Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTERS. 2 3
chasing shadows than in seeking for these "manifestations." But I agree with Victor Hugo, who says:
1" To elude a phenomenon, to turn our backs upon it
laugling, is to make bankruptcy of truth. The phenomenon of the ancient tripod, and of the modern
table-turning, has a claim to be observed, like all
other phenomena. Root out the worthless weeds of
error, but harvest the facts. When was chaff mn tde
a pretext for refusing the wheat? "
Science pronounces it entirely illogical to suppose
that we exist as individuals after our bodies are resolved into the elements. But logic is a science extremely narrow in its limitations. There may be
phases of existence as much beyond its cognizance as
birds are beyond the observation of fishes. Since Eramerson and Tennyson have been evolved out of the
original cave men, it does not seem to me irrational to
suppose that a continuity of the process may produce
seraphs. I know that the theory of evolution is a continual changing of forms, and that each form, in giving
place to another, loses its own identity. But when
evolution has arrived at such a stage as man, a being
capable of conceiving of higher planes of existence,
may it not have produced a state of things in which
continued consciousness through changing forms becomes possible? There is nothing supernatural. All
things are produced and governed by universal laws.
Bat the trouble is, an immense domain of those laws
is beyond our knowledge. I bow respectfully to Science and I think she is the safest guide we have.
But, after all, she does not go very far.