Thomas Lake Harris, an American reformer, born at Fenny Stratford, England, May 15, 1823. He was brought to America when four years old by his father, who engaged in mercantile pursuits in Utica, N. Y. By his mother's death and financial reverses he was thrown from boyhood on his own efforts for education and support. At an early age he exhibited strong religious tendencies and poetic imagination. At 17 he began to write for the press, and soon after became known through contributions to newspapers and periodicals. In his 21st year he renounced his inherited Calvin-istic faith and entered the ministry of the Uni-versalist denomination, settling at once over a parish in Minden, N. Y. After a few months, on account of failing health, he went to Charleston, S. C, whence in the following year he removed to New York to become pastor of the fourth Universalist society; but after one or two years he was again prostrated and resigned his charge, in which he was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Chapin. In the ensuing year he took the position which he has since maintained of an independent religious and social teacher, and organized the " Independent Christian Society " in New York, to which he continued to minister till after the outbreak of spiritualism in 1850. He then joined a community at Mountain Cove, Va., and after a few months employed in spiritual investigations he preached and lectured in the principal cities of the Union till 1855. In philosophy a Pla-tonist, in spiritual science agreeing with Swe-denborg, and in sociology accepting the economical views of Fourier, he sought in these labors to turn the public interest in spiritualism in behalf of this larger and higher range of thought.

In 1855 he resumed his ministry among his friends in New York, and established a periodical devoted to his religious and social doctrines. In March, 1857, as he affirms in his "Arcana of Christianity," he was subjected to severe temptations from evil spirits, whom he saw plainly and talked with. The result of the conflict with these demons was that he triumphed over them and gained the power of internal respiration, so that now, as he says, " I inhale with equal ease and freedom the atmosphere of either of the three heavens, and am enabled to be present, without the suspension of the natural degree of consciousness, with the angelic societies, whether of the ultimate, the spiritual, or the celestial degree." In 1858 he visited England and Scotland, and preached and lectured several months each in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Returning in 1861, he retired to his farm in Amenia, Dutchess co., N. Y. Here he was followed by a few friends, interested in or experiencing the new respiration, and seeking to realize a purer social life.

As his spiritual family enlarged he purchased property in the neighboring village of Amenia, organized a national bank, and engaged in milling and other branches of business at that place and elsewhere; and now the family grew into a society, since known as the "Brotherhood of the New Life." He returned to Europe in the interests of the brotherhood in 1866, and in 1867 removed to Portland, Chautauqua co., N. Y., where he purchased for his own account a tract of 1,000 acres suitable for vineyard and agricultural purposes, and adjoining farms of about the same extent for account of other members of the society. Among those who had joined him previous to this were Lady Oliphant and her son Mr. Laurence Oliphant, M. P., and several Japanese of distinction, one of whom is now a foreign minister, and another in high official rank in his own country. Members of the society who hold real estate cultivate it on their own account. No property is held in common. Mr. Harris's own estate affords a place of retreat and means of rest and recuperation to members of the fraternity in impaired health, or to those who visit him from Asia and Europe; while its cultivation gives employment to such of his friends as find in it a congenial pursuit; but nearly all the members of the brotherhood are engaged in active commercial, industrial, or diplomatic pursuits in their respective countries.

The "Brotherhood of the New Life" has no written creed, covenant, or form of government. It is said that it numbers more than 2,000 members, mostly in Great Britain and on the continent, in India and Japan, and that it is held in its entirety simply by the principle of fraternal love, and by an inspiration working through internal respiration, and that its growth, since it never employs proselytism, is by means of its inherent vitality and assimilative power. They claim for this new breath that it descends through the heavens from the Divine Spirit, and that it replaces the former and natural mode of breathing by a respiration which is divine-natural, in fulfilment of the statement which Swedenborg alleges to have been made to him by the angels in the last century, that the existing order of Christendom was in its last stages and should be followed by another resulting from a "new respiration, breathed through the heavens by the Lord." They believe that inmostly God dwells with all men, but that personally and corporeally all are en rapport with good and evil spirits; that self-love and self-indulgence corrupt and degrade the person till the divine likeness is effaced and the man becomes a devil; that salvation is neither by natural progression, nor philosophical self-culture, nor justifying faith, but that man only becomes free from his evils, and from the tyranny and inspiration of evil spirits, through self-renunciation and a life of unselfish labor for humanity; but that in this latter case both spirit and body may become regenerate and pure.

They hold that God is Two-in-one, infinite in fatherhood and motherhood, and that all who become angels find their counterparts of sex and become two-in-one to eternity; hence they recognize in marriage not only a pure ordinance, but the symbol of the holiest of divine mysteries. They hold that the Christian church of the future will not be an ecclesiasticism, but a pure and free society, not communistic, but fraternal and cooperative. Mr. Harris's principal prose works are: "Wisdom of Angels" (185G); "Arcana of Christianity " (1857, 1866); " Truth and Life in Jesus" (1859); "Modern Spiritualism, its Truths and Errors" (I860); "Sermons and Lectures" (1860); "Millennial Age " (1860); "Breath of God with Man" (1866). His poetical works are: "Starry Heavens " (1853); " Lyric of the Morning Land " (1854); "Lyric of the Golden Age" (1856); "Regi-na" (1859); "Hymns of Spiritual Devotion" 1856-'8); " The Great Republic " (1866).