—nothing but appearances. And yet, had I been questioned in regard to the matter, while in my previous state, I would have freely sworn that all I saw was real—for in my then unenlightened state, they were so. This suggests the subject of insanity. A man may be in a state wherein he can only behold appearances. To him they are real, to some one else they are false, while to those who can look over the entire ground, both would be deemed right and both wrong. Man is of birthright a creator, and the law of Distinctness forces his creations to resemble himself. If he is poor and lean, so will be the world he fashions around him volitionally, or which shall be his natural and spontaneous out-creation. The highest happiness of man is found in the act of creation, whether it be poem, picture, engine, system of thought, or anything else. Hence the enfranchised soul, dwelling in its real world, on the thither side of time, has the power of assumption to a degree commensurate with its desire for wisdom, its determining motives, the good it has done, and the ends of use it has accomplished. It can, therefore, assume any form it pleases,—but for the purpose of wrong-doing, or concealing its identity, it is utterly powerless in this respect; so that while it may masquerade as much as it chooses to for its amusement, that of others, or to instruct; yet A must be forever known as A, nor can A ever pass for B, save in cases of insanity, wherein A has a firm conviction that he is really B, in which case, and for redemptive ends, he is sometimes recognized as B, till his cure is effected. It is in accordance with this law of distinctness that the righteous dead, who do really sometimes come back on
