are raised to the seventh heaven, or to any heaven at all, or that they
gain any insight into the mysteries of life beyond death by means of this
strange science. Without distrusting that the phenomena have really
occurred, I think that they are to be accounted for as the result of a
material and physical, not of a spiritual, influence. Opium has produced
many a brighter vision of heaven, I fancy, and just as susceptible of
proof as these. They are dreams. . . . . And what delusion can be more
lamentable and mischievous, than to mistake the physical and material for
the spiritual? what so miserable as to lose the soul's true, though
hidden knowledge and consciousness of heaven in the mist of an earth-born
vision? If we would know what heaven is before we come thither, let us
retire into the depths of our own spirits, and we shall find it there
among holy thoughts and feelings; but let us not degrade high heaven
and its inhabitants into any such symbols and forms as Miss L------
describes; do not let an earthly effluence from Mrs. P------'s corporeal
system bewilder and perhaps contaminate something spiritual and sacred.
I should as soon think of seeking revelations of the future state in the
rottenness of the grave,--where so many do seek it. . . . .

The view which I take of this matter is caused by no want of faith in
mysteries; but from a deep reverence of the soul, and of the mysteries
which it knows within itself, but never transmits to the earthly eye and
ear. Keep the imagination sane,--that is one of the truest conditions of
communion with heaven.


Brook Farm, September 26th.--A walk this morning along the Needham road.
A clear, breezy morning, after nearly a week of cloudy and showery
weather. The grass is much more fresh and vivid than it was last month,
and trees still retain much of their verdure, though here and there is a