“Philadelphia has been favored recently with a course of lectures from Mr. W. J. Colville, which have been well attended and received with appreciation. This truly inspired speaker is doing a great work in spreading the new gospel of spiritualism wherever he is called. His discourses are of a high order, in an intellectual and literary sense, as well as of great spiritual elevation. At one of the social receptions given to him at the residence of Colonel S. P. Kase, he gave a very interesting discourse on the physical life and development of the planets of our solar system as compared with the earth, which was listened to with an earnest attention and evident acceptance by those present. It was taught in this discourse that worlds were brought into existence for the sole purpose of furnishing a theater for souls to express themselves in matter upon, to the end of gaining knowledge and overcoming temptations in all forms and of all kinds; that these lives make up a system of embodiments which closes with the soul’s triumph over all the evils to be found in material life.
“We were told that in Mercury the attainment of a high degree of physical perfection was the highest ambition of its inhabitants; that that planet was in a lower state of animal, vegetable and spiritual progress than the earth, and the cultivation of the soil was their almost universal occupation; that Venus was in a high state of artistic and æsthetic cultivation; that art and music were the dominant passions there, with less intellectual and spiritual development, sensuous delights every-where abounding, and the cultivation of the beautiful the highest aim of life. On the earth the demon to be overcome was declared to be intellectualism, man’s intellect being here worshiped and deified at the expense of the spiritual.
“On Mars and Jupiter is to be found a much higher state of existence, matter being dominated by the spirit to a much greater degree than on either this earth or those planets nearest the sun; that exalted spirits from those planets, especially from Mars, are sent as especial embodiments to the earth, as teachers and messengers for spiritual truth.
“Life on the more distant planets from the sun, beyond Jupiter, was declared to be of such an exalted character that there is no language understandable on earth in which to depict its glories and achievements.”
CHAPTER X.
DESCRIPTION OF THE JOURNEY TO MARS, AND WONDERFUL
INFORMATION FURNISHED BY MADAM EHRENBORG.
“March 9, 1882. Our party of tourists, after having been carefully selected in accordance with their ability to utilize the magnetic currents that connect the planets in our solar system, and their adaptability to the electric and magnetic condition of Mars, whither we were bound, started on the journey at, according to your time, midnight, February 23. We proceeded without any incident of note until we reached Maluka Plains, where we met a party of excursionists on a visit to our planet earth. Maluka Plains, named after a great prophet of Mars, are located many millions of miles from the circling magnetic belts of earth, and immediately adjacent to the outer circle of the electro-magnetic atmosphere of Mars. We were surprised to find that these excursionists were acquainted with our guide and leader, Mr. Swedenborg, for he had frequently visited the most interesting points of our stellar system. He had even been at Mars in spirit while he was in the body of flesh, but he finds many things quite different from what he thought he had discovered during his spiritual visits when embodied. The party we met were on a tour of scientific exploration, and gladly availed themselves of information imparted by Swedenborg and Polheim, and we in return were greatly aided by data and information furnished by them to us. While this conference, or rather exchange of information, was in progress a courier was dispatched by our newly-made acquaintances to the spiritual magnates of Mars concerning our coming. I shall here stop and defer a description of our first reception until our next sitting.
“March 13. As we entered within the magnetic radius of Mars, and were emerging from the outer into the inner concentric circles, so characteristic of that planet, we met a reception committee of several thousand, and after formal greetings, we were escorted to a magnificent edifice, where were in waiting innumerable throngs of spiritual dignitaries and others to receive us. I here desire to remark that in my use of words I resort to your own vocabulary, for the thought language of the Marsians is quite different from the sound of your words, and to employ their terms would only confound you and militate against your proper conception and understanding of the narrative. For instance, I use the word edifice to indicate a structure, but they use an entirely different term and form of expression, and so on ad infinitum. The edifice referred to I am unable to describe, and it can only be fully understood in thought. In dimensions so great that your city of Cincinnati could be settled in one corner of it without attracting but very little attention. The material of which it is composed has no fitting representative on earth in its present state of development. Your diamonds and precious stones are as dim and unreflecting in comparison as a cloudy, murky day of autumn is to a bright summer day with the sun at meridian and the horizon unobstructed by cloud or a single mist. This comparison may serve to give you some idea of the absorbingly intense brilliancy of the mammoth structure, yet this is of itself but as a mote in the sunbeam to what I am assured exists in the immeasurable immensity of the higher creations in the inconceivable and boundless universe of God. Oh, how diminutive is this little ball of matter called earth, when we only measurably take in the vast immensity of the infinite domain of God. And poor, puny man, what a mere speck—a mere infinitisimal animalcule. As we approached this mammoth structure, it seemed to be tremulous with motion, and the motion, superinduced by such intensely penetrating, soul dazzling strains of music as to perfectly appal with ecstatic emotion our enraptured tourists. But for the preparation of us for it by the scientific spirits, who they called the Ulaetta, we could not have withstood it. I will give you this process of preparation on some future occasion, and I am sure it will be interesting to you and valuable when you come over. The ceremonies of reception were performed, not in speech, but in musical opera, which, singular to state, we were enabled to understand by the preparation mentioned. When I say musical opera I do not mean singing accompanied by music, but that the music itself was intensely operatic, and infused thought by the most astonishing and utterly inexplicable process into our interior soul consciousness. It was something worth years of suffering and pain to enjoy, and in contemplating its inconceivable grandeur I return to my own sphere, feeling how little I am, and to weep for the children of earth, still in ignorance and superstition, and I lift my voice in prayerful supplication to God to rend the veil, that poor humanity may obtain even faint glimpses of the gorgeous splendors of God’s great kingdom; but I seem to hear a voice answering, Not yet; wait and be patient.