New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-08-23

iottcr 10 In6 COmInltlre Oh Tue Oialt oCloal
Society. He says: But supposing the
terest me. If anybody would endow me
with the faculty OF listening to the chatter
OF the old woman and curates at tine nearest
cathedral town, / should decline the priv
lege, having better things to do. And if
the folk in the spiritual world do not talk
more wisely and sensibly than their friends
report them to do, l put them in the same
category" This passage, written with the
caustic satire in which the kindhearted pro-
fessor occasionally INDUCES, can hardly
mean that if it were proved that men really
continued to live after the death of the
body, that fact would not interest him,
merely because some of them talked twad-
die. Many scientific men deny the spiri-
tual source of the manifestations, on the
ground that real, genuine spirits might
reasonably be expected not to indulge
IN the commonplace triviantiets winch
DO undoubtedly form the staple Of ordinary
spiritual communications. But, surely, Pro-
lessor Huxley, as a naturalist and a philos-
opher. would not admit this to be a reason
able expectation. Does he not hold the
doctrine that there can be no effect, mental
or physical, without an adequate cause,
and that mental states, faculties, idosyn.
crasies, that are the result of gradual devel-
opment and lifelong, or even ancestral
udOib, C0u uOt 10 6'tuuCuLy Cu0uSCu Ny duy
known or imaginable cause! And if las the
professor would probably admit a very
large majority of those who daily depart
this life are persons addicted to twaddle,
persons who spend most Of their time in
low or trivial pursuits, persons whose plea
sures are sensual rather than intellectual,
whence is to come the transforming power
which is suddenly, at the mere throwing off
the physical body, to change these into
INa;v ~ ahfo 70 a " prnriat ouA .Jol;rbt ~ b;nh
and intellectual pursuits? The thing would
be a miracle, the greatest of miracles, and
surely Professor Huxley lie the last man to
contemplate innumerable miracles as part of
the order of nature; and all for WHAT Merely
to save these people from the necessary con-
sequences of their misspent lives. For the
essential teaching of spiritualism is, that
We are all Of us, in every act and
thought helping to build up a 'mental fab
ric," which will be and constitute our.
| selves more completely after the death of
the body than it does now. just as this
fabric is we'll or il, built, SO will our progress
and happiness be aided or retarded. just
in proportion as we have developed our
higher intellectual and moral nature, or
starved 1t by disuse and by giving undue
prominence to those faculties which secure
us mere physical or selfish enjoyment, shall
be we'll or i'll fitted for the new lie we enter
Ous 4ig AoOAO UC0CAAh1 VI AOOAt oRNAT
GER, that meu are best educated by being
left 70 suffer the natural consequences Of
their actions, is the teaching of Spiiitualism
as re ai ds the transition to another phase
of life. There will be imposed rewards or
punishmenss; but every one will suffer the
natu raj and inevitable Consequences of a
we'll or i'll spent life. The well spent life is
| that in which those faculties which regard
our personal, physical well.beIng are sub
l or1.pa ea1 70 tbaco which rl ri n,r n0osol
| and intellectual well being and the well
I being Of others; and that inherent feeling
which is 80 universal and so difficult to &C
count for--that these latter constitute our
higher nature, seems almost to point to the
conclusion that we are intended for a con-
| dition in which the former will be almost
wholly unnecessary and will gradually be-
come radimentary through disuse, while
the latter will receive a corresponding de.
~velOpment.
Although. therefore, the twaddIe and
triviality of go many of the communications
is not one whit more interesting to sensible
spiritualists than it is to Professor Huxley,
and is never voluntarily listened to, yet the
fact that such poor stuff is talked (suppos-
ing it to come from spirits) is both a fact
that might have been anticipated n a les
son OF deep import. We must remember.
too, the character of the seancss at which
tutso CommOuIldCo uAlCttlUus dIC To-
ceived. A miscellaneous resemblance of
believers of various grades and tastes. but
mostly in search of an evenings amusement,
and of skepties who look upon all the
others az either fools or knaves, is not likely
to attract to itself the more elevated and
refined denizens of the higher spheres, who
may well be supposed to feel too much in
terest in their own new and grand intel
lectual existence to waste their energies On
,.l,o, a1oe- II Al. C,a+ 20 N-ornl 49, y.
pie continue to talk after they are dead
with just as little sense as when alive. but
that, being in q state in which sense, both
common n uncommon, is OF tar greater
importance to happiness than il ls here
where fools pass very comfortable 1ives),
they suffer the penalty OF having neglected
to cultivate their minds, and being 50 much
out of their element in a world where all
pleasures are mental, they endeavor To re-
call old times by gossiplng with their for
mer associates whenever they can find the
means-Professor Huxley will not fail to
see its vast Importance as an incentive to
that higher education which he is never
weary of advocating. He would assuredly
be interested in anything having a really
practical bearing on the present as we'll as
on the future condition of men; and it is
evident that even these low and despised
phenomena of spiritualism, If true,' have
this bearing, and, combined with it's higher
teachings, constitute a great moral agency
which may yet regenerate the world.
For the Spiritualist who, by daily expert
ence, gets absolute knowledge of these
facts regarding the future state-who
knows that, just in proportion as he INDUCES
In passion, or eelfishness, or the exclusive
pursuit of wealth, n neglects to cultivate
the affections and the varied powers of his
mind, SO does he inevitably prepare for him
self misery in a world in which there are no
physical wants to be provided for, no SEN
sual enjoyments except those directly asso-
ciated with the affections and sympathies,
no occupations but those having for their
object social and Intellectual progresses
impeiled toward a pure, a sympathetic, and
an intellectual life by motives far stronger
than any which either religion or philosophy
can supply. He breads to give way to pas |
sion or to f~alsehoOd, to selishness or to a
life Of luxurious physical enjoyment, be-
cause he knows that the natural and
consequences Of such habits
long and arduous struggle in or
der to develop anew the faculties
whose exercise long disuse has rendered
to him. He will be deferred from
crime by the knowledge that its unforeseen
may cause him ages of re- |
morse; while the bad passions which it en-
courages will be a perpetual torment to
himself ina state of being in which mental
can not be laid aside or forgotten
amid the fierce struggles and sensual pleas |
ures of a physical existence. 1t must be
remembered that these beliefs unlike |
those of theology will nave a living efficacy
because they depend on facts occurring |
again and again in. the family circle, con-
stantly reiterating the same truths as the
result of personal knowledge, and thus
bringing home to the mind even of the
most oStuse the absolute reality of that |