It must
become gradually accustomed to the new sights and sounds, and so pass
slowly up from one stage of perception and knowledge to another in
regular gradation, to the climax of its revelation.
Reader, did you ever come suddenly from a darkened room into the full
blaze of noonday? In such a case the eye is dazzled, blinded for a
moment, and must gradually accommodate itself to the unaccustomed light
before its gaze can be clear and steady. So, too, the ear long shut up
in profound silence is deafened by an ordinary sound. Even so the soul,
suddenly entering upon the unaccustomed and stupendous sights and sounds
of the spiritual world, would be blinded, dazzled, as I have said, to
annihilation. It is necessary that its newly awakened faculties, which
during its long earthly life have lain in a comatose state, should not
be too suddenly called into action, lest they be overpowered by the
awful revelation. Like the bodily senses, they require time and gentle
though steadily increasing action to develop them, and assimilate them
to their new surroundings in their new field of action.
And this is my theory. The soul, when freed from the body, floats gently
upward, _deaf_, _dumb_, and _blind_--paralyzed, as it were, into a state
of neutral existence. Splendid sights may spread around it, wave after
wave of eternal sound may roll in upon it, but it sees not, hears not,
feels not, not having yet acquired the new faculties of perception.
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