11. A spirit may be reincarnated upon the Earth or in other material worlds. Among the latter, there are some which are further advanced than others, and in which the conditions of existence, both physical and moral, are less painful than upon the Earth; but, into those happier worlds, only such spirits are admitted as have arrived at a degree of advancement in harmony with that of those worlds.
Incarnation in worlds of higher degree is, of itself, a reward for the spirits whose efforts have fitted them to share the life of those worlds, wherein the inhabitants are exempted from the ills and the vicissitudes to which we are exposed upon the Earth. Their bodies, being more fluidic, are free from the grossness of earthly flesh, and are not subject to diseases, infirmities, or even to the needs of our present bodily state. Spirits of low degree being excluded from those worlds, their people live together in peace, with no other care than that of effecting their advancement by their intellectual activity. True fraternity reigns in those worlds, because selfishness has no existence within them; true equality reigns in them, because no proud or vainglorious spirit could obtain admission; and true liberty reigns in them because there are no disorders to be repressed, no ambitious tyrants seeking to oppress their weaker brothers. In comparison with the Earth, such worlds are paradises, although they are but the temporary resting-places of the spirit, on the road of progress that is leading it up to the attainment of yet higher modes of existence that constitute the true, definitive life of the soul. On Earth, being as yet a world of low degree, and destined to serve as a place of purification for imperfect spirits, evil necessarily predominates, and will continue to do so until the Divine ordering shall make it the abode of spirits of greater advancement than those who are now incarnated in it. It is thus that each spirit, progressing gradually in proportion as it accomplishes its development, arrives at length at the apogee of happiness; but, before attaining to the highest point of perfection, it enjoys increasing degrees of happiness, proportioned to each successive degree of its advancement. It is with the spirit, in this respect, as with a child; in its infancy, the spirit shares the pleasures of childhood, in its youth, those that belong to adolescence, and, when it has attained to adulthood, the riper satisfactions of mature human beings.
