This joy continued for some months, but afterwards the
circumstance which occasioned it became so familiar that
now the whole has ceased. I am informed that spirits and
angels attendant on other men see not the least of the
things of this world, but only perceive the thoughts and
affections of those on whom they attend.
There is a vast amount of true philosophy in these



SPIRIT LIFE. 97

remarks. Space is one of the conditions appertaining
to matter.
Mr. Thomas Lake Harris, whose community in
America has been joined by Mr. Laurence Oliphant,
has in trances given forth volumes of both good and
inferior inspirational poetry; his trance utterances
were taken down in shorthand, and afterwards pub-
lished. In his magnificent inspirational poem, A Lyric
of the Golden Age (Thomson: Glasgow, 1870), the
spirits influencing him thus describe the spiritual
power of communicating information by vision and
impression : —

• •••••

Men cannot teU the secrets of the life

Beyond the portals of the natural sphere ;

At best they dimly shadow out the truth, —

Too glorious 'tis for mortal minds to bear.
When mortal puts on immortality,

Corruption incorruption, when the grave

Hath lost its sting and death its victory,

When, free from all the passions of the earth,

The soul becomes a conscious element

In the One Harmony that moves through all,

Man is translated to a realm of thought

Incomprehensible to minds in time.
A language infinite in thought, whose tones

Are as the accents of Almighty God,

Assumes the place of the external tongue.
He speaks as ne is wrought upon by powers

Innumerable and beyond himself,

And can at will in perfect freedom change

His state each hour, as crystals change their hue,

Turned at a varied angle to the sun.
