be
indelibly impressed with its lesson, with conviction and understanding
that the same mistakes would never be repeated, or the acquired
knowledge would be constantly and forever used.

There would be no deaths in infancy, as each child born would be
purposely sent here; neither would there be premature deaths, as no one
could leave without "learning his lesson."

There would be a fixed standard of knowledge and development that we
would be required to attain. Knowledge, or whatever condition Nature
imposed, would be our destiny, and we would devote our entire life to
its acquirement.

As it is, we bend our efforts and use our strength to avoid and to
escape the acquisition of knowledge.

If our life were given to us in order to pass through a school of
experience, the simplest truths would immediately manifest themselves to
our minds, and conviction would be instant and permanent.

But how sadly untrue is this premise!

For thousands, aye, for millions of years, the people have been
stupefied with the most ignorant and foolish superstition. An instance
that will present with great force an illustration of the utter folly of
the contention that we are living on this planet as a lesson in school,
lies in the fact that for thousands of years people not only believed
but religiously guarded the belief that the earth was flat.

Even to-day, with irrefutable demonstrations of the truth, there are
some people who either cannot, or will not, accept it.

As desirable as this theory of a transitory state may be, it is even
contrary to Nature herself. The entire scheme of Nature seems to be
fashioned upon the same principle as our life. The fearful struggle of
the elements involved squares identically with our own existence. Even
the gigantic constellations, flying with an incalculable velocity,
leaving destruction and desolation in their tracks, meet in their
ignorant and blind journey the same fate as we meet. Recent astronomical
discoveries speak of a struggle constantly taking place in those areas.

The belief of an existence after death is so untenable in the face of
many scientific discoveries of to-day, and of the irrefutable facts
that are constantly staring us in the face, that an instance or two are
all that are necessary to prove the fallacy of such a belief.

Under many circumstances we are unable to recognize our own blood
relations after a lapse of a certain length of time. Parents fail to
know their ch