of waiting and rest between incarnations, in which the soul
'mentally digested' the experiences of the last life just completed, and
then considered and meditated over the mistakes it had made, and
determined to rectify the mistakes in the next life--it being held that
when the soul was relieved of the necessities of material existence, it
could think more clearly of the moral nature of its acts, and would be
able to realize the spiritual side of itself more distinctly, in
addition to having the benefit of the spiritual perspective occasioned
by its distance from the active scenes of life, and thus being able to
better gauge the respective "worth-whileness" of the things of material
life.

At the present time, the most advanced students of the subject hold that
the average period of rest between incarnations is about fifteen hundred
years, the less advanced souls hastening back to earth in a very short
time, the more advanced preferring a long period of rest, meditation and
preparation for a new life. It is held that the soul of a gross,
material, animal-like person will incarnate very shortly after death,
the period of rest and meditation being very short, for the reason that
there is very little about which such a soul could meditate, as all of
its attractions and desires are connected with material life. Many souls
are so "earth-bound" that they rush back at once into material
embodiment if the conditions for rebirth are favorable, and they are
generally favorable for there seems to be always an abundant supply of
new bodies suitable for such souls in the families of people of the same
character and nature, which afford congenial opportunities for such a
soul to reincarnate. Other souls which have progressed a little further
along the path of attainment, have cultivated the higher part of
themselves somewhat, and enjoy to a greater extent the period of
meditation and spiritual life afforded them. And so, as the scale
advances--as the attraction for material life grows less, the period of
purely spiritual existence between incarnations grows longer, and it is
said that the souls of persons who are highly developed spiritually
sometimes dwell in the state of rest for ten thousand years or more,
unless they voluntarily return sooner in order to take part in the work
of uplifting the world. It must be remembered, in this connection, that
the best teaching is to the effect that the advanced souls are rapidly
unfolding in