remarked this noble lady, "that any parent
should wish to cramp the body and soul of his child by keeping it in a
state of infancy, when, if it had remained on earth, it would necessarily
have arrived at years of maturity.

"Nature does not suspend her operations in transplanting from earth to
heaven! The soul is formed for expansion, and surely the spirit world is
not the place to suppress unfoldment!"

As I listened to her intelligent conversation, I blushed to be reminded
of my own error in supposing my own darling, who had reached the spirit
world so long before, would greet me with the prattling talk of babyhood!

Pleased with our visit and the information we had received, we bade adieu
to Lady R. and the "Golden Nest," and pursued our flight in another
direction.

"Do let us next find out," said I to Morris, "what they do here with
criminals; there must be many a wicked reprobate who arrives here from
earth fresh from murders and villanies of all sorts."

As I spoke, two grave-looking gentlemen, whom I took to be either doctors
or judges, crossed the path before us, and I proposed to make these
inquiries of them.

Who should they prove to be but William Penn and the omnipresent
Benjamin Franklin!

"Yes, yes," said Penn, in reply to our questions shaking his head
deprecatingly; "'tis too true; we are obliged to have what Swedenborg
calls "our hells," for you send your criminals from earth so hardened
that we are compelled to keep them under guard. Come with us and we'll
show you how we treat them."

We were very glad of this opportune meeting, and followed with alacrity.

Presently, leaving the beautiful country far behind us, we came upon a
desert waste, and as I am extremely sensitive to conditions, I felt
somewhat like a criminal in passing through it. Having got safely over,
however, there burst upon our sight a scene of surpassing beauty; as far
as the eye could reach extended a most highly-cultivated district of
country.

Groves of fruit resembling the oranges and pineapples of our tropics,
noble trees like the palm, the fig, and date, were to be seen in every
quarter, rearing their boughs against the summer sky. The air was laden
with fragrance from tree and vine.

Great bunches of purple grapes like the fabled fruit of Canaan in the Old
Testament, a single bunch of which required two men to bear it, drooped
heavily from twining vines, while from many a bough and twig swung
golden, crimson, a