676. There is a surprising degree of coincidence between the speculations comprised in this quotation, and the accounts which I have received respecting the spirit world from some of those occupying an elevated grade therein. It has been observed above that if the soul be immortal, it cannot be imagined to remain in the grave, since the greater part of the human organization in hot weather escapes through putrefaction, as vapour or gas. Hence the endurance of the soul after death involves spiritual existence. We must, therefore, on dying, take an invisible spiritual form. 677. Believers in revelation stare incredulously when mention is made of a _spirit_, as if its existence were an impossibility; yet it has been shown, that according to orthodoxy, death extricating the soul from the body, it must forthwith commence its spiritual life. The existence of spirits being thus established, that they should communicate with us would be more probable than that they should not, excepting that it has not been heretofore generally known to take place. But spirits allege that the manifestations which have been taking place for some years have been the result of efforts especially made by a delegation of philanthropic spirits, to break through the partition which has so long prevented the communication to mortals of a correct knowledge of the existence of the human soul after death, and the requisites to the attainment of celestial happiness. 678. The accomplishment of this object is a step in the progressive advancement and the means of improvement possessed by the celestial world, analogous to the invention of printing or of the telegraph in the mundane sphere. 679. The management is intrusted to advanced spirits acquainted with the affairs of both worlds. Agreeably to Scripture, heaven is _above_, over our heads; to prevent the Tower of Babel from reaching it, a confusion of tongues was ordained. The second commandment speaks of heaven _above_ and earth beneath. Christ “descended into hell,” according to the apostles’ creed; of course, hell is below. “Whosoever calls his brother a fool, is in danger of hell-fire.” That hell and fire should be thus associated is therefore consistent with the observations of geologists, who infer that the interior of the earth consists of ignited matter of which volcanoes are the safety-tubes, however inconsistent with reason to suppose immortal souls to be broiling therein. 680. But enlightened Christians do not, I believe, locate hell within this earth, nor call in fire to aid in their conceptions of it. Evidently, the more rational idea of the future abode of souls is that of its being above every point on the earth’s surface, and equidistant therefrom. This would involve that of a space concentric with the earth, and which falls in with the idea of that comprising the spheres of Spiritualism.