Five journeys around the world

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Introduction

"Pilgrim footsteps, whither bound?

Pilgrim glances, whither bent?

Sandal shod and travel-gowned, Lo, I seek the way they went."

Thoughts are etherealized forces preceding deeds. They are pointers rather than creators and far less potent than ideas.

A well-matured idea, alhed to consciousness and purpose, original ting in Boston, may, regardless of oceans and mountains, time and space, reach, through vibration, Bombay, India, in the moment of its birth. Nations touching each other are nesthng closer within each others' arms. The world grows smaller each year and the principle of brotherhood grows larger.

Though girdling the globe so many times, as a worker, I am still on the road. To rest is to rust.

Why Uve in a world to dream and wonder? Why not see it in its matchless wonders? Why not encircle it again and again, crossing every ocean, scaling every mountain, drinking at every fountain, ransacking every library, pacing the stone floors of every temple, studying every religion. Brahman, Buddhist, Islam and Parsee, bringing lessons home to those who have neither the ambition nor the courage to brave the dissappointments and trials of travel.

Traveling is wonderfully instructive. It lengthens the shining links of friendship, it brightens the human affections, enlarges the social nature, enriches the intellectual faculties and teaches the lessons of a world-wide fraternity and so takes away every particle of personal self-conceit.

The author of this volume, rising above sect or creed, or the innate charms of nationality and above all preconceived concepts, has described whatever came under his individual observations with purposed fairness and impartiaUty, whether in civilized, semi-civilized and the heathen lands of the Orient.

What constitutes civilization is an unsettled question. What constitutes heathenism and where dwell the heathen so-called? Are

INTRODUCTION

the Eastern races, termed heathen, dechning and dying? How has Anglo-Saxon education with its discoveries and firearms affected them? Are missionaries really advantageous along moral and rehgious lines ? These are persistent inquiries.

The beautiful isle of Ceylon, abounding in Buddhist worshippers; and grand old India, rich in sacred hterature, voluminous in ancient wisdom, yet crowded today with Mohammedans and A'aried castes of Hindus from Brahmans down through Yogis and different devotees to the Sudras. These countries are neither intellectually nor religiously dead, but alive — so consciously alive that they are sending missionaries to this country to save us from sinking into the still lower depths of materialism.

Our previous volume entitled Three Journej^s Around the World, passing through several editions, has been out of print for a number of years, and yet there have been frequent calls for it. The truths of travel never die. To this end, together with the fact that the topographies of countries and nationalities change but slowly, we have deemed it proper to embody a large portion of our previous volume, revised and brought up to date, adding thereto the most important and stirring observations and experiences of the last two journeys around the world, such as visiting the adepts of India, the fire-walkers of the Pacific Islands, the dancing Dervishes of Mohammedan Asia, interchanging chats with the King of Siam, enjoying, when a guest the castle of the great king of Tagore, with seven thousand volumes and a museum too unique and massive for description. These and germane subjects are brilhantly described in this volume.

It is often said that a man should live through the world once to know how to live in it; and surely a person should journey around the world once or more to know how to encompass and make the most of vast extensive observations, occurrences, customs, political conditions and archeological researches, all of which broadens human thought and quickens the higher impulses of the human soul.

"Over space, the banners of truth are unfurled And the habits of God are the laws of the world."

Chapter I

Well-directed Purposes — California Scenery — Fruits and Vines — Required Improvements — Heaven on Earth.

Chapter II

My Third Voyage— Rollicking Youth — Why Not Travel— Unearthing Buried Historical Treasures — Civilization 7000 B. C. — Spiritualism the Wisdom Religion of the Ages — Spirit — Lifg •—Consciousness — Sociability on Board — Grit Leads to Glory — Uncontrollable Circumstances — Humanity One Brotherhood, Origin, Destiny — Curse of Wealth.

Chapter III

Whittier, the Good Gray Poet — Living and Existing — A Motley Crowd of Passengers — Senator Stanford and President Lincoln Spiritualists — Seances with Lincoln — Moral Heroism — Talks with a Spirit Control — Pre-Existence a Truth — Reincarnation and Rebirths Impractical Theories — Nature of the Soul — Is the Moon Inhabited — Other Planets Inhabited — The Sandwich Islands — The Hawaiians — Gardens, Plantation, Dress, Foods, Habits, Morals — Hawaiian Spiritism — ■ Christian Practices and Demoralization — Intellectual Decline — Ruins of Former Prosperity and Architecture.

Chapter IV

Cannibalistic Meat Eating — The Micronesians — Ruins of Basalt on Ponapi — The Mashall Isles — Fig Leaves and Mats, Minus Corsets and Paint — Incantation — Necromancy — Healing — Ancestor Worship — Samoans — Volcanic and Coral Reefed Island — Naked and Chaste Tropical Fruits — Fertile Soil — Fiji — Mediums, Habits, Customs — The Malay Race — Adventurous and Inventive — Nomads of the Sea — Peopling the Fiji Islands — Commerce between Egypt and China, 6000 Years Ago — Remnants of Ancient Sanskrit — Submerged Islands — Hebrews no Relation to Polynesians — Christian Deceivers and Corrupt Missionaries — Robert Louis Stevenson.

VI CONTENTS.

Chapter V

Bound for Auckland — Society Shams — Blessings on Bookmakers — Lecture on Board — A Spirit's Message on Physical Matter and Spirit-Substance — The "Lady Elect" of the Christian Religion — Spirit Chief of Oahu Island — Spirit Explorers Discribe Ruins of Buried City in the Sea — Uses and Abuses of Seances — Why Wear Hats — Mountain Ranges Under the Sea — Description of Auckland — Maoris and Their Habits.

Chapter VI

Topography of New Zealand — Climatic Conditions — Why not Emigrate — Tattooed Maori Native — A Land of Ferns — Botanizing — Mineral Springs, Geysers, Boiling Lakes, Magnificent Scenery — Wines at Funerals — Christian Drunkards — Cannibalism — Ate Eighteen Human Beings — Belief in Spirits — Man-Eating Unnatural — Theological Cannibalism — rEarly Maoris Highly Civilized — Decline with Introduction of Missionaries — Tattooing — Customs of the Maoris — Religion — Spirits — Maori Materialization Seances — New Zealand Prosperity — Government Ownership of PostofiEices, Savings Bank, Telephones, Railroads, etc.. By the People, For the People — Woman's Suffrage.

Chapter VII

Arrival at Sydney — Old Friends — On to Melbourne, the Capital City — Changing with the Passing Years — Priests Opposed to Education — Parks and Flower Gardens — Amusements and Morals — Climate of Australia — General Description — Reception and Lecture Work — The Leading Journal — Mediums in Australia — An Excellent Materializing Medium — Unwise Seances — Nurse Bed of Obsession — Masonic Hall Meetings — Progress of Public Sentim^ent — Christianity and Bigotry — Persecutions by the Church — Lincoln an "Infidel" — Damned in Hell— I Prefer Hell.

Chapter VIII

Australia and Emigrants — Progress — Kangaroos — Aborigines a Fine Well-built Race — Social Characteristics — Clothing — Cooking — Homes — Religious Notions and Customs — Whence Their Origin — Belief in Spirits — Decline — Prostitution — Infanticide — Obliteration.

Chapter IX

None Choose Their Birth-Land — What is Time — Is the World Growing Better — Selfishness, Worldliness and Meanness — =

CONTENTS. VII

Hypocrites — Cannibalism and Communism — Plato's Republic — Sir Thomas Moore's Utopia — -Socialism of St. Simon and Fourier — Communism of Robert Owen — Jesus the Syrian Communist — The Chinamen on Board — Praying for Wind — Pantomimic Incantations — Prayers Answered— True Prayer — Science of Sailing — The North Star and Southern Cross — The Glories of the Over-Arching Heavens — The Holy Sabbath — Sp^'ritualism in the Fijis — Cotton, Sugar, Coffee Growing — Longings for the Land.

Chapter X

Kant and Mediumship— Delicacy of Conditions for Various Phenomena — Seances upon the Ocean — Teachings of the Spirits — Thoughts are Registered— Man's First Appearance — How Spirits Travel — Conditions Necessary for the Higher Heavens — Employments in the Spirit-World — The Various Spheres.

CHAPTER XL

The Chinese Orient — The First Outlook — Weird Impressions- China Forty Thousand Years Ago — Marvelous Antiquities — - Early Efforts to Christianize the Chinese — From Hong Kong to Canton — Habits, Customs, Peculiarities — River Boats — Within Canton's Walls. — Streets, Temples, Charities for the Poor — The Wisdom, Knowledge and Culture of the Past — Decline of the Empire — The Chinese Coolie Trade — Kidnapping and Slavery — America Long Known to the Chinese — The Attraction in California — Consulting Spirits of Their Ancestors — Home Ideals — Cemeteries — Mourning — Pagodas.

Chapter XII

Canton — Confucianism and Temples — Examination Halls — The Gigantic Walls — Sights and Scenes in the City — Customs — Lau-Tze — Women and Servitude — Polygaray — Buddhist Temples — Murder of the Innocents — Mandarians Worship — Tea — Chinese Spiritualism.

Chapter XIII

On to Singapore — The Anmites — Fashion a Curse — Natural Beauties — Malays an Old Race — Dress and Disposition — Whence Their Origin — Sim-lar to Indians — Religion — Hospitality — Evolution.

Chapter XIV

Johore — A Jungle — A Tiger — Spicy Groves — Beggars Unknown — Volcanic Belts and Minerals— Bird's-nest Soups — The Upas —

VIII CONTENTS.

Betel-Nut, Gutta-Percha and Cocoanut Groves — Fire-Flies — Off to Calcutta via Penang — Mount Ophir.

Chapter XV

Spiritual Seances on the Indian Ocean — Medical Talks — Evil Spirits and Guardian Spirits — An Atheistic Spirit Control — Life Germs — Questions Answered — Questions on the Apostles and Biblical History.

Chapter XVI

India — Its History and Treasures — Territory and English Rule — Whence the Hindus — Growth and Literature — Calcutta — Suburbs and Sight-Seeing — River Scenes, Juggernaut — The Banyan Tree,

Chapter XVII

India's Religions, Morals and Social Characteristics — Kali Temple, Worship and Slain Goats — The Burning Ghauts — Cremation — How to Dispose of the Dead — Caste and Brahmin Priests — Taj Mahal — Village Life — Bathing in the Ganges — Asiatic Society — Through the Country — Benares the Blessed — Utopean Metaphysics Old in India. — Eastern Fakirs — On to Bombay — Origin of Brahmanism — Beliefs and Sacred Books.

Chapter XVIII

The Rise of Buddhism in India — Buddhistic Ethics — Buddha and Jesus — Teachings of Buddha and His Disciples — Decline of Buddhism in India — The World's Religions — The Elephanta Caves.

Chapter XIX

The Bramho-Somaj and the Parsees — Spiritualism in India — Aborigines of India — Ancient Sage -Spirit Communicates — Early History and Cvilization — Allahabad — Vedas and its Adherents — Zoroaster — Religious Doctrines of the Parsees — Cemeteries and the Vultures — Temples, Altar, and Fire,

Chapter XX

From India to Arabia — Aden and the Arabs — Literature — The Red Sea — Sinai — Suez and Its Sands — Suez Canal — On to Cairo, 136° — Ruins — Natives — Villages.

Chapter XXI

City of Cairo — Illuminations — Changes — The Khedive and His - Purposes — The Central Africans as They Are — Livingstone

CONTENTS. IX

and the African Tribes — Africa, the Birth-place of the Sanskrit — Cairo as a City — Citadel and the Museum — Milometer and Nile — Cairo Streets.

Chapter XXII

The Egyptians — Pyramids and Catacombs — Wonderful Sarcophagi and Mummies — Subterranean Temples and Tombs of Sakkarah — On to Cheops — Rameses the Great — The Sphinx — On to the Great Pyramid — Massive and Majestic — Up to the Apex — The Outlook — A Most Wonderful Experience — Dr. Dunn Entranced by an Ancient Pyramid Builder — Describes Ancient Scenes and History.

Chapter XXIII

Study of the Pyramids — ^Opinions of Thinkers and Savants — Prof. Smythe Investigates the Great Pyramid — -Makes Observations and Discoveries — -The Glory of Gheezeh Pyramid — The Interior Structure the Porphyritic Coffer — Prof. Smythe Continuing Investigations — Results of Research — How Were the Stones Moved ?

Chapter XXIV

Ancient Science in Egypt — Astronomy of the Egyptians — Heliopolis — Rosetta Stone and Copts — Alexandria — The Alexandrian Library — Farewell to Egypt — Rameses II — Talkers and Eastern Liars — Mark Twain — Spiritualism in the Egypt of Antiquity — Spiritualists in Cairo — Introduced by Madame Blavatsky.

Chapter XXV

On to Joppa and Jerusalem — New Englanders in Joppa — Sharon — Ramleh — Through the Judean Country — Connections with Biblical History — Grain Threshed by Stamping Oxen — Glimpses of the City — Reflections — Impressions by Others of Jerusalem — As the City Now Is — Resting on Mount Zion — Church of the Holy Sepulcher — A Contrast to the Jesus of Old — Other Holy Places — Mount Calvary's Chapel — Greek, Latin, Armenian, and Copic Departments — "The Wall, and the Gates Thereof" — The Mount of Olives.

Chapter XXVI

The City of Prophets and Apostles — ^Jesus and Jerusalem — But Did Jesus Exist — The Mosque of Omar — The Jews' Wailing Place — In the Valley of Hell — Bethesda's Pool and Medicines — Date of the Crucifixion — The "Star of Bethlehem" — Bethle-

X CONTENTS.

hem the Birth-Place of Jesus — Solomon's Pools — To the Jordan — Mar Saba and the Dead Sea.

XXVII.

Why Jesus was Baptized in the Jordan. — Jordan's source and scenery — What Spirits said of Jordan and Jericho — Jericho and the Good Samaritan — Returning to Jerusalem — Exploring Palestine — Various Reformers.

Chapter XXVIII

The Christianity of the Ages — Plato and Jesus in Contrast — Christian Teachings Before the Time of Jesus Christ — The Meditterranean and Its Islands — Smyrna — Climate and Costumes — Ephesus and the Apostle John — The Apostles' Burial Place — John, the Sun of the New Testament Epistles — Ephesus My Mecca,

Chapter XXIX

Turkey in Asia — Ionia and the Greeks — Constantinople — Sluggish Turks — Decline and Decay — Turkish Hospitality — Language — Social Customs — Worship — Turkish Women — Mohammedian Dervishes — Spiritualism in Turkey — Turkish Characteristics — From Observations as a Consul.

Chapter XXX

Athens — Acropolis — Propillion — Mars Hill — Temples of Bacchus — Minerva — Winds — Muses — Jupiter Olympus — Apollo — The Prison Cave of Socrates — Naples — Garibaldi and the Monks — the Museum — Pompeii and Herculaneum — Italian Churches Her Pride — Rome and the Tiber — Wanderings in the Eternal City — The Pantheon — The Coliseum — St. Peters and Swarms of Beggars — Florence^Theodore Parker's Grave.

Chapter XXXI

Europe and Its Cities — Trieste — Venice — Milan — Through Turin and Mont Cenis — Paris and the Commune — Illegitimate Children — Goethe — Baron Guldenstubbe — Grand Old London — Comparisons — The Spiritual Outlook — Suggestions to Travelers — Sunrise Around the World — Travel Educational — A Review of the Past Journey.

Chapter XXXII

Ceylon and Its Buddhists — Characteristics — Temples in Rocks^ Buried Cities and Ancient Ruins — The Antiquity of Civilization — Peculiarities of Buddhists Priests — Kandy, Rumbuk-

CONTENTS. XI

kanna and the Jungle — Mounted Upon an Elephant — Teas of China and Ceylon — The King of Siam — An Interview — Asoka Buddhism and Christianity — The Historic and Moral Import of Buddhistic Edicts — Buddhism as It Is.

Chapter XXXIII

The India of Today — -Religions and Languages — Madras Presidency — Fakirs Buried and Resurrected — Visiting a Yogi — Swami Vivekananda and His Yogi Philosophy — Yogi Postures and Practices — Spiritualism in India — Adyar Center of Theosophy — The Climate of India — Leprosy in India — Progress under British Rule — Slavery in India — Education and General Development.

Chapter XXXIV

Hindu Doctrines of the Dead — Dispossessing the Obsessed — Madura Temples and Worship — The Vishnu Temple — Madame Blavatsky and Theosophy — The Plague and Its Causes — Universal Brotherhood.

Chapter XXXV

Homeward Bound — Arabia — The Red Sea — Suez — Port Said — The Mediterranean Sea — Slavery in Africa — The Grandeur of Antiquity in Egypt. — Malta — Musings — Jubilee Celebration . — In London — The Tyranny of Fashion.

Chapter XXXVI

Islamism and Ethics — Discovered Rosetta Stone — Lost Arts — 4,000 B. C. — Islams' Universities and Dancing Dervishes — Crime and the Moslems — England's Rule and Egypt — Mohammedans and Brotherhood.

Chapter XXXVII

Egypt's Sages — Testimonies of Archeologists — Teachings of the Philosophers Danuf and Ptahhotep — An Egyptian Confession of Faith.

Chapter Xxxviii

On the Way — Port Said — Again in Bombay — The Parsees — The Conquering Alexander — Zoroastrian Monotheism — The Parsees Not Fire-Worshippers — Lost Literature — Teachings of the Zoroastrian Philosophy — Bombay Theosophy and the Luminous Centers — Parsee Funeral Ceremonies — Disposing of the Dead,

XII CONTENTS.

Chapter XLII

India's Famines — Summer Resorts and Religions — Madame Blavatsky and Spiritualism — General Religion of the Hindus — Chants — Calcutta — His Highness the Maharajah Tagore — Spiritualism in His Palace — The Bromah Somaj — Smallpox in India — King of Afghanistan — Sacrifices.

Chapter XLIII

Ceylon — Colombo — The Musaeus School for Girls — Olcott 'and Buddhism — Funeral of Col. Olcott — Off to Kanda — Arabi Pasha the Exile — An Interesting Conversation — Kanda to Dambool — Buddhist Caves and Temples — The Sacred Bo-tree — Ruins and Wonders of Anuradhapura.

Chapter XLIV

Aim of Man's Existence — Coast of Western Australia — W. H. Terry andjudge Edmonds — Mrs. Annie Bright — Lectures in Australia — Fijis and Pacific Islanders — Fire-walking Exhibitions — Fiji Communists.

Chapter XLV

Spiritism or Spiritualism, Which — Planchettes and Ouija Boards — Maori Mediums — African Tribes and Vou-dou Seances — The Makeup of Mao — Worship Universal — Principles of Spiritualism,

Chapter I. Home Life In Califoknia

" Of the beginning that never began is life's tale, And that never-finishing ending to which we all sail — For the children of never and ever we are, And oxir home is beyond, and our goal is afar."

CiRCTJMNAViGATiNG the globe several times is little more than a matter of well-directed purpose and energy. The iron will never hesitates. It delights to dare and to do. A firm rational individuality is commendable. Every man of genius has a way of his own. Let him have it. Help the world's helpers, or stand aside, pout, and be forgotten.

Countries, like individuals, have their aural emanations — their idiosyncracies. There is more soul-freedom and less conventional restraint west than east of the Rocky Mountains. The climate uniform and bracing, thought free, the intellect clear, liberalism fruits out spontaneously in California. Southern California is the Italy of America. Residing anywhere in the stirring, pulsing West broadens the vision, expands the emotional nature and inspires a most generous and fraternal toleration.

The Orient with its treasures and the Occident with its untold energies met upon the Pacific coast, and in its agone years cities, cosmopolitan in character, sprung up as if by some sorcerer's art. Old heads guided the feet that trod these cities. Vigor, vigilance and public spiritedness constituted the red globules that flowed in tlie bod}- politic. And to-day California is one of the grandest States in the American Union.

CALIFORNIA SCENERY.

Switzerland, with its mountain chains and towering Alps, pales before the rich magnificent scenery of the Pacific States. The mountain peaks are weird, grand, defiant ; while the adjoining plateaus are covered with grass, sage-bnxsh and pines. The air is light, pure and bracing. On the hilltops, in the northern part of the State, white fleec}^ snow may sometimes be seen ; but in San Diego, where I reside, there is neither snow nor ice nor frost, and, withal, it is the sunniest and most equable climate in the world.

FRUITS AND VINES.

Piled-up tons of melons, peaches, pears, figs, apricots and semi-tropical fruits literally blockade the wharves and front streets of the California cities during the autumn and winter seasons. Though oranges, lemons and pineapples grow luxuriantl}^ and ripen in any yard and garden, only sixty miles away up on the highlands at Julian very choice apples are grown.

Passing up and down the coast railways, walnut-groves and apricot-orchards literally reel under their fruitage, while vineyards everywhere shook their purple clusters. Swiftly whirling by lemon and orange plantations, loaded and golden, they weave and sway like waving forests. Delicious things for the palate, beauty for the eye, lands for the toiler, minerals for the miner, health for the invalid, wealth for the industrious, books for the student, friends for the worthy, and religious toleration for all regardless of ancestral clime or color — these are among the charms of the sunset States.

Life and activity flame everywhere. The universe is God's habitation ; this earth, one of the smaller apartments ! enter-

HOME LIFE IN CALIFORNIA. 6

ing it some seventy-six years ago, I found it already furnished. What a carpet ! — the emerald grass. What a ceiling ! — the frescoed sky. What tapestried pillars ! — the granite rocks. What a front ! — the flaming sunrise. What a rear-door ! — the sunset, through which the day goes down into shadow-lands. What a chandelier ! — the sun and fiery stars. What fields for future explorations ! — the interstellar spaces of infinity. Surely, God is infinitely great and good.

EEQUIEED IMPROVEMENTS.

Arise, O land of the west winds — cities encircled with the lemon, the orange and the pomegranate — and deck yourselves in more beautiful garments ! Your gardens and your highways even, so far away from the snows of the north land, might be made to bloom like the rose.

A house devoid of shade-trees and flowers reminds one of a salesroom for caskets, with an accompanying perpetual funeral. What opportunities we have in California for landscape artists ! Transformations and suburban decorations pay even property-holders. If there's a praiseworthy mania, it is the laying out of beautiful gardens, noble avenues, and mammoth parks. Inspired we feel to preach a sermon to the citizens of California upon the importance of putting shade-trees around their houses, and books into them. Home presupposes a librar}^ a cabinet, a conservatory, an orchard, and a grove with weird, winding paths for walking and meditation.

" Who lores a library, still his Eden keeps ; Perennial pleasures plants, and wholesome harvests reaps."

How easily the interior towns of this thrifty State might be made to rival the villages in the Atlantic States, b}^ putting out ornamental shrubbery ! In a hot, dusty summer's day, what is more inviting than the cooling shadows of graceful evergreens, or the serried lines of maples and elms that interlace and arch public highways? And then, why not plant fruit-trees all along the wayside ? Why not liave the gardens of the Hesperides in our midst to-day? Why not have a heaven on earth, with the divine will fully done ? When half-dreaming of heaven, with its homes of love, dreaming of the spirit-gardens that hang and float in ether spaces above us, our brain throbs and brims in ecstasy. Let us, then, make real to-day our divinest ideals.

CHAPTER IL

"I cannot rest from Travel : I will drink Life to its lees." — Tennyson.

It was on September the 11th, 1872, that I embarked, under an Australian engagement, upon the steamer " Idaho " for a voyage around the world, not alone to see, but to teach as I traveled.

Five years later I again girdled the globe, via Australia, India, Madagascar, Natal and South Africa, teaching and lecturing as I went upon the great moral reform subjects of the age.

And again moved by the missionary spirit, I sailed from San Francisco for a third voyage around tlie world Dec. 5, 1896. Fjiends, relatives pleaded with me not to undertake such a perilous journey at my age. Age ! I spurned the thought. The soul knows nothing of age. The eternal years past and future are hers. The clay, the shell, the house that the man lives in is not the man himself. I am rollicking, glorying in the gorgeous morning of abiding youth.

True, there is a momentary sadness in the parting goodbyes:

"But this I've seen, and many a pang Has pressed it on my mind, — The one who goes is happier

Than those he leaves behind.

God wills it so, and so it is : The pilgrim on liis way.

AROUND THE WORLD.

Though weak and worn, more cheerful is

Then all the rest who stay.

And when, at last, poor man, subdued.

Lies down, to death resigned, May he not still be happier far

Than those he leaves behind ? "

The past conspired to mold the present. It was the j^ester-

days that fashioned the to-days. Let us not too rudely crush

~the rock from whence we were hewn. The old moon is not

lost though invisible. It is the invisible helpers that often

help the ideal to become the real, and faith to become fruition.

The universe is infinite. The wisest have not so much as entered the portal of her temple. The atom no eye hath seen. On — onward, then, oh my soul, like the sandalfooted Solon of Grecian memory ! Why not travel ? Why not lift old manuscripts from their moldy recesses? Why not find and read the historic stories of half-f oro-otten asfes ? Why not unearth the once proud Nippurs that were gray with antiquity when ancient Babylon was in her earliest mornings of prosperity?

Courageous energy with rich linguistic culture behind the spade, pushing aside the babyish biblical chronology of Archbishop Usher — has revealed a very polished civilization existing several thousands of years B. C, in the vallej's of the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Diving deej)er, and going still farther in the line of the Babylonian excavation down to the deeply-buried Assyrian city, Nippur, authentic inscriptions — authentic history written upon bricks, cylinders, tablets and vases, push the existence of a grand civilization back on Time's dial to 7000 years B. C. And there must have been millenniums of preceding years to have coined such a mighty civilization. Wiscl}^ Lord Kelvin, recently at the annual meeting of the Victoria Institute, London, of which I have the honor of being a member, said : " The earth could not have been a habitable globe for more than 30,000,000 of years."

MY THIRD VOYAGE. 7

Sailing, gazing on the bine depths below and now on the bright skies above, I further philosophize. If the universe is one, as Monism affirms, infilled and governed by infinite spirit-causation — if matter is the vestured clothing of this causation — if the spiritual is the one great reality, and all else is illusion, as the higher philosophy teaches, then Spiritualism is the one true religion — the wisdom religion of the ages.

Spirit, whether incarnate or discarnate, responds to spirit by the law of vibration as music responds to music. Life is everywhere. Consciousness and love are universal ; and accordingly all nations, races, tribes necessarily sympathize. There's but one pulse-beat, one heart-throb in the universe. My birds, trees, flowers know me — know and love me. . . .

December 9th. — Four days out on the tremulous ocean. Our steamer, though the waters are rough, wriggles along like a revolving auger. Our crew, a nautical commonwealth, is getting social. Games are instituted for the day and a progi^amme for evening literary exercises.

December llth. — How calm the sea is to-day! What a relief. No calls, no correspondence to answer, no diseases to diagnose ! What a quiet life, reading by day, and gazing at the glittering stars by night — those shining altar-lamps set in the heavens by the finger of the Eternal ! A sudden change this evening, — rough and rolling, the ocean! Would you escape seasickness, diet ; walk the deck in defiance of dashing waves. Exercise a plucky will-power — no compromise. Grace aside, it is grit that leads to glory on the ocean.

Up higher in thought for a moment ! Afloat on the ocean of boundless being, uncontrollable circumstances affect us, unseen powers influence us. None of us are wholly our own. We did not choose our birth-land, its locality, or climate ; neither did we select the time of coming into this objective existence ; nor the government under which we would live, nor the color of the skin that should cover us. And yet, (leeper, diviner — regardless of circumstance, clime or color, humanity senses, weeps the same tears over human suffering. India's late famine was in a measure America's famine ; and so she sent to the far-off Orient her cargoes of wheat. Humanity, be it to the utmost limits of East or West, has one common heart centre, one common aspiration for immortality, one common desire for angel ministries, one God, one law, one origin, one brotherhood, and one grand destiny, ultimately awaiting all human intelligences — such is the interpretation of the vision.

As polished mirrors reflect and reveal ; so seers and mystics, standing upon the mountains of the beautiful, wrapped in the seamless mantles of prophec}', reflect and largely outline the future. Neither God nor his proi^hets are dead. There are prophets of to-day of which tlie world is not worthy. The worldly proud, the mole-eyed miser cannot see them ; the deaf plutocrat cannot hear their voices ; and our millionaires, dumb save to talking of dollars and dimes, never deign to sing their praises. Those selfish, encrusted money-makers, such as Jay Gould, Astor, Vanderbilt, Crocker and that morally gangrened gang of Wall-Street gamblers long ago dug their own graves — graves over which willows refuse to weep, or respectable owls to hoot. Pity and pass on, oh, fellow mortals.