“The mission will be commenced in about twenty-five years. It will be opposed with great violence by religionists. The superstitious will charge your work to evil spirits, and the skeptical will not. The condition of mind in the rudimental world, will require a great many manifestations to improve it. There will arise minds who will not believe the evidence of their own senses. They will be moved, and see things moved; and, when they see and know the facts, they will seek to find some cause other than spirits, which they will imagine have produced it. They will be moved, and say that they moved themselves. They will be instructed, and say that instruction is of themselves. They will contrive every possible means to gainsay the facts. They will attribute the manifestations to a cause, which is not, and never can be, the real one. They will say, mind is conscious and unconscious. They will contradict themselves. No mind can be conscious and unconscious. No mind can be moved, and move itself. No mind can do what you will do, and not be conscious that it did it. You will write what will be known and unknown to others. They will say, they thought it, because you impressed the thought. They will say, they moved themselves, because you moved them. They will write what you impress, and as you move them; but they will say, it was their impressions and not yours. They will write what is not impressed or known to them, and they will impute the writing to others in the body. They will write without impressions, and they will say, it is electricity. They will turn all evidence into imagination, and then demand greater evidence from you.
“Such will be the condition of mind. Others will receive the evidence and progress in wisdom. You will give to every mind all within your power; but you will bear this message to mind: That what may gratify idle curiosity, is the work of idlers; but what is necessary to develop mind, is a candid investigation of the laws by which it is governed. The wise will reform, but the unwise will cavil, because they can not control you. You will write what will do good, and when your message shall be discarded, or your mission disputed, you will go to such as will hear you, and be benefited by your efforts to do good.
“I shall now instruct you in regard to the serpent. I shall give you, spike and a sledge. You will drive the spike through the head of the serpent, and clinch it in a rock. The serpent is the adversary of reform. It is the deceiver of mind. Its path is secluded and vile. It loathes progress. It wishes the old den for its habitation. It lurks among rocks, and secludes itself in crevices. It wants nothing new, and bites to destroy. The spike is truth. Take it; use it; for that which is evil, it is good to control. The evil is in mind. The serpent lives only where evil reigns. Where evil reigns fix your weapon. The evil is opposition to holiness; it is opposition to good; and when you fix your weapon of truth in the head of error and wrong, let the mighty power of wisdom drive the spike through the head of the serpent, that it may die a death without mourning.
“The serpent is an emblem of earthly folly. It is deceptive and vile. It shuns the path of the wise and good. It crawls noiselessly into the mind. It bites the good of the soul. It induces despair and shame. It wins minds from rectitude and confidence. It is not mind, but the deceiver of mind. Its deceptions are practiced, where its influence prevails. Its influence prevails where evils exist. It is evil. It is nothing but evil. You will wrong no one by destroying it. To destroy evil, you will use the wisdom of this circle. You will overcome the evils of ignorance. But ignorance will war against the truth. All the machinery of war will be brought against it. The work will commence in a day of darkness, and the morning light will dissipate the gloom of doubt. The sadness of despair will vanish before the joy of eternal wisdom.
“The rudimental world is afflicted with great evils. These evils are in all the conditions of human society. They enter into the composition of all human governments, the religious institutions, all classes of mind; and science and philosophy, as understood, have not the power to correct them. Science and philosophy are corrupted with the errors and wrongs of ignorance. The wisdom of this circle must displace those wrongs. It must eradicate the woes, and harmonize the antagonisms of mind. The old forms of government must give place to new. The new must give order and beauty, purity and justice to universal mind. It must correct the unhealthy current of wrong. It must vitalize the soul of humanity with good. It must remove the poison of the serpent from the hearts of men. It must satisfy the wants of nature with nature’s blessings. It must overcome the wrongs of society with the rights of mankind. These lights must be asserted and proclaimed, until they shall be understood and appreciated, obeyed and adopted, as the rule of happiness.
“Then, the dishonesty of mind will not hypocritically reverence what it practically denies. Then, the votaries of creeds will not blush to be the friends of truth, nor covet the wrongs of oppression to correct the natural convictions of free inquiry. You will work a reform of long-standing abuses. The stipendiaries of religious munificence will not oppose the voice which gives freedom, and the old theories of exclusive prerogatives, which subvert the equitable rights of universal humanity, will be venerated no more. There must be a great change in the social condition to remove the social evils of mind. You will remove the barriers of progress, by removing the fears which repel investigation. The wrong of fear must be overcome. The slave of tyrannical rule must be set free from his chains. The mind must be taught to respect its own rights, and disown the usurper’s pretensions. It must be taught that wisdom is not tyranny, and that nature will not justify submission. It must be taught the nature of its own powers, and be inspired to respect its own competency to rule itself, without the interposition of arbitrary force.”
Such is a brief synopsis of the instruction, appertaining to our ingress into the seventh circle. I shall, hereafter, allude to some other things, which I do not, at present see fit to disclose. When the lectures were concluded, I was impressed with the importance of commencing the work of reform among the circles of earth. It was not my project exclusively, but the whole circle. We sought to make manifestations in various places. I accompanied a great number of minds to different localities, but saw the force of opposition, and the predisposition of the minds in the rudimental sphere, to be so tenaciously inclined to superstition and veneration of ancient theologies, that we determined, in the first place, to overcome the impediments in our path, by removing the superstition and relaxing the confidence of mind in the multiplicity of opinions and dogmas, which were being promulgated. Accordingly, we sought to prepare minds for the influx of communications by special impressions of facts upon them. The impressions have been verified, and the verification has induced wonder on the part of the impressed. In many instances, future events have been so impressed by spirits on the minds of susceptible persons, as to leave no doubt of the reality. These impressions obtained the name of presentiments. They were presentiments, and the presentiments of those who dwelt in the second sphere. Impressions of facts have been regarded also, as fore-warnings; and, in some instances, they were, but not always. The mind has conjectured many things as the cause, without suspecting the true one. It has felt afraid of acknowledging, that some guardian spirit has produced these impressions, as though it would be a dishonor to them, or that the thought would be impious and ridiculous. Under these circumstances, we gradually affected mind, until it was clearly seen, that public opinion would not justify martyrdom; when the work of reforming minds from the abuses to which they had long been exposed, was, commenced with a view to relieve it. That work is now in progress. It is begun.
CHAPTER XI.
MISSION TO THE RUDIMENTAL SPHERE.
Franklin, Swedenborg, Paine, and his companions visit a place near the castle—Old things become new—Process of change—Identity preserved—Self is a part of the body—All sympathize together in good and ill—Governments defective—Opposition to capital punishment—Origin of evil—How overcome—Success of the mission—Means must be adapted to conditions—Contradictory communications develop the condition of minds in the second sphere—Conflicting revealments harmonious with different degrees of wisdom—Writing mediums—Societies and forms of worship—Adaptation is harmony—Harmony should not be disturbed—The mission of spirits will be to regulate minds—Minds will change forms—Retire to a mansion—Onward is a passport—Dullness reproved—Dedication of the Pilgrimage.
When the instructions were given, I said to my companion, “You will now request William to make a journey with us.”