can be now peacefully and with wise foresight introduced and gradually extended over the world. The obstacles to be removed, to prepare the way for these changes, are the errors of all religions, and the uncharitable feelings which each necessarily creates against the members of all other religions. THE NARRATIVE. Many would-be-philosophers, and some who forget their own difficulties in their first attempts to introduce a knowledge of electricity, magnetism, mesmerism, and clairvoyance, as well as those of others in introducing any new great improvements who do not know what has been And the error of all existing governments, attained and proved in other countries, and who respecting the fundamental principle which can have not calmly and perseveringly investigated alone cultivate and stimulate the natural fac-the facts long since ascertained as undeniableulties of man, to unity, charity, truth, love or real goodness, among the human race, from the birth to the death of each. These obstacles are to be now removed, not by violence, or abusive language, or in an un-clusions I strongly protest, knowing how long kind spirit; but with patience, forbearance, perseverance, and love for mankind, regardless of color, clime, country, class, sect, or party, or difference of race or condition. All are to be made happy, or none can be made to be substantially and permanently so. The means by which to effect this, the greatest of all changes in human existence, are, like all the operations of nature to attain general important results, simple in principle and easy in practice. All that is requisite is, to supersede, without violence, the false fundamental principle on which alone human affairs have been until now constructed and governed, and the characters of all have been cultivated and formed from birth. And in practice, to abandon the evil course of creating inferior and injurious conditions, now universal throughout all countries, necessarily making those within them inferior and injurious to themselves and others. And, instead of these evil proceedings, to commence the practice of creating good and superior conditions only, in which from birth to place all of the human race. And then, from necessity, all will become good and superior, and gradually, by this new education, very good and very superior. Were it not for these new and most extraordinary manifestations, there would arise a conflict between the evil spirits of democracy and aristocracy, which would deluge the world with blood, and would create universal violence and slaughter among all nations. But these manifestations appear to be made at this period, to prepare the world for universal peace, and to infuse into all the spirit of charity, forbearance and love. These new and extraordinary manifestations have not changed my confidence in the truth of the principles which I have so long advocated, nor my assurance of the benefits to be derived from their universal application to practice. On the contrary, the certainty of the immense permanent advantages to be insured by the adoption of this system by the human race, has been confirmed to me by the spirits of Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, the Duke of Kent, and Grace Fletcher. Those who are wise, and who are not opposed to the universal happiness of mankind, will mark, learn, and inwardly digest these things. ROBERT OWEN. London, March 30th, 1853. will hastily decide that these new manifestations, although apparently mere extensions of animal magnetism, are cunningly devised deceptions. Against any such crude and premature conthese same objectors have opposed the introduction of the system which I have for half a century advocated- — a system based solely on self-evident facts, and built up on self-evident deductions from those facts-a system having in view solely the permanent good of all from birth to death -a system, and the only system, calculated to compel all from their birth to become gradually as good, wise and happy, as their organization, given to them by the Great Creating Power of the universe, or God, will admit. I protest against the conclusions of these would-be-thought wise philosophers, because I have patiently, with first impressions strongly against the truthfulness of these manifestations, investigated their history and the proceedings connected with them in the United States - have read the most authenticated works for and against them, with much desire to disbelieve those in their favor—and, although against strong evidence, I long continued to doubt, and thought the whole a delusion (but in many cases I was obliged to admit it must be an honest delusion), I have been compelled to come to a very different conclusion. While in doubt upon this subject I heard of the media in this country, and was casually introduced to Mrs. Hayden, an American medium, without having any intention to ask a question respecting the spirits; my object being to purchase a book which Mrs. Hayden had for sale, written by a valued and most truthful friend of mine in America - Adin Ballou, who has written a plain, practical, common-sense history of this new revelation to the human race. While conversing with Mrs. Hayden, and while we were both standing before the fire, and talking of our mutual friends, suddenly raps were heard on a table at some distance from us, no one being near to it. I was surprised, and as the raps continued and appeared to indicate a strong desire to attract attention, I asked what was the meaning of the sounds. Mrs. Hayden said they were spirits anxious to communicate with some one, and she would inquire who they were. They replied to her, by the alphabet, that they were friends of mine who were desirous to communicate with me. Mrs. Hayden then gave me the alphabet and pencil, and I found, according to their own statements, that the spirits were those of my Mother and Father. I tested their truth by various ques Q. What spirit, or spirits, can and will assist and advise me in accomplishing this change? A. "All will.” tions, and their answers, all correct, surprised | are the best calculated to make all good, wise me exceedingly. I have since had twelve seances, and happy? A. "Yes." some of long continuance, and during which I have asked a considerable number of questions; to all of which, with one exception, I have had prompt and true answers so far as the past, and present, and very rational replies as to the future; but these last have to be tested by time. The exception was my own afterwards discovered error. In mixed societies, with conflicting minds, I have seen very confused answers given; but I believe, in all these cases, the errors have arisen from the state of mind of the inquirer. Q. Are there many spirits present? A. "No." Q. Who are they, and will you name them by Q. What object have the spirits at this period, in thus manifesting themselves to us? A. "To reform the world." Q. Can I materially promote this object? A. "You can assist in promoting it." Q. Shall I be aided by the spirits to enable me to succeed? A. "Yes." Q. Shall I devote the remainder of my life to this mission ? A. " Yes." Q. Shall I hold a public meeting to announce to the world these proceedings, or shall they be made known through the British Parliament ? A. "Through the British Parliament. Q. Shall I also apply for an investigation of this subject to the Congress of the United States? A. "Yes." Q. Through the present American ambassador? A. Yes." Q. When shall I next hear from my family in America? A. "Next week." This answer has proved to be correct. At this period of the sitting, as I found Mr. Smith could hear the raps more easily than I could, I gave him the pencil, and requested he would take down the answers. And the follow ing are copied from his notes. Q. Have I, as has been said, some particular guardian angels? A. "Yes." Q. Will you name them by the Alphabet? A "Mary Owen," "Anne Caroline Owen" (my daughters deceased); "Robert Owen" (my father's name); "Anne Williams" (my mother's maiden name). Q. Have I been assisted in my writings for the public by any particular spirit? A. "Yes Q. What spirit? A. "GOD." [This reply was made in such a manner as to create a peculiarly awful impression on those present.] Q. Shall I continue to be assisted by the same spirit? A. "Yes." but I have had twelve or thirteen other sittings, Space will not admit of more in this number; and some of them of deep interest; especially with the declared spirit of His Royal Highness the late Duke of Kent and Strathearn. But he has requested me not to publish his communications until a time which he will state to me. London, 5th April, 1853. ROBERT OWEN. Browne's Ascent of Mont Blanc.* This large paper-bound folio is the work of Mr. J. D. H. Browne, one of the gentlemen who achieved last summer the most recent ascent of Mont Blanc. It is a curiosity, and an interesting one. The designs are not mere reminiscences, but are completed from sketches made on the spot; the author having enjoyed exemption to an unusual At another sitting, soon after its commencedegree from the knocking-up effects of the adHere we follow the two Englishmen ment, Mr. Smith, Editor of the " Family Her- venture. ald," and a gentleman unknown to me, came in, and their nine guides in their ladder-ascent of and I was about to desist in my inquiries and to the glaciers before the Grands Mulets; their leave them; but Mr. Smith, whom I had long encampment on the Grands Mulets; their searchknown, was very urgent that I should proceeding for the passage of the Crevasse du Dôme, in asking the questions I intended, and I there- by lantern-light amid fathomless precipices, fore proceeded. ghost-white glaciers, and black night; their perilous crossing of the crevasse ; their breakfast on the Grand Plateau, within view of the summit; the first use of the axe in hewing away the higher ice; the view of the Italian side of the mountain; the scaling of la Côte; the final rest upon the loftiest peak of Mont Blanc; and the stumbling, slipping, precipitating descent. Spite of some artistic deficiencies, the designs are characteristic and life-like; and the verbal narrative is graphic enough to atone for occasional flighti- Spectator. Previous to their entrance, on its being announced that a spirit was present, I had asked Q. What spirit is present? A. By the Alphabet, "Benjamin Franklin." Q. How shall I know you from other spirits, or that you are truly the spirit of Benjamin Franklin? A. "I will give three distinct raps.' And three very distinct raps were given. Q. Is it true that conditions can be created, through man's agency, by which all may be made to become good, wise, and happy? A. "Yes." Q. Are the conditions which I have had so long in my mind for this purpose, those which ness. *Ten Scenes of the last Ascent of Mont Blanc, including Five Views from the Summit. Published by M'Lean. 666 From the Gentleman's Magazine. natural or animal body, and the μ2 THE DEAD, AS DESCRIBED BY HOMER: xv, a spiritual body; (1 Cor. xv.) and the same thing is implied in other passages of Scripture. (See Dan. xii. 23. Wisdom, iii. 7.) COLLECTED FROM DR. JORTIN'S SIXTH DISSERTA- THE subject of the condition of the human soul after death forms with us a part of the domain of religion; and it is very rarely that theology permits the intrusion of poetry within the limits which she calls her own. Among the Greeks, the poets were the oldest and most accepted theologians. It was the opinion of Herodotus, that the objects of Greek worship owed their forms and their very names to Homer and Hesiod. "These were they (he says) who made the Greeks a theogony, and gave names to the gods, distinguished their honors and occupations, and determined their forms."* The state of the disembodied spirit in that future world to which mankind instinctively looks forward, though with shrinking and half-averted gaze, was a subject which could not but exercise a inysterious influence upon the imagination of men who were looked upon not only as poets but as seers, and upon whose rhapsodies their countrymen depended for all their notions upon the most mysterious and important matters. The subject was an attractive one, not only as presenting a wide and suggestive field to the imagination, but also as involving questions in the solution of which every human being was personally and vitally interested. In what way did the Greek poets satisfy the cravings of their countrymen for information concerning the spiritual world? We have thought it would not be uninteresting, taking Dr. Jortin's Dissertation for our text, to collect some passages from ancient writers upon this topic. This was the ancient Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy: τὴν ἡμετέραν ψυχὴν τόδε μὲν σῶμα καταλείψειν, οὐ πάντη δὲ ἔξω σώματος ἔσεσθαι, -our soul, though it leave this body, yet shall never be disunited from all body. (See Cudworth's Intell. System, ii. 784.) This future body was supposed to be a sort of airy or vaporous body, σῶμα αυγοειδές, οὐράνιον, αἰθέριον, a luciform, celestial, ethereal body. The Rabbins also ascribe to the soul, after its separation from the present body, another subtile one, which they call the scabbard of the soul. This is all agreeable to the Christian doctrine. St. Paul says, there is the μa fuxinor, a *Herodotus, ii. 53. II. It retains the lineaments of the man, and appears in the same dress that the man wore in his lifetime. — (Dissert., p. 217.) from the eleventh Odyssey, but there is one When, lo! the shade, before his closing eyes, Jeremias is described when he appeared to "Hamlet." MARCELLUS. Look where it comes again. BERNARDO. In the same figure, like the King that's dead. HORATIO. Such was the very armor he had on And of his beard, It was as I have seen it in his lifetime, It is obvious to observe that a spirit's assum- III. It retains the passions, affections, sentiments, and dispositions that it had in the body. — (Dissert., p. 218.) Odyssey illustrative of the above, where the There is a fine passage in the eleventh shade of Achilles exults on hearing of his son's military glory, ६ tuxà sà Φοίτα, μακρὰ βιβᾶσα, κατ' ἀσφιδελὸν λειμώνα, Γηθοσύνη, ὃ οἱ υἱὸν ἔφην ἀξιδείκετον εἶναι. (L. 537.) -The shade with transport glowed, Rose in his majesty and nobler trod. — (Pope.) That the same affections and sentiments are continued in another state, was taught by our Saviour in the story of Dives and Lazarus; It may be raised with proper sacrifices and evocations, by permission of the deities who preside over the dead. But it is a dangerous thing to have recourse to these methods; for, if those surly gods should be offended, they may send a Gorgon, a formidable monster, to terrify and perhaps destroy the bold adventurer. (Dissert., p. 218.) The subject of necromancy is curious. It was practised before the time of Moses; for one of his laws is directed against it. There shall not be found among you -α charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. (Deut. xviii. 10.) Diodo rus Siculus mentions an oracle near Lake Avernus, where the dead were raised, as having been in existence before the age of Hercules. (Liv. iv. c. 22.) Plutarch, in his life of Cimon, relates that Pausanias, in his distress, applied to the Psychagogi or Deadevokers, at Heraclea, to call up the spirit of Cleonice (whose injured apparition haunted him incessantly), in order that he might entreat her forgiveness. She appeared aocordingly, and informed him that, on his return to Sparta, he would be delivered from all his sorrows; meaning by death. This was five hundred years before Christ; and the story resembles that of the apparition of Samuel-To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. (1 Sam. xxxviii.) The appear ance of Samuel was regarded as a real transaction by the author of Ecclesiasticus, for he says, "By his faithfulness he was found a true prophet, and by his word he was known to be faithful in vision; for after his death he showed the king his end, and lift up his voice from the earth in prophecy.' (Eccles. xlvi.). The Rabbins say that the woman was the mother of Abner; she is said to have had the spirit of Ob, which, Dean Milman has remarked, is singularly similar in sound to the name of the Obeah women in the West Indies. Herodotus also mentions Thesprotia, in Epirus, as the place where Periander evoked the spirit of his wife Melissa, whom he had murdered (Lib. v. c. 92.) It was a very general opinion that demons had power over the souls of the dead, until Christ descended into Hades, and delivered them from the thrall of the Prince of Dark ness. The dead were sometimes raised by those who did not possess a familiar spirit. These consulters repaired to the grave at night, and there lying down repeated certain words in a low, muttering tone, and the spirit thus summoned appeared: "And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. (Isaiah xxix. 4. See also Id. viii. 19.) Euripides refers also to necromancy. Seneca describes the spirits of the dead as being evoked by the Psychagogos in a cave, rendered gloomy and as dark as night by the Act iii. 530.) The passage will recall to the cypress, laurel, and other like trees. (Ed. recollection the incantation scene in "Macbeth," where the apparition of the armed head, &c, is evoked in a dark cave, with Claudian refers to the same superstition, characteristic ceremonies. (Act iv. sc. 1.) (See Rufin. i. 155.) And Lucan (Phars. vi. 670), where Erictho recalls a spirit to animate much in accordance with the taste of that the body it had left, by horrid ceremonies, writer. So Tibullus, Hæc cantn finditque solum, manesque sepulchris Elicit, et tepido devocat ossa toro. (Lib., i., El. ii. 45.) A good account of necromancy may be found in the learned and curious work of L. Ch. Frid. Garmannus, "De Miraculis Mortuorum;" see the tenth chapter of the Second Book, which treats De Spectris Cadaverum. He also speaks of another kind of invocation, that of calling back to their own country the souls of those who died abroad. He says that the dead were also sometimes invoked, that the surviving relatives might be assured of their still living in the other world. Julian the Apostate secretly practised this art, in a retired part of his palace, cutting up for the purpose the bodies of virgins and boys - if we inay credit two Christian bishops (Gregory Nazianzen and Chrysostom), who, we are told, could relate such tales" without a smile, and without a blush." Bodinus mentions similar ceremonies. (See De Magorum Dæmonomania, Lib. ii., c. ii. iii.) Evocation practised by the northern nations, as may be seen in Gray's translation of the Ode from the Norse tongue, preserved in the Latin version by Bartholinus, entitled "The descent of Odin," that is, to the drear abode of Helas, the goddess of death. The answers of the prophetic maid are with difficulty extorted from her. FATIDICA. Quisnam Hominum Invita hæc dixi, Jamque silebo. was And in the poem from the Hervara Saga, published by Olaus Verelius, Hervor calls up by enchantments the apparition of her father Angantyr Hervor daughter! Full of spells to raise the dead, He then predicts her future fate. The apparition of Samuel complains also. Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? The Druids claimed the same power; and Picart, on the religion of the Banians, states that the Tunquinese believe their witches maintain a correspondence with the evil spirit, and have a perfect knowledge of the state of the soul in the other world; and that they evoke the spirit with the sound of drums, which appears, and gives the answers demanded. (Relig. Ceremon., vol. ii. 108.) With respect to the danger attending the raising of the dead, as noticed by Dr. Jortin, lest a formidable monster should be sent to terrify or destroy the adventurer, the superstition seems alluded to by Shakspeare, in "Hamlet." Porphyry, who wrote in the early part of the third century, speaking of dæmons, says, οὗτοι οἱ χαίροντες λοιβὴ τε, κνίστη τε δι' ὧν αὐτῶν τὸ σωματικον καὶ πνευματικὸν πιαίνεται: ζῇ γὰρ τοῦτο μsì vaμμσ. These are they who take pleasure in incense, fumes, and nidours of sacrifices, wherewith their corporeal and spiritual part is fattened. Celsus and St. Basil mention the same thing. (See Cudworth, vol. ii., p. 810, 811.) Milton has an allusion to this, the night-hag, when called In secret, riding through the air she comes, Lured by the smell of infants' blood, to dance With Lapland witches. (P. L.) Garmannus observes that the Egyptian hieroglyphic for the soul was a hawk, because it never drinks water, but only blood, with which the Egyptians believed the spirits of the departed were nourished. (Lib. ii., Tit. x. c. 60, 61.) It appears from Homer also that before the spirit tasted the sacrificial blood, it had no recollection of its former life; and sometimes did not speak, or possess the prophetic power. Tiresias says to Ulysses, αλλ' αποχάσει βάθρου ἔπισχε δὲ φίσγανον οξύ, Remove from the foss, and sheathe your sharp sword, that I may quaff the blood, and utter true words. The sense of which passage, it may be observed, is entirely lost in Pope's translation. As soon as Ulysses obeyed, the ghost, |
