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    Islington , Sir , May 4 , 1825 . MAN , borne along by the rapid and insensible light of time , approaches the confines of eternity . The curiosity natural to the human mind explores the nature of that country from whose " bourne no traveller has returned ! " Reason has in

    vain explored the awful subject . Revelation alone " hath brought life and immortality to light . " Divines of almost every persuasion have taken up the topic , and have concentrated all the energies of an exalted and illumined genius to the investigation of it .

    These books have been caught up and read with avidity . The pious have dwelt upon them with rapture . Of this description are the well-known treatises of Howe ' s Blessedness of the Righteous , Baxter ' s Saints * Everlasting Rest , and Watts ' s Happiness of

    separate Spirits in Heaven . To these works may be added that excellent Dissertation pf Dr . Richard Price on The Junction of the Good in another State of Being . The object , indeed , of this latter volume is to prove that we shall know each other in a future

    state , and that from this mutual recognition of each other springs an inexhaustible source of our felicity * Dr . Gisborne , also , a respectable clergyman , has published a small tract to the same purpose , breathing a spirit of benevolence and animated

    piety . With these several publications the reader is probably acquainted ; therefore I shall not any longer dwell on the subject . But latterly have appeared two small volumes , evidently written by members of the Established Church . The one is

    entitled The Excursions of a Spirit ; the other , The Vision of Hades , with Notes Theological and Metaphysical ; both very ingenious and worthy of attention . They are the ebullition of imagination , and as such gratifying to the curiosity .

    The Excursion of a Spirit traces the evolutions of the soul through the planetary system , with diagrams pointing" out the road by which the excursions were accomplished . This is , indeed extremely fanciful ; and as no extract would furnish a fair specimen of the work , the reader is referred to its pages for satisfaction .

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    The Vision of Hades is shorter , and more within the bounds of reason , if her suggestions can avail on so mysterious a subject . A few of its pages may be acceptable \ it is dictated by an ardent piety .

    <( f As we entered into this glorious realm ( says the author of the Vision of Hades ) my perception , now refined by an influence which I could not comprehend , clearly distinguished innumerable forms ; some were retired and seemed absorbed

    in contemplation ; some were assembled in groups apparently conversing , and others were chauntfng seraphic hymns of praise , the sounds of which reached me through an atmosphere of the mildest air , breathing fragrant odours and wafting tones of floating melody that seemed to

    move at the will of the happy beings , the radiant islands on which they dwelt . We were now close to a group discoursing ; around them were many attentively listening . My celestial guide desired me to stop , aud this gave me an opportunity

    of examining their forms , which were of the human shape and robed in silvery air , their countenances beaming with angelic character and brightness , yet inferior to the dazzling beauty of my guide , or of the angel of the watch ! My attention was so riveted to their forms and

    appearance that I heard but little or their discourse , but was delighted with the music of their voices . My celestial guide having first made some inquiry of one who was near , bade me follow him . I obeyed , and after passing numberless islands , and at each opening seeing still more of every radiant and varying colour sailing through the space , we arrived at one more retired . Here was

    reclined a lovely form which rose at our approach ; there was something in its graceful air that seized my attention and restrained my utterance ; it . smiled with enchanting sweetness , and with words that thrilled me to the soul , thus addressed the denizen of heaven : ' If this

    is the mortal you wish me to conduct through the regions of the blessed , gladly will I undertake the task . c Inspire him ( rejoined the celestial spirit ) by your precepts to labour during hi , s earthly pilgrimage to ensure your . society for endless ages in a life to come !'—then winged its flight and soon disappeared /'

    A few pages after , the author proceeds in his narrative , affording some explanation . " Who are those ( I exclaimed ) that rush so . swiftly by , and what is the cause of those loud and rapturous shouts they

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    276 & *• Evans on the Employments of Heaven .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1825, page 276, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2536/page/20/