things in which society in this world so much
differs from that of earth as in its social and political arrangements.

All the great system of living for appearances, and the habit of
self-deception whereby men live outwardly what their secret lives
disavow, are here entirely done away with.

In the first place the marriage relations differ materially from those of
earth, and no false sentiment nor custom, nor religious belief, holds
together as companions those who are dissimilar in their nature. Neither
do men crucify their tastes and feelings from a mistaken idea of duty.

The miseries and disasters which are attendant on a life on earth they
view as a parent would view the whooping-cough or scarlatina which
afflict the body of his child--as necessary steps toward his growth and
progress from youth to manhood.

A remarkable instance of this came under my own observation. You remember
that the singular and sudden death of Abraham Lincoln was a matter of
surprise to us. We could not see the purpose of an all-wise Providence in
this sudden closing of an eventful career. It was discussed in every
newspaper in the land, and the conclusion was that the Creator had some
special purpose in his removal, and this we all believed.

But here the enigma is solved.

Standing face to face and walking side by side, as I have done for the
last few days with this man, raised as some suppose for the special
purpose of freeing the slave--a martyr for principle--I find that he
enjoys as a good joke, this martyrdom, and I have also ascertained the
solemn fact that he was removed, not by God, but by spirit politicians,
God's agents.

And the state of the case is this: the Southern rebels, hot-blooded and
revengeful, who were arriving daily by scores and hundreds, in the spirit
world, finding their cause discomfited and worsted, became mutinous. They
were too raw and new to fall into the harmony of the spirit life, and
they threatened a second war in Heaven; a war which those young Lucifers
would have waged with terrific power.

To quell this disturbance and produce a counteraction, it was necessary
that one whom they looked upon as the great leader of the Northern
cohorts should be withdrawn from the post which he occupied.

A man of calm, dispassionate judgment, not vindictive, who could hold the
reins with a firm hand, yet look with a lenient eye on the follies which
he did not share, was needed in the spirit world, and that man