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Now this captain had only just faith enough in his pilot to save him. He did not have that degree of faith needed to raise him entirely above his fears, in view of dangers so apparent to his reason. This degree of faith demanded the exercise of even a higher faculty than his reason, for it apparently conflicted with reason. But gospel faith, in its highest exercise, never conflicts with reason, although it sometimes transcends reason. But the different gradations of faith, from the mere saving faith to that all-conquering faith, which allays all anxiety and solicitude, under the most adverse circumstances, depends upon the different organizations and surroundings which determine its development and growth. And all these manifold variations and gradations are ultimately to perfect into that sound and vigorous faith which Christ inculcated, and is the stock upon which all these spiritual gifts germinate into natural fruit.

QUESTIONS FOR THE CLASS.

The following are some of the questions I proposed to the class for discussion, some of which were allowed to be discussed, and many were not:

1. Do true Christians die with unrepented sins upon them?

2. Does death, which is merely a natural law of the body, affect the spirit; or does the extinction of merely animal life produce any change in our spiritual life?

3. Is it not the spirit that repents?

4. Why then cannot the spirit repent when disconnected from the body?

5. Does the truth ever change?

6. Can people have a difference of opinion on the same subject, and yet all be correct?

7. What causes this diversity of belief?

8. Will all equally good people see the truth in just the same light?

9. How ought we to treat those who we think teach error?

10. Should we accede to the errorist the same right of opinion we do the advocates of truth?

11. Are we to expect new moral truths to be developed at the present day, since the canon of scripture is complete?

12. Does progress in knowledge necessarily imply a change of views?

13. Is not the platform of common sense the platform for a common religion to stand upon?

14. Are bigotry and intolerance confined to any one church, or is this "Great Beast" found in all churches?

15. Can there be "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," without a mutual yielding of sectarian views among all denominations of Christians?

16. Have we any reason to expect that a Christian farmer, as a Christian, will be any more successful in his farming operations than an impenitent sinner? or, in other words, does the motive with which we prosecute our secular business, have anything to do with the pecuniary results? And if not, how is godliness profitable?

If any of my readers would like to see my answer to the sixteenth question, I could refer them to my second volume, where they will find it in connection with a full account of my jury trial before Judge Starr, of Kankakee city, where my sanity was vindicated; and my persecution is there demonstrated to be the triumph of bigotry over the republican principles of free religious toleration.

This trial was not allowed me until after an imprisonment of three years, when, by the decision of the court, it was found that I had not been insane, and thereby had been falsely imprisoned all this time. The way in which my incarceration was secured will be found in the following narrative of facts.

The First Volume delineates the facts of this Persecution from the time I was kidnapped -- through the period of my incarceration -- until I was returned an involuntary victim into the hands of my husband, with the prospect of being again imprisoned for life in an Asylum in Massachusetts.

It may be a satisfaction to the readers of this volume to know, that the facts herein stated have been authenticated and corroborated by the Illinois Investigating Committee, appointed by the Legislature of 1867, to investigate and report the result to the Governor; which they did on the 2d of December following. In this Report, the writer, with others, were acknowledged as competent witnesses in the following language, viz.:

"The Committee have entire confidence in the belief, that all these witnesses had a clear understanding, and comprehended, when examined, the obligations of the oath administered to them; and in an unusually intelligent manner testified to matters within their recollection, and were prudent and entirely honest, and testified to facts as they believed them to exist. Neither of them exhibited any appearance of a disordered intellect, moral obliquity, or defective memory and therefore, to reject their testimony, appeared to the Committee as calculated to defeat an investigation after the truth, and possibly subvert the ends of public justice."

The object of the First Volume is to delineate the internal management of Insane Asylums on their present basis, for the purpose of educating the public mind into the imperative necessity of a radical change in the treatment of the insane. And this effort is to be followed by an appeal to the State Legislatures for laws to meet and remedy the evils herein portrayed.