have thought of trees,
flowers, beasts, birds, fish, and the wonderful exhibitions of form
through the vast realm of matter, previous to their existence.

But he had to give them shape in matter--perishable but re-creative
matter; and if the Master-mind of all cannot express his thought
otherwise than with this ever changing, yet ever reconstructing thing
called matter, how can the human soul manifest but through a
spiritualized condition of matter, ever changing yet ever re-creating and
refining, mounting higher and higher, from the earthly to the spiritual,
from the spiritual-to the celestial, on--on--till finally reaches
Deity--himself!

JUNIUS BRUTUS BOOTH

_ACTING_.

All great actors are media for spirit influx. It would be a marvellous
sight if the curtain which hangs between the spirit world and the stage
were uplifted, and the invisible drama which is being enacted exposed to
view. Then would you behold "the airy spirits" to whom Shakspeare so
truthfully alludes, moving like comets in gorgeous light around the
inspired actor!

Inspiration is _motion, acceleration, intensity_; it has no part or
parcel with lethargy.

I recall my past experience, portions of which I review with regret. In
endeavoring to obtain this energy, this motion, this acceleration, I was
obliged in my ignorance to resort to artificial means. A knowledge of the
laws of spirit life would have enabled me to have avoided this mistake;
but that knowledge I did not possess.

The actor of the present day is blessed with the knowledge that he has
merely to throw himself into the magnetic state, and become _en rapport_
with spiritual conditions, to find himself inspired--inflated with the
divine magnetic current which flows from the spirit world to the
inhabitants of earth. If a player desires to represent a certain
character,--let it be the subtle, fiend-like Richard III. or the crafty
Richelieu,--the customary mode of studying such characters is to endeavor
to imagine one's self to be the person. That is the first step towards
mediumship; for it is one degree from the natural, towards the superior
state. Usually, through ignorance, the student proceeds no further than
this point; and the spirit assistants can only partially aid him. But an
actor possessing the knowledge of placing himself _en rapport_ with these
characters, whether traditional or real, is immediately cut loose from
his surroundings and becomes the Richard or Richel