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CHAPTER XIV.

INFLUX AND INSPIRATION.

HAVE already made large demands on my reader's

power of belief, but for every inference hitherto drawn there has been a foundation of some kind in experience. If the theory of Inspiration in the following chapter should seem more systematic and complete than is justified by facts, I beg to be understood as only offering thoughts suggested by much fragmentary information gained from various sources on an obscure subject. If I can thus give a new direction to an inquiry, which must be completed by better and more advanced thinkers than myself, some indulgence may perhaps be extended to errors which will soon become apparent, but which at this stage of knowledge are unavoidable.

We have seen that all communication from the spiritual sphere is couched in the language of Correspondence (though in simple messages from spirits near to earth this may not be at first apparent), and that, in the developement of mediumship, the character

of the impressing spirit rises with the gradual opening of the inner sense. The symbolism also consists of different degrees, rising from the representations of objects near to earth-which express good or ill according to their characters and the character of the spirit whose surroundings they are to the glorious imagery of the highest angel world. Two conditions are necessary-the character of the inspiring source, and that of the medium or channel of communication; for by both these acting together the quality and form of the message is determined. Not that the human vessel alters the heavenly stream, but that each current has its separate source and its appropriate channel, and the most direct channels must be traversed by streams from the purest fountain before the work of spiritual regeneration is complete. To attain this state of receptivity, a purifying process is needed; but the amount of purification required varies in different individuals, and this explains the fact that to innocent loving children * visions and communications of the highest, character are sometimes given, confirming the words of the Psalmist, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, Thou hast revealed strength;' and the assurance of our Lord, in speaking of little children, that Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.'

Before going farther into detail as to the elements of character required for each degree of communication, * See page 301.

I must say a few words on the division of the brain by phrenologists, involving a mental analysis so wonderful, that had it been the result of thought and invention only, its author would have been set on a pedestal as a philosopher, instead of rather being held worthy of the pillory as a quack. But Gall did not invent, probably no human mind could invent the marvellous grouping of mental elements which his system displays. He simply observed patiently and carefully, what mental and moral tendencies were found united with certain forms and proportions of brain, and when his arrangement of faculties was completed, the whole, barring some imperfection inseparable from a first work, displayed such a harmonious system as no mental philosopher has ever tried to frame without falling into a hopeless confusion.

The lower range of organs in the head contain that portion of the brain which is used in the reception of impressions from earth. They form the animal elements of character. Sensuality in every form, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Secretiveness, Love of Gain, &c. These are the organs ministering to self, needed in due proportion in this life, but sadly overgrown through indulgence, and requiring all the restraint that conscience and religion can impose, until their power shall be diminished, by that conquest of evil by good, which the fuller developement of their superiors will effect. These self-organs do not lie in the forehead.

Y

The

lowest range there consists of susceptibilities of the very simplest impressions from the outer world. Form, Size, Colour, Sound, Number, and Language, the last being behind the eye, which itself corresponds* with intellectual light.

These are the mental perceptions needed for carrying on material life, and many of these as well as the less exalted feelings, are shared with us by the animal creation in their different degrees. Above the lowest, at the back of the head, comes a range one degree higher. They are the affections, binding us to our kind; Adhesiveness, Love of Children, Love of Home, Caution, &c. In the front, the higher intellectual organs are compounded of the lower and simpler ones. The powers of observing events and individual things are centred, as might be expected, between and above those perceptions of which the knowledge of individuals and events is formed. Ascending one step we find Comparison immediately above the last named, and in the middle of the forehead. The function of this organ is analogy and classification, the perception of objects in space, according to some metaphysical writers; and its situation directly above the perception of complete objects, and slantingly above Locality, the perception of relative place, shows how well it was so designated.

I think it is Mr. J. D. Morell who remarks, that the nerve of sight is nearer the intellectual region, and the nerve of hearing nearer the affectional portion of the brain.

Comparison, when fully developed in an intellectual brain, gives a perception of analogies, and, united with a neighbouring organ, the perception of differences,* a power of classification.

Causality, on each side of Comparison, is always defined to be the power of tracing cause and effect. This power has been called by some of the best mental philosophers, the knowledge of objects in time. I prefer this last definition. It is situated above all the simple perceptions and immediately over Time and Order. It is a complex perception, uniting the functions of all below it. Close above this is the Perception of Differences already mentioned, and ascending a step on each side, the portion of brain which has been called Ideality, whose function, however, seems hardly to be as yet understood, and to which I must return after the examination of those in the top of the head. And here on the vertex as a centre, to which all others should converge, we find that organ whose work it is to convey impressions to and from the Highest. Veneration is the name given. I believe that just as the Philoprogenitiveness conveys those impressions from parent to child, and vice versa, of which the parental feeling is composed, so does the high and central organ communicate with its Holy Object. It is the perception and

* No. 20 in Gall's numbering. This was named, Wit or Humour, because it gives that needful element of humour, a quick perception of what is incongruous, but its elementary function is simpler and higher.