514 THE MOUNTAIN. 



our mortal labors light;" but these infernal rappers, he and 

 she media, have other work than the sweets of adoration on 

 hand for us ; for saint or sinner, whether in heaven or hell, 

 whether drinking of the " rills that sparkle in the bowers of 

 bliss," or gulping with sorrow the flames of "that fire the 

 angels shudder but to name," are both alike subject to 

 the wills and caprices of souls still in the bitterness and 

 bonds of the clay, and may be summoned, as lackeys 

 in a theatre, to the most ignoble services, galloping up 

 stairs with tables on their backs, passing through the hu- 

 man intestine to count its ulcers and warts, or conjure 

 out by the legerdemain known only to spirits, from a lock 

 of dyed hair, the philosophy and cure of cancer and " dis- 

 eases in general that have baffled the skill of the faculty." 

 No longer are we to hold ourselves in readiness, with "best 

 bib and tucker," for awful judgment days, or settlement of 

 doomsday books, or sleep till the second coming; no longer 

 is the " horn of Monker, waking up the dead," required ; but 

 Tom Johnson and Sallie Jones pile their hands upon a table, 

 and lo ! rap, wake snakes, the grave is opened, the gates of 

 heaven fly back with a golden sound, while those of Pande- 

 monium "grate harsh thunder ;" the dead walk, the shades of 

 Plato and Zoroaster, of Hahnemann and Paracelsus, are sum- 

 moned to the bar to testify in cases pending : Conniption 

 Fits vs. Jemima Flint ; Stone in the Bladder vs. John 

 Smith ; Worm in the Liver vs. Hobensach ; or Ghost of 

 Woolly Horse vs. Barnum. Vast are the abysses through 

 which the soul blunders in the darkness of this sorrowful 

 delirium. And here a spirit whispers a suggestion : these 

 rappers, by invading the sanctity of the grave and calling 

 the spirits of the departed back from that " sable shore" to 

 perform the functions of leech and lancet, ignore the wisdom 

 of one grand man of inspiration who has appeared on the 

 planet since the days of cloven tongues Emanuel Sweden- 

 borg. In the "Angelic Wisdom" concerning Divine Provi- 

 dence (114) it is recorded "that evils in the external man 

 cannot be removed by the Lord except by means of man." 



