Too have been taken, in a general sense, through all the expressions in human life in the three degrees: the first being the expressions of physical contact and of conquest over the physical; the next general degree being the intellectual, or mental, victory; and the third that of spiritual conquest; which is, of course, the realm of moral triumph. In each of these degrees there is an interhlending; the intellectual beginning before the physical ceases to dominate, and the spiritual beginning before the intellectual and physical entirely cease their supremacy; so that there are in the world always, at the same time, illustrations of each of these states. For in the very beginnings there were illustrations of spiritual states from those who accompanied the Souls first to find expression here. Thus all have before them, if they will read aright, illustrations of the entire book of human life; each human life representing one of the embodiments, and all existing on the earth forming an illustration of the conditions that must be experienced or expressed by each Soul. So if it were possible for you to divide the existing states of human life into classes, or those expressing un-foldment in distinct degrees, you would find some are in states representing more physical than intellectual or mental expression; you would find others in states representing more mental than physical and spiritual expression; and you would find, though those are much more rare, other lives in states representing spiritual triumph. These all illustrate the different conditions of human existence.

The lines of life that reach toward the highest expression, as we said before, are impulsions from the Soul. The expressions fall short of that by contact with matter, which, of course, is less than the Soul; so whatever there is that is imperfect in nutter, for the time prevents that perfect light from being revealed; but the whole lesson of embodiments is the overcoming of these material conditions. If, therefore, the line of life in the Soul is the overcoming of matter through the adverse conditions that are found upon any planet, then all Souls that approach that planet, being equally perfect, must encounter the same obstacles.

Many object to the proposition that all Souls must pass through similar states. But if all are not required to pass through them, why are any? If it is necessary for one it must be as necessary for all others. As life exists here, why have its various discrepancies and inequalities never been explained in any other way than through the systems of teaching that include various states of expression, or embodiments.

When travelers ascend the Alps they expect to encounter glaciers, they expect to go down into ravines, they expect to overcome the difficult passages met by their predecessors; all this is prepared for in their ascent; they perform the journey for the purpose of beholding the splendor at the top. When the Soul expresses itself in a culmination, it is that perfect degree that is sought in that direction; the stages between the beginning in that line and that of the genius, or the culmination in that line, are stages of overcoming obstacles. Obstacles being thus incident to physical existence, they are found here. Everything in existence has some adequate cause, or purpose, there is some solution for it, and to find that solution is the great object of life.

It does not create serpents because the teacher discovers them and explains the way to overcome them, and the antidote to their poison; nor does it create murderers because we can explain why they exist. Man finds these conditions in life, as the naturalist finds the life and nature of the insect, the serpent or whatever other objects nature holds, that each may be traced to its legitimate cause, and thereby man may gain knowledge which he did not have before; so what the life here is for is to overcome the conditions of evil, not to make them; of course if they are encountered in contact with matter, matter itself holding sway, blinding, as it does, with the human senses, then each step is to the vanquishment of that which blinds; so there is reconciliation to every imperfect condition in which human beings find themselves. If some seem to be perfect in certain directions it is because they have ripened in other states of individual expression. If others are degraded in some direction it is because they have not yet had experience in the ways that the former have.

There is not as great a difference between those in the lowest or most degraded states and the average present state of humanity, (or even its highest state,) as there is between the present state of mankind and the state of an angel. Compared to the angels, who is there that could escape condemnation? who is there that is not angry? who is there that does not deal falsely with hie fellow man?

Whatever may be the aversion existing in the mind toward, or the growth beyond, individual expression of any of the states of degradation which may exist in the world, it is evident that their solution is in the state or degree of expression in each individual, and if one has advanced very far beyond such conditions, they afford no subject for condemnation, but rather of commiseration.

The power, therefore, which enables man to know that when the angel triumphs the states of obliquity are overcome, and that through the line that leads to expression in art, in music, in poesy, in philosophy, in everything, victory is alone when perfection is attained, is supreme in that which is called man's moral sense. When any passion, any appetite, or any benighted condition is overcome, that is victory over the senses; when the knowledge of self-righteousness is overcome, it is the victory over the most abject form of selfishness. The higher the attributes claimed the lower seems to be the state of deviation from that height. The ignorant man professing no knowledge of moral law, has, in that sense, not reached the state of accountability. That begins when the first glimmerings of conscience come. This struggle to overcome the outward self that the spirit may triumph, that the Soul may be recorded, is the beginning of moral responsibility. Violence against a criminal, who has no adequate moral perception of his crime, is not far removed from the crime he has committed. He who hates the hater, which the murderer is, only displays the state of murder in a little different manner.