It is a great mistake, and one which even the best of men labor under, to suppose that the soul of man exists alone, and independent of any influences but those that are external to him, and of which he is conscious. We would ask, Who ever saw a grain of matter independent of the law of gravitation,—that cause which binds it to kindred matter with a bond as indestructible as its own existence? It is the same with men’s souls. No man lives independent of spiritual association. Place a man in the middle of some distant and desolate island; yet he is not alone. Around his soul are the spirits of those who have left the world before him, who love as he loves, and think as he thinks. The minds of men and spirits are most closely and intimately conjoined; for in the universe of mind, as in the universe of matter, there is no such thing as isolation and independency. And what can be more philosophical than such a doctrine? The laws of matter represent the laws of spirit; in every particular there exists a perfect correspondence. As matter is everywhere bound to matter, and compacted in firm communion, so likewise are the minds of men to be regarded as a universe of atoms, bound together by loves and affections. In meditating on this subject, we must remember that spirit knows nothing of material space. The church had been declining from the days of the Apostles. Men had forsaken the pure spirit of the gospel, and had sought to hide their evils of life by doctrines and creeds formed from their own darkened understandings. The popedom had arisen; and in the black night of the dark ages, had established its fearful assumptions, and blasphemously invoked the name of the Highest to sanctify its crimes. The Reformation, the last flicker of an expiring candle, had indeed established free thought, but it failed in its highest aims; and in the erroneous doctrine of justification by faith alone, had deadened the consciences of men, and extinguished all aspirations after spiritual life. Last and worst of all, Atheism reared its horrid front, and openly manifested itself; yet what of it was open and confessed, was as nothing to what lay concealed even under the vestments of the church. Toward the middle of the last century, Christendom had reached its lowest point of degradation; and any one who is anxious to test this affirmation of Swedenborg’s, need only turn to the history and literature of that period, and observe the selfishness, the negation and ridicule of everything pure and spiritual, the gross ignorance, the licentiousness and intemperance, and in fact the reduction of humanity to its lowest and most bestial condition. He will then understand the cry of the good, at that time, in the world of spirits, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”