give further extracts from this volume as we have done from its predecessor.

Dr. Crowell seems to entertain the opinion that Spiritualism is a religion, a point in which we are reluctantly compelled to disagree with him. It is only fair, however, to say that his views as to what constitutes a religion are extremely broad and liberal. He maintains, moreover, that Spiritualism can never become a sect, and herein our views are heartily in accord with his own.

If it be asked, Is Spiritualism a sect? I answer, No; and trust and believe it never will become one. If it be asked, What form will it assume? my answer is: I believe it will never become moulded into a concrete organization, but its truths will penetrate the Churches, and from the light it will bring, the toleration of diverse opinions upon all debatable questions will be established, as it is impossible for men to think alike, and the widest liberty will exist as to all honest differences. Teachers and hearers will be accountable only to each other. The grooves of thought will be as numerous as the minds that think, so that no channel will wear so deep from excessive use that it will prevent those who travel in it from perceiving that others pursue paths as true as their own. Heretofore the old ruts have been worn so deeply that darkness has obscured their footsteps. Spiritualism will change this, and it will then be as difficult for men to pursue paths of bigotry and intolerance, as it heretofore has been to walk unmolested in the light.

His answer to the question Cui Bono, or what Spiritualism has done, is very important, and we commend it to those who are in the habit of summing up all controversy on this question by asking "What's the use of it?" A long list of the illustrious men who have accepted Spiritualism in America, in England, in France and Germany, we give in full, since it may serve some useful purpose in showing the class of minds that have been affected by the modern manifestations. The list is not perhaps strictly accurate in the case of some of the names quoted, but on the whole it is tolerably correct.

Spiritualism in America is represented by names that are as highly respected as they are widely known. Among these are the late Professors Hare, Mapes, and Bush; Governor Talmadge; President Lincoln; Secretary Stanton; Judges Edmonds and Ladd; Hiram Powers; Rev. Dr. J. B. Ferguson; Rev. John Pierpont; Mrs. Davis, wife of a former Governor of Massachusetts; Catharine Sedgewick, and Alice and Phoebe Cary. Of those now living can be mentioned Whittier the poet; William Lloyd Garrison; Robert Dale Owen; Epes Sargent; Professor Denton the geologist; Professor Corson, of Cornell University; Hudson Tuttle, author of Arcana of Nature, and other able works; Rev. Samuel Watson, D.D.; Mrs. Lippincott, more generally known as "Grace Greenwood;" ex-Senators Wade, Harris, and Fitch; General Banks; Trowbridge the astronomer; William Mountford, and a host of others well known, who are firm believers in the philosophy of Spiritualism.

In Great Britain the list of names of distinguished persons who have adopted this belief is as extended as with us. Among them are the late Drs. Elliotson, Ashburner, and Robert Chambers; Cardinal Wiseman; Archbishop Whately; Lord Brougham, who partly accepted it; Lord Lyndhurst; Sir Charles Napier; Sir Roderick Murchison; Professor De Morgan, the distinguished mathematician; Mrs. Browning; Thackeray, and others. Among the living are the names of Alfred R. Wallace, the eminent naturalist, who shares with Darwin the honour of having

originated the theory of evolution by natural selection as the origin of species; Professor William Gregory, of the Edinburgh University; Professor Gunning; Professor Herbert Mayo; William Crookes the leading chemist of Great Britain, and editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science, who has recently made the brilliant discovery of the motive power of light, which threatens to explode the accepted undulatory theory and confirm and restore the emission theory of the immortal Newton. Mr. Cox, the well-known London barrister, and Dr. Huggins-the latter eminent for his discoveries in spectral analysis and astronomy---both admit the phenomena and confirm nearly all the conclusions of Mr. Crookes; Cromwell F. Varley, the distinguished electrician; Mr. Harrison, President of the Ethnological Society of England; Dr. George Sexton, one of the ablest speakers and writers in that country; William and Mary Howitt, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, and Harriet Martineau, all distinguished authors and writers; T. A. Trollope, the novelist; Gerald Massey the poet; Ruskin, Tennyson, Dr. William Hitchman, of Liverpool; the Countess of Caithness; Count de Medina Pomàr; Lords Lytton, Lindsay, Dunraven, and Adair; Ladies Paulet, Power, Eardley, Shelley, and Hon. Mrs. Cowper; Sir Charles Isham, Bart., &c. The Queen also is a Spiritualist.

In France there are the late M. Guizot, and M. Sibour, the Archbishop of Paris; the late Emperor of the French; Léon Favre, Jules Favre, Victor Hugo, M. M. Léon, the Marquis de Mirville, Camille Flammarion, the distinguished astronomer, who has recently published a work in which the doctrines of Spiritualism are openly advocated; Delarne, the geologist; Dr. Puel, physiologist and botanist; Dr. Hoefle, author of History of Chemistry, and others.

In Germany we have the late Baron Reichenbach, the discoverer of od; Herman Goldschmidt, the discoverer of fourteen planets; and Prince Emile de Sayn Wittgenstein. In Austria, Baron and Baroness Von Vay. In Russia, Alexander Aksakof, Imperial Councillor; and in Italy, Mazzini, Gavazzi, and Garibaldi.

These extracts have extended far beyond the limits of the space which we intended to devote to the subject when commencing the review, but the book is so valuable and its contents of so important and interesting a character, that we feel that much more might have been quoted with advantage to our readers.

In conclusion we would recommend all persons who take any interest in this great question to purchase the volume for themselves, feeling sure that after they have done so and given it a careful perusal they will consider the money thus expended well invested. It is sure to have a large circulation in America, as we trust it will also have in this country.

DANGER SIGNALS IN SPIRITUALISM.*

MRS. MARY F. DAVIS, the wife of the well-known Andrew Jackson Davis, has rendered good service to the cause of Spirtualism by the publication of this small brochure. There never was a period in the history of the movement when it was so necessary as now for all true Spiritualists to decide amongst

*Danger Signals. An Address on the Uses and Abuses of Modern Spiritualism. By MARY F. DAVIS. London:-AMERICAN BOOK AGENCY, 75, Fleet Street, E.C.

themselves what Spiritualism really is, and to use their utmost endeavours to prevent the introduction of extraneous matters likely to damage and ultimately to destroy the movement. The dangers in America to which Mrs. Davis refers may not be quite the same as those to which we are exposed in this country, but some warning voice is needed no less here than there, to point out the rocks upon which there seems to be a chance of the whole movement becoming wrecked. The Free Love abomination which has fixed itself like a parasite upon American Spiritualism, has fortunately gained no footing in this country, and is not likely to do so, but there are other dangers to which we are exposed, if not of so pernicious a character, at least equally destructive in their influence. Mrs. Davis remarks with great truth

Spiritualism, with all its sublime uses, is liable to gross perversions. “With the talents of an angel a man may be a fool;" and that which is an exponent of man's highest nature, and capable of yielding him the purest and deepest satisfaction, may be abused by ignorant and selfish natures, until it becomes to many the direct curse. Thus it has been with Christianity; and thus with some of the noblest institutions of civilization. To save this new system from a like ignoble destiny, those who love its truths and beauties should frankly and boldly expose all the hydra-headed monsters of error and deformity which lurk along its borders.

This is so true that it deserves to be seriously considered by every person that has the welfare of Spiritualism at heart. There are dangers arising from the excessive cultivation of what is called the lower phenomena of Spiritualism, and neglecting the higher manifestations of the movement; there are dangers arising from that too prominent disposition to witness marvellous and startling effects which culminates in imposture and trickery on the part of mediums; there are dangers springing from the tendency in the human mind to attach undue importance to what comes from spirits, although the spirits themselves communicating may be and in many cases are bigger fools than the persons to whom the communications are made; and there are dangers arising from the too prevalent habit of introducing into the spiritual movement matters which may be good in their way but have certainly nothing to do with Spiritualism proper. Mrs. Davis does not refer to all these dangers, but upon some of them her remarks are most pointed and likely to prove beneficial to those who may read her small publication. She points out most distinctly the abuse of Spiritualism arising from the yielding up our self-hood in listening to spirit-teaching "While we are self-poised," she remarks, and accept our spiritual guides as friends and teachers only we are safe." This is really of the very greatest importance. We ourselves know Spiritualists who follow implicitly whatever instructions they may receive from the Spirit World, regardless of their frequent absurdity

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and opposition to everything which calm reason and a sound judgment would dictate. That such persons should be considered mad by their friends is not to be wondered at, for mad they unquestionably are. We ought never to lose sight of the fact that spiritual beings are human like ourselves, frequently not only fallible and liable to error, but excessively ignorant, and calculated to mislead therefore all who follow implicitly their teaching. Mrs. Davis justly remarks—

It is dangerous and destructive to lay aside our own judgment in obedience to any authority outside of ourselves, to allow our Spirit-guardians to become our masters, and no high and advanced Spirit would ever encourage such a course; its evil effects are painfully apparent in the mad schemes which have in too many instances been blindly projected in accordance with supposed Spiritdirection, and which have involved both mind and means in certain and swift destruction.

The danger arising from encouraging the love of the marvellous in physical phenomena is equally great. The floating of guitars, the dancing of tables, and the smashing of crockery, are useful enough phenomena to convince sceptics of the reality of the manifestations; but when Spiritualists, who are already satisfied that spirits can and do communicate, spend night after night in rushing from séance to séance to witness this kind of phenomena, to the neglect of the cultivation of those higher manifestations which would elevate themselves both morally and spiritually, Spiritualism becomes abused instead of being legitimately used. Of such people Mrs. Davis says

This class are apt to become wonder-seekers, and rush abroad in quest of mediums and circles, and stare and gape at the banging of tables and the tooting of trumpets; while the quiet but most needful work of self-development, by means of self-reformation, is entirely lost sight of.

There is a greater danger still connected with this phase of the movement. Phenomena, which were at one time considered startling and awful, become common-place and lose their interest. New wonders are consequently sought for more marvellous than anything that has been previously witnessed; and if the supply should not be equal to the demand, the medium is driven perforce of circumstances-unless he be scrupulously honest-to resort to trickery and imposture. For a time the wonder-seekers are amused, but by and bye the bubble bursts, the exposure comes, and Spiritualism receives a blow from which it can only recover with the greatest difficulty. The introduction into Spiritualism of matters entirely foreign to its nature is also another source of danger, and a very serious one. Mrs. Davis remarks at the very commencement of her little essay—

There is no small amount of profound ignorance in the world respecting the genuine claims of Spiritualism. It is simply a belief—

First, that man has a spirit;

Second, that this spirit lives after death;

Third, that it can hold intercourse with human beings on earth. True Spiritualists agree on these three unwritten articles of faith, but in regard to everything else all are free to form their own opinions.

This is a matter which cannot be too forcibly impressed upon the mind of every true Spiritualist. All beyond this, whether true or false, good or evil, sublime or simple, lies outside the pale of Spiritualism, and has no right to pass current under its name. And the man who attempts to palm his own. crotchets on the world under the name of Spiritualism is no friend to the movement. Spiritualists may and do differ upon questions of religion, politics, social science, morals, or philosophy; but their individual opinions, although they may be advocated as in harmony with Spiritualism, have no right to be put forward as a part of Spiritualism itself. But in truth there are people who talk about Spiritualism as though it comprised an entire system of knowledge, and comprehended within itself every form and mode of thought a view which is in no way likely to prove advantageous either to the person holding it or to the movement itself. Mrs. Davis very justly says

This new system is only one among many great agents of progression. It appeals to man's highest nature, but in scope it is far from being universal. It is a means, but not the only means of improvement which should claim the attention of mankind. It is a branch of reform, but not the tree, whose fruit is for the healing of the nations.

Spiritualism is calculated to effect a tremendous change in society by its influence upon mankind at large, but in order that this influence may be beneficial it is necessary that the movement itself be kept within its proper limits. The very instant that it steps out of its legitimate sphere and proceeds to dogmatise upon subjects which do not fall within its province, that instant it takes the first step towards its own overthrow. To quote again from Mrs. Davis

Spiritualism comes "with a great wakening light," to rouse the slumbering nations! It comes over the waste of centuries, with notes of music and songs of joy, to rescue man from slavery and suffering, and teach him the road to individual harmony and universal peace. But Spiritualism, in order to perform this grand mission, must be made an agent of man, not man of it. It must be used as the exponent of a new and living faith in the actual and possible, but never allowed to attain the dignity of a controlling power. Should Spiritualists yield precedence to belief, and blind obedience to external rule, even though emanating from the spirit-land, how soon would they relapse into the abettors of new creeds, and the tools of new organizations! Let us beware of allowing faith to outstrip knowledge. Let us never lay aside the calm decisions of our own judgment for the dictations of authority, lest we find ourselves afloat on unknown seas, to be surely wrecked on the dismal strand of dogmatic institutions!

Our space forbids us to deal at greater length with this admirable little book, but we have great pleasure in recommending it to our readers, and trust it may have a large circulation.