Around the world: or, Travels in Polynesia, China, India, Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and other "heathen" countries

Front matter

OR,

TRAVELS IN POLYNESIA, CHINA, INDIA, ARABIA, EGYPT, SYRIA,

AND OTHER

Preface

"What I saw" in China, India, Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and other heathen countries, is expressive of this volume's distinctive characteristics. It abounds in precisely such facts about the South-Sea Islanders, 'Chinese, Hindoos, Arabs, Syrians, and other Asiatics, with the peculiarities of their social and religious life, as all Americans ought to know.

Among other reasons, the author visited Polynesia, Asia, and Africa, to personally inform himself touching the difference between life in America, and life in the Orient ; and also to more fully understand the real condition of the heathen. He has endeavored to describe what came under his observations with fairness, and a true moral independence. It is quite time that the "heathen" members of a common humanity, and heirs to a conscious immortality, should be described by travelers as they are, giving them the benefit of that " charity which thinketh no e^dl."

A portion of the content's of this book appeared in ' ' The Banner of Light," under the heading ^'•Letters of Travel." These have been revised, and a large amount of such original matter added as relates to the laws, customs, phenomenal manifestations, and ancient religions, born and cradled under the sunny skies of Asia.

iv PBEFACE.

The natural tendency of travel is to give breadth to thought, freedom to philosophy, and a fresh impetus to the humanitarian sentiments of the soul.

"J5Ja; Oriente lux!" In " prehistoric pile," in Greek mystery, and Druid circle, in Shemitic prophecy, and Egj-ptian symbol, as in the science and culture of the present, we read the progress, and the future possibilities, of aU tribes and nationalities.

" Over space the clear banner of mind is ■unfurled, And the habits of God are the laws of the world."

AROUND THE WORLD.

Chapter I. Hammonton To Califoenia

Teavel is an educator. Seeing, in connection with reason and consciousness, is knowing. And knowledge is the stepping-stone to wisdom.

Since seeing, then, is knowing, why not see the world? why not traverse lands and seas ? why not further lift the veil from Isis? and why not lay the marvelous treasures of antiquity at the feet of the golden present ?

If essential spirit, as Oriental sage and seer have taught, is causation ; if the spiritual is the real ; and if this objective life is but the shadow-world of effects, — then, that parliaments of angels should conceive plans above to be executed on earth, is both possible and natural. All conscious intelligences must necessarily sympathize. None of us are wholly our own. Uncontrollable circumstances affect, and unseen powers influence us. As mirrors reflect, so mystics, aided by ministering angels, often outline the future. A scroll is now unrolling, a vision fulfilling. The journey enzones the world, vid California, Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, Aus- 1 1

2 AEODND THE WORLD.

tralia, China, India, Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Central Europe, and England, to

" The land of the free, and the home of the brave."

ACROSS, THE CONTINENT.

What a marvelous country, stretching from these commercial cities, that, like star-dust, dot the Atlantic coast, to the wave-washed shores of the Pacific ! Considering extent of territory, variety of climate, grandeur of scenery, mineral resources, and free institutions, it is worth something to be an American citizen. The distance from our residence in Hammonton, N.J., to San Francisco, is some thirty-five hundred miles. A week's travel spans prairie and mountain. Telegraphic wires and iron-belted highways have quite annihilated time and space. Tunneling the English channel, sailing in air-ships through cloud-lands, and exploring the islaiids that stud the open polar sea, are achievements just ahead of us. Surely, life is a rush forward, a struggle 'mid contending forces ; and, scientifically considered, progress is the key-word of the country,

ALONG THE WESTERN ROUTE.

As Nile bottom-lands to Syria in the period of the patriarchs, so are broad prairie-fields to the East. It is these that fill our national granaries. Passing them, it seemed that peach-orchards fairly reeled rnider their fruitage, while vineyards unveiled to us their purple clusters. Swiftly whirling by cornfields, they rustled and swayed like waving forests. Pleasant things for the palate, beauty for the eye, lands for the toiler, minerals for the miner, wealth for the industrious, friends for the worthy, books for the student, and religious enthusiasm for souls great and liberal — these are among the charms of the sunset States.

The "Far West," and the Great American Desert, are alike the myths of our geography days. Most of these wasted

HAMMONTON TO CALrPORNIA. 3

lands may be made productive by irrigation. The surging tide of immigration, instead of stopping, as formerly, in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska, pushes across the once trackless desert, scales the Rocky Mountains, and secures a foothold in Nevada, Utah, and California.

The intelligence of this age excels its integrity and morality. The higher call is for the solid, rather than the sensational; for constructors, rather than ruthless, reckless iconoclasts.

Omaha, on the western bank of the Missouri, numbers nearly twenty thousand. Here George Francis Train made a large portion of his fortune. The old state-house, a magnificent building, situated upon the highest point in the city, is to be devoted to educational purposes.

Pullman's palace sleeping-cars are luxurious. Eatinghouses are numerous ; charges one dollar currency. The Platte is a lazy, shallow stream, skirted with light timber. Along this river lies the old emigrant trail, marked by an occasional grave. Pawnee Indians were standing around every station. Reticent, they seemed sad. They are fading away. The embers of their council-fires are cold. Oh, my countrymen, feed them generously, treat them justly, kindly, in these their dying days !

NORTH PLATTE CITY, AND CHEYENKE.

Accompanying Col. S. F. Tappan, Gens. Sheridan, Sherman, Terry, Harney, and other members of the Congressional Indian Commission, westward a few years since, here at North Platte was held our first peace-council. It was a thrOlingly interesting occasion. The Indians flocked in by hundreds. The Brule Sioux chief, Spotted Tail, made a peace speech. Gen. Sherman cross-examined him. Gen. Harney admitted that he had never known an Indian chief the first to break a treaty. If belief in a future conscious identity, and intelligible communications from the spirit-world, constitute an individual a Spiritualist, then this Sioux chief is a Spiritualist. So, doubtless, are the chiefs and medicine-men of the other tribes.

Aug. 15 we reached Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming. It is the most populous town between Omaha and Ogden. The Black Hills in the distance were crowned with snow. The railway cuts each side of Cheyenne show volcanic matter, mixed with marine fossils. A rolling ocean once swept over these plains and mountains. Here are found beautiful moss agates. They are for sale, with rare mineral specimens, at nearly every station. If London is the paradise of books, and Persia of roses, the West is the Elysian land of geologists and mineralogists.

Wyoming is woman's political Eden regained. Suffrage is here guaranteed her as a constitutional right. And yet only about half of the women in Cheyenne use this ballot privilege. Why is it ? Are there not far more tvomen than men opposed to universal suffrage ? Laramie was the first place in the world where a female jury was impaneled.

Sherman is the highest railway point on the Pacific route, named in honor of Gen. Sherman. It is eight thousand two hundred and forty-two feet above the level of the sea. The air here is light, pure, and bracing. It is just the place for an" astronomical observatory. The mountain-peaks are weird and magnificent ; while the general plateau is covered with short grass, sage-brush, and stunted pines. Desolate as the region seemed, blackbirds were chattering upon telegraph-wires, swallows were cutting curious angles, and eagles sailed and cycled above the mountain hights. Life and activity flame everywhere. The universe is God's house ; this earth, one of the smaller apartments. Entering, we fou.nd it already furnished. What a carpet! — the emerald grass. What a ceiling ! — the frescoed sky. What tapestried pillars ! — the granite rocks. What a front-door! — the flaming sunrise. What a rear-door ! — the sunset, through which the day goes down into shadow-lands. What a chandeher ! — the sun and stars. What fields for explorations ! — the interstellar

HAMMONTON TO CALIFOENIA. 5

spaces of infinity. Surely, as the Mohammedan says, " Allah is great and good."

ECHO CANOIT, AND OGDEF.

Oh for an ocean of imagery in which to dip the pen! Echo Cailon is entered at the little . station of Castle Rock. The elevation is nearly seven thousand feet. Huge sandstone bluffs line the right-hand side of the canon. These have been worn and torn by storms, till, in the distance, they present the appearance of old feudal castles. The engine leaps, plunges, clown the defile. The persj)ective produces dizziness. Along the route westward from these castles and snowy ravines, are the " Devil's Gate," " Devil's Pulpit," "Devil's Slide," and the " Witches' Cave," — names strictly orthodox.

Ogden is the famous junction of the railways. Tourists leave here for a peep at Salt Lake City. This half-way house, one thousand and thirty-two miles west of Omaha, claims a population of four thousand, a majority of whom are Mormons. Such as have left polygamy and its practices, for the purity of Spirituahsm, are called " apostates." They are quite numerous. Why so many hot springs in these regions ? and from whence the perpetual internal heat ? A circus in full blast, our lecture was slimly attended. Ring-master's whips and grinning* clowns are more inviting to the masses than literature, spiritual lectures, or such materializations as may be seen at Moravia and other Meccas noted for their demonstrations of immortality.

A venerable gentleman in Ogden, once a Latter-Day Saint, now a devoted Spkitualist, gave us a tlirilling account of the inside workings of Mormonism, even to the ceremonial " endowments," — washing, anointing with oil, and the clothing in white. Other of these rites, Israelitish and Phallic, are secret.

UTAH, AND SALT LAKE.

With a mongrel population of some twenty thousand, Salt Lake is claimed and considered the " Zion of our God." . The location, in some respects, is admirable.

Each city lot, originally containing an acre and a quarter, blossoms now something like the poet's Eden. Irrigation from a pure mountain stream is the secret of this luxuriant growth. Externally, Salt Lake may be considered the city of crystal streams, and handsome fruit-orchards. Industry is the rule, rather than the exception, among these Mormons. Let us approve where we can. Successful co-operative stores have been formed in nearly all the districts. They are modeled largely after those in England.

The railway from Ogden passes along the shores of Salt Lake, the " Dead Sea " of America. The farms, irrigated and well tilled the whole distance, were burdened with ripened grain, and the orchards loaded with inviting fruit. Such cultivation quite surprised us. Only one mile from the Ta1)ernacle, there is a full-flowing, warm sulphur spring ; while the twin peaks of the Wahsatch Mountains, a few miles distant, are white with perpetual snows. They are eleven thousand feet high.

This inland Salt Lake, nearly a hundred miles in length, and forty in width, has seven islands, three of which are well adapted to grazing. The Mormon Church owns them. The waters of this lake are so excessively salt, that nine pailfuls will make one of salt. In 1850 it required only from three to five. Swarming with insect life, this rippling body has risen from twelve to fifteen feet within a few years. This has freshened the waters. LTtah Lake should not be confounded with Salt Lake. The former is a beautiful sheet of fresh water, whose outlet is the River Jordan. The Territory abounds in scriptural names. There are over thirty, incorporated cities in Utah ; and the mineral wealth is inexhaustible.

HAIVIMONTON TO CALIFORNIA. 7

JOSEPH SMITH, THE PALM YE A SEER.

The original Mormon temple is still standing in Kirtland,, Ohio. Roaming through the deserted aisles of the quaint structure with one of the first " Latter-Day Saints," he gave me a full description of the eccentricities and spiritual marvels connected with the modern Mahomet, Joseph Smith. His seership was trustingly relied upon, and his clairvoyant gifts paraded as proofs of his Messiahship.

When in this " superior condition," his visions were as original as weird and witching. Furthermore, he conversed daily with sphits and angels.

In a letter written in 1842, by Joseph Smith, to " The Chicago Democrat," edited by John Wentworth, this founder of the " Latter-Day Saints " lifts the curtain, and gives us a peep at his visional experiences : —

""While fervently engaged in supplication, my mind was taken away from the objects with which I was surrounded, and I was inwrapped in a heavenly vision, and saw two glorious personages, who exactly resembled each other in features and likeness, surrounded with a brilliant light, which eclipsed the sun at noonday. They told me that all religious denominations were believing in incorrect doctrines, and that none of them was acknowledged of God as his church and kingdom ; and I was expressly commanded to ' go not after them.' . . .

" On the evening of the 21st of September, A. D. 1823, while I was praying, a light like that of day burst into the house, and filled the whole room. The appearance produced a shock that affected the whole body. In a moment a personage stood before me, surrounded with a glory yet greater than that with which I was already surrounded. This messenger proclaimed himself to be an angel of God, sent to bring the joyful tidings that the covenant which God made with ancient Israel was at hand to be fulfiHed. ...

" On the 6th of April, 1830, the 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints ' was first organized in the town of Fayette, Seneca County, State of New York.' Some few were caUed and ordamed by the Spirit of revelation and prophecy, and began to preach as the Spirit gave them utterance ; and, though weak, yet were they strengthened by the power of God ; and many were brought to repentance, were immersed in the water, and were filled with the Holy Ghost by the laying-on of hands. They saw visions, and prophesied. Devils were cast out, and the sick healed by the laying-on of hands. . . .

" We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive Church, viz., apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, ... in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, &c."

All denominational religions originated in spiritual manifestations. Guatama Buddha, Jesus, Mahomet, Swedenborg, and Joseph Smith, all had visions, and saw angels. In the beginning of Mormonism, polygamy was undreamed of. Excrescences attach themselves to the thrifty trunk, rather than the tender sapling.

THE MORMON TABERNACLE.

A nondescript, — spheroidal-shaped and arched. It holds some ten thousand people. The organ is said to be equal to any in the United States. The music, the Sunday we attended, was heavy, but not soul-inspiring. Wliile Elder Andrews was preaching, the deacons distributed the " Lord's Supper," — bread and water. This latter is cheaper and better than any intoxicating symbol. The officiating clergyman dwelt largely upon the persecutions of the saints. They had been " pushed westward like the Indian ; " their prophet Joseph, and his brother Hiram, were " murdered in 1844 in Carthage Gaol ; " their president had been " arrested as a criminal: " and more afflictions at the hands of the Gentiles awaited them. It was a transitional period with their church. The sermon was pathetic, practical, and not devoid of all merit. There were about five thousand present. Polygamy, of its own unnaturalness, is declining. The system, considered by itself, has not a redeeming trait. There is less sealing of wives each year. And yet the churchal doctrine taught is, that the more wives, the greater glory to the man ; the more cliildren, the greater glory to the woman. This appears plausible when the Mormon doctrines are elaborately elucidated.

HAMMONTON TO CALIFORNIA.

THE MOEMON PRESIDENT.

Brigham Young is a native of Whitingham, Windliam Co., Vt. Risldng tlie laugh — this was also our birthplace. Armed Avith letters from United-States Senators, the Shaker Elder F. W. Evans, and others, we found easy access to the • j)rivate sanctum of the Latter-Day Prophet. Ere an hour had elapsed, the interviewing was mutual. Our acquaintance with polygamy practices, and other phases of social hfe, in Turkey, deeply interested this prince of polygamists. He sharply questioned us ; and, Yankee-like, we quizzed him. Mormons insist that plurality of wives is the only cure for prostitution and the social evil.

Calm and dignified, Mr. Young's appearance is considerably in his favor. He is rather short, and decidedly stout built. The forehead is full, the perceptives exceeding the reflectives. The complexion is light, hair thin, and gait moderate. He must have seen over seventy winters. While affable and easy in manner, he is at the same time subtle and penetrating. There is a vein of vanity, too, plainly visible in his constitution. He likes attention, — must be a leader, or nothing. Though on excellent terms with himself, he is too incomplete for a moral hero, and too selfish for a saint. He has hugged his passion of a " Latter-Day " Zion, modeled after the polygamy patriarchs of old, till it now scorches him like a brand. When he dies, there will be divisions in the flock. The bishops and other leaders are cunning and shrewd. There are several aspirants for the president's office. The humbler officials and itinerating elders are the religious workers. The bishops are generally rich ; wliile President Young, a theocratic despot, through tithing and financial speculations, has become a millionaire.

MORMON DOCTRINES.

Since the Pacific Railway made the Atlantic States and Utah neighbors, Mormon theology and practices have become well understood. In the general conception, their doctrines are Mosaic ; in construction, conglomerate ; and, in execution, despotic. It is really the resurrected rehgion of Moses, Solomon, and David, veneered and slightly modernized.

Denying the existence of one eternal God, — essential spirit, — they believe in a pluralitj^ of gods, all of whom have wives, who were once mortals dwelling on material planets. The highest god of whom the Mornions profess any knowledge is " Elohim." His laws are the edicts of will, and his government sternly patriarchal. This deity, say they, is no omnipresent spirit, but a personal being, with body, bones, and flesh, but no blood. He dwells in the planet Kolob, near the center of our system. This planet, quite unknown to astronomy, revolves upon its axis once in a thousand years, which to the " Lord is as one day."

They believe spirit to be refined matter, and spirits to be constituted of material atoms. There are four orders of intelligences, — gods, angels, spirits, men. Both the Christian Bible, and Book of Mormon, are equally authoritative: neither is infallible. Revelations and spirit-ministrations have been the common property of all ages. AH. faithful Mormon saints become gods after death, creating, peopling, and governing worlds.

SPmiTS AS WOELD-BUILDERS.

Ignoring the Spiritualist's conception that God — the absolute Good — governs the universe by immutable law, and forms worlds, and systems of worlds, upon the principle of evolution, Mormons adopt the antiquated theory that spirits make worlds, — such starry worlds as sparkle in the measureless spaces of infinity. The erratic Scaliger, of the fourteenth century, put forth the same notion. North advanced the idea in his " Republic." It is the " dodge " of babyish atheists.

The divine scale downward, in their creed, runs thus: Elohim, Jehovah, Adam, Jesus, Joseph Smith, Brigham

HAMMONTON TO CALirORNIA. 11

Young, the Latter-Day Saints, and then the Gentile world generally. It is the chief employment of gods, angels, and spirits to manufacture and people worlds. Adam was the son, the representative son, of the god who made this earth. Accordingly, he is its ruling spirit. All the " righteous in Zion " will create, people, and govern worlds for their own glory. Morally speaking, they commence the nuclei of their future kingdoms now, present wives and children becoming hereafter, their subjects. Sphit-begetting, world-building, and star-engineering in the future world, — these are heavenly employments in the eyes of Mormons. For spirits, remember, having created worlds, and established laws for their government, run them mechanically through space, something as engineers run their trains, or schoolboys roll their hoops.

If a Pleiad fade, or planet disappear, may it not be owing to the careless sky-engineering of a neophyte, — some thoughtless spirit, who failed to whistle in season, " Down with the brakes " ?

STRANGE THEOEIES.

Exercise of the procreative functions in the realms of immortality, as Mormons teach, naturally necessitates organic bodies, — not the "spiritual body" mentioned by 'Paul, but the resurrection of the veritable physical body, as originally taught in the decline of Egypt's greatness. Not only will the literal " body come up," say these religionists, but the very garments also in wliich it was buried. As Adam was first made, then Eve, so the man is first raised, then the wife, — " ^7ie wife " whom the saint most loved. After this they are "called up" — resurrected — in the order of the sealing. With the " saints," marriage is a sacrament, and for eternity. If not sacramentally sealed, the marriage ends at death. Each family is a clan, and the father the chief. President Young, has fourteen or fifteen wives, and some forty or more children. Family worship is conducted in his liousehold night and morning. In all relations, whether private or public, he is a theocratic dictator. He once said this publicly : " By the wave of my hand, I can move this people as I will. ... I have a right to dictate to the Church in all things, either temporal or spiritual, — even to the ribbons the women wear."

Progression, they believe, extends to the next life. All may be saved, either here or hereafter, except the "sons of perdition," — apostate Mormons. These are not to be eternally damned in hell-fire, but destroyed, disintegrated, returning back to their primal elements. This is what was meant by the " second death." They preach the continuance of " spiritual gifts," and affirm that President Young has been so overshadowed or entranced by their prophetfounder, when speaking, that his "gestures seemed, and voice sounded, precisely like Joseph Smith's." When first occurring, this created intense excitement. They are loth to accept any spiritual manifestations now, however elevated, unless coming through the adherents of the Church. In this they resemble the Roman Catholics.

Though upwards of seventy, Brigham Young, dreaming of an empire, is endeavoring to establish the order of Enoch, — a Utopian project of despotic communism. This scheme, which puts individual rights, property, and the liberty of conscience, into the hands of priest and president, is meeting, and deservedly so, with a most potent opposition. Prophets are criticised nowadays, and anathemas have lost their sting.

HOW TO DEAL WITH POLYGAMY.

That which is not just is not law. Governments, the statuary enactments of fallible men, are necessarily imperfect. And yet considering society, and the low moral condition of large classes, restraints and laws, with their legitimate penalties, are indispensable.

Mormonism is Asia-imported ; and its devotees are doubtless

HAMMONTOK TO CALIFORNIA.. 13

sincere. Plurality of wives they consider a religious duty, based upon the Bible, and a revelation on celestial marriage, given at Nauvoo in 1843. They also quote Christian authorities in its support, such as John Milton, Rev. Martin Madan, and the more recent Rev. Dr. D. O. Allen, missionary of the American Board for twenty-five years in India. These " foreign missionaries," including Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, &c., in general conference at Calcutta, unanimously came to the following conclusion : —

"If a convert, before becoming a Christian, has married more wives than one, in accordance with the practice of the Jewish and primitive Christian churches, he shall be permitted to keep them all; but such a person is not eligible to any office in the Church. ' '

Polygamy being part of a religious system rooted in the Old Testament, based upon the examples of patriarchs and prophets, upon the approval of eminent Christian writers, and honestly accepted by an industrious body of religionists as a divine institution, and the highest order of social life, how can it legitimately come under Congressional legislation ? Admitting it true that public opinion in republics constitutes the basis of legislative proceedings, still minorities have rights. These rights are sacred. To stolidly disregard them endangers liberty. Legislation, to enforce what a majority may denominate morality, is simply usurpation. Neither Congrsss, nor any other body of men, has a right to dictate a creed, or standard of morality, for individuals. It is impossible to legislate wisdom or virtue into any people. The true methods lie deeper. Right generation, ante-natal conditions, and educational manipulations, — these are the underlying forces of progress and redemption.

ANTICHRIST AND POLYGAIMT.

Pending the Reformation in Germany, during the early part of the sixteenth century, those great reformers, Luther, Melancthon, Zwingie, and Bucer, held a solemn consultation

14 AEOITND THE WORLD.

at Wittenburg on the question, " Whether it is contrary to the divine law for a man to have two wives at once ? " and decided unanimously that it was not; and, upon the authority of this decision, Phihp, Landgrave of Hesse, actually married a second wife, his first being still alive. This fact is recorded in D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, and by other authors of that period.*

Rev. Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, eminent as a theologian, wrote a tract upon the question, " Is a plurality of wives in any case lawful under the gospel ? " Here is an extract : —

"Neither is it [a plurality of wives] anywhere marked among the blemishes of the patriarchs. David's wives, and store of them he had, 'are termed, by the prophet, God's gift to him; yea, a plm'ality of wives was made in some cases a duty by Moses' law; when any died without issue, his brother, or nearest kinsman, was to marry his wife, for raising up seed to him; and all were obliged to obey this, under the hazard of infamy if they refused it ; neither is there any exception made for such as were married. From whence I may faithfully conclude, that what God made necessary in some cases to any degree can in no case be sinful itself; since God is holy in all his ways."

While some Christians, and all Utah Mormons, accept polygamy as biblical and divine in origin, only about one family in ten of the latter practices it. The responsibilities are too vital and potent. Household inharmonies are unpleasant. And then, children must be cared for, expenses met. Few, it is commonly believed, have wives sealed to them from vile sensual motives : still the look is unspiritual.

The equality of the sexes stoutly wars against polygamy. As an institution, it is semi-barbaric. Intelligence, and the soul's moral consciousness, condemn it. In Utah it is wilting under the frost-seal of a death that can know no resurrection. The more intellectual of the young, among these Latter-Day Saints, are not Mormons. They do not

* Hon. W. H. Hooper's Plea for Religious Liberty, p. 14.

HAMMONTON TO CALIFORNIA. 15

follow their fathers, but incline to the ways of the Gentiles. Let polygamy perish, then, as it inevitably must, under the weight of an inherent social injustice. Reason, conviction, conscience, and moral purity, — these as motives, as spiritual forces, are wiser methods to employ in its overthrow, than persecution, or impassioned Congressional interference.

LIBERALISM IN" SALT LAKE.

Seldom have we met a nobler self-sacrificing band of independent thinkers. The more enthusiastic of them are converts from Mormonism, — men esteemed in the church as elders, and one of them a veritable apostle. Showing their faith by their works, these enterprising souls have erected, and neatly furnished, a magnificent hall. The Liberal Institute^ for educational purposes. This devotion to the principles of harmonial philosophy ought to mspire, if not shame, many Eastern organizations into the necessity of constructing commodious edifices for lyceums and lectures.

" The Utah Magazine," conducted by F. L. T. Harrison and W. S. Godbe, was a pioneer in the direction of religious freedom. Sorely did its calm yet keen utterances trouble Brigham Young, and those who considered him quite infallible. One of the startling declarations of the president in these tunes was this : " It is my right to dictate to the church in all things^ either temporal or spiritual^ — even to the ribbons the women wear.'''' If opposed in his dictatorship, he substitutes bitterness for logic, and abusive expletives for words of reason. The velvety paw could suddenly and easily change to the lacerating claw.

While Mr. Harrison was yet in the chui-ch of the Latter- Day Saints, he wrote thus, touching the marvels attending the itinerating elders and speakers in the Mormon fraternity : —

' ' When Joseph Smith inaugui-ated our church, nearly forty years ago, it burst upon the world as a revelation of spiritual power. The main peculiarity of our system was, that we asserted the necessity of close and constant intercommunication between this and tlie heavenlyworlds. . . .

" 'Abroad among the nations,' we had plentiful corroboration that this theory was no idle dream, but based on facts. Wholesale spiritual manifestations did there attend us. Our sick were then healed by the hundred. During the great cholera year in England, among about thu'ty thousand Latter-Day Samts, scarcely one succumbed to the disease. We were rich in spiritual manifestations; we felt angelic presence, even if unseen ; we lived in an atmosphere that made us feel every day very near to God and the heavenly world."