Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-10
other at the inexhaustible source.

J ter. 1t cannot be true that all minerals arr
poisonous, because all minerals are found, il
their ultimate (frst) state in the fluids anC
solids of the human composition. Oxygen!
is everywhere present in mans body; %
is phosphorus in his bones, blood and brain
hydrogen is in all the fluids, and in some O.
the solids: carbon is in all the secretiont
and excretions iron is an essential of the
blood; soda ia in his muscles; slick is found
in the hair aid nails; magnesia exists in
blood and brain; lime is abundant in the
bones; albumen and fibrin; and sulphur
and the several associate metals; also the
acids and aisalies-acetic uric, oxalic, ben
zoic, potassium, &C., demonstrating, as per-
fectly as science can establish any discovery
or proposition, that mans body is the ulti-
mate of all mineral, vegetable, and animal
properties and organizations of the globe.
Man, therefore, is the final, because he is
the highest physical organism possible The
same rule applies to his mental structure and
Utmost possessions. We fird him the final
finite embodiment of the infinite Love and
Wisdom. Heis a child in this world Wars,
cruelties evils, injustices, sins, diseases, mis-
eries-these are the effects of undevelopment.
His salvation from Hell-punishment is pro-
erosion, growth, embodiment His growth
Is both automatic unconscious aad con-
sciOus Tor volitional J and thus each man is
inevitably and forever party to good or evil.
Man is type of the infinite Universe. Bal
ley, the author Of Festus, saw the initials of
this correspondence when he wrote
Earth is the symbol of humanity,
Water the spirit, stars the truths of heaven:
All animals are living hicroglyphs:
| The barking dog, the steathy-stepping cat
MHaWk, bull-ali that eXlsts-laedn something more
| To the true eye than their shapes show"
Destitute of the essential principles of JUS
tice, Truth, Science, Philosophy, Love, Wis
doml Why, if mankind were strangers "
to these principles they could not acquire
| any permanent knowledge concerning them.
We affirm that every mans intuitions are
| filled with the seed-grain of all principles.
| Agrlculturists never attempt to raise harvests
| on soils destitute of the essential properties
of which their grain is constituted. Mans
| mind takes to music to mathematics. to
science, to philosophy, to poetry, to spiritu-
| ality, and to the realities of eternal life, be-
cause his mind is the repository of all prin-
| ciples, in gernina! state, of which all truth
is composed.
| Father Smarius, in the Catholic Church
| of st. Francis Navier, in this CITY, delivered
a course of lectures (1S60) on Faith" as
| against the Protestant claim of the "right
| of private judgment" advocating the alb
solute necessity Of q deciding power" in
matters of revelation, outside of the individ-
ual. He was opposed and answered, in
| part, by the Rev. Mr. Marvin, in the Cen
tenary Church, in this city, who did, doubt
| less, as well as could any other minister in
his mental ENHANCEMENT on the question of
an infailible revelation in manuscript, or in
the form of a book.
Like philosopher, DIR. Smarius said that
the scriptures do not contain the whole
| doctrine of revelation" (See Republican,
Feb. 1860, Lee. A. He found the church
existing far behind the present compilation
of conflicting books called "the Holy BIZ
BILE" The authority on which ne rests his
faith" in the Inspiration of that body of
Prelates, Bishops and Priests, who in the
| fifth century, in solemn convention, decided
what books should be rejected and which
should be accepted. He says the Bible it.
self does not tell what books are genuine.
"What biblical authority is there" he asks,
"for rejecting the book Of the Wars of the
Lord, Numbers XVI: V. 14;) the book of
Judges, Jos. x: V. 29;) the book of Ma
than, the Il Chron. chap. tx: V. 90; the
Shememiah, the prophet; the gospel of
Thaddeus; of Matthias; of Peter, the Apps
| tie; of James; Of Barnabus; of st. Thorn
as; of st. Bartholomew; acts of st. Peter;
OF the book of the Nativity of our Lord; of
the in fancy of our Savior; and the book
called the Shepherd which Origin quotes
as divinely inspired, which Rufilnus calls
book of the New Testament"
Father Smarius may well ask "what au-
thority is there for rejecting these books as
uncanonical? He answers his own question
like one who has 'learned his lesson" by
page and 0y book, but not like philoso-
pher The Rev. Mr.. Marvin could not an
swer without affirming the supreme authority
o, intuition and reason. DIR. Smarius finds
the deciding power in the Roman Catholic
Church, which was before the Bible and by
which the Bible rdS made.
The harmonial view is apparent. Men ex-
listed before churches. Prelates, bishops,
priests and preachers are only men, They
my be wise or otherwise they may be
honest or impostors; they may draw intelli-
gence from heaven or from their own selfish
ness and ambition. The bishops who ere
.ected" the foregoing books, and who adopted
as inspired, the books now called "holy,"
were no more qualified as authority than
would be the same number of merchants,
mechanics, or lecturers on Spiritualism. Au-
thority is INFESTED in the primal principles Of the
indiWdudL spirit. ''The internal witness" is
final; 'the still small voice. is absolute the
language Of intuition is beyond the mistakes
of wordy translators; the verdict of reason
is ''the voice of God in the garden"
In the Harmonial Age there can be no
constitutional authority on religious ques-
tons. Neither can infallibility of teaching
be expected from any individual; because
man is a progressive being increasingly toll
ing between the world of "Ideas" within and
the outlying universe of Things" and as
no one mind can, according to our principles,
perceive and comprehend all truth, even in
| one line of his boundless realm, so no one
person can, vito any justice or reason, ever
assume to be Authority" above his fellows
in spirituality and divine principles; al
though it is true now, and it will everlast-
ingly continue to be true, that some minds
by la-geness of capacity and corresponding
industry, may possess more knowledge of
and be higher developed in science, philosO-
ply and spiritual principles, than others who
give these subjects little or no attention.
And thus we have among us at all times
teachers" "writers," mediums" and
"orators qualified to address mankind, and
to reveal in clear light the pleasant and
THE VALUE OF sPIRITUALIsM.
The fanaticisms and follies Of many in the
ranks of Spiritualism first attract attention.
Superficial minds couple the extremes of
fanatics with what they have "heard Of
the manifestations called spiritual. A to-
tally false "opinion" is thus set up in So
ciety. The real genius of Spiriiualism,
meanwhile, is becoming more and more APP
parent to unprejudiced Investigators. 1t is
the first religion that takes facts" for its
foundation the first religion that rears its
temples of thought on the immutable prin-
ciples OF philosophy; the first religion that
sees mother az well as a father in God;
the first religion that has demonstrably
drought life and Immortality to light"
the first religion that has overcome death
and the horrors of the grave; the first re-
ligion that has sounded the gospel Of Free
dom equally to woman and man, to young
and old, to lord and serf, it is the first reli-
gion that has satisfactorily explained the
phenomena Of matter and mind, in and out
of man; it is the first religion that is "to
the manor born" and congenial to the true
| children of Nature; and it is the first reli-
gion TO form mankind from slavery to ereeds
and dogmatisms, and TO gre the indiriduat
| uhoily 70 himself!
G,;~;.,aI;srn 20 4La apor,x, of ooos,v4,sb,