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nature is cultivated, so will be the advancement of the human family. The spirit life, as exercised in the power of reason, and reflexion in the mind's faculty, is that which distinguishes itself from purely animal life, exercising itself only by the power of instinct. The latter is only a resultant of the action of some or all of the five senses, while the former takes its nourishment from the faculty of perception, beginning as it were, where the other ends.

By that faculty of perception we shall commence our carreer [[career]] in the spirit world, with focus on more additional spiritual faculties, all of them as much higher than our earthly senses of instinct, as the Heavens are above the earth. Such was the course of cogitation while sailing through the high-way of the atmosphere. Even by a few miles separation from the earth, our sensibilities are quickened. Our eye at that distance from the solid surface of the earth, inverts the geometrical configuration. The convex is changed into concave appearance, and the horizon, instead of standing below our level, is apparently standing above that plane. From this we learn that shape, forms - the appearance of things to the mortal eye is at best an arbitrary illusion, and is nothing more certain to the eye of an air traveler, than the city in the distance turned upside down, a thing of not unfrequent occurrence in the upper air. And sometimes this natural eye illusion gives rise to a trio of Suns, haloed in all the glorious colors of the rain-bow.

Such scenes, instead of terrifying, imbue the soul with a veneration for the things beyond the earth, and makes it yearn for the felicity to be earned and enjoyed in the life to come. And one never returns from their enjoyment to the earth without experiencing a feeling of torpor and degradation.

Transcription Notes:
Top right corner folded over some words. Crease in center of paper obscures text as well. Lowercase "n" and "u" are identical, and "i" is often dotted several characters after. Cogitation: the act of thinking deeply about something; contemplation. UPDATE: [TRANSLATED; MARK AS COMPLETE]