If a Spirit is not present, except by that which represents it, it will appear useless to open doors to permit Spirits to enter, for a door is as transparent to the medium by which they are represented, as a pane of glass is to the medium of light. Jesus appeared in the midst of his disciples, though they were shut up; and when the time came for his disappearance, he ceased to be seen, not by going out of the door or window, but by disturbing the conditions by which he was represented to their consciousness. In respect of Spirit-mansions, etc., in the Spiritual world, we are very liable to mistake representation for actuality. We are very liable to mistake images of things—creations, so to speak, proceeding from the minds of the Spirits—for actualities. We are very apt to perceive animals. Some think that animals have a living form and exist in the Spiritual world; but I pretend to say that it is not true. I know very well how they appear there. I know very well how it is that persons suppose they do exist, and why Spirits in the Spiritual world appear to have their dogs, cats—their pet animals. To them they are actualities. Nevertheless, I understand that the idea that a cat or dog has an immortal soul is not only inconsistent with any principle of philosophy in the universe, but is contradicted by every principle of philosophy. To say that a cat or dog is immortal is to affirm that to be immortal which God himself can not make so. The condition of immortality can not pertain to the mere animal being. The representations of animals, forests, fields, and things of this kind, have no basis upon that which has a material or actual existence in the universe. They are only developed under the law of representation. Man has a sort of creative faculty, by which he forms the images which are mistaken in the Spiritual world for actualities. When Spirits are thinking of animals they have seen in this world, they throw out their images, and the individual who chances to be in _rapport_ with these Spirits sees these images, and thinks they are actualities. If you will only investigate the law of representation, you will have no difficulty in accounting for these things in the Spiritual world. Man makes these—they are not real. God makes all that is real in the universe. Man works in the sphere of representation, but God works in the sphere of actuality.