Strange Visitors Part 19

I felt kinder abashed at this, but advanced and called out, "Hear! hear!

Friends, it's an amazin' mystery how you know'd my name." (I felt diffident at not havin' my lecter in my pocket, and not bein' accustomed to speakin' verbatim.) Howsumever, as they continooed to clap their hands and shout, I got together all the bra.s.s I used to carry "down East," and jumped right atop of one of the roarin' fountains--the very biggest on 'em all. I surmised it was kinder dangerous, havin' always experienced a religious awe of the "water of life," and not knowin' but what this might be it. "Here goes," said I; "faint heart never won fair lady," for rite at the foot was that bootiful poetess to whom allusion has been made, lookin' straight at me with all her eyes.

I wanted to make a grand impression and let 'em know that I c.u.m from a nation that could fight for the Const.i.tution, and wasn't afeard of spirits. And as for the "gold and pearls," the "jasper and the sardonix,"

they needn't expect to snub me off with this, for I had been all through the gold and silver regions of Ameriky, and could tell as big a story as any on 'em.

"The fact is, friends and nabors," said I, "it is one thing to read of a place, and another to see it. Now I must say, that geography and book of travels called the 'Bible' is suthin' like 'Gulliver's Travels,' rather loose in description; and, for all I see around me, the grand nation of Ameriky can beat you all holler in wonders."

Havin' thus spoken a good word for my country, I dismissed them, and hurried back to commence these lecters, which is only a beginnin' of what I intend to do for the Amerikan People.

LADY BLESSINGTON.

_DISTINGUISHED WOMEN_.

It is remarkable to what a degree woman develops her intellect in the spirit world.

Freed from the cares of maternity, she seems like some young G.o.ddess fresh from the hand of Jupiter. All nerve, electricity, and motion--her thoughts sparkling and full of flavor, and light, and life, this new-born Eve of the celestial kingdom inspires the down-trodden Eve of earth, and kindles to a blaze the whole male population of the spiritual globe.

Prominent among the women of the times who have emigrated to these sh.o.r.es from populous America, stands Margaret Fuller--a tall and impressive blonde--a woman of strong bias, and resolute as a lion when she has set foot upon a project. Earnest, pa.s.sionate, and brilliant in conversation, she wields a powerful influence over many minds of a peculiar order; and through the few mediums whom she selects to represent her characteristics, she displays a calmness and coolness of reasoning and an excellence of judgment such as few are able to exhibit thus second handed.

She has, through the exercise of her genius, erected a beautiful villa upon a southern island, wherein she has displayed her poetic taste to advantage. There, in the midst of a luxuriant garden, she resides with her beautiful Angelo, a child of graceful form who was washed ash.o.r.e from the sad wreck years ago, but now approaching the years of manhood, and in his looks the very personification of a young Mercury, blending the fire and pa.s.sion of a Southern nature with the zeal and activity of the Northern.

Count Ossoli and his n.o.ble wife tear themselves away from the pleasures of this delightful state of existence and devote their sacred energies to the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of Italy.

No Roman patriot, neither Garibaldi nor any of his compeers, equals them in their efforts for the freedom of that sunny land.

Madame Ossoli is sanguine of success.

Defeat she considers merely the plough and harrow for the ripe harvest of victory which will follow.

From her own eloquent lips I have heard her address to the Italian soldiers who, defeated and killed, marched to the spirit land.

She told them how she, in the midst of her new-born joy, in sight of her own native land, fought the fierce battle of the briny waves, and felt as she sat dying on the sinking wreck, that all she had striven for was in vain; how she had found that defeat, that engulping billow, had proved in the end a victory, and had placed her where she could watch over the destiny of Italia, her adopted country, and work for its regeneration, and fight for its liberty, as she could not have done had she been more successful in her plans on earth.

Another American woman, of less note, but also a reformer, is Eliza Farnham. She is not so emotional, has less sentiment and considerable originality, and is honest in her opinions and determined in her efforts to uplift her s.e.x and ameliorate their condition.

She wields a powerful influence over a certain clique in the spirit world and on earth, and therefore deserves to be noticed among the women of the times. In person she is of dark complexion, with black hair and eyes, and strongly-marked brows, possessing much vivacity and caustic wit.

She is matron of a large Inst.i.tution, or Circulorium, erected for the use of those spirits who make a practice of communicating with the inhabitants of earth. They there meet to converse upon the various means which they employ for transmitting intelligence, and to relate their successes and defeats with the various trance and clairvoyant mediums through whom they operate. There congregate those lecturers and orators who discourse through the organisms of numerous trance and inspirational mediums on earth. There also convene physicians and "medicine men" who control the large number of healing mediums who exercise their power throughout the United States and Europe. There, also, gather the prophets and seers, who, with vision clearer than that of ordinary spirits, warn mankind of danger and impress individuals to pursue certain courses of action, to go or come, to undertake and prosecute great designs for the seeming weal or woe of humanity.

From this lofty aviary she still sends forth her delicious, strains. The children of earth hear them in fainter notes through young poets who catch her inspiration. What she is doing for women in the world she inhabits will be felt ere long in both the continents of Europe and America.

Another remarkable person in this coterie of ill.u.s.trious women must be mentioned--Charlotte Bronte--a lady who feels the true dignity and intellect of her s.e.x with a force akin to manliness. Modest and retiring, she would yet pick up the gauntlet like any knight against the man who should say of a work of literary merit, "that it could never have been penned by a woman."

Soft and delicate, yet strong and full of heroism, she represents woman, quicker to perceive the right than man, and capable of undergoing greater perils in executing her duty.

Charlotte Bronte is a slight, brown-haired girl, with an eye full of clairvoyant power. With her father, sisters, and poor reprobate of a brother, all united like a cl.u.s.ter-diamond, she lives in a home which they have selected, remarkable for its wild and picturesque beauty.

As a family they are like the ancient Scots, clannish--not in a vulgar acceptation of the term, but for the reason that they are kindred souls.

The torch of genius flames in every member of that family, but Charlotte is the mover, the inspirer of them all. She possesses a greater degree of concentration and energy, and is more chivalrous and venturesome. She is exceedingly interested in woman, and devotes daily a portion of her time to visiting earth and suggesting ideas and thoughts to those whom she can influence.

In her new home she draws around her a circle of chosen spirits, among whom may be mentioned Thackeray (who esteems her as about the finest specimen of womanhood he has seen), Prince Albert, Scott, Hawthorne, the German Goethe, De Quincy, and others.

Few writers of romance have done more than she towards raising her s.e.x above the frivolities of dress and fortune, and placing them where they s.h.i.+ne conspicuous for their intellect and n.o.ble affections.

Bold and unsparing in a.n.a.lyzing woman's heart in its uncontaminated simplicity as well as in its subtlety, she lighted a torch in behalf of her s.e.x which flamed throughout the literary world, startling and dazzling the beholder--a light which will never be quenched.

Charlotte Bronte was on earth what is now known as a medium. Her belief in the supernatural she evinced in her works. If she had not indicated so much intellect, the critics would have termed her superst.i.tious. They have inferred that it was the loneliness and sadness of her life which caused her to imagine she saw her beloved dead and heard unearthly voices calling her. But she has since told me that those mysterious influences were not morbid fancies, but realities. Being thus endowed clairvoyantly, and not only receptive but able to impart that which she receives, she exerts at the present moment an influence in the world of letters little dreamed of on earth.

I may here, without infringing on the requirements of good taste, allude to the tale she has dictated through this medium. That it is a story of powerful interest, all who read it will confess.

To many minds it will prove that her power is unabated, but every reader will perceive the characteristics of the Bronte family in the tale--characteristics which cannot be imitated--which are individualized in that family, and breathe of the lone moor on which they spent their earth ife, one of sad struggle of genius against circ.u.mstance and destiny.

PROFESSOR OLMSTEAD.

_THE LOCALITY OF THE SPIRIT WORLD, AND ITS MAGNETIC RELATIONS TO THIS_.

How near is the spirit world to earth? is a question often put by the inquiring mind. Some suppose it lies contiguous, just in the suburbs; others imagine the spirit world to be within the atmosphere of this earth; others again set it afar off in a given locality.

The last theory is correct, and the spirit world is really several billions of miles from earth; yet the suppositions are true (in a certain sense), for the inhabitants of the spirit world are migratory, and there are many millions of them living within the earth's atmosphere, drawn thither on errands of pleasure and duty.

But there is a spiritual earth revolving around its spiritual sun, just as this earth revolves around its sun.

It has shape and form like this planet, and is indeed the spiritual body of the earth.

It existed before the creation of man on this globe, and was ready for the reception of the soul or spirit of the first human being who perished on earth.

As a spirit's body is constructed from the spiritual emanations of man, so the spiritual globe is formed of the magnetic emanations of the earth.

The refined gases which were thrown off during the process of the formation of the material globe which man now inhabits, form the basis of the spirit earth.

Each planet in the vast universe has its correspondent spirit world, and invisible magnetic rays are constantly exchanging between the spirit planet and its earth.

These magnetic currents or rays, like waves of silver light, constantly transmit thoughts from the spirit world to this.

All spirit is matter.

The spirit globe, being primarily composed of gases, in revolving around its central sun ultimates in a substance which is similar to the soil of your earth.

The same system which marks the development of the material world also is displayed in the development of the spiritual world.

Order is G.o.d. No spirit world can exist without form, neither can it exist without motion. Motion produces the spheroid, and the rotation of the spheroid produces atmosphere and diversity of surface; all these variations characterize the spirit globe.