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spheres; it is breathing around us in the still air-it is the soul of every ray that descends from the stars-it is the life of every pure thought that sparkles in the chambers of the mind. Yet truth, though thus impartially diffused, must, as before intimated, be received by the soul in a measure exactly proportionate to its own development. It would avail nothing that all the truth in Heaven were revealed to a single individual, if the soul were not sufficiently developed to admit of its interior appreciation; for precisely that amount of truth, and no greater, will be received as nutriment to the inner man, which is adapted to the degree of spiritual development and the expansion of the internal powers. Hence the desire is vain and unrighteous that seeks any external and arbitrary revelation to be established as authority, on which the soul may repose with an unquestioning faith. Even were it possible to embody all truth in a printed volume, which should be presented to the world as the universal basis of hope and trust, it would occupy a position analogous to that of the heathen god, presenting rather an object of worship, instead of investigation-of a blind reverence, instead of an enlightened understanding. The truth therefore which the world can digest and appreciate, must necessarily be revealed in parts and fragments, corresponding with the degree of interior unfolding; and this truth, in order to be felt and realized, must be examined, analyzed and comprehended, by the powers of reason and intuition with which the soul is endowed.

All past history has demonstrated the fact, that the human race has been instructed wrongly with respect to those subjects which especially need to be understood. Man has been recognized chiefly as a physical being. The expansive powers of his spiritual nature have not been properly comprehended. Hence the education which he has received has been exceedingly defective, consisting mostly in the accumulation of external facts and the arrangement of crude ideas on the basis of a superficial authority. Systems of instruction have been established, relating to scientific disclosures and theological

doctrines, but these systems are marked with the ignorance and error that existed in the undeveloped minds from which they proceeded. There has been but little power in the systems of popular education to expand and develop the spiritual being; but in these has been generated a repulsive and depressing force, which has tended to rivet the chains imposed by ancient superstition.

But the world is now rapidly advancing to a stage of progress, where it can comprehend and appreciate the truths that pertain to the interior life. Man is beginning to understand that he has a spiritual as well as a material nature-that he is endowed with internal as well as external senses, and that the great realm of being is not confined to the visible forms whose beauty and vastness he admires. Therefore a more complete and rational system of educational training is being rapidly introduced. Imperceptibly to the minds of the mass, a change, silent but powerful, is passing over the sentiments and feelings of the world. The intellectual rubbish which has served as a barrier to human progress, is being removed by the efforts of the struggling soul to enter into the sphere of immortal truth. A time draws near when man will feel the need of something higher than mere external and superficial forms of thought-when the accumulation of passing facts and phenomena will be regarded of less importance than the comprehension of divine principles; when, in short, the discipline of the spirit-the education of the soul-will be recognized as the basis of all true reform and the means by which the great ends of human life are to be attained.

It will be perceived that the volume here presented is an appeal to the reasoning and intuitive faculties of Man, and that it aims to present the grand fundamental principles on which the Universe itself is based. To those minds which yield a blind credence to the authority of the past, and rest their faith on the bare statements of ancient records, this work may appear entirely useless and vain; and to others which still linger in the shadows of an external sphere, perceiving no truth but that which may reside in some visible phenomena, it

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will, perhaps, seem to be only the weaving of an unsubstantial theory. But there are other minds-and for these chiefly the volume has been written-which are no longer willing to lean on the mere traditions of men, but seek truth wherever it may be found for the truth's sake, and which at the same time are inclined to retire from the crumbling altars of outward worship, and approach the shrine of the unseen reality. The wisdom that would now speak to the world is that which relinquishes all superficial authority to repose confidence in the divine and unerring teachings of Nature. The expanded spirit will seek to leave the forms that fade and die. the things that bloom for a season and then pass away, and will be attracted to the beautiful and ever-living principles which have their dwelling-place in the heart of the Universe. Infinite and glorious beyond conception are the realities which exist in Nature; and these are not contained in the musty parchments of the past-they are not embraced within the lids of any earthly history-they are not even confined within the limits of those pages which men have long gazed upon with blinded reverence, but they gleam forth in those higher, unwritten revelations that issue from the heart of Deity.

In the preceding remarks, the writer would not undervalue the importance of facts as connected with any natural truth. While the vail of materialism rests on the human mind and sense is made the standard by which Reason utters her decisions, it is positively essential that the world should have evidence of an external nature to demonstrate those realities which are beyond the limit of sensuous perception. But this should not, in the view of the writer, be regarded as the ultimate for which the soul should seek. Facts are simply the stepping stones that lead to more interior truth. They are not in themselves the real reality; they are not the essence of the thing which they illustrate, but they are useful only as they teach some important lesson and give expression to an internal principle. All phenomena are the outbirth and illustration of certain established laws, which laws are attributes of the internal force by which the

former are produced. There is no fact within the sphere of the senses which does not owe its existence to the unseen energy that lives and moves beneath the vail of matter. Those effects which are apparent to the sensuous perceptions, are simply the ulterior results that proceed from the action of interior causes. Hence if we would approach the divine reality of Nature-if we would worship at the inward shrine of the temple, instead of lingering in its outer courts, it is necessary that the mind should enter within the sphere of external facts, and commune with the living soul from which these have derived their birth.

Well do I understand the insufficiency of mere theories, if by theories are meant the fanciful speculations which have burdened and darkened the world for ages. But it should be known that there is something more than what is here comprehended, in the arrangement and classification of eternal principles; for these principles are not mere passing dreams of the mind-they are not the frail and perishing fabrics of imagination, but they are the immutable and everliving expressions of the Divine Mind. Higher than all theoriesdeeper than all human fancy, and more vast than all external forms, are the silent thoughts of God that live in all his works. These are the deathless soul of matter-the primary agents that give significance and power to all outward effects. We may gaze forever on the beauty of creation-we may bask in the sparkling glories of the Universe, and yet we can never commune with the divine and immutable reality, until we learn the laws by which that beauty is produced, and approach the fountain from which those glories flow. The stars have shone since the morning of Creation's birth, and for ages they were viewed externally as ornaments on the brow of Night, or as lamps designed to cheer the darkness; but it was not until the true nature of these orbs was investigated, and until the principles by which they are governed became comprehended, that they were seen in all their vast reality, as mighty worlds rolling through the fathomless depths of space. So it is with all things else. The pervading

law which operates within them-the elements which make their quality and use, and the interior truths which they reveal to the reason, constitute a far higher standard of authority than all the visible effects which they may outwardly manifest.

To say that the soul has no capacity to investigate or comprehend the principles of Nature, simply because they are not appreciable to the senses, is to deny the existence of those most godlike powers which render man, in a peculiar sense, the child of God. It is only necessary to develop the faculties that are in man-to cultivate the senses of the soul as well as those of the body, to enable him to search into interior causes with the same ease and accuracy with which he now examines external effects. I will write, then, what I feel to be an important truth, that the great realities of Nature, which have been long concealed from superficial and materialistic minds, are capable of being known and understood; for why should not man, possessing as he does a two-fold nature, enjoy also the two-fold world of physical and spiritual being? The fact to be lamented is, that man has not been made conscious of the powers that exist within him, or the existence of an inward world; and from this very fact the hard crust of materialism has been formed to shut out the light that seeks a passage to the soul. In my view, the great mission of all true philosophy is to quicken the perceptions of the mind--to open to its view an unexplored field of truth, and elevate it from the change and falsity of external things to the bloom and brightness of eternal realities. And when this mission shall be fully accomplished, men will make use of external phenomena as the child in its weakness clings to outward objects-not as a final resting-place, but as a means of attaining to that inward growth and strength which are the sources of enduring happiness; and then shall the living truths which God in all his works is whispering to man, be tested by the reason, grasped by the inner consciousness, and received into the chambers of the understanding.

The foundation of a majestic temple is being laid in the earth. A

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