But I have learned that while it would be unwise and unsafe for mortals to leave their homes open to the inspection of every curious passer-by, and imprudent in the extreme for them to invite every stranger into their households, it is perfectly safe to do so in the spiritual city Zencollia, whose inhabitants are pure and spotless, who have become purged from all gross and carnal appetites and habits, who do not gossip and slander, who love each other, whose families are bound by the closest ties of tender sympathy and affection, and whose lives are so pure, so devoted to the welfare of others, they have nothing to conceal. Every home is a shrine of prayerful praise; every family bows at the altar of Infinite Wisdom; each inhabitant has some lesson to repeat, or some experience to rehearse to the new-comer into these high spheres, that will be a guide to his feet; every habitation contains something of interest to the stranger who may have but recently ascended to the upper courts of Zencollia. And there is no risk in entertaining the stranger; for no impure, selfish, worldly-minded spirit can enter Zencollia; he could not breathe its refined atmosphere, the brilliancy of its light would blind him. For while it is true that exalted spirits can descend to lower spheres or conditions, where grossly-minded intelligences dwell, surrounded by the darkness which their mental state throws off, and there minister to the necessities of those earth-bound souls, yet it is as impossible for those spirits to _ascend_ to the upper heights as it is for mortals to pierce the heavenly worlds with their material bodies; for as the physical keeps you down to earth, so the weight of passion keeps those spirits down. Therefore, no impure spirit enters Zencollia, and none who dwell there fear to entertain the stranger, for all the inhabitants of that celestial city are possessed of clear vision, and they can readily read the interior thought and desire of whoever comes within their sphere. The dwellers in that happy city associate together in groups, all working for the common good; each obeys the law which all assist in framing; everyone contributes to the welfare of the people, the beautifying of the city, the maintaining of free, open schools of instruction, and in upholding a good government. I have often thought of the beauty and glory of this sweet life, wishing that I could cause mortals to view it as I do,—to view and to emulate, to bring down something of its happy conditions to earth; for then there would be no need of prison-walls, no cause for corporeal punishment, but love and justice would reign supreme, and the millennium, long foretold by prophet and seer, dawn upon the new earth. INTERIOR VIEW OF ZENCOLLIA.