Fourth Session, July 26.

The President announced that the prepared papers would be read before any other business would be attempted; and he would therefore call on Dr M'Leod to read his paper entitled, "The Power of Spirit and Religious Liberty."

Dr M'Leod then rose and spoke as follows:—

Ladies and gentlemen,—I would ask, what interest does the power of the Spirit excite in the people of this or any other country? Not much, I have reason to believe. I should think that, in a fair way of reckoning, ninety per cent, of the whole population of England have their interests divided between the price of the funds and the price of bread. Things are not what they seem. A minister of religion stands up in his place, and most earnestly cries, "Thus saith the Lord!" and the "world" responds—"Gammon!" Remember, my friends, this is not ribaldry, but fact; I mean what I say, and I say what I mean. The people of England possess, and affect to value "beyond price," a book called the Bible. They call it the Word of God—that God who is a Spirit. Now, this book is very rich in spiritual lore—marvellous in stories concerning the power of Him "who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire." But do these people believe—are they honest in their professions of belief. One of these devout believers insulted me to my face the other day, by telling me that he never would or could believe that a man of my attainments could accept in his heart, for facts, the teachings of Spiritualism. I return to him and all such the like compliment. I cannot believe that they are honest in their belief. I also dare express my opinion, and I will hold to it until I shall have it upset by positive proof to the contrary, and it is this—that of the whole adult population of these Isles not Five Per Cent, truly believe that this Bible is the Word of God. Yet everybody seems to give to everybody silent but understood credit for an honest and firm belief. I, myself, know intimately well a great many persons who lie, drink, cheat, turn up long faces at chapel on a Sunday, and beat blood out of their unoffending children after prayers. I know some of the greatest scoundrels in ruffiandom who go in for the entire Bible-ticket, hell, damnation, and all—aye, and would fight for it too. But my chief reason for the expression of this opinion is based upon the expressed and unmistakeable hostility with which the people receive anything and everything relating to Spiritualism, or of matters partaking of a spiritual character. Yet in all these houses this most spiritual book, the Bible, may be found, and every Sunday will find them in church or chapel, page 33 listening, in rapt attention, to the stories of spirit-power read therefrom. On Sundays they pretend to believe, or would have you believe that they believe (that's it) that a few years ago (for in the world's history 'this but a few years ago) a medium called Moses, by spirit-power, clove a sea asunder by the simple waving of a wand; that Abraham and others entertained and sat with spirits; that in the presence of a great eastern medium an ass spoke; that an angel spirit slew in one night all the first-born in Egypt; that two angels led Lot and his family from Sodom, and afterwards fired it and Gomorrah; that an angel killed seventy thousand of King David's army; and that another angel, in one night, slew one hundred and eighty-four thousand soldiers. This was spirit-power with a vengeance, and this the work of one ministering angel only! Few Assyrians would doubt, I should imagine, as to the "knocking" power of that spirit! These Bible champions like to hear of the exploits of Michael the beautiful, and the glorious errand of Gabriel the strong. They do not doubt for a moment that an angel appeared to Manoah's wife, and afterwards to the husband and wife together; that they roasted him a kid, and that he disappeared in the smoke of that fire, while the woman said, "we shall surely die, because we have seen God." The medium Samson was a reality. 'This quite true that he tore a lion's jaws asunder with his naked hands, and that (for a real miracle) bees rested upon the carrion and collected their honey there, which he, Samson, did eat; that he slew a thousand men with the jaw bone of an ass; and that, being athirst, by his touch a fountain of pure water gushed from the teeth of this same jawbone. They have no objection whatever to believe that Samson got out of his ropes, while the Davenports and Ellis Turketine and others are impudent impostors because they also get out of their tying. I have often wondered why, in order to be consistent, these defenders of Samson, among other tests, have not suggested the shaving of these mediums heads! With them—it is all right about Elijah, Elisha, the three Hebrew children and Daniel, about Jesus, the apostles and prophets; but, according to them, the power of the Spirit to perform such or similar marvels was entirely spent early in the first century of this Christian era—since which time the devil, a fancy hell deity of theirs, has been engaged in performing a series of "rubbishy imitations," in order to deceive the "elect." Of course they all belong to the "elect."

God bless us four—

But no more!

Amen!

The translators of the Bible must have made a mistake when they made Jesus to say, when the people were amazed at his marvellous works-—" Greater things than these shall ye do." They, that is, the present defenders, hold that these phrases are altogether figurative. When the Great Teacher said—"Take no thought for the morrow; lay not up treasure upon the earth; bless them that curse you: give to him that asketh of thee"—He didn't mean it! When he healed the sick; raised the dead; brought the current coin of the realm from the mouth of a fish; stilled the tempest; walked upon the sea; held converse with Moses and Elias; made the dumb to speak and the blind to see—that was all right enough; but as to the rest, "He spoke in parables!" "He didn't mean it!" and, therefore, "Spiritualism is an imposture, as there is no Holy Ghost capable of doing any of these things now-a-days!" They now put their trust in steam, iron, coal, and electricity—these discoveries themselves the fruits of spiritual intuition; in pounds, shillings, and pence; in cakes and ale; in the financial media which can "work the oracle" to a marvel; in floating banks representing millions upon the attenuated capital of half-a-dozen jolly dinners and nothing to pay! Talk now-a-days, in Exchange Alley, of the power of God, and you would soon be given in charge of the police; talk of the beauty of true Christianity at the table d' hole, and might not the waiter suggest to you the propriety of taking a private room. Relate your "dream," and they will order you a doctor—say you saw a spirit, and they would tar and feather you if they dared, or have you lodged in an asylum.

Now, do I blame any one because of these things? Would I correct and punish? Would I follow, had I the power, in the wake of the Inquisitions, fires, tortures, &c., &c., in order to correct this perversion? No—not I. I blame no person for bringing us to this state of things. Our predecessors preferred darkness rather than light—they went into willing and stupid bondage, and, necessarily, took posterity with them. This is the lamentable result of that pernicious system which declares man's total degradation and a book's (the Bible's) infallibility. This is the chief and broad basis of a murderous theology—a horribly shallow false science which, for more than a thousand years, has been carefully and insidiously infused into the souls of the population of Christendom. It is this system of mighty falsehood which I find fault with and would contend against. A system of lies inaugurated by fools and conspirators against man's Eternal Liberty, fed and supported by the blood of millions of soldiers and legislative enactment. Permit me to expose this baneful page 35 system. This Convention shall be answerable for nothing that I say. I stand alone on my own responsibility, and I care not for consequences to my person or property. I would rather die now telling what I believe to be the truth for the welfare of my fellow-men, than hold one moment's compromise with these black falsehoods which I am about to expose.

On the 22d of last April, at New York, Hiram P. Crozier delivered an address before the First Society of Spiritualists. This address I look upon as a special inspiration; and, as some passages of that address will fit the present occasion, you will permit me to make use of them. Mr Crozier says:—"Among the thousand and one voices of the Church and dissenting parties of Christendom, touching the great and vital duty of man's religious welfare and education, there are at the present moment, and at the bottom, but two radical ideas or sentiments, pitching the voices—causing all the jargons and harmonies. One idea presumes the fall of man; the other assumes his mental, moral, and spiritual integrity. One system demands redemption; the other education. One asks for the Church, with all its appliances of creed, priest, bishop, minister, holy ordinance, infallible Pope, or infallible Bible; the other asks the lecture room, the closet of prayer, the white-winged messenger of thought and truth, the direct communion of one heart and soul with the infinite heart and soul. This accepts literature sacred and profane, the daily press teeming with man's best and worst burdened thoughts, and all the routine of life as allies of man's true growth into a sublime spiritual liberty. Time and eternity are one in the chronicle and consummation of this ideal of education.

"The system of Church education—founded upon the theological fall of man—presuming upon his disease and inability, yea, asserting his total depravity, his moral liking of all that is evil, and his moral aversion to all that is good, educates man backwards, not forwards; downwards, not upwards. It enslaves, it does not liberate. The unity of Church belief and Church method for thirteen hundred years, from the third to the sixteenth century, was the midnight of science, art, literature, politics and religion. This unity of Church belief and Church method, based upon man's total disease of mind and heart, and conscience and soul, has Enslaved the Christian World in the Name of the Master who came to Preach Deliverance to the Captive. It has bound man in prisons in the name of Him who came to open prison-doors; it has whipped and scourged with its cords and withes of terrible hell-fire dogmas in the name of Christ whose first and highest truth was the Fatherhood of God. It has broken page 36 the brotherhood of mankind by building mean sectarian pens, so small, that a great soul like Theodore Parker could not get into one of them, in the very name of Him who said, 'If you love me, keep my commandments.' It has framed together curious metaphysical devices called 'Catechisms' and 'Confessions,' and pushed them upon the unwelcome assent of children, women, and half-grown men, under penalty of the fear and hate of God, and the dread of a devil and a hell, in the name of the great apostle to the infidel world who said, 'The end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, a true conscience, and an unfeigned faith.'

"The Church built upon these ghostly pietisms has walled itself off from the world, and has called itself sacred! The great thinking, struggling, suffering, achieving world outside, full of the inspiration of angels and of God, thrilled with the blood of heroes and martyrs, sacred with devotions to truth and duty and the law of self-sacrifice, leading the forlorn hope of the world in scientific discovery, moral reform, social, physical, and religious progress; this great Gentile world of ours, its mammoth feet treading in the paths of the old sages, saints, martyrs and heroes of the past 'of whom the world was not worthy,' its great heart beating, beating with the tidal waves of God flooding all the centuries of time; this great, honest Gentile world of ours, pouring millions of men out in wars for liberty and busying millions at home in kind thoughts for the absent soldier, this Church has dared to call profane—called upon it to repent of its natural pagan goodness, and to accept the theological goodness of the instituted Christianity of the land!

"The Church has enslaved mankind in the Messianic doctrine of the destruction of the world by fire—which corrupted the very apostles of its faith, by engendering idle fears and ruinous contempt of business and of labour.

"It has enslaved mankind by its false classification of the sacred and the secular, which obtained in the Post-Apostolic Church, and which has been rank poison at the very heart and source of true religion ever since.

"When once you make a day holy above another, you do it by profaning all other days.

"When once you make the altar holy above all other places, you do it by profaning all other places.

"When you make any one ordinance holy, you do it by profaning God's ordinance of labour, which is the fulcrum and lever that holds and moves the world.

"When you make a priest holy you profane humanity, and page 37 belittle God into a capricious pagan deity, who gets mad, and can be atoned by making the priestly function necessary.

"When you make the priest's work holy above the work of an honest working man, you do it by profaning the labour of the millions who, as the fabled Atlas carried the world on his back, carry all our art, science, literature, civilisation, religion, priest included, in their brawny and sinewy arms.

"When God has commissioned man to subdue the earth, and to have dominion over it, which is the holier man—the priest who declines labour altogether, calling it profane and secular, or the man who takes his axe, plow, and spade to clear the forest, and make his track blossom with grain and fruit and flowers ?

"Which is the holier person—the priest, with his gold pen, who writes smooth periods against the lust for money, or the honest pioneer miner who leaves eastern civilisation, braves savage perils, seeks the mountains, sleeps under the open sky, and digs under the dirty rocks by day that we may have gold for beauty and for use?

"Which is the holier person—the ghostly pietist who continually warns the good housewife of the cares of the world, or that good housewife, superintending her kitchen with God's bounty, God's chemistry, and man's skill and woman's art to cook a good dinner? 'The son of man came eating and drinking.'

"You see the pietism of which we complain as an encroachment upon man's rational religious liberty, in the monasticism which, from the fourth to the fourteenth century, overran all Europe, and became the leading, popular, and controlling religious sentiment. The very exclusion from the world, which the early persecutions of the Christians made necessary for personal safety, soon became a voluntary contempt and neglect of the world, and the excluded monk or pietist came to be regarded as pre-eminently religious! He had retired from the world to give himself wholly to God. Virginity, celibacy and almsgiving became patent virtues with which to purchase future bliss. St. Ambrose cried in the streets with holy fervour, 'Heaven for sale for one penny!' That penny went to feed religious indolence inside of gloomy walls—when God has driven man from out the walls of Eden and told him to subdue the world. It went to feed religious laziness, when Paul said, 'He that will not work, neither shall he eat;' and who illustrated his own precept by working at tent-making while exercising the apostolic function, that he might have money to help brethren weaker than himself.

"It is this false theology, false science, false spirituality; this religion of cant and sublimated pietism; this ecclesiastical Christianity that imprisons, starves, misdirects the moral sense and page 38 the worshipful needs of mankind—that puts a great gulf between sacred and secular things. It is this false religion that is responsible before God and the world for the sins and crimes of every species of human slavery. The late bloody wars in America, between brother and brother, which have so desolated that glorious land of liberty—those still raging over Europe—this false religion is alone responsible for. Yet these priests and their political coadjutors have the impudence to charge these things upon the reformers and abolitionists. As well charge the drunkenness of England upon the teetotalers, the angels of God's love with making the hells that surround us, or charge Christ with the rack and woe of Jerusalem; because he, the only liberal or radical of his day, told the Jews what a false conservatism would bring upon them.

"This thraldom of the false classification of sacred and secular—making the Church holy, the world profane; making an ordinance holy, making labour profane; making a priest holy, profaning humanity thereby; interjecting the terrors of the second advent every now and then, with the set time for the visible destruction of the world by fire, and the annihilation of the wicked—all but the adventists; keeping the fires of eternal hell torments kindled all the time, and breaking out in jets of sulphur flame, in the white heat of so-called 'revivals of religion;' feeding hungry human nature with the husks and rinds of doctrine, instead of the Word of God, in every quickening truth; this appalling cheat of the soul, of all grace, in the name of the very and only grace of God, the Church and priesthood have bound upon mankind, through the artful withe and thong of faith in one Infallible Blble."

Yield this point, that "a book," good, bad, or indifferent, composed in known and unknown periods of time, by known and unknown authors, a real book, is the "only revelation of God," and the "only infallible rule of faith and practice,"—Yield this Point and Your Citadel of Liberty is Gone. You are stormed, taken captive, and doomed to prison. You are captive to Moses, David, and Isaiah in the Old Testament—to the historic and ideal Christ of the New Testament, and to all the sacred writers of the New Testament Canon! Your jailer is the Pope, the Established Church of England, or Ireland, or Scotland, or your innocent dissenting parson who plies his art with a "Thus saith the Lord," to drive home into the solemn sanctuary of the reason and the holy seat of the soul, an interpretation, or a text, or a dogma that your better nature scorned, and that had its inspiration from devils and bad men instead of angels and God.

Admit an "infallible book," and you are a timid, "erring," "fallible" "worm," at the mercy of any keen-witted interpreter of that "infallible book" who, for a low living, or a higher traditional misguided lionesty, can make you believe that he knows more of the book, and more of the mind of God, than you know yourself with all the faculties God has given you, and in giving has ordered to be sanctified by use!

You are in turn Romanist and Protestant; High Church and Low; Conservative and Liberal; Trinitarian and Unitarian; Destractionist and Universalist; Liberalist and Spiritualist—as the pipes of your magnificent being become stopped by sin, sorrow, disappointment, discouragement, the drudge of care and labour, or as these grand pipes are opened to the Oratorio of Creation and the highest tides of God flood the receptive soul!

This doctrine of an "infallible book," post-apostolic, Of which Christ himself Never wrote One Word; which had no canonical existence in the Apostolic Church; which is a most monstrous assumption of priest-craft and church-craft; which is belied by history, ethics, and science; yea, which disproves itself by its own fallibility, by its own endorsement of lying, deception, fraud, aggressive war, slavery and polygamy, and opposed to natural religion; this monstrous assumption that a "book," written from eighteen hundred to four thousand years ago, has exhausted God and measured the limits of human knowledge in spiritual things, is the height of credulity, and, therefore, the depth of man's spiritual bondage. This is the unmeasured influence of the priesthood, and, therefore, the unmeasured degradation of religious vassalage.

So much for the negative statement, now for the positive. What is religious liberty?

"Religious liberty is a recognition of and obedience to all religious truth. Truth is the only and final authority, and of truth man is the only final arbiter and judge. The Bible, and the Popes, and the Churches, and the Creeds must all abide this test of the individual reason—conscience and the soul. What in the everlasting nature of things is fitting to be pronounced true and reasonable? What in the everlasting nature of man is fitting to be pronounced venerable, holy and right? What in the divine harmonies of the soul is fitting to be pronounced sacred, beautiful and good?

"These are the tests which all that is worth saving in the religious progress of the race must abide. What cannot abide these tests must go to the 'moles and the bats'—companions of darkness and death. Whatever there is in the Bible that can abide these tests—the moral law firmly seated in the divine constitution page 40 of man; the prophetic period of Jewish history, wherein you see the play and battle of radical and conservative, prophet and priest, statesman and politician, anointed king and haggard usurper; the gleams of the transcendant worth, dignity, and glory of man as child of God; the marvellous life of 'the man Christ Jesus;' the light and love of his beatitude, the sermon on the mount, the transfiguration—where we gaze into the true spiritual world and behold the possibilities of man becoming immortal—the wonderful life of Paul, who eighteen hundred years ago fought the good fight against Jewish priestcraft and pagan idolatry, and whose life was a grand epic of heroism and self-sacrifices, illuminating the ages of darkness and error between the first and the nineteenth century—all this, and all in harmony with the truth of the Eternal Word, inspiring and informing the living and Eternal Reason, Conscience, and Soul of Man,—this will abide.

"These simple propositions, that truth is the only authority; that of truth man is the only judge; that there can be no common ground between God and man unless man himself is possessed of this faculty of reason to determine the True against the False; that only through the reason, conscience, and soul of the individual man can we know any truth, any rectitude, any good; yea, only through the exercise of these divine human faculties can we know there is even a 'Bible' at all, or any God worthy to be worshipped—these simple propositions, self-evident to the commonest understanding, would never have been called in question in ecclesiastical courts had it not been for ecclesiastical cunning, demagogism, spiritual cheating, to enslave mankind by a false religious education.

"The awful power that early education, and sacred traditions, and so-called holy associations have to perpetuate error as well as truth; this law of the mind's unconscious assimilation to its mental, moral, and spiritual surroundings—this, and this alone, explains the marvellous tenacity of religious error, the slow growth of religious liberty, and the terrible bondage of the brightening present to the decaying past."

This easily explains the sectarian drill and zeal of the "orthodox" machinery. Church and chapel service; Sunday schools; prayer and other meetings; town missions; young men's Christian associations, &c.—close these places, stop these things—as an experiment merely—for one generation, and your false ecclesiasticism would be an argosy ashore, with no tide to float it, no breath of God to give it life. This explains why the priesthood and the Church, from Rome to Newcastle, inveigh so much page 41 against Spiritualism, that is, against Science and Reason; and, especially, why the Established Church of England—the first Church in the world—prefers the error of tradition, and the power of its false control over the conscience, to the truth of Colenso and the inspirations of God in the heat of the day. Now, this should explain to us, to this the Second Convention of the British Association of Progressive Spiritualists, that this great work of ours is providing for the religious welfare and education of our children in a way and manner that shall Liberate and not Enslave them, and not stem and stunt them with shallow conceits and false doctrines.

"Let the dead bury their dead."

It is wrong, if not blasphemous, to call any body of men and women the Church of the Living God which is afraid of God's own living Truth in the hearts, and minds, and souls of his own living and dutiful children. The Church must become the pillar and ground of truth, or become, sooner or later, the contempt of the world. The Church must stop garrison duty, break up camp and hospital, and nobly serve on picket, on the forlorn hope, in the great liberating army of mankind. She should be the vanguard of that army, or sink out of sight with Paganism, Mahometanism, and Romanism. God has put man into this world to grow in all noble directions. Baulk man's growth no power shall, and prosper in such dark work. The growth of man can no more be baulked than you can stay the grow of the coral reefs towards the "Queen of the Antilles," or the bursting of new suns and stars into life to glorify the Father in the infinitude of space. Man's mission is to subdue the world and to have dominion over it. That mission is to be fulfilled. If the Church cannot help its fulfilment, then, as a dead and withered arm, it must be buried out of sight.

All cry for rest, for the lull of "agitation," for garrison duty, for a "rest and be thankful" organisation, is a cry and signal of death! The truth of one genial soul, like Channing, has more meaning and more salvation for the race than all the instituted religion for eighteen hundred years. The bursting forth of one such century man as Theodore Parker, lifting religion above the sphere of the transient and accidental into God's sphere of the absolute and the eternal, is the undying prophecy of the spiritual world that the human race is not exhausted; that religion is not to be organised but Discovered; that inspiration is now, and in future, as well as yesterday, and in the past; that God is real as well as historic; and that man's life may now glow with His life, and his pathway shine with the footprints of angels.

For the present, enough has been said on this subject perhaps, and it behoves us, who are assembled here this day, to take action upon the hints contained in this address. I presume that we are neither Catholic nor Protestant, but a party with an idea wider and broader, deeper and higher, than that of any organised body of Christians. As Theodore Parker has described us, we are an association of men and women who believe "that God still inspires men as much as ever; that he is immanent in spirit as in space." We rely on no Church, Tradition, or Scripture as the last ground and infallible rule—we count these things teachers if they teach, not masters; helps if they help us, not authorities. We rely on the divine presence in the soul of man; the eternal Word of God, which is Truth, as it speaks through the faculties He has given. We believe God to be near the soul as matter to the sense; we neither believe that the Canon of Revelation is closed, nor that God is exhausted. We see him in nature's perfect work; hear him in all true Scripture, Jewish and Phoenician; we feel him in the aspirations of our hearts; we too stoop at the same fountain with Moses and Jesus and are filled with living water. We call God father, not king; Christ brother, not redeemer; Heaven, home; Religion, nature. We love and trust, but do not fear. We see in Jesus a man living manlike, highly gifted, living with blameless and beautiful fidelity to God, stepping thousands of years before the race of men; the profoundest religious genius God has raised up; the mighty medium whose works and words help us to form and develope the native idea of a complete religious man. But we believe that he lived for himself, died for himself, worked out his own salvation, as we must do, for one man cannot live for another any more than he can eat or sleep for him. We believe that his was a life at one with God, but not God—the divine incarnation is in all mankind.

The aim we have in view is a complete union of Man with God, till every action, thought, wish, and feeling is in perfect harmony with the divine will. We lay down no creed, ask no symbol, reverence no time or place particularly, but all time and every place. We reckon forms useful to such as they help—one man may consume through the bread and wine emblems of the body that was broken and the blood that was shed in the cause of truth; another may hold communion through the moss and the violet, the mountain, the ocean, or the grand scripture of suns which God has writ in the sky; we do not make the means the end; we prize the signification more than the sign. We know nothing of a puerile distinction between reason and revelation; we own no contradiction between good sense and religion. Our page 9 temple is all space; our shrine the pure heart; our creed (if we must use the word) all truth; our ritual, works of love and utility; our profession of faith, a divine life, works without, faith within, love of God and man. We bid every man do his duty, and take what comes of it, grief or gladness. This is our religion—our Spiritualism; which in every desert opens a fountain of living water; gives balm to every wound; a pillow in all tempests; tranquility in each distress. It does good for goodness' sake, asks no pardon for its sins, but gladly serves out the time. It is meek and reverent of all truth, scorning all falsehood, though upheld by the ancient and honourable of earth. It bows to no idols of wood or flesh, of gold or parchment, or spoken wind; neither Mammon, nor the Church, nor the Bible, nor Jesus—but God Only. It takes all helps it can get; counts no good profane, though a 'heathen' spoke it; no lie sacred, though the greatest prophet had uttered it. Its redeemer is within, its salvation within, its heaven and its oracle of God. It falls back on perfect religion—asks no more; will take no less. The personal Christ is its encouragement, for he reveals the possible of man. Its watchword is, " Be perfect as God..'" With its eye on the infinite, it goes through the striving and the sleep of life; equal to duty—not above it; fearing not whether the ephemeral wind blow east or west. It has the strength of the hero, the tranquil sweetness of the saint. It makes each man its own priest, but gladly welcomes him that would speak a holy word. Its prayer, in words, in works, in feeling, in thought, is this:—

"Thy Will be Done."

Let others, strangers to our movement, the great world outside the walls of this room, judge of the merits and defects of this spiritual religion and its professors. We have no visible Church, or places in which to congregate, in England. But we have a glorious hierarchy of great names—of saints who never had their niche in any calendar—who have in all ages set forth these doctrines. They were uniformly among the despised and forsaken. The world is never—has never been—ready to receive them. They have been stoned and spit upon in all the streets of the world. The "pious" have burned them as haters of God; the "wicked" call them bad names and let them go. They have served to flesh the swords of the Catholic Church, and feed the fires of the Protestant. But flames and steel will not consume them. The seed they have sown is quick in many a heart; their memory blessed by us this day. They were the men at whom the world opened wide its mouth in ages past as it does at this hour—draws out the tongue and utters its impotent laugh—but page 44 they received the fire of God on their altars, and kept living its sacred flame. We cheerfully go on this seemingly forlorn hope of our race. Truth will be a wall of fire about us in the day of trial. The battle of truth seems often lost, but is always won. Her enemies but erect the bloody scaffolding where the workmen of God go up and down, and, with divine hands, build wiser than they know. When the Scaffolding Falls the Temple Will Appear.

The President heartily commended the sentiments to which Dr M'Leod had given utterance in his paper just read. These were the kind of speeches that the age and the movement demanded, but the men were few who dared to stand up and utter them. He went heartily along the pathway indicated by the Doctor's paper: it was the straight and honest course. Others in seeking the truth might choose the roundabout orthodox road, and thus steal into the fold; but such a course was suicidal in the extreme. Some day truth would have to confront these popular preconceived notions, and it was best to state the truth at the outset. We must not attempt to build up an organisation on a false foundation, and by scheming, policy, trickery, and dodging seduce into it a heterogeneous assemblage of time-servers, "Christian" spiritualists, and disaffected parties. Such conduct would scatter the real friends of the movement, and break down the whole affair. No! a house to stand must not be divided against itself. The bond of union must be a sincere love of truth. The President concluded an eloquent speech, which was warmly applauded, by counselling an humble and faithful adherence to the supreme dictates of truth, and allow no inducements of success and popularity to sully the purity of the reformer's faith and motives.

Mr Etchells, on being called upon to read his paper, said he had the pleasure of presenting quite another view of their great and many-phased question. He begged to read to the Convenion the experience of the Huddersfield circle, in a paper entitled—

The Atmosphere of Intelligence, Pleasure, and Pain; or a Chapter from the Harmony of Matter, as unfolded in the Circles of Spiritualists who meet at Brothers Chapman, Varley, and Etchells', Huddersfield.

Theorem First.—All truths, like matter and motion, are self-existent.

Theorem Second.—The mind must have a conception of each separate particle of truth as a primary process.

Theorem Third.—All truths of which the mind has a conception it has also the power to demonstrate.

Socrates of old, the good, the great, and the wise, was the first clear headed philosopher who left any record, or whose record has been handed down to us, by those who were his pupils or had high truths to collect from the sayings and conversations of their much honoured master. He was the first to speak clearly of those abstract ideas, and those invisible yet material forces, which the investigations of modern spiritualists have been the means of again reviving in the human mind, and of again opening out that vast field of thought which has lain calmly waiting in the atmosphere around us, in the solid rocks beneath, in every flower, and in every living, moving thing of which our being is composed and by which we are surrounded. Little did the good old man think that the great truths which he toiled so hard to teach the youth of Athens, and by a knowledge of which he could pull Vanity so well from her proud seat,—little did he think that centuries would roll by without any great progress being made in the advancement of his greatest and his highest thought—that the good and the beautiful did not depend upon man, that the loftiest truths did not spring into existence at the bidding of vain mortals, but were ever with us, ever shining bright and pure to the mind which had sufficiently filtered from its outward covering those gross and heavy particles which alone hold it and keep it from passing en rapport with the real principles of its nature: those real, moving, invisible powers which are and ever were the only realities, and which ever did use the gross or heavier particles, in accordance with laws as definite and as tangible to the higher intelligence of which the human mind is capable, as the laws of chemistry are at present to the highest searcher in that great science.

Before I dare state to you the full purport of this paper, permit me at the outset to refer to a few at least of those great openings which the human mind has of late years made into the beautiful workings of nature. I would more particularly instance those departments of science which clearly show, that however solid the material, vast the work, or infinitesimally small the life-creature may be—from the tiniest microscopic life up to the largest sun which sparkles in the vast firmament of space,—go where we will, examine what we will, in thus searching for the cause we are obliged to come to the conclusion—that however stupendous or however small the work, the working power is invisible, and for the time being beyond our reach. But so soon as we have formed a moderately correct conception of the ever existent idea or power, so surely shall we be enabled philo page 46 sophically to demonstrate it. The almost infinite divisibility of matter, together with the microcosmatic powers of the human organism, which organism, all must admit, contains the seeds of all its future learning and greatness, declare that all such future learning and greatness can, and must be, the result of natural growth and development. Allow me, then, to recapitulate a few of the latest discoveries or developments of modern science, which will assist me in preparing your minds for the next great development and opening which our beautiful spiritual philosophy is about to make in the moral, scientific, social, and practical workings of human society.

In the Intellectual Observer for May, 1866, is a paper upon "What is a Cell?" followed by another article in the same publication for June, upon an equally intricate subject, viz., the "Velocity of the Nerve Force," being a notice of a lecture delivered in London, illustrated by practical experiment, in which the lecturer clearly shows that the nerve cord is nothing more than a hollow tube, through which a force passes to the brain, direct from the seat of pain, touch, or sight; that the transmission of such pain or pleasure can be stopped in its course before reaching the brain; that the time required for such transmission can be almost accurately shown, and that temperature had a great deal to do with the quickness of its travel, its velocity being not more than nine feet per second, while light travels about 192,000 miles per second, and electricity considerably more. And further, that the cells which are shown, in the former paper, to have almost an independent existence in the human organism, are the manufactory or battery from and by which is collected and transmitted the force or material which informs the government at head-quarters of what is taking place in the various departments: proving to my mind, that the real cause, or real power, is much, very much deeper, and much more infinitesimally divided, than nerve-cord cell, or the errand boy who takes the message.

In the Philosophical Magazine for June, is a paper by Drs A. Fick and Wislicenses, upon the "Origin of Muscular Power," which is equally wonderful, and which also is a great preparatory work for maturing the mind to receive and investigate more intricate and occult powers which are silently waiting for man to receive the glad tidings of great joy from angel minds. I cannot do better at this time than give you only one extract, and refer you to the paper for the remainder. They say—"We therefore repeat that the oxidation of albuminous substances cannot be the only source of muscular action. We can now go farther, and assert, that the page 47 oxidation of albuminous bodies contributes, at the utmost, a very small quota to the muscular force; which simply means, that we might as well try to run our mills by pouring upon the boiler and shaft iron ore or iron filings to make them still continue to go round, as believe that the oxidation of albuminous matter is the sole cause of muscular force."

Need I refer you to photography as another instance of the fine divisibility of matter. You are too well acquainted with it, as all know that the "sun picture" is produced by means of certain rays of light, etc., the latest improved term being a "wave," no wave of light being less than the 60,000th of an inch, and no wave being greater than the 85,000th of an inch in breadth.

Science has still further prepared the minds of the people for the wonderful truths by which Spiritualism is about to startle the most occult and imaginative reasoner. In 1862 Professor Roscoe astounded and delighted the audiences at the Royal Institution by a course of lectures on the most thrilling discovery of modern times, namely, "The Spectrum Analysis." The writer who was set apart to notice these lectures for the Cornhill Magazine, July, 1862, remarks: "There are discoveries which flatter the imagination and exalt the mind, even when their immediate utility is by no means obvious; but this discovery of a process by which man can accurately ascertain the composition of the atmosphere of the sun and the stars, removed from us by such enormous distances, is not only thrilling to the imagination, but is also seen to be eminently useful, being, in fact, the most delicate method of chemical analysis which has been conceived. How is it possible, the reader will ask; how can we hope to know anything certain about the sun's atmosphere?" We are told then by those who believe in this most wonderful discovery, that the sun is one grand bonfire, burning away like mad fiends of whom in times past we have been told so much. The writer further says: "Is it not a glorious discovery? is it not marvellous that we should be able to assert positively that round the sun there is a dense atmosphere containing, in a volatised state, iron, nickel, chromium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium, such as exist upon the surface of our earth: silver and copper seem to be absent; and what is still more remarkable, the two elements of our clay—silicum and aluminum, are wholly wanting. A new and potent instrument of research is thus placed at the service of science. No imagination can prefigure its mighty results." How successful this method may be in analysing distant objects we will not at present decide, but are assured that by this means page 48 the 180,000th of a grain has been revealed by the spectrum, which is all we require for our present purpose.

I will only give one more illustration, as a scientific link to join and weld together the science of the past and present to that of the still more highly sublimated future. This link you will find in the Transactions of the Royal Society, from a paper upon the development of the tadpole from the egg into the frog, in which it is stated that the eggs are embedded in jelly, and up to the time that Mr Higginbotham made these experiments, it was understood that this jelly was devoured by the animal as soon as it was released from the egg, and that this jelly was the only support it received, or could receive, for its growth and development for some time. But strange to state, Mr Higginbotham says: "We have this spring found that all the normal processes of growth and development go on in the entire absence of all visible food, jelly included. We separated three tadpoles immediately on their emerging from the egg, and placed them in a glass jar containing about two ounces of carefully filtered water, well exposed to light, but not to any higher temperature than that of our room without a fire. In this water there was not a particle of anything visible. Nevertheless, two of the animals survived for a month, increased in size nearly fourfold, and passed through the ordinary stages of development. The third died at the commencement of the fourth week." What does this mean or indicate? It indicates either that the young embryos bring into the world a stock of material sufficient to supply the early demands of growth and development, or that they assimilate from filtered water the material required. Both alternatives are difficult to understand. One more fact, and that is, the tadpole loses two-thirds of its weight in its metamorphosis.

From these remarks, then, you will perceive, that the progress of science and development go hand in hand. That however large and massive the work to be done, or whatever development or refinement nature makes in the completion of the structure, or the improvement of the animal's organism, the cause is at all times invisible; and the greater the change to be made, the more gross matter requires to be filtered, thrown down or left behind, by the higher organism which is at all times the result of such change.

These remarks now bring us to the first grand issue for which this paper is written. Seeing that the science of to-day teaches us that the nerve cord is but the telegraphic wire through which passes a power or force generated in a yellow slimy mass called page 49 a cell, which must receive its support, and be used as a part or organ of the great whole, being made and developed to collect these required forces from the adjacent materials; seeing that muscle also is but another cord used to hold and maintain force thus collected; seeing that the photographic plate and the spectrum are nothing more than prepared organs to catch and hold for the use of man those material essences, which are the surrounding elements of our being; and, lastly, seeing that the tadpole can not only be developed, live, move, and have its being without the use of those grosser substances which have hitherto been considered necessary for sustaining life, but that it can be supported by those essences or forces, which are nothing more nor less than the invisible and consequently the only real surrounding materials of its being;—we are enabled to arrive at the conception of another law of nature (excuse the expression), and I must say, as great, as good, and as useful to man, as that divulged by the mind of Newton—as great as the law of gravity itself, which is, that the atmosphere, or our earth surroundings, contains all the necessaries of life—of higher life—and further, that through the aid of those invisible beings who have left their caterpillar bodies, we can for a short space of time be fed, or be more luxuriously supplied with any and every kind of material, producing sensations of the most excruciating pain or the most exquisite pleasure—likewise thoughts from the modestly clothed utterance to the most lofty aspiration which the development of the time is capable of understanding; nay, further, that the atmosphere is the Alpha and Omega of supply for man's wants—that it has its layers and its beds as surely as the crust of the earth has its beds, strata, and unstratified portions. Higher still, the atmosphere is the real, the true ocean for man, intelligent man of the coming time, in which to pass the greatest portion of his life below the spheres, where he shall learn and live the life, which he will have still to learn, when he leaves his case or body, at the change commonly called death. The time is almost here already. Intelligent minds cannot even now be held down amongst the beasts of burden, but will soar aloft—will go up higher—will give way to their natural upliftings—will allow themselves to be drawn to their natural affinities. Even now, as we shall presently see, we are so far developed that we can draw from our surroundings a power by which we can clothe our soul and spirit with a visible form, leave our body or case, and fly from circle to circle; nay, from nation to nation, and from land to land, making ourselves felt, seen, and heard, and return to our body with redoubled strength.

You might as well tell me that the ocean is not the birthright page 50 of the fishes, and that they cannot live in that vast atmosphere of water, but must remain at the bottom to creep and crawl, as tell me that man has not the power of development within and around him, by which he shall unfold the means to put on one side the law of gravity! If there is a power to hold a man down to the surface, with a force equal to fifteen pounds to the square inch, there must also of necessity be a force or liquid by which he can buoy himself up, equal to that self-same law which binds or holds him down. Our present unfoldings are such as to lead us to feel that man does indeed contain within him the seeds of all future progress and greatness, just as the earth has wrapped up in its bosom all the seeds and fruits of all future time! How many millions of ages must the seeds of our present era have remained locked up in the arms of nature? Those fruits which are now decking and blessing, feeding and clothing the sons and daughters of toil,—the beautiful and delicate rose, which is now adorning the female forms before us—the very bread we have this morning eaten to renew our bodies, must have existed since time was, and have only been waiting for the proper conditions—for the proper development of our necessities, to supply which the great Father of all has never yet been found wanting, when right means, in accordance with his laws, have been used. And here I feel that your attraction of gravity, or law of affinity is in action, and desiring to know upon what grounds I make these great and high-sounding assertions. In answer, allow me to remind you of the theorems at the head of this paper—first, that all truths, like matter and motion, are self-existent; second, the mind must have a conception of each separate particle of truth as a primary process; and, third, all truths of which the mind has a conception, it has also the power to demonstrate. From these theorems, and from what has already been advanced, I flatter myself that you will feel that the first is a true definition, and that enough has also been said for us to form a conception that the atmosphere, or, what is a better term, our earth surroundings (together with the human mind, which cannot be separated from anything which it can think of), must, after all, be an ocean containing many things which have "ne'er yet been dreamt of in our philosophy," and of which our present old worn-out notions of oxygen and nitrogen, and the other few mixtures which we are told are of not much moment, supply but a very feeble idea. Permit me, then, to give you one simple fact, which convinced me more than a little that it was high time for spiritualists to reconsider our immediate surroundings, not only for further proof of spirit force or page 51 of the mechanical means used by them, but to really know more of the philosophy of the atmosphere—why it is a mixture and not a chemical combination—the why and the wherefore of this great pulling towards a centre of all bodies in space—and no longer rest satisfied with being able to calculate the force of the pull only, but try at least to find out the cell where the force is generated, and the cord used by the wonderful little cell; and find out also this great powerful earthy atmospheric muscle, which holds poor mortals with such a firm grip, allowing us only just to crawl and to creep along the surface.

Our first fact, then, took place or was noticed in the Spiritualist Laboratory at Slaithwaite, commonly called Holy David's, because the consumption of bread never exceeds the family requirements no matter how many strangers partake of it. I was there at a seance, when our full circle of about twenty were sitting in a small cottage with windows and doors closed, blinds down, not a breath of air (in the old notion of oxygen and nitrogen), when in came our friend and co-worker, Mr Burns, whose bright face I am glad to see once more. He had walked about fifteen miles over our Yorkshire hills, which had blistered his feet, and consequently much tired him. On entering the room as he did after the circle had been sometime sitting, his first impression was to have windows, doors, and blinds opened, believing, as he stated, that neither mind or body could be elevated by disobeying the laws of health in shutting out the oxygen. We knew that this was not the time for argument, and simply expressed a wish that our brother would not be hasty in his conclusion, as the experiment was of a different nature from ought of the oxygen and nitrogen kind. We had a lecture upon the harmony of matter, and spent a happy two hours, when, strange to say, our Brother Burns rose from his seat as fresh and as light as if he had not walked a mile, his feet quite well, and with an appetite as fresh and good as if pure oxygen had been blown through his whole system.^*

The next experiment of use to us in this investigation was in a laboratory about 12 feet by 7 feet, with what our spirit friends call "a spout" at one end of the room, to which they say they have fixed their telegraph wire, by which means they can help us to communicate with the three laboratories, namely Brothers

^* *Brother Burns demurs to the reason here assigned for his good appetite. It must be remembered that he had 15 miles of oxygen previous to entering the Laboratory. He most heartily attests, however to the remarkable effect produced on his chafed feet and aching muscles by the harmonizing influences or what Brother Etchells calls "the surroundings" of the cottage. Brother Burns described the air as presenting a peculiar "saponaceous" feeling to the hand when moved through it.

page 52 Chapman's, Varley's, and Etchells'. Upon this night we had only those of the circle present who are working for the Development of the Double, of which more anon. The spirit having charge of the medium here intimated that they were about to experiment, and prove to us as distinctly and as certainly as the difference between pure rain water and rain water charged with salt, soot, or any other impurity could be proved. In this case I was the party made choice of to test the experiment, and I must here state that the room door, windows, and all were made secure, and as dark as possible. Six persons were present, two ladies and four gentlemen, the medium being perfectly unconscious. I was desired to empty my lungs, and take deep inhalations for practice. The invisibles then declared themselves ready to try the experiment, and told us that if they succeeded, during the first breathings violent pains would be experienced through the whole body, in the second breathings the pain would be removed, and in the third breathings the most healthy and exhilarating sensation would pervade the whole body. They also stated that that was the first time they had tried the experiment from that standpoint, or without a healing medium; that they collected or gathered the whole of the forces used from the atmosphere; and further, that every human being contained within himself the inherent power to draw to himself those higher powers or forces, which would entirely eliminate and remove all sickness and every ill which we have too long been told "flesh was heir to." Well, say you, what about the result? I found them just as stated before we began. My first breathings filled me with a dull, heavy, painful sensation throughout my whole body, my second breathings took them away, and my third breathings filled me with the most pleasant sensation imaginable and with the loftiest thought my highest nature could understand. Would to God that I could sufficiently understand his laws which govern us, that I could live a life such as I then felt, that I might have the great pleasure of pouring such happiness as I then experienced upon all who come within my humble attraction.^*

I could fill volumes upon the various atmospheric influences

^* Since the above was written I find in the daily papers of July 12 1866, that an inquest was held upon the body of a physician, at Manchester, who lost his life by experimenting with ether. He is now considered a martyr to his loved science, which I doubt not he is; but what would have been my lot? What would the same press have said had I suffered in the least during these experiments through a mishap which might have even caused either of which in other cases have produced very serious results, though nothing of an explosive nature (judging from old notions upon the subject) has been produced?

page 53 which I have had the great good fortune for the last four years to witness at our regular meetings at Brother Chapman's. I have seen when not a sensible word could be spoken, when fun seemed to be the only power which possessed us; it has even been the same with those persons newly brought amongst us, and particularly when our sweetest of little angel ones, though she is or was black as thunder when upon the earth, for she was of Hindostan—when she has the charge of the circle her mysterious power fills us with mirth and fun. I have seen the feeling come over us instantly, as if the tap had been turned, and the hearty laugh has been changed to language of the highest possible kind, breathing the loftiest thought, and when pain has instantly been changed to the best feelings of physical health possible. I am fully aware of the ridicule this part of my paper will meet with from the weighing and measuring material chemists of our time, to whom I can only say that they had better weigh and measure their own pet notions referred to in the introduction to this paper. I refer to the nerve cord, the cell, the muscle, spectrum analysis, the sun picture, and last, though not least, the increased size of the tadpole, so beautifully rendered by Mr Higginbotham. And now, with your per-mission I will pass on to the last part of this paper, which to my mind describes one of the most astounding and mysterious powers of the human organism with which mankind has yet been blessed. We believe it can be demonstrated at pleasure, by the co-operative help of the various Spiritual Laboratories represented at this Convention. We feel that before long if you work with us, we shall settle the soul question for ever without the fear or shadow of a doubt remaining any longer upon the minds of any who are worthy the name of lovers and seekers after truth. The problem is this, my brethren and sisters—that you and I, and every human being, contains a real moving, living power or force which actuates this outward body, and which power and force can, by high and holy development, quit the body for a short space of time, during our present state of existence. That while apart from its body, this soul force can gather sufficient material or gross matter around itself, so that it may be seen, felt, heard, and recognised, not only by those at short distances from the body which has been left, but at any circle or laboratory, or at any house where an affinity for such knowledge exists, and provided that at the same time the individual desiring such manifestation be sitting for development.

I know you will have patience with me while I lay before you my "simple and unvarnished tale" of facts, which have caused me, and those with whom I am connected, to introduce this page 54 question at this Convention—knowing that some, at least, have heard of our investigation in this matter. We have, however, been as quiet about it as possible until we could find that at least there was some truth in our conception; and now having arrived at that stage of development in which we can with confidence say, we have great faith in the realization of our most enthusiastic idea—of its beauties—and that the most wonderful amount of good will arise from its consummation, all we ask is your hearty co-operation. Make arrangements to meet in your private circles promptly, with closed doors, at the same time that we meet, to have the same individuals, and no changes without such changes be desired by your spirit guides. Begin and continue your experiments with a sincere desire for truth, not caring in what shape it may come—but it must be truth which will stand the test of proof. After a few sittings, we believe that one or both of our mediums who may be in affinity with your circle will be felt, then speak as a spirit does, and lastly, be seen in perfect form in your midst, though the body which the medium spirit has left may be miles away. All will not at first be equally sensitive, but after a month's perseverance, success will follow your labours. We are not particular about knowing of your sitting, suit yourselves on that point—only, after you have received a visit, let us know under what circumstances, that we may have all the information we can get.

Our first conception of this power of the human soul to leave the body, unknown to itself, or to those around it, arose when physical manifestations were much demanded, and when sound and useful information upon Spiritualism was cared for only by a few, except it was given with the "thus saith a rap "—thus saith a thump of some kind or other. I need not remind you that very few mediums possessed the conditions required for the spirit to use in that way; and then, as now, it was thought, that when the rap or the thump came, it must be produced by the "rough" or medium, for, said one, "I saw him or her distinctly take his or her hand away." I need not say more on the doings and sayings of this stage of our history, but come to the point. I thought myself, that if a finger touched me so as to leave a mark upon me produced by touch and not by explosion, I ought to see the finger, at least sometimes—and at one of our dark sittings for development, they (the spirits) placed me close to the medium and I was touched, and tried to catch the finger, but to no purpose. It came out afterwards that one person said he distinctly saw page 55 the hand of the medium do it, and of course a fine row was the result. This took place again, and still it was thought to be the medium—but the impression came to me, though I knew argument at that time would be useless, may not this arm be the real arm of the medium—the real fellow who moves the visible arm, that has found out a means to collect our thrown-off force, just as all substances collect heat. Many, many weary hours did I pass. Many beautiful lectures did our spirits give us upon the invisible being, the real. Time passed on until the Davenports came, which revived the idea—old history was examined, and even there strange stories were found of good men and true—of people suffering some bodily ailment who had been seen in two places at once. My mind was made up. Brother Green was brought to our circle through meeting him at a time when riot and popular ignorance took the place of examination. We talked together in circle and out of circle. All the circle thanked the Father of all good that we had got more strength. The real soul man was again discussed. Brothers and sisters all saw a new era. We sat, we sung, we prayed, we tried in our little way—to speak as a Roman—to move the gods to help us. When one Sunday, after a most severe struggle with the—not the Devil—but with our difficulties, our Sister Chapman had been strangely used: she clutched my hand with a terrible grasp, she cooled down, motioned for a slate and pencil, and wrote in plain letters, "Atlantic, Emma Hardinge," which was stated to mean that that lady, our noble sister in truth, was on the Atlantic. She came the next time we sat, and again wrote. We knew not where she was. She came amongst us every time. She was bodily asleep, or was under influence when we were sitting. We tried all means to prove our ground, and now we tell you here to-day that her identity is proved without a doubt, not only to us, but to herself, whose letters we have, as well as her own word to Brother Chapman. She can use our sister and our brother Green, and speak thoughts which give help and hope, thoughts and words which burn with true love and intelligence.

But how about the real double of your mediums, you now ask. I will give you our experience. We had been holding our regular Tuesday night meeting at Brother Chapman's; we had that night had more than our usually good meeting. Sister Chapman put on her hat and walked on with the ladies to the railway arches, and I walked on with the men, leading the way some fifty yards, when the ladies called out, and said that Miss Chapman was going home without saying good night; to which I answered, "I wish she dare do such a thing." While speaking I turned round and page 56 saw her going towards home at full speed, when, at the same time, to my utter astonishment, she caught my hand. Why, said I, you are yonder. No, said she, I am here. And true enough she was, for I had hold of her hand. This was our first "double" exhibition, for which we were truly thankful. Nothing could exceed my astonishment, for the double looked more clear to me than her outer body; hat and dress, everything she had on, seemed as real as the form standing before me. Of the part, or use which our spirit guides play, or of the real modus operandi by which they collect the force of myself and the three other members of the double circle, I cannot at present give you the least idea; but that there is philosophy in it I am quite sure, as another phase of this mysterious power will better inform you than anything I can say. In Easter week our guides had requested that I should spend the holiday at Brotherton with Brother Green, which gave me a better chance of improving my mind and health upon this strange subject. I felt there was a meaning and a purpose underlying which would ultimately be brought to light. It must be understood that the country round Brotherton is very fine, resting upon the Limestone Rock, and produced, for so short a stay, a very good effect upon my body. We had a glorious time. We had a medium with us, and the most astounding tests were given to the family, and of such a kind as could not be contradicted. The second night Brother Green came into my room before retiring to rest, and we agreed to use all our will power so that our Sister Chapman, who was in Huddersfield, might be able to leave her body and come. In the morning, when all met at the breakfast table, strange to say, the medium declared that Miss Chapman had been in the house during the night, and that he never was more satisfied of anything in his life—and here I must remind you that this medium was an unbeliever in the human soul having the power to leave the body before death, and whether he had dreamed or how it had been done he could not tell; but this was soon settled to have been no dream, as Sister Chapman herself felt and knew that her soul had been to Brotherton, and actually described the room which I used, and also the breakfast room where we had our meetings. And what is more convincing still my wife and myself, accompanied by Sister Chapman, went again to Brotherton on Whit week, when Sister Chapman declared that that was the house she had before been to in her trance, but said that the paper upon the breakfast room had been changed since she came in the double. And, sure enough it was the fact, for they had had the rooms, with the exception of? page 57 the bed-room I occupied, repapered betwixt my first and second visit.

I could give you many other instances, but you will gather from these the progress we have made in this really wonderful development. Brother Green has also this power developing, but our spirit guides complete one at a time; yet we fear not but he too is progressing, as the following will show. On the first Wednesday in this present July, 1866, our Sister Chapman was in her room reading, when lo! she was startled by the door making a noise, as if being opened, and to her utter astonishment our innocent brother here, I mean the real one, not this one our dull eyes look upon, but the one which moves this piece of human clay about—walked straight about his business, as I know he would, round the table, up the other side to the candle, blew it out, walked back through the door, more clearly seen by his own light (for other light is artificial and useless when we can arrive at the highest cultivation of which we are capable) leaving her, though she has seen spirits time after time, in the most profound amazement. I hope that some of our friends will take up the subject of light, which I doubt not will amply repay them.

Did I not feel the subject of vast importance, and that it was our duty as a circle to do all we could to open up and before long settle this question, I should not take up more of your time at the present; but I feel that there are yet other experiments in the results of which I know, if we are deceived we are not alone. At our last meeting at Brother Yarley's there were present the whole united circle—not less than twenty persons of thought, some of whom have taken prizes at our Government second class examination. We had a more solid manifestation of the double. At my right hand I distinctly felt the form of some collection of matter, but I could not realize what. I did not speak, knowing that if I was right all would be made clear before the close of the circle. I had no sooner thought, than Brother Chapman, who is always placed at the other end of the circle, declared that something had passed quite through him, and that it was now standing at the right hand of myself. He also thought it was a spirit, and immediately another, and another—I could feel the different forces of each distinctly, and felt that if I could manage certain magnetic passes it would be made so tangible that more of the circle might feel or see the same as I felt, and as Brother Chapman saw. The experiment was quite a success, for more than one felt as I did, but none saw as did Brother Chapman. One lady was quite frightened when she received a more perfect realization than she had anticipated. page 58 These manifestations turned out to be the first seven phases of the double, and the reason Brother Chapman could see better than others was the close affinity there existed betwixt himself and his daughter. Our double night was the next following, and unknown to our circle Mr Chapman sat at home in his own house, more than two and a half miles away from our double circle; and stranger still, the same phenomena was again exhibited, only with more force and less fatigue to the medium. Her body being more in the trance condition, as if the soul or power had got more clearly away from its fold, carrying with it more of the vital forces than before, showing to us from the beginning to the end that our progress in this development is slow, but sure and certain. The mediums themselves are most sensitive. They can tell instantly though thirty miles intervene betwixt them when one or other has left the body. In all our notices only one mistake has partially occurred, which took place on last Tuesday night; but even in that case we had sufficient to answer for it, as the medium at our end was occupied by a spirit in such a way as would take too much of your time up, and introduce other yet equally important matter. I have now brought our unfoldings up to Sunday morning, July 15, and in bringing this paper to a close I can but thank you for your patience, resting assured that by next year, when this Convention meets again, this grand power of the human organism will be fully established, and that the double will be then fully seen by all, and that the other important subjects of the atmosphere, gravity, the nature and uses of oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen gases, together with those of solar light and natural light—for, depend upon it, there is a light in embryo which is as sure to be of service to our higher development, as gas was above candles, and a power also as much superior to steam as steam is superior to horse flesh. 'Tis for the intelligent and fearless class of spiritualists, truth-lovers, and truth-seekers to walk in her high and only noble path, and meet to receive Truth as she is—not to require her to dress herself in clothing to suit the too often vitiated tastes of our pre-conceived notions. What, I ask, are pre-conceived opinions compared to the lofty and noble standard of truth? Why need we fear to be led astray by following the intuitive impressions of our higher natures. We cannot step out of our real selves. We cannot travel where the Father and Ruler of all good is not. He it is who is ever with us. He it is who is working and bringing forth fruit in proportion to the wants of His creatures. He is ever refining and ever remoulding our being—developing for the reception of the ever-increasing and ever- page 59 glorious beauties which he has in store for all his children in his great show-room and store-house of nature. He it is who is at all times calling his children up higher, ever smiling upon us and blessing us with peace, plenty, and happiness. He it is in whose name we this day call upon the sons and daughters of progressive thought to no longer look upon their all-wise, all-good, and eternal Father as a jealous, vindictive God—but rather let us from this very hour put forth our whole powers into the study of this living, moving, guiding, loving, principle of nature which is in us, about us, and around us, from whose eternal law of progress we cannot depart without feeling the wrong we are committing. Let us, then, live well and loam much, in a few words, simple yet all powerful, which are, Love God with all our heart and soul, and our neighbour as ourselves.

Mr Etchells having concluded his reading, the President said he would give the ladies an opportunity to speak, and intimated that the meeting was open to them to remark upon the papers just read.

Mrs Spear related several instances occurring in the experience of Mr Spear corroborative of what had been read by Mr Etchells. One morning at breakfast Mr Spear described a man who he said would call on them. He did so that morning in their absence, and again at twelve o'clock, and Mr Spear at once recognised him as the person he had described. On another occasion, before setting out for Paris, Mr Spear described the interior of a room in that city. On their arrival they called on the editor of the Revue Spirite, and he introduced them to a strange lady. On visiting her they were ushered into the room seen and described by Mr Spear when in London. This was an introduction that was quite unforeseen by them, so that there must have been a power apart from the intelligence of Mr Spear to lead him to give such a description. Mrs Spear thought that Spiritualism would confer untold benefits on science, as in several instances it had already. Truth, she remarked, did not always come by ratiocination, but often intuitively, or by spiritual communication. She felt assured that when the nature of the human spirit and its relations was more fully known, the opinions of men on many important matters would undergo vast changes.

Mary A. Alstone thought that circles who wanted to communicate with each other by means of the "double" should sit at the same time, and with an express understanding, so as to produce harmony of effort. She thought the proof and demonstration of the phenomenon of the "double" was a most important matter, page 60 as it cast much light on the nature of the soul and of its ability to subsist independent of the body; thus proving the real man to be immortal, and establishing the certainty of a hereafter. She believed every individual had a particular work to do in the great scheme of human progress, and thought that all great reformers and teachers had been instruments used by spirits for beneficent purposes. From childhood she had been directed by unseen influences, and she was of opinion that those who were anxious to attain knowledge and do good would by unforeseen means be enabled to attain their end.

Mrs Jones related many interesting psychological facts which had occurred in her long and varied experience as a healing mesmerist. Her facts went to demonstrate the power of clairvoyance possessed by many subjects under treatment for disease. One had given information which led to the discovery of a lost ring; another persisted in her demands for fruit which Mrs Jones did not know was in the house, but was a present which had been left in her absence. Her experience had been such as to convince her most fully of the power of the human mind to acquire facts independent of the external senses, all of which were corroborative of the general principles under consideration.

Mrs Spear gave an interesting instance of how she had seen herself out of herself while at Birmingham, a few days previous to the Convention. She had seen herself in a position which a series of unexpected incidents placed her next day. This vision or impression might not be considered of an identical kind with the "double," as she did not only see herself, but the carriage, horses, and surrounding objects.

This conversation closed the session, when the Convention adjourned for dinner; and a large group went to a photographic establishment to have a photograph taken, for distribution amongst the members.