will rejoice as I did to find the literary productions of remotest ages
garnered in the spacious halls of science that adorn our cities.

It is a principle of being--a condition of immortality--as inseparable
from spirit existence as from earth life, that thought should express
itself in external forms. Even the Great Spirit, the Creator of all,
gives shape to his thoughts in the formation of trees, flowers, men,
beasts, and myriad worlds with their constant motion, their sound and
song.

It has been aptly said that the "stars are the poetry of God." He, the
Great Spirit of all, writes his thoughts legibly; and so man, like his
originator, whether living in the natural body or existing as a spirit,
gives outward shape to his ideas; hence books become a necessity of
spirit existence, and the writers from earth have still a desire to
perpetuate their thoughts.

Oral communication is too evanescent, and therefore the dear old books
still find a place in the spheres.

There are various modes of making these volumes, and the writer may
become his own printer.

Some authors prefer to dictate, and a little instrument marks off the
variations of sound which make the word, and thus, as he speaks, the word
is impressed on the sheet.

Others, if the thought be clear and distinct enough, and the will
sufficiently under abeyance, act through the mind upon a conductor, which
dots down the thought in a manner somewhat similar to telegraphic
printing.

The material used to receive the impression is of a soft, vellum-like
nature, which can be folded up in any manner without destroying its form;
it is very light and thin, but opaque, like the creamy petals of a lily.

The phonetic alphabet is used extensively, though we have many books
printed in the mode usually adopted on earth.

All nature is constantly changing and progressing. The bards who sang
upon the earth centuries ago--Homer, Virgil, the Greek and Roman, the
Celtic and Saxon writers of old--have passed beyond the spirit sphere
which I inhabit to a spirit planet still more refined, and have left
behind only the records of their strange experience.

The eighteenth century cannot walk side by side with the third or fourth
century more readily in the spirit world than on earth.

The character of the spirit literature of the present day is essentially
scientific and explorative. We have in our world, as you have in yours,
intrepid travellers--learned men, who make voy