Poems from the Inner Life

BY L I Z Z I E D O T E N.
“And my soul from out that shadow Hath been lifted evermore.” Poe. “The kingdom of Heaven is within you.”
FOURTEENTH EDITION. BOSTON: COLBY & RICH, PUBLISHERS, 9 Montgomery Place. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863 by E L I Z A B E T H D O T E N, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts ELECTROTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 4 SPRING LANE.

In presenting this volume to the public, I trust that I may be allowed, without incurring the charge of egotism, to say somewhat concerning my spiritual experience, and the manner in which these poems were originated. I am, in a measure, under the necessity of doing this, lest some over-anxious friend, or would-be critic, should undertake the work for me, and thereby place me, either unconsciously or intentionally, in a false position before the public.
By the advice of those invisible intelligences, whose presence and power I freely acknowledge, seconded by my own judgment, I have given to this work the title of “Poems from the Inner Life;” for, aside from the external phenomena of Modern Spiritualism,—which, compared to the great principles underlying them, are but mere froth and foam on the ocean of Truth,—I have realized that in the mysterious depths of the Inner Life, all souls can hold communion with those invisible beings, who are our companions both in Time and Eternity. My vision has been dim and indistinct, my hearing confused by the jarring discords of earthly existence, and my utterances of a wisdom, higher than my own, impeded by my selfish conceits and vain imaginings. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the solemn convictions of my spiritual surroundings, and the mutual ties of interest still existing between souls, “whether in the body or out of the body,” have been indelibly impressed upon me. From such experiences I have learned—in a sense hitherto unknown—that “the kingdom of Heaven is within me.” I know that many sincere and earnest souls will decide at once, in the integrity of their well-trained intellects, that this claim to an intercourse with the invisible world is an extravagant assumption, and has no foundation in truth. To such I would say, I shall make no effort to persuade your reason and judgment. I only offer to you as a suggestion, that which has been realized by me in my spiritual experience, and has become to me an abiding truth, full of strength for the present, and hope for the future. When your souls sincerely hunger after such a revelation, you will seek for it, and according to your need, you will be filled therewith. Until then, you and I, regarding things from a different point of view, must inevitably understand them differently. There are various cups which Humanity must drink of, and “baptisms which it must be baptized with,” and this manifestation of Truth, of which I am but one of the humble representatives, has laid its controlling hand upon me; for what purpose, in the mysterious results which lie concealed in the future, I cannot tell—I only know that it is so.