from the other world are all agreed as to the pleasant
conditions of life in the beyond. They agree that like
goes to like, that all who love or who have interests
in common are united, that life is full of interest and
of occupation, and that they would by no means desire
to return. All of this is surely tidings of great joy,
and I repeat that it is not a vague faith or hope, but
that it is supported by all the laws of evidence which
agree that where many independent witnesses give a
similar account, that account has a claim to be
considered a true one. If it were an account of
glorified souls purged instantly from all human
weakness and of a constant ecstasy of adoration round
the throne of the all powerful, it might well be
suspected as being the mere reflection of that popular
theology which all the mediums had equally received in
their youth. It is, however, very different to any
preexisting system. It is also supported, as I have
already pointed out, not merely by the consistency of
the accounts, but by the fact that the accounts are the
ultimate product of a long series of phenomena, all of
which have been attested as true by those who have
carefully examined them.

In connection with the general subject of life
after death, people may say we have got this knowledge
already through faith. But faith, however beautiful in
the individual, has always in collective bodies been a
very two-edged quality. All would be well if every
faith were alike and the intuitions of the human race