715. How can a man display charity, hospitality, or contribute his _means_ and _time_ to objects of philanthropy, unless he beforehand lay up wealth? How could the Samaritan have assisted the traveller who had been maltreated by thieves, had he not taken care to have something beforehand, not only for himself, but for the needy? But still the precept, Lay up treasure for thyself in heaven, is precisely the course which Spiritualism indicates. Precepts may lead, but examples will draw. Those who have gone before us to eternal life, furnish us not only precepts, but examples also. They furnish exemplifications of the consequences of their conduct, if followed. With few exceptions, my intercourse has been with those only, who did lay up treasure in heaven, by doing on earth as they would have others to do unto them. Of the spirits with whom I have communicated, only two alleged or indicated that they were unhappy. Of these, I was informed, one bore an ill character upon earth. 716. Another, after having suggested to his inquiring brother some measures relating to his surviving wife’s temporal concerns, spontaneously added the following words: “I am not _hapey_.” The inquiry being made for the cause of his misery, the resulting reply was, “I did not do _rite_ when I was in this world.” 717. Another admitted that he was drowned, in consequence of getting dead drunk. On being asked if he were happy, he answered, “Damned happy.” In reply to an inquiry whether he was sorry to have quitted this life, he replied in the affirmative. 718. Having evidently been a seaman, who had sailed under an officer who was present, he had preserved the usual fondness of sailors for tobacco and grog. This propensity he could not avoid displaying, notwithstanding his having passed death’s dread portal, and the obvious inutility of expressing to mortals his craving for those pernicious stimulants. 719. Thus it appears that in the spirit world one means of retribution for the indulgence of bad propensities in this life, is subjugation to their ungratified cravings. 720. Of course, the more of these a spirit carries with him, the greater is his misery; while the more he founds his happiness on the indulgence of good propensities, the greater his power and opportunities of enjoyment. 721. As an illustration of the manner in which happiness may arise from the indulgence of good propensities, one of the enjoyments of a spirit of the fifth sphere is, as I am informed, in looking after children of relatives and friends, who have not as yet followed them to the spirit world.