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Divination and Augury in a Modern Light.
Concluded.
A
N objection had been made to the spiritualist theory of augury. Spirits still exist and men eager for fortune-telling. Why has the practice declined ?
An explanation of this fact has been given by spirits. Reasons in both worlds have operated to stop the practice. The incarnated half of humanity have become more "material"; that is to say, the masses, who have always disbelieved in anything beyond the evidences of the senses of their material body, have triumphed over tradition and laughed at the practices of augurs and diviners, especially as these became gradually less and less skillful and made mistakes. On the other hand, excarnated humanity became wiser as the sum total of humanity progressed. They began to see that the custom of fortune-telling was not altogether a wise one, and consequently the higher spirits desisted and left the practice to lower spirits or helped to bring the practice into disrepute. The reason why it is not a wise practice is two-fold. Incarnated man began to disuse his own judgment, and, consequently, his reasoning powers and conscience deteriorated from misuse: secondly, it is impossible to tell always who is the operator on the other side: and mankind, ignorant
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