Anti Slavery Bugle

MISCELLANEOUS.

For the Bugle.

REPLY TO R. L. ALEXANDER.

Angola, Feb. 16th, 1856.

I send a few lines in reply to R. L. Alexander which may not be so demonstrative or conclusive as desirable, but will show some of the considerations which led me to write as I did. I believe the human spirit to have been so formed that through a faith prompting work, it can remove mountains. The spirit moves first, then matter. It passes through and overcomes matter. We know not of the limits set to its action because we have not seen the fully educated and developed individual.

The fact is well established that the fixed determined gaze of man will cower the ferocious spirit of the wild beast. Is it not because of the power of that essence, which uses the eye as an instrument? If my friend in the room wishes me to read aloud, and ignorant of his thought, I still feel the must, and comply with his unexpressed wish, it strikes me as the direct action of mind on mind, without the medium of language, and frequent experiments of this kind are too successful to be considered mere accidents. I have been with persons who treated me with kindly respect, and yet without a known cause have felt myself the object of unpleasant reflections, and frequently learn afterward that my sensations have not existed without cause. I am strongly repelled from the presence of a silently angry person, and often find myself conscious of their thought at the moment. How often two persons in company think and are about to speak the same thing together. By examination we shall sometimes find that it has occurred to one, aside from the usual train of suggestion, which is the common chain of thought. Does the wise man disseminate no influence aside from his words and deeds? I well remember how gladly, many years ago, I sought the room of a friend distinguished by unusual intelligence and amiability, to write my compositions remarking at the time, that there was inspiration in her silent presence, and I am aware that, that same unexpressed influence left its impress upon me and has mingled with the effect which I may have produced on those with whom I have since mingled. I can't demonstrate it, but I know it by the frequent reference I have made to it in efforts at self-culture.

The peculiarities of this sphere, which surrounds every person is, I think, quickly appreciated by little children who have not yet learned to modify their intuitive perceptions by the exercise of reason. It is an axiom among observers that the exercise of a certain faculty or disposition by one person will waken its like in those around him. For myself, I know that the presence of a silent angry person will rouse my combativeness while the presence of an intellectual person gives more activity to my thoughts than would merely follow from the few words spoken. The more powerful the mind the more marked the effect. I believe therefore that the wise and eloquent men aside from word or example, carry with them an unseen and effective power which by transmission produces an unceasing chain of effects. In this connection it may be remarked that in an interested audience it is not the attentive eyes, on the cheers alone, which give inspiration to the speaker. There is a strong tide of similar thought and acquiescing will, which being concentrated upon him gives wings to his thoughts and flow to his emotions.

When one friend concentrates his mind upon a thought and projects it, so to speak, to the mind of another, far away, his thoughts may be there repeated. Such experiments have been performed and verified by notes and correspondence. I have no other way of accounting for many facts of my individual life. An acquaintance once said, "I believe the time will come when the laws of mind will be so understood that one sitting here may convey his thoughts direct to a friend who is in the same plane of thought and affection in London at any hour which they may agree upon." The winds of time have blown up some few straws, which point toward such a fact. If it ever becomes understood as a general possibility, may it not be made the instrument of a great moral power?

I know nothing of the modus operandi of these matters. It might be made a profitable subject of investigation. Perhaps, before mind, space is annihilated, perhaps there is a medium surrounding the earth, which transmits nerve power, as air does sound. In my ignorance I still have as a yankee the precious privilege of guessing.

As regards the next point, Mrs. F., a woman of cultivated and well balanced mind, sees distinctly, and under circumstances, which would preclude imagination and optical illusion, the form of her deceased child. Her vision is often unwished for when she sees forms about her and describes them to strangers who unexpectedly recognize the portrait of some friend. The statements of many persons of veracity, concerning these things, are entitled to belief. It makes nothing clearer to say, that the seer of such forms is clairvoyant to read the past knowledge, and half-forgotten memories of those around. Such things are seen in solitude vivid and unexpected. This I say from what I have heard, I speak from what I know when I affirm that in the silence of my room I have been startled by the consciousness that spirits were by me, and often delighted and calmed by new thoughts and ideas which came to me out of the usual course of suggestion. But the evidence which may satisfy me is no proof to another. Seek and ye shall find if such things be.

The last question to be answered is in regard to the reformer. In this world when persons enter as leaders upon a contest of general interest, either with arms, words, or the pen, many others are led by their sympathies in regard to the object contended for, to give their aid to those who fight the battle. Being satisfied that life continues beyond this first home, and knowing no reason why those laws to which mind is here subject, should not ever in essence rule it, I concluded that those who were engaged for a truth would attract those of another world, who have once dwelt here, and have here striven for the same truth. The law regarding the silent transmission of thought if it exists cannot be annulled, and they will inspire him. With these premises I made an affirmation, which by some must be called merely "supposable" because they are not prepared to admit those premises.

Yours for truth,

A. E. L. R.