jects, through the medium of perception, and then carefully analyze, compare, and devote them to good and benevolent purposes? Or do I permit my mind to be confused and distracted by the perpetual rushing in of external impressions through the medium of the senses? Or do I reflect too much upon a few things, and seclude myself from a wider and a higher field of observation? Have I a materialistic intellect which goes no deeper than the externals, the forms and the symbols of life and thought? Or, do I penetrate to the causes of things? Do I prove all things? Do I judge with an impartial judgment? Do I adhere to the administrations of reason? Do I regard reason as the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world?

3d. Are my moral faculties properly balanced? Do I venerate justice as a principle? Are my aspirations after justice and equity confined to the ordinary and selfish circle of my own wants and requirements? Or, do I expand my reverence and application of justice to the circumference of all human rights and demands? Do I venerate any one system of morals and precepts as the true religion? Or, do I consider the truest and highest religion to be universal justice? What do I live for? Is it merely for personal interest and happiness? Or, do I love the neighbor and identify my interest, my justice, and my joy with the universal interests of mankind? Am I a desert which greedily drinks up the rain of heaven, and yields no flowers or vegetation? Or, am I a pure and healthy spring which slakes the thirst of the care-worn and wandering pilgrim, and then sends forth its numberless rivulets to augment the growth of healthy fruit and vines? What law do I revere? Is it the law of Moses? Or, the law of Love? What prayers do I utter? Are they the ceremonial orisons recommended by any priest, prelate, or religious chieftain? Or, is my prayer a desire unceasingly swelling my heart for human good and happiness? Do I love truth more than policy? Do I revere right more

than might? Do I love Worth more than wealth or parentage? Or, am I a mere being of caprice and superficiality? When I prove all things, do I hold fast to that which is good, or that which is popular and expedient? Do I acknowledge that extraordinary individual privileges lay me under extraordinary individual obligations? Or, do I accept the privileges and acknowledge the obligations by the compulsions of law? Do I revere the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Or, the Supreme Ruler of the universe?

He who would become the receptacle of true and high inspiration should propound to himself the foregoing questions, and give the world their appropriate answers, only through his life and con

versation.

It is deemed proper to repeat here a conversation, on this subject, between a Spirit in the second sphere and a Mind on earth.

Mind. "Canst thou inform me how to obtain true light, and enjoy inspiration?"

Spirit. "Man is the manifestation of a central power-an original, indestructible development of an Incarnative Principle. What he feels most, is Genius. This is unfolded by the harmonious quickening of all the spiritual forces. This is a result of growth. The true Man grows up, like the tree in the primeval forest, luxuriant and strong-armed at all points, inhaling inspiration from all directions and breathing a corresponding influence abroad in turn.”

M.

S.

"Where shall I seek for the elements of inspiration ?” "If any man will know of the doctrine, let him do the will of my Father. True Genius alone inspires. The good man images the fair features of the Divine Mind. This atonement or harmony of the human with the divine, places the interior genius at once into sympathy with the immortal tides of Truth; thence flows inspiration. In nature, genius subordinates all to its own force; but

force itself is melted into fluid, flowing over and enkindling allconforming all things to Beauty's Law."

M. "Are the elements in this world, or in the world of spirits ?"

S. "The elements are every where, separate from no life, connected with all being. True harmony-i. e. the Genius of the spirit—is the vessel into which those omnipresent elements flow, taking the vessel's form, and becoming organized accordingly. A kindly and sympathizing influence must be thrown around individual minds, to induce the lofty aspiration upon which a full inspiration rests."

M. "How can this Influence be obtained?”

S. "By consociation. The individual must be placed in a society where true Genius presides and inspires. Channels of Wisdom must be opened. The appetites must be allayed, the passions chastened, the affections softened, the imagination expanded, reason vivified, the understanding enlarged; then the law of harmony changes the very elements of common life into inspiration. Every mind is able to aspire; and all have some light from the spiritual Orb which shines ever over the fields of being. Men shall be one with God. Behold, the rising sun! The Era is very near !"

Properly considered, the spiritual state is the complete development and harmonization of the individual. On some future occasion I will explain the physical, organic, and moral laws of man's being; and show, by aid of various illustrations, how his obedience to these laws will secure the happiness which he seeks, and the inspiration which the reasonable intellect devoutly yearns to enjoy. For the present, I leave this subject to your reflection, with the earnest prayer that your souls may be permanently enriched by a judicious application of the principles unfolded.

LECTURE XXIII.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY

DREAMING.

EVERY one who understands any thing of physiology is fully aware that the Brain is the seat of all sensation and thought. It is the source of the strength and energy displayed in the vital and muscular systems, and is the chief agent of mental manifestation.

The mystery of dreaming is rendered more mysterious by the dark curtains of slumber, which invariably hang between the phenomena and our perceptions. These mystic surroundings must be rolled up before we can look in upon the more enchanting scenes of the mental Theater. I will, therefore, first present to your minds. the philosophy of sleep.

Sleep is simply the counterpart of Action. Sleep and Action are the axes upon which the sphere of common life revolves. The most tranquil and happy period, which any one can remember to have experienced in this physical life, is midway between sleeping and waking-between rest and activity. How we love the twilight hour! How it induces the mind to go within, there to contemplate the many events which cluster upon the vines of memory! And more than this; the eye of the mind, thus turned in upon itself, looks far into its own history, and realizes something of that sublime nature which seeks involuntarily an eternal residence in the upper world.

The twilight hour-being the interlude between the states of action and rest—is the properest season for reverential meditation.

This is the time to disengage yourselves from the outer world of objects. The man of genius devotes this season to himself, and withdraws from outer things for the sake of contemplation. He turns his attention to half-remembered ideas and arranges them into a new order in his mind. The many images of creation stand in all their relative positions before his mind, and thus he looks at nature through his memory and inward consciousness. The mind is in its finest mood at the twilight hour, when the front brain is not surcharged with either blood or thought. But the case is quite different with the Brain, when the Sun sends down its rays to earth. The heat and light thereof render the cerebrum positivefill it with blood, and prevent it, to a great extent, from exercising its powers of imagination. But when the Sun has passed away, then the front Brain is thrown partially into a negative state, thus permitting the higher faculties to play more unrestrainedly in the empire of thought.

The mind can not think as clear when the sun shines as in the twilight hour. Because that portion of the Brain, which controls all the agents of superior thought, is the chief ruler of all that takes place in the physical economy. It directs all muscular action, guides the body in the discharge of all its voluntary functions, and dispenses energy to all the various physical dependencies. Consequently, it is too much engrossed with the cares of the body to do much thinking; and besides this, the Sun renders the Brain too positive for deep, clear, and pleasurable contemplation.

Hence it is, that, when the soft hour of twilight arrives, the man of genius glowingly conceives his best thoughts, arranges them with the greatest facility, and realizes the most happiness. When the heavens are tranquil and the vesper-star is seen above the clouds, when all the vast landscape glimmers on the sight, then the mind sees burning thoughts and words, so eagle-like, that it can not but be exalted and serene.