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their dizzy transit becomes invisible by its rapidity, and their apotheosis is accomplished, for they are absorbed in thee!

Genius of Supernaturalism! shall I not obey thy inspiration? I hear thy stilly voice in the thought-resounding adyta of conscience. It commands me to proclaim thy mysteries. Teach me to reveal thee without profanation. I would withdraw the veil that hides thy corruscating divinity; but let me not be guilty of sacrilege. Let thy music swell from almost inaudible softness, into the thunder of its power.

As when beneath the nave
High arching the Cathedral organ 'gins
Its prelude lingeringly exquisite,
Within retired the bashful sweetness dwells.
Anon like sunrise, or the floodgate rush
Of waters, bursts it forth, clear, solemn, full
It rings upon the mazy fretted roof,
It coils up round the clustering pillars tall,
It leaps into the cell-like chapels, strikes
Beneath the marble-sepulchres, at once
The living temple is instinct, ablaze

With the uncontrouled exuberance of sound.

In faith, the revival, the resurrection of supernaturalism has become incalculably important. The genius of spiritualism, call it by what name you will, was never more needed to illumine the chaos of secularities in which we groan and labour. Better were almost any form of the spiritual, the transcendental and immaterial than the crushing jumble of mammon and sensuality which embodies and embrutes us all. We want another Hercules to turn the great river of supernaturalism through the Augean stables of worldliness. None but a few initiates, who are called enthusiasts, remain to recognise the spiritual grandeur and the thaumaturgic potency of our nature. The all-conquering angel within us lies buried under a mountain of materialism.

It is only by the sedulous study of supernaturalism in all its branches, that the psychologist will triumph over the carnalist. That study will assist us in attaining a vital realisation of the miracle of Scripture, which cannot be so fully attained without it. In proportion as we have the actual agency and operation of spirits on each other, shall we enter into the true mysteries of the Bible. Then our souls' eyes shall be opened, the veil of our hearts shall be taken away. We shall discover the intense spirituality of our being, and enter into personal correspondence with the invisible ministers around us. We shall develope energies and powers which now lie unacknowledged and neglected within us; and by our own experience analyse what is true and what is false in the records of the occult sciences.

Jung Stilling, the most celebrated mystic of modern Germany, has already opened our way in his Theory of Pneumatology. Yes, the marvel-loving-phantom-courting Germany, always the richest emporium of the amazing and portentous, has once more asserted her privilege. That which Taulerus did for her theology, hath

Jung Stilling done for her theosophy. With a devout and subtle scul, dedicated for years to the keen study of the subject, he has produced this theory of pneumatology in reply to the question, what ought to be believed or disbelieved concerning presentiments, visions and apparitions.

I boldly declare my conviction that this book of Jung Stilling, so well translated by Jackson, is on the whole the most correct and masterly view of pneumatology which has appeared for an entire century. It comes infinitely nearer to the stimulating realities of psychological experience and experiment, than any of the recent writers of popular metaphysics. In general Jung Stilling speaks as an initiate who has fathomed the depths of theurgical and magical literature. He has therefore made a book whose theory corresponds in a great degree, with the astonishing revelations of Scripture, and the reiterated evidence of demonology in all ages and nations. Such a writer, with all his faults, casts more real light on the actual phenomena of souls incarcerated in bodies, than all that Hume, Berkeley, Reid, and Stewart have ever indited.

Pre

Jung Stilling states, at starting, a most necessary and important rule. He says that a disposition to faith in fair evidence is a necessary prerequisite for all who would understand pneumatology. This is Goethe's maxim. Wer wunder hofft der starke seinen glauben, he who wants wonders let him strengthen his faith. It is only in proportion to the amount of our faith in spiritual manifestations, that we can obtain the experience of spiritual manifestations. Now though this may seem a kind of petitio principii, it is not so. In fact, the inspired writers lay down exactly the same canon. supposing that a principle of faith or belief exists in the conscience of every man of the verity of the divine and supernatural agencies, as the history of all nations proves-they tell us that in proportion as we develope the intrinsic faith, shall we become conscious of manifold supernaturals. Their proposition amounts to this: "Open the spiritual eye and you will discern spiritual phenomena, keep it shut and you will not do so." Here is a condition precedent stated with certain results to follow if that condition is obeyed. The only fair way therefore of testing their truth or falsehood is to try the experiment in the prescribed form and no other. Now it so happens, that those who have tried the experiment in this prescribed form have found it true. Thus the Scriptures say, "Believe and thou shalt see the glory of God;" "Believe and thou shalt be saved.” Hosts of humble religionists who have been content to try the prescribed processes have found the truth of the assertion. They have therefore set their seal to this, that God deceives not-hence result many of what are called the internal evidences of Scripture. there have ever been another set of preposterous, conceited coxcombs in the world, too proud or too lazy to test the experiment fairly. They would not open the spiritual eye, and therefore they

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Coleridge appears to have entertained a poor opinion of Stilling. He says more anile, credulous, solemn fop never existed since the days of old Audley."Remains, vol. iv. p. 41. We think better of this writer. By the bye, in the passage quoted, the printer has put in Sung instead of Jung.-E.D.

did not perceive the spiritual vision. And then they have gone away backward, and taxed God's word with fallacy; though they never had the honesty or resolution to put it to the trial.

Now if this injustice has been done with regard to the spiritual manifestations, and miracles recorded by the sacred writers, the same has been done with regard to all the records of the supernatural in human literature. The glorious fathers and saints of the church excelled in theurgy and thaumaturgy-they tell us that they cultivated and practised these supernatural sciences under certain conditions and states, such for instance as strong faith, fasting, vehement invocation of spiritual powers, and works of devoted piety and purity. Well, say they to their readers, if you will try the same means you will arrive at the same results; but the readers will not try these means, and yet pretend to laugh at the ends with sneering incredulity. Verily, incredulity is the most credulous thing in the world.

Jung Stilling meets this objection in the teeth, and shows that the same causes produce the same effects. He does not mince the matter at all. He says, faith in the preternatural is a necessary condition precedent to the experience of the preternatural. He tells his reader that he must believe, that by certain means he can perform certain miracles, and that if in this faith he uses those means he will perform those miracles. You must fully believe for instance in the existence of spirits, angels and ghosts, and use the proper means of entering into rapport with them in order to realise their apparitions and communications. Now in common fairness to Jung Stilling no one is entitled to condemn him, but he who has tried the experiment in the manner prescribed. For a man who will not believe in ghosts, to sit in his easy chair, and laugh at our German as a visionary, without putting his statement to the test, by those arduous spiritual disciplines he states as conditions precedent, is a contemptible evasion of the very essence of the argument. If a chemical author told you that by mixing two specific gases, you could produce a liquid tertium quid, it might appear exceedingly improbable to you; but yon must try his experiment in his own way, before you can pronounce him mistaken.

This plea becomes doubly strenuous when applied to the reality of supernaturals. He who would attempt to deny the existence, communication and perpetual operation of supernaturals has not merely to set his opinion against the testimony of our German anthor, but he has to maintain it against the consenting evidence of all ages and nations. The vast current of all religious and philosophical testimonies was ever in favour of their reality, and activity. The experience of every man who had piety, and moral courage enough to try the experiment, always arrived at the same result. Those that have denied supernatural manifestations have been comparatively a few uninitiated and secular writers, who have especially obtained during the last century. All of them cold and materialising rationalists, and too many of them sophists and sceptics.

I throw down my glove to the truth of this assertion. It is per

fectly well known to every ripe scholar, that a belief in supernaturals to a very great degree animated, not only the writers of the Scriptures, but almost all the fathers and saints of the church, eastern and western, and that it was the prevailing creed of the arch leaders of philosophy till a comparatively recent period. This belief has still many professors; and those who shrink from it are men whose minds are notoriously physical, not to say artificial; men who hold the supernatural portion of Scripture itself very heretically, and whose thoughts and affections cling to the earth with a pertinacity that nothing can shake.

Jung Stilling frankly professes his opinion, that a firm belief in the supernaturals of Scripture will associate itself with a firm belief in the supernaturals of tradition. The evidence of Scripture is of course strongest, and abundantly strong enough to stand alone; yet the evidence of similar experiences in the history of churches and states, is so connected with it, that the same ingenuousness, inquisitiveness and courage of mind, which enable men to believe the one will induce them to think favourably of the other. So much is this the case, that they usually rise and fall together in men's opinions.

Our German takes another just distinction. He divides pneumatology into the theurgical and the magical. The theurgical kind was that known to the pious Jews of old. The miracles of our Saviour we are assured were performed by the mighty power or finger of God. The fathers continually use the word theurgy to express this divine science of thaumaturgy or working miracles. There is a learned folio of a French author entitled "Theurgia Christi," being a record of his miracles. The same term has been applied to the supernatural operations of the apostles, the saints, and the martyrs of the church. They performed their surprising wonders by that strict communion with God and Christ, the holy angels, and the saints, which may be cherished into a most potent energy of miraculous application.

The other kind of pneumatology consists of magic and the occult sciences in general. These are of a more mixed character, good, bad and indifferent. There are forms of white magic of a very pious and devout class, such as prevailed among the magi from whom the word is derived. There is another which has been called black magic, in which the magician enters into rapport with genii and daimons of suspicious reputation, whose power however is very formidable. As to that which is termed natural magic, it is but a high order of physical philosophy.

There is no doubt in the minds of those well acquainted with this subject, that both these kinds of theurgy and magic still subsist. I am well acquainted with the fact. There are many mystical pietists, especially in the Roman Catholic Church, who cherish theurgy to an amazing extent, though few of them profess it openly. I know some who, by having cultivated all the means by which supernatural power is developed, have attained a degree of it that would astonish the most incredulous.

There are also in Europe, in Great Britain, aye, in this very

metropolis, many secret professors of magic of a more vulgar kind. Some of these whose names I need not mention, by means of spiritual rapports, aided by great natural sagacity, have risen to celebrity. There are several well-known characters of this sort, living rather retiredly, who by cultivating preternatural communications, and acting on those secret intimations and silent voices that accompany them, have succeeded to admiration in what is termed fortune telling, &c. Provided there be the native genius and gift for the science of pneumatology, the faculty of presentiment will become developed in connection with the use of almost any forms.

The intellectual essence of supernaturalism within us, is the thing cultivated and relied on. The bona-fide correspondence of spiritual agents who know more than mortal men are the effective energies employed. The power of communication with certain spirits connected with certain forms, is the secret of astrology, geomancy, chiromancy, and all the varieties of magic. As to the forms and symbols it matters little what they are. You may procure the same information by stars, or cards, or hands or sticks. These are but the forms and symbols of a theosophic algebra that is absolutely undiscoverable to the uninitiated.

The cultivators of these occult sciences and arts, have sometimes stooped to the darker relations of illegitimate practice, and have made themselves amenable to the laws, and are obliged to keep themselves considerably secluded. Yet it is amusing enough, to see how eagerly they are sought after, and especially by the higher orders. I have seen a whole line of aristocratical carriages, drawn up in the narrow street of the magician, where they could with difficulty pass each other. Thus luxury, vice and superstition, play into each others hands, and pimp and pander to each other's appetites.

For myself, in this state of things, I sympathize right heartily with Jung Stilling. The manifestations of the supernatural, which he beheld in Germany, are now pressing on our observation in Britain. If he unfolds his stirring experiences in his theory of Pneumatology, why should I not be indulged with a like privilege? On future occasions, I shall perhaps find leisure to sketch the secret history of supernaturalism in all its forms of theurgy, magic, astrology, and necromancy. It will be easy to prove, that if it has existed in past ages, it exists even at the present day, and in quarters too where it is little suspected-ars est cœlare artem.

The experiences of supernaturalists will always have many points in common which of them can take up the picture that Goethe gives of his mind in his allegorical Faust, without feeling the touch of sympathy?

The realm of spirits was never barred,

'Tis thy soul that is fettered, thy heart that is dead;
Then up, my disciple, and bathe unscared,

Thy earthly breast in the morning red.

But let me not be over-daring. Let no vanity of fame seduce me to reveal the secret of secrets. Why should I incur the penalty of that presumption, which sentenced Tiresias and Phineus, pro

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