“On Bald Hill, toward the east—you can see the brick buildings and scaffoldings—are the schools for Mechanics; where those who are so fitted by heredity, learn the use of tools and machinery.” “The children of mechanics, must then follow their father’s calling?” “Not necessarily: If a carpenter-man does not wish to raise carpenter-children, he seeks a wife among the farmers, philosophers, professions or wherever his preferences tend. Their united desire calls to their home souls harmonious, in development with their intentions. “Your people have not yet learned this law—in Natural History;” with a roguish twinkle, “it is taught in our lowest grades.” “Taught to children?” we asked horrified at this depravity. “To little children. Your people ignorantly imagine marriage and birth a game of chance, attended by much nonsense and immorality; in which parents may draw anything from a blank or a monstrosity to a saint. You are here to learn the beautiful truth;—or as much of it as you are capable of grasping.” Their conversation seemed so illy fitted to their years, that we asked their age. “Fifteen and eighteen years of this incarnation, while you are nearly fifty; but, in Eternity, we are your seniors and can teach you to crush the shell by which Earth-children have surrounded themselves.” “You speak of ‘Earth-children;’—are you not of them?” “No; this is Reinstern. You have been brought to us to learn the possibilities of your people.” “Isn’t Reinstern in the western part of the United States?” we asked, greatly mystified. “It is a planet as yet undiscovered by your astronomers, who waste lifetimes searching with telescopes for what the inner vision will readily disclose when you allow the real self to predominate.” “This is a flimsy dream, after all,” was our immediate conclusion, which though unexpressed, was quickly answered. “No; you are not dreaming; but thoroughly awake, at last. Upon your planet, generation after generation have been given over to materialism and hypocrisy; till Life, which is only embodied in Love and Truth, is nearly extinct; it is, in your best, torpid. “Again and again have Teachers and Physicians from a higher plane of existence been clothed in your Earth-garb, and lived among you that your eyes might be opened. “You have either persecuted or shunned them, but occasionally, after their departure, dully recognizing their mission and superiority, have worshipped their materialization; giving no heed to their precepts. “It is now feared, among the sister-planets, that Earth will lose her spirituality, which is her life, and become, again, a nonentity among the spheres; a mass of corruption which must, eventually, return to its original state of floating matter, to be elsewhere utilized.