which draws congenial spirits together here, act with equal or greater force in a purely spiritual state of existence? Then, by the proper operation of that law, will not the good and the intellectual seek each other's society, there as here? But, in that world, the possibilities and the opportunities for such friendly meetings must be indefinitely greater than in this. Here, the law of space interferes: here, lands, seas, and mountains intervene between the man of science or of benevolence, and his fellow, whom he longs to see and to converse with. But not so in the world of spirit. There, is no barrier of fixed space interposed between those who desire to enter into communion. There, is no distance except that which is produced by disagreement in thought and feeling; no dividing lines but those of opposition of character and uncongeniality of mind. Between the good and the evil, indeed, there is a "great gulf fixed," because they are, in their own natures, "wide as the poles asunder." But those, with whom there is harmony and oneness of spirit, and who wish to be in each other's society, there is nothing to separate, and therefore they cannot but come together, and enter into high and sweet communion.
Moreover, as already shown, in that world there is not succession of generations, as in this, but simultaneous existence of all who have ever lived. In this world of time, by the operation of the law of succesion, the great and good of different ages cannot personally know each other. One goes, before another comes. Homer had passed away from earth, centuries before his admirer and imitator, Virgil, was born. Dante died, when Petrarch was but a youth, not old enough to know his great predecessor. And when
