journey!—a speed that would annihilate any being less than God himself. What an idea!
The next theory, originated and advocated by the same person,[1] is, that the Spirits' home is on a sort of aerial belt circumvolving our globe. Said belt is fifty miles thick; spirits live on its upper surface, which is very like this earth, seeing that it has cities, houses, streets, waters, oceans, rivers, trees, beasts, birds, and reptiles. At the poles of the earth, according to this same self-dubbed philosopher and his 'school,' there are certain openings or large holes, through which the spirits come and go just when it suits them so to do. When they depart hence, they go 'head up,' of course; and when they come to us, they must approach 'head-foremost,' or with their feet toward their home—a very immodest way for some spirits to travel, if the dignity of their sex is still retained—and a very undignified mode of traveling for the philosophers and magnates who so often talk to and at us, through the lips of modern eolists.
This, like the former theory, is unsatisfactory—but mainly on the ground of its gross materiality, for it makes the second life but a new edition of the first one. Common sense must reject this last. Of the two, the first theory is incomparably the most magnificent and grand. The fault is, that it is too much so; for it removes us at one leap from the condition of humanity, and at once endows us with the attributes and power of veritable gods.
The next hypothesis concerning the matter is, that this world (our globe) is, and must, and will for all
- ↑ A man who knows most when fast asleep, and then knows but very little.
