Animals in the Spirit World.

XXXII-QUESTION: "There seem to be contradictory accounts through mediums, concerning the existence and non-existence of birds and animals in the Spirit World-some affirming, some denying. . . . . Can you throw any light on this question?"

ANSWER: Almost all misunderstandings, even contradictions and animosities among men, arise from the use of the same words with different meanings. If mankind could use language so judiciously that one word would always and everywhere stand for one meaning, the controversies of the world would quickly terminate, because at heart all men are the same as one man, with identical intuitions, and with similar likes and dislikes under similar circumstances. Joy and sorrow, happiness and miserybirth, growth, maturity, death-are common to all men everywhere. But men will use the same words with very dissimilar meanings, and thus, where there is no essential difference of conviction, they will quarrel with and hate each other.

In nothing has this confusion of tongues been worse confounded than in the revelations through mediums from the inner life. And yet in nothing is there more essential harmony and mutually supporting testimony. For example: An investigator, thinking of the Summer Land, will ask a medium, or a spirit through the medium, "Do you see any Birds and Animals?" The answer will be, perhaps, "Yes;" or, perhaps, "No;" and yet both statements are truthful. Because what is the spirit world to one medium or spirit, in one particular state of mediumship, is no the spirit world to another in a different state. The words are used, by different persons, in different states, with very widely different meanings.

We have defined the "spirit world" as the boundless inner life, in which all physical planets, with their vegeta

tion, and animals, and inhabitants, swim and revolve through space. Consequently, to spirit eyes all objects, both animate and still, are visible as parts of that inner life, or spirit world. Men, houses, villages, horses, cows, dogs, fruit trees, vegetation, the landscapes, &c., on this globe, are all distinctly visible (in a new light) to every dweller of the Summer Land. Hence, in a certain sense, it is true to say that in the spirit world everything continues to be just as it was on earth. This was Swedenborg's gospel, and it is reaffirmed by hundreds now-a-days. But, remember, the spirit world is not the Second Sphere.

Conflicting Testimony on Important Facts.

XXXIII. QUESTION: "I am much troubled with what I deem irreconcilable statements concerning the location of the spirit world. You seem to differ widely from Dr. Hare and the author of the Arcana of Nature.'. ... Why is this?”

ANSWER: We do not feel called upon to explain the causes why one mind has been impressed to differ from another on this subject. If we had written after the authors named, and had found cause to differ as widely from them as they have from us, it would then seem important to give the world a sufficient reason for the discrepancy. We think it is an author's duty to give his readers what he deems good reasons for making statements in conflict with those who have preceded him. If a man should affirm that the planet Saturn was located only 100 miles from the earth, he should give his reasons for so" widely differing " from the received demonstrations of astronomers; but we can see no justice in the public calling upon the astronomers to explain why some particular author has been influenced to make statements adverse to their system. Therefore, would it not be wise and just to the general cause of progress, if persons, who have been moved to differ so

conspicuously and widely from us, would furnish the world with their interior reasons for such differences? The conflict of testimony must necessarily be very embarrassing to readers and investigators. For our own part, we have up to this day found no reason to essentially modify anything we have published relating to the spiritual spheres. It is important that investigators should have all the data of correct reasoning.

The Story of Poe's Clairvoyant.

XXXIV.-QUESTION: "In regard to your interview with Edgar A. Poe some years ago, as reported in the 'Magic Staff,' in which you treated his story as a reality-can you explain how the mistake occurred?"

ANSWER: There was no mistake in this circumstance. We remember to have affirmed on two or three occasions, previous to the interview with the gifted poet, that the philosophy of ultimates, unparticled matter, etc., (as set forth by the clairvoyant in Poe's article) was a true philosophy -but this endorsement did not extend to an assertion that the clairvoyant was an actual personage. Upon this point we did not seek any information. But we used the poet's invention, by name, as men speak of Shakspeare's or Milton's characters-all equally fabulous, but none the less real, in common conversation.

The Spirit of Frances Wright.

XXXV. QUESTION: "I have been credibly informed that you saw the spirit of Frances Wright, at High Rock Tower, in your vision of the Spiritual Congress, some months previous to her death. If so, how could it occur?"

ANSWER: Your informant is wholly mistaken. The authentic record of that memorable Vision may be found in "The Present Age and Inner Life." On the occasion referred to, the Seer is reported to have seen but four glori

fied beings. The members of the Congress were not individually visible to his perceptions. He saw them en masse, not particularly as to their features, and in conversation he was addressed by only one of the four. (See the book.)

Months subsequently the same spirit, Galen, came with an account of the proceedings of the different Sessions of the Congress; at which time the Seer acted in the capacity of reporter simply, and reduced to writing the "exordia," with the names given as members of the different Delegations, as imparted by the spirit of Galen. Why the name of Frances Wright was given as a member of the American Delegation we do not know, unless it was done in prophetic anticipation of her arrival and co-operation.

Spiritual Habitations after Death.

XXXVI. QUESTION: "Will you be kind enough to answer the following questions: Ist. Do spirits have local habitations? 2d. Are those habitations as diversified as on earth? 3d. Do the races of men retain their original color?"

ANSWER: The homes of the loved, and not lost, are visible on every side of the Summer Land. Brotherhoods are likewise visible-immense congregations of mutually attracted natures-just beyond the homes and habitations of the less gregarious. The divine light of immortality glorifies the pathway of every inhabitant. In our Father's and Mother's" house there are many" apartments-lovely to the loving, glorious to the hopeful, filled with rest to the harmonious---but you will discover that a man will certainly find in his next life the effects of this, for it is a fixed law that as a man thinketh" so will the externals of that world seem to him. The spirit's Home is a natural world, regulated by natural laws, covered by a natural firmament, animated by a natural Deity, populated by natural spirits. and angels who were once men and women, and it is there

fore natural that dwelling-places should diversify the landscape.

The physiological color of races does not continue, though their mental peculiarities do; but it is distinctly made manifest that persons, in the spirit world, have complexions in accordance with the state and degree of their moral development. For example: An immoral Anglo Saxon after death is likely to appear with a blacker face than that of his simple-hearted, faithful African servant; for it is a fixed principle of mind that the exterior shall correspond, both in shape and complexion, to the interior spiritual state.

Weight of the Spirit Body.

XXXVII. QUESTION: "I would like explained a certain paragraph which I find in the fifth volume of the Great Harmonia, page 406, in relation to the weight of the spiritual body, to wit: The entire form would not, perhaps, weigh at spiritual birth more than three ounces!' Now what I should like to know is this-how can a substance which weighs three ounces escape my sight and touch? I can both see and feel a substance, of the size of the human body, which will weigh less than one ounce. I had supposed, and still think, that the human spirit is as light as air."

ANSWER: Our interrogator is mistaken in regard to the powers of his natural vision. He thinks he can

both

see and feel a substance of the size of the human body which will weigh less than one ounce." Did he ever try the experiment in a manner parallel to what the spiritual body would be?

Atmospheric air weighs 15 pounds to the square inch. Can our interrogator discern the immense weight that would fall within the compass of a human form? A grain of musk will diffuse its odor through every part of a large house, and a pound of the same would saturate a wide area of country air, yet neither the eye or the touch could detect its presence or existence.