Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-06-08
From Morris aud willh' Home Journal.
A TALE OF Til e sou II III
By J. t. W., OF EUrAw, ALABAMA.

That the natural and the spiritual worlds
lie in close proximity to each other, and
that an intercourse, more or less frequent,
is kept up between the inhabitants Of each,
has always been. and is now, almost ev-
erywheie, the creed Of the million. The
phenomena Of prophetic dreams. appari-
tons. and Iresentiments, aud .hpse kin
dred psychological mysteries which per-
plex the philosophy of the learned, appear
TO be 80 readily aud satisfactorily explained
by these assumptions Of tiie popular faith,
that not unfrequcndy even cultivated in
trllects yield it a credence to which it is
not entitled FROM the force of the evidence,
ex;ernal as well as intrinsic, upon which
il rests its chain in belief.
The traditions of all countries bear sin
gular testimony to the universally of this
faith in the reality Of an intercourse be-
tween the world of matter and the world
Of spirit. This proves, at least, how
widely diffused is the belief in life after
death, and may be accepted as dim rev.
citation Of the Immortality of the soul.
Poets have graced the'marvels Of this
alleged spiritual intercourse with the anne
mites Of creative fancy, and have thus
contributed to strengthen and diffuse the
faith which accepts them as true. They
enter as powerful element into the ina
aginative literature Of the day, gaining by
the alliance over the minds and feelings
of the masses. Even our boasted philos-
ophy, by attempting and failing to solve
the accredited indicid of the mystic COM
munion, has multiplied the proselytes OF
the vulgar creed, and added plausibili.y
to its pretepsions by the admitted failure
to explain the evidence admitted to prove
! its credibility.
The tenacity and the universally of the
belief in the possibility and reality of an
intercourse between the ,lenizens OF the
visible and the invisible worlds, argue a
/ foundation for it in the common and inc.
iadicable inetincts of humanity. Itdifiers,
in development and manifestation, among
civilized and barbarous people, as among
cultivated and ignorant individuals, rather
in form aud degree than in essence
Among the unciyilized and the ignorant,
who, like children, are prone to indulge
in the exaggerations of credulity. Che be-
liet develops itself in the grosseSt forms,
and accepts even the explainable phenom'
ena of nature as proofs of immediate su'
lpernatural interference. The more en-
Ilightened communities and indiyiduall
simply narrow the sphere Of manifestation
but by no means, unless it be in few ex
eeptional instances of philosophic unbe
lief, ignore the reality Of the interfusion o
: the activities of the spiritual among the or
lganisnls and events of the material world
Thus, underlying alike the philosophy o
the wise and the credulity OF the vulgar
! is the deep-seated, inerfadicable and i'm
mortal faith in the intercomnunion be
tween the dwellers in flesh and the in
habitsnts of the unseen world.
u | am not myselfat all superstitious. i
i the modern maryels Of biology and spir
itualism have no faith. What are com
monty called prophetic dreams, appear .
!, mo to be merely the native children of tn
somnolont brain, born with no highe
claims 10 inspiration of origin than ou
: waking thoughts and fancies.s The sam
! b.ain, have always belieyed, weakene
!. by disease, disordered by abnormal con
j ditions Of mind or body, or dqlled by in
cipieDt somnolency, evokes from airy moth
p ingness the forms ofapparitiops, and give
them '.local habitstion and a name"
like mauner, in my philosophy, present
NESTS are but the subtler inluitions Of tn
J intellect, darting With prophetic foresigf
!, through the opaque mass Of enyelopin
/. circumstance, to the event hidden froI
7 the duller vision oil the mind in its cou
: anon and ordinary moods Of activity an
i perception.
r This is my creed. I cannot deny. how
" ever, that am occasionally sore perplexc