the physical structure of man, and the effect of influences on that structure, I am ready and willing to select and arrange the knowledge acquired, for the use of my fellow-men; be they Christian or Infidel. Let the reader remember that the evidences to be found in the following pages have been thoughtfully examined and tested, and that an off-hand "impossible" uttered or thought by an inexperienced reader, will not aunihilate a single fact. He will only be ostrichising his mental convictions, by burrowing his head in the sand of unbelief, while the pursuers are on his trail. Let him face those pursuers, and he may find them friends.

The reader will find that my travels have been through a scenic country; I have given the coach and bridle roads, with glimpses of the scenery, so that he may follow and test every detail by personal experience;-examine minutely, yet cheerfully; there will be no necessity for taking the hamper of creeds to refresh yourself on the journey; leave it till your return; you will find the fruit you can gather on your tour, rich and luscious; and your home refreshments, if well made, will keep, and may be enjoyed with a relish on your return.

The reader will see nothing of the black cloth of a coffin in the following pages, nor hear the mournfully intoned hum, produced by nineteen-twentieths of our clergy during the Sunday services; but the black cloth stripped off, he will see the beautifully veined wood which has been created in the summer breeze; and the hum of mournfulness changed into the lark-song of the heavens. If in aught I have failed, ascribe it to the author, and not to the choristers of Immortality.

Looking upwards into the deep blue sky on a summer's evening; the child, seeing the glittering stars, supposes them to be

"Holes bored in the sky, to let the glory through ;"

but the grey-headed astronomer conceives them to be ponderous globes of earthy matter, thousands of miles in thickness, and tens of thousands of miles in circumference, sweeping

space in circles at the rate of thousands of miles per second; many, taking years to perform even once the circle sweep. Each, according to his knowledge, delivers judgment. Between these two extremes are grades of thinkers in various stages of erudition, each ready and willing, without hesitancy, to pass judgment by giving "my opinion." These several grades mean well, but unfortunately too often, practically they say, "I permit you to think up to my level of knowledge-that is orthodox; but as there is no knowledge beyond, any attempt to prove the contrary is heterodox, and punishable as a misdemeanour by look, word, or purse." The contents of this volume will be to many, orthodox, to others, heterodox; to the second class we kindly suggest, that fresh discoveries in science, prove that man is finite, while God, in His works, is infinite.

This book is written for the scientific inquirer, the man who reasons from effects to causes; not for the pedant, whose brain-organ of self-esteem is so large as to lead him to imagine that he possesses the wisdom of God bodily, that all nature must be material and visible, that there is no power beyond the seen material, that the mountains have been, are, and will continue, and that no animated intelligence can live without the physical organization it has been accustomed to; or who, in other words, practically declares that "at death I become as if I had not been ;" who thinks that the principles of chemical substances are so well known to him, that nothing fresh can be extracted which will increase his knowledge, and change his verdict a man who can weigh without weights, and judge without judgment; who in his individualism thinks he understands the wisdom and skill of the Deity as shown in the elements, simple and compound; as developed in the solid EARTH on which we stand, the water in which we bathe, or the air in which we breathe.

To those persons who have the conviction that there is in nature, seen and unseen, much at present to them unknown, I commend the forthcoming arguments and facts to their thoughtful investigation the subjects are vitally interesting to every

thinking human being, as he lays hold of the problem, "Is MAN IMMORTAL ?"

The Deity is the Creator of the Christian, the Jew, the Mahomedan, the Brahmin, and the Savage. However each section may subdivide into sects, the sun shines, the rain falls, and the grass grows for all; and in that view of the expansive goodness of the Creator, and the extraordinary unity of design as evidenced in the creations in space, and developed in and on the earth, I have taken the line and the plummet of principles and facts, and brought them to test the truthfulness of the threefold character of that portion of creation called MAN. MAN A SPIRIT, clothed with soUL, and clothed with BODY.

Some short time ago, I accidentally read and much admired the following terse article on "God in Nature." I know not the author, but give the gem for the reader's enjoyment:"GOD IN NATURE.

"There is religion in everything around us, a calm and holy religion, in the unbreathing things of nature, which man would do well to imitate. It is a meek and blessed influence, stealing in, as it were, unawares upon the heart. It comes quietly and without excitement. It has no terror, no gloom in its approaches. It does not rouse up the passions; it is untrammeled by the creeds, and unshadowed by the superstitions of man. It is fresh from the hands of its author, glowing from the immediate presence of the Great Spirit, which pervades and quickens it. It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star; it is on the sailing cloud, and in the invisible wind. It is among the hills and valleys of the earth, where the shrubless mountain-top pierces the thin atmosphere of eternal winter, or where the mighty forest fluctuates before the strong wind, with its dark waves of green foliage. It is spread out like a legible language, upon the broad face of the unsleeping ocean; it is the poetry of nature; it is this which uplifts the spirit within us, until it is strong enough to overlook the shadows of our place of probation, which breaks link after link the chain that binds us to mate

MAN:

Physical, Apparitional, Spiritual.

SECTION I.

SPIRITUALISM AND MATERIALISM.

MAN is a compound of Body, Soul, and Spirit. AI is a compound of Oxygen and Nitrogen. In Man, the compound produces a visible substance; in Air, an invisible. In the one, as well as the other, we can feel a power, an existence. Branching off, on the one side, we have the denser, coarser, heavier bodies-as granite, iron, gold. On the other, gases, ether, and sun-rays. How far in nature, as developed. on earth, moon, or sun, there may be on the one hand, heavier. bodies than gold, or lighter bodies than hydrogen, I leave for investigation and analogy. How far the territory of fineness, lightness, tenuity may extend, I cannot say; one thing is obvious, all power is not centered in the solid, as is illustrated in the subtility of air, ether, and light; substances which we can feel, and which all nature feels, but which we cannot handle.

In approaching the consideration of Man's threefold beingBody, Soul, and Spirit-we are aware that a path is opened up, comparatively new to purely scientific minds, and to those usually known by the term "Materialistic," but that does.

B