CHAPTER XXII. THE CIRCLE.

 

ALL the details of our conversation need not be entered into; suffice it to say that we all, excepting Lady Agnes, shortly after visited the squalid place poor Bridget had called home. Teddy had been arrested, and was in jail. Her disfigured body had been decently laid out for burial. The neighbors, together with one or two relatives, were preparing for a grand wake, which means, I suppose, to light her soul through purgatory. The children would be taken care of for a few days, at least.

 

Poor Bridget was bitterly disappointed because they could not see her, and wailed sorrowfully.

 

"Och!" said she, angrily; "vat's the use o' bein' a ghost, at all, at all? whin ye can naither go to hiven ner hell, an' yer own flesh an' blood canno' seen ye? But I'll sthay to me own wake, sure! fur it's a wake that delights me harrut!"

 

She was prevailed upon to go with me to my dear ones, for I now made it a point to visit my husband and children on all available occasions. There had not yet been many changes in my own home worth mentioning, and as Bridget was determined to stay to her own wake, one of her white-robed daughters remained with her; the younger of the two, the graceful, dark-haired girl returning with me to the Hall. When we entered the parlor, we found many ladies there conversing together in the most animated way.

 

Lady Agnes, on perceiving me, said:

 

"Ladies, allow me to introduce to your notice Mary, a pupil lately admitted to this Hall."

 

I bowed. The ladies saluted me cheerfully, and I took a seat where I thought I should be the least observed, listening with some curiosity to the conversation.

 

"Yes," replied a large, fine-looking lady, to a question that had been asked her, "telegraphy has become a success on the earth, and together with it, Spiritual Telegraphy! Many spirits have been able to produce sounds similar to those made by the electric batteries; we have already been heard and heeded, sentinels have been appointed and stationed near all the greatest sensitives who live on the earth: we shall never cease in our efforts until heaven and earth clasp hands, and are united in an indissoluble union."

 

"But we shall be beaten back by the churches," said the first speaker.

 

"Yes; the war between spirits and the churches will be a desperate one, still, we well know that truth and right will at length win the victory."

 

"They are about to declare war between the North and the South, are they not?"

 

Yes; and the result will be the emancipation of the slaves; the result of the war between heaven and the churches will be the emancipation of the priest-ridden, creed-bound slaves belonging to the churches; but the war between heaven and the churches will be a long and bitter one; hundreds of mediums, or sensitives, must be sacrificed before the Victory is gained, and all must suffer, be wounded, insulted and slandered, but the war will not end until every creed-bound slave is set free."

 

"You certainly cannot mean that the Romish Church will fall, and her votaries lose their galling chains?"

 

"I do; although, at first thought, it would seem impossible; but, believe me, all things are possible. That great Scarlet Woman of Babylon must fall—will fall,— for Truth is a conquering hero; the light of day cannot be kept out of the Romish Church. She may be the last to succumb, but fall she surely will! There are vast armies of spirits here, who were once Roman Catholics, and they have all found that the teachings of the Church were erroneous, and thousands of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children are attaching themselves to their loved ones still in the flesh, gently and silently impressing their minds with the truth. How, think you, will the Church be able to ward off this great, silent, unseen foe, who marches straight on resistlessly as the waves of the ocean, or as rays of light from the sun? They build their churches large, strong, and high, but the Church walls are not the people, the Pope of Rome is not God or wisdom, and the priesthood are not angels. Can the Pope of Rome resist the flaming sword of Truth? or the priests conquer the angelic world? Their foe comes from a quarter entirely unlooked for. They are looking for outward foes, when the true foes of the Church will be entirely within its own heart, within its own brain, within its own walls. Civil war will free the black man civil war will free the white man from a bondage of error worse than slavery; every priest-ridden soul who comes to this world is sighing and struggling to span the gulf between themselves and their loved ones on earth; this gulf will soon be spanned, and they will tell those loved ones all about this life, and when truth is made manifest, how long will the Romish Church be able to stand?"

 

"Not long, I think," said the first speaker.

 

The large lady now turned, and made her way to where I was seated: she took my hand, with a smile, and placed herself by my side.

 

"Lady Agnes has been speaking to me about you," she said. "You are one of the vast number who earnestly desire to span the gulf, and, when your wish is accomplished, will you not tell the truth to your loved ones about this life? Will you not tell them what you find, and how you find it, regardless of the teachings of the Catholic Church?"

 

"If I am ever able to reach my loved ones, and make them comprehend who I am, I will surely tell them the truth as I find it; as surely as I hope for happiness; as surely as that I love my widowed husband and motherless babes!" was my solemn and earnest reply.

 

"Very good! and we have thousands upon thousands here as loving and earnest as yourself; yet all "Must be taught how and by what means to accomplish the desired result. This little band of ladies present, are about to pay a visit to a circle of friends who are yet in the body, for the purpose of communicating intelligently with them; that is, the earthly circle will be well aware that they are communing with the souls of the so-called dead. You will be able to learn much, and perhaps assist a good deal: this will give you more pleasure and do more good, no doubt, than it would to kiss the hem of a saint's robe or a pope's toe."

 

I felt a blush of shame rise to my face, shame for the superstitious ignorance of those whom I had called my people, shame for my own ignorance—and with it a strong determination to learn as much and as fast as I could. I gladly consented to go with this party of ladies; my heart bounded joyfully at the thought of soon being able to learn how to reach my husband and children. We were

 

soon on our way, and presently entered a room where a small party of ladies and gentlemen were seated around a table: it was a common dining-table of hard wood, and the hands of all present were laid flat upon it.

 

"Now," said the large lady, who had informed me her name was Esther, "observe carefully all that is going on," and I gladly heeded her admonition.

 

I saw pale waves of magnetic light emanating from all the hands of those who sat at the table. The table appeared to be a conductor of these waves, and they all flowed toward one particular lady, who was sitting with the others, and were absorbed by her; thus she seemed to be filled more fully than the others, or the others were robbed that she might have a surplus of magnetism, the light of which radiated from her, surrounding her like a halo. Immediately one of the spirit ladies of our party entered this aura, which was a perfect conductor of thought, and by these means the spirit lady was able to stamp upon the brain of the sensitive her own thoughts, or the knowledge which she possessed; stamp them as clearly and forcibly as a photographer stamps the face and figure of the one, who is sitting for the purpose, upon the sensitive plate. Soon, by force of great desire or will-power, she controlled this medium or sensitive, as a mother controls her child, to speak and write that which she wished her to speak and write, so that it really was the spirit lady who wrote and spoke, and not the lady seated at the table.

 

I looked on in wonder and surprise, and was so delighted that I clapped my hands for joy. "Surely, the gulf was already spanned!" but not known to me. O, it was a great thing to have wisdom!

 

My attention was now directed toward a gentleman, one of the persons at the table, and I observed an aura about him, but differing from the pale magnetic aura surrounding the lady; this aura, instead of being amber or flame-colored, was of a greyish hue: Esther drew me along with her and entered this aura, at the, same time whispering to me:

 

"This aura, which I am about to enter, is a surplus of elementary carbon. Now, see what I shall do with it."

 

Immediately after she entered it I heard snapping sounds like the explosions of percussion caps or the clicks of a telegraph apparatus, and I readily saw just how Esther was making these sounds. Her own aura was pure magnetism, and each time she sent forth her thoughts and will-power, they carried with them a corresponding amount of magnetism which ignited an equal amount of carbon, and the explosive sounds were the spirit's rap, and the table was the sounding board against which the explosions struck and resounded.

 

Now, the party at the table asked questions, and it was understood that one sound was to mean No, two sounds were to mean Don't know, and three sounds were to mean Yes, and Esther answered each question as it was propounded, to the best of her ability, at the same time talking with me.

 

"Mary," she said, smiling, I am not all-wise, all­powerful, and there may be questions asked here to­night which I am not able to answer. I have not been in the spiritual world very long, myself, but so far as I can, all shall be answered truthfully. This gentleman calls me his control, meaning that it is my spirit who controls him. He loved me very dearly when I was in my mortal body, and we were engaged to be married, but a contagious fever sent me hither, and he seeks me sorrowing; he does not seek in vain, as you see."