were then prized as diamonds now are. Printing and benevolence have made the Bible a purchaseable treasure for about a shilling, the price thousands of persons have lately paid to see a man dressed like an idiot, and hear him crow "cock-adiddle-do!" Doubtless the crower thought it was in verity "diddle-do." The sacred books referred to are auriferous with evidences of unseen or spiritual power; but, like California, the inhabitants are so used to the appearance of the ground, that they tread on it, over it, and pass it by as a common thing; and perceive not the richness of the golden deposit washed down the stream of time from the mountains of knowledge. As the Christian Church nominally numbers its millions of human beings, and there is an earnest desire by thousands to know something of the mysteries of the future; I, while writing, feel inclined to devote a chapter, or section, to "Christians," taking from their own sacred books the proofs-that unseen intelligences existed and acted upon mankind for several thousands of years; and that there is no law promulgated in those books by Divine mandate to stop their action or cause the annihilation of those beings. If since the commencement of the Christian era for century after century, we have historical facts detailed, showing that, in each epoch of time those manifestations of super-natural power have acted in the same manner till the present year; and that those spirit-power manifestations have been felt and seen by more persons than is required for the confirmation of any alleged fact by our judicial courts; then we narrow the ground of Faith, and enlarge the area of Sight; and when the whole is collected, by the reader taking the extra efforts he has ordinarily to make for any unusual advantage he expects to realize in business-and by doing so sees, hears, and feels, in and with his own faculties, the same kind of phenomena testified to by our ancestors-then is the panorama of the "promised land" understood, and its future as a possession felt as a truth; then do the loved ones of the past—the son, the daughter, the wife, the husband of love-rise up as selfexistent, as living, not as dead; then the throwing off of this

mortal, or body, is no more dreaded than the clipping or cutting off the extra length of finger-nail which discomforts us—it is felt, but not painfully. It accords with that wise arrangement of God-power, by which as a rule physical death is painless. We have also testimony interwoven with the histories of continental nations. If we accept the ordinary facts therein stated, we have not a tittle less ground for ignoring the extraordinary facts narrated; they were unusual, because by their being so, the effect upon the leaders of parties was the more decided. General knowledge of past men and things is more in vogue amongst our political leaders, because of Printing and Education; therefore men depending on those sources for guidance, seek not for, and have comparatively fewer supernatural or visible guidances; it is an inner, or perceptive faculty they move by. So to those who, busy in the ordinary engagements of life, have not had the means of gaining knowledge, and trusting to it; there appears to be a means open by the supernatural of being on a par with others apparently more highly-favoured; and thus often the obscure occupant of a farm, or a workshop, is the genius who rises and guides the national elements of mental power around him-trace their past, and out oozes their belief in "destiny," in their “star.” The atoms of animated mind call it " "hallucination," and bear with it, because the man is fit for the emergency; whereas the Hallucinator is the agent, and the Man the instrument, the willing instrument of that higher intelligence. But if he, getting self-conceited, filled with the adulation of the throng, thinks too much of himself, the "star" leaves him; and he, becoming weak, like the masses around him, displays no longer wisdom in combinations, and is hurled from power; and, perhaps, like Joan of Arc, or Socrates, has had the voice or "star"-hallucination-as the pivot-fact of Lunacy or Devilism arrayed in all the drapery of language against the victim, by those who expect to rise by his fall; and stake, or dungeon, or scaffold, or banishment, or poison, drops the curtain of obloquy in front of the sufferer.

SECTION II.

MAGIC.

MAGIC is the Maze of the Human Mind. If you have not a knowledge of the law of its construction, you are ever running this way and that, running up the wrong winding, or running up against a hedge. There is the road, the green lane, with hedge on either side. You can see a road dimly through, you see forms flitting along; and with them you hear laughing, crying, or cursing-the same kind of feeling rises up in your own breast;—and if at last you turn again, and arrive at the gate you entered, you, in vexation or weariness, give it up, and retire; but, nevertheless, the right road is there, if you had turned the right way, or been instructed how to act. Magic has been the theme of the alchemist, the philosopher, the historian, and the poet. Magic has been the ignus fatuus of the past, and its dancing lights have led many an eager traveller into the slough, and the morasses of destruction. Books upon books have been written by men who have studied the subject, each giving his report;-whilst the reader, confused by the multiplicity of declarations, is reminded of the story of the "Chamelion," as depicted by each viewer of its changes of colour. Magic is the chamelion of past generations of philosophers; it has been so, from their imperfect knowledge of the chemical and mental faculties of man. They have confused the natural powers displayed in Biology, Clairvoyance, and Mesmeric Sympathy, with the supernatural powers of unseen intelligences. Some have ascribed all to demons, and others all to physical causes. There is a oneness in the delineations of FACTS, but the conclusions from those facts are various. Each observer apparently placing before his readers prominently, the facts which he has witnessed, or which have operated on his mind; and ignoring, or only slightly referring to those which are of a character to puzzle him, and overcome the deductions he may have drawn from a

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THIRD DIVISION.

SECTION I.

TESTIMONY.

TESTIMONY, is the asseveration of a credible human being, as to any fact or facts which have taken place in his presence; whether by sight, by voice, or by feeling.

In the judicial proceedings of this country, whether it be the passing of thousands of pounds, of acres of land, of large or small possessions of any other kind, or even in criminal business, involving the life of one or more persons; the statements of two or three individuals as to the facts seen by them, if those statements agree, are sufficient to be accepted and acted upon by the judge and jury; and possessions change hands, and life is taken away, the public voice concurring in the verdict; except a straggler here and there, who delights in taking an opposition view on every subject. This principle of opposition reigns so strongly in some men, that their relatives and others pay no attention to their opinion. One man of this kind I once knew connected with a public body; and the only method of managing him was, to propose a plan the opposite to the one it was desirable to carry out; he then would take up and defend the desired plan-all chimed in, and agreed to the very plan, which, but for this feint, would

not have been carried without much waste of time and hot words. Some few I have met with, who will only believe what they have seen, and who have declared to me that such a place as Australia does not exist; and of course the pheno mena outpouring from the southern hemisphere, are deemed the fertile imaginations of men; these extreme persons may be few, but they increase in number as we approach any branch of science which may be opening up new truths, or rather old truths resuscitated. Unless they can find such duly chronicled in the Encyclopedia," and in common wear and tear around them; the shrug of the shoulder, and the upturned brow wrinkle, proclaim "incredulity."

I have mingled much with men, and watched the movements of the countenance, as indications of the mind; and at one time of my life, while studying physiognomy, and phrenology, I used to delight in attending meetings of small musters of men on business subjects, so as to have the opportunity of deciphering their characters, and seeing if the business in hand developed the facial and cranial indications. Those studies have explained many monstrosities in men's character, without which all would be a maze. One trait has been clearly settled in my mind: that the more any man is given to the vice of lying, so in proportion is he the accuser of his fellow men, of uttering falsehoods in any matter of evidence, to be received. in confirmation of any given declaration of incidents seen.

When any startling fact is laid before a reasoning man, the first feeling is surprise, the second doubt, the third, who is the witness? the fourth, a calm examination of the evidence, and fifth, the acceptance or rejection. There are facts continually arising in the realms of science, which cannot be reproduced at will. A meteor of a peculiar kind in the sky, a peculiar phase of the aurora borealis, or a hurricane; even in ordinary chemistry, some peculiarity has been produced, but the law not being known, it cannot be reproduced at will; therefore we have to rely on the evidence of others who have no motive for deception. In chemistry, conditions have to be