398 THE WORLD OF LIFE chap. 



every spirit has been derived from the Deity, only limited 

 by the time at the disposal of each of us. In the spirit- 

 world death will not cut short the period of educational 

 advancement. The best conditions and opportunities will be 

 afforded for continuous progress to a higher status, while all 

 the diversities produced here will lead to an infinite variety, 

 charm, and use, that could probably have been brought about 

 in no other way. 



This is also the teaching of modern spiritualism, and by 

 this teaching its existence is justified and its truth upheld. 

 Such teaching pervades all its best literature, of which 

 Poe's Farewell to Earth, given through the trance speaker 

 Miss Lizzie Doten, in 1863, is one of the most remarkable. 1 

 He tells us of the educational value of much that we term 

 pain and evil in the following lines : 



" Gifted with a sense of seeing, 

 Far beyond my earthly being, 

 I can feel I have not suffered, loved, and hoped, and feared in vain ; 

 Every earthly sin and sorrow I can only count as gain, 

 I can chant a grand ' Te Deum ' o'er the record of my pain." 



Again, he shows us that struggle and effort are essential 

 for progress there as here : 



" Human passion, mad ambition, bound me to this lower Earth, 

 Even in my changed condition, even in my higher birth. 

 But by earnest, firm endeavour, I have gained a height sublime ; 

 And I ne'er again — no, never ! shall be bound to space or time ; 

 I have conquered ! and for ever ! Let the bells in triumph chime ! 

 ' Come up higher ! ' cry the Angels. ' Come up to the Royal Arch ! 

 Come and join the Past Grand Masters, in the Soul's progressive 



march, 

 O thou neophyte of Wisdom ! Come up to the Royal Arch ! ' " 



1 Of the more serious books dealing with the ethics and philosophy of 

 spiritualism, I will only direct the reader's attention to two : Spirit Teachings, 

 by W. Stainton Moses, M.A. ; and Psychic Philosophy, as the Foundation of a 

 Religion of Natural Law, by V. C. Desertes. To such of my readers who wish 

 to obtain some knowledge of the higher aspects of modern spiritualism, I strongly 

 recommend these two works. As an example of its highest literary achieve- 

 ments are many of inspirational poems in Miss Doten's Poems of the Inner Life ; 

 while a still higher standard is reached in A Lyric of the Golden Age, by Thomas 

 Lake Harris. This is a poem of 400 pages, which for a sustained high level of 

 beauty, grandeur, and moral teaching has few if any equals in our language. 



