fection of art a mass of shadow is balanced by a proportion of light.

One of the most agreeable places of res orthereabouts is the artists' rendezvous-a building larger than St. Peter's at Rome, magnificent in structure, and filled with wonderful paintings.

Here artists and authors of all nations are to be found. You can step in any morning and have a chat with Lawrence, Reynolds, Lessing, Delaroche Hazlitt, Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Willis, Irving, Anthon, Sigourney, Osgood, Booth, Kemble, Kean, Cooper, Vandenhoff, Palmerston, Pitt, O'Connel, Lamartine, Napoleon, Margaret Fuller, Charlotte Bronté, Lady Blessington, and others of note, who have made themselves illustrious during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. People of congenial tastes and aspirations can readily obtain admittance, and all freely engage in conversation on topics connected with art and literature.

A large garden is attached to the building, filled with every manner of fruit-tree, and is accessible to all; any poor devil of an artist can go there and some bewitching Houri will present him with all the delicious condiments which his taste or fancy can demand.

In these matters the inhabitants of earth need to take a lesson from us.

I prophesy that America will be a pioneer in these reformations, and will, in some Central Park, erect a building similar to this, where aspiring artists may receive food for the soul and the body, and where artistic minds can meet and interchange ideas.

EDWARD EVERETT.

GOVERNMENT.

THE Christianized world supposes that the form of government now existing in the heavenly system is that of a monarchy; that God is the supreme ruler of the whole universe, embracing not only the little planet Earth, but the countless starry worlds and invisible systems that roll through space. But more directly in its imagination does it place him as the sole monarch and kingly ruler of the spirit world. It seats him in fancy upon a gorgeous throne, material in every aspect of its magnificence; a throne of gold and jewels, as described by that Miltonic poet, St. John, in his "Revelations.'

This is the prevailing faith of Christendom; a faith which to the majority seems knowledge as positive as the fact that Victoria rules the British people, and sits upon the English throne.

Yet this is the conception of a people fond of barbaric pomp and splendor. A conception unsupported by reason and at variance with fact.

Nearer to the truth was the old Greek nation; a nation which embodied the intellect, the wisdom, and the refinement of the present age.

That nation, in its belief in the government of the spiritual universe, was wholly Polytheistic, believing

in many gods, and, as I have said, approached nearer the idea of the form of government as existing in the spirit world, for it is a Republic of Gods.

It is a law of the universe that all vast bodies must be divided and subdivided into smaller ones. Every system is a constellation and every constellation is a congeries.

In accordance with this law, the universal world of spirit is broken up, is divided and subdivided.

In these divisions and subdivisions forms of government ensue, differing slightly one from another, according to the progressive development of the people; and an unlimited, monarchy is not known in the spirit world.

There are some clinging to their old habits, associations, and education, who would fain raise the representatives of royalty on earth to the same positions in the spirit world when they become residents there. But the effort, when made, cannot be sustained. The one-man power is incompatible with spiritual laws and spiritual justice.

In a world where the external trappings are torn away and the internal nature of man is exposed to observation, the prerogatives of earthly kings have but little power.

The republican form of government is destined to overthrow all the monarchies of earth. As the world progresses and knowledge becomes universal, individuals will be able to govern themselves.

It has been only through ignorance and superstition, and the limited knowledge of the masses, that the kings and emperors of earth have been enabled

to sway their jewelled sceptres over the necks of the people. But their reign is drawing to a close; their glories have culminated; and the day is rapidly approaching when earth will be governed even as the heavens above are governed. As in the world of nature, "the same chance happens alike to all," and every child in time may become a man and every infant a father, and the experience of one becomes the experience of all, so in the government of the spirit world, every man can rise and become for a space of time the patriarchal dictator of a republic.

The prevailing form of our republic differs from that of the American republic in many particulars. Our term of office is of shorter duration than with you. Our directors while in office make friendly excursions to other republics. Matters of state with us are not so weighty or complicated as with you, nor are encroachments and reprisals so common. We are not compelled to sustain such vast armies and navies, involving the necessity of directing and superintending them.

As a rule, people who have entered the second stage of existence desire a change. They desire to live with more simplicity and freedom, and are eager to begin their new life with nobler aspirations. Therefore, they assimilate with comparative ease with our form of government.

Our directors are our fathers. The nearest approach to our system is the government of the Mormons in Utah. Pardon me, if, in making this statement, I offend any delicate sensibility. I allude not to their creed, but to their mode of public administration.

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As I have stated, the inhabitants of the spirit world are divided and subdivided into associations, or bodies, which in your world would be termed nations and states. For example, the nation to which I belong is represented by the American people. The nationalities of earth present different traits and characteristics which set them apart, though in a general aspect they present one whole. Even as in the ornithological world different species of birds represent the feathered race, and though differing in many particulars and forming separate varieties, yet assimilate as a whole, so nations migrating to the spirit world form separate nationalities. And, as I have stated, some of them, educated in the belief of the divine right of kings, choose a form of rule nearer approaching the monarchial than the republican. Among such often arises a Napoleon, a man of powerful intellect, a mind to grasp all circumstances, and a will to direct, who succeeds in placing himself in a position which he retains for years.

But as the hereditary right of kings cannot exist in the spirit world, the emperor or dictator is chosen by the people, as was the custom of the ancient Ro

mans.

Intercourse of nations with us is not bounded by the obstacles that exist on earth. Prominent ideas prevailing among the most intelligent masses of spirits become the views of the whole. This your own world exemplifies. As the means of communication become more facile, as the various arts of locomotion obliterate distance, the remote and barbarous nations, brought into proximity with the civilized,