Hope is Eternal

Our life, could I make you fully realise it, would seem strange to you. It is like, and yet unlike, an earthly life. For instance, we eat a simple sort of food provided for us by magic whenever we feel hungry.

If we are in a great hurry to go anywhere, our wills seem to carry us there with the speed almost of thought.

As for sleep, we can spend long intervals without feeling its need, or again, we can lie and sleep for weeks at a time, sometimes semi-conscious of all that has passed, at others, in complete slumber.

Another strange thing is our dress, which never seems to wear out and renews itself in some mysterious fashion.

We do not count time by days or weeks, but only as advance is made in the development of each spirit; when a lesson has been learned, the spirit advances to a higher branch of the subject studied.

Hope is Eternal.

As  spirits, we have all eternity before us, and can stand still or go on as we please, or we may remain where we are until we are ready for the next step, and so on.  

There is no hurrying anyone faster than he chooses to go; no interference with our liberty to live on in the same state of undevelopment if we wish, so long as we interfere with the liberty of no one else and conform to the simple rule of freedom, and sympathy for all. 

None is urged to learn, and none is kept back from doing so; it is all voluntary, and we are free to go where we would; the doors are closed to none, either in going, or returning, and none ever seeks to reproach another with his faults or shortcomings, for each feels the full depth of his own. 

Those who have a strong and powerful motive to rise make rapid progress.