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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued|Occultism and Spiritualism|1-123}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued|Occultism and Spiritualism|1-123}}

than human—as angels, gods, devils, genii, etc., instead of brothers and sisters of our common humanity? Why did Socrates fail to class his daemon with those just gone before, or bring forth as evidence of immortality the fact that the spirits of men and women did communicate with those on earth if he had known of it? If Spiritualism be what it is represented to be, it cannot be new in any sense only at the expense of the reputed intelligence of “the departed,” who, like drone« in the hive, have permitted milleniums of sweet opportunities to pass by unimproved, generation after generation, to sink into the grave, with no worthy effort on the part of the spirits to accomplish what would seem to be an easy thing for them. Further, to let the past settle its own difficulties. let us look at the present with all its facilities, mediums in every hamlet, postal conveniences of every kind, toleration such as history has failed to record in any age, and we see, in spite of spirit congresses, uniting the wisdom of spirits who have lived through the progress of ages with the Solons of modern times, no universal, respectable, reliable, method of communication devised, whereby believer and unbeliever may receive a spiritual telegram from their spirit friends the genuineness of which would be indisputable. We, who are of yesterday and know nothing have devised postal arrangements and telegraphy to such perfection tha: communion with one another has almost annihilated space and time; is it too much to ask of the world of spirits that they do away with the “twaddle” which so seriously impairs the reliability of spirit-communion? Understand me, I do not ask, that newly departed spirits should “immediately pass into glory,” armed with infinite wisdom; but I do ask of ''advanced, ancient'' spirits that a general postal arrangement be effected whereby the presence of the unbeliever cannot disturb conditions. For example, were I to die to-night and continue in my present frame of mind, one of my first efforts in spirit-life would be to send a communication—a letter—to my wife. I would find a medium in London, Paris, New York, San Francisco—somewhere, through and by whom I could send a letter which would identify itself. And were Spiritualism what it professes to be all that and more would 1 be accomplished. We all know whether it has been accomplished. I might extend my reasons for dissatisfaction to a. much greater length, but a very little reflection will suggest all I would say.

{{Style P-No indent|than human—as angels, gods, devils, genii, etc., instead of brothers and sisters of our common humanity? Why did Socrates fail to class his daemon with those just gone before, or bring forth as evidence of immortality the fact that the spirits of men and women did communicate with those on earth if he had known of it? If Spiritualism be what it is represented to be, it cannot be new in any sense only at the expense of the reputed intelligence of “the departed,” who, like drone« in the hive, have permitted milleniums of sweet opportunities to pass by unimproved, generation after generation, to sink into the grave, with no worthy effort on the part of the spirits to accomplish what would seem to be an easy thing for them. Further, to let the past settle its own difficulties. let us look at the present with all its facilities, mediums in every hamlet, postal conveniences of every kind, toleration such as history has failed to record in any age, and we see, in spite of spirit congresses, uniting the wisdom of spirits who have lived through the progress of ages with the Solons of modern times, no universal, respectable, reliable, method of communication devised, whereby believer and unbeliever may receive a spiritual telegram from their spirit friends the genuineness of which would be indisputable. We, who are of yesterday and know nothing have devised postal arrangements and telegraphy to such perfection tha: communion with one another has almost annihilated space and time; is it too much to ask of the world of spirits that they do away with the “twaddle” which so seriously impairs the reliability of spirit-communion? Understand me, I do not ask, that newly departed spirits should “immediately pass into glory,” armed with infinite wisdom; but I do ask of ''advanced, ancient'' spirits that a general postal arrangement be effected whereby the presence of the unbeliever cannot disturb conditions. For example, were I to die to-night and continue in my present frame of mind, one of my first efforts in spirit-life would be to send a communication—a letter—to my wife. I would find a medium in London, Paris, New York, San Francisco—somewhere, through and by whom I could send a letter which would identify itself. And were Spiritualism what it professes to be all that and more would 1 be accomplished. We all know whether it has been accomplished. I might extend my reasons for dissatisfaction to a. much greater length, but a very little reflection will suggest all I would say.}}

Now for Occultism. It professes to have been the same in all ages. It perceives a gradation of spirits in spirit-life analogous to what we perceive in physical life. Not only the gradation of intelligence as seen in man, but also the lower animals; that every organic being has a spirit, which is liberated on the dissolution of the physical organism, and has the I freedom of spirit-life eqnal with any other, and to the extent of its power and intelligence can influence those yet dwelling in tabrenacles of flesh. There may exist a difference of opinion among occult philosophers, whether the spirit of an ape or a flea, must ever remain as such in the land of shades, whether they will again reinhabit a physical organism, or whether there be a spiritual Darwinism by which every spirit is traveling through the pathway of evolution to greater perfection oi organic structure as a spirit; yet all of them will agree to this that spiritual manifestations, whether of the nineteenth century or the first, point most emphatically to a class of spirits decidedly not human. And this can be verified I have no doubt, whether the means be found in the British Museum or not. Testimony as reliable as any that has appeared in the London Spiritualist, dot the pages of history, that spirits —not human—elementary spirits or astral spirits, or otherwise known, have entered voluntarily, or have been coerced into the services of men: and I would rather ascribe the nonsense of spirit circles to non-human spirits, than insult “the departed” or the medium or the investigator, by calling them human.

Now for Occultism. It professes to have been the same in all ages. It perceives a gradation of spirits in spirit-life analogous to what we perceive in physical life. Not only the gradation of intelligence as seen in man, but also the lower animals; that every organic being has a spirit, which is liberated on the dissolution of the physical organism, and has the I freedom of spirit-life eqnal with any other, and to the extent of its power and intelligence can influence those yet dwelling in tabrenacles of flesh. There may exist a difference of opinion among occult philosophers, whether the spirit of an ape or a flea, must ever remain as such in the land of shades, whether they will again reinhabit a physical organism, or whether there be a spiritual Darwinism by which every spirit is traveling through the pathway of evolution to greater perfection oi organic structure as a spirit; yet all of them will agree to this that spiritual manifestations, whether of the nineteenth century or the first, point most emphatically to a class of spirits decidedly not human. And this can be verified I have no doubt, whether the means be found in the British Museum or not. Testimony as reliable as any that has appeared in the London Spiritualist, dot the pages of history, that spirits —not human—elementary spirits or astral spirits, or otherwise known, have entered voluntarily, or have been coerced into the services of men: and I would rather ascribe the nonsense of spirit circles to non-human spirits, than insult “the departed” or the medium or the investigator, by calling them human.