If a house be burned the things in the house will be burned also--unless they are taken out; and who will say that when Hades, or one hell is destroyed, Gehenna, or the other hell, will be taken out?

"Let it be remembered, then, that the orthodox believe in at least two hells-one greater, the other less-the less in the greater. Now, will somebody answer the following question ?—If the greater hell be destroyed or abolished, what will become of the less hell which is in it? I pause for a reply."

Dread of Annihilation.

CXXXV. QUESTION: "Will you have the goodness to notice a request which is to me of infinite importance? Is it possible for the spirit to leave the form before the physical death? My husband is laboring under a deep mental despondency, and imagines that the vital spark has departed from him. He has lost all hope, is utterly inconsolable, and says that he has read something in your writings that corroborates that idea."

ANSWER: Your unhappy husband is laboring under "a strong delusion" of his own unharmonious mind. It is true that a few Spiritualists and a less number of mediums have taught the doctrine under which your husband now lies, like one crushed beneath the Juggernaut of error, but no such philosophical absurdity can be found in any work bearing the glorious impress of the gospel of Nature, Reason, and Intuition. We do not believe in spiritual dispossession of the physical body prior to death, nor do we teach or believe that any spirit (save one's own) can occupy the present apartments of the earthly tabernacle. It seems to us that all theories inculcating a different or opposite doctrine will be peremptorily repudiated by every intelligent reader of Harmonial Philosophy. Assure your dear husband, therefore, that his immortal spirit yet inhabits his ponderable body and brainthat it is the inner source of every noble impulse and prin

A Word about the Devil.

CXXXVIII. QUESTION: "Is there anything unreasonable in the hypothesis that Evil came from the Devil? Does such a supposition detract from the majesty and goodness of God?"

ANSWER: This correspondent's diabolical and theological questions may be, as they have been, met in the following style: If evil came from the Devil, then the Devil, in infusing evil into God's creature, acted either with God's consent, or without it. If he acted with it, then, of course, God saw that it would not injure the creature, since he had methods of turning it all to the creature's superior profit, and so proving the Devil a fool for his pains. If he acted without God's consent, then, of course, you give the Devil not only a superior power to God, but a superior power over God's own work, or in the sphere of God's own activity. That is to say, you make the absolute creature of infinite Good confess himself the offspring of a deeper paternity--the paternity of infinite Evil.

The Reflex Action of Evil Spirits.

CXXXIX.-QUESTION: "On one occasion I heard a Spiritualist lecturer use the following language: Your bodies were made for your spirit. You eat for your spirit and not for your body. The same wants, appetites, and passions move the spirits in the other life as in this mundane sphere. Our bodies are the mere servants of the in-dwelling spirits. It is possible for spirits to gratify their desires in the other world, as well as here, by coming in sympathy, in rapport, with spirits on their plane of life. There are spirits who gravitate to the plane of lust. They swarm around houses of ill-fame and barrooms, and their feelings blend with those upon that plane, and the indulgence of the mortal enhances the pleasure of the spirit.' What I wished to ask is, whether, in your opinion, as based upon your spiritual experience, men and women are no better off after death than they were before."

ANSWER: We know of nothing in the whole realm of spirit-life to substantiate the above statement. It is true, and the proposition is susceptible of every rational demonstration, that men and women are immediately after death

exactly what they were just before that event. But it is not true that they are still the victims of uncontrollable passions and appetites. Death is something more to the individual spirit than a mere passage from one room to another through an open door. That operation would be a geographical change only-a mere alteration of personal locality-while, in fact, death is a chemical change throughDeath is quite as thorough a change to the spiritindividual as birth is to the infant human being. In some respects, the change of life-method is total.

out.

We repeat, the soul is not the spirit. Spirit is dispassionate, pure, and beyond the reach of contamination. The soul, on the other hand, is the source of tempests and discords. The soul-organism is between the outer physical body and the inner spirit. Body and soul grow up together, closely sympathizing with and affecting the construction of each other, while the innermost is quietly unfolding and preparing to gain the supremacy.

Passions and vices do not inhere to spirit; they pertain and adhere to the constitution of the soul only. The spirit is disturbed and aggrieved by the conduct of soul-and-body, but the discords and appetites of the latter do not involve the spirit's heart. Desires and passions, therefore, are the effects of the ten thousand psycho-chemical relations subsisting between the soul and the body: somewhat as acids and alkalies, heat and fire, electricity and thunder, are the effects of the chemical meeting of opposite elements in the external world. Separate the element of fire from gunpowder and there will be no explosion. In like manner, "death" is a chemical separation of soul from its perpetual antagonist, the body. The soul is in full sympathy with the material organism until death--then, for the first time, (except when the person is in spiritual and clairvoyant

states) the soul repudiates the body and becomes subject to the SPIRIT. The progressions and improvements consequent upon this change of government may be somewhat imagined.

We will, in conclusion, simply remark that many good Spiritualists have taken the testimony of mediums instead of the dictates of an enlightened Reason and Intuition, and the consequences are dissensions and innumerable contradictions.

Which-Revenge or Forgiveness?

CXL.-QUESTION: "If there is any refuge-room in your heart for a poor, suffering mortal, permit the writer to occupy it at least long enough to receive some counsels and bespeak your sympathy. . . . . Ĭ have knowledge of a case of extreme private anguish, caused by the intense selfishness and diabolical sensualism of an infernal destroyer, and now the question arises: What can be, or what ought to be, done in the premises?.....[We omit much of our correspondent's letter descriptive of the lady's excessive and desperate sufferings.] Poor thing! In the clear light of your beautiful Philosophy, pray tell me how ought I to act toward the demon-scoundrel, the hated author of this hellish deed?"

ANSWER: There are times and events when a "righteous indignation" is as legitimate and natural as heaven's stormy thunderbolt. The conjugal sanctities of a human spirit are the holiest of all interior sensibilities. They are the finest, and highest, and most confiding. The filaments of every other affection center in the marriage-love of the soul. Salvation or damnation-contentment or desperation -hang upon the delicate thread of the conjugal relation. It is the root of all the exquisitely fine fibers of life and progress. Hence any disturbance of the conjugal cord vibrates through the entire moral instrument, and it is long-oh how long!-ere the last wave of such a fearful discord sings itself into perpetual sleep. As the conjugal relation or love is so inexpressibly delicate and allcomprehensive, so are its transgressions and abuses unutter

ably deplorable and shocking to every intellectual and moral sensibility. The betrayer of this sacred Love is usually next hated as a monster of the demonic world.

But the betrayed! What of her? She is immediately hurled from the altar of honor and purity. Educational silliness takes on a religious form. Society, overflowing with vice, pursues her with merciless indignation. "Shame" is written upon her brow. She looks out upon all mankind as her unforgiving enemies. Every cheerful face is turned away. Her supposed truest friends of yesterday, are to-day filled with empty wails and contemptuous lamentations. They pity her! Their sympathies are embittered with insidious contempt.

Meanwhile, what of the accomplished sorcerer? What of the juggler and magician who deceived her heart? Why, he is borne up by her accusers. They quietly open the front door whene er he rings for admission. "He is slandered, poor fellow!" and the hearts of the righteous and sympathetic grow warm toward him. The flattering laurels of victory bedeck his brow. But his tremulous, repudiated victim-half-dead with suffering and loneliness -how is it with her? Horrible injustice! Who will love her with tender magnanimity? Who receive and treasure her misdirected heart? She is the same worthy and unsuspecting daughter and sister. Who will be broad and good enough to sustain her now? And who accept her noblest affections as gifts from the common Father and Mother? What is to be done? Good, and not evil.

First: Negatively, perchance, some temporary good might be done by the full and dispassionate exposure of the unprincipled magnetist. It is very likely that he will treat the accusation as a malicious slander, and he will undoubtedly strenuously attempt to convince others that it