the post mortem existence of human kind, which I had ever heard or read, gave me the satisfaction that my soul desired. I suspected that many of the current notions regarding the lands beyond the curtain, were, to say the least, largely tinctured with the mind of the individuals through whose lips the oracular utterances came; consequently I became, to a degree, suspicious of all modern eolism and eolists, because I feared their inspirations had not so high and deep a source as they claimed, and is claimed for them.
My mind, in this respect, is still unchanged. The first lesson that flashed in upon me, after the mysterious clarification of soul to which allusion has been made, was this: People on earth spend a great deal of time in acquiring lessons which have to be unlearned, upon their entrance on the upper life;—must be unlearned, ere they can advance far in the acquisition of the rare treasures of knowledge, to be found only by the true seeker, even in that mighty realm which constitutes the soul-world.
God has placed all true human joys, there, as well as on the earth, upon high shelves, whence they cannot be taken by proxy;—they must be reached for by those who would have them; and the more precious the joy, the higher the shelf;—the more valuable the volume, the greater effort is required to obtain the perusal thereof. This is the first great law.
Now, in collecting what purported to be scraps of knowledge, from the realm of spiritual existence, I found on my entry there, that I had laid up quite a store of falsities in the magazines of my soul:—laid up great heaps of what I supposed were the gold and
