The evidence that might be presented under this head, is almost without limit. When reading it, the thoughtful mind is led to wonder how rational human beings can waste time in such puerilities. In a letter in Medium and Daybreak, Nov. 1872, p. 429, and signed by E. A. Salmon, the following occurs :—

"On Monday, the manifestations were, we are informed by the most credible eye and ear witnesses, exceedingly pleasing. Musical instruments were played as they were borne aloft in the air; persons in the circle had their faces touched, or their hair stroked, as if by invisible hands; and one gentleman's hair was drawn over his forehead. A voice was once or twice heard; and 'Good night.' We have done our best to convince you. God bless you all! John King."

From the same paper for December 6, 1872, the following specimen is called:—

"The embodiments were not this evening, I think, so perfect as 'Katey's' was on the former occasion. The light, it is true, was different; but this was an improvement: it was more vivid; but 'Katey' mère, as I first saw her, would have borne any amount of illumination. She, too, was paler, less life-like, vous verrez. As page 43 soon as this apparition had faded away, 'Peter's' voice was heard:—'Is useful, I am. I come when 'Katey' is collecting the power, just to give you a little of my psychic force. They didn't want me at first; ? John King' used to send me off; but I's useful now. I like to do some good, you know. Fitz-Gerald, how are ye? Flipper's rather hard for psychic force, ain't it? I used to take pence out of people's pockets, and other things. Want 'em over ere? Oh, dear no! Some on your side wanted 'em, though. I gave them the pence—dropped them at their feet; didn't they wonder! Mrs. Desmond, how are you? Lady Fitz, how are ye? Emily, how are ye? What's this I's got here? Fitz-Gerald, is it loaded?' (He had taken down a carbine that hung near the ceiling.) 'Cock it, and snap it? Of course I can; I's clever enough for that. Don't break the circle, mind—fear I drop it. Now. Stand at ease! but don't freeze, and don't sneeze! Don't be alarmed, I won't hurt you. Fitz-Gerald, what's this thing with a handle to turn? Electrical! Well, I can't manage it.' (He had unscrewed the handle of the machine by turning it the wrong way.) 'Shake hands? Of course I will, I's quite one of you now. I say, Fitz-Gerald, when people feels hands like these' (gripping me firmly by both shoulders), 'they say it's the medium. You see, what are they to think? I say it's psychic force! I's off now to the major's. Oh, yes, I'll come back.' A slight crash on the window shutter, and 'Peter' was gone."

The following dialogue with the spirit of Theodore Parker is from "Flashes of Light," p.p. 274, 275 :—

Ques.—"Is it true that the superior races of humanity have developed from the gorilla tribe?"

Ans.—"It is true, an absolute fact, well attested in nature. We are apt to turn a cold shoulder on our inferior relatives as we rise in the scale of human life. It is not at all unnatural thus to assume a superiority which does not belong to us."

Ques.—"Will individuals of the gorilla tribe, now on the earth, develope in the spirit world?"

Ans.—"They will develope through natural and spiritual processes. Spirit and matter are inseparable. Spirit always rises through matter, or developes, as you understand it, through matter, and at the same time developes matter. Spirit is always dependent upon matter for expression, and the kind of expression depends upon the kind of organic matter through which the spirit ex-presses. The gorilla, as such, cannot be the finely developed Anglo-Saxon, yet the same spirit runs through both."

The following choice piece is from the Spiritual Magazine, November 1877, page 515. The actors are Mr. Samuel Guppy and Mr. Ira Davenport. The scene and event are thus described:—

"A smallish room, feather bed, with very high top to the bedstead, washstand, with under shelf one side, my trunk open on a long stool in one comer, a table before the bright fire, with two wax candles burning, and the tea on the table, and we on each side—you see it all.

"The ball or entertainment opened by a volume of 'Mary Jane' jumping from my trunk to the window seat; I got up to pick it up, and while so doing, my dress coat and waistcoat came flying out of the trunk at me; I took them up, remarking to my invisible friend that I did not ask him to unpack my trunk. I stowed all in the trunk, shut it up, and resumed my chair at the table; but trunk and stool on which it was marched off themselves up alongside the table. A second after, a nameless something, which was on the ledge under the washhand basin and was not empty, was emptied on the floor and rolled under the bed. 'Arn't you ashamed of yourself,' said I, 'to make such a mess in a gentleman's room?' The reply that I, or rather we, got was that a tumbler, half full of water, which was standing on the washhand stand, was (the water) pitched at us. 'Ira,' said I, 'we had better get our tea, for it is getting rather lively.' We sat to the table, but the table began moving about. 'Hold the table fast,' said I. We did, but then the tea tray began moving about on the table. 'We had better get our tea over,' said I; 'else we shall get those things broken,' So we hurried, much as people do aboard ship in a storm, and sent the things away. 'Now,' said I, 'for our cigar box,' and we put paper and pencil in it, and put it under the table (two candles and bright fire), in an instant a crash came like a heavy sledge hammer—the cigar box was smashed into little bits—at the same time a very loud rapping was heard. 'It wants to say something,' said Ira, and he added, 'What is your name?' It spelt out, D-e-v-i-l. 'Nice company we are got into, Ira,' said I. 'What do you want?' said Ira. It spelt out, W-h-i-s-k-e-y. 'Do you mean to say,' said I, 'that if I order up a glass of whiskey you will drink it?' 'Y-e-s.' I ordered up two glasses of whiskey with water. I tasted the one, and putting very little water in the other I said, 'Shall we put it under the table?' 'N-o.' 'Shall Ira hold it?' 'Y-e-s.' With one hand on the table, he held the glass of whiskey and water under the table, and in a few seconds cried, 'By heaven, it is drinking!' He brought up the glass; it was as dry inside as if it had been wiped out with a hot towel. We took a candle and examined the carpet, but there was not a trace of moisture."

In Gridley's Astounding Facts, page 26, occurs the following:—

"Is it possible that a man who loves rum in this world carries that love with him to the next? Yes, it is certainly true. . . . A spirit can enter the body of a drunken brute in human form, and partake of the exhilarating influence of his cups with the greatest ease imaginable; or, he can lay his face through the staves of a hogshead of rum and inhale its fumes till he is intoxicated and literally insane, like a man in delirium tremens."

Judge Edmonds thus describes a scene in the spiritual heaven:—

"The trees were so majestic! One I observed in particular was immense; it drooped like the willow, with a leaf like the oak, and shaped like the elm; its foliage was very dense, and it cast a shade large enough to cover the whole of one of our parks.

"Under its shade, nestling snugly beneath its wide-spreading branches, was a log-hut, like those I have seen among the back-woodsmen on our frontiers. The man who built it had chosen that spot and all its surroundings because it brought back to his recollection his earthly life. An Indian lived with him; how they loved one another! he was an old man, and the Indian was younger.

"I saw, much to my surprise, they had their dogs and guns with them. The old man was sitting on a bench, made of a slab, with four legs thrust rudely into holes bored at each end. Scattered around the ground were the rude implements common in a frontier lodge."—"Spiritualism," pages 98, 99.

On page 126 of the same work he says:—

"I turned from this sight to join my companions, and I observed three persons on horseback approaching, two females and a male. All seemed young, and were superbly mounted. The horses were beautifully formed, like coursers of the purest Arabian blood. One was white, one a chestnut, and the other a light bay. The females wore long, graceful riding-dresses of purple velvet; the male a short jacket and cap of crimson velvet, trimmed with gold cord. They had two dogs with them; one was a shaggy poodle dog, and the other a small, delicate greyhound, black, with a few white spots, and fawn-colored breast and legs. The whole appearance of the cavalcade was very beautiful.

He now describes a farm with its crops, outhouses, etc., and says.—

"I had noticed as I passed that the out-houses which I saw were for the mules which were used on the farm, but thus far I had seen no animals nor man. But now I noticed, beyond the orchard, a dense forest of enormous trees, and in it there was a waterfall and a saw-mill, and now I saw the man whose place I was on. He page 46 was at work at the saw-mill with four or five assistants. He was dressed in shirt and trowsers, and his sleeves were rolled up. He and his companions seemed very cheerful and happy at their work. It seemed as if they were toiling for the pleasure of it, and were evidently enjoying it. They were singing and laughing, telling stories and cracking jokes upon each other.

"The saw-mill was at work with four saws a going; but I did not see around it any of the litter which I have been accustomed to here: no loose piles of slab, no heaps of sawdust, no decaying logs, but everything was neat and orderly. The logs were piled up in heaps, and so arranged as to look very handsome. They were arranged in piles. I counted the base. It consisted of eight logs, then above that layer seven, and then six, and so on up to a point.

"All their rubbish and dirt, I observed, were carried off by a sewer dug under ground, and terminating at the precipice which I have already mentioned. By means of a waste-weir all the rubbish was carried off that way, and the water passed clear and pure down through the farm. When I approached, they were sawing a large log with the whole four saws. It was a singular kind of wood, something like the bird's-eye maple, but the spots were larger, and the wood susceptible of a higher polish.

"Each board, as it came from the saw, was finely polished and smooth, and I examined to see how that was done. The back of each saw was as thick as its front edge, and so constructed that, it smoothed off and polished, as it went along, the roughness which the teeth made."—pp. 138, 139.

Let the reader just ponder this description, and its gross absurdity will then fully appear. A dense forest in heaven, with men in shirts and trousers, sawing logs! Further on he says:—

"I inquired of the daughter if she had never been married? She answered she supposed I would call it marriage. There was one to whom she was much attached, and they loved each other's society, and they were a good deal together. He was now at work at the saw-mill. And she said he would come in from the saw-mill not at all tired with his work, and would kick up his heels and go to dancing. 'Yes,' added her mother, 'and you join him in doing so.' She showed me a guitar and a flute, and said they played and sang together. She said her father sang, but her mother never found time to sing.

"We turned to take our leave, for it was time for me to go. The matron invited me to call on her again, and she would, she said, give me a drink of buttermilk."—pages 140-144.

"On the opposite side of the way, I observed what seemed to be a full-grown boy had caught a dog, had split open his tail and put a stick in it, merely to enjoy the sport of seeing his suffering. He then turned the dog loose, and stood enjoying the scene. The page 47 attention of the owner of the dog was drawn to his cries, and, discovering the cause, he beat the boy, who, being as cowardly as he was cruel, fled, but was pursued, and beaten and kicked far up the road."—page 182.

The following is a specimen of spirit satire, and is said to be the utterance of the spirit of Galen:—

"All rapping media have that extrordinary affection, known by the profession as cephálomatous—being, in common phraseology, an elastic obtuseness of the superior hemispheres of the cerebellosus. Whenever such patients (vulgarly termed 'mediums') their manui (hands) or cerebellous functions and protuberances in corpus juxtaposition with a table or other substance, the movings occur as a matter of compulsatory necessity, to wit: by an ejaculation of volatile invisible effervential gases (flatulentus cerebelli), generated by the decomposition of ascaris lumbricoides; which, being regular descendants of the gymnotus electricus, perambulate miscellaneously through the duodenum and the abdominal viscera generally. The vulgar theories and anti-professional hypotheses of spiritual spasmodic action of the muscular system, or of electrical aura, in spontaneous dislodgment and preternatural infiltration, we pronounce delusive, gentlemen, and unhesitatingly reject them, in toto, as unhealthy excretions and galvanic evolutions of diseased and contused cerebellous glands, called, by the uneducated, phrenological organs or faculties."

The following is part of a record of creation professedly given by an exalted spirit under the imposing head of "Disclosures from the interior":—

"1. In the beginning God, the life in God, the Lord in God, the Holy Procedure inhabited the dome, which, burning in magnificence primeval and revolving in prismatic and undulatory spiral, appeared, and was the pavilion of the Spirit: in glory inexhaustible and inconceivable, in movement spherical, unfolded in harmonious procedure disclosive.

"5. And God said, Let there be space! and the firmament was separated from the emanation, and the firmament, unmoved, appeared, and the emanation unfolded within the procedure. And the firmament is manifest Infinitude, and the emanation separated is encompassed space.

"9. And God said, Let there be movement of moving Energy! and life descended, interanimate, comprehending Creation, and there was movement spherical from the heaven of disclosure.

"10. And God said, Let there be centre given! and from the Divine Procedure descended the arm of strength unto the right and the arm of strength unto the left; and from the arm of strength at the right proceeded vital electro-motion and communicated polarity; and from the arm of strength at the left proceeded re-attractive electro-magnetic force, and created the horizontal; and the horizontal became the axis, and the points thereof the poles.

"11. And God made two great lights to rule the Zodiac, and to be for creative disclosure, disclosive manifestation, manifest glory, glorious radiation, interpenetrative aggregation; and thence vortices, vorticle suns, suns of vortices, solariums, vorticle planetariums, planets, floral universes, universal paradises, paradisaical heavens, heavens of spiritual universes, celestial heavens, seraphic habitations, seraphimal universes, cities of heavenly seraphima, and final consociative universal intelligence in unity of innumerable individuality, in triunity of unfolding universes, adoring and ascending in beatification unto eternal life."—"Nature and Tendency of Modern Spiritualism."—Pages 37, 38.

Spiritualists sometimes offer prayer to some supposed deity. The following is a specimen from the Banner of Light, March 1, 1862 :—

"O thou Prince of Darkness and King of Light, God and Devil, page 49 greater and lesser good, perfect and imperfect being! we ask and demand of thee that we may know thee, for to know thee is to know more of ourselves. And if to do this it be necessary to wander in hell, yea and amen, we will wander there with the spirits of darkness. The Church and the world tell us that the Devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, but we know thee only as God's Vicegerent, to stand at His left hand, the regenerator of mankind, the means of bringing up all things, intellectually and morally, to perfection."