of volition; endowed with the beauty, loveliness, and vivacity of youth." "Having put off the flesh at death they cannot come in contact with physical matter, but act on mortals through the Sphere as medium-Sphere being the particular mental or physical state or emanation by which any body organic or inorganic is surrounded-and have a particular elec tric relation to each other, and by an effort of magic-will can dispose the magnetic currents of the brain of the medium so as to fashion them into ideas of their own. To move the hand of a medium to write they direct currents of vitalized spiritual electricity on the particular muscles." 456: "Rappings are produced by discharges of the vitalized spiritual electricity." This description seems to be mere romance or confused conjecture. If creatures be sensitive and have tangible forms, they surely can act upon, and are acted upon by physical matter. As to Sphere and electric relation, we shall see further statements diverse from and apparently inconsistent with what is here said; yet all professedly coming from Spirits." 29-855: "There is some analogy between Spiritual will-power and natural electricity, as tin is in both cases a conductor and glass a non-conductor." If the same material substance acts precisely in the same manner with respect to both, there would seem to be something closer than analogy between them. Again 858: "Mesmeric electricity belongs to both worlds, and is the agent of magic will-power, a mystery, like gravitation, known, but not explicable." Again 815: Mediumship is a mystery; it has nothing to do with electricity, galvanism, or electro-magnetism; but may be spiritnal electricity." It is difficult to gather precisely what is inferred by these different statements which I have put in juxta position, viz. 446, 456, 855, 858, and 815. To an unscientific mind they appear irreconcilable; and they recognize mysteries in Spiritualism; whereas Dr. Hare presumes to ridicule and object to the significant and awful mysteries belonging to Christianity, because he cannot reconcile the operations and attributes of the Infinite God to his own Finite powers of reason and his narrow views of what a God should be. 470: "Dr. Hare's spiritual son states that he died so young (he died when a baby) that he has no remembrance of earthly life, but knows that he was a loser by the briefness of it, having (in the spheres) measurably obtained the knowledge of nature which he would have acquired on earth, had he lived longer; and that he has acquired what knowledge he possesses of earth by occasional visits thereto and accompanying his father and mother in their walks." 474:" Dewitt Matthias, who died when thirteen months old, is said to have been taught to spell in the Spheres." 484: "Another Spirit child, G. Helmick, begs his mother not to weep for those gone before, but rather mourn for those debarred the joys of their celestial home." This seems to contradict the former Child's acknowledgment of loss in having died young; though I would not lay much stress upon such an incidental difference in a matter which might be regarded from two different points of view. 500: "W. W., a spirit of the fifth Sphere, speaks of having suits of rooms beautifully ornamented with paintings and statues; and states that each spirit can have his dwelling according to his taste." Is not all this of a very material cast, belonging rather to this world than a spiritual state? 505: "Maria, a Spirit, says it was some time before she recovered her scattered senses after death." Has a Spirit senses? Do they not especially appertain to the body? 514: "In the two first spheres are temples, and the arts and sciences are taught, but without books or charts." Surely this is mere fanciful invention for arts and sciences have to do with material substances. "In the fifth and sixth Spheres there are lovely villas, and an avenue of sycamores leading to the dwelling of Kirk Whyte, a beautiful cottage with trelliswork, &c., &c. Here also dwell Murray, Wesley, Byron, Burns, Moore, Scott, and Hahnman." In the sixth and seventh Spheres are gardens, parks, and various animals still more splendid and beautiful; wherein dwell Jesus the Moral Reformer, Apostles, Prophets, and Martyrs, also Confucius, Plato, Seneca, and Socrates." Strange association where moral character is said to lead to advancement and position. This will be further noticed under another head. 540: "Dr. Hare's Spirit Brother declares that he felt after death an increased mental and physical power." Is physical power compatible with a merely spiritual existence ? 847: "Suspicion and bigotry are a hindrance to mediumship and spiritual manifestations." Does ; not this plainly imply that the absence of a ready credulity which inclines people to be dupes, is the disqualification for mediumship and manifestations ? and though a particular physical constitution (usually of a morbid character) and an excitable nervous temperament qualify some more than others for mediumship, in the same way as such persons are more sensitive than others to electric and magnetic influence, and more readily give out electric and magnetic power; still, is it not a fact that media have generally been found to belong to a class of persons not remarkable for any superiority of reasoning or moral faculties ? 873: "Spirits are addicted to sky-scraping and so may be improved by intercourse. with mortals." This speaks for itself. 1085: "Dr. Hare's Spirit Brother asserts that Spiritualism is not a new Revelation, but simply the discovery of hidden truths peculiarly adapted to the present advanced state of the human race; a Spiritual Telegraph." It was, in the address, called a "New and better Gospel," which is opposed to the assertion above; and as to Spiritualism being the discovery of hidden truths. adapted to the advanced state of the human race, it is rather I think as judged by Dr. Hare's exposition, the invention or reproduction of masked deceits peculiarly adapted to the present predominant state of human wickedness of a particular type, as Satan's agency in his determined conflict against God and Christ for the seduction and ruin of men. It professes to relate to a world below Heaven, of which the God of Heaven has revealed nothing, and which has not been constituted as a scene of probation and preparation for Heaven; and in this respect, instead of being adapted to an advanced state of goodness or wisdom amongst the human race, Spiritualism would be a manifest retrograde movement from the high motives, the purifying process, and the preparatory discipline which are through Christ's merits and atonement, to make his people meet for the inheritance of the Saints above. 1500: "Gives a description of manifestations at the residence of Mr. Krohn, Athens County, U. S. A.," which may, I think, be accounted for by jugglery or some similar art; as every thing was regularly prepared for exhibition, and the manifestations, on all occasions, of the same nature, viz. ; music, hand-writing, and the moving ་ through the air of different articles of furniture by professedly Invisible agents, in a Spirit room purposely darkened and supplied with the necessary apparatus of fiddles, guitar, drum, and phosphorus for illuminating the hand which wrote. 1408: "Dr. Geib, in order to prove that the devil is not concerned in these manifestations, states that Tables cannot speak different and unknown languages; and that silk wrapt about the hands causes the Table to stop." If this be substantiated it would go to prove that table-turning, &c., has to do with some physical agency, and in nowise with Spirits as pretended. " 1420: "A spirit replies to a question as to what languages he could speak or write. Such as he spoke on earth, Valque and Russian, and those which the Questioner spoke, but none else." This, together with a former admission (294) "that Spirits can tell nothing but from previous knowledge and memory," gives some clue to the source of these pre tended revelations in the mind of the Questioner, Medium, Operator, or of all combined. 1422: "An (alleged) Spirit being accused of cheating, wrote that he was the devil; and that the questioner was a bad preacher that sought to find out the secrets of God. Being rebuked and dismissed, he afterwards wrote, "Pardon, pardon, I am not the devil, I only said so to frighten you," &c., &c. "Swedenbourg, more than a century ago, said that Spirits speak only the language of persons communing with them." I leave the reader to discern how completely these acknowledgments tally with my remarks upon other parts of the subject. N. B.-"The Fox family, the first who acted as media, and who have been greatly concerned in spreading Spiritualism in America, resided at the Hotel of Mr. Barnum, New York." I should not notice so incidental and, in itself, trifling a circumstance, but, in the present case, it is a fact too symptomatic and of too suspicious a character to be altogether passed over; for Mr. Barnum is notoriously a most successful speculator in deception, the acknowledged inventor of, and immense pecuniary gainer by, the several impostures of General Tom Thumb, Washington's Nurse, and a Mermaid. He has even published a history of these speculations in a self-satisfied strain, as though entitled to commendation for his ingenuity in gulling the American and European public for their amusement. 1614: The higher Spheres are called Paradisaical, and there is said to be no Hell, though those in the lower Spheres are called Spirits in prison. " Yet Dr. Hare ridicules and perverts the figurative use of the term Paradise in the Bible. 1664: "It is stated that similar manifestations had occurred in the last century at Epsworth, in the house of S. Wesley, whose daughter was a medium." Having thus made a selection of such statements as appear to me calculated to give a fair view of Dr. Hare's own sentiments and the authorities on which he relies, I shall close my remarks on this head with the rejoinder he makes to the ridicule cast on the methods adopted to extend Spiritualism, viz: that 27: "All mechanical manifestations are merely to draw attention, and have not been used by him latterly but as tests for unbelievers, when intellectual communications could not be made." 2nd. The conclusions inserted under my second head as to the anti-Scriptural and anti-Christian nature and tendency of Spiritualism were drawn from statements of which the following are a specimen. In the preface, as before quoted, it is expressly called "a new and better Gospel," and then, in a copy of verses, of which I give the last stanza, Dr. Hare implies that no way of truth has been revealed to man, but that he is left to grope his way in the dark, beset by the snares of self-delusion and bigotry, and so blindly passes on to his ruin. "To man it seems no Standard's given Yet called upon to act and think, How are we then to shun the brink O'er which so many stray." I reply that the Bible is emphatically the Standard, at once of opinion and of conduct. Its doctrines, histories, and |