burglars, pirates, and the like, the society of those of like character. The law is universal. Everywhere like ones have an affinity for each other; and by the force of such affinity they are drawn and held together. And it is only in the society of like ones that they feel quite content and at home. They are then free and feel at home, because they feel at liberty to act out themselves—to speak as they think, and do as they desire.
And the same great law is observable everywhere throughout the domains of animated nature. Beasts, birds, fishes and insects are found grouped according to this same law. Those of the same species are found in the same group, because of their mutual affinity. They love to be together. Nor does this law cease to operate even in the lower kingdoms of nature. Every tree is but a group of homogeneous fibres, and every simple mineral a group of homogeneous atoms which are drawn and held together by force of mutual attraction. There can be no doubt, therefore, about the universality of this law; and if universal, it must exist in heaven as well as on earth.
But setting aside the argument from analogy, is not the wide diversity observable among men, viewed in connection with the fact that every one takes his own character with him into the other world, sufficient of itself to prove the distribution of the heavenly inhabitants into many distinct societies? And from what we know of the law that governs in human associations on earth, we may infer the law that governs in angelic associations in heaven. It is the law of spiritual affinity. In heaven as on earth, those nearest alike in character
