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 THE

Ji_

THE SOUL:
ITS POWERS, MIGRATIONS, AND TRANSMIGRATIONS.

By F. B. DOWD
t /
h~L

"For these things that appear delight us, but make the things that appear nof

hard to believe ; or the things that appear not are hard to believe."
— Uermes.

(fee 2 \ i

John R. Rue, Jr., Printer, No. 43 South Fourth Street.

-I 8 8 2.—
 DEDICATION.

To John Heaney, of Buckley, Iroquois County,

Illinois —him of the great soul, lofty mind, and

loving heart- — " Door of the Temple of the Rosy

Cross" —are these pages most respectfully and lov-

ingly dedicated, by
The Author.
 PREFACE.
To provoke thought, and thus lift the world out of the rut into

which it has fallen, the following pages have been written. The
soul is no common or vulgar thing; and all approximation thereto,
in thought, must be transcendental. This work claims to contain
the fundamentalprineiples of all religions —the PHILOSOPHY OF MAN-
HOOD, and the road leading to a true life and immortality,
here, on this poor, much abused earth. " This is a matter-of-fact

age," and " the day of miracles has passed." That is, those things

which unaccountably happen, which were formerly ascribed to

GOD, have rome a little nearer home, and are now ascribed to

nature. What satisfaction there is in a name, especially to child-

ren ! The superstition of the past, and of the stars, narrowed down
to that of "the ape" and "the mud!" Instead of the facts of

observation, I have attempted those of logic and common sense.

Darwin and Huxley have narrowed the mind down to a contem-

plation of the mud " protoplasm," but I call you to a contemplation
of man and his possibilities. I came, and found this beautiful earth

fanned by the breath of deadly poison, which men, in the very agony
of breathing, call life. I go ; but in going, I would leave it a little

purer for having been here. I am satisfied that man is the' archi-

tect of himself, and of all conditions, from "protoplasm" up ; and

it has been my effort to stir him upward to the creation of things

worthy of himself. This year, 1881, is the close of an epoch in

the world's history. It will, indeed, be sad, if we follow in the

bloody track of our forefathers downward. We have now an
opportunity, next year, of cutting loose the shackles that chain us

to the corpse of the past. Shall we make the attempt ? Reader,

study these pages ; the great ideas are merely shadowed, and are
left crude and bare of detail, for you to clothe as your mind shall
open to the grasping. Do not deny what I have written without a
full and clear comprehension of the ideas.

It is not claimed that this work is wholly Rosicrucian. The

sublime principles of this fraternity are not conveyed in this manner ;

but enough is given to enable the thoughtful and earnest searcher

after truth to get a glimpse of the glory hidden, even now, as in the

past. It is not the loud sounding bells of a sabbath morning, nor

the roaring of organs and voices; neither is the high-toned oratory

of the officiating priest, true worship ; neither is it the means, how-

ever charming and gratifying, which move the infinite to the

answering of prayer. Remember, "silence is strength;" noise

confuses. It is
a an empty sound," which silence comprehends

not, or in the comprehension of it, loses it. The unwavering,

persistent, incomprehensible (by us) thought, is the sustaining and
noiseless moving power of the universe; and he who hath most of
it is the most prayer-answering God, and in and by virtue thereof

he is the greatest prayer.

F. B. DOWD.

(vi)

i
 —

INTRODUCTION

I. THE SUPERNATURAL.
In this matter-of-fact age the existence of God is

seriously questioned by the greatest thinkers. The reason

is obviously in the definitions which the religious world
more especially the Christian —gives to the term. The
very nature of reason precludes the idea of the existence
of a Thing above, separate and apart from the relation-
ship of things. Reason cannot transcend its own source.
That which is seen and known as nature — it being an in-

finitude of objects and phenomena— is considered as

sufficient. And to reason and observation it does seem
so. But if we undertake an analysis of this tiling we call

nature, we shall find it fully as remarkable and as con-

tradictory as to suppose a Supreme Being as its maker.
The antipathies of things show no one source. There
seems, even to broad and deep reason, two principles at
war with each other ; equally so to the fool they appear.
One cannot be the cause of the other — nor can they be
self-adjusting and regulating. Why? Because to us
not even to our reason— no thing is self-existent nor self-

supporting. Everything in existence is dependent upon

something else. If there is an exception to this, it can-
 -

not be a Thing. If we pass by things in our thought,

and descend to principles, they also are dual and antago-
nistic. To suppose Good to be the principle, and evil
itsmere effect, is an absurdity, for one is as real as the
other and the
; evil is as much the cause of good as good
is the cause of evil. We are so constituted that defi-
nitions are a necessity of all growth, intellectual as well
physical. All nature is an effort to define itself. But
what is it that is defining itself in this warfare of elements
— this clashing of interests? Is it not something hidden
away alike from feeling or observation and reason The ?

things or principles that clash are patent — we think we

know them. All are conversant therewith, from the
lowest worm that crawls to the loftiest intelligence ;

whether it be named pleasure and pain, or God and the

Devil, or positive and negative. But that something —
which is struggling up out of the rock, water, air, and
mud, and deformity—as if to
into forms of beauty, use
make itself known in multitudinous ways what of it? —
Suppose we name it power It is neither positive nor!

—
negative neither good nor evil but in the definition of —
itself becomes either good or bad, or indifferent. Power
is that which supports all things, and we can well say it

is neutral, for in itself there is no duality, But pause a .

moment and think; even power has its antagonist-

weakness Is there the weakness of nothi?ig?
! Is power

limited to things, or even to principles? Again : where

can weakness be found save in things ? So power and
weakness' must be an attribute of things ; but -where they
come fr)m is unknown.
 ~~9 —
But what is a principle ? If we can grasp a principle
we have a foundation upon which to stand. It is as easy
to define a thing as a principle. A principle is that
which is self-existent. Ihere can be only one thing in
existence that is not derived from something else. What
if it be a formless and boundless ocean ! having nothing
that can be predicated of things — neither fire nor that
other thing that extinguishes fire ; but perhaps a fire, by
the side of which the sun is black — or a light the op-
posite of our daylight, by the side of which the night and
the day are alike —
in which worlds float like specks, or

as animalculae in water. We call good a principle, when

it is only our way of estimating the phenomena of life.
Think you there is any good where there is no sense
to feel? So good and evil, being only our estimate,
—
must belong to its and we are the principle after all.
We judge by reason of sense. Then may not sense be
that formless, unchangeable, infinite something that is not
a thing — that hidden and undeflnable whose sparks fire

are our thoughts, and whose warmth is our life? Afire,

whose quenching by the Infinite will gives forms of
matter in the cooling —
to be fanned into a blaze by a

breath of his life— things all luminous within, darkened

outwardly as if by a contraction of the sense? May not
sense be the Infinite substance of all space? in which
thought is as the rolling of worlds, and it, pulsating with
motions and emotions, whispers and voices that do not
strike upon our dull senses —
so stupid are we. Even our
atmosphere pulsates as a breath, and the ether vibrates
to every voice or thought, and the " aching void" far
 —

— 10 —
beyond all suns, worlds and universes — that void of
nothingness where God is enthroned as u the over-soul' '

of all — even there the tremblings of thought and feeling

meet an answering response ! What do we know after
all? We know this : It is sense that is trying to define
itself in this contradictory manner we call nature. Out
of it and into it come laws and so-called principles,
things— as the breath going out and coming in. It is
the actor, the cause, the source of a mighty river called
life.

There are of which we have never

other senses
—
dreamed as the unknown is beyond the known. How
small and weak is the latter compared to the former!
How small the possible in comparison to the impossible !

Is the Supernatural the impossible ? Then how great

and vast it must be ! It is natural to grow in knowledge,
but the things unknown are infinite they are all in our
ignorance. How vast it is compared to our knowledge !

Is ignorance the Supernatural? The light that flows

from the sun is small compared to the limitless darkness

that hovers around its radius. Is the darkness the
Supernatural? The above is greater than the below.
Is it to be wondered men have universally looked
at that

up to God ? However vast nature may be there is some-

thing still above it, which, although incomprehensible,
still has an existence to every thinking mind. My nature
is limited by my knowledge of myself and my relation-
ship to others. So nature is a limited thing, as my mind
is my limit. May not this nature, after all, be merely a
mental product, as the good and evil of it is? A mental
 -11-
product ! not of one, or even of a race, but of all minds
in unison ! Is all nature outside of us, or is it within, as
a wondrous mystery hidden in our ignorance.
Is not the impossible within us, the same as weakness,
and ignorance, and darkness?
Education is nothing but the opening of a " door," or
the lighting of a lamp in a dark place, through which
things before unknown appear to us as the possible, and
are very simple. The circumstances of our lives are all
within us, as the possibilities of our natures, but hidden
from us in our ignorance, till our acts flow out as a light,

showing us merely a few things of the many still lying

back in the infinite darkness of the unexplored beyond.
The hidden is infinite. We are hidden from ourselves,
and know not the wondrous powers lying back of our
smallness. Even we are astonished at the wondrous
skill of this thing we call man, which is but the super-

natural revealing itself to us. It is very close to us

possibly it may be us ! hidden from us, as all things are
hidden from the infant's closed eyes. I feel so, at least

at times, when I forget the narrow limits of this life, and

it is my effort herein to show what acts are the greatest
lights in this infinite darkness of ignorance, so that per-
adventure some one more gifted than I, may possibly sur-
prise the Supernatural himself some day with the torch,
lighted not by man
It may be an idle task to search for God, but he has
given us questioning minds, and every instinct of nature
prompts us to ask, " Who
and what is God?" and I
realize that the world grows by each apparent or pre-
 — In-
tended solution of it. Possibly God joins himself to us
in this way from out the shoreless darkness of our own
natures.
The first letters of God's alphabet is nature. They
are multitudinous — for each object is a letter. What is
the word ? " The word of God " is the sense of all these
things when reduced back from the contradictions of
multiplicity to one. then becomes intelligible to sense
It

of a limited capacity. For nothing less than infinity can

comprehend the meaning of all things. But the sense of
the finite mind is the same as that, of the infinite mind.
All things are in one, and exist in it and of it, but not
from it.

In this infinite variety of things—this multiplicity of

objects — this division of the one — the mind goes back in
search of the first principle, the foundation from which
they all spring. This infinite principle of power is sense.
The vast oceans of space pulsate with sense. The worlds,
suns, stars and objects of space are each and all held to-
gether and kept in place by sense. All things are sus-
pended in an ocean of sense. Nay things are sense !
—
and sensible, if the darkness would roll from off our souls.
Sense is the only thing in existence that comprehends
things. To comprehend is to enclose, or envelop. God
reveals himself to the sense of things. In fact, he is

sense itself.

God exists not as an objective, but as a subjective being

—not separate and apart from nature, but as the creative
principle thereof, residing in and permeating all that
all

is. In this view the supernatural becomes comprehensi-

 — 13 —
bie. It is the soul of nature and objects : hence God is
objectified in his works. He who looks for God as an
object to worship will find many on the road to power,
but he who looks for God within himself will feel the
and power, which God gives to all
fullness of satisfaction
who love the good and true. That which is unchangeable
is supernatural and eternal. In nature things are
mutable. Matter may be divided till there is nothing
left of it. Analyze a thing, and you have nothing left of
it save a little dross. Take a chair for example. What
is it ? A few pieces of wood put together for
Take use.

it to pieces and the chair vanishes. Burn the wood and

we have ashes. Melt the ashes and we have some other
substances to which science gives names. But where
and what is the chair ? Is it a mere name ? or is it a
substance ? It is an effect —a result of the combination
of pieces of wood. where and what is
If it is an effect,

the cause? I answer, the chair was first an idea con-

ceived in the mind of some man, and came out of the man,
and was formed in matter for use. Bat the real chair is
an idea, and hence it is as indestructible as man himself.
The same is true of all things that man makes. They
come out of man as the light of his intelligence illuminates

the darkness of his ignorance, wherein infinity exists.

Nature is matter, motion and space, but the sense of it is

the supernatural. It interprets itself, as I am feebly try-

ing to do. Each man must interpret for himself, and
his interpretation will be himself merely, as the sense of
his mind illumines the darkness within. Space is a
vacuum in which things exist in motion, or in sense. It
 — ;

— 14—
is the "over-soul," and comprehends or includes all.

This is the supernatural. The sense of a thing gives it

motion, and in motion things gestate, as in a womb, and

grow, or become materialized.
At the centre of things there are no things, neither is
there any motion there. Perfection and stagnation exist
at the centre. The centre is a vacuum, and is the soul.
All worlds wheel around centres, and centres are souls,
and souls are Gods. In God ("The Over-Soul") all

things are possible— in nature, where soul is a centre, the

impossible exists, because here is ignorance, darkness
and weakness. "He who limits things by his narrow
sense is a fool," says Hargrave Jennings, one of
England's great Rosicrucians and I say, whoever limits
\

the possible shows his weakness and want of compre-

hension. We do not know what exists in nature. We
know very little, and what little we know is a damage to
us, save as it shows us our weakness and the power and

infinitude of the possible. To return to ideas.

We are as we think : ideas rule and govern all action
and all growth. Ideas are souls — entities of all being
unchangeable and indestructible; they exist in the spirit

the atmosphere is and in it are the

the spirit of the earth,
souls of vegetation having been evolved from the earth.
They hover around, and when conditions are favorable
they descend according to the law of attraction and
affinity, and spring up in the soil of vegetation. Vege-
tation does not depend altogether upDn seeds, it springs
spontaneously from the earth. To illustrate when a :

young man, my father burned several coal pits on one

H
 -15-
bed during the winter the next fall, in passing by, I
;

saw several plants, commonly called the Mullen, growing

in the old coal bed. The Mullen plant was unknown in
that part of the country previously. A man in Northern
Iowa dug a well over one hundred feet in depth. The
great pile of clay lay there in the sunlight and dark-
ness, wept over by dew and rain, scorched in summer
and froze in winter, till the next year it produced a
crop of weeds that were not to be found anywhere in
all the country round about.
It is a well known fact to the pioneers of the wilder-
ness of northern Pennsylvania (and, I suppose to, other
woodlands) that on a newly cleared piece of woodland
when the soil is killed by burning, "fire-weeds" spring up
almost as thick as the hair on an animal's back.
There is such a thing as chemical affinity; and the
earth being prepared by heat or in any other manner
makes "conditions" for new or old forms of vegetation
to come into existence. The earth's atmosphere is all
alive with ideas — ideas of vegetables, animals and men —
all waiting for favorable conditions to enable them to be
born into existence. Ideas are infinite in number and
variety, corresponding to all conditions from mineral up
toman. They are the soul-life and volition of matter?
and they enter into matter at every point where condi-
tions are favorable. A scientist told me the other day
that a drop of nitric acid applied to a piece of fresh
broken granite rock, revealed under the microscope
numerous living beings similar to animalculse found in
stagnant water. " This," said he, " proves that the solid
 — 16 —
rock is full of life." But it proves no such thing. It

simply shows that the union of the acid with the rock
produced motion there, and wherever there is motion
there is a magnetic current, and forms having life spring
into existence —not that they were any more in the rock
than in the acid, or that of necessity they were in either.
I hold that all forms are ideas materialized, that ideas are
eternal, but forms are evanescent. The sunlight gives
color to vegetation ; color is an idea, but, although the
foundation of color may reside in the mineral of plants,
yet we all know that the sun develops it. A child de-
velops in utero, but who does not know that the soul
comes through the father? Matter is the mother; spirit
is the father.
In every atom of matter is a vacuum — else there would
be no attraction — for matter crowds upon vacuum and
hence takes form, and vacuum is the womb of matter,
into which ideas are attracted whenever moved by a
magnetic current.
All and organization are dependent upon this cur-
life

rent, and this is dependent upon the formation of a

magnet, or the union of the positive and negative, the
acid and alkali, the father and mother. As spirit is the
father, and as ideas (souls) come from the Father, so

does spirit baptize matter, impregnating it. " God is a

spirit." So the supernatural is a spirit, and will beget
itself in matter whenever conditions are favorable. It is

upon exactly the same principle as the generation of

mosquitoes in stagnant water. Low weak forms are gen-
erated in low conditions. Ideas ? being soul, are food
 -17 —

for souls. Hence man grows in creative and original

power through his reception of ideas. Ideas take root in
the soil of man's mind according to its condition, exactly

as vegetation springs up in the soil of the earth. If the

soil be poor the vegetation will be inferior If the mind
be low and vulgar, tae ideas attracted will be inferior ; but
ideas of whatever grade or kind are a creative power %
There is a spontaneity of mind as well as of earth. That
which springs up of itself is generally weeds, but the most
delicious fruits are produced by effort culture. The —
higher the culture, the nearer the approximation to the
supernatural. To show the road thereto is my object.
Look you at the burrowing worm, and at the soaring
eagle ! Step up, slowly, from the lowest
laboriously,
form, step by step, to the highest form of life known on
this planet — man. Do you stop here? And because your
poor sight sees no higher form will you deny its existence ?
Do you see intelligence graded from the snail to the loftiest .

intellect, and then, by your narrow sense, limit grada-

tion of power ? Behold the grass of the fields the lilies !

of the valley Then look aloft, by day or by night, at

!

the wondrous manifestation of an intelligent power, and

blush in shame at your presumption.
We grasp a little of knowledge, a little of life, a little

of spirit by the five senses, but the vital principles of

science and of human action are only grasped by the
loftiest reason. This is intuition. Are you a reasonable
being, and yet limit God by denying him ? If so, your
reason is of the lowest order ; it is destructive ; it is not
God -like and creative. Analyze matter in the crucible of
 — 18-
thought — dissect all forms with the scalpel of reason, and
then when you done with your work tell me what you
are
know. work has not inspired you with a love of
If your
the unknown mystery surrounding and dwelling within
all things, you are an egotist. If you cavil at names you

are a fool. Are you an artist? Then take your inspira-

tions from one who works eternally, and never makes a
failure. Are you a mechanic? Go study the suspension
bridges the spider makes, and the comb of the honey bee,
or the mechanism of a tree. I need not multiply words.

Whatever you are, or whatever you aspire to be, the power

is waiting for you —-the paterns are spread out for your
study.
The supernatural is in all, and. is subservient to our
wishes. But it is our work to make conditions — these
have no limit. There is no interference — you can be just
what you like to be ; but growth is slow. Why hurry ?

Is not eternicy for us? It is the hurry and worry of life

that destroys power. Trouble and vexation destroy

health and pleasure, and these are all there is of value.
All things are suggestive, for they are ideas ; they call us
out of ourselves to revel in the infinite. Is there no sug-
comes to you, kind reader, of the superna-
gestion that
tural ? Is no intuitive feeling that speaks to you of
there
immortal, undying power? Do you not, in your better
moods, long to drink at the fountain of life, pleasure and
individuality? If not, lam sorry for you. Ideas give
fulness of life —
and pleasure the greater the idea, the
greater fulness and power. What idea is greater than
the supernatural ?
 — 19 —
We talk glibly of the laws of nature, as if they were
fixed and immutable ; but they are set aside by every
habit which disgraces the race. Furthermore, modern
times are rife with accounts of the dead appearing to the
and of the living appearing as the dead of levi-
living, :

tationand the moving of substance without a motive

power, etc., etc. The suspension of any one law of
nature proves beyond all question that all are subject to
the same power, and all may be suspended or rendered
inoperative.

II. PRINCIPLES OF NATURE.

I believe in definitions; but all definition is arbitrary.
To define a thing is a creation. That nature exists is a
certainty, but when we come to define it we shall find it

not so simple. We define things in order that we may

understand each other.
We speak of nature as if it was an entity —an indivi-
dual thing. But the fact is, there are myriads of things
and conditions in nature which are parts thereof. In all

this diversity, there must be a something the intellect can

seize upon as a. fact upon which to stand while we search
in this whirl of atoms and worlds for a stationary
principle of being. To find that, which is common to
all, is to find the real. If nature is divided into parts,
it exists as a whole; every part must have something
common to the whole.
To analyze a part, is to analyze the whole, for the
same laws inhere in an atom, as in a world. An atom
 — 20-
exists by the same laws that the earth does its modes ; and
of action are the same. The law whereby matter coheres
and gathers together, is attraction. This is a binding force.
But the law that dissolves atoms, and throws them off, is
the law of repulsion. These two —the positive and the
negative — constitute the laws of motion. Everything
exists by virtue of motion ; but there is a point where
there no motion.
is That point is the centre from
whence motion takes its rise. At the centre of the earth
there is no up nor down, no positive nor negative it ;

is simply vacant of these things — /. e. all things exist here

in solution, as it were — or conditionless.
Things differ in nature. Shall we say, then, that
nature does not exist because there are so many natures?
By no means: for there are two laws/ acting in all
conditions, which belong to that real nature, which is
the substratum. They flow out from it as the positive
and negative flows from a magnet. As there is a neutral
point between the positive and negative, a point where
neither exists; so nature is a neutral ground, lying between
antagonistic forces.
Nature may be likened unto a magnet ; which, in itself,

moves not, but sends out positive and negative forces.

To a thing belongs motion and space ; without motion

nothing could exist. It is motion that fills the void, and
prevents nothing from asserting its sway. Things in
motion must have space to move in ; so all things are
triune in manifestation. A thing is composed of two
visible and one invisible points one visible point is space
;

in which it exists; the other is the thing itself; but the

 — 21 —
third, or invisible point is its motion. The earth and
space surrounding it are visible, but its motions are
invisible. It stands still, and we are always on the top.
The soul of nature is motion, or rather, that which pro-
duces motion. Hence, the third part of things, which
is the most important part, is invisible. Matter, space
and sense are the three things which constitute nature.
Matter needs no definition. Space is known, and is
relatively a vacuum but the sense thereof is known not
;

by visibility. The relative proves the absolute, the same

as a part proves the whole. A relative vacuum proves
an absolute vacuum as relative sense proves an absolute
;

sense. Existence is that which is visible, or that which

comes en raport with visible things. The invisible and
the unknown are the absolute. The nearer we approach
the unknown the more we are entering the realm of
power, and losing our hold and tangible on visible
things. The nature of a thing is its conditions, and
these conditions are only its mode of action. As there
are only two laws of action —
if those laws are followed

to their source we shall find nature herself totally stag-

nant and indifferent.

I am aware there is a class of thinkers who claim that
there is no inertia, and that "nature abhors a vacuum."
This may be true, but it is far, very far, from
evident. It is just as logical to claim that nature is '
'one
vast whole," and that it is not made up of parts or
conditions. I claim, that inertia is a condition in which
no motion or life is visible, or that is known ; and this is

the dividing line between the two great contending powers,

 —
— 22 —
attraction and repulsion. Furthermore, I claim that a
vacuum exists in matter —the source of its attractive and
repulsive power, and that said vacuum is foreign to

nature, i. e. a prisoner in conditions. Its efforts to free

itself give rise to motions, analagous to combustion.

This is, indeed, the soul of things.
That nature is a relentless, unfeeling, remorseless
power, needs no argument. It moves on, regardless of
the waste of worlds, or the sacrifice of life or forms.
To nature, death is the same as birth and life, as if it

were a stranger.
Nature suffers not ; neither does she enjoy. Remove
sensation from nature and it is neither good nor evil.

The earth, water, air, electricity, the sun, moon and

stars, without something to make comparisons, are all
indifferently good or evil alike. There can be no good
or evil save to things that suffer and enjoy. This indif-
ference corresponds to ignorance, for out of indifferent
nature comes all of life, even as knowledge springs from
ignorance. Absolutely nature exists only as sense, in
which view we are nothing, and matter is nothing ; but
we, as relative beings, know literally nothing of the
absolute. Hence, the folly of reasoning from an abso-
lute standpoint.
It is claimed, that evolution is the law of nature.
This is partly true, for evolution is due to repulsion.
Repulsion is the first law of existence, and is the male
principle, from which sprung the female principle
attraction. (See the allegory of Adam's rib.) All motion
is circular ; and matter thrown from a centre must re-
 !

— 23 —
turn in time. There are no straight lines in existence.
The returning current of a magnet is negative, or female.
Revolution is the law of nature, inasmuch as it includes
both repulsion and attraction. A circle is symbolic of
eternity. The soul, in its efforts to free itself from con-
ditions, projects a magnetic stream from itself, which de-
scribes a circle in its motion. As magnetism (or, more
properly, spirit) moves in chaos— that part of the current
which is negative or female —polarizes or combines mat-
ter from chaos —and thus peoples space with stars or
worlds. The negative is the combining current. It is
formative. The earth upon the same principle evolves
spirit from itself, i. e., dissolves and throws off matter in
a refined state, which in its return deposits the germs of
vegetation, animals or man, upon and in the earth's sur-
face, impregnating it, and they grow. Growth is motion
— or evolution of spirit, and involution of matter from
the unknown, chaotic state, combining into forms.
Growth is only matter in motion, according to the laws
of motion, which are circular or revolutional. Evolution !

Indeed ! It is not half of the truth. What of involution?

Like the from a candle, refined matter is being
light

evolved from matter, which radiates round about, and as

constantly returns, bringing from the unknown something
of the infinite to combine in forms of beauty and use.
Transient and fleeting as these forms may be, they each
and all contain souls struggling for freedom, and the
ocean from whence they came the stream of life, flows ;

downward, and not upward. God is above—but things

being less are beneath. Causation is hidden in the bosom
 ;!

24

of mystery and the darkness of the impenetrable shadow

but effects follow the light, and flow on ever as worlds,
suns, stars, and human beings.
All matter, all life, all forms, and all mind is involved
in an unfathomable mystery, which enters into existence
in the light, taking and thought. If this
form as matter
were not so, matter would become less and less by its
action for light is but the consumption of matter.
; The
evolution of matter is the involution of God, which in-

creases as light increases.

But oh ! the mystery of the night surrounding us
Who can fathom its depths? Who can explore infinitude?
Things reside in the shadow from which they come
stealthily into the light for a little time — then steal away
into the shadow again. Man with his torch gropes his
way slowly and with cautious steps in the thick darkness,
and anon some grotesque shape comes partially in view
— then disappears as if the light had dissolved it. The
darkness, rendered more intense by the presence of light,
crowds around before and behind; and upon the confines
of light — in the twilight of being — the formless takes
form, and such as can bear the light march in serried
columns along with man.
The light we carry is what we have learned. It en-
ables us to see and define that which otherwise were
formless.
 — 25

WHAT IS LIFE?

To define, life is to live : for in our efforts to define

a thing or principle, we unconsciously become like that

which we attack. Analysis without definition is destruc-

tion. To define life is a herculean task. Life is a mani-
festation of something having power to feel which resides
in an organization. All things visible are simply effects
of some hidden cause — causes are always hidden. The
true mode of reasoning is from effects towards causes,
which, receding as we advance, we only approximate.
Life, as we understand it, is a result of the union of soul
and spirit. It is impossible to tell what a thing is any ;

word or name that expresses what we mean is the best

we can do. The Word of God is the meaning of God ;

and the word of Life is the significance thereof, which is

the object of this book. It is the desire of every earnest
person to know why we and in order to answer
are here ;

the question, it is better to explain modes of action than

to multiply names. I look upon life as matter and sense

in union or in motion for all motion is the cause of union

:

of atoms. As I have said before, motion is the soul or

sense of things. The laws of motion are the laws of
combustion, for they are the same. Everything reminds
us of the fire out of which we came, and to which all

things return in the last analysis.

To find a something common to all forms of matter-
animate and inanimate — is to find that real nature I am
trying to define ; that will be a fact as real as existence itself;
that fact is that which we feel and know. In other words,
 — 26 —
that perception of life which comes through the five
senses, and not through that higher or intellectual sense.
By virtue of these five senses the earth appears as an
undulating plain, with the sun rising, moving over head,
and setting at night. We are always on the top of the
earth, and the heavens are above.
No mode of reasoning can make us feel that we are
half of the time underneath — or standing out sideways in
space. That this is owing to our relationship to the earth
I freely admit, but the knowledge we have gained
through the exercise of the higher intellect sets aside the

basic facts of existence, and proves them a delusion of

sense. Now which is correct? May not the facts of in-
tellect be a delusion of sense, also ? There is no absolute-
ness in man, save his existence.
These same senses cause us to feel pleasure and pain.
Are they real ? or is it a delusion of sense? These senses
tell us of the up and the down, and the reversal of our-

selves is death. We instinctively love pleasure, which

we call good, and elevate it as God. But we dread
pain, and avoid it as the devil, which is low down and to
be kept down, if possible. Reason as you will, sail
around the globe, explore space and measure the stars,
and then teach that there is no high and no low, no good
nor evil, no up nor down ; but still common sense remains
— as nature remains — a solemn protest against the light of

the intellect as a guide to those deep and fundamental

principles of existence ; which to be of any value must
bring pleasure instead of pain. Human reason leads the
soul to nothing; while the universal instinct warns man
 — 27 —
of the evils of pain and death, — as if creative genius has

planted in man a something in which the brute shares

— that causes him to dread death, and to value life.

And furthermore an instinct that tells him of a nature

long since forgotten, save in legend; of the unnatural
state inwhich he now lives, or rather suffers, and of a
supernatural state to which he may attain.
The common sense of atoms teaches them to lie
still in their places in obedience to attraction, and the
same teaches them to fly when set free by repulsion.
The same laws make all things related, and all life one
homogeneous whole. We are relative beings, and as
such, logic, to be of any use, must be relative also.
Common sense corresponds to indifference or to inertia,
because it is ignorance. But what is the knowledge

worth which destroys common sense and the naturalness

of things? That which destroys nature, destroys happiness.
Who so bold as to assert that the wisdom of man adds
to his happiness? The first manifestation of nature is

law or action, which is two-fold, as I have stated. This

must be nature, which, as a cause, is superior to effects, as
an artist is superior to his works. Man, as an effect of
nature, is inferior, but God, who is the Author of nature,
is superior to all. Nature cannot be infinite, for it is

particled,and is bounded and limited as a whole. There

can be only one thing in existence as an absolute entity.
The word is superior to the letters composing it, but the
sense is superior to both. Thoughts are letters of an
unknown alphabet, nature is the word, God is the sense.
That which destroys the word takes away the sense. The
 —

— 28 —
thought of the age is that there is no God ; such is the
unnaturalness of man. The life-principle is one homo-
geneous whole ; it cannot be particled *
it is the same in
worm as in man. The little life of one thing is just as
potent, and as great for that thing, as the greater life is
for another. If the life of one thing is immortal, then
all life is. But the life may be beaten out of a thing by
processes, to be explained hereafter, so that it, as a thing,
has no self-supporting power.
Everything " Male and female created he
is dual
—
them," darkness and light, ignorance and intelligence,
cold and heat, evil and good, opposites, antagonists, all
—
go hand in hand inseparable. There is nothing known
but has its opposite and one being given, the other
;

may be found close at hand. Furthermore, the third

thing, that which makes the triangle of imperfection,
resides always within the two visible parts. Two things
being placed side by side are said to be in contact ; but
there is always something between them, which prevents
them from becoming one, for absolute contact is oneness.
That which separates things is condition. Distance is
condition. If all things were in like condition, they
would fuse and blend so that all form would be lost.
—
This third thing that is not a thing this something —
intangible and immaterial, I call the soul of things \ for
by virtue of it and have motion. Distance
things exist
is space, and space is a vacuum. Hence all forms have
souls, for there is a condition or distance between all

forms. That which is visibleand tangible has its antago-

nist or opposite. Its antagonist is that which destroys
 — 29—
it, and not that which sustains it. Indifferent nature
is antagonized by life. All life which has volition preys
upon and sustains itself by that which has no volition.
This is very evident in herbivorous animals, but not
quite so evident in the carnivora ; though when we stop
to consider that the flesh of the sheep is due to vegeta-
tion, upon which it lives, it becomes evident how the wolf
feeds upon vegetation which has gone through a chemical
change in the form of the sheep. After death all things
are indifferent. Flesh is as indifferent after death as veg-
etation. Nature, then, being visible, has its visible
antagonist. The antagonist of nature being life, the
highest type of life calls for our attention : that is, man.
 ;

— 30

III. THE UNNATURAL.

What is man ? He is the highest form known, con-
taining in himself the greatest quantity of life, the most
intelligence, the greatest will, the most creative power.
Indifferent nature corresponds to darkness, ignorance,
weakness, want of power. The ancient philosophers called
the earth "the egg of the night." Out of darkness all
things come. Ignorance is the mother of all conditions
in ignorance we begin this life, and struggle towards the
light of intelligence from the miasmatic swamps of
;

ignorance come all conditions that we war against. A

certain form contains a certain amount of life, and
wherever there is conscious life there is pain and pleas-
ure. Life gives pleasure, but its deficiency causes pain.
To increase life is the road to pleasure ; the deficiency
of life causes the unnatural to appear, viz : pain.
Indifferent nature is as full of life as it will contain, and
we have no reason to suppose that there is pain or
pleasure therein. But to me an ecstacy
nature seems in
of growth and decay, and man, by violation of
that
laws, has fallen beneath the floor ecstatic, into an ocean
of tears, whose waves alternately howl with storms of
agony, or sing with zephyrs of melodious pleasure.
But the moment consciousness came into existence,
coupled with will and power to act, having volition as

^HHHHHH^H
 — 31 —
freedom of action, that moment commenced the creation
of conditions altogether different than had previously
existed. Inothow slow the process, it takes ages
care —
to produce some things. Every worm that burrows
in the earth, everything that crawls upon its surface, every
bird that plucks a seed or eats a worm, every animal that
crops the herbage of the plains, or that devours other
animals, up to man, who tunnels the earth, plows the
ground, or improves vegetation, fruits and animals \ he
who scans the heavens, fathoms and bridges the oceans,
and subdues and subjugates all other things, these are
all creators — creators of conditions : conditions wherein
there is less of harmony, less of fulness of life. The
action of will is exhaustive, especially its over-actio?i,

which comes from ignorance of the laws of action. . In

our ignorance of the future we get an imaginative idea
of some great good, to be derived from doing some
certain thing. Immediately we set about it, and, being
led captive by the object in view, regardless of heat and
cold, hunger or thirst, pain or pleasure, we rush along
till exhausted. Exhaustion is disease. It isunnatural !

All disease is unnatural. It comes from action !— the

action of a Free Will. That man should be the most
unnatural being in existence, comes not only from his
freedom of action, but from his greater range of action,
his greater power of thought, invention, and imagina-
tion. If nature be considered indifferent, man antago-
nizes it in every particular. He is a being of thought,
judgment, memory, imagination, craft, love, and will.

Pride and ambition are his ruling traits. Many there be

 ;

— 82-
who claim that all things are natural ; that there is no
above or below nature; man cannot violate or go
that
contrary to nature's laws. The inevitable conclusion
derived from the foregoing is, that man is a mere
machine, moving only as he is moved upon. That there is

no such thing as volition: no high, no low, no merit or

demerit, no good, no evil. Any man with common
sense knows such conclusions to be false. Why? Be-
cause it is contrary to experience, and every- day /#<;&•
of existence. By virtue of our organization, by virtue
of the conditions of our very existence, there exists the
up and down, the high and low, etc., and any con-
clusions of logic, which set these mundane facts aside,
are based on false premises.
What a demon nature or God must be, to hold us
responsible for the violation of laws, when we have no
power to help ourselves. But, they assert further, that
there is no violation of law ; that nature's laws cannot
be broken. I simply say, Gentlemen, you know better
anyone of common sense can see the absurdity of such
ideas. Do we not surfer for the violence we do to
ourselves ? Most assuredly. Then why does nature, or
God, necessity, or fate make us suffer for doing that
which we cannot help doing ? Man is of necessity a law
maker, and, in his ignorance, cannot conform to nature's
laws. To conform to nature would be to revolve in an
eternal circle ; but man, in striving for the new, breaks
through the circle of ignorance and indifference, and
gets hurt in so doing. Thus he becomes diseased
by his own act. I freely admit that he cannot help
 ;

— 33 —
violating the law on account of ignorance, but each act
or violation is a creation, and is more pleasing toyman
because it is his own. And furthermore, the ignorance
we complain of is in ourselves, and not in surroundings.

Thus we compel ourselves to act each ; act creates light,

and light is the object of our existence. Evil is our
teacher. It is wisely ordered that we shonld .suffer ; for
that increases action or light, to which we are responsible,
and by which all are judged. We are nature, necessity,
or fate.

"Whatever is, is right !

" No, indeed : the reverse is

nearer the truth. There is nothing true to its condition;

if things were true and right, there would be no need
of improvement, and no possible room for it. There
would be no foreshadowing of a better state of things :

no aspirations, no longings, no heart aches, nor weariness

of soul. There is little of right and truth in ail things
just enough to give us a taste of the good, and make us

dissatisfied with our present condition, and spur us

on to effort to better it. No man can climb who is at
the top of the ladder. Truth and right are far, very far,
above us, but we get flashes and gleams of the glory
occasionally, which shows us where we stand on the
ladder. Hideous, weird, fantastic shapes glare out of
the darkness beneath, but above us is light, truth,
knowledge, love, glory, harmony. Nature is harmony,
but the unnatural is discord. Man is unnatural because
he is less than nature. He pretends to love nature, but
in reality he despises it. We are creatures of art. We
 y
— 34
are made up mainly of hereditary and acquired habits.
These have become a second nature, which we admire.
This second nature I call the unnatural. True, nature
keeps along with us in our downward course, and fights

manfully against disease ; restoring us in sleep, and

adapting itself to our vices and crimes. It is our volun-
tary powers which ruin us, but it is the involuntary
which gives us what little health we have. When we
forget ourselves in sweet sleep, nature asserts itself; and
even then the abnormal habits of our daily lives prevents
her work. There is very little indifferent sleep. We
are too intense; the intensity of the day disturbs the
night. We cannot forget that which we love : our daily
avocations, our graspings, our hoarding up, our over-
reaching of each other : these haunt us in our sleep.
Nature must play second. Our natural habits we are
ashamed of, and hide them away as we cover our naked-
ness. We take no lesson even from innocent! childhood
— glimpses of the kingdom of glory but our earliest —
recollections are pointings of the finger of shame.
To be dignified is the glory of civilization. To
suppress natural laughter, and smile instead, is grand ;

to " put the best side out," and to conceal the natural;
to pretend to be greater, or better than we are ; to
think more of our looks, walk, manners, clothing, and
the wealth we have robbed the poor of this is civiliza- —
tion. To turn away from one poorly clad, not deigning
an answer to a civil question; to look coldly in the eye

of a stranger, without speaking when accosted, because

 —

-35 —

you have not been introduced : this is dignity ; this is

fashionable. To bow down and

to kings, Popes, priests,
the nobility ; to shout and hurrah when they show them-
selves ; to toil to support them in their pomp and
idleness march in serried columns to deadly strife with
; to
each other; to murder each other without enmity
this it is to be civilized. The earth is drenched with
human gore, and her fair fields are rich with the bone-
dust of humanity. The glory of one nation is the de-
struction of another. What for ?To perpetuate the dam-
nable and unnatural idea that some men are better than
others some were made to rule while others were
; that
made to serve. Man has made this earth one vast pande-
—
monium a cesspool, out of which come malarial vapors
and malarial beings, distorted in body, deformed in
mind, dwarfed in spirit.

Look at the diabolical crimes—the fiendish actions of

men, the wrong and outrage — at the deadly diseases con-
stantly on the increase in type and malignancy — and
then say, if you can, that these things are natural. I can-
not. Alas ! how we degrade nature or God in the bare
idea. Not willing to assume the responsibility that
nature puts upon him, he, ADAM-like, hides behind the
fig leaves his nakedness, and ascribes to fate, nature,
chance or necessity the actions he is ashamed of. Forced ' i

into the world, forced through it, and forced out again,"
he thinks force will bear the blame, suffer the penalty,
and take all the responsibility of his actions ; while at
the same time he is groaning under adversity, and suffer-
 —36 —

ing from disease resulting from his own acts, which he

might have avoided with a little knowledge and self-

control.
The and the unnatural go hand in hand, as
natural
matter and sense, body and mind, the voluntary and in-
voluntary, ignorance and knowledge the same as the —
opposite poles of a magnet. The moment the two poles
unite, there is no longer a current — the poles cease to
exist. But so long as the poles are separated, or con-

nected by matter in a different condition, the magnetic

current, like a stream, passes from the positive to the
negative. But unite the poles so that there shall be no
opposing conditions between them, and the magnet
ceases to be a magnet. The telegraphic wire, making
the circuit of the earth-, or a portion of it, carries messages
back and forth, but it emits sparks, and leaves its messages
only where the line is disconnected. If you say the current
exists, although not visible, when the connection is perfect,

you assert that which cannot be demonstrated. The two

poles of a battery being connected by a wire, no current
is perceptible, and I have no way of knowing of a current
only as I form a part of the circuit with my body. I
then feel the current passing through my nerves. This
feeling is produced by the resistance of my nerves. The
matter of which my body is composed is not in the same
condition as the matter composing the wires, and,
although both may be good conductors, yet these con-
ditions of matter serve the same purpose as a disconnec-
tion of the poles \ and there where the obstacle is, the
force is patent.
 — 37 —
Matter and sense (or mind) are the two poles of an
invisible magnet. Sense no more a result of matter
is

than matter is a result of sense. They both exist, and

are mutually dependent, not upon each other, but upon
the magnet. In the magnet we glimpse the super-
—
natural in the magic mirror nature, inertia, indif-
ference, as an image of the real reversed.
 :

— 88 —

IV.— BODY AND SPIRIT.

Man is the ultimate, or fruit of the tree of life. The

lower orders of aminate creatures may be termed the roots,
trunk, branches, leaves, etc., —but man is the fruit.
Some say "he is an epitome of the Universe." This is a
mistaken idea. Men differ one from another as the lower
animals differ, or the various orders of vegetables. The
apple is a species of fruit, but there are many varieties
of apples. However much men differ in looks, form,
manners and disposition, there is one peculiarity notice-
able in all, viz : the correspondence to the lower orders.
We all more or less, some variety of the
resemble,
lower orders and the less the resemblance the further
;

is the removal therefrom. Some have the tiger, lion,

vulture, hawk, eagle, sheep, goat, cat, lynx, ox, owl, ser-
pent, various kinds of fishes, etc., etc., " ad infinitum ,"
predominating. Some by their build and motions show
that they have just come up out of the water or, —
possibly, may be going back into it. Man is an epitome
of the elements he has developed up through. We carry
something of what we have been along with us — viz
the spirit.

And some men, having developed up through certain

elements, are an epitome of those elements, but not of
others. Elements are infinite ; but power is not based in
elements, neither can immortality be predicated therein.
 — 39-
Animals are but vegetables cut loos© at the roots ; man
differs from them only in degree. He has all that they
have, and a little more, generally, in some directions;
but some animals are nearer human than some men.
According to Darwin, man has descended from the ape.
According to my notion, there is as much logic in saying
that the ape is a degenerated man. "It is a poor rule
that won't work both ways." If a man ascends he also
descends. We make distinctions, in our ignorance of
principles, which, in reality, do not exist. If an animal
can develop into a man, a man may go down to an ani-
mal. Progression is no more a law than retrogression.
If man ever had a beginning, he certainly must have an
end, no matter how long it may be delayed. If he pro-
gress eternally, he certainly cannot always remain man.
Progress means change, growth to better conditions, and
conditions change the form and nature. If man never
had a beginning, he can never have an end. But, sup-
pose this idea to be true, and progression without retro-
gression to be the law of being, is it not a little strange
that man is no higher in the scale of being after having
been eternally progressing ? Remember, the eternity of
the past is the same as that of the future. Why is he no
greater if he has always existed and been always growing ?
If he is merely an infant on this earth, is it logical to
conclude that he will remain the same and still keep on
growing eternally ? The distinctions we make between
things are merely arbitrary. Life is one. Man has no
more right to immortality than the brute. Man, in his
 — 40 —
pride and egotism, claims for himself a special creation
and existence after death, but denies it to the brute. This
is not a logical deduction. Man is a name merely
that we give to a manifestation of life to distinguish it

from other manifestations. We make distinctions to

which we give names, which are very satisfactory to
most men. Like the Arkansas man, who, when accosted
by a traveler, asking information about his way, instead
of giving the information desired, cocked his hat over
one eye, struck an attitude, and asked the traveler, "What
mought your name be, sir?' ' Names are very satisfac-
tory to children, but he who seeks for principles, cares
little for names. But in order to convey ideas, and to
be understood, and to distinguish one thing from another,
names are important. Man," then, is the name given
iC

to the highest type of life we are acquainted with on

this earth, and the term body is applied to the visible

part. —
But the real man is an idea as much so as that
represented by any piece of mechanism. (See defini-
tions of ideas in previous parts of this work.) In order
to amore perfect understanding of man and his powers,
we will divide him into parts— but the distinctions herein
made are arbitrary, and do not really exist. Man is com-
posed of body, mind, spirit, and soul ; or in other words,
the ego, the thought, and the thing thought of — or
power, motion, and the thing moved. But these things
are an unity. There can be only o«ne principle in existence.
The moment you admit two, one bounds and limits the
other. Very suggestive of the positive and negative
poles of a magnet. Laying all speculation aside, we do
 41

notknow what " infinity " is, more than we know what
man or anything else is. If we should, at some time,
discover what it is, it would, after all, be only another
name added to our vocabulary. I cannot find a name
for "her who is nameless ," that third thing the mother —
of power and weakness of God and of nature. — The
loftiest thought cannot go beyond the realm of things—

for thought belongs to things. The most fertile imagina-

tion cannot find a field that does not exist, in which
to revel.
The insane is as real as the sane, although we may not
think it desirable or healthy. Perhap? there are some
who love insanity. Who shall say that the dividing line

between sanity and insanity is a fiction? That dividing

line — that neutral ground — is the body, — matter.
Science is unable to tell us of all the substances that
compose the human form. There is something which
escapes the closest analysis, or the most subtile and
searching thought. The scalpel fails to find the spirit

so science fails to find aught but the dross of these bodies.

There is a something hidden away in matter that holds
each atom in its place— aye and gives form to ! all

atoms —which is master, and yet a prisoner lord, : but

yet a servant. There is a something in matter lying latent r

which is not heat nor flame, but which, when let loose,
produces heat, flame and combustion. "Fire"
It is the
the ancient Magi worshipped. It is not magnetism, nor the
astral fluid, neither is it light, nor electricity; for these are

but effects of its freedom. There is a spark lying dor-

mant in matter, which, when aroused by friction, decom-
 — 42 —
poses all forms. If set in motion gently and by degrees,
it refines matter and causes growth, attracting and repel-
ling matter. by violence, it produces con-
If struck out

flagrations and destruction. Worlds are sustained and

destroyed by this spark of fire. It is a useful servant to

man, but when it gets beyond his control it is a cruel and

remorseless master. This Fire is the Spirit. It is in
all things, and is the life thereof. In fact, things are but
forms of spirit condensed. Life is a liberation of
spirit. All matter evolves from itself an aura, pecu-
liar to its condition. This aura is produced by the
gentle motion of things, in growth and in death. All
atoms are in motion, for spirit is ceaselessly active.
Swedenborg says there is a sphere belonging to and
surrounding all things. It is more perceptible in some
things than in others. Baron Reichenbach instituted a
series of experiments with various metals and stones
which he submitted to sensitive persons in a darkened
chamber, and has written a work in which he claims the
same thing as true, so far as tested by him. This
aura I term spirit, or a result of the action of that
hidden which has been worshipped in ancient days
fire,

as God, in honor of which the eternal altar-fires were

kept and men bowed down to the sun and
burning,
worshipped Him as the most perfect symbol of fire, or
God. All matter is undergoing change, and this change
is growth, and growth is life, and life is the freeing
of fire or spirit. All matter is in a state of combus-
tion; some forms slowly, others with great intensity.
This combustion may not be perceptible to our dull
 — 43 —
senses, but that only proves our blindness. Growth is
the throwing off effete matter and taking on new.
This is exactly the case with violent combustion. A
burning pile throws off heat, smoke and flame, and
draws to itself the atmosphere, which, rushing in, com-
bines to increase the conflagration. This rushing in is

but the baptism of matter with fire, which cannot exist

without. The body may be likened to a furnace : it

must be fed with fuel ; and the atmosphere must

meet that fuel in the system, or no fire is kindled
and no heat generated. The lungs are the bellows
which fan the fires of life. The pores of the body are
escape pipes. The atmosphere is the aura or spirit of the
earth, and all things on the earth live by inhaling it.

Thus it may be seen that the spirit of one thing may sup-
port another. Spirit absorbs spirit by combination, the
same as fire absorbs the atmosphere.
The body may be likened to a horse-shoe magnet, or
a combination of them. The legs are suggestive of one ;

the arms of another. We are, in fact, a combination of

magnetic motors — or ;
possibly, a galvanic pile. May not
our food furnish the alkali, the atmosphere the acid, the
union of which sets free the spirit (fire) of food, causing
motion, heat, combustion, growth, and life. May not
the liver correspond to the zinc, and the lungs to the
copper plates of a battery ? Connected by acids and al-
kalis in the system, a current is evolved, which dissolves

and decomposes food as fire does wood. The fire thus

set free from food becomes the aura (spirit) of the organ-

ism in which it was set free. Thus our spirits are made
 — 44 —
up in part from that which we eat. There can be no
combustion without the union of matter and atmosphere.
That union is the fusion or blending of all forms into one,
and that one is formless, viz., fire or spirit. Power re-
sides in the formless. In the imponderables there is

freedom, and without freedom there is no power mani-

fested. To a spirit in bondage there is the darkness of
matter, but a spirit set free is living light, an immortal
fire, which consumes matter as the light of a lamp con-
sumes oil. God is Fire, for " God is a Spirit, and they

who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

Matter is but fire that is quenched. All it needs is bap-
tizing with a spark from God, and it begins to burn and
glow with life as embers in a furnace glow with light.

There is not an atom in the body that is not vibrating

with the electric or magnetic fires which animate all things.

It is, indeed, burning with a lurid and weird intensity truly

amazing. And we might behold 'the grand and sublime
spectacle if it were not for the obtuseness of our dull and
materialistic senses. If once beheld, we would no longer
wonder at the vast amount of fuel required daily to sup-

port this ethereal flame called life.

The light emitted by these walking furnaces — these

torches, these living machines —varies in intensity and
volume, according to the nature and quality of the mat-
ter in combustion. Some lights are electric, radiating far

and near so it is with some men. Others, again, are

;

small, and emit a soft, mild light. Others, again, give out
only a spark but most bodies are so undeveloped that the
;
 — 45 —
fires of life smoulder, and emit nothing but a fitful gleam
now and then, amid vast volumes of smoke.
This light emitted by all living beings — nay ! by all

things mundane and supermundane— *> the spirit, It is '

the spirit of matter in combustion which constitutes the

aura of plants, animals and men. The laws of combus-
tion are the laws of the universe, and they are the laws of
magnetism, —action and reaction, attraction and repul-
sion, an outgoing and incoming current — this is all. Hang
a gold coin on the positive pole of a galvanic battery in
a solution, and a piece of brass or copper on the negative
pole in the solution, but not in contact with the coin, and
the result is, the positive galvanic current dissolves the
gold and carries it over to the negative, where it is deposited
upon the piece of brass. Electro-magnetic physicians
know that they can increase the vital powers of any por-
tion of the system by the application of the negative
electrode thereto ; and that they can reduce. the action of
any part by the application of the positive.
Thus it is demonstrated that matter is dissolved and car-
ried from one part of the system to another, where it may
be deposited, or even carried out of the body. Now, we
know that the female principle is the productive, or the
principle wherein matter is combined into forms of life,

and that the masculine is the principle from which such

life or matter comes in solution, as the gold from the
positive electrode. Every human being is a magnet,
which evolves a positive force from itself, which dissolves
and appropriates to the body material of various kinds
from food, and conveys it to renew the decaying tissues.
 — 46 —
while it also repels and eliminates that which is devitalized.

But the negative principle or force is not evolutive, but

receptive, in which the positive deposits its burden of
spirit. Thus body constantly renewed by a process
is the
little thought of, viz that of impregnation and gestation.
:

All motion is magnetic; and this is only another name

given to the manifestation of fire-- combustion. All things
are in a state of combustion — some gently : this is growth
and progress; others with intensity, as a conflagration, in
which the body is reduced to ashes, and the life of it back
" to God who gave it."
If attraction overbalance repulsion there is a slow com-
bustion, a smouldering of the fire, in which other forms
of matter appear (charcoal for instance). This is ex-
actly the case with nature ; the half-extinguished fires of
life preserves the form for a space of time. But notice
the slow and certain change of form from infancy to old
age, showing that repulsion is master after all. If repul-
sion overbalance attraction there is a rapid conflagration,
and forms of matter disappear in smoke, vapor, heat and
flame, to nothing— " not even to the blue sky." It is to

attraction that childhood owes its ruby cheeks and lips,

and its exuberance of life. The immortal fires sparkle in

its eye, and glow in its soft and rounded flesh through
which it shines, ere shame has come to crimson the cheek
and brow with a more lurid light, with a more intense
combustion, in which the forms of youth change rapidly.
To repulsion we owe the lustreless eye, palid cheek, the
and wrinkles of age ; aye the death of the
grey hairs !

body comes through excess of repulsion. A proper bal-

 ;

— 47 —
ance is marriage, in which more things are generated
than has yet been dreamed of.

The aura same laws.

or spirit obeys the The positive
contains the seminal principle, which it deposits, when
it meets the negative, which immediately returns to
the body (the womb) with its new found treasure, with
elements of spirit that combine in the system with posi-
tive elements, forming new blood, new tissue, new vigor.
Violent combustion is destructive to forms of matter, but
the compounds resulting therefrom are of incalculable
value to mankind. The wood are a compound
ashes of
resulting from combustion, but how much of its chemi-
cal properties come from the atmosphere is not known
nor is it known how much came from that invisible fire
or spirit which resides in a negative state in the air we
breathe and burn. Science, a great thing in the eyes
of Professors, but is a mere infant as yet. It may be a
promising baby, but it still needs nursing. The body is

condensed aura or spirit, which liberated by motion

flows around it as light flows from a candle, passing out
positive and returning negative. The condition of the
matter (body) in combustion determining the brilliancy
and power of the light. Of the constituent elements of
the body, science says there are many, and goes on
to name them. But, gentlemen, with all respect for your
knowledge, your analysis and tests, your acids and
crucibles, I must say I question your conclusions. Why ?
Because a dead body is not the same as a living one.
The moment it is dead it is in another condition ; the ele-
ments are changed and continue to change till there is
 — 48 —
nothing left of them. Analyze a dead bone, (you cannot
analyze a live one), and you get compounds to which you
give names but names prove nothing. In your crucible,
;

retort and receiver the spirit of the universe is adding it-

self to your work in fact, it is doing the work itself.
;

You do not know how much of your own spirit enters

into combination with the elements you are manipulat-
ing. Then why such a parade of knowledge ? We don't
yet know the first letter of the alphabet of science. Take
a tub of earth and weigh it; then in it plant a seed. After
a time you will have a tree remove the tree, and again
;

weigh the tub of earth, and see how much less it weighs.
You will find that the tree is made up almost entirely
from the atmosphere which, indeed, is the spirit of the
;

earth. Forms are a condensation of the invisible.

The earth is none the less for having produced inani-
mate and animate things. A mother is not made less by
child-bearing. The light of a lamp is not lessened by
lighting other lamps. The human brain is not reduced
by giving thought and ideas to the world, but its capacity
is increased thereby. It is said that "man is like a candle :

when the light goes out he is no more." I do not agree to

this. Light is an effect of combustion \ so is the mani-
festation called life. But light is greater than oil, as
spirit is greater than matter, or as motives are greater
than acts.
 —

49

V.— THE MIND,

We have many so-called sciences of mind, prominent

among which is phrenology. This is recognized as a
science by most thinkers. The brain is recognized as the
organ of the mind, and mind is treated of as an entity
the soul. I regard mind as an effect of organization. It

is a something the soul has developed to enable it to

come in contact with, and to handle matter. The idiot
has no mind, but he has the power to suffer and enjoy.
Now, it cannot logically be held that sense is mind, or
that instinct is mind infants have no mind, but
;

they have the capacity to develop mind. Thus mind is a

thing that grows and dies like a vegetable. Mind is a
manifestation of the soul, composed of various powers or
faculties. My mind is a machine I have made. It be-
longs to me, as my body or my coat belongs to me. It

my property. I may be robbed of it as I may be of

is

my money. True When my mind is gone I am driven

!

back, as it were, to a condition where sense remains, but

memory, reason, judgment and will are not. Mind is to
me what the rudder is to a ship. By the use of it I sail

my frail bark over the stormy seas of this life. Without

it I am drifting like a piece of drift-wood wherever the
waves toss me. As a man without property is considered
nobody, so man without a mind is, in fact, a cipher.
 — 50-,
As sense is the first manifestation of the soul, mind is

the second, and the body is the third. But to observation

the reverse seems to be true, inasmuch as the body seems
first, mind second, and the soul blank.
Sense surrounds the soul as the atmosphere surrounds
the earth, and constitutes a sensorium upon which all

things are photographed, all sounds vibrated, all thoughts

and emotions reflected. It is sense which separates
things, holds each atom and each body in place, and esta-

blishes the relationship governing. It is the sense of a

thing which constitutes it a thing. Without sense things
could not exist. Without feeling there no contact.
is

Without hearing, no sound ; without light,no colors, no

beauty nor deformity. Sense does all things it is God.
:

The awakening of our dull senses is like unto an egg in

incubation. The soul is the germ. The sense is the
beautiful arrangement and adjustment of vital elements
hermetically sealed up in a shell (body). Without this

sealing up, this isolation or insulation, this partition be-

tween us and God, we could not exist. These bodies
stand guard over our souls to preserve individuality. They
are our preservation from the Infinite. The lightnings
are chained down, bottled up, suspended in liquid form
in the egg, as fire quenched by water in wood, coal, or
storm-cloud. These bodies are important. Their quality
varies, according to the power contained therein, as
the shells of eggs Vary. They subserve the end of solidi-
fying the fire into organic life. When that is accom-
plished the shell becomes rotten, and the fully- developed
chick works its way out, into a new life, or, rather, another
 — 51 —
stage of the same life, for there is only one life the life —
of sense or of God. " Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the Kingdom of God.
11
"The Kingdom of
God" is only another and higher stage of life, and no man
can enter it save through the gestation and birth of a
Divine Body. Ah ! the mysteries of being. Thou in-

significant egg ! Thou holdest in solution the incom-

prehensible mystery of God and eternity ! In thy
darkened chambers God is waiting ! Thy spherical form
speaks of revolution as the primal law of all being !

tf
Hermetically sealed " —
so secure from curious eyes, so
full of " the elixir of life," and yet so fragile ! Thou art
the flame-tip liquified ! Pure, beautiful thing ! Con-
taining in thyself infinity, soul, mind, body and spirit !

What doth thy hatching signify if it be not immortality?

Thy wings speak of flight and liberty, thy lungs of inspir-
ation, thine eyes of light, beauty, immortality and the
beholding of it. Thy instinct speaks of intuition and all
knowing ! Even the hovering of the Hen over thee
typifies the " brooding " care, and life-giving power of
the Holy Spirit Art thou evolved from the "black
!

muck," thou pure, white thing? Can mud see? or can

it make eyes like thine ? Can it think ? or can it evolve
a thought 'or a thing capable of thought? 0', rather,
didst thou not descend, little chick — as descends the
glory of the night from —
the mystery of the shadow?" "
As an egg in incubation receives heat, first in the shell,
and secondly in the albumen, so do impressions come to
the mind through the body by contact with the outer
world. The heat which causes growth of vegetation, *
 — 52 —
animals and men comes from without, and it is through
pressure, contact or impressions. Nature is to man what
the hen is to the egg. Physical contact is required to
warm up and influence things that have little sense ; but
to those who have mind, there is a spiritual contact or
impact, far more potent and far-reaching. It is con-
sidered that man has five senses : feeling, hearing, seeing,
smelling and tasting. But I claim that there are many
faculties and only one sense. Sense is
of the mind,
nearest the soul, the mind comes next. Through the
mind the sense receives the fire which quickens the germ
in the soul, or the egg. Sense may be said to be feeling.
We see a lovely flower- —we feel pleasure. If it be
some horrible sight we are pained. We may see it at a
distance, but the effect is the same. We come in contact
with that which we see, hear and smell, as much as we do
by taste or touch. We see sights that electrify us. We
hear sounds that startle and urge us to action, as much
"as if we had been struck a blow. We come in contact
with things and phenomena at a distance by sight and
hearing, of things nearer by touch and smelling, but it
is all feeling after all. The nerves of taste are only a
more acute than those of
little the hands. We smell the
aroma of a rose, and we know it is near, although it may
be hidden. We are in contact with the rose, for we have
received something from it that has made an impression
upon. us. Its spirit has met ours, and entering in, has
added some fuel to the fire burning within. New com-
binations have been formed within us, and the rose has
•
added its fire to ours. Our spirits glow with a purer
light from the contact of love and beauty. All things
grow by pressure, contact or impressions. The impres-
sions we receive in our journey through life, from the
gentle caress of love to the discord and clash of opposing
conditions, are but for the reception of that Divine fire

we worshipped Each object we meet im-

in the past.

parts its fire each experience we have, from the joys of

;

a mother's heart to the despair of the hopeless, is from

the pressure mother nature gives, as she warms and
hatches her brood. If we live properly we grow stronger
and stronger in all thatmakes the true man, till the rot-
ting shell (this body) bursts, and we fly away to realms of
immortal life.

Pressure comes by produces

attraction, and this
*

growth by the gentle heat generated thereby; but the

contact which comes by force is from repulsion, and is
death by conflagration. Fire struck out by force is de-
structive. By attraction we receive what we need, but by
force more than we need, and often that which is sick-
ening. Ask the pale, sickly mothers of the land if this
is not God's truth There is a mental or spiritual con-
!

tact of things, whose limit is unknown. It is not possi-

ble for us to think of a thing, principle or state of

being that does not exist somewhere, within or without
the domain of il
nature." To think of a thing intensely
is to see it in the mind; and this sight is clairvoyance. To
see a thing is to feel it ; this is contact, pressure, impres-
sions. The pressure upon the brain of a thinker shows
the power of thought and its contact. The pleasure he
feels in giving birth to that which he hopes will do the
 — 54-
world a great good, shows the baptism with fire we read
of in the Scriptures. Thought is the lightning's flash. It
penetrates. It is the sunlight. It warms and gives color
to life. It dwells in all things, for all things are sugges-
tive of thought. TRey provoke us to think. If we will

not think, they send the plague, the famine, and a slow
decay. There are some rotten eggs in every nest.

Thought calls us out from ourselves, from our knowledge

of our weakness and follies —and then we are great. To
dwell in thought among the stars is to be in contact
with the Gods, and to receive from them what otherwise
we should not have. Thought is a stimulant : it intoxi-
cates. To be drunk with thought is to provoke mirth,
like any drunken man.
The sun illumines a little space on the earth, but the
darkness is before and behind, and all around. Like a
coward it flees away as the sun approaches, and like a

coward it follows close behind, as follows the past upon

the present. We cannot stand still : we must move on.
The little thought we have flashes out into the dark-
ness before and behind. Memory looks back at the

gloom of almost forgotten joys, and from the dim twi-

light of the past come the ghosts of evil deeds. Our
weakness and follies appear gigantic. They are alive and
active, but the little good we have done is scarcely percep-
tible — is feeble, is crowded back, like a small boy in a crowd.
Thought flashes a ray of hope —
of prescience ; and the
world follows its light with a deathless trust. For it,

they tax themselves to build churches and to support an

army of priests. For this ray of light, this spark of
 — 55 —
Divine fire, they go hungry and in rags, patiently. Who
shall say there is not a pressure here, a contact as close as
that of matter, impressions that move the souls of man-
kind ? We gain knowledge, laboriously, in the collection
of facts ; but these facts must be digested by the mind be-
fore they can be of use. Thought, reason, analysis, are
the stomach of the mind. Here the fire is extracted
from facts, as life is from food in the physical stomach.
Doubt is indigestion. He who digests the facts and phe-
nomena of Hie, and still doubts the immortality of man,
has mental dyspepsia. He does not get the fire, and
consequently his spiritual nature lacks warmth. He who
properly digests the facts of life grows warm and tender,
and stronger in his trust towards others. He dreams of
immortality, for its fact is impressed on his mind. In
his dreams the mind becomes telescopic, and he sees that
which the doubter scoffs at. But, nevertheless, he grows
stronger and stronger in his belief.
Long years ago I became very much interested in clair-
voyance. I wished to attain the power. I read much
and thought more. Sat in " circles," used magnets, in-
sulated stools, galvanic bandages; in fact, exhausted all

the methods within my reach, but with the exception of a

ftw " clouds" and " flashes of light," my spiritual sight
remained obscured. It was one stormy night in
late

winter, in the little cottage on the hill, overlooking " the

father of waters," that, after having lain on a couch for
an hour as usual, with a huge magnet in contact with my
head, I retired to bed, feeling sad and low-spirited. I

lay for a time listening to the moaning and wailing of the

 — 56 —
winds, and pondering upon the subject which at that time
engrossed my entire being. All at once I became con-
scious of a presence in my room. It was intensely dark
to the natural eye. but I saw clearly an old man, tall and
majestic, with a lofty brow, deeply plowed with thought-
lines •
mild, gentle expression, long, white beard, and hair
that fell on his shoulders. He held in his hand a brass
rim, inclosing a circular glass. '
He held it up and
asked me to examine it. I did so and found it a mirror.
He called my attention to the fact that it not only
reflected objects, but retained the images impressed there-
on. " This," said he, " is the human mind, which ordi-
narily has thepower of Reflection and Retention"
(memory). He then pressed his thumbs upon the
glass, holding the rim with his fingers. It sunk with much
difficulty under the pressure to the depth of the rim. The
glass then seemed a shade smaller, but was still enclosed
as before by a brass rim. I looked in .the dish-like

mirror, and it seemed clouded and strange, fanciful ob- ;

jects flitted across its surface. Again he applied the pres-

sure, and with some effort the disk became deeper.
Again I looked ; the clouds had partially disappeared, and
dimly seen, deep down in the mirror, as if in the far
distance, a lurid light sent fitful gleams across the surface
in the mirror. Said he : "The mind, like this mirror, has

the power of elongation. Like this, the two first sections

are very difficult to start ; but these accomplished, and
the rest come easily." And he shoved rim after rim out
to the number of seven, and then bade me look. I
looked, and lo ! the wonders of the universe were
revealed. The light was clearer than the brightest 1

ever saw. The ineffable glory of creative principle

flashed like lightning upon my brain. I could not bear
the steady flame, and turned my wondering eyes to the
face of " the stranger.' '
He smiled and said :
" The
mind has a telescopic power, little known to mortals.
When once attained, there are no secrets that may not be
discovered." And then he and the " Magic Mirror"
were gone. But I have not forgotten the lesson.
In these pages, you can comprehend the ideas, you
if

will find a verification of its truth, and the guide-posts on

the road to power. We can never know a thing or princi-
ple except by contact therewith. Ideas grow in the mind
as vegetation grows in the earth. Thoughts are the letters

of a word ; the word is part of a sentence. A complete

sentence or a combination of incomplete sentences, con-
tains an idea. The word is the beginning of speech, or
the first materialization Hence St. John
of an idea.
says, "In the beginning was the Word." Now we may
think and think till we are exhausted, but if we conceive
no idea, and think it out to a clear and perfect definition,
it will do us no good it is like a plant struck by frost,
;

or withered by drouth. But if, in our analysis of facts, we

—
conceive an idea no matter how vague— and dwell upon
it in thought, it gradually takes form and grows to ma-
turity. Maturity is a perfected idea. When an idea is

matured in the mind it enters into the soul, and becomes

an integral part of the thinker, and he is changed thereby.
We by our thoughts. That which leads
are changed
us upward towards the good is expansive ; hence, creative
 '

— 58— •

of power : but that which is debasing leads downward,

and is contraction, hence destructive to power. The
soul expands by fire, but contracts for want of it. Fire
is power; and weakness is for want of it. It will be seen

from the foregoing that the mind occupies an important

position.
Everything that reaches the soul must pass through it

in the form of ideas. For the soul is an idea itself, and

nothing can enter the soul that is foreign to it. Fire is

the spirit in which ideas reside. Ifman were natural,

there could be no progress, for he would be in a state of
indifference. But, being unnatural, he is progressive and
intense — i.e., insane in his mind. The real appears to

him as unreal, and the unreal as the real. From this

cause he looks upon the body as the man, and the mind
as the effect of the body —
like " the blaze of a candle'

— and laughs at the idea of a soul or spirit. This state

of the mind is termed natural. I call it unnatural. But

we cannot help being unnatural on account of our ignor-
ance. Ignorance always blunders—weakness always falls.

The first act of the natural was a fall, for he w as

T
ignorant.
When fallen he struggles to stand erect, for he has
knowledge of an erect posture. The unnatural is pro-
gressive.
The mind is not a thing, but rather a law or mode of
action of the soul. It is a duality — "two in one." The
natural and rational are the two, which, united in har-
mony, are the Divine One. The Divine is first of all —the
sensorium of the soul, as evidenced by the intuition and
innocence of childhood, and the instinct of animals, etc.

wmmm
 !

— 59 —
From it comes all that exists. In the creation of man
instinct was suspended by a reversal, or depolarization of
it, in which it was dissolved as it were and scattered, and
became the seeds of many faculties. Each and every
faculty of the mind has instinct as its foundation. This
scattering or division of instinct may have been, and un-
doubtedly was, a slow process, occupying many ages.
Man is the only thing that comes into existence totally
helpless, totally blank of intelligence : hence it must have
culminated in his creation. The tossing waves of instinct,
torn from the depths of creation's ocean, tossed to moun-
tain heights, and beaten to froth, subsided in a great calm
Anon, a breath of the Infinite fanned the great deep, and
man sprang into being ! This calm is a great rest of na-
ture as she gathers her forces for another effort ; it is the
soul as it vacuum that provokes motion.
expands; the
The tornado was coming all nature held its breath in ;

expectancy It came in the shape of mind

! Ever .

since its advent there has been no more calm. From sun
to sun, fom star to star, from pole to pole, from centre
to circumference, there is agitation. Nature seems torn
from her moorings. Her steady and quiet ways seem
broken in upon as by a God. She is all turned topsy
turvy. And she, good dame, has joined in the mad
revelry, as at her own nuptials. Nature seems to have
departed from her usual methods ; an innovation has been
made, Lord had returned, or a god had
as if the absent
descended From this point from this great calm, this
! —
rest and expansion, this birth work is the law. The —
first effort was a failure because there was no guide, no
 --60 —
knowledge. A Such a thing was unknown to
failure!
nature. Astonished and bewildered, the soul shrinks and
collapses in giving the awful thing birth ! A failure ! If
being forced back from multiplicity to unity — if being
compelled in a new creation to go back to the starting
point — indifferent sense — to work outward again to mul-
tiplicity — if this be a failure, then man is a failure. And
every man who weeps over the weaknesses, follies and
sufferings of poor benighted humanity, recognizes it as
such. Every man who has an idea of improving the race
knows is something wrong.
there But nature, like an
over-indulgent mother, says to her child " It is no fail- :

ure, my child; try again." And sinking herself in her

great love for him, becomes the involuntary powers of
her child. For her spoiled child she bears patiently
every abuse. She breathes for him while he sleeps. She
labors as he directs; while he, visionary that he is, is busy
building castles in the air. She walks, if he says walk ;

he takes no thought of the distance or the steps : all

he has to do is to direct her. If he fails to point the

way, through forgetfulness, she goes astray, for she seems
to be blind ; but she keeps on walking till he says stop.
If, in his perversity, he takes up some habit that will event-
ually ruin him, she adapts herself to his whim, and carries

it on without his volition, even to his death ; when he for-

gets it, she reminds him of it. In his sleep she still labors
for him to restore the waste of his unnatural life ; still

whispering " Try again.

17
If he hates, she keeps it in
his mind. If he resolves to commit some crime, she as-
sists him as readily as to do a good act, always whisper-
 _81 —

ing, " Try again.'" If an incurable disease attacks lief

child, she fights for him while he directs, and in the man-
ner that he directs, but when he loses control she joins
forces with the adversary to hurry on the work of disso-
lution. Even in death she reminds him of his habits.

Nature seems to be a blind force, and indifferent thing,

if it be a thing. She knows nothing, feels nothing ; she
simply furnishes us with the power to think and feel ?

whispering, " Try again /"

It is no fiction, —the fall of man, —-but it is an allegor-
ical representation of a truth : or, in other words, the effort
of a great mind to explain the life we live — the principles
of being. The acts we do furnish the light of experience.
The man who trusts in himself and walks out boldly gains
the most. He who trusts in God, although the happiest,
gains the least knowledge. If we fall and hurt ourselves,
we have the freedom to climb up again. And though we
may not climb back to the same place, we may go higher.
Ever since the " fall," man has been scaling the pre-
cipices of his weaknesses and failures. The point I call

your attention to is this: All acts have their beginning

and inception in the mind. Hence all violation of law,
with their attendant pain, disease, weakness, and death,
spring from mind. All violation is a creation. Hence
allcreation is a mental product. As acts flow from the
mind, so matter flows from the mind; for acts material-
ized are matter. This being so, the more Divine the
mind is, the greater will power be. The evo-
its creative
lution of matter from itself having any quality or form,
or the dissolving of matter already formed, by the sus-
 -62 —
pension of atomic laws, and within the range
is logical,
of man's power, as a Divine Being. As a creator, all
creation is in his grasp, and he is therefore the architect

of himself, and his heavens or his hells. The conception

of a thing is the beginning of its growth. Hell grows
out of our minds : so also does heaven ; but hell is largest.

So also a Divine body may be grown by conception, ges-

tation and birth in the mind.
Hell is fed by our desires to see our enemies suffer, and
from a spirit of retaliation and revenge.
 — 63 —

VI.—THE DIVINE MIND AND BODY.

The natural mind is the common mind. It receives its

impressions through the five senses ; or, in other words,

wholly from external nature. To it belong observation,
memory, and reflection. All things of this mundane
sphere reflect themselves upon the mind as in a mirror.

This mind grows and expands by the collection of facts,

but the conclusions of it are material as the facts them-

selves. For this reason the natural mind cannot conceive
of a spiritual or future state of existence ; its utmost
powers enable it only to reach the plane of knowledge,
or the manipulation of matter. The knowledge gained
by it is the sciences and philosophy of material things it ;

adapts man to this " bread-and-butter life." Its analysis

is destructive; hence to it belongs doubt, skepticism,
unbelief, and the impossible; pride, lust, hate, fear,
avarice, deceit,and invention are its controlling powers.
The interior of this mind being closed up, there is no
reflection from any other way than from without. The
soul is denied, because it cannot be seen or handled ; its

presence is unfelt, by reason of the hardness and opacity

of the natural — or, more properly, the unnatural—mind.
 -64-
It cannot from within, but is conatantly drawn out-
feel

ward by sight, sound, and contact. It is the "wide-

awake" mind. Its highest faculty is the invention of
machinery, building of railways, cities, etc., — -all of a
material character. But it is progressive, inasmuch as it

expands by its stretch after the new, and its effort to per-

fect that which it conceives.

Conception is always superior to the production. The
true artist fails to come up to his ideal, because the colors
in mind are pure, while the colors of his picture,
his

being a compound of matter, are dead. It is a mere

material thing, void of soul. If he could, by looking at

the canvass, project from his mind the picture he sees in

his mind, project the colors from himself— without
brush, paints, or pencils—- on the canvas, it would come
up to his ideal. This power does not belong to the
natural nor to the rational, but to the Divine Mind.
The Divine mind does not exist to the natural mind,
because it cannot come in contact therewith. The natural
develops into the rational, which expands to the Divine.
The by expansion, opens the interiors, through
natural,
which impressions come from the unknown. If these

impressions are not rejected the mind becomes luminous.

This illumination is rationality. Impressions from within
awaken the mind as with a new life, and it gradually
turns within —thus reversing itself. This is the beginning
of magnetization, which is a turning inward of the eyes
and the sight—the beginning of the glory.
The natural may be compared to the flint, and objects
to the steel. The fire struck out is a mere spark, which
 ;

— 65—
vanishes away and is lost; but the rational is a steady
flame, flowing from the Divine, making malleable and
luminous the entire man. Seeds deposited in the earth
first soften, then enlarge, before the germ can come forth.

The natural mind is the seed planted in the soil of the

body, but the rational is the tree; the fruitage is the
Divine ; which, indeed, grows not out of the ground, but
descends, as the* Spirit, to bless who partake thereof.
all

This is the bread that comes down from Heaven, of

which if a man eat he shall not die.
To the rational belongs the innocency of childhood,
with its simplicity and credulity. Instead of sagacity
there is intuition ; instead of deduction there are visions
and revelations. One might naturally think that ration-
ality came with age and so it would, if there was no
;

retrogression. Our daily lives cloud the surface of the

mind with a film, through which the flint scarce pene-
trates hence there is no fire evolved by the friction
;

incident to this life. We become insulated during the

mad rush for- wealth, and the magnetism that gives
growth and expansion passes by us. The real age and
life of a man dates from his conscious progress in the

good and pure. The real death dates from the time one
becomes conscious of being bad, and does not forsake his
evil ways. There are some children who are older in
soul-growth than some old men or women. There are
some persons who retrograde from earliest childhood ;

others progress for some years, then turn downwards

others, again, are bad in early life, then suddenly, or
slowly, turn to progress upward. We may pity the old
 —
— 66 —
person who is hard. Progress softens the mind, and thus
the whole man expands. The Divine mind is first next ;

is the rational ; the last and outermost is the natural.

The natural corresponds to matter, the rational to spirit,
the Divine to soul. The Divine mind is the sensorium
of the soul, which surrounds it as a translucent film,
which expands and contracts. Attraction expands it ; re-

pulsion contracts it. It is the sensorium that is the seat

of consciousness ; the events of life are all photographed
upon it. All the emotions that are experienced give color
to it. The various strains of music and discord leave
their impression on it. The voiceless universe affects it

also. What we have been in previous states of existence

is brought forward by the sensorium into this life ; and
the sound of the voice, the build of the body, the facial

expression, the laugh, the color of the eyes — all these, and
more, tell what we have been doing, and what we have
been in the long eternities of the past.
Upon the inner surface of the sensorium ideas exist
in the " Holy of Holies," wherein God's voice is heard.
Upon its outer surface symbols of those ideas are pro-
jected, which, descending into the rational according to
its condition, as descends the ovarian ^tgg y
there becomes
impregnated by the nature of things. The nature of
things is the spirit of things, viz : Fire. The spirit dies

in the impregnation, and is born (after gestation) into

the natural mind reversed — /. <?., instead of being spiritual
it is material. // is a mere reflection of the Divine Mind,
a reversed image, as your face in a mirror. For this

reason we get no absolute truth. Ideas are reversed and

HH
 :

— 67 —
distorted from having been impregnated by the spirit of

what has been. manner spirit is changed

In the same
into matter, and becomes part and parcel of these
bodies. For instance, you have a wound ; the pain is a
telegram to the sensor ium of the soul ; the idea to restore,
though unconscious to you, is immediately projected by
the soul into the sensorium, or Divine mind, where it
meets and
spirit is impregnated, and, descending, deposits
life in the form of new matter in the wound. Thus are
the injured tissues fed, like a child in embryo, till the
parts are restored. But there is a decay of the injured
parts before and during the restoration. Flow tenderly
and carefully we nurse and dress an ulcer, thus causing it
to give way to new and healthy flesh. Matter is but
spirit reversed. Substance is substantial; it does not
change, but spirit and matter do change in becoming
reversed. The decayed matter of an ulcer is the return
to spirit, and matter in formation is spirit condensing
which is by that third and incomprehensible
effected
thing—the These material bodies are but an ulcer,
soul.

so to speak, upon a Divine and substantial body, which

the soul is striving to free therefrom. But in most of us
this Divine part is destroyed, swallowed up, eaten through
and through by ulceration. The substance of the
as
Divine Body is an idea of it. Matter, without an idea,
fails or lies dormant but with an idea it rises up and walks
;

erect as man. Aye and with an idea of it he rises up

!

to be a god.
Ideas revolve in cycles of time as worlds revolve in
space. Hence, " there is nothing new under the sun."
 — ;

— 68-
We get a glimpse of the Divine in childhood and in first
love: But the fog soon— alas ! too soon — rises and ob-

scures the sun. In the reversal of ideas the external, or

the last, appears to be first. Causation appears on the
surface of things, and life and mind seem as the effect of

matter.
Religious ideas are of the soul ; its symbols — being
projections thereof — are reversed images which the world
worships. The esoteric is lost in the rubbish of the exo-
teric, as the soul is lost in matter. But it flows on in
cycles, vast in extent, and gradually works out of the
rubbish, and asserts itself as miracle. The age of miracle
is near at hand The cycle of the soul is nearly com-
!

pleted ! Already we can see the first dim twilight of the

rising sun !

From the worship of the Divine the one, the first

mathematical number — we have gone down to the num-
ber nine in the absurdity of addition, and now in that
constellation we worship many gods — our forefathers.
But the absurd nine will pass away, and the next cycle
will be the union of the Immortal 1 — symbol of creation
and the beginning— with (10) symbol of the soul.
The Father and the Mother at last united, the Son (the

Divine mind) will appear on this earth. Thus we re-

volve in a numerical circle from one back to one again.
The idea of heredity carries us back to our forefathers,
and we lay the upon them but they
blame of our follies ;

went back to Adam Adam laid the blame on the devil

;

the devil lays the blame on God, who created and edu-
cated him for that purpose. Thus in thought man makes

^a
 — 69 —
God demon, inferior
out a to the lowest of humanity in

sympathy, and superior to the devil in cold malignity.

What absurdity !

Why not accept what we know as the truth? We

know that our acts make and unmake us, and that we
suffer and enjoy through our own acts. What I am my
acts in this life and other stages of existence have made
me. I am but an action, and every act I do adds to or
diminishes my power to create, to enjoy, to surfer, and
to be. I am the numeral one— the first and the last.
When, in the progress of life the soul expands to the outer-
most being, and becomes the over-soul instead of the
inner, then shall the Father (Spirit) be one with the
Mother (soul), and the Divine mind (the Son or sun,
symbol of Divine light and knowledge,) shall illumine the
night of matter, and all secrets which lurk in darkness
shall stand out in their naked deformity. '
'
Then shall

no one say to his neighbor, know ye the Lord, for all

shall know Him from the least to the. greatest." This is

the Trinity, and the Father, Son,

real significance of the

and Holy Ghost. Spirit, the Father, God Soul, ;

the Mother, Holy Ghost Mind, the only begotten Son

;

of Spirit, or of God. The union of spirit and soul is

typified by marriage ; creation is typified by children, as
the son or mind begotten. As an idea reversed or
dwarfed becomes monstrous, this idea of the Trinity,
Divine as a symbol, has been rendered unnatural by the
loss of its Divine intent, and doubly damned by the en-
forcement of unnatural statute law s. r
 — 70 —
The natural becomes the rational by development,
and the same is true of the rational. Many there be who
do not believe in the Divine. To me Divinity is the
noblest and best part of humanity— a beacon light, far
above us, luring us upward and onward to real manhood
and Godhood. All rationality is negative, but natural-
ness is positive.
The spirit flows out and in. As it flows out it dissolves
and away effete or dead matter into the atmos-
carries
phere, when it becomes the life of something else this ;

is a positive current. As it flows in it brings with it the

spirit* of other things, with which it has mingled in its

revolutions around the body; for, like everything in mo-

tion, it revolves. In this mingling the spirit becomes
negative, and returns to the body; so all spirit that builds
up the waste of the body is negative. The negative is
feminine, and all formation takes place therein. Ration-
ality is the negative mind. All art and mechanism is

Light and the Soul. — The Berlin Gegenwart, of Nov. 15, 1879, contains a
rep rtof experiments made by Dunstmaier to te t the accuracy of Jager's theory,
thatthesoul of every man and animal is to besought for in the characteristic odor
exhaled in each case. Dunstmaier, who unites in his own person the ph ysiologist
and metaphysician, was, uutil these experiments convinced him of his error, an
outspoken opponent of Jager's views. He is now, however, an enthusiastic
convert. Dunstmaier's method was no doubt suggested to him by his familiarity
with experimental science. He considered that light and the soul if the soul —
is an olor — a>e both radiated, and that light can be, as it were, collected and
fixed by a photographic plate covered with iodide of silver. What body, now, is

as sensitive to odors as iodide of silver is to lig t? Evidently thenerves of smell

in a dog. In the centre of the laboratory a cage containing twenty hares was
placed, and a dog was admitted to the room. He at once made violent efforts
to get at the hares, which, of course, in their terror, rushed to and fro in the
cage. After two hours of this torture the dog was killed, the nerves of smell and
the mucous membrane of the nose removed, and rubbed up in a mortar with
 —

— 71 —
due to rationality. All aggressive acts and destruction is

due to the positive or natural mind (as I have termed it

in this chapter for the sake of simplicity). The Divine

mind is that incomprehensible and out-of-the-way mind
— that third thing, standing guard between the two,
wherein they meet and become one. Now, this meeting
of the spirit with matter, and its transformation from
spirit into matter, is a strange and mysterious thing.

The spirit itself is not life, but it contains the germ which
comes to life in the third thing, which contains in itself
the power of generation. Mind is the connecting link
between matter and spirit —
hence it is in the mind that
transformation is effected. This mind becomes Divine
by unfoldment, which, indeed, is nothing more than a
union of the natural with the rational. In the way we
look at things from without, the Divine is evolved, but in
reality the Divine contains the natural in itself, and is

first in the order of creation. There is Divinity in all

glycerine and water. The twenty hares had been exhaling their souls for two hours,
and the dog, during all his panting and sniffing, inhaling them for the same
length of time. The glycerine might be expected, then, to contain a certain
quantity of the soul of the hare, the main characteristic of which is, of course,
timidity. That this was the fact the following experiments seem to prove : A
few drops of the extract were administered to a cat she ran away from some
;

mice instead of pouncing upon them. By the subcutaneous injection of only

two cubic centimetres a large mastiff was rendered so cowardly that he slunk
away from the cat. By a similiar experiment, in which, however, a young
lion in a menagerie played the part of the hares, Dunstmaier succeeded in isolat-
ing the soul substance of courage and in transmitting it to the other animals.
Still more interesting experiments showed clearly that these " psychotypic '"'

glycerine extracts had a decided effect on the human species. Thus, after
swallowing a small dose of psychotypic timidity, D.instmaier had not the courage
to believe in his own discovery. This effect soon passed off, however. London
Medical Record.
 — 72 —
things, as there is life in all. We speak of the mind as a
thing, having an organ, the brain, and a location therein,
but we know of no such thing. The mind may, and
probably does, come to a focus in the brain as a great
centre of perception ; but I have good grounds to main-
tain that it occupies every atom of the body —even to the
toe-nails and hair ; and that it surrounds the soul, separ-
ating the spirit from it, and that it is the great laboratory
of the Infinite, in which spirit is transformed, and matter
receives its quickening power, and is transfigured, trans-
posed, or rendered up to the Infinite as an incorruptible
substance. Jesus was in possession of the Divine mind.
It was not possible for Him to be sick, to suffer pain, or

to die, savq, as He willed it. He did not die, only in

appearance ; neither did His body ascend, only in ap-
pearance, but was transposed. This transposition is a
vanishing away out of sight. Read of the transposition
of Philip, in Acts viii., 39-40. Andrew Potts, of Harris-
burg, Pa., told me —
and the same was corroborated by
several truthful men who witnessed it — that he vanished
out of the sight of his friends at the depot, when they
were about to take the cars for a town six miles down the
road, and that when the cars arrived at that station he
was already there, talking with a Friend who was waiting
for the train to escort the friends to his house.
Jesus' and death was to show mankind that He
life

was the same as they, and to show them the possibilities

of human nature. A teacher, to be acceptable, must not
be too far removed from his pupils. Had Jesus mani-
fested the powers of a God, vanished from the cross, etc.,
 — 73 —
He would have converted the Jewish nation in a day,
and they would have worshipped Him as God. But
what good would that have done ? Lo the world has !

been worshipping Gods for countless ages, and some por-

tion has been worshipping Jesus ever since His crucifixion,
but what good has it done ?

The Doctrines of Jesus are sublime in their truth and

simplicity —but very much, of the most value, has never
been penned. It has been urged against him that he
taught that which, ifpracticed, would subvert civilization.
On the contrary, itwould redeem mankind from barbar-
ism and idolatry, and make men civilized in place of
semi-savage. ' i
Greater works than these shall ye do,
because I go to the Father.' '
" By their fnrits shall ye
know them." " These signs shallfollow those that be-
lieve." Who believes?
 74 —

VII.— GENERATION OF MIND.

It is the weakness of matter which compels it to lie dof-

mant and still in one place ; this it is which causes it to
falldown when not supported. Gravitation is only an-
other name for weakness. So it is with mind. That
which is under law is weak, and the more materialistic
the mind is the weaker it is, and the more bound by law.
Mind is law, but the thing moved and governed is matter.
To fulfil the law, then, is to perfect the mind, and the
matter under it ; for law makes matter, and imparts every
quality to it— motion, weight, buoyancy, etc. To the
perfected mind all mundane things are under, or enclosed
in it, as a large circle encloses smaller ones. There is no
such thing as perfecting nature — it is already perfect.
Neither can an imperfect thing generate a perfect thing.
The to, and receiving the
imperfect changes by rising up
perfect within Thus the wise man works through
itself.

nature, not against it and mastering its modes, methods,

;

laws and minds, transcends them all and looking back, ;

becomes a spectator rather than an actor. This is the

fulfilment of law, or in other words, the being filled'full
of mind. For as we ascend in the scale of power, we be-
come rmre and more, involved^ or enveloped in mind^
 — 75 —
which, penetrating through and through, illuminates the
spirit,and gives buoyancy and fluidity, or malleability,
to the matter composing the body ; thus connecting it
with other matter, to influence, control, mould and fash-
ion it for use, as one uses his hands. In order to pass
from one nature, or mode of existence, into another, gen-
eration and birth are necessary. This involves a sleep.
The spirit worlds are of this nature. In order to go be-
—
yond them to the realm of absolute power, the germs of
the mind must be ripe. We are here for the purpose
some of us, at least— of generating mind not merely to ;

spend a few years in amassing wealth, or in toiling to

support bodies. Those in whom the mind is not half
generated remain in this nature to try it over and over
again. Unripe germs will not grow. To pass into the
nature or " Kingdom of God" a regeneration is neces-
sary, because it is an incomprehensible nature to this finite

—
mind hence the entire man must be re-made. The
body is of no account. Mind is that which determines.
Some minds are of no account. Fate determines. The
truly generated mind may, and does, regenerate the man,
and endow him or her with supernatural power and im-
mortal life, here on this earth. That which ensues at the
death of the body is simply generation, and not a regen-
eration ; for in the regeneration the body is changed in
quality consciously, by the joining to it of the Divine
Mind. There is no sleep or trance in this ; it is effort
not physical, but mental effort, in the destruction of
things that disturb the harmony.
 — 76 —
There are many enemies to human progress, prominent
among which are the following of a downward or retro-
gressive series, which are antagonized by an upward or
progressive series. They may properly be termed Pow-
ers —one of Light, the other of Darkness.
Powers of Light, Powers of Darkness.
f i. Revelation. ( i. Ignorance.
\ 2. Joy. ( 2. Sorrow.
( 3. Temperance. j 3. Intemperance.
( 4. Continence. ( 4. Concupiscence.
( 5. Justice. ( 5. Injustice.
( 6. Communion. ( 6. Covetousness.
( 7. Truth. ] 7. Deceit.
I 8. Good. \ 8. Envy.
( 9. Light. ( 9. Fraud.
(10. Life. \ 10. Wrath.
— Hermes.
Revelation may be known by its imparting a great satis-

faction, rest, or joy to man. Joy is prolific, since it is the

feminine of ideas. As Revelation away ignorance,

drives
so joy drives away sorrow — or prepares the mind to resist
sorrow, and to be self-sustaining in its completeness —to
stand calm and tranquil amid life's changing scenes, and
be content and happy despite adversity. Temperance in
all things is revealed as the source of health, and immedi-
ately is siezed upon by the mind, and when it has grown
apace, Continence, the feminine of it, is evolved. And
they two drive away Intemperance and Concupiscence.
When this is accomplished the mind is as clear as a pol-
ished mirror. The turbid waters of selfishness and lust
have subsided, and Justice, stripped of vindictiveness,
stands revealed as mercy, and becomes the ruling power
 —

— 77 —
of the mind. Then comes Communion, the feminine of
Justice, and Injustice and Covetousness flee away. There
is now no feeling of " mine and thine* ! left in the mind.
All things are pure, and all things are common. The
communion of the sexes, of races, of spirits, angels, and
Gods, is effected, and the mind trembles with its fulness
upon the confines of absolute truth or oneness of being.
The soul has now ascended to the seventh sphere, and is
pregnant with male and female twins — "the Truth of
Good, and the Good of Truth, which in due time are
'
'

born into the conscious mind, whereupon deceit and envy

take their departure. In the light of truth all distinc-
tions and differences disappear, and all things are good.
But this light reveals another light —dimly seen at first

far away upon the backgrounds of the soul — fitful and

fleeting, obscured by passing shadows, it grows brighter
—
and comes nearer an immortal tight, in the centre of
which is the germ of another life— of an immortal sub-
stance called "the Tree of Life." It slowly enters into

the mind, and descending from thence enters into and

transforms the changeable matter into a substance at once
homogeneous and not particled. The man is no longer in
light and in life, but light and life are in him. The In-
finite is no longer without and far away, but it is with-

in ; not divided and separated from, but the integral part

of all being, tangible, visible and intelligible. The im-
possible does not belong to this life, and flees away upon
its approach, or is not. The darkness and ignorance
which forms the background of the soul, in which we are
hidden from ourselves, has been withdrawn, and we are
 — 78 —
revealed as the Over-soul itself, containing all life and
forms within. We are no longer involved in law or mind,
forwe contain all of these, and are conscious thereof.
And we use them as we now do our hands and feet. Man
is master of all his soul embraces. This is the proper
generation of mind, wherein the body and spirit are re-
generated. To such, death is not, for death is a weak-
ness. The intuitions of a ripened mind are as broad and
deep as the universe, but those of a small or an unripe
mind are weak and shallow. Hence the necessity of mu-
tual culture —not in the acquisition of earthly knowledge,
but in the effort to grasp creative power —philosophy, as-

tronomy, etc., in their broadest and deepest aspects.

Philosophy is the highest of all studies. It wings the soul.
Truth is so little known that it is folly to waste words in
argument ; but speculate, think, entertain and master all

ideas thereto ; imagine, grasp at the Infinite Mind, and

bring it into yourself, for in the effort the mind expands,
and grows. What if you accept an
stretches out error to-
day? You can change your opinion to-morrow ! Above
all things, beware of fossilization.

Had Jesus healed the whole world in a day, it would

have been sick again in a few weeks, if not days. He
did not teach worship, but manhood, as a Divine thing.
He taught salvation as flowing from works, and not from
his merits or blood, or from the worship of him, or
anything else but principle. He taught the influence and
value of belief; and also of several kinds of baptism — of
water, of and of the Holy Ghost ; and also of a bap-
fire,

tism which he should undergo at his death. We are left

 — 79 —
to conjecture what baptism he meant when he said, " He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," etc. (See
Mark, xvi., 16, 17, 18). Bat we are not left in doubt
in regard to its being the baptism with water, for the
Christian world has been "sprinkled," "poured" and
"plunged" in water for eighteen hundred and eighty-two
years; and where are the " signs" he said should fol-
low as an evidence of salvation ? He said he was the
bread of life; to eat thereof was to be immortal. Now,
the truth is, he was teaching the same thing I am trying
to and his ignorant apostles, or some one
illustrate,

else, have got it mixed up and distorted, in order to deify

him. He said the bread of life came from heaven and ;

also that " the Kingdom of God is within you." He also

spoke of another birth, and of sight, as a result of that
birth. Baptism with water is a symbol of purification in
order to the reception of another Baptism, viz., that of
fire. The Baptism with water is typical of the softening
and the making tender (as a seed) the natural mind, so
that it may expand or revolve in its growth towards
rationality. The softened, tender, sympathetic, open-
ing mind, inhales the fragrance of another life, and
it buds, blossoms and bears fruits which are a blessing
to all. Its blossoms are a sight of the kingdom of God,
and its fruit is the entering into the spirit of all truth, and
the birth of a Divine Body, indestructible and eternal.
Bathing assists the will in the healing of the body, and in
the subduing of the heat of passion. Water opens the
pores of the body— belief opens the mind ; the first for
the reception of magnetism (spirit), the latter for the re-
 — 80 —
ception of ideas, which are, indeed, of the soul (Holy
Ghost).
This is the building up of a divine body of a superna-
tural substance, from the atmosphere of a thought- world.
We need not we only know how to live. But what
die, if
can we say of a world of men who think of nothing but
vanity, and for the serious part of life hire the thinking
of it done? The thoughts doled out from millions of
pulpit-grinders every seventh-day are but the effluvia of
the past, the exhalations of the dead. What kind of sub-
stance do they furnish for a dying world ? Is this the
" bread of life ? " Is there a spark of original fire in it ?
He who depends upon books for his inspiration is but an
exhumer of the dead. The heavens are as open to-day
as when Isaiah, gazing aloft, said, " Lo, I am God and !

I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob, are ye not de-

voured.' '
The same power is waiting for us to reach up
and take that existed in the olden time for him they nailed
upon the cross. The tables of the Infinite are spread, and
loaded, but no one will be compelled to partake. Help
yourselves, is the universal law.
At the tomb of Lazarus, in view of a body lying stark
and dead, with the smell of death, and the mould of the
grave on his pallid lips, with eyes that gazed the Infinite
out of countenance with their unflinching audacity, He
of the magic Will said, u If a man believe in me he shall
not die." Did he mean physical death? Most assuredly
he did. Take this as corroborative in speaking to the
:

Jews at another time he said, " Your fathers did eat man-
na in the wilderness, and are dead; but I am the bread of
life which came down from heaven, of which, if a man
eat, he shall not die,"— meaning the same death the
fathers died in the wilderness, viz : physical death. And
yet, in the face of these positive declarations of the In-
spired One, the pulpit organs grind out a spiritual explana-
tion. They make Jesus' work apply to a future state,

when he intended it wholly for this life. The Hermetic

Philosophers, the Alchemists, and the Rosicrucians, have
all believed in and taught the doctrine of eternal youth,
and sought for the " philsopher's stone, " and the " elixir
of life ;" and Jesus taught that life was within the King-
;
dom of heaven, which is within you
i '
and laid the '
'

foundation-stone, Belief.
The fakirs of India cause a shrub to grow out of the
ground, blossom, bear its and ripen it, all in one
fruit,

short hour. And it is no phantom fruit, for it is passed

around and divided among the bystanders, who eat there-
of. Scores of travelers have witnessed this feat, and
many have written of it, but my authority is a gentleman
of veracity who was born and reared in India. It is done
under circumstances which utterly preclude the idea of
jugglery or trick of any kind. They know and say it is
the power of the will that does no growth it. But there is

to their power. Why? Because they have no higher

ideas of human powers than the manipulation and pro-
duction of things. They are not a progressive people.
They are at their highest point. It remains for the An-
glo-Saxon race to go higher ; for it is a higher race.
Jesus said, " Greater works than these shall ye do, be-
cause I go to the Father/ ' And it would have proved
 — 82 —
true had they made the conditions. It remains for us to
make the conditions, which are, to work for that baptism
with the Holy Ghost and with Jire, viz the union of :

spirit and soul. Water makes the body soft, tender and
pure. Baptism is to be submerged, swallowed up in the
spirit, which is the beginning of a new life with wondrous
powers, generative of new matter —a divine essence, su-
perior to death and dissolution, which in appearance re-
sembles this body, but which, in fact, is not mortal. It

was body which Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Philip,

this

Enoch, and several Rosicrucians of the olden time are

reputed to have had. This was why Jesus said, " I will
lay my life down; you cannot take it." This Divine
body may die, if corrupted by the desire to die. Thus St.
John could live, notwithstanding he was plunged into a
cauldron of boiling oil, till he desired to die. The Divine
body is it is no apparition, or
not a spiritual body, hence
materialized form dependent upon a medium and condi-
tions. It is totally subject to the will, and as it is pro-

jected/^^ the mind, it may be drawn back into the mind

again, and thus disappear. Or it may change and be-
come some other form. This was why the Disciples failed
to recognize Jesus on the way to Emmaus. "He ap-
peared to them in another form," says Mark. But when
he had blessed the bread and broke it, he was himself
again, they recognized him, and then he disappeared.
At another time he stood in their midst, and as they
doubted, he said, " Feel my flesh and bones, for ye know
a spirit hath not flesh and bones.* The doctrine of the
'

metempsychosis of the soul is as true as it is old. All

 — Se-
ttlings are in the divine mind, and are projections thereof
by Divine Will and Love. Hence, man, when he rises to
the Divine, has the same powers, so far as he is concerned,
as an individual. Thus, he may clothe the naked, feed the
hungry, heal the sick, raise the dead, walk upon the water,
still GoD-worlds at will.
the tempest, or visit the When
that good time comes we will not need to take thought for
to-morrow. Then we can " give to everyone that asks,"
and "he that would borrow" we need not "turn away."
Then " whatsoever ye shall ask shall be granted," not be-
cause ye ask in anybody's name, but because then we may
say with Jesus, "
and my Father are one." Then there
I

shall be no high and no low, but as brothers we shall

dwell together, and the nations shall learn war no more.

Then shall " the lamb and the lion lie down together,"
and " the knowledge of the Lord cover the earth as the
waters cover the great deep." Then good-bye to mam-
mon and to a civilization whose glory is "an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth,"—" whoso sheddeth man's
blood, by man shall his blood be shed."
 84-

VIII.— ATTRIBUTES OF MIND.

That which can be ascribed to the mind is an attribute

thereof. We have to donow only with a few. In my
view, all things mundane may be attributed to mind, but
distinctions are necessary to illustration. All attributes
of the mind are dual— " Male and female created he
them." They antagonize each other one leads upward, ;

the other "downward —or inward and outward. All de-

velopment is in expansive curves, from one to many; then
in contractive curves, back to one again, of a higher or
lower order. Nothing moves in direct lines. The ex-
pansion of the soul is her effort to gather power ; her con-
traction is her effort to use that power. This is focaliza-
tion. All power, to be of use, must be focalized. Intel-
lect is the eye of the soul, which must be focalized in or-
der to attain clear sight. The rays of the sun in diffusion
gently warms, and brings out many hidden forms from
the earth; but in concentration, fire is evolved, which con-
sumes or obliterates these same forms of matter which
were evolved by its gentle rays. Even the granite moun-
tain would vanish away as a vapor, if the light of the sun
was all turned upon it. Yea, more even the solid, beau-
!

tiful earth would evaporate into the imperceptible not —

even into blue sky if the —
sun's forces were all turned
upon it. Focalization is the destruction of the old, and
the birth of the new. Intellect corresponds to the sun,
 ;

not only in form, but in power. It is to mind what the

sun is to the earth. Its darkness is ignorance, its light is

the birth and life of many things. The diffusion of its

light causes the mind to radiate into many channels, or

attributes, in the growth of which the soul is expanded.
But intellect is not satisfied with this ; and when it isdis-

satisfied it begins to contract itself for another and a

mightier effort ; it turns all its upon one point of
light

the darkness, which, like an opaque night, surrounds and

pierces through— as a burning of it into another life, or
another method of this one. This is the begetting of an-
other intellect (intuition) from this old one, which has
been consumed, or left and blackened
behind as a charred
ruin. The door of intuition once opened, there is no more
use for observation, memory, thought or reason its light ;

penetrates the depths of all mystery language becomes ;

automatic; and, without thought or effort, ideas flow in as

the waters of a mighty river ; all reasonable needs are
supplied as by magic. To such, if any there
if be, I can
say, with Jesus, " Take no thought of what ye shall say,

neither take heed for to-morrow."

Man, considered as a whole, is the focus of all forces
.

beneath and above him. The essential qualities of ail ani-

mation are in him, and find their focal point in the mind
hence the mind is composed of instincts, disunited or at
war with each other, the harmonious union of which is

the beginning of a new order or genus. Intuition is in-

stinct humanized. We scarcely know what intuition is.

There is plenty of sagacity and instinct in the world, but

very little intuition. To it belongs all the spiritual gifts
 -86 —
we know of. Intuition is the seed of the tree of life. All
seeds attract heat, moisture, etc., before they can project
the shrub or tree ; hence, the first law of intuition is at-

traction, which is the feminine, or the law of all medium-

ship. All inspiration, prophecy, healing, clairvoyance,
clairaudience, psychometry, and all other spiritual mani-
festations, come by attraction. I am aware it is a physi-
cal condition •
but the body by our mental
is affected
states as a thermometer is affected by heat and cold. At-
traction depends upon attentioii. As a mother nurses her
child by constant attention, so an attraction depends upon
attention. As a tender mother nurses and cares for her
only child by unwearied watchfulness and attention, so are
the gifts of the Spirit obtained and perfected. Intuition
is the seed of the tree of life, and the various attributes

of the mind which lead to gifts of the Spirit are its trunk
and branches.
The loftiest mind has not yet fathomed the depth and
height, and multiplicity of spiritual gifts. They are all
attributes of the mind, which, ascending spirally in cycles
from the natural to -the rational, at last bask in the bosom
of the Divine mind. It is all within, waiting the baptism
of fire, which comes by action. " Dead here, slumber-
ing there, latent in all save a few," we look upon it as
miraculous ; as a manifestation especially ordered by
Deity for a favored few. Mediums arrive at a certain
stage of development, and there stop ; then wonder why
the gifts gradually die. (See chapter on Mediumship).
The mind is a trinity in unity ; that is, it is animal, men-
tal and moral. The external mind corresponds to physi-
 — 87-
cal nature, and is called the animal ; the intellect corre-
sponds to fire —the spirit ; the moral corresponds to the
soul. There are seven attributes of the mind, each im-
parting a certain quality peculiar to itself. They have
their antagonists, as follows :

Experience, I.

//\\
1 1 . Belief Unbelief, II.
Hope
III. Fear, III.
IV. Knowledge / \ Ignorance, IV.
V. Trust / \ Distrust, V.
VI. Love / \ Jealousy, VI.
VII. Will / \Reverence,VII.
To the mind belongs quantity and quality. Quantity
gives momentum, but quality gives elasticity and buoyan-
cy. The attributes of the mind each has its antagonist,
as shown in the above diagram. They both grow out of
experience, but they are as opposite as day and night in
the influence they exert upon by oppos-
us. Each exists

ing the influence of its opposite ; the life of one is the

disease and death of the other. There is not life enough
in the mind to feed them both to fulness, so they strive
with each other for the lion's share.
The fundamental principle of this life is experience.
To it belong observation, memory, thought and investi-
gation. We all begin and end with experience; if we
try, we cannot escape it ; we must experience something.
The experiences of some, however, are as trivial as that
of a root which grows in the ground ; according to the
experience, so is the growth. We revolve in circles in
our growth. Every experience is a circle a triangular —
circle, of which belief, hope and knowledge are the an-
 — 88 —
gles. Knowledge is the ultimate of every act, of every
experience, and is twofold in its effects, viz good or :

bad. It either adds to, or diminishes, human happiness.

The nature of the knowledge gives it its effect, *>., it im-
parts a certain quality to the mind conducive to happiness
or misery. That which imparts rest, peace and tran-
quility is conducive to health and happiness ; but that
which causes dissatisfaction, unrest and agitation, con-
duces to disease and unhappiness.

BELIEF AND HOPE.

The great fundamental principle of Christianity is "Be-

9
lieve, or you will be damned.' This presupposes that
man has power to believe as he likes. This is undoubted-
ly a truth, as regards some men, while there are others
who are controlled entirely by evidence, or, at least, by
what appears as evidence to them. To convince a man
of a truth, it must appear to him as a psychological power.
It must appear so fascinating as to carry his will captive

through his love ; then the evidence supporting it will ap-

pear very plain and logical. When the antagonist of be-

lief overbalances belief, />.,when persons are ofaskeptical,
doubtful, incredulous turn of mind, they are, as a general
thing, not easily influenced ; they are inflexible, and be-
come fixed in opinions to which they become devoted.
This devotion is the same out of the church as in. It
closes the mind upon all sides, save the one through
 • — 89 —
which they look. They become bigoted in their one
idea, which is a creed they are bound to sustain. Unbe-
lief is the beginning of strife. It is a contradiction, and
strife is sickening. The unnatural man fights for his opin-

ions and against the opinions of others but the natural ;

man loves repose, and is indifferent to opinions of others.

Strife is of hell, and perhaps it is good for the unnatural,

but there is no health or life therein. Now, unbelief, be-

ing a negation or contradiction, it has within itself the
spirit of agitation, which sets in motion discordant men-
tal elements, antagonizing belief, which is of the soul — of
intuition —the condition of childhood. The spirit of be-
lief is that of childish innocence and credulity —of trust,

hope and confidence. Hence it is peaceful and restful to

the soul — so expansive. He who does not believe in
immortality fails to do so because he feels not the pulsat-
ing heart of God within himself. Let him who believes
keep silent till he knows the truth and can demonstrate it,
if he desires good results to himself. I do not believe in
strife, but let those who do, join battle.
That a man cannot believe except from evidence, is
true but one man receives evidence from without, while
;

another feels it within. We cannot accept a thing as

truth except it harmony with our inmost feelings.
be in
He who really believes in God believes in his own power
to become God-like but he who believes in the devil
;

knows of him, for he feels him within. We all instinctive-

ly believe in that which we love. We believe in that
which harmonizes with us. Mental assent is no belief;
 — 90 —
it may be forced out by fear, or love of appearance, or
popularity, or gain, but the real belief is what we live. In
view of this, Paul says, " As a man thinketh, so is he."
Belief is the fundamental principle of soul-growth. The
credulous man stands higher spiritually than the incredu-
lous. Why ? Because all growth and real power depends
upon the absorption of Divine fire, and belief opens the
pores. All magnetizers are aware that belief and fear
cause receptiveness. Fear is based upon belief. The be-
lief in the " harmful Gods" has diseased mankind through
the cold, malarial influence of fear. We do not fear that
which we know; it is the unknown we dread. True belief
also gives hope, and hope casts out fear and imparts cheerful-
ness. Belief in that which we fear is not a belief, but an
apprehension that the thing threatened, though unknown,
may be true. This apprehension or fear creates a tremb-
ling'and quaking as of an ague. It is disease.

He who believes in himself reposes in himself, and

achieves success; but he who doubts himself is afraid of
his shadow, and achieves nothing. Achievement is the
—
acquirement of knowledge as riches. But he who
achieves nothing, knows nothing, and is poor hence he ;

is dissatisfied with himself and others. He who knows

least of himself trusts himself the least, and is afraid and

doubtful. As of himself, so of others. We judge others

by ourselves. He who has the most trust and confidence
and highest knowledge—-first of him-
in others has the best
self, He who knows the most of
secondly of others.
money knows the least of mankind. He trusts money,
 — 91 —
but not manhood, for his knowledge leads him to distrust
mankind. Knowledge gives confidence or destroys it.
Woe be to him whose knowledge diminishes his trust.
Remove the little confidence we have in each other, and
all friendship and sociability would cease. Nations and
governments could not exist, and progress would be at
an end. Confidence is the diviner part of us. It is the
child-nature— that which is " of the kingdom of heaven."
Woe to him who has little or no confidence in mankind,
for he has none in God. Sleep is sweet to the trustful
soul, for God dwells within, and bars the door of dark-
ness through which devils creep when we are off our
guard. I have heard men boast of their doubts, -of their
unbelief and incredulity. But to me it is an evidence of
smallness of mind. Religion has become the laugh and
grimace of the world; by reason of the want of compre-
hension of its votaries, and of the unbelievers. He who
worships symbols is an idolater, and rightly provokes the
mirth of others ; but there is something sublime in prin-
ciples which always commands respect. The underlying
principle of all religion is the same, and is as old as hu-
manity. True, out of this principle-— this fire-faith of the
olden time—has grown up dwarfed and hideous forms of
religion, at war onew ith the other,
T
as man wars with man,
or nation against nation. But the principle is still Divine,
and universally breathes of the brotherhood of man, and
the Fatherhood of God. Who is there who, in con-
templating the wonders of creation, has not felt the leap-
ing of flame thoughts, as if in rapture— the kindling of a
 —;

— 9$ —
divine fire within that leaped and glowed with a fervent
heat, melting our hardness of nature, our skepticism and
unbelief in the wisdom of creative genius ? Ah ! who has
not gone hence from this closet of worship feeling like a
coward, humbled and weak as the publican and sinner
who smote upon his breast, and cried, " Father, forgive
me, a sinner !
"
I repeat, it is the small-minded, weak

man, who quenches the fires of his own soul by his doubt
and skepticism. To gaze aloft at the stars and rear not
out of your own soul a spiritual temple of principles for
the guidance of life's actions —for the use of mankind
and instead, only spend our time in tearing down the
house wherein our neighbor worships, is unworthy of
manhood. Power is that which builds anew not that —
which destroys. It takes genius to build an edifice, but a
rat might undermine and topple it to the ground. Doubt,
skepticism and unbelief are so many walls surrounding us,
isolating and insulating us from each other, and keeping
us far from the realms of power. In proportion as we
know a person to be truthful do we trust their love for ;

truth is natural and it is our nature to believe in truth

;

and whenever we find it, we trust it, and hope for its in-
crease and perpetuity and when we know of it we love it,
;

and will its spirit to be ours. Belief, hope, knowledge,

trust, love and will, are all of kin to truth, and he who
cultivates these graces shall yet be filled with righteousness.
Hope is based in belief. " It is an anchor to the soul."
In proportion as I believe a thing do I hope for its truth.

In proportion as I believe in others do I hope for their

 ;

— 93 —
health and prosperity. We rest in our hopes. The grave
looks less desolate to the hopeful soul. Cheerfulness and
smiles are hope's children. The unbelieving are the
hopeless and the dissatisfied , he who believes in nothing,
hopes nothing ; the hopeless are the desperate. Which
road will you know-
follow, dear reader, for the truest
ledge ? Do doubts and skepticism stand in your way, and
choke and strangle belief? Destroy them, then, by not
paying attention to their croaking. Forget your doubt
by keeping in your mind and constantly before your eyes
that which you love, or that which you would like to be-
lieve in and be. by the attention we bestow upon
It is

little things in the mind that makes impassable mountains

of them forget, or refuse to behold them, and they be-

;

come mole hills.

—
Have you an enemy one whom you can scarce endure ?
You know no good of him. This feeling does not make
—
you happy better destroy it speedily. Visit him in his
prosperity and in his affliction frequently talk with him ;

interchange ideas with him enter into his life-plans and

;

hopes. In process of time you will find some weakness

in him that will arouse your pity, which is not far from
friendship. The ingredients necessary for success in this
is, first, a desire on your part to bring about the result,
if for nothing else than your own peace of soul ; second,
a belief in your ability to accomplish what you undertake ;

third, a cheerful hope of success ; fourth, a true knowledge

of yourself — of your self-control, and psychological power,
and of extraneous means to affect him physically, such as
 94 —
gifts, or good and unobtrusive acts. My word for it, be-
fore you are done with your man you will be surprised at
the amount of good feeling and friendship that will be
developed between you. Perhaps he fancies you have
done him a wrong. If you can possibly find some flaw
in yourself, go and accuse yourself to him and beg his par-
don accuse yourself for the very things you know he is
;

guilty of, but never accuse or upbraid him. But if you

do this with doubt and unbelief in your heart of any good
in him, your eyes will look your distrust, and he will be
driven away from you as from a reptile. Control begins
at home. Which road will you follow, reader — belief or
unbelief, in order to make the most of yourself? Which
leads to power ?
 — 95 —

IX.—-ATTRIBUTES OF MIND.— Continued.

KNOWLEDGE.

It is said that "knowledge is power.' ' This maybe

so in one sense, but let us examine and see wherein it is

true. There are different kinds of knowledge, some of

which are a destructive power. The knowledge of this
world is based on facts gathered through experience. All
the facts known have reference to matter, and things rela-
ted thereto. So the relationship of things is the sum
total of human knowledge as founded on facts. Is destruc-

tion power? It is not reasonable to call that power

which destroys health and happiness ; in fact, weakness
is a more fitting name for it. Of course, there is force
manifested in destruction ; but it cannot be said to come
from knowledge. To illustrate : In the construction of
an edifice, some mistake, blunder, or oversight, leaves a
defect in some important part, and after a time, in some
manner — even in the settling of the building it falls to
the ground, and in a moment the labor of years, not-
withstanding the knowledge of many skilled artisans,
may be ruined through the weakness of ignorance. Shall
we say, then, that ignorance is power? It would be
just as logical as to say that knowledge is power, unless it

can be shown that knowledge has some real and lasting

benefit to confer. Is such the fact ? Is there anything
 ;

— 96 —
real in our much-boasted knowledge? Man's happiness
and health is of more importance to him than anything
else in existence ; and that which will confer the greatest
amount of these upon the greatest number must be real
power. claimed by the church that the knowledge
It is

of God do this. This, indeed, might be the case if

will

there was any such knowledge in existence. We know

nothing whatever of God ! Nature we see every day,
but all any one actually knows of it could be put in a
very small compass. All we know isthat which happens
under our immediate observation. That which happens
in one place may be known to a few persons in that
locality; but that which happens in another place is

unknown to them. So, it is easily seen that that which

any one person actually knows of nature and its phe-
nomena is very small. The most of what we think we
know is mere hearsay. In the sciences even, we shall
find the same weakness. Chemistry is based upon ex-
periments made during past centuries to the present date,
which experiments, indeed, illustrate wonderful myste-
ries. But what is really known save the effects of certain
combinations? A person learns how to produce the
phenomena, and to repeat the names, etc., of the chemi-
cals and the products, and he forthwith imagines he
possesses a wonderful amount of knowledge, and is
immediately dubbed "Professor." The bulk of the
knowledge is in a long catalogue of names intended to
mystify the ignorant to the glory of the " Professors."
It is For gunpowder was invented
certainly a great thing.
forthwith war became a u science." " Military tactics"
 — 97 —
are a great thing ! The possession of this knowledge helps
a man up wonderfully! To be " major," or "gen-
eral," or "colonel," is to be up in the clouds ! They
tread upon the earth as if they disdained it ; butchers,
pillagers, ravishers ! homes
the destroyers of peaceful !

What a power The science of government is built upon

!

the blood ye have shed. What a store of knowledge it

takes to be a legislator, governor, president or king !

To make laws to hang the lowly, and to enable those

who have knowledge to escape. Look you at the vast
sums of money spent yearly to keep the government of
even one State running. (Now, we are not regretting
the money, but are thinking of the aching limbs and
backs that toil year in and year out to support this cursed
display of knowledge.) For why does this government
system exist? So that millions of soldiers may be kept
in worse than idleness ; so that hosts of the so-called great
may live without toil ; so that the ill-gotten gains of the
rich may be guarded, and they protected in their legal-
ized swindling and high-handed robbing — so that the
millions may be kept subservient to the few. All legis-
lation and governments are based upon the false and
illogical assumption that the dear people' need force
'
' '

to compel them to do right. Is not this assumption based

in ignorance of the real character of mankind ? What

kind of knowledge is it that springs out of falsehood ? It
is a lie from foundation up. Look how you have multi-
plied legislation till the law books exceed the brains of
the world. Law is now a science, about which its pro-
fessors differ as much as the professors of theology do
 —;

— 98 —
about religion. To keep this hydra-headed monster alive
colleges are built and sustained, wherein the^ most
promising youth of the land are immured to bleach, fade,
and grow prematurely old, in order to earn —what ?

Legal quibbles, technicalities, and precedents, whereby,

in the great majority of cases^ justice may be defeased.
In the great (?) courts of law the best talent is generally
arrayed against justice, and in favor of wrong. Law
signifies rule, and rule signifies a king and " nobility' '

false distinctions among men. Why do they exist ? So

that the few can fatten upon the toil of others ; so that a
few can ride in coaches, dressed in the finest fabrics,

while the many can walk, (or "tramp," as it is now

fashionable to call it), and go in rags. A short time ago,
I saw a man lying under a bridge. I asked a Methodist
"divine," with whom I was talking, why that man was
lying there? "Oh! I don't know," said he; "I sup-
pose it is some tramp laid down there to rest. I have no
use for that kind of people." And the law is for the up-
holding of that spirit. They nailed the poor " tramp"
of Galilee upon the cross in the olden time. Ah, me !

What a world of knowledge this is. Chemistry has given

birth to the science of medicine ; another assumption
based in ignorance. It assumes that disease is a thing of
the body, and that physical substances — drugs— have
power to cure Bah The more medicine you take
it. !

the sooner you die. The whole system is mere guess-

work. Anatomy and physiology may be termed sciences
but they are merely the observation of the body. When
it comes to the application of their facts to practical
 —:

— 99 —
utility, aside from surgery, "humbug" expresses its real
knowledge. And yet, see how arm of the law is
the
thrown around its army of cormorants and extortionists
them
to protect in their robbery of the ignorant toilers.
You tell them from the mind, and
that all diseases spring
*%&& the vital forces ancTdrugs can never cure, and they
stick up their aristocratic noses with a sneer and a laugh.
What a wonderful science! Then, again, there is the
church what a power it is
; "By ! their fruits shall ye
know them." What are its fruits? Its basic principle
is the authority of a musty old book — "the Bible' '

over which a ceaseless strife is kept up as to its real mean-

ing. Thoughts, and legends, hearsay narratives, so -called
facts of the long ago, called "holy." An assumption of
an overruling Providence who answers long-drawn words,
accompanied with "holy" hands uplifted, and eyes
turned upward, in public and in private, to be seen and
heard of men ; a Providence who loves some and hates
others an idea at once at variance with the sun that
:

shines, and the rain that falls, and with every instinct of
a true human being, and which all nature, animate and
inanimate, stamps as an assumption of ignorance, based
in the lust of rule. A pretence of holiness, and of
humility, to conceal the rottenness of greed, lust and
pride. Its principle is that of king-craft and priest- craft

the few ruling, and living by the toil of the many.

—
Church, science and Slate a trinity of hell in which
devils are hatched. Pride is the floor of it. Is it igno-
rance or knowledge ? Knowledge power to
gives the
rule ; but it is the ignorance of the masses, and of the
 '
!

— 100 —
many honest and good men who preach and uphold this

thing, which is the foundation. There may be some

knowledge about it; but ignorance exceeds it, as the sky
exceeds the small earth. This assumption of holiness
is a falsehood from first to last, and its direct influence
is to create the feeling that one man is better than
another. " Am I not a' child of God? And you are a
child of the devil. Lo ! am better than you because I
I ;

am holier than you, and God loves me, and hates you."
Such is the unspoken voice of the christian world \ but it

sounds very loud. One day is to be kept holy • but the

other six are unholy ; the days of — of the production
toil

of the necessaries of life —these are unholy days idleness ; is

holy ! What a mockery of true manhood, and the truth

No wonder the world runs mad with the idea to get rid
of toil ! The church teaches that it was a curse put upon
man. Of course, he
is it if he can,
at liberty to escape

and the priests and aristocrats of the world are doing it

upon the hard-earned bread of the ignorant dupes. Why
should I feel holier at one time than at another? And
how am I to enter into holiness ? To be happy is to be
holy, and mankind find their health and happiness in the
alternation of rest and exercise. Is one any holier than

the other ? All nature says no, and he who teaches

' '

differently simply shows his ignorance. Jesus was of the

same opinion. When we speak of knowledge, we speak
of truth. Jesus was dumb when asked, What is truth ?' ' i

All knowledge is relative ; there is no absolute know-

ledge. So knowledge, in order to conform to truth,
must deal in the relationship that man sustains to others.
 ;

— 101 —
Now, inasmuch as there is only an approximation to
knowledge, man must depend upon his perception of the

truth as his guide to the basis of such relationship. This

perception comes through much thought, and is an in-

tuition or a revelation of the truth. So, power, to be of

use, must be guided by perception or revelation. This
comes to man by the exercise of his mind— in freedom.
Revelation to one man will not do for another, except as
it helps him to see nor will the revelation of one age do
;

for another; for the race progresses, or grows beyond

the perceptions of a previous race. Now power exists

but no more in knowledge than in other attributes of

it is

the mind of equal radius. Kindness may have but little

knowledge of itself, and yet we all know there is more
moral power in it than in mere knowing. Knowledge is of
no use to the soul save in the opening of the mind to a per-
ception of the true relationship of things. In the lower
orders the law is for the strong to prey upon the weak
but man, in proportion as he rises above the brute plane,
comes under the law of equality, and it is revealed to
him as a great truth. His knowledge of his relationship
to others has changed, and he now no longer preys upon
the ignorance and weakness of others. The law is equal
rights in freedom. He knows now that power comes
through union of feeling and brotherly love, which no
knowledge on earth can give. Knowledge is not power,
but it is the road to power, if you can find it but that ;

which seems to be the road may be a blind. The ex-

periences of life all have a tendency, when looked at
rightly, to wean us from its toy shows and vanities.
 —
— 102 —
Facts are of value only in this. The swift-fleeting years
rudely tear the illusions and delusions of youth from every
true man of mature age. What, in reality, is the know-
ledge of this earth worth beside the bed of death, or at
the grave ? The half-witted clown with an abiding hope
and confidence in spirit-life hath more power under such
circumstances than all the millionaires in the world with-
out. Fower is in self-sustaining calmness not in —
money, nor in knowledge. The knowledge that binds a
man to this life by the development of pride, egotism,
and self-sufficiency, is a curse, and a source of weakness
instead of power. The knowledge that makes one all
alive to the woes and misfortunes of others lifts him out
of the soulless laws of business, and upward to a recogni-
tion of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of
man. This is the knowledge that gives power. This is
the knowledge that sustains in all trying hours.
Such claim very little knowledge, but much love. The
—
knowledge of this world of matter and its laws
are for this world, and are true to our senses while in it,
but are not applicable to other worlds or other senses.
It may be —nay, it is possible — to develop senses in this
life adapted to another mode of existence, where pleas-
ures are real, and life is earnest and enduring, and your
sciences of no account, and your gold as vapor. Is such
knowledge real power ? Yes ! but it is not knowledge,
but a gift of the Spirit through the death of these sublunary
things. It is not of the intellect, but of intuition.
Oh, how blind and dumb we are ! We behold the
miracle of the rising sun daily, or feel it in a perpetual
 — 103 —
motion within and around us ; but instead of being de-
lighted at having discovered the finger-marks of the Infi-
nite, we say, "Oh, that is natural !" Child-like, we are
satisfied with a name ; that ends the discussion ; ' know
'I

what that is ! That is nature."

Men of science will explain the laws of digestion with
a flourish of names, and wonderful erudition ; but what
does all knowledge amount
this Diseases outgrow to ?
your remedies. We do not know why food in one
stomach changes into elements to sustain life, and in
another is converted into acids and filth'. Indigestion !

Ah ! another name to explain away ignorance, and to

shove God away from recognition.
further
—
Such is knowledge an excuse to hide our shame our —
ignorance. We do not know how much or how little the
Infinite adds himself to us, or withholds himself from us in
our eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, thinking or talk-
ing. But when I tell you that the vital substance of these
bodies comes from the intangible —the unknown and im-
material, the supernatural— instead of from the food we
eat, you say, " That is all theory •
that is speculation or
conjecture." I grant that sientific knowledge good
is

enough so far as it goes—and that is merely to combining

and compounding matter for use and the use has proved —
destructive to man's best interests. It has filled the world

with egotism, materialism and unbelief. It teaches that

death is a fact\ fxedand certain. But it will yet be demon-

strated that death is a mere disappearance, and that the
disappearance is not a fact except to the blind —blinded
by this world's light. Knowledge is the basis for conjee-
 — 104 —
ture. He who does not believe in conjecture is an un-
believer, (trusts only in facts, physical, tangible, and shuts
the windows of the soul through which we may gaze upon
fields of infinite beauty, and behold truth in its purity), and

there rests satisfied. He who believes nothing except

what he knows, is a very small pattern of a man, for in
point of reality he knows nothing. The man who
ties himself to " facts " is like a fly in a spider's web :

he is not satisfied. There is a wail within him,

as of a drowning babe. It is only when he can forget
himself and his doubts that he is happy. When you have
gone through the whole gamut of experiences, and find
and permanence in nothing, and vanity and vexa-
reality

tion of spirit as the sum total of this life, you have then
reached the plane of knowledge. This takes the egotism
out of a man. He is then empty and receptive of Divine
influences, and is led to trust, and to have confidence in
creative wisdom. Trust leads to love of God in his works —
not of objects, but of a principle embodied, and working
in objects. Thus it may be seen that the road to power
starts at belief in God. He who believes has Hope.
Hope is cheerfulness and happiness. Truly we believe
in that which harmonizes with our feelings. To believe
in a thing through fear is not belief in this sense, but
rather a conviction of experience, far beneath belief. It

is a shock, an agitation, wherein there is no rest or satis-

faction. All conversions through fear testify to this truth.

He who is converted through fear has no intuition ; hence
he is not called from above, but from below. Intuition
does not come from without, hence no practicing can
 ;

— 105 —
awaken or open it. Instinctively we fear that which is

not in harmony with us. How, then, can we believe in

that which we fear? We always desire to destroy that
which gives us pain. The fear of God is a pain which
the world tries in vain to remove by sacrifices, prayers,

and flattering ceremonies. Fear does not lead to know-

ledge, or blending of natures, but to unreal and erron-
eous views of God and of each other. It builds walls
around us, as a citadel in which to defend ourselves. It

isolates man from and arms nation against

his fellows,
nation. We fear that which we hate, and love and serve
that which we are in fellowship with. Fear springs from
belief, but it is in a descending scale it is beneath and
:

not above. The fearful are not the hopeful. Hope is the
anchor of the soul. God's garden in the soul the
It is ;

Eden wherein the tree of life and of knowledge grow side

by side. With hope, the poor in their hovels can live in
palaces built in air. Without hope, the rich in their
palaces live in real hovels. Conjecture is stirred in the
mind by wave of heat that descends from
the last expiring
Divine fire, as it deposits its ashes as the facts and forms
of existence. Belief is the flame-tip hope the glow of
;

the red flame \ knowledge is where the flam? bursts forth

unbelief is cold ashes. Right belief is belief in man, and
it inspires hope in man, and gives a correct knowledge- of

man. This is a correct knowledge of God. How can we be-

lieve in God when we do not believe in man ? How can
we have hope in man when we fear him, and hold aloof
from each other ? How can we know God when we
really do not know any thing in existence ?
 — 106 —
I. Let us investigate all things ; for this is experience.
II. Let us believe in all things; for there is a spark of
good in all, and the wisdom of the Creator may be found
therein.
III. Let us hope all things ; for the good manifests itself

in hope. Be of good cheer, for all is well. The hopeless

are desperate.
IV. Let us know all things for the essence of things is
;

fire ; and he who knows the most is the purest, having

been purified of his pride and vanity by the absorption of
the essence of things.
This is the mundane circle — the four elements —
the four points of the compass. He who has passed
around this circle has returned to the point from whence
he started, viz : nature — indifference. He is a child
again, without pride or egotism, hence is receptive to the
Divine influences, which leads him in a supernatural man-
ner upward to the abode of the gods. Those who re-
turn to this point are capable of going higher.
We all revolve in the mundane circle in quest of
knowledge. Some gain a little, others a great deal. To
some it imparts trust or confidence in man (or God) ;

others grow misanthropical, and become soured on the

road, and trust no one. Acid is cold; it kills the warmth
of the blood, and gradually, but surely, extinguishes the
fires of life. Distrust is acid. We become fixed in our
opinions on the circle, and branch off, either upon the
upward or the downward road. Some, however, revolve
in the circle of knowledge all their lives, and still have
no opinions of anything outside of the mundane circle.
 — 107 —
It is said that only fools have confidence in mankind ;

but this is a mistake. The best and greatest men the

world has ever known have been child-like in their trust

ful nature. The rogue and the knave are never trustful.
We have existed previous to this life; and we come
here from above or below, bringing the aroma of
the world we came from with us. There are three
grades of mind, corresponding to the three general con-
ditions of Spirit-life. This world and this life are a battle-

field between the celestial and the terrine worlds, an in-

termediate state where souls are given a chance to ascend
higher if they choose. There are many grades of being,
both ascending and descending ; and man mentally and
physically corresponds thereto. The
spirit of the world

you will inhabit after death is within you and as sure y

as fate will gravitate to its home when freed by death.

The spirit of the terrine world begets all manner of vices
and diseases, whose culmination, unless healed, is total
loss of all power and consciousness. All love and humane
affections come from the celestial. All things die in love,
and all things are born of love. The extremity of grief is
beginning of joy. The last throb of pain is the first throb
of pleasure. Ecstacy is close upon the confines of des-
pair. The extreme woes of hell vomit out souls purified
by fire. Extreme knowledge strips a man naked of his
egotistical garments, and shrouds him at the gate as if for
burial.
This is the death of knowledge : the state of the mind is

changed ; it has reversed its polarity. His intuitions begin

to work in his despair of life, and he receives that which is
 — 108 —
to the soul what knowledge is to the mind, or food to the
body. Intuition begins where worldly knowledge ceases.
Itsmethods are inductive, instead of deductive. To the in-
tuitive, knowledge comes by impact rather than by con-

tact. All revelation comes through intuition. The fore-

going is the secret of all conversions. The despair of
the sinner, when at its culmination, dies. Its death is the
birth ofecstacy, which many mistake for the regeneration.
But it is perfectly natural that pleasure should follow
pain : hence there is nothing supernatural in conversions.
The deeper and more heartfelt the despair, the greater
the pleasure that follows and the more real and lasting
it,

isthe conversion. But God's Spirit comes through intui-

tions —
spontaneously, by labor and constant and un-
—
wearied attention by purification of the mind, and a
preparation of the body for its reception. It is natural

to believe in the supernatural, but unnatural not to be-

lieve in it.
 -109

X.— FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE.

The most fatal enemy of the soul is doubt. He who

doubts his own powers cripples himself. He who for-
gets his doubt rises superior to himself. He who be-
lieves in, and has confidence in himself, has more power
than he who doubts his own powers. Moreover, the
more confidence a man has in others the greater is his
friendship, and the more friends he has. Friendship is
the measure of influence, and, consequently, of power.
(In order to simplify, I will only speak of belief, know-
ledge and faith in this chapter.) Out of belief comes
knowledge and out of knowledge comes faith, or, rather,
;

that which approximates faith and makes it possible, viz :

Intuition. Perfect faith comes from perfect knowledge ;

but inasmuch as we are imperfect beings, and, con-
sequently, have no perfect knowledge — not even of our-
—
selves, and still less of others how can we even approxi-
mate a definition of faith ? much less a knowledge of the
powers it may confer upon its possessor ! Why scoff at
the sayings of Jesus, when we do not even know what he
meant by faith ? He certainly estimated its value very
highly, for he said :
" If ye have faith like a grain of
mustard seed, ye shall say to the mountains, be ye moved
and cast into the sea, and it shall be done." It is
 —
— llO-
evident he coupled it with the will, for it could be done
by a command\ and no prayer or supplication is even
hinted at. What great thinker ever extolleddoubt ? or
taught that it ever conferred any great blessing upon its

possessor ? Not one It is simply a destructive power

!

a negation; it builds nothing; it destroys all that it

touches.
A desire to know the truth commendable.
is Respect
for others leads to the interchange of ideas and investiga-
tion. This
is good. Never doubt a proposition till you
are sure you thoroughly understand it. Never doubt the
truth of another till his falsehood is a demonstrated fact.
Knozv a thing before you reject it. Be hospitable to the
wayfarer : for although you may be imposed upon many
times, you may some time entertain an angel. Some
thoughts are angel-sent. Said a Materialist to me :
" Am
I to entertain a proposition simply because you assert it ?

Suppose you say the moon is made of green cheese — am

I to accept it? That is too absurd!" Such puerile
arguments are used by pretended thinkers. It is as logi-

cal to say the " made of green cheese" as that a

moon is

a flower is made of mud. Either one is absurd but the ;

self-same elements enter into and compose the sun, moon,

stars, earth, light, thought, and "green cheese" Such
are the arguments the doubter is driven to to sustain a
semblance of logic.

Knowledge is the ultimate of mental action, and if at

its highest point, or apex, it meets the spirit world with

sufficient intensity to become impregnated with a desire
for something grander, and a more lofty idea of human
 — Ill —
nature and its possibilities, with riot merely an idea " to
know good and evil," but to know the good, and to have
power to do it under all circumstances. Then, indeed,
it may truly be said to be the road to power. As such I
recognize it. Analyze, sift, digest all the facts and
phenomena of this existence ; weigh the stars and suns of
space, and trace them in their eternal voyage ; dissect
the human form, and search the convolutions of the brain,
and, if at the end, you have no belief in the divinity of
creative power, no belief in the spirit that has escaped
your telescope, your scalpel, and your scales, tell me not
that your knowledge is For real
the road to power.
power is repose, rest, trust, confidence, and harmony.
That which brings no satisfaction and rest is destructive.
So, knowledge may build up the soul and expand it, or it
may contract and weaken it. If knowledge makes a man
egotistical and proud, it does him harm ; but that know-
ledge which causes one to realize how small and insigni-
ficant he is, and how very little he knows, and of how
little value that knowledge really is to him, makes one

negative, and receptive to the world of intelligences which

surround him. Then it is that they come near and speak
to his soul, and he conceives an idea of "Brahm,"
" Allah," "Jehovah," "Jove," or "God."
The knowledge of facts is good, for it expands the
mind and when the mind is sufficiently expanded, it
;

leads to deep thought, reverie, abstraction ; and abstrac-

tion opens the door of the soul, viz : the imagination.
The imaginative are the credulous. Power does not
come from one thing alone, but from the all the Infinite. —
 —
— 112 —
Knowledge is necessary to weakness and infancy but for ;

the gods there is no knowledge it is simply faith- —

Faith includes all things of an inferior nature, as the
ever-arching dome of heaven encircles all within it. It

is beyond all knowledge ; then who can explain it, or

who can understand it ? It is to knowledge
the soul what
is to the mind. As we can only approximate knowledge
mentally, so we can only approximate faith intuitively.
According to our knowledge, so is our faith. In exact
proportion as we know wife, children and friends, do we
have faith in them. Knowledge is not predicated upon
anything but truth. It is not satisfactory to merely know

that a thing is false. We must know the truth in order

to be satisfied, and to be made whole and clean. As you
know yourself, you have faith in yourself. As you know
God you have faith in him. All that the mind can grasp
of anything is that which appears, and this appearance is

a revelation of something hidden. It may come in

dreams or in visions, or in reverie, or in contemplation,
reading of books, or conversation ; or listening to sermons
or lectures may provoke the conditions necessary to in-
duce revelations ; but in whatever way it may be induced,
it is subjective ; it is a union with the thing thought of
a oneness of spirit and being. You have faith in yourself
because you are at one with yourself. You have faith in
your wife in exact proportion as you are one with her.
Faith in things changeable, and hence untrue, is destruc-
tive; because they desert you and leave you empty.
Faith is a power which comes to man as a revelation, in
the expansion of the soul, when the mind is closed up ;
 — 113 —
laid away, as it were, or suspended —lield in abeyance.

Then things sublunary disappear, and the ineffable glory

appears and, entering in, is one with souL-giving power
;

undreamed of by mortal man. Faith steadies, sustains

and fortifies the will combines all spirit in one. The
;

powers of dissolution and of creation are of faith. It is

effortless. It is the suspension of all mundane laws.
Knowledge is of no account, only as it assists one to
enter into the Spirit. Then it is set aside, as a man
having scaled a wall, and not being obliged to return,
throws the ladder down. Think you this faith and
power can come to us ? Nay We must ascend to it
!

through a regeneration in the Spirit, and by a birth of the

Spirit. It is another mode of existence, to be entered
only through birth. Salvation is from weakness, disease
and death, and thus from hell for hell is an outgrowth of
;

these. We work the best we can to prepare the way ; but

we make mistakes and failures in our ignorance, and fall
continually. But faith is a gift of the Spirit in answer to
our intentions and aspirations. In faith there are no
mistakes nor failures. It is not possible to lose faith when
once attained. How is it possible for a child, after it is

born, to become as it was prior to birth? Faith is

universal. no one or particular faith.

There is There
is no such thing as "the faith ;" consequently faith

cannot be lost, any more than God can be. Talk about
"falling from grace,'' and "losing the faith!" Non-
sense !They never have any to lose. There is a fall,
however, in the pretense of possession. The pretender
always falls.
 — 114 —
It is the habit to speak of faith as a something akin to
belief— as blind — as less than knowledge. But this shows
our ignorance. Faith is to the Divine mind what know-
ledge is to Through and by knowledge
the natural,
things of use are produced and multiplied in the earth.
Through and by faith matter is evolved from the spirit,
which, from a chaotic, formless state, takes form such as the
will may determine. Bymethod Jesus made bread
this

and fish for the hungry multitude. A few loaves and

fishes were sufficient to furnish a nucleus of attraction,
when, in obedience to his will, his Spirit flowed in and
assumed the form desired. In view of this principle of

evolution, he said, " If ye have faith like a grain of must-

ard seed yemay say to this mountain, be ye moved," etc.,
" and it shall be done." " First seek the kingdom of
God, and then all other things shall be added unto you."
The kingdom " is within you " it " is at hand ;" it " is
;

like unto a pearl of great price ;" or Ci

like a little leaven

which a woman hid in three measures of meal." The

meal is a type of the body, mind and spirit. The wisdom
of things is seen in their mechanism; the order and
harmonious arrangement and adjustment of parts, and the

ease and perfection of motion without jar or friction.

The same is true of the mental and spiritual man as of
the physical. The jar and friction of this life is what
wears out the machine called man. Each and every
atom of the body is in motion, and they are in health
well poised and lubricated. This is harmony. But
when there is not a proper balance of all the essentials,
there is a discordant friction of parts, and a loss of power,
 — 115 —
motion, health, and vigor. The soul furnishes the
lubricator, viz : magnetism. I call your attention to the
fact that the great balance-wheel —the regulator, love — is

sadly out of line.

The kingdom of heaven is harmony, power, eternal
youth, life, innocence, and peace. The principal
element of the kingdom is wisdom born of love and will.
If love be lacking, or be of a low, vulgar order, the
wisdom born of her will be inharmonious, and the king-
dom is that of disease. By wisdom, through faith, are all

things made. But if the wisdom be inharmony, and the

faith be small, or none at all, what can you expect to flow

from the spirit; or, what quality of life will be gen-

erated?
Bear constantly in mind, kind reader, that when I

speak of God, I speak of your power of will and love.

When I speak of wisdom, I have reference to the harmony
of yourself. Harmony means a great deal. Harmony
means oneness no conflict no opposing elements no
; ; ;

warfare between the flesh and the Spirit. "The lamb

and lion have lain downRemember, health
together.' '

is altogether due to what little harmony we have. The

greater the harmony, the more wisdom. The greater the
wisdom, the more life, peace, rest, pleasure. Discord
wears us out. The best of us scarce last half a century,
and that length of time is enough to disgust most people
of life. We are scarcely able to generate magnetism
enough to keep this human machine in order more than
fifty years at the utmost. Now, were the love pure
and innocent, and the will strong and God-like, the
 — 116 —
wisdom or harmony of the machine would be more per-
fect, and the life evolved, or the spirit set in motion,

possessed of such power that mountains might be dis-

solved; or bread, fish, flowers, clothing, or human forms
evoked at and the machine possessing such
pleasure,
power could wear on eternally without friction or age.
"Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to
the Father" (Spirit.) The dark and noisesome earth the —
fiery constellations of heaven, with their countless hosts,

all exist by the will of God, and are sustained by his love

and wisdom. But he lies slumbering as in a tomb in

the things he has made. The mighty mountains piercing
the clouds, crowned eternally with purity, as a flame-tip,
tell us in their vomitings of fire — in their groaning, and
shaking, of the nature of him who sleepeth beneath.
Tombstones are they, flame-shaped and spiral, marking
the resting place of the infinite. They show the oozing
out of his power, and the aroma of his presence fills
space, things and men with his returning consciousness,

which, when fully returned, will swallow up all things as

matter in fire. The changing forms— the mutability of
things — is due to the fire which dissolves, changes, and.
combines matter. The will baptizes the fire as with
water, and thus in wisdom preserves forms, and per-
petuates life. It holds it in check, and regulates the
heat so that we are not consumed. This is the esoteric
meaning of tbe baptism with water. If the will can re-

strain the fire through its exercise, it also can unchain the
lightnings and vomit out flame, which, though unseen,
shall not be unfelt, and which, meeting things on the way,
 ;

— 117 —
passes through, dissolves,and causes them to disappear
noiselessly, in decency and in order. The same hidden
and unseen power drove back the lightnings in their mad
revel on " dark Galilee' at the simple words, " Peace
' !

be still."

It is the unnaturalness of man that keeps the Infinite

under. We cannot return to nature, but we can rise up
to the supernatural, and still exist. We suffer pain, be-

cause of the deficiency of fire. How easy for the strong

will to turn a flame upon the dark door of it, and exorcise
it as if by magic. We are full of darkness and sorrow,
because we are vacant. How easy to be full if we are
only wise !

To attract the fire and hold by baptism is fulness

it

which, indeed, is life-pleasure; nay! ecstacy, beside

which trance is as a dream. In purity all power resides.
Fire renders all things pure. It reduces, refines, purifies,
and illuminates all things. Fire flows from love. But
you do not know what love is. You think it hath some-
thing of sex in it and so it has, for sex is a symbol of it.
;

The -ecstacy of a virgin soul when first baptized by the

contact of a spirit, all in harmony, is a poor expression
of love in its abstruse sense. But it is the best I have.
Love is not the soul; but it is the highest and most
ecstatic emotion the soul can feel. It moves the whole
sensorium of the soul, and by its motions evolves a
spiritual fire that burns in the nerves like a volcano. As
a volcano vomits out molten earth and mineral, so fire,

trained by the will (baptism) decomposes all dross and

baseness, which it eliminates from the system, leaving
 —US-
nothing but the pure metal. Beware of the fire, it you
are impure ! it will leave not a vestige of you, soul, mind
or body. Love builds up or destroys. Slow, lingering
decay is as certain as rapid combustion. Nothing comes
out of God's crucible but immortal beings.
 -119

XL—THE SOUL.

" The soul that sinneth, it shall die." —Bible.

I have already defined the soul as a vacuum, and here-

in appears the impossibility of it. The sublime and the
ridiculous are so closely united that sometimes one is

taken for the other. Modern philosophy, backed by

science, says there are no vacuums ; that '
' nature abhors
vacuums' ' — thus virtually admitting their existence; for
how can nature abhor that which has no existence ? It

is not possible to conceive of a thing which has no

foundation or existence. The supernatural is denied,
also, and that shows the weakness and nakedness of
philosophy. The soul is supernatural, and it is a vacuum
but it is not given to ordinary minds to comprehend this.

How can the natural mind believe in that which nature

abhors ? We instinctively try to destroy that which we
abhor, and the mind that rejects a proposition is at

variance therewith, and its thought is that of destruction.

No man can conceive of the supernatural, except he
have a something in himself in harmony with the idea.
The soul is a vacuum — it is supernatural, because nature
cannot destroy it; and that which is hidden is always
superior to that which is visible. Soul corresponds to the
feminine principle in nature, but this correspondence
 — 120 —
does not. make a natural thing of it at all. It is not a
thing, but that which gives birth to things. Attraction is

the feminine of nature, but this is not the soul, but that
which the soul produces as a governing law in nature.
In nature, things are moved by contact and by impact.
Operations by contact are always downward. We cannot
operate upwards, save as we receive that which is superior
from above by impact. This is the way of the spirit.
Spirit is natural, unnatural, terrine, and celestial,
and may become supernatural by working itself out of the
laws governing those four grades of spirit ; or, in other

words, by becoming master of all of nature's methods,

operations, modes of action, etc. This is within the
range of man's powers. This nature in which we exist is

not infinite. There are other natures. This is a peculiar

one, in which motion is the law. Perfection of motion is

the ultimate of this nature. Perfection is stagnation, of

which we know little. The perfect union of soul and
spirit is the supernatural, but the spirit is swallowed up
by soul in such union.
This union was called " Nirwana" by Gottama,
which Hardy, the translator of Budhism, says means
annihilation. But he mistakes. It is an existence out-
side and above all human comprehension. Hence
the difficulty of explaining it. All spirit is fire; but
spirit outside of soul has quality, quantity, sound, and
colors ; which are lost in the fusion or oneness of soul and
spirit. "Things of the spirit are nonsense to the com-
mon mind." Soul is not a thing, save it be united to
spirit, neither can we conceive of it save in imagination.
 — 121 —
To conceive of the soul is to make a thing of it — thus
man creates his own soul as a thing. Without such con-
ception the soul is formless, and
no permanence there is

or reality to its existence, i. e. it takes any shape, accord-

9

ing to circumstances and conditions. To give form to

the soul, then, is man's highest work. The souls of
vegetation and animals have no fixed or durable form.
The same is true of some men. All perfect forms are
spherical, and the Rosicrucian symbol of a winged globe
is a type of a perfected soul. Some Rosicrucians claim
that the soul is located, or has its equator at the pit of the
stomach in the solar and semi-lunar pexus, with one pole
in the brain and the other in the sexual organs. This is
undoubtedly true of a perfected soul. But in its imper"
feet state atom of the body, and cannot be
it is in every
withdrawn therefrom save by death. The lungs are the
physical representation of the soul's wings. All flights of
thought depend upon inspiration —a breathing in, as it

were, of another atmosphere, from a thought- world. The

perfect soul can leave the body at will, and fly away to
realms more vital than this. But the imperfect is held
fast to the atoms in which it is anchored by demerit. The
perfect soul and spirit can make and dwell in any kind of
a body it chooses, and dissolve it at will. There is a
vivifying and vitalizing, exhilarating and exalting influ-

ence comes by deep and protracted breathing; but in

thought there is a deeper, broader, higher, and more pro-
found exaltation, because it touches the sensor ium of the
soul itself. Breathing is physical; thought is mental;
but meditation is the poising of the soul's wings for flight-
 — 122—
There are some thoughts which take hold on the filth of
hell, which they stir up to the degradation and damnation

of the thinker ; there are other thoughts which elevate

the soul and exalt the thinker. In neither case does the
thinker go outside of himself in his thought, albeit he
imagines that he does. In order to become an epitome
of all, man must pass through all, which can be done
mentally; for the true man lives in his mind. He must
dissect himself, and analyze all his passions, motions,
emotions, motives, etc., -and master them all. They are
the steps in his ladder of progress. He must begin at the

bottom to climb. The sexual and love nature are at the

foundation of existence. God has so ordered it that

man's greatest happiness, as well as his greatest woes,
spring from this source. If there is anything impure
about it, it is in the mind of him who so estimates it. Of
all acts the sexual is the most potent, for herein man ap-
proaches the nearest to the portals of Divine creative
energy. Here, in the veiled temple of women's body,
God and lo it becomes
baptizes matter with his Spirit, !

an immortal being, having in embryo all the pt>wers of

God himself. Is there anything degrading about this ?
The true man and woman love their children. The
great solace and pride of their lives are offspring ; they
are a result of this relation, of which we may only speak
in whispers, and over which a pall must be spread. As
if God has made something of which man is ashamed.
In this relation soul meets soul in an ecstatic blending of
and a watchful God bending low from on high
Spirits,

"broods over the Holy of Holies" in the temple, and

 — 123 —
accepts the sacrifice, consumed with fires of love, and
entering in, is born of woman. " The Immaculate Con-
ception" is the result of a perfect union of man and
woman. The resulting child must, of necessity, be supe-
rior to the parents, for such is " the Christ, the Son oi
the living God," not of a dead one, for dead Gods pro-
—
duce half men and women devils in human form. " We
are dead in trespasses and sins." A virgin typifies purity
of Soul. "The Holy Ghost" is "the Holy Spirit,"
or a pure Spirit. Now, the union pf such produces " the
only begotten Son of God for God cannot be incar-
;

nated in impurity, save as a progressive being. The only

way God can be begotten of man, or in man, is through
purity. But what is purity? What is sin? Disobe-
dience of law is said to be sin. Without law there could
be no sin, for therewould be no standard, or regulator
of action. This is an idea as true as nature, and as old
as humanity. The writer of Genesis expressed it in an
allegorical manner, or as a fable or parable. Law is,
after all, only a mode of action. But of what action is
sin predicated? Sexual action! Nothing more, and
nothing less. Strange idea ! And wherein is its truth ?
A virgin is pure; but a mother —a fully developed
woman —one whose love-nature has. had full expression,
is impure
/ I am not one to scoff at an idea hoary with

age, which has had the respect and reverence of the good
and great for untold centuries. This vague legend or
tradition, of the fall ofman, must have a foundation in
truth, for it belongs to all races and nations. And this
is also proven by the present condition of mankind, which
 — 124 —
I have set forth under the head of The Unnatural. It

is a matter of little or no consequence how it happened,

but it is of vital importance to know wherein the fall con-
sists. The ancients wrote aliegorically. The fundamen-
tal truths were not for the multitude, hence they were
hidden away in parables, or conveyed in language in-

tended to mislead. knowledge of value was fast

All
locked in the temples, and taught only as mysteries to
the initiated. But in their writings the truth is mani-
fested occasionally, especially to him who has "the keys."
The ancient wise men, seers, and prophets, were deeper
versed in the mysteries of nature than we are, hence some
of them stood nearer to God, and received truth more in
its purity and simplicity.
The fall of man was the fall of the soul from its perfect
spherical form to a diffused or atomic state. To a per-
fect soul the emotions are perfectly subject to the will,

and any part of the system may be affected in any manner

desired zuithout the pi'ovocation of contact with objects.
Before the woman was a subjective or spiritual being,
fall

(taken from Adam while in a trance, as I will more fully ex-

plain hereafter) — a materialized spirit, with which Adam
copulated, thus preventing her return to a subjective con-
dition. When the soul fell to an atomic state, subjective

things became and contact of things became

objective,
necessary to produce emotions of pleasure and pain.
Adam did not need the contact of copulation to produce
ecstacy, for it could be produced without by will, and —
that without waste of virility. And the command was
that he should not copulate. Such, evidently, were the
 ;

— 125 —
views of the ancient philosophers, as I will try to explain
further on. The scientific world is mad with evolution-
ism. Darwin has sunk modern thought low down in the
mud ! Protoplasm is God ! It appears to sense that
out of mud come flowers and fruits. This appearance,
however, is the same as that the sun rises and sets — the
earth flat, etc. It is a delusion. That which appears is not
the whole truth ; do not appear to
the most vital truths
observation. A plant or tree grows up out of the mud,
but the flowers andfruits descend. There is a descent as
well as an ascent, and at the point of union there is gen -
eration. This is nature's copulation. Plants, flowers,
fruits, living things, eyes, ears, thought and feeling, do
not ascend out of the ground, no more than the stars or
the sun-light does. There is a mystery connected with
all things which is insoluble, and the ancients deserve as
much respect for their effort to explain it as Darwin and
Huxley.
Man grew, and still grows, as plants and animals do
but who knows how they come, or from whence ? If
thought lies perdu in the mind, is it any less an unfathom-
able mystery, or any less worthy of adoration than if i*

be enthroned in the stars or in a God ? It is just as logi-

cal to suppose that sense makes the mind as that mind

evolves sense. I turn to Plato,
In view of these things,
Socrates, Pythagoras, Gottama, Appolonius, Jesus,
Zoroaster, Hermes, Moses and God, for my inspira-
tion. Realizing that inspiration is as potent now as of
old, I ask Jesus and Appolonius and death are
if disease
not a delusion of sense. They answer, " Tney are!"
 — 126 —
Far away in the dim and shadowy past some one con-
ceived an idea, and wrote that God said " In the day :

thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Is it not true ?

Is this life ? If so, I do not want more of it But !

this is more death than life. The loftiest mind has not
yet conceived of real life. This is, indeed, one long-
drawn sigh of anguish ; a mad dance of demons ! A
scramble and a rush after toys. and all of
If this is life,

it, then, indeed, is God or nature a demon, enacting

an awful tragedy, for 'tis worse than a farce. Man dies
for lack of vitality ; which, indeed, is virility, and virility
springs from love, wherein it is generated. So all dis-
eases, pains, and death itself, spring from an abnormal,
or unnatural action of love, or the sexual nature. Un-
doubtedly the ancients understood the " fall of man" to
be a fall of the blood. The laws of Moses support this
conclusion. The rite of circumcision —the rites of puri-
fication —the sacrifices with^r^, and the shedding oi blood,
and the obscure narratives of the old Testament show-
that they considered sin as sexual. The same idea seems
to have been entertained by Jesus, for he said " Woe :

unto you," etc., "verily I say unto you the harlots go

into the kingdom before you." Why were harlots named
instead of other criminal classes? And again :
" Some
men are born eunuchs; others are made by men;
so
others make eunuchs of themselves for the kingdom of
heaven's sake." This, when rightly understood, does
not mean castration. The Buddhist priest who has
attained the power of " Irdhi, (the power of levitation,
of walking upon the water, or of passing through the air,
 — 127 —
or of visiting at will any of " the three worlds/ '
or " the
Brahma Lokas"), has no sexual desires at all, and is as in-
competent as an eunuch ; but he has all his organs perfect.
He has, by a certain course of training, turned his virility
upward and inward, instead of allowing it to flow down-
ward, and outward, in the commission of what St. John
calls sin. Turn to the first Epistle of John, iii., 9,
and you will find the real definition of sin, "Who-
soever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his
seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is

born of God." Loss of virility, then, must be sin. Con-

nect this with Gen. iii., n
"I will put enmity be-
:

tween thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his (?)
heel." The word "his" here means her. (It has not
yet been settled what the serpent here spoken to means.
Theology calls it " the devil but the serpent is the sym-
;

bol of wisdom). Seed here spoken of must mean the

same spoken of by John, for the bruising of it is all too
apparent in all the hospitals and medical museums of the
world.
Read God's admonition of Cain murder of
prior to the
Abel "If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted ? and
:

if thou doest not well sin lieth at thy door, and unto thee

shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."

Strange language to use in order to deter one from doing
wrong, to tell him he should become ruler by sinning.
" Onan " was slain by the Lord because sin lay at his
—
door i. e., wasted (Genesis xxxviii., 11). What is a door
but a place of egress ? Let him who reads think. But we
 — 128 —
are not dependent upon the Bible and conjecture for what
we believe upon this subject. Buddhism, five hundred
years older than Christianity, numbering 369,000,000
adherents, containing all the principles that Jesus taught,
and much more, teaching the way to supernatural power
and " Nirwana," is sexual from the first to last. All
birth is sexual, hence " the second birth" spoken of by
Jesus must have reference thereto. The curse put upon the
woman " I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy con-
:

"
ception" was a sexual penalty, showing that " the fall
was a fall of the blood ; and as if in corroboration of
this idea, nature weeps tears of blood periodically from
the mysterious recesses of woman's body. Woman, of all
God's creatures, is the only one so accursed. The
atonement is of blood and of love. Through woman
came the fall, and through the virgin soul must come im-
mortality. Salvation is woman's work. By the shatter-
ing of the soul into atoms, it lost control of the vital
essences, nerve aura, or fire of the body hence man/f//
;

under the control of his passions, and love became in-

verted. Hence man is the reverse of what he primarily
was, and disease takes the place of that divine ecstacy
which is his heritage. " The sins of the fathers are visited
upon the children to the and fourth generation."
third
No sins but those of the blood are so visited. Love is the
life of the blood, hence in the Scriptures blood typifies

love. The blood of the sacrifice of the lamb, and of the

atonement, all refer to love. Man's passions are not
love, but its lowest expression— its inverted expression.
To attain to life and love in its purity the foundations of
 —

— 129 —
God's Temple — man — must not be rotten. If rotten,

it must be made new. How Herculean the task ! How

gigantic the work ! No wonder Jesus said :
" Except a
man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
None but a God could reveal these things of the soul to
man ! As I said before, I say again : Meditation is the
poising of the wings of the soul for flight, and the most
potent meditation is that wherein passions are crucified.
Man is an angular being, and in order to attain perfection
these angles and triangles must be worn off. Your
character and disposition (not your reputation) is indi-
cative of the form of your soul. The man who revolves
through life, like a jagged rock —crashing, knocking,
bumping, grinding, flaying, and demolishing objects that
stand in his way, is far from being a true soul. True, he
may get the angles knocked off ere he gets through his

journey ; but the journey of the soul is infinite, and it

takes countless ages of experience to round out a soul to

a durable and permanent form, and then, when all the
angles and corners are chipped off, it may be a very
small thing, scarcely possessing any consciousness at all.

But whatever its size may be — provided it is not a monad

it retains its form, and in the lapse of time and the in-
crease of consciousness, the dim past becomes more and
more vividand real, till at last all previous stages of ex-
istence become a matter of memory. In whatever form
it may be imprisoned, the character manifested will be
harmonious and peaceful. The true rounding off of
anglesis done by the chisel of thought from within. We
are the architects of our own selves. We build by our
 ;

— 130 —
thoughts and acts the temples or hovels we inhabit.
Some, indeed, live in caverns, or, reptile-like, in holes in
the ground. Some inhabit the great deep, and lie in the
slime at its bottom. Soul orbits differ as the orbits of the
planets ; hence the ages of souls are not alike. Some re-
volve in small orbits ; they make a revolution with great
rapidity. Others, again, revolve in orbits so vast that
millions of ages are as a second of time, or a degree of
distance as from one universe to another. Stations there
are on the way of the soul, where and new
rest is taken,

forms made ; mysteries explored other laws learned, and

;

the soul enlarged. There is no end save to weakness

universe after universe stretches away illimitable. Sense
makes boundaries ; but soul overleaps or breaks down all
barriers. A mere creature here A nothing, to be !

scoffed at, doubted, and destroyed by sin, it becomes in

its flight stronger and stronger, larger and larger, till it

becomes a creator and governor of worlds, and the

architect of universes and of other souls. We are merely
halted here on our eternal voyage to learn of this peculiar
—
nature to master its secrets and mysteries. When we
have done so, we will go on our way. Some souls are
older than others; but no soul can leave this earth
unfledged. You cannot leave till you have learned all
that is to be known of it, and mastered all its creative
forces and laws. True, we have a rest occasionally, of a
few thousand years, in some of the heavens or hells of
spirit-land or the GoD-worlds, from which return is not
only possible but certain ; not merely to communicate,
but to be re-incarnated. We sometimes leave our bodies
 — 131 —
in deep sleep, and visit strange places, see strange faces,
and learn many new things,which we bring back in part
to our waking state. Waking state ? Indeed The real !

waking, conscious, living state is when this physical is in

a deeper sleep than the deepest trance. The more globu-

lar the soul is, the more easily from
it may detach itself

the atoms and then and lastly from the body. This
first,

detaching is a drawing together, or contraction, or abstrac-

tion of itself, in which is health.
Sleep is better than medicine. The cause of disease is

the close relation, or contact of the soul to the atoms of

the body. The withdrawal of the soul permits the spirit
to enter any diseased part and restore it. The soul is
foreign to nature, and its imprisonment therein corrupts
nature. It abhors nature as much as nature abhors it, and
it is bound to get out of it, in one way or another — either
by growth or decay, or by both. From my boyhood I
studied and practiced phrenology, and studied myself
closely. Wishing to make the most of a defective organ-
ization, I strove to cultivate myself to the utmost of my
abilities. But knowing my many defects, I felt often dis-
couraged and dissatisfied with myself. One night, in
deep sleep, I was outside of my body. There it lay be-
foreme, a mere lump of plastic clay. I said Oh, you :

defective thing If I had had the making of you, I

!

would have made that head far different. A voice said :

"Fix it over to suit yourself/ ' I immediately went to

work upon the plastic head, and moulded it to my notion,
and then got into my body and tried it on. It did not
suit me. Again, I got out and remodeled it, with the
 ;

— 132 —
same result. Time after time I essayed to make it over
to my notion, but without success, till at last the head
was all out of shape ; in fact, it was no longer human.
And the joke of it was that I could not get it back to its

original shape. In my perplexity the voice said :

" Trust
in creativepower Make the best use you can of your
!

head, and by and by you will have a better one." Then

I awoke, and since then I am content to work and wait

in harmony with nature, and not find fault. Some of us,

at least, are double at times. Nature is not partial to in-
dividuals. power is open to all. "Many
The way to
are called, but few are chosen!" Why? because few
choose to struggle up the stream, when it is so easy to
float, like drift-wood, downward.

To crucify the loves is a superhuman task, and so re-

pugnant to man's everyday life and thought that most
men will turn aside from my book in disgust and con-
tempt; and yet there is so much talk in the churches
about "taking up the cross!" Alas for unbelief!
Whence comes the celibacy of the Catholic priesthood
the asceticism of India, and the peculiar tenets of the
Essenes? — amongst whom,
Jesus was "de-
it is said,

veloped." They did not marry, and held property in

common, as did the early Christians. They held, as we
of the Rose Cross hold to-day, that marriage, as now
understood and practiced is unnatural. The asceticism of
Catholicism, if it was not borrowed from Buddhism, is

synonymous with which existed long before Gottama's

it,

time, who lived five hundred years before Christ. But

no matter how old asceticism may be, or how much it
 — 133 —
may have been practiced, or how much spiritual power
may be attained thereby, it is the exoteric of religious
ideas, as much so as any of the forms and ceremonies.
The esoteric has never been, and never will be, given to
any but the initiated. It is the much-talked-of "Phil-
osopher^ Stone/' and " Elixir of Life" the least of —
all known. This subject, however tedious it may be,
is intimately connected with the soul, for it is the soul
of Rosicrucia, as well as all religious systems. It is not
asceticism which gives purity — it is only a method for its

attainment. It is from the thought that all things come.

"Not that which goeth in at the mouth defileth a man,
but that which goeth out." Sin defiles, for it " layeth at
the door." The greatest sin a man can commit is the
waste of the life a good and beneficent Creator has given
him for his use, and not abuse. Promiscuity is a mockery
of God. The awful diseases that spring from it show the
nature of the sin committed —
its defilement, and its curse

As the very ground withholds its rest, peace and strength

—
from a murderer as God said it should from Cain so —
woman withholds her spirit from the debaucher.
The painful or pleasurable action of any part of the sys"

tern is due to the presence of the soul in that part. If the

soul be withdrawn from any part, that part has no sen-
sation, and the spirit, taking the place of the absent soul,
builds anew the part afflicted. If the spirit be overcome
by a strong magnetizer, and the soul thus driven back, re-
pelled or forced out, the body has no sensation, and am-
putation or other painful surgical operations may be per-
formed without the subject being aware of it. This fact is
 134-

well authenticated. This power of withdrawal of the soul

resides in every one who has a will. It does not depend
upon the magnetizer at all, but upon the well-regulated
action of the will. Self-magnetization is a well-known
fact among Spiritualists, and practiced by all mediums
to a certain extent. But it is too limited to be produc-
tive of the results above spoken of. Paralysis is the ob-
struction —through insulation—of the spirit in its free

passage through the system. The soul is left alone in a

paralyzed body or limb, without the spirit to give life and
power — as all power depends upon movements of spirit,
which is effected by its union with the soul. Body is
merely the connecting link between the two. The par-
tial withdrawal of the soul is indicated by vibratory mo-
tions in the nerves, which, being extended, produces ec-
stacy, then trance, or insensibility. Those who follow
sitting in circles are aware of this.
 — 135 —

XII.— MIGRATION AND TRANSMIGRATION.

I have already spoken of progression and retrogression,

as balancing each other in motion. The symbol of the
Cross in a circle is illustrative of this. The upright, or
" Phallus/ '
indicates the law of progress ; the horizontal
line the cross of the law — retrogression, or the fall of
man \ while the circle is the sigma of eternity, or of revo-
lution. Man, in growth and decay, is simply matter in
motion, and he must conform to the laws of motion ; i. e.,

he revolves in an orbit, as worlds do. All life is one ;

man differs from the animals only in form and the amount
of and mind he embodies. Life has no beginning
life

nor end ; but forms begin, grow, decay, and end. The
law that governs one form governs all. Forms are
not progressive to any great extent, but mind is. Con-
sciousness is the highest manifestation of life. Man and
animals both exist after death, for power cannot die. It

takes ages for matter to progress up to a form perfect

enough to manifest consciousness and thought ; so it takes
ages for it to retrograde to a loss of it. Even form does
not change suddenly ; death itself is powerless to effect
any material change in the form ; but the rough garment
of the soul merely is cast aside by death, and the spiritual
body is immediately formed — fashioned in the mould of
 — 136 —
the mortal body. But this body, being like the natural

body, composed of spirit condensed, is subject to the law of

same as here. Con-
vastation in the spiritual worlds, the
sequently the form changes, as the soul comes nearer and
nearer to the surface of the body. As a man is here, so he
will commence on the other side. If he is progressive
here, he continues to progress till the merit he has ac-
quired in this life is exhausted, then he will commence
retrograding. If he is retrograding here, he will continue
on the other side, till he reaches, in the lapse of ages, per-
haps, a state of unconsciousness in which he is re-incar-
nated in some other form. Life is like the revolutions
of a wheel ; or as the succession of the seasons ; or as
day and night. There is no such thing as existence with-
out change ; and change is alternation, as a rising up and a
falling down ; though in cycles both vast and small. Re-
pugnant as these ideas may be to modern taste, they are
certainly based in logic ; and if age gives any prestige to
anything, this must take the precedent, for the transmi-
gration of the soul is known to man.
the oldest religion
Upon the tombs of ancientEgypt there is sculptured in
the rock a picture of Osiris seated on a throne, and hu-
man beings ascending upon a stairway to him. In front
of him they seem to divide. Those on the right still re-
tain the human form, but those on the left are animals.
Furthermore, there are more people in existence who
entertain this belief than otherwise. If you read our Bi-
ble, you will see that the Jews believed in it ; and Jesus
also. (Mark ix., n, 12, 13.) Also see Matthew xvii.,
10, 11, 12, 13, and xvi., 13, 14; also xiv., 2, 3. Now,
 ;

— 137 —
for the logic of it : An eternal existence, based upon the
pleasure of a changeable God, is too absurd to think of, but
all Christendom holds to such a view. A beginning
proves an end. This we sh^w to be an illusion of sense
for a beginning is only apparently so as regards the life,

while it is really so in reference to the form. You had

an existence as an infant, but no recollection of it. You
also existed in utero, but the mode of that existence was
altogether different from life since your birth. You also
had an existence as a spermatozoa, and swam around in
a drop of semen as a whale does in the ocean, and fought
with and destroyed other spermatozoa weaker than your-
self. It took a microscope to see you then, but you were
a conscious, living being, having the power of volition.
Beyond this, science cannot follow you. But we can
reasonably believe that you existed in an unconscious
state in your fathers veins ; and who can know you were
not conscious even then ? Shall we assume to deny it,
because, in our ignorance, we are unable to find you ? Is

not the air full of infinitesimal life, that we know no-

thing of? We know that you, as a spermatozoa, died in
the womb before you became a child. Who knows that
you had not just died before you became a spermatozoa ?
And who knows but that you might have been butchered,
as a lamb, a little while before ? What is all this life for

which swarms in and walks upon the land, or

the air,
swims in the sea? Was it created as a mere pastime for
man's benefit? Or, is it not more reasonable to think
that it is all rushing upward towards pefection ? the fit- —
test going up and the unfit going down. Darwin shows
 — 188 —
the law of "Natural Selection." Man! proud and
haughty egotist that thou art, Nature thinks as much of
a mosquito as she does of you ! You gestate in water the
same, and go out of life in like manner as a mos-
quito does. But you make a greater
fuss about it. Aro-
gate nothing to yourself because you are a little higher
than the poor, patient, dumb brute you drive. Treat them
kindly, for you know not how soon they may become
human, and pay you in your own coin for your brutality.
" Thou shalt not kill," was written upon Mount Sinai by
one who knew what he was about. The Rahats of Buddh-
ism are not allowed to knowingly tread upon a worm, or
to take any life whatever. We are all related, and anon
change places with each other in the revolutions of the
great wheel of Infinite Power. We know not the effects

of violence and bloodshed upon ourselves and others.

Note the changes of form and feature from infancy to old
age, and see how many times the Identity is lost in a
few short years — and those in con-
lost to all save yourself

stant association. The slowness of makes no the change

difference in fact. How often is it said of one returned
after an absence of a few years, Why, how you have
' '

changed I hardly know you " Think you those!

!

changes will cease at death ? I do not.

It is the desire of every man who believes in immor-

tality, to retain consciousness and identity. We are rather

in hopes that we will lose some traits those which we —
despise ; but we would scarcely desire to be something
else after death, unless we could be more God-like. This
much-talked-of identity is but little understood. I am not
 — ;

— 139 —
the same person I was forty years ago, no more than one
wave on the ocean remains the same tili it is beaten upon
the shore. As wave flows into wave, so life passes into
forms of matter. A ripple here and a wave there a tem- ;

pest here and a calm there. Such is life The great !

wave sinks into the small one, or rises into the large one
but whether great or small, the calm levels all. The soul
has power to identify itself according to its consciousness
of what it has been. It identifies itself in many ways, by
looks, acts, or by the narration of incidents fresh in the
memory of both. But if memory is lost and the form has
changed, what good is there in identification, even were it
possible ? which it is not. I fee I that I am the same being

I formerly was, because I remember the long ago there —

has been one continuous chain of events that have gradu-
ally borne me along —
there has been no great shock or
disconnection of the current ; but a shock sometimes inter-
rupts the continuity of things. Especially is this true in re-

gard to memory. The most valuable things are the easiest

disturbed and destroyed as we understand destruction.
How weak, and yet how subtile and strong is memory !

The past, with its multitudinous experiences, sights, acts,

sounds, etc., fails to keep along with us. They drop out
by the way, as one wearied falls down to rest, and we look
around at the end of the journey for the companions of
the way, and are surprised at the smallness of the num-
ber we see. And even those that keep the closest to us
are the hideous ones we would most gladly have left be-
hind. Perhaps we have taken extra pains to outrun or to
evade some of them —but memory drags them along with
 —
. —140 —

almost supernatural power. The greater part of our life

is made up of indifferent acts of which we take no note,
and which make little or no impression on memory's
page, but the great events stamp themselves ineffaceably
upon the soul. Memory being, then, the means whereby
existence continues in the consciousness, its culture be-
comes of paramount importance, as regards identification.
Memory is the soul of genius. We do not know but
that the thoughts of the mind are half forgotten memo-
ries of previous existences ! And Intuition may be but
a perception of the past and future, in which we have
always been as now. Our past lives are as a half forgot-
ten dream. Some little thing calls it up, as from the
deep, more or less vividly to our consciousness. There
are some things which destroy memory so, also, there ;

is way of cultivating or of increasing its power. The

a
opening of the mind to what has been is culture of
memory the closing of the mind to that which has been
;

is the decay and loss of memory.

Memory is the outward or material part of conscious-

ness, as the body is the outward of mind. Hence, to
increase in consciousness and soul-power is to expand
the memory or the inmost of mind the sensorium.
Action is expansive, but inaction is contractive.
Bear in mind, now, that by action I do not mean phy-
sical or mental action, but soul action. The soul is the
principle of all existence, and is the cause of all action ;

but its first action is the evolution of a principle which is

the governing motive or power of every act. The mo-

tive is the life of an act. Motives are dual — good and
 a

— 141 —
bad. The absence of a good motive leaves the act defi-
cient of its life or expansive power. Hence, the absence
of good is the evil, which is contractive. The- absence
of strength is weakness ; of sight, blindness ; of intelli-

gence, ignorance, etc. That which increases, power is

good, for it leads up to God. Good is the only absolute-

ness of mind — for, as I said before, it is our estimate —
which descending into acts related to other acts, becomes
a relative good, u e. 9
partly good and partly evil ; for it

may be good for some, but evil for others. Good, then,
which is the least harmful to others, must be the nearest
approach to absoluteness, and thus to the truth. There
comes from motives a certain quality which they impart
to every act ; and as acts are graded from low to high, so
does quality vary. Now, the good of an act is meritori-
ous, but the evil is not, and it imparts another quality to
spirit, called Demerit. For spirit is action and the ;

motive of the act is its spirit — or the quality thereof.

Spirit is graded from the purest white, through all grades
of color down to the lowest black. The darker the spirit
the more inert it is, for power resides in spirit according
to its color. It is the merit of an act which gives spirit

its purity of color, but the demerit of it saddens the color

of spirit and thus destroys its buoyancy. Merit is the
concentrative power of spirit, for it draws all the colors
together as in a focus, or prism of white light, or oneness;
but demerit is a downward action towards matter —
scattering or refraction of rays — as of many from one in
which colors appear — and power disappears in the falling
of it, or in its diffusion. Principle is merit, but the
 — 142 —
absence of principle is demerit. Now, it is necessary to
know what a principle is, in order to a comprehension of
this recondite subject. A principle is a union of the two
highest mental attributes into one spirit. Thus, Love and
Will united are good, if they unite in truth, and they
cannot unite in anything else ; for that which is false is
at variance — as a division. Truth unites, but falsehood
dissevers. The soul of merit is the love of truth, and
truth is freedom. Thus is merit expansive of the Soul's
consciousness, but contractive of the mind. Demerit
springs from a want of love of truth, and is a disunion of
love and will, hence, is void of principle. In disunion
there are differences, which lead to aggressive acts —or acts
against freedom.
Aggression is the soul of demerit. The object or mo-
tive ofan act gives merit, provided the object be for the
good of others. There is merit in all love, of whatever
name or nature, and it is this that supports life. But
there is demerit in hate and revenge, and all passions
which confer no good upon self or upon others, and this
it is that shortens life, and makes it a continual agitation,

and a death in life.

The expansion of consciousness is due to merit, but

the contraction of it to demerit. In the expansion of

consciousness the soul transcends mere mind, and one be-
comes conscious of a truth, even without a reason for it.
Thus, the past and future rise up in the mind in symbols,
or impresses itself as a sensation or feeling. The spirit-

worlds may be reached in this way without trance or ob-

jective vision. It is a conscious contact of minds, things
 ;

— 143 —
and principles. Consciousness meets consciousness in
this expansion, and the conditions of any state of being
may be known. It is a ready reader of character, mo-
tives, capacities, past and future events, etc., etc. But
the small consciousness is confined and limited by demerit
— it reaches little or nothing beyond itself. Merit is ac-
quired by acts of love ; it Freedom
sets the spirit free.

is life and joy. I am aware that some claim there is no

freedom of action, and consequently no merit or demerit

therein. But we know better.
Now, how, or in what manner does spirit rise or be-
come luminous by merit ? The spirit has the power to
extract life from all with which it
substance or spirit,

comes in contact, as it radiates in space from the body,

and merit is that which increases this power of absorption
or appropriation, while demerit destroys that power.
Merit eliminates the tenacity or clingingness of spirit, by
reason of which it is held to the surface of things ; thus
giving it power to penetrate deeper into the inner essence
or spirit of substance, and to extract the finer essences
thereof. Merit increases the radius of man-
spirit in this

ner, and it feeds upon all things, for there is no repug-

nance to any. But whatever it may come in contact with
it only takes that which is according to its own quality.

Now, every object it meets takes something from the spirit

hence, weakens it. Demerit increases taste and re-
pugnance, and in this manner limits the freedom and
radius of spirit, thus compelling it to feed upon " husks,"
often to its weakness and disease. He who is indifferent
gets the good of all, and his spirit is fat. But he who likes
 — 144 —
and dislikes the most, is poor and lean in spirit. These
are basic principles of power and progress. Disease
originates in this manner. As the beating of the heart
throws the blood to the extremities, so does spirit pour
out in the pulsations of will. As blood purines itself by
contact with the air, in like manner is spirit purified by
the contact of pure things. " To the pure all things are
pure." The more indifferent you are, the purer you are,
for to the indifferent all things are alike —one.
No man exists in any condition very long after he is

tired of it.The man who is forced to exist passes rapidly

out of one mode of existence into another, becoming less
and less as the circles narrow to the going out. Demerit
is that which compels us to exist — but not with a contin-
ual consciousness thereof. To increase in power, and
the pleasure it alone can confer, requires effort in the
acquisition of merit. Merit prepares the spirit, by giving
it buoyancy and elasticity. The future life is similar to
this. As we come here by force and go out by force, so
we enter spirit-life and pass through it. But death is not
a birth, and there is not necessarily a growth there as here.
The spirit, being a mortal thing, is often diseased, which, of
course, weakens it. The laws of demerit are vindictive,
and all debts due under it must be paid, and death is the
penalty of violated laws. Now, since the mind violates
the law whereby the body becomes diseased, the mind is
the thing that must die. Physical death is only typical
of the real death of consciousness. There are things that
wake not up after death, till they awaken in another form
—mosquitoes, for instance. This is death followed by a
 ~ 145 —
birth into another form, but the form of man containing
more and greater consciousness, continues after
spirit

death. But I am satisfied that many never awaken, or if

they do, they remain on the earth hovering around me-
diums by this means striving to get back to their old
;

habits and vices —

thus sapping the spirits of mortals of
vitality. Such have an ephemeral existence, and at last
fall asleep, and are again born upon this earth. But there
aremany who lose not consciousness for a single moment,
and who are not aware they are dead till some time after
to such death is not a birth into another form, and
scarcely into another existence. upon the con-
It is just

fines of another existence into which the good walk deeper

and deeper, and out of which the bad are kept by their
own inclinations : not only in this, but in all the starry
worlds.
In this world, as well as in all the planet worlds of space,
every man must stand upon his own merits, and fall by
his own demerits. There is no such thing as the trans-
fer of merit or demerit from one person to another.

Merit may be driven wholly out of the spirit, as colors

may be washed out of cloth. This is done by the accu-
mulation of demerit. So, also, demerit may be driven
out of the spirit in the same manner, by making its colors
brighter and brighter, by the accumulation of merit. The
reason is simple enough Spirit is the light of the body
:

— its brilliancy is determined by the merit acquired in

some previous existence or succession of existences. The

brilliancy of the light may be increased by improving the
quality of the oil in the lamp as you replenish it. But
 —

— 146 —
no other light, no matter how brilliant it may be, can make
yours one whit brighter, by being placed near by. You
can only change the quality of your light by effort in the

acquisition of merit. A pure spirit can only impart to

you you render yourself receptive thereto ; and even
as

then it can only give you the crumbs which fall from its
table. But crumbs of spirit are better than mountains of
gold, for they are health, power, immortality.
Good acts have an influence upon the body in more
ways than one. To do good, because it is easy to do so,
is meritorious ; but there is much more in a good act
done when the inclination is the reverse. An act may be
forced out by sympathy —which is good, because sympa-
thy is a result of merit acquired in a previous existence
but it may not have much merit in it as an addition to
that previously acquired. An act done without sympathy
for the sole purpose of increasing good, without any hope
or expectation of a reward, has the highest merit therein.
A man does not act thus except from deep and profound
meditation upon the true relationship of things. Merit
is the substance of the celestial worlds, and he who med-
itates deeply, attaches himself thereto by the elevation of
and incorporates it into his spirit according to
his spirit,

his acts. Thus, it becomes part and parcel of his body,

driving out demerit. In like manner could all diseases
be healed, were it not for the demerit of former exist-

ences. Demerit must be worked out patiently and slowly.

In some cases it takes numerous births in the human form,
attended with a constant effort, with the object — to get

rid of the succession of existence where there is nothing

 —

— 147 —
but an alternation of pleasure and pain constantly before
the mind, and an idea to enter upon a state of being al-

together out of all comprehension. ((

He that would save
his life shall lose it, and he that would lose his life for my
sake (the sake of principle) shall save it." Jesus. To
teach the way upward is the object of this book.
Principle is the magnet which holds the man steadily
to the polar star of power. Mercy is full of merit, if

forgiveness comes from the motive to do good. They

that do good because it is easy and natural, have their
reward as they go along. But he who does good contrary
to his nature, through a mastery of himself, lays up great
merit in store for a future life— verily his reward shall be
great.
To feed the hungry through pity is good, but to feed
them with the reflection that by so doing you will help
them in the acquisition of merit is far better. It is better
to do kindly acts and say kind words without feeling, than
to feel and not say or do. Both are good, but one is
greater than the other. A small meritorious act may ele-

vate one to the seventh heaven —but he cannot stay there,

for when his oil is burned out he must return for more.
He will return of his own accord, for he will be in dark-
ness without merit. This earth is the only place wherein
merit can be acquired. A little merit will carry a big
load of demerit into heaven, but it cannot remain for
want of buoyancy. Every act we do, every thought we
think, and every word uttered, affects some one else, and
we do not know the extent of its influence. Hence, all
creation is bound together in the bonds of sympathy.
 — 148 —
This is The Heavens are fast
a result of demerit.
anchored to the Hells, and there can be no perfect bliss so
long as one poor soul suffers. A chain is not stronger than
its weakest link.
No one can escape the meshes of sympathy without
cutting all its chords. Is this done by love, think you ?

Nay ! but by indifference. The love of principle is

indifference towards objects. This is the first and great-

est commandment — to love principle ! The next is love
all things as you do yourself. This is indifference ; for
when one loves a principle with all the intensity of his being,
he has no self-love nor love of anything on God's green
earth. Now the only principle in existence is Freedom.
Neither Power, nor God, nor Spirit are possible without
freedom. Look you at the host of martyrs for Freedom !

They loved principle better than self, wife, children or

friends — they were swallowed up in the love of God's
freedom ! This is indifference to things. Indifference is

" the door " through which merit descends to man, and
through which souls ascend to God.
We are all sunk in a psychologic sleep — the falling into

which was effected by sympathy. Those to whom this

life is the most real, are in its deepest phase. They can-
not perceive the illusion of it, nor the ineffable glory of
awakening out of it, and the becoming a spectator of
one's own self and of others. This becoming a spectator is
the stepping out of the illusion, as out of one's self, in
which state things are visible in spirit only, or as another
existence. It is like a peering under the floors of conscious
life, as into a great darkness, wherein things become less
 — 149 —
1
and less distinct; or as a passing through a wall of dark-
ness into a great and indescribable light, and, looking back,
behold things as luminous —involved in will, psychologiz-
ing each other ; in which sleep they dance with pleasure
or howl and writhe in anguish, as if in fire. Occasion-
ally one gets tired, and seats himself in some obscure
corner to look on. The gods seeing him thus meditative,
drop down into the mists of sympathy, thus approaching
him and increase his weari-
in condition, rack his thought
ness to dissatisfaction and a great unrest— or to hunger and
thirst after something permanent and real. Have you,
too, reader, become wearied of illusory joys, that slip
through your fingers in the grasping, as a phantom eludes
mortal touch? Become indifferent, then, to the love of
life,and gradually the pain and pleasure of it will pass
out of your recognition. Follow me in the culture of
Will, and learn the way to " the door." Space will not
permit me to dwell upon this theme, prolific as it is.

Volumes might be written, and still the darkness could

no more comprehend the light now than in the olden
time.
 ;

— 150

XIII.— THE WILL.

" Men fail, sicken and die, through feebleness of will.

,,

All the potencies of man reside in the will. To its exer-

cise isdue all motions—physical, mental and spiritual/
Will God, and i( God is a Spirit." Therefore, the will
is

employed in an act is the spirit thereof, or the motive, or

moving force. Man is the focus of above and below— of
'

without and within. Hence he is susceptible to influ-

ences from each, That some are more open to impres-
sions from within than others, is evident and the same ;

is true as regards externals. The will is liable to be led

captive and enslaved by., either— aye, to be subjugated
and destroyed But there is a point where the will is
!

self-poised and free in its action. As the will is the

spirit of every act, it gives quality to acts. There seems
to be a warfare between externals and internals, as to the
possession of the will. How oft do we see it verified,

that li
A man convinced against his will, is of the same
M We
opinion still. act as we like to act-— we think as we
like to think. We can see very plainly that which we
like to see,and shut our eyes very closely against that
which we do not like. Evidence has but a feeble effect
upon the will. Evil comes from without— or, rather
from that which is within being overpowered and capti-
vated by that which is without, or foreign to ourselves
 — 151 —
while the good comes from within, or by the subjection
of the outer by the inner. The objectifying of that which
is within is idolatry. The subjectifying of objects is the
destruction of forms, and the resolving of things back
to the original essence or oneness from which they spring.
This is the digestion of things in the stomach of tl e
mind, wherein the fire is extracted which illuminates the
spirit, and is the greatest good to man, for it opens the
eyes of the soul ; it glows as a light ; it warms as fire ; it

nourishes as food ;
gives rest and cheerfulness of mind ;

enriches the blood ;

purifies the love, and fortifies the
soul.

That which is without is transient, fleeting, changing,

and impermanent but that which is within is durable
;
;

and the deepest hidden is the most durable of all. The

will is the only thing that approximates absolute free-
dom, and this is not free because of love. Love is

worship, and they who love objects are idolaters. We

are free to will anything we may fancy, but we are not
free to love or accomplish, because we are limited by
things foreign to ourselves, which we love or hate, or
are indifferent to. Love is worship, but hate is its re-

flection, as things tangible are a reflection of the intan-

gible. Polytheism and Polygamy are branches of the
same tree. In the true rendering they mean the same
thing. Polygamy was permitted to the Jews on account
of " the hardness of their hearts." The love of God is

the love of Woman —not of Wo-Men. But he who loves

any for?n is an idolater —the formless principle of pro-
duction is the feminine of God.
 — 152 —
It is very difficult to understand the foregoing, save in
a sinister light, which is a false light. True love is so
far hidden from even the imaginations of men, that an
effort to make it known is almost superfluous. That love
which is awakened by sight or contact of objects is the
dark side — the sinister side — of love. Hence the reality
is not love ; itis simply an appearance. But the love
that springs from the contemplation of a principle is
unchangeable, if it be a true principle, for it springs
from light which is real, as God is real. As God is

light, so the will is light ; and the love that is produced

by will is immortal, because it is pure. That which
springs spontaneously from the earth is the weed, bram-
ble, and fruit, which man tries to improve. So it is

with the loves. That which springs from impulse is

considered by civilization as a thing needing punishment.

We believe in cool, calm judgment and self-control, as
better than spontaneity. This coolness and self-poise
comes from the exercise of will. All civilization is due
to self-control. It follows, then, as a logical sequence,
that if it is possible for man to guide and control his
loves, it is far better than for him to be led by his blind
passions. Furthermore, if it be possible to create love
by any process whatever, it is far better than otherwise.
Hence the command to love, not only one another, but

our enemies. Such a command is altogether superfluous,

if it is not possible to do so. We know how to destroy
and disfigure the fair face of nature ; we know how to
destroy health and happiness, life and pleasure ; but we
know very little of the creative forces. We know what
 —

— 158 —
it is to have the heart beat quick and tumultuous at the

sight of beauty, or at the gentle pressure of the hand, or

at the bewitching glance of love-lit eyes ; but we know
nothing absolutely of a power to feel anything but dis-

gust at a loathsome object. Yet it is within the range of

human possibilities to love that which to ordinary minds
is repulsive — in fact, to love all, and despise nothing. It is
the despising of things that separates us from God or the
Supernatural. The first lesson in life is the exercise of
Will. We learn to use the muscles, but mental effort
precedes it. The first effort is a projection of power into
the nerves, which tremble and go astray of the object the
infant tries hard to grasp \ but with practice the nerves
become steady,and the infant learns gradually to manip-
ulate matter — in its own body secondly, outside of
first, ;

itself. This power comes to the infant out of nothing,

as it upon a blank page
were, as characters written
—
nothing called out into this world of sense by a display
of trinkets, colors, sonnets and toys, to be a something
manifesting power, force and will. The basic principle
of all power and of all development is the will. It is

all. Every faculty of the mind, every nerve of the body,

centres in it. It is the trunk of the tree of life : all else

ofman are outgrowths of it. Hence the development of

manhood begins and ends in the will. It is the centre-
stance of being, from which " the rib " of circumstances
was taken (or grew), as Eve from Adam. Will is the
first manifestation of soul, or the first faculty it creates
for its use.
 — 154—
The will is the great pulsating heart of the Soul— the
reservoir of the spirit — which, in its contraction, throws
the spirit from itself, and in its openii.g draws it back
again. In the supernatural, the will produces, guides
and controls the loves, but in the natural (so called) the

loves control and guide the will. Naturally, love is a

spontaneous emotion, produced by an object of attrac-
tion, leading the will captive. But supernaturally love
is an emotion forced out by constant, persistent thought
of an Ideal, which Ideal is the feminine counterpart of
the man, dwelling within him, united to him, absolutely
inseparable from him. But he cannot have this Ideal in
his consciousness, till, in the purity of his spirit, he rises
up to its conception mentally. This is a revelation to
him, sometimes in early life, but often in age, forced out
by unrequited and the burning anguish of dead
love,
joys. Thus, man becomes dual in his nature first, after-
wards in actual marriage with his Ideal, or love.

This Ideal is seldom incarnated on this earth, at the

same time the man is if it ever does so happen, no condi-
;

tion can keep them apart. When they meet, they intui-
tively know each other. This is marriage in its divine
significance. Man and woman thus united by the " Holy
Spirit" is eternal— but considered separately they are not
eternal entities, but are interchangeable, i. e. man is liable

tobecome a woman, and woman is liable to become a

man in some other birth. The man hater and the woman
hater change places after two or three revolutions of the
wheel of life. Human progress depends, then, upon will-

culture-— and the field to be cultivated is the loves, in

 '

— 155 —
which and from which all things grow. The will viewed
as a mental faculty has its antagonist, which is reverence.
Once upon a time when intensely musing upon the an-
tagonisms of the brain, I fell asleep — but it was not all

sleep —when some one came to me, as "the stranger*

came with the mirror. I did not see him, but he showed
me a book. Opening it, he showed me this strange sen-

tence :
'
' The will is antagonized by reverence ! In the
foretime the Gods, out of fear of man *s ambition, created
reverence," I desired to take the book, but he would
not permit me, but showed me many blank pages therein,
saying : "not now." It was several years before I could
accept the strange dogma. But it is true. We are taught
that the will must be broken in early childhood, and in
order to the salvation of the soul. The opposite is the
truth. God does not love slaves nor cowards, and the
child whose will is broken is of no earthly account.
The loves must be tamed —broken, if necessary, by the
will — guided by an enlightened understanding. All will
is pure power, and should be increased instead of being
broken. In meditation there is strength, but in reverence
there is weakness —a tacit acknowledgment of a superior.
There is a god ! nay, many, but if they are superior to
you it is your own
You may have been a godfault.

yourself at some time, and you may be again with proper

effort. That proper effort is not in humiliation. The
will is represented in the mind as triune, having three fac-
ulties through which it manifests itself, as follows:
I. Firmness Determination — — Stability.
II. Self-esteem — Independence — Self-poise.
III. Continuity —-Tenacity— Continuativeness.
 — 156 —
A proper balance and harmony of these three consti-
tute a perfect will. The weakness or excessive develop-
ment of either one weakens the will. As intimated above,
an enlightened understanding is the only true guide for
the will. This enlightenment is illumination of the mind
—clairvoyance. There are many degrees of lucidity, but

the highest degree is the perception of principles — of

" principalities and powers." The inmost and the outer-
most of being is connected by the imagination. It stands
between the will and the loves ; hence, all the operations
of the will must be through the imagination. It is the
" magic mirror" of the mind, through which the soul
scans the horizon, or upon which the universe may be
—
made to impinge not in vague and shadowy forms, many-
colored or kaleidoscopic, but in reality, either black or
white. It is prolific ; for herefrom comes all of art,

science, literature and beauty, as well as the horrible,

grotesque and sinister. Crimes are brooded over and
hatched here in the imagination. In this fairy land is

death enthroned, for that which is born is the death of

something else. This is magic ground from which things
grow by the conjuring of the will. Here things dissolve
themselves and expose their deformities and here hideous ;

things are enrobed in garbs angelic. Here religion has

its stronghold —
for in this the gods show themselves to
man. Maligned, abused, scoffed at, the jeer and laughter-
provoking thing yet rules the world. Disrobe man of
the imagination and what is he ? A brute — worse than
savage. His very flesh covers itself with hair, as if to
hide its coarseness and vulgarity. But let the imagination
 — 157 —
loose, and the hair grows soft and fine, or disappears.
The flesh glows with fires immortal ; the eye loses its

savage glare, and man's robes are of the finest texture.

The earth, under its rule, is no longer a howling wilder-
ness, but is dotted all over with fairy-like splendors — its

magic productions. Steam almost annihilates space, and

the lightnings flash thought from pole to pole ahead of
old time. This is all due to the dreamings of the imagi-
nation.
On the shores of eternity's ocean are greater things
waiting for some dreamer to espie and hand down to en-

rich mankind. All hail to the dreamers, poets, philoso-

phers, preachers, writers and inventors ! They have
always left their mark, and always will, as an ineffaceable
brand upon the face of humanity. Trust, aspiration and
hope have their very roots in the imagination. It is only
by virtue of it that the good side of humanity in gene-
ral can be discerned. The unimaginative are the doubt-
ful, unbelieving and distrustful. Have they ever built
anything desirable ? or ever added anything of value to
mankind ? Thomas Paine was not an unbeliever. He
believed in God and humanity, and he left his mark upon
this people that will be known and felt for long ages. He
loved a principle, i. <?., human liberty, and worked to es-

tablish Paine was a dreamer. In his imagination he

it.

saw equal rights, and if he lived in this age he would see

woman's rights.
Theories lead the van —practice comes slowly along,
like a lumbering wagon, afterwards. The imagination is
an infinite field. There are many roads in it, and many
 — :

— 158 —
jungles and angles. All the loves centre here where they
impinge upon the will.

"And God saw that the imaginings of man's heart was

continually evil " i. e., outward. Oh ! that I might im-
press upon you the vast importance of looking within ?
May not this be the closet into which Christ bade his
disciples retire in prayer? What is contemplation but
imagination ? What is prayer but the aspirations of the
soul ? And what are aspirations but images of the soul.
How can we "pluck the mote out of our own eyes'
1
in
any other way than by looking within? This plucking
out of the mote is nothing but the development of clair-
—
voyance clear seeing. That is done by the imagination.
"If thine hand offend thee, cut it off," etc what is this —
but the analysis and destruction of passions that retard
and hinder the development of the soul to the kingdom
of power? If diseases are ever healed by the imagina-
tion, is it not a divine gift —
better far than medicine ? and
is it not best to cultivate it? If it will heal the sick; if

it will make life any more pleasant, for God's sake let us
have more of it.

Three essential elements constitute perfect man, viz

Will, Imagination and Love. These are the positive,
negative and neutral. Imagination is the indifferent part
of mind, corresponding to indifferent nature — "the
door," already explained in previous chapters. It is the
" Garden of Eden " out of which man was cast. The
same tree of life is there still, guarded by a flaming
sword which turns every way.
 — 159 —
What more beautiful type of fire than a "flaming
sword?" Fire-flame, that guards the way to the tree of
life —consuming all impure things that approach the dread
portals of the kingdom of power. The pure only are
eternal. Purity is original — this is unchangeable. All
originality comes man through reverie : this is
to imagi-
nation. Man reaches God in ,the imagination. In it

God walks and talks with man. It is the creative faculty

—not in and of itself, but herein the will conjures things
from the unknown, and compels them to appear to the
consciousness — first, of himself; secondly, of others. In
the imagination, things, ideas, passions, hatreds, loves,
vices, etc., may be destroyed — first, as realities within;
secondly, as obstacles outside of us. For instance, an
enemy may be made sick, and gradually to die, or he may
be suddenly killed, by the powerful will of an intensely
imaginative man or woman. Or he may be tamed, sub-
dued, and made a friend of through and by the same
power. God pity the one who would prostitute such a
power to a base or unworthy purpose !

This is hard to believe, but the rationale is very simple

to one of comprehension. But it is not my object to
teach these things in this work, only so far as to point the
road.
There is little power among men on account of the
want of will. There is plenty of obstinacy and unrea-
soning tenacity of purpose. This is due to firmness,
which is the projecting or repulsive power of will. By
the use of it we project ourselves — first, into the nerves and
muscles ; secondly, into objects — obstacles that stand in
 — —

our way. Its work is outwardly. We waste our strength

and lose ourselves in objects of love, hate, envy and
pride. In this projection we leave ourselves empty.
Emptiness, like filth, and death. Projec-
invites disease
tion — repulsion —produces {There is a sexual
death.
arcana here let him who reads ponder well.) We die
:

that others may have being. Firmness is what its name

implies hardness. " Firm as the rocks " expresses its real
character. It hardens the nerves, muscles and very
bones, and also affects the spirit in the same way, rend-
ering it viscid and difficult of motion. That which should
be fire emitted is but a glutinous mass of molten matter.
Instead of emitting jets of fire, flame-tipped, that reach
the soul — the empyrean — the throne of the living God —
baptizing each other with and " the Holy Ghost, "
fire

cheering, comforting, exhilarating with divine life and

—
vigor drawing human souls together in the oneness of a
divine love — we emit a force
that is like water upon fire

— destructive and happiness repels man

to all real life —
from man, and man from woman, in one universal
divorce. Instead of the controlling, persuasive, binding
power of will, we have the booming cannon, the dagger
and revolver, and the rough-and-tumble fight of dogs.
The " still, small voice' of wisdom is drowned in the
'

deafening roar of countless blood-stained feet, hastening

to tread out the wine of human life. In our great marts
of commerce, hearts have no more pulsation than the
metal that chinks. Firmness— the external of will
hardens everything ! Even human hearts rattle like rocks
thrown together. Suppose love to be the only immortal
 — 161 —
thing: how much will mankind after the fire
be left of
has removed the impurities of it? Not much Then roll !

on your Juggernaut of mammon. Shout and hurrah

for kings, priests, popes, bishops, honorables and aristo-
crats of every grade — your gods. Dress yourselves in
your gaudy shrouds for one universal burial. Marshal
your hosts for the grand carnival of death : for what
matters the blood of ephemera ? Ye pass away like

insects! Another race is coming — one in whom this

outward tumult of a boisterous will shall give place to

silence and peace, and man shall live till he chooses to

die. In this reverence — this antagonist of will — all

thrones and crowns take root. King -craft, priest-craft and

hero-worship must fail together. This vampire trinity
fattens upon the best blood of humanity. It makes slaves
and minions of the masses. No wonder they all love and
preach worship — it is food, raiment and idleness for them,
and toil and rags for the human race. It debases man-
kind, because it robs them of self-respect — the central
pivot of the will. The idea that you are beneath another
cripples you.
Selfness is nearest the soul — it is the very vitals of will.
Confidence in self inspires self-respect. To take away
either is like taking off a leg —we must walk on crutches.
To feel inferior is to be so. To feel equal is to grow to
be such. The proud and arrogant interiorly feel their
weakness, and hence arrogate to themselves something
foreign, so as to inspire worship in others. The antago-
nist of self-esteem is love of approbation. This love of
the approval of others is one branch of reverence. To be
 —
— 162 —
praised and flattered by a king is something grand, and
to be coveted. Humble yourself in the dust for a smile
of approval from one crowned. To secure the approval of
heaven, humble and debase yourself. In other words, act
the hypocrite, pretend humility to superiors, but to those
beneath you be lord, king, duke or God. Such is the
effect of modern theological teachings. Self-esteem
normally gives the feeling of self-reliance, confidence and
independence It gives rise to manly equality and self-

poise. It is the balance-wheel, the regulator, the pivot

upon which manhood, like a compass, rests.

Self is antagonized by others ; hence, he who gives

himself up to please others, gives himself to his antago-
nist — viz : that which ruins him by throwing him out of
balance. Be yourself; think yourself; learn of every-
thing and of everybody; be worthy of your own self-
respect: for when you have secured that, the respect of
others is certain. Be independent, but, in so doing,
remember the rights of others. Rights are equal wrongs ;

make inequalities. If you have any selfhood, consult

that first of all. Secure in self-respect, you need not fear
others, for God approves of self- honor. This is the only
glory, and the only way to glorify God.
Praise is a false wind — it blows no good. Fame !

what is it, but a breath, shouting huzzas which, prolonged,

die away in a hiss ? Breath of the rabble the unthinking !

herd One minute exalting you to heaven, the next

!

trampling you in filth. And yet it is said God loves

praise. The absurdity is too apparent. We cannot add
anything to the Infinite. We can, however, join the
 — ;:

— 163 —
Infinite to ourselves, and we are glorified thereby. This
it is to " glorify God in these bodies, which are His"

or ours in the glorifying. Thus we increase the self-

hood—the foundation of power— will.
all

Inordinate self-esteem may have no self-respect at all.

Self-respect is based in right, truth and justice. Hence,

he who respects others and their rights, has self-respect.

He who has no regard for the rights of others, although

he may possess a powerful external will, has a weak will

interiorly. He is like a tree with a large top, but whose

trunk is rotten. Respect is the very foundation of love
hence, self-respect leads to self-love or egotism. This is

an excessive growth from a fruitful soil. Such need

pruning. The will, like everything else in nature, grows
outwardly to the weakening of its roots. Egotism is the
fatal tendency of all aspirations. It is a weakness that
must be guarded against. Self-approbation springs from
the same source as love of the approval of others viz —
reverence. There is such a thing as self-worship. Ego-
tism is to the will what the moss is to trees in " the sunny
—
South" it dwarfs and finally kills. Strip man of pretense
and egotism (which is the same) and what is there left of
him ? He who is puffed up and loaded with self-compla-
cency and pride is rotten within. Self- gratification is the

root of human As we grow we send out many

action.
branches, self-gratification supports them all.
but No
matter what pursuit we follow, or what course in life we
pursue, that is the prime motive power. The will is made
a slave to it. It is the fundamental principle of all reli-

gious systems. The so-called kingdom of heaven is based

 -164 —
in it, and hell is filled with the devotees of self-gratifi-

cation. Even Buddhism, which claims that there is no

self or Ego in reality, holds out the inducement to its

votaries of escaping to Nirwana, from the ceaseless and

eternal succession of existences. To this end the senses
are attacked, and bodily or physical and mental gratifi-

cation destroyed, in order to arrive at the gates of

ecstacy and power — in order to cease to be*
So, self is the basis of and the only god. Pleasure
all,

is the object of all, no matter what road is taken. Even

the materialist finds his pleasure in the quiescence and the
quintescence of matter. Men get religion through fear of
and
the pains of hell, in hope of the pleasures of heaven.
The Hindoo mother tosses her babe into the murky
waters of the Ganges to appease the wrath of her gods —
in hopes of a reward. The Fakir of India puts a hook
in the quivering flesh of his back and suspends himself
for days in mid-air, or stands with hands clasped, in one
position, till the limbs are paralyzed, and the finger-nails
grow through the palms of the hands, like claws all in —
hope of power and pleasure other than that of the earthly
senses.
Some seek the ultimate of life in the carnival of carnal
passions, others in mammon worship, others in Govern-
ment positions, politics, etc. Is all this universal
hunger and thirst — this deathless longing —a mere hallu-
cination ? or, is it the index finger of Fate pointing to a

* This is the exoteric of Buddhism: the esoteric has never been written.
Hardy translates their sacred books, but frankly admits that if Nirwana does
not mean annihilation, he does not know what its meaning is.
 — 165 —
great truth? Is self capable of becoming infinite in
power and pleasure in — this universal changing of con-
ditions and polarities ? We of the old school of thought
say, Yes.
Of all the potencies of nature, the I, the Ego, the self,

is the only thing beyond comprehension that has a positive

and tangible existence. All things else are mere append-
ages of it. I speak of my soul, mind, spirit and body as
of my coat, or any other property. But when I speak of
myself — of "the think' and " the ' feel," — T am at a loss
for a definition. To go behind, beyond, above or below
myself is impossible. I confront myself at every turn. It

is as easy to comprehend God as myself, for the simple

reason that I and the numeral one (i), are identically
the same. One (i) is the foundation of mathematics,
from which all numerals flow forth (arbitrarily and
absurdly). In the beginning was one (i) God, one law,
one will. From will came many ones by emission, or
emanation. One thing cannot be added to another, save
by and even then numbers disappear in the
fusion,
universal one. Add one grain of corn to another; true,
the figure 2 represents the number, for convenience, but
the addition is arbitrary —
there they remain, separate and
alone, each an individual thing. In nature there is no
addition. Fusion and emanation are the only mathemat-
ical laws. Division is as arbitrary as addition. Divide
a grain of corn and it loses its individuality. Plant the
grain and it emits from itself whole ship-loads, but it
loses itself in so doing. Now God emanated from Him-
self all things, which, in the beginning, were as like Him
 —

— 166 —
as one thing can be like another. Perfect man was the
first emanation. He existed long before this world or
any of the lower orders had an existence. He (man)
was all in himself i. <?., he was the first or great primal
law of creation. Laws are modes of action : man is an
action of God or will. From man's will flowed all
lesser laws or things. The Ego, the I, myself, is an
emanation of —a
God creative action —the first and the
last and the whole — (i). The lower orders are man's
creations —degenerated human beings, lesser things, laws
or acts. The sage of Genesis simply got the cart before
the horse when he said the animals were created before
man. Afterwards, however, he rectifies the mistake
partly, when he speaks of " Sons of God" marrying
the
the daughters of men. These " Sons of God" were the
primitive men, of which I have spoken. I am the creator
of all — they are
my acts They flow out throughlaws.
of
effort —being projections of the Ego— myself. Thus
will

God meets man — man — the selfhood. The selfhood

is in
is God humanized. The selfhood of animals is God
brutalized. We can understand how it is possible for
man to produce that which is inferior to himself, but it is

more difficult to conceive of his creating anything supe-

rior. How can the animal evolve man, who is superior
in every essential ? How can man progress unless there
is something above him to which he is near related ? This
relation is found in the selfhood —the central pivot of

will. Be very careful, then, reader, how you trifle with

yourself. Every thought and act which debases you, /. <?.,
sinks you in your own inner consciousness , that which
 — 167 —
you wish to hide away
some dark corner of yourself—
in
away from the eye of even yourself debases God. The —
day comes speedily when he will sit in judgment upon
—
your every thought and act and that upon the throne of
your own conscious selfhood. Firmness is the moving
force or controlling power of this outward sensuous life
the power of aggression, of overcoming obstacles by phys-
ical force. It is the masculine of will.
Self is neutral —hermaphrodite—neither masculine nor
feminine. The feminine of will is represented by con-
tinuity. Self-esteem, phrenologicaliy, is located just

above the crown of the head; firmness, a little in front

or above it, at the highest point of the cranium ; while
continuity is just below self-esteem— inferior in position
and diminutive in size, situated just above the social
group, as a mother keeping guard over her children.
Understand, that the will is a trinity. One part does
not act without the co-operation of the others ; they are
inseparable. For the sake of illustration and analysis,
and to make comprehensible that which follows under the
head of will-culture, and to show the rationale or the —
—
modus operandi of creative power, these distinctions are
made.
The feminine is the attractive, and hence, the productive
principle of nature — that principle which collects matter

and combines it into forms. The principal office of con-

tinuity is the drawing of the spirit together — to a focus

preparatory to projection. There is always a concen-

tration of force or energy in all effort, and the greater
the concentration the greater will be the power mani-
 —
— 168 —
fested. The tension of the nerves and muscles is due to
continuity — oneness of force and energy. It lays hold,
as with hands, of each mental and guides the fiery
fibre,

steeds of spirit. Spirit obeys mind, but mind is under

the will. Continuity is intenseness continuativeness.
Once directed to an object, it fastens itself to the spirit
thereof, and, leech-like, sucks its very life out. If conti-
nuity be large, one becomes absorbed in any pursuit,
object or passion, to the forgetfulness of other things. It

cannot let go. This leads to insanity, which is simply

the unbalancing of the will. Consciousness is a result of
the poising or posing of the will : hence the polarization
of the will is the true work of him who aspires to infinite
conscious power. The will oscillates, similar to the
needle of a compass, or the balance-wheel of a watch, or
as a beam very nicely poised. Too much attraction in
any given direction, or toa much weight at one end of
the scale, causes change of polarities, which is a change
in the conscious life of thought, memory, feeling or sen-
sation. When this change is extreme, the being is

changed, the memory is lost, or judgment is dethroned,

and yet the form of the being remains apparently the
same but the man himself has vacated his throne and
;

become a servant of some other power greater than he.

In view of this philosophical truth, we claim that there is

no on this earth, and very little of it in spirit-

real sanity
life^ beneath the abode of the gods. There are no perfect
wills. Either firmness, continuity or self-esteem are too
weak or too strong fur proper balance and harmony. In
this mundane sphere the masculine weighs down the
 — 169 —
feminine, and, worse even than all that, the central dia-

mond of the soul —selfhood — is marred and corroded till

there is no perfect oscillation or movement. We have

moved, like a wagon, so long in one rut that it is almost
impossible to get out of it. We have looked so long at

the black side of God's sign-board nature— that it has —

become luminous to us and at the white side spirit so
; — —
little that it has lost its lustre and is forgotten, or, sup-

posed at most to be the night of nothingness. This is

insanity. A man may be insane in whole or in part : in

either case, the will, becoming unbalanced, has lost con-
trol in whole or in part. It has lost its grasp. The
reversal of the poles of the will is why we have no memory
of previous states of existence. The will, by chance,
accident, sickness, or by intent, may oscillate back to the
point it some former age, or previous state
occupied in
of being, and the person be exactly what he was spirit-
ually at that time, and lose all memory of this life. A
psychologized person may be made to feel and act like a
dog, while under the influence. Why ? Just because his
will is thrown out of balance, and he is what we call, in
other circumstances, insane. It is just such effects that we
call insanity. In all similar cases of insanity where the
psychologist is not seen or known, it is some
the spirit of
one unknown, either mortal or a spirit. At such times we
say he is insane. The consciousness of being remains, but
memory —the bridge over the chasms of
time is broken —
down, but not totally destroyed. may, however, be It

reconstructed by the culture of the will, and all remem-

brances revived. Continuity is that power which leads to
 —
.-170 —
forgetfulness of these surroundings — to abstraction and
absorption. when we become absorbed in
It is some
work or passion that we forget our weakness, or what we
know of ourselves, and rise up to grandeur and glory. The
greatest achievements, the most heroic deeds, the greatest
discoveries that bless mankind, are all due to this little
feminine faculty of will, which leads to insanity. The
diffusion of spirit, the waste of life, the weakness and mis-
direction of energy, uncontrollable passions, the want of
psychological power, the pains and aches of the body
these are all due to the weakness of continuity, and
excessive self-consciousness. This self-consciousness is a
rut dug deep by demerit, in which we are all sunk — as in
a quagmire. Purity of self is the only help for us —the
only lubricator of the will —the only cleanser of this

human time-piece. Purity — physical, mental and spirit-

ual — cannot be achieved by outward an inward acts. It is

effort — an inward kindled by the

fire action of continuity,
which burns out the dross of these gross natures. This
fire is kindled by the accumulation of spirit whenever and
wherever attraction overbalances repulsion.
 171 —

XIV. —THE VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY

POWERS.

The Even
great majority of our acts are involuntary.
the acts whichwe think we do voluntarily are mainly either
forced or coaxed out of us by an impulse. But, no mat-
ter how this may be, we know we have volition, or volun-

tary powers, however small they may be or no matter ;

how vast the involuntary may be, it is subservient to us.

Call it what you like Nature or God — it is our ser-
vant. When once this machine is set in motion, it au-
tomatically obeys. A musician, after he has mastered
the use of his instrument, does not will each separate
motion of his fingers; his mind may be occupied with
words he may be singing to the music, but his fingers
move fast or slow in accord with the music, and his feet
work upon the pedal without attention or thought. So it
is with all we do. In doing a piece of work with which
one is familiar, the thought wanders away, but still the
work goes on. In sleep the voluntary is suspended, /. e.,
the mind is at rest and at times the will also seems to
;

rest, or memory and judgment to be suspended.

Habits all become automatic, or involuntary. Habits of

the body and mind are alike, and yet the voluntary seems
to be of the mind in fact, they are so closely allied, and
:

so interwoven, that it is difficult to separate them, or to

define them as separate powers. But we do know that all
 — 172 —
the light we have is of the mind, and
all the power of it

comes from the involuntary. Voluntarily we do as we

think best, but the power to accomplish is the most of it.
Thus it seems plain to me that the voluntary powers are
merely a thought we have, which thought is all we have
to guide us. It is possible that this thought may be so
cultivated and enlarged to become as automatic as any
habit, and express itself as any involuntary power, even
in our sleep.
Language is a mere matter of culture or habit ; and so
of thought, or any of the bodily functions. Indigestion
may be cured ; torpid liver made to act ; and constipa-
tion of the bowels overcome, by paying constant attention
to regularity. By paying little or no attention to the
movement of the bowels, thus breaking up nature's habits,
their warnings become less and less, and, in time, habits
of constipation or inaction intervene. But if you will
have a regular time for the evacuation, and pay strict

attention thereto, providing an opportunity, whether there

is an inclination or not, nature will in time listen to your
demand, and furnish the power to remove all obstructions,
and give life to the torpid tissues. Such is the force of
habit.
This new comes through an effort of the will first,
life —
voluntarily, but afterwards as an involuntary power or
habit. When it has become habitual, the bowels will
notify you of the time, and insist upon your paying atten-
tion. It is the same with eating and drinking if you :

eat three times daily, you will be hungry at those regular

times; but if you have no regular time for eating, hunger
 — 173—
will not come till you think of it. To think of food as
of something loathsome will kill hunger. To break in
upon the regularity of a habit is to destroy it. To pay
attention to anything is to become its slave. Sexual
excesses are habits of thought, depending upon regularity
for existence. So long as it is a habit, it will demand
and enforce attention; but turn the thought to something
else, and the voice of the habit gradually grows weaker

and weaker, till in time it will take an effort of thought

and the conjuring of the will to restore it.
Small as the voluntary powers may be —perhaps a mere
thought, yet it is all there is of us, and our weal and woe
depend upon their use. By use the, voluntary becomes
the involuntary. Absentmindedness is indicative of the
sinking of the voluntary into the involuntary. Such per-
sons are more indifferent to outward things than those
who are always " wide-awake.' '
This is, indeed, the
beginning of trance, wherein some of the very finest

orations are delivered.

This "wide-awake " life is a mere habit, which is de-
stroyed by the creation of another, viz : sleep. Sleep is

a closing of the eyes to outward things and the turning

of the sight inward. It is the same in trance : the first is

a sleep, or a partial sleep, of the consciousness ; the latter

is a higher degree of consciousness : for the full wakeful-
ness of the soul's powers is in a union of the voluntary
with the involuntary. This is effected by magnetism, and
sometimes in natural sleep ; then we have somnambulism,
or sleep-walking, if the soul is unable to quit the body;
but if the soul is able to quit the body, we. have prophetic
 — 174 —
visions, or the solving of difficult problems, or the visiting
of distant places, spirit- worlds, etc. But in whatever way
sleep or trance may be induced, it produces a degree of
insensibility in the body. The deeper the sleep, the more
insensible the body becomes. Mesmeric sleep is next to
death. This may be self-induced, or through the agency
of an operator. Calmness and tranquility are necessary
to its production, the same as in natural sleep. Calmness
allows the soul to expand, and this produces sleep and
trance, wherein the body becomes insensible. But there
are two ways of producing nervous one I
insensibility :

have described ; the other is through increased and in-

tense activity or excitement. Fits, in which sensibility is

lost, are produced by excitement — the cause sometimes

visible or known (or, at least, supposed to be), but oftener
unknown.
We know that catalepsy, common to Methodist revivals,
known as " the power/ is induced by excitement. Chil-
'

dren fall down in fits through the excitement of fear. In

intense anger the nerves have little or no feeling. Indeed,
there is an insanity comes through anger in which there
seems to be no sympathy, reason or feeling. Many a man
has been maimed, wounded, and materially injured in a
fight,and not been the least sensible of it till the excite-
ment was over. So long as the tension of the nerves
continues there is no pain. The clenched fist of an angry
man feels nothing. The Indian, undergoing untold tor-
tures at the hands of his captors, sings his war-song and
laughs in the face of his tormentors. Michael Servetus,
being roasted on a slow fire made of green wood, by
 :
-^?

— its—
John Calvin, composed the following, which he repeated
to his tormentor, with a smile of happiness on his face

while broiling
" This side enough is toasted :

Turn me, tyrant, and eat;

For, whether raw or roasted,
I am the better meat."

The Christian martyrs while being burned at the stake,

sang, prayed and exhorted; assuring the bystanders that
it was pleasant " to die for the Lord." In view of these
facts,and what we know of ecstacy and the insensibility
of the mesmerized subject, is it not at least reasonable to
suppose that the will is master of sensation as well as
motion ? There is no pain to the strong will. Many a
man has endured surgical operations without the use of
an anaesthetic, or being bound, and with not a movement
in muscle or nerve. Now if pain can be partially subdued
by the will it may be wholly so. A man is made many
times stronger and many times more enduring by excite-
ment ; but the deepest and most power- and health-produc-
ing excitement comes from the calming of passions and th e
awakening of the higher faculties. There is a spiritual
excitement, far more potent and exhilarating than the
excitement of any of the passions, in which ecstacy is

passed and the soul escapes. It is then that these bodies are
proof to the elements, and command the respect of even
wild beasts. The Rahat of India
some jungle or seeks
lonely place, or some dangerous place by the side of
some swamp or lagoon, infested by monstrous reptiles,
where man fears to intrude here he composes himself
;
 — 176 —
for his meditations,and goes calmly into an unconscious
state, and the monsters crawl out and lie down by his

side, and sleep also. Never was one known to be

harmed by them. (See Isis Unveiled). Is not this

the same power by which Daniel commanded the

den ? The full power of the
respect of the lions in their
will does not manifest itself in our normal state there ;

must be an excitement of some kind in order to call into

play all our powers. But the full measure of power is

not in the tension of the nerves and muscles ; it is in the

tension of the inner man or spiritual body. This is not
a rousing up as of anger, and a propulsion of the spirit
outward, but rather a letting go of the nerves —a resig-

nation of the soul as in sleep. This is possible only in

habit. True culture gives resignation, which, pushed on
to extremes, gives power to withstand fire. The Acolyte
for the Priesthood of Buddhism must possess super-
mundane powers ere he can be admitted. I have been
told by a gentleman who was born in India, and lived
there until he was twenty-one years of age, that they are
tested when they apply for Priesthood by being required
to walk over a long bed of live coals of fire with their
naked feet, and to do it without hurry, and to come off
at the other end without a singe or smell of fire ; if they
fail they are not admitted, but are sent back to their

practice of meditative rites. D. D. Home is one instance

of our own time and country who has manifested this
power, as well as that of levitation, by virtue of which
Jesus walked upon the water. I might multiply facts
" ad infinitum" if it were the intent of this work. The
 — —— —— — — —

— 177 —
past and present are both full of the proof. Search for
it, — not alone in the Scriptures of the olden time, but in
the living testimony of the present. The will is a magi-
cal power ; but its highest magic is in letting go. The
strong well-balanced man accepts things as they come
with a spirit attuned to the sweet melodies of creative
power : and weeps not over blighted joys or withered
hopes. He looks above and beyond these things, and
his soul is filled with rest thereby. He does not essay to
control others, for he has as much as he can do to control
himself. By this means he converts his enemies into
friends, who come to him, as an oracle, for counsel. His
control is far greater than that of one whose whole life is

spent in trying to control others. The gigantic evils of

this life come from the desire to rule others —or to make
others do as you wish them to do. Counsel is far better
than rule. Let every one do as they like, but scatter
light and knowledge of the true way to happiness and
power. Reader, if you have lost youth and happiness
let go! If friends have proved false and ungrateful let go!

If your heart is torn by unrequited love let go! If you

are poor let go! If you are wealthy let go! If Provi-
dence forsakes you let go! If you love life let go! If
you are tired of life you look back upon your
let go! If
life's journey with regrets— let go! For " He that would
save his life shall lose it, and he that would lose his life
shall save it."
 ~ 178 —

XV.— WILL-CULTURE.

Let him who aspires to power commence by a close

and critical analysis of himself. As will is the extraor-
dinary of man, its culture is the culture of the entire
man, and the regeneration of him or another creation. —
The methods of it will be found as extraordinary
as God himself — for
how can a thing cultivate itself
without God's help? And God's methods are not our
methods.
The three great principles of the selfhood, from, by
and through which all actions come are (i) Love;
(2) Imagination ; (3) Will. The Imagination is neu-
tral, as indifference or nature ; Will is masculine ; Love
is feminine. As a husbandman must till the soil in
order to make it productive, so must a man culture
his loves in order to the production of will-power. As
a slave must overcome his master before he can
first

be free, so will overcome its loves

must the hence, :

love is the way of freedom, of regeneration, and power.

Self-analysis shows impurities which must, as a primary
step, be removed. There can be no progress without
vastation. The old habits, vices, follies, modes of
thought, loves, hates, envy, jealousies, covetousness,
fear, pride and egotism must all die and be buried
far out of sight as a preparatory step to soul-growth;
and will is cultivated and made strong in the subduing
 — ;

— 1*9—
of those things which limit its freedom and powei\
Purity is the only thing that cannot be destroyed
so, the purity of love, will and wisdom are immortal.
It is only the semblance of real things which die or
change ; hence, that which is supposed to be real love,
or real will, or real wisdom, is only the semblance of the
real, for they change or die. So, in the regeneration j

the semblance must pass away to give place to the real.

These bodies are mere reflections of ourselves j which we,
seeing in the mirror or mirage of nature, fall in love withj
and embracing, die. Now, this law same in relation
is the
to sex-love —we love the reflex of ourselves which we see
in the mirror, called woman. This is not real love, for
its operations being downward, we propagate only our
kind, or conditions, or emanations, which are antagonistic
to us ; while real love propagates new atoms —parts of a
divine body, unchangeable and eternal — its operations
are upward, and its emanations mingle in the essence of
God.
The infinite is all power, and it is man's field of opera-
tion. It encompasses him round about; it bends to him
with anything he asks for ; but we must work for what
we want. "Not every one that saith, Lord! Lord!
shall enter the Kingdom; but he that doeth" u e.> he
that worketh with a will in the right direction. Now the
road to power is in the perfection of our nature which ;

is in the attainment of duality first. I have already spoken

of ideal love, of its conception, growth and union, or
marriage in the spirit. Now, the true methods of will-
culture have for their object growth. Soul-growth is
 — 180 —
inward, or a letting go of outward things, and a looking
forward to the realization of a true life in which true love
appears as one with the will, or the female united to the
male in real durable oneness of being, or marriage.
There can be no union of objects; therefore, man and
woman, being separated entities, are not one — neither
can be — on this earth : hence, marriage is a semblance
or type of a reality, or changeless condition. A union of
two in one, or two in spirit. This will be more fully set
forth in the chapter on Gifts of the Spirit. Harmony must
be first had in the individual ere it can be effected with
another, and for this reason a lifetime of effort or culture
is necessary, in which things inharmonious or at variance
with each other are to be avoided. Owing to the inhar-
monies of marriage (and the loss of power therein) the
Essenes and Rosicrucians of old discarded marriage as
something and lived lives of celibacy.
unreal, For
this reason the Buddhistic and Catholic priesthood are
not permitted to marry. Further reasons are set forth in

regard to the nature of sin, to which the reader is referred.

In order to destroy that which retards the soul in its

flights, viz : sin, its opposite or antagonist must be

strengthened ; to this end the whole mind must be given
up to the contemplation of such things as make the soul
sick and disgusted with sin. This creates another
emotion antagonistic to love, viz : feelings of disgust at

that which the world is mad after. Love is an emotion.

Will is motion, but love is a reflex of it, or an emotion^
or wo-man, because emotions ruin the will or the man in

leading it into captivity. The object of love is to join

 ;

*
-181 —

itself to the will in order to increase power to enjoy, as

a loving wife works for and delights in the happiness of
her husband. So woman should not unite with man save
for the purpose of begetting life, spirit, power. In true
marriage, according to the divine intention of it, there
are no children ; and no disease ; neither do they die.

To have an ideal elevated, pure and full of rest and

unalloyed pleasure, is to have the pain of disappointment
in realization. It is to kindle a consuming fire at your
very vitals, which you are obliged to quench by the will,

because no heart answers your heart-throbs ; because all

fall short of your ideal love — this it is for him to suffer

who aspires to be something more than the common.
There is no greatness not born of pain, and there is no
pain greater than that of a heart bruised ; so soft is it,

and flexible, that it will not break.

Sexual love has the strongest hold of any of the passions
it is the hardest for the will to turn from its lust. The
effort to idealize love in the imagination is analogous
to that of the libertine and debauchee —only one is chaste
while the other is impure. The onanist sees in his imag-
ination the object of his lust, and thus acting upon his
emotions pollutes himself. the same with the liber-
It is

tine. These emotions that destroy power and the soul

are created by an inward action ; and in proportion to
the power of concentration is the spirit drawn within,
condensed and projected, and thus the life, spirit and
power thrown away. But this wasted virility, though
lost to the man, is not lost in nature, for it is a protoplasm

from which spring infusoria, worms, insects, reptiles, etc.,

 — ;

— 182 —
which are a curse and mankind. Your
to the earth ideal
love may not be a very near approach to true love ; but
your highest conception of womanly beauty, purity,
goodness, truth, grace and excellence, coupled with form
and action, is your estimate of it, and as such is your
kingdom of power towards which you grow rapidly or
slowly as the case may be.
Control must begin at home in the selfhood. But
how, or in what manner, can a thing culture and control
itself? How can the will regulate its own action ? Firstly,

then, the will is the nearest approach to freedom of any-

thing we know of; love is limited by the sensibilities; wis-
dom, by that which we learn ; but will, being free from
emotion, is free to produce emotions according to its love
and wisdom. So, love and wisdom are the shackles of
the will. Now, we do not control that which we love
that which we love controls us. Hence the necessity of
subduing love as the beginning of the road to power. We
do not destroy love, but we wean it from sensuous objects.
Thus weaned, it becomes at one with the will in its free-
dom, and the flights of the soul. This is the At-one-
—
ment (Atonement.) Love cannot be purified. " There
is no impure love," said P. B. Randolph. What we
call purifying love is merely the vastating of pretences.
Love itself is honest; but this world's love is in pretending
to be what we are not. It is the shame, which, in order
to hide, God clothed Adam and Eve in the skins of ani-
mals. If all the shame were removed from mankind, the
little love left would be very small indeed.
Will-culture is a thing altogether antagonistic to gen-
 — 188 —
eral religious ideas ; for the will is generally consid-
ered of the "evil one'
7
— to be broken and crushed.
With this idea I am at variance. We have far too little

power, and to increase in it is the acme of all religion.

It is the false direction of power wherein . evil exists, not

in the power itself. To enlighten the mind, then, or to

culture the imagination, is to control man's creative
powers or and guide them in the right direction.
loves,
All culture 'must begin at home. Begin by a recon-
struction of yourself. If you feel that you are superior to

others, disabuse yourself of that idea at once. In arro-

gance there is no growth of the soul. To feel as you
really are, is to feel very weak and very small. In order
to rise above the common level, you must be real. To
feel equal is to feel real and to be real. Let every man
have his opinions in freedom —the rights you claim, freely
grant to others. Thus you pluck the motes out of your
eye. Judge no man, for you know not their motives.
The freedom you claim for yourself, that grant to others,
—
even in thought and feeling for freedom is the princi-
ple of growth —
the first and the last, and the only princi-
ple in existence. Now he who is bound by love, hate,
or any passion whatever, is not free. How can he expect
to have power ? Power only comes by freedom. To be
free, then, necessitates a cutting loose of the bonds of
slavery. To love nothing, to hate nothing, to have no
likes or dislikes, to have no prejudices, no tastes, no
preferences —
this it is to be free. The little power we
have comes from freedom. Now let him, who expects to
culture his will, bear in mind this fact—that it cannot be
 — ;

— 184 —
done for a selfish or mercenary purpose. I am aware that
one part of it, viz firmness and self-esteem may be cul-
:

tivated and increased, but it is not real culture of the will

after all, but a throwing out of balance of the will, which

is destructive in the main. All power, to be lasting,

must descend from the higher to the lower, as a baptism
and this descent is accomplished by and through the
feminine of will — viz : Continuity. The second act of
will is in the propulsion of force into the nerve — as in
grasping of the hand or in the striking of a blow. But
the first effort of will is in the gathering together of force
before striking. The latter is an expansion act, like the

inflation of the lungs ; the former is an exhaustive act, as

the expiration of the breath. Now the first ox primal,

y

ox foundation of all power is inflation. This is concen-

tration, and involves the exercise of continuity. The
greater the concentration, the greater will be the power
manifested — either in physical, or in mental, or in spir-
itual effort. Now, in making a great physical effort,

there must be a stimulant or an excitement, in order to a

manifestation of the full power of the individual. This
excitement, of course, is a mental effort in which the
mind expands to its utmost tension of energy, or feeling,
or want of feeling, in which a resolution is formed, born
or begotten, and the nerves and muscles are braced up
filled to overflowing with force. The whole person ex-
pands, as a prospecitve mother, and is eager to deliver
itself of its superabundant force, energy or burden. When
full to overflowing with anger, love or any passion, we
are eager to express it : but the first effort is to be full.
 — 185 —
This is a mental effort in which the will gets its excitement
from the dwelling upon wrongs, or love, in the imagina-
tion. Now, this " brooding* over wrongs, or dwel-
'

ing in thought upon things involves the exercise of con-

tinuity. From this it is known that the real power of
will comes from the feminine part of it, viz : concentra-
tiveness or continuity. It is also evident that the more
one wrong or love, the fuller
believes in the reality of the
they will become of love or anger, and the power of its
manifestation will be proportionally greater. Now, this
is exactly the case in all occult or spiritual power. The
excitement of the will comes from its dwelling upon an
idea or an object to be attained and in the resisting of the
excitement of the passions. In fact, the culture of the
will is in the alternate excitement of the passions, and in
subduing the same without expression. For instance
Some one wrongs you a little ; you seize upon it as if it
were a sweet and delicious morsel, and by constantly
thinking of it in its most aggravating features, and by
dwelling upon it, you work yourself into a mental fever
in which you feel like "knocking down," "kicking,"
"shooting" and "dragging out," but you do no such —
thing but before your passion is too strong for you, you
;

turn your mind to another feature of the wrong, and begin

to look upon it as not quite so hideous, after all, and grad-
ually it grows less and less, as the excitement cools down.
You have not manifested this to the world, but it has had
an effect upon you. Your will power has grown in the
exercise. Physical power grows by manifestation, but
spiritual power, by silently suppressing or repressing it.
 — 186—
If you express your power physically, it is lost to you
spiritually. Hence the motto: "Silence is strength."
In thus exciting yourself, and then controlling yourself,
you are creating power, as well as teaching the invol-
untary powers obedience. After practicing for a while
this exercise, you will find you are becoming very excit-

able, and you can excite yourself even without any out-
ward provocation. A jealous person can easily become
half crazy about nothing. In this manner you learn
how to create emotions of a low order first, and then you
gradually step up to emotions of a higher order, such as
mirth, love, pity, rapture ; but of all creative emotions,
that of love transcends all else. To gaze at a dead body
with worms crawling in and out, and look at it as human,
and think that that is the end of all flesh, and that you
will be the same in a short time, disgusts one fearfully
with the follies of life, and tames the passions of any man
who thinks at all. This helps the will to gain the
ascendency ; but after seeing it once or twice, you can
see it in your mind
any time, and thus subdue all low
at

and unworthy thoughts and feelings this strengthens the —

the will. " He who keeps death in view seldom does a
wrong." The will that cannot create emotions by its
own effort is weak it needs a stimulant. To keep your
:

heart young and full of tenderness and love for your

companion, think of her as when you wooed and won
her. To destroy your love, think of it in connection
with something disgusting and low, and it will speedily

die ; but do not be deceived ; some things die very hard.

Habits take hold of the vitals. Many who read these
 — 187 —
lines may be able to see what they desire in the mind
without physical contact. Such can develop power rap-
idly. Others, again, will need some aggravating circum-
stances to stir the emotions. To provoke another to
anger with words, looks and gestures, and then subdue
yourself with a thought, and control and subdue the
other by the creations of mirth or grief is a good exercise,

but a dangerous one.

Who can stand and calmly take
blow without a
resentment? But it was in view of this same subject that
Jesus said " If a man smite you on one cheek, turn the
:

other also." Habits are hereditary as well as acquired.

They, like diseases, are hard to cure. All habits of the
ordinary man tend outward, and hence are weakening.
To be more than ordinary, work against habits. This is

done only by creating other and opposite habits. '

' Does
thine eye offend thee, pluck it out !
" or train it not to
see objects external, by turning it inwardly. Perhaps
you are fond of some particular article of diet —you
love the taste of it. Pork, for instance. You first

satisfy yourself that it feeds scrofula and the humors of

the blood, and you to leave it off.
desire You go to
work to kill the taste for by becoming disgusted men-
it

tally with the thing you delight in. It is done by med-

itation thus : Imagine a stomach filled with flesh ferment-

ing and working like maggots in carrion. Flesh in the
stomach, as in the sun, becomes putrid. It is nothing
but a bit of corpse dressed and cooked, that I am eating.
Behold the market ! hung round and round with corpses,
not unlike my own, if it were dressed like these. A little
 ;

— 188 —
while ago they were moving, living beings, like myself.
1 know that I become like that upon which I feed. See
the swine ! the scavenger of the filth of living things
what a loathsome object and I am his scavenger.
! "I
am naught but a sepulchre full of rotten flesh/ Behold '

the butcher ! A living corpse cutting up dead ones ! while

others stand eagerly looking on, with mouths watering
like dogs for the feast of rottenness. See the carts laden
with corpses !—hurrying away to the meat shops — yet
warm with life, holding up their naked, mutilated limbs
in mute appeals to heaven against the horrid butchery !

while a demon in human form, sits driving to the char-

nel house. By such thoughts persisted in, the taste
changes, and the stomach heaves at the sight or thought
which we conjure in regard to food or anything else.

Thought is sight, feeling, tasting, smelling, etc., all in

one. The taste changes, as our thoughts change in
regard to it. Just so with all the passions.
There is no virtue where there is no temptation ; no
merit where there is no demerit no grace where there is ;

no sin; no power where there are no obstacles. The

greater the obstacle overcome, the greater the glory of
the achievement. The filthiest thing contains the most
life ; but this life is worthless till utilized.

The will is the husbandman, who, if needs be, drains

his ground, enriches, plows, harrows, plants and culti-

vates his crop. If he be not slothful, he shall, according

to nature's laws, reap his harvest. Se with the aspirant
to power he must prepare his body his blood must be
; ,

filtered, and the acids and alkalis harmonized, and the

 ;

— 189 —
flesh made soft, sweet and glowing. Drugs will not do
this. The body must be reached through the mind, or
not at all. It is a well-known fact that the imagination
affects the body. Fear, disgust, and in fact, all the pas-
sions have an effect upon the blood. One may accelerate
the action of the heart, while another retards it. All
the passions get their excitement from the imagination.
So, the imagination is the connecting link between the
body and the soul. It is the door between the visible
and the invisible worlds of sense. To purify the body,
then, the will must affect it through the imagination.
The imagination corrupts the blood why may it not
;

purify it as well ? That we do not know how this is done

isno argument against this proposition. Love tinges the
cheek with the glow of magnetic health fear congeals ;

the blood disgust produces neuralgia, and lust produces

;

consumption. Hate dries up and coagulates the humors

covetousness produces dyspepsia, -and so on to the end—
of the chapter.
Every passion, and even thought and reason have their
roots in the imagination. The effect that things have upon
us depends upon the way they are looked at. Beauty
and deformity spring alike from the imagination. We
receive the spirit of a thing by looking at it smelling, —
tasting, hearing —
and more than all, by thinking of it.
We get the grossness of food by eating it, but the real
life of it is extracted by the thoughts we have of it. In
other words, the ideas we have in regard to the quality
and use of food imparts to it something akin to themselves.
Thus the body may be gradually changed by diet
 —

— 190 —
not so much by quality as by quantity ; for the will
imparts any desired quality. A very sensitive person
suffers nausea by the sight of that which is loathsome
to conjure that thing up in the imagination has the same
effect. Many a person is afflicted with dyspepsia and
other disorders from a settled conviction of the inevita-
bleness of it. The idea that you will cure yourself is

better than medicine. The idea that you will eat simply
because you are obliged to do so in order to live, and not
for the pleasure of eating, is better in reality than food
or fasting ; but to eat, drink and love for the sole object
of attaining immortal power, and not for the sensuous
is to work upon
gratification of the appetites or passions,

the mind, blood, body and spirit as God works— down-

ward. This downward operation eliminates the grossness,
and leaves the essences or life for your use. Remember
this simple thing All impurities are a result of com-
:

pounding, or of combining different substances, fluids,

magnetisms and spirits in one. Purity is oneness. The
simpler the diet the better ; one thing is better than three,
four, or a dozen. Never eat for pleasure, and eat only
when hungry, and stop while still hungry. To test your
power of will think of something sickening as you gaze
upon your food if your stomach rejects the food from
;

that cause, you have no need of any more food at that

—
time cease eating at once. If you drop your knife, fork,

or spoon, or have any such mishap at the table, cease eating.

Never think how your food tastes, and never indulge in
talk and laughter while eating let your thoughts be fixed
;

upon the object to be attained, whether it be the elimin-

 — 191 —
ation of disease, grossness, bad habits, etc., or the building
up of the dual divine nature wherein all power resides.
The one great curse of civilization (?) is gormandizing.
We need very little food if the truth were known ;
just

enough should be taken into the stomach to form a

nucleus of attraction for the spirit to materialize itself, or
condense and form new particles of blood, nerve and
flesh. Behold ! the miracle of the loaves and fishes as an
illustration of this principle. Food multiplies itself in
the half-filled stomach, when it is left vacant from a
principle •
but when the stomach is full there no room
is

for multiplication or condensation to take place, and a

filthy, rotting, destructive process takes the place of divine
and life-improving process. The life of the body comes
from the spirit, and not wholly from the food we take in
at the mouth; of course, the full stomach crowds the
spirit out, and there is no room left for the action of the

spirit therein. Besides, the spirit feeds upon that which

is in harmony with it in its passage to and from, and

radiation around, the body, and passing into the body

deposits therein that life which it has accumulated. Look
at Dr. Tanner, fasting forty days ! Look at the fast of
Jesus for forty days, and then behold Gottama Buddha,
living seven years alone in the forests of Thibet, subsist-

ing wholly upon berries and roots ; and at last throwing

himself at the foot of "the sacred Kalpa tree," vowed
that he would not again taste food until he had achieved
his object, viz., the attainment of supernatural energy;
and then when so weak with the long fast that he could
no longer stand upon his feet, the " Dewas " (celestial
 —192 —

beings) came and fed and nursed him. Did he attain

his object ? Look at the results and then judge. He
lived about five hundred years before Christ, and died
when he got ready (at the age of eighty years); founding
the greatest religion that man has ever known, whose
adherents numbered a few years ago the enormous number
of three hundred and sixty-nine millions, and that with-
out violence or bloodshed. (See "Hardy's Eastern Mon-
achism.") Those who eat the least have the best health
and last the longest. Life is sustained more from the
atmosphere and electricity than from the solid food taken
into the stomach. It is the essence of things which is of
greatest value, and the essence is not limited to the solid

substance, but radiates round about as its aura —intangible

to our dull senses, but nevertheless existing. It is upon

the aura of things that the spirit feeds, and according

to the attractive power of the soul is its pasture. So long
as the spirit is fat it will feed the body. The glutton has
a weak, lean, hungry spirit, and little will-power. The
diseased forms which meet the eye at every turn, are
evidence of weak, small, spiritless will —and collapsed and
angular souls. They present a ravenous multitude, a
standing mockery of nature, and a clamorous rebuke of
the wisdom of an infinite Creator. When diseased, in pain
and trouble, how nice it is to lay the blame on fate,
nature or God. But if we would only stop and think
that we have to suffer from the malignity or mistakes of
the relentless power which compels us to exist, and that
no prayers are answered save those of the will, we would
philosophically shoulder the power to be as much as to
 ;;

— 193 —
do and to suffer. We could then see clearly that the
and mistakes, ascribed to fate, are due
diseases, failures

to our own ignorance, weakness and headstrong folly.

We have to bear the consequences of our acts — why not
claim the credit of causation we can ascribe
? So long as

our acts to circumstances, nature, fate or God, we

trust to luck and drift like bubbles upon the frothing

deep — effortless. It takes effort to accumulate property

it takes effort to be a man under all circumstances
but it costs no effort to be a beggar or a knave.
This has become so common that it has given rise to
the trite saying, that "man is prone to do evil as

the sparks are to fly upward." It is far easier to fall

than to climb ; but it hurts fearfully at the bottom. The
labor of climbing is pleasant after you get used to it ; for

the higher you climb the more vigorous you become, and
the purer the atmosphere. Why? Because the climber
is ascending towards life, while he who falls is descending
towards pain, disease, weakness, darkness, death, and
nonentity. Will-culture is the royal ladder, anchored in
God's throne, and reaching to every soul.
You cannot carry much grossness, either of body,
mind, or spirit, up that ladder. Grossness is always pos-
itive, and very difficult to become negative. But the
greater the grossness, the greater the power when the
victory is won. Paul understood this. He says, in sub-
stance: "Where sin abounds grace doth much more
abound," I have already explained the reason. It takes a
great soul to excel in anything. Great criminals are always
men of greatness, misdirected. The mind is a wandering
 —
— 194 —
vagrant ; like the eye, it wanders restlessly in quest of new
things. But " let your eye be single," and your mind
will follow after. Look steadily at a speck on the wall
think steadily of one thing— and gradually there steals
over you strange sensations, as clouds and flashes of light
pass before your vision. To make the mind single — as

an eye with the motes plucked out sees only one object
limit the range of thought. In this you are drawing the
mind to a focus preparatory to elongation. As the eye
with dust therein sees nothing distinctly, so the mind un-
trained has no focus, no depth, no clairvoyance ; it wan-
ders in a maze of error.
To call its scattered forces together is a herculean task,
but it is small compared to the focusing of the spirit. As
involuntary powers follow the lead of the voluntary — as
the mind follows the direction of the eye, being fixed
when the eye is fixed —so spirit obeys the will. Agitation
of the body disturbs the mind ; agitation of the mind
distracts and confuses the spirit, so that the will is de-
prived of its means to execute. Hence the necessity of
calmness. Continuity is that which produces rest and
satisfaction, as the love of a woman. It is the feminine
of will, and creates by persistent effort. In deep, pro-
found meditation, the soul becomes pregnant with great-
ness, for the spirit, no longer driven from the soul by
outward motions and emotions, slowly comes home to
the soul, being called in and projected upward and in-
ward. As spirit is fire, or that which produces fire, there
is heat produced by its accumulation, which in time
blazes forth, at first soft and mild, in great sheets of light,
 — 195 —
afterwards as the forked lightning. This light is life,

which feeds the spirit body, and gives it strength and

growth. It is in this turning within, this meditation,
that the positive will becomes the negative ; and when
pushed to extremes, total abstraction or forgetfulness fol-
lows; this is Trance. In trance the angels and celestial
spirits are attracted, for the whole universe of spirit im-
pinges upon the soul, by virtue of its attractive power.
The Heavens are opened, and there is nothing hid from
the truly great will. It pierces to any centre of power,
energy, love, or knowledge, and drags therefrom its

secrets. This is indeed the closet wherein Jesus told his

disciples to when they prayed; and to pray in
enter
secret, not letting the right hand know what the left
hand doeth. In this way is the answer of prayer possible.
" God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must wor-
ship in spirit and in truth." To be in a trance is to be
enveloped in spirit — to be "baptized with the Holy
Ghost and with Fire." No deception, no untruth can
enter here. Truth elevates the soul, and is a condition
requisite to acquisition of all occult knowledge and
power. To be true to yourself is to be true to God. To
be true to conditions is to be divested of all fear, dis-
trust, and doubt ; these bar the way and close the door.
An abiding faith in the Infinity of Power, and belief in
the ability of the soul to rise to realms thereof, are essen-
tially basic principles of progress. To awaken the soul
from its long sleep of the ages, a preparation is neces-
sary. All passions must be put to sleep. The temper
must be subjugated, and the animosities of nature must
 — 196 —
be destroyed. This is a herculean task to most men, but
unless this be done, let no one boast of his will-power.

The reason is obvious why these conditions are requi-

site. The larger the soul the greater the agitation of the
elements within its radius ; and the passions being the
easiest disturbed are all in excessive activity. This ex-
plains why many noble-souled men go to the bad. Those
capable of soaring the highest fall the lowest when bereft
of self-control. The soul is an absolute calm, and when
all things are calm outside it expands itself as if to burst
its prison-walls; then the Unnatural rushes upon its

prisoner to overcome its power and destroy it. The calm

warm sunshine of summer days creates vast vacuums in
the atmosphere; then comes the cyclone, the tornado,
the lightning. These are nature's passions, which rage
till the vacuum is subdued.
The essential office of the soul is to create, and it does
this by motions and emotions. Repulsion drives, dif-

fuses, and scatters the spirit abroad. Attraction draws,

not only its own to itself, but the aura or spirit of other
things, which it appropriates so far as it is able. And
this appropriation or fusion of elements is either elevating
and life-giving, or is destructive.
The fire of things and there are no compounds
is life,

thereof — it is one ; but the aura of things is graded from

fire to the grossest stench, which united, forms a com-
pound that is not pure. Purity feeds the fire-body, in
which death and destruction have no Water in
place.
agitation becomes pure ; but stagnant water has more life
in it than running water. Of course the spirit in con-
 «, 197 _
centration becomes stagnant for a time, and in this stag-
nation, as in stagnant water, life in myriad forms springs
into being. But ere they have being in the spirit, by
persistent effort of will, in concentration upon the Idea
of a Divine body, this life is condensed, or compelled to
take form as One. I am aware that there is a spiritual
body which forms at death, but it is not an immortal
body. This has been seen and described by many clair-

voyants, and is spoken of by Paul ; but the Divine body

is formed in this body during earth-life, or it is not formed
at all. It is not a compound, neither is it corruptible
matter. It is not seen by you, but you will know of it

by having a and undying power

feeling of immortal life
within. When perfected, all power in heaven and in
earth will be yours —
not as a man, but as a God.
" A mere fancy sketch "— << a picture of a disordered
brain !" Nevertheless, it is a shadow of creative power,
projected from the realm of the incomprehensible be-
yond ! Is there such a realm? If so, does it contain
things ?
To return to our subject. In the concentration of
spirit is increased life, sensation, sensitiveness, motions,
emotions, and power of all sensuous enjoyments. Hence
many fall into the slough of sense on the road, and never
get out.
The body is filled full to overflowing with spirit (mag-
netism miscalled), and the entire being vibrates with
pleasure-seeking emotions and longings. None but the
pure can pass over this bridge; the impure fall at " the
threshhold." Monstrous shapes stand guard here
 — 198 —
'* Cherubim " with "flaming swords*' guarding "the
way to the tree of life."
It is the combustion of the compounds in the spirit
which causes the commotion, which, if resisted, they be-
come rectified in time.
The road to calmness, tranquility, peace, is first to be
thorougly satisfied in your own mind that such is the
only way to health and happiness. I am not going to
argue this point, it is the universal instinct of all think-
ing, reasonable men — none but savages will dispute it.

This point settled, then go to work to attain it. This is

done by a constant and eternal watchfulness. As 1 before

stated, the passions must be controlled, subdued, and
brought into total and abject subjection to the will. This
is best accomplished by setting apart one hour each even-

ing for meditation. During this hour you think only of

the weakness and folly of anger, lust, avarice, envy, etc.,
dwelling most upon your greatest and most besetting
weakness in such a manner as to cause you to loathe
yourself; think of all you have done during the day — of
the thoughts and feelings you have had, especially dwell-
ing upon your failures at self-control ; aggravating your
follies, and not trying to excuse yourself in the least. If
you feel like asking for help, do so, but in thought only,
and that the last thing you do, and as briefly as possible.
Compare yourself with the calm, tranquil beauty of a
and thus take the pride out of
flower, or a twinkling star,
your pretended greatness and egotism. Think of the
body as needing your utmost care of nursing, as an ulcer
 — 199 —
needing to be dressed and poulticed— not that you love
the ulcer, but to assuage its pain.
Only a few years, and loathsome worms will crawl out
and in at its nine orifices, and filthy matter will frost the
lips you now curl so proudly. To destroy any feeling
create its opposite. Is your heart agitated, torn and lacer-
ated with unrequitted love ? Does jealousy steal away your
sleep and peace of mind ? Kill it then by clothing in your
mind the object in garments of disgust. Rise above it in
your thought, and look down upon it with disgust as an
eagle passes by carrion. Fix your mind upon its worst
and most disgusting aspect; thus forgetting its allurements,
the love grows less and less, until at last you wonder that
you ever had such a feeling. Analyze, dissect the human
heart, turn it over and over, pick it to pieces shred by
shred, and see if you can find its main spring when —
found, it will be just like your own. Do you hate?
Have you an enemy who delights in your woe? Well,
kill your hate, and thus your enemy, by learning to love

him. " Oh that is impossible/' says one. Impossible

!

only to the weak. The will that cannot create love is a

mere semblance —a bubble ; it cannot endure. Christ
,,
said, "Love your enemies. In order to produce love
you must sow the seed first, before it can grow. The
seeds of love are respect. In your meditations fix your
mind upon him and thus evoke his "similacrum," and
compel him to reveal his best nature to you; thus
you can find in all some little good to inspire your
respect. Culture this, losing sight of his deformities and
infirmities of character, for it shall in time ripen into
 — 200 —
love to the building up of yourself and him. Are you
superior to your enemy ? If so, it is only in your love
or charity, and not in pretence. " Pray for your ene-
mies." Desire is prayer, which, to be answered, must be
so intense that acts go therewith. To pray for your
enemy do him good not in the mere breathing of
is to —
desire, but by kindly looks and acts. A gentle manner,
a kind look, or word fitly spoken, an unobtrusive gift
always goes to the heart, and will do more to kill enmity
and elevate the soul than all the egotism on the globe.
Pride, avarice, envy and malice have no wings, they are
monsters of the deep, and have their home in the slime;
if you harbor them they will carry you down, down.

They leave you as you grow calm and tranquil in love-

fulness. If you find you cannot grow in love, go down
into disgust, and there wallow till the Divine fire is
kindled but do not get disgusted with others your field
;
—
of labor is in yourself, in your own passions and weak-
nesses.
It is out of disgust, as out of the cesspools of hell,
that true manhood and spiritual power takes its rise. He
who is not disgusted with his own weaknesses and follies

remains in them as a hog in his filth.

In man's natural state he is indifferent ; hence, to him

there is no good nor evil, no high, no low — all things are
alike — indifferent. Like the earth without living things
to inhabit it, is simply neither good nor evil. But man
in an unnatural state is seething, boiling over, raving
mad with the fires of lust ; he knows nothing of love or its

divinity ; he scoffs at the idea of the soul-union of the male

 — 201 —
and the female as the door to immortal life and Godlike
energy.
All habits arise from and have their life in lust.

Sexual habits are no exception, and the rules for destroy-

ing the taste for food and drink applies to sex-love as well.
The fires of lust flow downward naturally. To reverse
this downward tendency is to reverse the entire man.

The spirit follows the thought, as the thought is con-

trolled by physical motions or absence thereof. This
turning of the operations upward is done only by an in-
creased and extreme action of the brain and nervous
system. To charge the brain with blood and increase its
magnetic power and action, breathe deeply and constantly
through the nostrils—-deep, slow, long drawn inspirations,
followed by rapid expirations this, persisted in, becomes
;

in time, a habit, which the soul carries on even in sleep,

till the barriers of sense give way, and clairvoyance is the

result ; but beware of insanityif the mind does not ex-

pand first by proper The higher mind ought to

training.
rule, but unfortunately, in most men, body lords it over

mind, lust rules the world. The man who by will rules
and controls his passions is nicely balanced the man who;

by will puts his passions to sleep so that they need no

watching, has entered already the realm of power ; he has
withdrawn the sexual fires from the lower extremities to
his brain,and only needs to go one step more to become
one of the " Illuminati," i. e>, provided he is a passionate
man. ("A passionless man isan infernal monster, not
only in this, but in all the starry worlds of space.
"

P. B. Randolph.)
 !

^ Im-
passion being held and controlled by will, and the
fires of sex confined to the body, gradually draws to-
gether towards the mind the thoughts collect and run
•

together like a stream of water— shallow and wide at first,

spreading away into swamps and marshes stagnant pools —
which send up scum and filth, redolent of disease and
crime, which, when a channel is dug, collects its waters
into a murmuring brook, and gradually becomes a mighty
river, purifying its waters by its own motion. The will
digs the channel, and gradually draws the thoughts therein.
It is hard at first, for they love the freedom of wildwood
and slough, where they can bask and sun themselves, and
evaporate to nothing they wash away the tiny banks
;

many times, but the determined will builds and rebuilds

until the banks are mountains high, and the river a pow-
erful stream, upon which the soul is borne aloft, and an-

gels, descending, meet the lone voyager with comfort and

a purer spirit. The heights once ascended, the pathway

ever remains, and each succeeding ascent becomes easier
and easier. The way once learned, how strong and vig-
—
orous how full of life, peace, rest, and joy, the scene
becomes And yet how lowly innocent and childish
!

But " the way is a straight and a narrow way." If ye

will abide, then dig deep the channel towards the Infinite,
and train the fractious thoughts to run therein, until they
way, and all other thoughts be tributary,
shall love the
and run and murmur along the valleys, down the gorges,
and leap and dance into the bosom of God.
By concentration alone can man become powerful.
Who can select one idea or thing, and think of that alone
to the exclusion of all other thoughts, for the space of
five short Not many. Yet there are men who
minutes ?

can take one thought, and follow its thread-like form for
hours, as it winds its devious way, increasing as it goes,
until it flows smoothly and noiselessly into the bosom of
the sublime ocean of all truth, wherein they lave to their
soul's content.
Thought comes upon us like the dew upon the earthy
but there are places where there is no dew but such are •

rocks or dry sands there are no flowers whose opening

;

petals catch no dew. Some men are like a pool of water,

redolent of filth, whose surface is covered with a yellow-
ish-green scum, which comes not from the atmosphere,
but from within. This scum settles upon the faces of
men, thick here and thin there and also upon their ;

lives. It may be seen sometimes with the naked eye ; at

other times it flashes out like an adder's tongue, only to

be seen with clairvoyant sight.

This shows that man has only a little time ago come up
out of the water ; that some have been out a longer time
than others. There are lizards, snakes, frogs, toads,
birds, spiders, and God only knows what, walking like

men ; but genuine men are scarce. They may be known

by their lack of scum. Thought dissipates the scum,
meditation annihilates it. Thought is the lightnings of
God's universe. Men are lightning-rods. Some are so
flaton the top of the head, that they attract nothing
from the clouds that overshadow. Such attract from the
earth ; their feet take root ; they cannot think, but vege-
tate and gather scum, the filthiest of which is Gold !
Others —and God knows how few they are — by their

high, dome-like heads, attract spiritual forces, like the

lightnings from the clouds, and break up the
that shatter
great deeps of their being, searing the outside so that no
moss or scum will grow there. Thought burns it rolls \

and turns the brain inside out, giving no opportunity for

stagnation. Not so the thought that comes from the
earth ; this stagnates and increases filth.
Purity is oneness. It is the nucleus around which

centres all good. It is the magnet of the human soul,

and holds our thoughts as one, centred upon the source
of all purity, God.
By thought, man meditates and meditation collects
;

the spirit and draws it from outward things to the inner,

—
and leads to abstraction the forgetting of one's self.
Abstraction is the knife that cuts the chords which bind
the soul to things. In other words, it finishes what
thought begins, and prepares the soul for flight. Mag-
netic sleep is its weakest phase. In this, the soul goes
not out ; but the subject often has second sight, and sees
to distant places power depending upon the com-
; his

bined fires of the operator and himself.

The spirit once concentrated and drawn within, is
under the control of the will, and may be projected to
any distance, and produce any effect desired, from the
impressing of others, and healing the sick, up to moving
substances, and the manifesting of phantoms. This is a
dual power.
In the culture of will, there are many things demand-
ing attention. The tongue is said to be an unruly mem-
 —

—tim-
ber; hence the Rosicrucian adage, " Silence is strength.'*
In much speaking is evil. Excitement is injurious ; and
the tongue fires and excites passion. The calm man is

the strong man. To control others, first control yourself.

To control spirit, control your passions. To penetrate
the secrets of others, expand your consciousness so as to
come en rapport with their inmost being. To feel as

others and thus know them, you must rise above

feel,

them, then descend to them. You are not superior to

anything, only in your imagination. Culture this, then,
by looking for pictures in it as in a mirror. To get en
rapport with another, you must him in your
first see
imagination ; when seen, command him, and he will
obey. Clairvoyance is the road to power; but be so
healthily or not at all. The soul is magical ; it can do
anything ;
produce anything, if it be large enough ; then
study to expand it. To project your spirit to any dis-

tance, and thus be seen and heard, make the spirit pure
so that it can vie with the lightnings in space, and not
stick like slime to objects on the way. Your soul cannot
travel without a coach, the spirit is the coach. Make
yourself double, and then all things are easy. To be
divine, forget that you are the devil. Power dwells in
silence, and in secrecy —
more in thought than in word
more in a look than in a blow, if you know how to look.
Many a man has sickened and died, or went crazy, at the
wish of another. Many a man has been haunted to death
by the strong will of another. Many a man has been
made to do the right towards another by that other
forgiving him his wrong long before.
 — 206--
There is more power in forgiveness than in revenge, for
the Gods avenge wrongs done to a good man. " Curses
come home to roost," but they often do a sight of
mischief before they come home, especially when the
outraged soul curses. If you feel disgust, can you look
love ? Can you look disgusted when you feel love ? If
not, "try," for this is will-culture. Can you hold your
tongue when another calls you liar, thief, dog ? If not,
you are no man ! Dogs snarl and bite at each other.
How can you control your spirit, when your tongue is

your master? Can you be deaf while another raves?

— especially your wife ? If not, then you are under the
control of others. Get out, man, by all means Enter I

into yourself, as in a " closet," and when you have shut

your eyes to sight, and your
ears to sound, and your nerves
to sensation, you have then "shut the door, "and "what^
ever you shall ask the Father in secret shall be done
to you openly." This is worshiping " in spirit and in
truth."
Water is prolific ; all things gestate in water. The
waters of the human soul are wrung out of the heart by
real or imaginary wrongs. There is no growth without
moisture. The dews that give life to vegetation are na-
ture's tears. The great soul has a soft, weeping heart.
The small soul has no tears in it to shed.
The true child of " the shadow " has a heart that dis-
tils the dews of its sympathy unseen and unknown ; it
weeps over the fallen, and suffers in secret at its power-
lessness to relieve. It is often sad without knowing why.
Even adversity in material things does not affect it, as
 *- $07 —
the shadow which seems to brood, like the night, over it,

When shadow comes closest, when the sun is ob-

the —
scured and the stars give no light, when hope is well-—
nigh fled, —
look up, child of the gloom for the light is !

near by, hidden in the deep folds of the cloud which rests
like a pall over you. It is " the brooding ." of the spirit

—your sense — in your disgust of life and love —which is

softening and making malleable your heart of stone. When

it is cultured enough, it will produce its fruit —the harvest
is sure. Prepare your ground, then — dig deep the ditches
for drainage and irrigation ; draw together all your forces
in order to pierce the gloom.
The meditations recommended in this work as the true
mental and spiritual discipline, are all of a gloomy and
sombre character. The reason must be obvious to every
thinker. There is a principle underlying this, in perfect
harmony with the history of mankind. It is the thought-
less who laugh. It is thought which takes the laughter
out of a man and him in black symbol of the
drapes —
fire. comes from despair; and hearts that
Inspiration
weep are close upon the confines of a great joy, peace
and rest. " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted." " God chasteneth whom he loveth," is
a hard saying, but it is true. The trouble is, we do not
know how to make use of the gloom, or the evil of life.

We must learn to love the shadow, and to call it to our-

by a mental effort.
selves "
Resist not evil," is apropos
here. The great minds who have pierced the gloom, and
handed down to mankind light and philosophy, that
 !;

enables us to bridge the abyss of death, have been sad-

hearted, weeping men. " Jesus wept," but we have no
knowledge of his ever laughing. Gottama never smiled
after he forsook a crown and his family, for the forest
and the yellow robes of Asceticism. Appolonius, Soc-
rates and Plato were not laughing men.
There is a chamber of mourning, veiled and draped in
black — in every human heart. We all retire to it at

times, but the great-souled oftenest. Here the lurid

world loses its glare, and all things become sombre
the mind here loses its ferocity, and we go forth subdued.
Alas for him who does not Alas for him whose exper-
!

ience still leaves him hard within whose river of life

!

sends out no waters, no tears, no dew of sadness and

sympathy over weaknesses and follies, all too apparent
Such need much thought nay — ! they need the blows and
chastisement of fate —the earthquake, the tremblings of
fear, the lightning's rending —the
agony of disease, dis-
appointment, hate, jealousy and despair, to compel them to
think. But let him, who would steer clear of these, pro-
voke his soul to sadness, by meditations of such a nature
as shall make him sick of life and its pleasures. If dis-
ease, weakness, pain or sickness bring lucidity of mind,
it is well, but if death ensues without it, it is not so well.
The mind should grow and stronger from physical
clearer
suffering, as the soul should expand her wings from men-
tal anguish. To love the evil, and invite it, is to make
it good.
At a certain stage of development the soul becomes
 — 209 —
self-sustaining and productive of all that is needed.
It becomes magical in its physical manifestations, as it is

itself; for the soul is a magical thing, and in its expan-

sion — when it has filled the whole man with itself, after

having become globular — the body becomes a magical

or a divine body.
 310 —

XVI.— SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS,

There is no limit to man's powers. That which seems

a limit disappears or becomes an assistance in the reversal
of the thought concerning it. All spiritual gifts come
from the lifting of the veil crushed thick and opaque by
objective things, or the piercing through of the sight, as
a peering under through an opening or rift in the rolling
clouds of mundane things. This is about as clear as mud.
Let me explain. Mental perception, intuition, or sight
of the mind, is in the centre of the intellect ; but it or-
dinarily is a dark sun, which becomes luminous by effort,
as I have already set forth. Magnetism is a short road
to lucidity, but the powers conferred are weak compared to
those which come through effort. Magnetization is effected
through passivity, and the vacating of thought and will.

But it alternates, u e., depends upon conditions which

vary,and are sometimes favorable and sometimes unfa-
vorable; and consequently, it is subject to spells comes —
and goes, and leads everywhere and anywhere. It is
good enough so far as it goes, but it does not go deep
enough or far enough. The magnetic sleep is not at all
dependent upon purity nor will-power. The luminosity
I teach is not a sleep necessarily ; it is a blindness, or a
cutting off of externals —a separation of the selfhood
from outward influences by the sinking in or absorbtion
of the voluntary powers, or the growth of the involun-
 — Mi —
tary to the voluntary, so that they beco one. Mes-
meric sleep is the first phase of it. Illumination, when
once reached through and by effort of will, is always
available. makes and preserves uniform conditions
It

hence it has no " fits or starts/' and makes no failures.

When perfect it cannot be lost, for it is death-proof, and
its possessor is no subject of any power in existence. He
is an immortal being, having divine powers. There are
many grades of powers, but I will first speak of sight
first, natural sight; second, clairvoyance ; third, soul-sight.
Clairvoyance has several degrees, while natural sight
has only one. The first degree of clairvoyance is similar
to natural sight :
/'. e., it sees only objects, such as read-
ing blindfolded; seeing objects at a distance; seeing
through matter, etc. It grows by practice, and its pow-
ers increase as the lucidity of the brain increases. But
lucidity is simply dependent upon the purity of the
spirit. Purity focalizes the spirit, but magnetization is a
result of a mixture of spirits ; hence it is what I have
defined as impurity or an adulteration. It is exalting, as

an intoxication ; hence its effects are fleeting and ephem-

eral in proportion to the impurities involved. I do not

mean by impurities, immoralities at all. Impurity is in

the mixture and appropriation of different auras, sub-
stances, magnetisms, etc. Magnetic subjects go into the
condition and come out of it through the influence of an

operator; sometimes in the form, but often out of it.

In either case they are subject to the will of another, and

the lucidity or exaltation of powers is a result of the
union of spirits both in the form and out, which disap-
 — 212 —
pears when the subject is out of the condition. But the
effects do not disappear so readily. Often the subjects
are a prey to vampires both in the form and out, under
whose infernal "sucking" the life is slowly but surely
sapped. This is more people especially
the case with —
—
women than many imagine. There is a conscious and
an unconscious vampirism. All mediums are not, how-
ever, subject to this curse. Space will not allow me to
dwell upon this important subject, farther than to add
that mediumship is not confined to the ranks of Spirit-
ualism. Nine-tenths of all the crimes committed are due
to vampirism. A vampire is not necessarily a disembodied
spirit; we are just as much spirits now as we will ever be.
and all the power that any spirit may have we can have,
if we only know how to develop and use it. For that
which is not in us cannot exist long as ours. Clairvoy-
ance is a mental power, and as the mind becomes more
and more luminous by practice and focalization of the
spirit," spiritual gifts " are joined to it, as fruit is
joined to a blossom. It is not my object to specify and
define these gifts further than is necessary to elucidate my
subject.
Vampirism is one spirit preying upon another. It dif-
fers from obsession in degree only. Clairvoyance be-
comes deeper and deeper by practice, until it enters
somewhat into the penetralia of things, in which its
subject becomes alive to influences aches, pains, phys- —
ical and mejital states, aspirations, loves, longings, etc.

It is now becoming near to another power, viz the :

perception of spirit forms, faces, and the hearing of

 ;

— 213 —
voices, or clairaudience. This is, of course, a higher
power than mere sight of objects. Spirit pours out in
look and gesture, but in speech more than in any other
manner. In fact, speech is the highest expression of
spirit, and it is more susceptible to culture than looks or

gestures, and leads to greater depths of being and is •

moreover more reliable, because it does not lead to that

idolatry which the sight of beauty and grandeur always
does. The beholding of spiritual beings by clairvoyants
has led many into the erroneous idea that they have
oeheld God, the ineffable One, when, in fact, such sight
may be a conjuration of the will of some strong operator.
Phantoms seldom speak ; to be reliable, sight and hear-
ing should go together.
The deepest clairvoyance is that where objects, both
material and spiritual, are passed by as of no account
and the ineffable glories of soul-realm glimpsed. This is

a sight of spirit, as fire only, and not as objects. This

fire or spirit finds a voice suited to the ear of him who
will listen.
Zoroaster said :
" When you see the fire, listen to

the voice of the fire !" It was in view of this truth that

Moses enacted laws against the communicating with

spirits ; and in order to preserve purity in the mediums
(or priests), tried to confine it to the tribe of Levi. It

was for this purpose (purity) that celibacy was enjoined

by Buddha. Beyond this mundane sphere —
beyond the
realm of spiritual things — is knowledge and
infinite
power. And he who is able to pierce through the shadow
which things casts, sees the glories of the spirit-worlds.
 ;

— 214—
But this is all. Forms do not appear from beyond the * '

abode of the gods;" but he who can visit the highest

abode may hear the echoes of busy feet, and the whis-
perings of incomprehensible and unutterable things.
This power I call soul sight; but it is not a sight of
things, but of the fire of principles. This power is

within all spiritual powers. As the soul is the inmost of

the man, so is soul-sight the inmost of intuition. Clair-
voyance, psychometry, and clairaudience, are all devel-
oped by contact, or the coming en rapport with objects.
Their field of operations is in the spirit of things ; but
soul-sight is developed by holding the spirit aloof from
other things, spirits, etc. And the losing sight of all
distinctions or differences of things. It is the distinctness
of things which scatters the spirit and confuses thought
and mind. We know nothing, because there are so
many things to learn. He who seeks the absolute loses
sight of the differences of things, and passing inward,
reaches the spirit thereof; but instead of entering en rap-
port therewith, passes deeper still, beyond all distinctions
and differences to the oneness of being in fact, to the —
supernatural of his own being. "He that hath a
mind to think, let him think;" for, indeed, it is thought
which leads to hearing of the Word. This is the real
meaning of John "In the beginning was the Word,
:

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
He who passes in thought through and beyond things,
hears "the Word of God." For God dwells in the inmost
recesses of all being, hidden away from all mortal sight
hence the necessity of destroying the differences of things
 — 215 —
in the The differences among men constitute
mind.
hell. How easily we are all brothers when we forget our
differences. They make enemies of us enemies to each —
other and to God. How harmonious we would be if
there were no distinctions. Of a truth, this is the road
to God. The man who fixes not his attention upon dif-

ferences of race, sex, conditions, opinions, names, etc.,

is a great-souled man, and looks with indifference upon
the small things which and disturb mankind. He
agitate
can lay claim to kinship with God, who loves all alike.
Aye, and he holds sweet converse with God in the depths
of his own all-knowing intuitive soul !

This is the source of all inspiration. God finds voice

in the soul, and intuition is but the faint echoes thereof,
as it vibrates along the dark and'noisome crypts of being.
Alas ! for him who " hath no ears
5
to hear ;
" nor " eyes
to see " — his darkness must be intense indeed. Let him
who would reach the regal powers of the soul sit in circles.
For in the mingling of magnetisms is an intense and
fierce combustion or war of spirits produced, in which
conflagration, great and rapid changes take place ; during
which the soul begins to make motions as of a thing
coming to life ; it is drawing itself together into shape,
leaving the atoms of the body. Motions are usually felt

first in the hands, which vibrate somewhat like when in

contact with a magnetic battery ; this sensation extends
in time to every part of the body in some persons ; in
others, it is limited to the hands, arms or head; it deepens
in intensity till the nerves begin to twitch and jerk. Now,
when you have got thus far, there are two roads open for
 —
— 216 —
you. If you wish mediuuibhip with any of its multitu-
dinous phases, with a band of helpers and a guide, just
sit passive and " let it jerk " don't expect or be anxious
;

for anything, but let yourself alone, fully resigned to

accept whatever may come without doubt or criticism.
Think of nothing and above all
as nearly as possible,
resist no impulse of thought, " Followword or action,
your impulses' is the law of mediumship.
' But if you
choose the soul road, you must now brace yourself for
an effort that effort is resistance resist all impulses
; —
and all motions of the nerves and muscles ; instead of
passivity, grasp yourself as with your hands, holding fast

in your mind or imagination with the same tension of the

nerves as if you were holding something, but without any
muscular contraction — this while sitting in the circle.
To become spiritual, cultivate mind, for this is the
door which must, indeed, open before you can walk out
into the realms of power. To cultivate mind, increase
the activity of the nervous system and its source —the
brain. Draw the blood to the brain, by deep breathing
and the fixing of the thought upon the object in view.
Magnetize yourself one hour every evening by taking
hold of the left thumb with the right thumb and forefin-

ger, and pressing gently, enough to keep the attention

fixed upon it, and think of one thing, say some word
your own name, if nothing else— saying it over and over to
yourself constantly. In a short time your object will be-
come fixed and constant in your thoughts, and the soul
will begin its work. But remember that each effort you
make upward will be followed by a revulsion downward.
 — 217 —
and you will find yourself becoming amorous. Resist this
impulse, as all impulses : in the course of time, you will
and faces or forms will peer
see clouds, flashes of light,
out of the gloom at you, or form in the clouds. Pay no
attention to these things, but keep right on with your
exercise. There are many more methods which I am
not at liberty to disclose. Things of a physical nature
assist the physical, inasmuch as physical nature yields
most readily to such things as are like itself, or one degree
removed therefrom. To illustrate : a brute yields to the
force of a club, but when he is trained a word controls
him. So with mankind some need kings, and
: soldiers
with bayonets, to keep them within humanity's realm
others stay there naturally, for they understand its

unspoken and unwritten laws. For babes, milk and

baby- talk; for children, play-houses and stories; for
youth, the dance and the opera; for middle age, the
rush and rattle, the clash and commotion of business
for mature man, thought, reason, spiritual things. These
are nature's methods of culture. Nature cannot be forced
out of one mood into another. Ask yourself, "Where
does my love lead me?" and nature or your own soul
will tell you truly. If you long to become spiritual, be-
gin at once, and that gradually. "Nature allows none
to overleap her barriers; they must be beaten down"
Don't ask God to teach you, but learn of such as are in
harmony with you, even if it be the devil.
The basis of all understanding is mutual sympathy ex-
istingbetween the teacher and the taught the actor and —
the acted upon. To the material in thought, desire and
 — ;

— 218 —
action, are the matter-of-fact in nature adapted. They are
like it, and hence the spiritual is too far removed from
them to be their direct teachers; such need physical
training, and to them are physical means necessary.
Hence, to such (and in fact, all men are of this class more
or less), in addition to deep breathing, the bath, in cold,
magnetic water ; a complete and radical change in the diet
rest instead of exercise ; thought instead of talk ; tears
instead of laughter ; darkness instead of light ; emotion
instead of motion —
and more are necessary to train
these
the physical before the spiritual can come forth. Spirit
is formless, and yet not altogether so. There is a form
within these bodies of ours, which is spirit, and yet it
hath no form until detached, as it were, from the flesh.
All development is a loosening of the spirit from the flesh
and the loves thereof; and this loosening is the embry-
otic organization of the spiritual body carried on and
fully perfected.
Resist muscular and nervous motion with all your
power of will. Keep calm. Never allow any circum-
stance to agitate or disturb you for here in the degree
;

of motion it is that demons and evil-disposed spirits take

advantage of your sensitive and expansive condition, and
enter in—first, the nervous system, and secondly, the
mind, and control you to your destruction. Music sets
you on fire, and you want to dance, sing or shout keep :

silent " silence is strength " Never debate But let the
! !

one object be to keep calm, self-possessed and cool. This

is the beginning of self-control and power. It is concen-

tration. Think, meditate, read and study but keep —

 — 219 —
silent. Remember there are beings around you who
come in connection with you through words, sounds,
motions, etc., who, without them, remain ignorant of
your object and condition. There are demons and
spirits who cannot read the mind, but who can hear and

see.

It is when thrown off our guard, being carried away

by strange sensations, thoughts, impulses, motions and
emotions, that we are seized upon by the above or below,
and carried away from ourselves, as it were, from our equi-
poise or balance —self-consciousness dethroned : and we
rise or fall according to predisposition. The falling into

acts silly and criminal, or less than those of the normal

state, is termed " obsession ;" but this, like most names,

is an effort to explain that which we do not understand

an assumption of knowledge an excuse we make to our-

;

selves for our ignorance; a distinction made; a difference,

visible in extremes, as good and evil, which flow into one
another as one but to us, and for us, obsession is as real
;

as the evil, and must be avoided.

Since I commenced writing this book, this subject was
forced upon my attention by a series of articles in some
one of the spiritual papers ; I cared nothing for the
differences of opinion in regard to obsession ; but feeling
the necessity of progress in the avoidance of evil, by
some persons at least, I sought for a sure, safe and certain
preventive of it; I pondered several days upon this

subject withno satisfactory result. One night, alone in

my wave of loneliness and sadness swept over me.
tent, a
This had no visible or mundane cause my health was —
 —
— 220 —
excellent, business was good, money was plenty (for I had
"a dime in my pocket/ which' is enough as long as it

lasts), but nevertheless I was low-spirited ; I could neither

think nor write, so throwing down my pen I paced up
and down until wearied ; I threw myself upon my bed
to sleep ; my mind became tranquil as my body became
at rest, and this idea of obsession came over me as a
problem unsolved. To solve it, I knew of only two ways :

One was to come en rapport with the spirit of obsession,

and hence become obsessed myself in order to know by
experience all about it, so as to show how to avoid it ;
the other was by inspiration.
The first was repugnant to all my thoughts and feel-
ings. Under all circumstances I wish to be myself
and only that ; and repelled the spirit
so I turned aside
by the thoughts of my own individual selfhood, and the
determination to be only myself. There are lights, clouds,
flashes, faces and forms here at this condition of the

mind but I, in following my thought, passed them by

;

as of no account. Laughing faces, hideous faces, and

monstrous forms looked out of the light at me, and as I
passed by, mocked and scowled. Gradually the lights
paled, the faces grew dim and finally disappeared, leaving
me in intense and opaque darkness. Pulsating, throbbing,
vibrating with strange and weird sensations, I glided
along down the corridors of the soul as one falling, and
slowly, oh ! so slowly, losing myself. All at once, from
out the darkness, and close to me, a voice low and
soft sounded in my ear :
" To avoid obsession, keep the
body positive and the mind negative/ The voice came
'
 — 221 —
so suddenly, and was so close to me that I was startled and
driven back to myself. There I lay all vibrating with
ecstatic emotions, altogether out of the ordinary nature

of things, with the words engraved in letters of fire upon

my consciousness. To me this was a new idea ; it was a
revelation of a wonderful truth, and I cast about for the
logic of it, which is this :

Ordinarily the body isand hence receptive

negative,
to impressions —
physical, atmospherical, and spiritual.
The first effect of magnetism is to increase this negative
state of the body ; hence, it becomes very impressible
and very liable to take on the conditions of others, both
in the mundane and the spiritual. The will is the cause
of all positiveness of mind, body, and spirit. By its
force it is repulsive, and holds at a distance things foreign
and injurious. Now, in passivity, the will relaxes the
tension of the nerves, and they are unstrung in which ;

state, spirits both good and evil can enter into the inact-

ive sphere of the spirit, and thus get a lodgment from

which to control, in time, the mind, aud subjugate the
will. Now, if by any process the body can be kept
positive, the spirit is rendered so, also and hence, no ;

spirits but those of a negative character will be attracted.

Now, it is only positive spirits that seize upon and obsess
mortals. They are the repulsive and the deficient the —
empty of sympathy and all elements of greatness. The
law is for the positive to enter into and control the nega-
tive, u e., to beget therein their own devilishness. Now,
in rendering the mind negative by constantly keeping
down its excitabilities, it is elevated by the motive or
 —222 —

object in view; and as mind can only be acted upon by

mind, and is not a receptacle of anything but ideas,
minds of a high order, such as have ideas to give, are
attracted, and instil their ideas or thoughts of a positive
nature into the negative mind ; thus leading the mind
upward without disturbing the will in the least. Indeed,
such by assisting instead
spirits increase the individuality

of controlling. Negative spirits never do harm. It only

remains for me to explain how the body can be rendered

positive, and the mind negative. The tranquil, peaceful,
inoffensive mind is negative. This idea of controlling
mind instead of nerves and muscles, engages the entire
attention and will for the mind is not rendered tranquil
;

save by constant watchfulness, and the keeping down of

those passions which disturb, agitate, and thus cause filth to
rise up as impurities of the blood and spirit. The will
thus engaged in rendering the mind negative or tranquil,
renders the body positive at the same time, because two
negatives cannot exist together, neither can two positives.
I am aware it is a reversal of nature's methods, but he
who would rise up to power must rise in the mind, or
not at all. God dwells in all things alike, but those who
seek him cannot find him so readily in some things or
conditions as in others. Remember what I have pre-
viously said about diet.Don't be in a hurry, for all
things grow slowly. Weakness is only an argument in
favor of strength, and the small measure of the spirit
meted out to us here only indicates the vastness of its
extent and power. The impossibilities of our infirmities
indicate the possibilities of those who are firm. Then
 — 223 —
doubt not, waver not, but keep steadily, coolly on, up
the mountains of difficulty, each one you surmount only
reveals more clearly to you the possibilities of your na-
ture. The value of things is in their use. Spiritual gifts
are of use just now, in the " a-b-c " of man's growth in —
the awakening of man's dull senses to the recognition of
a future existence and its nature but when such becomes
;

universal, as it must in time, what will be their use ?

The world has been as far advanced in spiritual things
in the long ago as now —
and probably much further but ;

what use was it to them ? They had their oracles and

their temples, and gods and guides without number; but
all this did not prevent retrogression. The ground must
now all be traveled over again. Again must the priest-
hood be organized, the temples built, the altars reared,
and the fires lighted ; and what is all this for ? Oh, the
patience of the Infinite ! In vain are the choicest gifts

of heaven showered upon unthankful and unthinking

man ! They are all prostituted to devilish ends and
aims. The choicest oracles of the olden time led op-
posing armies to the slaughter of each other. The
prophets of the Lord anointed kings and watched over
the welfare of one nation to the detriment of another.
Gifts were all prostituted to the attainment of material
wealth, grandeur, glory, and fame. All powers were
bent and warped to the creation and perpetuation of
monstrous distinctions among men, by reason of which
war and outrage are the rule, and peace and harmony
very rare exceptions. Where now are they ? A slow,
lingering decay —an awful disease of the very vitals, or
 — 224 —
the violent conflagration of their own passions hath
swept them away. The wand of a magician hath waved
across the sky and they are not ! But they have left

the which they created behind them in the

diseases
ruins of their former glory and worship. Their spir-
ituality is only a ruin. In vain do men teach and
preach; the world goes on in the old beaten track,
and religion follows the lead. In vain did the lowly
Jesus heal the sick and teach the ignorant. In vain
did he cry from the mountains and temples of a rare
good life here, free from disease and death. The Jews
heard him not — —
and now even now I with all our
boasted progress and civilization the word of a God is

prostituted to mean something he never intended. " If

ye believe ye shall not die," is enunciated in words
which can have no other meaning. If he had meant
what is now preached as the gospel, it was as easy to have
said " He that believeth shall not go to heir' as to have
said what he did. His teachings from beginning to end
show his mission to have been to teach mankind how to
live humane lives so as to be healthy and happy. His
healing of the sick shows that the gospel was that of physi-
cal healthand the salvation from disease. His raising of
the dead, and his own resurrection, show further that
death was a thing to be overcome by living a true life.
"And these signs shall follow those that believe," etc.
(See Luke xvi., 17, 18). In another place he says,
"Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go
to the Father." Of what avail are spiritual gifts if

their utmost power is t simply to demonstrate another

 —235 —

life without joining this life thereto as one. It must

be evident to every thoughtful person that the object
of these manifestations is the elevation of the race.

And wherein can this be effected, save in the power to

enjoy? Where does this power reside, save in health? In
vain did Jesus heal the sick if he did not teach the way to
continued health ! In vain did he raise the dead if he did
not show the way to remain alive ! If they die not in the

spirit-world, what need of death here ? All the revela-

tions heretofore given have been of an immortal life in
some other state of existence. But I tell you of an
immortality of this life, I believe Jesus taught the way
of its attainment, but it was not understood. I may not
be able to point the whole road, but what I have said
already must contain the principles of it in part. Man
creates himself and all the essentials of his being — his

health, happiness, heavens and hells. But hell comes

from misdirected effort and heaven from well directed
;

effort. Things superior descend as a revelation in answer

to a demand, which revelation is an idea this is enlight- —
enment. No matter how, or in what manner an idea
comes, if it is of a superior character, it is of the light.

Hence it is enlightening, and leads upwards. Man must

first have an idea of what he wants before he can create
conditions superior to things that now are.
The demand always precedes the supply. Is there a
demand for a continuous and happy life here on this
globe? Is there a demand for power to create forms of
matter for use by effort of will, without the toiland de-
moniac scramble after the necessaries of life? There will be
 — 226 —
a demand when man is satisfied of its possibility. Then
multiply the mediums The spirit-world is drawing near.
!

Soon, spiritual beings will walk among us as men will —

heal the sick, cast out devils, multiply bread for the hun-
gry, and gold for the greedy, till it shall lose its value,
and man turns his attention to the attainment of spiritual
powers and gifts. The demand for self-government and
peace has already gone up to the Gods, and the answer
is coming. The bomb which carried Alexander of
Russia into hell, or out of it, was God-sent, in answer to
the prayer of many an earnest soul. A full and complete
answer is at hand, when the world shall be free, and
everyman shall be his own king, priest, bishop, pope,
and God ! mediums and to spiritual gifts
All hail to the
of all grades and kinds For here is freedom. Let gifts be
!

no longer prostituted by individual ambition, nor to the

building of thrones or national glory Let the univer- !

sal anthem be, " Peace on earth, good- will to men !

Let us work mentally and spiritually, so that the new

temple shall not be made with hands of material sub-
stance, but a temple in these bodies— a divine body,
wherein God shall be conscious to each one of us. Let
us rear altars in our own hearts — altars of love-worship,
needing no typical sacrifices of the blood of animals or of
men. Let of the spirit thereon, which
us light the fires
are unquenchable and eternal.
Man's desires for immortality have been misdirected,
inasmuch as his revelations have been of a future life, and
not of this. The time has come when revelations must
be made of this life and its possibilities —of the present,
 — 227 —
and not of the future. The perfect life of to-day admits
no doubt nor fear of to-morrow. A perfect life here is
as fully and completely immortal as any life in any world.
The idea of living for the future is a false light; it is a
material light of "Lucifer, Son of the morning." Happi-
ness is not of to-morrow, nor of any future time or world.
It is to-day or not at all. All life is of to-day and the
present. The future never comes. Salvation is from
disease. you die of disease, you wake up on the other
If

side diseased you have to be cured there before you

;

have fulness of life. The same knowledge that saves you

there will save you here. Then why not have that know-
ledge ? The self-same power that feeds the angels in heaven
will feed you here, if it is yours.Then why not open
your soul to its reception? Heaven is in no particular
place. It is within you
you want it there, with all its
if

angels and powers—-aye and its immortal life, also.

!

"In union there is strength." "Again, I say unto you

that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any-
thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my
Father which is in Heaven." (Matthew xviii., 9.)

This agreement spoken of here is not merely of the

mind — it is a union or oneness of spirit, wherein power
is multiplied in an unknown ratio. The spirit of one
is not as another — they differ in quality, hence there
is no agreement even where minds agree, the spirits do
:

not. Hence the possibility of the truth of the above is

in the agreement. Agreement is the kingdom of power.
The union of two is of higher quality than one alone;
and the more spirits there are in the union the greater is
 — 228 —
the power. But the difficulty deepens when it is made
known two male spirits cannot agree. Agreement
that
is of the male and female. Herein Divinity appears, and
power to accomplish all things is manifest. But union of
spirit is preceded by mental agreement. Now, the de-
mand for immortal power and life on this earth must first

be a mental agreement, which, in its perfection and har-

mony, will give birth to union or agreement of spirit
touching that thing. Bat look you ! Woman is not free !

Alas for the dawn of light! Woman a slave ! Prostituted

hy man's and lust How can the prayers of
selfishness !

such a monster be answered? "Verily I say unto you/'

" the prayers of the wicked availeth nothing."
Little can be effected without freedom. But let us do
what we can in the union of minds. Spirit works by
methods beyond the mind ; hence its laws cannot be com-
prehended by the mind. ((
The kingdom of heaven
cometh not by observation," i. e., not through laws of
mentality. Spirits are unable to explain it. I believe
material is evolved from the medium, and combined with
subtle elements in the atmosphere by the effort of the will
of some powerful spirit, or by the union of several, into
flowers, apparitions, spirit-forms, clothing, etc., etc., and
that it will yet be demonstrated that materialized spirits

are evolved from the medium. But no matter how it

is done, the power that can make a flower, or a piece of

cloth, can make gold, fruit, bread, or anything else de-
sired. All that is requisite are conditions, and knowledge,
or faith, or will, or whatever you feel like calling the
power. These manifestations are in their infancy as yet,
 — 229 —
for, although as old as man, they have probably never been
properly understood, or so universally understood by
spirits of a high and intelligent order as now. They are
experimenting, and they understand fully the value of
co-operation or harmony. The much-talked-of condition?
of spiritual manifestations are nothing more nor less.
Jesus, in view of this principle, selected twelve Apostles
who were as harmonious with him as men can well be.
But the Scriptures are mostly silent in reference to the
important part the women who followed him took in the

work he did. It is doubtful if he ever explained this idea

to them ;
probably this is the esoteric part of the Gospel
which was never written. It is reasonable to infer as
much, for the early Christians had everything in com-
mon, thus striving to destroy distinctions and to perfect
a union that should enable them to carry out the intui-
tions and work of Jesus. (See Acts iv., 32.) "And
the multitude of them that believed were of one heart
and one soul : neither said any of them that aught of
the things which he possessed was his own but they ;

had all things common ": that is, the writer thought they
were of "one heart and soul" because they tried to
be so. Why they gradually lost the gifts of the Spirit
must be evident to every reasonable, thoughtful mind.
The agreement or union was lost through the gradual
growth of distinctions and differences: — first, of mind; sec-
ond, of spirit; and third, of material substances (property).
Had they perfected the union, instead of proselyting, they
would have established the church upon a "rock," and
afterwards the growth would have been a steady, healthy ? .
 — 230 —
upward growth neither would they have wanted for any-
;

thing, for the kingdom of harmony contains all things.

" First seek the kingdom of heaven: then all other
things shall be added unto you."
This idea of union is corroborated in our own time,
in many ways, notably so in the work of Dr. Hotchkiss,
of St. Louis, Mo., known as " The Dirty Doctor,"
"The Snapping Doctor," and, as he terms himself,
"King of Magnetism." He has performed as many, if

not more, miraculous cures of diseases than any healer of

our day. In 187 1 he had six apostles, termed by him
"Radiators," who sat in a row, at times silent and dumb,
behind the class of sick which Hotchkiss treated by
simply snapping his fingers. At other times, "as the
spirit moved them," they joined in the snapping, or
rolled and wallowed which was
in the dirt of his floor,
never swept. They lived apart from the world as much
as possible, and were celibates but Hotchkiss had a
;

wife and several other women shut up from contact with

other people—-as nuns are kept in a convent. To show
how particular he was in regard to his women I will
relate the following Wishing to see Dr. Hotchkiss, and
:

not finding him at his office, I called at his house ; a

woman opened and asked what I wished. I
the door
explained, not finding the Doctor at home, I wished
to leave a letter for him, which I offered to her. She
drew back as if it were poison, and closing the door in
my face, told me to shove the letter under his office
door. We know very little of the subtle influence of
spirit, or of the effect that the inoculation of one spirit
 — 231 —
into another produces. The shaking of hands and kissing
are sometimes injurious. Emma Hardinge visited the
Doctor, and has testified to his wonderful magnetic power.
He still lives in St. Louis, a very old man, but as lithe
and supple as a boy; a man of good education and of fine
intellectual powers courteous and affable at ti mes, but
;

sometimes very rude. His " Radiators* left him in '

1871 or 1872, I think, and he afterwards had smallpox ;

his wife has gone insane, I have been told ; still he heals
the sick, claiming that he cannot die till Christ comes.
He is not a spiritualist, and is as bitter towards spiritual-
ism as any bigot can be. His age is unknown, but un-
doubtedly it is very great — so great that he has been
termed " the wandering Jew" He is the dirtiest man I

ever saw. I might write a not very small book upon

his eccentricities, customs, antics and cures but he never
;

explains the philosophy of them to anyone; or if he ex-

plains anything to-day, he explains it differently another
day. I am satisfied that the secret of his power is fast locked
in the walls where the women are kept. The power that
comes of perfect union or harmony is wonderful. God
dwells in it !
'
' Where two or three are gathered together
in my name" — or in oneness of heart, mind, soul and
spirit " there am I in the midst." The principle is

what we need — the name or the man is nothing ; but for

those incapable of comprehending a principle, the name
is of vital importance. Do not destroy a man's idols, if
he is incapable of reason. The by union, ascends
spirit,

higher than if alone ; and God descends upon its tide to

bless not merely those who unite, but all the world in
 ;

— 232 —
which they move. Alas ! for the angularities and differ-
ences that destroy us. The secret of union is in self-
harmony as a foundation : this is good, but two is better
but if the two be male andfemale, it is best. Magnetism
leads thereto. It behooves me to add, in this connection,
that the age of wrong and bloodshed is nearly past. The
dawn of a divine government is at hand, wherein the
fundamental principle of government is for the moral
benefit of the person punished, and not primarily for the
protection of society. As a tender and kind father corrects
his child for the child's good, and not to vindicate his

power or authority in the least, so will society deal with

its weak members. @rime will be treated as a disease of
the mind, and hospitals will take the place of jails,
penitentiaries and scaffolds. Instead of physicians,
chaplains and guards, there shall be a few chosen ones
who, united in mind and soul, shall pour the psychological
power of the angel-world upon criminals of all classes,

and they shall be healed ; for under this influence certain

organs of the brain may be rendered inoperative, and

other organs may be called into activity ; thus the
morally weak may be strengthened, and the depraved
shall be made to loathe and despise their depravity; this

can be done in secret without the criminal's knowledge.

Who shall lead off in this great Psychom-
moral work.
etry will reveal the peculiarities of children and adults,
and those needing treatment will be treated and trained
without the rod and the dunce-cap. There will be no
escape for their criminals, for the mediums will point them
out— for his good primarily, and secondly, for the good of
 — 233 —
society. The weak will be known before a manifestation
of weakness — or, rather, the commission of crime. The
time will come, and that speedily, when from the Temples
of the Rose Cross such power shall be breathed out
upon and so peacefully, that none
the people, so gently,
shall be disposed to do any one a wrong.

The whole people shall join in one grand Psycho-

logical effort to banish disease and death from the land.
Who shall say it will not be done? Who will be the first
to enroll their names among the Temple-builders and
pioneers of the millenium ?

Who is there, of all who read this book, that are

willing to "Try?" This is the magic watchword, Try /

The conveyed in the foregoing pages are

principles
sufficient to form a basis of union, and he or she who

feels in harmony therewith, and is willing to " Try,"

will find "The Door" to such union indicated in the

dedication of this work. To all such I say : "Knock and
it shall be opened unto you ! Seek and ye shall find !
"
 —;;

— 234 —

XVII.—" ROSICRUCME."

Reference has been made in the preceding pages to

the Rosicrucians ; and the work in the main is claimed
to be an embodiment of their principles : not all bodied
forth, however, by any one sect, class, clime or era
and it is well, in closing, to anticipate the query as to who,
what and where are the Rosicrucians ? That will natur-
ally arise in the minds of most people, because there is

so little known of them. And it is well also as corrobo-

rative proof and practical illustration of the principles set
forth, to cite a few out of many instances in modern times,
wherein the possibilities of our nature is made manifest
for I hold that God is no
and what one can do
specialist,

another can do in a greater or less degree under the same

training and circumstances. At least our motto is,
"Try!"
The Rosicrucians may more properly be termed a
fraternity than an order albeit many attempts have been
;

made in modern times to materialize it as an order,

some of which are a success, though of necessity veiled
in profound secrecy. The Rosicrucians are numerous
of all nationalities and all climes ;" but they are scattered.
They meet occasionally —
not drawn together by "press
notices " or the ringing of bells, but by the moving and
drawing of the spirit —
" of one accord."
as
They were known in history among the other appellations
 — 235 —
as the Essenes, the Illuminati, etc., but since Christian
Rosencrutz's time, as the Rosicrucians. It was eyidently
once the universal religion —long ere written history
began; for evidences of " FiRE-worship " are scattered
over all the earth in the form of Rosicrucian sym-
bols. The curious reader is referred to Hargrave
Jennings* great work, entitled " The Rosicrucians,"
published in England. There was a time when all
learned men believed in magic, (another term for magnet-
ism), and those who studied the occult forces of nature,
and practiced the powers derived therefrom, were styled
priests, and later, magicians but after, the destruction of
;

the Magi of Persia, and during the rise of Catholicism,

magic became associated with the idea of diabolism, and
was styled " Black Art," and all who practiced it were
shunned, and sometimes hunted to death. Wherever God
is found among men you will find a spirit of investigation

into the mysteries of being, and a corresponding love of

freedom hence, the true man is free to dig deep or
:

take intellectual flights —

aye, even to God's throne, and
there question him face to face. There is nothing too
sacred or secret for him to question for the truth.
Recognizing the possibility of the great good, God, and
the impossibility of the Devil, they laughed in secret,
(for they dared not even smile publicly), at priests,
bishops, cardinalsand popes, and treasured the ancient
lore in cypher, and worshipped the undying, unquench-
able fire, while they dwelt in caves, or fled before the
terrors of the inquisition. This revived the ancient
Pagan secret societies and mysteries. To learn and
 — 236 —
know something more than ordinary is dangerous when
such knowledge is unpopular, or, at least, when the
masses are ruled by ignorance and superstition. It was
at the cost of life to be known as a member of such secret
orders —hence arose the proverbial secrecy of the brethren
of the Rosy Cross. Time was when no man would admit
that he belonged to that mystic fraternity • furthermore,
they shrouded themselves in a cloud of mysteries —not,
perhaps, with a view of mystifying others so much as
from the idea that all power is a mystery, and that
"God's ways are mysterious and past rinding out," and
they wish to be «God-like. Rosicrucia is intensely and
transcendentally spiritual —hence, it has nothing in com-
mon with materialism, except intellectually, and even
then the conclusions of materialism are all reversed. It

has no affinity with this mammon-worshipping age hence, —

it has no golden basis or " insurance plan " to lure men
into a semblance of brotherly love and fellowship.
Unobtrusive, unpretending men, they pass mainly unno-
ticed through life; they look with pity upon a world of
gold- and treasure-gatherers [as upon children heaping
dirt in the streets. No wonder such men are not under-
stood ; they are in the world, but they feel they are not
of it, and they wish to get done with it as quietly as
possible. Knowing they can leave it only by doing good,
they are always secretly doing all within their power.
Indeed, they are conscious of having been sent here
for purpose— to help the world in its efforts to
that
humanize the race. The Alchemists of the middle ages
believed in the " Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's
 — 237 —
Stone,' and diligently sought for them. To drink of
'

the former was eternal youth and life; the latter was
sought as a universal solvent, in the use of which the
baser metals were changed or transmitted into pure, virgin
gold. No wonder these men were called insane ; but,
chem-
nevertheless, they gave the world the principles of
and medicine. Think you such men were fools ?
istry

Nay but they had an idea which the masses could not
!

comprehend, and they masked it in material that they

could grasp. No philosopher ever supposed for a moment
that matter in any form could confer immortality upon
any other form whatever, for there is no changeless sub-
stance in existence. That there is a power in the human
soul capable of eternally renewing youth and beauty is a
cardinal doctrine of the Rosy Cross. As to the transmu-
tation of metals, it is not only possible, but true. The idea
is of kin to the first ; they constitute " the Secret " of the
order ; but to the true Rosicrucian the latter is of no
value whatever, further than as used in the middle ages as
an excuse to stop too close espionage, and to compel the
respect, not only of common people, but the patronage
and protection of thosein authority, for the practice of
alchemy, or dealing even with his " Satanic Majesty'
for the purpose of enriching the earth with gold, would be
deemed a laudable avocation. They, at least, found pro-
tection in it, although prizing it not — for the true adept
has all he needs of all things without resorting to any
such resource, for he needs but little. There is a provi-
dence for every man and woman who stands high enough
in the scale of being to be conscious of it, and to be its
 — 238 —
recipients. The ravens fed the prophet Elijah in the
olden time.
Not every man can be an adept in anything, for this
capability is born in a man as genius is. Neither is it
possible for every man to be a Rosicrucian, no more than
education can impart sense; or no more than a child
born blind could be made a master artist by learning the
terms used to designate the philosophy of light and shade
and blending of colors. There must be an innate feeling
of rapture at the bare idea of mystery; a hunger and
thirst for the unknown, and a conscious and abiding

belief in one's own immortality.

Such are initiated with
profit to themselves and mankind; for in Rosicrucia's
Temple they eat and are filled, and drink to thirst no
more. Here they find teachers and brothers. We are the
children of "the Shadow/' and we love it, though
oft we may not see the way clearly through tear-dimmed

eyes, yet we cry out in our anguish, " Not my will, Father,
but thine be done " And then " the Shadow" reveals
!

. its mystery and departs, leaving the heart chastend and

lightened with increased purity and peace. We are cast
down in order we may go higher. Thus, alternately
that
cast down and exalted, we are prepared to meet all the
changes of this mundane life. No stoic can be a Rosi-
crucian : it requires feeling, and that intensified. Without
this, no initiation could possibly impart that baptism of
the spirit which gives birth to new or dormant energies,
or awakens soul germs of a higher and better life, where
will reigns over all, and matter becomes transmutable.
Who are Rosicrucians ? I may answer, '
' By their fruits
 ;

— 239 —
shall ye know them." No better test, or one more un-
erring or unmistakable could be given than that given by
our Master, " the man of Sorrows" whom they hanged on a
cross long ago. Let others speak for themselves ! There is

nothing in Rosicrucise to be ashamed of, and I glory in

being one, though an humble builder of the Teinple in
these degenerate times. There are many pretenders — but
" by their fruits shall ye know them." But fruits are not
always confined to acts. They are visible to the acute
sense, even in the embryo, in the spirit, as fruit may be
known in a tree by its buds. I meet many Rosicrucians,
and although total strangers, we know each other at sight.
The true artist has a feeling which transcends his thought
in viewing works of art. It is his best and safest guide
to a just and true estimate of what he beholds. God
fashions all things and paints them in all colors possible.
There is nothing in existence that is not of kin to intel-
ligence. They are all suggestive of thought — nay ! they
are thoughts 7naterialized. And He has fashioned men
with thought-reservoirs, as a flower, for receiving the
polen and the dew ; and the Rosicrucian may be known
by the stamp that God has put upon him, whether he is

conscious of it or not.
Men who have existed on this earth previous to this
existence, as men, have forms, expression and motion more
suggestive of peace, rest and harmony than those who
have onlyjust commenced life on this planet. The for-
mer have more receptiveness, prescience, and intuition
for they have not wholly forgotten the lessons learned in
other bodies; neither have they entirely forgotten the
 a

— 240 —
friends and companions of that other life; and when they
meet they feel a mutual attraction and friendship for each
other —kffiflred feeling, more real than that of the blood.
During my studies of nature, and my travels as a lec-
turer and practitioner of phrenology and kindred sciences,
I have met with many men, and many strange — and, I

might say, weird —experiences. I have looked into eyes

of all shades of color that contained nothing, but which
reflected all the phenomenon of the outer world. Other
eyes I have met that looked deep — as into a world of
causation, without limit —as looking into an eternal past,

and out of which rises up shadows, not dark or many col-

ored, but fiery, as it were, or of a burning, melting ten-
derness. Such shadows are portents of power. Of such are
Rosicrucians. Many such have I taught the true princi-
ples of human life andand sent them on their way
action,
rejoicing. Many
a false step have I arrested, and infused
hope into the minds of the desperate aye and turned — !

the would-be suicide into the ways of love, labor and

usefulness. The evil is always too apparent in the young :

the good is mainly hidden. To find the truly good in

the soul,and display it to the consciousness, is to make it
loved and followed as a beacon of life. The will needs
an incentive, high and noble, in order to its growth ;

and no matter how lofty one's own ideal of himself and

his powers may be, to find them recognized by another,
and that other a stranger, is like doubling the powers to
its attainment. Alas ! how many of mature years are in
doubt and condemnation of themselves, because they are
not, and never have been, understood, /. <?., the best part
 — 941 —
of themselves. We long to have the good of ourselves
understood, and not the evil. There is a faculty in the
soul that causes strangers to recognize each other as
friends. Once upon a time, more than a score of years
ago, in a Western city, as I walked along seeing and hear-
ing nothing, met a young man a mere youth. Why I
I —
should have looked at him, and he at me, as we met, is an
unsolved mystery. We mutually recognized each other,
and yet we were total strangers in the flesh. This chance-
meeting led to a mutual friendship. We often met for
conversation, and I learned that he was a medical student
struggling up into nature's mysteries unaided and alone,
thinking to solve the mysteries of humanity by studying
the various branches of medicine. I gazed into his pale
face and lustrous eyes, tinged with a shade of sadness, and
I read there an enthusiastic nature, toned down with
logic and doubt ; a soul all luminous with the merit of a
past eternity, but loaded down with chains forged of
doubt. I saw a temperament, strong, sensitive and flex-

ible and an intellect deep, comprehensive, analytical

;

and owing its main power to an intuitive per-

subtle,
ception which ruled all the rest. His mind was so nicely
balanced and poised, that to fix his thought intently upon
one subject for a brief space of time was enough to open
his soul to an influx of light, an unerring guide to truth
and the right relation of things. This combination would,
I perceived, make him an adept in the diagnosis of dis-

ease and the selection of the best remedies therefor. His

countenance would glow with a weird and mysterious
light as I talked with him of the Rosy Cross, and then
 -- 242 —
the doubt would lower his look, the exaltation disappear,
and the fiery shadows of his glance change to a dark hue.
Bat I conversed long and earnestly with him, for it
seemed to us both that we had known each other in a
previous existence. And I was anxious to impart to him
the knowledge I had gained on these subjects, and
demonstrate to him that the science of Rosicruciae con-
taind all the powers he sought and I am satisfied he
:

profited by my labors. I pictured for him a glorious

future in the manifestation of apower of healing of dis-
ease superior to any known in modern times, and a fame
that would immortalize his name, We parted he to go :

East, and I to my wandering. Years fled away, and I

heard little or nothing of him, till in 1869 or 1870,

a remarkable cure that he had effected was reported in
the Banner of Light. It seems that a council of phy-
sicians had given the patient (who had been under treat-
ment several weeks) up to die, stating that death would
take place by midnight of that day as a last hope my ;

young friend was called in at 8 o'clock p. m., and before

the fatal midnight came the patient was cured, and made
" every whit whole." At last here was a verification of
the truth of my predictions in part, and I watched
anxiously for more. The next I heard of him he was
professor in some medical college. Then I sat down and
grieved over him. I was sad; for "no man can serve
God and "Drugs " at the same time " !

Time was when man had more faith in the Gods than
in physical substances, and diseases were prevented and
cured by the use of talismans, incantations, invocations,
 — 243 —
words, thoughts, spells, charms, etc., all of which were
mere forms of expression for that spiritual power of
which I have spoken, having an effect upon the mind
primarily, and secondarily upon the body. But man's
spiritual nature has gradually become more and more
dense, or physical, and instead of carrying or wearing
talismans, charms, etc., as a protection or cure, people
now invoke the doctors instead of the gods, and swallow
their amulets whole at a gulp ; and yet people die now as

then, or as when Moses set up the brazen serpent in the

wilderness.
Gottama said that the most fatal diseases enter through
the eye ; and we of the Rosy Cross know this is true
for through the eye the imagination (in most men) is fed,
and the passions may be aroused to the commission of acts
unhallowed and unnatural. By reason of which the soul is
tainted with moral poison, which in the blood produces
venereal infections, hereditary and deadly—the foundation
of all known diseases. any
If disease enters ever, or in
form whatever, through the eye, it cannot be removed by
agents which act upon the physical or chemical organiza-
tion only, for the reason, it being of a spiritual or
psychical origin, it enters directly into and deranges the
harmonious action of the spiritual body, which holds
supreme control over the physical, To cure these phases
of disease the remedies applied must be of a character that
will influence directly the subtle, spiritual forces of the
individual, and through them produce vital and chemical
changes in the physical structure. After the cure above
referred to, effected by my friend, I heard nothing of him
 — 244 —
for some time, and I feared he had devoted himself wholly
to materialistic science, and ignored his intuitive and spir-

itual powers ; but ere long I learned to the contrary, for

an account of another of his astonishing cures — which
materialism never could effect —was published throughout
the States : that of Rev. G. W. Enders, an eminent
divine of the Lutheran denomination. The Lutheran
Observer, of Philadelphia, Pa., contained the history of
Mr. Enders' s case, and of his cure, which was so remark-
able that a controversy resulted between Rev. Mr. Enders,
Rev. Mr. Lake, and others who were acquainted with all

the particulars, on one side, and on the other by a number

of "D. D.'s" and "M. D.'s" who knew nothing of the
case, but who criticized the publication over the signature
of clergymen, of a cure effected by means " not univer-
sally recognized and accepted by science and experience,"
as expressed by them. When I read these articles I re-
joiced for my friend, for I realized he had not forsaken
his birth-right of power for a mess of scientific pottage :

though he is a true scientist and his powers are based upon

laws as scientific and permanent as universe. I may here
state, the publication in the Lutheran Observer of Rev.
Enders's cure was a necessary result or sequence of pre-
ceding references which it had frequently made, relative to
Mr. Enders's condition during the years of up his illness,

to the week previous to his cure, at which time he was

reported dying. This being followed in a few days by the
news of his complete restoration to health, naturally
created surprise and doubt, and inquiries from friends and
acquaintances in all parts of the country.
 - 245 —
In referring to this cure, as one of the many as remark-
able effectedby the same physician, I can be but brief
and give only a few points from the published statements
made by Rev. Enders, the patient, and other clergymen.
He had been an invalid for years was paralyzed, and given
;

up as hopeless by several physicians previous to entering

the medical institute, where he grew worse until the
physician-in-chief of the establishment telegraphed to his
friends that he was dying, and also dispatched to Philadel-
phia for my friend, the physician who eventually restored
him to perfect health. When he arrived, being an entire
stranger to the patient as well as the physicians, he made no
explanation of what he designed to do, but after examining
•the case, placed his hands upon Mr. Enders' s head and
bade him " arise and walk," which he did, and continues
so to do to this day, as I have taken pains to ascertain,
and is fulfilling his mission as a religious teacher. Whence
came —
power and this life? from the Doctor? Nay,
this

but from Heaven, the source and great reservoir of life.

Did the heavens open especially at this man's bidding to
shower a blessing especially upon the Rev. Mr. Enders ?
No but the soul of the Doctor opened wide its portals,
!

being moved by sympathy, and life flowed into the Doctor

and out of his hands into Mr. Enders, who evidently
was spiritually receptive. Heaven is always ready to
shower its choicest blessings upon a great soul whenever
it will rise up to receive it. Heaven never bends down
to us —
we must rise up to it in order to receive its
blessings.
 :

__ 246 —
This was, I and the press of the East
think, in 1876,
teemed with accounts, discussions, and efforts to explain
the modus operandi by which he performed such wonder-
ful results and some foreign papers also gave accounts
;

of his mysterious cures. Numerous were the efforts made

to explain away these marvelous cures, or, at least, to
destroy their supernatural appearance. The religious
were divided : some said it was of the " Devil ;" others,
ascribing his power to the Holy Ghost ; while the so-
called scientific squelched out the marvelousness of it by
crying out those stereotyped but meaningless words
"magnetism, humbug, imagination, etc." How satisfy-
ing mere names are to most men. Some persons when
estimating these extraordinary powers possessed by this
physician to relieve suffering and cure disease, deem it
either the result of acquired skill or some secret of
" magnetism, M etc., which could be imparted to another
in words. How far such minds are from comprehending
the true nature of the principles of Rosicrucia !

Let those* who seek to enter these so-called mysteries

here learn of their nature, and know they are reached
only by power of soul —
so often gained through its agony
and travail that gives it "birth into the higher mysteries."
As the world will be prone to misapprehend the source of
the principles and the powers of the soul which I have
pointed out as belonging to the Rosicrucian mysteries,
I will to show their highest development
endeavor to be
an expression of soul-growth through discipline and
suffering ; and, to do so, have referred to my friend's
experience ; for, though that friend and I have met only
 '

— 247 —
on one occasion since a score of years ago, and have
corresponded but very rarely, I have watched his life-line,

and find it in the actual the same as it was so vividly

portrayed to me in prevision in the long-passed years
when he and I conversed on the subject of these hidden
and subtle powers of the soul. In that long ago, I per-

ceived the key-note of his nature and of his greatest future

trial — that which would bring to him the shadow, or
rather bring his soul to that shadowy guardian of the
temple's portal, with which he would contend to obtain
spiritual powers.

His theory then, in those his youthful days was, that

"each individual is but the half of a complete soul until
it meets its counterpart — its true companion; and that
neither man nor woman can be truly great, spiritually or
intellectually, before that true union is formed/ ' To this

I would reply, " None can be truly great until they have
'

suffered.
on this subject was a fundamental
I realized his belief

element of his nature, and perceived it would be the rock

upon which his earthly hopes would be wrecked.
Ten years thereafter, being in Philadelphia, I visited
my friend of the long ago,* and luckily found him at
home. He had recently taken to himself a wife, but
his mind was occupied in his profession of medicine
and surgery ; for, indeed, he travels far and wide in
response to calls to visit the so-called hopelessly sick.
To the far West, the extreme South, North and East he is
no stranger ; and thousands bless his name. But space
bids me hasten to a close. We passed a pleasant time
* J. J. Jones, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa.
 —
— 248 —
together in cheerful reminiscences of the past and in con-
jectures of the future.
When I referred to his old-time belief on the subject
of " true mating " and true greatness, he replied, " Oh !

this is a practical world, and we cannot allow the romance

of our natures to govern us through this life ;
you see I
have a companion and home, and am trying to fulfil my
life-mission by relieving suffering ought I not be satis-
;

fied ? " But I saw he was living only the half of his nature
the material, or as he would express it, the " practical."
His companion was a lady of fine education, but seemed
to possess none of the high aspirations that would have
been congenial to her husband's nature. Another more
fatal source of dread, I soon discovered in the fact that
she was a victim to the morphine habit. My friend ac-
knowledged this, but spoke hopefully of redeeming her
from the habit he was sanguine of success, because at
;

that time he did not know the habit was of many years'
duration.
When my short but pleasant visit was terminated, he
accompanied me to the train. As I clasped his hand and
looked in his kind, hopeful eyes, I saw their light flicker and
go out, leaving a shadow as of night. I was so moved that
I could only gasp out, " Good-bye, my old friend God !

bless you " And then I left him with the shadow clinging
!

to me. Seated in the cars, I looked at my watch and

then settled myself to study the shadow, but it revealed
nothing —not even his face. The train whirled on, and
time whirled away into eternity, until at the end of ten
hours the shadow began to dissipate, and his face seemed
 — 249 —
to emerge therefrom, a shade paler, with the lines deep-
ened, and a look with the same fire in it, but the boyish
enthusiasm toned down. The setting sun shone for a
moment, ere it sunk to rest, upon his upturned face,
which was radiant with a spiritual light, and turning his
old look upon me he said, "We live for eternity, not merely
for a day or a few weary years. What is a little time, or
a small shadow of ten years? " And then he disappeared,
and the shadow was gone and my heart was light again.
Shortly after, I came South and lost sight of him but in ;

time I learned that the shadow had fallen upon him, as I

had seen it in my vision. That nameless, shapeless mon-
ster "guardian of the threshold" of power had hurled

—
him down not from his fame, his manhood, nor his
—
power but from his enthusiam, his hopes of earthly
happiness, and his ambition to gain the world's approval.
But " Rosicrucians never fail" is an adage among
them ; for that which appears as a failure in the eyes of
other men, they look upon as a stepping stone to some-
thing higher and better. Everything has its uses, and
they always look for the use of what appears an evil.

Every soul of worth must be tried and tested, and they

that rise up out of deep sorrow, purified and made better,
have received nature's stamp of salvation ; for the spirit
of nature never errs in the "selection of the fittest " to do
its work in the intellectual and spiritual as well as in the
physical realm.
To pass this dark shadow, this " guardian of the thresh-
old," the nameless, shapeless monster, to which " despair"
is but a faint definition, was the ordeal my friend was
 ;

— &50 —
ordained to undergo, as (Id all others who enter the
temple of spiritual power and wisdom.
Those who have native strength of spirit to pass the
power not only to save themselves, but to
ordeal, have
help others to salvation ; while those who have not, are
crushed as bubbles by the wind, and disappear, never
more to be known on earth. My friend did not disappear,
but with a stoical and dogged resolution plodded on his
cheerless and desolate way, dispensing health to the sick
and hope to the hopeless he was always busy
; but ;

whether by night or by day, in his office or by the

bedside of the sick, at home or flying with the speed of
steam for thousands of miles at the call of the suffering
that monster shadow never left his sight ; but, amid all,

he had a firm belief and an " abiding faith' ' in his

destiny and he cast about in his mind for ways to defeat
;

this thing that had impeded his flight; but all the ap-

proaches to " the threshold " were guarded by this name-

less thing.

At last there sounded in his soul — as if coming from

afar —these words : "Resist not evil; but use it —learn of
it." And forthwith he set himself to learn this lesson :

that evil is at the foundation of everything, and he that

would transcend it must build thereon not ignore it, nor —
treat it as an enemy and foe to human happiness, greatness
and power. Evil is a friend in disguise. And he learned
the deep lesson —
that this monster shadow of the soul,
this guardian of the mysteries, is an enemy only to those

hopes and ambitions that pertain to this, the earthly phase

of life ; and, while it crushes those whose lives are
 — 251 —
centred on these selfish hopes and ambitions, to those
whose earthly hopes are destroyed and lives made deso-
late, and who still remain strong in spirit, it becomes an

angel of light, a messenger of joy from the. inner sanc-

tuary of divine love.
This dreaded power that hovers between the world
material and the realm of spirit ever meets those whom
nature has ordained shall pass the ordeal during earth-
life, by bringing its terrible powers to bear upon and
destroy the strongest sentiment of that soul that would
cause it to cling to earth. The dominant worldly passion
or trait of character indicates the point of attack of this
enemy, for it indicates the weakest point in the individual
nature. Those who live for worldly renown are brought
low and made humble ; those who seek wealth are made
poor, and those who would wish to create for themselves

a home of earthly means, by living for its passive or

physical comforts only ; dwelling wholly in their material
nature, at the sacrifice of their ideal or spiritual nature,
are made homeless, and, perhaps, to feel friendless. And
so on, through the gamut of earthly hopes and ambitions,
they each and all must be crushed, ere the soul learns
the great truth that it is now, in the present, immortal.
It must be stripped of its selfish and worldly nature ere it

can become strong in its spiritual powers, even as the tree

must be trimmed of its useless branches, let them be ever
so luxurious, ere it can blossom and bring forth good fruit.

These are hard lessons to learn, but my friend learned

them and he who truly and practically learns them makes
;

a servant of the "Devil," and compels him to undo his

 — 252 —
own work. The ten years had not passed since I met my
friend, when the light began to dawn upon his soul.
Gradually the shadow faded away, and he became lumi-
nous with hope, faith, renewed youth, and growing power.
Already his eye, piercing through the gloom of the early
morn, Temple of the
espies afar off the descent of the
— "
Rosy Cross that temple not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens.' And methinks I see him don the mystic
'

garments and fearlessly step across the threshold of the

inner temple and clasp the outstretched hands of our
grand old masters. Oh how ! the soul thrills with joy and
. veneration when, in our mystic scroll, we read the history
of those mighty minds of the past. Those sublime masters,
Hermes-Trismagistus (thrice master), Gottama, Appolon-
ius of Tyane, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Zoroaster,
and Jesus, down through the vista of time, including Cor-
nelius Agrippa, Robert Flood, and the host of others in
whose great souls burn the same divine fire : yet the world
knows them not. Meek and lowly as men, misunder-
stood and rejected by the bigoted and ignorant masses,
they lived in the light and joy of the higher life. Though
persecuted and crucified, they never knew of death, for
they had gained immortality while yet in the flesh, and,
casting aside of the old garments of clay, only added
strength and wisdom to their mental powers. As they
were persecuted and crucified by ignorance and bigotry,
under the name of religion, so also were they, in a later

day, " deified " by the same elements of selfish ignorance,

and their true power and glory hidden from mankind
under the black cowl of religious tyranny. Notwith-
 — 253 —
standing this dark pall of gloom thrown over their names,
their living presence permeates every fibre of the world,
and their spiritual influence is felt in the moral atmosphere
of reform, which, in its various phases, is ever active to
exalt, purify and ennoble mankind.
Readers, many of you have felt the divine influence of
these grand old masters of the Rosy Cross, and were you
to lay aside your doubt and egotistic pride, and let your
souls become receptive, you, too, would receive power to
bless your fellow creatures, to bring health to the sick,
hope to the despairing, and the joyous knowledge of im-
mortality to those faltering ones who deem the grave
God's last gift to man. " Try " !

Blessed is he who believes from the force of evidence,

but thrice blessed is he who believes without evidence.

Lovingly, for the world, written :

F. B. DOWD.
 •0" ^

THE
Y Y
rnn

THE SOUL:
ITS POWERS, MIGRATIONS, AND TRANSMIGRATIONS.

By m. B. DOWD

PHILADELPHIA:
John R. Rue, Jr., Printer, No. 43 South Fourth Street.
A
—1882.—
l^Of
**Zr
 <

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by

F. B. Dowd, Orange, Texas,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
1
v OF c
BINDERY
.

1903