Soul or instinct cannot die!

Observation teaches me that bird, and beast, and flower,

And every creeping thing, which now possesses living power,

Will truly, in another form, enjoy a higher state;

For nothing, which has life below will God annihilate.

What the soul is to the man, such is instinct to the beast;

And if we hold that one will live when from the earth released,

Why then this rule will also in the other case apply—

For Reason teaches me that soul or instinct cannot die!

But that which is repugnant now unto the mortal eyes,

Will, in this blessed world of peace, become most spiritualised;

And all things hideous to the gaze a different look will wear,

As the undying soul unfolds within these mansions fair.

I know that many earthly minds will ridicule the thought

That God has not a single bird, or beast, or flower, forgot;

That He, who, without notice, would not let a sparrow fall,

Has, in a brighter realm beyond, provided for them all!

But as the soul's interior powers develop and expand,

As it unfolds in love and truth within the Spirit Land,

It then will better be prepared to comprehend and see

What now appears so deeply wrapped in doubt and mystery!

The Spiritualisation of Nature! 

What a profound theme for the study and contemplation of the philosophical and scientific mind, and, in fact, of every lover of the beautiful and sublime in Nature! 

Not even the minutest atom of earth or matter is annihilated or lost! 

Each particle contains the elements of immortality, and has its correspondence in the Spirit Life. 

The little flower, when crushed in the palm of the hand, yields a sweeter fragrance. And could the inner sight of man be opened, at such times, he would behold the departing perfume—the life-sustaining principle of the decaying flower—resolve itself into its original form, and ascend, in a more sublimated condition to its native home in the Garden of Paradise.

Twelve Messages from the spirit of John Quincy Adams through Joseph D. Stiles, medium to Josiah Brigham, Bela Marsh Publishers, Boston, 1859