desolate; as if rocks could form a rampart against social misfortune; as if the calm of Nature could hush the tumult of the soul." Is there not also a "Virginia" for our Pilgrim? Surely some angel leads him, a wanderer over the earth, a child-learner, dusted with the undimmed truth-light that sparkles even under the débris of extinct civilization. Dreamily he there studies, gathering up the precious lore, bringing it forth into the living present, till it breathes again, and thinks and loves. Thus his reading, up into the spiritworld, casts him into the cycles of the golden past, when lo, he says, "Immortality blossoms all around, and Eternity is Now!" There are two intertwining bands associated with our Pilgrim's sphere of life acting mainly through the mediumship of Dr. Dunn, -one more physical, the other spiritual, corresponding with the body and spirit. The first is hygienic, practical, perceptive; the other interior, souled in love, "God with us." Conspicuous in this physico-spirit-band are, Aaron Nite the Speaker, Powhattan the Magnetic Cleanser, Pawnee Chief the Assistant, and Drs. Schwailbach and Willis the Analyzers; all of whom guard his forces of body and brain with the strictest vigilance, infusing the very beds and rooms he sleeps in, and the food he eats, with the aura of spiritpresence. We must not forget to mention Michael O'Brien, a quaint, witty Irishman, who, years ago, disturbed Mr. Peebles by his slang words and obtrusive designs, sometimes driven off when too boisterous, but afterwards tamed down by the voice of our brother's love to educate himself. Such gratitude as he shows towards his earthly benefactor! His rollicking wit is most refreshing. He obeys Aaron Nite with the trust of a child. Orderly, principled in integrity, the discipline of this band is most excellent, ranging up, as flowers from the root, into administrative affiliation with the more interior band. These spirits have been identified repeatedly by different media. Betsey Howard, whose funeral discourse Mr. Peebles preached in California, once controlled J. V. Mansfield, in 1863, and clearly manifested herself with gratitude for his favors. There appeared in this band having their names written in dazzling, electric light on their foreheads - Henry Ware, jun., Ephraim Peabody, W. E. Channing, and Eliza W. Farnham, who addressed him in vigorous words, with this closing admonition, "Oh, my brother, be true to the light within you! Say the same to Bros. Davis, Mansfield, Harter, and others; that they have for their purpose truth!" The spirits whose names are engraved upon Mr. Peebles's cross of gold and pearl are more intimately his "guardian angels." Lorenzo Peebles is a loving brother; Hosea Ballou is the sermonizer; Canà, the positivist; Aaron Nite, the elucidator; Madame Elizabeth, the love-angel; Mozart, the musical harmonizer; Perasee Lendanta, the scientist; John, the beloved, around whom the whole band revolves as planets around their central sun. This spirit, controlling John W. Leonard, a clergyman, of Edinburgh, Scotland, whose identity has been traced in history, so signed himself for years, lest the real, when given, might engender a pampering pride in Mr. Peebles's mind. He prefers to be impersonal. We have no permission thus to announce his name; but from a sense of justice we take the responsibility, the better to unveil the wonderful discipline of spirits. "John" was first discovered through the mediumship of Mrs. W. P. Anderson. Scores of other mediums said the same; but Mr. Peebles doubted, until, by accumulating evidences from myriad sources, the statement was confirmed, that this is none other than John, the beloved disciple, who leaned on the bosom of Jesus. The characteristics of the leading spirits in this dual band are plainly indicated by their sentiments, tinged more or less by the mediumistic channel. These were communicated in Rockford, Ill. We take each communication from the world of spirits for what it is worth to us. Reason is the voice of God in our soul, and no truth is truth to us till born into our self-consciousness as such. It will be seen from the following, that each spirit retains, to a certain extent, the peculiarities of the earth-life. The Indian is the Indian still. The poet is the poet still. The philosopher delights to pursue his philosophic investigations; the astronomer, to measure those stellar worlds which dot infinity, and sift their silvery beams through unfathomless space. So the artful, scheming, sordid, and malignant of earth are such upon the other shore, till, through remorse, repentance, restitution, and varied experiences, they progress to higher and holier conditions. "Let love be the diadem upon thy brow,- a comfort and an inspiration to thy spirit in earth-life, and a beacon-light to guide thee in the pearly paths of wisdom along the infinite future." - JOHN. "Prepare yourself to live, and in the noble work of preparation you become prepared to die." - AARON NITE. "Earth's poetry is Heaven's prose: strive, therefore, to perfect thyself in earth's poetry."- QUEEN OF MORN. "Have confidence in the Father; for in thus doing you have confidence in humanity, as they are but parts of the universal whole." · HOSEA BALLou. "Endeavor, brother, to chase the wolf of discord from thine own soul, as the musician would chase it to the remotest portion of the instrument." MOZART. "This life is but the horoscope of the future: try then and make the present as glad and golden as the future you would like to see.". - MORNING STAR. "Let thy brain be a pool of knowledge, and desire the angel of wisdom to often trouble it." - JAMES. "Let the council-fires of peace burn brightly in thy breast; for the tomahawk is ever buried with the warrior."- PowHATTAN. PERASEE LENDANTA. "Master mind, and you've mastered the universe." "Let the chase for the wild deer be done, and the chase for wild thoughts and Nature's higher truths be begun." - PAWNEE CHIEF. "Strive to make thyself a master-builder; and, ever baring thy breast to the sharp point of truth, let each stone be a word of kindness, and the key-stone to the arch, wisdom." DR. WILLIS, the mason. "Man is a species of flower that buds in earth, to bloom on spirit-shores; and as the flower-bud is nurtured, so will the blossom testify.". - MADAME THERESA. "Wouldst thou study geology, physiology, astronomy, and the deeply hidden sciences of matter and mind, study the wonderful combinations of man." SCHWAILBACH. "Remember that the heaven of man is the harmony of his own soul: then prepare thy heaven now, that thou mayest enjoy it the more in the grand hereafter." THY BROTHER. "As there is coin in the golden bar yet to be coined, so thou, living in the world, are yet to be born; then prepare thyself for the higher birth and the mint immortal." CANA. Mr. Peebles is quite a critic with the spirits of his band, but yields to them as a child for instruction. He is not infected with the "aching palm" to control the spirits, as our Halleck sarcastically "Check and chide The ærial angels, as they float about us With robes of a so-called wisdom, till they grow "War is a denial of human brotherhood, and justice is in no respect promoted by it." SENATOR SUMNER. WHEN in California, popular with the soldiers, a regiment of that State voted him their chaplain. On visiting them at their "Camp Donney," noticing the machinery of battle, he courteously declined, convicted in his own conscience that a commission of this kind would make him an accomplice of bloodshed. Returning home, he found the very air charged with war. Every thing centered here, to crush the rebellion. Though a lover of his country, patriotic, the idea of shedding a brother's blood shocked his love of peace. Long he pondered upon his duty, and came to the sober conclusion that he must go, a clerk under Capt. D. Y. Kilgore. He wished to see life in all its phases, and administer comfort to the sick, wounded, and dying soldiers. The following extracts from his letters tell the story of his experiences and moral impressions of war: "BRIDGEPORT, ALA., Dec. 7, 1863. "I can only write to-night from the text, 'And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment!'... There are over twenty thousand soldiers encamped here now, all in cloth tents. I am now writing in a tent, with the top of a valise for a writing-desk. The soldiers are on half-rations. It is almost impossible to get food for so many. Destruction lines the wagon-roads. The weather is warm and beautiful. Blue-birds sing in the morning. How homesick I have been!... I went to work the next day after my arrival, copying papers, drawing orders, issuing forage, &c., &c. It is perfectly earthly and worldly. I look into no book; see no 'Banner of Light,' nor 'Herald,' nor Northern paper of any description. . . Soldiers and officers gamble and drink horridly. . . . I saw four thousand of the rebels that Gen. Grant took in one squad, and talked with a number of them. They looked dirty, ragged, and homesick. Poor brothers! How strange my life-experiences! Poor prodigal I, from John's and Aaron's house, spiritually speaking. Say nothing to my wife about the hardships and exposures before me." ... "NASHVILLE, TENN., Jan. 14, 1864. 66 Oh, 'tis sweet to be alone! Never did I so long for solitude. The eternal bustle of business, of jarrings, antagonisms, swearing, cheating, that so prevail, make me sick in soul. My body is wearing away under the pressure. I feel it, know it. Either I must leave, or my bones will whiten under an Alabama sun. . . . Tell Powhattan to help his 'Preach.' . . . Oh, the deceit and hypocrisy of certain spirits who promise ... officers great positions! They purport to be Washington, Jackson, Clay, controlling a young medium here. How intensely I love and appreciate Bro. Nite for his honesty! He came to me, not a god, or a Franklin, or a Washington; but simply Aaron Nite,once a poor coach-driver in England. Now he is an angel, and I would gladly sit at his feet for instruction. . . . Rebel soldiers, erring yet sincere, lie frozen to death on our hands. A poor woman was frozen, is dead. The dead carcasses of mules are lying over the graves of our soldiers. Only those that have seen have any idea of this war." "BRIDGEPORT, ALA., Jan. 21, 1864. "Last evening, about 9 o'clock, I returned from Chattanooga in a private car, with Bishop Simpson, Gen. Howard, Gen. Cook, Col. Donaldson, and several chaplains. I went up the Tennessee River, in charge of some commissary stores, by order of Capt. Kilgore. Capt. Jett, a Mississippian professor, went with me on to 'Lookout Mountain,' over the late battle-field. Picked up bullets, pieces of shell, and other trophies. He and several soldiers engaged in the battle told me all about it. I went several times to Gen. Howard's head-quarters. Generals were as thick as were the frogs in Egypt.' I have no respect for gaudy trappings. Heaven help our poor soldiers! Their sufferings are terrible. Oh, the effects of army life upon two-thirds that go thither!... The weather is pleasant now. The birds sing. The ground is covered with dead mules and horses. Reckless soldiers travel this way and that, day and night. . . . I can not write. The office is full of folks; some for gain, some for clothes, some to have unruly soldiers arrested. It is Babel!' the last place on earth for a refined organization. My only happy moments are when I walk away from every human being. I am alone, all alone, although in the midst of an army of men!" ... In response to a letter of inquiry, we received this cordial testimonial from his army friend and brother, who is one of our sterling Spiritualists, a reform lawyer, defending justice and truth: "605 WALNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 1, 1871. "J. O. BARRETT: Dear Sir,-In answer to your note of inquiry respecting the army life of James M. Peebles, it affords me pleasure to say it was unexceptionable and thoroughly consistent with his peace principles. "In the winter of 1863-4, he was employed by me as a clerk in the quarter-master's department at Bridgeport, Ala. During the time he continued in the service of the Government, we occupied the same tent, and most of the time the same couch. "Such was my confidence in him, that he was intrusted with the most responsible duties; and although property amounting to tens of thousands of dollars passed through his hands daily, no mistakes were found in his accounts, and not a penny stuck. Though often placed in the most trying circumstances, he never lost his equanimity, nor evidenced a disposition of retaliation toward those who had wronged him; but, on the contrary, he everywhere manifested, by word and deed, a gentle, forgiving, and loving spirit, coupled with that sterling integrity which never sanctions wrong. "The example of such a man is always good; but in the rough experiences of army life it is invaluable. "At the end of about three months' service, his health declining, he was obliged to return home, much to the disappointment of all who knew him. I am glad to hear you are preparing his biography; for the life of such a man will be of service to humanity. He is one of the saviors of the nineteenth century. "Faithfully yours, DAMON Y. KILGORE." |