The conditions of peace, satisfaction, and enjoyment in the spirit world do not depend upon the possession of outward grandeur, external power, and wealth, or a love of display, as they too often do on earth, though those who are happiest and most free from care in the higher life are the richest in spiritual possessions, and their surroundings show a refined and cultivated taste, accompanied by the means and ability for gratifying this love of the beautiful. There is no inconsistency in this statement, because, as I have before explained, the external conditions and surrounding of spirits are but the expression and reflection of the mental or soul condition within the being, and must appear beautiful, sweet, and delicate, or the reverse, according to the mental and moral status of the individual. RIGHT AND WRONG STATES OF CONTENTMENT. Progressive spirits are contented with their existence and its surroundings sufficiently to enjoy and appreciate all the good and lovely things that are theirs, but _not_ enough to prevent them from reaching upward for more light, instruction, and soul-exaltation. They are deeply grateful for life and its powers of unfoldment, but they ever desire to move steadily on in the acquirement of wisdom and the accomplishment of good works. Undeveloped spirits are prone to exhibit an indifference to their condition which may be mistaken for contentment, and which discloses a kind of inertia which prevents its possessor from attempting to rise into a healthier and happier state of being. This is, unfortunately, too often the trouble with those who need assistance, and is the chief obstacle good spirits have to contend with in their efforts to benefit those unhappy souls. Not until these miserable beings manifest a desire to better their own condition can the ministering spirits who endeavor to assist them be of any service; but when this wish to rise exerts itself in an attempt to reach upward, the degraded being is encircled by the magnetic influence of that human yet divine love which emanates from the wise and beneficent ones around him, upon which, through the impelling force of his inner desire and exertion, he rises to superior heights and more pleasing conditions. From degree to degree of unfoldment, from grade to grade of promotion in the great school of life, humanity is ever passing. Pressing on toward the goal where all lovely attributes blend, and approaching the sphere of Perfected Being, each one will, in God’s own time, through experience and discipline, outgrow all imperfect traits, all unholy tendencies, and become, through the operations of nature’s grandest law, progress, what all are intended to be,—noble, manly, purified, and perfected human beings. CHAPTER XIV. OUR CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES.