415. Although the spheres revolve with the earth on a common axis, forming the same angle with the plane of the ecliptic, and move with it about the ponderable sun, they are not dependent on that body for either light or heat, receiving not a perceptible ray from that ponderable source; but receive those dispensations wholly from his internal or spiritual correspondence, (a spiritual sun concentric with the sun of your world,)—from that great central luminary whose native brightness and uninterrupted splendour baffle description. 416. We have no divisions of time, therefore, into days, weeks, months, or years; nor alternations of season, caused by the earth’s annual revolution; those periods being observed with reference only to the affairs of earth. 417. Although we, like you, are constantly progressing toward perfection, our ideas of time and the seasons differ widely from yours; with you it is time—with us, eternity. In the terrestrial sphere, a man’s thoughts, being bounded by time and space, are limited; but with us they are extended in proportion as we get rid of those restrictions and our perceptions of truth become more accurate. 418. As order is a primary object in the spheres, there are of course laws for its preservation. Fundamentally, these proceed through his ministering angels, from the Divine Lawgiver, who commands the angelic hosts of heaven and rules the inhabitants of earth; who employs myriads of ministering angels as the means of intercommunication between their Supreme Master and his creatures throughout the universe. 419. So far as legislation, subordinate or supplementary to that of the Supreme Legislator, is required, the government of the spheres is republican, exercising legislative, judicial, and executive powers. But these functions are not embarrassed by the necessity of codes indited or printed, nor by that of physical coercion. The results of these functions are realized in simultaneous and homogeneous opinions awakened in the minds of the ruling spirits, as truth takes hold of the minds of mathematicians, _pari passu_, as they read the same series of demonstrations. The conclusions in which the chief spirits thus unanimously concur, are by them impressed upon their constituents, who, thus impressed, are constitutionally unable to resist the sentiment which, like a magic spell, operates upon their sense of right, and overrules any rebellious passion. 420. As, in the rudimental sphere, weighing, measurement, or mathematical calculation or demonstration, when performed by competent persons, are rarely disputed, so in the spheres, the decisions of those whose authority is intuitively evident in moral or legal questions, meet with acquiescence. It follows, therefore, that neither imprisonment nor fetters are requisite for the enforcement of moral or legal restrictions.