face were uncovered, and her fair hair long and in waves upon her shoulders and sparkling with light, as was also her face, where heavenly joy and happiness were strongly marked. Her head was thrown back and her eyes raised towards heaven; nor did she cast one look upon the earth. Her affections seemed placed on things above; where her treasure was, there her heart was also! It appeared as if she had unwillingly left her heavenly abode, and anxiously longed to return to it. She was raised a little above her companions; her feet were not visible, but seemed as if wrapped in a white cloud. Her face and form were just what they had been when she inhabited this earth, and yet there was this remarkable difference that she was every way larger and the countenance was expressive of a more matured intelligence than could belong to one so young. There was, besides, an indescribable something not belonging to a world of sin and sorrow. I was in the act of stooping forward in order to gaze more earnestly on this lovely vision when all disappeared and I saw nothing but the light of day shining into the room.'

In the lowest class of spirits we find the strange and hideous forms. Among those who are not evil, though held to earth by the recollection of earth-life, as also in the recently departed, are the spirits who are recognised by the dress they wore when in the body. These last, the 'ghosts in costume,' have excited a great deal of ridicule; but their appearance may be readily

explained on the principle to which I have adverted in We have, in

the chapter on The Home of the Spirit.

speaking of the manifestations, said that 'Whatever the impressing spirit thinks, the medium sees,' and the same idea may be conveyed by saying, that, as every thought or feeling in the earth-life leaves its impress on the soul, that soul, when it becomes the body of the spirit, has only to recall the memory of any particular condition to produce the appearance desired. instance of this may be found in the officer's uniform and the antique ring shown to the medium Jane, and recognised by the wife of the spirit.

An

The lower the spirit, the more material are its conditions, and the more easily and outwardly is its appearance impressed on the seer's eye. Sometimes indeed, it seems as if little more than external sight is required for the perception of the apparition. But as we rise in the scale, we find that the internal sight or vision of the soul must be opened. The spiritual eye is needed to discern the objects of spirit-life, and every ascending degree in the next state requires for its perception, a corresponding increase of internal vision.

It is a noteworthy fact too, that in all these manifestations the sensation produced in the seer is one of pain or pleasure corresponding to the state of the spirit and its nearness to, or exaltation above, this earth. The low, haunting spirits, produce headache and a sensation of horror, of which an example was seen in

the witnesses of the phenomena in the haunted house, and in the statement of the gentleman who saw the apparition like a calf, who was seized with a horror such as he had never felt before. The sceptical man J— felt a painful electric shock.

Mr. C

fainted, but, whether from surprise, or the earthly tendency of the spirit, I have no means of knowing.

But Miss S- derived nothing but pleasure from the light that dazzled and scintillated before her spiritual eye; Mr. Williams, to whom the good and pure young George Barth paid his parting visit, was filled with a calm feeling of peace and happiness which lasted many hours;' and though the mother, whose lovely vision of her child is last in the series, does not speak of happiness, her words express the delight she felt in the answer given to her anxious prayer.

Having already spoken of the magnetic state of the atmosphere as a possible condition in the production of these phenomena, we may indicate to future observers the hour of day as an element in the question. It may be that, as dark midnight, and the sun's absence are favourable for the appearance of the earth-bound spirit, the bright sunrise, as in the case of George Barth and the mother's vision, is both a favourable condition and a natural correspondence for the appearance of the rising angel.

Its full and specific meaning is seldom, if ever, given,

to the Apostle's description of the kinds of bodies in which spirits of contrary direction are clothed. As is the earthy (like earthy material) so are they which are earthy. And as is the heavenly (spiritual essence) so are they which are heavenly.'

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CHAPTER XIII.

A

CORRESPONDENCE AND DEVELOPEMENT.

LL the various communications which I have ever

seen, professing to come from spiritual sources of a higher character, agree in stating that no true knowledge of the nature of spiritual impression can be attained without a clear idea of the agreement by correspondence between the natural and spiritual worlds. That this truth involves a doctrine which at first sight appears mystical and imaginary cannot be denied. It is, however, intelligible enough, and as certain as any branch of knowledge which can be deduced by wellmarked steps from indisputable principles. The very clear explanation of correspondence given by Swedenborg has not received the attention it deserves, partly perhaps from the positiveness and great copiousness of his style, and partly from the difficulty found in apprehending the reality of the doctrine by those who have had no conscious experience of spirit-life. But after the inquirer has found, as we did, that this principle of correspondence, and this only, furnishes a key to the