sitive-nerved people on earth, resulted from the infernal
possessions and obsessions of their persons by delegations from
those realms of darkness and (to all but themselves) unmitigated
horror. A sensitive man or woman--no matter how virtuously
inclined--may, unless by constant prayer and watchfulness they
prevent it and keep the will active and the sphere entire, be led
into the most abominable practices and habits."

This same writer, in the same work, pp. 108, 109, says:--

"Those ill-meaning ones who live just beyond the threshold, often
obtain their ends by subtly infusing a semi-sense of volitional
power into the minds of their intended victims, so that at last
they come to believe themselves to be self-acting, when in fact
they are the merest shuttlecocks bandied about between the
battledores of knavish devils on one side, and devilish knaves
upon the other, and between the two the poor fallen wretches are
nearly heart-reft and destroyed."

A work by A. J. Davis called "The Diakka, and their Earthly Victims,"
mentions the nature of these denizens of the spirit world, and their
wonderful location. The country (to speak after the manner of men) which
they inhabit, is so large that it would require not less than 1,803,026
diameters of the earth to span its longitudinal extent. This he had from a
spirit he calls James Victor Wilson, a profound mathematician! This space
is occupied by spirits who have passed from earth, who are "morally
deficient, and affectionally unclean."--_Page_ 7. The same spirit, Wilson,
describes the diakka as those "who take insane delight in playing parts,
in juggling tricks, in personating opposite characters to whom prayers and
profane utterances are of equi-value; surcharged with a passion for
lyrical narrations; one whose every attitude is instinct with the schemes
of specious reasoning, sophistry, pride, pleasure, wit, subtle
convivialities; a boundless disbeliever, one who thinks that all private
life will end in the all-consuming self-love of God."--_Page 13._ On page
13 he says further of them, that they are "never resting, never satisfied
with life, often amusing themselves with jugglery and tricky witticisms,
invariably victimizing others; secretly tormenting mediums, causing them
to exaggerate in speech, and to falsify in acts; unlocking and unbolting
the street doors of your bosom and memory; pointing your feet into w