn
and mourn, and they croak and croak!
Politicians mourn the departed days of Washington,
Jefferson, Jackson, Adams, Clay, Webster —days of
giant intellects — men capable of constructing arguments and using language adapted to the great abilities of their living mourners. Lincoln, Sumner, Wade,
Wilson, Washburn, Julian, Chase, Stanton, and the
others-no-bodies, mere political nothings, compared
with the wondrous greatness of departed giants —and
we mourn and mourn, and we croak and croak!
And have we not reason for mourning? The case is
this: We (the mourners) have been moving forward,
untrammeled and free, ever active and always harmonious, with just and natural admiration for great minds
like our own; meanwhile the mass of men has been
" degenerating," losing the " conservative " grandeur of
character, becoming inflamed with a shadowy belief ia




192                THE:'RABULA.'
"progression;" and so we mourn and mourn, and we,
croak and croak!
There are, this moment, half a million of beautiful
babies crying in their cradles, who, whel they shall
have reached that ultimate mark, of manhood. kinown in
law as "the age of discretion," will, because they are: (I
trust) our legitimate descendants, keep up the family trait:
of mourning and croaking, because there will be about
themn no Garrisons, no Phillipses, no Emersons, no Brvants, no Parkers, no Beechers, no Greeleys, no Whittiers.
Oh, the stores of wisdom they would have gathered in,
had they lived "in those glorious days!"  They wonder,
possibly, why their ancestors (i. e., we, the present great
mourners and croakers) did not more vividly and more
reverently realize that they had, within their immediate
grasp, the rare wisdom and varied experiences of great
men-for "there were' giants in those days!"  But
until those babies attain the "years of discretion," we
must do our best, and so- we mournr and mourn, and
we croak and croak!
Already ani accomplished: gentleman has written
" The Bequest of Spiritualism,"' as though it were a
religious movement of the gigantic past, calling for a;
respectful obituary notice; whereas, viewed with less
historic and more intuitive eyes, Spiritualism is yet like
a child, whose little feet are not poised to the earth's
center, who has been dressed in its pretty clothes, and
tumbles, and bumps its, head, and cries with wide-open
mouth, and calls in a loud voice for its mother,. or for
vigilant nurses, all which  lappens to it in making the
tour of the sitting-roorr.  What it is, or what it is to do,
or how long it will live untranslated, or to what insti



MOUNERKS AND CROAKERS.          19 3
tutions it will be married, or how many sect-descendants it will propagate-are questions, with answers, too
far in the non-existent future to merit more than speculative meditation. But this we know:-Our progeny
will be mourners and croakers. They will, with their
capacious intellects and high culture, spurn and neglect
and defame the characters of their contemporaries; and,
looking back upon these hallowed days, so redolent
with inspirations, and so opulent with mediumistic
demonstrations (and through persons, too, about whom
none but the persecuting religionists could utter a contumnacious word), will exclaim: "Oh, that we could
have lived in the times of the Hares, and Edmondses,
and Chases, and Owens, and Harrises, and Davises, and
Ballous, and Howitts, and Coopers, and Ashburners,
and Higginsons, and Finneys, and Britta.ns, and Willises, and Tuttles, and Hardinges, and Dotens, and
Scotts, and HIomes, and Newtons, and a host of others
equally worthy; for then, Oh, then,, in that great departed epoch of gigantic intellects, and living inspira.
tions, and reliable mediums, and disease-curing miracles,
we could have been fed and gratified, in accordance with
our refined tastes and cultured abilities-but, alas!
alas! we live in an age of mediocrity in regard to all
these things; and so we mourn and mourn, and we
croak and croak!"
And our modern ladies, too, and even those who are
not only ladies, but greater than ladies-the women of
our day-are mourning and croaking because they do
not find among their acquaintances a Queen Bess, a
Margaret of Anjou, a Madame Roland, a De Stahl, a
Guion, a Somerville, an Edgeworth, the Countess of
9




194               THE ARABULA.
Derby, Grace Darling, a Siddons, a Mfaria Theresa, an
Elizabeth, a Jeanne d'Albert, or an Isabella of Castile.
Instead of these noble specimens of the race —warriors,
poets, historians, actors, novelists, and rulers of empires
-our moderns have to contemplate the mere nothings
of this century —a Browning, a Fuller, a Bremer, a
Howitt, a Ilosmer, a Childs, a Hunt, a Fowler, a
Miller, a Mitchell, a Mott, a Nightingale, a Bonheur,
a Swisshelm, a Victoria, a Ristori, a Lander, a Farnham, a Stone, a Stanton, a Dale, a Dix, and a thousand
others-all mere non-entities.  Oh, so far behind the
genius of our educated man! and so far below the
abilities of our modern ladies! that they cannot help
treating them with indifference, or openly denouncing
them, and thus they mourn and mourn, and they croak
and croak.
The moral of it all is: While justly reverencing the
memories of those who have lived and worthily wrought
in the Past, and while erecting magnificent monumeents,
and writing obituaries in Greek and Latin, over the
dead skeletons, once the lime-foundations of human
temples, whose proprietors have long since found better
company in the Summer Land; we, their successors
and historical administrators, should not deprive ourselves of the current manifestations of Arabula, as they
appear and reappear in the poetry, painting, music,
morals, religions, governments, inspirations, revelations,
reasonings, ideas, and reforms of our own day and
generation.




DEATH OF MY FATHER.            195
CHAPTER XLIV.
DEATH OF MY FATHER.
LooK with pure Reason's pure eyes-which is the
clairvoyance of the whole superior spiritual consciousness-and you will perceive plainly, and not as " through
a glass darkly," impressed on all things, the truthtracks of immutable omniscience.  In nothing is the
infinite goodness more beautifully manifest than in the
government of what blind and grave-dreading intellect
entitles " The King of Terrors."
Death is no enemy to mankind; rather a servant of
Life. He carries the key to the door which opens wide
upon the templed grandeur of the imperishable Universe.
It is impossible that he should ever travel to " where
the soul wanders in sublimest thought."  His government is of the earth, earthy. His breath is never felt
across " the hallowed plains where angels dwell."  He
is sovereign pontiff in the lower kingdoms of life and
organization. But he has no throne in the. higher
realms of existence.
Your reason tells you this: The Spirit can, by experience, know absolutely noth2ng of the "King-of Terrors." He falls a supplicant, yea, a driveling imbecile,
at the feet of Spirit. The Spirit goes happily, exultingly, through the wreaths of worlds to the Summer
Land, which is lighted by a belt of suns and constellations, which are forever rolling musically in the bound



196               TME IRABULA.
less sky. But Death!- Oh, joy! joy! he drops powerless at the base of the " Mountains of Life," with no
eyes to see the path of the Spirit; which, guided by tle
pole-star of love and wisdom, rises through the welcoming heavens triumphantly, unshackled by terrestrial gravitation, and sweeps onwardly, singing the
excelsior songs of eternal progression.
Furthermore, Death is a screening  process to some
extent.  Beecher, under the afflatus of Arabula, said:
" How strange and blessed must be that emancipation
which passes upon every man when the great deliverer,
Death, puts his ordaining hand upon the heart and
head."
And like a philosophical Spiritualist he affirms: "We
shall enter upon another life divested of many of the
hindrances and encumbrances of this. We shall, however, lose none of the things that one should wish to
retain. We are double in this life; for the problem of
our existence here seems to be to develop a blossom of
spirituality out of the stem of materiality; to develop
out of the physical body, and to ripen a spiritual
soul.  *   *   *   *
" It seems to me that much that minars life is what
we call. infirmity; and that when we die we leave
behind us many things that we call faults, and
follies, and sins, as the trees shed their leaves when winter comes. When the body dies, oh, how much will
perish that is the result of the forces of those passions
which sleep with the flesh!  When we go from this
world, how shall we be released from ten thousand
things that belong to our physical state, and that tend
to hinder our spiritual development.   *   *   * 




DEATH OF MY FATHIER.             197
And when, in departing from earth, we shall be stripped of the flesh and all its influences, we shall find in
ourselves beauties and glories more than we have ever
dreamed that we possessed.
"'And so there are many passions, many appetites,
many lower faculties, that are indispensable to our physical conditions, which we can easily imagine will drop
away from  us when we pass out of this life, and yet
leave the soul unimpaired.  The reasonz, the cect.ons,
all the higher faculties, will go forth into immnortality;
but it will be no small thing to have left behind those
things which belong to the body exclusively, and fiom
which come largely the distemperature and trouble that
afflict us in this life.  If there may be a hope that in
part we shall leave behind the appetites and passions,
and that those which we carry with us shall no longer
be turned downward, as here, to minister to evil, but
shall be evermore turned upward as auxiliaries of the
higher feelings, then the thought of departing, the
thought of going~ forth, should not be one of loss, but
one of essential gain."
Readers of the "} Magic Staff," by returning in mlemory to the earlier chapters, will recall the image and
characteristics of my father.  Here, it is only needfiul
to remark that the last few years of his life were comfortably spent under the roof of our " Orange iIome."'
There was gratitude in Miary's heart, as much as in
mine, because it was within our power to afford him
this retirelnent and independence.
It was precisely a quarter before six o'clock, Monday
afternoon, April 10th, 1865, when my venerable father
closed his physical eyes forever. Those eyelids which




198                  THE ARABULA.
had been raised and dropped, opened and closed, in
keeping with the laws of action and rest, during eightythree years of earthly existence, went down over the
fixed gaze for the last time.  HIe "died," externally
when "life'" in the temple became heavy and a burden.
For years his chief source of entertainment consisted
in books and the liberal publications of the day.*   He
had no taste for landscapes and rambling walks in thle
parks.  Society had no attractions.  Before his sight
grew dim with age, and while his hand remained
steady, there was nothing so attractive as industry.
When he laid aside his apron and packed away his
tools, under the pressure of his own senses, that they
were no longer capable of serving him in his accustomed
labor, he was a very sad and dissatisfied man. For
over a year after " closing up " his bench, his eye was
restless, and his tongue was ever asking for " something
to do to fill up time."
Many hours of each day, during the last three years,
his thoughts were devoted to subjects concerning the
"inner life," and especially concerning the prospect of
existence in the " Summer Land."  Independent in his
temperament, and naturally strong in his moral attributes, and fond of mental liberty in every particular, he
* The Banner of Light, published in Boston, was my father's favorite
paper. It is the only Spiritualistic organ that was ever unflinchingly
and unswervingly devoted to the advocacy and demonstration, through
facts of mediumship, of the Central Idea of Individual Immortality. My
father used to read every week the communications through Mrs. J. H
Conant. And many times he said: "As soon as I can, I will go to
Boston; and you'll hear from me through Mrs. Conant."




DEATH OF MY FATITER.             199
was fed and satisfied with the principles of the liarmonial Philosophy.  They were a light to his understanding and an anchor to his soul.  He fully investigated the claims of old theology, and therefore for
himself ascertained the absolute truth of harmonial
principles.
With reference to " death," he invariably expressed
himself perfectly satisfied.  Several times, during the
last twenty months of his life, he had " visions " of the
higher and better. His only anxiety seemed to be,
that, owing to a naturally healthy and vigorous body,
lie might be compelled to " live too long."  His standing saying was: " When I can no longer be useful, then
I want to be off."  His last days were a perfect fulfillmnent of every prayer I ever heard him  utter with
regard to the closing scenes of his terrestrial pilgrimage.
It was my privilege to witness the rolling down of
life's curtain, which shut from his material senses the
outer world of effects in which we yet dwell; but I was
not prepared, just at that hour, to withdraw to the
secret closet of clairvoyance.  Therefore, like others
present when he ceased to breathe, I saw the usual
external, grand, solemn fact.  Of the locality or condition of his spirit I had no perception, but supposed
that, as in most of the numerous instances I had witnessed,
he would probably depart from the Orange home to the
Summer Land in the course of from  one to three
hours.
On the subsequent morning I arose somewhat earlier
than usual, and was the first to open the north door of
the hall looking upon the garden. I walked out upon




200               TIHE ARABULA.
the stoop, and halted at the second step of the short;
flight of stairs outside, and leaned lightly against the
west banister, musingly looking at the flowering fruittrees and beautiful verdure of the vines and shrubbery,
and listening to the music of song-birds.
At this moment, I felt a commotion in the atmosphere at my right hand. This acrial agitation was so
surprising to my sensation, that, in less time than I can
write this sentence, it had reversed the poles of outer
consciousness. In a word, I was translated into a most
perfect state of clairvoyance. This state, so far at least
as personal sight and consciousness are concerned, is
identical with the condition of a person fully awalkened
" after death."  It is unlike the state of the departed in
one essential particular, that while the clairvoyant is
still an inhabitant of the physical body, the departed
one is wholly emancipated from the organic structure.
The clairvoyant can, for the time being, see things and
principles with the same sight that is natural to those
who'no longer dwell in the earthly body, but who live
in the Spheres.
The incoming of clairvoyant perception at that
moment, and by means of what seemed to be an atmospheric disturbance wholly external, proved of great
advantage.  The movement of the air was like that
caused by a body passing with great swiftness through
the immediate space. With my attention thus attracted
I turned to the right, and at once saw myfalcer in the
act of passing out from the hall into the atmosphere, on
a plane level with the floor of the stoop! Imagine my
surprise, because I had somehow settled into the conviction that he had left the Orange home even before the




DEATH OF M][Y FATHER.          201
undertaker had performed his first kindly offices. True,
my sister Eliza once said, during the evening, that to
her it seemed that " father's spirit had not gone out of
the house."
The face was his own in every essential feature and
line of expression.  In stature he was perhaps four
inches shorter, and in general proportions about the
same as I remember him thirty years ago, being consistent with the remarkable alteration in the height of
his person. - His motions seemed to be the result of
some will-power or intelligence outside of his consciousness. He walked out with a kind of indecision, or
languidly, and with the step of unconsciousness peculiar
to one moving about in a somnambulic state. There
was, however, an expression upon his countenance of
complete repose. No child in the slumber of innocence
ever looked more serene and happy. It was the expression of "' rest" and profound satisfaction; and along
down over his shoulders and new-born body there flowed
and shone the same indescribable atmosphere of contentment and beauty.
On reaching the open space in front of the stoop,
without seeming to notice that I was observing his
movements, or indeed without taking any particular
interest in any thing that was going on with himself,
he turned to the east, and rapidly glided to the side of
a person, who, until that instant, I had not observed.
The moment I saw this manly, intelligent personage, I
was satisfied that his will, and not my father's, had
developed all the voluntary movements I had witnessed.
Unquestionably, his state was like that known as somnambulismn; and he did not awaken on touching the
9




202               THE ARABULA.
side of the spiritual mat, who stood waiting for him on
the northeast corner of the house. Their heads were
about level with the window-sills of the second storv.
Immediately after he reached the other's side, the twain
rose rapidly toward the east, and passed beyond the
reach of my already retiring vision. Thus -my father
withdrew from his earthly entanglements!
In my joyousness and gratitude I hastened within to
tell the " angel of the house " what had transpired but
a few moments before. "M Mary! I have just seen father
go out of the hall, and around the corner of the house."
For a moment she appeared overcome with astonishment, thinking of the possibility of the fact being external; but, quickly gathering her thoughts to my
meaning, she began to enjoy with me the glorious laws
of' resurrection, by which the old are made youthful
and the sick healthful —by means of which all are prepared for progress and usefulness in the higher realmns
of existence. On going up-stairs, to the room where
reposed the cast-off body of the departed one, I chanced
to step into a small bedroom at the south end of the
upper hall, which at that time was not used for any
purpose, and there most distinctly I realized that, in
that unoccupied spot, the final spiritual organization
which my father bore aloft, on the wings of the morning, was formed and prepared for the eternal pilgrimage.
The atmosphere was still warm with the constructive
process, which had been so beautifully carried forward
during the night. In the whole temple of the Father's
wisdom and the Mother's love, I know of no spot more
sacred than that where the Spirit is clothed upon for
immortality.
*    *    *    *    i    X    *    *    *    *




DEATH OF MY FATHER.             203
For months and months, until two years had nearly
passed, we received no tidings from the departed. How
strange that no word, no sign of existence, came to our
waiting senses! To those who are less in communication with the Summer Land, such continued silence
must indeed be painful, if not the cause of skeptical
misgivings and vague distress. But to me these "misgivings" and this "vague distress " are strangers.
Patience and Time brought the long-looked-for communication. Taking up the Banner of light bearing
date "< May 28, 1867," and glancing over the names and
addresses in the 1"/Message Department " — as you go
to the window aperture of the post-office and hopingly
ask the clerk to "look over the package of letters, and
see if there isn't one for you" —so, running over the
published messages from the departed to their friends
on earth, my eye was suddenly arrested by the following: [The questions and remarks in brackets are by the
gentleman (Mr. White) who, I am informed, presides
at all the public sessions of Mrs. Conant.]
I am Samuel Davis, and I've come to send a message
to my boy, Jackson. I want to tell him that the philosophy that the spirits teach through him is true. I
know he's aware of it, but I feel like coming back here
and telling him I know it's true. And I want to tell
him, too, that I was right close by him when he was
standing beside my body, before it was laid away. And
I was so near that I could understand the remark he
made to a friend of his who stood near. It was this:
"He has n't yet ascended; he's here."*
* This remark Ido not recall. But I am assured by persons present
at the time, that the expression is correct.




204               THE ARABULA.
That was true; I hadn't entirely separated myself
from the body; I was there, and I seemed to hear what
he said, through waves of sound that conveyed the
rmeaning to me.
I'm very happy in the spirit-world; perfectly satisfied; and I'm proud to be able to come back and declare that he was right; that the intelligences who took
him when he was a little boy are wise and good, and
they have instructed me in many things since I came
to the spirit-world, and assisted me a great deal.
I have met his mother, although we'lre not together.
She is entirely different from me, so we are satisfied to
live apart. She's better, better thanl I am.
And I hope he'll be spared here on the earth to do
good, a great deal more good than he has done, and
never get out of the way of doing well.
[How  long have you been away?] Only a few
months. You know my boy Jackson? [Andrew Jackson Davis?] Yes. [Of course we do.] Well, then,
you'll see he has my message. [He'll get it.] I suppose so, because he takes the Banner. Good-day.
MY READER! Have you a vacant chair at the hearthstone? H Iave you in solemn sorrow, wearing the mantle
of mourning, walked to the Silent Garden and wept, as
the men shoveled the cold earth upon the painted
casket, which contained the form of one dearly beloved?
Did you feel desolate and bereft? If so, there is in the
world a balm for you. It is the truth of the Spiritual
Philosophy. When walking through the cemetery at
Orange, you may, perchance, observe a white stone
bearing the name of " Samuel Davis," and under it this
immortal motto:
")eath is but a kind and welcome servant, who
unlocks with noiseless hand bife's flower-encircled door,
too show us those we love."




THE QUINTESSENCE OF THINGS.           205
CHAPTER XLV.
THE QUINTESSENCEOF THIINGS.
A FORMIDABLE. and fearless writer exclaimed:  "0,
Truth of the earth! 0, Truth of things! I am determined to press my way toward you. Sound your voice!
I scale the mountain, or dive in the sea after you!"
Thus, too, was I determined; but not in the forces
of my will; for my intellect, now in the resurrection,
was drawn by a divine attraction.  I was now recovering from the physical prostration mentioned in a previous chapter.   "What and where is God?"-a freqluent question of my intellect in its fbrmer unresurrected state, was now unceasingly answered in the deep,
deep rest of my entire consciousness.  IMy conscious
spiritual identification with the quintessence of things
enabled me to say, in the language of the Arabula —" I
AND MY FATHER ARE ONE."  The profoundness of this
experience made " expressive silence " the only appropriate expression.  This, and this only, was my whispered acknowledgment:"Seldom upon lips of mine,
Fatherl rests that name of Thine
I)eep within my inmost breast,
In the secret place of mind,
Like an awful presence shrined,
Doth the dread idea rest I
Hushed and holy dwells it there,
Prompter of the silent prayer,




206                THE ARADBULA.
Lifting up my spirit's eye,
And its faint but earnest cry,
From its dark and cold abode,
Unto Thee, my Guide, and God."
Language cannot picture the fullness of my private
"'life with God."  The tranquillity and happiness of
this state surpassed any and all of my other experiences.
But one day, all was changed! And why?  Because, as
I have explained to you before, I was becoming selfish
in my sequestered happiness. All at once I realized
that seven-tenths of the intellectualized part of mankind were at that very moment "without God, and
without hope in the world"-skeptical, miserable, unprincipled, straying, and restless as evil itself.
Contemplating the world, I saw that, where intellect
was unbound, there was little or no perception oft or
faith in, a Divine Existence. But that, in countries
where intellect was yet trammeled by ignorance and
fear, faith  and superstition sustained  the millions.
And that every people, country, and age, had a name
for its Idea of God. Allah, Chur, Addi, Zain, Ezsi,
Adad, Odin, Gott, Theos, Deus, Dieu, "Jehovah, Jove,
or Lord "-but that, associated with the name, I could
perceive no corresponding knowledge of how such a
Being exists in the constitution of things. " IHence," I
thought, " does not man's intellect need some rational,
scientific, and mathematical basis on which to erect a
true and lasting temple of knowledge of God?" Is it
not within the grasp of man, intellectually, to trace
the facts and follow the principles of "Nature up to
Nature's God?"  I recalled the significant recorded
astronomical fact, that, from the year 1821 to 1845, it




THE QUINTESSENCE OF THINGS.       2G0 
was becoming more and more certain that there was a
planet outside of Uranus, because there were irregularities in the motion of Uranus which were otherwise
unaccountable. After a careful investigation, Levei-rier
announced, in 1846, that those irregularities would be
accounted for by a planet of a certain size in a certain
place in the heavens, but so distant as to be invisible
without telescopic aid. The planet Neptune was found
in consequence of that announcement, corresponding in
position and appearance with the prediction. And
although it was subsequently shown that the orbit of
Neptune did not correspond with the orbit of the predicted planet, yet the fact remains, that the existence
of Neptune was determined with a considerable degree
of certainty by astronomical theory, before it had been
proved by ocular demonstration.
I meditated that scientific discoveries and philosophical triumphs were never so numerous or so prophetic
as now. And it further seemed to me that, upon
grounds of induction, similar to Leverrier's process of
reasoning, the human intelligence might make its own
discovery, and establish its own demonstration of God.
These thoughts led me to the following philosophical
argument. It was published in the Spirit Jlessenger
without its author's name, and subsequently copied into
the Hierald of Progress. It is reproduced in this volume,
because the line of argument and the illustrations are
strictly in accordance with the necessities of every intelligent mind.




208               THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER XLVI.
GOD REVEALEID TO INTELLECT.
THE construction of the following argument, in my
own mind, originated in the necessity of my nature.
Some years ago, I had the misfortune to meet the fallacies of Hume, on the subject of causation. His specious
sophistries shook the faith of my reason as to the being
of a God, but could not overcome the fixed repugnance
of my heart to a negation so monstrous; and consequently left that infinite, restless craving for some point
of fixed repose which atheism not only cannot give, but
absolutely and madly disaffirms.
Through the gloom of utter skepticism, I turned for
relief to the Treatise of Paley, and other reasoners, on
the mere mechanical hypothesis, but there found, as I
deemed, an impassable hiatus in the logic of the argument itself. I was forced to admit that every machine
must have had at first a machine-maker; but I saw
clearly, that the fact of its being a machine must, fiirst
of all, be proven, before the reasoning could hold at all;
and thus the argument was worthless. For as it is
based on the assumed postulate of an actual creation,
and as such a postulate is any thing but self-evident, it
needs to be demonstrated. And no logician of the
whole mechanical school has ever attempted to furnish
such a demonstration.  Indeed, were creation once
proven, there would be no necessity for more arbu-meit




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        209
on the subject, since a Creator would on that supposition b)e proven also.
But I saw a still more fatal defect in the reasoning
of Paley. I said to myself, Suppose that we admit the
world to be a machine; still, we have no evidence that
the mlachine-builder exists now.  The waatch-maker
of Paley's example lnay have ceased to be, countless
centuries ago, and still the watch remain as perfect as
ever. And thus the mechanical conception of the universe could afford me no ray of light.
And yet I sought with eager solicitude for some solution of this vast world-enigma. I resembled a child
who, in the crowd, had lost its parent. I went wildly,
asking of every one, "Where is he? have ye-seen him?"
But there was no answer. I teased philosophy, science,
and literature with endless questionings, but all in vain.
I plunged in fierce excitements, but no solace was there.
The infinite void in my want-nature would not thus
be filled. I was as an Arab, washing himself with
sand instead of water. Neither the heat of the heart,
nor the impurity of even the surface, diminished by any
such lavation. I will not attempt to paint the intense
gloom of my situation. Death seemed to ride on the
present hour as a race-steed of destruction. The past
was a grim waste, strewn with the ruins of worlds, men;
and things. The future was a chill mist hovering over
incalculable sepulchers. Every voice in creation seemed
to me a wild wail of agony. The godless sun and cold
stars glared in my face. I turned often to the pitiless sky,
which no longer wore the poetic hue of my credulous
boyhood.
One beautiful evening in May I was reading by the




210                THE ARABULA.
light of the setting sun in my favorite Plato. I was
seated on the grass, interwoven with golden blooms,
immediately on the bank of the crystal Colorado of
Texas. Dim in the distant west arose, with smoky
outlines, massy and irregular, the blue cones of an offshoot of the Rocky Mountains.
I was perusing one of the Academician's most starry
dreams. It had laid fast hold of my fancy without exciting my faith. I wept to think that it, could not be
true. At length I came to that startling sentence,
"God geometirizes."-" Vain revery!" I exclaimed, as
I cast the volume on the ground at my feet. It fell
close by a beautiful little flower that looked fresh and
bright, as if it had just fallen from the bosom of a rainbow. I broke it from its silvery stem, and began to
examine its structure. Its stamens were five in number;
its green calyx had five parts; its delicate corol was
five-parted, with rays expanding like those of the
Texan star. This combination of fives three times in
the same blossom appeared to me very singular. I had
never thought on such a subject before. The last sentence I had just read in the page of the pupil of Socrates was ringing in my ears-" God geometrizes."
There was the text written long centuries ago; and
here this little flower, in the remote wilderness of the
West, furnished the commentary.  There suddenly
passed, as it were, before my eyes a faint flash of
light. I felt my heart leap in my bosom. The enigma
of the universe was open. Swift as a thought I calculated
the chances against the production of those three equations of five in only one flower, by any principle devoid
of the reason to perceive number. I found that there




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        21:1
were one hundred and twenty-five chances against such
a supposition. I extended the calculation to two flowers, by squaring the sum last mentioned. The chances
amounted to the large sum of fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-five. I cast my eyes around the forest;
the old woods were literally alive with those golden
blooms, where countless bees were humming, and butterflies sipping honey-dew.
I will not attempt to describe my feelings. My soul
Secame a tumult of radiant thoughts. I took up my
beloved Plato from the grass where I had tossed him in
a fit of despair. Again and again I pressed him to my
bosom, with a clasp tender as a mother's around the
neck of her sleeping child. I kissed alternately the
book and the blossom, bedewing them with tears of joy.
In my wild enthusiasm, I called out to the little birds
on the green boughs, trilling their cheery farewells to
departing day-" Sing on, sunny birds; sing on, sweet
minstrels; Lo! ye and I have still a God!"
Thus perished the last doubt of the skeptic. Having
found the Infinite Father, I found also myself and my
beloved ones-all, once more. By degrees I put together the following argument.  I tried it by every
rule of logic; I conjured up every conceivable objection
against all its several parts, and grew thoroughly satisfied that it contained an absolute demonstration. But
I rested not here. I resolved to have it tested to the
uttermost. For this purpose I journeyed all the way to
Boston last winter. I presented it to the most eminent
pantheists, atheists, and skeptics of that literary city.
Not one of them attempted to point out a flaw in its
logic.




212                THE ARABULA.
Thus I became convinced that the demonstration is
utterly unassailable; and I therefore offer it without
hesitation to the criticism of thle world.
The aggregate argument is my own; though many
of the particular elements have been freely borrowed
from others.
The principal consideration, however, is not as to
authorship, but validity. And this may readily be determined.  Let the objector designate its fallacy, and I
will be among the first to renounce it altogether.  Until
this is done, I hold myself pledged to maintain it in fair
controversy against all adversaries; though I will not
debate the question with any person unacquainted with
algebra, geometry, and the rules of strict logic.
" GOD GEo1IETRIZES."' -Plato.
The following argument assumes a bold tentative.
It undertakes to demonstrate, in an absolute manner,
not only the being, but ever-present agency of the
Deity in all the phenomena of the material universe.
It professes to solve the old problem that has puzzled
philosophy in every age, ever uttered by human curiosity, but perhaps never, as yet, answered by pure,
reason —" What is the true nature of causation.?"
Beyond all controversy, this must be regarded as tha
fundamental problem of all real science; for we know;,
nothing, we never can know any thing, but causes and
effects. All time and eternity form but one vast flowing stream, where these come and go like waves of the
sea. All space is but the expanse where thece rise and
fall in oscillations, as of some ethereal fluid Ju infinite




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.         213
extent, vibrated by a viewless force. Well has a distinguished pantheist of the modern German school worded
this profound idea: " The soul iwill not have us read any
other cipher but that of cause and effect."  All scientific
treatises, however pompous their nomenclature, contain but generalizations of these, expressed in mathematical formulas, with greater or less accuracy. I am
stating a simple fact, admitted on all hands. Cause and
effect are thus correlatives in language and thought.
The former is first, both in logic and chronology. It is,
therei'ore, the necessary exponent of the latter. Unless
its true nature be comprehended, nothing else can possibly be understood. If we err at this great startingpoint, every subsequent step must prove a blunder in
every process of philosophical inquiry. And accordingly,
universal history shows that the false solution of the
radical problem has been the fruitful source of all pestilential heresies, both in philosophy and religion.
To the mighty question, "What is causation?" four
different answers, and no more, can be given-the
skeptical, the material, the pantheistic, and the rational,
or Christian.
To assert that man is utterly ignorant of the true
nature of causation, is total skepticism.
To predicate the doctrine of invariable sequence, as
did H-ume and Brown, presents the formula of materialism. Idealism is but another phase of the same false
view; for both idealism and materialism are at a certain
depth identical, as they both take for granted that all
Nature is but a dream-show, a mere conjurer's trick
of fleeting appearances, where phenomena have only
the tie of antecedent and consequent, to bind them




214              THE ARABULA.
together in a union that touches nowhere and produces
nothing.
If we answer, that emanation is the only causation,
we are landed in pantheism. All individual existence
vanishes away, and with it all proper ideas of right and
wrong. of truth and falsehood; and, in fine, all logical
predicates of every name and nature; for if nothing
remains but indivisible unity, proposition is impossible,
since it would be absurd to assert unity of itself.
The only remaining conceivable answer I deem the
rational, the Christian, the true one-that causation
alone resides in mind; that matter never can be a
Cause; and, thereforeq every phenomenon in the universe is, and ever must be, but the effect of intellectual
force exerted by pure volition.
This view we now proceed to demonstrate, after
the rigorous method of the geometricians, and discarding, as much as practicable, all loose and rhetorical
digressions.
PROPOSITION I.
We mnay lay it down as a general proposition, that
th/e perception of mathematical truth evilnces mind of a
lofty order.
It is for this reason the universal consent of mankind
has placed Pythagoras and Plato, Archimedes and
Kepler, Newton and La Place, among the very foremost of the species. We would not exalt beyond due
bounds the dignity of mathematical studies. We have
long since awoke from the dream of our youth, that
supposed a vain distinction of high and low among the
sciences, which ought to be like the halo of a star,




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        215
bright all around. But, beyond question, there is no
good reason fo(r the neglect of those ennobling, strict,
and severely logical exercises in our elementary education. Far wiser was the lesson taught by the great
Plato, in the inscription engraved over his immortal
academy-" Let no one presume to enter here who
does not understand geometry."
However this may be, even in this age of light studies,
no enlightened mind will deny that the power to perceive mathematical truth is essentially an attribute of
no mean intellect.
COROLLARY.
lHence it follows, d fortiori, as a self-evident corollary, that to evolve mathematical motions-or, in plainer
terms, to work mathematically, evinces mind of a still
loftier order.
For to evolve mathematical motions unquestionably
implies their perception. No person will assert for a
moment that an analyst can reduce algebraic equations,
or solve geometrical problems, and demonstrate theorems, without comprehending in the one case the
meaning of the terms, and in the other the axioms and
definitions on which the operations hinge.
To present this view in the clearest possible light, we
beg leave to offer an obvious illustration.
Suppose that John and James sit down to work out a
knotty question in decimal fractions; John passes from one
operation to another with the skillful rapidity of an accomplished arithmetician, adding and subtracting swift
as thought, and balancing tangled columns of vast numbers into a definite and accurate result; while James




216               TIHE ARABULA.
can understand the explication of it when it is stated in
luminous order on the sheet before his eyes, but finds it
wholly impossible to accomplish the task for himself.
Now, which of the two, in the given case, manifests the
superior intellect? The veriest skeptic must answer" He who has not only the penetration to perceive, but
the mental power to perform the processes assigned him."
Thus, undeniably, to evolve mathematical motions implies not only their distinct perception, but tle additional
faculty of an active power also.  Finally, I put the
question home, and the entire controversy betwixt the
believer and the atheist turns upon the answer-Can
any one work out all the sublime problems of mathematics, from the simplest in the first book of Euclid to
the roost complex in conical sections, without the mind
to comprehend what he is doing? I-le who responds in
the negative must' crucify reason and betake himself to
utter insanity.
The discussion of our second proposition will place
this averment above all dispute. To that we will<now
attend.
PROPOSITION II.
All the motions of tMle material Dniverse, in all their
wondrous variety and unity, are strictly mathematical.
The foregoing proposition is susceptible of proof by
an immense induction. The field for its exercise has
absolutely no other limits than the frontier line that
encircles the domain of science.  A hundred volumes
might be filled with instances, and still the materials
would remain unexhausted in their infinite richness.
Every new  discovery in the abyss of unfathomable




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        217
Nature adds to the store, which is as vast as the immensity of creation.
We have only room in this hasty dissertation for
a few out of incalculable millions of examples. Our
choice will be only embarrassed by the teeming profusion that crowds upon our eye, and almost overwhelms every sense of the soul, from the circles of
light that spread in decreasing intensity and augmented
distance around the candle, near which we are now
writing these paragraphs, to yonder remote pale star
that twinkles through the open window, immeasurable
leagues away, in the midsummer's night of a cloudless
sky.
INDUCTION I.-M-YSELF.
I will-begin with my own organism.
I survey my right hand; it has five fingers. I look
at my left; it has five also.  There is another member
of an algebraic equation. This is singular. I turn
down to each foot, and on each behold five toes. There
is another equation. This is still more singular. I
then think of my bodily senses; there are five again.
The wonder is increasing. And now all the millions of
my fellow-men rise up before the mind's eye-and in
rapid succession. Lo! the countless millions of millions that have lived and died pass along the great
world-stage, in the view of astonished meditation; and
they all, with unimportant exceptions, possess the
miraculous five fingers on each hand, five toes on each
foot, and glorious five senses. If this be not a Godannouncing miracle, then is human reason itself a
dream, and all truth a worthless fiction.
10




218               THE ARABULA.
But let me apply to myself the rigorous doctrine of
the calculation of chances, lest I suffer my judgment to
be deceived by undue excitement of the organ of
wonder.
In this calculation of chances, let me bear in mind an
ingenious remark of Archbishop Whately, that " the
probability of any supposition is not to be estimated by
itself singly, but by means of a comparison with each
of its alternatives."
Now there are but two suppositions possible as to
this mysterious combination in the human organism, by
which the number five is five times repeated, not only
in myself, but in all the myriads of mankind. For
these wondrous equations there must be a Cause; and
that Cause, whatever may be its nature, and by whatsoever name you see fit to express its existence, be it
necessity, law, order, physical force, or God, must
either possess intelligence to perceive its own marvelous
results, or else be destitute of such intelligence, and
work blindly through all its processes. There is no
means to evade the force of this statement. These two
are positively the only alternatives which logic allows
us. For in abstract, definitive division, a perfect affirmation and negation always exhausts the subject
divided. Every thing, in the whole compass of thought,
must be either a tree or not a tree; and as there is
nothing that can be neither, so nothing can be both at
the same time. Just so, every Cause, or assemblage of
Causes, must possess intelligence or not.
Therefore this wonderful combination of fives must
be produced by either a rational Cause, or one wholly
irrational —by a Cause that can perceive the relations




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.         219
of number, or otherwise-in fine, by a Cause that can
count, or one that cannot count five, or any other numerical amount whatsoever.
Let me now assume the first alternative.  If the
Cause that arranged the relations of my several organs
be sufficiently intelligent to understand the mathematical harmonies, then all is luminous. There is no chance
to be calculated againsttheir production, since he who
comprehends the relations of number, can, of course,
evolve such relations to any extent, and indefinitely,
nay, infinitely, if he be granted to be infinite himself.
Let me now take up the only remaining alternative
which the given case permits.
I will assume that the Cause, call it what you please,
which produced this even combination of fives on my
hands, feet, and in my corporeal senses, be not mathematical mind at all, but unconscious force-what, on
such a supposition, are the chances against one single
combination of fives, in a pair?  Let the fixed laws of
eternal mathematics answer the question. Suppose we
had two dice with five faces each, marked in arithmetical order, one, two, three, four, five; we shake
them in a box-what are the chances against turning
up the number five on each?  Every gambler will
answer, "the chances against such an event are just
twenty-five, the square of the numbers on the several
faces; or the total number of ways in which two
separate series of fives can possibly be arranged."
Apply this analysis to the given case of the ihuman
organism.  If the Cause which made me, man, be
indeed destitute of mathematical reason, the chances
against my possessing five fingers on each hand -are




220               THE ARAIBULA.
twenty-five; add the five toes on each -foot, and the
chances are six hundred and twenty-five. Then incorporate into the calculation the five senses, and the
chances are three thousand one hundred and twentyfive. Let me now get a larger sheet, for the full flow
of infinite numbers is fast pouring in upon me.  Now
calculate the chances against this combination of fives
in two men; they swell to the enormous sum of nine
millions seven hundred and sixty-five thousand six
hundred and twenty-five. Then calculate the chances
for four men like myself. They will be the square of
the last number, and so on forever.  But the immense
sums overpower all the most magnificent processes of
our algebra, and no logarithmic abbreviations can aid
us to grasp what soon stretches into immensity.
The attempt to apply the calculation to all the
innumerable millions of mankind now living, and all
that have lived and passed away, were as idle as to4
essay the enumeration of sunbeams shed during sixty
centuries of solar years. The algebra of an archangel,
with infinite space for his balance-sheet, and eternity
for the period of solution, were insufficient, perhaps, for
the overwhelming computation.
I would advise the atheist, before he dares grapple in
this argument, to refresh his memory with the doctrine
of the calculation of chances, in his favorite La Placeor, at least, to look into his common arithmetic. INo
acquaintance, however profound, with Fichte, IHegel, or
other German mystics, will avail him aught in such an
inquiry as the present.
In relation to my single self, I might pursue the
subject much further. Throughout all the members of




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.         221
my body there runs a wondrous dauaiity-in my eyes,
arms, hands, feet, ribs, and the convolutions of the
brain, where equal numbers balance each other.
The simple question that settles the controversy on its
true basis is this: Could any cause without the intellect
to perceive-the reason to count, produce all these
invariable equations? Shrink not from  this simple
problem, I beseech thee, 0, my brother! The infinite
hopes hang upon it, and all time and eternity-the life
everlasting, and the loves dearer than life itself  Fly
not for refuge to barren logomachies.  It will not
thus be resolved. Answer me not, that these are only
the effects of law! Say not, with Ralph Waldo EInerson (who thus responded when I presented the demonstration in private conversation), that " It is Order which
does all this!"  That is no solution of the problem at
all, but only its statement in a different form. The
enigma cannot be read by a mere repetition of the same
idea crouched in other words.  The difficulty remains
as inexplicable as ever. For these equations, this sublime universal harmony, is the order itself-neither
more nor less. Could the order constitute itself? Canl
there be order without intellect?
But even supposing that we allow a reality to the
abstractions. Let us admit, for the argument's sake,
that Law, or Order, or any idea you please, caused
these mathematical harmonies of equation, in every
series and degree; the same question rebounds upon us
with undiminished force: " Is that wonderful order,
that mysterious law, self-conscious? K nows it what it
doeth? Can it count? Hath it mathematical reason?'
If ye answer " Ay," very well; ye believe in God,




222               THE ARAEULA.
though ye misname him. But if ye say "No," the
vailed Sphinx repeats her riddle. "HIow, then, can
blind force produce heavenly harmony, and midnight
darkness gild all worlds with ineffable radiance?
Whence come these iris-winged splendors that flash up
through all immensity?  Yonder are the halos, but
where is their sun?"
I know the beggarly sophism to which the skeptic
ever flies as his dernier resort. IHe will reply, " Suppose we acknowledge a God to account for this magnificent order, we only postpone the difficulty indefinitely, without attaining the required solution.
For then we must attempt the greater problem, to
account for the existence of Deity himself."  This
objection is plausible only in appearance, and can
never satisfy any but very shallow minds. The acute
logician sees through it at a glance.  It is one of the
most pitiful specimens of ignoratio elenchi.  It is
founded on a total misapprehension of the true difficulty.
The reason why we set about accounting for the
present order and harmony of Nature is, because we see
with our own eyes its finite evolutions passing immediately before us. We see many millions of them begin;
we watch their progress, as in some gorgeous panorama;
and we behold them terminate. The flower puts forth
in spring and perishes with the advance of autumn.
Yonder great oak on the Alleghanies was once a little
acorn, and shall again be nothing as an organized form.
The child was born to-day; last year it was not, and
next summer it may die. We are made acquainted
with indubitable tokens of commencement in the whole




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        223
material universe. We read those infallible signs in
the first leaf of the Bible of creation, scorched, as it
were, among the primitive rocks, by the mighty firepen of world-volcanoes. The star that shoots from the
midnight sky proclaims as it falls:-" Look, mad atheist! Lo!  I had a beginning once, as now I have an end!"
For this reason we seek to account for these passing,
present events-these mathematical motions, which it
were worse than lunacy to deny. We are irresistibly
forced to the predication of a Cause by a fixed necessity
of our rational nature. Failing to do so would be, not
to over-soar the condition of living men, but to sink
below the moral status of even brute instinct.
But the idea of a God presents no such problem.
Here the necessity of the intellect does not hold. There
is not a token, in all time or throughout all known
space, of his commencement. He is not revealed to us
by Eternal Reason in the character of an effect at alL
In the mere conception of his whole being and attributes there is nothing whatsoever phenomenal. Therefore, to assert for the Divinity a producing Cause, were
as foolish as to affirm a like predicate of the infinite
space, his everlasting and unchangeable habitation.
We say, then, to the atheist, show us only the slightest proof that God ever began to be, and then, but not
till then, can you, with any show of philosophical consistency, demand of us to account for his being. We
admit that every phenomenon must have a Cause.
Present us, then, some evidence that the Deity is a
phenomenon, and we will hear you with patience,
when you inquire for a pre-existent producing power.
Nothing but phenomena implies causation. No one




224                THE ARABULA.
thinks of proposing such a question in relation to any
eternal truth. Who is so silly as to ask why the three
angles of a triangle are always equal to two right
angles? We have dunces enough in this world of ours,
beyond all doubt, but the darkest of them all never conceived such a problem as that. Give us the actual evolution of an undeniable effect, and its origin must be explained-some casual force is necessarily assigned. But
to assert such an evolution, and then seek for the evolving power, is an act, not of philosophy, but madness.
In the works of material nature the transient manifestations pass immediately before our eyes, and therefore we must, in spite of ourselves, attempt to account
for them. No one but a fool will ever ask, "What
was before the Eternal?  What is greater than the
Infinite a?" But every one endowed with one pale ray of
human reason cannot help but ask, "What caused the
transient? What is above the finite?" This is the first
question of infancy, and the last of old age. The savage
puts it to his reason in the earliest glimmerings of reflection; and it glances like a sunbeam, gilding the loftiest
meditations of the sage. And all science is but an actual
or ideal answer to this great radical problem of the
universe.
Thus we have sufficiently shown the folly of atheism
as an objector, as well as her insanity as a constructor
of syllogisms. And now we return to our main argument, by which we are attempting to demonstrate that
all motions in Nature are strictly mathematical.
INDUCTION II.-CIIEMISTRY.
We will take our next comparisons from Chemistry,




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.         225
that youngest daughter among the sciences, the beautiful child of the Galvanic Battery, brought forth in
splendor and cradled on rollers of fire.
Go, analyze rme a cup of water; you find it composed
of two parts of hydrogen to one of oxygen, by volume,
and eight parts of oxygen to one of hydrogen, by
weight.  And these  numerical ratios never vary.
Freeze it into ice, hard as the granite of the eternal
hills; dissipate it into vapor of such exquisite tenuity
that it would take a million acres of the floating mist to
form a single drop of dew; bring it from the salt solitudes of the ocean, or from the central curve of a rainbow, and submit it to the test of analysis; and still the
pale chemist, as he watches the developments of his
laboratory, calls out, "Two to one and one to eight,
now and forever." And will any one be mad enough
to affirm that the mighty Cause, who rolled out yon
dark blue expanse of ocean, and bade the liquid crystal
bubble in multitudinous springs fiom the fissures of
cleft limestone, and sing in the innumerable flowing
rills, was and is himself unconscious of the mystic numbers by which the separate elements that compose its
dual essence are married to eternity?. I would be loth
to judge any man's heart; but it does seem to me that
the head which can credit an hypothesis so monstrously
absurd must have exchanged brains with a baboon. It
may be argued that I express myself too strongly. I
can only say, in reply, that I do not utter the half of
what I feel. Nor can I be made, very easily, to believe
that any decorous terms are too severe, in denunciation
of the moral felons of the universe, who Would rob
humanity of its dearest hopes.
10*




226               THE AABIULA.
But to proceed with the argument. Go again, and
analyze me a gallon of atmospheric air. You find it
composed of twenty parts of oxygen to eighty of nitrogen in every hundred, by volume, nearly.
And these proportions never vary. Bring it from
the high billows of the distant seas, or from the depths
of the Lybian deserts, or with Guy Lussac in your balloon, bottled up twenty-two thousand feet above the
earth's surface, and still the mystic numbers keep their
exact count. And was the Cause of this numerical harmony-the Author who rolled this ocean of the breath
of life, forty-five miles deep, around the globe-destitute of the reason to perceive the ratio of its union?
Can that Cause count —yea or nay-which ever works
in magnificent numbers?
But still again, go analyze me a bit of limestone.
You discover that its elements bear a quadruple ratio.
There are twenty-two parts by weight of carbonic acid,
and twenty-eight of lime. Lime is composed of twenty
parts of the white metal calcium, and eight parts of
oxygen gas.  Carbonic acid is composed of sixteen
parts of oxygen, and six of carbon. And these proportions, too, are of unchanging uniformity. They are the
same in the stalactite, icicle-shaped and crystal-grained,
torn from the roofs of coral caves, and in the rifled slab,
hurled up from the heart of the earth by the volcano's
hand, mailed with thunder, and in the glittering pebble
that a child picks out of the brook in which it plays
with naked feet.  What a field is here for the calculation of chances! What a theme for devout and transcendent wonder! What a Bible is this among the old
rocks! What magic hieroglyphics on the mountains!




GOD BEVEALED TO INTELLECT.         227
But not only are numerical characters here; symbolical angles are traced in splendor also. All the
hundred forms of carbonate of lime split into six-sided
figures, called rhombohedrons, whose alternate angles
measure 105 deg. 55 min. and 75 deg. 05 min. Letthe
mathematician come with his plane trigonometry, fresh
from the schools, and study a higher lesson. But if he
be wise, he will study it as the great Linneus studied
flowers-on bended knees!
INDUTON III.-BOTANY.
We will make our next comparisons in that science
so charming to all lovers of Nature. Not over smoky
furnaces, or in darkened chambers, will we read this
division of our lecture; but out among the silken sisterhood of sweet-scented flowers, where the blue-eyed
heavens smile love down in our faces, and the winds
whisper through our sunny hair.
The first ten classes of Linnseus are arranged simply
according to the number of stamens in each flower.
Let us analyze a flower of the tobacco-plant.  It is
of the fifth class, and of course has five stamens. Its
corol has five parts, and its calyx five points.  It is so
with every tobacco-flower on the earth. It ever was,
and will ever remain so.
Now let us suppose that every flower is produced by
a Cause that cannot count; what are the mathematical
chances against this combination of fives, three times in
a single flower?  The answer is obviously: "One
hundred and twenty-five;" while the chances against a
like combination in two flowers amount to the great
sum of fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-five.




228               THE ARABULA.
Let the atheist answer me, What must the chances be
in one large field? in all the fields throughout the
world during one solar summer? and extending the
view still wider, so as to embrace all the summers ever
shea by yonder bright sun?
He who can shut his eyes to the overwhelming force
of this demonstration, deserves never more a single
glimpse of the green fields, with their coronals of
golden bouquets floating in their own perfume.
Look at the lily in her snowy robes. All over the
world, and throughout all times, it numbers but six
stamens, and its delicate corol is six-parted.
Some of those beautiful flowers are vegetable clocks
and watches, and keep time with the revolutions of the
world, and sublimer roll of the twinkling orbs in their
eternal movements. Some open to the morning sun;
some beneath the blaze of noon; others at purple
twilight, when the soft dews begin to fall; and one in
the wild West, the magnificent flower discovered by
Captain Bonneville, near the base of the Rocky MIountains, lifts its gorgeous eye alone to gaze on the midnight stars!  Do these blooms of Nature's garden
know the divisions of day and darkness, or the seconds
and minutes of recorded time, that they thus equal our
best pocket chronometers in taking note of the fastflowing hours? Can the Cause of all this order be unintelligent? He who can believe so may safely be set
down in the category of those who are beyond the
reach of -all argument.
INDUCTION IV.-LIGHT.
We shall not hazard a single remark as to the nature




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.          229
of light, that wonderful agent that plays so important a
part in the processes of creation, and which is so beautiful in itself, and moves with a velocity so immense, that,
with a slight poetic license, it might be regarded as a
smile of the omnipresent Deity. We have only to do,
at present, with its mathematical evolutions.
Its first law is a strict algebraic formula, and may
be expressed thus:  The intensity of light decreases
as the square of its distance increases, and vice versa.
Does the Cause, whatsoever we may suppose it to be,
which produces this mlathematical ratio, understand the
evolution of numbers? If not, how, in the name of
reason, can it be supposed to form those'miraculous
squares that often sweep, in many circles, embracing
billions of leagues, in the stellar spaces? Let me pledge
faith in tile wildest fictions of fairy land, the most impossible fables of false theology, sooner than in such inconceivable absurdities as an hypothesis like that. But
it is ever thus; when the human mind once rejects the
general belief of mankind, there is nothing then too
monstrous for its voracious credulity.
The second law of light is stated mathematically, in
a form equally luminous, and conveys a truth equally
magnificent.  The angles of incideence and refection
are always equal. Thus, if a ray of light from the sun
fall on the table before me, at an angle of forty-five
degrees, it is reflected again at a like angle; and so of
all other lines of every possible obliquity. These angles
never vary so much as a single hair's breadth.  Euclid
or Legendre has none so perfect. Try, we entreat you,
Oh, rational reader, with all your skill; and see if you
can trace any equally exact, with the pen, on the




230               THE ARABULA.
smoothest paper! And is it possible that, after all, the
Cause which thus geometr~izes is devoid of all knowledge
of geometry?  If so, then may a blind mole-nay, a
nonentity itself, compose a treatise superior in splendor and accuracy to Newton's world-renowned Principia!
But apply the doctrine of chances to these angles
now being formed, every instant, all over the universe,
and even imagination staggers under the immensity of
the idea. Only pause here for a moment. Think of
all the beams that emanate from the sun during one long
summer day-of all the rays that flash out from the
stars for only a single night. Then let your mind travel
back over the march of dim, distant centuries, gathering age upon age, and cycle on cycle, in vast segments
of eternity, whereplatonic years vanish into insignificant
vibrations of the pendulum, and the duration of galaxies
are seen but as shadows on the dial-plate of infinitude.
Then bid imagination lift her lightning wing away on
high, from world to world remote, as far beyond the
reach of the telescope as the glance of that magic tube
transcends the vision of a flitting insect, and behold the
horizon of the space that knows no limits, still opening
forever, onward, and upward, and all around, and thickening with columns of suns, and breaking into nebulous
starry haze, and undulating, like some shoreless sea,
with waves of light, and then tell me the' number of all
the rays ever shot athwart the great immensity since
the first fire-sons of heaven sang their choral hymn in
the morning of creation-and then answer me, who
shall calculate the chances against the perpetual, universal observance of the law in relation to angles, in




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.          231
and by all tkese, on the supposition that there is no
God?  Only God himself may solve the mighty problem t
We may here note a remarkable law, in reference to
light of different colors, only discovered recently.
[Children's Lyceum colors have high meanings.]
If two rays, friom two luminous points, be admitted
in a dark chamber, and falling on white paper, or other
suitable reflecting surface, differ in their length by.0000258 part of an inch, their intensity is doubled. A
like result is produced if such difference in length be
any multiple of that nearly infinitesimal fraction by a
whole number. But, strange to say, a multiple by 21,
3-, 41, &c., gives the result of total darkness! While
a multiple by 21, 31, &c., gives an intensity equal to
one ray only. In one of these cases the fact is seen,
which, from the beginning of the world, has been regarded as the extreme of impossibility —light actually
produces darkness I
Corresponding effects are witnessed in violet-rays, if
the difference in their lengths be equal to.0000157 part
of an inch. And the like results are given by experi,
ments on all other rays, the difference in length varying
with a steady uniformity of increase, from the violet to
the red. Who shall reckon the chances, in two cases
only, in such vast number as these? 
Let not shallow sciolism answer me by a pitiful evasion, "that all this is accounted for on the principle of
mechanical vibrations."  Cannot the merest tyro in
logic see that the difficulty remains the same?  For
the question immediately presents itself: What causes
the vibrations? And how can unintelligent vibrations




232               TIE ARAnBULA.
be supposed to arrange such wonderful combinations of
arithmetic?
Uniformity of colors in refracted light is equally
marvelous.
See yon dark cloud, only a moment ago one thick
mass of gloom, lurid, almost appalling to the gazer's
eye! Suddenly the sun breaks forth in the western
sky; and lo! in an instant the rainbow is born, and
stretches afar the curved wings of its prismatic plumage,
as if to play around the world! Count well its gaudy
colors. There is the sacred number seven, composed by
the blending of the mystic three. And never, either on
the land or sea, in city or solitude, hath a single cloud
blushed to thle kiss of the sunbeam without the colors
of the sacred seven, painted by the Divine ray-brush, in
heavenly enameling there. O, golden-haired sun! "O0,
airy vapor! Father and mother of that beatiful child
of the sky, brought forth in purple, cradled in vermilion,
baptized in molten gold, and swathed in dun," know
ye what ye do? Are ye indeed blind? Can ye count
without arithmetic? without the algebra of a Euler' —
ay, without even the poor instinct of the eagle, that
dips his wing in the checkered cloud-would ye undertake to teach the whole world mathematics?
-Were there no other proof of the existence of a Deity,
this one consideration would settle the question forever.
Every rainbow is an exact mathematical equation of
every other rainbow in the universe!
Awake, ye dreaming metaphysicians! Arouse from.
your darkling dormitories, and those pale lucubrations
which are more than half slumber. Come away to the
floods and fields, the flower-banks and the forests-out




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        233
here, in open space and the free air, where sea and earth
and sky mingle in mutual embraces, like the greeting
of youthful lovers! Listen to the pine-songs, which are
chants of praise, and the wind-warblers, which are
hymns of hallelujah!  Look up yonder on the firedance of innumerable rolling worlds, and then answer
me, before the sun and all the stars-"'is there no God?"
We will take our next inductions from the science
of ASTRONOmY, which is only another name for sublimity
itself.
For countless centuries, the stars, high and mysterious,
had shone on in the blue vault of immensity; and ignorant man knew nothing of the nature of their movements-could not divine even what they were. But
although knowledge may sleep, the eye of curiosity
never closes while the heart of the human reckons one
beat. And so the eager question was repeated in every
age, and over all lands-" What do these lights mean?'
But neither to Mlagian on the plains of Shinar, nor to
the prince of philosophers in the " city of the violet
crown," came forth any answer from the silent solitudes
of the sky.
At length a little boy was born. His dark eye inherited some rays from the light of the stars, and flashed
with wild meaning from his childhood; and as he grew
up, he became a gazer at all things beautiful, and a
questioner of all things dim. He saw all eyes turned
to those "' isles of light " that gem the seas of the upper
firmament; and he heard all lips repeat the earnest
inquiry, —" What do these lights mean 2" But he heard
no whisper in reply. He looked at them with his
naked eye, but the God's type of their far-off letters




234               THE ARABULA.
could not be read so far. He ruminated on the mystery day and night, and, either waking or sleeping, he
dreamed of the power of lenses; and then set about
constructing glasses to read the riddle of the lofty stars.
I-He succeeded; for there are no impossibilities to patient
attention-there never was a bfi6r unconquerable to the
will that dares all things! And then for the first time
the vail of Egyptian Isis was lifted up, and the secret
of ages was out. The stony eyes of the Sphinx melted
with tears of joy!
What a miracle is this of the telescope! Never a
poet lived, but in his heart wished for pinions to soar
and mingle with the stars. Lo! IIere are the plumes.
The telescope gives not the wings to us; but it ties
them with lines of light to the stars, which thus fly
down to us, and tell us all their hidden laws! Is there
any thing in the golden dreams of fable-in all the
tales of fairy enchantment, to be compared to this
sublime result, evolved by mathematical reason?
Next came the great Kepler, and erected his triangular pyramid of the three laws, on the summit of
which Newton stood, to fix forever the true theory of
the universe.
Let us glance a moment at these laws.
1. All the planetary orbits are regular ellipses, in
the lower focus of which the sun is placed.
Propose the problem to yonder intelligent school
boy. Tell him to trace on the paper, with his pen, an
elliptical curve, and dot the two foci. Can he do it?
Come, sage skeptic, with all your boasted reason, can
you do it yourself? The planets are masses of blind
matter. Who, then, will dare assert that such may




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.           235
trace perpetually, for thousands of years, mathematical
lines, with a regularity that no college professor can
ever hope to equal?
2. The times occupied by any planet, in describing
any given arcs of its orbit, are always as the areas of
sectors, formed by straight lines drawn from the beginning and end of the arcs to the sun, as a center.
Let no one attempt the solution of this problem, in
any specified case, unless he be a thorough mathematician. God solves it for all the planets.
3. But the third law of Kepler is still more astonishing. Hear! The squares of the periods of the planets'
revolutions vary, as the cubes of their distance from the
sun. What wonderful operations are these, to be the
work of unthinking masses of matter!  What music-is
this among the stars, to be sung by tongueless atoms!*
Well might the inspired old man exclaim, " I have
stolen the golden secret of the Egyptians. I triumph.
I will indulge my sacred fury. I care not whether
my work be read now or by posterity. I can afford
to wait a century for readers, when God himself has
waited six thousand years for an observer!"
Some cold critics have called this insanity. The
man must be insane to say so!  I  never perused the
passage without tears. It is the language of reason and
imagination. which, at their sublimest depths, are but one.
We will not speak of chances here.  We may not
even think of them, unless we might pilfer the algebra
of the morning star.
* See a recent volume by the author, entitled, " The Stellar Key to
to the Summer Land."




236               THE ARABULA.
PnoMIscUOus INDUCTIONS.
1. Some years ago it was keenly debated whether the
sea was not receding and the dry land gaining ground;
and the general opinion of scientific men leaned strongly
in favor of such an hypothesis.
At length a Swedish astronomer struck out a novel
method of settling the controversy. He cut down a
large pine tree that grew at the water's edge on the
Gulf of Bothnia, and on couniting the concentric circles,
found that it was five hundred years old; and, consequently, during all that time the ocean must have remained stationary. This was decisive. And yet how
wonderful the fact!  Millions had lived and died;
nations had flourished and fallen; genius had sung its
flame-songs, and love had breathed its burning sighs,
and all had passed away-and still the forest-born grew
on, buffeted by tempests, and chilled by freezing frosts,
but nurtured always by genial summers, and fed on
silver-singing rains, and listening to the bird-music in
its branches, till half a millennium is gone; and still all
that time it had kept an exact account of its age, never
losing a single year, all noted in beautiful circles, amid
the fine woof of its own fibers. It is so with every cone
of wood in the wide world. And again we ask, Can
aught but reason trace circles, or reckon the count of
passing time?
2. But let us select a last example. If anywhere we
might suppose the absence of mathematical motion, we
would expect to find it in those air-fiends that often
desolate whole countries-the hurricanes of the tropics.
But modern science teaches us " that hurricanes are




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        237
only whirlwinds on a larger scale. That they all have
a regular axis of rotary motion, which axis is itself progressive, like a planet in'its orbit, tracing an elliptical
or parabolic curve." Sometimes the vortex of storm
covers an area of over five hundred square miles, and
sweeps over distant seas for hundreds of leagues; but
ever this dual motion is preserved. Ay-beyond all
question, the hand that launches the tornado, and girds
its dark bosom with thunder, is the same that originally
"weighed the hills in scales, and the mountains in a
balance;" and not poor, blind, and utterly impossible
chance!
Thus it is plain that all motions in nature are mathematical.
But the skeptic may object:
The proposition is not proven. For although we may
admit that such a truth holds within the sphere of our
actual observation, still, what right have we to extend
the predicate beyond the limits of that sphere? What
right can we show to carry it back to the everlasting
ages of the eternity without a beginning, and down to
the incalculable years of that time which shall never
end? What right have we to break over the impassable limits of the sense of sight, and assert a
law that we know only to appertain to a little segment
of the circle of infinitude, of all the untrodden fields
that may bloom  with worlds, like flowers in the
unexplored spaces, of which we behold but a twinkling
point?
We have stated the objection in its full force; because it is much easier to answer than to state it.
We reply thus: All the forms of matter must be, of




238               THE ARABULA.
necessity, mathematical, simply because it is matter;
as all its motions must likewise be so, for the reason
that matter is inert.
We ask the reader to pursue the second scholium to
the nineteenth proposition of the fourth book of Legendre. He will there find that all the figures possible
in space are resolvable into the triangle, and of course
must be mathematical.
Then let him turn to Arnott's Elements, where it is
demonstrated that all motion must be in a straight line,
unless controlled by some interfering force, when it
takes the direction of a curve. So all motion must be
mathematical, or not be at all.
The simple answer that demolishes the whole objection is this: We see nothing but mathematical harmony in all the motions that occur within our own
sphere-we can conceive of nothing but mathematical
harmony in any other sphere. We see the unequivocal
footsteps of a God witllid our sphere; and every fresh
gush of light from the remotest suns adds to the evidences that it is so everywhere else in the wide universe.
And this is enough. We are not called upon to roam
over all space, and ascend the heights of all eternity,
merely to answer a supposition destitute of even a
shadow of proof, and verging close on the confines of
absurdity! If we have a God ourselves,,that is sufficient, if we but pay him the proper adoration. We
need not stop to inquire whether some little mote or
molecule of sand does or does not gyrate without a God,
somewhere in the vast void of immensity!
Now let us put together, syllogistically, the two propositions heretofore demonstrated, and note the logical result.




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        239
1. Nothing but mind can work mathematically.
2. All the motions of Nature are strictly mathematical.
Then must it follow, as a conclusion utterly unassailable, that every effect in the universe is produced by the
immediate agency of Mind.
To this, however, a plausible but false objection may
be made. It was put against my argument last winter,
by a distinguished Pantheist of Boston.
It may be said, that although it be demonstrated that
matter cannot geometrize, still we are not entitled
thence to irtfer that mind alone can; since there may
be other substances in space beside matter and mind.
What right, the objector may say, have we to assume
duality only in substantial existence? It is true that
we are acquainted within our own sphere with nothing
but these. But our sphere is scarcely so much as an
infinitesimnal fraction of the whole universe.  The
entire concavity of the sky is a mere point, dotted in a:space of inconceivable extent. The totality of our historical time is not a second in that eternity without
bounds, which expands both behind and before us.
And how can we know but beyond this paltry sphere
there may exist millions,of substances that are neither
material nor mental, but of an altogether different, nay,
contradictory nature?  And even as to that, we are
limited in our own fragmented sphere by the solid wall
of impassable sensation, that shuts us up as in a cage or
prison of iron bars, in'this our little world of fleeting
appearances. For aught we can say to the contrary,
here, where we now dream our philosophical reveries,
perhaps no loftier than those the oyster excogitates in




240               THE ARABULA.
his shell; yea, immediately here, in the very space occupied by this poor grain of earth, and yonder evanescent bubbles of air and sky, there may be now substances indefinite in number, the very opposite of matter
and mind, and with which we have no sense fitted to
converse! To deny this, says the sophist, were as unreasonable as for the animalcule in the dew-drop to
assert that there is nothing but insects in the whole
creation.
We cannot forbear remarking what a marvelous
amount of credulity it implies to put with a grave face
such objections. The skeptic refuses to credit the existence of the God who made him, though the splendor
of the divine attributes shines on the face of all Nature
brighter than the blaze of the myriad suns; and yet he
finds no difficulty at all in affirming the reality of innumerable beings, the impossible brood of a wild imagination, as devoid of all proof as the fairies of Scottish
fable-the veriest of all moonshine.
And yet even scientific men of eminent fame have
entertained such vagaries, and gravely uttered them on
the printed page. Dr. John Mason Good was absurd
enough to give the hypothesis a place in that strange
medley of fact and fiction, so pompously denominated' The Book of Nature."  I cannot but attribute such
crude inanities to the general neglect of- logic, mathematics, and true metaphysics among the moderns.
No person the least acquainted with logical analysis
ever could have seriously started such an objection. It
is founded on the sheerest ignorance of division. We
showed, at an earlier stage of this inquiry, that the
abscisCio infiniti always exhausts the subject divided.




GOD REVEALED TO. INTELLECT.        241
Every thing in the whole compass of thought must be
either a tree or not a tree. It is so with matter and
mind. We define mind, that which possesses reason;
and we define matter, that which- doth not so possess
reason. And it is evident to a schoolboy that every
object that ever was, or will be, or possibly can be,
must either possess reason or not possess it. He who
fails to see this distinction may rest assured, that whatever may be his talents, the faculty of logical investigation is not to him an attainable accomplishment.
For surely, unless reason itself be a dream, and
insanity the only wisdom, every substance must be
either active or passive, have intelligence and volition,
or not.  And, therefore, matter and mind are two
logical categories that encompass all thought and
exhaust all Nature. We demonstrate, then: 1. That
matter is passive, and consequently cannot be supposed
to originate its motions. 2. That no effect in INature
can possibly occur without motion. We must, therefore,
seek for casual force in the category of universal substance, or nowhere. We find it in mind; and this is
confirmed by our own inner consciousness, which,
assures us, by the exercise of our voluntary activity,
that the mind within us can and does produce motion,
and cause effects as astonishing as they are beautiful.
We next demonstrate that nothing but the reason,
which perceives its own operations, can possibly work
mathematically. And then we show by inductions, as
wide as the generalizations of science, that all natural
motions are mathematical. Hence, they must be produced by a cause possessing reason. And the calculation of chances proves most conclusively that to deny




242              THE ARABULA.
this is an absurdity a thousand times worse than the
ravings of utter madness.
As to all that exuberant sophistry about the impossibility of predicating any thing out of our own actual
sphere, we may observe that it is but a common trick
of skeptics when driven from the field of fair argument.
They assume a feigned humility, meeker than the most
pious believers. Creation becomes a mere point, and
life the flutter of a leaf in the sunbeam. They claim
affinity with the blind worm and droning beetle, and
can do nothing but shiver with awe at the immensity
above and beyond them. They ape all the ignorance
of the child, without any of its trusting confidence, its
ardent, innocent love, or its eager, soaring hope.
We admit the grandeur of eternity-we wonder at
the infinitude of space; and we freely confess our own
littleness when compared, not with those mighty
masses of moving matter that wheel on high over our
heads, but with that Omnipotent Being who guides
them in their courses.
For although our life is fleeting, and our globe but a
dot on the map of the universe, we have thought, that
wanders throughout eternity, and, " before creation
peopled earth," even now "rolls through chaos back;"
and with a glance dilates o'er all to be in the vast fields
of futurity, and climbs with winged feet the golden
ladder of all the stars. Nothing material can do thatnot the beam of light, shot from equatorial suns-not
the lightning, which darts from heaven to earth in a
moment. May we not assert, that although we be as
nothing in the presence of that God "who wheels his
throne upon the rolling worlds," yet one human soul of




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.         243
the countless millions of our species is superior to all
the worlds that God ever made or can make?  It inherits the divine attribute of reason.  I7ley never knew
the sublime "geometry of their own evolutions!"
But it is utterly untrue that we can predicate nothing
beyond the sphere of our own sensation. That is one
of the follies of exploded materialism.  Do we not
know that everywhere a triangle must have three and
only three angles?  Can we not affirm this truth as
certainly of the space a million leagues beyond the orb
of solar day, beyond the farthest star that twinkles in
blue ether, as of the little figure on the paper but six
inches from our eyes?  Must not the radii of every
circle in the universe be equal?  Is not the whole
everywhere greater than any of its parts? Can there
be any phenomenon without a cause — in any, the
wildest of the wilderness?-in any, the remotest cycle
of eternity?. Can love be a crime, or murder virtue, in
any conceivable sphere of existence? Can truth become
a lie for any being to whom atheism is not reason?
All spheres alike belong to the soul, when it puts on its
beautiful wings, and goes forth through the open door
of universal faith to universal triumph.  Then the
stars beckon it to their bosom, and legions of angels fly
down to meet it.  Then it becomes a note in the
eternal anthem of sphere-melodies that hymn the universal Father; and in affirining God, it conquers even
death, and is already one of the immortals.
But again, it may be objected, that although no mass
of matter can be supposed to move itself, yet two
masses or elements, when brought sufficiently near, may
move each other.




244                THE ARABULA.
But this is too shallow for a serious answer. For how
shall the given masses, or elements, or separate atoms,
be ever brought near without first of all moving?
And what cause may move them?  Not other matter,
for that would be to shift the difficulty without solving
it. Such are all the arguments of atheism-fallacies
that are their own refutation -quibbles that a modest
monkey, were it gifted with speech, would blush to utter!
Another and very common objection of scientific
skeptics may be expressed thus: It is true, say they,
that we are irresistibly forced by our intellectual constitution to affirm a Cause for this vast flowing stream
of phenomenal events that together constitute the
universe. But we find that Cause in Nature; it is
Nature which does all this. She builds up and tears
down her own systems. She evolves at once the life
and the death, which are but two different phases of one
and the same fact, or as the opposite sections of all are,
where the universe plays as a pendulum betwixt birth
and dissolution.
See how easy it is to use words without meaning.
The shadows of language do not embarrass each other
-do not impinge, so to speak, at all, when they have
lost the substance of ideas that gave them soul.
Let us ask the objector-Tell us seriously, what do
you mean by the term  Nature?  Is it a reality, or
only a relation? Hath it a substance? and if so, that
substance, as we have seen, must be eitheri matter or
mind-must possess reason or not.  And if it be without reason, how doth its mimicry of the attribute so far
transcend all known originals? The difficulty loses
nothing of its force by predicating Nature as the cause




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        245
of any conceivable operation. The question still comes
up, whence this exquisite harmony, which intellect
alone could order?  That will not down at the bidding
of a lifeless word-that will not be solved by the art of
a juggler, that merely shifts his penny covertly from one
hand to the other.
All men of sense now agree that Nature is but a
general term-a mere abstraction. It means but the
totality of phenomena that constitutes the universe. It
is the very order which it is used by the sophist to
account for-nothing more. It is an ideal exponent, a
symbol in the mind's algebraic notation for all the
motions of the universal whole. It does not and cannot
give the unknown X which lies beneath them.
It is the same with the phrase, "Laws of Nature."
No philosopher, since the publication of Bacon's Organon, has regarded these as any thing other than the
very facts themselves generalized. They are merely
classifications of observed phenomena. How ridiculously absurd is it, then, to use the word law to account
for the facts that constitute the law, and without which
it were not. It is a law of Nature that the sun rises in
the morning. But that is nothing more than a general
assertion of the particular fact; and to say the fact is so
because it is a law of Nature, is precisely equivalent to
the identical proposition, "the sun rises because the
sun rises!"
Nor is the case at all different, if we use the word
property instead of the word law. For recollect, that
Matter and Mind are the only two substances possible,
even in imagination. And when you affirm that a
certain property in one body causes motion in another,




246                THE AR~A3ULA.
before you look wise, and raise a shout of gratulation at
the fancied success of your own ingenuity, pause a
moment and ask yourself the short, simple questionWVhat is property? Is it matter, or is it mind? Is it
an entity, or an abstraction? Has it color and form, or
hands and feet?  Has it consciousness and a will?
And above all-for that will touch, as with a ray of
electrical light, the secret heart of the matter-be sure
and ask, "Has the given or supposed property Reason,
and does it understand mathematics?"
But we feel that on this part of our argument among
these skeptical objections, we have wandered far from
the sunlight of the common earth and air, into a dim
world of empty abstractions. A cold wind breathes
in our faces, like " the difficult air of the iced mountaintops, where the birds dare not build, nor insect's wing
flits o'er herbless granite;'" or rather like the stifling
vapors of sepulchral vaults, where shadows come and
go, as in a dance of mocking wild-fires. lNever mind;
let us proceed. The children of the mist will vanish
before the torch of Reason, and the firmest pillars of
the capital of atheism melt away into mere negation.
I will now state an objection to the nmathematical
argument, urged in a private conversation, by an
eminent atheistical writer of Boston, during a recent
visit to New England.
He said  "It is true I cannot pretend to answer your
demonstration  by laying my finger on a palpable
logical flaw in the reasoning.  But I can do more. I
can show that it must be false, since it contradicts the
evidence of the senses.  You undertake to prove that
one body cannot move another.  Every man's eyes




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        2-17'behold the contrary. Yonder is a barrel of gunpowder.
Let a spark fall on its surface, and the whole detonates
instantaneously with a deafening explosion, producing
light, heat, and sound."
To this we reply, that in such cases as these, and all
others of sensible motion, our eyes truly see nothing
but the visible phenomena. We behold the appearance, not the power which produced it. The surface is
plain enough to view; the solid center eludes our
vision. Yet we know there is a producing power-we
believe with absolute certainty in a center. We cannot
help doing so, unless we would turn maniacs. The
veriest atheist does the same. Ask him what causes
the gunpowder to deflagrate on the application of a
spark of fire? He will not answer —unless in the last
stage of lunacy-" there is no cause for it, in good sooth."
That would be too much for even an atheist of the
Modern Athens. He will respond, "there is a secret
property in the spark to ignite the powder, and therefore it must be ignited;" and ten to one he will launch
boldly out into a learned dissertation concerning the
chemical composition of the powder, and the hidden
qualities of fire, showing, with consummate ingenuity,
how well suited they are to be joined in wedlock-how
much they desire to be married, and what a flameprogeny they must necessarily beget between them!
Now ask him what is that secret property in the spark
which evolves such results? He will surely respond"It is the unknown cause, which has the power of production."  One more question and the problem  is
solved. Is that property or cause matter or mind?
Doth it know what it doeth?  Hath it a will to




248               THE ARABULA.
originate motion?  Can it move itself?  And so still
on and forever, there can be but one solution for the
universal enigma, and that alone is afforded in the
infinite reason.  We can never hope to meet with
action, save in that which is essentially active.  The
purely passive cannot furnish it.
But finally, as a last resort, the skeptic flies in a
sudden panic, as it were, from his own objections, and
takes refuge in blasphemy. " If there be a God," says
he, in the maddened language of Shelley,   that God
must be the author of all evil; and such a proposition
is more revolting than the worst forms of atheism.
I would rather," he continues to urge, "credit any
absurdity, or commit any conceivable folly, than acknowledge a creed like that. Can we suppose that
a God of infinite reason and unlimited power would
voluntarily create such a universe as this? Would he
give life to beings, only to confer an acquaintance with
its exquisite sweetness, and then almost instantly take
it away?  Would he plant in quivering hearts not
only those burning tortures which are of the very
essence of hate, but those sorrowy stings that follow
the rosy feet of gliding love also? Tell me that God
made some other world, where perfection is the order
of Nature, and I may, perhaps, believe you. But ask
me not to admit a divine origin for such a desolate
sphere as this. Somewhere else, for aught I know or
care, there may be harmony. Here I behold nothing
but sin and disorder.  Pestilence and famine-volcanoes and devouring war-tempest and earthquake,
alone reign around us. A wild, wailing howl of agony
resounds throughout all lands; and even brute instinct




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.         249
echoes the appalling cry of the human.  Vanity is
written, in fire-letters of ruin, even on yon starry
azure, where pale suns burst in shivered bubbles, and
vanish away.  Urge not that a Deity dug, in void
space, this universal sepulcher, haunted alone by the
ghost of mourners, by the incalculable millions. Say
that it is the work of some dreadful demon, and I may
entertain the proposition!"
Such blasphemies are horrible to hear.  *  *    
I can listen to any other man with patience.  I can
bear with the poor Pagan, who honestly bows the knee
to his idol, painted with blood though it be. I can
sympathize with the Polytheist, who beholds a separate
god in every object of beauty and of wonder. I recognize a brother man struggling through the deep gloom
of'superstition, striving to reach the light.  But I
recoll instinctively from an unprincipled atheist.  I
realize the fearful presence of some dark spirit of a
different order.
But let us trace the objection seriously, according to
the strictest rules of logic.
We remark, in the first place, that it is not an objection to the argument, as such, but a mere truculent
tirade against the conclusion established. And even
so to this, it is wholly irrelevant. It lies, if it be of any
worth at all, not against the being, but the attributes
of the Deity. The presence of evil may, or may not,
furnish a valid reason for pronouncing as to the moral
character of a power. It certainly does not touch the
question of existence at a single point whatsoever. The
dullest intellect must perceive this at once, without
illustration, on the bare statement.  The problem  of




250                Ti.E ARABULA.
the origin of evil has positively nothing to do with the
proposition that God is. It belongs to a very different
category —the inquiry as to whether God is good.
The problem  of evil has been professedly solved in
many opposite ways. Every creed presents its own
solution. Free-will, predestination, optimism, the fall
of man, transitive progress, and several minor theories,
are so many methods of explanation. We shall not
presume to attempt an account of it. Such a tentative,
however ingenious, can at least be but pure hypothesis.
Nay, it is demonstrably insolvable without a direct revelation from heaven; and for the obvious reason that
the existence of evil is a contingent, not a necessary
truth, in the metaphysical sense. It is not based upon
any principle of eternal reason, from which it may be
educed and expressed in analytical formulas. It is, on
the contrary, a fact of experience, the origin of which
can only be comprehended by actual or historical survey. But when, or where, or how it originated, who
shall declare? The true question, embodying the whole
difficulty, is this-" Why did the Deity purpose to permit it.?" or to cause it, if the wording suit you better?
And this, beyond all controversy, no one in the
universe, not the oldest seraph of knowledge, can possibly tell, unless the Deity see fit to reveal it to the
intellect.
For this cause, all metaphysical solutions of the origin
of evil must ever continue to be mere hypotheses, and,
as such, founded on very meager data. We have not
framed such; we have essayed to do better-to demonstrate their insufficiency, and unfold the reasons why
they are so. But with this frank admission to back it,




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.         251
the objection, even as to the divine attributes, remains
as futile as ever.
We cannot judge the moral character of the Deity
from one manifestation of his power alone, unless we
are thoroughly familiar with the whole compass of its
design. The act reveals the. attribute only in connection with the purpose that put forth the act. This is
evidently true of even the finite fellow-creature. Suppose that the history of some ancient nation simply informs us that "'Zanoni killed Uelika,"' and informs
us nothing more. Can we, therefore, pronounce with
unerring, or even probable certainty, that Zanoni must
have been a bad man?  Assuredly not, unless we know
also, in addition to the fact, the cause and motive of the
killing. Uelika may have been a traitor to his country,
and Zanoni put him to death as a minister of the law.
The slaying may have been in self-defense, or in open
and honorable war; nay, on some glorious field of
victory, where the heroic patriot fought for the redemption of his race, and to protect the hearth of his home
and the wife and children of his bosom. It may have
been, for any thing we can allege to the contrary, an act
of the loftiest virtue, rather than one of the lowest
criminality, or, indeed, of any guilt at all. Thus we
reason in relation to our finite fellow-men. Wherefore,
then, apply a totally different sort of ratiocination to the
ways and purposes of the Infinite Father a
IHe may have permitted evil as a condition of the
greatest good. He may have suffered it in order to
the necessary display of that wondrous mercy which
could be revealed alone through its partial or general
prevalence. Nay, he may have ordained it, in order to




252               THE ARABULA.
enhance our everlasting happiness hereafter. The shooting pang of this fleeting moment of life may form the
point of comparison by which to reckon the raptures
of the whole eternity. In fine, a thousand suppositions
may be conceived to avoid the follies of atheism and
the sins of blasphemy. Doth the skeptic get rid of evil
by denying God? On the contrary, he affirmnns its endless perpetuity-the utter impossibility of its termination.  He does not circumscribe its boundaries-he
cures not one pain in the bleeding bosom of humanity;
but he extends the grisly terror into all other spheres
of existence; since what blind matter, and crude, unconscious force has accomplished here, it must accornplish everywhere and forever!
But the shuddering horror we experience at the bare
idea of God's willing evil for its own sake is proof
positive of the divine benevolence, which has thus constituted our inner nature to love virtue and abominate
vice, even were such vice possible in Deity himself!
Besides, we know innumerable evidences of Infinite
goodness around us. In the boundless beauty that
ever lives from age to age on the earth below, and in
the splendors of the firmament above us, we see and
feel it. We behold it in the ecstasies of youthful love,
in the serene joys of friendship, in the cherished sympathies and endearing recollections of sweet home. It
bubbles up even in the gratifications of sense, and
mingles with the coarse luxuries of animal instinct.
We hear it in the songs of birds and the evening hum
of the bee-hive. Sickness adds a new zest to convalescence. Never is the light of heaven so enchanting as
after a night of cloud and tempest. And even the




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        2a3
grave itself is sometimes sought after by philosophy as
well as religion, as a not unwelcome bed of repose. It
is only the sin that has wrought its own keenest sufferings, which throws such gloomy colors on the features
of Nature. The little innocent children, and all true
poets, as well as enlightened Christians, and the great
mass of mankind, love this same Nature so well that
they are very loth to bid her farewell, even for the
revealed bliss of life everlasting!
We will notice only one more objection, and speedily
bring our argument to a close. It is not an atheistical
objection, but one that will doubtless be made by many
intelligent and pious Christians to one idea expressed in
our conclusion, and demonstrated, as we cannot but
deem most fully, in our whole course of reasoning. The
idea is the immediate ever-present agency of the Deity,
in all the phenomena of Nature. One class of writers
on natural theology view the universe of worlds as a
grand machine, that was, to' be sure, originally put
together by the divine hand and set in motion, since
which time it continues to run of its own accord, like
other mechanical constructions of a similar kind, though
under the general superintendence and control of Providence.
Such is the mechanical conception of the universe, as
opposed to the dynamic or atheistical. It allows the
presence and agency of God:  1. At the period of
creation; and, 2. His occasional intervention at the
periods of miracles. It allows, too, his general supervision, to keep the machine of Nature from falling into
pieces. But it denies altogether that every phenomenal
evolution of matter-every motion produced, either in




25+               THE ARABULA.
molecules or masses, is the immediate effect of a present
volition of the Divine mind.
This conception prevails to a considerable extent
among scientific men; and is embraced, perhaps, by at
least one-half of the Christian world.
We have no doubt that the almost material, certainly
sensual, philosophy of Locke, contributed mainly to
this result in the first instance-a result still further
strengthened by the strictly mechanical argument, presented with such admirable clearness, in Paley's Natural
Theology. The exceedingly eloquent writings of the
late lamented Dr. Chalmers also aided the advance of
this general tendency.
We are compelled to regard the prevalence of such
an opinion as injurious, though not designedly so, to the
general interests of religion and science both; while
we must feel that it strips Nature of her most highly
poetic ornaments, and reduces her most gorgeous works
to the condition of mete lifeless contrivances.  WVe
have no sympathy whatever for "celestial mechanics."
Indeed, it seems to us that the word is a strange misnomer, when applied to the magnificent creations of
the Deity, either on the earth or in the sky. To render
this evident, let us consider the meaning of the term
when used in reference to the works of human art.
In such structures we do not create any new material
nor any new force. We simply apply the old to the
new purposes, by giving them a new direction. It is
a settled law in mechanics, that no arrangement of parts
can possibly, under any combination of circumstances,
add one particle of power to the original stock of Nature.
The screw, the lever, the wheel and axle, always lose in




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.         255
time exactly what they gain in intensity. And thus it
is true, beyond all controversy, that the mightiest art
of man can neither create a single new atom of matter,
or add to the universe one iota of active force. It
merely plans special collocations of parts, and adapts
them  to the action of existing forces.  Thus it prepares the water-wheel, and places it in the running
stream, where the revolutions are performed by an everpresent power. Thus is human mechanics an arrangement of means, where the human intellect co-operates
with the uniform motions perpetually evolved by the
Divine volition.
Now, we may be permitted to inquire, In what sense
can the Deity be said to fabricate such contrivances?
He is the direct Creator, not only of the matter and
collocations, but of all the forces whatsoever. He cannot possibly, then, adapt arrangements of means to the
action of pre-existing forces, which is the sole meaning
of the word mechanics with us. Thus is the conception of a mechanical. Deity as false in theory as it is, in
our humble opinion, degrading to the proper idea of
God, which is that of an infinite free activity, the cause
of all conceivable effects which are not the voluntary
products of the finite activities created and preserved
by him.
The mechanical argument is also defective as a mere
piece of reasoning, for1. A machine dothl unquestionably prove a maclinebuilder, if it be granted that the given structure be
indeed a machine, and that it was actually created. But
deny this-deny that a given apparatus ever began to
be at all, and until the fact of its beginning be proven,




256                THE ARABULA.
the argument opens an hiatus that no extent of ingenuity
can possibly bridge over.
This is the first and radical defect in the reasoning
of Paley. It is based on the postulate (lnot proven, or
attempted to be proven, in his treatise) of an actual
historical creation. The moment the question comes up
-" But what if this earth and yonder heavens be from
eternity " the argument of Paley can furnish no
answer, but silently crumbles into pieces.  Atheists
never were logicians, and they have, therefore, all failed
to notice this ruinous flaw in Paley's Treatise. The
piercing sagacity of Dr. Chalmers detected its existence,
and he essayed to supply the desicderatrum by considerations deduced from the facts of geology. It might,
perhaps, be difficult to say whether he did or did not
partially succeed. One response, however, to all his
eloquent dissertation renders it utterly impotent to work
conviction in a thoroughly logical mind-that if present
physical powers can now form the individual organized
vegetable or animal, the presumption is strong that
past physical powers may primarily have created the
genus and the species. To this there can be no answer.
2. But in the second place, an equally fatal defect in
the argument of Paley is, that it affords no shadow of
even presumptive proof of the present existence of God
at all! His favorite example of the watch demonstrates
this so clearly that we need refer to no other.
No watch ever constructed by the art of man can
possibly furnish the slightest proof of the present existence of its maker. It may continue to keep the record
of passing time with the most admirable regularity and
precision long after the hand that wrought and arranged




GOD REVEALED' TO INTELLECT.       257
its springs and wheels had moldered into dust. He
may have ceased to be for a day, a year, a millennium of
ages, and it still beat on, ticking its metallic teeth, but
telling no news of him who first polished them, nor of
the very fingers that wound up its slender chain but
yesterday. May it not be so with the world, with all
worlds, on the mechanical hypothesis? God may have
exhausted his power in the creation, for aught a cold
machine may say to the contrary. He may have ceased
to exist six thousand years ago; nay, the very moment
tie rested from his labors, and we be none the more
apprised of the fact by the utterance of all the mechanical suns and systems which, as to this point, are dumb
as the coarsest clods of inorganic matter.
Nothing can prove present power but present motion,
or the unequivocal signs of its present being.
But no such objections hold as to the mathemnatical
and rational argument, of which we have presented the
brief outlines in the foregoing pages. It appeals only
to the past as witnessed in grand hieroglyphics, seen at
the present hour, sculptured on the limestone of the
mountains, and engraven in the soft wood of every tree
in the forest, and written among the silken corals of all
the flowers of the fields.
For the most part, our argument appeals to present
motions-the sublime evolutions that are each moment
being manifested before our eyes. It points to the past,
and proves that a God was. It turns to the present,
and demonstrates that He is NOW. It calls to mind the
eternal unifprmity of Nature, and infers with indubitable certainty that He will continue to be forever. It
leaves no desideratun  to be wished for by its friends,




258               THE ARAB1LA.
and no weakness assailable by its foes. By its application of the doctrine of chances to the mathematical
equations which Nature presents in ever-recurring
series, this argument renders the creed of atheism impossible without actual insanity.
And, viewed in this radiant light, how wonderfully
luminous and beautiful doth the face of the universe
become! We behold the Deity enthroned in splendor
everywhere, and on all things alike. We see his lovesmiles on the petals of flowers and the wings of birds,
as well as in the brightness of the sky and deep azure
of the ocean. We hear his voice in the octaves'of all
our music, pealing in the deep bass of our Sabbathorgans, out-preaching all our priests, and tolling the bell
of thunder, hung in clouds that float higher than the
Andes. Ile weaves the fibers of the oak, he twines
the gleaming threads of the rainbow, he vibrates the
pendulous sea-waves, he calls to prayer from the heart
of the storm. But sweeter, oh, sweeter far than all,
soft and clear, and without ceasing in our own souls,
for ourselves, and those whom we are permitted to love
as dearly as ourselves, he whispers infinite hope and
life everlasting.
All this follows from the admission of the immediate
and universal agency and providence of God throughout
all the realms of Nature. Despair can fling no dark
shadow on the soul in the presence of that sunshine
which gilds all things. There is no room for doubt
when faith fills immensity. Atoms and worlds alike
become transfigured in the new and cryptic light which
beams out, as from beneath a transparent vail, in objects
the most insignificant, in scenes the most unpoetic,




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.          259
Even the cold eyes of death ray ineffable effulgence,
like stars rising upward to their zenith. Pale fear,
appalled at his own shadow, flies over the confines of
creation, and leaves all hearts alone with love and joy.
We know that we cannot be lost out of the bosom of
God; for the root of the soul is in God, and therefore
cannot die. The iron chain of necessity releases its
coil around the world, and its clanking links of dark
circumstanice melt away in receding mists, as in the
presence of a sun shivered into spangles of glory. The
tears of sorrow turn on the faded cheek of the mourner
into priceless pearls; and prayer and praise breathe
out among blooming roses on white lips quivering with
agony. The old familiar faces of the " long, long ago,"
the loved, the lost, ay, the long lost but never forgotten,
are around us once more.
"'Their smile in the starlight doth wander by,
Their breath is near in the wind's low sigh "In music's divinest tone. The endless ages are crowded
into a luminous point. There is no past or future. The
faith that asserts God proclaims all things present to
the soul. We repose on the bosom of our Father with a
confidence nothing can shake. Friends may grow cold
and change around us; enemies may band together for
our destruction; lovers may fly away and leave us, like
sunny birds when the cloud lowers, and the voice of
thunder is heard remote. But we have one immortal
Friend who stands between us and all foes, encircling
our souls in his arms of everlasting love.
For shall not he who preserves, and blesses, and
beautifies all things, take good care of all these, his




260               THE ARABULA.
human children, especially created in his own image of
power, wisdom, and love? HIfe paints the wings of the
little butterfly. I-Ie gilds the crimson flower-cups where
the tiny insect sips honey-dew at morn. He launches
every beam of light. He adds plumes to every wandering zephyr. Every sparrow that falls from its leafy
boughs with a chill-pain in its dying heart, falls to.sleep
on his kindly breast. Never a grain of saind, nor a drop
of dew, nor a glimmer of light, has been lost out of his
embrace of infinite tenderness since the beginning of
time, nor will be while eternity rolls on. Shall he,
then, lose me? Canl I lose myself? 
Then " will I trust him thoughll he slay me."  On the
summit of this exalted faith, which is certainty, I rest
secure. Nothing can move Ine more. The sensuous
world has vanished from beneath my feet.  I live
already in the Spirit Land. The immortal dead are
around me. I hear them holding high converse in the
translucent clouds. It is no night-vision, although
brighter than all dreams. I am become a king, for I
am now a son and heir of the universal empire. iMy
throne stands on a pyramid of mathematical principles
as old as God himself. I have ascended a deronstration that carries me into the heavens. I have bid adieu
to fear. What is there to harm me in the presence of
my Almighty Father in a universe of brethren? There
can be nothing more to desire. Other want is impossible. I have found God, who ownethl all.
Here, then, will I take my repose. The vessel in
which I am embarked may drift whithersoever it will
on this immeasurable sea of being. It may run riot on
the giddy waves; lightning and tempest may rend




GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT.        261
every sail, and leave its masts bare.  Impenetrable
storms may hide every lodestar in heaven; the angry
spirit of the waters may shriek till the whole world is
deaf. What care I? Let the storm howl on-God
guides it! And on whatsoever shore the wreck is
thrown, he is sure to be there, with all my loves and
hopes around him; and wherever he is, there is the
open gate of heaven-for there is the everlasting love,
which is heaven!




262                THE ARAMULA.
CHAPTER XLVII.
]gORE EXPLICIT DEFINITIONS.
KIND READER, do we begin to approach and lift each
other's consciousness? Are we strangers still, not understanding one another's mind; or, are we becoming
interiorly acquainted? Have our minds yet met and
mated?  Do our thoughts meet and intermingle, and
flow together in the new channel, which is stretching
away so beautifully through the infinite landscape? If
we have not yet met, why not?  Am I obscure? Or,
are you obtuse? "Come, let us reason together." Can
we not, at least for one short golden hour, live together
like sunshine and flowers, reciprocating each other's
inner sentiments, and faithfully reflecting each the
other's deep convictions, as sky and sea?
Let us meditate together, and prepare our minds for
the discourse of Arabula. Are my definitions clear?
Let us review them. To begin, here is a tree. Call it
" Intellect."  Now analyze it: first, its'myriad roots are
the Facts (or phenomena) of the universe without; second, its mighty solid body is Ecxperiencee (or sensation);
third, its outspreading branchlies are Reflections (or reasonings); fourth, and lastly, its fruits are 2iemories;
and the whole is called "Intelligence," or "Judgment,"
or (in the Harmonial Philosophy) "Knowledge."  All
this we mutually understand, do we not?  Even if we
do not logically meet and delightfully mate on this




MORE EXPLICIT DEFINITIONS.         263
classification of man's mentality —which, for promoting
the ends of independent private growth, may not be
desirable-yet, by the understanding, we unquestionably stand each before the other clearly defined. Well,
now let us talke another step.
Here is another tree.  Call it "Wisdom."  First, its
myriad roots are Instincts (or, the radical fundamental
elements and basic principles of all mentality); second,
its great powerful body is Afection (or, the instincts
arisen to the height of unselfish manifestation); third,
its divinely beautiful branches are Intuitions (or, the
unselfish, impersonal, immortal principles of conscious
identification with the PRINCIPLE of all Principles,
GOD); fourth, and lastly, its perfect frtit is pure Peason (or, the full and complete resurrection and harmonization of all instincts and passions, of all affections and
attractions, of all intuitions and- sentiments, and of all
the powers of thought and- understanding); and the
whole is called "Harmony," or "Spirituality," or
"the state of resurrection,' or (in the Harmonial Philosophy) by the all-embracing and immortal name,
" WISDOM."
In this "light," who is worthy of being called the
possessor of " Reason?"' IHe, only, whose whole nature
is lifted into the presence of Arabula; wherein self,
being elevated (not " crucified," remember, but elevated
into sympathy with divine principles), the individual
Spirit can, with the voice of truth, say-"I AND MY
FATHER ARE ONE!"
What, then, shall we call that condition in which
most men live? This question is answered by this central fact: All mankind are becoming! They have not




261                THE ARABULA.
yet arrived. What the Harmonial philosophers call
Reason," is yet a sealed book to the advancing millions. The ignorant look upon that state as "supernatural." One in the Superior Condition, even during
the entrancement of a single hour, is, to the mass of
selfish and superficial sensuous observers (who are
non-experienced in spiritual things), a " wonder," a
strange " phenomenon," a human "miracle " a dangerous " witch," a troublesome " prince of devils," an angel
of " light," a great sign of "spirit," the discoverer Qf
"heaven," only little less than an' angel."
No selfish man can see the liglht of Arabula. No
selfish man is ever a wise man. No selfish man can
understand what is meant by the terms " Pure Reason,"
or the higher term, "'Wisdom."   The mind is in
"outer darkness"-in the realm of discord, divisions,
and ever-recurring causes of unhappiness-until its
interiors are open to the love, light, law, liberty of
Arabula.  It is the angel presence of this unselfish
Guest that causes the soul to love its neighbors, to overcome all enmities, and to reverence the Eternal Good
with all its heart and might.
And so it must be said that, measured by this standard, the world's Ideal of the heavenly state of " Pure
Reason" is yet far, far future; for which all naturally
aspire; to which all spiritual eyes are turned; unto
which few appeal for baptism and purification.  Syllogistically, how does this look to you? First, all selfish
thoughts are derived from these two sources-the unresurrected instincts and the fact-rooted, materialistic,
atheistic Intellect; second, that which is selfish, or of
selfish origin, cannot be productive of the highest good




MlORE IEXPLIOIT DEFINITIONS.       265
and happiness; third, man's selfishness is derived from
his instincts and intellect; fourth, therefore, intellect
and the instincts are selfish, and the cause of the world's
evil, disease, and misery. Or, from another syllogistic
stand-point, look at the question: First, the state called
"Wisdom " is the embodiment of all Reason, all Hiarmony, all Happiness in the individual or in the world;
but the infinite Mother (Nature or Love) and the infinite Father (God or Reason) are the source of Wisdom; therefore, Nature and God (always in our philosophy interchangeable terms) are the causes of all
instincts, all affection, all intelligence, all harmony, and
all happiness.
12




266                THE: ARABULA.
CHAPTER  XLVIII.
ARABSLiLA' DISOOURSE ON WISDOM.
" WRITrrING by means of Light," is the English translation for the Greek word " Photography,'" so commonly
spoken in these days of chemical and imitative art. In
this book the quality of this)," light " is appropriately
called " Arabula." Plato, a true spiritual philosopher,
exalted this light above the intellect. Themetetus and
Plotinus cognized this principle of interior illumination
as "' that which sees, and is itself the thing which is
seen." It is called the " Good," the "' Unite," the " One,"
the " Virgin," the " Love," the "Undefinable.'
" The Arabula, as revealed to the good Plotinus, is
described as the "ONE that is not absent from any thing,
and yet is separated from all things; so that it is present and yet not prestnt with them. But it is present
with those things that are able, and are prepared to
receive it, so that they become congruous, and as it
were pass into contact with it, through similitude and a
certain inherent power allied to that which is imparted
by the ONE. When, therefore, the soul is disposed in
such a way as she was when she came from the ONE,
then she is able to perceive it, as far as it.is naturally
capable of being seen.  He, therefore, who has not
arrived thither.... may consider himself as the
cause of his disappointment, and should endeavor by
separating himself from all things to be alone..




ARABULA'S DISCOURSE ON WISDOM.       267
"We denominate it the ONE from necessity, in order
that we may signify it to each other by a name, and
may be led to an indivisible conception, being anxious
that our soul may be one."
The language of the poet is recalled-" God is God!
Mistake, and accident, and crime,
Are but man's growth in earth and time;
And upward still life's spiral turns
To where the Love Eternal burns."
Light! the prime cheerer "of all beings first and
best."  Efilux divine! " without whose vesting beauty
all were wrapt in unessential gloom."  Let us hlear thy
voice, overflowing with the very quintessence of truth;
tell us in thine own sweet words, of thy mystical journeyings; speak to us of the Mother and the Father;
teach us to love Wisdom; and lift us, we beseech thee,
to thy holy presence.' Listen! from afar, as over the
troubled bosom of unnumbered seas of centuries, I hear
the voice of Arabula:"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the
man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise
of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and th.
gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than
rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to
be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right
hand; and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways
are. ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her;
and happy is every one that retaineth her... Miy
son, keep sound wisdom and discretion: so shall they be
life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Get wisdom,




268               THE ARABdTA.
get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from
the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she
will preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep
thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get
wisdom.....  Exalt her, and she shall promote
thee: she shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost
embrace her. She shall give to thine lead an ornament
of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
Doth not wisdom cry?' and understanding
put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high
places, by the way in the places of the paths; she crieth
at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coining in
at the doors: Unto you, 0 men, I call; and my voice is
to the sons of men. 0, ye simple, understand Wisdom;
and ye fools, be of an understanding heart.
Receive my instruction, and not silver; and' Knowledge' rather than choice gold. For Wisdom is better
than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are
not to be compared to it. I find out knowledge....
Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding; I have strength. By me kings reign, and princes
decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even
all the judges of the earth.  I love them that love me;
and those that seek me early, shall fn;d mee.
" Wisdom is more moving than any motion: she passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness. For she is the breath of the power of GoD, and
a pure influence flowing from  the glory of the
Almighty: therefore can no defiled thing fall into her.
For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the
unspotted mirror of the power of GoD, and the image
of his goodness. And being but One, she can do all




ARABULAs 8 DISCOURSE ON WISDOM.     269.
things: and remaining in herself, she maketh all things
new: and in all ages entering into holy souls she maketh
them friends of GOD and prophets... F0r she is more
beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of the
stars: being compared with the light, she is found
before it.... Wisdom reacheth from one end to
another mightily; and sweetly doth she order all things.
He that holdeth her fast shall inherit glory; and
wheresoever she entereth, the Light will bless. They
that serve her shall minister to the holy One: and them
that love her the Lord [Light (?)] doth love. Whoso
giveth ear unto her shall judge the nations: and he that
attendeth unto her shall dwell securely.  If a man
commit himself unto her, he shall inherit her; and his
generation shall hold her in possession. For at the first
she will walk with him by crooked ways, and bring
fear and dread upon him, and torment him with her
discipline, until she may trust his soul, and try him by
her laws. Then will she return the straight way unto
him, and comfort him, and shew him her mysteries.
But if he go wrong (i. e. if he is selfish, living continually in the instincts and intellect) she will forsake him,
and give him over to his own ruin. Observe the opportunity, and beware of being selfish and evil; and be
not ashamed when it concerneth thy soul. For the-e
is a shame that bringeth sin; and there is a shamne which
is glory and grace.... In nowise speak against
the truth; but be abashed of the error of thine ignorance (and selfishness)... My son, if thou wilt,
thou shalt be taught. If thou love to hear, thou shalt
receive understanding: and if thou bow thine ear, thou
shalt be wise."




270               THE ARABULA.
Arabula's voice is thus full of Wisdom and overflowing with Love. The true follower from early youth,
exalted to the Superior Condition by her magnetically
entrancing hand, thus acknowledges benefits prayerfully: " When I was yet young, or ever I went abroad,
I desired Wisdom openly in my prayer. I prayed for
her before the temple, and will seek her out even to
the end. Even from the flower till the grape was ripe
hath my heart delighted in her: my foot went the right
way, from my youth up sought I after her. I bowed
mine. ear a little, and received her, and got much learning. I profited therein, therefore will I ascribe the
glory unto him that giveth me wisdom. For I purposed to do after her, and earnestly I followed that
which is good; so shall I not be confounded. My soul
hath wrestled with her, and in my doings I was righteous. I stretched my hands to heaven above, and bewailed my ignorance of her. I directed my soul unto
her, and I found her in pureness. I have had my heart
joined with her from the beginning; therefore shall I
not be forsaken. My heart [being so full of selfish
instincts] was troubled in seeking her: therefore have I
gotten a good possession. The Father hath given me
a tongue for my reward, and I will praise him thierewith. Draw near unto me, ye unlearned, and dwell in
the house of learning. Wherefore are ye slow, and
what say ye of these things, seeing your souls are very
thirsty? [Is it because ye are in bondage to self?] I
opened my mouth, and said,'Buy her for yourselves
without money.' Put your neck under the yoke, and
let your soul receive instruction."




DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.            271
CHAPTER XLIX.
DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.
ABourr this time I experienced a peculiar and powerful attraction toward the "interior sense " of all inspired
poetry and serious volumes.  "The letter killeth,"
reasoned I; "but the spirit of a thing is its very life,
and it can impart'life' to those who perceive and
accept it." Perhaps, methought, the skeptics approach
the investigation of the Bible with hostile prejudicespredetermined, so to speak, to see errors in its pages, as
evil-minded men find in the conduct of those they hate
numerous falsehoods, contradictions, immoralities; and,
so thinking, I at once resolved upon a candid and calm
analysis of the law, the letter, and the testimony.
And first, in this connection, let me take down the
testimony of a skeptic; once an influential preacher in'Merry England."  The question which I now wait
for you to answer fully and solemnly, is this: Did you,
or did you not, lose your faith in the plenary inspiration of the Bible by being overcome, in some undefinable manner, with selfish and atheistic temptations
of intellect —under the baneful mood of which you
became first prejudiced against, and then bitterly hostile
to, the letter and teachings of the Testaments?
The gentleman promptly answered: "The truth is,
so far from coming to the investigation of the Bible
with prejudices, against the Bible, or with feelings of




272               THE ARABUILA.
hostility to the Bible, my prejudices and feelings all
leaned the other way. AIy prejudices were all in favor
of the prevailing doctrine, the doctrine of the superhuman origin and divine authority of the Bible. I was
taught that- doctrine from my earliest childhood. I
received it as eternal truth. I looked on those who
dared even to doubt it with the most painful suspicions.
I reverenced the Bible next to God himself. The reverence with which my parents regarded the Bible; the
solemn manner in which they spoke of it; the tones
with which they read it; the horror with which they
regarded those who doubted or disbelieved it; all
tended to strengthen my belief in its divinity. All
those whom I loved and revered, believed in its divinity. None but those whom I regarded as outcasts and
profligates, as enemies of God and goodness, called its
divinity in question. Every sermon or speech that I
heard, and every book that I read, were in favor of the
prevailing doctrine. My strongest passions were enlisted in its favor. I was taught that a belief in it was
essential to eternal salvation; that doubt of it was to
run the risk of eternal damnation. My prejudices grew
with my growth, and strengthened with my strength.
I'sought to strengthen my belief by reading books on
the subject, written by the ablest and most learned
defenders of the divine authority of the Bible. I read
every book on the subject I could find, on the popular
side. I believed -the books. I supposed the writers of
them to be learned and honest, and my assurance was
increased.  I p reachled and advocated the common
dootrine. I defended it against unbelievers. I wrote
several books in' - ts favor. I received praise and re



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.             273
wards for my labor. Mhy reputation, my friends, my
interests, as well as my prejudices, affections, and passions, all joined to keep me to the Orthodox faith.
When light at length compelled me to modify my
belief, I yielded with the greatest reluctance. As long
as I could, I resisted the light.  I would fain have
closed my eyes against it. To change seemed horrible.
The thought distressed me beyond measure. The consequences which threatened me in case of change were
truly terrible. My agony was often intense. Through
the night, it deprived me of sleep; through the day, it
filled me with gloom. Nothing but an ardent love of
truth, and an ever-anxious wish to be right, could have
carried me through the struggle."
" In your investigations," I inquired, " did you search
the letter or the spirit of the Bible 2"
"It was the spirit within the letter that first aroused
my faculties to independent inquiry!"
" Indeed! What, pray, did you find in the spirit of
the Bible that troubled you?"
" Before I investigated the texts and the spirit of the
Bible for myself," he replied, "I held, firmly, that the
volume was a collection of miraculous books, written by
supernaturally inspired men, at different periods of
history; and that, according to all established rules of
reasoning, it must be from the all-wise and all-perfect
God, a&], being so derived, would show its divine origin
on its very face, but more vividly in its spirit; that, in
short, the Bible was as wise, as perfect, as consistent, as
unchangeable, and as harmonious as God himself."
" Well, did you not find the Bible as consistent and as
perfect as you supposed?"
12*




27'               THE ARABULA.
No! The more carefully I read it, the more I cornpared chapter with chapter and passage with passage,
the further I got from the recognition within it of the
Supreme Being."
" What first arrested your attention?"
"The first thing that disturbed me was the 109th
Psalm, written by King David, said to be a man'after
God's own heart.'. It seems that he had been slandered
and unjustly treated by some one, and this is what lie
asked God to do by way of punishment:
"Set thou a wicked man over him, and let Satan
stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let
him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let
his days be few, and let another take his office. Let
his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg;
let them seek their bread also out of their desolate
places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and
let the stranger spoil his labor.  Let there be none to
extend mercy unto him; neither let there be any to
favor his fatherless children.  Let his posterity be cut
off, and in the generation following let their name be
blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother
be blotted out.  Let them  be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from
the earth. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto
him; as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far
from him. As he clothed himself with cursing like as
with his garment, so let it come into his bowvls like
water, and like oil into his bones.  Let it be unto him
as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle
wherewith he is girded continually. Let this be the
reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them
that speak evil against my soul."
Nothing can exceed the bitterness, the cruelty, the




DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.            275
murderous malignity and revengefulness of this prayer.
David is not content with the torment and ruin of the
person who had offended him, but must pray for all
imaginable curses and calamities on his widowed wife,
his fatherless children, and even the unborn offspring
of his children. Thus" Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be continually vagabonds,- and beg; let
them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him; neither
let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let
his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following
let their name be blotted out.  Let the iniquity of his
fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the
sin of his mother be blotted out.  Let them be before
the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory
of them from the earth."
"Yes," said I, "David was exceedingly angry, no
doubt, but David was not Deity; and it seems to me
that you should make the discrimination."
" Indeed, I did make the very discrimination which
you suggest, but it did not help me; because the volume
abounds in absolutely conflicting ideas and irreconcilable teachings."
" Can you give me a few examples, where the spirit
and texts of teachings in different parts of the Bible are
positively contradictory?"
"'Nothing can be easier, for the volume is full of
inconsistencies, proving that an all-wise, an all-perfect,
and a perfectly harmonious Being could not have dictated the contents of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. For example (See Ex. 3: 21, 22, and 12: 35,
36), robbery.is commanded by God, thus:




276               TnE ARABULA.
"'When ye go, ye shall not go empty; but every
woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that
sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels of
gold, and raimlent; and ye shall put them upon your
sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the
Egyptians.               And they borrowed of the
Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and
raiment... And they spoiled the Egyptians.'
"But in Lev. 19: 13; and Ex. 20: 15, the same God
is reported to have said:"'Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob
him....       Thou shalt not
steal.'
" Again, by the same God, slavery and oppression were
ordained in a curse! Thus:'Cursed be Canaan; a
servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren'
(Gen. 9: 25). Of the children of the strangers that do
sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy...  They
shall be your bondmen forever; but over your brethren
of the children of Israel, ye shall not rule with rigor
(Lev. 25: 44, 49). I will sell -your sons and daugnhters
into the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall
sell them to the Sabeans, to a people afar off; for the
Lord hath spoken it (Joel 3: 8).
" But in other passages, by the same God, all slavery
and oppression are positively and forever forbidden.
Thus:'Undo the heavy burdens...   Let the
oppressed go free...  break every yoke.  (Is.
58: 6.) Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress
him. (Ex. 22: 21.)  Ie that stealeth a man, and




DEBIATE ON TIIE BIBLE.         277
selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall
surely be put to death' (Ex. 21: 16).
" Neither be ye called masters (Mat. 23: 10)."
Again, the Lord is reported to have engaged in
spreading falsehood among the people. Thus: "I will
go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his
prophets. And he said: Thou shalt persuade him and
prevail also; go forth and do so." (1:Kings 22: 21,
22.)
But elsewhere the same Lord positively condemns
lying.  Thus: " Thou shalt not bear false witness
(Ex. 20: 16). Lying lips are an abomination to the
Lord (Prov. 12: 22).  All liars shall have their part
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone."
(Rev. 21: 8.)
Again, God is reported to have considered hatred to
kindred a part of religion. Thus: " If any man come
unto me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brother, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14: 26.)
But in other places we read that nothing can be more
wrong than this hatred to kindred.  Thus; i' Honor
thy father and mother. (Eph. 6: 2.) Husbands, love
your wives..   For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh. (Eph. 5: 25, 29.) Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer."  (John 3: 15.)
Again, marriage is approved by God. Thus: "And
the Lord God said, It is not go6d that the man should
be alone: I will make an help-meet for him. (Gen. 2:
18.) Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.
(Gen. 1: 28.) A man shall leave father and mother
and shall cleave unto his wife."  (Matt. 19: 5.)




278               THE ARABULA.
But in other passages the same God, through Paul,
says: " It is good for man not to touch a woman. (1
Cor. 7: 1.) For I would that all men were even as I
myself...  It is good for them if they abide even
as I." (1 Cor. 7: 7, 8.)
Again, the Lord teaches the inferiority of woman to
man, and denies to her the right to speak in public, or
to be independent of her husband. Thus: " And thy
desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee. (Gen. 3: 16.) I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
(1 Tim. 2: 12.) They are commanded to be under
obedience, as also saith the law. (1 Cor. 14: 34.)
Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord."
(1 Pet. 3: 6.)
But in other chapters the same Lord favors the supremacy of woman, and compels her to appear and to
speak in public. Thus: " And Deborah, a prophetess,
judged Israel at that time. And Deborah said unto
Barak, Up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath
delivered Sisera into thy hand.  And the Lord -discornfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host,
with the edge of the sword before Barak." (Judges
4: 4, 14, 15.) The inhabitants of the village ceased;
they ceased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, a mother
in Israel. (Judg. 5: 7.) And on my handmaidens I
will pour out in those days my spirit, and they shall
prophesy. (Acts 2: 18.) And the same man had four
daughters, virgins, which did prophesy."  (Acts 21: 9.)
Again, the institution and observance of the Sabbath
is thus set forth: " For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and




DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.          279
rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (Ex. 20: 11.) Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." (Ex. 20: 8.)
But in other parts of the Bible the same God, through
the Apostle Paul, considers the Sabbath of no account.
Thus: "One man esteemeth one day above another;
another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be
fully persuaded in his own mind. (Rom. 14: 5.) Let
no man therefore judge you in meat and drink, or in
respect of a holy day, or of the Sabbath days." (Col.
2: 16.)
Again, by command of God, no work should be done
on the Sabbath under penalty of death. Thus: " Whosoever doeth any work on the Sabbath day, he shall
surely be put to death. (Ex. 31: 15.) And they found
a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day.
And all the congregation brought him without the
camp and stoned him."
But in John 5: 16 it is recorded that the same God
was himself disregarding the Sabbath. Thus: " Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay
him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath
day," And the case is thus stated: "At that time
Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn; and
his disciples were a hungered, and began to pluck the
ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw
it they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that
which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But
he said unto them,.. Have ye not read in the law, how
that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?" (Matt. 12: 1,
2, 3, 5.)




280               T11LE BAREALA.
Again, in Matt. 6: 13, the God of HIeaven is thus
addressed in prayer: "Lead us not into temptation."
But the same Lord elsewhere is called a tempter. Thus:
"And it came to pass after these things, that God did
tempt Abraham."' (Gen. 22: 1.) And yet, in the same
volume we read: " Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man." (James
1: 13.)
Again, in one place (HIeb. 6: 18) we read?: "It is
impossible for God to lie." But in another place it is
said: " For this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie."  (2 Thes.
2: 11.).
Again, in Matt. 19: 26, we are told by one of the supernaturally inspired penmen that " With God all things
are possible;" and elsewhere that he is all-powerful,
thus: "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is
there any thing too hard for me?" (Jer. 32: 27.)
But in the forepart of the Bible you will find the following curious contradictory passage: "And the Lord
was with Judah, and he drave out the inhabitants of
the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitantsi
of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." (Judg.
1:19.)
Again, it is unqualifiedly said: " No man hath seen
God at any time. (John 1: 18.) Ye have neither
heard his voice, at any time, nor seen his shape." (John
5: 37.)
But the same God said unto M3oses: "And I will
take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts.
(Ex. 33: 23.) And the Lord spake to Moses face to




DEBATE'ON THE BIBLE.           281
face, as a man speaketh to his friend. (Ex. 33: 11.)
And the Lord called unto Adam, and said unto hilm,
Where art thou?  And he said, I heard thy voice ill
the garden, and I was afraid. (Gen. 3: 9, 10.) For I
have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
(Gen. 32: 30.)
Again, in one place I read that God is perfectly satisfied with his works. Thus: "And God saw every thing
that he had made, and behold it was very good." (Gen.
1: 31.) 
But in the sixth chapter and sixth verse of the same
book, I read: "And it repented the Lord that he had
made man on the earth, -and it grieved him at his
heart."
Again, I read in the following passages that signs,
wonders, and miracles are a proof of divine mi3sion
or supernatural power: "Now when John had heard
in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should
come, or do we look for another-? Jesus answered and
said unto them, Go and show John again those things,which ye do hear and see; the blind receive their sight,
and the lame Walk, the lepers -are cleansed, and the deaf
Aear,.the dead are raised. (Matt. 11: 2-5.) Rabbi,
we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for
no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God
be with /im. (John 3: 2.) And Israel saw that gr-eat
work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians; and
the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, a.nd
1dis servant ilfoses." (Ex. 14: 31.)
Buat elsewhere I read that signls, wonders, and miracles, are not only no evidence, but are absolutely con



282               THE ARABULA.
demned, or are considered of little account.  Thus:
"And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and
before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then
Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers;
now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments, for they cast down every
man his rod, and they became serpents. (Ex. 7: 1012.) If there arise among you a prophet, or a
dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
and the sign or the wonder come to pass wherein he
spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods which
thou hast not known, and let us serve them, thou shalt
not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that
dreamer of dreams. (Deut. 13: 1-3.) If I 5y Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them
out?"  (Luke 11:19).
Again, in 2 Tim. 3:16, I, read the affirmation that
all scripture is inspired: "All scriptzure is given by
inspiratio n of God."  But I speak this by permission
and not by commandment."  (1 Cor. 7-6.) But Paul,
one of God's inspired writers, who wrote the most popular parts of the New Testament, said: " But to the
rest speak I, not the Lord. (1 Cor. 7: 12.) That which
I speak, I speak it not after the Lord." (2 Cor. 11: 17.)
" For Heaven's sake!" I exclaimed, " do not quote another passage; I am dreadfully tired; and, besides, I cannot see what more you can possibly say on the subject."
" What more! What more! Why, man alive, you
have not heard a twentieth part of the absurdities
and inconsistencies- and errors of history, of fact, of
morals, of doctrines, of principles, &c., which I found
in the Bible upon thorough investigation."




DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.           283
" But," said I, " why did you not find out all these
contradictions before you entered the ministry?"
" Oh, I studied the Bible with the eyes of other menthat's the reason why. Dr. Clark's commentary, and
the writings of the Christian philosophers and other
Bible believers, were the spectacles I wore when studying for the pulpit profession."
" If you have any thing further-that is, if you have
facts and conclusions condensed and understandable by
the common intellect-I will patiently give another
hour to the subject."
" Well, then, with your permission I will read from
a certain' Discussion'-which shall be nameless-the
objections of skeptics to the popular doctrine that the
Testaments are plenarily inspired, and leave to you to
judge whether we have anyjust grounds for skepticism.
1. We know that books generally are the productions
of men, and it is natural to conclude that all books are
so, the Bible included, till proof is given to the contrary.
We know of no proof to the contrary. We can find
neither internal nor external evidence that the Bible
had any higher origin than other books, or that it is
entitled to any higher authority. We have examined
what has been brought forward as proof of the superhuman origin and divine authority of the Bible, but
have found it, as we think, wanting.
II. Even our opponents, who believe in the divine
origin of the Bible, do not believe in the divine origin
of the books deemed sacred by other people. They
smile at the credulity of the Mohammedan, who believes
in the superhuman origin of the Koran; they are even




284               T-HE ARABULA.
disposed to scold the Latter-Day Saint, for believing
in the superhuman origin of the Book of Mormon.
They are sure the Turk and the Latter-Day Saint
are in error. We are confident that our opponents
themselves are in error. They have hardly patience to
read the arguments of Mohammedans and Mormonites
in behalf of their Bibles. We have read to some extent
the arguments of all, and found them all equally unsatisfactory.
III. We have, as we think, proof that the Bible is
not of divine origin-proof, instead, that it is of human
origin.
1. The Bible in common use is a translation, made
by men as liable to err as ourselves; inen who di(d err,
grievously. The translation bears marks of their liability to err on almost every page.
2. The Christian world bears witness to the imperfections of the translation, by its demand for new and better translations. No sect is satisfied with it.'Many of
the sects have made new translations.
The Greek and Hebrew scriptures, of which the
translators profess the common English Bible to be a
translation, were compiled by men, weak and,erring
like ourselves, and they, too, are'acknowledged to bear
the marks of human imperfection and error.
3. The Greek and Hiebrew Bibles wele compiled
from pre-existing rnanuscri;pts. Those manuscripts are
human transcripts of still earlier manuseripts, which
are also human transcripts. Those manuscripts are all
imperfect. They differ from each other. The manuscripts of the New Testament, alone, differ:in more
than 150,000 places.




DEBATE ON THIE BIBLE.          285
4. The. originals are lost-the manuscripts cannot,
therefore, be compared with them. No means remain
of ascertaining which is least corrupted. A perfect
Bible, therefore-a Bible thoroughly divine-a Bible
free from error and uncertainty; is a thing no more to
be hoped for, even supposing such a Bible once existed.
But there is no evidence that such a book ever did
exist. If,; therefore, we had the originals, there is no
reason to believe that we should find them less imperfect, less erroneous, than our common translations. We
have, therefore, to do chiefly with the contents of the
common version. These contents furnish internal evidence, evidence the most decisive, that the Bible, like
other books, is the work of erring and imperfect men.
To this "internal" evidence we call attention.
The form, the arrangement, the language, the style
of the different portions of the Bible are all manifestly
human. The Grammar, the Logic, the Rhetoric, the
Poetry, all bear marks of human weakness. We see
nothing "supernatural" anywhere in the book, but
human imperfection and error we see everywhere.
But the moral,- theological, and philosophical portions
of the Bible have the principal claim on our attention,
and on these we should chiefly dwell. We can see no
traces of any thing more than human in the morality,
theology, or philosophy of the Bible; but the plainest
traces of imperfect humanity.
Bishop Watson, in his letters to Thomas Paine, has
these words: "An honest man, sincere in his endeavors to search out truth, in reading the Bible, would
examine, first, whether the Bible attributed to the Supreme Being any attribute repugnant to holiness, truth,




28s-              THE ARABULA.
justice, goodness.; whether it represented him as subject
to human infirmities."-MBish/op Tratson, p. 114.
We have followed out this course, and will now state
the result. We find that the Bible does represent God
as subject to human infirmities, and that it does attribute to him attributes repugnant to holiness, truth, justice, and goodness.
1. It represents God as subject to human infirmities. It represents him as having a body, subject
to wants and weaknesses like those of our own selves.
When he appears to Abraham, lie appears, according
to the Bible, in three men. These three talk to Abraham.  Abraham  kills for them  a calf, Sarah bakes
them some bread, and they eat and drink. They wash
their feet, soiled with their journey, and sit down to
rest themselves under a tree. God is also represented
as appearing to Jacob in the form of a man. He
wrestles with Jacob all night. Jacob is too strong for
him. He wants to go, but Jacob holds him fast. Jacob
demands a blessing, and refuses to let go his hold of the
Deity, till he obtains it. God, unable to free himself
from Jacob's grasp, is forced, at length, to yield to his
demand, and give him  a blessing. He accordingly
changes Jacob's name to ISRAEL, which means the God
conuzeror' —the man who vanquished God in a wrestling
match. In other parts of the book, God is represented
as tired and exhausted with the six days' work of creation, and as resting on the seventh day. In Exodus 31:
17, it is said that on the seventh day God rested, and
was refreshed. In Judges 1: 19, God is represented as
unable to vanquish some of the inhabitants of Canaan,
because they had chariots of iron. "And the Lord




DEBATE ON TilE BIBLE.          287
was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of
the mountains; but could not drive out the inhabitants
of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."
2. God is further represented in the Bible as limited
in knowledge. He did not know whiether Abrallamn
feared him or not, till he had tried him by commanding
him to offer his son as a burnt-offering. But when
Abraham had bound his son, and lifted up the knife to
take his life, God is represented as saying:' "Now
I know thou fearest me; since thou hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son, from me."  Ie is also represented as having to use similar means with the Israelites
to find out how they were disposed toward him. In one
place he is said to try them.by false prophets and
dreamers, to know whether they loved the Lord their
God with all their heart, (Deut. 13: 3.) In another
he is said to have led them forty years in the wilderness
to prove them, to know what was in their heart, and to
find out whether they would keep his commandments
or not. (8: 2.) One passage represents him as putting
the rainbow in the clouds to aid his memory-that he
might look on it, and remember his engagement never
again to destroy the world by a flood.
3. Other passages of scripture represent God as both
limited in knowledge or limited in his presence-as
dwelling somewhere aloft and apart from mankind-as
receiving his information respecting the doings of men
through agents or messengers, in whom he could not
put confidence at all times, and as being obliged at
times to come down and see for himself how things
were going on.  In Genesis 11: 5, we read: "Aind
the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which




288               THE ARUABULTA.
the children of men builded.' So with regard to Sodom
and Gomorrah, we read, Genesis 18: 20-21: "And the
Lord said, because the cry of Sodorm and Gomorrah is
great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go
down now, and see whether they have done altogether
according to the cry of it, which is come unto me: and
if not, I will know." In all these passages, God is supposed to be subject to the same or similar limitations
with ourselves.
The Bible further represents God as changeable, as
repenting of his own doing. In one passage we are
told that it repented him that he had made man, when
he saw how badly he had turned out; and in another,
that he repented of having made Saul king, for a similar
reason. In many passages he is represented as being
disappointed in men, and as repenting of the good he
had promised them, or the evil with which he had
threatened them.
5. The Bible gives still darker representations of
God. It presents him to our view as subject not only
to innocent human weaknesses, but to the most criminal
and revolting vices. It represents him as partial in his
affections and dealing toward his children.  He is
charged with a kind of partiality, which, in a human
father, would be deemed most unreasonable and inexcusable. IHe is said to have loved Jacob and hated Esau,
before either of them were born, and before either of them
had done either good or evil. Thus we read, Rom.
9: 11-13: "For the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand, not of works,
but of him that calleth; it was said unto her, The elder




DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.            289
shall serve the younger: as it is written, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated."  Some tell us that the
Hebrew word translated'hate,' means only to'love
less.' Suppose it does, it is still partiality to love one
child less than another, before the children are born, or
have done any thing to deserve peculiar love or hate.
But the hatred here spoken of is something more than
a less degree of love; it is positive ill-will, malignity,
real deadly hate.  HIear how IMalachi expresses it.
Malachi 1: 2-4:  "I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us?  Was not
Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved
Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and
his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
WVhereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will
return and build the desolate places; thus saith the
Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down;
and they shall call them, The border of wickedness,
and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever." More cruel or deadly hate, a fiercer or
more unrelenting cruelty, cannot be conceived. God
is further represented as caring more for the Israelites
than for any other people. He is represented as very
much concerned for the health, the holiness, and the
happiness of Israel; but as utterly careless what becomes of the rest of the world. I-Ience he is represented as telling the Jews that they rlust not eat the
flesh of any animal that dieth of itself, but that they
may give it or sell it to the stranger.  They must not
run the risk of poisoning themselves, but they may
poison as many others as they please. They are not to
take usury for money of one another, but they may
13




290               THE ARABULA.
take it of others, They are not to hold each other as
bondmen or bondwomen for more than six years at a
time; nor are they to rule any of their brethren when
in bondage with rigor: but they may hold the people
of other nations as bondmen forever; take them and
use them as property, buy them or sell them at pleasure;
rule over them with rigor, and hand them  down to
their children as an inh7erit ctnce fo'ever.
6. Other passages represent God as grossly unjust
and implacably revengeful.  H-Ie is represented  as
punishing the innocent offspring for the sins of the
parents-as visiting the sins of idolaters on their
children-to the third and fourth generation.  The
sons and grandsons of Saul, to the number of seven,
were hanged before the Lord, because Saul, many years
before, had done wrong to the Gideonites. After this
revolting butchery, the Bible says the Lord was entreated for the land. (2 Sam. 21: 1-14.) Because
David did wrong in the case of Uriah, God is represented as saying, " The sword shall never depart from
thine house." The sinner himself is spared, but his
innocent child dies for his sin. Seventy sons of Ahab
are beheaded for the sins of their parents. The prophet
of God is represented as commanding their destruction,
2 Kings 9: 10:'" The whole house of Ahab shall perish,"
saith the Lord, according to the prophet. God is represented as demanding the destruction of whole nations,
for sins committed by their forefathers many generations before. He is represented as commanding Saul to
destroy the Amalekites-to destroy them utterly-for
a sin, if sin it was, said to have been committed by
their ancestors, more than four hundred years before,




DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.           291
Hear the passage.  It is in 1 Samuel, 15: 1-3:
"Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to
anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel;
now, therefore, hearken thou unto the voice of the word
of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember
that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for
him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now
go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they
have, and spare them not; but slay both man and
woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and
ass."  Saul went, it is said, and slew the Amalekites.
HIe utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of
the sword. He, however, spared Agag, the king, and
some of the cattle, and so angry is God at this, that be
repents of having made Saul king. Samuel takes Agag
and hews him in pieces before the Lord, to prevent his
wrath from consuming him. These are horrible and
blasphemous stories. But they are not the worst. The
Bible represents God as cursing, and as dooming to
pain and agony, to servitude and death, whole races of
his creatures, throughout all lands, and throughout all
ages, for the sin of one individual. It represents him
as cursing all serpents, making them cursed above all
cattle, dooming them to go on their belly and eat dust,
and putting enmity in men's hearts toward them,
because one solitary serpent tempted Eve. It represents him as dooming all women, throughout all ages
and all nations, to great and multiplied pains and sorrows, and making them all subject to the will of their
husbands, because Eve did wrong, before any other
woman existed.  It also represents God as cursing the
earth for the sin of one man; cursing it to bring forth




292               THE ARABULA.
thorns and thistles to annoy all future generations;
dooming all mankind, throughout all lands and throughout all ages, to eat of the ground in sorrow all the days
of their life; to eat the herb of the field; to eat their
bread with the sweat of their brow; and lastly, to
return to the dust. The thought is appalling. Countless millions mercilessly doomed to daily and hopeless
misery, and then to death, for sins committed before
any of them were born! As if this blasphemy were
not enough, our Orthodox opponents assure us that the
death here threatened was the death of the soul as well
as the body, or the consignment of both to eternal torments in hell. The posterity of IIam are doomed to
servitude through all the ages of time, for an alleged
offense of Ham. The rest of mankind are, of course,
doomed to slaveholding.  The Israelites are destroyed
with pestilence for the sin of David, and even David is
said to have been moved by God himself to do the deed,
for which the people were destroyed. The case of
David deserves to be given at length. It is one of the
most astounding, revolting, and blasphemous stories in
the whole Bible.  You may find it in 2 Samuel, 24:
1, 10: "' And again the anger of the Lord was kindled
against Israel, and he moved David against them to say,
Go, number Israel and Judah. And David's heart smote
him after that he had numbered the people. And
David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in
that I have done; and now, I beseech thee, 0 Lord;
take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done
very foolishly." It seems strange that his heart should
smite him for doing as God prompted him to do, and
that he should charge himself with acting foolishly in




DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.          293
yielding to God's impulse. But perhaps he was not
then aware that it was God that made him do the deed.
God probably kept his part in the matter a secret.
Still, the account has a horrible look.  " However,
when David was up in the morning, the word of the
Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say unto David, thus saith the Lord, I offer
thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do
it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and told him,
and said unto him, Shall seven years of fanline come
unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months
before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that
there be three days' pestilence in thy landcl  Now
advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that
sent me. And David said. unto Gad, I am in a great
strait; let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his
mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of
man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, from
the morning even to the time appointed; and there
died of the people, from  Dan even to Beer-sheba,
seventy thousand men. And when the angel stretched
out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord
repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that
destroyed the people, It is enough; stay now thy
hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing-place of Araunah, the Jebusite. And David spake
unto the Lord, when he saw the angel that smote the
people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done
wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done?
Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against
my father's house."  The story bewilders us with its
horrors. The sinner is spared, while seventy thousand




294               THE ARABULA.
innocenets are destroyed. The sinner, we say.  But
who is the sinner? Is it a sin to do as God prompts us
to do? The only sinner, according to the story, is God
himself. Both David and his slaughtered people are victims to the unmerited anger of the great transgressor and
destroyer. The blasphemy of tile passage is truly horrible.
7. If possible, the Bible represents God in still darker
colors. It attributes to him the direst cruelties-the
most savage and revolting butcheries. Here is a story
from Numbers 31: 1-7, 9, 15-18: ~" And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of Israel of
the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto
thy people. And Moses spake unto tile people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them
go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of
MIidian. Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the
tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. So there were
delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of
every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.  And
Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe,
them and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to
the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets
to blow in his hand. And they warred against the
MNidianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they
slew all the males. And the children of Israel took
all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones,
and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks,
and all their goods. And Moses said unto them, Have
ye saved all the woman alive? -Behold, these caused
the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam,
to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of
Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation




DEBAT` ON THIE BIBLE.       295
of thle Lord. Now, therefore, kill every male among
the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known
man by lying with him. But all the women-children
that have not known a man by lying with him keep
alive for yourselves."  And the helpless women and the
innocent children, even to the suckling born but yesterday, are all butchered. The exhausted mother, with
her new-born babe on her breast, are slaughtered
together without mercy; and the young untarnished
daughters are given to the butchers of their fathers,
their mothers, and their brothers. And neither God
nor his prophet sheds a tear, or utters a word of regret
or sorrow. And these the Bible represents as the
doings of GoD!
In Joshua tenth and eleventh, we have a long list
of such horrors. Joshua is represented as going forth
under the command of God, and slaying men and
women, children and sucklings without number, utterly
destroying whole nations. HIis warriors put their feet
on the necks of vanquished kings, then Joshua smites
them, and hangs them on five trees. Hle slays the
people with a very great slaughter. Even the sun and
moon are made to stand still, until he makes the ruin
complete. He takes city after city; smites them with
the edge of the sword; utterly destroying all the souls
therein-letting none remain. The LORD, it is said,
delivered them into his hands.' So Joshua smote all
the country of the hills, and of the South, and of the
vale, and of the springs, and all their kings; he left
none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed,
as the Lord God of Israel coumrnanded."  Then follows
another string of horrible tragedies; whole nations,




296               THE ARABULA.
numbers of nations, all slaughtered; not one poor soul
allowed to remain alive throughout their vast extent;
and all is fathered on God. And now come other,
longer, and more frightful lists of tragic and revolting
deeds. Cities and nations, kings and people, men and
women, old and young, all swept away. Not one is
left to breathe. All, all are slaughtered, as the Lord
commanded Moses. "There was not a city that made
peace with the children of Israel save the Hivites,"
says the story.' Ah! that explains the matter," says
the believer.  "Their destruction is chargeable on
themselves if they would not make peace."  What!
must the women and children perish, because the rulers
and the warriors refuse to make peace? But hark! the
story adds: " Not a city made peace, for it was of the
Iord to harden their hearts that they should come
against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them
uLtterly; that they might have no favor, but that he
might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses."
No book can give the Deity a darker character than
this. None can throw out against himn more atrocious
blasphemies. Yet the book abounds in such stories.
God is said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart, that
he might not let the children of Israel go, but bring
down on his people, the innocent as well as the guilty,
the most grievous plagues, including the destruction of
the first-born in every family in the land. Of course
we do not believe those stories; we regard them as
false; but the blasphemy is none the less.
Then look at the story of the flood. God is represented as dooming to destruction the whole human race,
with the exception of a single family. True, the story




DEBATE ON TIIE BIBLE.           2997
tells us man was very corrupt; but were all corrupt?
Were there no good men? Were there no stainless
women? No innocent children? Were all so lost to
virtue as to be past hope? Impossible! But, supposing
the degeneracy universal, is utter and unsparing destruction the only alternative? And shall the whole race
be swept away without one word of pity, or ohe sign
of sorrow or regret? It is thus the Bible represents
the matter.  The blasphemy could not be greater.
Nothing worse can be attributed to God than what the
Bible attributes to him. Nothing worse can be conceived.
8. The Bible represents God as demanding or accepting human sacrifices. It represents him as commanding
Abraham to offer up his son Isaac as a burnt-offering,
though the sacrifice was not completed. In 2 Samuel
21: 1-14, a sacrifice is demanded and made. The story
is as follows: "Then there was a famine in the days
of David three years, year after year; and David
inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is
for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the
Gibeonites. Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites,
What shall I do for you.  and wherewith shall I make
the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the
Lord?  And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will
have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither
for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said,
What ye shall say, that will I do for you. And they
answered the king, The man that consumed us, and
that devised against us that we should be destroyed from
remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men
of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will bang them
13*




298               THE ARABULA.
up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord
did choose. And the king said, I will give them. But
the king spared >Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the
son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between
them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter
of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and
Ilephibosheth; and the five sons of Iffichal, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son
of Barzillai the Mleholathite. And he delivered them
into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them
in the hill before the Lord; and they fell all seven
together, and were put to death in the days of harvest,
in the first days, in the beginning of barley-harvest.
And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth,
and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning
of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven,
and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them
by day, nor the beasts of the field by night."
" There!" said he, "I think the subject might be
left right here. Of course there are' doctrinal points'
which might be debated. For example, talke tle doctrine of the Trinity: One God in three persons; three
persons, each person God, and yet not three Gods. The
first person is the father of the.second, and the third
proceeds from the father and the son, yet neither is
before or after the other. All are of one age. The soI.
is as old as his father, and the grandson is as old as
either. The first of these persons demands satisfaction
for man's sins; the others do not, though they are all
one God. The second becomes man, suffers and dies;
the others do not. The united Godhead and manhead




DEBATE ON THE BIBLE.              299
are crucified and buried; go into hell; rise again from
the grave on the third day.  These are not a tenth part
of the absurdities of this doctrine. The doctrines of
original sin, the atonement, imputed guilt and imputed
righteousness, justification by Christ's merits, &c., are
as foolish, as absurd, as monstrous, as blasphemous, and
as mischievous as any that can be found."
Several minutes passed in utter silence-I, reflecting
on the influence of his criticisms on superstitious Biblebelievers-he, watching the effect of his text and arguments upon my mind. And I reflected thus: The
Bible, considered externally, is, like every other material
book or form of matter, possessed of the properties of
change, decay, contradiction, and darkness. The Bible
is only a book compounded of changeable, fleeting
elements; and this mutability is as true of its contents
as of the paper,, ink, and binding.  But do not all
books, as well as other forms of matter, proceed from
spiritual fountains of causation? Are not material
forms the mere shadows of interior harmonious principles? With earthly eyes we see externals; whilst
with spirit eyes we see the interior sense and harmony.
But did not every thing originate in the spiritual
sources?  The poet meant this when he said"We do not make our thoughts; they grow in us
Like grains in wood; the growth is of the skies;
The skies are of nature: nature is of God."
Viewed from this central stand-point, may not all religious discourses and sacred books contain spiritual
gospels?  Why may not the sacred works of all nations
be the coverings and viaducts of God's momentous




800               THE ARABULA.
truths to man?  The laws of inspiration must be universal, and without variableness or shadow of turning;
therefore that law, which demonstrates the Christian's
Bible to be interiorly divine and authoritative, will
apply, with equal consistency and cogency, to all sacred
books of every other age or people.
At length, turning to the visitor, I remarked: "With
you, sir, I have no belief in the miraculous origin or
supernatural inspiration of any book or writing; neither
do I think well of any priestly authority that is predicated on such false assumptions; but yet, unlike you, I
discern in all interiorly written books, here and there,
the glorious presence of Arabula! the lifting Light of
divine Truth! shining and streaming through them all,
as the sunlight of high heaven pours itself through the
forest and flowers of nature; and to-morrow, if you will
have the kindness to call upon me, I think I can furnish, for your special edification, passages of consistent
and beautiful Scripture, taken from the uncanonized,
but none the less real, Saints of past and present
times." -
He promised to give me his candid attention, as I had
patiently given him mine, and so on the best of terms
we parted.




NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS.      301
CHAPTER L.
NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS.
HAIL! gladdening Light of Arabula, thou beautiful
and bountiful giver of joys unspeakable! I follow thee
where'er thou lead'st; and where thou goest I will go;
for my inmost nature knows that thou art the " light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
O, sacred Fire! blazing broad and high, " a consuming fire," beautiful and without vengeance, but powerfully armed with unchangeable Justice, perpetually
flaming from the infinite heart of Love.  0, pure,
lambent Light! burning the roots and branches of all
sin, and ignorance, and prejudice; and purifying all
things, like " the refiner's fire," and separating the pure
from the dross-THE LIGHT! who maketh seers of the
poor and blind; who findeth saints among the so-called
evil; who mnaketh the tongues of fools to confound the
wise; who bringeth Prophets and Apostles out of darkness; who unfoldeth the heavens to the gaze of uncounted millions-unto Thee I come with open and beaming eyes, with a grateful heart, with an unprejudiced
intellect, with reverential love for thy commandments,
(nd unto Thee most gladly would I bring my patient,
attentive, friendly reader.  Take this earnest soul,
whose wide-open eyes now tenderly dwell upon these
seltences, and p ur thy holy fire into the waiting




302                THE ARABULA.
intellect and sweet affections.  Cause the reader's
understanding to turn away from the prejudices of both
association and memory. Expand and open the higher
powers of mind, so that they shall magnetically lift
the Intellect into the independent clairvoyance of the
"superior condition," in which state alone can the pure
impersonal principles of the Eternal be discerned by
the reason, and their benefits taken like celestial food
into the hungering affections.
Where art thou, patient Reader?  Arabula says,
"It is I, be not afraid."  Courage, then, and tell,
candidly, just wkere you are.  Can you reason calmly
and meditate, now, without " the heat of passion" and
blindness of prejudice?  Are you clear-sighted now,
and can you 1" look truth in the face," and loyally say,
"' Lead on! I will follow Thee?"  If you are still and
exclusively under the " light of the Intellect," then you
have pride and prejudices to intercept your progression
in wisdom. Arabula knows no meuml et tuum, for she
is free from prejudice as "truth makles free," whilst
Intellect, having all its eyes upon the world, the flesh,
and the fleeting advantages thereof, gives nothing but
obstacles.
Seneca, the truly moral philosopher, who lived at
the beginning of the Christian era, said: "' It is with
most men as with an innocent that my father had in his
family. One day she fell blind on a sudden, but nobody
could persuade her that she was blind.' I cannot endure
the house,' she cried,'it is so dark, so darl!' and so,
fancying that it was light in thie world without, she kept
calling for liberty to go abroad."  Thus it is with the
blindest persons in the religious world —they fancy the




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                    303
darkness is in others, or possibly in their own clrculnstances, but never, 0, no! never in themselves.
A   new   collection  of Gospels is now  imperatively
demanded in the cause and interest of truth.   With the
light of Arabula before you, like a "; pillar of fire," showinlg the path through the darkness of ignorance, you can
see the footprints of the everlasting God through all the
sacred  writings  of every  age  and  people.   Only  the
proud and prejudiced-only the ignorant and superstitious   are shut  out of this beautiful and  beneficent
garden.   Come, reader, let us enter and read.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDI NG TO
RISHIS, OR ANCIENT SAINTS.
CHAPTER f.               and goodness: tile Maker and I'reserver of all things.
The Vedas are the Scripttres of the de-  4 What and how  the Supreme
eout people of theOrient. The follow-    W tand o te   Spe
tiag jpasswages declare the presene of Being is, caniot be ascertained.
the divine light in a very dark e'a qf We can only describe him  by Ihis
history.  All Scripture-writiy  is effects and works. In like manner
given by iiap])iiation.
as we, not knowing the real nature
NY place where the mind of'of tle sun, explain him to be the
man can be undisturbed, is cause- of the succession of days and
suitable  for the worship of' the epochs.
Supireme Bein g.                     5 That Spirit who is distinct from
2 The vulgar look for their gods Matter, and from  all beings conin water; the ignorant thiink thley  tained in Matter, is not variouts.
reside in wood, bricks, and stones; He is One, and he is beyond demen of more extended knowledge  scription; whose glory is so great,
seek them  in celestial orbs; but there can be no imagrne of llir.  He
wise men worship the Universal is the incomprehensible Spirit, who
Soul.                              illuminates all, and delights all;
3 Thare is One living and  true from w}hom  all proceed, by whom
God; everlasting, without parts or they live after they are born, and
passian; of infinite Ipower, wisdom, to whom all must return. Nothingl




304                       THE ARABU3LA,-.
b:ut the Supreme Being should be  skin, aid nerves, filled with fat
adored by a wise man.               and flesh, is a great evil, and witll6 T-Ie overspreads all creatures. out reality.  It ought to perish.
I-Ie is entirely Spirit, without the  Of what use, thlen, is it. for tl:e
form either of a minute body, or an  soul to seek corporeal pleas'nries?
extended one, which is liable to   13 The inhabitants of this body
impression or organization.  He is are  cupidity, anger,,desire  for
the ruler of the  intellect, self- wealth, error, anxiety, envy, sadexistent, pure, perfect, omniscient, ness, discord, disappointment, afflicand omnipresent.  He has from all tion, hunger, thirst, disease, old
eternity  been  assigning  to  all age, death.  Of what use is it,
creatures their respective purposes. then, to seek the pleasures of this
No vision can approach him, no body?
language describe him, no intel-  14 Through strict veracity, unilectual  power  call comprehend  form  control of  the  mind  and
him.                                senses, abstinence flonm sexual in7 As a thousand rays emanate dulgence, and ideas derived from
from  one flame, thus do all souls spiritual teachers, man should apemanate  from  The  One Eternal proeach God, who, fulll of glory and
Soul, and return to him.            perfection, works in the heart, and
8 The Suipreme Soul dwells in  to whom  only votaries freed from
the fornm of four-footed animals, and  passion alnd desire can approximate.
in another place he is full of glory.  15 Material objects have no dluraHe lives in the form of the slave, tion. As the fiuits of the trees
he is smaller than the grain of grow  and perisih, so do these ohbarley.  lie is the smallest of the  jects.  What is there  in  them
small, and  the  greatest of the worthy to  be acquired?   Great
great; yet lie is neither small nor things and small, commanders of
great.                              powerful armies, kinos who govern
9 Without hand nor foot, he runs tile earth, have relinquished their
rapidly and grasps firmly; without riches and passed into the other
eyes, he sees all; without ears, he  world.  Nothing could save them.
hears all. He knows whatever can  They were men, and they could not
be known; but there is none who  escape death.
knows him. The wise call him the   16 The Gandharvas, the Sooras,
Great, Supreme, Pervading Spirit.  the stars th}emselves, do not endure
10 HIe who considers all beings forever.  The seas will one day be
as existing in the Supreme Spirit, dried up, the high mountains will
and the Supreme Spirit as pervad- fall, even the polar star will changoe
inug all beings, cannot view  with  its place, the earth will be swallowcontempt any creature whatsoever. ed  in the waves.  Such is the
11 God has created the senses to  world! Of uwhat avail is it to seek its
he directed toward external objects. pleasures? One may perform meriThey  can  perceive  enly  these torious works, from  self-interestobjects, and not the Eternal Spirit. ed motive's, during his whole life,
The sage, who desires an immortal he may enjoy all pleasures, still he
life, withdraws his senses from their must come back into the world.
natural course, and perceives the He can only continue passing from
Supreme Being everywhere present. one world to another.
12 This body, formed of bones,  17 There is nothing desirable ex



NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                  305
cept the science of God. Out of ficiency, and do not covet properly
this there is no tranquillity and no belonging to another.
freedom.' To be attached to mate-  26 The way to eternal beatitude
rial things is to be chained; to he is open to him who without omiswithout attachment is to be free.   sion speaketh truth.
18 May this soul of mine, which  27 If any one assumes the garb
is a ray of perfect wisdom, pure in- of the religious, without doing their
tellect, and permanent existence, works, he is not religious. Whatwhich is the unextinguishable light ever garments he wears, if his
fixed within created bodies, with- works are pure, he belongs to the
out which no good act is perform- order of pure men.  If he wears
ed, be united by devout medita- the dress of a penitent, and does
tions with the Spirit supremely not lead tile life of a penitent, he
blest and supremely intelligent.    belongs to the men of the world;
19 0 thou, who givest sustenance but if he is in the world, and practo the world, unvail that face of the tices penitential works, lie ought to
true sun which is now hidden by a be regarded as a penitent.
vail of golden lightl so that we  28 No man can acquire knowledge
may see the truth, and know our of the soul without abstaining from
whole duty.                       evil acts, and havino control over
20 Ile who inwardly rules the sun the senses and the mind. Nor can
is the same immortal Spirit who he gain it, though with a firm
inwardly rules thee.              mind, if he is actuated by desire'for
21 That All - pervading  Spirit, reward. But man may obtain knowwhich gives light to the visible sun, ledge of the soul by contemplatlou
even the same in kind am I, though  of God.
infinitely distant in degree. Let my   29 Though man finds pleasure in
soul return to the immortal Spirit that which he sees, hears, smells,
of God, and then let my body re- tastes, and, touches, he derives no
turn to dust.                     benefit from the pleasure, because
22 By one Supreme Ruler is this the soul, in attaching itself to exuniverse  pervaded;  even every ternal objects, forgets its high oriworld in the whole circle of Nature. gin, which is The Universal Soul.
Enjoy pure delight, 0  man, by   30 It is the nature of the soul to
abandoning all thoughts of this identify itself with the object of its
perishable world; and covet not tendency.  If it tend toward the
the wealth of any creature exist- world, it becomes the world. If
ing,                             it tend toward God, it becomes
23 God, who is perfect wisdom and God.
perfect happiness, is the final re-  31 Saints wise and firm, exempt
fuge of the man who has liberally from passion, assured of the soul's
bestowed his wealth. who has been divine origin, satisfied solely with
firm in virtue, and who knows and the science of God, have seen God
adores the Great One.             everywhere present with them. and
24 To those regions where Evil after death have been absorbed in
Spirits dwell, and which utter dark- him.
ness involves, surely go after death  32 To know that God is, and that
all such men as destroy the purity  all is God, this is the substance of
of their own souls.              the Vedas. When one attains to
25 Preserve thyself from self-suf- this, there is no more need of read



30;3                    THE ARABULA.
ing or of works; they are but the the sun draw me thither. May the
bark, the straw, the envelope. No sun enlighten my eye.
more need of them when one has  4 Mysterious praise to the SunI
the seed, the substance, the Crea- May the moon bear me thither.
tor.  When one knows Him  by May the moon receive my mind.
science, he may abandon science,  5 Mysterious praise to the Moon!
as the torch which has conducted May the planet Soma lead me thithhim to the end.                   er. May Soma bestow on me its
hallowed milk.
CHAPTER  IL               6 Mysterious  praise to  Soma 
fMay Indra carry me thither. May
The folloing,'" says an aucthLor, "ia Indra give me strength.
one oqf the numerous prayers Con-   7 Mysterious  praise  to Indra 
rained int tPie redas:"
May water lead me thither. May
WTHERE they who know the Water bring me the stream of imGreat One go, through holy mortality.
rites and through piety, thither may   8 Mysterious praise to the Waters I
fire raise me. May fire receive my Where they who know the Great
sacrifices.                       One go, through holy rites and
2 Mysterious praise to Fire  May through piety, thither may Brahma
air waft me thither.  May air in- conduct me. May Brahma lead me
crease my spirits.                to the  Great One.  Mysterious
3 Mysterious praise to Air! May praise to Brahma I
THE GOSPEL AC CORDING TO
THE ZEND-AVESTA.
CHAPTER I.               3 Obe s rictly all the laws given
The Sacred Scriptures qf the ancient to Zoroaster.
Persizns, contairn manLy evideSnces that4 Kin  are  ated b  a more
th.e Light zoas sWorcing its woay into ethereal fire than other mortals;
the World. Read trhe following sea- such fire as exists in the upper
spheres. Ormuzd established the
W ORSHIP, with humility and  King to nourish "and solace the
reverence, Ormuzd, the giver poor. He is to his people what
of blessings, and all the Spirits, to Ormuzd is to this earth. It is the
whose care lie has intrusted the duty of subjects to obey him impliuniverse.                         citly.
2 Men ought reverently to salute  5 It is the duty of children to
the Sun, and praise him, but not obey their parents; for wives to
pay him religious worship.        obey their husbands.




NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPEISS.                   0o
6 Treat old age with great rever-  18 Contend constantly against evil,
ence and tenderness.      -        morally and physically, internally
7 Multiply the human species, and  and externally.  Strive in every
increase their happiness.          way to diminish the power of Ari8 Cultivate the soil, drain marshes, manes and destroy his works.
and destroy dangerous creatures.  19 If a man has done this, he may
He who sows the ground with dili- fearlessly meet death; well assured
gence acquires a greater stock of that radiant Izeds will lead him
religious merit than he could gain  across the luminous bridge, into a
by ten thousand prayers in idleness. paradise of eternal happiness.
9 Multiply domestic animals, nour-  20 Every man who is pure in
ish them, and treat them gently.    thougllts, words, and actions, will
10 Warriors, who defend the right, go t, the celestial regions.  Every
deserve praise.                    man who is evil in thoughts, words,
11 Do not allow thyself to be car- or actions, will go to the place of'
ried away by anger. Angry words, the wicked.
and scornful looks, are sins. To  21 All good thoughts, words, or
strike a man, or vex him  with  actions, are the productions of the
words, is a sin. Even the inten- celestial world.
tion to strike another merits punishment. Opposition to peace is a           CHAPTER IT.
sin. Reply to thine enemy with,,A large portion of the Zend-Avesta,"
gentleness.                         says the author qf Progress in lIeli12 Avoid every thing calculated to   gious Ideas, " is filled qvith prayers;
injure others.. Have no companionship with a man who injures his  T  ADDRESS my prayers to Orneighbor.                          1  muzd, Creator of all things;
13 Take not that which belongs to   2 Who always has been, who is,
-another.                           and who will be forever;
14 Be not envious, avaricious,  3 Who is wise and powerful;
proud, or vain.  Envy and jeal-  4 Who made the great arch of
ousy are the work of Evil Spirits. heaven, the sun, moon. stars, winds,
Haughty thoughts and thirst of clouds, water, earth, fire, trees, anigold are sins.                     mals, metals, and men;
15 To refuse hospitality, and not  5 Whom Zoroaster adored. Zoroto succor the poor, are sins.      astert who brought to the world
16 Obstinacy in maintaining a lie knowledge of the law; who knew
is a sin. Be very scrupulous to ob- by natural intelligence, and by the
serve the truth in all things.     ear, what ought to be done. all that
17 Abstain from  thy neighbor's has been, all that is, and all that
wife.  Fornication and immodest will be; the science of sciences,
looks are sins. Avoid licentious- the excellent Word, by which souls
ness, because it is one of the read- pass the luminous  and  radiant
lest means to  give Evil Spirits bridge, separate themselves from
power over body and soul. Strive, the evil regions, and go to light and
therefore, to keep pure in body and holy dwellings, full of fragrlance.
mind, and thus prevent the entrance   6 0 Creator, I obey thy laws.
of Evil Spirits, who are always try-  7 I think, act, speak, according to
ing to gain possession of man. To thy orders.
think evil is a sin.                8 I separate myself from all sin.




303                      THE ARABULA.
9 I do good works according to  thousand ears and ten thousand
my power.                          eyes; who never sleeps, who is
10 I adore thee with purity of always watchful and attentive, who
thought, word, and action.         renders barren lands fertile.
11 I pray to Ormuzd, who recom-   15 Thou Firel son of Ormuzd,
penses good works, who delivers brilliant and beneficent, given by
unto the end all those who obey his Ormuzd, be favorable to me.
laws.  Grant that i may arrive at  16 I pray to the New  Moon!
Paradise, where all is fragrance, holy, pure, and great. I pray to
light, and happiness.             the Full Moon, holy, pure, and
12 O Ormuzd I pardon the repent- great. I gaze at the Moon which
ant sinner.  As I, when a man is on high. I honor the light of
injures me by his thoughts, words, the Moon. The Moon is a blessed
or actions, carried away, or not Spirit created by Ormuzd, tobestow
carried away, by his passions, if he light and glory on the earth.
humbles himself before me, and   17 I invoke the Source of Watersl
addresses to me his prayer, I be- holy, pure, and great, coming from
come his friend.                   the throne of' Ormuzd, from the high
1:3 Grant, O Ormuzdl that my mountain, holy, pure, and great.
good works may exceed my sins.  18 I invoke the sweet Earth I I
Give me a part in all good actions invoke the Mountains, abode of
and all holy words.                happiness, given by Ormuzd, holy,
14 I pray to Mithrasl who has a pure, and great.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
THE SON OF BRAII MA.
CHAPTER  I.               2 Let man honor all his food, and
Tlhe following Scriptzries are from the eat it without contempt; when he
woritinys (:f lMenaz.  "It is believed by sees it, let him rejoice and be calm,
the hiindoos," says the tranlatllr,' to and pray that he may always obhave been promnzlged in the beginaing of tipme, by Menn. son or grtand- tain it.
s0on of Bcrahma, andf firt of ereated   3 Greatness is not conferred by
beins.  Bralhme  is said to havL(e years, not by gray hairs, not by
taueqht his htlaws to lenuz in a hundred
tLoesanl l verses, htt/ich 3[e  e'-  wealth, not by powerful kindred;
pdlitiied to the primitire world in the the divine sages lhave established
ver'y word's f the book now transla- this rule: " Whoever has read the;tecd~l."                        Vedas, and their Angas, he among
[T  lIE resignation of all pleasures us is grean."
is far better than the attain-  4 Let not a sensible teacher tell
meat of them.                      what he is not asked, nor what he




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                     309
is asked improperly; but let him, wrought it; if not in his own
however intelligent, act in the mul- person, yet in  his  sons; or, if
titude as if he were dumb.          not in his sons, yet in his grand5 The only firm friend, who fol- sons.
lows men even after death, is Jus-  15 He grows rich for a while
tice; all others are extinct with the  through unrighteousness; but he
body.                               perishes at length from  his whole
6 The soul is its own witness; the  root upwards.
soul itsell' is its own refuge: offand   16 If the vital spirit had practiced
not thy conscious soul, the supreme virtue for the.most part, and vice
internal witness of men.            in a small degree, it enjoys delight
7 Food, eaten. constantly with re- in cAlestial abodes, clothed with a
spect, g'ives muscular  force and body formed of pure elementary
generative power; but, eaten irre- particles.
verently, destroys them both.        17 But if it had generally been
8 The hand of an artist employed  addicted to vice, and seldom attendin his art is always pure.          ed to virtue, then shall it be desert9 Bodies are cleansed by water; ed by those pure elements, and.
the mind is purified by truth: the  having a coarser body of sensible
vital spirit, by theology and devo- nerves, it feels the pains to which
tion; the understanding, by clear Yama shall doom it.
knowledge.                           18 Souls, endued with goodness,
10 O friend to virtue, that supreme  attain always the state of deities;
spirit-which  thou believest one those filled with ambitious passions,
and the same with thyself-resides  the condition of men; and those
in thy bosom  perpetually; and is immersed in darkness, the nature
an  all-knowing  inspector of thy  of beasts.
goodness or of thy wickedness.       19 Grass and earth to sit on, water
11 Action, either mental, verbal, to wash the feet. and affectionate
or corporeal, bears good or evil speech, are at no time deficient in
friuit, as itself is good or evil.  the mansions of the good.
12 Justice, being destroyed, will  20 Let every Brahmin with fixed
destroy; being preserved, will pre- attention consider all nature, both
serve; it must therefore never be visible and invisible, as existing in
violated.   Beware, 0 judge, lest the Divine Spirit; for, when he
justice, being overturned, overturn  contemplates the  boulndless uniboth us and thyself.                verse existing in the Divine Spirit,
13 Injustice, committed in  this  he cannot give his heart to iniworld, produces not fruit immedi- quity:
ately, but, like the earth, in due sea-   21 The Divine Spirit is the whole
son; and advancing, by little and  assemblage of gods; all worlds are
little, it eradicates the man who  seated in the Divine Spirit; and tihe
committed it.                       Divine Spirit produces the connect14 Iniquity, once committed, fails ed series of acts performed by emnot of producing fruit to him who  bodied souls.




310                       THE AIRABULA.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. CONFUCIUS.
CHAPTER  I.              perfect man  continually  acquits
himself of these duties, how comThis wise and beloved Chinese philoso-  on oever they may appear.
pher slived five hundred andfifty-temo soever they may appear.
Vears before the Christian, era. T/e  5 If you undertake an affair for
following passages show that the light another, manage and follow it with
of divin e truth shone Within him,    the same eagerness and fidelity as
D   unto another what you would if it were your own.
D he should do unto you. and do   6 Always behave yourself with
not unto another what youwouldnot the same precaution and discretion
should be done unto you. Thou only as you would do if you were obneedest this law alone, it is the foun- served by ten eyes, and pointed at
dation and principle of all the rest. by so many hands.
2 We cannot observe the necessa-  7 When the opportunity of doing
ry rules of life, if there be wanting  a reasonable thing shall offer, make
these three virtues: (1) Wisdom, use of it without hesitation.
which makes us discern good from   8 If a man, although full of selfevil; (2) universal love, which love, endeavor to perform good acmakes us love all men who are vil'- tions, behold him already very near
tuous;  and  (3) that resolution that universal love which urges
which makes us constantly perse- him to do good to all.
vere in the adherence to good, and   9 HIe who persecutes a good man,
aversion for evil.                 makes war against himself and all
3 The love of the perfect man is mankind.
a universal love; a love whose ob-  10 The defects of parents ought
ject is all mankind.               not to be imputed to their children.
4 There are four rules, according If a father, by his crimes, render
to which a perfect man ought to himself unworthy of being promosquare himself: I. He ought to ted to honor, the son ought not to
practice, in respect of his father, be excluded, if he do not render
what he requires from his son. II. himself unworthy.  If a son shall
In the service of the State, he be of an obscure birth, his birth
ought to show  the same fidelity ought not to be his crime.
which he demands of those who   11 If a person has deviated from
are under him.  III. He must act, the path of integrity and innocence,
in respect of his elder brother, he needs only to excite the good
after the same manner lie would that remains to make atonement by
that his younger brother should act pains and industry, and he will intoward himself.  IV. lie ought to fallibly arrive at the highest state -
behave himself toward his friends of virtue.
as he desires his friends should  12 It is not enough to know vircarry themselves toward him. The tue, it is necessary to love it; but




.NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                  311
it is not sufficient to love it, it is but, wtlen it concerns him to act,
necessary to possess it.           and practice virtue, he, as I may
say, precipitates all. The truly wise
CHAPTER II.              man speaks but little, he is little
An Ewhortation to obtain Wisdom and eloquent; I do not see that elotopractice Virtue.. GCltto~ayforbid- quence can be of any great use to
cZde. Ire proclaimeth the glory of him.
goodness, and showeth his admiration   7 Those who constantly consult
i)r the appearance of sstho      their appetites and palates, never
do any thing worthy of their rank
IT  is impossible  that he who as men; they are rather brutes
1 knows not how to govern and than rational creatures.
reform himself and his own family,  8 Eat not for the pleasure thou
can rightly govern and reform  a mayest find therein; eat to increase
people.                           thy strength; eat to preserve the
2 It is the wise man only who is life which thou hast received.
always pleased; virtue renders his  9 Labor to purify thy thouglhts,
spirit quiet; nothing troubles him, if thy thoughts are not ill, neither
nothing disquiets him, because he will thy actions be so. Tlhe wise
practices not virtue for a reward: man has an ilfinity of pleasures.
the practice of virtue is the sole  10 Give thy superfluities to the
recompense iAe expects.           poor.  Poverty and human mise3 Endeavor to imitate the wise, ries are evils, but the bad only reand never discourage thyself, how  sent them.
laborious soever it may be; if thou   11 Riches and honors are good;
canst arrive at thine end, the hap- the desire to possess them is natlipiness thou wilt possess will recom- ral to all men; but, if these thlingas
pense all thy pains.               agree not with virtue, the wise mall
4 Always remember that thou art ought to contemn and renounce
a man, that human nature is frail, them.  On the contrary, poverty
and that thou mayest easily fall. and ignominy are evils: man natuBut if, happening to forget what rally avoids them; if these evils
thou art, thou chancest to fall, be attack the wise man, it is ligllt that
not discouraged; remember that he should rid himself of them, but
thou mayest rise again; that it is not by a crime.
in thy power to break the bands   12 The good man employs himself
which join thee to thy offense, and  only with virtue; the bad only with
to subdue the obstacles which hin- his riches. The first continually
der thee f-rom walking in the paths thinks upon the good and interest
of virtue.                        of the State; but the last thinks on
5 If a man feel a secret shame what concerns himself.
when he he hears impure and unchaste  13 The way that leads to virtue is
discourses-if he cannot forbear long [straight the gate and narrow
blushing thereat-he is not far from  the way], but it is the duty to finish
that resolution  of spirit which this long race.  Allege not for thle
makes him  constantly seek after excuse, that thou hast not strength
good, and have an aversion for evil. enough, that ditficulties discourage
6 The wise man never hastens, thee, and that thou shalt be at last
either in his studies or his words; forced to stop in the midst of thy
he is sometimes, as it were, mute; course.  Thou knowest nothing;




312                     THIE ARABULA.
begin to run: it is a sign that thou wander and lose himself. The first
hast not as yet begun.            can never know any thing exactly;
14 It is necessary, after an exact and the last will only pursue shadand extensive manner, to know the ows.
causes, properties, differences, and   17 To the mind, virtue [chastity,
effects of all things.            integrity, uprightness]  communi15 It is necessary to meditate in cates inexpressible  beauties and
particular, on the things we believe perfections; to the body it produces
we know, and to weigh every thing delightful sensations; it affords a
by the weight of reason, with all certain physiognomy, certain transthe attentiveness of spirit, and with ports, certain ways, which  infithe utmost exactness whereof we nitely please. And, as it is the proare capable.                      perty of virtue to becalm the heart
16 He who in his studies wholly and keep the peace there, so this
applies himself to labor and exer- inward tranquillity and sectet joy
cise, and neglects meditation, loses produces a certain serenity in the
his time; and he who only applies countenance, a certain air of goodhimself to meditation, and neglects ness, kindness, and reason, which atexperimental exercise, does only tract the esteem of the whole world.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
THE PERSIAN PROPHETS.
CHAPTER I.              matter I Rescue us from the fetters
of dark and evil matter 1
THE  PERSIiN I TANT.
6 Intelligence is a drop from
TET us take refuge with Mezdam  among the drops of the ocean of
[God] from  dark and evil thy place of Souls.
thoughts which molest and afflict  7 The Soul is a flame from among
us..                             the flames of the fire. of thy resi2      ( Creator of the essence of sup- dence of Sovereignty.
ports and staysl  O  Thou who   8 Mlezdam  is hid by excess of
showerest down benefits!  O Thou light. He is Lord of his wishes;
who formest the heart and soull not subject to novelties; and the
O Fashioner of forms and shadows! great is small, and the tall short,
O Light of lights I               and the broad narrow, and the deep
3 Thou art the first, for there is is as a ford to him.
no priority prior to Thee l        9 Who causeth the shadow  to
4 Thou art the last, for there is no fall. The inflamer, who maketh the
posteriority posterior to Thee!  blood to boil.
5 0 worthy to be lauded I deliver  10 In the circle of thy sphere,
us from  the bonds of terrestrial which is without rent, which neither




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                     313
assumeth a new shape nor putteth  speakest to me, though  mortals
off an old one, nor taketh a straight imagine  that thou  speakest to
course, Thou art exalted, O Lord I them.
From Thee is praise, and to Thee is  3 I am never out of thy heart, and
praise.                             I am contained in nothing but in
11 Thy world of forms, the city  thy heart.
of bodies, the  place  of created   4 And I am nearer unto thee than
things is long, broad, and  deep. thou art unto thyself.  Thy Soul
Thou art the accomplisher of de- reacheth me.
sires.                               5 In the name of Mezdam, O
12 The eyes of Purity saw Thee SiamerI I will call thee aloft, and
by the luster of thy substance.     make  thee  my  companion; the
13 Dark and astounded is he who  lower world is not thy place.
hath seen Thee by the efforts of the   6 Many times daily thou escapest
Intellect.                          from thy body and comest unto me.
(:CHAPTER II.             Now, thou art not satisfied with
coming unto me from time to time,
Mezdana, the First Cauee, or God, speak- and longest to abide continually
etA to thae I~Worshiper.   nigh unto me; I, too, am not satisMY  light is on  thy counte- fied with thy absence.
nance; my word is on thy   7 Although thou art with me, and
tongue.  Me thou seest, me thou  I with thee, still thou desirest and
hearest, me thou smellest, me thou  I desire that thou shouldest be still
tastest, me thou touchest.          more intimately with me.
2 What thou sa.yest, that I say;   8 Therefore will I release thee
and thy acts are my acts.  And I from thy terrestrial body, and make
speak by thy tongue,'and  thou  thee sit in my company.
PROVERBS OF
SYRUS THE SYRIAN.
CH:AP rTER Ice                neied the Name SYRus, in actcordan.ce
CHAPTER  with the custom by which slaves took
twi the tran.slcttor'spreface it is staid that   a name derived froin that of their
~  like     eece and Phdrhus, SyruTs    rovince.  The young Syrian was
)cassed his early years in slavery.  ftir cand well formed." Thlese Prov-.But a8s oe have no eviden7ce that he   erbs were wvritten about ftrty years
eoats born a slate, it is &epposed he   before the Christia7n erat.
ben.m trone, wred Syriac his naomtive D   not fiudryour happiness in
province by Pompey (year of Rome,        another's sorrow.  Receive
690); B.. 64). lIe wa.s brought to an injury rather than do one.
jLome wthe'ibout twelve years of atge,  2 Human reason grows rich by
by am ivferior officer of the ar'my,
cmdled Dosnitius, and there.pon r- self-conquest. He has existed only,
14




314'rm   ARt~ABUra.
not lived, who lacks wisdom in old  folly of rel~ianee ucpon erternals.
age.  e egahorteth to a clear conscience,
ag-re.....        and showeth an empire to every ntan.
3 A wise man rules his passions;
a fool obeys them.                HTEIRE is no safety in regaining
4 Be not blind to a friend's faults;      the favor of an enemy. It is
nor hate him for them. Friendship madness to put confidence in error.
either finds, or makes, equals.     2 The blessing which could be re5 He sleeps well who knows not ceived, can be taken away. Whatthat he sleeps ill.                ever you  can  lose, you should
6 It is well to yield up a pleasure, reckon of no account.
when a pain goes with it.           3 Reflect on every thing you hear,
7 Men are all equal in the pres- but believe only on proof.
ence of death.  He dies twice who  4 The less a mortal desires, the
perishes by his own hand. The less he needs.  Avoid the sweet
evil you do to others you may ex- which is like to become a bitter.
pect in return.                     5 Control yourself, and you con8 Happy he who died  [in old quer a kingdom.
age] when death was desirable.      6 It is a kingly spirit that can re9 We  make  the nearest  ap- turn good deeds for reproaches.
proaches to the gods [the angelsl He who takes counsel of good faith
in our good deeds.                is just even to an enemy.
10 A  knave or a fool thinks a   a Discord gives a relish for congood deed is thrown away. The cord.  Even  calamity  becomes
more benefits bestowed, the more  virtue's opportunity.
received. Never forget a favor re-  8 For him who loves labor, there
ceived; be quick to forget a favor is always' something to do. The
bestowed.                          hope of reward is the solace of
11 There is no sight in the eye, labor.
when the mind does not see.         9 The life which we live is but a
12 There is but a step between a small part of the real life. A great
proud man's glory and his disgrace. man may commence life in a hovel.
13 The wounds of conscience al-  10 A prosperous worthlessness is
ways leave a scar.  Consult your the curse of high life.  Many conconscience rather than public opin- sult their reputation; but few
ion. Consider what you ought to their conscience.
say, and not what you think.        11 Pardon the offense of others,
14 Wisdom had rather be buffet- but never your own.
ed than not be listened to. Folly  12 The sinner's judgment began
had rather be unheard than be buf- the day that he sinned.  WVollcd
feted.                            you have a great empire?  Rule
15 He who longs for death, con- over yourself.
fesses that life is a failure. A god
[any thing externals can hardly dis-        CHPTE   III
turb a man trully happy.'es maketh plain the patth qf the noble
16 Patience is a rWmnedy for every   and raghteoUs. Good men lhe ectolleth,
and looketh,/or good even frowl the
sorrow. What happens to one man    alds ofthforood e ven froil
may happen to all.
may happen to all          A  TRULY noble nature cannot
CHAPTER II.                    be insulted,
Sym.r r-eeeteth error, and showeth the  2 Slander is moro injurious than




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                   315
open violence.  It is easier to do'ETHY  do we not hear the
an injury than to bear one.              truth?  Because we do not
3 To forget the wrongs you re- speak it.  Confession of our faults
ceive is to remedy them.           is the next thing to innocence.
4 The right is ever beyond the   2' He can do no harm  who has
reach of the wrong.  To do good lost the desire to do it.
you should know what good is.       3 You should not lead one life in
5 In the art of praying, necessity  private and another in public.
is the best of teachers.            4 The judge is condemned, when
6 A noble spirit finds a cure for the criminal is acquitted.  Not the
injustice in forgetting it.  Miighty  criminals, but their crimes, it is
rivers may easily be leaped at their well to extirpate.
source.                             5 A good conscience never utters
7 The fear of death is more to be mere lip prayers.
dreaded than death itself.          6 Better please one good  man
8 You will find a great many than many bad ones.  There is
things before you find a good man. nothing  more wretched  than a
A great fortune sits gracefully on a mind conscious of its own wickedgreat man.                         ness.
9 The good man can be called   7 The memory of great misformiserable, but he is not so. The tunes suffered, is itselfa misfortune.
death of a good man is a public   8 The sweetest pleasure arises
calamity.                          from difficulties overcome.
10 A wise man never refuses any   9 Misfortune  is  most  men's
thing to necessity.  There is no- greatest punishment.  No man is
great evil which does not bring  happy who does not think himself
with it some advantage.            so.
10 He is never happy  whose
thoughts always run with his fears.
tHe reb4deth typbocrisey,   and esorteth a   11 God looks at the clean hands,
t he jfedges to be me'rc~ful as well as
just. le ewplai; eth misfbrtunes, ad not the full ones. Patience reveals
commendeth patience.             the soul's hidden riches.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. GABRIEL.
CHAPTER  I.                   THOU Eternal Onel whose
presence all space doth ocThe inspired Russian statesman, Ga- cupy; all motion guide.
briel Derzhaqrvi, who in the sevenI-  2 Thou only Godl Being above
teenth century held a high place
among the poets qf This colountry, afnd all things, whom none can compreoho i.s now "wearing tihe gyarerets of bhend; who fillest existence with
eternal day beyond this little sphere," thyself alone: embracing all; supwrote an ode to Deity, of whiLch the  porting ruling whom we
following  sentces fibrm  tVe sub-  orting, ruling all; being whom we
stance:                         I caill "God."




316                     THE ARABULA.
3 Philosophy may measure out  acenoieedget7i Uis o4in nsignflece..
the ocean deep; may count the   God Viv-et/At all  ifA, and:eceziveth
sands or the sun's rays.
4 But God! for Thee there is no   UT the effluence of Thy light
weigrht nor nmcasulre.    None canl ~'divine, pervading worlds, hath
mount up to thy mysteries. Rea- reached my bosom.  Yes, in my
son, though kindled by Thy light, spirit doth  Thy spirit shine, as
2in vain would try to trace  Th  shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew.
couin vain woulsels and try ought, liktrace past 2 Therefore I live, and on Hope's
counsels; and thought,  like past
moments in eternity, is lost ere  pinions fly towards Thy presence;
mothought can soarniso, high.     dwefor in Thee I live, and breathe, and
thlrlt n na  n hidwell.
5 AUll sprung fromrn Thee-Light,
oy, Harmony ail l ife, all beauty   3 I am, 0 God, and surely Thou
Joy, Harmony-all life, all beauty must be!
Thine.
6 Thine.y splendor fills all spa  wit 4 Thou art directing, guiding all.
6 Thy splendor fills all space with Direct my understanding, thon, to
rays divine. Thou art, and wast, Direct        myConderstandinr, then, to
and shalt be the life-giving, life- Thee Control heay pi, for it, guide m y
sustaining Potentate.            wandering heart, fbr I am fashioned
7 Thou the beginning with the by Thy hand.
end hast bound; and beautifully   5 I hold a middle rank'twixt Heaven and Earth, on the last verge of
mingled Life and Death I
8 Suns and worlds spring forth being, close to the realm  where
from Thee I and as the spangles in angels dwell-just on the boundary
the sunny rays shine in the silver of the spirit-land I
snow, so the pageantry of heaven's  6 The chain of being is complete
bright army glitters in Thy praise I In me; in me is matter's last grada9 A million torches, lighted by tion lost. The next step is SpiritThy  hand, wander  unwearied Deity 
through the blue abyss.'7 I can command the lightning,
10 What shall we call them? and am  dust; a monarch and a
Piles of crystal light? A glorious
company  of  golden  streams?  8 Whence came I here, and how?
Lamps of celestial ether?  Suns, so marvelously constructed  and
conceived, and unknown. This life
lighting systems with their joyous
beams   But  o    joyou a lives surely through some higher
beams? But Thou, to those, art/
as the noon to night.            energy; for from out itself alone it
11 Yes, as a drop of water in the  c ould not b     e.
sea, all this magnificence in Thee is Thy reatord created me. Thou source
lost. What are a thousand worlds, of liht and created me. Thou spirit of
compared to Thee?               of light and good I Thou spirit of
compared to Thee?                my spirit, and my Lord 
12 And what am I when Heaven's  10 Thy Ligt, Thy Love in their
unnumbered host, though multiplied bright plenitude, filled me with an
by myriads, and arrayed in all the brighmortal soul, so that I can spring
glory of sublimest thought, is but  over the  abyss of Death.
an atom in the balance, weighed  11 Tei   I shall wear the gragainst Thy greatness-a  cipher ments of Eternal Day, and wing
brought against infinity?       my heavenly flight beyond this
CHAPTER II.             little sphere, even to its source-to
The psalmist traceth his life to God. Hfe Thee I




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                 317
12 0 thouglt ineffable I 0 vision. Thy vast works I admire, obey,
blestl  God! thus alone my lowly adore. And, when the tongue is
thoughts can soar; thus seek Thy eloquent no more, the soul shall
presence.                        speak in tears of gratitude.
13 Being Il wise and goodl amid
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. JOHN.
CHAPTER  I.               Meek Reverence, kneeling in
T72e beloved prophet-poet qf New Eng-    the aisle,
and hatAl  manay inspired  utter-   Cried out "Forbearl"
ances; amcong thenm are these  verses
o0 hope/or the cworld:
ALL grim and soiled, and brown   5 Gray-bearded Use, who, deaf
with tan,                        and blind,
I saw a Strong One, in his       Groped for his old accustomed
wrath,                           stone
Smiting the godless shrineof    Laned on his staff, and wept,
to find
mlan
mAlong his path.              His seat o'erthrown.
Abahg6 Young ise path.is
2 The Church beneath her tremb- 6 Young Romance raised his
ling~E~   dome  ~dreamy eyes,
Essayed in vain her ghostly      O'erhnng with playful locks
charm;                           of gold,
Wealth shook within his gilded   "Vhy smite," he asked, in sad
~~~~~~home  ~surprise,
With pale alarm.                 " The fair, the old?"
3 Fraud from his secret chambers  7 Yet louder rang  the Strong
fled                             One's stroke;
Before the sunlight bursting     Yet nearer flashed his ax's
in;                             gleam;
Sloth drew her pillow o'er her    Shuddering and sick of heart, I
head                             woke,
To drown the din.                As from a dream.
4 "Spare," Art implored, "yon  8 I looked: aside the dust-cloud
holy pile;                       rolledThat grand old time-worn        The  Waster  seemed  the
turiet spare;"                   Builder too;




318                    THE ARABULA.
Upspringing from the ruined 15 Where the doomed victim in his
Old                             cell
I saw the New.                  Had counted o'er the weary
hours,
9'Twas but the ruin of the bad-  Glad school-girls, answering to
The wasting of the wrong           the bell,
and ill;.              Came crowned with flowers.
Whate'er of good the old time
had                      16- Grown wiser for the lesson
Was living still.                  given,
I fear no longer. for if know
10 Calm grew the brows of him I    That where the share is deepest
feared;                         driven
The frown which awed me         The best fruits grow.
passed away,
And left behind a smile which 17 The  outworn right, the old
cheered                         abuse,
Like breaking day.              The pious fraud, transparent
grown,
11 Green grew the grain on battle-    The good held captive in the
plains,                         use
O'er swarded  war-mounds        Of wrong alonegrazed the cow;
The slave stood forging from  18 These wait their' doom  from
his chains                      that great law
The spade and plow.             Which makes the past time
serve to-day;
12 Where frowned the fort, pavil-    And fresher life the world shall
ions gay                        draw
And cottage windows, flower-    From their decay.
entwined,
Looked out upon the peacefill 19 Ohl backward-looking son of
bay                             time I
And hills behind.               The new is old, the old is
new,
13 Through vine-wreathed cups,    The cycle of a change sublime
with wine once red,          Still sweeping through.
The lights on brimming crystal fell,               20 So wisely taught the Indian
Drawn, sparkling, from the riv-       seer:
ulet's bed,                  Destroying   Seva, forming
And mossy well.                    Brahm,
Who wake by turns Earth's
14 Through prison walls, like hea-      love and fear,
ven-sent hope,               Are one, the same.
Fresh breezes blew, and sunbeams strayed,          21 As idly as in that old day
A.nd with the idle gallows-rope   Thou mournest, did thy sires
The young child played.            repine,




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                     319
So, in his time, thy child grown   death, and knowetfh that all qwill be
gray, for thine.            right beyond.
Shall sigh forTthine.          TKNOW  not what the  future
lI       hath
22 Yet, not the less for them  or       Of marvel or surprise,
thou                         Assured alone tlhat life and death
The eternal step of Progress       His mercy underlies.
beats
To that great anthem, calm and  2 And if my heart and flesh are
slow,                               weak
Which God repeats I                To bear an untried pain,
The bruised reed He will not
23 Take heart — the Waster builds            break,
again-                         But strengthen and sustain.
A charmed life old goodness
hath;                      3 No  effering of my own I have,
The tares may perish-but the         Nor works my faith to prove;
grain                        I can but give the gifts He gave,
Is not for death.                  And plead his love for love.
24 God works in all things; all 4 And so beside the Silent Sea
obey                           I wait the muffled oar;
His first propulsion from the    No harem from Him can come to
night:                            I me
Ho, wake  and watcht! —the    Oa ocean or ou shore.
world is gray
With morning light I          5 I know not where His islands hft
CHAPTER  II.                   Their fronded palms in air;
John, being full qf the love of Go(d, corm-   I only kn v I cannot drift
febsetl his humility.  ie waiteth for  Beyond His love and care.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
GULDENSTUBB"E.
CHAPTER I.                  wa.s neCessary that there should be the
male and female, or the posti.tve and
These Scriptues wer'e obtained by the z egative  icfltuences, presetnt.  The
Baron de G(ldenstubbg and his itL-  result is a little book, consisting of
spired Sister. These sentences are   detaheled thoughts, in the Frenach lanselected from arttong a gretat nntber,  guaLe. 2'Ie aco'Utt o/ how and wOhei,
which were produced on paper by t   the   tey were obtaiined mnay be fottnd in
spirits alone, and slot through  the   a volnse by te ieBaron, enttitled,' Beahacnd of a mediutsn. The Baron di,-  liti des h~orits et Pht/en)omnee MJer.
covered that, to gain this Scripture, it   villeux-de lere'Ecsritar e direete."]




320                     THIE ARABULA.
PRAYER is the touchstone of  15 Happiness loosens the bridle
the spiritual man.               of strength.
2 Immortality is the Aurorawhich   16 The scenes of life pass like the
enlightens this world.           shadow which flies before the sun.
3 Wisdom is the garden wherein  17 The man who forever defers
philosophy must cull her flowers.  doing good is like the swamp of the
4 Peace is the seal which the desert.
angel from beyond the tomb im-  18 The whirlwind of misfortune
presses on the forehead of her bears away the just to depose him
chosen.                          in the bosom of the Divinity.
5 Purity is the robe of the angels,  19 He before whom the depths
and righteousness is the helmet of are open, and who enables the
the wise.                        eagle to balance himself on vacancy,
6 In the beginning the spirit of can likewise fill with favors the
man reposes within the bosom of depths of the human heart.
Divinity.
7 Behold, oh men I! the eagle ris-                  II.
ing in the air. He soars toward rHE prison of the body is most
the heights of wisdom, leaving he- -   wearisome to the enlarged
hind him the abysses of folly. The Spirit which aspires to immortality.
wise resembles him if he turn not  2 An ardent desire to tear the vail
his head earthward.              which hides from us the Divinity,
8 The vertigo of pride turns wis- is the ladder with which we dscend
dom  into folly. Humility is the to heaven.
basis of true grandeur.  Great  3 True love cannot exist without
things are accomplished by her, purity of heart.  Barrenness of
and small things by pride.       heart is the greatest of evils.
9 Hatred only takes root in nar-  4 Oh, justice, truth, charity! royal
row hearts, and anger finds in little mantle of the divine, how difficult
minds his sting.                 is it to incarnate you into humanity!
10 The intelligence of man passes  5 Purity and humility should form
like lightning before the look of the the diadem which adorns the brow
Eternal.                         of woman.
11 Death is the sword-blade of the  6 Miracles, far from  being conangel who guards the road to the trary to the laws of Nature, are
tree of life, but already has the love actually a necessary condition in the
of God blunted the point.        organization of the universe. Mira12 When immortality commences cles merely manifest the power of
doubt ceases, the soul, emancipated spirit over matter by suspending for
from her chains, wonders, believes, a time the effects of inert forces.
and falls at the feet of Deity. Eter-  7 The universe is an immense
nity I we cannot comprehend thee, book which the highest seraphim
till we have entered thy sublime had not yet perused.
portals I                         8 Prayer is the grand vehicle of
13 Innocence is an aureole from  the spiritual: time and space are
the other world which decks the absorbed in an infinite eternity, to
forehead of the child, but the dust the soul which is separated from
of years effaces it.             matter.
14 The stoic knew how to escape  9 Science, worthy of its name,
the world; the disciple of Pytha- never fails to discern the greatness
goras how to suffer it.          of God in the laws of Nature.




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                     321
10 In the last agony, man, instead  state may extend to an ubiquity
of becoming unconscious, has, on more or less complete.
the contrary, a double consciousness,  21 Spirits have  their existence
perceiving  things terrestrial and  where time flows into eternity, and
things invisible.                   space is inclosed in infinity, as the
11 The passage through the valley  dew-drop is lost in the ocean.
of Gehenna [lthlrough the: dark pas.  22 Thanks to sympathy I that insages of selfishness and passion] is ner attraction, whereby  a more
the most trying to man. Tile mercy  advanced spirit can draw one less
of God alone can shorten it.        perfect toward himself; by inducing
12 Death is no longer a mystery- the latter to progress more quickly
nothing dies; all exists, and. is only  in the way of' perfection.
transformed.  God is not the God   23 All efforts made by philosoof the dead, but of the living.     phers and theologians to conciliate
13 ~Oh, my God, send us (as to faith with reason have necessarily
Elijah) thy celestial fire, and kindle  failed, not having been founded onil
in our hearts that sublime faith the solid basis of a positive Spiritwhich can move mountains.           ualism.
14 Charity is strong as death, and   24 True liberty of heart consists
stronger than the walls of hell. in obedience toward Providence, and
Hope is the prospect of life eternal its ministers, the angels and genii,
in thee.                            called "gods " in all revelations of
15 The lily of the valley conceals religion.
itself between two large leaves, yet  25 Weakness of heart is the punscents the air with the most deli- ishment of cowards.   Adversity
cate perfume.  So should the Chris- fortifies a noble heart.
tian, though hlmble, fill the world  26 The search for truth is the bewvith his good works.               ginning of wisdom. Hope guides
16 Intolerance  is a conformity  us to the threshold of eternity.
with evil spirits.  Alas  true tole-  27 An enthusiasm for the love of
rance reigns alone in the kingdom  good is the sacred fire of the soul!
of the heavens.                     Tile profound conviction of imnaor17 The  love of  God  is that tality can alone produce a sublime
heavenly flame [the light of Ara- death.
bula] which enlightens each man   28 The union of two noble hearts
who comes into the world.  By  is like a diamond dropped from the
losing the love of God we lose the crown of God.
love of good, faith in good, and   29 The fool is preoccupied with
even the hope of eternal life.     things  of no  moment.-  Mental
18 A lively desire is the spiritual slavery is the seal of infamy.  A
railway which bears the spirits, by  nbble enemy ever admires his adthought, toward those they love; versary.
for the thought of a spirit is hinself.      CHAPTER  III.
19 Spirits incognizant of distance
may perceive  numberless happy   ACCORDING to so-called orthostates, in the different universes, as -fA     dox teachers, the demon is
the rich man saw Lazarus, or as the  the soverei gn master of the creation,
lucid clairvoyant here sees at a dis- whilst God is seated, like an old
tance.                              saint, impotent and superannuated,
2() State, in the spirit, depends not in a niche of the uunverse.
on place. Thanks to Thought I the   2 The supernatural world of in.
145




322                      THE ARABULA.
visible causes, of which the soul of consists in knowing nothing and in
man forms a part, is in continual and  doubti;ag of all —of God, of present
intimate rapport with the material happiness, and of a future life.
and visible world.                  13 Our ltearnmed men do not see
3 The greet ulcer of antiquity  that the truly strong mind rests not
consisted in a tendency to Polythe- in the  small sphere of credible
ism, whilst in our day humanity  things, but transports itself through
has fallen into the excess of Mate- the regions of immaterial bein(gs, to
rialism.                           study in that region any thing but
4 The vice  of ambition  occa- imaginary and truly substantial, the
sions the most suffering in the next nature and the power of the beings
world, because  there  are  there who dwell therein.
neither thrones, nor prince, nor  14 Incredulity has, become, in our
king, nor mighty one; nor the day, more profoundly rooted than
reverse of these; all are equally  in ancient times. Even the corrupt
pensioners of God.                 era of the Cmesars never so entirely
5 The being of God is love; how, lost religious faithl.
oh man I canst thou define it? The   15 Spiritualism  in our day is a
rays of hope shine even in hell. 0, faint echo of the sweet melodies
the infinite love of God I         from the joyous phalanx of angels,
6 When love reigns in the heart who are preparing to chant the
of a man, it furnishes him with  awakening of humanity.
strength requisite for all noble and   16 The rivers of divine grace, from
generous actions.                  eternity to eternity, are never dried
7 Two closely united hearts are up.
like a flower with double blossoms   17 The angels of the holy plain of
on the same stalk.                 Mamre are on the banks of the
8 The science of the ancients was Eurotas transformed into gods.
a complete  work;  it embraced   18 The revelation of Providence
Causes and effects; it treated of the is universal.  There are no chosen
rapport of the world of spirits with  people. That Thou hast given to
the world of bodies; while our one of thy children, shalt Thou not
academies reduce all to the meanest give to all?
and most narrow limits-to matter  19 Oh, weak and foolish man I
alone.                             that thou reverest in one nation
9 Modern learned men [who are  thou  abhorrest in another; that
under the sway of the selfish intel- which thou adorest in the town of
lect] have rejected from the sane- Salem thou rejectest in the vale of
tuaryof the sciences its most beau- Ida.
teous bud-the study of the soul,  20 To see the face of the Eternal
and of the world of supernatural is to lead a life of contemplation in
and invisible causes.              His presence.
10 Magnetism  is the aurora of   21 Spiritual manifestations rend
science; Spiritualism its rising sun. the vail between death and life.
11 Materialism  reigns in our day  Death is the entering into another
as absolute sovereign on earth: we and better life; the celestial aurora
make it a duty to doubt all that is from which frequently illumines the
not material, nor susceptible of che- face of the dying.
mnical analysis.                    22 Demonophobia and demonola12 The merit of our strong-vminded try are the arms of Satan [Super



NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                  323
stition?]; the rod of iron he has conceived and brought forth by the
held suspended for centuries over one great Intelligence. Spirits are
the church and her bigots.       merely the forms, multiplied and
23 The germs of spirits dwell in individualized, of one great Spirit.
the Divinity, whose will detaches  25 When the shades of death
them from his essence. When once close the eyes of the just in peaceseparated, each germ acquires an ful sleep, hiA guardian angel opens
independent individuality, which to him the gates of the isles of the
cannot perish; for God cannot blessed.
and will not unmake that he has  26 There is One only who is the
made.                            alpha and omega-one universal
24 The unity of all spirit is possi- Being, the beginning and the end
ble, because all intelligences are of all things.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. JAMES.
CHAPTER I.              some higher end in the circuitous
James is the given name of one of the cycles of being.
filgrim teachers of the living Gospel.  6 Change is a fixed law, but
The following is from many of his nothing is lost. The storms that
utterances:                     howl so fiercely, purify the atmoIFE and death, like the positive sphere; showers that rust grains
and negative forces, are twin revive  grasses; stars, like  the
brothers; and, with all the Divine pleiades, that fade from our eyes,
arrangements, equally desirable in illumine remoter parts of the unitheir time.                      verse.
2 Winter dies in northern lati-  7 The  pearly  dew-drops, that
tudes, that Spring, wreathed in from  millions of plants hang in
buds and flowers, may come.       glittering  crystallizations, to  be
3 The worm assumes the chrysalis taken away by the rising sun, are
form, that it may become a winged not lost, but in a6rial regions they
insect in the mellowed air of morn; become transformed into  clouds,
and man, that the spirit, released frommwhich showers descend, gladfrom  the physical, may  reach, dening the earth.
through aspiration and effort, the  8 Some philosophers teachnot only
angelic existencs.               that " kind words can never die,"
4 The Divine principle of life but that every musical sound is imknows no destruction, no waste, no waste, mortal-traveling a wandering minconsidered in relation to the whole. strel, cheering and charming some
5 Every thing that dies, dies up- one forever.
ward. It is bettered by the pro-  9 And every man's works follow
cess, and prepared to subserve him; they also precede him to the




824                      THF:E ARABULA.
Spirit Land. Eternity  caln only that flow  forever-of the stars,
measure the effects of one kind deed. among whose fields of azure my
The work lives, though the work- raised spirit hath walked in glory.
man dies.                          All were dumb. But when I gazed
10 Man  is a living, thinking,  upon thy living face, I feel that
aspiring, and progressive  being, there is something in the love that
looking for the truths and glories mantles through  its beauty that
of the skies. Yea, more, he is a cannot wholly perish.  We shall
stream  fed from the Infinite foun- meet again, Clemagnthe."
tain-God 1                          14 The human spirit that ever
11 The eternity of man's existence was, is, and eternally will be, was
is sealed in Infinity, and revealed incarnated for the purpose of rethrough the ministry of angels.    caiving  lessons and  experiences,
12 The desire for immortality is that through struggles, sufferings,
as universal as the races of men.    and  defeats, it  might  achieve
13 In the beautiful drama of loet, grander victories, and be ultimately
the intuition of immortality finds a intromitted into a higher, diviner
deep response in every thoughtful consciousness.
soul.  When about to yield his  15 Do not forget the old painter,
young existence as a sacrifice to who, when some one wondered at
fate, his beloved Clemanthe asks if his spending an hour on the shadthey shall not meet again, to which ing of a finger's point, replied:
he replies:  "I have asked that "Pingo in7 ceteroitatem-I paint for
dreadful question of the hills. that eternity 1"   Verily, we are all livlook eternal-of the clear streams, ing, acting, painting for eternity.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. GERRIT.
CHAPTER I.               and upon those low planes, where
lie p~rolcaimeth  gaiast sperstition, ignorance and superstition nourish
rebuketh  oickcedness in hiyh places, and give scope to all great evils.
and calleth uponoe all men to.ernder  3 The people who are most given
God a. reasonable servcic.    to these mysteries and superstitions
Hrp E  priests, be it those of crave the most priests.  Where
1 China,  Hindostan,   Arabia, Americans are content with one
Persia, Europe, America, or else- priest, Spania-rds want many.
where, and be theyllowever honest,  4 In all ages the priesthood has
are the worst enemies of mankind. been deluded as well as deluding.
2 For it is they pre-eminently who   5 Why do I hold the priesthood
keep mankind downin false states, to be so largely responsible for the




NIEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                  325
wrongs and wretchedness of the the certain God. The one imagine,
world?  Because, that these come and the other prove, the existence
chiefly of the lack of religion. and and character of God.
that this lack comes chiefly of the   12 Oh, no, religion needs not a
priesthood.                        priesthood! - It is as simple and
6 Fear and wonder are the chief instinctive as is eating or drlinking.
elements of superstition.  These It is as much born with us as is
are supplied byignorance. Courage our foot or hand.  From ancestral
and composure come of knowledge, faults or other causes our moral
and grow with it.                  affections may be born imperfect.
7'i he way to get rid of the priest- So, too, may our foot or hand be;
hood is to educate the people to but in neither case is our interior
require evidences of what they nature responsible for the imperbelieve, and to form habits of mind fection.
which shall make them as inquisi-  13 Verily, man  is a  religious
tive as the followers of priests are being.  He is made to appreciate
credulous.  Skepticism is the first tile claims of God and man upon
step in the world's progress from a him, and to love his great Father
blind and  false to an intelligent and equal brother.
and true faith.                     14 The religion of human nature
8 The study of the natural sciences is harmony, not only with human
-including, as it does, the habit nature, but with all Nature and
of requiring strict proof-constantly  with  God.  For every part of
diminishes that credulity through Nature is harmonious with'every
which superstition enters, and on other part of it, and all Nature is
which it feeds.                   in harmony with the Author of all
9 Reason  and  knowledge  are Nature.
conscious of their fallible workings;  15 When the matchless inspiraand therefore do they tolerate dif- tions and sublimities of the Bible
ferences of opinion.  They inspire stand no longer in authority and
diffidence as much as ignorance superstition, but in reason and in
does positiveness.                truth only, then they will no longer
10 Natural science has already be made of but the same account
done much to weaken and dispel with the false and foolish thingsmixsuperstition. It has put astronomy ed up in the same pages with them.
in the place of astrology, and made   16 Now, as they have been falsely
alchemy  and the hunt tor the educated, good men feel that they
"Philosopher's Stone " and for the would lose the whole Bible, were
"Universal Solvent " give place to they to lose their confidence in the
Chemistry.  It has liberated mil- least part of it.
lions from their degrading bondage   17 And what will become of the
to the authority of sacred books. Bible when  men shall cease to
and left their reason as free to play take it as an authority, and  to
upon the pages of' the Bible as worship it as a fetish, and to posupon the pages of any other book.  sess and prize it as a charm or an
11 While the mass of men con- amulet?
struct their  God out of their  18 Rather ask, what will become
dreams and delusions, they who of it in the mean time, and dur1ing
study  the natural  sciences are the  superstitious regard  for it.
clarried up through certainties to For th3re is no little dan(er thlat an




326                      THE  AR.IBULi.
age of growing intelligence, dis- tion does in the present churches
gusted with the exaggerated claims to darken and degrade.
fo)r the Bible, will reject it. But  21 Let it not be inferred from
when  this book  shall, like any what I have said that I do not beother book, be submitted-to human  lieve in prayer.  I must cease to
judgment, and men shall feel at believe in human nature ere I can
liberty to discriminate between the cease to believe in prayer. There
merits of its different parts-as, is not on earth a more unnatural
for instance, between the incredible man  than  the  prayerless  man.
story of Jonah and the whale, and Want, fear, and love urge men as
the felt truth of the sermon on the naturally to the Heavenly Parent
Mount-then will it be a new and as thev do children to the earthly
inestimable blessing.              parent.  Beautifiilly nataral was
19 Will there, when the priests Cornelius, who "prayed to God alare gone, be still a demand for ways."  There is nothing, in the
preachers?   Yes,  greater  than bringing  about of which  men
ever I  What will they preach? have, or can have, an agency, for
Will they. like the priests, spend which they should not at all times
the time in telling their hearers be ready to pray.  Prayer for the
what religion  is?   Oh, no; a crop is rational. But prayer for or
minute  a month will suffice for against rain  is as irrational as
that I In a dozen words they can  would be prayer for or against an
say that loving God supremely and eclipse.  Prayer for a safe voyage
the neighbor as ourself; or more is rational.  It is, among other
briefly, that being true to ourself is things, a prayer for self-possession,
religion; or still more briefly, that wisdom, skill on the part of the
being ourself is religion.  But the navigator.  But prayer for this or
question remains, What will they  that wind is irrational.
)preach?  They will preach duties;  22 I affirm  the supreme imporwill tell their hearers what religion tance of religion.  The next life is
calls fbr in the heart and life.  but the continuation of this; and
20 And what shall we do for we begin  there just where we
churches when the present ones leave off here. If we are upon
shall have died out with the priests? low  planes here, we shall enter
We shall have infinitely better; for upon low  planes there.  If here
we shall then  have  temples in we sustain high relations to wisuwhich reason will do as much to dom and goodness, we shall there
enlighten[ and elevate, as supersti- also.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. THEODORE.
CHAPTER  I.                son of the matn who.formed the first
line of defense al,, d drew the  first
Theodore Parker. born August 21. 1810,  swvord in t/.ie wa.r of American Judeat Leiiagto1n, JMass. toaz tue g*:Ld-  pen deJnce.  alThe ins8pirations oj' this




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                     327
great and good preacher are full qf  9 God did not make man with
divine fire, Only a few sentences,  omething redundant to be cut off
amsnoabq thwOaA    ~X~lequMael~ly i csomething redundant to be cut off,
among thousands  equally  inspirecl,
are given below.                  or lacking something to be sought
elsewhere and tied on; he gave us
OD has all the qualities of com-  such frcultie s as are o t for our
a d                                 such faculties as are fit for our
_.  plete and pertect being; He  work
has Infinite Power to do, Infinite  10 But bythetrue andpilosophic
Mind  to know, InfieA ite Conscience  or natural idea of God, all the Evil
to will, Infinite Affection to love, I-  of the worlIn-is somethin  incident to
initm Holiness to be faitn'l to his mn   development, and no more
affections. conscience, mind, power.   mannt thae  the ntublin   of a
petrmanent than the stumbling of a
2 Hle Ilas Beingwithout limitation,    
2 He has Being without limitation  child who learns to walk, or his
-Absolute Being; lie is present in
-Ab u   Beig  h  i pre     scrawling letters when he first esall space, at all times; everywhere  says to write.  It 
always, as much as sometimes any-,             *. I
alwrys, as much as sometimes any- and not a particle of it or its consewhere.
quences shall cleave permanent to
3 lie fills all spirit, not less than  maunind.
all matter; yet is not limited by  ma.
eall matter; t.cedn  both;  ben     11 The very pain the error gives
either, tnscendin0 both; bein  is remedial, not revengeful; it is
alike the materiality of matter, and
alie the materality  of matter, and    medicine to cure and save and bless,
the spirituality of  spirit-that is, not poison to kill and torture with
the substantiality whvllich is the eternalsmart
ground of each, and which sur-  12 Discipline there is, and must
passes and comprehends all.
hpasses and cmprehends all.        be, but only as means to the noblest
4 The evidence of this God is, and   ot joydus end.  his I sy
I and most joyous end. This I s,y
first, in man's Consciousness; and, I am sure of; for it follows logically
second, in the World of Matter out- from  the very idea of the I    te
side of him.                 from the very idea of the Infinite
Perfect God.  Nay, the religious
5 In philosophic men the reflect- instinct anticipates induction, and
instinct anticipates induction, and
ive element prevails; but I do not                    the spontaneous
t.ink. hey-often have much intu-.declares this with the spontaneous
think they often have much intni- womanly logic of human nature ittive  power to perceive  religious self.
truths directly, nor do I think that  13 God includes all, the heathen,
they in the wisest way observe the
the Hebrew, the Mahometan, the
innermost activities ot the human  Atheist, and the Christian; nay,
soul.                               Cain, Iscariot, the kidnapper, are
6 The history of man is the cal- alls  f t
culated consequence of the faculMother, who will not sutiffer absolute
ties God put in man, known before- evi to 
hand to the Infinite Cause, provided  of these, but so tempers the mewr
of these, but so tempers the me
by the Infinite Providence.         chan    of humanism of humanity that all shall
7' My consciousness of God colors
My onscosness o   olcolors  come to the table of blessedness at
all the other facts of consciousness:: last I Death itself is no limit. God's
my world of matter and my world love is e
love is eternal also, providing retriof man take their complexion from                 alt    i
~world of God.          bution for all I do, but pain is
my worldThefe of God.   implies timemedicine.' What is not delight is
8 The feeling of God implies the    o.
idea of Him  as lovely, and leads discipline, the avenue to nobler joy.
idea of Him  as lovely, and leads
unavoidably to the  resolution to             CHAPTER  II.
serve Himrn by the means tllat He  Thepreacher declareth the glory of God,
has provided.                         and matnifestetA his great love for




328                      THE ARABULA.
trim. I'e ylorieth in the  Wores and  with its'garment, and leaves the
Providence of God.  ie,detnounceth
the wickedZness of siuttiny ones eyes sign of God's presence on our doorto the bea.lty andl holiness of tAe posts and lintels.
Fathler. an.Ld exhortoteth all men to walk  7 Think you God made tile wvorld
with Gtl, and aeyI Lis resenBCeJor-  So fair, every flower a sister to a
ever i3n ife and its relationls.~
slar, anll di(i not mean men's eves
[Y  delight in God increases to see, and men's hearts to take a
- -QL  each  special joy  in  the sacramernt tlhereat.
things of matter or in the persons  8 Or daily bread is a delight
of men.                            which begins in babyhood, and only
2 I love the world the more, be- ends when the Infinite Mother folds
cause I know  it is God's world, us to her arms and gives us the
even as a dry leal; given by a lover, bread which does not perish in the
is dearer than all pearls from whoso using.
loves us not I'                    9 In the sunshine of life, every hu.
3 I remember to have heard a man joy is made more joyous by this
man, of a good deal of power too, delight in God.  When these fail,
declare than a man's love for his when health is gone, when rIy eye
garden, his house, his ox, his horse, is dim, when  mliy  estate  slips
his wife, and his children, was all through my hands, and my good
nonsense and absurdity; nay, "a name becomes a dishonor, when
sin " in the eyes of God, and just death takes the nearest and dearest
as hleloved these things the more, of my friends, then my consciouslihe loved God the less; and if he  ness of God comes out, a great light
loved Him supremly, he would care  in my darkness, and a very present
for nothing but God I              help in my tithe of trouble.
4 Every sense has its function,  10 I am  tormented by the loss
and that function is attended with of friends-father, mother, wife,
pleasure, with  joy.   All these child; my dearest of the nearest
natural and normal delights ought are gone; but the Infinite Mother
to be enjoyed by every man; it is folds me to her bosom, and her tena sullenness toward  God not to derness wipes the tears from  my
rejoice and thus appreciate his eyes.
beautifuJ world when we can.        11 God made man to live with
5 St. Bernard walked all day, six matter, and made them  both so
or. seven hundred years ago, by the that t!lere should be good neighborshores of the Like of Geneva, hood between the two, and man
with one of the most glorious pros- i should get delight from the contact.
pects in the whole world before  12 God made men so that they
him —mountain, lake, river, clouds, mi(ht live with each other, and get
gardens, every thing to bless the deeper, dearer, and truer delight
eye-and that monk never saw a  from that intiniacy.
thing all day long.  He was think-  13 Beauty is made up of these
irg about tile Trinity l        | four things-completeness  as  a
6 God made the world of matter whole, perfection of the parts, fitexceeding beautiful, and meant it ness of each part for its function,
should  be rejoiced in by these  and correspondence with the faculsenses of ours: at these five doors ties of man.  These four thlintgs
what a worlde of loveliness comes make up the statics and dynamics
in and brushes against the sides of beauty.




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                   329
14 Now, looked at with the intel- as Superstition is Fear before him.
lectual and aesthetic part of human Fanaticism is a far greater evil than
consciousness, God is absolute beau- Superstition; but in our day it is fir
ty!  Ie is the beauty of being-  less common.
self-existence; the beauty of pow-  7 IMysticism  is sloth before God,
er-almightiness; of intellect-all- as Superstition is Fear, and Fanatiknowingness; of conscience —all- cism is Hate before God. It exists
righteousness;  of affection-all- still in  some of the  Churches.
lovingness; of the soul-all-holl- which cultivate only emotions or
ness; in a word, He is the Abso- reverence, of trust, of love, and the
lute, the altogrether Beautiful I  like, but never let the love of God
Ccome out of the heart in the shape
CWI-APTEIR  III.          of the love of man.
The preacher eaplainet7 h thbe delighful  8.But the true Idea of God, and
relations  eaisticznq between God and the Religion which is to come of
fits createses. lie declcareth  aainst it-which  is love of that God
seper.stitions and s.ottfaiciness toward
God, and revealeth tihe trtie idea of and keeping all his commandments
the per.fections of the in7finite Wisdom  -will work such a revolution in
ancd love.                       man's affairs as Lulther, nor Moses,
W~ E are all connected with the nor  yet  mightiest Jesus  ever
V  World of Matter; with the wrought.
World of Man; and with the World   9 God in Genesis represents the
of God. In each of these spheres we conception of the babyhood of hahavefduties to do, and rights to manity. But manhood demands a
enjoy, which are consequent on the different conception.
duties done.                        10 All round us lies the World of
2 We may derive our habitual de- Matter, this vast world above us
light from any one of these three and about us and beneath; it prosources-the material, the human, claims the God of Nature; flower
and the Divine; or, we may draw  speaking unto flower, star quiring
from all of these.                 unto star; a God who is resident
3 We may content ourselves with therein, his law never broke.
the lowest quality of human de-  It In us is a World of Consciouslights, or we may reach up and get ness, and as that mirror is made
the highest and  dearest quality clearer by civilization, I look down
thereof.                           and behold the Natural Idea of
4 Complete  and  perfect  piety God, Infinite Cause and Providence,
unites all three,-the great Thought Father and Mother to all that are.
— of the Infinity of God; the great  12 Into our reverent souls God
Feeling-of absolute love for Him; will come as the morning light into
and the great Will —the resolution  the bosom of the opening rose.
to serve Him.                       13 Just in proportion as we are
5 The superstitious man thinks faithful, we shall be inspired therethat God must be feared first of all; with, and shall frame " conceptions
and the internal worship of God is equal to the soul's desires;" and
accordingly, with that man, Fear, then, in our practice, keep those
and nothing but fear.              " heights which the soal is comoe6 Fanaticism is Hate before God; tent to win."




330                      THE ARABULA.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. OCTAVIUS.
CHAPTER I.              an age; a thought to a generation;
a thought to a year; a thought to
Oc.ired preacher inV the great Atnia nation, a community, a tribe-as
city. RIe proclairneth the truths of if to insure its being well comprethe li1ving God, and giveth special hended and assimilated by the minds
testi nvy qf thbe  Spirwit to the people of men. Thus we hear often of men
of this generation.]
cf one idea.
IT was said by one of old that  6 Take the m.ost familiar example:
God thought the world into the Jews had, so far as appears,
existence. The universe is a visi- but a single object in existence-a
ble Thought-a mass of divine single motive for being-that was,
Ideas.                           to firmly fix and live into the world
2 Is not each man, too, a thought? the doctrine of "one God."
And each woman?-each  child?   7 The Semitic race was an anvil
Does not each living creature report on which the hammer of GodA prosome idea of God, which no other vidence shaped this idea.  The
creature reports?                Hebrews contributed this, and this
3 Verily, we are all thoughts of only; and it was a contribution that
God-thoughts dark, mysterious, was worth all it cost in time and
inexplicable, unreadable, unintelli- life.
gible, possibly-thoughts so small,
so delicate, so evanescent, so re-CEHPTER  IL
condite, that they escape our notice leo sho'aeth the thought of God in this
-thoughts so confusing and dis-  century. Ife discovereth that the life
tracting that they confound our   ofta nation, as that of a perso, s one
wits; nevertheless, thoughts we
are: divine thoughts-necessary,    VERY  century  has its ruling
in. some way, to fill up the sum of     thought; and this thought is
the divine thinking, and complete always a thought of God. It is always
the sensorium of Deity.           a religious, a divine thought; it is a
4 God's greater thoughts we see thought always. involving the moral
as the ages and generations express and spiritual part of man-his bethem. The thought of an epoch is lief, his aspiration, his hope.
plain. It is a dull mind that canfdot  2 In one age it is the thought of
discern the idea enfolded in a crisis, God himself; in the other age it is
or thrown out by a conspicuous the thought of God in his provievent, in history.                dence; in a third it is a thought of
5 It seems, sometimes, as if God God in his moral purposes; in a
dropped his thoughts one by one fourth it is a thought of God in His
into  the  mind  of mankind-a  spiritual manifestation. But always
thought to a century; a thought to it is a thought of God.




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                   331
3 The Thought of God, then, graciously with his elements, that
which is with us whenever we awake you cannot distinguish them from
to the meaning of our modern life, his natural properties.
is this: The Natural Capacity of   9 The philanthropies of our time.Aan-Man, the individual man, as keep pace exactly with the progress
God's child; Man as the organ, the of this glorious thought.  The reinstrument, the recipient of God's forms of our age, however cruda
influence; Man the worker and co- and coarse in form, express it. The
worker with God.                   noble charities bear witness to it,
4 Our America was born first of bringing opposite classes together
Puritanism; it was born a second for mutual relief.
time of Rationalism; its third and   10 Who fails to see what immeamore perfect birth will be of Spirit- surable hope is contained in thiis
ualism.                            Thought? Our age is distinguished
5 Men are knit to God closerthan  by its hopefulness.  We are the
they suspect.  His thoughts are hopeful people of tle world.
not as our thoughts; but only as   11 Boundless is our faith in the
they are so much above ours in reach recuperative power of things. Give
and scope-so immeasurably beyond time enough, and all will come out
ours in their outgoings; but our right. The body will heal its hurts;
thoughts are his thoughts when  the mind will overgrow its doubts;
they are deepest, and richest, and the heart will conquer fear and
most inspiring.                    sorrow, and will rise victorious over
6 The thought that thrills and the dolors of death.  Disbeliefs
burns in our generation is, that IN  are but the teething of the soul.
man is all capacity for receiving. Progress, progress, progress is the
divine influence; that through man magical panacea for all ills.
is all working of the divine operation; that man is the recipient and         CHAPTER III.
the organ of that which we call
" divine power."                   ThLe quality qf Mian's spirit is revealed
by his ideal in religion. T~l'e preacher
7 To every human being, however   beholdeth a tnew dispensation; and
mean and degraded, however cheap   prophesiethb a new  interpretation
and vile in the eyes of his fellows,,  of Christianity, and a new reading
there remains a great conscious-          the Scripture
ness; that of being designed for      HE fact that modern Europe
something; that of signifying some-  l   has adored  Jesus  [as an
thing- that of counting for some- Ideal] attests the presence of some
thing, somewhere, if only as the vailed grandeur in the hearts of the
leaves count for something, which adorers. The nearer one sits to the
enrich the earth by their fall.   feet of such an ideal, the nearer is
8 All things in him are manifest. his spirit to the eternal.  To sit at
Ay, all divine things. They display the feet of a nancel is to be one's self
themselves in him, and instead of an angel.
chancing him  into another being,  2 Suffering, vice, degradation, imonly make him more perfect in what becility, limitation, were not so
lie is. They are so native to his touching in the pagan world as they
constitution, they agree  so well are in ours; for they were not
with him, they feed him  so natu- thought of as affecting so noble a
rally, they mingle so easily and creature.  Byron makes us drop a




3o2                       THE ARABULA.
tear for the Roman gladiator, but much looking out toward the Infinite
the Romans dropped no tear for -never so much craving for light,
him-he was only a savage.           and life, and immortality.
3 The cure for every ill is the   5 A new form of religious faith is
force that continues us till to-mor- folded up in this Thought of our
row. It is very beautiful, it is very  century.  It is the soul of' a new
comforting, it is very supporting. interpretation of Christianity; the
Traveling through the valley of spirit of a new dispensation.  Man
Baca it makes the barren place a is not to be molded by spirituality,
well, the water filling the pools. To but to be developed by it. Religion
be hopeless is to be unbelieving. the highest expression of man; not
To  despond  is to  discard  the the profoundest impression  upon
Thought of the age.                 him.  Religion that thing which
4 It is said that our people have reveals to man his greatness, not
lost the faculty of praying.  It is that thing which charges him with
true that they do not, as they did, his littleness; a religion  which
resort to stated and formal exer- reveals his angelic nature, not which
cises of devotion: they do not insists on the demonic.
kneel as they used to do, and offer  6 The Bible is a sacred record of
special petitions for special gifts, man's holiest and tenderest experiexpecting special answers.  But of ences heavenward and GodwardPRAvING, in the deep and genuine the Book of Books, because the
sense, there was never so much as Soul's Book-inspired  as all the
there is now. There was never so  Soutl's Books are.
MEDITATIONS OF SAMUEL
IN THE TEMPLE.
S. B. Brittan, the preacher, editor, and   wonder nsdpraise.  ie proclaimeth
autAhor, wacs among thefirst and dos8t  tthe gcspel of Life to the chilclren of
e.,fective pioneers in the new vineyardl..
After many years of incessant devuo-   T i  Morni ng. T he sun  shines
tion to the work, he said: " Ie who    i
plants himsef on te fouatons f gloriously over mountain, plain,
plants himself on the/ountlations o./
popular AJfaterialisnm willfisd that he and river.
stands on a SANl-BAR that is shifting   2 Nature  calls me with  many
abo ut wOith every motion qf the tides in
the affaeirs ofv en, while Spiritualism, voices to worship in her Temple.
like, an en2dlring rock, rises'tup amid  The willing spirit answers, and I go
thie conflicting elements of ignorance forth into the great Fane that is
a-ad passion-a rock zwhich the surge   onserated by the Divine presence.
of Tmow awl Change can ssever shakeconsecrated by the Divine presence.
-on woLose  INeaven-lighted pinnacle  3 No sexton stands at the open
the Angels bulild their altars, and portals to point me to the lowest
kindle beacon-lights to ill.umninate thep
sIorld P  Ibe goveth out on the Sabbath place; and accordingly I will go up
anId lifteth uAp his voice to heaven in  and stand on the pinnacle.




NEW  COLLECTION  OF  GOSPELS.                333
4 The chime of the waters, as  15 He touches the majestic mounthey gush from the sides of the hill, tains, and they are arrayed in soft
is like the music of silver bells, as robes of living beauty.
from  some lofty spire the notes  16 He smiles on the valleys, and
descend' through the still air, to they blossom and offer grateful intrack the silent calls of sense.  cense.
5 It is the  Sabbathl yet all  17 Surrounded by all this beauty
Nature violates the statute, and and harmony, I look, and listen, and
works without interruption.  She am silent-speechiless with admirais weaving virgin robes for the tion, with the fullness of joy that
renovated earth to wear.         finds no earthly expression.
6 The village, reposing beneath,  18 Let me muse a while by this
at the foot of the hill, looks like a grove of young pines. This is consilent worshiper, on bended knee, secrated ground. The forms of the
before the high altar whereon we departed  repose  beneath  these
will offer the incense of our grate- shades.
ful joy.                           19 Here and there, through the
7 Spring is here   I feel her evergreen boughs, the white stones
balmy breath on this brow, and her are visible, pale emblems by which
pulses in these veins.           affection marks the places where its
8 Nature's great heart beats under treasures lie buried.
my feet and over my head.          20 Ah, how many have a vague
9 Electric currents run through  and terrible apprehension that their
every.nerve of her mighty frame, friends thus sleep in the realms of
and  every fiber  moves.  They dark forgetfulness, and how few
play over the delicate pinions of realize that the departed, even now,
the swallow, and he cuts the air possess the boon of conscious and
with  arrow-like  swiftness; they  happy existence.
dance in the throat of the robin  21 These  pines wave  with  a
and the bluebird, and they come graceful and reverent emotion, as
to me in music on every breath of the adrial currents from the adjacent
the morning.                      hills flow through the numberless
10 The currents of the all-pervad- branches.
ing Life flow into every form of tile  22 Nature's airy halls are filled
natural- world, and therefore all with weird strains of sweet and
forms partake of the Divine energy. solemn music.
11-They are beautiful, because in  23 By that white slab kneels a
and through them we perceive the pale mourner; with her tears she
light and life of the Omnipresent moistens the grave of her buried
One.                             hopes, while her subdued moan
12 These green aisles, O Nature I blends with the low cadences of the
are hallowed by the footsteps of murmuring woods.
Deity.                             24 But my spirit rejoices even
13 GOD IS HERE, and the quick here and now; for I know that all
soul feels his presence in the midst that is vital in man still lives, and
of his Temple.                    must live forever.
24 The great dome is radiant with  25 All life, as it is presented for
his light, and these emerald halls human contemplation, is the Divine
were fashioned and garnished by presence made visible in outward
his hand.                         forms.




334                      THE ARABULA.
26 The great Spirit is the primal leaf that unfolds i self to thesunsource of life: God is self-existent shine; every flower that exhales
and eternal; therefore, all life is its perfume on the air, and every
of necessity immortal.             spire of grass that points toward
27 This doctrine is taught here, the Heavens, is an eloquent and
above these graves.               instructive  minister, ordained of
28 Every tree  that spreads its God to preach the Resurrection
branches over the  earth; every and the Life Il
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. ELIZA.
CITAPTER IL             shall be given; seek, and ye shall
Of the spiritual nature of Woman.   find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you."
W OMM AN is feminine, or a true   5 When the spirit acts sovereignwoman, in proportion as she ly, it employs the whole nature
is spiritual.  Anunspiritual woman harmoniously.  Sense, passion, afis masculine, and is therefore re- fection, intellect, have all and each
pulsive.                           their sufficient work; when the
2 The Masculine is the minister spirit is satisfied, they too  are
of the  Material, and  of Force, filled and content. Its perfect sovwhether intellectual or corporeal; ereignty is-not in their extincand the Feminine of the Spiritual, tion; for spirit is cherishing, never
and of Power in its finer and higher destructive, toward any thing that
telatious of Divine use.           exists-but in their cheerful abdica3 The spiritual is the Creative tion in its favor. They forget thempower in the soul of Man or Woman. selves.
It is so by Virtue of its oneness with   6 There is a great inner fullness,
the Great Artist and Creator. It which comes not of bread and meat;
never - lacks  resource - is  not an inner warmth, that is not of fire-daunted by any array of circum- side or ermine; an inner radiance,
stances, for is not the Infinite its which the material sun can little
all-suffering support? It knows no affect; an  unfailing  abundance,
despair, sees no failure; knows  which no tide in outward affairs
that failure is impossible, because can turn to scarcity.
its aims are one with the Divine   7 For litfe is not devised to disapaims, which cannot fail.           point the human soul, but to afford
4 But the aim  of the spiritual it the fullest measure of satisfacnature  is  expansion,  and  the  tion. If the satisfaction is not insimplest form of pure, earnest de- stant, it is because it could not, in
sire secures that.  "Ask, and it the nature of things, be both instant




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPEL S.    335
and ultimate; for Nature, of which  fruitful  Inspirations —the  typical
spirit is the essential, works for mother and child multiplied in variultimates.                         ous forms for the eves and souls of
8 Spiritual power is self-renew- all Women. saying to them, "Go
ing; it increases by diffusion. Give thou and do likewise."
it away if you would enrich your-  5 And the universal human heart,
self in it.  Empty your soul every even though blind and cold, pays a.
evening of all that you can impart, certain involuntary homage to the
if you would find it overflowing in mothers whose children have acted
the morning.                       the Christ-part in their generations.
9 0 heavenly state!  0 divine   6 Spirituality magnifies maternity,
victory,' which defeat can never sees its real glory, and rejoices in it,
dim I Calamity may do its worst. as never other sovereign rejoiced in
Poverty may come, desertion, cold- her earthly crown and scepter. It
ness of friends, bitterness of ene- gives the mother at once pride and
mies, scorn of the world.  They  humility-pride, in her great office,
only kindle a diviner strength or though a manger be its cradlepity, and throw the soul more com- humility, in herself as an instrupletely into the arms of' the Infinite. ment in the Divine hand for its acCHAPTER HI.              comaplishment. " Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me
f the spirit's of/ice in maternity.   according to thy law.  My soul
IT  is the spiritual which is the doth magnify the Lord, and my
creative element of the human spirit hath rejoiced  in God, my
mother-nature, as of Mother Nature Saviour. For he hath regarded the
in the universal sense.  Matter low estate of his handmaiden; for,
does not create.                   behold, from henceforth all genera2 In the mother, spirituality is tions shall call me blessed.  For he
that deepest possible unfolding of that is mighty hath done to me
the life of which only the consciotus- great things; and holy is his name."
ness can take cognizance. It is the This is the language of every true
opening of the heart of the rose, spiritual mother.
whence the tiny, subtle humming-  7 We acknowledge with more unbird may extract the nectar that stinted speech and feeling, the fallsustains him.                     ness of the Holy Spirit in the
3 Spirituality is the characteristic mother; and have a worshipful
of the maiden compared with the feeling toward her, as its pure, reyouth, as it is of the Woman com- sponsiVe recipient; a feeling which
pared with the Man; but the years all mothers command in the degree
which make him more masculine, that they are pure, divine, and
should make her more feminine aspiring  in maternity; and  will
(spiritual); for no other develop. more and more command in proporment whatever can give her a true, tion as they liken themselves to
divine, creative maternity.        the typical Mary in becoming sus4 The Romish Church has acted Ceptible to spiritual aids therein; of
upon a true instinct in making which  susceptibility  a profound
Mary illustrious  among  women. humility as to herself, and gratitude
Art, a far truer system than Papacy, for the greatness of her privileges,
has done the same thing. She has are always among the clearest evibeen one of its grandest and most dences.




336                       THE ARABULA.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. EMMA.
CHAPTER I.                 6 The vail of mystery being lifted
Emmta Hiardinge cwas born in London, discloses the fact that the Almighty
Englandc. She came to America in  is the God of the living, not the
1855. Shfe onwas then opposed to the God of the dead; that the living
idea of cosmzunion woith the arisen.
At length, she became  entranced. are his ministering spirits; that
Then came the woord of power: they can and do come to earth;
"o Emma! you must go out and speak that they are  the ministers  of
to the world."  4fter a time, with
much reluctance, she obeyed the voice light and knowledge, who, in all
from  hea)ven, and her words were ages of the world, have gone forth
good cnd many, andl her nfacme to minister to the heirs of salvawent before her.  The following are tion.
selections from  her sermons to the
people.                             7 Yes, the  last great vail of
rHE aim of the people is, liberty. mystery  is breaking  fast.  The
In every corner of the known  great seventh seal, that so long has
earth, at this day, the  cry  is hidden the word of God, is broken,
"liberty."  Liberty for the body; and the destiny of man and the
liberty for the soul.               knowledge of God are being re2 It is not alone the masses; but vealed.  The vail is rent in twain I
individuals  are  struggling   for  8 Progress is a portion of the
liberty.  The cry has gone forth. eternal gospel of nature, which the
That thought  stimulates  every  ages tell; which the history of all
brain  and every  heart.  Hence, nations teaches; which the advance
from  before every pulpit, around  of every art and every science inthe desk of every writer, the cry  dicates; which  the  history  of
comes, " Liberty for the soul."     planets, suns, and stars proclaims;
3 Oh, Mystery l thou art indeed  which man himself spells out from
the mother of the abominations of the cradle to the grave, in a perthe earth.-                         petual series of progressive experi4 Oh, mystery I can  there  be ments, each one leading to the cultruth and mystery together?  Is it minating point when his spirit is
a possibility that God's works, if he set free, to put in practice the rebe our Father, shall be a mystery  suits of the follies, the trespasses,
to us, his children?                the hopes, the wishes, the aspira5 There is no mystery save your tions which he has gained in his
own ignorance, and your submission  earthly career.
or tyranny one to another.  All the
wonders of the Almighty's gospel
have unrolled themselves in the She teacheth the gospel qf God's provilight of knowledge, or are now be-   dence in his laws cnd works. She upcoming manifest to the investigat-   braideth the people fbr lqukewarmness,
coming manifest to the iavestigat-  na*d counseleth all to live truly and dian
ing spirit of man.                    ike the ancient One.




NEW  COLLECTION OF GOSPELS.                  337
O T I we need not go and listen   7 Neither believe ye in the imto the boom of the mighty mortality of the soul, or if ye do, ye
ocean; we need not wait for the do not manifest it. Ye write on
thunder of the skies or the flash of tombstones: "Here lies," "Here
the lightning; we need not gaze remains," "Here sleeps;" and ye
into the immensity of space to find do this in view of that word which
out God.  Every forest tree and tells you of the God of the living.
every blade of grass will tell the  8 0, Man I behold what thy spirit
tale-will show  wisdom, design, is; take heed of its destiny, observe
calculation.                     its origin; know that knowledge is
2 All things in nature reach their power; as thou dost know thyself
perfection here, except the spirit.   so wilt thou die as the wise and
3 We find that there is in the virtuous Socrates died.
spirit a constant progress; from   9 Give us our daily bread for the
the cradle to the grave, the spirit body, is the cry of the materialist;
manifests growth, but never change. but wherefore do you not ask daily
Whatever is impressed upon the bread for the soul?  We will tell
consciousness of the babe, remains you why ye do not ask it-bewith the old man.                cause it has been poured upon you;
4 Yea, the destiny of the spirit is because the measure has  been
eternal progress I Stand upon the pressed down and running over;
highest point to which your imagi- because the light has shone in the
nation can climb, amid all the darkness, though the darkness
glories of sunlit skies and rainbow  comprehended it not.
arches, pointing up to higher and
yet higher worlds of light and            CHAPTER III.
splendor; and doth not thy spirit Slie glorieth in theprocesses of death as
aspire to it all?                 the steps of life. The.fiality qf Sin
5 Who among ye white-haired   is prophesied. God's light shinet in
old men, as ye plant your trembling  n  darknt8es.              -
feet on the verge of the grave, can  DOME, on her seven hills of
say: "My soul is full; I ask for JLpride, with her noble Coliseum,
nlo more; my soul is the perfect her towers, her mighty palaces, her
flower of my existence; there is no men of wisdom, her legislation, her
more to be added?"  The cry is warrior strength and martial freestill for to-morrow; the cry is still dom, was enough for her day.
for light; and the dim eye opens  2 Corinth  and  Athens  were
like a window of the soul looking enough for their time, but not
through  upon eternity, and still enough for after time.
searching for and feeling after the  3 They had no great factories, no
endless vistas of a perpetually re- steam-engines, no telegraphs, no
turning to-morrow. These are the railroads, no labor-saving machievidences of immortality.        nery, no printing-press, nothing of
6 In every condition of life this all that beautiful new life that has
immortality would be a lamp for grown up out of the ashes of the
your feet. Ye build houses for to- old world. She has perished in the
morrow; why are none building night of death for her imperfecmansions  for  eternity?  Alas I tion.
alas I either ye do not believe  4 All hail, then, to that which ye
what your religionists teach ye, or term  " death."  Trace its action,
ye fail in your life-practice.    and ye find it touches nothing
15




338                      THE  ARABBULA.
but sin; that it leaves the good-  inharmony produced is life; the
that which is the gift of God it misery that follows is death.
leaves to the inheritance of eternal  9 The world revolts against sin,
life.                              and pronounces judgment upon it.
5 Nothing which has been, which  " It shall not be," is the cry of the
was beautiful Or true in the past, world.
has ever died.                      10 Nature grants to every thing
6 Man's' sin is finite; must not a stereotyped form, for the purpose
his punishment be so also?         of incarnating the life, and giving
7 Oh I ye who advocate the eter- the spirit expression.
nity of punishment for a finite sin,  11 Hence, premature or violent
open the page of your Bible and death is a misfortune, for it is an
read that the wages is paid with  infraction of the order of nature.
death.                              21 But God is good, arid bringeth
8 When sin is accomplished, the light out of man's darkness.
T HE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. RALPH.
CH~APTER I.               5 Whenever a mind is simple, and
receives a divine wisdom, old things
Ralph Waldo Emenrson, one of then- pass away,-means, teachers, texts,
spired Scripturalists of this century,
quttereth the liivng aoioms qf God to temples, fall; it lives now, and abthe multitde. From  his many ret#- sorbs past and future into the preelations the 1bllowig  passages are sent hour. All things are made
taken.
sacred by relation to it.
TO the poet, to the philosopher.G  When a man lives with God,
1    to the saint, all things are his voice shall be as sweet as the
friendly and sacred, all events pro- murmur of the brook and the rustle
fitable, all days holy, all men divine. of the corn.
2 A man should learn to detect  7 The soul raised over passion be
and watch that gleam of light Which holds identity and eternal causaflashes across his mind from within, tion, perceives the self-existence of
more than the luster of the firma- Truth and Right, and calms itself
ment of bards and sages.           with knowing that all things go well.
3 We lie in the lap of immense   8 Nothing can bring you -peace
intelligence, which makes us re- but yourself. Nothing can bring
ceivers of its truth and organs of you peace but the triumph of prinits activity.                      ciples.
4 The relations of the soul to the  9 Proverbs, like the sacred books
Divine Spirit are so pure, that it is of each nation, are the sanctuary
profane to seek to interpose helps.  of the intuitions.




NEW  COLLECTION OF GOSPELS.                   339
10 The soul will not know either and theywillshowthemselvesgreat,
deformity or pain.               though they make an exception in
11 For it is only the finite that your favor to all their rules of
has wrought and suffered; the in- trade.
finite lies stretched in smiling re-  5 I see not any Toad of perfect
pose.                            peace which a man can walk, but
12 0 my brothers, God exists. after the counsel of his own bosom.
There is a soul at the center of  6 We live in succession, in diviNature, and over the will of every sion, in parts, in particles. Meanman, so that none of us can wrong time within man is the soul of the
the universe.                    whole; the wise silence; the uni13 The way to speak and write versal beauty, to which every part
what shall not go out of fashion is, and particle is equally related; the
to speak and write sincerely.    eternal ONE.
14 A man passes for what he is  7 Every man's words, who speaks
worth. Very idle is all curiosity from that life, must sound vain to
concerning other people's estimate those who do not dwell in the same
of us, and all fear of remaining thought on their own part.
unknown is not less so.           8 Only itself can inspire whom it
15 Never was a sincere word will, and behold I their speech shall
utterly lost. Never a magnanimity be lyrical, and sweet, and universal
fell to the ground, but there is some as the rising of the wind.
heart to greet and accept it unex-  9 As there is no screen or ceiling
pectedly.                        between our heads and the infinite
16 Let us, if we must have great heavens, so is there no bar or wall
actions, make our own so.        in the soul where man, the effect,
17 This over-estimate of the pos- ceases, and God, the cause, begins.
sibilities of Paul and Pericles, this  10 We lie open on one side to the
under-estimate of our own, comes deeps of spiritual nature, to the atfrom a neglect of the fact of an tributes of God.
identical nature.                 11 Some thoughts always find us
young, and keep us so. Such a
He CH reveaz APTER IIL.nd~    thought is the love of the universal
He revealeth the origin of friendship, and eternal beauty.
and the relations of man to the words
and commandments of truth he de-  12 With each divine impulse the
c~ribeth. Andhe introduceth the spirit mind rends the thin rinds of the
of man to the divine original.  visible and finite, and comes out
THE  essence of friendship is into eternity, and inspires and exentireness, a total magnani- pires its air.
mity and trust.                    13 The heart which abandons it2 You demonstrate yourself, so as self to the Supreme Mind finds itto put yourself out of the reach of self related to all its works, and
false relations, and you draw  to will travel a royal road to particular
you the firstborn of the world.  knowledges and powers.
3 Every violation of truth is not  14 Ineffable is the union of man
only a sort of suicide in the liar, and God in every act of the soul.
but is a stab at the health of human  15 The simplest person, who in
society.                         his integrity worships God, be.
4 Trust men and they will be comes God; yet forever and ever
true to you; treat them  greatly, the influx of this better and univer



340                      THE ARABULA.
sal self is new and unsearchable.   18 Behold, it saith, I am born into
16 How  dear, how  soothing to the great, the universal mind.
man, arises the idea of God, peo-  19 More and mlore the surges of
pling the lonely place, effacing the everlasting nature enter into me,
scars of our mistakes and disap- and I become public and human in
pointments I                       my regards and actions.
17 The soul gives itself, alone,  20 Through  the years and the
original and pure, to the Lonely, centuries,  through  evil agents,
Original, and Pure, who, on that through toys and atoms, a great
condition, gladly inhabits, leads, and and beneficent tendency irresistispeaks through it.                 bly streams.
THEE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. A SAPH.
CHAPTER I.               are divine, and the purposes of
He 8shewth the rightqf everynan to nature cannot be hindered.
know his maker. The impersonality   7 Every sinner is a lawful heir to
of God's spirit is taught, and the God's love and goodness.
blessing qf God's presence is promised   8 The soul of one man is not
even to sinners. fle defendet hulmannot
nature.                          superior to the soul of another
13 IRTH, death, and every act man; for if one possesses the
that lies between, are physi- properties of eternal life and unendcal effects of metaphysical causes. ng proress, the other also dos.
2 How little man yet knows of   9 My soul is my Bible, in which
the demands of his spiritual nature. I read the truths of eternal life;
3 It is the right of man to know its longings and its desires are the
the Power, to recognize the Hand, utterances of my Bible.
that  gives him  all he has  that  10 Every  precept that  Christ
aguides him, that leads him, that [Arabula?] has given to the world
blesses him.                      is an invitation of love; the law that
4 Who made the soul, with its resists not evil-a law of attraction.
conditions? and who  made the   11 Human  nature may  be in
laws that govern  it?   God did vited, led, directed;  but never
these things.                     driven.
5 It will be by all men acknowl-           CHAPTER II.
edged, that God is in all presence,
in all ifitelligence, in all power, in  oqf Arabula in those who wtore goodl
all love; for the recognition of   deedls, and not in those whoe only
God's  infinitude commands this   pray  and profess. lie denoanceacklow~ledgment.                    eth selfishness and terrestrial greao
aness, and evplaineth the causes of
6 Therefore the ways of nature   mas's irdijfence to spirit al th/ngs.




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                    341
(CIHRIST  has come again with  ness, is heaven.  Wisdom,  order,
\J  many  messengers; not to  design, are emanations of the atmothose who profess, but to those  sphere of heaven,
who practise without profession.     3 The sin and suffering incident to
2 The true religion of God is in the school of man's earthly progress
the bosom  of the sinner, no less is hell.
than it is in the saint.             4 Hell is a soul-conflict, which is
3 Religion is not to be confined  the effect of soul-growth; it is a
to  temples made  of wood  and  struggle between the material and
stone, to rites and ceremonies, to  the spiritual.
any outside show of righteousness   5 There is no task in the school of
or rectitude.                       earthly experiences that is not initia4 Bishops, priests, and  deacons toryto the vast existence hereafter.
are just as blind and just as sinful  6 Sooner or later, the unhappiness
as the sinners they preach to and of one will be the recognized unhappray for.                           piness of all; and the happiness
5 The acts and  utterances of of one will be the recognized IlappiChrist that caused his crucifixion, ness of all.
the Jews called sinful; and who,  7 Every cruel man and every cruel
in all the Christian world, does not nation has yet to suffer cruelty at the
call the act that crucified Christ an  hand of nature's unyielding justice.
awful sin?                          8 When man begins to love his
6 In the fullness of selfishness neighbor as himself, he begins to
man cannot see God, save in what give the same blessings to his neighis good for himself; all else is the bor that, in the school of selishdevil.                              ness, he has taken to himself.
7 In the fullness of selfishness   9 The mighty power of self-love
man cannot see angels, save in will grow  weak and weaker, and
flesh and blood; all else is fiction.  cease to be; and the love of one for
8 Greatness among men is alone another will come in its place; and
a. property of the sensuous world; then  the  productions of nature,
it does not belong to the world of given for all alike, will be free for
spirits.                            one common household.
9 Man has no love for spiritual             CHAPTER IV.
life  anld  immortality, nntil sin         nnet   s lessn by d
Hle beginnetA his lesson by declaring
breaks to pieces the earthly things   the, eternity of good, and the fincal
on which his affctions are fastened.   destruction of evil. Exahorteoth to
suafer' evil, rather than resist it; a, d,,
ClIAPTER III.               calleth all men blessed becamsee of the
lie preacheth thee sorrows of Gethsemane.   new road that leadethb to the Promised
I[eavea is described, and hell also.   Latnd.
He semdet/h to hell ever'y saint and  (  OOD  is  eternal  evil is a
every sitnner; none shall escape, no    phantom  of time.  Good is
not one. Ie foretelleth an era qf universal love, alnd promniseth, abundance real and indestructible; evil is unto thoese who s8hall live in that day.   real, and exists only as a shadow
I-IE agonies of the Garden of made by the sunlight of Infinite
Gethsemane must be passed  Wisdom.
by man before lie comes to the do-  2 Each man follows his inclinavelopment of his manhood.           tions, though  he may think  he
2 Heaven is rest of the soul.  All thwarts them; these are his purthat -is peace, harmony, joy, happi- suits of happiness.




342                     THE ARABULA.
3 Hope  is pleasure.  Fear is conceptions of the soul's vision
pain; and pain is the task, and now, when compared with the ilpleasure the respite, in the school limitable grandeur of its undefined,
of life.                         eternal progression in truth and
4 Mlerit and demerit (in morality light.
and in religion) will have no foun-  8 Blessed are ye, for a new era is
dation to rest upon, when it is dis- beginning; a new religion is comcovered that the will of man does ing; a new day of morals is dawnnot control his love.            ing; a new road for human progress
5 It hath been said, "I How beau- is making.
tiful are the feet of them  that  9 This is that road which the toilpreach the gospel of peace, and ing hands and sacrifices of millions
bring glad tidings of good things I" have graded, over lowlands and
6 To resist not evil, is to gather through   highlands,  over  the
the flowers of life; to resist evil, is swamps of humility and through
to war with the thorns that grow  the mountains of pride.  It is a
upon  the same tree with  the straight, a level, and a grand highflowers.                         way for all humanity; it leads on7 How  finite are the mightiest ward forever.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. MARY.
CHAPTER I.             exchanged affectionate words, and
agreed to remember that on that day
M_1ary's spirit-eyes we-re opened as in a and hour we met there, thotugh bodidream; andf she hath a visio  of ly she wastwo thousandmiles away.
heaven. She beholdetA a great sea,
annd standeth by the side thereof.  4 And then I ceased to be coogniShe entereth the grove of her father, zant of my friend's presence.
and from thence beheld the utilding  5 But still I looked out upon the
of a new heaven and a eew earth.
sea, which became irradiated with
ONE morning, as I lay between a strange beauty, wlich appearance
sleeping  and waking, in a I saw, on looking up and around
state of semi-unconsciousness, I was me, was worn by sky and earth as
accosted by a familiar friend, who well as ocean.
was at that time separated from me  6 And I was in the midst of a
by many leagues of ocean.        new scene.  The waves before me
2 And the sea on which she hard were tinged with the softest, melembarked was at our feet, and lowest tints-rich, warm, and radistretched away into the distance.   ant; and in their midst I saw
3 And I was aware, as we gazed islands which looked like enchanted
upon it, that it was actually between regions, clothed in a mantle of.
us, and yet we clasped hands and supernal beauty.




NEW  COLLEcTION OF G3)XPPLS.                 343
7 The scene now faded, and in the   2 But after a moment's rest raised
twinkling of an eye I seemed to be the lids of my eyes again with
upon a spot to which my feet had much effort, fearful that I should
often  strayed in childhood and fail to get another glimpse of the
youth-the summit of a hillside, on surpassing beauty which enrapturwhich my father had planted and ed my spirit.
brought to rare perfection an apple  3 And behold, the cloud-like dimgrove.                           ness cleared away, and again there
8 And as I leaned against the grew  upon my inner sight the
bars, at the upper limit of the golden, opalescent sky, lovinggrove, for support, I became aware ly  overarching  the  responsive
of the presence of two young girls. earth.
9 Then a blindness fell lup-onl my  4 And lo I nothing that my bodily
outer vision, and my eyes closed eyes ever beheld, or that poets
heavily, but with an effort I lifted have pictured to my imagination,
the lids again.                  equals the beauty which my bn1)0 When lol I saw, as with a franchised  vision now  drank in
wondrous, deeper vision, a New  from the vast landscape surroundHeaven and a New Earth.          ing me.
11 And I no longer realized any   5 Yea, to describe it, my speech
mortal presence-I was alone with should be " lyrical, and sweet, and
the BEAUTIFUL.                   universal, as the rising ofthe wind."
12 And behold, the same glow of  6 On my right, a scene like an
unearthly loveliness irradiated all "Indian Summer," but far surpassthings, such as I had seen envelop- ing it in tender, dreamy, divine
ing the sea and its island gems.    repose, first claimed and chained
13 And the sky was warm and my attention.
golden, and encompassed the radi- o  The foreground rolled back by
iant earth  like  overshadowing gentle undulations, till it blended
wings of love.                   with a luxurious grove, whose
14 The forest, clothed with rich  branches swayed with a melodious
and varied foliage, waved and glis- motion, like a surging sea of myriad
tened in the resplendent sunlight gems.
and odorous breeze.                8 In that foreground and in that
15 And  the  azure-hued  and forest the colors were so intricately
purple mountains lay sleeping upon blended, so changing, so vastly
t<ae distant horizon; and the far- imore charming than colors called
spreading  plains drank  in  the the same when  seen by bodily
balmy, life-giving, pellucid atmo- eyes, that language comes far, far
sphere, and reflected the subdued short of giving the picture an adeluster of its wondrous beauty.   quate representation.
9 Amber, and violet, and green,
CHIAPTER II.   the ruby's burning red, the purple
Heer vision continueth, and she saw  of the amaranth, the golden glory
skies and la.deeapes not possible to of the orange blossom, there blenddeseribe. S'ie beheld the golde  of the oran ge blossom, there blendof the Summner Land, the sabme that ed in transfigured and ethereal
evas called by the Apostle "tAle third loveliness.
heaven."                         10 And the undulating, iridescent
U NWILLINGLY, 1 closed my sky drooped low to touch the treeeyes upon this holy scene.   tops, and the sweet calm  surface




344                     THE ARABULA.
of the swelling and retreating land- motion, as if each leaf were a transscape with its splendor.         parent emerald, diamond-crowned.
CHAPTER III              8 And behold, the dwellings beyond the lake were very far off, but
On opening her spirit e/esfor the third I could see that they were all
time, shle citnesseth the great trees of grouped about a Central Building,
li/e, and the lakes, and the grotped
habitctions of the angels. She behold- large, dome-crowned, beautiful and
eth the central dwelling of a great graceful in outline and proportion;
-Brotherhood.
9 And so harmoniously arranged
NCE more my eyes closed un- were the adjacent homes, with rewillingly, but I quickly forced gard to this central building, that
them  open lest I should lose the all seemed like one vast edifice with
sacred enjoyment of this heavenly numberless architectural and artisscene.                           tic variations.
2 And now looking to the left I  10 Yea, most ethereal and delisaw, seemingly very near me, a cately beautiful seemed this castelgrove of tall trees, which were in lated group-these palaces of a
form and structure like our aspen Brotherhood; and over them  hoyor poplar trees, but far surpassing ered the atmosphere of eternal
them  in height, luxuriance, and peace.
luster.                            11 And the lake was large; at the
3 And with a basis of deep green, left I could not trace its whole
thle glossy leaves, as they trembled extent.
in that blessed sunlight, reflected  12 But how pure and sweet were
"the  rich hues of all glorious its waters; how peaceful and methings," rapidly changing mean- lodious their flow; and how marwhile like the colors of the kaleido- velous the beauty of their sky-rescope.                           fleeting depths.
4 And behold, these trees rose to  13 In one place somethingcaused
an immense height, and were grand an eddy, and a slight tossing of
in assemblage, forming a fit temple spray. And lo, how lustrous the
for the heart's joyous adoration.    sheen of those limpid waves: how
5 And, directly in front, an open resplendent the feathery crescent
landscape stretched away into the i which leaped from their depths and
distance, in which I coulaid discern a fell again like a shower of liquid
lake with its silver tide of softly light.
flowing waters.                    14 Fain would I have lingered
6 And beyond this lake I beheld and gazed forever on this sacred
castellated dwellings, with crystal realm of immortal beauty;
domes, nestled amid surrounding   15 But, now, darkness gathered
hills.                           upon my senses like a pall; my
7 And between me and the lake eyelids drooped wearily; a sound
the green-sward rolled gently down like the rumbling of clhariot wheels
to the margin of the water; and I rang in my ears; and, with a
could see the taller grasses near shudder, I returned to my bodily
the lake glisten in their wavy consciousness.




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                   345
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. SELDEN.
CHAPTER  I.              creation on the planet.  The idea
of man is rising. lie is no longer
Selden Joohnson Finney is an inspired to be controlled  by institutions.
philosopher and preacher qf thiis cen- They are made for him, not he for
ticry. T/e Arabula moveth his tonqice
to marelous eloquence, and filleth them. It is the age of spiritual
his mind wcith prophecies and./ar- and political liberty, because it is
reach7ing revelations f tructh. TFrom  the age of spiritual inspiration.
his numerous utter(t.ces thefollowing
passages are selected.            6 Let us no longer distrust our
spiritual powers. Let us no longer
I  SOMETIMES tremble when I be enslaved with these external
contemplate the vastness of the things; let us use them, and not
possibilities of mankind; tethered let them use us; and remember it
as they are to the world that was, is only when in the higher moments
to the world that is, and to the of our interior life we do consciousendless future.                   ly feel the surges of the everlasting
2 Man is a myriad-stringed in- nature, that we can realize the
strument facing every point of the sweet and holy significance of iminfinite radius, and able to receive mortal life.
and repeat all the harmonies of the   7 The rays of man's selfish inteluniverse.  His bosom contains the lectuality fall on  the  soul like
germs of all conceivable grace, moonbeams reflected from an icepersonal perfection, and spiritual berg; only to freeze the germs of
beauty.  The glory of sun and our spiritual affections, which yearn
star is eclipsed by the glory of that to be ingulfed in divine love and
reason, of that soul that can weigh  beauty.
and measure sun and star.           8 Divine truth proves the unity
3 The way of life is wonderful; it of Nature, and shows that our hells
proceeds by abandonment to the are kindled here by our own hands,
currents of eternal power. Tenden-  in our own breasts.
cies are streams of power setting   9 All substance and power is
into us from the eternal deeps of ONE, or no universe could arise
Spiritual Being, and indicate at once out of them.  Hence man is the
the duties and destinies of the times. autocrat of creation. He carries,
4 I would  fain turn away my sheathed within his flesh, the pomind for a few brief moments from  tent secret of all things.
the glittering revel of this phenome-  10 Man fronts two worlds at once;
nal world, and in spirit stand un- with something of the animal and
covered and serene beneath  the  something of the angel in him. He
boundless  expanse  of  absolute belongs to substance, yet lives amid
liberty, justice, love, law, light, and the shadows; he lives in the world
beauty.                            of forms, while the eternal perfec5 Man is found to be the divinest tions of which  these forms are
15*




346                      THE AIZABULA.
symbols live in him; he sees the ration and the great spiritual idea,
symbols with his eyes, but he feels The farthest star sends its beams
the- divine verities signified, with down into our world, and celestial
his spirit.                        chemistry picks them to pieces, and
11 Not only is man the culmina- ascertains thereby the constituents
tion of all the kingdoms that have of distant suns. So with the lig-ht
preceded  him as phenomena, but of immortal life. Its idea, an intuihe is more-he is causation itself  tion in us, is the eternal recornition
in both law and substance.         of the far-fallen beams of celestial
12 All the powers of dead gene- being —of Spiritual life.
rations are transmuted into  the   2 Intuition of the spiritual and
fresh  activities of the  present. divine is the spontaneous spiritual
Even the experience of all ages is chemistry of the soul.  There are
living in the brains and blood of no "discreet degrees " in nature
this generation.                   between "matter" and "spirit;"
13 The ganglionic centers of the there is no qualitative chasm  or
race have received and will yield all vacuum  over which, from  either
that is lasting of the very life of the side, influences cannot pass.
thought of the dead; so that if all  3 The same energies of Nature
books of history and all art and all which hardened the Azoic rocks,
law  were destroyed  to-day, we which grew the vegetation of the
could rebuild to-morrow  the age, carboniferous era, and which has
and improve upon it, too.  For crowded whole epochs of wonderthe world is alive.               ful life into the crust of the world,
14 But there is no permanent ele- are to-day operating on the surface
ment of wealth. but truth, justice, or within its depths.
love, wisdom-the eternal verities  4 The expanded earth and unfoldof the soul and of God.           ed heavens are manifestations of an
15 The records of eternity fled, Eternal Spirit. The rocks, hills,
are wrought into the structure of valleys, rivers, ocean, and  stars
his spirit, so tile great function of gleam with the white splendors of
his immortal life is, to remember —  the Divine Reason.
to bethink himself. And this shall  5 The Spiritual idea of substance
be our worship, far above the is arising from science. Allbodies
"starry floor of heaven."   And are now proved to be only petrified
this is the unutterable prayer: Let forms of force; all forces are proved,
us possess ourselves.             by their mutual transformability, to
16 It is not what we do, it is not be only modes of the action of some
our history, that makes us divine-  common, simple, homogeneous, init is what we are, and what we are visible or spiritual Power; and all
to be forever.                    power is eternal, infinite and divine.
CHAPTER II.               6 For how could man receive life,
A great multitude gathered under the power,  substance,  light, heat,
trees for camusement; but Selden be- gravitation, electricity, beauty, and
ing among them, and seeing the wisdom, if he were not composed at
throng, openeth his mouth and taught bottom  of substance, and power,
them concerning the divinity of man, and la, one and identical with
He extolleth tihe sublime capacities d law, one and identical with
and deathless relationships of the these?
h7nan soul.                       7 If man did not stand connected
ITHERE is no middle ground be- in this sympathetic and actual retween natural religious inspi- lationship with molten fires in the




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                   347
bosom  of the globe, which shoot telligence in the world; and that
out in volcanoes, and crack the intelligence is revealed primarily,
solid continents, man never would not to, but in man.  Wherefore
have had a revolution,             revelation is of two kinds-objec8 If the solid rocks we tread had  tive and subjective; or external and
not, by the laws of disintegration  phenomenal, and interior, and suband organization, ascended into the  stautial.
composition of the human structure,  15 Now what is inspiration?  Is
geology would be a sealed book, an it not the cognition by the personal
impossible study to man.           soul of the existence and flow of the
9 If the star-beam had never been  Eternal?  It cometh from the relawrought up into the composition of tiou of the personal to the imperyour baby in the cradle, he would sonal, of the relative to the absonever in his manhood see these lute, of the dependent to the indeglimmers through the midnight air. ~pendent, of the shadow to the subIf the sunlight hld never kissed it- Ttance.
self into the structural intelligence   16 The painting on the canvas, or
of your boy, he never would know  the musical composition, is man's
of its existence, or feel its warmth, effort to reduce his intuitions of peror recognize its beauty and power. feet beauty and of perfect harmony
10 How can that which is spirit, to expression.
if it be totally different from matter,  17 Is not consciousness itself selfas some have supposed, be connect- cognition by substance?  What is
ed with matter?  What law exists pure intelligence but simple self-apbetween two unlike and opposite prehension by substance? Existsubstances, which, as a chain, can ence is not'being-being is existence,
unite these two extremes?        apprehending the fact of existence,
11 It is utterly impossible for God  as also the qualities of such existto make an eye unless he has the eace.  Pure  intelligence is pure
medium to do it through, and that substance,  knowing  itself  in
medium is light.                  esse.
12 Suppose light is one kind of            CHAPTER III.
stuff, governed by one kind of laws,
and the eye another kind of stuff, 13 continueth his discourse to the muloverned by another law  totally  titutde in the grove. The history of
governed by another law, totally   man's spirit is the history qf God bedifferent from the light, can you get  corning incarnated.  No essentialt
them together? There could be no   difference between phenomena and
sympathy between them.  The eye   their causative principles.
would never know that there was    TO man can conceive two disany light, nor would the light make       tinct and eternally different
reflections on the eye.           substances-spirit and matter-and
13 So I say of the eye, it is light get a live universe out of their
gone into structure, on its road to  union. For how can two eternally
consciousness; that is to say, it is distinct and  essentially different
the function of light worked up substances be brought together?
into structure, in such a shape that  2 "Deity" is infinite, according to
the next step inward is conscious- popular theology. The Divine Attriness itself.                      butes —" Ideas " —are everywhere
14 Therefore I say unto you, the present.  Thls Love, Will, Wissubstance of the world is the ia- dom,, Justice, Harmony, Holiness,




348                       TTHE ARABULA.
Beauty, and Perfection, are every- zance, therefore, of any thing differwhere present.  They are in Na- ent from itself, for it is " all in all."
ture. For what is so natural as that It cannot be a personality, because
which is eternal-the uncreated?   infinite individnlal is a contradiction
3 The aim of science should be in terms.
to fathom  those hidden, secret, in-  7 For if God be Spirit and Infinite
visible spiritual forces of which  there is no room for any other subthe suns and stars are the merest stance than spirit.  Spirit is the
precipitations and residue. If there primordial Power at the center, and
be a God, then "matter" is but the original substance at the founspiritual sediment;  "suns"  are dation of the world.
only shadows of eternal Reason;   8 Personality, therefore, cannot
so that the spirit in Nature and in be predicated of a Boundless Being.
man is the only permanent, solid, of the Infinite Beneficence.
and enduring substance.              9 Individuality is, necessarily, re4 Nature gives us no beginning lative and depencent, and pre-supof love, law, light, or wisdom;, nor poses the absolute and independent,
do we see, or perceive, either in  which is Infinite Spirit, eternal law.
the world of forms or in the world  But Infinite Spirit is absolute, not
of Ideas —of Reason-any actual relative; is independent, not limited.
starting-point in the absolute order
of things.. True, specialindividuali-        CIIPTER IV.
ties seem to appear from a certain  After his preachi n, he sendeth aln
point of local career; and, indeed,'epistle to the people; and by it some,
the present forms of such appear-  woere persuaded, and some believed
anCe do begin; but when we look  inot. ie  opleeth his subject to the
a -.e                woise men andl echie/priests,; but tlhey
for the connections and relations   hear him not, neither answer thley
of these special forms, owe at once   hin,.   e rebuA, e;Al thie foolishneus
get swept into the vcst cycles of vni-   of fase ph6ilos(pl y. Ile denounbcesuperstition,, and openeth eternity to
versat career, and by induction re-  mnan's mind.
mount upward through geological
and sidereal epochs, until we find THE  first effort in the history of
ourselves contemplating the eter-         man is to unite science, phinity of Spirit, of pure Reason, and  losophy, and religion into organic
the logical order of Ideas.         form, under the auspices of associa5 The fraternity of souls and the tive  action, such that all great
paternity of God rests at last on the  reforms growing out of them, and
ideetity of the original substance of out of the needs of man, can be
each being.  If human spirits are I united together into one body and
the children of God-if the idea method, animated by one spirit, and
of the fatherhood of God be not a aiming at one end —the whole good
delusion-then the substance of the  of man.
Creator is the foundation of each   2 Science cannot exhaust us; obsoul.  Yea, the identity of the pri-  jects cannot, therefore, exhaust us.
mordial essence of the human and  We have within us still the unsung
the Divine Spirit, is the only logical powers of this Infinite Perfection,
basis; and it is on this foundation  which will make us live and grow
alone that religion itself is possible. through all the rolling  centuries
6 Infinite Spirit cannot be bounded  of the great hereafter.
or limited.  It cannot take cogai-  3 Like Nature, our philosophy is




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                    349
two-sided.  It has facts by the mere phantasm  of sensation; to a
million-facts which appeal toevery  mere picture on the nerves of the
possible condition of mind, from the body, whose capse was forever shut
most sensuousto the most spiritual- away from  our reach; and the
minded; while for the deep and Pantheism  of Spinoza, or more
intuitive thinker it has the most especially of his one-sided disciples,
transcendent and  spiritual ideas. here find their grave, in common
The unlettered can be surprised by with that subjective Idealism  of
the movement of a table without Spencer, Sir William  -lamilton, and
contact of visible power; while Mr. Mansel, which is of late so
under the.inspiration of the gifted  much  in vogue.  Sensationalism
seer and poet, the great fields of has a half truth; Idealism  has a
eternal dlay break on our rapt; vision. half truth; Pantheism has another
It opens on the one hand the great half truth: but so long as each
questions of physiological psycho- claimed to be the only truth, all
logy, and, on the other, the pro- were false in a double sense, and
found questions of transcendental blind. The truth in each of these
theology.  Hence it promises to schoolsis revived, emancipated, and
reach all the world and every soul united in the Hramonial Philosophy.
thereof.  It is the democracy of  71 Demonstrate the naturalness of
religion and of philosophy com- spiritual forces and laws, and the
bined. It is the Catholicism of la- realm  of the  divine is brought
tionalism, with a fact, an idea, a within reach of science.  Science
reason, and a symbol, for every  may then push its discoveries up
possible mood of man. In bridging into  the immortal world; mayover the grave, it connects the must-link  the two worlds togepoorest barefooted, ragged child of ther in the bonds of a scienztific as
earth-whose kindred watch him  well as sacred fellowship, and so
from the homes of the pure and the banish all hobgoblins, all ghosts,
free, weeping when he strays, and  all superstitions, and all senseless
rejoicing when he returns to the religious  fanaticism   from   the
true path-with the highest arch- world.
angel of the Summer Land.           8 Worlds come from  suns, suns
4 The first act of the Divine Intel- from vaster suns, and all, at first,
ligence, as it appears in man's per- from that burning vortex of eternal
sonality. is avast synthetic intuition, light in which converge the infinite
involving a revelation of two worlds laws of Pure Intelligence.   This
-the world of manifestations and  focus is the vortex throutoh which
the world of inter-conscious Ideas. i the Ideas of Pure Reason rush forth
The fact of sensation pre-supposes into cosmic chronology, just as the
the reality of these coequal worlds. human spirit is the other vortex of
Hence the folly of the war of the life through which these worlds rush
"Idealists " and "Sensualists" of upward  into  love, will, wisdom,
modern Europe.                     philosophy.
5 Nothing  can precede  eternal  9 I deny that a rock is a subdynamics. Nothing can antedate  stance; I deny that a tree is a subeverlasting Ideas, which are arche- stance. Yet, on the other hand, I
types of worlds.                   affirm the outward world to be real.
6 The idealism of Berkeley, which  I am not a Berkeleian, because I
reduced all the external world to a affirm  the external world to be a




350                      THE ARABTULA.
real world.  But it is a real phe-          CHAPTER V.
nomenon only.                      Selden preacheth inA the great cities,
10 I never realized more thor-   and pleadeth the cause qfmintistering
oughly than at this hour, that the   spirit8, and encouragetb all men to
seek the truth for its own sake. He
world that men regard as so sub-   declareth the aims of 8piritualism
stantial, is only a world of shadow.   and calleth upon all men to behold
These outside forms and facts are  the light.
nothing but phenomena.               -]TATURE is a unity-an undi11 When we perceive the unity  A_  vided empire; and to him
of nature; when we regard the who affirms the God in it, there is
mutual transformability of bodies, no escape from  the spiritual fraand of all forces; when we discover ternity of all things, and of all
in the analyzed sunbeam  and star- spheres of being.  SPIRITUAL COMbeam  the elements which  have MUNION is the glorious flotver of all
been precipitated and hardened into religious experience; the answer to
rocks, and coal, and iron, and other all prayer; the ultimate of all study,
metals; when we behold every- the goal of all science and scholarwhere the reign of the same in- ship.
visible power, ever changing  in   2 Spirit is the foundation of all
form, but ever the same in esse-the things; continued inspiration from
soul is carried on and on in the  God the one condition of all life,
tide of inspiration, up to the same high and low, and hence commungreat central conception that spirit ion with Nature, universal.  There
"is all, and in all."             is no world too fine for the spirit in
12 Substance is necessarily eter- man; no angel too pure to work
nal; phenomena necessarily limited for us earthlings; and no spiritual
in time and space.                 aristocracy allowable in this God's
13 Induction deals only with shad- world.
ows; deals only with form, not  3 "Man lives in two worlds at
substance; deals only with phe- once,"  said  an  ancient seer.
nomenalities.                      "Forms are but images of ideas,"
14 The universe swings between  said an immortal soul, fresh from
these two vortices: First, down- the spirit land.
ward and outward, into forms of  4 The only real substance in man
appearance; second, upward and  is that divine intelligence which,
inward-into  thought, into  con- operating from within through the
sciousness, into eternal Light.    senses, fills the body with light,
15 Does any one suppose that men compared to which the light of suns
first inferred that there was such a and stars is dim indeed. It is that
thing as love by induction?  No I light of wisdom  which illumines
the human heart loves as spontane- the pathway of planets and holds
ously as the bird sings, because it worlds in order and orbit.
cannot help it.                     5 Believe me, brethren, there is a
16 By induction we learn, from  grander world than that in which
the present state of the rocks, that, these shadows dance across the
though now  so solid, they were sensible horizon; there is a diviner
once fluid.  Then we find that the life, a serener consciousness, a
whole earth was a fire-mist; and, more golden condition, than thllat of
following the same inductive lead, the body and its relations to the
where can we stop?                 world.




NEW  COLLECTIOA  OF GOSPELS.                     351
6 Spiritualism  is the only resort tion around the empire of independof all Christian progressives, who ent thought; we dictate no terms
hold on to the idea of God, and in of belief; we establish no religious
the possibility of a natural divine or ecclesiastical Sanhedrim.
life; and Atheism is the only resort  16- Every argument that can be
of all those who cannot so hold on. brought to sustain the popular re7 Just where Spiritualism  differs ligion, is stronger when applied to
from  Theology it agrees with the the great spiritual religion.  It is
religion of Jesus. It is alive, fiesh, said Jesus was inspired, communed
sponrtaneous, progressive.         with angels, was strengthened by
8 But what is the genius, spirit, them, healed the sick by the laying
scope of the great Spiritual Move- on of hands, read the hearts of
ment? What are its ideas, methods, men, opened the eyes of the blind,
sources of power, and aims?  Is it and hence that  his religion  is
all confined to thile fact of inter- divinely revealed?   We reply, So
course between the two worlds? do hundreds of spiritual mediums.
Nay, far fcom it.                  Did the disciples speak in unknown
9 He who accepts the  fact of tongues?  So do spiritual mediums
spiritual intercourse, must take all -by the thousand.  Was Jesus
that goes logically with that fact as and the disciples persecuted?  So
part of the truth of the whole are mediums.  Are spiritual meMovement.                          diums accused of every wicked10 Spiritualism  shows how  the ness?  So were the disciples.
career of a soul in this life affects  17 The breadth of our purpose is
its condition in the next. Is it not parallel to the very purpose of the
proper, then, for it to deal with the providence of God, as displayed in
conditions of this life?          the history of the human race; for,
11 We felt that the ministering  what else than the complete educaangels of' the spiritual world in- tion of man can be considered as
spired and pushed us on to the an adequate aim for the providence
work, as well as the deep voice of of history?
our inmost spiritual nature.
12 Our aim is the attainment of            CHAPTER VI.
that "; perfection and truthfulness Aqain hepreachethto a qreat nuztitude
of mind which is the secret intention   beyoro  they Alleosnies.  [hih e Siirit
of prophecy possesseth him, and he
of Nature."  Verily, our aim is too   isjteth utp his voice ag(tinst the Babylarge to admit a creed or sect.     loe of Supernaturalism. lIe speaketh
13 We hold that the "chief end  isL pletin tongyues. lie succeeedeth in,
Zafficting till the disciples (Jf' Pearce"
of man "' is the highest anid most  qzho heard him. lBut he strengtheneth
harmonious development of all the   the yong1z men, and counseleth eternal
powers of life to a complete and   resistuance to the imps of'tyranny.
consistent whole.                     ELIGION and Philosophy are
14 We do not wish to get " set- RJ    both possible to man only betled" or " fixed."   There is no cause he is whatever God and truth
more hope of a society than of a are. Light and love could not pour
person when it becomes'- fixed."  into us, unless we werebuilt of both
15 We have not sought to found  light and love, and so could draw
a sect or to establish a creed. We both from the deeps of the universe
seek no coerced uniformity of opin- by native attraction. As the solid
ion; we draw no lines of limita- earth is but precipitated sunbeams




352                       TIIE ARABIULA.
so the nature of man is organized  century.  All these facts are the
spirit. The body is but the secreted  sure signs of coming benefits.
shell of the soul. Our proper self is  6 The  greatness  of  antiquity
pure spirit-pure as God.  To feel stands eclipsed before the prowess
and to realize our native divinity, of this time! The control of steam
is the only true method of salva- and of lightning, the laying of the
tion, and the aim of philosophy.    Atlantic Cable, the  emancipation
2 Brethren, our word to you is, of the  American  Republic, the
"Cornme up higher;"  leave for a downfall of Russian serfdorn, and
little time your dusty libraries, step  the political resurrection of Italy,
out under the stars and open your are among the marvels of but a few
eyes, and you will then find that no years in this century.
is7m  can command the soul of this   7 Supernaturalism  is now rapidly
rising world.                       sinking into hopeless decrepitude
3 When souls awake, thrones and and remediless decay.  Under the
oligarchies crumble in ruin; Liber- influence of liberai scholarship, free
ty, Equality, and Education become  thought, fearless criticism, and the
the watchwords of the race.  From  great Spiritual Movement, joined
the rising consciousness of the de- with the late discoveries in science,
mocracyof souls comes the demand popular theology is being actually
for " equality of all before the law,' destroyed.
and the  consequent enfranchise-  8 And yet this same Supernatumert of woman, of labor, and of the ralism, with its tyrant God, its denegro.  Society is being remolded; spair of man, its chronic distrust of
creeds are faling to ruins; princi- human nature, its curses on the
pies lead the march of nations. And human heart, its worn-out cree d
all this because the era of spiritual and ritual, its "infallible Bible," its
fraternity has dawned in society, priestly aristocracy, "chanting damarid unfolded a Spiritdal Philosophy  nation hymns over dead babies,"
of religion.                        with its subjugation of slaves to
4 The gospel of this epoch is for loasters and of women to their
progress-for the enfranchisement husbands, its Jesuitism, and  its
of woman, and her admissiCn, on horrid lust after political power and
terms of equality with man, to all authority, isaiming to become the relithe rights, privileges, and immuni- gion. of the Republic!
ties of life.  It demands justice to   9 The time.has arrived, say the
all classes of citizens.  It calls on popular  "evangelical"  divines,
government to make all equal be- when the affairs of government are
fore the law. It opens itself to to be taken out of the hands of the
science and  philosophy, and  all "ungodlv," and to be administered
truth, from  every quarter of the by "the saints "-i. e., by themglobe.                              selves, or by their supporters.
5 While in religion, the advent  10 Behold, the seventh great reliof the Spiritual Dispensation, eman-  gious revolution of the world is
cipating millions in our own land upon us. Brahminism, Buddhism,
as well as in Europe; the decay of Judaism, Classicalism, Mohammethe Papal hierarchy, and revival of danism, and even modern Christianthe spirit of art, and its consecra- ity, are, regarding their claims, only
tion to NTature, attests the immense failures.  All llave failed to save
activity and spiritual energy of this man from  ignorance, crime, war,




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                   353
slavery, and woe. Now, the race keeps ocean, air, and stars pure,
advances either to Atheism or to a lifegiving, and beneficent.
universal Spiritualism.            15 The wrecks of the old institu11 Millions of men and women tions floating around us, attest that
have believed these things with all the currents of Spiritual power have
their might, and yet their lives have risen to high-water mark, and will,
been the purest of the pure, the out of their sediment, create a fairer
truest of the true, and, like fair world.
trees, have  blossomed  sweetly  16 That holy "Providence "which
forth on every side with fair hu- guides justice and liberty to victory
manities, and bent beneath a golden is the "Providence" of armies of
weight of love. But were they so angels, inspired and sent down to
because of their belief?  No, but in us by the eternal' decrees of the
spite of it.          *          Infinite Reason.
12 We do not forget the history  17 At last the whole human race
of sects, creeds, and ecclesiastical shall break away from  idolatries,
despotisms on the one side; neither bibliolatrous creeds, and church
do we neglect to note the anarchy craft, and, uniting, build the temple
and isolation of absolute individual- of a World-Religion out of blocks
ism on the other.                of solid Light, quarried from  the
13 Religious anarchy has nearly zenith of Eternal Love, Liberty, and
come again. It was not till the old Law.
world was reduced to a similar  18 A day will come to every soul,
chaos, that the Divine voice said, when into the channels of its puri"Let there be light."            fled being will pour the Love,
14 The spirit of nature is always the Truth, and the Beauty of the
fixing and unfixing things, molding world.
and remolding over and over her  19 To be passive to the spirit of
forms of inanimate and animate Nature is the secret of genius, and
being;-continual flux and reflux the path of salvation.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
ST. LOTTA.
CHAPTER  I.             powers of appropriating that deliLotta, the prophetess, lea/veth her home cate emanation from the all-forming
for a time, and, under the inspiration  Spiriti
qf Arabula, carrieth the tidings of  r
angels to multituzdes. She presenteth  2 The plowboy, as he follows. all
the wonders of Beauty, and sheweth day long, the dull motions of the
that it is prophetic.           laboring ox, has in his mind some
A LL are lovers of Beauty, ac. fairer image than his eye beholds,
cording  to  their several in which his thoughts find a con



354                      THE ARABULA.
tinual joy, or toward which his starof his immortalday. From that
memory recurs with a renewed de- I point his course is onward, upward,
light.                            I through the slow ascending grades
3 The youth who climbs the labo- of an everlasting progress, taking
rious steeps of knowledge, or walks in the whole broad range of civilithe lowly paths of ordinary toil, has | zation and the arts, of mental culyet an eye for finer vision than ap- ture and the soul's tuition.
pears. Some grace not obvious
shines in the dull drilled lessons- 
some beautiful form of the fancy Ler thaL.kffuless for the universal love
~~~~~~~~floats  in  his~   qf Beauty. Shee witnesseth the Divine
floats  in  his  day-dreams,  and   Providence even in the heart of savhovers still more palpably in the   ages. The world's bibles (re records
hushed slumbers of the night.       of n an's early glimpses of the heave/n4 The rude, frank-hearted sailor,   I  Iife.
fighting his defiant way against the rGHE prophetic desire for somestorms of heaven  and the wild  1   thing fairer, better than his
wrath of waters, keeps in his heart lot-something with  an ideal or
an image, fair to him. and so full extrinsic value-is shown by the
of controlling beauty that his eye savage in -his taste for the glittering
sees her, calm and unrippled as the and gaudy. Jewels are his stepsleeping  Halcyon, between  the ping-stones to heaven.
groaning planks and the roaring   2 So, too, after all our progress,
deep.  She flutters through  his the  highest conceptions of the
brain, an image of delight, in the future heaven have been expressed,
calm hours of the solitary watch; and are still symbolized, by the
and when his eye gloats on the same jewels which the rude barbabeauty of a favorite ship, its every rian loved.
curve and undulation, through all a  3 The intimate cord is not broken.
perfect model is rounded to some The hand of the swarthy savage is
graceful semblance to his heart's clearly visible, reaching up from
idol.                              the rudeness of his undeveloped life
5 This universal attraction toward  to grasp the splendors of his future
the Beautiful is perhaps the deepest patrimony.
in our natures, and surely is the  4 The vitality of these symbols
strongest element in molding rude, may be justly attributed, in a good
half-fashioned souls to the sym- degree, to the intrinsic beauty of the
metry of the cultivated spirit.    objects, and their permanent, inde6 It is the first gleam of "light " structive nature.
in the night of barbaric ages, where  5 Time will not tarnish  them;
the dark-minded savage, in his in- their undecaying luster shines on
stinctive desire to please, puts on after many generations, as it shone
some shining bauble, and feels less on the first possessor.
a savage in the contemplation of its  6 The diamonds of Haroun  al
glitter.                           Raschid glitter on Victoria's dia7 At that moment there gleams dem. The blood-red garnets of the
upon him, could he but understand  Indian  Krishna-the  swart, voit, a true flash from the tremendous luptuous Venus of the East-burn
portals of all future attainments. on the bosom of the fair and pure
That sparkle of clear crystal is a young vestals in the chapels of the
predictive beam from the morning  Cross.




NEW COLLECOTTON OF GOSPELS.                      355
7' It is fitting that a visible immu-  HTIE deep significance of beauty.
tability of Beauty should be the  1  and the supreme beauty of
symbols of the  unseen, eternal "the world to come" —which verily
glory.                             has come to thousands yet in the
8 But another cause shares the flesh-have not been without their
honor with this in giving endurance  witnesses long before our era.
to  the heavenly significance  of  2 You have heard from a, multigems. The first prophets were tude of pulpits the glowing picture
Orientals, Sons of the Sun, and of "the  heaven" that, through
dwellers on a soil rich with ripe many forms of worship, all hearts
crystallizations of its many-colored aspire to.
light.                              3 And all that the most gorgeous
9 They were, too, the simple first imagery could do, to paint and gloment full of the growing sense of rify and exalt that picture, has been
a nascent progress, full of the child- done in reiterated poetry and elolike, barbaric taste for jewels, the  quence; till the image is crowded
brilliant and the dazzling.        with dazzling jewels that blind the
10 Our bibles are the outpourings gazer, and stiffen the form it would
of the child-heart of the world, illustrate, like some barbarian printhrilling with the first insight of the cess cumbered with blazing gems
immeasurable destiny of the soul, that mar her natural grace and
and the inexpressible glories which  beauty.
were in store for it.               4 We have seen gifted teachers
11 In thedeep enthusiasm of that revel in the eastern splendors of
inflow of divine life, they called up that glorious city of God, the New
all the glories of the visible world, Jerusalem, whose vast transparent
their dazzling gems and symbols of cube shone from  the heavens on
royalty, to give some adequate ex- the rapt eyes of John in his Apopression to their visions of the in- calypse.
visible and future.                 5 Glance for a moment at that
12 First impulses are strongest; glorious picture, full of barbaric
first enthusiasm is most unbounded, wealth-the dazzling splendor of
and deals in glowing hyperboles.   the Orient-mixed with the high,
13 Hence, the gorgeousness and  wild fancies of a mystic enthusiast.
dignity of the elder prophecies of   6 There glow the " twelve foundathe spiritual have scarcely been tions " of its jasper walls, the first
transcended by the brightest con- like the vast wall itself, a solid
ceptions of the advanced teachers jasper, mingling its lucid  green
in later years-by none, perhaps, with the green earth it settled on,
till the dawning of this new spirit- and guarding the redeemed, with
ual age, so little appreciated and its strong counter-charms, from the
so much discussed.                 most subtile wiles of the tempter,
tCHAPThe fatal sorceries of the enemy.
CHAPTER III.       7 There the clear sapphire sheds its
Th~e prophetess again Olfteth up her purpling azure, dropping with -old.
eyes, and portrayeth the physical       0              0 rZ
glories of the ancient apocalyptic   8 There  glows  the  scintillant
heaven. She diwcerneth the beautiful chalcedony, crowned  with  green
within that relic of barbarbarsm.    er emeralds flashing light, like that
eyes were open, and yet she saw not which shoots to the pale chambers
" a mighty strong angel withl a book i  c.
his hanl."                       Of the ocean.




356                       THE ARABULA.
9 The sardonyx gleams half in- a more lovely heaven, a more true,
carnadine, like fire through pearl a more beautiful spirit-realm  has
and black onyx;' the deep tinted been revealed to us of the new dissardius  sparkles with  luminous pensation.
darkness like a midnight sky, or           CHAPTER IV.
the unfathomable eyes of houris
to the heroes of Islam.           The people adnmire te wisdom ancd
10o the  goleno chrysolitbeauty qf her woords; afew only gave
10 The golden chrysolite-trans-  heed to the pow0er and good of her
parent gold indeed, mighty to con-   utterances. She coinplaineth  sot.
quer the keen pangs of thirst-    She discourseth on, and sheweth the
blazes like a new sun around the   dsffeoence between t7izns ad ideas.
holy place, where souls shall thirst VERILY, the white arms of one
no more.                           V  loving angel-one wingless
11 Above it shimmers the faint and warm with human sweetnessberyl's sea-green lucidness, deepen- twined round E lowlier brother or
ing upward to the topaz hues, and sister soul, leading it up to more
growing yet more golden in the pure delight, and therefore to more
mingled gold and green of the clear purity, is a far richer picture, transchrysoprasus.                    cending the pearl-gated, gem-walled
12 And, crowning  these, the heavens, as far as human love surjacinth flashes with pale violet passes wealth in true worth.
beams that make earth's lightning-  2 All that mechanic glory, the old
flash a harmless meteor play, and masonic splendor, dazzles and conguards the jeweled wearer against founds us. But this human tenderpestilence, and lures to quiet slum- ness attracts and warms us.
ber-fit jewel for the walls of that  3 Our new  heaven-which the
bright city, where no more are suf- ignorant or perverse characterized
fering and death, and where He as earthly and,gross, and unworthy
who rules and watches "giveth his the name of heaven-is spiritual,
beloved sleep."                   airy, fragrant, natural, and sweet.
13 One living amethyst crowns all  4 Its grace and warmth, its finewith its deep violet, fabled on earth ness, its naturalness, its freedom
to guard against inebriation-safe- and delight, are like a home-loveguard in heaven against the wine- ly for its home nature; whilst the
cup of the wrath of God.          old rectangular, metallic heaven
14 The redeemed of the Lord seems so mechanical and artificial,
walk in white garments through that all its splendid symbolism is
the golden streets; golden harps lost upon the heart.
are in their hands, palms of victory  5 St. Augustine tells us in vain
wave on the vibrating, air with the that the gems of" the twelve founwide pulses of their loud hosan- dations are the virtues of -the renas, golden crowns are on their deemed."
heads, and a perpetual song is on   6 Human  hearts  love  human
their tongues: "Glory to God and hearts, but jewels they only admire.
to the Lamb forever."              7 Green valley-paths and bright
15 Such images have survived the flowers are akin to our sympathies.
very creeds that they glorified-the They have ardor and beauty at
very gods they were made to glo- once, and the heart can repose
rify; and yet, with all their splen- among them  as with companions,
dor, they may be transcended; yea, whose radiant faces are yet more




NEW  COLLECTION  OF GOSPELS.                     35o7
beautiful with affection.  But by  and intangible to really satisfy one
the splendor of gems we are, only for a moment.
awakened to admiration-still feel-  5 If there is no reality to our tering a want their glitter reaches not. restrial surroundings, we might
as if we sat down before a splendid  understand how the beautiful landface which lacked the redeeming scape which surrounds the freed
graces of the soul and heart.      soul might also be unreal.
8 Such is the radical difference be-  6 But we shall not give up clay,
tween symbols, and the realities or and iron, and wood, at the challenge
ideas they symbolize.  Truly seen, of bishop or priest; nor the ethethey are the soul's effort to express real groves and plains of the spirit
to the senses what belongs to its realms, at the summons of any
own unutterable experiences and canonical or uncanonical skeptics.
ineffable surroundings.             7 Existing in and floating with the
atmosphere of worlds, is the true
CHAPTER V.               local heaven-or the dwelling of
The, qht shineth7 down th2roh her eyes freed souls, whose luminous affirdniinto her soul, making her face to
beam  wgith/ a wondrous radiance. ties attract them upward.
The people marveled greatly. She  8 Over the broad landscape of
beheld and described the glory of the this other world, there are the
New Heaven.                      most beautiful plains, enameled
THE  beauties of the spiritual, with flowers of perpetual bloom
as developed by the higher and fragrance; glorious rivers wind
souls in all ages-whether we ac- out among the undulating hills, and
cept their words as a literal trans- the murmur of their waters is arcript of distinct  existences  in ticulate music and song; clear in
proper form. or as types by which  the depths below gem-like pebbles
the superior spheres are pictured to glitter, the golden and silver fishes
our understanding-are still divisi- glide; while purest forms of angelic
ble into two grand classes.  They beings bathe in the waters that all
are, first, the physical beauties of around them seem to take a roseate
thehigher sphere; andsecond, what flush  from  the lucid limbs and
are properly the moral, pertaining glorious forms they embrace.
to spirit inherently.               9 The polish of the many-colored.2 No one can conceive of a soul foliage makes the deep woods yield
without surroundings.  It cannot no  shadows, but only mellowed
exist unless it exists somewhere, with light.
attending circumstances.            10 The birds are  of a richer
3 It may be possible for a fanciful plumage than any upon earth, and
intellect to suppose these circum- all are songsters  with  diversal
stances to be ideas of the seer, or melodies, making one vast harthe scene flung round him as ob- mony.
jects, to relieve the mind from the   11 There are no noxious insects,
painful sense of vacuity and contra- beasts, or birds, in all these upper
diction, which a solitary existence, countries.  They are confined to
an  existence existing nowhere- the subterranean realm.
that is, standing in no relation to  ~ 12 The songs of birds are translaany other order of beings-would table into human speech, by souls
present.                           attuned to the melody they pour.
4 Such fancies are too fine-strung  13 There is nothing of the abrupt




358                        THE ARABULA.
and harsh, precipitous and rude, ness of general description, n endless
which mark the grandeur of our variety of minor detail, of this
landscape; but all is mellowed and wonder-world.
softened, without diminishing the
majesty of the scene.                       CHAPTER VT.
]4 All is intensely beautiful, un-  ier  eyes, being.full of the ligit of
dulating, free, and  perfect, and   Arabula, behold the more ecalted
the eye of mortals,   attractions qf heaven. She proclaimtransparent to the eye of mortals,   ttractiond ofslea   Sswegrocl~imtransparent to  eth the prevalence of Gharity among
nay, to all eyes.                   thMe inbhabitants of the Summer Land.
15 But, to the spiritual eye, it is   And denounceth the eternal psalmenriched  with  thousand-colored   singing heaen of crude religionirts.
shadings, which  in  pure beauty  FTROM  the physical, I turn to
surpass almost infinitely the fairest   the second class of beauties,
pencilings of art.                 which are more widely recognized
16 Highest poetry has sometimes as "spiritual:" I mean the moral
drawn from this sphere the glimpse- traits.
seen glories, to intensify the scene-  2 It is the privilege of a favored
ry of its earth-pictures; and a few  few  to see those delicate aromal
inspired musicians have caught the forms of bird, and tree, and flashactual notes that vibrate in that far ing river; but any pure soul, any
tingling air.         I            true heart, is open to these nobler
117 It seems as if this spirit land  forms of spiritual existence —may
might be the divine image or ante- catch some inspiration from  their
type toward which the rude mass presence, and shape their growing
of earth ripens in its slow centuries, lives by the  sublimer types of
and that an age may come when Beauty which they offer.
the earth and the heavens shall  3 The moral beauties, like the
embrace and  form one translucent physical, are  common  to  both
sphere.'        spheres, with the same difference
18 To many minds these inde- of finer  development, of more
scribable glories of the bright su per- ethereal and pure  natures-the
physical surroundings of the en- same mellowing of the rugged and
franchised soul are not objective abrupt, the softening to iutenser
forms, but mere associate idealities. life of the thunderous elements of
I behold them to be both.          this lower world.
19 Seers have gone over their  4 Many  creeds have left " no
beautiful hills and vales, hand in  room  in heaven" for the most
hand, and seen the same bright beautiful features of the human
images; returned unto the same soul-the finest impulses of the
localities after long absence, found  sanctified.
such changes as progressive forms  5 But we have assurance, sweet
must undergo, but with such re- as immortality itself, that there is
semblance as fixed localities would no death for the soul's whole attrikeep.                              butes, none for the heart's holy
20 And so might one in dream  affections.
landscape. So might two, possibly,  6 The propensities are all hallowif in perfect magnetic relations to ed in purified natures, and have a
each other.                        position assigned them correspond21 But not so should we find, as ing to their exalted and refined
we do find, an almost universal lke- characters; in which they are de



NEW  COLLECTION OF GOSPELS.                    359
veloped in harmony with the whole ousness; no heaven of beatific sensoul, and are gratified as divinely sualism, where, bright and beautias the inclinations to worship and ful, ten thousand houris minister to
gratitude.                        the royal pleasure of a singlef hero
7 Spirits love with a white and -hero no longer in his luxurious
beautiful love, and twine  their abode; no airy Valhalla, where the
several elements, purely, warmly, ghosts of warriors drink the foaminto one wreathed  gladness of ing mead, and clash their resoundwhole heart and mind.            ing arms in  day-long wassailing
8 This  love is  a transparent and the fabled tales of heroes;
passion, seeking not the vail of a though allthese images are humaneconcealment'that it cannot need; ly acceptable, as types of the everand if it flush, it is but the quicker acknowledged fact that souls in
flow of the pure blood to a more heaven are intrinsically and essenvivid delight, with no taint of earth- tially what they are on earth, only
liness.                           perfecting there the ideal of all ex9 They walk with fair arms inter- cellence here.
twined, under the eye of God.             CHAPTER  VII.
And you would only know by the
transfigured beauty of their faces,  multitude, anud pictureth the naturaland by the heightened glow of all  ness of the New heaveen; and telleth
their radiant forms, that a more    f the glorioqs zorks oflote,perfbrmned
by angels for the low and fallen of
deep and hallowed relation existed   earth. And in her vision she beheld
between the wedded twain than   the Lyceum children in the Summer
that which binds all lovely souls to   Land.
all as lovely.                     \ /[-OREOVER, our new heaven
10 I cannot linger now to read to  l.L infringes not on the domain
you this mysteryof spirit-marriage, of any other heaven. Ours is that
or what it is, or how it should be vast unclaimed-the heart's unexnamed on earth. I only see a two- plored realm of generous work-of
fold unity that is beautiful-trans- work that blesses others and decendingly and purely beautiful.    lights the doer.
11 But the crowning excellence   2 The inhabitants of that beauti
of this celestial sphere, and which ful domain are souls that keep their
distinguishes the souls of the just warm love and the blessed sympafrom the dark spirits below-and thies which made them so beautiful
marks the difference between our on earth-higher, and deeper, and
visions of the heavens from  all broader, there, making them  still
revelations hitherto-is the high, more beautiful.
paramount prominence, which is  3 No heart could retain its best
awarded to the great love-element and loveliest element in a home of
of universal charity.             delight from which it knew a fellow
12 Here we find no loud eternityof heart was excluded; and to be
idle harping. and perpetual song; ignorant of a brother's fate were a
no cruel transports of unpitying loss, and, to souls of an high order,
delight over the ever-ascending an impossibility.
smoke of a brother's torment; no  4 I pray that I may not forget
dreamless slumber of an everlasting erring and wandering souls in then
repose; no drowsy revelings in the brightest hour that ever dawns
lotus-dreams of an eternal valuptu- upon my spirit.




360                      THE ARABULA.
5 The revelations of these last  11 The dance of happy children
years show us how to reconcile the in their rosy heaven, as their light
beatified soul's completeness with feet trip  pattering  like the rain,
the fact of souls in gloom  and and sparkling rain-like in the hlarmisery.                            monious air —their twining arms,
6 In bringing the wanderer back round, dimpling, clear, and warm
to light, in breathing  hope and — their  universally  deep  bright
cheer into hearts yet repining in eyes, that speak more life and haptheir clay, in pouring promise down piness than even angel's tongues can
the dark abysses of despair and utter-and the wreathed melody
pain-in this work the souls of the of motion that winds in and out,
redeemed find their best delight, around each other in interminable
and deeds of mercy mnake the hea- mazes, never broken, never jarring
ven they people with all renovated on the joyous cadence of their
lives.                             linked  utterances-these make a
7 Could they who seek the desert picture. which  might once have
sands, and scour Golconda for the driven dumb the favored poet who
types of beauty to  adorn  their should have caught the vision, and
heavens, see for one moment the swooned in mute despair of breathpure face of a comniissioned angel, ing into song its unutterable beauty.
as he brings glad tidings to the   12 Yet all this grace and beauty
weary heart and hope to the be- is but a language in the heavennighted wanderer, they would learn speaking in symbolic glories of the
well the meaning of those words, ineffable light, and joy, and crown"The Beauty of Holiness."         ing love of their young lives.
8 The flashing jewels of a queen's
tiara shed no luster on her brow, III.
like that which pure love lends the  Tle transforminl spoeer qf love is described, and the prophetess giveth the
stooping forehead of an angel sister;  people, a tew deqfin/itio ofw /orshi9p is,as the light of her deep eye thrills  it is in the heavenly state. She
down the depths of a brother's  calleth tupon the celestial hosts to isiit
the people qo~earth. The real livtiny
agopy, with healing in its beams.   angels haove wlo w'ingq.    She eA horteth 
9 The regal purple of King Solo-   all mankind to opens their eyes to the
mon in all his glory, stiff with bar-;  light," and, to doubt not.
baric pearl and gold, arrayed him _I  AVE you not seen how a most
not in beauty to compare with the  1      beautiful face grows more
pure lilies that bloom  white and intensely  beautiful with  deep
flushed with tender love on the twin  thought?  How  even  conquered
cheeks of my little angel brother.  suffering, and the soul's hard-earn10 The sunshine quivering through ed victory over loss, desolation, and
rose petals on a translucent pearl, woe, can make the calm eye like a
might faintly image the clear, rich  spitit's, and the pale cheek radiant
beauty of his tiny hland, pressed on with more than earthly physical
my burning forehead in the hour of beauty?
pain; but not that blushing pearl,  2 With  a far more prevailing
nor the more glorious hand, could power, the soul in light shapes the
lend an image of the inward beauty obedient features of its vesture, the
which inspired that act-his young, spirit-body, which in cumbers it not.
pure, everlasting love, whose touch   3 Every sweet thought is a line
is healing and delight.            of beauty to the fluctuant form.




NEW  COLLECTION OF GOSPELS.                    361
4 Every noble impulse shapes the where, thanks to the new  light
dilated figure to a grander expression they find the heavens no longer
of its strength, beauty, and grace.  brass over their heads.
5 Every beat of the heart of love  9 They come! the beautiful ones l
and holy sympathy flushes the re- the shining angels, in their love and
motest limb with rose-light, and a light.
deeper meaning glows in the light-  10 Their wings are only their own
est face, and burns far back in the swift desires; their crowns the imdeep crystal of the glorious eyes. mortal amaranths, that glitter with
The worship which goes on forever the dewy spray-drops from  the
-in every act-and in every word, river of life; their harps are but
and in every 1hought, and even in their choiring thoughts that breathe
the unconscious motions of their instinctive melody into every molives-gives an all-hallowing sweet- tion; and their high mission is to
ness to their every look.-        cheer and to bless.
6 This  beautiful, natural life,  11 Ohl beautiful upon the mounspeaks no fear, no crouching vas- tains are their feet, as they come
salage of soul, but a deep, natural, laden with glad tidings.
filial love, that so involves and per-  12 The mourner, though he sees
meates all the being, that existence not their transparent glory, hears
with them  can be nothing  less not the mellow music of their lovethan  "worship" —an  expression breathing voices, nor even feels the,
meaning nanght else but high aspi- quiet presence hallowing the spot,
ration and unceasing praise to the and the tender touch that soothes
all-loving Father.               the throbbing head, yet feels that
7 Thev do his work on earth, and the hot tear has been swept away
in the nether spheres; and this is -the heart's strained pulses softjoy —this is life; this, the immortal ened to a gentler flow-and blessed
heaven of souls who have gone up glimpses of a clearer faith come
from suffering to delight.       stealthily in upon the night of his
8 And in the joy of their great grief.
ransom, knowing how grateful is  13 Look, O ye of the earth, look
unexpected  kindness, how  inex- to these realms of light and love,
pressibly dear is guardian love, when care, and pain, and doubt,
theyv can never forget from whence make life a weariness.  Oh  let
they came, nor the pained, strug-  not dark, deep, and cruel unbelief
gling souls that lift their eyes to put away so successfully the prothe  blank  heaven  with  such  mise of "the light" which comes
hushed agony of mute beseeching, only to bless.




362               THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER LI.
LET US RETURN THANKS.
WE thank thee, O Light, for the inspirations and
ministrations of thy new gospels.  Thou hast completed the answer to prayers breathed to thee in
moments of darkness and doubt. When we were walking in the ways of desolation, without thy truth and
love and wisdom, behold, thy presence was felt and seen
like the sun shining through and fertilizing the whole
domain of life. Thy unslumbering care covered us like
a mantle, and thy pure and powerful presence drove
pride, and selfishness, and many passions, out of the
temple of our being.
We thank thee, O Light, for thy gracious guidance,
for the comfort of thy rod and staff, for the ten thousand
tokens of thy love and wisdom. Thou hast blest us,
for we now know that all the realms of creation are
covered with the wings of thy righteousness. The past
was not evil, for thy ways were through it all; and to
the hearts of the true, thou didst prove thyself an angel
from God. In all human life thou hast wrought miracles. Thou hast turned the water of many a poor life
into the wine of a life of richest usefulness. Thou hast
changed the stones of hatred and passion into the lifebread of tender affections. Thou hast raised from the
grave of despair, and given new life and nobler purposes to, many social sympatllies and beautiful ties.




LET US RETURN THANKS.          363
And the weakness, and dullness, and darkness, and
wickedness of our lives thou hast converted into the
prophets and apostles of the Good, the True, and the
Beautiful.
We thank thee, O bright angel of the Mother and
Father! for carrying us in thine arms even as the sun
carries the planets in its warm bosom. In thee we find
rest-glorious, heavenly, divine repose-out of which
action flows joyfully even as music flows from the
myriad voices of Nature. We beseech thee for nothing, for " thou doest all things well." Every moment
thou art calling minds out of the darkness. In thee
they find strength, and enlightenment, and sanctification. They love; and they fear not. They walk; and
they do not stumble. They look upon thee; and their
doubts flee away. We beseech thee for nothing, because
thy gracious omniscience comprehendeth the least as
well as the greatest; and thy life is in all and through
all; and in thee all "live and move and have their
being."
O Father! 0 Mother! O Light! Receive from all
thy children everlasting love-the flower of their eternal
gratitude to thee.




864               THE ARABULA.
CHIIAPTER LII.
THE FINITE AND INFINITE IN MAN.
I-IUMAN nature is organized and perfectly equipt for
progression throughout the everlasting ages, and can,
therefore, be neither absolutely happy at any one time
nor harmoniously revealed by any one person.
Not only is the individual thus organized for all-sided
progression through Eternity, but so also is each particular faculty and quality of his being replete with the
same irresistible tendency to grow and unfold in the
direction of its endless career. And therefore it happens that, whilst one organ, faculty, or attribute of his
nature is profoundly slumbering, or perchance just
beginning to dream in a state of semi-unconsciousness
between sleeping and waking, its fellow-organ, faculty,
or attribute may at the same moment, be "wide awake"
not only, but making real and rapid advancement in its
own legitimate sphere of usefulness, happiness, and
development. Contradictions and painful paradoxes in
human character are, to a very considerable extent,
referable to these phrenological inequalities of individual
development.
The high-born proprietor of the temple is at once a
king of the earth and an angel of heaven; but, be it
remembered, both himself and his palace were built by
feelings and constructive forces which ante-date his
consciousness of being; over which feelings and forces,




THE FINITE AND INFINITE IN MAN.       365
therefore, he could exercise none of the privileges of
self-government. And from  this fruitful cause-the
hereditary possessions of individuals-spring the monstrosities as well as the angels of humanity.
One inherits a noble physical constitution associated
with an equally noble brain, adapted to the full manifestation of mind; another inherits a sickly brain and a
sicklier body, making intellectual nobleness and beautiful physical development in this life impossible. But,
owing to the inherent progressiveness of the human
mental attributes, the constitutionally enfeebled one
may, in some particular, far surpass the one who was
more fortunately organized. The nobler-born, by habitually cultivating his intellect and gratifying his selfish
instincts, and equally neglecting the fair and beautiful
growth of the higher powers and affections, may become
knavish, licentious, ugly, and eventually loathsome.
Whilst the unfortunately-born, by contemplation of
ennobling and spiritualizing themes, united to industry
of perception in reading and studying facts and philosophy, may unfold beautifully like a white lily beneath
the bending willows. Both these suppositions are possible. and have been many times realized; but neither
parents nor society can safely rely upon foundations so
sandy and changeful.
The -reliable rule is-that effects and causes invariably correspond.  A  brutal brain is the mother and
cradle of brutal thoughts and brutal practices. A low,
coarse nervous system is the cause of low, coarse physical sensations. A small brain is the hovel instead of
a palace, in which the eternal king was born; therefore
a hovel life, instead of,a regal life, will be poured into




366               THE ARABULA.
society. Beautiful sentiments, pulpit ethics, and divine
commandments exert no influence upon flat heads, small
craniums, and low physical temperaments. Persons of
this mold are pre-eminently conscious of bodily wants
and physical instincts, and are maddened by social
limits and the police restrictions to their gratification.
The animal instincts and characteristics of the lower
world, are visible at the basis of human nature.
The truly human arrives only when the animal is quiet
and tame; and the inner angel comes only -after the
instincts and intellect have been resurrected and trailsfigured on the mount of Arabula.
And here, upon this glorious eminence, from which
the world-lifting "Light" becomes universally manifest, we discover another cause of contradictions in
human nature.  Let us analyze it, if possible, and utilize the results:
Human nature, we must affirm, has in its organization two spheres: one physical, the other spiritual.
There is, consequently, what might be philosophically
termed a consciousness qf the senses, and of the world of
objectivities outside of the senses; and, in the interior
life, a consciousness of God, and of the infinitude of
eternal spiritualities within the spirit of God.
The instincts and the intellect belong to the "consciousness of the senses;" while, to " the consciousness
of God" belong the affections and the flower of intuitions, Wisdom.
The intellect, relying solely upon the instincts and
the senses, arrives at self-knowledge, and becomes selfsufficient and self-righteous, and-atheistical.  Self'
knowledge is possible only withtthe human intellect.




THE FINITE AND INFINITE IN MAN.     367
It becomes conscious that it is conscious, but the perpetuity of this consciousness is possible only through
memory. Any failure in this retentive faculty, any irreparable break in the chain of facts and sensuous experiences which are the prioperty of intellect, is equal to a
loss of so much practical mind; and, to the same
extent, the individual is incapacitated fo business-;
being consciously shorn of the available power of
self-knowledge. Man's power over the objective world
-his skill and achievements in Science, Art, and
Mechanics-is determined and proportioned by the
qualities and completeness of his self-knowledge. That is
to say, he must know that he knows-his intellect must
commune with itself, in memory —otherwise he is no
more than an animal, knowing merely and simply,
without the proud knowledge that he has productive
knowledge.  Memory makes progression in knowledge
possible; not merely the memory of a fact or an event,
but-the memory of the thinking, and of the conclusions
awakened by the fact or event; thus fortifying the
mind with the important consciousness that it is conscious of itself, and therefore potent.
But inasmuch as memory is the only recorder of the
facts and events accumulated by means of the senses,
it is not certain that the intellect of the individual will
continue to grow through life, as does the forest tree;
but rather, that, after the sixty-fifth year, the mind will
begin to retire insensibly from the senses, and to realize
more distinctly than ever before the consciousness of
God, and, possibly, obtain glimpses of the future.
This superior consciousness is what metaphysicians
call "religion." It takes hold of principles, and in prin



368                 TRHE ARABULA.
ciples alone can the mind achieve absolute growth and
development; because a principle contains within
itself all the facts and events which are allied to' it
in the nature of things.  Thus, by becoming conscious
of a principle, the essences of all that ha's been, is,
or may be possible to the- operation of that principle,
come within the grasp and consciousness of the spirit.
The only cement of facts, is Principle.  To know by
memory the facts, as well as to be interiorly conscious
of the principle, is to possess at once both knowledge
and wisdom.
Man never realizes God until -he becomes conscious
of Principles. Justice, Love, Beauty, Truth, Power,
have no existence in the intellect, except as one's eyes
may look at bright objects " through a glass darkly;"
but to the higher spiritual consciousness these Principles are visible, and they are worshiped by this
consciousness as the attributes of God.  Truth is heard
within, like the whisperings of the shell of the Arabian
maid in Ghebir"Apply its polished lips to your attentive ear,
And it remembers its august abodes,
And murmurs as the ocean murmured there 1"
et. Augustine said:'"God is nearer, more closely
related to us, and therefore more easily known by us,
than sensible, corporeal things." That is, in other
language, man's consciousness of principles is his consciousness' of perfection and infinity! And it thence
follows that an intelligence without a consciousness of
these principles, is without God in the world-is
atheistic, selfish, mechanical, and harassed by the




THE FINITE AND -INFINITE IN MAlt.     369
limitations of sense, of power, and of gratificationand that such a person is a dangerous force in the
family, in society, or in  the government.  But a
veritable angel presence is that person whose interior
nature is conscious that it ts conscious of Principles.
One who feels the warmth of love not only, but who
also feels tlhe beauty and eternity of love, is in the selfconsciousness of God. Or, shall it be said that thus,
and thus only, or upon this principle, God is revealed
to human nature?
This, finally, is the essence of all life's experience;
man's power to have a spiritual consciousness of eternal
Principles. This consciousness is a revelation to man
of man not only, but also of God to man, with superadded glimmerings of all the infinite progressions and
inexhaustible possibilities which are in God.
But the age-after-age conflict between  the two
spheres in human, nature-the finite on the side of the
body, and of the infinite on the side of the spirit-will
account for all the selfishness, brutality, crime, and
atheism  on the one hand, and for all the religions,
vagaries, superstition, supernaturalism, and theism on
the other.
But over all and through all is the spirit of omnipotent Truth, and Arabula still sings through angel-lips,
"Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which
shall be unto all people!"
16*




370                THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER LIII.
A DISTINCTION WITHOUT ANTAGONISM.
ARABULA'S light, shining through the temple of
reason, makes plain and straight the path of reconciliation between man's finite and infinite spheres, i. e.,
between his instinctively selfish and his intuitively
impersonal nature.
The distinction between the intellect or understanding, and the pure reasoning or intuitive wisdom powers,
is not teaching that man's nature is organizationally a
magazine of incompatibilities. Seen truly, this distinction, while it is a perfect explanation of the inconsistencies in the manifestations of human nature, is not only
necessary to a correct analysis of man's mentality, but
reveals, at the same time, the profoundly wise duality
of his inmost spirit, which is constructed for an immortal career in progression.
By intellect, which is selfish and cold, you obtain
knowledge of outside existences and things; and by it,
also, you arrive at a state of self-consciousness distinct
and apart from other existences and things.  And this
self-consciousness is grounded, externally, in experience
through the senses; and, internally, it is powerfully
intrenched in the primal fundamnental instincts. Selfishness, therefore, is at the very basis of human life —
indeed, sefishness is the foundation of individual and
social existence-and, in order to restrain and redeem




A DISTINCTION WITHOUT ANTAGONrISM.    371
this basic principle, men found codes of Morals, and
establish systems of Religion and Virtue, and enforce
obedience by legislative and military power, and by
preaching the terrors of a wrathful God.
Wisdom, which is pure intuitive reason, on the other
hand, which is the immortal superstructure reared upon
this selfish foundation, is the self-consciousness of God
in the spirit. In other words, the sensibilities and sentiments, and aspirations and apprehensions of the
superior powers of mind are the voices of Arabula-of
God in, not outside of, the spirit.  The highest feeling
of Wisdom is a revelation of God; more or less, all
have this "feeling," crude and vague though it is, and
each acknowledges it and each worships it; wisely or
otherwisely, according to the growth and education; or
the non-growth and ignorance of the individual or
people.
The innate feeling of immortality, the innate feeling
of boundless ideas, the innate feeling of unchangeable
principles, the innate feeling of love toward superior
angelic existences, the innate feeling in every human
heart, that it is worthy of a better life than that of
devotion to animal instinct and selfishness-is the voice
of Wisdom.'I am," is the language of Wisdom; but
the motto of intellect is, "I think."  No man is sure
that he is not a brute, and no man is sure that he will
not die and cease utterly like a brute, until he has
arisen to the hiogest self-consciousness, which is the
unutterably happy and peaceful feeling of perfect oneness, and essential identification with the spirit of God.
His spirit then can sing, " I know that my redeemer
liveth!"  For then he hath  knowledge that his




372               THE ARABULA.
"redeemer " is inseparable from his constitution, and
will go with him wherever he goes; will judge his acts,
condemn his vices, approve his virtues, punish his
selfish crimes, pardon his hereditary temptations, burn
him in hades, bless him in paradise; and thus, over and
over, and from eternity to eternity, perpetually loving,
unchangeably just, omniscient in goodness, progressive
in power-" his God," pure Spirit, and " his Saviour,"
pure Truth, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever!
Intellect is the temporary rudimental antagonist of
Wisdom. But the highest is supreme sovereign, and in
the end brings all opposition in humiliation to its feet.
Knowledge, which is the name men give to the
acquirements of intellect, is not an eternal propertyholder. It is made up of the memory of things and
experiences outside of the individual-very useful and
convenient in passing-whilst Wisdom can truthfully
quote the adopted maxim, " omniaamea, mecum porto "
-or, "all that is. mine I carry with me."
The teachings of the Wisdom are the teachings of
God; and the practice of Wisdom's ways (laws) is
obedience to God's commandments. There is no other
Religion possible; for this is the consciousness of man's
highest attributes attaining to self-consciousness-the
intelligence of the redeemed intellect; the living witness in the temple; the voices of the uplifting affections; the philosophical declarations of the intuitions;
the light of Arabula in the universe of life; the actual.presence of the attributes of the infinite God in the
spirit of man!




THE USES OF SELFISHNESS.          373
CHAPTER LIV.
THE USES OF SELFISHNESS.
UNDER the beautiful guidance and truth-revealing
illuminations of Arabula, we have thus far traveled
directly toward a knowledge of the true uses of the
great first principle of all life, the chief attribute
whereof is Selfishness.
This inherent, ever-active instinct is the Mephistophiles that overshadows the glory of human nature. In
plants and in animals the existence and exercise of
selfishness seem wise and legitimate; and in man not
less so, were it not for the fact that he is endowed with
a superior consciousness. It is this exalted super-physical, anti-selfish, angelic sensibility, which so vividly sep.
arates and distinguishes man from the lower kingdoms
of life and organization. At base man is animal-governed by the simple instincts of self-feeding, self-pleasure,
self-preservation, and the prolongation of his own life,
cost what it may to the life and selfishness of others.
But all this brute-selfishness, remember, is an indispensable ingredient of life at the very basis of human
existence. Selfishness is.the essential element of growth
in the roots of life's tree. Vines, shrubs, vegetables,
flowers, trees, animals, were otherwise impossible.
Deprived of selfishness, without the instinctive passion
for seeking pleasure, they could not exist. They would
not eat when hungry, nor drink when thirsty, nor sleep




374                THE RABIULA.
when tired of toil, nor would they mate and multiply
each after its kind, because there could be in their constitutions no motive, no impulse, no prime necessity for
exertion, no cause for organic existence and development. When you can build a house without a foundation, grow an oak without roots, sow and reap a luxuriant harvest without soil, raise men and women without first having baby-boys and baby-girls, then, but not
before, can you have a world without centripetal'forces,
a circumference without a center, animals without selfpreserving and self-gr.atifying instincts, and a human
family without units, without individuals, without senses,
without intelligence, and without selfishness.
But it has been seen, in the light of the indwelling
witness, that man, unlike the animal, has the feeling of
an infinite life in his superior consciousness. HIe can,
through this spiritual sensibility, put himself in the
place of another, or he can think of himself as though
lie was outside of himself and another individual, and
thus he can identify and blend his real existence with
the existence of the whole. In this realm  of higher
consciousness man becomes both in qualities and quantities, in property as in amount, a higher and superior
order of being. Here is revealed the impersonal ideas,
or those truths which have universal application. Here,
and only here, he sees the divine Principles-Love,
Justice, Truth, Beauty, Power, Perfection, Eternity,
Infinity.  If these attributes were not in the essences
of man's higher endowments-or, stronger, if these
principles were not as essentially in man as they are
essentially without him, in the infinite heart of MIotherNature and in the sensorium of Father-God-he could




THE USES OF SELFISHNESS.            375
not, by any possibility, eitherfeel their presence or intellectually perceive their application. In persons of low
development-who are yet on the plane of pure, simple, brutal, instinctive selfish life-these Ideas, these
Truths, these Principles, this feeling of God, this yearning- for Immortality, are unknown. Whilst in minds of
the higher development, whose selfishness and intelligence are resurrected and consecrated to higher uses,
these Ideas, Truths, Principles, Feelings, Yearnings, are
as familiar as flowers in the gardens or stars in the firmament.
" Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,"
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake."
Man's selfish instincts demonstrate his origin.  They
lie at the foundation of his indestructible superstructure, and contain a vast repository of trustworthy biographical sketches, showing that, in the departments of
physiology and life, the human family "was born of
poor, but respectable parents "-surnamed, in the records of the oldest and only true Bible, "Minerals,"
" Vegetables," "Animals," and their "Elements."
On the other hand,-man's unselfish, fraternal, magnanimous, infinity-feeling principles of mind, demonstrate his Destiny. They prove that the human family
is, in the departments of intention and spirit, organized
for progression without end, and for promotion in all
that is God-like, celestial, and absolutely perfect.




376                THE ARABULA.
CHAPTER LV.
PATENT MEDICINES FOR SINS.
MEN of higher moral developments, but who are not
yet sufficiently balanced in mentality to be wise and
large in their views and conduct, originate and elaborate various remedies for the cure of selfishness, sins,
crimes, and wretchedness. But for one " prevention"
system, there are one hundred plans of " cure," five
hundred schemes of " palliation," a thousand machines
for " restraint " through fear, and a million-horse-power
mill of brimstone "punishment" and eternal misery.
Man's superior consciousness, which enables him to
project himself into an objective and abstract existence,
is the father of anthropomorphism. And this antiprogressive conception of God is the father of many
arbitrary schemes of rewards and punishments.  It
proceeds on the principle that man's will is free to act,
and that it does act, at variance with the decrees of the
anthropomorphic God. Reason, affections, the power
of willing, the freedom of action, they assert, are powers given to man, whereby he may elect to live and die
in the Lord, or to live and die in the devil.
But are not these moralists, religionists, and metaphysicians blind to the fact that will is but the effect
and the servant of feeling?  The will of a tiger reflects
tihe feelings of a tiger. Motives in man vary witll his
moods; and these, for the most part, are determined by




PATENT- MEDICINES FOR SINS.        3T7
circumstances without or by conditions within. The
anthropomorphic God, however, is unable to take
knowledge of constitutional differences, and will not
look at palliating considerations in man's surroundings.
At this point the doctors prescribe; and the first patent
medicine recommended is " Faith."
Faith, by some moralists and metaphysicians, is supposed to be an act of will; on the same principle that
the mind, by the projection of its higher self-consciousness, can construct a personal God. But do you not
perceive -that the feeling of faith is the effect of an
antecedent feeling? If the object of your faith is outside of your private, selfish, lower consciousness, it must
be, at the same time, within the realm of your unselfish,
public, and spiritual consciousness; because it is irpossible that you should have feelings without causes,
or faith in an object which is totally foreign to the inherent sympathies and aspirations of your spirit. The
moment you attempt to believe any thing, or to repose
faith in an object, which contradicts, nature within you
or nature without you, that moment you depart from
the righteous ways of truth, and become an unreasoning,
dogmatic supernaturalist, perhaps a religious fanatic,
and certainly a hypocrite.
Faith, in order to act as a curative medicine for the
sins of selfishness, " must be well shaken before taken."
Believe in the impossible, and behold  your life does
not improve. And why not?  Because you do not feed
the roots of your mind with truth. The morality that
rests upon faith in the righteousness of a foreign object,
which is not part of the unchangeable laws of your own
superior nature, is immoral; because its first acts are




378               THE ARABULA.
treachery and surrender, and because its second acts,
worse than the first, are inhumanity and tyranny.
The impossibility of separating man's faith from the
causes of feeling, which causes ante-date or predominate
the power of willing, renders all faith in a supernatural
religion absurd. The theology of the Roman Catholic
Church is founded upon anthropomorphism, and the
religion of the various Protestant churches is founded
upon a supernatural Christ-ism; but the world's history,
to say nothing of its present condition, proves that the
patent medicines, manufactured and faithfully administered by these soul-physicians, do not cure mankind
of selfishness and its resultant evils. The Catholic ideal
is to become "God-like;" the Protestant ideal, to become "Christ-like;" and the two establishments, and
the lives and'conduct of the peoples who support them.
show the error, yea, the immorality, of their ideals and
plans.
And why immoral? Because these religious systems
start with the theory that man's nature is radically
wrong, needing reconstructing, and must be practically
blotted out before he can be "saved" and the world
" redeemed."
In the blessed and sacred light of Arabula, on the
other hand, we read that the true ideal for man is not
to attempt to be like God nor yet like Christ, but to be
healthfully and harmonially A MAN!  God cannot
be manifested in the flesh upon any other principle.
The glorious majesty of Divine Wisdom becomes visible
in the harmonial glory of a whole human being. Such
holiness (wholeness) is supremely beautiful. And this
is your Ideal-that is, if you are rational and truthful




PATENT MIEDICINES FOR SINS.       379
and natural; but if you profess "faith" in an object
irrational and beyond the possibilities of human nature,
and rely upon such "faith to make you whole," then
prepare your heart for disappointment and despair.
You are guilty of treachery to the light and love and
laws of your higher consciousness; guilty of surrendering the holiest parts of your spirit to the devouring
beasts of superstition; guilty of inhumanity, in joining
a party that blasphemes and disgraces and perverts
human nature; guilty of tyranny, by aiding the theological foes of mankind in their efforts to force the
millions out of Nature's ways, which are the pleasant
paths of God.
The reconstruction of human nature is an idle dream.
The plan is perfect, and the pattern is before all men,
in the superior consciousness with which all are more or
less sensible; and to attempt a different plan and pattern
is to offend the divine order, the punishment for which
is sure mortification and ultimate despair. To the religionist it is a final atheism and hopelessness with regard to mankind; to the sensualist, it is an insupportable weariness and the cause of suicide.
Let all who seek to reorganize Society take warning;
let all Communists, who would build a social state
without meum et tuum, beware; let those who work to
harmonize Labor and Capital take heed; for the Omlniscient goodness hath ordained that man's primal
principle of Selfishness shall have and shall enjoy its
legitimate rights as much, and as surely, as any other
principle in his constitution. Any social system, any
political party, any religious plan, not in harmony
with man's whole nature, will meet with obstacles, fail



380              THE ARABULA.
ures, disappointments, and final overthrow. One part
of man's nature cannot be sent to war with another
part. The whole must be duly and reverently recognized. Selfishness, the centripetal force, and philanthropy, the centrifugal tendency, must be fully provided for in your new social system. Call thou not
unclean, untamable, or wicked, any thing which the
Lord God hath made.




APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE.'    381
CHAPTER LVI.
APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE.
THOSE who have read of the " Battle between the
Spirit and its Circumstances"'* will remember that the
spirit of man is situated in the midst of many concentric circles of fashioning influences-of primitive, constructive, impelling, shaping, misshaping, educating, miseducating " circumstances;" that man is the " centerstance " stationed at the pivotal center of the several concentric circles; that his outermost circle is the external
coating of the earth with its invisible atmosphere; next,
the heat of the sun, and its light, and all the rays that
come from the star sources, enter into the most external
primitive sphere of man-using the word " man " in the
general, comprehensive sense; the next circle of circumstances is social, or societary, the result of combinations
of persons and of institutions, customs, and laws which
come out of such combinations, touching all parts of the
human, nervous system, whereby mankind are shaped
or misshaped, are made or unmade, are driven forward
in a straight track to success or are switched off into
defeat, and sent back to the target-stations of society;
the third circle of circumstances' may be termed the
phrenological-showing that the brain organs which a
* See the discourse referred to in a volume by the author entitled
"Morning Lectures."




382                THE ARAULA.
man inherits are not himself, or, rather, his spirit is not
to be forever identified with his case of brain-tools and
instruments, although, for the present life, they compose
the positive circle of circumstances which the internal
spirit and character are obliged to recognize, employ,
and contend with, in their progress from birth onward and heavenward; but the most primitive circle
of circumstances is the physiological-the first direct
influence proceeding from what men have inheritedthe primal fortune or misfortune of the pre-natal life,
bringing to each both the form and the functions of his
body, including the combination of temperaments, fixing
for a lifetime the relation of the internal organs to each
other, and measurably determining whether they perform their functions vigorously or indifferently, perfectly
or slovenly, whether they be fast or slow, whether
healthy or freighted with the seeds of disease and
misery.  Thus all involuntarily enter into the first
circle of circumstances-into the physiological organs and
conditions-with which the babe is obliged to contend on
its way up the road toward manhood and the future.
The babe desires to eat and drink, to be nursed and
caressed, to be fed, to be let alone, and to sleep; and
thus all its plays, attractions, inclinations, and dispositions, spring primarily out of that circle of circumstances which is called "physiological."
The inmost point of consciousness, remember-at the
very center of the individual life-is the xa_.  This
pivotal consciousness of the internal and eternal individuality, is what we call "spirit," which is the kAgkest
of man, and is, consequently, the very last to be heard
from. There are multitudes of persons, in all communi



APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE.    383
ties, who seem not yet to have heard from the highest
God-consciousness with which each is everlastingly
endowed.
Therefore a distinction  should be made between' force " of the vitality and the "power" of the inmost
essence or spirit.  Force comes out from motion, life,
sensation, and from so much of the intelligence as naturally blossoms out of these primal principles which live
in man in common with the animal world. Vital or
primal human "'force" suffers reaction commensurate
with the energies of its puttings forth; action and
reaction among man's vital or primal " forces" are
nearly equal; and a human mind, to conquer its many
and various circumstances, must rise superior to force
and become " a power," which is the first manifestation
of the inmost spirit. Power is silent. It rises superior
to force,, which always goes to battle, being the source
of discord, of anger, of war, and of every passion that
afflicts, distorts, and mars the human race.
Advancing, rising up from within, power comes forth
and takes the ascendant, and the individual is lifted out
of the discords of its circumstances into a regal stratum
of spirit consciousness-imparting to the mind a magic
power to let war and strife, whether of the body or in
society, whether in the nation or in, the kitchen, pass
by and not disturb the profound depths of that inner
life which touches infinity on every side.
Such minds, as I have illustrated throughout this
volume, have what may be truly called a deep " religious
experience."  It comes from the presence, and low sweet
voice, of Arabula. It is within every one's reach. Only
learn the origin, nature, and number of the circum



384:        THE ARABULA.
stances which environ you, and the side-influences which
you are called upon to overcome and vanquish, not by
violently cutting them asunder —not wildly and madly,
as an infuriated animal butts its head against an
enemy that is blocking its way-but by spreading " the
wings of your spirit," and soaring in llope, in thought,
in aspiration, and in power, above the frictions, and
tumults, and contentions which environ you, many of
which you may have inherited from father and mother,
and their progenitors.
In this way a man becomes "reformed" from the
center to the outmost circle of his circumstances. It is
the newest new birth, and the shortest road to the
kingdom of heaven. All this beautiful reformation and
regeneration is possible long "before you die."  It is
not necessary to wade through any ministerial "quackeries" to attain to oneness with Nliature and God.
The pure, the beautiful, the powerful principle of
inmost life, is illimitable.  When the spirit's power
rises up from its inmost —when it expands above force
and war, both private and public —it sees itself to be
"a conqueror" in the midst of its material surroundings. This is that high power which the martyr feels,
lifting his soul into unison with God and angels, when his
body is environed with the consuming flames. This is
the power which, for a moment, the poet feels when
lifted by his highest afflatus. And so Byron said"I live not in myself, but I become
Portion of that around me; and to me
High mountains are a feeling."
A high utterance of the identity of the inner life with
the sublimest" endowments-an exalted moment, when




APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE.    385
the "power" of the heart was felt to be one with the
silent and grandest manifestations of God and Nature
in the physical globe.
Cannot you arrive at this condition?  Suppose you
adopt the principle of Liberty. Can you not contemplate Liberty as a "great mountainS?"  Can it not
become to you "a feeling?" If so, then, you love it.
If you love it, it becomes sacred; and whatever is
sacred to you, you are consecrated to with all your soul
and spirit. When you are truly consecrated to a principle, the kingdom of heaven is very near to you, and
you are very near to that, and it is no longer necessary
that you should hire ministers to steer you along the
road to a salvation from the consequences of sin. Independent of pulpit quackeries, you are put into symnpathy with the Divine Spirit, which is the never-failing
fountain of all eternal PRINCIPLEs. And when the mind
rises up into sympathy with even one of the eternal
Principles which dwell in the living central heart of the
universe, its spirit-pulses quickly harmonize with the
inmost beat of the Infinite; and such a mind is responsive day and night —faithful, loyal, always saved, always
silent, ever hopeful, never despairing. Emerson said:"Devils despair; Gods forever hope."
Individuals in all times and- countries have these
exalted spiritual experiences-these fine thoughts and
heavenly emotions-these sublime, ennobling, immortal
aspirations. I take it for granted that many of my.
readers have identified themselves with something which
is not theological, not creedal, nor educational-sornething deeper, diviner, sublimer than all-which was




386                THE ARAIULA.
the first " revelation" to intuition and reason that all
are " immortal beings."
Kind reader, do not you cling to a Principle that
surges out into the sublime realities of infinitude? If
you would draw your inspiration from the ocean of infinitude, you must first be "loyal" to at least one of its
many central principles. Use, Justice, Power, Beauty,
Love, Truth, Fraternity, Wisdom, Liberty: take one of
these.  Take truth, take kindness, take love, take
charity, take justice, take some plain patriotic sentimzent. Be faithful to some Principle in which you have
faith. Become perfect ill that one, although you be
defective in all other principles; for so long as you are
truly loyal to one of them, so long and to the same extent
will you receive testimony that you are deathless at the
center of consciousness. The power of the spirit is
something different from the " force of the will."  The
vitalic force of will is self-exhaustive. "It uses itself
up." - The person who does every thing by force will
look in the face like a beast when maddened.  The
stubborn-headed, willful character, when angry, bellows
like a bull; he roars like a lion-that is, when the wirn
borrows all its available force from the animal elements
which the soul (the intermediate sphere) has inherited
from the lower kingdoms of earth. Each one, therefore,
should become, so to speak, a spiritual Van Amburgh.
Men should go into their organic cages, and, with spirit
power, say to the different animal, turbulent forces,
"Down!" Spirit within is a Daniel, amid lions that
dared not array their forces and appetites against him.
"Get thee behind me, Satan," is the command of Spirit.




APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE.     3 87
It is a voice from the seat of " power" amid the passions
and appetites of selfishness.
Now apply all these examples and reasonings to the
human will, which we may call the mind's vital force.
What do you suppose is the limit of Will? It would
be difficult, I think, to place any boundary to the ultimate sphere of its action. Force, from the soul, is
limited. It commits suicide frequently. At the very
climax of outward success, "men of force " drop down
into every kind of bankruptcy; they tumble headlong
from the pinnacle where it would seem they were to be
victorious. But the Spirit's power never loses, never
faints; it always gains, for it is a part of omnipotence.
Verily, man's spirit has revealed proofs that Will has
an attribute of "power" which enables its possessor
after death to rise up bodily, and thus to come into
sympathy with great magnetic rivers which flow through
space from the Golden Belt to the Earth, to Mars,
to Jupiter, to Saturn, and to the clusters of smaller
planets between all these and the sun, including Venus
and Mercury, and thus, also, to correspondingly inhabited planets (to other and more distant earths) revolving around other and more immense suns, belonging
to that great assemblage of constellations which constitute the Milky Way.*
But there is a far more practical view of our principles of spiritual power and progression. Arabula
carries the torch of celestial sunshine into the labyrinths
of intellectual darkness, into the obscurest fields of
materialistic science, and shows "loyal natures " how to
* For explanation, see the author's work, entitled, "A Stellar Key to the
Summer Land."




888               TIE AIRABULA.
master and mold ncatter, and how to augment the
material prosperities of the day and hour. In these
fields we meet Liebig, Dove, Oerstedt, Ehrenberg, Tyndal, Youinans, Ashburner, and many others equally
eminent-all profound and enthusiastic believers in
scientific and philosophical knowledge, as the great
stepping-stone to a world's advancement. They exalt
scientific above all scholastic education; they think infinitely more of chemical than of classical knowledge.
The learned humanists, among whom stand conspicuous
Ulrich von IIutten, Reuchlin, Erasmus, &c., by enlightening the darkness of ignorance and the fanatical
prejudices of their time, prepared Germany for the
Reformation. "But," says an observing writer, "our
time and country are different. Our material and industrious progress has no parallel. The means of their
development accord with the genius of our people.
The practical nature, habits, and modes of thought,
peculiar to the American people, are not destined to
govern the world by the revolutionary influence of profound philosophical speculations, or by the overwhelming power of a martial despotism. We are people of
figures and facts. Our relative geographical situation,
natural resources, climate, in short, the working up of
our material wealth is to be the source of our national
greatness. The most feasible mode of accomplishing
the object referred to is by the intellectual emancipation of the people by a mental culture adapted to their
natural proclivities and their true'manifest destiny.'
"Providence does not always lead mankind with easy
steps.  Sometimes the spirit of the time moves so
rapidly and vehemently that the globe seems to tremble




APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE.    389
from pole to pole. Within the space of a single generation we witness the appearance of more discoveries
and inventions than we are able to enumerate. We
live in an epoch infinitely more prolific in useful inventions than that in which Guttenberg came to enlighten
the world. The most ingenious machines, admirable
for their power, velocity, and delicacy, produce effects
so wonderful as to make men despair; the power of
steam is applied, by an infinite variety of mechanical
contrivances, to annihilate distance and time, and render the impossible among the easiest of things feasible;
mountains, rivers, gulfs are traversed with the speed of
the hurricane. By the mysterious agency of electricity
thought is flashed from continent to continent, ere we
can say'it lightens;' the quiet ray of the sun becomes
our most expert and accurate painter. All things not
absurd become possible. These manifestations of the
human mind may triumph side by side with the most
wonderful works of time.  Institutions designed to
operate in such a sphere, to open wide the avenues of
wealth, power, and intellectual omnipotence over the
material elements of nature, tire mostly of the profoundest considerations and the noblest efforts of the world's
benefactors."
But from this it should not be inferred that material
knowledge and self sh progression are totally antagonistic
to the development of an interior life in the individual.
The truth is, it is impossible for the whole to advance
materially without promoting and enriching, indirectly,
all the dependent parts; even as true intellectual culture
leads, sooner or later, to more interior and spiritual
growth of character.




890               TIE ARABULA.
CHAPTER LVII.
FINAL VIJWS OF PRINCIPLES.
MAN, viewed in the light of Arabula, is the repository
of the germs of all divine principles. Every property
of matter, in the outlying universe, finds its respondent
and counterpart in man.  That which in matter is
chemical affinity and attraction, in the human spirit is
love and sympathy.  The correspondence is perfect.
The world of mind is clothed and harmoniously dressed
with a world of matter. Man's spirit is composed of
all principles which, in their totality and infinite organization, is called God. This identity, of the essentials
of man's inmost with the principles of the infinite spirit,
is the basis of his immortality, and the cause of his
tendency for endless progression.
The footprints of Arabula are visible on all "the
sands of Time."'
The Greeks believed in the existence of a Daeman (a
guardian intelligence) in the heavens, which could speak
to the "Reason" in men. This is the "Logos" of
which something is divulged in the beginning of John's
Gospel. He affirms that this Demrnan was the " Logos"
which was God; in other words, the Reason of the
Universe and the Supreme Intelligence of the Universe,
are one and the same. The life of the Spiritual Universe-the " Logos," or God-became "Light" in the
spirits of men.




FINAL VIEWS OF PRINCIPLES.         391
Thus the essences of infinite life flowed into finite
consciousness in the human organism, and thereby
became " the true Light, wllich lighteth every man that
cometh into the world."  Did Plutarch learn this doctrine from the Christians?  Did Marcus Aurelius first
read this idea in John's spiritualistic gospel?  Nay;
from Intuition and Reason, and not from written authorities, did the Grecian Spiritualists learn of the impersonal " Logos" resident in the life of every man. John,
in his beautifully pure gospel, admitted the harmonial'view of man, as did Jesus and Plato and Socrates,
teaching that the " Logos "-i. e., the essentials of the
life of the Universe, God-" was made flesh," or was
clothed in material organs and forms, " and. dwelt " in
the visible realm, "' full of grace and truth."
But neither Plato nor John were fully up to the
view presented from the stand-point of Arabula.
Plato, while teaching that the human soul is an
emanation from the infinite Divinity, and thus admitting the essential affinity between man and God; yet,
in his logical reasoning, he was compelled to run the
individual through various transmigrational ordeals,
and finally, when perfectly pure, to annihilate him by a
process of absorption. John, on the other hand, taught
the immortality of every man, but introduced a sectarian
mystery, contrary to the fixed principles of Nature, by
teaching the dogma that the "' Logos 9" was manifested
in one individual. Nature brings to "light," by perpetually recurring manifbstations and examples, the
f'act that the Divine life is incarnated-is made " flesh 
and human-every time a child is born! The llarmonial
view of this subject is anti-Platonic in that it makes the




392                TUE ARABTLA.
individual immortal, and is anti-John in that it demonstrates the universality of the " incarnation."
Associated with this doctrine of incarnation, as a
kind of correlate, is the doctrine of salvation. That
something in the human universe is "vitally out of
order," is the conviction of both heathen and Christians; and the question arises on all sides, "What is
it?"' and "'IHow is it to be remedied?"
The greatest pre-Christian philosophers substantially
said:  "We must strive to bring the God that is
within us into harmony with the God that is within
the Universe."  This was their effort. The God within
was believed to be estranged from the God without;
and the conflict between mankind and the Divinity
(they said) would continue till the God without is foind
and inseparably allied to the God within. The Christians, on the other hand, said in substance: " The God
of the Universe is the same as the God in you, but HIe
is striving to bring you into harmony with himself." The
heathen, therefore, strive as strangers to find God, and
thus attain "IHeavenly rest;" the Christians behold
God striving to attract man unto himself, to crown him
with " eternal life and peace."
There is a vast gulf between these teachings and the
harmonial view of progressive principles, which isFinite man, in the properties and possessions of his
spirit, is a miniature of the Infinite. Growth, endless
improvement, progress in all directions, throughout
everlasting ages, i8s the central law of his being. Let us
reaffirm that the attributes of the human spirit are the
repository of the seed-grain of an eternal development.
He stands at the center of an infinite radius. He is




FINAL VIEWS OF PRINCIPLES.         393
made and endowed by Father (God), and by Mother
(Nature), with immortal powers of individual growth.
He is constructed on the infinite plan-" in its image
and likeness"-not in form, but in the essentials of his
being. The law of progression regards and endows all
men equally and impartially. There is perfect harmony
between endowments and responsibilities. Obligations
are commensurate with powers possessed. All men are
born alike, not equal. All men are equally dependent
and independent; but no two individuals are on the
same plane of growth, having exactly similar wants and
needs at the same time; all go to the Fountain to be
filled and inspired, but each with his own measure
which holds more, or less, or different, than that of
every other at the inexhaustible source.
In man's physical structure are found all the primates
of the globe, or, rather, all the proximates of metallic
and non-metallic substances; in man they come forth
as the ultimate particles and refined principles of matter.  It cannot be true that all minerals are poisonous,
because all minerals are found, in their ultimate (finest)
state, in the fluids and solids of the human composition.
Oxygen is everywhere present in man's body; so is
phosphorus in his bones, blood, and brain; hydrogen
is in all the fluids, and some of the solids; carbon is in
all the secretions and excretions; iron is an essential of
the blood; soda is in his muscles; silex is found in the
hair and nails; magnesia exists in blood and brain;
lime is abundant in the bones; albumen and fibrin;
and sulphur, and the several associate metals; also the
acids and alkalies-acetic, uric, oxalic, benzoic, potassium, &c., demonstrating, as perfectly as science can
17*.       




394                  THE ARABUL A.
establish any discovery or proposition, that MAN's BODY
Is THE ULTIMATE of all mineral, vegetable, and animal
properties and organizations of the globe.
1Man, therefbre, is the final, because he is the  tighest
physical organism  possible.  The same rule applies to
his mental structure and inmost possessions.  We find
himrn the final finite embodiment of the infinite Love
and'Wisdom.  lie is a ch/ild in this world.  Wars,
cruelties, evils, injustices, sins, diseases, miseries-these
are the effects of undevelopment.  His salvation from
hell-punishment is progression, growth, unfoldinent.
IIis growth is both automatic (unconscious), and conscious (or volitional); and thus each man is inevitably
and forever a party to that which may enter into his
experience, either good or. evil.  Man is a type of the
infinite Universe. Bailey, the author of Festus, saw
the initials of this correspondence when he wrote —
"' Earth is the symbol of humanity,
Water the spirit, stars the truths of heaven;
All animals are living hieroglyphs:
The dashing dog, the stealthy-stepping cat,
Hawk, bull-all that exists —-mean somnehing more
To the true eye than their shapes show."
Man's spirit destitute of the essential principles of
Justice, Truth, Science, Philosophy, Love, Wisdom?
Impossible!  If mankind were " strangers" to these
center-most principles, man could not acquire any permanent knowledge concerning them.  Once more I
affirm that every man's intuitions are filled with the
seed-grain  of all principles.   Agriculturists  never
attempt to raise harvests on soils destitute of the essential properties of which their grain is constituted.




FINAL VIEWS OF PRINCIPLES.        395
Man's mind takes to music, to mathematics, to science,
to philosophy, to poetry, to spirituality, and to the
realities of eternal life because his mind is the repository of all principles, in a germinal state, of which all
immutable truth is composed: ThusThe harmonial view is apparent. Mcn existed before
bibles and churches!  Prelates, bishops, priests, and
preachers are only men.  They may be wise or otherwise; they may be honest or impostors; they may
draw intelligence from heaven or from their own selfishness and ambition.  The bishops who "rejected "
the apocryphal books, and who adopted as inspired the
books now called "holy," were no more qualified as
authority than would be the same number of merchants,
mechanics, or lecturers on Spiritualism.  Authority is
invested in the primalprinciples of the inzdividual spirit.
": The internal witness" is final, " the still small voice "
is absolute; the language of intuition is beyond the
mistakes of worthy translators; the verdict of Reason is
"the voice of God in the garden."
In the Harmonial Age, when Arabula's light shall
shine through all things, there will be no constitutional
authority on religious questions. Neither can infallibility of teaching be expected from any individual;
because man is a progressive being, increasingly toiling
between the world of " Ideas" within and the outlying
universe of" Things;" and as no one mind can, according to these principles, perceive and comprehend all
truth, not even in one line of his boundless realm, so no
one person can, with any justice or reason, ever assume
to be' authority" above his fellows in spirituality and
divine principles; although it is true now, and it will




396               THE ARABULA.
everlastingly Continue to be true, that some minds, by
largeness of capacity, immense susceptibilities, and corresponding industry, may possess more knowledge of
and be higher developed in science, philosophy, and
spiritual principles, than others who give these subjects
little or no attention.
And thus we have among us at all times " teachers,"
"writers," " mediums,"  "orators," and " masters,"
qualified to address mankind, to teach the masses,
and reveal in clear light the pleasant and peaceful pIath
of wisdom.




THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF SPIRITUALISM.    397
CHAPTER  LVIII.
TH:E RELIGIOUS VALUE OF SPIRITUALIS[M.
THE fanaticisms and follies of many, in the ranks of
a new Religious movement, first attract attention.  For
example: Superficial minds couple the " extremes" of
fanatics with what they have " heard " of the manifestations called spiritual.  A totally false " opinion" is
thus set up in society. The real genius of Spiritualism,
meanwhile, is becoming more and more apparent to
unprejudiced investigators.
It is the first religion that takes " facts " for its foundation; the first religion that rears its temples of thought
on the immutable principles of philosophy; the first religion that sees a Mother, as well as a Father, in God;
the first religion that has demonstrably " brought life and
immortality to light;" the first religion that has overcome
death and the horrors of the grave; the first religion that
has sounded the gospel of Freedom equally to woman and
man, to young and old, to lord and serf; it is the first
religion that has satisfactorily explained the phenomena
of matter and mind, in and out of man; it is the first
religion that " is to the manor born," and congenial to
the true children of Nature; and it is the first religion
to free mankind from slavery to creeds and dogmatisms,
and to give the ~individual wholly to aimself!
Spiritualism, consequently, is the enemy of conformity. It teaches that it is better for a man to think for




398               THE ARABULA.
himself, even if he think wrongly, than to conform to
the tyranny of social selfishness and to the dictum of
ecclesiastical shams. The ape-epoch among men is
passing away. " Where the spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty" TO THE INDIVIDUAL.
It is probable, yea, it is certain, that " individualism "
will also have its follies and fanaticisms. It may lead
to isolatton in some persons; in others, to selfish acts
of pride and tyranny; and it may, for a period, set up
a barrier to associative efforts, for the progress of the;multitude; but these errors will correct themselves,
while the positive benefits of individualism will come out
clearer and clearer, like the golden sun from behind the
clouds.
Opposition to every new phase in religious development is natural. The world is full of the tragedies of
antagonism to benefactors. Socrates taught the Athenians (who believed in polytheism) the simple "idea "
of a Supreme Being; they put him to death. Jesus
taught the Jews (great believers in Moses and the
Prophets) the " idea'" of higher revelations from God;
they put him to death. The people of Ethiopia cut St.
Matthew into pieces with a smtord, because he advocated
the doctrines of the Nazarene. Mark, the next named
in the Testament, was dragged through the streets of
Alexandria, in Egypt, and subsequently died in great
agony.  Luke, because he would teach the " blasphemies" of Jesus, was hung on an olive-tree in Greece.
The beloved John, for his religious heresy, died at
Ephesus only after he had escaped from a caldron of
boiling oil. James, the great, was beheaded at Jerusalem,
while the lesser James was thrown headlong from a




THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF SPIRITUALISM.    399
pinnacle of the temple. Philip was hanged by the neck
against a pillar in the streets of HIieropolis. Bartholomew was flayed alive.  Andrew was bound to a cross
for his heresy, and thus addressed his persecutors till he
expired. A sharp spear was run through the body of
Thomas. Simon was crucified, as was the Nazarene
before him; and IMlatthias was first stoned and then beheaded. Galileo, a disciple of Copernicus, came near
losing his life for teaching the revolution of the planets.
Descartes taught the philosophy of "innate ideas."
For this the University of Paris denounced him as an
atheist, and ordered that all his books should be burned!
Dr. Harvey was treated with scorn, deprived of his
practice, and driven into exile, because he discovered and
taught the circulation of the blood! Dr. Jenner was
violently denounced and threatened with disgrace, because he advocated vaccination as a means of mitigating
the violence of small-pox!  Columbus, Fulton, Fitch,
all suffered by the opposition to their several discoveries
and reforms. Fulton was laughed at and neglected by
the " respectable" and " intelligent " of his day. The
ungrateful Frenchmen let Fourier die in extreme indigence.  Examples of folly, prejudice, hatred, condemnation and crucifixion of pioneers in any thing absolutely
new, need not be multiplied. From an outward standpoint this opposition seems " a cross too heavy to be
borne —"
"But truth shall conquer at the last,
For round and round we run,
And ever the right comes uppermost,
And ever is justice done."
Spiritualism, then, viewed from the Ifarmonial stand



400                THE ARABTULA.
point, is the last, and therefore the best, developmnent,
of the sublime relations between mankind and the next
higher sphere of existence.  To the opponent only, its
outward manifestations are incomprehensible; rappings
on a piece of furniture, "signifying nothing."  But to
us who live with the " Light," those same sounds are
the musical beatings of the tides of an infinite sea
against the forms that cover the shores of a material
world. Yea, to us they are freighted with the mystic
loveliness of deathless guardians who inhabit the firmamental spheres; and with uplifted hearts we hail the
voices of our loved "departed," whom the benighted
mourn as " dead," for we behold in them the absolute
certainty that whatever is human is immortal.
This, truly, is the grandest religion ever bestQwed
upon mankind.  Every mind under these blessings
should aim  to become intelligent, self-poised, wellbalanced, intuitive, independent, reasonable, charitable,
just, noble, and progressive in all ligh  directions.
GnOWTH is the central law of our being and the object
of all exertion, as it will be the result of all experience.
Such a mind is the firmest supporter of education. It
will, through growth, " overcome evil with good," and
straighten the crooked ways of error and injustice.
These labors and efforts receive the benedictions of
angel intelligences, as good deeds inevitably attract the
admiration and co-operation of the generous, intelligent,
and noble of every age and country.




LIVING FOR OTHERS.           401
CHAPTER LIX.
LIVING FOR OTHERS.
GoD and Nature are one, the Earth is one, and the
human family is one; therefore, nothing lives, because
nothing can live, for itself alone. But Arabula dwelleth
only in.the consciousness of those who, lovingly and
willingly, live and work for the progression and benefit
of the whole. All work for all by the immutable laws
of divine necessity, but how blessed to make this
necessity our choice!
We, who live in this very hour, exist only as the
successors and heirs of the millions and millions departed, who, long ago, lived and struggled through pain
and wretchedness to exist and be happy in this world.
But all selfish natures, while they have fleeting excitements and sensuous pleasures, are never truly happy.
The God-feeling goes out of the spirit when selfishness
grasps the scepter of passion. Do what you will, find
any company, witness any miracle, take any medicine
the diplomatized physicians of Church or State offer
you; but unless you live to benefit others, as well as
yourself, there is no happiness for you, and you can
have no positive feeling of God's presence.
One day I walked abroad with Arabula; and I saw
that the word "Good" was written upon the constitution of every thing. Sometimes, bne of the middle
letters was omitted in the orthography, and then the




402                THE ARABRLA.
word was, "God."  We walked together arm-in-arm
through many of the fields of infinite goodness and infinite Wisdom.  And behold! every thing and every con1dition was good.  The darkest night was as good as the
brightest day. Death was as good as life; pain as good
as pleasure.  Selfishness, yea, even  selfishness, was
good! It lives honestly in the five senses; it walls in
the land; it sows and reaps; it builds houses; it gets
married; it cultivates the sciences; it plants gardens;
it cuts down forests; it builds roads; it accumulates
comforts; it develops works of arts; it multiplies the
species; it prolongs individual life; and lastly, according to a natural law, all it does for itself it leaves to
those who come after; and so the world's material
growth is promoted as much by savage selfishness on
the one hand, as by benevolence and self-sacrifice on
the other. But, Oh, remember: Only those who lovingly
and willingly live to benefit the world Jind true happiness in the bosom (qf Nature and God.
The gladdening consciousness of God can become a
guest of every human mind. This, and only this, is
your savior. It will defend you against the strong
temptations of instinctive passion, and the subtler and
more deceitful perils of intellectual atheism and false
ambition. This is the divine Life and the divine Light
within the vail of the temple. It reveals to you what
you may hope and expect from, and look for and find
in, others. There is a happiness in it which the unresurrected intellect is not competent either to grasp,
analyze, or discern. It is the holy and sanctifying presence of USE, JUSTICE, PowER, BEAUTY, LOVE, WISDOrM,
TRUTH.  Oh exceedingly beautiful! exceeding grand,




LIVING FOR OTHERS.             403
uplifting, and abiding, is this consciousness of God!
It is altogether clairvoyant, and looking through the
externals of all life, it sees the saving love, the essentially divine, the perpetually harmonial and everlasting
truth, in the very inmost soul of things. Oh reader!
open your higher powers, and welcome to your heart a
full revelation of THE DIVINE GUEST.
THE ENID.








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LIST OF TIlE WORKS OF
ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS,
IN THE ORDER OF THEIR PUBLICATION.
Price. Post.
NATURE'S DIVINE REVELATIONS........................$3.50  50
A CHART. (In Sheets).................................. 1.00
PHILOSOPHY OF SPECIAL PROVIDENCES.................... 0.20
GREAT HARMONIA. Vol. I.-The Physician................ 1.50'20
GREAT HARMONIA. Vol. II.-The Teacher.............  1.50  20
PHILOSOPHY  OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE.  Paper, 60 cts.
Cloth............................................. 1.00  16
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APPROACIING CRISIS.................................. 0.75  08
HIARMONIAL MAN. Paper, 40 cts. Cloth................... 0.75  12
PRESENT AGE, AND INNER LIFE........................... 2.00  24
FREE THOUGHTS CONCERNING RELIGION.................... 0.20
GREAT HARMONIA. Vol. IV.-Reformer...................     1.50  20
THE PENETRALIA........................................75  24
MAGIC STAFF. An Autobiography........................ 1.75  24
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HARBINGER OF HEALTH.................................. 1.50  20
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PR OSPE C TUrS
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"Harmonischen Philosophie"
ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS
in der
Reihenfolge ihrer Verbffentlichung in Nord-Amerika erschienenen und
mit Autorisation ihres Verfassers
eines Theils von
dem  im  Jahre 1858 verstorbenen
]rasidenten der Kaiserlich Leopoldinisch-Carolinischen Akademie der
Naturforscher zu Breslau,
"Wa-fsozr Dr. Qrbiftian Oolttftfl      gpas h0  (l u4;nvaabt,
und andern Theils von
dessen Mitarbeiter und IHerausgeber
Gregor Constantin Wittig,
aus dem Englischen in's Deutsche iibersetzten Werke.
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