From Earth's earliest dawn to the blaze of Day,
I traced Progression's footprints all the way.
Through the Earth I looked, and read each page
Progression had penned from age to age:

I saw how Motion with Minerals came
Enkindling together an electric flame

In Ocean's depths, near deltas in the Sea;
I saw the germs of future plant and tree.
Vitalized by the life of all earth and air,

I saw those seedlets open, put forth, and bear;
Beneath the water first, then on the shore,
Then climbing hills, and spreading more and more,
Till ferns and pines, herbs and fruits and flowers,
Bedecked the scene like Eden's fabled bowers.

Yet Nature had her Mornings, Noons, and Nights Eras reaching to their sublimest heights, When the Sun of success in mid-heavens shone, And Creation's chant was at its highest tone.

But to Progression Nature's ever true:

So, with Time, Night crept up the avenue;

The Evening brought sleep, the Night brought death,
And the whole was still as the stillest breath.

Now fierce Storms set in; contentious Thunders
Went forth to battle; the Earthquake sunders
Continents; Oceans, inly troubled, did swell,
And falling Mountains tolled the signal-bell!
No words can picture those terrific nights,
When youthful Earth passed from depths to heights;

No conflagration, however deep or dire,

Could symbol forth the blaze of inward fire!
Peaceful Isles to flaming Mounts would turn
Here a Vale would sink, there a Valley burn.
The Alps, the Andes, the Appennines, and Seas,
The inland Lakes, great Hills, and giant Trees,
Like angry gods, did burn, and heave, and sigh,
And belching Mountains sent their flames on high !
If all the gods, that dwelt in Grecian skies,
Had changed all good to evil, all truth to lies

Had Saturn's scythe changed to fiery swords,
Had Apollo's music sunk to angry words,
Had Cupid's love been poisoned down to crime,
Had Minerva filled with misery all the clime,
Had Pandora's box been o'ercharged with evil,
Had Jove become a Christian's Devil,

Had loveless, dreaded, hateful, warful Mars

Respired the terrors of all fallen stars,
Had Prometheus kindled the fires of Wrath,
Had Neptune scattered earthquakes o'er his path,
Had Venus become Vesuvius' bride,.

And Juno, envious, sprang to Etna's side,

Had Pluto sundered his infernal gates,

Had the Graces changed to iron Fates,

Had Love all turned to hate, all peace to strife,
All fortune to famine, all death to life,
Had Pan exposed Charybdis to the world,
Or 'gainst dark Scylla's side all Nature hurled

The scene would not have seemed more sublime

Than did Earth's first steps along the track of Time !*

A carbonic air, encircling all the main,

Shut out the spangled skies from peak to plain ;
The world-wide storm swelled the Sea-lord's breast,
And the thunderbolt-forger felt all the rest.
Old Neptune's trident shook both land and sea,
And Vulcan telegraphed Venus down to tea!
Descending Venus sought the dark abode,
And soothed the labors of the grisly god.
With radiant eye she viewed the boiling ore,
Heard undismayed the breathing bellows roar;
Admired the sinewy arms and shoulders bare,
And ponderous hammers lifted high in air;
With smiles celestial blessed the dazzling sight,

And Beauty blazed amid Infernal Night!”

This storm of Earth-reform had spent its strength,

And morning stars shone brightly out at length.

*It is positively true that, at the time of this writing, the author knew nothing of these mythological characters.

Anon, I saw the prophetic lights of coming Day!
The Sun-King's car rolled up the rosy way.

He smiled upon the scene! Oh, how sublime!
For Night had wrought a change in Earth and clime.

I saw new landscapes outstretched around;

New lakes, new seas, new herbs, upon the ground. Each monumental cliff chronicled a change,

And "Progression" was taught by every range!

But, unlike Earth's tides, not back whence it came

But onward, Truth-like, knowing no retreat,
Ever outfolding forms both small and great.
Like ocean-waves, ages on ages flow,

Bringing to light what was hid in depths below:

Thus I saw new fish, new birds, new brutes appear,
From founts of life which had changed with the year.
I saw the plant, while 't was young and gay,
Refine grosser matter from day to day;
Performing its mission with grace and ease,
And load with fragrance each passing breeze.
I saw Creative Life a world of beauty bring,
Contrasting meadow-maid with forest-king.
Wisdom shed its broad effulgence round,

Wedding Beauty to Light, and Music to Sound;
Giving to Air a sweetness, to Land and Sea a power,
A quality to every seed, to each a flower.

Then the animal: one little fly was made,
From changing matter, and sought the shade;
I saw it visit flowers, then the sweetest vine,
Now the sturdy oak, now the waving pine.
Then a bird from other climes passed by,
For which I heard the saurian-lizard cry.
Filled with thought, I read the pages o'er,
And, as I woke, I heard the lion roar.

Thus Creation was progressive, and I did scan
The various steps of passage up to MAN!

And in this manner was laid "the corner stone" of that magnificent organic temple whose heaven-aspiring dome is THE HUMAN MIND!

The object of this chapter, as I have several times explained, aside from the purpose of eliciting thought and reverence for Nature and God, is to prove that man's mind contains within itself all necessary scientific and intuitive evidences of its imperishability. Those who, looking philosophically from an exalted plane, are so happy as to discern this constitutional truth, have no need of going to the Scriptures, no need of going to the outside analogies, no need of external testimony from seers, nor prophets, nor spirit manifestations; because we have in ourselves, as I comprehend the soul, indubitable and incontestible demonstration, that not only the essence but the form in which we find the essence are as eternal as God.

I have followed and described the primal processes of Nature until she formed the first animal germs; and have shown that, through pulverized rocks, minerals, and vegetable matter, by the operation of two forces, called positive and negative, or male and female, we behold streaming a perfect prophecy of all ultimates. We have watched this system of the animal creation from the first germ up to man; and now we are prepared, I trust, to trace man up to spirit. In order to bring to your intellectual faculties proof that the soul is indestructible in essence and form, I must re-affirm our first proposition, viz.: that Nature elaborates the body, and works to the end of a perfect marriage between the cerebrum and cerebellum. Therefore, this beautiful earth is not 66 a vale of tears;" a fleeting show for man's illusion given." The ultimate object of Nature is most beneficently, affectionately, and wisely, to bring forth that seedling called the human organization. The fundamental principles established in previous pages show that Nature works to some grand and magnificent

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ultimation; that she has something more important to do than playing with the dirt at our feet, or with the viscous mud beneath the ocean. Principles do not play idly, but are working sublimely out the grandest Ideas. The proposition is, that man's organization contains all forms and substances is an ultimate of all organic systems-and that all forces and all essences terminate in man as a finality. The organization of the reptile, the bird, the marsupial, the mammial, and of all the inferior and intermediate. types or races are brought up to, perfected, and individually lost in, this one grand type of the whole. It is the effort of the tree' of righteousness-of the tree of Nature-to accomplish this one great result. Consequently, there is nothing new or strange outside of man; nothing but what is embosomed somewhere in the depths of his consciousness. And, from this, we maintain that man's internal affinities can not be overcome. There is nothing in the segment of iron, in any mineral compound, in any anatomical structure, in any physiological function, in any psychological process, in any spiritual sphere of being, which may not be found fundamentally, germinally, radically, or prophetically, in, man, either in partial or full development. Let us consider this:

Man contains all minerals. Of this assertion, my first proof is, that he can consume some portion of every mineral. Of this, the whole medical world stands as a demonstration. The allopathic school of physicians prescribe minerals to fight down disease. Sickness is a great misfortune, but employ a mineral physician and you have a greater. Nevertheless, our proposition is demonstrated by the workings of allopathic medicines in the human body. Like sustains like, else tissues and membranes would in every case be destroyed by these harsh prescriptions. A living man can take the per-oxyde and super-carbonate of iron, or any other preparation of this mineral, because there is something of the same element in his constitution. Upon close analysis, iron will be found in every human structure. True, the organization may