"Without doubt,' said Cebes.

"And therefore it is probable also of the rest, that each will go into the state which most resembles the condition they had striven to attain, either by indulging in bad propensities, or by omitting to cultivate the better instincts of their nature.' (Phaedo.) This gradual but certain declension issues in the final extinction of the soul.

*

This agrees with St. Paul's doctrine. Fear not him who can kill the body, and after that hath no more that he can do,' &c. The eternal punishment' of the wicked is truly spiritual punishment, as eternal life should be spiritual life. The second spirit, who combated the idea of objective reality in heaven, though he admitted the reality of appearances, also writes:

"There is no hell for the wicked, only more or less happy places for the just, according to their virtuous avoidance of the wickedness of this world, and a place of improvement and instruction for all.'

This may be and spirit perceives it. what it was here.

probably is true as the influencing His own state is not very unlike Many, by his description (p. 205),

* I may not here enter into all the reasons for rejecting the usual translation of alúvios, but my statement is not new. The word has always been obscure to scholars, and I can only beg that its application by ancient writers in the sense I have assigned to it should be examined. Plato's alwves, or Æons, were breathings of spirit power from God, thus Ages in one sense.

are in the same condition and continue so for a long time; but it follows as a necessary consequence of the universal law of spiritual attraction and sympathy, which must operate more strongly when the bonds of the body are cast aside, that the ill-disposed will congregate together, as in this world, in lower and yet lower depths of sin. During the life on earth, the direction of the will may be more easily changed, and through that influence described in Scripture as the work of God's Holy Spirit in the souls of men, higher aspirations may and do take the place of the lower propensities. But in a state where all affinities will impel with greater force, like will consort with like, good or even a desire for good will rise to God, and hopeless evil will sink to evil.

When we examine into the universal law of symbolism, or the correspondence of the internal of one state with the external of those above, we shall find how this massing together of wickedness will be inevitably accompanied by a loss of all the beautiful perceptions and sensations which make an advance in the heavenward course so glorious; how darkness and chill or a smouldering fire will be substituted for the light and warmth of the Sun of righteousness; how discord and strife, instead of love and harmony, will pervade the whole, and form the lamentable surroundings of the descending spirit. That this is the fact is asserted by all mediums, as the foregoing accounts show.

6

Hell"* is the Scripture name given to this condition. We need not try to change it.

Thus are built for us those many spiritual mansions of which our Lord tells us, and to which His ascent into

heaven opened the way.

But it is evident that we are ourselves the architects of our houses, not so much by our own acts, as by our own state, and that state depends on our reception of the higher life from above, the influx of the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth.

It is agreeable to all the analogy of nature that there will be a kind of order in the developement after death; but when state perceptibly determines what we call time and place here, this order will follow the degree of strength of impressions. Thus, as in Admiral Beaufort's description, those nearest the time of death will form the first on awakening, so the next state will appear to be only a continuation of this, without the suffering which has preceded the change. Then, a gradual unfolding of the storehouse. All the memories of this world, with their treasured loves, their hoarded knowledge, and their innumerable scenes and pictures, will be as an opened roll, forming what in the grand but real symbolism of Scripture is called the book of judgement : 'And the judgement was set, and the books were opened.'

* The word Hell is not always used in the Greek when it is found in the English Testament. In most places the original word is Hades, or the spirit-world.

CHAPTER XII.

APPEARANCES AFTER DEATH.

F this chapter were meant to be merely a collection

IF

of ghost stories, chosen without regard to anything but careful authentication, it would soon swell into a volume; for almost every friend can give a well attested tale of a ghost, either direct or traditionary : but my intention is more definite, and every instance is chosen either for the purpose of illustrating what has preceded, or of furnishing data for further reasoning.

It seems needless, at this stage of our inquiry, to go over all the arguments for or against appearances after death; the simple fact, that in all ages and nations such appearances have been believed in, is enough to establish a foundation for the conjecture that, under certain unknown but not very uncommon conditions, the spirits of the departed are able to show themselves to the living. For a great variety of facts connected with this subject I refer to Mr. Dale Owen's Footfalls on the Boundaries of another World,' Mr. Howitt's 'Supernatural in all Ages and Nations,' and a large number

of well-attested statements in the Spiritual Magazine and other publications, all showing that, if evidence is insufficient to establish their truth, it cannot be held to confirm that of any single occurrence. Much of the mystery in which this subject is veiled is due in part to the manner in which it has been treated by socalled sensible persons and scientific men; by those who, when other subjects are in question, boast of their earnestness in collecting facts before trying to form conclusions. In the matter of spiritual appearances, it is certain that wherever their occurrence is asserted a very uniform series of phenomena has been described. The sudden terror, not always fear, but often rather due to physical than mental action on the nerves, the electric thrill or shudder, the faintness, sometimes sleepiness, sometimes a sudden wakening from sleep, occasionally an appearance of lambent flame or blue mist, and sometimes even a phosphorescent or sulphureous smell, are among the commonest of the facts attested. We may say that these are all the produce of ignorance and superstition; but why should ignorance and superstition always agree so well in their fictions? There must be some good reason for this agreement; but as it is not for one who has hazarded conjectures as to the causes of rapping, writing, and crystal-seeing, to enter into any train of reasoning which supposes only hallucination or subjective mental action in the asserted appearance of ghosts, I will only