"Some of our most remarkable free-thinkers have been gracious to all young people, kind and benevolent to the neighbor, and as true souled in all points of honor and right as man ever was," said Thomaston. "And I need not remind you of the difference in this respect between them and what are called ministers of the Gospel," he continued. "I know of orthodox pastors who scarcely nod at the young people of respectable families in their parish, from year to year. They seem to think that all attention to such members of their flock will subtract from their elect, priestly superiority. Such young people go out into the world. for themselves, and finding that those whom they have been taught to class with the " son of perdition' are kind, tender-hearted, sympathetic, the springs of their love out-flowing, they naturally turn to them and finally become their disciples. No wonder that these priestly autocrats find comfort and refreshment in the doctrine of sovereign decrees, election, and reprobation!"

"I know also," he continued, " men first and foremost in these orthodox churches, who are more dangerous in business than common burglars, because, forsooth, their work is not one for which we can obtain redress in case of detection. Their strength is to cheat; their play to make long prayers, which are as tasteless' as the white of an egg.' The sins of these men go beforehand unto judgment, for they are in the mouths of everybody but their fellows in the church. Think you I should prefer to place a young and innocent child in such an earth-sphere as that?"

"In all ages," replied Israel, "there have been

hypocrites. Our Saviour denounced them in the strongest terms. Were there no genuine disciples, there would be no counterfeit. But surely you will not deny that there are good pastors and good people in the Christian churches. These are the salt of the earth."

“Said I not, it depended on the man and not his opinions? But that was not all of the matter. I mean that a good man will have a good rule of action underlying all his motives, whether among one people or another; and the same of the bad. But such opinions as are taught by these churches are most dangerous and destructive of good. Were not men who are not sacrificed to the spirit of their doctrines very good by nature, and were it not for the restraints of society, they would be ruined by them."

"Let us remember," said Israel, "that the greatest of all virtues is charity."

"It says also, 'they that fear the Lord hate evil,' and a curse is pronounced upon him that justifieth the ungodly,'" Thomaston quickly interposed.

"But we must forgive those who trespass against us, if we wish to be forgiven. We must be more quick to see the good than the evil. We must be mindful that not one of us is without sin. It makes a man unhappy and unhealthy to harbor censorious, thoughts of others," said Israel.

"True; and allow me to remind you of all these good words of yours, when you sit in judgment on the Spiritualist-infidel or the Neo-Spiritualist. They are not without their good points as well as those which you may think are evil. I quite consent to the propo

sition that the greatest of all spiritual gifts is love. And with it in the ascendant in your mind, you will oblige me by stating your idea of the origin and nature of what are called Spiritual manifestations- that is, more definitely than you have yet done. For when you set them down to the score of the devil, you talk as intelligently as do the Turks, who say that their most exalted pachas are the pachas with three tails.”

"I think that His Darkness works often in this thing by means of animal magnetism and electrodynamics. By eliminating common sense, the experiment is a success," said Israel.

"But the devil would not require to call in such aid," said the Spiritualist.

"I do not give him the credit of omniscience.

He

is not greater than God, who works by means,” answered Israel.

"There is no use in reasoning with one who has no reasonable basis," said Thomaston, impatiently.

"I trust I am not so prejudiced as to be unwilling to listen to what is really reasonable," returned Israel.

"Then," said Thomaston, "consent to accompany me to-morrow evening, to hear the noted Spiritualist speaker, Denatra, who speaks in Granby Hall." Israel assented.

CHAPTER IV.

A SPIRITUAL TRAJECTORY.

THOMASTON Was prevented from attending the meeting designated, and Israel went without him. The next day they met, and thus discoursed :— Thomaston. "So you had the rare privilege of listening to our great apostle, last evening?" Israel. "I heard him."

"Distil some of the dew of his lips upon me, if you please."

I. "Rather some of the poison from under his serpent-tongue."

T. "Thou unbeliever in all that is high and beautiful!"

I. "He said what I could not have believed possible for a man in any reputable place of this land to dare utter."

T. "Dare! Indeed, a great, true soul will dare even death for truth's sake."

I. "I would dare death, I think, sooner than the responsibility of his words."

T. "Why did you not cry out and shout ‘Amen,' thou inhabitant of Zion?"

I. "It would have been Jonah's cry."

T.

"When he entered the golden gate of heaven?"

I.

tures.

"No; when in the recesses of the hell he picLike the expatriated prophet, I was stifled, suffocated; and had I not soon escaped, would have cut my throat with a file."

T.

I.

"What heard you so disturbing?"

"After aiming the usual shafts against Christ, the Bible, and God himself, he was particularly eloquent in irony of prayer, that divinest privilege of the soul, against remorse or consciousness of sin, and finally against law. In this latter division of his theme, the man with his unhallowed lips dared to talk of woman and her rights.”

T. "Good; that is what people of your set do every day with impunity, and not only men, but women. I hope you are sufficiently gallant to be willing to accord to the sex those rights which many now claim?"

I. "Yes, when they claim to be women."

T. "You could not but like our true spiritual idea of woman's sphere, if you only understood it."

Israel now arose and began to walk the room in silence. At last, striking his forehead with his hand, he exclaimed, "Thou God of my mother! thou knowest I should fall dead under the axe of self-torture, were I to mistakenly link myself to one of these women who accepted this doctrine of devils!''

T. "Would you not tolerate the right of ballot in your wife that privilege now clamorously claimed?"

I. "I believe that a man in all ways should shield the companion of his life, with a sacred consciousness of his heaven-delegated right so to do, unutterably tender, yet with a fidelity to judicious purpose, which