Page:Randolph, Paschal Beverly; Eulis! the history of love.djvu/207

202 attributes, or constitutional bias and tendency. To all such there is a surer, better, safer, and grander road, and that is self-development, by means entirely within the reach of every one, and which are within their will and control; and which require but the elements of Time, Patience, Assiduity, Persistence, and periodical effort to ensure, if not complete success in soul-sight, then in those other qualities, powers, and attributes essential to perfect human character.

That agency, I hold, is some form of the spirit-glass or lens,—not the "Urim and Thummim," or metallic breast-plates used for purposes of divination, and worn by the priesthood, as recounted in the Bible; nor the stones and crystals of later days,—but the perfected spirit-seeing or magic-glass, formed of materials prepared in the Orient, and fitted for use in Paris, France. These are of two generic kinds, and also of diverse grades, sizes, sensitiveness, focal power, and magnetic planes,—because those made for, and adapted to, one line of use, are not so well suited to different lines: And First. The common kind averages about eight inches by seven, and is a true Æthic mirror adapted to ordinary ends, such as invoking the dead; and the other purposes for which they have for ages been used.

The difference between the spirit-seeing mirrors, such as are described in "Seership," and the methods and materials of their construction therein set forth, and those hereinafter described, is the difference between a first-class gold repeater, and a common cylinder—escapement watch. Both are time-keepers, but one is vastly superior to the other. The materials of the two classes of mirrors are quite dissimilar; and the labor expended on those hereinafter described, is simply enormous, for after they come into the hands of us of America, they cost an immensity of toil, in cleaning, polishing, heating, bathing, and magnetic manipulation, and this it it is that renders them valuable, and adapted to the uses for which from hoary antiquity they were intended. I have seen a very small crystalline mirror, weighing less than a pound, for which the owner demanded $4,000 in gold coin, and was not at all anxious to part with it even at that price. Second. The larger and finer ones of