few and simple, and, therefore, easily satisfied. Limited capa cities demand limited means of subsistence. The simple-minded have simple desires, and such seek only simple gratifications.

But as the law of Progress began to swell the buds of human intelligence, and to expand and enlarge man's capacities for discovery and mechanical inventions, in that same proportion did the excitability, and irritability, and irrascibility of the mind increase and multiply. High susceptibilities of organization are indispensable to the development of Art, Music, Science, and Spiritual Experience. Poetry, Philosophy, Literature, Architecture, &c., are impossible to coarse and low-toned minds. Exalted refinements of the voluntary parts of the brain, and great delicacy, also, of the whole ganglionic nervous web-work thereunto attached, are prerequisite to the conception of fine principles in any department of human interest.

Parents, of such exquisite refinement and consequent genius, transmitted, not their talents and superior proclivities to their offspring, but, instead, all the excitability, and irritability, and restiveness; and thus, many times, the children of very superior parents receive only such miserable inheritance by the fires of procreation. Consequently, as you readily perceive, such offsprings are diseased in many ways, especially in their nervous systems; and such, therefore, search for the appropriate remedies as " a young duck naturally takes to the water."

Originally, and by themselves considered as medicines, the various stimuli used by different races are pure and appropriate remedies for diseases of the nervous system. Tobacco, coca, opium, hashish, alcohol, tea, coffee, &c., are beautiful and appropriate medicines. And the all-wise Father principle of man's existence unerringly led the East Indian, the Greek, the Italian, the Chinaman, the Monks, the Indian of America, and the nervously-diseased of all countries, to the perfect remedy

for the evils absorbed by parentage and from the mother's milk. Hence, it is not strange that many desire these stimulants even before they use either-for diseased organs, covered with their appropriate ganglionic nerves, are instinctively actuated toward the natural means of procuring health. The brightest and most promising persons are sometimes irresistibly moved to subdue the irrascibility of their high-toned organizations. Thus, the most delicately organized are the readiest victims of stimuli." But the roughest and grossest natures, with low-toned and limited mental capacity, join the army of intemperance from sheer imitation, when young; and subsequently they continue in such habits, even after judgment and conscience rebel, from the tremendous force of a misdirected appetite, which will not "down at the bidding."

Our meaning may be better understood regarding stimuli, if we here remark that, according to our investigations, alcohol and the popular drinks are not irritants or stimulants, except in their primary, or first and immediate, effects upon the ganglia and nervous system. Their secondary and absolute effect is the exact opposite of excitement and irritation. Tobacco, opium, tea, coffee, &c., are debilitants, and prostrating to the nervous organism. They generate a temporary fortitude, beget a stoical indifference, and a disposition to take no part in surrounding vehemence and boisterousness; they impart a fictitious equanimity, a tranquilness, an imperturbable composure, amid the raging delirium and fuming excitements of a discordant society. And it was solely in consequence of these desirable effects that the human race was, in the first instance, led to the discovery and use of several stimulants. But, strange to say, these same medicines will generate exactly opposite effects in the nervous systems of those who, in health, use them as socializing agents and as habitual luxuries; that is to say-tobacco, tea, coffee,

rum, &c., will beget in healthy persons the same excitability, and irritability, and irrascibility, which symptoms these remedies are given by the God of Nature to destroy in "those that are sick."

But the time has at length come on earth, we think, when people may erect the standard of Health. This standard will permit the use of remedies only in cases of disease and suffering. All stimulants and weeds are medicines. If our parents, by the force of any imaginable cause or habit, imparted to our nervous system a love for stimuli, it is our individual prerogative to exalt Will, and Wisdom, and Love, above the hereditary bias. 'A young man must be A MAN-on his own account, and for the promotion of his own individual prosperity, both on earth and in the Spirit Land. His dear mother may have lived and worked through long years of suffering and excitement, the friction and hardship of which she may have sought in ignorance to overcome, by recourse to tea and coffee, or, perchance, by the use of opium and snuff; so, too, his headstrong and not well-educated father-fired with energetic blood, and with the irrascibilities consequent upon some transgressions, either physical or mental, may have resorted to alcohol and other so-called stimuli, as means of oiling the wheels of lifeimparting the mad wish (or appetite,) for delightful sensations to the nervous system of our But there is but one absolute remedy, namely: INDIVIDUALIZE YOURSELF, and set out to control your appetites by the WILL, which is the center of gravity in the possession of every individual mind. Remember: The gods help those who help themselves-in other words, you will have plenty of friends when you do not need them. Hence the necessity of SELF-FRIENDSHIP.

Young Man."

Self-Rectification in this World.

STATEMENT.

In my soul there is a feeling of evil done by itself to itself. Having lost all my former faith in oral confes

sions, and being without hope of relief through importunate prayers-yet feeling that my nature needs something arbitrary to guide it, something external to do as a penance-I take the liberty to inquire how, in the light of Spiritualism, am I to satisfy my own soul, how reconcile myself to myself, how overcome the evil effects of past deeds, that I may become once again happy in my heart?"

REMEDY.-There is a glimmering of truth in the Catholic doctrine of penance imposed upon sinners as a preparative remedy for the removal of their sins. But the philosophic method, which can heal in any measure the wounds self-inflicted on one's own spirit, by non-obedience to the highest attractions of the soul, is this: To cheerfully and promptly set about the performance of all possible offices of benefit to the universal brotherhood of Man-commencing with self-justice, both physical and mental, which includes the happiness of the other self (the conjugal counterpart,) and extending such kindly offices and offerings, whenever opportunity shall offer, through every link of the golden chain which unites man to man, the human soul to Mother Nature, and all, in one glorious eternal union, to Father God.

The Meaning of the Term "Principle."

In the New Philosophy, the term Principle is employed with two significations, which should be observed by every one who sets out to master its metaphysical and trans-mundane teachings.

"Principle," in the first place, means an immutable mode of action. In this application of the term, we mean to embrace every expression of matter, also every established and unalterable rule with respect to mind or science. A mathematical principle, for example, signifies the unchangeable law that regulates the science of numbers. In like manner, a physiological principle means the fixed mode of action natural to organs and

functions. When the mind thinks of Principle, with this application of the term, it thinks of an immaterial, non-substantial, undiscernible rule or mode of being and acting.

"Principle," in the second place, means an immutable and immortal substance-ethereal, spiritualized, beyond the detection of the five senses, yet as real, as material, as much the opposite of nothing as anything substantial and indestructible can possibly be.

Their

In this sense we employ the term Principle, when speaking of man's soul and spirit; also, when referring to Nature or to Nature's God. 'God is a spirit "the same is true of Nature -and both are substantial, inter-intelligent PRINCIPLES. immutable modes of action are also "principles," but this is true only in the first definition: for the second use of the term is applicable to that which acts, rather than to the action.

A person may discover and conceive of a method of matter, and he may call that method "Principle," and yet it is possible that the same person entertains no clear understanding of that which thus acts before his senses. In such case we term the man a sensuous or a scientific reasoner; but if he can comprehend the second meaning of "Principle," then, we say, he is a metaphysician and a spiritual philosopher.

Which is the First-the Body, or the Spirit?

QUESTION.-Does the spirit grow up out of matter? Is it the refined product of material organization? Or, is the material organization the manifestation and product of spirit?

ANSWER.-All formation and organization are the effects of eternal Principles, which are inter-intelligent and divinely perfect in all their operations. These Principles are: Association, Progression, and Development. The first manifestation is a revelation of the first law; next comes an unvailing of the sec