their grotesque and laughable sides; but Spiritualism itself is not a laughable, but a very serious matter; and to play with it is to play with fire, with edge tools, or any other dangerous thing. Let me now say, as a last thing in this connection, that the pursuit of Spiritualism is, in some circles, in danger of becoming a monomania, and that we owe it as a duty to ourselves to take care that it does not become so in reality. The hearing of the Gospel, attendance upon religious services of any kind, the reading of the Bible, the very offering of prayer may all be pursued to such an extent, and so unguardedly and exclusively as to become an injury rather than a benefit. Spiritualism is a great and blessed truth, and the cause of Spiritualism is one of the most sacred on the earth; but the moment it interferes with our performance of the set duties of life, the moment we give to it an exclusive and dominant regard, the moment we are affected with "Spiritualism on the brain, and can think of and take interest in nothing else, that very moment we are in a diseased and morbid condition, and are turning our blessing into a curse, our opportunities for good into occasions of evil. Human life has to be supported by light, air, heat, food, and twenty other things, and if we try to support it upon any one of these to the exclusion of the rest, we soon find out our mistake; but this is what too many Spiritualists have done, and are still doing, until at last they become monomaniacs, and simple nuisances to every one who happens to come into contact with them, except those who are in a similar and evil state.

I have long thought and felt very strongly that we owe it to our beautiful faith and the cause with which we have identified ourselves, to make an open, modest, and constant avowal of what we are and what we believe, never allowing coward fear to lead us to hide our light under a bushel. We need not be nuisances to be faithful; we may consult times and places and yet maintain our integrity; we may keep ourselves and our faith in a position of harmony with the other facts of our lives, and yet be always ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us." I think many Spiritualists hold back the avowal they ought to make, and it is time this fact should be clearly understood, and the duty it inculcates be laid to heart and discharged. I also think the sacrifices we make to spread our faith are not at all equal to its importance. If we do really and truly believe that the truth of immortality is aided by demonstrable evidence; that those who have passed away are still able, under given conditions, to commune with us who are on this side; if we believe that God, in these latter days, has given us a privilege which many prophets and kings longed for, but

died without a sight of it being vouchsafed to them; if we believe, in fact, that Spiritualism is what we profess it to be; if we know it to be true, and know equally how valuable it may be in right hands, then I say it is our duty to sacrifice time and money and other valuables to spread abroad the light among those who are in darkness, to strengthen the weak, to instruct the ignorant, to give confidence to the trembling, and to bring the world face to face with that which has helped us, and which we believe is capable of helping others. I have no confidence in the profession of any man who tells me he believes a great truth, but who does not make all possible sacrifices for its spread. Of course, what those sacrifices shall be, the forms they shall assume, must be left to each one's conscience to determine; but although we are absolved from responsibility to man, our responsibility to God remains intact, and is all the greater because man cannot decide for us. Our lecturers, our periodicals, our societies, and the various agencies we have at present at command should be far more largely supported than they now are, while their number and efficiency should be increased, and would be if we were willing to sacrifice some of our unnecessary luxuries, and live more simply, and more in conformity with the dictates of those great facts and truths which Spiritualism teaches us.

Sacrifices for our faith are absolutely necessary if our faith itself is to become strong, and be something more than a mere impression or feeling. Our knowledge of a truth is not of the slightest value or importance, except as we turn that truth into life. We may see, perfectly clearly, that a certain statement is true; we may be able to appreciate the nature of certain phenomena, presented to our senses; intellectually speaking, we may know the true, the actual, and the right; but it is among the solemn and awful facts of life, that the apprehension of these things may stop there. Only as we actually love the truth we know, shall we will to do that truth, and only as we will it shall we do it, and only as we do the truth shall we be conformed to the truth. The question "What is truth?" is, of course, a very important one; but truth is a means to an end, not the end itself. When men say, "I want to know the truth, the fact, and will know at all hazards," I am inclined to reply, "Be it so; use your best efforts to know the truth, and the fact; but your possession of the new knowledge is only one more responsibility, adding to the number already devolving upon you; you are neither better nor worse for your knowledge, except as your knowledge makes you more truthful, more honest, more real, and more conscientious, as it purifies your heart, and ennobles your life. You may hold the truth, and yet hold it in un

righteousness;' you may believe the truth, but the devils believe and tremble."" They are not blessed who merely know, but they are blessed, and they alone, who do what they know. Spiritualism may be true; you and I believe it to be true, and we may go further, and say we know it to be true, as far as we can know any fact of consciousness. But our possession of that knowledge, unless it make us better men and better women, better husbands and better wives, better fathers and better mothers, better children, better brothers and sisters, better masters and servants, unless it make us better beings in all the varied relations of life,-unless it bring us into nearer union with the true, the right, the self-sacrificing, and the Divine,— is not only of no use to us, but is simply an evil; for God gives nothing to us unless it be for use, and if our talent of Spiritualism be folded in a napkin, and laid aside, the Master will, one day or other, know how to deal with His slothful servant. It is a great thing to be able to distinguish truth from error, right from wrong, the real from the apparent; but it is a greater, because it is a better, thing for us to be true, and right, and real, just as it is more acceptable in the sight of God to live a poem rather than merely write one, to be beautiful in heart and life rather than to talk and argue about the beautiful. The best critics are those who the most carefully criticise themselves; and the truest culture is the culture that purifies our affections, and makes our lives wholesome and serviceable. If you ask me why I lay such stress upon all this, my answer is a very simple one. We are all of us in danger of looking at, and accepting Spiritualism from its merely intellectual sides, of being content with a belief in its reality and truth, without that belief being practically operative. I say to myself, quite as strongly as I can say to you, that the only Spiritualism which is of the least value, in this or any other world, is the Spiritualism which makes us better, which lifts us higher, which generates patience, and self-control, and pureness, and all the Divine virtues. It is very important to know that there is a life beyond death, that we can and do communicate with our friends; but that knowledge, so far from being an actual blessing to us, may be a curse to sink us lower, unless, knowing these things, we ourselves are morally and spiritually improved by the knowledge. Theoretically, and in the abstract, Spiritualism is good, but a holy and useful life as a result of a theoretical Spiritualism, is better; and we are, every one of us, in danger of being satisfied with the first, and of being indifferent to the last.

In the composition of this paper (and with these words I will conclude) I have carefully abstained from unnecessarily irritating and offending those from whom I most fundamentally

differ on theological questions. We meet here on common grounds to discuss common duties, and I wish this common ground were better understood by many Spiritualists than it really is. We do not always and sufficiently respect each others' differences of opinion, and it is high time it should be clearly understood, that while we are all of us Spiritualists, some of us are Christians and some are not, and that each party should be just to the other, and not expect co-operation where co-operation is plainly impossible without the sacrifice of personal fidelity. Let us as much as possible lay aside the things in which we differ, and band together to promote the interests in which we are agreed; let us give each other credit for sincerity, and be tolerant of everything but falsehood, baseness, and cowardice. Against these latter things let us fight, by day and by night, with every honest weapon at our command, and let us never cease our efforts until our movement is as pure and worthy of support as it may be and ought to be. I know, of course, that this, like every other "treasure" committed to human hands, is in "earthen vessels;" but we may nevertheless keep our vessels bright and sweet and clean, and thus humbly invoke upon ourselves and our cause the blessing of Almighty God, without whose favour, however learned, or rich, or prosperous we may be, we are ignorant, and poor, and failing, and

miserable.

INVITATION TO SELF-CULTURE AND SELF-RELIANCE.

ADVANCE right on the path of knowledge; equip thyself in strong completeness;

What though the toil be long and rugged? 'twill fill thy wond'ring soul with greatness.

'Tis for the base, 'mid spoil and carnage, to climb the mould'ring steeps of

fame,

But let thy soul be all-sufficing, unheeding of thy after-fame.

Mount! mount the ladder to the heaven, whence bright angels come and go.
And strength be to thy spirit given to scorn the jargon heard below.
Quit! oh quit this sordid grov'ling-eyes for ever fixed on earth;

Oh, lift thy heart, and turn thy vision, to the spheres that gave thy spirit birth.

Oh, be thyself, and nobly daring, give battle to the passing hour,

And thou, on starry heights shalt walk with feet of strength and soul of

power.

Ah! why revolve a narrow prison, when fair and boundless worlds invite? Instinct, with beauty, love, and reason, and God and truth, and man and

right. Up, up! discharge thy holy mission, and break the bonds that now enthral;

Voices from the future summon, and Life, and Death, and Duty call.

W. A. P.

THE LATEST DEFENCE OF MATERIALISM.-AN AMERICAN REPLY TO PROFESSOR TYNDALL.*

PROFESSOR JOHN TYNDALL: Sir,-I find in the preface to your "Fragments of Science," the following remark:

"The world will have religion of some kind, even though it should fly for it to the intellectual whoredom of Spiritualism.'

Seeing that your preface is largely made up of expressions that betray great soreness on your part because of the "hard words" which your "noisy and unreasonable assailants" of the pulpit have launched at you; seeing that you express a wish that the minds which deal with "these high themes" were "the seat of dignity-if possible of chivalry-but certainly not the seat of littleness;" and that you regard as "unmannerly" those persons who have denounced you for "rejecting the notion of a separate soul," &c.-does it not appear like a disposition to mete out to the unpopular Spiritualists a measure which you sensitively shrink from having meted out to yourself, when, from the calm atmosphere, the "Alpine heights" of scientific meditation, you try to affix a foul, dishonoring name to a subject which many eminent men of science among your contemporaries have thought worthy of their serious investigation?

If you ask to what men I refer, I could mention the names of Alfred Russell Wallace, known to science as sharing with Darwin the discovery of the principle of natural selection; Maximilian Perty, Professor of Natural History in the University of Berne; J. H. Fichte, the illustrious son of an illustrious father; the late Robert Hare, one of America's foremost chemists; Nicholas Wagner and Dr. A. Butleroff, both wellknown physicists and professors of the University of St. Petersburgh; Dr. Franz Hoffman, of Würtzburg University; Camille Flammarion, whose Astronomical writings are well known to the readers of the Popular Science Monthly; Dr. J. R. Nicholls, chemist, and editor of the Boston Journal of Chemistry; the late Nassau William Senior, celebrated as a political economist; Hermann Goldschmidt, the discoverer of fourteen planets; William Crookes, F.R.S., a well-known chemist and editor of the London Quarterly Journal of Science; C. F. Varley, F.R.S., electrician; and the late Professor De Morgan, eminent as a mathematician, and who once remarked of certain physicists like yourselves, who "snap up" the investigators of

* This able article from the pen of the well known Mr. Epes Sargent, is printed in a separate form, and may be had at our office.