Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

APOLOGY FDR MV CONVERSION. 127visible, ami capable of pcrmcutiug cast-iron orany other material withinwhich, while alive, an immortal being might be enclosed air-tight.On the Whereabout of Heaven.667. The qmilitics of invisibility and penetrative power being necessarilyconceded to the soul, is it unreasonable to extend this attribute to itshabitation in the skies : to the country of spirits ?668. In communicating with a friendly spirit, I adverted to the difficultyof inducing people to conceive that in the clear azure space existingbetween the earth and moon, there should be scenery like ours, with plains,hills, mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, seas, and every variety of edifice ingreater perfection than upon earth." You do not see us," said my friend;" then why should you wonder at not seeing our world ?"669. It is quite evident that no such obstacle stood in the way of beliefin the existence of heaven among the Jews, as it isconstantly referred toas being above; Noah's deluge came through the windows of heaven; andthis idea has been sustained in the language of Christ, as well as of theHebrew prophets.670. Elijah is represented as having visibly ascended to heaven. Thatthe vicinity and invisibility of heaven are not at war with Scripture, isalleged in a recent work by the Rev. Mr. Harbaugh of the German ReformedChurch, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He quotes approvingly apassage in a work, entitled "Physicial Theory of Another Life," by Taylor,which I subjoin671. Taylor suggests—^^That within the space occupied by the visibleand ponderable universe, and on all sides of us, there is existing andmoving another clement, fraught with another species of life, corporealindeed, and various in its orders, but not open to the cognizance of thosewho are confined to the conditions of animal organization, not to be seennor heard, nor to be felt by man." ^'Our present conjecture," remarksthe author in another place, ^^ reaches to the extent of supposing thatwithin the space encircled by the sidereal revolutions, there exists and movesa second universe, not less real than the one we are at present conversantwith : a universe elaborate in structure, and replete with life; life agitatedwith momentous interests, and perhaps by frivolous interests ; a universeconscious perhaps of the material spheres, or unconscious of them, andfirmly believing (as we do) itself to be the only reality. Our planets intheir sweep do not perforate the structure of this invisible creation ; oursuns do not scorch its plains : for the two collateral systems are not con«nected by any active affinities."672. This would bring "the things which are not seen," indeed, nearto and around us. To enter the other world would not be so much aremoval in space, as just to be made loose from, or to become insensible to,