372 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



body and spirit — having the forms and limitation in space 

 peculiar to matter, with the penetrability and invisibility 

 of spirit. And who can say that we may not yet obtain 

 such knowledge of the modes of existence of other bodies 

 as to discover the means of rendering them visible to our 

 bodily eyes, as we now hold conversation with a friend 

 upon the shores of the Pacific or in the heart of Europe, or 

 fly with the superhuman velocity of the wind from the At- 

 lantic to the Mississippi Valley. Then may we not at last 

 gaze upon the " spiritual bodies" in which our departed 

 friends reside, and discover the means of listening to their 

 spirit voices, and join hands consciously with the heavenly 

 host ? Oh, who can say what these exhaustless and illim- 

 itable powers of the noble soul of man may not accom- 

 plish? Does the reader smile? I believe these are the sug- 

 gestions more of philosophy than of fancy. Does he say 

 it is only a dream of impossibilities ? He assumes that he 

 knows every thing which the infinite Intelligence can fath- 

 om. To fetter the human soul with assumed impossibilities 

 is impiety. The bird which would soar first looks upward. 

 The soul never attains that which it does not strive for. If 

 we would commune consciously with the unseen world we 

 must have both faith and works. In reference to the per- 

 fectibility and exaltation of the intellectual and moral na- 

 ture of man, let no one say " impossible." 



