FIRST- The vital principle acts anatomically upon the dependnet system, is
evinced by the fact that, should any structure of the organism be in any
manner impaired, there is manifested immediately a disposition on the part of
the living body, to remove the affected portion and supply all eficiencies.
Should a bone be broken, or should the muscles be bruides, or mutilated, then
that divine force which lies back of, and which is superior to, bone
and muscle, exerts itself forthwith to repair the damages.
SECOND - The spirit acts physiologically, by preserving the various organs
in
a state of harmony; and also by stimulating them to the prompt discharge of
their appropriate and numerous functions. For instance, the spirit operates
upon the infoluntary muscles of the entire system, without exciting the least
thought to make the individual conscious of the wonderful process.
It moves the lungs, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the stomach, the intestines,
and the entire Brain, avery instant of time, from the first to the
last moment of existing relations between them. The expansion, and contraction,
idgestion, and secretion, must occur in the spiritual organization, before these
phenonena can be developed by the lungs, the heat, and the stomach.
THIRD - The spirit acts mechanically upon the organization. This proposition
is totally at variance with the decisions of any physiologists. The process
of mastication is perectly mechanical; the joints of the body
move to and fro upon the principle of the hinge; the bones are levers; the tendons
are pulleys; and the muscles are ropes or chains; the spleen
is a reservoir; the heart is a force-pump; and the brain, in both its mechanical
or anatomical construction and mode of action, is a galvanic
battery.
FOURTH - The spirit acts chemically upon the organization. The chemistry, of
the human organism is vastly different from that chemistry, which is mechanically
exhibited in the laboratories of experimenters. Nature goes on chemically preparing
gold and silver in her laboratories, and while she is furnishing the most beautiful
specimens of crystallization, the artificial chemist can decomplse, but can
not reproduce nor manfacture them. (59)
There is constantly going on in the human organism, a process of decomposition,
of assimilation, of secretion, of absorption, and of excretion; and so
perfectly harmonious are these processes, in the healthy body, that there is
not a single atom which fails to find and remain in its proper position.
Matter is continually refined.
FIFTH - The spirit acts electrically upon the organization; but here it is
well to remark, that vital or spiritual electricity is not that gross electricity
which is generated by the decomposition of mineral bodies, or by the action
of metallic plates. That electricity which the spirit, through the
co-operation of the cerebral apparatus, generates and dispenses to the dependent
systems, is as mich more fine and gentle than that electricity
which pervades external nature, as the latter is finer than water. It is this
spiritual electricity which penetrates and inspires the various particles
of matter in the human body to seek their proper locality. (60) The vital principle
causes atoms to circulate and assimilate with such remarkable precision in the
system. While vital chemistry decomposes and prepares organic and other substances
to assimilate with, and build up, the various organs and tissues anew, vital
electricity inspires those prepared substance with certain predilections or
tendencies, and thus causes the phenomena of secrection and assimilation. Decomposition
is an effect of spiritual chemistry; and combination is an effect of spiritual
electricity.(61)
SIXTH - The spirit acts magnetically upon the organization. By magnetic action, (the galvanic action) which begins at, and with, the brain, and thenceexpands in a corresponding manner throughout every department of the organism. The cerebrum is the positive, and the cerebellum is the negative portion of the mental galvanic battery. There is a perfect correspondence between the structure and effects of these brains, and the structure and effects of the galvanic or voltaic apparatus. One represents the Zinc plates; the other the plates of Copper. (61) A piece of steel can be magnetized, and it can be demagnetized, by a simgle stroke of the horseshoe magnet; the first by the downward movement, the second by the upward - showing an exact correspondence between the magnetical operations of Nature, and the action of the Spirit in and upon, the human body. When the spirit desires to move the organism, it first moves the brain to contraction; this contraction expels a volume of spiritual vitality which, rushing through every nerve and nuscle, befets motion. (63) Now, when the positive force of this vitality is expended, the brain expands its numberless ventricles, and attracts the exhausted element back to its original fount; where this element, by unfergoing a process of re-vitalization, is again prepared to make another revolution, and to persue its course, discharging its appropriate mission, which is to beget muscular locomotion. The blood goes only when and where the spirit bids it go. (64)
SEVENTH - The spirit acts spiritually upon the organization. The Brain being
positive over other portion of the system, constantly attracts particles to
itself; these particles are made to pass through the many and complicated laboratories
or crucibles of the cerebral substance, and thus they are purified, and rendered
comparatively immaterial.
Solids are ultimately convered into fluids; fluids into ether or vital electricity; and vital electricity is refined into vital magnetism; and vital magnetism is ultimately changed into that pure and divine substance, by which we reason, love, will, decide, and act. I do not mean that particles of organic, muscular, vascular, or membranous matter are drawn magnetically to the brain, in the gross state in which the physiologist finds them; but I mean, that visible particles are refined and sublimated, far beyond the power of chemical instruments to detect, ere the brain or spirit recerves, prepares, and appropriates them to its own constitution.(67) This digestive process refines and attenuates the particles, until they are capable of associating with higher and more spiritual compounds - until, in truth, the particles are qualifies to enter into the principle of motion, which is the first element of mind. According to this law of progressive development and attenuation, these particles of motion ascend to life, which is the second principle of mind; these progress to sensation, which is the third element of mind; and the next ascension converts the sensational particles or elements into the very organization of mind or spirit itself. This process of spiritualization if conducted exclusively by the vital electricity, the magnetism, and the cerebral galvanism, with which the system is endowed.(68)
Every expansion and contraction, every action and reaaction of the heart, or
the lungs, or the muscles, is attended with a positive exhaustion of a portion
of that principle of motion which produced the phenomenon. I do not mean that
the essential ingredients of the spiritual organization are thus exhausted and
dissipated, but that some of the elements by which the spirit moves the body,
are changed by every muscular movement, both in their character and locality.
For instance, if you alter the position of your arms, which action requires
but a second of time, that element by which the muscles were immediately moves,
can not again perform that function, - hence it is, that to alter the position
of those muscles again, you must first will to do so. - In other words, you
must supply a fresh element of motion. The exhausted element is drawn back to
the positive brain, there to be re-vitalized, or re-spiritualizws, to the end
that it may take a higher position in the scale of material refinement. Every
organic and muscular motion, is
invariably accompanied with some important change, both in the spiritual and
on the material departments of the organism; and, in consequence of the
unuversality of hte law of progressive refinement and reciprocation, no change
can possibly occur in the healthy state, without being succeeded
by an advancement in the general condition of the various atoms and forces that
constitute the living whole.(69)
The spirit not only draws from the food which enters the stomach, but from the
electrical and magnetic elements which pervade all nature, - it draws from the
atmosphere which enters the lungs; from the element of light, which inspires
the eye, and permeates the system, it draws form odors that
penetrate the senses - in truth, the spirit, draws from all nature, and appropriates
to itself every particle which is capable of assimilating with its exalted organization.
(70) I know by interior observation, that the muscles, the nerves, the arteries,
and etc., are not merely instrumentalities, but that they are especial vessels
and receptacles, desighned for the circulation and reception of particular currents
of vitality. The veins and arteries are attached to the heart, and it is through
them that the blood is electrically forced, and magnetically drawn, through
the system; so the muscles and nerves are attached to the brain, and it is through
them that the spiritual life is circulated from centre to circumference- from
the general into all the particular parts and particles of the body. (75) The
vitality of vegetables and animals, which we consume, is extracted - refined
- organized - and distributed throughout the receiving vessels. (76) The spirit
draws from the vegetable a principle of Life, The blood receives this life,
after it has undergone due preparation of refinement, and thus the blood is
particularly umpregnated with a living organized element. So also, the spirit
draws from animal substances a principle of Sensation; this principle, when
properly prepared and sublimated, is made to flow into the nerves. (76)
Contrasted with magnetism, electricity is cold and negative. Electricity is
generated by chemical decomposition; and it emanates from the mineral beds
which exist in the earth. Whenever the temperature of the atmosphere is cold,
this electrical element abounds in superabundance; so likewise when the human
system is cold - when the spirit is repelled from the surface, to the most interior
recesses of the body - the electrical conditions particularly preponderate.
The action of electricity supplies the spirit with new life, with fresh vigor,
and with elements for refinement and organization; and it serves, in connection
with another element, to regulate organic and atomic motions, and to balances
the temperature of the organized whole. And thus health is maintained. Electricity
repels the spirit - magnetism attracts it. Electricity is cold, and negative;
magnetism is warm, and positive. The two regulate all physical motion, and balance
all temperature. (84) And chemistry has proved, what I am impressed to affirm,
that that electricity,
which resides in certain containing metals or substances, is a universal element;
that the different gases - such as nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, and
etc., are but manifestations of the dissimilar combinations of the same imvisible
principle. Concerning the `containing substances', it is well to
remark, that some metals or metallic compounds impede the progress of electricity
from one locality to another; while other substances accelerate its instantaneous
passage. The retaining substances are termed nonconductors; but those substances
which assist the flight of electricity are termed conductors. It is well to
know that those bodies which do conduct electricity possess in themselves but
little of it; but those bodies which do not conduct it, contain the same in
abundance. The substance that accumulate and retain electricity, and from which
it can be readily produced, are glass - hair - silk - wax - amber - dried wood
- feathers - and many other things; those substances which constantly receive
and transmit electricity, by
altering its condition and relations, are iron - all the metals - water - steam
- vapor - animal and human organizations, and the different vegetables.(85)
Terrestrial electricity is capable of developing itself, or of being developed,
into a degree of refinement vastly superior to the lightning, or to artificially-produced
electricity. The difference between conductors and non-conductors consists simply
in this: - conductors do not contain so much of elecatricity as non-conductors.
It is wholly by the deconposition of material substances that electricity is
developed. In truth, it is by decomposition that matter is refined into electricity;
hence, where we find matter we find the electric element; the two cannot be
separated. By matter I mean plants, water, animals, metals, earth, light, vapor,
steam, and all conceivable compounds; and by Elements I mean those invisible
principles which move the organization of nature. Matter is continually in motion;
this motion changes the relations which subsist between particles; and it is
by these changes that electricity is generated and evolved. The electricity
thus evolved or developed is, at first that gross kind which manifests itself
in the clouds, in the atmosphere, and which can be obtained by artificial means.
This primary development of electricity is instantaneously communicated or conducted
from the myriads of iron - zinc - silver - gold - copper, and from the various
mercurial beds, which exist in the earth, into comtiguous and superior mediums;
it passes, as quick as thought, through millions of substances into water, into
vapor, and iinto the expanded atmosphere. The mighty bodies of water that flow
between country and country, hemisphere and hemisphere, are conductors of this
liberated electricity; which is thus locally generated and evolved in the interior
departments of the earth. But it should be remembered that every medium, through
which electricity passes, is a digestive apparatus - is a stomach. Each medium
does something toward changing the relation of the atoms composing this element,
and something, also, toward refining it, and altering its mode of manifestation.
First, the mineral bed will be charged with positive electricity; next, the
ocean; and next, the congregation of clouds, which are moving, above the waters,
in the firmament. Thus, where is a constant exchange or reciprocation of matter
in nature; and every alteration, in any organized substance, is invariably attended
with a change and elevation in the relation of its atoms. Particles are
perpetually changing places; and every change alters and improves the actual
condition of those particles. (87)
By the perpetual and unceasing generation and evolvment of electricity, from
the different matallic bodies, the water on the earth, together with the
atmosphere, which surrounds the earth, are being constantly renewed, and refined.
The human body, in perfect health, is changed and renewed throughout once in
about ten years; so likewise, are the Water and Atmosphere, upon and surroundin
our globe, totally made anew, once in about ten thousand years. Thus matter
is momentarily undergoing changes, alteration, and improvement. Electricity,
constantly assuming positive and nefative relations, scends, from the interior
portions of the earth, into water, into atmosphere, and finally it is refined
into Magnetism. There is not a substance, through which electricity passes,
which does not refine it, and give it offaagain, in a state infinitely more
subtle and improved. The pre-eminently attenuated portion of the electric element
invariably represents the positive pole, or the positive condition of the fluid;
while the negative pole, or condition, is always represented by the grosser
portion. The positive portion of electricity, is magnetism; the negative portion
is that residuum, which, contrasted with the higher indications of this element,
is still unrefined, and undeveloped. Electricity, in its progresseve ascenfion,
form its original receptacles, through the infinite stomaach-substances, into
atmospherical magnetism, unfolds all the various alkali, acids, gases, fluids,
water, air and etc., which we see or feel upon the earth. These forms of matter
are nothing but modifications of one principle in nature - just as blue, yellow,
red, and all the prismatic colors, are caused and developed by different arrangements
and modifications of the element of light. (88)
The inconceivable volumes of electricity, which are generated and evolved in
various partions of the earth, are ultimately drawn into one mighty
current; which current rushes with unimaginable velocity to the magnetic pole
of our globe. But here let us perfectly understand the nature of
refined electricity - I mean magnetism. Magnetism invariably occupies a higher
position than electricity; it is the purest, the highest, and the
master of all terrestrial elements. As electricity is refined, its finest particles
ascend, and combining in the atmosphere, they constitute a positive influence.
This influence is continually attacting the electricity from the earth, from
water, from man, and from the surrounding mediums.
Hence, there is an incessant draught upon the inferior electric elements, which
abound in, and upon, the earth; and these, in their progression to
the point of attraaction, become digested and purifies; and so thorough is this
purification and change, that we can not properly continue to term it
electricity; it is therefore magnetism. Thus it is seen that there is a positive
and a negative relation subsisting between the most inerior portions
of the earth, and the most superior portions of the pervading atmosphere. The
positive portion, which is magnetism, is warm; and the negative portion,
which is electricity, is cold. (90)
When a current of electricity passes over the body, it produces a sensation
of coldness; but when a ray of the sun streams to the skin, it imparts a
warmth, unlike that which any artificial heat could possibly produce. The reader
is requested, not to confound the phenonena of magnetism, which
we are now considering, with those perculiar powers, usually manifested by the
loadstone, the magnet, and by electro-magnetic instruments.
I have said, that the various volumes of electricity, that are generated and
evolved in the earth, are make to concentrate into one mighty current in
the atmosphere; and that this current flows constantly to the magnetic pole
of our globe; but its evolvement is not the same in all places of the earth.
It usually ascends from those localities, and through those mediums, which are
particularly adapted to its generation, and conduction upward. Thus there is
more electrical emanation in the region of mineral mines, and where water is
abundant, particularly if the water be unenlivened by the sun's powerful rays.
From this the inference is legitimate, that the accumulating fluid is eccentric
in its passage from various localities to the amin current, which flows to the
north. This eccentricity of the minute streams of the electric fluid, gives
rise to the dia=magnetic currents which flow from east to west, above the earth's
surface, and which has been discovered crossing the magnetic needle at right
angles. All the various currents of electricity, which are locally generated
and eliminated, rush from every possible direction, in straight lines, towerd
and into the main current of attraction; and thus it is that the needle is made
to alter its position; and thus, also is it that streams of electricity are
found in superabundance, in some localities, rushing
in every appreciable degree of angle, to one extreme point - to the north, or
magnetic pole. To electricity, the north pole of the earth is positive.
A positive and a negative attract each other - but two positives or negatives,
are, to one another, unconditionally repulsive. This truth is manifested throughout
the empire of nature. Hence all electrical emanations from the earth, are attracted
by their proper positive power; they accumulate in a general stream, in the
atmosphere, and unitedly flow directly north. This stream is about fifteen hundred
miles wide; it is very thin; and is formed,
about sic miles above the general surface of the earth. This body of electricity,
by undergoing various processes of refinement in its flight to the north, is
totally changed on its arrival there, and thence flies off in an opposite direction.
In other words, those particles which are sufficiently sublimated to change
their electric relations change also their position and locality; that, which
is electricity, cold and negative, previous to reaching the north pole, becones,
by its progressive advancement, magnetism, warm, and positive, upon its arrival
there - when it instantly passes off, in another stream, to the magnetic pole
at the south. There is, therefore, a stream of electricity tending from all
parts of the earth to the north; and a stream of magnetism, evolved or developed
out of electricity, tending from the north to the south. They flow from opposite
sides of the atmospherical evolvement, like a girdle, round the earth. They
occupy opposite positions; because the electrical current is negative and the
magnetic is positive; the former is cold, the latter is warm; and the two as
before stated, regulate all physical motion and balance all temperature. (92)
Electricity is liberated from the igneous masses and mineral bodies in the earth.
It passes from substance to substance, or from stomach to stomach, till it is
ultimately evolved from the earth; when, being highly refined, it forms mightly
stream which runs to the north. On its arrival there it ceases to
be negative; by progressive refinement, it has become atmospheric magnetism.
This magnetism, thus generated, then passes on the opposite side of the earth
to the south. In its passage, and by the perpetual and inconceivable friction
of its atoms, this refined magnetism becomes more highly refined;
and when it reaches the south pole its internal and atomic relations are greatly
changed, and have become too fine and positive for any organism on
earth; and hence it flies off and commingles with the magnetism of immemsity.
Thus the local or special electricity of planets is ultimately
refined and blended with the universal magnetism of nature; which latter element
passes from planet to planet; from solar system to solar system; and,
by its positive and negative relations, regulates all atomic motions and all
physical temperature. (93)
Nature explains how she acts upon the human spirit magnetically. By Electricity
the spirit or nervous energy is chilled and expelled from the surface of the
body to the vital organs and internal membranes; and by Magnetism the spirit
is warmed and attracted outwardly - the two, in a state of equilibrium, preserve
perfect harmony throughout the human organization. It is only by the superabundance
or preponderation of one of these elements over the other, that the spirit is
disturbed, and the body is afflicted with temperatural changes - either cold
or heat , agues or fevers.
The reader will understand that I do not contend that electricity and magnetism
are the principal sources of cold and hear; but he will perceive, as
we advance, that these opposite conditions (cold and heat) are never unassociated
with electricity and magnetism. A cold state is an electrical
state, and a warm state is a magnetic state - the states and the elements are
inseparable. (94)
The galvanic or magnetic battery is constructed of two distinctly opposite metallic
plates or surfaces: the one zinc - the other copper. Zinc generates
a positive, and copper a negative fluid; but this phenomenon can be produced
only by introducing sulphuric acid into the vessels in which these metallic
plates are situated. (119)
Here we find the origin of vital magnetism and vital electricity - fluids which
are vastly superior, in refinement, to that mineral magnetism and
electricity which emanate from the earth, and which flow from its south pole
into immensity. The food we eatk the air we breathe, the water we drink - these
substances contain more or less of the gross kinds of magnetism and electricity;
but, by entering the incalculably numerous and various galvanic batteries that
constitute the human body, these gross elements are inexpressibly refined and
sublimated. What was mineral electricity and
terrestrial magnetism yesterday, may, by this most wonderful process of refinement,
constiture tomorrow a part of what we call our thinking
principle. (121)
In the negative state there will be manifested a preponderation of alkali; in
the positive state, there would be a superabundance of acid; and electricity
is always associated with alkali, and magnetism (or finer electricity) is associated
with acids. (122)
Should there exist a superabundance of electricity, the system will be thrown
into a negative state; because terrestrial electricity repels the spirit
from the surface to the vitals, just as hatred and sorrow cause the spirit to
shrink into itself; but should there exist a superabundance of magnetism,
the system will be thrown into a positive state; because terrestrial magnetism
attracts the spirit from the vital recesses to the surfaace, just
as friendship and joy cause the spirit to come forth from its invisible chambers
to respond to the attraction. (133)
Harmonial Philosophy- AJD
Celestial Rivers in Space
From each of the earths in our system great electrical and magnetic rivers flow
out an in, like a ceaseless tide. On their soft, golden bosom all death-emanicipated
men, women and children float into their celestial home. By the same means they
and all other voyagers may and do return again and again. The flowing and ebbing
of these elemental Gulf Streams correspond in a general way to the forward and
backward movements of the blood from its governmental center- the heart- to
the outermost of the human body. As the crimson fluid of the heart pulsates
throughout the arteries and veins of the buman body, so the magnetic and electric
streams of the upper regions start from geo-centers and helio-centers, flowing
though the heavenly fields. The directions of these streams are as various as
the radial lines from a globe. These living current promote the refinement and
assimilation of atoms among the organs- that is to say, globes – the the
infinite body of God. They form and flow forth between all the solar centers
and inhabited gloves of space, whence they steam onward and inward into the
next great sphere of human existence, which we call the Summer Land.
The earth on which we live is a revolving electrical machine, an immense magnetic
bettery. With a swifness beyond imagination the earth’s electricity streams
in great ribbons and winds iself upon its own natural spool at the North, where
it is transformed into a more refined motive force-an ethereium or celestial
magnetism. This is positive and warm to the nagive and cold volumes of electricity.
Its warm stream, rising high in air and flowing above the South Pole, pulsates
onward and upward, outward and inward, until it breaks like a note of immortal
melody on the shores of the Summer Land.
Note
As there is a vital circulation in the human body so there is a circulation
of living forces between the spiritual world and the several planets. The South
Pole of the earth sends forth a magnetic stream, and the tide passes through
the orbits of Venus and Mercury, very near the surface of the sun, whence it
surges silently but swiftly on till it reaches the Spirit Land. From another
section of the Spirit Land there starts a lighter fluid ,which is also a tidal
river, toward the North Pole of earth, and this is unchangeably electrical.
It is a positive stream which flows from us to the spiritual world and a negative
one from the latter to our own planet. I have observed very often the spirits
of our human friend, when at death they pass out of the corporeal body, ascend
to a height of some seven miles, where they meet with the celestical river and
are transported therby to their Spirit Home. As there are thus streams of communication
between our globe and this bourne of souls, so are there, others which connect
the latter with every world belonging to our planetary system.