THE THIRD PLANE

The third plane was a fair and glorious world, impossible of adequate description in the terms of our worldly speech. Those who there resided were highly perfected spirits; for to be admitted they must have reached an advanced stage of development. Nor was it possible that others should enter, for their mental states would have betrayed their presence.

The light of this plane was of surpassing, all­pervading brightness, and, united with that given by each spirit, was dazzling in its brilliancy. Wonderful beauty everywhere enthralled the eye. The place was like a great garden, with bushes and shrubbery of gorgeous hues, and stately trees, some like magnificent palms, others of forms unknown on earth, as if Nature and Art had been perfectly blended to charm the eye. About the houses of the happy ones bloomed a wealth of flowers whose rare and delicate colors vied with odor surpassing those of "Araby the blest." There were no large cities there: the homes were placed in little groups of two or three like pearls in a rich setting of lawn and garden too fair for human words. Here and there rose stately edifices where large gatherings congregated to feel the influence of guides and teachers from higher planes, an influence exerted by speech or by subtler means.

 The dress worn there was very simple: only a flowing robe sufficiently varied to emphasize the distinction between the men and the women. It was colored, as usual, by the aura of the wearer, the lighter and paler shades alone appearing, such as pink, pale orange, creamy, pale blue, white, and others difficult to describe. The delicate hues of these robes, and the multitude of colors in the blankets of flowers massed against the olive green of the landscape charged the dazzling air with beauty till the eye of the beholder was rapt by the harmony of sight, as in great music the ear is rapt by the harmony of sound.

 In this happy plane the inhabitants had solved the puzzle of universal brotherhood, here on earth the subject of centuries of debate, and still impossible of full realization. Not only were they dwelling in complete harmony; the dream of the altruist had been realized! Each lived for the other, since in that pure sphere the interests of all were one. There was, it is true, room for envy and jealousy, in the great authority of the more intelligent, for in a perfect world all merit must be recognized. But the spirit from which envy springs did not exist there, for envy implies a selfish aim. In that spirit realm each knows that he has been accorded full justice, and each gloried in the greater merit of his fellow while those of superior gifts humbly regarded their heritage as a privilege. Indeed, in that purer sphere degrees of merit must have seemed trivialities compared with the boundless heights which beckoned beyond. Love and sympathy would permit no discord. From this plane come the helpers, teachers and "angels of mercy," who work among the less fortunate inhabitants of the lower spheres. This service, however, is an act of their own volition proceeding from their sympathy and desire to serve, a benefice which results in their own further development.