A THEORY EOE SPIRITUALISTS. 181 



have been impossible thousands of years ago, may be pos- 

 sible, or about becoming possible now ; that we are about 

 entering upon a new era in the advancement of all things 

 towards perfectability, and that the advent of that era may 

 be marked by an established communication between the 

 living and the spirits of the departed. 



"Science demonstrates that the material world presents in 

 its history an illustration of the great principle and theory 

 of progress. It is quite certain that our planet was once a 

 very different thing from what it is now ; it differed in form, 

 in substance, in compactness, in everything from its present 

 condition. We do not know that it was once wholly 

 aeriform, mere gasses in combination, too crude to admit of 

 solidarity; but reasoning back from established facts, the 

 conclusion is almost irresistible, that this earth, now so 

 rock-ribbed and solid, so ponderous, so ragged with moun- 

 tain ranges, and cloud piercing peaks, was once but vapor, 

 floating without form through limitless space, drifting as 

 mere nebulous matter among the older creations of God. 

 However this may be, it is regarded as quite certain, that 

 time was when it was entirely void of solidarity, void of dry 

 land, with no continent, island, or solid ground, with no liv- 

 ing thing within its circumference. It was thus passing 

 through one of the remote eras of its existence. It was 

 then young, just emerging, as it were, from nothingness, 

 growing into form, assuming shape, and gathering attributes 

 of fitness for exterior vitality, preparing the way for higher 

 existences than mere inorganic matter. 



