Page:The Other Life.djvu/254

 according to the good or evil passions of the soul. Each one is a centre of attraction to all the similar elements which exist in the interior life of those who approach. The spheres emanating from them are very powerful. A soul undergoing judgment is conducted from one to another, and if there is any similar good or evil in him, he is filled with delight and wishes to stay with his newly-found friends. It may be a transitory connection, such as the chemists would call a feeble combination, and the spirit will pass on to other societies for which he feels a stronger affinity.

In this manner the good and evil in the soul are brought to the surface. Good men who have evils still clinging to them, associate with these evil spheres until their own evils are fully exposed to view, and until by the reaction of the good elements and by repentance, mortification, prayers and even sufferings, they are delivered from them and extricated by the superior attraction of the angelic societies. Evil men are brought in a similar manner into contact with good spheres; and at first they may appear like angels of light, but their goodness and truth being merely superficial, fade away, or are put off, and they escape as from a prison and betake themselves eagerly to those soci-