721. As an illustration of the manner in which happiness may arise from the indulgence of good propensities, one of the enjoyments of a spirit of the fifth sphere is, as I am informed, in looking after children of relatives and friends, who have not as yet followed them to the spirit world.
722. Believing in the existence of a spirit world, where there are thirty-six grades of existence, corresponding to degrees of purity and intellectual acquirement,—purity alone giving exaltation merely, while cultivation of mind secures breadth of consideration,—we have, in the first place, to adhere strictly to truth, honesty, justice, benevolence, and doing as we would be done by, to reach a sphere higher in proportion as we are more successful. Yet, among those on the same plane, superiority in mental attributes gives precedence.
723. Nothing is better known than “while precepts may lead, examples draw,” and that subjection to bad examples, even when checked by good precepts, is generally irresistible by the young. But when there are no precepts to check, but, on the contrary, ill counsel as well as bad example, few human beings, however well constituted organically, could resist the tendency of such educational evil. Let bad hereditary propensities be superadded, and what can ensue but a climax of wickedness? Manifestly, however, all this is independent of any choice on the part of the victim. A high degree of virtue may consistently be inferred to result if all these conditions be inverted, and good precepts, good examples, co-operative in improving a mind of the opposite kind, one which owes to its progenitors goodness of heart and high intellectual capacity.
724. Much stress is laid upon free-will, but is will ever free from the joint control of reason and passion? What is will, if it be not the resultant of the conflict or co-operation of these? It may be a question whether, without passions, a man would act at all; but certainly he would act like an idiot or baby, so far as his will should be entirely independent of his reason.
725. It must be conceded, then, that the prodigious diversity between virtue and vice is the consequence of contingencies, which are no more under the control of the individual affected than the colour of his hair or the number of cubits in his stature.
726. The great features of the spiritual religion are, as I understand them, as follows:—Its foundation is laid in the belief of an all-good Deity, whose power is manifested to us by the immensity, profundity, sublimity, ingenuity, and adaptation of the means to the ends in the creation ascribed to the co-operation, if not origination, of his mind. The Bible of the spiritualist is the book of nature—the only one which by inward and outward evidence can be ascribed to divine authorship.
727. In this book we read, as matters of fact, that there is an infinite series of gradation in the rank of animals, as well as variety in their dispositions and propensities. This may be seen, from the half-animal, half-vegetable known as the polypus, up to man, there being gradations not only of genera, but of species and varieties. Thus amid men there are various races, rising one above the other in development, from the Bushman, Hottentot, or lowest Negro, up to the most highly-developed race of white men. But when we have passed through the gradation of the races, we have to enter upon that of individuals, who in the same race are by diversity of organization or education, or of both, made extremely different as to intellectual, moral, and scientific pre-eminence.
728. It is difficult for human reason to reconcile with impartiality this immense diversity in the lot of the creatures of God; but that such is the law of nature is self-evident: it is an intuitive truth. To reconcile it with the all-goodness of God, we must suppose a limitation of power, and that it has been beyond his power to put created beings more nearly upon a level. But, as Seneca observes, all have received more than they had a claim for. Some may think that the parable of the hiring of labourers for a vineyard, conveys an idea like that of the Roman sage.
729. These considerations being premised, it would seem that punishment in the spirit world is only the carrying out of the same system, excepting that while the deficiencies or vices which have arisen in this world become a punishment in the next, they also operate as the means of improvement, or, to use the language of that world, of “progression.” It may be inferred that as in this world the power of the Deity, although commensurate with the all but infinite universe in which we exist, was so restricted by conditions as to induce that enormous diversity of position in the scale of animation which has been presented to view. Yet in the world to come these defects and vices are liable to be remedied; and, though they react upon their victim, it is with a view to his own ultimate benefit. There is not a malevolent devil to seize the poor miscreant, and, like the savage Indian, torture him with a fiend-like pleasure. He is regarded with compassion, and as soon as contrition is induced, treated with sympathy by the higher spirits, and assisted by counsel and enlightened by instruction. Unable any longer to indulge his bad propensities, the desire of rising to a higher level becomes a passion. Intellectual and social pleasures begin to be enjoyed. So long as he remains under the influence of his mundane appetites, he has to consort with spirits who are similarly actuated; they read each other’s mind, and thus are made acquainted with the deformity of their own. They eventually thus become instrumental in reciprocal correction. So soon as an aspiration for a better state is awakened, they rise to the next plane or circle above that in which they may have been existing; the only difficulty is in taking the first step. Progression grows with its growth, and strengthens with its strength, so that all beings may sooner or later attain to the highest sphere in the spirit world. It should be understood that there is no pardon for existing sin. Pardon can only exist as a consequence of reform, and in proportion thereto. ([92].)