“As nothing important ever takes place in the wide realm of the Universe, unconnected with a purpose, what is the aim of this?
“I answer—as I did involuntarily, in the first stage of my experience—to teach mankind that what they have been harboring as a shadow, but never known, is in truth a reality; that the interior man, the sentient being
‘That stirs within and animates the clay,’
is immortal and never dies. This consideration, were there no others, is quite sufficient. But it is not to be supposed that we have yet been made acquainted with all the bearings which it is to have upon us and our welfare. If these Spiritual beings are indeed what they purport to be—human Spirits—our own kith and kin, who once walked with us on earth, and still sympathize with us; then, indeed, we may be immensely benefited by what they may unfold to us. That they are such, I have no positive knowledge or evidence, and none sufficiently strong to warrant the assertion. It is somewhat difficult to identify them, with our present crude and limited knowledge. The best we can do, is to judge for ourselves from the correspondences of things. If I converse with a Spirit, and its language—as addressed to me—corresponds closely with the mind of that individual, as I knew it in this life—and particularly if it alluded to occurrences known only to myself and it—I have an analogical evidence of its identity. On the other hand, if such Spirit gives me a communication, the sentiment and structure of which are totally at variance with my perception of the individual thus personated, I have the same kind of evidence (but no other) that the said Spirit has sought to deceive me.
“Thus you will perceive my impression to be that Spirits of various grades of intelligence and moral dignity in the scale of being, are allowed the same power; and those persons who seek intercourse with the good, need all the panoply of truth and sincerity to guard them from contact with the opposite.
“This admission, however, is by no means condemnatory of the whole matter. A Wisdom, exceeding man’s, allows good and evil men to live in this world; but it does not follow that, because I may occasionally chance to meet with one of the latter, I am to deny myself communication with the former. We must do the best we can in our condition; act, as well as we may, the part for which we are adapted by the attributes with which Deity hath endowed us. And if, in order to commune occasionally with a bright being of the upper sphere, I am, at times, subjected to annoyance by one of a lower order (a devil, if you please), I can well afford it, and come off best in the finale. These unseen devils, after all the disrespect that has been shown them, if I have met them in council, have evinced the possession of nothing much worse than ignorance.
“And here let me say, I am of the serious opinion that all the devils of the universe are not yet congregated in the Spirit-world. Many, alas! too many of them, are clothed with human forms, and move in our midst, visible to the common eye. They are spirits of darkness, with a moral depravity which would do no discredit to any locality ever dreamed of in a vision of hell itself. Their presence is confined to no one particular class. They enter your Senate chamber even, sometimes, and distract the councils of honest men.
“So will it be, in that strange economy which our dark vision seeks in vain to fathom, until man attains that higher stature, that more perfect being to which we must all hope he is ultimately destined.
“Respectfully yours,
“J. E. Robinson.
“Rochester, March 6, 1850.”