The first thing that struck me was that truths which are latent on earth are made manifest here.
(Here comes an interpolation.)
You can take my words so easily that we must guard against wasting time in mere verbosity. I must teach you to condense more. We must strike some sort of balance between my brevity and your amplification. At present it is as well to get the instrument into proper working order before worrying too much over these details.
(He then resumed.)
It is as if you turned the old earth garment inside out, and saw the very fabric of it, which the earth looms have hitherto concealed by the warp and woof of the manufactured article.
For instance, you are told on earth that you are making your own future conditions by right or wrong thinking. Here you see the absolute, material results of right and wrong thinking, just as if you were looking at two different patterns, woven by two different workers. I said material results, because matter here is just as real as it was on earth, and just as illusory, in one sense, in both spheres. Your matter is unreal to us. Our matter is unreal to you. The truth is, both are shadows cast by an antecedent reality on the Screens of the Universe.
The screens are the school-houses through which humanity learns its lessons.
Don't be worried! There is no real difficulty in using your hand; it is only trying to compromise between your redundancy and my brevity.
Earth is like a gallery of sculpture. (Note by E. K. B.—This simile had flashed through my brain, and H. D. at once said: "Yes, that is very good; you started it, and I pick it up and apply it.") All the figures and groups are perfected and complete in their marble or bronze or terra-cotta, as the case may be.
Some groups or figures are noble, others mediocre, others again may be sensual and degrading, but they have one quality in common—for good or bad, they are ready made.