withdraw from it as instinctively as owls and bats withdraw from the light of day. And then they gravitate each one to the society of spirits whose character is nearest like his own. For in the hells as in the heavens there are innumerable societies, some in one kind of evil and some in another; and some more desperately wicked than others—for there are various kinds and degrees of wickedness in the other world, as there are in this. And the great law of spiritual affinity, which is as universal and constant in the spiritual world as the law of gravitation is in this, tends to bring those of like character together, and to hold them together.
Every evil spirit, therefore, soon as his interior character is fully developed, gravitates with unfailing certainty toward those who are most like himself. Nor does he go reluctantly among his like; he goes there willingly, gladly, joyfully, as thieves and profligates on earth go among those of like character. He seeks their society in perfect freedom, because he finds it congenial; because he prefers it to the society of the good and wise; and he prefers it, because they are like himself. With them he feels more at home, more free, more contented, more happy than any where else;—and it is the Lord's ceaseless desire and effort to make every one as happy as possible. He does not force a single individual to go where he does not wish to go in the Hereafter. And those who go into any of the societies of hell, go in freedom and from choice. They go there because they find
