upon the surface of the singular sea called, falsely, 'Spiritualism.' A man is no more a Spiritualist because he believes in physically demonstrated immortality, than a child is a horse because born in a stable.
If people cannot be Spiritualists without submitting to the pestilent control of wretches from the Middle State, or without losing conscience, virtue, and moral cleanliness, they had better let the whole subject alone, and rest as contented as may be with the faiths and creeds bequeathed by their ancestors. It will not do to meddle with things so mysterious as Spiritualism, in its nature, influence and results, unless perfectly fortified in God, with a strong and holy purpose and a resolute and unbending will.
As I gazed out upon the surrounding glories of my new world, I could not forbear or repress a desire, if possible, to take one glance at those who yet dwelt in infamy, although disembodied. This wish, though a silent one, was perceived by him who stood near me. Sadly, mournfully, he gazed down into my soul, made no reply in words, but slowly placing me between himself and Nellie, who had been joined by one to whom she was very dear indeed, directed our steps towards the pleasant grove before alluded to. Passing swiftly through this, we soon came to its outer verge, from which, to my utter astonishment, we could look down into a very gulf of horrors, as if from the edge of a frightful precipice. I knew that I stood upon the borders of the Middle State. Believing that more is to be gained by descriptions of the good and excellent than by exciting the horror of deformity, I forbear, in this introductory volume, to recount the terrors of the awful Hell of the vicious and the self-damned soul.
