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IN THE 
 
 3PI1^IT LAffD3. 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANOHEZZO. 
 
 TRANSCRIBED BY A. FARNESE. 
 
 Oh, Star of Hope, that shines to bless 
 The Wanderer hrough Lite's Wilderness! 
 Angels of Love— say are ye come 
 To lead the Weary Wanderer home? 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 
 THE PROGRESSIVE THINKER PUBLISHING HOUSE, 
 
 1901. 
 
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preface b£ tbe {Transcriber, 
 
 The following narrative was written more than a year 
 ago, and in giving it to the public I do not claim to be its 
 author, since I have only acted the part of an amanuensis 
 and endeavored to write down as truthfully and as care- 
 fully as I could, the words given to me by the Spirit 
 Author himself, who is one of several spirits who have de- 
 sired me to write down for them their experiences in the 
 spirit world. 
 
 I have had to write the words as fast as my pen could 
 travel over the paper, and many of the experiences de- 
 scribed and opinions advanced are quite contrary to what 
 I myself believed to be in accordance with the conditions 
 of life in the world of spirits. 
 
 The Spirit Author Franchezzo I have frequently seen 
 materialized, and he has been recognized on these occa- 
 sions by friends who knew him in earth life. 
 
 Having given the narrative to the public as I received 
 it from the Spirit Author, I must leave with him all re- 
 sponsibility' for the opinions expressed and the scenes de- 
 scribed. A. FAKNESE. 
 London, 1896. 
 
 103 
 
Dedication t>£ tbe Hutbor. 
 
 To those who toil still in the mists and darkness of 
 uncertainty which veil the future of their earthly lives, I 
 dedicate this record of the Wanderings of one who has 
 passed from earth life into the hidden mysteries of the 
 Life Beyond, in the hope that through my experiences 
 now given to the world, some may he induced to pause in 
 their downward career and think ere they pass from the 
 mortal life, as I did, with all their unrepented sins thick 
 upon them. 
 
 It is to those of my brethren who are treading fast 
 upon the downward path, that I would fain hope to speak, 
 with the power which Truth ever has over those who do 
 not blindly seek to shut it out; for if the after conse- 
 quences of a life spent in dissipation and selfishness are 
 often terrible even during the earth-life, they are doubly 
 so in the Spirit AVorld, where all disguise is stripped from 
 the soul, and it stands forth in all the naked hideousness 
 of its sins, with the scars of the spiritual disease contracted 
 in its earthly life stamped upon its spirit form — never to 
 be effaced but by the healing power of sincere repentance 
 and the cleansing waters of its own sorrowful tears. 
 
 I now ask these dwellers upon earth to believe that if 
 these weary wanderers of the other life can return to warn 
 their brothers yet on earth, they are eager to do so. I 
 would have them to understand that spirits who material- 
 ize have a higher mission to perform than even the solac- 
 ing of those who mourn in deep affliction for the beloved 
 they have lost. I would have them to look and see that 
 now even at the eleventh hour of man's pride and sin, 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 these spirit wanderers are permitted by the Great Supreme 
 to go back and tell them the fate of all who outrage the 
 laws of God and man. I would have even the idle and 
 frivolous to pause and think whether Spiritualism be not 
 something higher, holier, nobler, than the passing of an 
 idle hour in speculations as to whether there are occult 
 forces which can move a table or rap out the Alphabet, 
 and whether it is not possible that these feeble raps and 
 apparently unmeaning tips and tilts of a table arc but the 
 opening doors through which a flood of light is being let 
 in upon the dark places of earth and of the Nether World 
 — faint signs that those who have gone before do now re- 
 turn to earth to warn their brethren. 
 
 As a warrior who has fought and conquered I look 
 back upon the scenes of those battles and the toils through 
 -which I have passed, and I feel that all has been cheaply 
 won — all has been gained for which I hoped and strove, 
 and I seek now but to point out the Better "Way to others 
 who are yet in the storm and stress of battle, that they may 
 use the invaluable time given to them upon earth to enter 
 upon and follow with unfaltering step the Shining Path 
 which shall lead them home to Eest and Peace at last. 
 
 FRANCHEZZO. 
 
Zbe ffmblieber's preface. 
 
 "A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands" is a remarkable book, 
 full of interest throughout. It was written in England 
 by Spirit Franchezzo, through the mediumship of A. 
 Farnese. We obtained Mr. Farnese's premission to re- 
 publish it in this country, and we take great pleasure in 
 adding it to our list of valuable premiums. This work de- 
 tails minutely the efforts of one who had led a sinful, self- 
 ish life on earth, to redeem himself in the Spirit realms. 
 Every Spiritualist should read it. It portrays in vivid 
 language a great moral lesson, and shows the baneful ef- 
 fects of wrong-doing, and the suffering and tribulation 
 that follow. In presenting this book to Spiritualists we 
 feel that we are enabling them to become familiar with 
 those spirits who have led on earth a selfish or licentious 
 life, and whose suffering must be great before they are 
 able to see the light that betokens a happier existence. 
 
 The controlling spirit, Franchezzo, has found it exceed- 
 ingly difficult to describe the spiritual scenes and expe- 
 riences through which he passed, in the language common 
 to earth; but the reader must bear in mind that the spirit 
 realms are as real to the spirit as anything on earth is to 
 the mortal, hence descriptions in many cases when re- 
 ferring to anything in spirit life, must necessarily be some- 
 what from a material standpoint. We are sure that this 
 book will be read with deep interest and lasting benefit. 
 It is certainly a very valuable acquisition to our list of 
 premiums. J. R. FRANCIS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 page 
 Preface by Transcriber. 
 Dedication by Author. 
 
 Part I. Days of Darkness. 
 
 CHAPTER L— My Death 1 
 
 CHAPTER II.— Despair 6 
 
 CHAPTER III.— Hope— Wanderings on the Earth 
 
 Plane — A Door of Spiritual Sight 11 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— The Brotherhood of Hope 25 
 
 CHAPTER V.— Spirits of the Earth Plane 33 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— Twilight Lands— Love's Gifts--The 
 Valley of Selfishness — The Country of 
 Unrest — The Miser's Land — The Gam- 
 bler's Land 39 
 
 CHAPTER VIL— The Story of Raoul 47 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— Temptation 52 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— The Frozen Land— The Caverns of 
 
 Slumber 5G 
 
 CHAPTER X.— My Home in the Twilight Lands- 
 Communion Between the Living and the 
 
 Dead G3 
 
 CHAPTER XL— Ahrinziman 71 
 
 CHAPTER XII.— My Second Death 75 
 
 Part II. The Dawn of Light. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— Welcome in the Land of Dawn— 
 
 My New Home There 79 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— A Father's Love 86 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— A New Expedition Proposed. ... 88 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE XYL— Clairvoyance — The Journey 
 
 Begun 92 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII.— The Astral Plane and Its Inhab- 
 itants — Spooks, Elves, Vampires, etc. . . . 97 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII.— The Approach to Hell 116 
 
 Part III. The Kingdoms of Hell. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX.— Through the Wall of Fire 121 
 
 CHAPTEE XX.— The Imperial City 129 
 
 CHAPTER XXL— The Fires of Hell— A Vengeful 
 Spirit — Pirates — The Sea of Foul Mud — 
 The Mountains of Selfish Oppression — 
 The Forest of Desolation — Messages of 
 
 Love 137 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIL— Amusements in a Great City of 
 
 Hell — Words of Caution 163 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIIL— The Palace of My Ancestors- 
 False Brothers Baffled ITT 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV.— The Story of Benedetto— Plot- 
 ters Again Baffled 187 
 
 CHAPTEE XXV*:— A Pitched Battle in Hell 198 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVL— Farewell to the Dark Land. . . .204 
 
 Part IV. Through the Gates of Gold. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIL— Welcome on Our Eeturn— A 
 Magic Mirror — Work in the Cities of 
 Earth— The Land of Eemorse— The Val- 
 ley of Phantom Mists — A Home of Eest. .211 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII.— My Home and Work in the 
 
 Morning Land 230 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX.— The Formation of Planets. . . .234 
 
 CHAPTER XXX.— Materialization of Spirits 213 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXI.— Why the Spheres Are Invisible 
 
 — Spirit Photographs 252 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXII.— Through the Gates of Gold— 
 My Mother — My Home in the Land of 
 Bright Day — I Am Joined by Benedetto. .257 
 CHAPTEE XXXIII.— Mv Vision of the Spheres.. 269 
 CHAPTEE XXXIV.— Conclusion 278 
 
PART I. 
 
 2>a\>s of ^Darkness* 
 
UNi 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Ba\>$ of Bareness. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I have been a Wanderer through a far country, in 
 those lands that have no name — no place — for you of 
 earth, and I would set down as briefly as I can my wander- 
 ings, that those whose feet are pointed to that bourn may 
 know what may in their turn await them. 
 
 On earth and in my life of earth I lived as those do 
 who seek only how the highest point of self gratification 
 can be reached. If I was not unkind to some — if I was 
 indulgent to those I loved — yet it was ever with the feel- 
 ing that they in return must minister to my gratification 
 — that from them I might purchase by my gifts and my 
 affection the love and homage which was as my life to me. 
 
 I was talented, highly gifted both in mind and per- 
 son, and from my earliest years the praise of others was 
 ever given to me, and was ever my sweetest incense. No 
 thought ever came to me of that all self-sacrificing love 
 which can sink itself so completely in the love for others 
 that there is no thought, no hope of happiness, but in se- 
 curing the happiness of the beloved ones. In all my 
 life, and amongst all those women whom I loved (as men 
 of earth too often miscall that which is but a passion too 
 low and base to be dignified by the name of love), amongst 
 all those women who from time to time captivated my 
 fancy, there was not one who ever appealed to my higher 
 nature sufficiently to make me feel this was true love, this 
 
2 A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 the ideal for which in secret I sighed. In everyone I 
 •'oiukI something to disappoint me. They loved me as I 
 loved them — no more, no less. The passion I gave won 
 but its counterpart from them, and thus I passed on un- 
 satisfied, longing for I knew not what. 
 
 Mistakes I made — ah! how many. Sins I committed 
 — not a few; yet the world was often at my feet to praise 
 me and call me good, and noble, and gifted. I was feted 
 — caressed — the spoilt darling of the dames of fashion. I 
 had but to woo to win, and when I won all turned to bit- 
 ter ashes in my teeth. And then there came a time upon 
 which I shall not dwell, when I made the most fatal mis- 
 take of all and spoilt two lives where I had wrecked but 
 one before. It was not a golden flowery wreath of roses 
 that I wore, but a bitter chain — fetters as of iron that 
 K galled and bruised me till at last I snapped them asunder 
 and walked forth free. Free? — ah, me! Never again 
 should I be free, for never for one moment can our past 
 errors and mistakes cease to dog our footsteps and clog 
 our wings while we live — aye, and after the life of the 
 body is ended— till one by one we have atoned for them, 
 and thus blotted them from our past. 
 
 And then it was — when I deemed myself secure from 
 all love — when I thought I had learned all that love could 
 teach — knew all that woman had to give — that I met one 
 woman. Ah! what shall I call her? She was more than 
 mortal woman in my eyes, and I called her "The Good 
 Angel of My Life," and from the first moment that I knew 
 her I bowed clown at her feet and gave her all the love 
 of my sovd — of my higher self — a love that was poor and 
 selfish when compared to what it should have been, but it 
 w r as all I had to give, and I gave it all. For the first time 
 in my life I thought of another more than of myself, and 
 though I could not rise to the pure thoughts, the bright 
 fancies that filled her soul, I thank God I never yielded to 
 the temptation to drag her down to me. 
 
 And so time went on — I sunned myself in her sweet 
 presence — I grew in holy thoughts that I deemed had left 
 me for ever — I dreamed sweet dreams in which I was 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 3 
 
 freed from those chains to my past that held me so cru- 
 elly, so hardly, now when I sought for better things. And 
 from my dreams I ever woke to the fear that another 
 might win her from me — and to the knowledge that I, 
 alas! had not the right to say one word to hold her back. 
 Ah, me! The bitterness and the suffering of those days! 
 I knew it was myself alone who had built that wall be- 
 tween us. I felt that I was not fit to touch her, soiled as 
 I was in the world's ways. How could I dare to take that 
 innocent, pure life and link it to my own? At times hope 
 would whisper it might be so, but reason said ever, "No!" 
 And though she was so kind, so tender to me that I read 
 the innocent secret of her love, I knew — I felt — that on 
 earth she never would be mine. Her purity and her 
 truth raised between us a barrier I could never pass. I 
 tried to leave her. In vain! As a magnet is drawn to 
 the pole, so was I ever drawn back to her, till at last I 
 struggled no more. I strove only to enjoy the happiness 
 that her presence gave — happy that at least the pleasure 
 and the sunshine of her presence was not denied me. 
 
 And then! Ah! then there came for me an awful, an 
 unexpected day, when with no warning, no sign to awaken 
 me to my positional was suddenly snatched from life and 
 plunged into that gulf, that death of the body which 
 awaits us all. 
 
 And I knew not that I had died. I passed from 
 some hours of suffering and agony into sleep — deep, 
 dreamless sleep — and when I awoke it was to find myself 
 alone and in total darkness. I could rise; I could move; 
 surely I was better. But where was I? Why this dark- 
 ness? Why was no light left with me? I arose and 
 groped as one does in a dark room, but I could find no 
 light, hear no sound. There was nothing but the still- 
 ness, the darkness of death around me. 
 
 Then I thought I would walk forward and find the 
 door. I could move, though slowly and feebly, and I 
 groped on — for how long I know not. It seemed hours, 
 for in my growing horror and dismay I felt I must find 
 some one — some way out of this place; and to my despair 
 
4 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 I seemed never lo tind any door, any wall, anything. All 
 seemed space and darkness round me. 
 
 Overcome at last, I called out aloud! I shrieked, and 
 no voice answered me. Then again and again I called, 
 and still the silence; still no echo, even from my own 
 voice, came back to cheer me. I bethought me of her I 
 loved, but something made me shrink from uttering her 
 name there. Then I thought of all the friends I had 
 known, and I called on them, but none answered me. 
 Was I in prison? No. A prison has walls and this place 
 had none. Was I mad? Delirious? What? I could 
 feel myself, my body. It was the same. Surely the 
 same? No. There was some change in me. I could not 
 tell what, but I felt as though I was shrunken and de- 
 formed? My features, when I passed my hand over 
 them, seemed larger, coarser, distorted surely? Oh, for a 
 light! Oh, for anything to tell me even the worst that 
 could be told! Would no one come? Was I quite alone? 
 And she, my angel of light, oh! where was she? Before 
 my sleep she had been with me — where was she now? 
 Something seemed to snap in my brain and in my throat 
 and I called wildly to her by name, to come to me, if but 
 for once more. I felt a terrible sense as if I had lost her, 
 and I called and called to her wildly; and for the first time 
 my voice had a sound and rang back to me through that 
 awful darkness. 
 
 Before me, far, far away, came a tiny speck of light 
 like a star that grew and grew and came nearer and nearer 
 till at last it appeared before me as a large ball of light, in 
 shape like a star, and in the star I saw my beloved. Her 
 eyes were closed as of one in sleep, but her arms were held 
 out to me and her gentle voice said in those tones I knew 
 so well, "Oh! my love, my love, where are you now; I can- 
 not see you, I only hear your voice; I only hear you call to 
 me, and my soul answers to yours." 
 
 I tried to rush to her, but I could not. Some invisible 
 force held me back, and around her seemed a ring I could 
 not pass through. In an agony I sank to the ground, 
 calling upon her to leave me no more. Then she seemed 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 5 
 
 to grow unconscious; her head sank upon her breast, and 
 I saw her float away from me as though some strong arms 
 had borne her. 1 sought to rise and follow her, but 
 could not. It was as if a great chain held me fast, and 
 after some fruitless struggles I sank upon the ground in 
 unconsciousness. 
 
 When I awoke again I was overjoyed to see that my 
 beloved one had returned to me. She was standing near, 
 looking this time as I had seen her on earth, but pale and 
 sad and all dressed in black. The star was gone, and all 
 around was darkness; yet not utter darkness, since around 
 her was a pale, faint glow of light by which I could see 
 she carried flowers — white flowers — in her hands. She 
 stooped over a long low mound of fresh earth. I drew 
 nearer and nearer and saw that she was silently weeping 
 as she laid down the flowers on that low mound. Her 
 voice murmured softly, "Oh, my love! Oh. my love, will 
 you never come back to me? Can you be indeed dead, 
 and gone where my love cannot follow you? Where you 
 can hear my voice no more? My love! Oh, my dear 
 love!" 
 
 She was kneeling down now. and I drew near, very 
 near, though I could not touch her, and as I knelt down 
 I, too, looked at that long low mound. A shock of horror 
 passed over me, for I knew now, at last, that I was dead, 
 and this was my own grave. 
 
A WANDEKEK IN THE SPIKIT LAXDS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "Dead! Dead!"' I wildly cried. "Oh, no, surely no! 
 For the dead feel nothing more; they turn to dust; they 
 moulder to decay, and all is gone, ail is lost to them; they 
 have no more consciousness of anything, unless, indeed, 
 my boasted philosophy of life has been ail wrong, all false, 
 and the soul of the dead still lives even though the body 
 decays." 
 
 The priests of my own church had taught me so, but 
 I had scorned them as fools, blind and knavish, who for 
 their own ends taught that men lived again and could 
 only get to heaven through a gate, of which they held the 
 keys, keys that turned only for gold and at the bidding of 
 those who were paid to say masses for the departed soul — 
 priests who made dupes of silly frightened women and 
 weak-minded men who, yielding to the terror inspired by 
 their awful tales of hell and purgatory, gave themselves, 
 bodies and souls, to purchase the illusive privilege they 
 promised. I would have none of them. My knowledge 
 of these priests and the inner hidden lives of many of 
 them had been too great for me to listen to their idle tales, 
 their empty promises of a pardon they could not give, and 
 I had said I would face death when it came, with the 
 courage of those who know only that for them it must 
 mean total extinction; for if these priests were wrong, 
 who was right? Who could tell us anything of the 
 future, or if there were any God at all? Not the living, 
 for they but theorize and guess, and not the dead, for 
 none came back from them to tell; and now I stood beside 
 this grave — my own grave — and heard my beloved call 
 me dead and strew flowers upon it. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 7 
 
 As I looked the solid mound grew transparent before 
 my eyes, and I saw down to the coffin with my own name 
 and the date of my death upon it; and through the coffin 
 I saw the white still form I knew as myself lying within. 
 I sawto my horror that this body had already begun to 
 decay and become a loathsome thing to look upon. Its 
 beauty was gone, its features soon none would recognize; 
 and I stood there, conscious, looking down upon it and 
 then at myself. I felt each limb, traced out with my 
 hands each familiar feature of my face, and knew I was 
 dead, and yet I lived. If this were death, then those 
 priests must have been right after all. The dead lived — 
 but where? In what state? Was this darkness hell? 
 For me they would have found no other place. I was so 
 lost, so beyond the pale of their church that for me they 
 would not have found a place even in purgatory. 
 
 I had cast off all ties to their church. I had so 
 scorned it, deeming that a church which knew of, and yet 
 tolerated, the shameful and ambitious lives of many of its 
 most honored dignitaries had no claim to call itself a 
 spiritual guide for anyone. There were good men in the 
 church; true, but there was also this mass of shameless 
 evil ones whose lives were common talk, common matter 
 of ridicule; yet the church that claimed to be the example 
 to all men and to hold all truth, did not cast out these 
 men of disgraceful lives. No, she advanced them to yet 
 higher posts of honor. None who have lived in my native 
 land and seen the terrible abuses of power in her church 
 will wonder that a nation should rise and seek to cast off 
 such a yoke. Those who can recall the social and political 
 condition of Italy in the earlier half of this century, and 
 the part the church of Rome played in helping the 
 oppressor to rivet the fetters with which she was bound, 
 and who know how her domestic life was honeycombed 
 with spies — priests as well as laymen — till a man feared to 
 whisper his true sentiments to his nearest and dearest lest 
 she should betray him to the priest and he again to the 
 government — how the dungeons were crowded with un- 
 happy men, yea, even with mere lads guilty of no crime 
 
8 A WA \ DEREK IN Til E SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 save love of their native land and hatred of its oppres- 
 sors — those, I say, who know all this will not wonder at 
 the fierce indignation and burning passion which smoul- 
 dered in the breast of Italia's sons, and burst at last into 
 a conflagration which consumed man's faith in Go.d and 
 in his so-called Vicar upon earth, and like a mountain 
 torrent that has buret its bounds, swept away men's hopes 
 of immortality, if only through submission to the decrees 
 of the church it was to be obtained. Such, then, had 
 been my attitude of revolt and scorn towards the church 
 in which I had been baptized, and that church could have 
 no place within her pale for me. If her anathemas could 
 send a soul to hell surely I must be there. 
 
 And yet as I thought thus I looked again upon my 
 beloved, and I thought she could never have come to hell 
 even to look for me. She seemed mortal enough, and if 
 she knelt by my grave surely I must be still upon earth. 
 Did the dead then never leave the earth at all, but hover 
 near the scenes of their earthly lives? With such and 
 many similar thoughts crowding through my brain I 
 strove to get nearer to her I so loved, but found I could 
 not. An invisible barrier seemed to surround her and 
 keep me back. I could move on either side of her as I 
 pleased — nearer or farther — but her I could not touch. 
 Vain were all my efforts. Then I spoke; I called to her 
 by name. I told her that I was there; that I was still 
 conscious, still the same, though I was dead; and she 
 never seemed to hear — she never saw me. She still wept 
 sadly and silently; still tenderly touched the flowers, 
 murmuring to herself that I had so loved flowers, surely 
 I would know that she had put them there for me. Again 
 and again I spoke to her as loudly as I could, but she 
 heard me not. She was deaf to my voice. She only 
 moved uneasily and passed her hand over her head as one 
 in a dream, and then slowly and sadly she went away. 
 
 I strove with all my might to follow her. In vain. 
 I could go but a few yards from the grave and my earthly 
 body, and then I saw why. A chain as of dark silk 
 thread — it seemed no thicker than a spider's web — held 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 9 
 
 me to my body; no power of mine could break it; as I 
 moved it stretched like elastic, but always drew me back 
 again. Worst of all I began now to be conscious of feeling 
 the corruption of that decaying body affecting my spirit, 
 as a limb that has become poisoned affects with suffering 
 the whole body on earth, and a fresh horror filled my soul. 
 
 Then a voice as of some majestic being spoke to me 
 in the darkness, and said: "You loved that body more 
 than your soul. Watch it now as it turns to dust and 
 know what it was that you so worshiped, and ministered 
 and clung to. Know how perishable it was, how r vile it 
 has become, and look upon your spirit body and see how 
 you have starved and cramped and neglected it for the 
 sake of the enjoyments of the earthly body. Behold how 
 poor and repulsive and deformed your earthly life has 
 made your soul, which is immortal and divine and to 
 endure forever." 
 
 And I looked and beheld myself. As in a mirror 
 held up before me, I saw myself. Oh, horror! It was 
 beyond doubt myself, but, oh! so awfully changed, so vile, 
 so full of baseness did I appear; so repulsive in every fea- 
 ture — even my figure was deformed — I shrank back in 
 horror at my appearance, and prayed that the earth might 
 open before my feet and hide me from all eyes for ever- 
 more. Ah! never again would I call upon my love, never 
 more desire that she should see me. Better, far better, 
 that she should think of me as dead and gone from her 
 forever; better that she should have only the memory of 
 me as I had been in earthly life than ever know how awful 
 was the change, how horrible a thing was my real self. 
 
 Alas! Alas! My despair, my anguish was extreme, 
 and I called out wildly and struck myself and tore my hair 
 in wild and passionate horror of myself, and then my 
 passion exhausted me and I sank senseless and uncon- 
 scious of all once more. 
 
 Again I waked, and again it was the presence of my 
 love that awaked me. She had brought more flowers, and 
 she murmured more soft tender thoughts of me as. she 
 
10 A WANDEEEB liN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 laid them on my grave. But I did not seek now to make 
 her see me. Mo, 1 shrank back and sought to hide myself, 
 and my heart grew hard even to her, and I said: "Bather 
 let her weep for the one who has gone than know that he 
 still lives," so 1 let her go. And as soon as she was gone, 
 1 called frantically to her to come back, to come back in 
 any way, to any knowledge of my awi'ul position, rather 
 than leave me in that place to see her no more. She did 
 not hear, but she felt my call, and afar off 1 saw her stop 
 and ball' turn round as though to return, then she passed 
 on again and left me. Twice, three times she came again, 
 and each time when she came I felt the same shrinking 
 from approaching her, and each time when she left 1 felt 
 the same wild longing to bring her back and keep her near 
 me. But I called to her no more for 1 knew the dead call 
 in vain, the living hear them not. And to all the world 
 I was dead, and only to myself and to my awful fate was 
 I alive. Ah! now I knew death was no endless sleep, no 
 calm oblivion. Better, far better had it been so, and in 
 my despair I prayed that this total oblivion might be 
 granted to me, and as I prayed I knew it never could, for 
 man is an immortal soul, and for good or evil, weal or woe, 
 lives on eternally. His earthly form decays and turns to 
 dust, but the spirit, which is the true man, knows no 
 decay, no oblivion. 
 
 Each day — for I felt that days were passing over 
 me — my mind awoke more and more, and I saw clearer 
 and clearer the events of my life pass in a long procession 
 before me — dim at first, then by degrees growing stronger 
 and clearer, and I bowed my head in anguish, helpless, 
 hopeless anguish, for I felt it must be too late now to 
 undo one single act. 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 11 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I know not how long this lasted; it seemed a long, 
 long time to me. I was sitting wrapped still in my 
 despair when I heard a voice gentle and soft calling to 
 me— the voice of my beloved — and I felt compelled to rise 
 and follow that voice till it should lead me to her; and as 
 I rose to go the thread which had so bound me seemed to 
 stretch and stretch till I scarce felt its pressure, and I was 
 drawn on and on till at last I found myself in a room 
 which, I could dimly see, even in the darkness that always 
 surrounded me, was familiar to my eyes. It was the home 
 of my beloved one, and in that room I had passed, ah! 
 how many peaceful happy hours in that time which 
 seemed now separated from me by so wide and awful a 
 gulf. She sat at a little table with a sheet of paper before 
 her and a pencil in her hand. She kept repeating my 
 name and saying: "Dearest of friends, if the dead ever 
 return, come back to me, and try if you can make me write 
 a few words from you, even 'yes' or 'no' in answer to my 
 questions." 
 
 For the first time since I had died I saw her with a 
 faint smile upon her lips and a look of hope and expecta- 
 tion in those clear eyes that were so heavy with weeping 
 for me. The dear face looked so pale and sad with her 
 grief and I felt — ah! how I felt — the sweetness of the love 
 she had given me, and which now less than ever dare I 
 hope to claim. 
 
 Then I saw three other forms beside her, but thev I 
 knew were spirits, yet how unlike myself. These spirits 
 were bright, radiant, so that I could not bear to look at 
 
12 A WANDEREB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 them; the sight seemed to scorch my eyes as with a fire, 
 One was a man, tall, calm, dignified-looking, who bent 
 over her to protect her as her guardian angel might. 
 Beside him stood two fair young men whom I knew at 
 once to be those brothers whom she had so often spoken 
 of to me. They had died when youth with all its pleas- 
 ures was before them, and their memories were shrined in 
 her heart as those who were now angels. I shrank back, 
 for I felt they saw me, and I sought to cover my disfigured 
 face and form with the dark mantle which I wore. Then 
 my pride awoke, and I said: "Has not she herself called 
 me? I have come, and shall not she be the arbiter of my 
 destiny? Is it so irrevocable that nothing I can do, no 
 sorrow, no repentance however deep, no deeds however 
 great, no work however hard, can reverse it? Is there 
 indeed no hope beyond the grave?" 
 
 And a voice, the voice I had heard before at my own 
 grave, answered me: "Son of grief, is there no hope on 
 earth for those who sin? Does not even man forgive the 
 sinner who has wronged him if the sin be repented of and 
 pardon sought? And shall God be less merciful, less 
 just? Hast thou repentance even now? Search thine 
 own heart and see whether it is for thyself or for those 
 thou hast wronged that thou art sorry?" 
 
 And I knew as he spoke that I did not truly repent. 
 I only suffered. I only loved and longed. Then again 
 my beloved spoke and asked me: "If I were there and 
 could hear her, to try and write one word through her 
 hand that she might know I still lived, still thought 
 of her." 
 
 My heart seemed to rise into my throat and choke me, 
 and I drew near to try if I could move her hand, could 
 touch it even. But the tall spirit came between us. and I 
 was forced to draw back. Then he spoke and said: "Give 
 your words to me and I will cause her hand to write them 
 down for you. I will do this for her sake, and because of 
 the love she has for you." 
 
 A great wave of joy swept over me at his words, and 
 I would have taken his hand and kissed it but could not. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 13 
 
 My hand seemed scorched by his brightness ere I could 
 touch him, and I bowed myself before him for I thought 
 he must be one of the angels. 
 
 My beloved spoke once more and said, "Are you here, 
 dearest friend?" 
 
 I answered, "Yes," and then I saw the spirit put his 
 hand on her, and when he did so her hand wrote the word 
 "yes* Slowly and unsteadily it moved, like a child's 
 learning to write. Ah! how she smiled, and again she 
 asked me a question, and as before her own hand traced 
 out my answer. She asked me if there were anything she 
 could do for me, any wish of mine that she could help me 
 to carry out? I said: "No! not now. I would go away 
 now and torment her no more with my presence. I would 
 let her forget me now." 
 
 My heart was so sore as I spoke, so bitter; and, ah! 
 how sweet to me was her reply, how it touched my soul to 
 hear her say: "Do not say that to me, for I would ever be 
 your truest, dearest friend, as I was in the past, and since 
 you died my one thought has been to find you and to 
 speak with you again." 
 
 And I answered, I called out to her, "It has been my 
 only wish also." 
 
 She then asked if I would come again, and I said, 
 "Yes!" For where would I not have gone for her? What 
 would I not have done? Then the bright spirit said she 
 must write no more that night. He made her hand write 
 that also and said she should go to rest. 
 
 I felt myself now drawn away once more back to my 
 grave and to my earthly body in that dark churchyard; 
 but not to the same hopeless sense of misery. In spite of 
 everything a spark of hope had risen in my heart and I 
 knew I should see and speak with her again. 
 
 But now I found I was not alone there. Those two 
 spirits who were her brothers had followed me, and now 
 spoke. I shall not state all they said. Suffice it to say 
 they pointed out to me how wide was now the gulf be- 
 tween their sister and myself, and asked me if I desired to 
 shadow all her young life with my dark presence. If I 
 
U A WAXDEKKK IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 left her now, she would, in time, forget me, except as one 
 who had been a dear friend to her. She could always 
 think tenderly of my memory, and surely if I loved her 
 truly 1 would not wish to make all her young life lonely 
 and desolate lor my sake. 
 
 1 replied that I loved her, and could never bear to 
 leave her, never bear to think of any other, loving her as 
 1 had done. 
 
 Then they spoke of myself and my past, and asked if 
 I dared to think of linking myself with her pure life, even 
 in the misty fashion in which I still hoped to do? How 
 could I hope that when she died I should meet her? She 
 belonged to a bright sphere to which I could not hope for 
 a long time to rise, and would it not be better for her, and 
 nobler, more truly loving of me, to leave her to forget me 
 and to find what happiness in life could yet be given to 
 her, rather than seek to keep alive a love that could only 
 bring her sorrow? 
 
 I said faintly I thought she loved me. They said: 
 "Yes, she loves you as she herself has idealized your image 
 in her mind, and as she in her innocence has painted your 
 picture. Do you think if she knew all your story she 
 would love you? Would she not shrink back in horror 
 from you? Tell her the truth, give her the choice of 
 freedom from your presence, and you will have acted a 
 nobler part and shown a truer love than in deceiving her 
 and seeking to tie her to a being like yourself. If you 
 truly love her, think of her and her happiness, and what 
 will bring it — not of yourself alone." 
 
 Then the hope within me died out, and I bowed my 
 head to the dust in shame and agony, for I knew that I 
 was vile and in no way fit for her, and I saw as in a glass 
 what her life might still be freed from mine. She might 
 know happiness yet with another more worthy than I had 
 been, while with my love I would only drag her down into 
 sadness with me. For the first time in my life I put the 
 happiness of another before my own, and because I so 
 loved her and would have had her happy, I said to them : 
 ''Let it be so, then. Tell her the truth, and let her say 
 
A WANDEREB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 15 
 
 but one kind word to me in farewell, and I will go from 
 her and darken her life with the shadow of mine no 
 more." 
 
 So we went back to her, and I saw her as she slept 
 exhausted with her sorrow for me. I pleaded that they 
 would let me give her one kiss, the first and last that I 
 would ever give. But they said no, that was impossible, 
 for my touch would snap forever the thread that held her 
 still to life. 
 
 Then they awoke her and made her write down their 
 words, while I stood by and heard each word fall as a nail 
 in the coffin where they were burying my last hope for- 
 ever. She, as one in a dream, wrote on, till at last the 
 whole shameful story of my life was told, and I had but 
 to tell her myself that all was forever at an end between 
 us. and she was free from my sinful presence and my 
 selfish love. I said adieu to her. As drops of blood 
 wrung from my heart were those words, and as ice they 
 fell upon her heart and crushed it. Then I turned and 
 left her — how, I know not — but as I went I felt the cord 
 that had tied me to my grave and my earthly body snap, 
 and I was free — free to wander where I would — alone in 
 my desolation! 
 
 And then? Ah, me! While I write the words the 
 tears of thankfulness are in my eyes again, and I almost 
 break down in trying to write them; then she whom we 
 had deemed so weak and gentle that we had but to decide 
 for her, she called me back with all the force of a love 
 none dare oppose — called me back to her. She said she 
 could never give me up so long as I had love for her. 
 ''Let your past be what it might: let you be sunk now even 
 to the lowest depths of hell itself, I will still love you, still 
 seek to follow you and claim my right — the right of my 
 love — to help and comfort and cherish you till God in his 
 mercy shall have pardoned your past and you shall be 
 raised up again." And then it was that I broke down and 
 wept as only a strong proud man can weep, whose heart 
 has been wrung and bruised and hardened, and then 
 
16 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 touched by the soft tender touch of a loving hand till the 
 tears must come to his relief. 
 
 I went back to my love and knelt down beside her, 
 and though they would not let me touch her, that calm 
 beautiful spirit who was her guardian whispered to her 
 that her prayer was answered, and that she should indeed 
 lead me back to the light. And so I left my darling, and 
 as I passed away I saw a white angel's form hover over her 
 to give her strength and comfort, who was herself my 
 angel of light. I left her thus with those spirits, and 
 went forth to wander till her voice should call me to her 
 side again. 
 
 After the short troubled sleep into which those 
 bright spirits had put her, my darling awoke the next 
 day, and went to visit a kind good man whom she had 
 discovered in her efforts to find some way by which she 
 might reach me even beyond the grave. 
 
 If it might be that what she had been told about 
 those people who were called Spiritualists was really true, 
 she hoped through their aid to speak again with me, and 
 prompted by those who were watching over her, she had 
 searched out this man who was known as a healing me- 
 dium, and by him she had been told that if she herself 
 tried, she could write messages from the so-called dead. 
 
 This I did not learn till later. At the time I only 
 felt myself summoned by the voice of her whose power 
 over me was so great, and in obedience to it I found 
 myself standing in what I could dimly distinguish to be 
 a small room. I say dimly, because all was still dark to 
 me save only where the light around my darling shone as 
 a star and showed faintly what was near. 
 
 It was to this good man of whom I speak that she 
 had gone, and it was her voice speaking to him that had 
 drawn me. She was telling him what had passed the 
 night before, and how much she loved me, and how she 
 would gladly give all her life if by so doing she could 
 comfort and help me. And that man spoke such kind 
 words to her — from my heart I thanked and still thank 
 him for them. He gave me so much hope. He pointed 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 17 
 
 out to my dear love that the ties of the earth body are 
 broken at its death, and I was free to love her and she was 
 free to return that love — that she herself better than any 
 other could in truth help to raise me, for her love would 
 give me comfort and hope as nothing else would do, and 
 would cheer my path of repentant effort. And she had 
 now the best of rights to give it, my love for her had been 
 so pure and true a passion, while hers for me was stronger 
 than death itself, since it had overcome the barrier of 
 death. He was so kind, this man — he helped me to speak 
 to her, and to explain many things as I could not have 
 done the night before when my heart was so sore and full 
 of pride. He helped me to tell what of excuse there had 
 been for me in the past, though I owned that nothing can 
 truly excuse our sins. He let me tell her that in spite of 
 all the wrong of my past she had been to me as one 
 sacred — loved with a love I had given to none but herself. 
 He soothed and strengthened her with a kindness for 
 which I blessed him even more than for his help to myself, 
 and when she left him at last I, too, went with her to her 
 home, the light of hope in both our hearts. 
 
 And when we got there I found that a fresh barrier 
 was raised up by those two spirit brothers and others to 
 whom she was dear; an invisible wall surrounded her 
 through which I could not pass, and though I might 
 follow her about I could not get very near. Then I said 
 to myself that I would go back to the kind man and see 
 if he would help me. 
 
 My wish seemed to carry me back, for I soon found 
 myself there again. He was at once conscious of my pres- 
 ence, and strange as it may seem, I found he could under- 
 stand much, although not all, that I said to him. He 
 gathered the sense of what I wanted to say, and told me 
 many things I shall not set down here since they con- 
 cerned only myself. He assured me that if I were only 
 patient all would be well in time, and though the relations 
 might build their spiritual wall around my love, her will 
 would at all times draw me through it to her, and nothing 
 could shut out her love from me; no walls could keep that 
 
18 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 hack. If I would seek now to learn the things of the 
 spirit and work to advance myself, the gulf between us 
 would disappear. Comforted I left him and wandered 
 away again, I knew not where. 
 
 I was now beginning to be dimly conscious that there 
 were other beings like myself flitting about near me in the 
 darkness, though I could scarce see them. I was so lost 
 and lonely that I thought of going back to my grave 
 again, as it was the spot most familiar to me, and my 
 thought seemed to take me back, for soon I was there 
 once more. 
 
 The flowers that my love had brought were faded 
 now. She had not been there for two days; since speaking 
 to me she seemed to forget the body that was laid away in 
 the earth, and this to me was well, and I would have had 
 it so. It was well for her to forget the dead body and 
 think only of the living spirit. 
 
 Even those withered flowers spoke of her love, and I 
 tried to pick up one, a white rose, to carry away with me. 
 I found I could not lift it, could not move it in the least. 
 My hand passed through it as though it was but the reflec- 
 tion of a rose. 
 
 I moved round to where there was a white marble 
 cross at the head of the grave, and I saw there the names 
 of my beloved one's two brothers. Then I knew what sh« 
 had done in her love for me; she had laid my body to rest 
 beside those she had loved best of all. My heart was so 
 touched that again I wept, and my tears fell like dew 
 upon my heart and melted aw r ay its bitterness. 
 
 I was so lonely that at last I rose and wandered away 
 again amongst other dark wandering shapes, few of whom 
 even turned to look at me; perhaps like myself they 
 scarcely saw. Presently, however, three dark forms 
 which seemed like two women and a man passed near me, 
 and then turned and followed. The man touched my 
 arm and said: "Where are you bound for? Surely you 
 are newly come over to this side, or you would not hurry 
 on so; none hurry here because we all know we have 
 
A WANDEfiBE IN THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 19 
 
 eternity to wander in." Then he laughed a laugh so cold 
 and harsh in tone it made me shudder. One of the 
 women took my arm on one side and one on the other, 
 saving: "Come away with us and we will show you how 
 you may enjoy life even though you are dead! If we have 
 not got bodies to enjoy ourselves through we will borrow 
 them from some mortals for a little. Come with us and 
 we will show you that all pleasure is not ended yet." 
 
 In my loneliness I was glad to have some being to 
 speak to, that although they were all three most repulsive 
 looking — the women to my mind even more so than the 
 man — I felt inclined to let them lead me away and see 
 what would happen, and I had even turned to accompany 
 them when afar off in the dim distance, like a picture 
 traced in light on a black sky, I saw the spirit form of my 
 pure sweet love. Her eyes were closed as I had seen her 
 in my first vision, but as before her hands were stretched 
 out to me and her voice fell like a voice from heaven on 
 my ears, saying: "Oh! take care! take care! go not with 
 them; they are not good, and their road leads only to 
 destruction." Then the vision was gone, and as one 
 waking from a dream I shook those three persons from 
 me and hurried away again in the darkness. How long 
 and how far I wandered I know not. I kept hurrying on 
 to get away from the memories that haunted me, and I 
 seemed to have all space to wander in. 
 
 At last I sat down on the ground to rest — for there 
 seemed to be ground solid enough to rest upon — and while 
 I sat there I saw glimmering through the darkness a light. 
 As I drew near it I saw a great haze of light radiating 
 from a room which I could see, but it was so bright it hurt 
 my eyes to look upon it as would looking at the noon-day 
 sun on earth have done. I could not bear it and would 
 have turned away, when a voice said: "Stay, weary wan- 
 derer! Here are only kind hearts and helping hands for 
 you. And if you would see your love, come in, for she 
 is here and you may speak with her." Then I felt a 
 hand — for I could see no one — draw my mantle over my 
 
20 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 head to shut out the brightness of the light, and then lead 
 me into the room and seat me in a large chair. I was so 
 weary, so weary, and so glad to rest. And in this room 
 there was such peace, it seemed to me that I had found 
 my way to heaven. 
 
 After a little I looked up and saw two gentle, kindly 
 women who were like angels to my eyes, and I said to 
 myself, "I have come near to heaven surely?" Again I 
 looked, and by this time my eyes seemed strengthened, for 
 beyond those two fair good women — and at first I could 
 scarce believe it, so great was my joy — I saw my beloved 
 herself smiling sadly but tenderly at where I sat. She 
 smiled, but I knew she did not really see me; one of the 
 ladies did though, and she was describing me to my 
 darling in a low quiet voice. My darling seemed so 
 pleased, for it confirmed to her what the man had told 
 her. She had been telling these ladies what a remarkable 
 experience she had had, arid how it seemed to her like a 
 strange dream. I could have cried out to her then that I 
 was truly there, that I still lived, still loved her, and was 
 trusting in her love for me, but I could not move, some 
 spell was over me. some power I could dimly feel was 
 holding me back. 
 
 And then those two kind ladies spoke and I knew 
 they were not angels yet, for they were still in their 
 earthly bodies and she could see and speak to them. 
 They said much of what the kind good man had done, as 
 to the hope there was for sinners like me. 
 
 The same voice which had bidden me to enter, now 
 asked would I like one of the ladies to write a message for 
 me. I said, "Yes! a thousand times yes!" 
 
 Then I spoke my words and the spirit caused the 
 lady to write them down. I said to my beloved that I still 
 lived, still loved her. I bid her never to forget me, never 
 to cease to think of me, for I required all her love and 
 help to sustain me — I was ever the same to her though 
 now I was weak and helpless and could not make her see 
 me. And she. ah! she gave me such sweet words in return 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 21 
 
 I cannot write them down; they are too sacred to me, and 
 will rest in my heart for evermore. 
 
 ********* 
 
 The period that followed this interview was one of 
 deep sleep for me. I was so exhausted that when I left 
 that room I wandered on a little way and then sank down 
 upon the ground in deep dreamless unconsciousness. 
 What did it matter where I rested when all was as night 
 around me? 
 
 How long my sleep lasted I know not. At that 
 period I had no means of counting time save by the 
 amount of suffering and misery through which I passed. 
 From my slumbers I awoke refreshed in a measure, and 
 with all my senses stronger in me than before. I could 
 move r: re rapidly; my limbs felt stronger and freer, and 
 I was now conscious of a desire to eat I had not felt before. 
 My iongv j grew so great that I went in search of food, 
 and fo: a long time could find none anywhere. At last I 
 found what looked like hard dry bread — a few crusts only, 
 but I was glad to eat them, whereupon I felt more 
 satisfied. Here I may say that spirits do eat the spiritual 
 counterpart of your food, do feel both hunger and thirst, 
 as keen to them as your appetites are to you on earth, 
 although neither our food nor our drink would be any 
 more visible to your material sight than our spiritual 
 bodies are, and yet for us they possess objective reality. 
 Had I been a drunkard or a lover of the pleasures of the 
 table in my earthly body I should much sooner have felt 
 the cravings of appetite. As it was, nature with me had 
 ever been easily satisfied, and though at first I turned 
 from those dry crusts in disgust a little reflection told me 
 that I had now no way of procuring anything, I was like 
 a beggar and had better content myself with a beggar's 
 fare. 
 
 My thoughts had now turned to my beloved again, 
 and the thoughts carried my spirit with them, so that I 
 found myself entering once more the room where I had 
 last seen her and the two ladies. This time I seemed to 
 pass in at once, and was received by two spirit men whom 
 
22 A WA X DEREB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 I could but very faintly see. A veil seemed to hang 
 between us, through which I saw those two spirit men, 
 the ladies and my beloved. I was told that I might again 
 give a message to her through the lady who had written 
 my words before. I was so anxious to try if I could not 
 make my darling write down my words herself as I had 
 seen her guardian spirit do, that I was allowed to try. To 
 my disappointment I found I could not do it; she was deaf 
 to all I said, and I had to give up that idea and let the lady 
 write for me as before. After I had given my message I 
 rested for a short time and watched my beloved one's 
 sweet face, as I had been wont to do in other happier days. 
 My musings were interrupted by one of those spirit men — 
 a grave, handsome young man he seemed to be so far as I 
 could see him. He spoke to me in a quiet kindly voice, 
 and said that if I truly desired to write my own words 
 through my darling herself, it would be well for me to 
 join a brotherhood of penitents who like myself desired 
 to follow out the better way, and with them I should learn 
 many things of which I was yet ignorant, and which 
 would help me to fit myself to control her mind as well as 
 give me the privilege I sought of being with her at times 
 while she dwelt on earth. This way of repentance was 
 hard, he said — very hard — the steps many, the toil and 
 suffering great, but it led to a fair and happy land at last 
 where I should rest in happiness such as I could not dream 
 of now. He assured me (even as the kind earthly man 
 had done) that my deformed body, which I was still so 
 anxious to hide from my beloved one's eyes, would change 
 as my spirit changed, till I should be once more fair to 
 look upon, such as she would no longer grieve to see. 
 Were I to remain upon the earth plane as I now was, I 
 should most likely be drawn back into my former haunts 
 of so-called pleasure, and in that atmosphere of spiritual 
 degradation I should soon lose the power to be near my 
 darling at all. For her own sake those who guarded her 
 would be obliged to exclude me. On the other hand, were 
 I to join this brotherhood (which was one of hope and 
 endeavor), I should be so helped, so strengthened, and so 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 23 
 
 taught, that when in due course my time came to return 
 to the earth plane, I should have acquired a strength and 
 an armor that could resist its temptations. 
 
 I listened to the words of this grave, courteous spirit 
 with wonder and a growing desire to know more of this 
 brotherhood of whom he spoke, and begged he would take 
 me to them. This he assured me he would do, and he 
 also explained that I should be there of my own free will 
 and choice only. Did I desire at any time to leave I could 
 at once do so. "All are free in the Spirit-world," he said. 
 "All must follow only where their own wishes and desires 
 lead them. If you study to cultivate the higher desires, 
 means will be given you to attain them, and you will be 
 strengthened with such help and strength as you may 
 need. You are one who has never learned the power of 
 prayer. You will learn it now, for all things come by 
 earnest prayer, whether you are conscious that you pray 
 or not. For good or for evil your desires are as prayers 
 and call around you good or evil powers to answer them 
 for you." 
 
 As I was again growing weary and exhausted, he 
 suggested that I should bid adieu to my darling for a time. 
 He explained that I should gain more strength as well as 
 permit her to do so if I left her for the time I was to 
 remain in this place of which he spoke. It would also be 
 well that she should not try to write for three months, as 
 her mediumistic powers had been greatly tried, and if she 
 did not rest them she would be much impaired, while I 
 would require all that time to learn even the simple les- 
 sons needful before I could control her. 
 
 Ah! me, how hard it seemed to us both to make this 
 promise, but she set me the example, and I could but 
 follow it. If she would try to be strong and patient so 
 should I, and I registered a vow that if the God I had so 
 long forgotten would remember and pardon me now, I 
 would give all my life and all my powers to undo the 
 wrongs that I had clone: and so it was that I left for a 
 time the troubled earth plane of the spirit world of which 
 I had as yet seen so little, but in which I was yet to see 
 
24 A \\ A X I ) EBEE IN THE SPIEIT LAX US. 
 
 and suffer so much. As I left the room to go with my 
 new guide I turned to my love and waved my hand in 
 farewell, and asked that the good angels and the God I 
 dare not pray to for myself might bless and keep her safe 
 for evermore, and the last thing I saw was her tender eyes 
 following me with that look of love and hope which was 
 to sustain me through many a weary, painful hour. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 In the spirit world there are many strange places, 
 many wondrous sights, and many organizations for help- 
 ing repentant souls, but I have never seen anything more 
 strange in its way than this Home of Help, conducted by 
 the Brotherhood of Hope, to which I was now conducted. 
 In the then feeble condition of all my spiritual faculties I 
 was not able to see what the place was like. I was almost 
 like one who is deaf, dumb and blind. When I was with 
 others I could scarcely see or hear them, or make them 
 hear me, and although I could see a little, it was more as 
 though I was in a perfectly dark room with only one small 
 feeble glimmer of light to show me where I went. On the 
 earth plane I had not felt this so much, for though all was 
 darkness I could both see and hear enough to be con- 
 scious of those near me. It was in ascending even to the 
 little distance at which this place was above the earth that 
 I felt the absence of all but the most material develop- 
 ments of my spirit. 
 
 That time of darkness was so awful to me that even 
 now I scarce like to recall it, I had so loved the sunshine 
 and the light. I came from a land where all is sunshine 
 and brightness, where the colors are so rich, the sky so 
 clear, the flowers and the scenery so beautiful, and I so 
 loved light and warmth and melody; and here as elsewhere 
 since my death I had found only darkness and coldness 
 and gloom; an appalling, enshrouding gloom, that 
 wrapped me round like a mantle of night from which I 
 could in no way free myself; and this awful gloom crushed 
 my spirit as nothing else could have done. I had been 
 
2G A WANDEREB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 proud and haughty on earth. I came of a race that knew 
 not what it was to bow before anyone. In my veins ran 
 
 the blood of its haughty nobles. Through my mother I 
 was allied to the great ones of earth whose ambitions had 
 moved kingdoms to their will; and now the lowest, 
 humblest, poorest beggar of my native streets was greater, 
 happier than I, for he at least had the sunshine and the 
 fiee air, and I was as the lowest, most degraded prisoner 
 in the dungeon cell. 
 
 Had it not been for my one star of hope, my angel of 
 light, and the hopes she had given me through her 
 love, I must have sunk into the apathy of despair. But 
 when I thought of her waiting, as she had vowed she 
 would do all her life for me, when I recalled her sweet and 
 tender smile and the loving words she had spoken to me, 
 my heart and my courage revived again, and I strove to 
 endure, to be patient, to be strong. And I had need of all 
 to help me, for from now began a period of suffering and 
 conflict I shall in' vain seek to make anyone fully realize. 
 
 This place where I was now I could barely see in all 
 its details. It was like a huge prison — dim and misty in 
 its outlines. Later on I saw it was a great building of 
 dark grey stone (as solid to my eyes as earthly stone) with 
 many long passages, some long large halls or rooms, hut 
 mostly composed of innumerable little cells with scarcely 
 any light and only the barest of furniture. Each spirit 
 had only Avhat he had earned by his earthly life, and some 
 had nothing but the little couch whereon they lay and 
 suffered. For all suffered there. It was the House of 
 Sorrow, yet it was also a House of Hope, for all there were 
 striving upwards to the light, and for each had begun the 
 time of hope. Each had his foot planted upon the lowest 
 rung of the ladder of hope by which he should in time 
 mount even to heaven itself. 
 
 In my own little cell there was but my bed, a table 
 and a chair — nothing more. I spent my time in resting 
 or meditating in my cell, and going with those who, like 
 myself, soon grew strong enough to hear the lectures 
 which were delivered to us in the great hall. Very im- 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 27 
 
 pressiye those lectures were; told in the form of a story, 
 but always so as to bring home to the mind of each of us 
 those things wherein we had done wrong. Great pains 
 were taken to make us understand, from the point of view 
 of an impartial spectator, the full consequences to our- 
 selves and others of each of our actions, and where we had 
 for our own selfish gratifications wronged or dragged 
 down another soul. So many things which we had done 
 because all men did them, or because we thought that we 
 as men had a right to do them, were now shown to us 
 from the other side of the picture, from those who had in 
 a measure been our victims, or where we personally were 
 not directly responsible for their fall, the victims of a 
 social system invented and upheld to gratify us and our 
 selfish passions. I cannot more fully describe these lec- 
 tures, but those amongst you who know what are the cor- 
 ruptions of the great cities of earth will easily supply for 
 yourselves the subjects. From such lectures, such pic- 
 tures of ourselves as we were, stripped of all the social dis- 
 guises of earth life, we could but return in shame and 
 sorrow of heart to our cells to reflect over our past and to 
 strive to atone for it in our future. 
 
 And in this there was great help given to us, for with 
 the error and its consequences we were always shown the 
 way to correct and overcome the evil desire in ourselves, 
 and how we might atone for our own sins by timely efforts 
 to save another from the evil into which we had fallen, all 
 these lessons being intended to fit us for the next stage of 
 our progression, in which we would be sent back to earth 
 to help, unseen and unknown, mortals who were 
 struggling with earth's temptations. 
 
 When we were not attending the lectures we were 
 free to go where we might wish: that is, such of us as were 
 strong enough to move about freely. Some who had left 
 dear friends on earth would go to visit them, that, unseen 
 themselves, they might yet see those they loved. We were 
 always warned, however, not to linger in the temptations 
 of the earth plane, since many of us would find it difficult 
 to resist them. 
 
28 A WANBEBEK IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 Those who were strongest amongst us and who pos- 
 sessed the needful qualities and the desire to use them, 
 were employed in magnetising those who were weakest, 
 and who, by reason of the excessive dissipations of their 
 earthly lives, were in such a terrihle condition of ex- 
 haustion and suffering that the only thing which could be 
 done with them was to allow them to lie helpless in their 
 cells while others gave them a little relief by magnetising 
 them; and here 1 must describe to you a very wonderful 
 system of healing these poor spirits which was practiced 
 in this House of Hope. Some advanced spirits, whose 
 natural desires and tastes made them doctors and healers, 
 with the help of other spirits of different degrees of ad- 
 vancement under them, would attend upon these poorest 
 and most suffering ones — where indeed all were suffer- 
 ers — and by means of magnetism and the use of others' 
 powers which they could control, they would put these 
 poor spirits into temporary forgetfulness of their pain; 
 and though they awoke again to a renewal of their suffer- 
 ings, yet in these intervals their spirits gained strength 
 and insensibly grew more able to endure, till at last their 
 sufferings were mitigated with time and the growing de- 
 velopment of the spirit body, and they in turn would, 
 when fit to do so, be employed to magnetise others who 
 were still suffering. 
 
 It is impossible for me to give you a very clear picture 
 of this place and those in it, for although the resemblance 
 to an earthly hospital was very great, there were many 
 little points in which it resembled nothing which you have 
 yet on earth, though as knowledge on earth advances the 
 resemblance will become closer. All was so dark in this 
 place, because the unfortunate spirits who dwelt there had 
 none of the brightness of happy spirits to give into the 
 atmosphere, and it is the state of the spirit itself in the 
 spiritual world that makes the lightness or darkness of its 
 surroundings. The sense of darkness was also due to the 
 almost total blindness of these poor spirits, whose spiritual 
 senses never having been developed on earth made them 
 alike insensible to all around them, just as those born on 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 29 
 
 earth in a state of blindness, deafness and dumbness 
 would be unconscious of the things which were apparent 
 to those fully endowed with senses. In visiting the 
 atmosphere of the earth plane, which was a degree more 
 suited to their state of development, these poor spirits 
 would still be in darkness, though it would not be so com- 
 plete, and they would possess the power of seeing those 
 beings like themselves with whom they could come into 
 direct contact, and also such mortals as were in a 
 sufficiently low spiritual degree of development. The 
 higher and more spiritualized mortals, and still more the 
 disembodied spirits in advance of them would be only 
 very dimly discernible, or even totally invisible. 
 
 The "working" Brothers of Hope, as they were 
 called, were each provided with a tiny little light like a 
 star, whose rays illuminated the darkness of the cells they 
 visited and carried the light of hope wherever the brothers 
 went. I myself at first was so great a sufferer that I used 
 simply to lie in my cell in a state of almost apathetic 
 misery, watching for this spark to come glimmering down 
 the long corridor to my door, and wondering how long it 
 would be in earth time ere it would come again. But it 
 was not long that I lay thus utterly prostrate. Unlike 
 many of the poor spirits who had added a love of drink 
 to their other vices, my mind was too clear and my desire 
 to improve too strong to leave me long inactive, and as 
 soon as I found myself able to move again I petitioned to 
 be allowed to do something, however humble, whicR 
 might be of use. I was therefore, as being myself pos- 
 sessed of strong magnetic powers, set to help an unfortu- 
 nate young man who was utterly unable to move, and who 
 used to lie moaning and sighing all the time. Poor fel- 
 low, he was only thirty years old when he left the earth 
 body, but in his short life he had contrived to plunge into 
 such dissipations that he had prematurely killed himself, 
 and was now suffering such agonies from the reaction 
 upon the spirit of those powers he had abused, that it was 
 often more than I could bear to witness them. My task 
 was to make soothing passes over him, by which means he 
 
30 A WANDEHER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 would obtain a little relief, till at stated times a more 
 advanced spirit than myself would come and put him into 
 a state of unconsciousness. And all this time I was myself 
 suffering keenly both in mind and in my spirit body, lor 
 in the lower spheres the spirit is conscious of bodily suffer- 
 ings. As it grows more advanced the suffering becomes 
 more purely mental — the less material envelope of the 
 higher spirits making them at last insensible to anything 
 like material pain. 
 
 As my strength grew so did my desires revive and 
 cause me so much torment that I was often tempted to do 
 what many poor spirits did — go back to earth in search of 
 the means to satisfy them through the material bodies of 
 those yet on earth. My bodily sufferings grew very great, 
 for the strength I had been so proud of and had used to 
 so bad a purpose made me suffer more than one who had 
 been weak. As the muscles of an athlete who has used 
 them to excess begin after a time to contract and cause 
 him excruciating pain, so those powers and that strength 
 which I had abused in my earthly life now began, through 
 its inevitable reaction on my spirit body, to cause me the 
 most intense suffering. And then as I grew stronger and 
 stronger and able to enjoy what had seemed enjoyment in 
 my earth life, the desire for those pleasures grew and grew 
 till I could scarce refrain from returning to the earth 
 plane there to enjoy, through the organism of those yet in 
 the flesh, whose sordid lives and low desires placed them 
 on a level with the spirits of the earth plane, those 
 pleasures of the senses which had still so great a tempta- 
 tion for us. Many and many of those who were in the 
 House of Hope with me would yield to the temptation 
 and go back for a time to haunt the earth, whence they 
 would return after a longer or shorter period, exhausted 
 and degraded even below their former state. All were 
 free to go or to stay as they desired. All could return 
 Avhen they wished, for the doors of Hope's castle were 
 never shut upon anyone, however unthankful or un- 
 worthy they might be, and I have often wondered at the 
 infinite patience and tenderness which were ever shown 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 31 
 
 for our weaknesses and our sins. It was indeed only 
 possible to pity these poor unfortunates, who had made 
 such utter slaves of themselves to their base desires that 
 they could not resist them and were drawn back time after 
 time till at last, satiated and exhausted, they could move 
 no more and were like the unfortunate young man whom 
 I tended. 
 
 For myself, I might also have yielded to the tempta- 
 tion had it not been for the thoughts of my pure love, and 
 the hopes she had given me, the purer desires she had 
 inspired, and I at least could not condemn these poor 
 erring souls who had no such blessings granted them. I 
 went to earth very often, but it was to where my beloved 
 one dwelt, and her love drew me ever to her side, away 
 from all temptations, into the pure atmosphere of her 
 home, and though I could never approach near enough 
 to touch her, by reason of this icy invisible wall which I 
 have described, I used to stand outside of it, looking at 
 her as she sat and worked or read or slept. When I was 
 there she would always be in a dim way conscious of my 
 presence, and would whisper my name or turn to where I 
 was with one of her sad sweet smiles that I would carry 
 away the recollection of and comfort myself with in my 
 lonely hours. She looked so sad, so very sad, my poor 
 love, and so pale and delicate, it made my heart ache even 
 while it comforted me to see her. I could tell that in 
 spite of all her efforts to be brave and patient, and to hope, 
 the strain was almost too great for her, and each day she 
 grew more delicate looking. She had many other things 
 to try her at this time; there were family troubles and the 
 doubts and fears suggested by the strangeness of her inter- 
 course with the world of spirits. At times she would 
 wonder if it were not all a wild delusion, a dream from 
 which she would awake to find there was after all no com- 
 munication between the dead and the living, no means by 
 which she could reach me again, and then a dull despair 
 would seize upon her and upon me also as I stood beside 
 her and read her feeling, helpless and powerless to make 
 her realize my actual presence beside her, and I would 
 
32 A WAXDEKKR IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 pray to be allowed in some way to make her know that I 
 was there. 
 
 One night when I had watched her sink into sleep 
 after a weary time of weeping, I, who could have wept, 
 too, in my grief for us both, was suddenly touched upon 
 the shoulder, and looking up beheld her guardian spirit 
 who had first helped me to speak with her. He asked me 
 if I would be very quiet and self-restrained if he allowed 
 me to kiss her as she slept, and I, wild with this new joy, 
 most eagerly promised. Taking my hand in his we passed 
 together through the transparent icy wall that was to me 
 so impervious. Bending over her the guide made some 
 strange motions with his hand, and then taking one of my 
 hands in his for a few moments he bade me touch her 
 very gently. She was lying quietly asleep, with the tears 
 still on her eyelashes and her sweet lips slightly parted as 
 * though she was speaking in her dreams. One hand rested 
 against her cheek and I took it in mine, so gently, so 
 tenderly — not to awaken her. Her hand closed half con- 
 sciously upon mine and a look of such joy came into her 
 face that I feared she would awake. But no! The bright 
 spirit smiled at us both and said, "Kiss her now." And 
 I — ah! I stooped over her and touched her at last and 
 gave her the first kiss I had ever given. I kissed her not 
 once but half a dozen times, so passionately that she 
 awoke and the bright spirit drew me away in haste. She 
 looked round and asked softly: "Do I dream, or was that 
 indeed my beloved one?" I answered, "Yes," and she 
 seemed to hear, for she smiled so sweet a smile — ah! so 
 sweet! and again and again she repeated my name softly 
 to herself. 
 
 Not for long after that would they allow me to touch 
 her again, but I was often near, and the joy of that one 
 meeting dwelt in our hearts for many an hour. I could 
 see how real had been my kiss to her, and for me it was as 
 an anchor of hope encouraging me to believe that in time 
 I should indeed be able to make her feel my touch and 
 hold communication with her. 
 
A \YAXDEKER IX THE SPIEIT LAXDS. 33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The time came at last for me to leave the House of 
 Hope and go forth, strong in the lessons I had learned 
 there, to work out my atonement on the earth plane and 
 in those lower spheres to which my earthly life had 
 sunk me. 
 
 Eight or nine months had elapsed since I had died, 
 and I had grown strong and vigorous once more. I could 
 move freely over the great sphere of the earth plane. My 
 sight and my other senses were so far developed that I 
 could see and hear and speak clearly. The light around 
 me now was that of a faint twilight or when the night 
 first begins to dawn into the day. To my eyes so long 
 accustomed to the darkness, this dull light was very 
 welcome, though after a time I grew so to long for the 
 true day to dawn that this dull twilight was most 
 monotonous and oppressive. Those countries which are 
 situated in this, the third circle of the earth plane or first 
 sphere, are called "The Twilight Lands," and it is thither 
 that those spirits pass whose lives have been too selfish 
 and material to allow their souls to reach any higher state 
 of development. Even these Twilight Lands, however, 
 are a degree above those "Haunting" spirits of the earth 
 plane who are literally earthbound to their former 
 habitations. 
 
 My work was to be begun upon the earth itself, and 
 in those haunts which men of the world call the haunts 
 of pleasure, though no pleasure is so fleeting, no degrada- 
 tion so sure, as that which they produce even during the 
 earthly life. And now I found the value of the teachings 
 
 
31 A WANBEREB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 and the experience I had gained during my stay in the 
 House of Hope. Temptations that might once have 
 seemed such to me were such no longer. I knew the 
 satisfaction such pleasures give, and the cost at which 
 alone they can be bought, and thus in controlling a 
 mortal, as I often had to do, I was proof against the 
 temptation such control offered of using his body for my 
 own gratification. 
 
 Few people yet in their earthly envelopes understand 
 that spirits can, and very often do, take such complete 
 possession of the bodies of mortal men and women that, 
 for the time, it is as though that earth body belonged to 
 the disembodied and not the embodied spirit. Many 
 cases of so-called temporary madness are due to the con- 
 trolling power of very low spirits of evil desires or 
 frivolous minds, who are, through the weakness of will or 
 other causes, put into complete rapport with the embodied 
 spirit whose body they seek to use. Amongst many 
 ancient races this fact was acknowledged and studied as 
 well as many branches of the occult sciences which we of 
 the nineteenth century have grown too wise, forsooth, to 
 look into, even to discover, if we can, those germs of truth 
 with which all ages have been blessed and which are worth 
 disinterring from the mass of rubbish in which succeed- 
 ing generations of men have buried them. 
 
 The work upon which I was now engaged will seem 
 no less strange to you than it did at first to me. The 
 great Brotherhood of Hope was only one of a countless 
 variety of societies which exist in the spirit world for the 
 purpose of giving help to all who are in need. Their 
 operations are carried on everywhere and in all spheres, 
 and their members are to be found from the very lowest 
 and darkest spheres to the very highest which surround 
 the earth, and even extend into the spheres of the solar 
 systems. They are like immense chains of spirits, the 
 lowest and humblest being always helped and protected 
 by those above. 
 
 A message would be. sent to the Brotherhood that 
 help was required to assist some struggling mortal or 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 35 
 
 unhappy spirit, and such one of the brothers as was 
 thought to be most fit would be sent to help. Such a 
 one of us would be sent as had in his own earth life yielded 
 to a similar temptation, and had suffered all the bitter 
 consequences and remorse for his sin. Often the man or 
 woman to be helped had unconsciously sent out an aspira- 
 tion for help and strength to resist temptation, and that 
 of itself was a prayer, which would be heard in the spirit 
 world as a cry from earth's children that appealed to all 
 in the spirit world who had been themselves earth's sons 
 and daughters; or it might be that some spirit to whom 
 the struggling one was very dear would seek for help on 
 their behalf and would thus appeal to us to come to their 
 aid. Our task would be to follow and control the one we 
 desired to help till the temptation had been overcome. 
 We would identify ourselves so closely with the mortal 
 that for a time we actually shared his life, his thoughts, 
 everything, and during this dual state of existence we 
 ourselves often suffered most keenly both from our 
 anxiety for the man whose thoughts became almost as our 
 own, and from the fact that his anxieties were as ours, 
 while in thus going over again a chapter in our past lives 
 we endured all the sorrow, remorse and bitterness of the 
 past time. He on his side felt, though not in so keen a 
 degree, the sorrowful state of our mind, and where the 
 control was very complete and the mortal highly sensitive, 
 he would often fancy that things which we had done must 
 have been done by himself, either in some former for- 
 gotten stage of existence, or else seen in some vivid dream 
 they could scarcely recall. 
 
 This controlling or overshadowing of a mortal by an 
 immortal is used in many ways, and those who foolishly 
 make themselves liable to it either by a careless evil life, 
 or by seeking in a frivolous spirit of mere curiositv to 
 search out mysteries too deep for their shallow minds to 
 fathom, often find to their cost that the low spirits who 
 haunt the earth plane, and even those from much lower 
 spheres, can often obtain so great a hold over a mortal 
 that at last he becomes a mere puppet in their hands. 
 
36 A WANDEREIt IN THE SPJEIT LANDS. 
 
 whose body they can use at will. Many a weak-willed 
 man and woman who in pure surroundings would lead 
 <mlv good and pure lives, are drawn by evil surroundings 
 into sins for whieh they are but partly responsible — sins 
 for which indeed those controlling spirits who have thus 
 made use of these weak mortals, will be held responsible 
 as well as the mortal sinner himself. For thus tempting 
 and using another's organism those evil spirits will have 
 to render a terrible account, since they have been doubly 
 guilty. In sinning, themselves, and in dragging down 
 another soul with them, they sink themselves to a depth 
 from which many years, and in some instances many cen- 
 turies, of suffering cannot free them. 
 
 In my work I have had to act the part of controlling 
 spirit many times, but I was sent to do so only in order 
 that I might impress the mortal with a sense of the 
 terrible consequences of yielding to sin, and also that I 
 might, when not actually controlling the mortal myself, 
 act as guard and watchman to protect him from the 
 control of the wandering tempting spirits of the earth 
 plane. My work was to raise the barrier of my strong 
 will-force against theirs, and keep them back so that they 
 could not come sufficiently en rapport with my charge to 
 control him. 
 
 If, however, he had allowed himself to be already 
 controlled by these lower spirits, they would still be able 
 to project their thoughts and suggestions to him, though 
 they did so with difficulty. 
 
 Although I did not know it at the time, and believed 
 that upon myself would rest the responsibility of keeping 
 safe those I was sent to guard, I was only the last link in 
 a long chain of spirits who were all helping at the same 
 time. Each spirit was a step in advance of the one below 
 him, and each had to strengthen and help the one below 
 him should he faint or fail in his task. My part was also 
 intended to be a lesson to myself in self-denial and the 
 sacrifice of my own comfort that I might help another. 
 My condition as a spirit on the earth plane made me of 
 use, seeing that I could oppose a material force of will 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 37 
 
 against those tempting spirits in an atmosphere where a 
 more refined spirit would have been unable to penetrate, 
 and I as one of the earth-bound myself could come en 
 rapport with the mortal mure closely than a more ad- 
 vanced spirit would have been able to do. I had, by 
 means of dreams when he slept and constant haunting 
 thoughts while he waked, to impress upon the mind of the 
 man I controlled what my experience had been, to make 
 him feel all the terrible Bufferings of remorse and fear, all 
 the loathing of himself through which I had passed, and 
 through which I passed again in bitter agony of soul while 
 thus recalling them. All my feelings were transferred to 
 his mind till he might truly have said he was haunted by 
 all the terrible possibilities of his meditated sins. 
 
 Over this particular phase of my experiences I shall 
 not dwell longer now, since it is one familiar to many on 
 this side of life. I will but say that I returned from my 
 mission with a consciousness that I had saved many others 
 from the pitfalls into which I had fallen, and thereby had 
 atoned in part for my own sins. Several times was I sent 
 upon such missions and each time returned successful; 
 and here I must pause to say that if my progress in the 
 spirit world has been so rapid as to surprise most who 
 knew of my first condition on entering it, and if I again 
 and again resisted all the temptations that befell me, the 
 credit is not so much due to myself as to the wonderful 
 help and comfort that was given to me by the constant 
 and unvarying love of her who was indeed my good angel, 
 and whose image ever came between me and all harm. 
 When all others might have pleaded to me in vain, I ever 
 hearkened to her voice and turned aside. 
 
 When I was not helping someone yet in the earth 
 body, I was sent to work amongst the unhappy spirits of 
 the earth plane who were still wandering in its darkness 
 even as I had at first done. And to them I went as one 
 of the great Brotherhood of Hope, bearing in my hand 
 the tiny starlike light which is the symbol of that order. 
 Its rays would dispel the darkness around me, and I would 
 see poor unhappy spirits crouching on the ground two or 
 
38 A WANBEBEB IN THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 
 
 three together, or sunk in helpless misery in some corner 
 by themselves, too hopeless, too unhappy to heed 
 anything. 
 
 To them it was my work to point out how they could 
 either be taken to such a House of Hope as the one in 
 which I had been, or in other cases how they might, by 
 trying to help others around them, help themselves and 
 earn the gratitude of those who were even more hopeless 
 than themselves. To each poor suffering soul a different 
 balm of healing would be given, for each had known a 
 different experience and each had had a different cause 
 for his sins. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 39 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 When my period of work in any place was finished, I 
 used to return to the Twilight Land to rest in another 
 large building which belonged to our brotherhood. It 
 was somewhat like the other place in appearance only not 
 quite so dark, nor so dismal, nor so bare, and in the little 
 room which belonged to each there were such things as we 
 had earned as the rewards of .our labors. For instance, in 
 my room, which was still somewhat bare-looking, I had 
 one great treasure. This was a picture of my love. It 
 seemed more like a reflection of her in a mirror than a 
 mere painted image, for when I looked intently at her she 
 would smile back at me in answer, as though her spirit 
 was conscious of my gaze, and when I wished very much 
 to know what she was doing, my picture would change 
 and show me. This was regarded by all my companions 
 as a great and wonderful privilege, and I was told it was as 
 much the result of her love and constant thought for me 
 as of my own efforts to improve. Since then I have been 
 shown how this living image was thrown upon the light 
 of the astral plane and then projected into its frame in my 
 room, but I cannot explain it more fully in this book. 
 Another gift from my darling was a white rose-bud, which 
 I had in a small vase and which never seemed to fade or 
 wither, but remained fresh and fragrant and ever an 
 emblem of her love, so that I called her my white rose. 
 
 I had so longed for a flower. I had so loved flowers 
 on earth and I had seen none since I saw those my darling 
 put upon my grave. In this land there were no flowers, 
 not even a leaf or blade of grass, not a tree or a shrub 
 
40 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 however stunted — for the dry arid soil of our selfishness 
 had no blossom or green thing to give to any one of us; 
 and it was when I told her this during one of the brief 
 visits I used to pay her, and when through her own hand 
 1 was able to write short messages — it was, I say, when I 
 told her that there was not one fair thing for me to look 
 upon save only the picture of herself, that she asked that 
 I might be given a flower from her, and this white rose- 
 bud was brought to my room by a spirit friend and left for 
 me to find when I returned from earth and her. Ah! you 
 who have so many flowers that you do not value them 
 enough and leave them to wither unseen, you can scarce 
 realize what joy this blossom brought to me nor how I 
 have so treasured it and her picture and some loving 
 words she once wrote to me, that I have carried them with 
 .me from sphere to sphere as I have risen, and shall, I 
 hope, treasure them evermore. 
 
 From this Twilight Land I took many journeys and 
 saw many strange and different countries, but all bore the 
 same stamp of coldness and desolation. 
 
 One place was a great valley of grey stones, with dim, 
 cold, grey hills shutting it in on every side, and this 
 twilight sky overhead. Here again not a blade of grass, 
 not one* poor stunted shrub was to be seen, not one touch 
 of color or brightness anywhere, only this dull desolation 
 of grey stones. Those who dwelt in this valley had 
 centered their lives and their affections in themselves and 
 had shut up their hearts against all the warmth and 
 beauty of unselfish love. They had lived only for them- 
 selves, their own gratification, their own ambitions, and 
 now they saw nothing but themselves and the grey desola- 
 tion of their hard selfish lives around them. There were 
 a great many beings flitting uneasily about in this valley, 
 but strange to say they had been so centered in themselves 
 that they had lost the power to see anyone else. 
 
 These unhappy beings were invisible to each other 
 until such time as the thought of another and the desire 
 to do something for some one besides themselves should 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 41 
 
 awaken, when they would hecome conscious of those near 
 to them, and through their elt'orts to lighten another's lot 
 they would improve their own, till at last their stunted 
 affections would expand and the hazy valley of selfishness 
 would hold them in its chains no more. 
 
 Beyond this valley I came upon a great, dry, sandy- 
 looking tract of country where there was a scanty 
 straggling vegetation, and where the inhabitants had 
 begun in some places to make small attempts at gardens 
 near their habitations. In some places these habitations 
 were clustered so thickly together that they formed small 
 towns and cities. But all bore that desolate ugly look 
 which came from the spiritual poverty of the inhabitants. 
 This also was a land of selfishness and greed, although not 
 of such complete indifference to others' feelings as in the 
 grey valley, and therefore they sought for a certain 
 amount of companionship even with those around them. 
 Many had come from the grey valley, but most were direct 
 from the earth life and were now, poor souls, struggling 
 to rise a little higher, and wherever this was the case and 
 an effort was made to overcome their own selfishness, then 
 the dry soil around their homes would begin to put forth 
 tiny blades of grass and little stunted shoots of shrubs. 
 
 Such miserable hovels as were in this land! such 
 ragged, repulsive, wretched-looking people, like tramps 
 or beggars, yet many had been amongst earth's wealthiest 
 and most eminent in fashionable life, and had enjoyed all 
 that luxury could give! But because they had used their 
 wealth only for themselves and their own enjoyments, 
 giving to others but the paltry crumbs that they could 
 spare from their own wealth and hardly notice that they 
 had given them — because of this, I say, they were now 
 here in this Twilight Land, poor as beggars in the true 
 spiritual wealth of the soul which may be earned in the 
 earthly life alike by the richest king or the poorest beggar, 
 and without which those who come over to the spirit 
 land — be they of earth's greatest or humblest — must come 
 here to dwell where all are alike poor in spiritual things. 
 
42 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 J I ere some of the people would wrangle and quarrel 
 and complain that they had not been fairly treated in 
 being in such a place, seeing what had been their positions 
 in earth life. They would blame others as being more 
 culpable than themselves in the matter, and wake a thou- 
 sand excuses, a thousand pretences, tu anyone who would 
 listen to them and the story of what they would call their 
 wrongs. Others would still be trying to follow out the 
 schemes of their earthly lives and would try to make their 
 hearers believe that they had found means (at the expense 
 of someone else) of ending all this weary life of discom- 
 fort, and would plot and plan and try to carry out their 
 own schemes, and spoil those of others as being likely to 
 interfere with theirs, and so on would go the weary round 
 of life in this Land of Unrest. 
 
 To all whom I found willing to listen to me I gave 
 some word of hope, some thought of encouragement or 
 help to find the true way out of this country, and so passed 
 on through it and journeyed into the Land of Misers — a 
 land given over to them alone, for few have sympathy 
 with true misers save those who also share their all- 
 absorbing desire to hoard simply for the pleasure of 
 hoarding. 
 
 In this country were dark crooked-looking beings 
 with long claw-like fingers, who were scratching in the 
 black soil like birds of prey in search of stray grains of 
 gold that here and there rewarded their toil; and wdien 
 they had found any they would wrap them up in little 
 wallets they carried and thrust them into their bosoms 
 that they might lie next their hearts, as the thing of all 
 things most dear to them. As a rule they were lonely, 
 solitary beings, wdro avoided each other by instinct lest 
 they should be robbed of their cherished treasure. 
 
 Here I found nothing that I could do. Only one 
 solitary man listened for a brief moment to what I had to 
 say ere he returned to his hunt in the earth for treasure, 
 furtively watching me till I was gone lest I should learn 
 what he had already got. The others were all so absorbed 
 in their search for treasure they could not even be made 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 43 
 
 conscious of my presence, and I soon passed on from that 
 bleak land. 
 
 Erom the Misers' Country I passed downwards into 
 a dark sphere, which was really below the earth in the 
 sense of being even lower in its spiritual inhabitants than 
 parts of the earth plane. 
 
 Here it was very much like the Land of Unrest, onl}- 
 that the spirits who dwelt here were worse and more 
 degraded looking. There was no attempt made at cultiva- 
 tion, and the sky overhead was almost dark like night, the 
 light being only such as enabled them to see each other 
 and the objects near them. Whereas in the Land of 
 Unrest there were but wranglings and discontent and 
 jealousy, here there were fierce fights and bitter quarrels. 
 Here were gamblers and drunkards. Betting men, card 
 sharpers, commercial swindlers, profligates, and thieves 
 of every kind, from the thief of the slums to his well- 
 educated counterpart in the higher circles of earth life. 
 All whose instincts were roguish or dissipated, all who 
 were selfish and degraded in their tastes were here, as well 
 as many who would have been in a higher condition of 
 spiritual life had not constant association on earth with 
 this class of men deteriorated and degraded them to the 
 level of their companions, so that at death they had gravi- 
 tated to this dark sphere, drawn down by ties of associa- 
 tion. It was to this last class that I was sent, for amongst 
 them there was hope that all sense of goodness and right 
 was not quenched, and that the voice of one crying to 
 them in the wilderness of their despair might be heard 
 and lead them back to a better land. 
 
 The wretched houses or dwellings of this dark Land 
 of Misery were many of them large spacious places, but all 
 stamped with the same appalling look of uncleanness, 
 foulness and decay. They resembled large houses to be 
 seen in some of our slums, once handsome mansions and 
 fine palaces, the abodes of luxury, which have become the 
 haunts of the lowest denizens of vice and crime. Here 
 and there would be great lonely tracts of country with a 
 
44 A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 few scattered sketched houses, mere hovels, and in other 
 places the buildings and the people were huddled together 
 in great gloomy, degraded-looking copies of your large 
 eiiies of earth. Everywhere squalor and dirt and 
 wretchedness reigned; nowhere was there one single 
 bright or beautiful or gracious thing for the eye to rest 
 upon in all this scene of desolation, made thus by the 
 spiritual emanations from the dark beings who dwelt 
 there. 
 
 Amongst these wretched inhabitants I wandered with 
 my little star of pure light, so small that it was but a 
 bright spark flickering about in the darkness as 1 moved, 
 yet around me it shed a soft pale light as from a star of 
 hope that shone for those not too blinded by their own 
 selfish evil passions to behold it. Here and there I would 
 .come upon some crouched in a doorway or against a wall, 
 or in some miserable room, who would arouse themselves 
 sufficiently to look at me with my light and listen to the 
 words I spoke to them, and would begin to seek for the 
 better way, the returning path to those upper spheres 
 from which they had fallen by their sins. Some I would 
 be able to induce to join me in my work of helping others, 
 but as a rule they could only think of their own miseries, 
 and long for something higher than their present sur- 
 roundings, and even this, small as it seems, was one step, 
 and the next one of thinking how to help others forward 
 as well would soon follow. 
 
 One day in my wanderings through this country I 
 came to the outskirts of a large city in the middle of a 
 wide desolate plain. The soil was black and arid, more 
 like those great cinder heaps that are seen near your iron 
 works than anything I can liken it to. I was amongst a 
 few dilapidated, tumble-down little cottages that formed 
 a sort of fringe between the unhappy city and the desolate 
 plain, when my ears caught the sound of quarreling and 
 shouting coming from one of them, and curiosity made 
 me draw near to see what the dispute might be about and 
 if even here there might not be someone whom I 
 could help. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 45 
 
 It was more like a barn than a house. A great rough 
 table ran the length of the room, and round it upon 
 coarse little wooden stools were seated about a dozen or 
 so of men. Such men! It is almost an insult to manhood 
 to give them the name. They were more like orang- 
 outangs, with the varieties of pigs and wolves and birds of 
 prey expressed in their coarse bloated distorted features. 
 Such faces, such misshapen bodies, such distorted limbs, 
 I can in no way describe them! They were clothed in 
 various grotesque and ragged semblances of their former 
 earthly finery, some in the fashion of centuries ago, others 
 in more modern garb, yet all alike ragged, dirty, and 
 unkempt, the hair disheveled, the eyes wild and staring 
 and glowing now with the fierce light of passion, now with 
 the sullen fire of despair and vindictive malice. To me, 
 then, it seemed that I had reached the lowest pit of hell, 
 but since then I have seen a region lower still — far 
 blacker, far more horrible, inhabited by beings so much 
 fiercer, so much lower, that beside them these were tame 
 and human. Later on I shall describe more fully these 
 lowest beings, when I come to that part of my wanderings 
 which took me into their kingdoms in the lowest hell, but 
 the spirits whom I now saw fighting in this cottage were 
 quarreling over a bag of coins which lay on the table. It 
 had been found by one of them and then given to be 
 gambled for by the whole party. The dispute seemed to 
 be because each wanted to take possession of it himself 
 without regard to the rights of anyone else at all. It was 
 simply a question of the strongest, and already they were 
 menacing each other in a violent fashion. The finder of 
 the money, or rather the spiritual counterpart of our 
 earthly money, was a young man, under thirty I should 
 say, who still possessed the remains of good looks, and but 
 for the marks that dissipation had planted on his face 
 would have seemed unfit for his present surroundings and 
 degraded associates. He was arguing that the money was 
 his, and though he had given it to be played for fairly he 
 objected to be robbed of it by anyone. I felt I had no 
 business there, and amidst a wild chorus of indignant cries 
 
46 A WAtfDEfcEB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 and protestations thai they "supposed they were as well 
 able to say what was honest as he was.*' 1 turned and left 
 them. I had proceeded hut a short way, and was almost 
 opposite another deserted little hovel when the whole wild 
 crew came struggling and fighting out of the cottage, 
 wrestling with each other to get near the young man with 
 the bag of money whom the foremost of them were beat- 
 ing and kicking and trying to deprive of it. This one of 
 them succeeded in doing, whereupon they all set upon 
 him, while the young man broke away from them and 
 began running towards me. In a moment there was a 
 wild yell set up to catch him and beat him for an im- 
 postor and a cheat, since the bag was empty of gold and 
 had only stones in it, the money, like the fairy gold in 
 the stories, having turned, not into withered leaves, but 
 into hard stones. 
 
 Almost before I realized it the wretched young man 
 was clutching hold of me and crying out to me to save 
 him from those devils; and the whole lot were coming- 
 down upon us in hot pursuit of their victim. Quick as 
 thought I sprang into the empty hovel which gave us the 
 only hope of asylum, dragging the unfortunate young 
 man with me. and slamming the door I planted my back 
 against it to keep our pursuers out. My Goodness! how 
 they did yell and stamp and storm and try to batter in 
 that door; and how I did brace nryself up and exert all 
 the force of mind and body to keep them out! I did not 
 know it then, but I know now that unseen powers 
 helped me and held fast that door till, baffled and angry 
 that they could not move it. they went off at last to seek 
 for some fresh quarrel or excitement elsewhere. 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 47 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 When they had gone I turned to my companion who 
 sat huddled in a heap, and almost stunned, in one corner 
 of the hut, and, helping him to rise, I suggested that if he 
 could make shift to walk a little, it would he well for us 
 hoth to leave the place in case those men should think fit 
 to return. With much pain and trouble I got him up and 
 helped him slowly to a place of safety on the dark plain 
 where, if we were without shelter, we were at least free 
 from the danger of being surrounded. Then I did my 
 best to relieve his sufferings by methods I had learned 
 during my stay in the House of Hope, and after a time the 
 poor fellow was able to speak and tell about himself and 
 how he came to be in that dark country. He was, it 
 seemed, but recently from earth life, having been shot by 
 a man who was jealous of his attentions to his wife, and 
 not without reason. The one redeeming feature about 
 this-poor spirit's story was that he, poor soul, did not feel 
 any anger or desire for revenge upon the man who had 
 hurried him out of life, but only sorrow and shame for it 
 all. What had hurt him most and had opened his eyes to 
 his degradation, was the discovery that the woman for 
 whose love it had all been done, was so callous, so selfish, 
 so devoid of all true sense of love for either of them, that 
 she was only occupied in thinking how it would affect 
 herself and her social position in the world of fashion, and 
 not one thought, save of anger and annoyance, had she 
 given to either her unhappy husband or the victim of his 
 jealous anger. 
 
 "When/' said the young man, whom I shall call 
 
48 A AYAXDEEKR IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 Kaoul, "when I knew that 1 was truly dead and yet 
 possessed the power to return to earth again, my first 
 thought was to fly to her and console her if possible, or at 
 least make her feel that the dead yet lived, and that even 
 in death I thought of her. And how do you think I 
 found her? "Weeping for me? Sorrowing for him? No! 
 not one atom. Only thinking of herself and wishing she 
 had never seen us, or that she could blot us both out from 
 her life by one coup-dc-main, and begin life again with 
 someone else higher in the social scale than either of us 
 had been. The scales fell from my eyes, and I knew she 
 had never loved me one particle. But I was rich, I was 
 of the noblesse, and through my help she had hoped to 
 climb another rung of the social ladder, and had willingly 
 sunk herself into an adulteress, not for love of me, but to 
 gain the petty triumph of queening it over some rival 
 woman. I was nothing but a poor blind fool, and my life 
 had paid the penalty of my folly. To her I was but an 
 unpleasant memory of the bitter shame and scandal that 
 had fallen upon her. Then I fled from earth in my 
 bitterness, anywhere, I cared not where it was. I said 
 I would believe no more in goodness or truth of any kind, 
 and my wild thoughts and desires drew me down to this 
 dark spot and these degraded revellers, amongst whom I 
 found kindred spirits to those who had been my parasites 
 and flatterers on earth, and amongst whom I had wasted 
 my substance and lost my soul." 
 
 "And now, oh! unhappy friend," I said, "would you 
 not even now seek the path of repentance that would lead 
 you back to brighter lands and help you to regain the lost 
 inheritance of your manhood and your higher self?" 
 
 "Now, alas! it is too late," said Raoul. "In hell, and 
 surely this is hell, there is no longer hope for any." 
 
 "No hope for any?" I answered. "Say not so, my 
 friend; those words are heard all too often from the lips 
 of unhappy souls, for I can testify that even in the 
 darkest despair there is ever given hope. I, too, have 
 known a sorrow and a bitterness as deep as yours; yet 1 
 had ever hope, for she whom I loved was as the pure 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 49 
 
 angels, and her hands were ever stretched out to give me 
 love and hope, and for her sake I work to give to others 
 the hope given to myself. Come, let me lead you and I 
 will guide you to that better land." 
 
 "And who art thou, oh! friend, with the kind words 
 and still kinder deeds to whom in truth I might say I 
 owed my life; but had I not learned that in this place, 
 alas! one cannot die — one can suffer to the point of death 
 and even all its pains, yet death comes not to any, for we 
 have passed beyond it, and it would seem must live 
 through an eternity of suffering? Tell me who you are 
 and how you come to be here, speaking words of hope with 
 such confidence. I might fancy you an angel sent down 
 to help me, but that you resemble myself too much 
 for that." 
 
 Then I told him my history, and how I was working 
 myself upwards even as he might do, and also spoke of the 
 great hope I had always before me, that in time I should 
 be fit to join my sweet love in a land where we should be 
 no more parted. 
 
 "And she?" he said, "is content, you think, to wait 
 for you? She will spend all her life lonely on earth that 
 she may join you in heaven when you shall get there? 
 Bah! mon ami, you deceive yourself. It is a mirage that 
 you pursue. Unless she is either old or very plain, no 
 woman will dream of living forever alone for your sake. 
 She will for a time, I grant you, if she is romantic, or if 
 no one come to woo her, but unless she is an angel she 
 will console herself by and by, believe me. If your hopes 
 are no more well founded than that I shall feel only 
 sorry for you." 
 
 I confess his words angered me somewhat; they 
 echoed the doubts- that always haunted me, and were like 
 a cold shower bath upon all the warmth of romance with 
 which I had buoyed myself up. It was partly to satisfy 
 my own doubts as well as his that I said, with some heat: 
 
 "If I take you to earth and we find her mourning 
 only for me, thinking only of me, will you believe then 
 that I know what I speak about and am under no de- 
 
50 A WANDERER ] X THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 lusion? Will you admit that your experience of life and 
 of women may not apply to all, ami that there is some- 
 thing that even you can learn on this as on other 
 matters?" 
 
 "My good friend, believe me that I ask your pardon 
 with all my soul if my unbelief has pained you. I admire 
 3 r our faith and would I could have but a little of it myself. 
 ]>y all means let us go and see her." 
 
 I took his hand, and then "willing" intently that we 
 should go to my beloved, we began to rise and rush 
 . through space with the speed of thought almost, till wo 
 found ourselves upon earth and standing in a room. I 
 saw her guardian spirit watching over my beloved, and 
 the dim outline of the room and its furniture, but my 
 friend Raoul saw nothing but the form of my darling 
 seated in her chair, and looking like some of the saints 
 ■ from the brightness of her spirit and the pale soft aureole 
 of light that surrounded her, a spiritual light invisible to 
 you of earth but seen by those on the spiritual side of life 
 around those whose lives are good and pure, just as a 
 dark mist surrounds those who are not good. 
 
 "Mon Dieu!" cried Raoul, sinking upon his knees at 
 her feet. "It is an angel, a saint you have brought me to 
 see, not a woman. She is not of earth at all." 
 
 Then I spoke to her by name, and she heard my 
 voice and her face brightened and the sadness vanished 
 from it, and she said softly: "My dearest, are you indeed 
 there? I was longing for you to come again. I can 
 think and dream of nothing but you. Can you touch me 
 yet?" She put out her hand and for one brief moment 
 mine rested in it, but even that moment made her shiver 
 as though an icy wind had struck her. 
 
 "See, my darling one, I have brought an unhappy 
 friend to ask your prayers. And I would have him to 
 know that there are some faithful women on earth— some 
 true love to bless us with were we but fit to enjoy it." 
 
 She had not heard clearly all that I said, but her 
 mind caught its sense, and she smiled, so radiant a smile, 
 and said: "Oh! yes, I am ever faithful to you, my beloved, 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 51 
 
 as you are to me, and some day we shall be so very, very 
 happy." 
 
 Then Raoul who was still kneeling before her, held 
 out his hands and tried to touch hers, but the invisible 
 wall kept him away as it had done me, and he drew back, 
 crying out to her: "If your heart is so full of love and 
 pity, spare some to me who am indeed unhappy and need 
 your prayers. Pray that I, too, may be helped, and I shall 
 know your prayers are heard where mine were not 
 worthy to be, and I shall hope that even for me pardon 
 may yet be possible." 
 
 My darling heard the words of this unhappy man, 
 and kneeling down beside her chair offered up a little 
 simple prayer for help and comfort to us all. And Raoul 
 was so touched, so softened, that he broke down com- 
 pletely, and I had to take him by the hand and lead him 
 Back to the spirit land, though not now to a region devoid 
 of hope. 
 
 From that time Raoul and I worked together for a 
 little in the dark land he had now ceased to dwell in, and 
 from day to day he grew more hopeful. By nature he 
 was most vivacious and buoyant, a true Frenchman, full 
 of airy graceful lightness of heart which even the awful 
 surroundings of that gloomy spot could not wholly 
 extinguish. "We became great friends, and our work was 
 pleasanter from being shared. Our companionship was, 
 however, not destined to last long then, but we have since 
 met and worked together many times, like comrades in 
 different regiments whom the chances of war may bring 
 together or separate at any time. 
 
52 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 I was again called upon to go to earth upon a mission 
 of help, and to leave for a time my wanderings in the 
 spirit spheres; and now it was that the greatest and most 
 terrible temptation of my life came to me. In the course 
 of my work I was brought across one still in the earth 
 body, whose influence over my earthly life had done more 
 than aught else to wreck and spoil it, and though I also 
 had not. been blameless — far indeed from it — yet I could 
 not but feel an intense bitterness and thirst for revenge 
 whenever I thought of this person and all the wrongs that 
 1 had suffered — wrongs brooded over till at times I felt 
 as if my feelings must have vent in some wild burst of 
 passionate resentment. 
 
 In my wanderings upon the earth plane I had learned 
 many ways in which a spirit can still work mischief to 
 those he hates who are yet in the flesh. Far more power 
 is ours than you would dream of, but I feel it is wiser to 
 let the veil rest still upon the possibilities the world holds 
 even after death for the revengeful spirit. I could detail 
 many terrible cases I know of as having actually taken 
 place — mysterious murders and strange crimes committed, 
 none knew why or how, by those on earth whose brains 
 were so disordered that they were not themselves 
 responsible for their actions, and were but the tools of a 
 possessing spirit. These and many kindred things are 
 known to us in the spirit spheres where circumstances 
 often wear a very different aspect from the one shown to 
 you. The old beliefs in demoniacal possession were not 
 so visionary after all, only these demons or devils had 
 themselves been once the denizens of earth. 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 53 
 
 It so happened to me then, that when I came once 
 more, after long years of absence, across this person whom 
 I so hated, all my old feelings of suffering and anger 
 revived, but with tenfold more force than is possible in 
 earth life, for a spirit has far, far greater capabilities of 
 suffering or enjoyments, of pleasure or pain, love or hate, 
 than one whose senses are still veiled and deadened by the 
 earthly envelope, and thus all the senses of a disembodied 
 spirit are tenfold more acute. 
 
 Thus when I once more found myself beside this 
 person, the desire for my long-suspended revenge woke 
 again, and with the desire a most devilish plan for its 
 accomplishment suggested itself to me. For my desire of 
 vengeance drew up to me from their haunts in the lowest 
 hell, spirits of so black a hue, so awful a type, that never 
 before had I seen such beings or dreamed that out of 
 some nightmare fable they could exist. These beings 
 cannot live upon the earth plane nor even in the lower 
 spheres surrounding it, unless there be congenial mortals 
 or some strong magnetic attraction to hold them there 
 for a time, and though they often rise in response to an 
 intensely evil desire upon the part of either a mortal or 
 spirit on the earth plane, yet they cannot remain long, 
 and the moment the attracting force becomes weakened, 
 like a rope that breaks, they lose their hold and sink down 
 again to their own dark abodes. At times of great 
 popular indignation and anger, as in some great revolt of 
 an oppressed people in whom all sense but that of suffer- 
 ing and anger has been crushed out, the bitter wrath and 
 thirst for revenge felt by the oppressed will draw around 
 them such a cloud of these dark beings, that horrors 
 similar to those witnessed in the great French Revolution 
 and kindred revolts of down-trodden people, will take 
 place, and the maddened populace are for a time com- 
 pletely under the control of those spirits who are truly 
 as devils. 
 
 In my case these horrible beings crowded round me 
 with delight, whispered in my ears and pointed out a way 
 of revenge so simple, so easy, and yet so horrible, so 
 
5 1 \ wa n i >i:i; i:k in the spirit lands. 
 
 appalling in its wickedness, that I shall not venture to 
 write it down lest the idea of it might be given to some 
 other desperate one, and like seed Calling into a fruitful 
 soil bring forth its baleful blossoms. 
 
 At any other time I should have shrunk hack in 
 horror from these beings and their foul suggestions. 
 Now in my mad passion I welcomed them and was about 
 to invoke their aid to help me to accomplish my ven- 
 geance, when like the tones of a silver bell there fell upon 
 my ears the voice of my beloved, to whose pleadings I was 
 never deaf and whose tones could move me as none else 
 could. The voice summoned me to come to her by all 
 that we both held sacred, by all the vows we had made 
 and all the hopes we had cherished, and though I could 
 not so instantly abandon my revenge, yet I was drawn as 
 by a rope to the one I loved from the one I hated. 
 
 And the whole wild crew of black devils came with 
 me, clinging to me and trying to hold me back, yet with 
 an ever feebler hold as the voice of love and purity and 
 truth penetrated more and more deeply to my heart. 
 
 And then I saw my beloved standing in her room, 
 her arms stretched out to draw me to her, and two strong 
 bright spirit guardians by her side, while around her was 
 drawn a circle of flaming silver light as though a wall of 
 lightning encircled her; yet at her call I passed through it, 
 and stood at her side. 
 
 The dark crowd sought to follow, but were kept back 
 by the flaming ring. One of the boldest made a rush at 
 me as I passed through, and tried to catch hold, but his 
 hand and arm were caught by the flame of light and 
 shriveled up as though thrust into a furnace. With a 
 yell of pain and rage he drew back amidst a wild howl of 
 derisive laughter from the rest. 
 
 With all the power of her love my darling pleaded 
 with me that I should give up this terrible idea, and 
 promise her nevermore to yield to so base a thought. She 
 asked me if I loved my revenge so much better than I 
 loved her, that to gratify it I would raise up between us 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 55 
 
 the insurmountable barrier of my meditated crime? Was 
 her love indeed so little to me after all? 
 
 At first I would not, could not yield, but at last she 
 began to weep, and then my heart melted as though her 
 tears had been warm drops of her heart's blood falling on 
 it to thaw its ice, and in bitter anguish of soul that I 
 should have caused her to shed tears I knelt at her feet 
 and prayed to be forgiven my wicked thought — prayed 
 that I might still be left with her love to cheer me, still 
 with her for my one thought, one hope, my all. And as 
 I prayed the circle of dark spirits, who had been fighting 
 to get in and beckoning to me and trying to draw me out, 
 broke like a cloud of black mist when the wind scatters it, 
 and they sank away down to their own abode again, while 
 I sank exhausted at my darling's feet. 
 
 At times after this I saw the dark spirits draw near 
 to me, though never again could they come close, for I 
 had an armor in my darling's love and my promise to her 
 which was proof against all their attacks. 
 
5G A VYAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I was next sent to visit what will indeed seem a 
 strange country to exist in the spirit world. The Land 
 of lee and Snow — the Frozen Land — in which lived all 
 those who had been cold and selfishly calculating in their 
 earthly lives. Those who had crushed out and chilled 
 and frozen from their own lives and the lives of others, all 
 those warm sweet impulses and affections which make the 
 life of heart and soul. Love had been so crushed and 
 killed by them that its sun could not shine where they 
 were, and only the frost of life remained. 
 
 Great statesmen were amongst those whom I saw 
 dwelling in this land, but they were those who had not 
 loved their country nor sought its good. Only their own 
 ambitions, their own aggrandizement had been their aim, 
 and to me they now appeared to dwell in great palaces of 
 ice and on the lofty frozen pinnacles of their own am- 
 bitions. Others more humble and in different paths in 
 life I saw, but all alike were chilled and frozen by the 
 awful coldness and barrenness of a life from which all 
 warmth, all passion, was shut out. I had learned the 
 evils of an excess of emotion and of passion, now I saw 
 the evils of their entire absence. Thank God this land 
 had far fewer inhabitants than the other, for terrible as 
 are the effects of mis-used love, they are not so hard to 
 overcome as the absence of all the tender feelings of the 
 human heart. 
 
 There were men here who had been prominent mem- 
 bers of every religious faith and every nationality on your 
 earth. Roman Catholic cardinals and priests of austere 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 57 
 
 and pious but cold and selfish lives, Puritan preachers, 
 Methodist ministers, Presbyterian divines. Church of 
 England bishops and clergymen, missionaries, Brahmin 
 priests, Parsees, Egyptians, Mohammedans — in sbort all 
 sorts and all nationalities were to be found in the Frozen 
 Laud, yet in scarcely one was there enough warmth of 
 feeling to thaw the ice around themselves even in a small 
 degree. When there was even a little tiny drop of 
 warmth, such as one tear of sorrow, then the ice began to 
 melt and there was hope for that poor soul. 
 
 There was one man whom I saw who appeared to be 
 enclosed in a cage of ice; tbe liars were of ice, yet they 
 were as bars of polished steel for strength. This man had 
 been one of the Grand Inquisitors of the Inquisition in 
 Venice, and had been one of those whose very names sent 
 terror to the heart of any unfortunate who fell into their 
 clutches; a most celebrated name in history, yet in all the 
 records of his life and acts there was not one instance 
 where one shade of pity for his victims had touched his 
 heart and caused him to turn aside, even for one brief- 
 moment, from his awful determination in torturing and 
 killing those whom the Inquisition got into its toils. A 
 man known for his own hard austere life, which had no 
 more indulgence for himself than for others. Cold and 
 pitiless, he knew not what it was to feel one answering 
 throb awake in his heart for another's sufferings. His 
 face was a type of cold unemotional cruelty: the long thin 
 high nose, the pointed sharp chin, the high and rather 
 wide cheek bones, the thin straight cruel lips like a thin 
 line across the face, the head somewhat flat and wdde over 
 the ears, wdiile the deep-set penetrating eyes glittered 
 from their penthouse brows with the cold steely glitter 
 of a wild beast's. 
 
 Like a procession of spectres I saw the wraiths of 
 some of this man's many victims glide past him, maimed 
 and crushed, torn and bleeding from their tortures — 
 pallid ghosts, wandering astral shades, from which the 
 souls had departed forever, but which yet clung around 
 this man, unable to decay into the elements whilst his 
 
58 A W A N I » I-. 1 1 E 1 1 I X T HE SPIRIT LA X DS. 
 
 magnetism attached them, like a chain, to him. The 
 souls and all the higher elements had forever left those — 
 which were true astral shells — yet they possessed a certain 
 amount of vitality — only it was all drawn from this man, 
 not from the released spirits which had once inhabited 
 them. They were such things as those ghosts are made 
 of winch arc seen haunting the spot where some one too 
 good and innocent to be so chained to earth, has been 
 murdered. They seem to their murderers and others to 
 live and haunt them, yet the life of such astrals (or ghosts) 
 is but a reflected one, and ceases as soon as remorse and 
 repentance have sufficed to sever the tie that links them 
 to their murderers. 
 
 Other spirits I saw haunting this man, and taunting 
 him with his own helplessness and their past sufferings, 
 but these were very different looking; they were more 
 "solid in appearance and possessed a power and strength 
 and intelligence wanting in those other misty-looking 
 shades. These were spirits w T hose astral forms still held 
 the immortal souls imprisoned in them, though they had 
 been so crushed and tortured that only the fierce desire of 
 revenge remained. These spirits were incessant in their 
 endeavor to get at their former oppressor and tear him to 
 pieces, and the icy cage seemed to be regarded bj r him as 
 being as much a protection from them as a prison for 
 himself. One more clever than the rest had constructed 
 a long, sharp-pointed pole which he thrust through the 
 bars to prod at the man within, and wonderful w r as the 
 activity he displayed in trying to avoid its sharp point. 
 Others had sharp short javelins which they hurled 
 through the bars at him. Others again squirted foul, 
 slimy water, and at times the wdiole crowd would combine 
 in trying to hurl themselves en masse upon the sheltering 
 bars to break through, but in vain. The wretched man 
 within, whom long experience had taught the impreg- 
 nability of his cage, would taunt them in return with a 
 cold crafty enjoyment of their fruitless efforts. 
 
 To my mental query as to whether this man was ever 
 released, an answer was given to me by that majestic spirit 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 59 
 
 whose voice I had heard at rare times speaking to me, 
 from the time when I heard it first at my own grave. On 
 various occasions when I had asked for help or knowledge, 
 this spirit had spoken to me, as now, from a distance, his 
 voice sounding to me as the voice spoken of by the 
 prophets of old when they thought the Lord spoke to 
 them in the thunder. This voice rang in my ears with its 
 full deep tones, yet neither the imprisoned spirit nor 
 those haunting him heard it; their ears were deaf so that 
 they could not hear, and their eyes blind so that they 
 could not see. 
 
 And to me the voice said: "Son, behold the thoughts 
 of this man for one brief moment — see how he would use 
 liberty were it his." 
 
 And I saw, as one sees images reflected in a mirror, 
 the mind of this man. First the thought that he could 
 get free, and when once free he could force himself back 
 to earth and the earth plane, and once there he could find 
 some still in the flesh whose aspirations and ambitions 
 were like his own, and through their help he would forge 
 a still stronger yoke as of iron to rivet upon men's necks, 
 and found a still crueller tyranny — a still more pitiless 
 Inquisition, if that were possible, which should crush out 
 the last remnant of liberty left to its oppressed victims. 
 He knew he would sway a power far greater than his 
 earthly power, since he "would work with hands and brain 
 freed from all earthly fetters, and would be able to call 
 up around him kindred spirits, fellow workers with souls 
 as cruel and cold as his awn. He seemed to revel in the 
 thought of the fresh oppressions he could plan, and took 
 pride to himself in the recollection that he had ever 
 listened unmoved to the shrieks and groans and prayers 
 of the victims he had tortured to death. From the love 
 of oppression and for his own relentless ambition had he 
 worked, making the aggrandizement of his order but the 
 pretext for his actions, and in no single atom of his hard 
 soul was there awakened one spark of pity or remorse. 
 Such a man set free to return to earth would be a source 
 of danger far more deadly than the most fierce wild beast, 
 
GO A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 since his powers would be far less limited. lie did not 
 know that his vaunted Inquisition, which he still sought 
 io strengthen in all its deadly powers, had become a thing 
 of the past, swept away from the face of God's earth by a 
 power far mightier than any he could wield; and that, like 
 the dark and terrible age in which it had sprung up like 
 a noisome growth, it had gone nevermore to return — 
 thank God! — never again to disgrace humanity by the 
 crimes committed in the name of him who came only to 
 preach peace and love on earth — gone, with its traces and 
 its scars left yet upon the human mind in its shaken and 
 broken trust in a God and an immortality. The recoil of 
 that movement which at last swept away the Inquisition 
 is yet felt on earth, and long years must pass before all 
 which was good and pure and true and had survived 
 throughout even those dark ages shall reassert its power 
 "and lead men back to their faith in a God of Love, not a 
 God of Horrors, as those oppressors painted him. 
 
 From this Frozen Land I turned away chilled and 
 saddened. I did not care to linger there or explore its 
 secrets, though it may be that again at some future time 
 I may visit it. I felt that there was nothing I could do 
 in that land, none I could understand, and they but froze 
 and revolted me without my doing them any good. 
 
 On my way back from the Frozen Land to the Land 
 of Twilight, I passed a number of vast caverns called the 
 "Caverns of Slumber," wherein lay a great multitude of 
 spirits in a state of complete stupor, unconscious of all 
 around them. These, I learned, were the spirits of 
 mortals, who had killed themselves with opium eating and 
 smoking, and whose spirits had thus been deprived of all 
 chance of development, and so had retrograded instead of 
 advancing and growing — just as a limb tied up and 
 deprived of motion withers away — and now they were 
 feebler than an unborn infant, and as little able to 
 possess conscious life. 
 
 In many cases their sleep would last for centuries; in 
 others, where the indulgence in the drug had been less, it 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 61 
 
 might only last for twenty, fifty, or a hundred years. 
 These spirits lived, and that was all, their senses being 
 little more developed than those of some fungus growth 
 which exists without one spark of intelligence; yet in 
 them the soul germ still lingered, imprisoned like a tiny 
 seed in the wrapping of some Egyptian mummy, which, 
 long as it may lie thus, is yet alive, and will in a kindly 
 soil sprout forth at last. These caverns, in which kind 
 spirit hands had laid them, were full of life-giving 
 magnetism, and a number of attendant spirits who had 
 themselves passed through a similar state from opium 
 poisoning in their own earth lives, were engaged in giving 
 what life they could pour into these comatose spirit bodies 
 which lay like rows of dead people all over the floor. 
 
 By slow degrees, according as the spirit had been 
 more or less injured by the drug taken in the earthly life, 
 these wretched beings would awake to consciousness and 
 all the sufferings experienced by the opium eater when 
 deprived of his deadly drug. By long and slow degrees 
 the poor spirits would awaken, sense by sense, till at last 
 like feeble suffering children they would become fit for 
 instruction, when they would be sent to institutions like 
 your idiot asylums, where the dawning intellect would be 
 trained and helped to develop, and those faculties re- 
 covered which had been all but destroyed in the earth life. 
 
 These poor souls would only learn very slowly, 
 because they had to try to learn now, without the aids of 
 the earthly life, those lessons which it had been designed 
 to teach. Like drunkards (only more completely) they 
 had paralyzed brain and senses and had avoided, not 
 learned, the lessons of the earthly life and its development 
 of the spirit. 
 
 To me these Caves of Slumber were inexpressibly 
 sad to behold — not less so that those wretched slum- 
 berers were unconscious for so long of the valuable time 
 they lost in their dreamless, hopeless sleep of stagnation. 
 
 Like the hare in the fable, while they slept others 
 less swift won the race, and these poor souls might try in 
 
62 A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 vain through countless ages to recover the time which 
 they had lost. 
 
 Y\ hen these slumherers shall at last awake, to what 
 a fate do they not waken, through what an awful path 
 must they not climb to reach again that point in the earth 
 life from which they have fallen! Does it not fill our 
 souls with horror to think that there are those on earth 
 who live, and pile up wealth through the profits made 
 from that dreadful trade in opium, which not alone de- 
 stroys the body, but would seem to destroy even more 
 fatally the soul, till one would despondently ask if there 
 be indeed hope for these its victims? 
 
 These awful caves — these terrible stupefied spirits — 
 can any words point a fate more fearful than theirs? To 
 awaken at last with the intellects of idiots, to grow, 
 through hundreds of years, back at last to the possession 
 of the mental powers of children — not of grown men and 
 women. Slow, slow, must be their development even 
 then, for unlike ordinary children they have almost lost 
 the power to grow, and take many generations of time to 
 learn what one generation on earth could have taught 
 them. I have heard it said that many of the unhappy 
 beings when they have attained at last to the development 
 of infants, are sent back to earth to be reincarnated in an 
 earthly body, that they may enjoy again the advantages 
 they have misused before. But of this I only know by 
 hearsay, and cannot give any opinion of my own upon its 
 truth. I only know that I should be glad to think of any 
 such possibility for them which could shorten the process 
 of development or help them to regain all that they 
 had lost. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 63 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 In my home in the Twilight Land I rested now for 
 a time, stud} r ing to learn more of myself and the powers 
 I had within me, and seeking to apply the lessons I had 
 learned in my wanderings. My chief instructor at this 
 time was a man like myself in many respects, who had 
 lived a similar life on earth and had passed through the 
 lower spheres, as I was now doing, and who had become 
 a dweller in a bright land of sunshine from which he 
 came constantly to teach and help those of the Brother- 
 hood who, like myself, were his pupils. 
 
 There was likewise another teacher or guide whom I 
 sometimes saw, whose influence over me was even 
 greater, and from whom I learned many strange things, 
 but as he was in a much more advanced sphere than the 
 other, it was but seldom that I could see him as a distinct 
 personality. His teachings came to me more as mental 
 suggestions or inspirational discourses in answer to some 
 questioning thought on my part. This spirit I shall not 
 now describe to you, as at this time of my sojourn in the 
 Twilight Land I saw him but very dimly, and only clearly 
 when my progression had carried me into a brighter state. 
 
 Though this man was not fully visible to me I was 
 often conscious of his presence and his aid, and when later 
 on I learned that he had been my principal guardian spirit 
 during my earthly life, I could easily trace many thoughts 
 and suggestions, many of my higher aspirations, to his 
 influence; and it was his voice that had so often spoken to 
 me in warning or in comfort when I struggled on almost 
 overwhelmed with my terrible position on first entering 
 
64 A WANDEREB IN THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 
 
 the spirit world. In the days of darkness I had been 
 faintly conscious of his form flitting in and out of my 
 little cell, and soothing my terrible sufferings with his 
 magnetism and his wonderful knowledge and power. 
 
 On returning to the Twilight Land from the darker 
 spheres I had visited, I felt almost like returning to a 
 home, for, bare and shabby as my room looked, and small 
 and narrow as it was, it yet held all my greatest treasures : 
 my picture mirror in which I could see my beloved, and 
 the rose, and the letter she had sent to me. Moreover I 
 had friends there, companions in misfortune like myself, 
 and though we were as a rule much alone, meditating 
 upon our past mistakes and their lessons, yet at times it 
 was very pleasant to have one friend or another come in 
 to see you, and since we were all alike men who had dis- 
 graced ourselves by our earthly lives and were now seeking 
 to follow the better way, there was even in that a bond of 
 sympathy. Our life, could I make you fully realize it, 
 would indeed seem strange to you. It was like and yet 
 unlike an earthly life. For instance, we ate at times a 
 simple sort of food provided for us, it would seem, by 
 magic whenever we felt hungry, but often for a week at a 
 time we would not think of food, unless indeed it was one 
 of us who had been fond of good eating on earth, and in 
 that case the desire would be much more frequent and 
 troublesome to satisfy. For myself my tastes had been 
 somewhat simple, and neither eating nor drinking had in 
 themselves possessed special attractions for me. 
 
 There was always around us this twilight, which was 
 never varied with dark night or bright day, and which 
 was most especially trying to me in its monotony. I so 
 love light and sunshine. To me it was ever as a life- 
 giving bath. I had been born in a land of earth where all 
 is sunshine and flowers. 
 
 Then although we usually walked about this building 
 and the surrounding country much as you do, we could 
 float a little at will, though not so well as more advanced 
 spirits do, and if we were in a great hurry to go anywhere 
 
A WAXDERER Itf THE SPIRIT LANDS. 65 
 
 our drills seemed to carry us there with the speed almost 
 of thought. 
 
 As for sleep, we could spend long intervals without 
 feeling its need, or, again, we could lie and sleep for 
 weeks at a time, sometimes semi-conscious of all that 
 passed, at others in the most complete of slumbers. 
 Another strange thing was our dress — which never 
 teemed to wear out and renewed itself in some mysterious 
 fashion. All through this period of my wanderings and 
 while I was in this abode it was of a dark — a very dark — 
 blue color, with a yellow girdle round the waist, and an 
 anchor worked in yellow on the left slesve, with the 
 words, "Hope is Eternal," below it. There were close- 
 fitting undergarments of the same dark color. The robe 
 was long and such as you see penitent brotherhoods or 
 monks wear on earth, with a hood hung from the sho al- 
 ders, which could be used to cover the head and face of 
 any who desired to screen their features from view; and 
 indeed there were often times when we wished to do so, 
 for suffering and remorse had made such changes in us 
 that we were often glad to hide our faces from the gaze 
 of those we loved. The hollow eyes, sunken cheeks, 
 wasted and bent forms, and deep lines suffering had 
 traced upon each face told their own story but too well, 
 and such of us as had dear friends on earth or in the spirit 
 land still grieving for our loss, sought often at times to 
 iiide from their eyes our disfigured forms and faces. 
 
 Our lives had somewhat of monotony about them in 
 the regular order in which our studies and our lectures 
 followed each other like clockwork. At certain stages — ■ 
 for they did not count time by days or weeks, but only as 
 advance was made in the development of each spirit — 
 when a lesson had been learned, in a longer or a shorter 
 time according to the spiritual and intellectual develop- 
 ment, the spirit was advanced to a higher branch of the 
 subject studied. 
 
 Some remain a very long time before they can grasp 
 the meaning of the lesson shown to them; if so, the spirit 
 is in no way hurried or pressed on as is done in earth 
 
6G A WANDEEER IN THE SIM HIT LANDS. 
 
 education, where life seems all ion short for learning. As 
 a spirit a man has all eternity before him and can stand 
 still or go on as he pleases, or he may remain where he is 
 till he has thought out and grasped clearly what lias been 
 shown, and then he is ready for the next step, and so on. 
 There is no hurrying anyone faster than he chooses to go; 
 no interference with his liberty to live on in the same 
 state of undevelopment if he wishes, so long as he inter- 
 feres with the liberty of no one else and conforms to the 
 simple rule which governs that great Brotherhood, the 
 rule of freedom and sympathy for all. None were urged 
 to learn, and none were kept back from doing so; it was 
 all voluntary, and did any one seek (as many did) to leave 
 this place, he was free to go where he would, and to 
 return again if he wished; the doors were closed to none, 
 either in going or returning, and none ever sought to 
 reproach another with his faults or shortcomings, for each 
 felt the full depth of his own. 
 
 Some had been years there, I learned, for to them 
 the lessons were hard and slow to be learned. Others, 
 again, had broken away and gone back to the life of the 
 earth plane so many times that they had descended to the 
 lowest sphere at last, and gone through a course of 
 purification in that other House of Hope where I had first 
 been. They had appeared to go back instead of forward, 
 yet even this had not been in truth a retrogression, 
 but only a needful lesson, since they w T ere thus cured of 
 the desire to try the pleasures of the earth plane again. 
 A f ew, like myself, who had a strong and powerful motive 
 to rise, made rapid progress, and soon passed on from 
 step to step, but there were, alas! too many who required 
 all the hope and all the help that could be given to sustain 
 and comfort them through all their trials; and it was my 
 lot to be able, out of the storehouse of my own hopeful- 
 ness, to give a share to others less fortunate who were not 
 blessed, as I was, with a stream of love and sympathy 
 flowing ever to me from my beloved on earth, cheering me 
 on to fresh efforts with its promise of joy and peace at last. 
 
A WAXDEEEE IN THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 67 
 
 And now was given me a fresh source of happiness 
 in being able to spend a certain time on earth with my 
 darling, when she was able to be made fully conscious that 
 I was there. Many times had I been to see her unknown 
 to herself. In all my wanderings I had found time to 
 snatch brief happy moments to go to earth and look at 
 her; and now, although I was still almost invisible to her 
 eyes, yet she could tell that I was present and could feel 
 my touch when I laid my hand on hers. She would place 
 a chair for me beside her own that we might sit side by 
 side again, as in the dear old days that were gone. She 
 would speak to me and could hear faintly what I said in 
 answer, and could even distinguish dimly my form. Ah ! 
 the strangeness, the sadness, and yet the sweetness of 
 those meetings between the living and the dead! 
 
 I would come to her with my heart full of the bit- 
 terest anguish and remorse for the past. The sense of 
 shame and humiliation at what I had become would be 
 such that it seemed hopeless for one such as I was to rise 
 to higher things, and the sight of her sweet face and the 
 knowledge that she believed in me and loved me in spite 
 of all, would soothe my heart and give me fresh hope, 
 fresh courage to struggle on. From the desolation of our 
 lives there grew up in those strangely sweet meetings a 
 trust and hope in the future that no words can describe. 
 
 I learned that she had been developing her powers, 
 and studying how she could use the truly wonderful gifts 
 which she possessed and which had lain dormant for so 
 long, and she was greatly pleased to find how well she was 
 succeeding and how rapidly the curtain which shut me 
 out from her was being drawn aside. Then there came 
 to us another pleasure. My beloved had found a medium 
 through whose peculiar organization it was made possible 
 for a spirit to clothe himself again in the semblance of an 
 earthly body, similar in appearance to his own and 
 recognizable by the friends he had left on earth. I was 
 now enabled to materialize (as it is termed) a solid hand 
 with which to touch her. Great was the happiness this 
 gave to us both, though I was as yet denied the further 
 
G8 A WANDERER EN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 pleasure of showing myself to her. I was told I could not 
 do so without bearing on the materialized face the nans 
 of my Sufferings, and it would only have pained her to see 
 that. Later on, when 1 was more advanced, I should 
 show myself clearly. 
 
 Ah! how many, many poor spirits would come in 
 crowds to those meetings, hoping for the chance that they, 
 too, might be able to show themselves and win some 
 recognition — see again someone who was glad to know 
 that they still lived and could return; and how many were 
 always certain to go away sad and disappointed because 
 there were so many and only a certain amount of power, 
 and those who were nearest and dearest were naturally 
 granted a preference. The spirit world is full of lonely 
 souls, all eager to return and show that they still live, still 
 think of those whom they have left, still feel an interest 
 in their struggles, and are as ready and often more able 
 to advise and help than when they were on earth, were 
 they not shut out by the barriers of the flesh. I have seen 
 so many, so very many spirits hanging about the earth 
 plane when they might have gone to some bright sphere, 
 but would not, because of their affection for some beloved 
 ones left to struggle with the trials of earth, and grieving 
 in deepest sorrow for their death; and so the spirits would 
 hang about them, hoping for some chance which would 
 make the mortal conscious of their presence and their 
 constant love. Could these but communicate as do 
 friends on earth when one has to go to a distant country 
 and leave the other behind, there would not be such hope- 
 lessness of sorrow as I have often seen; and although 
 years and the ministrations of comforting angels will 
 soften the grief of most mortals, yet would it not be a 
 happier state for both mortals and spirits could they but 
 still hold sweet communion together as of yore? I have 
 known a mother whose son has taken to evil ways, and 
 who believed that mother to be an angel in heaven far 
 away — I have, I say, known her to follow her son for 
 years, striving in vain to impress him with the sense of her 
 presence, that she might warn and save him from his path 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 69 
 
 of sin. I have seen one of a pair of lovers whom some 
 misunderstanding: had parted, and between whom death 
 had placed a last insuperable harrier, haunt the beloved 
 one left behind, and seek by all means in his power to 
 convey to her the true state of things, and that their 
 hearts had been ever true whatever might have appeared 
 to the contrary. I have seen spirits in such sorrow, such 
 despair, trying in vain to win one conscious look, one 
 single thought, to show that their presence was felt and 
 understood. I have seen them in their despair cast them- 
 selves down before the mortal one and seek to hold her 
 hand, her dress, anything; and the spirit hand was power- 
 less to grasp the mortal one, and the mortal ears were ever 
 deaf to the spirit voice. Only, perhaps, a sense of sorrow 
 would be given, and an intense longing to behold again 
 the dead, without power to know that the so-called dead 
 was there beside them. There is no despair of earth, 
 great as it often is, equal to the despair a spirit feels when 
 first he realizes in all its force, the meaning of the barrier 
 which death has placed between him and the world of 
 mortal man. Is it, then, wonderful that on the spirit side 
 of life all means are being taken by those who seek to help 
 and comfort the sorrowing ones, both on the earth and in 
 the spirit land, to roll back these barriers and to open 
 wide the doors that men and angels may walk and talk 
 together upon earth, as in the days of old when the world 
 was but young? If there is much that is trivial, much 
 that seems silly and foolish, and even vulgar or grotesque 
 and terrible, in the manifestations witnessed through 
 many mediums and in many circles; if there are fraud- 
 ulent mediums and credulous fools or vain and conceited 
 egotists in the movement, is it not so with all great but 
 unrecognized truths struggling for acknowledgment, and 
 should not all these things be excused in view of the fact 
 that they are all attempts, clumsy and foolish it may be, 
 yet still attempts, to open the doors and let the light from 
 the spirit world in upon a sorrowful earth? Find fault 
 with these false or misdirected efforts if you will, but also 
 seek for knowledge to direct them better, and you will 
 
70 A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 help on those who are trying to climb to higher things, 
 and do not try simply to sneer them down and crush and 
 Btifle them; rather recognize them for what they are — the 
 efforts of the unseen world to lift the veil that hides your 
 beloved dead from your eyes. 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 71 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 To these meetings for materialization I was always 
 accompanied by that majestic spirit of whom I have 
 already spoken, and whom I now knew by his name, 
 Ahrinziman, '"the Eastern Guide." As I was now be- 
 ginning to see him more clearly I will describe him to you. 
 
 He was a tall, majestic-looking man with long flow- 
 ing white garments bordered with yellow, and a yellow 
 girdle around his waist. His complexion was that of an 
 Eastern, of a pale dusky tint. The features were straight 
 and beautifully molded, as one sees them in the statues of 
 Apollo, though their peculiar Eastern cast caused them 
 to vary a little from the perfect Grecian type. His eyes 
 were large, dark, soft and tender as a woman's, yet with a 
 latent fire and force of passion in their depths which, 
 though subdued and controlled by his strong will, yet 
 gave a warmth and intensity to his looks and manner, 
 from which I could easily believe that in his earth life he 
 had known all the sweetness and all the passion of violent 
 love and hate. Now his passions were purified from all 
 earthly dross, and served but as links of sympathy between 
 him and those who, like myself, were still struggling to 
 subdue their lower natures, and conquer their passions. 
 A short silky black beard covered his cheeks and chin, 
 and his soft wavy black hair hung somewhat long upon his 
 shoulders. His figure, though tall and powerful, had all 
 the litheness and supple grace of his Eastern race, for so 
 marked are the types of each race that even the spirit 
 bears still the impress of its earthly nationality, and 
 although centuries had passed since Ahrinziman had left 
 
: 8 A \VA N DEEEB IN TDK SPIEIT LANDS. 
 
 the earthly body he retained all the peculiarities which 
 distinguished the Eastern from the Western people. The 
 spirit was strangely like an earthly mortal man, and yet 
 so unlike in that peculiar dazzling brightness of form and 
 feature which no words can ever paint, nor pen describe, 
 that strange and wonderful ethereality, and yet distinct 
 tangibility, which only those who have seen a spirit of the 
 higher spheres can truly understand. In his earth life he 
 had heen a deep student of the occult sciences, and since 
 his entry into the spirit world he had expanded and in- 
 creased his knowledge till to me it seemed there was no 
 limit to his powers. Like myself, of a w r arm and passion- 
 ate nature, he had learned during long years of spirit life 
 to overcome and subdue all his passions, till now he stood 
 upon a pinnacle of power whence he stooped down ever to 
 draw up strugglers like myself, whom his sympathy and 
 ^ready understanding of our weaknesses made ready to 
 "receive his help, while one who had never himself fallen 
 would have spoken to us in vain. With all his gentleness 
 and ready sympathy, however, he had also a power of will 
 against which, when he chose to exert it, one sought in 
 vain to fight, and I have beheld on more than one occasion 
 some of the wild passionate beings amongst whom he 
 worked, brought to a stop in something they were about 
 to do which would have harmed themselves or others. 
 They would be spellbound and unable to move a limb, yet 
 he had never touched them. It was but by his own 
 powerful will, which was so much stronger than theirs 
 that for the time they were paralyzed. Then he would 
 argue the matter with them, kindly and frankly, and show 
 to them in some of his wonderful ways the full con- 
 sequences to themselves and others of what they were 
 about to do, and when he had done so he would lift from 
 them the spell of his will and leave them free to act as they 
 desired, free to commit the meditated sin now that they 
 knew its consequences; and seldom have I known any 
 who, after so solemn a warning, would still persist in fol- 
 lowing their own path. I myself have always been con- 
 sidered one whose will was strong, and who could not 
 
A WANDERER IN" THE SPIRIT LANDS. 73 
 
 readily give it up to any others, but beside this spirit I 
 have felt myself a child, and have bowed more than once 
 to the force of his decisions. And here let me say that in 
 all things in the spirit world man is free — free as air — to 
 follow his own inclinations and desires if he wishes, and 
 does not choose to take the advice offered to him. The 
 limitations to a man's own indulgence and the extent to 
 which he can infringe upon the rights of others, are regu- 
 lated by the amount of law and order existing in the 
 sphere to which he belongs. 
 
 For example, in the lowest sphere of all, where no 
 law prevails but the law of the strongest oppressor, you 
 may do what you please; you may injure or oppress 
 another to the very last limits of his endurance, and those 
 who are stronger than you will do the same to you. The 
 most oppressed slaves on earth are less unhappy than those 
 whom I have seen in the lowest sphere of all, where no law 
 prevails and where only those spirits are to be found who 
 have defied all laws of God or man and have been a law to 
 themselves, exercising the most boundless oppression and 
 wrong towards their neighbors. In those spheres which 
 I shall shortly describe, it seems that strong, cruel and 
 oppressive as a spirit may be, there is always found some- 
 one still stronger to oppress him, some one still crueller, 
 still wickeder, still more oppressive, till at last you arrive 
 at those who may truly be said to reign in hell — Kings 
 and Emperors of Evil! And it goes on till at last the very 
 excess of evil will work its own cure. The worst and most 
 tyrannical will long for some other state of things, some 
 laws to restrain, some power to control; and that feeling 
 will be the first step, the first desire for a better life, which 
 will give the Brothers of Hope sent to work in those dark 
 spheres, the little loophole through which to give the idea 
 of improvement, and the hope that it is still possible for 
 them. As the spirit progresses upwards there will be 
 found in each circle of the ladder of progress an increased 
 degree of law and order prevailing, to which he will be 
 ready to conform himself, as he expects others to conform 
 where the laws affect him. The perfect observance of the 
 
74 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 highest moral laws is found only in the highest spheres, 
 hut there are many degrees of observance, and he who 
 respects the rights of others will find his rights respected. 
 while he who tramples upon his neighbor will in turn he 
 trampled upon by the stronger ones. 
 
 In all respects man in the spirit world is free to work 
 or to he idle, to do good or to do evil, to win a hlessing or 
 a curse. Such as he is, such will he his surroundings, and 
 the sphere for which he is fitted must ever be the highest 
 to which he can attain till his own efforts fit him to be- 
 come a dweller in one higher. Thus the good need no 
 protection against the evil in the spirit world. Their own 
 different states place an insurmountable harrier between 
 them. Those above can always descend at will to visit or 
 help those below them, but, between them and the lower 
 spirits there is a great gulf which the lower ones cannot 
 •pass. Only upon your earth and on other planets where 
 material life exists, can there be the mixture of good and 
 evil influences with almost equal power. I say almost 
 equal, since even on earth the good have 'the greater 
 power, unless man shuts himself out from their aid by the 
 indulgence of his lower passions. 
 
 In days of old when men's hearts were simple as little 
 children's, the spirit world lay close at their doors and 
 they knew it not, but now men have drifted far from it, 
 and are like mariners upon a raft, who are seeking now 
 again through fog and mist to find it. Kind pilots of the 
 spirit world are striving to guide and help them to reach 
 that radiant land that they may bring back a bright store 
 of hope and light for the weary strugglers upon earth. 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 75 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The meetings for materialization were held once a 
 fortnight, and from the number of them I judged that 
 about three months had passed, when I was told by Ahrin- 
 ziman to prepare myself for a great change which was 
 about to take place in myself and my surroundings, and 
 which would mean my passing into a higher sphere. I 
 have heard the spheres divided differently by different 
 spirit teachers, and it is not very important that they 
 should be all divided by the same standard, since these 
 divisions are very similar to mapping out a country where 
 the boundaries melt so imperceptibly into one another 
 that it is not very essential to have the limits defined with 
 perfect exactitude, since the changes in the countries and 
 the people will of themselves mark their different states as 
 you progress on your journey. Thus, then, some will tell 
 you there are seven spheres and that the seventh means 
 the heaven spoken of in the Bible; others say there are 
 twelve spheres; others again extend the number. Each 
 sphere is, however, divided into circles, usually twelve to 
 a sphere, though here again some spirits will reckon them 
 differently, just as your standards of measurement on 
 earth differ in different countries, yet the thing they 
 measure remains the same. For myself, I have been used 
 to count that there are seven spheres above the earth and 
 seven below it — using the terms above and below as sig- 
 nifying the nearness to, or distance from, the great central 
 sun of our solar system, the nearest point of attraction 
 towards that sun being considered to be our highest point 
 of attainment (while in the limits of the earth spheres), 
 
rG A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 and the farthest away being regarded as our lowest or most 
 degraded sphere. Each sphere, then, being subdivided 
 into twelve circles, which are blended so closely into each 
 other that you appear to pass almost insensibly from one 
 to the other. I had hitherto been in what is called the 
 earth plane, which like a great broad belt circles around 
 the earth and permeates its atmosphere. This earth 
 plane may be said to comprehend within its bounds the 
 first of the seven spheres above and the first of those below 
 the earth, and is used commonly in describing the habita- 
 tions of those spirits who are said to be earth-bound in a 
 greater or less degree because they are not able to sink 
 below the earth attractions nor to free themselves from its 
 influences. 
 
 I was now told that I had so far freed myself from 
 the earth's attractions and overcome my desires for earthly 
 things, that I was able to pass into the second sphere. 
 The passing from the body of a lower sphere into that of 
 a higher one is often, though not invariably, accomplished 
 during a deej) sleep which closely resembles the death- 
 sleep of the spirit in leaving the earthly body. ' As a spirit 
 grows more elevated, more etherealized, this change is 
 accompanied by a greater degree of consciousness, till at 
 last the passing from one high sphere to another is simply 
 like changing one garb for another a little finer, discard- 
 ing one spiritual envelope for a more ethereal one. Thus 
 the soul passes onward, growing less and less earthly (or 
 material) in its envelopment, till it passes beyond the 
 limits of our earth spheres into those of the solar systems. 
 
 It happened, then, that upon my return from one of 
 my visits to the earth, I felt overpowered by a strange 
 unusual sense of drowsiness, which was more like paralysis 
 of the brain than sleep. 
 
 I retired to my little room in the Twilight Land, and 
 throwing myself upon my couch, sank at once into a pro- 
 found dreamless slumber like unto the unconscious sleep 
 of death. 
 
 In this state of unconsciousness I lay for about two 
 weeks of earthly time, and during it my soul passed from 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 77 
 
 the disfigured astral body and came forth like a newborn 
 child, clothed in a brighter, purer spiritual envelope, 
 which my efforts at overcoming the evil in myself had 
 created for it. Only I was not born as an infant but as a 
 full grown man, even as my experience and knowledge 
 had been those of a mature spirit. There are some mor- 
 tals whose knowledge of life is so limited, whose minds 
 have been so little cultivated, and whose natures are so 
 simple and childlike, that they are born into the spirit 
 world as mere children, however many years of earth life 
 they may have known, but it was not so with me, and in 
 assuming my new condition I also possessed the develop- 
 ment in age which my earth life had given me. 
 
 In a state of perfect unconsciousness my newborn 
 soul was borne by the attendant spirit friends into the 
 second sphere, where I lay sleeping my dreamless sleep 
 till the time came for my awakening. 
 
 The discarded astral envelope I had left was by the 
 power of attendant spirits dissolved into the elements of 
 the earth plane, even as my earthly body left at my first 
 death would decay into the earthly material from which it 
 had been taken,— dust returning unto dust again, while 
 the immortal soul passed on to a higher state. 
 
 Thus did I pass through my second death and awake 
 to the resurrection of my higher self. 
 
PART II. 
 
 Zbc Dawn of light. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 79 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Zbe Dawn of XfQbt. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 On my awakening for the second time from a Sleep 
 of death to consciousness in the spirit world, I found that 
 I was in much pleasanter surroundings. There was day- 
 light at last, though it was as that of a dull day without 
 sun, yet what a blessed change from the dismal twilight 
 and the dark night! 
 
 I was in a neat little room quite like an earthly one, 
 lying upon a little bed of soft white down. Before me 
 was a long window looking out upon a wide stretch of 
 hills and undulating country. There were no trees or 
 shrubs to be seen, and hardly any flowers, save here and 
 there some little simple ones like flowering weeds, yet 
 even these were refreshing to the eyes, and there were 
 ferns and grass clothing the ground with a carpet of 
 verdure instead of the hard bare soil of the Twilight Land. 
 
 This region was called the "Land of Dawn," and 
 truly the light was as the day appears before the sun has 
 arisen to warm it. The sky was of a pale blue grey, and 
 white cloudlets seemed to chase each other across it and 
 float in quiet masses on the horizon. You who think 
 that there are no clouds and no sunshine in the spirit 
 lands hardly know how beautiful a thing you would shut 
 
80 A WAX DEREB IN" THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 out, unless you have spent, as I did, a long monotonous 
 time without seeing cither of them. 
 
 The room I was in, though by no means luxurious, 
 was yet fairly comfortable in appearance, and reminded 
 me of some cottage interior upon earth. It held all that 
 was needful to comfort, if nothing that was specially beau- 
 til'ul, and it had not that bare prison-like look of my 
 former dwellings. There were a few pictures of scenes of 
 my earth life which had been pleasant, and the recollec- 
 tions they called up gave me a fresh pleasure; there were 
 also some pictures of spirit life, and oh! joy, there was my 
 picture mirror, and my rose, and the letter — all my treas- 
 ures! I stopped my explorations to look into that mirror 
 and see what my beloved was doing. She was asleep, and 
 on her face was a happy smile as if even in her dreams she 
 knew some good had befallen me. 'Then I went to the 
 window and looked out over the country and those long 
 rolling hills, treeless and somewhat bare, save for their 
 covering of grass and ferns. I looked long upon this 
 scene, it was so like and yet so unlike earth, so strangely 
 bare and yet so peaceful. My eyes, long wearied with 
 those lower spheres, rested in joy and peace upon this new 
 scene, and the thought that I had thus risen to a new life 
 filled me with a thankfulness of heart unspeakable. 
 
 At last I turned from the window, and seeing what 
 was like a small mirror near me, I looked to see what 
 change there might be in myself. I started back with an 
 exclamation of joy and surprise. Was it possible? Could 
 this be as I appeared now? I gazed and gazed again. 
 This myself? Why, I was young again! I looked a man 
 of about thirty or thirty-five, not more certainly, and I 
 beheld myself as I had been in my prime on earth ! I had 
 looked so old, so haggard, so miserable in that Twilight 
 Land that I had avoided to look at myself. I had looked 
 twenty times worse than I could ever have looked on 
 earth, had I lived to be a hundred years old. And now, 
 why, I was young! I held out my hand, it was firm and 
 fresh-looking like my face. A closer inspection of myself 
 pleased me still more. I was in all respects a young man 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 81 
 
 again in my prime of vigor, yet not quite as I had been; 
 no! there was a sadness in my look, a certain something 
 more in the eyes than anywhere else that showed the 
 suffering through which I had passed. I knew that never 
 again could I feel the heedless buoyant ecstasy of youth, 
 for never again could I go back and be quite as I had been. 
 The bitter past of my life rose up before me and checked 
 my buoyant thoughts. The remorse for my past sins was 
 with me yet, and cast still its shadow over even the joy of 
 this awakening. Never, ah! never can we undo all the 
 past life of earth, so that no trace of it will cling to the 
 risen spirit, and I have heard that even those who have 
 progressed far beyond what I have even yet done, bear 
 still the scars of their past sins and sorrows, scars that will 
 slowly, very slowly, wear away at last in the great ages of 
 eternity. For me there had come joy, great joy, wonder- 
 ful fulfillment of my hope, yet there clung to me the 
 shadow of the past, and its dark mantle clouded even the 
 happiness of this hour. 
 
 While I yet mused upon the. change which had passed 
 over me, the door opened and a spirit glided in, dressed 
 (as I now was) in a long robe of a dark blue color with 
 yellow, borderings, and the symbol of our order on the 
 sleeve. He had come to invite me to a banquet which was 
 to be given to myself and others who were newly arrived 
 from the lower sphere. "All is simple here," said he, 
 "even our festivals, yet there will be the salt of friendship 
 to season it and the wine of love to refresh you all. To- 
 day you are our honored guests, and we all wait to 
 welcome you as those who have fought a good fight and 
 gained a worthy victory." 
 
 Then he took me by the hand and led me into a long 
 hall, with many windows looking out upon more hills and 
 a great peaceful quiet lake. Here there were long tables 
 spread for the banquet, and seats placed round for us all. 
 There were about five or six hundred brothers newly 
 arrived, like myself, and about a thousand more who had 
 been there for some time and who were going about from 
 one to another introducing themselves and welcoming the 
 
82 A YV.WDKWKR IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 
 
 new-comers cordially. Here and there someone would 
 recognize an old friend or comrade, or one who had either 
 assisted them or been assisted by them in the lower 
 spheres. They were all awaiting the arrival of the pre- 
 siding spirit of the order in this sphere, who was called 
 "The Grand Master." 
 
 Presently the large doors at one end of the hall were 
 seen to glide apart of themselves, and a procession entered. 
 First came a most majestic, handsome spirit in robes of 
 that rich bine color one sees in the pictures of the Virgin 
 Mary. These robes were lined with white and bordered 
 with yellow, while a hood of yellow lined with white hung 
 from the shoulders, and on the sleeve was embroidered the 
 symbol of the Order of Hope. Behind this man were 
 about a hundred or so of youths, all in white and bine 
 robes, who bore in their hands wreaths of laurel. At the 
 upper end of the hall there was a handsome chair of state, 
 "with a white, bine and yellow canopy over it, and after 
 saluting us all the Grand Master seated himself in it. 
 while the youths ranged themselves in a semicircle behind 
 him. After a short prayer of thanksgiving to Almighty 
 God for us all he addressed us in these terms: 
 
 "My Brethren, you who are assembled to welcome 
 these wanderers who are to find for a time rest and peace, 
 sympathy and love, in this our House of Hope, and you 
 our wandering brothers, whom we are all assembled to 
 welcome and to honor as conquerors in the great battle 
 against selfishness and sin, to you we give our heartiest 
 greeting, and bid you accept, as members of our great 
 brotherhood, these tributes of our respect and honor, 
 which we offer and which you have fairly won. And from 
 the increased happiness of your own lives we bid you 
 stretch forth your hands in brotherly love to all the sor- 
 rowing ones whom you have left still toiling in the dark- 
 ness of the earth life and in the spheres of the earth plane, 
 and as you shall yourselves know yet more perfect 
 triumphs, yet nobler conquests, so seek ye to give to others 
 yet more and more of the perfect love of our great 
 brotherhood, whose highest and most glorious masters are 
 
A WANDEKEB IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 83 
 
 in the heavens, and whose humblest members are yet 
 struggling sinners in the dark earth plane. In one long 
 and unbroken chain our great order shall stretch from the 
 heavens to the earth while this planet shall support 
 material life, and each and every one of you must ever 
 remember that you are links of that great chain, fellow 
 workers with the angels, brother workers with the most 
 oppressed. I summon you now, each in your turn, to 
 receive and to cherish as a symbol of the honor you have 
 won, these wreaths of fadeless laurel which shall crown 
 the victors' brows. In the name of the Great Supreme 
 Euler of the Universe, in the name of all Angels and of 
 our Brotherhood, I crown each one and dedicate you to 
 the cause of Light and Hope and Truth." 
 
 Then at a signal we, the new arrivals, many of us 
 almost overcome by these kindly words and this mark of 
 honor, drew near, and, kneeling clown before the Grand 
 Master, had placed upon our heads these laurel crowns 
 which the youths handed to the Master, and with which 
 he crowned us with his own hands. 
 
 "When the last one had received his crown, such a 
 shout of joy went up from the assembled Brothers, such 
 cheers, and then they sang a most beautiful song of praise, 
 with so lovely a melody and such poetical words that I 
 would I could reproduce it all for you. "When this was 
 over we were each led to a seat by an attendant brother 
 and the banquet began. 
 
 You will wonder how such a banquet could be in the 
 spirit world, but do you think that even on earth your all 
 of enjoyment at such a scene is in the food you eat, the 
 wine you drink, and do you imagine that a spirit has no 
 need for food of any kind? If so, you are in error. We 
 need, and we eat, food, though not of so material a sub- 
 stance as is yours. There is no animal food of any sort, 
 nor anything like it, save only in the lowest spheres of 
 earth-bound spirits, where they enjoy through others yet 
 in the flesh the satisfaction of the animal appetites. 
 
 But there are in this second sphere the most delicious 
 fruits, almost transparent to look at, which melt in your 
 
8 1 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 mouth as you eaj them. There is wine like sparkling 
 nectar, which does not intoxicate or create a thirst for 
 more. There are none of those things which would 
 gratify coarse appetites, hut there are delicate cakes and a 
 BOrj of light bread. Of such fare and such wine did this 
 banquet consist, and I for one confess 1 never enjoyed 
 anything more than the lovely fruits, which were the first 
 1 had seen in the spirit world, and which I was told were 
 truly the fruits of our own labors grown in the spirit land 
 by our efforts to help others. 
 
 After the banquet was over there was another speech, 
 and a grand chorus of thanks, in which we all joined. 
 Then we dispersed, some of us to see our friends upon 
 earth and try to make them feel that some happy event 
 had befallen us. Many of us, alas! were being mourned 
 as among the lost souls who had died in sin, and it was a 
 .great grief to us that these earthly friends could not be 
 made conscious how great were now our hopes. Others 
 of the Brothers turned to converse with newly-found 
 spirit friends, while for my part I went straight to earth 
 to tell the good news to my beloved. I found her about 
 to attend one of those meetings for materialization, and, 
 trembling with joy and eagerness, I followed her there, 
 for now I knew there was no longer any reason why I 
 should not show my face to her who had been so faithful 
 and so patient in waiting for me — no longer would the 
 sight of me give pain or shock her. 
 
 Ah, what a happy night that was! I stood beside her 
 all the time. I touched her again and again. I stood 
 there, no more the dark shrouded figure hiding his face 
 from all eyes. No! I was there in my new dress with my 
 new hopes, my risen body, and the ashes of my dead past 
 were there no more to give me such shame and sorrow of 
 heart as I had known. And then — oh! crowning joy to 
 that most joyful day — I showed myself to her wondering 
 eyes, and they gazed into my own. But she did not know 
 me at once; she was looking for me as she had seen me last 
 on earth, with face of care and wrinkled brow, and the 
 young man's face looked strange to her. Yet not quite 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 85 
 
 strange, she smiled and looked with a puzzled wondering 
 look which, could I but have held the material particles 
 of my form together for but a few more moments, must 
 have changed to recognition. But, alas! all too soon I 
 felt my material form melting from me like soft wax, and 
 I had to turn and go as it faded away. But as I went I 
 heard her say: "It was so like, so very like what my dear 
 friend must have been in youth. It was so like and yet 
 so unlike him, I hardly know what to think." 
 
 Then I went behind her and whispered in her ear 
 that it was I myself, and no other. And she heard my 
 whisper and laughed and smiled, and said she had felt 
 sure it must be so. Then indeed the cup of my joy was 
 full, then indeed was the crown of my day complete. 
 
86 A WANDEREB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 After this there came for me a time of happiness, a 
 season of rest and refreshment upon which I shall not 
 dwell; its memories are all too sacred to me, for those days 
 were spent near to her I loved, and I had the happiness of 
 knowing that she was conscious of much, though not all, 
 I said to her, and I spent so much of my time on earth 
 that I had none to explore the wonders of that Land of 
 Dawn of which I had become an inhabitant. 
 
 And now a fresh surprise awaited me. In all my 
 wanderings since my death I had never once seen any of 
 my relatives nor the friends who had passed before me 
 into the spirit land. But one day when I came as usual to 
 see my beloved, I found her full of some mysterious mes- 
 sage she had received, and which she was to give me her- 
 self. After a little she told me that it was from a spirit 
 who had come to visit her, and who said he was my father 
 and that he wished her to give his message to me. I was 
 so overcome when she said this that I could scarcely 
 speak — scarcely ask what his message was. I had so loved 
 my father upon earth, for my mother had died when I was 
 so young that she was but a faint tender memory to me. 
 But my father! he had been everything to me. He had 
 had such pride and joy in all my successes, such hopes for 
 my future; and, then, when I had made shipwreck of my 
 life, I knew that I had broken his heart. He did not long 
 survive the crushing of all his hopes, and since his death 
 I had only thought of him with pain and shame of heart. 
 And now when I heard that from beyond the gates of 
 Death he had come to my beloved and spoken to her of 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 87 
 
 me, I feared lest his words might be but a lament over his 
 buried hopes, his degraded son, and I cried out that I 
 could not dare to meet him, yet I longed to hear what he 
 had said, and to know if there was in it a word of forgive- 
 ness for me, his son, who had so deeply sinned. 
 
 How shall I tell what his words had been? How say 
 what I felt to hear them? They fell upon my heart as 
 dew upon a thirsty land, those words of his, and are far, 
 far too precious to be given to the world, but surely the 
 father in the parable must have welcomed back his prodi- 
 gal son in some such words as these! Ah! how I cried out 
 to my beloved when I heard those words, and how I 
 longed to see that father again and be taken once more to 
 hi.- heart as when I was a boy! And as I turned away I 
 beheld his spirit standing by us, just as I had seen him 
 last in life, only with a glory of the spirit world upon 
 him such as no mortal eyes have ever seen. My father — 
 so long parted from me, and to meet again thus! We had 
 no words to greet each other with but "My father' and 
 "My son," but we clasped each other to the heart in a 
 joy that required no words. 
 
 When our feelings had calmed down again we began 
 to speak of many things, and not least of her whose love 
 had led me so far upon my upward path, and then I 
 learned that this beloved father had helped, watched over, 
 and protected us both; that he had followed me during all 
 my wanderings both on earth and in the spirit land, and 
 had protected and comforted me in my struggles. Unseen 
 himself he had yet been near, and unceasing in his efforts 
 and his love. All this time when I had so shrunk from 
 the thought of meeting him he had been there, only wait- 
 ing an opportunity to make himself known, and he had 
 come at last through her who had so much of my love, in 
 order that he might thereby link us all three more closely 
 together in the joy of this reunion. 
 
88 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 When I returned to the spirit land, my father wont 
 with me and we spent a long time together. In the 
 course of our conversation he told me that an expedition 
 was about to he sent from this sphere to work as 
 "Rescuers" in the lowest sphere of all, a sphere helow any 
 I had yet seen and which was in truth the hell believed in 
 by the church. How long the expedition would be absent 
 was not known, but a certain work had to be accom- 
 plished, and like an invading army we would remain till 
 •we had attained our object. 
 
 My Eastern guide advised me to join this band of 
 workers, and as my father had in earth life sent his sons 
 forth to fight for their beloved country, so 'did he now 
 wish me to go forth with this army of soldiers in the 
 cause of Truth and Light and Hope. To fight success- 
 fully against these powers of evil, it was necessary to be 
 beyond the temptations of the earth plane and lower 
 spheres, and to help the unhappy ones by a visible help 
 which they could see and take hold of, one must not 
 belong to the higher spheres, for spirits more advanced 
 than the Brothers of Hope in this, the first circle of the 
 second sphere, would be quite invisible to the unhappy 
 ones who could neither see nor hear them. Also in enter- 
 ing these lowest spheres we would, in order to be visible, 
 have to clothe ourselves in a certain portion of their 
 material elements, and this a more advanced spirit could 
 not do. So that although unseen helpers from the higher 
 spheres would accompany the expedition to protect and 
 assist us, they would be invisible alike to ourselves and 
 those we had come to help. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIEIT LAXDS. 89 
 
 Those who were to go upon this expedition with me 
 were similar to myself in disposition, and it was felt that 
 we would all learn much from seeing to what our passion- 
 ate feelings would have sunk us, had we indulged in them. 
 At the same time we would be able to rescue from those 
 dark spheres many poor repentant souls. Those whom 
 we rescued would be taken to where I had been on my 
 first; passing over from earth life, where there were 
 numerous institutions specially set apart for such poor 
 spirits., presided over and attended by spirits who had 
 themselves been rescued from the Kingdoms of Hell and 
 who were therefore best fitted to aid these poor wanderers. 
 
 Besides the Brothers of Hope from the Land of 
 Dawn, there were other similar bands from other brother- 
 hoods always being sent down to the dark spheres, such 
 expeditions being, in fact, part of the great system of help 
 for sinners ever being carried on in the name of the 
 Eternal Father of all, who dooms none of his children to 
 an eternity of misery. 
 
 A number of friends would accompany us a part of 
 our journey, and our expedition would be commanded by 
 a leader who had himself been rescued from the dark 
 spheres and who knew their especial dangers. 
 
 As we would pass through the earth plane and lower 
 spheres we would see them in a way we had not done be- 
 fore, and my Eastern guide said he would send one of his 
 pupils to accompany me as far as the lowest sphere, in 
 order that he might explain to me and make visible some 
 of the mysteries of the astral plane which we would see as 
 we passed. Hassein (as the student was named) was 
 studying those mysteries of nature which have been 
 classed under the name of magic and as such deemed 
 evil, whereas it is their abuse only which is evil. A more 
 extended intelligent knowledge of them would tend to 
 prevent many existing evils and counteract some of those 
 evil powers brought to bear upon man, often very in- 
 juriously, in his present helpless ignorance. This student 
 spirit had been a Persian and a follower of Zoroaster in 
 his earth life, as Ahrinziman himself had been, and they 
 
00 A WANDEREB IN" THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 belonged still to that school of thought of which Zoroaster 
 was the great exponent. 
 
 "In the spirit world." said Ahrinziman, "there arc a 
 great number of different schools of thought, all contain- 
 ing the great fundamental eternal truths of nature, but 
 each differing in many minor details, and also as to how 
 these great truths should he applied for the advancement 
 of the soul; they likewise differ as to how their respective 
 theories will work out. and the conclusions to he drawn 
 from the Undoubted knowledge they possess, when it is 
 applied to subjects upon which they have no certain 
 knowledge and which are still with them as with those 
 on earth, the subject of speculation, theory, and discus- 
 sion. It is a mistake to suppose that in the spirit world 
 of our planet there is any absolute knowledge which can 
 explain all the great mysteries of Creation, the why and 
 wherefore of our being, the existence of so much evil 
 mixed with the good, or the nature of the soul and how it 
 comes from God. 
 
 "The waves of truth are continually flowing from 
 the great thought centers of the Universe, and are trans- 
 mitted to earth through chains of spirit intelligences, but 
 each spirit can only transmit such portions of truth as his 
 development has enabled him to understand, and each 
 mortal can only receive as much knowledge as his intellec- 
 tual faculties are able to assimilate and comprehend. 
 
 "Neither spirits nor mortals can know everything, 
 and spirits can only give you what are the teachings 
 which their own particular schools of thought and ad- 
 vanced teachers give as their explanations. Beyond this 
 they cannot go, for beyond this they do not themselves 
 know; there is no more absolute certainty in the spirit 
 world than on earth, and those who assert that they have 
 the true and only explanation of these great mysteries are 
 giving you merely what they have been taught by more 
 advanced spirits, who, with all due deference to them, are 
 no more entitled to speak absolutely than the most ad- 
 vanced teachers of some other school. I assert with 
 knowledge not my own, but from another who is indeed 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 91 
 
 regarded in the spirit world as a leader of most advanced 
 thought, that it is in no way possible to give a final answer 
 to or explanation of subjects which are beyond the powers 
 of any spirit of our entire solar system to solve, and still 
 more beyond those of the spirits of our earth spheres. In 
 these subjects and their explanation are involved and re- 
 quired a knowledge of the limits of the universe itself 
 which has no limits, and the nature of that Supreme 
 Being of whom no man or spirit can know the nature, save 
 in so far as we can grasp the great truth that he is Infinite 
 Spirit, limitless in all senses. Unknowable and Unknown. 
 "Let men and spirits, then, argue or explain, they 
 can only teach you to the limits of their own knowledge 
 and beyond that again are limits none can reach. How 
 can any pretend to show you the ultimate end of that 
 which has no end, or sound the great depths of an infinite 
 thought which has no bottom? Thought is as eternal as 
 life and as fathomless. Spirit is infinite and all-pervading. 
 God is in all and over and above all, yet none know his 
 nature nor what manner of essence he is of, save that he 
 is in everything and everywhere. The mind of man must 
 pause on the very threshold of his inquiries, appalled by 
 the sense of his own littleness, and the most he can do is 
 s to learn humbly and study cautiously, that each step be 
 assured before he essays again to climb. The most lofty, 
 the most daring minds cannot grasp all at once, and can 
 man on earth hope that all can be explained to him with 
 his limited range of vision, when the most advanced 
 minds in the spirit world are ever being checked in their 
 explorations after truth by the sense of their limited 
 powers?" 
 
92 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The friend whom Ahrinziman sent to accompany and 
 instruct me, appeared to my eyes as a youth of about five- 
 and-twenty to thirty years of age, judging by earth's 
 standard in such matters, but he told me he had lived to 
 upwards of sixty years on earth. His present appearance 
 was that of his spiritual development, which alone con- 
 stitutes the age of a spirit. As a spirit grows more highly 
 developed in his intellectual powers, the appearance be- 
 comes more matured, till at last he assumes that of a sage, 
 without, however, the wrinkles and defects of age in earth 
 life, only its dignity, its power, and its experience. Thus, 
 when a spirit has attained to the highest possible develop- 
 ment of the earth (or any other planet's) spheres he would 
 possess the appearance of one of its patriarchs, and would 
 then pass into the higher and more extended spheres of 
 the solar system of that planet, beginning there as a youth 
 again since his development compared to that of the 
 advanced spirits of those higher spheres would be but that 
 of a youth. 
 
 Hassein told me that he was at present studying the 
 various powers and forms of nature in those stages which 
 were below soul life, and would be able to make visible 
 and explain to me many curious things we should see 
 upon our journey. 
 
 "Many spirits," he said, "pass through the sphere of 
 the astral plane without being conscious of its spectral in- 
 habitants, by reason of the fact that their senses are not 
 developed in such a way as to enable them to become con- 
 scious of their surroundings in all their entirety, just as 
 in earth life there are many persons quite unable to see 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 93 
 
 the spirits around them, although to others again they are 
 perfectly visible. There are upon earth persons who can 
 see not alone the spirits of human beings but also these 
 astral and elementary beings who are not truly 'spirits,' 
 since that word should be used to denote only those which 
 possess within them the soul germ. Now many of these 
 beings which we shall see never possessed any soul, and 
 others again are only the empty shells from which the 
 soul germ has departed. To distinguish between the soul 
 spirit and the soulless astral one must possess a double 
 power of soul-sight or clairvoyance as it is termed, and 
 many who possess only an imperfect degree of this double 
 power ' will be able to see elementals and astrals, but 
 without being able to distinguish them clearly from the 
 soul enveloping spirit forms. Hence much confusion and 
 many mistakes have arisen amongst these imperfect clair- 
 voyants as to the nature and attributes of these classes of 
 beings. There are seven degrees of the soul-sight found 
 in persons yet in the earth life; and in the next stage of 
 life the spiritual part or soul being freed from the gross 
 elements of material life, there will be found seven more 
 expansions of this gift, and so on in progressive succession 
 as the soul casts off one by one the envelopes of matter — 
 first the most gross or earthly matter, then succeeding 
 degrees of refined or sublimated matter, for we hold 
 that there can be no such thing as entire severance be- 
 tween soul and matter — that is so long as it is conscious 
 of existence in any of our solar systems. Beyond these 
 limits we have no knowledge to guide us, and it is a matter 
 of pure speculation. It is only a question of the degree 
 and quality of the matter which is more or less refined 
 and etherealized as the soul is in a higher or lower state of 
 development. It is of the first stage of earthly conscious 
 soul life that I shall now speak in speaking of the clair- 
 voyant sight, leaving till another time the theories and 
 beliefs involved in the study of what has passed before 
 man's present conscious stage of existence and what may 
 happen when he passes beyond the limits of our present 
 knowledge. 
 
94 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 "We find, then, in the earthly stage of life person? — 
 most often women or very young boys — who are endowed 
 with some or all of these seven degrees of soul-sight. The 
 first three degrees are very often found, the fourth and 
 fifth more rarely, while the sixth and seventh are hardly 
 ever met with except in persons endowed with certain 
 peculiarities of organization, due to those astrological in- 
 fluences under which they are born — particularly to those 
 prevailing at the exact moment the child sees the light of 
 earth life. So rare are these perfect sixth and seventh 
 degrees that very few possess them, though sonic are 
 found with an imperfect sixth and none of the seventh, 
 in which case they can never attain to the perfection of 
 soul-sight, and as with imperfect glasses, the defect in 
 their sight will cause them to have an imperfect vision of 
 celestial things, and although they will see into the sixth 
 sphere in a sense, yet their defective power will greatly 
 impair the value of what they see. 
 
 "Those, however, who have the perfect sixth and 
 seventh degrees can be taken in spirit into' the seventh 
 sphere itself, which is the highest, or heaven of the earth 
 spheres, and like St. John of old they shall see unspeak- 
 able things. To do this the soul requires to be freed 
 from all ties to the material body, save only the slender 
 thread without which connecting link body and soul 
 would part forever. Thus they may be said to be out of 
 the body at such times, and so difficult and dangerous is 
 it to thus take the soul into the seventh sphere, that only 
 with exceptional persons and under very exceptional cir- 
 cumstances can it be done even where the power exists. 
 Of the clairvoyants of the lower degrees of power the 
 same may be said, except that the less celestial their 
 powers, the more safely and easily may they be used, each 
 clairvoyant being able to see into that sphere which cor- 
 responds to the degree of power which they possess. It 
 is, however, a curious fact that many clairvoyants possess 
 one or more perfect degrees of soul-sight with at the same 
 time an imperfect form of a degree still higher, and when 
 this is so it will be found that the medium mixes the 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 95 
 
 visions seen and is not reliable, since the defective degree 
 (if used) will act like a defective eye and cause that which 
 is beheld by both eyes at the same time to partake of its 
 imperfections. It is, therefore, far better to have the 
 entire absence of a degree than to possess an imperfect 
 form of it, since the imperfect one only causes confusion 
 in using the perfect ones, unless indeed you do with these 
 powers as you might do with the defective eye, and close 
 it altogether in order that the vision, though limited, 
 may be correct. Thus the ancients when they found the 
 highest amount of perfect vision of one or more degrees 
 in their pupils, arrested their further development at that 
 degree before the imperfect sight of a higher one could in 
 any way impair the value of those they possessed. In this 
 way they were able to train as reliable clairvoyants of 
 moderate powers many who by a further effort at de- 
 velopment would have lost far more than they could gain. 
 In olden days seers were divided into classes even as they 
 still are amongst certain schools of prophets in the East, 
 though now the art is not studied to the perfection it once 
 was when the Eastern nations were a power upon earth. 
 
 "Each class underwent a special training adapted to 
 their special degrees of power and class of gifts, and there 
 was not the present curious mixture of great gifts and 
 entire ignorance of how to use them wisely, which in 
 many instances results in so many inaccuracies and so 
 much harm both to mediums and to those who go to them 
 for spiritual knowledge. As well might a trainer of 
 young gymnasts think that he could overtax and strain 
 the growing muscles without lasting harm to them, as 
 those who make an ignorant, unlimited, and indiscrimi- 
 nate use and development of the mediumistic powers. A 
 young fledgling cast from the nest too soon flutters and 
 falls to the ground, while if left till the wings are strong 
 enough to bear its flight it will soar to heaven itself. 
 "With more extended knowledge upon earth there will be 
 given to certain sensitives endowed with the needful 
 mediumistic powers the knowledge by which under the 
 guidance of those higher intelligences who are directing 
 
96 A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 the great spiritual movement, they can judge between the 
 Bpirits of low and degraded states and those of a higher 
 degree of advancement, and thus much of the confusion 
 and danger which still hampers the movement will be 
 gradually eliminated from it. 
 
 "On the spirit side of life are many teachers who for 
 centuries have made a study of these subjects — of all 
 forms of life — and of the mediumistic powers of those 
 who are incarnated upon earth, and they are even now 
 seeking on all sides for open doors through which to im- 
 part such knowledge as may be of use to man. Much 
 which they know could not yet be imparted, but there are 
 things which could, and with this subject as with all 
 others the minds upon earth will expand and develop as 
 knowledge is given.*' 
 
 I thanked my new friend for his information and 
 promised help, and as the expedition was soon to start I 
 went to earth to bid adieu for a time to my beloved. Upon 
 our parting I shall not dwell, nor say how much we both 
 felt we should miss our constant little intercourse; for 
 even restricted as it was by the barrier between us, it had 
 been a great joy to both. 
 
 I found on my return that the preparations for our 
 journey were now complete, and I was summoned to bid 
 my father and others adieu, and to join my companions 
 in the great hall where they were now assembled to 
 receive the farewell benediction of our Grand Master. 
 
 After this our band started amidst the cheers and 
 good wishes of all the assembled Brotherhood. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 97 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 I can hardly give you a better idea of the course of 
 our journey than by asking you to imagine a vast spiral 
 or corkscrew winding upwards and downwards in circling 
 rings. A tiny speck no bigger than a pin's head in the 
 middle of a large cart-wheel might represent the earth in 
 the centre of these circling rings, an equal number of 
 which are above and below the earth, all winding in a 
 connected series from the lowest to the highest around 
 this speck, and the head of the spiral pointing towards 
 our central sun — this being regarded as the highest point 
 of the most advanced sphere. 
 
 This will give you a faint idea of the earth and its 
 attendant spirit spheres, and help you to understand how 
 in our journey we passed from the second into the lowest 
 sphere, and in doing so passed through the earth plane. 
 As we entered it I perceived many spirits of mortals 
 hurrying to and fro just as I had been wont to see them, 
 but now for the first time I also saw that mingling with 
 them were many floating spectral shapes similar to those 
 wraiths I had seen haunting the spirit in the icy cage in 
 the Frozen Land. These wraiths seemed to be floating to 
 and fro like driftweed upon a seashore, borne here and 
 there by the different astral currents which revolve and 
 circle round the earth. 
 
 Some were very distinct and life-like till a closer 
 inspection revealed to me that the light of intelligence 
 was wanting in their eyes and expressions, and there was 
 a helpless collapsed look about them like wax dolls from 
 which the stuffing has run out. For the life of me I can 
 
98 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 Hi ink of nothing that will so well express their appear- 
 ance. 
 
 In my former wanderings through the earth plane I 
 had not been conscious of any of these beings, and on 
 asking Hussein the reason of this he answered: "First, 
 because you were so much absorbed in your work, and 
 secondly, your powers of sight were not sufficiently de- 
 veloped. Now look," he added, pointing to a strange 
 little group of heings like elves which were approaching 
 us hand in hand, gamboling like children. "Look at 
 those; they are the mental and bodily emanations cast off 
 from the minds and bodies of children which consolidate 
 into these queer, harmless little elementals when brought 
 into contact with any of the great life currents that circle 
 around the earth, and which bear upon their waves the 
 living emanations cast off from men, women and children. 
 These curious little beings have no real separate intelli- 
 •gent life such as a soul would give, and they are so 
 evanescent and ethereal that they take their shapes and 
 change them, as you will observe, like the clouds on a 
 summer sky. See how they are all dissolving and form- 
 ing again afresh." 
 
 As I looked I saw the whole little cloud of figures 
 shift into a new form of grotesque likeness, and whereas 
 they had looked like tiny fairies in caps and gowns made 
 from flowers, they now took wings, becoming like a species 
 of half butterflies, half imps, with human bodies, animal's 
 heads, and butterflies' wings. Then as a fresh strong 
 wave of magnetism swept over them, lo! they were all 
 broken up and carried away to form fresh groups else- 
 where with other particles. 
 
 I was so astonished at this, the real living appear- 
 ance and the unreal disappearance, that I suppose Hassein 
 read my puzzled state of mind, for he said, "What you 
 have now beheld is only an ethereal form of elemental life, 
 which is not material enough for a long continued exist- 
 ence on the earth plane, and is like the foam of the sea 
 thrown up by the wave motions of pure earthly lives and 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 99 
 
 thoughts. See now how much stronger on the astral 
 plane can be the consistency of that which is not pure." 
 
 I beheld approaching us a great mass of aerial forms, 
 dark, misshapen, human, yet inhuman, in appearance. 
 "These," said he, "are the beings which haunt the de- 
 lirium of the drunkard, which gather round him, drawn 
 by his corrupted magnetism and unable to be repelled by 
 one who has lost the will-force needful to protect him 
 from such creatures which cling like barnacles to him, and 
 like leeches suck his animal vitality with a strange ghoul- 
 ish intelligence akin to that of some noisome plant which 
 has fastened itself upon a tree. For such a one as the 
 unfortunate drunkard the best help which can be given is 
 by obtaining some one upon the earth side of life who 
 possesses a strong will and mesmeric powers, and let him 
 place the drunkard under the protection of his will and 
 the strong influence of his magnetism, till the last of these 
 phantoms drops off from inability to hold on longer under 
 the stream of healthy magnetism poured upon them and 
 the^fcnlucky man upon whom they have fastened. The 
 healthy magnetism acts like a poison upon these crea- 
 tures, and kills them so that they drop off, and their 
 bodies, unable to hold together, decay into immaterial 
 dust. Should these beings, however, not encounter such 
 a strong dose of healthy magnetism they will go on for 
 years floating about and drawing away the animal vitality 
 of one human being after another, till at last they become 
 endowed with a certain amount of independent animal life 
 of their own. At this stage they can be used by higher, 
 more intelligent beings to carry out such work as their 
 peculiar organizations fit them for, and it is these soulless 
 creatures, though created and earth-nourished, whom a 
 certain class of practitioners of the so-called black magic 
 made use of in some of their experiments, as well as for 
 carrying out their evil designs against any one who had 
 offended them. But like deadly weeds at the bottom of 
 a dark pool, these astrals draw down and destroy in their 
 soulless clutches those who venture to meddle with them 
 unprotected by the higher powers." 
 
100 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 "And now tell me, friend Hussein/' said I, "if these 
 astralSj when they fasten upon a drunkard, can or do 
 influence him to drink more, as is the case when the earth- 
 bound spirit of a departed drunkard controls one still in 
 the flesh." 
 
 "No! These beings do not derive any pleasure from 
 the drink a man swallows, except in so far as by corrupt- 
 ing his magnetism it makes him such that they can more 
 readily feed upon him. It is his animal or earthly life- 
 force they desire. It means existence for them and is 
 much the same as water to a plant, and beyond the fact 
 that by draining the victim of his vitality they cause a 
 sense of exhaustion which makes him fly to stimulants 
 for relief, they do not affect the question of his continuing 
 to drink. They are mere parasites, and possess no intelli- 
 gence of their own except of so rudimentary a character 
 that we can scarcely give it that name. 
 
 "To originate a thought or to impress your thoughts 
 upon another requires the possession of an intelligent 
 soul germ or spark of the divine essence, and oncegthis 
 has been given the being becomes possessed of an in- 
 dependent individuality it can never again lose. It may 
 cast off envelope after envelope, or it may sink into grosser 
 and still grosser forms of matter, but once endowed with 
 soul-life it can never cease to exist, and in existing must 
 retain the individuality of its nature and the responsibility 
 of its actions. This is alike true of the human soul and 
 the intelligent soul-principle as manifested in the animals 
 or lower types of soul existence. Whenever you see the 
 power to reason and to act upon such reasoning man- 
 ifested either in man, the highest type, or in animals, the 
 lower type, you may know that a soul exists, and it is only 
 a question of degree of purity of soul essence. We see 
 in man and in the brute creation alike a power of reason- 
 ing intelligence differing only in degree, and from this 
 fact the school of thought to which I belong draws the 
 inference that both alike have a conscious individual im- 
 mortality, differing, however, in the type and degree of 
 tuul essence, animals as well as men having an immortal 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 101 
 
 future for development before them. What are the limits 
 of the action of this law we cannot pretend to say, but we 
 draw our conclusions from the existence in the spirit 
 world of animals as well as men who have alike lived on 
 earth, and both of whom are found in a more advanced 
 state of development than they were in their earth ex- 
 istences. 
 
 "It is impossible for the soulless parasite to influence 
 the mind of any mortal; and it is therefore undoubtedly 
 the souls which have been incarnated in earthly bodies 
 and have so indulged their lower passions in that state 
 that they are not able to free themselves from the fetters 
 of their astral envelopes, that haunt the earth and incite 
 those yet in the flesh to indulgence in drink and similar 
 vices. They, as you know, can control man in many ways. 
 either partially or completely, and the most common way 
 is for the spirit to partly envelop the man he controls 
 with his spirit body until a link has been formed between 
 them, somewhat after the nature of that uniting some 
 twin children who possess distinct bodies, but are so 
 joined to each other and interblended that all which one 
 feels is felt by the other. In this fashion what is 
 swallowed by the mortal is enjoyed by the spirit who 
 controls the unfortunate man, and who urges him to drink 
 as much as possible, and when he can no longer do so the 
 spirit will then try to free- himself and go elsewhere in 
 search of some other weak-willed man or woman of de- 
 praved tastes. Not always, however, can either the spirit 
 or the mortal free themselves from the strange link woven 
 between them by the indulgence of their joint desires. 
 After a long-continued connection of this sort it becomes 
 very difficult for them to separate, and the spirit and the 
 man may go on for years sick of each other yet unable to 
 break the tie without help from the higher powers, who 
 are always ready to assist those who call upon their aid. 
 Should a spirit continue to control men for the purpose 
 of self-gratification as I have described, he sinks lower 
 and lower, and drags his victims down with him into the 
 depths of hell itself, from which they will both have a 
 
102 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 bitter and weary task to climb when at last the desire for 
 better things shall awaken. To a soul alone belongs the 
 power to think and to will, and those other soulless crea- 
 tures but obey the laws of attraction and repulsion, which 
 are felt likewise by all the material atoms of which the 
 universe is composed, and even when these astral parasites 
 have, by long feeding upon the vital force of men or 
 women, attained to a certain amount of independent life, 
 they have no intelligence to direct their own or others' 
 movements; they float about like fever germs generated 
 in a foul atmosphere, attracted to one person more readily 
 than to another, and like such germs may be said to 
 possess a very low form of life. 
 
 "Another class of elemental astrals are those of the 
 earth, air, fire, and water, whose bodies are formed from 
 the material life germs in each element. Some are in 
 appearance like the gnomes and elves who are said to 
 "inhabit mines and mountain caverns which have never 
 been exposed to the light of day. Such, too, are the 
 fairies whom men have seen in lonely and secluded places 
 amongst primitive races of men. Such, with the varia- 
 tions caused by the different natures of the elements from 
 which they are formed, are the water sprites and the mer- 
 maids of ancient fable, and the spirits of the fire and the 
 spirits of the air. 
 
 "All these beings possess life, but as yet no souls, for 
 their lives are drawn from and sustained by the lives of 
 earthh r men and women, and the}' are but reflections of 
 the men amongst whom they dwell. Some of these beings 
 are of a very low order of life, almost like the higher 
 orders of plants, except that they possess an independent 
 power of motion. Others are very lively and full of gro- 
 tesque unmeaning tricks, with the power of very rapid 
 flight from place to place. Some are perfectly harmless, 
 while others again are more malignant in their instincts 
 as the human beings from whom their life is drawn are of 
 a more savage race. These curious earth elementals can- 
 not exist long amongst nations where the more in- 
 tellectual stage of development has been reached, because 
 
A WAXDEBEB IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 103 
 
 then the life germs thrown off by man contain too little 
 of the lower or animal life to sustain them, and they die 
 and their hodies decay into the atmosphere. Thus as 
 nations advance and grow more spiritual, these lower 
 forms of life die out from the astral plane of that earth's 
 sphere, and succeeding generations begin at first to doubt 
 and then to deny that they ever had an existence. Only 
 amongst those ancient religions of the East who have kept 
 still unbroken the threads of record, are there to be found 
 accounts of these intermediate dependent races of beings 
 and the causes of their existence. 
 
 "These soulless elementals of earth, air, fire and 
 water, are a class distinct from those others which I have 
 drawn you as emanating from the debased intelligence of 
 man's mind and the evil actions of his body. Behold 
 now, oh! man of a Western nation, the knowledge which 
 your philosophers and learned men have shut out and 
 locked away as being harmful fables, till man, shut into 
 the narrow bounds of what he can with his physical senses 
 alone see, hear, and feel, has begun to doubt if he has any 
 soul at all, any higher, purer, nobler self than is sustained 
 by the sordid life of earth. See now the multitudinous 
 beings that surround man on every side, and ask yourself 
 if it would not be well that he should have the knowledge 
 which could help to keep him safe from the many pitfalls 
 over which he walks in blind ignorance and unconscious- 
 ness of his danger. In the primitive ages of the earth 
 man was content to look like a child for help and succor 
 to his Heavenly Eather, and God sent his angels and 
 ministering spirits to protect his earthly children. In 
 these latter ages man, like a full-grown troublesome 
 youth, seeks in his self-conceit no higher help than his 
 own, and rushes into danger with his eyes bandaged by 
 his pride and ignorance. He scoffs at those things which 
 he is too limited in his powers to understand, and turns 
 aside from those who would instruct him. Because he 
 cannot see his soul, cannot weigh it and analyze it, he says, 
 forsooth, that man has no soul and had better enjoy this 
 earthly life as one who shall some day die and turn to dust 
 
104 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 again, consciousness, individuality, all forever blotted out. 
 
 "Or, again, in abject i'ear of the unknown fate before 
 him, man takes refuge in the vague superstitions, the 
 shadowy creeds of those who profess to act as guides upon 
 the pathway to the Unknown Land, with little more 
 certain knowledge than man has himself. 
 
 "Thus, then, it is in pity to his wandering, struggling 
 children that God has in these later days opened once 
 more — and wider than ever before — the doors of com- 
 munion between the two worlds. He is sending out again 
 messengers to warn man, ambassadors, to tell him of the 
 better way, the truer path to the happiness of a higher 
 life, and to show him that knowledge and that power 
 which shall yet be of right his inheritance. As the 
 prophets of old spake, so speak these messengers now, and 
 if they speak with clearer voice, with less veiled metaphor, 
 it is because man is no longer in his infancy and needs 
 now that he should be shown the reason and the science 
 upon which his beliefs and hopes must be founded. 
 
 "Listen, then, unto this voice that, calls, oh! ye toilers 
 of the earth!" cried Hassein, turning and stretching out 
 his hands towards a small dark ball that seemed to float 
 far away on the horizon of our sight — a small dark globe 
 that we knew to be the sorrowful planet called Earth. 
 "Listen to the voices that call to you and turn not a deaf 
 ear, and realize ere it be too late that God is not a God of 
 the dead but of the living, for all things are alive for ever- 
 more. Life is everywhere and in everything; even the 
 dull earth and the hard rocks are composed of living 
 germs, each living according to its own degree. The very 
 air we breathe and the boundless ether of universal space 
 are full of life, and there is not one thought we think but 
 lives for good or ill, not one act whose image shall not live 
 to torture or to solace the soul in the days of its release 
 from its incarnation in an earthly form. Life is in all 
 things, and God is the central Life of All." 
 
 Hassein paused, then in a calmer voice he said to me: 
 "Look yonder! What would you say those things were?" 
 
 He pointed to what seemed to me at first a mass of 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 105 
 
 spirit forms which came sweeping towards us as though 
 blown by a strong wind. As they came near I saw they 
 were evidently soulless astral envelopes, but unlike those 
 floating wraiths I had seen haunting the man in the icy- 
 cage, these were solid, and to my spiritual sight life-like 
 and full of animal vigor; yet they were like automatons 
 and did not seem to possess any intelligence. They were 
 drifting and bobbing about like buoys at sea to which 
 boats are anchored. As they drifted close to us my friend 
 put forth his will-force and captured one, which then 
 remained floating in mid air. 
 
 "Now look," said he, "you will observe this is some- 
 what, like a great living doll. It is the result of countless 
 little living germs which man is continually throwing off 
 from his earthly body, emanations solely of his animal or 
 lower life, material enough when brought into contact 
 with the magnetic forces of the astral plane, to form into 
 these imitations of earthly men and women, and im- 
 material enough to be invisible to man's purely material 
 sight, although a very small degree of clairvoyant power 
 would enable him to see them. A stronger and higher 
 degree of clairvoyant power would enable him to see, as 
 you do, that this is not a true spirit envelope, since the 
 soul principle is wanting; and a yet higher degree of clair- 
 voyant power would show that a soul has never been in 
 this form, and that it has never had a conscious existence 
 as a soul's astral envelope. 
 
 "Amongst ordinary clairvoyants the subject of astral 
 spirits is not studied sufficiently to develop these degrees 
 of soul-sight, therefore few clairvoyants in your earthly 
 country could tell you whether this was a true soul- 
 enveloping astral form or one from which the soul had 
 departed, or yet again one in which the soul had never 
 been present at all. Presently I shall show you an experi- 
 ment with this astral form, but first observe that being 
 such as it is, it is fresh and full of the animal life of the 
 earth plane, and has not the collapsed appearance of those 
 you saw before, which had once contained a soul and 
 which were there in a state of rapid decay yet. And mark 
 
10G A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 this carefully: this fresh looking astral will decay far 
 faster than the others, for it has none of the higher prin- 
 ciple of life clinging to it, which, in the case of an astral 
 that has once contained a soul, often remains for a long 
 time animating and keeping it from perfect decay. Astral 
 forms must draw their life from a higher source (from 
 soul germs in fact), or they soon cease to exist and 
 crumble away." 
 
 "But," I asked, "how do they assume the shapes of 
 men and women?*' 
 
 "By the action of the spiritualized magnetic currents 
 which flow through all the ether space continually, as the 
 currents flow in the ocean. These magnetic life currents 
 are of a more etherealized degree than those known to 
 scientific mortals, being in fact their spiritual counter- 
 part, and as such they act upon these cloud masses of 
 human atoms in the same way that electricitj r acts upon 
 the freezing moisture upon a window pane, forming them 
 into the semhlance of men and women as the electricity 
 forms the freezing moisture into a likeness of trees, 
 plants, etc. 
 
 "It is an acknowledged fact that electricity is an 
 active agent in the formation of the shapes of leaves and 
 trees, etc., in vegetable life, hut few know that this refined 
 form of magnetism has a similar share in the formation of 
 human forms and animal life. I say animal life as 
 applied to those types which are lower than man." 
 
 "Are there, then, also the astral forms of animals?" 
 
 "Certainly, and very queer, grotesque combinations 
 some of them are. I cannot show them to you now, be- 
 cause your powers of sight are not yet fully developed, and 
 also because we are traveling too rapidly to enable me to 
 develop them for you, but some day I shall show you 
 these, as well as many other curious things relating to the 
 astral plane. I may tell you that atoms may be classed 
 under different heads, and that each class will have a 
 special attraction for others of its own kind; thus vege- 
 table atoms will be attracted together to form astral trees 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 107 
 
 and plants, while animal atoms will form into the sem- 
 blance of beasts, birds, etc., and human atoms into men 
 and women's forms. In some eases, where the human 
 beings from whom the atoms come are very low in the 
 scale of humanity and nearly akin to animals, their atoms 
 will blend with those of the lower forms of life and create 
 grotesque horrible creatures which resemble at once 
 animals and men, and having been seen by clairvoyants in 
 a semi-trance condition are described as nightmare vis- 
 ions. In the earth spheres an immense amount of these 
 living atoms are thrown off continually from man's lower 
 or animal life, and these sustain and renew the astral 
 forms, but were we to transport one of these shells to a 
 planet whose spheres had been spiritualized beyond the 
 stage of material life, or in other words freed from all 
 these lower germs, the astrals could not exist, they would 
 become like a noxious A'apor and be blown away. These 
 astrals being, as I have said, created from the cloud masses 
 of human atoms, and never having been the envelope of 
 any soul, are very little more permanent in their nature 
 than the frost flowers on a window pane, unless the power 
 of some higher intelligence acts upon them to intensify 
 their vitality and prolong their existence. They are, as 
 you will see. expressionless and like wax dolls in appear- 
 ance, and readily lend themselves to receive any individu- 
 ality stamped upon them, hence their use in ancient times 
 by magicians and others. Astral atoms, whether of trees, 
 plants, animals, or human beings, must not be confounded 
 with the true spirit or soul-clothing atoms which con- 
 stitute the real spirit world and its inhabitants. Astrals 
 of every kind are the intermediate degree of materiality 
 between the gross matter of earth and the more ethereal- 
 ized matter of the spirit world, and we talk of a soul 
 clothed in its astral envelope to express that earth-bound 
 condition in which it is too refined or immaterial for earth 
 existence, and too grossly clad to ascend into the spirit 
 world of the higher spheres, or to descend to those of the 
 lower." 
 
 "Then you mean that a spirit even in the lowest 
 
108 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 sphere is more spiritualized as regards its body than an 
 earth-bound spirit?" 
 
 "Certainly I do. The astral plane extends like a belt 
 around each planet and is, as I said, formed of the matter 
 which is too fine for reabsorption by the planet, and too 
 coarse to escape from the attraction of the planet's mass 
 and pass into the spheres of the spirit world to form either 
 matter in the course of disintegration or change from 
 one form to another, and it is only the vitalizing power of 
 such soul magnetism as it retains which enables it to cling 
 together in any shape at all. 
 
 "In the case of human astral forms which have pos- 
 sessed individualized life as a soul's envelope, the astral 
 atoms have absorbed a greater or less degree of the soul's 
 magnetism, or true life essence, according as the earthly 
 existence of the soul has been good or evil, elevated or 
 degraded, and this soul magnetism animates it for a 
 longer or shorter period, and forms a link between it and 
 the soul which has animated it. In the case of a soul 
 whose desires are all for higher things, the link is soon 
 severed and the astral envelope soon decays, while with a 
 soul of evil desires the tie may last for centuries and chain 
 the soul to earth, making it in fact earth-bound. In some 
 cases the astral of a soul of very evil life will have absorbed 
 the lower or higher spheres. Astral matter is practically 
 so much of the soul's vitality that after the soul itself has 
 sunk into the lowest sphere of all, the empty shell will still 
 float about the earth like a fading image of its departed 
 owner. Such are sometimes seen by clairvoyants hanging 
 about the places where they once lived, and are truly 
 'spooks.' They have no intelligence of their own, since 
 the soul has fled, and they can neither influence mediums 
 nor move tables, nor do any other thing except as mechan- 
 ical agents of some higher intelligence, whether that 
 intelligence be good or evil. 
 
 "The astral before us now has no soul magnetism in 
 it; it never possessed any, therefore it will soon decay and 
 its atoms be absorbed by others. But see to what use it 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 109 
 
 can be turned when acted upon by my will power and 
 animated for the time being by my individuality." 
 
 I looked as he spoke and saw the astral doll become 
 suddenly animated and intelligent, and then glide to one 
 of the Brotherhood whom Hassein had selected and touch 
 him upon the shoulder, seeming to say, "Friend, Hassein 
 Bey salutes you ." Then, bowing to the amused and 
 wondering brother, it glided back to us as though Hassein 
 had held it by a string like a performing monkey. 
 
 "Now you see," he said, "how if I chose I might use 
 this astral as a messenger to execute some work I wished 
 done at a distance from myself, and you will understand 
 one of the means made use of by the old magicians to 
 carry out some work at a great distance from themselves 
 and without their appearing to take any share in it. These 
 astrals, however, are only capable of being made use of 
 upon the astral plane. They could not move any material 
 object, although they would be visible to material sight 
 at the will of the mortal using them. There are other 
 astrals more material in substance who could be used to 
 penetrate into the earth itself and to bring forth its hidden 
 treasures, the precious metals and the gems deeply buried 
 from the eyes of men. It would not, however, be lawful 
 or right for me to explain to you the power by which this 
 could be done, and those magicians who have discovered 
 and made use of such powers have sooner or later fallen 
 victims to those powers they could summon to their aid 
 but rarely continue to control." 
 
 "Then were this astral to become animated by an evil 
 intelligence it would be an actual danger to man?" I said. 
 
 "Yes, without doubt it might; and you will also ob- 
 serve that although I should not care to descend to clothe 
 myself in this astral form, yet a spirit more ignorant than 
 myself could easily do so in order to make himself felt and 
 seen upon the earth in a more palpable form than possible 
 to any spirit who has left the earth plane; but in doing so 
 he would run a danger of creating a link between himself 
 and the astral envelope not easily broken, and which 
 might thus tie him to the astral planet for a considerable 
 
110 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 time. You will, therefore, see how the idea has arisen 
 thai men on earth, in seeking to see their departed 
 friends, draw the spirits back into earthly conditions and 
 do them harm. Many an ignorant spirit who is good and 
 pure himself, has committed the mistake of reclothing 
 himself in one of these fresh astral shells when he would 
 have turned away from those which he knew to have been 
 left by another spirit, and has found to his cost that he 
 has thereby made of himself a prisoner upon the earth 
 plane, till a higher intelligence comes to his aid and 
 releases him. 
 
 "In a like manner spirits of a low type can clothe 
 themselves in these empty astral garments, but in their 
 case the very grossness of the spirit (or soul) prevents 
 them from retaining possession long, the dense magnetism 
 of the low spirit's own body acting as a strong noxious 
 vapor or gas would do upon a covering made, say, of a 
 spider's web of fine gossamer, and rending it into a thou- 
 sand pieces. To a spirit above the astral plane an astral 
 envelope appears almost as solid as iron, but to one below 
 it these fragile shells are like a cloud or vapor. The lower 
 the soul the stronger is its envelope and the more firmly 
 does it hold the soul, limiting its powers and preventing 
 it from rising into a more advanced sphere." 
 
 "You mean, then, that spirits sometimes use these 
 astral shells as they do earthly mediums, and either con- 
 trol them independently or actually enter into the form?'' 
 
 "Yes, certainly. A spirit above the earth plane, 
 anxious to show himself to a clairvoyant of the lowest or 
 first degree of power, will sometimes enter one of these 
 shells which he at once stamps with his identity, and in 
 that way the clairvoyant will truly see and describe him. 
 The danger lies in the fact that when the good spirit of 
 limited knowledge seeks to leave again the astral shell, he 
 finds he cannot do so; he has animated it and its strong 
 life holds him prisoner, and it is often difficult to release 
 him. In a similar manner the too complete, too long con- 
 tinued control of an earthly medium by a spirit, has been 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. Ill 
 
 found to create a link between them which becomes at 
 last a chain. To a spirit of the lowest spheres an astral 
 envelope is but a convenient, all too evanescent cloak with 
 which to hide his own degraded spirit body, and thus 
 impose upon clairvoyants unable to see the vile spirit 
 underneath: but to a good and pure spirit the astral en- 
 velope is as a suit of iron capable of imprisoning him." 
 
 "Then in the case of what are called personations by 
 one spirit of another at seances upon earth, are these 
 astrals made use of?". 
 
 '•Very often they are, where the mischief-making 
 spirit is of too low a type himself to come into direct con- 
 tact with the medium. You must know by this time how 
 wonderfully the thoughts of mortal men and women are 
 mirrored upon the atmosphere of the astral plane, and as 
 pictures they can be read and answered by spirits possess- 
 ing the knowledge of how to read them. All spirits have 
 not the power, just as all men and women on earth are not 
 able to read a newspaper or a letter. It requires intellect 
 and education with us as with those on earth. The 
 spirits, then, of which men should most beware are not so 
 much the poor ignorant half developed spirits of the earth 
 plane and lower spheres, whose degraded lives have made 
 them what they are and who are often glad of a helping 
 hand to raise them, but it is of the intellectually evil, 
 those who have great powers alike of mind and body and 
 who have only used them for wrong purposes. These are 
 the real dangers to guard against, and it is only by the 
 increase of knowledge amongst the mediums incarnated 
 in the earthly body that it will be successfully done, for 
 then mortals and spirit workers will, labor in unison, and 
 mutually protect the spiritual movement from fraud and 
 from the mistakes of the well meaning but half-ignorant 
 spirits and mortals who are doing good work in directing 
 the attention of mankind to the matter, but who often do 
 harm both to themselves and others. They are like 
 ignorant chemists and liable to bring destruction and 
 harm upon others as well as on themselves in their experi- 
 ments in search of knowledge." 
 
112 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 "You do not think, then, that the purity of their 
 motives will suffice to protect them?" 
 
 "Would purity of motive save a child from being 
 burnt if it thrust its hands into a blazing furnace? No! 
 then the only way is to keep the child as far from the fire 
 as possible. This good and wise spirit guardians do in a 
 great measure, but if the children are continually hover- 
 ing near the danger, and try at all sorts of odd times and 
 fashions to get just another peep at the dangerous thing, 
 it is impossible but that some of them will get scorched." 
 
 "Then you would not advise the indiscriminate cul- 
 tivation of mediumistic powers by all mortals?" 
 
 "Certainly not. I would have all men use the powers 
 of those who have been carefully developed under wise 
 guardians, and I would have all assisted to cultivate them 
 who are truly anxious to develop their powers as a means 
 of doing good to others. But when you consider how 
 manifold and how selfish may be the motives of those 
 mediumistically endowed, you will see how exceedingly 
 difficult it would be to protect them. Perhaps my ideas 
 are colored by the circumstances of race and my earthly 
 education, but I confess I should wish to limit the practice 
 of mediumship to those who have proved their readiness 
 to give up more material advantages for its sake. I 
 would, in fact, rather see them set apart as a body who 
 have no share in the ambitions of mankind. But enough 
 of our discussion. I am now about to let this astral shell 
 go and draw your attention to another type of the same 
 class." 
 
 As he spoke he made a swift upward motion with his 
 hands over it and uttered some words in an unknown 
 language, whereupon the astral — which had hitherto 
 floated on beside us — stopped and seemed to waver about 
 for a few seconds until an advancing current of magnetism 
 caught it, and it was swept away from us like a piece of 
 driftwood upon the waves. As I turned from watching it 
 I saw a small cluster of dark, weird, horrible looking 
 forms approaching us. These were astral shells which 
 had never known soul life, but, unlike the pleasant waxy 
 
A WAXDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 113 
 
 looking astral from which we had just parted, these were 
 in all respects repulsive. 
 
 "These," said Hassein, "are the emanations thrown 
 off by men and women of a low intellectual type and evil, 
 sensual lives. They are from the slums of the earth life — 
 not alone the social slums, but also from a higher grade of 
 society where there are moral slums quite as degraded. 
 Such beings as these, when animated by an evil intelli- 
 gence can be used for the very worst purposes. Being so 
 very material, they can even be used to affect material 
 matter upon earth, and have been so used in the practice 
 of what is known as Black Magic and witchcraft, and they 
 are also (but very rarely) used by higher intelligences to 
 effect physical phenomena at seances. Where wise and 
 good intelligences control them no harm will be done, but 
 under the direction of the evil or ignorant they become a 
 danger beyond my power fully to express. To these 
 astrals, and to those of a similar class in which the soul 
 germ yet lingers as in a prison, are due those rough and 
 dangerous manifestations sometimes seen in spirit circles 
 (seances), where men of bad lives, and others too ignorant 
 to protect themselves, are assembled from motives of 
 curiosity or mere amusement." 
 
 "And amongst what class of spirits do you place those 
 ghouls and vampires, so firmly believed in, in many parts 
 of the world?" 
 
 "Vampire spirits are those who have themselves 
 known earth life, but have so misused it that their souls 
 are still imprisoned in the astral envelope. Their object 
 in sucking away the animal life principle of men and 
 women is in order to retain thereby their hold upon the 
 life of the earth plane, and so save themselves from sink- 
 ing to far lower spheres. They are anxious to cling to 
 their astral envelope and to prolong its life, just as men 
 of very evil lives upon earth cling to the life of the earthly 
 body because they fear that when they are separated from 
 it they will sink into some unknown depths of darkness 
 and horror. The constant renewal of the animal and 
 
114 A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 astral life often enables these vampire spirits to hang 
 about the earth Eoi cenitfries." 
 
 "Is it possible Eor a vampire spirit to possess itself of 
 a sufficient amount of materiality to appear in mortal 
 form and mingle with men as described in many of the 
 tales told of such creatures?" 
 
 "If you mean to ask if the vampire can make to 
 itself a material body, I say no, but it can and does some- 
 times take complete possession of one belonging to a 
 mortal, just as other spirits do, and can cause its acquired 
 body to act in accordance with its will. Thus it is quite 
 possible for a vampire spirit clothed in the mortal body 
 of another to so change its expression as to make it bear 
 some resemblance to the vampire's own former earthly 
 appearance, and through the power obtained by the pos- 
 session of a material body he (or she, for the vampires are 
 of both sexes) might really lead the curious double life 
 ascribed to them in those weird tales current and believed 
 in in many countries. By far the larger number of vam- 
 pire spirits, however, are not in possession of an earthly 
 body, and they hover about the earth in their own astral 
 envelope, sucking away the earthly life of mediumistic 
 persons whose peculiar organization makes them liable to 
 become the prey of such influences, while they are them- 
 selves quite ignorant that such beings as these astrals 
 exist. The poor mortals suffer from a constant sense of 
 exhaustion and languor without" suspecting to what it is 
 to be attributed." 
 
 "But cannot spirit guardians protect mortals from 
 these beings?" 
 
 "Not always. In a great measure they do protect 
 them, but only as one may protect a person from infec- 
 tious fevers, by showing them the danger and warning 
 them to avoid spots where, owing to the associations with 
 their earthly lives, the vampire spirits are specially 
 attracted. This the guardian spirit docs by instilling into 
 the mind of the mortal an instinctive dread of the places 
 where crimes have been committed, or persons of evil 
 lives have lived. But since man is and must be in all 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 115 
 
 respects a free agent, it is not possible to do more. He 
 cannot be directed in all things like a puppet, and must 
 in a great measure gather his own experience for himself, 
 however bitter may prove its fruits. Knowledge, guidance 
 and help will always be given, but only in such a manner 
 as will not interfere with man's free will, and only such 
 knowledge as he himself desires; nothing will ever be 
 forced upon him by the spirit world." 
 
116 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 I would have liked to ask Hassein a great many more 
 questions about the astral plane and its many curious 
 forms of life, but we were now fast leaving it behind, and 
 passing downwards through those lower spheres which I 
 had partly explored before. We were traveling through 
 space at a wonderful velocity, not quite with the rapidity 
 of thought but at a speed difficult for the mind of mortal 
 to conceive. Onward and still onward we swept, sinking 
 ever lower and lower away from the bright 'spheres, and 
 as we sank a certain sense of awe and expectancy crept 
 over our souls and hushed our talk. We seemed to feel in 
 advance the horrors of that awful land and the sorrows 
 of its inhabitants. 
 
 And now I beheld afar off great masses of inky black 
 smoke which seemed to hang like a pall of gloom over the 
 land to which we were approaching. As we still floated 
 on and down, these great black clouds became tinged with 
 lurid sulphurous-looking flames as from myriads of 
 gigantic volcanoes. The air was so oppressive we could 
 scarcely breathe, while a sense of exhaustion, such as I 
 had never experienced before, seemed to paralyze my 
 every limb. At last our leader gave the order for us to 
 halt, and we descended on the top of a great black moun- 
 tain which seemed to jut out into a lake of ink, and from 
 which we saw on the horizon that awful lurid country. 
 
 Here we were to rest for a time, and here, too, we 
 were to part from our friends who had so far escorted us 
 upon our journey. After a simple repast consisting of 
 various sustaining spiritual fruits and food which we had 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 117 
 
 brought with us, our leader ou behalf of the whole com- 
 pany offered up a short prayer for protection and strength, 
 and then we all lay down upon that bleak mountain top 
 to rest. 
 
 I was aroused from a delicious state of unconscious- 
 ness to find that the others were all awake also, and were 
 being separated into parties of two or three, in order that 
 we might with less suspicion enter the enemy's country. 
 We were to be scattered as missionary workers over the 
 dark countr} - , to save and help such as we found willing to 
 accept our aid. To my surprise I found that during my 
 rest a change had passed over me, which in a great 
 measure acclimatized me to the atmosphere and surround- 
 ings in which I now found myself. I seemed to have put 
 on, or, as it were, clothed myself in a certain amount of 
 the specially coarse materiality of that sphere. My body 
 was more dense, and when I attempted to rise and float 
 as I had done before, I found it was only with great 
 difficulty I could do so. The atmosphere no longer gave 
 me so keen a sense of oppression, and the sense of its 
 weighing down my limbs, which had so troubled me be- 
 fore, was gone. A certain portion of sustaining essences, 
 sufficient to last during our sojourn in this lowest sphere, 
 was given to each of us, and then a few final directions 
 and warnings were addressed to us by our leader. 
 
 Hassein now came to bid me good-bye and to give 
 me the last words of advice Ahrinziman had sent me. "I 
 am to come from time to time," he said, "to give you news 
 of your beloved, and of your other friends, and you can 
 send a message to them at such times, by me. Always 
 remember that you will be surrounded by every species of 
 deceit and falsehood, and believe no one who comes to you 
 as a messenger from us unless he can give you the counter- 
 sign of your order. Your thoughts they may guess, but 
 they will not be able to read them clearly, since you are 
 above them in spiritual development, and although your 
 having to put on to a certain degree their own condition 
 on entering their sphere will enable them to sense a por- 
 
118 A WANDKI.'KIJ 1 \ THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 turn of "your thoughts, it will be but imperfectly, and <>nh 
 in those matters where your owd lower passions .-till form 
 a certain link between you and them: With the highest 
 powers of their intellect to help them they will plot and 
 Bcheme with great cleverness to tempt and entrap yon. In 
 these regions there are men who wen 1 amongst the greatest 
 intellectual powers of their age, hut whose awful careers 
 of wickedness have simk them to these spheres where they 
 reign over all around them — even worse and more des- 
 potic tyrants now than they were upon earth" Beware, 
 then, and heed all the warnings we have given you. 
 From time to time you will receive help and encourage- 
 ment from your sincere friends until your mission shall 
 have heen accomplished and yon return, let us hope, as a 
 victor in a good cause. Adieu, dear friend, and may the 
 hlessings of the Great Father of all he with you."' 
 
 I parted from Hassein with much regret and set forth 
 with our hand upon our journey. The last things we saw 
 as we descended were the wdiite robed figures of our 
 friends outlined against the dark sky, waving to us their 
 farewell. 
 
PART III. 
 
 Zhe Ikingbom of Ibell. 
 
A WAXDEEEH IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 121 
 
 PAET III. 
 
 Gbe IRingfcom of 1bell. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 The companion who was assigned to me in this ex- 
 pedition was a spirit who had been in this sphefe before, 
 and who was, therefore, well fitted to act as my guide on 
 entering this Land of Horrors. After a short time we 
 were to separate, he told me, and each to follow his own 
 path — but at any time either of us could, if needful, 
 summon the other to his aid in case of extremity. 
 
 As we drew near the great bank of smoke and flame 
 I remarked to my companion upon the strangely material 
 appearance they presented. I was accustomed in the spirit 
 world to the realism and solidity of all our surroundings 
 which mortals are apt to imagine must be of some ethereal 
 and intangible nature, since they are not visible to ordi- 
 nary eyesight, — still these thick clouds of smoke, these 
 leaping tongues of flame, were contrary to what I had 
 pictured Hell as being like. I had seen dark and dreary 
 countries and unhappy spirits in my wanderings, but I 
 had seen no flames, no fire of any sort, and I had totally 
 disbelieved in material flames in a palpable form, and had 
 deemed the fires of Hell to be merely a figure of speech to 
 express a mental state. Many have taught that it is so, 
 and that the torments of Hell are mental and subjective, 
 not objective at all. I said something of this to my 
 companion, and he replied: 
 
122 A WANDEREB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 "Both ideas are in a sense right. These lames and 
 tliis smoke are created by the spiritual emanations of the 
 
 unhappy beings who dwell within that fiery wall, and 
 material as they seem to yum- eyes, opened to the sight of 
 spiritual things, they would be invisible to a mortal's 
 sight, could one still in the body of flesh by any miracle 
 visit this spot. They have, in fact, no earthly material in 
 them, yet, they are none the less material in the sense that 
 all things earthly or spiritual are clothed in matter of 
 some kind. The number and variety of degrees of solidity 
 in matter are infinite, as without a certain covering of 
 etherealized matter even spiritual buildings and spiritual 
 bodies would he invisible to you. and these flames being 
 the coarse emanations of these degraded spirits, possess. 
 for your eyes an appearance even more dense and solid 
 than for the inhabitants themselves." 
 
 My companion's spirit name was "Faithful Friend.'' 
 •n name given him in memory of his devotion to a friend 
 who abused his friendship and finally betrayed him. and 
 whom he had even then forgiven and helped in the hour 
 when shame and humiliation overtook the betrayer, and 
 when reproach and contempt or even revenge might have 
 seemed amply justifiable to many minds. This truly 
 noble spirit had been a man of by no means perfectly 
 moral character in his earthly life, and had therefore 
 passed at death into the lower spheres near the earth 
 plane, but he had risen rapidly, and at the time I met him 
 he was one of the Brotherhood in the second sphere, to 
 which I had so recently been admitted, and had been once 
 before through the Kingdoms of Hell. 
 
 We now drew near what appeared like the crater of 
 a vast volcano — ten thousand Vesuviuses in one! Above 
 us the sky was black as night, and but for the lurid glare 
 of the flames we should have been in total darkness. Now 
 that we have reached the mass of fire I saw that it was like 
 a fiery wall surrounding the country, through which all 
 who sought to enter or leave it must pass. 
 
 "See now, Franchezzo," said Faithful Friend, "we 
 are about to pass through this wall of fire, but do not let 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 123 
 
 that alarm you, for so long as your courage and your will 
 do not fail, and you exert all your will-power to repel 
 these fiery particles, they cannot come in actual contact 
 with your body. Like the waters of the Red Sea they will 
 fall apart on either side and we shall pass through 
 unscathed. 
 
 "Were any one of weak will and timid soul to attempt 
 tins they would fail, and he driven back by the force of 
 these flames which are propelled outwards by a current of 
 strong will-force set in motion by the fierce and powerful 
 beings who reign here, and who thus, as they imagine, 
 protect themselves from intrusions from the higher 
 spheres. To us, however, with our more spiritualized 
 bodies, these flames and the walls and rocks you will find 
 in this land, are no more impenetrable than is the solid 
 material of earthly doors and walls, and as we can pass at 
 will through them, so can we pass through these, which 
 are none the less sufficiently solid to imprison the spirits 
 who dwell in this country. The more ethereal a spirit is 
 the less can it be bound by matter, and at the same time 
 the less direct power can it have in the moving of matter, 
 without the aid of the physical material supplied by the 
 aura of certain mediums. Here, as on earth, we would, 
 in order to move material substances, require to use the 
 aura of some of the mediumistic spirits of this sphere. 
 At the same time we shall find that our higher spiritual 
 powers have become muffled, so to say; because in order to 
 enter this sphere and make ourselves visible to its in- 
 habitants, we have had to clothe ourselves in its con- 
 ditions, and thus we are more liable to be affected by its 
 temptations. Our lower natures will be appealed to in 
 every form, and we shall have to direct our efforts to pre- 
 vent them from again dominating us." 
 
 My friend now took my hand firmly in his and we 
 "willed" ourselves to pass through the wall of fire. I con- 
 fess that a momentary sense of fear passed over me as we 
 began to enter it. but I felt we were "in for it," so exert- 
 ing all my powers and concentrating my thoughts I soon \ 
 found that we were floating through — the flames forming 
 
124 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 a fiery arch below and above us through which as through 
 a tunnel we passed. Thinking of it now I should say it 
 must have been about a quarter to half a mile thick, 
 judging as one would by earthly measurements, but at the 
 time 1 did not take sufficient note to be very exact, all my 
 energies being directed to the repelling of the fiery par- 
 ticles from myself. 
 
 As we emerged we found ourselves in a land of night. 
 It might have seemed like the bottomless pit of desolation 
 had we not stood upon solid enough ground, while above 
 us was this canopy of black smoke. How far this country 
 extended it was impossible to form any idea, since the 
 heavy atmosphere like a black fog shut in our vision on 
 every side. I was told that it extended through the whole 
 of this vast and dreadful sphere. In some parts there 
 were great tumbled jagged mountains 'of black rocks, in 
 jothers long and dreary wastes of desert plains, while yet 
 others were mighty swamps of black oozing mud, full of 
 the most noisome crawling creatures, slimy monsters, and 
 huge bats. Again there were dense black forests of 
 gigantic, repulsive-looking trees, almost human in their 
 power and tenacity, encircling and imprisoning those who 
 ventured amongst them. Ere I left this awful land I had 
 seen these and other dreadful regions, but truly neither I 
 nor anyone else could ever really describe them in all their 
 loathsomeness and foulness. 
 
 As we stood looking at this country my sight, grad- 
 ually becoming used to the darkness, enabled me to per- 
 ceive the surrounding objects dimly, and I saw that before 
 us there was a highway marked by the passage of many 
 spirit feet across the black plain on which we stood. A 
 plain covered with dust and ashes, as though all the 
 blighted hopes, the dead ashes of misused earthly lives 
 had been scattered there. 
 
 "We followed this highway, and in a short time 
 arrived at a great archway of black stone hewn into large 
 blocks and rudely piled one upon the other. An immense 
 curtain of what I thought at first was black gauze hung 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 125 
 
 before the gateway. On going nearer I saw to my horror 
 that it was made from spirits' hair, with the eyes strung 
 like beads upon it, and, most horrible of all, the eyes were 
 alive and seemed to look at ns imploringly and follow our 
 every movement as though striving to read our intentions 
 in coming there. 
 
 '•Are these eyes endowed with life?" I asked. 
 
 "With soul life? no, but with the astral life, yes — and 
 they will continue so to live while the souls to which they 
 belonged continue in the spirit bodies or envelopes from 
 which these eyes have been torn. This is one of the gates 
 of Hell, and the custodian has a fancy to decorate it in 
 this way with the eyes of his victims. In this place there 
 are none who have not themselves been guilty during 
 their earthly lives of the most awful cruelties, the most 
 absolute defiance of the laws of mercy and justice. In 
 coming here they are only intent upon finding fresh 
 means to gratify their lust for cruelty, and thus they ex- 
 pose themselves to becoming in their turn the victims of 
 beings no more ferocious than themselves, but stronger in 
 will-power and cleverer in intellect. This is the City of 
 Cruelty, and those who reign here do so by virtue of their 
 very excess of that vice. The wretched spirits to whom 
 these eyes belong, with their degraded, stunted soul germs 
 still imprisoned in their mutilated bodies, are at this 
 moment wandering through the desolation of this land, 
 or laboring as helpless slaves for their spirit tyrants, de- 
 prived even of the limited power of sight possessed by 
 others in this dreary land; while between the eyes and 
 their owners there vet exists a connecting link of mag- 
 netism which will keep them living and animated by a 
 reflected life till the soul germ shall cast off its present 
 envelope and rise to a higher state of life." 
 
 While we were studying this horrible gateway the 
 curtain of living eyes was drawn aside, and two strange 
 dark beings, half human and half animal, came out, and 
 we took the chance to pass in unnoticed by the guardian 
 of the gate, a gigantic and horrible creature, misshapen 
 and distorted in every limb so that the worst ogre of fable 
 
126 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 could scarcely convey to mortal mind a picture of him. 
 He sprang out with a frightful laugh and horrible lan- 
 guage upon the two poor trembling spirits who fled from 
 him in most abject terror, but neither he nor they seemed 
 able to perceive us. 
 
 "Are these beings soulless?*' I asked, pointing to the 
 poor frightened spirits. "Were they ever on earth?" 
 
 "Yes, most certainly, but of a very low type of sav- 
 ages, scarcely above the wild beasts, and quite as cruel, 
 hence the reason they are here. In all probability their 
 means of progression will come from being reincarnated 
 in a slightly higher form of earth life, and their experience 
 here, which will be short, will give them the sense that 
 there is retributive justice somewhere, although they will 
 be apt to form their ideas of a God from their dim 
 recollections of the powerful beings who reign in this 
 place." 
 
 "Do you, then, hold the doctrine of reincarnation?" 
 
 "Not as an absolute law under which all spirits must 
 pass, but I do believe that in the experiences of many 
 spirits reincarnation is a law of their progression. Each 
 spirit or soul born into planetary life has spiritual guar- 
 dians who from the celestial spheres superintend its 
 welfare and educate the soul by such means as seem best 
 to them in their wisdom. These spiritual guardians, or, 
 as some term them, angels, differ in their methods and 
 their schools of thought, for there is no sameness any- 
 where, I am taught, and no absolute path upon which all 
 must walk alike. Each school of thought which has its 
 counterpart, its dim imperfect reflection on earth, has the 
 perfected system of the school and its highest teachers in 
 the celestial spheres, and from these higher spheres their 
 doctrines are handed down to earth through spirits in the 
 intermediate spheres. The end all have in view is the 
 same, but each maps out a different path by which the 
 pilgrim souls shall reach it. The guardian angels watch 
 over the soul germ during all of what may be termed its 
 childhood and youth, which lasts from the moment it first 
 sees the light of individual consciousness till through 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 127 
 
 repeated experience? and developments it attains to such 
 a degree of intellectual and moral consciousness that it 
 stands upon the same level as its spiritual guardians, and 
 then it in turn becomes the spiritual guardian of some 
 new-born soul. I have also been taught that the soul 
 germ in its first stage is only like a seed, like, in fact, any- 
 other seed in the minuteness of its size and powers. It is, 
 in fact, a spark of the Divine Essence containing in itself 
 all that will constitute the perfected human soul. Of its 
 very essence it is immortal and indestructible, because it is 
 seed from that which is Immortal and Indestructible. But 
 as a seed has to be sown into the darkness and degradation 
 of the material earth in order that it may germinate, so 
 has the soul seed tcf be sown into the corruptions of mat- 
 ter, first in its lower and then in its higher forms. Each 
 animal is in itself the type of a soul-seed, the human type 
 being the highest of all, and each seed will in turn develop 
 to the highest degree possible for it through successive 
 spheres and experiences. Some schools of thought hold 
 that the soul will progress more rapidly if it is again and 
 again returned to material life to be born anew, in a fresh 
 form ach tinu, and to live over again the experiences it 
 has rife— I, or to expiate in the mortal form the wrongs 
 done in a former incarnation. The spiritual children of 
 this school of thought will indeed be thus returned to 
 earth again, and for them each new lesson will have to be 
 worked out in an earthly life. 
 
 "But it does not follow that this experience will be 
 the lot of all spirits. There are other schools who main- 
 tain that the spirit spheres conteH means for the educa- 
 tion of the soul quite as useful and expeditious; and with 
 the spiritual children committed to their charge the 
 totally different course of sending them to gather experi- 
 ence in the lower spheres rather than to earth, will be pur- 
 sued. They will be made to live over in memory their 
 past earth life and to expiate in the spirit the wrongs done 
 in their earthly existences. As each soul differs in its 
 character or individuality, so each must be trained by a 
 different method, else would all resemble each other so 
 
128 A WAN DEEEB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 exactly thai a monotonous sameness would result and 
 there would be none of that variety and contrast which 
 giv§ a charm to earthly life, and I believe will still con- 
 tinue to do so in the celestial spheres. 
 
 "I have ever been taught, therefore, to avoid trying 
 to found a general rule applicable to all spirits upon the 
 experiences of any one community of spirits with which 
 I may come in contact. Even in the visit we shall pay 
 to this sphere we shall only be able to see a part, a frac- 
 tional part, of this immense sphere of evil spirits, yet we 
 shall traverse an extent of space far greater than if you 
 had traveled over the whole of the little planet Earth from 
 which we both have come. In the spirit world like draws 
 to like by a universal law, and those of entirely opposite 
 natures repel each other so entirely that they can never 
 mingle or even touch the circle in which each dwells. 
 Thus in our wanderings we shall only visit those with 
 "whom either from nationality or temperament we have 
 some germ of feeling, however slight, in common." 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 129 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 We were now traversing a wide causeway of black 
 marble, on either side of which were deep, dark chasms 
 of which it was impossible to see the bottom from the 
 great clouds of heavy vapor that hung over them. Pass- 
 ing and repassing us upon this highway were a great many 
 dark spirits, some bearing great heavy loads upon their 
 backs, others almost crawling along on all fours like 
 1 leasts. Great gangs of slaves passed us, wearing heavy 
 iron collars on their necks and linked together by a heavy 
 chain. They were coming from the second or inner gate 
 of what was evidently a large fortified city whose dark 
 buildings loomed through the dense masses of dark fog 
 in front of us. The causeway, the style of buildings, and 
 the appearance of many of the spirits made me feel as 
 though we were entering some ancient fortified city of the 
 old Roman Empire, only here everything gave one the 
 sense of being foul and horrible, in spite of the fine archi- 
 tecture and the magnificent buildings whose outlines we 
 could dimly trace. The second gateway was finer in 
 appearance than the first, and the gates being open we 
 passed in with the stream of spirits hurrying through it, 
 and as before we seemed to pass unseen. 
 
 "You will perceive,'* said Faithful Friend, "that here 
 there is a life in no way different from the earthly life of 
 such a city at the time when the one of which this is the 
 spiritual reflection, was in the full zenith of its power, and 
 when the particles of which this is formed were thrown off 
 from its material life and drawn down by the force of 
 attraction to form this city and these buildings, fit dwell- 
 
130 a a\ axdi-im'.r in the spirit lands. 
 
 ings for its spiritual inhabitants; and you will see in the 
 more modern appearance of many of the buildings and 
 inhabitants how it has been added to from time to time by 
 the same process which is going on continuously. You 
 will notice that most of the spirits here fancy themselves 
 still in the earthly counterparj and wonder why all looks 
 so dark and foul and dingy. In like manner this same 
 city has its spiritual prototype in the higher spheres to 
 which all that was fair and good and noble in its life has 
 been attracted, and where those spirits who were good 
 and true have gone to dwell; for in the lives of cities as of 
 men the spiritual emanations are attracted upwards or 
 downwards according as there is good or evil in the deeds 
 done in them. And as the deeds done in this city have in 
 evil far exceeded those which were good, so this city is far 
 larger, far more thickly peopled in this sphere than in 
 those above. In the ages to come when the spirits who 
 are here now shall have progressed, that heavenly counter- 
 part will be fully finished and fully peopled, and then will 
 this place we gaze at now have crumbled into dust — faded 
 from this sphere." 
 
 We were now in a narrow street, such as it must have 
 been in the earthly city, and a short distance farther 
 brought us into a large square surrounded with magnifi- 
 cent palaces, while before us towered one more splendid 
 in design than all the others. A great wide flight of 
 marble steps led up to its massive portico, and looming 
 through the dark cloudy atmosphere we could trace its 
 many wings and buildings. All was truly on a magnifi- 
 cent scale, yet all to my eyes appeared dark, stained with 
 great splashes of blood, and covered with slimy fungus 
 growth which disfigured the magnificence and hung in 
 great repulsive-looking festoons, like twisted snakes, from 
 all the pillars and cope-stones of the buildings. Black 
 slimy mud oozed up through the crevices of the marble 
 pavement, as though the city floated upon a foul swamp, 
 and noisome vapors curled up from the ground and floated 
 above and around us in fantastic and horrible smoke 
 wreaths like the huge phantoms of past crimes. Every- 
 
A WAXDEKER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 131 
 
 where were dark spirits crawling across the great square 
 and in and out of the palace doors, driven onward by 
 other stronger dark spirits with lash or spear. Such cries 
 of execration as broke forth from time to time, such fear- 
 ful oaths, such curses and imprecations, it was truly the 
 pandemonium of the lost souls in the Infernal regions! 
 And over all hung those black night clouds of sorrow and 
 suffering and wrong. 
 
 Far away to the earth my thoughts traveled, back to 
 the days of the Roman Empire, and I saw reflected as in 
 a glass this city in all the splendor of her power, in all the 
 iniquities of her tyranny and her crimes, weaving down 
 below, from the loom of fate, this other place of retribu- 
 tion for all those men and women who disgraced her beau- 
 ties by their sins: 1 saw this great city of Hell building 
 atom by atom till it should become a great prison for all 
 the evil spirits of that wicked time. 
 
 We went up the wide flight of steps through the lofty 
 doorway and found ourselves in the outer court of the 
 Emperor's Palace. Xo one spoke to us or seemed aware 
 of our presence, and we passed on through several smaller 
 halls till we reached the door of the Presence Chamber. 
 Here my companion stopped and said: 
 
 "I cannot enter with you, friend, because I have 
 already visited the dark spirit who reigns here, and there- 
 fore my presence would at once excite his suspicions and 
 defeat the object of your visit, which is that you may 
 rescue an unhappy spirit whose repentant prayers have 
 reached the higher spheres, and will be answered by the 
 help you are sent to give him. You will find the person 
 you seek without any difficulty. His desire for help has 
 already drawn us thus near to him and will draw you still 
 closer. I must now for a time part from you because I 
 have my own path of work to follow, but we shall meet 
 again ere long, and if you but keep a stout heart and a 
 strong will and do not forget the warnings given you, no 
 harm can befall you. Adieu, my friend, and know that I 
 also shall need all my powers." 
 
 Thus, then, I parted from Faithful Friend and passed 
 
132 A AY AND I '. 1 1 E R IN T 1 1 E SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 on alone into the Council Chamber, which I found 
 thronged with spirits, both men and women, and fur- 
 nished with all the barbaric splendor of the days of the 
 Emperors; yet to my sighi there was over everything the 
 same stamp of foul Loathsomeness which had struck me in 
 the exterior of the palace. The men and women, 
 hanghty patricians in their lives, no doubt, appeared to 
 be eaten up with a loathsome disease like lepers, only they 
 were even more horrible to look upon. 'The walls and 
 floors seemed stained with dark pools of blood and hung 
 with evil thoughts for drapery. Worm-eaten and cor- 
 rupting were the stately robes these haughty spirits wore, 
 and saturated with the disease germs from their corrupted 
 bodies. 
 
 On a great throne sat the Emperor himself, the most 
 fold and awful example of degraded intellect and man- 
 hood in all that vast crowd of degraded spirits, while 
 stamped upon his features was such a look of cruelty and 
 vice that beside him the others sank into insignificance by 
 comparison. I could not but admire, even while it re- 
 volted me, the majestic power of this man's intellect and 
 will. The kingly sense of power over even such a motley 
 crew as these, the feeling that even in Hell he reigned as 
 by a right, seemed to minister to his pride and love of 
 dominion even in the midst of his awful surroundings. 
 
 Looking at him I beheld him for one brief moment, 
 not as I saw him and as he saw these disgusting creatures 
 round him, but as he still appeared in his own eyes, which 
 even after all these centuries were not opened to his true 
 state, his real self. I. saw him as a haughty handsome 
 man, with cruel clear-cut features, hard expression, and 
 eyes like a wild vulture, yet withal possessing a certain 
 beauty of form, a certain power to charm. All that was 
 repulsive and vile was hidden by the earthly envelope, not 
 revealed as now in all the nakedness of the spirit. 
 
 I saw his court and his companions change back to 
 the likeness of their earthly lives, and I knew that to each 
 and all they appeared just the same in their own eyes, all 
 were alike unconscious of the horrible change in them- 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 133 
 
 selves, yet perfectly conscious of the change in each of 
 their companions. 
 
 Were all unconscious ? Xo! not quite all. There 
 was one man crouching in a corner, his mantle drawn 
 over his disfigured face, whom I perceived to be fully 
 conscious of his own vileness as well as the vileness of all 
 who surrounded him. 
 
 And in this man's heart there had sprung up a desire, 
 hopeless, as it seemed to himself, for better things, for a 
 path to open before him which, however hard and thorny, 
 might lead him from this night of Hell and give him even 
 at this eleventh hour the hope of a life removed from the 
 horrors of this place and these associates; and as I looked 
 I knew it was to this man that I was sent, though how I 
 was to help him I knew not, I could not guess. I only 
 felt that the power which had led me so far would open 
 up my path and show me the way. 
 
 While I had stood thus gazing around me the dark 
 spirits and their Ruler became conscious of my presence, 
 and a look of anger and ferocity passed over his face, 
 while in a voice thick and hoarse with passion he de- 
 manded who I was and how I dared to enter his presence. 
 
 I answered: "I am a stranger only lately come to this 
 dark sphere and I am still lost in wonder at finding such 
 a place in the spirit world." 
 
 A wild ferocious laugh broke from the spirit, and he 
 cried out that they would soon enlighten me as to many 
 things in the spirit world. "But since you are a stranger," 
 he continued, "and because we always receive strangers 
 right royally here, I pray you to be seated and partake 
 with us of our feast." 
 
 He pointed to a vacant seat at the long table in front 
 of him at which many of the spirits were seated, and 
 which was spread with what bore the semblance of a 
 great feast, such as might have been given in the days of 
 his earthly grandeur. Everything looked real enough, 
 but I had been warned that it was all more or less illusion- 
 ary, that the food never satisfied the awful cravings of 
 hunger which these former gluttons felt, and that the 
 
l : ; I A WAND E 1 1 E 1 1 1 X T 1 1 E S PIHIT LAXDS. 
 
 wine was a fiery liquid which scorched the throat and 
 rendered a thousand times vrorse the thirst which con- 
 sumed these drunkards. I had heen told to neither eat 
 nor drink anything offered me in these regions, nor to 
 accept any invitation to resl myself given by these beings; 
 for to do so would mean the subjugation of my higher 
 powers to the senses once more, and would at once put me 
 more on a level with those dark heings and into their 
 power. I answered: "While I fully appreciate the mo- 
 tives which prompt you to offer me the hospitality of your 
 place, I must still decline it, as I have no desire to either 
 eat or drink anything." 
 
 At this rebuff his eyes shot gleams of living fire at 
 me and a deeper shade of anger crossed his hrow, hut he 
 still maintained a pretense of graciousness and signed to 
 me to approach yet nearer to him. Meanwhile the man 
 whom I had come to help, aroused from his hitter medita- 
 -tions by my arrival and the Emperor's speech with me, 
 had drawn near in wonder at my holdness and alarmed 
 for my safety, for he knew no more of me than that I 
 seemed some unlucky new arrival who had not yet learned 
 the dangers of this horrible place. His anxiety for me 
 and a certain sense of pity created a link between us, 
 which, unknown to either, was to be the means whereby 
 I would be able to draw him away with me. 
 
 When I advanced a few steps towards the Emperor's 
 throne this repentant spirit followed me, and, coming 
 close, whispered: 
 
 "Do not be beguiled by him. Turn and fly from this 
 place while there is yet time, and I will draw their atten- 
 tion from you for the moment." 
 
 I thanked the spirit but said: "I shall not fly from 
 any man, be he whom he may, and will take care not to 
 fall into any trap." 
 
 Our hurried speech had not been unnoticed by the 
 Emperor, for he became most impatient, and striking his 
 sword upon the ground he cried out to me: 
 
 "Approach, stranger! Have you no manners that 
 you keep an Emperor waiting? Behold my chair of state, 
 
A WANDEBER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 135 
 
 my throne, seat yourself in it and try for a moment how 
 it i'eels to be in an Emperor's place." 
 
 I looked at the throne as he pointed, and saw it was 
 like a great chair with a canopy over it. Two immense 
 winged figures in bronze stood at the back of the seat, 
 each with six long arms extended to form the back and 
 sides, while upon the heads of these figures the canopy 
 rested as upon pillars. I had no thought to sit in such a 
 place; its late occupant was too repulsive to me for me to 
 desire to go any nearer to him, but had even curiosity 
 made me wish to examine the chair the sight I saw would 
 have effectually prevented me. The chair seemed sud- 
 denly to become endowed with life, and before my eyes I 
 beheld a vision of an unhappy spirit struggling in the 
 embraces of those awful arms which encircled it and 
 crushed its body into a mangled writhing mass. And I 
 knew that such was the fate of all those whom the 
 Emperor induced to try the comforts of his chair. Only 
 for one brief instant the vision lasted and then I turned 
 to the Emperor and, bowing, said to him: 
 
 "I have no desire to place myself upon your level, 
 and must again decline the honor you would do me." 
 
 Then he broke into a tempest of rage, and cried out 
 to his guards to seize me and thrust me into that chair and 
 pour the food and the wine down my throat till they 
 choked me. 
 
 Immediately there was a rush made towards me, the 
 man I had come to save throwing himself before me to 
 protect me, and in a moment we were surrounded by a 
 seething, fighting mass of spirits, and for that moment, I 
 confess my heart sank within me and my courage began 
 to fail. They looked so horrible, so fiendish, so like a 
 pack of wild beasts let loose and all setting upon me at 
 once. Only for a moment, however, for the conflict 
 aroused all my combative qualities of which I have been 
 thought to posses- my fair share. And I threw out all my 
 will to repel them, calling upon all good powers to aid 
 me while 1 grasped firm hold of the poor spirit who had 
 sought to help me. Thus I retreated to the door, step 
 
13G A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 by step, the whole crowd of dark spirits following us with 
 wild cries and menacing gestures, yet unable to touch us 
 while I kept firm my determination to keep them off. At 
 last we reached the door and passed through it, where- 
 upon it seemed to close fast and keep in our pursuers. 
 Then strong arms seemed to lift us both up and bear us 
 away into a place of safety on the dark plain. 
 
 My rescued companion was by this time in a state of 
 unconsciousness, and as I stood by him I saw four 
 majestic spirits from the higher spheres making magnetic 
 passes over his prostrate form; and then I beheld the most 
 wonderful sight I had ever seen. From the dark dis- 
 figured body which lay as in a sleep of death there arose 
 a mist-like vapor which grew more and more dense till it 
 took shape in the form of the spirit himself; the purified 
 soul of that poor spirit released from its dark envelope; 
 and I saw those four angelic spirits lift the still uncon- 
 scious risen soul in their arms as one would bear a child, 
 and then they all floated away from me up, up, till they 
 vanished from my sight. At my side stood another bright 
 angel who said to me: "Be of good cheer, oh! Son of the 
 Land of Hope, for many shalt thou help in this dark land, 
 and great is the joy of the angels in Heaven over these 
 sinners that have repented." 
 
 As he finished speaking he vanished, and I was alone 
 once more on the bleak plains of Hell. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 137 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 Away before me stretched a narrow path, and curious 
 to see where it would lead I followed it, sure that it would 
 somehow lead me to those whom I could help. After 
 following it for a short time I came to the foot of a range 
 of black mountains, and before me was the entrance to a 
 huge cavern. Horrible reptiles were hanging on to the 
 walls and crawling at my feet. Great funguses and mon- 
 strous air plants of an oozy slimy kind hung in festoons 
 like ragged shrouds from the roof, and a dark pool of 
 stagnant water almost covered the floor. I thought of 
 turning away from this spot, but a voice seemed to bid me 
 go on, so I entered, and skirting round the edge of the 
 dark pool found myself at the entrance to a small dark 
 passage in the rocks. Down this I went, and turning a 
 corner saw before me a red light as from a fire, while dark 
 forms like goblins passed and repassed between it and 
 myself. Another moment and I stood at the end of the 
 passage. Before me was a gigantic dungeon-like vault, 
 its uneven rocky roof half revealed and half hidden by the 
 masses of lurid smoke and flames which arose from an 
 enormous fire blazing in the middle of the cavern, while, 
 round it were dancing such a troop of demons as might 
 well typify the Devils of Hell. With shrieks and yells of 
 laughter they were prodding at the fire with long black 
 spears and dancing and flinging themselves about in the 
 wildest fashion, while in a corner were huddled together 
 a dozen or so of miserable dark spirits towards whom 
 they made frantic rushes from time to time as if about to 
 seize and hurl them into the fire, always retreating again 
 with yells and howls of rage. 
 
138 A w \\i)i:i;i:i; I\ THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 I soon perceived thai I was invisible to these heings, 
 so taking courage from that fact, I drew nearer. To my 
 horror I discovered that the fire was composed of the 
 hodies of living men and women who writhed and twisted 
 in the flames, and were tossed about by the spears of those 
 awful (lemons. I was so appalled by this discovery that 
 I cried out to know if this was a real scene or only some 
 horrible illusion of this dreadful place, and the same deep 
 mysterious voice that had often spoken to me in my 
 Wanderings answered me now: 
 
 "Son! they are living souls who in their earthly lives 
 doomed hundreds of their fellow men to die this dreadful 
 death, and knew no pity, no remorse, in doing so. Their 
 own cruelties have kindled these fierce flames of passion 
 and hate in the breasts of their many victims, and in the 
 spirit world these fiery germs have grown till they are now 
 a fierce flame to consume the oppressors. These fires are 
 fed solely by the fierce cruelties of those they now con- 
 sume; there is not here one pang of anguish which has 
 not been suffered a hundred fold more in the persons of 
 these spirits' many helpless victims. From this fire these 
 spirits will come forth touched by a pity, born of their 
 own sufferings, for those they wronged in the past, and 
 then will be extended to them the hand of help and the 
 means of progression through deeds of mercy as many and 
 as great as have been their merciless deeds in the past. 
 Do not shudder nor marvel that such retribution as this 
 is allowed to be. The souls of these spirits were so hard, 
 'so cruel, that only sufferings felt by themselves could 
 make them pity others. Even since they left the earth 
 life they have only been intent upon making others more 
 helpless suffer, till the bitter hatred they have aroused has 
 become at last a torrent which has engulfed themselves. 
 Furthermore, know that these flames are not truly 
 material, although to your eyes and to theirs they appear 
 so, for in the spirit world that which is mental is likewise 
 objective, and fierce hatred or binning passion does in- 
 deed seem a living fire. You shall now follow one of 
 these spirits and see for yourself that what seems to you 
 
A WANDEKEB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 139 
 
 cruel justice is yet mercy in disguise. Behold these 
 passions .ire burning themselves out and the souls are 
 about to pass into the darkness of the plain beyond." 
 
 As the voice ceased the flames died down and all was 
 darkness save for a faint bluish light like phosphorus that 
 filled the cavern, and by it I saw the forms of the spirits 
 rise from the ashes of the fire and pass out of the cavern. 
 As I followed them one became separated from the others 
 and passing on before me went into the streets of a city 
 that was near. It seemed to me like one of the old Span- 
 ish cities of the West Indies or South America. There 
 were Indians passing along its streets and mingling with 
 Spaniards and men of several other nations. 
 
 Following the spirit through several streets we came 
 to a large building which seemed to be a monastery of the 
 order of Jesuits — who had helped to colonize the country 
 and force upon the unhappy natives the Roman Catholic 
 religion, in the days when religious persecution was 
 thought by most creeds to be a proof of religious zeal; and 
 then, while I stood watching this spirit. I saw pass before 
 me a panorama of his life. 
 
 I saw him first chief of his order, sitting as a judge 
 before whom were brought many poor Indians and 
 heretics, and I saw him condemning them by hundreds to 
 torture and flames because they would not become con- 
 verts to his teaching-. I saw him oppressing all who were 
 not powerful enough to resist him. and extorting jewels 
 and gold in enormous quantities as tribute to him and to 
 lu's order; and if any sought to resist him and his demands 
 he had them arrested and almost without even the pre- 
 tense of a trial thrown into dungeons and tortured and 
 burned. I read in his heart a perfect thirst for wealth 
 and power and an actual love for beholding the sufferings 
 of his victims, and I knew (reading as I seemed to do his 
 innermost soul) that his religion was but a cloak, a con- 
 venient name, under which to extort the gold he loved 
 and gratify his love of power. 
 
 Again I saw the great square or market place of this 
 city with hundreds of great fires blazing all round it till 
 
IKi A WANDERER IX TITE SPIRIT LAXDS. 
 
 it was like a furnace, and a whole helpless crowd of timid 
 gentle natives were bound hand and loot and thrown into 
 the flames, and their cries of agony went up to 1 leave* as 
 this cruel man and his vile accomplices chanted their false 
 
 prayers and held aloft the sacred cross winch was dese- 
 crated by th'eir unholy hands, their horrible lives of cru- 
 elty and vice, and their greed for gold. I saw that this 
 horror was perpetrated in the name of the Church of 
 Christ — of him whose teachings were of love and charity. 
 who came to teach that God was perfect Love. And I 
 saw this man who called himself Christ's minister, and 
 yet had no thought of pity for one of these unhappy vic- 
 tims; he thought alone of how the spectacle would strike 
 terror to the hearts of other Indian tribes, and make them 
 bring him more gold to satisfy bis greedy lust. Then I 
 beheld this man returned to his own land of Spain and 
 revelling in his ill-gotten wealth, a powerful wealthy 
 prince of the church, venerated by the poor ignorant pop- 
 ulace as a holy man who bad gone forth into that Western 
 "World beyond the seas to plant the banner of his church 
 and preach the blessed gospel of love and peace, while, 
 instead, his path had been marked in fire and blood, and 
 then my sympathy for him was gone. Then I saw this 
 man upon his deathbed, and I saw monks and priests 
 chanting mass for his soul that it might go to Heaven, and 
 instead I saw it drawn down and down to Hell by the 
 chains woven in bis wicked life. I saw the great hordes 
 of bis former victims awaiting him there, drawn down in 
 their turn by their thirst for revenge, their hunger for 
 ] tower to avenge their sufferings and the sufferings of 
 those most dear to them. 
 
 I saw this man in Hell surrounded by those he had 
 wronged, and haunted by the empty wraiths of such as 
 were too good and pure to come to this place of horror or 
 to wish for vengeance on their murderer, just as I had 
 seen in the Frozen Land with the man in the icy cage; and 
 in Hell the only thought of that spirit was rage because 
 his power of earth was no more — his only idea how he 
 might join with others in Hell as cruel as himself and 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 141 
 
 thus still oppress and torture. If he could have doomed 
 his victims to death a second time he would have done it. 
 In his heart there was neither pity nor remorse, only 
 anger that he was so powerless. Had he possessed one 
 feeling of sorrow or one thought of kindness for another, 
 it would have helped him and created a wall between him- 
 self and these vengeful spirits, and his sufferings, though 
 they might be great, would not have at last assumed the 
 physical aspect in which I had beheld them. As it was 
 his passion of cruelty was so great it fed and fanned into 
 fresh life the spiritual flames which theirs created, till at 
 last when I saw him first they were dying out exhausted 
 by their own violence. Those demons I had beheld were 
 the last and most fierce of his victims in whom the desire 
 for revenge was even then not fully satisfied, while those 
 I had beheld crouching in the corner were some who, no 
 longer desirous of tormenting him themselves, had yet 
 been unable to withdraw themselves from beholding his 
 sufferings and those of his accomplices. 
 
 And now I beheld that spirit with the newly 
 awakened thought of repentance, returning to the city to 
 warn others of his Jesuit fraternity, and to try to turn 
 them from the path of his own errors. He did not yet 
 realize the length of time that had elapsed since he had 
 left the earth life, nor that this city was the spiritual 
 counterpart of the one he had lived in on earth. In time, 
 I was told, he would be sent back to earth to work as a 
 spirit in helping to teach mortals the pity and mercy he 
 had not shown in his own life, but first he would have to 
 work here in this dark place, striving to release the souls 
 of those whom his crimes had dragged down with him. 
 Thus I left this man at the door of that building which 
 was the counterpart of his earthly house, and passed on 
 by myself through the city. 
 
 Like the Roman city this one was disfigured and its 
 beauties blotted out by the crimes of which it had been 
 the silent witness; and to me the air seemed full of dark 
 phantom forms wailing and weeping and dragging after 
 them their heavy chains. The whole place seemed built 
 
142 a waxdi:im:i; in TfiE spirit lands. 
 
 upon living graves and shrouded in a dark red mist of 
 blood and tears. It was like one vast prison house whose 
 Avails were built of deeds of violence and robbery and 
 oppression. 
 
 And as I wandered on I had a waking dream, and 
 saw the city as it had been on earth ere the white man 
 had set his foot upon its soil. 1 saw a peaceful primitive 
 people living upon fruits and grains and leading their 
 simple lives in an innocence akin to that of childhood, 
 worshiping the Great Supreme under a name of their 
 own, yet none the less worshiping him in spirit and in 
 truth — their simple faith and their patient virtues the 
 outcome of the inspiration given them from that Great 
 Spirit who is universal and belongs to no creeds, no 
 churches. Then I saw white men come thirsting for gold 
 and greedy to grasp the goods of others, and these simple 
 people welcomed them like brothers, and in their inno- 
 cence showed them the treasures they had gathered from 
 the earth — gold and silver and jewels. Then I saw the 
 treachery which marked the path of the white man; how 
 they plundered and killed the simple natives; how they 
 tortured and made slaves of them, forcing them to labor 
 in the mines till they died by thousands; how all faith, all 
 promises, were broken by the white man till the peaceful 
 happy country was filled with tears and blood. 
 
 Then I beheld afar, away in Spain, a few good, true, 
 kindly men whose souls were pure and who believed that 
 they alone had the true faith by which only man can be 
 saved and live eternally, who thought that God had given 
 this light to but one small spot of his earth, and had left 
 all the rest in darkness and error — had left countless 
 thousands to perish because this light had been denied to 
 them but given exclusively to that one small spot of earth, 
 that small section of his people. 
 
 I thought that these good and pure men were so 
 sorry for those who, they thought, were in the darkness 
 and error of a false religion, that they set forth and 
 crossed that unknown ocean to that strange far-away land 
 to carry with them their system of religion, and to give it 
 
A AYAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 143 
 
 to those poor simple people whose lives had been so good 
 and gentle and spiritual under their own faith, their own 
 beliefs. 
 
 I saw these good but ignorant priests land on this 
 strange shore and beheld them working everywhere 
 amongst the natives, spreading their own belief and 
 crushing out and destroying all traces of a primitive faith 
 as worthy of respect as their own. These priests were 
 kind good men who sought to alleviate the physical lot of 
 the poor oppressed natives even while they labored for 
 their spiritual welfare also, and on every side there sprang 
 up missions, churches and schools. 
 
 Then I beheld great numbers of men, priests as well 
 as many others, come over from Spain, eager, not for the 
 good of the church nor to spread the truths of their re- 
 ligion, but only greedy for the gold of this new land, and 
 for all that could minister to their own gratification; men 
 whose lives had disgraced them in their own country till 
 they were obliged to fly to this strange one to escape the 
 consequences of their misdeeds. I saw these men arrive 
 in hordes and mingle with those whose motives were pure 
 and good, till they had outnumbered them, and then 
 thrust the good aside everywhere, and made of themselves 
 tyrannical masters over the unhappy natives, in the name 
 of the Holy Church of Christ. 
 
 And then I saw the Inquisition brought to the un- 
 happy land and established as the last link in the chain 
 of slavery and oppression thus riveted round this unhappy 
 people, till it swept almost all of them from the face of 
 the earth; and everywhere I beheld the wild thirst, the 
 greed for gold that consumed as with a fire of hell all who 
 sought that land. Blind were most of them to all its 
 beauties but its gold, deaf to all thought but how they 
 might enrich themselves with it; and. in the madness of 
 that time and that awful craving for wealth was this city 
 of Hell, this spiritual counterpart of the earthly city built, 
 stone upon stone, particle by particle, forming between 
 itself and the city of earth chains of attraction which 
 should draw down one by one each of its wicked inhabi- 
 
144 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 t ai its, for truly the earthly lives are building for each man 
 and woman their spiritual habitations. Thus all these 
 monks and priests, all these fine ladies, all these soldiers 
 and merchants, yea. and even these unhappy natives had 
 been drawn down to Hell by the deeds of their earthly 
 lives, by the passions and hatreds, the greed of gold, the 
 bitter sense of wrongs unrequited and the thirst for re- 
 venge which those deeds had created. 
 
 * * * * * * * * * 
 
 At the door of a large square building, whose small 
 grated windows looked like a prison, I stopped, arrested 
 by the cries and shouts which came from it; then guided 
 by the mysterious voice of my unseen guide I entered, and 
 following the sounds soon came to a dungeon cell. Here 
 I found a great number of spirits surrounding a man who 
 was chained to the w r all by an iron girdle round his w r aist. 
 His wild glaring eyes, disheveled hair and tattered cloth- 
 ing suggested that he had been there for many years, 
 while the hollow sunken cheeks and the bones sticking 
 through his skin told that he was to all appearance dying 
 of starvation; yet I knew that here there was no death, no 
 such relief from suffering. Near him stood another man 
 with folded arms and bowed head, whose wasted features 
 and skeleton form scarred w r ith many wounds made him 
 an even more pitiable object than the other, though he 
 was free while the other was chained to the wall. Around 
 them both danced and yelled other spirits, all wild and 
 savage and degraded. Some of them were Indians, a few 
 Spanish, and one or two looked, I thought, like English- 
 men. All were at the same work — throwing sharp knives 
 at the chained man that never seemed to hit him, shaking 
 their fists in his face, cursing and reviling him, yet, 
 strange to say, never able to actually touch him, and all 
 the time there he stood chained to the wall, unable to 
 move or get away from them. And there stood the other 
 man silently watching him. 
 
 As I stood looking at this scene I became conscious 
 of the past history of those two men. I saw the one who 
 was chained to the wall in a handsome house like a palace, 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 145 
 
 and knew ho had been one of the judges sent out from 
 Spain to preside over the so-called courts of justice, which 
 had but proved additional means for extorting money 
 from the natives and oppressing all who sought to inter- 
 fere with the rich and powerful. I saw the other man 
 who had been a merchant, living in a pretty villa with a 
 beautiful, a very beautiful, wife and one little child. This 
 woman had attracted the notice of the judge, who con- 
 ceived an unholy passion for her, and on her persistently 
 repulsing all his advances he made an excuse to have the 
 husband arrested on suspicion by the Inquisition and 
 thrown into prison. Then he carried off the poor wife 
 and so insulted her that she died, and the poor little child 
 was strangled by order of the cruel judge. 
 
 Meantime the unfortunate husband lay in prison, 
 ignorant of the fate of his wife and child and of the 
 charge under which he had been arrested, growing more 
 and more exhausted from the scanty food and the horrors 
 of his dungeon, and more and more desperate from the 
 suspense. At last he was brought before the council of 
 the Inquisition, charged with heretical practices and con- 
 spiracy against the crown, and on denial of these charges 
 was tortured to make him confess and give up the names 
 of certain of his friends who were accused of being his 
 accomplices. As the poor man, bewildered and indignant, 
 still protested his innocence he was sent back to his dun- 
 geon and there slowly starved to death, the cruel judge 
 not daring to set him at liberty, well knowing that he 
 would make the city ring with the story of his wrongs and 
 his wife's fate when he should learn it. 
 
 And so this poor man had died, but he did not join 
 his wife, who, poor injured soul, had passed at once with 
 her little innocent child into the higher spheres. She was 
 so good and pure and gentle that she had even forgiven 
 her murderer — for such he was, though he had not in- 
 tended to kill her — and between her and the husband she 
 so dearly loved there was a wall created by his bitter re- 
 vengeful feelings against the man who had destroyed 
 them both. 
 
in; A WAtfDEKEB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 When this poor vrrohged husband died, his soul 
 
 could not leave llif earth. It was tied there by his hatred 
 of his enemy and his thirsl for revenge. His own wrongs 
 he might have forgiven, hut the fate of his wife and child 
 had been too dreadful lie .eoiild not forgive that. Be- 
 fore even his love for his wife came this hate, and day and 
 night his spirit clung fast to the judge, seeking for the 
 chance of vengeance; and at last it came. Devils from 
 Hell — sueli as had once tempted me — clustered round the 
 wronged spirit and taught it how through the hand of a 
 mortal it could strike the assassin's dagger to the judge's 
 heart, and then when death severed the body and the 
 spirit he could drag that down with him to Hell. So ter- 
 rible had been this craving for revenge, nursed through 
 the waiting years of solitude in prison and in the spirit 
 land, that the poor wife had tried and tried in vain to 
 draw near her husband and soften his heart with better 
 .thoughts. Her gentle soul was shut out by the wall of 
 evil drawn round the unhappy man, and he also had no 
 hope of ever seeing her again. He deemed that she had 
 gone to Heaven and was lost to him for evermore. A 
 Roman Catholic of the narrow views held nearly two hun- 
 dred years ago when this man had lived, he helievcd that 
 being under the ban of its priests and denied the ministra- 
 tions of the church when he died, was the reason he was 
 one of the eternally lost, while his wife and child must be 
 with the angels of Heaven. Is it wonderful, then, that 
 all this poor spirit's thoughts should center in the desire 
 for vengeance, and that he should plan only how to make 
 his enemy suffer as he had heen made to suffer? Thus, 
 then, it was he who inspired a man on earth to kill the 
 judge; his hand guided the mortal's with so unerring an 
 aim that the judge fell pierced to his false, cruel heart. 
 The earthly body died but the immortal soul lived, and 
 awakened to find itself in Hell, chained to a dungeon wall 
 as he had chained his victim, and face to face with 
 him at last. 
 
 There were others whom the judge had wronged and 
 sent to a death of suffering to gratify his anger or to 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIEIT LANDS. 1 IT 
 
 enrich himself at their expense, and these all gathered 
 round him and made his awakening a Hell indeed. Yet 
 such was the indomitable strength of will of this man that 
 none of the blows aimed at him could touch him, none of 
 the missiles strike, and thus through all the years had 
 those two deadly enemies faced each other, pouring out 
 their hatred and defiance while those other spirits, like the 
 chorus of a Greek tragedy, came and went and amused 
 themselves devising fresh means to torment the chained 
 man whose strong will kept them at bay. 
 
 And away in the bright spheres mourned the poor 
 wife, striving and hoping till the time should come when 
 her influence would be felt even in this awful place, when 
 her love and her unceasing prayers should reach the soul 
 of her husband and soften it, that he might relent m his 
 bitter purpose and turn from his revenge. It was her 
 prayers which had drawn me to this dungeon, and it was 
 her soul which spoke to mine, telling me all the sad cruel 
 story, and pleading with me to carry to her unhappy hus- 
 band the knowledge that she lived only in thoughts of 
 him, only in the hope that he would be drawn by her love 
 to the upper spheres to join her in peace and happiness at 
 last. With this vision strong upon me, I drew near the 
 sullen man who was growing tired of his revenge, and 
 whose heart was full of longing for the wife he loved so 
 passionately. 
 
 I touched him upon the shoulder and said: "Friend, 
 I know why you are here, and all the cruel story of your 
 wrongs, and I am sent from her you love to tell you that 
 in the bright land above she awaits you. wearying that you 
 do not come and marveling that you can find revenge 
 more sweet than her caresses. She bids me tell you that 
 you chain yourself here when you might be free." 
 
 The spirit started as I spoke, then turning to me 
 grasped my arm and gazed long and earnestly into my 
 face as though to read there whether 1 spoke truly or 
 falsely. Then he sighed as lie drew back, saying: "Who 
 are you and why do you come here? You are like none 
 of those who belong to this awful place, and your words 
 
148 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 arc words of hope, vet how can there be hope for the 
 soul in Hell?" 
 
 "There is hope even here; for hope is eternal and I rod 
 in his mercy shuts none out from it, whatever man in his 
 earth-distorted image of the divine teachings may do. I 
 am sent to give hope to you and to others who are, like 
 you. in sorrow for the past, and if you will but come with 
 me. I can show you how to reach the Better Land."' 
 
 I saw that he hesitated, and a bitter straggle went 
 on in his heart, for he knew that it was his presence which 
 kept his enemy a prisoner, that were he to go the other 
 would be free to wander through this Dark Land, and 
 even yet he could hardly let him go. Then I spoke again 
 of his wife; his child; would he not rather go to them? 
 The strong passionate man broke down as he thought of 
 those loved ones, and burying his face in his hands wept 
 bitter tears. I put my arm through his and led him, 
 unresisting, out of the prison and out of the city. Here 
 we found kind spirit friends were awaiting the poor man, 
 and with them I left him that they might bear him to a 
 bright land where he would see his wife from time to 
 time, till he worked himself up to the level of her sphere, 
 where they would be united forever in a happiness more 
 perfect than coitld ever have been their lot on earth. 
 
 I did not return to the city, for I felt my work there 
 was done, and so wandered on in search of fresh fields of 
 usefulness. In the middle of a dark lonely plain I came 
 upon a solitary hut, in which I found a man lying on some 
 wisps of dirty straw, unable to move and to all appearance 
 dying. 
 
 He told me that in his earth life he had thus aban- 
 doned and left to die a sick comrade, whom he had robbed 
 of the gold for which they had both risked their lives, and 
 that now he also was dead he found himself lying in the 
 same helpless deserted way. 
 
 I asked him if he would not wish to get up and go 
 and do something to help others and thus atone for the 
 
A WANDEREB IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 149 
 
 murder of his friend, because if so I thought I could 
 help him. 
 
 He thought he would like to get up certainly. He 
 was sick of this hole, but he did not see why he should 
 work at anything or bother about other people. He 
 would rather look for the money he had buried, and spend 
 that. Here his cunning eyes glanced furtively at me to 
 see what I thought of his money and if I was likely to 
 try to find it. 
 
 I suggested to him that he ought rather to think of 
 trying to find the friend he had murdered and make 
 reparation to him. But he wouldn't hear of that, and got 
 quite angry, said he was not sorry he had killed his friend, 
 and only sorry he was here. He thought I would have 
 helped him to get away. I tried to talk to this man and 
 make him see how he really might better his position and 
 undo the wrong he had done, but it was no use, his only 
 idea was that once given the use of his limbs again he 
 could go and rob or kill some one else. So at last I left 
 him where he lay, and as I went out his feeble hand 
 picked up a stone and flung it after me. 
 
 "What/' I asked mentallv, "will become of this 
 man?" 
 
 I was answered: "He has just come from earth after 
 dying a violent death, and his spirit is weak, but ere long 
 he will grow strong, and then he will go forth and join 
 other marauders like himself who go about in bands, and 
 add another horror to this place. After the lapse of many 
 years — it may even be centuries — the desire for better 
 things will awake, and he will begin to progress, but very 
 slowly, for the soul which has been in chains so long and 
 is so poorly developed, so degraded as in this man, often 
 takes cycles of time to develop its dormant powers." 
 
 After I had wandered for some time over this dreary 
 desolate plain I felt so tired, weary of heart, that I sat 
 down, and began musing upon what I had seen in this 
 awful sphere. The sight of so much evil and suffering 
 had depressed me, the awful darkness and heavy murky 
 clouds oppressed my soul that ever had loved the sunshine 
 
150 A WANDEREB IN THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 
 
 and the ligtl as ! fancy only we of the Southern nations 
 love it. And then I wearied. Ah! how I wearied and 
 longed for nelws from her whom T had left on earth. No 
 word had reached me as yet from my friends — no news of 
 my beloved. I knew not how long I had been in this 
 place where there was no day to mark the time, nothing 
 luii eternal night that brooded and reigned in silence over 
 everything. My thoughts were full of my beloved, and 1^ 
 prayed earnestly, that she might be kept safe on earth to 
 gladden my eyes when the time of probation in this place 
 should be over. While T prayed I became conscious of a 
 .-nil pale light suffused around me, as from a glowing star, 
 that grew and grew till it expanded and opened out into 
 a most glorious picture framed in rays of light, and in the 
 centre I saw my darling, her eyes looking into mine and 
 smiling at me, her sweet lips parted as though speaking 
 my name; then she seemed to raise her hand and touching 
 her lips with her finger tips, threw me a kiss. So shyly, 
 so prettily, was it done that I was in raptures, and rose to 
 return her that kiss, to look more closely at her, and lo! 
 the vision had vanished and I w T as alone on the dark plain 
 once more. But no longer so sad, that bright vision had 
 cheered me, and given me hope and courage to go on once 
 more and hring to others such hope as cheered myself. 
 
 I arose and went on again, and in a short time was 
 overtaken by a number of dark and most repulsive-look- 
 ing spirits; they wore ragged black cloaks and seemed to 
 have their faces concealed by black masks like spectral 
 highwaymen. They did not see me, and I had found that 
 as a rule the dwellers of this sphere were too low in in- 
 telligence and spiritual sight to be able to see anyone from 
 the spheres above unless brought into direct contact with 
 them. Curious to see what they were about, I drew back 
 and followed them at a little distance. Presently another 
 party of dark spirits approached, carrying what looked 
 like hags with some sort of treasure. Immediately they 
 were attacked by the first-comers. They had no weapons 
 in their hands, but they fought like wild beasts with teeth 
 and claws, their linger nails being like the claws of a wild 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 151 
 
 animal or a vulture. They fastened upon each other's 
 throats and tore them. They scratched and bit like tigers 
 or wolves, till one-half at least were left lying helpless 
 upon the ground, while the rest rushed off with the 
 treasure (which to me seemed only lumps of hard stone). 
 
 When all who were able to move had gone, I drew 
 near the poor splits lying moaning on the ground to see 
 if I could help any of them. But it seemed to be no use 
 doing so; they only tried to turn upon me and tear me in 
 pieces. They were more like savage beasts than men, 
 even their bodies were bent like a beast's, the arms long 
 like an ape's, the hands hard, and the fingers and nails 
 like claws, and they half walked and half crawled on all- 
 fours. The faces could scarcely be called human; the 
 very features had become bestial, while they lay snarling 
 and showing their teeth like wolves. I thought of the 
 strange wild tales I had read of men changing into 
 animals, and I felt I could almost have believed these were 
 such creatures. In their horrible glaring eyes there was 
 an expression of calculation and cunning which was cer- 
 tainly human, and the motions of their hands were not 
 like those of an animal; moreover they had speech and 
 were mingling their howls and groans with oaths and 
 curses and foul language unknown to animals. 
 
 "Are there souls even here?" I asked. 
 
 Again came the answer: "Yes, even here. Lost, 
 degraded, dragged down and smothered, till almost all 
 trace is lost, yet even here there are the germs of souls. 
 These men were pirates of the Spanish main, highway- 
 men, freebooters, slave dealers, and kidnappers of men. 
 They have so brutalized themselves that almost all trace 
 of the human is merged in the wild animal. Their in- 
 stincts were those of savage beasts; now they live like 
 beasts and fight like them." 
 
 "And for them is there still hope, and can anyone 
 help them?" I asked. 
 
 "Even for these there is hope, though many will not 
 avail themselves of it for ages yet to come. Yet here and 
 there are others who even now can be helped." 
 
l.~>? A WAN Did IKK IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 I turned, and at my feet lay a man who had dragged 
 himself to me with great difficulty and was now too ex- 
 hausted for further effort. He was less horrible to look 
 Ujion than the others, and in his distorted lace there were 
 yet traces of better things. 1 hent over him and heard 
 his lips murmur: "Water! Water for any sake! Give 
 me water for I am consumed with a living fire." 
 
 I had no water to give him and knew not where to 
 get any in this land, hut I gave him a few drops of the 
 essence I had brought from the Land of Dawn for myself. 
 The effect upon him was like magic. It was an elixir. 
 He sat up and stared at me and said: 
 
 "You must he a magician. That has cooled me and 
 put out the fire that has hurned within me for years. I 
 have been filled with a living fire of thirst ever since I 
 came to this Hell." 
 
 I had now drawn him away from the others, and 
 began to make passes over his body, and as I did so his 
 'sufferings ceased and he grew quiet and restful. I was 
 standing by him wandering wdiat to do next, whether to 
 speak or to go away and leave him to himself, when he 
 caught my hand and kissed it passionately. 
 
 "Oh! friend, how am I to thank you? What shall I 
 call you who have come to give me relief after all these 
 years of suffering?" 
 
 "If you are thus grateful to me, would you not wish 
 to earn the gratitude of others by helping them ? Shall I 
 show you how you could?" 
 
 "Yes ! Oh ! yes, most gladly, if only you will take me 
 with you, good friend." 
 
 "Well, then, let me help you up, and if you are able 
 we had better leave this spot as soon as we can," said I, 
 and together we set forth to see what we could do. 
 
 My companion told me he had been a pirate and in 
 the slave trade. He had been mate of a ship and was 
 killed in a fight, and had awakened to find himself and 
 others of the crew in this dark place. How long he had 
 been there he had no idea, but it seemed like eternity. 
 
A WANDEREB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 153 
 
 He and other spirits like him went about in bands and 
 were always fighting. When they did not meet another 
 party to tight they fought amongst themselves; the thirst 
 for righting was the only excitement they could get in this 
 horrible place where there was never any drink to he got 
 which could quench the awful burning thirst which con- 
 sumed them all; what they drank only seemed to make 
 them a thousand times worse, and was like pouring living 
 fire down their throats. Then lie said: "You never could 
 die, no matter what you suffered; that was the awful curse 
 of the thing, you had got beyond death, and it was no use 
 trying to kill yourself or get others to kill you, there was 
 no such escape from suffering. 
 
 "We are like a lot of hungry wolves," he said, '"for 
 want of anyone to attack us we used to fall upon each 
 other and fight till we were exhausted, and then we would 
 lie moaning and suffering till we recovered enough to go 
 forth again and attack someone else. I have heen long- 
 ing for any means of escape. I have almost got to praying 
 for it at last. I felt I would do anything if God would 
 only forgive me and let me have another chance; and 
 when I saw you standing near me I thought perhaps you 
 were an angel sent down to me after all. Only you've got 
 no wings nor anything of that sort, as they paint 'em in 
 pictures. But then pictures don't give you much idea of 
 this place, and if they are wrong about one place why not 
 about the other?" 
 
 I laughed at him: yes, even in that place of sorrow I 
 laughed, my heart felt so much lightened to find myself 
 of so much use. And then I told him who I was and how 
 I came to be there, and he said if I wanted to help people 
 there were some dismal swamps near where a great many 
 unhappy spirits were imprisoned, and he could take me to 
 them and help a bit himself he thought. He seemed 
 afraid to let me go out of his sight lest I should disappear 
 and leave him alone again. I felt quite attracted to this 
 man because he seemed so very grateful and I was also 
 glad of companionship of any sort (except that of those 
 most repulsive beings who seemed the majority of the 
 
i:.l A WANbEREB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 dwellers here) for I felt lonely and somewhat desolate in 
 this far-oflE dismal country. 
 
 The intense darkness, the horrihle atmosphere of 
 thick fog, made it almost Impossible to see far in any 
 direction, so that we reached the land of swamps heforc I 
 was aware of it excepl for feeling a cold, damp, offensive 
 air which blew in our faces. Then I saw looming heforc 
 me a great sea of liquid mud, black, fetid and stagnant, a 
 thick slime of oily blackness floating on the top. Here 
 and there monstrous reptiles, with huge inflated bodies 
 and projecting eyes were wallowing. Great hats, with 
 almost human faces like vampires, hovered over it, while 
 black and grey smoke wreaths of noisome vapor rose from 
 its decaying surface, and hung over it in weird fantastic 
 phantom shapes that shifted and changed ever and anon 
 into fresh forms of ugliness — now waving aloft wild arms 
 and shaking nodding, gihhering heads, which seemed 
 ^almost endowed with sense and speech — then melting into 
 mist again to form into some new creature of repulsive 
 horror. 
 
 On the shores of this great foul sea were innumerable 
 crawling slimy creatures of hideous shape and gigantic 
 size that lay sprawling on their hacks or plunged into that 
 horrid sea. I shuddered as I looked upon it and was 
 about to ask if there could indeed be lost souls struggling 
 in that filthy slime, when my ears heard a chorus of wail- 
 ing cries and calls for help coming from the darkness 
 before me, that touched my heart with their mournful 
 hopelessness, and my eyes, growing more accustomed to 
 the mist, distinguished here and there struggling human 
 forms wading up to their armpits in the mud. I called to 
 them and told them to try and walk towards me, for I was 
 on the shore, hut they either could not see or could not 
 hear me for they took no notice, and my companion said 
 he believed they were both deaf and blind to everything 
 but their immediate surroundings. lie had been in the 
 sea of foul mud himself for a time, hut had managed to 
 struggle out, though he had understood that most were 
 unable to do so without help from another, and that some 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 155 
 
 went on stumbling about in it for years. Again we heard 
 those pitiful cries, and one sounded so near us that I 
 thought of plunging in myself and trying to drag the 
 wretched spirit out, but faugh! it was too horrible, too 
 disgusting. I recoiled in horror at the thought. And 
 then again that despairing cry smote upon my ears and 
 made me feel I must venture it. So in I went, trying my 
 best to stifle my sense of disgust, and, guided by the cries, 
 soon reached the man, the great phantoms of the mist 
 wavering and swooping and rushing overhead as I did so. 
 He was up to his neck in the mud and seemed sinking 
 lower when I found him, and it seemed impossible for me 
 alone to draw him out, so I called to the pirate spirit to 
 come and help me, but he was nowhere to be seen. Think- 
 ing be had only led me into a trap and deserted me. I was 
 about to turn and struggle out again, when the unfortu- 
 nate spirit besought me so pitifully not to abandon him 
 that I made another great effort and succeeded in drag- 
 ping him a few yards and drawing his feet out of a trap of 
 weeds at the bottom in which they appeared to be caught. 
 Then, somehow, I half dragged, half supported him till 
 we reached the shore where the unfortunate spirit sank 
 down in unconsciousness. I was a good deal exhausted 
 also and sat down beside him to rest. I looked round for 
 my pirate friend, and beheld him wallowing about in the 
 sea at some distance and evidently bringing out someone 
 along with him. Even in the midst of my awful sur- 
 roundings I could not help feeling a certain sense of 
 amusement in looking at him, be made such frantic and 
 exaggerated efforts to haul along the unlucky spirit, and 
 was so shouting and going on that it was calculated to 
 alarm anyone who was timid, and I did not wonder to 
 hear the poor spirit almost imploring him not to be so 
 energetic, to take it a little slower, and to give him time 
 to follow. I went over to them, and the poor rescued one 
 being now near the shore I helped to get him out and to 
 let him rest beside the other one. 
 
 The pirate spirit seemed greatly delighted with his 
 successful efforts and very proud of himself, and was quite 
 
156 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 ready to s< i oft again, so I sent him after Bomeone else 
 whom we heard calling, and was attending to the other two 
 when I again heard most pitiful wailingsnot far from me, 
 though I could sec no one at first, then a faint, tiny speck 
 of light like a will-o'-the-wisp glimmered in the darkness 
 of that disgusting swamp, and by its light I saw someone 
 moving about and calling for aid, so, not very willingly, I 
 confess, I went into the mud again. When I reached the 
 man I found he had a woman with him whom he was sup- 
 porting and trying to encourage, and. with considerable 
 trouble I got them both out and found the pirate spirit 
 had also arrived with his rescued one. 
 
 Truly a strange group we must have made on the 
 shores of that slimy sea. which I learned afterwards was 
 the spiritual creation of all the disgusting thoughts, all 
 the impure desires of the lives of men on earth, attracted 
 and collected into this great swamp of foulness. Those 
 -spirits who were thus wallowing in it had reveled in such 
 low abominations in their earth lives and had continued 
 to enjoy such pleasures after death through the medium- 
 ship of mortal men and women, till at last even the earth 
 plane had become too high for them by reason of their 
 own exceeding vileness, and they had been drawn down 
 by the force of attraction into this horrible sink of corrup- 
 tion to wander in it till the very disgust of themselves 
 should work a cure. 
 
 One man I had rescued had been one of the cele- 
 brated wits of Charles the Second's court, and after his 
 death had long haunted the earth plane, sinking, however, 
 lower and lower till he had sunk into this sea at last, the 
 weeds of his pride and arrogance forming chains in which 
 his feet were so entangled that he could not move till I 
 released him. Another man had been a celebrated 
 dramatist of the reign of the early Georges. While the 
 man and woman had belonged to the court of Louis the 
 Fifteenth and had been drawn together to this place. 
 Those rescued by the pirate were somewhat similar in 
 their histories. 
 
 I had been somewhat troubled at first as to how I was 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 157 
 
 going to free myself from the mud of that horrible sea, 
 but I now suddenly saw a small clear fountain of pure 
 water spring up near to us as if by magic, and in its fresh 
 stream we soon washed all traces of the mud away. 
 
 I now advised those whom we had rescued to try 
 what they could do to help others in this land of darkness 
 as a return for the help given to themselves, and having 
 given them what advice and help I could I started once 
 more upon my pilgrimage. The pirate, however, seemed 
 so very unwilling to part from me that we two set forth 
 together once more. 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe all whom we sought to 
 help in our wanderings. Were I to do so this narrative 
 would fill volumes and probably only weary my readers, 
 so I shall pass over what seemed to me like weeks of 
 earthly time, as nearly as I am able to reckon it, and will 
 describe our arrival at a vast range of mountains whose 
 bleak summits towered into the night sky overhead. We 
 were both somewhat discouraged with the results of our 
 efforts to help people. Here and there we had found a 
 few who were willing to listen and to be helped, but as a 
 rule our attempts had been met with scorn and derision, 
 while not a few had even attacked us for interfering with 
 them, and we had some trouble to save ourselves from 
 injury. 
 
 Our last attempt had been with a man and woman of 
 most repulsive appearance who were fighting at the door 
 of a wretched hovel. The man was beating her so terribly 
 I could not but interfere to stop him. Whereupon they 
 both set on me at once, the woman spirit doing her best 
 to scratch my eyes out, and I was glad to have the pirate 
 come to my assistance, for, truth to tell, the combined 
 attack had made me lose my temper, and by doing so I 
 put myself for the moment on their level, and so was de- 
 prived of the protection afforded me by my superior 
 spiritual development. 
 
 These two had been guilty of a most cruel and brutal 
 
158 A WANDEKEB IX THE SIMIHT LANDS. 
 
 murder of an old man (the husband of the woman) for the 
 sake of his money: and they iiad been hanged for the 
 eiime, their mutual guilt forming a bond between them so 
 strong that they had heen drawn down together and were 
 unable to separate in spite of the bitter hatred they now 
 felt for each other. Each felt the other to he the cause of 
 their being in this place, and each felt the other more 
 guilty than themselves, and it had been their eagerness 
 each to betray the other which had helped to hang both. 
 Now they seemed simply to exist in order to fight to- 
 gether, and I can fancy no punishment more awful than 
 theirs must have been, thus linked together in hate. 
 
 In their present state of mind it was not possible to 
 help them in any way. 
 
 Shortly after leaving this interesting couple we 
 found ourselves at the foot of the great dark mountains, 
 and by the aid of a curious pale phosphorescent glow 
 •which hung in patches over them we were able to explore 
 them a little. There were no regular pathways, and the 
 rocks were very steep, so we stumbled up as best we might 
 — for I should explain that by taking on a certain propor- 
 tion of the conditions of this low sphere I had lost the 
 power to rise at will and float, which was' a privilege of 
 those who had reached the Land of Dawn. After a toil- 
 some ascent of one of the lower ranges of the mountains 
 we began to tramp along the crest of one, faintly lighted 
 by the strange gleaming patches of phosphorescent light, 
 and beheld on either side of us vast deep chasms in the 
 rocks, gloomy precipices, and awful looking black pits. 
 From some of these came wailing cries and moans and oc- 
 casionally prayers for help. I was much shocked to think 
 there were spirits down in such depths of misery, and felt 
 quite at a loss how to help them, when my companion, 
 who had shown a most remarkable eagerness to second all 
 my efforts to rescue people, suggested that we should 
 make a rope from some of the great rank, withered-look- 
 ing weeds and grass that grew in small crevices of these 
 otherwise barren rocks, and with such a rope I could lower 
 him down, as he was more used to climbing in that fash- 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 159 
 
 ion than I, and thus we might be able to draw up some of 
 these spirits out of their dreadful position. 
 
 This was a good idea, so we set to work and soon had 
 a rope strong enough to bear the weight of my friend, for 
 you should know that in spiritual, as well as in material 
 things, weight is a matter of comparison, and the materi- 
 ality of those low spheres will give them a much greater 
 solidity and weight than belongs to a spirit sphere more 
 advanced, and though to your material eyes of earth life 
 my pirate friend would have shown neither distinct mate- 
 rial form nor weight, yet a very small development of your 
 spiritual faculties would have enabled yon to both see and 
 % feel his presence, though a spirit the next degree higher 
 would still remain invisible to you. Thus I am not in 
 error, not do I even say what is improbable, when I thus 
 speak of my friend's weight, which for a rope made of 
 spiritual grass and weeds was as great a strain as would 
 have been the case with an earthly man and earth mate- 
 rials. Having made one end of the rope fast to a rock, 
 the spirit descended with the speed and sureness acquired 
 by long practice as a sailor. Once there he soon made it 
 fast round the body of the poor helpless one whom he 
 found lying moaning at the bottom. Then I drew up the 
 rope and the spirit, and when he had been made safe I 
 lowered it to my friend and drew him up, and having 
 done what we could for the rescued one we went on and 
 helped a few more in like fashion. 
 
 "When we had pulled out as many as we could find, 
 a most strange thing happened. The phosphorescent 
 light died out and left us in utter darkness, while a mys- 
 terious voice floating, as it seemed, in the air, said, "Go 
 on now, your work here is done. Those whom you have 
 rescued were caught in their own traps, and the pitfalls 
 that they made for others had received themselves, till 
 that time when repentance and a desire to atone should 
 draw rescuers to help them and free them from the pris- 
 ons they had themselves made. In these mountains are 
 many spirits imprisoned who may not yet be helped out 
 by any, for they would only be a danger to others were 
 
160 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 they tree, and the ruin ami evil they would shed around 
 make their longer imprisonment a necessity. Yet are 
 their prisons of their own creating, for these great moun- 
 tains of misery are the outcome and product of men's 
 earthly lives, and these precipices are hut the spiritual 
 counterparts of those precipices of despair over which 
 tiny have in earthly life driven their unhappy victims. 
 Not till their hearts soften, not till they have learned to 
 long for liherty that they may do good instead of evil, will 
 their prisons he opened and they be drawn forth from the 
 living death in which their own frightful cruelties to 
 others have entombed them." 
 
 The voice ceased, and alone and in darkness we 
 groped our way down the mountain side till we reached 
 the level ground once more. Those awful mysterious 
 dark valleys of eternal night — those towering mountains 
 of selfishness and oppression — had struck such a chill to 
 jny heart that I was glad indeed to know there was no call 
 of duty for me to linger longer there. 
 
 Our wandering now brought us to an immense forest, 
 whose weird fantastic trees were like what one sees in 
 some awful nightmare. The leafless branches seemed like 
 living arms held out to grasp and hold the hapless wan- 
 derer. The long snake-like roots stretched out like twist- 
 ing ropes to trip him up. The trunks were bare and 
 blackened as though scorched by the blasting breath of 
 fire. From the bark a thick foul slime oozed and like 
 powerful wax held fast any hand that touched it. Great 
 waving shrouds of some strange dark air plant clothed the 
 branches like a pall, and helped to enfold and bewilder 
 any who tried to penetrate through this ghostly forest. 
 Faint muffled cries as of those who are exhausted and half 
 smothered came from this awful wood, and here and there 
 we could see the imprisoned souls held captive in the 
 embrace of these extraordinary prisons, struggling to get 
 free, yet unable to move one single step. 
 
 "How/' I wondered, "shall we help these?" some 
 were caught bv the foot — a twisted root holding them as 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 161 
 
 in a vice. Another's hand was glued to the trunk of a 
 tree. Another was enveloped in a shroud of the black 
 moss, while yet another's head and shoulders were held 
 fast by a couple of branches which had closed upon them. 
 Wild ferocious looking beasts prowled round them, and 
 huge vultures flapped their wings overhead, yet seemed 
 unable to touch any of the prisoners, though they came 
 so near. 
 
 "Who were those men and women?" I asked. 
 
 "They are those," was the reply, "who viewed with 
 delight the sufferings of others, those who gave their 
 fellow men to be torn in pieces by wild beasts that they 
 might enjoy the excitement of their sufferings. They are 
 all those who for no reason but the lust of cruelty have, 
 in many different ways and in many different ages, tor- 
 tured and entrapped and killed those who were more help- 
 less than themselves, and for all now here release will only 
 come when they have learned the lesson of mercy and 
 pity for others and the desire to save some one else from 
 suffering, even at the expense of suffering to themselves. 
 Then will these bands and fetters which hold them be 
 loosed, then they will be free to go forth and work out 
 their atonement. Till then no one else can help them — 
 none can release them. Their release must be effected by 
 themselves through their own more merciful desires and 
 aspirations. If you will but recall the history of your 
 earth and think how men in all ages have enslaved, op- 
 pressed and tortured their fellow men in every country 
 of that globe, you will not wonder that this vast forest 
 should be well peopled. It was deemed right that for 
 your own instruction you should see this fearful place, but 
 as none of those you see and pity have so far changed their 
 hearts that you can give them aid, you will now pass on 
 to another region where you can do more good." 
 
 After leaving the Forest of Desolation we hag! not 
 gone far upon our road when to my joy I saw my friend 
 Hassein approaching. Mindful, however, of Ahrinziman's 
 warning I gave him the sign agreed upon and received the 
 
L62 A WANBERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 countersign in return. lie had come, he said, with a 
 message from my father and from my heloved who had 
 sen! me what were indeed sweet words of love and en- 
 couragement. Hassein told me that my mission would 
 now lie amongst those great masses of spirits whose evil 
 propensities were equalled only by their intellectual pow- 
 ers, and their ingenuity in works of evil. 'They are 
 those," said he, "who were rulers of men and kings of 
 intellect in all branches, hut who have perverted and 
 abused the powers with which they were endowed till they 
 have made of them a curse and not a blessing; With 
 most of them you will have to guard yourself at all points 
 against the allurements they will hold out to tempt you, 
 and the treachery of every kind they will practice on your- 
 self. Yet amongst them there are a few whom you are 
 sent to succor and whom your own instinct and events 
 will point out as those to whom your words will he 
 welcome and your aid valuable. I shall not in all proba- 
 bility bring you messages again, but some other may be 
 sent to do so, and you must, above all things and before 
 all things, remember to distrust any who come to you and 
 cannot 'give the sign and symbol I have given. You are 
 now in reality about to invade the enemies' camp, and 
 you will find that your errand is known to them and re- 
 sented, whatever it may suit them to pretend. Beware, 
 then, of all their false promises, and when they seem 
 most friendly distrust them most." 
 
 I promised to remember and heed his warning, and 
 be added that it was necessary I should part for a time 
 from my faithful companion, the pirate, as he could not 
 safely accompany me in those scenes to which my path 
 would now lead, but he promised he would place him 
 under the care of one who could and would help him to 
 leave that dark country soon. 
 
 After giving him loving and hopeful messages to my 
 beloved and my father, which he promised to deliver to 
 them, we parted, and I set forth in the direction pointed 
 out, greatly cheered and comforted by the good news and 
 loving messages I had received. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 163 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 I had proceeded but a short distance when I saw 
 Faithful Friend sitting by the wayside, evidently waiting 
 for me. I was truly glad to see him again and to have 
 further guidance from him. We greeted one another 
 with much cordiality. He was now, he said, appointed to 
 accompany me during a part of my present journey, and 
 he told me of many strange circumstances which had 
 befallen him and which I am sure would prove very inter- 
 esting, but as they do not properly belong to my own 
 Wanderings I will not give any account of them here. 
 
 Faithful Friend took me to a tall tower, from the top 
 of which we could see all over the city we were about to 
 visit — this view of it beforehand being, he said, likely to 
 prove both useful and interesting to me. We were, as I 
 have said, surrounded always by this dark midnight sky 
 and heavy smoky atmosphere somewhat like a black fog 
 yet different anct not quite so dense, since it was possible 
 to see through it. Here and there this darkness was 
 lighted up in some places by the strange phosphorescent 
 light I have described, and elsewhere by the lurid flames 
 kindled from the fierce passions of the spiritual inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 When we had climbed to the top of the tall tower, 
 which appeared to be built of black rocks, we saw lying 
 below us a wide stretch of dark country. Heavy night 
 clouds hung upon the horizon, and near to us lay the 
 great city, a strange mixture of magnificence and ruin, 
 such as characterized all the cities I saw in this dark land. 
 
16 1 A W A \ DEB EB I N r I'I I B SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 A treeless blackened waste surrounded it and great masses 
 of dark blood-tinged vapor bung brooding over this great 
 city of sorrow and crime. Mighty castles, lofty palaces, 
 handsome buildings, all stamped with ruin and decay — all 
 bleared and blotched with the stains of the sinful lives 
 lived within them. Crumbling into decay, yet held 
 together by the magnetism of their spiritual inhabitants — 
 buildings that would last while the links woven by their 
 spiritual occupants' earthly lives held them in this place, 
 and would crumble into the dust of decay whenever the 
 soul's repentance should sever those links and suffer it to 
 wander free; crumble into decay, however, only to be re- 
 constructed by another sinful soul in the shape into which 
 his earthly life of pleasure should form it. Here there 
 was a palace — there beside it a hovel. Even as the lives 
 and ambitions of the indwelling spirits had been inter- 
 woven and blended on earth so were their dwellings con- 
 structed here side by side. 
 
 Have you ever thought, ye who dwell yet on earth, 
 how the associates of your earthly lives may become those 
 nf your spiritual? How the ties of magnetism which are 
 formed on earth may link your spirits and your fates 
 together in the spirit land so that you can only with great 
 difficulty and much suffering sever them? Thus I saw 
 in these buildings before me the proud patrician's palace, 
 built of his ambitions and disfigured by his crimes, joined 
 to the humble abodes of his slaves and his parasites and 
 panderers of earth which had been as surely formed by 
 their desires and disfigured by their crimes, and between 
 which and his palace there were the same links of spiritual 
 magnetism as between himself and those who had been 
 the sharers and instruments of his evil ambitions. He 
 was no more able to free himself from them and their 
 importunities than they were able to free themselves from 
 his tyranny, till a higher and purer desire should awaken 
 in the souls of one set or the other of them and thus raise 
 them above their present level. So it was that they still 
 repeated over again their lives of earth in hideous mockery 
 of the past, impelled thereto by that past itself, their 
 
A WAN0EBEE IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 165 
 
 memories presenting to them over and over again as in a 
 moving panorama their past acts and the actors, so that hy 
 no plunge into wild excess in that dark land could they 
 escape the grinding of memory's millstones, till at length 
 the last lust of sin and wickedness should be ground out 
 of their souls. 
 
 Over this great spiritual city of past earth lives hung, 
 as I have said, patches of light of a dim misty appearance 
 like faintly luminous smoke, steel grey in color. This, I 
 was told, was the light thrown off from the powerful 
 intellects of the inhabitants whose souls were degraded 
 but not undeveloped, and whose intellects were of a high 
 order but devoted to base things, so that the true soul 
 light was wanting and this strange reflection of its intel- 
 lectual powers alone remained. In other parts of the 
 city the atmosphere itself seemed on fire. Flames hung 
 in the air and flickered from place to place, like ghostly 
 fires whose fuel has turned to ashes ere the flames have 
 burned out, and as the floating phantom flames were swept 
 to and fro by the currents of the air I saw groups of dark 
 spirits passing up and down the streets heedless, or per- 
 haps unconscious, of these spectral flames that were 
 thrown into the atmosphere by themselves, and were cre- 
 ated by their own fierce passions which hung around them 
 as spiritual flames. 
 
 As I looked and gazed upon this strange city of dead 
 and ruined souls, a strange wave of feeling swept over me, 
 for in its crumbling walls, its disused buildings, I could 
 trace a resemblance to the one city on earth with which I 
 was most familiar and which was dear to my heart since 
 I had been one of her sons, and I called aloud to my com- 
 panion to ask what this meant — what was this vision I 
 beheld before me. Was it the past or the future or the 
 present of my beloved city? 
 
 He answered, "It is all three. There before you now 
 are the buildings and the spirits of its past — such, that is. 
 as have been evil — and there among them are buildings 
 half finished, which those who are dwelling there now are 
 forming for themselves; and as these dwellings of the past 
 
166 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 are, bo shall these half finished buildings be in the days to 
 come when each who builds now shall have completed his 
 or her lifework of sin and oppression. Behold and look 
 upon it well, and then go back to earth a messenger of 
 warning to sound in the ears of your countrymen the 
 doom that awaits so many. If thy voice shall echo in 
 even one heart and arrest the building of but one of these 
 unfinished houses, you shall have done well and your visit 
 here would be worth all that it may cost you. Yet that is 
 not the only reason for your coming. For you and me, 
 oh! my friend, there is work even in this city; there are 
 souls whom we can save from their darkened lives, who 
 will go hack to earth and with trumpet tongues proclaim 
 in the ears of men the horrors of the retribution they have 
 known, and from which they would save others. 
 
 "Bethink you how many ages have passed since the 
 world was young and how much improvement there has 
 been in the lives and thoughts of the men who dwell upon 
 it, and shall we not suppose that even ordinary reason 
 might admit it must naturally he due to the influence of. 
 those who have returned to earth to warn others from the 
 precipice over which themselves had fallen in all the 
 pride and glory and lust of sin. Is it not a far nobler 
 Ideal to place before men — the idea that God sends these 
 his children (sinful and disobedient once if you will, but 
 repentant now), back to earth as ministering spirits to 
 war and help and strengthen others who struggle yet in 
 the unregenerated sinfulness of their lower natures rather 
 than believe that he would doom any to the hopeless, help- 
 less misery of eternal punishment? You and I have both 
 been sinners — beyond pardon, some of the good of earth 
 might have said — yet we have found mercy in our God 
 even after the eleventh hour, and shall not even these also 
 know hope? If they have sunk lower than we, shall we 
 therefore in our little minds set limits to the heights to 
 which they may yet climb? No! perish the thought that 
 such horrors as we have looked upon in these Hells could 
 be eternal. God is good and his mercy is beyond any 
 man's power to limit." 
 
A WANDEEEE IN THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 167 
 
 We descended now from the tower and entered the 
 city. In one of the large squares — with whose earthly 
 counterpart 1 was very familiar — we found quite a large 
 crowd of dark spirits assembled, listening to some sort of 
 proclamation. Evidently it was one which excited their 
 derision and anger for there were yells, and hoots, and 
 cries resounding on all sides, and as I drew yet more near 
 1 perceived it was one which had been read recently in the 
 earthly counterpart, and had for its object the further 
 liberation and advancement of the people — an object 
 which, down here in this stronghold of oppression and 
 tyranny, only provoked a desire for its suppression and 
 these dark beings around me were vowing themselves to 
 thwart the good purpose as far as lay in their power. The 
 more men were oppressed and the more that they quar- 
 reled and fought against the oppression with violence, the 
 stronger were these beings here below to interfere in their 
 affairs and to stir up strife and fightings among them. 
 The more men became free and enlightened and im- 
 proved, the less chance was there that these dark spirits 
 would be drawn to earth by the kindling of kindred pas- 
 sions there and thus be enabled to mingle with and con- 
 trol men for their own evil purposes. These dark beings 
 delight in war, misery and bloodshed, and are ever eager 
 to return to earth to kindle men's fierce cruel passions 
 afresh. In times of great national oppression and revolt 
 when the heated passions of men are inflamed to fever 
 heat, these dwellers of the depths are drawn up to earth's 
 surface by the force of kindred desires, and excite and 
 urge on revolutions, which, begun at first from motives 
 that are high and pure and noble, will under the stress of 
 passion and the instigation of these dark beings from the 
 lower sphere become at last mere excuses for wild butch- 
 eries and excesses of every kind. By these very excesses 
 a reaction is created, and these dark demons and those 
 whom they control are in their turn swept away by the 
 higher powers, leaving a wide track of ruin and suffering 
 tn mark where they have been. Thus in these lowest 
 Hells a rich harvest is reaped of unhappy souls who have 
 
1G8 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 been drawn down along with the evil spirits that tempted 
 them. 
 
 As I stood watching the crowd Faithful Friend drew 
 my attention to a group of spirits who were pointing over 
 at us and evidently meditated addressing us. 
 
 "I shall go," said he, "for a few moments and leave 
 you to speak with them alone. It will be better to do so, 
 for they may recognize me as having been here before, 
 and I would wish you to see them by yourself. I shall 
 not, however, be far away, and will meet you again later 
 when I see that I can help you by doing so. At this 
 moment something tells me to leave you for a little." 
 
 As he spoke he moved away, and the dark spirits 
 drew near to me with every gesture of friendliness. I 
 thought it as well to respond with politeness, though in 
 my heart I felt the most violent repugnance to their com- 
 pany, they were so repulsive looking, so horrible in their 
 wicked, leering ugliness. 
 
 One touched me on the shoulder, and as I turned to 
 him with a dim sense of having seen him before he 
 laughed — a wild horrid laugh — and cried out: "I hail 
 thee, friend — who I see dost not so well remember me as 
 I do thee, though it was upon the earth plane we met 
 before. I, as well as others, then sought hard to be of 
 service to thee, only thou wouldst have none of our help, 
 and played us, methinks, but a scurvy trick instead. 
 None the less for this, we, who are as lambs, didst thou 
 but know us, have forgiven thee." 
 
 Another also drew near, leering in my face with a 
 smile perfectly diabolical, and said: "So ho! You are 
 here after all, friend, in this nice land with us. Then 
 surely you must have done something to merit the distinc- 
 tion? Say whom you have killed or caused to be killed, 
 for none are here who cannot claim at least one slain by 
 them, while many of us can boast of a procession as long 
 as the ghosts that appeared to Macbeth, and others 
 again — our more distinguished citizens — count their slain 
 by hundreds. Did you kill that one after all? — ha! ha! 
 ha!" and he broke into such a wild horrible peal of 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS.. 169 
 
 laughter that I turned to fly from them — for like a flash 
 had come across my mind the memory of that time when 
 I, too, could have been almost a murderer, and I recog- 
 nized in these horrible beings those who had surrounded 
 me and counseled me how to fulfil my desire — how to 
 wreak my vengeance even though no earthly form was 
 still mine. I recoiled from them but they had no thought 
 to let me go. I was here — drawn down, as they hoped, at 
 last — and they sought to keep me with them that I might 
 afford them some sport and they might avenge themselves 
 upon me for their former defeat. 
 
 I read in their minds this thought, though outwardly 
 they were crowding around me with every protestation of 
 hearty friendliness. For a moment I was at a loss what to 
 do. Then I resolved to go with them and see what they 
 intended, watching at the same time for the first oppor- 
 tunity to free myself from them. I therefore suffered 
 them to take me by an arm each, and we proceeded 
 towards a large house on one side of the square which they 
 said was theirs, and where they would have the pleasure of 
 introducing me to their friends. Faithful Friend passed 
 close to us and looking at me impressed the warning, 
 
 '"Consent to go, but beware of entering into any of 
 their enjoyments or allowing your mind to be dragged 
 down to the level of theirs." 
 
 "We entered and passed up a wide staircase of greyish 
 stone, which like all things here bore the marks and stains 
 of shame and crime. The broad steps were broken and 
 imperfect, with holes here and there large enough, some 
 of them, to let a man through into the black dungeon-like 
 depths beneath. As we passed up I felt one of them give 
 me a sly push just as we were stepping over one of these, 
 and had I not been watching for some such trick I might 
 have been tripped up and pushed in. As it was I simply 
 drew aside and my too officious companion narrowly es- 
 caped tumbling in himself, whereat the rest all laughed 
 and he scowled savagely at me. I recognized him just 
 then as the one whose hand had been shriveled in the 
 silver ring of fire drawn around my darling on the occa- 
 
170 <A WANDEREB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 siou when her love had drawn me to her and saved me 
 from yielding to these dark fiends. This spirit held his 
 hand carefully hidden under his black cloak, yet I could 
 see through it, and I beheld the shriveled hand and arm, 
 and knew then that I might indeed beware of its owner. 
 
 At the top of the staircase we passed into a large 
 magnificent room, lighted up by a glare of fire and hung 
 around with dark draperies which were in perfect rags 
 and tatters and all splashed with crimson stains of wet 
 hlood, as though this had been the scene of, not one but 
 many, murders. Around the rooms were placed ghostly 
 phantoms of ancient furniture — ragged, dirty, and de- 
 faced, yet retaining in them a semblance to an earthly 
 apartment of great pretensions to splendor. This room 
 was filled with the spirits of men and women. Such men! 
 and alas! such women! They had lost all that could ever 
 have given them any claim to the charms and privileges 
 of their sex. They were worse to look upon than the 
 most degraded bedraggled specimens to be seen in any 
 earthly slum at night. Only in Hell could women sink to 
 such an awful degradation as these. The men were to the 
 full as bad or even if possible worse, and w r ords utterly fail 
 me to describe them, were it indeed advisable to do so. 
 They were eating, drinking, shouting, dancing, playing 
 cards and quarreling over them — in short, going on in 
 such a way as the worst and lowest scenes of earthly dis- 
 sipation can but faintly picture. 
 
 I could see a faint reflection of the earthly lives of 
 each, and knew that each and all of them, men and women 
 alike, had been guilty, not only of shameless lives, but 
 also of murder from one motive or another. On my left 
 was one who had been a Duchess in the days of the six- 
 teenth century, and I beheld that in her history she had 
 from jealousy and cupidity poisoned no less than six per- 
 sons. Reside her was a man who had belonged to the 
 same era, and had caused several persons obnoxious to him 
 to be assassinated by his bravoes, and had moreover slain 
 another with his own hand in a most treacherous manner 
 during a quarrel. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 171 
 
 Another woman had killed her illegitimate child be- 
 cause it stood between her and wealth and position. She 
 had not been many years in this place and seemed more 
 overcome by shame and remorse than any of the others, so 
 I resolved if possible to get near to and speak to her. 
 
 My entrance was greeted with great shouts of 
 laughter and wild applause, while half a dozen or so of 
 eager hands took hold of me and dragged me to the table, 
 whereupon there were cries : "Let us drink to the damna- 
 tion of this our new Brother! Let us baptize him with a 
 draught -of this fine cooling wine?" And before I well 
 realized their intentions, they were all waving their glasses 
 aloft amidst yells and shouts and horrible laughter, whilst 
 one, seizing a full glass of the fiery liquid, tried to throw it 
 over me. I had just presence of mind enough to step 
 lightly aside, so that the liquor was nearly all spilt upon 
 the floor and only a small portion fell upon my robe which 
 it scorched and burned like vitrol, while the wine itself 
 turned into a bluish flame — such as one sees with lighted 
 whisky — and disappeared at last with an explosion as of 
 gunpowder. Then they put before me a tray full of 
 dishes which at first sight resembled earthly delicacies, 
 but on closer inspection I saw they were full of the most 
 horrible corrupting and loathsome maggots. As I turned 
 away from them one hag of a woman (for she was much 
 more old and ugly and horrible to look upon than the 
 most degraded specimen you can imagine) whose bleared 
 eyes and fiendish expression made me recoil from her, 
 seized me round the neck and tried, with many grimaces 
 which she intended for coquettish smiles (she had been, 
 oh ye powers! a great beauty on earth) to induce me to 
 join her and her party in a little game of cards. She said: 
 '"The stakes for which we would play consist of the 
 liberty of the loser. We have invented this pleasing mode 
 of passing our time here since it revives for us the 
 divertissements of the past; and because there is no money 
 here which one can win, or use if you win, seeing it all 
 turns to dross in your hands, we have adopted this mode 
 of paying our debts, and we agree to be the slave of any- 
 
172 A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 one who beats us at our games of chance and skill till we 
 can turn the tables on them by ourselves winning and 
 making them in turn our slaves. 'Tis a charming arrange- 
 ment, as you would find did you join our party for a little. 
 These others here/' she added, with a strange mixture of 
 insolent arrogance and animosity in her tone — "these 
 others here are but the canaille, the scum of the place, and 
 you do well to turn from them and their amusements. 
 But for me, I am a Royal Duchess, and these my friends 
 are all noble also — and we would adopt you, who are also, 
 I perceive, one of the elite, among ourselves." 
 
 With the air of a queen she signed me to be seated 
 beside herself, and had she been a few degrees less horrible 
 I might have been tempted to .do so if only from my 
 curiosity to see what their game would be like. But dis- 
 gust was too strong in me and I shook myself free of her 
 as well as I could, saying, which was true, that cards had 
 never possessed any attraction for me. I was bent on 
 getting near the woman I wished to speak to, and very 
 soon an opening in the crowd allowed me to do so. 
 
 As soon as I got beside her I addressed her in a low 
 voice and asked if she was sorry for the murder of her 
 child, and would she wish to leave this place even though 
 it would be a long and sad and suffering road that would 
 take her from it? How her face brightened as I spoke! 
 How eagerly she faltered out: "What do you mean?" 
 
 "Be assured," I said, "I mean well to you, and if you 
 will watch and follow me, I shall doubtless find some 
 means for us both to leave this dreadful place." She 
 pressed my hand in assent, for she did not venture to 
 speak for the other spirits were again crowding around us 
 in a way that was rapidly growing more and more threat- 
 ening, although the guise of friendliness was still kept up. 
 
 The Duchess and her party had returned to their 
 cards with a frightful avidity; they were quarreling over 
 them and accusing each other of cheating, which I have 
 no doubt was the case, and it seemed as though a fight was 
 about to begin in that corner of the room to vary the 
 monotony of their existence. I noticed also that the 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 173 
 
 others were collecting in groups round the doors so as to 
 keep me from leaving in case I desired to do so, and I saw 
 my enemy with the withered hand whispering with some 
 others of very low degraded type, such as might have been 
 slaves in their past lives. Half a dozen men and women 
 came up and urged me to join in a dance they were in- 
 dulging in, which was like some of those abominations we 
 read of in descriptions of the Witches' Sabbaths of the old 
 days of witchcraft, and which I shall certainly not attempt 
 further to describe. Can it be, I thought to myself as I 
 looked at them, that there was truth in these old tales 
 after all? and can the explanation be that these unfortu- 
 nate beings, who were accused as witches, did really allow 
 themselves to be so dominated by evil spirits that their 
 souls were for a time drawn down to one of these spheres, 
 and took part in some of its frightful orgies? I know 
 not, but there seems truly a marvelous resemblance be- 
 tween these things I was now witnessing and what was 
 related by the so-called witches, most of them poor half- 
 witted mortals more to be pitied than condemned. 
 
 As these creatures, whose gestures it were an insult 
 to call dancing, approached, I saw they were trying to get 
 behind us in a ring and surround us, and some instinct 
 seemed to tell me not to allow them. I drew back close 
 to the wall, holding the woman's hand in mine and 
 whispering to her not to leave go of me on any account. 
 The whole crowd of spirits were now gathering towards 
 my end of the room, the dull ferocity of their faces and 
 wild savage glitter of their eyes in terrible contrast to 
 their affectation of light-hearted gaiety. Closer and 
 closer they gathered — a moving mass of evil personified. 
 
 For once their quarrels and jealousies merged in 
 their common desire to do me harm, to get me down and 
 trample me and rend me to pieces. As the muttering of 
 a storm came here and there broken disjointed words of 
 hate and menace, while those dancing demons kept up 
 their wild antics in front of us. All at once a great cry — 
 a yell — of fury broke from them. "A spy! a traitor! An 
 enemy has got amongst us! It is one of the accursed 
 
in A WANDERS IX Tin-: SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 brothers from above come here to spy upon us and carry 
 away our victims. Down upon him! Stamp upon him! 
 Crush him to death! Tear him to pieces,! Hurl him into 
 tin 1 vaults below! Away with him! Away! Away!" 
 
 Like as an avalanche sweeps down the mountain side 
 they rushed upon us — those raging fiends — and I for one 
 thought we were done for and could not but regret that I 
 had been drawn into entering the place at all. I thought 
 I was lost, when lo! just as the nearest of them were 
 actually upon us the wall behind opened and Faithful 
 Friend and another spirit drew us through, the wall 
 closing again so suddenly that the yelling crowd scarce 
 realized how we had disappeared. 
 
 Once outside we were borne away to a short distance, 
 whence looking hack, we could see through the walls 
 (which had become transparent to our eyes) the whole 
 mass of spirits quarreling and fighting with each other 
 like so many devils, each blaming the others that we had 
 been allowed to escape. 
 
 "Look now," said Faithful Friend, "had you allowed 
 yourself to join — even for a moment — in any of their pur- 
 suits, we should not have been able to help you, for you 
 would have become clothed for a time with their material 
 magnetism, and these walls would have held you, like 
 them, prisoner, since you would have become too gross to 
 pass through them. Those spirits have not done with 
 you yet, and you must look to seeing them again, for even 
 the brief time upon the earth-plane during which you 
 yielded to their influence and thought of following their 
 suggestions has created a link between you and them. 
 which it will be difficult to sever till you } T ourself stand on 
 a height of spiritual development which will set a gulf 
 between you. As yet, I am told, you have not fully over- 
 come your own passions — you have learned to subdue and 
 control them, but all desire for revenge upon those who 
 wronged you in the past is not dead, and till that is so you 
 will not be able to shake yourself entirely free from these 
 beings, especially while you are in their own particular 
 
A WAXDEEEE IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 175 
 
 sphere where they indeed are strong. For my part I have 
 fought a battle not unlike that which you wage now, and 
 I know — none better — how hard it is to forgive where we 
 have been deeply wronged. Yet I know also that you will 
 do it thoroughly and freely some day and then will these 
 dark spirits have lost power to cross your path. 
 
 "My directions are now to guide you to the Palace of 
 one you will be surprised to see, for he is one whose name 
 is familiar to you though he lived on earth long before 
 your time. You have felt surprise at finding how little 
 these beings here are able to disguise from you their real 
 spiritual state. Know, then, that you owe this power of 
 clearer and purer vision to her whose pure love flows ever 
 to you as a constant stream of crystal water, giving you 
 the power to perceive higher things and a perception of 
 these lower spirits in all their foulness. 
 
 "Between yourself and your beloved one there is now 
 so strong a link that you unconsciously partake of the 
 powers of her higher nature even as she shall partake of 
 the strength of yours, and thus though to yourself, in 
 your own present state of spiritual development, much of 
 the corruption of this place might be glossed over by the 
 art of these dark beings, yet in the clearer purer percep- 
 tion you draw from her you possess a power to perceive 
 things as they truly are and must appear to a pure spirit 
 beholding them. Thus the glamour of deception is 
 thrown over your senses in vain. Great, then, is her love 
 in its protecting power for you, and truly was I told that 
 her love would be as a shield to you, my friend, in all 
 your trials. 
 
 "Before we leave this sphere I am to show you 
 another picture that will, I fear, sadden even while it 
 instructs you, and that is the picture of one, such as you 
 would have been without her love, left to battle alone 
 with the hopeless burden of your sins and passions, able 
 to see only as far as your own unaided powers of vision 
 could show you, and deprived of all that well-spring of 
 purity and love that ever flows to you from her. When 
 your journey in this place is over you are to follow me to 
 
176 A WANDEREB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 a spot where you will see this other picture, and we know 
 the Bight will make you doubly tender and considerate to 
 those unhappy men whom you can help better than any 
 since you will know that but for her saving love you must 
 have sunk like them, and in the fulness of your gratitude 
 we know you will seek to do for others what has been done 
 for yourself." 
 
 As he ceased to speak we turned away from the spot 
 silently together, my heart too'full for me to answer him 
 in any words. We had left the poor woman in the care of 
 a bright angel of the upper spheres and were assured she 
 would have every help given her to progress. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 177 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 On the outskirts of the town we came to a magnifi- 
 cent palace, also most strangely familiar and yet un- 
 familiar to my eyes. In wandering through this city I 
 was so reminded of its earthly double that I felt as one 
 who sees some familiar beloved spot in a nightmare vision 
 which has distorted and rendered hideous all that he 
 deemed so fair. I had oftentimes in my youth gazed up 
 at this beautiful palace and taken pride to myself that I 
 came of the race who had once owned it and all its broad 
 lands, and now, here, to behold it thus, with all its beau- 
 ties tarnished, its marble stained and mildewed, its ter- 
 races and statues broken and defaced, its fair front marred 
 with the black cobwebs of past crimes and wrongs done 
 within its walls, and its lovely gardens a dreary blackened 
 waste as though the breath of a pestilence had swept over 
 it — sent through me a thrill of sorrow and dismay, and it 
 was with a saddened heart I followed my friend into the 
 interior. 
 
 Up its great broad stairways we passed, and through 
 the handsome doors which opened of themselves to admit 
 us. Around us were many dark spirits flitting to and fro. 
 Each and all seemed to expect and welcome us as guests 
 whose coming was awaited. At the last door Faithful 
 Friend once again left me, saying he would rejoin me in 
 another place. 
 
 A great blaze of ruddy light greeted my eyes as this 
 last door opened, and seemed as though someone had 
 opened the door of a furnace, so hot and stifling was the 
 
178 A WANDEltEfc IX TIIK SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 atmosphere. At first I almost deemed the place ou fire, 
 then by degrees the blaze of lighl died down to a dull red 
 glow and a wave of steel grey mist swept through the hall 
 instead, while a wind as of ice froze' the blood at my 
 In-art and seemed to impart to me its icy chill. These 
 strange waves of heat and cold were caused by the intense 
 fire of passion and the cold selfish chill of the dual nature 
 of the man who reigned here as Prince. To the most 
 fierce insatiable passions he united an intense selfishness 
 and an intellect of the highest order. As these swayed 
 him in turn in his earthly life, causing strange alterna- 
 tions of fiery passion and cool calculation in his conduct, 
 so did these as waves thrown off by his spirit cause in this 
 his spiritual mansion these extraordinary variations of 
 intense heat and extreme cold that knew no medium of 
 temperature between. As he had dominated all men on 
 earth who came within the range of his power, so did he 
 dominate the spiritual beings around him now, and rule as 
 absolutely over them as he had ruled over his earthly 
 subjects. 
 
 At the top of this great hall I beheld him seated in 
 his chair of state which had around it all but imperial 
 insignia. His walls were hung with the semblance of 
 ancient tapestry, but, ah! how more than merely faded 
 and ragged it looked. It was as though the thoughts and 
 the life and the magnetism of the man had become woven 
 into those ghostly hangings and had corrupted them with 
 his own corruption. Instead of pictures of the chase, of 
 floating nymphs, and crowned sea-gods there was a con- 
 stantly shifting panorama of this man's past life in all its 
 hideousness and nakedness, thrown like pictures from a 
 magic lantern upon the stately mouldering ragged Arras 
 drapery behind and around him. The great windows, 
 through which the light of day never shone, were hung 
 with the semblance of what had on earth been handsome 
 velvet curtains, but which now appeared as some funeral 
 pall shrouding the skeleton shapes that lurked like aveng- 
 ing spectres within them — spectral forms of those victims 
 whom this man had sacrificed to his lust and ambition. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 179 
 
 Great drinking cups of silver, that seemed of a white heat 
 when yon touched them, and huge costly vases adorned 
 the tables, and here as elsewhere there was the same hid- 
 eous phantom of a feast — the same bitter mockery of 
 earthly pleasure. 
 
 At my entrance the Lord of this horrid place rose 
 from liis throne to greet me with welcoming words, and I 
 recognized with a thrill of horror that he was the spiritual 
 counterpart of that ancestor of my family from whom we 
 had all been so proud to think we were descended, and 
 whose portraits I had often been told I much resembled. 
 The same man, the same haughty handsome features, 
 without doubt, but, ah! how subtle, how awful was the 
 change upon them, the brand of shame and dishonor 
 stamped on every line, the corruption showing through 
 the mask with which he still strove to cover it. Here in 
 Hell all men are seen as they are, and no power can avail 
 to hide one atom of their vileness — and this man was vile 
 indeed. Even in an age of sensuality he had been dis- 
 tinguished for his sins, and in an age when men thought 
 but little of cruelty he had shown as one without pity or 
 remorse. I saw it all now mirrored in those pictures 
 around him, and I felt overwhelmed to think that there 
 could have been points of resemblance of any sort between 
 us. I shuddered at the false empty pride of those who had 
 gloried in saying they were allied to such a man, simply 
 because he had in his day wielded almost regal power. 
 And this man spoke to me now as one in whom he had an 
 interest, since I was of his race. 
 
 He told me he welcomed me here and would that I 
 should dwell with him. By the mysterious link that 
 earthly relationship gave he had attached himself to my 
 earth-life and had from time to time been able to influence 
 it. When I had felt most of ambition and a proud desire 
 to rise and be again one with the great ones of earth as 
 had been my ancestors in the past, then had he been 
 drawn up to me and had fed and fostered my pride and 
 my haughty spirit, that was in a sense akin to his own. 
 And he it was, he told me, who had prompted those acts 
 
180 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 of my life of which I felt now ihc most ashamed — acts 
 that J would have given all my life to undo, after I had 
 
 done them. And it was he, he said, who had from lime to 
 time sought to raise me in the world till I should be able 
 to grasp power of some kind and reign a king in the field 
 of intellect it' I could not reign king of a country as he 
 had done. Through me, he had hoped himself again to 
 wield power over men, winch should be some compensa- 
 tion for his banishment to this place of. darkness and 
 decay. 
 
 "Faugh!" he cried. "This is as a charnel-house of 
 mouldering bones and dead skeletons, but now you are 
 come to join me we shall see if we cannot, combined, do 
 something to make ourselves feared, if not obeyed, by the 
 dwellers of the earth. I have had many a disappointment 
 in you, oh! son of our noble race, and I feared you would 
 escape me at last. I have tried for years to draw you 
 . down, but was ever baffled by some unseen power. Once 
 and again when I deemed I had beyond doubt made all 
 things sure, you would shake me off and break away from 
 all control, till I had well nigh abandoned the struggle. 
 But I do not yield readily to anyone, and when I could 
 not be with you myself I sent some of my henchmen to do 
 you service— ho! ho! service — yes, service — and so here 
 you are at last, and by my faith you shall not again leave 
 me. Behold how fair are the pleasures I have prepared 
 for you." 
 
 He took my hand — his seemed as though burning 
 with more than the fire of fever — and led me to a seat 
 beside himself. I hesitated, then resolved to sit down and 
 see this adventure out, but prayed in my heart to be kept 
 safe from temptation. I noticed he did not offer me wine 
 or food — (his instinct and knowledge told him I should 
 only despise them) — but he caused a most lovely strain of 
 music to sound in my ears that had so long been deprived 
 of the solace of that heavenly art which ever appealed 
 most strongly to my senses. A wild weird sensuous strain, 
 such as a siren might have sung when she sought to lure 
 her victims, swelled, died away, and rose again. No 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 181 
 
 music of the earth could have been at once so beautiful 
 and so horrible — could at the same time intoxicate and 
 inflame the brain and heart, and yet fill my soul with so 
 intense a feeling of fear and repugnance. 
 
 And then before us rose a great black mirror in 
 which I saw reflected the earth and its life, and myself 
 swaying the minds and the thoughts of thousands through 
 the fevered fascinations of such music which I could make 
 mine, and through its spell waken the lowest yet the most 
 refined of passions, till those who heard should lose them- 
 selves and their souls under its potent witchery. 
 
 Then he showed me armies and nations dominated 
 to ambitious ends by himself and his influence, so that he 
 should reign again as a despot through the organism of an 
 earthly tyrant. Here, too, he said, I should share his 
 power. 
 
 Again, I saw the power in intellect and in literature 
 which I could control and influence through the imagina- 
 tive descriptive faculties of mortals who, under my 
 prompting, would write such books as appealed to the 
 reason, the intellect, and the sensual passions of man- 
 kind, until the false glamour thrown over them should 
 cause men to view with indulgence and even approval the 
 most revolting ideas and the most abominable teachings. 
 
 He showed me picture after picture, illustrating how 
 man on earth could be used by spirits, who possessed 
 sufficient will power and knowledge, as mere tools through 
 which to satisfy their lust for power and sensual enjoy- 
 ments of every sort. Much of this I had known before 
 but had never fully realized the vast extent of the mischief 
 possible to such a being as the one before me, were it not 
 for the checks imposed upon him by those higher powers 
 whose wills are as strong as his. Them he only knows as 
 an unseen force opposed to him, which baffles his efforts 
 at every turn, unless he can find in man a medium of so 
 congenial a nature that they can truly work together as 
 one. Then indeed do sorrow and devastation follow in 
 their train and then do we see such monsters, of triumph- 
 ant wickedness as have disgraced the annals of all times. 
 
L82 A WANDEREB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 Now, thank Heaven, these arc growing fewer and farther 
 between, as the human race and the spirit spheres become 
 purified through the teachings of the angels of the 
 celestial spheri s. 
 
 Last of all there appeared before us a woman's form, 
 of such surpassing loveliness, such seductive charm, that 
 for one instant I arose to look more closely at her and see 
 if she could be real, and at that moment there came be- 
 tween me and the black magic mirror the mist-like form 
 of an angel with the face of my beloved. And beside her 
 this woman seemed so coarse and material and revolting 
 to me that the momentary illusion of the senses was gone 
 and I knew her for what she was. what all her kind are in 
 truth — sirens that betray and ruin and drag men's souls 
 to Hell while they themselves are all but soulless. 
 
 This revulsion of feeling in myself caused the waves 
 of magnetic ether on which the music and these images 
 were borne to us, to waver and break and vanish, leaving 
 me alone with my tempter once more, with his voice 
 sounding in my ears, pointing out to me how all these 
 delights might still be enjoyed by me if I would but join 
 him and be his pupil. But his words fell upon deaf ears, 
 his promises allured me not. In my heart was only, a 
 horror of all these things, only a wild longing to free 
 myself from his presence. 
 
 I rose and turned from him, and sought to go forth, 
 but found I could not move one step. An invisible chain 
 held me fast, and with a derisive laugh of rage and 
 triumph, he called out to me ironically: "Go, since thou 
 wilt have none of my favors or my promises. Go forth 
 now and see what awaits you." I could not move one 
 step, and began to feel a strange alarm creeping over me/ 
 and a strange numbness of limbs and brain. A mist' 
 seemed to gather round and enfold me in its chill embrace, 
 while phantom forms of awful shape and giant size drew 
 near and yet more near. Oh, horror! they were my own 
 past misdeeds, my own evil thoughts and desires, which 
 had been prompted by this very man beside me and which 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 183 
 
 nestling in my heart had formed those links between us 
 that held me to him now. 
 
 A wild, fierce, cruel laugh broke from him at my 
 discomfiture. He pointed to these weird shapes, and bid 
 me see what I was who thought myself too good for his 
 company. Darker and darker grew the hall, and wave 
 on wave the grim phantoms crowded round us, growing 
 each more black and fearful as they gathered, hemming 
 me in on every side, while below our feet opened a great 
 vault or pit in which I saw, or seemed to see, a seething 
 mass of struggling human forms. My fearful ancestor 
 shook in wild paroxysms of rage and fiendish laughter, 
 and, pointing to the gathering phantoms bid them hurl 
 me into the black pit. But suddenly above me in the 
 darkness gleamed a star and from it fell a ray of light like 
 a rope, which I grasped with both my hands and as the 
 folds of light diffused themselves around me I was drawn 
 up, out of that dark place, away from that fearful palace. 
 
 ^ * ^ .>- :|: :•: H= H= ^= 
 
 When I recovered from my astonishment (and relief) 
 at my release, I found myself in the open country with 
 Faithful Friend and no less a spirit than my Eastern guide 
 himself making passes over me, for I was much shaken 
 and exhausted with the struggle. My guide in the most 
 kind and tender manner addressed me, and told me he had 
 permitted this trial in order that my knowledge of the 
 true nature of the man I had just left should be my best 
 protection in future against his wiles and schemes for my 
 enslavement. 
 
 "So long," said he, "as you thought of this man with 
 pride or respect as an ancestor and one who had any ties 
 to you, so long would his power to influence you continue, 
 but now your own sense of horror and repugnance will act 
 as a repelling power to keep his influence away from you. 
 Your will is quite as strong as his, and you, did you but 
 know it, need no other protection. In the interview just 
 past, you allowed your senses to be beguiled and your will 
 paralyzed by this dark being before you were aware, and 
 thus, had I not rescued you, he might, though for a time 
 
 V 
 
 ■THE A 
 
 UNIVERSITY ) 
 
is) A W.W'DKKKR IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 diily. have made yon subject to him and, while you were 
 s< i. have done you serious injury. Take heed, now while 
 yon yet remain in his sphere, that you do not again lose 
 the sovereignty over yourself, which is your own and 
 which no man can usurp unless your wavering will allows 
 him to do so. I leave you again, my son, to follow still 
 your pilgrimage, which will soon, however, draw to its 
 close, and I bid yon he of good cheer since your reward 
 shall come from her whom yon love and who loves you 
 and sends ever her most tender thoughts to you." 
 
 lie was gone as mysteriously as he had come, and 
 Faithful Friend and I set out once more to see what 
 experiences we would meet with farther on. I was specu- 
 lating what our next adventure would he when a couple 
 of spirits hurried up to us with a great importance of 
 manner and asked if we were not members of the Brother- 
 hood of Hope, since, if so, they had a message for one of 
 us from a dearly loved friend on earth and were sent by 
 one of our guides to deliver it. At first I was much 
 pleased. I thought at once of my darling and that they 
 were sent from her, since they had not the appearance of 
 most of the dark spirits around. Their robes shone with 
 a peculiar blue grey light that was almost like a mist 
 clothing them, and I had some trouble to make out their 
 faces. When I did so I could not help starting and a feel- 
 ing of distrust crept over me, for the flickering veil of grey 
 blue gauze that interposed between us became at times so 
 thin that I could see a couple of most repulsive dark 
 spirits under it. Faithful Friend quietly pressed nry arm 
 as a warning, so I addressed them with caution and asked 
 what was their message. 
 
 "In the name of the Prophet," began one, "we were 
 to tell you that your love is very, very ill, and prays that 
 you return to earth to see her without delay, lest her spirit 
 shall have passed, ere you arrive, to realms where you 
 cannot follow her. We are to show you the way to reach 
 her quickly." 
 
 Their words gave me at first a great sense of fear. 
 
A WANDEREK IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 185 
 
 "How long," I asked eagerlv, "is it since you 
 left her?" 
 
 "Xot two days," was the reply, "and we are to bring 
 yon at once. Your Eastern guide is with her and has sent 
 us specially." 
 
 Then I knew they lied, for the Eastern guide had but 
 just left and he had said no word of my beloved being ill. 
 But I temporized with them and said: 
 
 "Give me the secret sign of our Brotherhood, since, 
 unless you do bo, I am, of course, not able to go with you." 
 
 The veil of gauzy mist was fast fading from them and 
 I could see their dark forms growing more and more dis- 
 tinct beneath. I did not, however, show them that I saw 
 this, and as they did not answer at once, but were whisper- 
 ing to each other, I continued: 
 
 "If you are sent by our guide you will surely give me 
 the countersign of our order?" 
 
 "Surely yes. Certainly I can. Here it is — Hope is 
 Eternal" — and he smiled with an air of great frankness. 
 
 "Good," said I, "go on, finish it." 
 
 "Finish it! Is there more you want?" and he stood 
 puzzled. The other nudged him and whispered some- 
 thing, whereupon he added, "Hope is Eternal and Truth 
 is — and Truth is — ha — hum — what, amico?" 
 
 "Inevitable," said the other. 
 
 I smiled most blandly upon them both. "You are so 
 clever, friends, no doubt you can now give me the 
 symbol?" 
 
 "Symbol? Diavolo! there was no symbol we were 
 to give." 
 
 "Was there not?" said I. "Then I must be the one 
 to give it to you." 
 
 They both raised their arms to make a grab at me. 
 I saw one had a withered hand and knew at once to whom 
 I was indebted for this little plot. As they rushed upon 
 me I stepped back and made the sign of the sacred symbol 
 of Truth in all ages and all worlds. 
 
 At the sight of this they cowered down upon the 
 earth as though I had struck them and rendered them 
 
180 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 unconscious. There we left them to ruminate at their 
 leisure. 
 
 I asked Faithful Friend as we moved away what he 
 thought they would do now. 
 
 "In a short time," said he, "they will recover. You 
 have given them a shock, and for the moment stunned 
 then), but they will he up after us again ere long with 
 some fresh devilment they will have hatched. If you had 
 gone with them they would have led you into the morass 
 yonder and left you to wander ahout half choked, if they 
 did you no more serious harm. You must ever remember 
 that they have great power in their own sphere if once 
 you give yourself up to their guidance in any sense." 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Faithful Friend now proposed to me that we should 
 visit one more city in this strange land, in order that I 
 might see the man whose fate might have been my own 
 but for the constancy and love which has so helped and 
 sustained me. Our earthly histories were in some respects 
 different, but there were some points of resemblance both 
 in that and in our dispositions which would make the 
 sight of this man and the knowledge of his history useful 
 to me, while at a future time I might be able to help him. 
 
 "It is now more than ten years," he said, "since this 
 man passed from earth, and it is only lately that he has 
 begun to wish to progress. I found him here on my for- 
 mer visit to this place and was able to assist him a little 
 and finally to enroll him as one of our Brotherhood, and 
 I am now told that he is shortly to leave this sphere for 
 a higher one." 
 
 I assented to the proposed journey, and after a short 
 but very rapid flight we found ourselves hovering over a 
 wide lagoon upon whose dark bosom there floated a great 
 city, its towers and palaces rising from the waters, and 
 reflected in them as in a mirror of black marble veined 
 with dark red lines that somehow made me feel they were 
 streams of blood flowing through it. Overhead there 
 hung the same dark pall of cloud lighted by the patches 
 of steel grey and fiery red floating vapor which I had 
 noticed in the other city. The appearance of this place 
 suggested to me that we must be a^ut to enter the Venice 
 of these lower spheres, and on my saying so to Faithful 
 
168 A WANDERER IN" THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 Friend he answered: "Ye?, and you will here find many 
 celebrated men whose names were written on the history 
 of their times in letters of fire and blood." 
 
 We now found ourselves in the town, and proceeded 
 to pass through its principal canals and squares in order 
 that I might see them. 
 
 Yes, there they were, these degraded counterparts of 
 all those beautiful places made familiar by the brush of 
 the artist and the fame of* those who have carved for them- 
 selves a niche in the Temple of History. There flowed 
 the canals, seeming like dark crimson streams of blood 
 flowing from some vast shambles, washing and rippling up 
 the marble steps of the palaces t<3 leave there a thick foul 
 stain. The very stones of the buildings and pavements 
 seemed to me to ooze and drip blood. The air was thick 
 with its red shade. Deep down below the crimson waters 
 I saw the skeleton forms of the countless thousands who 
 had met their deaths by assassination or more legalized 
 forms of murder, and whose bodies had found sepulture 
 beneath the dark waves. Below in the dungeons which 
 honeycombed the city I beheld many spirits crowded 
 together and like caged wild beasts — the ferocity of the 
 cruel tiger in their gleaming eyes and the vindictive 
 malice of the chained human tyrant in every attitude of 
 their crouching figures. Spirits whom, it was needful to 
 thus confine since they were more ferocious than savage 
 animals. Processions of city magistrates and their attend- 
 ants, haughty nobles with their motley following of sol- 
 diers and seamen and slaves, merchants and priests, hum- 
 ble citizens and fishermen, men and women of all ranks 
 and all times, passed to and fro, and nearly all were alike 
 degraded and repulsive-looking. And as they came and 
 went it seemed to me as if skeleton hands, phantom arms, 
 rose through the stones of the pavements from the dun- 
 geons beneath, striving to draw these others down to share 
 their own misery. There was a haunted, hunted look on 
 many of their faces, and black care seemed to sit behind 
 them continually. 
 
 Far out in the waters of the lagoon spectral galleys 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 189 
 
 floated, filled with slaves chained to their oars, but 
 amoEgst them there were no longer the helpless victims 
 of political intrigue or private revenge. These beings 
 were the spirits of those who had been the hard task- 
 masters, the skillful plotters who had consigned many to 
 this living death. Yet farther out at sea, I could behold 
 the great ships, and nearer at hand in the ruined harbor 
 there were more spiritual counterparts of those piratical 
 craft of the Adriatic, filled with the spirits of their pirati- 
 cal crews who had made plunder and rapine and war their 
 delight, and who now spent their time battling with one 
 another and making forays upon others like themselves. 
 Spectral-looking gondolas floated upon the water-ways of 
 the city, filled with spirits bent upon following still the 
 occupations and pleasures of their former lives. In short, 
 in this Venice, as in the other cities I had seen, there 
 existed a life akin to that of earth save that from this 
 place all the good and pure and true, all the real patriots 
 and unselfish citizens were gone, and only the evil left to 
 prey upon each other and act as avenging spirits to their 
 companions in crime. 
 
 Seated upon the parapet of one of the smaller bridges 
 we found a man, wearing the dress of the Brothers of 
 Hope — a dark grey robe such as I had myself worn in the 
 earlier stages of my wanderings. His arms were folded 
 upon his breast and his face was so far concealed by the 
 hood that we could not see his features, but I knew at. 
 once that this was the man we had come to see, and I like- 
 wise recognized his identity as that of a celebrated Vene- 
 tian painter whom I had known in my youth, though not 
 very intimately. "We had not met again and I was ignor- 
 ant that he had passed from earth, till I saw him sitting 
 thus upon the bridge in this city of Hell. I confess the 
 recognition gave me somewhat of a shock, recalling as it 
 did those days of my youth when I also was a student of 
 art with all the fairest prospects in life, as it would seem, 
 before us, and now to see him and to think what his life 
 must have been to bring him to this pass. He did not see 
 us, so Faithful Friend proposed that we should turn aside 
 
190 A WAN DEREK IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 for a little, while he told me this spirit's history, and then 
 we could approach together and speak to him. It seemed 
 that this man (whom I shall call by his spirit name of 
 Benedetto, since his earthly one is better to be forgotten) 
 had risen rapidly into fame after I knew him, and had 
 been fairly successful in selling his pictures. But Italy is 
 not now a rich country, and Benedetto's most wealthy 
 patrons were the English and Americans who came to 
 visit Venice, and at the house of one of them Benedetto 
 met the woman who was to overshadow his whole life with 
 her baneful influence. He was young, handsome, talented, 
 highly educated, and of an ancient though poor family, 
 and therefore naturally received by all the best society in 
 Venice. It w r as to a lady who belonged to the higher 
 ranks of this social sphere that Benedetto lost his heart, 
 and dreamed in his youthful and romantic foolishness that 
 she would be content to become the wife of a struggling 
 • artist with nothing but his brains and a growing reputa- 
 tion. The lady was scarce twenty when they first met, 
 very beautiful, perfect alike in face and form, and en- 
 dowed with all the charms which can enslave the heart of 
 man — and she encouraged Benedetto in every way, so 
 that, poor youth, he believed her love to be as sincere as 
 his. But with all the passionate thirst of her nature for 
 admiration and love she was cold, calculating, ambitious, 
 and worldly; incapable of either understanding or return- 
 ing such a love as she inspired in a nature like Bene- 
 detto's, which knows love or hate only in extremes. She 
 was flattered by his attentions, charmed by his passionate 
 devotion, and proud of having made conquest of one so 
 handsome and so gifted, but she had no idea of sacrificing 
 anything for his sake, and even when she was most tender, 
 most alluring to him, she was striving with all her arts to 
 become the wife of a middle-aged Venetian nobleman, 
 whose wealth and position she coveted even while she 
 despised the man himself. 
 
 The end of Benedetto's dream came all too soon. He 
 ventured to lay his heart and all his prospects at the feet 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 191 
 
 of his inamorata, pouring into her ears all the love and 
 devotion of his soul. 
 
 "And she?" 
 
 "Well, she received it all very coolly, told him not to 
 be a fool, explained to him how impossible it was that she 
 could do without money and position, and, in fine, dis- 
 missed him with a calm indifference to his sufferings 
 which nearly drove him mad. He fled from Venice, went 
 to Paris, and there plunged into all the dissipations of 
 that gay capital, striving to bury the recollection of his 
 unfortunate passion. They did not meet for some years, 
 and then Benedetto's fate took him back to Venice once 
 more, cured, as he hoped, and prepared to despise himseli 
 for his folly. He had now become famous as a painter, 
 and could almost command his own price for his pictures. 
 He found that the lady had duly married the Marchese 
 and was reigning as a society beauty and a queen of 
 fashion, surrounded by a crowd of admirers whom she did 
 not always feel it necessary to introduce to her husband. 
 Benedetto had resolved to treat the lady with cool indiffer- 
 ence should they meet, but this was not her intention. 
 Once her slave, always so — no lover should dare to break 
 her chain till she chose to dismiss him. She devoted her- 
 self once more to the subjugation of Benedetto's heart, 
 and, alas! that heart was only too ready to surrender when 
 she told him, with every accent of feeling in her voice, 
 how she regretted now the path she had chosen. Thus 
 Benedetto became her unacknowledged lover, and for a 
 time he lived in a state of intoxication of happiness. But 
 only for a time. The lady tired of everyone after a little, 
 she liked fresh conquests, new slaves to do her homage. 
 She liked excitement, and Benedetto with his jealousy, 
 his eternal devotion, grew tiresome, his presence weari- 
 some. Moreover there was another admirer, young, rich, 
 handsome also, and the Marchesa preferred him, and told 
 Benedetto so, gave him, in fact, his conge for the second 
 time. His passionate reproaches, his violent protesta- 
 tions, his vehement anger all annoyed the lady greatly; as 
 she grew colder, more insolent towards him, he grew more 
 
192 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 excited. He threatened, lie implored, be vowed he would 
 shoot himself if she proved false to him, and finally after 
 a violent scene they parted and Benedetto went home. 
 When he called next day he was told by the servant that 
 the Marchcsa declined to see him again. The insolence 
 of a message thus given him, the heartlessness of the Mar- 
 chesa, the hitter shame of being a second time trifled with 
 and flung aside like an old glove, were too much for his 
 passionate fiery nature, and he went back to his studio and 
 blew out his brains. 
 
 '"When his spirit awoke to consciousness it was to all 
 the horrors of finding himself a prisoner in his coffin in 
 the grave. He had destroyed his material body but he 
 could not free his spirit from it, till the decaying of that 
 body should liberate the soul. Those loathsome particles 
 of that corrupting body still clothed the spirit, the link 
 between them was not severed. 
 
 "Oh, the horror of such a fate! can anyone hear of it 
 and not shudder to think what the bitter weariness and 
 discontent of life, and a reckless desire to be free of it at 
 any cost, may plunge the soul into. If those on earth 
 would be truly merciful to the suicide they would cremate 
 his body, not bury it, that the soul may, by the speedy 
 dispersal of the particles, be the sooner freed from such a 
 prison. The soul of a suicide is not ready to leave the 
 bod) r , it is like an unripe fruit and does not fall readily 
 from the material tree which is nourishing it. A great 
 shock has cast it forth, but it still remains attached, till 
 the sustaining link shall wither away. 
 
 "From time to time Benedetto would lapse into un- 
 consciousness and lose for a little the sense of his terrible 
 position, and from these states of merciful oblivion he 
 would awaken to find that little by little the earthly body 
 was losing its hold upon the spirit and crumbling into 
 dust, but while it did so he had to suffer in all his nerves 
 the pangs of this gradual dissolution. The sudden de- 
 struction of the earthly body, while it would have given 
 his spirit a more violent, more painful shock, would at 
 least have spared him the slow torture of this lingering 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 193 
 
 decay. At last the material body ceased to hold the spirit, 
 and he rose from the grave but still hung over it, tied, 
 though no longer imprisoned; then the last link snapped 
 and he was free to wander forth into the earth plane. And 
 first his powers of hearing and seeing and feeling were 
 most feebly developed, then gradually they unfolded and 
 he became conscious of his surroundings. With these 
 powers came again the passions and desires of his earthly 
 life and also the knowledge of how he could yet gratify 
 them. And again as in his earthly life he sought oblivion 
 for his sorrow and bitterness in the pleasures of the senses. 
 But he sought in vain. Memory was ever present with 
 him torturing him with the past. In his soul there was a 
 wild hunger, a fierce thirst for revenge, for power to make 
 her suffer as he had done, and the very intensity of his 
 thoughts at last carried him to where she was. He found 
 her as of old, surrounded by her little court of gay ad- 
 mirers. A little older but still the same, still as heartless, 
 still untroubled by his fate and indifferent to it. And it 
 maddened him to think of the sufferings he had brought 
 upon himself for the love of this woman. At last all 
 thoughts became merged in the one thought of how he 
 could find means to drag her down from her position, how 
 strip her of all those things which she prized more than 
 love or honor or even the lives of those who might be 
 called her victims. 
 
 "And he succeeded, for spirits have more powers than 
 mortals dream of. Step by step he saw her come down 
 from her proud position, losing first wealth, then honor, 
 stripped of every disguise she had worn, and known for 
 what she was, a vile temptress who played with men's 
 souls as one plays with dice, careless how many hearts she 
 broke, how many lives she ruined, careless alike of her 
 husband's honor and her own fair fame, so long as she 
 could hide her intrigues from the eyes of the world and 
 rise a step higher in wealth and power upon the body of 
 each new victim. 
 
 "And even in his darkness and misery Benedetto 
 hugged himself and was comforted to think it was his 
 hands that were dragging her down and tearing the mask 
 
1 94 A WAX DERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 from her beauty and her worldliness. She wondered how 
 it was that so many events all tended to one end — her 
 ruin. How it was that her most carefully laid schemes 
 were thwarted, her most jealously guarded secrets found 
 out and held up to the light of day. She began at last to 
 tremble at what each day might bring forth. It was as 
 though some unseen agency, whose toils she could not 
 escape, was at work to crush her, and then she thought of 
 Benedetto and his last threats that if she drove him to 
 despair he would send himself to Hell and drag her with 
 him. She had thought then he meant to murder her per- 
 haps, and when she heard he had shot himself and was 
 dead, she felt relieved and soon forgot him, save when 
 some event would recall him to her mind for a moment. 
 And now she was always thinking of him, she could not 
 get away from the obtrusive thought, and she began to 
 shudder with fear lest he should rise from his grave and 
 haunt her. 
 
 "And all the time there stood Benedetto's spirit be- 
 side her, w'hispering in her ears and telling her that this 
 was his revenge come to him at last. He whispered to her 
 of the past and of that love that had seemed so sweet and 
 that had turned to bitterest burning hate, consuming him 
 as with the fire of Hell whose flames should scorch her 
 soul also and drive her to a despair as great as his. 
 
 "And her mind felt this haunting presence even 
 while her bodily eyes could see nothing. In vain she fled 
 to society, to all places where there were crowds of men 
 and women, in order to escape; the haunting presence was 
 with her everywhere: Day by day it grew more distinct, 
 more real, a something from which there was no escape. 
 
 "At last one evening in the dim grey of twilight she 
 saw him, with his wild menacing eyes, his fierce, passion- 
 ate hate, expressing itself in every line of his face, in every 
 gesture of his form. The shock was too much for her 
 overwrought nerves and she fell dead upon the floor. And 
 then Benedetto knew that he had succeeded and had 
 killed her, and that from henceforth the brand of Cain 
 was stamped upon his brow. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 195 
 
 "Then a horror of himself seized upon him, he 
 loathed the deed he had done. He had intended to kill 
 her and then when the spirit left the body to drag it down 
 with him and to haunt and torment it forever, so that on 
 neither side of the grave should she know rest. But now 
 his only thought was to escape from himself and the 
 horror of his success, for all good was not dead in this 
 man, and the shock which had killed the Marchesa had 
 awakened him to the true nature of his revengeful feel- 
 ings. Then he fled from the earth, down and down even 
 to this city of Hell, the fit dwelling-place for such as he. 
 
 "It was in this place that I found him," said Faithful 
 Friend, "and was able to help the now repentant man and 
 to show him how he might best undo the wrong he had 
 done. He awaits now the coming of this woman he so 
 loved and hated, in order that he may ask her to forgive 
 him and that he may forgive her himself. She has also 
 been drawn to this sphere, for her own life was very 
 guilty, and it is in this counterpart of that city which saw 
 the history of their earthly love that they will meet again, 
 and that is why he awaits her upon this bridge where in 
 the past she has so often met him." 
 
 "And will she meet him soon?" 
 
 "Yes! very soon, and then will the sojourn of this 
 man in this sphere be over, and he will be free to pass to 
 a higher one, where his troubled spirit shall at last know 
 a season of rest ere it mounts by slow and painful steps the 
 stony pathway of progression." 
 
 "Will she, too, leave here with him?" 
 
 "No, oh no! she will be also helped to progress, but 
 their paths will lie widely asunder. There was no true 
 affinity between them, only passion, and pride, and 
 wounded self-love. They will part here to meet no more." 
 
 We now drew near Benedetto, and as I touched him 
 on the shoulder he started and turned round but at first 
 did not recognize me. Then I made myself known and 
 said how I should rejoice to renew our early friendship in 
 those higher spheres in which I hoped we would both soon 
 meet again. I told him briefly that I, too, had sinned and 
 
19G A WANDEEE5 IX THESPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 suffered, and was working my way upwards now. He 
 Beemed glad to sec me and wrung my hand with much 
 emotion when we said good-bye, and tnen Faithful Friend 
 and 1 went away, leaving him still seated upon the bridge 
 waiting for his last interview with her who had been once 
 so dear to him and who was now but a painful memory. 
 
 As we were on our road from Venice to those plains 
 which I now understood to be the spiritual replica of the 
 plains of Lombardy, my attention was suddenly attracted 
 by a voice calling to me in a pitiful tone for help. Turn- 
 ing back a little way to my right hand I saw a couple of 
 spirits lying apparently helpless upon the ground, and 
 one was making gestures to cause me to come to him. So 
 thinking it was some one in need of my help I let my 
 companion go on and went to see what he wanted. The 
 spirit holding out his hand to me and murmuring some- 
 thing about helping him to rise, I bent down to lift him 
 up, when to my surprise he made a clutch at my legs with 
 his hands and contrived to fasten his teeth in my arm. 
 While the other one, suddenly jumping up, tried to fasten 
 upon my throat like a wolf. 
 
 With some trouble, and a good deal of anger on my 
 part, I confess, I shook myself free of them and was 
 stepping back, when I half stumbled, and turning my 
 head saw that a great pit had suddenly opened behind me 
 into which with another step backwards I must have 
 fallen. 
 
 Then I remembered the warnings given me not to 
 allow my lower passions to be aroused and thus place 
 myself upon a level with these beings, and I regretted my 
 momentary burst of anger and resolved to keep calm and 
 cool. I turned towards the two dark spirits again and 
 saw that the one who I fancied had been hurt was crawl- 
 ing along the ground to reach me, while the other was 
 gathering himself together like a wild beast about to 
 spring. I fixed my eyes steadily upon the pair, whom I 
 now recognized as the man with the withered hand and 
 his friend, who had tried to deceive me with the false mes- 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 197 
 
 sage a short time before.. Steadily I looked at them, 
 throwing all the power of my will into the determination 
 that they should not advance nearer to me. As I did so 
 they faltered and stopped, and finally rolled over on the 
 ground snarling and showing their teeth like a couple of 
 wolves, but unable to approach a step nearer. Leaving 
 them thus I hurried after Faithful Friend — whom I soon 
 overtook — and narrated to him what had occurred. 
 
 lie laughed and said, "I could have told you who 
 those were, Franchezzo, but I felt it would be no harm to 
 let you find out for yourself, and likewise learn how 
 valuable a protection your own force of character and 
 determination could be. You are naturally strong willed, 
 and so long as you do not vise it to domineer over the just 
 rights of others it is a most useful and valuable quality, 
 and in your work in the spirit world you will have found 
 that it is the great lever by which you can act, not alone 
 upon those round you but even upon apparently inani- 
 mate matter, and I thought as those two are very likely 
 to come across you from time to time you might as well 
 settle now which should be master, which should be the 
 dominant personality. They will be shy of directly med- 
 dling with you again, but so long as you work about the 
 earth plane you will find them ready at any chance to 
 thwart your plans if the opportunity comes.'" 
 
198 A WAKDEBEB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 "We now saw before us a vast slightly undulating 
 plain upon which great masses of dark spirits were 
 moving. At Faithful Friend's suggestion we ascended a 
 small hillock that we might observe their movements. 
 
 "We are now," said Faithful Friend, "about to wit- 
 ness one of the great battles that take place here between 
 the opposing forces of dark spirits whose delight was in 
 war and its rapine and bloodshed, and who, here in the 
 dark state which is the result of their earthly cruelty and 
 ambition, carry on yet their warlike operations against 
 each other and contend for the supremacy of these king- 
 doms of Hell. Behold how they are massing their forces 
 for an attack upon those others on our right, and observe 
 the skill they will display in their maneuvres. The 
 powerful minds of men who swayed armies on earth sway 
 such unhappy beings here as are not strong enough to 
 resist their spell, and thus they force these less powerful 
 spirits to fight under their banners whether they will or 
 not, just as they did with mortals on earth. You will see 
 these powerful leaders engage in a struggle worse ihan 
 deadly since no death can come to end the contest, which 
 they renew over and over again, as it would almost seem 
 eternally — or until, as is to be hoped, the satiety of mind 
 of one or other of these powerful leaders will at last make 
 him long for some nobler form of contest, some higher 
 triumph of the soul than is won over these miserable be- 
 ings in battles where victory gives only a fresh right to 
 torture and oppress the vanquished. The same instincts 
 
A WANDEEEB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 199 
 
 and natural gifts which are now perverted to personal 
 ambition and the lust for cruelty and dominion as their 
 only aim, will, when purified, make these spirits mighty 
 helpers, where now they are destroyers, and the same 
 powers of AVill will help forward the progress they now 
 retard. When this progress shall take place depends, for 
 each, upon the latent nobility of the soul itself — the 
 awakening of the dormant love of goodness and justice 
 and truth to be found in all. Though like seeds in the 
 earth these germs of better things may lie long hidden 
 beneath the mass of evil that overloads them, there must 
 and does come a time for each when the better soul 
 awakens and these germs of good send out shoots that lead 
 to repentance and bring forth an abounding harvest of 
 virtue and good works." 
 
 "We looked over the vast plain and now beheld the 
 two mighty hosts of spirits drawn up to confront one 
 another in the array of battle. Here and there I beheld 
 powerful spirits, leading each his band or regiment as in 
 an earthly army. In the van of the opposing forces were 
 two majestic beings who might have been models for 
 Milton's Lucifer, so strong was the sense of power and 
 high intellect with which they impressed me. In each 
 there was a certain beauty and grandeur of form and fea- 
 ture — a regal majesty even in the degradation of Hell — 
 but alas! the beauty was that of a wild fierce tiger or lion 
 that watches how he may rend his enemy in pieces and 
 drag his prey into his den. Dark and forbidding were 
 their countenances, cruel and ferocious their gleaming 
 eyes, the false smile showing their sharp teeth like those 
 animals of prey. The cunning of the serpent-was in their 
 looks, and the pitiless hunger of the vulture in their smile. 
 Each rode in his. chariot of war drawn, not by horses, but 
 by the spirits of degraded men, whom they lashed forward 
 as beasts of burden and drove furiously on to be trampled 
 down in the melee as cattle. Wild strains of music that 
 sounded like the shrieks of the souls of the damned and 
 the thunders of a mighty storm broke from the assembled 
 armies, and with one fell swoop they rushed forward and 
 
200 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 bore down upon each other — flying and hurrying through 
 the air, or dragging themselves along the ground. Push- 
 ing, hustling, jostling, and trampling like a herd of wild 
 animals — on they came, and as they met, their fierce cries 
 and shouts and imprecations rent the air and made even 
 Hell more hideous. They charged and re-charged, they 
 maneuvered, marched, and counter-marched, these phan- 
 tom spirit armies of the dead, even as they had done in 
 the hattles of earth life. They fought and wrestled like 
 demons, not men, for they had no weapons save those of 
 wild beasts — their teeth and claws. If a battle with 
 mortal weapons is horrible, this was doubly so, where they 
 fought as wolves and tigers might — the two powerful 
 leaders directing the mass, urging them on and guiding 
 the fight as the tide of battle swept back one side or 
 the other. 
 
 Over all had towered these two dark regal spirits, and 
 ' now no longer content to let their soldiers fight, but bent 
 each upon the destruction of the other, they rose from the 
 fighting mass, and, soaring high above them, turned their 
 looks upon each other with deadliest hate — then flying 
 through the air with their dark robes extended behind 
 and above them like wings, they grappled and wrestled 
 together in a fierce struggle for supremacy. It was as 
 though two eagles fought in mid-air while a mass of car- 
 rion crows grubbed and fought for worms beneath them. 
 I turned from the crows to watch the eagles and to mark 
 how, with no weapons but their hands and their powerful 
 wills they fought as wild beasts do in a forest. 
 
 They uttered no sound, no cry, but gripped each 
 other with a death-grip that neither would relax, and 
 swayed to and fro in the air before us. Now one upward, 
 now the other, their fierce eyes stabbing each other with 
 fiery darts — their hot breath scorching each other's 
 faces — their fingers clutching at each other's throats, and 
 both seeking for a chance to fasten on their enemy with 
 their teeth. Backwards and forwards, up and down they 
 swayed and writhed in what seemed to me a death struggle 
 for both. At last one seemed to fail. He sank below the 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 201 
 
 other, who was hearing him to the ground to dash him, 
 as I saw, over a deep precipice into a chasm in the rocks 
 that skirted the field of battle— a deep and dark and awful 
 pit into which he meant to hurl the vanquished one, and 
 keep him prisoner. Fierce and long was the struggle, for 
 the one below would not give in and clung to the other to 
 drag him down with him if possible. But in vain. His 
 powers were failing fast and as they reached the black 
 chasm and hung poised over it, I saw the uppermost one 
 wrench himself free by a mighty effort and fling the other 
 from him, down into those awful depths. 
 
 With a shudder I turned away and saw that the battle 
 had been raging as fiercely on the plain. Those spectral 
 hosts had fought and the' army of the victorious general 
 had beaten back the forces of his vanquished foe till they 
 were broken and dispersed in all directions, leaving their 
 disabled comrades on the field lying as wounded men do 
 in an earthly battle, while the victors were dragging away 
 with them their captives, to what fate I could only too 
 well guess. 
 
 Sickened and disgusted with their brutishness I 
 would fain have left this place, but Faithful Friend, 
 touching my shoulder, said: "ISTow has come the time for 
 our work, my friend. Let us descend yonder and see if 
 there are none whom we can help. Amongst the fallen 
 and vanquished we may find those who are as sick of war 
 and its horrors as you, and who will be but too glad of our 
 help." So we went down to the plain. 
 
 It was as might have been a battle-field when night 
 has fallen upon it and there are but the wounded and the 
 slain left behind. All the other spirits had gone like a 
 flock of evil birds to seek fresh carrion. I stood among 
 a writhing, moaning mass of beings and knew not where 
 to begin my help — there were so many. It was worse — 
 a thousand times worse — than any mortal battle-field. I 
 have seen the dead and dying lying in the streets of my 
 native town thick as fallen leaves, and my heart has ached 
 and bled for them and burned with shame and anger that 
 such things could be; but even there was at least the peace 
 
202 A WANDEBEB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 and sleep of death to soften the anguish, and there was the 
 hope of helping those who yet lived. But here — in this 
 awful Hell — there seemed no hope and no death that 
 could relieve these suffering ones, no morning that should 
 dawn upon the night of their miseries. If they revived 
 would it not be to live again this awful life, to find them- 
 selves surrounded ever by this awful night, and these 
 fierce wild beasts of men? 
 
 I stooped down and tried to raise the head of one 
 poor wretch who lay moaning at my feet — crushed till his 
 spirit-body seemed but a shapeless mass — and as I did so 
 the mysterious Voice spoke in my ears and said: 
 
 "Even in Hell there is Hope or why else are you 
 come? The darkest hour is ever before the dawn, and for 
 these — the vanquished and the fallen — has come the hour 
 of their change. The very cause that has made them to 
 be thus borne down and trampled under is that which 
 shall now raise them. The desire for higher and better 
 things, the shrinking from the evil around them has ren- 
 dered them weak in the wickedness which is the strength 
 of Hell and its inhabitants, and has made them waver and 
 hesitate to thrust at and harm another with the ruthless 
 force of these other wild and worthless beings, and thus 
 they have been borne down and vanquished, but their fall 
 from power here will open to them the doors of a higher 
 state and thus shall there dawn for them the grey glimmer 
 of a Higher Hope. Mourn not for them but seek to ease 
 their sufferings that they may sink into a sleep of Death 
 to this sphere and waken to a new life in the sphere next 
 above." 
 
 "^.nd what," I asked, "of that powerful spirit whom 
 I saw thrown into the dark chasm?" 
 
 "He too will be helped in time, but his soul is not 
 yet ripe for help, and it is of no use to try till then." 
 
 The Voice ceased and Faithful Friend, who was be- 
 side me, made signs to show me how to soothe these weary 
 ones to sleep, and pointed out to me numerous stars of 
 light which had gathered on that field of pain, and said 
 they were carried by those of our Brotherhood who were, 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 203 
 
 like ourselves, drawn here on their mission of Love and 
 Mercy. 
 
 Ere long the writhing, moaning forms had sunk into 
 unconsciousness and a short time after I saw a sight that 
 was strange and wonderful indeed. Over each silent form 
 there rose a faint misty floating vapor, such as I had seen 
 once before in the case of a spirit we had rescued, as I 
 have already told. Gradually these vapors took shape 
 and solidity and assumed the form of the released spirit 
 or soul, then each was borne away by bands of bright 
 ethereal spirits — who had gathered above our heads — till 
 the last was gone and our work and theirs was done. 
 
204 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 I now perceived that those Brothers of Hope, who 
 like myself had been assisting the poor wounded spirits, 
 all belonged to the same- company as myself, and they 
 were all collecting together, the little starry lights we each 
 carried looking indeed like emblems of hope in darkness. 
 Faithful Friend and I joined the others and were soon 
 interchanging greetings and congratulations, like a 
 brigade of soldiers about to return home after a success- 
 ful campaign. 
 
 Before we again passed through the fiery ring that 
 encompassed this region, the leader of our band con- 
 ducted us to the top of a high pinnacle of rock from which 
 we beheld the cities and plains and mountains of that 
 Land of Darkness, through which each of us had passed 
 in our pilgrimage. And standing on that mountain peak 
 we could survey the mighty panorama of Hell stretched 
 out at our feet. He then addressed us in grave, solemn 
 tones: 
 
 "This scene upon which we look is but a small, a very 
 small, fractional portion of the great sphere which men 
 have been wont to speak of as 'Hell/ There are dark 
 spheres above this which may seem to many to deserve 
 the name until they have seen this place and learned in it 
 how low a soul can sink and how much more terrible in 
 this sphere can be both the crimes and the sufferings. 
 The great belt of dark matter of which is composed this, 
 the lowest of the earth spheres, extends for many million 
 miles around us, and has received within its borders all 
 
A WANDEREK IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 205 
 
 those multitudes of sinful souls whose material lives have 
 been passed on earth, and whose existences date back to 
 the remote far-off ages in which the planet Earth first 
 began to bear its harvest of conscious immortals, destined 
 to sin and suffer and work out each their own salvation 
 till they should be purified from all earthly stain — all 
 taint of their lower nature. The multitudes of such lives 
 have been, and shall yet be, as the stars of the sky and the 
 sands of the sea in number, and as each builds for himself 
 his own habitation in the higher or in the lower spheres, 
 so are the vast spheres peopled and their many dwelling 
 places and cities formed. 
 
 "Far beyond the power of any mortal to carry even 
 his thoughts, lie the myriad dwelling places of the 
 spheres, each spot or locality bearing upon it the in- 
 dividual stamp of the spirit whose life has created it, and 
 as there are no two faces, no two minds, exactly similar in 
 all the countless beings that have peopled the earth — so 
 there are no two places in the spirit world exactly alike. 
 Each place — yea, even each sphere — is the separate crea- 
 tion of the particular class of minds that have created it, 
 and those whose minds are in affinity being drawn to 
 each other in the spirit world every place will bear more 
 or less the peculiar stamp of its inhabitants. 
 
 "Thus in giving a description of this or any other 
 sphere you will naturally be able to tell only what you 
 have seen, and to describe those places to which you were 
 attracted, while another spirit who has beheld a different 
 portion of the same sphere may describe it so very differ- 
 ently that men on earth, who limit all things too much, 
 and measure them by their own standards of probability, 
 will say that since you differ in describing the same 
 sphere you must both be wrong. They forget that Eome 
 is not Genoa, Milan, or Venice, yet these are all in Italy. 
 Lyons is not Paris, yet both are in France — and both will 
 bear certain characteristic features, certain national traits 
 of resemblance. Or to extend the simile still farther, New 
 York and Constantinople are both cities upon the planet 
 Earth, yet there is between them and their population so 
 
20G A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 great a difference, so wide a gulf, that it requires that we 
 should look no longer for national characteristics hut only 
 for the broad fact that both are inhabited by the human 
 race, differing, however widely, in manners and ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 "And now I would have you each ohserve that in all 
 your wanderings — in all the sad sights you have seen — all 
 the unhappy beings you have known groveling in this 
 sink of their own iniquities, there were yet the germs of 
 human souls inextinguishable and undestroyable, and you 
 have each learned, I trust, that long as may be the proba- 
 tion of the soul — greatly as it may retard the hour of its 
 release by the perversion of its powers — yet to all is given 
 the inalienable birthright of hope, and to each will come 
 at last the hour of awakening, and those who have sunk 
 to the lowest depths will arise even as a pendulum swung 
 to its farthest limit will arise and swing back again as 
 high as it has sunk low. 
 
 "Bitter and awful is the reckoning the sinful soul 
 must pay for its wild indulgence in evil, but once paid 
 there is not again that reckoning to be met, there is no 
 inexorable creditor whose ears are deaf to the voice of 
 prayer or Avho will say to the repentant prodigal, "Begone, 
 for your doom is sealed and the hour of your redemption 
 past. Oh, Brethren of Hope! Can man in his littleness 
 measure the power of the Almighty whose ways are past 
 his finding out? Can man put a limit to his mercy and 
 say it shall be denied to any sorrowful sinner however 
 deep has been his sin? God alone can condemn, and he 
 alone can pardon and his voice cries out to us in every- 
 thing, in every blade of grass that grows, in every ray of 
 light that shines: 'how great is the goodness and mercy of 
 our God — how long-suffering and how slow to anger.' 
 And his voice calls with trumpet tongue, through his 
 many angels and ministering spirits, to all who repent and 
 seek for mercy that mercy is ever given — pardon, full and 
 free, is granted unto all who earnestly seek it and would 
 truly labor that they may win it. Even beyond the grave, 
 even within the gates of Hell itself, there is yet mercy and 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 207 
 
 pardon, yet hope and love held out to all. Xot one atom 
 of the immortal soul essence which has been breathed into 
 man and become a living conscious individuality is ever 
 again truly lost, wholly doomed either to annihilation or 
 eternal misery. They err, I had almost said they sin, who 
 teach man otherwise, for by so doing they shut a door 
 upon his hopes and render the erring soul yet more des- 
 perate because more hopeless, when, as he deems, Death 
 lias put the final seal of damnation upon his fate. I 
 would when each of you returns to the earth plane that 
 you proclaim to all this truth which you have learned in 
 these your wanderings, and strive ever that each and all 
 may feel the sense of hope and the need there, is to take 
 heed to their ways while there is yet time. Far easier 
 were it for man in his earth life to undo his misdeeds than 
 if he wait till Death has placed his barrier between him 
 and those to whom he would atone. 
 
 "In those Hells which you have seen all has been 
 the outcome of men's own evil lives — the works of their 
 own past — either upon earth or in its spheres. There is 
 nothing but what has been the creation of the soul itself, 
 however horrible to you may appear its surroundings. 
 However shocked you may have felt at the spiritual 
 appearance of these beings, yet must you ever remember 
 that such as they are, have they made themselves. God 
 has not added one grain's weight to the burden of any, 
 and equally must it be the work of each to undo what he 
 has done, to build up again what he has destroyed, to 
 purify what he has debased. And then will these 
 wretched dwellings, these degraded forms — these fearful 
 surroundings — be exchanged for brighter and happier 
 scenes — purer bodies — more peaceful homes, and when at 
 last in the fullness of time the good on earth and in its 
 spheres shall overcome the bad, the evil sights and evil 
 places will be swept away as the froth upon the sea is 
 swept on by the advancing tide, and the pure Water of 
 Iafe shall flow over these spots and purify them till these 
 solid black mountains, this dense heavy atmosphere, and 
 these foul dwelling-places shall melt in the strong purify- 
 
208 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 ing fire of repentance, even as the hard granite rock is 
 melted in the crucible of the chemist till it is dissipated 
 into the atmosphere and floated away to form other rocks 
 elsewhere. Nothing is ever lost, nothing ever destroyed. 
 All things are imperishable. Those atoms which your 
 body has attracted to it to-day are thrown off again to- 
 morrow, and pass on to form other bodies eternally, as 
 these emanations of men's spiritual natures are formed 
 into the earth spheres, and when there is no longer mag- 
 netism sufficiently gross to hold together these gross par- 
 ticles which form the lower spheres, these atoms will be- 
 come detached from following the earth and its sphere in 
 their rushing journey through the limitless ether of space, 
 and will float in suspension in the ether till drawn to 
 another planet whose spheres are congenial and whose 
 spiritual inhabitants are on an equally gross plane. Thus 
 these same rocks and this country have all formed in the 
 past the lower spheres of other planets which have now 
 grown too highly developed to attract them and they will, 
 when this, our earth, has ceased to attract them, be drawn 
 off and form the spheres of some other planet. 
 
 "So too are our higher spheres formed of matter 
 more etherealized, yet still matter, which has been cast off 
 from planet spheres much in advance of ours, and in like 
 manner these atoms will be left by us and reabsorbed in 
 turn by our successor. Nothing is lost, nothing wasted, 
 nothing is really new. The things called new are but new 
 combinations of that which exists already, and is in its 
 nature eternal. To what ultimate height of development 
 we shall reach, I know not — none can know since there 
 can be no limit to our knowledge or our progress. But I 
 believe that could we foresee the ultimate destiny of our 
 own small planet, as we can in part judge of it from seeing 
 the more advanced ones around us, we should learn to 
 look upon even the longest earthly life and the longest, 
 saddest probation of these dark spheres as but stepping 
 stones on which man shall mount to the thrones of angels 
 at last. 
 
 "What we can see — what we do know and may 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 209 
 
 grasp — is the great and ever present truth that hope is 
 truly eternal and progression is ever possible even to the 
 lowest and most degraded and sin-stained soul. It is this 
 great truth we would have each of you to preach both to 
 mortal and immortal man, when you return to the earth 
 planes and to your work there, and as you have been 
 helped and strengthened and taught, so do you feel bound 
 by the obligations of gratitude and the ties of Universal 
 Brotherhood to help others. 
 
 "Let us now bid farewell to this Dark Land, not in 
 sorrow over its sadness and its sins, but in hope and with 
 earnest prayer for the future of all who are yet in the 
 bonds of suffering and sin." 
 
 As our great leader concluded his speech we took our 
 last look at the Dark Country, and, descending the moun- 
 tain, we passed once more through the Ring of Fire, 
 which, as before, was by our will power driven back on 
 either side of us that we might pass through in safety. 
 
 Thus ended my wanderings in the Kingdoms of Hell. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 Zhe Gates of (Solo. 
 
A WAXDEBER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 211 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 "Gbrougb tbe (Bates of <Sott>." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 On our return to the Land of Dawn we met with a 
 right royal welcome from our Brotherhood, and a festival 
 was given in our honor. 
 
 On entering our own little rooms each of us found 
 a new robe awaiting him. It was of a very light grey, 
 almost white color, and the border, girdle, and device of 
 our order — an anchor and a star upon the left sleeve — 
 were in deep golden yellow. 
 
 I greatly prized this new dress because in the spirit 
 world the dress symbolizes the state of advancement of 
 the spirit, and is esteemed as showing what each one has 
 attained. "What I prized even more than this new dress, 
 however, was a most beautiful wreath of pure white spirit 
 roses which I found had clustered around and framed the 
 magic picture of my beloved — a frame that never 
 withered, never faded, and whose fragrance- was wafted 
 to me as I reposed on the snow white couch and gazed 
 out upon those peaceful hills behind which there shone 
 the dawning day. 
 
 I was aroused from my reverie by a friend who came 
 to summon me to the festival, and on entering the great 
 hall I found my father and some friends of my wander- 
 
212 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 ings awaiting me. We greeted one another with much 
 emotion, and after we had enjoyed a banquet similar to 
 the one I have described on my first entrance to this 
 sphere, we all assembled at the lower end of the hall 
 before a large curtain of grey and gold which completely 
 covered the walls. 
 
 While we waited in expectation of what we were to 
 see, a soft strain of music floated towards us as though 
 borne upon some passing breeze. This grew stronger, 
 fuller, more distinct, till a solemn majestic measure like 
 the march of an army fell upon our ears. Not a march of 
 triumph or rejoicing but one such as might be played by 
 an army of giants mourning over a dead comrade, so 
 grand, so full of pathos was this strain. 
 
 Then the curtains glided apart and showed us a huge 
 mirror of black polished marble. And then the music 
 changed to another measure, still solemn, still grand, but 
 •with somewhat of discordance in its tones. It wavered 
 too and became uneven in the measure of its time, as 
 though halting with uncertain step, stumbling and 
 hesitating. 
 
 Then the air around us darkened till we could scarce 
 see each other's faces; slowly the light faded, and at last 
 all we could see was the black polished surface of the 
 gigantic mirror, and in it I saw reflected the figures of two 
 of the members of our expedition. They moved and 
 spoke and the scenery around them grew distinct and such 
 as I had seen in the Inferno we had left. The weird 
 music stirred my soul to its inmost core, and looking upon 
 the drama being enacted before my eyes I forgot where 
 I was — I forgot everything — and seemed to be wandering 
 once more in the dark depths of Hell. 
 
 Picture melted into picture, till we had been shown 
 the varied experiences of each of our band, from the 
 lowest member to our leader himself — the last scene show- 
 ing the whole company assembled upon the hill listening 
 to the farewell discourse of our commander; and like the 
 chorus in a Greek Tragedy, the wild music seemed to 
 accompany and explain it all, varying with every variation 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 213 
 
 in the dramas, now sad and sorrowful, now full of repose 
 or triumph, and again wailing, sobbing, shrieking or 
 changing into a murmuring lullaby as some poor rescued 
 soul sank to rest at last — then again rising into wild notes 
 of clamor, fierce cries of battle, hoarse curses and im- 
 precations; now surging in wild waves of tumultuous 
 melody, then dying away amidst discordant broken notes. 
 At last as the final scene was enacted it sank into a soft 
 plaintive air of most exquisite sweetness, and died away 
 note by note. As it ceased the darkness vanished, the 
 curtains glided over the black mirror and we all turned 
 with a sigh of relief and thankfulness to congratulate each 
 other that our wanderings in that dark land were past. 
 
 I asked my father how this effect had been produced, 
 was it an illusion or what? 
 
 "My son," he answered, "what you have seen is an 
 application of scientific knowledge, nothing more. This 
 mirror has been so prepared that it receives and reflects 
 the images thrown upon it from a series of sheets of thin 
 metal, or rather what is the spiritual counterpart of 
 earthly metal. These sheets of metal have been so highly 
 sensitized that they are able to receive and retain these 
 pictures somewhat in the fashion of a phonograph (such 
 as you saw in earth life) receives and retains the sound 
 waves. 
 
 '"When you were wandering in those dark spheres, 
 you were put in magnetic communication with this instru- 
 ment and the adventures of each were transferred to one 
 of these sensitive sheets, while the emotions of every one 
 of you caused the sound waves in the spheres of music and 
 literature to vibrate in corresponding tones of sympathy. 
 
 "You belong to the spheres of Art, Music and Litera- 
 ture, and therefore you are able to see and feel and under- 
 stand the vibrations of those spheres. In the spirit world 
 all emotions, speeches, or events reproduce themselves in 
 objective forms and become for those in harmony with 
 them either pictures, melodies, or spoken narratives. 
 The spirit world is created by the thoughts and actions of 
 the soul, and therefore every act or thought forms its 
 
214 A WA X DEBEE IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 spiritually material counterpart. In this sphere you will 
 find many things not yet known to men on earth, many 
 curious inventions which will in time be transmitted to 
 
 earth and clothed there in material form. But see! you 
 are about to receive the Palm branch which is given to 
 each of you as a reward of your victory." 
 
 At this moment the large doors of the hall were once 
 more thrown open and our grand master entered, followed 
 by the same train of handsome youths I had seen before, 
 only this time each carried a branch of palm instead of a 
 wreath of laurel. When the grand master had seated 
 himself under his canopy of state we were each summoned 
 to his presence to receive our branch of palm, and when 
 we had all done so and returned to our places again a most 
 joyous hymn of victory w r as sung by everyone, our palm 
 branches waving in time to the music and our glad voices 
 filling the air with triumphant harmony. 
 
 ********* 
 
 I now enjoyed a long quiet season of rest which much 
 resembled that half-waking, half-sleeping state, when the 
 mind is too much in repose to think and yet retains full 
 consciousness of all its surroundings. From this state, 
 which lasted some weeks, I arose completely recovered 
 from the effects of my wanderings in the dark spheres. 
 
 And my first thought was to visit my beloved, and 
 see if she could see me and be conscious of my improved 
 appearance. I shall not, however, dwell upon our inter- 
 view; its joy was for ourselves alone — I only seek to show 
 that death does not of necessity either end our affection 
 for those we have left or shut us out from sharing with 
 them our joys or sorrows. 
 
 I found that I was now much more able to com- 
 municate with her through her own mediumistic powers, 
 so that we did not need any third person to intervene and 
 help us, and thus were my labors lightened and cheered 
 by her sweet affection and her conscious recognition of 
 my presence and of my continued existence. 
 
 My work at this time was once more upon the earth 
 plane and in those cities whose counterparts I had seen in 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 215 
 
 Hell. I had to labor among those mortals and spirits who 
 thronged them, and impress their minds with a sense of 
 what I had seen in that dark sphere far below. I knew I 
 could only make them dimly conscious of it, only arouse 
 a little their dormant sense of fear of future retribution 
 for their present misdeeds, but even that was something 
 and would help to deter some from a too complete 
 abandonment of themselves to selfish pleasure. More- 
 over, amongst the spirits who were earth-bound to those 
 cities I found many whom I could assist, with the knowl- 
 edge and strength which I had gained in my journey. 
 
 There ever is and ever must be ample work for those 
 who work upon the earth plane, for multitudinous as are 
 the workers there, more are always being wanted, since 
 men are passing over from earth life every hour and every 
 minute, who need all the help that can be given them. 
 
 Thus passed some months for me, and then I began 
 once more to feel the old restless longing to rise higher 
 myself, to attain more than I had yet done, to approach 
 nearer to that sphere to which my beloved one would pass 
 when her earthly life was ended, and by attaining which 
 I could alone hope to be united to her in the spirit world. 
 I used at this time to be tormented with a constant fear 
 lest my darling should pass from earth before I had risen 
 to her spiritual level, and thus I should be again parted 
 from her. 
 
 This fear it was which had ever urged me on to fresh 
 efforts, fresh concpiiests over myself, and now made me 
 dissatisfied even with the progress I had made. I knew 
 that I had overcome much, I had struggled hard to im- 
 prove, and I had risen wonderfully fast, yet in spite of all 
 I was still tormented by the jealous and suspicious feel- 
 ings which my disposition and my earthly experience had 
 gathered about me. 
 
 There were even times when I would begin to doubt 
 the constancy of my beloved herself. In spite of all the 
 many proofs of her love which she had given me, I would 
 fear lest while I was away from her someone yet in the 
 flesh should after all win her love from me. 
 
21G A \VA NDEREK IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 And thus I was in danger of becoming earth-bound 
 by reason of my unworthy desire to watch her continually. 
 Ah! you who think a spirit has changed all his thoughts 
 and desires at the moment of dissolution, how little you 
 understand of the conditions of that other life beyond the 
 grave, and how slowly, how very slowly we change the 
 habits of thought we have cultivated in our earthly lives 
 or how long they cling to us in the spiritual state. 
 
 I was then in character much what I had been on 
 earth, only a little better, only learning by degrees 
 wherein my ideas had been wrong and full of prejudice, 
 a lesson we may go on learning through many spheres, 
 higher than any I had attained to. 
 
 Even while I doubted and feared, I was ashamed of 
 
 my doubts and knew how unjust they were, yet could I 
 
 not free myself from them; the experiences of my earth 
 
 life had taught me suspicion and distrust, and the ghosts 
 
 ■ of that earth life were not so easily laid. 
 
 It was while I was in this state of self-torment that 
 Ahrinziman came to me and told me how I might free 
 myself from these haunting shadows of the past. 
 
 "There is," said he, "a land not far from here called 
 the Land of Remorse; were you to visit it, the journey 
 would be of much service to you, for once its hills and 
 valleys were passed and its difficulties overcome, the true 
 nature of your earthly life and its mistakes would be 
 clearly realized and prove a great means of progression for 
 your soul, such a journey will indeed be full of much 
 bitterness and sorrow, for you will see displayed in all 
 their nakedness, the actions of your past, actions which 
 you have already in part atoned for but do not yet see as 
 the eyes of the higher spiritual intelligences see them. 
 
 "Few who come over from earth life really realize the 
 true motives which prompted their actions; many indeed 
 go on for years, some even for centuries, before this 
 knowledge comes to them. They excuse and justify to 
 their own consciences their misdeeds, and such a land as 
 this I speak of is very useful for enlightening them. The 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 217 
 
 journey must, however, be undertaken voluntarily, and it 
 will then shorten by years the pathway of progression. 
 
 "In that land men's lives are stored up as pictures 
 which, mirrored in the wondrous spiritual atmosphere, 
 reflect for them the reasons of many failures; and show 
 the subtle causes at work in their own hearts which have 
 shaped the lives of each*. It would be" a severe and keen 
 self-examination through which you would pass — a bitter 
 experience of your own nature, your own self, but though 
 a bitter it is a salutary medicine, and would go far to heal 
 your soul of those maladies of the earth life which like a 
 miasma hang about it still." 
 
 "Show me," I answered, "where this land is, and I 
 will go to it." 
 
 Ahrinziman took me to the top of one of those dim 
 and distant hills which I could see from the window of my 
 little room, and leading me to where we looked down 
 across a wide plain bounded by another range of hills far 
 away, said: 
 
 "On the other side of those farther hills lies this 
 wondrous land of which I speak, a land through which 
 most spirits pass whose lives have been such as to call for 
 great sorrow and remorse. Those whose errors have been 
 merely trivial, daily weaknesses such as are common to all 
 mankind, do not pass through it; there are other means 
 whereby they may be enlightened as to the source of their 
 mistakes. This land is more particularly useful to such 
 as yourself, of strong powers and strong will, who will 
 recognize readily and admit freely wherein you have done 
 wrong, and in doing so arise to better things. Like a 
 strong tonic this circle of the sphere would be too much 
 for some weak erring spirits who would only be crushed 
 and overwhelmed and disheartened by the too rapid and 
 vivid realization of all their sins; such spirits must be 
 taught slowly, step by step, a little at a time, while you 
 who are strong of heart and full of courage will but rise 
 the more rapidly the sooner you see and recognize the 
 nature of those fetters which have bound your soul." 
 
218 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 "And will it take me long to accomplish this 
 journey?" 
 
 "No, it will last but a short time — two or three weeks 
 of earth time — for behold as I shadow it forth to you I 
 see following it fast the image of your returning spirit, 
 showing that the two events are not separated by a wide 
 interval. In the spirit world where time is not reckoned 
 by days or weeks or counted by hours, we judge of how 
 long an event will take to accomplish or when an occur- 
 rence will happen by seeing how near or how far away 
 they appear, and also by observing whether the shadow 
 cast by the coming event touches the earth or is yet dis- 
 tant from it — we then try to judge as nearly as possible 
 of what will be its corresponding time as measured by 
 earthly standards. Even the wisest of us may not always 
 be able to do this with perfect correctness; thus it is as 
 well for those who communicate with friends on earth not 
 to give an exact date for foreseen events, since many 
 things may intervene to delay it and thus make the date 
 incorrect. An event may be shown very near, yet instead 
 of continuing to travel to the mortal at the same speed it 
 may be delayed or held in suspense, and sometimes even 
 turned aside altogether by a stronger power than the one 
 which has set it in motion." 
 
 I thanked my guide for his advice and we parted. I 
 was so very eager to progress that a very short time after 
 this conversation saw me setting forth upon my new 
 journey. 
 
 I found my progress not so rapid as had been the 
 case in my previous travels through the spirit -land, for 
 now I had taken upon me the full burden of my past sins, 
 and like the load carried by the pilgrim Christian it 
 almost weighed me down to the earth, making my move- 
 ments very slow and laborious. Like a pilgrim, I was 
 habited in a coarse grey robe, my feet were bare and my 
 head uncovered, for in the spirit world the condition of 
 your mind forms your clothing and surroundings, and my 
 feelings then were as though I wore sackcloth and had put 
 dust and ashes upon my head. 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 219 
 
 When I had at last crossed those dim far-off hills 
 there lay before me a wide sandy plain — a great desert — in 
 which I saw the barren sands of my earthly life lie scat- 
 tered. Xo tree, no shrub, no green thing was there any- 
 where for the eye to rest upon, no water of refreshment 
 to sparkle before us like hopes of happiness. There was 
 no shade for our weary limbs should we seek for repose. 
 The lives of those who crossed this plain in search of the 
 rest beyond, had been barren of true, pure, unselfish affec- 
 tion and that self-denial which alone can make the desert 
 to blossom like the rose and sweet waters of refreshment 
 to spring up around their paths. 
 
 I descended to this dreary waste of sand, and took 
 a narrow path which seemed to lead to the hills on the 
 other side. The load I carried had now become almost 
 intolerable to me and I longed to lay it down — but in 
 vain; I could not for one moment detach it. The hot 
 sand seemed to blister my feet as I walked, and each step 
 was so labored as to be most painful. As I passed slowly 
 on there rose before me pictures of my past and of all 
 those whom I had known. These pictures seemed to be 
 just in front of me and to float in the atmosphere like 
 those mirages seen by earthly travelers through the desert. 
 
 Like dissolving views they appeared to melt into one 
 another and give place to fresh scenes. Through them 
 all there moved the friends or strangers whom I had met 
 and known, and the long forgotten unkind thoughts and 
 words which I had spoken to them rose up in an accusing 
 array before me — the tears I had made others shed — the 
 cruel words (sharper and harder to bear than any blow) 
 with which I had wounded the feelings of those around 
 me. A thousand hard unworthy thoughts and selfish 
 actions of my past — long thrust aside and forgotten or 
 excused — all rose up once more before me, picture after 
 picture — till at last I was so overwhelmed to see what an 
 array of them there was, that I broke down, and casting 
 my pride to the winds I bowed myself in the dust and 
 wept bitter tears of shame and sorrow. And where my 
 tears fell on the hot dry sand there sprang up around me 
 
220 A WANDERER IN TIIE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 little flowers like white stars, eaeh little waxy blossom 
 bearing in its heart a drop of clew, so that the place I had 
 sunk down upon in such sorrow had become a little oasis 
 of beauty in that weary desert. 
 
 I plucked a few of those tiny blossoms and placed 
 them in my bosom as a memorial of that spot, and then 
 rose to go on again. To my surprise the pictures were 
 no longer visible, but in front of me I beheld a woman 
 carrying a little child whose weight seemed too much for 
 her strength, and it was wailing with weariness and fear. 
 
 I hurried up to them and offered to carry the poor 
 little one, for I was touched by the sight of its poor little 
 frightened face and weary drooping head. The woman 
 stared at me for a moment and then put the little one in 
 my arms, and as I covered him over with a part of my 
 robe the poor tired little creature sank into a quiet sleep. 
 The woman told me the child was hers, but she had not 
 felt much affection for it during its earth life. "In fact," 
 said she, "I did not want a child at all. I do not care for 
 children, and when this one came I was annoyed and 
 neglected it. Then, as it grew older, and was (as I 
 thought then) naughty and troublesome, I used to beat 
 it and shut it up in dark rooms, and was otherwise hard 
 and unkind. At last when it was five years old it died, 
 and then I died not long afterwards of the same fever. 
 Since I came to the spirit world that child has seemed to 
 haunt me, and at last I was advised to take this journey, 
 carrying him with me since I cannot rid myself of his 
 presence." 
 
 "And do you even yet feel no love for the poor 
 little thing?" 
 
 "'Well, no! I can't say I have come to love it, per- 
 haps I never shall really love it as some mothers do, in- 
 deed I am one of those women who should not be mothers 
 at all — the maternal instinct is, as yet at all events, quite 
 wanting in me. I do not love the child, but I am sorry 
 now that I was not kinder to him, and I can see that what 
 I thought was a sense of duty urging me to bring him up 
 properly and correct his faults, was only an excuse for 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 221 
 
 my own temper and the irritation the care of him caused. 
 I can see I have done wrong and why I did so, but I can- 
 not say I have much love for this child." 
 
 "And are you to take him with you through all your 
 journey?" I asked, feeling so sorry for the poor little 
 unloved thing that I bent over him and kissed him, my 
 own eyes growing dim as I did so, for I thought of my 
 beloved on earth and what a treasure she would have 
 deemed such a child, and how tender she would have been 
 to it. And as I kissed him he put his little arms around 
 my neck and smiled up at me in a half-asleep way that 
 should have gone straight to the woman's heart. Even 
 as it was her face relaxed a little, and she said more 
 graciously than she had yet spoken: 
 
 "I am only to carry him a little farther I believe, and 
 then he will be taken to a sphere where there are many 
 children like him whose parents do not care about them 
 and who are taken care of by spirits who are fond of 
 children." 
 
 "I am glad to think that," I said, and then we 
 trudged on together for a bit farther, till we reached a 
 small group of rocks where there was a little pool of water, 
 beside which we sat down to rest. Presently I fell asleep, 
 and when I awoke the woman and the child had gone. 
 
 I arose and resumed my way, and shortly after 
 arrived at the foot of the mountains, which pride and 
 ambition had reared. Hard, rocky, and precipitous was 
 the pathway across them, with scarce foothold to help one 
 on, and ofttimes it seemed as though these rocks reared 
 by selfish pride would prove too difficult to surmount. 
 And as I climbed I recognized what share I had had in 
 building them, what atoms my pride had sent to swell 
 these difficulties I now encountered. 
 
 Yow of us know the secrets of our own hearts. We so 
 often deem that it is a far nobler ambition than mere self- 
 aggrandisement which inspires our efforts to place our- 
 selves on a higher level than our fellow men who are not 
 so well equipped for the battle of life. 
 
 I looked back upon my past with shame as I recog- 
 
•-'•-'•» A WAN I >E 111". 1 1 IN THE Sl'IIMT LANDS. 
 
 nized one great rock after another to be the spiritual em- 
 blems of the stumbling blocks which I had placed in the 
 path of my feebler brothers^ whose poor crude efforts had 
 once seemed to me only worthy of prompt extinction in 
 the interests of all true art, and 1 longed to have -my life 
 to live over again that I might do better with it and 
 encourage where I had once condemned, help where I 
 had crushed. • 
 
 I had been so hard to myself, so eager ever to attain 
 to the highest possible excellence, that I had never been 
 satisfied with any of my own efforts — even when the 
 applause of my fellows was ringing in my ears, even when 
 I had carried off the highest prizes from all competitors — 
 and sc I had thought myself entitled to exact as high a 
 standard from all who sought to study my beautiful art. 
 I could see no merit in the efforts of the poor stragglers 
 ^who were as infants beside the great master minds. 
 "Talent, genius, I could cordially admire, frankly appre- 
 ciate, but with complacent mediocrity I had no sympathy; 
 such I had had no desire to help. I was ignorant then 
 that those feeble powers were like tiny seeds which 
 though they would never develop into anything of value 
 on earth, would yet blossom into the perfect flower in the 
 great Hereafter. In my early days, when success first was 
 mine, and before I had made shipwreck of my life, I had 
 been full of the wildest, most ambitious dreams, and 
 though in later years when sorrow and disappointments 
 had taught me somewhat of pity for the struggles of 
 others, yet I could not learn to feel true cordial sympathy 
 with mediocrity and its struggles, and now I recognized 
 that it was the want of such sympathy which had piled up 
 high these rocks so typical of my arrogance. 
 
 In my sorrow and remorse at this discovery I looked 
 around to see if there might be anyone near me weaker 
 than myself, whom it may not be too late to assist upon 
 his path, and as I looked I saw above me on this hard 
 road a young man almost spent and much exhausted with 
 his effort to climb these rocks, which family pride and an 
 ambition to rank with the noble and wealthy had piled 
 
A WANDEBER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 223 
 
 up for him — a pride to which he had sacrificed all those 
 who should have been most dear. He was clinging to a 
 jut ting-out portion of rock, and was so spent and ex- 
 hausted he seemed almost ready to let go and fall. 
 
 I shouted to him to hold on, and soon climbed up to 
 where he was, and there with some difficulty succeeded in 
 dragging him up to the summit of these rocks. My 
 strength being evidently double his, I was only too ready 
 to help him as some relief to the remorse I now felt at 
 thinking how many feeble minds I had crushed in 
 the past. 
 
 When we reached the top and sat down to rest, I 
 found myself to be much bruised and torn by the sharp 
 stones over which we had stumbled. But I also found 
 that in my struggles to ascend, my burden of selfish pride 
 had fallen from me and was gone, and as I looked back 
 over the path by which I had climbed I clothed myself 
 anew in the sackcloth and ashes of humility, and resolved 
 I would go back to earth and seek to help some of those 
 feebler ones to a fuller understanding of my art. I would 
 seek as far as I could to give them the help of my higher 
 knowledge. "Where I had crushed the timid aspiring soul 
 I would now encourage, where my sharp tongue and keen 
 wit had wounded I would strive to heal. I knew now that 
 none should dare to despise his weaker brother or crush 
 out his hopes, because to a more advanced mind they seem 
 small and trivial. 
 
 I sat long upon that mountain thinking of these 
 things — the young man whom I had helped going on 
 without me. At last I rose and wended my way slowly 
 through a deep ravine spanned by a broken bridge and 
 approached by a high gate, at which many spirits were 
 waiting, and trying by various means to open it in order 
 that they might pass through. Some tried force, others 
 tried to climb over, others again sought to find some secret 
 spring, and when one after another tried and failed some 
 of the others again would seek to console the disappointed 
 ones. As I drew near six or seven spirits who still hov- 
 ered about the gate drew back, curious to see what I would 
 
224 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 do. It was a ureal gate of what looked to me like sheets 
 of iron, though its real nature I do not even now know. 
 1 1 was so high and so smooth, no one could climb it, so 
 solid it was vain to dream of forcing it, so fast shut there 
 appeared no chance of opening it. I stood in front of it 
 in despair, wondering what I should do now, when I saw 
 a poor woman near me weeping most bitterly with dis- 
 appointment; she had been there some time and had tried 
 in vain to open the gate. I did my best to comfort her 
 and give her all the hope I could, and while I was doing 
 so the solid gate before us melted away and we passed 
 through. Then as suddenly 1 saw it rise again behind 
 me, while the woman had vanished, and beside the bridge 
 stood a feeble old man bent nearly double. As I was still 
 wondering about the gate a voice said to me, "That is the 
 gate of kind deeds and kind thoughts. Those who are on 
 the other side must wait till their kind thoughts and acts 
 for others are heavy enough to weigh the gate down, when 
 it will open for them as it did for you who have tried so 
 hard to help your fellows." 
 
 I now advanced to the bridge where the old man was 
 standing, poking about with his stick as if feeling his way, 
 and groaning over his helplessness. I was so afraid he 
 would fall through the broken part without seeing it, that 
 I rushed impulsively forward and offered to help him over. 
 But he shook his head, "No! no! young man, the bridge is 
 so rotten it will never bear your weight and mine. Go on 
 yourself, and leave me here to do the best I can." 
 
 "Not so, you are feeble, and old enough to be my 
 grandfather, and if I leave you you will most likely drop 
 through the broken place. Now, I am active and strong, 
 and it will go hard with us if I do not contrive somehow 
 to get us both across." 
 
 Without waiting for his reply I took hold of him 
 and hoisted him on to my back, and telling him to hold 
 tight by my shoulders I started to cross the bridge. 
 
 Sapristi! what a weight that old man seemed! Sin- 
 bad's old man of the sea was a joke to him. That bridge, 
 too, how it creaked, groaned and bent under our weight. 
 
A WANDEEEB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS! 225 
 
 I thought we must hoth he tumbled into the chasm below, 
 and all the time the old man kept imploring me not to 
 drop him. On I struggled, holding with my hands as 
 well as I could, and crawling on all-fours when we reached 
 the worst part. When we got to the middle there was a 
 great ragged hole and only the broken ends of the two 
 great beams to catch hold of. Here I did feel it a diffi- 
 culty. I could have swung myself across I felt certain, 
 but it was a different thing with that heavy old man 
 clinging to me and half choking me, and a thought did 
 cross my mind that I might have done better to leave him 
 alone, but that seemed so cruel to the poor old soul that 
 I made up my mind to risk it. The poor old man gave a 
 great sigh when he saw how matters stood, and said: 
 
 ''You had better abandon me after all. I am too 
 helpless to get across and you will only spoil your own 
 chance by trying it. Leave me here and go on alone." 
 
 His tone was so dejected, so miserable, I could never 
 have so left him, and I thought to make a desperate effort 
 for us both, so telling him to hold on tight I grasped the 
 broken beam with one hand and, making a great spring. I 
 swung myself over the chasm with such a will we seemed 
 to fly across, and alighted upon the other side unharmed. 
 
 As I looked back to see what we had escaped, I cried 
 out in astonishment, for there was no break in the bridge 
 at all, but it was as sound a bridge as ever I saw, and by 
 my side there stood not a feeble old man but Ahrinziman 
 himself, laughing at my astonishment. He put his hand 
 upon my shoulder and said: 
 
 "Franchezzo, my son, that was but a little trial to test 
 if you would be unselfish enough to burden yourself with 
 a heavy old man when your own chance seemed so small. 
 I leave you now to encounter the last of your trials and 
 to judge for yourself the nature of those doubts and sus- 
 picions you have cherished. Adieu, and may success 
 attend you." 
 
 He turned away from me and immediately vanished, 
 
•*•'<; A WAXhKKKi; IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 leaving me to go on alone through another deep valley 
 which was lief ore me. 
 
 It lay between two precipitous hills, and was called 
 "The valley of the phantom mists." Great wreaths of 
 grey vapor floated to and fro and crept up the hill sides, 
 shaping themselves into mysterious phantom forms and 
 hovering around me as I walked. 
 
 The farther I advanced through the ravine the 
 thicker grow these shapes, growing more distinct and like 
 living things. I knew them to he no more than the 
 thought creations of my earthly life, yet seen in this life- 
 like palpable form they were like haunting ghosts of my 
 past, rising up in accusing array against me. The sus- 
 picions I had nursed, the doubts I had fostered, the un- 
 kind, unholy thoughts I had cherished, all seemed to 
 •gather round me, menacing and terrible, mocking me and 
 taunting me with the past, whispering in my ears and 
 closing over my head like great waves of darkness. As 
 my life had grown more full of such thoughts, so did my 
 path become blocked with them till they hemmed me in 
 on every side. Such fearful, distorted, hateful-looking 
 things! And these had been my own thoughts, these 
 mirrored the state of my own mind towards others. 
 These brooding spirits of the mist — dark, suspicious, and 
 bewildering— confronted me now and showed me what 
 my heart had been. I had had so little faith in goodness — 
 so little trust in my fellow man. Because I had been 
 cruelly deceived I had said in my haste all men, and 
 women too, are liars, and I had sneered at the weakness 
 and the folly around me, and thought it was always the 
 same thing everywhere, all bitterness and disappointment. 
 
 So these thought-creations had grown up, mass upon 
 mass, till now that I sought to battle with them they 
 seemed to overwhelm and stifle me, wrapping me up in 
 the great vaporous folds of their phantom forms. In vain 
 I sought to beat them off. to shake myself free of them. 
 They gathered round and closed me in even as my doubts 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 227 
 
 and suspicions had done. I was seized with horror, and 
 fought as if they had heen living things that were sweep- 
 ing me to destruction. And then I saw a deep dark 
 crevasse open in the ground before me, to which these 
 phantoms were driving me, a gulf into which it seemed 
 I must sink unless I could free myself from these awful 
 ghosts. Like a madman I strove and wrestled with them, 
 fighting as for dear life, and still they closed me in and 
 forced me back and back towards that gloomy chasm. 
 Then in my anguish of soul I called aloud for help to be 
 free from them, and throwing my arms out before me with 
 all my force I seemed to grasp the foremost phantom and 
 hurl it from me. Then did the mighty cloud of doubts 
 waver and break as though a wind had scattered them, 
 and I sank overcome and exhausted upon the ground; 
 and as I sank into unconsciousness I had a dream, a brief 
 but lovely dream, in which I thought my beloved had 
 come to me and scattered those foul thoughts, and that 
 she knelt down beside me and drew my head to rest upon 
 her bosom as a mother with her child. I thought I felt 
 her arms encircle me and hold me safe, and then the 
 dream was over and I fell asleep. 
 
 When I recovered consciousness I was resting still in 
 that valley, but the mists had rolled away and my time of 
 bitter doubt and suspicion was past. 1 lay upon a bank 
 of soft green turf at the end of the ravine, and before me 
 there was a meadow watered by a smooth peaceful river of 
 clear crystal water. I arose and followed the windings of 
 the stream for a short distance, and arrived at a beautiful 
 grove of trees. Through the trunks I could see a clear 
 pool on whose surface floated water-lilies. There was a 
 fairy-like fountain in the middle, from which the spray 
 fell like a shower of diamonds into the transparent water. 
 The trees arched their branches overhead and through 
 them I could see the blue sky. I drew near to rest and 
 refresh myself at the fountain, and as I did so a fair 
 nymph in a robe of green gossamer and with a crown of 
 water-lilies on her head drew near to help me. She was 
 
228 A WANDEBEB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 the guardiaE spirit of the fountain, and her work was to 
 help and refresh all weary wanderers like myself. "In 
 earth life."" said she, "I lived in a forest, and here in the 
 spirit land 1 find a home surrounded by the woods I love 
 so well." 
 
 She gave me food and drink, and after I had rested 
 a. while showed me a broad pathway through the trees, 
 which led to a Home of Rest where 1 might repose for a 
 time. With a grateful heart I thanked this bright spirit, 
 and following the path soon found myself before a large 
 building covered with honeysuckle and ivy. It had many 
 windows and wide open doors as though to invite all to 
 enter. It was approached by a great gateway of what 
 looked like wrought iron, only that the birds and flowers 
 on it were so life-like they seemed to have clustered there 
 to rest. While I stood looking at the gate it opened as by 
 magic, and I passed on to the house. Here several spirits 
 in white robes came to welcome me, and I was conducted 
 to a pretty room whose windows looked out upon a grassy 
 lawn and soft fairy-like trees, and here I was bidden to 
 repose myself. 
 
 On awakening I found my pilgrim dress was gone, 
 and in its stead there lay my light grey robe, only now it 
 had a triple border of pure white. I was greatly pleased, 
 and arrayed myself with pleasure, for I felt the white to be 
 a sign of my progression — white in the spirit world 
 symbolizing purity and happiness, while black is the 
 reverse. 
 
 Presently I was conducted to a large pleasant room 
 in which were a number of spirits dressed like myself, 
 among whom I was pleased to recognize the woman with 
 the child whom I had helped across the Plains of Eepent- 
 ance and Tears. She smiled much more kindly on the 
 child, and greeted me with pleasure, thanking me for my 
 help, while the little one climbed upon my knees and 
 established himself there as an earthly child might have 
 done. 
 
 An ample repast of fruits and cakes and the pure 
 wine of the spirit land was set before us, and when we 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 229 
 
 wore all refreshed and had returned our thanks to God 
 for all his mercies, the Brother who presided wished us 
 all God's speed, and then with grateful hearts we bade 
 each other adieu and set forth to return to our own homes. 
 
230 A WANDEREB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 I was not, however, destined to remain in the Land 
 of Dawn. My home was now to be in the circle of the 
 Morning Land, and I was therefore escorted thither by 
 my friends. 
 
 It lay beyond the peaceful lake and those hills behind 
 which I used to watch the light of that dawning day 
 which never seemed to grow brighter or advance in the 
 Land of Dawn, but whose beauties belonged to this 
 Morning Land. This land lay in an opposite direction 
 from that range of hills beyond which lay the Plain of 
 Remorse. 
 
 Here in the Morning Land I found that I was to 
 have a little home of my own, a something earned by 
 myself. I have always loved a place of my own, and this 
 little cottage, simple as it was, was very dear to me. It 
 was indeed a peaceful place. The green hills shut it in on 
 every side save in front, where they opened out and the 
 ground stretched away in undulating slopes of green and 
 golden meadow land. There were no trees, no shrubs, 
 around my new home, no flowers to gladden my oyes, 
 because my efforts had not yet blossomed into flower. 
 But there was one sweet trailing honeysuckle that 
 clustered around the little porch and shed the fragrance 
 of its love into my rooms. This was the gift of my 
 beloved to me, the spiritual growth of her sweet pure 
 loving thoughts which twined around my dwelling to 
 whisper to me ever of her constant love and truth. 
 
 There were only two little rooms, the one for me to 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 231 
 
 receive my friends and to study in, and the other my 
 chain her of repose, where I could rest when weary with my 
 work on the earth plane. And in this room there was my 
 picture framed in roses, and all my little treasures. The 
 hlne sky outside shed down on me so pure a light, my 
 eyes, long wearied to see it, gazed on it again and yet 
 again. The soft green grass and the fragrant honey- 
 suckle were all so sweet, so delicious to me, wearied as I 
 was with my long dark wanderings, that I was overcome 
 with the emotions of my gratitude. I was aroused by a 
 kindly hand, a loving voice, and looking up, beheld my 
 father. Ah! what a joy, what a happiness I felt, and still 
 more when he bade me come to earth with him and show 
 this home in a vision to her who was its guiding star! 
 
 What happy hours I can recall when I look back to 
 that, my first home in the spirit land. I was so proud 
 to think I had won it. My present home is far finer, my 
 present sphere far more beautiful in every way, but I have 
 never felt a greater happiness than I felt when that first 
 home of my own was given to me. 
 
 I should but weary my readers were I to attempt to 
 describe all the work on the earth plane I did at this time, 
 all the sad ones I helped to cheer and direct upon the 
 better way. There is a sameness in such work that makes 
 one example serve for many. 
 
 Time passes on for spirits as well as mortals and 
 brings ever new changes — fresh progression. And thus 
 while I was working to help others I was gradually myself 
 learning the lesson which had proved most hard for me to 
 learn. The lesson of that entire forgiveness of our enemies 
 which will enable us to feel that we not only desire them 
 no harm but that we even wish to do them good — to 
 return good for evil cordially. It had been a hard struggle 
 to overcome my desire for revenge, or wish that at all 
 events some punishment should overtake the one who had 
 so deeply wronged me, and it was as hard, or harder even, 
 to desire now to benefit that person. Time and again 
 while I was working on the earth plane I went and stood 
 beside that one, unseen and unfelt save for the thoughts 
 
233 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 of me that would be awakened, and each time I perceived 
 that my enemy's thoughts were to the full as bitter as my 
 own. There was no love lost between us. Standing there 
 I beheld time after time the events of our lives blended 
 together in one picture, the dark shadows of our passion- 
 ate hate dimming and blurring these pictures as storm 
 clouds sweep over a summer sky. And in the clearer 
 light of my spiritual knowledge I beheld where my faults 
 had lain, as strongly or more so than I beheld those of my 
 enemy. And from such visits I would return to my little 
 cottage in the spirit land overwhelmed with the bitterest 
 regrets, the keenest anguish, yet always unable to feel 
 aught but bitterness and anger towards the one whose life 
 seemed only to have been linked by sorrow and wrong to 
 my own. 
 
 At last one day while standing beside this mortal I 
 became conscious of a new ieeling, almost of pity, for this 
 person was also oppressed in soul — also conscious of regret 
 in thinking of our past. A wish had arisen that a different 
 course towards me had been followed. Thus was there 
 created between us a kinder thought, which though faint 
 and feeble was yet the first fruits of my efforts to over- 
 come my own anger — the first softening and melting of 
 the hard wall of hatred between us. Then was there given 
 to me a chance to assist and benefit this person even as the 
 chance had before come to me of doing harm, and now I 
 was able to overcome my bitterness and to take advantage 
 of this opportunity, so that it was my hand — the hand 
 which had been raised to curse and blight — which was 
 now the one to help instead. 
 
 My enemy was not conscious of my presence nor of 
 my interference for good, but felt in a dim fashion that 
 somehow the hatred between us was dead, and that, as I 
 was dead, it were perhaps better to let our quarrels die also. 
 Thus came at last a mutual pardon which severed the 
 links which had so long bound our earthly lives together. 
 I know that during the earthly life of that one we shall 
 never cross each other's path again, but even as I had 
 seen in the case of my friend Benedetto, when death shall 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS! 233 
 
 sever the thread of that earthly life, our spirits will meet 
 once again, in order that each may ask pardon from the 
 other. Not until then will all links he finally severed 
 between us and each pass on to our appointed sphere. 
 Great and lasting are the effects upon the soul of our loves 
 and our hates; long, long after the life of earth is past do 
 they cling to us, and many are the spirits whom I have 
 seen tied to each other, not by mutual love but mutual 
 hate. 
 
231 A YVAXDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS.. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 When I had at last learned the lesson of self con- 
 quest my mind seemed to be free from a great oppressive 
 weight, and I turned to the study of the spirit land and 
 its conditions with renewed interest. At this period of 
 my wanderings I used to see my friend Hassein very often, 
 and he helped me to an understanding of many things 
 which had perplexed me in my earthly life. 
 
 On one occasion when we were seated in my little 
 home enjoying one of our many conversations, I asked 
 him to tell me more of the spheres and their relation to 
 'the earth. 
 
 "The term spheres," said he, "is, as you have seen, 
 applied to those great belts of spiritual matter which 
 encircle the earth and other planets. It is likewise applied 
 to those still vaster, more extended, thought waves which 
 circle throughout all the universe. Thus we may say 
 there are two classes of spheres — those which are in a 
 measure material and encircle each their own planet or 
 their own solar system and form the dwelling places of the 
 spiritual inhabitants of each planet. These spheres are 
 divided into circles indicating, like steps upon the ladder 
 of progress, the moral advancement of the spirits. 
 
 "The other class of. spheres are mental, not material, 
 in their constituents and do not belong to any planetary or 
 solar system, but are as limitless as the universe, circling 
 in ever widening currents of thought emanations from the 
 central point, around which all the universe is held to be 
 revolving, and which point is said to be the immediate 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 235 
 
 environment of the Supreme Being, from whom these 
 thought wave? are held to proceed. It may perhaps make 
 my meaning still clearer to say there is one great sphere 
 of the intellectual faculties or attributes belonging essen- 
 tially to the soul, and then to divide this sphere into 
 circles such as the circles of Philosophy, of Art, of Music, 
 of Literature, etc. 
 
 It is a common mode of expression to call them 
 spheres, but to my mind it is more correct to describe 
 them as circles. These Intellectual Circles, like great 
 wheels, inclose all those lesser wheels, those spiral rings, 
 which surround each their own solar system, or parent 
 planet, wheels within wheels, revolving around the one 
 great centre continually. In the spirit world only those 
 who are in sympathy ever remain together, and though 
 the ties of relationship or the links of kind remembrance 
 may at times draw together those who have no common 
 bonds of union, these will be but flying visits, and each 
 will return to their own circle and sphere, drawn back by 
 the strong magnetic attraction which holds each sphere 
 and each circle of a sphere in unison. A spirit belonging 
 to the sphere of Music or Philosophy, will be drawn to 
 others of a like disposition who are in the same stage of 
 moral advancement as himself, but his development of a 
 higher degree of music or philosophy will not enable him 
 to ascend into a higher circle of the Moral Spheres, or 
 planetary spheres, than his moral development entitles 
 him to occupy. The central suns of each of the vast 
 intellectual circles of the mental sphere shine as burnished 
 magnets. They are as great prisms glowing with the 
 celestial fires of purity and truth, and darting on all sides 
 their glorious rays of knowledge, and in these rays cluster 
 the multitudes of spirits who are seeking to light their 
 lamps at these glowing shrines. In those rays which 
 reach the earth pure and unbroken, are found those gems 
 of truth which have illuminated the minds of men in all 
 ages of the world's history, and shattered into a thousand 
 fragments the great rocks of error and darkness, even as 
 the lightning's flash shivers a granite rock, letting into 
 
23G A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 the depths below the clear light of God's sun, and those 
 spirits who arc most highly advanced are those who are 
 nearest to the central force, to the dazzling light of these 
 starlike centres. These great spheres of the intellectual 
 and moral faculties may, then, he termed the "universal*' 
 spheres; those around each planet, "planetary" spheres; 
 and those surrounding the sun centres, "solar" spheres: 
 the first heing understood to consist of thought or sold 
 essence, the others of various degrees of spiritualized 
 matter." 
 
 "And how, then, would you describe the creation of 
 a planet and its spheres?" 
 
 "The creation of a planet may be said to begin from 
 the time when it is cast off from the parent sun in the 
 form of a nebulous mass of fiery vapor. In this stage it 
 is a most powerful magnet, attracting to itself the minute 
 particles of matter which float through all the ether of 
 space. This ether has been supposed to be void of all 
 material atoms such as float in the atmosphere of planets, 
 but that is an incorrect supposition, the fact being that 
 fhe atoms of matter are simply subdivided into even more 
 minute particles compared to which a grain of sand is as 
 the bulk of the sun to the earth. These atoms being thus 
 subdivided and dispersed through space (instead of being 
 clustered by the forces of magnetic attraction in the 
 planet into atoms the size of those which float as motes in 
 the earth's atmosphere), have become not only invisible 
 to man's material sight but are also incapable of being 
 detected by the ordinary chemical means at his disposal. 
 They are, in fact, etherealized, and have become of the 
 first degree of spirit matter in consequence of the amount 
 of soul essence which has become amalgamated with their 
 grosser elements. In becoming attracted to the glowing 
 mass of an embryo planet, these atoms become so thickly 
 clustered together that the more ethereal elements are 
 pressed out and escape back into space, leaving the solid 
 gross portion to form into rock, etc., through the constant 
 attracting of fresh atoms and the necessarily vast increase 
 of pressure thus caused. These atoms exist eternally, and 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 237 
 
 are as indestructible as all the other elements which con- 
 stitute the universe, and they are absorbed and cast, off 
 again by planet after planet as each passes through the 
 various stages of its existence and development. 
 
 "The atoms of matter may be broadly classed under 
 three heads, and again each of the three heads may be sub- 
 divided into an infinite number of degrees of density, in 
 order to express the various stages of sublimation to 
 which they have attained. The three principal classes 
 may be termed, material or planetary matter — spiritual or 
 soul enveloping matter, which is no longer visible to 
 material sight — and soul essence, this last being so sub- 
 limated that it is not possible for me yet to describe its 
 nature to you. Of the material matter the lowest, most 
 gross form, is that of which mineral substances, such as 
 rocks, earth, etc., are formed; these are thrown off into 
 the atmosphere as dust and reabsorbed continually to be 
 changed, by the process continually going on in nature 
 everywhere, into plants, etc. The intermediate degree 
 between the rocks and the plants is the fluidic, in which 
 the more solid particles are held in solution by the various 
 gases or vaporized form of the chemical elements which 
 constitute them. The second degree of material matter 
 is that of plant or vegetable life which is nourished by the 
 blending of the most gross matter with the fluidic. Thus 
 through infinite gradations of earthly matter we reach the 
 highest, namely, flesh and bones and muscles which, 
 whether it clothes the soul of man or one of the lower 
 animals, is still the highest degree of material matter, con- 
 taining in this highest degree of earthly material develop- 
 ment all those elements of which the lower degrees are 
 composed. 
 
 "The second or spiritual form of matter is, as I have 
 said, merely the etherealized development of the first or 
 earthly form of matter, while the soul essence is the 
 animating principle of both, the Divine germ, without 
 which the two first forms of matter could not exist. It is 
 a part of the law of the two first classes of matter that they 
 should clothe the higher soul principle, or they lose their 
 
238 A WAffDEEEB IN TIN- SPIRIT LAXDS. 
 
 power of cohesion and are diffused into their elemental 
 parts again. Soul matter is the only one which possesses 
 any permanent identity. It is the true Ego, since by no 
 power can it be disintegrated or lose its individuality. It 
 is the true life of whatever lower forms of matter it may 
 animate, and as sueli changes and shapes that lower 
 matter into its own identity. Soul essence is in and of 
 every type of life, from the mineral and vegetable to man, 
 the highest type of animal, and each of these types is 
 capable of development into the highest or celestial form, 
 in which state it is found in the Heavenly Sphere of each 
 planet and each solar system. 
 
 "Since, then, we maintain that everything has its 
 soul of a higher or lower type, it need not create surprise 
 in the mind of any mortal to he told that there are plants 
 and flowers, rocks and deserts, beasts and birds, in the 
 spirit world. They exist there in their spiritualized or 
 developed state, and are more etherealized as they advance 
 higher, in accordance with the same law which governs 
 alike the development of man, the highest type, and that 
 of the lowest form of soul matter. When a plant dies or 
 the solid rock is dispersed into dust or fused into gas, its 
 soul essence passes with the spiritual matter pertaining to 
 it, into the spirit world, and to that sphere to which its 
 development is most akin — the most material portion 
 being absorbed by the earth, the more sublimated particles 
 of matter feeling less of the earth attraction and therefore 
 floating farther from it. Thus in the early stages of a 
 planet's life, when it possesses but a small portion of the 
 soul essence and a large amount of gross matter, its 
 spheres are thrown out first in the direction farthest from 
 its sun and are very material, and the development of its 
 spiritual inhabitants is very low. 
 
 "At this early stage the vegetable as well as the 
 animal and human types of soul life are coarse and gross, 
 wanting in the refinement and beauty which may be 
 observed as the evolution of the planet advances. Grad- 
 ually the vegetation changes, the animals change, the 
 races of men who appear become each higher, more per- 
 
A AYAXDEKER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 239 
 
 feet, and as a consequence the spiritual emanations 
 thrown off become correspondingly higher. In the first 
 stages of a planet's life the spheres scarcely exist. They 
 may be likened to a cone in shape, the small end being 
 represented by the planet itself, the earth plane being the 
 highest sphere which has developed, and the lower 
 spheres — by reason of the degraded tastes and low in- 
 tellectual development of the planet's inhabitants — being 
 like the wide end of the cone. As the planet develops the 
 spheres increase in size and number, and the higher ones 
 begin to form, the point of the cone receding from the 
 planet towards the sun as each of the higher spheres 
 begins its existence. 
 
 "Thus are the spheres formed below and above the 
 planet by the constant influx of the atoms thrown off from 
 the parent planet. At a certain stage of their formation, 
 when the intellectual and selfish propensities of man are 
 more highly developed than his moral and unselfish fac- 
 ulties, these lower spheres in extent greatly exceed the 
 higher ones, and these may be termed the Dark Ages of 
 the World's History, when oppression and cruelty and 
 greed spread their dark wings over mankind. 
 
 "After a time the eternal law of the higher evolution 
 of all things causes the higher and lower spheres to be- 
 come equal in extent and number. Then may we see the 
 forces of good and evil equally balanced, and this period 
 may be termed the meridian of the planet's life. Xext 
 follows the period when by the gradual improvement of 
 mankind the figure of the cone becomes gradually re- 
 versed, the earth plane becoming again the narrow end 
 by reason of the shrinking and disappearance of the lower 
 spheres, while the higher ones expand towards the highest 
 of all, till at last only this highest sphere exists at all and 
 the planet itself shrinks gradually away till all the 
 material gross particles have been thrown off from it, and 
 it vanishes from existence, all its gross atoms floating away 
 imperceptibly, to be reabsorbed by other planets yet in 
 process of formation. 
 
 "Then will the sphere of that planet together with 
 
2 10 A WAN m:i;i:k IX the spirit lands. 
 
 its inhabitants become absorbed into the great spheres of 
 its solar system, and its inhabitants will exist there as do 
 already many communities 01 fepirits whose planets have 
 passed out of existence. Each planetary community, 
 however, will retain the characteristics and individuality 
 of their planet — just as different nationalities on earth 
 do — till they become gradually merged in the larger 
 nationality of their solar system. So gradual, so im- 
 perceptible, are these processes of development, so vast 
 the periods of time they take to accomplish, that the mind 
 of mortal man may be forgiven for failing to grasp the 
 immensity of the changes which take place. The lives of 
 all planets are not similar in their duration, because size 
 and position in the solar system, as well as other causes, 
 contribute to modify and slightly alter their development, 
 but the broad features will in all cases be found the same, 
 just as the matter of which each planet is composed shows 
 no chemical substance which does not exist in a greater 
 or less degree in every other. Thus we are able to judge 
 from the condition of the planets around us what has been 
 the history of our earth in the past and what will be its 
 ultimate destiny." 
 
 "If, as you say, our spheres are to become absorbed 
 into those of our sun centre, will our individuality as 
 spirits become merged in that of the solar s)'stem?" 
 
 "Xo! most certainly not. The individuality of each 
 soul germ is indestructible; it is but a minute unit in the 
 vast ocean of soul life, but still it is a distinct unit, the 
 personality of each being in fact its Ego. It is this very 
 individuality, this very impossibility of dispersing or de- 
 stroying the soul which constitutes its immortality, which 
 distinguishes it from all other matter, and makes its 
 nature so difficult of explanation or analysis. You have 
 become a member of our Brotherhood of Hope, yet you 
 retain your individuality, and so it is with the soul 
 eternally, no matter through what conditions of existence 
 it may pass. Try to imagine a body so light that the most 
 etherealized vapor is heavy beside it, yet a body possessing 
 such power of cohesion that it is utterly impossible to 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 241 
 
 disintegrate its particles, the power of resistance against 
 all material or spiritual forms of matter which it possesses 
 being equal to that which a bar of steel offers to a cloud 
 of vapor. Imagine this and you will realize how it is that 
 as a spirit you can pass through solid doors and walls of 
 earthly matter, and how a spirit higher than yourself can 
 pass with equal ease through these walls of spiritual 
 matter which surround us here. The more perfectly the 
 soul is freed from gross matter, the less can it he bound 
 by any element, and the greater become its powers, since 
 it is not the soul essence but its dense envelope which can 
 be imprisoned on earth or in the spheres. To you now 
 the walls of earthly houses offer no impediment to free 
 ingress or egress. You pass through them as easily as your 
 earthly body used to pass through the fog. The density 
 of the fog might be disagreeable to you, but it could not 
 arrest your progress. Moreover, when you passed through 
 a fog there was no vacuum left to show where your passage 
 through it had been. This was because the elements of 
 which the fog was composed were attracted together again 
 too quickly for you to perceive where they had been dis- 
 persed, and that is exactly what happens when we spirits 
 pass through a material door or wall, the material atoms 
 of which it is composed closing after our progress even 
 more quickly than the fog." 
 
 "I understand you, and now if, as you say, each type 
 of soul essence has a distinct individuality of its own you 
 will not agree with those who believe in the transmigra- 
 tion of the soul of an animal of the lower type into a man, 
 and vice versa." 
 
 "Certainly not. The soul of each type we hold to be 
 capable of the highest degree of development in its own 
 type; but the soul of man being the highest type of all is, 
 therefore, capable of the highest degree of development, 
 namely, into those advanced spirits we call angels. Angels 
 are souls who have passed from the lowest degree of 
 human planetary life through all the planetary spheres till 
 they have attained to the celestial spheres of the solar 
 system, our Heaven of Heavens, which is as far in advance 
 
Z-l-2 A WANDEBEft IX TITE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 of our Heaven of the planetary spheres as that is in ad- 
 vance of the planet itself. We believe that the soul will 
 
 go on mounting continually as by ever widening spiral 
 rings, till it has reached what we now term the centre of 
 the universe, but whether when we do attain that summit 
 of our present aspirations we shall not find it to be but a 
 finite point revolving round a still greater centre I cannot 
 say. My own feeling is that we shall attain to centre after 
 centre, ever resting, it may be millions of years, in each, 
 till our aspirations shall again urge us to heights as far 
 again above us. The more one contemplates the subject 
 the more vast and limitless it becomes. How, then, can 
 we hope to see an end to our journeyings through that 
 which has no end, and has had no beginning, and how can 
 we even hope to form any clear idea of the nature and 
 attributes of that Supreme Being whom we hold to be the 
 Omnipotent Ruler of the universe, seeing that we cannot 
 even fully and clearly grasp the magnitude of his creation? 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 243 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Another time when we were conversing I asked 
 Hassein for his explanation of the phenomena of the 
 spiritualistic movement which has recently been inaugu- 
 rated upon earth, and in which I am naturally deeply 
 interested, particularly as relating to materialization, and 
 of which I wished to learn all I could. 
 
 Hassein replied: "In order that the mind may grasp 
 the full significance of the Atomic theory, which has of 
 late been advanced by men on earth, and which affords 
 one of the most simple as well as logical explanations of 
 the passage of matter through matter, it may not be out 
 of place to say, for the benefit of those who.have not given 
 much thought to the subject and like these questions put 
 before them in the simplest form, that the subdivisions of 
 matter are, as we have said, so minute that even the speck 
 of dust which floats invisible to the eye, unless a sunbeam 
 be let in upon it to illuminate it, is composed of an infinite 
 number of smaller particles, which are attracted and held 
 together by the same laws that govern the attraction and 
 repulsion of larger bodies. The knowledge of these laws 
 gives to spirits the power of adapting these atoms to 
 their own use, while making the manifestations called 
 'Materializations' now familiar to students of Spiritual- 
 ism. The atoms suitable for their purpose are collected 
 by the spirits wishing to materialize, from the atmos- 
 phere, which is full of them and also from the emanations 
 proceeding from the men and women who form the spirit 
 circle. These atoms are shaped by the spirits' will into 
 
2 H A WANDEKEB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 the form of their earthly bodies, ami held in combination 
 by a chemical substance found, in a greater or less degree, 
 in the bodies of all living things. Were the chemists of 
 earth life sufficiently advanced in knowledge, they could 
 extract this chemical from every living thing in nature 
 and store it up to he used at will. 
 
 "This substance or essence is in fact the mysterious 
 Elixir of Life, the secret of extracting and retaining which 
 in tangible form has been sought by the sages of all times 
 and countries. So subtle, so ethereal, however, is it that 
 as yet there is no process known to earthly chemists which 
 can bring this essence into a state to be analyzed by them, 
 although it has been recognized and classed by some under 
 the head of 'Magnetic Aura/ Of this, however, it is but 
 one — and that the most ethereal — element. The life- 
 giving rays of the sun contain it, but who is there as yet 
 among chemists who can separate and bottle up in differ- 
 ent portions the sunbeams? And of all portions this 
 especially, which is the most delicate, the most subtle. 
 Yet this knowledge is possessed by advanced spirits, and 
 some day when the world has progressed far enough in 
 the science of chemistry, the knowledge of this process 
 will be given to men just as the discoveries in electricity 
 and kindred sciences have been given — discoveries which 
 in an earlier age would have been styled miraculous. 
 
 ' "Here let me remark as to 'Auras/ that the con- 
 stituent elements of the auras of the different sitters at a 
 seance have quite as much effect upon the materialization 
 as has that of the medium. Sometimes the chemical 
 elements in the aura of one sitter do not amalgamate or 
 blend thoroughly with those of some other sitter present, 
 and this want of harmony prevents any materialization 
 taking place at all. In extreme cases these antagonistic 
 elements act so strongly in opposition to each other and 
 are so repellent in their effects upon the atoms collected, 
 that they act as a spiritual explosive which scatters the 
 atoms as dynamite shatters a solid wall. 
 
 "This antagonism has nothing whatever to do with 
 the moral or mental conditions of such persons. They 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 245 
 
 may both be in all respects most estimable, earnest people, 
 but they should never sit in the same circle and never be 
 brought into magnetic contact, since their auras could 
 never blend, and only general disappointment can result 
 from any attempt to harmonize them. Although, apart, 
 they might each attain satisfactory enough results, they 
 never could do so in any attempt in combination. 
 
 "In those known as simply physical mediums, that is 
 mediums with whose assistance purely physical phenom- 
 ena alone are produced, such as the moving of tables or 
 carrying in the air of musicaFboxes, and similar feats, this 
 peculiar essence exists, but in a form too coarse to be suit- 
 able for materialization, which requires a certain degree 
 of refinement in the essence. In them it is like a coarse 
 raw alcoholic spirit, but in the true materializing me- 
 dium it is like the same spirit redistilled, refined, and 
 purified, and the purer this essence the more perfect will 
 be the materialization. 
 
 "In many mediums there is a combination of the 
 physical and materializing powers, but in exact proportion 
 as the coarse physical manifestations are cultivated so 
 will the higher and finer forms of materialization be lost. 
 
 "It is erroneous to imagine that in true materializa- 
 tion you are getting merely the double of the medium 
 transformed for the moment into a likeness of your de- 
 parted friends, or that the emanations from the sitters 
 must always affect the appearance of the resulting spirit 
 forms. They can only do so when from some cause there 
 is a deficiency of the special essence, or an inability on the 
 spirit's part to use it. In that case the atoms retain the 
 personality of those from whom they are taken, because 
 the spirit is unable to stamp his identity upon them, as a 
 wax image, and until it be melted into a new mold, it will 
 retain the impress of the old. The possession of a suffi- 
 cient amount of the special essence, on the one hand, en- 
 ables the spirit to clothe himself in the atoms he has col- 
 lected and to hold them long enough to melt them, as it 
 were, into a state in which they will take on his identity 
 or the stamp of his individuality. The absence of the es- 
 
846 A WANDEREB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 sencc, on the other hand, causes him to lose his hold be- 
 fore the process has become perfect, and thus be has either 
 hastily to show himself with the imperfect resemblance lie 
 has obtained, or else not show himself at all. 
 
 "A familiar simile may explain my meaning. When 
 in the'earth bod}*, yon took flesh, vegetable, and fluid sub- 
 Btances ready formed, containing in a prepared stale the 
 elements your earthly body required for its renewal, and 
 by the process of digestion yon changed these substances 
 into a part of yonr soul's earthly envelope. Well, in the 
 same way a spirit takes the ready prepared atoms given off 
 by the medium and members of a materializing seance, 
 and by a process as rapid as lightning artificially digests* 
 or arranges them into a material covering or envelope for 
 himself, bearing his own identity more or less completely 
 impressed on it according to his power. 
 
 "Every atom of the body of a mortal is drawn, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, from the atmosphere around him. and 
 absorbed in one form or another, and after it has served as 
 clothing for his spirit, it is cast off to be again absorbed in 
 another form by some other living thing. Everyone 
 knows that the material of the human body is continually 
 changing, and yet many think to establish a prescriptive 
 right to those atoms thrown off during a seance, and say 
 that when a spirit makes use of them and adapts them to 
 himself, therefore he must have taken their own mental 
 characteristics along with the material atoms, and thus 
 they try to persuade themselves that the spirit appearing 
 clothed with these material atoms is no more than the 
 thought emanation of their own bodies and brains, ignor- 
 ing, or more probably not knowing, that the grossest ma- 
 terial, not the mental atoms, were all the spirit wanted to 
 clothe himself with and make him visible to material 
 sight. 
 
 "The best proof of the fallacy of this supposition is 
 the constant appearance at seances of spirits whom no one 
 present was flunking of at the time, and in some cases 
 even of people whose death was not known to any of the 
 sitters. 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 2±7 
 
 '•The essence or fluid ether of which I have spoken is 
 that which principally holds the material body together in 
 life. At death, or, more correctly, the withdrawal of the 
 soul and the severance of the connecting link between it 
 and the material atoms of the body, it escapes- into the 
 surrounding atmosphere, permitting the particles of that 
 body to decay. Cold retards the dispersal of this fluid 
 other; heat accelerates it. thus explaining why the body of 
 any animal or plant disintegrates or turns to decay sooner 
 in hot than in cold climates, and thus becomes nourish- 
 ment fit for those minute parasites which are stimulated 
 and fed by a lower degree of life magnetism which is 
 retained in the discarded envelope. This essence or 
 fluidic ether is akin to the electric fluid known to scien- 
 tists, but as electricity is the product of mineral and vege- 
 table substances, it is lower in degree and much coarser in 
 quality than this human electricity, and would require the 
 combination of other elements to make it assimilate with 
 the human. 
 
 "This higher essence is an important element in wdiat 
 has been termed the Higher Animal Life Principle as dis- 
 tinguished from the Soul-Life Principle and from the 
 Astral Life Principle. Each of which we make distinct 
 elemental principles. 
 
 "In trance, either artificially induced or occurring as 
 part of the spiritual development of certain sensitives or 
 mediums, this life essence remains with the body, but, as 
 life is required for its need in trance, a large portion may 
 be taken away and used by the controlling spirit to clothe 
 himself, care being taken to return it to the medium 
 again. With some mediums this life essence is given off 
 so freely that unless care is taken to replace it continually, 
 the death of the physical body will soon follow. In oth- 
 ers it can only be extracted with great difficulty, and in 
 some there is so small a quantity that it would be neither 
 wise nor useful to take any away from them at all. 
 
 '"The aura of those mediums possessing a large amount 
 of a high and pure quality, will diffuse a most lovely clear 
 silver light, which can be seen by clairvoyants, and it 
 
218 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 helps even immaterialized spirits to make themselves vis- 
 ible. This silver light can be seen radiating like the rays 
 of a star from the medium, and where it is present in a 
 very high degree no other light is required for the mate- 
 rialized spirits to show themselves, the spirits appearing 
 as though surrounded by a silver halo, and with this beau- 
 tiful light illuminating their garments, they appear much 
 as you see pictures of saints and angels, whom no doubt 
 the ancient seers beheld through the medium of this 
 species of aura. 
 
 "Although the aid of a materializing medium and 
 a good circle of persons still in the material body may sim- 
 plify the process of building up a body in which a spirit 
 may be able to clothe himself, yet it is quite possible for 
 some spirits of the highest spheres to make for themselves 
 a material body without the aid of any medium or any 
 other person in an earth-body. Their knowledge of the 
 laws of chemistry is sufficient and their will power is ade- 
 quate to the strain imposed on it in the process, and in 
 the atmosphere of the earth as well as in the plants, min- 
 erals, and animals, is to be found every substance of which 
 the body is composed and from which the life essence is 
 extracted. The human body is a combination of all the 
 materials and gases found on and in the earth and its at- 
 mosphere, and it only requires a knowledge of the laws 
 governing the combination and adhesion of the various 
 substances to enable a spirit to make a body in all re- 
 spects similar to that of terrestrial man, and to clothe 
 himself therewith, holding it in combination for a longer 
 or shorter period at will. 
 
 "Such knowledge is of necessity unknown as yet ex- 
 cept in the higher spheres, because it requires a high de- 
 gree of development in the mental condition of the spirit 
 before he can duly weigh and understand all the minute 
 points and numerous laws of nature involved in the sub- 
 ject. The ancients were right in saying they could make 
 a man. They could do so, and even animate their manu- 
 facture to a certain degree with the astral or lower life- 
 principle, but they could not continue to sustain that life 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 249 
 
 by reason of the extreme difficulty in collecting this lower 
 life-principle, and when they had so animated the artifi- 
 cially made body it would be devoid of intelligence and 
 reason, these attributes belonging exclusively to the soul, 
 and neither man nor spirit can endow such a body with a 
 soiil — that which alone can give it intellect and immor- 
 tality. At the same time an artificially made body could 
 serve as a covering to a spirit (or soul) and enable him to 
 converse with men for a longer or shorter time, according 
 to the power of the spirit to retain this material envelope 
 in the complete state. Thus no doubt those of the 
 ancients who had acquired a knowledge of these things 
 could also renew at will the material covering of their 
 bodies, and make themselves practically live upon the 
 earth forever, or they might disperse these material 
 atoms and walk forth in the spirit freed from the tram- 
 mels of the flesh, reconstructing the earthly body again 
 when it suited them. Such spirit men are the Mahatmas, 
 who by the knowledge of these and kindred secrets do 
 possess many of the marvellous powers attributed to them. 
 
 "But where we differ from them is in the application 
 of the knowledge they have thus gained and the doctrines 
 they deduce from it, and also as to the unaclvisability of 
 imparting it freely to men in the flesh, and the duty of 
 withholding it from them as a dangerous thing. "We hold 
 there is no knowledge given to any spirit or mortal, which 
 may not be safely possessed by every other, provided they 
 have the mental development to understand and apply 
 this knowledge. Our great teacher of these subjects, the 
 guide Ahrinziman. was a native of the East and has been 
 a student of occult subjects, both in his earth life and in 
 the two thousand and more years that have passed since 
 he left the earth.and this is his decided opinion, and he 
 has seen both the origin and the practice of many of these 
 ideas that are as yet new to the "Western mind. 
 
 '"While thus possessing the power to create a material 
 body from the elemental atoms alone, spirits of advanced 
 knowledge seldom use this power, because for ordinary 
 materializing purposes there is no need to exercise it, the 
 
850 A WANDEREB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 emanations from the members of the materializing circle 
 and the aura of the medium, which are already saturated 
 with the necessary essence Eor the formation of a body, 
 saving them both time and trouble, and simplifying the 
 process. It is just as the buying a ready made piece of 
 cloth simplifies the making of a garment, instead of the 
 tailor having to proceed first to grow the wool, then to 
 spiu it, and finally to weave it into cloth for himself before 
 he can begin to make the garment. 
 
 "In some cases so much of the material is taken from 
 the medium's body so as to perceptibly alter its weight. 
 In others nearly the whole of the material covering is 
 used, so that to material sight the medium has vanished, 
 although a clairvoyant may perceive the astral or spirit 
 form still seated in the chair. In such cases it is simply 
 the gross material atoms which have been made use of, 
 while the mental atoms have not been touched. As a 
 rule the spirits who take part in a materializing seance, 
 both those who materialize themselves and those who 
 assist the chief controlling spirit, are ignorant of the 
 means by which the results are obtained, just as many 
 persons who avail themselves of the discoveries of chem- 
 istry and the articles manufactured by chemists are 
 ignorant of how those substances are obtained. There is 
 in all materializations an invisible head or director from 
 a. sphere greatly in advance of the earth, who may be 
 called the chief chemist, and he passes his directions to a 
 spirit strong in the power of controlling the forces of the 
 astral plane and to others under him, who come in contact 
 with the medium and direct the order of the materializa- 
 tions of personal friends of the sitters, besides sometimes 
 materializing and showing themselves to the circle. 
 
 "There is a powerful movement going on now in the 
 spirit world with the object of extending the knowledge 
 of all these subjects, both among spirits and men in the 
 flesh, and the ecclesiasticism, whether of the East or of 
 the "West, which would still shut up such knowledge 
 within the precincts of the temple, may fight against this 
 movement, but it will fight in vain. The power is too 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 251 
 
 strong for them. Men are pressing into the avenues of 
 knowledge on all sides and thronging round the doors 
 winch, sooner or later, must be opened to them. 
 
 "You cannot suppress knowledge. It is the in- 
 alienable birthright of every soul. Neither can it be 
 made the property of any class. So soon as the mind 
 begins to think, it will search for knowledge, and feed 
 upon such crumbs as come in its way, and surely it were 
 better to impart the knowledge sought carefully and 
 judiciously so it can be assimilated, than try to suppress 
 the desire for it, or leave the hungry soul to gather it for 
 itself in the garbage heaps of error. 
 
 "The human race is advancing eternally, and the 
 tutelage of the child is no longer adapted to the growing 
 youth. He demands freedom, and will break from the 
 leading strings altogether unless their tension is relaxed, 
 and he is Buffered to wander in the pathways of knowledge 
 to the utmost of his powers. Is it not well, then, that 
 those who are as the sages of the race should respond to 
 this thirst for light and knowledge by giving, through 
 every channel and avenue which can be opened, the 
 wisdom of the ages in such form as may make it the most 
 easily comprehended? This planet is but a speck in the 
 universe. What it knows is only such a speck of the 
 universal knowledge as is adapted to its state, and each 
 hour requires that the expansion of the human mind shall 
 be met by the expansion of its creeds and its resources, by 
 the pouring in of fresh streams of light, not the suppress- 
 ing of the old lest it should be too strong for the sight." 
 
252 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 "And now, Hassein, there is another point I wish to 
 ask yon about. I have frequently heard men on earth say 
 they want to know, if the spheres exist around the earth 
 and between them and the sun, why it is that all men 
 cannot see them, and why they cannot even see those 
 spirits who are said to be actually in the room with them. 
 Naturally, men are not all satisfied to be told simply that 
 it is because they are not clairvoyants, and have not the 
 soul-sight. They want a still clearer explanation. I am 
 a spirit myself and I know that I exist, and so does my 
 dwelling-place, but I am unable to give an answer to the 
 question. Can you do so ?" 
 
 Hassein laughed. "I could give a dozen elaborate 
 explanations, but neither you nor these mortals who are 
 unable to see the spirits would be much wiser after I had 
 clone so. I must, therefore, endeavor to make my answer 
 as free from technicalities as I can. First, though, let 
 me ask if you have seen the photographs of unmaterialized 
 spirits which have been obtained by certain mediums in 
 the flesh. You will have noticed that to mortal sight 
 they present .a semi-transparent appearance. The material 
 doors and windows, furniture, etc., show through the 
 figures of the spirits. 
 
 "Now that gives you a very good idea of the amount 
 of materiality possessed by an astral body (the first degree 
 of spiritualized matter). The material particles are 
 spread so thinly that they are like a fine net-work united 
 by invisible atoms of a more etherealized nature — so sub- 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 253 
 
 limated in fact that they cannot be impressed upon the 
 most sensitive plates now used by photographers. Spirits 
 after they leave the earth plane cannot be photographed 
 by the plates now in use — they do not possess gross 
 enough atoms in the composition of their bodies, and have 
 therefore to either materialize a body like an earthly one, 
 or they may use another method which has been found 
 successful and which is the one commonly used in the case 
 of spirit photographs, where the spirits are visible to clair- 
 voyant sight though invisible to material eyes. This is 
 simply described by saying these spirits make use of some 
 of those astral envelopes or bodies that I have already de- 
 scribed to you as forming from cloud masses of semi- 
 material human atoms — astral shells which never served 
 as the covering of any soul, and which are so plastic in 
 their nature that spirits can mold them into their own 
 likeness as a sculptor molds the clay. These replicas can 
 be and are photographed, bearing a greater or less resem- 
 blance to the spirit, according as his will power and his 
 knowledge enable him to stamp his likeness upon them, 
 and though they are not strictly speaking the photos of 
 the spirits themselves, yet they are none the less evidence 
 of spirit power and of the existence of the spirit who has 
 made use of them, because each spirit must himself stamp 
 his own identity upon the plastic astral form, while more 
 advanced scientific spirits prepare that form to receive 
 the impression. 
 
 "In the case of materialized spirits' photographs, the 
 spirits really make a body from the more material atoms 
 and clothe themselves in it. 
 
 "A clairvoyant seeing one of these astral forms about 
 to be photographed would probably not be able to dis- 
 tinguish between it and a true spirit man or woman, be- 
 cause the power of distinguishing between them is not yet 
 developed in mediums, neither, as a rule, do they know 
 why a spirit that looks solid enough to them comes out on 
 a photographic plate with a semi-transparent appearance. 
 They see the more spiritualized matter as well as the 
 grosser astral atoms, therefore it appears to them as a 
 
254 A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 solid body with well rounded, well proportioned limbs, 
 not as a transparent shadow of a spirit whose appearance 
 may well give rise to the idea that returning spirits arc 
 
 mere shades, almost, in fact, empty shells — the real 
 reason of the empty appearance being that, as I have said, 
 the photographic appliances at preseni in use are not 
 capable of transferring the whole spirit's form but only 
 these grosser particles. In the case of a fully materialized 
 spirit being photographed, this transparent appearance 
 does not exist. The form is so perfect, so life-like and 
 solid, that men turn round and say it, therefore, cannot 
 be a spirit photograph at all — it must be nothing hut the 
 medium. Blind seekers, who in trying to grasp a subject 
 so vast, so full of the most subtle difficulties, bring to 
 bear upon it only the knowledge suitable for mundane 
 things, and then conclude that they are able to decide 
 finally so momentous, so scientific a question! 
 
 '"But to return to your fjuestion. Having shown 
 you how a photograph may give a spirit whose appearance 
 is like that of the traditional ghost, I will now show you 
 how mortals may also sec them as such, but to illustrate 
 my meaning I will first ask you to imagine yourself back 
 in your earthly body with no more powers of spirit sight 
 than you possessed then. Let us liken the material and 
 spiritual sight to two eyes. The one we will call the left, 
 the other the right eye, and let the left stand for the 
 material sight, the right the spiritual. Suppose you stand 
 with your back to the light and hold your forefinger in 
 front of the right eye where it can be seen by that eye 
 only, the left seeing only the wall before you — shut the 
 right eye and the finger is invisible, yet it is there, only 
 not in the line of vision for the left, or material, sight. 
 Now open both eyes at once and look at your finger and 
 you will now r see it certainly, but owing to a curious 
 optical illusion it will appear transparent, a mere shadow 
 of a finger, the wall being seen through it, and it may be 
 likened to a ghost of a finger although you know it to be 
 a solid reality. 
 
 '"'Thus you can imagine how a person whose material 
 
A WANDEREE IX THE SPIEIT LANDS. 255 
 
 sight is alone open cannot see that which requires spirit- 
 ual sight to discern, and how, when both the material 
 and spiritual sight are open at the same moment a spirit 
 may be visible but with the same transparent appearance 
 as your finger had just now. Hence has arisen the pop- 
 ular idea of a ghost. A clairvoyant, looking at any spirit- 
 ual object with the spiritual sight, does so with the 
 material sight closed through the power of the controlling 
 intelligence who directs that person's mediumship. 
 Therefore to him or to her the spiritual object does pre- 
 sent the appearance of a solid reality such as a material 
 finger appears when seen by the material sight alone. 
 
 "Few men know and still fewer consider that even 
 their material sight is dependent upon the material atoms 
 which fill the earth's atmosphere, and without which 
 atoms there would be no light to see anything by. 
 
 •'At night mortals can see the stars — even those 
 which are not themselves suns — distant as they are, be- 
 cause they are material objects from which the light of 
 the sun is reflected. During the day the stars are still 
 there, but the immense mass of material particles in the 
 earth's atmosphere being illuminated by the reflecting of 
 the sun's rays from them, causes so dense an atmosphere 
 of light that the stars are veiled and no longer visible to 
 material eyes. Ascend, however, above this material 
 atmosphere of illuminated atoms, and, behold, the stars 
 are again visible even at mid-day and the surrounding 
 ether of space, being free from such material particles, is 
 quite dark. There is nothing to reflect the sun's rays. 
 
 "Thus, although the mortal would be nearer to the 
 sun, yet its light is no longer visible to his material eyes, 
 which can only see when there is some material object, 
 however small, to reflect the light of the sun for him. 
 How, then, does man know that the light of the sun is 
 traveling through the ether space to earth? Only by 
 reason and analogy, not by sight, for beyond the earth's 
 atmosphere the sun's light is invisible to him. Men know 
 tlif light of the moon to be only the light of the sun 
 reflected from the moon's surface. Experience and ex- 
 
256 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 pcriment have proved this, and it is now universally 
 admitted. In like manner each little atom of material 
 matter floating in the earth's atmosphere is an infinitesi- 
 mal moon to reflect the sun's light for man and brighten 
 earth with the splendor of these reflections. So again 
 those minute particles that are continually being thrown 
 off into the atmosphere by the earth itself, are but the 
 larger and grosser atoms enclosing or rather revolving 
 round, minute spiritual germs that form a spiritual atmos- 
 phere around the earth and reflect for clairvoyants the 
 spiritual elements of the light of the sun. This spiritual 
 atmosphere forms what is known as the astral plane, and 
 bears the same proportion of density to astral bodies that 
 the material atmosphere does to mortal bodies, and the 
 light from the spiritual elements of the sun striking upon 
 these spiritual particles is the light of the astral plane by 
 which spirits see; the material atmosphere of earth being 
 invisible to them even as this spiritual atmosphere is in- 
 visible to the material sight of mortals. Is it not, then, 
 easy to imagine that the spirit spheres may exist around 
 the earth, and between man and the material envelope of 
 the sun without his being able to see them, by reason of 
 the fact that his spiritual sight is closed and he can only 
 see what is material? The spiritual spheres and their 
 inhabitants are certainly more transparent and intangible 
 to mortal sight than his finger appeared just now. Yet 
 they exist and are as solid a reality as his finger, and are 
 only invisible by reason of his imperfect sight, which is 
 limited to material things of comparatively great density." 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 257 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 I was always fond of watching the clouds float over 
 the sky and shape themselves into pictures suggested by 
 my thoughts. Since I reached the second sphere of the 
 spirit land my skies have always had clouds floating over 
 them, lovely light fleecy clouds which shape themselves 
 into a thousand forms and take on the most lovely shades 
 of color, sometimes becoming rainbow hued and at others 
 of the most dazzling white, and then again vanishing away 
 altogether. I have been told by some spirits that in their 
 skies they never see a cloud, all is serene clear beauty; and 
 no doubt it is so in their lands, for in the spirit world our 
 thoughts and wishes form our surroundings. Thus, be- 
 cause I love to see clouds they are to be seen in my sky, at 
 times veiling and softening its beauties and making cloud- 
 castles for me to enjoy. 
 
 Now, some time after I obtained my little home in 
 "the Morning Land I began to see between myself and my 
 cloud-pictures a vision which, like the mirage seen in the 
 desert, hovered on the horizon, distinct and lifelike, only 
 to melt away as I gazed. This was a most lovely ethereal 
 gate of wrought gold, such as might be the entrance to 
 some fairy land. A clear stream of water flowed between 
 myself and this gate, while trees so fresh, so green, so 
 aerial, they seemed like fairy trees, arched their branches 
 over it and clustered at the sides. Again and again did I 
 see this vision, and one day while I was gazing at it my 
 father came unnoticed by me and stood by my side. He 
 touched my shoulder and said: 
 
B58 A WAX DEREB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 'TFranchezzo, that gate is inviting you to go nearer 
 and see it for yourself. It is the entrance to the highest 
 circle Of this second sphere, and it is within those gates 
 thai your new home is waiting for you. You might have 
 gone some time ago into those circles which lie between, 
 yen and it, had not your affection for this little cottage 
 made you content to remain in it. Now, however, it 
 would he as well for you to go forth and see if the wonders 
 of that new land will not still more delight you. I am, 
 as you know, in the third sphere, which will, therefore, 
 he still above you. hut the nearer you approach to me the 
 more easily can I visit you, and in your new home we shall 
 he much oftener together." 
 
 I was so surprised I could not answer for a little 
 time. It seemed incredible that I should be able so soon 
 to pass those gates. Then, taking my father's advice, I 
 bade a regretful adieu to my little home (for I grow much 
 attached to places which I live long in) and set forth to 
 journey to this new country, the gate shining before me 
 all the time, not fading away as it had done before. 
 
 In the spirit land where the surface is not that of a 
 round globe as with the planets, you do not see the objects 
 on the horizon vanishing in the same way, and earth and 
 sky meeting at last as one. Instead you see the sky as a 
 vast canopy overhead, and the circles which are above you 
 seem like plateaux resting upon mountain tops on your 
 horizon, and when you reach those mountains and see the 
 new country spread out before you, there are always on 
 its horizon again more mountains and fresh lands lying 
 higher than those you have reached. Thus also you can 
 look down on those you have passed as upon a' succession 
 of terraces, each leading to a lower, less beautiful one, till 
 at last you see the earth plane surrounding the earth itself, 
 and then beyond that again (for those spirits whose sight 
 is well developed) lie another succession of terrace-like 
 lands leading down to Hell. Thus circle melts into circle 
 and sphere into sphere, only that between each sphere 
 there exists a barrier of magnetic waves which repels those 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS.' 259 
 
 from a lower sphere who seek to pass it until their con- 
 dition has become in harmony with the higher sphere. 
 
 In my journey to the golden gates I passed through 
 several circles of this second sphere, whose cities and 
 dwelling-places would have tempted me to linger and 
 admire them had I not been so eager to view the fair land 
 which was now the goal of my hopes. I knew, moreover, 
 that I could at any time on my way to earth stop and 
 explore those intermediate lands, because a spirit can 
 always retrace his steps if he desires and visit those 
 below him. 
 
 At last I reached the top of the last range of moun- 
 tains between me and the golden gates, and saw stretched 
 out before my eyes a most lovely country. Trees waved 
 their branches as in welcome to me and flowers blossomed 
 everywhere, while at my feet was the shining river and 
 across it the golden gates. With a great sense of joy in 
 my heart I plunged into that beautiful river to swim 
 across, its refreshing waters closing over my head as I 
 dived and swam. I had taken no heed to my clothing 
 and as I landed on the farther side I looked to see myself 
 dripping with water, but in a moment I found my cloth- 
 ing as dry as could he, and what was still stranger, my 
 grey robe with its triple bordering of white had changed 
 into one of the most dazzling snowy lustre with a golden 
 girdle and golden borderings. At the neck and wrists it 
 was clasped with little plain gold clasps, and seemed to 
 be like finest muslin in texture. I could scarce believe 
 my senses. I looked and looked again, and then, with a 
 trembling, beating heart I approached those lovely gates. 
 As my hand touched them they glided apart and I passed 
 into a wide road bordered by trees and flowering shrubs 
 and plants of most lovely hues — like flowers of earth, in- 
 deed, but ah! how much more lovely, how much more 
 fragrant no words of mine can convey to you. 
 
 The waving branches of the trees bent over me in 
 loving welcome as I passed, the flowers seemed to turn to 
 me as greeting one who loved them well, at my feet there 
 was the soft green sward, and overhead a sky so clear, so 
 
2G0 A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 pure, so beautiful, the light shimmering through the trees 
 as never did the light of earthly sun. Before me were 
 lovely blue and purple hills and the gleam of a fair lake, 
 upon whose bosom tiny islets nestled crowned with the 
 green foliage of groups of trees. Here and there a little 
 boat skimmed over the surface of the lake filled with 
 happy spirits clad in shining roBes of many different 
 colors — so like to earth, so like my beloved Southern 
 Land, and yet so changed, so glorified, so free from all 
 taint of wrong and sin! 
 
 As I passed up the broad flower-girt road a hand of 
 spirits came to meet and welcome me, amongst whom I 
 recognized my father, my mother, my brother and a sis- 
 ter, besides many beloved friends of my youth. They 
 carried gossamer scarfs of red, white and green colors, 
 which they were waving to me, while they strewed my 
 path with masses of the fairest flowers as I approached, 
 and all the time they sang the beautiful songs of our own 
 land in welcome, their voices floating on the soft breeze 
 in the perfection of unison and harmony. I felt almost 
 overcome with emotion; it seemed far too much happiness 
 for one like me. 
 
 And then my thoughts even in that bright scene 
 turned to earth, to her who was of all the most dear to 
 me, where all were so dear, and I thought, "Alas that she 
 is not here to share with me the triumphs of this hour; 
 she to whose love more than to any other thing I owe it." 
 As the thought came to me I suddenly beheld her spirit 
 beside me, half asleep, half conscious, freed for a brief mo- 
 ment from the earthly body and borne in the arms of her 
 chief guardian spirit. Her dress was of the spirit world, 
 white as a bride's and shimmering with sparkling gems 
 like dew drops. I turned and clasped her to my heart, 
 and at my touch her soul awoke and she looked smilingly 
 at me. Then I presented her to my friends as my be- 
 trothed bride, and while she was still smiling at us all, 
 her guide again drew near and threw over her a large 
 white mantle. He lifted her in his arms once more, and 
 
A WANDEBEB IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 261 
 
 like a tired child she seemed to sink into slumber as he 
 bore her away to her earthly body, which she had left for 
 a time to share and crown this supreme moment of my 
 joy. All. me! even in my joy I felt it hard to let her go, 
 to think I could not keep her with me; but the thread of 
 her earthly life was nut yet fully spun, and I knew that 
 she like others must travel the path of her earthly pil- 
 grimage to its end. 
 
 "When my beloved was gone, my friends all clus- 
 tered round me with tender embraces, my mother whom 
 I had never seen since I was a little child — caressing my 
 hair and covering my face with kisses as though I had 
 been still the little son whom she had left on earth so 
 many, many years ago that his memory of her had been 
 but dim. and that the father had supplied the image of 
 both parents in his thoughts. 
 
 Then they led me to a lovely villa almost buried in 
 the roses and jasmine which clustered over its walls and 
 twined around the slender white pillars of the piazza, 
 forming a curtain of flowers upon one side. What a 
 beautiful home it seemed! How much beyond what I 
 deserved! Its rooms were spacious, and there were seven 
 of them, each typical of a phase in my own character or 
 some taste I had cultivated. 
 
 My villa was upon the top of a hill overlooking the 
 lake which lay many hundreds of feet below, its calm 
 waters rippled by magnetic currents and the surround- 
 ing hills mirrored in its quiet bosom, and beyond the lake 
 there was a wide valley. As one looks down from a 
 mountain top to the low hills and the dark valley and 
 level plains below, so did I now look down from my new 
 dwelling upon a panorama of the lower spheres and cir- 
 cles through which I had passed, to the earth plane and 
 again to the earth itself, which lay like a star far below 
 me. I thought as I looked at it that there dwelt still my 
 beloved, and there yet lay the field of my labors. I have 
 sat many times since gazing out on that lone star, the pic- 
 tures of my past life floating in a long wave of memory 
 
369 A WANDERER I \ THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 across my day-dream, and with all my thoughts was inter-, 
 woven the image of her who is my guiding star. 
 
 * * * * * * * * * 
 
 The room from which I could see this view of the 
 distant earth was my music-room, and in it were musical 
 instruments of various kinds. Flowers festooned the 
 walls and soft draperies the windows, which required no 
 glass in their frames to keep out the soft zephyrs of that 
 fair land. A honeysuckle, that was surely the same sweet 
 plant which had so rejoiced my heart in my little cottage 
 in the Morning Land, trailed its fragrant tendrils around 
 the window, and on one of the walls hung my picture of 
 my darling, framed with its pure white roses which always 
 seemed to me an emblem of herself. Here, too, I again 
 found all my little treasures which I had collected in my 
 dark days when hope seemed so far and the shadow of 
 night was ever over me. The room was full of soft 
 masses of lovely spirit flowers, and the furniture was like 
 that of earth only more light in appearance, more grace- 
 ful and beautiful in every way. There was a couch which 
 I much admired. It was supported by four half-kneeling 
 figures of wood-nymphs, carved as it would seem from a 
 marble of the purest white and even more transparent 
 than alabaster. Their extended arms and clasped hands 
 formed the back and the upper and lower ends; their 
 heads were crowned with leaves and their floating dra- 
 peries fell around their forms in so graceful, so natural a 
 manner, it was difficult to believe they were not living 
 spirit-maidens. The covering of this couch was of a tex- 
 ture like swan's down, only it was pale gold in color; so 
 soft was it, it seemed to invite one to repose, and often 
 have I lain upon it and looked out at the lovely scene and 
 away to the dim star of earth with its weary pilgrims — its 
 toiling souls. 
 
 The next apartment was filled with beautiful pic- 
 tures, lovely statues, and tropical flowers. It was almost 
 more like a conservatory than a room, the pictures being 
 collected at one end of it and the statues and flowers form- 
 ing a foreground of beauty that was like 'another and 
 
A WANDEREB IX THE SPIETT LANDS. 263 
 
 larger picture. There was a little grotto with a fountain 
 playing, the water sparkling like diamonds and rippling 
 over the sides of the smaller basin into one larger still, 
 with a murmuring sound which suggested a melody to me. 
 Xear this grotto was one picture which attracted me at 
 once, for I recognized it as a scene from my earthly life. 
 it was a picture of one calm and peaceful evening in early 
 summer when my beloved and I had floated on the quiet 
 waters of an earthly river. The setting sun glowing in 
 the west was sinking behind a hank of trees, while the 
 grey twilight crept over the hollows through the shade of 
 the trees; and in our hearts there was a sense of peace and 
 rest which raised our souls to Heaven. I looked around 
 and recognized many familiar scenes, which had likewise 
 been full of happiness for me and in whose memories 
 there was no sting. 
 
 There were also many pictures of my friends, and of 
 scenes in the spirit world. From the windows I could 
 behold another view than from my music-room. This 
 view showed those lands which were yet far above me, and* 
 whose towers and minarets and mountains shone through 
 a dim haze of bright mist, now rainbow hued, now golden, 
 or blue, or white. I loved to change from the one view 
 to the other, from the past which was so clear, to the fu- 
 ture that was still dim, still veiled for me. 
 
 In this picture salon there was all which could de- 
 light the eye or rest the body, for our bodies require re- 
 pose as well as do yours on earth, and we can enjoy to rest 
 upon a couch of down earned by our labors as much as 
 you can enjoy the possession of fine furniture bought 
 with gold earned by your work on earth. 
 
 Another saloon was set apart for the entertainment 
 of my friends, and here again, as in the lower sphere, 
 there were tables set out with a feast of simple but de- 
 licious fruits, cakes, and other agreeable foods like 
 earthly foods, only less material, and there was also the 
 delicious sparkling wine of the spirit world which I have 
 before mentioned. Another room again was full of books 
 recording my life and the liv£S of those whom I admired 
 
26 i A WANDERER L\ THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 or loved. There were also books upon many subjects, 
 the peculiarity in them being that instead of being 
 printed they seemed full of pictures, which when one 
 studied them appeared to reflect the thoughts of those 
 who had written the books more eloquently than any 
 words. Here, too, one could sit and receive the inspired 
 thoughts of the great poets and literary men who inhabit 
 the sphere above, and here have I sat, and inscribed upon 
 the blank pages of some book laid open before me, poems 
 to her who filled the larger half of all my thoughts. 
 
 From this room we passed out to the garden, my 
 father saying he would show me my chamber of repose, 
 after our friends were gone. Here, as in the house, 
 flowers were everywhere, for I always loved flowers, they 
 spoke to me of so many things and seemed to whisper 
 such bright fancies, such pure thoughts. There was a 
 terrace around the house, and the garden seemed almost 
 to overhang the lake, expecially at one secluded corner 
 which was fenced in with a bank of ferns and flowering 
 Ihrubs and backed by a screen of trees. This nook was a 
 little to the side of the house and soon became my favorite 
 resort; the ground was carpeted with soft green moss 
 as you have not on earth — and flowers grew all around. 
 Here there was a seat whereon I loved to sit and look 
 away to the earth, and fancy where my beloved one's home 
 would be. Across all those millions of miles of space my 
 thoughts could reach her as hers could now reach me, 
 for the magnetic cord of our love stretched between us 
 and no power could ever shut us out from each other 
 again. 
 
 "When I had seen and admired all, my friends led 
 me back to the house and we all sat down to enjoy the 
 feast of welcome which their love had prepared for me. 
 Ah! what a happy feast that was. How we proposed the 
 progression and happiness of each one, and then drank 
 our toast in wine which left no intoxication behind, no 
 after reckoning of shame to mar its refreshing qualities! 
 How delicious seemed this fruit, these numerous little 
 delicacies which were all the creations of someone's love 
 
A WANDEREE IN THE SPIEIT LANDS. 265 
 
 for me. It seemed too much happiness, I felt as in a de- 
 lightful dream from which I must surely wake. At last 
 all my friends left except my father and mother, and by 
 them I was conducted to the upper chambers of the 
 house. They were three in number. Two were for 
 such friends as might come to stay with me, and both were 
 most prettily furnished, most peaceful looking; the third 
 room was for myself, my own room, where I would retire 
 when I desired to rest and to have no companion but my 
 own thoughts. As we entered the thing which attracted 
 me most and filled me with more astonishment than any- 
 thing I had yet seen, was the couch. It was of snowy 
 white gossamer, bordered with pale lilac and gold, while 
 at the foot were two angels, carved, like the wood-nymphs, 
 out of the dazzling white alabaster I have vainly tried to 
 describe. They were much larger than myself or any 
 spirits whom I had seen, and their heads and extended 
 wings seemed almost to touch the roof of my room, and 
 the pose of these two most lovely figures was perfect in its 
 grace. Their feet scarce touched the floor and with their 
 bending forms and half-outstretched wings they appeared 
 to hover over the bed as though they had but just ar- 
 rived from their celestial sphere. 
 
 They were male and female forms, the man wearing 
 on his head a helmet and bearing in his hand a sword, 
 while the other hand held aloft a crown. His figure was 
 the perfection of manly beauty and grace, and his face 
 with its perfect features so firmly moulded, expressing at 
 once strength and gentleness, had to my eyes a look of 
 calm regal majesty that was divine. 
 
 The female figure at his side was smaller — more deli- 
 icate in every way. Her face was full of gentle, tender, 
 womanly purity and beauty. The eyes large and soft 
 even though carved in marble, the long tresses of her 
 hair half-veiling her head and shoulders. One hand 
 held a harp with seven strings, the other rested upon the 
 shoulder of the male angel as though she supported her- 
 self with his strength, while the lovely head was half bent 
 
26G A WANDKIJKH IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 forward and rested upon her arm, and on her head she 
 wore a crown of pure white lilies. 
 
 The look upon her face was one of such exquisite 
 sweetness, such maternal tenderness, it might well have 
 served for that of the Virgin Mother herself. The at- 
 titudes, the expressions of both were the most perfect re- 
 alization of angelic beauty I have seen, and for some mo- 
 ments I could but gaze at them expecting them to melt 
 away before my eyes. 
 
 At last I turned to my father and asked how such 
 lovely figures came to be in my room, and why they were 
 represented with wings, since I had been told that angels 
 had not really wings growing from their bodies at -all. 
 
 "My son," he answered, "these lovely figures are the 
 gift of your mother and myself to you, and we would fain 
 think of you as reposing under the shadow of their wings, 
 which represent in a material form the protection we 
 would ever give you. They are shown with wings because 
 that is the symbol of the angelic spheres, but if you will 
 look closely at them you will find that these wings are 
 like a part of the drapery of the forms, and are not at- 
 tached to the bodies at all as though they grew from the 
 shoulder in the fashion earthly artists represent them. 
 The wings, moreover, express the power of angelic be- 
 ings to soar upon these outstretched pinions into Heaven 
 itself. The shining helmet and the sword represent war, 
 the helmet the war of the Intellect against Error, 
 Darkness and Oppression. The sword, the war man 
 must ever wage against the passions of his lower nature. 
 The crown symbolizes the glory of virtue and self-con- 
 quest. 
 
 "The harp in the woman's hand shows that she is an 
 angel of the musical sphere, and the crown of lilies ex- 
 presses purity and love. Her hand resting on the man's 
 shoulder is to show that she derives her strength and 
 power from him and from his stronger nature, while her 
 attitude and looks as she bends over your couch express 
 the tender love and protection of woman's maternal na- 
 ture. She is "smaller than the man, because in you the 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 267 
 
 masculine elements are stronger than the feminine. In 
 some representations of the angels of men's souls they are 
 made of equal size and stature, because in those charac- 
 ters the masculine and feminine elements are both equal, 
 both evenly balanced, but with you it is not so, therefore 
 are they represented with the woman dependent upon the 
 stronger one. 
 
 "The male angel typifies power and protection. The 
 female angel purity and love. Together they show the 
 eternal dual nature of the soul and that one-half is not 
 complete without the other. They also are the symbol- 
 ical representation of the twin guardian angels of your 
 soul whose wings may be said in a spiritual sense to be 
 ever outstretched in protection over you." 
 
 Shall I confess that even in that beautiful home 
 there were times when I felt lonely? I had this home, 
 earned by myself, but as yet I had no one to share it with 
 me, and I have always felt a pleasure to be doubly sweet 
 when there was some one whom I- could feel enjoyed it 
 also. The one companion of all others for whom I 
 sighed was still on earth, and alas! I knew that not for 
 many years could she join me. Then Faithful Friend 
 was in a circle of the sphere above me in a home of his 
 own. and as for Hassein, he was far above us both, so that 
 though I saw them at times as well as my dear father and 
 mother, there was no one to share my life with me en boti 
 camarade, no one to watch for my home-coming, and no 
 one for whom in my turn I could watch. I was often on 
 earth — often with my darling — but I found that with my 
 advanced position in the Spirit world I could not remain 
 for so long at a time as I had been wont to do. It had 
 upon my spirit much the effect of trying to live in a foggy 
 atmosphere or down a coal mine, and I had to return more 
 frequently to the spirit land to recover myself. 
 
 I used to sit in my lovely rooms and sigh to myself, 
 "Ah! if I had but some one to speak with, some congenial 
 soul to whom I might express all the thoughts which 
 crowd my mind.'' It was therefore with the greatest 
 
268 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 pleasure that I received a visit from Faithful Friend, and 
 heard the suggestion he had to make to me. 
 
 "I have come," said he, "on behalf of a friend who 
 has just come to this circle of the sphere, but who has not 
 yet earned for himself a home of his own and therefore 
 desires to find one with some friend more richly endowed 
 than himself. He has no relatives here and I thought 
 that you might be glad of his companionship." 
 
 "Most truly I would be delighted to share my home 
 with your friend." 
 
 Faithful Friend laughed. "He may be called your 
 friend also, for you know him. It is Benedetto." 
 
 "Benedetto!" I cried in astonishment and delight. 
 "Ah! then he will indeed be doubly welcome. Bring 
 him here as soon as possible." 
 
 "He is here now — he awaits at your door; he would 
 not come with me till he was sure you would really be 
 glad to welcome him." 
 
 "No one could be more so," I said. "Let us go at 
 once and bring him in." 
 
 So we went to the door and there he stood, looking 
 very different from when I had last seen him in that awful 
 city of the lower sphere — then so sad, weighed down, so 
 oppressed — now so bright, his robes, like mine, of purest 
 white, and though his face was still sad in expression yet 
 there was peace, and there was hope in the eyes he raised 
 to mine as I clasped his hand and embraced him as we of 
 my Southern Land embrace those we love and honor. It 
 was with much pleasure that we met — we who had both 
 so sinned and so suffered — and we were henceforth to be 
 as brothers. 
 
 Thus it was that my home became no more solitary, 
 for, when one of us returns from our labors, the other is 
 there to greet him, to share the joy and the care, and to 
 talk over the success or the failure. 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 269 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 How can I tell of the many friends who came to visit 
 me in this bright home, of the cities I saw in that fair 
 land, the lovely scenes I visited? I cannot. It would 
 take volumes, and already my narrative has reached its 
 limits. I shall only tell of one more vision that I had, be- 
 cause in it I was shown a new path wherein I was to labor, 
 one in which I could apply to the aid of others the lessons 
 I had learned in my wanderings. 
 
 I was lying on the couch in my room and had awak- 
 ened from a long slumber. I was watching, as I often 
 did, those two most beautiful figures of my guardian an- 
 gels, and seeing fresh beauties, fresh meanings in their 
 faces and their attitudes every time I looked at them, 
 when I became conscious that my Eastern guide, Ahrinzi- 
 man, in his far-off sphere was seeking to communicate 
 with me. I therefore allowed myself to become perfectly 
 passive and soon felt a great cloud of light of a dazzling 
 white misty substance surrounding me. It seemed to 
 shut out the walls of my room and everything from me. 
 Then my soul seemed to arise from my spirit body and 
 float away, leaving my spirit envelope lying upon the 
 couch. 
 
 I appeared to pass upwards and still upwards, as 
 though the will of my powerful guide was summoning me 
 to him, and I floated on and on with a sense of lightness 
 which even as a spirit I had never felt before. 
 
 At last I alighted upon the summit of a high mount- 
 ain, from which I could behold tbe earth and its lower 
 
270 A W.WM-KKK IN THESPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 and higher spheres revolving below me. I also saw that 
 sphere which was my home, but it appeared lo lie far be- 
 low the height upon which I stood. 
 
 Beside me was Ahrinziman, and as in a dream I 
 heard his voice speaking to me and saying: 
 
 "Behold, son of my adoption, the new path in which 
 I would have you labor.- Behold earth and her attendant 
 spheres, and see how important to her welfare is this work 
 in which I would have you to take part. See now the 
 value of the power you have gained in your journey to 
 the Kingdoms of Hell, since it will enable you to become 
 one of the great army who daily and hourly protect mor- 
 tal men from the assaults of Hell's inhabitants. Behold 
 this panorama of the spheres and learn how you con assist 
 in a work as mighty as the. spheres themselves." 
 
 I looked to where he pointed, and I beheld the cir- 
 cling belt of the great earth plane, its magnetic currents 
 like the ebb and flow of an ocean tide, bearing on their 
 waves countless millions upon millions of spirits. I saw 
 all those strange elemental astral .forms, some grotesque, 
 some hideous, some beautiful. I saw also the earth- 
 bound spirits of men and women tied still by their gross 
 pleasures or their sinful lives, many of them using the or- 
 ganisms of mortals to gratify their degraded cravings. I 
 beheld these and kindred mysteries of the earth plane, 
 and I likewise beheld sweeping up from the dark spheres 
 below waves of dark and awful beings, ten times more 
 deadly unto man in their influence over him than those 
 dark spirits of the earth plane. I saw these darker be- 
 ings crowd around man and cluster thickly near him, and 
 where they gathered they shut out the brightness of the 
 spiritual sun whose rays shine down upon the earth con- 
 tinually. They shut out this light, with the dark mass of 
 their own cruel evil thoughts, and where this cloud 
 rested there came murder and robbery; and cruelty and 
 lust, and every kind of oppression were in their train, and 
 death and sorrow followed them. "Wherever man had 
 cast aside from him the restraints of his conscience and 
 had given way to greed and selfishness, and pride and am- 
 
A WANDEREK IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 271 
 
 bition, there did these dark beings gather, shutting out 
 the light of truth with their dark bodies. 
 
 And again I saw many mortals who mourned for the 
 dear ones they had loved and lost, weeping most bitter 
 tears because they could see them no more. And all the 
 time I saw those for whom they mourned standing beside 
 them, seeking with all their power to show that they still 
 lived, still hovered near, and that death had not robbed of 
 one loving thought, one tender wish, those whom death 
 had left behind to mourn. All in vain seemed their 
 efforts. The living could not hear or see them, and the 
 poor sorrowing spirits could not go away to their bright 
 spheres because while those they had left so mourned for 
 them they were tied to the earth plane by the chains of 
 their love, and the light of their spirit lamps grew dim 
 and faded as they thus hung about the atmosphere of 
 earth in helpless sorrow. 
 
 And Ahrinziman said to me: "Is there no need here 
 for the means of communication between these two, the 
 living and the so-called dead, that the sorrowful ones on 
 both sides may be comforted? And, again, is there no 
 need for communication that those other sinful selfish 
 men may be told of the dark beings hovering around them 
 who seek to drag their souls to hell?" 
 
 Then I beheld a glorious dazzing light as of a sun 
 in splendor, shining as no mortal eye ever saw the sun 
 shine on earth. And its rays dispelled the clouds of 
 darkness and sorrow, and I heard a glorious strain of 
 music from the celestial spheres, and I thought surely 
 now man will hear this music and see this light and be 
 comforted. But they could not — their ears were closed 
 by the false ideas they had gathered, and the dust and 
 dross of earth clogged their spirits and made their eyes 
 blind to the glorious light which shone for them in vain. 
 
 Then I beheld other mortals whose spiritual sight 
 was partly unveiled and whose ears were not quite deaf, 
 and they spoke of the spirit world and its wondrous beau- 
 ties. They felt great thoughts and put them into the 
 language of earth. Thev heard the wondrous music and 
 
272 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRITJANDS. 
 
 tried to give it expression. They saw lovely visions and 
 tried to paint them, as like to those of the spirit as the 
 limits of their earthly environments would allow. And 
 these mortals were termed geniuses, and their words and 
 their music and their pictures all helped to raise men's 
 souls nearer to the God who gave that soul — for all that 
 is highest and purest and best comes from the inspiration 
 of the spirit world. 
 
 Yet with all this beauty of art and music and litera- 
 ture — with all these aspirations — with all the fervor of 
 religious feeling, there was still no way opened by which 
 men on earth could hold communion with the loved ones 
 who had gone before them into that land which dwellers 
 upon earth have called the Land of Shades, and from 
 whose bourn, they thought, no traveler could return — a 
 land that was all vague and misty to their thought. And 
 there was likewise no means by which those spirit ones 
 .who sought to help man to a higher, purer knowledge of 
 Truth could communicate with him directly. The ideas 
 and the fallacies of ancient theories formulated in the 
 days of the world's infancy continually mixed with the 
 newer, more perfect sight which the spirit world sought 
 to give, and clouded its clearness and refracted its rays so 
 that they reached the minds of mortals broken and 
 imperfect. 
 
 Then I beheld that the walls of the material life were 
 pierced with many doors, and at each door stood an angel 
 to guard it, and from each door on earth even to the high- 
 est spheres I saw a great chain of spirits, each link being 
 one stage higher than the one below it, and to mortals 
 upon earth were given the keys of these doors that they 
 might keep them open and that between mortals and the 
 spirit world there might be communication. 
 
 But, alas! as time passed on I saw that many of those 
 who held these keys were not faithful. They were allured 
 by the joys and the gifts of earth, and turned aside and 
 suffered their doors to close. Others again kept their 
 doors but partly open and where only light and truth 
 should have shown they suffered errors and darkness to 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 273 
 
 creep in, and again the light from the spirit world was 
 sullied and broken as it passed through these darkened 
 doorways. Still more sad, as time passed on, the light 
 ceased to shine at all and gave place to the thick impure 
 rays from dark deceitful spirits from the lower sphere, 
 and at last the angel would close that door to be opened 
 no more on earth. 
 
 Then I turned from this sad sight and beheld many 
 new doors opened where mortals stood, whose hearts were 
 pure and unselfish and unsullied by the desires of earth; 
 and through these doors poured such a flood of light upon 
 the earth that my eyes were dazzled, and I had to turn 
 aside. When I looked again I saw these doorways 
 thronged by spirits, beautiful, bright spirits, and others 
 whose raiment was dark and their hearts sad because their 
 lives had been sinful, but in whose souls there was a 
 desire for good, and there were spirits who were fair and 
 bright, but sorrowful, because they could speak no more 
 with those whom they had left on earth; and I beheld 
 the sorrowful and the sinful spirits alike comforted and 
 helped by means of the communication with the earth, 
 and in the hearts of many mortals there was joy, for 
 death's dark curtain was drawn aside and there was news 
 from those beyond the grave. 
 
 Then I saw pass before me great armies of spirits 
 from all the higher spheres, their raiment of purest white 
 and their helmets of silver and gold glittering in the 
 glorious spiritual light. And some among them seemed 
 to be the leaders who directed the others in their work. 
 And I asked, "Who are these? Were they ever mortal 
 men?" 
 
 And Ahrinziman answered me: "These were not 
 only mortal men but they were many of them men of 
 evil lives, who by reason thereof descended to those 
 Kingdoms of Hell which you have seen, but who because 
 of their great repentance and the many and great works 
 of atonement which they have done, and the perfect con- 
 quest over their own lower natures which they have 
 gained, are now the leaders in the armies of light, the 
 
2n A WAN DEREE IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 strong warriors who protect men from the evils of those 
 lower spheres." 
 
 From time to time I saw dark masses of spirits, like 
 waves washing on a shore and flowing over portions of the 
 earth, drawn thither by man's own evil desires and greedy 
 selfishness, and then I would see them driven back by the 
 armies of light spirits, for between these two there "was a 
 constant conflict, and the prize for which they contended 
 was man's soul; and yet these two contending forces had 
 no weapons but their wills. They fought not save with 
 the repelling powers of their magnetism which was so 
 antagonistic that neither could long remain in close con- 
 tact with the other. 
 
 Ahrinziman pointed out to me one door at which 
 stood a mortal woman, and said: "Behold the chain there 
 is incomplete; it wants still one link between her and the 
 spirit chain. Go down and form that link, and then will 
 your strength protect her and make her strong; then will 
 you guard her from those dark spirits who hover near, 
 and help her to keep open her door. Your wanderings 
 in those lower spheres have given you the power of re- 
 pelling their inhabitants, and where stronger power is 
 required it will be sent to protect her — and those who 
 seek to communicate through her will do so only when 
 yon see fit, and when you desire to rest in the spirit world 
 another guide will take your place. And now look again 
 at the earth and the conflict that surrounds it." 
 
 I looked as he spoke, and saw black thunder clouds 
 hovering over the earth and gathering dark as night, and 
 a sound as of a rushing storm swept upwards from the 
 dark spheres of hell, and like the waves of a storm-tossed 
 ocean these dark clouds of spirits rolled up against the 
 sea of bright spirits, sweeping them back and rolling over 
 the earth as though to blot out from it the light of truth, 
 and they assailed each door of light and sought to over- 
 whelm it. Then did this war in the spirit world become 
 a war amongst men — nation fighting against nation for 
 supremacy. It seemed as though in the great thirst for 
 wealth and greed for conquest, all nations and all peoples 
 
A YVAXDEEEK IX THE SPIEIT LAXDS. 275 
 
 must be engulfed, so universal was this war. 'And I 
 looked to see were there none to aid. none who would 
 come forth from the realms of light and wrest from the 
 dark spirits their power over the earth. The seething 
 mass of dark spirits were attacking those doors of light 
 and striving to sweep away those poor faithful mortals 
 who stood within them, that man might be driven back 
 to the days of his ignorance again. 
 
 Then it was that like a Star in the East I saw a 
 light, glittering and dazzling, all by its brightness, and it 
 came down and dawn, and grew and grew till I saw it was 
 a vast host of radiant angels from the heavenly spheres, 
 and with their coming those other bright spirits whom I 
 had seen driven back by the forces of evil gathered 
 together again and joined those glorious warriors, and 
 this great ocean of light, this mighty host of bright spirits 
 swept down to earth and surrounded it with a great belt 
 of glorious light. Everywhere I saw the rays of light, 
 like spears, darting down and rending the dark mass in 
 a thousand places. Like swords of fire flashed these 
 dazzling rays and cut through the dark wall of spirits on 
 all sides, scattering them to the four winds of heaven. 
 Vainly did their leaders seek to gather their forces 
 together again, vainly seek to drive them on. A stronger 
 power was opposed to them, and they were hurled back 
 by the brightness of these hosts of heaven till, like a dark 
 and evil mist, they sank down, rolling back to those dark 
 spheres from which they had come. 
 
 "And who were these bright angels?'' I asked again, 
 "these warriors who never drew back yet never slew, who 
 held in check these mighty forces of evil, not with the 
 sword of destruction but by the force of their mighty 
 wills, by the eternal power of good over evil?" 
 
 And the answer was: ''They are those who are also 
 the redeemed ones of the darkest spheres, who long, long 
 ages ago have washed their sin-stained garments in the 
 pools of repentance, and have, by their own labors, risen 
 from the ashes of their dead selves to higher things, not 
 through a belief in the sacrifice of an innocent life for 
 
27G A WANDEBEB ENF THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 their sins, but by ninny years of earnest labors — many acts 
 of atonement — by sorrow and by bitter tears — by many 
 weary hours of striving to conquer first the evil in them- 
 selves that they who have overcome may help others who 
 sin to, do so likewise. These are the angels of the 
 heavenly spheres of earth, once men themselves and able 
 to sympathize with all the struggles of sinful men. A 
 mighty host they are, ever strong to protect, powerful 
 to save." 
 
 j\Iy vision of the earth and its surroundings faded 
 away, and in its stead I beheld one lone star shining above 
 me with a pure silver light. And its ray fell like a thin 
 thread of silver upon the earth and upon the spot where 
 my beloved dwelt. Ahrinziman said to me: 
 
 "Behold the star of her earthly destiny, how clear 
 and pure it shines, and know, oh! beloved pupil, that for 
 each soul born upon earth there shines in the spiritual 
 heavens such a star whose path is marked out when the 
 soul is born; a path it must follow to the end, unless by 
 an act of suicide it sever the thread of the earthly life and 
 by thus transgressing a law of nature plunge itself into 
 great sorrow and suffering." 
 
 "Do you mean that the fate of every soul is fixed, and 
 that we are but straws floating on the stream of our 
 destiny?" 
 
 "Xot quite. The great events of the earth life are 
 fixed, they will inevitably be encountered at certain 
 periods of the earthly existence, and they are such events 
 ac those wise guardians of the angelic spheres deem to be 
 calculated to develop and educate that soul; how these 
 events will affect the life of each soul — whether they shall 
 be the turning point for good or ill, for happiness or for 
 sorrow — rests with the soul itself, and this is the preroga- 
 tive of our free will, without which we would be but 
 puppets, irresponsible for our acts and worthy of neither 
 reward nor punishment for them. But to return to that 
 star — note that while the mortal follows the destined path 
 with earnest endeavor to do right in all things, while the 
 soul is pure and the thoughts unselfish p then does that 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 277 
 
 star shine out with clear unsullied ray, and light the path- 
 way of the soul. The light of this star comes from the 
 soul and is the reflection of its purity. If, then, the soul 
 cease to be pure, if it develop its lower instead of its 
 higher attributes, the star of that soul's destiny will grow 
 p&le and faint, the light flickering like some will-o'-the- 
 wisp hovering over a dark morass; no longer will it shine 
 as a clear beacon of the soul; and at last, if the soul 
 become very evil, the light of the star will die out and 
 expire, to shine no more upon its earthly path. 
 
 "It is by watching these spiritual stars and tracing 
 the path marked out for them in the spiritual heavens, 
 thai spirit seers are able to foretell the fate of each soul, 
 and from the light given by the star to say whether the 
 life of the soul is good or evil. Adieu, and may the new 
 field of your labors yield you the fairest fruits." 
 
 He ceased speaking and my soul seemed to sink down 
 and down till I reached the spirit body I had left lying on 
 my couch, and for a brief moment as I re-entered it I lost 
 consciousness; then I awoke to find myself in my own 
 room, with those beautiful white angels hovering over me, 
 symbols, as my father had said, of eternal protection 
 and love. 
 
278 A WANDERER IX Till-: SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Mj task is done, my story told, and it but remains for 
 me to say to all who read it, that I trust they will believe 
 it is as it professes to be, the true narrative of a repentant 
 bouJ who has passed from darkness into light, and 1 would 
 have them ask themselves if it might not be well to profit 
 by the experiences of others and to weigh well the evi- 
 dence for and against the possibility of the spirit's return. 
 And you who would think the gospel of mercy after death 
 too easy a one, too lenient to the sinners, do you know 
 what it is to suffer all the pangs of an awakened con- 
 science? Have you seen that path of bitter tears, of 
 weary effort, which the soul must climb if it would return 
 to God? Do you realize what it means to undo, step by 
 step, through years of darkness and suffering and bitter 
 anguish of soul, the sinful acts and words and thoughts 
 of an earthly lifetime ? — for even to the uttermost farth- 
 ing must the debt be paid; each must drink to the last 
 dregs the cup that he has filled. Can you imagine what it 
 is to hover around the earth in helpless, hopeless impo- 
 tence, beholding the bitter eurse of your sins working 
 their baneful effects upon the descendants you have left, 
 with the taint of your past lurking in their blood and 
 poisoning it? To know that each of these tainted lives — 
 all these beings cursed with evil propensities ere they 
 were born — have become a charge upon your conscience 
 in so far as you have contributed to make them what they 
 are, clogs which will continue to drag back your soul 
 when it attempts to rise, until you shall have made due 
 
A WAXDERER IX THE SPIRIT LAXDS. 2?9 
 
 atonement to them, and helped to raise them from that 
 slough into which your unbridled passions have con- 
 tributed to sink them? Do you understand now how and 
 why there may be spirits working still about the earth 
 who died hundreds of years ago? Can you imagine how 
 a spirit must feel who seeks from the grave to call aloud 
 to others, and especially to those he has betrayed to their 
 ruin as well as his own, and finds that all ears are deaf to 
 his words, all hearts are closed to his cries of anguish and 
 remorse? He cannot now undo one foolish or revengeful 
 act. He cannot avert one single consequence of suffering 
 which he has brought upon others or himself; an awful 
 wall has risen, a great gulf opened between him and the 
 world of living men on earth, and unless some kind hand 
 will bridge it over for him and help him to return and 
 speak with those whom he has wronged, even the con- 
 fession of his sorrow — even such tardy reparation as he 
 may still make is denied to him. And is there, then, no 
 need that those who have passed beyond the tomb should 
 return and warn their brethren, even as Dives sought to 
 return and could not? Are men on earth so good that 
 they require no voice to echo to them from beyond the 
 gates of death a foreshadowing of the fate awaiting them? 
 Far easier were it for man to repent now while still on 
 earth than to wait till he goes to that land where he can 
 deal with the things of earth no more, save through the 
 organisms of others. 
 
 I met a spirit once who in the reign of Queen Anne 
 had defrauded another of a property by means of forged 
 title deeds, and who when I saw him was still earth-bound 
 to that house and land, utterly unable to break his chains 
 until the help was given him of a medium through whom 
 he confessed where he had hidden the true title deeds, and 
 gave the names of those to whom of right the property 
 should belong. This poor spirit was freed by his con- 
 fession from his chain to that house, hut not from his 
 imprisonment to the earth plane. He had to work there 
 till his efforts had raised up and helped onward those 
 whom he had driven into the wavs of sin and death by his 
 
880 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 crime. Not till he has done bo can this spirit hope to 
 leave the earth plane, and there he still works, striving to 
 undo the effects of his past sin. Will anyone say his 
 punishment was too light? Shall anyone judge his 
 brother man and say at what point God's mercy shall stop 
 and that sinner be doomed eternally? Ah, no! Few 
 dare to face the true meaning of their creeds or to follow 
 out even in thought the bitter and awful consequences of 
 a belief in eternal punishment for any of the erring 
 children of C4od. 
 
 I have in these pages sought to show what has been 
 the true experience of one whom the churches might 
 deem a lost soul, since I died without a belief in any 
 church, any religion, and but a shadowy belief in a God. 
 My own conscience ever whispered to me that there must 
 be a Supreme, a Divine Being, but I stifled the I hough I 
 and thrust it from me. cheating myself into a sensfe of 
 security and indifference akin to that of the foolish 
 ostrich which buries its head in the sand and fancies none 
 can see it; and in all my wanderings, although I have 
 indeed learned that there is a Divine Omnipotent Ruler 
 of the Universe — its upholder and sustainer — I have not 
 learned that he can be reduced to a personality, a definite 
 shape in the likeness of man, a something whose attributes 
 we finite creatures can argue about and settle. Neither 
 have I seen anything which would incline me to believe 
 in one form of religious belief rather than in another. 
 "What I have learned is to free the mind, if possible, from 
 the boundaries of any and every creed. 
 
 The infancy of the race of planetary man, when his 
 mental condition resembles that of a child, may be called 
 the Age of Faith. The Mother Church supplies for him 
 the comfort and hope of immortality and takes from his 
 mind the burden of thinking out for himself a theory of 
 First Cause, which will account to him for his own exist- 
 ence and that of his surroundings. Faith steps in as a 
 maternal satisfier of the longings of his imperfectly de- 
 veloped soul and the man of a primitive race believes 
 without Questioning why he does so. Among the early 
 
A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 881 
 
 tribes of savages the more spiritualized men become the 
 mystery men, and then the priests, and as age succeeds to 
 age the idea of an established church is formulated. 
 
 Next comes the Age of Reason, when the develop- 
 ment of man's intellectual faculties causes him to be no 
 longer satisfied with blind faith in the unknown, the 
 mother's milk of the Churches no longer assuages his 
 mental hunger, he requires stronger food, and if it be 
 withheld, lie breaks away from the fostering care of 
 Mother Church which once sustained but which now only 
 cramps and cripples the growing and expanding soul. 
 Man's reason demands greater freedom and its due share 
 of nourishment, and must find it somewhere, and in the 
 struggle between the rebellious growing child and the 
 Mother Church, who seeks to retain still the power she 
 wielded over the infant, the Faith that once sufficed as 
 food comes to be regarded as something nauseous and to 
 be rejected at all cost, hence the Age of Reason hecomes a 
 time of uprootal of all the cherished beliefs of the past. 
 
 Then comes another stage, in which the child, now 
 grown to he a youth who has seen and tasted for himself 
 the joys and sorrows, the penalties, and pleasures and 
 benefits of reason, and has thereby learned to put a juster 
 value on the powers and limitations of his own reasoning 
 faculties, looks back at the faith he once despised, and 
 recognizes that it also has its beauties and its value. He 
 sees that though faith alone cannot suffice for the 
 nourishment of the soul beyond its infant stage, yet 
 reason alone, devoid of faith, is but a cold hard fare upon 
 which to sustain the soul now becoming conscious of the 
 immeasurable and boundless universe by which it is sur- 
 rounded, and of the many mysteries it contains — mys- 
 teries reason alone is not able to explain. Man turns hack 
 to faith once more and seeks to unite it with reason, that 
 henceforth they may assist each other. 
 
 \ow Faith and Reason are the central thought prin- 
 ciples of two different spheres of thought in the spirit 
 world. Faith is the vitalizing principle of religion or 
 eiclesiasticism. as Reason is of philosophy. These two 
 
m a \\.\M)i:i{i;u i\ the spirit lands. 
 
 schools of thought which appear at first sight opposed to 
 each other, are oone the less capable of being blended in 
 
 the mental development of the same personality, the 
 properly balanced mind being that in which they air 
 equally proportioned. Where one predominates over the 
 other to a great degree, the individual — he he mortal or 
 disembodied spirit — will be narrow-minded in one diree- 
 tion or the other and incapable of taking a just view of 
 any mental problem. His mind will resemble a two 
 wheeled gig which has a big and a little wheel attached to 
 the same axle, and in consequence neither wheel ean make 
 due progress, the mental gig coming to a stop till the 
 defect be remedied. 
 
 A man may be thoroughly conscientious in his desire 
 for truth, but if his intellectual as well as his moral fac- 
 ulties have not been equally developed, his mind will be 
 like a highway blocked by huge masses of error, so that 
 the ethereal rays from the star of truth cannot penetrate 
 it; they are broken and refracted by the obstructions, so 
 that either they do not reach the man's soul at all or they 
 are such distorted images of the truth that they are 
 simply a source of prejudice and error. The intellect 
 may be called the eye of the soul, and if the sight of that 
 eye be imperfect the soul remains in mental darkness, 
 however earnest may be its desire for light. The mental 
 sight must be developed and used ere it can become clear 
 and strong. 
 
 Blind ignorant faith is no safeguard against error. 
 The history of religious persecutions in all ages is surely 
 proof of that. The great minds of earth to whom great 
 intellectual discoveries are due have been those in which 
 the moral and intellectual powers are equally balanced, 
 and the perfect man or angel will be the man in whom all 
 the qualities of the soul have been developed to their 
 highest point. 
 
 Every attribute of the soul, mental and moral, has its 
 corresponding ray of color, and the blending of these 
 forms the beautiful and varied tints of the rainbow, and 
 
A WANDEKEB IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 283 
 
 like it they melt into one another to form the perfect 
 whole. 
 
 In some souls the development of certain faculties 
 will take place more rapidly than that of others; in some 
 certain seed germs of intellect ami morality will lie fal- 
 low and give no sign that they exist, hut they are none the 
 less there, and either on earth or in the great Hereafter 
 they will begin to grow and to blossom into perfection. 
 
 Evil is caused by the lack of development of the 
 moral attributes in certain souls and the over development 
 of other qualifies. The souls which are now inhabiting 
 the lower spheres are simply passing through the process 
 of education needful to awaken into active life and growth 
 the dormant moral faculties, and terrible as are the evils 
 and sufferings wrought in the process they are yet neces- 
 sary and beneficent in their ultimate results. 
 
 In the sphere where I now dwell there is a magnifi- 
 cent and beautiful palace belonging to the Brotherhood 
 of Hope. This palace is the meeting place for all mem- 
 bers of our ] brotherhood, and in it there is a fine hall built 
 of what is the spiritual counterpart of white marble. 
 This hall is called the "Hall of Lecture," and in it we 
 assemble to listen to discourses delivered to us by ad- 
 vanced spirits from the higher sphere. At the upper end 
 there is a magnificent picture called "The Perfect Man." 
 That is to say it represents a man, or rather angel, who is 
 relatively perfect. I say relatively perfect, because even 
 the utmost perfection which can be imagined or attained, 
 can only be relative to the still greater heights which must 
 be eternally possible for the soul. Unlike Alexander who 
 mourned that he had left no more worlds to conquer, the 
 soul has no limits put to the possibilities of its intellectual 
 and moral conquests. The universe of mind is as bound- 
 less as that of matter, and as eternal. Hence none can 
 use the word perfect as implying a point beyond which 
 progress is impossible. 
 
 In the picture this relatively perfect angel is repre- 
 -cnted as standing on the highest pinnacle of the celestial 
 spheres. The earth and her attendant spheres lie Ear 
 
284 A WANDERER IN THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 below him. His gaze is turned with an expression of 
 wonder, delight, and awe to those far distant regions 
 which lie beyond the power of mortal mind to grasp, 
 regions which lie beyond our solar universe. They are 
 become fur the angel his new Land of Promise; 
 
 On his head the angel wears a golden helmet, sym- 
 bolizing spiritual strength and conquest. On one arm he 
 bears a silver shield typical of the Protection of Faith. 
 His garments are of dazzling white showing the purity of 
 his soul, and the wide outstretched wings symbolize the 
 power of intellect to soar into the highest thought-regions 
 of the universe. Behind the angel there is a white cloud 
 spanned by a rainbow whose every tint and shade blended 
 into perfect harmony shows that the angel has developed 
 to the highest degree every intellectual and moral 
 attribute of his soul. 
 
 The rich coloring of this picture, the purity of its 
 dazzling white, the brilliancy of its glowing tints, no pen 
 can describe, no earthly brush could ever paint, and yet 
 I am told it falls far short of the beauty of the original 
 picture, which is in the highest sphere of all, and which 
 represents a former grand master of our order who has 
 passed on to spheres beyond the limits of our solar system. 
 Replicas of this picture are to be seen in the highest circle 
 of each earth sphere in the buildings belonging to the 
 Brotherhood of Hope, and they show the connecting links 
 between our Brotherhood and the celestial spheres of the 
 solar system, and also to what heights all may aspire in 
 the ages of eternity before us. Yes, each one of us, the 
 most degraded brother who labors in the lowest sphere of 
 earth, and even the most degraded soul that struggles 
 I here in darkness and sin unspeakable, is not shut out, for 
 all souls are equal before God and there is nothing which 
 has been attained by one that may not be attained by all 
 if they but strive earnestly for it. 
 
 Such, then, is the knowledge I have gained, such the 
 beliefs I have arrived at since I passed from earth life, but 
 I cannot say I have seen that any particular belief helps 
 
A WANDERER IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. B85 
 
 or retards the souPs progress, except in so far as this, that 
 some creeds have a tendency to cramp the mind and ob- 
 scure the clearness of its vision and distort its idea- of 
 right and wrong, thereby preventing those who hold those 
 beliefs from possessing the perfect freedom of thought 
 and absence of prejudice which can alone fit the soul to 
 rise to the highest spheres. 
 
 I have written this story of my wanderings in the 
 hope that amongst those who read it may he found some 
 who will think it worth while to inquire whether, after 
 all. it may not he. as it professes to he. a true story. 
 There may also be others who have lost those who were 
 very dear to them, hut whose lives were not such as gave 
 hope that they could he numbered with those whom the 
 churches call '"The Blessed Dead who die in the Lord"' — 
 dear friends who have not died in the paths of goodness 
 and truth — I would ask those mourners to take hope and 
 to believe that their beloved hut erring friends may not 
 lie wholly lost — norutterly beyond hope. yes. even though 
 some may have perished by their own hands and under 
 circumstances which would seem to preclude all hope. 1 
 would ask those on earth to think over all that I have 
 said and to ask themselves whether even yet their prayers 
 and their sympathy may not he able to help and comfort 
 those who need all the help and comfort that can he given 
 to them. 
 
 From my home in the Bright Land — so like the land 
 of my birth — I go still to work upon the earth plane ami 
 among those who are unhappy. I also help to cany for- 
 ward the great work of spirit communion between the 
 living of earth and those whom they call dead. 
 
 I spend a portion of each day with my beloved, and 
 I am able to help and protect her in many ways. I am 
 also cheered in my home in the spirit land by the visits of 
 many friends and companions of my wanderings, and in 
 that bright land surrounded by so many memorials of love 
 and friendship, I await with a grateful heart that happy 
 time when my beloved one's earthly pilgrimage shall be 
 
28G A WAXnKKKK IX THE SPIRIT LANDS. 
 
 finished, when her lamp of life shall have burned out and 
 
 her star of earth lias set, and she shall conic to join me in 
 an even brighter home, where for us both shall shine 
 eternally the twin Mars of Hope and Love. 
 (The End.) 
 
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