Among those stars that shine in the azure vault of the firmament, how many worlds there are, like yours, destined by the Lord for atonement and trial! Yet there are also those more wretched, and better, as well as those transitory, which we may call regenerating. Each planetary whirlwind, as it moves in space around a common centre, carries with it its primitive worlds of banishment, of trial, of regeneration, and of happiness. You have been told of those worlds in which the new-born soul is placed, when as yet ignorant of good and evil, but with the possibility of marching towards God, self-possessed, in possession of its free will. You have also been told how vast are the faculties with which the soul has been endowed for the practice of good. Unfortunately, however, there are souls who succumb, and since God does not wish to annihilate them, He permits them to go to those worlds where, from incarnation to incarnation, they are purified and regenerated, to return worthy of the glory for which they are destined.

The regenerating worlds serve as a transition between the worlds of atonement and the happy worlds. The repentant soul finds in them calm and repose, while his purification is completed. There is no doubt that in these worlds man is still subject to the laws of matter. Humanity experiences sensations and desires like yours, but it is freed from the disordered passions of which you are slaves. In it there is no longer the pride which silences the heart, the envy which tortures it, and the hatred which stifles it. The word love is written on every brow. Full equity governs social relations. All recognise God and seek to turn to Him through the observance of His laws.

In these worlds, however, there is not yet perfect happiness, but only the dawn of happiness. Man is still of flesh and therefore subject to vicissitudes from which only completely dematerialised beings are exempt. He still has to undergo trials, but without the stinging anguish of atonement. These worlds, compared with Earth, are very happy, and many of you would be glad to stay there, for they represent the calm after the storm, the convalescence after a cruel illness. In them, man, less absorbed by material things, has a better glimpse of the future than you; he understands that there are other joys which the Lord promises to those who are worthy of them, when death shall have reaped their bodies to give them true life. Then the free soul will fly over all horizons. It will no longer have material and gross senses, but the senses of a pure and heavenly perispirit, which inhales the emanations of God in the aromas of love and charity that flow from its bosom.

Unfortunately, however, in these worlds man is still fallible, and the spirit of evil has not completely lost its hold. Failure to advance is tantamount to retrogression, and if man does not keep steadfastly on the path of good, he may fall back into the worlds of atonement, where new and more terrible trials await him.

Behold, then, that azure vault, at night, at the hour of rest and prayer. Then, before those innumerable spheres that shine above your heads, ask yourselves which are those that lead to God, and pray to Him that a regenerated world may open its bosom to you after the atonement on earth. (St. Augustine. Paris, 1862.)