708. My sentiments are much like those which Socrates expressed. _I hope for a future world, and therein to have a happier existence._ All those reasons which have been advanced by wise and good men in favour of such futurity, operate upon my mind as upon theirs; but if there be no such a state of future existence, I shall _never wake up to feel my disappointment_. It _will only be a prolongation of a state of oblivion analogous to that which we enter upon transiently, every night_. 709. The incentives which have acted upon you, act also upon me, and I have seen some of the manifestations on which you rely; but not so satisfactorily. The answers which I have received have not been worthy of the other world. 710. A message from my own father, amounted to this: “_Oh, my son, listen to reason_;” and there it ended. Several similar nugatory sentences have been manifested through the alphabet. 711. I have, however, constructed an instrument to put the question of independency of intelligence to the test. It works independently of any control of the medium, as the letters, which must be seen to bring them correctly under the index, are concealed by a screen. (Plate I.) 712. The sentence above quoted was communicated in this way. 713. I am about, by this contrivance, to test the manifestations farther. ROBERT HARE. MORAL INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUALISM. 714. Among the best precepts afforded by the gospel is that of laying up treasure in heaven, in preference to seeking to become rich in this world. To pursue the last-mentioned course has been alleged to disqualify us more or less for entering heaven. Certainly, however, honest exertion for the acquisition of wealth is the corner-stone of human prosperity, and money seems in most instances necessary to the effectual exercise of that fellow-feeling in the cultivation of which human virtue pre-eminently consists. (See Influence of Mundane wealth on Celestial Happiness.)