Excerpt from Essays Philosophical and Practical: From the Higher Life, Through the Mediumship of James Madison Allen In obedience to an over mastering desire, suddenly imparted to me from a source seemingly distinctly outside of my own self hood, and asserting itself as a human mind spiritually embodied and individualized, I would take pen in hand and await the further moving of the spirit - wholly oblivious 'to any parti onlar direction or cast of thought, which it might be the design to express, and only intent upon yielding myself up to the simple impulse to write, without having the slightest idea or conception as to what must be written. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.