This evening exercise and another, for the morning, if persistently performed day by day, will in time awaken the spiritual vision as they improve life. This matter has, however, been so thoroughly treated in number 11 of the lecture series: “_Spiritual Sight and Insight; its safe culture and control_,” that it is unnecessary to dwell upon the matter further in this place. _The First Heaven._ In the first heaven, which is located in the higher regions of the Desire World, the panorama of life again unrolls and reveals every scene where we aimed to help or benefit others. They were not felt at the time the spirit was in the lower regions, for higher desires cannot express themselves in the coarse matter composing the lower regions of the Desire World, but when the spirit ascends to the first heaven it reaps from each scene all the good which it expressed in life. It will feel the gratitude poured out by those whom it helped; if it comes to a scene where itself received a favor from others _and was grateful_, it will experience the gratitude anew. The sum of all these feelings is there amalgamated into the spirit to serve in a future life as incentives to good. Thus, the soul is purged from evil in purgatory, and strengthened in good in the first heaven. In one region the extract of sufferings become _conscience_ to deter us from doing wrong, in the other region the quintessence of good is transmuted to _benevolence_ and altruism which are the basis of all true progress. Moreover, purgatory is far from being a place of _punishment_, it is perhaps the most beneficent realm in nature, for _because of purgation we are born innocent_ life after life. The tendencies to commit the same evil for which we suffered remain with us and temptations to commit the same wrongs will be placed in our path until we have consciously overcome the evil here; temptation is not sin, however, the sin is in yielding. Among the inhabitants of the invisible world there is one class which lives a particularly painful life, sometimes for a great many years, namely, the suicide who tried to play truant from the school of life. Yet it is not an angry God or a malevolent devil who administers punishment, but an immutable law which proportions the sufferings differently to each individual suicide. We learned previously, when considering the World of Thought, that each form in this visible world has its archetype there,—a vibrating hollow mold which emits a certain harmonious sound; that sound attracts and forms physical matter into the shape we behold, much in the same manner as when we place a little sand upon a glass plate and rub the edge with a violin bow, the sand is shaped into different geometrical figures which change as the sound changes.