recorded, and a description of their cities, with the temples and towers
which they built and the colossal images which they created.

I own to the surprise which I experienced when I discovered that printed
books were a part of the treasures of the spirit world. But the scholar
will rejoice as I did to find the literary productions of remotest ages
garnered in the spacious halls of science that adorn our cities.

It is a principle of being--a condition of immortality--as inseparable
from spirit existence as from earth life, that thought should express
itself in external forms. Even the Great Spirit, the Creator of all,
gives shape to his thoughts in the formation of trees, flowers, men,
beasts, and myriad worlds with their constant motion, their sound and
song.

It has been aptly said that the "stars are the poetry of God." He, the
Great Spirit of all, writes his thoughts legibly; and so man, like his
originator, whether living in the natural body or existing as a spirit,
gives outward shape to his ideas; hence books become a necessity of
spirit existence, and the writers from earth have still a desire to
perpetuate their thoughts.

Oral communication is too evanescent, and therefore the dear old books
still find a place in the spheres.

There are various modes of making these volumes, and the writer may
become his own printer.

Some authors prefer to dictate, and a little instrument marks off the
variations of sound which make the word, and thus, as he speaks, the word