DESCRIPTION
Published in 1868 | 428 pages | PDF reader required
PREFACE
It may interest the reader, before entering upon an examination of this volume, to know what brought it into existence.
About six years ago, I published a book entitled "The Penetralia." It was filled with replies to questions put by investigators who have been developed and multiplied, to an unexampled extent, by that extraordinary and influential movement of modern days, commonly denominated "Spiritual." In that volume is the following language. "The author does not presume to believe that his replies will be either final or gratifying to those who occupy different positions in regard to the several subjects considered; and yet his spirit is animated with the hope that, to such minds, the following pages may suggest, even more than they express, high thoughts and saving principles."
That the "replies" communicated in that book were neither final nor sufficient in variety to meet the ever-rising necessities of man's immortal mind, is proved by the appearance of this volume. Here are presented newly awakened "Answers" to newly arisen "Questions," which have been freely and frequently put to the author during the last three years. The following interrogatories, which have not been replied to in any previous volume, are selected from a formidable pile of correspondence. Hundreds of questions have reached the author from persons who have not read anything on the subject. To such, the Answers hereby imparted will come like a revelation from a new world of Truth; while to those who have read and investigated, the following pages will seem "familiar as household words.''
But the thinking, progressive public, will find in this volume many new, curious, useful, and interesting truths touching the great facts of Future Existence. These truths are to men's minds what air, light, and moisture are to grains, grasses, flowers and fruit—the means of fertility and expansion. Sometimes a single sentence will illuminate the uneducated and unhappy mind, as a single flash of lightning will light up a dark and dreary forest.
I have not written with the fear of public opinion before my eyes, but have approached the "Questions " with the conviction that "the withholding of large truths from the world may be a betrayal of the greatest trust."
That this sequel to the "Penetralia" may bring new light into the world, and be the means of spiritual growth and happiness to mankind, is my very earnest prayer.
A. J. DAVIS
New York, October, 1862