^SCULAPIUS. 513 



by the good old practice which prevailed "in the days of 

 miracles." 



Speak of the days of miracles, will you ! it is a mark of 

 true wisdom to discover, in the commonplace, the miracu- 

 lous. The spiritual medium simply becomes a vessel or tub 

 recipient of the higher influx, the secrets of eternity are laid 

 bare by the tousel of hair, the disease destroyed by an "in- 

 visible intelligence," and the faculty is requested to take a 

 back seat, being essentially floored. No spirits about, no 

 ghosts these days, pshaw ! everybody is a spirit, everybody 

 is a ghost ; "ere thy watch tick, a million pop up from the 

 dark ; ere thy watch tick again, a million bob down into the 

 dark." And here the reflecting mind, the soul of sympathy 

 and meditation, is brought to a dead halt, a bolt-upright 

 stand in the presence of a world of ghastly suggestions, 

 partaking of the nature of hair-starting or true terror horri- 

 pilations, the trouble which spirits in the clay always have 

 with spirits out of the clay, that ghosts in one sphere have 

 with ghosts in another sphere. Once we thought that the 

 grave surely had rest for us all, and when the "mortal coil 

 was shuffled off," that the Silences and the Infinite claimed 

 us by right eternal. 



"Peace waits us on the shores of Acheron: 

 There no forced banquet claims the sated guest, 

 But silence spreads the couch of ever- welcome rest. 

 Yet if, as holiest men have deemed, there be 

 A land of souls beyond that sable shore, 

 To shame the doctrine of the Sadducee 

 And sophist madly vain of dubious lore ; 

 How sweet it were in concert to adore 

 With those who made our mortal labors light ! 

 To hear each voice we feared to hear no more ! 

 Behold each mighty shade revealed to sight, 

 The Bactrian, Samian sage, and all who taught the right!" 



So muttered the dreaming bard ; alas, but dreaming ! Peace 

 no longer waits us on the shores of Acheron, and silence 

 no longer spreads for us a couch of rest ; sweet, no doubt, 

 it would be "in concert to adore," "with those who made 



