8o METAPHYSICS 



spirit, in the act of disembodiment, may be scientifically 

 supposed to be shed by its physical host somewhat in 

 the manner of the emancipation of the butterfly from its 

 enclosing chrysalis encasement, with every dynamic feature 

 and faculty intact, as it rolls, amoeba-like, into the meta- 

 physical universe, pushing aside its hitherto material garb, 

 and assuming its full and proper metaphysical or spiritual 

 form, in which state, anthropomorphically regarded, it is 

 at least conceivable it may become realisable to kindred 

 " departed " beings. The non-material or incorporeal 

 form could only, therefore, be the form in which it could 

 appeal for recognition to the kindred departed beings in 

 the spiritual world, and that diaphanous outline, so familiar 

 in the representation of ghostly and angelic forms, has 

 happily suggested itself to, and been represented by, art ; 

 and which, according to some well-meaning people, has 

 become a vehicle of communication between the worlds 

 of flesh and spirit, sometimes, it may be conceded, for 

 reasonable and desirable ends, but alas ! generally for the 

 satisfaction of mere curiosity, selfish, ignorant, and alto- 

 gether undesirable. It is grotesque and abhorrent to think 

 that the rest and anticipated calm of the spiritual world 

 can be broken in upon by the frequenters of dark seances , 

 and the exponents of the cult of mediumism, spiritual 

 and material, and that it conceivably might be made the 

 excuse, on the part of some of the right-minded, alto- 

 gether to neglect and shun the subject of eternal destiny. 

 Why not conduct these enquiries, if enquiries they can 

 truly be claimed to be, in the free air and clear light of 

 heaven, and before the full, unfettered gaze and united 

 sight of humanity ? 



Of course these last remarks, do not apply to the 

 " babes and sucklings " of Holy Writ, to whom " the 

 deep things of God " are revealed, and to whom, as 

 the possessors of a faith which accepteth, but questioneth 

 not, all things, even to the absolutely unseen or invisible, 

 become plain, visible, and tangible, as those of outer 

 nature are to the unaided, educated senses and reason of 

 grown man, but only to that class of mankind who have 

 been more or less in evidence since the days of " the 

 witch of Endor," and long before, on the banks of the 



