But the laws they pursue fail to explain to them the causes of existence, or of the variation and mutability of form, the origin of mind, or the source of power. The facts presented before them from time to time cannot be reconciled with the theories they have entertained. Important links in the chain of scientific evidence concerning the nature of things they fain would forge, as they are wanting here and there. These learned (?) spirits, with all their splendid endowments of mental ability, erudition, and conservative thought, become restless, dissatisfied, and unhappy. When they discover that they are not dependent upon a mortal body for their existence, they are amazed, and even annoyed, to find their preconceived opinions and conclusions concerning earthly matter refuted by the one great fact of continued conscious life after the dissolution of the physical form; and they do not feel prepared to accept the spiritual life that opens before them. Ask such a being of the beauty and peace of the higher life, and he would declare to you his inability to find such conditions,—that to him all appeared confusion, disorder, fleeting, and unsubstantial. The reason of this is clear to a thinking mind. The spirit who has hitherto held the utmost confidence in his own mental powers and ready discernment; who has believed his own position on any subject incontrovertible; who has thought his opinions and conclusions to be unquestionable, and who has been accustomed to lay down his propositions and theories with the secret feeling that they must demand attention and an early acceptance from all others, suddenly becomes aware that he has been treading on dangerous ground, that those things, ideas, and conclusions that he thought so weighty and undeniable are but fabrications of his own mind; that he has followed false lights, because he has recognized but a small portion of the universe and believed it to be the whole, and has understood the operations of but a few of its laws, and thought they were the great network of all force and power. No wonder that this being cannot see clearly before him; that his surroundings appear chaotic and disorderly, and that the ground seems slipping from beneath his feet. His _mental_ condition determines the character of his external state, and he perceives naught but the reflection of the conflicting emotions that surge through his being. THE DAWNING OF SPIRITUAL LIGHT.