Henry J. Horn

“ Change marks the footsteps of the Creator. The solid mountain, the firm, unyielding earth, which to the unthinking mind seem durable and eternal in their strength, like mankind carry within themselves the seeds of their own dissolution.
Yet the day will come when man, by the aid of science, will, through these premonitory symptoms, foresee the coming events, even as the wise physician can discern the time when his patient’s soul will leave its body. ”

“ Only permit imagination to have root in the material world. As no man can become a good angel who has not developed his physical nature in harmony with his spiritual, so neither painter nor medium can represent the artistic beauties of the natural world, nor of the spirit world, unless he has had a good physical training. It is only through the _physical_ that the imagination can express itself with beauty and correctness. Truth is beauty, and is always proportionate; the light equalizing the dark, precisely as in the perfection of art a mass of shadow is balanced by a proportion of light. ”

“ The modern school of color differs widely from the Venetian, being crude, cold, and sharp in comparison; and, in accounting for this difference, I can simply state that one can only represent what one sees.
The poetic, dreamy age, when men saw nature as through a veil, is past; the matter-of-fact, investigating mind has lifted that veil, and now sees objects as if in mid-day; but, as no condition is stationary, I am told that the mind is gradually moving on in the world of art to a point where it will again see nature in a more subdued and generalized light, as under the declining sun. ”

“ I should think so: art-love is immortal! You do not suppose that Benjamin West, Washington Allston, Henry Inman, Copely, Stuart, and we Americans who loved our art, would be satisfied with laying down the brush, and would have contented ourselves with singing and playing on cymbals constantly for the hundred years or so that we’ve been here? Now, where there is a will there is a way, and having the will, we have found the way to exercise the genius which God gave us.
Speaking of music, the gift is cultivated here to an extent that would set the _dilettanti_ of earth wild with ecstasy! ”

“ People are fools in religion, and worship as divine the most stupid monstrosities ever conceived of! Only tell the masses that St. Luke, St. John, or Mary Magdalen was the author of some absurdity, which, if you or I had originated, they would scoff at, and they will clasp their hands in mute admiration over that miracle of art!
So it seems to me to be with Spiritualists. Drawings devoid of taste, hard, and out of proportion, are received by them with acclamations of joy, and credited, if they are figures, to Raphael, and if landscapes, to Claude Lorraine or some other great master of art. ”

“ I remember always, after looking at my sitter, I could trace in imagination on the canvas the outline and expression of his countenance. This is what we do: the power of execution is so rapid that the time required for painting a picture might with you pass for a moment; but it is only a trained artist whose thoughts and comprehension are skilful enough to produce an effect so rapidly.
Those who have not learned to give form and shape to their ideas while on earth have to pursue a more painful and laborious process. ”

“ The republican form of government is destined to overthrow all the monarchies of earth. As the world progresses and knowledge becomes universal, individuals will be able to govern themselves.
It has been only through ignorance and superstition, and the limited knowledge of the masses, that the kings and emperors of earth have been enabled to sway their jewelled sceptres over the necks of the people. But their reign is drawing to a close; their glories have culminated; and the day is rapidly approaching when earth will be governed even as the heavens above are governed. ”

“ The semi-barbarous nations, so termed, are in closer sympathy with nature. Life and death, prosperity and adversity, are to them as natural effects as the sunshine and rain of the terrestrial globe.
Their equanimity, their perfect repose upon the bosom of nature, causes them to see more clearly into the future than do civilized nations. There is a spirit of prophecy which does not comprehend the detail, and only takes cognizance of the grand events of life. ”

“ Nearer to the truth was the old Greek nation; a nation which embodied the intellect, the wisdom, and the refinement of the present age.
That nation, in its belief in the government of the spiritual universe, was wholly Polytheistic, believing in many gods, and, as I have said, approached nearer the idea of the form of government as existing in the spirit world, for it is a Republic of Gods.
It is a law of the universe that all vast bodies must be divided and subdivided into smaller ones. Every system is a constellation and every constellation is a congeries. ”

“ I look upon the Protestant religion as unnatural; a monstrous belief which deforms man. So far as I can see, its influence has been blighting. It takes youth, joy, and animation from the world. It grants no indulgence for sin, nor for the mistakes of ignorance. It is cruel and harsh, and men become narrow and self-elated under its teachings.
The Spiritualistic religion resembles the Catholic in its breadth and amplitude, and in its humanizing and equalizing influence. I expect the day will come when all minor beliefs will be swallowed up in these two great religions. ”

“ It becomes a magnet, a loadstone to draw you. Your constant habit of associating it in your mind with the past, creates around it an atmosphere which is a part of your being and welds you to it, so that you, the house, and the deed, become one mighty monster, inseparable. The idea that you can expiate the deed by this self-torture is vain. You can neither confer good upon yourself nor your victim. ”

“ But the scholar 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. ”

“ His influence for good is powerful, and he exerts it constantly.
Theodore Parker and Hawthorne both reside in this city. Parker, as I have been told, when he first came here, decided to devote himself to the cultivation of land; but he has drifted again into the rostrum, and twice a week you may see the fair maidens and gallant swains of Spring Garden wending their way to his beautiful little home and garden in the suburbs, where, amid the flowers, he descants to them, in his eloquent way, on life and the attributes of the human soul, and also upon his earth experiences. ”

“ From the brain of every spirit medium ascends a blazing sun, which burns the brighter when the magnetic relations between it and the spirit world are most perfect. This blazing light, this radiant effulgence, is perceived instinctively, though not knowingly, by every individual who listens to a discourse from a “trance medium.” So from the brain of the actor this glorious light throws out its rays into the assembly, and when he becomes fully inspired, its magnetic influence is felt with overpowering vividness ”

“ Its vegetation is of rapid growth and beautiful beyond anything that your planet can display.
As the atmosphere of the spirit world is not so dense as yours, and as the rays of the spiritual sun are not obliged to penetrate through so much cloud and vapor, the colors of all objects are sparkling and beautiful in variety and tone.
The specific gravity of the spirit upon his globe is not so great, comparatively, as that of man in the natural world. ”

“ So tyrannous and exacting did the Puritan observers of the Sabbath become, that their rigid formulas created a rebellion in the minds of the succeeding generation, and so great has been the reaction, that in our day it has become a common assertion that “all days are alike,” and the steam-car and the horse-car, the coach, and the hack, ply their busy wheels through the streets of our large cities, and the church-goers travel thereon to their different sanctuaries.
“All days are alike to God,” says the reformer; “why should we observe the Sabbath more than any other day?” ”

“ The reason why all artists are not alike inspired by the great masters is that they are not all subject to mesmeric influence, or on the same plane of thought.
Every disciple of high art, I have no doubt, has observed the magnetic quality which seems to pour forth from the canvas of any great master.
This arises from the brain effluvia which they have left upon the canvas, which is more powerful in its quality than a grain of musk, which will impart its odor for a hundred years. ”

“ And in this world among the stars, seeing clearer and further than when I inhabited the lowly planet earth, I look down upon the struggling, dying race I have left behind, and feel still, that the _Roman Catholic religion is the religion for the masses_.
A great majority of men are born into the world but little higher than the beasts that perish. Their spiritual natures, though feeble, need food that is adapted to their wants. That food we furnish.
Our priests, our sisters of charity, our holy fathers, our Benedictine monks, our nuns, are to be found in every quarter of the globe. ”

“ The Christianized world supposes that the form of government now existing in the heavenly system is that of a monarchy; that God is the supreme ruler of the whole universe, embracing not only the little planet Earth, but the countless starry worlds and invisible systems that roll through space. But more directly in its imagination does it place him as the sole monarch and kingly ruler of the spirit world. It seats him in fancy upon a gorgeous throne, material in every aspect of its magnificence ”

“ What is honor? A mere word. What is Heaven? A word—a phantasy. A vaporish place, too delicate and subtle for such fun-loving, corpulent specimens of the Creator’s wisdom as old Jack Falstaff.
O rare Jack Falstaff! He was a child of nature, and to my thinking, his homely phrases displayed more intuitive knowledge of the laws of nature than the finest transcendental imaginings ever discovered.
We shock the feelings of a thousand playwrights and play-goers by asserting that in this impalpable land of souls we are guilty of encouraging the playhouse! But so it is; we cannot live on “honors;” ”

“ I have seen in nature a fair face clouded suddenly—made gloomy and unlovely—by the unspoken thought of another. Thought is contagious—some varieties of it poisonous! I have seen the countenance of an innocent child transformed into ugliness by a poisonous thought. ”

“ No mortal man can describe the horror I experienced on finding myself in the midst of a boundless space, face to face with mine enemy. Her narrow intellect and strong animal nature seemed to have expanded, even as I have seen the face of a child expand from pleasing infancy into idiotic youth. ”

“ The libraries in this world are vast catacombs or repositories of buried knowledge. Here are found histories of decayed races, dynasties, and nations which have vanished from earth, leaving scarce a monument of their progress in art, science, and mental culture. In these libraries the student of history will find the exploits of ancient peoples recorded, and a description of their cities, with the temples and towers which they built and the colossal images which they created. ”

“ I asked hesitatingly, “could Richard have had for his course?”
“Motive? The same that had actuated him through life. With you, Agnes, he would have lived probably as he did with others, until his versatile heart demanded a change. Then, with your little estate in his hands and Herbert’s property in his power, he would have deserted you for some new beauty.
“But let the grave cover his mistakes and evils. I believe that a good God will not punish him too severely for propensities which he inherited.” ”

“ Up a broad staircase he ascended and at a chamber door he paused—then entered. I followed. His presence seemed to cause the very furniture to shake and rattle.
“Here,” thought I, “I will solve the enigma. Here, without doubt, has occurred some grand disturbance of nature. The walls of this apartment, its casements, its decorations, have been witness to some fell crime. The spectre of evil impresses itself upon matter.” ”

“ No theatres or places of amusement would add gayety to the sombre city. The dance and the sound of mirth would be hushed. The inhabitants would walk ever in solemn fear of the awful future that might await them; they would despise their physical frames, crucify their passions, and trample under foot the most divine attributes of their nature.
But the religion of the Mormons is a natural religion; it is primitive. They people the world even as God peopled it in the time of Abraham and Isaac. ”

“ The worlds of light that nightly illume the firmament of earth are not mere spheres of uninhabitable matter, nor are they simply appendages to earth,—glittering ornaments to attract the eye of man,—but vast systems of suns and tributary planets, with worlds whose products and inhabitants far exceed in organized development those of this little planet Earth, whose astronomers are just beginning to realize the capacities of the worlds revealed through their telescopes. ”

“ There are actors who are good, and who acquire fame, who have never felt this divine afilatus. The intellect of the audience appreciates them for their declamation, for the art and artifice which they manifest; but the humblest and most illiterate of that assembly know well that this studied eloquence does not fire the brain.
But it will not do to trust blindly to spirit control; a knowledge and constant study of human nature is necessary. ”