730. An assailant of Spiritualism, who not long since lectured at Sansom Street Hall, founded one of his charges on the commiseration felt by good angels for sinners, agreeably to Spiritualism. But from the examination above given respecting the origin of the difference between the virtuous and vicious, does it not appear that the fate of the latter is quite as hard as can be reconciled with justice, even under the more benign institution of Spiritualism? According to this, there exist in the spirit world six spheres, each subdivided into six circles or planes, forming together a succession of grades in which the soul finds its place according to moral and intellectual merit. The first of the spheres is throughout comparatively hideous in its aspect and disgusting in its inhabitants, who are designated by a dark halo in lieu of the effulgence which distinguishes spirits of the rest of the spheres. Moreover, this distinguishing effulgence, as well as the beauty of the spirit world, augments with the grade of the being whom it envelops, thus making a series of ranks in society founded on real nobility of head and heart. When it is considered that this immense diversity ensues mainly from contingency in organization, education, and greater or less exposure to trial, it must be clear that the difference made between the good and the bad by Spiritualism does not fall short of the degree which human reason can reconcile with justice.
731. The assailant of Spiritualism to whom allusion was made, while admitting the truth of the evidence given of communication with spirits, explained it by reference to Satan. It is remarkably inconsistent with this idea that this evidence is of a nature to abrogate the existence, and of course the sovereignty, of that imaginary arch-fiend. Again, it can hardly be conceived that the greater commiseration for sinners should come from a malevolent devil, and the urging for everlasting and cruel torture from a sincere disciple of the benevolent Jesus Christ. But how much, then, must it shock one who embraces these views, that in addition to the misfortune of being badly organized, badly educated, and badly tempted, the being subjected to these disadvantages is to be exposed eternally to misery, typified, if not realized, by broiling on burning brimstone! I am aware that doing away with the more horrible attributes of hell will be alleged to be subversive of one of the restraints upon criminality; but, in the first place, it is evident that a man who is restrained from crime solely by the fear of punishment is only a more prudent villain than one who is not restrained by that selfish apprehension. When a man is deterred from crime only by prudence, hope of reward, or fear of punishment, he ought not to have a higher grade in heaven than the perpetrator of the crime.
732. But, agreeably to experience, of all restraints upon crime, none are more efficacious than the fear of degradation. The lawyer who will do the bidding of a caucus (or of a powerful demagogue in the executive office) in order to get a judicial appointment, when securely seated therein, will not give a charge which will degrade him in the eyes of the legal profession, and consequently in that of society, as well as in his own estimation. The dishonest gambler, who neglects to pay his tradesman’s bill, will not fail to pay his gambling debts. The debtor who will take every advantage in getting a high price for his goods, and who will put off any other payment as long as possible, fails not to pay his note at a bank. Sovereign states, who pay no other claims, take every means to meet the interest on their funded obligations. “Failure” in the one case, in the mercantile adaptation, involves the loss of reputation for good financial faith, abroad as well as at home; but the just complaints of domestic claimants, not heard upon the exchange, are unheeded. The great object, in many cases, is not to leave the crime “undone, but to keep it unknown.” The corrupt, selfish politician, who would promote war in order to give himself an opportunity of emolument or official pre-eminence, when facing the enemy in the field of battle will nominally die for that country whose interests he has sacrificed. But not from the alleged motive will he die, but either to avoid being degraded as a coward, or for the hope of popularity which may help him to office.
733. In the spirit world, all are seen through and justly estimated, so that degradation and vice, or elevation and virtue, are inevitably associated by spiritual intuition. Yet there is, in my opinion, far more satisfactory proof of the truth of Spiritualism than of any other creed involving immortality; while, so far as adopted, it must tend to do away with priestcraft, sectarian malevolence, and religious intolerance. Man will go to the spirits of his ancestors for his religion, not to a fanatical, bigoted, or interested priest. Should spirits actually exist, as supposed, and convey the same religious knowledge all over the world, all men will agree that virtue is to be the means of salvation, not bigotry, under the name of faith.
734. It is conceived that Spiritualism has all the desirable attributes of religion, as stated in the second page of the introduction of this work. It sanctions the idea of the existence of one Supreme Being, who is represented as all love to his creatures; while his powers are made known to us by the sublimity, profundity, magnificence, and inconceivable extent of the creation which he rules. It does not represent him as selfishly creating us for the purpose of worshipping him, as capable of jealousy or implacable wrath for the result of errors which his alleged omnipotence could by a fiat correct. On the contrary, we have been created to be happy sooner or later; evil existing not through design, but in consequence of conditions which he cannot control or cure unless through the operation of general principles.
735. With a view to mutual happiness, reciprocal beneficence is enjoined. We are required to obey the precepts of acting toward others as we would have them act toward us.
736. This innate law is appealed to instinctively by any child who is oppressed by another larger than itself, and was consecrated by Confucius six hundred years before its judicious sanction by Christ.
737. Spiritualism has the merit pre-eminently not only of furnishing a knowledge of immortality beyond the grave, but a precise knowledge of the spirit world in lieu of the silence of the Pentateuch and the vagueness and inconsistency of the gospel. An effort to establish the truth of these allegations will be made under the next head.