Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1853-04-30
For the Southern Standard.

]
the editor is absent ere this, therefore I address
this communication to you. There is another
son for so doing, which is this shall have to
make slight issue with the editor in one two
points of his article on Spiritualsm. 1t might ap-
pear more manly to defer it, for that reason, till
his return; but as the subject is ethereal, and my
thoughts are evanescent, they might evaporate if
they were to remain too long unclaimed in the
balance of practical reflection. Nor are the issues
which may make with him of such nature as
to call for an immediate reply.
was pleased to see Mr.. G. take hold of sub
ject which is occupying so much of public thought
and public talk, and in some places, with such del
eterious effects upon the minds of Individuals
Men of Science should have investigated this mat
ter earlier and Invested it fthat necromantic char
acter which has carried SO many unhappy crea-
lures to the lunatic asylum.
Mr.. c., in his article, has advanced many ideas
and opinions which reflect credit upon both his
head and heart, but with that boldness of thought
so truly characteristic of his pen, he repubshes
and subscribes to theory, which, in pursuing the
direction given it by its advocates, must inevitably
run in contact with other theories better supported
by the test of experience. We aude to the fol-
lowing thought advanced in said article
The impression which makes by his words his move
ments and his thoughts upon the EARTH the the
air. produce series of changes these elements which will
never The motion caused by the writing of this pro-
duces unduary pusaton in the which enIarges
Giles until will have travelled this GLOBE and the changes
will work in the atmosphere, will another and still
other series of changes which will go long time lasts
This thought is truly sublime at first sight, but
upon close investigation it appears, to at least
with all due Difference to the great names by which
it may be supported, to conflict with that first
great law of Philosophy, to which alluson is so
often made, gravitation. 1t seems to us that we
might, with as much propriety, say that the ball
shot from the cannon, or to come still nearer the
marble shot from the school-boy's hand will never
cease revolving. Gravitation brings about anoth-
er state of things, called, in phosophic language,
inertia, or cessation of positive motion. This is
the great regulator of natures vast machinery
This prevents the earth from gradually going into
that state of chaos from which the Omnipotent
Word brought it. For we perceive at once, that
if there be no cessation of motion, the innumera-
BILE causes which are ever at work to produce To-
cal motion, would, in the course of time, cause
state of things opposed to the "frst great law of
Heaven, " order. The eternal perpetuity of the
effect of moral action is different question Wind
is not subject to the laws of matter, and may pos
sess the power of eternal progression, duration and
expansion. 1t is the confounding of thes two
thoughts, we opine, which has led to the infnites-
imal idea of the endless duration of sound and mo-
ton. We know that the above thoughts are at
variance with great names and greater minds
They may be termed radical and even puerile,
yet, until those great minds shall make their the
DRY harmonized with the fixed laws of nature, we
shall consider them the transcendental illusions of
minds who have scared SO high in the regions of
thought as to have lost their gravitating balance,
and flown off into the regions of incomprehensi-
bility
The editors application of the moral of this
theory, is most excellent. Thus making hell a
vast panorama of the culprit's own making, in
which he will ever be viewing horrid pictures of
his own creation, and reading the catalogue of his
own crimes, written by his own hand.
This is lawful conclusion from the doctrine of
the eternal effect of moral action, but does not le-
Ultimately flow, we think, from the theory of the
endless progression of motion and sound. The
pride of human intellect as often leads man from
truth and from God as the decisions of the gnor-
ant. The mental hallucination of the German
materialist more directly opposes the truths of
Heavens revealed will, than the ignorance of the
boor who will not believe but that the earth is a
fat surface and that the sun is movable lump for
mans especial accommodation.
In word sir, the theory alluded to leads us in
toasituation very dssmilar from that of Pollock
in his imaginative excursion through empty space
! in search of wonders in the world of spirits:
"But first, to see
! Whatlay beyond the visible creation,
Strong curiosity my fight impeled.
Long was my way, and strange. passed the
bounds
Which God doth set to light, and life, and love:
Where darkness meets with day, where order meets
Disorder, dreadful, waste, and wild: and down
The dark, eternal, uncreated night
Ventured alone. Long, long on rapid wing,
] sailed through empty, nameless regions vast,
; Where utter Nothing dwels, uniformed and void.
There neither eye, nor ear nor any sense
OF being most acute, finds object; there
For aught external still You search in vain.
Try touch, or sight, or smell try what you viii
You strangely find naught but yourself alone.
! But why should in words attempt to tell
What that is like, which is, and yet is not ~
AS to spiritualism do not propose to advance