is also fluent, but not so soft and tender; and it is these,

chiefly, who speak."

Is the Universe Overflowing?

XLVII.—QUESTION: “Are there any more spirits now than there were a million years ago? If so, will not the universe eventually be filled with spirits? And if there are no more, what becomes of them?"

ANSWER: Your important questions require a more elaborate consideration than we can just now bestow upon them. They are the ever-rising queries of mind when it begins to work from mathematical premises for the ascertainment of truth.

Suppose we put your questions thus: "Are there any more truths now than in any previous age? Answer, yes. Are there any more truths individualized to-day than in any previous age? "If this be so, will not the whole universe be filled with individualized truths?" Answer, yes. And yet, with respect to quantity and essence, there I will then be no more truth than there was in the remotest cycle of Eternity-for God lives through all Nature, and Nature lives in the Omnipresent life of God-being in quantity and essence unchangeable, "the same yesterday, to-day, and forever."

The Inhabitants of Jupiter.

XLVIII. QUESTION: "Why do you represent the inhabitants of Jupiter as walking in a bent posture, and not erect like the human race?"

ANSWER: We have no explanation to afford for making the declaration referred to, save this: Our first observation of the inhabitants of Jupiter was probably confined to the Troglodytes (the man-monkeys, or gorillas,) of the side of the planet next or nearest to our clairvoyant perceptions. We think that we did not perfectly view the inhabited portions, though we recall a conception of their existence.

Accidental Death and Suicide.

XLIX.-QUESTION: "Do not persons whose earthly lives have been terminated suddenly, as by a steamboat disaster or the falling of factories, suffer as much as those who terminate their earthly existence by means of suicide?"

ANSWER: Persons who die by sudden accident do not suffer intellectually and morally, because their misfortune is purely physiological and physical, (the same in this respect as that of the suicide); while the deliberate or desperate taking of one's own life is attended, in the other world, with the superaddition of all the intellectual disqualifications and moral darknesses which were antecedent to, and consequent upon the state that led to the ignoble act. No individual can go self-sent and abruptly into the Spirit Land, without ultimately discovering the secret cause of the deed to have existed within his own mental constitution. This is certain, no matter how great the earthly provocation which primarily induced the person to consummate the act. It is the vivid consciousness of this individual unworthiness, that, for a lengthened period in the other life, causes the regrets and sufferings of the suicide.

Guardian Angels Universal.

L-QUESTION: "Are there guardian spirits watching over us at all times, and, if so, do they participate with our joys and sorrows? and further, when we arrive in the Spirit Land, do we take the place of our guardians and perform similar offices for those yet on earth?”

ANSWER: As a general principle we observe that each member of the human race is provided with two or more guardian angels, but there are times, days and weeks, perhaps whole years together, when it is impossible for the lower and the higher to form a positive, conscious conjunction. Of course, not being in contact with us, the angels do not invariably experience our sensations. This is a wise and beautiful provision of the sympathetic law. If

it were otherwise, if the love-laden souls resident above our sphere could at any moment intersect the path of our experience, they would gladly shield us from much suffering, and consequently from much education. Therefore, we have not, "at all times," guardian spirits over us. Your second question is answered affirmatively.

Explanation of Swedenborg's Guardianship.

LI.-QUESTION: "Canst thou enable me to assure one or two of my friends that there is always as good an understanding between thy old friend Swedenborg and thyself, as there was when he used to meet thee on the mountain near Poughkeepsie as thy angel guardian, and when thou hadst not been required to expose his imperfections while on earth. Thy honest dealing with regard to him, though to many it may seem like ingratitude, appears to me one of the most beautiful instances of friendship that we have on record, as correcting for him errors which he had lacked wisdom when on earth to avoid or correct. And I always imagine him thy prompter in this and many other duties. It is sweetly encouraging to think that angels may be blessed with the power of finishing up, through mortal instrumentality, the work which they had left but partially done."

ANSWER: The first visit of the spacious-minded Swedenborg was unheralded, and the effect produced was wondrous beyond utterance. His mystic words confounded my youthful understanding, but they awakened a yearning fountain within me, a stream of righteous aspirations for the possession of eternal truth and knowledge. The noble Swede did not announce himself as my guardian angel, but was rather a smiling fountain of hope and trust in what is steadfast and divine. He admonished me to search the fields of Truth, and to sound the serene depths of infinite Wisdom and Love, to the full extent of my every spiritual power.

For these counselings and other bestowments I have ever felt the profoundest degree of gratitude. In pursuance of the admonition and encouragements imparted, and

solely by strict obedience to the harmonious laws of body and mind, I began the investigation of an hundred streams of golden truths, both in physical works and in the books of men-always by "impression" and "clairvoyance.” (For explanation of my use of these terms see the " Magic Staff.") Among other discoveries thus made may be lassed the naturalness of all spiritual truths, whether revealed in the Bible or in the highest degrees of the celestial universe, and also may be mentioned the perfect spiritualness of all natural things in every region of life, animation, and intelligence.

Swedenborg's works, like the revelations of several less voluminous authors, came up for analysis. The above key enabled me to look into the crystal cup of his psychical experience. The laws of his impressions, and the reason. why he described subjective thoughts as objective realities, were perfectly plain to my understanding. What my impression of his works are, may be found written elsewhere. That the good Swedenborg looks down with righteous love upon the tumultuous world, and that the faith of his charity far transcends the religious imaginations of his sectarian followers, I do not, because I cannot, question for one moment. He enjoys the liberty which all may have the freedom of progress and expression! And still the awakened fountain within me flows onward to mingle with the far-off pulses of the infinite sea of celestial Truth. That the gentle and royal Swedenborg, standing upon the margin of that throbbing sea, will be as grateful for an exposure of his errors as I am for the disclosure of his friendship, is too probable to require a word of argument.

It is indeed encouraging to think and know that angels --the world's great authors not more than our departed

brothers and sisters--may return "and finish up the work which they had left but partially done."

What is an Apparition ?

LII. QUESTION: "May not we, while living men and women on earth, be present in spiritual forms in places far from our physical bodies?.. Do we not dwell in two spheres at the same time?"

ANSWER: We have examined this problem sufficiently to answer the last interrogatory affirmatively. The greater comprehends the lesser; so the earth, with its weight of humanity, rolls in the presence of the spirit sphere; but this does not render positive duplicature of personality any more than possible.

Our correspondent, however, presents a case in himself, which we willingly take for an illustration of our philosophy. It harmonizes with much in Mr. Owen's "Footfalls on the Boundary of another World."

He writes: "Recently my mother went to her Spirit Home. . . . . While on a journey, in March last, I passed into a sort of reverie, and was scarcely conscious that I was driving my horse. . . . I seemed to be at the bedside, or in the room, where my mother was dying. I was speaking to her of the Spirit Home and of the friends there to whom she was about to take her flight.... When I aroused I was somewhat surprised and saddened by the words which had fallen from my lips, for I had, at the time, no reason to suppose that my mother was unwell. On my return next day I received a letter which informed me that my mother was dangerously ill. She died on the 9th of the present month, (April,) and in her last words said to her weeping friends that she saw me in the room and called to me twice!' Thus was my reverie turned to a prophecy, every part of which was perfectly fulfilled. May it not be true (asks our correspondent) that since my spi