“No,” he said, “it is not the case; the body has here to be considered.  No amount of active exertion clouds the eye of the soul, if only the motive of it is pure and lofty, and if the soul is only set patiently and faithfully upon the true end of life.  The body indeed requires due labour and exercise, and the soul can gain health and clearness thereby.  But what does cloud the spirit is if it gives itself wholly up to narrow personal aims and ambitions, and uses friendship and love as mere recreations and amusements.  Sickness and sorrow are not, as we used to think, fortuitous things; they are given to those who need them, as high and rich opportunities; and they come as truly blessed gifts, when they break a man’s thought off from material things, and make him fall back upon the loving affections and relations of life.  When one re-enters the world, a woman’s life is sometimes granted to a spirit, because a woman by circumstance and temperament is less tempted to decline upon meaner ambitions and interests than a man; but work and activity are no hindrances to spiritual growth, so long as the soul waits upon God, and desires to learn the lessons of life, rather than to enforce its own conclusions upon others.”

“Yes,” I said, “I see that.  What, then, is the great hindrance in the life of men?”

“Authority,” he said, “whether given or taken.  That is by far the greatest difficulty that a soul has to contend with.  The knowledge of the true conditions of life is so minute and yet so imperfect, when one is in the body, that the man or woman who thinks it a duty to disapprove, to correct, to censure, is in the gravest danger.  In the first place it is so impossible to disentangle the true conditions of any human life; to know how far those failures which are lightly called sins are inherited instincts of the body, or the manifestation of immaturity of spirit.  Complacency, hard righteousness, spiritual security, severe judgments, are the real foes of spiritual growth; and if a man is in a position to enforce his influence and his will upon others, he can fall very low indeed, and suspend his own growth for a very long and sad period.  It is not the criticism or the analysis of others which hurts the soul, so long as it remains modest and sincere and conscious of its own weaknesses.  It is when we indulge in secure or compassionate comparisons of our own superior worth that we go backwards.”

This was but one of the many cases which I had to investigate.  I do not say that this is the work of all spirits in the other world—­it is not so; there are many kinds of work and occupation.  This was the one now allotted to me; but I did become aware of the intense and loving interest which is bent upon the souls of the living by those who are departed.  There is not a soul alive who is not being thus watched and tended, and helped, as far as help is possible; for no one is ever forced or compelled or frightened into truth, only drawn and wooed by love and care.