Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1853-05-14


PRED during the days of his apparent, as he firm
" believed, real DEATH He dared not he said, re-
late fully what he had witnessed IN that spiritland
but an account Of it would be. found among his
papers after his decease. That event, however,
took Mace during the disturbances of the war OF
the American Revolution, and these papers, by a
series of singular accidents were lost before falling
into the hands of his executor, and so were never
examined. But if his own testimony-the testi-
monv of a man of unimpeached yeracity, who for
more than halt century thereafter maintained
character of remarkable soberness and crcumspec-
tions to be relied upon, his soul passed from the
BODY and entered the world of spirits, where ne
stood in full presence of that inefable glory upon
which no man may look and live. Did he, in fact,
pass those vewless portals which, are told, de-
nv all return? Was his recall to life a new birth
from the dead Who knows
Whatever may be the bearings OF this case OF
Tennent upon the subject Of dreams and frances,
or apparent death, it is certain that forgetfulness
iapparently as absolute as can be conceived was IN
fact only apparent that the light from his past ex-
stence was invisible only because obscured by the
brighter lights from the spirt-land; just as the
faint stars are invisible when concealed by the OBJ
scuring daylighr and wait to be revealed when that
shall be withdrawn. 1t is one Of those numerous
instances which go far towards warranting the be-
lief that there is such thing absolute forget
funess that every impression made upon the
mind is inefaceable, every inscription incapable OF
CELEBRATION. A veil may be drawn between the
ater-consciousness and the inscription the char
acters may be filled up but this veil is ready at
any moment to be withdrawn, the filling up to fall
away, when the characters will become as legible
as when at first traced
There is another we'll authenticated case, in some
respects still more striking, showing as it does
how slight may be the impressions made upon
IL, NJ oh oil inaffaooablo A
poor servant girl in a German town, was attacked
by a violent fever. She was unable to read or
write {; but during the paroxysms of her disease
she became possessed-so the priests sad-by a
very polyglot devil. She would keep spouting
forth in a loud and monotonous voice unconnected
sentences of Latin Greek, and Hebrew. Sheet
after sheet of these rawlings were taken down but
those who attempted to find the calculation OF
some deep mysteries in this Babel of unknown
tongues got their labor for their pains. At length
her physician determined to trace out her antece-
dents. He succeeded in ascertaining that, many
years before, while child, she had been EN-
poyed a servant by learned ecclesiastic, whose
habit it was to pace up and down passage in his
house, communicating with the kitchen, and read
aloud his favorite books. These scattered and un-
connected phrases, caught in the intervals Of her
labor, now reproduced by her, after an inter-
val of many years. Passage after passage of the
notes taken GOWN from ner IeVeflSn II S WefS luen
tilted among the old priests favorite authors; so
that not the least of doubt remained to the orr
gin of the girls possessions"
Coleridge, in speaking of this case, adds to it
one of the weightiest comments uttered.
50 This instance" he says, contributes to make it
even probable that all thoughts are in themselves
imperishable; and that if the intelligent faculty
should be rendered more comprehensive land
that this is probable the instance cited above from
the Opium-eater shows conclusively,) it would
require only different and apportioned organiza-
ton-the body celestial instead of the body ter
restial-to bring before every human soul the col
lecve ex erience of his whole past existence. And
this, perchance, is the dread Book of Judgment in
whose mysterious hieroglyphics every idle word
is recorded. Yea, in the very nature of living
spirit it may be more possible that heaven and earth
should pass away, than that single act, single
thought should be loosened or lost from that liv-
ing chain of canses, to all whose links, conscious
or unconscious, the free WILL our own absolute self,
is co-extensive and co-present."
1t is no idle question, Do we ever forget!'