“I will now conduct this circle into the chamber of hope. There came to me a messenger from the sixth circle. He told me of things which will be no wrong to relate. It was a prediction of future good. You may follow me.”
We followed him to the chamber of hope. The messenger then appeared, and said:
“This is the circle of Hope. All who will receive, and do the words of hope, will hear my speech. Before me you see a great wonder. It is the mountain of Hope in the arm of God. On your right, you see the sun; on your left, the moon; over your heads, the stars; beneath your feet, the fifth circle; and behind you, a road. This is the circle of prophecy. Here causes and their effects may be traced through successive generations, and their results clearly demonstrated. You will soon be addressed by a mind of this circle, who will aid you to the desired wisdom. He will relate what events will transpire in the progress of truth and wisdom, in the development of rudimental minds.”
A mind soon commenced by saying: “Pilgrims of hope, the mind who hopes will realize. Hope can not be entertained for things which are not. It is the reality which gives birth to hope. The reality is shadowed on the mind with such evidences as conditions will allow. Hope is expectation of good. Mind will sometimes limit hope. It will fix times and seasons for the hope of good, to be realized. The darkness of ignorance suffers temporary disappointment. Hope will prophecy truthfully. Wisdom sees the thing hoped for. The mind intuitively anticipates good. Its nature is full of promise. Its conditions sometimes create doubt and despair; but, unobstructed in its exercise, it hopes forever. We are not without hope. We will say, no mind can exist without hope. It is nature. It is the law of mind immutably established to hope. Mind will hope, and no condition, in any department of the universe, can exclude all hope. It may be dim. The dense darkness of low circles admits only an occasional ray to penetrate the dismal cell of ignorance. The mind of superior circles admits a greater number. This circle sees what other circles hope for. The joy of our minds is the anticipation of good in them. They walk by faith, and we by sight, concerning the good they expect. It is a good which the reality transfers to them through the intervening circles. Each circle conveys a lesser light, until the last receives a feeble ray; so you will see the fulness of hope, as measured to lower circles, actual realities here. You will see the wonder of wisdom revealed in the economy of hope. Minds uncultivated hope in a less degree, than minds of wisdom. The rudimental condition shares in the joy of hope, proportioned to the wisdom of its condition. In one circle, it is but a ray; in another, it grows brighter; in a third, it is glorious; and, in the fourth, it is more glorious. But what these circles hope for, even in the highest exultation of anticipated good, is as much less than the reality, as light is more glorious than darkness; I will say as the sun is more glorious than the stars.
“The sun reflects rays of light. It is the orb of light. Its rays touch the palace of kings and the wigwam of barbarians. It gives light to the rich and the poor, the wise and the unwise, to the free and the slave, to the enlightened and the ignorant, to all nations and all countries, and moons and stars in nature’s unmeasured expanse. It gives what will bless, and make happy; unasked, its rays illumine, and banish the darkness of night. The day is not partial. The day is wisdom—a blessing to the world. It is not a special or partial blessing; but it is a blessing in harmony with the law of God. It is a blessing unstinted and measureless. The sun is the work of God. It is his wisdom which made it. It is his love which has ordained the sun to give light to all. It is his power which formed the sun for the good of mind. All things which he has made, are adapted to good. The mind which sees the sun, as a work of God, and the rays blessing all things, may hope for good. He who has made the sun a blessing, may make want satisfied with reality. The sun gives hope. It is without stint in its favors. So, is the wisdom of God manifest in the natural world. He is wise. His works are wise. All things are made in wisdom. Ignorance may mock at blessings, but nature offers no contradiction. Folly may scorn the lesson, but hope expels the scorn. Superstition may have her admirers, but reason fills the soul with confidence. Would mind know God, it should study his works. The dreams of midnight may conflict with the stern realities of nature, but they are dreams without hope. The wild vagaries of uninstructed mind may mislead the weak, but the voice of nature speaks the language of love. Bigotry may frown upon free inquiry, but the smile of wisdom is more congenial to mind than the envy of the miserable. I will see the sun, though doubters may challenge my sight. I will gaze upon its blessings, though bigots may call it sacrilegious. I will admire nature, though crowns crumble, and steeples fall. I will gaze on the works of God, though opinions falter and rites perish. The wide world is my home, though chains and prisons, frowns and fears, mark the circle of those who defy a creed that abolishes neither. The time will come when the chains will be melted, the prisons demolished, the frowns made smiles, and the fears overcome with hope. When the sun, in yonder smiling heavens, is taken as the work of God, and nature is acknowledged to be the standard of righteousness, the hope of the soul will rise above the misty darkness of sensuality and wrong. The sun is emblematical of nature in the profusion of her blessings. Adaptation is seen in the economy of all nature. Mind needs light, and light is not withheld. Light needs mind, otherwise it would be vain. So, with the moon. It imparts what it has received. It gives to bless. It meets the wants of mind. On the right and on the left, above and below, all things are adapted to their respective conditions. The stars reflect the mighty power of God. They shine. They give light. They bless, and curse not. They do good, and not evil. They minister to the wants of mind. They rest not in their love. They are full of good. Wants are strangers there. The wisdom of God will lead you to the full enjoyment of all that hope can embrace; and, in due time, the wonders of other globes will be opened to you, and to me, and to all who will journey to them. This circle will hear the instruction of another mind, and listen attentively to the words of Hope which will inspire you with the promise of good, yet concealed from your vision.”
“Pilgrims: in the progress of mind, there is an extension of the vision. Far in the distance, development discloses the reality of things, which mind has hoped for. The seers of other days were aided by this circle. Things were revealed, which have come to pass, and which will take place. The windows of the future were thrown open, and prophets saw the truth. The sight was extended through successive changes to successive results. The intervening links of cause and effect, being omitted in the history, have answered the purpose of superstitious veneration, and worked the circles for whose benefit they were intended into awe and subjection. But the time is approaching when the philosophy of prophecy will be understood, and appreciated. The degree of wisdom, essential to endow mind to clearly perceive the future condition of themselves or others, appertains to this circle.
“The mind who inspires the seer, merely informs him of the fact, which is intended to be effected. It is a fact which must be in harmony with causes, and the causes are surveyed to the result. The seers merely announced the fact. They announced what the mind, who inspired them, impressed them to relate. The mind of this circle is one mind. Hence, the mind who inspires of this circle, inspires the will of all who belong to it. The resolve of one, is the resolve of all. As all resolve, so one inspires. When a work is resolved upon, the whole power of this circle is brought into requisition to do it. The labor is calculated with mathematical exactness. All the obstructions are surveyed, and all the advantages canvassed. When the result has been determined by a wisdom that can not err, the mind may inspire, or impress the reality upon those who have not the sagacity or wisdom to see it otherwise. It is to them, in their condition of ignorance, a subject of hope. In like manner, when the workings of nature are traced in their mysterious windings, and the complex conditions of cause and effect are understood, the results of the same may be determined in wisdom. This determination is also the result of causes, immutable as mathematical demonstrations. Therefore, the seers of old were inspired by the wisdom of a circle, capable of determining results of causes, with the same unerring precision as the mathematician calculates the time and duration of an eclipse, or the appearance and disappearance of a comet. The whole result must be infallibly correct. The science of mathematics is the science of this circle. Euclid has given rules. Nature divulges more. The former are well. The latter are better. The former were true to nature; but the science was not perfectly understood only in degree. The latter comprises the infinite, the former the finite. All development is progress. It is the accumulation of facts in the mind. It is the power of wisdom.
“When the mathematician predicts an eclipse, or any wonderful phenomena in the material world, the prediction does not make the fact, but the fact is discovered by mathematical calculation. All causes and their effects are considered, as well as the uniform and invariable laws of nature. The result is sure. Demonstrations have prepared the mind to calculate the movements of orbs, and the relation which they sustain to each other. In like manner, an extended knowledge permits a mind to calculate the movements of planets, and suns, and stars of other systems. And, when the mind is sufficiently developed, it can calculate the movement of mind. It can survey the influences which control it, and calculate the wisdom which will be required to produce a desirable result, or avoid an impending calamity.
“Minds are stars in this system of nature. They differ in wisdom, power, and glory. The wisdom of the fifth circle is less than the sixth. The sixth seal unveils the future with the exactness of demonstration. It unlocks the mystery of prophecy. It makes hope a wisdom of fact. It discloses the reality of the thing sought. It opens a world of coming events, and saves the mind from all uncertainty. It corrects the wisdom, which makes the natural supernatural. There is nothing above nature but God. He is supreme. Nature is his work, and it is the natural work of his wisdom and power. Mind is the work of God. It is a star amid other stars. It is a sun amid other suns. It is subject to law, as are planets and stars. It is moved by laws. Attraction and repulsion control it. Like and dislike exert an influence. When the condition of mind is understood, and the amount of wisdom is possessed by another mind to calculate the power of attraction and repulsion necessary to produce a result, its position may be defined, and its movements determined for successive generations. The weight of attraction is not the same in all materials, and therefore, allowances must be made for the difference. One mind may be very empty, and consequently light, when compared with another. The force of attraction will accordingly be less. It weighs less than more solid materials. The lower the circle, the less it weighs; because it is empty of wisdom, or contains but a small fraction. Attractive forces may be estimated by the distance between them, and the weight of those forces. When mind is attracted by mind, it is because of the power which one exerts over the other. The influence is proportioned to the weight. The heavier body must control the lighter. The lighter can not govern the heavier. Attraction is with the most weight. That weight is wisdom. Consequently, the wisest attract the less wise; and it never can happen, that the less wise can govern the wise by attraction. Hence, in the philosophy of nature, two bodies unlike each other, repel each other. They separate by natural law, as they unite by natural law. The wisdom of this law is to avoid unlike associations. The minds unlike separate by the law of repulsion, and there must be a violation of the law to keep them together. So, with minds of like affinities. The weight of attraction unites the two, and they can not be disunited without a disturbance of the law which holds them together.
“Hence, you will see the reason why minds in this sphere are attracted to a higher sphere, as we have been attracted to this. The weight of wisdom is far removed from earth. As mind ascends from earth, so attraction grows stronger, and hurries it along with greater rapidity. But minds in the rudimental condition, being far removed from the source of wisdom, are influenced in a less degree than those of higher circles. But, as they are attracted by wisdom, it must be upward. No forces attract downward but gross and impure. The downward force is repulsion. It is not wisdom. Hence, folly and ignorance are attracted by folly and ignorance, and, when thus attracted, the wretchedness of mind is severe. Never will the wisdom of the wise be attracted with the folly of the unwise.