The physical phenomena are introduced to show you that even if you doubt the impression, (which is the nearest to heaven,) even if you refuse the thought that is traced upon the tablets of the brain, or the writing performed by your own hand, you cannot attribute it to the imagination of the table - not usually supposed to be endowed with imagination - when that article of furniture manifests the same kind of intelligence that you do, without any protoplasm, or brain cell, or nerve aura, or other fabric upon which this supposed power of imagination can exert itself. When a table, musical instrument, or other objects not endowed with native intelligence, manifest precisely the same order of intelligence that mankind expresses, that is certainly very good evidence that an intelligence is working there which is not the imagination.

But you say it may be the imagination of those who observe it. To this I will answer that imagination is at the foundation of every scientific fact in the universe: that those who are capable of observing the phenomena of the starry heavens and analyzing chemically the atmospheres around you, have, with the same analysis and the same hind of observation, witnessed the physical phenomena in Spiritualism, and if one is imagination, then the whole realm of scientific fact must be relegated to the same region. It is not imagination. Fifteen, sixteen or twenty witnesses do not imagine the same thing; were this so, then thirty millions of people on the earth to-day, capable of observing the ordinary facts of human life, are, of course, under this imaginary power, and they constitute the average representatives of humanity. Such an explanation is not only absurd, but appeals to no intelligence excepting that which is just one degree removed above imbecility.

We are now speaking of facts; and if it is the nerve aura, or that finer power surrounding organic bodies upon which spirits act to produce impressions upon the brain, or upon the hand to write, or upon the organs of speech to talk, then by the contact of that same aura with tables, chairs, etc., they are moved; for every object with which human beings come in contact receives some portion of this aura - the medium furnishing that atmosphere which constitutes the mediumship. It is for this reason, that one individual is surrounded by more of this particular kind of aura than another, or in whom that particular aura is more active, and can be more actively employed, that spirits are enabled to produce these manifestations in the presence of what are called Media. Media are not only those who give forth from their systems, under spirit presence and power, more of this nerve aura, but they also receive more from the surrounding sitters.

In every seance a double process is going on; every individual in the seance room furnishes something of this aura which spirits employ. But that is not furnished directly; it is first given to the medium, then it is employed by spirits, and exercised with reference to the production of physical manifestations by the action of will. One mind influences another human body by the action of the spirit will, which, of course, is more subtle and broad, more in contact with the very forces and direct nature of things.

The table, chair, piano, musical instrument of whatever kind, is performed upon by the influence of this intervening atmosphere, which is humanized atmosphere, (if we may use that term,) and therefore it is necessary at the present time to have mediums in circles. Mediums are sensitives, and they act as receptacles or reservoirs for this spirit power which emanates from every human being, and which is concentrated upon them.

As in a room full of musicians one is chosen, perhaps most gifted in that divine art, to represent the whole, so in a room full of human beings, one may be more endowed than another with this particular kind of atmosphere, and upon that the spirit world are enabled to exercise their volition in the moving of bodies.

You say this may be very clear, but it is scarcely understandable. I told you it would not be at the beginning; but this is a correct statement of the method, and if your understanding is not commensurate with it, it is only necessary for you to take the stepping-stone that will lead to this conclusion by the careful analysis of nature, and by the analogy which the illustration affords.

If it is possible for a disembodied spirit to control one atom of matter by the power of volition, or the word I prefer to use, clairvoulance, or clear-willing, then all the phenomena in ancient and modern times ascribed to miracle are here explained - not that miracle is less, but it admits you into a realm where miracles are the natural expression of life.

Everything connected with the world of mind, whether it be human beings here or the disembodied spirit, is miraculous. Why? Because it is the result of the action of superior laws not known in the world of physical science, of a super-science, so to speak, that forms the entire fabric of the spiritual universe, and is miraculous because it is supernatural.

I like the word supernatural. It means that which is above the ordinary laws of nature; that which sets them aside and is beyond them; and as matter is under the control of laws that are regular and in certain routine, so spiritual forms are under the control of laws that arc the result of volition; and the only absolute law which can he said to govern any phenomena connected with the spirit of man when disembodied, is the law of superior will, that will being the result of knowledge, of goodness, of spiritual attributes.

By will we mean that which commands; that which is able to command by its superiority of force.

As stated before, the great solvent of the universe of spirit and its contact with mortals is the solvent of human sympathy and of spiritual love; but the methods whereby that love acts upon the various forces that are yet hidden and dormant in your atmosphere and in your spiritual being, must he the result of slow education and constant unfoldment. Nevertheless, each manifestation of Modern Spiritualism, every form of mediumship, every expression of the will-power separate from yourself and separate from the organic processes of daily existence, forms a priceless fact in the treasure-house of this wonderful system of philosophy and religion. And it behooves those who are receiving phonomena daily, not only to observe carefully, if possible, the conditions under which they come and to keep a careful register of all those facts, that they may be afterwards employed to illustrate the principles upon which this communion takes place, but above all and beyond all, interpreted in the light of the absolute science of earth. There can be no formulated statement, in the present stage of human thought, that will adequately portray the influence or force that spirits exercise in their contact with earth.