Glimpses Of The Next State.Pdf - Spiritualists' National Union

184investigator to provoke such a result. His function is to state, as clearly as his idiosyncrasiesallow, all that he has seen and heard, apart from family matters and intimate conversation withfriends, and leave the consequences to those who read his account. It is not his business to concernhimself with whether his readers believe him or not, nor to enter into any sort of propagandism.I am sure that those who read my book will acquit me of discourtesy if I tell them that it is amatter of indifference to me whether they credit what is in it or not. If they do, it will prepare themfor what they may experience themselves if they go forth on the quest; if they do not, it onlyindicates that they are not yet in that condition which enables them to assimilate a new idea. Thereis plenty of time; if they reject my experiences as inconceivable, their children and grandchildrenwill not do so. Kature is a judicious mother; she does not intend that new truths should beassimilated quickly. The fact that the world is round was known to the few a thousand years beforethe Christian era, but many centuries had to pass before this truth was accepted by the inhabitants’of the West as a whole ; indeed, there are people who pass as intelligent in England who do notbelieve it to-day; I have met one at least. Again, centuries passed before it was generally believedthat the earth moved round the sun; the ebb and flow of disputation has at last convinced themasses that such is the case.Spiritism has been in the air for four thousand years at least, but not yet has the timearrived for it to be fully assimilated. It will come more quickly in Great Britain than in America;but in neither country will it take deep root for many years—perhaps not before the end of thiscentury. Backwards and forwards will flow the tide of belief and the ebb of angry denial until, aftermany long decades, a general agreement will be arrived at.It is not in the public interest that such revolutionary facts should be easily believed.Imagine what would happen if all the inhabitants of the British Isles were suddenly to come to theknowledge of what is in store for them, and how near to them are the relations they have loved andlost. Hosts of men and women would be running to mediums, and leaving their legitimateoccupations for the excitement of the seance-room. Misery and hopeless destitution is the unhappylot of hundreds of thousands in this country. They cannot (in their opinion) be worse off than theyare; why not cut the slender cord which binds them to their present life, and risk the evils of thenext, with hope of reaching a state of happiness hereafter? No! Nature abhors these suddenearthquakes in the continuity of evolutionary changes.My publication is a duty; but it will be productive of little apparent good. Years hence, othertravellers will return from far-away countries charged with electrical conditions such as exist inNorth America, and will tell of pictures they have seen precipitated, forms they have seenmaterialised, songs they have heard sung by invisible people, and voices they have listened to whichgave them definite information of public and private importance. In that day there will be morepeople than there are now who are prepared; they will look back into the records of formerinvestigators, and find that a poor old gullible naval officer, who had ceased from his professionallabours, once saw and heard the same curious phenomena. This will make them think: “Can thesestrange sights and sounds happen to two (or more) men who were unacquainted with one another,and who lived at different epochs, without there being some truth in what they have related?” Moreinvestigations will follow (let us hope, on more sensible lines than obtain in the present day), andthere will be more acrimonious discussion. Conjurers will, of course, have their pickings. But thefinal result is certain; truth, however long deferred, will prevail in the end. Spiritism will beaccepted as a fact, and will profoundly modify the present ghastly conception of death and the dayof judgement.When a man sets out to describe events outside of ordinary human experience, he is in dutybound to give some account of himself; if he does not, those who read his narrative have a right toquestion his powers of observation. And, the more remarkable his experiences, the more necessarythe justification he is bound to show that he has, at least, the same natural powers of seeing andhearing as the average professional man or man of business.At the age of sixteen I entered the surveying branch of the Navy, and remained connectedwith the hydrographic department of the Admiralty, in some form or the other, for thirty-fiveyears. When I left I had commanded six surveying vessels, and had been in charge of five surveys in