E-text prepared by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/beyondbe00hubbrich Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). BEYOND by HENRY SEWARD HUBBARD [Illustration] Boston Arena Publishing Company Copley Square 1896 Copyrighted, 1896, by Henry Seward Hubbard. All Rights Reserved. Arena Press. BEYOND TO LOVERS OF THE TRUTH, WHATEVER LAND MAY CLAIM THEM FOR ITS OWN, TO THE EARNEST MEN AND WOMEN OF MY TIME, THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. PREFACE. A word of explanation in reference to my title may be appropriately given here. By Beyond, I mean what is sometimes called the unseen world, but which might better be called the immaterial world, since that which distinguishes it from the world proper is not merely that it is invisible, but that it cannot be made visible to mortal eyes. However, I have not assumed to treat of all that the word might be made to cover, but have confined myself mostly to that territory, with the entrance to it, which may be said to adjoin the earth, and which therefore is more immediately interesting and important to be acquainted with, and have addressed myself especially to those who seem to be constitutionally unable to perceive the reality of this other world, although willing and anxious to be convinced. If there is any one thing more than another which I hope to convey, it is that the truths which pertain to the superior life do not conflict with common sense, however they may rise beyond the perfect grasp of that power of the mind. HENRY SEWARD HUBBARD. INTRODUCTION. TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, Greeting. I had known for some time that I had a book to write, but not exactly how I was going to set about it, when there fell under my notice the following appeal, whose unique and touching eloquence, I venture to say, is without a parallel in our literature. "There have always been those, and now they are more numerous than ever, who maintain that the dead do return. "Far be it from me to dogmatically negative the assertions of honest, earnest men engaged in the study of a subject so awful, so reverent, so solemn, where the student stands with a foot on each side of the boundary-line between two worlds. "We know a little of the hither, can we know aught of the thither world?" 'How pure in heart, how sound in head, with what affections bold,' should be the explorer on a voyage so sublime! Never from 'peak of Darien' did the flag of exploration fly over the opening up of a realm so mighty.