proved to be the coruscations of the Zoroasterian theology of Persia —the legitimate children of a crude and barbarous age; then the occupation of the evangelical priesthood would no longer be a despotic monopoly, as it now is, but a wreck of matter and of most miserable superstitions. Their stock would no longer go in the popular market. They would no longer be allowed to keep the keys of heaven. They would no longer be permitted to stand between the people and their Maker; for every body would then conceive of new ways of salvation and means of happiness.

These views of the nature and destiny of man, serve to remind us that our duties to ourselves, and our obligations to the generations which shall succeed us, are alike solemn and momentous. For science and philosophy are all embosomed in the human soul. And while we are applying the laws of Nature to the harmonization of ourselves and society, let us not fail to fulfill our obligations to those that shall come after us; let us impart to them high minds and healthy constitutions, for these are the greatest fortunes which parents can bequeath their children. Be true-hearted, reverent, and faithful-full of integrity in the performance of all things; be firmly determined to develop and apply the principles of Nature to every thing, and the highest happiness will be the inevitable

How it improves and expands the soul of the mind to gaze, through the multifarious avenues of his existence, into the Spirit Land-a world of unmeasurable magnitude and of inconceivable attractions! By a law of universal sympathy, by a principle of a celestial Love-its inhabitants are joined into one grand system of unchangeable Harmony. It is impossible for discord to exist there. For each and all have a deep, high, all-comprehensive knowledge of the principles of every species of joy and Happiness. In accordance with these principles, they live most harmonially. Their obedience is apparently involuntary; they live in harmony with the

great controlling Laws of the material and spiritual universe, as naturally as the planets revolve about the Central Sun.

The universal Harmonies of the spiritual world are based upon the principles of Love and Wisdom. When the mind, or the soul, of man abandons the corporeal organism, it leaves behind it on the earth, a vast variety of terrestial imperfections. On the earth, the antagonisms of human society are pre-eminently calculated to develop the evils of war, theft, licentiousness, and other moral discords. Children are born with defective, unkind, deformed, unlovely bodies and minds; born of ignorant parents, or of parents, who, by yielding to inordinate impulses, have disobeyed the laws of life, and the offspring must accept, and begin their present existence with, many predispositions to live wrong and discordant lives. Such are involuntary foes to the laws of moral harmony; and the consequences are constantly experienced by themselves and by all contiguous members of the human family. But what a consolation it is to know, that, when the motives or causes of war, theft, and wrong cease to exist, it is positively certain that the discords of life will then also have an end! This glorious result will flow from the progressive development of Love and Wisdom among the multitudes of earth. Men will learn to trust less to mythology for harmony of soul, and more to the Principles of Nature. It will be seen that moral health depends more upon a baptismal ceremony, which is practiced religiously every morning, than upon any form of church discipline. "He that believes" in the power of Love and Wisdom, "and is diurnally baptized" in the clear waters of some flowing spring, "shall be saved" from much pain and melancholy, sad dreaming, mental confusion and disease. It will also be seen, that moral health depends more upon physical harmony than upon the writings of religious chieftains or upon the prayers of the socalled contrite heart. The faith of the religious devotee can not move a moral or a physical "mountain" half so quick as drilling-irons,

powder, spades and shovels in the hands of intelligent and properly remunerated men. And still it is said that we must not yield up our confidence in the infallibility of religious chieftains, because Christianity has civilized the Anglo-Saxon and American nations. But I deny the assertion, and say in reply, that the greatest agent of civilization was never suggested by any system of religion. It originated with the genius of mind. I allude to the blessed art of Printing. By this lever, the wide world is moved and shaken to its center. Parts are brought into the closest sympathy with the whole. The pulsations of Europe are felt in America, and when the heart of America is dilated with the great principles of Liberty, the art of Printing conveys its most delicate vibrations to the remotest extremities of the inhabitable globe. By printing, by physiology, by science, by commerce, by Wisdom, the world has been civilized up to its present state; and the popular system of theology has been dragged along by the side of civilization with all the pomp, deference, and display which is so uniformly bestowed upon some dependent but cherished Idol. This is no theory; it is the plainest statement of historical facts, of which every thing bears the most unequivocal testimony.

In conclusion let me urge you to get Wisdom. This is the great Savior. Know thyself. Be the simple-minded devotee of Nature's laws. Have a good and benevolent Reason for every thing you do. Never act from a narrow, selfish impulse. Be loving and tenderhearted. Always remember that happiness depends upon physical and mental tranquillity-upon individual and social harmony. Never do wrong. For while I speak, there are thousands of pure and loving angels looking upon us, desiring our speedy deliverance from discord and error.

LECTURE XVIII.

CONCERNING THE PHILOSOPHY AND PRINCIPLES

OF SOMNAMBULISM.

STILL our theme is Man. His nature is still rife with mysteries. There are phases and moods in his mind which we have not as yet fully analyzed. But let us not get bewildered; let us continue to calmly investigate; let us not allow ourselves to become lost in a subject so complicated and sublime; let us examine the peculiarities of man's nature with a steady nerve and a serene mind; for in him we may find much that reminds us of the lower kingdoms of Nature, and much, also, which commands our veneration and conducts reason to the Central Wisdom-to the great consilium-of the universe.

In this investigation you have followed me very patiently. You have listened with the ear of intelligence; but yet you have not fully comprehended all the points of the argument, nor fully recognized the application of all the principles which the analysis has progressively unfolded. There is properly, however, no cause for complaints, because the subject has glided into your minds just in proportion to your degree of readiness for its reception. Still it is my impression that you can render yourselves more impressible to the influx of thought, and more capable of consecutive reflection, by a proper exercise of your own constitutional powers. When you come to see that you can find immutable happiness in knowledge; when you begin to feel that Wisdom is worth more to you than the golden banks of California; then you will know how to rightly

direct and potentialize your innate abilities. When you have a firm faith in knowledge-in its beatifying and saving power-you will then seek Wisdom. When you believe that Wisdom is the great savior of the soul-that it will teach you how to Love, and to live, and to work, and to subdue disease, and to banish error, and to exterminate all ignorance and injustice-then you will have taken the initiatory steps upon that straight and happy path which is certain to lead the traveler to the kingdom of spiritual Harmony. It is to the end that you may progress in Wisdom concerning the powers and tendencies of your psychological natures, that I am moved to impress upon your minds the truths of spirituality as revealed in the general mechanism of man.

The preceding discourse referred especially to the human mind in what was denominated the transition state—a condition, midway between sympathy and clairvoyance. The phenomena of this transition state were shown to be many and various. Attention, however, was particularly directed to the religious departments, in which its external manifestations are more frequent and prominent. But at this stage of the examination, it is deemed essential to make a few remarks concerning the states of mind which precede the Transitionary condition.

You doubtless remember that the first, or ordinary stage, was termed the "Rudimental State;" the second the "Psychological State;" the third, the "Sympathetic State," and the fourth, the “Transition State;" but you may feel disposed to inquire—“whether I consider the psychological and sympathetic states as improvements upon the natural or common state of the mind?" I reply that I do not. No state is an actual improvement upon the rudimental; except good clairvoyance. The psychological and sympathetic states are deviations or side manifestations of mind. They do not result from the progressive operation of mental laws, but are incidental to the general play of the spiritual potencies, as the fruitless twigs on a