reconciliation of Order and Progression, in Universal Justice, and in the elevation, protection, mutual cooeperation and happiness of all. THISTLE-DOWN. Pale and fleecy, ghosty and white, Onward borne in their unknown flight-- Flimsy and fragile, pure and fair-- Mystic things the thistles are. Drifting about on a windy day-- Ghosty children at their play-- Revelling up above the trees, Hither and thither on the breeze. Slow and sadly, how they fly, Chasing shadows in the sky! Never resting, never still, Through the valley, o'er the hill. Walking round o'er the churchyard mould, Up above the bosoms cold; Flitting past each marble door, Sadly breathing: 'Gone before!' Spectres _wild_ with their viewless steeds, Riding on where nothing leads; Up to the sky when the earth gets brown-- _Ever restless_ thistle-down. Through the forest cool and dark, Never hitting the destined mark; Over the earth and through the air, Downy thistles _everywhere_. Darting in at the open door, Telling of joys that come no more; Robed in grave clothes fine and thin-- Shades of phantoms, ever dim. Up the church-aisles Sabbath-days, Where the dusky twilight plays; Round the altar, o'er the bier, Preaching _more than priests do here_. Solemn are the words they say-- _Silent sermons free of_ PAY; And the _lessons_ they impart, _Never vanish from the heart_. THE LOVE LUCIFER. [The author of 'The Love Lucifer' says in regard to it: 'I enclose a narration of _facts_. Not noted for assurance, I yet feel well assured that its publication in THE CONTINENTAL 'will do uses.'' Should there be any among our readers who have inquired into our modern necromancy, they will not fail to recognize in the excited, wild, incoherent, and uncultured jargon of the spirits of 'The Love Lucifer,' the same style and character evinced by those to whom they may have been introduced by the 'mejums.' The two Bulwers, the Howitts, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the Halls, the De Morgans, &c., have taken a deep interest in these half-comic, half-serious, and always incoherent demonstrations. Perhaps the matter-of-fact experience of our author may shield some of our readers from 'obsessions, delusions, magnetic streams of Od,' be they angelic, human, demoniac, or Koboldic in their origin.--_Ed. Con._] CHAPTER I. The things herein might well remain in soak for one decade, at least. The writer certainly did well to let a dozen sane, practical years pass between these experiences and their narration.