Innumerable combinations of matter are prepared to develop and complete the human organisation. A vast complexus of spiritual forces elaborates this matter, according to their specific purpose and form of action; and since the elements of man—as those of all things else—manifest tendencies to advance toward development of perfect unity, there are successive systems in his physical plan as well as in his mental structure. They are the osseous, cartilaginous, glandular, muscular, nervous, vascular and cellular, each of which, considered by itself, is perfect, though forming a part only, regarded in relation to the others. There is also a common confidence in the integrity of each and a common dependence upon the just discharge of each other's office. Moreover, that which is lower is subservient to that which is higher, together with constant communication and reception of influence and power.
The love or desire of man permeates all avenues of his being. It acts before his birth upon the osseous and kindred substances, but is manifested only in fulfilling the functions of creative motion. This accomplished, it ascends to the development of higher systems— muscles, nerves, cellular tissues—and thus becomes creative life. When birth has taken place, motion and life diffuse themselves through every membrane and become creative sensation. Furthermore, the executive
will has endless ways and means of action, while the wisdom faculty has its own innumerable modes of manifestation. It follows that the matter composing the human body is not only elaborated by but is under the actual government of a spiritual oneness, which is the man internal. So does our nature typify the universe, enlivened and actuated by a Supreme Spiritual Mover. Hereof, however, is man in what has been called his normal or rudimental state. He may pass from this into the sympathetic or somnambulistic states, which have been described also previously, and this advance may happen in any one of several ways.1 Body and mind may be inclined constitutionally thereto; long continued corporeal disturbances may render the nervous system susceptible to foreign or mental influence; and these when actively engaged—while the system is in a favourable state of health and temperature—will terminate in double consciousness. Frequently disease refines and subtilises the body to such a degree that vision and trances are induced. Sometimes a simple accident produces the same results. In such a state the body is partially under the control of mind but is subject otherwise to the direction of surrounding influences. In the former case constitutional predispositions will be exhibited; there may be extraordinary developments of distinguishing physical and mental powers, or new faculties may manifest. In the alternative case the subject will write, speak, sing, weep, laugh, contort his body and present many symptoms of monomania.
If constitutional and accidental causes are inadequate to the production of this state, the repeated influence of a second person will furnish the required degree of corporeal refinement, and the somnambulistic state will follow, but unity of desire and intention is indispensable between the persons, while, their mental structures must be not less dissimilar than are positive and negative poles. A spiritual galvanic action will then ensue, the negative body will yield, and a channel of communication will be opened between them, as between two people conversing through the mediums of speech and hearing. The agent of fulfilment is called animal magnetism, but it is really a spiritual intercourse operating throughout the organism. In this state the subject's spiritual perceptions are enlarged and improved; he can read another's memory, describe distant scenes and absent friends.1 Occasionally he can deliver philosophic and scientific dissertations. He can also separate or combine every thought or predilection pervading the mental atmosphere of the room occupied. There are well attested instances of Latin, Greek and Hebrew words, or even whole passages, being pronounced with ease and correctness, though the subject, in his normal state, had no knowledge of these languages. But ask persons in this state respecting disease, and they will confirm only the patient's own impressions; or demand their source of information, and they will appeal to spiritual influx and prophetic power; for this is one aspect of that transitional state, already diagnosed, the phenomena of which involve long investigations to separate them from the false principles with which they have been surrounded.
The independent or clairvoyant state is seldom at-
tained, for peculiar mental and physical qualifications are indispensable1—an easy and healthy mind, a simple and correct diet, a growing knowledge of God and confidence in Him, desire for refinement and goodness, a clear perception and practice of benevolence and justice, a desire for spiritual association. Two causes are engaged in the induction of clairvoyance: (1) Congenial and frequent manipulations, to tranquillise and concentrate the mind and make it susceptible of gentle influences; (2) a condition of temporary death, during which the spirit will dwell in the world of causes. During the first the subject's body becomes a passive member of the operator's active body; the spirit is held to its form by sensation, which at other times connects it with the external world; the external memory is closed and the internal is opened. During the second the spirit resides transitionally both in and out of the form at the same time; in consequence of this intercourse between sensation and thought, body and mind, the interior glides into external memory; and when out of such state the subject can recollect what was felt, heard and seen therein. In the normal condition the spirit remains within and perceives from its bodily location, but in this state it goes where it desires, and is not influenced by acquired or prevalent ideas or prejudices. It is a development of every spiritual power, the subjugation of every animal propensity, the bringing of the real man into immediate conjunction with spirits, causes and principles.2 He utters and confirms that
which man has taught and believed, if the same are true; he denounces long cherished opinions, if these are unfounded; he reveals new and vaster principles.
Those who enter the superior condition—whether through the agency of human magnetism or by constitutional and spiritual development—are subject to that universal law in virtue of which the human spirit is educated by experience.1 If the spirit is pure in its aspirations after the interior and infinite; if it lives harmoniously among men, loving God and goodness, truth and justice; then, should it enter the clairvoyant condition, the world may repose confidence in that which it reveals. We must discriminate, however, between spiritual perceptions and spiritual impressions, the first being inferior, circumscribed and particular. In the superior condition the mind enters a vast sphere of light, or alternatively comes in contact with the electricity of the universe, an agent or medium of perception for the spiritual eyes. If I desire or pray inwardly to know the situation of some individual in the Tower of London, if such desire is good intrinsically, and if there be one therein, my spirit—yielding to its internal promptings— becomes abstracted from surrounding objects and material influences. A soft, clear light emanates from the front brain and merges into the electricity of universal Nature. Forthwith I can see from the room in which I am now writing the person whom I desire to behold. But had my desire been directed to another planet—Saturn, for example—my spiritual perceptions would then be
transferred thither as readily, and I should behold those who dwell thereon.
In respect of spiritual impressions, the superior condition is induced as already described—by a kind of semi-voluntary self-abstraction. But instead of the soft, clear light radiating in straight lines from the anterior brain to some particular earthly locality it ascends, a few feet from my head, into the atmosphere and there blends with a great sphere of light, proceeding from the concentrated intelligence of the Spirit World, as from a mighty sun. This light is impregnated with that knowledge which I seek. It possesses all conceivable intelligence and flows into the mind unfolded to receive it, as light and heat flow from the visible sun into objects on earth.1 I was in this state when The Principles of Nature was delivered to the world, and that work could not have been produced so early in my life had I not been helped by another person's supporting and congenial influence. Combined with my constitutional predisposition to spiritual illumination, the quickening power of this influence enabled me to accomplish that which, under less favourable conditions, might not have been possible earlier than my thirtieth year.
Unless a subject has attained the superior condition through the agency of magnetic influences, or unless his spirit has grown—according to progressive principles— into conjunction with the truths which animate existence, it is impossible for anyone to enter voluntarily that state
in which he can see clearly the things of a higher sphere. Previous to inward development there must be the action of another system—by which the positive power, or vital magnetism, is extracted from the subject. To sustain life, such magnetism is supplied sympathetically by the operator, and so long as this is the case a bond subsists between the mind and body of the subject, so that the mind can return to its physical frame after a temporary absence, which would not be the case if this bond were severed.
The psychometrical state and superior condition are attainable by all.1 The interior sight is not a gift bestowed upon the soul but a manifestation of harmonious
mind, an inevitable development of the soul's energies. The development of these sublime powers, on this side of the Spirit Land, depends upon favourable hereditary predisposition, habits, social situation, education, moral state, and the strength and purity of the soul's aspirations. It must be remembered also that they can be weakened and rendered comparatively worthless by the misuse or perversion of their proper functions; but as much can be said of every sense or faculty belonging to man's physical and spiritual constitution. As regards development of the powers, there is that part which is not of the individual's own choice and ruling. If parents desire their children to occupy a high moral and intellectual position they must not themselves violate physiological or psychological law, nor go counter to the warnings of intuition. Hereditary predisposition is the foundation on which to base the forming of a child's character. Every human soul has an intrinsic predisposition to goodness, harmony and spiritual illumination, and they are communicated by the Father of spirits; but this predisposition must not be retarded by the transgression of progenitors. On the contrary, everything should be done to augment their manifestation. The individual, on his own part and from youth upward, should never be actuated by extreme or impulsive sensations. His habits should be consistent with harmony; he should never exercise body or mind violently and inconsiderately, for extremes disturb and retard the soul's tranquillity and development. At the same time it is very important that the body should be exercised in all its parts, because the individual must attain the fulness of the stature of a perfect man before valuable results can be reached. A state of moral goodness is not less necessary for spiritual advancement, signifying here that the mind must entertain a strong and unchanging friendship and veneration for God, truth and justice. Mental quietude is also essential to interior light. Nothing so injures and de-
forms the soul's powers as an uneasy, dissatisfied, impatient, combative, revengeful, unconformed disposition, especially when the individual is conscious or desires to become conscious of his relationship to the material and spiritual universe. Furthermore, aspirations should not be confined to earth, nor limited by the solar system: the soul must expand through the immeasurable univercoelum.
A strict adherence to rules of physical and mental discipline refines the feelings and elevates the mind. If we turn from the world of effects, through ourselves, to the inward world of causes, our knowledge of spiritual truths will be higher and greater. There is ever that counsel of wisdom, the angel of mind, which leads unto all truth: Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. Though knowing scarcely in what direction to seek, the human race is looking for important changes, for a universal demonstration of distributive justice and individual righteousness. While there are manifold evidences of a storm about to break upon the religious and political world, there is not a less general feeling of a regenerating change to come. On my part I am moved to affirm that there will be no sudden manifestation of truth, but we shall pass gradually into three kinds of realisation, being (1) the proximity of the spiritual to the natural world, (2) the possibility of spiritual intercourse, and (3) the reorganisation of society, which will be a beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. As to this, industrial harmony and individual spiritual illumination lie at the root of all general human reformation. When the interior senses are expanded, when they behold the great arcana which lie beyond the limits of external and material things, then will the vastness and music of the universe be impressed upon the inward principle. When the human mind feels the inexpressible realities of its own existence; when the principles of love, truth and wisdom shall move its fervent depths, the mind
will turn from earthly imperfections, will grow into communion with the inhabitants of the Second Sphere and will so find itself but a little lower than the angels.