n accordance with
the peculiar development of the pre-existent spirit.

The history of individuals thus circumstanced can be more clearly
discerned than others. Prophecy in bold and clear characters foretells
the events which will transpire in their earth life.

In like manner Jesus, the celebrated child of Bethlehem, had lived a
pre-existent life on earth. He had reigned over a people in his previous
life, a wise and loving king. Vague remembrances continuously fluttered
across his vision and colored the thoughts to which he gave utterance.

When his mother conceived him, she was not conscious; delirium of
religious ecstasy, superinduced by priestly influence, rendered her
oblivious to events, and enabled this wise, tender, loving king to take
the place of the native spirit. Christ never married in this life,
because the spirits which possessed him were not male and female.[A]

[Footnote A: The well-known eccentric character of this writer while on
earth may partly explain the singular views here set forth. ED.]

The power of foretelling the future is yet in its infancy. Coming events
are said to cast their shadows before; and as the barometer indicates to
a skilful eye the approach of a storm when no sign is visible in the calm
sky above, so the events which will befall an individual are marked upon
the delicate spiritual barometer which forms a part of his being, and can
be read with unerring precision by the clear and practiced eye of the
optimist.

PROFESSOR MITCHELL.

_THE PLANETS_.

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.

Many of these worlds have existed centuries prior to the formation of the
planet you inhabit, and their inhabitants have attained a degree of
civilization which only time can give to you.

The intellectual development of many of the dwellers of these planets is
as far superior to your highest state of culture as your condition is in
advance of the first stages of barbarism.

Men of earth erect temples to their God--their Deity--which to them are
im