to be recognised. From some, the light is most intense and radiant from the head; producing the halo as we have it in olden pictures of Christ and his apostles. By means of these lights, or auras, do these sensitives judge of the state of a person's body, as well as of his mind; and it is very interesting to hear the declarations of the mental and moral character of individuals given by those sensitives who pay any attention to the gift they are possessed of. Many experiments made by me with sensitives, have shown that the play of chemical affinities in the body, has a powerful effect on the barometer of the mind, causing hilarity and gloominess; joy, they hardly know why; and sorrow they hardly know wherefore.* The play of auras over the brain-organs of man is very interesting, revealing, by their intenseness on certain localities of the head, what organs are most in action; and causing those who do not know the law and the power of the sensitive, to think, they are possessed of supernatural knowledge; because of the discernment the seer has of the propensities of the party, no matter how sedulously they may have been kept from the public eye.

A friend gave me the following incident connected with her first introduction to mesmerism. She had lost her husband, and a heavy gloom hung over her mind, which she could not get rid of; she was ever weeping, had no collectedness, no energy. A friend, talking about mesmerism brought a young girl to her house who was susceptible to mesmerine. Mrs. G. was interested, took the girl's hand kindly, and in due course the girl left. Some three weeks after, she received a letter from the friend of the young lady, requesting that she might be permitted to call on her. The girl came, and it seemed that for three weeks she had been ever weeping, melancholy, and unfit for the duties of life, and in her trance state, asserted she would not be better till she saw Mrs. G. again. Strange to say, Mrs. G., from the time of the young girl's visit, had entirely lost her melancholy, weeping propensity, and could attend to her house duties with comfort. On the departure of the girl all her old feelings of weeping, &c. returned, and the girl lost hers. Here we have an inte resting case of the transmission of unhealthy aura located in the brain, to another person in full health, but sensitive,-a beautiful illustration of what constitutes Infection.

The existence and power of the aura is displayed in an extraordinary manner under the manipulation of mesmerine, a power revived by Mesmer, but known and practised by the Egyptians upwards of three thousand years ago; as we have proof in the hieroglyphics cut in stone, and lately excavated from the buried cities of those ancients. The aura, or MESMEBINE issuing from man, was known and used in their time, and is known and used in our time with like results; and no marvel, when we examine and consider the character and powers of the various chemicals we are composed of, as iron, lime, magnesia, soda, and potash; and as the powers in those chemicals when exhibited by medical practitioners upon their patients, neutralize the disease and promote a cure, while the solids pass off in the draught-so, in like manner, those powers as they are shed off by the man in a healthy condition being the exact chemical combination or compound mixed by nature from the exact formula to produce health, we ought not to be surprised that the aura of soda, of magnesia, of lime, of iron, coming from a healthy laboratory, should be beneficially absorbed by the negative DISEASE, which disease is developed by the wrong admixture of chemicals, improper food, miasma, &c.

Heat or cold perforates clothing, and we feel the heat or cold; the human body, by means of its extreme porousness, is ever receiving the influence; in like manner the fevered patient absorbs through his pores, the cool chemical aura which issues from the healthy man standing by his bedside. This aura, as I before stated, is a force, a substance, projected beyond the man, as the magnetic aura in a magnet is projected out from the iron, and acts upon the needle-like assimilates to like. To those who may not be satisfied with the statement here made, of there being such an aura or power; I point out a simple and effective method for testing its truth. Let the person, if he be healthy, request any unhealthy or weakly acquaintance or child, to hold out the palm of the hand as flat as possible, then slowly, for say five times, pass

your fingers down the centre of the outstretched palm from the wrist to the centre finger tip, at say an inch from the flesh, and then ask the question did you feel anything? and in nine cases out of ten the answer will be, "Yes, I felt a cold current, like a gentle wind, passing;" or "I felt a hot current;" or "I felt a pricking or tingling sensation," you will then have proof that an aura has passed from your hand to that of your friend; and what you may consider the more remarkable, will be a sensation in your own fingers, while they are passing over the spot on your friend's hands, where he feels the influence most powerful.

With such information as now given, it is needless to elongate principles: the data has been given, by which any one may examine for himself; that throughout nature, animate and inanimate, a Soul power is in solid substances, and that by the law of affinity, that power resides in, acts with, and developes the chemical properties of the body it is associated with; in the same manner as iron, by the mere stroke of a magnet, has somehow, created affinity with some unseen power in the atmosphere, which regularly passes on to the iron, is in the iron, assists the iron, and the iron assists it. So the soul of man is attached to the body of man, is in the body, assists the body, and the body assists it; and so it will continue, till the magnet is demagnetised, and the physical body is un-souled by disease in Death.

SECTION VI.

SPIRIT.

THERE is in the vegetable, fish, bird, beast, and Man, a living principle we call LIFE, or Spirit :-That principle of life acts upon the soul and body, carrying on a complex operation, according to the nature of the body it acts in; receiving, subduing, assimilating all possible parts of the substance received, to itself, and casting off all unnecessary elements or substances. Life is in existence prior to visible birth, and is continued after birth. Life is in the seed, and is developed as moisture, heat, and substance, is on and mingles with the germ. The living principle in animated creation, accommodates itself to its changed position, whether as a fish, a bird, a beast, or a man-its energies being developed with greater or lesser rapidity, till it attains the degree of perfection natural to its species-the nearer the species approaches to the brain formation of Man, the mere growth energy, as in a flower, passes into instinct, and from instinct to perception, intelligence, or reason as in the bee, the dog, the elephant; closing up in Man, with the concentration of the growth power of the vegetable, and instinct powers of the brute; and possessing by such union of faculties, the power of understanding the management of those energies in others, and controlling them to his use and benefit; added to which, appear the development of energies, and capabilities not possessed by either beast, bird, or vegetable. After a period more or less rapid, decay sets in, and there is, so far as general observation leads us to decide from analogy, an extinction of life, followed by the putrefaction of the body, which at first appeared so active, and so capable of controlling the elements around. After an examination of the play of affinities, as developed in Man, whether chemical or mental; it will arise as a question of vital importance, as part of the species Man, whether the total extinction of mental life takes place at death; the date

.

of the separation of the three principles in him-body, soul, and spirit: or, whether the head of the physical tribe on the earth, holds a reversion to continued life, under the phrase "Immortal:" and if immortality can be proved, not by the play of poetical figures, or metaphysical gladiatorship; but by an examination of the various discoveries in the several branches of science which bear upon the question, and which discoveries are to be verified by anyone sufficiently interested in the question who will set aside a portion of his time regularly as in business; to the obtaining of proof-a tide of thoughts, of feelings, of actions, would set in, and carry him to a haven of pleasure and enjoyment of no ordinary character. Mysteries in nature, mysteries in family records and historical events— mysteries of various kinds, which have passed in review during life, will find their solvent in cONTINUED HUMAN LIFE- -In Life or SPIRIT being capable of acting without a visible physical body. I will not here enter into any chain of reasoning or facts, which would tend to show that the life of a plant is immortal-that the dream powers of a dog are the action of a mind under limitation; and that it may be immortal--it is enough for our future happiness or misery to know whether we are to live. It is unnecessary to consume time and thought in proving that man is a Spirit, and that it is the Spirit which forces the growth, assimilates the elements around to his nature, governs the Soul, and also by its energy and subtleness, pervades the whole Body; and enables the body to act, and carry out the behests of the Life or Spirit. We all are conscious of a power in us, to will and to do-we perceive, we will, and we act. The life, or Spirit perceives, it wills, and the soul essence energizing the body, enables it to carry out the decision by action-instantaneously —like a flash, the life acts upon nerves, sinews, and muscles; there appears no space of time between. The arm, the feet, seem intuitively, unconsciously, to follow the volition of the life; they three are one, and yet three. When I watch the process, I perceive that the body is a machine; when it