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 1 
 
 2 
 
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 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
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 6 
 
<r 
 
 I 
 
 OUR 
 
 Companions, 
 
 BY 
 
 SANCHO QUIXOTE. \^^-^ 
 
 I i 
 
 ft 
 
 "Ceas to do evil • lerr] to do well." 
 
 " The more I think of it," says Ruskin, " I find this 
 conclusion more imprest upon me — that the greatest 
 thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see some- 
 vning, and to tell what it saw in a plain way. " 
 
 I 
 
 i ■ ' 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 G. M. HOSE & SONS, 
 
 1896, 
 
 * -Th" 
 
 X 
 
'fA 
 
 A .■( 
 
 2004 
 
 
 J-:^;.- 
 
 i 
 
 $ 
 
 Lniered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year or o 
 thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, by G. M, Rose & SoNi, 
 at the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 1* 
 
 
 .<. 
 
 '•K* - 
 
 '^■t' 
 
 .^ 
 
 .<^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 if 
 
 <i|^-. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 i 
 A' 
 
 
 CHAPTMi. 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XL 
 
 XII. 
 
 ^ XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII, 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX 
 
 ! XX 
 
 ' XXI 
 
 XXII 
 
 XXIII 
 
 XXIV 
 
 XXV 
 
 XXVI, 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 The Amenukd Spki.ing 
 As THK Day — a Poem ... 
 Introduction . . . - 
 
 Our Ant. els- ..... 
 Making My Bow ..... 
 About the Occult World 
 Worshipping Satan .... 
 
 Trapping an Enthusiast - 
 Still Trapping . . . . , 
 
 The Gift of Tungs .... 
 My Ears ar Opknd .... 
 
 Hevenly Music fro.m Angelic Hosts - 
 T:iE Very Gate of Heven 
 Fiends and Hvpnotis.m- - * * - 
 The Mouth of the Pit 
 The Trap is Sprung by De.mons- 
 Inside A Lunatic Asylum , 
 Luv AND Hate ..... 
 Fiendish Persecution . - ^ 
 
 Don't Mention It! - - - - 
 Hypnotism Means Torture 
 TheDemons and 1 hk Armenian Massacres 
 "Jesus Luver of My vSoul!" 
 Rejoicing as a Strong Man- 
 Demons Swear— Do You? 
 An Evolutionary Future - 
 What Think Ye of Christ? - 
 
 Stray Notes ..... 
 American Civilization - 
 An Angkl Asks Mk, "What do Christians 
 
 Mean?" 
 
 The Time Spirit and au Revoir 
 
 To the Reeder * . • ... 
 
 .OB. 
 
 iii. 
 
 viii. 
 
 ix. 
 
 13 
 16 
 
 30 
 21 
 
 3» 
 
 39 
 
 43 
 48 
 
 52 
 
 58 
 
 65 
 
 71 
 
 77 
 88 
 
 99 
 109 
 
 116 
 
 131 
 
 127 
 130 
 
 J 34 
 
 140 
 
 145 
 160 
 
 163 
 223 
 
 242 
 
 26C| 
 
1 
 
 ^■J- 
 
 Tn 
 
 
 
 • f 
 
 
 1 
 
• - . k. «» 
 
 THE AMENDED SPELING. 
 
 '^. 
 
 
 u 
 
 <}• 
 
 1 
 
 -1 
 
 i 
 
 • J 
 
 i 
 
 IF you want anythinj^- done, do it. '^Youar like others, 
 you dream about thin.ijs and talk about them, but 
 you don't do them." That was what an angel said to me 
 one day. 
 
 When I lernt shorthand some eighteen years ago I be- 
 came an advocate of fonetic spelingand expected with the 
 enthusiasm of youth that tlie new system would win its 
 way in a few years, and that the liaibarous, mossback 
 English wliich has tortured .so many millions of unfortun- 
 ates woidd soon be thrown into the wa.stebasket to be 
 grubbed up only by antiquarians. But the sluggards and 
 the traditionalists still survive to witch the world with 
 strange t)rthografy. . 
 
 The thanks of all ICnglish speaking pt.opl ar due to Sir 
 Isaac Pitnum for the splendid work he has done for spel- 
 ing reform. I do not like some of the characters heu.ses, 
 but when the legislators of English speaking countries 
 make up their minds that it is time to hav a new and 
 better language we can ea.sily find suitabl characters to re- 
 present the different stumils. 
 
 1 believ Engli.>;h will be the universal language. I 
 hav examined Volapuk to s<jme extent, and I do not think 
 it will ever be generally u.sed. In addition to our other 
 troubls, we ar afiflicted with mossback, purblind legi.slators 
 who do not .set'm t' understand what a fonetic language 
 would mean even from the sacred point of view of making 
 money. Our present system is wasteful in the extreme, 
 
IV. 
 
 OUR UNSF.KN CUMl'AN KjNS. 
 
 evcnforhomcu.se, while a fonetic sy-tem would in a singl 
 decade, in addition to settinj^: us rijrht at home, effect u 
 marvelous chanj^e in our foreign relations and help to fill 
 our gaping pockets. • 
 
 The etymological difficulties 'ar more imaginary than 
 real. When I lernt to read Spanish I had no troubl what- 
 ever in understanding that "filosofo" ment philosopher, 
 and surely the lerned men should be the last V) say that 
 simpl changes of that sort will confuse them. They ar 
 not aware of the extent of their own aViilities. But even 
 if the origin of the word were obscured there ar diction- 
 aries enuf and to spare to help them out of their difficul- 
 ties. And there is another consideration. Even if the 
 origin were obscured ten times over we don't care. We 
 er getting defiant:. We will soon become reckless. Is 
 language for the use of a very, very few purists or is it 
 for hundreds of millions of peopl? Ar children to be 
 tortured from generation to generation to pleas a few 
 of the professors, and all of the mossbacks? The best men 
 ar on the side of the radical;;. The very cream of the 
 cream of the filologists ar with us, and we ar gO' ^g to 
 win, for Demos shall beJcing, yea Demos king. 
 
 It should be an easy matter t(3 make progress. There 
 ar thousands of stenografers in the land and it is safe to 
 say that they all favor a change. They practically con- 
 duct all the business correspondence of the couniry, and 
 "The Hou.se" would bow to their will if they went about 
 the work diplomaticallv. 
 
 The system used in this book might easily be adopted 
 without any volcanic eruptions. It would be sufficient to 
 put on the letter heds, "The system of speling used in 
 our correspondence is that recommended by the Filological 
 Societies of the United States and the United Kingdom. " 
 Then, in the current language "The House" would be 
 at the hed of the procession. 
 
 The newspapers ar never tired shrieking about what 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 -a 
 
TUK AMKNDI.l* SPKI INI). 
 
 V. 
 
 \ 
 
 
 I 
 
 they d«> to brinj,*' about a higher civilization, but they seem 
 to steer clear of this reform. There is a limp in their pro- 
 grossiv Rait when it comes to fonctic spelinj?, yet most of 
 them acknowledge that it is necesbary. Why don't they 
 adopt it? 
 
 If our statesmen had adopted a system of fonetic 
 speling a quarter of a century ago, all Imotypes and type- 
 writers would hciv been made with the new characters; 
 but they were busy with "practical" work and laft at the 
 dreamers. It sometimes turns out tho that the dreamers 
 ar the practical men in the long run. 
 
 1 had my book alredy typewritn and I said to myself, 
 " AVhy not use the amended speling ? Why not do it in- 
 sted of talking about it?" And I tool; up my pen and 
 began to make corrections. It cost me some hard work, 
 but I think the result will justify it. We hav a good deal 
 of influence upon one another. A sing I thotless remark 
 of a companion set me to lern Spanish. Fn^m Spanish I 
 went to French and formed acquamtances, and listened 
 to speeches that I would never hav done but for that one 
 remark that Spanish was an easy language. So I hav 
 amended the speling becaus I know that some of my 
 readers will mend their manners, and make their fortunes 
 by adopting this reform thru having red " Our Unseen 
 Companions." 
 
 I hav undoubtedly mist many words, and again I hpv 
 drawn my pen thru some that should hav been left un- 
 toucht on the principl that if you giv a man an inch 
 he will take an el. I believ in an absolutelv fonetic 
 English, but it is best to take what we can get at present, 
 and be thankful. 
 
 If the speling you see here looks vStrange, it is simply 
 becaus the eye is not accustotned to it. 1 like Pitman's 
 speling better in one respect. *' Po.sibel "looks better, ac- 
 cording to my view, than "possibl," " trifel" than "trifl." 
 I like a language with plenty of vowels. Spanish, tor ex.- 
 
VI. 
 
 Ol'K I'NSKI-N COMI'AMONS. 
 
 ampi. has a musical look about it. if T may employ a fig-ure 
 that will make the heathen ra;,'^c ; hut the aulhorities can 
 settl these dispuied questions when the jj;Teat lij^'ht comes, 
 for as yet we 'lav only Vieen skirmishing;. 
 
 I was half inclined to adopt anew ch.iracter for the Ion;.,' 
 "e" in such words as " believ " and " receiv," but con- 
 cluded not to go too far and offend the Filistines, for they 
 ar as shy as littl fawns. It is best to do as much as possibl 
 with the familiar characters at this stage and very mucl, 
 can be done with them if you, the reader of this book, 
 will act, act in the living present. I hav more faith than 
 ever in what we can do if we only put our shoulders 
 to the wheel at (jnce and not wait until to-morrow, 
 ■when we may hav joined the anq;els who can commimi- 
 cate with one an Jther without any lan'.^uajie. 
 
 It would weary you to tell of the schemes I hav thot of 
 to brinij about a fonetic Enj^lish. By the time you finish 
 this book you may understand matters. No, no; that wr.^. 
 not the dominatinjjf id"a; (mly one am<m}^ others. Per- 
 haps I may hav sonu' j'ood ideas. Perha])S n(jt. You will 
 not be tnmbld with them, at all events, until the proper 
 time. In the mean time I sleep \(,'ry well indeed, thank 
 you, and eat a jji'ood-sized dinner. 
 
 The thanks of S])elinj4- reformers ar due also to Funk cS: 
 Waj,nialls, Pul)lishers, New York. They issued a circular 
 some nujnths aj^o with a list of more than twelv hundred 
 words in the amended spelinj^. The undcrstandinjj;- was 
 that as soon as they ^<.)t three hundred siuTi.alures of edit- 
 ors, authors, prominent teachers, ]Mdmincnt business 
 men who would aj>Tee to adopt the list they would use it 
 in their ])eriodicals. Two hundred and nine per.sons sent 
 their sii^natures at once and it is believd that the re- 
 quired number will .sotm be in and the conditions ful- 
 lild. ■ • 
 
 While I hav always been much interested in the subject 
 it is not likely that this Ixxjk would hav been printed as it 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 
 
TMF. AMF.Nl>K!) SPEMNO. 
 
 vii. 
 
 ;j^<T» 
 
 h-l 
 
 h 
 
 is had the list not been sent out. The spelinj^docs not go 
 lur enuf to suit a radical, but it is a nearer approach to 
 common sens than that which is in movSt of the books mine 
 will rub CO vet's with on the bookshelvs. 
 
 I hav introduced a littl word into the language to 'rri- 
 tate the ]m)f ^ssors. If you don't like it, invent one your- 
 selt, and out <jf the host we shall be abl to select the right 
 one. What is it ^ Read on, read on ! It is not plethys* 
 mograf, at all events. 
 
 If you ar in t .rested in the subject, as all men and 
 women of jirogressiv ideas should be, you can g<;t further 
 informati(>n from the circular by writing to MevSsrs. Funk 
 & Wagnalls, 30 Lafayette Place, New York. Forget t(^ 
 enclose a stamp, as usual, and the reply will likely come 
 the quicker : let brotherly luv continue. 
 
 " Vou think about things, you dream about them, but 
 you ar like the others — you don't do them," said an angel 
 to me. How much longer ar we going to lay ourselves 
 open to this charg- ? \ . ,^ 
 
 \r 
 
 . : ir< <) . ' « 
 
"AS THY DAY." 
 
 *t): 
 
 At this mjr dajr I O promls bleBt I 
 SwMii. <vordi of comfort, wnrda of rest 1 
 No more v.(th boding' fear I wait 
 To read to-morrow's hidden fate. 
 Whate'er its toils, whate'er its tears, 
 Whate'er its perils, pains or fears. 
 While sun and stnrs and worlds endure. 
 The old sweet promiSBlaudetb sure I 
 
 The hand that holds the world uptjean 
 My weary hart with all its cares ; 
 The eye that slumbers not hath seen 
 My (rraveyard mound with ifrasses green. 
 My Father's pityiugr luv has red 
 The pain behind the tears I shed. 
 How confortlnjr his words to me— 
 Child, AS thy day thy strenffth shall be." 
 
 Long, long ago when liis was new, 
 I lerut that luv, dlTine' r true. 
 That watchful care that cares for all : 
 The stars' grand march, the sparrows fall. 
 Long, long ago, I lernt to trust 
 That calm wise will and purpose Just. 
 Worn, weary, wounded, now at length, 
 I lean upon that matchless siruogth. 
 
 
 As this my day— my little day 1 
 My broken, troubtd, thwarted day. 
 The day whose roseate morning bloom 
 Was quoDcht and darkened into gloom. 
 The morn of giftal the noon of lobS I 
 The lengthening shadow of the cross t 
 Once more, ray Father, say to mo ; 
 ' Child, as thy day thy strength shall be " 
 
 Mas. MA.RT H. Fi»»!». 
 
 -: 
 
« 
 
 '■:< 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 
 r ^ 
 
 '* And many of them Mid, * He bath a devil. Why hear ye him?' Others 
 ■aid, "i'hefie are not the words of bim that hath a devil.' "-John z , 20, 21. 
 
 ♦' Write on your doors the sayingr wise and old, 
 * Be bold 1 b« bold 1' and everywhere ' Be bold;' 
 ' Be not too bold !' Yet better the exoeas 
 Than thedcfoct. Better the more than less ; 
 Better like Hector in the Mold to die, 
 Than llkea perfumed Paris turn and fly."— LoNorar.LiOW. 
 
 y T is litt.rature of one kind and another that plays the 
 m mi.schief with us all Down in l.a Mancha in the 
 olden time the knight red and re- red his books of chival- 
 ry so often thni the day, and drcmt so much at night — 
 eyes sometimes closed, sometimes open — of the golden 
 days of the past and the golden days to come when he 
 should lay his lance in rest and clear Spain of marauders, 
 that he lost taste for the quiet pursuits whicli had formerly 
 charmed him, and found no peace unto his .soul until he 
 went forth a- fighting. And if his poor cousin Sancho 
 Quixote, master builder of castles in the .same country 
 spent the best part of a year in an insane asylum in these 
 latter days gathering wisdom that he might easily hav 
 found elswhere in a much plcsanter manner, and if he 
 past thru the horribl experiences narrated in tliis new 
 book of chivalry anil fool-hardy daring he owes it from 
 beginning to end to bad ideas, bad literature and worse 
 judgment. 
 
 It took a long time of preparation ; the evidences were 
 carefully weighed again and again, for it was a risky ven- 
 ture; but bad mi.stakes were made in the premi.ses and 
 Sancho suffered. 
 
 The average man or woman has very littl idea of the 
 
 
 'i^ 
 
X, 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS, 
 
 ■■ !' , 
 
 L.y 
 
 influence that one mind has upon another. Ideas rule the 
 world, A good book lifts us up ; an evil one pulls us 
 
 down. The effect of both lasts for ever. 
 
 * » * # ♦ 
 
 " Tho' losses and crosses • j, 
 
 Be lessons right severe, 
 ,,. There's wit there, you'll get there. 
 
 Yoii '11 find no other where." 
 
 Upon a certain day, a few years ago, a millionaire was 
 sitting in his office in the city of Nevr York. He was one 
 of the rulers of our modem world with all the power but 
 without the trappings that his barbaric brothers of old 
 used to throw around themselves. He was expecting a 
 very important message, and had told his chief clerk to 
 see to it that there was no ceremony wasted when his 
 trusted agent appeard. Just before the time for closing 
 the office the door opend and a sharp-looking man 
 walkt in. ''Well?" said the millionaire interrogativly. 
 "The deal is closed," was the smiling reply, "and the 
 papers arall signed," "Allow me to congratulate you," 
 said Midas, for this was his name. "Your share will 
 make you rich." The fight was over, the millionaire 
 was successful ; he had acquired more power, and the 
 two men went out the office together smiling and satis- 
 fied. Midas had not so much aslookt at the clothes or the 
 muddy shoes of his agent. 
 
 Moral number one. — Muddy shoes don't count, u iha 
 man who wears them brings good tidings. * * ♦ * * 
 
 You, who ar by no means a millionaire, much to your 
 sorrow doubtless, but just an ordinary mortal selling 
 sugar, or hides, or lumber, ar sitting like your rich frend 
 waiting for good news. The messenger boy taps at your 
 door and brings you in a telegram. You open it, read 
 the contents, and you say, "Ha, ha, the game is mine ; 
 things ar coming my way at last." The boy is gone and 
 
 ^., 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI. 
 
 
 \ 
 
 you hav never so much as lookt at the shape of his cap. 
 Moral number two:--Caps don't count if the boy who 
 
 wears them carries a plesant messag 
 
 « ♦ * * ♦ 
 
 A short time after the Batl of Flodden a weary knight 
 rode up the streets of Edinburgh, surrounded by anxious 
 
 citizens. 
 
 "NawBof batll Newsofbatli! 
 
 Hark 1 Tis ringinsr down the street. 
 And the archways and the pavement 
 Boar the clanK of hurryiDg feeU 
 
 '* How has the day gone, Randolff Murray ? Why hav 
 you left our sons and fathers ? Where ar they ?" But 
 the old man rode on to meet the fathers of the city. He 
 brot them news of fierce batl against the Southern, of 
 great loss, of the wreck of their hopes. 
 
 The wise old men had shaken their heds when their sons 
 had shouted for war with their ancient enemy to the 
 south, but the yung bloods led the way and would not 
 be gainsaid. The result was disaster. The old knight 
 had escaped after he had fot a good fight, but it was a sad 
 story he brot to the waiting burgers. _.> 
 
 Moral number three : — They believd his message, be- 
 caus they knew him and trusted him. 
 
 Moral number four: — It would hav been far better if 
 the yung bloods had listened to the counsel of those 
 who implored them to let well enuf alone and to 
 profit by the experience of their grandfathers. 
 
 Moral number five: — We would all be better littl men 
 and women if we would remember what happened to 
 the fools of old who engaged in batls that should never 
 hav been fot. 
 
 ,>;'* 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 ■if 
 
 
 i'C 
 
 , it 
 
 '* My dear yung lady," said an old gentlman in a pom- 
 pous way to his ward who was enjoying herself in a man- 
 ner that did not accord with his ideas of propriety, " I am 
 an old man now ; I hav seen a great deal of the world. " 
 
 
Xll. 
 
 OUR UNSEF.N COMPANIONS. 
 
 " I be.(,^ your pardon, sir," she said internipting him, for 
 she knew what was comingf. *' But I wish to see it, too." 
 Moral number six : — If tlie rising generation would only — 
 etc. But we insist on biting the appl for ourselvs, and 
 we hav to spit out the ashes in the same way as our re- 
 spected forefathers did. 
 
 " How is the batl going ?" wa.s the question askt one 
 day when Napoleon was turning things upside down. " The 
 batl is lost, but it is only four o'clock, and there is time to 
 gain another. " was the reply. 
 
 Moral number seven, and last and best for both reader 
 and writer o- the following experiences: — We can win 
 all our batls in the future no matter what blunders we 
 hav made in the past if we will only accept the general- 
 ship of One who will lead us to a victory that will grow 
 brighter and brightei as the days go by. 
 
 ?. 
 
 .*■ '■ 
 
 Let it be said at the outset, and remembered to th'? end, 
 that there ar^ many, very many Christian Spiritualists. I 
 think they ar making a serious mistake, but it may be 
 .said with respect to them, and also with respect to many 
 who. ar not Christiiuis, that not a few of our nominal 
 Christians who ar strictly orthodox in their views might 
 easily leni something from some of the Spiritualists. They 
 ar trying hard amid difficiilties that we all feel to luv 
 their neighbor as themselves and they ar succeeding 
 fairly well. A pity tliat we don't all do as well as some 
 of them ar doing. 
 
 There ar said to be several millions of Spiritualists in the 
 world now. A belief that is held by so many of our fel- 
 low beings is worthy of being fot for if it is right, and 
 worthy of being opposed if it is wrong. The truth will 
 conquer in the end, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it. And now hi-nds to the work. 
 
 ^^M 
 
 ^ 
 
V-"'. 
 
 ..-^ 
 
 m 
 
 fii^t 
 
 ■'■-4- 
 
 W- 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BY PERMISSION FROM THE NEW YORK. HERALD OF NOVEMBER 
 
 24TH, 1895. 
 
 Our Angels. 
 Angels Came and Ministered Unto Him. — Matt, iv., xi. 
 
 It is a glad surprise to the careful student of the older 
 and the newer Scriptures that the beings whom we call 
 angels occupy so prominent a position In the Father's 
 dealings with His children on the erth. And it is not the 
 least curious fact in the history of our modem religious 
 life that the mission of these angels should be either ig- 
 nored or practically discredited. We hav not been willing 
 to admit that God uses any secondary agencies in the ac- 
 complishment of his purposes. As a consequence, we suf- 
 fer spiritual loss, for there is great comfort to be had in 
 the belief that a throng of invisibl beings ar nigh at hand 
 in our time of troubl, pitying us in our distress and lend- 
 ing such aid as lies in their power. How many of our 
 burdens ar lightened by their succoring strength, how 
 frequently we ar enabled to resist temptation by their 
 power Jadded to our own, how often holy suggestions 
 come from them, which we attribute to our own minds and 
 harts, no one can tell. But that they do come from 
 heven to erth, and that our daily lives ar blest by their 
 presence, no one who accepts the record of Christ's minis- 
 try as veritabl history can possibly doubt. 
 
 Their doings run thru the pages of the Old Testament 
 like a golden thred in a costly fabric. The dark places in the 
 life of the ancient Hebrews ar illumined by them, and 
 every profet held communion with them and receivd from 
 them the mandates of the Most High, Daniel, when 
 speaking of the straight he was in, said: **Behold, there 
 
 *i*i*v> 
 
T4 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 Stood before me as the appearance of a man. . . . And 
 he informed me and talkt with me. " And his experience is 
 so multiplied by others of a like nature that we ar almost 
 startld by their constant recurrence. They shine like 
 stars on a winter night; and to them the Hebrev.s were 
 indeted for their courage and their national glory. 
 
 The birth of Christ was announct by an angel; the 
 flight into Egypt with the Child was commanded by an 
 angel ; when the temptation of Christ was ended He was 
 ministered unto by angels; when the tearful women 
 stood at the tomb it was an angel ' * whose raiment was 
 white as snow," who proclaimed the resurrection. And 
 when the mob followed the Lord and the discipls talkt 
 of resistance by force, He rebukt them, declaring that if 
 needful He could call on "more than twelv legions of 
 angels. " 
 
 I adduce only a few out of many instances, but they ar 
 sufficient to establish and emphasize the fact that we ar 
 seen tho we do not see, and that heven holds the erth in 
 its arms as a mother her babe. No distance forms n. b^^r- 
 rier either to our longing or to their respons to it. We 
 may not feel the hand that is placed in ours, but it is 
 there; we do not hear with the hearing of the ear, but 
 with the hearing of the hart ; we do not see these guardian 
 spirits with the eye, but with our inner consciousness we 
 ar sure that they ar close by. What a glorious relm of 
 thot we av exploring! What a glorious relm of fact is 
 revealed to us! The poor soul that is being driven along 
 the downward path by the fury of his passions is accom- 
 panied at every step by God's messengers — the messen- 
 gers of his pity and his luv — and with their supremest 
 efforts they try to bar his way to further wretchedness. 
 The lonely hart that has been chilld by frosty misfortune, 
 and falls upon c. desperate mood that regards even crime 
 with iiidificrcncc, i : surrounded by invisibl agents whoar 
 doin^ all that heven itself can suggest to make the way 
 
 
OUR ANGELS. 
 
 »5 
 
 Jfi: 
 
 smoother and the sky brighter. And the mourning soul 
 sitting in the shadow of a great bereavment, looking up- 
 ward with tear-dimd eyes — is no one near to whisper con- 
 solation? Is God unmindful or powerless to assuage this 
 grief? The angels who represent God'-^ sympathy ar in 
 that darkened room, and the peace that comes to the 
 broken hart comes from abuv. » 
 
 We hav here a practical fact, but we hav made too littl 
 use of it. The wonder is that we hav neglected it so 
 long, for it is one of the most precious truths to be found 
 within the whole range of God's providence. Not alone„ 
 never alone, but always in the companionship of minis- 
 tering spirits enjoined by the Father to do us good ser- 
 vice if we will allow them to do so. 
 
 And who ar chese hevenly beings? Why not those who 
 hav been bound to us for many years and who luv us now 
 more than ever? Shall they who hav been so dear, but 
 who were summoned to the other land, be sent far away 
 while strangers do His bidding for our behoof? Our 
 guardians ar those who hav been closest to our harts, I 
 believ, and they ar always redy to come at our call. They 
 hover about us, guide oiir wandering footsteps, avert im- 
 pending danger, do what they may to encourage and 
 cheer, and after the nightfall, when the morning comes, 
 they will be the first to greet us and welcome us to that 
 home where partings shall be forever unknown. 
 
 Geor(;e H. Hepworth. 
 
 That sermon of th6 Rev. Dr. Hepworth is one of the 
 best and most practical I hav ever red. I say most prac- 
 tical, and I am a fairly good judge as you will perhaps 
 acknowledge before you finish this book. The oftener 
 you read it, the better you see it to be. Every word of 
 it is true with the possibl exception of the first part of 
 the last paragraf. It is worth your while to read it over 
 again, for it is a beutiful sermon full of glorious ideas 
 that I knpw to be true. I know to be true, for as I used 
 
 :M 
 
 
 IJ 
 
1 6 
 
 OUR UNSF.RN COMPANIONS. 
 
 to read it demons were cursing around me, but angels 
 were there to cheer and encourage me to the end of j. 
 fight that was waged inch by inch with a savage intensity 
 of erncstness and hatred that astonisht, and during the 
 erlier stages appald me. 
 
 1 
 
 ■'-I'v^ 
 
 CIIAFTKR II. 
 
 Majcinti; My How. 
 
 There ar a great many strange doctrins in the world we 
 liv in, but strange indeed must be the one that does not 
 hav an ernest body of supporters. 
 
 There ar men who hav a firm belief in the virtues of 
 protection, imd theie ar others who pin their faith to free 
 trade, (loid, says one man, is the only proper medium 
 for a currency, and his neighbor across the street shriek'; 
 for paper and confidence and is redy to march to the 
 stake in support of his theory if necessary. We hav 
 Whigs and Tories disguised under modern names, Re- 
 publicans and Democrats, Shakers and anti- Shakers, 
 Women Suffragists and those who become furious at the 
 mention of the subject, and we hav ernest men and wom- 
 en who believ in miracls and others equally ernest who re- 
 fuse to bow the knee. In short — for we might easily pro- 
 long the discussion unt'" your patience was exhausted — 
 whenever there is a question of any kind broacht yoii find 
 that thru a conception of some law on the one side, and a 
 want of faculty to understand that law on the other men 
 and women instantly take sides and begin to fight. They 
 hav been fighting for thousands of years over some of the 
 questions that agitate the human race, and they do not 
 seem to be much nearer a sett] men t than when they be- 
 
 .;,,,■.<.' 
 
 •f'V'; 
 
 •^ 
 
 ■i 
 
MAKINC. NfV now. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ■ii;:i^> 
 
 1 
 
 !;.t/' 
 
 j:fan. Man, with all his faults, is a patient kind of a beinj3f, 
 and insted of lookinjj for fniii fnnii past elTort, as he cer- 
 tainly should in these ev'ilutionary days, he trots around 
 the circl as his fathers did and tries to keep happy. Much 
 to my surprise 1 hav been forct^to clianj^e sides on one of 
 these subjects as old as the hills, and 1 want to take yoxi 
 into my confidence and tell you all aljout it. 
 
 But for the fact that I think my experience will do some- 
 thing to keep other: in the narrow path this bc-ok would 
 never have been writn. The best thing to do as a rule 
 when you hav been foolish is just to take your punish- 
 ment and say as litil as possil")l - -just to taKe your medi- 
 cin, as the vernacular has it, and mi|.ke up yonr mind to 
 do better in the futu.'c, and, now that the sun is s. lining 
 as brightly as ever, this is what I would do if I '-d not 
 know that hundreds ar being trapt into the same belief as 
 I was altho few go so far. 
 
 First of all then, largely owing to my reading on the 
 subject in the newspapers and reviews, and principally, I 
 think, in tlie proceedings of the American and English 
 Psychical societies, I hnv bclievd for the Irst seven or 
 eight years that we ar, as the reverend Mr. Hepworth 
 says in his admirabl sermon, .surrounded b angels who 
 ar trying to raise ns up and help ns. Previous to that 
 time I did not think much about the matter, but took it 
 all for granted. 1 now regret to say that 1 am in a posi- 
 tion to giv the other side of the story and to state from 
 my practical experience of many months that we ar also 
 surrounded by fallen angels, ^-ou might call them, or de- 
 mons or fiends as they ar sometimes called. 
 
 Now, here is just where otir tnmbls begin. There ar 
 men who believ that angels of both kinds surround us in 
 our daily lives, and they ar so sure about it that nothing 
 will convince them that it is not true, but there ar also ir- 
 ritating men and W(jmen who look rather superior and 
 smile in a patronizing way when the fact is mentioned 
 
fS 
 
 OUR UN8KKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 and whisper in an aside to their neijjhbors that so and so 
 has lost what littl brains he ever had. It is worth while 
 to stop here long enuf to say that the plain teaching of 
 the Bible is with the believers, but it cotint.s for so littl 
 with many who are church members that it might, so far 
 as they are concerned, be left out of the question. It is a 
 pity when men within the camp are figl>ting the batls of 
 the enemy. 
 
 Here, then, is ^ -here the fight begins. On the one side 
 we hav those who accept the New Testament doctrin of 
 demoniac possession, and on the other we hav those who 
 profess their belief in it when they join a christian church 
 but who smile at the idea. Those outside the fold who 
 scout at such a thing ar, at least, not playing hypocrit. 
 
 The unfortunates who know something about posses- 
 sion, and hear' voices from our vmseen companions ar as- 
 sured by the materialists that these voices ar imaginary 
 and come only thru a derangement of the nervous system. 
 The doctors ar partly right — they do come thru a derange- 
 ment of the nervs, but they ar real. To hold this belief 
 and to maintain it in the face of the experts, as ovher un- 
 fortunates maintain their delusions is to convict one's self 
 of being insane. When hallucinations become .so persist- 
 ently imprest on the mind, says a good authority, as to 
 induce ab.solute belief in their reality as facts, and the 
 subject acts in conformity with such belief, his mental 
 condition comes within the scope of delusion, which is legal 
 unsoundness of mind. These be brave words, but I never 
 set much store by that view when I studied the subject 
 from a theoretical standpoint, and I set less than ever now 
 that I hav added reality to theory. 
 
 The doctors work from the outside. An ounce of fact 
 is worth a pound of theory. 
 
 "Write your experience," the voices I herd told me 
 time and again, '*and perhaps others will tell of theirs and 
 men and women will come to understand that the old idea 
 
 ! I 
 
 •■l'^: . 
 
 '-i^ i'Ks--;- ••'•-•»■ •^'■'•^uii 
 
MAKING MV ROW. 
 
 19 
 
 ,i 
 
 
 of possession is right." I herd these voices ringing in 
 my ears all day and every minute of the night that I 
 was awake. If they were imaginary then so ar the voices 
 you hear for the sound is the same. 
 
 While I was under the torture there was but littl relief 
 except when our good angels spoke to me. It was a cold 
 blooded, merciless persecution, and had it not been for the 
 frendly voices bearing me up and encouraging me thru 
 the horrors I could never hav come out of it. 
 
 Knowing the theory of the doctors as 1 did, I tried hard 
 to believ in the face of all my previous reading that the 
 voices were imaginary, and even when listening against 
 my will to their lafter at the medical authorities, to their 
 jeering and their cursing, I stoutly maintained that I was 
 mistaken and that the lerned men were right, but I had 
 to give it up after a time and get back to common sens. 
 The only way I could revenge myself was by remember- 
 ing that the physicians of Austria had tried to prevent the 
 running of railway trains erly in the century on the theory 
 that they would cut off the breth of the passengers owing 
 to the rapid motion and land them at the wrong destin- 
 ation. I remembered, too, that they had denied the circtila- 
 tion of the blood, half boiled men for fevers and other- 
 wise made such terribl fools of themselves that the wiser 
 among them now ar modest enuf to declare that medi- 
 cin does not possess half the virtues that the ancient quacks 
 used to attribute to it. This is what a good many of us 
 hav been suspecting for a long while, but we were half 
 afraid to speak before the college bred men gave the nod. 
 
 It would fill a book to tell of their lerned nonsens, and 
 firmly believing that they hav something to lem on the 
 subject of insanity, I intend, humbly enuf, to set forth my 
 views, to give my reasons for believing that voices ar real, 
 that Mahomet and Joan of Arc, to quf^t two well known 
 exampls, herd them, that thousands of men and women 
 hear them to-day, many of them to their sorrow, that 
 
to 
 
 OUR? UNSEEN COMPANION?;. 
 
 many hav escaped by the skin of the teeth, and that every 
 one who has not herd them as nuieh as I did should fall 
 on his knees and thank God no matter what his surround- 
 ings ar. 
 
 For those who clin;, to the gospel and the old theory of 
 possession my story may be interesting and profitabl; for 
 those who cannot believ in any other than tiie orthodox 
 theory it will be as the story of a madman, and thcref«)re 
 interesting enuf in a mesure as a revelation of the work- 
 ings of the human brain under abnormal conditions. 
 
 ■ t«m* • 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AbouT THK Occult World. 
 
 
 Macaulay in describing the Puritans says: "They 
 were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character 
 from the daily contemplation of superior beings and 
 eternal interests. The difference between the greatest 
 and the meanest of mankind seemed to vanish when com- 
 pared with the boundless interval which separated the 
 hole race from Him on whom their eyes were constantly 
 fixt. The very meanest of them was a being to whose 
 fate a mysterious and terribl importance belonged — on 
 whose slightest action the spirits of light and darkness 
 lookt with anxious interest. He was half maddened by 
 glorious or terribl illusigns. He herd the lyres of angels 
 or the tempting whispers of fiends. " 
 
 That is what the Puritans thot about it, and before T 
 had studied the occult world I often smiled on the sly at 
 our grim friends and their beliefs. But they were rather 
 a strong kind of men too. Bishop vSpalding says well, — 
 
 
AHOUT VUV. tUrWI T WOkl.l). 
 
 ai 
 
 i 
 
 *• T look aroitiul ine ami I d<» not know where U) find their 
 nuitili to-day." l""or a good many years 1 liav believd 
 like them that wc ar encompast round about with auj^cels, 
 but somehow or other I made the almost fatal n 'stake of 
 thinkinj^ that mine were all drest in white. I forgot al- 
 together alnait the blaek batallions, and they ar very in- 
 dustrious and very much in ernest. In ou-r modern frase 
 they mean business, and they work with a passionate de- 
 sire to drag us down to their level, and make our lives a 
 burden almost too bevy to bear. 
 
 I ask myself often, What is the use of saying anything 
 about it? The torture is over, and others ar more inclined 
 to laf or joke over what is a dedly serious matter than to 
 keep away froni it themselves and do their best to help 
 their neighbors from falling into the pit. I need never 
 have past thru the depths, for there was evidence enuf in 
 the world, outside of the Bibk altogether, for even a fool. 
 But we hav become so devout in our worship of "science" 
 that we must hav evidence for ourselves — we will nf)t be- 
 liev iinless we see the nail prints and put our hand in His 
 side. We will not believ Moses and the profets, and 
 neither will we believ even if one should rise from the 
 ded. This saj'ing has a new meaning for me now-a-days. 
 
 In these days when so many ar telling us wonderful 
 stories of the occult world and the glories therof, it may 
 be worth while for me to lift up my voice like one crying 
 in the wilderness and tell what I found. We ar all will- 
 ing to listen to the story of the man who si'.cceeds, but it 
 is well when occasion servs to lend an ear to him who 
 fails. The knights of old tot many a hard batl, and it 
 must hav been rather plesant for the victors to ride around 
 the lists amid the plaudits of the spectators, but some- 
 where there were other knights who had bit the dust and 
 broken harts by their failures, and to-day when we ar 
 fighting on other batl grounds some of the gallant gentl- 
 men bear off the colors, and we clap our hands and make 
 
 ■■''j't 
 
 "•;,-♦ ;■ 
 
I 
 
 A 
 
 i It 
 
 1 ' 
 
 I T' 
 
 22 
 
 OUR UNSKEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 merry and forget all about the miukll heeled creaturevS 
 who have fallen by the wayside or remember them only 
 to speal: of their folly, and to hui^f ourselves as we think 
 that we ar not as they were. 
 
 The vSuecessful oceultists ar like the doctors — they ar 
 wedded lo idols, .so that I am between two contending 
 hosts neither of them over wise. I shall tell the success- 
 ful explorers of the occult of my journey into the hidden 
 relm and its direful ccMisecjuences. As the motto on the 
 book cover says, I went out for wool and came back 
 shorn. Surely the men \>ho ar tcling us of their triumfs 
 can hav patience enuf to listen to the story of one failure, 
 or if they told the whole truth would some of them not 
 hav to say too, as I hav, that we should be content to 
 leave things as God has fixt them? They ar, according 
 to my views, in a very bad business, but we ar free-will 
 agents on this erth and I hav to deal only with my own 
 folly. 
 
 It came about in this way. I had red of gosts flying 
 everywhere, tabl tapping and tipping, wonderful mes- 
 sages thru clairaudicnce, uncanny sights thni clairvoyance, 
 telepathy, seances and all the various ways' in which our 
 unseen companions make known their presence to us. I 
 had been especially charmed with the statement that all 
 that was necessary to turn a clown into a filusofer was 
 simply to ccmnect him with the hidden relm, get him to 
 concentrate his thots, and nature herself would attend to 
 the rest by turning on the current and pouring whatever 
 knowledge he needed on his brain. This, I say, charmed 
 me, and lookt rather rcasonabl to one who believdin evo- 
 lution. Just to keep the clever, practical reader from 
 smiling, I might as well say before I go further that I 
 found the statemeiit to be true, but I found something 
 connected with the process that I did not quite expect. 1 
 still retain my old beliefs with respect to a good man 3^ of 
 the truths I had imbibed, but 1 now believ that the hole 
 
 1 
 
 S '■ 
 
 
 m'^i 
 
ABOUT THR OCCULT JVORLD. 
 
 »3 
 
 of the occult craze that «s sweeping over the erth comes 
 from Satan and belongs to him. I believ furthermore 
 that those who attend seances and carry on their investiga- 
 tions thru mediums ar doing their best to further the pro- 
 gress of his kingdom. Of late years I had doubted 
 whether there was such a being, but I am now in the 
 habit of painting him as black as possibl. 
 
 Singularly enuf, altho deeply interested in spiritism, as 
 I now call it, I had never been at a seance. I had seen 
 only two mesmeric exhibitions during my life. The first 
 I attended as a schoolboy, the last as a foo- among other 
 fools. I had attended only three meetings of Spiritists, 
 more out of curiosity than anything els, for I did not 
 believ much was to be lernt among them even while hold- 
 ing to many of their theories. At one of these meetings 
 I remember smiling as I herd the medium say that the 
 spirit of Mary Jane was in the audience anxious to com- 
 municate with her unci Richard Roe. Was he present? 
 Of cours, I did not doubt that the medium herd the voice, 
 but it was one thing to read of it and another to be in the 
 hall where it was going on. The medium lookt at me 
 and said, **I want no more of that smiling. This is a 
 serious matter." I found afterwards when in the toils 
 listening to the irritating question, " Do you now believ 
 that it is a serious matter, Sancho Quixote? Well, they 
 all get a warning before they enter the occult and you 
 got yours, "that it was indeed a serious enuf matterforme. 
 There is a good deal of fraud in connection with spiritism, 
 but many good peopl do not understand that there is a 
 good deal of truth too. Satan directs the machinery, 
 • and he likes a good ba.sis for his work. Sometimes he 
 , tells the truth for a purpose. Fur a few years previous to 
 my troubl I had ceast to believ in the divinity of Christ, 
 and lookt upon the various occult beliefs as a part of the 
 evolutionary struggl that was to lead us to Mount Olym- 
 pus. It is cv^mparativly easy for those who do not read or 
 
 1 
 
a4 
 
 OUR UNSFKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 even think of the strange beliefj*, the strans:c revelations 
 of science that ar po'iring in upon us from all quarters 
 to retain an unwavering faith in the New Testament, but 
 a man does not need to be a professor to doubt many 
 thing's once firmly believd. I glided into the new 
 faith almost insensibly, but many a man and many a 
 woman has suffered agonies for years over the great ques- 
 tio'i. 
 
 Is Darwin right or is he wrong? Is he right so far as 
 the vegetabl and animal kingdoms ar concerned and 
 wrong as to man? Was there a fall or has there been a 
 stedy ascent? Ar the Darwinians of to-day right or ar 
 they wrong? There is good and evil in each of us. Prog- 
 ress seems to be the law of life around us; why should 
 it not be continued after we hav past behind the veil, in- 
 sted of a change being wrot which will turn us into sin- 
 less beings as the angels ar' Does nature make such sud- 
 den jumps? Does it seem likely that the worst man, we 
 shall suppose, who has ever disgraced the erth should be 
 made an angel if he believs in Christ, while his neighbor 
 who has done his duty according to his lights should be 
 sent to hell for ever because he cannot see his way to ac- 
 cept the orthodox belief? Is it in accordance with law of 
 growth? and so on, and so on. The easiest way to liv, 
 < perhaps, is to go thru the world ostrich fashion, but many 
 ar so constituted that they cannot do so. Only very un- 
 charitabl people say that it is with all a question of pride of 
 intellect. The worst critics ar those who do not know 
 anything at all about the reasonablness of the vScientific 
 creed. I think now that it is a wretched mistake, so tar 
 as it refuses to accept Christ, but I can sympathize with 
 those who believ in it ana understand their position. 
 
 When I came back to the old belief I did not hav to 
 contend with the question of miracls. Whatever harm 
 may hav been done thru occult studies they hav at least 
 led many to understand that there ar so many strange 
 
r 
 
 ABOUT IHK 0(Cri/r WORLD. 
 
 25 
 
 'i 
 
 9< 
 
 I 
 
 forces around us that a miracl to us is a very simpi matter 
 indeed to those behind the scenes. 
 
 I hav no doubt that Aaron's rod was turned into a ser- 
 pent to swallow up its wrigj^linjjf cfjuipanions, for it is 
 whispered around among- the adepts that Satan is still en- 
 gaged ill the same business, and that the magicians of old 
 hav their descendants to-day. 
 
 We know very littl of the hidden world, but one tliing 
 we do know is that, in spite of the theory of the imiversal- 
 ity of law never to be interfered with, God rules supe- 
 rior to any laws He has seen fit to reveal to us, and "in- 
 terferes" with them ofener than some of us imagin. 
 ChrivSt and His apostls performed miracls, and so did many 
 of the erly Christians, and so too, I believ, in spite of the 
 cheap talk about the chapel and the grotto do his mess- 
 eng^ers to-day. Messengers, you will observ. 
 
 We ar gifted with reason atid we ar expected t"> use it, 
 and it is plesant and desirabl to know how God creates his 
 worlds, but the way in which they ar created does not after 
 all so seriously affect our conception of Him as might 
 be suppo.sed. Whether is it greater to make a world in six 
 days or in a million years? 
 
 After the long debate we ar assured that there is not a 
 singl partiel of evidence to show that man follows at the 
 end of the chain. Very well then, let the scientists keep on 
 with their work and let those of us who hew wood and 
 draw water keep an easy mind — if we can. 
 
 I am glad to-day that I can cling to the old belief, but 
 1 have had some experiences that would make any one 
 ponder over his future destiny I wish that some of our 
 scientific frends would turn from their VKirren doctrin of 
 struggl for life and wild beast logic that I could never ac- 
 cept and read over the New Testament, for t(» many of 
 them it has become a forgotten book. 
 
 I hav always been astonisht whenever T have red or 
 herd of a man who denied that there was u (iod. This, oi 
 
36 
 
 OUR UNSEEN (OMPANIONS. 
 
 all doctrins, is the sheerest kind of insanity that has ever 
 afflicted any one of our race. ' 
 
 I believd that after deth our life went on as here — the 
 good or bad g-etting- the upper hand just as we were in- 
 clined, but I thot that ultimately, gradually and slowly it 
 might be, we would all be led onward to God and good- 
 ness and felicity forever. After the long evolutionary 
 struggl there was to be nothing but ethereal sweetness — 
 all other views were ruled out of court. God, I often said 
 to myself, would never hav creatctl beings for any other 
 kind of a destiny. Punishment for ever ? Nonsens. 
 
 1 had been studying social questions closely for more than 
 a decade, and I became more anxious every day to see 
 something done to put an end to the swinishness of our 
 modem feudalism. I wanted to see, and I want to see 
 more than ever to-day, a social system in which there 
 would be no possibility for one degenerate to acquire 
 a hundred million dollars in a lifetime while his brother 
 died of starvation. That sort of a system makes my blood 
 boil. I do not look for the millenium, and it happens to 
 be the case that I hav a far better idea of the terribl forces 
 arrayed against humanity than our political economists, 
 but I still think that we could turn this glorious world we 
 hav receivd frotTi God to rule, from the pig-pen it is to mil- 
 lions of poor unfortunates to a paradise. Environment 
 will do a good deal, but not quite everything, I am well 
 aware, I sometimes think, tho, that we really could do a 
 good deal, but if the rest of you still object, and the pro- 
 fessors frown— As for vsome of our fashionabl ministers 
 who ar keeping quiet and cultivating the frendshipof some 
 of the most selfish men — ! But I am getting off my text. 
 I hav started to preach insted of telling you my story. 
 
 I hav set down the abuv ])articularsto let you imderstand 
 to some degree, what manner of man I am. *'This so- 
 cial question is a pretty hard one," I said to myself. 
 "Could we not turn on the current from the occult, as it 
 >vere, and perhaps — who knows?" 
 
 m 
 
 •*." 
 
 
 ■f^^^ 
 
 '-'X''^;- 
 
 . ^•::'' 
 
 '.\: 
 
 'v.^' 
 
 I ■:>■ 
 
 A 
 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WoRSHiPi'iNG Satan. 
 
 
 Fild then to the brim with these strangely quixotic 
 ideas I, Sancho Quixote, wenttoliv with Mr. and Mrs. B. , 
 and one night the conversation turned on spiritism, and I 
 spoke of tabl tipping among other things. " O, that is 
 nothing," said Mrs. B, "We UvSed to do that at home sev- 
 eral years ago, and we gave it up becaus we thot it was 
 child's play. " I was rather surprised, for she had been 
 living in a small village of perhaps two hundred inhabit- 
 ants where, as the city men put it, they still sew the post- 
 age stamps on the letters. " Is it the case that this study 
 has penetrated everywhere?" I askt myself, "and that 
 even the church members ar busy with it?" ' 
 
 A few days afterwards I spoke of it again, for I was too 
 much interested to let the chance slip without some prac- 
 tical demonstration of what could be done, and I pro- 
 posed that we should try the tabl to see if it would rise. 
 (It is perhaps just as well to anticipate matters a littl 
 here, for there ar still plenty of fools in the world, and 
 say that tabl ti^jping means Satan worship. If you feel 
 inclined to worship him, that is your own business. I 
 throw out the nint in time to abstain from everything of 
 the sort. ) 
 
 I had never seen anything of the kind done, but I 
 was at that stage where I ment Iw r^'e it, and it was with 
 a curious feeling that I saw the tabl rise about a foot on 
 one side and hammer attain and again on the floor. There 
 was no possibility of any mistake. There we \v».i-e, three 
 of us, with no possibl chance for fraud, and no interest 
 one way or another. 
 
 We hav all red of seances being broken up and a satis- 
 
 1 
 
 ':M 
 
a 8 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 
 Li-t-^,,-' i 
 
 factory natural explanation given of the hole affair. 
 But here two of us had never seen a tabl move, and the 
 only one who had, had been told that it was due to some 
 action of the nervs and had not the least idea that there 
 were spirits moving it. She had not tried to do anything 
 for several years, but as soon as she began it rose. Mr. 
 B. succeeded in raising it from the floor after some time — 
 for we became so interested that we kept up the experi- 
 ments for several weeks — but I could not do anything 
 with it without the help of the others. This rather hurt 
 me. I did not like it. Was it right that I who had 
 studied occult fenomena, should not be abl to do what 
 others who had never lookt over their shoulders for a 
 gost did without any troubl ? Xhe gods when they want 
 to punish a man often giv him ju.st what he wishes. 
 
 We would take a tabl about two feet square, and it 
 would rise from the floor and thump do .vn till it made 
 the windows rati. "We .shall hav to stop this. " we some- 
 times said, "or the neighbors will come into see what is 
 the matter." The house stood alone, but the sound of the 
 blows was uncanny. We would sometimes take a large 
 kitchen tabl to vary our amusement, and it rose as easily 
 as the smaller one. It came down on the floor hard enuf to 
 make the frame house echo, but if weaskt to hav it strike 
 softly it toucht the floor like a f ether. We got answers 
 to all of our questions — suggested as I know now by evil 
 spirits — by the number of taps on the floor, and it became 
 very interesting indeed. Chairs responded to the touch 
 the same as the tabls, but alone I could not do anything. 
 This was still rather provoking, for I knew that nature's 
 storehouse was full of knowledge if I could only make the 
 connection, and thus acquire what I wanted in a way that 
 would put our best schoolmasters to shame. There is no 
 occasion for smiling just here. A cours of reading pur- 
 sued for a certain number of years will change your world. 
 Perhaps the practical men don't understand it all. . 
 
 
 
 . is" ■. 
 
 lift. 
 
WORSHIPPING SATAN. 
 
 ^9 
 
 
 Now 1 know that I was blinded in the same way as mil- 
 lions ar who strive for welth they can never enjoy, and 
 torture their fellow beings to acc[uire it. One man is 
 caught in this way, another in that. Dollars or ideals, and 
 the devil pipes to all, and yoii dance to his music ofener 
 than you imagin. 
 
 There was something I could not at first understand, 
 altho I suppose I had red enuf about it. We would ask 
 Mrs. B. to begin alone, and she would fall nearly asleep 
 and we would .say: "Wliy don't you take more interest in 
 these things. There is .something grand behind all this, 
 and yet you fall asleep when we ask you to do what we 
 cannot do ourselves." " I cannot help it. I cannot keep 
 my eyes open." "That is alwciys the way." I would re- 
 ply, *' Altho I hav told you all about the peopl who ar en- 
 gaged in these investigations you won't try to help us." 
 I understood better afterwards where the sleep came 
 from. ■ . , 
 
 But we had got something more interesting than play- 
 ing with tabls, vShortly after we began I spoke of auto- 
 matic writing and the strange experiences that so many 
 had had with it, and we tried to get some messages from 
 the occult world by this new route, and they soon came in 
 rapid succession. At first they came thru Mrs. B., but 
 later on we found that her husband was the better medi- 
 um. 
 
 I tried hard to do some writing but failed here too. Why 
 is it, I thot, that I am always left out in the cold? Do the 
 spirits not luv me? They came to luv me better than I 
 had ever expected after a short time. 
 
 We receivd all sorts of messages in answer to all sorts 
 of questions. How long were we to liv? Ar the lines we 
 see on Mars canals? Ar we doing right in continuing this 
 study? And so forth. We were alternately praised and 
 reproved, but always encouraged to continue the study, 
 and assured that wo were making progress. Only once, 
 
 i'.: ■yiy-'-'cfivij^'-^si'.i^j^iii' 
 
30 
 
 OUR tJNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 later on, when we were becoming a littl uncertain about 
 our cours, we got a short message to give up the hole busi- 
 ness and turn our thots to something of more vahie. Mrs. 
 B. gave it up and urged us to do so, but her husband, in 
 spite of my warning that it was something to be entered 
 upon in areverent manner, if at all, thotit a good joke and 
 kept up the writing. 
 
 We began to think, however, that we were keeping 
 company with evil spirits, and this put a diiiferent aspect 
 upon our " amusement." What kind of a spirit would you 
 think gave me the following advice? "Stop writing that 
 book you ar engaged with at present. You ar simply wast- 
 ing your time. Leav that sort of nonsens to those who 
 care for it. " The library shelves ar alredy overloaded ; of 
 making many books there is no end ; and much study is 
 a weariness to the flesh, but when did you ever succeed in 
 getting a budding author who is writing a book that is to 
 change the face of civilization to believ that he was labor- 
 ing in vain? In these days when crops of literary men ar 
 hanging half-ripe on every tree Solomon's doctrin is at a 
 discount. I put it to any of them, — Was it a good or a 
 bad spirit? A lady or a tiger? What would you do in a 
 like case if you felt certain that the knowledge you were 
 going to lay before your fellow mortals migl^t hav a cer- 
 tain effect upon the cours of the stars? You would do as I 
 did. "I will continue," I said to myself, "I think the 
 book will do good, and spirits or no spirits I will follow my 
 own cours." 
 
 During all these week« ,ve had a good deal of company 
 in the lious. Chairs rockt thru the night, and moaning 
 was herd, and the tapping on the walls, as distinct as any- 
 thing could be, went on regularly. 
 
 One night when Mr. B. and I were alone he began writ- 
 ing and much to our astonishment he got a very offensiv 
 message about a matter of which he was completely ignor- 
 aut. We lookt at one another in amazement for a while, 
 
'IkAIMMNfi AN K.N I'HUSIAST. 
 
 31 
 
 and then we concluded to end it all there and then. It 
 was the first time .•inythini^' of the sort had eome, atul we 
 nnderstoodthen that those who jro into such studies must 
 tale their chances. 
 
 We wanted to get rid of our unseen companions, but. 
 they did not leav ns so redily. The tapping still went on, 
 the chairs still rockt below me, and in various ways I was 
 made aware that I was not alone. Then I came to under- 
 stand that it was just about as -well to be content with the 
 seen world insted of gropingafter knowledge we were never 
 ment to hav. 
 
 CHAI'TER V. 
 
 -■-..■ ' . . r , , 
 
 ■"•■, I-.".- , ', , ' ' ' ' •''■,'. 
 
 ' .! . Ti'AinMNo AN Rnthusiast. 
 
 f ,■ ' We gave lip the '\study " of the occult after this and 
 
 i ; i were very glad indeed that wc had escaped with a hole 
 
 ; skin. For about a coupl of weeks things moved ahmg all 
 
 * right, wuth the exception of the annoyances that we ex- 
 
 ; pected to get rid of in time. But one night I w'enttobed 
 as usual and l)ef()re I fell aslcc]) I felt something move in 
 the pillow below my hed. The windows had been open 
 , ■ all day, and I suppose I ihot that sonie uninvited gest 
 
 had crawlec. in and gone to sleep before 1 disturbed him. 
 ■ I was rather startkl, and jurii])t out of bed a littl hur- 
 
 riedly just as any other filosofer would hav done. I 
 V phmged my arm in the pillow case and found nothing. 
 
 "Shaw!" T said to myself, "That was a case of imagina- 
 tion. When did any man in his senses ever hear of a 
 harmless pillow behaving itself in any other than a 
 proper and decorous way?" I went back to bed lafing at 
 myself and put my hed down, and no sooner did I begin 
 
 ^•1 
 
 
.1 
 
 I 
 
 
 llT../ •; 
 
 i : i' 
 
 .y 1"','' 
 
 
 
 3* 
 
 OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 to feci coinfoitJil)! than! This was just a littl more than 
 I liked, and 1 took to the iloor ag-ain, but I did not ex- 
 axnin the pillow this time, so I was makinyf progress. I 
 walkt around and reasoned over the matter an(' went 
 back to bed imabl to aceotint for it. Again it began, but 
 this time I lay still and felt it slowly heaving below my 
 cheek. 
 
 Suddenly, like an inspiration as the novelists would say, 
 and as I would say too, if .1 did not know by a long and 
 bitter experience just how and from what source inspira- 
 tions of that kind come, the whole thing flasht upon me. 
 Why had T not seen it before ? Ah, yes! And so that is 
 the meaning of it, is it? They were biick to see me. 
 They ar busy everywhere, and they ar at your side as you 
 read this, believ it or not. 
 
 I did not altogether like it, but such is human vanity 
 that T felt ratiier flattered too. It is evident after all, 
 then, that my hngings ar to be satisfied? Table tipping 
 is only for beginners. It is clear that I am on the way to 
 something of greater importance. Very good. And I 
 lay and thot over the matter seriously and felt as calm 
 and pleased as a slumbering child. I did not quite real- 
 ize then just how the thots ar sent thru our silly heds. 
 
 Perhaps you might hav jumpt you think; you could 
 never hav endured it alone in the dark, but as I hav al- 
 redy said continiic a certain cours of reading for a cer- 
 ttiin time and you become a new being. I knew of too 
 many cases to be very much alarmed. I certainly did not 
 believ that they were evil spirits, even after the meSvSage 
 we had receivd. I was simply blinded ju.st as those fool- 
 ish men, our millionaires ar blinded to-day, and with a 
 better excuse, I .still think, for it was not in any self-seek- 
 ing spirit that I began or continued, and that was lucky 
 for me. 
 
 After a .short time the pillow stopt heaving, and it 
 seamed that a curr^pt of air whs pumpt into my ear. 
 
 I 
 
 '('V 
 
TRAPPING AN ENTHUSIAST. 
 
 3S 
 
 i 
 
 Another *' inspiration" came. Now I understand --They 
 ar j?oin};j to make nie chiiraudient. Very ^^ood a^^ain. 
 
 The puffinijf of air continued until I fell asleep fairly 
 well pleased with the thot that I was on the rivjht 
 track. 
 
 I thot it best to say nothing on the subject next morn- 
 ninjT^. I wanted to see a littl further into it before alarm- 
 ing' my fronds. It might go away, it might continue — 
 the world is his who has patience. 
 
 I had been praying for light on the evils surrounding 
 us — on the unendurabl starvation that is driving thous- 
 ands in the gutter in all lands, and in this new continent 
 the richest part of the erth where there is more than enuf 
 for all of us, and — for Satan works in (jueer ways — I said 
 to myself, Can this be my answer? I am well aware that 
 it provokes a smile on the part of many church members 
 when they hear of any one really believing in answers to 
 prayer, but we ar not all constituted alike. When all 
 who profess to believ in Christ expect answers to prayer 
 as many who do not believ in his divinity do — but here 
 we run foul of the rocks again. 
 
 But as the days 'vvent on and the puffing likewise, morn- 
 ing, noon and night, I became a littl uncertain about it all. 
 Am I on the right track or am I making a fool of myself ? 
 Shall I go and get advice from some one or foot the 
 path alone? It is unnecessary to tell of the long debates 
 I had with myself. It is sufficient to say that as the work 
 on my ears kept stedily on I saw that I was perhaps on a 
 dangerous cours. Evil spirits will not approach me, Sa- 
 tan thot for me. I am entering into this world in a rever- 
 ential spirit and with the intention of doing good. There 
 will be no more danger for me than for others. 
 
 I red all the articls on spiritism in a magazine I had at 
 hand, and weighed both sides as well as I could, and con- 
 cluded that I was doing what was right. Had not even 
 Mr, Gladstone, a Christian, said that a§ far as he knew 
 
34 
 
 OUK UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 there was no harm in investigating spiritualism? -for he 
 like others uses the wrong term. Had not even an Engli.sh 
 hishop spoken favorably of a doctrin that was doing a ^ 
 great deal to bring many back to a belief in a future life? 
 To cut the matter short, is there not enuf and ten times 
 more than enuf, to one who does nol accept the Bible 
 for what it really is, to encourage him in going forward ? 
 And if you believe in ev<jlution on both sides <jf the grave 
 what then? And who is the judge? Those who hav red 
 the long argument or tho.se who hav not? And whether 
 do you think it better to investigate for yourself or play 
 the coward and gel medimns to investigate for you? I say, 
 play the coward, becaus I know that any man or woman 
 can investigate if voo choose. 
 
 What my opinion of those who do march forward is you 
 can gess, but I would at least be manly etiuf to do it for 
 myself and not drag others down. 
 
 I prayed ernestly for light, and at last the long debate 
 ended, and I decided on the wrong cours, as far as human 
 eye can see. 
 
 I had been so busy writing for a coupl of months or 
 more that I had forgotten to take any exen ise, and wlien 
 I began thii^ investigation I was more in need of open air 
 than of "spiritism" but the scales were over my eyes. 
 My frends thot that I was still busy with a book, while I 
 was lying in bed in the long, h>>t summer days, sweting 
 myself down till both weight and appetite left me. I did 
 not pay much attention to such trifls then, for I was too 
 much in ernest now that I had settld on my "duty," and 
 when .spoken to on the subject put it aside or blamed the 
 wether, and bclievd in what I was saying. No one eats 
 in hot wether as in cold, ergo it is (mly natural that I 
 should fast when the sim shines. I had never fasted vol- 
 untarily, so that I can claim the merit of originality even 
 here. But Satan does not care particularly whether you 
 fast in the orthodox fashion and carry it to extremes, or 
 
 i 
 
 •>•<• 
 
 ">«' 
 
TRAI'IMN*; \S l-.NTUl'SIAST. 
 
 35 
 
 ■f^ 
 
 take it in another way so that the end is attained. Fully? 
 Certainly. Clear evidence of incipient insanity? Well, I 
 feel like the fox who had lost his tail — I want company 
 before confessinjjf too much. Ar men who pass their lives 
 in a chavSe after money insane? Ar men who nurse hate 
 and keep it up for a lifetime insane? Ar fashionabl Christ- 
 ians insane, and doubly insane, when they know that their 
 brethcrn ar dying of want and, insted of flying to their 
 relief, defend the accursed system that is filling our cities 
 with the spirit of hell? I hav been in a world where the 
 veil is lifted, where all our petty disiiwctions ar at an end, 
 where men and women ar valued for what they ar and not 
 for what they hav, and political economists ar weighed by 
 the hart and not by the hed, and this same question of in- 
 sanity goes a far way. At any rate, after the storm is 
 over, I am not ashamed of the motiv that led me on. The 
 road to hell, in my case too, was paved with good inten- 
 tions. 
 
 As Dr. Hepworth says in his sermon, our good angels 
 strive with us to save us from the certain punishment that 
 they see in store for us, but we ar free will agents, -mdal- 
 tho I know well now that they strove with me as they do 
 with you in your folly, I was too determined to stop half 
 way. I got up from bed sometimes and walkt the floor 
 and thot it over, and the result was always the same — "No 
 backward step," I used to say, and months afterwards the 
 same words were thrown at me with jeering and lafter. 
 
 The political economists were primarily responsibl for 
 my stubbomess. This may seem strange, but as I hav 
 alredy told you the influence of (me mind upon another is 
 vSomething wonderful. • -.. 
 
 Let me explain how these practical men helpt to pull 
 me down. I had red some of their excellent works, and 
 after a good many years had come to the conclusion that 
 nine out of ten of them had either been born fools or had 
 won the cap and bells in after life. " Now,' said T tomy- 
 
 H- 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 "^ 
 
 ■ ■ ■*; 
 
 ■:'%»- 
 
36 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 self, "nine to ten the men I would go to for advice ur of 
 the same stamp. The spiritists will say, Go ahed ; the prac- 
 tical men will say I am a fool: I'll e'en trust to my own 
 judgment," — Or what was left of it, says the sarcastic 
 reader. 
 
 And so when I got tired lying on the left side I turned 
 to the right, and hung on to my task with a patience that 
 astonishes me to-day. A whip f or the honse, a bridl for the 
 '' — what's the rest of it ? It will do you good to 
 
 ass, anr 
 
 turn to your Bible and find out. Perhaps 1 ike Sancho 
 Quixote in those foolish days you hav almost forgotten 
 that such a book exists. It seems strange tht.t I did not 
 see that the evil scheme was to keep me in bed perspir- 
 ing and worrying until my hole nervous system got to 
 such a condition that they coulu approach me — that the 
 puff- puffing in my ears that kept on for months was 
 simply, in popular language, a blind to keep me in bed 
 till the work was done, but I soon had another message 
 that convinct me I was right. A pain in the small of my 
 back began to troubl me. Clearly, I thot, they mean me 
 to stay here and they send this as a sort of a hint that they 
 hav means to keep me where they wish till the work is 
 finishl, and it was true. They had me alredy under the 
 hypnotic influence altho I did not know it. I needed a 
 pain on the back, but it 'should hav been administerd In 
 the way that wise king Solomon recomended, by the ap- 
 plication of a rod. Let no one doubt the inspiration of 
 the Bible. 
 
 li went on until they had control of the emotions to a 
 certain extent, and then I began to get really uneasy. I 
 had not said a word to my frcnds, and they had not any 
 idea of what was going on. One night that I am not 
 likely to forget for vSome time, I felt that the mind was 
 awake while the body slept. The time had come at last, 
 and as if vvitha c[uick, swaying motion that wa:-' rather 
 agreeabl T fell into a trance, and was shockt to hear a 
 

 TRAPPING AN ENTHUSIAST. -tj 
 
 • 
 
 chorus of exultant voices far, far away, shouting again 
 and again, "Ha, ha, ha! Ha, lia, ha !" 
 
 For weeks during the time I had been in bed I had felt 
 a slight tremor run over my body almost every second or 
 two, and from the "inspiration " that came to me I felt 
 sure that it was for the piirpose of strengthening my 
 nervs, for the fluid, or whatever it is, to pour thru my 
 system. Don Quixote hurt himself with literature and 
 so did Sancho, and that is all there is about it. 
 
 But all this sham work was over. I was clairaudient. 
 I know now that I hurt my nervous system by my cours 
 before the trance, but that night's work did a good deal 
 of harm.' I had certainly red that it was necessary to 
 "dominate" the spirits, but it is really wonderful huw 
 your filosofy leaves you sometimes. 
 
 You hav undoubtedly herd the story of the man who 
 became alarmed at the way foolish peopl allow them- 
 selves to burn to deth when by the exercise of a littl filo- 
 sofy they might easily save themselves. He drild his 
 wife in her duty so that, should the fire really come, 
 there would not be a vacant chair in the family. As for 
 himself — ! Well, the fire did come, and his wife ran for 
 her life like a sensibl woman. He put on his clothes as 
 camly as if he had been dressing for church and wondered 
 at her haste. • Why is it that \vomen can't see that calm- 
 ness is the very crown and glory of a human being ? He 
 got dv>wn to the street in due time and began to scold her, 
 — " See how quietly I acted, my dear. There was really 
 no occasion for such a ru.sh." "Very true, John, very 
 true ; but why did you not put on your pants ?" There is 
 the hole troubl with the human race. We ar all caught 
 without the pants at one time or another. That was my 
 forgetful night. 
 
 T -"vent downstairs ana awoke Mr. and Mrs. B. and told 
 the hole story, and ihc/ were as mucli astonisht as 
 you would be if some orn) came to you at the ded of nio-ht 
 
 i 
 
38 
 
 OUR UNSKKN COlVirANIONS 
 
 ni 
 
 with such a trouble on his hed. I lay down on a sofa in 
 the next room and tried to sleep, but the time for that 
 was past. There was no peace. I h:id crost the border 
 as many a fool had done before me and many a one is try- 
 ing to do to-day. 
 
 The sofa seemed to be alive, by the way it moved b^- 
 low my cheek. I tried a chair, but the tapping all around 
 kept me from sleep, and there was no help for it but 
 to suffer. During- the worat of it it seemed asi if a hot 
 poker were passing across my templs. The pain was se- 
 vere, the heat was intens, but the skin, I was told, was 
 about the normal temperature. I sat thru a night of tor- 
 ture anxiously waiting for the morning light. The screws 
 had been turned on after the long preparation. When 
 the morning came I thot I herd voices shouting far oflf in 
 the woods, but I could not be certain about it. I wisht 
 then from the bottom of my hart that I had never red a 
 word about the marvels of the unseen world, so far, at 
 least, as our modem * 'scientific" gentlmen tell us of them. 
 It is a fairly good plan to let others make the investiga- 
 tions, is it not, while you profit by them? Selfish? Well, 
 this is a world where there ar always plenty of fools. It 
 took a long time to train my system down. Cases hav 
 bc^u known where peopl hav been caught at the first at- 
 tempt and tortured to deth. Moral: Leav it alone, 
 never mind what you read. 
 
 ';:■./.. ;,,^ 
 
 ;i 
 

 CHAPTER VI. • 
 
 Stili, Trapping. 
 
 It was Sunday and Mr. B. workt with me for some 
 time to very Uttl advantage. He put a wet cloth over my 
 face and as soon as it toucht me I was so startld that I 
 did not know what to make of my surroundings. My 
 eyes were closed, but I saw as clearly as if they had been 
 open. vShut your eyes when you read this and all is 
 black before you. You ar accustomed to this and do not 
 pay much attention to it. Or take a walk o;i a dark 
 night when, as the saying -goes, you cannot see your 
 finger before your face, and again all is black around you. 
 But suppose instcd of black you saw the deepest kind of 
 blue as I saw that forenoon whenever I shut my eves, 
 what would you think about it? ' , 
 
 I concluded that there was only one thing to do and that 
 was to find a medium who might be abl to giv me some 
 advice. I was so exhausted that I fell asleej. in the train 
 going to the city, and aw<jke refresht and redy for relief 
 if it was to be found. We walkt the streets ior nearly 
 half a day but could not find a "psychic." Sunday was 
 apparently a day of rest even for them. 
 
 We succeeded in finding a theosofist, however, with 
 rather singular ideas. "We do not believ as the spirit- 
 ualists do," she said, "but when the spirits approach us 
 we know how to dominate over them." Here, indeed, was 
 luck. This was precisely what I Avanted, and I askt her 
 how the thing was done. She replied that the man who 
 knew the modus (jperandi from beginning to end was not 
 in the house just at that moment, but she invited me to 
 call again and see him. There was one way of relief 
 
40 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 however, she said, that would help me for a short time, 
 and that was to smoke and smoke vigforously. This was 
 rather a desperate remedy, for smoking does not come 
 natural to me, and altho like all ambitious youths I had 
 struggld hard to acquire the art in my school dtrj-s, I had 
 less success than most. Tobacco had always floored me, 
 but one is redy for anything at a pinch, and on going 
 home I bot some cigarets to perfume the pillow and offend 
 the nostrils of my visitors. They did not leav me, and 
 as the cure was rather hard to endure I soon gave it up. 
 My thanks ar due to my frend nevertheless, altho her re- 
 cipe was not a success. She was in ernest, and she Cid 
 what she could. As I hav said it was Sunday, and her 
 Bible — "Isis Unveiled " was in her hand — a book which I 
 hav never red, but which I am assured is worth its weight 
 in gold, at which, if you will allow another pronoun, I 
 smile and smile again. A good many things hav been 
 im veiled to me since that afternoon, my unknown sister, 
 that I would rather not hav seen, but one of them of 
 some littl value is that the less we hav o do with ' ' Isis" the 
 better it is for us. I hope you will never hav occasion to 
 try the cigarets, for they ar not only unbecoming in the 
 mouth of a woman, but ar wors than useless to frighten 
 spirits. • - 
 
 I had red somewhere of a medium who complained that 
 her visitors could not expect messages, for they visited 
 her reeking with tobacco, and she held that there were 
 few things the spirits detested wors than the weed. I 
 had red this before the cigarets were recommended, and 
 as two and two make four I thot — I merely throw that out 
 as a reply to the smile that a practical man like yourself 
 indulged in just now. I franjcly admit that it looks fiui- 
 ny, but supposing that all your funny remedies for your 
 physical and mental evils were laid bare now? Your doc- 
 tor has often given you a madder kind of a cure than mine 
 find you have swallowed it like a Httl hild while he smile4 
 
 
 ' 4 
 
 '■■"J*:* *,*■■/■ 
 
STILL TRAPPINfi. 
 
 4t 
 
 
 ,|v;'-" 
 
 'x\'. . ■ 
 
 
 1=:' 'V 
 
 
 Sit you behind your back. I am afraid that our gof)d an- 
 gels ar often forct to smile at lus — and si^h too. The 
 other kind don't smile any, or els n\y experience goes 
 for nothinj>-. 
 
 I slept, well on the sncceedin<r night, however, after un- 
 dergoing the pufting in the ear that I could not get rid of, 
 and I began to think that I. was more afraid than hiirt; 
 but I concluded to see further into the matter before go- 
 ing ahed. 
 
 .Something rather strange happened to me on my way 
 to the city. Strange then, but not now. I know what is 
 said of those who draw inferences, as I shall sometimes do, 
 out of trifls, but I am as stubborn as the rest of hsfout. 
 A mere coincidence, those who ar not acquainted 
 with the literature on the subject will call it, but I know 
 better. Passing along the street on the way to the station 
 and wondering where I should find some one to giv me 
 coiinsel, I glanct at a news-stand, and there before me lay 
 a magazine devoted to the hidden world. It waspublisht 
 in the city, and I took vlown the address. About two 
 hours afterwards as I was serching for the place, for I 
 was a stranger in the city, I suddenly lookt up to the top 
 of a high building, and there was the signboard, I thc>t I 
 was several blocks away from my destination , I hav had 
 too much experience since then to be satisfied with 
 "chance." 
 
 From the office I went to a medium who told me he 
 could not do anything for me. * ' Go to Richard Roe, and 
 he will advise you." I found Richard after a time. He 
 was rather a plesant man, and the second medium that I 
 bad ever talkt to. *>' You hav herd voices?" he inquired 
 after I had stated my case. " Well, I was in a kind of a 
 trance." 1 replied. "I think I herd them, but I don't 
 want to be too positiv." '* Well, you ar a very fortunate 
 man." said Richard Roe " You ar in the right path, and 
 you will develop after a time. If you dr not care to take les- 
 
 'Uv 
 
 , i-*ii,-vQjJ,„J»^ 
 
 ■ 'i 
 
4i 
 
 1»11R .DNSK.KN COMr'ANIONS. 
 
 If-, 
 
 v>i 
 
 
 sons from uh\ you will (ievelop if you j^o on in your piesent 
 way, . 'mil rxorylhinj;* will conic out all lii^ht." A stronjj;* 
 fci'Iinj^ tlial I was <in the rii;ht path came over nic and I 
 felt happy. 1 did not know then how easily feelinj^ was 
 manutai. turcnl. We talkt for an hour or so, and he related 
 many of his strange experiences to nie, and I lisleneiland 
 coiiuralulated myself that I. was not in sueh a had corner 
 after all. lie cured tlu' ]iain in my hack in a few minutes. 
 It makes me laf now as I think of it. The hypn( tic in- 
 fhuMice was simpl\- tak<Mi otf for a short time, run! that 
 was liow the "cure" was etfected. ., 
 
 J rose to say good-by and he accompanied me to the 
 doc^r. " 'Phis hole talk of peopl gf>inj;' wrong' is iionsens. 
 It is lieeaus they do iu)t understand it. I could get a great 
 many peopl 'mt of asylums who hav gone wrong if I 
 only had the chance. " We parted, and Richard Roe took a 
 good fee? No, that is where yoiiar mistaken. He did not 
 take a cent, and he was not rolling in welth by anjMneans. 
 
 Now, 1 think Richard is wrong. 1 think he is in a bad 
 business — a forlorn audshipwreckt brother, but he seemed 
 to be good harted. Perhaps he knew that I w-as nearing 
 the rapiils, --perhaps again he did not -- but T wisa he was 
 out of it, for even aliho I felt perfectly certain that he had 
 deceivd me I could not get angry at him. During later 
 days the evil spirits did their worst to get me enraged at 
 him as at others but they did nt)t succeed, for woe to the 
 man who lets his temper get the better of him wdiile the 
 fight is going on. Insane, the}- say, and many do go in- 
 sane under the torture, but as a cold blooded fact there 
 can be no pt)ssibl crisis where you need all of your wits 
 so nnieh as when the cursings and blasfemies,the lies 
 and slanders ar howling around yon, when, do the best 
 you can, you ar forct to believ some of them. 
 
 Richard Re did not believ in the divinitv of Christ. I 
 hope he will put himself in better array for the next world, 
 for unlike manv he knows that there is one. 
 
 
STII.I, TRATMMVf;. 
 
 *} 
 
 
 1 went home convinct that I was on the rij^ht road, and 
 that the voices I herd were frendly ones, for I had often 
 red that the spirits tried to frij^hten anyone who pene- 
 trated into their rchn, I told my fronds that T was deter- 
 mined to go to the end of it, and altho they thot it folly, 
 I talkt lerncdly on the subject, and as I was quietened 
 down we concluded that it was a kind of a nightmare that 
 had troubld me. We laft over my scare and things went 
 on as usual. 
 
 Satan had an easy mark. Had I stopt there, I would 
 hav had some troubl, but very littl, comparativly speak- 
 ing. The voices stopt and I went on perspiring. They 
 fild me as full of soothing thots as they sometimes fill you 
 when you ar nearing the rapids. 
 
 Had I stopt there, however, I would still hav been a 
 believer in spiritism, and a disbeliever in the divinity of 
 Christ. It has not been all loss. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Thk Gift of Tungs. 
 
 I was now more firmly conyinct than ever that I was on 
 the right track, and I went on with a light hart. Mr. and 
 Mrs. B. had stopt all experiments by this time, for they 
 were not sure about it, and I wanted to see the outcome 
 before inviting anyone to keep me company on my jour- 
 ney. 
 
 I soon made a littl more progress. My new experience 
 sent me up to the clouds. I had often wondered how thot 
 transference was managed in India. How was it that dur- 
 ing the Indian mutiny the news of an important batl was 
 known among the nativs long before the British officials 
 herd of it? The best horses were at their service and yet 
 
44 
 
 Ol'K I'NSKFN COMI'AMONS. 
 
 the luitivs with ii<> horses ;iL all outstript them. I thot 
 that the adepts had simply discovered some hiw of \Thieh 
 we ar as yet ij^-norant, but now, like the ministers, I think 
 that they ar under tlic direct control of the Kvil One. I 
 <mcc laft at this theory of our reverend f rends, and I 
 should not like to discourage any scientist who disai^rees 
 with them. 'JMie more we know of natural laws the better 
 certainly, but I W(.idd not like to set any more false views 
 afloat in a w<u'ld full of error. T think T am rij^ht, and that 
 is enuf ff)r me. Now for my experience. 
 
 One day I was sitting in an old orchard thinking of the in- 
 visibl world, and enjoying my.self as a man at peace with all 
 his fellow.s, when suddenly to my surprise, for it was the 
 last thing in the world I was thinking about, along sen- 
 tence in l^'rench was shot thru my hed as if by .some pro- 
 cess of mental tcfcgrafy. The writing on the brain had 
 come at last. I undertood it and waS exultant. 
 
 Now, I had studied French for several years ; I had livd 
 among French peopl, and had spoken it redily, altho I 
 had occasionally, likeother worthy fellow mortals, to make 
 a respectful circuit around some of the frases. I knew 
 the language fairly well ; I had red .some of the literature, 
 and for one year in particular I had red from ten to twelv 
 hours a day. In some respects then, I knew French bet- 
 ter than the average student for I had workt hard at it, 
 and hard work counts for .something here as elswhere. 
 But I had scarcely spoken a wcnxl for three years, and had 
 red but littl, so that when I had occasion to speak it I 
 found that it took me sometime to remember the words, 
 and many of the verbs, old familiar f rends, had departed. 
 
 But now there was not the least hesitation. I replied 
 like a flash, and for two hours I sat there, with an occa- 
 sional rest, which was fortunate for me, the words rolling 
 thru my brain like a torrent. Now, thinks I to myself, I 
 am at last in connection witi^ the higher intelligences and 
 this is what I have been waiting for, I ^as so thuroly 
 
 ■-'■•«»=«? 
 
 
Tin. tilKI OK TUNGS. 
 
 45 
 
 
 /'. 
 
 I 
 
 hypnotized that my brain was workt upon like the keys of 
 a piano. Had I not diverted my attention to one thinj^^ 
 and another around me durinjij this mental process the 
 crisis would hav come there and then. But the work did 
 not continue long enuf and I escaped. Concentration is a 
 good thing in this world, but nature takes care that we 
 cannot concentrate our minds too much on one subject 
 for too long a time. Try it, and you will find your thots 
 shooting in a good many different ways. We can concen- 
 trate our minds sufficiently for all practical purposes and 
 that is enuf. Too much of it would overwork the brain 
 very soon as I found out afterwards • when there was no 
 divering thot allowed, but when the mind was kept on 
 the stretch. 
 
 The process is not the same as thinking. Do not let 
 any one think so. It is another and different sennation 
 altogether. 
 
 Another "inspiration" struck me during the cjurs of 
 the conversation. Can this be the gift of timgs? Can I 
 bid good-by to grammars and dictionaries? 
 
 Perhaps I ot to be ashamed to confess it, but the truth 
 is that I, Sancho Quixote, a member of one of the leading 
 houses of Spain, if not the leading one-vSauvez les papiers 
 de la maison de Quichotte, — can not for various reasons 
 that need not be specified speak my native language with 
 anything like the facility that characterized my lerned 
 cousin Don Quixote, but I can read it and venture to mum- 
 bl a littl of it when I am sure that none of my country- 
 men ar within earshoc I tried Spanish by the new route 
 and was so elated with the result that I could have jumpt 
 out of my skin. At last, after a long wait I could go 
 back to La Mancha without fear and without reproach. 
 
 I carried on a mental conversation in Spanish as redily 
 as in French or English, and just as fast. Our medical 
 frends can explain this as they pleas. The lact remains 
 that I, who had scarcely ever had occasion to speak this 
 
 !# 
 
 H 
 
 i I 
 
 ', I 
 
46 
 
 OUR I'VSEFN COMPANIONS. 
 
 lan^juajfe, carried on a conversation in it willi my unseen 
 companions, and that the answers and (iticstions and gen- 
 eral remarks flowed as rapidly as if I had never spoken 
 any other latigua^e in my life. Some of my readers may 
 be surprised at this, but I was not in the least, for there 
 ar men and women alive to-day who do the same thinj^^ 
 
 Then I tried Scotch -a patoi.s, .some irreverent peopl 
 call it, — and words and .sentences forgotten for many years 
 came back as tho I had never stopt using them, and I 
 I niled as incident after incident of my childhood and boy- 
 hood was brot before me in the old setting. *' Tiiis is to 
 be something wonderful for me. "Ithot. "Now I shall beabl 
 to .speak Chinese or Choctaw, hob-nob with the Laplander 
 and scold the Moujik in his own tung. " 
 
 Almost from beginning to end of my .sorry venture I 
 got just about everything I expected - they were fooling 
 me to the top of my bent, and luring me on. It is 
 true that I got something that I did not expect, but that 
 is a horse of another color. Don't yon think that smile 
 was rather \nigencrous? You think thtit it came from 
 you. as I did when I herd wailing that 1 thot was from my 
 frends suffering on my account, and my lips were smiling. 
 You ar mistaken. It comes from my enemy. He .sends 
 them regularly to you. 
 
 I tried (German, which I did not understand, and they 
 amused themselves with me. I could not understand 
 what they sent and neither could I reply. I tried other 
 tungs that I did not know with the same result. And 
 now, says my critic, tliere is an end to the gift of tungs. 
 
 It may be said that alth(^ I had never spoken vSpanish 
 the nde's of the language had once been lernt, and that 
 by some means or other the memory had been awakened 
 into a state of abnormal activity, as in the case of peopl 
 drowning whose hole life is mirrored before them in a 
 few seconds, and I shall hav something to say about that, 
 too, for the drawers of my memory were imlockt later on; 
 
 -,*■ 
 
 I: 
 
THK r.IFT OF TirNOS. 
 
 47 
 
 j; ■ 
 
 but for me, knowing wliat I tlo of the subject, both from 
 theory and cxpcrit;nce, there is no other explanation than 
 hypnotic influence. It is really writing on the brain as 
 distinct from the process of thinking as anything can b.j, 
 It cannot be explained, but it can be felt. And jusL sup- 
 pose that for, say six months, 1 had ampl time to com- 
 pare the two processes? And just suppose, further, that 
 if I let my mind go a wool gathering, as we ar all in- 
 clined to do, it would begin again, and that the messages 
 ar very often of an unplesant nature, what then? 
 
 I hav herd a good deal of French spoken, but I hav 
 never herd a Frenchman speak so well as I did that day. 
 I had never spoken much Spanish ; then I spoke it as 
 easily as English. Scotch I knew, and the theory of the 
 drawer of memory will pass there if you insist upon it 
 but for the other two languages it is wors than preposter- 
 ous it is silly. If I did not take the troubl to speak 
 
 aloud it was just becaus there was no necessity for it. 
 
 What made that long PYench sentence come to my 
 mind? I had no more idea of speaking or tliinking about 
 French at that time than of looking for the mo(»n at mid- 
 day. The psychic explanation is the only national one. 
 The wonder is that with the evidence we alredy hav there 
 ar n)en who doubt it. 
 
 The Puritan idea is right. We ar surrounded with good 
 and evil spirits, and they look upon our slightest iicts with 
 anxious solicitude. This world we ha\ receivd to govern 
 is a very serious one, and woe to the man who does not 
 find it out before it is too late for hi ; comfort. 
 
 It is just as well not to moralize too much, but I shall 
 conclude this chapter by coun.seling any one who reads it 
 to act at all times as if his fellow men knew his thots, for 
 we ar indeed surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who 
 know every thot which passes thru our beds. 
 
 'A 
 
 
 ..»'',• 
 
 
 k 
 
 "f: t' 
 
 '■ 'if 
 
 ■rJS 
 
CHAPTHK VTII. 
 My ICars Ai< (n'KNi). . 
 
 There was noihin.i^ for inc now but to put on full, steam 
 and ^u ahed. I was no longer working in the dark. The 
 thol transference stopt for a time, but I lookt up(m the ex- 
 perience in the orchard as simply an encouraging hint to 
 keep on wiih my work, and went to bed and perspired 
 and worried because I was so slow in getting to the top of 
 Mount Olympus. The puffing, or to be more correct I 
 should say, the juds beating, for it was Just as if a strong 
 puis was at work--went on in my ears and I was certain 
 that I was making rapid progress. Who was it who had 
 ears just like mine then? Bottom was it? Some name 
 like that. 
 
 I was sure my good angels were leading me on to green 
 pastures. Perhaps I might as well confess here before 
 we go further, that it is a littl embarassing for me to speak 
 of my good angels in spite of the assurance of Dr Hep- 
 worth that we all hav them. Good wine needs no bush, 
 and ] might hav writn this book without taking shelter 
 below the wing of a practiced man, but it is sometimes 
 well to hav good company. I hav been inclined to be re- 
 served about all matters connected with the next world 
 in the past, anil now 1 am i<>ing to lay everything bare 
 in a way that few do. Who \vas it who made that often 
 quoted remark about the religion of a gen tl man? And 
 why then should a Sancho f)pen his mouth, or wear his 
 hart upon his sleev for the rest of you to peck at? When 
 I was in the asylum a good natured patient told me that 
 his angel had told him such and such tilings, and altho I 
 
 
 
 
 ■ > n. 
 
MY EARS Ak Ol'K.Nl). 
 
 
 ... f 
 
 49 
 
 'er- 
 
 should not hav clone it, T smiled and pitied him. 
 haps you smile and pity me. 
 
 The elderly Scotch woman when askt it" she knew what 
 luv was said that she knew in the abstract. It is one thing 
 to write of an,i;els in the abstract, astheletncd doctor does 
 and quite another to write as I am doinj^'. 1 shall speak 
 of good an.ufcls deliberately then, for I could easily take 
 another tone in this b(u;k and ^Hve scorn for scorn. 
 
 One ni.ijht shortly after this as 1 wassittinjjf on the porch 
 
 with the chair rockini^ quietly under me 1 knew where 
 
 the motiv power came from — I thot I herd a buzzing 
 sound all around me. T thot that it was' the voices I had 
 longed and workt for, and I was glad of it, but I went to 
 bed that night without having herd them. 1 herd some- 
 thing els. howevc. Likely enuf some of my readers hav 
 rf'd of the astral bell. Perhaps others ar a littl skeptic- 
 al. It is difficult to get a man to believ that there may be 
 a bell ringing in the air which he cannot hear, but which 
 his neighbor listens to. That is humanity all over. But 
 still it moves, said poor old (ialilcc;, and they laft at 
 him. 
 
 I was rather pleased to heru" the soft, delicious, liquid 
 sound, altho 1 do not know how it is effected I had red 
 something in its favor and it was becoming that I should 
 listen to it with plesure. There is an impressiv scene in 
 one of Conan Doyle's novels that deals with a British offi- 
 cer who herd this sound for the iirst time. " Ood help 
 us!" he said. That would hav been my exclamation also 
 had T known to what it was the prelude. It is well, in 
 one sens, that we cannot see far ahead. 
 
 It soimds well in fic ion, and 1 rather enjoyed it — at first. 
 You know altho there were a thousand peopl around 
 you that the soimd reaches your ear ahjue. I seldom herd 
 it thni the day, but as soon as I went to my room at night 
 it began. I waxt quite poetical over it sometimes. I thot 
 of Bret Hart's lines: 
 
s« 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 k-».: 
 
 
 m 
 
 " Bells of the past whose iinforgfotten music 
 
 Still fills the wide expans, . 
 
 Tinginir the sober twilight of the present 
 • •■ With eolor of romance." 
 
 But the romance was soon colored with reality. 
 
 I had begun another folly that brot on the crisis sooner 
 than it might otherwise hav come. I had red something 
 of the way in which the lerners in India hypnotized 
 themselves by rock-cristal gazing and other means, and 
 shortly after the beginning of my serch for wisdom I began 
 to gaze hard and fast at a certain object for a short period. 
 I gazed so hard at the ceiling sometimes that the white 
 plaster appeard as if it were purpl. This lookt danger- 
 ous, and 1 often stopt while at it and askt myself if I was 
 not going too far. "No, "I would reply, "I will go to 
 the end of it. " " Ar you still determind to go to the end 
 of it Sancho ?" was a question 1 often listened to when 
 it was too late. *' Sweet littl man !" 
 
 One day as I was undergoing the ear-o]5ening process, 
 I closed my eyes, and suddenly there was a small ball of 
 deep-colored purpl past down before me. I saw them of- 
 ten enuf afterwards when I did not like them half so well 
 as I did the first one. ■ 
 
 The ceiling was spred over for several yards at a time 
 with this color, and a strange pale light began to appear 
 before me on the wall. If, for exampl, I lookt at a door 
 or window and then directed my eyes to the plaster wall 
 the object would be fotograft before me. 
 
 T did not need t3 stare so hard in after days to hyp- 
 notize myself. It is no troubl to throw yourself into the 
 hypnotic state after you hav acquired the "habit. I do 
 not know, after all, if we really do it ourselves. I am in- 
 clined to think that there is no such thing as auto-hypno-. 
 tism. I do not believ that one man can hypnotize an- 
 other. I think that what we speak of as auto-hypnotism 
 is just this — That by one means or another we put our 
 
 M 
 
 
 ^^^ '■ 
 
 ),;■ 
 
 ;'*r< 
 
MY EARS AR OPEND. 
 
 S« 
 
 •■'(^ 
 
 fm 
 
 4 
 
 f 
 
 V." 
 
 nervous system into such a condition that the spirits 
 around us can acquire a power over us that under normal 
 conditions they would not hav. There ar men who seem 
 to us to hypnotize patients. My impression is that the 
 work, either for a good or a bad purpose is done behind 
 the scenes. There is plenty of literature on the subject 
 which you can read if you choose. My candid advice to 
 the average reader is, don't. Go out and count the trees 
 and you will find it a far more profitabl way of passing 
 the time. 
 
 At last the voices I had waited and workt for became 
 audibl, and surely it was a happy day in my life. The 
 indistinct buzzing I had herd was turned into a joyous 
 burst of song that made the hiils and valleys around me 
 seem as the gateway of the immortal city. Faint at first, 
 certainly, and far off, but the glorious harmony reacht 
 my ears and thrild me thru and thru. Whenever I 
 chose to open my cars it began. I had only to wish for 
 it and it came. I had only to wish for a certain tune and 
 it was redy. I smiled as I compared the reality with the 
 plesant romance of Mr. Bellamy. 
 
 I workt hard then. I never left my pillow for more 
 than an hour or so in the raiddl of the day, but when the 
 gloaming came I sat down at my leisure and listened to 
 the voices of the sirens, and .surely they never sung 
 sweeter to mortal man. 
 
 St. Anthony says in one of his sermons: " We walk in 
 the midst of demons who giv us evil thots; and also in the 
 midst of good angels. When these latter ar especially 
 present there is no disturbance, no contention, no clamor 
 but something so calm and gentl that it fills the soul with 
 gladness. The Lord is my witness that after many tears 
 and fastings I hav been surrounded by a band of angels, 
 and joyfully joined in singing with them." 
 
 i 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Hevenly Music from Angelic Hosts. 
 
 " Hark, hark, my soul, anKelio songs are swellingr 
 
 O'er erth's greeu fields and ocean's wave beat shore. 
 How sweet the truth those blessed strains ar telling 
 Of that new life when sin shall bo no more. 
 Angels of Jesus, 
 Angels of light. 
 Singing to welcome , • ! 
 
 The pilgrims of the night." 
 
 " All the efforts of ten thousand Ethical Societies will count as nothing 
 In the furtherance of ethical regeneration, compared with the woik of the 
 mpn who shall again convince the world that every human soul is immortal, 
 and that surh a task is not beyond the reach of man I am thuroly convlnct,— 
 T. DAJSiseON. 
 
 " If the proof of immortality is forthcoming, it is my conviction that 
 no drowning sailor ever clutcht a hencoop more tenaciously tban man- 
 kind will hold by such proof— whatever It may bfc."— Paor. Hdxley. 
 
 " Take nie away, or I shall cry," said Carlyleto Froude 
 one day as they stood in London, listening to that beuti- 
 fiil hymn which has toucht so many. I herd it sung- to an- 
 other tune than the ones we know by the beings who sur- 
 rounded me — a time that I still remember, altho 1 hav 
 forgotten many that I herd in those days. 
 
 Surely they never sung sweeter. I hav listened to some 
 of the finest singing of the age in a few of the great 
 capitals and commercial cities of the world, but that, grand 
 as it is and much as I luv it, is to what 1 herd as the poor 
 efforts of the singer in the village choir matcht with the 
 great vocalists, the trained voices, of Paris and Vienna. 
 
 I could not understand why they kept so far away from 
 me when I was so anxious to hear them, but I Ihot a part 
 of my training in the new school was to lern patience and 
 keep humbl. I know now that a great deal of it was to 
 
 .1^ 
 
HEVEMLY MUSIC FROM ANGELIC HOSTS. 
 
 53 
 
 4'. ■■ 
 
 keep my mind on the strain. It was often hard to reach 
 and my efforts became correspondingly eager to meet 
 them half way. 
 
 I felt rewarded for the long work of the months gone 
 by when, as I would go out in the evening a beutiful 
 tenor voice such as could never come from mortal throat, 
 would rise and pour out a flood of liquid melody far away 
 on the air till my soul would swell with the joy of the 
 strain and long for the life of the blest. Surely this erth 
 is a barren wilderness compared with their abiding place. 
 The tenor voices were painful in their sweetness, and yet 
 the memory of them is half hateful to me now, for I know 
 what some of them were sent for. 
 
 I herd too, the high piercing notes of the sopranos an 
 octave abuv anything I hav ever herd from our singers, 
 and the altos and baritones and the deep bassos, and chor- 
 us after chorus soon rolled around me and fild the land 
 full of such glorious harmony that I thot myself in heven. 
 Never was such singing herd, I often thot in wonder, and 
 yet if I told anyone they would set me down as a madman. 
 And so I said nothing except to Mr. and Mrs. B. who laft 
 at me, but thot it all right, with an occasional doubt. 
 
 But terribl as has been my punishment I look back up- 
 on that time with something like a longing for the mere 
 joyousness of it. From first to last the joy of the singing 
 fild me with wonder. Call them lemons or angels they 
 sing with the hole hart. But when they toucht a minor 
 strain it was sad enuf to make one melt away in ecstacy. 
 I hav found out since that I was where I had no business 
 to be. I hav found out that there were two kinds of angels 
 there, and two kinds of melody — but the marvelous sing- 
 ing, the solos that rose on the air so sweetly as to make me 
 wonder how such music could be produced, the great chor- 
 uses of altos and sopranos and tenors, ali the different 
 parts flowing together like the flow of a mighty river, not 
 a singl flaw in the exquisit harmony, make me look back 
 
54 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 to it with longing, and look forward to the time when the 
 chorus will greet lis on the other side of the river. 
 
 Exalt6, iin peu extasie, say some of the authorities 
 Not quite. I hav done some hard-heded business in my 
 time, and I was at it then in a hu^J heded business way 
 too, but to encourage them in their hallucinations I may 
 say that on any subject not connected with this occult 
 world I was just as I hav always been, just as I am now. 
 That is how they all ar, says Lobe Lombroso, the man 
 who can gage your mental status from the shape of your 
 ear. Qu'ils m'amuse beaucoup ces sages Italiens!. 
 
 It is wrong to digress, I know, but do you remember 
 what poor Robbie Burns vSaid? 
 
 *' Whene'er divinity comes across me 
 My readers aye ar sure to lose me. " 
 
 That is just how I feel about the Lombroso tribe, but 
 they will have to burn their books on tactics yet. A race 
 of degenerates! 
 
 There were two kinds around me. Listening to the one 
 band was almost painful, it was so far off and yet so 
 sweet. At any time I av/akened thru the night a tenor 
 voice would start up apparently at a long distance away 
 and the melody was so entrancing that I could not choose 
 but listen and strain my ears lest I should miss a note. 
 It was nil apart of the scheme that I was so slow in un- 
 derstanding — work on the nervs, work on the emotions 
 till the time came, and then tear to pieces. 
 
 With the other band it was different. When in the 
 horrors I made up my mind if ever I got well to write my 
 story to warn others, but not to say a word about the 
 music I herd. I was afraid that some one might venture 
 into the trap and get caught, but afterwards I concluded 
 to tell it all. If any one dallies with it after what he 
 reads in this book he deservs to be punisht. During many 
 years I had never red anything of consequencs against 
 the study. 
 
 ;< - 
 
 ■i:. 
 
 ^^ 
 
IT, 
 f 
 1 
 
 HEVKNLY MUSIC FROM ANGELIC HOSTS 
 
 SS 
 
 
 % 
 
 t 
 
 "Tell both sides," the demons shouted at me, "and do 
 not play the coward, it it is wrong to venture in here, it 
 is wrong to say a word about it, as you will find out when 
 you do come. Tell it at your peril " — and so on for 
 months. 
 
 There was no need of straining the car to hear the 
 other band. They sung all the old hyms we luv and 
 sung them as if within forty or fifty yards of where I was 
 sitting. If grim old Thomas Carlyle felt like crying I 
 suppose that it is permissibl for me to confess that I was 
 often in tears then. Not quite plesani to confess it, but 
 it is true. Again, as with our reverend frend, I seek 
 shelter below the wing of another. But the music was 
 overpowering. Sometimes I could not listen for more 
 than a few minutes, it was so affecting. I had to close 
 my ears to it and rest. I still had that power, or, as I 
 believ, the evil spirits were not allowed to open their 
 batteries upon me, 1 often thot during the dark days 
 that I had herd a good deal that was sent for the purpose 
 of encouraging me for the struggl, something to show me 
 that altho I had made a mistake everything was done for 
 me that should h" - been done. 
 
 It isaplesureiii writing this to think that there is a mul- 
 titude of peopl who know that I am telling of facts. A 
 serious world indeed — yes, a feeling comes over me that 
 prompts me to vSay now as I think of the past, — a .sacred 
 world. What fools we ar, rich and poor alike! 
 
 "Rock of Ages," and "Jesus Luver of my Soul," and 
 "Old Hundredth," and "BalHrma " and all the old Chris- 
 tian hyms which hav delighted and comforted the souls 
 of millions were sung to me then until I felt that I was 
 standing upon holy ground. And "Adeste Fideles" too, 
 swelled high and higher in the Latin that I did not un- 
 derstand, and ' 'Jerusalem the Golden" and scores of the old 
 favorits, and still I did not ask myself why it was that 
 they sung Christian hyms to me an unbeliever. I was 
 
 t^i; 
 
56 
 
 OUR UNSKKN COM ^•ANIO^fR. 
 
 r 
 
 blinded. Both sides siui}; them. Why \^ it? I wa.s 
 cheered by the one side with them, and lured on by the 
 other. • ■ ■ I ♦ 
 
 That was a glorioi.s time for me. No wonder I went 
 on and on till the doors closed behind me. What would 
 you hav done? Take up your hymn books, old and neW, 
 and pick out your favorits as I did mine, and then think 
 of hearing them sung by a great choir invisibl, all the 
 parts harmonizing so that it seemed but as one voice, and 
 do your best to imagin it, and you will fall far short of 
 the reality. Often did I thinV of the inspired saying, — 
 "Eye hath not .seen, nor car lierd, neither hav entered 
 into the hart of man the things which God hath prepared 
 for them that luv Him." 
 
 " Glv nie the winps of faith to rise 
 
 Within the vail, and Boe 
 The saints ubuv, how great their joys, 
 
 How bright their glories be. 
 Many ar the frends who ar waiting to-day, 
 
 Happy on the golden Strand : 
 Many ar the voices calling us away 
 
 To join theirgloroiis band-- 
 Cniling us away ! Calling us away I 
 
 Calling to the better land !" 
 
 Whatever you may think of the divinity of Christ, my 
 scientific frend, one thing is certain, and that is that the 
 Christian hymns ar sung in the next world as they ar 
 here. It will not do to .say that it w;;s only the demons 
 singing to lure me on. Long after there was no necessity 
 tt) lure me further I herd them as of old, and I herd, too, 
 another kind of singing. 
 
 "There is a happy land, far, far away," and I knew 
 that there was indeed a happy land for those who believd. 
 And on and on it went. 
 
 '• Oh, we shall sweetly sing. 
 Worthy IB our Savior King 
 Loud let bis praises ring. 
 Praise, praise for aye." 
 
 I hav said that I could not endure it sometimes it was 
 so affecting, — "They stand those halls of Zi«m, all jubi- 
 
 'h 
 
1 
 
 N 
 
 HKVFNI.Y MUSIC FROM AN<;KLIC HOSTS. 
 
 57 
 
 "lant with song!" But I often sat down determined to 
 keep my emotions under control, and I liav sat for hours 
 in the eveninif listeninjif to it as calmly as tho I had been 
 at a sacred concert or grand opera. 
 
 •• Liltl oUlldron, littl children, 
 Who luv their Redeemer, 
 At the jewels, precious jewels. 
 Hia luvand hta lost. 
 
 Like tho BtarB of the niornlnfr 
 His bright crown adorning 
 They shall shine in tJieir beuty 
 liri^ht gems for his crown." 
 
 All moonshine, they say, an excited brain. There ar 
 some who know l)etter, bnt they yield np their convic- 
 tions to the regular school, and thus error is perpetuated 
 from generation to generation. To say nothing of tho.se 
 who, unfortiuiately for themselves, hav had some prac- 
 tical experience, the list of the men who stand rm the 
 .side of the reality of the fenomena we encounter on the 
 other side of the border is respectabl enuf to be entitled 
 to a hearing. They ar, to say the least, as well qualified 
 to judge as the members of the regular school. ^ 
 
 Why did the ministering spirits not save me from what 
 came? Why is this a world where men and women hav 
 free will? we might as well ask. If a child gets its hand 
 burnt by putting it too close to a red hot stove it is likely 
 that it will be a littl more careful in the future. 
 
 y " Hark, 'tis the voice of angels 
 
 Borne in a song to mo 
 Over tho fields of »?lory ' , . 
 
 Over the jasper sea." 
 
 
 '.''.-/J 
 
^■'V 
 
 
 ■■V 
 
 CHAPTER X. . ' 
 
 Thk Vkry Gatk of IIf.vkn. 
 
 ** Softly sweet, in Lydian niesure, 
 Soon I'll sooth your sonl to plesiire. " 
 
 The Spanish proverb says that the stone which is fit for 
 the building- is seldom left in the street. It is a good 
 thing to be fit for the building — a good thing to be abl to 
 rise to the occasion. Unfortunately I did not know a 
 singl note of music then, or els I might hav been abl to 
 lay some of the hymns, and songs and marches and all 
 kind of music that I herd before you. Just what you ex- 
 pected, is it? Let us reason the matter over quietly then. 
 
 I like singing and hav a fair ear, and so it happened 
 that I was abl to catch two or three tunes and sing them 
 to ^Ir. B. who understands music. He pronounct them 
 of an average quality, and wonderd where I got them, 
 for he was a littl skeptical occasionally. We threw them 
 aside, for I then expected that I was to listen to the music 
 whenever 1 so pleased, and I did not think it necessary 
 to preserv the paltry tunes I had caught when finer ones 
 could be had for the wishing. I hav often regretted that 
 I did not take more pains to preserv at least a littl of 
 what I herd, but there ar no birds in last year's nests. 
 Had I taken pains I could easily hav had several dozen 
 good tunes to vouch for my expedition into the forbidden 
 land — as it is I remember only four. 
 
 But four will answer my purpose fairly well. How did 
 it happen that I who had never made an attempt to com- 
 pose a tune in ray life should be abl to sing four unless I 
 had herd them sung to me? The other airs I herd left 
 me, but these four stick. I askt for Goimod's ' 'Ave Maria, " 
 
 
 '■H 
 
 
 
 .'"J 
 
THK VERY r.AlE ©F HEVEN. 
 
 59 
 
 . .-5,, , 
 
 ^■-■"i' 
 
 •'^ 
 
 i 
 
 and if they hav not deceive! me, as I am afraid theyhav, 
 for it is almost toosimpl to be taken for that piece of mus- 
 ic which I hav never yet herd, that is one of the four. 
 Tt will not matter very much whether it is or not — how 
 could I lern it from imaginary voices? And how did I 
 leru "Lochaber no more" from them if they were imaj^in- 
 ary? Will an inflamed or an excited brain set me com- 
 posing music? Do not let any one think I am insisting 
 on these questions too often. Tt is sufficiently wearisome 
 at this late day to hear men talk of "imaginary voices," 
 "false hearing," and the rest of it. It involvs too, the 
 theory of possession, the treatment of the insane, and the 
 advisability of thousands of our fellow mortals, reverting 
 back to the holesom warnings contained in the scriptures. 
 We shall leav a great many things behind us when we 
 go to the next world, but there will be singing there as 
 well as here, and the rapture of it is beyond belief. If I 
 may use a wild figure it was as an expans of music —as if 
 the hole atmosf ere were swelling with harmony.* 
 . It was plesant to listen to "Swance River," "The Last 
 
 I* JuRt as this book is goiufr to the printer I clip the following from a re- 
 view of an autobioi^raphy of the lute Oail Hamilton. She bad a itrange 
 experience with tho unseen. The book itself I hav not red. I, too, herd 
 an inetrumental band. 
 
 HER SPIRIT JOURNEYS. 
 
 "To myself it seemed as if my spirit were partially detached from mjr 
 body— not absolutely freed from it, but floating; about, receiving impressions 
 with ifreat rediness, but not with entire accuracy, aa if the spirit were made 
 to receive Impressions thru the bodily organs, and without them oould not 
 rely implicitly upon its own observations. Many foolish things I undoubt- 
 edly said, but many 1 distinctly remember to hav refrained from saying 
 becaus I knew they were foolish." 
 
 To those who liv in dred of deth this woman left muoh consolation. 
 
 SHE SAW AN OLD FRIEND. 
 
 " Immediately in the distance 1 herd a sweet voice singing a familiar air. 
 While trying to recall the voice, A. B. (a dear frend) stood before me. She 
 and her band seemed to flU all space with a flood of ungelio melody, while 
 from a distance, .softly harmonizing with the voice of the singer, was herd the 
 rich strain of an instrumental band. My delight was intens; it was too 
 much for tny poor weak nature. X lost conseiouanoas. When again myself the 
 band had gone." 
 
6o 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 
 ^- 
 
 I: 
 
 Roi^eof Summer," ••/ mie Laurie," "The Soldiers' Chorus 
 in Faust," and theplaintiv music of **T1 Travatore. " 
 
 I never tire of the sad wail of the "Miserere," but if our 
 singers herd it as I did they would behalf ashamed to bow 
 to the applaus that now g^reets them. 
 
 Then, for variety, I would wish to hear them sing in 
 rounds. The sopranos would begin, the tenors would fol- 
 low, and the other parts would fall in just where I wished 
 them to do so. 
 
 Then as I herd some of the songs rise, I would forget 
 everything but the music, forget the seriousness of my 
 position lookt at in any light, and say "Da cabo a Mes- 
 dames les sopranos!" and an answering voice would shout 
 lafing — poor fool that I was — "M. Quichotte dit da cabo a 
 Mesdames les sopranos." And all around me were rage 
 and hate that could have devoured me, and luv that pitied 
 me in my folly, — moorings lost and drifting out on the 
 ocean. " ; • 
 
 I did not understand then that there were evil spirits 
 around me savage with rage and anxious to get me com- 
 pletely under control. It is not everyone who ventures 
 so far among them. Do you think it was good .spirits 
 who sung to me the wild emotional march of the Marseil- 
 laise? Do you think it was they who sung the war songs 
 that fire our blood imtil we get redy to tranipl every law 
 of God under foot in our devilish rage? Ar they engaged 
 in that kind of singing do y(ni think? I am perhaps as 
 found of war songs as anyone, and I catch myself hum- 
 ming them often enuf, but I hav been asking myself of 
 late, "Is thisthe Christian spirit that recognizes no bound- 
 aries, to sing the songs that to-day as a hundred years ago, 
 inflame one pcopl against another?" I like them, I say, 
 passionately; they stir the blood like a trumpet, Init let it 
 be distinctly understood, once for all, that the spirit of the 
 New Testament or the spirit of many of these songs has 
 to bite the dust, and you who read this will help to decide 
 
 ,1 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 THK VKRV (lATK, OK HKVKM. 
 
 6i 
 
 which. You don't think so? Then yon ar still in the 
 bonds of iniquity. 
 
 I think the sensation we feel when we wave our arms and 
 sin^*- ''Marchin{4- Thru (Jeorj^ia," "Scots Wha Hae," "The 
 Wa'oh on the Rhine," or when we shout on the Boule- 
 vards, "A Berlin! A Berlin!" is instilled into us by a pro- 
 cess that I hav felt too often. Fancy oiu' Savior with a 
 sword in his hand. 
 
 As I hav 1)een unwittinj^ly drawn into the subject just 
 look at the Christian nation of America slunitin^ a few 
 months ajifo for war with (ireat Britain. vSotncof our Chris- 
 tian trends will yet get the scales pulled off their eyes. 
 Talk about war here, and there ar always loud -mouthed 
 fools tolej^rafrnj^ t)ver the continent that they ar pr epared 
 to rai}>e such anil such a tnnnber of men to go to the fnmt 
 instantly. If such things were done in much criticised 
 Europe the continent would be aflame with hell in a few 
 weeks' time. "Patriotism" of that sort does not smell 
 merely ; it stinks. Enuf of it. • 
 
 As singiny does not make up all of life I tried son.e- 
 thing els Ixjth for instruction and variation. I would take 
 a French or Spanish book and keep my eyes on the page 
 and listen to the voice, and surely I hav never herd bet- 
 ter pronounciation or more careful reading. I used to think 
 that if T could not get the gift of tungs I would hav a fair 
 substitute that Would help me to keep the two languages 
 up t<j a respectabl standard. 
 
 When I askt myself months afterwards what it had all 
 ment, how it was they did not, open on me sooner than 
 they did, the freridly voices would say to me — "No, you 
 cannot understand it now, but if you knew the meaning 
 of it frt>m beginning to end you would be very much sur- 
 prised." So will we all be some day when we seethe 
 narrow escapes we hav sometimes had. The prayer to be 
 preservd from unseen dangers has a great deal of mean- 
 ing for me. Hay de me, senores! Que Sancho Quixote 
 
6i 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMTANIONS. 
 
 i: 
 
 A", ■ ■.. 
 pi" ' 
 
 '■r't 
 
 'A .. 
 
 estaba gran burlail<.ir y j^ran holx/ lambien en c t(»s dias! 
 But the chunj^^c was near at hand. One ni.t;ht I awoke 
 and instantly the twenty-third psalm arose. 1 hiy and 
 listened to it and enjoyed the sinj,nn>j as usual, but eon- 
 trary to r.^y prcvioiis experienee I eould not elose my 
 ears. On and on it went without stop. I felt that I was 
 in j'ather a peculiar position. If this does not stop soon, 
 I thot, it will drive me mad. But it eamctoan end when 
 I was twistinjj^ and turninji^ around in my nervousness at 
 the long insupportabl strain. I eoncluded that they had 
 been playing a littl joke upon me anil went t' sleep again. 
 
 When I awoke in the n\oruing my wh<jie body was 
 tingling with a strange something that surged thru me as 
 stedily as the beating of a puis. It went thru me from 
 hed to foot with a force that surprised me. Can this be 
 the ether, I thot, the mysterious fluid, the od, the any- 
 thing, that the wise men tell us goes from star to star all 
 thru the univers? And the answer came — for by this time 
 I was on sj^eaking terms with my imseen companions — 
 "We iw simply keying you up in tune with the univers," 
 and I laft, but it sounded reasonalily enuf, for I had be- 
 gun to altrihuti- the marvelous harmony of the singing to 
 some mysterious force that held all the voices together. 
 
 Then, }'ou sec, by this time, I believd a good, many 
 strange things, for I was under the li}pnotie influence to 
 some extent. Something happened too, that made me think 
 that there wa.-i more or less truth in their theory. They 
 began to sing and told me to sing with them. Now, I 
 cannot sing very well, and I frankly acknowledge it and 
 beg to be excused in advance. There is a slight obstruc- 
 tion of some kind or another in my throat that simply 
 precludes me from humoring my frends or doing any- 
 thing startling in this direction, but on this and subse- 
 quent occasions 't was removed. My voice was altered to 
 some extent quite a number of times, but I speak jf these 
 two occasions because the change was most pronounced 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
•IHF VKKV f.ATK OK HKYKN. 
 
 «3 
 
 ■■f •■ 
 
 then. They started a tune I did not know, and I imme- 
 diately began to sinjjf bastj with thetn in spite of the fact 
 that the tune was new, and I sung^ like a trained sinj^er. 
 How did I keep the time? The surjriiij;r feelinj^- in my 
 body kept me to the exact time, long or short notes, and 
 I thot that T had sur])rised a great secret. , .' i 
 
 "Of PrometheuB how undaunted 
 
 Oil Olympus shining bantloiis , • 
 
 His ftudttolouH foot he planted. 
 Myths ar told and BOUK-H ur ohauted. 
 Full of Tumptlu^H and suvKOHtious. .^ 
 
 Bnutlful is the tradition 
 
 Of that flight thru hcvouly purtalj) ; ' 
 The old classic Bupurstitlon 
 ' 0'' the theft and the traoB mission 
 
 Of too fire of the immortals I ' ' 
 
 First the deed of noblo danny, 
 
 Horn of hovonwhrd aHpiralion. 
 Thon tho tire with mortals sharlDfir, 
 Then the vulturo— the deBpairlnjr 
 
 Cry of pain on crags Caucasian " 
 
 So Long-fellow tells us of it. I often thot of his poem 
 in later days in a lafing, comic .sort of a way, and the 
 shout would come. " Yes, you fool! but Prometheus 
 took something- with him, and you go out empty handed." 
 
 Majiy of the voices I herd at this time were those of 
 frends and relativs who had died or were far from me. I 
 knew their voices, and there was no mistake about them. 
 It was with a strange feeling that I listened to the 
 voices of those who were ded. They spoke to me, and 
 sung to me, and told me of their life in hcven, and spoke 
 of the work they had done for Christ on crth. Was it a 
 wonder that I should be fooled? 
 
 There was another feature about their singing that 
 charmed iind surprised me. Very often when I would ask 
 for any well-known hymn or song they would sing the 
 words we know. But the tune would be entirely different, 
 
 ■. fMi, 
 
 •Vii 
 
 V 
 
64 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 and there was never the least hesitation in beginning. It 
 is evident that improvisation is a very simpl matter in the 
 next world. I listened to dozens of old songs and hyms 
 in new settings. What a famous composer I must have 
 been in those days! What a pity the reporters did not 
 catch me in time, for we ar all a littl tired of the men who 
 take themselves for Czars, En perors, (irand Moguls, 
 Grand Muck-a-Mucks and so on. A composer might hav 
 given a littl variety to the story. 
 
 One of two things is true — either that singing was real 
 or els 1 must, in that dual, unconscious pensonality we 
 hav herd about, be the most famous musician who has 
 ever Hvd, and that theory would in vol v me into troubl 
 and loss of .self -respect considering what that same person- 
 ality developt into lateron. 
 
 But the harvest was past the summer was ended, the 
 leavs were falling off the trees and the quiet and enjoy- 
 ment 1 had hitherto experienct were near an end. Sic 
 transit gloria mundi, say the lemed men with a sigh, and 
 others of us say with our filosofical frend Sancho Panza — 
 Hay muchos que van por lana, y revien escjuilados. 
 
 But making all due allowance for the devil dressing him- 
 self as an ungel of light could it be possibl that such glori- 
 ous music v/as used to entrap me} 
 
 It seems iwful to me even yet. Listen to them as if 
 they were pouring out their souls in an ecstacy of rapture! 
 Do yoii heav it rising to the simpl old tune of Autum? 
 Could I even yet by the mere wish and a littl hard work 
 hear it? Does a burnt child dread the tire? But listen, — 
 
 J? : 
 
 ' i 
 
 ,|'7 (■■ 
 
 m 
 
 
 [ 
 
 • O!oriou8 things of thee ar spokeo 
 
 Zion city of our Ood ; 
 Ho whose word cannot be broken. 
 
 Formed thoe for His own abode. 
 On the Kookof Atres founded 
 
 What can shake thy sure repose 7 
 With salvation's walls surrounded 
 
 Tbou art safe from all tbr foes." 
 
 >A. 
 
 ■li.H 
 
i '5!- 
 
 CHAI'TER XX 
 
 FiKNDs AND Hypnotism. 
 
 •% 
 
 5 
 
 i 
 
 'i 
 
 
 r 
 
 " Pierce he broke forth; ' And dar'st thou then 
 To beard the Hon in his den, 
 ; The Douglas in his hall ?' 
 
 j 8 , And hop'Bt thou hence unscath'd to go ? 
 
 No, by St. Bride of Bothwell, no 1 
 Up drawb ridge (rrooms I 
 What warder ho 
 Let the portcullis fall!" 
 
 One night I awpke and herd voices that seemed to be 
 within th ee feet of my ear, and they were not speaking" 
 to me as formerly in a frendly way, but cursing and blasfem- 
 ing slowly and impressivly. What made it so terrifying 
 to me was the fact that there was no passicmin the accent. 
 They went on in such a concentrated way as if so sure that 
 they had me in their pow ^ that there was no need of 
 hurrying, and so they curst and blasfemed deliberately. 
 It was a hc^rribl awakening out of m}?- dream, but I am not 
 the first who has past thru it, and I hav been often as- 
 sured since that I shall not be the last. There ar certainly 
 plenty of fools in the world, and there may be some fool- 
 ish enuf to tamper with this forl:)idden thing even after 
 reading this book, but they do it at their own peril. 
 
 The horror went on and on without stopping and I be- 
 came half dazed. What could it all mean? 1 had really 
 thot, with some misgivings, that I was on the right track 
 to do some service to my fellow men, and I awoke to find 
 myself in the company of deni(ms. I had prayed ernestly, 
 and believd that I was undergoing a long cours of my 
 preparation for s<imething that was to come, and here I 
 was at the end of four months' strivii-t',"!^"!^^*-'' i^^ the mire 
 
I 
 
 66 
 
 OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 1 
 
 :' \ 
 
 w 
 
 up to my neck. What did I do? I forgot the instruc- 
 tions to "dominate" the spirits, and fell upoTi my knees 
 and askt God to forgiv me for my blindness and trans- 
 gression for Jesus Christ's sake, 
 
 A trifl cowardly, you may say, but that is human nature 
 aften, and especially when you feel that there is a great 
 fight ahed of you where human aid can avail but littl. I 
 had believd that Christ \vas only an extraordinary man, a 
 man to be luvd certainly as I always had luvd him, for 
 who in these times when it has either to be a great for- 
 ward march of dogma and boundless faith as I believ, and 
 believd before I turned again to Christianity, or terribl 
 wars that will sweep this planet of ours with the besom of 
 destruction, — Who that has a spark of the new spirt that 
 is rising in all lands can help hiving the character and 
 spirit of Christ which wouUl put an end to war and rumors 
 of war if we would only let it reign? Eimerson tellsusthat 
 all great ages hav been ages of faith, and men of sens now 
 see that it has to be faith in something els than money 
 gathering if we ar to bring in the greatest of all the ages 
 which, I believ, is just ahed of us. 
 
 And Fichte told the truth when he said, — "Christianity 
 still carries in its bosom a power of renovation that many 
 ar far from suspecting. Up to the present it has only act- 
 ed on individuals and thru them on the state. But he who 
 has been al)l to appreciate its hidden spirit whether as a 
 believer or an independent thinker, will adnnt that one 
 day it will become the internal and organizing force of so- 
 ciety, and then it will reveal itself to th^ hole world, in all 
 the richness of its benedictions. " 
 
 /\ll independent thinkers, even if not Christians, know 
 that the New Testament is the most democratic book in 
 the world. If our microscopic f rends try to make it any- 
 thing els it is because they ar busy with the letter as an 
 excuse for neglecting the spirit. 
 
 Now that I hay had time to consider my change an4 
 
FIENDS AND HVPNOTISM. 
 
 67 
 
 ^:. 
 
 ;::^^- 
 
 ■1^ 
 
 1 <j- 
 
 look at it quietly and smile at the momentary haste I hav 
 never regretted it. I hav been happier sometimes in the 
 midst of the torture than in periods of prosperity. Doubts 
 and striiggls eniif hav come, for I hav been in a strange 
 position, but I hav lerned to pay littl attention to feelings 
 for. the;- ar pumped into us very often at the; will of our 
 enemies. I believ that by accepting Christ then I past 
 thru the trial as I could not hav done witlKvut ITim, — 
 goggle-science to the contrary notwithstanding. Faith 
 is the supplement of reason. We don't know everything 
 yet, as I hav found out. - 
 
 But I am again abusing the privlege of an insane man 
 and running you along a spur insted of the main track. 
 It is a good rule to keep on the main line and tell all about 
 the spurs afterwards, but it is well known in these days 
 that insanity is closely allied to genius, and I am showing 
 the way to set ancient maxims to one side. 
 
 I concluded after I had suffered this infliction that it 
 was about time for me to get out of the occult world — if I 
 could. It is a sin to digress once more, but did you ever 
 read the story of the animal that went down into a well 
 and could not get up again? It liad to listen to some sage 
 advice about not venturing into a place unless the way 
 out was clear. Not very plesant advice, anc^ perhaps if 
 w'e think as highly of charity as the aposil Paul did, 
 not very necessary, for the poor brute was likely enuf 
 feeling just that way as he lookt up and saw his 
 critic smiling at the top. I know the feeling. I did 
 not visit any one for informati(m this time. I niade up 
 my mind that I would get out of a bad corner in due 
 time, and 1 had lost faith in the profets of the occult 
 world. 1 was in it, and theory is not nearly so convinc- 
 ing as reality. 
 
 T went to the city determind to find work and get rid 
 of the whole foolish business, to be content with this 
 worjd we see around us as others; ar, but 1 found that my 
 
 -.„* 
 

 
 1/ 
 
 
 
 
 W.'. 
 
 68 
 
 OUR UNSFF.N COMPANIONS. 
 
 enemies clung to me, as they will to us all till deth do us 
 part, if we ar wise in time. 
 
 Tappings went on all around me. I herd strange noises, 
 and whenever I sat down I knew lay certain tokens that I 
 was not alone. Another disturbing feature caused me a 
 great deal of suffering. The astral bell still kept ringing, 
 and as soon as 1 entered my room at night it began and 
 peald away in the darkness and caused me unaccomitabl 
 irritation. I would hav given anything to get rid of it. 
 What was a plesure in my salad days became uncndurabl, 
 but my feelings were not consulted. It began with its 
 soft tingling and kept on tiil I could have run any 
 where to escape. "What is the matter?" 1 askt myself. 
 "How can this bell aifect me so much? Let it ring and 
 pay no more attention to it than to an ordinary one in a 
 steepl. " I did not quite understand then that it was not 
 the bell itself that tortured me, but the hypnotic power 
 the evil spirits had acquired over me. 
 
 I was living near a railway, and as in the erly days 
 when they were leading me gently on to the precipice the 
 spirits and I were on good terms, I said one day when a 
 train was passing, — "Hush! Don't you know that that is 
 the train of that great man, the honorabl John Doe? Let 
 us keep quiet until it passes." A low, peculiar whistl 
 came as an answer, and every time a train past after this 
 the same soiird came to me as distinctly as tho within a 
 few feet of my ears. This, too, like the bell, became a 
 scource of torture. Can a man touch pitch without being 
 defiled? And when f was driven to prayer for relief 
 there was no peace, and I knew then what I had lost. As 
 soon as I began the mocking began with me, and whistling, 
 and bell, and jeering, and cursing, and blasfeming. A 
 very serious world indeed. Kindly warnings ar given us 
 to let it alone, but when you hav taken the first step and 
 come to look upon the Bible as upon the Koran and other 
 books of a like nature the rest is easy. 
 
 «3 
 
 ? 
 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
FIENDS AND HYPNOTISM. 
 
 69 
 
 I 
 
 I felt an inexpressibl sens of loss when I fonnd that I 
 could not be alone for a minute. We ar all surrounded, 
 but I was conscious of it, and it makes a good deal of dif- 
 ference. If you think that you hav nothing els to thank 
 God for, you should be grateful that the veil is not lifted. 
 Many who to-day ar talking lernedly, and some who ar 
 talking scoffingly, would change their opinions if they 
 were brot face to face with the realities only for five short 
 minutes. 
 
 Strange noises were sometimes herd around the house. 
 One night Mr. B. and I were sitting alone when we herd 
 an awful clattering passing by like a whirlwind in its 
 speed. "What is that?" he askt, and he ran to see. The 
 street in front of the house wasunpaved; it was soft, and 
 about twenty yards past the door it landed in a medow 
 that was softer. There was no possibl chance of any wag- 
 gon passing, for it was too late and besides there was no 
 outlet for one. "You need not go," I replied, but he was 
 alredy out. I knew well enuf what it was and sat still. I 
 had red enuf of the experiences of others to know. He 
 soon came in and said that there was nothing. "Nothing 
 visibl," I replied. "But you know that an awful noise 
 past here, and I know where it came from. " 
 
 As I hav digrest often enuf alredy I shall end this chap- 
 ter by looking forward a few months and telling of some- 
 thing that I do not wish to forget, for I am writing this 
 book often against my will and without much regard to 
 arrangement. It is not altogether a plesant thing to look 
 back upon my folly, and I wish the task was finisht in any 
 reasonabl manner without paying very much attention to 
 systematising the work or writing it in a style to please 
 the dilettanti. 
 
 Doubts as to the divinity of Christ were po\ired upon 
 me likea flood, both in the ordinary way and by the voices 
 when the struggl was going on, and I often began to specu- 
 late in the old way. Why is there not more evidence to 
 
 I 
 
70 
 
 OUR UNSEEN' COMPANIONS. 
 
 
 ■k;-; 
 
 satisfy many ernest men and women who cannot believ? 
 God is all powerful — Why should He allow them to suffer 
 when He could send them relief? If Saul of Tarsus, why 
 not others? and the thousand and one objections that the 
 subtl ingrenuity of the evil spirits threw at me. At such 
 times when I was perhaps going too far, and inclined to 
 get angry over the hole business, it often happened that 
 the screws were applied, as it were, and after gasping for 
 a few minutes somehow or other a strong conviction 
 arose in my mind that Jesus Christ was just exactly what 
 He represented himself to be — the Savior of the world. 
 
 Some who to-day ar busy with their microscopes may 
 hav their doubts settld in the future as I had mine in a 
 very strange schoo). 1 make a poor preacher, but I hope 
 they will consider the matter in time. 
 
 I used to hav a littl jest occasionally like many of you on 
 the subject of evil spirits and a devil niling over them, 
 but my jesting was soon taken out of me when I met 
 them. They ar around us, but outside of the few hints 
 given in the Bible, I do not know why. It seems to me 
 that we could get along much better without them, but 
 that dots not change the fact that we hav to deal with 
 them and their dedly enmity. Do you remember some- 
 thing about not having to war against flesh and blood but 
 against principalities and powers? 
 
 "Prlnelpalities and powerp, 
 • Mustering theinniseen array, 
 
 Walt for thy ungarded hour^, 
 "Watch and pray,'* 
 
 I often thbt with bitterness that men would not believ 
 my .story. They hav Moses and the profets and the New 
 Testament besides, but if a man rose from the ded to-day 
 they would ask for his credentials. 
 
 It has sometimes occured to me .since, — Could it be that 
 the angels who were watching over me gave the evil spir- 
 its permission to exercise their will at those times? We 
 know so littl of 'vvhat is around us that it is hardlv worth 
 
 
 i 
 

 FIENDS AND HYTNOTISM. 
 
 71 
 
 while to speculate very much, but I hav seen my waver- 
 ing belief in the divinity of Christ co. \ back to me in such 
 a strong way under the pi ossure that the more I lookback 
 to it the stranger it appears. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Mouth of the Pit. 
 
 The v^'.ces still kept around me. I did not expect to get 
 rid of them for some littl time, for it had taken me a long 
 while to get within range and I was as patient as possibl. 
 One day not very long after I was startld in the night I 
 went to the city. My troubls commenct shortly after I 
 left the house. I past a hand-organ grinding out some 
 popular tune and soon I herd it ringing in my ears. I 
 moved on as fast as possibl to get rid of it, but it was of no 
 use. The pretty littl poem we hav all red says that every- 
 where that Mary went the lamb was sure to go, and wher- 
 ever I went the tune followed, and rung in my ears as 
 distinctly as if the organ )-ad been at my side insted of 
 being miles awa3^ Whenever the street car was in motion 
 the noise was at the highest, but when it came to a stand- 
 still so did my organ. I found out by long experience af- 
 terwards that whenever I was near any hissing noise, such 
 as steam escaping, or indeed anything that changes the 
 vibration of the air the voices would be much more dis- 
 tinct than usual. This perhaps is only imagination. The 
 virbration of a railway train affects the nervs, o^ cours, say 
 the medical authorities, and that accounts for it. I must 
 then conclude that my imagination was a good deal 
 stronger when in the cars than. when on foot, and this is uu- 
 
 I 
 
r 
 
 7a 
 
 OUR UNSKEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 4,. 
 
 plesant. I feel inclined to take my stand ^vith the defunct 
 Austrian physicians, and with an old Scotch woman now 
 ded as well as they, and call for an act to prohibit the run- 
 ning of trains. I left the car and wandered on thru the 
 streets of the busy city, and whenever I met anything in 
 the line of music, down even to the tinkling of the bells on 
 the car horses, it went into my ear as a lodging place and 
 there tarried. 
 
 Then, too, for the first time I herd voices fairly shout- 
 ing and yelling £..•"! mocking at me apparently about a 
 mile away. I herd them for some months afterwards, 
 but they reacht their highest pitch that day. I went from 
 one place to another trying to escape, but, of cours, it was 
 of no use. Ah, you cannot realize what a blessed world 
 you liv ixi as it is, until you lift the curtain from the mouth 
 of the pit that is raging around you. Where is hell? 
 some peopl ask. Within us and around us. 
 
 *'We will follow you to the deth. We will drive you 
 insane. How long can a man stand this life? We know. 
 It is an old story to us. You fool ! Do you think we were 
 amusing ourselves, playing with you all that time? You 
 ar trapt as thousands hav been. Now you go whining to 
 your Savior to releas you. There is no releas in this 
 world. Show us a singl line in the Bible to support the 
 pretensions of those peopl who ar coming thru into this 
 world. We know it from beginning to end. Yes the Bible' 
 is true, you fool ! but you, like us, know too late. Accept 
 Christ when you were alredy in hell? Things ar not man- 
 aged that way here. The body ! The body ! What is the 
 body to us? Your mind was in hell when we frightened you 
 that night. Not only that, you poor idiot, but that first 
 night you meddld with a tabl we acquired . a power over 
 you. The mind was willing and that is enuf. Christ will 
 never accept a man who has to come to hell before he will 
 believ on Him. You ar with us now and you ar just go- 
 ing to stay and fight on this side. You fool ! You do not 
 
THE MOUTH OF THK PIT. 
 
 73 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 hav any idea of what hypnotism is. We will simply make 
 you do what we want you to do, and make you luvit." 
 
 The same sickening feeling- comes over me now as I sit 
 here at my typewriter as I felt that day. The same in 
 nature, but not in degree. I remember it only too well 
 I was partly under their control — that is, I herd their 
 voices and could not get rid of them. There was as yet 
 no danger to myself or any one els. This I know as an 
 absolute fact from what took place afterwards. 
 
 They yelled at me for nearly a hole day in the same 
 strain as in the foregoing paragraf. Much of what they 
 said would hav past by me in my normal state as chaff, 
 but my nervous system was pretty far reduced by this 
 time, and I swallowed a good deal of it and my hart sunk 
 within me. 
 
 Yes, the Bible was really true, and I was among the 
 wrong kind of spirits. In the old days they used to stone 
 men to deth who were willing to continue communication 
 with them, and they reminded me often enuf of this. 
 Whoever knows or does not know the Bible these demons 
 know it from beginning to end. They gave me chapter 
 and verse and threw discouraging texts at me for weeks 
 and months. To many Christians to-day the Bible is a 
 strange book. Their dedly enemies know it from Genesis 
 to the Revelation of St. John. Indeed, as it may serv to 
 keep some of our ponderous frends humbl, they know 
 every book in every language on the face of the erth. 
 This wonderful pride of intellect will get some rude 
 shocks in the next world. It is an excellent thing to hav 
 knowledge if accompanied with humility, but I feel 
 ashamed of our species when I think of many articles I 
 hav red in our reviews lauding the "educated " man as if 
 he were a kind of demigod. Not that we should be con- 
 tent with a dull, indifferent ignorance either, but there is 
 surely middl ground. 
 
 How very littl we know of one another. I was moving 
 
74 
 
 OUR UNSKEN COMPANllONS. 
 
 
 
 1' v'-'*\'": 
 
 '■*: 
 
 ■'5--. 
 
 along the street as sensibl looking as my neighbors, but 
 they did not suspect that 1 was listening to voices yelling 
 at mc, and if I had told the first man I met that such was 
 the case he would hav thot me mad. Mad, I certainly 
 was, to doubt that the Bible ment what it said. But I 
 hav many companions. It was well for me in one sens 
 that I knew something of the unseen world, and managed 
 to control myself. But I do not wonder that many go 
 raving mad under the strain. That day I remembered 
 what Richard Roe, medium, had said to me: "There ar 
 peopl in insane asylums now thru hearing voices, but I 
 could bring many of them out if I got the chance." 
 
 I was told a few days afterwards by my invisibl com^ 
 panions that I was completely hypnotized and that there 
 was only one way of getting me clear of the influence. 
 That was to let them put me in a trance and I would 
 awaken clear of voices and every other annoyance. It looks 
 decidedly childlike and bland now, but supposing you 
 were in a tight corner and a very, very sympathetic v<^ice 
 told you the way out? Supposing again that you really 
 believd that your frends were helping you now that you 
 were anxious to stop all folly, and you might hav been 
 won. Supposing they pleaded ernestly to let them save 
 you? Yes, I know, practical, common sens man, but the 
 world is helpt occasionally by dreamers too, altho 
 " Men hav no faith in fine-spun sentiment 
 Who put their trust in bullocks and in bee vs. " 
 
 I was very imwilling to do it. I had stopt everything 
 of the sort, and it lookt wrong to begin again, but I yield- 
 ed. It was to be a serious struggl I was told — no one was 
 to disturb me from one o'clock to five. If it was not de- 
 cided before that hour I had to take what came, but my 
 frends were determined to do their best for me. 
 
 I lay down and tried hard to fall asleep, but it was no 
 use. The more I struggld the worse I became. And at 
 ^ly ear was the voice I herd all afternoon, — and I herd it 
 
THE MOUTH OF THE PIT. 
 
 75 
 
 
 often entif afterwards mocking me with the same words — 
 saying to me sharply and emfatically — "Si vous pouvez, 
 si vous pouvez," (if you can, if you can.) How on erth 
 coiUd I sleep with a voice ringing in my ears? "Exactly so, 
 Mr. Quixote," came another voice, "such ar the conditions. 
 You must fall asleep with that voice going on (»r els you 
 take your chance. ' 
 
 I sometimes arose with the perspiration flowing over 
 me. I cannot help lafing now at the sheer folly of hav- 
 ing had anything more to do with them, but if you think 
 you can gage the depth of their cunning you ar mistaken. 
 It was all madness that leavs a bad taste in my mouth to 
 this day. It is sometimes said that a man never amounts 
 to much until he has played the fool. I don't quite like 
 the theory, but if there is anything in it, your cousin Sancho 
 Quixote will astonish you one of these days, for he haslaid 
 the foundation for future greatness. 
 
 I went down stairs after the struggl with a kind of a 
 dred in my hart and said — "I am afraid that I hav got 
 into a wors troubl than ever. I hartily wish I had never 
 had anything to do with this business. " "You will get ov- 
 er it all right," replied Mrs. B., "if you will only let it 
 alone. I did not like it at all when you said that you would 
 try it once more." I found out afterwards that on this oc- 
 casion and when I was sitting among the trees with the 
 " gift of tungs" rolling on my brain she had been siezed 
 with a strange, overpowering presentiment that I was 
 Hearing dangerous ground, and she was anxious to see me 
 stop all future experiments. 
 
 She handed me a letter, which would hav kept me from 
 that afternoon's work had I not said that I was not to be 
 disturbed. I had seen a sentence in a magazine that I did 
 not altogether like. The writer said, as nearly as I remem- 
 ber — "I hav visited a good many mediums" — the more's 
 the pity, says Sancho Quixote, — "but as far as I can judge 
 I hav seen only two or three who were in communication 
 
 -:p 
 
 k 
 
7ft 
 
 OUR UNSKFN COMPANIONS. 
 
 with good spirits. Mediumship usually ends in loss of 
 helth, morals, and reason." Another warning that I red 
 about the same time vspoke of the horribl coiise(|uences of 
 possession. I did not quite like the look of matters and 
 wrote to a frend for advice. He replied in about a coupl 
 of weeks -he may laf if he reads this, but I know how 
 things ar workt now, and I am vSure the devil influenct 
 him to delay matters. "You ar a busy men," said the 
 devil to him, — and he is, "take time and answer that let- 
 ter. Some man got a littl excited, doubtless," continued 
 the devil. His answer was encouraging and frendly as I 
 knew it would be altho I had never met him. He spoke 
 of the danger from spirits of a low, gross nature — so low 
 that the angels could not help them— evolution, eh? — 
 spoke also of frolicsome spirits — woe's me — but thot that 
 there was no harm in investigating the subject. He al.so 
 referred to Willie Pel- Mel, who had just about that time 
 became an automatic writer and was, as we say here, real 
 proud of it. Now, Willie is an agressiv Christian and why 
 should Sancho be afraid to follow if Willie leads? And I 
 felt comforted, for the Christians ar very busy with this 
 same occult study at present. They don't go quite so^far 
 as Sancho did, but his impression is that they had bet- 
 ter give up their automatic writing and all the rest of 
 it. 
 
 My frend referred me to an acquaintance of his who 
 might assist me, and I wrote to him for advice. Again 
 Satan engineered things, for it took about two weeks for 
 the answer to reach me, but when it did come it was worth 
 reading. I was warned to give up the hole study at once 
 and forever. It was rather discouraging, but it was a 
 common sens view of the subject of spiritism. It told me 
 of men and women venturing into the hidden world and 
 losing their reason ; of opening the door to fiends and find- 
 ing that they could not shut it, and told me too that medi- 
 umship was a sign of weakness and not of strength. 
 
 r^ 
 
THF, MOUTH OK THE PIT, 
 
 77 
 
 *'Well," I thot, altho the plain facts were not very com- 
 forting, **r\\ get out of it all right." 
 
 Had the answers come a littl earlier, I might hav been 
 saved some sufFuring, but it is doubtful. Had I known 
 what I know now I could hav been saved the necessity of 
 going to an insane asylum, but I lerned some things there 
 that ar worth knowing. Had the proper means been taken 
 when I wrote the first letter the crisis would never hav 
 come, altho I would not hav. escaped with a hole skin by 
 any means. 
 
 ■ »♦• 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Trap is Sprung my Demons. 
 
 "He needs a long spoon who sups with the devil." 
 
 For several nights Mr. B. slept with me in order to keep 
 me company until the storm should pass over. One night 
 after I had gone to bed he sat at a tabl busy with some 
 work he wanted to finish. I f^U asleep in a few minutes. 
 Here I might as well say that for some time I had lost 
 considerabl sleep. Sometimes I lay awake the hole 
 night unabl to close my eyes ; but I had plenty of company 
 and plenty of conversation. On other nights again I 
 would sleep for only an hour or so and then the awaken- 
 ing would come. I could not understand it at all. I ahvay.*^ 
 rose in the morning as fresh as if I had slept for eight or 
 ten hours. I had red something of hypnotism, but some- 
 how or other I did not understand my own case. The 
 lawyer who takes his own case, they say, has a fool for a 
 
 client. I seemed to be completely blinded. 
 6 . 
 
 
78 
 
 OUR UNSFKN COlVlPANlONfi. 
 
 .Is 
 
 T was thnnvn into a traiu'e immediately on j^oinj^ to 
 bed, and my first conversation in that state bej^'an at once. 
 The mind was awake, bnt the body lay at rest. I s))()ke 
 as clearly and nnderstandini^-ly as ever I hav done in my 
 life. I was as fnlly conscious of what 1 was about as I 
 am now. I reasoned, with my unseen companions, I 
 argued, 1 refused to do certain things, 1 assented to 
 others, and the conversation went on as it does between 
 you and your intimate frend, with this difference — the 
 mind was not allowed to wander. It was concentration 
 with a veng'eance. There were no disturbing" thots shot 
 thru my mind then. ()nl\- those who hav past thru these 
 trances know how strange and yet how n.atural it all 
 seems. 
 
 I seemed to be in a kind of a biminous atmosfere speak- 
 ing to some unseen frends who laft at my fears, and told 
 me that my troubls were nearly over. They told me to 
 show that 1 had enuf confidence in myself and in them 
 by askin^i;- Mr. 11 to j^o down stairs. T awoke at once and 
 told him that I felt all ri^ht. cmd that there was no neces- 
 sity for him staying;' wiLii me. He had red the letter I 
 had receivd and was unwillinyf to Icav me, but at last he 
 consented. ITad T told him that it was at the sug-^s^estion 
 of the spirits that he should leav me alone he mi.^-ht hav 
 refused U> g"o, but with the "well-known cunnin^- of a 
 lunatic" hav you ever red that before? -I did not say 
 whence came the inspiratic^n. 1 persuaded him, and I 
 believd myself that T was over the dang-er line, and he 
 left me alone with the stars and 1 hav often been very 
 thankful for it since. \v these thinj^s sometimes arranged 
 for us? There were evil spirits near me certainly, but 
 there were alsc» good ones. C.n it be that it was they who 
 told me to tell him to leav m knowing what was to follow? 
 
 I went back to bed and fell asleep at once and soon 
 very strange things began' to happen. I was at once en- 
 j^.'ged in a ^vonderful convt.:rsatiou : The devil was there 
 
 i 
 
 Vk.-'i J 
 
 .%• 
 
 I 
 
THE TRAP IS SPRUN(; HY DKMONS. 
 
 79 
 
 in person, — at least, I was so assured, and I hav since 
 come to the conclusion that he is not far fnnii any of us. 
 It was a fight for my soul, 1 was told, and I believd it. 
 Then there was a long dispute between the pretended 
 good and the bad spirits over my case, and I listened to 
 the discussion as I had a perfect right to do. 
 
 What do we hear with? Our ears or our brains? And 
 if some one has possession of the bruin cannot he make 
 us hear without the ears? My body lay there for fonr or 
 five hours that night like a log, but I was listening and 
 talking all that time as consciously as I am writing at 
 present. How littl we really know of the unseen world 
 around us! 
 
 Then the trial of arms came between me and Satan. I 
 and my king, the cardinal put it; a cardinal in our own 
 days spoke of "myself and (xod," as the two beings he was 
 most interested in, and altho there may be those who 
 think that I am a littl presumptions I am fairly well 
 cjualified to judge. I want to raise peopl up; he, accord- 
 ing to good authority, has been a liar and a murderer 
 from the beginning and wants to drag them down. Take 
 your choice. 
 
 Now he was winning, now I was ahed. The game was 
 very, very funny, but they understood the outcome and I 
 did not, and could not hav done anything even if I had. 
 They curst and swore, pretended good and bad, and I laft 
 and jokt and thot the whole thing a piece of fun the one 
 minute and a very serious matter the next. They gave 
 me problems that' ,had to be solved in the twinkling of an 
 eye and as I usually ftiilcd the laf came, -"T>o.st again, lost 
 again!" We do not know the savage nature of the wick- 
 edness that is near us, and nature is merciful, for T hav 
 forgotten a great deal of it but enuf remains for all prac- 
 tical purposes. 
 
 I tried my best to win the approbation of my "trend" 
 but he usually told me that I was making a sad mess of 
 
 
8o 
 
 OUR UNSEEN CO.viPANFONS. 
 
 ,f, . 
 
 ■t':- 
 
 '•.'*. ■ 
 
 it. "It's terribl man," he would interject in a whisper. 
 "Be more careful; you hav no idea of the horror in front 
 of you if you lose." 
 
 After a time we beg-an another scheme that was 
 to decide whetiier my future abode was to he heven or 
 hell. I was getting- pretty serious aboiit it. My "frend" 
 warned me that I had fallen far short in the previons tests 
 and that this was my last chance. "Why," I said, "It is 
 ridiculous to stake a man's future on such tests as these." 
 "You hav come to this world before your time and you 
 must submit to the rules. If you fail at this test you fail 
 forever." We began. 
 
 I hav often wondered .since whether the last "test" was 
 to fill me with the dred of being made clairvoyant in 
 the fight to come. No one can hav an idea of the multi- 
 tude of snares and discouraging schemes that were woven 
 around me weeks and months in advance. 
 
 " Open your eyes! vShut your eyes! Open your eyes! 
 Shut your eyes!" was the nev/ test, and well 1 remember 
 it. They seemed to open and shut. Perhaps the nervs 
 were workt. I do not knc.w. I think so, and my reason 
 will appear in another place, for my eyelids were workt 
 for several minutes later on in spite of ^ hard fight 
 against it. 
 
 If I did as I was told things remained even. If I was 
 trapt by a trick and shut them when I was told t; open 
 them I lost «>ne point. Lf 1 caught the trap in Lime vSatan 
 lost two. It was a case of "Simon says thumbs up, Simon 
 .says thumbs down. ' "He's gaining, "he said often. "Am 
 I to lo.se that simpleton after all?" "Don't you trusi him," 
 came the warning, " he says that to them all." "Is this 
 thing fair?" etc. And the discussion went on as before, 
 and I listened. Fnjlicsome spirits, my frend had called 
 them. Possum up a gum tree, my frend ; they mean busi- 
 ness. • 
 
 It was hard work. I felt completely exhausted when 
 
 'if- . 
 
 I 
 
THE TRAP IS SPRUNG P.V DEMONS. 
 
 9ti 
 
 the winking- came to an end. "We ar ,very sorry," said 
 my "frondly" voice. "We hav done our best tor you, but 
 you hav lost. He will give you one more chance. It is 
 called taking the devil's mercy. It is to do as littl as you 
 can for him. Do nothing unless he compels you. The 
 life will soon kill you anyway. We tried our best and yet 
 )-ou failed. I tried everything to get you mad against 
 him" — and he did— "but you kept on thinking he was 
 you frend. He deceives them all that way. He is our 
 dedly enemy, but you kept on smiling while the rest of us 
 were horror struck. Do the best you can to make terms 
 with him. I f he tortures you, and he is savage, we shall be 
 near you md suffer as much .iS you do. We never saw 
 one wors prepared for the struggl. " 1 remember the 
 chilling effect of that last sentence. You may smile, but 
 I did not — that is, not just then. 
 
 "Oh, ho, Sancho, and so you ar caught at last?" rose 
 the other voice. " Well, we ar going to tear you to pieces. 
 You hav caused us too much troubl. Or, let me see. You 
 thot T was your frend, did you, when you were lafing and 
 sympathizing with me? You thot I was rather an ill-used 
 kind of a being? Now I don't like that half so much as 
 you imagin. But we'll let it pass. I don't want to be 
 hard upon you. You can go to South America or Africa 
 and do my work there where you ar not known. It is all 
 the same fo me, so that hell is raised all over the world, 
 Oo to Asia if you like, to Tibet among your frends. Hang 
 it, man, go anywhere! You ar not a bad fellow. In 
 spite of them doing their best to make you hate me you 
 had a sneaking kindness for me. You will come out all 
 right in my service." 
 
 How do I remember? Only two well, and a great deal 
 of it word for word. I found out afterwards how easily 
 my sympathy was manufactured. If I did not become 
 angry, and I tried hard enuf to do it in the trance, it was 
 because some power held me in control. Your nervous 
 
82 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 lift' 
 
 ■>«ft< 
 
 
 system can be injured in a trance as easily as when 
 awake. 
 
 It is u foolish thing to allow yourself to become hypno- 
 tized; something too that I hav always been surprised 
 at in others, and yet there I was hypnotized myse!*^. T 
 had sot for the occult world as for hidden tresure, and 
 I had found it. 
 
 " Now," continued the voice while I still remained in 
 the trance, "stretch yourself out in bed and 1 will come 
 in a few minutes and tear you to pieces. You fool, you 
 will hav all the torture but no one will see any difference 
 in the morning. We don't manage things that way in the 
 occult. We hav ways and means of settling all such mat' 
 ters so that nothing is known to outsiders. " 
 
 I did as I was told, and lay there with my arma 
 stretcht out, the one touching the wall and the other at 
 the front of the bed, expecting the agony to begin every 
 second, when suddenly I came to myself and jumpt on the 
 floor. 
 
 "What on erth does this night's work mean?" I askt 
 myself. "It just means, Mr. Quixote," came a calm, im- 
 pressiv voice out of the darkness from the corner of the 
 room, "that we hav won the game, and that youar caught 
 now. Now, sir," — for he was very polite at first, — "just 
 stand there where you ar on one foot till you get permis- 
 sion to change. You ar going into training. " 
 
 I hav been angry at it often since, but I thot that the 
 game was really up — I actually believd that I was at their 
 mercy. I think from what I hav come thru since that I 
 could hav refused. In fact, I am almost sure, but the 
 doctors will tell you differently, and I am hak-inclined to 
 bow to their judgment here. It was a case of partial 
 possession. 
 
 So I stood there as 1 was told till I thot my leg woula 
 break, but as soon as I made an effort to put the other one 
 .to the floor the order came sharply to do what I was told, 
 
THE TRAP IS SPRUNG liV DEMONS. 
 
 «3 
 
 and keep the proper attitude. It was cruel to bear. I 
 know what the word tyranny means. I hav often said, 
 "Had I not been taken by surprise, " and soon, and so on. 
 The truth of the matter was that I had been in that trance 
 for se\x-ral hours with the brain working stedily without 
 any relief, and they awoke me when the proper time came. 
 
 Then there was a change. They told me to sing. I 
 knew at once wh}'- this order was given. Ti was to bring 
 Mr. and Mrs. B. to the room, but I started with my hole 
 soul revolting at it. I did not want to awaken them, and 
 made as littl lioise as possibl, but it would not work. I 
 was told that it would not do, and I had to sing louder and 
 bring them to the room. 
 
 I stood there with my eyes glaring in my hed, I hav 
 been told since, and as soon as the\' came to the door I 
 was told to spring on Mr. B. and overpower him, and 
 again I obeyed. We struggld for a time, and altho he is 
 far more powerful than I , and I was weak at the time, I 
 nearly got the better of him. The thot came to him like 
 a flash to get out of the room and lock the door, and he 
 caught hold of me and with an effort threw me on the 
 bed and escaped, I remember that during the hole 
 struggl altho' I believd I had to tight with him I was 
 anxious that he should master me. 
 
 Then the order came to break in the door, and I began 
 and smasht it in with a chair and wrencht it open, how 
 I do not know^ to this day, for I hav seen the bent lock 
 since. That was one of the worst attacks I had during 
 the hole time the fight lasted. 1 was passionately anxious 
 to do just what they told me at this time. It seemed that 
 before Mr. B. came to the room and after he left the feel- 
 hig was strongest. I hav often wonderetl since whether 
 "•hey eased uj; the pressure just when he came in and 
 during the struggl in order to make me feel wors over it 
 afterwards. I think I could hav re-fused to obey their 
 orders at that time as I did later, but I am afraid that if 
 
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 $ 
 
 84 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
 I had the pressure would hav been put on. However, I 
 was more than thankful at tlie outcome. 
 
 I went down stairs and found the house deserted, 
 obeyed another order to put the Bible in the stove — they 
 do not luv tliat book — and then came to myself, and 
 walkt up stairs, thinking I was a ruined nivan. 
 
 "(rive up Christianity at once and l>ecome a medium or 
 go to an insane asylum and die in three months." 
 
 "I will not give up Christianity," I replied. "You can 
 do your worst." I believd the hole business, and felt as 
 if the end of the days had come for me. This, then, was 
 the end of it all! I had landed in a bog of accursed dia- 
 bolivSm insted of in the celestial regions. 
 
 1 had told Mr. B. that if anything happened to me to 
 take means at once to put me in a safe place, and he soon 
 rf'turned with help. I was as quiet as ever I hav been 
 in my life by this time, and made some arrangements to 
 go with the men, perfectly well pleased to go, for I knew 
 that it was time. From the time Mr. B. came to the room 
 till I broke out of it, I do not think that more than a 
 quarter of an hour had elapst. Four months of prepara- 
 tion and a bad quarter of an hour to end it. 
 
 I stayed that day garded in a small room, and if hell 
 itself is any wors than that place was for me I would 
 caution anyone who may read this against going there. 
 You read a short paragraf and you try to imagin what it 
 means, but a few words describe a day's torture. It went 
 on from ten to twelve hours that day without a minute's rest. 
 Erthly tyranny is l-ad, but it is mercy compared to what 
 meets tliose who arca.ight as I was. You cannot escape, 
 *'And hav you met the spirits yet, Sancho? What do you 
 think of them? Do you really imagin we work for ples- 
 ure? It is business with us from the word go." They 
 used slang enuf to satisfy anyone, and the foul language 
 and cursing were sickening. 
 
 "Try your Christianity now you fool! You prayed to 
 
 H 
 
ritK TRAP IS SPRUNC. RV r»KMONS. 
 
 «5 
 
 be yarded last nij^ht. Why did lie nut save you? Just be- 
 cause He c<Mild not. That was the reason. Ah, yes, my 
 son, we will make you disbeliev in yourself, in your God, 
 in everything' until you go completely raving mad." 
 
 Small sparks of fire about the size of a pin's head shot 
 ])efore my eyes all day. I saw them for months after- 
 wards, but at first they were not plesant to look at when T 
 knew what was behind them. 1 had gazed so hard at a 
 piece of paper during my "training" that I had seen it 
 covered as with a thousand littl sparks. That cost troubl. 
 Now they came without exertion. Real? Wait until we 
 get to deli I ,um tremens, and we may talk about it. Not 
 that 1 hav ever had them mys6lf. One thing thathelpt me 
 when the waters were flowing over my soul was the fact 
 that during my hole life I hav been a strict abstainer from 
 all kinds of intoxicating liquors. But that's another story. 
 
 "There, we've caught him again in the eye. Once, 
 twice, thrice ! Caught again, my boy. Too bad, really, 
 but you see that is our business — we trap fools. " Yes, and 
 fools who read this ar trapt in other ways, and some of 
 them stand in plupits and preach ]>eace to fashionabls 
 while children starv and die like rotten sheep. But again 
 we digress and become impolite, 
 
 I tried hard to follow a plan that did me good service 
 afterwards. That was to keep my mind as far as possibl 
 on some other subject, to sing quietly to myself, to talk, 
 to do anything to avoid listening, but I was not strong 
 enuf for it and did not betome strong enuf for months. 
 You can try the experiment. Hav some one yell at you 
 and see if you can avoid listening to voo. 
 
 But the longest day passes minute by minute, and when 
 night came I foimd that another home had been made 
 redy for me. Two doctors had chatted with rac for a short 
 time, listened to the evidence, and as I found out after- 
 wards had adjudged me insane. An attendant was sent for 
 me, and T walkt quietly to the station with him and sor>n 
 
 
 
 
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 86 
 
 DUK UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
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 found myself on the way to what I thot was a sanita- 
 rium. 
 
 •'Go rjiit that door," they yold as I left the lOom where 
 1 liad been confined, "and we will tear you to pieces be- 
 fore you cross the threshold." 
 
 This thret was not altc^gether unplesant. 1 was rather 
 weary o' the sun like Ma i)eth, and if they had done 
 what they thretened I would not hav been sorry. 
 
 I was in the train for about two hours, but 1 had a legion 
 with me. From the starting point to the end of our jour- 
 ney they yeld and curst at me high above the noise of the 
 train. The vibration had such an effect upt)n the atnios- 
 fere, that they -were abl to come close to me, just as if 
 on the outside of the car wnndows, and as their means of 
 locomotion ar evidently as good as ours they kept me 
 close company. 
 
 Hav you ever past thru any experience in the cours of 
 your life when you felt that somehow or other you knew 
 what was going to happen next? When you felt on seeing 
 a certain object that you had seen it oefore altho you had 
 never past that particular place? Hav you ever known 
 what was coming on the next page of a book you were 
 reading? Many cases of this kind hav been narrated and 
 they :ir very interesting. 
 
 This was how I felt on my jcmrney to the asylum. I had 
 never been on that railroad, but I knew it. I knew what 
 was coming next, and I felt as if every step was plain to 
 me before I went forward. 
 
 And they laft in the window and shouted, — "Poor fool, 
 Sancho! Poor fool! Don't you see at last that you ar so 
 hypnotized that you beli-jv anything we want you to? 
 Don't you see that we make you believ you hav past this 
 way before? And don't you see, too, that you ar in our 
 power? Does this not make it plr.in? 
 
 I had many such experiences afterwards, and suffered 
 a great deal thru belie> ing things that in my inmost hart 
 
THE TRAP IS SPRUNG RY DKMONS. 
 
 «7 
 
 ■-m. 
 
 I could not agree with at all. We ar all, I bcliev, n^ore 
 or less susccptibl to the influences around us, and if you 
 hav ever had any experiences of the nature spcjken of you 
 hav been to a slight extent under the influence of your 
 frolicsome frends. A hevy supper will sometimes help 
 you along the way, for it is as miich of a sin to overeat 
 as to fast. But there is no danger, so do not be alarmed. 
 The delicate machine we walk, around in is fairly well 
 taken care of if we ar not too foolish. 
 
 We reacht our destination in due time, and I felt better 
 before I got inside the reception hall. On the way from 
 the depot the choir invisibl started with the softening old 
 melodies and calmed me. There has been a long debate 
 going on about this singing between the hosts that con- 
 tend inside of us. "It wa.s all done by us," said the de- 
 mons, "from beginning to end. It was to keep you list- 
 ening. " The other voice, -a silent one this time, said, 
 "By their fruits ye shall know them. Were you en- 
 couraged on the way from the depot by that singing? Do 
 you think your enemies w^ould encourage you? " Let the 
 reader judge. 
 
 I met Dr. Bolus, the hed engineer of the establish- 
 ment. I shall again anticipate a Jittl by saying that he 
 did all a man could be expected to do for me during the 
 last months of my stay under his care, and made himself 
 agreeabl and in this ne showed a forgiving spirit for I 
 had at first refused to swallow his mixtures, and very few 
 doctors can endure that. Now I know that it was fool- 
 ish, but my back was up 
 
 My first interview was a littl discouraging tho. "Puf- 
 fing in the ear? Hum, bad case this time evidently. 
 Lying in bed developing? Eh? What did you do that 
 for? " and I found it a poser. Ar you supposed to lay 
 your cherished dreams before the faculty? "You hav 
 been hearing voices^ Why, there ar no voices!" This 
 settld it with me. I had put my hed in the lion's mouth. 
 No voices, indeed ! , 
 
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 I ha- recoivd my training;" with respect to voices in one 
 school and the doctor in another, and wc had met at last. 
 *'I know what your science will anunmt to," I said to my- 
 self as I left him, "I want none of your (h'u^s," which 
 was foolish. 
 
 The doctor sent me to the best ward and I lay down to 
 sleep in a dormitory containing'' more than a hundred men, 
 and 1 thot it was a queer kind of a sanitarium. 
 
 Chapter thirteen, you see, has been the unlucky chapter, 
 I found that cliapter twelv was too lon^- jud,t(in^ from my 
 shorthand notes, and what I had added as I went alonj*-, 
 and I concluded to cut it in two. To my surpise 1 found 
 that the unlucky number told the evil story that matcht 
 it. I hav never belie vd in these littl superstitions, but 
 if you do T would suggest that you sleep to-night with 
 your hed below the bed clothes. 
 
 %. 
 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Inside a Lunatic Asylum. 
 
 9 
 
 " Stoue walls do nut a priBon make. 
 Nor iron bars a cage ; 
 Mindainiioceut and quiet 
 Take that for an hermitage." 
 
 Very nice indeed, Sir Richard, and very true. One of 
 the finest lyrics in our tung with Althea whispering there 
 at the grates, but suppose your mind is neither quiet nor 
 innocent, what then? 
 
 The first day in the hermitage there was no rest, for the 
 voices kept me busy listening to them. I tried reading 
 but it was of littl use. During my noviciatel had red some- 
 where that when a man became acquainted with the 
 higher intelligencies he could dispens with books, and 
 
 m- 
 
INSIDK. A Lt/NATir ASYI.ITM. 
 
 89 
 
 i% 
 
 
 i; 
 
 they reminded me of this often euuf for many a long 
 day, 
 
 "Ar you g'oiu)^ back to the books like a doi; to his votnit 
 and like the vSow that was washt to wallow in the mire? 
 Why, the hole thing is preposterous. It will never do. 
 You ar now in a position, you know, to disj)ens vvith a 
 good many of the silly books you hav been reading and 
 confine your attention to us. Yes, my dear sir, if you 
 could concentrate y<.)ur mind on what you ar reading it 
 would be all right, but yoit cannot, becaus we will not 
 allow you. Ah, determined to fight, ar you? T*oor littl 
 child!*' 
 
 And we began the duel that lasted f(jr longer than I 
 like to think about. I red and tried hard to keep my 
 mind on the subject; they red the same word :, and tried 
 hard to get my mind on their voices, and do tlie best I 
 could they succeeded. Before I knew how it was managed 
 I was listening to them and merely looking at the book. 
 It had been plesant to read with them that way before I 
 knew that they were after the possession of my mind to 
 use me as they use others whom they hav captured, but 
 now I understood the plan too well to be at ease. If I fot 
 hard to keep my attention fixt the voices would come 
 close to me, then go away for a distance of a quarter of a 
 mile, joke, laf, and in a dozen different ways interest me 
 till they gained their point. It came to be very' plesant to 
 listen to them, too. It was .so easy compared with strug- 
 gling that I often yielded, and let them hav their wa} . 
 This was against my will, but they had the power of pull- 
 ing the strings to a larger extent than any one would be- 
 liev who has not fot them. * 
 
 'Phey stopt their foul language and blasfeming and tried 
 another and more interesting scheme. All sorts (;f tjues- 
 tions that I was interested in were discust — politics, social 
 (juestions, literatiire, French, Spanish or anything els, 
 and they went from one subject to another antl discust 
 
 
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 (716) 872-4503 
 

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 them all in such a way that I could not help being inier- 
 estcd - -oould not help listcnin^^ But when I had settld 
 down to listen and enjoy it, a change would come and my 
 ear would be over the mouth of the pit once more. Then 
 I tried to escape with the usual result. 
 
 "You ar bot with a price and you cannot get away. Ah, 
 if you could only escape and tell the rebuilt of your jour- 
 ney it would be really nice would it not? Well, you will 
 not escape." 
 
 If I tried a game of any kind it was the same, "Ah, 
 you ass, you mist that shot. What do you mean by^ dis- 
 gracing us in that way. Don't you know that you ar our 
 amba.ssador. Not quite so fast and a littlmoreto the left. " 
 
 And so it went on day ifter day till I would lie down in 
 sheer desperation and try to get relief. If you hav an 
 adversary on erth there is some ecjuality between you: 
 here the hole state of my mind was open to them, and not 
 only that, but they poured in any kind of a feeling they 
 pleased. Whenever they wanted me to suffer, I suffered; 
 and I often had to laf in spite of myself, but it was of no 
 use lying down. "Not a cursed minute, sir. (Jet up at 
 once. No? Inclined to be stubborn? We hav put a good 
 many of that sort thru the mill. Too many to stick at you. " 
 
 Then the floodgates of profanity would open right be- 
 low my ear, and T could not endure it. I lay down in des- 
 peration, and rose up in desperation. 
 
 "JUvSt curse (iod and die, Sancho (Juixote, that's your 
 only plan. But it look' .strange to us why He lets you suf- 
 fer. And your Savior too. Hav they deserted you?" And 
 then arose the mocking wail I ha\' herd too often. "My 
 God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
 
 No spirits, they say : noob.session, no po.s.sesicm, no devil, 
 no anythiug. Just so. I hav since my school days atlea.st, 
 kept my mouth clean of profanity or foul language, and I 
 was glad of it then, but it was all the harder to bear. 
 
 "Stop your hypocritical whining. Vou hav listened to 
 
I 
 
 INSIDK A I.IIN.A lie ASYLTM. 
 
 9« 
 
 •■S 
 
 just such lang-uiii^e on erth like the rest of your Christian 
 brethern, and you hav taken but littl pains to stop it. 
 Now when you hear us curse you pretend to be shocked." 
 
 But l)y this time I had a g^ood deal of encoura^nient 
 from frendly voices. It was hard to distin.s;uish the voices, 
 for cursing and blessing would come in the same t(me. I 
 had to judge by the .sentiment, and not by the soimd. I 
 wrote several lett<.'rs to dictation and was urged to send 
 them to the newspapers for publication. I hesitated and 
 was solemely warned whtit would come of me if I did not 
 obey orders. My frends would ieav me, the sky would 
 fall, I would g(j mad, and so on. But with the exception 
 of r)ne or two letters, sent to frends who took care of them, 
 I tore ui> whatever 1 had writn. 
 
 They, like some erthly spirits, went too far even for me 
 in that state. 
 
 Under such and such contingencies the world wa.s to be 
 • destroyed with fire and brimstone and horrors unmention- 
 abl, and that was gc'.rnishingthebeutiouseyeof heven just 
 a littl too much even for a mrm under hypnotism. 
 
 It will but confirm the medical experts in their opinions 
 whcMi I say that hypnotized as I was I could not be de- 
 ceivd with respect to any subject with which I was well 
 acquainted. That is, my troubls came from things we 
 cannot know— questions relating to the future world, or 
 anything of that description. I could hav attended to 
 business or discust any subject with which I wasaccjuaint- 
 ed in my usual manner. Our hypnotic frends may not 
 believ this, as a good many or them hav the idea that a 
 subject can be influcnct in any given direction, but I 
 know that this was not the case with me. It may hav been 
 becaus I hav few opinions, say <»n social (questions, that 
 I hav not carefully weighed and once I accept any theory 
 I like to hang on t(^ it till deth do its part, unless T see 
 good reason for changing ray c/pinion. They did their 
 best t-iT months to shako my views on certain subjects, but 
 
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9» 
 
 OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 
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 they did not succeed, and wiih the new light I hav receivd 
 these opinions ar stronger than ever to-day. At the worst 
 I came only so far as to say, "Is it possibl that I am mis- 
 taken? I cannot believ it." But they carried me a long 
 distance when they got me to even consider the possibil- 
 ity <»f a mistake on the particular subject they harpt on. 
 
 They succeeded in making me believ, however, that I 
 was going to receiv some special revelation that was to 
 do a wonderful amount of good. It must be remembered 
 that the voices which prom ist me the revelation were to 
 the last degree frendly in tone -so frendly that the one 
 warning voice which told me on the back of the promis 
 that there was no revelation for me past by almost un- 
 heeded. At this distance it looks to me that they were 
 both my enemies. But I thot too, of Mahomet and Joan 
 of Arc. She certainly herd voices. Where did they come 
 from? Mahomet certainly herd them. Where did his come 
 from? I know now where his voices came from. They 
 came from the evil powers whoragearoimdus. I look up- 
 on these matters differently now that I believ in Christi- 
 anity. The result of Mahomet's inspiration was the Kor- 
 an as "our Bible, "as the demons called it often. And mak- 
 ing every due allownnce for the splendid work the Sara- 
 sens accompli.sht that puts us to shame in many ways, the 
 result of the Koran is a religion opDOsed to Christianity. 
 Its latest triumf is the Armenian massacres. The Koran 
 or the sword is an old cry. 
 
 Joseph vSmith was a dreamer too, they say. He drew 
 his inspiration from the wrong source as well as Mahomet. 
 Poligamy is downed now, but what do you think of it a' a 
 scheme to disriipt this continent? Satan is no fool. He 
 waited for six hundred years after Christ's time for Ma- 
 homet, but we know the result. The social system of 
 Utah with respect to land ownership came very nearly 
 making it a paradise for the starvd workers of the east, 
 and of Europe. Those who think this is carrying it too 
 
 i^'' 
 
r :' 
 
 JNSIDK A LUNATIC ASYLUM 
 
 9$ 
 
 \ 
 
 far, may liav their o)es upend if the} will read an artiel 
 writn for the New York Herald hy the ate Colonel Coek- 
 rell when on his way to Japan. I think it was Krigham 
 Young he spoke of as one of the three greatest men that 
 Ameriea has produeed. Again, I repeat, that if churehes 
 ar blinded to the social inic[uilies Satan is no fool. Inspir- 
 ation comes from him every t'.iy in the year, but some- 
 times he makes a bold play foi success. Hut I am again 
 making this a sort of anolla podrida of an narrativ. 
 
 A few days after I reacht the hermitage the writing on 
 the brain began again and continued for several hours. 
 My attention was distracted by a gof 1 many things around 
 me, of eours, and the crisis did not c(»me so soon as when 
 I had the trance, but if came soon enuf to .suit me- -and 
 others. I walkt the floor in astonishment that day. The 
 matter they poured thru me was marvelous. They made 
 me believ tha*. good and bad were being poured on my 
 brain, that it would all come back lo me afterwards, and 
 that my task would be to ejiarate the chaff from the wheat. 
 It was interesting beycmil mesure, but I did not suspect 
 that they were overworking my brain to precipitate a crisis. 
 I was amazed at the subtlty of their reasoning. Our logic 
 choppers ar not to be compared to them for keen-eyed 
 subtilty. They corner a man with their arguments before 
 he knows where ho is. 
 
 I took out my pencil, and as I used to be a reasonably 
 fast sh'^rthand writer 1 tried to take down some of their 
 arguments, but it was of n(.» use. Tlieir object would not 
 hav been attained if they had allowed me to get my at- 
 tention on my notes insted of on them, and the words 
 poured on me with the rapidity of lightning. 
 
 Shortly after this, whether the same day or the one after 
 I do not recollect, I was seated at dinner in a large dining- 
 room, and according to what seems to be unimpeachabl 
 testimony I placed my chair on the tabl. Now, I am not 
 % member of the Four Hundred— 1 am a Suneho from 
 
 ■ti 
 
 
 i I 
 
94 
 
 Ol'K UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 away "hack and will remain one, but I know very well that 
 a dining tabl is not the place for a chair. It is not C(jninie 
 il faui to ])ut it there. I remember all that happened to 
 me from the beginning of my troubl to the end, excepton 
 that occasion. 1 do not hav even the .slightest recollec- 
 tion of the naive littl incident. It may hav happened — 
 I do not like to be too obstinate, and I hav always ac- 
 cepted the statement of the eyewitnesses, but itisabhir.k 
 to me. T say again that it was possession, and I say fur- 
 thermore that [he alienist, celebrated or unknown, who 
 refn.ses to accept this theory di^es not know his business. 
 
 I was conveyed back to the hall, and I came to con- 
 sciousness and began to kick the shins of the attendants 
 in keeping with instructions I herd from below. This 
 was not only a crime- -it was a blunder, for they began to 
 kick back. After some littl skirmi.shing they got me 
 down upon the floor, and a muscular gentlman put his 
 fingers around my throat and squeezed hard. Now, T had 
 never studied fisiology, but froiu certain indicaticms I 
 knew that gras]) would make an end of Sancho Quixote in 
 a very .short time. His throat was dry and he coidd not 
 get breth, and that is not at all agreeabl under any c./cum- 
 strmccs. My unseen companions were around me too. I, 
 like cousin Hamlet, was the observed of all obs. rvers. but 
 not quite the mold of fa.shion and the glass of form. They 
 were literally choking the devil out of me, but it lookt as if 
 there would be nothing left when they fini.sht. There 
 were four of them, I think, and thev tni<>ht hav manaired 
 the thing in a more professional was-, but they soon be- 
 came possesst as well as myself, and the gentlman who 
 S(iuee7:ed went at it, as Plato says, for all he was worth. 
 Often as I go along writing a whiff of the same feeling 
 comes over me that I experienct on certain occasions, and 
 I remember now that scene, I hav n,)t thotof for months. 
 Mo.st of them ar good fellows, as I found out afterwards, 
 and they ar pleased to see you get well, but there is room 
 
lUSlDK A I.UNATir aSTTT.YM, 
 
 95 
 
 * ■■•■ 
 
 I 
 
 for some improvement in their manners A slij^ht dush 
 of Vere de Vere blood \v ukl bo of advanta;;fe. 
 
 T was taken down stairs to another ward and fot all the 
 way down — not with much success, for my hart was not 
 in it, and the hart, in Longfellow's frase, giveth grace to 
 every art. T thot I had to fight. I followed my instruc- 
 tions with hate in my hart for the hole business. I tried 
 hard to miss the leg of the man I was told to kick, and 
 the voice came thundering to attend to business. vSome- 
 
 ■ thing curious happened to me just before I entered the 
 new hall. A voice said to me quietly as I was going in, 
 — "Do not obey him any more than you have to." But 
 I was too excited to imderstand what was ment. 
 
 I went on fighting and otherwi.se making a fool of my- 
 self, altho I could hav cried for sheer vexati(jn. T was 
 perfectly conscious of it all and went on till I could hav 
 
 . fallen to the floor with weariness. Then the order came 
 again to strike some of the men. I was too tired, I was 
 
 • desperate. "Do your worst," I thot, and I refused, and 
 then that tyrannical voice that I would know among 
 a thousand to-day stonr.od at me, but it was too late. 
 The threts poured out like a flood, but T sat still and that 
 ended all danger to others from me. 
 
 I was told often enuf afterwards to strike men around 
 me, but it was well enuf understood on my side and on 
 theirs that the game was up. They made a joke of it 
 then. The doctor would ask sometimes, "What do they 
 
 • say to you?" a leading question that always set me smil- 
 ing to myself as it does yet. Now, it often happened that 
 just before he came forward they would say impressivly, 
 "Sancho, strike that man by your side so that when' 
 your frend asks you what we say you will hav something 
 to tell him." They do not hav a very high opinion of the 
 medical faculty. They know just about what some of 
 their theories on insanity ar worth. Possession, my trends, 
 possession, that is where a good deal of your "insanity* 
 
,. » 
 
 96 
 
 OUR UNSKKN (OMHANIIONS. 
 
 
 A' 
 
 comes from. A physical troubl, certainly, but evil spirits 
 take advantu^^e of it. It is .sdd to] think that we ar 
 further back than the Jews were in the time of Christ, so 
 far as the reason for a ^reat deal of mental derangement 
 is concerned. 
 
 From this day on, then, there was no danger to others: 
 I know, whatever the authorities may say. I hav spoken 
 of the only two instances in which I would hav harmed 
 those who were near me, in order that the case may be 
 stated plainly. I was rather sinprised and hurt afterwards 
 that I should hav lost control over myself, but there ar 
 the facts. 
 
 No danger to others, but a good deal to myself. The 
 attendants had kcpt::me from seriously injuring myself at 
 the worst crisis, but after they saw me quietened down 
 and seated they left me alone. But the demons did not. 
 I was seated behind a wood partition out of the attend- 
 ants' sight when the order came again to begin work not 
 against others but against myself. It seems strange that 
 I did not refuse, but there wa., another element added to 
 the fight — I was now savagely anxious to do what they 
 told me. Anything is better than this suspens, I thot. 
 They were pouring the horrors of the future on me in 
 such a way that I thot it would be a relief to know the 
 worst, and imseen by the attendants I began and con- 
 tinued till I was faint with agony. "It has been done 
 before and it can be done again. Go on ! " But I had to 
 give it up thru exhaustion. I sat down and was uncon- 
 scious for about half an hour. I did not feel the slight- 
 est pain when I avvoke ; I hav hot to this day, and yet 
 under normal circumstances I would hav been perma- 
 nently injured. 
 
 "Whatever happens to you," I had been told by a 
 frendly voice shortly after my troubls began, ' =will be 
 made all right." The days of miracls, we ar told, ar 
 over, but that incident has always remained as something 
 very mysterioi:s to me. 
 

 IN' IDE A IT NATIC ASYLUM. 
 
 97 
 
 As I am on an 'iplesant subject, I may as well finish 
 it by saying that - is was not the only time I would hav 
 been glad to go a: <! see what was in store for me. I hav 
 always held it to tiv lo the last dei^ace impolite to go be- 
 fore you get permission — as cowardly as it is foolish. 
 Bad as it can be hiiv, T hold that we hav no right toleav 
 our position to go l;.\ here when we ar not wanted by 
 those who seek our )> Lgood. "The gift we least desire, 
 the unwelcome gift < ' Mfe," I herd a patient speak of in 
 a recitation during iiic winter. I hav never found it to 
 be such. Plenty of -u'Tering, but you come out of it 
 stronger than when jiu went in, and not quite so foolish. 
 Take it all thru I consiuer that only a madman will ask if 
 life is worth living. Ji is a glory to liv. It is glorious 
 to know that you ar a conscious part of an innnens uni- 
 vers, suffer as you m.'iv. Of cours, there ar plenty who 
 find this erth a kind r . a hell thru no fault of their own, 
 and if there is one ' ling more than another to make a 
 man rage it is the f^ • inishness that is crushing down the 
 weak to-day as if tnjy did not belong to the same species, 
 but that is off the '^ uestion. I mean then, to say, that I 
 hav enjoyed life, that I now enjoy it, and that the best 
 thing to do is just to grin and bear your Iroubls as well as 
 you can, to envy no man or woman, resting assured that 
 all hav, like the old man, lots of troubl on their minds. 
 If you get really hungry, and can't get work, perhaps it 
 is right to do as Cardinal Manning said, put forth your 
 hand and take bred. Property — sacred property - -should 
 not be considered when men starv. But I ment to keep 
 that for another occasion. 
 
 For about two months then, on a few occasions only 
 when the torture was at the worst I fear that if I had 
 beer n a position to carry out my wishes you would never 
 hav red this book. An intens longing came to me that 
 was almost unbearabl just to end it all. Perhaps I could 
 Jiav resisted it if I had been at liberty, but I am not cer- 
 
 ^m 
 
1 
 
 ,;S 
 
 OUK UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 h 
 
 '•3,. :' ■ 
 
 ¥- '■ 
 
 .VI 
 
 tain, and the troubl is that once done there is no repair- 
 ing the damage. I knew it was my enemies who put the 
 desire there, but still once in a while it would come and 
 it was very strong. I now imderstand the verdict of tem- 
 porary insanity. I would amend it slightly tho. I would 
 make it — "Died while his mind was in the possession of 
 evil spirits. " 
 
 How did it come about, too, that i never felt the 
 slightest desire to injure myself before I was in a place 
 'vherc I could not do it? It never once crost my mind, 
 and I had one outbreak before I went to the hermitage. 
 It was not suggested to me either by the evil spirits. 
 Could it be that they were not allowed? "You ar ment 
 to do something when you become well," I was often 
 told. Could it be that I was ment to open men's eyes as 
 mine hav been opciid? I smiled in a kind of derision 
 when I was told so sometimes, and again I would believit 
 but incredibl as it seemed then you ar now reading my 
 story. "Another man with a mission," you say. Pre- 
 cisely. I understand the age we liv in fairly well. 
 
 A few days ago I met an old frend and he told me of a 
 case where a man had walkt forward to the brow of a 
 precipice and had to run away from it, there was such a 
 strong desire sprung up in him to roll over the edge. 
 Who put that desire there? I know. He told me of an- 
 other case of the same nature. A woman was sitting b», 
 fore a fire with her child in her arms and she had to fight 
 and nm away from the strong temptation to throw the 
 child among the flames. Again I ask you if you remem- 
 ber the saying about your adversaries, — "Not flesh and 
 blood, but principalities and powers? " They use flesh 
 and blood tho as their instruments. 
 
 When I awoke from the unconscious condition — not a 
 trance this time — the shouting began, "Where hav you 
 been for the last hour? " and wonderful stories were told 
 me of where I had been and what I had done. They 
 
 ^1 
 
 n 
 
 
 .:,..-.«• 
 
 1^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
INRIDF A I.UNATiC ASYLUM 
 
 99 
 
 U 
 
 would charm some of our occult fronds, but they were all 
 bottled moonshine, like the belief that is based on such 
 nonsens. 
 
 That afternoon I j.aw something float past me in black 
 drapery. I saw the picture of a frend on the wall before 
 me as plainly as I hav seen it in his books. Optical illu- 
 sions? Perhaps not. 
 
 Some ten or twelv years ago I herd George Francis 
 Train lecture. He stopt in the middle of his lecture and 
 said, — ''Well, how do you like it as far as you hav got? " 
 That is what I reel inclined to ask the reader. 
 
 Suppose it had been in a novel now, the reviewers 
 would hav jeered. . 
 
 ■4 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 LUV ANO HATt. 
 
 The campaign opend now in emest. There were no 
 more outbreaks; it was a question of endurance, undera 
 persecution that never ceast for a minute. 
 
 "We hav driven you from the best hall to one of the 
 worst, and even a fool can understand what that means. 
 The three months will soon be over and then you go out 
 in your coffin. Yeti, we know that is what you would 
 like" — for the thot came to me then that it would be ples- 
 ant to see the coffin at once insted of waiting so long for 
 it — "We put that thot into your hed, and we put it into 
 the heds of others too. It has been a fair fight has it not? 
 We ar not on your side, but we hav captured you. We 
 do not strike at you, but at others whom you do not see. 
 
 i 
 
 
IOC 
 
 OtJK I'NSF.EN COMPANIONS. 
 
 »■? 
 
 but who sullcr, my boy, who suffer, to see you caught, 
 There is no help for you." 
 
 Their hole endevor was to irritate me, to make me 
 jump, to thump on the tabl, to behave bke a mailman, but 
 during the whole lonj,'' struj,'^;! they sueeecded only twice, 
 and then only for two or three minutes. Without help I 
 could never hav endured the siege. Left with full power 
 over a man they could drive him mad in two minutes. I 
 know what I am writing about. 
 
 *'Y()U hav red a great many books like, the other fools 
 on erth. Did any of them tell y<ju how to get out of your 
 present troubl?" One of them had told me to keep away 
 from it, but I was wise when it was too late. 
 
 "Take the wings of the morning and we will follow 
 you. CJet yourself enclosed in a burglar proof safe and we 
 will talk to you." And the blasfemy began, and I felt as 
 they wanted me to feel about it — simply horrified. 
 
 If there was anything I admired it was trampkl imder 
 foot; if I thotof anyone with respect the torrent Ix^gan. 
 "Do you know that we enj(jy it, Sancho? Do-you-know- 
 ihai-we-luv-to-torture-you. " And as my hart would some- 
 times fail when T realized the dedly struggl before me, 
 inch by inch, hour after hour they shouted" — Yes, curse 
 you, wf know how you feel and we ar glad of it." There 
 was no rest wheu we were out walking either. ( )ne day 
 it was one subject, the next another. 1 remember the yell 
 that greeted me once -"lie is the supreme tyrant! lie is 
 the su]M-cme tyrant ! Why does he not take us out of our 
 misery?" I felt then as I hav <jften dune since that I hrl 
 commited a serious mistake. It horrified me to listen to 
 them, to know that sometimes in spite of their high-soimd- 
 ing words they were in misery, and I knew that 1 had no 
 right to be there listening to them. 
 
 But where had I herd that frase Sui)reme tyrant? Ah, 
 yes. Bishop Spalding wrote an articl some years ago in 
 which, .speaking of social questions and of the attitude too 
 
 I'ji 
 
 ■f ; , 
 
l.rV ANI> HATR. 
 
 lOI 
 
 many wen.' holdiiiiLif towards the future woiKl he said — 
 "God is solemnly tallcil the Supreme tyrant." 
 
 "Why does he not put us out of our misery then?" As 
 soon as I instinclivly protested aj^^ainst their assertitm this ' 
 question was shouted at me. 
 
 "Why d(jes he not yield then." There it is. That was , 
 what they a.skt me. 
 
 We ar not so frank about it, hut we pr; ctioally ask the 
 same question ofteuer than we tliink. Why does He not 
 ehan^e His plan, and adopt ours? 
 
 Some one has said that the difference between the re- 
 lipfion of the first century and oiirs is that then one sermon 
 converted three thousand men, while now it takrs three 
 thousand sermons to convert one man. They believd in 
 what they were preaching, and now some fif thc-m don't 
 think that there is a hi'll. 
 
 The frendly voices, helpt me ctmsiderably. If there was 
 only one side why should they hav eneoura[,aHl me and 
 tried to drajj me down at the same time? They cheered 
 me lip and told me that I would come out of the struggl 
 and liv my life with clearer lij^hts in the future. 
 
 "Concentrate your mind," they saiil, "concentrate and 
 keep at it. Interest yourself in scmiethinj^. (lo around 
 among' these men and speak to them. Never mind how 
 these spirits jeer ill ; ou. Keep going and you will g^rad- 
 ually get better. It will not make any difference where 
 you go. Vou will hav to fight it out, but we will help you. " 
 And when things were getting unendurabl they sung to 
 me till I got uplifted and redy for another bout. 
 
 But now I herd another kind of singing that I thot would 
 hav driven me mad for as you may hav alredy remarkt 
 I am proceeding on the assumption that I was a sane man 
 then. I met many of that kind in the hermitage. I was 
 at least, sane enuf to write the kind of literature you hav 
 been reading since vou egan this book. 
 
 The new singing \va:» ra' epic, fearful, past endurance. 
 
 ■,?=■'" 
 
 ms 
 
ro2 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONf. 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 it 
 
 
 Very often when the other kind began to soothe me this 
 started too, and murdered the harmony. It was all done 
 from beginning to end with the idea of destroying the poor 
 mortal who was in their clutches. I cannot describe the 
 bitter regret that filled my hart then. Would that I had 
 never been a fool ! A \\ ail as old as the world. 
 
 1 often thot to myself as the incredibl persecution went 
 on, — "If they take all this troubl to destroy me, only one 
 soul, they must be desperately in ernest. " It :s true. 
 The devil is an enthusiast, and we loll in fashionabl 
 churches, and gather millions and starv children, and do 
 his work in his own chosen way, 
 
 A great many times during this severe ordeal I felt 
 utterly defeated and did not care what became of me. 
 Perhaps a dozen times in all during several months, the 
 hole thing stopt for a few minutes as if by command and 
 I was very grateful for the short respite. "Do you know 
 that we can stop it whenever we pleas?" a quiet voice 
 sometimes askt me then. 
 
 One day the writing on the brain began again and went 
 on so fast that I could scarcely follow| it. I hav alredy 
 spoken of peopl whose past life has been flasht before 
 them in a few minutes. A great deal of my past was 
 laid open to me, but there was not so very iiuchplesure 
 in looking back over it, for it was mostly the unplesant 
 side. Who opend the drawers of memory? An excited 
 brain? Imagination? Things that I had done and for- 
 gotten a quarter. of a century ago came back one by one 
 to the accompaniment of the jibes of my enemies. 
 
 Some bright littl men wonder how the recording angel 
 is going to keep a strict account of their sins. Do not be 
 alarmed about any of the.n being forgotten, if you take 
 the evolutionary future. God's ways ar not as oiir ways. 
 
 Mr. Moody says in one of his sermons that he believs 
 that every man will stand speechless before God. He 
 thinks the record is within us. and 1 think that he is 
 
 '■'w. ' "ir '.■■■>. 
 
t 
 
 l.VV AND HATE. 
 
 T03 
 
 right. It is all there. Everything wc hav said, felt, 
 herd or suffered. • 
 
 I understand now as I never did before what Christ 
 ment when He said that we would be accoui:tabl for every 
 word spoken by us. The result we carry with us. There 
 is a good deal of truth in a cert'iin kind of evolution. 
 
 The books will not need to be opend in the literal sens* 
 All is taken care of, and if yoii g-et in the wron.!^ com- 
 pany you will find that what has been done in secret will 
 be shouted on the housetops. I li.iv herd my sins laid 
 bare one after another. T know what it means. It made 
 me -writhe occasionally, but there was no mercy. What 
 fools we ar to suppose that anything can be hidden ! 
 Memory will be hell enuf to a good many of us, if we in- 
 sist. After I became accustomed to it, I ceast to wonder 
 the hole thing lookt so natural. 
 
 The chief abiding place of these evil spirits was the 
 dining room. I did not understand the secret for months 
 afterwards. Torture a man when he is eating and you 
 retard his recovery, and they were at their worst during 
 meal hours. Voices ot fronds and rclativs living andded 
 would come, for these spirits take any kind of a voice 
 they pleas, and as soon as I sat down they began. After 
 they gave me good advice they would begin to curse. 
 
 "We cannot help it," they said. "It is the vSat.inic na- 
 ture in us. Wc ar like ycni, partly good and partly bad. 
 Sometimes the good gets the upper hand, sometimes the 
 bad." 
 
 Again I say, possum up a gum tree. It is not a very 
 dignified frase but it best expresses my feelings. 
 
 And so our .souls really swim around among the ether 
 while we sleep? Possum up a gum tree again. I know 
 who concocted those pretty ideas. 
 
 Back in his yung days when Suncho Quixote never 
 troubld himself about anything if he got enuf to eat, he 
 ran across a pretty littl poem ctunpounded in Cyrus tinies 
 
 .! 
 
 
 ■ft 
 
 
 
 ■'.'V 
 
 u* 
 
 
 'f4 
 
i.>4 
 
 ocK \'Nsf>N «»»A(rx\noN> 
 
 w 
 
 lUMi \hv i^vnuroso v;<s \.\\c i\o\\cv thnt \V(Ui :\\\ l\.svt>. A 
 
 thoil 
 
 OS uioiubor v>l ]\'ul;viuoiU w ;r-. \« ■■)MMisi 
 
 M r 
 
 »• \t 
 
 .Sir 
 
 S'l.itVovvl havl Ihhmi tcUiuyi tho ;\ssctnMrd \\i|s ,ui>l (lullaivis 
 tb,U v'vpr\is \\ .vs }j«MtUi to h»' i» j>r«M«i .u>}uisit \>mi d l"<>v 
 nothinvi ols ihan llu* jjttiti Ircc.v. wlico iho \\\.n\ >>i" tho oo 
 v'asio", \v;\>U\ — 
 
 • VhP »nmi (r«<<> r(«'h In loaf una l>i«w»ou» 
 Tortuo \hi' tuMVo of »h* opotiHnm 
 In rjrpi^jn Ki'OM w ■ hopo to m-t' 
 Noitlu>Moi>«rr»i) up t)iAt i\o<' 
 
 Tb.al u«i i\i.<t aiii^tlior ilhi.strati>Mi o\ [he \\<MuUitul r<T<'vM 
 
 Hut \vv* h.ul omii o( possum 
 
 ot ouv" inmvl o\ rv atunnov. 
 
 \u tlu- inoantir.io, 
 
 IWtvMV niv tviot'.d whom 1 hav iu vor soon oatno to as- 
 sist iiu\ 1 was tolvl bo was on the waw rb.< u liis pi^turo 
 1 hav spok<Mi o\ was ilasht on tl\o wall. 
 
 "I an\ sittiny; in my oiVuo in tho citv ot' "topia. but 
 hav OvMUO tv^ hol)i N^ni. 1 am \ory bnsv n<'w. but I oamo 
 at tho call ot" of.r mnttial t"r<Muls. Yvmi will v-omo out oi 
 tbo stru.cjil all rii^ht. Ha\o no t\\>v, " Ami tbo jiirtino 
 \ar.i,sht. Tbo \ vmvX'' 1 bopo tv> boar ono ^bo 1 boi\l ii tor 
 months atui, kn>n\- it woU. H\jn\»nism or roalitv. wbiob 
 i^.uo mo tbiO piotviro? Ar y»Mi so vor\- suro tbal it w as 
 b\ 'i^not-sm ' Tbovoiois ar roal. Wo know n* \t tv> notbiui^ 
 ot tboir powors. \Vb.\t ot" tbo pu'tiiioi* 
 
 On ;ir,otbcr oov asion 1 in^.i^i^iiul that ! s.o\ two t'voiuls 
 at a (iistanoe bv.t 1 was t\>v>U vl Wbon tbo porsons oanu' 
 noaror T s.nv tb.u T b.i»l bo^^n iV>lor blind. Tliis will .-otl 
 tbo picmvc wr/a the dootors. 
 
 I novor "saw" anytb.inc oxoopt on tboso ovvasions, un- 
 less 1 spoak ot" Muo liiibts. tbo oolor\^i boll 1 was assuroU, 
 and ibov K>okt s\-.spioio\ts. 
 
 I b.av SO0T1 a raan on bis knoos k'.ssnis; ,\'.\ " imav;inary" 
 uiotmv on tbo w..!;. bnt ho was in ernosi abo\it it. \\ as 
 the piot lire there' I hav seen another man spend nu^stot" 
 liis time ax>kinc •!* plesant pietures thrown on bis br.iin. 
 }{e was hypnotized to a eortaiu extent like the man who 
 
 I 
 
ll'V AND HATK. 
 
 '05 
 
 kisl llic wail. Ho saw th«« pict»»ros. I saw numy in \\\v 
 saiuo way, aH yoti noc the hovisc you wcro boni in if you 
 choose to think of it, ami thoy ar n-allv plosant to look at, 
 hut T knew what it niont an*l vliil not ituhiljio in it. It is 
 ilone very eaf^ily There t;i nonceossily for nluMtin^ your 
 eycM, btit it moans that spirits ar workinj.;' your hrain and 
 that Im iu)t altoj^cthor rij^hl, if you ca«» avoid it. A littl 
 coiioontnitioti saves y«»u from this plesanl hut fo«)lish way 
 of spend inj;' yotir time. 
 
 When 1 saw the pot)r fellow on (ho floor kissin^j the wall 
 they lafl atul said, "I>o you .sec that nuui, Saneho? Well 
 that is your brother. Come, now, no denial, Wear simply 
 leailiu); him alonj^ another roatl." 
 
 When hod-timo eamo 1 was more than anxious to lie 
 down and forj^jet my aiisery. The oidy way I found life 
 enduraltl was to take it day by day, almost hour by hour. 
 The future, the futtiro, was the burdet\ of their sonj^. 
 Keep peopl worrying over what is j;<u*n); to liai)pen. 1 herd 
 them, you do not, but ^they worry you in the same way. 
 What will happen if the sky falls? 
 
 I.,yin^ down to sleep was only one part, however. Some- 
 times I had to {\^hi for a eoupl hours of before I eould get 
 peaee; at «)ther times T c«>uld not sleep at all. It seems 
 rtll very stupid nt>w, but that unfortunate remark abotit 
 there bein^f m> voiees made me distrtist the doetors and 
 insted of tolling my troubls I bit my lip and kept my 
 mouth shut. A warm bath would hav 8avcd me many a 
 night of torture. Nor did 1 take any medicin for some 
 time- I had more eon fidenco in nature -I did not tell of 
 want of sleep, I did not believ the doetqr.s could do me 
 mueh good. After some time T got baek scnscnuf to be- 
 gin to build up the body, that my enemies were trying to 
 pull down. But "No voices!" Every hermitage should 
 hav a professional liar. 
 
 And so I lay and listened to the storm of imaginations 
 outside the window, and felt miserabl. They that is the 
 
 4 
 
 * 
 
 ':M 
 
 tyv^ 
 
 
 
io6 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 
 
 i^: 
 
 P ■■■^■ 
 
 imaginations -went on at such a rapid rate as to astound 
 me. It sounded like the clatter of a machine. How it 
 was done I do not know, but it was done to destroy all 
 chance of thinking. I simply had to endure it. It went 
 on every night for several months. You read of it in 
 a few minutes. It wasterribl. If I awoke for a minute it 
 began, and again it was a fight for sleep. Sometimes a 
 littl noise would awaken me, a very littl carelessness, talk- 
 ing on the part of night watchmen, which goes on oftener 
 and louder than doctors imagin, a dogtor hammering thru 
 the ward in defiance ot common sens, and I was in the 
 midst of my enemies. 
 
 Sometimes they would go far away, then come back 
 again and begin to work hart and soul. They would come 
 close to my bed at the worst time and whisper — "Sancho, 
 do you know where you ar? Well, we know. You ar in 
 hell, and you will never get out. " Perhaps you smile, but 
 I did not. It was far too serious. Mockery and bitter- 
 neso and hate every night and every morning. If ever 
 there was a humbl man on erth I was one then. * 'What 
 an ass!" I said to myself. "What right had I meddling 
 with this business?" 
 
 I often lay and wonderd why I should hav to endure it 
 all, "Surely," I thot, "fool as I hav been, this is too 
 much." 
 
 "Too bad," they shouted, "that youar in a place where 
 you can't kill yourself. Take the leap man, kill yourself 
 somehow and come over among us, we ar waiting for you." 
 
 Some nights I herd a loud voice as if in the room next 
 to the dormitory shouting as long as I was awake "San- 
 cho Quixote, Sancho Quixote, you ar doomed, you ar 
 doomed." I must hav herd my name a thousand times a 
 night. Sometimes I herd nothing els for several minutes 
 running. On anl on the torrent went with a velocity that 
 was awful. Yes, I can smile a littl at it now, but not very 
 much. They jest at scars who never felt a wound. 
 
 '.'•x'' 
 
LUV AND HATE. 
 
 107 
 
 -«• 
 
 "C.xn this be myself," I askt often. "How hav T got 
 into Kuch a mess?" 
 
 Many an hour I hav listened to them going on like the 
 whirring of a machine. There were two voices, and as 
 they had siicceeded in getting m ^ to bel'.ev that the one 
 hypnotized me and the other did not, I strained my cars 
 to catch the frendly one and tried hard not to hear the 
 other; and as there was just the least shade of difference 
 between them I had a weary task. It is needless to say 
 that both were trying to drag me further down by over- 
 working the brain, and that the slight difference in tone 
 was ment to keep me worrying at my failur'^o, for as 
 often as not I found that I was listening to the one I did 
 not wish to hear. Then, of course, I was reminded of 
 it, and askt if I understood the seriousness of my position 
 or whether I was going to do my best to assist my ene- 
 mies. Perhaps you might have done better, but very 
 often the fight filld me with utter despair. 
 
 I cannot understand how such a rapidity of speech can 
 be exercised. It was a marvel to me when I herd it night 
 after night, and the more I think of it the stranger it 
 seems. We know exceedingly littl of the powers our 
 unseen companions possess : — I know far more than I like 
 to think about. 
 
 The race question was also toucht upon during our in- 
 terviews in the dining room. My companion at the 
 tabl for a few days was a burly negro, and I found that 
 these evil spirits we do not see would fain try to keep 
 up the same bad feeling between the races that the evil 
 spirits around us advocate in the newspapers and reviews. 
 
 I am glad to say that my journey into the occult world 
 has but confirmed my views on the race question. White 
 or black, brown or yellow should be on the same footing, 
 according to my views. You fool ! You fool ! With your 
 antiquated ideas. And so you would not like to see the 
 negro on the same plane as the white? Do you not know 
 
 5 
 
 
io8 
 
 OUR un«;f.i-n (omfanions. 
 
 t4iat men ar brothers, not theoretically, but as a matter 
 of fact? I soon found out that there was no attention 
 paid to distinction of color amony^ the inhabitants of the 
 world 1 was in. If some of our|e>clusiv frends had a 
 short cours of lessons in that world they would under- 
 stand their bearin^i^s a littl better. 
 
 "There is Alck, Sancho, your brother in black, you 
 know. Do you hiv him? That is, do you really luv him? 
 'i'his is not theory now. Vou see he is at the same tabl 
 as you ar. Why do you not otTor him some of that cus- 
 tard you ar eatinj^? Is your luv for Aiek of the old sel- 
 fish kind we know so much about? No custard for Alek? 
 Just for Sancho? Perhaps he needs the custard. T)o you 
 supi)ose he hears voices? Do you still hear them? 
 Ik" kind to poor Alek, for he is a fool like yourself; curse 
 the hole bro(Kl of you." And then the tempest arose. 
 
 "1)(^ j'oii understand that white or black or yellow does 
 not make any ditYerence to us? It is a pity that the hole 
 race could not be swept away. Who made these men that 
 you sec there. Sancho? " and the answer was llasht thru 
 my mind by tcles^rafy which was not nearly so plesant as 
 when 1 first telt it in the orchard. "Then why did He 
 make tliem in that shape? They ar our handiwork, ar 
 they? What do you think of the hole scheme yourself, 
 vou whining hypocrit?" As I sat and listened to it per- 
 force, I often w(Mxlcred to myself what we were doinj; in 
 this world. I felt badly enuf over many thing's, but one 
 thing made me smile with satisfaction even at the worst, 
 and that was that I had done what I could for years to let 
 men see that it was not at all necessary to starv human 
 beings as we do now and fill ]M-isons and penitentiaries 
 and hermitages, — the natural outcome in too many cases 
 of our fiendish greed. Talk about men being possest 
 with devils! The country is full of them. 
 
 This part of the book you hav now red, practically as it 
 stands, was writu during my stay in the hermitage. The 
 
I.UV AND HATK. 
 
 109 
 
 most of what follows was writn from notes taken there. 
 But when this chapter was completed I folded up my manu- 
 script, packed my valise, and said good -by to the place 
 where I had lernt a good many strange lessons. 
 
 You think, doubtless, that I was glad to Icav it. In one 
 sens, yes. But I hav found out that it is a man's mind 
 and not his surrf)undings altogether that make his world, 
 and the last three months of my stay, during which I had 
 a parole to walk around the extcnsiv grounds, that made 
 up "my estate " as 1 came to call it. had been reasonably 
 plcsant. The last month I look back upon as one of the 
 happiest I hav ever spent on erth. Erly summer had 
 come, the trees were in bloom and all nature was throb- 
 bing with joy, and I lookt upon a picturesque part of the 
 world's surface and smiled. » , 
 
 I had a certain work to do, unplesant in some respects, 
 but T would hav no peace until it was done. Rlcssed is 
 the man, says Thomas Carlyle, who has found his work. 
 Let him seek no other blessedness. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. . 
 
 Fiendish Persecution. 
 
 I 
 
 Irritation is not a good thing, but the hole object of 
 my tormentors was to irritate me. Had 1 not been sus- 
 tained I could never hav endured the vStrain. 
 
 This is how Satan works. By some means or other he 
 
 captures your nervs to a certain extent, and you simply 
 
 jump when he or his agents pull the strings. You deny 
 
 this, of cours. There was never as calm a woman as vou 
 8 
 
 >i.^ 
 
no 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 
 i ■"■■' 
 
 ^ P:. 
 
 ^ .";'. 
 
 I' 
 
 ar. You never become anj^ry unless you hav good reason 
 for it, but your neighbor winks when you say so. 
 
 But if to-night, for cxampl, you herd the storm around 
 you, you might lose your control for a short time. We 
 get used to everything in time, the French proverb says. 
 But if you herd them at their work and they left you and 
 you were sinking back in a delicious sleep and suddenly 
 they were tearing at you again, what then? Perfectly 
 composed? You lern it after a while, but it is rather try- 
 ing at best. 
 
 "Concentrate your mind," they would she ut to you, 
 "concentrate, concentrate I" "You fool," the other voice 
 would come. "You hav no mind to concentrate. You 
 hav given it to us to use. Keep away from concentra- 
 tion. Remember what came of concentrating on the ceil- 
 ing. We want something done now. Both sides ar tired 
 of the struggl. You must make up your mind to do one 
 thing or another. " How would you enjoy it? It is a ter- 
 ribl thing to fall into a troubl of that kind. 
 
 I concentrated my mind upon a pencil occasionally to 
 see what would come of it. I now understand that it was 
 not just that kind of concentration that was needed, but 
 my opinions changed pretty often in those days, and I was 
 more than anxious to try anything that promist relief , but 
 the pencil and the sted^' gazing very nearly brot about 
 the old result. I usually got scared in time and stopt it 
 before trouVil came. I could not look at anything stedily 
 without feeling the troubl begin. 1 became very shy. 
 "What a ^:Ity it was that you did not hav some of that 
 caution a littl erlier in your career, " they shouted. 
 
 They laft often, and it was not plesant. No, it was not 
 plesant. It was a sore struggl. I was afraid to "concen- 
 trate" and afraid to leav it alone, "Why, man, just get 
 yourself into that state for a very short time and we will 
 reliev you of all your troubls. " It sounded temptingly. 
 
 I often tried the other and more sensibl plan of keeping 
 
 Bt 
 
 
 I -i 
 
FIENDISH PERSECUTION. 
 
 I I I 
 
 «t 
 
 < 
 
 ■<• 
 
 my thots as much as T could on any subjccl thai interested 
 me, and I mi^^ht hav understood from he opposition that 
 began that I was on the rij^-ht track; but we don't always 
 rise to the occasion. 
 
 On several of my dreary nights I saw something that 1 
 did not at all like. One or the men would suddenly rise and 
 stand in the middl of the floor and begin to shout, and 
 then they would say to me "Do you see that n\an,Sancho 
 Quixote? Do you know why he stands there and shouts? 
 Well," they would go on very quietly, 'it is becaus we 
 make him do it. Do you understand now? We*make-him- 
 do-it. Do you know what that means?" 
 
 I did my best to keep the idea out of my hed that 
 they had any such power. The mere idea, apart from my 
 own feelings, made me revolt. I could not endrre the 
 thot of men and women being used in that way. 
 
 *'You ar all pawns, every one of you, pawns, cursed 
 pawns." Oh, how often I herd that. There was no idea 
 they seemed to be so anxious to impress upon me in the 
 erlier days, but I always thrust it aside as much as I 
 could. I refused to yield to the idea, and so I refuse now, 
 for I believ in free will, and glory in it with all its dangers 
 more than ever, but I know now that there is not a littl 
 truth in the pawn idea. 
 
 I got one good illustration that amazed me about this 
 time. I hav got a good many since, but that is another 
 matter, for the doctors smile at them all. 
 
 I was sitting at a tabl trying hard to keep my mind fixt 
 upon a certain subject, while they were storming as usual, 
 when suddenly one of the patients who was near me rose 
 and came directly in front of me and began to say .some- 
 thing I did not understand nearly as rapidly as the spirits. 
 "Now, Sancho Quixote," said a voice to me, "do you yet 
 see that we hav ways and means of breaking up your 
 train of thot whenever we pleas? Do you yet begin to 
 see how the world is governd? Did you notice how 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^»<; 
 
 
 

 m 
 
 
 I 12 
 
 OUR UNSEEN (OMP ANIONS. 
 
 ([iiickly that man obeyed our orders? We sent that im- 
 puKs into him." 
 
 I know very well I was m a hermitage — I ot to 
 know fairly well that the avera^i^e man there does not stand 
 upon cercn'cmy — I make full allowance for all that. But 
 the action of this man at the particular time I speak o*' 
 was so deliberate that I could understand what it ment 
 better than I wisht. They took deli^fht, it often seemed, 
 in makingf men around me do just about what they sug- 
 j^^ested to them. Again I say I know where 1 was — again 
 1 say that I knew where to make allowance for any ec- 
 centricities that I saw. And so the lerned men say that 
 the dem(.)niac thci^ry of insanity has been given up? Ah, 
 gcntlmen, close your b(X)ks if that is all they teach you. 
 
 We ar not pawns, but we act sometimes as the me- 
 diums, if T may use a word I rather dislike now, of the 
 devil, or the mediums of God. Two courses, two ideas, 
 ar pkiced before us far oftener than we think, for the 
 mind is never idle, and we choose. Pawns do not choose. 
 
 "And you come here with your r.illy ideas of social 
 reform," they said. "Do you begin to realize the 
 magnitude of the tisk? - We forbid the banns. We 
 just simply forbid the banns!" A favorite ex- 
 pression of theirs. "Uo you think you ar the man 
 to change such work as you see going on behind 
 the scenes?" 
 
 Well, yes. I am, you ar, we all ar, for we can 
 not help it. We hav receivd this world to govern 
 and we can govern it as we choose, if we go in the direc- 
 tion that God wishes us to go, but there is considerabl 
 opposition that some of our theoretical f rends do not suf- 
 ficiently allow for. Guidance? Inspiration? Wisdom? 
 Do not be alarmed. That is always redy, on condition 
 that you ar willing to go in the only direction that can 
 bring ultimate happiness. W^e ar not dehcient in knowl- 
 edge, but we iir unwilling to use what \ve hav. • 
 
 s 
 
 I 
 
 p 
 
 ^i 
 
 
 . 
 
KIK.NDISH PEUSFX'UTION. 
 
 t I 
 
 We say somethin}:^ kind lo a freml: that is ilic spirit of 
 God speaking' thru »is in the hist analysis. We say sotne- 
 tliinj^ unkind, and Satan is usiiitr us. The (juestion is, 
 How much of each spirit ar we j^oinj^- t<t allow to filter 
 thru us? One or the other is seckiuLi^ expression every 
 minute of our lives. 
 
 We all know that the tuuj^'- is an unruly member. Satan 
 pulls the strin,i;s, and the mischief is done. "Oct thee 
 behind me Satan." Satan was usin.LV Peter then, and he 
 uses all of us in the same way. A thousand idle thots 
 shot thru the mind often issue in an u,ij-ly deed. It 
 takes him a lonj.!f time, but the patience of these evil 
 spirits is marvelous. 
 
 We ^-o thru suffering, but nature is kind, lor we forget 
 the pain, and often we forget the lesson as well. 
 
 "Don't you see"— and this may apply to some reader as 
 Will as it did to me — "Don't you see that it is wrong to 
 wish to die. Why, it is ridiculous. You will come out of 
 this struggl all right yet, free to do as you pleas just like 
 any one els. Never mind these threts. You ot to know 
 by this time that they cannot harm you. Satan, — we al- 
 ways call him vSatan here -the evil one, tries his best to 
 drag you down, but you will overcome your troubls in the 
 end. " 
 
 This kind of talk encouraged me, but a few minutes of 
 the other dumpl me in the mud again. What is that that 
 flows thru your nervs? Do you feel it beginning? and a 
 feeling of despair coming with it? That is the .source of 
 your troubl and not the voices, 
 
 1 past thru .several trances thai! did not more than half 
 like when I knew what they ment. Conversations went 
 on around me as in the first one, but none was so bad as 
 that altho dangerous enuf. In due time they ceast to ray 
 great relief. 
 
 1 had a great many visions that amazed me. I remem- 
 ber one that I thot very strange. » 
 
 
 
 
114 
 
 OtJR UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 ■\^' 
 
 I saw two tjrcat hosts in the c-Miter of a vast plain that 
 sloped ji^ently np *"roni the (»pen space between them. 
 The (te side was all drcst in white; the other in black. 
 I had been told that when I past the j^reat white army 
 they would all lal and jeer at nie and wave their hand- 
 kerchiefs fij^urativ I sui)pose, to humor our present 
 modes of thot and shout, "Renejj^-adel renej4ade!" 'Then," 
 continued my instructor, ''thru the hy])notic power we 
 hav over you, we will chanj^e your hart, and charj^c it fidl 
 of hati', and you will g;o over t() the black host." Take 
 service under the black flag", was the expression, — "and 
 that is to be you future destiny. Vour will is to be 
 ' handed You ar to be made a new man." 
 
 Another nij^dit I had a lonj,' trance and a vision. The 
 devil was busy, according to what I was told, separating 
 my soul from my l)ody. Latterly 1 found out that his 
 servant had been busy trying to hold on to the power 
 he had. 
 
 ''This is an old job with me," he went on, (piite 
 cheerily, and I listened to it all and was happy. "You 
 will soon be all right now. A short time and you will 
 join your frends on the other side. They ar waiting for 
 you. " 
 
 And they were: two companies, the one as before in 
 white and the other in black. I awoke and lay still. "Can 
 it be that I am decP " T askt myself There were no 
 signs of it, but I thot that perhaps the fault was mine, 
 and 1 rose from the bed to join my frends. Then I 
 groped around in the small room, and toucht the wall and 
 the laf arose. 
 
 " Hark ! they whisper : Angels say, 
 ■ Sister spirit come away !' 
 What IH this absorbs mo quite ? 
 Steals my seiiseB, shuts my sight, 
 Drowns my spirits, draws my l)reth 7 
 Tell me. my soul, can this be deth 7 
 
 " The world recedes, it disappears I 
 Heven op«us on my eyes .' my ears 
 
 '',t« 
 
 M- 
 
I 
 
 FIENDISH PKKSSCUTION. 
 
 ^ 
 
 'i 
 
 ■J 
 
 »'S 
 
 with BoiHiilH gfritflc iliijf ; • 
 
 Iitiul, UmhI yuur wliiifs I tuourit, I lly ! 
 0<Jriivj> : whcri» Im iliy victory? 
 
 <) licit', who r«« is tliyHiInK?" 
 
 Yes, ♦here ar such lh^UJ,^s as trances, and yet there ar 
 those who say that when tl)e body dies that is an end ti) 
 it all. There is somclhin;,; that can work when the body 
 is lying d(jrmani. Wliat is it? . 
 
 One ni.ijht I had a plesfint dream that showed meaclear 
 way out of my troubls, and I awoke hapi)y I had dremt 
 that all I had to do t«) obtain relief was to stone the spirits, 
 but I realixA'd very soon after awaking that there wer 
 some littl diffuullies in the way, and I dro])t iKick upon 
 thf. pillow amid the jeers and the latter of my unseen, 
 frolicsome companions who had sent the dream. Some- 
 times 1 had visions of another kind that T think on yet 
 with some plesure, altho 1 do not want to be in a posi- 
 tion to see anything of the kind again. I seemed to see 
 stars whirling around in their orbits so faraway, so far 
 beyond the grasp of our imagination in its normal state, 
 that I retain even now an idea of distance, of the vastness 
 of space that astonishes mc. We say that the erth whirls 
 around on its a.sis and rolls along its orbit, but we don't 
 realize just what it means, but then I seemed to be con- 
 scious that there was nothing l)elow us, that we were 
 really flying thru the air and a sens of the awful grandeur 
 of the univcrs fild my mind when the body was lying 
 
 "Who rounded in his palm those spacious orbs? 
 Who bowled them flaming thru the dark profound?" 
 
 
 if 
 
 4-^ 
 
 V, 
 
 iJt 
 
 
■i} 
 
 ii6 
 
 OUk UNSKKN COMPANIIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER X V I J . 
 
 Don't Mention It! 
 
 "I oould a tale UB'old whose lightest word 
 
 Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy yung blood. 
 
 Make thy two eyes like stars start from their aferes. 
 Thy "luoited ami corabiued locks to part 
 
 And eaob particular hair to stand ou oud 
 Like quills upon the fretful porcupine." 
 
 One of the vvorKt experiences has not been yet told. 
 Peopl in this world never know how happy they ar until 
 something- happens, and then they sigh for the days that 
 ar no more. 
 
 One day I was surprised to find a plesant odor of wall- 
 flower near me. I wondered what could cause it for a minute, 
 but that became clear like everything els. I seemed to* 
 liv in a garden for some time, and it was rather agree- 
 abl. Flowers of all kinds seemed to perfume the air 
 around me and I enjoyed it. It was a relief to find some- 
 thing of a plesant nature in the midst of the fight. "Let 
 them hypnotize," I thot. "I might as well enjoy some- 
 thing."' 
 
 Then they would throw the scent of some flower on the 
 air and my mind woidd wander back to boyhood. "Yes, 
 my son, that is how it used to be, but things ar slowly 
 changing for you now. You ar in a hermitage among the 
 other fools. You begin to realize, do you, what a happy 
 life the average man and woman leads on this erth? And 
 you wanted to reform it, did you? And you still hold on 
 to your ide:is do you, in spite of the fact that we hav told 
 you that we don't liiv them? Now, vSancho, there ar other 
 smells. I>o you feel that?" 
 
 
 i 
 
I 
 
 DON T MKNTION IT. 
 
 "7 
 
 Ves, I felt it and gaspt for breth. From beginning 
 to end I never said a word to my medical f rends on the 
 subject, for I knew it was no use. There ar no voices, 
 and no smells, and that settis it. But it does not, — that 
 is, not quite. 
 
 They laft and mockt at me when my calamity came, 
 and I could hav lain down on the floor and died. "It is 
 no troubl to .show goods!" they shouted. The bitter sar- 
 casm was hard to bear. I think that from beginning to 
 end this was the worst trial of all. Imagination, indeed! 
 No wonder the doctors scout at the theory of demoniac 
 possession, for that being granted a good many strange 
 things will follow. 
 
 "Yes, you poor fool, and you will feel it just as often as 
 we pleas in the future. Why, we could almost pity you 
 in your misery, if we had not led you on, but you see 
 business is business. Then what right hav you in this oc- 
 cult world, as you call it, hearing oiir misery? You will be 
 treated as we pleas now. Yes, write your littl book, if 
 you can, and tell your brother fools to keep away from 
 us and mind their own business." 
 
 Some unfortunates ar not only afflicted as I was, but 
 their food is turned to a putrid taste, I was mercifully 
 spared this trial. But I had enuf on my shoulders without 
 it. The chances ar that I would hav eaten my food in 
 spite of the taste had I been in their case, but it is hard 
 to tell. You say the food is all right — it is clearly hal- 
 lucination. Now, it looks that way on the face, but aryou 
 sure? Hav you quite fathomed the secrets of the hidden 
 world? Ar yuu quite sure that under certain circum- 
 stances they do not hav certain powers that make your 
 science of very littl moment? We thot we knew all about 
 the component parts of the atmosfere up till last year, 
 and then we were told of argon. What if there ar other 
 properties that we do not hav the faintest suspicion of? 
 What if our pretty'Jittl instruments ar not just fine enuf 
 
 ' i 
 
 ■■M 
 
 
 U! 
 
 
 ■ 4 
 
 ' "^ 
 
 ,J 
 
ii8 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 to gage all the mysteries of the univers? But this is high 
 treason, and the doctors will send me back to the hermit- 
 age if I am not carefiil. 
 
 One thing is certain, however, and that is, I was very- 
 glad that I knew something of the other side of the ques- 
 tion, for if I had been compeld to believ that I was so 
 far gone as to iniagin all I felt and herd the doctors would 
 hav had one of the worst cases in the hermitage on their 
 - hands, which shows that it is well to humor a man occa- 
 sionally. 
 
 There ar some things that seem to be too hard to endure. 
 Sometimes we become 
 
 " Weiiry with draxging: the crosfius 
 Too hevy for mortals to bear " 
 
 The horribl smells discouraged me altogether. 
 
 "Will you tell them of this in that wonderful book you 
 ar going to write, Sancho? " they askt often. 
 
 They enjoyed torturing me, we may say. Sometimes 
 I think they did, and again, I am afraid not. It is <i law 
 of the univers that no being can harm another without 
 suffering in some wa--' for his act. And they suffer, but 
 they seem to liv in i. frenzy of hate that leavs no room 
 for reason. 
 
 We ar not so thankful as we shruld be in this world. 
 We do not know the dangers that surround us. I red a 
 vers in a French testament to-day that I liked. It was in 
 Ephesians 6:12. Spiritual wickedness in high pla- es, is 
 the English version. Evil spirits ''n the air, is In w the 
 French put it, and that suits me better. That is where 
 they ar. In the air around you. 
 
 "Now, Sancho, you understand what it is to be an un- 
 clean spirit. Ha, ha, ha, that is a good one! We ar all 
 that way." Yes, there is a bitter world arovmd us. I 
 .shall hav something to say of an evolutionary future after 
 deth for all who reject Ciirist, but just remember this and 
 preceding chapters when you read it. Misery, unhappi- 
 
 
DON T MENTION IT. 
 
 119 
 
 ness and plenty of it. How :an it be otherwise when they 
 torture us? I came to understand that I had no right to 
 rage against tliem even while suffering. I pitied them, 
 for I could not help it. It is terribl. 
 
 I thot of a story of Captain Marryat, that I had red in 
 my school days — some Flying Dutchman legend, I think. 
 The imfortunate sailor had fot for years against the 
 demon who tortured him. Everything went wrong, 
 wrecks, misery, headwinds and rolling tides that- sent him 
 back to the old task, tired but angry, until one day he 
 came to himself and forgave his tormentor. I think the 
 worst man on erth would pity these beings. Talk about 
 your e\ olutionary future as you pleas, I do not want to 
 be in their companionship after deth. 
 
 It is the wrong they are doing. Somehow, I cannot 
 think otherwise than that they can ceas from doing evil 
 and lern to do well just as we can. God, we ar told in 
 the prayer book, hatcth nothing He has made. It is the 
 evil they ar doing and not themselves He hates. He luvs 
 even the rattlsnakes, and that kind of a luv is far abov 
 our reach. 
 
 They had told me w(4iderf ul theories of luv and hate 
 during the first weeks of my acquaintance with them. 
 Luv was necessary as well as hate. Luv was strong but 
 hate was stronger. Luv moved slowly, but hate went to 
 the mark like a flash. Satan and hate were necessary as 
 well as God and luv in order that the great plan of devel- 
 opment might be carried out, and I lay and wondered at 
 it r..U. Then they argued and reasoned with me about the 
 many theories that ar now afflicting our erth, and their 
 motiv from beginning to end was to show that a Savior 
 was not necessary — that each man was his own savior — 
 that it was survival of the fittest on both sides of the 
 grave. 
 
 They discu.st spiritism, theosofy, pre-existence and the 
 ologies that w" ar now occupied with, and laft at them all. 
 
 
 
 ?/* 
 
 
T20 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 I.I ■( 
 
 "Tell them if you like, Sancho Quixote, what you hav 
 herd. We do not care. We know the race too w.ell for 
 that, and if a man should rise from the ded we would still 
 be abl to deceiv them as we hav always done. Rut if you 
 do tell them anything at all be sure you do not forget the 
 smells- -stiuics we call them here. " They try to dt.-stroy 
 our helth : were these smells helthy? 
 
 * It is a pity that men and women will not sit down calmly 
 in these days and read the Bible without commentary 
 from Christian, agnostic, savage or filosofer. It is a true 
 book, but it means life as well as belief ; the **straw"epistl 
 of James as well as the parts that suit the taste better. 
 We hav forgotten the true meaning of that most sternly 
 democratic of all books, and used it like a thing of shreds 
 and patches and many of our higher critical, reverend 
 f rends hav led the way. 
 
 If, but here we go back to an implesant subject, — if the 
 smells were imaginary, why did I hav to sniff the air the 
 same as you do when you want to feel the odor of a flower? 
 You may say, why did I snuff at the air when I did not 
 expect to feel anything plesant but I had to — that is to 
 say, by some process or other, not so very mysterious after 
 all, the nervs in the nostrils were pulled for me. T inhaled 
 the air because I had to. 1 struggld hard lo keep my nos- 
 tils at rest but it would not work. WHio pullec them 
 against my will, especially when there was somet'.ing in 
 the air that waF not agreeabl? During the time it went 
 on 1 thot that the sensation was registered on the brain 
 without the need of anything to smell at. but why were 
 the ol factory nervs pulled? 
 
 When the worst of it was past too, a filosofik kind of a 
 thot struck me and I j)Ut my fingers to my nose and soon 
 the trubl ceast for the time being. Why, if it was imag- 
 ation? It was "in the air. " 
 
 
 ' ..IV I 
 
HYl'.lOTlSM MEANS TORTURE. 
 
 131 
 
 CHAPTER XVTII. 
 
 Hypnotism Means Torture, 
 
 The fight for sleep was very hard to bear. When you 
 ar falliiitj :/:Ieep you ar obliged to relax the will power — 
 you cannot very well solve a mathematical problem just as 
 you ar hovering on the borders, and then was the time 
 that they were busiest. 
 
 .A lievy, drowsy feeling would overcome me, and it 
 seemed as if in less than a minute I would be happy in 
 forgetfulness, and I often longed for the night to come, 
 just to get a rest, but rest came slowl iddenly, as I 
 
 would be falling over, I would get a twitch and a sharp 
 word — *' Attend to your masters, Sancho Quixote — " and 
 the soothing, delicious feeling would be gone, and I would 
 feel as wakeful as in the middl of a winter day. My brow 
 would be as cold as if it had been freezing, and I would 
 feel a current of cold air blowing softly over my face — 
 something that is very common as ''occultists" know, 
 "Then after a few minutes torture of this kind they would 
 say — "You will pleas go to sleep, Sancho, and do what 
 you ar told; we ar teaching you what the occult means." 
 The same longing for sleep, the same drowsy feeling 
 ^vould come on; -^n ^ntens, bitter desire for rest — just to 
 be let alone, or to be put out of misery. Then the old 
 plan was followed, and I was awake in an instant. Thus 
 it went on for an hour or two sometimes till I l-^y and 
 cried with vexation and anguish. 
 
 I had often wondered how men and women had found 
 courage enuf to suffe rat the stake but I thot then. that there 
 
t 22 
 
 OIJK IINSF.KN COMPANIONS. 
 
 were wors ways of torturinj:^ human beings. Deth is often 
 a welcome relief. One night was hn'^'l enuf,.but when it 
 went on regularly I could not help thinking of poor Job's 
 exclamation — "Wherefore is light given to him that is in 
 misery, and life unto the bitter in soul; which long for 
 deth, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid- 
 den treasures; which rejoice exceedingly, and ar glad 
 when they can find the grave?" " Ar you still keeping 
 cheerful, Sancho Quixote? Ar you still fighting it out? 
 Do you understand that the game is ours, and that we 
 can torture you as we pleas? Do you call that torture? 
 You fool, you know nothing about it. Cry away, my 
 littl man, cry away. It will ^do no good now. T'^ars ar 
 of no avail in this world. Is the littl man seepy? Seepy, 
 seepy eyes?" 
 
 Then they came close to me and said as they often did 
 — " Do you not realize yet that thi.s is hell? It is a, state 
 of the mind, you fool. Fire and brimstone is nonsens. 
 Do-you-understand-matters-yet ? And do you know that 
 you hav had several good chances to escape, but that you 
 mist them all ?" 
 
 Sometimes I felt as tho things were going too far. In 
 spite of the encouragement I receivd from frendly voices 
 it was too much, and they pumpt a. savage feeling into me 
 that did not do me any good. 
 
 "Ah, that's it, is it ? Will you indeed? Come away, 
 then, Sancho Quixote, we ar waiting for you, and will 
 give you a cordial reception. " 
 
 Then sometimes a mock peace would come and I wuold 
 be told that my frends were being sacrificed for me to 
 giv me relief, and I would wonder why I had been bom. 
 
 " No one is being .sacrificed for yon. There is nothing 
 of the kind here. Be natural, be natural." 
 
 " No," the others would respond to this encouragement, 
 and the agony would begin again. "You cannot escape 
 torture bv coming here. Annihilation ? There is no 
 
HYPNOTISM MF.ANS TORTURK 
 
 123 
 
 w 
 
 t 
 
 such thing. A nice kind of a man to attempt to destroy 
 spirit! Tlic thing is not done. Thutis what we want, 
 but we cannot get it. If you come here you will be a 
 wandering, imclean spirit with consciousness and mem- 
 ory. Take a kindly advice and remain where you ar. 
 All those who come by that route regret it." 
 
 And I knew that there was nothing for it but tight. T 
 knew the end of it if I sat down and became despondent. 
 In fact, I was not allowed to do so. I soon came to un- 
 derstand that there was help for me, but I had to do 
 something for myself. If I tried to sit down under it 
 too long the torture became worse, (rod sends us help, 
 but He expects us to do something ourselves. I thot, too, 
 that perhaps it was as well for me to fight it out even at 
 the worst as a matter of self-respect. I had red a good 
 deal about mental suggestion, and kept their influence out 
 of my mind as much as I could by filling it with some- 
 thing better — a fairly good plan for you, altho you ar not 
 in the toils — just yet. We read bad literature and listen 
 to bad talk and think but littl of it. Some day you will 
 fight against it for your life if you go to the evolutionary 
 future, and then ymi may find that it is not an easy mat- 
 ter to escape evil ideas. 
 
 " Don't you understand that very few come thru your 
 struggl. You ar ment to do something in the world yet, 
 and you will come out of it all right. Concentration, 
 faith and prayer. Concentration, faith and prayer." 
 
 And M'hen I felt that the waters were flowing over my 
 soul and it seemed that I could not endure it longer, help 
 came at once and remained with me till 1 was at peace. 
 
 For about a coupl of weeks I had a struggl with another 
 kind of a foe. Whatever you may call that substance — 
 od, or anything els you pleas, it is not altogether a ples- 
 ant thing to feel it in your system. It seems to pass thru 
 you from head to foot as stedily as tie beating of a puis. 
 
 Between eleven and one? every day for the time I speak 
 
 I 
 
 % 
 
 >6 
 
 , Sni-t^ itiiiT^ ' 
 
124 
 
 OUR UNSEF.N COMPANIIONS. 
 
 
 
 
 KM 
 
 of, it was worst. It went thru me like a flood, and it was 
 so strong that I thot I should hav fallen on the floor. The 
 desire to sleep was overpowering, butinsted of yielding to 
 it as I should do now, I fot against it, for 1 was afraid that 
 they were going to throw me into a trance and make me 
 speak as they pleased, and this did not suit me. • 
 
 I was strongly tempted just to lie down, to end it all, 
 to let them do anything they pleased with me but I strug- 
 gld on and on from day to day waiting for the letter that 
 never came. 
 
 To sleep, as our Danish frend says, would hav been 
 simpl en^if, but I was not quite so sure about what might 
 take place while in that state. Sleep is natural, certainly, 
 and I would run chances if called to go thru it again, but 
 I knew something of what happened to others when they 
 yielded, and that put a new light upon it. The man who 
 believs all the experiences we read of ar imaginary, would 
 never hav hesitated. A littl knowledg is troublsom. 
 
 I ventured to whisper my condition to two of the doc- 
 tors. One does not wish to be suspected of harboring too 
 many delusions in a hermitage. It is not quite plesant. 
 
 *'It seems to me, doctor, that I am under some kind of 
 hypnotic influence." "Sleepy, eh?" Only that and nothing 
 more. My unseen companions laft loud and long, as they 
 had a right to and I subsided. Possum up a gum tree. 
 
 And yet, and yet Dr. Charcot, who knew something of 
 the subject, told the French peopl that in less than fifty 
 years prosecutions for witchcraft under another name 
 would be CO Timon. 
 
 We became fixt in our ideas after a time. 1 was so set- 
 tld in mine, so far as these fenomena were concerned, that 
 it was useless to try to change them, and the medical 
 authorities ar just as settld in theirs. 
 
 But since I am digressing, who gave me the address of 
 a letter that I wrote about this time to a friend? I did 
 notknow where he livd, but he got the letter as I directed 
 
 ■i>i 
 
HYPNOTISM MKANS TORTURK. 
 
 125 
 
 I 
 
 it. I herd a voice tell me the address. Was it imagin- 
 ary? Very stranj^e that my imap^ination will do such 
 things. Very strange that such cases can be red of by 
 the hundred, if you ar still so far behind the times as to 
 need such instruction. 
 
 A frend who wrote rne said very sensibly that the hu- 
 man brain can only give off what it has receivd. How did 
 it come that I herd words that I had never listened to on 
 erth before, and never want to listen to again? I could 
 not have imagind them, and yet they came. You 
 wonder sometimes where a great many of the expressions 
 we hear come from, Think it over. 
 
 I would begin to wonder why 1 should be suffering so 
 much and they seldom failed with their explanation — 
 "Natural law, natural law. There is no use praying. We 
 ar all insane as well as the peopl riround you. " And some- 
 times they wailed in a mocking way that made me hidf 
 shudder, not thru fear, for you get used to everything in 
 time, but becaUvSe I knew they were suffering. There was 
 no mockery about some of their wailing. 
 
 But the time came when 1 could lie still and suffer and 
 be strong enuf to bear it, and then it was that all danger 
 to myself past away, and I felt relievd at the change. I 
 had said but littl abcnit my fight to any one near me, for 
 I had found after several trials that it did not do much 
 good. Nonsens! If they were real voices why should I 
 not hear them? 
 
 There is room for great improvement in our model her- 
 mitages yet. Sometimes I was shockt to see how a few 
 of the patients were abused. I might as well say here 
 that so far as personal treatment was concerned, except 
 on one occasion, I had nothing to complain of, but I could 
 not endure to see some of the other men abused. I found 
 that nine per cent of the attendants were really good 
 harted and willing to do anything for you, but a few of 
 them get careless and use their strength where there is no 
 9 
 
 
 
 m 
 
' ^ 
 
 1 id 
 
 OUR UNSKF.N TOMPANTONS. 
 
 occasion iur it. Very often they ar too young for such a 
 position. 
 
 •' Tliat is the way always," catnc a frendly voice to me 
 one day as I was tliinkin^ that the riyht kind of men would 
 not knock a man down and kick hini as some I was near 
 were doini*-. * 'You j^a) alon.c;- in your ordinary way well enuf 
 pleased, but as soon as troubl comes you want Christian 
 men and women to help you. '' A't this be a lesson to you. " 
 ''Then," I replied, forg-ctting" my usual habit of not ask- 
 ing questions, "In spite of all the arguments we hav 
 herd Christ was really divine ?" Rather a singular cpies- 
 tion for me to ask, for I believd that lie was, but we like 
 sig"ns and wonders in all generations. 
 
 "Can you doubt it now after what you hav herd and 
 suffered?" 
 
 It would be unfair to close all the chapters without 
 making a humbl bow to the profession, and I will narrate 
 a littl incident that amused me somewhat when a laf was 
 valuabl. 
 
 I had fallen into the habit of keeping my teeth clenched 
 during the worst of it. and my frends ofen told me in a 
 derisiv way that I was on the wrong track. "Ah, mon 
 ami on the serre pas les dents ici — on serre les pens^es. 
 Yes, I knew that it was necessary to sc[ueeze the thots 
 insted of the teeth, but it was difficult work. 
 
 But it was necessary abuv all things to try to keep my 
 teeth shut as 1 was falling to sleep — a difficult task. If 
 my mouth opened the teeth came down like a i it trap 
 sometimes on the tung, and I did not enjoy it .>y any 
 means. A frend, a believer in the old fogy idea of im- 
 aginary voices, to whom I described this aflfliction, askt 
 me if T did not think that it was perhaps due to worms. 
 This was a new idea. I hav been obliged to take different 
 ground from the faculty on the questions discust in this 
 book, but if there is any way of making I'amende honor- 
 able over the worms I am redy. Serrons la main, Mes- 
 
HYPNOTISM MKANS TORTURE. 
 
 127 
 
 sieurs, et vivent les vers, et les pommes de torre frites 
 aussi. ^ ■ 
 
 s 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Demons and the Armenian Massacres. 
 
 . We ar sometimes very anxious to pierce the mystery 
 that lies behind the veil, but, as Longfellow says, the 
 havens abuv listen to our impatient questioning^ and giv no 
 answer. We might not be quite so happy if we knew all. 
 It may be that we ar still not quite strong enuf to know 
 everything. 
 
 I ofen felt that I herd far more than was good for me. 
 When I realized my position I did not want to hear any 
 more, but I had to submit. 
 
 At first when I was under their influence I felt sickened 
 at the task they got me to believ lay before me. * * You 
 must do what every one who comes here has to do — tell 
 the whole story or say noihing at all. Let pcopl under- 
 stand this great battl that is going on between luv and 
 hate. Do you begin to realize what kind of a battl it is? 
 Did you ever hear of another trinitj^ than the Christian 
 one? What does the Mahomedan religion mean? The 
 devil is never idle, but he lays plans and works stedily. 
 What do you think of our plans for fighting Christianity? 
 Who took hold of Mahomet and used him and made him 
 believ he was serving God? Who took hold of men in 
 the olden times before Christ came and laid plans to meet 
 Him? Who has hold of you now in such a way that you 
 cannot escape? Just the devil, you fool! and he will use 
 
 '.*» 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 :^,^.'-:ism 
 
128 
 
 ©UR UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 you as he does others, and a great deal in your book will 
 be used in his service. " 
 
 I had rather admired the parlament of religions at 
 Chicago, but I lookt upon it now in another way. But 
 before we can criticise other religions very much we shall 
 hav to do something ourselves as well as bcliev something. 
 Not argument but deeds, and luv, not selfishness. One 
 man with a hundred millions a Christian, and another 
 Christian starving? Read the New Testament for shame's 
 sake. 
 
 When the Armenian massacres were reported from day 
 to day it was horribl for me to listen to the lafter and 
 gloating. Evolutionary future indeed! 
 
 " Who is triumfing now?" they askt. War and massa- 
 cre going on and ev il spirits gloating over it all, and here 
 the church parlors ar being turned into drill grounds, and 
 boys ar being taut how to kill their fellow creatures. 
 
 " Sancho Quixote," they said once as I sat and red of 
 the latest Turkish outbreak, " just be kind enuf to stop 
 your hypocrisy pleas. Do you understand that your 
 Christians in the United States would not giv up their 
 dinner to save their frends in Armenia from starvation? 
 Just one dinner?" 
 
 I would rather not think of what I herd at that time. 
 If you think it best to risk the evolutionary future I fear 
 that you will hav some very wicked companions, and it 
 may be hard to rise. 
 
 If the fashionabl churches and millionaires of our time 
 could only realize it, I thot often: if they knew how 
 things ar, they would surely change, but they hav never 
 changed in human history, and it begins to look as if they 
 would have to be forct to do their duty now as ever. The 
 rich men of America, says Bishop Spalding, must do 
 their duty or perish. 
 
 ♦' We hav tumbled civilization after civilization, do you 
 understand ? And this one will go v;ith the others. Did 
 
 ' 
 
 \ 
 
 » 
 
 t I 
 
THK DKMONS AND THK ARMF.NMN MASSACRK.S. 
 
 tag 
 
 If 
 
 .1 
 
 you ever hear of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, (Ireecc, Rome 
 and the rest of them? Ot all the fools who ever came 
 thru you ar the worst. Do you think that your pretty 
 reforms would change such a world? You ar all yung, 
 but we ar old hands at the business. Write these things 
 down if yuu dare. If peopl were stoned to deth in Old 
 Testament times for meddling with things they La'^ no 
 business with, you can judge what will come to you if you 
 persist in your determination to write what you hav 
 herd." 
 
 *' You hav prayed and you know that others ar praying 
 for you. How does it come that you are not yet releast?" 
 
 One day I red about two old women, both nearly ninety 
 years of age, who were sent to jail becaus they could nol 
 pay their rent. It was the only place for them it .seemed. 
 After their long life that was the end of it. 
 
 ** Read on, read on !" a.id their voices mingled with my 
 mind as I lookt at the paper, and they repealed word for 
 word. " There is your fine Christian civilization. That 
 is what it means. You hav made a study of it, and know 
 it pretty well. " 
 
 I sometimes wonder if the crisis can be ion or delayed. 
 How long can it last ? Brutality and indifference on all 
 sides, and sneers for any one who proposes a remedy. 
 Was it not thus in the days of the fathers? Reform? 
 The idea is foolish! There is no need of it. The man 
 who speaks of it is a crank, r fanatic, or anything you 
 pleas. Down with him I and the newspapers almost 
 without exception stand for ths rich against the poor. 
 But there is a world around us where millionaires and 
 emperors stand upon the same footing as the man who 
 sweeps the streets. This world does not end the brave 
 show by an> means. 
 
 We do not know very much ; but we do know that good- 
 ness and luv, and not hate and selfishness, must rule this 
 world — that belief is good, but action is necessary. Our 
 
 
 i 
 
130 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 intellectual frends ar wrong. I listened for months to 
 beings who ar far abuv our best in intellectual attain- 
 ments, but there is something v/rong with them. "Barren 
 intellect, barren intellect," I often sighed as I listened to 
 
 them. 
 
 They know, they feel, they suffer, and I believ we 
 should not jest at them, as we often do, for it is a serious 
 business. But we might easily lern from them that the 
 solution of our troubls will hav to come from heds under 
 the control of harts that feel for others. 
 
 'V. 
 
 -•^ 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 "jEius, LuvER OF My Soul." 
 
 If you listened to any one speaking for several months 
 you would hear a good dea^ more than you cared to read 
 afterwards. It would take half a dozen volumes to write 
 down all I herd, but one is sufficient to enabl you to 
 judge whether it is wise to venture in among the inhabit- 
 ants of the hidden world before our time. 
 
 As a change from your ordinary condition how would you 
 like to go round the circl for a few weeks as if you had a 
 a bridl on your hed? My ears were affected in a way that 
 was not only painful but very provoking. It was as if 
 they had been made of a kind of rubber. When you press 
 a rubber ball with a small hole in it the air is squeezed 
 out— when you releas the pressure the air fills up the 
 space. One, two! one, two! one, two! on it went regul- 
 arly, exhaust and supply, and they amused themselvs at 
 my expens. At that time I had not come to imderstand 
 that the work on the pillow was jiot just what they had 
 
r* 
 
 JESUS, LUVKR (.)K MV SOUL. 
 
 My 
 
 led me to be'iev, ami I had the idea that they kept my 
 ears open thru this prowss. And they held me lo tli'c 
 beh'ef by eaiising a sensation as if the troiibl lay in some 
 way they acted on the atirosfere. 
 
 Yes, I smile at it now, but keep elear of hypnotism, or 
 you may believ some things that ar a trifl off color. "It 
 cannot be that there is anything of the sort in my ears," I 
 thot ofen. 
 
 ''Indeed, indeed." the reply would come, "and what 
 does that mean then?" And they would "close " the ear, 
 and I would feel relievd for a short tinie. Then they 
 "opend"it again and amused themselves with me as a 
 cat does with a mouse. 
 
 " How does it feel to have a bridl in the ear, Sancho? 
 That is how we ar going to govern you when you get 
 'flossie?' " That was the favorit word of theirs, I hav 
 a fair theoretical acquaintance with slang, but I do not 
 remember having met their favorit at any time. 
 
 They would leav me alone for a while and I would be- 
 gin to think of what I would do when I left the hermit- 
 age. I would tell my experience so that others might be 
 warned; I would do this, that and the other thing to try to 
 do some good in the world when .suddenly they woidd be 
 back. 
 
 "We just took off the power for a short time to see how 
 
 you would behave and you ar back at your old flossiness 
 
 again. Now, we don't like that. We ar on the other side 
 
 of the fence, and you ar not going to carry out these fine 
 
 schemes. It's this agressivness of yours —this awful 
 
 agressivness, that bothers us. Now you ar going to be 
 
 punisht for your presumplion," 
 
 I did not understand that they themselves had .sent all 
 the fine schemes into my bed and uinua.skt at the proper 
 time to discourage me when I thot tliat they were going 
 to say gO(.d-by. But they said good-by in this fashion .S() 
 often, that there was soon a nmtual nnderstanding that it 
 was played out— overworks 
 
 
 m 
 
 '■a 
 
 .,(■'. 
 *'-.', 
 
 
T 3 
 
 
 %$» 
 
 OWR UNSEFH COMPANIONS. 
 
 Very often I was deceivd in thinking they were speak- 
 ing, when later on I found that I had been listening to 
 human voices on the other side of a wall or a closed door. 
 I say very ofen, for this was the case. I w^ould be busy 
 reading rr writing, and the murmur would be going on as 
 usual, but I, of cours, would pay as littl attention to it as 
 possibl. If I let my mind turn to the subject, however, 
 sometimes found that I had been listening to another 
 kind of imaginary voices — the ones you imagin you hear 
 when your neighbor speaks to yoa. What is it Willie 
 Shakespear says about imagining things? 
 
 "Or in the night imagining some fear 
 How easy is a bush supposed a bear." 
 
 I went further than that: I did not ,know whether the 
 bush was the bear, or the bear was the bush. 
 
 They took a delight, it seemed, in causing me to feel 
 warm spots over my body for some time. They varied in 
 size from a dime to a dollar. Hallucinations? Well, like 
 the ears, they were physically painful. When you put a 
 moderately hot iron to your skin it maybe a hallucination 
 you feel — there is a sort of an [occult sect teaching that 
 doctrin to-day — but Sancho Quixote would not advise you 
 to try the experiment. It burns; it hallucinates ; and so 
 did the ones I felt. Now on the hart, burning, and un- 
 comfortabl, now on the back, now on the arm, now any- 
 where they wisht them to be. Read up on hypnotism and 
 you will find that tliere is nothing strange about this, Hav 
 men not been hypnotized so that a blister on the left arm 
 woiild rise and another on the right applied at the same 
 time would nt)t? Who does the hypnotism you read of ? 
 Men? Some of them think so, and I used to, but now I 
 am not sure about it, or rather I am. Voices real, heat real, 
 smells real ! You ar on dangerous ground, Sancho Quixote. 
 
 Why did I not speak of all these things? Becaus I thot 
 that my. work in life lay outside the walls of the hennit- 
 
JESUS, LUVER OF MV SOUL. 
 
 ^3i 
 
 
 age. That was one very good reason for silence. With 
 the W. K. C. U. A. L, I knew enuf to hold my tung. 
 
 GiUj^ing of both kinds had stopt for about a coupl of 
 months. Those who were helping me knew that I could 
 not resist the temptation of listening to it, and the others 
 were not allowed to sing. That is what I think of it now. 
 Had they sung to me insted of cursing they would hav 
 held me far easier. But one day I was out walking among 
 the other patients feeling pretty discouraged over the strug- 
 gl, for the voices had been shouting higher than before, 
 when suddenly as if from the sky abuv us loud and clear, 
 glorious in volum, rolling along like a river, a grand chor- 
 us burst out singing, 
 
 " JesuB, luver of my soul. 
 Let me to thy bosom fly. 
 While the nearer waters roll, 
 WMle the tempest still is high." 
 
 They sung the hymn, and I listened entranct. It was a 
 grand, joyous burst of harmony. It remains a plesant 
 memory to me, for I never herd singing again during my 
 stay at the hermitage. - . 
 
 The New Testament is a pretty fair guide for time and 
 eternity. There ar evil spirits around us, as we ar told, 
 but there ar good spirits too, and they sing praise to the 
 Savior we luv on erth. 
 
 It is a pity that we.Jorget the lessons we lern in the 
 Bible, but being much wrot iipon, in these days, we ar 
 perplext in the extreme. 
 
 It was alternatelv exhileration and de.speration as it is 
 with others to a greater or less degree. Nature, we say, 
 is taking care of us. Evil spirits pour in despondency, 
 and we ar redy to sink, but the good Spirits take control 
 and our harts ri.se. In a crisis like mine both .sides mani- 
 fest their powers in a much more pronounct way, and I did 
 what I could to further the work of those v/ho were up- 
 building. 
 
 m 
 
 ■-''1 
 
 - ..^ 
 
 ".I 
 
 ,1 .(' 
 
 :n 
 
U4 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 1 ^^/. 
 
 "God is luv," I kept repeating to myself, as I reasoned 
 it out and fot inch by inch becaus I could not do any- 
 thing els, as despair ment more torture, " I want to rise, 
 and it cannot be that He will not take care of me and 
 help me. I must come out of this, and I will come out." 
 Altho a few minutes of their work soon turned me to an- 
 other view there was nothing for it but to begin over 
 again. • 
 
 Five minutes of sleep thru the day sometimes made 
 me feel like a new man, but it was hard to get it. When 
 I did succeed I was often awakened by some of the 
 patients touching me or hammering around in one way 
 or another. When I was awakened in this way the jeers 
 arose — ** Do you understand how the world is governed 
 yet? Do you see how easily we break your littl nap?" 
 I wanted sleep then and not theories. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 Rejoicing as a Strong Man. 
 
 After lying around like a plutocrat for a coupl of 
 months I concluded that it would be better for me to do 
 something to keep my mind away from my persistent 
 enemies, and I began to write for a few hours a day on a 
 subject not in any way connected with my troubls. I 
 found it hard and tmplesant work at first. Only those 
 who hav past thru the trial can understand what a strong 
 desire rises in you to lie down and let things drift as they 
 will. 
 
 It is a good idea to keep occupied with some kind of 
 
Kh'.J(JlC:iN<.; AS A STRONG MAN. 
 
 .S3 
 
 manual labor, but it is a littl risky for a doctor to put 
 tools in the hands of a man he is not sure about. 
 
 I \\ rote on stedily after I got in harness, a few weeks 
 afterv, ards, and altho the noise was kept up outside it 
 gradually lost distinctness of tone, and after a few months 
 I seldom herd the well modulated voices which had 
 tortured me so much. 
 
 -' You will soon be strong enuf to do without our aid," 
 the frendly voices told me as I became better, and I 
 tried time and again to do without their enc niragenicnt, 
 but as often as I tried the screws were turned on and I 
 called for help. 
 
 '* We cannot stay with you much longer," I herd and I 
 felt that I could never survive if left to the mercy of the 
 demons. • 
 
 *'Do not listen to that," another voice would say. "We 
 cannot leav you. We cannot leav you, and we would not 
 if we could. We will be with you to help you under all 
 circumstances." 
 
 Then I tried again and failed, but the time came when 
 they left me and I never herd them again becaus I did 
 not expect them. I was strongly tempted to wish for 
 them on many occasions, but managed to resist. The evil 
 ones tried me a thousand times by using encouraging 
 words as if from my frends, but altho longing for a word 
 I knew that they would not comeiuiless I wisht them and 
 I resisted. Then I was left with the evil spirits, but the' 
 strength to resist them was furnisht. 
 
 I hav often felt beaten when a change would come as 
 if bymiracl. Some doctor said lately that if you gave 
 him control of your nervous system he could tuake you 
 smile even if plunged in the depth of grief, or change 
 your feelings as he pleased. Supposing, as I belicv I hav 
 alredy suggested, that our unseen companions hav our 
 nervous system partly under control and help orhinderus 
 ;is we ourselvs decide it is t<> l)e 1)y our Hvi'S anJ by our 
 
2 
 
 i3» 
 
 C.VK IJNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 prayers? Hundreds of times it seemed that I coiild not 
 endure the savage attacks but strength came and I got thru 
 them. 
 
 They hung on in the dining room and t,he dormitory to 
 the last. My hart often sunk as I past the threshhold of 
 the door until I came to understand that they workt that 
 littl change themselves to make me feel uncomfortabl. 
 You ar redy by this time to accuse me of painting Satan 
 blacker than he is, but I cannot overdo the subject. 
 
 I found out in the earlier days that several of the bodily 
 functions can easily be deranged while one is under the 
 power, and that it is well to pay as littl attention as pos- 
 sibl to the feelings that arise within you in consequence. 
 
 When you understand, for exampl, how fear is produced 
 you ar not .somuch afraid of it. 
 
 They kept me from smiling when I was eating, and I 
 concluded that they were trying to derange the stomach. 
 I had to listen then, as only a filo.sofer can eat and con- 
 centrate at the same time. The stomach, the medical 
 men assure us, is in intimate connection with the brain, 
 and the evil spirits ar evidently good fisiologists. 
 
 At first they had told me to fast, and I stniggld hard 
 to obey their instructions, but the faculty put an end to 
 that cours. 
 
 " Doctor," said the attendant, "he has not eaten a bite 
 to-day. He refuses to eat." 
 
 I did not say why I had refused to eat. They made me 
 believ that it was a religious duty. Had they not fasted 
 in Bible times? This, however, was during the second 
 i week of my stay in the hermitage. 
 
 ''Theu," said the youngdoctor, looking me over as he. 
 
 f thot with pride how easily science could surmount a littl 
 
 ' difficulty of that kind. "Then we shall hav to toob 
 
 him, "and " toobed " I was. It was not a plesant way of 
 
 taking food, I concluded : let science whistle; I'll follow 
 
 the old route after this, and I did, altho they kept harp- 
 

 REJOTCINO AS A SIRONG MAN. 
 
 137 
 
 ing on me to fast on the sly, I did it for some time, but 
 the doctor gave m^e a tonic, and I became shamefully 
 hungry. 1 was clearly not cut out for fasting. 
 
 I felt that I could hav eaten enuf for three men, and 
 I usually ate enuf for two. But ravenous as I was they 
 put an end to it several times. I mean that I would enter 
 the dining room as hungry as a bear, eager to get at it, 
 and then I would sit down unabl to eat more than a 
 morsel, while they laft and jeered and curst. 
 
 "And so you expected a gorge, you swine that you ar. 
 That is how we stop it. " Claude Bernard said long ago — 
 "We may, in short, produce any disorder r^'i the organic 
 functions which mark the crisis of fever, for exampl, by 
 acting upon the nervous system and upon that alone*" 
 
 But one day we went into a new dining room and the 
 voices practically stopt at meal times. "Some new trick, " 
 I said to myself, and paid no more attention to it, but I 
 found that I was relievd from most of the persecution. 
 I was as much surprised as any one could be. What could 
 it mean? I could not understand it, for I had forgotten 
 what a good f rend wrot me after the outbreak. I was away 
 from the hermitage before the explanation struck me, and 
 here I shall digress far enuf to say that I was told that ex- 
 planations would come to me at the right time by a pecu- 
 liar process and they hav. 
 
 I did not know why the outbreak came so soon after the 
 trance and the writing on the brain, and I did not know 
 why the voices stopt in the new dining room, but I dis- 
 covered in time to use the information. 
 
 The voices stopt in the new building becaus it was new. 
 The old one was charged with the evil influences, for hun- 
 dreds of men met in it every day. 
 
 Did you ever smile at the idea of haunted houses? Do 
 you think it is a good idea to crowd so many possest men 
 together? Sancho Quixote, who has helpt to build a good 
 many houses, outside of the castls in Spain which ar his 
 
 ■■-.*■ 5 
 ■xm 
 
 ■a 
 
 
i3» 
 
 OUR UNSF.KN COMPANIONS. 
 
 peculiar pride, has always thot that hermitages, hospitals 
 and all such institittions should be built on the cottage 
 plan, but Sancho is a trifl erratic. If he were a czar now, 
 however, and had full say on the matter, as all well-bred 
 czars hav, he would strenuously insist on the cottage plan, 
 and classification of patients, let the alienists say what 
 they pleas. But we ar off the track again. "Herd them 
 together," say the alienists. **Mix 'em up and let'em 
 rustl. That i«^. the way to cure 'em. " Pity they don't 
 mix among them and liv among them themselves. That 
 would be a fair test of the value of their theory. 
 
 I cannot express the plesure I felt when I could sit 
 down and rest like other peopl. I knew what a bless- 
 ing it was and appreciated it more than I had ever done. 
 It used to be a short, sharp fight and they had me under 
 the spell, but now there was peace, even if I knew well 
 enuf they were redy at the slightest weakening on my 
 part to begin the old game. * 
 
 All that long persecution, after they had lost their hold 
 upon me, was simply to overwork the brain. When they 
 began to send the thots into my hed in the morning 
 when I was in a passiv, half-av/akened condition their 
 end was the same. Keep the brain working for twenty- 
 four hours a day if possibl, and the crisis will come. How 
 I escaped so easily as I did when they sometimes kept me 
 listening all night is a matter of surprise to me now. 
 
 It was a great relief to get rid of one of their peculiar 
 methods of reminding me that they still had an influence 
 over my system. "Now we ar going to punish you for 
 that," they would say, and a sharp pain would shoot thru 
 my hed. It seemed to rise at the base of the brain and 
 go over the whole hed in an instant. I was warned in time 
 very often, and came to expect my punishment as a mat- 
 ter of cours. Sometimes I would be indulging in a littl 
 dream of future work and the quick twitch would be given 
 with the words — **No more of that, pleas. You hav gon« 
 
 J 
 
 •a 
 
 
kKJOlCINr. A?; a f^TRONd MAN, 
 
 139 
 
 
 far enuf. No? Yom will not stop? Then how do you like 
 that? And that?" I did not like either the pain or those 
 who inflicted it, but that did not seem to hav any effect 
 cm them. If these voices were ima^'-inary how did I know 
 beforehand when the twitch was comin^jf? 
 
 We ar very complicated machines, but one thing is 
 clear to me now, and that is, that we ar all acted upon 
 thru the nervous system whether we ar willing to believ 
 it or n(jt. If we allow the system to become deranged, 
 unplesant complications ar sure to follow. If you ar ner- 
 vous, you ar irritabl, becaus your system is in such a 
 condition that the evil spirits whose work is to make 
 troubl on erth can act upon you instantly. 
 
 You ar speaking quietly to your frend, for exampl, 
 and she says something that does not pleas you, when 
 suddenly, before you know how it happened the hasty 
 word is out and a littl more hell is let loos on erth. 
 " Howdid it happen?" you ask yourself afterwards. " In 
 my inmost hart I really do not believ what I said." It 
 happened because there ar unseen companions at your 
 side and they act upon you unmercifully if they can, and 
 conquer you. 
 
 I hav been a pupil in their school and they hav .shown 
 me the machinery at work. I hav a realization of these 
 things now that changes the face of the univers for me. 
 I used to believ that there was actually a sky abuv our 
 beds, but one day I came to understand that there was 
 nothing there but space, and I livd in a new kind of a 
 world. So it has been with this experience. It has not been 
 all loss. 
 
 It is worth something, becaus it is well that we should 
 take our bearings in these times. The New York Trib- 
 ime of April 19th, 1896, tells iv:, something of the age we 
 liv in that is worth reading: 
 
 " It is a glorious privilege to liv in this last decade of 
 the nineteenth century and to feel the pulsations of its 
 
 'J 1 
 
 
 JJI^^UX 
 
 A fji 
 
t4« 
 
 OUR UNSKFN COMPANIONS. 
 
 r-eat living movements. . The young man who finds 
 mmself abl to take a part in the onward rush of things 
 to-day whether in the specialised fields of religious fil- 
 antropic, sociological or political eifort is indeed to' be 
 envied. He may and often will doubtless be puzzled • he 
 may, and doubtle^^ will make many mistakes, but if' he 
 works faithfully and conscientiously he will hav the su- 
 preme happiness of knowing that he has done something 
 to make the world better, sweeter and purer than it was 
 before." 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Demons Swkar. Do You? 
 
 " Lord of all beinK. throned afar. 
 Thy glory flamee from aun and star." 
 
 " O who is like the Mighty One 
 Whose throne lain the sky. 
 Who compasBeth the univers 
 
 With His all-serchlng' eye? 
 At whose creativ word appea.-d 
 
 The dry land and the aea? 
 My spirit thirsts for thee, O Lord, 
 
 My spirit thirsts for thee. 
 
 Around Him suns and systems swim 
 
 In harmony and lisrht ; 
 Beside Him harps angelic hymn 
 
 His praises day and night ; 
 
 Yet to the contrite in the dust 
 
 In mercy turn will He : 
 My spirit thirsts for thee, O Lord. 
 
 My spirit thirsts for thee." 
 
 " He taut mo language, and my profit on 't 
 l8 1 know how to curse." 
 
 That is what poor Caliban said, and there ar many like 
 him to-day who seem to think that cursing is the best use 
 you can put a language to. But it is a mistaken idea. 
 
 " But I say unto you swear not at all ; neither by heven, 
 
DF.MONS SWKAR. DO VOU? 
 
 »4I 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 for it is God's throne; neither by tho erth; for it is His 
 footstool; neither by Jerusalem; for it is the dty oi the 
 Great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy lied, becaus 
 thou canst not make one hair- white or black." This is 
 what our Savior said. " The fooiish and wicked practice 
 of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and 
 low that every person of sens and character detests and 
 despises it." This is ,vhat G(jor;>e Washington said. 
 
 And yet in the land that George Wa.shington did so 
 much for, there is, I am afraid, more cursing and swear- 
 ing than in any« other under the sun. The name of Jesus 
 Christ who speaks so plainly on the subject of swearing 
 is herd from tens of thousands as a curse, and yet 1 hav 
 herd a friend say who had reached man'; estate before he 
 set foot on these shores, and who had workt among men 
 who used profane language, that he .lad never herd 
 Christ's name used in this horribl manner but once. 
 
 A writer of sens told us some years ago that the Jewish 
 boy used to put his hand before his mouth as a mark of 
 reverence when he came to the name of Jehovah; but 
 here the littl urchins in the street hurl it as a curse at 
 their companions. 
 
 While I was .it the worst of my fight I often said to the 
 f rends who encouraged me, "What can I ever do to repay 
 all this? There has been so much help that 1 feel I can 
 never do anything to show my gratitude. " I often thot 
 of the various reforms that we ar working for to-day and 
 wondered if the beings near me did not sympathize with 
 us ih our desire to make the lot of the poor easier. 
 
 "Suppose," a voice said to me gently one day. "that to 
 us the putting down of the awful swearing and profa lity, 
 and abuv all the taking of God's name in vain, would 
 mean far more than all these reforms? Try what you can 
 to put it down. Don't you remember what you herd so 
 often during your first days here? Godisluv! God is 
 luv! Do what you can to makepeopl ashamed ot this habit 
 
 lO 
 
 •t" "iHy 
 
 '1 /, ■'/. 
 
 
 ...... 
 
•»f! 
 
 142 
 
 OUR UNStEN COMrANIONS. 
 
 I :■ 
 
 and you will find it growing more intolcrabl to you every 
 day." 
 
 I found the saying a littl hard. vSince my thotless school 
 days 1 had not been guilty of swearing, but greau r 
 than the Utopias and the ghjries of the new civilizati(;n? 
 Yes, I am inclined to think greater than these. Let us 
 try in our poor, feebl kind of a way to real i/X' what(iod is. 
 Look up at the stars. There I hav always found my 
 answer in the time of troubl and doubt. Awful in glory, 
 awful in grandeur, throned in the midst of the hevens. 
 must this great bring be, the Maker t.^f the univers, and 
 yet, and yet, we dare take His name in vain and use it as 
 a curse. His stars and planets, millions upcm millions, 
 roll around their central suns from age unto age, and 
 the immens systems themselves ar flying thru space 
 around some central point as yet unknown, Wf iv dust 
 before Him in one sens, and yet His sons in ano "Su- 
 
 preme tyrant" indeed! If one of our pr(Hid ones neld His 
 power for a day he would crush any one who dared use 
 his name in vain, and yet n word is more used in this 
 day by those who swear. God 's luv and He spares us. 
 It is humilating to think of it. 
 
 Do you know how men lerned to curse and swear? Has 
 this book opened your eyes? 
 
 There is a certain kind of excuse for almost all kinds 
 of sin. It is wrong, wicked and foolish, of cours, but there, 
 is a certain kind of a reward in it, or the devil could not 
 trap so many of us, but what can be said of swearing? 
 Does it fill the stomach, or contrilnite in any way to make 
 life easier? It is worse than the worst kind of in.sanity. A 
 man is insane to use his Maker's name as many do. It is 
 madness. I herd so much of it from fiends that I thot I 
 should hav gone wild simply to listen to it. 
 
 I used to wonder if the good spirits herd it, but the an- 
 swer came — "No,no, we do not hear it." — Will those who 
 go to the evolutionary future escape this? — "but we kn(*w 
 by the effect upon your mind what is going on." 
 
DKMONS SWEAR. UO YOU? 
 
 143 
 
 i>. 
 
 Does the New Testament not speak about a great j^ulf 
 that is fixt between thcni? "It hurts us," they said some- 
 times, "to see you standing there thinkinj^ that these ar 
 your own thots. " 
 
 I was in the same position as John Bunyan's Christian. 
 How dojs honest old John put it? 
 
 •'I took notice now that poor Christian was so c(m- 
 founded that he did not know the sound of his own voice. 
 Just when he was com injjf over aj^ainst the mouth of the 
 burning pit one of the wicked ones got behind him and 
 whisperingly suggested many grevious bhisfemies to him 
 which he vcrily thot proceeded from his own mouth, but 
 he had not the discretion to stop his ears" — Alas, John 
 Bunyan, perhaps he could not — "or to know from whence 
 these bias fomies came. " 
 
 Yet it goes on in erth as in hell and we keep silence. 
 
 Now this habit can be given up. In spite of the efforts 
 of demons, for they send the si.'ggestion, we can keep a 
 watch over our tungs to that extent at least. When a 
 man will whisper — "Stop swearing, there ar some women, " 
 and the swearing comes to an end, it simply shows that 
 there is but littl troubl in giving it up altogether. It is 
 evident that we shall hav to re-write some of our books of 
 ettiqiiet. "Ladies" ar held in higher esteem than their 
 Maker, and this is not just as it should be. There is a 
 want of proportion about it. We hav come to look upon 
 cursing and swearing as matters of cours. If our eyes 
 were opend as Elisha's servants were we would suddenly 
 come to our .senses and change our lives in a good many 
 ways. 
 
 I herd a minister say the other day that if one in six of 
 the Christians in the United States .should make up their 
 minds that they wanted something done nothing could 
 stop them. I think he spoke the truth. 
 
 Robespierre once said that ten men of exalted character 
 who had fully made up their minds that they wanted some- 
 thing would end by getting it. 
 
 -ft 
 
 
 
 "}) 
 
 "Vy 
 
 ':^ 
 
t 
 
 144 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 
 <^':'U' 
 
 %^.i 
 
 
 
 In the old days it was a very serious matter to become 
 a Christian. They threw them to the wild beasts in the 
 arena for standing true to their convictions. And now 
 they stand by and hear their Maker insulted without a 
 YTord of protest when the law is on their side. 
 
 The voices that I had* lerned to trust spoke to me 
 ernestly upon this matter. "Self-respect should not 
 allow you to stand by and listen to it without rebuke. 
 What if it does hurt their feelings? What of your own 
 feelings? Are they not to be considered? Self-respect 
 ot to make you say ' Pleas do not swear in my presence,* 
 or something of that nature to put an end to it." Then 
 the other side came in with the same voice and told me to 
 stamp it out; to let every one I herd use language of this 
 sort understand that they had to giv it up on the instant. 
 It was the old story: speak in that tone and raise more 
 hate insted of doing good quietly. 
 
 I hav herd quite a number of church members cursing 
 and swearing as if it was a matter of no consequence. To 
 this complexion hav some of our Christians come. Satan 
 uses insane men for mouth-pieces, as a rule, but he uses 
 some of the pillars of the church too. 
 
 There is one oath that I hav herd men excuse in this 
 country by saying that it docs not mean anything. I hav 
 herd some really good Christian men whom I respect 
 using it as a matter of cours. It may be interesting to 
 them and to others to know that from beginning to end 
 of my experience I found that it was the favorit oath of 
 the demons. Can it be possibl that it really has a mean- 
 ing that we do not understand? 
 
 "Pierce the tung of the blasfemers," Savonarola 
 shouted in the old days in Florence. What would he say 
 •n modern America? 
 
 / . 
 
 * , I 
 
AN EVOLUTIONARY FUTURE. 
 
 '45 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 An Evolutionary Future. 
 
 *' The fear o' bell'H a Imairman's whip 
 To baud the wretch in order."— Burns. 
 
 " There's a wideness iu Ood'a lueroy 
 
 Like the wideneuB of the lea. 
 There's a kindness in his Justice 
 Which is more than libsrty. 
 
 " For the luv of God Is broader 
 
 Than the mesures of man's mind; 
 And the hart of the Kternal 
 la most wonderfully kind. 
 
 " But we make His luv too narrow 
 By false limits of our own, 
 And we tnajjrnify His strictness 
 With a zeal He will not own."— Fahkk. 
 
 sift 
 
 " There Is an old belief 
 
 That on some unknown shore 
 Beyond the sfere of prief 
 Dear fiond? shall meet once more. 
 
 " Beyond the sfere of time 
 And sin and fate's control. 
 Serene iu chfing:^ less prime 
 Of body and of soul 
 
 " This creed I fain would keep, 
 This hope I'll not forjo, 
 Eternal be the sleep. 
 If not to waken so."— From " Life of Carlyle," by Froude. 
 
 . ','1 
 
 r?.' 
 
 " And if there be no nioetinff past the grave. 
 If all is silence. darknesB, yet 'tis rest. 
 Be not afraid, ye waiting ones who weep. 
 For God still giveth Hiw beluvtd sleep. 
 And if an endless sleep Ho wills— so best."— rriaZey'g Tomhttont. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone said recently in the " Nc rtii American 
 Review," — " This much we may presume to say: Had the 
 divine revelation been intended to convey to us that time 
 
 *i 
 
 ^'' 
 
^i 
 
 S'.','^"^ 
 
 146 
 
 OUU UNSKEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 
 
 '..•"S 
 
 
 r ■'/ 
 
 is an iiidispensabl incident of the future life, and that 
 eternity is no more nor less than the unfolding of an im- 
 measurabl roll of time, it seems probabl that the Bible 
 could and would hav employed some terminology evi- 
 dently adapted tu that purpose. But such is not the ter- 
 minology actually given us. For, in dealing with the 
 condition of the righteous in the world to come, our 
 Savior builds not upon terms of time but upon reunion 
 with Deity, 
 
 And in touching with greater reserv upon the condition of 
 the wicked the image presented to us is either simply 
 negativ, as in the case of the five virgins, or it is one of 
 suffering without reference to duration, as in the outer 
 darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of 
 teeth; or, it is associated with words which etymologically 
 and by use signify the indefinit rather than the infinit. 
 Some of the passages without doubt introduce the awful 
 image of finality. But such presentations arlieid by some 
 to be of extinction and total disappearance, rather than of 
 a miserabl existence co-extensiv with that of Deity, and 
 they may be possibly susceptibl of other explanations at 
 present hidden from our view, Tn any case this great 
 diversity of delineation may be thot to indicate .* purpu.se 
 of reserv." 
 
 So much from one of the foremost and most lerned men 
 of the age on a subject we ar all more or less interested 
 in. Another distinguisht man wrote a series of articls 
 on " Happiness in Hell" a few years ago which did not 
 meet the approval of his superiors at the Vatican, but the 
 truth is that the Sanclios canspeculate just about as wisely 
 or as foolishly with respect to something that none of us 
 knows very much about as the Gladstones or the Mivarts. 
 As I hav had some littl expericiice with something that 
 seemed to be hell enuf to satisfy any one, my views ma}- 
 be interesting enuf to those who ar looking for information 
 about a quartei that all wise men and women will shun. 
 
 ^M 
 
AN KVOLTIONARY KUTURK. 
 
 M7 
 
 ^ 
 i' 
 
 Another, and what seems to be a popular view of hell, 
 and lieven too, for that matter, is that each of us carries 
 his future inside of himself. ''We ar lost," the traveler 
 said to his Indian }:;^uide. "Indian not lost," was the 
 reply. ''Trciil is lost." So in the future according to 
 this theory the Indian cannot be lost. He remains. He 
 will carry his g'ood and bad ciualities across the border, 
 and grow better or worse as he feels disposed. If he 
 wants to rise he will get all the help that is necessary; if 
 he persists in going d(jwn the path will slope very easily 
 in that directitm. 
 
 On the face of it this looks a very plausible theory. 
 The child grows and becomes ahoy, the boy grows and 
 becomes a, man, the man grows after deth and bc;CGmes 
 an angel. 
 
 The idea of everlasting piraishment is awful: it is hor- 
 ribl beyt)nd description. Some years ago I walkt thru 
 hell under the giudancc of our gloomy frend he late Mr. 
 Dante of Italy. I took up his book the other day to see 
 what I might find to help me out in my ideas of the abode 
 of the wicked, but 1 threw it aside with loaihing and 
 disgust after I had red a few cantos, A hell of that S(;rt 
 would set the whole human race in rebellion. No wonder 
 Lombroso says that his countryman was mad. I think it 
 is in the beginning of the life of John Bunyan that Froude 
 says that such a punishment may be according to law but 
 it is not according to justice. 
 
 Everlasting punkshment if we could but faintly realize 
 what it means would turn us all mad. " I knew when I 
 first herd the doctrin," savs a distinguisht agnostic of this 
 country, "that it was a devil's lie from the hart of hell." 
 
 For a good many years I scouted at the doctrin. T could 
 not believ it. (rod is luv, I reasoned. Everytliiug moves 
 on harmoniously and in good order in His univers. He 
 would never create human beings for even a thousand 
 years of agony let alone an eternity. Put sin at its worst, 
 
 
 --■:4 
 

 148 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 and I belicv none of ns can conceiv of what it is in our prCvS 
 ent life, lie will look upon our transgressions as we look 
 upon tlKxse of children. He will punish us for them in 
 order to let us understand that it is impossibl for sin to 
 remain unpunisht, but it will be as when we punish a 
 child in some way or otlu^r to train it up to become bet- 
 ter. Ho must show to an intelligent univers that sin can- 
 not go without punishment — we ar not His only creatures. 
 But an eternity of punishment such as only the hart of a 
 savage could conceiv — for this is how most peopl feel 
 about it if they deal faithfully with themseivs — for a pun- 
 ishment of the sins of even the worst man who has ever 
 livd. and especially from One who knows all the various 
 hidden springs of human conduct? How do you like it? 
 I hav herd some speak of it as if it were the most natural 
 thing in the world, something it was not necessary for 
 them to troubl about. They escape, as we may all do, 
 but as we know very well we do not all do, for the plain 
 truth is that millions die without accepting Christ, but 
 can they remain calm when they think that tl.'eir brothers 
 and sisters ar going to be punisht forever? 
 
 How many men and women really believ it? How 
 many of them ar acting as if they believd it? Lands, 
 houses, ertlily glory would be of no account with you if 
 you really believd it. You would throw everything* aside 
 and plead with your fellow men ni^ht and day to escape 
 from the awful horror. 
 
 How many men do this? What do you think of a man 
 who believing this doctrin will calmly sit in his library 
 and i'ead till his brain turns on such subjects as the 
 authorship of the Pentateuch, of Isaiah and of all the rest 
 of the theological lumber that few men care very much 
 about, while he knows that many of the men and women 
 he meets ar on the way to an eternity of agony? I think 
 that his hart is in the wrong place. It will not do to say 
 that he opens his church and everybody is welcome to 
 
AN EVOLtlONARY FUTURE. 
 
 149 
 
 listen to him — if they will not listen he is clear, and so 
 forth. Is that the way you take it? That man you talk 
 to sometimes — the men and women you .see pass your house 
 every day in the year ar on the road to an eternal hell and 
 you sit still and read the latest novel? You don't believ 
 it. 
 
 We look oui brothers and sisters in the face as we sec 
 them go by, and we ask ourselves, Would we do it ? 
 Would you do it? You might hang a man — I think it is 
 wrong to do so, and of late I am inclined to think he 
 may easily work us more harm ded than alive if he is so 
 disposed, but would you torture him for a year? From 
 every corner of the land th : ' em order would come to 
 put an end to it. God is luv, and yet we believ that He 
 would torture men eternally. We would not do it for a 
 year, and yet we calmly assert He will do it forever, and 
 we go on and amuse ourselves and crush helpless wretches 
 in the slums, so that the chances ar nine out of ten that 
 they will go in the wrong direction, and we talk of punish- 
 ing them eternally for it. 
 
 You hav cornmitted many sins when you were a boy, 
 we shall suppose. How do they look to you now ? Fool- 
 ish, wrong; you know that it would hav been better if 
 you had not sinned, but do you, now that you know the 
 nature of sin better, think that you deserv to suffer for 
 ever for the evil deeds you did in your youth? 
 
 I used to lie with hell raging all around me and specu- 
 late over it thru the long nights, and ask myself, How 'f 
 it should be like this eternally. This, I said, is for a 
 few months. My own folly has brot me here, and not any 
 visitation of God. I am here as the result of His laws be- 
 ing set aside in one way or another, at one time or another. 
 Who is to blame for the suffering on earth now ? Every 
 man of us who has sinned since the days of Adam down, 
 says Carlyle, and it is true, altho not all the truth. Others 
 besides mortals are at the work. 
 
 
 ■J 
 
 
 ■^ 
 
ISO 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 JJ..1 . 
 
 ■>is , 
 r' - 
 
 if, "■ ■ 
 
 t-" 
 
 What if this should go on eternally? I thot. I am afraid 
 that like the agnostic I hav alredy spoken of, we would 
 be inclined to call God the keeper of a great penitentiary. 
 
 Sin works its own destruction. We shall be punisht if 
 we sin, and when after deth we realize the nature of sin 
 betterthan wedonow I belicv that unless we accept Christ 
 our suffering will be hard to bear, but without a minute's 
 respite from the torture? That is a hard saying. No 
 wonder that Barnes said that it was all dark to his soul. 
 I do not like the thot that any will be lost. Go over the 
 list of the worst men you can think of — consider their en- 
 vironments and dierr heredity, — consider the tempta- 
 tions the devil lays before us all and look into your own 
 hart, and you ar at least willing to acknowledge that you 
 would like to see the agony stop before a million years. 
 No? Most of us would like to see Nero singd for a time, 
 but after a while we would be anxious to reliev him im- 
 less he wisht to remain. Think it over. 
 
 One day I was seated at dinner without the usual ac- 
 companiment of the voices. 1 did not know what the silence 
 ment when suddenly the following message came — ''Men 
 and women who accept Christ hav their sins cast behind 
 God's back, while those who reject Him come here on the 
 evohitionary plan and take their chance. The Christians 
 become as the angels in heven. The others struggl as 
 they do on erth. Satan will tempt them here as they ar 
 tempted now, and the temptation will be far stronger 
 and many will yield and suffer." That was not all. I do 
 not remember the exact words of the last sentence, but it 
 was to the effect that some went down never to rise. If 
 they ar determined why not? 
 
 I was startld at the suddennes of the message and its im- 
 port. You know where it came from as much as I do. 
 Whether from good or from evil spirits you will hav to 
 judge for yourself, but it fits into my previous beliefs so 
 api ly, and provides such a reasonabl future fcr our fellow 
 
 
 
AN KVOLUTIONARV FUTt/RK, 
 
 »5' 
 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
 
 beinj^s that the more T think over it the better I like it — 
 but T do not mean to risk it. You can if you wish to. • 
 
 The reasoning' which was poured into me afterwards 
 was somethint; like this — God will struj^gl with us after 
 deth even if we did not accept Christ just as He does now. 
 He is not willing that any should perish. He will try to 
 rai.se all nearer Himself as he does now, but on the other 
 side of the grave there is free will as there is here, if a 
 man wishes to rise he will get help, — if he wi.shes to go 
 lower he will likewise get help, and he may find the road 
 easier than on erth. In short, it is simply the theory I 
 used to believ in with this change to me — That T now be- 
 liev that Christianity is true and that Christians will be 
 saved the struggl between gtjod and evil in the future. 
 God is luv, and insted of withdrawing His influence from 
 those who reject His grace He will even after deth con- 
 tinxie to help all who seek his aid, but they will suffer as 
 they see the result of their past folly in rejecting Christ 
 and accepting evolution. Suppose it is worth accepting 
 as this life is to any man with eyes in his hed, it will be 
 so far short of the calm bliss of the saints that we shall 
 wonder at our folly. Go further, and insted of the hor- 
 ribl, medieval hell we hav dreded, .suppo.se that the future 
 for all who wish U) rise insted of to sink will be sp far be- 
 yond our dreams that we sluill thank God every hour for 
 His great luv in creating us, what if we see that not content 
 with this He has provided a future for us beyond the risk 
 of troubl? God is luv, we say, but why do we not realize 
 it? What if we ar met by a gentl reproach for our folly 
 insted of the awful doom? lUit if we will n(.)t rise even 
 then is it God who curses us? Do we not curse ourselves* 
 If we ar determined to keep on .sinning what then? 
 
 But there will likely be great punishment in the mild 
 hell. The fire and brimstone will not offend you, but you 
 ar likely to gnash your teeth, for a good man}- of us hav 
 gnasht them in this worM and we need not l.-ie surprised il 
 
 Tvtf 
 
 
' r 
 
 Iff 
 
 OUR UNSRF.N COMPANIONS. 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 ',■:. ' 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 7 ' ' 
 
 
 
 '■',h' 
 
 '•-J 
 
 we hav to continue the practice in the next en cas que 
 nous ne soy on s pas sage ici bas. 
 
 Do you know what it means to hav your sin cast behind 
 God's back? Perhaps it means more than you imagin. 
 Supposing you see your sins and their effects as you hav 
 never seen them before. Supposing that they ar thrown 
 in your face till you go wild to think of them, for only 
 simpletons believ that anything can be cocceald, in the 
 future life unless as 1 hav alredy said we ar wise. Do you 
 expect that you can liv in such a comparativly mild hell 
 without an occasional twinge of agony? And when is it 
 to stop? 
 
 Most peopl hav done things that they do not like to be 
 reminded of — for where's that palace whereunto foul 
 things sometimes intrude not — and if the evolutionary 
 future is accepted the risks must be accepted with it. 
 
 You would not mix with the e\'il spirits. You ar a littl 
 particular about the quality of yo r acquaintanceship, we 
 shall suppose. Very good, but s ppose they like you too 
 well to leav you, and suppose that the better you grow 
 the more you dislike their ways, what then? Your sins, 
 your past folly lie all before them. That much I know; 
 and 1 know too just what use they make of the knowl- 
 edge? Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver 
 me from the body of this deth? Will you risk it when 
 you can escape? 
 
 And remember that Mr. Moody and many others say 
 that the devil is deceiving us when we believ that there is 
 not a hell of endless torture. The very conception is hell 
 enuf for me, but let it pass. Peopl will be won^by luv, 
 but never by threts. 
 
 Happiness, devolpment, growth, luv that grows stronger 
 every day and yet a few minutes of torture that you can- 
 not escape make you writhe in the midst of your happi- 
 ness. You come to see something of the grandeur of 
 God's designs, and your luv for liim grows every hour. 
 
 ^(.■■^'- 
 
AN F.VOLUTIONARV 'MITURK. 
 
 »53 
 
 As ages roll on, we shall suppose that yon hiv him so 
 much that you would be willinjjf to come to erth and die 
 for Him if necessary, hut if you -ir in the company of 
 those who, jubilant at discovering- that hell is not what 
 they lookt for, exult ir their liberty as they did on this 
 erth and curse and blr'.sieme till your soul sickens at their 
 wickedness, what then? Ar you so fond of the sinigglon 
 erth? Paul was a strong man, hut was weary of it. 
 
 How can you stop communion with those whose lives 
 you detest? It is commonly believd that telepathy, or 
 telegrafy, or thot transference goes on from star to star 
 thruout the univcrs, and this seems a very reasonabl 
 theory. Will you be abl to concentrate your thots suffi- 
 ciently well in the future to avoid all risks? Would it not 
 be better to take the other plan ? 
 
 The evolutionary future as outlined here leavs much to 
 be desired. With memor}* the worm that never dies to 
 keep us in troubl, with luv pouring into our souls from 
 those with whom we cannot mingl, with the ccmscious- 
 ness that we may never reach the heven which \vc might 
 hav won and stand amid the throng that surrounds the 
 throne of (iod himself, it looks as if thci'e would be 
 troubl enuf laid up for those who insist on taking things 
 on the natiiral plan insted of acknowledging that faith is 
 supplementary to reason. 
 
 It is likely enuf that we shall yet he forct to acknc v- 
 ledge in spite of the horribl suffering around us and the 
 many things that we cannot understand that God's plan 
 was the best, and it is more th;m likely that we shall be 
 amazed at the folly of those who, condemning the horrors 
 of the present life, refuse the chance to escape the horrors 
 of the future. 1 herd the same voices bless and curse, as 
 I hav said. "We cannot help it, " they told me. "Now it 
 is Satan that gets the upper hand, now it is Christ. Luv 
 aiad hate, and so you will struggl to all eternity. It all 
 lies in the mind. We change your mind quickly now and 
 
 '■M 
 
 
 
 ■'■'■' ')' 
 
 
 •V 
 
154 
 
 OIK I'NSl-KN ( OMI- ANIONS. 
 
 nialcc you feci as we do. Tlie minds of other men, and 
 yours too under normal circuinstancos change slowly, and 
 the sutferinj^ or bliss comes with the state of the mind." 
 
 Tliero was n(Hhing' alarmingly new in that statement. 
 What if something of this kind is the eternal punishment 
 referred to? I do not mean to risk it. I do not believ in 
 the old fashioned hell, but as I hav got over the fingers 
 for my nnorthodox views lately 1 am inclined to doubt 
 myself now when 1 hav to believ anything that does not 
 agree with the Bible, and I was therefore niaeh plcasod 
 to find recently that such a man as Dean Farrar does not 
 find any warrant there for endless |mnishment. 
 
 He says in his book, -'Fiternal Hope"- ~"Yet, 1 say un- 
 hesitatingly, — 1 say, claiming the fullest right to speak 
 on this point, — I say, with the calmest and most unflinch- 
 ing sens of responsibility,— -I say, standing here in the 
 sight of God, and of my vSavior, and it may be of the 
 angels and spirits of the ded- -that not one of these three 
 expressions (he refers to the words damnaticm, hell and 
 everlasting) ot to stand any longer in our English Bibles 
 for they ar mistranslations. * * * Thus, then, finding 
 nothing in scripture or anywhere to prove that the fate of- 
 any man is at deth irrevocably determined I shake off 
 the hideous incubus, the atrocious conceptions — I mean 
 those conceptions of unimaginabl horror and fisical ex- 
 cruciation endlessly prolonged attached by popular ignor- 
 ance and false theology to the doctrin of future retribu- 
 tion* * * Do you believ in eternal punishment for your re- 
 lations who hav died impenitent? Again, T say, God for- 
 bid — again, 1 say. 1 fling from me with abhorrence such 
 a creed as that, l^et every Pharisee, if he will be angry 
 w ith me — that I cannot and do not believ. Scripture will 
 not let me; my conscience, my reason, my faith in Christ, 
 the voice of the spirit within my .soul, will not let me; God 
 will not let me." 
 
 So says Dean Farrar and he knows Greek — without 
 
 % ■ 
 
AN KVOI.UTIONAKY UTIRF., 
 
 »55 
 
 doubt the awful image of finality is introduced, says Mr. 
 Gladstone, and he too, knows Greek. But is it not rather 
 singular that millions hav died and other millions suffered 
 on erth, in thinking of their belov'ed ded, and it now ap- 
 pears to be all owing to the difference of opinion, as^o the 
 meaning of some Greek word? Let those of us who don't 
 know Greek look up at the stars and into our own harts, 
 and take the mild view until the scholars shall decide the 
 fate of those who will not or cannot accept Christ, and 
 there ar both kinds. And if that endless horror which 
 millions in Old Testament times never herd of and never 
 got a chance of escaping from any more than heathens do 
 to-day, hinges on the meaning of one word there is some- 
 thing wrong. 
 
 I hav told you the message I receivd. You can 
 look upon it as another trap of the wicked one, another 
 springe to catch foolish woodcocks, if you pleas, but I am 
 glad to say that I can go around the streets and feel that 
 somehow or other God will take care of all His children 
 unless they ar determined not to be saved, altho we ar not 
 all going to the same destiny, else why did Christ die? 
 And yet in that far off, divine event we would like — 
 
 What did Huxley, an evolutionist say about the pres- 
 ent struggl? Just what Paul did without his belief. " If 
 some great power would agree to make me always think 
 what is true, and do what is right, on condition of being 
 turned into a sort of a clock and wound up every morn- 
 ing, I should close with the offer." Do you want along, 
 bitter struggl, or do you want peace? Not the peace that 
 means stagnation, for it seems to me that even the angels 
 must grow as the ages roll on, but it is not necessary to 
 hav to fight with evil in order to grow. Growth is possibi 
 without evil within you to drag you down. 
 
 And the angels hav something to do, I hope, and be- 
 liev. There ar some peopl who hav u very lazy concep 
 tion of heven. They ar of the same species as those who 
 
 ..I 
 
 .4 
 
 m 
 
 JL: 
 
156 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 >.: 
 
 on erth would like to lie below the trees and let the 
 peaches drop into their mouths. Who fills your mind from 
 childhood up with ^ood thots, and likewise with bad ones 
 if you ar not careful? What does "My Father works 
 hitherto and I work" mean? I was told that they were 
 busy filling our minds with ideas, the only things that last 
 in the imivcrs. Suppose our future work will be to train 
 up those we hav left behind us? To fill their minds with 
 good ideas? 
 
 I herd the voices of men and women I had known when 
 they were alive, but it is a matter of conjuncture to say 
 that their spirits were there. It is very likely that they 
 were, but afterwards when I doubted this and found that 
 all kinds of voices could be taken, most of my encourage- 
 ment came from those I did not know. 
 
 To conclude then, throw aside Satan and fallen angels 
 if you pleas and say the spirits I met ar but men and 
 women in the future state, and one thing is evident tome; 
 they hav fallen so low it seems as to be beyond the wish 
 to rise. P2vil is their good. But if they desire to rise at 
 any time no matter how low they hav fallen it seems to 
 me the way must be open. God must in His very nature 
 help those who wish to rise. They represent life, and 
 embodied or disembodied it does not matter. All life can 
 rise, it seems to me. But it is clear to me too, that the"-? 
 ar terribl dangers for those who reject Christ, and you 
 know what kind of punishment a life devoted only to evil 
 brings even here. The wages of sin is deth ; the skull 
 grins behind the flowers. 
 
 It seems to me, then, that there will be a chance after 
 deth, but think ot the present state of matters. There ar 
 about 1,500,000.000 peopl on this globe now. The Talmu- 
 dists used to say that each one had ninety-nine angels. 
 Considering the nimiber of peopl who hav past away from 
 this ei th there must be an escort of that size to each of 
 us if it is necessary. They ar I believ literally swarming 
 
 "7*i 
 
AN EVOLUTIONARY FUTURE 
 
 «57 
 
 
 1 
 
 around us. Very well, then. Allow even one bad spirit 
 for each inhabitant of the erthand what kind of a hellhav 
 you? Tkey ar ferociou.s in their desire to work evil. 1 
 know that. There must be a hell for them, for it is in- 
 side of them. I fear that they hav lost the desire to rise, 
 yet it may not be so: there may always be a spark. But 
 I am afraid that innuraerabl millions hav ^one in that di- 
 rection, whether of our species or not I don't know any 
 more than you do, but I think so. Keep away from the 
 chance of that fate. Do you know men on erth who hav 
 no desire to change? Why then be surprised on the other 
 side? Free will, but in their case as with us too it often 
 leads to deterioration. I believ they can rise ; I do not 
 believ God will crush beings down there any more than 
 here; but He wants intelligent beings who choose their 
 own path and not machines. I do not believ it is neces- 
 sary for any one to sink on the other side, but I hav been 
 among them and I know what they ar. 
 
 Every atom in the univers has a hold upon every other 
 atom, and so it must be with spirit, it seems to me. 
 Even the angels in heven mu.'.t be influenct to some de- 
 gree by the other ones when it may be their hole life is 
 devoted to raising them and us. Not hurt by evil, but 
 sorrowing over it. If we were all meek, can it be that 
 v/e would raise up even the evil spirits? I hav often thot 
 so. Christianity that will save us from the future struggl 
 is a blessing' churchianity is a curse. 
 
 This view of the univers makes it a plesanter place 
 for me to liv in. No matter how fiendish these beings 
 ar, the very moment any one of them turns he is 
 helpt to rise and grow towards good, and towards his 
 Creator from whom he has wilfully and knowingly sepa- 
 rated himself, and one thing that helps him to turn is the 
 fact that for him as for us thei j ar no reproaches, no 
 matter if he be a thousand times worse than our worst 
 specimen. There is nothing but luy, the most terribl 
 
 
 nil 
 
 
a :• 
 
 mm 
 
 .58 
 
 OUK IINSFFN COMPANIONS. 
 
 '.'.; 
 "> 
 
 force in the iinivers. A. icrriV)! struggl to vise abuv the 
 lower nature, a hell inside ol" himself, but no reproaches 
 as on erth among us. 
 
 But if tlieyset their heds in the other direction as many 
 of us d«) on erth what can happen ? (iod does not con- 
 demn them. They know, and we know, that the wages 
 of sin isdeth. We ar intelligent beings and not machines. 
 Can it be that when they go to a certain point it means 
 annihilation ? This theory would do away with Satan and 
 his hosts for they must hav orost the line long before 
 now, one would think. Tt is a foolish idea to su]:)pose 
 that when a man dies and chooses to go on sinning he is 
 turned into the worst of demons at once. (Growth down- 
 ward takes time as well as growth in the right direction. 
 That night they told me of the awful power that pulled 
 us from hell to heven (See stray note No. 4 )or vice versa 
 they gave me also a long, strange recital of the task be- 
 fore us that may pleas some to think of. In (me sens it 
 is true. The awful pcnver was growing, it appeard, 
 every day and whenever it got to a certain point every 
 one in tiic univers was to concentrate \no power on Satan 
 and kill him and then the battl w(.)uld be won. 
 
 We might lern one lesson from their story. Say good- 
 bye to Satan as a being, and let him represent sin. What 
 would kill sin on erth ? Luv, if we had plenty of it. 
 With luv we could transform the erth in a few years. Luv 
 is undoubtedly the greatest thing in the world. Luv is 
 God. It would pay ns to luv even the foolish millionaires. 
 They ar their own worst enemies, altho they hurt ns too, 
 for self-sacrifice is the key-note of the univers, and not 
 self-aggrandizement. 
 
 We must murder evil. Suppose we look at the evolu- 
 tionary theory for a minute. A growth from the very 
 lowest forms up to man, God '"interfering" whenever He 
 thot it necessary i make a change in a certain direction. 
 From plant to aniinal there is u change that "natural 
 
 '■i 
 
 \ 
 
AN liVOI.UTIONARY FUTURE. 
 
 150 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 fl 
 
 law " does not explain, and from animal to man there is 
 another. Let us suppose that God breathed a spirit into 
 man at a certain stage of his animal development which 
 is typcfied in the Garden of Eden story, knowing very 
 well that there would be a " fall" before the temptations 
 of evil spirits, knowing very well that he was so brutish 
 from the animal side, altho the spirit were perfect for 
 the time being that he could not but fall, and we may 
 easily judge that the next step is to be, as the Bible points 
 out, the subjugation of the flesh to the spirit. We must 
 be born again. When we ar born again, we ar fild with 
 luv, and that is the only thing that will conquer erth and 
 hell too, it may be, altho I am half afraid to put it down. 
 
 And what if, to anger the theologians, we make the 
 angel with the sword who would not let poor Adam back 
 to the garden stand for the consciousness that his new 
 spirit gave him that whenever he let the flesh triumf he 
 would be punishL ? That spirit had to hav the upper 
 hand and not flesh and that the evolution is not over yet ? 
 
 We ar bound together. vShe may sweep past in her 
 carriage " worth " twenty million dollars, but if she sees 
 a helpless beggar " 1 the street she cannot help being 
 affected one way or an(ithcr, for hell and heven ride in 
 the carriage with her, black and white angels ar there, 
 and they send impressions thru her hed, and just as she 
 accepts or rejects them so she becomes, and there is no 
 escape, and so, too, with the beggar. 
 
 From the higher standpoint, therefore, it is hardly 
 worth while to rail at the millionaires. We should be 
 content to tell them the truth, but 
 
 " It'8 hardly in a body's power 
 To keep at times from beinK sour." 
 
 '■V. 
 
' r 
 
 1 60 
 
 CUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 What Think Yk of Christ ? 
 
 #:?". 
 
 " He hived me and itave himself for mo ; 
 Amazioff luv, timazing sacriflce. 
 I'll take my harp down from the willow tree. 
 And bid its notes in praise of Jesus rise. 
 
 " Oh, when I stand 'mid yonder shining throng. 
 And on fair Cainaan'e coast my Savior see, 
 I'll add this chorus to my swelling song,— 
 * He luved me and gave Himself for me.' " 
 
 —Fergus Fbrouson. 
 
 I herd all the Christian hymns sung. Who sung them ? 
 If good spirits sung them what does it mean ? They know 
 whether the Bible is true or not and they ar well ac- 
 quainted with science as we know it. 
 
 I was discussing the subject of welth and its uses with 
 a frcnd in the hermitage and I said to him, ** What is the 
 use talking of it ? We know from what is going on around 
 us even if we do not say a word about history that there 
 ar thousands of men and women in poverty to-day who 
 would act just as the millionaires ar doing if they had the 
 power. Human nature is pretty much the same all over 
 the world and in all ages. Trust men with power, call 
 them kings or anything els you pleas, and most of them 
 will oppress you." 
 
 " Don't you see then," came the message, "that Jesus 
 Christ's plan of self-sacrifice is the only true way ? " 
 
 Another day when I was in a favorabl 'condition the 
 following message came to me when I was not expecting 
 anything of the kind and when my thots were miles away 
 ixom the subject — *' Christ died on the cross. His death 
 
WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 i6i 
 
 brot redemption to men." That was all. I wrote down the 
 exact words, as I often did and there they ar. 
 
 What do these words mean ? Who sent them ? Would 
 evil spirits send such a message ? Do they admire Jesus 
 of Nazareth ? Nothing- .can exceed the fierce, rabid hate, 
 the frightful state of mind, that a sentient being can get 
 into, that they showed me whenever I tried to keep my 
 thots on Christ as the Savior of the world. It was worst 
 on this subject; from beginning to end there was mock- 
 ery of Christ and His work. Do not let us misunderstand 
 our position. The Bible is true. His detli brot redemp- 
 tion to men. 
 
 An impulsiv frend of mine says that Christ was either 
 what he profest to be or the worst liar who ever lived on 
 erth. 1 do not think that these messages I receivd ar 
 necessary. I do not believ that we ar ment to hav com- 
 munication with the unseen world except in the way God 
 has appointed. But there they ar as I receivd them. 
 Take care of your steps, lest like the base Judean you, 
 too, throw away a perl richer than all your tribe. 
 
 During the erlier weeks they tried hard to get me to 
 believ that Christianity stood on the same basis as the 
 other religions. I could not understand why I felt such 
 a peculiar sensation when they sneerd at "the Christians. " 
 It was hypnotized into me, and it came at every mention 
 of the name. The two sides, both evil spirits, kept up the 
 mock debate for some time day after day. " Do not be 
 afraid," the one side said, "you ar perfectly secure-" 
 "Don't you see by looking around you in the world that 
 the other religions ar far stronger than Christianity? Those 
 who followed Christ on erth, oi cours, stand by that side 
 here, but all religions ar the same. We ar gradually 
 defeating the ' Christians ' on this side." 
 
 " Do not believ that. We hav alredy conquered. The 
 Christians ar gaining here ;is well as bei^ide \ ou and ail 
 is well" 
 
 .t.f, 
 
 
 
 
 
i6j 
 
 nUK HNXF.KN (OMT ANIONS. 
 
 The effort of both sides was to tuako nie believ that 
 Christ was not <livinc in 'M-der to tell yon, for they knew 
 I inent to write niv experience. 1 soon came to niukr- 
 stantl it. 
 
 But for months 1 listened tohytnns and advice and talk 
 of one kind and another all on the basis of the Christian 
 belief. The spirits around us know whether il is true or 
 not. What d()es it mean ? And as for the men who doubt 
 whether there is a God or not — I 
 
 C 11 A P T 1^: R XXV. 
 
 SlKAV NorKs, 
 
 I 
 
 ** Whca found make a note of it." — Captain Cutti.k. 
 
 1. "It is nonsens to suppose that the foolish men whoar 
 cominv; thru into this world will j.;et any special revela- 
 tions. What is told them has been lietter told before. If 
 Cxod wanted to j^ive any infornuitit^n to Mis creatures He 
 could take any man who was willin.u to be used as His in- 
 strument and there ar i)lenty of such men who do -His work 
 without any of this torture." 
 
 2. Mental suj;j;estion is a curio\is way of intlueucinj^' 
 men —curious to those wht> do not believ that we ar so 
 acted upon. When I bei;an to write a few hours daily I 
 had quite a strui^iil with it. 1 came to understand it then. 
 I wrote on quickly in slu>rthand and tried to keep my 
 mind stcdily on the sul\icct insted of listjuini;" to them, 
 but at the least relaxation a word would be sug"gested 
 which would completely ehani^e the meauin^^ of the sen- 
 tence, and I would hav it down before 1 notict the trick. 
 
 It was not imagination that thrust in these words I did 
 uot want. In all niy previous writing- I had not been iu 
 
 i 
 
«i' 
 
 SIRAV NUIKS. 
 
 'fM 
 
 \]\v habit of piittiti},; down hluck vvbcn I tiuMil white. 
 What I was Irapt into pnttitji- down was iu)tliinj^'- !o what 
 I chuckt. 
 
 Ill huniMiinj^i a, .miiij^- or liyinn lo ( h<MM' mysi-ll I had lo 
 keep my nnnd concentrated on the nicatiin^^i;- ol th( hncs* 
 The words w<m-c cban>,^cd. almost uncoiiscionsly il 1 'ct \uv 
 jniiid iiin t>n another snbjeel, and il ran on other snbjccts 
 Dccasioniy just as yonrs <h)os, only T found ont who laii it 
 fer me and yon may .''till donbt. "'IMie slionts of them 
 thai triunif." in "Jerusalem the j.;olden," for exampl, was 
 often turned [o "the shouts of them that perisli." "And 
 they who witli their leader hav eoufpiereil m the fij^^ht. " 
 I sonietiuu^s hummed "and they who with their l(\'uU'r 
 ar coiKiuered in the fi.i;}it. " In Achlison's be^autdul hymn 
 "how^ ai- thy S(Mvants blest < ), f.ord."tlie line "and breati) 
 in tatnt'il air," in a careless moment would eoine "and 
 bi"(Mtli in painted air. " 
 
 I g'iv these lines simply as diusi lat ions, but I wastra])t 
 so often that I had to be very cautions for a tinu.; I do 
 uot mean that J am out of ilan^a-r \et. any mofe than y(ai 
 ar. That is how Satan iloes part of his work. He may 
 not ehanj^e the words, but he su,i;>;x'sts an anj^rv thot and 
 works on your nervs until you boil, and the wa.ter is sjtilt 
 on the .ground and cannot be j^-atherc-d np. Rejjeatin^ 
 that too often? "Kee|) hamuiering^ away." s/iys some one, 
 "Hmnanity is stupid," atid I want you to lern the lesson. 
 
 During- the two outbreaks I had used '.an^^aia^i^e that was 
 foreign to my lips in my normal state I remend)er sit- 
 insj;' quietly in the hermitaj;e after the troiiM swearing to 
 myself without the least sij^^n ol passion or astonishm(*nt. 
 How did ithap})cn'' It is wronj^, I .sniipose, bnt I cannot 
 help smilinj^ as 1 think of it. My uimd for that shoit time 
 was lu the jxissession of those who like to s[jredevi! lanj^- 
 uaj^e on the face of the ertli. That is what it ment. 
 
 I saw a very estimabl, )blijririo nian in tl)e Iiermitai^e 
 who went around swearinj^ lo himself as if )t were his 
 
 I 
 
' f 
 
 164 
 
 OUR UNSKKN COM I' ANIONS. 
 
 business When spoken to he came to himself instantly, 
 red the newspapers as intelligently as any man, and was 
 interested in what he red, but if he glanct over the paper 
 from one part to another without keej)ing his mind con- 
 centrated, it very often happened that his voice was busy 
 at the old work. 
 
 I saw several cases of the same kind altho none so pro- 
 nounct. If spoken to in a way to fix their attention they 
 became different beings. They were tl emselves insted 
 of some one els. How does it come aboiit? We hav herd 
 a good deal about duality of consciousness in these days 
 — there is, according to some, an unknown being in all of 
 us who tells us marvelous things if we will only listen to 
 his vvhis|)ers. It won't work There will be another be- 
 ing inside of us beyond a doubt if we lei him get in, but 
 it is not advisabl. The true explanation is to be found in 
 Good, old-fashioned, New Testament, demoniac posses- 
 sion. They want to get inside (;f us to use our voices, and 
 our bodies, and our minds to work destruction, and those 
 who attend public entertainments where they show forth 
 their powers ar simply furthering the evil work. 
 
 Dean Farrar, in his "Life of Christ, "writes of demoniac 
 possession, and says that the evil spirits can be exorcized 
 by prayer. He says also that the original dc^es not war- 
 rant fasting thru which much damage has come. 
 
 Do you smile at New Testament demoniacs? Thev 
 were probably what we would call hypnotic subjects, says 
 a writer who discust the subject the other day. It is very 
 likely that they were, but hypnoti.sm involves a good deal 
 if the influence is not removed. The writers of the New 
 Testament did not hav a diploma from the Evergreen 
 College of Medicin, nor did they need (me. 
 
 Possession is true and so is obession. Why did the in- 
 fernal chorus stop sometimes when I was at the point of 
 desperation? If my imagination made me walk from ear- 
 ner to corner vainly trying to escape how did it happen 
 
 .. ^'i^UM't 
 
 ^ 
 
T' 
 
 STRAV NOTKS. 
 
 •65 
 
 
 
 that I couM so control it on the instant as to make it stop 
 wofi, ing? The voices stopt becniis they had to. They were 
 ordered to stop. How does it happen that if I were a com- 
 plete fool I could with some troubl bring back the sing- 
 ing-? I know 1 am repeating again, but it is from the in- 
 tellectual standpoint that my worry comes. Imaginary 
 voices at the end of the nineteenth century! The thing is 
 degrading from the point of view^ of intellectual attain- 
 ment. 
 
 3. "And so you think it is possibl to cast out demons? 
 Well, suppose you try that man at your side. We hav pos- 
 session of him as well as of you." , 
 
 He was sitting on the same seat looking out a window 
 with his back toward me, but without a word he turned 
 round instantly and looking me straight in the eye began 
 to cu • e. "I know you, and what you mean." 
 
 I w:.s too much surprised to ray anything, but I left 
 him gently to himself. I had an idea that he had some 
 one directing his internal machinery and I tl'Ot it as well 
 to move. 
 
 4. Communication came in three ways — by voices, by 
 writing on the brain, and by impression, feeling or tele- 
 pathy. Telepathy may not be the correct word, for I am 
 inclined to think that the agent at the other end is at our 
 side. 
 
 It is a state of f »eMng. I used tolaf at the word "sens. '• 
 Wh.en a man ".senst" anything I used to think that he was 
 becoming an ultra-refined being whose proper dwelling 
 place was a hermitage of one kind or another, but it is the 
 right word to employ. You sens it — you feel it. It is dif- 
 ferent from thinking, even when Satan pulls the strings. 
 
 Take a pargraf <jf a newspaper, for exampl. containing 
 several clea:^ and distinct ideas. We cannot think, it is 
 said, unless we employ words, but the mind travels so 
 fast that the ideas go thru the brain like a flash. This is 
 
 ■■■ -yif 
 
 ■m 
 
 "■■■ M 
 
 ■(■■ 
 '■■*■> 
 
 /ft 
 
 
 ■(.■": •" 
 
66 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 the ordinary way of thinkinj:r, but 1 " senst " the paragraf 
 so much faster than by this method that I knew what 
 was coming before the words had anything like time to 
 shape themselves in my mind. I had to take time to 
 , spell them out, as it were, imtil 1 got to the end, or to 
 express it in another way 1 felt the hole of the ideas con- 
 veyed without the necessity of using words at all or 
 waiting to let them come. Do you need ^vords to express 
 anger or luv ? It is a state of feeling. I easily knew 
 what my unseen companions wanted me to understand 
 without the '""-cessity of going about it in the old round 
 about way. 
 
 Some doctor, I belie v, — there ar several clever, capabl 
 men among the doctors^ altho quite a number of them 
 hav rather bizaare ideas on certain subjects — has said that 
 if he could only get hold of our system in the right way 
 he could make us feel sad or merry as he pleased. He 
 must he a hypnotist. He wants to make us sens. And 
 I for one beg to be excused. 
 
 What if in the world to come the method of communi- 
 cation will be by feeling insted of by words ? What if 
 Faber came nearer the truth than he imagined when he 
 wrote, 
 
 " Where loyal harts and true, 
 stand ever In the light, 
 All rapture thru and thru 
 In God's most holy sight. " 
 
 It is digressing again, but according to a pretty theory 
 that I herd from my invisibl frends the first week at the 
 hermitage we ar all bound together in the future life and 
 in this life too in such a way that if one suffers all groan 
 in unison, and if t)ne is merry we all smile. This view 
 may delight those who luv to go elswhere than the Bible 
 for their information, but as I remember it there were 
 some slight drawbacks. 
 
 There was some ;<reaT iiypnotic power at work— some 
 
 s».;-- 
 
STRAY NOTES, 
 
 167 
 
 awful force that drew you from heven if you were not 
 strong" enuf to resist and planted you cheek by jowl with 
 some of your erring companionvS of the past. ( )f cours, 
 as the tide turned you mif^-ht get out of your troubl, but 
 there were risks. Upon the issue of the awful ball being 
 waged thruout the univers was to be decided whether the 
 future life for us all was to be in hevcn or hell. Hell, I 
 was assured, was almost as enjoyabl as heven. You think 
 I was a fool to wonder at some of it ? Ar you sure you 
 do not belong to the tribe yourself ? Many ar living with- 
 out a belief in any future state, but 1 never was so 
 extremely foolish as that yet. And what is sin on erth 
 now but such an awful force that draws you from heven 
 to hell, and what is luv ? 
 
 When you sens, it is as if the atmosfere around you were 
 charged with ideas and somehow or other they were prest 
 into your hed in a mass. Enuf of it, Sancho Quixote, 
 for they ar a-smilin' at you. . 
 
 ■I 
 
 .c;< 
 
 5. We read a good deal in these times about develop- 
 ing the sixth sens. Whenever anything approaches you 
 thru the sixth sens get your nervs in order as soon as pos- 
 sibl. When your dedly enemies approach you thru the 
 sixth sens treat them as you would i»ny other enemy -that 
 is, get rid of them as soon as you can . 
 
 If God had ment us to liv in two wor ds at one time He 
 would hav given us faculties for entering into the invisibl 
 one around us, and we would not hav been under the 
 necessity of "developing" a new sens, but when you 
 dream all night of evolution something is bound to follow. 
 
 Go out into the sunlight and you cannot help feeling 
 the heat. Get your nervs into a certain condition and 
 you cannot help the approach of spirits. 
 
 6. The Reverend Mi not J. vSavage, the Unitarian, has 
 studied the occult world, from the outside, I regret to 
 say, as fools like company as well as wise num, and the 
 
 
 
 " ' 'I 
 
 
 
 
 ■M 
 
'r 
 
 i#t 
 
 OUR UNSKEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 following excerpt from his Easter sermon of '96 may help 
 you to understand how it is possibl for some men to hear 
 voices inaudibl to others. It is quoted from the Ntw York 
 iSun of April 19th. If you read it carefully you may even 
 understand how "sensing" is possibl. " Thrilling with 
 an intensity of life " he says. That is correct, I believ, 
 and fits in with Faber's rapture thru and thru, and Sancho 
 Quixote's sensing. But make way for his reverence. 
 
 " I believ that those who hav past thru the experience 
 called deth liv in space and occupy space as much I do. 
 Ar they material ? Yes, in one sens they ar * * * I 
 believ that the souls of those that we call dcd ar not 
 unclothed, but, in the language that Paul tised, ar 
 clothed upon. 
 
 I believ that they possess bodies not as real as these, 
 but unspeakabl more real, thrilling with an intensity of 
 life of which at present we ar perhaps utterly unabl to 
 conceiv. Is there anything unscientific about it? No. 
 There is no scientific knowledge abl to discredit a belief 
 like this. It is perfectly rational. 
 
 We know perfectly well that the greatest, the mightiest 
 forces of what we call the natural imivers ar both invisibl 
 and intangibl. We know that it is the very smallest, tini- 
 est part of the real world that we can see with ourpresen 
 eyes. We know that it is only the smallest, tiniest part 
 of the infinite vibrations of the univers that produce in us 
 the sens of hearing." (Mark that, doctor. Now, infidel, I 
 hav thee on the hip!) *'If we had ears more acute, even 
 Mr. Huxley tells us the silences of the opening flowers 
 in the garden would seem to us as loud as a thunder 
 storm. It is not that there ar no vibrations, only that our 
 ears ar not adapted to take them up." Sancho Quixote 
 thinks that his medical fronds might as well surrender, or 
 at least lay aside that cutting pride. 
 
 **De leur morgue tranchante, 
 Rien ne nous garantit, " ; 
 
STRAY NOTKS. 
 
 169 
 
 It is wrong to speak in church, but Sancho feels rather 
 gay when the one scientific man starts to maul the other 
 while he applauds the heretic. But to conclude, — 
 
 "So of the vibrations which produce the sens of sight. 
 There is an infinity of them thruout the univers, only our 
 eyes at present ar not adapted to being affected by them. 
 That is all. We ar too commonly the fools of' our eyes 
 and ears. We assume that we can see and hear and feel 
 everything that really is; while every poorest scientific 
 man on erth will tell you that there may be an infinity of 
 life in every direction with which our present senses do 
 not bring us into any conscious contact. " 
 
 *'I believ, then, that as the result of our thinking and 
 our feeling and our luving and our hating that what may 
 be called a fisical body is being built up in us, organized 
 day by day. In the process of deth we ar releast from 
 this outward shell very much as the butterfly is releast 
 from its chrysalis. There has been going on thru the 
 whole length of life of the cocoon the organization \)f an- 
 other, and to us invisibl, form Within. By and by it breaks 
 open, and the life comes forth and enters upon another 
 stage of its career. 
 
 I believ something akin to this is going on within us, 
 and that deth means the breaking open of the chrysalis 
 and the escaping out into this larger life, and that we en- 
 ter on that life — and here is the tremendous mora! power 
 of a belief like this — just the kind of men and women that 
 we hav made ourselves by our thots, our emotions, our 
 actions here, only that there, as here, is infinite opportun- 
 ity thru suffering, if need be, thru whatever experience 
 is necessary, for study, for growth, for ascent towards 
 the highest." 
 
 The lerned doctor has spoken like a book, but he trips 
 up at the end. Evolution has got him by the heels, too, 
 only he is more cautious than Sancho. 
 
 Is it not possibl to escape the struggl of good and evil 
 
 '^1 
 
 !^ 
 
 
 
 
 .J 
 
 M 
 
'f 
 
 170 
 
 OUR UNSFFN COMPANIONS. 
 
 by entering the kinjjdom of hevcn as littl children? The 
 doctor s.'iys no, and his belief is shared by a }((K)d many. 
 Perhaps those who don't read, don't think, don't know, 
 and d(jn't care to know, ar a littl harsh in their judgments. 
 1, for one. am not inclined to torture men eternally if they 
 cannot heliev in the NewTestament. "Hav faith in (lod," 
 says Dean Farrar. Amen. God is luv, I herd in days of 
 troiibl, and I read it in the Bible. 1 am afraid I could not 
 luv Him so much if I thot that all His creatures would not 
 jjet a chance to rise even after deth, thru plenty of suffer- 
 in j.^, T fear. 
 
 7. By a sinj^-ular coincidence .somewhat similar to that 
 noted in chapter thirteen, 1 put down the lucky number 
 seven at the head of this stray note, and I found to my 
 surprise that 1 was indeted for a good illustrati(m to a 
 man from Germany, (Germany, lerned, indefatigabl, deep- 
 thinking Germany, a.s Carlyle calls her, is always redy 
 when we need her, and her son is in luck this time for the 
 number is to his credit. As a supplement to Mr, Savage's 
 remarks the following information may help some to un- 
 derstand what kind of a univers we liv in. Listen to the 
 Teuton then. — "Suspend a pendulum in a dark room and 
 set it swinging at the rate of thirty beats to the second, 
 and y(m will hear the lowest note in mu.sic. Keep up the 
 motion until it reaches about forty thousand beats and 
 you will then hear the highest note the human ear can 
 grasp. The pendulum has given forth every note of music 
 in its progress from thirty beats to forty thousand. 
 
 "Suppose that you hav the power to keep up the 
 motion until it reaches six billion strokes to the sec(md, 
 you will see a dull red light; and if from six billion you 
 run it up tu fifteen you will see all the colors of the rain- 
 bow, until at the fifteenth universal darkness buries all. 
 . Now, then," continues our scientific frend, who is some- 
 thing of anocculisthimself, "between the forty thousand 
 vibrations representing tlic highest .sound and the six 
 
STKAY NOTV.S. 
 
 in 
 
 billion repioscntinj; the dullest li^ht there is an enormous 
 gap — Jin oeean of wave motions which ar now beyond our 
 perception, hut which ar known to exist, for there ar no 
 sudden breaks in nature. Tyndall was the first to point 
 this out, and to sug'j'i'est that within this vast chasm of 
 forces — forces whi(>h no eye can see and no ear can per- 
 ceiv-- we must seek for an explanation of the mysterious 
 potentialities know as electricity and miij.,metism." 
 
 That is very interesting. How, then, did 1 hear sing- 
 inj( that is inaudil)l to you ? Was it because my pliysical 
 condition was such that 1 could reach hijjfhcr than the 
 forty thousand beats of the pendulum ? And why was 
 the singinjj^ an octave higlier, or can 1 venture to say two 
 octaves, it was so pierciuj^ly clear and thin ? And yet 
 the bass voices were deeper and richer than erthly ones. 
 
 I came to know my nervf)us condition as exactly as if 
 I had been registered. The voices came closer or went 
 further away as I became more or less affected. It is 
 true that they acted in the same way at the same time, as 
 during the first days when they seemed to be u mile dis- 
 tant and again close at hand, but there came a time when 
 there was no change of that kind; they kept always as 
 close as they could. 
 
 Then how do you account for the fact that the voices 
 ceast to troubl me when I was in the open air months 
 before I got rid of them when below a roof?* Does it 
 soothe the nervs io liv in the open air ? Ar women who 
 seldcmi go outside to look at the sky injuring their nervs ? 
 Ar all houses haunted ? 
 
 •J!» 
 
 " All liousoa wherein men hav liv<l and lied 
 Ar haunted houses. Thru thf> open door 
 The harinlesB fathoms on their errandn fr\U\c, 
 With feet that make no sound upon the. floor. 
 
 ' The spirit world around this world of sens 
 Floats lilieBn atmosfere, and everywhere 
 Waffs thru these erthly mists and vapors dens, 
 A. vital ^^eth of more ethereal air." — LoN(irKi.r,ow, 
 
^r 
 
 17: 
 
 01: R UN'^F.K.N COMPANIONS. 
 
 After readini^ the illustrations of the two lernctl doc- 
 tors cHncht by the verses of the poet who "senses" things 
 easier than his practieal brethren, we should be redy to 
 aeknowled^s^c that there may really be forces in the 
 univers that the microscope cannot reveal to us. 
 
 8. T!ic niicrosco]:)e may not be abl to do it, but what of 
 the pletliysniograf ? It is the bra\'e man's policy to look 
 danirer in the face, Sancho Quixote is aware that the 
 doctors ar hard to kill. While he has been investiii'atin-- 
 in one direction they hav been busy in another, and like 
 the skillfid tacticians that they ar it was only the other 
 day that they uncovered their batteries. 
 
 The scientists say that we cannot mesure and weigh 
 everything around us, and the faculty refuse to yield. 
 But that they ar near the end of their tether is evident, 
 for they hav now begun to talk of tiie " exact mesure of 
 mentality," and hav invented the plethysmograf, the 
 kymograiion, the neumograf, and the ergograf, and they 
 ar redy for work. Phis is cheerful news. 
 
 They ar going to mesure oui thots and our emotions 
 as easily as a tailor mesures a piece of cloth. Man is a 
 funny little creature. He wants to weigh mind now. In 
 Dean Swift's time he was busy trying to extract sun- 
 beams out of cucumbers. 
 
 The professor thus proudly explains how it is done — 
 •'These experiments which for the first time introduce 
 weight and measure into the relms of thot, ma\- lead to 
 other experiments having a scientific value. One devel- 
 opment may be another and more dcst nctiv blow at the 
 theosofical and spiritualistic and hypnotic explanations of 
 fenomenathat really depend. u])on this fact of the extreme 
 fallibility of the senses." 
 
 There you be, all cut and dry. This is medical science 
 at the end of the nineteenth cc^ntury. The Indian 
 medicin man knew bn'tter. O, Arturo, Arturo, compa- 
 
^1 
 
 STRAV NOTF!?. 
 
 173 
 
 trioto mio, a laf is n ifood thing for us all and you hav 
 supplied it. 
 
 Now, 1 wish foolish men and women would turn away 
 from theosofy and spiritism and turn to Christianity, 
 but if we hav to de[)end upon the plethysmos^n-af and the 
 kymografion, whatever they ar. for th<^ destruction of 
 these two beliefs, our name, as the Arabian poet said, will 
 be mud. Try another line, doctor, 
 
 " Nor dct!m the irrovooabl past 
 Ah wholly wustecJ, wt )lly vain. 
 If, rising in it.s wrecks at last. 
 To something nobler we Httain." 
 
 That 5S a vers I like to think of in these days and you 
 might as well lern it by hart. 
 
 The names of these instruments, even with the amended 
 speling, ar cnuf to condemn the whole theory. The man 
 who named them showed a sad lack of gumption. The 
 plethysmogfraf indeed! And the ergograf and the 
 kymografion, and the neumograf! What a pie e of 
 work ii- man. How inlinit in reason, says Colonel Ham- 
 let. 
 
 Why not the poly wog, and the iehthysaurus or -my other 
 chunk or monolith of polysylabie grandeur and unparalleld 
 imperishabl magnificence> The howling idiosyncrasies of 
 the.se medical inventors, the osteological, dolichocefalic 
 nonsens that they talk drive Saneho Quixote nearly off 
 the hinges. 
 
 9. Is it any wonder that men ar lernmg to distrust 
 science of all kinds? M. Brunetiere, of the-Revue des 
 Deux Mondes. the "Saturday Review" tells us. has lighted 
 upon a frase which is having a run ot success in I^'arce 
 such as he could hardly hav anticipated. It is "the bank- 
 ruptcy of .science. " 
 
 "According to M. ilrunetiere science is bankrupt, but 
 
 there ar some who declare that science wa? levei* so pros- 
 
 perons'as now. M. Brunt;tiere's frase. ho'vt'vc.'V. merely 
 1 2 
 
 \-^& 
 
'74 
 
 OUK UNSKKN C;OM I'AN IONS. 
 
 refers to the materialistic filosofy which treats as trivial or 
 baneful all speculation that is beyond the range of fisical 
 proof. A brief quotation from his articl, \vhiL:h has been 
 so much discust, will suffice to show exactly what he means. 
 
 " 'From a Darwinism, barely assured of the truth of its 
 principls, or from a physiology that is still rudimentary, 
 we may appeal to a more extended Darwinism, c.r to a 
 more lerned physiology; but in the meantime we must liv 
 a life not merely animal, and no sciences of to-day cai show 
 us how to do this.' 
 
 "Science, then," (be Rc\iew goes on to vSay, "according 
 to M. Brunetiere, is bankrupt in tlie sens that it has failed 
 to satisfy what is in the nature of man, or t(^ explain the 
 mystery that surrounds him. 
 
 "Probabl}' in no i)ther country do s\ich ia])id changes 
 take place in the atmosfere that is formed by the perpet- 
 ual whirling and grinding of the wheels of the human 
 mind as in France. Tenor twelv years ago M. Brnne- 
 tiere's articl would hav been receivd with such l)histering 
 derision thai the approving voice would hav been drowned 
 by the noise. But a niarkt change has come abuiit in the 
 filosotical drift of the French mind of 1 ile. Voltairianism 
 is very nearly dcd. The polished mockery and refined but 
 bitter cyncism in regard to spiritual beliefs and specula- 
 tions which were so much relisht by an epicurean b(Mir- 
 geaisie, hav quite gone out of fashion. 
 
 "The faci to be noted as a mental fenomenon, to be 
 filosofically pondered, is that this met:.*. "Skeptical of cent- 
 uries is ending in France, - the fatherland of free thot- 
 in a disposition oi mind which, if not Christian, is more 
 colored by idealism than materialism. 
 
 "The very keen interest that so many French peopl of 
 the intellectual class hav of late years taken in Buddi-^m, 
 occultism and spiritualism (spiritism it is more correctly 
 termed in France), althv by no means approved by the 
 Catholic clergy, is nevertheless a symptom of the reaction 
 
STRAY NOIF.S 
 
 '75 
 
 i'-V!!. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 from the Voltarian mood which lasted ao long, and which 
 became so very much in ernest, so diffei'ent from Vol- 
 taire's humor that, had he livd long- enuf, he mii;ht hav 
 repudiated his own discipls. The youth of the schools hav 
 not grown pious, but AgnsLo Comte, Renan and Darwin 
 hav lost the hold that they had on the students, and their 
 increasmg ''mysticism" is n()ted with pain and disgust by 
 the skeptics who were born erlier in the century, and 
 whose filosofiical opinions were fashioned by a very differ- 
 ent wave of thot. 
 
 "But contemporary literature is pernapsthe best mirror 
 in which to see reflected that new movement of the French 
 mind which has led M. Brunetiere to speak of the bank- 
 ruptcy of science. Several writers of note could be named 
 who, from l)eing the thm"ogoing materialists that they 
 were some ten or fifteen years ago, hav with stedily in- 
 creasing boldness been reaching toward an idealism that 
 is almost, if not quite, religious. 
 
 "A writer in the Figaro has gtme so far as to point to the 
 new direction taken by M. Zola'h mind as confirmatory of 
 the opinions exprest by M. Brunetiere in his remarkabl 
 articl. What, however, we may be quite sure of is that 
 some great change must hav taken place in France for so 
 keen a man of the world as M. Zola, aiul one so richly 
 endowed with tlie faculty (if scenting a subject that will 
 prove remunerativ in the dress of liction, to cast all his 
 literary energy first upon the Pyrenean village that has 
 been made a town by Bernadette, and then u])()n the city 
 (»f tht popes." 
 
 lo. What the great realist himself tliinks of the age he 
 livs in and the change of public opinion may be judged 
 by the following extract wriin some two or three 
 years ago;- 
 
 "To tell the truth, I think all thenieans tried insufti- 
 cient to sto]) tbe vising tic'e of anarchist ooctrin. W'li.it. 
 
 
 i 
 
 n 
 
r y 
 
 T76 
 
 OIR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 1 am askt, will be a preventativ ? Well, I, whohav fot for 
 positivism, after thirty years of stnig-glinj;;- find that my 
 convictions liav 1)een shaken. Relig'ions faith would pre- 
 vent tlic propaf^'ation of such theories; but has it not 
 alrao.st dir,appeard now-.' days ?" 
 
 Science does not appear to till M. Zola's niesiirc full 
 enuf. '* Scientists of repute," says a scrap of paper 
 found floatin,uf on the air the other day, " now assure us 
 that science does not advance us one singl step as to the 
 kowledge of the final cans. The aggressiv scientific man 
 of a generation ago has now become the agaiostic if he 
 does not Ijeiic in the Bible as of old." 
 
 J I. But while many of the scientists ar resting on their 
 oars, with their boat anchored waiting for a new compass 
 that is long, long in coming, the men who keep a reason 
 that knows too littl to be an entirely safe guide, subor- 
 dinate to a faith that believsmuch hav taken hart of grace 
 once more and ar pulling for the v.,'.l haven with a flowing 
 sea behind them. I.isten to this from the Bostrm " Con- 
 gregationalist" and conti'ast it with the pessimistic utter- 
 ance of M. Zohi 
 
 " The religious thol of the last decade has been distin- 
 guisht by a revolt from creeds, by impatience with dog- 
 matic teaching and by a disyjosition to investigate even 
 the most fundamental doctrinsof the Chri.stian faith. 
 
 "While the grasp of the popular mind on creeds has 
 l)een loosening, interest in present life has grown intens. 
 Problems of individual duty and destiny hav given p;ace 
 to those of societ) :ind government, By way of con- 
 trast, dwelling <m the unseen and the future world hav 
 been held up as unpractical and insignificant." 
 
 As Sancho Quixote is engineering this book, just hav 
 patience while he interjects a remark here — one that is 
 straight from the shoulder, for the old Adam is swelling 
 up inside of him. Man\' religious paper--, manv n;inis- 
 
sTRAV MOT KM. 
 
 »77 
 
 :1-'i'* 
 
 ter.s, ar stroiij,rl3Miislikcd hy iiumhcrs of intelligent poop\ 
 who know something of tlie conditions of nKxiern st)ciety 
 becaus they ar so very ethereal in tone that they scMotti 
 care to discuss the starvation problem. They want to 
 gloss it over, and keep peace in the family, and it will not 
 work. They want to keep on good terms with men whom 
 Christ wonld scourge if he were on erth to-day. We do 
 not intend to be side-trackt by such ethereal talk. We do 
 not bury the hatchet that way. Saltan is not to rule, 
 altho he speaks from a pn!j)it. 
 
 1 consider the next: world very important, very much 
 more important than t.iis, as I consider the palace nujre 
 important than the vestibule. I hope that is plain enuf 
 to any one who has red thus far without saying more 
 But I hav recently had a severe reminder that body and 
 mind ar so intimately connected that more than ever 
 and I hav been called a rad^'cal in the past, f am con- 
 vinct that the ma . who will not take sides .;n this ques- 
 tion as to whether one man is to continue to acquire mill- 
 ions unjustly wMle another is to die of starvation is not 
 worthy of being listened to— is a coward and a trimmer. 
 It often seems to me an impertinenc i\>v us to {)ray, 
 ''Give us this day our daily bred," imless in a spirit of 
 thankfulness. God has gi^'en us such a world to liv in, 
 overflowing with corn and fruit that starvation or want 
 should be impossibl for a man willing to work, a d yet 
 some of our f rends stand in their pulpits and defend men 
 who ar squeezing the life-blood out of human beings lu- 
 sted of telling theni the truth. 
 
 Don't make any mistake, gentlmen. There ar two 
 kinds of Christianity, the true and the false. ' Remeniber 
 that we hav a body as we- 1 as a soul. " Problems of 
 society and government " ji.r still g<.)ing to disturb your 
 welthy hearers, and the poorer brethren ar still going 
 to ask if men who crush their fellows ar In their 
 right place when they walk atound with tlie baskei on 
 
' r 
 
 I7« 
 
 OVU UNSEF.N COMI'AN IONS, 
 
 vSuuday. But, \\{)\v that we hav called a halt just as we 
 were g-allopin*^ ofl" to heven, forgetting" that we still livd 
 on erth, we shall proceed, after excusing our littl out- 
 Inirst, by saying that (iod gave us reason, and He means 
 us to use it. Me believs in order: change your swinish 
 arrangements to conform to His laws, or take the conse 
 qnences. 
 
 "Unformulated but most positiv creeds hav been form- 
 ing, whose sus])tauce is responsibility to and for men 
 rath'-r tlian accountability to (iod. But social relations ar 
 stabl only when conscience rules, and conscience is with- 
 out authority unless it can appeal to God. Wherevermen 
 ar interested in living aright they want to know about 
 Ood, and they want what is known of (Jod stated in terms 
 which they can understand. They want to know what 
 evidences there ar that He has made revelations to men 
 and what ar those revelations. They hunger to believ and 
 welcome authoritativ statements of faith. 
 
 "There ar indications that the time is alredy at hand 
 when such statements will be welcomed and defended as 
 they hav not been hithertc^ in this generation. The peopl 
 ar growing weary of critical discussions of religous themes. 
 The}' do not respond as hartilv as they hav done to the 
 (juestioniug tonv. from [.)ul])it and platform, 'J"*hey ar com- 
 ing to listen eagerl)- for the utterance that is positiv -" 
 
 Do you understand now why the labor problem is \\p for 
 settlment in all countries? Becaus the intelligent men 
 in the ranks and out of them ar po.sitiv — "that rings with 
 the fervor of belief in Cxod, holy and supreme, olTeritig 
 pardon to lost sinners thru Jesus Christ His Son. We con- 
 fidently expect a revival of dogma. This word may con- 
 vey opprobrious meaning to some, but in its generally 
 accepted meaning of authorativ religious teaching we do 
 not hesitate to use it. We look for strong declarations, 
 with the tone of authority, of the essential doctrins of 
 Christian faith; and for responses to them in renewed in- 
 
STRAV NOT) S, 
 
 m 
 
 terest in divine and hevenly things and in renewed lives. 
 Renewed interest in Ciod and in men's relations to Him 
 and in human destiny cannot fail to strengthen the fellow- 
 ship as well as advance the knowledge of those who believ 
 and obey him. With the revival of dogma will come a re- 
 vival of faith, hope and luv. " 
 
 You hav been led further afield than you anticipated 
 perhaps, but yon ar aware by this time that Suncho Quix- 
 ote is a littl unsettld in his ways and likewise in his spel- 
 ing. Yon liav had the plesure of reading the views of a 
 few of our fellow creatures on subjects that sensibl peopl 
 ar interested in. Like the voices I herd they jangl occa- 
 sionlaiy. Science and reason at the old fight, but they 
 speak each in his own tung and charm us like the 
 sirens. 
 
 " Al! tlie melodiea mysterious 
 
 Thru tlie droary darkutiss cliatited. 
 Thots ill aititiidf! imperious 
 Voices sort and deep and serious 
 Words that whispord, ?a i^s that haunted I" 
 
 12. A littl variety is agre'eabl to most of us, and before 
 .' plunge you into the .society of the hevy weights again I 
 shall tell you some fnnn}' littl incidents that happened to 
 me — funny to you, that is. 
 
 I hav often herd my grandfather tell a story back in — 
 Spain — that may serv to illustrate how every littl incident, 
 every word was siezed hold of by my imseen companions. 
 
 An acquaintance of his got hungry one night and scaled 
 a wall to steal .some appls. Thegaidener was watching on 
 the other side and as soon as he saw the man's hands on 
 the top of the wall he swung his rake and pinned him 
 down where he lay. I may remark here in case you hav 
 not quite lerned your lesson that the gardener was tem- 
 porarily possest by an evilspint. 
 
 "Sancho, " they used to say to me. "hav you forgotten 
 that storv the old man told about the rake? Well, that is 
 
f 
 
 1 80 
 
 OUR UNSKKK I OMFANIONS 
 
 just how we hav yi)\\ fixt ;it in-os«'nl. A beautiful illustra- 
 tion " 
 
 T had n.ul Sf>me\vherc iti 'lucof Larlyle's books, I think 
 — of canaries bein<^ trained to fire cannons, and tliey uKule 
 a good deal of this ilhistration. "A very sinij.)! tliin^^- for 
 the canary tf) set the cannon off Vnit the silly littl creature 
 had no idea of what its act incut, and you ar just like it. 
 Vou hav s'«t off a hole park of artillery, you stu^iid canary. 
 Vou liav no idea of what it ment when you .stuck your 
 ears thru into this world. I'oor littl canar bird! Poor 
 littl canary! We fear that you ar goin.iC tog^et your wing's 
 singed,'' 
 
 13. "Voices ai' not good things for nu>n and women 
 to listen tc;, for the simp] re;i.'>(Mi that those who listen to 
 them don't like to do much els and this is a univers where 
 every one slu>idd work." 
 
 If a man does not work, says the ajjostl, neither shall 
 he eat; but in these piping times those who work least eat 
 best, or rather get the best things to eat, which is a ctiri- 
 ous arrangement. And what of the ministers, apostolic 
 succession kind included.' But this is unfair. I shall soon 
 be in bad standing with the black graces, for I like the 
 traditional lawyers as littl as the doctors or ministers. 
 
 But what do the curled darlings say about this theory of 
 work? Is Tolstoy's idea that every man should do enuf 
 manual work to support himself correct? Again I tottch 
 upon a sore spot, for altho Paul made tents and his hands 
 smelt of tar his successors ar noL noted for doing much in 
 that line. They hav to ride bicycles now for "exercise/' 
 That first century had some drawbacks. 
 
 14. "Once for all there ar no reproaches in heven. Do 
 not believ anything of that kind. It is all done for a bad 
 purpose. There is nothing but Itiv there. Pay no atten- 
 tion to pust mistakes but keep yjur eyes to the future, 
 
STkAV inOTKS. 
 
 iSi 
 
 and all will yet Ix.; well, ^'ou ai* t-xpec'tcd to do sonic- 
 tliiui;' \ur yourself to j^ol out. of )-(Mir tronbl. Keep vour 
 mind t>ocu|)ied\vith sotnethinj^' els them voices as nmeh as 
 possibl. Wc ar not expected to do everything;"." 
 
 " Do you swallow that stuff ? Do you not yet under- 
 stand that you ar caught, ar.d that is simply to keep up 
 \-our sjiirits as lonj.:;: as possibl. They know the end of it 
 all as well as we do. Yf.'U ai' bot with a price and cannot 
 escape. " 
 
 15. One nijj;ht hist winter I hiy in a trance and saw a 
 full-ri.^;^ed ship sailinij;' across the ocean. All the sails 
 were set antl a iair coins lay before her, but she rolled 
 from sidc^ to side before me as if .she would founder, and 
 as I wonderd what it ment when I awoke, the voices 
 shouted in derision- "Is your pilot on board vSancho 
 (Quixote? Is your pilot on board? You ar drifting" on 
 thorock^." And many a time afterwards I was assailed 
 with the (juestion, '' Ts your pilot still on board ?" 
 
 You will ?iccuse mc of moraliz.ing like the ministers, 
 but sit down quietly and considei the question, " Is your 
 pilot on board ?" 
 
 Perhaps, if you don't consider it you may hear the 
 questioij in the future as I herd a great many things I 
 had forgotten, and it will not be plesant. It will simply 
 be unplesant to the last degree. I know. I mean after 
 you hav ''taken the leap," as they exprest it, and not 
 before. 
 
 "Tire/, le Rideau, la farce est jouee." Not quite. 
 Only the opening act. 
 
 " Siinsta arid ev'Tiinp star 
 And uiie clear call for me ; 
 Aud may there be uo moaning' of the bar 
 When I put out to sea. 
 « • « « * 
 
 '* Aud the f roui out our bourne of time s^ui pUoa 
 Tht- tioodfj may bear iiie far. 
 f hope to meet tny Pilot face to facw 
 Wheu I have crost the bar. " 
 
 r *i 
 
tSa 
 
 OUR iJNSEKN co^n•^^•roN^. 
 
 I*"). ''Tlu; coiu'liisi(^ii of bolh sides is tli.il you ini;sl 
 stop pruyini^ tor six months, Ev(:ry appeal you make lor 
 help will be counic! against you. Vou eaniiot be put on 
 the same basis as tiiosc who hav aceepted Christ on erth. 
 You aecepted Him after you knew the terrors, and that 
 kind of eonversion wil! not pass here. One, two, three, 
 four, five, six — t \velve-— thirty words. Preeisely. We 
 do not intend that you shall hav ]'eace while you ar doinj,{f 
 somcthiniJ^ forbidden, i'rayers ar al an end in lu^ll and 
 men who pray ar punisht. 
 
 " In the first place, you do not pray in faith, fully c .^ix-'ct- 
 mg what you ask for, and in ihc next }'ou ask in the 
 name of Jesus Christ and liia!: will not be accepted 
 from von. " 
 
 " Sant^ho Ouixote, " came an ernest voice that I knew 
 well, tile voice of a man still alive, ''don't you see yei 
 that we hav all come thru into the oceult world ai^'ainst 
 the commands of God ? The damage we hav done is in- 
 calculabl. Yes, I knew you back there. It is awful that 
 I, a minister of tlie g-ospel, hav to statul in my pulpit 
 preaehino' with my hart breaking. 
 
 " I will do the best I can fui )'ou, but we eunuoV l'ra\' 
 thru Jesus Christ. We must pray to the Christ tliat is i;i 
 each of us. There is a Christ lU each of us {larih' di-- 
 velopt, and we must pray to that part." 
 
 "Thai is coirect, Sancho Quixote;" came the (^her 
 voice that I know well, altho I hav never listened to it in 
 the flesh, "he has told you the truth, and we must do 
 what we can thru one another, " 
 
 That was durin.^" the erh- days, of cours, when I was 
 under the influence ar.d half excusabl for believing- the 
 (me minuie and lafing at the folly of it all the next, but 
 during- convalescence if the doctors will allow the ex- 
 pression after what has been writn — I red a littl 
 ]>amflel which seems to preach the same doctrin in cold 
 blo(.Hl Possum up a uum tree. Old wives' fables copy- 
 
STRAY NorKS. 
 
 183 
 
 rig:htccl by Satan.is. How do you like the source of the 
 infoi Illation that you t^ct ribout your tied frends or your 
 Hvin.i,'^ ones ' (). yes, only ij^cnorant ])copl deny that they 
 g-iv information, but hov much is it worth, and is it right 
 to take it ? 
 
 ^vl?i: 
 
 
 17. Ihit thoy were frolicsome too. My frcnd was ucjt 
 alt(jgetiier wrons^. I had to laf many a time at their re- 
 marks. The)- can be witty when the humor strikes them. 
 A hermitag-e is not the bt •it place to laf, but some of the 
 patients, I can well believ, laf becaus they cannot help 
 it -there is a method in their lafter altho some of their 
 frends il ik it is a si.s^n of vacancy. Suppose the nervs ar 
 gently pii^'ed so that only ati anchorite could keep grave. 
 vSuppo.sc ihey really listen to something they imagin to 
 be funny ? 
 
 1 would be fighting successfully for a time and keeping 
 them at bay, too niucii interested in my writing to dis- 
 tinguish the words when a new departure would be made. 
 They vvould spring in at the least sign of a wish to rest 
 and sh(K)t the senlonce in by the telegrafic route in ad- 
 vance of, <jr at the .same time as the voices, so that 1 could 
 not fail to catch the meaTiingevenif the words were indis- 
 tinct: " vSisters, what is to be dono with vSancho Quixote ' 
 He is clearly goino to dominate us. He is gain ing the ui)per 
 hand. Shout it thru the occult that Sancno is gaining 
 the day." 
 
 The droll tone sometimes, the mock-hopeless, despair- 
 ing accent at others; the idea that I was dominating a 
 world I knew nothing about, was more than I could 
 endure. 
 
 O, yes, they ar very funny, very frolicsome, but when 
 I would become too exuberant in my temporary relief 
 from the cursing, they would try a new tack. 
 
 They ofen teased me by speaking with a sens of inti- 
 macy that I did not like at all. It was as if there was no 
 
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i84 
 
 OUU UNSKKN < (JMI'ANIONh. 
 
 use (.'onccaliny^ .'inytbing from nic. The game \va.> up! 
 I had pierced the mystery! 
 
 « 
 
 " Vou ar des notres, now Sancho. There is no use 
 
 being ])ack\vard. MaVe yourself at home. Don't be 
 
 alarmed. Pas de faiblesse, Danton ! Poor old daft 
 
 Sancho. That is how ])eoplc will spciI; about you in the 
 
 future- just daft Sancho." 
 
 1 8. "Is my control here ?" they had me the length of 
 a.^king. Yes, he was always there redy for business, but 
 I did not always pleas him. We hear a good deal about 
 "controls" that is favorabl, but as I liav paid for my 
 whistl I do not want to be "controld " any more, 
 
 "You hav come thru into the occult world under the 
 wrong contn)l." If 1 had had the right "control* I 
 would never hav attempted to enter the occult worh' in 
 that wav. T might moralize again, Init- 
 
 io. " Miracls " ar sometimes wrot by hypnotic influence. 
 1 lay in bed for several hours lertMng to perfcwm them. 
 My leg below the knee was sei/.ed by cramj) and held 
 until the luiin was almost unendurabl. 
 
 " You must lern to pray in faith to-night or never All 
 the others lernt in a shorter time than you. " I tried hard, 
 and the pain left me. Then it was put back in order to 
 give me a chance to lern ray lesson. T liecame a 
 " miracl " worker that night for an hour or two. 
 
 Imagination again ? Now, let me explain a littl. I hav 
 done some hous building iu my time, and when I first 
 began to use a hammer 1 occasionally struck myself on 
 the hnger or thumb nail — not intentionally, of cours, 
 for in Hiose days F was not qvnte so far gone, "'he sensa- 
 tion that I felt is called pain in English. No matter what 
 name yon giv it, it is the sensation, the feeling I am 
 after. If, then, the thumb-nail feeling wasa delusion, .so 
 was the cramp feeling. If the one was real, so was the 
 
STRAY NOTES. 
 
 '«5 
 
 other. It was painful, sore, hard lo bear. There has 
 ■been a good deal of plesure in writing this book, as well 
 as a good deal of disgust at my folly. The doetors ur too 
 funny not to add a littl spiee where it is needed. 
 
 J 
 
 ^m 
 
 20. "Ttedy now, Saneho Quixote," I say to myself as 
 1 feel like jumping from my seat. " Remember you ar in 
 a hermitage and don't eompromire yourself. What was 
 that ? •' 
 
 Suppose you had a needl plunged into your ear and 
 withdrawn on the instant how would you feel ? Not very 
 comfortabl. That was something like what I felt, only 
 that there was a fiery itch with it that nearly made me 
 yell. I felt it often enuf to know and dred it. That was 
 one of the few things I drcded. The needl was not there 
 but the pain n-as. The delusion, the hallucmation wasout 
 in force and it had a sting that was real. 
 
 How fimnyit must be for a man who does not behev in 
 hypnotic influence to hear a patient describe all his local 
 troubls. Me must take him for a comi)1ete ass or the 
 most acci>mplisht liar on earth. No wonder thai some 
 elo(juent men .vho ar not gifted with the W. K. C. O. A. 
 T/. stay in iiermitages while the fhjwers bloom on the 
 outside. They hav told .so many startling tales that the 
 doctors .suspect them even after they ar cured 
 
 21. Now, I shall hav to bring a fierman to the rescue 
 and giv vou something solid. I think the disorder mu.st 
 hav been well known both in (rreece and Rome in the de- 
 cadent days, but let the professor spe.'ik for him.self: 
 
 ^% 
 
 "INCREASING \h:RV()rSNl::SS. • 
 
 Under this rather startling titl Proi". VV. Erb. at Heidel- 
 berg, gave an address some time ago which demands more 
 than a passing notice. Professor Erb takes it for granted 
 iliat there is a markt increas c>f functional nervous dis 
 
 h' 
 
' f 
 
 ■:rj 
 
 1 86 
 
 Ol'K ITNSI.K.N lOMI'ANIONS. 
 
 r ' 
 
 orders, and he believs that the g\ ents of the present cen- 
 tury hav naturally led to this result. The nineteenth cen- 
 tury began in disorder and commotion. France had past 
 thru a bloody revolution which was to be followed by the 
 excitement and exhaustion of Napoleonic adventurcfi; 
 restlessness, political and social, was followed by a period 
 of calm, but, with the advancing years, labor saving 
 inventions rapidly replaced man and increast welth, and 
 renderd communication easy. In science, in literature, 
 all were devolping, and v/i h ii there appeard incapacity 
 for restful plesures, rushing from change to change seemed 
 to be the only alternativ to work. With overwork there 
 was overcrowding and overstimulation; alcohol and to- 
 bacco were used in greatly increa.st (juantities; railway 
 traveling and its nerv-jarring motion still further tended 
 to nervousness: and, so Professor Erb convinces himself, 
 with all this there has been a clear loss of nerv tone to 
 the hole of the highly civilized nations. * * * 
 
 According to Professor Erb all this rapid, restless move- 
 ment has left an irritab and slow lecovering nervous 
 system, which must be considered as neurasthenic. The 
 essentials of this disorder, which has not been recognized 
 twenty years, ar increast .sensitivness, w'th weakness, 
 weariness, lack of power «)f endurance, ami defectiv re- 
 cuperativ power, 'i'his disorder is a rchnement of hys- 
 teria and hypochondriasis, and it is the outcome of tiie con- 
 ditions of 'ife. He thinks it ot to be found in all periods 
 of excitement and of luxury, but owns that there is r.o 
 evidence of its existence in Greece or in Rome. The dis- 
 order is to be recognized and to be met by changing con- 
 ditions, and nerv hygieii is to be considerd as much as 
 sanitation. F'rom school days to professional life the 
 human being is to be tended and brot uj), his mental, 
 moral and fisical education is to be regulated, his holi- 
 days ar to be methodized, his business is to be conducted 
 in helthy surroundings, and his cities ar to be made hel 
 
S'IKAV No'lK.S. 
 
 ,87 
 
 thy anci beiitiful, with fresh air and beutiful surroundings. 
 Thus the professor is a preacher of hy^denie socialism. 
 As we said before, we hav been charmed with the address, 
 
 but not convincl. 
 
 The old question reappears in another form. Ts in 
 creasing insanity and nerv(nis disorder in necessary corre- 
 lation to deveh)ping complexity of society? Tt must be rec- 
 ognized tliat the more complex the rules of society the more 
 frecpient will be breaches of these rules, at all events for 
 a time. In developing civilization, too, we hav a very 
 perplexing factor added in the survival and the propa- 
 gation of the non-fittest, and this doubtless adds to the in- 
 creasing number of the nervous. We ar inclined tobeliev 
 that there is some slight increas of nervousness, but that 
 there is a much greater knowledge of the subject, and with 
 Imowledge comes subdivision and classification. We do 
 not belicv more women, at all events in England, hav 
 "nervs" now than had fifty years ago. With the increas 
 of excitement there has been a still gi eater tendency to 
 more freedom of exercise, more freedom from conven- 
 tionalism and much helthier home surroundings -SriVw/t 
 Medical Journal. 
 
 . -^ 
 
 .a 
 
 t !' c' 
 
 2 2. One night I had a warning to be careful what I 
 wrote on any subjec:. How it came about 1 do not know, 
 but I saw tl^.en as T had never vseen before what the etYects 
 of literature were. It has a terribl influence. I thot lo 
 myself, -'I shall never write a word aboiit my experience. 
 T am afraid to risk it in case I mai<e errors that will lead 
 others astrav," and now that 1 knew how the mental 
 machinery is workt 1 see it is a very serious matter indeed 
 to put your thots on paper. 
 
 It is high treason to whisper a wc»rd against the news- 
 papers, but there is ro; ni for improvement in the news 
 they furnish us. 1 hav howled like the other "liberal" 
 men for the news 'as it iiappens, good v.r bad, 1.)iit 1 hav 
 
i8S 
 
 OUR UNSEEN i OMPANIONS. 
 
 chani^od inv tniml (MI tlic suhjcct now. ll is right io do 
 so wbon you soi' cans dn it. Tht* Rrv. l.vi.ian Abbot 
 was loeUiriu)4 to stuiletits the olhcrday aiul In-, too, wants 
 tbi- ticws scrvil u]> hot. It is all .1 luattor ot" t.istc. l'\'w 
 men ot" sous x\:iu\ the sonsaliotial trash that is disheil up 
 every niorninj; iu the Dailv Howiir. ))iit there seems tobe 
 a (kMiiaiul for it. the luore's tlie pitv 
 
 Carlyle said that the journalist is tiie true kiuj^ oi to-day, 
 aud there is a i;(»od deal ot" truth in the sayiu).^; if he re- 
 uiains eonseientious. but as it is the editorial paj^eof uiost 
 ]>apers i-; ne.irly worthless on eeononiie tpiestious. It is a 
 jiartisan howl that does luU deeeiv any man of stuis. The 
 proprietors eare ju'ineipally for the eash box, aud ar redy 
 t«) slobber on their knees lufore i)ower and pri\iU\v;e, in 
 order to make ^moncy. They eoidil ehanije tlie face of 
 the world, bui they " .ir out fvir tlu- stutV." Shaw I 
 We kiuiw the iletetiee and the howl. It is the same in .dl 
 ages 
 
 There ar tons T mean t<»ns- (^f cn il literature printed 
 
 in this country, .and the very fonogiats ar tiki to the neck 
 with foul songs and indecent lau ruage. Do yon know 
 what al! this is doing' Anthony Cotnstock goes perhaps 
 too far in liis /eal, but 1 hav changt^d my opinion of his 
 work of late let them laf who will. Ivvil spirits ar ruling' 
 the printing 'press to a larger extent than is altt^gether 
 suited to my taste. I know them. Vou do not. It is .'i 
 dedly serious m. liter. I tell vou. and when vou laf and 
 think that it is of littl consequeiK^e what boys read the 
 devil is using }du. 
 
 There is a place tt> draw the line. 
 
 1 hav never had any taste for impure literature, but I 
 hav red muf of our gallic-decadt.'Ut extreme-realistic trash 
 to .serv for a lime. "When you get <nit do not read any 
 papers dealing with this occult world. Just leav it alone. 
 L>o not attend any meetings or hav anything" to do with 
 the subject " \"ery good .idvice, 
 
SlkAV NDIKS. 
 
 i,"Sn 
 
 4 } Twice thry siicecedeO in Kfttinjr mc too cxcilcHl t<» 
 control nivsclf, but 1 km \v afterwards that it was not well 
 to let j(o the holm. 
 
 On the other side they hav better control oi themsclvs. 
 "Mow did it conie about that Satan presented hiinself he- 
 fore riod if lie is a consMinini,'- fire to all th(»se wlu^ work 
 eviP Answer us that (juesiion, Mr. (Juixote. Or do you 
 stand for partial inspiration !' Don't ^et so angr> at us. 
 We hav some rights perl)ai)s I hai yiui ar noL aecpiainied^ 
 with. Vou d(>n't know so ver) much/ 
 
 " And why was il that when Satan slru}.iKld with the 
 Arehanj;el Michael lor the body of Moses. Michael 
 could onlv say, "The Lord rebuke thee O, Satan.' Why 
 was it' he could n.ot brinj^ any railiui^ accusation a>;ainst 
 him? He a littl more careful of your lan).;uage. Take 
 care how vou revile us or in short hav anythin,i; to do with 
 us. No. my frend, low as w(; ar, we ar not responsib! 
 t"(»r the crucifixion of Christ. That we left to your race." 
 
 24. "These voices ar simijly the two \oice-; that con 
 tend in the soul of every licin^- on erth. They ar auilibl 
 to you, th.at is the only difference, 
 
 25. "If you do not stop takinj;- these notes we will be- 
 i(in in another way. Your name will ring in your ears 
 every second of your life till insanity comes. Vou ar not 
 jrotng to publish any of yonr experiences for the very 
 .i^ood reason that you arj^oing- to stay here till deth comes." 
 
 m 
 
 aw 
 
 *'.'/ 
 
 H 
 
 '0 
 
 •4 
 
 .1 
 
 p- 
 
 26. "Our bnsiness is 'to der.troy faith, hut Ift us change 
 the subject and be^rin work. Concentrate yonr eyes mi 
 thai board in front of you Concentrate-your-eyes-on^ 
 that-board." 1 kept my eyes in every other direction in 
 spite of a strong- desire to do what they told me and the 
 voice kept on with the drear) command. It became next 
 Jo unbeurabl to listen to it, They ar savage in their 
 
\i)0 
 
 ^u;k i;nsi,f.n companions. 
 
 cruelty. T.ookin^^ over my shorthand notes of this inci- 
 dent 1 find that I hav writn "Wlnit is tlie use of all liiis 
 tyranny? Why is it thai ])fn])l don't understand what is 
 l^oinj;- on behind the scenes? There is no question in my 
 mind that wv would he tar better to let the occult world 
 strictly ah me." 
 
 No (|nestion now, indeed I 
 
 27. (»nc day I was walkinj^' thru the floor of the her- 
 mitage wonderinjjf whetlier th(.'ri' was not nu^ro psychic 
 influence around us than clswhere when a fi'cTul who had 
 had some experience with delirium tremens came forward 
 and said — " Don't you think that there is a sj^ood deal 
 more psychic influence around us in this ])Iacc ilian 'any- 
 where els ?" 
 
 He just repeated the queslion ihai I was askinj; myself 
 and the voices arose. " Do you yet understand hcj\v we 
 make men and women obey our orders thru mtatal 
 suggestion ?" 
 
 Just a coincidence, you sa\ again, but suppose I could 
 tell you of a hundred '^uch " comcidences " what then? 
 A few establish the pnncipl just as well, for to a greater 
 extent than many imagin, this is how we ar acted upon. 
 
 To illustrate again, let nic icll you of something that 
 happened. Suppose that I wa.^ conscious of the presence 
 of my unseen companions and that they communicated 
 with me by the — impression-route, — by a route that is as 
 certain as if T herd the voices and that 1 was taking a few 
 lessons in how the world is governed. Suppo.se further, 
 that it i . not necessary to put down a hundred instances 
 to make the principl clear to those who believ in the 
 doctrin that we ar continually iinder the influence of two 
 opposing powers and we ar redy. 
 
 I was sitting in church one Sunday and as the u.shers 
 kiegan to take up thi.' collection the thor came to me, 
 and I knew where it came from, What if one of the baskets 
 
STRAY NOTKS. 
 
 191 
 
 should f.'Ul .".nd the money should roll on the floor ? That 
 was not the first time the thot had come to me in a life- 
 time, I am well aware, but it was the first time I had ever 
 seen the basket fall within aminute from the time the thot 
 came into my mind, and the one basket was no sooner 
 lifted than another rolled on the ihutv acro^'s the aisle 
 from where I was sitting. An(] then the questit-n came 
 inaudibly as it had come tnany tinu's, '' Do you ^ee how 
 the puppets, the pawns ar acted ui)on ?" 
 
 The men who were passing the baskets let their minds 
 wander tor a brief second under the inlluence of their 
 unseen companions and the work was done. 
 
 An engineer wrecks his train and we ar horrified when 
 we take up the Morning Howler to see the account of the 
 wreck. They were at his side supplying the material for 
 the Spanish castls he was building. lie smiled as they 
 rose in the air but kept his eye ahed and his hand on the 
 lever. Just as they came near the switch, however, the 
 material was supplied for the airy tower on the corner of 
 the building, and the engineer wavered at the critical 
 minute and the damage was done. The tower had to be 
 built. He could not help smiling as the load of fresh 
 material came forward, but he saw thru it when he 
 tumbld off the engin. 
 
 Sometimes it is the telegraf operator who marches 
 around the hatlments of his castls and shouts for the 
 warder. Harmless enuf once m a while, but one night 
 they caut him napping and we red of it next morning. 
 And so it is in all the relations of human life. 
 
 "I hav been fortunate in typewriting this book. "I said 
 to myself. " I hav not spoiled a whole line since I 
 began." I went on and smiled, and kept on my gard, for 
 I know wb' sei.ds the thots now, and how necessary it is 
 to be careful. But I soon became so interested that I 
 forgot all about my caution, and before I knew how it 
 happend 1 had writn one line on the top of another. A 
 
 M' 
 
 it 
 
 i 
 A: 
 
 fl: 
 
'9» 
 
 OIJH INSRKN ( OMI'ANHINS. 
 
 Strange coincidence? A moment of foigolfulness and 
 you write on without chaniij^inji; the machine And the 
 question comes again to your mind, " Do you see liow it 
 is managed ?" 
 
 r went into a st<jre once to buy some wearing a])parel, 
 as the old frase has it. and just as the bundl was handed 
 me (he clerk said, •• I »on't yon want a pairot suspenders ?" 
 1 know that such questions ar often askt at dry goods 
 stores, hut this happfud to be one where they hav sens 
 enuf to let the custonur depart in peace after iie buys 
 what ,\v. wants. It so happend that I really needed the 
 galluses, but I had forgotten all about it. 
 
 And again my unseen trends askt me in an inaudibl way, 
 "Do )(ui now see why some men ar prosperous in this 
 world and others fail ?" The devil can help a man a good 
 deal if he chooses. It all depends if the man is going in 
 the right direction to pleas the devil. He supplies the 
 inspiration. Ccm we not find wclthy Christians then ' 
 What does the New Testament say about it ? Never 
 mind tlie intellectual expositions of the New Testament 
 you hear, (io to the book itself and see what it says. 
 
 Von construct a theory, you tell tne, and make the facts 
 to fit it ? f know what 1 am speaking al)out. Every day 
 of your life you repeat the words that ar sent to you. 
 Your business is to walch them that you may use only 
 tlie right kind. 
 
 And now how do you like it as far as you hav got f 
 And hav you time to read over that sermon in chapter 
 two ? You may read it more intelligently now, for your 
 mind is changed since you red it last time. It really 
 does not matter if you ar a doctor and want to jump on 
 the book with both feet. Ideashav a certain influence upon 
 you and you c.mnot help it. The evil spirits repeated 
 lies to me so often that while I despised them I could 
 not help being alTected lo some degree, and we ar all in 
 the same boat, Ideas rule the v^'orld. 
 
^ 
 
 hTRAV VOTKS. 
 
 «9.{ 
 
 28. Spoakinjif about ideas ruling' the Wf)rld, diil you 
 ever jiotice the low, unworthy j)ictures which appear in 
 our two lea(linj»' comic wceklifs? I'Zvcry man in good 
 helth enjoys a littl amusemeiU, l>iil 1 cannot remember 
 the time when I ever sa\s' anything to hif at in some of 
 the pictures that j^reet our eyes every week. They raise 
 hell. That i.^ jjlain language, but it is the truth. There 
 is a legitimate field for caricature, and I enjoy an amusing 
 picture as much as most, but look at the pictures of Irish- 
 men, Negroes and tranip.s, walking delegates, or anyone 
 who has the misfortune to displeas the masters of the "art- 
 ists " who draw them. Any man with a glimps of art- 
 istic feeling knows that there is limit to caricature, but 
 when you begin to draw men with as close i reseml)lance 
 to animals as you can, you overstep the limit. Look at 
 the faces you see every week. Uo yon think any man 
 with true artistic feeling; would draw thein"' Only tlie 
 bungler has to depend upon such work. 
 
 An artist can draw an amusing picture that will not 
 raise bail feelings in the minds ot the men who look at it. 
 Not very much hell, you understand -we ar always in 
 such a hurry — just a littl every week; a littl more con- 
 tempt for your fellow beings, a littl more race hate here 
 on American soil, where it should be forgotten, and the 
 work goes bravel) on. 
 
 And yet these papers go into the homes of cultured 
 peopl. It is very strange that Christians should take 
 them and spred thenj before their children every week. 
 They contain evil ideas, bad for the men who draw them, 
 and worse, if possibl, for those who look at them. We 
 hav herd a good deal about the raising of artistic taste, 
 and there is room for it, and furthermore it is an easier 
 matter to change the tone of all our papers than many im- 
 agin. The subscription ofHce rules the paper to .some 
 littl extent. '' Weary Waggles," '* Dusty Rhodes," and 
 the others hav been sadiv overworkt Could you not 
 
 ^m 
 
 \ i 
 
 S' 
 
 , \ 
 
 n 
 
 
wnrnmi 
 
 >94 
 
 ODK LNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 ijo irnliKtil i(» be a liltl inoii- incrtiful t<» the poor 
 wrclchcs' 
 
 A iiit'Uibcr of]);itl.mR'ntovtr ill Kiij^laiul ilu* other yoai 
 thrashed an artist whii took |;reater liberties with his 
 mouth than were warranted by Iey;itiinate earieature 
 The artist hail used the i)eneil to spoil the mouth of the 
 meiubcr, and tlu- member used his hand to spoil the 
 mouth of the artist vStduethin^ niitjht easily be said in 
 favor ot tin- member if foree is to rule the workl. 
 
 1 
 
 H). And speaking about inspiration what about inven- 
 tion? Ar our j^reat inventors not quite so ^reat as some 
 of them ima^in? What of the W(mderful inventions that 
 startl us sometimes' Can it be that t<t a larjje extent they 
 come when they ar needed and when they ar ^iven? Of 
 eours, we hav tt) work for them as we hav for everything" 
 on erth that is woith having- our minds must be oeeii- 
 pied in the rij^lit direction, but what if just a litll inspir- 
 ation is jfivcn to cheer you up when things ar jji^etting 
 dull? 
 
 30. How did it happen th;it Christ came when (ireek 
 was nearly the universal lan^uaj^e and Rome had made 
 the world aecessibl' In short, does the machine run loo.se 
 or is it carefully watched' But if Sancho Quixote goes 
 on much longer in this strain the heathen will rage, and 
 the doctors imagin vain things. 
 
 31 Wdliam Co')beti said a long while ago that a 
 farmer's boy usually has a better memory than a fdosofer 
 or a man of lerning. The man depends \ipon note books; 
 the boy depends upon his hed. 
 
 I hav spoken of being obliged to wait a littl for words 
 during the first months of the attack, and I sometimes 
 forgot verses of a hymn or song that had been familiar to 
 me. '*No, you will go on to the next vers until we allow 
 
SIRAV NOTKH. 
 
 «o$ 
 
 you to come b.ick. Wo ar ratlu-r tired of tV it Christian 
 anthology " 
 
 'I'lien aJ,^'lill tlu; IIxkI j^ates were opciul and 1 rtnu-m- 
 herd things forgotten for a (]iiarter of a century. The 
 experienic was ani;i iig to nie. Words. iik":is. tliots. ex 
 pressions, wen- resi reeled in a flood I forgot a great 
 many words and names and verses until the pressure was 
 removed, ami I rememSerd things 1 had torgotlin. What 
 does this mean? That our memory is at the command of 
 good and bad spirits? That as our system becomes out 
 of order the evil spirits acquire a greater power ami ex- 
 ercise It? '"liat we ar instruments to be played upon, but 
 with the power of judging and so with the power of male 
 ing ourselves practically what wc pleas in normal sur- 
 roundings? for 1 am always on my gard against some of 
 our cultured freiuls in the ])ulpit. 'i'he building of a 
 mind is a very serious matter accoriling to tins theory It 
 has to be llld with good, and unfortiuialely with bad thots 
 from infancy up, and the fight rages without an end. The 
 anoels hav nothing to do but .sing? Woe's me. Tell them 
 that, and sec what reply you wdl get. 
 
 M. Sarcey, the Parisian critic wrote an interest mg 
 anicl on memory for the *' Figaro " that is (pioted in the 
 New York "Sun " of March jgth. i8(^() He says; " Who 
 in conversation, in seeking a name, a date, or any detail 
 that fbes before the memory and escapes, has m i cried 
 our in a tone of impatience, ' I hav it on the ti] of my 
 tung '* And true enuf that name, that date, ^.»r that 
 detail is on the tip of the tung." 
 
 The evil s^nrits put a good many expressions on the tip 
 of my tung, so that it seemed strange to me that I did not 
 express them aloud. Can it. be that the good ones bring 
 what is well for us to remember to the tip of our tung 
 and the evil ones bring what is undesirabl when our own 
 memorv falters at the work '' Ar the good ones not 
 stroujij- enuf to tell us all that is necessary ? What about 
 
196 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 free will excrciseil in the past, that has made our body a 
 machine with some slight defects acquired or inherited ? 
 And who knows but that we get all we need in the long 
 run, and who knows too but that y^rayer may change the 
 ccmditions and put us into a frame of mind that will enabl 
 the good spirits to help us more without touching our 
 glory and oiv danger -free agency ? But we ar perhaps 
 going too far. The only excuse is that Sancho Quixote 
 writes to mental suggestion, and it Hashes from both sides 
 fast enui: to alarm the skeptics. It is more than likely 
 that our memory works automatically but it is clear that 
 our un.secn companions hav power over it too. 
 
 " II seems," to go oack 10 M. Sarcey, "as if the 
 slightest efiort \Nould suffice to formulate it; but by what 
 strange fenomenon does it refuse to allow itself to be 
 captured ? The more you follow it the more it runs back 
 into the depths of the mind." 
 
 "There ar peopl with whom these failures of memory 
 ar frequent and insupportabl. For my own part I am 
 very subject to them. In conversation when I suffer from 
 them 1 hav Uj be resigned, but in public speaking T find 
 the inconvenience very painful. I am never sure that 
 I may not hav to stop short before the name of the author, 
 or of the book that I am talking about. That name 
 I hav pronounct alredy ten times in the cours of my 
 lecture; but suddenly it vanishes from my memory. I 
 hav it on the tip of my tung, but the timg remains 
 powerless. 
 
 " What is the caus of it? That is a question which 
 I hav often askt myself, and many others must hav askt 
 themselves the same question ; becaus in reality this 
 diseas is very common, and the theater continually 
 draws comical scenes out of it. 
 
 "After thirty years of exile, you return to the land 
 where your childhood was past, and no sooner hav your 
 eyes gazed upon the old town clock than a swarm of 
 
STRAY NOTES. 
 
 ^97 
 
 rccoHections that hav slept tor years becomes aroused 
 and hams again. . 
 
 vVhat ar we to conclude from this, if not that of ail the 
 recollections that ar stored in our mind, about one-third 
 ar constantly at our disposal for our daily 'ise, while the 
 other two-thirds ar put away in drawers whose keys we 
 hav lost." Very well saitl. M. Sarcey, but who has the 
 keys ? 
 
 ' Maury, who publisht a very reniarkabl study of 
 dreams, gfivs a fact that a first sight seems marvelous. 
 He returned after a long- absence to his native place. One 
 nig-iit he dreumd that a gentlman. who, in dreamland 
 only, he recognized as an old acquaintance, came to see 
 him. When he awoke he rememberd distinctly the face 
 of the frend of his dream, but he didn't troubl himself 
 about it, and regarded the whole affair as one of those 
 dreams in which the imagination alone is set in motion, 
 and which correspond with no reality. The next day, to 
 his intens surprise, he met the frend of his dream, with 
 the same name and the same face. It was a frend for 
 many years forgotten. The fenomenon is singular, but 
 it is easily explained. During the sleep of Maury his 
 mind, aroused by the incidents of his voyage, opend the 
 drawer where the memory of that frend was sleeping, 
 and the chance of the meeting did the rest." Who sent 
 the dream, M. Sarcey ? 
 
 " During the last few years there hav been many ex- 
 periments made in England with what is called the 'magic 
 mirror.' " (Far too mi.ny.) '• These experii.ients consist 
 in fixing the eyes stedily for a few moments upon any 
 brilliant surface, a glass, or even oil poured upon a dish." 
 (1, Sancho Quixote, was more ambitious, and took a ceil- 
 ing and also white paper, where I saw a great many pretty 
 sparks of fire, but the glass will work just as well.) '*The 
 subject who fixes his eyes upon this magic mirror falls in- 
 t'^ a state of hypnotism, " (That is just what he does, M, 
 
 :''>. 
 
 '.f 
 
■r 
 
 tgS 
 
 Ol'k IINSFI'.N roMPAMONS. 
 
 v^.u\\>y, aiul il vlr[K>mls ujion lu>\\ his system is whether 
 he j;et.seasily into it aiul oavily vui <>l il. Vcrbiini sap.) 
 '* There he sees \uulerthe form of imas^es lotij^lost reeol- 
 leetioiis. l'\)r instance, a wnnian who had eonipletely f'or- 
 i^ottenaii iniporiant address saw in the mirror an I'nveh^p 
 npon whii'h she red it. ' 
 
 Hut vou know well ennf. lioeloi-, that she only itna^ind 
 she saw it. altlio die letter would reaeh the address all 
 rii^ht' Sly oKI doi^ , tile doctors. Hrinjij alonj.; tin plethys- 
 nu)_>;raf' 
 
 "The explanation of all is that the drawer was opend 
 and tlk'.t is the hole <d" it." Not quite, M. Sareey. Wht) 
 opendit? (. >i' supposini.; that we even aeeejJt the theory 
 that onee \ou .>;i-t \onr mind in a certain slate thru hyp- 
 notism, eonceuMatii^n, oi wIku \o\.\ plea.s, all knowledge 
 flows in ui)on it. lunv did FrcMich l)e,<;in to (low in »>n me 
 when 1 was not thinkiui; ot' il at all? Why not iMiglish? 
 And how does it eonie it" the mind works automatically 
 in this condition my tr.emoiv was \n\)t to a standstill at 
 the will oi those oti the other side;* "We sln)\dd bear 
 well in mind that we do not really know what our mem- 
 ory eont.iins, bi-cau.s we luiv not the power to call up at 
 will evi.M-ythnii; tliat it contains and tv) empty all its cor- 
 ners. Riit. on the other hand, those corners open some- 
 times ot' themselves ("■■) and pitch out before our eyes ob- 
 jects that we believd were lost. In this way we can ac- 
 count in the simplest and nu>st natural manner for all the 
 mysterious .momalies o( memor>'. " 
 
 Mr. Sareey, .i.^ "ThcvSun" comments, writes entertain- 
 ini>ly, but he w<'uld bo surprised if he underwent a eours 
 of traininj; in the occult school to find how easily the 
 memory is acted upon. 
 
 Dreams hav inteliiirences at the other end. Fill vour 
 stomach too full and your unseen companions begin w«.>rk 
 when vou sleep in order to keep vour brain on the stretch. 
 Good spirits ur not inclined to disturb your rest. They 
 
STRAY NOTES. 
 
 199 
 
 know better thnn some of our political economists and 
 some of our ministers that when the body is not well 
 taken care of the nation v 11 suffer in the lon,i( run. 
 
 Alfred Russel Walhiee speaks of the number of Com- 
 mon|)lace i)cop1 who die every year, and ha^.rards the 
 conjecture that they will find part of their plesure in 
 fillin|Tf our minds with dreams that ar really of no conse- 
 quence. Dreams d(^ not c<mie of themselves — yon ar safe 
 to conclude tlvit. Perhaps it would be as well if, like Mr. 
 Cleon whom old Plutarch tells ug of, we had never had a 
 dream in our life. Was he a perfect specimen of tisical 
 manhood? 
 
 32. "And so you want to know the blackness of the 
 human hart, do you? Well, we will pfratify you." A 
 strange panorama was unfolded before me — a waitini,^ uni 
 vers. "Now, then, here is a univers of being's like your- 
 self who ar about to perish. Woidd you consent to anni- 
 hilation to save them?" xVnnihilation? Annihilation? 
 Once it had sounded half reasonabl, but now- "There is 
 no need of thinking- any long'er on the subject. You ar 
 like the rest of the human race— selfish to the core. A 
 race of cowards. All you Ciire for is enjoyment, cnjov- 
 ment. " Well, what do you think of it? We mig^ht be will- 
 ing to die in the body, but we expect to liv again. But 
 annihilation ? Forgetfulness? That may suit some of our 
 dreamy oriental trends, but most Anglo-Saxon peopl want 
 to liv tin and grow. There is something in us that rebels 
 at the idea of being ])ut out of existence. 
 
 3 ;. What is space!^ What is eternity? We cannot 
 comprehend the meaning of the expressions. They ar 
 beyond our reach. And then we think of God and the 
 awful univers he upholds. "Stop it you fool, stop it or 
 your hed will burst. That is lunv mad houses ar fild. " 
 
 34. Hav you ever been in the habit of frightening 
 
 
 ii>? 
 
 . / 
 
«do 
 
 OUR i'nsf.i:n companions. 
 
 children with gost stories? It is surprising how many 
 there ar who indulge in this practice. Fill their minds 
 with luv and not with dred. A book of this kind should 
 never be placed within their reach. Should never be 
 writn? vSancho Quixote lookt over the field and conclud- 
 ed that there was room for one more book in this world. 
 There ar some older children who would do well to read it. 
 
 l^c,. There is one kitid of hypnotism put to two uses. 
 There is the devil's use, and there is another use to allay 
 human suffering during an operation or anything of that 
 nature. Is it not a kind of a miracl when used for bene- 
 ficent purposes? Could the operator not cure diseas in 
 the same way by an exercise of faith? Richard Roe 
 cured me and why not others. Who causes diseas? Our- 
 selves veiy often. Wlio acts upon the system and holds 
 back nature from effecting a cure? Evil spirits? And 
 supposing to lead others astray after false Gods they take 
 their influence off tme of our "prominent and influojntial 
 citizens" and keep it off? A dangerous business all thru, 
 but I thro out these hints to irritate the faculty. 
 
 36. The following articl from the '•Filadelfia Ledger" is 
 worthy of your attention. Sancho Quixote marks it O.K. 
 And how do you like the new speling of the Quaker City? 
 
 ' MENTAL vSELF-CONTROL. 
 
 There is one part of personal culture which receivs very 
 littl consideration, i. e., the direction and guidance of the 
 thots. The habits we acquire, the principles we espous, 
 the duties we perform or neglect, the temptations w^e re- 
 sist or yield to. the words we speak and the influences we 
 exert ar matters upon which we ar often urged to be vigi- 
 lant; but the thots and imaginings which pass thru the 
 mind ar seldom brot up for scrutiny. There ar two reas- 
 ons for this — first, they ar so entirely hidden from gthers 
 
STRAY NOTKS. 
 
 20I 
 
 ■ J' 
 
 that all the class of motivs which include the hope of es- 
 teem or the fear of censure ar quite inoperativ; and, 
 secondly, we ar accustomed to consider them so involun- 
 tary as to prevent any serious sens of responsibility. The 
 . first of these reasons is undoubtedly operativ. No one 
 but ourselvs knows what we ar thinking- about; therefore, 
 we can be held accountabl for our reflections only to our 
 own consciences. The second, however, is only partly 
 correct. Impressions and conceptions do float thru our 
 minds unbidden ; but we ar not unabl to arrest them, to 
 correct them, to turn them into other channels, or to dis- 
 miss them altogfether. The power to do this resides in 
 every sane person, and the degree to which it is devoiopt 
 marks with tolerabl certainty the strength of the mind 
 and the manliness of the character. There ar weak and 
 indolent dreamers who ar slaves to their fancies, who care 
 not to break their chains, and whose ability to do so is 
 stedily dimishing. Yet even in them it may be reinstated, 
 nor is it ever wholly extinct, save in those unfortunate 
 cases when, thru diseas or injury, reason has been driven 
 from her throne. 
 
 The human mind is never wholly inactiv in its waking 
 hours. No matter how passiv or how idle we may be, the 
 thots and the fancies ar busy, with or without our will. 
 Sometimes, indeed, they act energetically, in obedience 
 to our purpose. We set ourselvs to work to think out a 
 problem, to weigh an argument, to arriv at a decision, to 
 fathom an idea, to consider the details of a plan or apiece 
 of work, and our thots serv us well or ill according to their 
 training. To think consecutivly and to a conclusion is 
 one of the supreme arts of life, and the power to do it is 
 one of the best gifts that education can bestow. Beyond 
 this, however, there is a vast amount of musing and medi- 
 tation that seems to go on within us involuntarily. Pictures 
 rise up of the past as it was or might hav been, of the 
 future as we hope or fear it may be. These ar tnore or 
 
 ■4< 
 
 
 
 It.'. 1 
 
 ■■i 
 
 •i 
 
1 
 
 202 
 
 nl K rNsl.KN < (IMIWNIONS. 
 
 loss vaj^ut' ami imlistiiut ; but t hoy cither «;r(»vv in dcar- 
 iiess or faclo away, aooordiui; to the intorost they excite 
 within ns. Sonietitnos thoso lloatinyi" noti(^ns will lake the 
 fonn of sni;j;ostions, .iml will pass into timI jMirposos, 
 whioh at put into oxivution. In the Vi-nls ol anothor, 
 "The mitnl plavs witl the piolurcot" thoni, iiutil smUlenly 
 the picture has hecoino a tact." Many a oriinc, from 
 which iho iloor would once liav shrunk in horror, has 
 slowly shapeJ itself in hou's of secri-i ntcditation ; and 
 frotn loniLi faniiliarity in solitary ihot has lost itsrcpnlsiv- 
 ness. .-ind assumed astrcnv;th and proportion sutVicient to 
 i-roate tiie actual deed. < >n the other hand, many an act 
 o{ duty or solf-saeritieo, at lirsi supposed to be impt)ssibl. 
 has by continual contemplation become so attuned to the 
 dispositi(>n that it has been perfornul with eas and even 
 with pie sure. 
 
 Kvon where these imaiiinings ai not veali/ed in activ 
 life, thev promote various mental conditions and nourish 
 varitMis v-nnuions. A f.iint suspieioit entering the mind 
 anvl brooded upon will often tlcxelop into jelotisy, atiijer 
 and hatred; while, on the other hand, pure and noblethots 
 chorisht will m.ike the character more pure anil nobl. We 
 can brood ui)on v>nr trcnibls until they become unbearabl. 
 or we oati dwell n]iou »Mir blossiuos ntttil our harts ar 
 melted into that\ktuitu>ss. We can pt>nder over the faults 
 of onr noiv;hb(n\s until we ar imbued with ilisapproval and 
 contempt, or wo can muse upon their redeeminsij cpinHties 
 till the kitully svtnpathics <»f onr nature assert themselves. 
 Self-eompanionsiiip, indeed, is more itiflnential in form- 
 inj>- character .md rejjulatitii; lift' than any other intercours. 
 It is more constant, more nnconstraind, more absohitelv 
 sincere. Vet, to make its intluenco truly salutary, we 
 must direct its eo\irs, and not sutler it t(^ drift with wind 
 and tide. We must be master of t^ur thots. as well as of 
 our actions; we must control the mental pictures in which 
 we indul>;e. as nuich as the words which isbue frotn our 
 lips, — I\laihlriii Led^t-r. 
 
SVK \V N(»r|.,S 
 
 ••* 
 
 
 37. Yes, ovir tliotsar far niori" important than \vc imapin, 
 or clstliorc vvouKl not be such a strugj^-l bch'nd the sccnos 
 to keep <»ur niituls full It is an awful mystery. Our 
 bodies ar l>attl tidds ftdl ot eonundinj^ ii(»sts; f)ur minds 
 ar baltl fii'lds; uk u war with one another in eity and in 
 country ; nation is arrayed a^Ljainst nation and continent' 
 against continent, and in the unseen world there is raj»e 
 and unreasonin)^ hate and uu^raU ful warfare against the 
 calm luv. the wonderful power that hears us all up, star 
 upon star, sun upon sun and system upon system. 
 
 (lod is luv, we say. < lod is strife, is practically the 
 answer of tin* expounders t^( the survival of the fittest as 
 an cN-cuse tor a eonlitiiialion of the industrial tyrany that 
 is crushing the life out of their fellow being's. We point 
 to thv" st.ars llaniing around ns in tnajesty and grandeur 
 from gciieratioti uni<' geiuMMiion, from cycle unto cycle, 
 so orderly in their co.rses that the m.ui of .science can tell 
 to the hour when thi\\- will roll past a certain point in 
 their immens oibiis, anJ !he\- point to lions and tigers 
 teaiing one ant)ther to pieces ;is a SN-inbol of what man 
 made in the image of his Maker should be. 
 
 M 
 
 3H. We ha' I'ccu deluged witii NaiH)leonie literature 
 for the lasi ft-w ycai's. but how many of those who hav 
 red it h.iv evei' herd the voice of the Corsican? I 
 came to umlerstand that my business was to g'et out of 
 re:ich (>\ these uiu-rthlv xoiecs. but as I could not throw 
 them off all at one 1 lisicnd \o his voice on several 
 occasions. Was it hi; voice? 1 was so assured, and he 
 spoke good I'^rencli. 1 migln hav herd the voices of the 
 great i]ci\ li.ul 1 wisht. I herd the vcuces of some g'rcat 
 men but it was against my will. That was another of 
 their traps to ki. op ine wisiiing to remain anmng them. 
 
 39. 'I hey followed me to cluirch as regularly as els- 
 whcre. Satan and his ho.sts ar alw.ivs at church rain or 
 
 VI 
 

 .104 
 
 OIK I;NSKKN COMI'ANIONS. 
 
 > , 
 
 shine. It has been well said tiiat they ar the fiVst to enter 
 the hiiildingf and the last to leav it. They wrre always 
 waiting- on me at the hermitage chapel lonjj after I had 
 eeast to be much tnnibld with them outside. My only 
 relief was t(i keep my thots fi.\t on the sermon, and listen 
 as littl as possibl to their comments and criticisms Their 
 criticisms, as yon may iinajL,Mn, were ^'ery funny indeed. 
 Men preach to larger audiences than they see around 
 them. 
 
 The first sermon I lisend to in ilie hermitagfc was 
 from the book of Amos. 1 had been a herdsman in my 
 younger day like the profet, and they dubd mo "Amos 
 Junior " that afternoon. Very, very tunny,, without a 
 doubt, and I had to laf, but when the voice began it was 
 a very serious matter. 
 
 40. What we all lack, more or lt;ss, the medical faculty 
 included, is moral courage. Tt has been well said that 
 for a 7nan to deny the facts set forth about the unseen 
 world of late years is to advertize his own ignorance, but 
 still there ar many men who will not lern. When Dr. 
 Hevytop, the well known expert, says that such and 
 such a theory is true and sets his seal to it in that famous 
 book, chapter ten, page eighty-three, his professional 
 brethen, insted of howling at him until they ar sure he is 
 correct, bow the knee and sing his praises. Long liv 
 Hevytop, they chant; he and none other is the man 
 for us. 
 
 41. It is scmiewhat amusing to read of the tuss made 
 over thot transference in these days. On comparing 
 notes two f rends who ar miles apart find that they hav 
 had the same thot at the same time. Well, what of it ? 
 Satan, in the current frase, is working this occult cra'^ • 
 for all it is worth. Would you judge now that in nine 01; • 
 jc>f ten of the cases you read of that good spirits sent thw' 
 
StRAV NOTFS. 
 
 ao5 
 
 thot, especially -Ahon y(,it make arrangements u, sit at a 
 certain time ^ Do you really think that the beings Dr 
 Hcpvvorth tells yon rbont ar engaged in that work ' A 
 man in Europe and another in America hav the same 
 tliot at the same hour, and we ar properly surprised but 
 suppose a spirit can flit from Europe to America or to 
 Mars by wishing for the change ? 
 
 " Some flay tho devil's dtnl 
 Anil buiip.i in KirkcaKly. 
 Others say lie'll rise aKtiin— " 
 
 and others say that he never died. It was a f-il.se 
 rumor inspired by himself. He is still alive and kicking 
 and the Christians sleep and tlic doctors dream. A frend 
 wrote me when in troubl and told me to eat plenty of 
 half-raw beefsteak and that made them laf. "Anew way 
 ot exorcising us. Sancho. It will not work. Vour freni 
 IS making fun of you now." 
 
 Let us all take a rest, and try the steak. Sliut your eyes 
 as the blood squeezes out of it, for youi nervs need 
 some food. The doctors hav failed but the demons will 
 make the women take to the open air yet. I believ that 
 the bicycl is an invention sent from heven to help us in due 
 t irae. Something was needed and it came. No, you will 
 not get the storage battery for a long while yet. We need 
 exercise, open air and sleep, and the battery would keep 
 your legs at rest and give yon gout. You evidently want 
 to go thru life on flowery beds of eas. 
 
 42. Once when they were putting the pressure on the 
 small ot my back, which ihey did when it suited them 
 I rubbed It with liniment and went to bed. I was no 
 sooner there than a fiery heat arose and the pain left me 
 But during the action of the liniment my eyes be-an to 
 wink so fast that I did not knr>w what to' niake^.f it 
 They continued for several minutes and do the best I 
 could I was unabl to stop them. The pressure for days 
 at a time would ofen rise to the top of the hed. It was 
 
206 
 
 OVK VSHr.V.S CnMPANIONS. 
 
 I I- 
 
 not very painful, — it was as if the frolicsome spirits were 
 at work insted of their stern brotht^rs. I felt as if the 
 hole brain were prcssin^^ upwards a^'-ainst the skull. It 
 j,''ave me a sort of a fcelinj;' that I shoukl stretch out my 
 neck to further the procc'-^ or stand on tiptoe — a sort of 
 inclination to mount upward, as it wore. It was just the 
 effect of the medicin I was taking;-, I suppose, but I 
 hav a theory to lay before you that 1 am not quite sure 
 about. I thro itout in the interest of science. That feeling- 
 as if the skull were too small for the brain ment something. 
 Could it be that I was then in danj^'^er of sulTering from 
 the g-reat national diseas of big'-hed, or swell-hed as the 
 vulgar call it ? We all know how prevalent this troubl is, 
 and if I hav given a hint that will lead to the disco ,-ery of 
 the germ, bacillus, micrube or whatever }-ou call him, I 
 shall be only too well pleased. Anything to further 
 science. 
 
 It is time that .sijmething were done to cure ihis troubl. 
 Things hav come to such a pass that whenever a man 
 invents a What-Is-It and begins psyc-To-neural mesure- 
 ments, or gathers forty-nine dollars and fifty-three cents 
 and opens a bank accoimt that he is seized by the swell- 
 hed bacilli, and tliere ar tew recorded instances of a 
 complete cure. , 
 
 tj. An(jther way in which I experienct the curious sen- 
 sation of the •' something " that enterd the body was as 
 if 1 was vibrating from hed to foot. The body did not 
 trembl nor .shake. It v/as more like the motion you feel 
 on a steamer when the enjoins m.nke it quiver from stem 
 to stern. It was a strong vibratory motion not altogether 
 iinplesant and not so overpowering as the other that 
 "swisht" thru me. There ar some men--great men 
 too, who can '-dominate" this odylic force as ea.sily as 
 they can dominate the sunlight, but as I said in the be- 
 ginning we ar not all successful. A .strange world for 
 
STRAY NOTKS. 
 
 207 
 
 science to c^jnquer yet. and as our life is much fuller than 
 the life of our .ijr.ind fat hers, so our jj^ranckhildren will 
 smile at the ignorance of peopl who did n(U understand 
 the vast forces that lie between the forty thousand vibra 
 tions and the six billion. 
 
 But they will hav one great troubl on their shoulders. 
 Theyar sure to be afflicted with l'insanit6des grandeur,^ or 
 swell-hed. They cannot escape it if heredity is all 
 that the men of science claim. We ar laying a strong 
 foundation. 
 
 
 44. Satan has been reasoned out of existence. "In 
 our age of Downpulling and Disbelief the very Devil has 
 bf-en pulled down. You cannot so much as believ in a 
 Devil." Well, it appears to me that these evil .spirits 
 must hav a leader. We hav it on good authority that 
 Satan leads them ; but do away with him altogether, do 
 away with fallen angels, and say that my unseen com- 
 panions were simply men and women after deth, and ar 
 you in any better a position? Wors, T often thot. Surely, 
 I thot, human beings cannot descend so low. They do 
 evil continually They ar savage ^*n their desire to drag 
 us down. They foment strife, infl ime our minds against 
 one another and devour weak and strong, and they begin 
 their evil work upon children before they can walk. You 
 said now when you red that, " That is carrying it too far. " 
 Let us see. Wher.does the temper of a child come from? 
 Hav you ever seen them angry enuf to tear the trees up 
 by the roots if they had the power? Heredity? Certainly. 
 But if they were let alone by those who torment thein 
 they would remain quiet when they often yell Their 
 nervs are twitcht. Why apply the rod? A quoi bon? 
 Well, the evil spirits hav to i)e kept imder, but the par- 
 ents often punish the child when they themselvs need the 
 rod. 
 
 It is an old theorj', and I hav always lookt upon it as an 
 
 s -. 
 
»oS 
 
 01;R tlNSK.KN COMPANIONS. 
 
 •* 
 
 i>;tiorant supcrsiiliun that evil spirits cause dispas. They 
 don't do it directly, but they su^j^jest the teni])tation : we 
 sin and suft.jr fisically, and so lay our bodies open to 
 their attacks. " Palpitation " is not .so hard to cans after 
 you get irito a certain fisical condition. 
 
 Nature would brin^i- us out of most of our troubls if they 
 would let her alone, but they liv to destroy. Medicin 
 puts us in a position to Iceep them at bay for a time and 
 giv nat\jre a chance. Why do they hav this power? Why 
 do you hav the power to eat a hevy dinner? And prayer 
 may ^iv j^ood spirits more power to help nature without 
 interferinj; with free will? The temptati«jns for tho.sc 
 whit yri) to the next world on the evolutionary plan with 
 all their hates burning may be to influence tho.se they 
 knew and hated on crth, and to drag them down as much 
 as they can. You think when you hang a man you get 
 rid of b.is intUience? It may be. 
 
 I hav been ernest on the subject of social reform before, 
 becaus 1 knew how necessary it was from the spiritual 
 standpoint; but never did I understand till lately the 
 frightful importance of proper hygienic conditions, I 
 don't believ in anarchy par le fait, but I am now in- 
 clined to think that if .some one were to blow the hole 
 accursed fever-breeding, helth -destroying tenements in 
 the air he would be a benefactor of coming generations. 
 Bad helth givs evil spirits power. They feed men with 
 ambitious ideas, they feed women with pride, and .so we 
 hav palaces on one side, and soul -destroying hovels 
 where children cannot get a breth of fresh air on 
 the other, and cultured preachers turn their beds the 
 other way, and the devil seniles at it all as of old, and hell 
 rejoices. 
 
 If there is no such being as vSatan it is clear that our 
 fellow mortals hav sunk so low in the next world that 
 only a foolish man would think of taking chances with 
 the great btruggl before him. Clearly, if the theory 
 
STRAY NtHRS. 
 
 ao9 
 
 is tnir some of them hav been nnoqual to the task, or els 
 the temptations ar as .ijreat there as here, and porha^is 
 jfrcator, and hav dra^^;^ed them down. And then by Ic^is- 
 h\tinj.i Satan out of existence how do you explain the 
 New Testament ? Or the Old ' 
 
 45. Vou ar wulkin.i,^ ahm.q; the street on a fine sum- 
 mer day and you S(>c a larcce crowd jjatherd around some- 
 thing" that seetns to be interesting^. You walk forward 
 and find that two do^s ar fightin^j, and the men and boys 
 ar urj;in}.( them on. 
 
 A littl further down the street you see another crowd 
 and yf>u push your way thru it and you find twomenham- 
 merint,^ away at one another. The bf)ys set the docfs fight- 
 ing but who set the men at it? Your unseen companions 
 ar all around you, the one side strivini^ for peace and the 
 other pouring hate and anger thru the nervs until the 
 men cannot stand the [)rcssure, for they hav yielded too 
 often in the past, and they spring at the Satanic work. 
 
 You go further down the street to the office of your old 
 frond about that littl matter you wanted settld, and the 
 first thing you know yo\i and he ar quarreling, and you 
 ar away home denouncing him in your hart for an nn- 
 reasonabl scoundrel. You did not know that Satan had 
 the trap red)-, lie knew you were going to present that 
 bill at that time and he had l^'en preparing to meet it. 
 That morning your neighbor's wife did not get the milk 
 for the brekfast, for the milkman had forgotten it for the 
 first time in six months- Satan had cant him na])ping 
 — and your neighbor, a mild man under ordinary trials, 
 has always become furious when he had no milk to his 
 coffee. His wife told him the truth. She had swallowed 
 her wrath a dozen times in their married life when the 
 milk was sour or the man had not called, but that morn- 
 ing she broke loose and the judge was piping mad when 
 you met him. Satan triumfed all around, Two families 
 
aro 
 
 ovn uN^rr.N roMPANfcms. 
 
 were sopavMlrd atul kI.iuhI at one another, and the milk- 
 inaii was ihsoliai j^cd It was a ^rcat ilay in l\oll. I^'vcry- 
 ono ronnts thri'c. Wli.il is the ouro' Soniolhinu wo 
 don't hav nicckne>.s. vvliieli js dilTcient from inibceilil y, 
 
 of fOlltS. 
 
 Many millionaires ar eauv;lU in tin* same way. Tliey ar 
 bvptu)ti;.eil to swindl .nul lie and steal thru their a-'ents, 
 for thev ar tart<H> well hri'd lor the ilirty work themseivs 
 rtow, atul then to b\iiUI ehurehes with the proecods of their 
 villanv while the men who rc^illv «)t to know better ^o 
 tiowMi vu their knees b(>l(>re them and thank them ftir 
 their j>oodness. A mail wcvld. 
 
 Did you ever h^ok at th.d mirael a newspaper printini;' 
 maehine? There is half an aere of wheels at\d shafts ami 
 pvillcys aiul rollers if it was all spred out. Suppose wIumi 
 it is rollinjj otT the moininv; eilition at the r;itc of 'steenth 
 tl\ons;Mul copies a^x hour yon were to take a baj; of sand 
 and bej;in to pour it amoni> the wheels what would hap- 
 p(M\? A v;ood many spoiled et)pies would likely be turned 
 out. Suppose yoii were to take .i hammer and smash one 
 o\ the small wheels, the maehine would ivrind on, but 
 ever\' wheel ev>unts atid the loss oi {^nc means troul>l. Our 
 world is like aprintin^; maelui\(> rolliue, olV its thousands of 
 eopies every day. but thet^xil spirits di^ tioihin.i; els than 
 pi>ur in sand anion t;- the wheels and a i^iuhI manv of the 
 copies ar spoiled an«.l most ar blurred one wav oram^ther. 
 Sometimes they sueeeeil in bre.'.kiuj^ a wheel, as when 
 they tumbl a (ireeee or a Rome, .and yet it is stran.i;e that 
 they can only do their wvuk slowly. Httl by littl. Take 
 up the paper when it comes from the juess, for exampl. 
 and you w ill read y^\ a buililmg f.dlins; ilown .ind killini^ a 
 dozeti men. or of an "aeeidont" in a mine brins^inj;- about 
 the deih o\ a luindred, Xatural law, vou sav. Ves, but 
 why w.is the buiUlinii erected in ilerianee ot all the l.iws 
 of Q-ood construction? Why was the mine in an unsafe 
 condition? Becaxis oi ideas. The devil persuaded the 
 
SlkAV NOTKS. 
 
 a 1,1 
 
 
 owners in hdth cases that they needed more money, and 
 still moif, and the result was widows and tathcrl<;ss eliil- 
 dren, the destrncti(»n of t heir bodily helth thru poverty, 
 and a (hndl's d.inrc over it all ( lood bnildin;.', laws, j(ood 
 sanitation, i^'ood I'aetory laws, ^^ood mining; laws defeat 
 the work of cvil s])irils and save souls. We hear a ^ood 
 deal ahoul those who ar to wear "stai less eiov«'ns. " Tliere 
 ar many men alivt; t(»-day who wotdd be confent to wear 
 them to all eternity if they eonld only improve the envir- 
 <»nment of their fellows here. 'IMie next time your minis 
 ler tells you that environment does not eount tell hini 
 frankly that he is an ass. 
 
 What of d«'th too -• Well, we all commit suieide. Bvery 
 time we sin, every time we nurse an evil idea we hurt our- 
 selvs I know that too, for F have been there. The wajfcs 
 of sin is deth. Why do so many peo|)l die before their 
 tim(»? Sin. Tliey may not bi' res|)oiisibl. It may iiav 
 l)cen the fatlun', the j.jrandfather, or even the ^reat-j^^rand- 
 mother, altho by that time if we were vvisc we could jii^et 
 rid of the efFeet of sin, but we ar not wise. I am too 
 [)!oud, vou ar too j)roud It ha.s been said that forecniust 
 rule the wH:)r]d. 'I'herc never was a more wretched mis- 
 take. Meekness must nde the worKl, and if we were all 
 meek the purposes of the demons would be utterly defeat- 
 ed, but ai^ain T am too proud, yon ar too])rond. and they 
 make pawns of us and of tenest of those who don't believ 
 it. It has been said that if two antrels were sent to erth, 
 tlie one to sweep street^ and the other to ^n)vern an em- 
 pire ihey would be redy to exchange tasks at any time, but 
 try men' Vsk his Unscrene Hij]^hness, Siii^nor Buona 
 parte to take a broom and see what will happen, or if you 
 doti't care to go so far back into history read "Society as 
 I hav found It," or a snob cUseussion on "What to do 
 with our ex-Presidents. " That is how the evil spirits get 
 their hold. 
 
 But as to deth all is in the hands of (.lod "Without 
 
 
 
 
 ■:"1 
 
 f '; 
 
*r» 
 
 OVk UNSfcEN COMl'ANIONS. 
 
 TTis loav they pass no threshold o'er." I beliov that He 
 "interferes" witli natural law f)('tcncr than we suppose, hut 
 as a rule i{ seems to hold the fieUl and it is well, it is ri^ht, 
 bceaus it must be. But what ai;aiii if prayer in complete 
 faith triumfs? I do not believ and never hav believed in 
 fore-ordination— 1 believ in free-will limited, of cours, by 
 our environments and training -You ar at liberty to set 
 fire to your neij^hbor's house, but you do not mean to do 
 it; your free-will is held \n eiieek by your eotunion sens; 
 God'ssovereignty and yonr free-will mareh hand in hand. 
 
 What then of bati, murder and sudden deth? Just 
 the result of ideas, and pursue them to their source and 
 you find evil spirits. What of plai;ue and pestilence? 
 Ideas a<^ain. Cholera sometimes comes from the Holy 
 Well of Mecca. They will never clean out that well. The 
 sky would fall if they did, and so we suffer from the ideas 
 which hav held tiiem by the throat fi)r centuries. 
 
 Ar we not sometimes punisht by special inflictions tho?.' 
 We hav to believ that or thro the Bible aside, bu« if we 
 ar it is again the result of sin — of our own asininity. Only, 
 demons and fools shriek that God is a tyrant. CJod isluv. 
 
 And when children die? Well, their bodies ar not strong 
 onuf to bear the attacks of discas and evil spirits assault 
 them and end their lives on erth, but the creation of mind 
 goes on after "deth. " "Tliere is no deth ; what seems so is 
 transition." Read Longfellow's beutiful poem of "Resig- 
 nation." If God sees best, these, tons, natural laws ar 
 overnild,butevery bullet, as a rule finds its billet accord 
 ing tothe laws that regulate its cours. We cannot expect 
 to be protected if we make targets of ourselvs. Every 
 plague sweeps oti' the just and the unjust. 
 
 Why. then, hav the evil spirits power to fill our minds 
 with ideas v^'hich when yielded to giv them power over 
 the body — power enuf often to bring about deth, if God 
 allows them in all cases to end their work? F'ree-will 
 again. And what becomes of these beings when they ex 
 
■^1 KAV NO I'KS. 
 
 2T3 
 
 crciso thoir free- will this way? If yon herd them you 
 would be al)l to partially conL'c-iv what Jity luiv brot 
 thcinselvs to. 
 
 If I hav sometimes writn in a li^ht-harted way it has 
 been to reliev tiie dreary story I hav told, 
 
 •■ Ami Hi) bdtwooii Ilia l»iii kiionB and liiN HiiKhlnoHH 
 i'lit'io ()HMi K nmtiuil >f liiiioi' of great polltoni'FS ' 
 
 is all well enuf, but 1 know, and want you to remember^ 
 that theyar liars andprofessionrU murderers, and yet, and 
 yet they can kill us (jtily thiu ideas. They ar eumpletely 
 foiled by meekness, but we hav a ]arj>^e share of their 
 nature and cannot. Ijc meek. It is a foolish idea to suppose 
 that when children die it is a " visitation of God " altho 
 lie will l.)rin;4- the l)est possibl issue out of all troubl if we 
 will. It may be so in exceptional cases, but only, it 
 seems to me, in very cxcepticmal ones. Most die from 
 tlsieal causes, and many ar saved from dyin^, I believ, 
 thru the intervention of our unseen companions. Fresh 
 air would save hundreds of children in New York evcrv 
 year. Ood has ^iven us plenty of it; it is we who ar at 
 fault. Suppose that we could hav things our wa}' and hav 
 these helthy laws set aside we would all gv to sleep. We 
 ar dnv(.Mi forward by hiws from which we cannot escape, 
 in the direction of ])rog"ress and of the glorious civilization 
 that is looming up in the distance. We must come into 
 harmony with God's laws or suffer, rich and poor. 
 
 The demons sometimes cautioned me not to u.se 
 strong language against them, and I remember ns I saw 
 how we were surrounded and acted upon 1 ]3itied the 
 whole race and myself likewise, as well as the demons 
 and the millionaires, and 1 feel the same sentiment rising 
 in me now. But without a singl word or even thot against 
 any mortal or demon one cannot help being disgusted at 
 the unchristian, the mad satanic idea of increasing the 
 standing army, of building batl .ships, forts and armories. 
 The idea game from evil spirits. Uou't blame them. 
 
 
 'v^l 
 
r 
 
 2T4 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 Mind ymirself. Force comes natural to us. We find a 
 thousand excuses for it. but that is how the devil rules us 
 and i)ours sand amon;jf the machinery. And yet after all 
 is said we arheld so secure; ag-ainst the assaults of demons, 
 if we ar anxious to go in the right way, that after you 
 come to your bearings you can smile at their threts. 
 God is luv. 
 
 46. Ar you ever troubld with insomnia ? Who causes it? 
 Whose interest is it to keep you in that condition ? Per- 
 haps it is easier to acquire a certain influence over you 
 than you imagin. Think it over, and if you don't like 
 the theory you need not become excited, for they try hard 
 to anger you. It has a bad effect. 
 
 47. Then if you ar not troubld with iuvsomnia do you 
 ever walk around in your sleep ? I was going along the 
 principal streets of one of our largest cities one night be- 
 tween ten and eleven o'clock and I saw a man rushing 
 along in front of me, drest, as Bill Nye would hav 
 said, only with an ernest face and a robe de nuit. His 
 eyes were closed and he did not seem to feel any pain as 
 his bare feet pattered ahmg the hard pavement. He 
 walkt on, T presume, until he met a policeman. I watcht 
 him until he went out of sig-ht, and the men and women 
 in the street made way for hira respectfully and !aft, of 
 cours. He was possest. Sometimes they walk along 
 the roof of a house or in other dangerous positions where 
 they wouM not venture with their eyes open. If they 
 ar not all hurled down as some ar it 'S only becaus we ar 
 cared for by other unseen companions than the evil ones. 
 
 The man I saw was fortunate in one respect, at least. I 
 
 red some years ag-o that during an earthquake scare in an 
 
 Italian town the inhabitants rusht out into the street in 
 
 their terror, clad only in distorted faces. It had been an 
 
 / old custom, you see, and ihey had never expected to ^o 
 
STRAY NOTKS. 
 
 215 
 
 on dress parade at the call of the bell. Next day the 
 report said, they ai. wended their way to the stores 
 determind to adopt *he new fashions, and thus civiliza- 
 tion goes forward even among^ the old fogies by leaps 
 and bounds. 
 
 Only a few weeVs ago I red of a man being buried 
 alive in London. . Ae stayed below the ground for the 
 appointed time and then he was dug up. They sow bar- 
 ley over their graves in India and wait till it sprouts or 
 ripens before they dig them up, These ar clear cases of 
 suspended animation — of complete possession — of men 
 being used to spread devil worship 
 
 48. And again the other day I red of a "hypnotist" 
 taking some of the poor boys he carries around with 
 him and exhibiting them before an audience with pins 
 stuck into their flesh and with all the other accompani- 
 ments. *Thc doctors were ihere and they surrounded the 
 victims watch, in hand. We read of great abuses in the 
 Parisian hospitals thru hypnotism, but we don't hav to go 
 quite so far from home sometimes. 
 
 The left puis of one of the "subjects" was made to 
 beat at one rate of speed, the right puis at another, and 
 the hart at another still, — nothing so very remarkabl 
 after all. Just New Testament possession at the end of 
 the nineteenth century, with this difTerence that it is now 
 applauded by Christians. 
 
 During one of my worst nights I was awakened and 
 went to the window of my small room and my hart b3- 
 gan to beat to the voices I herd. When the voices went 
 fast the hart followed, ..r'"" when the time was changed so 
 were the hart beats, and the change came every other 
 minute. Had a doctor of the old school put his ear to my 
 hart then he would hav orderd a coffin, but we shall loav 
 him to say whether it is good for the body when the hart 
 is thus excited 
 
 -li 
 
vJ 
 
 216 
 
 OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 49. We must do as Oliver Wendel Holmes recom- 
 mended a few years ag^o— that is choose our great-grand- 
 fathers and great-grandmothers and make them and 
 their descendants walk in the right path until we arborn. 
 Then we must behave like angels ourselvs and our chil- 
 dren will be so fisically perfect that the fiends will not 
 be abl to work on theirnervs. "Vile body" indeed! Some 
 of the old theologians were closely related to the donkeys 
 whether the Darwinian theory is true or false, and that 
 brings me again to the ministers and their neglect of 
 economic questicms — but what's the use. 
 
 50. How would you feel if some one should slap you 
 in the face or take hold v;f your no.se and pull it? We talk 
 about turning the other cheek and that is ihe sensibl thing 
 to do, as I now see, for by resisting we ar simply doing 
 the devil's work, but then we ar not always sensibl, and 
 the screws ar turnd just on s\ich occasions. I hav felt the 
 sensation sometimes when asleep, and herd the mocking 
 laf when I, somehow or another, calmed down altho the 
 current was poured in. The same wave of anger rises as 
 if you were awake and some one struck you, but we ar 
 sometimes better taken care of when asleep than we take 
 care of ourselvs when awake. 
 
 When you awaken you imderstand the game. The at- 
 tack was ment to hurt your nervs which can be done when 
 asleep as easily as when awake. A strange world, and a 
 strange process of building up and tearing down goes on 
 in us every day. 
 
 51. What is power, after all? What is knowledge? 
 If (iod represented only power and knowledge without 
 luv what would He be to us? Satan has these. I believ 
 that if we were let alone by evil spirits we would soon 
 turn this erth into a home for the gods, but they, in their 
 own language, raise hell every hour of the dav, and we 
 
I 
 
 STRAY NOTKS. 
 
 21J 
 
 ar not always strong enuf to resist them. They send ideas 
 and insted of refusing to entertain them we nurse them, 
 and they ar so carefully hidden in some respects that we 
 rather like them, and nurse, and nurse until the time 
 comes for using them and then we tumbi. 
 
 But as to knowledge, the evil spirits know everything 
 on erth, altho 1 do not belie v they hav foreknowledge ex- 
 cept as we hav it judging from experience, and when dur- 
 ing my fight this thot struck me I took hart and conclud- 
 ed that their confident predictions as to my doom were a 
 littl premature. 
 
 But our books ar open to them — all the books in all the 
 languages of the erth — all human knowledge, chapter and 
 page. What then? Just this: Hav you never been 
 wearied in reading the reviews to find how very, very dis- 
 tinguisht some of your fellow mortals were — how the 
 "classics" made men eqxial to the gods in all beneath and 
 abuv the skies? Would some of these men not be better 
 to keep modest? Hav we not had quite enuf of the 
 "scholar" of late years? 
 
 Luv and not knowledge, gentlmen, is God the Maker of 
 heven and erth. Knowledge is only one of His attributes. 
 Think of these millions of worlds whirling aloft and 
 around us in all their terribl majesty and then remember 
 that the maker and upholder of them all has told you that 
 luv and not power and not knowledge is Himself, and 
 then for any sake giv us a rest on the "scholar." Try and 
 cultivate some sens of proportion. T hav been mingling 
 among a strange race of beings, ana I am afraid I shall 
 hav less patience with the "scholar" than ever, for the 
 scholarship of those I lisend to so long is abuv repr ^ach, 
 and I know a great many peopl who can scarcely reac who 
 ar far higher in the scale of being. 
 
 You see, Sancho Quixote, for his sins, it may be, has 
 red most of your reviews for a ;ood many years and he 
 knows only too well that many, far too many, of our 
 
 '■■'J 
 
 ■r J 
 
 :'i 
 
n I 
 
 WTP 
 
 i 
 
 218 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMFANFONS. 
 
 scholarly frends preach the same accursed doctrin ot sel- 
 fishness that he listened to from another <|uartcr of late. 
 Of cours, ignorance does not by any means stand for hiv, 
 Init if we could find some way to get just tiie least littl bit 
 of information, for we can't grasp so very much, without 
 feeling that we were raised too far abuv our fellow beings, 
 it would be better for us. 1 f we could only persuade them 
 to be humbl, ))ut as the spirits told Sancho Quixote it's 
 this awful agressivness that troubls us. 
 
 52. When cattl ar drivn to the slauter hous why 
 do they sometimes try to escape for their lives? Why ar 
 other animals affected with the same troiibl? How do 
 they get the information' Mow do you get a warning of 
 danger sometimes? Who pour < dred upon you? And do 
 the animals perish after deth? When we destroy our 
 nervs the instrument does not respond to the players be- 
 hind the scenes, and the creation of mind is often stoptto 
 a large extent until matters ar righted, and sometimes al- 
 together till deth comes and then the psychical body that 
 Mr. Savage speaks of is redy for work on the other side. 
 Is it the same with the animals' Only instinct? How 
 do yon know? The cow of to-day is the same as the cow 
 in the time of Rameses? What of the man? Is he so 
 very much higher than the (rreeks were? He knows 
 more, but so does the cow. He knows what a trolley car 
 or a bicycle is, but so does the quadruped. He has seen 
 a steamship and so has .she. She still goes thru the old 
 process with the grass, and now the m^m has not time to 
 chew his food The more you begin to compare the two, 
 the clearer yc: see that the advantage is with the animal. 
 Is there a mind created in her during life? That is what 
 they told Sancho, and tl ey thretend to re-incarnate him 
 into an animal of lower degree than "the milky mother of 
 the herd." Rut all this is just for the purpose of riling 
 you, and of sending your thots in the direction of the 
 
«iTRAV NOTKS. 
 
 219 
 
 I- 
 
 silly re- incarnation theory, vegetarianism and the infln- 
 jnce of spirits on animals. Ar snakt.'s possest? What of 
 he boa-c<jnstrictor and the cobra' Does conscience make 
 cowards of them all, or do they kill as cheerfiilly the last 
 time as the first? What of the shark? What of the lion 
 and the tiger, the Maltlnisian and the survival of the fit- ' 
 test man? Possest, all of them? It is a tragic world. 
 
 53. What does that stedy ringing noise in the ear 
 mean ? It was usually in the left ear, but as soon as I 
 began to wonder why it was not in the right one as well 
 it turnd to it on the instant In lying down on your left 
 ear at night, for exampl, it begins and sings and sings 
 like a kettl, but if you get wearied of it and turn to the 
 right side the noise turns with you and helps to keep you 
 cheerful This atmosfere around us is worth watching. 
 
 54. Natuie gives compensation. If a man turns blind 
 his hearing usually becomes more acute; if he looses a leg 
 he has more blood for the rest of his body, and if he 
 plunges among demons there ar angels to meet him until 
 the worst of it is past. Nature gives compensation; the 
 back is made to fit the load, the wind is temperd to the 
 shorn lamb. But when we get impatient and think no 
 one els has a carefully draped skeleton in the closet but 
 ourselves, troubl comes. 
 
 I herd a good sermoi; the other dny, for altho I like to 
 tell the reverend gei tlmen where t'ley ar falling short, 
 I also like to hear them preach even if before my plunge I 
 bad been at church only once in two years, and the 
 preacher said that we were all inclined to think our own 
 burdens were the heviest. "Just suppose," he said, 
 ** that there was be a parade of family skeletons down the 
 principal street of your city what would you lind ? Why 
 the worst looking skeletons would likely belong to the 
 peopl you had considcrd the happiest in the city." Tt 
 
 
 ■i;-' 
 
 U 
 
2 30 
 
 OUR UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 woiilil be a rare show, but il is all known behind the 
 scenes. 
 
 Another coincidonce will make you angry, but for the 
 last three Sunday nights T hav lisend to the same 
 sermon from three diiVcrent rninisiers in two different 
 ehurehes. In two cases the same opening- hymn was used 
 and the fangnage of the preachers and the illustrations 
 were practically tiie same. 1 went to the two churches by 
 chance, we say. Tlie last one I attended I saw only a 
 coupl of hoiirs before services began. I had not red any 
 notices, but from beginning to end it was a matter of 
 "chance." 
 
 I needed the lirst sermon, and came out of church in 
 another mood from that in which I enterd it. (iod rules 
 supreme, s.-aid the preacher; be reasonabl, and He wlW 
 take care of everything. Do not cross a bridge before 
 you come tt) it. 
 
 "Be reasonabl, said a different preacher in the same 
 church the following Sunday, put aside all worry, take no 
 thot for the morrow. Why look so far ahed ? Perhaps 
 you will be ded before those dredful things iiappen. Hav 
 faith in G(.»d. 
 
 Be not over anxious, said the man who told us about the 
 skeletons, be content with such things as you hav, and 
 the three men gave me the same discours. Do you know 
 how the world is governd? the spirits a.skt me often. 
 
 I know what is said of those who draw littl morals from 
 little things, but I hav had so many of these coincidences 
 for months that it seems 1 shall yet be forct to lern the 
 lesson that there are two ways of g^oveming the world — 
 one way thru legislation, for we hav no right to play the 
 cowardly sluggard, but a duty to change the social state 
 until our laws harmonize with the new knowledge that the 
 Spirit of God pours upon us from age to age, and another 
 way that tells us of a Father who is watching over us and 
 overruling our mistakes, and ; reserving us from dangers 
 
SIRAY NOTES. 221 
 
 we Ao not know of, and giving us ouf daily bred with 
 punishment cnuf becaus of our accursed selfishness in 
 trying to heap up millions thru infamous laws that fill 
 the pockets of one man and starv another. There is no 
 waste in God's kingdoms. Look .around yt)U and see 
 what is going on and yo^i can i'.idgo of how much value 
 the theories of our clod-patec! "economists " ar worth. 
 Waste everywhere, audit must be stopped 
 
 Your cousin Sancho Quixote, of ten angr)' enuf at the 
 folly of humanity, has estimated the value of ten to 
 twenty times more buildings than he has ever put up, and 
 he has done as well as 'his neighbors. He has sat in his 
 office for weeks, yes, for months, figuring until the sight 
 of a plan was loathsome. He, has often known of from 
 twenty to forty men, contractors and subcontractors, busy 
 at the same work when he could have done it from cellar to 
 roof himself, and he is far too intelligent to luv that sys- 
 tem. He hates waste of effort. He has some belief that 
 that we can get along without such "competition." The 
 man who enjoys it is the ignorant man. Change your 
 silly, swinish system into harmony with the stars, becaus 
 that is what God wants us to do, and what demons and 
 clod-pated political economists do not want us to do. 
 
 55. Ar acquired characteristics transmissibl ? Hav you 
 red the great Spencer- Weisman debate ? No ? Neither 
 has your cousin Sancho, and littl did you or he ever think 
 that the time would come when he would thus rub shoul- 
 ders with the great ones of the erth. 
 
 " But 8omc whom we pasl by In Bcorn 
 Arcrownd with high honors now!" 
 
 The fisical machine is inherited, and by thinking on. 
 certain subjects t le nervs may be strengthened — or weak- 
 ened as great men often hav stupid sons ?— and then the 
 angels will hav a better instrument to play on for the 
 creation of mind, but as to whether Spencer or Weisman 
 

 222 OUR UNSF.KN COMPANIONS. 
 
 it> right f>ancho docs not pretend to know. He cannot in 
 reason be ex]^eotcd tosettl every disputed (lucstion. You 
 will hav to ask his f rends, the doctors. 
 
 56. You hav doubtless herd the story of the horse thief 
 who had come to the end of his carrer. They were lead- 
 iufj hiiu out lo be hanged and the Indian was there 
 lookin>j at him with the eye of an expert. He was as 
 much interested in notinj^" the bearinj,' of the poor fellow 
 as a vivisectionist is in watchinj,^ the struggls of his 
 victim. 
 
 He w. Itched him keenly but there was not the (juiver of 
 a muscl. He marched proudly on to the gallows, — 
 
 • O what IS iloth but partlnK breth; 
 On muny n hlnody plain 
 I've (iHrod Ills fuc), and In this piaoe 
 1 Bcoru him yet again. ' 
 
 " He die game," the Indian grunted approvingly. 
 
 The doctors, as I hav alrcdy said, die game, but I for- 
 giv them. They hav studied many things but they can- 
 not be expected to be omni.scient. I would hav been 
 wiser to follow their advice when I rejected it, and so I 
 forgiv them— that is, all but one. T mean the man with 
 the plethysmograph. The man who per])etrated such a 
 word in these days when the dictionary makers cannot 
 keepahed of the free coinage of pol)silabic monstrosities 
 does not deserv to be forgivn. 
 
 ' > ! 
 
 ll&s 
 
'<^ 
 
 AMKkltAN rtVII.IZATON. 
 
 a-M 
 
 CHAPTERXXVI. 
 
 'l^ 
 
 Amkrican Civilization. 
 " Put money in thy purse. "--Tago a ]V)ssest man. 
 
 The growth of welth and hixury, wicked, v/asteful and 
 wanton, as before (iod 1 declare that luxurv to be, lias 
 been matcht step l)y step by a deepening- and dedening 
 poverty which has left hole neighborhoods of j.eopl prac- 
 tically without hope and without aspiration. At such a 
 time for the church of God to sit still and be content 
 with theories of its duty outlawed by time and long ago 
 demonstrated to be grotescpiely inadequate to the de- 
 mands of a living situation, this is to deserv the scorn of 
 men and the curse of God. Take my w( rd for it, men and 
 brethern, unless you and I and all those who hav any gift 
 or stewardship of talents or means of whatever sort, ar 
 willing to get up out of our sloth and easand selfish dilet-. 
 tanteism of service, and get down among the peopl 
 who ar batling amid their poverty and ignorance, old and 
 yung alike, for one clear ray of the immortal hope - then 
 verily the church in its stately splendor, its apostolic or- 
 ders, its venerabl ritual, its decorous and dignified con- 
 ventions, is rcveald as simply a monstrous and insolent 
 impertinence. — Bishop Potter, New York. 
 
 "There spoke," says The Voice, commenting on this 
 part of Bishop Potter's speech at the opening of Grace 
 Chapel, New York, "a courageous man and a sagacious 
 church leader. Bishop Pptter sees, as every man should 
 
224 
 
 OUR UNSREN COMPANION*;. 
 
 
 
 see, and as no man has any excuse in this day for not see- 
 ing, that the last twenty years in the life of this republic 
 hav developt a vast peril such as thretens us with a strain 
 upon our institutions greater than that imposed by the 
 civil war. For a condition of political freedom cannot ex- 
 ist in a land where industrial slavery has been establisht." 
 
 So say we all of us, so say we all. There is one way 
 of getting out of the troubl and the tories would be well 
 enuf pleasd to adopt it — that is close the schools, and go 
 back to the centralized Russian idea. They ar being in- 
 directly closed to tell the truth. There ar more than 
 50,000 children of school age who cannot find seats in the 
 rich city of New York. It must be the devil inspiring 
 me, for while the "respectabl" peopl say quiet things and 
 tell us to hold our peace 1 find strong terms rising in my 
 gorge. Don't speak of it. Don't seek to defend it. The 
 thing stinks. Money squanderd on high schools, colleges, 
 imiversities, and 50,000 children cannot get even a prim- 
 ary education ! It i''" the same in all the cities of the 
 country and the welthiest ar the worst. The blustering 
 continent! Women and children starvd and crusht as 
 they arin Europe, falling ded in the streets of starvation, 
 and the blustering, flag-waving, selfish patriots ar yelp- 
 ing of what their forefathers did in revolutionary times 
 insted of doing something themselvs. 
 
 The selfish cowards! For even in rotten Europe tl^e 
 welthy ar beginning to see their duty. Our rich men, says 
 Bishop Spalding, will hav to do their duty or perish. The 
 ignorant well-drest cowards who^will defend the accursed 
 wrongs done on helpless beings every day of the year. 
 Yes, I know your shoddy, selfish patriotism, and I know 
 the character of the men who ar shouting for it, but 1 hav 
 been in a world where the mask is torn off all our hisrh 
 soimding pretensions. Look at Europe, look at Europe, 
 they whine in their newspapers owned by men who ar inter- 
 ested in the perpetuation of the system that is filling their 
 
AMERICAN CIVILIZATON. 
 
 22 I 
 
 own pockets; they ar worse in Europe! As if this govern- 
 ment were not a protest against the hole of the rotten 
 fabric that is grinding down men and women on the other 
 side of the Atlantic! 
 
 Carlyle tells us that a king of France before the revo- 
 lution once stopt a funeral procession and askt what the 
 man had died of. "Starvation" was the curt reply. The 
 king rode on and so did the sentiment that brot his suc- 
 cessor to the scaffold. 
 
 Men ar starving to-day in the cities of this continent, and 
 our modern kings of shreds and patches ar riding on with- 
 out taking the troubl to ask the question. 
 
 The new kings hav acquired power like, the old ones, 
 and like them they ar using it in the old way. But they 
 hav become pious. They ar strong supporters of the 
 church now. There is one consolation, however, and that 
 is, that their kind of church-going Christianity is not the 
 kind taut in tbe New Testament. The Rev. Dr. 
 ► vSprecher was about right when he said that there was 
 nearly as much Christianity outside of the churches as 
 iiiside of them. 
 
 Our present industrial system is but another species of 
 feudalism. The serfs hav voies, but they hav not yet 
 acquired sens enuf to use them. They vote for their 
 oppressors and whine when they ar starvd. If it were 
 not for the women and children one could stand back and 
 contemplate the picture with not a littl satisfaction, . 
 
 How hav our shoddy kings acquired their power ? There 
 is littl use repeating the story. Every man of sens knows 
 it from beginning to end. I will say one thing tho: 
 not a man, not a woman >f the millionaire class has 
 died who would not giv anything to come back and 
 lead a different life and make another use of the power 
 voo had. A deep regret, sorrow unutterabl will possess 
 them, I beliv°v. Even if they go to heven ar they not to 
 see the effects of their life ' Even if (lod (\ists our sins 
 
236 
 
 OtTR tTNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 m'. 
 
 
 I*' /■■;' 
 
 h^ 
 
 w 
 
 •' I' 
 
 
 ^I'^r. 
 
 behind His back ar we not to get a littl glimps perhaps, to 
 teach us in order that we may teach others. Angels ar 
 far higher than we, but they think, they feel, they ar not 
 automatons. . • • , 
 
 Do you want to know the kind of men who ar paying 
 some of these blindfolded, higher critical gentlmen 
 to-day ? When 1 w is among the spirits and my thots, 
 often imder their guidance, ran on some act of some 
 great man, some disputed question, they would shout, 
 "Socrates come forward," and then it was, "I, Socrates, 
 deny the hole story." "I, Napoleou, denv thrt mas- 
 sacre at Acre. " Now, then, after that fashion let the 
 Mayor of Chicago stand forward. 
 
 Allusion had been made at a banquet of "our promi- 
 nent citizens" to the incompetence and corruptibility of 
 the city council, especially in the matter of granting 
 street franchises, and on this point the Mayor said : 
 
 "Who is it that comes into the common council and 
 asks for such privileges ? Who is it who ar accused 
 of offering bribes for such franchises ? It is the same 
 ones — the prominent citizens. 1 tell you these questions 
 come home. Talk about anarchy, talk about breeding 
 the spirit of communism, what does it more than the rep- 
 resentativ citizens of Chicago ? Is it men in the common 
 walks of life who demand bribes and who receiv bribes 
 from the hands of the legislativ'^ bodies or the common 
 coimcil? No. It is your representativ citizens, your 
 capitalists, your business men. Who is responsibl for 
 the condition (f affairs in the city of Chicago ? Your 
 representativ business men. If an assessor grows rich 
 while in office, with whom does he divide ? Not with tht^ 
 common people. He divides with the man who tempts 
 him to make a low assessment, not the man who has the 
 liumbl littl hous, but the capitalist and the business 
 man. These ar plain words, but they ar true. " 
 ., Perfectly? true, your Honor, now y(,)u ar excused. But 
 
 n- -. 
 
 I 
 
AMERICAN CIVILUATON. 
 
 227 
 
 is it not a littl singular that whenever a working man has 
 told the same truth he has been denounce! by our "inde- 
 dendent " press for a scoundrel, an anarchist, a man who 
 is seeking to uproot all our beloved institi.tions that 
 the fathers handed down ? If I remember rightly that 
 banquet, when, for once, one welthy man told the truth 
 to his brother capitalists, was held on a Saturday night. 
 Next morning these Christian gentlmen would likely 
 enuf put on their best smile and go to hear the reverend 
 doctor tell them of the lafest fase of the Pentateuch 
 dispute. And there is another side of it. Their wives, 
 good Christian women, ar sharing in the thieving. They 
 ar drest in the best the land affords and ar noted for their 
 charity, but they ar receivers of stolen goods. No, ladies, 
 it will not work. You see, I am certain that it is all going 
 to be judged on another standard than the I)un and 
 Bradstreet and Wall Street one, and some of you who ar 
 , sailing pretty high now will be so miicli lower than many 
 you smile at to-day, that you will not know yourselves. 
 
 I know how it is, becaiis I had my past life turned up 
 by a strange process, and it was not very agrceabl in 
 some aspects. One thing, tho, that made me smile with 
 a keen satisfaction thru it all was that I liav always 
 spoken and voted and done my best to change the swinish 
 system we liv under now to another where peopl would 
 not need to starv or accept charity if they were willing to 
 work, and another thing that made me smile more, was 
 the fact that I had managed to get thru life without 
 ever being tarry- fmgercd enuf to accept or giv a bribe. 
 I merely throw that out as a hint. Verbum sap, again. 
 
 We ar not" expected to deal with social questions, say 
 some of our polisht f rends in their sermons. Fau ! 
 Don't get any lower, pleas. 
 
 Social questions ar moral questions of the highest sig- 
 nificance, and it is time that our ethereal frendr, knew it. 
 Working men refusQ to be deceived an^y longer. 
 
 f]WW«|'fS^ 
 
228 
 
 OUR UNSEEN COMPANIONS. 
 
 
 It takes a lon^ while for a question to come to a hod, 
 but after a certain time the trimmers hav to take a had: 
 seat. The currency question will shortly after this writ- 
 in.sf be fot out on the floor of the great political conven- 
 tions. Everything has been done to deceiv the peopl and 
 keep it in a state of see-saw, but the time has gone past 
 for any more trimming, as even the cowards who hav no 
 ct)nvictions see. They ar going to be forct to take sides. 
 The time for sitting on the fence is past. 
 
 So with other social questions that ar now surging over 
 the world from Moscow to the Golden Gate. The time 
 has come to take sides. For plutocracy or against it? One 
 or the other. For the plain doctrin of Jesus Christ that, 
 the cowards in pulpits ar blinking at to-day, or against it? 
 For God or Mammon, one or the other. 
 
 Let us hear another spirit. Lady Henry Somerset and 
 the present Mayor of Chicago seem to be in accord on 
 social qiiestions. We ar bound to come to our own some 
 day when even the welthy ar telling the truth. In speak- 
 ing at thcArt Institute of Chicago, Nov. 9th, 1893, vShe 
 said : 
 
 "Christianity. I believ, means to face the questions of 
 the day as Christ did. Descend the marbl steps of your 
 great churches and go down into the marketplace. Stand 
 there for once face to face with human beings. Come 
 out from the wr)rld of fashionabl Christianity; see the 
 wan and pallid faces of factory girls pinched in the poorly 
 ])aid service of some pilhu" of the church. wSee the backs 
 bending under the burden of unrequited t<jil; come down 
 and see the life that is, and in all its changing fases as- 
 sume the attitude that Christ would hav done in the same 
 circumstances. That alone is Christianity, 
 
 "How do you .suppose Christ would view the prevail- 
 ing social distinctions' I can think of Him watchinghere 
 in Chicago the long lines of carriages with their occu- 
 pants as in our land frittering away the hour;? of ^11 the 
 
 li 
 
AMERICAN CI VI 1,1 /A Tiny 
 
 2Ji) 
 
 long day u> obtain the flimsy greeting of some favorit of 
 fashion. How would Christ look at the big banquets sup- 
 plied by unpaid labor? How, standing in the aisles of 
 fashionabl churches and seeing those there wIkj believ 
 that they hav done the civil thing to heven in exhibiting 
 f or a brief hpur their dressmakers' triumfs there? How 
 if from there He might wander into one street in White- 
 chapel district, where there ar forty saloons in the space 
 of one-fourth of a mile, and where all day on their dirty 
 windows ar the moving shadows of thinly clad women 
 with babies on their arms? Yet such things exist and ar 
 ignored by the Christian peopl of to-day. If it were not, 
 so where would be the women walking the stony streets 
 of shame? If Christianity were what it sliould be, neces- 
 sary evil would be a term unknown." 
 
 That is just what the socialists say and the fashionabl 
 Christians despise them, forgetting that Christ was a 
 communist even. They believ invM)luntary poverty can 
 be abolisht, and so do I, becaus I believ in the New 
 Testament. 
 
 What a race of ignorant men we hav in our pulpits to- 
 day! Charity, charity, charity from peopl who ar morally 
 stealing, and speak of justice and they v/ill not listen. 
 They will go down on their knees before a scoundrel who 
 is crushing the life out of hundreds, if he is rich enuf to 
 i^iv<i a large subscription to some church and smile on him 
 to the end. Tell him the truth before you take his money ! 
 Why don't the masses go to church? Some of these men, 
 — but what's the use again? 
 
 It is, indeed, a bad business. Bishop Potter speaks of 
 the church, otherwise the men and women composing it, 
 deserving the curse of God if it fails in the present emerg- 
 ency. The Rev. Wm. Barry says it will be an evil day 
 for the church if she is not '"edy with an answer to 
 the questions that w rising in tbv minds of p,U men 
 »ow. • , 
 
 
 I I 
 
 I i 
 
 ; i 
 f i 
 
 ■.'■it. 
 
23© 
 
 OVV UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 , m 
 
 I m 
 
 ,vV' ' 
 
 
 
 
 The curse of Gud must be a very serious uiattcr not to 
 be lig-htly spoken of. Before I had red the Bisliop'.s 
 speech I had felt something of the sensation that might 
 accompany it if such a thing is possibl. Can it be that we 
 curse ourselvs when we break His laws in our infernal 
 greed ? 
 
 They had me strongly under their influence and said to 
 me, — "Unless you do such and sucli a thing in .such a time 
 God Himself will curse you." Wicked, blasfemous, but 
 you hear worse on erth, it may be, and hold your tungs. 
 
 Whether they fild my mind with something of the feel- 
 ing that might be supposed to affect anyone in such a case 
 I do not know, but that seemd about the worst few 
 minutes I had. I remember saying in a knid of help- 
 less terror, "Not that! Not that! Anything you like but 
 that!" , 
 
 Zion's Watchman, a religious paper said lately, — "Wear 
 living in an age of expectancy. The world wide agitation 
 and political complications seem not to adjust, and im- 
 minent and inevitabl catastrofe, perhaps world wide in 
 its results, is impending." 
 
 A writer in the same paper says: " The political turbu- 
 lence of the world is a sign of danger. Pessimists and 
 optimists, scientists and filosofers, politicians, potentates 
 and peopls, and financiers in the press, secular and relig- 
 ious, all stare and stand agast at the necessary 'peace (?) 
 mesures ' which ar exhausting the nation." 
 
 How ar our ministers as a body getting redy for the 
 change which is coming, and for which so many ar con- 
 sciously prei)aring ? Let the answer come from one of 
 themselvs. In a review of a newly publisht book wri- 
 ten exclusivly for preachers, the New York "World " says 
 that the keynote is in the sentence "We recognize in our- 
 selvs, in spite of ourselvs, a prevailing want of faith in 
 the reality of God and heven and hell, of the judgment 
 ^nd eternity." « 
 
 ,''*' 
 
 
AMtRICAN c:i ILt/ATIOiV. 
 
 -V?T 
 
 That is from the Rev. Dr. Greg-ory to his ministerial 
 brethren. 
 
 The object of the hook, says the ''World," is to call 
 tip in the mind of the preacher th(' living faith of the 
 dark ages. 
 
 Well, we need a living faith of some kind, and plus ihe 
 science of the nineteenth century it would work miracls. 
 
 The truth of the matter is that many of these men do 
 not know how working men ar living. Still allowing 
 them to speak for themselves take the following state- 
 ment from a reasonabl man among theni that shockt me 
 when I red it. . ; \ ; 
 
 Speaking of the poverty of Christ, Dean Fi.rrar says, 
 *' His poverty was not indeed, the absorbing, degrading, 
 grinding poverty which is always rare and almost always 
 remediabl. " • . .■ 
 
 We ar prepared for anything in these times, but that 
 sotmds cool A judicious cours of starvation is what 
 .some of these men need. I saw the statement in an edi- 
 tion of his " Life of Christ " publisht in this country in 
 t893. He wrote that with London at his elbow. I herd 
 him preach in Westminster Abbey when General Booth's 
 book shockt the aristocratic, well-fed gentlmen of 
 •'Merrie England." vShockt them for a time,- that 
 was all. •.'■'■. J '" '- -■..'! ■■ •..:r' ■ '-.^ , 
 
 H Dean F'arrar has changed his opinions on the ques- 
 tion of poverty he ot to strike such a sentence out of his 
 book pirated or otherwise in this country. Almost 
 always remediabl, is it ? Such a statement is a bitter pill 
 for a good many men who hav been crusht while the 
 Dean sits in his comfortable study, and the worst of it is 
 that it could be du])licated a thousand times over from the 
 writings of Christian men. Foxes hav holes, birds hav 
 nests, and Deans hav deaneries. 
 
 He says in his book " F/ternal Hoj)e ' that he fell glad 
 vo think that Christ never \ised the harsh language in 
 
 .1 
 
«3» 
 
 OUR 1:NSI:F,N lOiMPAMONS. 
 
 •» i\ 
 
 M^- . 
 
 ' ''.' "6- 
 
 , speakinjr of unfortunates that Carlylc did. We might 
 reply that we ar very glad indeed to think that Christ 
 would never hav been so blind to social conditions as to 
 use the kind of language that Dean Farrar does with 
 respect to peopl who walk the streets for months seeking 
 for work that they cannot iind. 
 
 We might also reply that there ar many bishops, deans 
 and dignitaries in the Church of England who would not 
 hold the fat positions iliey hav now, and Dean I'arrar m:iy 
 be one of them, so far as I know, if they had told the 
 truth as Carlyle did. I havofti;n thotof late months th.it 
 if I had to depend on our leading churches for my con- 
 ceptio!! of Christianity, I would risk the evoluiionary 
 future, aud I hav as fair an idea of what is in store for 
 those who do so as most. Oh, yes; we hav seen the 
 deaneries and the rectories, and the ecclesiasticrd palaces 
 of " Merrie England" and likewise of " Merrie America," 
 but we hav also seen Whitechapel, and the slums and 
 dens of the new, selfish continent. And remember, 
 if you pleas, that Sancho Quixote has no complaint to 
 make for himself except in so far as the evil conditions 
 effect us all. 
 
 It has always been the same. Take your stand in that 
 window with Madam de vStael and her frend, and see the 
 deputies sweep past on the way to save France. The 
 princes of the state and the princes of the church march 
 along in their gorgeous habiliments, and then, says Louis 
 T)lanc, injurieusement separes des eve ues en rochet ct en 
 camail, les plebeiens de I'eglise, les cures follow in the 
 train of their great superiors, the welthy priests who 
 preacht the gospel of Him who became a carpenter. AVhen 
 the time of voting came the faithful cures who knew 
 something about social conditions voted with the com- 
 mon peopl who herd Christ gladly, and the nt)bls and the 
 "higher" clergy fot hard to retain the unjust privileges 
 . that were cnishing France in the mire. They fot us hard 
 
 , I 
 
 ' * 
 
AMERICAN ( IVILI/ATON. 
 
 433 
 
 \ 
 
 as their welthy brethern the bishops, do in 'he neighbor- 
 hood of Westminister to-day, but lliey were downd. The 
 spirit of Christ must triumf in spit:' of the evil work these 
 men ar doing to-day. 
 
 Their theories, as Bishop hotter says, i.r outlawed by 
 time. "Sancho," said the old kniglit to his foolish squire, 
 "there ar no birds in last year's nests. " Poor Sancho 
 could not understand why the pilgriniage should not con- 
 tinue, and many of our c iltured fr< i.ds ar i)usy discuss- 
 ing the '-classics" while their fellow beings starv and 
 wondering why it should not go on. Talk about pos- 
 session! These men ar possest by ihe devil of cultured sel- 
 fishness. They build their soul 5 a lordly plesure place 
 and tell us to be quiet. Peace? Peace? Too late, gentl- 
 men, too late! You liv n the vvrong day. Queen Anne 
 is ded. 
 
 Now as in the days preceding the abolition of slavery 
 the ministers ar ai, the tail end of the ])rocession. Em- 
 bassadors of Christ indeed! And the pillars of the 
 church fleece the poor wretch ;s ov</r whom they hav 
 acquired power, and it goes on and they smile and build 
 brick and mortar and call it C: ristianity. "Wear all," 
 I herd one of them say. " han mer or anvil. " Hammer 
 or anvil! A truly great thing is leming;. 
 
 The troubl is that our conception of the social paradise 
 is a littl too exalted to suit the taste of those who ar living 
 on stolen goods, "There is nj more foolish idea," said 
 the first minister I listened to after 1 left the hermitage^ 
 "than thai environment can n:a!ce men." Tt helps won- 
 derfully, but you see this, gentlman gets twelv thousand 
 dollars a year besides other prequisites, and he goes to 
 Kurope for three months annually. His environment is 
 plesant enuf, you willobserv. But in the city in which he 
 preaches hundreds of cliildren ar starvd to deth every 
 summer for want of food :ind i:resh air. Environment 
 might help them a littl. Don't yoxi think so? What 
 
234 
 
 Oi;u UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 (•' 
 
 w. 
 
 Ii.'; 
 
 M-': 
 
 
 do you think of putrid, blinded churchianity? No wonder 
 workinjLi "ion '"^tay away from church. It is as I'otten in 
 .some res])ecls as the Roman Catholic church was before 
 the reformation. 
 
 Sacred property is clearly thretend once more in the 
 history of the human race, and the fight is to be a serious 
 one. The ministers hav been preaching- luv and it does 
 not seem to work so well as it should, perhaps becaus they 
 hav been denying ju.stice which is included in luv. They 
 shout luv, and *.he}' will not <!;\v even justice. There is 
 something wrong. vSuppose we try justice and see if luv 
 will spring out of it. (Jiv every man justice and who 
 will escape whipping? True, true, very true, gentlmen, 
 and you would dance as lively as the rest of us it may be. 
 
 Why ar working men staying away from church in such 
 numbers? Just look at the matter calmly. Look back at 
 any of the great mov^ements in human history. Can you 
 point to one that happend without a cans? The move- 
 ment of working men away from the church has been 
 great enuf to be entitled to a place in contemporary his- 
 tory — even the ministers acknowledi.ye that — Is there not 
 some reason for it? Don't you suppose that they ar get- 
 ting tired of your ecclesiastical red tape and ten million 
 dollar cathedrals? What a glorious conception that was, 
 to be sure! 
 
 "What do you think of royalty, sire," askt a lady of his 
 Majesty one day. "Madam," was the reply, "that is the 
 business 1 make my living- by." And for the same reason 
 I approve of cathedral building from the selfish stand- 
 point, but with Christians living where they cannot get a 
 breth of fresh a^i-? Hush! I wish we had Paul to settl 
 these questions for a few hours. I like fine buildings and 
 look forward to the time when we shall hav something 
 like the faith of the middl ages that reard the glorious 
 buildings we admire to-day, but in the city of New York? 
 And novv? Clearly the devil is at work. 
 
 
"11 
 
 *< I 
 
 AMKRKAN CIVIF.I/ATrON. 
 
 «35 
 
 What is to be the end of the hi^ht that is even now 
 goin<)f on in the United States between the havs and the 
 hav-nots in spite of the trantic denials of phitocratic jour- 
 nals and niaj^azines? Henry Norman, who disdngnisht 
 himself in the Venexnelan dilTiculty writes an articl in 
 Scribner's Maj,'"azine for April, 1896. He tells of a con- 
 versation he had with a man "who from his personal char- 
 acter, his intimate acquaintance with all parts of the 
 United vStates and his position as the most responsibl and 
 conspicious person in the country enj,^aged in the official 
 maintenance of j^ood order was the highest authority on 
 such a matter. " Mr. Norman askt this very distinguish! 
 man, who appears to bump his bed against the stars, 
 whether he did not think the most terrific light that has 
 ev^er been known between the havs and the hav-nots was 
 destind to take place in the United States. 
 *Yes," he replied, "but we will win." 
 
 "That order will win," commentsMr. Norman, "is cer- 
 tain, but is it not astonishing that no one seems to be pre- 
 paring for the conflict?" 
 
 Win what? A pig's paradivSe, for that is just what America 
 wculd be if some of these hnegentlmen had their way. 
 Win the right to trampl down human beings as has been 
 done for so many centuries, that is what they ar after. 
 And those who ar being trampld down now, know some- 
 thing of the past and ar determind that their children 
 ar not to be made into manure any longer. Yes, there is 
 no doubt about it, there will be a change or a con- 
 flict. Let us hope that it can be settld at the polls, 
 the devil for luvs war and his brood ar shrieking for it 
 to-day. 
 
 We ar told that when a man became a Christian in the 
 erly centuries he laid down his arms if a soldier, but we 
 li V in changed times. The phitocrats may win- - 1 scarcely 
 think so — biit evtn if they did their victory would turn 
 to dust and ashes in their mouths Jiooner gr later, for they 
 
I 
 
 r 
 
 §36 
 
 OUK UNSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 ■f 
 
 i>^ 
 
 H^-: 
 
 ar living: and {jrofitini; by a system that makes e\il 
 spirits smile -if they ever do it. 
 
 What pnrt ar the churches going to take in the great 
 fight? It is to be "onward Christian soldi'^rs," it appears, 
 but which side ar they going to fight for? And ar they 
 sure they ar choosing rhe right one? They ar turning 
 their churcli parlors into armories and drilling their boys 
 in order that they may be redy for the slaughter. On 
 the (me side of a street in New York is thehedquartersof 
 the Salvation Army. On the other side, fronting it. is an 
 armory three or four times as large. One or the other 
 has to be stampt out. Which? 
 
 Sanclio Quixote made some ugly mistakes, but when 
 he looks over the field and .sees how his brother Christians 
 ar comporting them.selvs he tries to feel cheerful. It was 
 an eminent Christian who discourses charmingly on luv 
 who started this rotten, boy-,soldier, patriotic craze. He 
 is welcome to all the credit of the invention. wonder 
 where the inspiration for that brilliant con ^ .lOn of 
 latter day Christianity came from ? 
 
 There is something wrong. Luv thy neighbor as thy- 
 self is very, very plain. It would put an end to war in 
 a very short time, and yet it seems we must carry out 
 on American .soil the ideas that hav cur.st Europe for 
 centuries. Mr. Norman need not be so pessimistic; he 
 need not mourn as those who hav no hope. We hav been 
 making some "preparations for the conflict." Most of 
 our largest cities hav armories like midieval castls and the 
 knights ar redy to di.stinguish tliemselvs as of old. A 
 pity that men ar so easily trapt by the bait of welth, for 
 the time comes when they hav to leav it. 
 
 How many "Christians" were shrieking for war with 
 the United Kingdom the other day as if war were a light 
 matter. What did Prince Eugene say about it in his day ? 
 "A military man becomes so sick of bloody scenes in 
 war that in- peace he is avers to recommend it. I wish 
 
AMF.RU AN nVIl.lZATlOM 
 
 aj7 
 
 
 
 the tirst tninister who is calleil U> ilecide on peaco atul 
 war had only seen activ servic. " 
 
 But the warriors tell us that we don't understand 
 Christianity. War they say, is progress. Peace means 
 stag-nation. 
 
 Take a trip to the frontiers of France and Germany and 
 you see their ideal state. They ar now hc»wling- for the 
 triflin.i;- sum of eighty million dollars to fortify this con- 
 tinent. They ar becoming anxious about their property 
 
 Now, the statesmen of Europe ar fools in some respects, 
 but they know enuf to let the United States alone. 
 Which one of them would risk it and run the chance of 
 setting Europe in a flame ?• — for the powder magazine is 
 so built that a littl carelessness at one corner will set the 
 hole thing in the air. Keep your minds easy, my war- 
 like frends Trust in (rod and do the right. There has 
 never been a nation in human history that has trusted 
 God. *' Leav your insane asylum if you like, you fool," 
 they said, " but you will only go to a larger one out- 
 side," and when our warlike (Christians begin to shriek 
 for blood after going to church to worship a (iod of peace 
 and luv, 1 think it would be a good idea to roof in 
 some of our large cities and call for the doctors. 
 
 The plutocrats cannot be allowed to grasp the hole 
 erth. It will not do, for they would be as unhappy as 
 Macedonian Sandy. Listen to another living spirit. 
 
 Come forward, Dean Farrar, if your ruffld fethers ar 
 smoothd yet, and tell us all about Tiberius. The Dean 
 marches forward and speaks his piece— 
 
 '' The Roman Emperor Tiberius wa.s the most powe- ful 
 living man; the absolute, undisputed, defied ruler of all 
 that was fairest and richest in the kingdoms of the erth. 
 There was no control to his power, no limit to his wealth, 
 no restraint upon his plesures. What came of it all ? 
 He was. as Pliny calls him, the most gloomy of mankind. 
 Rarely has there been vouchsafed to the world a more over" 
 
 
 'I 
 
 I* 
 
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 i 
 
 >Si' 
 
 ,! 
 
♦.^J^ 
 
 0\»t. V'N»;1tWN «HMV\N«ONS, 
 
 thai \\M\1S UMl\«Ht :\\\y] \\\-\SHh'' !\\\\\ H'» 1Ui'.f-<l <'o||(W()l tMli 
 
 1vf)>o'{<i sa»\\nMvv\>s ^\ st,(\ \hc >n,M»"U o( thr Atlnntii* li»lt\" 
 
 Anil \V( oUV plutO\V;\t5< i\r \WM\y\v\ \\\IV\ ^^lll TiImMIU'* 
 
 Tht*y wiU \u>l ioin ilio los'-on 1 \K«> \\\\' l''t»'nrl\\(lp(l 
 )^-\nv^<'' th,\t rhjH'kiMvv i.'lNnxo) n\ "llnnv 1'" ;iu.'\ul.'' 
 
 i\\\\\ ihrtt was \vh;U ^i^on^^H hu>l \ o«. vom. inv lo|ricrtl, 
 
 volt, but «U^\\ •. \<>\» ^«M^ iho S(MM< 1 ' \\ \' powtM {hs\\ is 
 
 thrtl \{ >!* .^bout tinu* loihiuv ii ha\^p\ tuodiinu soino\>l»oro 
 bot\V<vn thv^ V vNiulition •>< Pibovius. riio'.lhts fu\tl srvi^rol 
 othot »hHV;\js( ijon<bn<-n o( noto, av; it is a?< wrll \ioi to 
 tnoiMuMi luwut's ol' ouv .nvu ilbistti>>iis nn>nniv'bs. .uul 
 
 \ woviKJ bVv- t>> soo tht* social stt'ti' in siu li a rotuhti.Mi 
 ib,it tl'st^ nian \\ hv> w .is w .linji i>^ \\«mK v'o»iU1 (>msi1\' |\uv 
 ■\ hons of 1^is\>\\u. s.u >^l <i\o ov .i\ it>i>nis widi a Ii.hIi, 
 .•\»^d stcvi\ wv^-. V .-u a >;ootl \\,\jix\ All tlio lost is lotli« t .uul 
 prunoUa. 1 wv^ul*! ;\1s<> liko ti> soo surli .\ \]\;\\\^iv nswouW 
 vNMii|Vi tboso \vbv> xlul not worlv. bcniy: in j^oou hdtli. ic 
 «tAi"\v This is\v!\.\1 tho Ai>ostl Tanl \v,intov1,b\il it jm>hih1.'»1 
 1 ;4(hov hcrotKwl. vlul It nv>t * Vom n<nvsp;\)VMs will (ij^ui 
 that ivicA \>o you not si^'^piv tlu^ "ia]>itar"' Phov will 
 say t«><> \n tho frtvXM^f staivatiou that the mo^iosf i«i^;(l 1 
 hav set forth is attaiuabi nv^\v tvM- all whv^ ai willin)^ b- 
 work, auvl v>bscrv all the <H>pvK>olv virtues, but Iho 
 scHniti<h>cls lie. ;\ny.\ ihcy know ihat thov ho. 
 
 Oarthcji-onian civih.TativMi |hm vht in .i niqht auvl wiiai 
 is *hcvt? Um'i of its ijlorios f .\ ul tun a tow <•tn{>iro^^ » t' 
 the past hav gxM\o down in thcvlnst thru brute soltishnoss 
 ATVd cluss laws. It initnslers toKi the irntli about what is 
 
 i 
 

 AMI'lJli AN I IVIfh-'A r ION. i^tf 
 
 ^iiin)4 •"* "'I ll"' MnV'"' tif ('liifnp,M (III), ilM'ff wniihl oHhiM 
 
 Itf Inll.M (lniMliilUfl \\\ tllM VVftlhl »tr fitipl I )♦»»!( IM'M ill lite 
 
 ilmiihi-it I !ini 4niiU'liltiPM |f»Mi|i|»Ml to nuitpMH- lli<- 
 
 "It Umil'l Willt MlHUC III Mill MtlM'rilll f|i»>f|rln 'I'lU'V •'•» MmI 
 
 hypv.rlN. Tlii'V knnvv witirli Midi Hmv nt <mi 
 
 I h.'iv 'tfl'it vviiiiilf'iil In llif ))fi<i| nliPlliiM A nut i'-n wmmM 
 
 J40 iltiWII (iml Ariirtl Iff t'lHlMl'll I" tiltf V (III llir- |>rf'M| IihII 
 
 Imi !i liifilu r olvilJAfiliMii. 
 
 I 1111111111 bf'lil'V M pMMMilil, I'Ml iIh- IiiiiImI, ' tlltMHMl in 
 
 «lin-'H'iU'n 1(> liniMiiii hiiIT^mIii^ iIhiI fliMrni I'-tliro^ ho fiiniiy 
 nl our IfMiiliiiK "ii'M |f> liny, UMniil'i iin* lo Ihink l)i(i< tin- dp 
 M|il«»'d Ni'j^if svniild dn Iho WMfk l»t«Upr Hum IiIm witilp 
 In-fillnn, fin it w<ndd MtMnn llini K lie ifl jjjivn « fnir (''hmmim 
 lio, IniM ii Und«n- linil. nnd Hiftl 1 mmlti fm n ^ikhI dpnl in 
 tllt» MnHlni'-nl mT im finnmi' 1(11'-^) imm. 
 
 I r'ntiiml lifdicM' 11 piisMiltl. Iircfiiin llni*' mi Inn iiiniiy 
 nnn iUwl whiimh imw wIim mi i<'i)\' t«» |;iv ii|t .nry (fjfivic 
 liinin<li(*v nmy lui\ mm Momi n"^ llioy Mr cfnivlni 1 lliJii Hipy 
 Ml wMMijj. 'rii('\' wfiiil |ti dit (ij^lil. Mild I Mih «-;iif» IIimI 
 thpy will 111' lid in ll»<> li>;lit dirfMHntt, Iml Kii fli«ny /if 
 iIkmii ni din ii'H'injijI y i^'iiniMiir 'I'lfy mi too firtrii led by 
 th''' iniHo KM trndf ilv n^ »«««•« ar, )in'f tliin ijirMoranctv <Wid 
 will Itv'id IIH, lull dofs 1lr> inn, in f lii> iwuiM'Mf fotiiinoii tipfiH, 
 px|KM't us til r<'Md Mini inlorni oiiiKrlvui' 'I'lif f'ihW- j«, m 
 ^(icid ltiiiil<, lull It ilorM no! ten( li yon dirf'( tly how to irinke 
 H !;trnin inij^in m n.'.f flci'lricity, nml yo.\ «;tnMfri Miid i-\ri' 
 tri( itv linv I lianj.f'il llif> world fiinl ar fa'n iriMkin^ im 
 InollifMf;. Do ymi not lipljf»v tliat this l^^OntVn wiW fJook'-. 
 Mf thru]) hny a very I' ,v, or joiti apnblir' lihrary and j/^t 
 tlir insi rnlid oil yoiii liidiv V(»tinjOH ;i s^rioiR Iniwi- 
 -. . ,, irlij;»oiifi duty take carp foi whom yon vntf. 
 
 » 1 I It I .. ,1....»„. ii .•..!■...«:. _ 
 
2.}0 
 
 OUR UNSFKN ( OMI" A NIONS. 
 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 
 to the system and not to himself, but if he is still eng-aged 
 bribing-, what on erth can you tl<j but tell him to mend 
 his manners at once or take the chance of marring his 
 fortunes in the end? ' ' ' ' 
 
 It is very strange that so many ministers refuse to 
 speak out on social (juestions. It is true that th<? best 
 policy many of them can follow is to hold their peace, for 
 as Professor Ely says, the ignorance on economic subjects 
 among all classes is dcplorabl. Hut these (juestions in- 
 volv so much that it is time for public teachers to take 
 sides. Is it to be Satan or Christ ' vSntan fills men and 
 women with pride, and they struggl like wild beasts to 
 hea]) up millions and build linccastls and strive to excel 
 one another in social entertainments, and in their mad 
 haste they trampl down men and women .md turn their 
 beds in another direction and go to church on Sun- 
 day. Wages ar reduced till the entrails of the workers 
 screatn for mercy, and still there is no break in the swin- 
 ish greed. The interest on waterd stock mu.'.t be paid 
 if the hevens fall, and churches ar to build. Do you say 
 that the picture is overdrawn^ It happens to be true in 
 every word The oppressors of the poor, those who grind 
 their face, sit in the churches to-day tliat ar built by their 
 l>lood money. 
 
 What is the use of writing about it ^ They ar defended 
 thru thick and thin by their liired men, wh(» with their 
 wives ar striving in their sfere to outshine t ;ieir rivals, 
 and thus the evil spirits gain at both ends thru luxury 
 and starvation. " We don't care for your churches. Sancho 
 Quixote," they said. " .Satan isworshipt there regularly." 
 
 When I thot of some of the men who occuijy the chief 
 seats in the synagog- and talk " business is bu.siness " thru 
 the week, I had to acknowledge that they had .some 
 grounds for their sneer. 
 
 Here is one man who speaks <^iit in chir/ch. Lyman 
 Abbot said in a recent '^ernion, -" If reli^vion is a delu- 
 
 ' .;''.■ 
 
 
AMKklCAN ri\ IM/ATIOS 
 
 241 
 
 fjioii we want to know it. No sweet He is half so good as 
 the bitter truth. I can understand tlie mental attitude of 
 a Paine, or a Voltaire, or a BoiliuKbrooke, or even an 
 Ingersoll, whosays, " Tliis relij^ion is a grand delusion, 
 a nightmare that priests hav invented to blind the eyes of 
 men, a lullaby that has been invented to lull ])oor babes 
 to sleep," and 1 can understand men who say that re- 
 ligion is an inspiring, a divine truth. But the nian I 
 cannot understand is he who sees this great issne and 
 does not care. lie is so busy with his stocks and bonds; 
 she with her afternoon teas and social eugagements, that 
 they do not care whether there is a good God, whether 
 there is a reveald Bible, whether there is an incarnate 
 
 Chri.st. 
 
 If Christianity is true follow straight after it, md if 
 infidelity is true follow straight after that. Face the 
 issue; meet it like men. 
 
 That is the message of h'dijah at tl'o foot of Mount 
 Carmel. Baal is .still in the world, and Cod is still in the 
 world. Surely there ar in America in public life, in charge 
 of great newspapers, in not unknown ptdpits, in social 
 circls, in places o( trust and power, not a few who need to 
 be anjused by the profet's words: " Mow long will ye halt 
 and totter between two opinions ? If God be your God, 
 follow straight after llim, and if Baal be your (iod, 
 follow straight after him." 
 
 Most of us can understand language of that kind, and 
 it can be herd froni he nuniths of hundreds of hanl- 
 working, zclous minist rs who ar doing their best to im- 
 prove the condition of those whom vSatan has driven into 
 the mud very often thru the instrumentality of the vvelthy 
 peopl who sit in their brothers' churches and pray to the 
 same God. Yon say the men and women who go down 
 ar not (Miristians ? Do yon think it is a good way to win 
 them to send them to the slums and starvation > 
 
 When Paul came near a city at one time all the Chris- 
 
 
 L.\ 
 
 -.n 
 
 
243 
 
 OITR IINSKKN COMPANIONS, 
 
 tians went forth to meet him. They were .i frencllv 
 people evidently. When Coxey's army went thru the land 
 with perhaps not a few Chri.stians in it, tired and hungry 
 and weary of the strngjj:!, they were not allowed to halt in 
 some of the towns and the newspapers sneerd and laft. 
 In some respects we h;r' become a satanic peopl. 
 
 "There is no dout in my mind, " says Bjornstjerne 
 Hjornson, "that the modern state, whether you eall it 
 monarehy or repul)lic, is a mere leajj of the powerful 
 \o keep their hold upon the good things of life." No 
 "iout in the minds of a good many others either, 
 Bjornstjerne. 
 
 ' .4', i' ■ 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER XXVn. 
 
 An Anckl Asks Mk, "WnAr Do Chrisvans Mf.an?" 
 
 One of my plesantesi memories is a short conversation 
 during a lidl in the storm. A woman's voice spoke tome 
 — a sweet, strong voice full of conragc that made me 
 a.shamed of myself as it askl the (juestion- -"What do 
 Christians mean?" 
 
 We had been conversing on social problems and the ques- 
 tion came in a kind of a wondering, astonisht way as if the 
 conduct of Christian ptN)p1 was past speaking about. I 
 believ that is a common question among our unseen 
 trends. Do vou really think that T hav spoken too strong- 
 ly in the last chapter' 
 
 Take the "patriotic " ([uestion. I find that I am far too 
 
 ■' 'V: 
 
 •' ! ■' :■. I 
 
 •lAk^ 
 
"What Do Christians Mkan!'" 
 
 243 
 
 ■;■ ■.■:n 
 
 ■ .1 V ,■'■. 
 
 
 idealistic. 1 red a littl speech tills riorniirc;' in whicli (jiic 
 lerned man spoke to others, and a'.'ter assuring tliem, as 
 usual, that by virtue of their lerning they were the salt of 
 the erth, he threw out a few hints on oatriotism. It seems, 
 according- to him, that the New Testament kind that re. 
 fuses to recognizes boimdaries is (»ut or place. The meti 
 who believ in it ar dreamers, and so on. So t)e it. There 
 is a kind of pat.notism that is justiliabl and |)foper the 
 feeling that a rabbit has for its hole in ilw ground, and 
 the luv for our country and our institutio'vs if they arbe> 
 ter than those of any other nation, such a Inv, for exampl, 
 as a nativ of the best country in the world to-day -T mean 
 Switzerland- -may indulge in, but the sh( ddy kind, the 
 fashionabl kind, the (iod bless oiir country right or- wr(nig 
 kind, is loathsome. And it, may be too, ir spite of the 
 opposition of many church members, that the New Testa- 
 ment kind will yet win. The satanic patriotism that 
 some loud moutht gcntlmen ar yelling tor to lay has 
 turnd Europe into a military camp. 
 
 That is what I hav th(jt on the patriotic (juestion for 
 some years, and wher T herd demons raging around me, 
 to whom all coimtr'.es and all languages ar alike, whose 
 one object is to drag peopl down thru satanic patriot- 
 ism or by any other n\eans, I felt jist a trifl bitter over 
 the yelpings of those num who, if they could succeed, 
 would turn this continent from the high destiny that I be- 
 liev God has laid ont for her if she walk in His ways — the 
 destiny to bind the peoplsof the erth together and to form 
 so many ties of relationship \\ ith Europe that from evx')-y 
 city and from every hamlet on both sides of the Atlantic 
 a stern protest wi.)uld rise ii]) from those w'.u) had ai y 
 regard for Christianity at the mere mention of war, so 
 that at least one peopl would get a chance to show wh.it 
 Christian civilization might be unhampered by tlie curse 
 of militaryism and vSO force the nations o( Europe to their 
 senses. But t,o follow Europe! What a low ideal! 
 
 ■ji 
 
344 
 
 OUR UNSr.KN COMPANIONS. 
 
 -.''•'r. (-.■;' 
 
 V ' 
 
 I am rather tired of those persons who swagger around 
 with a chip on their shoulder spoiling for a fight. Just 
 suppose, now, to carry it to the limit, that you were act- 
 ually insulted. What, then? A war after the old brutal 
 Roman idea? Force, according to an editor whose opinion 
 I red lately, has always ruled the world and always will. 
 When I come to believ that 1 will quietly take hold of the 
 New Testament and the Old likewise and tear them to 
 pieces, and pitch them in the fire. I like to be on one 
 side or another. God say.s luv, men say force, and we know 
 what a hell they hav made of this world to millions thru 
 their satanic ideas. I would like to try it by the other 
 route. 
 
 And so with the millionaires. It is not likely that they 
 will pay much attention to what I, or any one els, may 
 say ; but suppose they repent, who has a right to say a 
 word of their past mercilessness? Nobody, according to 
 good sound scripture. But if they still send their brazen - 
 jawed, conscienceless attorneys to defeat the will of the 
 peopl by bribery and scoundrelisra and they fatten off 
 the spoil what can we say? 
 
 I believ, then, that these great beings who ar around us 
 often ask themselvs, "What do Christians mean?" Thous- 
 ands and tens of thousands of them ar doing everything 
 they should in a way that makes us ashamed of ourselvs 
 but they hav littl power compared with their welthy 
 brethem in a worldly sens, altho they hold the common- 
 welth together, but the plain truth is that if one in ten of 
 the nominal Christians in the United States were to liv 
 the doctrins of the New Testement even approximately, 
 there would be a revolution in our civilization before the 
 end of one calendar month. As for the millionaire Chris- 
 tians they could build the city of God that Bellamy told 
 us about, but that's a sore subject. The most of them 
 would rather build a castl in the wilderness. They ar too 
 ethereal to walk in the ways that Paul pointed out. They 
 
 
"WHAT DO CHRISTIANS MKAN?' 
 
 245 
 
 
 '■n 
 
 ar the monks of the new time and want to leav the rude 
 world with all its strife behind them. 
 
 " O, for a lodge la some vast) wilderness. 
 Some boundless contiguity of shade,. 
 Where rumor of oppression and deceit, 
 . Of succeBBfulor uus.eceesful war ' 
 
 Shall never reach tuo more." 
 
 "Our nation," says " Zion's Watchman," " is fast 
 growing away from God, and the only way to turn 
 aside His judgments is to lead our peopl to honor Him." 
 
 Special providences you don't believ in, you say, and 
 so say 1. Natural law holds the held, and that is what 
 the demons told me many a time when 1 did not like to 
 hear it in their sens, but in a higher sens it is true, only 
 we must understand that what we call special providences 
 ar open to every one if he supplies the condition.s — there 
 is nothing special about that, only some men will not 
 supply the conditions. No, my frend, the Bradstreet 
 standard is not the only one, and a man to your eyes 
 unsuccessful may come out at the right end of the horn 
 in the long run. 
 
 And natural law perhaps reaches further than we im- 
 agin. Suppose an answer to prayer is only a part of 
 a natural law ? Prayer should bring calmness, and 
 demons lose their power if we remain calm. ^.■X:; ]': 
 
 •' All Is of God! If He but wave His hand. 
 
 The mists collect, the rain fftllB thick and loud, 
 Till with a ami lo of light on sea and land 
 
 Lo ! He I00I18 back from the departing clouu." 
 
 What do many Christians mean, judging by the stand 
 they take on the question of intoxicating liquors ? How 
 many abstain for the sake of those who ar not strong 
 enuf to withstand the temptation? Do you know what 
 kind of a hell they create ? 
 
 I used to wonder how it was thai drunk men could act 
 and talk as they do, but now I know how it is d(jne. They 
 put their nervs in the proper ctmdition for evil spirits to 
 be abl to control them. When you see a man rolling 
 
r 
 
 246 
 
 oi:r unsekn companions. 
 
 along drunk you see a man possest. The demon.s use 
 him to do their work. Some ar a1)l to resist, others 
 ar not.* : 
 
 Here is what Cardinal Manning said on the subject, — 
 '* For thirty- five years I hav been priest and bishop in 
 London, and now I approach my eightieth year. 1 hav 
 lernt some lessons and the [irst thing is this: The chief 
 bar to the working of the Holy Spirit of God in the souls 
 of men and women is intoxicating drink. I know no 
 antagonist to the g(jod Spirit more direct, more sutl, 
 more stelthy, more ul)iqiiitous, than intoxicating drink. 
 Tho I hav known men and women destroyed for all man- 
 ner of reasons, yet I know of no cans that aflects man, 
 women and child and home with such universal and stedy 
 power as intoxicating drink. " • ■ 
 
 And in France, too, the land of moderate drinking, 
 things seem to be moving crab-fashion. Leading French- 
 men ar becoming alarmed over the ravages of strong 
 drink as any one may easily And out. The following 
 quotation from the *' Helth Magazine," Baltimore, will 
 serv as an illustration of what is going on: " A writer 
 in France sa}S that the manufacture and consumption of 
 alcohol in that country is degrading the peopl mentally, 
 morally and fisically, and filling the hospitals, asylums 
 and prisons. These lisical wrecks bring into the world 
 mi.serabl offspring which inlierit a weak body and soon 
 show the tastes of their parents. The great danger seems 
 to be in the consumption of liquors made from essences, 
 
 • On the liJth of September, a man kild n child In the atreeta of New Vork 
 ■with asiiigle bio of his list. He was a well behaved man, iiidustricus, and 
 had never been arrested before He had swallowed a few galses of beer at 
 most, and the tragedy hapend shortly after. He was possest for that short 
 time. It was not he who struck tho bio, but the demon who possest him. He 
 did not know anythinyr about it when he came to himself next mornitig-. 1 
 was caut for about live or at most ten minutes, as described in Chapter XIV. 
 It '.a posacssiou, and they outoh a good many who drink. 
 
 Sum kascs ov kleptomania ar expianabl upon the same theory— a sudden 
 Jmpuls and the mischief is done, and the victim does not know how It hapeud 
 Hltbu the nurvs must bo in a uertaiu slate before the domona ge\. the power. - 
 
 t 
 
 *;,' 
 
 ■h<'; 
 
" WHAT no CHRISTIANS MF.AN ?'* 
 
 '47 
 
 
 and especially absinthe, which is said to be ns iascinating' 
 as it is harmful. If the gfoveniment wotdd take entire 
 control of the manufacture of alcohol and fo-bid the 
 making, importation and use of dangerous essences, 
 the evils of drinking in France would be very much 
 lessened." 
 
 That would help to some extent, but whatever may be 
 said of Latin countries, there is only one sohition to 
 the question among English-speaking peopls, and that is 
 absolute prohibition, I hav al-vays believd that this was 
 the sole cure, but hav lookt upon government control as 
 perhaps the only thing that was practical at present. I 
 hav lernt some lessons lately and one of them is to go to 
 the root of the drink curse by' abolishing the traffic. But 
 what do Christians mean ? Paul has much to answer for 
 in that littl advice he gave Timvjthy. It has been made 
 the excuse for customs and debauchery tliat would make 
 his hair rise if he were on erth now, The stuff they 
 drank in those days was not to be compared to our fiery- 
 compounds, but the excuse holds. Paul has much to 
 answer for, becaus, according to my view, verbal inspira- 
 tion will not work. 
 
 And what do they mean with their planchets, the.r crys- 
 tal gazing, their medium visiting, their tabl tipping, and 
 all the rest of the evil work ? 1 am deceivd, thou art 
 deceivd, he is deceivd, we ar deceivd, you ar deceivd, 
 they ar deceivd. I hav givn my own experience regard 
 less of the experience of others. If they find nothi*?; 
 but good in their investigations, so be it. I know the 
 source of their information and yours too when you inquire 
 about your de>d relations. 
 
 Now, in the name of common sens, not to say anything 
 of Christianity, which side ar yoi: on ? vSatan worship or 
 the worship of God ? What do Christians mean ? A good 
 many seem to think that this is asortof a play ground where 
 they can do as they pleas, and yet every word we utter, 
 
>-■■ 
 
 '1 
 
 24« 
 
 Ol'R (INSKKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 ';;i. 
 
 »'';"' 
 
 ,1.»' 
 
 
 every thot we think, every action wc commit, counts on 
 one side or the other, and as the hole univers is bound 
 tot^ether our influence spreds in away that should frig'hten 
 us occasionally. Suppose your sins ar forgivn and you 
 escape the evolutionary stru^gl what alwut honor ? Read 
 what Paul says on the subject. 
 
 Were you one of tb'J bloodthirsty Christians in the late 
 war scare? If so, did you realize that vSatan was usin^' 
 you as a mouthpiece ' Ar you building armories or 
 drilling- your boys to be soldiers? Can you think of 
 Christ with a gun in his hand ? Well, does the New 
 Testament mean what it says, or is it a lie ? Read Tolstoy 
 if you will not read it. What do they really metin ? Which 
 side ar they really on ? I never knew what the expression 
 "fig-ht like the devil " ment till lately. They fight with a 
 savage ernestness for war, and hate, and a g"ood many 
 well-drest Christian men and women fight with them. 
 
 "Our boys" was the gloating' expression I often herd 
 from them, and my hart sickend at it, it was so like 
 their jingo servants in the fle.sh, "our boys hav taken 
 sides, and speak out in all places and under all circum- 
 .stances. Why ar 'hristians so cowardly? Why is it neces- 
 sary to pray and roan and sing hymns as you all do when 
 our side does its work without any troubl?" 
 
 "You raise up even these spirits when you act after the 
 spirit of Christ," was what I was told. We do not know. 
 As T hav snid I do not want to go to the evolutionary 
 future, but our conduct here may help or hinder them 
 there. It is all speculation. I know one thing, however, 
 and that is. tluit if they were in our position they would 
 work while we sleep, for good I hope, but on one side or 
 another. 
 
 There is no use shutting our eyes to the fact that we ar 
 confronted with serious times. In the battl that is going 
 on between brutality, and entrench welth and selfish- 
 ness on the one hand, and luv on the other, which side ar 
 
 •Xa. 
 
'•WHAr DO IHRISTIANS MKAN?' 
 
 249 
 
 \*' 
 
 you on? It has either to be God or Mammon, and no 
 amount of soft talk from wclthy ])ulpits can chan^^-e it. 
 Liiv thy neig-hbor as thyself, is far too phiin for these 
 jjfentry. Is it not rather singular that few ministers ar 
 ever seen at workingmen's meetings, or that few of them 
 read workingmen's papers? How did it happen that in 
 the erly church there was such a frendship between the 
 common peopl and their teachers? And what is the mat- 
 ter now? As I hav said, I think there is going to be a re- 
 vival of faith that will lead to works, but insted of thank- 
 ing the ministers for it, as a class, we should rather turn to 
 the advanct political economists who hav shown us that 
 God is luv, that He has sent enuf for us all, that parson 
 Malthus was inspired by the devil, and that only a brutal, 
 swinish, Roman conception of society has brot us to our 
 present state insted of the conception that came from 
 Nazareth. Read the fifth chapter of James and see if 
 there is a .socialist of them all who goes further, read '"Luv 
 thy neighbor as thy.self, " and then think of what it would 
 mean. Many a man has turud his back upon Christianity 
 in these days becaus he has mistaken some clothes-rack i.i 
 a pulpit foi the gospel. It is a mistake. You do not 
 need to depend upon them, kead the democratic book 
 yourself — the book that puts the pretensions of our shod- 
 dy, oppressing plutocracy to shame. 
 
 There ar some now-a-days who speak of the second 
 coming of Christ. For any sake let us put the hous in 
 some kind of order first. Let us copy the erly church in 
 some respects, at least. It was composed of "cranks," 
 ** fanatics," " enthusiasts," or whatever you pleas, but in 
 the modern frase, they ment business. 
 
 Every man has his price, is a doctrin I hav herd 
 preacht hundreds of times in this country, and I hav 
 stedily denied it even while I had no obligation as a 
 Christian to do so. It is a doctrin of Satan- an accursed 
 doctrin that would drag down any country if universally 
 
 Vff 
 
 
 
 m 
 m i 
 
 m f 
 
 )■,;., 
 
 ?' 
 
T 
 
 J50 
 
 (>VU UNSrCKN ("OMPANmNS. 
 
 believd in. What on crth «lo Christians me u? ? Rcntl the 
 reviews and you v/ill find out to what a fearful extent 
 bribery has j^one. Read of the sums the jjreat political 
 parties ar raising even nov' for corruption and make all 
 due allowance for exay:j4eraLion, and you will beg^in to 
 
 ' sec where we ar drifting, but there ar more than seven 
 thousand who hav not yet bowed the knee to Baal. Deny 
 the lying statcmetit every time yon hear it, and you will 
 do a himdred times more good than some of the scoun- 
 drels who ar waving a flag in one hand and accepting or 
 giving a bribe with the other. 
 
 What do we mean by so much palm waving and twanging 
 of harps and walking up the golden streets ? We need a 
 littl bracing up ont.e in a while, but don't you think we 
 overdo the matter ? There is so much around us that 
 needs to be remedic<l that, bad as it is sometimes, I feel 
 that I coidd not afford to go just at present. 
 
 When we drop thru the arch, like the pilgrims in Addi- 
 son's strange and beutifnl vision of Mirza, it will be time 
 
 , enuf to begin palm waving. We ar not yet near the arch 
 as a civilii'/ation ; v\-e ar not even out of the wo.)ds, and we 
 ot to clear a better pathway for those who ar to follow as 
 the only men worth remembering did for us. 
 
 Behind all the mistery lies the wise purpose of our 
 Lord, The erth is full of the glory of the Lord and the 
 hevensshow forth Plis handiwork. His Uiv is greater than 
 our comprehension. Happy ar they, intleed, who, seeing 
 to the full the poetry and the grandeur of our present 
 life, open to the, humblest in some respects as well as to 
 the welthiest, can look forward to the glory of the life 
 that lies in the future when we shall scale the highest 
 hevens, when the misteries of to-day will be reveald 
 to us, and we shall see that we, and not God, were to 
 blame for most of our suffering. 
 
H, 
 
 THE TIMK SPIRII AND AU R«VOIR. 
 
 •• Till deth tho weary uplrlt fr«« 
 Thy Qoil hath Hnid, ' 'TIh troo*i for then 
 To wdlk by faith and not t)y alcrht.' 
 
 Take It on truAt a lltti whtt*. 
 Boon Rbait thou road tho tiilaterr aright 
 
 Jo tbo f nil aunshiue uf HiH bmlln," 
 
 351 
 
 if 
 
 ' l\ 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIH. 
 
 Thk Timk Sfmrh and Au Rkvoir. 
 
 Mgr. D'Hulst, than whom no prelate is more highly es- 
 teemed in Europe, says, "Every epoch has its moral 
 crisis. Ours manifests itself by a weariness of spirit, which 
 no longer knows how to grasp at truth, and which is dis- 
 mayed when the plain truth is reveald. The difficulty of 
 believing has reacht the masses and has become ignorance 
 and contempt of the invisibl. The result is a great moral 
 chill. 
 
 "The unbelief of the masses freezes the atmosfere 
 which we breath, and even renders more difficult for en- 
 lightend souls that belief which explains life, that hope 
 which consoles it and that charity which makes it fruitful. 
 Those who hav brot about this state of things hav com- 
 mitted a grave crime. They ar beginning to be conscious 
 of it, but they hesitate to confess it and they ar power- 
 less to repair it. Reparation will come by means of men 
 of great faith. The next century will giv birth to saints, 
 and their action will hav boundless effect, .since it will 
 confound those who hav utterly forgotten the gospel." 
 
 m 
 
 
T 
 
 '.I 
 
 35^ 
 
 OUR UNSLKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 Vm 
 
 li'!''. 
 
 
 ( Mr 
 
 " The ZeitgeiHt strides upon bis way, oblivious to fears. 
 Down Fate'H grtAt turnpike thorofare that stretches thru the .voars. 
 
 •• Beside this turupilte throfare that stretches thorough the years 
 Lived Charles Srastus Goutoseed with numerous compeers. 
 
 " And Charles Erastus Gontoseed with terror stood agaet. 
 The Zeitgeist traveid (it a irait so reckless and so fast. 
 
 " So Charles Brastus GontoBeed stood in hia onward track 
 To restl with the Zeit{,'eibt and persuade him to hold back. 
 
 " Tho Zeitgeist saw not Goutoseed; his look was far away, 
 Oulleft behind bis trumpld form mlit with tho miry clay. ,^ 
 
 " Beside this turnpiku thorofare that stretches thru the yeara 
 liivd William Henry Schlamahed with numerous compeers. 
 
 " And his impulfsiv temperament chafed in a restless wo, 
 Tlic Zeitgeist traveid at a gait so lumlierly and slow. 
 
 " So William Henry Schlamabnrt, tho boldest of his race, 
 Stole tn behind the Zeitgeist to acceierate his pace. 
 
 " Stole in behind the Zeitgeist to accelerate liis flight , 
 Andluuged agHinst the Zeitgei'3t'8 back and pusht witta all \iii 
 might. 
 
 " Tlte Zeitgeist traveid on his tvay rapped in eternal peace, 
 And no one saw his rate of speed perceptibly inoreas. 
 
 " But Schlamahed he pusht so hard his nervous system l)roke. 
 And he lay stretchd a victim to an apoplectic shock. 
 
 " lue Zeitgeist times his marching over mouniame and ravines 
 To the music of an orciiestra that plays behind the scenes. 
 
 " Tho wo hear not that high, far strain, we march with all our peers. 
 To the music of the footfalls of the Zeitgeist thru the years 
 
 " And t,h« music of those footfalls, tho we know not what it mean;:, 
 Is the music of the orchestra that plays behind the scenes. " 
 
 —Sam Waltkb Fqss. 
 Krom the New YothSuri, by permission. 
 
 The Zeitgeist, as you see, is a peculiar kind of a being". 
 He is very powerful, but in spite of the abuv he can be 
 persuaded to go fast or slow or turn his nose in such and 
 suoh a direction if he is approacht in the right way. He 
 seems to be going in the right direction now, but the 
 editors say he must never be allowed to step over the red 
 mark they hav drawn across his path. They ar powerful 
 men, but he may be a littl tuo stn-ng for them. We shall 
 
■ J 
 
 
 THE TIME SriRlT AND AU KtVOIR. 
 
 «53 
 
 •if. 
 
 -». 
 
 'v'l 
 
 
 /,;'/"' 
 
 :'*• 
 
 
 •rifey 
 
 ^^ 
 
 watch the strugjj] with much interest. He is making- 
 things lively in all comers of the world now, in politics 
 and religion and there ar many comfortabl souls in church 
 and state who do not luv him, but he will not rest until 
 something happens. 
 
 And he is leading us in the right direction too so far as 
 our future destiny is concernd. There ar perhaps.some 
 who read this book, who like myself before my fight, hav 
 ceast tobeliev in the divinity of Christ. Argument is of 
 comparativly littl use with them. We ar endowed with 
 reason certainly, and we ar expected to use it, but we do 
 not understand everything, and it is becaus everything 
 is not made plain that many ar forsaking the old paths 
 and laying up troubl for themselvs in the future. To such 
 I would only say — Never mind what the great men tell 
 you: Read the New Testament and judge for yourselvs. 
 Lay aside the commentaries and ask yourselvs if the men 
 who rote the books were liars or honest men. Could 
 Christ hav been deceivd as to His mission? Read his 
 words and jiidge for yourself whether they ar the words 
 of a man who did not know what he was talkrng about. 
 Were the men who wrote of His resurrection liars ? You 
 do not believ in inspiration, you say, but yet a kind of 
 inspiration goes on every day in your own lied. Supose 
 the general meaning of the Bible is plain why troubl 
 yourself about technicalities ? Consider the matter care- 
 fully and then read the extract from 1 )r. Abbot's sermon 
 and take sides. 
 
 Plenary inspiration is nonsensical according to my 
 view. 1 thot when I came into contact with the hiddn 
 beings that 1 would be abi to take my pencil and begin 
 shorthand writing and lay some wonderful books before 
 you, but the idea makes nie laf now. You see, it did not 
 work. The book I hav ritn has cost me troubl. "God 
 does not want mediums, "I was told one day, "He warts 
 men." Precisely so, He 4oes riut want machine!?; He 
 
 - V, t 
 
 m 
 
 ■■a: I 
 
 
 
 
 'M 
 
«54 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMFANIONS. 
 
 §A 
 
 ■i'i. 
 
 
 wants free-will agents who think and choose for themselvSj 
 who come to understand certain facts and te!l of them in 
 their own way. "Do not think for a minute," they told 
 me again, **that if you were a medium in our power only, 
 and not in that of your enemies ^s well .hat you would 
 hav an easy life. We would make you do things for 
 Jesus Christ's sake that you shrink from now. " That is 
 just it. The good angels, like the demons, mean business, 
 and look upon our playing as we look upon that of chil- 
 dren. 
 
 "Yoii will add a new book to the Bible," the other side 
 told me. Certainly, and I hav done it. The Bible is be- 
 ing added to every day. Every book publisht with sound 
 views, is in a manner, as this one i:i, a new book added to 
 the Bible, altho that stands alone as recording certain facts. 
 Ar Christians mad? I hav often askt myself. Is God's 
 Holy Spirit not pouring knowledge upon them every 
 day? We ar all inspired. T came to understand certain 
 things during my fight in a way that surprised me, but 
 I aiav told them to yon in my own language. Small mis- 
 takes may hav been made but the main points ar true. 
 So with the Bible, I believ. Christ was crucified in a city 
 of 200,000 inhabitant.s and it was not done in a corner. 
 The men who wrote the records of His life were helpt in 
 their work. They told the truth as it came to them, or 
 as they saw it, in their own way. They wen- not machines 
 or mediums, but, men. ft is God t* wish that we should 
 manage this world ourselvs, but He leadvS us further on 
 as the ages roll past. 
 
 The Sermon on thr Mount, I hhv rfd, was verv likely 
 reported m shorthand ' 
 
 Never mind the f.sshionabl churchianity that is around 
 you. There is a good deal of Christianity in the world 
 yet, and besides, each man has to stand in his (.»wn shoe.? 
 without taking the hypocrisy of c)thers as an excuse for 
 bis* own .infidelity. Judge for yourself. In politics, rcli- 
 
 1¥^ 
 
 *, y,''' 
 
 'f 
 
 
 •* -l £ 
 
 TA-:"*. 
 
 
THE TIME SI'lRll AND KV REVOIR. 
 
 «55 
 
 :>,'■ 
 
 gion, science or anything els get all the information you 
 can on both sides and then form your own judgment. 
 The world is overflowing with lemed fools with college 
 degrees. The most of them grow their eyes among their 
 back hair. J^idge for yourself. 
 
 1 know, whatever others may say, that we ar surround- 
 ed by a great qloud of ^witnesses, the one side trying to 
 rajse us up, the other trying to drag us down. It is likely 
 that Christ walkt thru the world and saw them — that is 
 Dr. Hepworth's opinion, and it seems reasonabl enuf, at 
 least for the years of His ministry, f know that they ar 
 very much in ernest and that we sleep. * Now, then, in 
 view of this fact which is so impressiv to me that many 
 of our littl worries vanish into nothingness, I would like 
 to advise those who ar not of the household of faith to be 
 warned in time, and it not a professumal exorter who 
 givs this advice, but one w.io has not given much of the 
 same kind in p.'ist years. We all get warnings, more or 
 less, and this is another to > ou. 
 
 It is a stranger world thad you think. I wrote all this 
 book in shorthand, but as I went on typewriting it from 
 day to day I sometimes added a few paragrafs. I would 
 write on without looking at my notes, and after I turnd 
 to them 1 would often find that 1 had ritn a hundred 
 words or more almost the same as lay before rue in the 
 shorthand that I had not yet red A few ''f the words 
 might be changed, but the ideas were the saui'r You may 
 say that writing on the same fase of the subject I uncon- 
 sciously chose the same woids, but it lookt strange to me 
 to see the words on the two papers almost the .»ame after 
 lying unred for weeks or n-.onths. Can M. Sarcey's theory 
 explain it? 
 
 There ar dozens and scores of sentences woven in the 
 cours of the narrativ that I receivd from voices, by rit- 
 ing tm the brain, or by telepathy. What does it matter 
 whether they ar of high or low ciuality or no (juality at all.'* 
 
iSh 
 
 OUR UNSKKN ( OMPANIONR. 
 
 ^-'V' 
 t:,.^ 
 
 k:^ 
 
 •>," 
 
 The interesting thinj>- is that they came. From whom? 
 There has been my trou.^1 to decide very often. 
 
 In riting the last chapter, for exam];!, I spoke of their 
 being too much time devoted to pahn waving and twang;- 
 ing of harps, and as an ilhistration T had partly ritn 
 •'We ar something like Sterne, who whined over a 
 ded donkey, and neglected to reliev a living mother, 
 when we go into raptures over the future and neglect our 
 fellow beings. " Then it struck me that altho the illus- 
 tration was good in one sens it was bad in another. It is 
 not exactly right to speak of joyous anticipations of 
 heven in the v^ame breth as whining over a ded donkey. 
 Who suggested the illustration so apt to express my mean- 
 ing in one sens but of such bad odor in another? I know. 
 
 "Their defence of the present condition of affairs is 
 neither more nor less than the outpourings of impudent 
 rascality." Where do you suppo.se the last four words 
 came from? I was thinking over social problems one day 
 and they came on the brain as the French did. For what 
 purpose? Sent by which side? Does it do any good to 
 tell the truth to the millionaires and their educated lack- 
 eys, or is it just as well to smile and let the children die? 
 We know what the truth is. After acceptmg the gospel 
 doctrin ar we supposed to speak out or to hold our tungs? 
 Where do you supp<jse "educated lackeys" came from? 
 It was down before 1 thot of it, but it is true. Doesitdo 
 any good to tell the truth or shall we smile while scound- 
 rels bribe and the children die?. 
 
 (jrand. indeed, will be our destiny if we receiv the 
 Gosp'^l of Christ as littl chileren and liv as He would hav 
 us. If we lay aside this false, intellectual pride which 
 has ever been the bane of the human race, we .shall likely 
 enuf look back over our life on erth after we hav crost the 
 line that separates us from the invisibl world and wonder 
 at our folly in priding ourselves upon the petty scientific; 
 jriiwifs tJjat vJwrni us ,no>v, 
 
 
A 
 
 THF, TrMK SPIRIT AND Al. RKVOIK. 
 
 257 
 
 ■'t-'-v 
 
 How u man can he an agfnostic has always been beyond 
 my comprehen'<ic>n. Napoleon pointed to the stars when his 
 officers wonderd if there was a Goa]. Look up at the stars 
 and be assured that they did not grow of thernselvs any 
 more than you did. 
 
 And now with my opinions imchan^ed on the subject 
 of fashionabi churchianitv, and fashionabl ministers I, 
 like many others, hav to thank that Christianity which 
 to-day keeps our weary old world from becoming' com- 
 pletely rotten. Thebesc Christians ar those who do theij- 
 work in the world and ar seldom herd of, while the honor 
 of en goes to the ecclesiastical flag- wavers, but there is 
 another court of ajipeal where a good many of our judg- 
 ments will be revcrst. 
 
 I hav told the truth in this book. It has all hapend 
 just as T hav described it, altho to tell it fully would 
 take haf a dozen volumes, but it would simply be a repiti- 
 tion of what I hav rei)eated perhaps too ofen with the 
 idea of driving the lesson home. The enemy in our case 
 is not only at the gates, he is within the citidel and he 
 has murder in his hart. 
 
 I hava great many plesant memories of the struggl; it 
 was not all one sided, but it is needless to say that I do 
 not mean to meet my frends again in any other way than 
 God has been pleasd to arrange until we meet face to 
 face, and 1 hav come out of it with the con.sciousness that 
 but for the help we all receiv every hour of our lives, I 
 would be up to the neck again, and that is worth some- 
 thing,— 
 
 " I was not ever thus, nor iiraynd that Thoii 
 
 Shoodet lead me on, 
 I luvd to <3ht/(>8o and see i»iy path ; but now 
 
 Tjead Thou me on. 
 I luvd the garlah day, and, spite of fears 
 
 Prfde ruled my will ; remember not piisl years." 
 
 I had a deep conviction that I wovdd come out of it 
 scard a littl, perhaps, Init still fit for .service, and this 
 
 ''A 
 
 iti 
 
35« 
 
 OUR UNSEKN COMPANIONS. 
 
 held me up. I might as well thank some of our advaiict 
 political economists for the grand conception of God they 
 ar spreading in the world, for if I had not lernt the 
 lesson they taut me I would not hav had the trust in 
 His goodness that comforted me in troubl. The minis- 
 ters ar not the only preachers. They often tell us of a 
 God who givs one man a hundred million dollars and 
 starvs his neighbor, and that conception of God does not 
 commend and never has commended itself to me. The 
 new economists tell us of a (xod who has provided sufficient 
 for all of His children, the just and the unjust, as soon 
 as they will change their laws into harmony with His and 
 do justice. We know in whom we trust ; but it is not the 
 God that some of these men preach, nor in whom some of 
 their women hearers belicv. 
 
 The foregoing paragraf was ritn a week ago, and I 
 had no intention of adding more to the book, but as some 
 critic may still think I hav been speaking too plainly just 
 let me giv the following ed' /rial from the New York 
 * 'World" of July 3rd. I hav red a great many strange state 
 ments of late years, and herd some strange claims made, but 
 such a piece of impudence as Mr. Rockefeller's assertion 
 1 hav never come across. I giv it as an illustration of 
 the kind of God some men believ in. Mr. Rockefeller's 
 welth is sometimes estimated as high as $150,000,000, all 
 " ernd" in a lifetime. And men willing to work often 
 starve! Talk about insanity! 
 
 HEVEN AND TRUvST MONEY. 
 
 "In addressing the Chicago University Mr John D. 
 Rockefeller, one of the chief organizers and beneficia- 
 ries of the Standard Oil Company, made a claim to divine 
 right as bold as any wl ich has been advarict since the 
 great controversy on that subject in the time of Charles I. 
 
 ■,V; - ' ; 
 
 
TitK TIMK SfrklT AND All UKVOIR. 
 
 ^50 
 
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 *God gave me my money and I giv it to the university,' 
 said Mr. Rockefeller. 
 
 " Thi.s is to some a very alluring theory, and it is fre- 
 quently advanct now as it was some hundreds of years 
 ago. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there 
 was at every cross-roads a captain of industry preyii.g on 
 commerce and taking forct loans from trade, and out of 
 the vast estates thus accumulated hospitals, monasteries 
 and churches were built as a means of sanctifying the 
 sistem and establishing its divine right to exist. 
 
 "If Mr. Rockefeller has from $20,000,000 to $100,000,- 
 000 that he has not ernd, every newspaper reader in the 
 country knows that it is not the gift of Heven, but that 
 it came thru the Standard Oil Trust, one of the most un- 
 scrupulous and rapacious mon )polies ever organized. It 
 hasbot conventions, corrupted courts, bribed lej;nslatures 
 and done more to demoralize American politics than any 
 other singl agency. Its princi])les ar depraved, its priac- 
 tices degrading, its success shameful, its impudence col- 
 lossal. 
 
 " But no amount of impudence will ever convince any 
 sensibl person that it is either the business partner or the 
 beneficiary of God. Mr. Rockefeller must find a more 
 plausibl ihaoTy if he wishes sane peopl to listn to 
 him. " _ . , 
 
 Yet, the theory is advanct from not a few pulpits. 
 
 There ar thick skuld ministers in this country on their 
 knees before this 'nan. He builds churches, and that is 
 enuf. If you want to know what the Trust he controls 
 has done read Henry I). Lloyd's book, "Welth against 
 Commonwelth. " The oil he sells flows freely in rivers 
 from the bosom of the erth. God has givn us such mai- 
 vtlous natural riches that it seems almost unnecessary to 
 piay for our daily bred, and yet thousands stai v. Did He 
 giv Mr. Rockefeller a title deed to the oil? Or is it your 
 laws thai ar at fault? God will help us, I believ, but He 
 
 
^^ 
 
 200 
 
 OUR L'NSKEN COMPANIONS 
 
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 has no favorits and it is not my belief thai He makes 
 millionaires. He seems to believ in equality among^ His 
 children. He did not want the Israelites to choose aking, 
 nor does He want the Americans. Oil kings ar not made 
 by (xod, but by fools republican and fools democratic. 
 
 The retail price of the oil that Mr. Rochefeller sells 
 rose from 10 cents a gallon to 18 in a singl week last year. 
 Who gave the order for the rise in price? It is the old 
 story of taxation without representation. 
 
 " The luv of exercising power has been found to be so 
 universal," says Buckle in his " History of Civilization," 
 "that i.o clfi!^" of men who hav possest authority hav 
 been abl to avoid abusing it." 
 
 And yet there ar thousands and tens ot thousands of 
 ignoramuses on this continent who believ that becaus 
 the name of kingly power has ])ecn done away with that 
 the thing itself does not exist. 
 
 " You cannot find any yung Americans now," said a 
 European professor, ''with any .self-sacrificing enthu- 
 vsiasm. All they care for is to make money." 
 
 That is carrying it too far, but what kind of yung men 
 and w^omen li.send to Mr. Rockefeller? Woe is me! 
 Ichabod, Ichabod, the glory is departed. The poor, 
 fooli.sh yung creatures .should hav interrupted the poor, 
 foolish man and told him gently that he was far astray in 
 his conception of God. He worships a supreme tyrant 
 insted of a God of luv. 
 
 It is lafabl too. No wonder they disch.Tgd one of the 
 professors of political economy at the Chicago University 
 a 5'ear ago. He was guilty of telling un^.^lesant truths. 
 He v/as rash enuf to condemn the foul system we liv 
 under. He told of a God of luv, not a demon. He spoke 
 of a sistem which would help men to take better care of 
 themselvs, save thousands from starvation and destroy 
 the power of Satan, and that doctrin is not popular among 
 those peopl to whom the demon they worship has given 
 
THE TIME SPIRIT AND \U REVOIR. 
 
 26 
 
 M 
 
 
 tens of tiiillions wrun|4 from starving laborers. But God 
 makes the greed of men to praise Him and the sistem 
 will yet be changed. 
 
 And when I think of those starving, shoeleiis men fight- 
 ing to the deth for a principl, in the depths of winter at 
 Valley Forge, and then think of the toadying to welth on 
 the part of those who to-day sit secure thru their great 
 sacrifice, their patient endurance, I wonder what some 
 of our Mayflower gentlmen mean. But they lisnd to him 
 ?md wisht they were in his shoes. Doing great good! A 
 man clearly blest by the demon! What a conception of 
 God men and women hav! And we speak of sending mis- 
 sionaries to the Sandwich Islands! Keep the good men at 
 home for a week or two for they ar sadly needed. "These 
 plutocrats," said Bishop Potter some years ago, '< ar the 
 enemies of religion as they ar of the state." 
 
 • O, Kerosene Johnnie, Kerosene Johnnie, it's all so funny 
 and so tragic too, for littl as you thot it, I am afraid that 
 you stood upon that platform as the mouthpiece of Satan 
 who is the enemy of God. 
 
 Off with his crown ! vSo much for Buckingham Rocke- 
 feller, alias Kerosene Johnnie. 
 
 It may pleas you to lern that your sincere cousin, 
 Sancho Quixote, who does not believ in lucky numbers, 
 days and dates, has finisht this book of his on a Thursday 
 in deference to your prejudices. You were doubtless 
 afraid that he might run it over to Friday and cast a spell 
 over you, but he is merciful, and knows you too well to 
 attempt it. 
 
 •' I dare say," writes William Makepeace Thackeray in 
 one of his essays, "I dare say the reader has remarkt 
 that the upright and independent vowel which stands in 
 the vowel list between E and O has formed the subject of 
 the main part of these essays. " 
 
 Sancho Quixote dares say that his readers hav remarkt 
 the same littl failing, but what was to be done ? He has 
 
 I 
 
 if-' ;, 
 
»(n 
 
 OUR UN-iEKN COMPANtONS. 
 
 
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 ri 
 
 
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 been among folks who speak strait to the point and ai 
 somewhat indelicate, and he may hav fallen into bad cus- 
 toms. But, after r.ll, how would •* the present riter '' 
 style hav dorc ? or '*the one who is riting these pages?" 
 It would not hav sounded like your cousin Sancho at all. 
 Let it go as -.t is and be glad that we hav got to the end 
 of it together, for Sancho's conscience troubld him until 
 it was ritn. The style is not just what it might be, but 
 he has ofen, been glad to get thru it in any fashion, as he 
 sometimes wonderd if he had any business going over 
 the old ground insted of keeping his mind on something 
 els, so let go and some day — I 
 
 And new your cousin Sancho Quixote says au revoir to 
 you in a cheerful kind of a way. He has been spreding 
 ideas and that is the business you ar engaged in. Vhe 
 favorit copy-book maxim he likes ij " Envy no man, " lor 
 woman either, for that matter, and he manages to liv up 
 to it fairly well. 
 
 They sometimes askt him in the stormy days, in a jeer- 
 ing kind of a way, in order that he might contrast his 
 misery with the happiness of others, whether, if the thing 
 were possibl, he would not change places with so and so, 
 but he always declined to entertain the idea. "Which 
 highest mortal, in this inane .'Existence, had I not found 
 a Shadow hunter, or Shadow hunted, and when I lookt 
 thru his brave garnitures miserabl enuf ? Thy wishes hav 
 all been ynift aside, thot I, bat what had they even been 
 all granted ? Did not the boy Alexander weep becaus 
 he had nor. two planets to conquer or a hole solar system, 
 or after that a hole univers ?" 
 
 Each one of us, millionaire or pauper, has to fight his 
 cwn batl, and Sancho's lin**'' hav, take it all thru, been 
 cast in fairly plesant places. His chief worry comes from 
 seeing thousands and tens of thousands of human beings 
 UvSed for manure to foster the growth of the rich and 
 selfish, and he believs that trubl is bound to come of it. 
 
 
THE TIME SPIRIT AND AV REVOIR. 
 
 263 
 
 America is not, as some seem to imagiu, exempt from 
 universal law, and God is greater than the plutocrats. He 
 is no respecter of persons. Free silver ten times over 
 will not help the class I speak of, and there will be savage 
 .injustice even altho you had prohibition ten times over, 
 as well, unless you make some other changes in your 
 laws. 
 
 Here is what a man rote lately of the poor of London 
 and it applies just as well to the poor of America, — 
 
 ?;•;■ 
 
 " Almighty Qod, whose Justice, like a sun. 
 
 Shall coruscate along the floors of heven ; 
 Halsing what's low. perfeutingr what's undone. 
 
 Breaking the proud, and making odd things erea. 
 The poor of Jesus Christ along the street 
 
 In your rain sodden, in your snows unshod. 
 They bav no herth, nor roof, nor daily meat, « 
 
 Nor even the bred of man. Almighty Qod. 
 
 " The poor of Jesus Ohrisb, whom no man hears, 
 Hav oalid upon your vengenoe much too long. 
 Wipe out not tears, but blood; our eyes bleed tears; 
 Cnrae, smite our damned soflstrles eo strong. 
 That thy rude hammer battering this rude rong. 
 Ring down the abyss of twice tea thousand years." ,. 
 
 — HiLAina niLLOC. 
 
 God is luv, but don't forget that He luvs those who hav 
 been crusht down thru the accursed system some of His 
 prominent Christians defend as they defended black slav- 
 ery. Don't forget the next time you take up your daily 
 newspapers and read the usual ''smart" jokes ov.er "Weary 
 Waggl ," "Dusty Rhodes," and the others, that it is per- 
 haps possibl to carry things too far. You say that they 
 deserv it, and so on, but you lie and in your inmost hart 
 you know it. Perhaps we ar going just the least bit too 
 far in our treatment of the submerged tenth. They re- 
 fused to take warning in France and we know what came 
 of it. The evil spirits ar around us here as well as they 
 were around the French peopl there. God is Itiv, but 
 
264 
 
 olfK t'NSr.EN COMPANIONS. 
 
 I';.' 
 
 just remember (.hut He is justiee loo. Oun'tslop over 
 ill your discou'.ses about hi v. Let us hear a few on jus- 
 tice for a chiitijife. Justice in social l;nvs, I mean, where- 
 by a man. will come to understand the "luv" you 
 preach. • 
 
 A book of this kind is sometimes necessary, but justice 
 bcins: attended to, preach luv and not dred. Only as my 
 mind became fixt on the idea of a God of luv who would 
 take care of me for the best, no matter what hapend, 
 did I become strong- enuf to endure, and I see to-day, 
 that (jiily as we teach luv will we be successful. Angels 
 teach luv; demons teach dred, *'and they mag-nify His 
 strictness witii a zeal He will n(.»tuwn.'" 
 
 And now let me conclude with some words from Ed- 
 ward Everett Hale. They stiffend my backbone when it 
 needed some strength and as ideas rule the world they 
 may help you. ''Not a Christian?" "I'm sorry for it," 
 quoth my uncle Toby Quixote. Bui luv is the cardinal 
 doctrin of Christianity and thru that doctrin alone we 
 shall conquer. But, in case you hav alredy forgotten it, 
 •the man who denies justice does not know what hiv 
 means. Luv is God, Justice is only one of His attri- 
 butes, and yet many Christians to-day bitterly oppose 
 justice wnile they whine about luv. But here is the con- 
 cluding paragraf : 
 
 "You ar a prince of the blood. You ar a son, beloved, 
 of the Almighty Power who rules this world and carries 
 it on today. You can rule body and mind with an abso- 
 lute control if you choose. If you wish and choose you 
 will be in absolute confidence with your Father and in 
 the closest relations with Him. Tel! Him everything 
 and take advice in all diffciilties. Thank Him in all 
 successes and go back to Him in all failures. You 
 will use His Almighty Power then, for the sway of 
 mind and body. You will be a fellow workman with 
 Him." Au REvoik. 
 
 .11 \i 
 
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 TO THF, RKEDER. 
 
 365 
 
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 TO THE RRRDER: . 
 
 If you like the speling in this book adopt it yourself 
 without waiting for either the mosbaks or the milenium; 
 if you think the book is wurth reeding tell your naibor 
 about it, as I want to sell 50,000 copies in the United 
 States alone, not to mention Europe. "Pour vaincre les 
 editeurs, pour les atterer que faut-H? DeTaudace, encore 
 de Taudace et toujours de i'auuacer' 
 
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