Page:Dealings with the dead.djvu/63

 (and this explains why all men and women array their breasts in white bosoms, frills and laces.) The bandeau, the zone, girdle, jewels, all symbolized an affection, aspiration or quality of the inner being; and as these latter change, so also do the former. The law is imperative, because it is a thing of the soul itself, whose external manifestations invariably—in the soul-world—represent its inward states: moral, religious and intellectual. In the light of this explanation, therefore, no one need marvel at the radical changes in my personal appearance. We shall throw much more light on the general subject when next we treat of the mysteries of being. The present undertaking being merely prefatory, as a matter of course, confines us to the mere superficialities of a realm whose vastness exceeds all human conception. In reference to the wrinkles of my hands, and their sudden disappearance, enough has been said; yet for the information of whoso chooses to profit by it, I will merely add here, that as Time only affects man in his outward relations, it cannot, of course, bring wrinkles on his features, for souls do not grow old by years; albeit they do grow old by experiences,—without reference to duration, but only as to depth and intensity. A single week of mental agony will ripen a soul far more than would fifty centuries of clock-beats, passed free from the sorrows aforesaid. Let it not be forgotten that there are two distinct and dissimilar worlds beyond the grave, nor that I had rapidly crossed from the first to the second stage of my transmundane existence. One of these is the mere external world of Spirits, wherein a life, analogous to 3*