PROFESSOR GEORGE BUSH.

LIFE AND MARRIAGE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD.

The two worlds—­the spiritual and the material—­are like twin sisters whom I have seen, so similar that their acquaintances could not distinguish between them, and yet so dissimilar that an intimate friend would wonder why one should ever be mistaken for the other.

I propose to give a short account of the society and conditions of life in the spiritual spheres.

The Swedenborgian Society of which I was a member while on earth, continues to exist as a body in the spirit world, though Swedenborg, the great seer and founder of that sect, is not a leader among them.  He has his country seat in Swedenborgia, a beautiful and intellectual settlement named after him, where he retires within himself, and directs his great mind in developing his science of correspondences, which he proposes to arrange so systematically that it will become a part of the teachings of earth’s children.

It was never his design to become the leader of a sect, but his desire was simply to reveal like a telescope that which was unknown.  He is deeply interested in the political condition of Sweden, Norway, and Germany, and exerts his vast intellect towards emancipating the minds of those nations from the bondage of church and state.

It is curious to witness with what fidelity Swedenborg described in many instances the condition of the soul after death; and also to perceive in other instances how utterly he misinterpreted the visions presented.

Such discrepancies are incidental to all clairvoyant states; and this is not surprising, for it is incidental to humanity.

Man sees clearly when the prejudices of education and the influence of his loves do not pervert his vision.

What political economist, strongly biased in favor of one mode of government, can contemplate dispassionately an opposing form?

The theological belief which Swedenborg imbibed in his early youth, tinctured his description of the heavens and hells of the spirit world, causing him to represent the soul as reaching a period in its love of evil when it cannot retrace its steps.  The hells of the spirit are similar to the hells of earth, being like them the result of the ignorance and perverted loves of animal man.

What hell more fearful than the hell of licentiousness?  Yet it is merely the animal side of the heaven of love.

Swedenborg discovered hells in spiritual existence, where the inmates lived lives of prostitution.  His statement concerning such hells is true.  Individuals who have lived such lives upon earth cannot suddenly be transformed.  Their habits become spiritual diseases with them.

Now, as to marriage, the mere form does not make the wife different from the courtezan, but her love exalts her above that condition.  If she be united to a man who is repulsive to her nature, and yet submits to his embraces for the considerations of family, or home, or public opinion, she is on the same plane with the courtezan.