THE LATER PLATONISTS And Other Miscellaneous Writings of Alexander Wilder

Miscellaneous Writings of Alexander WilderVolume I

Kitchen Press 2009

CONTENTS

Introduction .............................. i

Neo-Platonism

The Later Platonists ..................................... 1 Hypatia: A Tragedy of Lent ...................... 24 Philosophy After Hypatia ............................. 37 The Teachings of Plato .................................... 45 The Parable of Atlantis .............................. 53 The Teachings of Plotinos ........................... 66 Porphyry and His Teachings ........................... 76 Iamblichos to Porphyry ................................ 85 Introduction to Taylor’s Eleusinian Mysteries .............. 98

Religion and Philosophy

Zoroaster, The Father of Philosophy ................... 115 The Wisdom Religion of Zoroaster ...................... 125 Philosophy in China ...................................... 136 Jainism: Its History and Doctrines ............................ 147 Genesis of the Koran .............................. 160 Introduction to Ancient Symbol Worship ..................... 174 The Resurrection ........................................ 209 The Problem and Providence of Evil ....................... 219 Love, A Moving from Human to Divine ................... 231 The Metaphysics of Matter ........................ 238 The Antecedent Life .................................... 246 The Fire of the Altar ......................................... 253

Spirituality and Occultism

Entheasm ................................................... 256 The Rosicrucian Brotherhood .......................... 267 The Enigma of Alchemy ................................ 286 The Soul ..................................................... 311 Intuition and Divination .................................. 329 Seership and Revelation ................................. 341 Mysticism and Its Witness ................................. 352 Lucky and Unlucky Days ............................... 370 The Key of the Universe ................................. 380 Why Ghosts Appear? ..................................... 388

Medicine

The Aesculapian Art of Healing ......................... 394 Magnetism as a Healing Art ................................ 405 The Ganglionic Nervous System .......................... 431 The Eye and the Anatomy of Emotion ..................... 448 Seeing ................................................................ 458 How Disease is Disseminated .............................. 464 “Taking Cold” and Kindred Ills ............................ 474

Psychology

Manifold Man .................................................. 480 Psychology .................................................... 490 The Chambers of Imagery .................................. 507 Imagination ..................................................... 520 Inverse or Inner Vision ...................................... 529 Psychology as a Science ................................ 536 World-Mending ................................................. 547

History

How Isis Unveiled Was Written ............................. 553 The New Order of Ages ......................................... 566 The Children of Cain ............................................ 574 The Two Galileos ............................................... 581 The American Socrates ................................... 588

Appendix

Four Letters from Blavatsky to Wilder ............... 598 Alexander Wilder - H.W. Percival .................... 619 Wilder Biography - Cyclo. Am. Biography ............ 626 Wilder Biography - Un. Brotherhood ................... 629 Dr. Alexander Wilder - De Zirkoff ....................... 631

Wilder Letter to Abraham Lincoln ......................... 634

Index ....................................................... 637

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INTRODUCTION

" 'Pon my word, without any compliment, there's Taylor alone and yourself, who seem tograsp truth intuitionally.... I have found in your short fragments much matter which for the lifeof me I do not know where you could have learned it. Your guesses are so many hits right onthe true spot. " - H. P. Blavatsky in letter to Alexander Wilder 1

Alexander Wilder was born on May 14, 1823 in Oneida County, New York, and hisfamily’s paternal side was English, the earliest Wilder being a member of the MassachusettsBay colony in 1638. He was the sixth son of Abel and Asenath (Smith) Wilder, and his father'soccupation was as a farmer - something Wilder thought he could be content with in differentcircumstances.

Wilder is best known now as a Neo-Platonist, editor and commentator, his most popularindependent work being New Platonism and Alchemy, 2 but he was a prodigious writer, editorand translator, having material in dozens of publications spanning 50-60 years, and beingeditor or associate editor of half-a-dozen publications. Wilder could "write to order" in a widefield of topics. This is apparently what Katherine Tingley employed him for in her UniversalBrotherhood magazine, including his long serial on Egyptian Dynasties. Although an earlyVice-President of the T.S. he was never a strong member of any Theosophical organization,and relatively few of his writings appear in Theosophical publications. His original inspirationin the field was Swedenborg, and he didn't meet Blavatsky until in his fifties. He was morededicated as a newspaper man and

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then to his Medical efforts than philosophy until middle and later life, and involvement in the19th century battle between "alternative" medicine ("Eclecticism," homeopathy, herbalism,mesmerism, etc.) with the allopathic system now conventional by law - being on the losing sideof the battle and largely a herbalist and naturalist. His largest work was his 946 pp. History ofMedicine, published in 1901 and described as "A brief outline of Medical History and Sects ofPhysicians, from the earliest historic period; with an extended account of the New Schools ofthe Healing Art in the Nineteenth Century, and Especially a History of American EclecticPractice of medicine, never before published." 3

Among Theosophists he's known as a friend of H. P. Blavatsky and a regular visitor ather "Lamasery" residence in New York. He traveled several times each week from Newark,N.J. to deliver lectures at a N.Y. medical college. Olcott writes: "One of our frequent and

most appreciated visitors was Prof. Alexander Wilder, a quaint personality, the type of the verylarge class of self-educated American yeomanry; men of the forceful quality of the PuritanFathers; men of brain and thought, intensely independent, very versatile, very honest, veryplucky and patriotic. ....He is not a college-bred or city-bred man, I fancy, but if one wantssound ideas upon the migration of races and symbols, the esoteric meaning of Greekphilosophy, the value of Hebrew or Greek texts, or the merits and demerits of various schoolsof medicine, he can give them as well as the most finished graduate. A tall, lank man of theLincoln type, with a noble, dome-like head, thin jaws, grey hair, and language filled withquaint Saxon-Americanisms. He used to come and talk by the hour with H.P.B., often lyingrecumbent on the sofa, with - as she used to say - ‘one long leg resting on the chandelier, theother on the mantel-piece.' And she, as stout as he was thin, as voluble as he was sententiousand epigrammatic, smoking innumerable cigarettes and brilliantly sustaining her share of theconversation. She got him to write out many of his ideas to use in Isis, and they will be foundthere quoted. The hours would slip by without notice until he sometimes found himself too latefor the last train to Newark, and would have to stop in town all night. I think that, of all ourvisitors, he cared about the least

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of all for H. P. B.’s psychical phenomena: he believed in their scientific possibility anddid not doubt her possession of them, but philosophy was his idol, and the wonders ofmediumship and adeptship interested him only in the abstract.... [HPB's] salon was never dullsave, of course, to those who had no knowledge of Eastern literature and understood nothing ofEastern philosophy, and to them time might have dragged heavily when H. P. B. and Wilder, orDr. Weisse, or some other savant were discussing these deeper depths and loftier heights ofthought by hours together. " 4

Wilder aided Blavatsky greatly with her first book, Isis Unveiled, English being almost anew language for her, and Wilder wrote most of the "Before the Veil" introduction to Isis. HPB wrote: "I learned to write it [English] through Isis, that's sure and Prof. A. Wilder whocame weekly to help Olcott arranging chapters and writing Index can testify to it." 5 Shereferred elsewhere to Wilder as "our oldest colleague" and as .... "one of our most distinguishedTheosophists, a fervent Platonist and a Hebraist, who knows his Greek and Latin like hismother tongue." 6

Blavatsky had Bouton of New York publish Isis Unveiled through Wilder’s agency,who’d cooperated with Bouton on previous projects. Olcott writes, "When the work wasready, we submitted it to Professor Alexander Wilder, the well known scholar and Platonist ofNew York, who after reading the matter, recommended it to Mr. Bouton for publication. Nextto Colonel Olcott, it is Professor Wilder who did the most for me. It is he who made theexcellent Index, who corrected the Greek, Latin and Hebrew words, suggested quotations andwrote the greater part of the Introduction ‘Before the Veil.’ If this was not acknowledged in thework, the fault is not mine, but because it was Dr. Wilder's express wish that his name shouldnot appear except in footnotes. I have never made a secret of it, and every one of my numerousacquaintances in New York knew it. .... of the whole Introductory chapter 'Before the Veil,' Ican claim as my own only certain passages in the Glossary appended to it, the Platonic portionof it... [the rest] having been written by Professor A. Wilder. .... He insisted upon a kind ofGlossary, explaining the Greek and Sanskrit names and words with which the work abounds,

being appended to

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an Introduction, and furnished a few himself. I begged him to give me a short summary of thePlatonic philosophers, which he kindly did. Thus from p. 11 down to 22 the text is his, save afew intercalated passages which break the Platonic narrative, to show the identity of ideas inthe Hindu Scriptures." 7 Beside his work on Isis, Wilder is referred to or quoted somewhere inmost of the volumes of Blavatsky Collected Writings, and in her Secret Doctrine. A remark on the Platonist Thomas Taylor that Blavatsky used on more than one occasionwas Wilder's. "Many must have heard of the suggestive answer made by a lover of Plato to acritic of Thomas Taylor, the translator of the works of this great Sage. Taylor was charged withbeing but a poor Greek scholar, and not a very good English writer. 'True,' was the pert reply; 'Tom Taylor may have known far less Greek than his critics; but he knew Plato far better thanany of them does.' And this we take to be our own position." 8 Blavatsky called Wilder "one ofthe best Platonists of the day."9 and placed him alone with Thomas Taylor among theuninitiated in his philosophic intuition. She wrote him in a letter in 1877: "..... none of yoursymbologists, neither Payne Knight, King, Dunlap, Inman, nor Higgins, knew anything aboutthe truths of initiation. All is exoteric superficial guess work with them. 'Pon my word,without any compliment, there's Taylor alone and yourself, who seem to grasp truthintuitionally. I have read with the greatest pleasure your edition of the Eleusinian and BacchicMysteries.10 You are right. Others know Greek better, but Taylor knew Plato a thousand timesbetter; and I have found in your short fragments much matter which for the life of me I do notknow where you could have learned it. Your guesses are so many hits right on the true spot. Well, you ought to go East and get initiated." 1 --------

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography writes of Wilder's early life: "Alexander Wilder attended the common schools until his fifteenth year, when he beganteaching school and educating himself in the higher branches of mathematics and the classics, to

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which he added the study of French and Hebrew and political science. The circumstances of the deaths of several of his father's family demolished his confidence in current medicalmethods, and he accordingly began studies in medicine, in order to render himself as far aspossible independent of physicians. Meantime, he worked at farming and type-setting, readingmedicine with local physicians, and in 1850 was awarded a diploma by the Syracuse MedicalCollege." 11

Books were scarce and prized in literate families in the early 1800's, a book beinghanded-down from older siblings, and studied until known. Wilder's sometimes unusualgrammatical style has been attributed to a particular Grammar he studied when a child.

In his early 20's Wilder was a member of a group of a Calvinist "Perfectionist" sect underthe leadership of John H. Noyes, who had a community at Putney, New York and later Oneida,N.Y. Wilder proved of too independent mind and soon became disgruntled. In a letter to a

community leader Noyes said he noticed Wilder was prominent in the Oneida group and that he"had no confidence in" Wilder and that he made "an unfavorable impression." 12 Wilder laterhad a critical Affidavit published of his experiences and opinion of the group.12 Noyesbelieved in "the theory of 'Bible Communism,' the selecting and training of a personnel, theslow advance on a small scale through communism of property and communism of house holdsto communism of love" and also an "inward freedom from sin" and "determination to embodythis inward freedom from sin in outward social forms." His original community at Putney,N.Y. lasted from 1838 to 1847 and then "exploded," presumably from the outside communityand inner dissension. A new Community was attempted at Oneida, N.Y., in which Wilder wasa member or closely associated. The idealism included ultimately "free love," which is themajor reason why Wilder departed. Wilder was to appearances celibate during his publicyears of life. He mentions the necessity of continence, for instance, in his papers onmagnetism, and his outer life indicates it.

After leaving the Oneida Community Wilder began studying medicine in earnest. Due tosome disastrous occurrences with family members and local medical practitioners, in 1848 he established a

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County Botanic Medical Society. His method was mostly herbal, apparently and he is referred to as a "Beach Eclectic." 14 He continued his studies and in 1850 was awarded a diploma by the Syracuse Medical College. He became a general practitioner, and for twoyears lectured on anatomy and chemistry at the college. In 1852 he was employed as assistant editor of the Syracuse "Star," and in 1853 of theSyracuse "Journal"; and when, next year, the department of public instruction was created bythe legislature, he was appointed clerk in the State Department of Public Institutions at Albany. His sense of justice attracted him to the Abolitionist movement and into politics. 15

In 1855 he became editor of The New York Teacher, organ of the New York StateTeacher's Association. He retired from this post and became associate editor of the AmericanJournal of Education and College Review, a monthly, and served only 9 months. In 1857 inSpringfield, Ill., he prepared the charter of the Illinois Normal University, a Teacher’s college.

In 1857 Wilder apparently wrote a pamphlet in a series of pamphlets issued by theAmerican Institute of Homeopathy. He moved to New York city in this year and became amember of the editorial staff of the Evening Post, which he held for thirteen years, 1858-71. He became an expert in political and financial matters. In 1873 he was shortly on the staff ofHarper’s Monthly.

In October, 1864 Wilder wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln which is in the Library ofCongress Lincoln papers. He was known as a newspaper man on the New York Evening Post. He warned of the state of affairs in New York City, and about possible outbreak of riot anddisorder if he was re-elected. He also warned (presciently) that some said he should not beallowed to assume office again no matter what measures necessary. He closed his letter sayingthat he was sure Lincoln would introduce a "New Era in our Country and humanity." 16

In 1871 Wilder was elected as a New York City Councilman on an “anti-Tweed” ticketby a large majority even though he did not campaign. The term convinced him against any further political

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involvement, and he moved to Roseville, a suburb of Newark, N.J., and resided there the rest ofhis life.

While he ceased direct political involvement, he continued his efforts in Medicine. During 1873-77 despite repeated refusals he was pressed upon to serve a professorship ofphysiology and psychology at the Eclectic Medical College of New York. He was also, withRobert S. Newton, co-editor of their journal The Medical Eclectic, which is described as"Devoted to Reformed Medicine, General Science and Literature." In an article on psychologyof the sexes later published in The Word, he said at this time he had done more for the collegeeducation of women than anyone else in the country. He left the Eclectic Medical College afterseveral contract agreements were not fulfilled. He was later professor of psychology in the U.S. Medical College (1878-83) until it closed its doors due to law suits. He didn't find theatmosphere and politics of the Medical Colleges to his liking, and claimed that even commonhonesty was lacking in internal college intrigues. Dr. Wilder also became, in 1876, Secretaryof the National Eclectic Medical Association, and held this office by annual re-election until1895 when he declined to be a candidate, meantime editing and publishing nineteen volumes ofits Transactions, besides contributing extensively to its literature. He says initially it wasfalling to pieces and only his efforts as Secretary saved it.17

In the short bio of his 1880 monograph Brethren of the Rosie Cross, Wilder is also listedas Honorary Member of the Eclectic Medical Societies of Illinois, Michigan, Connecticut andPennsylvania, Honorary Fellow of the Anthropological Society of Liverpool, Eng., etc. 18, 19 Atthis time he was also vice-president of the Theosophical Society.20 In 1882 he gave lectures atthe School of Philosophy at Concord, Mass.21 Among his seemingly tireless activities continuing into his 70's, in 1893 he delivered two lectures at the World Congress of Psychical Science, “Psychical Phenomena in Brazil," and "Psychic Facts and TheoriesUnderlying the Religions of Greece and Rome," 22 In 1894 he gave a lecture at the World'sMedical Congress of Eclectic Physicians and Surgeons.

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Wilder developed a friendship with the hermeticist General Ethan Allen Hitchcock whopublished anonymously. In 1869 Wilder published one of his many monographs andpamphlets, Alchemy, or the Hermetic Philosophy which was based on Hitchcock's bookAlchemy, and the Alchemists. He met Hitchcock through a mutual friend and bookseller, whoarranged the meeting as he knew Wilder was a fan of Hitchcock's books. At the beginning ofthe Civil War, Hitchcock believed his days of studying were over, sold his library, and Wilderlamented how his valuable library was scattered helter-skelter to those who mostly didn'tappreciate it.

Thomas Taylor's Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, A Dissertation by Thomas Taylor,23

with Wilder's Introduction, Notes and Glossary, reprinted by Wizards Bookshelf in 1987, isamong the the best-known of Taylor's works. Blavatsky frequently referred to it in some ofher writings. In 1874 Bouton published Ancient Symbol Worship, by Hodder Westrop and C.Staniland Wake,24 but at least half of the small book was Wilder's from his Introduction,Appendix and Notes.

In 1876 Col. Olcott contacted Bouton about publishing Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled. Bouton recommended to Olcott that he contact Wilder in editing Blavatsky's mammothmanuscript. Wilder thought highly of the book and encouraged publication. He subsequentlymet Madame Blavatsky. He was in his 50's at the time, and it seems to this writer that if he hadmet Blavatsky and her Theosophy at an earlier age, he may have become a proclaimedTheosophist and disciple. Never an overt disciple, he became Blavatsky and Olcott’s closefriend. He maintained a good deal of independence from the Theosophical Societies, which isalso why over the years Wilder has received scant attention in Theosophical literature,compared to the large influence he had in the wider Theosophical Movement of the time. Other than Tingley’s Universal Brotherhood’s serial of Egypt and Egyptian Dynasties, none ofthe many Theosophical Societies have ever published a Wilder book or Collection. WizardsBookshelf published his pamphlet "New Platonism and Alchemy" in 1975, and in 1994unaffiliated Theosophical History, published Dr. Jean-Louis Siemons scholarly

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pamphlet Ammonius Saccas and his "Eclectic Philosophy" as Presented by Alexander Wilder.25 1877 found Bouton publishing Serpent and Siva Worship and Mythology, by Clark and

Wake, edited by Wilder.26 With many publications in between, 1883 found him providing anIntroduction and Notes to Max Mueller's India: What Can It Teach Us?.27 In February of1882 he gave a public lecture for the “First Anti-Vaccination League of America,” in objectionto the passing of legislation to make vaccination mandatory.28 In 1884 Wilder published a16 page pamphlet "Plea for the Liberal Education of Women," probably as an outcome of hisexperience in the medical colleges.29

In 1883 Wilder took part in the organization of the American Akademe, a philosophicsociety, holding meetings at Jacksonville, Ill. He was an associate editor of its Journal for fouryears.30 Some of his papers include "The Soul," "Philosophy of the Zoroasters," "Life Eternal,""Creation and Evolution," and many others. Wilder also made a translation from the Greek ofthe Dissertation of Iamblichus on the Mysteries of the Egyptians 31 reprinted in 1911 by Riderand The Metaphysical Co., but which was originally printed in No. 2 of The Platonist in the1881, along with his paper Platonic Technology, a Glossary of Distinctive Terms, and whichlater issued a pamphlet of Wilder's Paul and Plato. In the 19th and early 20 centuries,exceptional articles published in magazines were often issued as short pamphlets, and many ofWilder’s articles were published as such. Different versions of Wilder's articles are also oftenfound in different publications years apart, the later version usually being revised by him withmore material added. An acquaintance recently researched Wilder's articles in only HaroldPercival's The Word magazine from the turn of the century. There was over 700 pages ofWilder material in sixteen volumes. Whipple's Metaphysical Magazine also contained hundredof pages of Wilder articles. He had scores of short pieces in Gould's Miscellaneous Notes andQueries. Including the several journals he edited and publications noted above, some of theprobably dozens of journals published in by Wilder include The Theosophist, Am. Antiquarian and Oriental

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Journal, The Arena, Mind, The Ideal Review, The Phrenological Journal, The HomileticReview, The New York Teacher, Journal of the American Akademe, Lucifer, The New YorkMedical Eclectic, The College Review, Universal Brotherhood, The Platonist, BibliothecaPlatonica, The Pacific Theosophist, The Religio-Philosophic Journal, The MetaphysicalMagazine, Misc. Notes and Queries, The Word.

Wilder’s prolific writing on the many subjects within his understanding shows his insightand abilities beyond the ordinary. His abilities as a writer seem similar to Blavatsky’s only notso much so. Blavatsky was said to be able to “read the astral light” and quoted accurately frombooks that she had no copy of, and wrote her huge Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine withonly a few books in her personal library and seldom leaving her apartment.32 Wilder didn’thave abilities like this, but on one occasion he quoted verbatim from a letter he had never read. Blavatsky writes, "Then I have a letter from him [K.H.], written a year before I knew you andin Professor A. Wilder's (Phrenological Journal) article written seven or eight months later Ifound about 20 lines verbatim from K. H.'s letter...." 33

The present volume is a miscellaneous collection of Wilder’s writings, much madeaccessible in Google’s huge on-line library of book and magazine scans, and previously onlyavailable in a few scattered libraries in the world. Researchers owe a debt to Google for thisnew source of material. Thanks also to Richard Robb and Ted Davy for help in obtainingmaterial and to Robb for a bibliography of some of Wilder’s magazine articles. Thanks to GaryHarmon for invaluable internet assistance. At this late date I am afraid that any orderly andrelatively complete collection of Wilder material is impossible. He is a relatively arcaneauthor, and much of the material, especially letters, probably no longer exists, or isinaccessible. It is hoped in the future to be able to add a Volume 2 to this collection.

- Mark R. Jaqua

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Notes

1. Blavatsky Letters to Wilder, The Word, June, 1908

2. 1869, Wizards Bookshelf, San Diego, 1975

3. New England Eclectic Publishing Company, 946 pp., 1901

4. Old Diary Leaves, vol. I, p. 456-7, 412-4

5. Blavatsky in letter to Sinnett, The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, p. 480, T.U.P. edition.

6. Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. 11, Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, Ill., pp.253, 273

7. "My Books," H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. 13, p. 198-201

8. H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. 13, p. 153

9. H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. 14, p. 12)

10. Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, A dissertation by Thomas Taylor, 3rd. edition,Introduction and annotated by Dr. Alexander Wilder. New York, J. W. Bouton Co., 1875

11. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. IX, James T. White & Co., 1899

12. John Humphrey Noyes, the Putney Community, compiled and edited by GeorgeWallingford Noyes, Oneida, New York, 1931, 400 pp., Syracuse University Library,Department of Special Collections, Oneida Community Collection,, Digital Edition, 1998, p,219

13. Noyesism Unveiled, A History of the Sect Self-Styled

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“Perfectionists,” with a Summary View of Their Leading Doctrines, by Rev. Hubbard Eastman,1849(?), pp. 159-65

14. The Lloyd Library Bulletin # 12: The Eclectic Alkaloids, 1910, J. U. & C. G. Lloyd,Henriette’s Herbal Homepage, www. henriettesherbal.com, Henriette Kress

15. ibid.

16. The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Series 1, General Correspondence1833-1916, Alexander Wilder to Abraham Lincoln, Thursday, October 20, 1864, loc.gov.

17. Notes for His Life’s History, Alexander Wilder, The Word, Vol. 9, pp. 73-79, 155-63

18. The Theosophist, February, 1880

19. Hahnemannian Monthly, Dec., 1901, p. 161

20. H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. III, p. 223

21. Concord Lectures on Philosophy, Comprising Outlines of All the Lectures at the ConcordSummer School of Philosophy in 1882: With an Historical Sketch, Concord School ofPhilosophy, Raymond L. Bridgman, Moses King Publisher, 168 pp.

22. The American Naturalist, vol. 27, 1893, p. 1029

23. Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, A dissertation by Thomas Taylor, 3rd. edition,Introduction and annotated by Dr. Alexander Wilder. New York, J. W. Bouton Co., 1875

24. Ancient Symbol Worship, Influence of the Phallic Idea in the Religions of Antiquity, byHodder Westropp, C. Staniland Wake, with

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Introduction, Additional Notes, and an Appendix by Alexander Wilder, M.D., J.W. Bouton,N.Y., 1874, 98 pp

25. Ammonius Saccas and his "Eclectic Philosophy" as Presented by Alexander Wilder,Theosophical History Occasional Papers, Vol. III, James Santucci, Dept. Religious Studies,Calif. State Un., Fullerton, California, 1994

26. Serpent and Siva Worship and Mythology, in Central America, Africa, and Asia; and TheOrigin of Serpent Worship: Two Treatises, by Hyde Clarke, Charles Staniland Wake, edited byAlexander Wilder, reprint from Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 48pp., J.W. Bouton,N.Y., 1877

27. India: What Can It Teach Us?, Max Mueller, Funk & Wagnalls, N.Y., 1883, AlexanderWilder Introduction and [27] Notes.

28. “Opposed to Vaccination,” New York Times, February 17, 1882

29. Plea for the Liberal Education of Women, Judson Printing Co., 166 pp., 1884.

30. Journal of the American Akademe," Dr. H. K. Jones, editor and President, AlexanderWilder, M.D., vice-president and [associate] editor. "This journal has for its objects to'promote the knowledge of philosophic Truth and the dissemination of such knowledge with aview to the elevation of the mind from the sphere of the sensuous lite into that of virtue andjustice, and into communion with diviner ideas and nature." 24 pages, $2.00 a year, tennumbers. Notice in Miscellaneous Notes and Queries, S.C. & L.M. Gould, Vol. II, 1885.

31. Theurgia or The Egyptian Mysteries, by Iamblichus, Reply of Abammon, the Teacher toThe Letter of Porphyry to Anebo, together with Solutions of the Questions Therein Contained,translated from the Greek by Alexander Wilder, M.D. F.A.S., London: William Rider

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& Son Ltd, New York: The Metaphysical Publishing Co., 1911

32. Blavatsky Collected Writings, Boris de Zirkoff editor, Theosophical Publishing House,Wheaton, Madras, London, vol IX, pp. 319-22, footnote

33. The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett, compiled by A. T. Barker, TheosophicalUniversity Press, 404 pp., 1925, 1973, p. 60.

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NEO-PLATONISM

THE LATER PLATONISTS

"Neo-Platonism has enforced the deeper truth - a truth which the older Philosophy missed- that Man shall not live by knowledge alone." - Adolph Harnack

In the earlier centuries of the present era there rose a school of philosophers at the city ofAlexandria whose dogmas and speculations not only controlled the foremost thought of thetime, but have continued to influence religious sentiment to our own day. The School andLibrary which the Ptolemies had established and sustained had made of the Musaeum a Wold'sUniversity, and attracted to it thinkers from all the countries of the Far East. Indian, Persiansand Chaldeans came and were made welcome. The Jews were permitted to build a temple insome degree rivaling the one at Jerusalem, and became participants in the philosophic spiritthat prevailed. Greek, however, was the language of Court and classic, and numbers from theGreek-speaking countries of Europe and Asia thronged Alexandria. All had opportunity topromulgate their peculiar views, and these were enlarged and modified by familiarcommunication. In the general commingling of thought, there resulted the developing of newtypes of doctrine, new sects, and new modes

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of reading and interpreting the old myths and literature. Aristobulus, in the reign ofPhilometor, began to harmonize Plato with Moses. Philo at a later period interpreted theHebrew Scriptures as allegoric. The Wisdom of the Far east also added its share to the newcombinations. Christianity had been taught by Clement and others under the designation of theGnosis, or superior knowledge, and in such ways many teachers incorporated in one form oranother, the newer tenets with the older doctrine.

In the midst of these confusing movements, the endeavor was made to cull a system ofphilosophy which should include what was true and beneficial in them all. It succeeded for atime and its teachers were distinguished for their probity, learning, and other superiorendowments. In the first years of the third century Ammonius Sakkas began to teach inAlexandria. He had been instructed in the catachetical school in earlier life, but he choseinstead the broader field of philosophy. His rare learning, spiritual endowments and mentalexaltation won for him the name of Theodidaktos, or God-taught, but he followed the modestexample of Pythagoras, and only assumed the designation Philalethes, or friend of Truth. Hisfollowers were sometimes distinguished as Analogetists; probably because they interpreted theSacred writings, legends, narratives, myths and mystic dramas, by the principle of analogy orcorrespondence, making events that were described in the external world to relate solely orchiefly to operations and experiences of the soul. They were also termed Eclectics, becausemany of their doctrines had been taken from different philosophic systems. It was the aim ofAmmonius to overlook the incongruous elements, regarding them as artificial accretions, and toretain every thing in all faiths and speculations that was really useful. But he committed

nothing to writing. He is known to us only through his disciples, in whose utterances we maytrace somewhat of his opinions and methods. He appears to have followed the ancientexample, inculcating moral truths to his auditors, while he imparted his more reconditedoctrines to persons who had been duly initiated and disciplined. What he taught we knowpartly from a few treatises of his friends that have escaped destruction, but more, perhaps, from the

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assertions of his adversaries.This method of dividing all doctrines into public and secret, was formerly universal. An

oath was required in the Mysteries from novices and catechumens, not to divulge what they hadlearned. Pythagoras classified his teachings as exoteric and esoteric. The Essenes aredescribed as making similar distinctions, dividing their adherents into neophytes, the Brothersand the Perfect. It is recorded of Jesus that he "spoke the word" in parables or allegory to themultitude. "But without a parable," the evangelist declares, "spoke he not unto them; andwhen they were alone he expounded every thing to his disciples." (Math. iv, 33, 34)

Among the followers of Ammonius were Plotinus, the Origens, and Longinus. Theywere obligated to secrecy, but one of the members, Erennius, dissolved the agreement, andOrigen the philosopher disclosed the whole in a pamphlet which was afterward lost.

Plotinus became the expositor of the new philosophy. He was a native of Syout orLykopolis in Upper Egypt, and like others, came to Alexandria for instruction. He was,however, unsatisfied and discouraged till he became a pupil of Ammonius. He continuedeleven years, and afterward resolved to learn the Wisdom of the East at its fountain. With thispurpose he accompanied the expedition of Gordian, but the death of the Emperor and theoverthrow of the Roman army defeated his expectation. Nevertheless, he appears to have beenfamiliar with the tenets of the Sankhya philosophy and the Yoga of Patanjali; and he lived thelife of an ascetic.

Though the Neo-Platonists are always associated with Alexandria, and generally taughtin that city, they also were sometimes obliged or persuaded to go to Rome, Athens or someother place. The disturbances that often occurred in the Egyptian metropolis, made it unsafe toteach or to perform any public function. Plotinus opened a school at Rome, and in later yearsattempted to establish a city after the model set forth in the Platonic Dialogues. In factAugustin considered him as Plato reincarnated. His writings are principally an explanation ofthe works of the great philosopher, somewhat qualified by the prevalent Oriental notions. He did not

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countenance the decaying polytheism of the time, but recognized the One, the AbsolutelyGood, as Supreme. Along with this he sets forth the threefold hypothesis which was laterfashioned into the Doctrine of the Trinity. The concepts of Divinity, Creation, Immortality,Moral Duty, are expositions like those of the Dialogues. The description of Evil is the same asis found in the Theoetetos. He considered the highest beatitude to be an entheast condition orhenosis, an ecstasy of the soul, in which it is in a state of bliss that may not be described,viewing God as he is, and losing consciousness, of all else in the view. This is described as a

state which is to be attained by contemplation, apart from external thinking. Plotinus is said tohave been often in this state of exaltation.

Of Origen, the philosopher, little is known. Longinus was his pupil for a season, butafterward became a disciple of Ammonius himself. It is hardly right, however, to class himwith the others. Unlike them, he devoted himself to the philosophy of Plato without thequalifying accretions from other sources. He was accounted the most erudite scholar of theperiod, and his diversified knowledge won for him the title of "the Living Library." He openeda school of philosophy at Athens, at which Porphyry was a pupil. He afterward became acounselor of Zenobia, the Queen of the Palmyrenes, and upon her overthrow and capture atEmesa, was put to death on the charge of instigating her hostility to the Romans.

Origen, the son of Leonidas, was both a pupil of Ammonius and a student of the works ofHumenius and Plato. But he remained constant to his ancestral faith. He became catechist atAlexandria, and devoted himself to an exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures. He treated them assubstantially allegoric, having a literal sense, a moral meaning and a spiritual sense higher thaneither. He opposed both the Gnostics and the philosophers, yet endeavored to buttress theChristian edifice with material obtained from their doctrines. Giving less regard to themysticism and ecstasy so prized by Plotinus, he taught a perfect rest of the soul transcending allevil and trouble. In this condition the individual becomes like God and blessed; and it isattained through contemplation, solitude of spirit and the knowledge which is the true wisdom. "The soul is trained to behold itself as in a

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mirror," he declared; "it shows the divine spirit, if it should be worthy of such communion,and thus finds the traces of a secret path to participation in the divine nature."

Such doctrine, however, was unacceptable at Alexandria and Origen retired to Palestine,where he opened a school at Cesarea. He traveled much, lecturing in all the countries ofwestern Asia with general approval. After two centuries, however, his doctrines were placedunder the ban of the Church.

Porphyry was a native of Tyre. For a time he was under the tutelage of Origen atAlexandria but afterward became a pupil of Longinus at Athens, by whom his name Malechwas changed to the familiar Greek name by which he is familiarly known.* Plotinus havingbecome a resident at Rome, Porphyry repaired to the capital to be his disciple. He remainedthere five years, leaving for Sicily in the year 268. He was a scholar of rare attainments andwas distinguished by his aptitude in philological criticism. He was more a man of the time thatPlotinus has been, and he labored to create a literature for the new Platonism. The object to bereached by the philosophic life, he declared to be the saving of the soul. Unlike other teachershe taught that it was in the desires and passions of the soul that evil had its origin. He protestedwarmly against the sensuality which characterized the popular worship. It was more impious,he affirmed, to accept the ordinary conception of divine beings that to despise the images. Nevertheless, he adopted the method of Clement, Athenagoras and Origen, and interpretedthem and the legends respecting them allegorically. He sought to promulgate a philosophy oflife and to eradicate such notions as he considered erroneous. In short, he gave a form to thedoctrines of the later Platonism, more in keeping with the genius of the time, and his influenceso pervaded them that they were considered as of his special production, and those who

adopted them were known as Porphyrians. He collected the writings of Plotinus and publishedthem in more orderly form. His

--------------* The Hebrew term MLKh signifies King; porphyra or purple is the color of garments

worn by kings.

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own works were numerous, and were read everywhere. But when the persecutions began afterthe change in the religion of the Empire, the possession of the writings of Porphyry was made acapital offense, unless they should be delivered to the magistrates to be destroyed. A few onlyhave escaped.

Iamblichus, or Iambech, was a Syrian, thoroughly conversant with the Mithraic andOriental doctrines as well as with the Egyptian mythology. He also became a teacher, and wassurrounded by a crowd of students and admirers, many of whom believe him to possesssuperhuman powers. His lecture-room was thronged by pupils from Greece and Syria, and theEmperor Julian esteemed him as one of the greatest of sages. He blended the instructions thosewho had preceded him with the theurgic speculations and observances of the Egyptianpriesthood. His work upon the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans and Assyrians gives avery thorough view of the whole Theurgic Doctrine.

Sopator followed Iamblichus as the teacher of philosophy at Alexandria, and washonored by the title of "Successor of Plato." He enjoyed the friendship of the EmperorConstatine, as whose request he performed the rites of consecration of the new Rome. When,however, the Emperor had killed his son, he applied to the philosopher, after the archaic notion,to be purified from blood-guiltiness; Sopator replied that he knew of no rite which couldabsolve from such an act. The Emperor who had been a "soldier of Mithras," forsook thatreligion, and put the philosopher to death. The school was then closed for a time by imperialorder.

From this time the existence of the school was more or less precarious. Except during thebrief reign of Emperor Julian, it enjoy no favor at the Imperial Court; and under the EmperorTheodosius it was interdicted outright. The great library at Alexandria was destroyed by thebishop Theophilus. At his death his nephew Cyril obtained the episcopal office by thepurchased favor of a woman of the court, followed by a pitched battle in the streets ofAlexandria. Hypatia was now the lecturer at the Musaeum. She taught a purer Platonicdoctrine than her predecessors, and filled ably and worthily the chair of Ammonius and Plotinus. The dominant party was

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enraged at her popularity, and, with the countenance of the prelate, she was attacked by a mobin the street, dragged to a church and there murdered under circumstances of peculiar atrocity.

Nevertheless, a few more lights appeared in the philosophic constellation. A branch ofthe school was planted at Athens by Syrianus, where Proklus became its chief luminary. Olympiodorus remained at Alexandria, where he endeavored to substitute the Aristoteliandoctrines in place of the Platonic. His treatise on Alchemy is in manuscript in Paris. Proklus

was for a long time a student under him but presently removed to Athens and attached himselfto Syrianus. He is described by Harnack as the great Schoolman of Neo-Platonism. He madethe bold attempt to assimilate the old rites of worship with the later philosophies, and thus toput a new face upon religion. He concentrated the history of philosophy into the aphorism: "What Orpeus delivered in arcane allegories Pythagoras learned when he was initiated into theMysteries; and Plato next received the knowledge of them from the orphic and Pythagoreanwritings." This statement harmonizes with the declaration of Herodotus: "The Perfective Ritescalled Orphic and Bacchic are in reality Egyptian and Pythagorean." They doubtless were; butBacchus was an Oriental divinity and his worship and whatever philosophic notions pertainedto them were derived originally from the Far East.

Other teachers of merit and ability taught at Alexandria. Owing to disturbed conditions,however, the School appears to have been removed, at intervals, to other cities, but these wereonly temporary changes. The conflicts which rent Egyptian Christianity, like the childpossessed by a demon, afforded somewhat of a breathing-spell to the men of learning. Nevertheless such immunity was precarious. Hierokles restored Platonic teaching to much ofits original character. His zeal and enthusiasm drew upon him the attention of persecutors, andhe was sent to Constantinople to be punished. He was cruelly tortured, but bore it withfortitude. He was then scourged and banished, but was able soon afterward to return toAlexandria, and teach openly as before. He is the writer who has made Scholastikos, theschoolman, immortal in the character of prince of blunderers, and

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his Facetiae are still admired. He was a true Neo-platonist, weighing Plato and Aristotlecritically, but at the same time esteeming Ammonius Sakkas as their equal. "Paganism* neverwears so fair a dress," says Samuel Sharpe, "as in the writings of Hierocles; his Commentaryon the Golden Verses. Pythagoras is full of the loftiest and purest morality, and not lessagreeable are the fragments that remain of his writings upon our duties, and his beautifulchapter on the pleasures of married life." The Emperor Justinian finally closed the schools ofAthens and Alexandria. At that time Isodor and Sallust were teachers in the latter city, andDamaskius with Zenodotus at Athens. The philosophers, apprehensive of cruel treatment,withdrew into the Persian dominions, where they received a cordial hospitality. But they weredisappointed in the character of religious thought, and Khosru negotiated for their return andfuture exemption from persecution. It was now the twilight of the Dark Ages in Europe.

For a time in earlier periods, it had appeared as though the doctrines of the philosophersand Eastern sages would dominate liberal thought, and become the permanent belief. TheMithraic cult had been introduced into the Empire about seventy years before the present era,and largely superseded other worship. On the one hand it gave a knowledge of the Persianreligion, and on the other it incorporated itself with the Stoic and other philosophy. Emperorsfrom Antoninus and Alexander Severus accepted the new discipline, and many of them downto Diocletian had been initiated into the secret rites. Porphyry and others of the laterphilosophers had also conformed their teachings to the Mithraic standards. Clement, JustinMartyr, Athenagoras and others now recognized as Christian Fathers, were designated asGnostics, because of their devotion to the superior learning. Indeed they combined it sointimately with their

------------* This term paganism, now almost obsolete, was derived from pagus, a rural place.

When Christianity was enacted to be the religion of the Roman world, it was first promulgatedin the cities. The pagani or country people were still attached to the old worship. Thedesignation thus became distinctive.--------------- 9.

theology that it has never been completely eliminated. Doctrines most significant, customs andobservances peculiar to the rival faiths were incorporated into the machinery of the Church. The birthday of Mithras, the twenty-fifth of December, was set apart also for Christmas; andthe divinity himself was declared to be identical with the Christian Son of God, - "the Ray ofHis Glory and express image of his substance." (Epistle to the Hebrews 1.3; Augustin: Discourse on the Gospel of John I, VII.) The political revolutions of the empire, the ambitionof prelates, however, rendered this harmony impossible. The worship and Perfective Riteswere proscribed thenceforth and in the later ages as magic and witchcraft; and the teaching ofphilosophy was prohibited.

Mr. Robert Brown, Jun., though sincerely admiring Plato, yet very emphatically rejectsthe Eclectic Neo-Platonism, declaring it "something entirely different from the philosophicalidea of Plato and the Hellenes." After enumerating the several teachers, from Ammonius toSimplikius, he names Thomas Taylor "the last but possibly not the least of the school." Hedoes not seem to be willing to give the smallest consideration to their methods in theinterpreting of the arcane and ancient learning. It is possible that they did carry the practice ofallegorizing to an extreme. Clement, Origen, and even the Apostle Paul, did the same thing. The rejecting of them and their methods, however, is as extreme in the other direction. Wemay not in candor discard them so utterly because their extraordinary spirituality of thoughtseems so absolutely opposed to the materialistic canons of modern ages.

After a century of persecution and proscription, the Neo-Platonists disappeared frompublic view. Nobel men they were, and worthy of respectful mention. They had grappled withthe mightiest problems of being with admirable acuteness and sagacity. They were the leadersof thought, and they hallowed the philosophy of their time by making it religious. Neo-Platonism voiced and represented the purest and noblest aspirations of the time in which itflourished, and neither morally nor intellectually was it a failure.

It may be well, after this delineating of the history of the school,

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to remark something about its aims and doctrines. The various teachers of Neoplatonismdeveloped it after their own genius, and very naturally in forms somewhat different. Holme'scomparison aptly illustrates this: "Iron is essentially the same everywhere and always; but thesulphate of iron is never the same as the carbonate of iron. Truth is invariable; but theSmithate of truth must always differ from the Brownate of truth." The teachings of Porphyry,Iamblichus and Proklus differed materially in character. In fact, Platonism, from the first, wasnot a system, but more characteristically, a method. It consisted of radiations from a centralpoint; every follower carrying it into detail after his own habititude and genius. It was

essentially a spiritual liberty, the outcome of a life, and not a matter of metes and bounds, or acreed of formulated doctrine.

Ammonius Sakkas aimed to reconcile all sects and peoples under this common principle,to induce them to lay aside their contentions and quarrels and unite as a single family, thechildren of a common parent. Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian, has given an impartialaccount of the purposes which he cherished. "Ammonius, conceiving that not only thephilosophers of Greece, but also all those of the different barbarous nations, were perfectly inunison with each other in regard to every essential point, made it his business so to temper andexpound the tenets of all these sects, as to make it appear that they had all of them originatedfrom one and the same source, and all tended to one and the same end."

The religious rites and beliefs were also set forth as pertaining to a common principle,and only at fault as having been adulterated with foreign and incongruous elements. He taught,says Mosheim, that "the religion of the multitude went hand in hand with Philosophy, and withher had shared the fate of being by degrees corrupted and obscured by human conceits,superstition and lies; that it ought therefore to be brought back to its original purity by purgingit of this dross and expounding it upon philosophical principles; and that the whole purposewhich Christ had in view was to reinstate and restore to its primitive integrity the Wisdom ofthe ancients - to reduce within bounds the universally-prevailing dominion of superstition - andin part to correct and in part to exterminate the various errors that had found

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their way into the different popular religions."It is certain that there was in every country having claims to enlightenment an esoteric

doctrine, denominated Wisdom or knowledge,* and those devoted to its prosecution were styledsages or "the wise." Pythagoras and Plato after him chose the more modest designation ofphilosophers, or lovers of wisdom, and their studies were accordingly termed "philosophy," asdenoting the pursuit of the superior knowledge, rather than the actual knowledge itself,Pythagoras named it "gnosis," implying by this designation the profounder learning. TheHebrew Rabbis in like manner denominated the higher literature rechab or mercabah, as beingthe vehicle of truth, and the scribes or teacher were graphically denominated "sons of Rechab"or Rechabites.** Theology, religious worship, vaticination, music, astronomy, the healing art,morals and statecraft were included under the one head.

Thus Ammonius found a work ready for him. His deep intuition, his extensive learning, his familiarity with the profound

-----------* The writings extant in ancient times often personified Wisdom as the emanation,

manifestation and associate of the one Supreme Being. We thus have Buddha in India, Nebo inAssyria, Thoth in Egypt, Hermes in Greece, - also the female divinities Neitha, Metis, Athena,and the Gnostic potency Achamoth or Sophia. Hence they deduced the personality of her sonChrestos, or the oracular. The first verses of the Johannean Gospel, as it followed after Philo,give this summary: "In the Beginning or First Principle was the Logos or Word, and the Wordwas adnate to God, and God was the Logos." The Samaritan Pentateuch denominated the bookof Genesis Achamanth or wisdom, and two old treatises by Alexandrian Jews, the Wisdom ofSolomon and the Wisdom of Jesus, are named with reference to the same truth. The book of

Mashali, the Discourses or proverbs of Solomon, is of the same character and personifiesWisdom as the emanation and ancillary of the Divinity.

** The prophets Elijah and Elisha were styled "the rechab or charioteer of Israel."-----------

philosophers of his time and with the Christian Gnostic teachers, Pantaenus, Clement andAthenagoras, aided him to fit himself for the undertaking. He drew around him scholars andpublic men, who had little taste for wasting time in elaborate sophistries or superstitiousobservances. A writer in the Edinburg Encyclopaedia gives the following summary of hispurpose and teachings:

"He adopted the doctrines which were received in Egypt concerning the Universe and theDeity considered as constituting one great Whole; concerning the eternity of the world, thenature of souls, the empire of Providence, and the government of the world by demons. Healso established a system of moral discipline which allowed the people in general to liveaccording to the laws of their country and the dictates of nature; but required the Wise to exalttheir minds by contemplation and to mortify the body, so that they might be capable ofenjoying the presence and assistance of the demons, [frohars, or spiritual essence], andascending after death to the presence of the Supreme Parent. In order to reconcile the popularreligions, and particularly the Christian, with this new system, he made the whole history of theheathen gods an allegory, maintaining that they were only celestial ministers, entitled to aninferior kind of worship; and he acknowledge that Jesus Christ was an excellent man and thefriend of God, but alleged that it was not his design entirely to abolish the worship of demons,and that his only intention was to purify the ancient religion."

A peculiarity in his methods, was the dividing of his disciples after the manner of thePythagorean School and ancient Mysteries into neophytes, initiates and masters. He obligatedthem by oath not to divulge the more recondite doctrines except to those who had beenthoroughly instructed and disciplined. The significance of this injunction can easily beapprehended when we call to mind that the great production of Plato, the Republic, is oftenmisrepresented by superficial expositions and others wilfully ignorant, as describing an idealstate of society analogous to the sensual paradise ascribed to the Koran. That the work shouldbe interpreted esoterically is apparent to every appreciative reader.

Even the Hebrew Scriptures are interpreted as having an

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allegoric meaning. The story of Abraham, his sons and their respective mothers, is affirmed byPaul to be of this nature.* Josephus declares that Moses spoke certain things wisely butenigmatically, and others under cover of "a decent allegory," calling this method "philosophic." Maimonides distinctly cautions us against making known the actual meaning:

"Whoever shall find out the true sense of the book of Genesis ought to take care not todivulge it. This is a maxim which all our learned men repeat to us - and above all, respectingthe work of the six days. If a person shall discover the true meaning of it by himself or by theaid of another, - then he ought to be silent; or, if he speaks of it, he ought to speak of it butobscurely, and in an enigmatic manner, as I do myself, leaving the rest to be guessed by thosewho can understand me."

Modern writers have commented, often erroneously, upon the peculiar sentiments and

methods of the Neo-Platonists. The immense difference in the nature and quality of ancientand modern learning has, to a great degree, unfitted students of later times for understandingthe principles of the old theosophy. Even the enthusiasm - which it considered as religiousfervor and akin to divine inspiration, has not much in common with the entheasm of the oldphilosophers.

The system of the Alexandrian School was comprised in three primary tenets: its theoryof the Godhead, its doctrine of the Soul, and its spiritualism. Plotinus declared Divinity to beessentially ONE; that the universe is not God or part of God; nevertheless, it has its existencefrom the Divine Mind, derives from him its life, and is incapable of being separated from him."The end and purpose of the Egyptian Rites and Mysteries," Plutarch declares to be "theknowing of the One God, who is the Lord of all things, and to be discerned only by the soul. Their theosophy had two meanings: the one, sacred and symbolic; and the other, popular andliteral. The figures of animals which abounded in their temples, and which they were supposed to

-----------* Epistle to the Galatians, iv 22-24.

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worship, were only so many hieroglyphics to represent the divine qualities."This doctrine of a single Supreme Essence is common to every faith. All other beings

have proceeded from this by emanation. Modern scientists are substituting for this hypothesistheir theories of evolution. Perhaps a profounder sage will show these conceptions nowapparently so contradictory, to be but phases of the one underlying fact - Divinity isfundamental Being, and creation is existent solely as proceeding from Being, and sustained byit.

The ancient theosophies contained the tenet that the Theoi, the gods or disposers ofevents, the angels, daemons, and other spiritual essences emanated from the Supreme Being. For the Divine All proceeded the Divine Wisdom; from Wisdom proceeded the Creator orDemiurgos; and from the Creator issued the subordinate spiritual beings, the earth and itsinhabitants being the last. The first of these is immanent in the second, the second in the thirdand so on through the entire series.

The veneration for these subordinate beings constituted the idiolatry charged upon theancients - an imputation not deserved by the philosophers, who recognized but one SupremeBeing, and professed to understand the hyponoia or under-meaning in regard to angels,daemons, heroes and symbolic representations. An old philosopher justly remarked: "Thegods exist, but they are not what the many suppose them to be. He is not an atheist who deniesthe existence of the gods whom the multitude worship; but he is one who fastens on these godsthe notions of the multitude." Aristotle is more explicit: "The divine essence pervades thewhole world of nature; what are styled the gods are only the first principles. The myths andstories were devised in order to make the religious systems intelligible and attractive to thepeople, who otherwise would not give them any regard or veneration."

Thus the stories of Zeus or Jupiter, the Siege of Troy, the Wanderings of Odysseus, theAdventures of Herakles and Theseus were mystic tales having their appropriate under-meaning. Indeed, the various older worships indicate the existence of a theosophy anterior to them.

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"The key that is to open one must open all; otherwise it cannot be the right key."The Alexandrian philosophers accepted these doctrines substantially, the principal

difference being in modes of expression. They were not inspired by a purpose to opposeChristianity or to resuscitate Paganism as Lloyd, Mosheim, Kingsley and others so positivelyinsist, but sought instead to extract from them all their most valuable treasures, and not restingcontent with that, to make new explorations. They taught like the old sages, that all beings andthings proceeded from the source of existence in discrete degrees of emanation. "There arefour orders," Iamblichus taught, "gods, daemons, heroes or half-gods, and souls."

In this philosophy there is no avatar. The human soul is itself the offspring or emanationof the Divinity. He is immanent within, and the whole philosophic discipline is for the purposeof bringing into activity and perfecting its divine faculties. It contemplated the highest spiritualdevelopment both in perceptive and subjective qualities. Plotinus taught that as the soul cameout from God there is immanent within it an impulse to return, which attracts it inward towardits origin and centre, the Eternal Good. The individual who does not understand how the soulcontains within itself the most excellent will seek by laborious effort to realize it from without. On the other hand, the one who is truly wise cognizes it within himself, develops the ideal bywithdrawal into himself, concentrating his attention, and so floating upward toward the DivineFountain, the stream of which flows within him. The Infinite is not known through thereasoning faculty, which makes distinctions and defines, but by the superior Intellect (nous) -by entering upon a state in which the individual, so to speak, is no more his own mere finiteselfhood; in which state divine essence is shared by him. This state Plotinus denominatesECSTASY - the liberation of the mind from its finite consciousness, and so becoming at onewith the Infinite.

The exalted condition which Plotinus describes is, however, not permanent, but onlyenjoyed at intervals; and its attainment is promoted to a certain extent by physical means, as byabstinence which tends to clarify and exalt the mental perceptivity. The moral

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agencies which prepare the individual for this superior condition and habitude are given as loveof excellence for the poet, devotion to knowledge for the philosopher, love and prayer for thedevout.

The outflowing from Divinity is received by the human spirit in unreserved abundance,*accomplishing for the soul a union with the Divine, and enabling it, while in the body, to be apartaker of the life which is not of the body.

Closely allied to this is the doctrine of mental and moral exaltation as set forth in the NewTestament. The metanoia which is there inculcated is no mere penance, repentance orcontrition for wrong, but an energizing of the spiritual and intellectible principle of our being,which excludes the rule of lower motive, so that we live and are inspired from above. It is ahigher perceiving and transcends the dianoia or common understanding, which is influenced bysensation and mental processes. It is accordingly an infilling, a pleroma and inspiring of thewhole life from the divine constituents of our being.

The true preparation for this higher condition, is by prayer. This is not mere verbal

supplication for personal favor. For, says Plato: "Prayer is the ardent turning of the soultoward God, not to ask for any particular good, but for good itself, the universal supreme good. We often mistake what is pernicious and dangerous for what is useful and desirable." Hefurther remarks, "Therefore remain silent in the presence of the divine ones, till they removethe clouds from thy eyes and enable thee to see by the light which issues from themselves, notwhat merely appears good but what is really good."

Plotinus also taught that every one has the faculty of intuition or intellection. This is inaccord with the declaration of Plato that the idea of the Good sheds on objects the light of truthand gives to the soul the power of knowing. The higher soul is, even when linked to the body,a dweller in the eternal world, and has a nature kindred to Divinity. It is enabled therefore toperceive and apprehend actual and absolute fact more perfectly than through the medium of the reasoning faculties and external senses.

------------* John iii, 34. "God giveth not his spirit by measure."

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"Everything in the world of Nature is not held fast by Fate," Iamblichus declares. "Onthe contrary there is another principle of the Soul superior to all that is born or begotten,through which we are enabled to attain union with superior natures, rise above the establishedorder of the universe, and participate in the life eternal and the energies of the heavenly ones. Through this principle we are able to set ourselves free. For when the better qualities in us areactive, and the soul is led again to the natures superior to itself, then it becomes separated fromeverything that held it fast to the world-life, stands aloof from inferior natures, exchanges thisfor the other life, abandons entirely the former order of things, and gives itself to the other."

We begin with instinct; the end is omniscience. It is a direct beholding; what Schellingdenominates a realization of the subjective and objective in the individual which blends himwith that identity of subjective and objective called Divinity; so that, transported out ofhimself, so to speak, he thinks divine thoughts, views things from their highest point of view,and, to use an expression of Emerson's, "becomes recipient of the soul of the world." Platodescribes the matter more forcibly. "The light and spirit of the Deity are as wings to the soul,raising it into communion with himself, and above the earth with which the mind is prone tobemire itself." (Phaedros) "To be like God is to be holy, just and wise.... This is the end forwhich man was born, and should be his aim in the pursuit of the superior knowledge."(Theatetos)

The power of seeing beyond the common physical sense, as in vaticination or "secondsight" appears to have been possessed by many of these men. Apollonius describes this facultyin these words:

"I can see the Present and the Future in a clear mirror. The sage need not wait for thevapors of the earth and the corrupt condition of the air to enable him to foresee plagues andfevers; he ought to know them later than God, but earlier than the multitude. The divinenatures see the future; common men, the present; sages, that which is about to take place. Mypeculiar abstemious mode of living produces such an acuteness of the senses, or else it bringsinto activity some other faculty, so that the greatest and most remarkable

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things are performed."This peculiar gift or faculty is doubtless to be explained not as being created anew, but as

brought out of a dormant or latent condition. The miraculous effects of abstemiousness inproducing extraordinary spiritual acuteness have often been noticed. Gorging, indulgence indrink that disorders, or the using of gross and unwholesome food may close up the interiorfaculties. It will be borne in mind that many of the distinguished teachers and sages were moreor less ascetic. Nevertheless, all that abstinence can do is to remove obstacles to the freeactivity of the mind; it can produce no faculty or quality that does not already exist.

There is what may be termed spiritual photography. The soul is the camera in whichfacts and events, future, past and present, are alike fixed, and the superior perceptivity makesthe understanding conscious of them. Sometimes they appear as if suggested, sometimes asrecollection. Beyond this everyday world of limits, all is as one day or state - the past and thefuture comprised in the present. This is doubtless, the "great day," the "last day," the "day ofthe Lord" mentioned by writers in the New Testament, - the eternal day without beginning orending, in which as to his interior spirit every one now is, and into which every one passes bydeath or ecstasy. The soul is then freed from the constraint of the body, and its nobler partbeing in communion with the superior powers, it becomes a partaker of the wisdom andforeknowledge of those in that sphere of being.

The disciples of Plotinus described him as possessing miraculous powers of perception. They affirmed that he could read their secret thoughts. Porphyry had been contemplatingsuicide, and he perceived it without having received any outward intimation. A robbery wascommitted in his house at Rome, and he calling the domestics together, pointed out the guiltyone. He did not oppose the established religious worship, but when one of his friends askedhim to attend the public services, he answered: "It is for the gods to come to me."

Plotinus, Iamblichus, and before them, Apollonius are said to have possessed the powersof prediction and healing. The former art

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appears to have been cultivated by the Essenes and others in the East. "I am not a prophet northe son of a prophet," said Amos, who seems to have been "irregular;" "but the Lord calledme." Apollonius, as his biographer declares, healed the sick, and others, like the pneumatists ofAsia Minor, performed remarkable cures. It is more than probable that they employed theagency known as animal magnetism. It was usual to exercise it by placing the hand on or nearthe diseased part, (stroking it and uttering a chant.)* It is now fashionable to declaim aboutthese practices as charlatanism; but they appear to have existed in all ages and among differentpeople. Plotinus scouted the notion that disease were daemons, and could be expelled bywords; but he indicated temperance and an orderly mode of life as the philosophic way toremove them.

Iamblichus went further than other teachers, and added to the Platonic philosophy, certainEgyptian learning which he designated theurgy. He taught that the individual might be broughtinto personal association with spiritual beings, and into the possession of their knowledge, andeven possess the power as a divinity to control inferior natures. He was perfectly familiar withthe phenomena of the mesmeric trance and clairvoyance, and described them with great

exactness, as they are now known to us. "The knowing of the gods is innate," he affirmed; "and it pertains to the very substance of our being. It is superior to judgment and choice, andhas precedence over reasoning and demonstration. From the beginning it was at one with itssource, and subsisted together with the inherent impulses of the soul to the Supremely Good. This union is a uniform embracing at all forms of contact, spontaneous and undistinguishable,as of one thing knowing another, which joins us with the Godhead."

The different orders of spiritual beings he described as intermediary between God andman. Their foreknowledge extends over every thing and fills every thing that is capable ofreceiving it. They also give intimations during our waking hours, and impart to the soul thepower of a wider perception of things, the gift of healing, and

-----------* II Kings, v, 11.

-------------- 20.

the faculty of discerning arts and new truths. There are different degrees of inspiration: sometimes it is possessed in a higher, sometimes in an intermediate, and sometimes in only alower degree.

The discipline required by the theurgist are prayer, diligence in the offices of arcaneworship, an abstemiousness amounting in some instances to austere asceticism, and added tothese, contemplation. Iamblichus discourses upon these matters with all the earnestness of anenthusiastic preacher. "Prayer is by no means an insignificant part of the entire upward path ofsouls," Proklus insists. Iamblichus explains further: "Prayers constitute the general end toreligious worship," he declares, "and join the Sacred Art in an indissoluble connection with thedivine beings. Unceasing perseverance in them invigorates the higher intellect, makes thereception-chamber of the soul far more spacious for the divinities, opens the arcana of thedivine world to human beings, accustoms us to the flashing irradiations of the Supernal Light,and perfects gradually the qualities within us for fitness for the favors of the gods, till it exaltsus to the highest excellence."

Thus we perceive that the theurgy which was described and extolled by this philosopher,was no art of sorcery, fortune-telling or charlatanry, but a mode of developing the higherfaculties and sentiments.

Indeed, if we change the terms and expressions which he employs to such as are currentwith us, we would find no difficulty in finding for him a place among the higher thinkers of ourown time. Bulwer-Lytton, who appears to have been a thorough student of Neo-Platonism andkindred topics, depicts after a similar manner their operation and influence:

"At last from this dimness, upon some eyes the light broke; but think not that to thoseover whom the Origin of Evil had a sway, that dawning was vouchsafed. It could be giventhen, as now, only to the purest ecstasies of imagination and intellect undistracted by the caresof a vulgar life, the appetites of the common clay. Far from descending to the assistance of afiend, theirs was but the August ambition to approach nearer to the Fount of Good; the morethey emancipated themselves from this Limbo of the planets, the more

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they were penetrated by the splendor and beneficence of God. And if they sought, and at lastdiscovered, how to the eye of the spirit all the subtler modifications of being and matter mightbe made apparent; if they discovered how, for the wings of the spirit, all space might beannihilated; and while the body stood heavy and solid here, the freed IDEA might wanderfrom star to star: if such discoveries became in truth their own, the sublimest luxury of theirknowledge was but this - to wonder, to venerate, and adore!"

We may with this finality very fittingly bring this delineation to a close. But we cannotdismiss the subject without a brief tribute to the noble but unfortunate Hypatia. She bade fairto stand among the most gifted of the Alexandrian school. She had alike for pupils men ofevery faith, Egyptian, Greek, Christian and Jew; and what little we know of her not only showsher blameless character, but the purity of the doctrines which she taught. In her the Akademeiawas almost reincarnated. A few years more added to her career might have rolled back thatocean in which Philosophy and Human Fraternity were engulfed.

Proklus is represented as the most learned and systematic of all the Neo-Platonists. Hebrought the entire theosophy and theurgy of his predecessors into a complete system. Like theRabbis and Gnostics he cherished a profound veneration for the Abraxas, the "Word" or"Venerable Name," and he believed with Iamblichus in the attaining of a divine or magic powerwhich, overcoming the mundane life, rendered the individual an organ of the Divinity speakinga wisdom that he did not comprehend, and becoming the agent of a superior will. He eventaught that there were symbola or tokens, that would enable a person to pass from one order ofspiritual beings to another, higher and higher, till he arrived at the absolute Divine. Faith, heinculcated, would make one the possessor of this talisman.

His theological views were similar to those of the others. "There are many inferiordivinities," he reiterated from Aristotle, "but one Mover. All that is said concerning the humanshape and attributes of these divinities is mere fiction, which has been invented to instruct thecommon people and secure their obedience to the laws. The First Principle, however, is neither Fire nor Earth, nor

--- 22.

Water, nor any thing that is the object of sense. A spiritual Substance is the Cause of theUniverse, and the source of all order and excellence, all the activity and all the forms in it thatare so much admired. All must be led up to this Primal Substance which governs insubordination to the Absolute First. This is the general doctrine of the Ancient Wise Oneswhich has happily escaped the wreck of truth amid the rocks of popular error and poeticmyths."

He also explained the state after death, the metempsychosis or progress of the Soul: "After death the soul continues in the aerial body till it becomes entirely purified from all angryand voluptuous passions; then it puts off the aerial body by a second dying, as it did the earthlyone. Wherefore the ancients say that there is a celestial body always joined with the soul,which is immortal, luminant and starlike."

Combining religious ardor with acute reasoning powers, he joins the whole mass oftraditional learning into a system, supplying the defects and smoothing the contradictions bymeans of distinctions and speculations. Zeller has appropriately described his work: "It wasreserved for Proklus," says he, "to bring the Neo-Platonic philosophy to its formal conclusionby the rigorous consistency of his dialectic, and keeping in view all the modifications which it

had undergone in the course of two centuries, to give it that form in which it was transferred toChristianity and Mohammedanism in the Middle Ages."

Whatever the demerits of the Neo-Platonic school, there must be general approval by allthe right-thinking of the great under-lying ideas of Human Brotherhood and perfectibility. Their proper aim was the establishment of the dominion of peace on earth instead of thatsovereignty of the sword which in former ages, and in later centuries, arrayed millions ofhuman beings in mortal warfare against each other, and depopulated whole regions andcountries in the name of religion.

As might be expected of persons holding so refined a system of doctrines, their characterscorresponded with it admirably. Plotinus was honored everywhere for his probity, Apolloniusfor his almost preternatural purity of manners, Ammonius for his amiableness,

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Iamblichus for his piety, Hypatia for her transcendent virtue and wisdom, and Proklus for hisserene temper. The testimony of M. Matter, in his treatise on Gnosticism, is just so far as itrelates to these men:

"The morality which the Gnosis prescribed for man answered perfectly to his condition. To supply the body with what it needs, and to restrict it in everything superfluous, - to nourishthe spirit with whatever can enlighten it, strengthen it, and render it like God, of whom it is anemanation: this is that morality. It is that of Platonism, and it is that of Christianity."

Such is the philosophy, such the religion, which is to the materialists and their allies astumbling block and folly; to others a divine illumination.

The treasury which the Neo-Platonists filled has enriched the world through all the laterages. The remarkable men who rose up as lights to their fellows were almoners of that bounty. Philosophers and theosophers of every grade were beneficiaries of the wise men of theAlexandrian School. Hardly had the intolerance of the dominant party put an end to the publiclectures when there arose other teachers and writers to take possession of its doctrines toincorporate them with the dogmas of the Church. It appeared anew, not merely as magic, andalchemy, but as the living fire of experience, a quiet mysticism, a profounder faith,transcending historic believes by a truer spiritual life. Hardly a formula of beliefs exists in thereligious world which has not been enriched from this source, and literature has derived from itthe choicest of its embellishments.

Such is the record which these Sages made.

(Metaphysical Magazine, April-May 1907, earlier version inBibliotheca Platonica, May-June, 1890.)

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HYPATIA: A TRAGEDY OF LENT

"This was done during Lent, " says the historian Sokrates. "There is as a woman in Alexandreia named Hypatia, a daughter of Theon the

philosopher, so learned that she surpassed all the savants of the time. She therefore succeededto the Chair of Philosophy in that branch of the Platonic School which follows Plotinos, andgave public lectures on all the doctrines of that school. Students resorted to her from all parts,for her deep learning made her both serious and fearless in speech, while she bore herselfcomposedly, even before the magistrates, and mixed among men in public without misgiving. Her exceeding modesty was extolled and praised by all. So, then, wrath and envy were kindledagainst this woman."

Little record has been preserved of Hypatia beyond the mention by her contemporaries ofher learning, her personal beauty and her tragic fate. That little, however, possesses a peculiarsignificance, setting forth as it does, the history of the period, and the great changes which theworld was then undergoing.

Since the time of Augustus Caesar, Alexandreia had ranked as one of the Imperial citiesof the Roman world. It excelled other capitals in the magnificence of its buildings, and in itswealth, created and sustained by an extensive commerce. Its former rulers had been liberal andeven lavish in every expenditure that might add to its greatness. The advantages of the place had been noted by the Macedonian Conqueror, when on his way to the oasis of Amun, andafterward, acting under the direction of a dream, he fixed upon it for the site of a new city toperpetuate his own name. He personally planned the circuit of the walls and the directions ofthe principal streets, and selected sites for temples to the gods of Egypt and Greece. Thearchitect Deinokrates was then commissioned to superintend the work, he had alreadydistinguished himself as the builder of the temple of the Great Goddess of Ephesus, whom "all

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Asia and the world worshiped," and had actually offered to carve Mount Athos into a statue ofhis royal master, holding a city in its right hand. Under Ptolemy, the royal scholar, the newCapital had been completed by him, and became the chief city of a new Egypt, the seat ofcommerce between India and the West, and the intellectual metropolis of the occidental world.

Its celebrity, however, was due, not so much to its grand buildings or even to itsmagnificent lighthouse, the Pharos, justly considered as one of the Seven Wonders of the Earth,as to its famous School of Learning, and to its library of seven hundred thousand scrolls, thedestruction of which is still deplored by lovers of knowledge. The temples of Memphis, Saisand Heliopolis had been so many universities, depositories of religious, philosophic andscientific literature, and distinguished foreigners like Solon, Thales, Plato, Eudoxos andPythagoras had been admitted to them; but now they were cast into the shade by the newmetropolis with its cosmopolitan liberality. The Alexandreian School included among itsteachers and lecturers, not only Egyptian priests and learned Greeks, but sages andphilosophers from other countries.

The wall of exclusiveness that had before separated individuals of different race andnation, was in a great measure, broken down. Religious worship heretofore circumscribed inisolated forms to distinctive peoples, tribes and family groups, became correspondinglycatholic and its rites accessible to all. The mystery-god of Egypt, bearing the ineffable name ofOsiris or Hyasir, was now Serapis, in whom the personality and attributes of the other divinitiesof the pantheons were merged. *

"There is but one sole God for them all," the Emperor Hadrian wrote to his friend

Servianus: "him do the Christians, him do the

------------* The great image of King Nebuchadnezzar, which is described

in the book of Daniel, was evidently a simulacrum of this divinity; and the Rev. C. W. Kingfurther declares in so many words that "there can be no doubt that the head supplied the firstidea of the conventional portraits of the Saviour." - Gnostics and their Remains.---------------26.

Jews, him do all the Gentiles also worship."Philosophy likewise appeared in new phases. Missionaries from Buddhistic India,*

Jaina** sages, Magian and Chaldean teachers and Hebrew Rabbis came to Alexandreia anddiscoursed acceptably with philosophers from Asia, Greece and Italy. From these sources therecame into existence an Eclectic philosophy, in which were combined the metaphysic of theWest and the recondite speculation of the East. The various religious beliefs took other shapesaccordingly, and expounders of the Gnosis, or profounder esoteric knowledge abounded alikewith native Egyptians, Jews and Christians.

In the earlier years of the third century of the present era there arose a School ofphilosophic speculation which brought together in closer harmony the principal dogmas whichwere then current. Its founder, Ammonios Sakkas, was, according to his own profession, alover and seeker for the truth. He was in no way a critic hunting for flaws in the teaching ofothers, but one who believed that the genuine knowledge might exist in a diffused form, partlyhere and partly there, among the various systems. He sought accordingly to bring the partstogether by joining in harmonious union the doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras with the Ethicsof Zeno and the reasonings of Aristotle, and perfecting it with what is sometimes termed theWisdom of the East. His disciples were obligated to secrecy, but the restriction was afterwardset aside. Plotinos and Porphyry extended the sphere of his teachings, giving them morecompletely the character of a religion.

-------------* "The Grecian King besides, by whom the Egyptian Kings, Ptolemaios and Antigonos

(Gangakenos or Gonatos) and Magas have been induced to allow both here and in foreigncountries everywhere, that the people may follow the doctrine of the religion of Devananpiga,wheresoever it reacheth." - Edict of Asoka, King of India.

** This term is derived from the Sanskrit jna to know; and signifies well-knowing,profoundly intelligent. The designation of the new doctrine of that period, the Gnosis, wasfrom this origin.---------------- 27.

Iamblichos went further, adding the arcane doctrine and the mystic worship of Egypt andAssyria.*

The Alexandreian School of Philosophy, thus established, included within its purview theesoteric dogmas of all the Sacred Rites in the several countries.

A new Route came into existence on the banks of the Bosphoros, and a new religion was

proclaimed for the Roman world. The changes, however, were far from radical. The earlierByzantine Emperors were too sagacious politicians to permit revolutionary innovations. Religion and civil administration were interwoven in the same web and the subversion of eitherwould be fatal to the other. Constantine himself was a "soldier'' or initiated worshiper ofMithras as well as a servant of Christ.**

His successors encouraged an extensive intermingling which should render Christianitymore catholic and thus more acceptable to all classes of the population. Meanwhile there aroseother diversities of religious belief, violent disputes in regard to ecclesiastical rank and verbalorthodoxy, often culminating in bloody conflicts. The older worship was finally prohibitedunder capital penalties.

Persecution became general. Nowhere, perhaps, was it more cruel and vindictive than atAlexandreia. The modern city of Paris horrified the world with its populace overawing theGovernment, destroying public buildings, desecrating cemeteries and religious shrines, andmurdering without mercy or scruple. Similar scenes became common in the capital of thePtolemies. The dissenters from the later orthodoxy, followers of Clement and Origen weredriven from the city; the Catechetic School which they had maintained was closed, the occultworship of the Cave of Mithras was forcibly suspended, the temple of Serapis sacked, the statues broken to

------------* Reply of Abammon to Porphyry.** Sopater, who succeeded lamblichos as head of the School at Alexandreia, had been

employed by Constantine to perform the rites of consecration for the new capital; but theEmperor afterward quarreled with him, and sentenced him to death.--------------- 28.

pieces, the Great Library, the glory of Alexandreia, scattered and destroyed.With these violent procedures there came also a wonderful transformation. The temples

were consecrated anew as churches, and the rites of the former worship were adopted, togetherwith the symbols and legends, under other forms, as Christian, Catholic and orthodox. Evenmummies were carried from Egypt as relics of martyrs.

Learning, however, was still in the hands of the adherents of the old religion. Theycontinued their labors faithfully, giving as little offense as they were able. Theon, Pappos andDiophantos taught mathematical science at the Serapeion; and some of their writings are yetremaining to attest the extent of their studies and observations.

Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, was worthy of her name* and parentage. Her father hadmade her from early years his pupil and companion, and she profited richly from his teaching. She wrote several mathematical works of great merit, which have perished with the otherliterature of that period. She was also diligent in the study of law, and became an effective andsuccessful pleader in the courts, for which she was admirably qualified by her learning andfascinating eloquence. She was not content, however, with these acquirements, but devotedherself likewise, with ardent enthusiasm, to the study of philosophy. She was her ownpreceptor, and set apart to these pursuits the entire daytime and a great part of the night. Though by no means ascetic in her notions, she adhered persistently to the celibate life, in orderthat there might be no hindrance to her purposes. It was an ancient fashion of philosophers to

travel for a season for the sake of acquaintance with the greater world, and to

-------------* The name Hypatia [a6argita] signifies highest, most exalted, best. In this instance it

would not be difficult to suppose that it had been conferred posthumously, or at best as a title ofdistinction. This, in fact, was an Egyptian custom, as in the case of the native kings, and nowof the Roman pontiffs.---------------- 29.

become more thorough and practical in mental attainments. Hypatia accordingly followed thisexample. On coming to Athens, she remained there and attended the lectures of the ablestinstructors. Thus she now gained a reputation for scholarship which extended as far as theGreek language was spoken.

Upon her return to Alexandreia, the magistrates invited her to become a lecturer on philosophy. The teachers who had preceded her had made the school celebrated throughoutthe world, but their glory was exceeded by the discourses of the daughter of Theon. She wasambitious to reinstate the Platonic doctrines in their ancient form, in preference to theAristotelian dogma and the looser methods which had become common. She was the first tointroduce a rigorous procedure into philosophic teaching. She made the exact sciences thebasis of her instructions, and applied their demonstration to the principles of speculativeknowledge. Thus she became the recognized head of the Platonic School.

Among her disciples were many persons of distinction. Of this number was Synesios, ofCyrene, to whom we are indebted for the principal memorials of her that we now possess. Hewas of Spartan descent, a little younger than his teacher, and deeply imbued with hersentiments. He remained more than a year at Alexandreia, attending her lectures onphilosophy, mathematics and the art of oratory. He afterward visited Athens, but formed a lowestimate of what was to be learned there. "I shall no longer be abashed at the erudition of thosewho have been there," he writes. "It is not because they seem to know much more than the restof us mortals about Plato and Aristotle, but because they have seen the places, the Akademeia,and the Lykeion, and the Stoa where Zeno used to lecture, they behave themselves among uslike demigods among donkeys."

He could find nothing worthy of notice in Athens, except the names of her famouslocalities. "It is Egypt in our day," he declares, "that cultivates the seeds of wisdom gatheredby Hypatia. Athens was once the very hearth and home of learning; but now it is theemporium of the trade in honey!"

Mr. Kingsley has set forth in his usual impressive style, the teaching and character of thisincomparable woman.* He depicts her

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cruel fate in vivid colors. He represents her as being some twenty-five years of age; she musthave been some years older at the period which he has indicated.

Synesios, her friend, had now been for some years the bishop of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica. This dignity, however, he had accepted only after much persuasion. He was of amiable

disposition, versatile, and of changeable moods. He had consented to profess the Christianreligion, and the prelate, Theophilus, persuaded him to wed a Christian wife, perhaps to diverthim from his devoted regard for his former teacher. He refused, however, to discard hisphilosophic beliefs. He had been living in retirement at his country home, when he was chosenby acclamation, by the church in Ptolemais, to the episcopal office. He was barely persuadedto accept upon his own terms. He pleaded his fondness for diversion and amusement, andrefused inflexibly to put away his wife or play the part of a hypocrite in the matter. Heexplained his position in a letter to his brother.

"It is difficult, I may say that it is impossible, that a truth which has been scientificallydemonstrated and once accepted by the understanding, should ever be eradicated from themind. Much of what is held by the mass of men is utterly repugnant to philosophy. It isabsolutely impossible for me to believe either that the soul is created subsequently to the body,or that this material universe will ever perish. As for that doctrine of the Resurrection whichthey bruit about, it is to me a sacred mystery, but I am far enough from sharing the popularview..... As to preaching doctrines which I do not hold, I call God and man to witness that this Iwill not do. Truth is of the essence of God, before whom I desire to stand blameless, and theone thing that I can not undertake is to dissimulate."

Singular and incredible as it may appear, this disavowal of doctrines generally regardedas essential and distinctive, was not considered an obstacle that might not be surmounted. Thepatriarch of Alexandreia had been extreme and unrelenting in his violent procedures against theancient religion. He was, however, politic in

-------------* HYPATIA, or New Foes with an Old Face

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his action, and knew well the character of the man whose case he had in hand. Synesios had asa layman, exhibited his ability in diplomatic service, his efficiency in the transacting of publicbusiness, and his utter unselfishness in matters relating to personal advantage. Such a man in aprovince like Cyrenaica, was invaluable.

It would be more difficult, therefore, for a person who had been reared and schooled inthe ways of modern times to apprehend intelligently the motives of Synesios himself. Hecertainly found it almost impossible to overcome his reluctance. Seven months of preparationwere allotted to him previous to engaging in the new duties. He prayed often for death andeven thought seriously of leaving the country. He was permitted to retain his family circle, andto hold his philosophic beliefs, but only required to give a formal acquiescence to what heconsidered mythologic fables. Under these conditions he consented to receive baptism andconsecration to the episcopal office. Yet in an address to his new associates he expressed thehope that by the mercy of God he might find the priesthood a help rather than a hindrance tophilosophy.

He did not, however, break off correspondence with Hypatia. He had been in the habit ofsending to her his scientific works for her judgment, and he continued in great emergencies towrite to her for sympathy and counsel. His brief term of office was full of anxiety and trouble. He administered his duties with energy and rare fidelity, not shrinking from an encounter withthe Roman prefect of the province. But misfortune came and he found himself ill able to meet

it. A pestilence ravaged Libya, and his family were among the victims. He himself succumbedto sickness. In his last letter to her whom he calls his "sister, mother, teacher and benefactor,"he describes his sad condition of mind and body.

"My bodily infirmity comes of the sickness of my soul. The memory of my dear childrenoverpowers me. Synesios ought never to have survived his good days. Like a torrent longdammed up, calamity has burst upon me and the savor of life is gone. If you care for me it iswell; if not, this, too, I can understand."

It is supposed by historians, that his death took place not long afterward. He was spared, then, from a terrible grief, which he

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might have considered the most appalling of all. For it was not many months after that hisvenerated teacher herself fell a victim, under the most revolting circumstances, to the mob inAlexandreia.

We are told that Hypatia taught the Platonic Philosophy in a purer form than any of herlater predecessors. Her eloquence made its abstruse features attractive, and her method ofscientific demonstration rendered these clearer to the common understanding. Like Plotinos,she insisted strenuously upon the absolute Oneness of the Divine Essence. From this radiatesthe Creative Principle, the Divine Mind as a second energy, yet it is one with the First. In thisMind are the forms, ideals or models of all things that exist in the world of sense.* From it, indue order, proceeded a lesser divinity, the Spirit of Nature, or Soul of the World, from whichall things are developed. In abstract terms these may be represented as Goodness, Wisdom andEnergy. In regard to human beings it was taught that they are held fast by an environment ofmaterial quality, from which it is the province of the philosophic discipline to extricate them. This is substantially the same doctrine as is propounded in the Vedanta and the Upanishads.

Plotinos tells us of a superior form of knowing, illumination through intuition. It ispossible for us, he declared, to become free from the bondage and limitations of time and sense,and to receive from the Divine Mind direct communication of the truth. This state of mentalexaltation was denominated ecstasy, a withdrawing of the soul from the distractions of externalobjects to the contemplation of the Divine Presence which is immanent within - the fleeing ofthe spirit, the lone one, to the Alone. In the present lifetime, Plotinos taught that this may takeplace at occasional periods only, and for brief spaces of time; but in the life of the world that isbeyond

------------ * Reply of Abammon to Porphyry, VIII, ii."For the Father perfected all things and delivered them to the Second Mind, which the

whole race of men denominate the First.” - Chaldean Oracles--------------- 33.

time and sense, it can be permanent.*Synesios makes a declaration of the same tenor. "The power to do good," he writes to

Aurelian, "is all that human beings possess in common with God; and imitation is

identification, and unites the follower to him whom he follows."Much of this philosophy, however, had been already accepted, though perhaps in grosser

form, as Christian experience. The legends of that period, abound with descriptions of ecstaticvision and intimate communion with Deity. The philosophers taught that the Divinity wasthreefold in substance, the Triad, or Third, proceeding from the Duad or Divine Mind, andruled by the ineffable One. Clement, of the Gnostic school, deduced from a letter of Plato thatthe great philosopher held that there are three persons, or personations in the Godhead, andnow in a cruder shape, it became an article of faith. To this the Egyptian Christians added theveneration of the Holy Mother, and various symbols and observances which belonged to theworship that had been suppressed.

This was the state of affairs when Cyril became patriarch of Alexandreia. Hypatia was atthe height of her fame and influence. Not only the adherents of the old religion, but Jews andeven Christians were among her disciples. The most wealthy and influential of the inhabitantsthronged her lecture-room. They cameday after day to hear her explain the literature of Greece and Asia, the theorems ofmathematicians and geometers and the doctrines of sages and philosophers. The prefect ofEgypt, himself a professed Christian, resorted to her for counsel and instruction.

Cyril was endowed with a full measure of the ambition which characterized the prelatesof that time. He was not a man to scruple at measures that he might rely upon to accomplish his ends. Like

------------ * I sent my soul through the Invisible

Some letter of that After-Life to spell:And by and by my soul returned to me,

And answered: "I myself am Heaven and Hell" - Omar Khayam---------------- 34.

Oriental monarchs, he was ready with pretexts and instruments for the removal of all whomight stand in his way. He was not willing to divide power, whether ecclesiastic or secular. Acourse of persecution was begun at once. The Novatians or Puritans, a dissenting sect ofanabaptists, were expelled from the city, their churches closed and their property confiscated. The prefect strove in vain to check the summary procedure; the mob at the command of theprelate was beyond his authority. The Jews were next to suffer. "Cyril headed the mob in theirattacks upon the Jewish synagogues; they broke them open and plundered them, and in oneday drove every Jew out of the city." The efforts of the prefect in their behalf only served toturn the current of fanatic fury upon him. Five hundred monks hastened from their retreats tofight for the patriarch. Meeting the prefect in the street in his open chariot, they taunted himwith being an idolater and a Greek, and one of them hurled a stone, which wounded him in thehead. They were speedily dispersed by his guards, and the offending monk was put to deathwith tortures. Cyril at once declared the man a martyr and a saint, but the ridicule whichfollowed upon this proceeding, soon induced him to recall his action.

We have read the story of Haman at the court of the king of Persia. He was advancedabove all princes and received homage, except from Mordecai the Jew. Recounting to his wife

the distinction to which he had been promoted, he said: "Yet all this availeth me nothing, solong as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." The patriarch of Alexandreia appearsto have cherished similar sentiments. He was a prince in the Church, with power exceedingthat of any official south of the Mediterranean. He had but to give the signal and an army ofmonks would hurry to his call, ready to do or die. But all this did not avail, while the long trainof chariots continued to assemble daily before the door of Hypatia's lecture-room. LikeHaman, he resolved to put an end to his mortification. He had not been able to close theAcademy, but he could make an end of her who was its chief attraction, and the principalobstacle to his ambition.

"The thing was done during Lent," says Sokrates. At this period the city of Alexandreiawas crowded by multitudes from other places, desirous to participate in the religious services. Cyril had

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been zealous to substitute Christian observances for similar customs of the old worship, andthis was one of them. Alexandreia was for the time at his mercy. He was thoroughly skilled inthe art of exciting the passions, and he was surrounded by men who knew well his bent andhow to do what he wished without a suggestion from him to involve him directly in theresponsibility.

He needed only to indicate the School and its teacher as the great obstacle to the triumphof the Church. They were then ready to carry into effect what he purposed.

Mr. Kingsley has described the occurrence in dramatic style. "I heard Peter (the reader)say: 'She that hindereth will hinder till she be taken out of the way.' And when he went intothe passage, I heard him say to another: 'That thou doest, do quickly.'"

It was on the morning of the fifteenth of March, 415, - the fatal Ides, the anniversary ofthe murder of the greatest of the Caesars. Hypatia set out as usual in her chariot to drive to thelecture-room. She had not gone far when the mob stopped the way. On every side were menhowling with all the ferocity of hungry wolves. She was forced out of the vehicle and draggedalong the ground to the nearest church. This was the ancient Caesar's temple, which had beendedicated anew to the worship of the Christian Trinity. Here she had been denounced by Cyriland her doom determined by his servitors. Her dress was now torn in shreds by their ruffianlyviolence. She stood by the high altar, beneath the statue of Christ.

"She shook herself free from her tormentors," says Kingsley, "and, springing back, rosefor one moment to her full height, naked, snow-white against the dusky mass around - shameand indignation in those wide, clear eyes, but not a stain of fear. With one hand she clasped hergolden locks around her; the other long, white arm was stretched upward toward the great stillChrist, appealing - and who dare say in vain? - from man to God. Her lips were open to speak; but the words that should have come from them reached God's ear alone; for in an instant Peter struck her down, the dark mass closed over her again, . . . andthen wail on wail, long, wild, ear-piercing, rang along the vaulted roofs, and thrilled like thetrumpet of avenging angels through Philammon's ears."

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While yet breathing, the assailants in a mad fury tore her body like tigers, limb from limb

and after that, bringing oyster-shells from the market, they scraped the flesh from the bones. Then gathering up the bleeding remains they ran with them through the streets to the place ofburning, and having consumed them, threw the ashes into the sea.

"The thing was done during Lent."

(Universal Brotherhood, April, 1898)

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PHILOSOPHY AFTER THE DEATH OF HYPATIA

Historians seem to have regarded the murder of Hypatia as the death-blow to Philosophyat Alexandreia. Professor Draper characterizes it as a warning to all who would cultivateprofane knowledge. "Henceforth," he adds, "there was to be no freedom for human thought. Every one must think as the ecclesiastical authority bade him."

Certainly the Patriarchs at the Egyptian metropolis had spared no endeavor, howeverarbitrary, to engraft their notions upon the Roman world, and to bring about uniformity ofreligious belief. The doctrine of the Trinity had been officially promulgated by the Council atNikaia. The orthodox Homoousians had been engaged for a century in a mortal struggle forsupremacy with the heretic Homooisians. Men murdered one another upon the religious issueof homoian and tauto. The nitre-fields abounded with monks as numerous as frogs, and readyat summons to seize their weapons and do any violence to promote the cause of the Prince ofPeace. Theodosios the Emperor had proclaimed Christianity as the religion of the Court andEmpire, and made Sunday the sacred day of the newer faith. Egypt surpassed all othercountries in religious fanaticism, and Gregory of Nazianzen praised it as the most Christian ofall, and teaching the doctrine of the Trinity in its truest form. The former worship was forciblysuppressed. The patriarch Theophilus closed the Cave of Mithras, desecrated the temple ofSerapis and destroyed its magnificent library of seven hundred thousand scrolls.

The Egyptian learning was denounced and interdicted, but such Egyptian customs andnotions as had been deeply infixed in the regard of the illiterate commonalty, were transferredwith the necessary modifications into the creed and liturgy of the church. The attempt wasmade to substitute burial as a Christian usage for the

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ancient practice of mummying the bodies of the dead. The goddess Isis, the "Great Mother" ofthe former faiths, became Mariam Theotokos, Mary the Mother of God, and her worshipestablished beside that of the Trinity. The distinction of clergy and laity which was beforeunknown, was now introduced. Such Egyptian customs were also adopted by the priests as theshaving of the head, the celebration of Twelfth Night, the burning of candles around the altarsand robing in white surplices. Relics of saints were exhumed with which to work miracles. The break with "paganism" was thus made less marked.

Another dogma was hatched from the slime of the Nile. Setting aside the spiritual

conception of the Supreme Being, it was taught that God was anthropomorphic, a person inshape like a man. The patriarch adopted the new doctrine, and seems to have enforced itsgeneral acceptance by the aid of an army of soldiers and monks, who drove the other partyfrom the country.

The Catechetic School, which had been established and sustained by Clement, Origenand others of superior scholastic attainment was in the way of the new form of religiousprogress. The ignorance and fanaticism that reigned in Upper Egypt and Mount Nitria,repudiated utterly the learning of the teachers at Alexandreia. The patriarch took sides with thelarger party, which was sure to be better fitted to his purposes, the Catechetic school wasclosed, and the Arian church-buildings were seized by the partisans of the patriarch.

Cyril succeeded to Theophilus and maintained the same policy. He had no sooner seatedhimself in the archi-episcopal chair than he set himself at the suppressing of rival religiousbeliefs. The Novatians were first assailed, and after that the Jews were driven fromAlexandreia. The learning of the city was now in the hands of the adherents of the formerworship, and Hypatia was teaching in the School of Philosophy. The next step to be taken wasto put her out of the way, and her murder was the one infamous act which placed a lastingstigma upon the reputation of the unscrupulous ecclesiastic. His whole career wascharacterized by kindred enormities.

In the French Revolution of 1793, one faction had been no

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sooner exterminated than another as formidable appeared in the ranks of the victorious party. The course of affairs in Egypt at this period was in strict analogy. The Arians who weresuppressed at Alexandreia, found protection in the camp of the army, and flourished for manyyears. They dedicated a church at Babylon to their murdered bishop, now St. George ofEngland, and the country abounded with pictures on the walls of the churches representing himas slaying the Dragon of Athanasian error. Ahout this time Eutyches, of Constantinople, apartisan of Cyril, was excommunicated by a Council for teaching that Jesus Christ had only onenature, that of the Logos incarnate, and therefore his body was not like that of other men. TheEgyptian church took up the controversy and was condemned by the Council of Chalkedon.This separated Egypt from the Catholic Church, and brought the religious war into geographiclines.

While these things were going on, the Nubians overran Upper Egypt. It had beenconfidently affirmed that under the forceful measures that had been employed, the old worshiphad been effectually suppressed. Now, however, it sprang up anew. Large numbers of monks,and others who had professed Christianity, now took part at the rites of lsis and Serapis. Thiswas all within seventy years after the decree of Theodosius, and less than forty years after thedeath of Hypatia. There were troublous times over the whole Roman world. The change ofreligion had by no means strengthened the Empire, either politically or morally. It had beenfollowed instead, by incessant rivalries of the clergy, and innumerable religious broils, all ofwhich tended to weaken the imperial authority. The ill-governed provinces revolted, and thevarious peoples and tribes from Northern Europe swarmed over the Southern countries, andeven into Africa. After Vandals, Goths and Allemans, came the Huns, most terrible of all. Attila carried devastation close to the walls of Constantinople and then into the heart of Italy. There he died in the year 453.

The School of Philosophy at Alexandreia had still continued its work. Like the flexiblereed, it had bent as the storm passed over it, and then risen from the earth erect as ever. Theextinguishing of one luminary had not utterly darkened its sky, but only served to reveal the

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presence of other stars that had not been observed before. Severe as was the shock from themurder of the daughter of Theon, there were others to occupy the place acceptably in thelecture-room.

Syrianus was the principal teacher. He was learned and profound; and his lectures werefrequented from all regions of Western Asia. He was an indefatigable writer, and producedextensive expositions and commentaries upon the doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras. Hisworks, however, have been left untranslated. He wrote a commentary on the Metaphysics ofAristotle, of which there is a Latin version, and controverts the objections of that philosopher. He was a zealous Platonist, and at the same time he regarded the writings of Plotinus andPorphyry with a veneration similar to that which he entertained for Plato himself.

Among the students who attended his lectures were Moses, of Chorene, and two othersfrom Armenia. Isaac, the patriarch of that country and Mesrobes, a statesman of great learning,had planned the forming of an Armenian alphabet after the plan of the Greek. Heretofore,writing had been done sometimes with Greek letters, sometimes with Persian, and sometimeswith Aramaic or Chaldean. Under such conditions a high degree of enlightenment was noteasy to maintain. The Alexandreian text of the Bible was regarded by them as the authenticversion. The translation in their possession had been made from the Hebrew or Aramaic, andwas written in Aramaic letters. They resolved to have a new Armenian version from the textwhich they regarded as the genuine original. Moses and his companions were accordingly sentby them to Alexandreia, as being the first school of learning in the Roman world.

The young men, of course, were Christians, and likewise admirers of the Patriarch. Theywere too sagacious, however, not to be aware that the knowledge of the Greek language in itspurity was not to be had from Cyril and his ill-taught associates. They accordingly joined thePlatonic School and became pupils of Syrianus. Under his tuition they made remarkableproficiency in the several departments of Greek literature. Not only were they able to make thedesired new translation of the Bible, but they extended their labors to the writings of differentclassic authors. As a result of this, Armenia became a seat

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of learning. It held this distinction until the next conquest. The history of Armenia which waswritten by Moses of Chorene is a monument of learning and accuracy.

Shortly after this, Syrianus left Alexandreia. The Platonic School at Athens, at whichHypatia and Synesios had been students, was now enjoying a fair degree of prosperity. Itsconductors extended an invitation to Syrianus to remove to that city and become its leader. Alexandreia was fast losing its reputation as a literary metropolis. The invitation was accepted,and from this time the later Platonism made its home in the city of the former Akademeia.

In the meanwhile a vigorous attempt was made to establish a Peripatetic School ofPhilosophy at Alexandreia. Olympiodoros, a native of Upper Egypt, was the founder. Hepossessed excellent literary ability and composed several works; among them commentaries

upon the writings of Aristotle, a treatise upon the Sacred Art of Alchemy, a history, and severalother works that are now lost. His endeavors to establish a new Lyceum, however, were notvery successful. It was true that after the closing of the Catechetic School, there had been aturning of attention to the doctrines of Aristotle; and these have since been in high favor it theRoman Church. But there had been set up partisan lines at Alexandreia between adherents ofthe old worship and the new, and Alexandreian Christians were hardly willing to sit at the feetof a teacher, however excellent, who did not subscribe to the formulas of doctrine promulgatedby the Council of Nikaia.

Very little of the literature of that period has been preserved to the present time. Onecause, doubtless, was the bigotry and intolerance of Emperors and prelates, who required allbooks to be destroyed which they did not approve. Another was the increasing indifference toclassic learning and literary attainment. This certainly was the fact in Egypt. The arts in whichthat country had formerly excelled were now passing utterly out of knowledge.

The skill in preparing of papyrus was almost wholly lost. There were eight differentkinds of this article. The hieratic was the best, and was used for the sacred books at theTemples, and for the scrolls in the Great Library. Two more kinds, equal to it in value, weredevised

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in the reign of the Emperor Octavianus; and there were two cheaper kinds sold in Rome. TheSaitic papyrus was of inferior quality and was sold by weight. There were now other kindsmade at Alexandreia after what were considered improved methods, which, nevertheless, likethe cheap paper of our modern time, soon fell to pieces. Every book written upon it hasperished. No book which was written between the third and eleventh centuries of the presentera has remained, except those which were written upon vellum or parchment. Hence we knowlittle more of the philosophers of Egypt. A literature which cannot be preserved becomesspeedily a dead literature, and a people without a literature is barbarous.

There was, however, one distinguished pupil in the School of Olympiodoros who wasdestined to outshine those who had gone before him. Proklos, the son of an Asian of the city ofXanthos, in Lykia, came to Alexandreia to pursue his studies. He omitted no opportunity toperfect himself in liberal knowledge. Besides attending at the lectures of Olympiodoros, healso received instruction in mathematics from Hero, rhetoric from Leonas, general knowledgefrom Orion, a native Egyptian of sacerdotal lineage, and in the Latin language at the RomanCollege. He was also in familiar relations with the principal men of learning at Alexandreia. He appears to have been unfavorably impressed by what he witnessed of the social andreligious influences prevalent in the city. He removed to Athens, and became the pupil ofSyrianus and Asklepigenia, the daughter of Plutarch. So broad and profound was his learningthat Syrianus named him as his own successor in the School of Philosophy.

At the age of twenty-eight he produced his masterpiece, the Commentary on the Timaiosof Plato. Only five books of this work remain; the others are lost. He also wrote aCommentary on the First Alkibiades, a treatise on the Platonic Theology, Theologic Institutes, aGrammatic Chrestomathy, and Eighteen Arguments against the Christians; also Hymns to theSun, to the Muses, two to Aphrodite, one to Hekate and Janus, and one to Athena.

Proklos was thoroughly proficient in the Oriental Theosophy. He considered the OrphicHymns and the Chaldaean Oracles as divine revelations. He had the deepest confidence in his

own sacred calling

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and office. He regarded himself as the last link in the Hermaic chain, the latest of the men setapart by Hermes, through whom, by perpetual revelation, was preserved the occult knowledgesignified in the Mysteries.

He could not conceive of the Creation of the Universe by arbitrary fiat, and excepted toChristianity because it was unphilosophic in respect to this subject. He believed the utteranceof the Chaldean Oracles in the matter: That prior to all things is the One, the Monad,immovable in ever-being. By projecting his own essence, he manifests himself as Two - theDuad - the Active and Passive, the Positive and Negative, the essence of Mind and the principleof Matter. By the conjoining of these two the cosmos or universe emanates with all things thatpertain to it.

Proklos, however, did not teach that evil was of or from matter, but consisted in anarresting or constraining of energy in its legitimate action.

He inculcated the harmony of all truth, and endeavored accordingly to show that therewas a direct and vital connection between every teacher, however much they might seem todiffer. There was really an agreement, he affirmed, between the Dialectic of Plato and theReasonings of Aristotle, between the Chaldaean Oracles and the Western Philosophy. Thefollowing summary, made by the writer from his treatise entitled The Later Platonists, presentsa fair delineation of his views.

"He [Proklos] elaborated the entire Theosophy and Theurgy of his predecessors into acomplete system. Like the Rabbis and Gnostics, he cherished a profound reverence for theAbraxas, the 'Word' or 'Venerable Name,' and he believed with lamblichos in the attaining of adivine or magic power, which, overcoming the mundane life, rendered the individual an organof the Divinity, speaking a wisdom that he did not comprehend, and becoming the utterance ofa Superior Will. He even taught that there were symbols or tokens that would enable a personto pass from one order of spiritual beings to another, higher and higher, till he arrived at theabsolute Divine. Faith, he inculcated, would make one the possessor of this talisman.

"His Theology was like that of the others. 'There are many

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inferior divinities' he reiterated from Aristotle, but only one Mover. All that is said concerningthe human shape and attributes of these divinities is mere fiction, invented to instruct thecommon people and secure their obedience to wholesome laws. The First Principle, however,is neither Fire nor Earth, nor Water, nor anything that is the object of sense. A spiritualsubstance [Mind] is the Cause of the Universe and the source of all order and excellence, all theactivity and all the forms that are so much admired in it. All must be led up to this PrimalSubstance which governs in subordination to the FIRST.

"This is the general doctrine of the Ancients, which has happily escaped the wreck ofTruth amid the rocks of popular error and poetic fables."

"The state after death, the metempsychosis or superior life is thus explained by him: 'After death the soul continues in the aerial till it is entirely purified from all angry andvoluptuous passions; them it doth put off by a second dying of the aerial body, as it did of the

earthly one. Wherefore, the ancients say that there is a celestial body always joined with thesoul, which is immortal, luminous, and star-like.'"

Perhaps no philosopher of the ancient period was more broad, more catholic and liberalin his views, and yet so comprehensive. Proklos comprises in a single concept, the "good law"of Zoroaster, the dharma of India, the oracular wisdom of the Chaldean sages, the gnosis andintuition of Western mystics. We are forcibly reminded of the confession of the audience onthe day of Pentecost, that everyone however remote and alien in personal affiliations, heardalike the utterance of the apostle in his own language.

(Universal Brotherhood, Aug., 1898)

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THE TEACHINGS OF PLATO

"' Eagle! why soarest thou above that tomb? To what sublime and starry-paven home Floatest thou?''I am the image of great Plato's sprit Ascending heaven; Athens doth inherit His corpse below.'"

"Out of Plato" says Ralph Waldo Emerson, "come all things that are still written anddebated among men of thought." All else seems ephemeral, perishing with the day. Thescience and mechanic arts of the present time, which are prosecuted with so much assiduity, aresuperficial and short-lived. When Doctor James Simpson succeeded his distinguished uncle atthe University of Edinburgh, he directed the librarian to remove the textbooks which were morethan ten years old, as obsolete. The skilled inventions and processes in mechanism have hardlya longer duration. Those which were exhibited at the first World's Fair in 1851 are nowgenerally gone out of use, and those displayed at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in1876 are fast giving place to newer ones that serve the purposes better. All the science whichis comprised within the purview of the senses, is in like manner, unstable and subject totransmutation. What appears today to be fundamental fact is very certain to be found,tomorrow, to be dependent upon something beyond. It is like the rustic's hypothesis that theearth stands upon a rock, and that upon another rock, and so on; there being rocks all the waydown. But Philosophy, penetrating to the profounder truth and including the Over-Knowledgein its field, never grows old, never becomes out of date, but abides through the ages in perennial

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freshness.The style and even the tenor of the Dialogues have been criticized, either from

misapprehension of their purport or from a desire to disparage Plato himself. There is a vanity

for being regarded as original, or as first to open the way into a new field of thought andinvestigation, which is sometimes as deep-seated as a cancer and about as difficult to eradicate. From this, however, Plato was entirely free. His personality is everywhere veiled by hisphilosophy.

At the time when Plato flourished, the Grecian world had undergone great revolutions. The former times had passed away. Herakles and Theseus, the heroes of the Myths, were saidto have vanquished the man-slaying monsters of the worship of Hippa and Poseidon, or in otherwords supplanting the Pelasgian period by the Hellenic and Ionian. The arcane rites ofDemeter had been softened and made to represent a drama of soul-history. The Tragedians hadalso modified and popularized the worship of Dionysos at the Theatre-Temple of Athens. Philosophy, first appearing in Ionia had come forth into bolder view, and planted itself upon thefirm foundation of psychologic truth. Plato succeeded to all, to the Synthetists of theMysteries, the Dramatists of the Stage, to Sokrates and those who had been philosophers beforehim.

Great as he was, he was the outcome of the best thought of his time. In a certain sensethere has been no new religion. Every world-faith has come from older ones as the result ofnew inspiration, and Philosophy has its source in religious veneration. Plato himselfrecognized the archaic Wisdom-Religion as "the most unalloyed form of worship, to thePhilosophy of which, in primitive ages, Zoroaster made many additions drawn from theMysteries of the Chaldeans." When the Persian influence extended into Asia Minor, theresprung up philosophers in Ionia and Greece. The further progress of the religion of Mazda wasarrested at Salamis, but the evangel of the Pure Thought, Pure Word, and Pure Deed wasdestined to permeate the Western World during the succeeding ages. Plato gave voice to it, andwe find the marrow of the Oriental Wisdom in his dialectic. He seems to have joined the occultlore of the East, the conceptions of

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other teachers, and the under-meaning of the arcane rites, the physical and metaphysicallearning of India and Asia, and wrought the whole into forms adapted to Europeancomprehension.

His leading discourses, those which are most certainly genuine, are characterized by theinductive method. He displays a multitude of particulars for the purpose of inferring a generaltruth. He does not endeavor so much to implant his own conviction as to enable the hearer andreader to attain one intelligently, for themselves. He is in quest of principles, and leading theargument to that goal. Some of the Dialogues are described as after the manner of the Bacchicdithyrambic, spoken or chanted at the Theatre; others are transcripts of Philosophicconversations. Plato was not so much teaching as showing others how to learn.

His aim was to set forth the nature of man and the end of his being. The great questionsof who, whence and whither, comprise what he endeavored to illustrate. Instead of dogmaticaffirmation, the arbitrary ipse dixit of Pythagoras and his oath of secrecy, we have a friend, onelike ourselves, familiarly and patiently leading us on to investigation as though we were doingit of our own accord. Arrogance and pedantic assumption were out of place in the Akademe.

The whole Platonic teaching is based upon the concept of Absolute Goodness. Plato wasvividly conscious of the immense profundity of the subject. "To discover the Creator andFather of this universe, as well as his operation, is indeed difficult; and when discovered it is

impossible to reveal him." In him Truth, Justice and the Beautiful are eternally one. Hence theidea of the Good is the highest branch of study.

There is a criterion by which to know the truth, and Plato sought it out. The perceptionsof sense fail utterly to furnish it. The law of right for example, is not the law of the strongest,but what is always expedient for the strongest. The criterion is therefore no less than theconceptions innate in every human soul. These relate to that which is true, because it is ever-abiding. What is true is always right - right and therefore supreme; eternal and thereforealways good. In its inmost essence it is Being itself; in its form by which we are able

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to contemplate it, it is justice and virtue in the concepts of essence, power and energy.These concepts are in every human soul and determine all forms of our thought. We

encounter them in our most common experiences and recognize them as universal principles,infinite and absolute. However latent and dormant they may seem, they are ready to bearoused, and they enable us to distinguish spontaneously the wrong from the right. They arememories, we are assured, that belong to our inmost being, and to the eternal world. Theyaccompanied the soul into this region of time, of ever-becoming and of sense. The soul,therefore, or rather its inmost spirit or intellect,* is of and from eternity. It is not so much aninhabitant of the world of nature as a sojourner from the eternal region. Its trend and ulteriordestination are accordingly toward the beginning from which it originally set out.

The Vision of Eros in the tenth book of the Republic suggests the archaic conceptiongenerally entertained that human beings dying from the earth are presently born into new formsof existence, till the three Weird Sisters shall have finished their task and the circle ofNecessity is completed. The events of each succeeding term of life take a direction from whathas occurred before. Much may be imputed to heredity, but not all. This is implied in thequestion of the disciples to Jesus: "Which sinned, this person or his parents, that he should beborn blind." We all are conscious of some occurrence or experience that seems to pertain to aformer term of life. It appears to us as if we had witnessed scenes before, which must be some recollection, except it be a remembrance inherited from ancestors, or some spiritualessence has transferred it as from a camera obscura into our consciousness. We may account itcertain, at any rate, that we are inhabitants of eternity, and of that eternity Time is as a colonialpossession and distinct allotment.

Every thing pertaining to this world of time and sense, is

-------------* Plato taught that the amative or passional soul was not immortal.

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constantly changing, and whatever it discloses to us is illusive. The laws and reasons of thingsmust be found out elsewhere. We must search in the world which is beyond appearances,beyond sensation and its illusions. There are in all minds certain qualities or principles whichunderlie our faculty of knowing. These principles are older than experience, for they govern it; and while they combine more or less with our observations, they are superior and universal,and they are apprehended by us as infinite and absolute. They are our memories of the life of

the eternal world, and it is the province of the philosophic discipline to call them into activityas the ideals of goodness and truth and beauty, and thus awaken the soul to the cognizing ofGod.

This doctrine of ideas or idealities lies at the foundation of the Platonic teachings. Itassumes first of all, the presence and operation of the Supreme Intelligence, an essence whichtranscends and contains the principles of goodness, truth, and order. Every form or ideal, everyrelation and every principle of right must be ever present to the Divine Thought. Creation in allits details is necessarily the image and manifestation of these ideas. "That which imparts truthto knowable things," says Plato, "that which gives to the knower the power of knowing thetruth, is the Idea of the Good, and you are to conceive of this as the Source of knowledge andtruth."

A cognition of the phenomena of the universe may not be considered as a real knowing. We must perceive that which is stable and unchanging, - that which really is. It is not enoughto be able to regard what is beautiful and contemplate right conduct. The philosopher, the loverof wisdom, looks beyond these to the Actual Beauty, - to righteousness itself. This is theepisteme of Plato, the superior, transcendent knowing. This knowledge is actual participatingin the eternal principles themselves - the possessing of them as elements of our own being.

Upon this, Plato bases the doctrine of our immortality. These principles, the ideals oftruth, beauty and goodness are eternal, and those who possess them are ever-living. Thelearning of them is simply the bringing of them into conscious remembrance.*

In regard to Evil, Plato did not consider it as inherent in human nature. "Nobody iswillingly evil," he declares; "but when any one

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does evil it is only as the imagined means to some good end. But in the nature of things, theremust always be a something contrary to good. It cannot have its seat with the gods, beingutterly opposed to them, and so of necessity hovers round this finite mortal nature, and thisregion of time and ever-changing. Wherefore," he declares, "we ought to fly hence." He doesnot mean that we ought to hasten to die, for he taught that nobody could escape from evil oreliminate it from himself by dying. This flight is effected by resembling God as much as ispossible; "and this resemblance consists in becoming just and holy through wisdom." There isno divine anger or favor to be propitiated; nothing else than a becoming like the One,absolutely good.

When Eutyphron explained that whatever is pleasing to the gods is holy, and that thatwhich is hateful to them is impious, Sokrates appealed to the statements of the Poets, that there were

---------------* Professor Cocker has given a classification of the Platonic Scheme of Ideas, of which

this is an abridgment.I. The Idea of Absolute Truth. This is developed in the human intelligence in its relation

with the phenomenal world, as 1, the Idea of Substance; 2, the Idea of Cause; 3, the Idea ofIdentity; 4, the Idea of Unity; 5, the Idea of the Infinite.

II. The Idea of Absolute Beauty or Excellence. This is developed in the humanintelligence in its relation to the organic world, as 1, the Idea of Proportion or Symmetry; 2,

the Idea of Determinate Form; 3, the Idea of Rhythm; 4, the Idea of Fitness or Adaptation; 5,the Idea of Perfection.

III. The Idea of Absolute Good - the first cause or reason of all existence, the sun of theinvisible world that pours upon all things the revealing light of truth. This idea is developed inthe human intelligence in its relation to the world of moral order, as 1, the Idea of Wisdom orprudence; 2, the Idea of Courage or Fortitude; 3, the Idea of Self-Control or Temperance; 4,the Idea of Justice. Under the head of justice is included equity, veracity, faithfulness,usefulness, benevolence and holiness.----------------- 51.

angry differences between the gods, so that the things and persons that were acceptable to someof them were hateful to the others. Everything holy and sacred must also be just. Thus hesuggested a criterion to determine the matter, to which every god in the Pantheon must besubject. They were subordinate beings, and as is elsewhere taught, are younger than theDemiurgus.

No survey of the teachings of the Akademe, though only intended to be partial, will besatisfactory which omits a mention of the Platonic Love. Yet it is essential to regard thesubject philosophically. For various reasons our philosopher speaks much in metaphor, andthey who construe his language in literal senses will often err. His Banquet is a symposium ofthought, and in no proper sense a drinking bout. He is always moral, and when in his discoursehe begins familiarly with things as they existed around him, it was with a direct purpose to leadup to what they are when absolutely right. Love, therefore, which is recognized as acomplacency and attraction between human beings, he declares to be unprolific of higherintellect. It is his aim to exalt it to an aspiration for the higher and better. The mania orinspiration of Love is the greatest of Heaven's blessings, he declares, and it is given for the sakeof producing the greatest blessedness. "What is Love?" asked Sokrates of the God-honoredMantineke. "He is a great daemon," she replies, "and, like all daemons, is intermediatebetween Divinity and mortal. He interprets between gods and men, conveying to the gods theprayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods. He is themediator who spans the chasm that divides them; in him all is bound together and through himthe arts of the prophet and priest, their sacrifices and initiations and charms, and all prophecyand incantation find their way. For God mingles not with men, but through Love all theintercourse and speech of God with men, whether awake or asleep, is carried on. The wisdomwhich understands this is spiritual; all other wisdom, such as that of arts or handicrafts, ismean and vulgar. Now these spiritual essences or intermediaries are many and diverse, and oneof them is Love."

It is manifest then, that Plato emulates no mere physical attraction, no passionlessfriendship, but an ardent, amorous quest of

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the Soul for the Good and the True. It surpasses the former as the sky exceeds the earth. Platodescribes it in glowing terms: "We, having been initiated and admitted to the beatific vision,journeyed with the chorus of heaven; beholding ravishing beauties ineffable and possessingtranscendent knowledge; for we were freed from the contamination of that earth to which we

are bound here, as an oyster to his shell."In short, goodness was the foundation of his ethics, and a divine intuition the core of all

his doctrines.When, however, we seek after detail and formula for a religious or philosophic system,

Plato fails us. Herein each must minister to himself. The Akademe comprised method ratherthan system; how to know the truth, what fields to explore, what tortuous paths and pitfalls toshun. Every one is left free in heart and mind to deduce his own conclusions. It is the Truth,and not Plato or any other teacher, that makes us free. And we are free only in so far as weperceive the Supernal Beauty and apprehend the Good.

(Theosophy, July, 1897)

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THE PARABLE OF ATLANTIS - KRITIAS - TIMAIOS

The name of Kritias, which Plato prefixed to the last of the Dialogues, was by no meanspopular in Athens. Belonging to one of the most honored families, his career had not beenworthy, or of benefit to his country. For a time Kritias had been one of the followers ofSocrates, but upon being remonstrated with for his gross misconduct, he turned from histeacher, and even became a bitter enemy. Taking part in some of the revolutions after the deathof Pericles, Kritias was banished from Athens. He returned, however, some years afterward, atthe time that Lysander entered the city, and was appointed a member of the Council of Thirty,which had been created to frame a new constitution for the city. His ascendancy wascharacterized by the capital execution of several thousand individuals. He issued an edictforbidding lectures and discourse upon philosophy and liberal learning. At the end of fourmonths the Athenians regained the control of public affairs and Kritias was slain in a partisanconflict.

Despite the apparent incongruity of representing him as sustaining friendly relations withSocrates, whom he actually had endeavored to involve in serious difficulty and peril, it wasevidently in the mind of Plato to leave a remembrance of him which would be more favorable,showing characteristics of real merit, and perhaps to relieve his name from somewhat of theobloquy resting upon it. He was an uncle of the philosopher and had endeavored to introducehis nephew into the public service and otherwise promote his welfare. Possibly one of thereasons for his hostility to Socrates had been for his influence in attracting the young man frompolitics to philosophy; and it may be that Plato himself, though he had refused to enter

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public life under the conditions then prevailing, nevertheless cherished gratitude for the effortsin his behalf; and perhaps there were also considerations of family affection, which, indeed, inthose days were regarded as of transcendent importance.

Socrates had been represented in The Republic as having described the commonwealth as

it should be constituted, how its citizens should be reared and instructed, and what is requiredfor the public defense and for the permanency and welfare of the entire community. Kritias,who has been a silent listener, is now mentioned by him as being thoroughly informed in thesematters, and begins to tell of an Athens of many thousand years before, that had beenestablished on such principles, and had maintained them successfully and alone, in a warbetween the peoples of Greece and Atlantis. He gives way, however, to the philosopherTimaios, whose extended account of the origin of the universe, the human race and otherinhabitants, has already been noticed. He then follows in his turn with a record which had beenpreserved in the family of Solon, and declared to be in every respect true. When Solon hadcompleted the remodeling of the government of Athens and observed the effect of his changes,he made a journey to Egypt. The former restrictions upon foreigners had been relaxed, and atthe order of the king, Amosis II, who lived at Sais, he was admitted to the instructions whichwere given at the temple of the goddess Neith.* Endeavoring to draw them out in relation tomatters of antiquity he affected to boast of the progenitors of the Hellenic peoples. "Ah, Solon,Solon," responded the oldest priest of the group, "you Greeks are nothing but boys, and there isnot a Greek of any age really mature. You have no traditions, no learning that is of any greatantiquity." Then the old man went on to tell of many great deluges, many devastations bycatastrophe and volcanic action, remarkable changes in the configuration of the sky and otherwonderful events.

Then, he adds, there was an Athens, which had been founded

-----------* The names, "Sais" and "Neith," are words of two syllables, the vowels not being

diphthonged, are to be pronounced separately.-------------- 55.

nine thousand years before and a thousand years before Sais itself. It was a model city, and itscustoms had been such as the Saites themselves had been eager to copy. The goddess herself,Neith-Athena, the tutelary alike of each of the cities, had established them. There were thesacred class devoted to religion and learning; the craftsmen of different kinds, who meddledwith none outside their guild; the shepherds, huntsmen and tillers of the soil. There were alsothe soldiers who followed no other calling. Likewise, in regard to the superior knowledge, thelaw took cognizance of it from the beginning, not only in respect to all the universe, but even todivination and the medical art with regard to hygiene, and hence from these divine subjects tohuman affairs generally and the branches of learning connected with them. The goddess ofwisdom selected the site of Athens because she foresaw that its wholesome climate wouldfavor the growth of a superior race of men, wise like herself. Then under these auspices, andwhat is better, under a good government,* there sprang up a people surpassing all others inevery thing meritorious, as became those who were the offspring and under the tutelage of thegods.

Nine thousand years before, says the Egyptian priest, there existed a state of war over theknown world. Beyond the Pillars of Heracles the ocean was at that time open and navigable forgalleys, and there existed fronting the continent an island larger than Libya and Asia Minortogether. There were likewise other islands which were in alliance with it, and they were

subject to a powerful confederation of kings, who also held the western regions of Europe

------------* Konfucius was journeying with his disciples through a distant region. Meeting a

woman by a well, he questioned her of her husband, her father and other kindred. They had allbeen killed by a tiger, she replied. "Why," demanded the sage, "why do you not remove from aregion that is infested by such a ferocious beast." "Because," replied she, "we have a goodgovernment." Turning to his disciples, the sage remarked: "See, a bad government is morefeared than a ravenous tiger."--------------- 56.

and Africa under their dominion.At that period Athens was foremost among the commonwealths of Greece. It was

distinguished for the superiority of its population in moral stamina, in the arts, and in war. Atfirst that city was leader of the Greek peoples, but finally they all stood aloof, leaving Athens tomaintain alone the conflict with the kings of Atlantis. The invaders were routed, andindependence was thus preserved for the free states, and won for all others within the pillars ofHeracles.

Afterward there came a succession of violent earthquakes and floods. In a single day andnight the people of Athens were buried beneath the earth, and the island of Atlantis wasengulfed in the waters. Hence only mud remains where that region once existed, and the oceanwhere it existed formerly is neither navigable nor even accessible.

According to the ancient legends the whole earth was originally apportioned among thegods. There was no contest among them in order that one might seize the domain of the other.But each one occupied the portion allotted, peopled it, and attended to the welfare of thoseunder his charge. The gods did not coerce their subjects arbitrarily, but, like skillful pilots, ledthem by persuasions. The domain of each was assigned according to his peculiar character. AsHephaestos and Athena, having the same father and disposition, were also alike in the love ofwisdom and liberal art, Athens was assigned jointly to them as being adapted naturally tosuperior excellence and intelligence. Here they planted the antochthones, natives of the soil,making the men good and orderly. Owing to the devastations of the floods the records of thesetimes were lost. The survivors could not read, and hence only names were preserved. Theseincluded women as well as men, because both sexes engaged alike in the pursuits of war. Inaccordance with that usage they dedicated a statue of the goddess armed as a soldier, inrecognition of the fact that all living beings associating together, female, as well as male, havethe natural ability common to each race to follow every meritorious pursuit.

The dominion of Athens, as the priest declared, then extended over all the territory ofAttika. The region was much larger than in

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later periods, for floods had not then washed away the earth, and the soil was very productive. The population was composed of craftsmen in the various callings, and of those who labored atagriculture. There was also the noble caste of warriors, twenty thousand in number, who hadbeen set apart originally by the divine founders of the Commonwealth. Its members lived apart

from the others, on the higher ground around the temples. They held their possessions incommon, eating at a common table, and sustaining no familiar relations with the other citizensin the lower districts, except as was necessary to procure food and other matters of necessity. From this caste were taken the guardians of the commonwealth, the defenders of the country,the rulers and magistrates. Such being their quality, and their administration of affairs, both intheir own community and in the rest of Greece being just, they were distinguished over Europeand Asia, both for personal beauty and moral excellence. Kritias insists accordingly that theAthens of that far-off time was like the commonwealth which had been described in thephilosophical dialogue.

When at the beginning the whole earth was apportioned among the gods to assure theirworship and sacrifices, the Atlantic island was in the allotment of Poseidon.* Among thenatives of Atlantis was Evenor, whose daughter, Kleito, won the regard of the

-----------* Mr. Robert Brown, Jr., of Barton-on-Humber, England, has given in his little treatise,

"Poseidon," a very full account of the parts of the globe anciently regarded as subject to thisdivinity and not to Zeus. He was regarded as overlord in the countries of the Mediterraneanand Archipelago, except in Egypt and parts of Greece. The voyages of Ulysses or Odysseuswere supposed to have taken place in the region allotted to him. Hence the defiance ofPolyphomos, the Kyklops, to the authority of Zeus. The voyages of Aeneas were in thatregion, and it is noteworthy that the principal personages and monsters which were fabled tohave been slain by Theseus and Herakles were connected with him, indicating by allegory achange in religion as well as in civil government.-------------- 58.

divine overlord. Poseidon accordingly constructed a residence for her on the island,surrounding it with high belts of land alternating with other zones of sea. For at that time shipsand navigation were not known. She became the mother of ten sons, in five pairs, on whomPoseidon bestowed dominion. The oldest was placed over his mother's home and the regionabout it, which was the largest and most desirable in the island. He was also made king overthe whole territory. The other brothers also received rich allotments and were appointed tosovereignty in subordination to the eldest. He also gave them names, which Kritias explains ashaving been translated into Greek. The designation of the oldest brother, Atlas, may evokesome question. Not only is it the name of a range of mountains in Africa, but the term Atlan isalso used for titles of places in America.

These princes and their descendants, we are told, dwelt for many generations as rulers inthe "Sea of Islands," and extended their dominion to the Continent, including in it all Libya asfar as Egypt and Europe clear to Italy. The family of Atlas surpassed all the others. The oldestson succeeded the father, and they all possessed wealth beyond the power of computing. Muchof this was procured from foreign countries, but their principal riches was obtained in the islanditself. Atlantis abounded in rich ores. One of these, orichalkon, or mountain copper, was nextin value to gold itself. Kritias declares that only the name was known; nevertheless one mayask whether platinum was meant. There was also wood produced in abundance suitable forbuilding and other purposes; and also grass and other plants for the food of animals, both wildand tame. There was even a profusion of food for elephants, of which there were great

numbers. Nature, with the aid of human ingenuity thus supplied in plenty whatever wouldexcite the palate, please the sick or gratify the fancy.

The enterprise and industry of the population are glowingly described. Atlantisabounded in temples, magnificent houses, and in ports and docks for commerce. The belts ofwater with which Poseidon had surrounded the metropolis were bridged over, thus givingaccess to the royal residence. A canal was likewise constructed, three hundred feet wide and ahundred feet deep, extending from the ocean to the outermost zone of water. Tunnels

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were also made through the belts of land so that the zone of water became a harbor for vessels. A high wall of stone was erected at the outermost belt of land which surrounded the metropolis,and other walls of similar structure were built at the interior circuits. The outer wall wascovered with a coating of copper; the next wall was coated with silver, and the innermost wallwith orichalkon, which shone with a ruddy glow.

The stone with which these walls were built had been quarried on the central island, andthere were three kinds, white, red and black. Many of the buildings were in plain style, but inothers the three kinds of stone were ingeniously combined so as to produce an agreeable effect.

At the beginning a magnificent building was erected as a dwelling for the divinity and forthe ancestors. Each monarch as he came to power added to its embellishments, endeavoring toexcel those who had preceded him, till it became wonderful for size and the beauty of theworks.

Kritias proceeds now to describe the wealth and luxury of the people of Atlantis. Insidethe citadel was the temple dedicated to Kleito and Poseidon. It was surrounded by an enclosureof gold. There were brought to it every year contributions from the ten principalities, andsacrifices were presented to each of the divinities. There was also a temple to Poseidonhimself, over six hundred feet long and three hundred wide, built and adorned with Orientalsplendor. The body of the edifice was coated with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. Insideof the building, the roof was of ivory; and it was adorned everywhere with gold, silver andorichalkon. All the other parts of the wall and floor were lined with orichalkon. There werenumerous statues of gold. The god himself was represented standing upon a car attached towhich were six winged horses, his head touching the roof, as he stood. A hundred Nereidsriding on dolphins were by him, indicating that he was the tutelary of the ocean as well as ofthe seismic territories. Other statutes likewise, some the gift of private individuals and otherspresented from the subordinate princedoms were placed there, part of them inside and partoutside the building. In short, the whole was of a style and magnificence

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corresponding with the government and the splendor which attended the public worship.The principal island abounded with springs, both cold and hot, which the inhabitants

employed for their private fountains. They built their houses around them, placing tanks inthem, some for cold water to use in summer and others for hot water in winter. The baths forthe royal family were apart from the others, and those for the women separate from those of themen. There were also baths for the horses and cattle, all of which were kept scrupulouslyclean.

The stream of water which flowed from this region, was conducted to the Grove ofPoseidon, a sacred domain, where were trees of every kind, growing to prodigious size andheight. The water was carried thence by aqueducts to the circles outside.

On the island were many temples dedicated to different divinities, and likewise publicgardens and places of exercise, some for men and some for horses. There was a race-course inthe largest island, over a furlong wide and extending the whole way around the circumferencefor contests of speed between the horses.

There were barracks for the troops; part in the belt of land next the citadel, and partinside, near the royal quarters. The docks were filled with triremes and naval stores.

Such were the conditions about the royal residence. Crossing the three harbors, one cameto a wall which went completely around, beginning from the sea and fifty furlongs from theoutermost harbor near the metropolis. This enclosed both the entrance of the canal and theentrance to the ocean. This area was covered with buildings densely crowded together. Thecanal and harbor were always full of vessels, and thus there was an incessant din kept up dayand night.

The rest of the country differed in many particulars. The whole region had a highelevation above the level of the sea. There was an extensive plain immediately surrounding thecity, which was encircled by a range of mountains sloping toward the sea. The country was ofoblong shape extending over three thousand stadia (or about forty miles) and about twothousand directly across. It lay toward the south, and so was sheltered from the north. Themountains were numerous and beautiful, and there were many villages, rivers, lakes,

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and meadows, which supplied food in abundance, and likewise wood suitable for all kinds ofwork.

A deep canal extended around the plain, ten thousand furlongs in length. It received thewater from the mountains, and winding round the plain, discharged it into the ocean. Othercanals were also constructed for transportation of wood and commercial products and likewisefor irrigation in summer.

The public defense was provided by a militia system carefully arranged. The plain on theisland was divided into sixty thousand lots of the dimension of a stadium (or 660 feet) eachway. Then it was ordered that of the men fit for service each individual commander shouldhave an allotment, a hundred stadia in extent. In the mountainous districts and the rest of thecountry was also a large population, and to every man was assigned a lot by the commander. Each of these commanders was required to furnish the sixth part of a war-car, two horses, atwo-horse car without a seat, a car-driver with a fighting man, also two armed soldiers, twoarchers, two stingers, besides light-armed men, stone-shooters and javelin-hurlers, with foursailors so as to man twelve hundred vessels. The other nine sovereignties had arrangementsthat were somewhat different.

The institutions of government continued as they had been arranged from the beginning. Each of the ten kings ruled individually in his own district and commonwealth. All wasconducted according to the ordinances of Poseidon.

The first kings had also recorded their ordinances on a tablet of orichalkon which wasdeposited in the temple of that divinity. Every fifth or sixth year they assembled there incouncil, in which each took an equal part for the general welfare. They made investigation into

the procedures of each in his own dominion, and judged them accordingly. In order to assurethe faithful submission of each they sacrificed a bull beside the inscribed regulations. Thenwas an oath written there denouncing execrations on the disobedient. Making each a libationof the blood of the animal, they renewed the oath to do justice, to punish offenders rigidly,never to transgress the laws, and never to rule or obey any ruler except according to the laws. Then having partaken of supper together, they dressed themselves in robes

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of dark blue color, and proceeded to scrutinize each other's procedures of administration. Theirdecisions in each case were inscribed on a golden tablet, which was deposited in the templetogether with their robes of office.

The ten kings were obligated not to make war on one another, but to give their aid in caseof any movement to exterminate any royal family. The supreme dominion over the whole wasthus assigned to the Atlantic family, but a king was not permitted to put any of them to deathwithout approval of half the others.

For many generations, so long as the inherited nature of the god their ancestor remainedto aid them, they continued obedient to the laws and held in affectionate regard their kindreddivine parentage. For they were possessed of a genuine high-mindedness and noble principles,and also combined mildness with discretion in incidental matters and in their relations with oneanother. They held everything in low esteem except it was meritorious; thought lightly ofriches, and were not intoxicated by luxury. Being thus circumspect in conduct, they were quickto perceive that all these benefits are increased by friendship combined with virtue; but thatwhen too eagerly sought after and overvalued, they became corrupt and worthless.

To such consideration as this, and to the divine nature which continued inherent in them,was due their great prosperity. But eventually the divine quality which was hereditary in themwas effaced by much and frequent intermingling in nuptial union with the mortal element; andso the moral character common to other men became ascendant. They became unable to copewith events, and began also to behave unbecomingly. To those who could discern, theyappeared to have parted with their most excellent qualities, and to have become ignoble andbase. Yet though they were greedy and oppressive, they seemed to those who were unable toappreciate true blessedness, to be in the highest degree happy and fortunate.

It was then that Zeus, the supreme God who rules by laws, and is able to descry thesethings, perceived a noble race involved in wretched conditions. He resolved to call it toaccount, in order that its members might again be made watchful and return to the sense of

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what is right. Accordingly he assembled all the gods in council in their most holy habitation. This being at the centre of the universe, commands a view of everything belonging to theregion of change below. Having collected them together he proceeded to announce hispurpose.

Here the story of Kritias abruptly concludes and a sentence is left unfinished. There is atradition that Plato's death took place while engaged in writing; and as the trilogy isunfinished, it would appear as though this was the point at which his work was interrupted. Perhaps, however, he was in the habit of writing his composition as he had matter and

opportunity, and was awaiting the moment at which to resume.Modern critics are generally agreed in declaring the story a myth. Yet it was anciently

believed by many to be substantially the record of actual fact. The present condition of theAtlantic ocean at a distance beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, seems to indicate that the tale of thesubmergence of large islands at that region is not without plausibility. Other ancient writershave accepted the belief of a populous country, somewhere in that direction; and Mr. J. D.Baldwin in his treatise on "Prehistoric Nations," cites from Pere de Bourbourg, to show theexistence of a dominion in Central America greatly resembling that of Atlantis. There may beas much unwisdom in the ignotum pro absurdo as in ignotum pro magnifica.

Parables are not altogether fictitious narratives. Occult symbolism often employspeculiar names, historic occurrences, and analogous matters for its purposes, and evenintermingles its problems with them. It is not at all necessary in ascribing a figurative characterto the story of Atlantis, to doubt the genuineness of the legend respecting it. That may be leftwisely to future exploration.

In this dialogue, the former Athens is indicated as a model government where the best ofthe citizens, the aristoi, managed all the public affairs. Kritias accordingly declares it to besuch a commonwealth as had been depicted in The Republic. He intermingles allusionsincident to its history, such as the leading of the other cities of Greece, and sometimes asfighting alone, as was the case in the long conflict with Persia.

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Atlantis is described as a confederation of kingdoms, such as Greece may have been inthe early periods. It has Poseidon for its overlord, as did most of the Grecian states, and themonarchies which deteriorated to corrupt and unendurable despotisms. The overthrow of theseis represented in legends by the exploits of Theseus and Herakles; and the story of Atlantisseems to have been brought to an analogous period of such a character.

In the rival nations, Athens and Atlantis, are likewise symbolic representations of man inhis moral and spiritual conditions. In the Athenian commonwealth he is faultless, his tastes andtalent are kept employed and his several relations personal and social, are observed after themost exemplary manner. For the ideal state has its correspondent likeness in the ideal man; and the influence of that man and the ideal extend over the whole earth.

Atlantis in like manner represents man in the other phase of character. We have thespectacle of ten kings, sons of Poseidon, ten being the number denoting completeness. AsPoseidon ruled his domain by arbitrary law, so the dominion is strictly arranged. All that isneeded is provided and arranged. Every want is met, every desire anticipated. So long as thehereditary divine quality and its influence are dominant all goes on well. But as with manwhen developing into adult life, there comes admixture from without. There are lapses fromprimitive integrity. As flatterers and time servers do not take notice of this in a monarch, so theindividual is apt not to be conscious of serious dereliction in himself. Only those capable ofdiscerning the spirit, the divinely illuminated, perceive the fall and its accompaniments.

There are both an Athens of unblemished fame and an enfeebled, demoralized Atlantis inevery human being. "So," says Paul, "with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but withthe flesh the law of sin."

To this point, the speaker draws our attention. What is beyond is left for conjecture. Thecatastrophe of Atlantis has been told, but only as a physical occurrence. It is also added that

Zeus himself, the supreme Arbiter, is about to take in hand the correcting of the unrighteousconditions and restoration to primeval order.

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Thus we have the problem; it is ours individually to solve.

(The Word, Vol. 3, pp. 82-92, May, 1906)

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THE TEACHINGS OF PLOTINOS

Augustin, the celebrated bishop of Hippo in Northern Africa, described Plotinos as "Platorisen from the dead." The singular probity of his character, his profound knowledge, hisintuitive perception which often seemed like omniscience, his ecstatic vision of Divinity, joinedwith extraordinary sagacity in worldly matters, seemed to warrant such a declaration. The littlethat is known of his personal history has been given by his more distinguished disciple,Porphyry, who considered him divinely inspired.

The Platonic philosophy had been preserved by the Older Akademe approximatingsomewhat toward the Pythagorean principles and then returning to the doctrines of the greatphilosopher. There were also other schools, more or less amplifying his teachings in the waydown to the close of the Macedonian period. The establishment or the famous Museum andLibrary at Alexandreia was the occasion for a new departure. The representatives of everyschool of thought were invited thither, Wise Men of the Far East, together with the Sages of theregions then known as the West. There had occurred a great upheaval in philosophic andreligious thought, which added importance to the undertaking. Asoka, a Piyadarsi of India,having abandoned Jainism for Buddhism, had engaged in the most extensive work ofpropaganda ever known, and sent eighty thousand missionaries, Southward, Eastward,Northward, and even to the Greek-speaking countries. The Jews had their Temple in Egypt,erected by their legitimate High Priest, and not inferior to the sanctuary at Jerusalem, or itsrival on Mount Gerizim. There were also Therapeutae, and sects of philosophy not necessaryto enumerate. All were welcomed by the Ptolemies to the Lecture Rooms at their capital, andtheir books were eagerly procured for the Great Library. There was also a purpose to surpass the similar

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enterprise then in active operation at Pergamos.Under these auspices there was developed a disposition to reconcile the conflicting

sentiments, and harmonize as far as might be, the several schools of belief. As the Platonicphilosophy was most complete of all and included the higher speculation, metaphysical andethical idealism, it was best suited for the foundation of an eclectic effort. Contiguity with the

East and the general adoption of the occult Mithraic Rites over the Roman world operatedpowerfully to mitigate the hostilities incident to the various national and tribal religions. Therearose at one time and another men of ability to prepare the way for a harmony of philosophicsystems. Phila, Appolonios of Tyana, Alexander the Aphrodisian and others may be named inthe number.

Ammonios Sakkas of Alexandreia, however is generally accredited as the first teacher ofwhat is distinctly recognized as Neo-Platonism. Like other great leaders, little is recorded ofhim personally. An Indian orator once addressed a missionary: "The Great Spirit speaks: wehear his voice in the winds, in the rustling of the trees, and the purling of the streams of water; but he does not write!'' The great teachers seem to have been equally silent with pen andstylus. Konfusi, Gautama, Zoroaster, Sokrates, Jesus are known only through their professeddisciples. It was more common to publish recondite doctrines under another name as HermesTrismegistos, to which we may add the Sokrates of Plato's Dialogues, Zarathustra of theVendidad, Dionysios the Areopagite, Christian Rosenkreutz, and others with which we aremore familiar. The entire dogmas of Pythagoras were inculcated with the prefix of "Ipse dixit"; and Plato it was affirmed, taught a doctrine orally which his disciples promulgated in likemanner, but which was not preserved in writing.

Ammonios Sakkas taught at Alexandreia in the earlier years of the Third Century of thepresent era. It was his belief that true doctrines were contained in every faith and philosophicsystem, and he proposed to winnow them out for an Eclectic Scheme. The name selected forhimself and followers was that of Philaletheans, or lovers of the truth. A Zoroastrian tendencymay be perceived; the Eranian doctrines were designated as truth; all divergent systems, as "the

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Lie," He had a select body of disciples whom he obligated to secrecy, considering that the"Wisdom of the Ancients" was too holy to be confided to profane persons. This obligation,however, was set aside by Hercunius after his death.

Plotinos, however, became the representative and chief apostle of the new EclecticPhilosophy. He was a native of Lykopolis or Siut in Upper Egypt, and was born in the year205. He became a student at Alexandreia in 233, but was about to leave in disappointmentwhen he was introduced by a friend to Ammonios Sakkas. He at once in a transport devotedhimself to the new philosophy, remaining with the school eleven years. At this time theamiable youth Gordian (Marcus Antoninus Pius Gordianus) had become Emperor, and now setout on an expedition into the Parthian dominions. Plotinos accompanied the army with thepurpose "to study the philosophy of the Parthians and the Wisdom particularly cultivated by theIndian Sages." His expectation, however, was not realized, the Emperor being assassinated bya rival.

He now came to Rome, where he engaged zealously in his esoteric studies. It was hisaim to restore the philosophy of Plato in its essential character, and in short to live the life ofthe disembodied while yet in the body, as is set forth in the Phaedo. He had many disciples,many of them senators, physicians, and others of philosophic tastes. Among them wasPorphyrios, a native of Tyre, who at his request afterward edited and revised his work. Thoughhe lived a celibate and carefully abstained from public affairs, he was often made a trustee andguardian of orphan children, particularly fatherless girls, and their estates, and also an arbiter of

disputes, and he always discharged these trusts with absolute fidelity. The Roman EmperorGallienus, who greatly admired him, bestowed upon him a deserted city in Campania, to whichwas given the name of Platonopolis, and he made an endeavor to establish there a PlatonicPoliteia, but without success. The courtiers hindered his efforts.

In many respects he resembled the Yogis of India. He was ascetic in his habits,abstaining from animal food, and he is described as "ashamed that his soul was in a body." Hewould not let his picture be painted, or tell the name of his parents or the race to which he

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belonged, or even discourse about his native country. Though often dyspeptic and subject tocolic, he refused medical treatment, as unfit for a man of adult years. He never bathed, butmade daily use of massage. A pestilence raged at Rome with such violence that five thousandpersons are said to have perished in a single day. Plotinos was one of the victims. His servantshad died from the epidemic, leaving none to care for him, and he suffered terribly. His voicewas lost, his eyes blinded, and offensive ulcers covered him to his hands and even his feet. Helingered in this condition till the year 270. In this condition he was carried to Campania, wherefriends ministered to him. Here he was visited by Eustochius from Putechi. "I have expectedyou," said the dying man. "I am now endeavoring that my divine part may return to that divineessence that pervades the universe." He was sixty-four years old at the time of his death.

The veneration which the disciples of Plotinos entertained for him was almost a worship. He was reputed to possess superhuman powers. Those who became familiar with him, likethose associating with Sokrates, passed thenceforward a better life. A lady named Khion withher daughters living in his house, lost a valuable necklace, and Plotinos, looking among theservants, picked out the thief. Polemo, a young man of his acquaintance, was told that hewould have a loose life, and die early. Porphyry himself construed too literally the notion ofhating the body, and was contemplating suicide. Plotinos perceived this, and pronouncing itthe effect of disease, sent him to Sicily, where he recovered, but never saw his preceptor again.

An Egyptian priest at Rome employed a theurgic test in order to discover the guardiandemon of Plotinos. It was done in the temple of Isis, but one of the higher order appeared. "Thou hast a God for a guardian," he declared. On another occasion, one Olympius attemptedto bring upon him by magic art the baneful influence of the stars, but the malignant defluxionwas reflected upon himself. "Pius endeavor was several times repeated, but always with asimilar result. The soul of Plotinos repelled every evil assault. It was always tending toDivinity'' says Porphyry.

The oracle was consulted. and described him as blessed of the Muses and possessingendless bliss. "By the assistance of this

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Divine Light,'' says Porphyry, he had frequently raised himself by his conceptions to the FirstGod who is beyond, and by employing for this purpose the Paths narrated by Plato in TheBanquet, there appeared to him the Supreme Divinity who has neither form nor ideal, but isestablished above mind and everything spiritual - to whom also, I, Porphyry, say that I wasapproached and was united when I was sixty-eight years of age..... The gods frequently directedhim into the right path by benignantly extending to him abundant rays of divine light: so that

he may be said to have composed his works from the contemplation and intuition of Divinity."Plotinos did not readily compose books. Not till Porphyry became his disciple did he

begin, and he gave his compositions to Porphyry to revise. He prepared some fifty-fourtreatises which were comprehended in the six Enneads of nine parts each. We may surmise hisestimate of his redactor by his praise of a poem, The Sacred Marriage, composed by the latter. "You have thus yourself at the same time a poet, a philosopher, and an hierophant."

It was the purpose of Plotinos to combine and systematize the various religious andphilosophic theories, by exalting them to the higher concept. He taught the fact of threehypostases or foundation principles - the Absolute Good, Mind and Soul. "For," says Taylor,"according to Plato, the Good is superessential; Intellect is an impartible, immovable essence,and Soul is a self-motive essence, and subsists as a medium between Intellect and the naturewhich is distributed about bodies."

The Divine Being is accordingly designated by Plotinos, "The Good," "The One," "TheFirst," "The First Cause." In essence he is absolutely one and unchangeable; but plurality andchangeableness pertain to his workings. He is the Light shining into the darkness or chaos. The first sphere of his activity is Mind or Intellect, in which he differentiates himself intoconsciousness and its objects. In this Mind are the Ideas or idealities, which are at once thearchetypes and moving forces of the universe. From it all things proceed.

Thus, the Divine Spirit is the self-active, creating principle, and from spirit all matter isderived. The world and the universe are the product of spirit: as also Paul declared: "Allthings are out from God.''

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The most immediate product of Spirit, as Plotinos taught, is Soul, which in its turn shapesmatter into corporeal conditions. Receiving from the Spirit the world of ideas and the image orarchetype, it forms and fashions the world of Sense.

All existence, therefore, is an emanation and projection from the Divine One - not intime, however, but in Eternity. There is also, he inculcated, a returning impulse attracting allagain to the centre and source. Hence he made less account of external knowledges, butregarded the real truth as to be apprehended by an immediate divine illumination. He heldrevelation to be a perception the individual attains, by coming in touch with the Deity. This isEcstasy - an absence and separation of the spirit or superior intellect from the sensation andconsciousness of the body and from the external memory, being rapt in contemplation of theAbsolute Good.

Sokrates himself was frequently in this enthusiastic condition. Alkibiades describes himin the Banquet as one day during the Athenian expedition to Potides, standing by himself incontemplation, from early dawn till mid-day and on through the night till next morning, whenhe performed an invocation to the Sun and went away. Xenokrates was also thus absent fromthe body. Paul describes a similar rapture when he was himself in the third heaven or paradisehearing things unspeakable. In the initiations at the ancient mysteries, particularly at Eleusinia,it was attempted to produce or develop an analogous condition.

Sokrates in the Phaedo describes the philosophic soul as retiring within itself, pushingaside the body as far as possible, having no communication with it, and so aiming at thediscovery of that which is. Plotinos also teaches that the wise one cognizes the ideal of theDivine Good within him by withdrawing into the Sanctuary of his own soul. Others seek to

realize it, as in the Theurgic Rites, by laborious effort of an external character. The true aim isto concentrate and simplify. Instead of going out into the manifold, the true way is to forsake itfor the One, and so to float upward toward the Divine fountain of being which flows in each ofus.

He declares we cannot attain to this knowing of the Infinite by the exercising of thereasoning faculty. It is the province of that

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faculty to distinguish and define; and the infinite may not be thus brought within limitations. Only by a faculty superior to the understanding can we apprehend the Infinite; and this may bedone by entering into a state in which the individual is no longer his finite self, and in whichthe Divine Essence is communicated to him. This is Ecstasy - the liberating of the mind fromthe finite consciousness. Like can only apprehend like; thus ceasing to be finite we becomeone with the Infinite. In the reducing of the Soul to this simple condition, its divine essence,this union or identity is realized.

The mind is thus illumined with divine light. The person cannot tell whence it comes orwhither it goes.* It is he, rather, who approaches to it or withdraws. One must not pursue it,but abide waiting for it patiently, as if looking for the sun to rise above the ocean. The soul,blind to all beside, gazes intently on the ideal vision of the Beautiful, and is glorified as itcontemplates it.

This condition, Plotinos says, is not one that endures permanently. Our common humannature is not sufficient for it. It may be enjoyed now and then. All that tends to purify themind will assist in the attainment, and facilitate the approach and recurring of these felicitousexperiences.

There are different paths to the Sublime Height. Every one may take the one that is bestsuited to him. There is the love of beauty and excellence which inspires the poet; the devotionto the Supreme One and the pursuit of the Superior Knowledge which impel the philosopher; the piety and love which characterize the ardent soul. These are so many paths conducting tothe heights above the actual and the particular; and then we stand in the immediate presence ofthe Infinite, who shines out as from the deeps of the soul.

It will be perceived that Plotinos extends human consciousness from the physical andpsychic, of which we all know, to a supra-consciousness or apperception in which the higherintellect or spirit is

-----------* Jesus says to Nicodemus: "The pneuma or spirit moves whither it will, and thou canst

not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth: So is every one that is born of the Spirit."--------------- 73.

brought into communion with its like, and to the realization of being one with Divinity itself. This is the acme of Neo-Platonism. The Mysticism of later centuries which Dionysius, Eckart,Boehmen, and Malinos inculcated, and which Sa'adi and others diffused in the Moslem body,took from this an inspiration. The Apostle Paul himself recognized the doctrine. He describesthe entirety of man as "spirit and soul and body," and "delights in the law of God after the inner

man." He also treats of the "psychic man" that does not receive the things of the spirit, and''one that is spirited, who knoweth the All, but is not himself known by any."

lamblichos of Coelosyria mingled with these doctrines a Theurgic Initiation after themanner of the Egyptian priests and Theosophers and was followed by Proklos and others. Butin its simplicity as taught by Plotinos and Porphyry, there were no such secret observances, butonly a general conforming to the customs instituted for the general public. It was enough forthe philosopher to contemplate excellence and by a pure and true life realize it in himself. Suchare they of whom the world is not worthy.

(Theosophy, Sept., 1897)

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PORPHYRY AND HIS TEACHINGS

The distinction is due to Porphyry of having been the most able and consistent championand exponent of the Alexandreian School. He was a native of Tyre, of Semitic extraction, andwas born in the year 233, in the reign of the Emperor Alexander Severus. He was placed at anearly age under the tutelage of Origen, the celebrated Christian philosopher, who had himselfbeen a pupil of Ammonios Sakkas. Afterward he became a student of Longinus at Athens, whohad opened a school of rhetoric, literature and philosophy. Longinus had also been a discipleof Ammonios, and was distinguished as the Scholar of the Age. He was often called a "LivingLibrary," and the "Walking School of Philosophy." He afterward became the counselor ofQueen Zenobia of Palmyra, an honor that finally cost him his life. Longinus foresaw thepromise of his pupil, and according to a custom of the time, changed his Semitic name ofMelech (king) to Porphyrios, or wearer of the purple.

In his thirtieth year, Porphyry bade farewell to his teachers in Greece and became astudent in the school of Plotinos at Rome. Here he remained six years. Plotinos greatlyesteemed him and often employed him to instruct the younger pupils, and to answer thequestions of objectors. On one of the occasions, when the anniversary of Plato's Birthday wascelebrated (the seventh of May), Porphyry recited a poem entitled The Sacred Marriage. Manyof the sentiments in it were mystic and occult, which led one of the company to declare himcrazed. Plotinos, however, was of another mind, and exclaimed in delight: "You have trulyshown yourself to be at once a Poet, a Philosopher, and a Hierophant."

That Porphyry was an enthusiast and liable to go to extremes was to be expected. Heacquired an abhorrence of the body, with its appetites and conditions, and finally began toentertain an intention

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to commit suicide. This, he says, "Plotinos wonderfully perceived, and as I was walking alone,he stood before me and said: 'Your present design, Porphyrios, is by no means the dictate of asound mind, but rather of a Soul raging with the furor of melancholia.'"

Accordingly, at his direction, Porphyry left Rome and became a resident at Lilybaeum inSicily. There he presently recovered a normal state of mind and health. He never again sawhis venerated instructor. Plotinos, however, kept up a correspondence with him, sending himmanuscripts to correct and put in good form, and encouraging him to engage in authorship onhis own account.

After the death of Plotinos, he returned to Rome and became himself a teacher. “With atemperament more active and practical than that of Plotinos, with more various ability and farmore facility in adaptation, with an erudition equal to his fidelity, blameless in his life,preeminent in the loftiness and purity of his ethics, he was well fitted to do all that could bedone toward drawing for the doctrines he had espoused that reputation and that wider influenceto which Plotinos was so indifferent.'' [R. A. Vaughan.] It was his aim to exalt worship to itshigher ideal, casting off superstitious notions and giving a spiritual sense and conception to thePantheon, the rites and the mythologic legends. What is vulgarly denominated idolatry,paganism and polytheism, had little countenance in his works, except as thus expounded. Heemulated Plotinos, who on being asked why he did not go to the temple and take part in theworship of the gods, replied: "It is for the gods to come to me."

When he lived, the new Christian religion was gaining a foothold, particularly among theGreek-speaking peoples, and its teachers appear to have been intolerant even to the extreme ofbigotry. The departure from established customs was so flagrant as to awaken in the ImperialCourt vivid apprehensions of treasonable purposes. Similar apprehensions had led the RomanSenate to suppress the Bacchic Nocturnal Rites; and energetic measures had also beenemployed in the case of the flagitious enormities in the secret worship of the Venus of Kotytto. The nightly meetings of the Christians were represented to be of a similar character. This ledto vigorous efforts for their suppression. Porphyry, though broad in his

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liberality, was strenuous in his opposition to their doctrines, and wrote fifteen treatises againstthem. These were afterward destroyed in the proscription by Theodosios, without any attemptto answer them.

He was equally suspicious of the Theurgic doctrines and magic rites. The sacrifice ofmen and animals, for sacrifice and divination, was resolutely discountenanced as attracting evildemons. "A right opinion of the gods and of things themselves," he declared, "is the mostacceptable sacrifice."

"Very properly," said he, "will the philosopher who is also the priest of the God that isabove all, abstain from all animal food, in consequence of earnestly endeavoring to approachthrough himself alone to the alone God, without being disturbed by anything about him."

This was the very core of the Neo-Platonic doctrine. "This," says Plotinos, "this is thelife of the Gods, and of divine and blessed human beings - a liberation from earthly concerns, alife unaccompanied by human delights, and a flight of the alone to the Alone."

"He who is truly a philosopher," adds Porphyry, "is an observer and skilled in manythings; he understands the works of nature, is sagacious, temperate and modest, and is in everyrespect the savior and preserver of himself."

"Neither vocal language nor is internal speech adapted to the Most High God, when it isdefiled by any passion of the soul; but we should venerate him in silence with a pure soul, andwith pure conceptions about him."

"It is only requisite to depart from evil, and to know what is most honorable in the wholeof things, and then everything in the universe is good, friendly and in alliance with us."

"Nature, being herself a spiritual essence, initiates those through the superior Mind(noos) who venerate her." Although himself believing in divination and communion withspiritual essences, Porphyry distrusted the endeavor to blend philosophic contemplation withmagic arts, or orgiastic observances. This is manifest in his Letter to Anebo the Egyptianprophet in which he demands full explanations respecting the arts of evoking the gods and demons,

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divining by the stars and other agencies, the Egyptian belief respecting the Supreme Being, andwhat was the true path to Blessedness.

Although we read of no formal schism, there appear to have been two distinct parties -that of the Theurgists represented by Iamblichos, Proklos and their followers, and the disciplesof Porphyry, Hypatia, and other teachers, who inculcated that there is an intuitive perceptioncognate in the soul, and that there may be a union and communion with Divinity by ecstasy andsuspension of corporeal consciousness.

"By his conceptions,'' says Porphyry, had Plotinos, assisted by the divine light raisedhimself to the First God beyond, and by employing for this purpose the paths narrated by Platoin The Banquet, there appeared to him the Supreme Divinity who has neither any form noridea, but is established above Mind and every Spiritual Essence: to whom also, I, Porphyry,say that I once approached, and was united when I was sixty-eight years of age. For the endand scope with Plotinos consisted in approximating and being united to the God who is aboveall. Four times he obtained this end while I was with him (in Rome) and this by an ineffableenergy and not in capacity."

Porphyry lived till the reign of Diocletian, dying in his seventieth year. He had given thelater Platonism a well-defined form, which was retained for centuries. Even after the change ofthe State religion, the whole energy of the Imperial Government was required to crush it. Evenwhen Justinian arbitrarily closed the school at Athens, and the teachers had escaped to thePersian king for safety, there were still adherents in secret to their philosophy. Afterward, too,they came forth in Oriental Sufism and Western Mysticism, and retained their influence till thepresent time.

Among the works of Porphyry which have escaped destruction, are his treatise on"Abstinence from Animal Food," nearly entire, the "Cave of the Nymphs," "Auxiliaries to theStudy of Intelligible (Spiritual) Natures," "The Five Voices," "Life of Plotinos," "Letter toAnebo," "Letter to his Wife Marcella," "The River Styx," "Homeric Questions," "Commentarieson the Harmonies of Ptolemy." His other

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books were destroyed by order of Theodosios.The "Cave of the Nymphs'' is described in the Odyssey as situate in the island of Ithaca.

The term is figurative and the story allegoric. The ancients dealt much in allegory; and theApostle Paul does not hesitate to declare the story of the patriarch Abraham and his two sonsallegory, and that the exodus of the Israelites through the sea and into the Arabian desert was a

narrative made up of types or figures of speech. Caves symbolized the universe, and appear tohave been the sanctuaries of archaic time. It is said that Zoroaster consecrated one to Mithrasas the Creator; and that Kronos concealed his children in a cave; and Plato describes thisworld as a cave and prison. Demeter and her daughter Persephone, each were worshiped incaves. Grottos once used for worship abound in Norway. Mark Twain asserts that the "sacredplaces'' in Palestine were located by the Catholics, and are all of them caves. The initiationrites were performed in caves, or apartments representing subterranean apartments, with "a dimreligious light." Zeus and Bacchus were nursed in such places. The Mithraic worship whichwas adopted from the Persians, and carried all through the Roman world, had its initiations inSacred Caverns. To the caves were two entrances, one for mortals at the north and one fordivine beings at the south. The former was for souls coming from the celestial world to be bornas human beings, and the other for their departure from this world heavenward. An olive-treestanding above, expressed the whole enigma. It typified the divine wisdom, and so implied thatthis world was no product of chance, but the creation of wisdom and divine purpose. TheNymphs were also agents in the same category. Greek scholars will readily comprehend this. The nymphs presided over trees and streams of water, which also are symbols of birth into thisworld. Numphe signifies a bride, or marriageable girl; numpheion a marriage-chamber; numpheuma an espousal. Water was styled numphe as significant of generation. In short theCave of the Nymphs, with the olive-tree, typified the world with souls descending from thecelestial region to be born into it, in an order established by Divine Wisdom itself.

Thus we may see that the ancient Rites, and Notions, now

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stigmatized as idolatrous, were but eidola or visible representations of arcane and spiritualconcepts. As they were once observed with pure reverence, it becomes us to regard them withrespect. What is accounted holy can not be altogether impure.

The treatise on Animal Food covers a very broad field which space forbids the traversing. The point in view is of course, that a philosopher, a person in quest of a higher life and higherwisdom, should live simply, circumspectly, and religiously forbear to deprive his fellow-animals of life for his food. Even for sacrifice he regards the immolating of men or animalsrepugnant to the nature of Gods, and attractive only to lower races of spiritual beings.

He, however, leaves those engaged in laborious callings entirely out. His discourse, hedeclares, "is not directed to those who are occupied in sordid mechanical arts, nor to thoseengaged in athletic exercises; neither to soldiers, nor sailors, nor rhetoricians, nor to those wholead an active life, but I write to the man who considers what he is, whence he came, andwhither he ought to tend."

"The end with us is to obtain the contemplation of Real Being [the essence that really is]; the attainment of it procuring, as much as is possible for us, a union of the personcontemplating with the object of contemplation. The re-ascent of the soul is not to anythingelse than to True Being itself. Mind [noos] is truly-existing being; so that the end is, to live alife of mind."

Hence purification and felicity (endaimonia) are not attained by a multitude ofdiscussions and disciplines, nor do they consist in literary attainments but on the other hand weshould divest ourselves of everything of a mortal nature which we assumed by coming from theeternal region into the mundane condition, and likewise of a tenacious affection for it, and

should excite and call forth our recollection of that blessed and eternal essence from which weissued forth.

"Animal food does not contribute to temperance and frugality, or to the piety whichespecially gives completion to the contemplative life, but is rather hostile to it." Abstinenceneither diminishes our life nor occasions living unhappily. The Pythagoreans made lenitytoward beasts to be an exercise of philanthropy and commiseration. The

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Egyptian priests generally employed a slender diet, generally abstaining from all animals, someeven refusing to eat eggs, and "they lived free from disease." So, Hesiod described the men ofthe Golden Age.

The essay on Intelligible or Spiritual Natures is in the form of aphorisms, and gives thecream of the Later Platonism. We can select only a few of the sentiments. Every body is inplace; but things essentially incorporeal are not present with bodies by personality andessence. They, however, impart a certain power to bodies through verging towards them. Thesoul is an entity between indivisible essence, and the essence about bodies. The mind or spiritis indivisible, or whole. The soul is bound to the body through the corporeal passions and isliberated by becoming impassive. Nature bound the body to the soul; but the soul binds itselfto the body. Hence there are two forms of death: one that of the separating of soul and body,and that of the philosopher, the liberating of the soul from the body. This is the death whichSokrates describes in the Phaedo.

The knowing faculties are sense, imagination, and mind or spirit. Sense is of the body,imagination of the soul, but mind is self-conscious and apperceptive. Soul is an essencewithout magnitude, immaterial, incorruptible, possessing its existence in life, and having lifefrom itself.

The properties of matter are thus set forth: It is incorporeal; it is without life, it isformless, infinite, variable and powerless; it is always becoming and in existence; it deceives; it resembles a flying mockery eluding all pursuit, and vanishing into non-entity. It appears tobe full, yet contains nothing.

"Of that Being that is beyond Mind many things are asserted through intellection; but itis better surveyed by a cessation of intellectual activity than with it. The similar is known bythe similar; because all knowledge is an assimilation to the object of knowledge."

"The bodily substance is no impediment whatever to that which is essentially incorporeal,to prevent it from being where and in such a way as it wishes to be." An incorporeal nature, asoul, if contained in a body is not enclosed in it like a wild beast in a cage; nor is it

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contained in it as a liquid in a receptacle. Its conjunction with body is effected by means of anineffable extension from the eternal region. It is not liberated by the death of the body, but itliberates itself by turning itself from a tenacious affection to the body.

God is present everywhere because he is nowhere; and this is also true of Spirit andSoul. Each of these is everywhere because each is nowhere. As all beings and non-beings arefrom and in God, hence he is neither beings nor non-beings, nor does he subsist in them. For ifhe was only everywhere he could be all things and in all; but since he is likewise nowhere, all

things are produced through him, and are contained in him because he is everywhere. Theyare, however, different from him, because he is nowhere. Thus, likewise, mind or spirit beingeverywhere and nowhere, is the cause of souls, and of the natures posterior to souls; yet mindis not soul, nor the natures posterior to soul, nor does it subsist in them; because it is not onlyeverywhere, but also nowhere with respect to the natures posterior to it. Soul, also, is neitherbody nor in body, but it is the cause of body because being everywhere, it is also nowhere withrespect to body. In its egress from the body if it still possesses a spirit and temper turbid fromearthly exhalations, it attracts to itself a shadow and becomes heavy. It then necessarily liveson the earth. When, however, it earnestly endeavors to depart from nature, it becomes a drysplendor, without a shadow, and without a cloud or mist.

Virtues are of two kinds, political and contemplative. The former are called political orsocial, as looking to an in-noxious and beneficial association with others. They consist ofprudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice. These adorn the mortal man, and are theprecursors of purification. "But the virtues of him who proceeds to the contemplative life,consist in a departure from terrestrial concerns. Hence, also, they are denominatedpurifications, being surveyed in the refraining from corporeal activities, and avoidingsympathies with the body. For these are the virtues of the soul elevating itself to true being." He who has the greater virtues has also the less, but the contrary is not true.

When it is asserted that incorporeal being is one, and then

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added that it is likewise all, it is signified that it is not some one of the things which arecognized by the senses.

The scope of the political virtues is to give measure to the passions in their practicaloperations according to nature. He who acts or energizes according to the practical virtues is aworthy man; he who lives according to the purifying virtues is an angelic man, or good demon; he who follows the virtues of the mind or spirit alone is a god; he who follows the exemplaryvirtues is father of gods." In this life we may obtain the purifying virtues which free us frombody and conjoin us to the heavens. But we are addicted to the pleasures and pains of sensiblethings, in conjunction with a promptitude to them, from which disposition it is requisite to bepurified. "This will be effected by admitting necessary pleasures and the sensations of them,merely as remedies or as a liberation from pain, in order that the higher nature may not beimpeded in its operations." In short, the doctrines of Porphyry, like those of the olderphilosophers, teach that we are originally of heaven, but temporarily become inhabitants of theearth; and that the end of the true philosophic life, is to put off the earthly proclivities, that wemay return to our primal condition.

(Universal Brotherhood, Nov., 1897)

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IAMBLICHOS AND THEURGY: THE REPLY TO PORPHYRY

In the Lexicon of Suidas we find the following brief sketch of the subject of this paper: "Iamblichos* the philosopher, a native of Chalkis in Syria, disciple of Porphyry who washimself the pupil of Plotinos, flourished about the time of Constantine the Emperor (basileus)and was the author of many philosophic treatises." He belonged to a noble family, andreceived the most liberal education that could be obtained. He pursued the study ofmathematics and philosophy under Anatolios, probably the bishop of that name who hadhimself delivered philosophic lectures at Alexandreia as a follower of Aristotle.

After this Iamblichos became a disciple of Porphyry, and succeeded to his place in theSchool. He is described as scholarly, but not original in his views. His manner of life wasexemplary, and he was frugal in his habits. He lacked the eloquence of Plotinos, yet excelledhim in popularity. Students thronged from Greece and Syria to hear him in such numbers thatit was hardly possible for one man to attend to them all. They sat with him at the table, followed him

-------------* There are several persons of this name mentioned by ancient writers. One was a king

of Arabia to whom Cicero referred. A second was a philosopher who was educated at Babylonand flourished under the reign of the Antonines. The original term is Malech or Moloch,signifying king. It was applied by all the various Semitic peoples as a title of honor to theirchief divinity. The subject of this article employed simply the Greek form to his name, butLonginus translated the designation of his own famous pupil, Porphyrios, wearer of the purple.---------------- 86.

wherever he went, and listened to him with profound veneration. It is said that he probablyresided in his native city. This may have been the case, as the affairs of the Roman world werethen greatly disturbed. The philosophers, however, were not circumscribed to one region, andthere were schools where they lectured in Athens, Pergamos and other places, as well as atAlexandreia. Plotinos spent his last years at Rome and contemplated the founding of aPlatonic commune in Italy; and Porphyry was with him there, with other pupils and associates,afterward marrying and living in Sicily. Alypios the friend and colleague of Iamblichosremained at Alexandreia.

Many of the works of Iamblichos are now lost. He wrote Expositions of the doctrines ofPlato and Aristotle, a treatise on the Soul, and another to demonstrate the virtues and potenciesexisting in the statues and symbols of the gods. Another work treated of the ChaldeanTheology. The loss of this is much to be regretted. The religion of the Chaldaeans was largelyastronomic as well as mystical, and its creed could be read in the heavens. Late researchesindicate that the Egyptian, with all its antiquity, was derived from it in the remote periods. Thescience denominated Mathematics, including geometry and astronomy, was a part of thesystem, and all problems of genesis and evolution were wrought out by it. The philosophy ofPythagoras was modeled from it, and the Rabbinic learning was Chaldaean in its origin. It hasbeen repeatedly suggested that the Mosaic book of Genesis was a compilation from the sameliterature, and capable of being interpreted accordingly.

lamblichos also wrote a Life of Pythagoras which was translated into English by the late

Thomas Taylor, and published in London in 1818. Part of a treatise on the Pythagoric Life isalso yetextant. It contains an account of the Pythagorean Sect, explanations of the Pythagoreandoctrines, the Profounder Mathematics, the Arithmetical Science of Nikomachos, andTheological Discourses respecting Numbers, besides other divisions which have not beenpreserved.

The most celebrated work ascribed to him, however, is the Logos, a Discourse upon theMysteries. It is prefaced by a "Letter of

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Porphyry to Anebo, the Egyptian Priest," and is itself described as "the Reply of Abammon, theTeacher, to the Letter of Porphyry to Anebo,, and Solutions of Questions therein contained." This work was also translated by Mr. Taylor and published in 1821. The translation wasthorough and faithful, but unfortunately, it is difficult for a novice to understand. He wouldneed to know the Greek text itself. There is a profusion of unusual terms, and the bookabounds with allusions to occurrences, and spectacles in the Initiatory Rites which are nowhereexplained, leaving the whole meaning more or less vague and uncertain. It has been said inexplanation of this that Mr. Taylor desired the sense to be obscure, so that it would be difficultfor all general readers to understand it, as truth is only for those who are worthy and capable.*

The genuiness of the authorship has been strenuously disputed by Meiners, and defendedwith apparent conclusiveness by Tennemann. It is certainly somewhat different in style fromthe other works, and as is well-known, it was a common practice at that period, not only forcopyists to add or omit words and sentences in manuscripts, but for authors themselves to givethe name of some more distinguished person as the actual writer. But there is said to he ascholium or annotation in several manuscripts in which Proklos declares that this treatise on theMysteries was written by Iamblichos, and that he had merely disguised himself under the nameof Abammon.

Iamblichos was greatly esteemed by his contemporaries, and those who lived in theensuing centuries. Eunapios, his biographer, styled him Thaumasios, or the Admirable. Proklos

------------* The writer himself prepared a translation several years ago which was published in The

Platonist. It is now undergoing revision with a view to make the author's meaning moreintelligible to the novitiate reader, and notes are added to explain the frequent references toscenes and phenomena witnessed in the Autopsias and arcane ceremonies; which, howeverplain to the expert and initiated, are almost hopelessly difficult for others to understand.--------------- 88.

habitually designated him the God-like, and others actually credited him with powers superiorto common men. Julian the Emperor considered him as in no way second to Plato, andreverenced him as one of the greatest among mankind.

Iamblichos made a new departure in the teaching of philosophy. He exhibits acomparative indifference to the contemplative discipline, and has introduced procedures which

pertained to Magic Rites and the Egyptian Theurgy.* It was natural therefore that Porphyry,his friend and former teacher, who taught the other doctrine, should desire to know the natureand extent of this apparent deviation from the accepted philosophic procedures. Uncertainwhether his questions would otherwise reach the Master, perhaps then absent from Egypt, headdressed them to Anebo, his disciple, who held the office of prophet or interpreter in thesacerdotal order. He did not assume to blame or even criticize, but asked as a friend what theseTheosophers and theurgic priests believed and were teaching in respect to the several orders ofsuperior and intelligent beings, oracles and divination, the efficacy of sacrifices, andevocations, the reason for employing foreign terms at the Mystic Rites, the Egyptian belief inrespect to the First Cause, concluding with enquiries and a discussion in regard to guardiandemons, the casting of nativities, and finally asks whether there may not be after all a path toeudaimonia, or the true felicity other than by sacrifices and the technique of Theurgy.

The reply of Abammon is explicit and admirable, as affording a key to the whole system. To us, perhaps, who have grown up in another age and received a training in other modes ofthinking, his statements and descriptions may appear visionary and even absurd. We may,however, bear in mind that they did not appear so to those for whom he wrote; and shouldrespect the convictions which others

------------* "Theurgy. ....The art of securing divine or supernatural intervention in human affairs;

especially the magical science practiced by those Neo-Platonists who employed invocations,sacrifices, diagrams, talismans, etc." ..... Standard Dictionary--------------- 89.

reverently and conscientiously entertain.In the work under notice, the author plainly endeavored to show that a common idea

pervaded the several ancient religions. He did this so successfully that Samuel Sharpe did nothesitate to declare that by the explanation given of them the outward and visible symbolsemployed in the Arcane Worship became emblems of divine truth; that the Egyptian religionbecomes a part of Platonism, and the gods are so many agents or intermediate beings onlyworshiped as servants of the Divine Creator. With this conception in mind, this work may beread with fair apprehending of the meaning of the author.

He proposes to base the classification of Spiritual Essences upon the doctrines of theAssyrians, but modifies it by the views better understood by the Greeks. For example, heenumerates the four genera of gods, demons, heroes or demigods, and souls, and explains someof their distinctions. Before concluding he introduces three other orders from the Assyriancategory, making seven in all, occupying distinct grades in the scale of being.

In defining their peculiarities, he begins with "the Good - both the good that is superior toEssence and that which is with Essence," the Monad and Duad of the philosophers; in otherwords the Essential Good and that Absolute Good that is prior to it. The gods are supreme, thecauses of things, and are circumscribed by no specific distinction. The archangels are notcarefully described. This may be because they belong to the Assyrian and not to the Egyptiancategory. They are there enumerated as seven, like the Amshaspands in the Zoroastrian system. They are very similar to the higher gods, but are subordinate to them, and indeed seem to

denote qualities rather than personalities. After them come the angels. These are likewise ofthe East, and doubtless the same as the Yazadas of the Avesta, of whom Mithras was chief. The Seven Kabeiri or archangels preside over the planets; the Yesdis or angels rule over theuniverse in a subordinate way. The demons or guardians carry into effect the purposes of thegods with the world and those that are inferior to them. The heroes or demigods areintermediate between the more exalted orders of spiritual beings and psychic natures, and arethe means of communication between them. 90. Neo-Platonism

--- 90

They impart to the latter the benign influences of those superior to them and aid to deliver fromthe bondage of the lower propensities. Another race that Abammon names is that of thearchons or rulers. These are described as of two species: the cosmocrators or rulers of theplanets, and those that rule over the material world. Souls are at the lower step of this seven-graded scale, and make the communication complete from the Absolute One to the inhabitantsof the world. The result of this communication is to sustain the lower psychic nature and exaltit to union with Divinity.

This union is not effected by the superior knowledge alone, nor by the action of thehigher intellect, although these are necessary auxiliaries. Nothing which pertains to us ashuman beings is thus efficacious. There must be a more potent energy. This is explainedsubsequently.

In regard to oracles and the faculty of divining, Abammon quotes the Chaldaean sages, asteaching that the soul has a double life, one in common with the body, and the other separatefrom every thing corporeal. When we are awake we use the things pertaining to the body,except we detach ourselves altogether from it by pure principles in thought and understanding. In sleep, however, we are in a manner free. The soul is cognizant beforehand of comingevents, by the reasons that precede them. Any one who overlooks primary causes, andattributes the faculty of divining to secondary assistance, or to causes of a psychic or physicalcharacter, or to some correspondence of these things to one another, will go entirely wrong.

Dreams, however, which may be regarded as God-sent occur generally when sleep isabout leaving us and we are just beginning to awake. Sometimes we have in them a briefdiscourse indicating things about to take place; or it may be that during the period betweenwaking and complete repose, voices are heard. Sometimes, also, a spirit, imperceptible andunbodied, encompasses the recumbent individual in a circle, so as not to be present to theperson's sight, coming into the consciousness by joint-sensation and keeping in line with thethought. Sometimes the sight of the eyes is held fast by a light beaming forth bright and soft,and remains so, when they had been wide open before. The other senses, however,

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are watchful and conscious of the presence of superior beings.These, therefore, are totally unlike the dreams which occur in ordinary conditions. On

the other hand the peculiar sleeplessness, the holding of the sight, the catalepsy resemblinglethargy, the condition between sleep and waking, and the recent awaking or entirewakefulness, are all divine and suitable for the receiving of the gods as guests. Indeed, they are

conditions sent from the gods, and precede divine manifestations.There are many forms of entheastic exaltation. Sometimes we share the innermost power

of Divinity; sometimes only the intermediate, sometimes the first alone. Either the soul enjoysthem by itself, or it may have them in concert with the body, or the whole of the individual, allparts alike, receive the divine inflowings. The human understanding, when it is controlled bydemons, is not affected; it is not from them, but from the gods that inspiration comes. This hedeclares to be by no means an ecstasy, or withdrawing from one's own selfhood. It is anexaltation to the superior condition; for ecstasy and mental alienation he affirms indicate anoverturning to the worse.

Here Abammon seems to diverge from the doctrine of Plotinos and Porphyry. Indeed, heis often Aristotelian rather than Platonic in his philosophy, and he exalts Theurgy abovephilosophic contemplation. He explains himself accordingly.

The Soul, before she yielded herself to the body, was a hearer of the divine harmony. Accordingly, after she came into the body and heard such of the Choric Songs* as retain thedivine traces of harmony, she gave them a hearty welcome and by means of them called back toher memory the divine harmony itself. Thus she is attracted and becomes closely united to it,and in this way receives as much of it as is possible. The Theurgic Rites, sacred melodies andcontemplation develop the entheastic condition, and enable the soul

--------------* The chants of the Chorus, at the Mystic Rites. The choir danced or moved in rhythmic

step around the altar facing outward with hands joined, and chanted the Sacred Odes.----------------- 92.

to perceive truth as it exists in the Eternal world, the world of real being.Divinity, it is insisted, is not brought down into the signs and symbols which are

employed in the art of divination. It is not possible for essence to be developed from any thingwhich does not contain it already. The susceptible condition is only sensible of what is goingon and is now in existence, but foreknowledge reaches even things which have not yet begun toexist.

Abammon explains the doctrine of "Karma" as readily as Sakyamuni himself. Thisshows what King Priyadarsi declared, that the Buddhistic teachings had been promulgated inEgypt, Syria and Greece. "The beings that are superior to us know the whole life of the souland all its former lives; and if they bring a retribution by reason of the supplication of somewho pray to them, they do not inflict it beyond what is right. On the other hand, they aim at thesins impressed on the soul in former lives; which fact human beings not being conscious of,deem it not just to be obliged to encounter the vicissitudes which they suffer."

His explanation of the utility of sacrifices is ingenious, but will hardly be appreciated bymany at the present time. Some of the gods, he explains, belong to the sphere of the materialworld, and others are superior to it. If, then, a person shall desire to worship according totheurgic rites those divinities that belong to the realm of material things, he must employ amode of worship which is of that sphere. It is not because of these divinities themselves thatanimals are slaughtered, and their dead bodies presented as sacrifices. These divinities are intheir constitution wholly separate from any thing material. But the offerings are made becauseof the matter over which they are rulers. Nevertheless, though they are in essence wholly apart

from matter, they are likewise present with it; and though they take hold of it by a supra-material power they exist with it.

But to the divinities who are above the realm of matter, the offering of any materialsubstance in Holy Rites, is utterly repugnant.

In regard to the efficacy of prayer, Abammon is by no means equivocal or indefinite. Hedeclares that it joins the Sacred Art in an

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indissoluble union with the divine beings. It leads the worshiper to direct contact and agenuine knowing of the divine nature. A bond of harmonious fellowship is created, and as aresult there come gifts from the gods to us before a word is uttered, and our efforts areperfected before they are distinctly cognized. In the most perfect form of prayer the arcaneunion with the gods is reached, every certainty is assured, enabling our souls to reposeperfectly therein. It attracts our habits of thought upward, and imparts to us power from thegods. In short it makes those who make use of it the intimate companions of the divine beings.

It is easy to perceive, therefore, says Abammon, that these two, prayer and the other ritesand offerings, are established by means of each other, and give to each other the sacredinitiating power of the Holy Rite.

He denies the possibility of obtaining perfect foreknowledge by means of an emotionalcondition. This is a blending of the higher nature with corporeal and material quality, whichresults in dense ignorance. Hence it is not proper to accept an artificial method in divining, norto hold any one making use of it in any great esteem. The Theurgos commands the powers ofthe universe, not as one using the faculties of a human soul, but as a person preexistent in theorder of the divine beings, and one with them.

The explanation of the use of foreign terms, not intelligible to the hearer, is noteworthy. "The gods have made known to us that the entire language of sacred nations, such as theEgyptians and Assyrians, is most suitable for religious matters; and we must believe that itbehooves us to carry on our conferences with the gods in language natural to them." Names areclosely allied to the things which they signify, and when translated they lose much of theirpower.* The foreign names have great significance, greater conciseness, and less uncertaintyof meaning.

-----------* We may perhaps, see in this the ulterior reason why Brahmans choose the obsolete

Sanskrit, Jews the Hebrew and Roman Catholics, the Latin in their religious services, sayingnothing-------------- 94.

The First Cause, the God Unknowable, is indicated in graphic language, "Before thethings that really are and universal principles is one Divine Essence, prior even to the First Godand King abiding immovable in his own absolute Oneness. For nothing thinkable iscommingled with him, nor anything whatever; but he is established the antecedent of the Godself-fathered, self-produced, sole Father, the Truly Good. For he is the Being greatest and first,the Origin of all things, and the foundation of the primal ideal forms which are produced by the

Higher Intellect. From this One, the Absolute God radiated forth; hence he is the self-fatheredand self-sufficient. For this is the First Cause and God of Gods, the Unity from out of the One,prior to Essence and the First Cause of Essence. For from him are both the quality of essenceand essence itself - for which reason he is called the Chief Intelligence. These are therefore theoldest principles of all things."

This is perhaps as plain and explicit as this subject can be made. The close resemblanceto the Brahman of the Indian system, from whom proceeds Brahma the Creator, is apparent at aglance. Abammon cites also the Tablet of Hermes, which placed Emeph or Imopht at the headof the celestial divinities, and named a First Intelligence as before him and to be worshiped insilence. The Chaldaeans and also the Magians taught a similar doctrine.

It being established that the Supreme Mind and the Logos or Reason subsist bythemselves, it is manifest that all things existing, are from them - beginning with the One andproceeding to the many. There is a Trine: a pure Intelligence above and superior to theuniverse, an indivisible One in the universe, and another, the

--------------of the "unknown tongues," the use of which in religious services was so much deprecated bythe Apostle Paul. We observe the same notion or superstition in the attachment witnessed forthe word Jehovah, a term falsely literated in place of the Assyrian divinity Yava or Raman. Even the Polychrome Bible transmits this idle whim by lettering the word as J H V H, whichnobody can pronounce intelligently.----------------- 95.

universal Life, that is divided and apportioned to all the spheres. Matter is also introduced intothe circle, being evolved from the spiritual substance; and so, "materiality having been rivenfrom essentiality on its lower side, and being full of vitality, the spheres and all living thingsare created and organized therefrom."

Abammon has taken a view of Fate which though in many respects acceptable seems alsoto relate to the ruling of the nativity. It is not true, he insists, that every thing is bound with theindissoluble bonds of Necessity. The lowest natures only, which are combined with thechangeable order of the universe, and with the body, are thus subjected. Man, however, has, soto speak, two souls: one that participates of the First Intelligence and the power of the Creator,and one from the astral worlds. The latter follows the motions of those worlds, but the formeris above them, and therefore is not held by fate or allotment.

There is another principle of the soul superior to all being and becoming to all, nature andnativity, through which we can be united to the gods, rise above the established order of theworld, and participate in the life eternal and in the energy of the gods above the heavens. Through this principle we are able to set ourselves free. For when the better qualities in us areactive, and the Soul is led back again to the natures superior to itself, then it becomes entirelyseparated from every thing that held it fast to the conditions of nativity, stands aloof frominferior natures, exchanges this life for the other, abandons entirely the former order of things,and gives itself to another."

In regard to nativities, Abammon admits that the divine oracular art can teach us what istrue in respect to the stars, but declares that we do not stand in any need of the enumeration

prescribed by the Canons of astrology or those of the art of divining. That the astronomicpredictions are verified by results, observations prove. But they do not relate to anyrecognition of the guardian demon. It is true, he remarks, that there is the lord of the house, asmathematicians or astrologists declare, and the demon bestowed by him. But the demon is notassigned to us from one part of the celestial world or from any planet. There is a personalallotment in us

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individually from all the universe, the life and corporeal substances in it, through which thesoul descends into the genesis or objective existence. The demon is placed in the paradigm orideal form, and the soul takes him for a leader. He immediately takes charge, filling the soulwith the qualities of physical life, and when it has descended into the corporeal world, he actsas the guardian genius.

When, however, we come, by the sacred initiation, to know God truly as the guardian andleader, the demon retires or surrenders his authority, or becomes in some way subordinate toGod as his Overlord.

Evil demons have nowhere an allotment as ruling principles, nor are they opposed to thegood like one party against another, as though of equal importance.

The "Last Word" includes a brief summary of the whole discourse. Abammon insiststhat there is no path to felicity and permanent blessedness apart from the worship of the Godsas here set forth. Divine inspiration alone imparts to us truly the divine life. Man, theTheotos,* endowed with perception, was thus united with Divinity in the beforetime by theepoptic vision of the Gods; but he entered into another kind of soul or disposition which wasconformed to the human idea of form, and through it became in bondage to Necessity and Fate. There can be no release and freedom from these except by the Knowledge of the Gods. For theidea or fundamental principle of blessedness is to apperceive Goodness; as the idea of evilexists with the forgetting of the Good and with being deceived in respect to evil. Let it beunderstood, then, that this knowledge of Good is the first and supreme path to felicity,affording to souls a mental abundance from the Divine One. This bestowing of felicity by thesacerdotal and theurgic ministration, is called by some the Gate to the Creator of the Universe,and by others the Place or Abode of the One Supremely Good. It first effects the unifying ofthe soul; then the restoring of the understanding to the participation and

------------* The Beholder or Candidate looking upon the spectacles exhibited at the Initiatory Rites.

---------------- 97.

vision of the God, and its release from every thing of a contrary nature; and after these, unionto the Gods, the bestowers of all benefits.

When this has been accomplished, then it leads the Soul to the Universal Creator, gives itinto his keeping and separates it from every thing material, uniting it with the one EternalReason. In short, it becomes completely established in the Godhead, endowed with its energy,wisdom, and Creative power. This is what is meant by the Egyptian priests when they, in theBook of the Dead, represent the Lord as becoming identified with Osiris; and, with such

modifications as the changing forms of the various faiths have made, it may fairly be said to bethe accepted creed of the religious world.

(Universal Brotherhood, May, 1898)

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INTRODUCTION AND GLOSSARY TO ELEUSINIAN AND BACCHIC MYSTERIES

(The Following is Wilder's Introduction and Glossary to "The Eleusinian and BacchicMysteries, A Dissertation," by Thomas Taylor, edited, with Introduction, Notes, Emendations,and Glossary by Alexander Wilder, M.D., published by J.W. Bouton, New York, 1891)

INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION

In offering to the public a new edition of Mr. Thomas Taylor's admirable treatise uponthe Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, it is proper to insert a few words of explanation. Theseobservations once represented the spiritual life of Greece, and were considered for twothousand years and more the appointed means for the regeneration through an interior unionwith the Divine Essence. However absurd, or even offensive they may seem to us, we shouldtherefore hesitate long before we venture to lay desecrating hands on what others haveesteemed holy. We can learn a valuable lesson in this regard from the Grecian and Romanwriters, who had learned to treat the popular religious rites with mirth, but always consideredthe Eleusinian Mysteries with the deepest reverence.

It is ignorance which leads to profanation. Men ridicule what they do not properlyunderstand. Alcibiades was drunk when he ventured to touch what his countrymen deemedsacred. The undercurrent of this world is set toward one goal; and inside of human credulity -call it human weakness, if you please - is a power almost infinite, a holy faith capable ofapprehending the supremest truths of all Existence. The veriest dreams of life, pertaining asthey

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do to "the minor mystery of death," have in them more than external fact can reach or explain; and Myth, however much she is proved to be a child of Earth, is also received among men asthe child of Heaven. The Cinder-Wench of the ashes will become the Cinderella of the Palace,and be wedded to the King's Son.

The instant that we attempt to analyze, the sensible, palpable facts upon which so manytry to build disappear beneath the surface, like a foundation laid upon quicksand. "In thedeepest reflections," says a distinguished writer, "all that we call external is only the materialbasis upon which our dreams are built; and the sleep that surrounds life swallows up life, - allbut a dim wreck of matter, floating this way and that, and forever vanishing from sight. Complete the analysis, and we lose even the shadow of the external Present, and only the Past

and the Future are left us as our sure inheritance. This is the first initiation, - the veiling[muesis] of the eyes to the external. But as epoptae, by the synthesis of this Past and Future ina living nature, we obtain a higher, an ideal Present, comprehending within itself all that can bereal for us within us or without. This is the second initiation in which is unveiled to us thePresent as a new birth from our own life. Thus the great problem of Idealism is symbolicallysolved in the Eleusinia."*

These were the most celebrated of all the sacred orgies, and were called, by way ofeminence, The Mysteries. Although exhibiting apparently the features of an Eastern origin,they were evidently copied from the rites of Isis in Egypt, an idea of which, more or lesscorrect, may be found in The Metamorphoses of Apuleius and The Epicurean by ThomasMoore. Every act, rite, and person engaged in them was symbolical; and the individualrevealing them was put to death without mercy. So also was any uninitiated person whohappened to be present. Persons of all ages and both sexes were initiated; and neglect in thisrespect, as in the case of Socrates, was regarded as impious and atheistical. It was required of all candidates that they should be firstadmitted at the Mikra or Lesser Mysteries of

------------* Atlantic Monthly, vol. iv, September, 1859

--------------- 100.

Agrae, by a process of fasting called purification, after which they were styled mystae, orinitiates. A year later, they might enter the higher degree. In this they learned the apporheta,or secret meaning of the rites, and were thenceforth denominated ephori, or epoptae. To someof the interior mysteries, however, only a very select number obtained admission. From thesewere taken all the ministers of holy rites. The Hierophant who presided was bound to celibacy,and required to devote his entire life to his sacred office. He had three assistants, - the torch-bearer, the kerux or crier, and the minister at the altar. There were also a basileus or king, whowas an archon of Athens, four curators, elected by suffrage, and ten to offer sacrifices.

The sacred Orgies were celebrated on every fifth year; and began on the 15th of themonth Boedromian or September. The first day was styled the agurmos or assembly, becausethe worshipers then convened. The second was the day of purification, called also alademystai, from the proclamation: "To the sea, initiated ones!" The third day was the day ofsacrifice; for which purpose were offered a mullet and barley from a field in Eleusis. Theofficiating persons were forbidden to taste of either; the offering was for Aehtheia (thesorrowing one, Demeter) alone. On the fourth day was a solemn procession. The kalathos orsacred basket was borne, followed by women, cistae or chests in which were sesamum, cardedwool, salt, pomegranates, poppies, - also thyrsi, a serpent, boughs of ivy, cakes, etc. The fifthday was denominated the day of torches. In the evening were torchlight processions and muchtumult.

The sixth was a great occasion. The statue of Iacchus, the son of Zeus and Demeter, wasbrought from Athens, by the Iacchogoroi, all crowned with myrtle. In the way was heard onlyan uproar of singing and the beating of brazen kettles, as the votaries danced and ran along. The image was borne "through the sacred Gate, along the sacred way, halting by the sacred fig-tree (all sacred, mark you, from Eleusinian associations), where the procession rests, and then

moves on to the bridge over the Cephissus, where again it rests, and where the expression ofthe wildest grief gives place to the trifling farce, - even as Demeter, in the midst of her grief,smiled at the levity of Iambe in the palace of Celeus. Through the 'mystical entrance' we

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enter Eleusis. On the seventh day games are celebrated; and to the victor is given a measure ofbarley, - as it were a gift direct from the hand of the goddess. The eighth is sacred toAesculapius, the divine Physician, who heals all diseases; and in the evening is performed theinitiatory ritual.

"Let us enter the mystic temple and be initiated, - though it must be supposed that, a yearago, we were initiated into the Lesser Mysteries at Agrae. We must have been mystae (veiled),before we can become epoptae (seers); in plain English, we must have shut our eyes to all elsebefore we can behold the mysteries. Crowned with myrtle, we enter with the other initiatesinto the vestibule of the temple, - blind as yet, but the Hierophant within will soon open oureyes.

"But first, - for here we must do nothing rashly, - first we must wash in this holy water; for it is with pure hands and pure heart that we are bidden to enter the most sacred enclosure[:LFJ4i@l F0i@l, mustikos sekos]. Then, led into the presence of the Hierophant,* he reads tous, from a book of stone [BgJDT:", petroma], things which we must not divulge on the pain ofdeath. Let it suffice that they fit the place and the occasion; and though you might laugh atthem, if they were spoken outside, still you seem very far from that mood now, as you hear thewords of the old man (for old he always was), and look upon the revealed symbols. And veryfar, indeed, are you from ridicule, when Demeter seals, by her own peculiar utterance andsignals, by vivid coruscations of light, and cloud piled upon cloud, all that we have seen andheard from her sacred priest; and then, finally, the light of a serene wonder fills the temple, and we see the pure

--------------* In the Oriental countries the designation 9;5 Peter (an interpreter), appears to have

been the title of this personage; and the petroma consisted, notably enough, of two tablets ofstone. There is in these facts some reminder of the peculiar circumstances of the Mosaic Lawwhich was so preserved; and also of the claim of the Pope to be the successor of Peter, thehierophant or interpreter of the Christian religion.----------------- 102.

fields of Elysium, and hear the chorus of the Blessed; - then, not merely by external seemingor philosophic interpretation, but in real fact, does the Hierophant become the Creator[*0:4@LD(@H, demiourgos] and revealer of all things; the Sun is but his torch-bearer, theMoon his attendant at the altar, and Hermes his mystic herald* [i0DL,, kerux]. But the finalword has been uttered 'Conz Om pax.' The rite is consummated, and we are epoptae forever!"*

Those who are curious to know the myth on which the "mystical drama" of theEleusinia is founded will find it in any Classical Dictionary, as well as in these pages. It is onlypertinent here to give some idea of the meaning. That it was regarded as profound is evidentfrom the peculiar rites, and the obligations imposed on every initiated person. It was a

reproach not to observe them. Socrates was accused of atheism, or disrespect to the gods, forhaving never been initiated.** Any person accidentally guilty of homicide, or of any crime, orconvicted of witchcraft, was excluded. The secret doctrines, it is supposed, were the same asare expressed in the celebrated Hymn of Cleanthes. The philosopher Isocrates thus bearstestimony: "She [Demeter] gave us two gifts that are the most excellent; fruits, that we maynot live like beasts; and that initiation - those who have part in which have sweeter hope, bothas regards the close of life and for all eternity." In like manner, Pindar also declares: "Happyis he who has beheld them, and descends into the Under-world: he knows the end, he knowsthe origin of life."

--------------* Porphyry** Ancient Symbol-Worship, page 12, note. "Socrates was not initiated, yet after drinking

the hemlock, he addressed Crito: 'We owe a cock to Aesculapius.' This was the peculiaroffering made by initiates (now called kerknophori) on the eve of the last day, and he thussymbolically asserted that he was about to receive the great apocalypse."

See also "progress of Religious Ideas," by Lydia Maria Child, vol. ii, p. 308; and"Discourses on the Worship of Priapus," by Richard Payne Knight.----------------- 103.

The Bacchic Orgies were said to have been instituted, or more probably reformed byOrpheus, a mythical personage, supposed to have flourished in Thrace.* The Orphicassociations dedicated themselves to the worship of Bacchus, in which they hoped to find thegratification of an ardent longing after the worthy and elevating influences of a religious life. The worshipers did not indulge in unrestrained pleasure and frantic enthusiasm, but ratheraimed at an ascetic purity of life and manners. The worship of Dionysus was the center of theirideas, and the starting-point of all their speculations upon the world and human nature. Theybelieved that human souls were confined in the body as in a prison, a condition which wasdenominated genesis or generation; from which Dionysus would liberate them. Theirsufferings, the stages by which they passed to a higher form of existence, their katharsis orpurification, and their enlightenment constituted the themes of the Orphic writers. All this wasrepresnted in the legend which constituted the groundwork of the mystical rites.

-------------* Euripides: Rhaesus. "Orpheus showed forth the rites of the hidden Mysteries."Plato: Protogoras. "The art of a sophist or sage is ancient, but the men who proposed it

in ancient times, fearing the odium attached to it, sought to conceal it, and veiled it over, someunder the garb of poetry, as Homer, Hesiod, and Simonides: and others under that of theMysteries and prophetic manias, such as Orpheus, Musaeus, and their followers."

Herodotus takes a different view - ii, 49. "Melampus, the son of Amytheon," he says,"introduced into Greece the name of Dionysus (Bacchus), the ceremonial of his worship, andthe procession of the phallus. He did not, however, so completely apprehend the wholedoctrine as to be able to communicate it entirely: but various sages, since his time, havecarried out his teaching to greater perfection. Still it is certain that Melampus introduced thephallus, and that the Greeks learnt from him the ceremonies which they now practice. I

therefore maintain that Melampus, who was a sage, and had acquired ---------------- 104.

Dionysus-Zagreus was the son of Zeus, whom he had begotten in the form of a dragon orserpent, upon the person of Kore or Persephoneia, considered by some to have been identicalwith Ceres or Demeter, and by others to have been her daughter. The former idea is moreprobably the more correct. Ceres or Demeter was called Kore at Caidos. She is calledPhersephetta in a fragment by Psellus, and is also styled a Fury. The divine child, an avatar orincarnation of Zeus, was denominated Zagreus, or Chakra (Sanskrit) as being destined touniversal dominion. But at the instigation of Hera* the Titans conspired to murder him. Accordingly, one day while he was contemplating a mirror,** they set upon him, disguisedunder a coating of plaster, and tore him into seven parts. Athena, however, rescued from themhis heart which was swallowed by Zeus, and so returned into the paternal substance, to begenerated anew. He was thus destined to be again born, to succeed to universal rule, establishthe reign of happiness, and release all souls from the dominion of death.

-------------the art of divination, having become acquainted with the worship of Dionysus throughknowledge derived from Egypt, introduced it into Greece, with a few slight changes, at thesame time that he brought in various other practices. For I can by no means allow that it is bymere coincidence that the Bacchic ceremonies in Greece are so nearly the same as theEgyptians."

* Hera, generally regarded as the Greek title of Juno, is not the definite name of anygoddess, but was used by ancient writers as a designation only. It signifies domina or lady, andappears to be of Sanscrit origin. It is applied to Ceres or Demeter, and other divinities.

** The mirror was a part of the symbolism of the Thesmophoria, and was used in thesearch for Atmu, the Hidden One, evidently the same as Tammut, Adonis, and Atys. SeeExodus xxxviii, 8; I Samuel ii, 22, and Ezekiel viii, 14. But despite the assertion of Herodotusand others that the Bacchic Mysteries were in reality Egyptian, there exists strong probabilitythat they came originally from India, and were Sivaic or Buddhistical. Core----------------- 105.

The hypothesis of Mr. Taylor is the same as was maintained by the philosopherPorphyry, that the Mysteries constitute an illustration of the Platonic philosophy. At first sight,this may be hard to believe; but we must know that no pageant could hold place so long,without an under-meaning. Indeed, Herodotus asserts that "the rites called Orphic and Bacchicare in reality Egyptian and Pythagorean."* The influence of the doctrines of Pythagoras uponthe Platonic system is generally acknowledge. It is only important in that case to understandthe great philosopher correctly; and we have a key to the doctrines and symbolism of theMysteries.

The first initiations of the Eleusinia were called Teletae or terminations, as denoting thatthe imperfect and rudimentary period of generated life was ended and purged off; and thecandidate was denominated a mysta, a veiled or liberated person. The Greater Mysteriescompleted the work; the candidate was more fully instructed and disciplined, becoming an

epopta or seer. He was now regarded as having received the arcane principles of life. This wasalso the end sought by philosophy. The soul was believed to be of composite nature, linked onthe one side to the eternal world, emanating from God, and so partaking of Divinity. On theother hand, it was also allied to the phenomenal or external world, and so liable to be subjected to passion, lust, and the bondage of evils. This

------------Persephoneia was but the goddess Parasu-pani or Bhavani, the patroness of the Thugs, calledalso Goree; and Zagreus is from Chakra, a country extending from ocean to ocean. If this is aTuranian or Tartar story, we can easily recognize the "Horus" as the crescent worn by lama-priests; and translating god-names as merely sacerdotal designations, assume the whole legendto be based on a tale of Lama Succession and transmigration. The Titans would then be theDaityas of India, who were opposed to the faith of the northern tribes; and the title Dionysusbut signify the god or chief-priest of Nysa, or Mount Meru. The whole story of Orpeus, theinstituter or rather reformer of the Bacchic rites, has a Hindu ring all through.

* Herodotus: ii, 81--------------- 106.

condition is denominated generation; and is supposed to be a kind of death to the higher formof life. Evil is inherent in this condition; and the soul dwells in the body as in a prison orgrave. In this state, and previous to the discipline of education and the mystical initiation, therational or intellectual element, which Paul denominates the spiritual, is asleep. The earth-lifeis a dream rather than a reality. Yet it has longings for a higher and nobler form of life and itsaffinities are on high. "All men yearn after God," says Homer. The object of Plato is to presentto us the fact that there are in the soul certain ideas or principles, innate and connatural, whichare not derived from without, but are anterior to all experience, and are developed and broughtto view, but not produced by experience. These ideas are the most vital of all truths, and thepurpose of instruction and discipline is to make the individual conscious of them and willing tobe led and inspired by them. The soul is purified or separated from evils by knowledge, truth,expiations, sufferings, and prayers. Our life is a discipline and preparation for another state ofbeing; and resemblance to God is the highest motive of action.*

Proclus does not hesitate to identify the theological doctrines with the mystical dogmasof the Orphic system. He says: "What Orpheus delivered in hidden allegories, Pythagoraslearned when he was initiated into the Orphic Mysteries; and Plato next received a perfectknowledge of them from the Orphean and Pythagorean writings."

Mr. Taylor's peculiar style has been the subject of repeated

------------* Many of the early Christian writers were deeply imbued with the Eclectic or Platonic

doctrines. The very forms of speech were almost identical. One of the four Gospels, bearingthe title "according to John," was the evident product of a Platonist, and hardly seems in aconsiderable degree Jewish or historical. The epistles ascribed to Paul evince a greatfamiliarity with the Eclectic philosophy and the peculiar symbolism of the Mysteries, as well aswith the Mithraic notions that had penetrated and permeated the religious ideas of the westerncountries.

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criticism; and his translations are not accepted by classical scholars. Yet they have met withfavor at the hands of men capable of profound and recondite thinking; and it must be concededthat he was endowed with a superior qualification, - that of an intuitive perception of theinterior meaning of the subjects which he considered. Others may have known more Greek,but he knew more Plato. He devoted his time and means for the elucidation and disseminatingof the doctrines of the divine philosopher; and has rendered into English not only his writings,but also the works of other authors, who affected the teachings of the great master, that haveescaped destruction at the hand of Moslem and Christian bigots. For this labor we can not betoo grateful.

The present treatise has all the peculiarities of style which characterize the translations. The principal difficulties of these we have endeavored to obviate - a labor which will, we trust,be not unacceptable to readers. The book has been for some time out of print; and no laterwriter has endeavored to replace it. There are many who still cherish a regard, almostamounting to veneration, for the author; and we hope that this reproduction of his admirableexplanation of the nature and object of the Mysteries will prove to them a welcomeundertaking. There is an increasing interest in philosophical, mystical, and other antiqueliterature, which will, we believe, render our labor of some value to a class of readers whosesympathy, good-will, and fellowship we would gladly possess and cherish. If we have added totheir enjoyment, we shall be doubly gratified.

New York, May 14, 1875

----------------

GLOSSARY

Aporrheta, Greek "B@DÕ0J" - The instructions given by the hierophant or interpreter in the Eleusinian Mysteries, not to be

--- 108.

disclosed on pain of death. There was said to be a synopsis of them in the petroma or twostone tablets, which, it is said, were bound together in the form of a book.

Apostatise - To fall or descend, as the spiritual part of the soul is said to descend from itsdivine home to the world of nature.

Cathartic - Purifying. The term was used by the Platonists and others in connection withthe ceremonies of purification before initiation, also to the corresponding performance of ritesand duties which renewed the moral life. The cathartic virtues were the duties and mode ofliving, which conduced to that end. The phrase is used but once or twice in this edition.

Cause - The agent by which things are generated or produced.Circulation - The peculiar spiral motion or progress by which the spiritual nature or

"intellect" descended from the divine region of the universe into the world of sense.

Cogitative - Relating to the understanding: dianoetic.Conjecture, or Opinion - A mental conception that can be changed by argument.Core - A name of Ceres or Demeter, applied by the Orphic and later writers to her

daughter Persephone or Proserpina. She was supposed to typify the spiritual nature which wasabducted by Hades or Pluto into the underworld, the figure signifying the apostasy or descentof the soul from the higher life to the material body.

Corically - After the manner of Proserpina, i.e., as if descending into death from thesupernal world.

Daemon - A designation of a certain class of divinities. Different authors employ theterm differently. Hesiod regards them as the souls of the men who lived in the Golden Age,now acting as guardian or tutelary spirits. Socrates, in the Cratylus, says "That daemon is aterm denoting wisdom, and that every good man is daemonian, both while living and whendead, and is rightly called a daemon." His own attendant spirit that checked him whenever heendeavored to do what he might not, was styled his Daemon. Iamblichus places Daemons inthe second order of spiritual existences. - Cleanthes, in his celebrated Hymn, styles Zeus*"4:@<

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(daimon).Demiurgus - The creator. It was the title of the chief-magistrate in several Grecian

States, and in this work is applied to Zeus or Jupiter, or the Ruler of the Universe. The latterPlatonists, and more especially the Gnostics, who regarded matter as constituting or containingthe principle of Evil, sometimes applied this term to the Evil Potency, who, some of themaffirmed, was the Hebrew god.

Distributed - Reduced from a whole to parts and scattered. The spiritual nature orintellect in its higher estate was regarded as a whole, but in descending to worldly conditionsbecame divided into parts or perhaps characteristics.

Divisible - Made into parts or attributes, as the mind, intellect, or spiritual, first a whole,became thus distinguished in its descent. This division was regarded as a fall into a lowerplane of life.

Energise, Greek ,<,D(,T - To operate or work, especially to undergo discipline of theheart and character.

Energy - Operation, activity.Eternal - Existing through all past time, and still continuing.Faith - The correct conception of a thing as it seems, - fidelity.Freedom - The ruling power of one's life; a power over what pertains to one's self in life.Friendship - Union of sentiment; a communion in doing well.Fury - The peculiar mania, ardor, or enthusiasm which inspired and actuated prophets,

poets, interpreters of oracles, and others; also a title of the goddesses Demeter and Persephoneas the chastisers of the wicked, - also of the Eumenides.

Generation, Greek (,<,F4l - Generated existence, the mode of life peculiar to thisworld, but which is equivalent to death, so far as the pure intellect or spiritual nature isconcerned; the process by which the soul is separated from the higher form of existence, andbrought into the conditions of life upon the earth. It was regarded as a punishment, andaccording to Mr. Taylor, was prefigured by the abduction of Proserpine. The soul is supposed

to have pre-existed with God as a pure intellect like him, but not actually identical - at one butnot absolutely the same.

Good - That which is desired on its own account.

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Hades - A name of Plato; the Underworld, the state or region of departed souls, asunderstood by classic writers; the physical nature, the corporeal existence, the condition of thesoul while in the bodily life.

Herald, Greek i0DLH - The crier at the Mysteries.Hierophant - The interpreter who explained the purport of the mystic doctrines and

dramas to the candidates. Holiness, Greek ÒF4@J0l - Attention to the honor due to God.Idea - A principle in all minds underlying our cognitions of the sensible world.Impudent - Without foresight; deprived of sagacity.Infernal regions - Hades, the Underworld.Instruction - A power to cure the soul.Intellect, Greek <@Ll - Also rendered pure reason, and by Professor Cocker, intuitive

reason, and the rational soul; the spiritual nature. "The organ of self-evident, necessary, anduniversal truth. In an immediate, direct, and intuitive manner, it takes hold on truth withabsolute certainty. The reason, through the medium of ideas, holds communion with the worldof real Being. These ideas are the light which reveals the world of unseen realities, as the sunreveals the world of sensible forms. 'The Idea of the good is the Sun of the Intelligible world; it shed on objects the light of truth, and gives to the soul that knows the power of knowing.' Under this light the eye of reason apprehends the eternal world of being as truly, yet moretruly, than the eye of sense apprehends the world of phenomena. This power the rational soulpossesses by virtue of its having a nature kindred, or even homogeneous with the Divinity. Itwas 'generated by the Divine Father,' and like him, it is in a certain sense 'eternal.' Not that weare to understand Plato as teaching that the rational soul had an independent and underivedexistence; it was created or 'generated' in eternity, and even now, in its incorporate state, is notamenable to the condition of time and space, but, in a peculiar sense, dwells in eternity: andtherefore is capable of beholding eternal realities, and coming into communion with absolutebeauty, and goodness, and truth - that is, with god, the Absolute Being." -

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Christianity and Greek Philosophy, x, pp. 349, 350.Intellective - Intuitive; perceivable by spiritual insight.Intelligible - Relating to the higher reason.Interpreter - The hierophant or sacerdotal teacher who, on the last day of the Eleusinia,

explained the petroma or stone book to the candidates, and unfolded the final meaning of therepresentations and symbols. In the Phoenicians language he was called 9;5 peter. Hence thepetroma, consisting of two tablets of stone, was a pun on the designation, to imply the wisdomto be unfolded. It has been suggested by the Rev. Mr. Hyslop, that the Pope derived his claim,as the successor of Peter, from his succession to the rank and function of the Hierophant of theMysteries, and not from the celebrated Apostle, who probably was never in Rome.

Just - Productive of justice.Justice - The harmony or perfect proportional action of all the powers of the soul, and

comprising equity, veracity, fidelity, usefulness, benevolence, and purity of mind, or holiness.Judgment - A peremptory decision covering a disputed matter; also *4"<@4" dianoia, or

understanding.Knowledge - A comprehension by the mind of fact not to be over-thrown or modified by

argument.Legislative - Regulating.Lesser Mysteries - The J,8,J"4, teletai, or ceremonies of purification, which were

celebrated at Agrae, prior to full initiation at Eleusis. Those initiated on this occasion werestyled :LFJ"4 mystae, from :LT, muo, to veil; and their initiation was called :L0F4l, muesis,or veiling, as expressive of being veiled from the former life.

Magic - Persian mag, Sanscrit maha, great. Relating to the order of the Magi of Persiaand Assyria.

Material daemons - Spirits of a nature so gross as to be able to assume visible bodies likeindividuals still living on the Earth.

Matter - The elements of the world, and especially of the human body, in which the ideaof evil is contained and the soul incarcerated. Greek b80, Hule or Hyle.

Muesis, Greek :L0F4l, from :LT, to veil. - The last act in

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the Lesser Mysteries, or J,8,J"4, teletai, denoting the separating of the initiate from theformer exoteric life.

Mysteries - Sacred dramas performed at stated periods. The most celebrated were thoseof Isis, Sabazius, Cybele, and Eleusis.

Mystic - Relating to the Mysteries: a person initiated in the Lesser Mysteries - Greek:LFJ"4

Occult - Arcane; hidden; pertaining to the mystical sense.Orgies, Greek @D(4"4 - The peculiar rites of the Bacchic Mysteries.Opinion - A hypothesis or conjecture.Partial - Divided, in parts, and not a whole.Philologist - One pursuing literature.Philosopher - One skilled in philosophy; one disciplined in a right life.Philosophise - To investigate final causes; to undergo discipline of the life.Philosophy - The aspiration of the soul after wisdom and truth. "Plato asserted

philosophy to be the science of unconditioned being, and asserted that this was known to thesoul by its intuitive reason (intellect or spiritual instinct) which is the organ of all philosophicinsight. The reason perceives substance; the understanding, only phenomena. Being (J@ @<),which is the reality in all actuality, is in the ideas or thoughts of God; and nothing exists (orappears outwardly), except by the force of this indwelling idea. The WORD is the trueexpression of the nature of every object: for each has its divine natural name, besides itsaccidental human appellation. Philosophy is the recollection of what the soul has seen ofthings and their names." (J. Freeman Clarke)

Plotinus - A philosopher who lived in the third century, and reviewed the doctrines ofPlato.

Prudent - Having foresight.Purgation, purification - The introduction into the Teletae or Lesser Mysteries; a

separation of the external principles from the soul. Punishment - The curing of the soul of its errors.

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Prophet, Greek :"<J4l - One possessing the prophetic mania, or inspiration.Priest Greek :"<J4l, - A prophet or inspired person, Ê,D,Ll - a sacerdotal person.Revolt - A rolling away, the career of the soul in its descent from the pristine divine

condition.Science - The knowledge of universal, necessary, unchangeable, and eternal ideas.Shows - The peculiar dramatic representations of the Mysteries.Telete Greek J,8,J0 - The finishing or consummation; the Lesser Mysteries.Theologist - A teacher of the literature relating to the gods.Theoretical - Perceptive.Torch bearer - A priest who bore a torch at the Mysteries.Titans - The beings who made war against Kronos or Saturn. E. Pococke identifies them

with the Daityas of India, who resisted the Brahmans. In the Orphic legend, they are describedas slaying the child Bacchus-Zagreus.

Titanic - Relating to the nature of Titans.Transmigration - The passage of the soul from one condition of being to another. This

has not any necessary reference to any rehabilitation in a corporeal nature, or body of flesh andblood. See I Corinthians, XV.

Virtue - A good mental condition; a stable disposition.Virtues - Agencies, rites, influences. Cathartic Virtues - Purifying rites or influences.Wisdom - The knowledge of things as they exist; "the approach to god as the substance

of goodness in truth."World - The cosmos, the universe, as distinguished from the earth and human existence

upon it.

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RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

ZOROASTER, THE FATHER OF PHILOSOPHY

Seven cities are named as claiming to have been the birthplace of Homer. His greatpoem is the classic above other literary productions, but the personality of the man, as well asthe period and place in which he lived, is veiled in uncertainty.

A similar curious indefiniteness exists in regard to the great Oriental sage and teacher of

a pure faith, Zoroaster. There have been credited to him not only the sacred compositionsknown as the Venidad and Yasna, the remains of which sadly interpolated, are preserved by theParsis of India, but a large number of Logia or oracular utterances which have been transmittedto us by writers upon ancient Grecian philosophy and mythology.

Mr. Marion Crawford has presented him to us in the character of a young Persian Prince,a pupil of the prophet Daniel, who had been made governor of Media by Nebuchadnezzar. Heis described as learned in all the wisdom of the prophet himself, and the learning of the wisemen of Assyria. Dareios Hystaspis having become the "Great King," Zoroaster is compelled byhim to forego the warmest wishes of his heart, and becomes an ascetic. Having retired to aCave, he performs the various rites of religion, and passes into trances. His body appears asdead, but the spirit is set free, and goes to and fro returning to its place again. Thus he attainsthe intuitive comprehension of knowledge, to the understanding of natural laws not perceptibleby the corporeal senses alone, and to the merging of

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the soul and higher intelligence in the one universal and divine essence.The late Dean Prideaux propounded somewhat of a similar statement many years ago.

He did not scruple, however, to represent this Apostle of the Pure Law as a religious impostorand made much account of the theory of Two Principles, as evidence of his perversion of thetrue doctrine.

The conjecture that Zoroaster flourished in the reign of Dareios Hystaspis, is chieflybased upon two ancient memorials. The Eranian monarch Vistaspa is several times named inthe Yasna and other writings, and many identify him with the Persian King. Ammianus thehistorian declares that Hystaspis, the father of Dareios, a most learned prince, penetrating intoUpper India, came upon a retreat of the Brachmans, by whom he was instructed in physical andastronomic science, and in pure religious rites. These he transferred into the creed of the Magi.

Some countenance for this conjecture appears from a reading of the famous trilingualinscription at Behistun. This place is situated just within the border of Media on thethoroughfare from Babylon to Ekbatana. The rock is seventeen hundred feet high, and belongsto the Zagros* range of mountains. This was Aethiopia. Assyria was

--------------* Occult symbolism, says Mr. Brown in Poseidon, has frequently availed itself of two

words of similar sound or of one word of manifold meaning. We notice many examples of thisin the old classics and in the Hebrew text of the Bible. This name Zagros is strikingly likeZagreus, the Bacchus or Dionysus of the Mysteries, and his worship was carried from this partof Asia. In an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, we find the name "Shamas Diannisi," or Shamas(the sun-god) judge of mankind. Osiris, the Egyptian Bacchus, had also the title, apparently atranslation, Ro-t-Amenti, the judge of the West. The Kretan Rhadamanthus, doubtless here gothis name.

The Zagros mountains were inhabited by the Nimri and Kossaeans, which reminds us ofthe text: "And Cush begat Nimrod." For the ancient Susiana is now called Khusistan, and wasthe former ---------------- 117.

engraved about three hundred feet from the foot, and was in three languages, the Skythic orMedian, the Persian and the Assyrian. Sir Henry C. Rawlinson first deciphered it, and found itto be a record of Dareios. The monarch proclaims his pure royal origin, and then describes theconquest of Persia by Gaumata the Magian, the suicide of Kambyses, and the recovering of thethrone by himself. He distinctly intimates that he was first to promulgate the Mazdean religionin the Persian Empire. The Kings before him, he declares, did not so honor Ahur'-Mazda. "Irebuilt the temples," he affirms; "I restored the Gathas or hymns of praise, and the worship." Doctor Oppert, who read the Medic inscription, asserted that it contains the statement thatDareios caused the Avesta and the Zendic Commentary to be published through the Persiandominion.

On the tomb of this king he is styled the teacher of the Magians. In his reign the templeat Jerusalem was built and dedicated to the worship of the "God of heaven," thus indicating theMazdean influence. Dareios extended his dominion over Asia Minor and into Europe, andfrom this period the era of philosophy took its beginning in Ionia and Greece.

Porphyry the philosopher also entertained the belief that Zoroaster flourished about thisperiod, and Apuleius mentions the report that Pythagoras had for teachers the Persian Magi,and especially Zoroaster, the adept in every divine mystery. So far, therefore, the guess ofCrawford and Dean Prideaux appears plausible. It should be remembered, however, that otherwriters give the Eranian teacher a far greater antiquity. Aristotle assigns him a period morethan six thousand years before the present era. Hermippos of Alexandreia, who had read hiswritings, gives him a similar period. Berossos reduces it to two thousand years, Plutarch

------------Aethiopia. Assyria was called the "land of Nimrod," and Bab-el or Babylon was hismetropolis. (Genesis x - 8, 10, 11, and Micah v - 4.) The term nimr signifies spotted, a leopard; and it is a significant fact that in the Rites of Bacchus, the leopard skin or spotted robe wasworn.--------------- 118.

to seventeen hundred, Ktesias to twelve hundred.These dates, however, have little significance. A little examination of ancient literature

will be sufficient to show that Zoroaster or Zarathustra was not so much the name of a man asthe title of an office. It may be that the first who bore it, had it as his own, but like the nameCaesar, it became the official designation of all who succeeded him. Very properly, therefore,the Parsi sacred books while recognizing a Zarathustra* in every district or province of theEranian dominion, place above them as noblest of all, the Zarathustrema, or chief Zoroaster, oras the Parsis now style him in Persian form, Dastur of dasturs. We may bear in mindaccordingly that there have been many Zoroasters, and infer safely that the Avesta was acollection of their productions, ascribed as to one for the sake of enhancing their authority. That fact as well as the occurrence that the present volume is simply a transcript of sixteencenturies ago, taken from men's memories and made sacred by decree of a Sassanian king,indicates the need of intuitive intelligence, to discern the really valuable matter. ZoroasterSpitaman himself belongs to a period older than "Ancient History." The Yasna describes himas famous in the primitive Aryan Homestead - "Airyana-Vaejo of the good creation." OnceIndians and Eranians dwelt together as a single people. But polarity is characteristic of all

thinking. Indeed, the positive necessarily requires the negative, or it cannot itself exist. Thusthe Aryans became a people apart from the Skyths and Aethiopic races, and again theagricultural and gregarious Eranians divided from the nomadic worshipers of Indra.**

-------------* It is not quite easy to translate this term. The name Zoroaster, with which we are

familiar, seems really to be Semitic, from zoro, the seed or son, and Istar, or Astarte, theAssyrian Venus. Some write it Zaratas, from nazar, to set apart. Gen. Forlong translatesZarathustra as "golden-handed," which has a high symbolic import. Intelligent Parsis considerit to mean elder, superior, chief.

**The name of this divinity curiously illustrates the sinuosities of etymology. It is fromthe Aryan root-word id, to glow or shine,---------------- 119.

The resemblances of language and the similarities and dissimilarities exhibited in therespective religious rites and traditions are monuments of this schism of archaic time.* Howlong this division had existed before the rise of the Great Teacher, we have no data for guessingintelligently.

It may be here remarked that the world-religions are not really originated by individualleaders. Buddhism was prior to Gautama, Islam to Muhamed, and we have the declaration ofAugustin of Hippo that Christianity existed thousands of years before the present era. Therewere those, however, who gave form and coherence to the beliefs, before vague andindeterminate, and made a literature by which to extend and perpetuate them. This was doneby Zoroaster. Hence the whole religion of the Avesta revolves round his personality.

Where he flourished, or whether the several places named were his abodes at one time oranother, or were the homes of other Zoroasters, is by no means clear. One tradition makes hima resident of Bakhdi or Balkh, where is now Bamyan with its thousands of artificial caves. TheYasna seems to place him at Ragha or Rai in Media, not far from the modern city of Tehran. We must be content, however, to know him as the accredited Apostle of the Eranian peoples.

Emanuel Kant affirms positively that there was not the slightest trace of a philosophicidea in the Avesta from beginning to end. Professor William D. Whitney adds that if we wereto study the records of primeval thought and culture, to learn religion or philosophy, we shouldfind little in the Avesta to meet our purpose.

------------ which in Sanskrit becomes inda, from which conies indra, the burning or shining one. Thesame radical becomes in another dialect aith, from which comes aether, the supernalatmosphere, and the compounded taame Aithiopia. It is therefore no matter of wonder that allSouthern Asia, from the Punjab to Arabia has borne that designation.

* Ernest de Bunsen suggests that this schism is signified by the legend of Cain and Abel. The agriculturist roots out the shepherd.--------------- 120.

I am reluctant, however, to circumscribe philosophy to the narrow definition that many

schoohnen give it. I believe, instead, with Aristotle, that God is the ground of all existence, andtherefore that theology, the wisdom and learning which relate to God and existence, constitutephilosophy in the truest sense of the term. All that really is religion, pertains to life, and asSwedenborg aptly declares, the life of religion is the doing of good. Measured by suchstandards, the sayings of the prophet of Eran are permeated through and through withphilosophy.

Zoroaster appears to have been a priest and to have delivered his discourses at the templein the presence of the sacred Fire. At least the translations by Dr. Haug so describe the matter. He styles himself a reciter of the mantras, a duta or apostle, and a maretan or listener andexpounder of revelation. The Gathas or hymns are said to contain all that we possess of whatwas revealed to him. He learned them, we are told, from the seven Amshaspands orarchangels. His personal condition is described to us as a state of ecstasy, with the mindexalted, the bodily senses closed, and the mental ears open. This would be a fair representationof the visions of Emanuel Swedenborg himself.

I have always been strongly attracted to the Zoroastrian doctrine. It sets aside thecumbrous and often objectionable forms with which the ceremonial religions are overloaded,puts away entirely the sensualism characteristic of the left-hand Sakteyan and Astarteanworships, and sets forth prominently the simple veneration for the Good, and a life offraternalism, good neighborhood and usefulness. "Every Mazdean was required to follow auseful calling. The most meritorious was the subduing and tilling of the soil. The man mustmarry, but only a single wife; and by preference she must be of kindred blood. It was regardedas impious to foul a stream of water. It was a cardinal doctrine of the Zoroastrian religion thatindividual worthiness is not the gain and advantage of the person possessing it, but an additionto the whole power and volume of goodness in the universe.

With Zoroaster prayer was a hearty renouncing of evil and a coming into harmony withthe Divine Mind. It was in no sense a

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histrionic affair, but a recognition of goodness and Supreme Power. The Ahuna-Vairya, theprayer of prayers, delineates the most perfect completeness of the philosophic life. The latesttranslation which I have seen exemplifies this.

"As is the will of the Eternal Existence, so energy through the harmony of the PerfectMind is the producer of the manifestations of the Universe, and is to Ahur' Mazda the powerwhich gives sustenance to the revolving systems."

With this manthra is coupled the Ashem-Vohu:"Purity is the best good; a blessing it is - a blessing to him who practices purity for the

sake of the Highest Purity."But for the defeat of the Persians at Salamis it is probable that the Zoroastrian religion

would have superseded the other worships of Europe. After the conquest of Pontos and thePirates the secret worship of Mithras was extended over the Roman world. A conspicuoussymbolic representation was common, the slaying of the Bull. When the vernal equinox was atthe period of the sign Taurus, the earth was joyous and became prolific. The picturerepresented the period of the sun in Libra, the sign of Mithras. Then the Bull was slain, theblighting scorpion and the reversed torch denoted winter approaching to desolate the earth. With the ensuing spring the bull revives, and the whole is enacted anew. It is a significant fact

that many religious legends and ceremonies are allied to this symbolic figure. It was, however,a degradation of the Zoroastrian system.

It is a favorite notion of many that Zoroaster taught "dualism" - that there is an eternalGod and an eternal Devil contending for the supreme control of the Universe. I do not questionthat the Anhra-mainyas or Evil Mind mentioned in the Avesta was the original from whichmany of the Devils of the various Creeds were shaped. The Seth or Typhon of Egypt, the BaalZebul of Palestine, the Diabolos and Satan of Christendom, the Sheitan of the Yazidis and theEblis of the Muslim world are of this character. Yet we shall find as a general fact that thesepersonages were once worshiped as gods till conquest and change of creed dethroned them. This is forcibly illustrated by the devas, that are deities in India and devils with the Parsis. Whether, however, the Eranian "liar from the beginning and

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the father of lying," was ever regarded as a Being of Light and Truth may be questioned. Yetthere was a god Aramannu in Aethiopic Susiana before the conquest by the Persians.

Zoroaster, nevertheless, taught pure monotheism. "I beheld thee to be the universal causeof life in the Creation," he says in the Yasna. The concept of a separate Evil Genius equal inpower to Ahur' Mazda is foreign to his theology. But the human mind cannot contemplate apositive thought without a contrast. The existence of a north pole presupposes a south pole.

Hence in the Yasna, in Dr. Haug's version we find mention of "the more beneficent of mytwo spirits," which is paralleled by the sentence in the book of Isaiah: "I make peace andcreate evil." Significantly, however, the Gathas, which are the most unequivocallyZoroastrian, never mention Auhra-mainyas as being in constant hostility to Ahur' Mazda. Nordoes Dareios in the inscriptions name Auhra-mainyas at all. The druksh or "lie" is the odiousobject denounced. But evil as a negative principle is not essentially wicked. In this sense it isnecessary, as shade to light, as night to day - always opposing yet always succumbing. Eventhe body, when by decay or disease it becomes useless and an enthraller of the soul, isseparated from it by the beneficent destroyer. "In his wisdom," says the Yasna, "he producedthe Good and the Negative Mind. . . . Thou art he, O Mazda, in whom the last cause of these ishidden."

In his great speech before the altar, Zoroaster cries: "Let every one, both man andwoman, this day choose his faith. In the beginning there were two - the Good and the Base inthought, word and deed. Choose one of these two: be good, not base. You cannot belong toboth. You must choose the originator of the worst actions, or the true holy spirit. Some maychoose the worst allotment; others adore the Most High by means of faithful action."

The religion of Zoroaster was essentially a Wisdom-Religion. It made everythingsubjective and spiritual. In the early Gathas he made no mention of personified archangels orAmshaspands, but names them as moral endowments. "He gives us by his most holy spirit," says he, "the good mind from which spring good thoughts, words and deeds -also fullness, long life, prosperity and

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understanding." In like manner the evil spirits or devas were chiefly regarded as moralqualities or conditions, though mentioned as individuated existences. Their origin was in the

errant thoughts of men. "These bad men," the Yasna declares, "produce the devas by theirpernicious thoughts." The upright, on the other hand destroy them by good actions.

In the Zoroastrian purview, there is a spiritual and invisible world which preceded, andremains about this material world as its origin, prototype and upholder. Innumerable myriadsof spiritual essences are distributed through the universe. These are the Frohars, or fravashis,the ideal forms of all living things in heaven and earth. Through the Frohars, says the hymn,the Divine Being upholds the sky, supports the earth, and keeps pure and vivific the waters ofpreexistent life. They are the energies in all things, and each of them, led by Mithras, isassociated in its time and order with a human body. Every being, therefore, which is created orwill be created, has its Frohar, which contains the cause and reason of its existence. They arestationed everywhere to keep the universe in order and protect it against evil. Thus they areallied to everything in nature; they are ancestral spirits and guardian angels, attracting humanbeings to the right and seeking to avert from them every deadly peril. They are the immortalsouls, living before our birth and surviving after death.

Truly, in the words of the hymn, the light of Ahur Mazda is hidden under all that shines. Every world-religion seems to have been a recipient. Grecian philosophy obtained here aninspiration. Thales inculcated the doctrine of a Supreme Intelligence which produced allthings; Herakleitos described the Everlasting Fire as an incorporeal soul from which allemanate and to which all return. Plato tells Alkibiades of the magic or wisdom taught byZoroaster, the apostle of Oromasdes, which charges all to be just in conduct, and true in wordand deed.

Here is presented a religion that is personal and subjective, rather than formal andhistrionic. No wonder that a faith so noble has maintained its existence through all thecenturies, passing the barriers of race and creed, to permeate the later beliefs. Though soancient that we only guess its antiquity, we find it comes up afresh in modern

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creeds. It is found everywhere, retaining the essential flavor of its primitive origin. It has noblyfulfilled its mission. "I march over the countries," says the Gatha, "triumphing over the hatefuland striking down the cruel."

It has survived the torch of Alexander and the cimiter of the Moslem. Millions uponmillions have been massacred for adhering to it, yet it survives as the wisdom which is justifiedby her children. The Dialectic of Plato has been the textbook of scholars in the Western World,and the dialogues of Zoroaster with Ahnr' Mazda constitute the sacred literature of wise men ofthe far East.

"The few philosophic ideas which may be discovered in his sayings," says Dr. Haug,"show that he was a great and deep thinker, who stood above his contemporaries, and evenabove the most enlightened men of many subsequent centuries."

(Universal Brotherhood, Sept., 1898)

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THE WISDOM RELIGION OF ZOROASTER

"The primeval religion of Iran," says Sir William Jones, "if we rely on the authoritiesadduced by Mohsan Fani* was that which Newton calls the oldest (and it may justly be calledthe noblest) of all religions: - 'a firm belief that one Supreme God made the world by his powerand continually governed it by his providence; a pious fear, love and adoration of him; a duereverence for parents and aged persons; a fraternal affection for the whole human species, anda compassionate tenderness even for the brute creation.'"

The believers in a Golden Age preceding the ruder and unhappier periods of humanhistory readily trace in this a confirmation of their cherished sentiment. Those whocontemplate religions as substantially the same in their essential principles, can subscribeheartily to the statement. Even they who ignore and repudiate the past as solely bestial andbarbarous, and place everything in the future as a goal of effort and expectation, will nothesitate to accept the proposition as an ultimate attainment.

Yet that which is to be must be to a large degree something that has been, and arehabilitation of the old. It must have existed in idea, or it would not be evolved in manifestedexistence. Religions may have their Apostles, but Apostles are not the first creators ofreligions. For religion has its inception not from the logical reason, but in the human heart, inthe passionate desire for the better and more true, for that which is superior to the presentselfhood. It comes into

-------------* Mohsan who is here cited was a native of Kashmir, and a Sufi. He insisted that there

was an Eranian monarchy the oldest in the world, and that the religion of Hushan, which is heredescribed, was its prevailing faith.---------------- 126.

existence as an infant child, and grows gradually, taking form and shape according to thegenius of those by whom it is adopted and cherished.

When the first Zarathustra was born, Mazdaism was already divergent not only fromTuranian Shamanism but likewise from the Aryan Deva-worship of archaic India. Thepioneers of Eran were tillers of the soil and dwellers in ceiled houses and walled villages, whilethe followers of Indra and Saurva were still nomadic shepherds and fed their flocks whereverpasture was afforded, little regardful even of any respect for the enclosed and cultivated fieldsof their brethren. Yet at that period the two had not become distinct communities. "Hard bythe believers in Ahura live the worshipers of the devas," says Zoroaster.

Much curious speculation has been bestowed in regard to the identity of the Great Sageand Prophet of archaic Eran. Some modern writers have even suggested that he was simply amythic or ideal personage described in ancient hyperbole as a Son or Avatar of Divinity,because of representing the religious system of which he was the recognized expositor. Platomore rationally styles him "the Oro-Mazdean,'' who promulgated the learning of the Magi, bywhich was meant the worship of the Gods, and being true and truthful in words and deedsthrough the whole of one's life. "By means of the splendor and glory of the Frohars or guardianspirits," says the Fravardin-Yasht, "that man obtained revelations who spoke good words, who

was the Source of Wisdom, who was born before Gotama had such intercourse with God."We find him accordingly set forth in the Gathas, the most ancient literature of his people,

as an historic person of the lineage of Spitama, with a father, remoter ancestors, kinsmen, awife, and sons and daughters.* The Yasna, or Book of Worship, declares the

-----------* The father of the first Zoroaster was named Pourushaspa, his great grandfather,

Haekatashaspa, his wife Hvovi, his daughters, Freni, Thriti, Pourushist. The daughters weremarried according to archaic Aryan custom to near kindrid.-------------- 127.

following: "Then answered me Homa the righteous: 'Pourushaspa has prepared me as thefourth man in the corporeal world; this blessing was bestowed upon him that thou wast born tohim - thou, the righteous Zarathustra, of the house of Pourushaspa, who opposest the devas,who art devoted to the Ahura religion and famous in Airyana-Vaejo, the Aryan Fatherland.'"

He seems to have begun his career as an humble student and reciter of the chants andprayers in the presence of the Sacred Fire, but to have been developed in maturer years into anapostle and speaker of oracles which should impart the true wisdom to all who heard. He gavea rational form to the religious thought of his countrymen, elaborated it into a philosophy, andbegan for it the preparation of a literature by which it should be perpetuated.

Nevertheless we May not accept for him much that has been published under the name ortitle by which he is commonly known. Whether he actually wrote much we do not know. Generally, the disciples, and not the Masters, are the ones most prolific in literary productions. Besides, there have been many Zoroasters, or spiritual superiors, who succeeded to the rankand honors of Zarathustra Spitaman. All these who made contributions to the Sacred Oracles,appear to have received acceptance like that awarded to the Mazdean Apostle. Nor does thedistinction seem to have been confined to the Eranian country, nor even to the collections ofthe Avesta. When conquest extended the Persian authority to other regions, it was followed byreligious propagandism. In this way the Zoroastrian faith burst through the limitations of asingle people and country, and for a period of centuries appeared likely to become the principalreligion of the world. It was supreme in the Parthian dominion clear to Kabul* or further, andit extended over the Roman Empire as far as Germany and Scotland. As conquest removed thelines of partition between peoples, religion and philosophy met fewer obstacles. The "purethought" and doctrine may have been greatly

-------------* The Afghan language appears to have been derived from that of the Avesta. Perhaps

the book was written there.---------------- 128.

changed by the commingling with the notions of the newer receivers, as we observe in theMithra-worship and the various forms of Gnosticism. We also find men in different countriesof the East who, for their apperception and superior intelligence bore the same honorarydesignation as the Sage of the Avesta, which has created some uncertainty in later times in

distinguishing the individual who was actually first to bear the title. The Mazdean faith has left a vivid impress upon the doctrine and literature of other

religions. The Hebrew Sacred Writings of later periods treat of the "God of Heaven," and the"God of Truth,"* and contain other references significant of acquaintance with the Persiantheosophy.

The New Testament is by no means free from this influence; the Gnosis or superiorwisdom is repeatedly mentioned; also guardian angels, and various spiritual essences. Thereference in the Apocalypse to the tree of life, the second death, the white pebble inscribed withan occult name, the procession in white robes, and the enthronement, are taken from theMithraic worship.

The pioneers of the later Platonic School distinctly named Mithras as the central divinity. He had to a great degree displaced Apollo and Bacchus in the West, and ranked with Serapis inEgypt. Porphyry treats of the worship of the Cave, the constructing of a Cave by Zoroasterwith figures of the planets and constellations overhead, and declares that Mithras was born in apetra or grotto-shrine.** He

-------------* The name Mithras signifies truth. Falsehood was regarded as obnoxious to this

divinity, and as punished with leprosy. (Kings II, v. 27.)** That ingenious writer "Mark Twain" calls attention to the fact that all the sacred

places connected with the Holy Family in Palestine are grottoes. "It is exceedingly strange,"says he, "that these tremendous events all happened in grottoes," and he does not hesitate topronounce "this grotto-stuff as important."

We may look further, however. The ancient mystic rites were ----------------- 129.

describes the Mithras-worship as being in touch with the Esoteric philosophy, and his famousLetter to Anebo, the Egyptian prophet, appears to have been called forth by the apprehension ofan endeavor to qualify or supersede it by a theurgy which was chiefly deduced from the occultRites of Serapis and the Assyrian theology.

In connection with their expositions of the Later Platonism, the various philosophicwriters, as for example Synesios, Proklos, and Damaskios, quoted selections from the Orientalliterature. These have come to us under the general name of "Chaldean Oracles," but laterredactors have styled them “TV T@< -fD@"FJD@< 8`(4"” - the Memorable Sayings of theZoroaster.* They exhibit a remarkable similarity to the Neo-Platonic teachings, and we havethe assurance of a distinguished Parsee gentlemen famous alike for his profound attainmentsand his extensive liberality,** that they are genuine. He

--------------celebrated in petras, or grotto-shrines, and the temples of Mithras bore that designation. TheSemitic term PTR or peter signifies to lay open, to interpret, and hence an interpreter, ahierophant. It was probably applied to the officiating priests at the initiations, in the"barbarous" or "sacred" language used on such occasions. There was such an official at theCave or Shrine of Mithras at Rome, till the worship was interdicted. In the Eleusinian Rites,the hierophant read to the candidates from the Petroma or two tablets of stone. The servants of

the Pharaoh in the book of Genesis were sad at having dreamed when there was no peter togive a petrun or explanation. Petra in Idumea probably was named from the profusion of itspetrea or shrines, and the country was famed for "wisdom." (Jeremiah xlix, 7). Apollo the godof oracles was called Patereus, and his priests paterae. Places having oracles or prophets weresometimes so named, as Pethor the abode of Balaam, Patara, Patras, etc.

* An edition published at Paris in 1563 had the title of "The Magical Oracles of the Magidescended from the Zoroaster." By magical is only meant gnostic or wise.

** Sir Dhunjibhoy Jamsetjee Medhora, of the Presidency of Bombay who has writtenably on Zoroastrianism.----------------- 130.

declares that there is no reason to doubt that the Persian doctrine was based upon that of theChaldeans and was in close affinity with it, and he adds that the Chaldean doctrine andphilosophy may be taken as a true exposition of the Persian.

We may remark that much of the religious symbolism employed by the Persianswas identical with that of the Assyrians, and the explanations given by M. Lajard in his work,La Culte de Mithra, plainly accepts rites and divinities from the Chaldean worship.

Many of the Maxims attributed to the Eranian Zarathustra, as well as the MemorableSayings of the Chaldean Zoroaster are replete with suggestions in regard to the true life offraternity and neighborly charity, as well as information upon recondite and philosophicsubjects. They are inspired by a profound veneration as well as intuition. Every family waspart of a Brotherhood, and the districts were constituted of these fraternities.

The Zoroastrian designation of the Supreme Being was Ahura and Mazda, the Lord, theAll-Wise, Mazdaism or the Mazdayasna is therefore the Wisdom-Religion. The Divinity isalso honored as the Divine Fire or inmost energy of life - in his body resembling light; in hisessence, truth.

Mithras was the God of Truth. The Zoroastrian religion was an apotheosis of Truth. Evilwas hateful as being the lie. Trade was discouraged as tending to make men untruthful. "Thewretch who belies Mithras," who falsifies his word, neglecting to pay his debts, it is said, "isdestructive to the whole country. Never break a promise - neither that which was contractedwith a fellow-religionist, nor with an unbeliever."

As Ahur' Mazda is first of the seven Amshaspands, or archangels, so Mithras is chief ofthe Yazatas or subordinate angels. "I created him," says Ahur' Mazda, "to be of the same rankand honor as myself." Mithras precedes the Sun in the morning, he protects the Earth withunsleeping vigilance, he drives away lying and wicked spirits, and rewards those who followthe truth.

Those who speak lies, who fail to keep their word, who love evil better than good, heleaves to their own courses; and so they are certain to perish. His dominion is geographically described in the

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Mihir-Yasht as extending from Eastern India and the Seven Rivers to Western India, and fromthe Steppes of the North to the Indian Ocean.

Although much is said about ''dualism" and the corporeal resurrection, it is apparent that

it is principally "read into'' the Zoroastrian writings rather than properly deduced from them. Opportunity for this is afforded by the fact that the vocabulary of the different languages wasvery limited, and single words were necessarily used to do duty for a multitude of ideas. Wenotice this fact, by comparing them, that no two translators of passages in the Avesta give thesame sense or even general tenor. We are often obliged to form a judgment from what isapparent.

This text from Dr. Haug's translation seems explicit: "Ahura Mazda by his holy spirit,through good thought, good word and good deed, gives health and immortality to the world." Two ideas are distinct: that all real good is of and from Divinity; 2, that intrinsic goodness onthe part of the individual, makes him recipient of its benefits.

It seems plain, also, that in the mind of Zoroaster, as of other great thinkers, life issempersistent. The Yasna and Hadokht-Yasht, both "older Scriptures," declare this plainly. They recite the particulars of the journey of the soul, the real self, from the forsaken body to thefuture home. It waits three days by the body, as if not ready to depart forever. The righteoussoul, then setting out, presently meets a divine maiden, its higher law and interior selfhood,who gives the joyful assurance: "Thou art like me even as I appear to thee. I was beloved,beautiful, desirable and exalted; and thou, by the good thought, good speech, and good action,hast made me more beloved, more beautiful, more desirable, and exalted still higher." So therighteous soul having taken these three steps, now takes the fourth, which brings it to theEverlasting Lights.

Here is no talk about the resuscitating of anything that had really died. There isrecognized a continuing to live, and for the worthy one, this life is eternal, or what is the samething, divine.

For the others, there is the counterpart, a meeting with an impure maiden figure, a fallingunder the sway of the Evil Mind with

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the probations which this entails. Nevertheless we may not consider this Evil Mind assempiternal, or all-powerful; else there would be two Intelligences in conflict for dominionover the universe, and so the shifting scenes of human life could be only an absurd, pitifulfarce. In the nature of things, evil must exist as the correlative of good; but it is never anessence or a principle. It is always self-destroying and never permanent in any form. In mostold copies of the Hadokht-Yasht, we notice that no fourth step is mentioned, in the case of thewicked soul; though far from righteousness, it is not consigned to perpetual hell.

The primitive Mazdean doctrine was philosophic on these subjects as well as moral, "Allgood has sprung from Ahur' Mazda's holy spirit," the Yasna declares and he who in his wisdomcreated both the Good and the Negative Mind, rewards those who are obedient. In him the lastcause of both minds lies hidden."

Further we are told of the real origin of devas or devils, that those who do not performgood works actually themselves "produce the devas by means of their pernicious thoughts."

In the end, however, the Savior is to make the whole world immortal. Then the Truthwill smite and destroy the lie, and Anhra Manyas, the Evil Mind, will part with his rule.

By this we are not to understand any coming crisis of the external world, but apalingenesis or restitution and regeneration in each person individually. It was a true saying inthe Gospel: "This is the crisis or judging: that the Light comes into the world, and men love

the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil."Both the Memorable Sayings, and the recorded utterances of the Avesta which are still

preserved, abound with philosophic and theurgic utterances. Many of them are very recondite,others excel in sublimity. The following selections are examples.

"The Paternal Monad (or Divine Fire) is: It is extended and generates the Twin. For theDual sitteth close beside the One, and flashes forth mental promptings which are both for thedirection of all things and the arranging of every thing that is not in order."

"The Paternal Mind commanded that all things should be divided into Threes, all of themto be directed by Intelligence."

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"In all the cosmic universe the Triad shines, which the Monad rules.""Understand that all things are subservient to the Three Beginnings. The first of these is

the Sacred Course; then in the midst is the region of Air; the third, the other, is that whichcherishes the Earth with fire - the fountain of fountains and Source of all fountains, the wombcontaining all; from hence at once proceeds the genesis of matter in its many shapes."

"The Father takes himself away from sight; not shutting his own Fire in his own spiritualpower. For from the Paternal Beginning nothing that is imperfect gyrates forth. For the Fathermade all things complete and delivered them to the Second Intelligence which the race of mencall the First."

"He holds fast in the Mind the matters of mind, but sensibility he supplies to the worlds. He holds fast in the Mind the things of mind, but supplies soul to the worlds,"

"The Soul being a radiant fire by the power of the Father, not only remains immortal andis absolute ruler of the life, but also holds in possession the many perfections of the bosoms ofthe world; for it becomes a copy of the Mind, but that which is born is somewhat corporeal."

"Let the immortal depth of the soul lead and all the views expand on high. Do not inclineto the dark-gleaming world. Beneath is always spread out a faithless deep and Hades dark allaround, perturbed, delighting in senseless phantasms, abounding with precipices, craggy,always whirling round a miserable deep, perpetually wedded to an ignoble, idle, spiritlessbody."

"Extend the fiery mind to work of piety and you will preserve ever changing body.""The mortal approaching the Fire will be illuminated from God.”"Let alone the hastening of the Moon in her monthly course, and the goings forward of

stars; the moon is always moved on by the work of necessity, and the progress of the stars wasnot produced for thy sake. Neither the bold flight of birds through the ether, nor the dissectionof the entrails of sacrificed animals is a source to learn the truth; they are all playthings,supports for gainful deceptions; fly them

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all, if thou art going to open the sacred paradise of piety, where virtue, wisdom, and justice areassembled.''

Despite all these mentions of the Father and the Paternal Monad, no reference is made inthe Avesta to God as a father. Nevertheless he exhibits all the qualities of a parent andprotector; he gives happiness, rewards goodness, creates beneficent light and darkness, and

loves all his creation.Many of the Avestan utterances are sublime."My light is hidden under all that shines," says Ahur' Mazda."My name is: He who may be questioned; the Gatherer of the People; the Most Pure;

He who takes account of the actions of men. My name is Ahura, the Living One; my name isMazda, the All-Wise. I am the All-Beholding, the Desirer of good for my creatures, theProtector, the Creator of all."

The Yasna abounds with expressive sayings, somewhat of the character of proverbs."He first created, by means of his own fire, the multitude of celestial bodies, and through

his Intelligence, the good creatures governed by the inborn good mind.""When my eyes behold thee, the Essence of truth, the Creator of life who manifests his

life in his works, then I know thee to be the Primeval Spirit, thee the All-Wise, so high in mindas to create the world, and the Father of the Good Mind."

"I praise the Mazdayasnian religion, and the righteous brotherhood which it establishesand defends."

In the Zoroastrian religion a man might not live for himself or even die for himself. Individual virtue is not the gain of only the soul that practices it, but an actual addition to thewhole power of good in the universe. The good of one is the good of all; the sin of one is afountain of evil to all. The aim of the Mazdean discipline is to keep pure the thought, speech,action, memory, reason and understanding. Zoroaster asks of Ahur' Mazda, what prayer excelseverything else? "That prayer," is the reply, "when a man renounces all evil thoughts, wordsand works."

Fasting and ascetic practices are disapproved as a culpable weakening of "the powersentrusted to a person for the service of

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Ahur' Mazda." The sins of the Zoroastrian category include everything that burdens theconscience, seeing evil and not warning him who is doing it, lying, doubting the good,withholding alms, afflicting a good man, denying that there is a God, - also pride, coveting ofgoods, the coveting of the wife of another, speaking ill of the dead, anger, envy, discontent withthe arrangements of God, sloth, scorn, false witness.

The soul of man is a ray from the Great Soul, by the Father of Light.It is matter of regret that so much of the Zoroastrian literature has been lost. It is more to

be regretted that it has not been better translated. Yet books do not create a faith, but are onlyaids. Men are infinitely more precious than books. The essence of the Wisdom-Religion wasnot lost when the Nasks perished. "The Zoroastrian ideal of Brotherhood is founded on arecognition of the Divine Unity, and does not represent an association of men united by acommon belief or common interests." There is no distinction of class or race. In theZoroastrian writings the Frohars or protecting geniuses of all good men and women areinvoked and praised, as well as those of Zoroastrians. Any one whose aspirations are spiritualand his life beneficent, is accepted, though not professedly of the Mazdean fellowship.

So much of the literature has an esoteric meaning that superficial students lose sight of,that the genuine Wisdom-Religion is not discerned. There are eyes needed that can see andapperceive. Then the symbols which materialists blunder over will be unveiled in their truemeaning and there will be witnessed a revival of a religion devoid of elaborate ceremony, but

replete with justice, serene peacefulness and goodwill to men.

(Universal Brotherhood, Oct., 1898)

---------------------- 136.

PHILOSOPHY IN CHINA

Every custom of the great nation beyond the Pacific Ocean is consecrated by antiquity,and every mode of its activity seems to have been shaped by some long-forgotten experience. We are wholly unable to note the period when it did not exist. The Chinese made paper andprinted books many centuries ago. They were using the magnetic needle to direct them in theirjourneys when the inhabitants of Great Britain and Northern Europe had neither floors norchimneys in their dwellings. They early invented gun-powder, but only employ it for peacefulpurposes, such as the manufacture of toys and play-things. Their wares and fabrics were soldin Western Asia and ancient Egypt, and cubes of their making have been found in deepexcavations in Ireland. From them were adopted many of our common luxuries and domesticconveniences. The affectation that we possess a civilization so very far superior to theirs has astrong flavor of conceit and sciolism. They appear odd to us chiefly because their ways andcustoms have continued without change from archaic times. Their manners and even theirfashions of dress seem to have had their origin in periods beyond our computing.

While the Western speculative philosopher contents himself with the determining ofabstract points of reasoning, the Chinese thinker direct his attention to those of practicalapplication. He is as ready as the other to grasp ideas, but he hurries to put them to some use. Everything in Chinese literature and institutions runs into details, how this and that should bedone. Everything is elaborated. It is so in the language, the books, the religion, thegovernment, the methods of instruction, the etiquette. The point in all their ethics is conduct. The Chinese civilization is orderly, educated and industrious. It is without priests and lawyers. The people are more free than those of

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the West. They love peace and are punctilious in all their observances. Their standard ofexcellence is appropriately set forth by Confucius: "The man who in the prospect of gainthinks only of justice, who, in the presence of danger is ready to yield up his life, and who doesnot forget an old agreement however far back it may extend, is a complete man."

The Chinese venerate their patriarchs, carrying their devotion beyond death. Thecommunion with spirits is a general belief. Every individual is believed to have his guardianand director, a spiritual essence, and is diligent in rendering worship.

The Analects of Confucius are regarded as comprising the sum of all wisdom and moralduty. The Great Master, after many years in the service of his prince, became an exile from thecourt and traveled about the country, attended by his disciples. Whatever he observed he madethe theme for a maxim. One day as he was going along at the foot of the Tai mountains, he saw

a woman weeping bitterly and sent a disciple to ask the cause. Her son had been killed by atiger. On further questioning he learned that her husband and her husband's father had losttheir lives in the same way. Then he asked her why she did not leave a country which was soinfested. The woman answered, "Because we have a good government." The sage turned tohis disciples and uttered this sentence: "Remember that an oppressive government is fiercerand more dreaded than a tiger."

At another time he observed a fowler sorting his birds into different cages, and remarkedthat none of them were old. The fowler explained that the old birds, when they saw a net orsnare, flew away and did not come back. The young ones that kept in company with them alsoescaped, but those that separated into a flock by themselves and rashly approached the snarewere taken. "If," he added, "perchance I catch an old bird, it is because he follows the youngones." The sage thus addressed his disciples: "It is also thus with mankind. Presumption,hardihood, want of forethought and inattention are the chief reasons why young persons are ledastray. Elated with their small attainments, they have barely made a beginning in learningbefore they think they know all, and when they have done a few things well they fancythemselves at the very height. 138. Religion &Philosophy

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They do not hesitate, but rashly undertake measures without consulting the older andexperienced, and following confidently their own notions, fall in the first snare that is laid forthem. If an old man is so unwise as to be charmed by the sprightliness of a youth, and thinksand acts with him, he goes astray with him and falls into the same snare. Remember the snareof the fowler."

A prince interrogated him about the policy of putting unprincipled persons to death forthe sake of those who are better disposed. "Why kill men at all?" Confucius demanded. "Ifyou govern uprightly, no one will think to do wrong."

Another prince asked him whether he was a sage. Like Pythagoras and Socrates, hereplied that this was a distinction above his attaining, he only learned without satiety, andtaught without becoming weary of it. "Master," said the prince, "you are truly a sage."

To a young person preparing for an active career, he said: "Hold fidelity and sincerity asthe principles of life, and endeavor continually to do what is right."

A disciple asked him: "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for one'slife? What you do not wish to be done to yourself, do not to others."

Again he said; "Those who are born possessing knowledge are the highest class of humanbeings. Those who learn and so get possession of knowledge are the next. Those who are dulland stupid and yet encompass the learning are another class next to these. As to those who aredull and stupid, and yet do not learn they are the lowest of the people."

"What Heaven has conferred is called The Nature; and accordance with this nature iscalled The Path of Duty; the regulation of this path is called Instruction."

After the death of Confucius, the rulers and people of China, became conscious of hissuperior excellence. They revered him for his wisdom and honored him as a divinity. Theyplaced his statue in the temples that he might receive homage from the worshipers as truly just,far-reaching in intelligence, and as a God among men.

In the coming century there arose another in China, worthy to

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be esteemed as the successor of the Great Master. Mencius was the son of a widowed motherwho had taken extraordinary pains to develop in him the love of mercy and goodness. Hebecame afterward a disciple of the grandson of Confucius, and a teacher of a School ofPhilosophy and Economics. His views were in accord with the spirit of patriarchalimperialism, and at the same time broad, liberal and democratic. Government, he held, wasfrom heaven, but the rulers derived their authority from the assent of the people. He regardedthe population of the empire as a family of which the Emperor was father and protector. Assuch the sovereign represented Divinity itself, and, therefore, he should be animated by a spiritof benevolence. His aim should be to make the people prosperous; and having done this, toeducate them. He might in no case be indifferent to their happiness, delighting in war ofindulging in luxuries which they could not share. Taxes should be light and everyencouragement given to agriculture and commerce. Thus would the ruler become the ministerand representative of heaven, and the people happy and orderly.

In those days, the scholar and the sage were esteemed the equals of kings. Mencius, likethe prophet Elisha, did not hesitate to blame and rebuke the kings for their misgoverning. Heeven contemplated their supplanting and the appointment of others to take their place. It wasfor the people to find out for themselves, he declared, whom Heaven had made fit to govern. Ifthe sovereign is unworthy, he should be disposed, and a better man placed upon the throne. This was duty which, first of all, devolved on the royal family. They should disown anunworthy monarch and appoint another. If they neglected to do this, then any Minister of State,acting under the obligation to consult the public good might undertake the matter. When,however, both the royal family and the ministers were remiss in this duty then Heaven itselfwould interpose to raise up a leader for the people. This should be an individual whose life andexample had already attracted attention, and pointed him out as the man for the occasion. Itshould not be necessary to raise any standard of revolt, but only one of justice. He should beable by that to attain the highest dignity.

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At this period China was distracted by misrule and conflict between the rulers of thedifferent States. Teachers arose to promulgate disturbing doctrines which aggravated thegeneral disorder. One taught the absolute equality of mankind, the leveling of ranks and theabrogation of learning and statesmanship. Another presented a doctrine of love that shouldmake no account of family relationship or other obligation. Mencius, now forty years old, sethimself to reclaim his country and people. He boldly assailed the doctrines of the otherteachers, and went from one court to another in the hope to find a prince worthy and competentto administer the affairs of the Empire. He remained long periods with each sovereign,admitted to the greatest intimacy and receiving honorable attention. In this way he spenttwenty years, failing to realize his hopes. He then returned to private life, and we know himhenceforth only as a teacher of Philosophy, Ethics and Political Economy.

Human nature he declared to be intrinsically good. "The tendency of man's nature togoodness," said he, "is like the tendency of water to flow downward. By striking water youmay make it leap to your forehead, and by damming and leaving it, you may make it go up ahill. But such movements are not according to the nature of water; it is the force applied

which causes them. When men do what is not good their nature has been dealt with in thisway.

"All have compassionate hearts which cannot bear to see the suffering of others. If theysee a child fall into a well, they will, without exception, experience a feeling of alarm anddistress. We perceive that commiseration, shame and dislike, diffidence and reverence, and thedisposition to approve and disapprove are essential principles of human nature. The feeling ofcommiseration is the principle of benevolence; that of shame and dislike is the principle ofjustice; that of diffidence and reverence is the principle of propriety of life, and that ofapproving and disapproving is the principle of knowledge. We are certainly furnished with allthese. They are not instilled into us from without, but we have them as we have organs to thebody."

Mencius further insisted that the nature is good because it is constituted for doing thatwhich is good.

He says again: "I love life and I also love justice; but if I

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cannot keep both, I will let life go and hold fast to justice. Although I love life there is thatwhich I love more than life, and though I dislike death there is that which I dislike more thandeath; and therefore there are occasions where I will not avoid danger."

Another utterance is worthy to be preserved as an aphorism. "The disease of men isthis," say he, "that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others, and thatwhat they require from others is great, while the burden which they take upon themselves islight."

He thus describes the superior man: "That when he is in a high and prosperous situationit adds nothing to his excellence, and when he is in low and distressed circumstances, it impairsit in no respect."

"When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a man," he says further, "itfirst exercises his mind with suffering, and his muscles and bones with toil. It exposes his bodyto hunger, subjects him to extreme poverty and confounds his undertakings. In all these ways itstimulates his mind, strengthens his nature and supplies his defects."

The Chinese literature abounds in aphorisms and proverbs. These powerfully illustratethe practical character of the people. A few of them will serve to indicate the general tendency.

"It is safer to believe that a man possesses good qualities than to assert that he does not.""Wisdom, virtue, benevolence and rectitude, without politeness, are imperfect.""He who can suppress a moment's anger will prevent lasting sorrow.""Never engage in what you fear to be known. It is only the naked who fear the light.""In the enacting of laws rigor is indispensable, but in the executing of them there should

be mercy.""As it is impossible to please men in all things, our only care should be to satisfy our own

consciences.""A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years' mere

study of books."

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"If a man's desires and wishes are laudable, Heaven will certainly further them."But China had teachers of philosophy before Confucius. Li, better known as Lao-tse,

was more widely known. It is said that he had traveled in the West before he began his careeras a teacher, but of this we have no particulars. An eminent writer believes that his doctrineswere extant before he lived. This would be in strict analogy with facts elsewhere; theprinciples enunciated by the Buddha, the Sermon on the Mount, and later systems, had beenpropounded before the individuals appeared who gave them the form in which they exist. Theydid not come into existence in full maturity like Athena from the brain of Zeus. "Long pent upin the vales and water-sheds of the Oxus," says Forlong, "a mighty and spiritual faith haddeveloped itself, which many centuries before had silently permeated all the highlands ofIndia." The time came for its more open manifestation; and almost simultaneously Lao-tse, theBuddha Gautama, and the Seven Sages of Greece, began to declare the advancing thought. Such periods occur almost regularly, and with them mankind take on new life and higherconnection.

The doctrine as unfolded and given form by the Chinese philosopher, was named TAO,the Way, in which term is comprised, not only the Path which leads to truth, but the source andprinciple of Truth itself. It signifies the spirit of the universe, the supreme Energy and ultimateEssence. The concept, however, is better expressed in the famous utterance of Lao-tse himself: "They who know, do not speak, and they who speak, do not know." It is the ideal which wemay perceive but cannot hope to comprehend. "I do not know its name," says Lao-tse, "and forwant of a better. I call it Tao, the Way." Its exercise and discipline consist in becoming at onewith the law which is in and yet above all, and in moving spontaneously with it.*

Dr. Carus considers the name Tao as having a close analogy to logos or "word" in theGospel, and "wind" or "breath" in the fourth

--------------* This is the equivalent of the Vedanta maxim: "There is no law or dharma superior to

that which is," the absolute real.----------------- 143.

hymn of the Rig-Veda. But Lao-tse presents the Tao under two aspects; that which was in thebeginning and that which is individualized in human beings; primitive instincts lying in thesoul ready to be employed, and it is the province of experience to set them in action.

Lao-tse wrote but little. One little book of two chapters, the Tao-teh-King - A Treatise onthe True Way - is all that we have from his hand. But Chuang-tse, a disciple living in a latercentury, has more fully explained his views, yet they are hardly intelligible except to those whoare intelligent to comprehend their meaning.

All philosophy begins with contemplating the Source and Origin of all being. Lao-tsetaught that all things of the universe were from the first elementary matter; and that prior tothis was only an immense silence in the illimitable space, an immeasurable void in endlesssilence. There was only Tao, the Infinite. It projected the One, the One produced the Second,and the Two produced the Third; and then the Tree created all things. "Conceived of as havingno name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth," says Lao-tse; "conceived of as having aname, it is the Mother of all things. Under these two aspects it is really the same, but, asdevelopment takes place it receives the different names." Unconditioned, it is Being, that

which really is; but in manifestation it is Existence, an issuing forth to form. The philosopheroffers us the explanation: "All things repose in the passive or feminine principle, and embracethe positive or masculine principle, and a fecundating spirit maintains the harmony."

"All are produced by the Tao and are sustained by its outflowing operation," he saysagain. "They receive their forms according to the nature of each, and are brought tocompleteness according to the circumstances of their condition. All, therefor, honor the Taoand glorify its outflowing operation. It brings them into existence, yet makes no claim to anyowning of them; it carries them through their processes of development, but does not vaunt itsability in doing this; it brings them to maturity, yet exercises no dominion over them. This iscalled The Working in Secret."

In the operation everything takes place from a force or principle within itself which actsspontaneously and without any impulse from

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private motive. Neither is there any compulsion from without. It is for us to do in like manner. What we do should be done for its own sake, free from selfish motive and external direction.

This philosophy is summed up in the cardinal virtues of benevolence and sincerity. Everything, even to unkindness and injury, is recompensed with kindness. "To those who aregood to me, I am good," says Lao-tse; "and to those who are not good to me, I am likewisegood; and in this way all may be led to be good. To those who are sincere with me I amsincere and to those who are not sincere I am also sincere; and so all are made sincere."

He demands the surrender of personal and selfish ambition. Man should act according tonature. "There is no greater sin than yielding to desire," says he; "no greater misery thandiscontent, no greater calamity than acquisitiveness."

Again he says; "To know the unknowable, that is elevating. Not to know the knowable,that is sickness."

The appeal is made to the instinct of goodness which is innate in every one, and not torules of conduct. Benevolence and justice when considered as virtues exercised from externalprompting are everywhere set forth as of little account. For example, it is not necessary toprescribe by legislation that a woman should love her child, and it must not be thoughtnecessary to direct by moral precepts that a man shall act justly and generously toward others. To the just man such precepts are unnecessary because it is natural for him to be just andbenevolent. The sun embodies light and shines without effort, because this is the law of itsexistence. "Heaven and Earth do nothing, and yet there is nothing which they do not bring topass." So the true man does everything by the necessity of his being, just as the seasons arebrought about in their order by a law inherent in the constitution of the world.

The functions of the body are performed by a law innate in them, and would be disturbedand disordered if we were conscious of them and should attempt to regulate them. Theharmony of life is destroyed in like manner by too much meddling. A government which is toostrict and specific in its legislation actually induces crime. An over-strained pressure andenforcement of external rules of constraint

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and restriction destroy self-reliance and suppress the natural developing of a true and virtuous

life, either by producing a moral atrophy or by arousing a reactionary feeling to evade them. Men should be taught to depend on their innate goodness, and not upon an artificial andfactitious code framed by ethical rule and compass. "We should be careful," says Chuang-tse,"not to interfere with the natural goodness of the heart. Man's heart may be forced down orstirred up. In each case the issue is fatal. But if you try to cut and polish it, then it will glowlike fire or freeze like ice. In the twinkling of an eye it will pass beyond the limits of the FourSeas. No bolt can bar, no bond can bind the human heart."

"It is a sad substitute," says James Martineau, "when, in later years, the native insight isreplaced by the sharper foresight, and we compute with wisdom the way which we should takein love." The Chinese sage remarks in the same vein: "A man's own truth is what he himselfhas received from heaven, operating spontaneously and without changeableness. Hence thewise take their law from heaven and prize their own Truth, without submitting to therestrictions of custom. Others do the reverse of this. They are not able to take their law fromheaven, and are influenced by other men; they do not know how to prize the inherent Truth oftheir own nature, but are subject to the dominion of ordinary things, and change according tothe customs around them."

The learning now commonly known as science, which overlays the natural faculties ofthe mind, and would bury them underneath academic scholarship, was regarded with littleesteem. Activity in those arts was thought harmful, as tending, in the elaborating of the variousprocesses, to obscure the higher intuitions and impulses. Our philosopher, instead ofoverloading the mind with accumulated facts and precedents from the outside world, soughtrather to cultivate that superior faculty of the soul which is able to perceive. "Choose thatwhich is within you," says Chuang-tse, "and shut off that which is without; for muchknowledge is a curse. Then I will place you upon that abode of Great Light which is the sourceof positive power, and lead you through the gate of Profound Mystery which is the source ofthe negative power. These powers are the controllers of heaven and

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earth, and each contains the other."The passive condition, or inactivity which is insisted upon so strenuously, is by no means

to be regarded as a state of inertness or indifference; it is simply receptive and reciprocal, theplacing of one's self in the proper attitude of mind and quietly awaiting the event. "It is theway of Heaven," says Lao-tse, "not to strive and yet it overcomes; not to speak, and yet it isskillful in obtaining a reply; it does not call, and yet men come to it of themselves." There isno condition of doing nothing, but a seeking to make ourselves right, and simply allowing outactions naturally, and without strain or striving, set forth the principles by which we aregoverned. The Way is found by quiet submission and not by overwrought exertion; byperceiving and conforming to the right and True and not by acting from self-prompted impulse. The exalting of the soul to the divine standard, joining it to the Infinite Eternal is the ideal. Awriter eloquently describes this ideal as the doing of everything by a necessity of being; notobeying the Law as something extraneous, but as being oneself the law, the very embodimentof law. "The Taoist has relinquished the mortal condition in choice and will, and taken up hisabode with the Eternal - become transformed into it - He is no longer the sport of Time, orliable to Time's casualties, since he knows that he holds a life that Time cannot touch, and thathis being is one with that of the universe."

(Metaphysical Magazine, October, 1901)

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JAINISM: ITS HISTORY AND DOCTRINES

We are considering what may almost be classed as a forgotten religion. Yet scatteredover India is a sect numerous enough to be noticed, possessing wealth, literature and anelaborate system of doctrine worthy of examination and comparison with those of otherpeoples. India is famous for philosophy older than the schools which made the Greekscelebrated; and likewise for an antiquity which, despite the prodigious exaggerations,nevertheless antedates all historic remembrance. In that far-off period this people attained askill in art and architecture of which the remains, like the artificial caves of Ellora and Salsette,the magnificent temples and the sculptured images, as well as other relics, are abundantevidence. Compared to them, all that we now find there is modern, and in a condition ofdegradation.

In the Padma Purana, a sacred book of the Brahmans, there is a statement which issignificant from its reference to the Jaina doctrines as existing in a definite form in the timeswhen Indra was the Supreme Divinity of the Aryan tribes in India. This indicates that the sectwas in existence and a full vigor in that remote period, and that its pretensions to early antiquityare sustained.

The Jainas are found in all parts of India, though not often in considerable numbers. Intheir social system they have the four castes, like the Brahmans, and their writings attribute theinstitution to their original founder in remotely ancient times. Colonel Tod, the author ofRajasthan, speaks highly of their enterprise and character. Their numbers and power are littleknown to Europeans, he declares,

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and it is taken for granted that they are few and dispersed. In order to prove the extent of theirreligious and political influence, it will be sufficient to remark that the pontiff of the Karta-gatch, the true branch of the sect, has eleven thousand Yatis,* or clerical disciples, scatteredover India; that a single community, the Ossi or Oswal in Marwar, numbers one hundredthousand families, and that more than half the mercantile wealth of India passes through thehands of Jaina laymen.

The Jainas are by no means behind others in pretending to a vast age. Their books teachthat there have been two great divisions of time, each of these of interminable length,established in the universe. Both have subdivisions duly arranged, and the present races ofhuman beings are living in the second of these. There are four ages in this division, analogousto those described by Hesiod in Works and Days. The first age was truly a golden period. In itthere were no kings; and all were long-lived, peaceful and happy. Celestial trees grewspontaneously and they subsist on the fruit. The second age exhibited a sensible declination

from this happy condition. The people had deteriorated in character, and were less fortunatesocially and physically. In the third age the inhabitants were still more straitened, and lessfavored than ever in respect to health, longevity and happiness.

During these periods there had flourished fourteen Manus or divine lawgivers. The lastof these was king of Ayodhya and the father of Vrishabanatha or Rishaba. With him the formerperiod closed, and the fourth age, the Kali Yuga, began. It was now a woeful time for theinhabitants of India. The celestial trees lived no more to yield sustenance; famine prevailedwith accompanying pestilence, and there was fraternal strife and general disorder. In thisemergency, Rishaba became the ruler. In ancient times all government took its beginning fromspiritual authority, and so the monarch of Ayodhya was revered and obeyed as the incarnationand representative of divinity. He proceeded to a general arranging of

------------* The Yatis are always celibates. This is considered a necessary qualification.

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employments. He allotted the several vocations by which all should procure the means ofliving - the military calling, literature, agriculture, commerce and the care of the cattle. He alsoreformed the errors of the people, established the Jaina religion and a system of regulations fortheir government. He is also accredited with the instituting of the four castes, basing themupon the natural conditions of employment, but without the arbitrary restrictions which underthe later period came into force.

Having set all in order, Rishaba resigned the regal authority to his son Bharata, andappointed his disciples Ajita in his own place to guide and instruct the people. He then retiredfrom the world, becoming an Arahat or sacred person. His image after his death was placed inthe temples, and it was declared that he had attained the exalted condition of Mukti, or Moksha,divine blessedness, to be no more incarnated. He thus has the rank of godhood and bears thetitle of "Jineswara," the divine lord of the Jainas.

Rishaba is recognized as the first Tirthankara or pontiff in the present age of the world. His son Bharata succeeded him, becoming Chakravarta, or Overlord of India, and afterwardtransferred his authority to his brother Gomata Iswara Swami, whose statue is conspicuous inmany of the Jaina hill-sanctuaries.

The pontiffs who came after Rishaba are duly described in the Jaina literature. Theywere also of the royal race of Ikshwaka, and, like him, were commemorated for extraordinarysanctity. Each was regarded as a divine personage incarnated, and his death was represented asa deification. Every one of the twenty-four had has a totem or characteristic symbol; Rishaba,for example, having the bull, Ajita the elephant, Padmabraha the lotus, Saoarsum the swastikaor cross, Nimi the blue water-lily, Parswanatha the cobra or hooded snake, and Vardhamana orMahavira the lion.

There are two classes of Jaina temples. One of them consists of roofed buildings; theother of plots or circles of ground, generally at the summit of hills and surrounded by a wall orby stones set on end, like the Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in England, and enclosures ofsimilar character found by Mr. Palgrave in the interior of Arabia.*

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The roofed temples are, many of them, models of architectural skill. They contain theimages of twenty-four deified pontiffs. These are alike in form, in a sitting position and naked,nudity being considered an important characteristic of the ancient Jaina sage. Mahavira and hisfollowers were distinguished by this peculiarity, and were called the Digambaras, or sky-robedones, and Naganthas, or the "freed from bonds," which freedom nudity was supposed to typify. The fashion is no longer followed, except by Yatis at meal-time,** the laity having alwaysworn the dress of their country.

The sacred enclosures are generally upon the top of a hill, and contain but a single figure. This is the statue of Gomata Iswara Swami, the son of Rishaba, who established the Jainareligion and dominion over all India. The image is always of colossal dimensions; the one atBellakul, in Mysore, being about eighteen times the size of the human body, and the one atKurkul measuring no less than thirty-eight feet in height, and ten feet in breadth and thickness.

The statues known as Vetal and Wittoba are supposed to belong to some sect of the Jainareligion. The primitive form was a rough unhewn stone of triangular or pyramid shaperesembling the central stone of the Druidic temples. Afterward, however, it became customaryto color it red with a topping of white; and later still it was only the likeness of the bodywithout limbs, and in other cases there were arms to the bust. Dr. Stevenson describes one ofthese figures as that of a "fierce and gigantic man, perfect in all his parts." This appears,however, to be an image of Gomata Raja.

Godfrey Higgins represents the Wittoba in the Anacalypsis as

--------------* These sacred precincts were common in former times in all parts of the eastern world.

En Dor, the fountain and circle mentioned in I Samuel xxviii, as visited by King Saul, wasevidently a shrine of such a character.

** Kalanos, who was with Alexander the Great, being asked by a Greek to instruct him,insisted that he should first take off his clothes. The Greek writer Megarthenes, treats of theYatis, calling them Gymnosophists, or nude wise men.---------------- 151.

a human figure with the hands and feet pierced as with nails, and another writer mentions alsothe semblance of a wound in the side.

Next to the last in the line of Jaina pontiffs was Parswanatha. It is conjectured by manywriters that he was the actual founder of the sect. He appears to have lived in the eighthcentury before the present era. He was of royal descent and had the hooded snake for histotem. An image of the Jaina Deva at Mujiri near Kalyani in the Karnatic country, is evidentlya representation of him after his apotheosis. It is a nude human figure in sitting posture withthe legs crossed, and a many-headed cobra behind it, shading it with extended hoods. ColonelW. Franklin gives an account of a temple of this deified pontiff at Samet-Sikhar, and describesthe statue as having "the head fashioned like a turban, with seven expanded heads ofserpents,"* Coluber naga, or hooded snake - the invariable symbol of Parswanatha. There areother Jaina temples on the same hills, of smaller dimensions. "On the south side," Col.Franklin adds, "is a very handsome flat-roofed temple containing several figures of this deity,which exhibit the never-failing attributes of Parswanatha, viz: the ruler and guardian ofmankind."

Pilgrimage to shrines has always been a characteristic of different religions, and it hasbeen insisted that those to the temple of Jagganatha in Orissa were of Jaina origin. It issignificant, however, that the outline of the modern figure of the divinity is the same as thetrisul or trident of Buddhistic sculptures. Nevertheless, a writer in the Journal of the Asiaticsociety remarks that "Jaganatha is an appellation given by the modern Jainas to theirTirthankara Parswanatha in particular." The fact that the shrine is now in possession of rivalworshipers is by no means sufficient evidence of

-------------* The serpent with seven heads appears to have been a symbol in other countries. The

discovery of records in the region of the valley of the Euphrates has brought to attention "theseven-headed serpent of Akhad," which seems to be identical with the Great Red Dragon of theApocalypse, with seven heads and a halo of ten horns or rays of light.---------------- 152.

its origin with them. It has been a common practice of the Brahmanists to seize the sacred sitesof other religious faiths, to appropriate the rites and take the images for their own divinities. The Jainas, when they were predominant in India, were diligent in the selecting andconsecrating of sites for religious purposes, also in the excavating of shrines in the rocks and inthe erecting of temples. Being non-resistants, they have been very generally robbed of these bytheir unscrupulous rivals.

Vardhamana, called also Mahavira, is perhaps the most distinguished, as being the lastand best known of the pontiffs. Professor Rhy-Davids describes him as promulgating the Jainasystem of belief, but not as its originator. "He merely carried on with slight changes a systemwhich existed before his time, and which probably owes it most distinguished features to ateacher named Parswa, who ranks in the succession of Jainas as the predecessor of Mahavira." He was the last who bore the title of Tirthankara, the present pontiffs being regarded as oflesser importance.

He was distinguished for superior sanctity and was styled by eminence, Sramana, theHoly One. The Jaina literature is exuberant with his praises. Even his pre-natal life iswonderfully described. That he might not be born in an indigent family, he was transferredfrom the body of one mother to that of another, and is accordingly reckoned as the son ofSiddartha, a monarch of the race of Ikshwaka. When he had grown to maturity he married andbecame the parent of a daughter; but afterward, when thirty years old, he renounced his rankand worldly pursuits and became an arahat, or solitary. His spiritual and intellectual facultiesare represented as greater than those of other men. He was said to be omniscient and all-seeing, and endowed with super-human powers and virtues.

The Jainas were assiduous cultivators of learning, and the "Jaina Cycle" in SouthernIndia was the Augustean age of Tamil literature. They established schools and institutions ofhigher learning, and appear to have been proficient in mathematics and physical science. Theirskill in the arts was extraordinary. They erected temples which were monuments ofarchitectural superiority, honey-combed the rocks with artificial caves, and carved the stones

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into images representing their gurus, saints and pontiffs, whom they revered as gods.The reputation of Mahavira spread consternation among the Brahmans of Northern India.

The whole region was filled with his doctrine and the world seemed to be going out after him. The most eminent teachers in Magadha were sent to examine and refute his opinions, but theybecame converts and instructors in the Jaina schools.

The pontiffs were accustomed to distribute their followers into classes and place theseunder chosen disciples. Mahavira had nine such classes, with eleven teachers. Of the eleven,only two survived him. Indrabhuti and Sudharma Swami. From the latter all the Jaina pontiffsand other teachers of subsequent periods are supposed to have derived their authority. ButIndrabhuti, though distinguished as "the holy Mahavira's eldest pupil" and possessed of mightyqualities, with "the four kinds of knowledge and a treasury of meditation," is withoutsuccessors in the Jaina sect. This is accounted for by the fact of a schism which is supposed tohave taken place after the death of Mahavira.

Indrabhuti, called also Gautama Swami, is considered by the Jainas as the founder of theBuddhist religion. The Bhagavati, a Jainist work of the thirteenth century, gives the account ofhis relations with Mahavira as chela and guru, or disciple and preceptor. After describing theexalted character of the latter, it describes graphically the first interview of his distinguishedpupil.

"Thereupon, that holy Gautama, in whom faith, doubt and curiosity arose and grew andincreased, rose up. Having arisen, he went to the place where the sacred Sramana Mahavirawas. After going there he honored him by three circumambulations. After performing these,he praised him and bowed low before him. After so doing, not too close nor too distant, withhis face toward him, humbly waiting on him with folded hands, he spoke."

There seems, however, to be some discrepancy, this disciple of Mahavira being of theBrahman caste, and the Gautama of the Buddhists belonging to the warrior and governingclass. But at that period the distinction of caste had not become so absolutely defined

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as it now exists. It had originated in a simple, natural division of labor associated with heredityof occupation; and it was not unusual in earlier times for individuals in one caste to pass intoanother. The simple distribution of duties had no concern with creeds or forms of religiousbelief.

Buddhistic traditions incidentally confirm the fact of the relations between Mahavira andhis celebrated pupil. The Mahawansa, a standard authority, declares that the Buddha has"seen" twenty-four predecessors, although other writers enumerate but four. They are regardedby the Jainas as being Mahavira and the twenty-three who preceded him, who are thus claimedby the Buddhists for their own sages. It is significant that the Lalita-vistara represents theBuddha in infancy as wearing in his hair the totems or symbols of four of the Jainist pontiffs,including the lion of Mahavira.

The division appears to have taken place between the two chief disciples, Gautama andSadharma, and to have been perpetuated by their successors. Hence, though there are manysects among the Jainas, there is not a single guru or pontiff deriving his succession from theformer. It is not remarkable, however, that the doctrines of Gautama became predominant andmore widely disseminated than those of his preceptor. History abounds with analogousinstances in which the disciple outshone the master and cast him into the shade.

The Buddha, however, was not the only personage whom the Jaina writers claim ashaving been originally of their number. The principal deities now comprised in the pantheon ofIndia are also thus included. They are, however, by no means regarded as of equal rank withthe deified sages, but only as devatas, or subordinate divinities, and their images are not placedin the temples. They are described as belonging to the inferior heaven or condition,denominated Swarga, and Indra, the original divinity of the Aryans, is named as their chief. Brahma and Siva, who were divinities of a later period, with Rama, Ganesa, Hanuman andothers, are thus classed as devatas. But Vishnu holds a superior rank. He is described in Jainawritings as having been several times incarnated as a raja, becoming afterward an arahat withthe title and distinction of Jina, or victorious,

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and as having attained to beatitude with the gods in the superior heaven or condition - Moksha. This explains a practice of Jaina laymen of participating at times in Brahman rites. Venerationis a cardinal principle of the sect, and though they consider the Brahman divinities as inferior totheir own deified sages, they nevertheless recognize them as entitled to honor. At the sametime they reject the Hindu Scriptures, the Vedas and Puranas, as being simply the work of avyasa or compiler.

It would not be proper to set down the Jainas as agnostics, but their belief in the SupremeBeing is after a form peculiar to their mode of thinking. They adhere strenuously to themaxim: "A man of sense should believe only what he sees with his own eyes, and should notaccept what he hears from others." God, as a personal creator outside of the universe, has noplace in the Jaina philosophy. It denies the hypothesis of such a creator as illogical andirrelevant in the general scheme. But it lays down as a cardinal doctrine that there is a SubtleEssence underlying all substances, conscious as well as unconscious. This Essence is theeternal cause of all changes and modifications in the universe and is termed "God." Ourexperience does not show that everything which we know has its existence from a cause, butonly brings to notice the event or change which it undergoes. There is a permanent principle innature as well as one that is changeable; and hence, while the changes are the effects ofprevious causes, the existences which are permanent, so far as we know, are not effects at all. The Supreme Essence, therefore, transcends our knowing. He or it, however, is personified andrepresented in the Tirthankaras and others who have become Jinas, or conquerors ofthemselves, and these are accordingly revered as divinities.

There are four degrees of individual perfection in the Jaina system, namely: 1, Sayoga,in which divinity is contemplated as from a distance; 2, Samipa, or nearness to Divinity; 3,Sarupa, the being like God; 4, Sayoga, union with God.

The hypothesis that there was a physical creation at any period of time, is not evenconsidered. The universe is supposed to be, from the inherent necessity of things, coeval withthe Divine Substance. A

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chief pontiff at Bellikul gives this explanation: "The foundation of ages is countless, of theorigin of karma or passion is inconceivable, for the origin of the soul is too ancient to beknown. We are, therefore, to believe that humankind is ignorant of the true knowledge of the

origin of things, and that it is known only to the Supreme One whose state is without beginningor end."

The metaphysical views, in regard to matter and the universe, accord with the teachingsof the Sankhya philosophy; but many extravagant notions are entertained. The Jainas teachthat every living thing, from the highest divinity to the most insignificant insect, existed frometernity, and undergoes changes from higher to lower rank, or from lower to higher dignity,according to its actions, till it become perfected and attains to the divine beatitude.

The soul or jiva is described as a spiritual essence united to a subtle materialbody, or rather to a two-fold body, the superior being the qualities of mind and an invariablenature, and the other consisting of the passions and affections.* Thus embodied, it becomes,according to its character, united in its several incarnations, with the gross structure of fleshand blood in human or animal form, or with a purer substance as a divine or spiritual being. There is also another essence or principle pertaining to it denominated Aharika. This isexplained as a minute, intangible essence or principle issuing from the head. It may reach forthfrom the head of the meditative person to hold communication with others and bring back theknowledge thus obtained. However far the distance which it may traverse, its connection withthe head is not severed.**

The soul is never completely separated from matter till, by becoming disengaged fromgood and evil in the persons of a beatified saint, it is finally released from corporeal conditions. During the

-------------* The same doctrine is taught by Plato in the Timaios. He places the former, the thumos,

in the upper part of the body, and the other, the epuhumia, beneath.** See Plutarch: Discourse Respecting the Demon of Sokrates, 22.

---------------- 157.

several incarnations it is rewarded for benefits conferred and punished for injuries inflicted inits present or preceding state, by the individual or individuals thus benefitted or aggrieved.

The Vedantas indicate the path of knowledge as the way to the highest blessedness. Jainism supplements this by good works and religious observances. The Jaina code enjoins theYatis or adepts from taking life, lying, taking anything that is not freely given, sexualintercourse and interest in worldly things, particularly the owning of property. The cardinalvirtues are five, namely: Mercy to all animated beings, the giving of alms, veneration of thesages while living and honoring them when dead, confession of faults and religious fasting. Everyone is require at least once every year to go to the confessional.

The ritual of worship is very simple. The Yatis seem to regard themselves as superior tothe necessity of formal worship and dispense with it at pleasure; and the laity are only requiredto visit a temple daily in which are some of the images of the deified pontiffs, to walk around itthree times uttering a mantra or salutation and presenting an offering of fruit, flowers orincense. It is not lawful to offer a bloody sacrifice. It is a maxim of their religion: "To abstainfrom slaughter is the highest perfection: to kill any living creature is sin." They abstain fromeating at night lest they should unwittingly deprive some animal or insect of life, and beforedrinking they are careful to strain the water through a cloth. For the four months of the yearwhen insects are most numerous the potter's wheel and oil-mill are stopped; and the Yatis,

when they go abroad, especially after a shower, carry a broom to sweep them from the path. One of them, a person of rank and distinction, having been shown through a microscope thenumerous minute creatures in his food, begged the instrument to be given him an thenimmediately broke it to pieces.

The historic account of the Jainas as given by their own writers, even when shorn ofexaggeration, nevertheless indicates for them great antiquity. They appear to have lived sideby side with the Brahmans during the prehistoric period, and many of the kings of India wereof their number. They became known to the Greeks at the period of the invasion of India byAlexander. At that time Nanda was king of Magadha. He was assassinated by his vizier, andsucceeded

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by his son. While Alexander was in the Punjab, another son, Chandragupta or Sandrakottos,the offspring of a Sudra mother, repaired to his camp and sought to enlist him in his behalf. Hegave offense by his audacity of manner, and Alexander was about to order him to be put todeath, when he took the alarm and fled. A revolution a few years afterward placed him on thethrone of Magadha, and he soon afterward become the Overlord of India, expelling the Greeksand extending his authority to Kashmir and the Dekhan. He was of the Jaina religion, whichthen flourished all over India. This religion was professed by his son and successor and for atime by his more famous grandson, Asokavardhana Priyadarsin, now better known by theabbreviated name of Asoka. This prince was characterized by extraordinary enthusiasm. Hewas zealous to introduce Jainism into Kashmir and promote its exercise in different parts of hisdominion. Like Dareios of Persia, he caused his edicts and purposes to be engraved upon therocks, and at a later period upon pillars. In these he prohibited the killing of animals,deprecated the reviling of the religious beliefs of others, and described what he was doing forthe welfare of his people. He appointed ministers of morality to observe and report upon suchmatters as required their attention. He also established hospitals over India for the sick, bothmen and cattle, brought healing herbs and planted them, cultivated fruit-trees and caused wellsto be dug and trees planted on the highways for the benefit of men and cattle. He also took careto provide instruction for all. "My whole endeavor," said he, " is to be blameless toward all, tomake them happy in this world and to enable them hereafter to attain heavenly bliss." -(Swarga)

Notwithstanding his great zeal for religion and benevolence, it was Asoka that displacedJainism from its high elevation. In the twenty-seventh year of his reign, about two and a halfcenturies before the present era, he announced his change of religious belief. He had styledhimself, "The friend of the gods" in the introduction to his edicts. It was now proclaimed that,"hereafter the Prince Pryadaarsa, having raised the Chhatta, will assume the title of Asoka theDhanma Raja, or just king."

Asoka now made Buddhism the religion of his government.

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From this time he engaged in its dissemination, employing over sixty thousand missionaries,and even sending them to other countries. This is, perhaps, the first example in historic timesof a religion established in such a manner, and the only one promulgated by teaching without

resort to violence or compulsion. For a thousand years it was the prominent faith of India,during which period recusants were not harassed with persecution or legal disabilities. Arevolution then took place which resulted in its complete disappearance from the peninsula.

Meanwhile Jainism, though supplanted by its powerful rival, was by no means smotheredout of existence. It continued to be the religion of princes and peoples, and to exercise apowerful influence. It was even able in later centuries to obtain immunities from the Moslemconquerors. The peaceful character of its adherents, their sincere devotion and their superiortalent for commercial transactions won favor from all. They are by no means insignificant innumbers or otherwise deficient in energy. But they are skillful in the arts of peace, promotersof learning and exemplary as a people.

Whether, however, they will ever regain their former importance is problematic. Beliefsonce cherished, but afterward left behind in the progress of thought, are never taken up anew. A ceremonial religion contains within itself the elements of its own dissolution. With everynew advance the reason for old customs is left behind; the new occasion creates new duty. Even India will be inspired with the coming inflow of energy and awaken to active life. Whatof value remains of her former thought and knowledge will not perish. Her philosophies stilllive and the world is profiting by them, and no doubt there are treasures of wisdom andexperience which still retain their value. The Jaina sages have made rich contributions to these,and much that they have taught and confirmed by example is even now appearing under newforms and new names in modern philosophy and doctrine.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Jan., 1902)

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GENESIS OF THE KORAN

"God fulfills himself in many ways,Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." - Tennyson

Every few centuries a new movement of an extraordinary character occurs to agitate theworld. There was in former periods an irruption or general emigration of populations to disturbthe settled order, or there was the appearing of a new leader of thought to break the monotonyof established belief or indifference. So regularly have such epochs arrived as almost towarrant the classifying of human history by cycles that were indicated by remarkable events orpeculiar conditions. Herodotus has preserved the tradition of the Phoenix, the sacred Bennu ofEgypt, that came to Heliopolis every five hundredth year, bringing the body of its predecessorfor the funeral obsequies. At such times the former period came to an end, and the "newheavens and new earth" began their course.

By no means would it be any great stretch of imagination to view all past history, so faras it is now known, as divided into such periods, and to point out the events and famousindividuals that distinguished them. Thus Cyrus, Caesar and Charlemagne made eras in the

political world, as did Gregory the Great, Hildebrand and Martin Luther in the world ofreligious activity. So, likewise, the invasions of the more civilized regions of Asia and Europeby hordes from the North, took place with a wonderful regularity, and effected great changes inpopulations, government and social institutions. The recurring of epidemic visitations, whetherof disease or doctrine, seems to have a like regularity.

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Every country of which we have historic record, has exhibited periodic transitions. India,which was once Aethiopic and Turanian, had, after the Aryan conquests, a Vedic age, and thenin course the Former Bhamanic, the Buddhistic and the Later Brahmanic periods. The politicalhistory has been in very exact correspondence with these. Persia was Zoroastrian, thenParthian and afterward Magian. Egyptian history is described by dynasties that are classified ingroups as belonging to distinct empires. Greece was Pelasgian in the archaic times, thenHellenic but afterward becoming Christianized. But we will not carry this enumeration further. They serve to show that nations as they become degenerate in virtue and energy, haveuniformly passed under the control of ambitious leaders, or became the subjects of foreignconquerors. So the history of the world has been made with kaleidoscopic phases.

Religions have participated in similar changes. Worships have grown up, undergonemodifications or been superseded by new forms of rite and doctrine; and these in their turnunderwent like decay and transformation. The beliefs and activities of one generation hardlysuit the genius of its successors. Truly do our little systems have their day and then pass intodecadence.

The sixth century of the present era was big with such events. The Roman world hadbecome Gothic and Greek and the rule over Syria and Egypt, was disputed by the monarchs ofPersia. Mithras-worship, with occult rites, was extending over Europe and imperiling theexistence of the rival faith. Manichean Gnosticism was also honeycombing the ecclesiasticbody from Armenia and Bulgaria to Southern Gaul. The Nestorians had establisheduniversities and were maintaining an extensive propaganda in Africa and through all Asia, andnumbered more adherents than both the Greek and Roman communions. An older worshipthan these, the Sabian, which was astral as well as ceremonial, including the "host of heaven"as its divinities, was still prevalent in Arabia and the East. It had, however, passed itsclimacteric. There was, accordingly a general process of disintegration in activity, and theworld was ripening for a new evolution.

In all quarters, says Renan, there was the presentiment of a

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great religious renovation; in all quarters people were saying that the time for Arabia hadcome. The peninsula, almost a world in itself, was inhabited by numerous tribes, clans andfamilies, that were in a great degree independent of one another, and were actually sometimesat open war. The cities were distinct commonwealths, made up of confederated sects havinglike parentage and the same religious sanctuary. The whole region was now nearing theimportant crisis in its history. The ancient worship was outworn, and many who observed itsrites were overborne by a sense of their utter uselessness. Hence other faiths becameacceptable. The adherents of Magism had fled to Arabia after the conquest of the Persian

dominion of Alexander. Christians were also numerous, finding shelter from the persecutionsof the Roman and Byzantine emperors. Jews, likewise, came for new homes after the finaldestruction of their own national existence, and under their influence many tribes actuallyembraced Judaism. Indeed, the Arabians, though formerly reputed to be of the posterity of Adand Thamud, and though probably of the same ethnic origin with the Abyssinians and otherAfrican peoples, now regarded themselves as lineal descendants of Abraham, the Semiticancestral personage. They may have been influenced by their Jewish countrymen, or perhapsby their astro-theological beliefs, rather than by trustworthy tradition.*

Pilgrimage to sacred places was a general feature in ancient religions, and in this way theValley of Mina in the Hedjaz had long been a famous place of resort. Here the caravansemployed in the trade with India halted for refreshment and traffic. In it was the well Zemzem,which abounded with an inexhaustible supply of water. All holy places had a temple-precinctand sacred fountain, and so the

--------------* In the Hebrew prophetic writing the region of Hedjaz, Yemen and Hadramaut is

uniformly called "Cush" or Ethiopia. The Semitic name, Abraham, appears to be made fromthe two words "AB and RAM," thus signifying "The Father on High." This, in astral theology,is a designation of the planet Saturn, or Kronos, and of the divinity bearing those names.----------------- 163.

sanctuary was established here, the Kaba, so called as being peculiarly significant of the GreatMother of many names, who "all Asia and the world worshiped." In it was the shrine of Ho-Bal, the Baal of the East, and there were also the images and emblematic figures of thedivinities, simulacra of the astral spirits and guardians of the days of the year, and also theBlack Stone, which, like the other meteoric stones of Tyre, Cyprus, Emesa and Ephesus, wasvenerated as the particular symbol of the Great Goddess.

The possession of the keys of the Kaba assured the ascendancy in civil and religiousadministration. Through the diversion of trade into other channels the importance of the regionhad declined. Kosai, the chief ruler of the Koraish, was able to acquire the authority of thekeys for his own people, and followed up this advantage by founding the city of Mekka anewwith governmental and religious institutions. He also united the neighboring tribes into onefederation, with a central council and defined relations between them all. Hashim and otherscompleted the work thus begun, and Mekka was once more a metropolis. The Kaba was rebuiltand was again a place of resort for pilgrims. The people recognized Alla Taala, the Most HighGod, as supreme over all, whom Abraham, their ancestor, had also adored and revered thespirits of the stars as saints to intercede with him.

Such was the condition of affairs when Mohamad* was born. Losing his parents, hebecame the ward of the sheik, or patriarch, of his tribe, first of his grandfather and afterward ofhis uncle. Like Moses, David and others of moderate wealth, he was for several

-------------* This is the spelling of the name in use among English-speaking Moslems in India. the

name in Persian and Arabic is without consonants - M'H'M'D, leaving every one to be guidedby usage and his own judgment in regard to the vowels. All Oriental languages are equally

indefinite in regard to vowel-sounds, leading to great confusion in the spelling of proper names. The names in the Bible would be equally puzzling because of the masoretic innovation, but thatthe Greek text has anticipated this difficulty.---------------- 164.

years employed as a keeper of flocks. He thus formed the simple habits which he retainedthrough life. He was of a sensitive nature, nervously afraid and susceptible of bodily pain,sobbing and screaming in his anguish. He suffered from tortuous convulsions, terrible toendure or even to behold. He was often low-spirited and wished for death. From being somuch alone he early became addicted to serious meditation.

At the age of twelve he accompanied his uncle, who was leading a caravan into Syria. ABozra the two were guests at the Nestorian Convent. Bahira, one of the monks, took a warminterest in the youth. He found the young Kotham precociously intelligent, and eager forknowledge, especially upon matters connected with religion. These expeditions to Syria wererepeated in subsequent years, and thus he became indoctrinated in the tenets of he Nestorians,acquiring the same hatred of image-worship which was a peculiarity of their religion. "Hissubsequent career shows," Professor Draper remarks, "how completely their religious thoughtshad taken possession of him, and repeated acts manifest his affectionate regard for them. Hisown life was devoted to the expansion and extension of their theological doctrine; and, thatonce effectually established, his successors energetically adopted and diffused theirAristotelian opinions."

In this way, sober, thoughtful and industrious, he grew up to manhood. He was gentle,sensible, free from hate, sincere and kind of heart. When his hand was taken in salutation heresponded cordially to the pressure, and was never first to withdraw it from the grasp. Henever struck others in anger nor scolded any one for a fault. He was very fond of little children,playing with their toys and telling them fairy tales and amusing stories. In matters of daily lifehe was inexpert and unpractical, but he excelled in imagination, delicacy and refinement offeeling. He is described as being more modest than a girl behind her curtain. He waited onhimself, mended his own clothes, visited the sick, and if he chanced to meet a funeral party, heturned and followed the bier. Those who met him revered him; those who knew him lovedhim. Yet he was timorous and distrustful of himself, and nothing short of intense convictioncould have induced him to declare himself an Apostle of God.

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He lived long in obscurity before he began his work. For years he went with the caravansto Syria, employed in various ways, and discharging every trust with scrupulous fidelity. Hewas twenty-five years old when he was engaged by Khadija, a rich widow, to take charge ofher merchandise and sell it in Damascus. Upon his return, though many years his senior, sheproposed marriage, and the union was a happy one. His devotion to her never abated. Yearsafter her death a favorite wife reproached him for this continued attachment, affirming that shewas herself superior to her. This he vehemently denied. "No woman was ever her superior,"he declared. "I was poor and she enriched me; I was accused of falsehood and deception, butshe always believed me. I suffered, but the more I suffered the more she loved me." Whateverjudgment may be formed of his later career, he amply deserved during these years, the epithet

by which he was known, "Amin," the Faithful.There was at this period a goodly number of thoughtful men at Mekka and other places in

the neighborhood, who had lost all regard for the established worship and yet questioned theintegrity of the other faiths then prevalent in Arabia. They were generally careful to avoidopen rupture with their countrymen, and sometimes assumed the title of "AbrahamiticSabians," as though seeking to perfect the religion of their countrymen by finding and restoringthat of their Great Ancestor. To this they gave the name of "Islam," obtaining forthemselves as its followers, and perhaps for own worthiness the designation of Musalmans orMoslems.* They were distinguished by

-------------* The Arabic term, S'L'M, salam, which belongs also to all the Semitic dialects, is

defined in the lexicons as signifying peace, reconcilement, also devotion, welfare in thegeneral. It is used for friendly salutation all the way from Bengal to Morocco. Thedesignation, Islam, is formed from it by adding the prefix I, which gives it a technical meaning: and in like manner, Moslem and Musalman, have the prefix M or Mu, to indicate the believer. In the Talmud, the term moslem, is used as the equivalent of Sadok, a righteous man. -Proverbs xxiv:16. The Hebrew name of Soloman, S'L'M'A, Salamba, ---------------- 166.

their countrymen by the less honorable title of Hanifs* as being apostates or hypocriticconformists to the national worship.

There is an account of a private conference between four of them, Waraka, Othman,Obeida and Zaid. It was at the annual festival which was in progress at the Kaba. "Truly," saidthey, "these our country are walking in the path of error and falsehood. Shall we also walk inprocession around a stone that can not see or hear, help or hurt? Let us seek a better path; andif it shall be necessary, in order to find the truth, let us quit our country and search elsewhere."

So each went by himself. Waraka consulted with the Jews; Othman journeyed as far asConstantinople and was there baptized. Obeida pursued a more uncertain career, longwavering between one faith and another of the many then professed in Arabia. But Zaid stoodapart from all, declaring his belief in Islam alone, and earnestly endeavoring to conform towhat he considered to have been the religion of Abraham. He went daily to the Kaba to prayfor enlightenment, and courageously affirmed his belief in one God, that "there is no God butAllah." He attacked the worship of images and many divinities, and denounced the practice ofburying female infants alive. Whatever he perceived to be right he sought faithfully to do. Persecution finally compelled him to leave the city, and he journeyed through Syria toMesopotamia, everywhere pursuing his quest for the true religion.

Mohamad openly declared himself the pupil of Zaid. Following his example, he repairedoften to Mount Hira, a desolate peak near Mekka, and abode there for considerable periods, inone of its caves, engaged in silent prayer and meditation. He continued to do this for severalyears. Though of a fervid imagination, he does not appear to

----------------is likewise a derivative from that term, and likewise its feminine, Salambo, a designation of thegreat goodness.

* From H'N'P, haniph, profane, ungodly; also a hypocrite, an apostate. This termappears in the Hebrew text of the book of Job, chapters vii:13; xiii:16; xiv:18; also Isaiahix:17; and Jeremiah, xxiii:15.------------------ 167.

have contemplated any taking of the lead in a general social and religious upheaval. He wasundergoing a training and experience which served to prepare him for the very undertakingwhich he did not dream of or even comprehend.

Mohamad was now forty years old. The annual fast of the month of Ramadhan wascelebrated at Mekka, and he had gone to Mount Hira to spend the time in devotionalmeditation. This was the turning-point of his career. He had an interview with the angelGabriel, he tells us, and received from him the divine message commissioning him as theApostle of Allah, the one only God.

Whether he had become entheat from intense mental concentration, or saw and heardwhat he describes while in a trance or dream or some seizure, to which he was subject, we donot attempt to determine. This much, however, must be admitted in candor, even by those whoare not willing to acknowledge the reality of anything supernatural, that he himself believedthat he was directed from heaven. It is an account like those of which we read in the writingsof the Hebrew prophets, and we forbear to speak further.

Imagination was displayed in its wildest stages of phantasy in the endeavors to vilify theArabian apostle and his doctrine. Christendom, which was then characterized by grossignorance of everything beyond its borders, abounded with extravagant statements anddescriptions. He was represented as a pagan deity that was worshiped with human sacrificesand rites of the grossest lewdness. It was affirmed that the Moslems at Cadiz paid homage tothe golden image of the god Mahom, and that the emperor Charlemagne feared to destroy it lesthe would thereby set free an army of evil demons belonging to it, to go abroad over the earth. Even the highest authorities of the Roman church declared that the god Maphomet, Baphometor Bafum was worshiped in the East; and the terms Bafumry, Mahomry and Mummery becamedesignations of unholy and unclean rites.* Many and remarkable were the descriptions that

---------------* The Arabian Moslems were also declared to be worshipers of the goddess of the Moon,

who was styled Trivagante or Termagant. ------------------ 168.

were current. Dante mentions Mohamad as a heretic who had sowed discord in the Church. Itwas also told that he had sought to be elected Pope, and on failing had invented a new religionin revenge. Even Martin Luther joined in the fierce calumnies and reviled him in languagesuch as sensitive persons regard as profane swearing. The Huguenot writer, Genebrard,denominated Mohamad "an ignorant beast," and denounced the Koran for not having beenwritten in Latin, Greek or Hebrew. Indeed, not till within the Nineteenth Century, did itbecome a familiar practice with any to speak of the great Arabian candidly and impartially.

Those who had known Mohamad most familiarly were the first to acknowledge hisclaims. Coming from his retreat in great consternation, he told his faithful wife what had

befallen him. He feared that he was to become a mountebank (cohen), or one obsessed. Sheanswered joyfully: "Not so. He in whose hands is the life of Khadija, he is my witness thatthou art to be the prophet of this people." Then she hastened to her cousin Waraka, the Hanif,now old and blind, who "knew the Scriptures of the Jews and Christians." When she had toldhim what she heard, he lifted up his sightless eyes, and exclaimed: "Holy, Holy! This is theLaw which came to Moses." And meeting Mohamad afterward in the street, he saluted him asthe apostle of Allah, and predicted persecution, exile and conflict.

Zaid had wandered to Mesopotamia, stopping wherever he might consult those who, likehimself, were studying in the hope to recover the lost wisdom of the ancient sage. A Christianmonk, whose friendship he had gained, now told him of the new apostle that had appeared atMekka, proclaiming the religion of Abraham. Overjoyed, he set out for home, but was met onhis way by robbers and murdered.

Mohamad is described as reluctant, and even afraid, to venture upon his new vocation. Timid and hesitating in disposition, he quailed

--------------They were also classed as Paynims or pagans, and denominated infidels and miscreants, ormisbelievers.----------------- 169.

at an enterprise which was sure to cost friends, reputation and what man holds dear. TheHanifs with whom he had been associated hadbeen compelled to undergo social proscription, and even persecution till they left their homes. And, then, what if the visit of the angel should be but a hallucination, a distempered vision withno reality behind it, or even a scene got up for his destruction by malignant demons?

Finally he resolved to obey the supernatural voice. He laid aside the names Kotham andHalibi, which he had hitherto borne, and took the one by which he is universally known.* Likethe prophet Elijah, he had desired death feeling it better for him to die than to live; yet whenthe men of his clan offered bribes and made threats to swerve him, he stubbornly replied: "Though they array against me the sun on my right hand and the moon on my left, yet whileGod commands me I will not renounced my purpose." Nor had he any overweening illusion inregard to his own superior worthiness. "Will you not enter Paradise by your own merits?" Ayesha asked him. He answered, reiterating it three times: "Never shall I enter Paradise unlessGod shall cover me with his mercy."

It does not appear to have been his ambition to introduce a new system of belief into theworld. "His first and ruling idea was simply religious reform," says Professor Draper, "tooverthrow Arabian idolatry and put an end to the wild enthusiasm of Christianity." That themovement should extend into other regions from India to the Atlantic, till it included a third ofthe population of the earth within its scope, and continue as is now the case to extend and makeits proselytes better and worthier - all this he had never contemplated. He had long entertainedthe sad conviction of the Hanifs, that his people had gone astray from the religion of Abraham, and he now

--------------* It was the custom of the kings of Egypt, upon their accession to the throne, to assume a

new name as a declaration of their divine rank. Mohamad evidently selected his for its peculiarmeaning, the One desired, the Favorite (of Heaven). See I Samuel, ix:20; Haggas, ii:7.----------------- 170.

regarded himself as appointed by God, to call them back to the ancient ways. His utteranceswere denominated the Koran,* as signifying such calling. Islam has no priesthood to shape itsdogmas or control the conscience of its adherents. Its principles are broad and liberal. Reviledas he has been for centuries, Mohamad always spoke in respectful words of those who had beenteachers before him. He never uttered the name of Jesus except with a benediction. He alsorecognized the merits of sincere believers of other religions. "Verily," says he, "the believers,and those who are Jews, those who are Christians and Sabians, whoever believeth in God anddoeth that which is right, they shall have their reward with their Lord: there shall come no fearupon them, neither shall they be grieved."

To constitute a nation it is necessary that people shall have a record, a history, aliterature. Every religion that has made a permanent impression upon the world has been thereligion of a Book. Arabia and the countries adjacent, in the time of Mohamad, abounded withsacred scriptures, such as the Hebrew and Rabbinic writings, the Avesta, the Book of Seth, theBook of Enoch, and the numerous gospels of the Gnostic and other Christian sects. They werecongruous to some extent with the description which the Brahmans have given of a puran: "aliterary work treating of five subjects; namely: primary creation, or the creation of matter ingeneral; secondary creation, or the production of the subordinate beings, both spiritual andmaterial; a chronological account of their great periods of time; the genealogic rise offamilies, particularly those that have reigned in the country; and lastly, a history of the lives ofparticular families."

To these conditions the Koran certainly does not conform. It is unique, having neitherbeginning, middle nor end. The suras are not even properly arranged. Its transitions from onemood and topic

---------------* This term is derived from the word K'RA, to call, to cry out, to read as from writing.

The name Koran, may, therefore, signify the writings that were called together or collectedafter the death of Mohamad, or that were to be considered to be sacred.------------------ 171.

to another are sudden and rapid; it suffers fearfully by translation; its elegance of diction isutterly lost; and yet as we read, we find much to admire.

The late Emanuel Deutsch considered Islam as being "neither more nor less than Judaismadapted to Arabia plus the apostleship of Jesus and Mohamad." He referred for corroboration,to Maimonides, the exponent of the later Judaism, who fearlessly spoke of Christ andMohamad as heralds of the Messianic times. This is a judgment, however, which seems torequire qualifying, for there are distinct traces of Zoroastrism in the Koran, that must havecome from the Avesta. But the Jews, especially after their final overthrow in Palestine, hadmigrated in large numbers to Arabia, to Hedjaz, Yemen and Hadramaut; and having laid asidethe conception of nationality and abandoned the cumbrous Levitical worship as not required by

their law,* they became identified with the native population, intermarrying, and by familiarintercourse greatly influencing the religious opinions of their new fellow-countrymen. It is notremarkable, therefor, that in the declaration of Mohamad that he was introducing no newdoctrine, but only restoring the religion** of Abraham, it should be considered as a clue to theunderstanding of Islam. Indeed, in his exposition, Deutsch sustains this view, by comparingthe descriptions in the Midrash with peculiar details in the account of the Night-Journey to thecelestial regions. Judaism, he declares, having supplanted Hebraism and Israelitism,"subsequently stood at the cradle both of Christianity and Mohamedanism." He furtherremarks that "when the Talmud was completed (finally gathered in, not composed) the Koranwas begun. Post hoc, propter hoc." There are many statements and utterances in the latterwork,

-------------* Jeremiah vii:22. "For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day

that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices."** The term rendered "religion" is milla, which is the same in meaning with the logos, or

Word in the Gospel according to John, and the dharma of the Buddhistic writers.---------------- 172.

similar to those in the Jewish writings, and he describes its contents graphically as "oftenputting the old wine in new bottles."

Yet, with all the faults in the arranging of its parts, despite the fact that it was written insuras at different times and at various exigencies, the Koran is uniform in its utterance, itselegance of language, its persistent purpose. Its supreme thought appears constantly in theemphatic words: "Allahu akbar," God is great. Every chapter is prefixed with the reverentexpression: "Bismilla," in the name of God. Everywhere it insists that God is the guide ofhuman destiny, and that he is ever merciful and compassionate. But while teaching Islam assubmission to the will of God, it is by no means fatalism that is meant, but a vigorous strivingafter righteousness, each individual working out his own salvation.

"The laws of practical ethics in the Koran rest largely upon the principle of justice," saysMary Mills Patrick; "but charity, philanthropy, generosity, gratitude and sincerity are alsorecommended. Strict honesty is demanded in business dealings with just balances, and uprightintentions. Lies of all kinds are condemned, the taking of bribes is strictly forbidden, andfaithfulness to trusts is commanded. This is especially the case in regard to orphans."

Such was the book - the revelation if we choose to esteem it as such - by the influence ofwhich the Arabians became a nation. Moved by the impulse thus imparted they passed oncemore beyond their ancient boundaries into Syria and the East, making themselves masters ofthe Empire of Cyrus and Alexander, of Egypt and the realm of Hannibal. Nor was theirs solelya career of conquest and spoliation. Nowhere were they like Attila, merely a "scourge of God,"or devouring locusts spreading blight and desolation where they went. "After the first wave ofinvasion swept by, two blades of grass were found growing where one had grown before; theyfertilized while they destroyed; and from one end of the then known world to the other, theysowed the seeds of literature, of commerce and of civilization. And as these disappeared in thelapse of years in one part of the Mussulman world, they reappeared in another." - [Draper]

Thus for five centuries the Arabians held up the torch of learning while Europe was

emerged in the barbarism of the Middle

--- 173.

Ages. They translated the writings of the Greek sages, made themselves masters of geometryand metaphysics, developed the sciences of agriculture and astronomy, created those of algebraand chemistry. They adorned their cities with colleges and libraries, and supplied Europe withphilosophers from Cordova, and physicians from Salerno.* Nor was the energy of theirpropaganda abated. The Turk has taken the scepter from the Arabian, but Islam is stillextending into new regions, and introducing there a better state of things. It is propagated bypreaching alone, and with marked success, in different parts of Africa.

It is true that there are what we must consider radical faults and blemishes. We can findthem in profusion by looking for them. Yet it is far better to have our eyes open to discernwhat is good and useful, and to see things as they are. In this view of the matter we must placethe great Arabian in the roll of the benefactors of the human race. Without a standing army,body-guard, regal palace and the trappings of power, with the ground for a throne, he ruled hisequals as by divine authority alone. He made his religion the aim of his life and instilled thatidea into the minds of his followers. The Koran was to him the voice speaking in his inmostconsciousness to enable him to direct his actions. It was "his sign, his miracle, his mission." We are to judge it by its own contents. What the Thora is to Judaism, the Gospel to Christians,the Koran is to Islam. By it let us form our judgment.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Dec., 1901)

--------------* This credit, however, does not belong altogether to the Moslems. The Jews were their

principal teachers in literature and scientific learning; and the Nestorians, the most learned ofthe Christian bodies, were first to promote the founding of schools and universities. TheOmayad Khalifs availed themselves of the services of both.------------------------------- 174.

INTRODUCTION AND APPENDIX TO ANCIENT SYMBOL WORSHIP

(The following is Wilder’s Introduction and Appendix to the book Phallism in AncientWorships: Ancient Symbol Worship - Influence of the Phallic Idea in the Religions ofAntiquity, by Hodder M. Westropp and C. Staniland Wake, with an Introduction, AdditionalNotes, and an Appendix by Alexander Wilder, M.D., New York, J.W. Bouton, 1874.)

INTRODUCTION

Baal..... None older is than I. When Man came forth,The final effort, wrung from monstrous forms,And Earth's out-wearied forces could no more,

I warmed the ignorant bantling on my breast,We rose together, and my kingdom spreadFrom these cold hills to hamlets in the palms,That grew to Memphis and to Babylon;While I on towers, and hanging terraces,In shaft and obelisk, beheld my signCreative, shape of first imperious law.

- "Masque of the Gods," by Bavard Taylor

The classic scholar whose studies have hardly exceeded the limits prescribed in thecurriculum of the universities, and the biblical student whose explorations of the HebrewScriptures have not led him

--- 175.

beyond the field of exegesis and theological pursuit, and ill-prepared to hear of a larger worldthan Greece, Rome, and Palestine, or of an archaic time which almost remands the annals ofthose countries into the domain of modern history. Olympian Zeus with his college ofassociate deities, afterward Latinized in Jupiter and his divine subordinates, and the Lord alonewith his ten thousands of sacred ones, comprise their idea of the supernal world and itsdivinities. Beyond, they recognize a vague and misty chaos of mythologies, which, notaccurately understanding, they superciliously affect to despise. Whoever would be reallyintelligent, must boldly explore that chaos, voyaging through the "outer world" away from Troyand Greece, as far as Ulysses went, and from biblical scenes to the very heart of the ancientempires. There is no occasion for terror, like that displayed by the mariners who sailed withColumbus into the unknown ocean. Wherever man is to be found, like instincts, passions,hopes, and ambitions will attest a common kindred. Each person's life is in some mannerrepeated in that of his fellows, and every human soul is a mirror in which other souls, as well asfuture and former events, reflect their image.

It is more than probably that the diversified customs, institutions, and religions of theseveral nations of the world are less dissimilar in their origin than is often imagined. Thedifferences uprose in the progress of time, the shifting scenes of climate, condition, and event. But the original ideas of existence, and the laws which pertain to all created things, are prettymuch the same among the various tribes of mankind. The religions, philosophical systems andsymbolisms, are outgrowths, - the aspirations of thinking and reverential men to solve andexpress in suitable form the facts which underlie and constitute all things.

We should therefore approach the subject of human faith and worship with candor,modesty, and respect. Men's beliefs are entitled to so much. The unwitting individual may beastonished at beholding men, the masters of the science and thought of their time, adoring godsthat are represented as drunken and adulterous, and admitting extravagant stories andscandalous narrations among their religious verities. In this simplicity he may conceive that he has a right to

--- 176.

contemn, and even to scoff at, such prodigious infatuation. But the infatuation and absurdity

are only apparent. There is a fuller, profounder meaning, which sanctifies the emblems andlegends which ignorant and superficial men denounce. M. Renan speaks justly as well aseloquently: "It is sacrilege, in a religious light, this making sport of symbols consecrated byTime, wherein, too, man had deposited his first views of the divine world." *

Religions were never cunningly devised by priests, or ambitious leaders, for the purposeof enabling them to hold the human mind in abject bondage. Nor did they come into existence,full-grown, like Athene, the Jove-born; nor were they constructed from the lessons of sages oreven of prophets. They were born, like men, not mature but infantile; the body and life as asingle entity, without a definite evolving of the interior, symbolized idea, yet containing allpotentially; so that time and growth were required to enable the intelligent mind to distinguishrightly between the form and the substance which it envelops and shadows forth. When thissubstance, like the human soul, has fully developed, the external forms and symbols become oflittle value, and are cast off and rejected like chaff from the wheat. Yet for the sake of their usethey are to be valued and respected. The well-thinking medical student never indulges in ribaldhilarity at or in the presence of the corpse which he dissects, from reverence for the human soulthat was once its tenant. But religious symbols lose their sacredness when they are employedto supplant the idea which alone had rendered them valuable.

Let there be no contempt, then, for the Children of the Mist, who love to gaze backwardinto the past to ascertain what man has been, and to look within to learn what he is and ought tobe. They are not prophets without inspiration, or apostles that have no mission. Behind theveil is the Shekinah; only the anointed have authority to lift aside the curtain.

Modern science somewhat audaciously has endeavored to set aside the time-honored traditions of a Golden Age. We do not

-----------* Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse, Frothingham's translation.

-------------- 177.

undertake to controvert the new doctrine, so necessary to establish the recently-tracedrelationships between men and monkeys. The same social law which allows every man tochoose his own company, can be extended perhaps to the selection of his kindred.

But, so far as we are able to perceive, there have been cycles of human development,analogous to the geological periods, that have been accomplished upon the earth. Men,nations, and civilizations, like the seasons, have passed over the great theatre of existence. Wehave often only the traces of them in a few remains of language, manufacture, and religion. Much is lost save to conjecture. Judging from our later observations of human progress, theremust have been a long term of discipline that schooled them; yet, perhaps, it was the divineintuition and instinct implanted in them that enabled them to achieve so much. It is notpossible, however, to extend researches back far enough to ascertain. We are not equal to thetask of describing the fossils of a perished world. We are compelled to read the archaic historythrough the forms and mysteries* of religion, and the peculiarities of language, rather than inthe pages of the annalist. The amber of mythology has served to preserve to us the most ofwhat is to be learned on these topics.

-----------

* By mysteries the educated reader will not understand merely doctrines of symbols, oreven secrets as such, but a system of discipline and instruction in esoteric learning which wasdeemed too sacred and recondite for those who had not complied with the essential conditions. Every ancient country had its sacerdotal order, the members of which had been initiated intothe mysteries; and even Jesus defended his practice of discoursing in parables or allegories,because that only to his disciples was it given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom ofGod, whereas to the multitude it was not given. The priests of Egypt, the Magians of theancient countries beyond the river Euphrates, the priests of Phoenicia and the other countries ofWestern Asia, were all members of sacerdotal colleges that might not divulge the esotericknowledge to the uninitiated. Even the Brahmins of India are said to have also their mysteries at the -------------- 178.

The primitive religion of mankind is perhaps only to be ascertained when we knowaccurately their original habitats. But this, like the gilded butterfly, eludes our search. India,Persia, Babylonia, Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt, were but colonies. The Vendidad indicates acountry north of the river Oxus; and Sir William Jones, adopting the story of the learned Sufi,Mohsan Fani, declared his belief that a powerful monarchy once existed there long before theAssyrian empire; the history of which was engrafted upon that of the Hindoos, who colonizedthe country between the river Indus and the Bay of Bengal. In conformity with the views ofthis writer, Sir William accordingly describes the primeval religion of Iran and the Aryanpeoples as consisting of "a firm belief that One Supreme God made the world by his power andcontinually governed it by his providence: - a pious fear, love, and adoration of him; - a duereverence for parents and aged persons; a paternal affection for the whole human species, and a compassionate tenderness even for the brute creation.”

----------------present time; and the late Godfrey Higgins relates that a Mr. Ellis was enabled, by aid of themasonic tokens, to enter the penetralia of a temple in the presidency of Madras. That there issome such "freemasonry" existing in many of the countries which we denominate uncivilizedand pagan, is probable. The early Christians and heretical sects had also their signs ofrecognition, and were distinguished like the initiates of the older worships, according to theirgrade, as neophytes (I Timothy iii, 6) spiritual, and perfect. The mysteries most familiar toclassical readers are the Eleusinia, which appear to have descended from the prehistoricperiods. Pococke declares them to have been of Tartar origin, which is certainly plausible, andto have combined Brahminical and Buddhistical ideas. Those admitted only to the LesserMysteries were denominated Mystae, or veiled; those initiated into the Greater Mysteries wereepoptai, or seers. Socrates was not initiated, yet after drinking the hemlock he addresses Crito: "We owe a cock to Aesculapius." This was the peculiar offering made by initiates on the eveof the last day, and he thus sublimely asserted that he was about the receive the greatapocalypse.------------------- 179.

But, however much of truth there may be in this description, it evidently relates only to

the blonde races. We see plainly enough the engrafting of "history," or rather legends, in manyother countries, as well as among the Brahmins of India. The Hebrew records, tracing theirpatriarchs to Egypt and Assyria, are probably no exception. The Garden of Eden appears tohave been well known to the king of Tyre (Ezekiel xxviii, 13-16), who is styled "the anointedcherub;" the Assyrian is also described (xxx, 3-18) as a cedar in Lebanon, "fair by themultitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God enviedhim;" and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is also assured that he shall "be brought down with the treesof Eden into the neither parts of the earth." From that region Abraham is reputed to haveemigrated, and its traditions are probably therefore consecrated as religious legends.

If we had time and space to follow this subject, we might be able to show that the periodwhen the Hebrew patriarch is supposed to have removed from the region of the upperEuphrates, revolutions were occurring there which changed the structure of society. "Yourfathers," said Joshua to the assembled Israelites, "your fathers dwelt on the other side of theflood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they servedother gods."* The Persian legend of "Airyana-vaeja, of the good creation which Anra-mainyas(Ahriman) full of death filled with evils,"** and the Hebrew story of the garden of Eden***which was by the headwaters of the Oxus, Tigris, and Euphrates, where dwelt the man andwoman till the successful invasion of the Serpent, indicate the Great Religious War of whichtraditions exist in the principal countries of ancient time. It occurred between the nations of theEast and the nations of the West, the Iranians and Turanians, the Solar and Lunar nations, theLingacitas and the Yonijas, those who venerated images and religious

-------------* Joshua xxiv, 2.** Vendidad, 1, 5-12.*** Genesis ii, and iii.

---------------- 180.

symbols, and those who discarded them. Vast bodies of men were compelled to abandon theirhomes, many of them skilled in the arts of civilization and war. Tribes and dynasties emigratedto escape slavery and destruction; and other climates received and cherished those who hadbeen deemed unworthy to live. These events are superimposed upon the history of everypeople. Whether the migration mentioned by Juno of the gens inimica, the Trojans, from Troyto Italy, bearing its political genius and conquered divinities, depicts any actual occurrence, wedo not undertake to say; but convulsions did take place, by which peoples once living as onenation, the Hindoos and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Germans and Slaves, were divided fromeach other and removed to other regions. The Ethiopian of Hamitic races underwent a likeoverturning and dispersion, probably from their contests with the blonde invaders of the North. Thus, the second chapter of Genesis describes the river Pison, as compassing the land ofEthiopia or Cush, which was evidently situated upon the Erythraean or Arabian Sea. Thepeople of this region appear to have occupied or colonized India, Babylonia, Arabia, Syria,Egypt, and other countries of the West. They were the builder-race par excellence; and carriedcivilization, architecture, mathematical science, their arts and political institutions whereverthey went. Their artisans, doubtless, erected the temples and pyramids of Egypt, India, andBabylon; excavated the mountain of Ellora, the islands of Salsette and Elephanta, the artificial

caves of Bamian, the rocks of Petra and the hypogea of Egypt; built the houses of Ad inArabia, the Cyclopean structures of India, Arabia, and the more western countries; constructedships for the navigation of the seas and oceans, and devised the art of sculpture. Mathematicsand astronomy, alphabetical as well as hieroglyphical writing, and many other sciences,perhaps those which have been discovered in later times, were possessed and cultivated bythese "blameless Aethiopians,* most ancient of men."

-------------* The term Aethiopian cannot be regarded, when applied to any ancient people, as

indicating negro or negroid origin. Like other ---------------- 181.

The Hebrew Scriptures, which have been regarded as especially the oracles of religioustruth, develop the fact, as has been already suggested, of a close resemblance of the earlierIsraelites with the surrounding nations. Their great progenitor, Abraham, is described asemigrating from the region of Chaldea, at the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates, in thecharacter of a dissenter from the religion of that country. [Joshua xxiv, 2, 3] Yet he and hisimmediate descendants appear to have at least employed the same religious symbols and formsof worship as the people of Canaan and Phoenicia, who are recorded to have already occupiedPalestine. [Genesis xii, 6; xiii, 7] He erected altars wherever he made a residence; and"planted a grove" or pillar in Beer-sheba, as a religious emblem. [Genesis xxi, 33- ] He is alsorepresented as conducting his son to the land of Moriah, to immolate him as a sacrifice to theDeity, as was sometimes done by the Phoenicians; and as was afterwards authorized in theMosaic law. [Leviticus xxvii, 28, 29] One of the suffets, or judges, Jephthah the Gileadite, inlike manner sacrificed his own daughter at Mizpeh; [Judges xi, 30, 31, and 34-40] and the placewhere Abraham built his altar was afterwards selected as the site for the temple of Solomon. [2Chronicles iii, I] Jacob is twice mentioned as setting up a pillar, calling the place Beth-el,[Genesis xxxviii, 18-22; xxxv, 1-15] and as making libations. On the occasion also of forminga treaty of amity with his father-in-law,

---------------names, it had a religious meaning, and was applied to Zeus or Jupiter, and also to Prometheus. The best-defined opinion connects it with the serpent-worship, which prevailed, along with thatof the lingam, among the Cushite and kindred peoples. It is noticeable that ethnology has giventhe Chinese and Mongolian tribes a world apart. There seems to be a wall between them andthe populations of other climates. The Chinese nevertheless manifested themselvesoccasionally upon the surface of Asiatic history; and the Tartars have often appeared asinvaders and conquerors, designated in the metaphors and allegories of the old languages, asfloods of waters, destroying the world.------------------ 182.

Laban, the Syrian, he erected a pillar and directed his brethren to pile up a cairn, or heap ofstones; to which were applied the names Galeed, or circle, and Mizpeh, or pillar. Monoliths,or "great stones," appear to have been as common in Palestine as in other countries, and the

cairns and circles (gilgals) were equally so, as well as the mounds or "high places." Thesuffets,* or "judges," and the kings, maintained them till Hezekiah. Samuel the prophetworshiped at a high place at Ramah, and Solomon at the "great stone," or high place inGibeon.** There were also priests,*** and we suspect kadeshim, stationed at them. AtMispeh, probably at the pillar, was a seat of government of the Israelites; and Joshua set up apillar under the oak of Shechem, by the sanctuary. Jephthah the judge made his residence atthe former place, and his daughter, the Iphigenia of the Book of Judges, was immolated there. Samuel was also inaugurated there as suffet of Israel. There were other "great stones"mentioned, as Abel, Bethshemesh or Heliopolis; Ezel, where David met with Jonathan; andEbenezer, erected by Samuel on the occasion of a victory over the Philistines.

But Hezekiah appears to have changed the entire Hebrew religious polity. He removedthe Hermaic or Dionysiac Statues, and the conical omphalic emblems of Venus-Ashtoreth; overthrew the mounds and altars, and broke in pieces the serpent of brass made by Moses, towhich the people had burned incense "unto those days." Josiah afterwards also promulgatedthe law of Moses, and was equally iconoclastic. He removed the paraphernalia of the worshipof the sun, destroyed the image of Semel, or Hermes, expelled the

-------------* The suffet was a magistrate under the Phoenician system, as is observed at Carthage.

The patriarchal government was that of sheiks, as among the nomadic Arabs, while theIsraelites of Goshen and the desert are described as being organized like the Arabs of thetowns.

** I Kings iii, 4. See also ch. xv, 14; xxii, 43; 2 Kings xii, 2; xiv, 4; xv 4.*** 2 Kings xxiii, 9.

---------------- 183.

kadeshim, or consecrated men and women, from the cloisters of the Temple, and destroyed thestatues and emblems of Venus and Adonis.*

We have suggested that Abraham was represented in the character of a dissenter from theworship prevailing at "Ur of the Khasdim." As remarked on a subsequent page by Mr. Wake,"That some great religious movement, ascribed by tradition to Abraham, did take place amongthe Semites at an early date, is undoubted." It may have been the "Great Religious War." Thereligion of the patriarchs appears to have had some affinity with that of the Persians, insomuchthat some writers intimate an identity of origin. This was certainly the case at a later period. Other peoples were also driven to emigration. Many Scythian nations abandoned their formerseats. The Phoenicians left their country on the Erythrean Sea, and emigrated to the shores ofthe Mediterranean. The Pali, or shepherds on the Indus, removed to the west. A part of thepopulation of Asiatic Ethiopia, or Beluchistan, it is supposed, also emigrated. The Hyksos,**during the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Monarchy, appeared in Egypt. Josephus, abandoning hisown history of Jewish Antiquities, construes the account by Manetho, in regard to them, asrelating to the ancient Hebrews, remarking: "Our ancestors had the dominion over theircountry." *** If we might interpret the story of Abraham and other patriarchs as we would thetraditions of other nations, we would assign to it a religious or exoteric meaning rather than asecular and

-----------* 2 Kings xxiii, 4-20** Manetho translates this term, from the "sacred Language," kingly shepherds; kyk

signifying king, and sos a shepherd. He seems to hesitate, however, for he also remarks that"some say that they were Arabians," and that "in the sacred books they were also styledcaptives." Skos signifies Arabian, and sus a horse. Are we not allowed to suppose them to beshepherds as rearing and using horses? They appear to have introduced the horse into Egypt,which makes this idea seem plausible.

*** Against Apion, I, 25-------------- 184.

historical one, and fix a later period for the beginning of the authentic annals. The earlyassociation of the Shemitic with the Ethiopian nations, however, appears to be abundantlycorroborated by profane as well as sacred history.

Similarity of customs indicate that the "chosen people," if they had a separate politicalexistence, were in other respects substantially like the earlier nations. We may expect to findthese resemblances close enough to show even a family likeness. Of course, every intelligentreader is aware that the Hamitic and Shemitic populations of Asia, Africa, and Europe,belonged to what is denominated the Caucasian or Indo-Germanic race.

The earliest deity of the Ethiopian or Hamitic nations, whose worship was most general,was the one known in the bible by the designation of Baal. He bore, of course, a multiplicity oftitles, which were often personified as distinct (9%-! aleim, or divinities; besides having inSyria a separate name for every season of the year. In the Sanscrit language he was styledMaha Deva, or Supreme God; and after the Aryan conquest, was added to the BrahminTrimourti under the title Siva. Other names are easily traced in the Hamitic languages; as Balain Bel, the tutelar deity of Babylon; Deva Nahusha, or Dionysus, of Arabia and Trace; Iswara,or Oseiris, of Egypt. In western mythology he became more generally known through thePhoenicians. In Tyre he was Mel-karth, the lord of the city; in Syria he was Adonis andMoloch; but all through Europe he is best known by the hero-name Hercules. His twelvelabors typify the sun passing through the signs of the zodiac; his conquests in the west showwhither the Phoenician navigators directed their course; while the maypoles, Bal-fires, andother remnants of old worships, exist as his memorials. The story of his achievements is a fairoutline of the history of Phoenician adventure.

"The wonderful and universal power of light and heat," says that most modest andamiable writer, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child,* "has

--------------* Progress of Religious Ideas through Successive Ages, Vol. I, pp. 15, 16, 17.

----------------- 185.

caused the Sun to be worshiped as a visible emblem of deity in the infancy of nearly all nations. Water is recognized as another obvious symbol of divine influence. Hence the sacred rivers,fountains, and wells abounding in Hindostan. The Air is likewise to them a consecratedemblem. Invisible, pervading all space, and necessary to the life of all creatures, it naturally

suggests the spirit of God. Nearly all languages describe the soul by some phrase similar insignification to 'the breath of life.' Brahm is sometimes called Atman, or the Breathing Soul.

"Other emblems deemed sacred by the Hindoos, and worshiped in their temples, havebrought upon them the charge of gross indecency. But if it be true at the present time, itprobably was not so at the beginning. When the world was in its infancy, people spoke andacted with more of the simplicity and directness of little children than they do at present. In theindividual child, and in the childhood of society, whatever is incomprehensible producesreligious awe. As the reflective Faculties develop, man is solemnly impressed with thewonders of creation, in the midst of which his soul wakes up, as it were, from a dream. Andwhat so miraculous as the advent of this conscious soul into the marvelous mechanism of ahuman body? If Light with its grand revealings, and Heat making the earth fruitful withbeauty, excited wonder and worship in the first inhabitants of our world, is it strange that theylikewise regarded with reverence the great mystery of human Birth? Were they impure thus toregard it? Or, are we impure that we do not so regard it? We have traveled far, and uncleanhave been the paths, since those old anchorites first spoke of god and the soul in the solemndepths of their first sanctuaries. Let us not smile at their mode of tracing the Infinite andIncomprehensive Cause throughout all the mysteries of Nature, lest by so doing we cast theshadow of our own grossness on their patriarchal simplicity.

"From the time immemorial, an emblem has been worshiped in Hindostan as the type ofcreation,* or the origin of life. It is the

-----------* The first verse of the Book of Genesis declares creation to

-------------- 186.

most common symbol of Siva [Baal or Maha Deva], and is universally connected with hisworship. To understand the original intention of this custom, we should remember that Sivawas not merely the reproducer of human forms; he represented the Fructifying Principle, theGenerating Power that pervades the universe, producing sun, moon, stars, men, animals, andplants. The symbol to which we have alluded is always in his temples. It is usually placed inthe inmost recess, or sanctuary, sculptured in granite, marble, or ivory, often crowned withflowers, and surmounted by a golden star. Lamps are kept burning before it, and on festivaloccasions it is illuminated by a lamp with seven branches, supposed to represent the planets.* Small images of this emblem, carved in ivory, gold, or crystal, are often worn as ornamentsabout the neck. The pious use them in their prayers, and often have them buried with them. Devotees of Siva have it written on their foreheads in the form of a perpendicular mark. Thematernal emblem is likewise a religious type; and worshipers of Vishnu represent it on theirforehead by a horizontal mark, with three short perpendicular lines."

These symbols are found in the temple-excavations of the islands of Salsette andElephanta, of unknown antiquity; in the grotto-temples of Ellora, at the "Seven Pagodas" onthe Coromandel coast, in the old temple at Tanjore, and elsewhere, where Siva worship is in theascendant. Although these symbols, the lingam and yoni, have been adopted by the Brahmins,there is little harmony between the Lingayats and Vishnavites. "In the sacrifice of Wisdom,"says Daksha, "no Brahmin is wanted to officiate." The Rig-Veda denounces the "lasciviouswretches" who adore the sexual emblems, in such language as this: "Let not the lascivious

wretches approach our sacred rites.* "The irresistible [Indra] overcame the lascivious

-------------have been a series of Toledoth, or generations. It is properly translated: "God (the Aleim)engendered (B'RA) the heavens and the earth."

* The seven-branched candlestick of the Mosaic tabernacle has here its prototype.---------------- 187.

wretches."In her chapter on Egypt, Mrs. Child again remarks: "Because plants cannot germinate

without water, vases full of it were carried at the head of processions in honor of Oseiris, andhis votaries refrained from destroying or polluting any spring. This reverence for theproduction of Life, introduced into his worship the sexual emblems so common in Hindostan. A colossal image of this kind was presented to his temple in Alexandria, by King PtolemyPhiladelphus. Crowned with gold and surmounted by a golden star, it was carried in a splendidchariot in the midst of religious processions. A serpent, the emblem of Immortality, alwaysaccompanies the image of Oseiris."

"Reverence for the mystery of organized life led to the recognition of a masculine andfeminine principle in all things spiritual or material. Every elemental force was divided intotwo, the parents of other forces. The active wind was masculine, the passive mist, or inertatmosphere, was feminine. Rocks were masculine, the productive earth was feminine. Thepresiding deity of every district [nome] was represented as a Triad or Trinity. At Thebes it wasAmun, the creative Wisdom; Neith, the spiritual Mother; and a third, supposed to representthe Universe. At Philae it was Oseiris, the generating Cause; Isis, the receptive Mold, andHorus, the Result. The sexual emblems everywhere conspicuous in the sculptures of theirtemples would seem impure in description, but no clean and thoughtful mind could so regardthem while witnessing the obvious simplicity and solemnity with which the subject is treated."

"All the idolaters of that day," says Colonel Tod,* seem to have held the grosser tenets ofHinduism.... When Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and 'built them high places andimages and groves [mounds, hermaic pillars, and omphalic statues] on every high hill andunder every green tree,' the object was Bal; and the pillar (the lingam, matzebah or phallus) was his symbol.** It was on his altar

-------------* Rig-Veda vii, 21; 5; and x, 99:3. The term used is Sisma-devas, or phallus-gods.** Rajasthan, vol. I, 76-79

---------------- 188.

that they burned incense, and 'sacrificed unto the Calf on the fifteenth day of the eighth month,'the sacred Amavus of the Hindus. The Calf of Israel is the Bull (nanda) of Balcesar or Iswara,the Apis of the Egyptian Oseiris.... Mahadeva, or Iswara, is the tutelary divinity of the Rajpootsin Mewar, and from the early annals of the dynasty appears to have been, with his consort Isa,the sole object of Gehlote adoration. Iswara is adored under the epithet of Eklinga, and iseither worshiped in his monolithic symbol, or as Iswara Chaomukhi, the quadriform divinity

represented by a bust with four faces."These spectacles, however, were regarded as sacred, and few regarded them as

possessing moral turpitude. "This worship was so general as to have spread itself over a largepart of the habitable globe; for it flourished for many ages in Egypt and Syria, Persia, AsiaMinor, Greece, and Italy; it was and still is in vigor in India and many parts of Africa, and waseven found in America on its discovery by the Spaniards."**

Being regarded as the most sacred objects of worship, and consecrated by religion, thecultus was associated with every idea and sentiment which was regarded as ennobling to man. The reflecting men of all the older ages, down to Plato, Plotinus, Iamblichus, and the followersof the Gnosis, all paid like respect to the great arcanum of life and of Man. We need not looksuperciliously upon their veneration; for however different out modes of thought, howeverexaggerated above theirs our fastidiousness, we cannot escape the same problems which theythus labored to solve, nor the necessity to realize the veiling and the apocalypse which thesymbols

-------------* I Kings xiv, 22. The introduction of kadeshim, or persons consecrated and set apart,

like nautch-girls, or almas, is first mentioned in this connection.** Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs. Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction,

with some Account of the Judicial "Congress," as practiced in France during the SeventeenthCentury. By John Davenport, Small quarto, with eight full-page illustrations. London, 1869---------------- 189.

and the mysteries foreshadowed.

-----------------

APPENDIX

To many persons, doubtless, the foregoing statements of Messrs. Wake and Westroppappear to be grossly exaggerated if not absolutely preposterous. It seems to them almostincredible that such ideas and customs should obtain ascendancy among any people, andespecially in the character of religious mysteries. Even classical readers participate in thisskepticism. They are unwilling to believe that, except in places notoriously immoral, likePompeii or Lampsacus, the use of sexual representations in common life would becountenanced. Nevertheless, a careful review of the evidence will assure us of their mistake. We must not always expect shameless manners to attend immorality. Prudery and pruriencyare frequently companions, equally impure and cowardly; and in all scientific investigationthey should be disregarded rather than conciliated.

The careful student of the Old Testament is amazed at the antagonism apparent betweenthe examples of the Hebrew patriarchs and the teachings of the prophets, in regard to theerection of monolithic pillars and other structures, for votive memorials and other religiouspurposes. It is likewise hard to distinguish a difference between the customs of the earlyIsraelites and those of the nations around them. The similarity is observable in their religious

as well as their political institutions. Their rulers were at first patriarchs or sheiks, as amongthe Arabs; then they had princes of tribes, like the lords of the Philistines, and after thatsuffetes, or judges, like the Carthaginians; concluding finally with kings, "like all the nations." They had the same language and alphabet as the Phoenicians from the days of Moses. As,despite the tenth chapter of Genesis, the ethnographers persist in classing the latter in theSemitic group, there is little reason given for not including both peoples under one ethnic

--- 190.

head.The Phoenicians and Pelasgians or Ionians of Asia Minor were the most adventurous

nations of the time. They colonized Greece, Italy, Spain, and Africa, and the former extendedtheir enterprises to the countries on the Atlantic Ocean. Their gods Baal or Hercules, andAstarte or Venus, were worshiped wherever they went. So uniform were the religious emblemsand customs, that a description of the usages of one people very nearly describes them all. ThePalasgians of Ionia had different deity-names, like Dionysus or Bacchus, Hermes, Aphrodite; but they had like customs, and the Cabeirian Mysteries, which fixed the institutions of religion,were common to both.

The hermaic statue, consisting of a human head placed upon an inverted obelisk, with aphallus, was the recognized simulacrum of Baal in the Bible. Associated with it was the Venusor Aphrodite, a female draped figure terminating below in the same square form. This wasgenerally of wood, the palm being preferred. The name Aspasia is often inscribed upon thesefemale images. The Hermaic and Aprhroditic statue were sometimes included in one, like theHindoo Siva and Bhavani, giving rise to the androgynous representations.

The mode of constructing the Hermaic statues was derived by the Greeks from thePelasgians of Asia Minor. Herodotus says: "Whoever has been initiated into the Mysteries ofthe Cabeiri will understand what I mean. The Samothracians received these Mysteries from thePelasgi, who, before they went to live in Attica, were dwellers in Samothrace, and impartedtheir religious ceremonies to the inhabitants. The Athenians, then, who were the first of all theGreeks to make their statues of Mercury in this way, learnt the practice from the Pelasgians; and by this people a religious account of the matter is given, which is explained in theSamothracian Mysteries."*

------------* Rawlinson's Herodotus, book ii, 51. "The phallus formed an essential part of the

symbol, probably because the divinity represented by it was in the earliest times, before the worship of --------------- 191.

The Cabeiri, we presume, represented the divinities of the planets; Esmun or thePhoenician Esculapius being the eighth. The serpent was his symbol. Kadmiel or Cadmus wasthe same as Taut or Thoth, the god of the steles or pillar-emblems, and was the reputed founderof the city of Thebes. It was to the worship of these divinities that reference was made by theauthor of The Wisdom of Solomon: "They slew their children in sacrifices, or used secretMysteries, or celebrated frantic komuses of strange rites." *

But the institution of the Orphic rites and the Eleusinian Mysteries is ascribed byHerodotus to Egyptian influences. "The rites called Orphic and Bacchic are in reality Egyptianand Pythagorean; and no one initiated in these Mysteries can be buried in a woollen shroud, areligious reason being assigned for the observance."**

Melampus introduced into Greece the name of Dionysus or Bacchus, the ceremonial ofhis worship, and the procession of the phallus. "I can by no means admit," says Herodotus,"that it is by mere coincidence that the Bacchic ceremonies in Greece are so nearly the same asthe Egyptian - they would have been more Greek in their character and less recent in theirorigin. Much less can I admit that the Egyptians borrowed these customs, or any other, fromthe Greeks. My belief is that Melampus got his knowledge of them from Cadmus the Tyrian,and the followers whom he brought from Phoenicia into the country which is now calledBoeotia." "The Egyptians were also the first to introduce solemn assemblies, processions, andlitanies to the gods; of all which the Greeks were taught the use by them."*** In theDionysiac festival of Egypt, instead of phalli they used images a cubit high, pulled by strings,which the women carried round to the villages. A piper headed the company,

-------------Dionysus was imported from the East, the personification of the reproductive powers ofnature." - Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Hermai.

* Wisdom, xiv, 23.** Book ii, 81.*** Book II, 49, 58.

---------------- 192.

and the women followed, singing hymns in honor of the god. As in the Cabeirian Mysteries ofPhoenicia and Samothrace, a "religious reason" accounted for the peculiarities of the image. The identity of Bacchus with the Moloch or Hercules of the Phoenicians, and with theDionysus of Arabia and the Mysteries, is apparent.

Both the Greeks and Romans, however, for a long time had no images. Numa, who issaid to have been a Pythagorean, allowed only the "eternal fire" of Vesta as a symbol of thedeity. The earlier temples were temenoi, or consecrated areas, marked out by erect pillars ofstone. In them were altars, "great stones," or conical statues. Mounds, or artificial eminences,were also common, as representative of the "holy hill," or mount of assembly where the Deitydwelt. These were denominated, by both Greeks and Phoenicians, bemas, or "high places." *

The stele or pillar came early to be used as the emblem of the god; and, in like manner, aconical stone, signifying the omphalos, navel, or rounded abdomen, became the symbol of thegreat Mother-Goddess. The service of Hercules, with Omphale, queen or goddess of Lydia, hereceiving from her the distaff and she taking his club and lion-skin, expresses the association ofthe two in the Mysteries. At the temple of Amun, in Libya, the emblem of the god is describedas an umbriculum of immense size, which was borne in a boat or ark, requiring eighty men forthe purpose.** The boat is a feminine symbol. At the temple of Delphi, the omphalos, ornavel-stone, is described as obtuse in form, and having nothing obscene in appearance. It wasof white marble, and was kept in the sanctuary, carefully wrapped in a white cloth.*** Thenabhi, or naval of Vishnu, the Brahmin god, explained in like manner as expressive of thefemale organs, is similarly represented. M. Creuzer found among the ruins of Carthage a

large conical stone, which we immediately

-------------* Ezekiel xx, 29.** Quintus Curtius*** Strabo, book ix, 420.

----------------- 193.

recognized as the representation of Astarte. Lajard also mentions many smaller cones inGreece, some of them bearing the name of Aphrodite. "In all Cyprian coins," he remarks, "maybe seen, in the place where we would anticipate to find a statue of the goddess, the form of aconical stone. The same is found placed between two cypresses under the portico of the templeof Astarte, in a temple of Aelia Capitolina; but in this instance the cone is crowned. In anothermedal, struck by the elder Philip, Venus is represented between two genii, each of whom standsupon a cone or pillar with a rounded top. There is reason to believe that at Paphos images ofthe conical stone* were made and sold as largely as were effigies of Diana of the Ephesians."**

The ancient Arabians, in like manner, venerated certain conical stones as symbols of thegoddess Al Uza, or Alitta. The famous Caaba, or black stone of Mecca, now revered by theMoslems, was of this character. The crescent, also the emblem of the goddess, is theMohammedan monogram, contrasting with the cross, or masculine emblem of the Christians,and almost implies that the Mussulmans are votaries of the female divinity. The Scandinaviansalso represented the goddess Disa or Isa by a conical stone, surmounted by a head, analogous tothe busts of Astarte.

The erect pillar was common over all the East. It stood at the intersection of roads as asign of consecration, on the boundaries of estates, in and before temples, over graves, andwherever the deities were venerated. At Athens was a "pillar of the Amazon" or androgynousVenus; and Apollonius mentions a litho hieros or sacred

------------* "The statue of the goddess bears no resemblance to the human form. It is round

throughout, broad at one end, and gradually tapering to a narrow span at the other, like a goal. The reason is stated by Philostratus to be symbolical." - Tacitus, book ii, ch. 3.

** Acts xix, 24, 25. Venus and Diana, instead of representing the opposing ideas ofvirginity and sexual love, were deities of like mold, and personified the great maternalprinciple.

[also] Recherches sur la Culte de Venus, page 36.--------------- 194.

stone in the temple of Arez in Pontus, where the Amazons worshiped. Like columns werecommon in Thesaly, Ionia, and Mauritania; and, indeed, in all countries washed by the sea. The round Towers of Ireland, the great stones found in the principal point of cities in England,the stones of memorial in all parts of the British Isles, including "Jacob's pillar" transportedfrom Scotland by Edward I, and now preserved in the seat of the Coronation Chair in

Westminister Abbey, pertain to the same cultus. The Maypoles, common alike to Britons andHindus, are of one pattern. The Buddhists of Ceylon, the Sivaists and Lingayats of Hindustan,and the Zoroastrians of Persia, have these emblems like their fellow-religionists of the West.

Nor was ancient America any exception to these customs. A plain cylindrical stone wasto be found by every Mexican temple. At Copan are monoliths, some of them in a rough stateand others sculptured. At Honduras is an "idol of round stone" with two faces, representing theLord of Life, which the Indians adore, offering blood procured from the prepuce. In Panucowas found in the temples a phallus, and on bas-reliefs in public places were depicted the sacredmembra conjuncta in coitu. There were also similar symbols in Tlascala. On one of the phallicpillars at Copan were also the emblems relative to uterine existence, parturition, etc. Juan deBatanzos, in his History of the Incas, an unpublished manuscript in the Library of the Escurial,says that "in the centre of the great square or court of the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, was acolumn or pillar of stone, of the shape of a loaf of sugar, pointed at the top and covered withgold-leaf."*

It is probably that the mound-builders of North America were votaries of the sameworship. Professor Troost has procured several images in Smith county, Tennessee, one ofwhich was endowed disproportionately, like a Pan or Hermes, or the idol at Lampsacus. Thephallus had been broken off, while in the ground, by a plough. Dr. Ramsay, of Knoxville, alsodescribes two phallic simulacra in his possession, twelve and fifteen inches in length. Theshorter one was

------------* Squier's Serpent Symbol, p. 50.

--------------- 195.

of amphibolic rock, and so very hard that steel could make no impression upon it. The Abbe deBourbourg, who made careful explorations in Mexico and Central America, confirms thestatements in regard to the phallic symbolism, and apparently supposes that it was introducedfrom America into Europe.

The Cross was also found among the ruins of the American temples. In Mexico it wasthe Egyptian symbol, the crux ansata, and was denominated "the tree of life." Its frequencyover the Eastern continent, pertaining alike to the worship of Osiris, Baal-Adonis, Mithra, andMahadeva, is well known. The Buddhists of Tibet employ it in worship, and place it, like thehermaic pillars, at the corners of the street. It was sculptured beside the lingam or phallus, inthe cave of Elephanta. The Hindoo cross resembles the "hammer of Thor." In the tombs ofEtruria were found crosses composed of four phalli. Similar to this was the cross of Malta, tillit was changed to its present shape.

The use of votive amulets in that phallic form was also common. They were found in thetombs and houses. Similar articles are now manufactured in India. The Hindoo women carrythe lingam in procession between two serpents; and it will be remembered that in the sacredark or coffer which held the egg and phallus in the mystic processions of the Greeks, was also aserpent. In Greece and Western Asia the favorite wood for the "stocks" and phallic pillars,according to St. Clement of Alexandria, was the fig. The leaves of this tree, it will beremembered, were used in the garden of Eden; and the fruit has had a peculiar symbolicalmeaning for thousands of years.

That the ancient patriarchs, like the patriarchs and chiefs of other nations, erected pillarsand altars, and worshiped in mountains and high places, is matter of record. The pillars atBethel and Mizpeh, set up by Jacob, were revered by his descendants. Mizpeh was a holyplace, during the days of the Judges; Jephthah made it his seat of government, and after himSamuel was inaugurated there. The Israelites met there to put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, asenjoined by the prophet; who, after that, made a yearly circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh,and had his residence at Ramah, were was a "high

--- 196.

place."The dances, or komuses, were also celebrated, as in the festivals of Bacchus.* King

David himself, in his joy at the bringing of the ark to Jerusalem, "danced before the Lord," andbeing rebuked by his wife, Michal, for his wanton deportment, declared that was in thepresence of Jehovah, adding that he would "play" and be yet "more vile." Whether phalli werecarried by the Hebrew women at their dances and festivals, as among the Greeks and Asiatics,is not stated, but it is not improbable. The prophets denounce the festivals and solemnassemblies as attended with idolatrous and obscene rites.

The worship of the Phoenician deities continued among the Israelites throughout thewhole period of the rule of the Judges.** The Philistines also had the same divinities. Whenthe body of King Saul fell into their hands, they dedicated his armor as a trophy in the templeof Astarte; and according to one author, placed his head in the temple of Dagon the Fish-god,and according to another, his body on the wall of the temple of San.*** After theestablishment of the monarchy, the idolatrous rites took a more objectionable form. KingSolomon is recorded to have built mounds or high places for Chemosh, the god of generation,and for Hercules or Moloch, the god of fire, and to have worshiped Venus-Astarte. Theseshrines remained throughout the Hebrew monarchy, till Josiah profaned them, broke down thepillars, and took away the omphalic symbols, filling their places with the bones of men. Sogeneral had been the prevalence of idolatry, and especially of the Tyrian worship, that these"high places" existed all over the country, with the phallic statues and omphalic emblems, "onevery high hill, and under every green tree."**** That they became places of prostitution, ifthey were not

------------* Judges xxi, 19-23.** Judges ii, 10-19; iii, 6, 7; v, 8; vi, 10, 25, 30; viii, 33; x, 6.*** I Samuel xxxi, 9, 10, and I Chronicles x, 9, 10.**** I Kings xiv, 23. See also xv, 14; xxii, 43; 2 Kings xii, 3; xiv, 4; xv, 4 and 35;

xvi, 4; xvii, 9, 10.--------------- 197.

such at the first, seems to be the concurrent testimony of the prophets and profane writers. Whether the sacrifice of virginity was made at these places, as at the temples of Mylitta, and other divinities, is not expressly affirmed; but the presence of the kadeshim issuspicious.*

-------------* See I Kings xiv, 23, 24; xv, 12 and xxii, 46; 2 Kings xxxiii, 7; Hosea iv, 10-19 and v.

4. The Kings Asa and Jehoshaphat drove these persons from the country. They appear to havebeen of foreign blood; the book of Deuteronomy prescribing that they should not be Israelites. "There shall be no kadeshah of the daughters of Israel, nor a kadesh of the sons of Israel," -xxiii, 17. It is evident, however, that the Israelites imputed no merit, but rather opprobrium, tothe virgin state. When Jephthah announced to his daughter that he had made an irrevocablevow to offer her in sacrifice, she only pleaded for a respite of two months to "go up and downupon the mountains, and bewail her virginity." This is apparently in accord with the statementof Mindes-Pinto, that the young Indian maid believe it impossible for a virgin to enter Paradise. The readiness of the Israelites to adopt the rites of Venus and Baal-Peor (Exodus xxxii, 6, 25,and Numbers xxv,) would seem to be thus explained. The worship of the goddess Diana orVenus-Anaitis in Armenia was attended by the defloration of nubile women. The Babyloniancolonists of Samaria brought with them the worship of the Succoth-Benoth, or the Venuses ofthe tents; and it is certain that almas or consecrated women, as in Egypt, and nautch-girls orwomen of the temple, were a peculiarity of Phoenician, as they are of Hindoo sanctuaries. Justin relates that Dido or Elissa transported twenty-four of these females to Carthage. Thename Elissa or Alitta being a title of the goddess, shows that her expedition is but an allegoryto explain the introduction of her worship into the countries of the West. The island of Melitawas named from this divinity. Ovid describes her festival:

"On the Ides is the genial feast of Anna perenna,Not far, traveler Tiber, from thy banks.The people come, and scattered everywhere among the green

---------------- 198.

The Hebrew prophets are outspoken in associating Baal-worship with lewdness. Hosea,using the customary parallelism of expression, identifies the priapic cultus with that of Peor. "They went to Baa-Peor, and consecrated themselves to Bosheth."* Jeremiah also isunmistakable. "According to the number of thy cities were thy gods, Oh Judah! and accordingto the number of the streets of Jerusalem [as in Tyre and Athens] have ye set up altars toBosheth, even altars to burn incense to Baal."** These were the "iniquities of theirforefathers."

The worship of the Queen of Heaven, Mylitta or the Syrian goddess, "The childrengathering wood, the fathers kindling the fire, and women kneading the dough to make cakes,"is instanced several times by Jeremiah; and was an old custom, observed alike by kings,nobles, and the common people.*** The cake was made of flour and honey, and was shapedlike a lozenge or phallus. The cunim or

---------------stalks,

Imbibe, and each reclines with his female consort.Part remain in the open air, a few set up tents;Some out of branches have made a leafy hut." - Fasti, iv.The Indian Anna-purna, and the Babylonian Daughter of the Tent, are easily recognized.

In Virgil's Aeneid, Anna is made the sister of Elissa.

* Hosea ix, 10. The "high place" of Baal where Balak and Balaam met to invoke cursesupon Israel (Numbers xxii, 41). The term [[Hebrew]], bosheth, here used as the synonym forBaal, signifies the phallus. It is also translated shame - Jeremiah iii, 24, and Micah I, II - butdoubtless means Baal-worship in both instances. The two words were compoundedinterchangeably in proper names. Jerub-baal or Gideon was also styled Jerub-besheth; Ish-Bosheth, the son of Saul, and Mephi-Bosheth, the son of Jonathan, were transcribe by thesynonyms Esh-Baal and Merib-Baal in the first Book of Chronicles.

** Jeremiah xi, 13.*** Jeremiah vii, 17-31 and xliv, 8, 15-23.

----------------- 199.

bouns were offered to Astarte and Aphrodite wherever they were worshiped, at the opening ofspring.

The sacrifice of children, common among the Phoenicians and their colonies, was also apractice of the Jews. Sometimes it was only a passing through the fire, as at the Bal-tines ofScotland and Ireland; at others, it was "the shedding of innocent blood."* The sacrifices weremade to the fire-god Moloch, or Baal-Hercules. In Isaiah, however, we find mention made of"slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks."** This must have been anoffering to Astarte. These were the cunni diaboli, or emblems of maternity, closely related tothe omphalic stones. The one at Delphi emitted a gas which the priestess inhaled beforedelivering her oracles. They are abundant in India at the present day, and were formerly inEngland before the introduction of Christianity. Miss Ellwood, in her Journey to the East,mentions one which she saw: "There is a sacred perforated stone at Malabar, through whichpenitents squeezed themselves in order to obtain a remission of their sins."***

The custom of burning the thigh in sacrifices, which was universal, is of the samecharacter. The golden thigh of Pythagoras was doubtless the thing last revealed to the initiate. It was meros in which the foetal Bacchus was preserved; and, like the phallus shown to theepopt at Eleusis, prefigured the great mystery of life.

It is noticeable that all these sensual peculiarities pertained to the worship of the femaledivinities. The priests of Hercules, as of the lingam in India, were monks. The Hellenic Jewexplains it like the more orthodox prophets, that "the devising of images was the beginning oflewdness, and the invention of them the corruption of life."****

Nevertheless we also are not prepared to accept unqualifiedly

------------* Kings xvi, 3; xxi, 6, 16 and xxiv, 4; 2 Chronicles xxviii, 3; Jeremiah ii, 34, 35 and

xix, 4; Psalm cvi, 34-39.** Isiaah lvli, 5.*** Our British Ancestors, p. 160.**** Wisdom of Solomon, xiv, 12.

-------------- 200.

the sentiment that "Human nature is the same in all climes, and the workings of this samehuman nature are almost identical in their different stages of growth." If Mr. Westropp means

from this that we should infer that the employment of the sexual symbolism in worship ischaracteristic of all mankind at a peculiar stage of development, we dissent. Besides, there aretribes that we must acknowledge as human beings, having no customs entitled to be regarded asa cultus. Races of men are materially diverse in structure, type, and psychical character, andprobably had their origins in climates and periods of time widely apart from each other. "Human nature is manifestly very unlike, as exhibited respectively by the Europeanpopulations, the Chinese, the African negroes, and the Australians."

Our evidence as to the antiquity of this peculiar symbolism is necessarily veryincomplete. There have been endeavors to solve the question by an ingenious calculation. TheMaypole Festival, common to all ancient countries east and west, and well known to have aphallic origin, should be dated from the vernal equinox, when that was the period of theentering of the sun into the zodiacal sign Taurus. Counting seventy-two years for theprecession of the sun a single degree, the precise period of that occurrence was about fourthousand years before the Christian era.* The Maypole celebration, if we adopt the popularchronology, must have therefore taken its inception from some event connected with theoccurrences recorded as happening in the Garden of Eden.**

------------* The Round Towers of Ireland, pp. 233, 234; also Maurice's Indian Antiquities.** Nevertheless, there may be reason, instead, to assign a date sometime in the pre-

Adamite period. In the Moniteur of January, 1865, it is stated that in the province of Venetia,in Italy, excavations in a bone-cave brought to light, beneath ten feet of stalagmite, bones ofanimals, mostly post-tertiary, of the usual description found in such places, flint implements,with a needle of bone have an eye and point, and a plate of an argillaceous compound, onwhich was scratched a rude drawing of a phallus.--------------- 201.

The principal Aryan nations too have displayed a determined hostility to the entirephallic symbolism. In the Rig-Veda, the sisna-devas or priests of the lingam are debarred fromaccess to the sacred rites,* and consigned to destruction at the hands of Indra. The invaders ofIndia could find no milder language for the lascivious religionists whom they encountered thandemons, devil-worshipers, and persons who observe no sacred rites. The Brahmin system wasadopted afterward, unwillingly, as a compromise.

The ancient Persians exhibited a like detestation of the icon-worshipers. "They had noimages of the gods, no temples, nor altars, and considered the use of them a sign of folly."** The Achaemenian kings were worshipers of Ormazd, and displayed a similar antagonism tothat of their Vedic brethren to the current idolatrous practices of their time. Eventually themagian system of Media and Babylonia was engrafted upon the popular worship of Persia,although the kings and nobler classes adhered to the Zoroastrian doctrines.

These doctrines appear to be so closely allied to those imputed to Moses, that it is notdifficult to imagine that they had once been identical. The exiles who returned from beyondthe Euphrates are described very differently from those who were transported byNebuchadnezzar.*** They no more filled their land with idolatry and

--------------

* A similar prohibition appears also in the last stages of the Hebrew monarchy. WhenJosiah abolished the worship at the "high places," he refused to admit the priests that hadofficiated at them, to the service of the Temple. The prophet Ezekiel also promulgated thefollowing ordinance against them: "They shall not come near unto me to do the office of apriest unto me, nor come near to any of my holy things in the most holy place; but they shallbear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed." xliv, 6-14.

** Herodotus, I, 131*** The colonization of the Jews in Palestine under Cyrus and his successors appears

very like a new occupation, rather than a return. It is evident that there were more of thembeyond the Euphrates than ever made their homes in Judea. Their leading class----------------- 202.

phallic emblems, but simply placed the sacred fire in the temple at Jerusalem and watchedagainst its extinction. The precept of the law of Moses forbidding the fabricating and adorationof pesels or graven images, was rigidly kept. Synagogues for religious instruction took theplace of high places, pillars, and enclosures of a circular form. Whatever may have been thecharacteristics of their ancestors before the captivity, they were true afterward to the lessonslearned in exile. In the reign of Antiochus they resisted the introduction of the mysteries ofDionysus, and underwent tortures and crucifixion rather than taste the flesh of swine andparticipate in the foreign worship.

The transition from the old Roman and ethnic religions to Christianity could not possiblybe effected so completely as to change entirely the real sentiments of the people. We must notbe surprised, therefore, when we are told that the ancient worship, after it had been excludedfrom its former temples and from the metropolitan towns, was maintained for a long time bythe inhabitants of humbler localities. Indeed, from this very fact it obtained its subsequentdesignation. From being kept up in the villages (or pagi), its votaries were denominatedpagans, pagani, or villagers.

The prevalence of Mithraic or magian ideas and practices led

------------bore the title of Pharisees, perhaps from their Persian affiliations. They, according to Spinoza,made the selection of the books which are now accepted as the Sacred Scriptures, adoptingonly those which had been composed in the Hebrew language. The text of this was revised andpruned, and occasionally changed. It seems to have been their purpose to keep the knowledgeof it in the limits of their own order. Nevertheless, it betrays the indications of an Ionianinfluence, and also of a Hindoo antecedent. The patriarchal names are very similar to those ofthe Brahmin divinities: Brahma and his consort Sara-Iswati, his son Ikshwaka, and great-grandson Yadu. The ruins of the temple of Peace, or Tukht Solumi, have been found inCashmere, and many names of the Bible and Western Asia, like Yudia, Dawid, Arabi, Cush,Yavan, are also indigenous to the region of the Indus.--------------- 203.

also to the confounding of the proscribed worship with the practice of witchcraft and sorcery; and to this fact we are indebted for the numerous legends and accounts of secret colleges of

magicians, as well as of assemblies of witches in remote places, decorated with the symbols ofthe old religion, of kings or devils having the goat-form of the ancient Pan or Bacchus with thepriapic appendages, of distinguished persons in attendance in the habit of satyrs, of shamsacraments like those of the Persian god Mithras, and especially of the orgies of enthusiasticfurors, together with general debauchery. There is little reason to doubt that these "witches'sabbaths" were formerly celebrated, and that they were, in some modified form a continuationof the outlawed worship of the Roman Empire.*

Whether the alarm experienced in this country two centuries ago, of an invasion of Satanand his associated powers, was a delusion,** or had some relation to the possible introductionof the old Asiatic and Roman religion into America, is a question admitting of ingeniousdiscussion. In Europe, however, its maintenance, after many centuries had elapsed ofproscription and persecution, finally became impossible. The ignorance of the common peoplerendered them ill-adapted to continue a worship so full of recondite mystery, and the orgies or"sabbaths" fell into neglect. But in certain practices and superstitions not yet outgrown, the oldphallism and pagan ideas still crop out. Good and ill fortune are supposed to result from thewholesome or obnoxious influence of the moon. Goethe has commemorated the potency of thepentacle as a protector against evil

-----------* The heretical sects, as they sprung up, were denounced in the same manner. Even to

this day, Vanderie, or Vaudois worship, is the French designation for witchcraft; and the nameof Bulgarians [Bulgress], who were once Albigenses or Paulicians, is now applied to menpracticing unnatural vice.

** The apprehension of this invasion was entertained in all the British North AmericanColonies, and the severest penal laws were enacted in consequence. The executions inMassachusetts, in 1692, -------------- 204.

spirits. The mystic horse-shoe, a uterine symbol, is still employed.* New York and the otherprovinces, the laws were enforced till the Revolution. Indeed, in South Carolina witchcraft wasa capital offence in the code till the reorganization of the State government after the recent civilwar; and less than a century ago offenders were executed.

In popular customs, and even in religious institutions, these things are as plainly to beperceived today as when Adonis and Astarte were the gods of the former world. The sanctities,the powers, the symbols, and even the utensils of the ancient Faith, have been assumed, if notusurped or legitimately inherited, by its successors. The two holies of the Gnostics and Neo-Platonists, Sophia and Eirene, wisdom and peace, were adopted as saints into the calendar ofConstantinople. Dionysus, the god of the Mysteries, reappears as St. Denys in France, St.Liberius, St. Eleutherius, and St. Bacchus; there is also a St. Mithra; and even Satan, prince ofshadows, is revered as St. Satur and St. Swithin. Their relics are in keeping. The Holy VirginAstraea or Astarte, whose return was announced by Virgil in the days of Augustus, asintroducing a new Golden Age, now under her old designation of Blessed Virgin and Queen ofHeaven, receives homage as "the one whose sole divinity the whole orb of the earth venerates." The Mother and Child, the latter adorned with the nimbus or aureole of the ancient sun-gods,are now the object of veneration as much as were Ceres and Bacchus, or Isis and Horus in the

Mysteries. Nuns abound alike in Christian

--------------operated to overthrow the prevailing sentiment in that region; but in New York and the otherprovinces, the laws were enforced till the Revolution. Indeed, in South Carolina witchcraft wasa capital offence in the Code till the reorganization of the State government after the recentcivil war; and less than a century ago offenders were executed.

* In a church in Paris is said to be a relic of special virtue, the pudenda muliebria SanctaeVirginis. See Inman's Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. I, p. 144.----------------- 205.

and in Buddhist countries, as they did formerly in Isis-worshiping Egypt; and if theirmaidenhood is not sacrificed at the shrine of Baa-Peor, or any of his cognate divinities, yet it isdone in a figure: they are all "brides of the Saviour." Galli sing in the churches, andconsecrated women are as numerous as of old. The priestly vestments are like those formerlyused in the worship of Saturn and Cybele; the Phrygian cap, the pallium, the stole, and the alb. The whole pantheon has been exhausted from the Indus, Euphrates, and the Nile, to supplysymbolic adornment for the apostles' successors. Hercules holds the distaff of Omphale. TheLily has superseded the Lotus, and celibacy is exalted above the first recorded mandate of Godto mankind.

In ancient times the Carians and other votaries used to wound themselves and offer theirblood to Bacchus in commemoration of his dismemberment by the titans. The formerworshipers in Yucatan and Central America had an analogous custom. The prophets of Baal inSyria and Phoenicia also inflicted wounds on themselves.* The Jews were prohibited from thisby their law,** but at the period of mourning for the dead one, Adonis, slain by the boar, theyflogged themselves and wept. This animal which was sacred to Mars or Ares, the god ofdestruction, became their abomination. The Egyptians had a like custom. At the assemblies ofIsis, composed of many thousands of pilgrims, those who participated in the solemnitiesscourged themselves in memory of the slaughtered Oseiris.*** Sailors were whipped aroundthe altar of Apollo at Delos, and children at the temple of Diana in Sparta. In Rome, at theLupercalia, about the 14th of February, young men used to lay aside their garments, and takingwhips, run through the streets, flogging everybody whom they met.****

-------------* I Kings xviii, 28** Levitius six, 28 and xxi, 5*** Herodotus, ii, 61**** There seems to be a voluptuous sense excited in this way. Women, especially those

who were married, eagerly placed themselves in the way of these flagellators, partly on accountof the ---------------- 206.

Even now, during Holy Week in Rome, many devotees lash themselves till the blood gushes instreams; and the same practice exists in other places. The Flagellants of the Middle Ages

appear to have been actuated by a similar enthusiasm.The pretension to universal supremacy by leading Bishops of the earlier centuries is

familiar to all who are conversant with church history. The Grand Lama of the Buddhists, andthe Zeus or Archiereus of old Hellas, furnished antetypes which were speedily imitated at thefocal points of the Empire. The Bishop of Rome, however, was the most successful. In hisperson the Pontifex Maximus exists as in the days of the Republic and the Caesars. Asia andItaly alike minister to his elevation. He has "the power of the keys," the key of Janus of archaicRome, and the key of Cybele, the Virgin-Mother of Asia. The former was patulicius andclusius, the opener and shutter; and with the authority of Cybele he was empowered also, asthe vesica piscis indicates, to superintend the gateway of physical existence. But let there be nosneer at this. In the Catacombs of Rome, where the early Christians used to congregate, arenumerous pictures and carvings indicating close resemblances to the pagan usages. Enoughexists to show that the pontiff does not take all by assumption. The utensils and other furnitureof the Mysteries appear to have been there; and one drawing shows a woman standing beforean altar offering bunns to the Serpent-divinity. It is true, doubtless, that there is not a fast orfestival, procession or sacrament, social custom or religious symbol, that did not come "bodily"from the previous paganism. But the Pope

-------------exquisite delight received from the infliction, and partly because of the idea that it promotedthe aptitude to conceive. The late Henry Buckle, author of the History of Civilization, printedprivately a series of curious tracts on this subject, illustrating how a practice beginning inreligious zeal can be made a source of sensuous delight. - Rare Tracts on Flagellation. Reprinted from the original editions collected by the late Henry Thomas Buckle, 7 vols., post8vo, London. Printed by G. Peacock, 1777.---------------- 207.

did not import them on his own account; they had already been transferred into theecclesiastical structure, and he only accepted and perhaps took advantage of the fact. Many ofthose who protest because of these "corruptions," are prone to imitate them, more or less,displaying an engrafting from the same stock.

Much dispute has been had in regard to the presence of St. Peter at Rome. The statue ofthe apostle, it has been asserted with great plausibility, was originally the bust of Jupiter of theCapitol. We presume that the "apostle of the circumcision," as Paul, his great rival, styles him,was never at the Imperial City, nor had a successor there, not even in the Ghetto. The "Chair ofPeter,"* therefore, is sacred rather than apostolical. Its sanctity proceeded, however, from theesoteric religion of the former times of Rome. The hierophant of the Mysteries probablyoccupied it on the day of initiations, when exhibiting to the candidates the petroma.**

------------* There appear to have been two chairs of the titular apostle. In the year 1662 the

workmen engaged in cleaning one of them for exhibition to the people, on the 18th of January,"the Twelve Labors of Hercules unluckily appeared engraved on it." (Bower's History of thePopes, vol. ii, p. 7.) This chair was removed and another substituted. In 1795 the French underBonaparte occupied Rome, and again the chair was investigated. This time there was found the

Mohammedan Confession of Faith, in Arabic letters: "There is no deity but Allah, andMohammed is his Apostle." Zodiacs, or Labors of Hercules, evidently of an astrologicalcharacter, have been found in the churches of York and Lyons, and a wine-cask at the shrine ofSt. Denys. On the hypothesis of having been heirlooms from the pagan religion, these facts areduly accounted for, except the French discovery. It may have been that Islam and the Papacyonce contemplated an alliance, or some crusader brought the chair from the East.

** If this supposition is correct, the ecclesiastical legends of Peter's sojourn at Rome areeasily comprehended. The petroma, or stone tablet, contained or constituted the last revelationmade by the --------------- 208.

The end crowned the work. "In the Church of St. Peter's at Rome," Godfrey Higginsasserts,* "is kept in secret a large stone emblem of the creative power, of a very peculiar shape,on which are the words, -,Ll ETJ0D, Zeus Soter (or Jove the Saviour; only persons who havegreat interest can get a sight of it."

Thus the cycle seems to return upon itself. Archaic Rome seems to live again in theRome Mediaeval, old Egypt and Babylonia to be resuscitated in our modern Europe. Yet thisis not altogether true. Let us take heed how we hear.

Those capable of understanding, will recognize in this symbolism the revelation of thefirst creation and the renaissance, as refined in sentiment or as gross in sense as is the mind ofthe person witnessing the vision. Whether he has learned supernal mysteries is to beascertained; certainly he is revealed to himself, humbled if not humble.

--------------hierophant to the candidate for initiation. What it was might never be divulged on pain ofdeath. All the work of the Creator was now unfolded, and the profane might not know thesolemn secret. As the Mysteries came to Rome from the East, it is easy to perceive that thehierophant or revelator would have an oriental title. Peter, from the Phoenician word [script],peter, is applied in the Book of Genesis (xl, 8) to an expounder of dreams, and was probablythe designation of the interpreter of the petroma. The Roman bishop succeeding to his chair,would be, it is apparent, pontiff over the whole world.

* Celtic Druids, pp. 195-196.

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THE RESURRECTION Its Genuine Character Considered

Mr. Gladstone, the British statesman, it is said, has declared his wish to live for twoimportant reasons. One of these is to convince his countrymen of the substantial identitybetween the theory of Homer and that of the Hebrew Scriptures. Having been for many years a

diligent student of both, he would seem to be admirably qualified in essential particulars forintelligent judgment of their resemblances. They alike acknowledge the Supreme Being, with achoir of subordinate auxiliary divinities and spiritual essences of lower degrees, among whomhe is arbiter and executive - hardly omnipotent, as we understand the term - a divine lifemanifest in human form and characteristics, and commonly seen working for good, yet shadedby passion and various qualities that are hardly in keeping with our conception of the good andperfect. There is destiny likewise in various shades; individual, however, rather thanuniversal, a karma and moral impulsion; an ordained law of right and the allotting of a careerand events which is virtually an immutable decree. Mr. Gladstone does not hesitate to glorifythe Olympian religion as one of the topmost achievements of the human mind, wonderful incharacter and influence, holding its place with the most thoughtful and energetic portions of thehuman family, yielding its supremacy with reluctance, and even now exerting a wonderfulenergy in our modern thought. It exalted the human element, made divinity attainable, upheldthe standard of moral obligation and tended to produce a lofty self-respect and those habits ofmind and action which have resulted in a philosophy, art and literature that continue to the present day

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unrivaled and unsurpassed. The creed of the Homeric age brought both the sense and the dreadof the divine justice to bear in restraint of vice and passion. There was a voice of conscienceand all abiding sentiment of reverence and fear which inspired all heroic activity.

This unity and similarity which appear in the theology of the poet and the utterances ofthe Hebrew prophets are, doubtless, a common inheritance from an older religious faith. It maybe, too, that each of them imparted some influence and energy to the other. There is always atendency on the one hand for all worships and philosophies to interblend, and on the other todifferentiate. They are like the little boughs and twigs of trees which grow from the olderstocks and branches and develop an infinite variety of forms and genius, while deriving theirenergy and subsistence from the same source.

The later times are not essentially different from the former times. We do not so muchreceive new inspiration and originate new thought as give new form and condition to thatwhich existed long ago. This may be regarded as true alike of art, science and doctrine. It isvery easy to trace the resemblance, and sometimes the actual transmission. In these wayscertainly we are indebted alike to Greek and barbarian, to wise and unwise. Thought, dogma,festival, rite and custom, as now existing among us, are, almost without exception, boons andloot from older and rival religious faiths. Their first and legitimate interpretation, therefore,will preserve the analogies and conditions which belong to their earlier histories. We ought tobe more careful in this respect than to concern ourselves overmuch with later interpretationsthat happen for the time to be pertinaciously insisted upon.

Always the first enquiry of human beings will be to know the problem of their existence. Upon the Temple at Delphi were inscribed the two wise sentences: "Er," (Thou art) and "KnowThyself." In their solution all intelligence is comprised. We recognize in them all that is ofvalue in religion or philosophy. The rites of worship everywhere are manifestations of theendeavour to realize the sublime mystery. They all of them are conformed to one or anotherholy legend of a descent from spiritual to natural conditions, an allotted term of

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experience, and an ulterior exaltation to the diviner life. This was true of the multitude offaiths in the ancient and archaic periods, and we may suppose, was the significant feature in thelater doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus.

In his monograph upon this latter topic Mr. Wake has exhibited great fairness of temper,and a superior critical acumen. In collating his evidence from the writers of the NewTestament, his selection of the epistles of Paul in preference to other documents, appears to beamply warranted. They were evidently written in the first century of our era, whereas, as thebest scholars from Eichhorn to the present time are aware, the Gospels are of later date, thecompilations of editors, and not original papers. They were not prepared according to anycanon of criticism now in fashion, but are more or less a collection of distinct legends,somewhat after the form of the Dhammapada. If we would ascertain their true meaning wemust rely upon other methods than our modern rules of interpretation, or even theologianexegesis.

The Rev. Dr. Hooykaas, in his admirable chapter on the Resurrection of Jesus,* placesthe affair upon a different basis. He boldly declares:

"Amidst all the doubts that hang around this subject, of one thing at least we may be sure: that it forms a chapter of the inner life of the disciples, not of the outward life of the Master. Inother words, the resurrection of Jesus is not an external fact of history, hut simply a form ofbelief assumed by the faith of his friends and earliest disciples."

He adds:"Originally the resurrection and ascension were one."This, in fact, is signified by the Greek word ANASTASIS, which is used by the writers in

the New Testament when this subject is mentioned. The prefix ana means above, on high; andthe whole word accordingly denotes an exaltation, an ascent or elevation to a superior rank. Inthis sense it is evidently used by the great Apostle.

-----------* Narratives of the New Testament, II, I.

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Doctor Hooykaas has also given us the following ingenious and plausible explanation ofthe current notion upon this subject:

"It was only later, that the conception sprung up of his having paused upon earth, whetherfor a single day, or for several weeks, on his journey from the abyss to the height. We may,therefore, safely assert that if the friends of Jesus had thought as we do of the lot of those thatdie, they would never so much as have dreamed of their Master's resurrection or ascension. Forto the Christian belief of today it would be, so to speak, a matter of course that Jesus, like allgood and noble souls - and indeed above all others - would go straight to a better world, 'toheaven,' 'to God,' at the instant of his death; but in the conception of the Jews, including theApostles, this was impossible. Heaven [in their conception] was the abode of the Lord and hisangels only; and if an Enoch or an Elijah had been caught up there alive, to dwell there for atime, it was certain that all who died, without exception, must go down as shades into therealms of the dead in the bowels of the earth - and thence, of course, they could not issue

except by 'rising again.' And this is why we are never told that Jesus rose 'from death,' far less'from the grave,' but always 'from the dead' - that is, from the place where the shades of thedeparted abide; from the realms of the dead. The dead, when thus waked into life again, musthave a body, whether it were a new one or whether the old one left the grave for him. Now theApostles could not accept or endure the thought that their Master was left in the abyss apowerless and lifeless shadow - they were convinced that he must be living in heaven in glory; and, moreover, they believed themselves to have evidence of his continued existence.* Theonly possible conclusion, therefore, was that he had risen from the realm

----------* The Greek verb ophthe, used to express the seeing of Jesus after death, denotes mental,

rather than bodily vision. So also, in the passage, Luke xxiv, 39: "A spirit hath not flesh andhands as you see me having." The verb see, theoreite, denotes contemplation rather than directphysical perception. The idea is: "as I seem to you to have."------------- 213.

of shades...."All this is simple enough. Is it not equally clear that where there is no belief in this

realm of shades a 'resurrection' has no meaning? And if we have all ceased to believe in anysuch shadow-land, we are forced to admit that the narratives do not concern a fact in the life ofJesus, but a conception on the part of his friends. The contradictions in the narrativesthemselves, though so great as to lay insuperable obstacles in the way of a literal interpretation,no longer surprise us when we know that we are dealing with a product of the religiousimagination, gradually amplified and embellished by tradition."

This reasoning of the distinguished pastor of Rotterdam appears conclusive, and itindicates that we must seek in other directions for the truer understanding of the matter. As thevapor of a sensuous materialism is dissipated by a sublimer spirituality we may hope to be ableto regard it with somewhat of intelligence.

It may be well to take a historic survey of the field. In the second century of our era therewere numerous groups and little societies, chiefly among the Greek-speaking peoples, themembers of which commemorated the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. There does not appearto have been any unusual feature or circumstance connected with this. The religion of Mithras,a form of Zoroastrianism, was then diffused all over the Roman world. It had very similar ritesand doctrines, and furnished a model for its more successful rival. The worship of Serapis, ofwhich the death and resurrection of a divine being made a prominent characteristic, had alsobeen planted in Alexandria and disseminated elsewhere. Indeed, as it was recorded that theearlier Israelites living among the various peoples took part in their religious observances(Judges, iii. 5, 6), so the earlier Christians with a like catholicity participated in the service ofMithras and Serapis.

Said the Emperor Hadrian:"There is but one God for them all, him do the Christians, him do the Jews, him do all the

Gentiles worship."Esoterically all the divine personages of the different peoples were the same. The Father

of all was indeed, in every age and every

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clime, adored. The Passion of Adonis, his resuscitation and ascension on the third day hadbeen annually celebrated in Syriac Asia Minor and Greece for many centuries. Even Assyriaand Egypt paid homage to the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, and her Divine Son. Itwould be necessary to go far beyond the East and West, aye, even beyond remote Antiquityitself, to be able to transport ourselves away from these various dogmas.

But about this period, and for a long time afterward, literature was extensively forged andinterpolated by religious men in order to change old doctrines into new revelations, and toengraft magic and ascetic notions into sacred books. Where abuse and reasoning did not effectthe desired end of producing conviction, the murder of dissentients and philosophers and theburning of their writings were the final resort. Violence at length accomplished for a time thework for which argument had proved inadequate. The picture is a sad one, but true to humanexperience even in our own day.

Let us take up the New Testament again and read it as it means. Too long has the senseof important utterances been perverted till few see anything in them but somebody'sinterpretation. Very many are weary of the polarized text of an arbitrary translation. On therendering of single words sects have been made and individuals discarded one another'sfriendship. Surely, if the genuine meanings be unearthed and revealed, there will be enough ofthe doctrine of charity, justice between man and man, the true and the right, itself to constitutea resurrection of life in which all honest, earnest souls will participate.

We may contemplate the Pauline evangel of Jesus and the Resurrection with clearer eyes. In the coming from the dead, we make no quest for reanimated flesh and blood, knowing thatthey cannot inherit a spiritual or heavenly condition. That which is by its nature and qualitycorruptible and transient is not an heir of the incorruptible and unchangeable. The anastasiswhich the Apostle so zealously and pertinaciously proclaimed was infinitely more than therebuilding of a physical framework after the manner set forth by religious materialists. It wasin no sense the reviving of a corpse, but the exalting of human nature itself to celestialconditions. Thus we

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read the story of Jesus, the ideal man and son of man, begotten and born to all thecircumstances and trials of humanity without any exception, yet raised up by the Divineprinciple within him from the region of change and materiality to the heavenly estate. In thisway he descended into "the lower parts of the earth," the world of the dead into which we areall born, and ascended again, which is the resurrection, thus filling or accomplishing everyexperience.

Under the symbolic example of a man undergoing the trials of life and human passion,yet overcoming them, put to death and on the third day coming forth from the tomb and passinginto heaven, we have the representation of our own spiritual career. We too descend fromabove into the genesis and mortal condition, encounter the numerous tests and proofs of ourcharacter and fidelity, and at length, being made perfect through sufferings and experience,attain the supernal life. Whoever and whatever Jesus was or signified we shall be like him. Heis the ideal, into the likeness of which we all must become assimilated.

Divested of its adscititious matter this is what the Gospel of the Apostle really signifies.

The earthly house in which we are tabernacling will be dissolved. The bodily shape, the somaor sema, is the type, expression and simulacrum, but in no sense the personality. When the lifepasses from it, we all instinctively regard and treat it as a thing, human only in appearance. That which constitutes self-hood is not there. The real person is not the flesh and blood, butthat essence in which identity consists, and which, however much the physical frame may bemarred and maimed, continues still intact. Paul was declaring this when he contrasted the"natural," or rather the psychic body and the spiritual body. He sets forth our moral conditionaccordingly. When we are present in the body, by which he means, at home in it and not livingas temporary sojourners, we are absenting ourselves from the Lord. But to withdraw ourselvesand our affections from it is to become present with him, spiritually minded, and in communitywith those that are above. When we were in the earthly conditions we had been "buried withhim by a baptism into death"; and as he rose above their conditions we, too, may rise, walkingin the new life. Our old man is thus crucified with him, and

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sin's body brought to nought, that it may enslave us no more.In the Epistle to the Ephesians the same terms are used. The believers are there

described as having been dead in trespasses and sins - that is, they had walked according to theGenius of this world, all living the life of the flesh and corporeal nature. When in thiscondition God had caused them to rise into the true life - to rise up and sit in heavenly regions. The whole was unequivocally a moral experience.

When Thomas Paine affirmed that the Bible maintained the dogma of a resuscitation ofthe body, Bishop Watson, in his celebrated Reply, carefully refrained from pleading thatOmnipotence was able to do all this, but demanded the proof, and denied that any such notionwas taught.

The true doctrine relates exclusively to spiritual conditions. The personality or real manrises from that portion of earth which it had vivified - rises with the spiritual body which healways had, and rises in full possession of all his senses and faculties, into a world of spiritualessences, of which his spiritual senses and organs take cognizance in the same manner as thematerial organs here perceive natural things. Man lives after the analogy of the chrysalis. Borninto the world as a larva, he lays aside that form of existence and enters into a pupa-condition,from which he emerges into the superior, celestial mode of life.

This intermediate condition is described in the Avesta as a period of three days. The soul,it was represented, continued for that space of time beside the body and then forsook it to go tothe eternal home. This accounts for the term of three days which was set forth in the case ofJesus, and the peculiar stress laid upon the fact that Lazarus had been four days dead. Thewords imputed to Jesus are likewise explained: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I willrear it again." The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit to the Eternal One fromwhom it came. Thus we are invested with the "building of God," the house described by Paulas "eternal in the heavens."

Perhaps those who have eyes that see without perceiving, and ears that hear withoutcomprehending, receive these utterances in

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their external purport and do not pass beyond the purview and region of the transitory andmaterial. They, however, who regard the truth with open eyes and the superior mental altitude,have the faculty of discernment which reaches within the veil and is cognizant of the actual anddivine.

To the philosophic mind the conception here propounded is not vague or shadowy. Spiritor mind is the real substance; flesh and blood are temporary and phenomenal. Even thescientists assure us that force is behind all physical manifestations. This includes ourselves andall about us. But force and law may always be regarded as not only alive, but more real thanthe things which are thereby set into action. The mind, which is of the same category, is moresubstantial than the body. However dream-like this may seem, it is no irrational vagary. "Weare such stuff as dreams are made of," and very appositely; for we are constituted what we areby and from that Being who is essentially or super-essentially spirit. Certainly no profounderreality exists than that.

The Gospels abound with texts declaring or illustrating this doctrine. When theSadducees questioned Jesus about the resurrection, he responded by quoting a text from thebooks which they acknowledged, that God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hecannot be a God of the dead, but of the living; so therefore the patriarchs had risen from thedead. Martha declares that her brother will rise up in the resurrection in the last day. The lifeon earth is computed by days, the last of which is the day beyond the limitation of time, the dayof the Lord, the unending day of eternity. To us in this life it seems future, but really it isalways present. Hence the declaration is true:

"Whoever heareth my word and believeth in him who sendeth me hath life eternal, andcometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life."

Death, such as is here, is no conqueror of true souls. The bridge of judgment, describedin the Avesta and Al Kuran, is not for them to cross; they are already beyond it. Nor is thisjudgment any theatric spectacle or grand assize, but a process in every ones bosom. SaysJesus:

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"This is the judgment, the light has come into the world, and men have loved thedarkness in preference, because their works were evil. For even one doing ill hates the lightand comes not to it, so that his works may not be exposed; but whoever does right comes to thelight in order that his works may be made manifest."

The resurrection, therefore, is the beacon of hope to all the world. Now that we accept it,not as phenomenal but as the culmination of personal experience, we find our feet set in a sureplace. Says Fichte:

"It is not when I am divorced from the connection of the earthly world that I first gainadmission into that which is above the earth. I am in it and live in it already, far more trulythan in the earthly. Even now it is my only standing-point; and the eternal life, which I havelong since taken possession of, is the only reason why I am willing still to prolong the earthly. That which they call heaven lies not beyond the grave. It is already here, diffused around ournature, and its light arises in every pure heart.

"So I live and so I am; and so I am unchangeable, firm and complete for all eternity. Forthis being is not one which I have received from without; it is my own only-true being andessence."

(Lucifer, Nov., 1892)

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THE PROBLEM AND PROVIDENCE OF EVIL

"The Power that always wills the bad and always works the good." - Goethe

Defoe, in his famous work, describes Robinson Crusoe as instructing his man Fridayupon the leading doctrines of the Christian religion. As he endeavors to explain the problem ofevil as the work of Satan, his pupil asks, eagerly: "Why God no kill the Devil?" Doubtless,Defoe, when writing this question, was evading personal responsibility while thrusting beforethe world a problem which threatened to sap the very foundations of the accepted theology. Ifthere be such a Power in the universe able to thwart the divine beneficence and to lead humanbeings to ruin in wanton malignity, it must be, as has been taught in former centuries, actualDivinity and the rival of Deity itself. We cannot in such case attribute omnipotence to God; but if the converse be true, that he only suffers such ruin of souls when able to prevent it, wecan hardly suppose him wise and benevolent. This question has agitated thinking minds eversince the dawn of history. Nevertheless, we are conscious that only Divinity, supreme inessence and beyond essence, sustains the universe and regulates its movements. It aloneoperates in harmony, adapting all means to their proper ends. It is therefore one and absolute. Hence evil, on the other hand, can be only a disturbing element, never permanent andsubstantial in its operations, but always destructive. Even when in any of its phases it seems tobe persistent, it eventually fails and comes to an end in any endeavor which it may seem toprompt and inspire. From the nature of things, therefore, we may not consider it to be any counterpart of the Supreme Right, nor the

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purpose of any creative operation. We must accordingly ignore without hesitation any conceptin relation to it as being actually an essence or individuality absolutely hostile to Divinity, or asleading and abetting hosts of malignant demons to mar the order of the universe and leadhuman beings from the Right.

In former periods, however, all objects were personified and supposed to be endowedwith soul. The physical forces were regarded as personalities, and whatever was grievous andharmful was considered as essentially evil. In this way, accordingly, every tribe and peoplethat had attained no superior culture had abundance of evil beings ready on opportunity to leadindividuals astray or to inflict harm upon them. There were also in these modes of thinkingdivinities representing all forms of mental endowment, whose aims and influences were good. Beyond these was likewise the mystery of Death. That existence did not end with this eventwas a cherished belief. The soul was conceived as still alive and hovering around the familyabode. If it was cared for, propitiated with food and sacrifices, it was a good angel to thekindred; but if this should be neglected it suffered accordingly and was likely to render

unfriendly offices, if not to become inimical outright.The personification of evil as a distinct hostile power in the world seems, however, to

have had its inception at a period comparatively recent. There was no such personifying ofwrong as an individual potency in the writings of the earlier people of whom we haveknowledge. There was no Devil that was depicted as always such from the beginning. Theearlier demons that were represented as malignant were not described as ranging over thewhole world, but only over specific regions. The conception of a diabolic personality appearsto have been formed from that of a tutelary god that had been dethroned by conquest or socialrevolution. Thus Set or Typhon of Egypt and the Western Semitic populations of Asia hadbeen honored as a god through a long succession of dynasties, but changes occurred at a laterperiod, which have not been fully explained, by which he became in the newer form of worshipthe Satan Adversary, always hostile to the Good.

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In the religious system of ancient Persia known as Magian and Zoroastrian thisconception appeared in a more concrete form. Even there, however, it exhibits evidences ofhaving changed almost radically in its long career. The Avesta, the sacred scriptures of thatfaith, what little of it is still extant, contains texts implying as much. The people of archaicEran had broken away from their kindred Aryan neighbors and adopted a new mode of living,as well as another form of religious belief. Renouncing the nomadic life, they became tillers ofthe soil and dwellers in permanent homes, which were very generally grouped together intovillages. It was a veritable illustration of the story of Cain and Abel, the agriculturist rootingout the herdsman. The enmity which arose involved also their religious notions. The devas arestill regarded as gods in India and as evil spirits by the Parsis,* Indra; the Dyu-piter, or "fatherin heaven," of the Veda, is an unfriendly power in the Avesta. But in the earlier Zoroastrianteachings the Supreme Being is represented as One, as it seems to be also declared in the bookof Isaiah: "I am the Lord, and there is none else; I form the Light and create Darkness; Imake peace and create evil." But the later Mazdean philosophy appears to have reasoned frompremises more easily comprehended by the common thinking. It was recognized that in theworld of nature there is law, and also that in the same realm there is conflict. While, therefore,profounder thinkers contemplated all things as dependent upon the One, Zeroana the Infinite,all operations and events were attributed to the Two, who in their separate capacitiesnevertheless wrought out as though in concert the Divine purpose. But these eventually wereconsidered as perpetually at war, Ahura-Mazda, the eternally Good, and Anra-manyas, the EvilMind, always seeking to mar everything created and every form of life as it came intoexistence. Few individuals care to investigate this subject more

------------* The gypsies have been described as worshiping the Devil. The fact is overlooked,

however, that they were an outcast Indian people and that the term Deva is a Sanskritdesignation signifying Deity.--------------- 222.

critically. Thus from this source came the belief in pure evil, original sin, and also in an arch-

enemy of God and man. The Evil Genius was represented as always in conflict, always on thealert for mischief. From him was the thorn to the rose, the shadow to the light, the sorrow thatattends on every joy. "He sowed the seeds of evil in animal life," remarks Mrs. Robins-Pennell, "and transmitted the germs of moral and physicaldisease to the universal man."

In this description we observe no critical distinction between moral evil and physical. The same potency that introduced cold in the primitive Aryana is the one that promotes what isevil "in the thought and word and deed."

The concept of Satan as the Evil potency appears to have been evolved at a periodcomparatively modern. In the dramatic sketch which is given in the book of Job he seems tohave a place in the assemblage of "Sons of God." There certainly is no show of enmity oralienation. It is apparently his office to go up and down the earth to find out how its order wasmaintained. He is interrogated accordingly by the Lord in respect to the fidelity of Job, andsuggests that it is solely in return for the protection that has been afforded.

The tests are then given: first, by permitting the destruction of wealth and family; thenby the inflicting of loathsome disease, and finally by the aggravating imputations of his threefriends that his calamities are the penalty of his own wrong-doing. The sufferer insistspositively upon his uprightness and faultless integrity, exempting himself from the charge as hewould have done before the assessors of the dead. Nevertheless, he considers that hiscalamities are from God. "The hand of the Lord has wrought this," he declares to hisinquisitorial friends. When likewise his wife, grieving at his condition, apparently so utterlyhopeless, pleads to him to invoke God and die, he replies submissively: "Are we to receivegood at the hand of God, and are we not to receive the evil also?"

This dramatic representation in the introduction to the story of Job has been the moral ofanalogous literary productions in later centuries. Satan, now displaced from his office ofCensor in the heavenly sphere and become Prince of Darkness, is now the seducer

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and destroyer of souls. Christopher Marlowe delineates the compact of Doctor Faustus withMephistopheles (hater of the light), which was carried into effect by his terrible fate. Goethefollowed with his inimitable work. He also introduces Mephistopheles, "the spirit whichevermore denies" and that claims evil as his own element. Faust, the scholar, is delivered overto the Tempter to be subjected in every form of allurement and moral peril. He is plunged intothe mire of sensuality and selfish caprice, as well as human ambition. But amid it all the divineelement in the soul is not destroyed. He retains his consciousness of the right, and after all hiswaywardness exhibits the desire to continue in the doing of benefits to his fellow-beings. Thisbrings to its close his compact with the Evil One, but the same moment it delivers him from thepenalty of the bond. Thus the Dark Spirit outwitted himself.

Milton, however, had already given in his great poem, Paradise Lost, the setting to thestory of Satan and the "Fall of Man," which has been very generally accepted in ProtestantChristendom. He has represented the great apostate, taking for his model in this delineationPrince Rupert, the commander of the Cavaliers in the Civil War in England, in whom thetemper and character of the aristocracy were vividly displayed. This hero of Milton, thoughfallen from his high estate, retains many of the characteristics of the distinguished prince whichwin admiration. He had rebelled when the Son of God was placed over the angelic ranks and

had drawn a third of them from their allegiance. Though having become the arch-fiend, he isnothing less than "archangel ruined." Having now taken evil as his good and choosing to rulein hell rather than to serve in heaven, he now delights himself in leading human beings astray.

As if to give a finality to all this class of vagaries, Mr. Philip James Bailey presents uswith his epic poem, Festus. In the previous dramas the faithful Job, the weary scholar and theguileless parents of mankind had been chosen for attack. Now, the youth Festus is delivered toLucifer to be subjected to his arts. But, as before, evil is not triumphant. As Job was restoredto more than former prosperity, and Faust was borne by angels and redeemed souls to thehighest bliss, so Festus, after having tasted the delights of mind and sense,

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is numbered with the heavenly multitude, the whole human race delivered, and even Luciferhimself restored, a penitent, to his former rank.

"It suits not the eternal laws of good That evil be immortal."

Sin, in its proper meaning, denotes a missing of the aim, a failure to reach the right end, abeing in fault rather than any profound turpitude or wickedness. When, however, it isvoluntary; when it is a deliberate violation of the Right, then it becomes flagrant wrong-doing,injury and crime. The whole nature is thus contaminated, and becomes vicious and corrupt. Asall human beings have erred more or less and are subject to the infirmities incident to animperfect nature, they are subject to suffering in consequence;* hence they are under thenecessity of directing their careers by the wisdom which they acquire by their experience.

The ancient philosophers held that the soul is of twofold quality. The higher faculty, themind or spirit, was an essence akin to Divinity itself, but the sensuous and passionalconstituents perish with the body.

The earlier Christian authors exhibit considerable variations in their concepts of evil andits personal representative. These were, however, superior in tone to those set forth in theAvesta. The moral view was more distinctly presented, and the evils incident to the realm ofnature, like cold and heat, pain and physical injury, were less considered. They evidentlyregarded the Roman dominion as in a certain sense identical with the kingdom of evil. Nevertheless, the writings accredited to Clement of Rome do not appear to have

-----------* The story of the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis mentions the tree of knowledge

of good and evil. If this be regarded as a historic account of the earth before there had beentransgression, it will also imply that evil was itself recognized as exiating prior to theintroducing of human beings upon the scene.-------------- 225.

recognized any predominating evil personage. Tertullian, however, who was more conversantwith Asiatic opinion, speaks distinctly of Satan, the Devil, and Justin Martyr also describedhim as leader of the powers of darkness, the cause of transgression and physical disaster, the

ally of heretics and the inspirer of the former worship. With the illiterate multitude thesenotions were cherished in their worst aspect. The concept drifted through the Middle Ages tothe present time. We find it cropping out in common religious discourse and in currentspeech.*

In the earlier centuries of the present era the Gnostic sects and theories overlapped andwere largely intermingled with those which are now distinguished as Christian. The NewTestament contains many features and expressions which indicate their influence. Theirleading doctrines, so far as we know of them, appear to have been developed from the oldersystems extant in the East and incorporated into the newer theological structures. One of theseis remarkable for its explanation of Judaism and the traditions of the Hebrew Scriptures. Itreplaces the Dark Spirit of the Persians by Ilda-Baoth (Son of Darkness), and represents him asidentical with the Jehovah of the Jewish people. He was described as having created the worldout of chaotic matter and placing the first human beings in the Garden of Eden, forbiddingthem to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. But the Genius of Wisdom, taking the form of theserpent, persuaded to the violating of this restriction, and mankind thereby became capable ofcomprehending heavenly mysteries. This has been followed by a continued conflict betweenthe powers of light and darkness. For man, in his prior psychic nature, notwithstanding hisability to receive illumination, is nevertheless still "of the earth earthy," and requires to begenerated anew into the divine life. This concept appears to have originated in the belief thatmatter is itself the source of evil. The corporeal nature, "the flesh, with its affections and lusts," it was

-----------* The writer wrote an article in 1854 for a newspaper, insisting that there was no such

personality as the Devil. An answer was made to it in which was the expression: "I fear he hasdenied his Savior."-------------- 226.

inculcated, must therefore be subjugated and destroyed. As whatever was natural was regardedas impure, the concept of evil became interwoven with every form of sensuous delight. Whether the individual was a philosopher, a Gnostic or other style of Christian, the same notionseems to have been entertained.

Many strained and strange beliefs have sprung from this conception. The mostpronounced among these is the notion that it is inherent as well as incident in mankind to beevil and to do wickedly. So long as human beings exist in the world it is asserted that they willbe controlled by natural impulses and motives of action, and that, because of this, they will beselfish, sensual and persistent in evil-doing. Such is the belief substantially of the leadingdenominations in Christendom, and likewise of various religionists that are not so classified asChristian. Its unfortunate influence has been to develop a feeling of despair reacting inrecklessness, laxity of morals, and also cruelty and disregard of justice between man and man. The beastly sentiment that might, meaning physical superiority, makes and is the all of right,finds its sanction and support in the reasoning that this is natural to all creatures. It is certainlythe moral code of wild animals. Accordingly, we do not accuse the tiger of moral delinquencybecause it preys upon helpless creatures, and by such logic the person with tigrish nature mayas well seek to be justified for acting according to its impulses.

There has been a disposition among many thinkers to consider the state of nature and theconditions of natural existence as far from light, purity and goodness; and to regard thebesetments of selfishness and wrong-doing as belonging to the body. "I find a law in mymembers warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity," says the ApostlePaul; "for with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." Jesus also is recorded as saying that "evil thoughts and all kinds of wicked impulses andactions come from within, from out of the heart of man, and make him impure."

Under the influence of notions of this kind, monastic life has been a religionscharacteristic in the different faiths, ancient and modern, Christian and non-Christian. Various macerations of the

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body were added. Among these were fasting, abstinence from the bath, and studied neglect ofphysical comfort. It was the aim and dream to crush out the bodily sensibility in order that thesoul might be emancipated and enabled to reach the higher beatitude.

The philosophers, however, while they deprecated the mingling of the soul with thecorporeal nature, also acknowledged intelligently the rightful place of the bodily organism andconditions. When Porphyry was contemplating suicide in order to escape from the evils andcalamities incident to life, Plotinos, his preceptor, remonstrated, declaring that this was not thesuggestion of a sane intelligence, but that it proceeded from some morbid affection of body.

Indeed, we have no sufficient reason for supposing that dying will totally separate thesoul from the entanglements incident in our corporeal existence. The passions and desires maystill inhere, and the unhoused selfhood, thus turned adrift, finds itself more helpless than thebeggar in the street. The true separation of the soul from the body Plotinos has explainedaccordingly as being a purification from anger, evil desire, and other causes of disturbance. This may take place while yet remaining with the body. The individual is still in the world,while at the same time beyond and above. Hence the words of Jesus are pertinent - "I pray notthat thou shouldst take them from the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil."

"But it is not possible that evil shall be extirpated," says Sokrates to Theodoros, "for it isalways necessary that there should be something opposed to goodness. Nor may they beestablished as attributes in the gods, but from necessity they encompass the mortal nature andthe lower region. We ought, therefore, to endeavor to flee hence to the gods most speedily; and this fleeing is an assimilating to God in the greatest degree possible, and the assimilating isto be intelligently just and holy."

The philosopher further explains that upon character, upon faithful devotion to the right,the true excellence of each individual is based. The knowing (gnosis) of this is wisdom andtrue virtue, but the not-knowing is manifest ignorance and baseness. "Hence," he remarks,"there are the constituents of both in the interior being of every one in existence; one that isdivine and most blessed, and one

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which is without God and most wretched. They who do not discern that such is the case, bytheir stupidity and lack of spirituality, become unconsciously through unrighteous actions likethe one and unlike the other."

It was more than incidental obstacles to good that were implied. The philosopherscontemplated also a moral delinquency. They styled it "ignorance," but it was a conditionvoluntary and willful. "It is darkness," Porphyry declared, "and will fill men with all manner ofevils." The ignorant person is the reverse of spiritual and noetic. He may be quick of intellect,eloquent, skillful in argument and in whatever pertains to common science. But he is withoutlove for the beautiful and good, preferring what is base and unjust. It is the worst ignorance,Plato declares, because it pertains to the mass of the soul, the mortal part which feels pain andpleasure, and is opposed to everything higher, to the superior knowledge, well-establishedcondition and reason.

We are thus enabled to behold evil with its concomitants, in its proper place andcharacter. It is the obverse side of the great world-picture, the opposing pole on the sphere ofobjective existence, the shadow, and in reality the bond-servant of the Right. In the realm ofNature it manifests itself as the difficult thing, the obstacle that is set for us to overcome, and inthis way has its use as a discipline and exercise by which to develop our powers. In thesuperior region of mind and morals it includes those qualities incident to our imperfect natureand field of activity which operate to retard the higher purpose and hold us back in the domainof crude infantile selfishness.

Nevertheless, that which may seem to our limited powers of vision to be absolutely bad isundoubtedly good and right when regarded upon the general plane which includes all thingswithin its purview. When, like a servant putting off his livery to assume the rank and authorityof the master, the lower nature is set in the foreground as the superior principle of action, itbecomes itself an adverse condition to be fought against and brought into subordination. It iscertain to defeat itself in the end, to fail through imbecility. All that it can actually accomplishis a design which is beyond and superior to itself, which has been directed silently and occultlyby a Power that is

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overruling it for a nobler purpose. Its proper office, it will be perceived accordingly, is toafford exercise to the soul for the purpose of bringing its faults to plain sight, of evolving itscapacities and eliminating its deficiencies, thus making a perfection attainable of which wemight not otherwise be capable. "It is a part of the mystery of evil," remarks Dr. Abbot, "that itevokes the good; that when it is driven from the door good comes up the path and enters in itsplace. In spite of a thousand apparent triumphs, evil is the servant of good, and prepares theway for its approach." What, accordingly, is accounted evil exists solely for the sake of theactual good which awaits beyond.

The alliance of the soul to the conditions of natural existence is necessarily attended by acertain privation of good and by exposure to the casualties and calamities of life. It is born intothe world to be disciplined and perfected through experience. Hence from babyhood to thecompletest maturity the individual is required to "forget the things that are behind and reachforward to the things that are before." That which was good in the earlier period of lifebecomes evil when the time arrives to abandon it. The infant may be innocently selfish, for hecan know nothing beyond; but the older person is called to a broadening charity. Dominatingselfishness at that period of life is an arrest of development, monstrous, and in itself perniciousto the whole moral nature.

It was actually believed by the sages that prior to its introduction into the world the soul

was in a state of superior perception, and that the first lapse began by a certain passiveness, asusceptibility which rendered it subject to the attraction toward an objective mode of existence. When afterward the whole spiritual nature is submerged, and overwhelmed and eclipsed, andeven sensualized, it is, nevertheless, divine in its inmost quality. It never purposely choosesevil for its portion, but yearns amid all its wanderings for the truer life. Every lapse, pain ortrial which it undergoes operates to the same infinite end. The light is sure eventually toovercome the darkness. There is none so bad but that he may become holy and divine through goodness. The chain of

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love, ending in the Infinite, is incessantly combining all below and all above.

Yet spake yon purple mountain,Yet said yon ancient wood,

That night or day, that love or crime Led all souls to the good.

(The Word, October, 1906)

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LOVE, A MOVING FROM HUMAN TO DIVINE

A Chinese writer affirms that human beings have a nature at birth which has been giventhem by Heaven. It may hardly be permitted for casuistry to question this, even thoughimmaturity appear everywhere with its innumerable manifestations. What has emanated fromDivinity is always good, and only in its perversion or arrest of development is there evil andharm. It is for ourselves to learn what is and what we are, and to make our own advancesforward in the directions which our nature and aptitude facilitated by opportunity may indicate.

Emanuel Swendenborg has introduced one of his most philosophic works with the maximthat the love is the life. Yet although the term is so generally used, hardly anybody knows whatlove really is. In the common belief it is regarded as an emotion, not actually substantial, butrather an influence diffused from others, which affects the sensibilities, and so prompts to someform of manifestation. The Standard Dictionary explains it as a strong complex emotion orfeeling, inspired by something, as a person or quality; causing one to appreciate, delight in,and crave the presence or possession of the object, and to please, or promote the welfare of thatobject. This may, perhaps, be considered as a fair and tolerably full description. Neverthelesswe may remark that the complexity is not a quality of love itself, but rather a condition of theinnumerable forms and manifestations of it which appear among the various experiences andvicissitudes of everyday life.

The initial perception of love is desire - a wishing for something. We may observe this inits simplest form in an infant. How common it is to admire the movements expressive of

eager

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regard which the babe exhibits for the mother, or for some other person in whom it takespleasure. Yet this apparent "stressing of the affections" can hardly be supposed to extendbeyond the child's own individuality. A young infant has no conception of the matter beyond anotion that every object around it exists exclusively for its enjoyment, and that every onearound is obligated to do it service. But that there is any possible duty or obligation for it torender any office of affection to others, an infant never entertains an idea. Innocent as we mayesteem it to be, symbolic of artless simplicity as it is considered, and is often described, it is,nevertheless, a purely selfish being. What is more, this is what it ought to be. For the babeknows only the simplest physical wants and the instinct to gratify them. Nor can it grow out ofthis rudimentary condition of life, or even continue to exist at all, except these wants aregratified. Its supreme duty, therefore, is to feed and grow, as it is the duty of those who have itin charge, to minister to these wants. As for love, for that principle of life which subsistswithin the purview, it is as deeply buried and enveloped as a flower in the bud during winter. There it must remain inchoate and apparently even non-existent till, at a later period, changescome almost amounting to revolution and bring it to manifestation.

As infancy merges into boyhood or girlhood the tokens of such change begin to beperceived. Nevertheless much of the selfishness, which is characteristic of the undevelopedcondition, still continues. It now loses, however, that something that had before made itendurable and charming, and indeed, it is generally more or less repulsive on that very account. Young boys and girls often appear to be destitute of the sentiment of gratitude, and even to bewantonly cruel. Careful and judicious training may do much to check such manifestations, andalso to develop good manners, generous behavior toward others, and perhaps, kinder thoughtand impulse. But this is likely to be superficial. The good children that were described inSunday-school talks, have never been numerous, and seldom long-lived. Selfish considerationsappear generally to predominate, till higher sentiment shall have reached to the basis of thecharacter and leveled it all the way throughout.

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It is true that habit engenders attachments, as those of parents and children, of brothersand sisters, and of playmates and associates. Yet these attachments are mingled in their nature. There may be somewhat of sympathy and kind-heartedness appearing among meanerincentives, showing that what may have been set down as depraved nature has within it ahigher quality. The child begins to learn that in the doing of a service to a parent, a brother orsister, or some one else, that he or she has learned to like, there is a real delight. There may notbe any other than a selfish motive at the bottom; there may be only the disposition with whichthe boy or girl emerged from the period of infancy. But even then, it is something of the bestthat the individual possesses. Though the stream rise no higher than the fountain, yet it may bethat the fountain is itself rising higher.

Besides, with all of us who have lived far beyond the period and peculiar emotions ofchildhood, there will be pretty sure to be found, upon critical examination of ourselves, that inthose very actions which are supposedly good and generous, there is also a smirch of self-

seeking, a something like eagerness for praise or hope of personal advantage. In fact, we haveoccasion, as Tennyson has set forth in his inimitable poem, to pray not only that our faults maybe forgiven, but our virtues too.

Xenophon in his Memoirs of Sokrates, has represented the philosopher as suggesting theexistence of two goddesses of Love - two Venuses or Aphrodites. The one is a heavenly beingthat inspires only the higher motives and superior individuals; the other, a divinity or principlethat actuates every one. In analogy to this illustration our characters are composite, and boththese kinds of love are commingled in us. Children whose manners and habits are stillimmature and not fully formed, display this condition most strikingly. It is at this period intheir career that they should be most scrupulously cared for, and it often seems to be the periodwhen they are most neglected. Yet it is the time when the foundation is most firmly planted forfuture health, stamina and character. The lad that is described in the Play as trudgingunwillingly to school is the material of which the coming man is formed.

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The love, if so we are to call it, which appears at this period of life, has more thecharacter of an instinct than of a principle. It demands an equivalent return for all that itbestows, or it is likely to change to indifference, and even to actual hatred. A horse may love aman, and a dog his master, but if they are neglected they will become estranged. In likemanner, also, parents may lose the regard of their children, and brothers and sisters maybecome as aliens to one another. There are often glowing attachments formed in adolescentlife between schoolmates and familiar associates, but few of these comparatively are continuedinto mature years. They may be blighted by neglect and selfishness, or outgrown as characteris more fully developed, or what is more probably, supplanted by other and stronger passions. Like the seed which was described in the parable as cast upon stony ground "not having muchdepth of earth they become unfruitful." And doubtless it is best to have it so. Yet when thischange from apparent affection to actual indifference takes place in family circles it appearsoften in a baleful light.

With the passing from adolescence into adult life the individual blossoms into a newmode of being. What may be described as the consciousness of sex and attraction to others isnow developed; and with it there come likewise an increasing sensibility to emotion and theperception of what is due to others. It is at this period that individuals are susceptible toreligious influences, as these are occultly allied to the attractions of sex and the impulses ofpersonal ambition. All this, perhaps, may be set down as being so because our humankind is anoutcome and copy of Divinity itself. For we read in the fifth chapter of the book of Genesisthat the following statement of origins tersely given: "In the day that God created man in thelikeness of God created he him; male and female created he them and called their name 'Adam'in the day that they were created."

The more forceful motive and principle in human character, which arouses the wholebeing into activity, which gives directness to effort and brings inchoate sentiment into fullbloom, is love. Under its impulse, the individual, however reserved, self-contained, and evenindifferent he or she may have been, now becomes conscious that the condition is incomplete. There come attraction sometimes toward

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younger persons along with a disposition to aid and protect them; but more commonly in ourmodern society it will be toward individuals of different sex, and with it there comes awillingness, and even a passionateness to serve and oblige. Often this appears as self-abnegation, and indeed, it may develop into that celestial quality, which is manifest by theseeking, not of personal welfare and advantage, but of what will enure to the happiness andwell-being of its object. Unfortunately however, the crude selfishness which belongs to theimmature and undeveloped period of life clings to us more or less, even during the extremestdevotedness. Indeed, in innumerable cases, the predominant principle seems to be entirely thuspersonal. This is the fact with savages, as it is also with all who imagine that all things are forthemselves. "There are two principles in us," Plato declares. "The one is a desire of pleasure,the other an acquired sentiment which aims at that which is most excellent. Sometimes the twoare in harmony, and sometimes they are at war, and one or the other gets the upper hand. Whatis generally called 'the mighty force of love' is irrational desire which has overcome thetendency toward the Right, and so is led toward the pleasures of beauty impelled by kindredattractions toward physical and corporeal excellence." [Phaedros] Then, he remarks, jealousybecomes manifest lest the beloved object should excel the lover in personal qualities, or beadmired and sought by others. In such attachments as these there is no genuine good, but onlyan appetite requiring to be sated, as in the love of a wolf for a lamb.

Nevertheless, there is much declaiming that is really unwarranted, in regard to the lownature of the attraction between the sexes. For this is the culminating of a law and principlethat is as universal as existence itself. The quality known as polarity is present in all existingthings. When the electric phenomena are manifest, they exhibit the twofold relation which weperceive fixed in the magnet. The affinities of chemistry are simply manifestations of thispolarity, and intelligent observation discloses the same thing in the innumerable forms of plant-life. We find it also in animals, in their friendships and alliances, and recognize it as instinct. The same principle inspires friendship between man and man, and induces

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affection between the sexes, often stronger than the love of property, love of family, or even oflove of life itself. It is frequently common, because of the instinctive features incident in suchattachments, to think and speak of them as gross, sensual, and even as vile and degrading; andindeed, considered only on the external side, they may be regarded in that light. For thishuman being, our own self, who has been described as "little lower than angels" or little lessthan Divinity, is capable of a debasement that would put any animal to shame. Indeed, it is trueof the best of us, that however high we may raise our heads toward the sky, our feet still restupon the earth.

Nevertheless, it is this attraction of sex, however high or however low it may be inquality or manifestation, that constitutes the foundation of all our social systems. The relationsof the connubial pair establish the home, and from them proceeds the parental affection whichin human beings as in many of the animal races, leads to the guarding of the household. Thegregarious instinct pushes these relations further, and creates the neighborhood, the communeand country. In these developments of the social relation the human race excels all the animalkingdom. It not only makes for itself institutions, but brings into existence the arts andinnumerable forms of science. Intelligent to build fires and construct language in its variousintricacies, it exercises imagination to the widest extent of inventive power. The faculty

beginning with the simplest devising of implements and utensils for the common uses of life,carries its planning into the larger fields of activity, the commune and country. In thesedevelopments of the social relation the human race excels all the animal kingdom. It not onlymakes for itself institutions, but brings into existence the arts and innumerable forms ofscience. Intelligent to build fires and construct language in its various intricacies, it exercisesimagination to the widest extent of inventive power, where it may meet the demands ofconvenience, taste, and even of inquisitive curiosity. All these achievements, so often thesubject of boast, owe their inception, their value and usefulness to the peculiar attractionbetween man and woman. Thus not only does the entire social body owe its existence to thatattraction, but we are indebted to it for the arts and culture which we extol as civilization - a term

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which by its original etymology denotes the mode of living together.It is an apostolic maxim that "he that loveth his wife loveth himself." By virtue of that

relation, he is more genuinely a human being, a component part of the community, as he cannotbe otherwise, a "living stone" in the social fabric. He is thus made more capable of carryinginto action the highest principle of life, charity, the loving of the neighbor as one's own self.

But we are not to suppose that this is the whole of the matter. Our life is a training-school to higher ends. We go by steps from lower to higher, and are not able afterward to goback and take up with what had pleased us before but has now been outgrown. It is well,however, that in every stage of experience and development, we should live and act accordingto its conditions. We contemplate an ideal excellence in them all which makes the attaining ofobjects desirable, even though the conceptions are materialistic and commonplace. Weimagine such excellence in children, in friends, in those who we admire and for whom weentertain affection. Nevertheless, there are blemishes and deficiencies in all, and while we maysupplement and correct one another to a great degree, we cherish the concept of an essence, aprinciple beyond all these objects, perfect in its excellence. Real love is absolutely the love anddesire of this excellence. It is a seeing with the mental faculty of sight, the seeing, not of animage of an object to contemplate and love, but actual perception of the reality itself, thehighest fruition of which we are capable, and a transforming of ourselves into that reality.

(Metaphysical Magazine, February, 1907)

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THE METAPHYSICS OF MATTER

If I were asked to define the meaning of the abstract term "matter," my reply would bethat it denoted a principle at the very foundation of things, of which the existence objectively isimplied and conjectured, while the real truth in relation to it is not known. It is true that at firstthought it seems to signify everything that is tangible, that comes within the purview of our

senses; and the great multitude, being in the habit of regarding things in that way, on thesurface only, would consider it far-fetched reasoning, or stupid and absurd outright to questionthe accurateness and sufficiency of this explanation. Byron has spoken for such:

"When Bishop Berkeley said 'there was no Matter,'And proved it - 'twas no matter what he said."

He and others like him find it convenient to dismiss such problems with a jest or a sneer. But we may not be abashed by levity and light-mindedness and deterred from profounderinquiry. In the fable of the cock in the barnyard we are told that he chose a kernel of corn inpreference to a precious gem, and we may leave individuals of that character to their tastes. Our attention is directed beyond affairs of sense. These are in seeming only, and actuallydeceptive, and we are seeking the truths that transcend them and lead to the portals of Wisdomitself.

Only relative subjects can be debated and explained. Those which are positive, whichdenote absolute facts, must be accepted without question. Life itself is of this character. Wemay think at first glance that we know all about it; but when we attempt to tell what it

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is, we are certain to find ourselves utterly at fault. The dictionaries and books of science do nothelp us out. We know that it is in some occult way identified with our very being, but how oreven why is beyond our ken. It is well enough for us to speculate upon the subject, and toendeavor to ascertain what we can, but there is no occasion for chagrin that the solution evadesus.

We may with similar feeling engage in the inquiry respecting Matter. What we know ofit is known as we know of other things, by the manifestations that come within the purview ofour cognizance. It is in such manifestations and seeming demonstrations that that knowledgeconsists which is so commonly distinguished by specialists as "science." It begins with anhypothesis, the assuming that there is some primordial fact or substance; this, however, havingnever been shown by demonstration or experiment. From this starting-point are deduced thevarious innumerable theories and conclusions. It is a necessary mode of procedure. Withoutthe absolute foundation-principle thus accepted as true, all our appliances and facilities forinvestigation would be vitally lacking. Whether it were the study of planets and far-off worlds,or the making of discoveries in the depths of the earth, or the descrying of the genera andpeculiarities of micro-organisms, we could in such case be only groping our way from No-whence to No-whither.

Such an outcome, such a conclusion for our investigations, would signify only that allexistence is purposeless. The mere surmise that the world of Nature about us is only a series ofchanges, of evolutions and revolutions that are without aim or object, would utterly dismay us. We instinctively repel it as unworthy to be entertained. We look intuitively for an origin, aSource or principle, by which and by means of which all is set in motion and kept in operation. As our quest extends beyond the limitations which we recognize as Time and Space, weapperceive that origin to be in Eternity. The constant changes which we observe as pertainingto things of sense, actually relate to the world which is beyond sense, to the principle or forcewhich set them in motion and maintains their activity. This would not be the case, however,

except that that which is moved and undergoes changes is essentially connected and at one

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with the cause, with the force or principle that effected it. Hence, as at present time all thingswhich are objects of sense are denominated "matter," and as their operations are explained asbeing induced by the "laws of nature," we are again at the starting-point of our inquiry, thecause and source of these changes and manifestations. We are led to comprehend the creationitself as a work that is always going on, beginning in eternity; but the something, the objectivematerial upon which it operates, yet remains to be accounted for and in some way explained.

So far as we venture to speculate upon Divinity, we apperceive it as One and yet likewiseas the All. But when we contemplate it as Being, in activity, we apprehend the presence of aSecond and then of a Third. This Second Principle, whatever it is, proceeding from the One tothe manifold, operates in some occult way to divide or segregate the objective element from theessential, somewhat as bodies are distinguished from each other by opposite polarity. Thatwhich thus bestows life is itself Living Force, the agent of the Superior Cause. The objectwhich is operated upon and made the vehicle of life may seem to us to be relatively inert andlifeless. Yet it must be actually in a condition which is receptive and of an essential qualitythat is the counterpart of the divinity which infills it and imparts life to it. Thus we are broughtlogically to the conclusion that this objective substance is itself an emanation, that it iseternally proceeding from Divinity, that it is cooperative with it and sustained by it. Hence, toour finite conception, Matter is next in order to God, and we cannot think of the one withoutthe other. Some notion of this is traceable in the legend of the Genesis, that woman wasoriginally formed from the side of the man.

The ancient philosophers and the modern school of science differ in regard to theirnotions of what Matter intrinsically is. The old sages considered it as has been here set forth, tobe the passive or receptive principle through which the active or generative principle manifestsitself in the reaction. It was described accordingly as being "of that species which is corporeal,devoid of any form, species, figure and quality, but apt to receive all forms, and thus the nurse,mother and origin of all other beings." This, indeed, is what the terms

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"matter" and "nature" signify in their original etymology. Matter is the materia or mother-principle, and Nature means the parent who gives birth. Plato has accordingly describedMatter in the Timaeos as a "formless universal receiver, which, in the most obscure wayreceives the immanent principle of the Intellectible." And again, speaking of it in relation toideas or ideals and likewise to objects of sense, he says: "It is the Mother"; implying relationto Idea as the father, and to objects of sense as the offspring.

We may deduce from this that the goddess of the ancient mythologies, the "GreatMother," with innumerable names, as Venus, Demeter, Kybele, Astarte, Isis, Anahita, orMylitta, was simply Matter or nature personified and endowed with divinity.

In short, we may accept the explanation of William Archer Butler, that matter is rather alogical than a material entity. He declares: "It is the condition or supposition necessary for theproduction of a world of phenomena. It is thus the transition-element between the real and theapparent, the eternal and the contingent; and lying thus on the border of both territories, we

must not be surprised that it can hardly be characterized by any definite attribute." In otherwords, this Hyle or Matter, or Mother, is an unchangeable principle, neither God, nor ideality,nor soul of man; and it exists as a medium of the Divine Intelligence which manifest itself inthe creation and organization of the world.

Modern writers seem to be coming to conclusions of similar character. Thus John StuartMill defines matter as, a permanent possibility of sensation. This clearly sets it forth as theagency by which moral and spiritual operations become physically "knowable" and areintroduced into the region of sense. The Platonic Theorem is thus fully sustained, that mindhas being in itself before becoming involved in relations with the world of nature, that the soulis older than the body and is therefore superior to it. Matter may be explained accordingly asintermediary, as the potentiality or inherent possibility of coming into natural conditions, theagency by which ideal models of the eternal region, the world of Mind, are brought intomanifestation in physical form. This is further verified by the declaration of the Apostle, thatthe things which may be seen, or perceived by the

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corporeal sense, are temporal and belong to the region of Time, while the things which are notthus seen are eternal and of the world that is beyond time. The affirmation of the writer of theEpistle to the Hebrews is confirmed: "The things that are seen did not come into existence outof the things that appear" - that are phenomenal only.

It may seem hard at first hearing to accept or even to understand the proposition that thatsomething which we perceive by the senses, which may be weighed and measured, is not adiscrete permanent entity. We are naturally impatient of being reasoned with when theevidence seems palpable. It is always difficult to believe that anything that seems genuine maynot be really so. Yet we are deceived by our senses in our every-day life. The relations of theearth to the sun and other planets are widely different from what they seem. The food that weeat, and the water that we drink are constituted of elements distinct in form and character,which no plastic art of our can put together.

Faraday himself became convinced that certain of the notions which we have been taughtin relation to the properties of matter were actually overturned by the manipulations ofchemistry. The common form of the doctrine that two bodies, two kinds of matter cannotoccupy the same space, he found to be actually contrary to obvious facts. It is by no meanscertain that any of the elements have conditions that cannot be overpassed. Whether thequantity of material elements in the earth, or in the universe itself, is precisely determined as bymeasurement, is a proposition which we may doubt; the weight and dimensions certainly arenot. Faraday has demonstrated this by showing that if oxygen be compounded with potassiumatom for atom, and again both oxygen and hydrogen in a twofold number of atoms, the materialwill become less and less in bulk, till it is less than a third of its original volume. A spacewhich would contain twenty-eight hundred atoms, including in this quantity seven hundred ofpotassium, is thus filed by four hundred and thirty of potassium alone.

According to the hypothesis of Boscovich, the Italian naturalist, matter in its ultimateform is made up of atoms, each of which is simply an indivisible point endowed with potentialforce. It has no

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parts or dimensions. Faraday supplemented this theory by asking what was known of an atomat all apart from force. These views exhibit matter as being devoid of all positive character,and indeed of every physical quality which has usually been attributed to it. When thusreduced to the condition of geometric points, that have neither extent no dimension, itdisappears altogether from the region of space and subsists entirely in the realm of force. It isdynamic only; it is endowed with power, possibility, capability; but of itself it can originatenothing. It is simply objective, negative, and thus only receptive of the positive, energizingforce. By the interblending with this, the potential with the active, it becomes the material ormaternal principle that gives existence to things. In this way we perceive that the adage is true,that Nature is the mother of us all. Her laws are over us, but they are not of her making. Theyare derived from that Source which is interior and superior.

The later investigations in electricity are of the nature of demonstration. ProfessorThomson of Cambridge University in England, declares that the masses of flying matter whichconstitute the cathode rays in an excited Crookes tube are much smaller than the "atoms" whichchemists and physicists assume as existing. Heretofore it has been supposed that matter couldnot be divided more finely than into minute corpuscles or molecules, and that these werechemically, or rather hypothetically, divisible into atoms. This was regarded as the end of alldividing. But Professor Thomson now shows that "chips" can be taken off from the atoms, andthis being the case, it must be possible to construct these chips anew into atoms of anothercharacter. Under the common theory the minutest particle imaginable of iron has its ownspecific nature and is absolutely and completely distinct from that of any other substance, as forexample, lead. But the professor has evidence, he says, that these smaller corpuscles, thesechips from the atoms, have actually similar properties, although they were taken from differentsubstances. Thus a corpuscle of oxygen does not differ intrinsically from a corpuscle ofhydrogen. It may be concluded from this, that this process of taking "chips" from atoms maybe resolving of matter itself into its primitive physical element. These chips are so detachedfrom the atoms by

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electrification. If, therefore, they are actually similar or the same in nature and character asProfessor Thomson conjectures, it is but another step to form those which have been procuredfrom one element into a new body belonging in another category.

Lockyer seems almost to have accomplished this very achievement. He placed copperunder the voltaic current and rendered it volatile, and then made it appear by means of thespectroscope as it if had been changed into calcium. Nickel was metamorphosed into cobalt,and calcium into strontium. The concept of changing other metals into gold has beenentertained through all the historic centuries. Indeed, there are men of skill in India, who seemto have brought this matter to a certainty. They add to a small quantity of gold a larger mass ofother metal, and then transform it all apparently into gold, losing not a grain in weight.

It may be presumed, then, that transmutation is going on all the time. The affinities ofchemical atoms and their variableness indicate the chemical elements themselves to becompounds of simpler material, and if this be so there can be but few primal forms of matter -enough merely for the fixing of force and enabling its evolution into the realm of Nature. Indeed, it is far from being an unreasonable assumption to suppose that matter is movingincessantly in a circle, coming all the while into existence from spiritual essence, and again

returning thither.Both the ancients and the moderns have recognized an "ether" which accounted for

phenomena which they were otherwise unable to explain. It seems to have been considered asa superior form of matter, a quintessence, or perhaps of the nature of force. It may, perhaps, beintimately identified with the transition-element which has been mentioned, but its existence isonly an hypothesis.

If we can conceive of spirit or mind itself as positive energy, and conceive that it can insome occult way become objective and reactive, we may form a concept of the source andoriginating of Matter. A solitary particle would be a nucleus sufficient for the objectifying offorce and expansion into the illimitable dimensions of the universe. As the bodies of plants andanimals are constituted of air made solid by the organic forces, so matter itself is the product of

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the solidified forces. "In Nature," says Schelling, "the essence strives first after actualization,or exhibition of itself in the particular." emanation is accordingly prior to and causative ofevolution. Emanuel Swedenborg has given an explanation superior in its lucidity. "Every onewho thinks from clear reason sees," says he, "that all things are created out of a substancewhich is substance in itself, for that is being itself out of which every thing that is can haveexistence;* and since God alone is Substance in itself, and therefore Being itself, it is evidentthat from this Source alone is the existence of things." However that natural forces, the laws ofnature, may be installed in the full control of the universe, the Divine Will precedes, as theSource and origin. It has not been set in motion like a clock, to run itself down. God hascreated, or to speak more correctly, is all the while creating the world, not out of nothing, noreven from dead chaotic matter, but out of his own substance.

(Metaphysical Magazine, July, 1900)

-------------* Swedenborg is always careful to make the proper distinction between being and

existence - esse and existere. By being or essence is denoted the subjective individuality, thatwhich constitutes the individuality what it is. Existence is manifested being, as distinguishedfrom the subjective. "Whatever is, is right," says Pope, meaning by the sentence the Absolute. The Sanskrit formula expresses the same sentiment: "There is no dharma or law of livingsuperior to the Satya or that which is. God is, being an essence; but his existence is knownonly by being manifested in his works."

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THE ANTECEDENT LIFE

It is my deep-seated conviction that our ability to form an idea is itself proof that thatidea is in some manner true. I do not know how I came by this notion, but it seems to me

intuitional. The powers of the mind are so limited that we can form no conception of whateveris of itself impossible. We do not ourselves originate what we make or think, but only copyand reproduce in physical form prior realities - ideas which came with the spirit from its homein the eternal world.

There is a point at which what is usually called science must stop and give place to ahigher faculty of knowing. The endeavor to set metes and bounds to the universe is certain tofail; and the operations of the cosmos, moral as well as physical, we may not hope tocomprehend within our limited scope of vision. There will come hurricanes to blow down ourephemeral superstructures, and even earthquakes to overturn the foundations themselves. Allthat we learn by corporeal sense and include by the measuring-line of our understandingbelongs to this category of the unstable and perishing.

The attempt to build a scientific tower of Babel, to reach to the sky and be a symbol ofthe true, will always result in confusion of speech among such builders and their dispersionapart from one another. When they pass the boundaries of their horizon they find themselvesembraced in a chaos and void of great darkness, which they declare to be unknowable. In duetime the hail comes and sweeps away their structures.

Knowledge is in no proper sense a collection of gleanings - over all, transcending all, andincluding all. It pertains to the faculty of intellection rather than to that of understanding; it isnot a boon from the world of time and limit, but is the infinite and eternal. It

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requires no cerebration for its process, but may employ the corporeal organism for its mirrorand medium.

Science, as commonly defined, is concerned with things which are apparent to the senses; intellective knowledge is the perception and possessing of that which really is. What we trulyknow, therefore, is what we have remembered from the Foreworld, wherein our true being hasnot been prisoned in the region of sense. It consists of motives, principles, things immutable. Such are charity or love, which seeketh others' benefit; justice, which is the right line of action; beauty, which means fitness for the supreme utility; virtue, which denotes the manly instinct ofright; temperance, which restrains every act into due moderation. These are the things of theeternal region, which true souls remember in the sublunary sphere of the senses; and, thusremembering, they put away the eager desire for temporary expedients and advantages for thatwhich is permanent and enduring.

"Where your treasure is," says Jesus, "there will your heart be." Our knowledge is ourtreasure. What we know we possess. It can never be wrested from us, or forgotten. It is of us,bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Knowing all things that are truly good - love withoutselfishness, justice without perversion, beauty which is beyond superficialness, virtue which isno mere outside negation or artificial merit, temperance which is the equilibrium of the soul -we include them all, and have our home and country in that world where they are indigenousand perennial. They are the constituents of our being. Flesh and blood will never inhabit thatworld, nor will anything that is the outcome of flesh and blood long endure. But theseessentials of life will never change or perish; and those endowed with them will be as enduringas they. However they may be circumscribed by space, temporal conditions and limitations,they live in eternity. Death will not extinguish their being. They live where death had never aplace, and they will continue after the scorpion shall have given himself the fatal sting.

The heavenly abode of spirits and divine beings is by no means geographically distantand distinct from the regions occupied by those existing in the external world. Indeed it ismore than probable that the dead, as they are designated in common speech -

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those who are disbodied - often cling even abnormally to the earth and its ways; and that theywho have labored zealously for an aim or enterprise continue their endeavors. The demise ofthe body can hardly be regarded intelligently as changing any element of the nature, character,or even acquired quality, but only the form of existence. We have read with admiration theexquisite utterance of the little verse that "that which went was not love." We may add to itthat that which dies is not man. The body is by no means the personality, but is purelyadventitious. When it has accomplished its purpose, or has become unfit, it is discarded like animplement that is broken or a garment worn out.

It is not necessary to die in order to become superior to the conditions of materialexistence. The same causes which brought us to the corporeal life are very likely to continue. The condition must, therefore, be exceeded, or else, like the weed which is cut off by the hoebut not uprooted, we will appear in some other way.

We may hardly regard it as good form to speak of immortality and eternity as conditionsto be entered upon after death. Life beyond the grave, when considered under that aspect, is amirage of the fancy. The eternal life has nothing in any way to do with the grave. We mayobtain a better conception of it when we contemplate eternity as boundless and unconditional,yet comprising all that is finite and conditional. It signifies nothing which relates to time andduration, but only to that which pertains to itself. As the heavens are beyond the earth and yetinclude it, so Divinity is above and beyond and yet contains within its grasp all the spirits ofmen.

The eternal life is therefore spiritual and divine. It pertains to the psychic nature, to thesoul, which is from the Divinity, and which, while in a manner objective and apart, isparticipant, nevertheless, of the divine nature and quality. Emanuel Swedenborg has set thisforth admirably. Acknowledging that God is love, he describes love as the life of man. Thuswe are in the eternal world, everyone of us; and believing this, we have the eternal life in fullpossession. Whether, as denizens of this earth, we live or die, it is all the same: we shall be inthe embrace of Deity as we have always been.

Life is not shut up wholly in the things of time and sense. The

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spirit of man never dwelt in the body in its entirety, but is of the world beyond. Only a part ofthe soul is ever developed in the physical existence - in some more, in others less. Its realhabitation is, as the Apostle has described, "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Itextends into the body, as though with antennae, and so we are able to think, live, and attempt toact. We are likewise able to perceive real truth by that intellect which is above theunderstanding; to divine, and to receive, even into the external consciousness, perception fromthe Foreworld. The philosopher Jacobi wisely declared that "in moral feeling there is apresentiment of eternity."

The vail which seems to be interposed between the temporal existence and the life which

we are living in the eternal world is more apparent than actual; clouds that hide the sun fromour view are not placed in the sky for that purpose, but arise from the earth beneath. If we didnot ourselves drink the Lethean draught - if we did not project from ourselves the sensuousobscuring into the sky above our heads - we might even now behold the Real, which is both theideal and eternal.

I am very confident that what is generally described as intuition, insight, inspiration, isthis sub-conscious and super-conscious intelligence. It has been explained by the most giftedof philosophers as a remembering, a reproducing, and bringing anew into consciousness ofwhat we knew in the Fore-world. It is from the very core of our being, and belongs to thatsphere of life to which we have become to a great degree forgetful, if not even alien. Yet therecan be no activity without it, any more than there can be action without the direction of thewill.

As the soul and superior intellect are antecedent to sensation, the intuitive thought is notperceived by the consciousness. Having little to do with cerebration, it does not wear away thebrain-matter. It pertains to a life that is lived beyond the physical sense. It is a state ofillumination rather than a receiving of messages from supernal powers. Indeed, we may regardourselves as safe in affirming that there really are no new revelations. The same Word thatordained light to exist never ceases so to ordain. The world may vary in form and aspect, butthat Spirit which upholds it is always the same.

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Whoever will ascend in his interior thought beyond the changing scenes will know and willmirror in himself the unchanging.

Better than any achievement of wonderful powers is that wholesome condition of themind and affections which produces as its own outcome those sentiments and emotions ofjustice and reverence, those deep principles of unselfish regard for the well-being of others,which evince the person himself in every part of his being as pure, good, and true.

In the simple worship of the older Persians, homage was rendered by each to the pure lawof living, to the good spirits that inspired and protected him, and to his own soul. The aim oflife and the essential substance of that ancient faith were the integrity of the soul, its wholenessand oneness with Divinity. That old doctrine, that the true man venerates his own soul, is to mevery attractive. A fragment of the Hadokht Nask, a book of the old Persian Sacred Writingsnow lost, represents the Divine Being, Ahur-Mazda, as relating to the prophet and priestZoroaster the story of the journeys of the soul after the separation from the corporeal structure. For three days it remains at the head of the body as though expecting to resume the formerfunctions. All the while it is chanting praises and enjoying the most exquisite delight. It thensets out for the celestial home, regaled all the way by fragrant breezes. Arriving at the Bridgeof Judgment, there appears a figure like a beautiful maiden, invested about with supernal light,elegant in form, comely and vigorous as a youth of fifteen, with wings, pure as the purestthings on earth -

"Then the soul of the righteous spoke to her:'What maiden art thou, most beautiful guardian?'"

Then answers the form:

"I am the very life, O youth, which thou has lived - thy pure thought, thy holy speech, thyworthy action, thy merit embodied in thyself. Every one loves thee for thy greatness, thygoodness, thy excellence, thy resistance and triumph over evil. Thou art truly like me, who amthy pure thought, holy speech, and worthy acts. I was

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beloved already, and thou hast made me more beloved; I was beautiful before, and thou hasmade me more beautiful still. Thou makest the pleasant more pleasant, the fair yet fairer, thedesirable yet more desirable; and me, the one sitting on high, thou seatest still higher by theypure thought, thy holy speech, and righteous action."

Here we have a representation of that superior principle of our being and its stationbeyond our mundane nature in the world. We have likewise a suggestion of the untold benefitsattained by the soul from its incarnation and upright conduct in the earth-life. Our personalityis still in the eternal region, our individuality here. We may seem in this world to be rich andoverflowing with abundance, whereas in our diviner nature we may have become as needy asLazarus at the gate. A man with treasures and jewels of which he knows not the value is aspoor as he would be without them. The one who believes, who knows his tenure of citizenshipin the celestial region has the life, is of the eternal world which the other does not see or know.

Thus death is not the ultimate outcome, the great reality of existence. The human soul isinfinitely more than a vagrant in the earth, an orphan wandering from Nowhence to Nowhither. It is like the bird entering at one window, flying about for a time, and passing out at another. Itcomes from the eternal home and will return to it, enriched with manifold experiences andmore worthy of the Divine Lord.

Thus existing in communication with both worlds, the conception is by no meansvisionary that the person may transmit knowledge from the one to the other, and be theintermediary for imparting vivific energy from the superior source which shall be efficaciousfor the restoring of the sick to health. We may not unreasonably doubt as historic verity thatsuch a man as Jesus lived upon the earth, but we cannot intelligently dispute that maladies werehealed and other wonders wrought, as described in the Gospels, "by the finger of God." Likethe electric force by which so much is accomplished, yet of which so little is really known, thepower which is commonly described as miraculous is capable of achieving wonders

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that will hardly be credited.Many are like the bat and the owl, able only to see clearly in the twilight but blinded by

the sun at noonday. The eternal world, however, is not shut away from us by inaccessibledoors or hidden by impenetrable darkness. The pure in heart can see there; and the love ofgoodness, enthusiasm for the right, unselfish motive and conduct exceed the limitations oftime.

Our own consciousness often reiterates the testimony of pre-existent life. We have apsychal memory which reminds us that what we are we have been somewhere for ages. Thereare remembrances of this, which awaken now and then with all the vividness of reality. Whenwe enter into communication with a superior mind, we perceive ourselves in a manner passing

over our usual limits and in some degree passing into the All. We apprehend in a manner whatwe may become, and have a deeper sense of what we really are. In all this there is theprophecy of what we shall be, interblended with our actual other-world subsistence. Thefruition comes when we perceive the moral quality to be the real vital energy. Love, whichredeems from selfishness and bestiality and exalts to ideal excellence, is the basis of life andcreation, and includes all that is, was, and will be. Further we may not know.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Jan., 1895)

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THE FIRE OF THE ALTAR

The second book of the Maccabees begins with the copy of a letter from the Jews toJerusalem to those who had become resident in Egypt. In this letter is given an account of thefire employed upon the altar at the temple, generally supposed to be miraculous. The accountreads as follows:

"When our fathers were led into Persia, the priests that were then devout took the fire ofthe altar privily, and hid it in a hollow place of a pit without water, where they kept it sure, sothat the place was unknown to all men. Now after many years, when it pleased God, Neemias,being sent from the king of Persia, did send of the posterity of the priests that hid it, to the fire. But when they told us they found no fire, but thick water, then commanded he them to draw itup, and to bring it; and when the sacrifices were laid up, Neemias commanded the priests tosprinkle the wood and the things laid thereupon with the water. When this was done, and thetime came that the sun shone, which afore was hid in the cloud, there was a great firekindled.....

"So when this matter was known it was told the king of Persia that in the place where thepriests that were led away had hid the fire, there appeared water and that Neemias had purifiedthe sacrifices therewith, then the King, enclosing the place, made it holy after he had tried thematter. And the King took many gifts, and bestowed thereof on those whom he would gratify. And Neemias called this thing NAPHTHAR (which is as much to say: 'a cleasing'); but manymen call it Nephi."

This account has suggested that the fire which is described as coming down from the skyand consuming sacrifices, was no less

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than the oil which is supplied from fountains in different regions of the globe. These were wellknown in ancient Assyria, and when armies marched under their kings and generals, a priestcarried a censer before them. This being supplied with petroleum would produce the spectacleof a cloud of smoke by day and a column of fire by night. As petroleum and asphalt werearticles of commerce, and the Hebrew leader is represented as having been instructed in thewisdom of the Egyptians, this will be sufficient explanation, with due allowance for pious

exaggerating. As sacred fire was a characteristic feature in all temples and worship, petroleumwould be in demand, and would itself likewise make abundance of incense necessary.

A writer in one of the reviews elaborates this topic, intimating that the two sons of Aaronwho perished (Leviticus X) when offering perfume with "strange fire," had probably anointedthemselves with it, and so with the inflammable vapor exuding from their bodies, exposedthemselves to destruction from the "fire from the Lord."

The same writer not only intimates the use of petroleum in other instances but distinctlyindicates it in the memorable contest between Elijah the prophet and the four hundred prophetsof Baal and Astarte (Kings I, xviii). The account as we have it, has the ear-marks of elaborationand abridgement. As it reads, with other facts out of sight, it resembles a tale made up toillustrate a subject rather than an actual occurrence. The prophet must have been a man ofmore than common importance to induce the King to enter into a controversy of this sort, oreven to spare his life at all, especially as the prophet had already been under the ban a longtime. The story looks indeed like a veiled account of rites of Adonis the beloved of Astarte. The prophets of Baal prepare their sacrifice, and then invoke the divinity all day, leap or go inprocession and perform the circle-dance around the altar, and gash their bodies as incommemoration of the Slain Divinity (Jeremiah xvi, 6). Then follows the effort of Elijah. Despite the way that the writer in the book of Kings has told or disguised the story, somethinglooking like explanation seems to be suggested in the last chapter of the book of Isaiah. Mention there is made of such worshipers as "they that sanctify or set themselves apart andpurify themselves in gardens with one (Ahad) in the midst, eating swine's

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flesh." The swine was representative of the animal that mortally mutilated Adonis, or the Baal,and the procession and cutting was the usual celebration of the occurrence. One day beingsupposed to denote a search for the slaughtered divinity, the second, for the Lamentations, thencame the resuscitation. The chief, the One, after offering the sacrifice, invoked the Divine Oneas alive, and if then a shower broke the long drouth it was regarded as most propitious.

The address of the prophet indicates some relationship to these rites. He pours out wateras was the custom. He was the one "alone" and at his invocation "the fire of the Lord"consumed all, even to the water which had been poured out, and a heavy rain followed. This inoriental symbolism meant that the slain Adonis had come up from the world of the dead,ascended into the sky and greeted the mourning Astarte.

The writer before referred to explains that Elijah used naphtha, which would haveeffected all that is described. Perhaps; but it is far more probable that the account is ofallegoric character, and adopts the material afforded by the observances common at the time,for another purpose. The whole story of Elijah bears such a stamp of probable import, andancient story abounds with legends constructed in a very similar manner. I would requirealmost super-human ken to distinguish history from legend, and assign to each its proper place.

I have read of the ancient Assyrians fixing the site of cities on spots indicated as sacred tothe gods, by the ready blazing fire from the earth, and of worshipers at the petroleum springs. But the facts are hard to get over. We have no evidence that any where since historic times haspetroleum been used to aid in the burning of sacrifices; and the Parsis, the true believers in theSacred Fire as the Symbol of Life Itself, use wood carefully prepared to maintain the constantflame. However, if the hypothesis of naphtha as the source of the Eternal Fire of temples, has

been seriously propounded, it may be answered that it is hardly plausible.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Jan., 1907)

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SPIRITUALITY AND OCCULTISM

ENTHEASM

The concept of actual communication with Divinity underlies all philosophic thinking. Itis the basis of religious faith. It has been in all ages the goal toward which the steps of everybeliever in the life eternal have been directed. The world has always had its mystics, fondlycherishing that ideal, sometimes even confident that they had attained it. We may perhapsdeem them visionary and mistaken, but we cannot impugn the grandness of their desire andpurpose. It is meritorious to do good, to be good, and to entertain good-will toward others; and certainly the highest meed belongs to whomsoever aspires to achieve the SupremeExcellence.

Such an attainment requires conditions the most imperative. It is as essential to know asto believe. Indeed, faith is of little advantage where it is not the outcome of actual truth, andfixed in it so that it shall possess all the stability of certain knowing. It requires all the moralenergy of a strong nature to believe. The weak and vacillating character has doubt for itsindex; and in important undertakings where all the strength is needed to achieve the desiredresult, it is often necessary to thrust such individuals aside. The vision of the Right is darkenedin the atmosphere where they dwell, and any transcendent knowledge is renderedimperceptible. They not only shut out the light from themselves, but dim the day into whichothers desire to peer. In this way, whether wittingly or purposely, they do to others the greatestmischief of which they are capable.

The highest attainment is knowledge. There is really nothing which any one can affordnot to know. It is a coming short of the human ideal to be ignorant in any particular. To loveknowledge is to desire perfection; to despise it is equivalent to being content with a bestial life. In all times the wise have won respect, as being the abler

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and better among humankind; and even when they had been passed by and unhonored whileliving, they have been praised, revered and obeyed in subsequent time. They are the luminariesthat have from age to age preserved light to the world, and thereby rendered it capable ofrenovation.

It has always been the aim of every right-thinking person to extend the circuit of mentalvision, and to exalt as well as to intensify his perception. The field of the sciences has beenexplored and mastered with profit as well as pleasure. This is an achievement worthy of human

endeavor. The mind is thereby expanded in its scope and faculty, and the power to accomplishresults is vastly enhanced. The inventor of a mechanical implement, whether it be a stonehatchet or a telephone, the discoverer of a new star or mineral, is a benefactor. He has given usmore room for our thinking, and, with it, the opportunity.

Our earlier childhood's lesson of Origins instructed us that Man was formed from thespore-dust or protoplasmic material of the ground - the Adam from the adama - and chemistryratified this declaration. We have since been taught that our corporeal substance wascompacted from the same material as the stars, and animated by forces akin and identical withthose which operate all-potent in the farthest-off world. But what matters it, if the postulate ofthe scientists is true, that we took our physical beginning from molecules not unlike to those ofthe jelly-fish and fungus? We are not bound to such conditions, but have a universe to occupy. The Delphic maxim, (<f24 F,"ØJ@<, know thyself, is our commission of conquest. To knowthe ego is to know the All; and that which is known is possessed.

Charters and franchises are limited. The right of man to liberty, which we are told byhigh authority that no one can divest himself of, the ignorant cannot enjoy or exercise. Theyonly are free whom knowing of the truth makes so. The very word "liberty" seems to imply aboon from the book.*

----------* Latin, liber, free; also a book. A liberal education denotes general instruction in

literature and science.------------- 258.

The liberal are the learned, the intelligent; and these alone are the really free. Codes andconstitutions, whatever their provisions, can establish no more; so necessary is it to eat of thetree of knowledge. But we may begin with our own interior selves. The germ is in us; it maynot be transplanted from without. Not books and literature, but living, observing, thinking, anddoing constitute the principal education of the individual who becomes really wise or learned. I do not suppose that such excellence in wisdom and learning can be imparted from teachers, orthat it is actually partible, and to be divided and doled out in lessons. It is a divine matter, thekingdom that cometh not with observation. Our real education is the drawing forth from ourinterior being into external cognizance the principles existing there dormant, that they mayhenceforth constitute the leading principles of character as well as of life. We cannot createthat which is not inborn; we may only evolve and enrich the natural endowment.

Pause right here, whoever cares for aught rather than for the highest. To such these ideasare only visionary, and they have neither time nor ears for them. Where illusion is the breath ofone's life, to know is to die. As for Wisdom -

"To some she is the goddess great; To some the milch cow of the field -Their care is but to calculate What butter she will yield."

- Schiller

The attempt has been made to set aside the whole department of the Superior Knowledge

as being only imaginary, or at least as not attainable by scientific methods, and therefore out ofthe purview of common thought and investigation. Some of the representatives of what hasbeen characterized as Modern Science, and other their imitators, actually endeavor to repudiatewhatever is not catalogued as "exact." Unable to cast a measuring-line over the Infinite, theyare very diligent in the effort to eliminate God out of their methods. The personality, orperhaps more correctly, the suprapersonality of Deity

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as implying a supreme, intelligent principle in and over the universe, is vigilantly overlooked,and even sometimes denied. In such case, whatever we do, or think, or wish, would be withoutany conception of a higher Being or potency in the mind. An actual communion with him isnowhere recognized or even conceded in this modern scientific organon.

A medical journal in the city of Philadelphia, many years ago, contained an editorialarticle upon this subject, which set forth the view taken by many of this class of reasoners. "Numa, Zoroaster, Mohammed, Swedenborg, claimed communion with higher spirits," thewriter remarks; "they were what the Greeks called ENTHEAST - 'immersed in God' - astriking word which Byron introduced into our tongue." W. B. Carpenter described thecondition as an automatic action of the Brain. The inspired ideas, he says, arise in the mindsuddenly, spontaneously, but very vividly, at some time when thinking of some other topic. Francis Galton defines genius to be "the automatic activity of the mind as distinguished fromthe effort of the will - the ideas coming by inspiration." This action, the editor declared to belargely favored by a condition approaching mental disorder - at least, by one remote from theordinary working-day habits of thought.

This is about the altitude which the many have reached in their understanding of manwhen inspired, or in the state regarded as communion with Deity. It is doubtful whether fromtheir point of view they can see the matter more clearly. By this logic God the creator wouldseem to be but a figment of the imagination, or at most, the cause of disorder in the minds ofmen. We can not wisely seek for truth at such oracles. We must go up higher.

It is by no means a reasonable proposition that because inspired ideas which come intothe mind as if spontaneously seem to be remote from ordinary habits of thinking, they thereforeindicate a condition approaching mental disorder. In every-day life many faculties areatrophied because of not having been duly exercised. On the other hand, any habitualemployment becomes more or less automatic, and even, if it is proper so to express it,involuntary. What we habitually do, and often the thing which we purpose to do, fixes itselfupon us insomuch that we perform it almost unconsciously. We

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awake from sleep at an hour assigned; we become suddenly conscious of a fact or idea fromspecific association; and we do things that we are not aware of or even think about. Theindividual who has the habit of speaking the truth may do so automatically. Honest and uprightdealing may be practiced in the same way. Goodness becomes a part of the being and is fixedin the very ganglia and fibres of the brain and body. Faith, likewise, grounds itself in theconstitution, and love in the corpuscles of the flowing blood. All this is normal. It is legitimateto carry the conclusions further, and to consider where entheasm, even though supposedly

automatic, is not a wholesome condition of the human mind, and the true means of gainingactual knowledge.

By no means do I regard the faculty of receiving impressions through the bodily sensesand elaborating them into thought as the only means by which we acquire intelligence. Thiswould be equivalent to a closing of our eyes to exclude light and the vision of fact. We aresomething more than the outcome and product of nature. We possess an organism and facultybeyond her highest sphere. We know something which no brute ever learned, that there is aright and wrong in thought and action, and that supreme devotion to selfishness is moral death. We exist each for the other, and our thorough consecration to benevolence and usefulness is thehighest ideal and attainment of humanity. Nor is this aim for temporary ends alone, or even forgreat public or simply human advantage; but because it relates to the life beyond, in whichreality supersedes illusion, and love is the sole and perpetual law. The brute has no conceptionof this, and may not be taught it; but man, who is truly man, possesses the faculty to apprehendit, and the capacity to attain the excellence which this divine knowledge exhibits to his view.

The operation of this faculty has oftentimes compelled its recognition. The reasoningpowers will fail to deduce a principle or a solution to an inquiry, and in utter weariness andinability, will drop the matter out of considerations. The inner mind is more tenacious, andnever faints or is weary. It derives its energies from a never-failing source, and with them anacumen superior to the circumscribed purview of every-day life. When the exterior facultiesare at rest or

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quiescent, as in sleep or revery, or in visions of the night, then it becomes perceived, and itsanswers are given sometimes as oracular utterances, and sometimes as the solution of aquestion or some obscure theme. The physical organism seems to have little to do with thematter, and even to be generally uninfluenced, till the idea or response has come forth anddiffused like an electric flash all through the consciousness. There is then little occasion forconjecture or hypothesis about cerebration; for the higher spirit, the noetic man, is theembeinged god within us, an incoming principle rather than a development from our ownnature, and shows to us truth, leading and impelling toward the true life.

How, then, is the next inquiry, how may we know God, or define him? A king of Sicilyonce asked the poet Simonides to give him such a definition. He craved a day to consider; then two, four, and eight. The king became impatient, and asked him why he asked so muchtime. He answered that the more he thought upon the question the more difficult he had foundthe solution. The finite human understanding is not equal to the endeavor to comprehend theInfinite.

In a world of wilful or unreasoning disbelief God is regarded as a thing. Even now it iscommon in several schools of opinion to affirm that he is not a person.* I do not care todispute about the precise import of terms, but this seems to me equivalent to declaring him tobe in no sense whatever a thinking, intelligent being, but only an illusion of the fancy, or, instronger words, a nonentity, and simply a vagary or whimsy of the imagination. It is doubtlessa notion evolved by the rebound from that unreasoning faith which required an irrational thingto be worshiped as God. Between these two extremes there is the golden wedge of truth, and itis the vocation of the true student to find it. But let a diffident modesty go hand in hand withfaith. A person once talked confidently to a Spartan concerning the

-----------* Locke explains person to denote "a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and

reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing in different times andplaces."-------------- 262.

felicity of the future life. "Why," demanded the latter, "why do you not hasten to die in orderto enjoy it?" It was a pert question, and pertinent, conveying a taunt that might profitably beaccepted as a wholesome reproof.

We may not, often we cannot, speak profoundly to those who are irreverent, or whodisbelieve. The impure ear will tarnish the purest speech. One may profane the truth byspeaking it. In uttering to another something which is real to ourselves, it may become veiledin a mantle of illusion which transforms it in his comprehension into some idea essentiallydifferent. Indeed, it is well to believe in God, but ill to speak much about him.

We need not reject utterly the methods which they employ who stubbornly, and perhapsobtrusively, demand the reasons upon which our faith is based. We hope to be truly spiritualonly by being wholly reasonable. The true man supersedes no methods because he transcendsthem. His concepts are characterized by the superior illumination which they possess. Theymay not be a product of the schools, being rather the outcome of the supraconsciousremembering; yet his wisdom is often capable of deriving additional lustre by a setting in theirframework. The plurality of faculties in the human mind exists for a purpose. They are to betrained and employed, but none of them may be eradicated.

Simple individuals long ago inferred that fire and air, or spirit, in some arcane manner,constituted the entity of man. They had noticed that the dying departed with the breath, andthat the warmth peculiar to the living body also then disappeared. This led to the adoration ofthe flame as the symbol, and also to the contemplating of the breath or spirit as the source oflife. Analogy pointed out the fact that as living beings derived existence from parents, manwas descended from the First Father.

We are all of us conscious that the individual, as we see him with our eyes and perceivewith our other bodily senses, is not the actual personality. If he should fall dead in ourpresence, there would still be a body to look upon as distinctly as before. But the somethinghas gone forth which had imparted sensibility to the nerves and impulse to the muscles. Thatsomething was the real individual. It

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accompanied the body, but has departed, leaving it behind. The "HE" or "SHE" has thus givenplace to "IT." We witness phenomena, and may now ask to learn the noumena. Here exterior,positive, "exact" science fails us. Its probe can detect no real personality, nor its microscopedisclose any source or entity of being. The higher faculties must afford the solution of thisproblem on which everything depends.

The witty but somewhat irreverent Robert G. Ingersoll prefixed one of his lectures with atravesty of Pope's immortal verse: "An honest God is the noblest work of man." Many havebeen astonished, and even shocked, at the audacious utterance. Nevertheless, it has a purportwhich we will do well to contemplate. If we are actual spiritual entities transcending the

constituents of the corporeal frame, we exist from a vital principle extending from the DivineSource. A genuine, earnest faith is essential to our mental integrity. Do we regard him ashaving "made man in his own image" and "after his likeness?" Are we sure that our ideal ofhim is not some extraneous personification, the product of our own character and disposition -created in our image! Have we caught a view of our own reflection in the mirror of infinity andset that up as God?

Certainly we have no medium for the divine ray except in our own mental organism. It isrefracted or even hideously distorted; this must be because that medium is clouded andpervaded with evil thoughts, motives, and propensities. The image which will be formed insuch a case may be the individual's highest ideal of God, but it will appear to enlightened eyesmore like an adversary of the good. Fear alone could induce us to offer it worship. To speakthe truth unqualifiedly, we all hate those reflected images that are so often obtruded as thehighest concept of the Divine Being. Many of us would say as much if we had the courage.

Let us bear in mind, then, that what we consider to be God is the index to what weconceive of his qualities and character. Yet because his actual Being is beyond our power tocomprehend him, we need not hesitate to contemplate him. The ability to form an idea impliesthat it is possible to realize it. The idea is itself the actual entity, the prophecy of itsaccomplishment in the world of phenomena.

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Such conceptions as the being of God, spiritual existence, eternity, the interior union of Godwith man, the eventual triumph of the Right, could never be found in the mind as dreams, ifthey had not somehow been infixed from the region of Causes where real Being has its abode. We must, however, go up higher, where external knowing reaches into the domain of Faith.

The ether which contains the light is more tenuous and spirit-like than the air thattransmits sound, but it is none the less real because of the greater difficulty to explore the secretof its existence. All that we suppose to be known concerning it is chiefly assumed, a matter offaith rather than the "exact knowledge" of the scientist. The next lessons pertain to the highermathematics - how, from what we know of ourselves to find out God. We must see, if at all,with a faculty of sight which we do not possess in common with animals: beyond that whichappears clear to that which really IS.

Our searching awakens in us the perception of the Divine One. Our wants indicate to ushis character. We need wisdom that transcends our highest learning, or providence thatincludes all things in its purview, a power supreme above out faculty to adapt means to ends, alove ineffably pure to inspire all things for the completest good of all. Knowing that whateverwe see about us is transitory, we are cognizant that we must have other than mortal vision tobehold the Permanent. It is enough that we acknowledge him as the fact of which we are theimage, and that we devote our attention accordingly to the clarifying of the medium whichreceives his effluence. Let the scope and purpose of life be dedicated to becoming what wecontemplate as the inherent character of the Divinity whom we idealize and revere. In due timewe shall be no longer an imitation or "counterfeit presentment," but shall become the veryimage and similitude of what we admire. We shall embody in our own disposition andcharacter the very ideal which the witty agnostic so humorously depicted. A true soul is in theimage and likeness of its God, and thus reflects God in the similitude. This is the meaning ofthe problem.

It has been the universal belief in all periods of history that human beings may receivesuperior illumination, and that a higher and more interior faculty was thereby developed. Therewere seers,

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sages and prophets to instruct and bring sublime knowledge to their fellows. Among theindividuals notably regarded as entheast were Sokrates, also style theomantis, or God-inspired,Ammonios Sakkas the God-taught, and we may add Baruch Spinosa the God-intoxicated. Plato, Gautama-Siddarta, Apollonios of Tyana and Iamblichos were also names DIVINE. Itwas taught by the philosophers that the life which is lived on the earth is the real death, and thatdying from the earth is a passing from this condition of death to that of genuine living. Sokrates insisted at the last hour that the cup of poison would not terminate his real life. Thephenomena of the every-day world were regarded as the delusive cheat of the corporeal senses; and they contemplated the existence beyond of a region aetherial and not aerial, with nolimitations of time and space, in which all is real and permanent. Thitherward they aspired inthe hope and confidence that they might unite somewhat of the potencies of that world with thescenes of this temporal life. Was it a bootless aspiration, a beating of the air, a vagary ofirrational frenzy?

It need not embarrass our inquiry that peculiar disorders of the body are sometimesattended by extraordinary spiritual phenomena, nor that great and unusual commotions of themind may occasion them. It is no more out of the way than the fact that shocks and excitementoften restore paralyzed limbs and functions. As for fasting and prolonged intense mentalaction, these are methods in every earnest endeavor to develop a more acute perception. Theyare legitimate aids to enable the mind to get beyond impediments to clear thinking and intuitioninto a higher spiritual domain. There is no moribidness or abnormity in this, but a closerapproaching to the source of real knowledge. Even Science owes more to such methods thanprofessed scientists are often aware of or willing to admit.

The entheastic condition indicates a life that is lived beyond and above the physicalsenses. It is a state of illumination rather than a receiving of messages from superior sources. Indeed it is safe to affirm that there are no new revelations. The same word that ordained lightto exist never ceases so to ordain; the same spirit or mighty mind that moved and operatedupon the waters of the genesis is potent and active today. The world may vary in form andaspect,

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but that which gives it life is always the same. Whoever will ascend above the changing sceneswill know and mirror in himself the unchanging. This is what is meant by being involved andincluded in the divine aura and light.

"TheyWho extasie divine enjoy, agnizeThe universal impulse, but so actAs though they ordered all things of themselves,And heaven were but the register of Earth."

The old Mystics used to teach that the individual must be passive, and not active. Thispassiveness by no means signified a physical or moral inertia, but simply receptiveness. Just asa mirror receives and infixes an image, so every divine irradiation and inflowing should beretained and embeinged. The light is not given or received for the sake of having the borrowedsplendor to shine with, but that it may be assimilated and incorporated into the life, as anelement of the very selfhood. The WORD is not mere speech, but the mind taking that form. The true speaking of an individual is itself the individual. Every revelation of God is Godhimself coming to man. Every such one setting forth God in his life and act is the word of Godbecome flesh.

Thus entheasm is the participating of the divine nature, spirit and power. It is the end forwhich mankind exist on the earth, the culmination of the Divine Purpose.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Feb., 1901)

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THE ROSICRUCIAN BROTHERHOOD

Jung-Stilling* gives an account of a visit which he received from a young man ofdistinction, who accosted him as one of the Superiors in a secret Fraternity. This he disavowedin emphatic terms, at which the visitor demanded:

"How is it, then, that you know of the great and venerable Association in the East, whichyou have so circumstantially described in your work, the Nostalgia, even point out minutely their places of

-----------* Johann Heinrich Jung, better known by his assumed name of "Stilling," was a native of

Florenburg, in the duchy of Nassau, German, and a man of very remarkable character. Hisautobiography is worthy to be regarded as a classic in that kind of literature. He was of asensitive temperament, with an unquenchable desire for learning and a superior faculty ofintuition. Goethe, who was his fellow-student at Heidelberg, speaks of him in warm praise. Hewas subject of spiritual experiences, many of which he has recorded - some of them the resultof extraneous impression, as he afterward perceived, but others of a profounder and genuinecharacter. He was often conscious of events occurring at great distances. Though he was onlya peasant by birth and grew up in the humbler conditions of life, he became a scholar andpassed through a career of wonderful experiences. He was for several years a professor in theuniversities of Heidelberg and Marburg, and after that Counselor of Justice to the Grand Dukeof Baden. His death took place April 1, 1817, in his seventy-seventh year. He wrote manyworks in German, three of which have been translated into English.-------------- 268.

rendezvous in Egypt, on Mount Sinai, in the Monastery of Kanobin, and under the Temple at

Jerusalem?"About the same time our author received a letter from a prince asking the same question:

when it was that he knew anything of the Association in the East; acknowledging that the factwas as he had described it. Stilling gives an explanation in his autobiography, showing that hewrote the book while under a peculiar influence similar to that of John Bunyan when engagedupon his famous allegory, "The Pilgrim's Progress."* In another of his works, however,Stilling has been more explicit. We find there the mention of "a book written by ChristianRosenkreutz," in which was an account of the visit of that personage to the Holy Land, hisdiscovery of the secret society of wise and learned men from whom he received the knowledgeof the Hermetic philosophy, and the founding by him, after his return to Europe, of the Order ofthe Golden Cross.

The existence of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, its aims and mode of operation, have beensubjects of much question and curious speculation. The first information respecting it appearsto have been given in the earlier years of the seventeenth century. This was a period when acalamitous condition existed everywhere among the people of Europe and thoughtful mindswere widely awake to the necessity of amelioration. Vivid expectations had begun to beentertained of some great change, religious and social, which should be more complete andradical than any that had ever before occurred. It was anticipated by far-seeing minds andprognosticated by those of more visionary tendencies. Even Paracelsus had predicted an

----------* "His spirit was as if elevated into ethereal regions; a feeling of serenity and peace

pervaded him, and he enjoyed a felicity which words cannot express. When he began to work,ideas glistened past his soul and animated him so much that he could scarcely write with therapidity which the flow of ideas required. The whole work took quite another form and thecomposition quite another tendency to that which he had proposed at the commencement." -Stilling's "Years of Tuition."------------- 269.

approaching revolution, declaring the comet which appeared in the year 1572 to be its sign andharbinger.

When in the earlier years of the seventeenth century, three anonymous pamphlets werepublished which related to the subject then engrossing general attention, and purported to beofficial documents of a secret fraternity, Germany and other countries were ablaze with eagercuriosity. The first of these publications bore the imposing title of "The UniversalReformation." It was a dialogue composed after the style of Plutarch's "Banquet of Wise Men,"and set forth the woeful condition of the time, with several proposed remedies. Bound up withit was a little treatise entitled "Fama Fraternitatis; or, An Account of the Brothers of the MostWorthy Order of the Rosy Cross." This was addressed to learned men everywhere, and to therulers of Europe. It contained the legend of the mysterious "C.R.C." (Christian Rosen Creutz),with a sketch of the Fraternity and a solicitation to take part in its work. A "Confession of theRosicrucian Brotherhood" also appeared, explaining the belief and purposes cherished by themembers. Another publication was "The Chymical Marriage," which was described on thetitle-page as having been written by Christian Rosenkreutz himself in the year 1459. This workis generally regarded by critics as the oldest of the Rosicrucian documents, and upon it the

whole problem of the history of the Order appears to depend.All Germany was aroused to a high pitch of excitement. The Brotherhood was

denounced as heretical, even atheistic. Some went so far as to demand its suppression by thearm of the Civil Power, as the Knights of the Temple had been suppressed in France. Theosophers and mystics were numerous at that time, and they welcomed the publications asmessages from heaven. They wrote numerous pamphlets in defence, and publicly addressedletters to the Brothers asking to be admitted to their number. Many of these are still inexistence in the library of the University of Gottingen. Among the applicants was MichaelMaier, physician to the emperor Rudolph II. He shared his master's enthusiasm for alchemyand other transcendent learning. His endeavors to obtain personal knowledge of the Fraternity,it is said, were not successful; nevertheless he

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vindicated its character and objects in numerous pamphlets. He visited England in his zeal, andbecame intimate with distinguished persons of like tastes and aspirations.

Descartes, the celebrated French philosopher, while sojourning in Swabia in 1619, alsoendeavored to find assemblages of the mystic Brotherhood. He was not able, however, toobtain any satisfactory information. The very existence of the Order was concealed by theprofoundest secrecy. The fact that an individual professed to be a member was a certain proofthat he was not. All who wrote about it were careful to disavow any personal connection. Neither attack nor blandishment elicited a response. Men finally became weary of the subject,and some even avowed their utter disbelief in the existence of such an Order. Leibnitz, whohas been himself reputed as an alchemist and member of a Rosicrucian society in Nuremburg,declared that everything that had been said about the Fraternity was the invention of someclever person. There is possibly an equivocal meaning to this utterance, but it has been widelyaccepted as a testimony that the whole story of the Rosicrucians was simply a romance. Thecredit of its fabrication was assigned by general consent to a Lutheran clergyman, JohannValentin Andrea, who was for many years chaplain to the Grand Duke of Wurtemberg. Wemay not, however, concur in the verdict thus rendered. The simple statement of Jung-Stillingappears conclusive. We can reasonably accept what has been written and believed as anadmonition to seek the truth in other directions. There was such a Brotherhood, having endsthat were honorable and praiseworthy. Our enthusiasm for better knowing is thereforemeritorious. We may bear in mind that the spirit that denies is not a Lucifer bringing the dawn,but a Mephistophelian genius that loves not the light.

The treatise of the late Hargrave Jennings upon "The Rosicrucians: their Rites andMysteries" is admirably calculated to give the impression that the Fraternity was closely alliedand perhaps actually affiliated to the other secret societies. The characteristic emblem, theRose upon the Cross, which prefigures at once its name and aim, had likewise been a badge ofthe Knights of the Temple. Its occult meaning is well known to the intelligent. Indeed, therose has

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been esteemed as sacred and arcane by the people of many countries. It represents everysanctity in life and religion and therefore signifies the obligations to silence and secrecy. The

Templars probably adopted the symbol from their congeners in the East. We may not,however, regard such similarities as positive evidence of original identity. Many religions existwith close analogies of rite and doctrine, yet having no actual affiliation. The same thing maybe true of secret fraternities. We find no valid evidence that the Rosicrucians were in any sensethe lineal descendants of the Templars, or indeed of any other association. They may havesucceeded to some of the aims, but in essentials they must be regarded as peculiar and distinct.

It is easy to trace a familiar resemblance of their utterances to those of Paracelsus. Indeed, if we consider the story of Rosenkreutz to be purely an allegory, we may reasonablyconceive of him as the precursor of the movement. He is actually depicted in the earliestRosicrucian works as one of the "painful, worthy men who broke with all force throughdarkness and barbarism, and left us who succeeded to follow him." It is also added that,although he was not a member of the Brotherhood, he had read its "Book M,"* and had beenexalted thereby in his conceptions. He did not succeed, however, in bringing others over to hisviews. "He was so hindered in his course," says the Fama, "that he was never able peaceablyto confer with others of the knowledge and understanding that he had of Nature." If weexamine his works and those of the Rosicrucian writers we shall find like sentiments and formsof expression - an aspiration for what is highest and best, enthusiasm for true knowledge, andunselfish regard for the welfare of human beings. It is not difficult to carry the parallel further. The cardinal virtues of faith, hope, and charity, in their full import, are alike Rosicrucian andParacelsian.

Mr. Arthur Edward Waite, in his work upon the "Real History of the Rosicrucians," hasdiscarded the claim to originality and great antiquity as being little else than mere assumption. He does not,

--------------* Said to mean the "Macrocosm and Microcosm."

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however, reject entirely the genuineness of the occult wisdom but confesses that he is inclinedto think that the darkness which covered the recondite ----* connected with the Rosicrucianscovered a real and ---- a recoverable knowledge. He only insists that that ----- is not of ourmaking, nor of our age; and that as circumstances have radically changed, that knowledge isnot now worth preserving.

It has also been suggested, and with a remarkable s---- plausibility, that the actualfounder of the Rosicrucians ---- was no other than the celebrated Francis Bacon. Thishypothesis is supported by the analogies in his career, and those found in his writings, with theauthentic records of the Brotherhood. The legend represents Christian Rosenkreutz asjourneying to the East while yet a youth of fifteen years. "By his sound physic," we are told,"he obtained much favor with the people and in the meantime he became acquainted with theWisdom of Damcar in Arabia, and beheld what great wonders are wrought and how Nature wasdiscovered to them." Making his way to them the next year, "the Wise men received him not asa stranger but as one whom they had long expected and showed him other secrets, to his greatwonderment."

While there, Rosenkreutz is declared to have translated the "Book M" into Latin, andafterward he brought his translation away with him. He spent several years in the southern

countries of Europe. Soon, however, contrary to what he had hoped and expected, he foundthat the men of learning feared the loss of fame and wealth if they laid aside the old methodsfor his. He accordingly returned to Germany, and there proceeded to elaborate what he hadlearned into a more complete system. He was now desirous to prosecute the work of universalreformation, which from the beginning he had contemplated. Accordingly, with this purpose,he took into his confidence three other persons of assured fidelity, who should commit towriting his direction and instructions.

"The Fraternity of the Rosie Cross began after this manner,"

-------------[* The last word in several lines of text are missing in the original. - Ed.]

---------------- 273.

the official statement informs us, "namely: First, by four persons only, and by them was madethe Magical Language and Writing, with a large Dictionary, which we yet daily use to God'spraise and glory, and do find great wisdom therein." The work, however, was too heavy forthem, and the number was increased to eight, "by whom was collected a Book or Volume of allthat which man can desire, wish, or hope for." They then separated themselves into severalcountries in order that their Axiomata might in secret be more profoundly examined by thelearned, and that they might themselves be able to inform one another of whatever they mightobserve or perceive.

In this account it is very easy to trace analogies and even close resemblances to thehistory of Bacon. He also was a man of mystery, little known except to those who wereintimate with him. He wrote much in ambiguous terms after the Rosicrucian manner,employing similar phrases and modes of expression, and in particular made extensive use offeigned names, initials, and passwords in his private letters. He began his career likeRosekreutz, in extreme youth, and early conceived a plan of general reformation. It was at thattime a dark period in Europe. Religious conflict and persecution were raging everywhere,accompanied by cruelty almost beyond a parallel and by frightful misery of the commonpeople. It was nowhere safe for any one to utter his convictions freely. The prison, the rack,and the fagot were employed to silence dissent. The only safe mode of procedure was bymeans of a secret society and the use of language that would admit a double interpretation.

This, it is intimated, was the course pursued by Bacon. He had been carefully trained bya Puritan mother, herself proficient in Greek and Roman literature. Hence at an early age hebecame acquainted with every school of ancient philosophy. His manners were characterizedin youth by a gravity beyond his years, and in mature age by a look as though he pitied men. In1752, when hardly twelve years old, he with his brother entered Trinity College at Cambridge,but left it three years afterward without taking the degree, and greatly dissatisfied with thequality of the instruction. He remained at home the next year, when, it is supposed, he enteredupon the study of the Arabian writers - Razes, Avenzoar, Averroes, Avicenna, and other

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Arabic physicians* and Hermetic writers.During this early period he formed the project of a better method of study, which he

afterward elaborated and carried into successful operation. "With him," says a biographer, "thegift of seeing in prophetic vision what might be and ought to be was united with the practicaltalent of devising means and handling minute details. He could at once imagine like a poet andexecute like a clerk of the works." At the age of sixteen he accompanied the English Embassyto France, where he spent three years in literary composition and in familiar correspondencewith the learned men of Southern Europe. His father dying, he was obliged to return toEngland and engage in active professional life. By no means, however, did he lose sight of hischerished purpose. It was his aim, so far as he was able, to occupy and extend the field oflearning, and to devote the results of the work to the benefit of all, not sparing himself orregarding private advantage or profit. "I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderatecivil ends," he declared; "for I have taken all knowledge to be my province. This - whether itbe curiosity or vainglory, or if one may take it favorably, philanthropia** - is so fixed in mymind that it cannot be moved." When he wrote this he was actively employed; yet at the sametime he was silently collecting material and endeavoring, as is recorded of Rosenkreutz, to findhelpers in his contemplated undertaking. He considered the purpose rather than himself. Saidhe:

"I often advisedly and deliberately throw aside the dignity of my name and wit (if suchthing be) in my endeavor to advance human interests; and being one that should properly,perhaps, be an architect in philosophy and in the science, I turn common laborer, hodman,anything that is wanted - taking upon myself the burden and execution of many things which must needs be done, and which

----------* Hakham, a wise man, a physician. The Arabian philosophers of the Middle Ages were

generally physicians.** Love of humankind; charity, or unselfish regard for the good of others.

------------- 275.

others, through an inborn pride, shrink from and decline."Arcane and philosophic learning, as well as general science, was included within his

appointed sphere. "I have been induced to think," say Doctor Rawley, his secretary, "that ifthere were a beam of knowledge derived from God in these modern times, it was upon him." Bacon early became familiar with the writings of the Grecian sages, and he believed that themyths and fables of the ancient poets involved the secrets and mysteries of religion,government, and philosophy. In imitation of their method, many of his own works wereallegoric, and he rose far above the utilitarianism of the time. He possessed the enthusiasm ofhumanity to a rare degree. He prized what was excellent in every man, learning eagerly fromall and regarding no knowledge as too mean or familiar for inquiry.

His views and sentiments upon scientific and esoteric subjects may be found here andthere in the various plays of Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and Shakespeare. He studied diligently theworks of Paracelsus, and often quoted them. He concurred in the doctrine of that distinguishedwriter that the principle of life resides in a subtile fluid, or spirit, which permeates every part ofthe physical organism. He also made experiments himself of a psychologic character,"touching emission of immateriate virtues from the minds and spirits of men, either byaffections, or by imaginations, or by other impressions." He was eager to know the "things hid

and barred from common sense." It was a problem of his, in regard to the force of imagination,whether constantly and strongly believing that a certain thing shall be will help to the effectingof the thing itself. His decision was that effects do actually result in this way, but that the helpin such case is for one man to work by means of another in whom he may create belief, and notby himself.

Whether Bacon established a secret society is a curious question. There has been anabundance of such fraternities from the earliest periods of recorded history. The priesthoods inthe various worships may be included in the category of secret orders. It was a practice to formsuch organizations, both in order to assure greater facility of action and likewise to escapeopprobrium and personal peril. The ends which Bacon had in view were to purify religion andpromote

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reformation of manners, to advance learning, and to alleviate the misery which was almostuniversal. The Rosicrucian Fraternity, as already remarked, was devoted to like purposes. Besides, the existence of the Order, so far as known, dates from this period. Many of the worksof Bacon, particularly the ones which he denominated "Fragments," appear to have beenwritten according to its methods. Those also which relate apparently to scientific or historicmatters are actually allegoric, and convey another meaning to those who are able to perceive it.

Indeed, as will be observed by careful comparison, the legend of Christian Rosenkreutzcorresponds in its essential features with the personal history of Francis Bacon. So complete isthis resemblance that several writers have recorded their conviction that Bacon wrote some ofthe documents ascribed to Rosenkreutz, and even that he was probably the founder andcertainly the mainstay of the Rosicrucian Society. The fact, however, that the formalannouncement of the existence of the Brotherhood was first made in Germany would seem tobe in conflict with this assumption. To this it may be replied that the works of Bacon had beentranslated and published in different countries of Europe. His brother Anthony, who appears tohave been in close accord with him, spent much time on the Continent, and had ampleopportunity to communicate with individuals who might be sympathy. At the same time, thesecrecy required would prevent this from being generally known.

Robert Fludd was the first open supporter of the Rosicrucian Fraternity in England. He isdescribed as a man of immense erudition, voluminous writer, and a passionate admirer of theWisdom of the Ancients. He was a physician of distinction and familiar with the writings ofParacelsus and other alchemists of the Middle Ages. Like Bacon, he was zealous in hisdemand for reformation in the methods of teaching, and he used to declare it impossible for anyone to attain the supreme summit of knowledge unless he were profoundly versed in the occultmeaning of the utterances of the ancient philosophers. The "Temple of the Holy Spirit," whichthe Rosicrucians desired to make known, was explained by him to be no earthly or temporalabode, but the scriptural House of Wisdom. Unlike others

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of the Fraternity, he neither wrote anonymously nor made use of synonyms. As if inanticipation of questioning whether he was himself a Rosicrucian, he declared that he, least ofany, had deserved such a grace of God; if it had pleased God to have so ordained it, that was

enough.Another notable personage in the Hermetic circle was Thomas Vaughan, better know

perhaps by his pen-name of Eugenius Phalalethes.* His twin brother, Henry Vaughan, sharedin his peculiar sentiments. Thomas Vaughan was for a time a clergy man, but relinquished hisprofession for more congenial pursuits. He published several recondite works. He avowedunequivocally his belief in the actual existence of the mysterious Order, and in the account ofits origin in Arabia, but declared that he had no personal relation with it, and desired none. Nevertheless, he is regarded as a primate and distinguished luminary of the mysticBrotherhood; his disavowal being overlooked, or, more probably, considered as a blind for theuninitiated.

-----------* This designation of Philalethes, or Lover of the Truth, was adopted by the celebrated

Ammonios Sakkas, of Alexandria, the founder of the Eclectic or Neo-Platonic School ofPhilosophy. He entertained the project of a reconciling of the various conflicting sects by theselection of whatever was true in each of them and combining it into one harmonious system. He at first constituted his pupils into a secret society, obligating them not to divulge hisdoctrines to any uninitiated person. His more famous disciples were Herennios, the twoOrigens, Longinus, and the more distinguished Plotinos, afterward the exemplar and principalexponent of the new school. Porphyry, Iamblichos, and the gifted Hypatia also becamedistinguished teachers. Upon the murder of the latter by a Christian mob, the school wasestablished anew at Athens, where under Proklos, "The second Plato," philosophy attained acomplete renascence. Plutarch was also a teacher. Finally it was closed by the EmperiorJustinian, but the influence of the Platonic doctrines upon the thinkers of the world continues tothe present time.-------------- 278.

Many curious anecdotes are related of him. It is said that he once carried to a goldsmitha quantity of gold, and that, upon being told by the man that it was an artificial product and hadnever come from the mines, he hurried away leaving it behind. It was considered the productof transmutation, which the Rosicrucians were supposed to understand and sometimes perform. Others, however, explained the story as a parable. Vaughan made extensive journeys, andaccounts are given of his visits to assemblages of the Order in various parts of Europe, and avoyage to America - making use everywhere of a new name to conceal his identity.

Others have written with more or less appearance of plausibility respecting theRosicrucians, their extraordinary knowledge and mysterious rites and usages. John Heydon,who lived in the reign of Charles II, was the author of several works of this character. He wasof an ascetic temper,* fond of abstruse learning, and possessed a liberal and generousdisposition. He was famous for his attainments in occult and other arts, predicting many eventsand exhibiting skill in various ways. He made journeys into Spain, Italy, Egypt, Arabia,Turkey, Persia; and his biographer informs us in addition that "truly he hath been in manystrange places, among the Rosie Crucians, and at their castles, holy houses, temples,sepulchres, and sacrifices." He was careful to deny that he belonged to the Order; yet he madeuse of the peculiar forms of language, gave names of members, described a place ofassembling, and addressed one of his books to the High Priest, or Grand Master.

Other writers of note were Elias Ashmole, Edmund Dickenson, Abbe de Villars (Comtede Gabalis), Eliphas Levi, Kenneth Mackenzie, and the late Lord Bulwer-Lytton. Thewonderful romance "Zanoni," written by the author last named, is rich with suggestion. TheBrothers are represented as allied to the ancient sages of the

-----------* He declined many proposals of advantageous marriage, several times making

implacable enemies. Among these was the widow of the celebrated Nicolas Culpeper, theauthor of several popular works on Herbal Medicine.-------------- 279.

East, to the later alchemists, and other learned occultists; as possessing powers usuallyconsidered superhuman; as knowing the art of transmutation, the philosopher's stone, andelixir of life; as exercising a wondrous skill in medicine, making use of simples* only, and asexercising their skill and knowledge unselfishly, and for charity alone.

Despite the assumption, however, that the Rosicrucian Fraternity is surrounded by animpermeable secrecy, insomuch that its very existence is disputed, there have been numerousorganizations bearing the name. Such a society existed in Germany in the seventeenth century,and its rules were actually published. Nuremberg was regarded as a centre of the Rosicrucians,and Leibnitz, the philosopher, who was also deeply interested in the writings of the alchemists,was a member of the Secret Brotherhood, holding the office of secretary. The society hadmany branches, extending into other countries. Godfrey Higgens mentioned the Order in hisgreat work, the "Anacalypsis," and identified the members with the Manichean Buddhists. ARosicrucian Society was established in England about the year 1860, the members of which aretaken exclusively from the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Robert Wentworth Little was "SupremeMagus;" Lord Bulwer-Lytton was elected "Grand Patron;" and the two arch-mystics,Hargrave Jennings and Kenneth Mackenzie, were among the members. The affair appears atfirst view to be something distinct from the genuine Brotherhood. Associations of a similartype have been formed elsewhere in Europe and America. We have no call to give judgment inrelation to them; bearing in mind the remark of Thomas Vaughan, that Rosicrucian hasbecome a generic term embracing every form of mystic pretension. Nevertheless, we maystaunchly adhere to the persuasion that in the beginning this was not so.

-----------* According to Sprengel, a true Rosicrucian had only to gaze fixedly upon a person, and,

however dangerous the disease, he was instantaneously healed. The Brothers claimed to cureall diseases without the aid of drugs - by means of imagination and faith.-------------- 280.

The footprints of the Brotherhood are seen on every hand, Literature has borrowed freelyfrom its philanthropy. We have no occasion to regard with distrust its apparent associationwith the older alchemy and its affiliation to other fraternities. While the latest annual growthupon a tree produces the foliage and fruit of the year, it derives its life and nutritious sap,nevertheless, from the roots, the stock, and branches which had flourished aforetime. The

Brothers of the Rosy Cross, by like analogy, inherit the culture and wisdom of those whopreceded them in the former ages, and in their turn confer the benefits upon their owncontemporaries. It is their office to transform the prophecies of the past into the experience ofthe present.

It certainly behooves us of the modern time to disabuse ourselves of misapprehensions inregard to the wise men of former periods. "Who knows," Sir Thomas Browne pertinently asks,"whether better men have not been forgot, than stand recorded in the Book of time, whonevertheless may be registered in the Book of God?" Every age, we may rest assured, hasproduced such worthies, and they have been to their fellows like the ten righteous men whosepresence would have averted destruction from the Cities of the Plain.

History had hardly emerged legend when, in archaic Eran, a teacher arose who inculcatedas the basis of his doctrine that, from the Creator himself to the very humblest human being,goodness is the cardinal principle of all life. The name of this personage is barely known,except as first of the Zoroasters, but he is always described as possessing a rare spirituality andas living in an intimate communication with divine natures. His doctrine was called magic, butthis name was given in its true sense of the greater knowledge. Plato declared it to be the mostuncorrupt form of worship. As a religion it was personal rather than public, a right livingrather than a formulated system of rites. The sacred fire was its symbol; for fire typifies thearcane principle of life, and inducts mankind into all the possibilities of art and scientificachievement. It began with this cognizance of an eternal world preceding and permeating thisvisible universe as its origin, prototype, and sustaining energy; and with that cognizance,therefore, was the acknowledgment of innumerable

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myriads of spiritual essences distributed over all. This great world of realities was accordinglydescribed as an ocean of living intelligence, a "milky sea" of very life, in which mortals aregenerated, upheld, and enabled to receive purification from evil.

From this source proceeded the philosophy of Ionia and ancient Greece. Plato gatheredup what had been taught and gave it new form for the use of scholars in succeeding centuries. Secret rites were also instituted in honor of Mithras, which were adopted all over the Romanempire, and afterward gave pattern and symbols to the numerous fraternities of the MiddleAges. The Moslem world participated. Early after the death of the Founder there was a newoutbreak of Persian mysticism in the form of Sufi theosophy, which has continued to thepresent time. Along with it came alchemy, likewise an outcome of the Magian learning. Itspeedily obtained ascendency and was taught in all the universities from Bokhara to Cordova. It was designated by curious titles, such as the Science of the Key, by which the mysteries ofcreation and other knowledge were opened, and the Science of "M."

This science is delineated as threefold in character. The physical aspect is the departmentmost regarded by common scientists, whose study is circumscribed to matter and itsphenomena. In this department modern chemistry and kindred branches of knowledge havetheir origin and field. The psychic aspect includes those peculiar manifestation frequentlytermed abnormal, as transcending common scientific definition. In this category belonginstinct, presentiment, and "second sight" in its various forms. Paracelsus places the medicalart in the same group. He says:

"It deals with the processes of life, and these must be understood before they can be

guided. All art, all wisdom, all power, act from one centre toward the periphery of the circle,and whatever is inclosed within the circle may be regarded as medicine. A powerful will maycure where doubt will end in failure. The character of the physician may act more powerfullyupon the patient than all the drugs employed. A physician without religion and firmness willbe a failure. Alchemy - the employing of strong will, benevolence, charity, patience, etc. - is,therefore, the principal corner-stone in the practice

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of medicine.... The vital force is not inclosed in man, but radiates around him like a luminoussphere, and it may be made to act at a distance. In these semi-material rays the imagination (orwill) of man may produce healthy or morbid effects. It may poison the essence of life, or itmay purify it after it has been made impure, and so restore the health."

The highest aspect of alchemy relates to the superior nature of man. Within its purvieware the arcana which have eluded the comprehension of sciolists and materialistic reasoners -such as the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life, the tinctura physicorum, transmutation, andthe three invisible substances denominated in the alchemic jargon as sulphur, mercury, and salt. All these regarded intelligently have their interpretation like other tropes and allegoric figuresof speech. They do not relate to physical but to spiritual matters, and are to be understoodaccordingly. We are instructed thus by the precept of Sallust, the Platonic philosopher, thatthat which in a literal sense is manifestly absurd and impossible is to be understood in someother sense.

Alchemic writers have discussed fluently upon the riches which they had at command,and upon their making of gold; yet they vigorously denounced those who regarded the art as ameans to acquire temporal wealth. "All these have had the gold-sickness," says Van Suchten; "and it hath darkened their senses so that they could not understand the terms which the WiseMen use." The treasure of the alchemist is only to be stored in heaven, and beyond theirappreciating. "Our gold is not to be bought for money, though you should offer a crown or akingdom for it," says George Starkey; "for it is the gift of God." While, therefore, it may betrue, as is insisted, that the modern science of chemistry derived its inception from thelucubrations of professed alchemists, nevertheless it will be plain to intelligent readers thatalchemy pertains to a higher region of thought. Paracelsus has told us that "to grasp theinvisible elements, to attract them by their material correspondences, to control, purify, andtransform them by the living power of the spirit - this is true alchemy."

When we come to the cognizance of this fact - that the whole work and aim of alchemyand the Hermetic philosophy relate to man

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and his regeneration into spiritual life - we have obtained the clue to the labyrinth. They realizethe ideal of the Platonic discourses, and the full purpose of true religion. Says Alipili:

"The highest wisdom consists in this - for man to know himself; because in him God hasplaced his eternal word by which all things were made and upheld, that it should be his lightand life, and by which he is capable of knowing all things both in Time and Eternity.... Let thehigh inquirers and searchers into the deep mysteries of Nature learn first to know what theyhave in themselves, before they seek in foreign matters without them; and let them, by the

divine power within them, first heal themselves and transmute their own natures; then theymay go on prosperously and seek with success the mysteries and wonders of God in all naturalthings."

Arephius* describes the alchemic operation as "not a work of the hands, but a change ofthe natures." The "brass or latten," the unregenerate soul, "is to be made to ascend by thedegrees of fire, but of its own accord, freely, and without violence. But when it ascends onhigh it is born into the air, or spirit, and is changed into spirit, and becomes life with life." Wemay, therefore, have done with mysterious surmising and understand these matters rationally, By the philosopher's stone we may perceive that man is signified, the microcosm, or lesserworld; by transmutation of baser metals into gold is denoted the new birth from the earthly andpsychic life into the spiritual and divine life of the higher intellect; by the "invisible elements"of sulphur and salt are figured the sensuous and passional principles of our nature; and bymercury or fire, the conscience or spiritual perception which we possess jointly with God andby which the "great work" is effected. In short, the whole is contained in these expressivewords of Paracelsus: "Terrestrial powers are moving in us; but if we are born anew in thespirit, then will we move in celestial powers."

The Rosicrucians, in the writings attributed to them, make use

------------* This writer lived about the year 1130, and is named among the first who wrote of "the

philosopher's stone."--------------- 284.

of like conventional forms of expression, and profess similar aims with a like culmination. They treat of the macrocosm and microcosm, the magnum opus or great secret, transmutationof metals, and the Supreme Medicine of the World. Enumerated with them, likewise, weresome, like Robert Fludd, who were also classed as disciples of Paracelsus. While, however, thealchemists were mystics who accepted passably the current religious faith of the country wherethey abode - Moslem, Jewish, or philosophic, as well as Gnostic, or Christian - theRosicrucians bore at their mast-head the flag of a pure Christianity alone; but there was alsothe rudder of a broad fraternal charity - love to God and man.

The impenetrable secrecy which surrounds them need be no cause of offence. They arenot eager to make disciples and build up a school or party. On the other hand, they are carefulto avoid any display that may indicate them as peculiar, or as possessing any extraordinarypowers or knowledge beyond those of others. They live in the world as spectators, silent andunobtrusive in respect to themselves and their private convictions, but ready to do for otherssuch friendly offices as they may. "We wrap ourselves in mystery," says one, "in order toavoid the censure and violent importunity of those who regard us as no philosophers, butwanting in common prudence, except we employ our knowledge to some worldly use andprofit."

Though the Brothers of the Rosy Cross may seem to have disappeared from the realm ofhuman activity, we may yet remain firmly assured that they are pursuing their labors quietlyand unremittingly. On every hand their work, their philosophy, their inspirations are leaveningthe thought and ennobling the actions of mankind, bringing science and conscience at one, andrealizing all that saints and sages from immemorial time have contemplated. Their philosophy

pervades our best literature; their devotion and philanthropy are manifest in every rationaleffort for the improvement of human conditions. They are to be recognized, not by grips andsigns and passwords, but by their fruits. Thus they transcend the limitations which the commonlife imposes, and have their home in the

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vaster world of celestial being.

(Metaphysical Magazine, June, 1896)

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THE ENIGMA OF ALCHEMY

All this is but a fable;But who first made and recited it, Hath in this fable shadowed a Truth.

- Heriot de Borderie

It was a warm afternoon in the latter weeks of summer in 1860. I had come in from myrounds and began the preparing of an article for the journal with which I was connected. Atthat moment an elderly man of dignified appearance entered and asked for me. He gave hisname simply as Hitchcock. Some days before I had procured a book from a little shop in CanalStreet, entitled "Alchemy and the Alchemists," of which he was the author. I had already readanother work by him, bearing the title "Swedenborg, a Hermetic Philosopher.'' As both bookswere anonymous, I had never guessed the author, but had been attracted by their subjects. Hewas an officer of high rank in the Army, but this I did not know, nor that he was the grandsonof the famous Ethan Allen.*

----------* Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock was a native of Vergennes, in Vermont. His

father was the late Judge Hitchcock, who married the daughter of Colonel Ethan Allen, betterknown for the taking of the Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 "In the name of the Great Jehovah andthe Continental Congress." General Hitchcock was a student at the West Point MilitaryAcademy, and for a time was one of the instructors. He served with distinction in the Floridaand Mexican wars, and afterward resigned his commission. During the ------------- 287.

We quickly became acquainted, and we carried on correspondence for years. Each of uswas fond of study and speculation upon recondite subjects, and so were enabled to hold

communication upon the matters which engaged our attention.General Hitchcock had made a handsome collection of works upon abstruse topics. At

the outbreak of war between the States in 1861, he again entered the service of theGovernment, and placed many of his books on sale with a bookseller in New York. But I havebeen told that the more valuable treatises had been reserved, and are now in a library in St.Louis.

I. Aim of the Alchemists

It has been supposed by most writers that Alchemy was a science of the transmutation ofmetals. The name itself being an ancient name of Egypt, and the study, such as it was, beingprosecuted in that country, this is plausible. That many in subsequent periods devotedthemselves to experimentation for that purpose is well known, and modern chemistry took itsrise from such endeavors. Yet it is evident to those who regard matters more profoundly, thatthere was a deeper purpose entertained by the true Alchemists. Our author takes the viewdiametrically opposite to the popular opinion. He believed that their character and the object oftheir study had been almost entirely misunderstood. They were men who were intent uponspiritual truth, and contemplating a life superior to the acquiring of wealth or personaladvantage. He arrived at the conviction by careful reading, and perhaps intuitively, that thesubject of Alchemy was man himself, and that the object of the Art was his perfection, hismoral betterment. Under the figure of the transmutation of metals, the salvation of man, his transformation from evil to good was thus

--------------Civil War he was again on duty in the office of the Secretary of War, and at its terminationmade his residence in Florence, Ga., where he died in 1871.----------------- 288.

symbolized.It is not to be denied, however, that many accepted the description and were deluded by

the literal rendering of the alchemic works, or by their own passionate desire for riches. Individuals of this character were described by the Alchemists as having "gold fever whichdarkened their senses."

Nevertheless the art of transmutation appears to have been a familiar topic at a very earlyperiod. Even now scientists believe it to be possibly attainable. It is conceived that the variousmetals and minerals are but so many forms of a primal matter, and it is easy to deduce thecorollary from this that by reduction back to the original condition and then inducing a newdevelopment under new circumstances, the proposed change may be achieved. Some of therecent results obtained from chemical manipulation seem to render the conception plausible. We may not wonder, therefore, that the savants of the Egyptian temples were thought topossess knowledge of the hidden art.

The Emperor Diocletian, reigning in the last period of the third century, had carried on awar in Upper Egypt for nine years to suppress a revolt against the Roman dominion. It waseasy to persuade the ignorant Emperor that the insurgents were enriched by extraordinary

methods. He accordingly ordered a careful search to be made over the whole country forwritings upon Alchemy, which art the Egyptians studied together with magic and astrology. Regarding these works as the sources of the wealth which had enabled the prolonged resistanceto the Romans, he ordered them to be burned.

Half a century later the philosopher Olympiodorus wrote a work upon the "Sacred Art ofAlchemy," which is said to be in the Library of Paris, imprinted.

All through the Middle Ages, however, the writings of the Alchemists abound withcautions against this very misunderstanding. The jargon which was often employed, and thesymbolic language in which their thought was enshrined, had for its object to hide the subjectfrom the uninitiated crowd, and to screen the writers from persecution. They lived, for themost part, in an age when an open

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expression of their opinions would have brought them into conflict with the superstition of thetime and thus exposed them to the horrid cruelties of the torture-chamber or to death at thestake. The tens of thousands that were burned alive for witchcraft are sufficient evidence of thebesotted ignorance and merciless temper that prevailed over Europe. Indeed, many did sosuffer and perish, not having been sufficiently guarded in their language.

General Hitchcock candidly acknowledges that there was no doubt of the existence of anabundance of impostors, who played upon the credulity and cupidity of the public; but hesturdily insists that "the genuine Alchemists were religious men who passed their time inlegitimate pursuits, earning an honest subsistence, and in religious contemplation, studyinghow to realize in themselves the union of the divine and human nature, expressed in man by anenlightened submission to God's will; and they thought out and published, after a manner oftheir own, a method of entering upon this state, as the only rest of the soul."

But it would seem that the materialistic conception would be sufficiently explained awayby one of the later writers, who writes as follows:

"Many who are strangers to this Art believe that if they should enjoy it, they would dosuch and such things. So even we did formerly believe. But being grown more wary by thehazard we have run, we have chosen the more secret method. For whosoever hath escapedimminent peril of his life, he will become more wise for the time to come." *

II. Hermes Trismegistus and Geber

The earlier history of Alchemy in the western countries of the Old World is involved insome obscurity. In the earlier centuries of the

-----------* Introitus Apertus, Occulusum Regis Palatium, by Eugenius Philalethes. Thomas

Vaughan, who wrote under this pen-name, was-------------- 290.

present era there appeared many works on philosophy, magic, astrology and transmutation,

which were generally ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus. This is a character first mentioned byManetho, who represented him as a son of the Agathodaemons, who restored learning and thearts to Egypt. The works which are ascribed to him, Mr. Samuel Sharpe thinks, were written inthe reign of the Emperor Commadus. It had been the practice of Egyptian writers, asAbamman explains to the philosopher Porphyry, to credit their works to the divine personage,Tat, or Hermes; and afterward, the compilers of religious and philosophic books of formerperiods adopted the practice of inscribing them as "according to" or by the name of somedistinguished author or other noted individual as approving or actually composing. Olderecclesiastical literature also abounds with documents which are thus fictitiously addressed. Indeed, the "Emerald Tablet," which was supposed to contain the formula for making gold, wasimputed to Hermes, and the designation of "Hermetic Philosophy" was thence adopted.*

---------------the twin brother of Henry Vaughan the Platonist. For several years he officiated as aclergyman, but, becoming a student of Alchemy, he was deposed. He was the author of severalbooks describing and defending the Rosicrucians. He died in 1665, aged 44. It is said that heperished of suffocation while conducting an experiment.

* The following is a translation of the Tablet:1. I speak not things untrue, but that which is true and certain.2. That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is similar to that

which is below, to accomplish the wonders of The One.3. As all things were produced by the means of the One Being (the Demiurgus or

Fashioner), so all things were produced from this One by adoption.4. Its father is the Sun; its mother is the Moon.5. It is the cause of completeness throughout all the Earth.6. Its power is perfect if it is changed into earth.

------------------ 291.

Geber* is the reputed founder of the Arabian Science.A German writer represents him as "an almost mythical person of the earliest period of

Islam, renamed as an alchemist.* Like Homer, his birthplace and nation as well as hispersonality are in dispute. He appears to have been a native of Tarsus in Asia Minor, and tohave lived in the second century after the Era of the Flight. He has sometimes beenconjectured to be of Jewish parentage, and is also described as a Sabaean, and likewise as aSufi or Mohammedan mystic. Certainly the writings imputed to him are susceptible of anesoteric as well as of a literal interpretation. Whether he had communication with thealchemists of China or India we have no knowledge; but at that period this was possible, asthere was commercial intercourse with those countries.

He is said to have given form to the science. Alchemy or the Egyptian wisdom wasdesignated by the Arabian scholars the "Science of the Key," as opening all mysteries, whetherdivine, natural or medical. It was also supposed to be comprehended in the "Book of M," themisam or balance, by which all things are determined, both

---------------7. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtile from the gross, acting prudently and with

judgment.8. Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth to the sky; then descend again to the

earth, and unite the power of things below and the things above.9. This thing hath more fortitude than fortitude itself, because it will overcome every

subtile thing and penetrate every solid thing.10. By it the world was formed.11. Hence proceed wonderful things, which were in this way established.12. For this reason I am called Hermes Trismegistus (the superlatively great), because I

possess those parts of the Philosophy of the whole earth. What I had to say about the operations of the Sun is perfected.

* Also written as Giafar and Jaffar.----------------- 292.

of the microcosm and macrocosm. In short, it was regarded as the crown of all learning. Thisstudy was accordingly denominated figuratively: "The search for the Philosopher's stone," orfor the "Elixir of life."

It was a peculiarity of the writings of Geber, as of other mystic compositions, that theywere capable of a twofold interpretation. They might be understood literally or figuratively,according to the mental perception of the reader.* He described the metals as consisting ofsimilar primal constituents, and that the less noble might, by proper means, be developed intothe higher. This view is still entertained in its more distinguishing physical form, by manyeminent scientists, and later disclosures by experiment seem to indicate that suchtransformation is not far from actual accomplishment by manipulation. Nevertheless, it wasmore probably a figurative utterance, for Geber taught a Moral as well as physicaltransformation. Those who followed after him combined philosophy with their scientificdiscourses, and displayed a like passion for esoteric interpretation.

Ibu Sina, or Avicenna, wrote several works on Alchemy, as well as medicine, andinterblended the Platonic doctrines with what he uttered upon the subject. Other writers ofdistinction who flourished in later periods exhibited the same peculiarity. Ahpili declaredpositively that the transmutation was of a spiritual character.

"The highest Wisdom consists in this," said he: "It is for man to know himself, becausein him God has placed his Eternal Word by which all things are made and upheld, so that itmay be his light and life. By it he becomes capable of knowing all things, both in time andeternity. Therefore, let the high inquirers into the deep mysteries of Nature learn first to knowwhat they have in themselves, before they seek in foreign matters without them; and by thedivine power within them let them first heal themselves and transmute their own souls, thenthey may go on prosperously and seek with good success the mysteries and wonders of God inall natural things."

------------* This obscurity is said to have suggested the forming of the term "gibberish" from his

name, to denote unmeaning language.--------------- 293.

IIIl. Alchemy in the Middle Ages

The establishment of a Moslem dominion in Spain was instrumental in the preservationof learning in that country and its gradual dissemination in other countries. Alchemy attractedthe attention of the most earnest and devoted investigators. Artephius in the twelfth century,Albert Groot, Roger Bacon, Isaac HoIlandus, Basil Valentine and others left their records forthose living after them. The religious authorities began to regard the subject with jealousy andapprehension. The obscure and enigmatic language characteristic of alchemic literature wasnow necessary.

Nevertheless, the peculiar expressions often appear plain even to simplicity. Artephius inhis treatise "The Secret Book" sets forth the operation or experience which is technicallydenominated "The Great Work," explaining it as being not a work of the hands but a change ofthe nature, and "a thing of no great labor to him who understands it."

We are led accordingly to seek for the key that will enable such understanding. Salust,the Platonic philosopher, gives it in his instructions in regard to the extravagant and incrediblerelations which are found in mythologic and even in philosophic writings. That which in aliteral sense is manifestly absurd and impossible is to be understood, he declares, in some otherway. In this manner Proklus interpreted the legends of the ancient gods, Clement and Origenexpounded the variations of the Hebrew Scriptures, and others have explained the folk-lore ofdifferent countries. General Hitchcock insisted strenuously that the writings of the Alchemistsare of a similar character. "They are all symbolical," he declared, "and under the words 'gold,''silver,' 'salt,' 'lead,' 'sulphur,' 'mercury,' 'antimony,' 'arsenic,' 'orpiment,' 'sol,' 'luna,' 'wine,' 'acid,''alkali,' and a thousand other words and expressions, indefinitely varied, may be found theopinions of the several writers upon the questions of God, Nature and Man, all brought into ordeveloped from one central point, which is: Man in the image of God."

This statement may be verified by many declarations of the alchemic writers themselves. Nevertheless they are not alone in the use of language too extravagant for literal verification. Plato in the

--- 295.

tenth book of "The Republic" mentions the river of Ameleta, or forgetfulness, whose water novessel contained. Then there are the lines of Elias Ashmole:

"I asked Philosophy how I shouldHave of her the thing I would.She answered me: When I was ableTo make the Water malleable,Or else the way if I could findeTo measure out a yard of Winde;'Then shalt thou have thine own desireWhen thou canst weigh an ounce of Fire;Unless thou canst do these three,Content thyself thou get'st not me.'"

We may not suppose, however, that the alchemic writers made no reference to chemical

manipulations. The peculiar imagery which they employed would often be destitute ofmeaning, except as it implied a familiarity with such procedures. We must believe, therefore,that they were skilled in physical science as well as in the philosophy which they were seekingto veil by the enigmas which they deduced from the scientific terminology then in use. Theperfection which they attained in the use of their mystic language is at the same time forciblyillustrated by the grave mistakes which are made by those who would interpret it from thematerialistic point of view.

M. Figuier was one of this class of expositors. In his endeavor to explain the "GreatWork" of the Alchemists he cites their declaration that the chief difficulty in the preparing ofthe philosopher's stone consisted in the obtaining of the "mercury of the philosophers." Heunderstood this to be an agent for the transmuting of metals, and remarks that according to thetestimony of the Alchemists themselves it can be obtained only by the grace of God, or by thefriendship of an adept to whom it has been disclosed. He mentions names by which it has beendesignated, such as "animated mercury," "double mercury," "mercury twice-born," "the greenlion," "the serpent," "the sharp water," "vinegar," "virgin's milk," and others. He declares,

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however, that none of the Alchemists have ever discovered this mysterious solvent.It is plain that M. Figuier received his information from genuine sources, but that he has

misconceived the proper interpretation. He viewed the subject upon the physical side, ignoringas fanciful and visionary the profounder fact, that the sphere of reality is metaphysical andinvisible to the eyes. The apostle Paul explains this peculiar condition. "The psychic man,"skillful only in sensuous knowledge, he declares, "doth not receive the things of the spirit, forto him they are foolishness, and he is unable to perceive them because they are to be spirituallydiscerned."

We must obtain the right explanations from the Alchemic writers themselves.Isaac Hollandus, who lived in the fifteenth century, was the author of a treatise entitled:

"A Work of Saturn." When it was the practice to designate the metals by the names of theplanets, Mercury denoted quicksilver, and Saturn was lead. Hollandus remarks accordinglythat "the stone called the philosopher's stone comes out of Saturn." He says further: "Andthough a man be poor, yet may he very well attain unto it (the art of transmutation), and may beemployed in making the philosopher's stone. All that we have need of is concealed in Saturn; for in it is a perfect Mercury; in it are all the colors of the world."

Writing in the same enigmatic style, he says again: "Saturn is our philosopher's stone,and our latten, out of which our mercury and our stone is extracted with small labor andexpense, and in a short time. Therefore I admonish you, my child, and all who know its name,that you conceal it from the people, by reason of the evil that might arise; and you shall callthe stone our Latten, and call the vinegar water, in which our stone is to be washed. This is thestone and the 'water' whereof the philosophers have written so many volumes. This stone is thetrue aurum potabile, the true quintessence which we seek; and we seek no other thing in theworld but this stone. Wherefore the philosophers say that whoever knows our stone, and canprepare it, needs no more; wherefore they sought this thing and no other."

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It is evident to an understanding mind that we have before us the Riddle of the Sphinx inanother form, and hence that we are safe in propounding the same solution as before. Thetheme is Man, and how he may become, from what he is, that which he should be.

Geber has treated of it in terms which signify this to be the correct interpretation: "TheArtist should be intent on the true end only," he declares, "because our Art is reserved in theDivine Will of God, and is given or withheld from whom he will, who is glorious, sublime, andfull of justice and goodness."

To the student he gave this advice: "Dispose yourself by exercise with great skill andlabor, and a continued deep meditation; for by these you may find it, but not otherwise."

IV. "The Great Work"

Artephius in his treatise, "The Secret Book," sets forth the mystic experience,denominating it "The Great Work." He explains it as not being a work of the hands, but achange of the nature, and a "thing of no great labor to him who understands it."

In the case of this writer we have an example of the method of interpretation to beemployed when the literal sense is manifestly absurd and not to he credited. He lived in thetwelfth century and described himself as a thousand years old. The "arcane year" only denoteda month, and Roger Bacon affirmed that the "philosophic month was a period of forty days." This would indicate the age of the author as somewhat exceeding seventy years. Artephius alsouses a terminology of his own, treating of a wonderful fluid which he calls antimonial vinegar,dissolving water, preternatural fire, and other names of similar character. "It is the only apt andnatural medium," he affirms, "by which we ought to resolve the bodies of Sol and Luna by awonderful and solemn dissolution with a preservation of the species, and without anydestruction, unless it be to a new and more noble and better form of generation, to wit: into theperfect philosopher's stone."

--- 298.

The following passage illustrates what was meant by the salt, sulphur and mercury,which have been the subject of many attempts to explain. "Those bodies which are thusdissolved by our 'water,'" says Artephius, "are called argent vive,* which is not without itssulphur, nor the sulphur without Sol or Luna; because gold and silver are the particular meansor medium through which nature passes in the perfecting and completing thereof. And thisargent vive is called our esteemed and valuable 'salt' being animated and pregnant; and it islikewise called our 'fire' because it is nothing but fire - yet not fire but sulphur, and not sulphuronly, but quicksilver drawn from Sol and Luna, or silver and gold altered from vileness tonobility."

Basil Valentine has been commemorated for his exposition of Antimony and its uses. Heis said to have named it regulus, from the facility with which it acted on the royal metal gold. Nevertheless his treatise, "The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony," shows that he entertainedopinions similar to those of other Alchemists. He made use of a similar vocabulary and taughtthe same dogma respecting purification. Treating of antimony as others did of lead, hedeclared that it contained its own vinegar in itself. "You are to know," says he, "that inAntimony there is a spirit which affects whatsoever is in it or can proceed from it, in an

invisible way and manner; nor otherwise than as in the magnet is absconded a certain invisiblepower."

This comparison of the magnet is singularly felicitous. The magnet, man, has a principleby which the Great Magnet, Deity, is sought; and no rest will be known till the two are joined. "Therefore," says Valentine, "in the preparation of Antimony consists the Key of Alchemy bywhich it is dissolved, divided and separated, as in calcination, reverberation, sublimation, etc.; also in extracting its essence, and in vivifying its mercury."

As a preparation for the "Great Work," or as he calls it, "the study of Antimony,"Valentine prescribed prayer and contemplation. The individual who is familiar with mystic discourse readily

-----------* Living silver: German, Quacksalber, from which comes the term quack, in the medical

nomenclature.-------------- 299.

understands the meaning of his language. Other Alchemists, from Geber through latercenturies, have given directions in terms of similar tenor. They continually insist upon thereligious and philosophic character of their pursuit, rather than of any objects of a scientificnature. "The Holy Trinity created the philosopher's stone," Valentine emphatically declares. "God the Son, or glorified man, is, even as our glorified and fixed Sol, a philosopher's stone."

V. A Hermetic Society in the Middle Ages

General Hitchcock has observed evidences in Alchemical volumes of a Secret Society, inwhich possibly the language was conventionally determined. He conjectured that some of theMasonic fraternity had found out the secret language of the Alchemists, a convenient mode ofcommunication, among the initiated, of doctrines of which they had taken an oath not to speakor make known except to a Brother. He refers likewise to books written in a mysteriouslanguage by members of the Rosicrucian Society, but he does not admit that the Alchemistsand Rosicrucians were identical. This opinion may be qualifiedly correct, but there certainlyare coincidences between the two. "Most of the real adepts have written nothing at all," heremarks; "while those who have published anything have limited themselves to very smalltracts, not so much with the object of making known a doctrine as to indicate to the initiatedtheir claim to brotherhood, and these works have almost invariably been anonymous. From thenature of the case, the members, to call them such, of this Society, are scattered, both as to timeand space, there being a few in every age, but not many in any age; and from the samenecessity they do not and cannot form an organized body, for this would be to put limitationsupon that which in its nature is absolutely free. Yet they truly exist and know each other bysigns more infallible than can be made effectual by any organized society whatever. Themembers of this society have, in former times, communicated with each other by a secretlanguage, which has had

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many forms and will have many more, but which can never utterly perish."Rossetti, the Professor of Italian Literature at King's College, London, entertained the

opinion that a Secret Society had existed in Italy since as far back as the year 1000. Hesupposed it to embrace members belonging to every part of Europe and to be composed of themost learned and scientific men, whose intelligence was in advance of the world. They wereaware of the errors of the Roman Church, and in order to avoid its persecutions adopted aconventional language. The exoteric import of this language appeared friendly to those whowere in power, but the esoteric meaning was directly in opposition to the claims put forth bythe church, and was distinctly understood to be so by the initiated. Rossetti explained thewritings of Dante, Petrarch and other authors, in conformity with this theory. He intimatedlikewise that Emanuel Swedenborg was a member of this society.*

VI. Occult Science and Paracelsus

Paracelcus seems to have imparted a new impulse to the study of Occult Science. Heappears, indeed, to have been a man in many respects greater than his age, and to havetranscended the intellectual capacity of those who have endeavored to pass judgment upon him. He had been a pupil of the Abbot Trittheim, and he supplemented the earlier instruction byextensive acquisitions of his own. He explained Alchemy, Astrology and Magic, as occupyingthe

-----------* Raymond Lully mentions a secret society In Italy, the chief officer of which bore the

title of Rex Physicorum. Semler also gives account of "an association of physicians andalchemists, who united their knowledge and labors to attain the discovery of the PhilosophickStone." This could hardly have been a group of genuine Alchemists. Another writer affirmspositively that the Society was formed in 1410 and merged in the Rosicrucian order in 1007.-------------- 301.

same field and embracing the superior truths, but he never hesitated to cast aside whatever heregarded as additions or perversions.

He defined Magic by its earlier meaning as "the Superior Wisdom and the Knowledge ofSupernatural Powers." He did not, however, consider miracles and supernatural powers asbeing beyond the province of Nature, but rather, as the terms strictly signify, belonging to itshigher departments. Christ and the Prophets and Apostles had magic powers, he declared. Hence they were able to perform many miracles, but these he affirmed were all natural. "Indeed," said he, "if we ourselves only knew the power of the human heart, nothing would beimpossible to us."

Cornelius Agrippa, his former fellow-student, made similar declarations. "There is asecret power concealed in all things," said he, "and this is the 'miraculous power' of Magic." Hefurther instructs his auditor that "if the student of magic is desirous to acquire supernaturalpowers, he must possess faith and love and hope."

Trittheim himself defined Magic as consisting in the ability to perceive the essential

principle of things in the light of nature, and also to produce material things from the unseen. He was careful to explain all processes as taking place in absolute accordance with law, addingsignificantly that the law will be learned when the individual learns to know himself.

The fundamental doctrine of Alchemy as taught by Paracelsus represents nature as aliving organism in which all things are in harmony with each other. "It is the macrocosm, thegreater universe," he declares. "Everything is the product of the universal creative effort; themacrocosm and man, the microcosm or lesser world, are one."

He described all things in existence as being composed of three substances, or underlyingprinciples, which were called in the alchemic dialect, Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. These are notvisible to the bodily eye, but are held together by the inherent force of life. "The invisible fireis in the Sulphur, the soluble element is in the Salt, and the volatile element is in the Mercury. There are hundreds of different kinds of these elements in the universe and in the human body,and the greatest arcana are contained in them."

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"In order to explain the qualities of these three substances," he tells the reader, that "itwould be necessary to explain the qualities of the prima materia, the original principle ofmatter itself. As, however, the prima materia was the 'Fiat' (let it become), who would dareattempt to explain it?" *

Alchemy is described by Paracelsus as having a threefold aspect and character,corresponding to the body or physical nature, the soul, or astral personality, and the spirit ordivine principle in Man. As a physical science, it includes the Art by which various substancesare decomposed and combined together, and likewise changed in their essential quality andexalted to another form. The next aspect embraces the knowledge of the invisible elements andtheir nature - the psychic and astral constituents of man. The third and highest aspect is thetrue Alchemy, the exercise of the magic energy of the spiritual will. This is the arcanum of thePhilosopher's Stone, and the Elixir of Immortality.

In the knowledge of these three consists the whole science relating to the "Art ofHealing," in all of its phases, and Geber speaks of it as "a medicine rejoicing and preserving thebody in youth."

VII. Making of Gold Never the Scheme of Alchemy

"At the close of the sixteenth century," says Mr. Waite,** "we find the disciples ofParacelsus seeking after the principles of their master, and by the light of experimentalresearch: 1. The Secret of the Transmutation of Metals, and the Magnum Opus, and applyingto

-----------* "Is not man," demands M. Rennet, "the seat and exemplar of the union, as well as of the

difference between the finite and Infinite between man and God? Does not his body, asmaterial, form part of the universe, while his thought, the consciousness, his mind, which arenot material, can be but a reflection of the thought or spirit of God?"

** History of the Rosicrucians, chap. 1, p. 31

-------------- 303.

chemistry the usages of Kabbalism and ancient astrology. 2. The Universal Medicine, whichincluded the Catholicon, or Elixir of Life, and the Panacea; the first ensuring to its possessorthe prolongation or perpetuity of existence, and the second restoring strength and health todebilitated or diseased organisms. 3. The Philosopher's Stone, the great and universalsynthesis, which conferred upon the adept a sublimer knowledge than that of transmutation orof the Great Elixir, but on which both of these were dependent."

It is apparent to the candid investigator that the notion which has been so widelydisseminated that Alchemy consisted primarily and chiefly in the quest for the art oftransmutation of metals and the acquisition of material wealth by its means, is derived from avery superficial examination of the subject. It was a notion which genuine alchemists rejectedwith scorn. "I disdain," says Thomas Vaughan, "I loathe, I detest this idolizing of gold andsilver, by the price whereof the pomps and vanities of the world are celebrated.... Our gold isnot bought for money though one should offer a crown or a kingdom for it: it is the gift ofGod."

Van Sechten, remarking upon the same subject, says: "If thou dost object that not onlycommon persons, but also great nobles have labored a long time in Alchemy with greatexpense, including among them many very learned men, yet not any of them have learnedanything, I answer: 'That this noble Art requires a sound man. All these have been sick. Theyhave had the gold-sickness, which hath darkened their senses so that they could not understandthe terms which the Wise Men use in the description of their art; seeking with hot desire thatonly which they shall never find. But what there is to be found, that they do not seek; therefore they seek in vain. Who is to be blamed, the art or the artist, that they understandnothing? Alchemy is a pure and uncorrupted virgin; she casts off the sensual man who holdsall truth to be of the sensations only, and will have an intellectual one; of whom I see but few."

Other writers plead with the student to seek the path of Wisdom in the right manner. Espagnet counsels to make use of the works of very few authors, and to select only those ofbest note and experienced truth.* He adds this significant suggestion in regard to

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the Magic Language: "Let him suspect things that are easily understood, especially in mysticalnames and secret operations; for Truth lies hid in obscurity, nor do the philosophers ever writemore deceptively than when plainly, nor ever more truly than when obscurely."

Alchemy is thus shown accordingly to have always been a pursuit of thoughtful, earnestmen, and in no wise an eager quest of that meteor of the marsh - temporal wealth; but whosought with warm desire the treasure of the mind of which the possessor cannot be despoiled. Whatever regard the seeker might have for physical science, this was by no means the principalaim. Nor was the acquiring of such knowledge essential as a preliminary condition. Thenecessary preparation was of a moral quality. Espagnet instructs the student accordingly: "Astudious tyro of a quick wit, constant mind, inflamed with the love of Philosophy, of a pureheart, perfect in morals, mightily devoted to God - even though ignorant of 'PracticalChemistry' - may with confidence enter the Highway of Nature, and peruse the books of thebest philosophers."

VIII. The Elixer

It may be well to give attention to the signification of the peculiar terms which areemployed. The word "elixir" is used to denote the philosopher's stone, the agent whichtransmutes the base into the nobler metals, and an essence or tincture which is capable ofprolonging life indefinitely. To speak more plainly, the elixir is the universal medicine, and theuniversal solvent - the alkahest, allegeist, or all-pervading spirit.

------------* The writers who were thus recommended were Hermes Trismegietus, Bernard Trevisan

and Raymond Lully. The latter lived in the reign of Edward I of England, and is said to havebeen employed by him in transmutation. The writers on Alchemy have been estimated as aboutone thousand.--------------- 305.

Many have erred by understanding these terms in a physical and literal sense. LordBulwer Lytton founded the plot of his weird romances, "Zanoni" and "A Strange Story," uponthe reputed possibility of prolonging life by these supposed medical agents. He explains hismeaning, however, in language not difficult to understand, that the art consists in finding outwhy parts of the body ossify, and the blood stagnates, and so applying preventives to the effectsof time. "This is not magic," Mejnour declares to Glyndon, "it is the art of medicine rightlyunderstood." *

We all have read of the question which Oriental story has credited to the disciple of theAlchemist. The master has shown him in a crucible the Universal Solvent, to obtain which alifetime had been spent.

The pupil asks: "O Sage, be not deceived; how can that which is to dissolve all things beitself contained in a ladle?" The "water which no vessel contains" was of the same nature. Those who are partially instructed are thought many times to be discerning above the wise.

------------* Bulwer has described Mejnour and Zanoni as two prehistoric Chaldeans, the solo

survivors of an archaic brotherhood, who have continued to live till the last years of theeighteenth century. Such a notion of an occasional extraordinary duration of life has beenentertained by individuals in all periods. Hargrave Jennings cites from the MemoriesHistoriques, printed in 1687, the account of a Signor Gualdi, who sojourned at Venice in 1681. It was said that the wonderful stranger attracted attention by his unlimited knowledge, thebeautiful paintings which he possessed, and his apparent wealth, although he followed nobusiness; also that he had no correspondence, desired no credit, and made use of no notes orbills of exchange.

He had a picture at himself which a nobleman in Venice recognized as having beenpainted by Titian, who had been dead one hundred and thirty years. Upon this discovery theowner hastily left Venice for Vienna.--------------- 306.

Elias Ashmole treats of this matter and gives to the neophyte a caution in obscurelanguage, defending this practice with argument like that of the Apostle Paul, who wrote thathe fed his disciples with "milk" because stronger food could not be borne.

"Unless the 'medicine' be qualified as it ought," he declared, "it is death to taste the leastatom of it, because its nature is so highly vigorous and strong above that of man. For if its bestparts are able to strike so fiercely and thoroughly into the body of a base and corrupt metal asto tinge and convert it to so high a degree as perfect gold, how less able is the body of man toresist such a force when its greatest strength is far inferior to the weakest metal. I do believethat many philosophers, having a desire to enjoy perfect health, have destroyed themselves inattempting to take the 'medicine' inwardly ere they knew the true use thereof, or how to qualifyit to be received by the nature of man without destruction."

Similar to this is the declaration of Mejnour to Glyndon in "Zanoni": "To theunprepared, the elixir is thus the deadliest poison."

Enigmatic and obscure as such language may sound to the common ear, it is plain enoughto the instructed. It signifies that a regimen, discipline, or course of conduct, should betempered to the subjective condition of the individual. Though it be perfectly wholesome initself, yet if it is not duly adapted and qualified, it will be likely to prove a serious, and perhapsa mortal harm. A certain moral fitness is necessary before any important truth may beimparted. "He who pours water into a muddy well," says Iamblichus, "does but disturb themud."

IX. The Problem of Alchemy

After all that may be supposed, the problem of Alchemy is but a form of the famousriddle of the Sphinx, and the solution is the same: "That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is Man." The real mystery,most familiar, and at the same time least known to every individual, into which he must beinitiated or else perish as an atheist

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without God and without hope, is the One Self. Before him is the Alchemist's Elixir of life, toquaff which before the discovering of the philosopher's stone is to drink the beverage of death; while it confers on the instructed one who is adept and epopt, the true immortality. He willknow the truth, that which really is - the a-lethes, the unveiled wisdom.

Doctor Kopp, the author of the "History of Chemistry," treated of Alchemy atconsiderable length and added this significant sentence, which every Platonist and Pythagoristwould instantly perceive to indicate the way to the full knowledge of the problem: "If by 'theworld' is understood the microcosm, which man represents, the writings of the Alchemists willbe easy of interpretation."

Hindu sacred legend relates that Krishna once commanded his foster-mother to look intohis mouth. She beheld there the whole universe. The story is figurative and it illustrates theconcept that in man, the microcosm or lesser world, is mirrored and comprised all the invisiblethings pertaining to the entire creation. The alchemists denominated the philosopher's stonemikrokosmos, and Weidenfeld explains the matter further in these words: "The most high God

hath made us partakers of all the blessings contained in the greater world, for which reason manis called 'microcosm'; for it has been revealed to us by divine inspiration, that the virtues andpotencies of all things, animal, vegetable and mineral, are in man."

The Alchemic writer, Eugenius Philalethes, also gives this brief synopsis: "Our stone isthe representative of the great world, (or macrocosm), and it hath the virtues of that great fabriccomprised or collected in this little system. In it there is a virtue magnetical, attractive of itslike in the whole world. It is the celestial virtue expounded universally in the whole creation,but epitomized in this small map of abridgement."

X. The "Great Work" A Moral Transformation

Accordingly, as has been insisted, the Great Work which the Alchemists delineate, is notto be understood as a mere physical

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transmutation, but a metanoia, a subjective operation in the moral nature of the individual. "Itis not a manipulation, a work of the hands," Artephius declares, "but a change of the natures. The separation of the pure from the impure is not done with hands, but Nature herself does it,and brings it to perfection by a circular operation." The work begins with the individual, andends with the individual, thus completing the circle. It is strictly as Shakespere has described:

"An art Which does mend nature - change it rather; but The art itself is nature." *

In one of the Dialogues of Plato there is a discussion whether virtue or moral excellencecan be taught. It may be affirmed in reply, that we may inculcate it in practice. We can writeabout it and talk about it, but we may not expect to transmit it in this way to another. "In orderto make gold we must have gold," the Alchemists tell us. "The work of the Artist is only tohelp," says Thomas Vaughan; "he can do no more." There must be that something in theindividual soul which is of intrinsic worth, and to bring this into activity is all that may beaccomplished. In the depths of the soul there is a something that can not be imparted, or evenexpressed in words. This something is the germinal principle of divinity, and from it the divineis to be developed and perfected. The work is supernatural, an operation of the higher natureby which it transforms the lower elements into its

-----------* An essence supposes existence, while existence supposes essence. "One is not without

the other," says Swedenborg, "whence it might be said that God is the essence of nature, whilenature is the existence (the outstanding) of God, and yet inseparable in Unity. And here, if itshould be asked what is the nature of God, the answer might be: That it be nature itself; fornature is not the nature (the ekgonos, or outbirth) of anything but of God, whose essence,nevertheless, is invisible while his existence is altogether and absolutely undeniable.-----------

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own substance. The mystic "philosophic mercury" by which this is effected and by which thedross of the nature is dissolved and purified, is the conscience, the knowledge of the true andthe right, which man possesses jointly with God.

This work is accomplished according to nature, with a careful avoiding of violence to thesensibility. It is necessary to refrain scrupulously from all violence, from all externalinfluences and appliances, from appeals to personal ends, and from acting upon the passions offear, hope or prudence; but instead, it is incumbent to assuage these in order that theconscience may act freely according to its own nature.

As a necessary preparation for the great work, Basil Valentine directs to prayer andcontemplation, and Geber gives this counsel: "Dispose yourself by exercise to the study withgreat industry and labor, and continual deep meditation; for by these you may find it, and nototherwise." Plato himself explains that "after long contemplation of the subject and living withit, a light is kindled on a sudden as from a leaping fire, and being engendered in the soul, feedsitself upon itself."

Another writer adds: "And this work is done without any laying on of hands, and veryquickly, when the matters are prepared and made fit for it. This work is therefore called adivine work."

That many have been deceived by taking the obscure language in a physical rather than ametaphoric sense, and that there have been pretenders and charlatans professing to bealchemists, must be acknowledged. Nevertheless, it is true that the genuine alchemicphilosophers were not engaged in a quest for scientific wonders or for worldly riches. Theywere seeking for truth in its highest sense, apart from form and ceremony, and as it is to befound innate in the mind.

This was the Sublime Secret, the Great Work, the Philosopher's Stone and Elixir ofImmortality, and it can be found in no other thing in the universe, except that which is "made inthe image and after the likeness of God."

In these explanations, the dependence has been upon the utterances of the Alchemicwriters themselves, as the sole evidence.

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We would cherish for these prophetic souls a warm fraternal sympathy. We may recognize inthem fellow-philosophers, brothers in spirit, students of the true knowledge and participants inthe true life. "The wise shall understand."

(The Word, Vol. 6, Jan., February, 1908)

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THE SOUL

It was a beautiful conception of the Wise Men of ancient Persia, that every one should

render homage to his own soul. All that is divine in the universe is so to us only because of thisdivinity within our own being. We may perceive and know, solely because of what we are. Itis the worship of the pure and excellent - a reverence full of awe and wonder for all that is real,and beyond the vicissitudes of change - the aspiring to fellowship and a common nature withthe True and Good.

It has been the enigma of the ages: What is Man; whence and whither? The problem ofpersonality, however, is many-sided, and may not be thoroughly solved from any single pointof view. It hardly comes within the scope of our faculties to interpret. Whatever knowledge isattained is of necessity essentially subjective, and not a science to be generally imparted. It hasbeen attempted often enough, but without success. The story of Tantalus finds its counterpartin every such endeavour. He had been admitted to the symposia of the Gods, we are told; andwhat he learned there he repeated to mortals. In consequence of this profanation he becameincapable of any further participation in the divine knowledge. Though continuouslysurrounded by abundance, every endeavour made by him to enjoy it was defeated by itsrecoiling from his touch. The eager seeker after the higher wisdom, entertaining the ambitionto publish it for the sake of distinction among men, has been very certain to find to his chagrinthat the sprite had escaped him at the moment when he had supposed it in his grasp. What wereally know of the soul and its conditions is of and for ourselves, and not for bruiting abroad. The concept will not admit of being rendered sufficiently objective to be told by one to another. Hence, while those who possess the assurance of actual knowledge of the truth are at perfectrest upon

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the subject; they find it hard, if not impossible outright, to convince others who have not theirperception. The Mystics used to say that what was a revelation to one was not necessarily onthat account a revelation to another. It is the beneficial result of this paradox, that the truth isthereby rescued from the danger of profanation. Wisdom is really for the wise alone.

It is a favorite hypothesis of many reasoners that every power or substance is knowableto us so far only as we know its phenomena. This is not, however, sound logic or rationalconjecture. The illusions of the senses are innumerable and have no element of genuine reality. The brute animal is as capable of comprehending them as we are. It is the human endowment,however, to perceive that which is profounder than what the senses reveal. The cradle and thegrave are not the boundaries of man's existence. There is that in humanity which perceives factsthat transcend any manifestation. The conviction of Right pertains to that which is beyond timeor other limit. It may not be measured or defined. It is absolute and eternal. Its place is withthe imperishable. The human soul in which it dwells is its permanent abode. It is a principleand not a beautiful shadow. It knows no change, and therefore is not a product of sensuousreasoning. The faculty that apprehends it is coeval with it, and a denizen of the same world.

The Mysteries of the Ancient Religions about which so much has been written andconjectured, were representations of the one Drama of which the soul was the chief actor. Those who took part in them understood their final disclosures according to the paramounttemper in themselves. Plato believed them to illustrate supernal truths: Alkibiades, that theywere only themes suitable for drunken jesting. So, too, in the Egyptian symbolism, Ptah orKneph fabricating Man at his potter's wheel was seen to be employed as a God, or contrariwise,according to the humor of the individual contemplating the work. In the various readings of the

book of Genesis, while some versions represent the Creation as the outcome of deific energy,others read it as the production of a salacious goat. It is so accordingly in the exploring of themysteries of our own moral conditions. We view human nature as vile and diabolical, or asnoble

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and divine, according as we are ourselves groveling or exalted in aspiration. So, in thedifferent schools of theology, man is regarded as totally depraved, or as little lower than theangels; he is exhorted to elevate his nature even to communion with Divinity, or to crucify,vilify and famish it, according as the subject happens to be regarded. It is not necessary,however, to propound any hypothesis of spiritual regeneration, except to declare that its scopeought to comprehend man fully and intelligently as he is, and his development, rather thantransmutation, into what he is, from his interior nature, designed to become. The deificpaternal energy which formed him human must complete its work in evolving him divine.

Had our eyes no sunny sheen, How could sunshine e'er be seen?Dwelt no power divine within us, How would God's divineness win us?

[Goethe]

We should disabuse ourselves of the notion that the soul is a kind of spiritual essencewhich is in some peculiar way distinct from the individuality - a something that can suffer,apart from us, so to express it, especially in expiation or as a consequence, if we do or enjoy aswe ought not; as though it was somewhat of the nature of an estate which belonged to us, thatwe ought to care for and not involve, because such improvidence and prodigality would workinconvenience to ourselves and heirs. In like manner should we divest ourselves of the conceitthat the soul and all psychic action and phenomena are chiefly the products of the brain, theoutcome of peculiar arrangements of its vesicular and molecular structure, aided and modified,perhaps, by other bodily conditions. It is reasonable that we acknowledge the vast importanceof a suitable development of that organism and its normal activity. These do not, however,constitute the whole of the psychic nature. The protest of Taliesin, the ancient Cumbro-Britishbard and sage, against the sensuous reasoners of his time, applies with equal force andpropriety to those of later periods:

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I marvel that in their books, They do not know with certainty, What are the properties of soul; What form its organs have;What region is its dwelling-place;What breath inflowing its powers sustains.

In no sense is the soul a possession, as apart and distinct from the individual. It is instead

the selfhood, including all that is comprised by the Ego. It feels with the sensory nerves, seeswith the eyes, hears with the ears, smells and tastes with the olfactory and gustatory nerves, isconscious of weight and resistance, heat and cold, the auras of others, the perception of sex,through the medium of the organs which the body possesses. The logical sequence does notfollow, however, that because it thus sees, feels and is otherwise perceptive, these organs ofsensibility constitute the soul or any part of it. If the bodily structure shall be deprived of itslife, they may remain for a little period of time as complete in their mechanism as before, butthey will have ceased to act as agents of sense. This fact is of itself enough to show that theactor is an essence distinct from the organism. We know from simple observation that whenthe organ of a special sense is injured, there is no corresponding impairment of any psychic ormental faculty. Those actions which we term intellectual do not spring from mere matter alone,as a distinguished physiological teacher has ably proved, nor are they functions of merematerial combinations. Though the mind seems to grow with the physical structure, and todecline with it, exhibiting the full perfection of its powers at the period of bodily maturity, itmay be demonstrated that all this arises from the increase, perfection and diminution of theinstrument through which it is working. An accomplished artisan cannot display his powerthrough an imperfect tool; and it is no proof, when the tool is broken or becomes uselessthrough impairment, that the artisan has ceased to exist. Whatever analogy may be maintainedbetween the development of psychic faculties and the growth of the body, it does not by anymeans follow from such correspondence that the soul did not exist prior to the bodily life, or

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that it ceases to exist upon the extinction of that life. Those who affect to doubt, deny or beunable to know the existence of an immortal principle in man, have won for themselves greatnames as men of science, but their affirmation in respect to the human soul comes infinitelyshort of the apprehending of a great fact. In the issue which they have made betweenPhilosophy and Nihilism, we have the choice offered to us to look upward to God as ourFather, or to wander from nowhence to nowhither, from primordial Chaos to the eternal Abyss,losing ourselves among molecules of material substance with nothing whatever to appease anylonging of the spirit. It has been found necessary, however, to train and distort the mind beforeany individual has been capable of this melancholy notion, and even then it is entertained withdistrust and hesitation. The assertion of the survival of the soul after the dissolution of thebody is so universal that the late Professor Draper has eloquently declared it to be one of theorganic dogmas of our race.

We may confidently rest in the assurance that man must outlive the organic separation ofthe molecules and corpuscles of his physical structure, as the germ survives the dying particlesof the seed to which it has been united. Being himself the very soul in its entirety, he issomething more than the mere consensus of the faculties which we observed and enumerated asfunctions of living bodies in certain conditions of the organism. He is not restrained fromknowing, by their dissolution. "We have reason to believe," says Doctor Reid, "that when weput off these bodies and all the organs belonging to them, our perceptive powers shall rather beimproved than destroyed or impaired. We have reason to believe that the Supreme Beingperceives everything in a much more perfect manner than we do, without bodily organs. Wehave reason to believe that there are other created beings endowed with powers of perceptionmore perfect and more extensive than ours, without any such organs as we find necessary." Sir

William Hamilton adds: "However astonishing, it is now proved beyond all rational doubt, thatin certain abnormal states of the nervous organism, perceptions are possible through other thanthe ordinary channels of the senses."

It would be fallacious reasoning to ascribe such perceptions to

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the abnormal condition of the organism, as though it had created them. I may as well attributeto my window, or to the broken crevice in my apartment, the production of the stars andlandscape which I am thus enabled to behold. Besides, there are normal conditions which aredistinguished by the manifestation of remarkable faculties. Some individuals perceive odorswhere others cannot; a Kashmirian girl, it is said, will detect three hundred shades of color,where the Lyonnaise notices only a single one. It can be by no means an unwarranted analogythat one may have the developed faculty of spiritual perception which another has not. What isoften termed the inspiration of genius seems to afford good evidence in this matter. "When allgoes well with me," says Mozart, "when I am in a carriage, or walking, or when I cannot sleepat night, the thoughts come streaming in upon me most fluently. Whence or how I cannot tell. What comes I hum to myself as it proceeds..... Then follow the counterpoint and the clang ofthe different instruments, and if I am not disturbed my soul is fixed, and the thing growsgreater, and broader, and clearer, and I have it all in my head, even when the piece is a longone, and I see it like a beautiful picture, not hearing the different parts in succession, as theymust be played, but all at once. That is the delight! The composing and the making are like abeautiful and vivid dream; but this hearing of it is the best of all."

In the sleep produced by anaesthetics the unconsciousness is only external, and probablynever complete. The patient in the moment of recovery is often vividly sensible of having beenaroused from a condition of superior existence. The every-day life seems like a half-death; external objects are more or less repulsive; sounds grate harshly on the ear; everything is feltas if at a distance. Conscious of having had a glimpse of a more real phase of being, theendeavour is made to recall it, but invariably fails in a lost mood of introspection.

The mind, or interior personality may also become so rapt from the corporeal organs as tobe able to contemplate them as distinct from itself. When by any accident the nervouscirculation is interrupted in any of them, the individual regards the benumbed part as externaland separate. The disease of a limb is often followed by

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its paralysis, or permanent debility. Organs and muscles seem to forget their functions frominactivity, and the will is rendered unable to move or control them. The brain may be in likemanner detached from its gubernator, or the will may be enfeebled or paralyzed by thedisturbing influence of others, and the functions will in such cases assume the conditions ofabnormal cerebration. Hence we may enumerate mental idleness, self-indulgence, anxiety,disappointment and disease as promoters of derangement. Any individual, almost, can berendered insane, and indeed is often seriously and permanently disordered in body, by theinterfering of others with the legitimate exercise of his will and free agency.

Much of the weakness of early infancy is due less to the lack of physical strength than tothe fact that the will has not yet acquired control over the muscles of the body. Indeed, it is

probable that the earlier periods of human existence are more or less employed in learning thefunctions of the motor nerves and the managing of the structures governed by their means. Children, doubtless, would be able to walk and run about at a much earlier age if they onlyknew how. Strength practically consists not only of tenseness of muscle, but likewise of abilityto direct and restrain the motions. This is acquired by long and patiently impressing theenergies of the mind upon the several parts of the organism till they become prompt to respondand obey, as though one will and purpose pervaded the brain, nerves, and muscles.

Curious examples can be cited of organs which retain in themselves the impression andan apparent memory of the mandate of the will, even after the mind had withdrawn itsattention. If we fix the hour for awakening from sleep, we generally do so on the minute. Soldiers retreating from the battle-field have run considerable distances after their heads hadbeen carried away by cannon-balls. Individuals inhaling anesthetic vapors will imagine, andeven do, what is uppermost in their minds before insensibility had been produced. Men whoact from habit or conviction often do or decide according to their wont and principles, withouta conscious, certainly without a vivid, thought of the matter.

It is also asserted that individuals when drowning, or in mortal

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extremity, often recall all their past life-time to memory in a brief instant. Experiences andincidents possessing some analogy to what has taken place will reproduce the former events topresent consciousness, often with all the vividness of recent occurring. Dreams haverepeatedly brought up in the mind what had long been hidden. What we have learned is neverforgotten, but only stored away. Every love which we have cherished, every thought, passion,emotion, is stamped upon the tablet of our being; and the impression is never removed. Whatwe know, what we have done or undergone, will always be a part of us, and will never totallyleave the domain of consciousness. We are like veteran soldiers scarred over with the woundsreceived in conflict. Our selfhood is indelibly marked by every imprint that has ever beenmade.

We may now inquire farther in regard to the visions of Mozart in which all the parts of amusical performance were presented simultaneously to his consciousness, as all the scenes in apicture are given to our sight at the same moment. It is not to be doubted that the giftedcomposer was inspired. All of us are visited by guests and communications that are notessentially elements of our being. We are warned of dangers which we have had no intimationabout; we are prompted to action which we had not contemplated; we utter sentiments whichwe never had entertained; we solve and decide urgent questions with a sagacity that is not ourown. We may rest assured that there is no solitude in which the soul is apart from its fellows. It was suggested to Immanuel. Kant, "that the human soul, even in this life, is connected by anindissoluble communion with all the immaterial natures of the spirit-world, acting upon theseand receiving impressions from them." Goethe declares without hesitation or any obscureutterance: "Every grand thought which bears fruit and has a sequel, is inherent in no man, buthas a spiritual origin. The higher a man stands, the more is he standing under the influence ofthe daemons. Everything flows into us, so far as we are not in ourselves. In poetry there isdecidedly something daemoniac, and particularly so in the unconscious, in which Intellect andReason both fall short, and which therefore acts beyond all conception."

The world of Nature is influenced and sustained in a similar

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manner. The planets and their Titan kindred, the stars in the far-off space, subsist and moveunder the inspiration of the same cosmic forces. They are closely bound together by these; themagnetic attraction, the chemical affinity, the electric disturbance, are common to them all. The perpetuity of the universe is due to the constant inflowing of energy, which is not inherentin its own structure. Its multiplicity of forms must be regarded as the innumerablemanifestations of force. In a rigid analysis it will be perceived that force itself is the mode ofwill and thought coordinating together, and is always the outcome of the pure Intellect. Theuniversal domain of Being is an ocean of mind, which includes within it all living intelligences. We are in it, a part of it, and pervaded by it all through our mind. Time and space have noplace there, nor matter any dominion, for it transcends them all. Our mental and psychic beingis participant and receptive of this universal intelligence, as our corporeal organism is apartaker of the universal world of material nature. The mind of each individual is like a mirrorin which is reflected the thought of those to whom it is allied, and it shares in the wisdom of thesupernal sphere of Intelligence. It is not separated from other minds by the intervening ofspace, or even by the impediment of bodily structure, but only by its own conditions. We areall of us surrounded by innumerable entities, bodied and unbodied, that transfuse thoughts,impulses and appetences into us. They are drawn to us by our peculiar temper of mind, and ina manner so interior as to be imperceptible, except as they bring into objective displaywhatever operation they may have induced.

In the sacred literature of the ancients, these beings were recognized after the manner ofindividuals, and certain synthetists endeavored to classify them. Hence, besides the One AloneGood and Real, they enumerated orders and genera of divinities, angels, demons and psychicentities; as Paracelsus gave us gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders. It was regarded aspossible for the souls of men yet alive on earth to attain to the divine communion, and after amanner to separate themselves from the bodies to which they were attached, and to becomecognizant of their divine origin in the eternal Intelligence. The enraptured conception ofMozart resembled

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the entheastic vision of a seer. It may not be regarded as abnormal, but rather as an operationcoming within the sphere of our nature.

The answer, therefore, is made to the great question of the Ages: "Whence, where, andwhither?" - ETERNITY. It is our history, that we came forth as from a ForeworId, and returnthither as to an everlasting Future. This is, nevertheless, an illusion of the senses incident tothe daily whirl of change; for we, each and all, as spiritual beings, are even now in the EternalRegion. It is only the flesh and blood that has no inheritance there. We do not imagine, when acloud intervenes between us and the sun, that we have been thereby removed away from thepresence of the day. In like analogy, the darkening of our souls by the conditions of externalnature is not the separating of them from the realms of the Eternal World.

Many and curious have been the conjectures in regard to the organ or organism of thebody which constitutes the point of union between the psychic and material substance. It hasbeen supposed to be the blood. Clearer views of the matter have indicated the nervousstructure and its occult energy. Descartes suggested the pineal gland or great central ganglion

beneath the brain; and Emanuel Swedenborg, with other physiologists of his time, declared forthe brain itself. Van Helmont found by critical experiment upon his own body, that upon aninduced paralysis of the brain, consciousness and perception were still enthroned in theepigastrium, and he came to the conclusion accordingly that the principal seat of the soul in thecorporeal organism was there. "The sun-tissue in the region of the stomach," he declares, "isthe chief seat and essential organ of the soul. The genuine seat of feeling is there, as that ofmemory is in the head. The faculty of reflection, the comparison of the past and the future, theenquiry into facts and circumstances - these are the functions of the head; but the rays are sentforth by the soul from the centre, the epigastric region of the body."

The powers and operations of the soul are not circumscribed, however, by the bodilyorganism. We possess a sensibility analogous to that of feeling, which extends to an indefinitedistance. We are able when the eyes are closed to perceive the presence and moving of objects,and especially of individuals, at a little space away. Every

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one is aware of the peculiar sensitiveness to the contiguity of bodies, when groping in the dark. It is apparent from such facts and phenomena that the soul, instead of having its abode inside ofthe physical structure, is of the nature of a nebulous aura, which not only permeates it butlikewise surrounds it in every direction. It is as if the body existed inside of an ovoid oftenuous mist, which held it alive and made it organic. This tenuous substance is living thought,like the body of an angel or a God, and is capable of exercising powers and functions of whichwe hardly imagine the existence.

The soul is itself essentially organic, and its cilia and antenna render it conscious ofindividuals and objects exterior to itself. A person who is approaching us will be thought ofand spoken about; and he will often be perceived while at a considerable distance. MissFancher, of Brooklyn, when in her room blind and paralyzed, would tell who was at the door ofthe house and the routes which individuals were taking in the streets. We are able to perceivealmost unerringly the moods of an individual, the temper of mind, the general tone andpurpose, and the fitness or unfitness to be a companion or intimate. This spiritual attractionand occult antipathy constitute a moral law for the soul. Trouble and misfortune are in store forus when we smother or disregard these safeguards implanted in our nature against possibleharm.

Lord Bacon has remarked the existence of a secret bond and communication betweenindividuals which would be manifested in a preternatural consciousness of facts andoccurrences in connection with each other. "I would have it thoroughly enquired," says he,"whether there be any secret passages of sympathy between persons of near blood, as parents,children, brothers, sisters, nurse-children, husbands, wives, etc. There be many reports inhistory that upon the death of persons of such nearness, men have had an inward feeling of it. Imyself remember that being in Paris, and my father in London, I had a dream two or three daysbefore his death, which I told to divers English gentlemen, that his house in the country wasplastered over with black mortar. Next to those that are near in blood, there may be the likepassages and instincts of nature between great friends and great enemies. Some trial, also,would be made whether

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pact or agreement do anything; as, if two friends should agree that such a day in every weekthey, being in far distant places, should pray one for another, or should put on a ring or tabletone for another's sake, whether, if one of them should break their vow or promise, the othershould have any feeling of it in absence."

It is not difficult to adduce numerous examples of the character here described; nor,perhaps, to indicate the laws which govern them. There is an energy in human souls whichimpels the imagination and other faculties into certain currents, as if by magic force, as thesmoke of a candle just extinguished will attract the flame from another, and convey it to itsown half-glowing wick. The transportation of the voice upon a ray of light to a given pointwould seem to illustrate this matter. In like analogy, individuals have the faculty of sending themind forth into the spiritual and even into the natural world, leaving the body for themeanwhile cataleptic, or seemingly dead. Emanuel Swedenborg had such periods of apparentdying, in which his interior self was as though absent from the body and in the company ofspiritual beings. Something like an umbilical band, however, remained to prevent a permanentdissevering of the union. It is very probable, nevertheless, that many instances of dying haveoccurred in this way, when there was no mortal distemper; the interior soul going away fromthe body as if on an excursion, and forgetting or unable to return.

The apostle Paul mentions a man, doubtless himself, who was rapt into the third heavenor paradise, and declares that he could not tell whether he was in or out of the body. Thetrances of the Rev. William Tennant and the Rev. Philip Doddridge may belong to the samecategory. The Kretan prophet Epimenides had periods of ecstatic communication withpersonages of the other world; as had also Hermotimos of Klazomenae, of whom Plutarch hasendeavored to give a full account. ''It is reported," says he, "that the soul of Hermodoros wouldleave his body for several nights and days, travel over many countries and return, after havingwitnessed various things and discoursed with individuals at a great distance; till at last hisbody, by the treachery of his wife, was delivered to his enemies, and they burned the housewhile the inhabitant was abroad. It is certain, however, that this last expression is not correct. The soul never went

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out of the body, but only loosened the tie that bound it to the daemon and permitted it towander; so that this, seeing and hearing the various external occurrences, brought in the news."

This allusion to the daemon or superior intellect allied to the soul, directs our attention tothe important distinction which exists between the supernal and inferior elements of ourinterior being. The differentiation between the sensitive soul and rational soul, the soul andhigher intellect, the soul and spirit, has been recognized by the great teachers in every age ofhistory. It is a faulty form of expression which gives the designation of soul to the divinerintellect alone, as though there was nothing beside. It savors strongly of that mode of sensuousreasoning which treats of the corporeal organism as essentially the individuality. The apostlePaul in his first Letter to the Thessalonians has indicated man as an entirety (*8`680D@<) "thespirit, and the soul and the body." If we would delineate the separate properties of the three,perhaps the enumeration and distinction made by Irenus is ample for the purpose: "There arethree things of which the entire man consists, namely: flesh, soul and spirit; the one, the spirit,giving form; the other, the flesh, receiving form. The soul is intermediate between the two; sometimes it follows the spirit and is elevated by it, and sometimes it follows the flesh and so

falls into earthly concupiscences.'' Origen, likewise, adds his exposition: "If the soul renouncethe flesh and join with the spirit, it will itself become spiritual; but if it cast itself down to thedesires of the flesh, it will itself degenerate into the body."

This appears to be in perfect harmony with the teaching of Paul. He classes moralcharacter as of the flesh and the spirit; declaring that the desire of each is contrary to the otherand hinders from doing what is most eligible. "With the mind" (<`@l), he says again, "I myselfam servant to the law of God, but with the flesh to the law of sin." This forcibly illustrates thesummary of Platonic psychology as made by the late Professor Cocker: "Thus the soul (RLPZ)as a composite nature is on the one side linked to the eternal world, its essence being generatedof that ineffable element which constitutes the real, the immutable, and the permanent. It is abeam of the eternal Sun, a spark of the Divinity, an emanation from God.

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On the other side it is linked to the phenomenal or sensible world, its emotive part beingformed of that which is relative and phenomenal. The soul of man stands midway between theeternal and the contingent, the real and the phenomenal; and as such, it is the moderatorbetween and the interpreter of both."

If we endeavour to distinguish between the two, we should regard the soul as denotingprimarily the whole selfhood. Thus we find the expression, to lose the soul, made by twoEvangelists, and rendered by a third into losing one's self. But as distinguished from the higherintellect, the soul is the emotive or passional principle, and sustains that close relation to thebody which is known as life. The mind or spirit is the energy which perceives and knows thatwhich is, which transcends the limitations of time and space, and dwells in eternity.

Plutarch has elaborated this differentiation with great clearness. "Every soul has someportion of the higher intellect," he declares; "an individual without it would not be man. Asmuch of each soul as is commingled with flesh and appetite is changed, and through pain orpleasure becomes irrational. Every soul does not do this in the same way. Some plungethemselves entirely into the body, and so their whole nature in this life is corrupted by appetiteand passion. Others are mingled as to a certain part, but the purer part still remains beyond thebody. It is not drawn down into it, but floats above and touches the extremest part of the man'shead. It is like a cord to hold up and direct the subsiding part of the soul, so long as it provesobedient and is not overcome by the appetites of the flesh. The part that plunges into the bodyis called the Soul; but the uncorrupted part is called the Mind (<`@l), and the vulgar think thatit is within them, as likewise they imagine the image reflected from a mirror to be in that. Themore intelligent, however, they who know it to be from without, call it a daemon."

The poet Mainandros makes a similar declaration: "The mind is our daemon." Its natureis kindred, not to say homogeneous with the Divinity. Anaxagoras declared Divinity itself tobe a Supreme Intelligence, of which Gods and men were partakers. Aristotle taught that themind was constituted from the aether, the primal Fire or spirit-

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stuff of the universe. Kapila, the architect of the Sankhya philosophy, had anticipated thishypothesis. The spirit, he declared, originated in the One, and was endowed with individualityby virtue of its union with material substance. It became from that moment invested with a

subtle body, the linga sharira. He regarded this spirit alone as imperishable: all the otherpsychic constituents being more or less evanescent. This belief was also entertained by certainoccidental writers. Bulwer-Lytton has illustrated this latter notion in his curious work, TheStrange Story. A man is depicted as having been divested of the higher principle; and beingendowed only with the psychic nature and physical life, he perishes totally with the dissolutionof the body. We occasionally meet with individuals apparently in a similar condition, who are"as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed." Of such a type are those whorecognize only the material side of human nature; and they often seem to have a moral andmental perception corresponding with their gross quality. We may in such a case repeat thequestion of Koalat: "Who knows: the spirit of man that goeth upward on high, or the spirit ofthe beast that goeth downward to the earth?"

The moral nature, however, which renders us conscious of right and wrong, is no mereemanation of the corporeal organism, nor has it any bestial antecedent. A stream may rise nohigher than its fountain. The mind has its perception of justice innate, as an inheritance fromthe world of Absolute Justice. Being of an essence kindred, and even homogeneous with theDeity, it has its home in that world, and is capable of beholding eternal realities. Its affinitiesare all there, and it yearns, even amid the seductions of sense and material ambitions, for thatnobler form of life.

In the common every-day existence, the soul is like one standing with his back to thelight, who contemplates the shadows of objects, and supposes them to be real. The conceptionsof the actual truth are, nevertheless, not entirely extinguished. The higher nature may beasleep, but there are dreams. Thoughts pass through the mind like memories, and suddenimpressions come on us like reminders that we have been at some former period in the sameplaces and conditions as at the present time. A feeling of loneliness

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often lingers about us, as though we were exiles from a distant, almost-forgotten home.The explanation has been attempted that these are hereditary impressions. We are ready

to concede much to this influence. Not only are we the lineal descendants of our ancestors, butthe connection is still maintained with them, as by an unbroken umbilical cord. The legend ofthe World-Tree Ygdrasil embodied great truths. That was an ingenious suggestion of LordBulwer-Lytton that the spirit of the ancestor lived again in his descendant. "As the body of thechild," says Alger, "is the derivative of a germ elaborated in the body of the parent, so the soulof the child is a derivative of a developing impulse of power imparted from the soul of theparent." We embody our ancestors by a law of atavism, and are in the same occult wayinfluenced from their impulses, and replenished from their life. Does some such newembodiment or atavic inheritance create in us these imaginings of a previous existence, thoserememberings, as they seem, of persons, things and events, belonging to a former term of life? Then, indeed, would it be true that we are of and united to all the Past, even to the Infinite. TheHindi legend is thus really true, that from the navel of Vishnu - the World-Soul - proceeded thegreat maternal lotus-lily, Brahma, and all the universe.

The Buddhist sages also teach us that every one is under the perpetual influence of aformer life, or succession of lives, which control his fortunes and actions for good or ill. Thesenotions give renewed force to the question of the disciples to Jesus: "Did this man sin or hisparents, that he should be born blind?" There is something more than poetic imagery in the

declaration that John the Baptist was the Elijah of Israel; and that the angels or fravashis ofchildren are always looking upon the face of God. The sentiment of Schelling finds itsconfirmation somewhere in everyone's consciousness: "There is in every one a feeling thatwhat he is he has been from all eternity."

The apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, sets forth a similar dogma and discipline tothat of the philosophic teachers. There is an order of development from lower to higher. "When I was a little child I spoke as a little child, I thought as a little child, I reasoned as a little

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child; when I became a man I left alone the things of childishness." He by no means findsfault with the characteristics of immature life in their proper place. It is only when they arecontinued beyond their legitimate sphere that they receive disapproval.

What we denominate selfishness seems to be considered by many as not unworthy ordiscreditable; it is the highest eminence of worldly wisdom. It is indeed the sagacity of a babe. The imperative necessities of existence compel the infant, as they do the brute animal, to seekwhat is needful and desirable for physical comfort. A babe could accomplish nothingbeneficial by any endeavour at self-abnegation. Hence, the apostle explains a little furtheralong: "The spiritual is not first, but the psychic (or sensuous); then the spiritual. So it iswritten: The first man (žL2DTB@l, Adam) was in a living soul; the last, in a life-giving spirit." This is the order of regeneration. It is eminently fitting that the psychic should precede thespiritual evolution, but not that it should supersede it, any more than that in human societybarbarism should maintain its sway over enlightened civilization.

As man advances toward maturity, selfishness - "the childish thing," which is of rightsupreme only in the condition of babyhood - should be left in the background, and give place toa generous regard for the well-being of others, "charity that seeketh not her own." Thus "thatwhich is spiritual" follows upon the former state. Moral character, spirituality, the regeneratelife, the true anastasis, is developed in this maturing.

The soul thus attains the power of knowing. It apprehends the eternal world of truth asperfectly as the physical senses do the mundane region of phenomena and change. It is to thisintuitive condition that the words of Elihu, in the Book of Job, clearly refer: "Yet surely, aspirit is in Man, and the inspiration of the Almighty maketh intelligent." The apostle is equallydirect and explicit in this matter. "God made revelation to us through the spirit; for the spiritsearcheth everything, even the deeps of the Divinity." Those, however, who come short of thesuperior evolution, who remain persistently in the infantile or adolescent condition, are stillselfish and sensuous in their conceptions, and incapable of apprehending and

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appreciating the higher intelligence. "The psychic man does not receive spiritual knowledge; he is besotted, and cannot know, because it is apprehended through the spiritual faculty." It isplain that Paul considered that individual to be in the psychic category, whose notions andprinciples of action are circumscribed by the ethics of sensuous reasoners. Spiritual things andeverything pertaining to the higher intellect are absurd to such; he is totally averse and unableto apprehend them from this point of view. "Every man's words who speaks from that life,"says Emerson, "must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the same thought on their part"

There are those, nevertheless, who transcend these pernicious limitations. "In thecontemplation of blessed spectacles," says Iamblichos, "the soul reciprocates another life, isactive with another energy, goes forward as not being of the order of men on earth; or,perhaps, speaking more correctly, it abandons its own life and partakes of the most blessedenergy of the Gods." The Apostle reiterates the same sentiment: "Ye are not in the flesh but inthe spirit, if the divine spirit dwelleth in you." So Emerson says: "The simplest person, who inhis integrity worships God, becomes God." Such are sustained by "angel's food" and possess alife which is nourished by assimilating the spiritual substances of the invisible kingdom. Theyhave powers and energies, as well as spiritual and moral excellences, infinitely superior tothose of common men. They do not live in the world of Time, like others, but in the everlastingday, "the day of the Lord," the day without night or cessation. They are the spiritual in whomis developed the divine nature, who are born from above, the intelligent who intuitively knowthe truth and are free, who are in law and therefore above law, who are a law to themselves andtherefore "cannot sin."

Thus the Human Soul is like the golden chain of Homer, one end on the earth and theother resting upon Olympus; or, more expressively, it is the ladder which the young Arameanpatriarch saw in his dream, set up on the earth with its head touching the heavens, and theangels of God going up and coming down by it.

(Lucifer, August, 1892)

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INTUITION AND DIVINATION

"I go into the telegraph office sometimes," said Professor Morse to a brother artist, "andthere watch the operators at their work. Then the wonder all comes back; it seems to be aboveme. I can hardly realize that it is my work; it seems as if another had done it through me."

This sublime acknowledgment contains a suggestion concerning which we would makefurther inquiry. Professor Morse is by no means the only person who has observed in himselfthe consciousness of being only an instrument of an intelligence superior to himself. Thehistory of the world's great thinkers is largely made up of such examples. We are much morethan tenants of a world where all that is known has been learned by individuals through theircorporeal senses and their reasonings therefrom. "Everything flows into us," says Goethe, "sofar as we are not it ourselves." The inventor does not originate, but only comes uponsomething which had its being in the world of causes. "Perhaps it will yet be proved," saysKant, "that the human soul, even in this life, is, by an indissoluble communion, connected withall the immaterial natures of the spirit-world, acting upon these and receiving impressions fromthem." Indeed, there have been, there are and will be, introductions into this world's historyand activities from the realms beyond; and there is certain to be developed, in may cases, asensibility to occult influences which will enable the key to be used by which to obtain anunderstanding of the matter.

We may not heed the imputations of deception and credulity which have often been castupon this whole subject. If there are counterfeits, we may be very certain that there is a

genuine original. There is no wrong which is other than a perversion of the right. The critic aswell as the sceptic is generally inferior to the person or

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subject that he employs himself upon, and his candor may often be questioned. The fact is aptto be overlooked that the very capacity to imagine the existence of extraordinary powers isitself evidence that they may exist. Even the gibe of "superstition" is met by the fact that thatterm properly and legitimately denotes the faculty and perception of what is superior. The batmay seem to have very good reason for repudiating the sunlight as beyond the knowing, andmay accordingly circumscribe his belief and inquires to his own night and twilight; but truesouls, while discarding hallucinations and a morbid hankering after marvels, and employingcaution in their exploration of all subjects that fall within the scope of the understanding, willalways be ready to know what is beyond.

The interior world has not been hidden from us by impenetrable darkness; the SupremeBeing has not left himself without witness. Because we are not able with our cups to measurethe liquid contents of the ocean, or to take its dimensions, it does not follow that the ocean isaltogether beyond our knowing. We view it from its shores; we sail upon its bosom, and arerefreshed by the showers which its emanations supply; we know that bay and inlets are itsmembers, and that the countless rivers flow into its embrace. So, too, in an analogous way, weknow God. The finite does not comprehend the Infinite; but by our own existence, by theoperations of the universe around us, by the ever-watchful Providence that cares for us evenwhen seemingly unmindful of our welfare, by the impartial and unerring justice which iseverywhere within and above us, we perceive His working; and also by that higher intuitionwhich caries the mind from the external into close and intimate communication with theinterior of things. The ideal truth, transcending all invention, is the goal of every rightendeavor. To possess it is to be free, in the genuine sense of the term. All other liberty issuperficial and factitious.

There are periods in the life of every individual in which some prompting or suggestionis anxiously desired, upon which to rely for the forming of a right conclusion or for theadopting of a course of action which shall be truly wise. We are conscious of a disposition inus all, when in perplexity, to seek admonition and guidance from a

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source superior to ourselves. Indeed, the spiritual history of mankind has been characterized byincessant endeavor to break through the cordon of uncertainty. Men in every age have leftconsiderations of personal ambition and advantage in the background, and aspired to gain ahigher wisdom and communication with the intelligence that controls the phenomena andvicissitudes of every-day life. If we approve of the course of the young and inexpert when theyseek advice from those who are older or more competent, we may also appreciate the motive ofthe person who desires aid and direction from sources beyond the sublunary region ofexistence.

As man grows older he will take on new relations with the universe. There has alwaysbeen an eagerness with individuals to supplement the faculties with which they were endowed. They are not content, like the Carib Indian, simply to note what is within common observation,

and not to seek to know anything further. Even the ladder of Jacob, however high it might risein the air, would have no significance for them except that its top were to reach to heaven, sothat the angels may come down and go up upon it.

We all have such a quality. In the uncultured, perhaps, it may be little else than aninstinct. That, however, does not signify. We may exceed our present limitations. Newfaculties have been developed in human beings since the people of the earth became knowhistorically. For example, it is beyond the power of the inhabitants in many savage countries tocount more than five or ten, and we have good reason to believe that with the ancients suchenumerations as forty, a hundred, or a thousand did not imply any definite number. Amongourselves, however, we have developed the counting faculty to a wonderful perfection, andeven learned to assist our computations with logarithms. Doubtless, also, the germs of otherfaculties exist, the presence of which is hardly surmised. At some period such are certain to bedeveloped and brought into activity. There is with us a peculiar instinct, a proclivity forfortune-telling, the outcrop or rudiment of a faculty the evolving of which will be as thecreating of a sixth sense. It is an element of our nature, and therefore contains the promise ofvast possibilities.

Lyell and other geologists have taught that there have not been

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the catastrophes and sudden changes in the physical condition and configuration of the earthwhich had been supposed, but a steady progress from century to century and age to age. So faras we can apprehend the matter, this is plausible. We may likewise presume that the humansoul undergoes no abrupt or arbitrary transformations, but moves steadily onward in its careertoward the Infinite. Being endowed with volition, passion, and activity, it may approximate thediviner natures and receive from them a certain vivifying of its powers.

Man, as to his spiritual quality, is the emanation of Divinity, and as a soul and personalityhis destiny is that of evolution. The operation of evolution is to bring into the character andactive life the principles and faculties which have been implanted. The human soul, as itbecome developed into higher conditions, exercises the powers and qualities which it derivedfrom the divine source, and from this enlarging of its faculties becomes more and morerecipient of illumination. We may not regard this as in any way out of the due order, or anestablishing of confidential relations with Deity, but as the bringing to light of divinity withinus.

A vast amount of study and conjecture has been given to the declaration of Socrates thathe was attended by a daemon, or spiritual monitor. In his "Vindication" he explains the matterhimself: "I am moved by a certain divine and spiritual influence. It began with me fromchildhood, and is a kind of voice which, when present, always dissuades me from somethingthat I am about to do; but it never impels me." This is plain enough to person who has thesenses exercised to discern. It may not be so easy, however, for us to perceive the reason whythe monitor did not also incite to special actions. Apuleius has given the reason as beingpersonal to Socrates alone: that as he was a man almost perfect, and prompt to the performanceof all requisite duties, he never stood in need of any one to exhort him. Sometimes, however,when danger happened to lurk in his undertakings, he might require to be forbidden, and theadmonition served to induce him to use due precaution and to desist from his attempt. It mightbe that he would resume it more safely at a future time, or set about it in some other way.

He seems to have made little account, however, of words

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uttered in a rapture of the senses. "I went to the poets," said he, "to the tragic, the dithyrambic,and others, and found that they did not accomplish their work by intelligence, but simply by anatural elevation of thought and under the influence of enthusiasm, like prophets and seers; forthese, too, utter many excellent things, but understand nothing which they say." A lesson notwidely unlike this may be found in the sacred records of the Hebrews. We read there of Godspeaking to Job out of a whirlwind, to Daniel in an earthquake, and to Moses out of the fire. But in the memorials of the prophet Elijah, it is related that on a certain occasion he repaired tothe mystic cave in Mount Horeb, and there witnessed the epoptic vision. "A great and strongwind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind; andafter the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after theearthquake was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and then, after the fire, was a still smallvoice." (Hebrew text) The supreme moment had then come, and the prophet, wrapping hisface in his mantle, went forth to receive the communication.

Very much of this character was the voice or signal to the illustrious Athenian. Marvelous displays, however glorious, are but superficial and external. The word imparted isnot speech or desire, but a divine entity interior to both. Is it subjective or objective? Is ituttered in the heart, or into the heart? From one point of view the sign and voice appear toemanate from the individual; from another they are seen to be from above. The Delphicinscription imputed to Solon: (<ä2Â F,"<J`< (to know one's own self) is therefore prolific ofmeaning, involving all of wisdom to which we may attain.

We can easily perceive within the compass of our being a two-fold quality of thought andimpulsion. We are emotive, passional, knowing and choosing, as the animal races do, whateverpertains to the world of sensible phenomena. In those respects by which we differ fromanimals we are intellective, spiritual, and divine. The lower nature is indicated by its vividsense of pleasure and suffering; the higher by the intuition of right and wrong. It irks andbenumbs the better nature when it is dragged down from its throne and placed under thedominion of the psychic and sensual. Plato has described

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this condition as an abiding in a cave with the back toward the light which is shining in fromthe entrance: the shadows, which are all that may be seen, are apprehended by the besottedunderstanding as tangible things, and therefore as the sole realities. We may not unreasonablysuppose that the form of learning so fondly distinguished as scientific, belongs principallywithin this category.

While, therefore, the philosopher regarded the passional and appetitive nature ascorruptible from being subject to incessant changeableness, he described the nobler,supersensuous, and spiritual nature as immortal and incorruptible, having its place and actualabode in the eternal world. "The more intelligent know, says Plutarch, "that the superiorintellect is outside and distinct from the corporeal nature, and they call it accordingly the divineguardian." "For the mind (<@`l) is our daemon, or guardian," says Maenander; "the divineprinciple placed with every human being to initiate him into the mysteries of life, and requiring

everything to be good."We may, then, understand the intuitive faculty to be the power which the rational soul, or

spirit, possesses by virtue of its nature - kindred and in a manner homogeneous with the Deity. Its ideas or concepts of goodness, truth, and beauty are to the interior world what the sun is tothe external universe. They reveal to the consciousness the facts of the eternal region. Theideal of the good is the source of the light of truth, and it gives to the soul the power ofknowing. So far as it is obscured, so far the truth cannot be perceived. Only the pure in heartbehold the Divine. They have a life not amenable, like the common life on earth, to theconditions of time and space; but, so to speak, they live in eternity, they witness the eternalrealities, and come into communion with the absolute Beauty, Truth, and Good - in other terms,with Divinity itself.

We may readily comprehend from this that intellection, the faculty of intuition, is theinstinct peculiar to every individual matured into the unerring consciousness of right andwrong, and into a conception equally vivid of the source and sequence of events. We mayattain to them by the proper discipline and cultivation of ourselves. Justice in our action,wisdom in our thought, and charity in our purpose, are essential to this end. These will bringus duly to

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that superior perception and insight which appear to the possessor himself like a child'ssimplicity, but to others as an attainment almost superhuman.

In the scope of this faculty is included all that really exists of prophetic endowment andforeknowledge. We may, however, consider the perception of the future as chiefly incidental. Upon the tablets of the Supernal Wisdom everything is mirrored and constantly present; or, inplainer terms, there is no past or future in the eternal world, but a perpetual NOW. Whoeverknows the present well is also aware of what is to come. It is true that "coming events casttheir shadows before." The present is never stable, but transitory, and always a becoming; andso it constantly includes the future. The individual brought into rapport with fact immediatelyexisting, having his mind developed and refined to the requisite acuteness, will perceive as byfeeling what is to follow.

This is aptly illustrated in the Hebrew record, in the interview of Hasael with the prophetElisha. The latter gazed steadily upon the royal messenger till his countenance fell, weeping ashe looked. "I know the evil which thou wilt do to my people," said he, and described thecruelties. Hazael protested that this could not be, as he was a man of small account. "What isthy servant, the dog, that he should do this great thing?" The prophet simply replies: "TheLord has shown me that thou art to be the king of Syria."---------

The human soul itself, in certain relations and conditions, is analogous in many respectsto an electric wire. It will thrill others with its fire, and again will receive from those withwhom it is en rapport the percept of what they are doing, thinking and wishing. It is an idlefolly for us to affect to be incredulous in this matter, and will only serve to keep us ignorant. Our own earth and atmosphere are by no means the all of nature. However far from the surfaceof the globe the atmosphere may extend, there is also a rarer, purer ether besides - cognized bythe mind though not demonstrated by scientific experiment; and in this ether all worlds and

systems are comprised. It is a medium common to them all. Light, magnetism, electricity, and

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the entities denominated force and matter are its manifestations. By its agency the worlds andtheir denizens influence and operate upon one another. Indeed, we have little occasion to doubtthe existence of means for telegraphic communication with other spheres of being, when weshall have developed this requisite skill and faculties for that purpose.

Other agencies exist, however, within the province of mind itself. As there areinnumerable series of living beings of various type and quality between man and the monad, soboth logic and evidence make known to us numerous orders of intelligent essences intermediatebetween mankind and Deity. Some have lived on the earth, and others perhaps have not. "It isvery probable, says Jung-Stilling, "that the inhabitants of the invisible world, and especiallygood angels and spirits, read in the tablets of Providence, and are thus able to know at leastcertain future events." These events, and other knowledge pertaining to the world, we haveabundant reason to acknowledge, are from time to time imparted to persons in a receptivecondition who are yet living on the earth. In clear-seeing or clear-hearing moments, in periodsof trance or during sleep,* or when in imminent peril, susceptible persons receive warnings,become cognizant of facts, or are instructed by the instrumentality of beings** in that sphere ofexistence.

In the case of Socrates the manifestation is described by Plutarch as a sensible perceptionof a voice, or an apprehending of certain words, the declaration of a spirit by which the very thing that it would declare was immediately and without audible voice

--------------* Dr. Franklin informed Cabanis that the bearings and issue of political events, which had

puzzled him when awake, were not infrequently unfolded to him in his dreams. Cabanishimself had often like experiences. My own grandfather solved in sleep arithmetical problemsthat had baffled him before. - A.W.

** "A divine power moves you," say Socrates to Ion, "like that in the stone whichEuripides calls the magnet.... You are possessed by Homer."----------------- 337.

represented to his mind. We may view it very properly as a form of spiritual photography. Thecamera is in the control of the beings cognizant of the facts or events to be transmitted, and themind of the person is the sensitive plate to receive the impression.

Divination, however, as it is commonly regarded, is a secondary and betimes aquestionable matter. Men do not enter into the counsels of the Omniscient in order to learnsomething which may be employed for selfish purposes. If the alchemist can transmute basermetals into gold, he may not fill the coffers of others with the wealth, or even hoard it up forhimself. The celestial boon is not to be purchased with money, but with a commodity of itsown character. If any one should even attempt to sell it, he would speedily find that he did nothave it in his possession. It can be possessed only by freely giving it away.

We often read or hear of individuals in trance who have left the body and becomewitnesses, and even participants, of occurrences in some other place. There are statements on

record by truthful and intelligent witnesses that persons in such a condition, or in some momentof anxiety, or when actually dying, have made themselves visible. Emanuel Swedenborg haswritten large volumes containing memoirs of his interviews with spiritual beings. Jung-Stillinghas given numerous examples in his treatise on the "Theorie der Geisterkunde." Since thedevelopment of spiritualism, abundant instances have been presented that have neverintelligently questioned and may fairly be regarded as confirmatory evidence. The ancientshave also given their testimony, telling us of Hermotimos of Klazomene, who was wont toleave his body for days, go about the earth, and return. The initiatory rites of the old worshipsappear to have recognized, and indeed sometimes to have developed, a like occultphenomenon.

We may with good reason accept for these ecstatic manifestations the explanation of thephilosopher: that the soul itself did not really leave the body, but only loosened the tie thatheld the mind or daemon to it, and thus enabled the latter to be in more intimate and consciouscommunication with the beings of its own world, apart from the region of physical sense.*

The prophetic faculty of the human soul is dormant while the

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attention is absorbed by the scenes and distractions of the external world, as well as during theperiod of immaturity and adolescence, but it may be aroused when the time and exigency arrivefor its manifestation. As our powers are limited, however capable of indefinite expansion, weare in need of discipline and exercise. It is often more than possible to mistake hallucinationsand vagaries of the imagination for messages and promptings from the eternal world.

Apollonius of Tyana sets forth temperance as an important means for this attainment. "Itake very little food," says he; "and this abstinence maintains my senses unimpaired, so that Ican see the present and the future as in a clear mirror. Divine beings see the future, commonmen the present, wise men that which is about to take place. The mode of living develops anacuteness of the senses, or rather a distinct faculty capable of the most wonderful things. I amperfectly sure, therefore, that the intentions of God are unfolded to pure and wise men."

Indeed, the darkness which seems to envelop the interior world from our view is actuallyin ourselves. We are not precluded from learning anything which it is wholesome and possiblefor us to know. It may not be presumed that we will ever be able to measure ourselves, or what is above us. Nevertheless an intelligent conception may be attained of the facts which underlie our being,and we may hope to ascertain how to direct our actions aright. There is no power or facultypossessed by one person which is withheld from

-----------* --- "Dare I say:No spirit ever brake the band That stays him from the native land Where first he walked when clasped in clay?

"No visual shade of some one lost,But he, the spirit himself, may comeWhere all the nerve of sense is dumb,

Spirit to Spirit, ghost to ghost." - Tennyson

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another. Whatever one person has attained or performed, another can do or attain. Everyperson must make the path for his own feet. It is his right to employ his powers, and it is forhim to cast aside whatever restrictions others may desire to impose upon his thought. Therewill be no progress in a true life except this freedom shall be exercised. The goal of every rightendeavor is the ideal truth, transcending all invention or conjecture - that truth the knowing ofwhich is the genuine freedom.

There are glints and intuitive perceptions of the eternal verity in every mind, which arerightly acknowledged as primary revelations. The faculty to apprehend them is capable ofdevelopment till we become able to receive in our normal state the communication of thesuperior wisdom, and to perceive, as by superhuman endowment, what is good and true, as wellas appropriate for the immediate occasion. Some define this as a more perfect instinct, othersas supernatural power. It may better be described as a direct inspiration and enlargement of thefaculties by closer communion with the Source of Existence. It is an interior conception, not tobe acquired from textbooks and external appliances, but only when the external sense are silent. We may with profit heed the counsel of Socrates to Aristodemos: "Render thyself deserving ofsome of these divine secrets which may not be penetrated by man, but are imparted to thosealone who consult, who adore, who obey the Deity."

In the end, we come to the golden knowledge of our own selfhood, no more an egotism,but an atonement, a being at one with the Divine Source of Existence. Birth, however noble, isthe merit of ancestors; wealth the boon of fortune and industry. Their benefits are uncertain. Old age will impair all physical endowments. But the possessions of the higher intellect arepermanent. Then may we emulate Odysseus in the Homeric poem. Attended by DivineWisdom (Pallas-Athene) he encountered terrific danger and rose superior to all adversecircumstances. He entered the cavern of Kyklopes, but escaped from it; he saw the oxen of theSun, but abstained from them; he descended to the realm of the dead, but came back alive. With the same Wisdom for his companion, he passed by Scylla and was not seized by her; hewas surrounded by

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Charybdis, and was not retained by her; he drank the cup of Kirke and was not transformed; he came to the Lotus-eaters, yet did not remain with them; he heard the Sirens, yet did notapproach them. He held fast his integrity.

Boastful assertion, half-truths, blissful emotions, and excitement of the imagination areinsufficient. Infidelity and blind veneration are to be alike discarded. Only the love of thegood is the way to the intuition of the true and right. Then, perhaps, we may not be quitecertain whether the interior monitor and guide is our own mind or spirit quickened into aninfinite acuteness of perception, or the Infinite Wisdom acting through, in, and upon us; norneed we be eager to ascertain, for now the two are one.

Better than any achievement of marvelous powers and functions is that wholesomecondition of the mind and affections which produces, as its own outcome, those sentiments and

impulsions of justice and reverence, those deep principles of unselfish regard for the well-beingof others, which render the individual in every essential of his being pure, good, and true. Wehave little occasion for the illumination of lamps, stars, meteors, or even of the moon herself,when we have the Sun at meridian beaming forth his effulgence in every direction. No more dowe require the utterances of seers, expounders, or even of prophets, when we are truly at onewith the Divine Source of life and intelligence, and are so inspired with the sacred enthusiasmthat we, as of our own accord, do the will and think the thoughts of God.

(Metaphysical Magazine, May, 1895)

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SEERSHIP AND REVELATION

"The spirit spake to him of every thing." - Philip James Bailey

Seership has been very generally supposed to be a faculty of second sight, a seeing that isbeyond the common physical sense through some extraordinary addition to its powers. Itsexistence in actual manifestation has been accepted as a sublime fact, or decried as a senselesssuperstition, according as individuals were receptive or distrustful of matters beyond theordinary ken. Witnesses have demonstrated it by incontrovertible evidence, and they who areof the spirit that denies have as forcibly exhibited its absurdity. The time was when they whobelieve were accounted sages and philosophers that loved and pursued the deeper knowledge; while some consider those wise and philosophic whose chiefer boast is to ignore the possibleexistence of such intelligence. We may not censure these for their doubts, howeverunreasonable; they have their place and use in the economy of things.

We all are seers who see the things for which we have our eyes open. Xenophon haspreserved the account of a revolt of an Armenian king from his allegiance, and his subjugationagain by Cyrus. The royal family became prisoners, and a council was held to determine theirfate. Just then Tigranes, the son of the king, who had taken no part in the revolt, came homefrom a journey. He was able to persuade the conqueror to relax in severity toward his father. Cyrus then demanded what price the prince would give for the ransom of his wife. "Cyrus,"cried Tigranes, "to save her from slavery I offer my own life as a sacrifice!"

The generous Persian monarch at once set them all free, only asking help against theChaldeans, a predatory people in that region.

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Every one was enthusiastic in the praise of Cyrus, extolling his wisdom, his forbearance, his mildness of temper, and his great personal beauty. Tigranes, among others, asked his wife: "Do you not think Cyrus handsome?" "Indeed," she replied, "I did not see him." "At whom,then, were you looking?" he asked. "At him who said that, to save me from slavery, he wouldransom me by the sacrifice of his own life."

Thus the greater eclipses the lesser glory. However brightly the stars shine in thedaytime, the light of the sun out-dazzles their radiance. The wife of Tigranes was rapt fromany contemplating of the Persian king and his noble qualities by the sublimer spectacle of herhusband ready to give his life for her ransom from a terrible doom. The occult faculty ofseership is analogous in its character. We need not consider it supernatural, except weunderstand this term aright as denoting what is more highly natural, rather than an endowmentoutside of the sphere of our humanity. The Divine alone is thus above and beyond; all else isin the category with us.

The power of beholding that the seer possesses is an attainment or inherent capacityuncommon in its scope or development rather than in its subjective character. We werereminded of this by observing a locust that had just come to its second birth from its formergrasshopper-like mode of existence. There lay the former body as perfect and shapely asbefore. It had contained inchoate the beautiful creature that we were contemplating all the timethat we had known only the coarse, dark-hued insect. Somewhat analogous to this is thefaculty of the seer, which exists more or less dormant and imperceptible, until developed insome degree from its sepulchral envelope. It had been hidden within the physical faculty ofsight, away from our observation, till presently it extended itself into the foreground, leavingthe commoner sense behind.

Viewing seership as an attainment possible to be acquired by artificial means, there havebeen many endeavors to gain its possession. In the Secret Rites of the ancient worships, it wasthe prize of those who passed the trials successfully. In the beginning of the observances, thecandidates were styled "mystics," as being

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veiled from the former conditions of life; and at the conclusion they became "epoptae," or seers, as now beholding the end of our existence and the divinity of its origin. We readlikewise of others who followed a correspondent preliminary training, undergoing greatmortifications of the corporeal nature, privation of common enjoyments, abstinence and specialdisciplines of great severity. When they are not carried to excess, such practices are oftenconducive to health of body and clearness of thought. Despite the protests and examples ofeminent monks and ascetics, we may very properly enumerate with these preparatives theconcurrent energy of personal cleanliness. For the heart to be freed from an evil consciencemay be better, but in its own province we regard it as equally proper for the body to becleansed with pure water.

Other agencies have been common that many may regard as equivocal or exceptional. Drugs were employed to set free the interior faculty and enable it to penetrate the region that isbeyond the common eye. The famous "witch-herbs" of the Middle Ages - aconite, belladona,digitalis, veratrum, henbane, fungus, and juices of hemp and poppy - were favorite ingredientsin these magic preparations. The shaman of the Mongolian tribes also has mysteriouscompounds; and the medicine man of the American forest finds aid in the fumes of tobacco, asthe mantic of the Old Rites did in kykeon, narcotic draughts, and in the divine homa and soma,which were esteemed as the beverages of gods. The prophetic women at Delphi caught aninspiration by means of a vapor coming up from the earth, and those at Brankhidae frominhalations of gas from a stream of water. Benjamin Paul Blood, cognizant that "we are suchstuff as dreams are made on," sought the occult knowing by means of anesthetics. There were

likewise arts akin to or identical with mesmerism that priests in the temples were wont toemploy to procure knowledge that was otherwise unattainable. Some possessed the occultpower fortuitously or by natural gift; some gained it by abnormal excitation of faculties of themind, or from nervous disorder, and others by a clear vision incident to advancing years.

Our literature teems with examples of a sight interior and superior to the common visualsense. Such manifestations are by no

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means confined to the visionary and credulous, but are to be found among the cultured andcritical. Nor do they consist of cases remote from one another, but are about as frequent asother occurrences. There is another peculiarity of equal note: Second sight comesunexpectedly, with every reasonable evidence of having its origin from some source distinctfrom the mind of the recipient. We may not, as lovers of the truth, relegate such things toclassic story and garrulous fantasy, but must direct our attention to learning their origin,quality, and purpose.

The memorable relations of Emanuel Swedenborg are already firmly established beyondthe power of denial. It is known that he learned of things beyond common perception, whichmust have been imparted to him by personal beings with whom he was en rapport. Some ofthese - as, for example, his vision of the fire at Stockholm, which he, being then at Gothenburg,described as it was burning, and likewise his report to Queen Ulrika of her private conversationat Berlin with her brother - are too tangible and well authenticated for honest doubting.

An example of prediction that was amply verified is that of Colonel Meadows Taylor,well known in Oriental literature. While holding a subordinate place in the British East Indianservice, he had won the friendly regard of a Brahman, reputed to possess extraordinary powers,who prophesied that the colonel would soon be recalled to England, and that he would return toIndia at a later period invested with a higher office. At that time there appeared nothing moreimprobable; yet it occurred exactly as the Brahman had declared.

During the closely contested presidential campaign of 1880, there lived a physician inNew York of considerable notoriety as a seer and astrologist. A gentleman asked him one daywhich candidate would be elected. "General Garfield," he answered, and then added that hewould be murdered while in office.

Impending and threatening dangers are often revealed by dreams, or by a subtileimpinging of the consciousness. In 1842, the wife of Samuel Adams, a New York printer,dreamed that she saw her husband murdered and his body placed in a box as if for shipment.

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A short time afterward Adams was killed at No. 335 Broadway, by John C. Colt, thecircumstances being exactly as predicted in his wife's dream.

The Egyptian prophet and theurigist, Abammon, denies that the faculty of foreknowledgecomes from any condition of the body or acquisition by art, but declares that the soul, whenliberated from subjection to the body in sleep, may receive such perception. In fact, the spiritat once pervades and surrounds the body to an indefinite extent, being much more thanpsychical in its essence and transcendent faculty. All spirits are, so to speak, in conjunction, asan ocean that surrounds the world. Each one has individuality, and yet is in intelligent

communication with the others; and there is a common faculty of knowing that includes thefuture and the past within present time. There is something in this matter that is in analogywith transmissions by the electric wire.

Many years ago the writer was standing at the foot of a pine-tree that was in a somewhatadvanced stage of decay. Suddenly he heard - or, rather, felt vividly conscious of - a voice,saying, "Step back!" He obeyed at once, moving backward about eight feet. The next momentthe broken top of the trunk fell exactly where he had stood, and with such force as to bury itselfpartially in the earth.*

The late Professor Tholuck, of the University of Halle, gives an

-----------* All that I can say of this is that I know this voice not to have been any figment of my

own thought. I did not imagine any possible danger. It was of the spiritual rather than themerely psychical entity - in no sense a phantasm, or artful work of the imagination, or outcomeof the understanding. It was a being, or principle, closer to me than my own thought - asomething of me, not myself; it may be God, a tutelary spirit, my own noetic selfhood of andbeyond me. The ear did not cognize it, but the sensorium did. It was an utterance none the lessreal because none of the senses recognized as corporeal had been the medium. Let no one bealarmed: they are gods to and with whom the word of God comes into form, and who speak thewords of God. From fetish to archangel this is true. Hence I heard, obeyed -------------- 346.

analogous account of Doctor De Wette, the father of the "higher criticism," who has beendescribed as the most unimaginative of men. Returning from a visit one evening, the doctorglanced at the window of his study and saw the room lighted. He had locked the door atleaving and placed the key in his pocket. Gazing in the profoundest astonishment, he beheld afigure, the exact simulacrum of himself, come forward and look out. Curious now to see thematter further, the doctor procured an apartment in the house opposite. He saw his double atwork apparently after his own manner, going occasionally to the shelves for a book to consultand finally retiring for the night. De Wette hastened the next morning to unravel the matter. Upon unlocking the door of his study, he found everything exactly as he had left it the daybefore. Not yet certain of himself, he made his way to his sleeping-apartment. To his utteramazement he found that the wall had fallen upon the bed crushing it to the floor. Thecounterfeit De Wette had saved the life of the other. Professor Tholuck, relating the matter,added: "I doubt this no more than I doubt the God in heaven!"

Goethe relates that as he was once riding along a foot-path in dreamy contemplation hesuddenly met his own figure, mounted on horseback, coming directly toward him clad in a greycostume trimmed with gold. The apparition faded quickly, but eight years later Goethe foundhimself accidentally at the same place, mounted and caparisoned as he had seen himself in thevision. The future had effectually mirrored itself in the previous time.

In one of the favorite Hindu legends, it is declared that when Krishna danced with theGopias his form was visible with each of them at the same moment. Somewhat of suchubiquity seems to pertain to ordinary human beings. We all behold as with our eyes the personof whom we are thinking. Much of what we see in our dreams is in a similar way a projectionfrom our own consciousness. Nevertheless, we do not create all that we then see, nor

everything

-------------without questioning, and saved my life from destruction that was immediately impending.---------------- 347.

within our thought. There is some extraneous influence.Many persons exercise occult power purposely, or involuntarily in some great strait, by

causing others to think of them, and even to see or hear them. When George Smith, the Assyriologist, was expiring in Northern Syria, a friend in London heard Smith call his name. Dr. James Marion Sims appeared to an intimate friend on the morning of his death andannounced its occurrence. Anna Maria Porter, the author, gives the account of an oldgentleman, living in her neighborhood at Esher, in Surrey, who used to visit her in theevenings, read the newspaper, and drink a cup of tea. One evening she saw him come in, sitdown at the table, replying to no one, then rise and go away in silence. Fearing that she hadoffended him, she sent a messenger to his house. Word came back that he had died an hourbefore. Charlotte Bronte describes a call that the heroine of her story heard from a distance ofmany miles, and the answer that was also perceived. She declared to a friend that such a thinghad actually occurred.

Dr. Trousseau, the celebrated French physician, could perceive intuitively the morbidcondition of his patients, define the causes, and foreshadow the result. An English noblemanvisiting him one day, he immediately depicted the symptoms and peculiarities of the ailment,declaring the cause to be a lack of interest in affairs of every-day life. The Englishmandisregarded the physician's counsel and died.

Lord Bulwer-Lytton, in two of his romances, describes the leading personages asencountering certain individuals and becoming impressed by the presentiment that theirrespective careers were in an essential manner interblended. Such concepts may be oftenphantasmal, but they are by no means always to be regarded in that light. The connection andcommunication of human souls tend directly to produce such an intermingling and to suggestthe coming events to the clear-seeing.

When the body is in a state of profound repose, somnolent, or more especially whencataleptic, the mind or spiritual essence is sometimes more decidedly active with objects ofthought, and may project itself toward other persons, not only exciting and directing theirthought but actually producing a corporeal figure. Again, those that

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possess a developed faculty of second sight sometimes see the wraith or phenomenal formbeside the material body. We may not doubt that many visions of the Scottish and other seers,or wizards, in which they professed to behold the simulacra of individuals, standing orfloating in the atmosphere near them, were actual facts. That the apparition was often apresage of speedy death is not so very marvelous. Before the psychic consciousness of thedoomed individual has been awakened in the matter, the spiritual essence may be apperceptive. The powers, forces, or invisible being that are en rapport with it may have impressed theimpending event upon the superconsciousness, and have produced an effect that the seer

perceived, although the individual himself might be totally unaware.It is not necessary to multiply examples. The facts are firmly rooted in the convictions of

those who think deeply and seek reverently to know. All that we learn by corporeal sense andinclude by the measuring-line of common reasoning is certain to belong to the category of theunstable and perishing. The real knowledge is by no means a collection of gleanings from onefield and another, nor a compound more or less heterogeneous from various specifics, but anenergy above all, transcending all, and including all. It pertains to the faculty of intellectionrather than to the understanding; in other words, it is not a simple boon or acquisition from theregion of time and space, but an inheritance from the infinite and eternal. Science, commonlyso called, is concerned only with things apparent to the physical senses, and of these it attemptsto build a tower of confusion into the sky - up to what is recognized as the Unknowable. Butintellective knowledge is from the superior fountain, and is the perception and possession ofthat which really is. It relies not on cerebration for its processes, but freely makes use of thecorporeal organ for a mirror and medium.

What we really know, therefore, is what we have remembered from the Foreworld,wherein our true being has not been prisoned in the environments of sense; namely, principles,causes, motives - the things immutable. Love, which seeks pre-eminently the welfare of others; justice, which is truly the right line of action; beauty, which means fitness for the supremeutility; virtue, which denotes the manly

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instinct of right; temperance, which restrains every act in due moderation - such are the tingsof the eternal region which true souls remember in the sublunary sphere of the senses: and,thus remembering they put aside the aspirations for temporary expedients and advantages,choosing rather what is permanent and enduring.

Revelation, then, rightly understood, is the unveiling by which the mind is enabled totranscend the faculties of the external nature - the observing and reasoning powers - going fromstarlight into the sunshine. They sadly mistake who suppose that the Divine Being has hiddenhimself as behind thick curtains, and reveals his will or purpose by specific or arbitrary action. It is not the sun that veils his face in clouds, or hides himself in the darkness of night. On thecontrary, the earth, turning away on her axis, conceals her lord from view, and the clouds thatshe forms in her own atmosphere darken the day. We need but go above, as upon the summitof a lofty mountain, and we shall behold the sun still shining and his lustre unchanged. So Godis ever imparting himself to his creatures, and according as we have eyes to see, so he isrevealed. With such knowledge of the Omnific Cause, we may apprehend what is ofprovidence and the divine activity in general.

The same holds true in regard to specific Canons and other reputed vehicles of divineinspiration. We may accept them relatively, prizing them for what they contain of the good andthe true. What we are not able to apprehend is not a revelation, nor essentially sacred to us. Whether it is not intrinsically true, or whether we are simply unable to receive it, is a mattercomparatively subordinate. We may not regard it as the province or prerogative of any man orconcourse of men, however august or venerable, to mark out for us what to accept as divinerevelation. A book that has been copied over and over again, with manifold liabilities tomutilation and corruption of the text, till criticism (however high and thorough) is inadequateto distinguish the spurious from the genuine, can hardly be esteemed as infallible. The

utterances of individuals, however inspiriting, cannot well be superior to the person by whomthey are spoken. We may, therefore, submit to no man's judgment, but let every one stand orfall with his own master.

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Revelation is a state of enlightenment, not a receiving of special messages from Divinity. It is true that there are many utterances that seem to controvert this sentiment. We may setthem down as coming from the deception of our senses. It is as if we discoursed of sunriseand sunset, which are only apparent occurrences, the actual changes being those produced bythe earth itself. So, when a specific action is attributed to the Divine Being, it is nothing morethan what seems to us as such, and by no means anything occurring around us. We mayconfidently presume that God is not far from any one of us; that he is even now immanent inthe very core of our being. It is our part in the matter to remove the veil from our own selves; to "anoint our eyes with eye-salve," that he may be revealed to us.

Let us not, like owls and bats, repudiate the existence of the sunshine and only consent tobelieve in midnight and twilight. We are endowed with a faculty that is capable of cultivationand development till we are able to receive normally the communication of interior wisdom,and to perceive as by superhuman power what is good and true as well as appropriate for theimmediate occasion. This faculty may be regarded by some as a superior instinct, and otherswill suppose it to be supernatural. We need, however, both discipline and experience, in this asin other faculties, for our powers are all limited. It is more than possible, likewise, to mistakevagaries of the mind and even hallucinations for supernal monitions and promptings.

As we advance in years, we take on new relations with the universe. Doubtless there arelatent faculties and germs of faculties existing in us, the presence of which has been hardlyconceived. There is actually an instinct, a kind of fortune-telling proclivity, the outcrop orrudiment of a function yet to be more perfectly evolved. "Where Nature is," Aristotle declares,"There is also Divine Mind." Nature is not energy, but power - the capacity to evolve. It existsbecause of divinity, and will so continue in operation until it has evolved that which is divine.

There are and will be intrusions into the history of this world from the realms beyond; and there will be, even if there has not already been, a sensibility to occult forces developedwhich will reveal

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many mysteries. Nevertheless, if we are so constituted as to be susceptible to states of spiritualexaltation, there are normal conditions for entering them. The intuitive faculty is the highest ofour powers. Perfectly developed, it is the individual instinct matured into an unerringconsciousness of right and wrong and a vivid conception of the source and sequence of events. We may possess these by proper discipline and cultivation. Justice in our acts and wisdom inour lives are therefore of the greatest importance. These will in due time bring that higherperception and insight which appear to their possessors like the simplicity of a child, but to theuninitiated a miraculous attainment.

"All prophecy," says Maimonides, "makes itself known to the prophet that it is prophecyindeed, by the strength and vigor of the perception, so that his mind is freed from all scrupleabout it." Perhaps, however, we may not be quite certain whether the interior monitor is our

own spirit quickened into an infinite acuteness of perception, or the Divine Wisdom actingthrough and upon us; nor need we be careful to ascertain, for the two are one. "Blessed are thepure in heart, for they shall see God." They dwell in eternity, and live the life that is notamenable to the conditions of time and space; they are capable of beholding Eternal Realities,and abide in communication with Absolute Beauty, Goodness, and Truth; in other words, withGod himself.

(Metaphysical Magazine, May, 1897 [Similar shorter version in The Word, Vol3, pp. 241-45])

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MYSTICISM AND ITS WITNESS

Classic story has preserved the little dialogue between Plato and Antisthenes, the Cynic,in regard to the substantial character of ideal conceptions. "I can see a horse and I can see aman," says the latter; "but humanity and horsehood I cannot see." "True," replied thephilosopher; "for you have the eye which sees a horse and a man, but the eye that can seehorsehood and manhood you have not."

This unveiling of the eyes, the enabling of the mind to apprehend the essential truthbehind the screen of the physical sense, the perceiving of the divine illumination, constitutewhat is properly signified by Mysticism. Many have unwittingly supposed that a mystic is onlya dreamer, one whose thought is occupied with ideal affairs and subjects beyond common senseand practical application. Superficial as this notion may be, it suggest nevertheless a deeperfact than may have been apprehended. We all spend a large part of our lives in dreaming; and,in fact, that which we admire in art and invention was first devised and fashioned in theworkshop of the imagination. If you burn a house, it no longer exists; yet you cannot therebydestroy the plan by which it was built - the ideal house which had been constructed in thethought of the architect and has left its reminiscence in the memory of visitors. It will remainthere, indestructible, always to be "seen with the mind's eye."

Thus, likewise, what we denominate morality is the sentiment and the idea of Rightwhich the Imagination and Higher Reason have framed into rules for conduct, and which theyendeavor to incorporate into the life. This idea is an entity molded out of the immortalsubstance, of "such stuff as dreams are made on." Indeed, out of this substance proceedseverything that we really know.

Mysticism, we may therefore insist, does not imply simply what

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is vague and visionary, something beyond the range of every-day thought, or remarkablechiefly for being obscurely expressed. It is more correctly the endeavor to comprehend theprinciples behind all that we see and hear; to attain a spiritual union with the Essence whichprojects all, pervades all, and is above all; and to express, by appropriate and impressive

figures of speech and representative action, interior facts of peculiar significance.The designation of "Mystic" was accordingly applied formerly to individuals who had

performed a certain prescribed Initiatory Rite. Plato describes this rite as a technique whichhad been adopted in archaic times for the purpose of concealment, fearing the odium whichmight be occasioned. Some veiled the mystic technique under the garb of poetry and allegory; others under the form of Mysteries, or Perfective Rites, and Oracles. There was a secretreligion among every ancient people that had any just pretension to culture and civilization. There were also, very naturally, as many formulations of rite as there were different tribes orgroups. They were generally dramatic representations of trials and adventures encountered bya hero or divine personage upon the earth. From them the ancient theatre derived its inception,as does the modern theatre in its turn from the mystery-plays and passion-plays of the MiddleAges.

In the same category may be included the various epic poems, like the "Iliad," the"Odysseia," and "Aeneid," which have been preserved, as well as various religious and historicworks of an allegoric character. Their purpose was to inculcate religion rather than to affordauthentic representations of actual occurrences. In this manner, "Orpheus," a fictitiouspersonage of indefinite antiquity, was credited with the introduction of the Mysteries intoancient Greece. The Orphic discipline was protracted and searching, and Herodotus declaresthe rites to be Egyptian and Pythagorean. It required initiation to become a philosopher, oraccomplished as a teacher, professional man, or statesman.

Much has been written to show that these occult rites were of a superficial and even of afrivolous character. It was acknowledged that the "Theama," or dramatic spectacle, wasadmirably adapted to impress the beholders, the mystics and ephors; but it was insisted

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that little was imparted by way of instruction. Yet Clement of Alexandria distinctly affirmsthat "all, whether Barbarians or Greeks, who have spoken of divine things have veiled the firstprinciples and delivered the truth in enigmas, and symbols, and allegories and metaphors, andsuch like tropes." "Such," he adds, "are the Scriptures of the Barbarian philosophy." We may becertain, therefore, that every initiated person saw what he had eyes to see, and little or nothingelse. Aristophanes might perceive themes for burlesque imitation; yet Plutarch was able towrite to his sorrowing wife, at the death of their child, that she had herself learned in theMysteries of Bacchus that the soul is deathless. Plato before him eloquently depicted theTheama as a vision contemplated during a journey through heaven itself. "It was beautysplendid to look upon," says he; "and we beheld the blissful view and spectacle in companywith gods." Pindar, who was a member of the Orphic fraternity, also treats of the mysticspectacles as scenes belonging to the world beyond this earth. "Whoever has beheld them," hedeclares, "knows the mystery and purpose of life; he knows its divine origin."

Whatever we of the present day may think of the Mystic Rites of the ancient world, theywere to those who lived at that time the most cherished and venerated of all the observanceswhich they regarded as sacred. The representations in the Drama consisted generally ofprocessions; wanderings in the darkness in search of the lost Kore, or slain divinity; mortalconflicts and scenes of terror; then the finding of the body or its mystic emblem, theresurrection and introduction into light. Those having intelligence to comprehend the occultmeaning perceived a delineation of their own baleful condition in the present life, which, being

duly and bravely overcome, should be followed by restoration and union with Divinity. Someof the preliminary observances were quaint, and by no means difficult to understand. At thefestivals of Bacchus, Osiris, and Adonis, which were virtually the same, a hog was sacrificed; and at the minor Eleusinian Initiation the animal was first washed. The story of the herd ofswine in the Synoptic Gospels, and the manner of their death, appear like a disguised accountof the matter. The victims, human or animal, were sometimes sacrificed by being driven over aprecipice.*

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Everything in these rites had its under-meaning. In the washing of the swine we may seerepresented the condition of erring man, and that a superficial cleansing and reformation willby no means change the moral quality - the animal after the washing being as ready as ever toreturn to the wallow.

The crazed demoniac was not a character foreign to the Mystic Drama. It was a practicein Oriental countries for individuals to resort to tombs and places of burial to receive oracularmessages from the dead.** The contest of Elijah with the prophets of the Syrian Baal, and theshower of rain that followed, exhibit many features of the Mystic Rites in a form that only theinitiated well understand. There were processions, the dancing in a circle round the altar,mournful invocations to the slaughtered divinity, and his symbolic resurrection or ascension onhigh. These observances were propitiatory to the Lord of Nature, and copious showers attestedtheir efficacy.

While, however, the great multitude were instructed by appeals to the external sense andunderstanding, by ceremonial initiations and lessons in parable and allegory, yet the genuineMystics aspired to direct Divine illumination, and relied upon meditation and intuition for theacquiring of true knowledge. Socrates and Epaminondas were not formally initiated. Thewords of the philosopher Aristodemos, as recorded by Xenophon, point out the right path to theHigher Wisdom:

"Render thyself deserving of those Divine secrets which may not be penetrated by man,but are imparted to those who consult, who adore, and who love the Deity. Then shalt thouunderstand that there is a Being whose eye pierces all nature and whose ear is open to everysound - extended to all places, extending through all time - and whose bounty and care canknow no other bounds than those fixed by his own creation."

Again, addressing Euthedemos, he says:"If there is anything in man partaking of the Divine nature, it must surely be the soul that

governs and directs him; yet no one

-----------* Lukianos: "De Dea Syria." See Isaiah lvii, 5.** See Isaiah lxv, 4.

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considers the soul as an object which he can behold with his eyes. Learn, therefore, not todespise things which you cannot see. Judge of the greatness of the power by the effects whichare produced, and reverence the Deity."

In such expressive terms he bore witness to those sublime facts of being, from which allmysticism and spirituality have their inception: that the soul is of and from the region notincluded by Space and Time; that it contains within itself the principle which transcends thebounds of this world of sense and appearances; and though surrounded by Time, it dwells inEternity.

A gifted writer has aptly described Eternity as neither short nor long, but simply anenvironment. "It is the atmosphere in which the soul breathes free from the flesh, and hasnothing to do with duration." We may remark further that it is not entered by the dissolving ofties with the body, but is apperceived as we lay aside and are exalted beyond the conditionswhich the body represents. "The light and spirit of the Deity are as wings to the soul," saysPlato; "and they raise it above the earth to be at one with him."

We are told that Socrates stood a whole day in the Agora at Athens, rapt incontemplation, seeing no one and hearing no one, till at night-fall he roused himself and wentsilently home. Is it not evident that he had passed beyond the Present in thought andattainment; that, like the beholder at the Mysteries, he had been a witness of the presence andapocalypse of divinity; that he had united his thought with the great ocean of mind, and was invery fact a citizen of the Fore-world above? Others might properly enough take part in theformal initiations, carrying the torches and magic wands; but he was exalted beyond theoccasion for external rites and symbols, and had already entered in spirit within the curtainedadytum. Most appropriate and eloquent were the concluding words of his last discourse: "Weshould put forth every endeavor to attain excellence and wisdom in this life, for the reward isnoble and the hope great."

In the School of Philosophy at Alexandria, Mysticism took a new form. Communicationhad been opened with the remoter countries of the East, where esoteric teachers had flourished for

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centuries. Sages from India and Persia mingled their doctrines with those of the Westernphilosophers, and the outcome was Gnosticism and the newer Platonism. There came a periodof revolution, and the enthusiasm was awakened in all ranks of society. From the time of theEmperor Marcus Aurelius, the Antonine, till Julian, the higher thought of the Roman world wasmolded from philosophic speculations and mystic beliefs. The rites and mythologic legendswere freely explained in forms more acceptable to our modern ears. Proclus the great Platonistdeclared in plain terms that "all that is related to us respecting the gods, their shapes andattributes, is mere fiction invented to instruct the common people and secure their obedience towholesome laws. The First Principle," he affirms further, "is not anything that is the object ofsense. A Spiritual Substance is the Cause of the Universe, the Source of all order andexcellence, all activity, and every physical form." Plotinus, the most illustrious teacher of thelater Platonic school, went so far as to dispense with all ceremonies, and confined himselfsimply to contemplation. "Why should I go abroad to worship gods?" he demanded. "It is forthe gods to come to me."

Gnosticism and other forms of the earlier Christianity were thoroughly leavened withmystic conceptions. These were not creeds, but rather philosophic theorems. They werefounded upon spiritual operations and experiences, with little regard to historic personages orto actual occurrences. They consisted of mysteries and secret doctrines known only by "the

chosen of the chosen." It is significant that the two principal religious edifices in the newRome were dedicated, not to canonized Saints, but to the Gnostic emanations, Sophia andEirene - holy Wisdom and holy Peace. A new Christendom was reared upon the foundations ofthe former worship. Political revolutions had changed the religious aspect of the Roman world. The endeavor was put forth by priests and magistrates to uproot philosophy, and the mysticdoctrines and observances, by merciless persecution. The occult rites of Mithras had extendedinto Europe, superseding other worships, and now became the object of general proscription aswitchcraft and commerce with the powers of darkness. The Platonic school at Alexandria hadlost its prestige after

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the murder of Hypatia. The one at Athens was closed by the emperor Justinian. The verypossession of a book of mystic character was accounted sorcery, and punished with death. There had been philosophers in the Christian ranks who were also involved in the generalproscription. The term "heresy," which had only meant a distinct body of thinkers, became aword of frightful import.

Mysticism, however, never depended upon external forms or creeds. It is solely a cultureof the affections and thought, and has its seat alike inside every school or worship. Instead,therefore, of perishing in consequence of these harsh procedures, it was silently transplantedand almost immediately made its appearance in a new form within the pale of Christianorthodoxy. There was a curious analogy in this matter. The classic divinity, Bacchus (orDionysos), had been the prominent character in the former Mystic Rites, and now his Chistiannamesake, Dionysius the Areopagite, became the accredited apostle of Mysticism in theChurch. A book was widely circulated, under the name of the latter personage, bearing the titleof "Theologia Mystica," which set forth the esoteric doctrines of Plotinus, Porphyry, andProclus, as genuinely Christian. Even their technical terms "henosis" and "theosis" wereadopted in the full philosophic sense, and it was inculcated as vital evangelic truth that theproper end of life is to be at one with God and participant of Divinity. The seed thus sown fellupon much fertile soil, and yielded abundant harvests for many centuries.

The conquest of the Western Roman Empire by the Goths and other invaders had beenfollowed by a general darkening of the intellectual sky. The condition of the various subjectpeoples was miserable. War, famine, and pestilential visitations frequently recurred, makingmen's hearts fail them; and solace was eagerly sought in religious enthusiasm. The Churchtook advantage of the general condition of affairs, from time to time, to establish and extend itspower, finally asserting its authority over princes as supreme above them all. Meanwhile, asthe centuries passed, universities were founded in the principal cities after the manner of theArabian schools of Spain and the East. Men of superior learning, generally belonging to thereligious orders, became the instructors. They did not hesitate

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to teach mystic speculative philosophy. Erigena, a native of Scotland, translated the works ofDionysius into Latin for the use of teachers and students, and also composed works of his ownin forms which were adopted with few changes in later periods. He made, however, animportant innovation on the older doctrine. The theory of emanation - that all human and other

orders of physical existence had descended through a series of hierarchies or supernal races -had been inculcated by the most distinguished sages. Erigena taught the doctrine of"immanence" - that God is himself present in all things, yet essentially distinct from them. Many of the superior clergy accepted these teachings, of which Amalrich, Bernard,Bonaventura, Hugo, and Gerson were eminent examples. The convents became nurseries ofmysticism.

The common people also were awake to the general influence. The twelfth and thirteenthcenturies were distinguished by reaction against religious formalism, and by an urgent demandfor a more genuine piety. It was generally believed that Christendom was nearing its end, andthat a dispensation or ministry of the Holy Spirit would follow. Accordingly, manycongregations, composed entirely of men and women of the commonalty, associated topromote the true spiritual life. They were unwilling to accept the dissolute clergy as teachers,but demanded instruction from prophets inspired from God. From these congregations therearose a religious body denominated the "Brethren of the Free Spirit." They extended widelythrough Germany, Switzerland, and France. The Beghards and Waldenses, or "Saints of theValley," belonged to the same period, and are sometimes erroneously grouped with them.

Eckhart was their brightest luminary. He was a man of superior learning, and for a timehad been a professor in a college at Paris. He took up the work of Erigena and carried theviews of that distinguished writer to their logical results. He was also versed in the writings ofAristotle and the later Platonists, and employed them in elucidating and his doctrines. Some ofhis utterances were bold and daring to a degree that, to timorous minds, will appear as veryextravagant. He laid stress earnestly upon the individual consciousness that we are the sonsand daughters of God. "I am as

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necessary to God as God is to me," he declared. "God has begotten me from Eternity, that Imay be father and beget him that begat me."

The ecclesiastic authority did not suffer these movements to go forward without vigorousefforts to arrest them. It hurled forth its thunderbolts of anathema and outlawry, resorting tothe atrocious cruelty of burning the offenders alive, and instigating the powers of Europe tohunt them down like wild beasts and to massacre entire populations. The books of Erigenawere proscribed and burned; Amalrich and other teachers were burned at the stake. Eckhartalso was called to account; but he died shortly afterward, and the sentence was inflicted on hisbody. In order to escape such persecutions, many were diligent in expedients to secludethemselves from notice, so far as they were able, and veiled their Mystic sentiments underequivocal forms of expression. Secret societies of this character appear to have existed from anearly period. In this way, from generation to generation, the esoteric philosophy was taught asalchemic and occult knowledge, and hidden in a jargon and under mystic symbols which thoseonly were permitted to learn who had taken obligations not to divulge it to the uninitiated. TheHermetic Brothers, the Rosicrucians, and other fraternities are supposed to belong to the samecategory.

In the fourteenth century, Asia and Europe in their turn were scourged, and the wholedistricts were depopulated by the terrible pestilence universally known as the "Black Death." After it followed the wildest demonstrations of fanatic enthusiasm. These were principallypathologic, and due to the excitement and physical depression induced by the plague, rather

than to any extraordinary spiritual influence. Nevertheless, as is usual in periods of greatcommotion, there were also peculiar manifestations, many of them of a mystic nature. Theyoung frequently saw visions and the old dreamed dreams. Clergy and laity alike, individualsby themselves, and large multitudes were controlled by occult forces. In the number whoflourished during this period of peculiar spiritual illumination were Catharine of Siena, Francisof Assisi, and other renowned among the worthies of the Roman Church.

There had also arisen in Germany, about this period, a society

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designated the "Friends of God." The members of the congregation appear to have beengenerally disciples of Eckhart. Their reputed founder was Nikolaus of Bale, a layman ofprodigious zeal; but their most famous preacher was Dr. John Tauler, of Strasburg. Therewere also with them "of honorable women not a few." Among these, the two Ebners, Christinaand Margarita, were brilliant examples. The "Friends" can hardly be regarded as a religioussect, but rather as a school of prophets. They were genuine mystics, and, like the Sufis,accepted every discipline, whether harsh or gentle, as providential and paternal from the DivineLove. They believed that every human soul has a tendency and capacity for knowing God, andthat the "eternal life" is a life lived in and with the Everlasting, above the restlessness of Time.

Persecution at length dispersed the congregations, and Nikolaus suffered death at thestake. Their influence, however, did not die. Their books had been circulated throughoutGermany, and were effective in preparing the minds of the people for new instruction. One ofthese was entitled "The Nine Rocks (or Stages) in the Contemplative Life," and another "TheGerman Theology." A century later Staupitz, the vicar-general of the Augustinian Fraternity,presented a copy of the latter work to Martin Luther, by whom an edition was published, thusaccepting its inspiration for the new movement.*

John Ruysbroek was the promulgator of Mysticism in the Netherlands. He was closelyaffiliated with Eckhart and Tauler. He founded a Household at Grunthal, near Brussels, in1453, the plan of which was afterward adopted by Gerard Groot for a system of Homes which were established in the Netherlands and Germany. The

-----------* Luther, however, broke early with Mysticism. While he was at the Wartburg castle, his

associate professor Bodenstein (Karlstaat) began to preach the doctrines of Tauler with greatacceptance. Hearing of this, Luther hurried back to Wittemberg to take the opposite extreme,and did not scruple to invoke the civil power to aid his efforts.-------------- 362.

members were known as the "Brothers of the Community Life." Thomas a Kempis andNikolaus of Cusa were of the number.

Mysticism, however, in its more genuine aspect, is hardly to be considered as promptingto formal organization. The history of the Franciscan and Dominican brotherhoods and ofseveral Protestant bodies exhibits an almost unavoidable tendency to degeneration intoinstitutions with purposes substantially distinct from the views of the founders. Every trueperson instinctively repels dictation, whether from society or prescribed regulations. The

tendency to conventionality is the death-chamber of higher thought. Repetition is baneful tospirituality. Mysticism pertains essentially to the interior life and the fresh experiences of theindividual, without reference to formulated dogmas. It contents itself with spiritual freedom,and is indifferent to external rites and standards. Accordingly, when the ProtestantReformation might have been supposed to extend over the same field that was occupied byEckhart, Tauler, and Ruysbroek, it will be observed that the Mystics generally held aloof. They opposed the authority of Scripture as asserted by Luther and others as they had opposedthat of the Roman Church. They revolted against neither, but aimed beyond, at the highertruth.

The noted Paracelsus must also be included with them. He affiliated with neitherCatholic nor Reformer, but was the friend equally of Erasmus and Oekolampadius. He hadstudied alchemy in its several aspects, and was deeply versed in the learning of the East. Hisreligious feeling was intense, and he based all his doctrines, philosophic, scientific, andmedical, upon the foundation of faith in the Higher Power. His appeals to that Authority are asforceful and eloquent as his spirit was gentle and tender. Believers in metaphysical healing andoccult phenomena have abundant support in his writings. Although from that period to thepresent time many have uttered opprobrious charges against him, yet his views have exerted amighty influence upon later thought. Jacob Boehme, the theosopher of Gorlitz, entertainedthem; the Van Helmonts, Stahl, Hahnemann, and Rademacher, the philosophers of the medicalart, subscribed to them; Francis Bacon was a diligent student, and it has even been suggestedthat the Rosicrucian Fraternity was founded

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upon them. Giordano Bruno may also be named in the Mystic category. He had received anearly inspiration from the writings of Nikolaus of Cusa, the great German thinker, andsupplemented them with the Pythagorean and later Platonic speculations. God, he taught, is theimmanent Cause, the Actual to which the possible is necessary. This "other" is matter. Theuniverse is accordingly a living cosmos, having for its end the perfect realization of graduatedforms of life.

The Quakers of England and their famous apostle, George Fox, seem, like Nikolaus ofBale and the "Friends of God," again manifest. Much of the first enthusiasm has cooled, andthe influence of formal regulations seems to have smothered the interior life. Nevertheless, thedenomination continues, an eloquent witness of the former period.

It must be acknowledged, however, that Mysticism has often found a more congenialhome in the Roman than in Protestant communions. In the form of Quietism, it appeared thereas a later development. Miguel de Molinos, its principal exponent, was the intimate personalfriend (and some say the spiritual adviser) of Pope Innocent XI. For a time he was cordiallyreceived by the chief dignitaries of the Church; but the Jesuits took the alarm and persecutionsucceeded to patronizing. Molinos was compelled to recant his doctrines, and finally perishedin the dungeons of the Roman Inquisition. The biography of Madam Guyon and the history ofArchbishop Fenelon afford further examples of the vindictive hostility displayed, and thedevotion, exemplary patience, and earnestness of the sufferers.

The Mysticism of the Orient is older and in many respects profounder than is often foundin the West. It is as prevalent in China and Japan as elsewhere. The philosophic system knownas "Tau" is as recondite as the Yogi or any other in India, and it illustrates how assiduously and

extensively metaphysics and spiritual conceptions have been prosecuted. After Brahmanismhad taken firm root in Aryan India, there was developed a philosophic system so methodic as toappear like a mechanism. The Bhagavad Gita is a very complete exhibition of its principalform, and Emerson's poem, "Brahma," gives a comprehensive outline of its central thought. The

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G'nana-Yoga, or gnosis, is the highest attainment recognized; and it is substantially identicalwith what Plato calls "the knowing of real Being" - that which really is.

Perhaps, however, Buddhism is in many respects a more perfect form of Mysticism. It issearching in its application, human above other faiths, and practically a religion of charity andfraternity. Its history of more than twenty centuries ago records a vigorous propagandism bymissionary effort alone, and the establishing of a general reign of peace. Even now, with itsshortcoming and corruptions, it is by no means unworthy of the favorable regard of those whobelieve in a profounder knowledge and a universal brotherhood.

But we acknowledge a warmer partiality for Mazdaism, the religion of the first Zoroaster. It seems plain to us that the early sages of Asia and Greece derived from it their firstinspiration. Its most emphatic utterance, the "Ashem," is a sublime confession of purity oruprightness of purpose as the highest good, a blessing to those who live in it for the sake of thehighest righteousness. We are reminded of the Dervise at Damascus in the later crusade, withhis torch and vase of water. "I have come," says he, "with this torch to set fire to Paradise, andwith this water to extinguish the flames of Hell; so that henceforth men may seek to do rightfor the sake of the Right, and not from hope of reward or fear of penalty." How apposite thesuggestion of the "Oracle," not to seek to attain the knowledge of the Divine with impetuousforce, as if overcoming an obstacle, nor as if it were a particular object, but to bring to thepursuit a pure mind and inquiring eye! "Things divine," the sage declares, "are not attainableby mortals who apprehend only things of the sense; the light-armed only arrive at the summit;"a caution which, if we heed, we shall do well.

Many have apprehended the religion of Islam as too sensuous for any just concept ofinterior life. Nevertheless, it had its origin in earnest conviction and mystic contemplation. The Hanyfs had become weary of the idolatry around them, and sought earnestly for someknowledge of what they imagined was the purer ancient faith. Mohammed became one of their number, and was diligent in

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meditation and prayer. It was a supreme moment of entheasm that he conceived himself ascommissioned to declare that the Godhead was only one, and that man's true wealth was thegood which he had done to his fellow-man. In his enthusiasm he seems to have hoped thatChristians and Jews would unite upon this platform and supplant the other worship. He learnedby woeful experience that this would not be. He was hardly able to maintain the purity ofIslam during his lifetime. It is the history of every faith alike that men of conviction establishthe cause while undergoing severe labor and hardship; and then the men who pursue self-interest take control and pervert it to their own ends. Twelve years after the death ofMohammed the destinies of Islam had passed into the hands of the men who had been his

adversaries. The result was the developing of a new form of religion, and a new focus ofcivilization.

How often have we seen a noonday sun emerge from behind a dark cloud, and shine withrenewed, even augmented, brightness! In less than a hundred years after the era of the Flight, alight had broken forth in the Muslim sky. The new luminary was a woman. The Jews honorMoses as the author of their law; Christians revere the name of Jesus; the Buddhists venerateGautama, and the Parsis Zoroaster, as the Oracle of God. Sufism, avoiding all personages ofgreat distinction, has Rabia for its exemplar. In her we may find another Plotinus, with likedevotion and ecstatic rapture. She regarded herself as adjoined indissolubly and at one with theDivinity. In her view, the true rapture was not an exquisite sensuous delight, but anindifference to and even actual unconsciousness of things external. Even to think of delights tobe enjoyed in Paradise she regarded as a serious defection, and she did not hesitate to declarethe pilgrimage to Mecca to be utterly without merit or utility.

Persons in the state of ecstasy are often insensible to pain, even when burning at the stakeor stretched on the rack. "He is not truly sincere," says Rabia, "if, while contemplating hisLord, he does not become unconscious of being chastened at all." Further, she adds: "Iattained this state when everything precious which I had found I lost again in God. Thou,Hassan, hast found God by the understanding and through intermediate stages; I, immediately,and

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without these."The Sufis taught the physical development of man from the lowest forms of existence.

Every one, according to the "Masnavi," had "seen hundreds of resurrections," passing from theorders of inorganic things, through plants and animals, forgetting as he went, till by added spirithe became sentient and endowed with freedom of will. Then the temptations of the worldaffect him and he goes astray, till he receives light from illumination and instruction, and"arises from the seventh hell," becoming the "savior of his own life." This upward progress isdescribed by Sa-di as seven or eight stages, beginning with worship and extending throughlove, self-renunciation, contemplation, ecstasy, and divine illumination, till all minorattainments are exceeded, and the consciousness of existing is swallowed up in God. It is thepassion of the moth for the flame by which it is consumed.

Henceforth, especially among the Persians, Islam had its Mystics. In 1499, Ismail I., aprince of Sufi ancestry, became Shah, and till the second quarter of the eighteenth century hisdescendants governed Persia. This seems almost specially providential for the countries of theWest. The Turks were in a great measure held back by them from overrunning Europe. Thisnot only afforded the opportunity to establish the Protestant Reformation, but prevented theoverthrow of the Roman Church by the Moslems. But for this, Rome might have becomeanother Constantinople.* In 1843, Persia was again roused from lethargy by the Babi uprising. Said Ali Mohammed, a dervise of rare eloquence and enthusiasm, had become conversant withthe writings of the Sufis, Parsis, and Buddhists, till he was aflame with their inspiration. Henow boldly renounced the religion of Islam, and proclaimed a new doctrine of spiritual enlightenment. The

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* On the 18th of January, 1662, the "Chair of St. Peter" was exhibited at Rome, and "theTwelve Labors of Hercules unluckily appeared engraved on it." Another chair appears to havebeen substituted, for in 1795 the French found upon it the Arabian confession of faith - "NoGod but Allah, and Mohammed his apostle."-------------- 367.

Government set in operation a relentless persecution. The "Bab," as he was styled, waspublicly executed, and his followers ruthlessly massacred. Nevertheless, many thousands ofthem yet remain. The attempt was made to implicate them in the assassination of the late Shah,but without success.

Nor has Europe, during these later periods, been without conspicuous exemplars of theMystic life and learning. William Law was active in promulgating the Theosophy of JacobBoehme among English readers, and Henry More was equally zealous in unfolding therecondite Platonic wisdom. In Germany were brilliant men like Fichte, Schelling, Herder,Jacobi, and Hardenberg; and Mr. Emerson has named Emanuel Swedenborg as therepresentative Mystic of modern times. We may hold him in high regard as a master among hisassociates, a Plato among theologians, and a prophet Isaiah among scientists. He inculcatedcharity, the love of one's neighbor, as the greatest goodness, declaring at the same time thatevery good thought and act was inspired from above. In his teachings the spiritual world wasexhibited in close union to individuals in the present life; and man in his perfect moral andbetter development was himself represented as heaven. Death was divested of its terrors; intrinsic badness, selfishness, hate, etc., are all that one is to fear and to escape.

Constellations there are of other names, many of them stars of the first magnitude: menlike Coleridge, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Oken of Germany, Cousin, Victor Hugo, RussellWallace, and Philip James Bailey, whom it is a labor of love to quote and to praise. But,happily for us Occidentals, the wise men are not all from the East. There have been seers andsages in America likewise, inspired apostles and witnesses of the interior life. The Come-Outers, plain of speech, and the Transcendentalists, profoundly cultured, were worthy to becompared with the Beghards and "Friends of God." Our poets, Whittier, Longfellow, Cranch,and Trowbridge, have sung in a celestial metre. The Ebners of Germany had their correlates inMargaret Fuller and Lydia Maria Child. Eckhart and Tauler were admirably represented byWilliam Henry Channing and Theodore Parker. These all, and others their peers, give way,however, to Emerson, sage and

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prophet alike - the man who taught anew the spiritual philosophy, and made it accessible andacceptable to his countrymen.

Thus, all through the ages, has Mysticism in innumerable forms had its place as the livingprinciple at the core of all profound thinking. Without any commission to establish a religiouspolity or philosophic system, it has made its way to the vital region in every faith to make sureof what was precious. It has never failed to recognize the spirit in man and the inspiration thatmakes men intelligent. It has known the Christ, or Chrest, as did the great Apostle, not somuch as a man perishing on a cross as an inner spiritual presence with which the selfhood isinterblended.

The field is the world; not the objective sphere around us, but the vaster region ofeternity within. It calls no man master, and seems even to be repugnant to classification ordefinition. Its office may be suggested by the signal-man at the track of the railway on a darknight. We are not able to descry his figure, but we see his light as he whirls the lantern, and weknow it to be the guardian of our safety. Analogous to this, we frequently behold the signal-light of Mysticism without discerning the person holding it up to view. There may be manyshades of color exhibited by the light, but for this there is good reason. The conditions andcircumstances under which it appears are the sole occasion of the diversity. The differentmanifestations of Mysticism in the several countries and period are likewise incident toanalogous causes. One does not put on clothing in New York similar to what one would wearin India or Alaska. Nor do the experiences of one age or individual fit the needs of another,any more than would a form of speech or style of dress:

"The old order changeth, giving place to new;And god fulfils himself in many ways,Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."

The one point distinctive in Mysticism is the stress laid upon the exercise of the superiorperceptive or intuitional faculty. It is the philosophy of seers and prophets. While recognizingthe whole individuality, body and spirit, as of God, it apprehends only spirit (or

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mind) as from God. With vision extended as by the Roentgen ray, it penetrates the dense wallof flesh and perceives the real presence inside. Hence, although it may not bake our bread, orin any way assure to us what the multitude esteem as prosperity, yet, by making us conscious ofthe true value of living, it will accomplish what is better. The problem of life has been always,everywhere, and in all religious faiths, substantially the same. It is ever new, like the dawningof the day and the blossoms of the spring. The progress of the human race, so frequentlyaffirmed in glowing language, has never changed its terms or conditions. Its solutions hasalways been a task for the individual to work out for himself; but it is accompanied by thecertainty that it is the one thing really worthy of knowing. All else is transitory, and will passwith Time; but this is of the wisdom of Eternity. What we know we possess; for we haveacquired it by experience inspired from on high, which has made it part of our very being,never to be wrested from us.

The Rabbis tell of a ministration of souls - human souls unbodied in flesh - that take partin our experiences. They adjoin themselves to an individual, dwelling with him and in him,that they may help, strengthen, and inspire in times of necessity. They may quit him, however,when this has been accomplished. There are cases, moreover, where this aid and spiritualpresence remain through life. The true palingenesis, nevertheless, is more than suchmediumship. The pure soul, the genuine Mystic, is affiliated to God, participates in Hispurposes, and thinks his thoughts with Him.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Jan., 1897)

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LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS

There is said to be a vein of superstition in everybody's constitution. I do not set myselfagainst this declaration, or presume to pass judgment upon it. I have known avoweddisbelievers and agnostics who consulted professional clairvoyants, astrologists andfortunetellers, and shaped their action by what they were told. Yet I would not scoff at them,for they were acting out a principle of their being, and whether they were moving in error orwisely, they were none the less genuine and sincere. After all, the intrinsic qualities of thenature are to be estimated rather than the incidental manifestations. We do well to heed theutterance of Steerforth in David Copperfield: "Think of me at my best."

Even superstition has its excellences. It is not, and never was wholly visionary or absurd. Its origin is in the higher department of our being, where we reach out from matters of senseand conjectural reasoning in quest of some higher truth which mere logic and sensuousfaculties are not capable of apprehending. When human beings were more simple and theirspiritual faculties were not overlaid by dense coverings of grosser thinking they felt morecertain of their relations to ethereal natures. It was no marvel then, that they conceived thatthey held converse with others who moved and even existed outside of physical bodies, thatthey became cognizant of facts and events known and planned in that world where thought isaction, and that they learned of periods, days and hours in which it would be fortunate or of evilomen to undertake any enterprise. Their faith, childish and irrational as it now may beregarded, was nevertheless of that mountain-moving character that brought them face to facewith the things that are, and enabled them to know.

In these days when classified conjecture is honored as

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science, names are applied as being actual descriptions of things. If an opprobrious epithet isgiven, it passes often as deciding the whole matter. The beam in the eye of the critic serves toaid in the survey of the mote in the eye of the brother. To be scientific is accounted better thanto be clear-seeing, just and true.

In this way it has become a fashion to dispose of everything outside of accepted theoryby such sweeping terms as superstition. They seem to forget when they adopted this epithetthat they had degraded it from its pure meaning in order to make it serve an unworthy purpose. It once had a place among angels, and meant no less than a standing above, an exaltation of thesoul above things of sense, a surviving when the external frame was dead. It was a propheticcondition; the superstitious person could communicate with Divinity and perceive the future.

But gods were dethroned to supply religious systems with devils. In like manner noblewords were perverted from their proper meaning, to meet the behest of scorners. In this waysuperstition that once meant the cognition of sublimer truth is now only known as over-scrupulous exactness in religious matters, false religion, and belief in the direct agency ofsupernatural beings, or in singular or extraordinary events, or in omens and prognostics. Underthese definitions every religion would be included, not even excepting the various forms of

Christianity.Nevertheless, when any belief has been generally entertained among the several races of

human beings, and in all ages, there is very strong presumption that it is substantially true. Themind is not capable of thinking a thing that does not exist. We may therefore, with reasonableassurance, accept the notions and traditions, that have come to us from the past, as having inthem a living seed of truth, and are warranted in crediting what we hear of a like character,which is from truthful witnesses. In so doing we may be sure of the approval of our ownconscience, and that we are moving forward in the company of the noblest and purest minds ofall ages, those who were -

"While in, above the world."

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The current notions that certain days are propitious and others unfavorable, are doubtlessgenerally derived from tradition and superficial observation. Some of them originate withancient astrologic beliefs. That the stars were set in the firmament of the heavens for signs orforetokens, the first chapter of the Genesis distinctly sets forth. The ancient temples were plotsof ground marked off with religious formalities primarily for observation of the sky, tocontemplate or consider, or in other words, to consult the stars. The vault of the heavens wasmapped out in constellations, twelve of which were in the Path of the Sun, which he took in hisyearly journey, and they were styled by the astrologists houses. They are mentioned as such inthe Assyrian Tablets: "He made the mansions of the Great Gods on high (twelve) in number."*

It was believed anciently that these divinities of the sky took part in conflicts betweennations and between individuals. "From the heavens they fought," the prophetess Deborahsings; "the stars from their orbits fought against Sisera."

There were propitious and unpropitious seasons, as the months were reckoned, and as the"lords of the houses" in their respective turns, were in authority. Hence Hesiod advises: "Observe the opportune time."

The month of May, for example, has been regarded from unremembered antiquity asbeing inauspicious for the contracting of marriage. This conceit has drifted down to the presenttime, and it is still entertained by many. There are other notions of the same category, but thechange from Old to New Style in the computing of time, and the growing inclination to discardsuch things are likely to sweep the sentiment entirely out of existence.

The old mythopoeic theogonist of ancient Greece has given a

-------------* Lepsius says that the Great Gods of Egypt had not an astronomic origin, but were

probably distributed on an astronomic principle when the kingdom was consolidated. It wasnecessary then to preserve the divinities of the several former dominions, which was done byincluding them in this way in one system.---------------- 373.

very complete record of the auspices of the several days in the month, which he describes ashaving been fixed by the all-counseling Supreme Zeus himself. It may be well to remark

however, that in this arrangement the month is regarded as consisting of thirty days, and that inthe Grecian calendar it began about the third week as computed by us. Whether the elevendays which have been eliminated from the reckoning in the transition to New Style are to beconsidered, is for the curious individual to determine for himself. Whoever, therefore, isdisposed to accept this classification and arrangement of lucky and unlucky, must bide thechances of their harmonizing with the present dates.

First of all the first, fourth and seventh days of the month were all esteemed as holy days. The first had observances in commemoration of the new month, the fourth was sacred toHermes and Aphrodite, and was considered, when the omens were propitious, to be the mostsuitable for the contracting of marriage.

The fifth was unqualifiedly unlucky, a day in which quarreling and misfortune werelikely to occur. The sixth was unfortunate for girls, both in respect to birth and marriage, but itwas auspicious for the birth of boys. In other respects, it was adverse - a day characterized byraillery, falsehood, treacherous speaking, and clandestine wooing by fond discourse.

The seventh day of the month was esteemed as holy beyond other days. Upon theseventh day of the month Thargelion it was said that Apollo was born.* This day was observedaccordingly at the oracle-temple of Delphi and other places sacred to this divinity by thesinging of hymns of praise, pious offerings, and fervent supplications.

The eighth and ninth days are suitable for the transacting of business and the performingof necessary work. "The first ninth is

-----------* According to the Symposiacs ascribed to Plutarch, Socrates was born on the sixth, and

Plato on the seventh of Thargelion. The priests of Apollo at Delos used to affirm that thegoddess Artemis or Diana was born on the sixth. Thargelion was the eleventh month of theAttic year, and began at the middle of May.-------------- 374.

entirely free from harm and evil omen," says Hesiod; "lucky indeed is this day for planting andfor being born, to man as well as to woman; it is never a day that is altogether unfortunate." The tenth is a fortunate day for the birth of boys. The eleventh and twelfth are both propitiousto industry, but the twelfth is far more so than the eleventh. It is a suitable day for housewivesto begin important work in the household.

The thirteenth is a day to hold back from beginning to sow, though it is proper for thesetting of plants. "The fourteenth is a day sacred above all others." It is fortunate also for thebirth of girls. The sixteenth is described as "very unprofitable for plants, but auspicious for thebirth of men; yet on the other hand it is a day not propitious for a girl either to be born orjoined in wedlock." The seventeenth is a good day for the man in the country to thresh grain orto cut timber for implements or furniture.

The nineteenth is quaintly described as "a better day toward evening." The twenty-fourthis emphatically pictured as "in truth a very perfect day," and the caution is given to avoidgnawing the heart with grief. It is best in its omens at early morning, but becomes worse as theevening approaches.

The days which have here been indicated are those which are significant. The others areharmless and without omen, or anything of moment. A day is sometimes a mother and

sometimes only a keeper. One person esteems some particular day as most auspicious, whileanother is as positive in belief that some different day is better. Few, nevertheless, are able toindicate the days that are really propitious. He is the lucky one who distinguishes the omensand avoids the mistaking of them, who guides his conduct intelligently with reference to whatis boded and promised by the immortal ones.

Thus far Hesiod. As poet and as the counselor of the industrious and thrifty, he was trulywise and thoughtful. Perhaps this is praise enough.

The distinguishing of days and periods as sacred and profane, as fortunate and of illomen, is older than any record of history.

The cycle of the week appears from early dates to have been

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regarded as more directly influential in human affairs. Perhaps this has been the case because itis a matter more familiar, and more directly within the province of the understanding. Theancient belief assigned to each of the days a virtue of its own; to some of them good omens,and to others auspices which were less fortunate. The number was fixed at seven and mightconform to the number of planetary worlds and divinities. A name has been given accordinglyto every day of the week to signify the divinity or patron genius of a planet, that was supposedto have a marked influence upon the fortunes of individuals for that space of time. We thushave Sun-day, Monen-day, Tuisko's day, Woden's day, Thor's day, Freyja-day, Sathor-day. The Romans had also named the days in corresponding order: Dies Solis, Dies Lunae, DiesMartis, Dies Mercurii, Dies Jovis, Dies Veneris, Dies Saturni.

This is no caprice taking its rise within any time comparatively recent. The ancientAssyrians also divided their months into weeks of seven days each, and attached a magicsignificance to particular periods. Nor is this accounted to be orginal with them but to havebeen adopted from the Akkadians, a Skythic people whom they had supplanted in theEuphratean country. The Assyrian month was lunar, extending from the first appearing of thenew moon to the period of its utter disappearing from the sky. The seventh day of the firstweek was sacred to Merodakh, the god of Light, and to his consort, Zirat-banit*and it wasobserved with a solemnity that was full of terror. It was denominated sulum, a term whichsignifies dies nefastus, the unlucky day. Upon the Sabbath the king was strictly enjoined fromeating cooked food, changing his clothes, putting on

-----------* Merodakh, was the Amar-Utuki of the Akkadians and Khitans of the Upper Euphrates.

He appears to have been recognized and worshipped by Cyrus as the Mithras of the Persianworship. Zirat-banit was the Succoth-Benoth, or Suku the Mother of the Babylonian andAkkadian pantheons. These divinities, as well as "the Sabbath or rest-day, passed to theSemites from the Akkadians," as we are assured by Professors Sayce and Tiele.-------------- 376.

new garments, and from performing any act of religious worship, driving in his chariot, holdingcourt, and from taking medicine for a bodily ailment.

There were similar conditions for every seventh day during the entire month. The

fourteenth was regarded as sacred to Nergal and the goddess Belat, the twenty-first to Shamasand Sin, the Sun and Moon, and the twenty-eight to Hea or Nisrokh and Nergal. The strictestsabbatarian of modern time was outdone by the rigid austerity of the Akkadian and SemiticSabbath.

The nineteenth day of the month, however, was a joyful exception. It was accounted a"white day," a gala day, a day of good fortune, and the beautiful goddess Gula was its patron.

The beliefs respecting fortunate days and unlucky ones have been extended to later times,and are recognized in the records and literature of different peoples. The days of Saturn andthe Moon were considered inauspicious beyond others. If we attached significance to thispersuasion we would be disposed to agree with it. We have frequently, if not generally foundboth Monday and Saturday untoward in the way of taking any new step, beginning a work, ortransacting business with others. We have also observed a like experience with others. By nomeans, however, do we suppose that there is any specific magic or occult influence in thematter. It seems to be due to the fact that in the general arrangements of business incident tothe cessation of employments on Sunday, many persons are obliged to contract their sphere ofaction upon the days immediately before and after in order to accord with this practice. Theirmovements affect the plans of others, creating more or less of obstruction of effort. Theirinfluence thus extends to a remote distance. Perhaps there are sprites in the region almostcontiguous to our physical senses that have a hand in effecting all this; but for commonpurposes the reason which has been suggested appears to be a sufficient explanation.

Nevertheless, the general belief must be accounted for by proofs of a more reconditenature. The thinkers of far-off times had implicit reliance upon the decrees of fate, theutterance of the purpose of Divinity.* The Superior Power, having determined upon somethinggives oracular signs, by way of making it known to human beings.

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The planets, which are dominant over the days of the week are significant in such matters, andto be regarded. Saturn was always regarded by the astrologers of Babylon as of malignantaspect. The planets, it was believed, had emanated from the sun, and Saturn being the oldesthad been sent forth farthest into the outer region of darkness. It bore the name of Khus orCush, the son or emanation of Ham, the sun. It was the Sun of the Underworld, in Erebus orthe remote West.**

This seems to explain the reason of the awe or terror with which the Assyrians regardedthe seventh day of the week, prohibiting every act not absolutely necessary, lest it should entailevil upon them.

The Gnostics did much to perpetuate this impression. In their Theogony, the Demiurgeor Creator was the genius of the planet Saturn, and the Evil Potency that seeks to mislead andinjure mankind. Their influence was probably active in the religious change by which Sundaywas made the sacred day instead of Saturday.

Astrologists have generally described Saturn as the most potent and most malignant of allthe planets. Its influx is represented as imperceptibly undermining the vitality of the bodilyorganism. A vast part of suffering is thus accounted as due to its malefic action. This does not,however, even if actually true, show conclusively why the day of Saturn should be regarded asproductive of misfortune.

We may make the same appeal in the case of Monday. We are aware that the moon has

borne an evil reputation for malignant influence on plants, as well as on the atmosphere. Various disorders of mind and body have their names from the baleful influence exerted uponindividuals; but they have never been imputed to the day of the

-----------* The word fate from the Latin fatum means etymologically, that which is spoken.** This concept was also entertained in Egypt. The region of the dead was denominated

Amenti, or the West, and Osiris, as the ruler, bore the title of Ra-t-Amenti (Radamanthos). Hewas the son of Seb, the Siva or Kronos of Egypt, the lord of death.-------------- 378.

moon. We must suppose that Monday is not specially unlucky, except as folly, misconduct oraccident happens to make it so.

Modern fancy has designated Friday as the inauspicious day of the week. So deep is thisimpression that sailors are unwilling to begin a voyage on that day, but are confident when theyset out on Sunday. Others whom we would suppose were more intelligent are equallycredulous. In this case we have an example of a perverted tradition. Friday, in olden times,was the day of good fortune above others. It was sacred to the benign goddess, the Mother inevery ancient faith; the one who gives delight and success. The Assyrian Kings always on theevening of the day presented an offering to the divinities Merodakh and Istar, invoking themwith the significant open hand. It was a day propitious for every important undertaking. When, however, the old worships were superseded, it seems to have been considered necessaryto break the charm. It was accordingly set apart for capital punishments and inquisitorialtortures, till the odium and accumulated terrors led men to curse the day as fraught with direstevil. Other devices were employed in like manner to eradicate confidence in other goodomens. The result, however, has been as might have been foreseen. There has been noincrease of faith, and the popular belief in omens and auspicious days has only been changed. Fetishes, ceremonies, and lucky periods are as much a matter of belief as before, but the objectshave been modified. But amid it all, it may safely be borne in mind that good fortune isattendant on Friday as on other days.

We may hope little from the days as they are marked in the calendar. We do not questionthat there may be a difference in their serviceableness for specific purposes as there is in regardto humidity and temperature. That is a fact, however, to aid us to shape our action wisely, andby it we may not be overborne. There is a time suitable for everything in its order, and theywho are truly intelligent will apperceive it. We may not count one day secular or profane morethan another. All days are alike fortunate and alike sacred.

The fortune of a month is not influenced by an accidental first sight of the crescent moon,nor are the events of a day affected by the casual pointing of a sharp object in a certaindirection. These are

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notions derived from former usage. Yet we confidently believe that there are auxiliaryagencies in the universe about us superior to our common ken, that in one way and anotherimpart to us conceptions of what we should do. Yet whoever lingers unduly for opportunity to

manifest itself, and neglects to take the current that serves, is liable to lose the object aspiredfor. On the other hand, the wise and the heroic will storm the very gates of apparentmisfortune, and, like Samson, carry them off. "The kingdom of the heavens sufferethviolence," said Jesus; "and the violent take it by force " As the purpose inspires to effort so theday is made lucky. Justice in our action, wisdom in our thought, and charity in our motive areessential to a true insight. The individual is his own star, his own fortune, his own destiny.

(Universal Brotherhood, July, 1898)

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THE KEY OF THE UNIVERSE

One summer afternoon, some twenty years or more ago, a neighbor in Roseville invitedme to his house, where a visitor was showing a radiometer. Professor Sir William Crookes haddevised the toy some little time before, and the scientists were propounding their theories of itsmotion. The instrument consisted of a needle-support on which was fixed a vane with fourwings. It was placed in a vertical position, under an exhausted receiver, and suggested aminiature water-wheel standing on end. When exposed to the light it revolved incessantly, butstopped instantly whenever the light was excluded.

The peculiarity of propulsion by the influence of light suggested the analogy to therevolutions of the earth and other planetary bodies. The radiations of actinic force from the sunare centrifugal, as in the radiometer, and if there had been no restraining principle, would havesent them all out into the infinite space, and perhaps into chaos outright. But the centripetalforce, as every pupil in science knows, holds them fast in orbits and compels them to maketheir journey in circles in an orderly manner, thus subserving the ends of their existence. I havenever taken pains to elaborate this concept properly, or even to establish its correctness; but itis enough to note that a single principle must be operative through the whole activity ofcreation, while a twofold manifestation of it, in seeming conflict, is essential and constant inthe carrying onward of its works.

This principle is often explained as the "operation of law." But it related only to a stagein the process of causation. It is the outcome of will and intelligence, and implies that apersistent energy is its source. The Zoroastrian system as held by the Parsees, is based on thispostulate. It ascribes personality to these superior forces, giving them a religious as well asphilosophic form. It assigns the Cause of

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all to a divine being, denominated Zeruan, the Infinite. Associate and yet subordinate are thetwo forces or "minds," rivals to each other, and in conflict for superiority, one creating andbringing to perfection, the other impeding and destructive. This conflict is manifested in theoperations of nature, and has no cessation so long as the world endures.

Nowadays, however, we continue, though it be somewhat in the character of sciolists, to

acknowledge after some perfunctory form, the Absolute Essence; and very many are prone tothink of the universe as being after the manner of a clock which has been wound up and set tomoving, and receives no further attention till it runs down. We do not profit by suchconjecturing. We would be no more successful in the endeavor to define the extent andresources of the Infinite, than in an attempt to ascertain with a gallon measure the capacity ofthe ocean. We can do no better than to hold them in profound veneration. Nevertheless, we areby no means restrained from enquiring into the laws and modes of operation by which allthings occur with us and around us. There is an inherent curiosity in us which prompts to suchinvestigation, and we have a measure of ability to comprehend why and how the variousphenomena take place and become manifest. There is no limit in this, except such as isimposed by the imperfectness of our development, which oftentimes occasions an obtusenessof the understanding, or an incapacity to appreciate such knowledge. With such conviction, wemay venture to interrogate respecting some of the operations of the universe.

The achievements of the later centuries embolden us to such enquiry and speculation. We can hardly view the universe as a vast lifeless machine operated by mechanic force, butrather as an organism influenced by a vital principle. Essence is by means of existence and notapart from it, is the declaration of that philosopher of modern times, Emanuel Swedenborg; and the one is not possible without the other. We find the counterpart to this statement in theworld of nature, that everything subsists by virtue of polarity. In the magnet one pole isessential to the existence of the other, and neither is without the other. An ingenious author*attempts to elaborate these

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conceptions, setting forth that electricity is the operative force that gives form and substance toall visible things, and that matter is but the garment of the invisible electric forces. Thisconcept in its principal phases is evidently reasonable and worthy of favorable consideration. Life and mind are behind all manifestations and the analogous statement is made in the NewTestament in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "By faith we cognize that existing things are set inorder by the permeating (rema) of Divinity, so that the things which are visible have not comeinto existence from those which are apparent to sense."

Although we may not be quite ready to accept without qualification all that is suggestedby reputed scientists in relation to these subjects, it appears reasonable that the universe is theproduct of electric forces, and that its various operations are carried on unceasingly throughtheir agency. The negative something called "matter"** cannot be intelligently comprehendedexcept from such a point of view. Boscovich, the eminent Italian savant affirmed that in thelast analysis, matter consisted of points of dynamic force. Faraday regarded this as capable ofbeing demonstrated. It is disputed, however, by other scientists of different habits of thinking,one of whom affirms that the atom has the power to assume form and

------------* George W. Calder: The Universe an Electric Organism.** Emanuel Swedenborg describes matter as a sort of debris of spirit, resulting from the

privation of vital energy. "There are three atmospheres, both in the spiritual and naturalworld," says he. "These are separate from each other according to degrees of altitude, and intheir progress toward lower things, they decrease in activity according to degrees of breadth.

And since atmospheres in their progress toward lower things decrease in activity it follows thatthey constantly become dense and inert, and finally in outmost become so dense and inert as tobe no longer atmospheres but substances at rest, and in the natural world fixed like those onearth that are called matters. Such is the origin of substances and matters." - Angelic WisdomConcerning the Divine Love and Wisdom, Page 305.--------------- 383.

to create form, and that matter and force can not be transformed into each other. This may becorrect, so far as present scientific knowledge extends, but further demonstration is to bedesired. We may, however, regard the question thus far as abstract.

The assumptions which have been made are not to be disputed because they are not dulydemonstrated. The human mind is capable of conceptions and intuitions that may not bescientifically demonstrable, but nevertheless are true.

It may be presumptuous, but it does not seem wonderful that with the later discoveriesand demonstrations of electricity, it has been imagined that in this agent the Key of theUniverse has been found. As the outcome and manifestation of the One Mind and Energy it islogically evident that unity extends through every department of the creation. One agency mustbe present accordingly everywhere. What little is known of the nature of electricity, seems towarrant the supposition that it is that agency. In the characteristics of positive and negative, theduality which exists universally is strikingly displayed. It is inferable therefore that electricityis in a peculiar sense, the creative and governing energy of Deity. That something which wecall life, but which we cannot describe except negatively exhibits various phenomena which werecognize as electric. Observing these facts, and venturing to make the deductions which arethus suggested we may not only regard the universe as an organism, but consider electricity asits organizer and sustainer. The negative element, matter, is evidently the product of electricforce, and all the operations of the universe are carried on by virtue of electric propulsion,qualified and held in place and order by magnetic attraction. So far as we know, there may besolar systems coming into existence and others going out; or it may be, as seems more easy toimagine and comprehend, that the universe is sempiternal with its Author.

The phenomena of heat and light which are so essential to our mundane existence, areattributed to the sun. Nevertheless, in the sense by which we commonly understand things, thisis an illusion. Every ascension made by a balloon, or by the climbing of a mountain, leaveswarmth woefully behind; and the peaks capped with snowin summer time afford irrefutable testimony to the most obtuse

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understanding. It is unequivocally certain that the space occupied by our solar system throughwhich our earth and the other planets run their course is absolutely cold. In such case the suncan by no means be regarded as a central mass of fire heating up space, fed perhaps fromcomets and meteorolites, and so destined to burn out at some future period, leaving all thetributary planets and their inhabitants hopelessly to perish from cold.

The phenomena of light is parallel with that of heat. It can hardly be set forth as anemanation, and so far as we know all the space between the sun, planets and other bodies in thecelestial infinity, is dark as fabled Erebus.

We learn, however, that the emanations from the sun are of various intensity and quality. When they become intermingled with irradiations from the earth, there are different phenomenamanifested, some known as heat, others as light, while others are not thus vividly apparent tothe sense. But the last are revealed by the photographic plate, and it may be that they areimpressing pictures upon the walls around us of what we are saying and doing, which somefuture scientific discovery may bring into plain observation. This property of radiant energythus develops in our atmosphere of heat, light and chemical phenomena, and these areproduced here in the atmosphere of the earth from their joint operation. The actinic rayscoming in different degrees of intensity and directness, effect resultant variations in thesensations, of warmth, light, and other phenomena.

It has been shown that light coming upon an object presses upon it with a definite degreeof weight. Another discovery, far more far-reaching and revolutionary postulates that thereexist in every atom of matter particles a thousand times smaller than matter. These are the ionsor electrons of recent scientific discovery. Each of them is electric, and it has been conjecturedthat they are either electricity itself or its carrier. These electrons constitute the fourth form ofmatter which Sir William Crookes has promulgated. By their agency every function of life isperformed, every operation in the realm of nature, every motion and revolution of the globes in the sky. The

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Marconi-graph is successful by their aid, and its inventor may truly be said to have harnessedthe lightning.

The discovery of radium for a season set the scientific world agog. It emits heat, lightand actinic force and yet undergoes no perceptible change or waste of substance; and itexhibits an energy so powerful that Sir William Crookes estimated that a gram was enough tolift the whole British Navy to the summit of the highest mountain in Scotland. Lord Kelvinsurmises that it will, when fully investigated and exploited, overturn the whole doctrine ofconservation of energy and correlation of forces. "Nevertheless, the foundation of Godstandeth sure."

As every existing thing is permeated by electric energy, it may be remarked thateverything is luminous. The bat and the owl see in places that are dark to us, while the brightsun of noonday makes objects invisible to them. Our own bodies, opaque as they are, emit raysof light which animals can perceive in the night. Both light and sound are relative; the eyesthat can see and the ears which can hear are accountable for the recognition of both. Pythagoras taught that the heavenly bodies moved in their spiral courses in accordance with thenotes of music; so that, if we had ears properly attuned we might be able to hear "when themorning stars sang together." But what a storm of discordancies would then make life on earthunendurable. Even the imperfections of our senses have their compensations.

This polarity is admirably exhibited in the vegetable kingdom. The seed is deposited inthe earth, and as it germinates, the plumule goes upward, and radicle downward. The law ofpositive and negative rules. Every root and every branch of the tree is guided by the same law; and in the coniferous trees, they come but with a mathematical regularity, at prescribeddistances apart and each in its proper direction.

If the various celestial worlds are floating in a region of intense cold, they are solids, andby no means composed of molten elements. The sun, that mighty magnet that holds the planets

in their orbits while sending actinic emanations to them all, forcing them into motion, must beitself necessarily what the philosopher Anaxagoras declared, a

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stone. The earth is also of similar material. There are doubtless electric currents runningthrough it in various directions heating and chilling as they go. For example in the Comstockmine in Nevada, in one section, over two thousand feet below the surface, it is warm andincreases in warmth the lower the descent, in another section some thirty-five hundred feetbelow it is very cool. Such diversities are simply analogous to what is observed in theatmosphere at different points.

The ancient philosophers evidently had a knowledge and cognizance of this agent. Theydesignated ether an igneous air, and wrote of it as a special form of atmosphere. In theirscientific fabric, a cube at the bottom denoted the water; a globe next was the symbol of theearth; then was the crescent to indicate air and a lozenge to denote fire. The aether wasbeyond, alone and yet permeating all these. They wrote of it sometimes as a superior form ofatmosphere impregnated with life, in which the gods and celestial powers had their abode; yetwhich was so subtle and refined as to penetrate and permeate everything in existence. It hasalso even been conceived to be the divine spirit, Deity itself, the omnipotent Zeus, the ever-present Indra, the celestial blue.

Thus the modern steadily moves on to rectify the field of the ancient philosophers. However loudly they may decry the men and wisdom of the past and boast of the granddiscoveries and condition of later times, it is often but a recurring of the former achievements,the serpent with the tail in its mouth. The divine returns upon itself.

Francis Grierson remarks: "So far as we know, electricity is the soul of form. What wecall brain-waves have an analogy to electric waves. We are being ruled by the seeminglyimpossible. The day is not far distant when the science of the mind will treat material scienceas a plaything, and the spiritual power of intellect will kill Mammon like the stroke of anelectric bolt, and brute power succumb to soul-force."

"Science may yet stumble upon the soul," says Sir William Crookes. That would bewonderful, for dissectors of the human body do not even find its lurking place. But let us hopewhile "the lamp holds out to burn."

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"Who nobly does must nobly think,The soul that soars can never sink,And man's a strange connecting linkBetween frail dust and Deity."

(The Word, Vol. 3, pp. 197-202, July, 1906)

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WHY GHOSTS APPEAR?

Vision and visibility are matters not thoroughly understood. Nowhere is there uniformityof power. There is color for instance; one person will correctly discriminate where anotherwill confound various hues. A Kashmirian girl, we are told, will perceive and arrange threehundred distinct shades in a textile fabric, where the Lyonnaise can descry but a single tint. The meridian of the day is our criterion of sunlight; but the owl prefers the more luminousmidnight. It is all a matter of comparison, as we are compelled to acknowledge. Pure light isitself invisible; hence the ancient Chaos where only Night existed, was but the creation ofschoolmen. Really, it was not, and could not be; the All which included all, was always light. The night-side of Nature is the daytime of the soul.

It is often the practice to treat all concepts as well as examples of preternaturalmanifestation as delusion and hallucination. Philosophy, which was once considered asrelating to the things that are, is now regarded by certain scientific wise-acres, as anorthodoxly-arranged conglomerate of what has been scientifically observed; and wisdom,which was anciently revered as being the truth concerning real being, is now only set down as acunning wariness. It is the having of eyes to see on the dark side alone.

Herbert Spencer asserts that any world-wide belief, which has been persistentlyentertained throughout past ages, may be assumed as having a foundation in truth. The onepersistent belief of archaic time, which has pervaded all the world religions, the faiths andphilosophies of every people, has been the existence of ghosts. All races of human kind speakalike - Hindu - and German; Semite and Aethiopian; African and Australian; and Malay andAmerican. "The dead still live," said Ossian, "for we have seen their ghosts." The

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disciples of Pythagoras were never willing to believe that there was an individual living whohad not beheld a demon. The faith in spirits and spirituality transcended all other knowledge. How curiously it sounds to be told that hysteria and nervous disturbance are the cause ofapparitions; that there are innumerable varieties and gradations of living animals between manand the nomad, but that the infinite beyond is an unpeopled void! Science may explore thefield of phenomena, but the world of actual living entity, is only the realm of superstition. Aye,be it so. In super-stition we descry neither illusion nor delusion, but a standing upon theimmovable foundation of essential truth! It is the degradation of the human intellect whichgave the word any other meaning.

There is a faculty of the mind which enables the forming of images from ideas, renderingthem objective like memories invested with visible substance. William Blake, the artist, wouldfix in his mind the features of a person who was sitting for a picture, and after that, when in aproper mood and condition, would reproduce the form and lineaments so accurately as to beable to make the simulacrum answer the purpose of further sittings. Probably the image left onthe retina of his eye, had become a negative, as in the camera of the photographer and soenabled him to do this.

All visions are not created entirely by the projecting of ideas from the interiorconsciousness. The world beyond our physical ken, is as full of living and intelligent beings asthe one we daily encounter. It is in a degree subjective to us, yet distinct. The same faculty

which enabled Blake to evolve anew the form and figure of his sister, will also make visible theshape of such of these beings as may impress themselves upon the interior consciousness. Inorder to do this there is usually some strong motive on the part of the other, as well as thepeculiar condition of the seer. One class of such incentives proceeds from kinship. The sameaffections which characterize the living, are equally vivid in the world beyond; and so, veryoften those whom we account dead are active around the living. So vivid was this concept withthe more primitive people, that every family invoked and made gifts to its patriarchal ancestor,as a demon or divinity, to aid, protect and even counsel the members. The old serpent-worship,phallism

--- 390.

or other symbologies, as well as tutelary divinities, had their origin in this idea. Voicesperceived interiorally, and even heard as from without, were not uncommon. Sometimes theprotecting spirit was in a manner visible - not to all, but to particular individuals. Friendship ofa close, personal character would also favor this seeing of demons.

Other motives, not always so worthy, would carry with them the power of rendering thespectral appearance visible. No one crosses the boundary line of the earth-life, and is madebetter or poorer by the change. If selfish, sordid, or avaricious, the same sentiments abide, andtend to keep the person in the neighborhood of the object of his inordinate passion. Thedisposition to invoke the aid of living individuals, will operate to induce him to seek avenues ofcommunication, some of which will be so imperceptible, as to make the obsessed suppose themanifestation personal and subjective, while others will even result in actual apparitions. Inthis case, a vapor or nerve spirit envelopes the other and renders it visible. This is not so verymarvelous; these personalities are about us just as much when we are not aware of it, as whenwe are vividly conscious. The very air is alive with forces, that blend more or less with ourphysical conditions. The presence of these who once lived here like ourselves is no moreremarkable. Every religion that was ever cherished by man, and even the religion of the future,is an outcome of this fact.

The human faculty by which these things are perceived, is dormant in some and vivid inothers, but exists in every immortal being. "The soul is in a degree prophetic," says Socrates. According to Novalis, the seer is for the moment of vision, magnetic. There are persons, it isknown, who can at times produce that quality in metal; and even change the properties ofwater or drugs by contemplating them. Presentiment and sensitiveness are psychical, but willnot alone come up to seership and clairvoyance; the inner mind enables this.

An idea or image which is vivid in one person's mind, will be thought or witnessed as anobjective reality by another who is en rapport or close sympathy. "Apparitions of persons,places, and even buildings, will be seen as actually before the eyes. Persons often at

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a distance, will communicate to others or make them know or witness what they themselves areabout. Often this will be done by inducing dreams; because, when the external senses arelocked up the interior faculties may be more easily reached. Persons dying have theremarkable power of making their voice audible to others, and even of becoming visible tothem. The phosphoric emanation of the nervous system, may be in some manner accountable

for this phenomenon. It is idle to declaim against all this as vagary and hallucination. Prof.Graham Bell makes his voice audible at several hundred feet distance by the agency of asunbeam; and neither doppelganging, second sights, wraith visions nor other like displays, aremuch more wonderful.

Few ghosts have been given a resting-place in the Bible. The compilers and redactorspermitted "angel's visits,'' but seem to have euhemerized the ancestral and other spirits intosages and patriarchs or sheiks of tribes. A few, however, are left to preserve the memory of therace. The Obeah woman at the spring of Dura evoked the prophet Samuel from theunderworld, so that Saul might obtain an augury. In this case the earnest desire of the King,reaching towards the other as with a death-gripe, drew him into exterior perception, as frictionevolves caloric in wood. Elijah wrote a letter after going to heaven; Eliphaz, the friend of Job,saw a spirit and heard its voice; though we, like Jeremiah, would call it a "vision from his ownheart." Jesus is reputed to have held an interview with Moses or Elias. One or two otheranalogous occurrences are reported.

Apparitions or empousae were characteristic of the Eleusinian initiations. Some of themanifestations appear to have been produced by theatrical machinery. Perhaps others weremade visible by the magic draught, which each neophyte was required to swallow. Ancientpriests and hierophants were skillful in such compounds and distillments. The Vedic Soma, theAryan Haoma, the Akkadian nectar, and the Bacchic wine, were all magical. I doubt therebeing any alcoholic brewing about any of them. A brain saturated with the crude vapor ofalcohol, or the fumes of unwholesome and undigested food, or sensualized in any other way,would come short of clear thought or vision. But such herbs as aconite, atropa, cannabis,

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hellebore, mandragora and certain spicery were employed; and it is a curious fact that many ofthe old magical drugs employed to promote clairvoyance and mystic dreaming, have in latertimes appeared in the pharmacopaeias.

Many of the apparitions seem to have been due to a morbid anxiety, or some infatuationabout things or persons. The prevalent beliefs and even theologies which were cherishedduring lifetime, are often avowed by their ghosts. Any dogma, however absurd, can besupported by testimony thus procured, and overthrown in like manner. But, more frequently,the ghost or spirit is magnetized by the seer or intermediary, and speaks or suspires what hewould like or expect. Anciently when the proper entombing of the dead was regarded as a vitalmatter, spectres would beset the living in order to obtain the rites of sepulture and thecustomary offerings of food and drink. Some, whose bodies had been mutilated or torn topieces, would beseech the restoration of the missing parts. When one religion supplantedanother, ghosts of the former faith appeared to encourage unconvinced persons to resist theinnovation. The witchcraft of the Middle Ages, which in its former character of wisdom-crafthad been honored, was thus the most formidable antagonist of the Church for centuries.

The massacre of St. Bartholomew took place in Paris in 1580, on the accession of thenuptials of the first Bourbon king, then Duke of Navarre. Admiral Coligni, the chief of theProtestants of France, and a statesman of rare ability, was then assassinated. He was afterwardsperceived by a seer, years before the French Revolution, engaged actively in preparing for thatevent. Thus did "coming events cast their shadows before."

I have alluded to the preternatural sympathy often existing between persons of kindred

blood. Such feel and think alike simultaneously, and are affected by similar impulses anddisorders, even when at great distances apart. Sometimes wives and husbands have a likecommon nature, and are prophets to each other. Charlotte Bronte declared that the audible calland response of Rochester and Jane Eyre were recorded occurrences. When George Smith, theAssyrialogist, was dying in Hieropolis, a friend in London

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heard his own name called by him in distinct voice. The deceased father of the Duke ofBuckingham, the unscrupulous favorite of Charles I, visited a college friend repeatedly, andconstrained him to wait upon the Duke with a warning to change his course or be killed. TheDuke disregarded the appeal and was assassinated some months later. At the death of Dante,thirteen cantos of the Divine Comedy could not be found. About eight months afterwards, thepoet appeared to his son Jacopo, and told him that he still lived. Leading the young man to hisformer sleeping-chamber, he touched a partition and told him that the desired matter was there. Next day the missing manuscripts were found as indicated, moldy with dampness. On the nightof the 1st of February, 1733, Augustus II, Saxon King of Poland, appeared to Field MarshalVon Grumbkow, and announced that he had expired at that moment at Warsaw. Examples ofthis sort can be cited indefinitely.

In short, ghosts appear for the purpose of procuring some fancied comfort or advantagefor themselves or others to whom they are in some way allied. There seems to be generally abreath of earth, a soil or taint about them, in these cases. It requires peculiar conditions of bodyand atmosphere as well as of mind, to enable one to see them. Fasting, seclusion,contemplation, the use of some peculiar drug or beverage, are often important adjuncts. It isnot exceptional that persons of minor account are favored with the spectacle, while others moreconcerned are excluded. Evocation or conjuring will sometimes rouse up the denizens of theother world; but oftener, I suspect, the voice or apparition produced is counterfeit, even dupingthe seer himself. It appears to me that very many of the utterances, materializations and otherghostial displays are evolved from the persons witnessing them; and I must regard them asoutside the domain of a true spirituality. The kingdom of God, we may be sure, does not comewith observation, but is instead a presence. - Religio-Philosophical Journal

(The Theosophist, March, 1881)

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MEDICINE

THE AESCULAPIAN ART OF HEALING

"The knowledge which a people possesses of the art of healing is the measure of itsrefinement and civilization," Thomas Carlyle declares. The history of the art is as old as the

history of the human race. To know this history is equivalent to knowing the origins ofcivilization itself. But, so far as we know, the world has never been wholly civilized or whollysavage, but every region has in its turn enjoyed a higher culture which has preceded and oftenfollowed by a period of barbarism. The valleys of the Nile and Euphrates are vivid examples. Such cycles of alternate savagery and civilization will probably continue until, perhaps, theearth shall become unfit to sustain human populations.

Every country that has a literature in regard to the ancient period of its history possessessome account of the art of healing. The nations most venerable for antiquity of which we haveany account - Egypt, India, and China - had each a caste of physicians belonging to thesacerdotal orders. Indeed, the various peoples of whom less is known, like the Skyths,abounded with an ancient lore which embraced the art of divining, the treatment of disease andreligious rites. What was called "magic" was no more no less than this.

The serpent being the symbol of arcane and superior wisdom, was the mystic sign of themediciner. In the story of the book of Genesis he showed that to eat of the tree of Knowledgewould make human beings to be as divine ones in their matured perception of good and evil. Moses, we are told, placed the copper effigy of a serpent on a staff as a token of safety from mortal peril. The two

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serpents united on the magic staff of Apollo, Aesculapius and Hippokrates, all signified thesame thing. Hence to the staff as well as the serpent has been accorded a place as part of thephysician's armamentarium. A physician without his staff would have been regarded like hisfellow, the enchanter, without his wand. Indeed, some have regarded the cabalistic R with itscross, that prefaces the medical prescription, not as an abbreviation of "recipe," or "take," but amodern form of the figure of the serpent on the staff.

In the occult symbology the serpent represented the principle of life, the knowledge ofwhich rendered the individual a being preternaturally endowed, if not actually divine. In thisway the magus or magician (priest of Fire) was regarded as having power over the world ofnature as others did not.

The staff of the healer was likewise considered to have a mysterious energy. Thedirection of the Hebrew prophet to his servant, when the Shunamite's son had succumbed tosunstroke, was a meaning one: "Take my staff in thine hand and go thy way; if thou meet anyone, salute him not, and if any salute thee answer him not again; and lay my staff upon the faceof the child." It was the current belief that the staff was permeated with a healing virtue fromthe hand of its owner, which could be imparted to the senseless child and arouse him from thedeathlike trance. Hence the caution to speak to no one on the way, whereby this occult virtuemight be dissipated.

Klearkhos has given the account of a mantis or diviner, who, in the presence of Aristotlethe philosopher and also physician, by the means of a wand produced a cataleptic condition in achild, and afterward restored the patient to consciousness. Examples are numerous of theuniversality of similar notions. The sceptre of the king was believed to possess magical virtue; the baton or truncheon of the magistrate, the rod of the prophet, the flagellum, barsom orthyrsus of the divinity, all belong in the same category.

In the temples of archaic Egypt were schools of learning where students were instructedin all branches of knowledge. Even dentistry, the plugging of teeth with gold, and the inserting

of teeth, were also taught. Every temple had its staff of medical practitioners. One king ofremote antiquity, Ser or Tosorthros, was a builder and

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physician, and was therefore named Imhepht or Emeph, the Aesculapius of Egypt.Although the physicians of the privileged sacerdotal order were under strict regulations,

there was little impediment to the employing of other practitioners. Indeed, empirics andpretenders were as common as in more modern times; clairvoyants and "mediums" practiced insuch characters; charms and amulets were employed, and pieces of papyrus have been foundwith written sentences upon them which had been used for magic and healing purposes. Thebelief has been current in all ages that hieroglyphics, runes, astronomic and even alphabeticcharacters possessed an occult virtue and might be employed with benefit to cure bodily ills.

Without doubt the prophets of the temples themselves cherished faith in certain modes ofobtaining superior knowledge which, in later times, would hardly be acceptable. Like the restof our humankind they believed in there being actual communication with Divinity, and thatmost salutary physical results might thereby be obtained. Sculptures over the walls of thesacred edifices indicate familiarity with the practice and phenomena of Animal Magnetism,particularly with the sacred hypnotisms. Says Prometheus:*

"There shalt ZeusHeal thy distraction, and with gentle hand Soothe thee to peace."

The hand, and especially the forefinger or index medicus are common in symbolic representation** and imply that they were employed to impart the healing virtue. Thewords of the Syrian general, Naaman, show the generality of the practice among physicians inthe order of prophets. "Behold," says he, "I said to

-----------* Aesculapius: Prometheus Bound.** The sister of the wife of the king of Bakhtana being ill beyond common skill, an

embassy was sent to Egypt for a "royal scribe intelligent in heart and skillful with his fingers."-------------- 397.

myself: 'He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call upon the name of his God, andextend his hand over the place, and heal the plague.'" Indeed, the term surgery or kheirourgikesignifies manipulation and appears to have been originally employed in that sense.

It is easy to prate about superstition, but the quality so termed is more deeply embeddedin human nature than we, perhaps, are willing to acknowledge. In fact, the word "superstition"has been sadly perverted from its primitive meaning - superior consciousness, a consciousnessof superior things. Much of our dogma, much that is called "scientific" in medicine is anoutgrowth from the sources which are superciliously disdained. Names have been changed butthe things remain.

In archaic Greece, as in other countries, the art of healing was regarded as divine.

Agamede, "who knew each healing herb," was described as consorting with the immortalPoseidon, once the Supreme god of Hellas and Libya. Then when the gods of Olympussuperseded the older ones, Apollo became the favorite divinity. He was not only god of musicand divination, but the physician of the gods. Then, also, we read of a race in Thessaly,Kentaurs or kohentaurs, priests of the caves, skillful in healing. One of their number, mostcultivated of them all, was Kheiron,* the fabled instructor of Achilles and Aesculapius. Fromhim the practitioners of Thessaly were denominated Kheironidae, and perhaps his art was thusnamed kheirougike or chirurgica.

Thessaly was anciently celebrated for curious arts. A district bore the name of Magnesia,and the lodestone appears to have derived thence its name of magnet. That magic, magnetismand medicine should all be peculiar there, is very significant and suggestive.

Aesculapius, or Asklepios, as he was named in Greece, was originally a foreign divinity; but having been introduced into Greece he was naturalized there as the son of Apollo. Hisprincipal temples

-----------* This name, Kheiron, also written Chiron, is evidently formed from kheir, the hand,

intimating the use of the hand in the treatment.-------------- 398.

were at Epidaurus in the Morea, in the island of Kos, and in the Asian city of Pergamis. Epidaurus, however, was regarded as the primitive seat, and here was his hospital, theatre, andthe den in which the sacred serpents were reared. One of these animals was carried to everynew shrine of the divinity at its consecration.

The poets describe Aesculapius as the son of the god Apollo, by the maid Koronis, and asone of the hero-gods who accompanied Jason on the Argonautic expedition which went toKolkhis in quest of the Golden Fleece. Homer mentions his sons as ministering to the sick andwounded at the siege of Troy. Honors were paid to his daughters as divinities. Their names,Hygeia the goddess of health, Aigle the brilliant, Panakaia the all-healing virtue, and Iaso, thesavior from besetting evils, were poetic inventions to indicate that Aesculapian art included inits purview every means of preserving the body as well as of restoring it to soundness.

The symbols and images of Aesculapius after his introduction into Greece weresubjected, as far as practicable, to the modifications of Hellenic art. The squat figure whichwas peculiar to him as one of the Kabeirian gods of Lower Egypt* and the composite figures orcherubs of Assyria were changed to more symmetric human shapes. We find him accordinglyrepresented, somewhat like his counterparts, the Eastern Bacchus and the Kretan Zeus. Ofcourse the serpent and the dog were retained; the delineation would otherwise have beenincomplete. A dwarf figure, however, was kept in a hidden recess of the temple. On the coinsof Epidaurus he was exhibited as an infant nursed by the goat and guarded by the dog. AtKorinth and other places he had the figure of a child holding in one hand the rod or sceptre, andin the other a fir-cone after the manner of the Assyrian

-----------* Herodotus describes the statue of Ptah, the Egyptian demiurgos, as resembling a pigmy.

The Kabeiri were said to be his sons and to be like him in figure. Asklepios was reckoned like

them and the eighth of their number. The Persian conqueror Kambyses made great sport of theungainly figures, and then burned them. - Book, iii., 37.-------------- 399.

worship. He was also depicted classically as a man of mature years, bald, with a flowingbeard, and partly covered by his robe, holding in his hand the knotted magic staff encircled bythe serpent. Sometimes the animal was coiled in the form of a bowl, as though to represent themystic cup of Hygeia the goddess of health. Not infrequently, however, he was portrayed inthe form of the serpent alone; and in every Asklepion a living serpent was maintained as hissimulacrum.

The Hieron or holy precinct at Epidauros was long the most celebrated of his shrines. Itcontained a sanctuary, a park, a sacred grove and a theatre capable of holding twelve thousandspectators.* Kos, however, was more honored at a subsequent period. Pergamos, themountain-city of Asia Minor, was also famous for its Asklepion as well as for its great libraryand seat of learning. At the various temples the Asklepia or festivals of the god werecelebrated; and his priests, the Asklepiads, presided at the altars and rites.

As every sacerdotal body in ancient times was a secret order, having a free-masonry of itsown, the Aesculapian fraternity exercised a like exclusiveness. Fathers in the order instructedtheir children and teachers their pupils, but only as members of an oath-bound brotherhood,incurring the penalties of the out-caste for any violation. In course of time, however, therecame to be two classes of practitioners. One was the Asklepiads, who possessed the religiousand secret learning; the other, the "iatroi" or mediciners, who had not been formerly initiated,but were able from their skill and deftness in treatment to practice the art with fair success. These latter physicians were generally employed to care for the invalid poor and for those oflow rank in society.

With the adoption of Aesculapius as a Grecian divinity, his worship was engrafted uponthe initiatory rites of the Eleusinia. After the Greater Mysteries had been celebrated, the orgiesof the god of

-----------* The Grecian Theatre was the outcome of the Mystic Rites. It was introduced with the

worship of Bacchus, and was actually a temple. The theatre of modern times had a similarbeginning in the famous Mystery plays of the Middle Ages.-------------- 400.

Epidaurus followed on the eighth day. Swine were washed and sacrificed at the Minor Rites;*the cock to Aesculapius. The dying words of Sokrates had their mystic purport: "Krito, weowe the cock to Asklepios; discharge that debt for me."

The Asklepiads, following the archaic usage, professed to be lineal descendants of theireponymous ancestral god. They even had genealogies to demonstrate this claim. BothHippokrates and the historian Ktesias, as late as the Persian wars against Greece, pridedthemselves on this divine origin of the families to which they belonged. It would seem,therefore, that Hippokrates, by committing his knowledge to writing, had disregarded hisobligations as a member of a secret order of priests; or else we must suppose that he wrote

only upon the subjects which others were free to learn. Doubtless this was the case. "The holyword may be revealed to the initiated only," says Hippokrates; "the profane may not receive itbefore initiation."

The temples were thronged with the sick as well as with common worshipers. Only theinitiated, however, might enter the sacred precinct, except by permission of the superintendingpriest. This was granted on condition of undergoing a religious purification, or, in other words,the preliminary initiations. Fasting, abstinence from wine, and bathing were strictly enjoined. Mesmerism and massage were among the chief agents that were depended upon. Sleep-houseswere provided and great diligence employed to ascertain whether the patients, when in thehypnotic or clairvoyant condition, had received any suggestion in regard to their treatment. The remedial means generally consisted of medicinal roots and herbs, and a carefulregimen, together with the various religious invocations, ceremonies and other magicobservances.

It was not attempted, however, to cure persons who were thoroughly diseased. Aesculapius was of the opinion, Plato informs us, that a man ought not to be cured who couldnot live in the ordinary

-------------* Epistle of Peter, II, ii, 22: "The sow that was washed is turned again to her wallowing

in the mire."---------------- 401.

course, without prescribing a specific diet and regimen, as in that case he would be of noservice. Incurables were carefully excluded from the temples. When a sick person failed ofrecovery, it was usual to lay the blame upon him instead of the treatment. The priest-physiciandeclared to him that his unbelief and sins were the cause of the failure, or else that it was someordinance of fate.

Philosophic speculation led to the development of new ideas in all the principal fields ofthought. So long as the teachers exhibited an external assimilation to the general sentiment ofthe leaders of the community, they could enjoy the utmost liberty of belief in their schools andin private discussions apart from the public. It is a significant fact that the philosophers weregenerally physicians, or individuals skilled in medical lore.

Among these eminent men Hippokrates held a prominent rank. He was a member of themedical caste, and his lineal descent has been reckoned from Aeseulapius himself. He wasinstructed in the temple-school of Kos, then the most celebrated medical seminary in Greece; and he afterward sojourned at Athens, where he became a student of Herodikos of Selymbria,and attended the lectures of the most distinguished sophists. He also, as was the ancientcustom of philosophers, traveled over many different countries, remaining for long periods atplaces where epidemics were raging, and observing their progress and characteristics. He issaid to have arrested a great plague at Athens. Finally he established himself in Thessaly, thecountry so famous for medical and magical knowledge. He was a philosopher, and whilepersonally familiar with the sages of his time, he never hesitated to elaborate and propound hisown dogmas. He was likewise profoundly religious, but he did not have that veneration forthings that were esteemed as divine which hindered him from investigation into the nature andconditions of physical occurrences. All causes he believed to be of divine agency, but their

operation was directed by constant laws and natural conditions. To explore these with a viewto remedy evils and benefit mankind was, therefore, not only lawful, but a work of the highestmerit.

His maxim was explicit: " Nature is the chief physician." He was careful, therefore, notto interfere with what he regarded as

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reparative efforts, but endeavored to promote them. He prescribed total abstinence from foodwhile a disorder was on the increase, and a spare diet on other occasions. He consideredexcesses of all kinds as dangerous, and that the bodily functions should never transgress thelimits marked out by nature. Persons in health, he said, should abstain from all kinds ofmedicine. He declared cathartics to be the medicine most difficult for individuals to bear. Healso disapproved of too strict a regimen, as being more hurtful to a person in health than a freermode of living.

He did not reject philosophy or its methods. He was more or less in harmony withPythagoras, and he religiously accepted the notion of supernal agency in all visible operations. He considered it to be the proper task of the inquirer to find out the laws and conditions bywhich the agency of the superior beings was determined and according to which it might beforetold. He also accepted with implicit obedience the beliefs of his time in magical divination,prophetic dreams and clairvoyance. Familiar as he was with the temple-sleep of the Asklepia,it was to be expected that he should fully concur with these prevailing opinions, "Even whenthe eyes are closed," says he, "the soul sees everything that goes forward in the body." Again,he is explicit: "When the soul has been freed by sleep from the more material bondage of thebody, it retires within itself as into a haven, where it is safe against storms. It perceives andunderstands whatever is going on around it, and represents this condition as if with variouscolors, and explains clearly the condition of the body."

Both Hippokrates and Galen after him, with their disciples, taught the efficacy of charms,amulets and spells. The statuettes and simulacra of the gods were considered to possess rarevirtue. Gems, especially with a mystic design or legend upon them, were believed to havepower over disordered conditions. Amulets of various styles were carried to avert evils. Thebelief in these has not passed away; and it is by no means impossible or improbable that theyperform the service of fixing the attention and developing a confidence that is most salutary inits effects. As a man thinketh, so is he.

It is by no means certain that any of the writings imputed to Hippokrates are genuine. It was not the habit of his time for

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physicians to write books. But there was a practice current for scribes and others both toabridge and interpolate the books that had been written, and to ascribe their own compositionsto more famous individuals. The Middle Ages abound with such jugglery. The Hippokraticoath is one of the examples.

Perhaps Athanaeos of Pamphylia was a good representative of th true Aesculapian art. He began to teach about the beginning of the present era, and many of his procedures closelyresembled those described in the Gospels. He was both a critical scholar and a philosopher.

He rejected the notion of a plurality of elements, affirming them to be only qualities of the onematter. He revived the theory of the existence of an immaterial principle called pneuma, orspirit; and that the state of this principle in the individual was the source of health and disease. A school of medicine, or perhaps we should say of human science, was founded by the name ofPneumaticists, or Spiritualists, which based medical practice upon this foundation. "Jesus theChrist," the late W. F. Evans declares, "seems to have adopted, or rather to have conformed Hispractice to that theory, and without deviating from it."

Nevertheless, as all are not equal to such exaltation of perception and psychopathicmethod, there were always conditions and provision for the weak in faith and those that wereoutside. Athenus himself wrote medical treatises, setting forth the distinction to be madebetween Materia Medica and Therapeutics, and enforcing the relations of diet to health. TheEclectic School, which advocated simple and restorative medication, discountenancing thepractice of drugging, but depending chiefly on diet and regimen, was an outgrowth or offshootfrom the other.

It has often been affirmed with a sneer that the beneflcial effect of such treatment weredue to the activity of the imagination. We do not need to refute or disclaim the assertion. It isthe province of the imagination to form all our ideas and concepts, and to elaborate them intotheir proper results. It takes the things of the Ideal and shows them to us as realities. Not onlydoes it rule the world, but it creates the world. The mind is the individual. It gives shape towhat it sees. What is produced, whether a house or a machine, state of health or

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the prostration of disease, is the effigy; the manifestation, the copy of a model or prior form inthe mind. Imagination is no simple embodying of what is visionary, of vagary andhallucination, but the giving of sensible image to the things that already are. Science, to beworthy of being considered as knowledge, should take cognizance of these immaterial things,and of the laws by which they are shaped into objective realities.

In so far as the primitive Aesculapian art included these conceptions, it was worthy ofveneration and admiration. It reached from the idea into the everyday life, adopted the meansto accomplish the ends, and achieved beneficent results. "Life is but thought," and "health thevital principle of bliss."

(Metaphysical Magazine, Oct., 1899)

------------------------- 405.

MAGNETISM AS A HEALING ART - AND ITS HISTORY

I. ANIMAL MAGNETISMII. ANIMAL MAGNETISM APPLIEDIII. INSTRUCTIONS IN MAGNETIZING

The early records of the healing art have always attached an importance to the agency of thehand, which later practitioners and writers have greatly overlooked. We find it in every part of theold world, that is, really old from having an old history. Celsus the accomplished Roman authortreats of it in one of the departments of his great work Upon The Arts, written about the time of theChristian era. In the treatise De Re Medica, upon the Medical vocation, he presents the followingclassification as it existed in the time of Herophilus and Erasistratos, one an Asklepiad and theother grandson of Aristotle, who founded the medical chairs in the world-famous schools ofAlexandria.

"During this time," says he, "physic was divided into three parts: the first cured by diet, thesecond by medicines, and the third by manipulations. The first, they denominated diaiteke (orregimen); the second, pharmakeutike (or the administration of remedies); and the third,cheirourgike, (or operating by the hand). This last does not discard medicines and a properregimen, but yet the principal part is accomplished by the hand. And the effect of this is the mostevident of all the parts of medicine. This branch, though it be the most ancient, was morecultivated by Hippokrates than by his predecessors. Afterward, being separated from the otherparts, it began to have its particular professors, and received considerable improvements in Egypt,as well as elsewhere, particularly from

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Philoxenas."It will be perceived from this quotation that the chirurgic art, now known by the abbreviation

of surgery, was originally the art and technic of curing with the hand. Emanuel Swedenborgexplains it, that the touch signifies communication, transferring and receiving; because it is thisin reality. We put our interior energies into action by the hand and touch, and so communicatethem to another, or share them in common with him. The will does the work. In the accountsgiven of Jesus, we find this very carefully set forth. When he had uttered his famous Sermon onthe Mount, and descended into the plain, I suppose of Jezreel or Esdralon, a leper comes to himand says: "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." And Jesus put forth his hand andtouched him, saying: "I will; be thou clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Again,coming to the house where Peter's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, he touched her hand and thefever left her. When he was invited to the house of Jairus, an officer of the synagogue, the mansaid: "My daughter is even now dying; but come and lay thy hand upon her and she will live."Sure enough, when he arrived, the place was thronged with flute-boys and paid mourners, allchanting the dirge. He instantly commanded silence, because the girl was not dead, but sleeping.They answered with a scornful laugh of incredulity, upon which they were commanded to leavethe room. He then took her by the hand and said: "Talitha, kumi" - Girl, rise up.

In the legend of Naaman, the Syrian, it is related that that personage was angry because theprophet Elisha would not come out to him. "I thought," said he, "he will surely come out and standand call on the name of the Lord his God, and pass his hand upon the leprous place."

There was a priestly ceremony of like character, the imposition of the hands. The priestplaced his hands upon the head of the victim. Joshua was said to be full of a spirit of wisdom,because Moses had laid his hands upon him. Paul insists that he, too, imparted virtue by the layingon of his hands. It was not a ceremony, a religious rite, but a bestowing of energy. One of thedisputed texts of the Gospel according to Mark declares: "These signs shall follow

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them that believe: ....they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." This was no newpledge or assurance. It was a thing older than history. In the reign of Rameses XII. of the 20thdynasty of Egypt, an embassy came to him from his father-in-law, the king of Baktan. It wasdesired that a scribe of the priestly order should visit this monarch's younger daughter, who wasunable to move. The Egyptian king at once convoked the priests and learned men, and demandedthem to produce "a man of intelligent heart and skillful with his fingers." The man was selectedand went home with the embassy, a seventeen months' journey. The princess recovered. Thehieroglyphic records of Egypt present several delineations of laying hands upon the sick.

Hippokrates had therefore abundance of precedent for his peculiar chirurgic method. Egypt,Syria and Asia Minor had long employed it. He was emphatically what is now somewhatostentatiously denominated a magnetic healer. As he is also denominated the Father of Medicine,it may be well to enquire who he was. He belonged to the caste or family of priests, at the templeof Asklepios, or as he is more popularly called Aesculapius. He was born about the year 460before our era, and became a student of the fire-philosophy of Herakleitos. After his father's deathhe traveled extensively, finally making his home in Thessaly, where he lived to the age of eighty-five, or as others say, ninety, one hundred, or one hundred and nine years.

It was in Thessaly that Hellenic development began. The country has the appearance of alake bottom, drained by the disruption of one of the mountains at the east. Mount Olympus, wherethe Hellenian gods of the later regime abode, separated it from Macedonia. Other ranges ofmountains fenced it on other sides. The river Peneus flowed through it, and had numerousbranches which were generally accessible by galleys. The Phoenicians early navigated the regionand introduced many of their usages. It was early a republic of confederated states. One of these,lying between Mount Ossa and the Aegean Sea, was called Magnesia, and the people Magnetes.Homer says that the sons of Asklepios reigned there. We have here a tradition of the origin of theAsklepiads, the

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priest physicians of ancient Greece.Asklepios, however, was not a Grecian god, except by adoption and naturalization. He was

of Semite or Ethiopian breed. The name is Hebrew or Phoenician, and means the lord of fire.Hence we find him with a swarm of names - Adar-maloch, the fire king, Boal-Harman, the lordof the altar fire, Esman, the vital heat. I am not quite clear whether he or Apollo was the genuinedivinity of the Philistines, Baal-Zebul the Overlord or Lord of all - later nicknamed Beelzebub,prince of demons. The fire of which he was king was called the Eternal fire. The Supreme Beingwas fabled as dwelling in it. "The Lord spake to you out of the midst of the fire," says the writerof Deuteronomy. Properly speaking, this fire was a pure life-principle. When Moses saw thesacred bush pervaded by it, the bush was not consumed. The founders of the worship of Fireconsidered it as a principle to be cognized only in the innermost possibility of thought. It was notour vulgar, gross fire; nor even the purest material fire; but an occult, mysterious, supernaturalfire; a real, sensible and only possible mind, containing all things and the soul of all things - theabsolute, immortal light. Of this, the visible fire is only a shadow or emblem. This was theSupreme Being of the Persian and his fellow people.

The spire on the church, the dome on the temple, the round tower and the pyramid, only

represent the tapering flame pointing to the sky. The serpent, darting hither and thither, denotedliving flame, the highest life and highest wisdom, and so was the favorite symbol of religion. Hewas Asklepios, the god of fire, of life and health. Every temple of Esculapius had its holy snake,and everywhere the snake is the emblem of the knowledge and art of healing. Herakleitos, thephilosopher, had taught that this divine fire formed and gave life to all things; and so Hippokratesbecame his disciple. The Asklepiads, the priest-physicians of Greece, were priests of the fire-godand he belonged to their number. Wherever Asklepios had a sanctuary, a tradition or holy writingwas improvised to account for it. Outside of Greece he was identical with Hermes, the god oflearning, Kadmor the inventor of letters, and the healing gods. In Greece he was made the son ofApollo, and assigned to several birthplaces. He was a

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serpent hatched from a crow's egg, he was another Bacchus caught in embryo from the burningbody of his mother; he was a native of Epidaurus, Messenia and Thessalia. One set of biographerstell us that he was a ward and pupil of Cheiron, the Kentaur; thus becoming first a great physicianand then the divine patron of medicine. There are those who imagine this to be a fragment ofhistory. It may be history, but not in that direction.

The tower, or taur as the Syrians called it, was the pillar or pyramid sacred to the Fire-god.It was common to set apart mountain-summits for the sacred temples; and it was consideredsacrilegious to cut away the trees, except for the altars. These precincts were the earlier temples.They were tors or tops; hence every rock was a tur, and the caves in the rocks were sacred.Thessaly, surrounded on all sides by high mountains, had abundance of these towers, and we mayadd a profusion of gods and priests.

I have said already that the Phoenicians frequented Thessaly. Their designation of a priestis cohen, the same as that of the Jews. Kohn, kahn, coan are all the same word. So the priests ofThessaly were kohen-taurs - priests of the hill-summits, kentaurs. In the hieroglyphic languagethey were depicted as half men, half horses. This was a kind of phonetic horse standing for thesound hippo, and the man for kentaur. Hippos was a designation of kybele or the Great Mother,whose rites were celebrated in those regions; and the priests of Thessaly were called hippoi orhorses in the story of Hercules. Pindar tells us that the kentaurs were the progeny of the Hippoiof Magnesia.

If I have been carefully followed, the story is pretty well guessed. In Magnesia was thefamous lodestone which moved as having life. Such stones were kept in the temples as theemblems or images of the Great Mother, denoting that she was quick with living offspring. Themares as ignorant or mystic writers chose to call them, the hippoi or priests of Magnesia, whorevered the lodestone as the great parent or womb of all living things, have given us one word, thatof magnetism, from the Magnetes or inhabitants of this province of Magnesia. We take a stepfurther. The centaurs were priests or descendants of these priests of Magnesia. Their mostcelebrated

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leader was named Cheiron: the very same who was said to have reared and instructed Asklepios.Why was he called Cheiron? Every name has a meaning and a reason. Cheir signifies the

hand; and cheiron is but the human hand personified. If, then, cheiron is the personified hand, and

the kentaur is but a priest who worshiped the magnet as the Great Mother, does it require muchacumen or a very profound intellect to perceive that the art of Asklepios was healing bymagnetism, and that Cheiron, the chief of the Kentaurs, was but the personification of manipulation- the cheirouric art which Celsus tells of?

Remember that the chief Greek gods come from Thessaly. Remember that Thessaly taughtconfederated republicanism to Greece; what of science and skill was possessed was derived fromthat region. Its population were the richest in all Greece. Indeed, the name Hellas, which becamethe designation of the whole country, was taken from a province in Thessaly, ruled by Achilles.

Another name of the priests of the Great Mother was Daktyles. They had every art that wasknown; they invented letters, exorcized away sickness, discovered and wrought the metals,invented music; in short, were magicians and sorcerers. Legends said there were but five of them- then ten, five male and five female. Again, the number was increased. But what of the name?Daktylos means finger. The first idea is that fingers, ten fingers, are thus magical and all-powerful."This is the finger of the Gods," said the magicians to Pharaoh, when Moses beat them. Fingersare the instruments of the hand to do everything. So a priesthood, a learned class, are the fingersof the right hand and the left. How far they will reach. One legend says that the priests of Kreteeach had ten sons, all called Dactyles.

It would be easy to show that every god of importance worshiped in the Grecian Pantheonwas a personified magnet; every priest a magnetizer, at least the old priests. It will be rememberedthat Herakles is said to have destroyed the Kentaurs, and that the Asklepios succeeded them.

I will speak of one more class, the Telchines. We have the same story and number. Therewere five of them, powerful enchanters, controllers of nature and the elements, and sons of

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Poseidon. They also wrought the metals. They forged for Kronos his sickle or rather hisboomerang, they made the necklace of Hermione, they brought up the infant Zeus. Their name isfrom the word thelgo - to soothe, to charm, to effect with the hands, as by magic art.

That magnetism both of the lodestone and the human personality were both understood andpracticed in ancient times admits not the shadow of a doubt. The Messalians appear likewise tohave associated the two together very much as at the present day. What Reichenbach denominatesthe Odylic force was also recognized. Rays were seen by some to issue from the fingers, from theeyes and other parts of the body. There was also the rabdos, or magic staff, which would producesleep and arouse from sleep. The gods had each his sceptre; and we find mention of one exhibitedin the presence of Aristotle, which cast a boy into a deep sleep and enabled him to behold a vision.Elihu, the prophet, despatched his servant Gehazi with his staff to lay it on the face of theShunamite's child and resuscitate him. It did not succeed; and the prophet next employed personalcontact with success.

In restoring animal magnetism to its place in therapeutics, we return to the old path.Asklepios and his divine power are employed, the real art and science of Hippokrates, and thesacred agency energized by faith, which we read so much about in the New Testament. It is nodream of fancy that we are discoursing about. We recognize disease as the effect andmanifestation of debility and the exhaustion of vital energy; and so understanding it, we seek torestore it by the imparting of an influx which shall in some degree supply the loss or impairment.The fire which gave existence we would seek to employ to maintain it. How far we mayapproximate that ideal is to be ascertained.

I. ANIMAL MAGNETISM

Animal magnetism is defined by Du Potet as that occult influence which organized bodiesexercise upon each other at a

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distance. I am not ready to accept this definition, because it is obscure, and I do not subscribe tothe proposition of distance. The explanation in Webster's Dictionary is perhaps as near to thecommon understanding as any. "A supposed agent of a peculiar and mysterious nature, said tohave a powerful influence on the patient when acted upon by contact with, or by the will of theoperator." Mesmerism: "the art of inducing an extraordinary or abnormal state of the nervoussystem, in which the actor claims to control the actions, and communicate directly with the mindof the recipient."

"Supposed agents" are curious things. The attractive principle of the lodestone is one.Electricity is one. Actinism is one. Chemical affinity is but a supposed agent. Then, too, we mayclass in the same category that dynamic potency that impelled a certain young man to make ajourney of ten miles once each week to visit a young woman who had somehow obtained a holdupon his imagination. These supposed things beat horsepower and steam.

In 1784 a commission was deputed by Louis XVI of France to examine the subject of animalmagnetism. Four physicians and five scientists were appointed. Not one of them was willing toaccept evidence against the opinion which he already entertained; and it was the legitimate resultof their so-called investigation that the alleged discovery of Mesmer was an imposture.

Indeed, Mesmer had had a somewhat similar experience already. He was a German, aregularly educated physician, graduating at Vienna in 1766. He had propounded this doctrine ofoccult forces in the thesis presented to his teachers at the University. It was his belief that, animalmagnetism would perfect the action of medicines, and enable the physician to judge with certaintyin regard to diseases and their cure; thus giving to the art of healing its final perfection. But theprophet found none to honor him in his native country. A Jesuit priest, Father Hill, Professor ofAstronomy at Vienna, artfully misrepresented his ideas and succeeded in bringing the whole matterinto discredit. If the discovery had occurred in Italy a century and a half earlier, Mesmer woulddoubtless have expiated the matter at the stake. As it is, he only reaped the harvest of opprobriumwhich is the chief prize won by the inventor or discoverer

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of a beneficial idea.What Mesmer taught was substantially as follows: That there exists a mutual influence

between the heavenly bodies, the earth and all living bodies. That there is a fluid (or ether) ofincomparable tenuity diffused everywhere capable of receiving, propagating and communicatingthe impressions of motion, by which this influence is conveyed. That this reciprocal actionoperates in accordance with certain laws, not before known. That there exists and are manifestedin the human body, properties analogous to those of the magnet, which pertain to the nervestructure, and render the body susceptible to the influence of the heavenly bodies and of the

reciprocal action of the bodies which surround it. These peculiar properties, denominated animalmagnetism, act upon other bodies animate and inanimate, and even upon bodies at a remotedistance without the aid of an intermediate body. The mineral magnet is itself also susceptible;and hence the utility of magnetism and artificial electricity in diseases is solely due to animalmagnetism. Hence he inferred that this magnetic principle is capable of curing diseases of thenerves immediately, and other disorders mediately. He proposed accordingly a new "Theory ofDiseases," which would set forth the universal utility of the new agent.

The condemnation of Mesmer in his absence, and of his doctrines, followed as a matter ofcourse. M. Bailly, a scientist of some repute, and a dogmatist in his way, wrote the report, andtook great pains to circulate it broadcast over France. I abhor the religious bigotry which dictatedthe burning alive of Giordano Bruno and Michael Servetus; but I have never found the bigotry ofunbelief any less intense or its liberality any broader. Behold Animal Magnetism judged andcondemned by the representatives of Science. Our own Franklin added his voice to the verdict.Guillotin, whose name has achieved a more fearful celebrity than almost any other, was one whohelped down the new science to speedy death.

The French skeptics had no better success in crushing out animal magnetism than they haveachieved in their kindred endeavor to crush out God and eliminate him from the created universe.One member of the French Academy, de Jussieu, had the courage to

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speak on the other side. He insisted that the peculiar action attributed to the universal fluid, orether, which the others had declared was not demonstrated, appertained also animal heat. It existedin bodies, emanated from them, and is capable of passing from one body to another. It isdeveloped, increased or diminished in a body by moral as well as by physical causes. Accordingly,de Jussieu spoke favorably of animal magnetism; pleading that longer time and experience wouldmake it better understood, and that every physician had the right to follow the methods which hedeemed advantageous in the treatment of disease.

Forty years passed away. The Bourbon sun waned and waxed again. The new generationof medical men began to think of building a sepulchre for the man whom their fathers had desiredto kill. Morton of Boston is not the only man statue as one of the world's benefactors. [sic]

While the physicians of the Royal Academy were proving mesmerism a fallacy, the Marquisof Puysegur and others were operating successfully with it, and learning more things than men hadbefore dreamed. In 1825 the Academy was formally required to appoint a new commission andre-examine the matter. The reason pleaded for this was couched in these emphatic words:"because in Science no decision whatever is absolute and irrevocable; because the moraldispositions of the former commissioners were such as to cause a complete failure of theexperiments." Such men as Magendie, La Motte, Hasson and Leroux, were appointed this time,and followed the matter up five years. M. Hasson wrote the report. We find in it the broaddeclaration that magnetism was a world-old matter; that only susceptible persons were influencedby it; and that it was not always necessary that they should be aware that they were being thusoperated upon. Certain of the effects seemed to depend on magnetism alone and are notreproduced without it. Some were disturbed and others tranquilized. New faculties weredeveloped, such as clairvoyance, intuition and internal prevision; also physiological changes, likeinsensibility, a considerable and sudden increase in strength, and also a paralysis. In conclusion,the commissioners declared: "The Academy should encourage the

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researches in Magnetism, as a very curious branch of Psychology and Natural History."Messieurs Double and Magendie did not sign this report. They had witnessed no

experiments. The members of the Academy acted like persons outside. Those who believedbefore were more confirmed; and those who had disbelieved still refused to accept the evidence.But animal magnetism was no longer shackled by their influence.

It is hardly necessary to trace further the history. I have shown it to be ancient, Esculapian,Hippocratic and apostolic. It was practiced in every sanctuary, and constituted a prominent featurein the recognized healing art. Only it was unlawful for any but a priest or initiated person toattempt its use. Hence the following charge of sacrilege was made against Jesus for healing by thetouch: "He is a magian who has done all these things by a clandestine art; he has positively takenfrom the Egyptian temples the names of the powerful angels, and has robbed them of their ancientcustoms, their secret doctrines." Hippokrates himself, it will be borne in mind, was an initiatedpriest, sworn to secrecy, as all priests always are. He taught that there were two distinct parts orgrades in the practice of medicine: the common one, which consisted in the use of vegetableremedies; and the secret, which only particular individuals consecrated to religious offices mightlearn and exercise. Clairvoyance, he described, as belonging to this secret art. The philosopherPythagoras, who was also an initiated priest, taught medicine as a secret, and employed magnetismas its chief agency. In Judea and Egypt was a secret religious body, called the Essenes orTherapeutae. Healers, who employed prayers, charms and manipulations in the treatment ofdisease, and that, too, with success.

The phenomena incident in animal magnetism are nervous quietude, sleep, somnambulism,clairvoyance, prevision. There are also the converse of those - a great nervous disturbance,convulsions, chorea, epilepsy and catalepsy. It is palpable from these facts that the agency isprimarily associated with the nervous system. In the literature of the subject we are told that thephysiological agency is the nervous fluid. I have seen it stated that "the neuro-vital fluid is

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secreted by the brain, and of a galvanic nature, being manufactured from the electricity which webreathe into the lungs at every inspiration." This statement is so clumsy that I ought hardly to havequoted it.

It is the ganglionic system that secretes neuro-vital fluid; while the brain only employs anddirects it. The arteries carry blood, and nerves of this system constitute a great part of theirstructure. The nerves themselves furnish the vital spirit that keeps the arteries in play and theblood alive. It is about of a piece to talk of its galvanic nature and manufacture from electricity,as of thought being secreted by the brain and the man being constituted of bones, muscles, nervesand membranes to some 100, 130, 150 or more pounds avoirdupois weight.

In the consideration of the magnetizer and his patient, the moral or psychic agency is firstemployed. There must be a certain confidence, kindly feeling and disposition, to assume thepeculiar relation. This enables their nerve auras to intermingle and combine without any repulsionor disturbance. The peculiar sense of quiet is thus induced. The intellectual or cerebral agencyis next. The patient must let the psychic, emotive nature be transcendent, and the voluntary natureinactive. The operator, on the other hand, must be assured of his peculiar energy, and resolute inhis purpose to influence the other with it. The results will be in a large degree proportionate to the

perfectness of these conditions. Often the matter must be repeated.Where there exists moral or constitutional repugnance, the experiment should never be

suffered; nor should an individual of exceptional character be suffered to tamper with another.We have enough of this in the so called falling in love of everyday life. A person who has beenmagnetized is, too generally, not a moral agent like others. The will and intellect are weakenedor subordinated, till he feels, thinks and does as he is impelled. A person who has never beenmagnetized finds it hard to believe or even to understand this; and the unfortunate individual isin deadly perils.

As a therapeutic agent, animal magnetism primarily affects the ganglionic system. It is toa degree, I cannot say how far, the

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supplying of a vital deficiency in one from a surplus, or at least a superior stock of energy, inanother. Many persons evolve more of the peculiar force than their own bodily wants require; andthey are the more proper ones, other conditions being equal, to impart to those in whom the supplyis deficient. Such disorders as paralysis, chorea, epilepsy and some forms of insanity, areparticularly amenable to magnetic treatment. Every disease of a nervous type yields readily;others more slowly. It may be applied locally in neuralgia, rheumatism, tumefactions, ulcerationsand local injuries. In other cases the epigastric region should be the focus of operation.

Every disorder which magnetism can cure it can also aggravate, improperly applied; and Iapprehend, produce or transmit. The leprosy of Naaman the Syrian is said to have been inflictedon Gehazi. Consumption is carried from kin to kin and friend to friend. The wife and the husbandare liable to share each other's disorders, - at least their physical and psychical conditions.Children sharing the bed of adults take on an old look, and abnormal states of health; while adultsrob infants of the energy they require to grow with. We are all more or less invigorated or blightedby those about us. Persons in repugnant society, if sensitive, are withered if not killed in this way.

II. ANIMAL MAGNETISM APPLIED

What is to be understood by animal magnetism, has been set forth in a previous article. Itis an agent, or perhaps function, by which living beings interchange their vital conditions, andhuman beings in addition affect one another with their moral states, and purpose of mind. I do notdoubt that it was comprehended in the ancient magic of the Medes and Assyrians, the secrethealing art of the Esculapians and Hippokrates, the philosopher's stone of the Alchemists and theElixir Vitae; imputed to the Rosicrucians. Paracelsus named it, Van Helmont taught it, andEmanuel Swedenborg, self-magnetized, developed it into the curious phenomena of clairvoyance.When Mesmer propounded it, the world denounced it as charlatanism; but

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now, we have come to the next point of declaring it to be nothing new. We have all of us believedit - some as the great power of God; others as the jugglery of Simon Magus.

Indeed, it was lost from human knowledge because it fell under the ban of the church. In theearlier Christian centuries, there were individuals everywhere who treated diseases by the

imposition of their hands and magnetic manipulation. Tertullian, living in the second century,advised that "any individuals who called themselves Christians and could not even expel demonsor heal the sick, should be put to death as impostors." Montanus, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Origen,Martin, Theophilos, and the Fathers, insisted upon the same test, offered to abide by it, and as weare told, actually practiced it successfully.

In due time, however, the Church succumbed to a similar sacerdotal rule as the variouspaganisms had before. Then magic and learning were denounced as heathenish arts, anddenominated sorcery and witchcraft. Even to be proficient in the knowledge of grammar wasdeclared to be unchristian; and Pope Gregory the Great rivals Jack Cade in his utterances againsta liberal education. It was then that the laymen, the common people, were placed outside, and theclergy alone became the Church. It was declared in Council that for persons who were not prieststo treat the sick by manipulation was mortal sin. It was declared unlawful and prohibited underthe sentence of anathema and outlawry for a layman to attempt the cure of a disorder by the layingon of hands. Only monks and priests had the right. This was the Hippocratic oath of Christendom,now so pretentiously imitated by the school of regular medicine.

Ever since that time, the church and sectaries of science have never hesitated to uproot bymassacre, by proscription, and every form of persecution, every endeavor of individuals to learnand obey truth, outside of their authority. At this very time, therapeutic magnetism is the mostcertain disturber of complacent respectability, whether religious or medical.

We shall now treat in a brief epitome of its application. I know of no individual who is notmore or less liable to the magnetic influence, however difficult or even impossible it may seem toimpress

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him. Nor do I believe there is any disorder or morbid condition in which it may not beadvantageously, if not successfully, employed. The prediction in the Gospel according to Markis a very true one: "These signs or miracles shall accompany those who believe; in my name theyshall cast out demons, they shall take up serpents; and if they swallow any deadly substance it maybe prevented from doing them harm; they shall place their hands on or over the sick and shallrender them convalescent." This declaration which is imputed to Jesus is now generallyrepudiated, both as not genuine, and as actually not true. The cures accredited to Jesus areexplained away as supernatural, and supernaturalism then is denied.

Yet it is a curious and significant fact that no Christian writer during the first 140 yearsmakes any mention of the miracles described in the three synoptic Gospels. Of course, as theGospel according to John had not been then compiled, its relations are not at all referred to untillong after, nor does Paul ever cite anything spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles. But we leavethese matters to other casuists and attend to our own subject.

The world of medical science is a sea of doubts; but magnetism is a world of facts all unitedin a grand harmony. It is the art and science of nature herself, inspired by the Divine Intelligence,and made successful by energy. Magnetism is a force or energy pertaining to every organization,and which emanates from everything. It can be applied everywhere. A sleeping infant can bemagnetized; so also can a sleeping adult. The muscles will contract, the patient will startconvulsively, the breathing will be labored, and there will be either a deeper sleep or a suddenawakening. If the magnetic passes are made during intoxication or syncope, similar phenomenawill result. Animals are also susceptible. The dog, cat and ape, have been experimented upon, and

also the horse, with success.When the manipulation is performed upon an individual that is healthy and wide awake, the

following results are observed: The pulse increases in force and frequency, or else diminishes inthe same degree. The pulsations are no longer regular; the heat varies, the eyes become bright andglassy; the sensitiveness increases; and

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there is sometimes abundant perspiration and great loss of strength. Sometimes there is paralysisand even catalepsy.

It is affirmed that some persons cannot be influenced by magnetic manipulation. Theindividuals will themselves deny that they have been affected; still, I do not believe it. They talklike a man who has drunk a glass of liquor and denies its effect. In fact, the individual has beeninfluenced. He will be sleepless or more profoundly drowsy; there will be increased sensitiveness.The secretions of the body will be changed and often more abundant; sometimes eruptions of theskin will appear. Syphilis, eczema and even measles and smallpox have exhibited themselves.

I do not like the practice, however, of magnetizing individuals to make a show of them.There is something sacred about a human being. It is unworthy to place him outside of his ownself-control, and then to subject him to vulgar experiments. I am not patient of it, nor indeed verytolerant.

Magnetism is a potency evolved by the ganglionic nervous structure. The aura is radiatedin every direction; but it may be concentrated upon any point to which the will may direct it.When we earnestly desire to accomplish any purpose, we instinctively direct this potency upon itand often rich success. The healing of disease by prayer, which does actually happen, is inconsonance with this principle. I do not say that there are not spiritual forces, relatively extraneousto us, which do not concur. Really, I do not know any wish which we entertain, any thought whichwe may think, any act which we may perform, which is not the result of various spiritual principlesor forces, not altogether a part of ourselves.

Magnetism is the agent of nature. It harmonizes with all the vital forces which pertain to us.Accordingly it augments the curative action of nature, which is always tending to reestablishequilibrium in the play of the different organs. It is that "more noble secret" hinted at by Bulwer-Lytton, by which "Heat or Caloric, as we call it, being, as Herakleitos taught, the primordialprinciple of life, can be made its perpetual renovator." It is supposed that an agent of exceedinglysubtle nature exists. I admit that such an agent has not been empirically demonstrated. No faultneed be found on this account.

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The modern physicist tells us that light is a sensation produced by waves of ether; yet he has neverdemonstrated that there was such an ether. He takes it for granted; assumes it. We assume anether, aura or nervous fluid, on like sufficient ground; knowing that the human mind is abundantlycompetent to perceive and recognize a fact, before experiment has demonstrated it.

This agent exists; it is a part of our own being, and we can perceive it, almost if notaltogether as related to physical sensibility. We feel the sense of another's approach, and whetherhe is or is not agreeable, by virtue of his emanations and our perception of them. The seeress ofPrevorst subsisted on the strength of other individuals, absorbing it through the eyes and the ends

of the fingers. She declared that she drew her life wholly from the air and the nervous emanationsof others, by which they lost nothing. This may have been often true; but Dr. Kerner notes thatmany persons complained of losing strength when they had been long near her; and that they felta contraction in the limbs, a tremor. Some also were sensible of weakness in the eyes and at thestomach even to the point of fainting. What she called the nervengeist, or dweller in the nerves,was the vital principle which joined the soul and body to the entire universe.

Everyone possesses as much nervous fluid as is necessary to his existence, but not alwaysenough to communicate to others. He has power to put it forth by his will. He ought to husbandhis health and strength, to keep his mind tranquil, and have no other object in mind but to benefitthe patient. The magnetic current does not pass out in a stream, but by undulation, more or less,as the individual is skillful in determining it.

Where the proper rapport or kindness of feeling does not exist between two persons,magnetism should never be attempted. The contact of two psychical auras of individuals repugnantto each other is of a blighting, and even murderous tendency. When we suffer by it, we shouldcarefully and even wilfully keep away from the obnoxious person; if we choose to be the inflictersof injury, we should restrain our thoughts in the other individual's direction. Every nervousdisorder, from hysteria to acute mania, catalepsy and paralysis, may occur from neglect of theseprecautions; and actual crime may be

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instigated. The digestive system will inevitably be impaired; a morbid secretion of bile is likely,and a profusion of other glandular abnormalities.

We have said that magnetism will be beneficial in every morbid condition. It will soothepain even where the disorder is incurable. It will correct every secretion. The perspiration willbecome normal, the secretions bland and wholesome; the breathing gentle; the circulation of theblood free and normal. It will prevent paroxysms and often arrest them; it assuages fever andinflammation; it promotes the healing of ulcers and softens indurated swellings. Dr. Alva Curtissdeclared that he had cured cancer of the breast by manipulation, and I believe him. Herodotus tellsus that a Grecian physician, Demokedes, a student of the School of Krotana, cured Queen Atossaof Persia of a scirrhous of the breast; but unfortunately omits to tell us how. I can only say thathe had learned from his great master, Pythagoras, the secret of magnetic manipulation.

In scrofulous and lymphatic affections, enlargement of the glands, and the like, there mustbe untiring persistence in magnetizing; months must be employed. Temperance is also necessary;over-eating and prolonged fasting retard any cure. It is best to employ one hour in ten in suchcases.

In eruptive diseases, like measles and scarletina and smallpox, magnetizing ought to bedirected over the whole surface, but not to be continued longer than fifteen or twenty minutes ata time. It will interfere with no medical treatment.

In inflammation of the brain, immense benefit can be derived. Magnetizing will tend toprevent the conveying of fluids to one point. Make long passes clear to the feet, keeping to themedian line; place one hand on the forehead; use gentle friction on the lower forehead; and finishby passes down the legs.

In paralysis, aphasia, rigidity of the limbs and convulsions, it is worth while to attempt acure. These are very hard cures; yet one will occasionally be cured. So much, too, may be saidfor apoplexy and the different degrees of cerebral congestion.

In disorders of the digestive tube, such as diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, magnetic frictionwill diminish the spasms and the

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griping pain, and prevent the further fatal development. The hand should be passed lightly overthe surface of the abdomen, frequently, and the patient attended to till he is better. Often in theintervals of pain he will go to sleep.

I will not enumerate the names of remittent and intermittent fever. The intensity of themalady is about all that the magnetizer need concern himself about, and the part which is chieflyaffected. The recuperative force is about exhausted; and the general disturbance of the systemdoes not give a good opportunity to distinguish the effects produced by magnetizing. Nevertheless,the operator must not give up hope. If he can amend the action of one organ he will graduallyappease the general tumult. The vital force which is imparted will recruit that of the patient togood purpose. He will expel greater quantities of vitiated material and emanations. Hence theoperator, every time he perceives a sense of fatigue, should recruit his strength without delay bygoing out into the open air, lest he absorb the noxious outflow into his own body. The current, inmagnetizing such patients, should be carried the entire length of the body from the head to the feet.

Cholera in many respects exhibits a striking analogy to fever, and particularly to typhoid andyellow fever. Dr. Foissac reports several cases of recovery by magnetism; the various remediesprescribed by practitioners being also administered. In the first case a physician had all the painsof cholera morbus. He was magnetized, and received relief from intense suffering, wherever thehand touched. The second was a case of Asiatic cholera. The remedies were administered andmagnetism employed. The limbs were rubbed and he breathed upon the region of the heart. Afterseveral hours all danger disappeared, and the doctor who was in charge declared the patientconvalescent. He was magnetized daily till the recovery was perfect. The third patient was a girlof eleven. Leeches, ice and external excitants were employed. The pulse was scarcely perceptible;the skin icy cold and a bluish tint; she vomited incessantly and suffered from insatiable thirst. Dr.Foissac held her hands in his, and made light friction over the region of the heart and stomach. Intwelve hours the extremities began to grow warm; the

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vomiting ceased, and the circulation was re-established. In the evening a spasmodic coughappeared, which yielded to a few passes; and she recovered her health almost immediatelyafterward. In this disorder the magnetic action ought to be directed principally to the stomach andintestines, and long continued.

In rheumatism the acute pain is quickly relieved. Sometimes, however, it is increased; butin such cases is only transient and indicates that the complaint is changing its seat. This is afavorable symptom. In hereditary cases, the symptoms reappear; but if you are fortunate enoughto influence them, they will yield more promptly to magnetism. The operator should apply ageneral magnetization for five to ten minutes, and then direct the tips of the fingers to the affectednerves or joint, and pass the hands slowly down, as though drawing something toward theextremities. Afterward, general magnetizing should be resumed. This treatment is applicable torheumatism of the muscles and joints, whether acute or chronic. In chronic affections, theendeavor should be to increase the vitality, and afterward to produce the magnetic crises. The

acute form of the disease must be reproduced. For a week or more, magnetize the patient, with noendeavor to produce any effect, or notice of any that may appear. After this, direct the effortsprincipally to the seat of disease, if sufficiently apparent, or to the region where you suppose it tobe. Heat and even pain must be developed without compunction, except the suffering is too acute,which is not often. Afterward, endeavor merely to keep up the impetus already given; andwhenever the disturbance is transferred to an important organ, do what you can to impart vigor tothat organ, meanwhile continuing the previous efforts. In this way, white swellings andenlargements of glands have disappeared, and paralysis of the limbs and even of the optic nerveshas been cured.

Here let me remark: magnetic energy and recuperative power of the patient are differentfrom electricity, galvanism and the like. They are principles associated with intelligence, and gotogether to the same end.

Of course there are incurable complaints. Nevertheless, not all are such which weapprehend to be. Sometimes the natural

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energy has become torpid and requires arousing. Remedies may have been employed whichfatigue the organism, till it is slow to respond to a new summons. In such case it is proper to directthe effort to an augmenting of the vital energy. This will increase the recuperative power, and, inthe end, if the disorder is really curable, will facilitate operations. The patient will learn to desireyour coming and feel weary at any delay.

Du Potet instances the following complaints as diseaseswhich one ought not to attempt to cure:

1. Large tumors. Magnetism may perhaps in certain cases act upon them by reducing theirsize; but he considers this as dangerous, and as aggravating the state of the patient by carrying intothe circulation a superabundance of irritable matter.

2. Stones in the bladder can neither be diminished nor expelled by magnetic action. It is thesame with foreign bodies which have been introduced into the organs. There is no hope for these,by magnetism.

3. Spots on the cornea and cataract. There is more hope in paralysis of the optic nerves.4. Limbs which have been shrunk from infancy, and have not kept pace in development with

the rest of the body.5. Idiocy from birth.6. All infirmities caused by malformation.There are others, but the intelligent operators will have sufficient acumen to distinguish

them. Phthisis, at the beginning, may be favorably influenced; but after the second stage,magnetism appears to do harm. There is not an organism to retain the imparted energy, and so itdestroys instead of building over. A little gentle manipulating may alleviate troublesomesymptoms, no more; I would hesitate even at this. The disease is infectious and contagious, andpersonal contact often transmits it. The husband and wife disease each other; the infant contractsit from the mother; near friends endanger each other.

The conditions of success in chronic diseases are imperative. The operator should bepersevering and self-denying; the patient quiet and passive. No account should be taken of time.The operator

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should not exhaust his physical energy by hard work or manual application. He ought to beabstemious, indulging little in animal food or intoxicating drink. Excess of every character shouldbe avoided and continence maintained. He should carefully conserve the magnetic energy,especially when he feels most certain of it. The more sensitive the patient, the less should he exerthis energy. The longest time spent at a sitting should not exceed thirty to sixty minutes. He shouldrest at intervals. The patient must be kept from fits of anger, and his wishes should not be toomuch thwarted. The operator should have full confidence in his own ability; fear will arrest theflow of magnetic energy. No pain, groaning, excitement, or even suffering of the patient, shouldmove him. He should be careful not to talk much. He is certain to throw away his energy by this.

The magnetizer ought to be a physician or have a knowledge of medicine. He possesses andcreates greater confidence in himself; is more ready to direct his endeavors wisely and tounderstand mysterious or alarming symptoms; and is more intelligent in every respect.

II. INSTRUCTIONS IN MAGNETIZING

It will be proper, before concluding this series of papers, to treat somewhat more definitelyupon the agent commonly denominated Animal Magnetism. Jacob Dixon gives us this theory:"The nerve-organism of the human being, taken as a whole, is bipolar - the brain-systemrepresenting one pole, and the ganglionic the other. These two systems are interlaced byreciprocating nerve-cords and nerve-plexuses into one system. In our ordinary day-life the brain-system is positive, and ganglionic negative. In our ordinary night-life the ganglionic system ispositive and the brain-system negative. The brain-system is the focal apparatus of sensation andwill; the ganglionic that of intuition, instinct and sympathy. Facts demonstrate that theseapparatus are the immediate concrete instruments of the soul, by which it has polar organicrelations with the material sphere; and thus on the natural plane is made to move

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spiritual man, who - through the soul - has polar relations also with the spiritual sphere, asmanifested in the phenomena of clairvoyance and trance."

Although however, it would be very proper and interesting to extend this quotation and treaton that department of clairvoyant and mental phenomena, I judge it will be more acceptable andperhaps more directly useful to attend more directly to the physiological phenomena and agencies.If you are interested in this branch of the subject, I have no doubt that you will find time and makeopportunity to explore farther - even into the ulterior manifestations, where the perception isexalted beyond sphere and the everyday condition into higher and wider fields. Man is an infinitebeing, if he did but know it. As an individual he is limited by the faculties and organs of the body;but, on the other hand, he extends as far as the universe -

"Near alliedTo angels on his better side."

In general, says Deleuze, magnetism acts in a more sensible and efficient manner upon

persons who have led a frugal life, and who have not been agitated by passions, than upon thosewith whom the course of nature has been troubled, either by habits of luxury or by remedies.Magnetism does no more than to employ, regulate, and direct the forces of nature. It acts betterwith persons living in the country than others. Nervous persons exhibit the most singularphenomena, but fewer cures. The object of the magnetizer is to develop the healing forces, to aidthe natural functions in doing their work, as well as to add to their energy. It is essential, therefore,to act in aid of nature and not in opposition. We should not magnetize for curiosity's sake, or toproduce marvelous effects, or to convince the incredulous; but only to do something beneficial.

The magnetizer should never undertake any operation without full confidence in his ownpowers. Faith is of vital importance. It is not so necessary to the patient; but the more trulypassive and trusting he is, the more efficacious will the endeavor be. Every lady is subject tomagnetic influence, whether acknowledging it or not.

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It is the duty of the magnetizer to economize his energy. He should he careful in diet,continent, and free from excesses. Everything which wastes the energy, hinders success inmanipulation. Nor should he have anything to do with an individual toward whom he feels aninterior repugnance. He should be certain of desiring to serve and benefit the individual whom heproposes to magnetize.

There are a variety of processes to be employed. We may operate on the whole body, orsome particular part of it. We may employ the hand, the eye, or the will. Some magnetize asubstance, a drink, a stick, or article of clothing. The more common method is by passes, as theyare called. "I thought," says the Syrian general, "he will surely come out to me and call upon thename of his God, and pass his hand to and fro over the diseased place and recover this leper."Often it is well to place the hand to the spot or some nervous tract leading to it, or having a polarrelation to it. I never tried my hand at controlling individuals at a distance. The breath will alsohave a magnetic influence.

It is not well to have many spectators to a magnetic seance. You are not juggling, oremploying conjurers' tricks. It is essential to fix your attention on what you are about, and ill-tempered or frivolous individuals are likely to divert attention.

Deleuze prescribes the following method: Cause the patient to sit down in the easiestposition possible, and place yourself before him, on a seat a little elevated, so that his knees willbe between yours, and your feet beside him. Ask him to give you his entire attention, giving upall apprehension and exercising hope and confidence. Having made ready for operations, take thehands in yours, placing the inner side of your thumbs against the inside of his. Remain in thisattitude from two to five minutes. After this gently remove your hands and wave them so that theinterior side be turned upward and raise them to his head. Then place them on his shoulders,leaving them there about a minute; then draw them to the extremity of the fingers, touchinglightly. Repeat this five or six times, always turning your hands upward and sweeping them offa little before ascending again to the shoulder. Next place the hands on the head and hold themthere a moment; then bring them down before

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the face at an inch or two distant, reaching the pit of the stomach. Confine your attention to this

region for some two minutes, passing the thumb along the pit of the stomach and the other fingersdown the sides. Then descend slowly down to the knees or farther; even to the ends of the feetif convenient.

The same manipulations may be performed behind the shoulders, along the spine, to the hipsand along the thighs to the knees and feet. Always be very careful in magnetizing to draw thehands downward. These are magnetic passes. Those made in a reverse direction tend to throw offthe influence. Hence we turn the palms outward when we carry the hands upward in magnetizing;and inward if we wish to disperse the influence.

In this manner the odic fluid or fire will be generally distributed, and tends to accumulatein the organs having need of it. There are other passes to be made at a greater distance from thepatient. They generally produce a calm, refreshing pleasurable sensation.

When the magnetizer is thus acting on the patient they are said to be en rapport, a Frenchexpression meaning, in a peculiar relationship. The vital principle in the two is at one. When thiscondition has been duly established, there is no further necessity of any touching of the body, whenendeavoring to magnetize.

Let the movements be easy and not too rapid. Avoid weariness all that is practicable. Thisis the object of touching the thumbs. It is better to join all the fingers and palms of the hands. Thebacks of the hands exhibit little or no odylic energy.

There are other methods, which in certain cases it is obviously better to employ, as wherewomen or persons in bed are to be the subjects. One hand may be placed on the stomach or otherimportant focal point of the body while the other is making passes. In case of local trouble thepasses should be made over the part affected and to a point beyond.

When the magnetic or odylic current is set in motion, it draws the blood and other fluids withit. Pain will be transferred from one point to another, as well as from the body. An inexpertoperator may divert it to his own body.

The endeavor should be made to accumulate the fluid upon

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the suffering part, and to draw off the pain toward the extremities. You accumulate the fluid byholding the hands still at a point, and draw it off by the motion.

In the operation, the patient is in a receptive and the magnetizer in an active condition. Thisinduces a blending of the energy of the one with the potency or dynamic principle of the other:thus producing a genesis or change of state.

The fingers are more efficient than the extended hand. Some patients assert that theyperceive luminous sparks pass from them. A piece of cloth may be laid upon an affected part; thenapply the mouth to it and breathe through it. This will introduce the magnetic energy into thebody. The palms of the hand placed on a patient's head, with fingers held up and separate, willoften relieve headache. Other troubles may be benefitted in analogous methods.

These processes, however, are of little account, except there is determination on the part ofthe actor. They should be varied as circumstances indicate, or at the wish of the patient.

The effects will appear on some patients after two or three minutes; others are harder tooperate with. The various phenomena should be observed, and treatment directed or modifiedaccordingly.

The patient frequently perceives a heat escaping from the operator's fingers; and sometimesperspiration is induced. The eyes close; a sensation of tranquil enjoyment comes over the body;

he becomes drowsy, and sleeps. He can be awakened by the magnetizer, by a command or byreversing the passes.

A magnetic crisis occurs by the removing of the seat of the malady, change of the pulse,excretions, abscesses, pains. One is likely to imagine he is doing injury, except he has learnedabout these occurrences.

Passes made transversely across the eyes will awaken a patient.The operator is liable to take on the morbid conditions of a patient. Even a contagious

disease may be contracted in this way.

(The Word, Vol. 17, pp. 21-27, 97-101, 297-306, Vol. 18, pp. 369-73)

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THE GANGLIONIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

Dr. John O'Reilly remarks:"It must be now obvious that a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the laws and

connections which govern and regulate the animal and organic nervous system is indispensablyrequired by every medical practitioner - such, in reality being the Alpha and Omega of medicaland surgical science. It is the foundation which a permanent superstructure, capable ofcontaining a universal knowledge of the nature of diseases, as well as a true explanation of themodus operandi of therapeutic agents, can be created."

John W. Draper goes further and asserts that the advancement of metaphysical science isthrough the study of physiology. This accomplished author declares:

"In his communications throughout the universe with us, God ever materializes.... I ampersuaded that the only possible route to truth in medical philosophy is through a study of thenervous mechanism."

We may not accept this conclusion unqualifiedly; but we can by no means dispute theimportance of that knowledge to an intelligent understanding of the various problems withwhich we deal. It is essential to judicial as well as speculative investigation, and it willultimately distinguish the scientific from the superficial physician. Whether we propose thestudy of the corporeal structure as philosophers, or simply as physiologists, the properunderstanding of the nervous organism, its functions and relations, is essential. We cannotafford to rest content with an imperfect or superficial apprehension, but must push our researchto the very core of the matter. It is incumbent upon us to learn all that is already known, and to endeavour to find out whatever else we may be able. The

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significance of this knowledge consists in the intermediate relation which this organismsustains between the psychic nature and the bodily frame-work. The union which existsthrough this median, constitutes the physical life. The moral and mental qualities are therebybrought out and carried into outward manifestation and activity. Man is thus the synthesis of

the creation, including in himself the subjective principles of the universe together with theobjective factor which they permeate.

It is a common practice of teachers and writers accordingly to treat of him as twofold, abody and a soul. Knowledge is, therefore, usually classified as physical or scientific, andmetaphysical, or beyond the province of phenomenal observation. All philosophy, moral andmental science, and whatever relates to causes and principles, are relegated to the departmentof metaphysics as being beyond the limits of sensuous knowing. They are the higher and moreimportant as pertaining to that which is actually real, and as therefore furnishing thegroundwork for the right understanding of things. The sentiment of Optimism, that all thecreation and events partake of good and are from it, is from the metaphysical source, evolvedfrom the interior depths of the mind. On the other hand, the views of life and action whichmany love to honor as practical have their ulterior origin in selfishness and a gloomy notionthat all things are virtually controlled from the worst.

The psychic nature is correspondent to the corporeal, and constitutes the essentialselfhood and individuality. It is, however, twofold; one quality is intellectual and perceives,the other is moral and feels. The latter pertains to the physical and emotional life, the former tothe spiritual. The two are constantly in operation close together, so to speak; at times,however, they are not in harmony with each other. We feel and desire in one direction, whensometimes we are convinced the other way. Pleasure and pain belong to the emotional nature,happiness and unhappiness to the other.

This twofold aspect is in perfect analogy to the physical structure. Plato, followingPythagoras, sets forth in the Timaios with great appositeness, that the immortal principle of the soul was

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originally with the Deity, and that the body was made for its vehicle; and likewise that therewas a mortal soul placed in the body, having the qualities of voluptuousness, fear of pain,temerity and apprehension, anger hard to be appeased, and hope. These two psychic essenceswere assigned to different regions; the rational soul to the head and the sensuous to the body. There are accordingly two nervous structures, corresponding with the twofold quality. Modernwriters are approximating this same mode of classification. There is the cerebro-spinal axis,consisting of the brain, the commissures and other fibres, the sensorium, spinal cord andnerves; and the sympathetic or ganglionic system, consisting of the various ganglia of theviscera and spinal region, with the prolongations, bands and fibres which unite them to eachother and to other parts and organs. The origin of the sympathetic system, as foetal dissectionsabundantly prove, is the great solar or semilunar ganglion in the epigastric region. It is the partfirst found in the embryonic period, and from it as a common centre the rest of the organismproceeds, differentiating afterwards into the various tissues and structures. It is the very placeat which, according to the great philosopher, the impulsive or passionate nature comes incontact with the sensuous or appetitive; and that it is the central point of the emotional natureis apparent to everybody's consciousness. The instinct of the child and the observation of theintelligent adult abundantly confirm this. The ramifications of these two nervous systems,however, are more or less interblended; and this enables both to accomplish their distinctivefunctions in concert; each as auxiliary to the other.

The name ganglionic is applied to this system because it consists distinctly of ganglia and

nerve-structures connecting them. Solly has proposed the longer but more expressivedesignation of cyclo-ganglionic system, as corresponding in its mere anatomical arrangementwith the nervous system of the cyclo-gangliated or molluscous division of the animal kingdom. It is also very frequently called the great sympathetic, from having been supposed to have thefunction of equalizing the nervous energy, the temperature and other conditions of the body. Ithas also been denominated the vegetative system, as controlling the processes of nutrition and growth; the

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visceral, intercostal and trisplanchnic, from its presence chiefly in the interior part of the body; the organic as supplying the force which sustains the organism in vigor; and the vaso-motor asmaintaining the life of the blood-vessels, enabling them to contract and pulsate, to send forwardthe blood, and so keep the body in wholesome condition. Draper considers that the name"sympathetic," which is most common m in the textbooks, has been a source of injury to thescience of physiology, and that it would be well even now to replace it by such a term asvincular, or moniliform, or some title of equivalent import. This would indicate the fact thatthe ganglia of this system are connected like a necklace or chain of beads. Nevertheless, as thedesignation of "ganglionic" approximates that meaning as well as indicates the peculiarconstitution of this nervous system, it is preferable.

The function of the ganglial nerve-cells and molecules consists in the elaborating,retaining and supplying of "nervous force." The chief ganglion is denominated from itspeculiar form the semilunar; and the group which surrounds it is known as the solar plexus,from the fact that this region of the body was anciently regarded as being under the specialguardianship of the solar divinity. It has been designated "the Sun of the abdominalsympathetic system," and Solly describes it as a gangliform circle enveloping the coeliac axis. From this circle branches pass off in all directions, like rays from a centre, and it appears to bethe vital centre of the entire body. Injuries at every extremity report here, and every emotionand passion has its influence for ill or good directly at this spot.

It is not necessary here to give more than a cursory sketch and outline of the history ofthe cerebro-spinal axis. If we consider it according to its process of evolution, we must beginat the medulla as the first rudimentary structure. In point of time, the ganglionic system isdeveloped first, being in full operation in the unborn child, while the other can hardly be said tobegin a function till after birth. The rudiments of the spinal cord are found to exist,nevertheless, at a very early period in foetal existence. The close relation of the medullaoblongata to the sympathetic system is shown by the evidences of inter-communication, andmore particularly from the fact that it is the

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seat of power for the entire body. It seems to be the germ from which the entire cerebro-spinalsystem is developed, and is, in fact, the equator of the cerebro-spinal axis. At the superiorextremity, two fibrous branches extending towards the rear of the head form two of the lobes ofthe cerebellum at their extremity. A second pair of fibres develop into the optic ganglia,whence in their turn proceed two nervous filaments with the rudimentary eyes at theirextremities. The auditory and olfactory nerves issue from the ganglia at the medulla, each with

the rudimentary structure of the future organ attached to it. Another and later formation is thefrontal lobe of the brain. In due time, but not till some time after birth, the whole encephalon -brain, commissures, sensory ganglia, cerebellum - becomes complete.

The spinal cord below and the nerves are also formed about simultaneously with theother parts of the structure.

It may not be amiss to suggest that the primordial cell or ovule is itself a nervous mass,and that the spermatic fluid appeals to unite with, if not to consist entirely of, materialelementarily similar with that composing the nerve substance. This would seem to indicate thatthe germ of the body is nerve-matter, and that all the other parts, tissues, membranes, andhistological structure generally were outgrowths or evolutions from the nervous system, if notthat system extended further. There is nothing known in physiology that conflicts radicallywith this hypothesis. If it is actually the case, the understanding of the nervous system and itsfunctions can be greatly facilitated.

The cerebral and spinal systems of nerves together perform the several functions offeeling, thinking and willing, as these are commonly understood. These are the actions of thecentral ganglion or "registering arc," which receives impressions of the brain which perceivesthem, reflects upon them and wills; and of the corpora striata and motor nerves, which are theagents to transmit the purposes of the will to the voluntary muscles to be carried into effect.The brain is their influential organ.

Offshoots from the ganglionic system pass upward and join the cerebro-spinal at everyimportant point. Closer examination shows that they go in company with the blood-vesselswhich supply the various structures of the brain, indicating that the brain exists and is

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energized from the ganglial system. Each of the cerebral ganglia is arranged on an artery andarteriole, like grapes on a stem. In an analogous manner, there is a double chain of thesesympathetic ganglia, over fifty in number, extending from the head along the sides of the spinalcolumn to the coccyx, which give off fibres to the various spinal nerves which proceed fromthe vertebral cavity to the various parts of the body. They are named from their severallocalities, the cervical, dorsal and lumbar ganglia.

In like manner, there proceed from the central region, distinct filaments, which under thename of plexuses accompany all the branches given off by the abdominal artery. So we havethe carotid, the superficial and deep cardiac plexuses, the phrenic, gastric, hepatic, splenic,supra-renal, renal, pudic, superior and inferior mesenteric, and others. These plexuses aremade up of nerve-cords from different sympathetic ganglia, and filaments from certain of thespinal nerves. The nervecords proceed from these plexuses to their ultimate distribution; showing that the plexuses serve to combine the various elements in order to form an extremelycomplex nerve. As regards the ultimate distribution of the great sympathetic, it sends itsbranches to all the spinal and cranial nerves, and they undoubtedly communicate the vitalstimulus to these nerves and accompany them to their extremities. The coats of all the arteriesare supplied in like manner, and also all the innumerable glandular structures. The viscera,thoracic, abdominal and pelvic, all more or less abound with sympathetic nerves

One ingenious writer computes that the heart stands at the head of the list; as it receivessix cardiac nerves from the upper, middle and inferior cervical ganglia, and has four plexuses,two cardiac and two coronary, devoted to its supply; also numerous ganglia, embedded in its

substance, over and above. These are centres of nervous force for its own use.The supra-renal capsules come next, and after that the sexual system. Internal organs are

more copiously supplied than external ones; hence the female body has a much largerproportion than that of the male. In consideration of this richer endowment, women, andindeed the females of all races and species, have a superior vitality

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and even greater longevity. The organs of special sense, the eye, internal ear, nasal membranesand the palate seem to come next. After these are the stomach, the intestinal tract and the liver; and last of all, the lungs.

The minute ramifications of the ganglionic nervous system constitute its chief bulk. Thetissue is found with every gland and blood-vessel, and indeed is distributed so generally andabundantly as to extend to every part of the organism. It would be impossible to insert a pin'spoint without wounding or destroying many of the little fibres. The ganglia themselves arealmost as widely distributed as the nervecords; so that the assertion of Dr. J. C. Davey is amplywarranted, that the nervous tissue of the ganglionic system constitutes a great part of thevolume and weight of the whole body.

The entire structure of the sympathetic system differs essentially from that of the cerebro-spinal, indicating that there is a corresponding difference in function. The arrangement, thegreat number and extraordinary diffusion of its ganglia, the immense number and greatcomplexity of its plexuses, are so many additional proofs, if these are needed.

The ganglionic system of nerves, with the solar or semilunar ganglion for its centralorgan, performs the vital or organic functions. Secretion, nutrition, respiration, absorption andcalorification, being under its immediate influence and control throughout the whole body, itmust animate the brain as well as the stomach, the spinal cord as well as the liver or womb. Inpoint of fact, if either of these organs or viscera was removed from the influence of theganglionic nerves entering so largely into its very composition, its specific vitality would cease; its contribution to the sum total of life would be withheld.

The creative force is directed, as we see, towards the development of the central organ ororgans predestined to give life and form to all others, which it creates, assigning their peculiarforce and direction, thus determining the essential parts of the future animal and its rank andposition in the infinite being. Lawrence expresses the matter in these terms:

"The first efforts of the vital properties, whatever they may be, are directed towards thedevelopment of a central organ, the solar

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ganglion, predestined to hold a precisely similar relation to the dull and unmoving organism, asthe vital fire to the animated statue of Prometheus."

Ackermann prosecuted the enquiry further, and insisted that the ganglionic nervoussystem is the first formed before birth, and is therefore to be considered as the germ ofeverything that is to be afterwards developed. Blumenbach adds his testimony:

"The nervous system of the chest and abdomen are fully formed while the brain appearsstill a pulpy mass."

It is the foundation laid before the superstructure is built.

Mr. Quain sets forth the priority of the ganglionic to cerebro-spinal nervous system inregard to evolution. He says:

"As to the sympathetic nerve, so far from being derived in any way from the brain orspinal cord, it is produced independently of either, and exists, notwithstanding the absence ofboth. It is found in acephalous infants, and therefore does not rise mediately or immediatelyfrom the brain; neither can it be said to receive roots from the spinal cord, for it is known toexist as early in the foetal state as the cord itself, and to be fully developed, even though thelatter is altogether wanting."

Psychic Functions of the Ganglionic System

It is a hypothesis generally accepted, that the brain is essentially the organ of the mind. Thought and cerebration are regarded accordingly as associated processes. The Moral Nature,however, as distinguished from the understanding, operates in connection with the ganglionicstructures. The common sense of mankind refers passion and emotion of every character to theepigastrium, the seat of the semilunar ganglion. This, in fact, rather than the muscular structureso designated, is the heart, or seat of the affections, sensibilities and moral qualities in general. The passions, love, hate, joy, grief, faith, courage, fear, etc., have there their corporeal seat.

While the brain and spinal cord constitute the organism by

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which man sustains relations towards the external world, the ganglionic system is the organ ofsubjectivity. He feels with it, and from this instinctive feeling coordinating with the reflectivefaculties, he forms his purposes. Dr. Kerner truly remarks:

"We will find that this external life is the dominion of the brain - the intellect whichbelongs to the world; while the inner life dwells in the region of the heart, the sphere ofsensitive life, in the sympathetic and ganglionic system. You will further feel that by virtue ofthis inner life, mankind is bound up in an internal connection with nature."

Dr. Richardson is equally positive:"The organic nervous centres are the centres also of those mental acts which are not

conditional, but are instinctive, impulsive, or, as they are most commonly called, emotional."It must follow, then, that all emotions will make themselves manifest through this part of

the physical structure. We observe this at every hand. Every new phase of life, everyoccurrence or experience that we encounter, immediately indicates its effects upon the centralorgans of the body and the glandular structures. Every function is influenced by emotionaldisturbance. We lose our appetite for food, we are depressed and languid, or cheerful andbuoyant, at the gratification or disappointment of our hopes, or in some affectional excitement. A careful consideration of the several forms of disease will disclose an analogy, and often aclose relation between each malady and some type of mental disorder. The passions, fear,grief, anger, and even sudden joy, will involve the vital centres, paralyze the ganglionic nerves,disturb and even interrupt the normal action of the glandular system, modify the variousfunctions of life or even suspend them. These influences prolonged would bring aboutpermanent disease, and indeed when sufficiently intense, will even result in death, and hencethe maxim of Pythagoras cannot be too carefully heeded: "Let there be nothing in excess."

The converse of this, at least after a certain manner, is also true. Emotionalmanifestations result from peculiar conditions of the ganglial nervous system. At those periodsof life, when the nutritive functions are exceptionally active, such moral faculties as love andfaith also exhibit a predominating influence. We observe this in the

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young, and likewise in individuals recovering from wasting disease. But during the process ofwasting, and when digestion is imperfect, the mental condition is morbid, and the sufferer isliable to be gloomy, morose and pessimistic.

The functional impairment of these nerves is often produced from mental disturbance. Indeed, there is a continual action and reaction between the mind and this nervous system sothat each is the cause of corresponding moods and conditions of the other. The man who issuffering from nervous dyspepsia will experience a sense of great fear and the heart will begreatly disturbed; and again great fear will disturb the heart's action and prevent any properdigestion. For a time the fear resulting from the disorder will be simply terror; but after awhile it will fix itself on an object. There will be the religious-minded person's fear ofpunishment after death, the lawyer's apprehension of making a professional mistake or losingmoney, the physician's terror of sudden death, poison, or incurable disease. Fatty degenerationof the heart and calcareous degeneration of the arteries are accompanied by great depression ofspirits, and even by agonies of anxiety and terror. In a similar way, great fear will sometimesproduce the sensation of stabbing at the heart. The rage of anger will also affect the motion ofthe heart and arteries and change the blood from pure to poisonous. An individual will turndeadly pale, lose more or less the control of his voluntary faculties, and in a very greatexcitement will fall dead. An angry woman nursing a child will make it deathly sick, andsometimes from the venom of her milk kill it outright.

In the exacerbations of fear, the sweat will transude through the pores, but will be moreof the consistency of serum than like the product of the sudorific glands. Envy and jealousyarrest the action of digestion and assimilation, and if long continued will produce leanness. The example of Cassius in the drama of Julius Caesar, is a forcible illustration; his "lean andhungry look" and sleepless nights were justly to be dreaded.

Instinct is plainly a function of the ganglionic nervous system. The infant manifests it incommon with the lower animals; and in both alike it is not amenable to the reasoningprocesses. It is not to be

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cultivated, but it may be perverted.The whole range of disorders called nervous will be found, upon careful estimation, to

begin with the disturbance of the ganglionic centres. It is but rarely, says Dr. Davey, who hadbeen for several years in charge of an insane asylum, that persons afflicted with diseases do notexhibit signs more or less evident, of something amiss with the liver or stomach, or partsaccessory or subordinate thereto. This is true of epilepsy, hydrophobia, tetanus, deliriumtremens, hysteria, chorea, and paralysis in several of its forms. It is customary to refer theexternal symptoms of these disordered conditions to the cerebro-spinal organism; but theintegrity of that organism depends upon the normal condition of the ganglionic system, and

therefore these diseases are to be accounted for accordingly.Insane patients, and persons suffering from various other nervous disorders, invariably

exhibit disturbances in the functions of nutrition, secretion and absorption. Nor can they berelieved or materially benefitted till these are corrected. The morbid action began with thesefunctions, and extended afterwards to the others. We can have little confidence in the utility ofthe treatment of patients at insane asylums except it be conducted on this principle. Insanity isa disease of debility.

These considerations appear to establish firmly the conclusion that the ganglial system isconcerned more or less directly with every form of functional action, normal and abnormal, inthe body. Its innervation enables the performing of the vital and organic functions, circulation,sanguification, calorification, nutrition, sleep, and all others. They are links in a chain. If oneis impaired, the others participate in the ill results. They all depend upon the circulation, andfail of healthy performance when it does not take place normally. If the innervation isweakened, the blood fails to move in the vessels with its proper celerity. Thus there is passivecongestion; the blood-making processes are retarded, and then directly come failure ofnutrition, lack of animal heat, and likewise disagreeable dreaming, phantasms andsleeplessness.

Dr. E. H. Brood declares it almost susceptible of demonstration

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that all disturbances of the organic functions are due to this cause, and sets forth the subject in alittle monograph with great distinctness. He designates the condition gangliasthenia, or loss ofganglionic nerve-power; rejecting the more common term neurasthenia, as somewhatmisleading and not sufficiently expressive. The ganglionic tract being regarded as entirelydistinct in its sphere from the cerebro-spinal division of the nervous system, there should be aterminology in accordance with that fact. He lays down the following as an axiom andprinciple in medicine:

"Whenever idiopathic passive congestion is present it is due to gangliasthenia, and theintensity of the congestion is the measure of the degree of ganglionic exhaustion."

The consequent changes in the character of the blood are liable to result in some form ofspecific disease, which may be determined by individual peculiarities, epidemic tendencies orother morbific agencies. Disease is said to be protean in shape, but the signs of impairednervous energy are unvarying in character, and their meaning is invariably the same.

Common intelligence is sufficient to dissipate the impression that passive congestion isthe result of malaria. There is no adequate support to the conjecture of specific poison. It maybe considered only as an assumption, the truth of which has never been demonstrated byscientific investigation. The source of trouble comes from within the body itself and not fromextraneous agency. The nerve-force from the ganglia, which permeates the blood and vivifies'every corpuscle, is cut off or diminished, and as a direct consequence the blood is unable tofree itself from the dead and worn-out material which it has accumulated in the course of itscirculation. The poison is thus generated. and set in operation from disordered conditionswithin the corporeal economy. In all forms of passive congestion the blood remains fluid afterdeath; thus showing that the vital energy had become dormant prior to dissolution.

Sometimes the corpuscles, when deprived of their normal supply of nerve-force, willlodge at the points where the vessels intersect. Then becoming swollen by endosmose of

serum, they burst, and their fragmentary remains are carried again into the

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circulation. This constitutes what is denominated specific poison. In another form ofcongestion the corpuscles pass through the walls of the capillaries into the tissues; butsometimes they are entangled and remain half inside and half outside of the wall of the vessel,and exhibit a curious distortion of shape from their peculiar predicament. This appearance isoften attributed to the supposititious agency denominated malaria.

The kinds of passive congestion correspond with the manner in which the ganglia, or anyportion of them, are affected by depression. Every ganglion is regarded as constituting a focusof nervous energy, and capable, accordingly, in its own peculiar sphere, of receiving,transmitting, and reflecting impressions on which the healthy performance of function depends. The ganglial system being the corporeal seat of the emotions, it is immediately affected byevery cause that excites them. The blush of shame is produced from a temporary depression ofthe vaso-motor nerves of the arteries, which causes a transient congestion of the arterioles; while the pallor of guilt or fear proceeds from a corresponding depression of the nerves of theveins which influence the venules. Apathy, the absence of all emotion, is a prominent featurein all acute congestive diseases, and denotes the profound depression under which the ganglialstructures are laboring.

So in one form of passive congestion the face is suffused and of a dusky red. It has theappearance of a permanent blush, and is the result of congestion of the arterial blood vessels. In the other forms, the countenance exhibits a permanent paleness, often mistakenly termedanaemia, which is due to the congestion of the veins and venous capillaries, from depression ofthe veno-motor nerves.

This distinction marks the division of congestive diseases into two types: onecharacterized by deficient animal warmth, and the other by excess of heat - hypothermy andhyperthermy. In the former type the congestion is in the venous, and in the other in the arterialblood-vessels. The abnormal temperature affords a means of estimating its intensity. Thehypothermic type, which is due to congestion resulting from nervous depression of the venoussystem,

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exhibits in its greatest intensity a fall of eight degrees (F.) below the normal standard. Thehyperthermic, which originates from the congestion produced by arterial depression, will, in itsseverest form, exhibit an increase of temperature to ten degrees above the standard of health.

In the veno-motor form the nervous apparatus of the veins is paralyzed, and the blood isimpelled by the nervous force till it emerges from the capillaries, when it is cut off from thatinfluence, and the veins accordingly engorged. In the other form, the vaso-motor nerves of thearterial system are enfeebled, and the impulse of the heart is, or seems to be, the principal if notthe sole force to propel the blood through the arteries. The result is, that these vessels retain anundue proportion of the blood, while the venous system is correspondingly deprived of itsnormal supply.

Disorders from perverted functional activity are most likely to appear when there hasbeen some severe strain upon the nervous system. It may be from overwork, insufficient sleep,

or mental shock; or from an enfeebled nervous condition with no assignable cause. Chorea,epilepsy, and the various forms of insanity, are from debility, and therefore to be traced to thesame source. Heredity comes in with its contributions. The weaknesses of parents, whethermoral or physical, are apt to manifest themselves anew in the children. As socialdemoralization invariably and inevitably characterizes the generation next after a war, somental and nervous infirmity appear after an epidemic visitation or other calamity. Alcoholismentails neurosis of the ganglial system. Indeed vice and immorality in every form aredetrimental to the body, and certain in some manner to impair its integrity. Says M. Reveille-Parise:

"Whenever the equilibrium of our mental nature is long or very seriously disturbed, wemay rest assured that our animal functions will suffer. Many a disease is the rebound, so tospeak, of a strong moral emotion; the mischief may not be apparent at the time, but its germwill be nevertheless inevitably laid."

In diseases of organs not liberally supplied with ganglial nerves there is less evidencecomparatively of physical suffering or mental disturbance. Persons injured in the lungs makelittle complaint and

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appear to suffer less than those hurt in the abdomen. But when the stomach, heart, liver, orother of the glands or internal structures that have a copious supply of organic nerves aredisordered, there is always emotional disturbance. Cancer of the stomach, ulceration andinflamation are emphatically characterized in this way. Every physician has witnessed theemotional horrors that often attend dyspepsia. Insane persons are always more or lessenervated and usually have intestinal disease, often with no apparent cerebral lesions. Theybecome moody and low-spirited; indeed, everything with them seems to be out of plumb. Infact, functional derangement and mental disturbance accompany each other with more or lessuncertainty as to which was first and which the resultant.

In this way doubtless, the whole department of pathologic science can be adequately setforth. Every agency that tends to lower the spirits and moral power of the individual is certainto impair his vital energy. We may enumerate these causes according to our habits ofaccounting for things; as, for example, the varying conditions of the atmosphere, socialinharmonies, the circumstances of life as regarding food, clothing, labor and sleepingarrangements; in short, everything that affects the corporeal existence from within or without. The particular type which the disease assumes is determined by the peculiar temperament andsurrounding conditions of the individual.

The following comparison of the functions of the two great departments of our nervousorganism is suggested by Dr. R. M. Bucke, and is entitled to favorable consideration. Thecerebro-spinal system is an enormous and complex sensory-motor apparatus, with an immenseganglion - the cerebrum - whose function is ideation, superimposed upon its sensory tract; andanother - the cerebellum - whose function is the coordination of motion, superimposed upon itsmotor tract. The great sympathetic is also a sensory-motor system without any superimposedganglia, and its sensory and motor functions do not differ from the corresponding functions ofthe cerebro-spinal system more than its cells and fibres differ from those of this latter system; its efferent or motor function being expended upon unstriped muscle, and its afferent or sensoryfunction being that

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peculiar kind of sensation which we call emotion. As there is no such thing as coordination ofemotion, as there is coordination of motion and sensation, so in the realm of the moral naturethere is no such thing as learning, though there is development.

It is out of undue deference to psychological tradition, Dr. Lindorme justly declares, thatthe brain is exclusively dwelt upon as the organ of the mind. There is an abuse of this term inits restriction to the sense of intellect, or more strictly, in reference to that of our understandingand reasoning faculties - a restriction which is in obvious contradiction to the plainest facts ofevery-day observation. It is literally true and logically incontrovertible that there is not oneorgan in the body that is not an organ of the mind.

It follows as a corollary that genius, longevity, and every form of earthly excellence arevery closely allied to the functional integrity of the ganglionic system. Religion is always anexercise of the affections, and as a general rule the superior genius is also of a high religiouscharacter. Taking the phrenological method of estimating, however full the development ofbrow and middle regions of the head, the three-storied brain carries off the palm. Intellect ismore than reasoning faculty or understanding; it is the power to look beyond. The highestmoral nature is nearest in accord with the truth of things. All our great artists are largelyendowed in this respect. We conceive of selfish men as narrow-minded, and of generous andliberal souls as broad and full-developed. Savages are proverbially deficient in noble quality; they are heartless and untrustworthy in social, family and other relations which involve fidelityand unselfish affection. They are also short-lived in comparison with other races. Men,however, who are distinguished for superior moral qualities excel others in the average lengthof life. The Semitic races are more tenacious of their religious customs, and more generallyeducated than the Aryans, and they are certainly longer-lived. In physical development, whilethey are fully equal in brain-power, they are superior in bodily physique. Women, too, have aricher endowment of organic nerves, and also of the moral qualities which are allied to these; and they both excel the other sex in their longevity and power of endurance, and exercise aninfluence correspondingly greater on manners and social culture.

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The married live longer than the unmarried; not alone because the conjugal relationshipis more in accordance with nature and preventive of disorder, but because they who contract itare individuals more perfectly endowed with moral sentiment and the corresponding nervousorganism, and accordingly have that instinct of long life and permanent domestic relationswhich makes marriage desirable. These facts are born out by statistics, and are abundantlyverified by observation.

This knowledge of the interior life-ministering nervous structure may not be prudentlyneglected. It is essential in regard to the Higher Remedial Art. Medical learning, in order to bereally scientific, must recognize as a fundamental truth, the influence of mental and moralstates over the physical functions. The missing link which is to be discovered as well asrecognized, is not only the skill to restore a mind diseased and "rase out the written troubles ofthe brain," but to recruit, as well as to sustain, the vital forces.

The study and exploration of the grand system of ganglionic nerves, will enable us tounderstand, as we may not otherwise, the connection of every organ with all the others and

their relation to the mind itself. To that system pertains the vis medicatrix naturae, the forcewhich is Nature's physician. It holds the middle place in our being between the within and thewithout, standing at the last verge of mortal existence. It is the first thing created in our bodies,the last which is palsied by death. It contains the form, or organizing principle, which abidespermanently, and controls the shaping of every part of the corporeal organism, and at the sametime it mirrors the whole universe.

(Lucifer, Sept., October, 1892)

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THE EYE AND THE ANATOMY OF EMOTION

The accessory apparatus of the eye consists of the eyebrows, eyelids, meibomian glands,the lachrymal mechanism and the muscles for the moving of the eyeball. The brows are twoarches of integument covered with hair; it is supposed that they protect the eyes from too greatintensity of light and divert away the drops of sweat. They also facilitate the expression ofemotions, indeed surpassing the eyes themselves in that respect. If we were carefully observantwe would perceive that the eyes are greatly overrated in regard to expressing the feeling. I donot deny, however, that they do much in this way; we descry mirth, thoughtfulness, sadness,anger and affection, by looking steadfastly in the eye of the person; and individuals not strongof will often drop the eye as in shame when regarded by another. I do not believe so much asmany do that guilt may be detected from this occurrence. A modest or diffident person caneasily be made to look down or away when one more impudent or imperious stares upon them. What is more, such an individual can be made to feel guilty, and almost to believe himself so,when actually knowing himself to be innocent.

The evolutionists endeavor to think that the eyebrows are remnants of the cast off skinthat the pre-Adamite man wore in the period of nobody-knows-when. I supposed that thegarment mentioned in the book of Genesis will hardly be allowed by the commentator; thoughhuman skin is the primitive meaning of the word used. The naked savage explained that he didnot suffer from heat and cold because he was all face: we can perceive that the modern notionis that the primeval man had a skin, all eyebrow. No wonder that the esteemed individual thatis supposed to have most to do with mankind is supposed to adhere to the ancient costume.

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Perhaps for this reason he is popularly denominated the Old Hairy.The actual reason, however, why the eyebrows are moved and posed by our emotions is

because they are largely operated by sympathetic nerves. That part of our nervous structurerepresents and embodies the affectional emotional nature, and so the organs supplied by italways are affected by emotion.

The eyelids consist of a pair of membranous valves, of which the upper one has mostfreedom of motion. They are very important to us, affording protection to the eye by closing

entirely over it, more particularly during sleep, and to keep their surface moist and free fromdust, by their winking motion. The contact of air or of irritating particles, and light bring theminto action. They are supplied from the facial and fifth pair of nerves, and so have both generalsensation and motion akin to that of the rest of the face. The edges of the lids are supplied withrows of curved hairs which help protect the eye by keeping off dust and tempering the light. They are lubricated by an oil secreted from the meibomian glands. There are about thirty of theopenings of these glands in each upper eyelid and somewhat fewer in the other. The glands arethemselves embedded on the inner side of the cartilage of the lids; and their peculiar secretionprevents the adhesion of the lids to the eyes, enables the globes to move readily within themand checks the overflow of the moisture of the eyes.

The lachrymal apparatus consists of a gland in the upper and outer angle of each orbit,which secretes a well-known bitter and saline water. Some eight or ten ducts convey this fluidto the conjunctive, as the membrane is called which lines the orbit and covers the eyeball. Themotion of the eyelids spreads this fluid over the eyes. It may not be out of place to define theutility of all this. The surface of the cornea requires, like the glass of a spectacle, to be keptperfectly clean; besides, if it is not kept moist it loses much of its transparency which wouldhinder sight. This provision prevents both these exigencies. The necessity exists however toremove this moisture, as well as to provide it. This is usually done by evaporation; but in caseof moist atmosphere or a superabundant accumulation, there will an excess arise to beotherwise disposed of. Two minute orifices accordingly exist at the edge of the eyelids, known as the

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puncta lachrymalia. They draw off any collection of water and convey it to a little receptacledenominated the lachrymal sac and discharge it through the nasal duct into the cavity of thenose. It is removed then by evaporation.

As glands are under the control of the sympathetic nervous system, an emotional stimulusis likely to increase their activity. This rule holds good of the lachrymal glands. The secretionwill become excessive, so that not only will there be a greater accumulation of moisture in thecavities of the nostrils, but the eyes themselves will overflow, and discharge the water in tearsdown the cheeks. This occurs in the torturing pain of facial neuralgia, as well as from grief,delight, and other emotions. In some individuals the discharging ducts are more or lessobstructed, causing the phenomenon known as "the weeping eye." Though the sympatheticnerves are generally supposed to constitute the principle nervous supply to these glands, thesecretion seems often to be under the control of the will. Some persons hold back tears bysheer force of purpose. The dying never weep. Others seem to be able to shed tears oncommand. Some ladies having susceptible husbands to manage, who are apt to be persistent intheir own way, are said to find this power of weeping at will to be very convenient and eveneffective. It requires a pretty firm man to stand such a broadside of woman-power. But, then,how is it when he is disillusioned, and learns that the tears come by order, as a charge from acannon at some fortress? We forbear to speculate on that theme, though it pertains to psychicalphenomena.

The eyeball is moved by six muscles, four straight and two oblique. The straight musclesarise at the optic foramen and are inserted into the sclerotic in the four positions at angles toeach other - above and below, right and left. Each muscle, on contracting, turns the eyeball

toward itself; when they all contract at once they fix it. The superior oblique muscle arisesalso from the optic foramen, passes through a pulley beneath the internal angular process of thefrontal bone, its tendons being inserted into the sclera on its outer and posterior part near theentrance of the optic nerve. The inferior oblique rises from the inner margin of the superiormaxillary bone, passes beneath the inferior straight muscle and is inserted in the

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sclerotic near the entrance of the optic nerve. The superior oblique muscle rolls the globeinward and forward; the inferior rolls it outward and backward. When both of them act, theydraw the globe forward and converge the axes of the eyes.

The nerves which supply these muscles and control their action will be again enumerated. The optic are the second pair of cranial nerves. It has been shown that these with theirexpansions constitute the apparatus of the eye itself. The third pair is denominated oculomotor. It arises from the inner side of the crus cerebri, near the pons varolii, some of its fibers beingattached to the gray matter of the crus. It divides into two branches, one of which supplies themuscle of the eyelid and the superior rectus, and the other the internal rectus, the inferior rectusand the inferior oblique. Thence it controls the motion of the eye and eyelid. Branches of italso pass to the lenticular ganglion and so to the iris itself. Thus acting with the optic nerve andthe corpora quadrigemina, the three constitute a complete nerve arc; and accordingly thesensory impressions made on the retina occasion motions in the iris. The enlargement andcontraction of the pupil are thus occasioned. Division of these nerves will produce strabismus,paralysis of the eyelid or ptosis, paralysis of the glove itself, and paralysis of the iris, so that themost powerful light will not contract the pupil.

The fourth pair originate near the testis, pass around the crura cerebri, enter the orbit andare distributed to the superior oblique muscles of the eyes. Division of this nerve will cause theeye to turn upward and outward and double vision.

The fifth pair are known as the sensory nerves of the head. One branch of it, theophthalmic, is distributed to the various muscles, generally being included in the same sheathwith other nerves.

The sixth pair arises from the upper part of the pyramidal bodies of the medullaoblongata, near the pons varolii and is distributed to the external straight muscles. When it isirritated that muscle is convulsed and the eye turned outward; when it is divided or otherwiseinjured, the muscle is paralyzed and the eye turned inward.

Thus the optic nerve has the third, fourth, sixth and a division

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of the fifth pair for its servants and auxiliaries. Yet these are not enough, a more vital principlethan pertains to the cerebro-spinal nerves is required. The ganglionic must be certain to do itsshare or all this structure would not subsist. There is accordingly at the side of the orbit nearthe optic nerve the little reddish lenticular ganglion; filaments from which enter the iris of theeye and ciliary ligament. Branches of the third pair are connected with this ganglion. The mostincredible circumstance connected with this would seem to be the minute size of this structure. Despite much of the importance which masses of bulk appear to have, the little things somehowappear to excel in force. I cannot conceive of the Supreme Being except as an impalpable

point, absolutely without dimension; but he is omnipotent and ubiquitous for all that. So, in nounworthy analogy, the magnificent structure the eye, endowed with the most complexorganism, is set in operation and maintained by that minute and apparently insignificantlenticular ganglion. This ganglion appears to be in close relation to the pineal gland - anotherstructure which has taxed the ingenuity of investigators to tell what it is or surmise its office. Ithas been suggested that it is a central organ bearing a relation to those sympathetic systems ofthe head that the semilunar ganglion does to the ganglion and other structures of the body. Insuch case it would be the maintainer of the brain and supplier of the various structures of theencephalon. But enough of this at present.

It has been suggested that the black pigment of the choroid coat of the eye, and not theretina, was the receiving screen. When this pigment is not perfectly developed, as in albinos,vision is imperfect and indistinct. The effect of different rays of light upon this pigment is toproduce the sensation of color. The yellow tint is the most intense; while the red and violet,and which are polar to each other, are the least so. The posterior side of the retina is its sensorysurface. The rods of Jacob are the tactile agency that perceives the contact.

Rays from a luminous source cannot be perceived by the eye, if the temperature is below1,000 degrees F. They cannot pass through a stratum of water or the humors of the eye. In thesame way, all photographic effects are the effects of high temperature.

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Though the heat be intense at the point where the ray strikes, it passes away in being conductedto other points. But except an individual is very familiar with the physical history of light, thiscannot be made intelligible, and we pass to another feature of the subject.

Numerous conjectures have been put forth to explain what light is. It has been declaredto be a material substance and an immaterial agent, to consist of waves of ether and to be veryether itself, to be the product of electricity and actual electricity. This much is plain: that thatscience which stands like antichrist in the very temple of God, which its votaries denominateexact and modern, as distinguished from the more modest ancient philosophy, and yet whichrevises its conclusions every morning after the reading of the newspaper, is not to be regardedas of much account in determining the matter. We may as well summon what intelligence andintuitive faculties we ourselves possess, and refuse to submit our judgment to the dictum of anyconsensus of professed scientists. They have no faculties which we have not; except, perhapsof domineering.

When we learn what motion and polarity are, we shall comprehend electricity, heat andlight. We shall understand that force or energy is their originator, and that by potency they areembodied, individualized and brought to our scope. So far as we know, force comes hitherfrom the sun. I doubt not that much is transmitted to us from elsewhere, but that is foreign tothe present discussion. It is force from the sun that made the plant grow, and gave coal itsprodigious accumulation of heat, light and mechanical power. The fountain of force is thesource of light. The something which scientists call actinism is the solar energy. It is diffusedwherever the sun shines. It makes metals into magnets, trees grow, animals thrive; and all theuniverse to abound with life in one or another form. It is manifest in one form as heat, inanother as light, in another as the actinic potency which produces chemical and photographiceffects. The chemical ray produces molecular changes, preparing substances for the action ofits successors, the calorific ray which is red. This develops polarity, attraction and repulsion,

red and blue. In its essence then, light is force; in its manifestation it is the something which,acting on our organism, enables us to see. This it does,

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because our eyes are organisms of the same character, embodied light. They cannot receiveany principle that is of a nature diverse from themselves. The fact that some things appear tous as light, and others appear differently, is only an apparent evidence. There are differences ineyes. The owl, perhaps, if he had reason and vocal speech, could discourse to you of theglorious views of nature to be witnessed at midnight; and tell you that he had no need of a sunto show them. That only seemed to blind the true sense of vision. He would be about asrational as the French atheist who was asked concerning God, and replied that he saw no needof such an hypothesis. If the owl and the atheist are not enough, we can interrogate the cat thatfinds the night so inspiring for his music. It is because their type of organization has a differentway of apprehending things.

Equally curious is the sense of color. The variations in different individuals areremarkable. Different colors absorb differently. Dr. Unger of Altoona could not perceivegreen and blue. There are but three of four colors named in Homer's Iliad. He calls the hair ofVenus Aphrodite golden; of Poseidon blue. the color of blood was black. Spurgheim knew afamily, every individual of which had only the perception of black and white; and a boy atVienna who was obliged to give up the trade of a tailor because he could not distinguish colors. A much arched eye brow at the center is the phrenological sign. Color-blindness is noevidence of obtuse vision; many color-blind conductors on railroads distinguish the red, whiteand green lights about as well as the others. I am inclined to think that color is a magneticproperty, and impresses the sense. Darkness serves to produce it, rather than light - at least, thebest pigments are found where light is excluded. I have witnessed the most beautiful ores justdetached from the vein of gunpowder.

In the ancient rituals, God the divine male, representing force and energy, wasrepresented as a unit, dwelling in pure light, and his worshipers wore white robes. The GreatMother, who denoted nature, power, infinite variety, was depicted with gems of various hues,and her priests wore robes or coats of many colors. This implies a great deal. It is shade thatmakes light apparent to the view; if there was

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no darkness there could be no visible luminosity. Betwixt us and the cat, in this respect, thedifference is in degree. I do not know whether cats are color-blind.

Clouds are white, but the clear sky is blue. Our artificial lights are but dark black matterheated white. If there be no intermediacy, no material substance opposite in polarity, visiblelight is not possible. Perhaps, owing to this fact, the writer of the Gnostic Gospel said: "Noone hath ever seen God at any time."

The mechanical operation of seeing appears to be substantially as follows: The luminousray enters the cornea, passes through the aqueous humor to the pupil, and on through thecrystalline lens and vitreous humor to the retina. It is a known fact in physics that when rays oflight pass through a convex lens or upon a combination of such lenses, an image of the objectwill form at the proper focal distance. When they pass from a rarer to a denser medium, as

from air into water, they are bent or refracted from the perpendicular, and when they pass fromthe denser to the rarer mediums they are refracted to the perpendicular. Flatter lenses have alonger focus; a fact which accounts for several disorders of sight. Lenses that are of but shortfocus, or with small diameter, are liable to give indistinct vision, the edges of the images beingfringed with the colors of the rainbow. This is called chromatic aberration; and it is correctedby placing several lenses together of different refracting power, and suitable curvatures ofsurface. This combination is called an achromatic lens.

The eye is such an instrument. The aqueous humor in front, bounded by the cornea andcrystalline lens, acts as a convex and converging lens. The crystalline itself adds powerfully tothis effect, and the two together throw the images directly upon the black pigment. As theinternal side of the eye is concave the images are inverted. The retina does not receive the raysbut transmits them to the pigmentary surface. In this way they are concentrated and affect therods in the membrane of Jacob, which are the extremities of the tubules of the optic nerve. Thenerve itself is insensible to light. There is a blind spot where the optic nerve enters the eye andthe refraction of the rays is effective by making the point of impression at

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a little distance away.Let us regard this matter in a little more everyday style. The form of the eye is the most

perfect in nature, the egg-shape. It affords the greatest resistance to external violence, and isthe most perfectly adapted to the necessary motions. In any other shape it would require to bemade longer and of heavier materials. Yet bone itself would be less protective. The bloodvessels would have weakened this hard fibrous envelope, and so were placed by themselves inthe choroid membrane, and the more delicate nerve structure, for which all the rest wasdesigned is still inside of the others. This receives the images of objects, registers them on itsganglionic outer side, and transmits them to the optic thalamus and brain to be recognized asperceptions. Thus we become conscious that we see.

The fluids and other structures inside the eyeball, by their refracting power, so bend therays of light, that they strike upon the part of the retina which is most sensitive. They alsodistend the glove or eyeball and so keep it in perfect shape, which is very important. Thispressure also keeps the tissue of the retina properly expanded and ready for work. The irishangs down like a curtain to shut off the two great influx of rays, admitting only those that areable to enter at the pupil. This little opening expands or contracts, according as the light isbright or obscure. It does this by virtue of the nerve supply of the iris, which has beenrepresented as coming from the lenticular ganglion. The will accordingly has no control in thematter; the ganglion, being an organ of the natural instinct regulates the whole matter. The irisis lined like the choroid, of which it is a continuation, with dark pigment, which gives the eyestheir color, and at the same time prevent the rays from passing. Only just so much as is neededfor seeing purposes is allowed to come in.

The self-regulating optical powers of the eye are admirable. "We may turn our eyes fromthe printed page to gaze at a distance, or withdraw them from space to gaze upon a minuteatom, and the eye adapts itself instantly to each of these uses. By means of a circle of delicatefibers, so small that till lately their existence and uses were unknown - the ciliary muscle - theconvexity of the crystalline lens can be increased and its focal power varied; and then, withoutconscious

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effort, the eye may contemplate the glories of the firmament, or catch the first flittingexpression of an infant's love, or explore the mysteries of microscopic existences." (F.W.Williams)

The eyes, like our other organs, are double. This fact enables us to estimate forms,distances and other phenomena more accurately, and to correct each other. Thus we form ourideas more perfectly; besides, the accidental loss of one, still leaves us in possession of theother.

As may be expected the disorders of the eye are numerous. The elongation of the glovebackwards changes the focal point and produces near-sightedness. The flatness of the eyeballcreates the over-sight. A difference of curvature in two meridians of the curve, producesastigmatism. The crystalline lens hardens with years, so as to prevent accommodation of theeyes to the various rays of light. This is presbyopic or long-sightedness. Diphtheria and otherdiseases often paralyze the nerves of the ciliary muscle, and produces a similar condition. Careshould be taken lest it be rendered permanent. Women sometimes suffer from total or partialblindness during pregnancy. Children have occasionally an imperfect development of theretina and choroid coat, commencing cataract, the cornea hazy from pervious ulceration, orconical in form. When one eye is injured or inflamed, the other is liable to contract disorderthrough sympathy. Everything that weakens or disorders the nervous system, particularly theganglionic, will be apt to weaken the eyes. Excessive sexual commerce will furnish a man withamaurosis. Wine and its substitutes inflame the coatings. Syphilis, variola, scarlatina anderysipelas make terrible mischief. It is as a judgment for sins.

(The Word, vol. 15, pp. 237-46)

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SEEING

The sense and apparatus of vision constitute a subject which, though each of us knowsabout, is not so easy to define, or even to understand. The dictionary informs us that vision isthe faculty of seeing; yet very coolly takes it out of the category of everyday functions, anddenominates it "a supernatural, prophetic or imaginary sight; an apparition; a phantom." Avisionary is accordingly described as one whose imagination is disturbed; one who formsimpracticable schemes; one who is confident of success in a project which others perceive tobe idle and fanciful." To be visionary is to be affected by phantoms; to be disposed to receiveimpressions of the imagination, given to reverie, apt to receive and act upon fancies as if theywere real. I notice that the compiler of Webster's Dictionary fails to quote Shakespear straight- making a vision of this vision - "Like the baseless fabric of this vision.... the great globeitself... shall dissolve."

Equally curious are the definitions of seeing. It is to perceive by the eye; to perceive by

mental vision; to have intellectual apprehension. Sight is the perception of objects by the eye; the faculty of vision. A seer is one who sees, whether an object apparent to the external senseor to the interior apprehension. Enough of this, however, for the present; we may have it yet toconsider.

The essential organ of sight is the optic nerve. There is also, however, a very complexauxiliary apparatus which demands careful study. We will, accordingly, endeavor to indicatethe more important parts of the structure. There are two methods of investigation; theempirical and the philosophical. The former of these is most commonly employed. Itcomprises the observations of the eye, its structure and functions as they exist, with little or noreference to the

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physiological history. The philosophical method considers the development of the eye, thefaculty of sight, and the relations to the world at large. It seems to have this excellence, that itenables us to grasp more intelligently the entire subject which we are considering. Those whoregard creation as the product of design and omnific will, are naturally more disposed to adoptthis method of learning. So far as intelligence transcends science, as cognizing is greater thanmere phenomenal knowing, so far the philosophical method is preferable. We will employ itaccordingly.

Unity of purpose, a paramount idea which subordinates minor matters to it, characterizesthe physiological and embryonic history of the eye. It is the antenna so to speak, the extremityof the optic nerve, by means of which the organism is enabled to acquire a perception ofobjects. It is accordingly more proper for us to begin with the nerve itself.

The corpora quadrigemina or optic tubercles constitute the origin of the visual apparatus. At a very early period in prenatal life, a little vesicle at the vertex of the dorsal cord is all thereis of this important structure. A little protrusion takes place, and the optic vesicle emerges, orrather two of them, which soon take a round form and are connected with the parent vesicle bya hollow pedicel. In this we have the rudimentary eye and optic nerves. The eyes approach thecuticle investing the skull and become invaginated or sheathed over by it. The invaginatedportion of cuticle becomes a sac and separates from the general cuticle, forming the lens till itsopposite surfaces come into contact, and its cavity disappears. Kolliker declares that theinvaginated portion forms the retina and the layer of hexagonal pigment-cell in the choroid; and the external portion the branching pigment cells of the choroid, and probably the vascularpart. The cup-shaped cavity behind the lens called the secondary optic vesicle, is soon filledwith the vitreous humor. The iris is developed about the second month as a septum projectingfrom the anterior part of the choroid. The sclerotic coat and the cornea are formed from tissueexternal to the eye. A vascular coating covers the lens during the embryonic period, but isabsorbed before birth. In the case of the young of many animals, it remains some time afterbirth.

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If close attention has been given to this description with due reflection, it will beperceived that the optic apparatus while developing is able to detach other membranousstructure and transform it into a part of its own texture. In due time we shall perceive that it

has the power likewise to associate other nerves with it to protect it from accident and violence,and aid in the performing of its functions.

In order, however, to be more definite in the terms employed and their meaning, we willnow pause to consider the eye as it is, in its mature form. It is globular in form, and about aninch in diameter. The lateral diameter is about one-twentieth shorter than the antero-posterior. It is in form like a shell with three coats, and contains the various transparent media and theoptic apparatus. The three coats are the sclerotic, choroid, and retina. The sclerotic or hardcoat is the tough white membrane which surrounds the eye. It is perforated in front, and thetransparent cornea inserted into the aperture somewhat like the glass of a watch. Manyanatomists consider it as part of the sclerotic coat. The choroid is a highly vascular coat linedwith black pigment. The retina is the innermost coat and is the optic nerve itself expanded andspread out into a membrane.

The choroid and sclerotic coats are united around the edge of the cornea by the ciliaryligament. The sclerotic is thicker behind than in front; in the whale, which has the pressure ofa deep seas to resist, it is an inch thick. In some animals there is cartilage in it, in others, bone. It affords points of attachment to the various muscles required for moving the eyeball. Itcontains sieve-like openings on the inner side which are for the tubules of the optic nerve.

The cornea has a greater curvature than the sclerotic coat. This fact renders the antero-posterior diameter longer than the lateral, as has been noticed. The cornea appears to betransparent; nevertheless, its organization is far from simple. It is composed of as many as fivedistinct layers; the inner one consisting of more than sixty lamellae.

The choroid coat consists of a sheet of blood-vessels arranged in two layers, one ofarterial and the other of venous blood vessels, in such a manner as to permit for flow of bloodto the retina and from

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it. The dark pigment is secreted from the choroid. At the margin the choroid merges in theciliary ligament. The iris also proceeds from it. Its tissue is the unstriped muscular and it issupplied with arteries from the ciliary pigment; this gives the eye its color. The pupil is anopening in the iris.

The retina arises from the tubules of the optic nerve. They are generally described ashaving cast off that membranous covering as they pass through the sclerotic. More correctly,however, we should say, the external investures are continued to and become the sclerotic coat,while the internal structure of the nerve becomes the retina.

The vitreous humor is a jelly-like fluid, chiefly water, with about one and one-thirdpercent of salt and a trace of albumen. It fills up the principal part of the cavity of the eye. Infront of it is the crystalline lens which is enclosed in a capsule and set in a groove, known asthe canal of Petit. Fibers of the ciliary muscle are attached to the lens and move it. The lens isa double convex, being flatter on the anterior surface, and changes in shape and density withage. Its construction is extremely complex, being made up of layers of fiber. Its office is torefract the rays of light. It contains about fifty-six percent of albumen known as globulin.

The aqueous humor fills up the space between the lens and the cornea; and is composedof water containing about one percent of salt.

Thus the apparatus of the eye consists virtually of four united lenses: the cornea or hornylens, the aqueous humor or watery lens, the crystalline or glassy lens, and the vitreous humor or

gelatinous lens. They fulfill the conditions optically required to produce achromatism soperfectly as to set the optician's art at defiance.

The nervous mechanism of the eye demands further attention. The retina, which is theexpanded extremity of the optic nerve intervenes between the vitreous humor and the choroidcoat. It consists of several layers, the innermost of which is called the fibrous gray layer. Itarises as already remarked from the tubules of the optic nerve which have cast off the whitesubstance of Schwann. Where it exists alone, vision cannot be performed. Beneath or outsideof this fibrous layer is the gray vesicular layer, analogous to the gray matter

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of the brain. They are both served with capillary vessels from the choroid coat. Outside of thevesicular layer is the granular layer, constituted of granules and molecular substance whichprobably form the vesicles of the layer inside of them. The vesicles or cells of the second layeris the delicate sheet known as the membrane of Jacob. It is not formed, however, after themanner of membrane, but is constituted of a set of rod-shaped bodies of conical form, standingside by side. The thicker end of these rods stands outside, and the thinner inward. These rodsare the true extremities of the fibers of the optic nerve, and are regarded by Koliker as the trueperceivers of light. It may be, however, that the rods and cones convey the impressions to thenerve-cells of the retina, which constitutes a ganglion, and that the fibers of the optic nervemerely transmit these impressions to the sensorium. This would certainly be according to theanalogy of the spinal cord, and other structures. This much is certain, that the part of the retinawhich is next the black pigment of the choroid coat, and is ganglionic in character, is thesentient part of the retina.

The optic nerves from which the retina is derived are also known as the second pair; theolfactory being the first. They enter the sclerotic coat at a little distance from the optical axisand obliquely. This provision enables them to avoid what is called the "blind spot" in the fieldof vision, and each to compensate for the defect of the other. The nerves from each eyeconverge to their chiasm. This is a commissure consisting of three sets of tubules - an anteriorset which are commissures between the two retinae, a posterior set which are commisuresbetween the two optic thalami, and one interior set which are the proper tubules of the opticnerve. These cross so that the tubules from the right eye go to the left side of the brain andthose from the left eye to the right side. The chiasm is therefor a complex structure; and theposterior part of it exists in animals that have no optic nerve.

There are also several other nerves subsidiary to the nerves of vision. The third pair, themotores osculorum, supply the superior, inferior and internal recti muscles, the inferior obliqueand the levator palpebrarum.

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The fourth pair, the trochleares, supply the superior oblique muscles.The fifth pair gives off supplies from the frontal branch, the lachrymal, ciliary, and the

infra-trochlear.The sixth pair, the abducent, pass to the external recti muscles.The functions of these nerves are very diversified; some are for the moving of the eye-

lashes, others for general sensibility of the surface, others to direct the moving of the eyeballs,

others for the iris, and others for the lachrymal apparatus.The relations with the sympathetic system many not be overlooked. The lenticular

ganglion sends filaments to the iris and the ciliary ligament which joins the choroid and cleroticcoats. Some of them are in the same sheath with the fibers of the third pair; others areassociated with other fields.

(The Word, Vol. 15, pp. 170-74)

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HOW DISEASE IS DISSEMINATED

Disease, an eminent pathologist assures us, is not a morbific principle, but simply adeparture from healthy life. This quoted from memory, but the sentiment is correctly given.

In these days when individuals are running mad with the notion of contagious disease, itmay be well to revert once more to sober and sounder facts. The witty Robert Ingersoll onceremarked that if he had had part in the creation he would have made health as contagious asdisease. If he had been an observer rather than a receiver of others men's conceptions, more ofa philosopher rather than a critic, he would have been aware that health, like goodness of whichit is a part, is the positive principle everywhere, and disease is only its negative. As goodnessis mightier than what is bad, so health is the active factor in the universe which may be evokedwhenever and wherever its weaker rival appears. Pestilence walking at noonday disappearswhen its judge and master comes on the scene.

It is a curious fact that a large number of our physical sufferings are little else thancreatures of the imagination. An anecdote which appear in medical journals a year or two agois a forcible illustration. A man in New Orleans asked a physician to tell him where in theabdomen the premonitory symptoms of appendicitis are felt. The doctor quietly pointed to aspot in the left side, a little above the point of the hip-bone.

The next day he was called to the St. Charles Hotel. He found the man there writhingwith pain his forehead beaded with sweat, and every appearance of intense suffering. Groaningwith agony the sufferer exclaimed:

"I have an attack of appendicitis. I feel as if somebody held a knife in me. I am a deadman. I can never survive an operation."

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The doctor asked where he felt the pain. He placed his hand on the left side at the spotwhich had been pointed out to him the day before.

"It can not be appendicitis," the doctor remarked. "That is the wrong side.""But," cried the man angrily, "you told me yesterday that the appendix is on the left side.""I must have been absent-minded," said the doctor. He then administered a palliative and

assured the man of safety. Confidence was soon imparted, and the man was able to get up andeat his dinner, thoroughly recovered. Yet his pain had been severe and a fatal result was liable.

While it would be the common course to denominate the cause of the man's trouble"imaginary," there should be a reasonable explanation of the matter. When the attention isintently fixed on any part of the body, the blood is very certain to accumulate there to adisproportionate extent, and this excess is pretty sure to induce pain at the part, and sometimesan actual morbid condition. John Hunter, who first raised surgery to the rank of a profession,and himself a philosopher as well as an investigator, was very unfavorably prejudiced againstmesmerism. He was unwilling to meddle with it, but was persuaded to permit an experiment. He resisted the peculiar influence attending the manipulations, by a wilful effort. He fixed histhought upon one of his own feet, and succeeded in his purpose. The result, however, was asharp pain in the foot, somewhat analogous to what the man suffered with his fancied attack ofappendicitis. Every physician has such cases to deal with, and he is both wise and honorablewho does not humor them for his own advantage.

The imagination is a leading factor in the human economy. It begins close to theunderstanding itself, leading and shaping it in its work. It is the former ideas which the willand understanding bring into objective existence and cognizance. In short, it is the facultywhich establishes the human race above the whole animal kingdom; and we owe to it all thatwe have become and all that we may ever hope to become in the field of advancement andachievement. When the Serpent in Eden told the woman that by eating of the Tree of

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Knowledge they would become intelligent and be as gods, the narrative adds that it was thetruth. From unproductive adolescence, the change was a merging into a new career of life withits thousandfold activities. "And the Lord God said: 'Behold the Adam is as one of us,knowing good and evil.'"

In this world, however, there are always two aspects to everything. Every religious faithhas had its left side as well as right, and when viewed solely from such a view, is likely toappear undesirable, ugly and repulsive. Much of what is written describing the odiouscharacter of heathenism, ancient and modern, relates to that feature. Human nature in allpeoples and all faiths possesses alike the double character of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - onesuperlatively good and the other woefully bad. In the medical field of experience, the obverseside of the picture seems to be oftenest presented. The physician appears as liable todistempered imagination, as the patient whom he is treating. As if by thought-transference hemay impress his own conviction and make a person, otherwise in fair condition, feel himselfthe victim of serious disorder. Many of the current epidemics are made such, to a great degreeat least, by the morbific impressions disseminated by medical men.

When the practitioner attempts to solve mysterious problems of imagination, he generallyhas in mind only to ascertain the mischief occurring through a disordered fancy. He is verysure to find it at work when he meets a new patient. In the days of Queen Anne, the Englishladies were often subject to "vapors," as they are now to hysteria and other disturbances. Thecomplaints do not change much; much of advancing medical knowledge consists insubstituting new terms for old ones, like the Genie that swapped lamps.

By no means, however, do we impute disordered fancies, and diseases which they createto women alone. Such terms as spleen and hypochondria are expressive but hardly extensiveenough in their meaning. Many a man on reading a medical advertisement, will begin to thinkthat he is disordered in the ways that are mentioned. It is not necessary to give examples,

everybody knows of them. In fact the greatest harm from the sale of proprietary nostrumsconsists little in the ingredients of which they are composed. These are as safe as

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those which physicians prescribe. But the morbid fancies which they induce are pregnant withmischief of every kind.

The morbid imaginings of patients often impel practitioners, whether they consider itnecessary or not to prescribe medicines that will make their action felt. Others, however, wiserand perhaps having the patients in hand, will simply use palliatives or fictitious drugs with thepurpose to dislodge the notion which the patient is entertaining.

Every practitioner of any worth in his calling has his own methods, and while they maysucceed very well in his own hands, it will often happen that another physician employing thesame will meet with disappointment.

Indeed, in medicines as in mental treatment, there must be confidence on the part of thephysician in what he is doing, if he would impart it to his patient. The human body is no merereceptacle to put drugs in, in order to produce a corresponding result. Many a worthypractitioner has been dismissed in disgrace when doing his best because there was not thissharing of confidence, a common imagination between him and his patient. The words of theapostle hold good here as elsewhere: "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith tofaith."

The agency of the imagination to induce suffering is often illustrated by neuralgicaffections. When a sufferer from toothache, for example, is engaged with extraneous matters,he often has little trouble with his tormentor. But when he becomes disengaged and especiallyafter going to bed, thought will turn back to the trouble and the twinges resume the formerenergy. Diseases are often extended over a neighborhood by alarm and disordered imagination. Fear is the most deadly of all things.

We have known practitioners, illiterate and not very saintly, yet full of enthusiasm, fondof boasting of their successes where others had failed, and how their boasting was justified. Full of confidence they imparted it to their patients, and whatever the virtue of their remedies,the courage and faith which was communicated was salvation itself.

But medical men are by no means the only sinners to create alarm and diffuse epidemicinfluence. There is a practice in common

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life which is productive of disorder in the same way.If a person really believes an individual with whom he is familiar, to be out of

health, he is likely by thinking it, to impress that notion on the other. After such a belief hasbecome thoroughly established the individual is ready to sicken, and even to die. It thusbecomes necessary sometimes for individuals to be delivered from their friends.

Parents of families watch carefully, as is their duty, over the appearance of their children. When they perceive something out of the way they are prone to apprehend that there is trouble,and even to work the apprehension into a belief of serious disorder. The youngster willlikewise acquire the same notion, and then what had been considered imaginary because asource of perplexity.

As we have already declared it is a fact pertaining to the occult side of our nature, that athought or a conception which is active in one person's mind will not only affect the individualhimself, but it will disseminate its influence upon others around. We all have observed this. We become ourselves infected with light, jovial spirits when we go into a mirthful party, andagain we are made sad and dispirited when we are with those who are in downcast mood. Much that is called contagion is in accordance with this principle, an instilling of peculiarmoods and mental conditions.

The natives of the Hawaiian islands used to take advantage of this principle to revengethemselves on those who offended them. They would threaten to "pray them to death." Theperson thus imprecated would wither, lose his strength and die. We do as badly as that bycausing those about us to be overborne by the conception that they are becoming feeble andthat their dissolution is impending.

Another Source of MischiefAnother cause of mischief of this character is even more common. Sometimes from

wantonness, sometimes from motives more mercenary, favorite articles are taken away fromthe owner. In a way not easy to explain to every one, the life of an individual becomesinvolved, and we may even say interblended with objects of

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habit or affection. The objects may be living persons, or perhaps animals or inanimate things. Our newspapers and literature, as well as personal observation, bring to notice examples fromdisappointments in love between the sexes, and it is not necessary to treat of them specifically. Analogous instances are to be found in other departments. It is a frequent practice to takefavorite playthings away from children, without a thought of the exquisite suffering ofteninflicted, and the sense of unjust treatment which often abides into maturer years. Because thesufferer is only a child such matters are little considered and it is true that during the earlieryears of life the repairing processes are active, and most hurts bodily and mental are healed. Owing to this, we have generally become accustomed to regard them as of little importance.

When, however, the career of the individual has passed its climacteric, such mattersbecome too serious to be passed over lightly. The habits are fixed and the power ofrecuperation from shock is to a great degree diminished. The life is itself intimately involved. Examples abound everywhere in which incurable injury has been inflicted, by disregard ofthese matters. Individuals parting with cherished possessions or removed from their home andfrom habitual scenes of life, or deprived of employment which had engaged attention till itbecame a habit, are liable to become mentally enfeebled or to succumb to bodily debility. Afew examples illustrate these statements.

A physician with whom the writer was familiar, had followed a very active career. Misfortune came upon him in later years, and finally he gave up active business. Hishomestead was sold, and a residence procured elsewhere. The time of removal came, an Aprilday. He was placed in a carriage and taken to the new abode. He stepped to the ground, wentup the steps to the front door, and then fell dead.

An elderly couple in Western New York, had bargained with a relative for support, forthe rest of their days. The wife, who was the younger of the two, continued to manage the

garden, and to keep both a cat and poultry. Presently the husband died. The house in whichthey lived became unsuitable for occupation, and was torn

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down. A new one was built to which the surviving widow was removed. Then her garden wasoverturned and sown with grass; the poultry went next, and then the cat was put out of theway. The old woman had never enjoyed educational advantages, and now she was deprived ofevery familiar employment. In this condition she lived till near ninety years of age, prattlinghour by hour, day by day, for years repeating the rubbish which had accumulated around her ingirlhood.

Another example, known to the writer, occurred in country life. He was a farmer, andlike most old-fashioned individuals of New England parentage, he had a good-sized family. Hewas diligent, thrifty, and an excellent manager. His daughters all married worthy husbands,men superior to the average rural population; and he was able to present each of his sons witha farm which had been purchased from a neighbor. He then arranged for a few years of restand enjoyment, built a house into which he removed with all his belongings. Then came one ofthose freaks of legislation to worry him. It was a Free School Law imposing a special tax inschool districts for support of the schools. He had reared a large family, and been as carefuland liberal as his neighbors in educational matters. This new tax he resented, as the height ofinjustice. His mind gave way and for weeks and months he uttered disjointed sentencesrelating to the wrong. In a few months the golden cord was loosed, and he passed away.

Old persons have been aptly compared to old trees. They do not bear transplanting. Oneday, many years ago, the writer was conversing with a man, then sixty-five years of age. Hewas still in health and with usual energy, with fair prospect of many years yet of active life. His children had grown up and were in business for themselves. "There is no need for me towork so," he protested; "I can sell my property, and the interest of the money will yield me alarger income, than I am now getting." This was undoubtedly true, the writer replied, but, headded; "You will not see another happy day." The farm was sold a few years afterward; hehad lived on it forty years. Removing to another State there were conditions which he had notreckoned upon. He had no neighbors, no objects upon which to engage his thought. There waslack of companionship; nobody

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had time to spare to entertain him, or interest in what he had to say.The requirement that man should eat bread by the sweat of his face was in no sense a

curse, or token of divine displeasure. The key of a life worth living is usefulness - reciprocity; what the apostle Paul denominated "charity." In the interchange of sympathy and good officesall share and enjoy together, not only in what makes life valuable, but in life itself.

A true civilization regards every life as possessing value. Savages may put the old todeath and curtail the number of children to be reared, but then a state of savagery is a conditionof ever-present famine. Civilized men revere the old and cherish the young; and itsorganization keeps the wolf months away. It makes the consumer valuable as well as theproducer. Without the one there would be no occasion for the other. Sasdi, the Sufi poet, wasonce asked of what use his life was, as he had no employment.

"Of what use is the rose?" he demanded."The rose yields a delightful perfume," replied the other."And I am useful," said Saadi, "to smell it."He was right. The beauties of the world would be to no purpose, but for living beings to

enjoy them.To return to the original topic: We have shown the power of imagination to occasion

disease and death. There is such a thing as destroying individuals by mental operation. Thisfar from being a vagary. There may not be necessarily any ill intention, though such intentionmay have the same influence. But an apprehending of calamity sometimes operates magicallyupon individuals. If there should be a strong wish in that direction, it would be very sure tohave influence unless the individual had vital energy and force of will sufficient to cast off thepernicious influence. When a person, one who is more or less dependent, is held back from acherished purpose because of some abnormal apprehension on the part of others; and so is heldback when he may properly do something or pursue some object that he wishes, - then suchmorbid carefulness directly impairs vital energy. All conflict of mind wears and exhausts thepowers of the body. The conception of evil which exists in the mind of the one may beinstilled into the other, and produce disorder

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and mischief. There is a killing with kindness as well as with malice. Sensible persons shouldunderstand this and act accordingly. The proper course is that of encouragement. Theindividual, so long as he is able, should be required to be active, and not allowed to succumbpassively to apprehended trouble.

When Dr. Elisha Kent Kane was suffering from disease which resisted medical care andregimen, his father charged him, that if he must die to "die in harness." He went accordinglywith the Crinnell Expedition into the Polar Sea in search of Sir John Franklin. He thusachieved a valuable service, and at the same time prolonged his own life.

Far, very far be it from our purpose to suggest any unnecessary harshness to weaklings. Brusque manners do not indicate gentlemen, or moral superiority; and severe language, wherethe occasion does not warrant it, is utterly reprehensible. Every one should be encouraged andeven urged, so far as this is reasonable, to fare for himself, and to have confidence, even towilfulness, in the better outcome of things and conditions. Pessimism is itself a disease, andshould be scouted as such.

If there is such a being as a devil in person he is the father and inspirer of the notion thatthings are for the worse. The notion should be got out from the mind and kept out that hopelessdisease, senility, or decline is the uppermost fact in the universe.

We are not prepared, however, to go to the extreme of denying that disease exists at all,for we all know better. Yet if we care to go into metaphysical niceties, as did Bishop Berkeley,we may say that it is negative and has no real being: but that is as far as we care.

Nevertheless so much of disease and various forms of debility are due to nervousdisorder and mental conditions that it becomes us to be more attentive to that department of theHealing Art. In daily life there are so many injured and even driven to actual death byovermuch anxiety and carefulness, that there is much need also to acquire what we may call theknack of wholesome neglect.

Take away from individuals the consciousness of being constantly watched for slips of

misconduct or bodily infirmity. We should keep carefully out of our thoughts the notion thatthis person

--- 473.

or that is ill or liable to become so: Lest we inoculate him with the same impression, and socreate the very condition which we are seeking to avoid. We are not pleading forindifference to the welfare of others, but for a wise conservatism. Nor would de decry anyreasonable means of cure. But of this we are sure, that man is mind and his safety consists inliving as essentially the outcome and projection of Superior Mind.

In all these things we should bear in mind the more excellent way.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Dec., 1906)

------------------ 474.

"TAKING COLD" AND KINDRED ILLS

A world of guessing and speculation is devoted to the matter of taking cold. Suddenexposures and the like are generally supposed to be a principal cause. Yet the Russian peasantand the American Indian will heat themselves in a sweating oven, and then rush out to roll inthe snow or plunge into the water which may be icy cold; and this both with impunity andobvious benefit.

In fact we seldom if ever take cold except when weary or depressed in spirit or inphysical condition. I have in earlier years, often after rising in the morning, even in midwinter,gone about indoors and out without a coat, and in every instance it was with impunity. Yet aslight exposure of a similar kind at a later time of day or when tired would often be followed byhoarseness, irritation of the membrane of the throat, suppressed perspiration and sometimeseven by a feverish condition for hours or days. I was always over-sensitive to changes oftemperature, and dislike cold bathing. I detest a cold shower-bath.

Philosophic writers have affirmed that our destiny has made us what we are, and also thatwe make our destiny. We may make a parallel assertion that the lower temperature afflicts uswith colds but that we ourselves cause this to be the case. The real trouble is with the physicalcondition. We insist that fatigue makes our bodies a nidus or passive receptacle for theexternal morbific agent. If we are all right in bodily condition every noxious agent will pass usby unscathed. Nobody ever contracted disease, or rather we should say, became diseased, tillhe became passive and thus was susceptible of it. To talk about prophylactics and preventivesis preposterous; the individual is his own protector. If we could avoid fatigue, or could reposeand refresh ourselves when we perceive a sensation of being

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weary we would seldom or never contract disease. We certainly would avoid taking cold.Dr. Franklin has given us a very significant hint, which we do well to heed. He could

give himself a cold at any time, he says, by eating too hearty a meal. The imperfect digestionwith which so many are attended is the cause of the incessant over-secretion of mucous in themembranes, the catarrhs and their concomitants, which go by this designation. Many personsfind themselves affected in this way even in the hottest weather of summer, and even moreoften then, when over-feeding or improper feeding is the real source of mischief, and so theyhave themselves created the morbid condition. The use of coffee is a frequent cause. I havecontracted cold or "hay fever" in the haying-field in summer, and when at work in a field ofgrowing beans. This may be an idiosyncrasy.

A closer study of this matter will show us that the condition of the nervous system is atthe foundation of our physical ills as well as of our well-being. This is little else, however,than saying that the state of mind itself is at the core. An experience of my early manhood hasgone far to teach me this. A severe bronchial attack and "nervous prostration," as the currentfad of speaking calls it, seemed in a fair way to wear away the life itself. The season was coldand other surroundings more or less auxiliary. But the real reason of the trouble was anoverpowering depression of spirits resulting from external influences which I did not thenunderstand or know how to escape or resist. Being constantly found fault with whether I wasright or wrong and overborne by the cruel despotic will of another had depressed me, till thedigestive and nervous functions were impaired. I think that much of the physical sufferingwhich young persons underwent in the "good old time" was a sequence of orthodox training, anendeavoring to "break the will" rather than to develop it aright into normal activity. Much as Iadmire the grit, the vertebral rigidity and force of Calvinistic people, I have no gratefulremembrances of the discipline and theology.

When we are cheerful we are safe from disease; when we are depressed anddownhearted we are in danger. Then, the epidemic or morbific influence in the atmosphere orexhaling from the earth is

--- 476.

likely to find in us an "open door." There are comparatively few complaints that are notintroduced with that antecedent.

Nevertheless, I believe religiously in a wholesomeness of climate and surroundings. Aneven temperature or well-kept apartment and cleanliness of person are blessing to be prized. When they exist many of the external causes of disease are absent. I have little confidence inthe devices or the professions of modern sanitation. I have never been able to ascertain thatthey checked the invasion of disease or effected any reduction of the average death-rate. Insome of the United States the annual mortality has steadily increased since the health officialsbegan operations. But while I smile at the fad which is given as the reason for prohibiting aperson from spitting in a car or cabin of a ferry-boat, I am heartily glad for the rule aspromotive of cleanliness and decency. For years the men's side of the ferry-boats has been asfilthy as a hog-sty, and we had to go to the other cabin for our own comfort at the risk of beingmaligned for intruding. Hence I enjoy the cleaning of streets and alleys while I discredit the"scientific" reasons which are urged.

The best sanitation consists in having a good aim in life, a hopeful disposition, a purposeto make the best of affairs, and a predilection for being cheerful contented. We insist in short,

that the origin of colds with their sequences, is in the nervous system, and that the healthfulcondition of the nervous system is more from mental and moral causes than from externalagencies.

I do not suppose that an epidemic can be "stamped out." It is from an influenceatmospheric and telluric; it has its season and then is followed by another. Many times theparticular epidemic influence returns like Asiatic cholera, almost at stated periods; and there isa tendency in diseased conditions to manifest themselves in one form or another according tothe epidemic influence that is preponderant. But whatever advantage may be derived fromsanitation and hygiene, the moral condition is foremost in its efficacy to protect.

The visitations of influenza which have been experienced are in point. So far as we haveobserved them, and suffered from the complaint, the attack has been preceded andaccompanied by a continual worry, mental depression, and despondency which impaired

--- 477.

the vital forces, debilitated the nervous system, and invited morbific activity. Low spirits andhopelessness always impair vitality; we may say more bluntly, they kill.

Our modern ways of living in this day of "progress" and of "Christian civilization" aresuch as to inflict such conditions upon a large part of the population. In Hawaii men diebecause their enemies "pray them to death" and they have given up all hope accordingly. InNew York the many are dependent on the will of the few for the way to procure a livelihood,and so are worn out with anxiety, and their life made bitter. For charity - the holding of othersdear, is not widely exercised.

Pneumonia is a frequent scourge of our climate. New York City of winters is as a hotbedto force its development. So, too, are Boston, Buffalo and Chicago. A winter seldom passes inwhich it does not rage as an epidemic visitation. The atmosphere, charged with moisture, is incondition to affect all susceptible persons. The complaint responds readily to intelligent careand treatment; nevertheless, from some cause a very large percentage of those who areattacked by it die. Whoever knows much of city life, its uncertainties, its anxieties which wearthe spirits and powers of endurance, the hopelessness that so many suffer, must be aware thatdepressed vital force is a chronic condition inviting the attack. The wonder is not that so manyhave the complaint, but that there are so few.* Indeed, few ever suffer from grippe orpneumonia, it is safe to affirm, who have not weeks and perhaps months before, suffered fromworry, melancholy and corroding anxiety. The tedious period of debility which remains afterthe violence of the attack has abated, and the uncertainty which, with influenza, exists inrelation to actual recovery are strong, not to say irrefutable testimony that the cause of thedistemper is as much mental and moral as due to climate, weather, and exposure.

Soldiers, and especially prisoners of war, are subject to

------------* Francis Galton affirms that cancer, which is now so rapidly on the increase, is chiefly

due to mental shock and depression of spirits.--------------- 478.

disease far beyond persons in the common walks of life. They in fact suffer less in active

service. The bullets of the enemy are far less dangerous than the monotony of camp-life. Hence an army is always liable to epidemic disease. No sanitary device or expedient has yetkept off typhoid, smallpox or dysentery. Perhaps we shall have to wait till the period that theHebrew prophets dreamed of, when nations shall not learn war any more, for these diseases tocease to afflict human beings. Cleanliness can do much, sunshine is better by far, and exerciseshave a healthful tendency, but the necessary crowding of men into close proximity, thehomesickness, the hopelessness and the recklessness that is engendered, are more than anyprecautions that are not substantially moral.

The condition of the nervous system regulates the temperature of the body. When we arehopeful, or actuated by strong motive, we are warm enough. The affections in full play keep usin tone. This may be called the result of excitation, but it is a wretched way of explaining. That scientific knowledge which consists in a vocabulary of names for phenomena, outside oftheir causes is a sorry affair.

Plato in the Kharmides tells of incantation or music as a mode of cure. "Our KingZamolxis who is a god," his Thracian declares, "says that as it is not proper to attempt to curethe eyes without the head nor the head without the body, so neither is it proper to cure the bodywithout the soul; for when this is not in a good condition it is impossible for a part to be well. For all things proceed from the soul, both the good and the bad, to the body and to the wholeman, and flow from thence from the head to the eyes. And he added, that the soul was cured bycertain incantations; and that these were beautiful utterances; and that such temperance orself-control was generated in the soul, which, when generated and present, can impart health,both to the head and to the rest of the body."

In short, the best preventive is, as has been already suggested, a cheerful mind, firmconviction and purpose inspired by principle. Firm resolve alone often drives away disease. Itis one's salvation to refuse to be worried. The passive, negative condition, the drifting habit isnext to inoculating one's self with a virus, and should be got rid of as we would refuse infectionfrom any cause.

--- 479.

We do not by any means repudiate pure living, hygiene, cleanly habits, and all suchthings. We are for them all, with an abundance of sunshine superadded, as excelling them all. The words of Jesus may be parodied to express our sentiment: "You tithe the mint, and the rueand every kind of herb, and omit the divine judgment and charity; these last things one oughtto do, not leaving the former ones neglected." It is well to observe the proper requirements ofgood living, care for health with its conditions, which are negative virtues; but before them allthe inner life with its full force of will and intelligence should be brought to bear. Minor thingsmay be regarded but also neglected in straits; but the weightier matters, never. The true lawsof health do not consist simply in food and drink, but in the positive things of life. It is mindthat rules there as elsewhere.

Medical men have erred by ignoring the relations of moral fault and disease; the newHealing Art will not merely embrace but consist of moral therapeutics.

(Metaphysical Magazine / New Cycle, Feb., 1900)

-------------------

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PSYCHOLOGY

MANIFOLD MAN

"One newly dead, wafted on winds of space,Felt clustering shapes he knew not and yet knew.'Who are ye?' cried he, scanning face by face.'Your self!' they laughed; 'We all have once been you!'"

- Arlo Bates, in Scribner's Magazine

It is said that the late Robert Louis Stevenson had a dream the curious incidents of whichenabled him to produce the strange story of Sr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this tale he hasdescribed one of the characters as an amiable and truly worthy gentleman, and another as beingtotally the reverse. It transpires that these two persons who are so represented are actually thesame individual. He is manifest at times as the man of superior worth, and on other occasionsas fit only to consort with the vile. A certain practice of drugging produces thesetransformations. The evil result, finally predominates over normal condition and thedegradation becomes permanent.

A recent number of the London Lancet narrates a case of multiple personality, far moreextraordinary. The individual was a girl of twelve years old. She was apparently in goodhealth till she was attacked with influenza. The changes then became manifest. Some werecomplete and others partial, some were sudden and others gradual. In some cases she wastotally blind, and in all of them she was partially ignorant of what she had been in other states. In some of them her acquirements, such as drawing and writing and other normal faculties,were present; in others, they seemed to be lost.

--- 482.

When she was in the blind condition she developed the faculty of drawing, aided by touch only. This sense was then enormously increased in delicacy. Her character and behavior were widelydifferent in some of the peculiar states, from what they were in others. There were ten of thesephases, and they varied in length from a few minutes to ten weeks. They have lasted aboutthree years.

These descriptions, it appears to me, are little else than examples of human experience inconditions more distinctly marked than is common in every-day life. Indeed we need only totake note of our own motives and impulses, to perceive that there are periods in our temperquite in analogy with those which have been described. The celebrated preacher of theEighteenth Century, Whitfield, once observed a wretched man making his way with difficulty,disgrace in every motion and feature. "There," he exclaimed, "there goes George Whitfield,but for the grace of God." A physiognomist is said to have described Sokrates as addicted to

low vices, drunken and sensual. The philosopher checked those who were about to protest. Such had been his disposition, but he had been restrained by philosophy. So true it is that thegreatest virtue is developed above the darkest vice, as the beautiful water-lily grows from filthymud.

Holmes suggests that perhaps there are co-tenants in this house of which we had thoughtwe were the sole occupant. He brings to confirm this the dream or revery of a budding girl inwhich several of her remoter ancestors seemed in turns to blend their being with hers. Thistakes us a step further. The lessons of experience are slowly learned, but they bring the deeperfacts to view.

Many years have passed, but I remember it well. There had been worry and vexatiousdisappointment in several matters to which I was attending. To intensify the trouble, a severeinfluenza was developed, affording no opportunity for repose. It was in May, and theColumbian Exposition was about to open at Chicago as a memorial celebration of the thirdcentenary of the discovery of the Western Continent. I must make ready for a week of servicein a World's Congress Auxiliary and could not pass my duties over to another. The matter wassuccessfully carried through, after which followed months of work and responsibility. When December came I was

--- 483.

prostrated by my fifth visitation of pneumonia.The exacerbations were severer than they had been of aforetime, and were accompanied

by hallucinations that were curious from their novelty. For several days there seem to be somehalf dozen persons in the bed with me sharing my personality, suffering as I did, and makingthe pain harder to endure because each of them was adding to it a spectral contribution of hisown. I had the impression very vividly that if they should be removed elsewhere, the distresswhich I was suffering would then become easier to bear. This anticipation, however, was notrealized. After a few days they did seem to go, but there was no such amelioration. There was,perhaps, an exchange of one form of sensation for another that was equally disagreeable, andwith it possibly some change of hallucination.

An individual unable to leave his bed has abundant opportunity to speculate upon whathe observes. The field is large; it may be larger than when he is in normal condition. Vagaryand new sensation are added to memory and imagination, and all of them are busy with theircontributions. Nor is it well to be contented with any flippant explanation, such as that it wasmere phantasm that had its origin from the fever. I must be permitted to doubt the power of afever to generate alone even a phantasm. It is by no means a producing cause. It may destroy,but it cannot create. It can only display something that really exists. If we are so disposed, wemay call the manifestation abnormal and even morbid, but it is none the less real, and furtherenquiry must be made.

The subjective nature of the manifestations requires to be examined. The fever broughtthem to view; but whence did they come? In some way they were projected from the thoughtand personality of the individual sufferer. They were not mere phantoms external to him, butactual facts and qualities issuing forth from him into an apparition of objective reality. Theseveral sufferers that apparently participated in my pain and uneasiness were portions of myselfthat were, as it were, individualized. The fever which was disturbing my body had caused themto seem as separate personalities, each of which might possibly be contemplated by itself.

--- 484.

I did not think to count them, but thought of them as six or more. Accordingly I am not able totell, or even to suggest, what or whether any specific quality or characteristic any or each ofthem may have personified. Though thus seemingly apart and distinct from me, they were allin a manner myself; and with that conclusion I must be content. Each of them, I wasconscious, had an intimate relationship with the others.

This sense of complexity in a personality has been noticed by different writers, andexplanations have been offered, which widely vary. Oliver Wendell Holmes tells usautocratically of an unconscious action of the brain and a distinct correspondence betweenevery process of thought or feeling and some corporeal phenomenon. Emmanuel Kant carriesthe idea still further, and propounds that the soul is acted upon by the nonmaterial natures ofthe spiritual world, and receives impressions from them. Professor Tyndall is also philosophicin his deductions. "It was found," says he, "that the mind of man has the power of penetratingfar beyond the boundaries of his full senses; that the things which are seen in the materialworld would depend for their action upon the things unseen; - in short, that besides thephenomena which address the senses, there are laws, principles and processes which do notaddress the senses at all, but which need be and can be spiritually discerned."

These assumptions do not quite solve the matter satisfactorily, but they afford valuablehelp. I readily acknowledge the presence and influence of spiritual essences in my ownthinking, and also that these influences may extend to illumination and seeming intuition. Every thing, Goethe declares, every thing flows into us, so far as we are not it ourselves. Doctor Holmes has further suggested, and in this I am ready to agree with him, that otherspirits, those of ancestors in particular, and other persons who are in rapport with us, have aplace of abode in our personality, and so may qualify our action, even inspiring it sometimes. Iam not alone in my body, or with it, for everyone is with me whose nature, disposition orproclivity I share. This universe is an ocean of mind, and my interior essence may permeate itin every part as a drop of alcohol will diffuse itself over an immense body of water. For thebody does not contain the soul, but

--- 485.

is itself surrounded by it, as well as permeated and enlivened.The apparent personifications were so completely in and of me that I was fully conscious

that each of them felt every pain that I suffered. Each one of us is a complex personality inwhich an assemblage of living entities are grouped and allied together as parts of a singlewhole. As my body is a one, that is composed of a plurality of members - muscles, bones,membranes and nerve-structure all depending on one another in this totality, so my selfhood isconstituted in an analogous manner, of qualities, characteristics, impulses, passions, tastes andother peculiarities.

We may follow the subject further, and explore into the recesses of our selfhood in orderto ascertain somewhat more definitely in relation to the qualities and characteristics that makeit up as an entirety. "The proper study of mankind is Man," and the proper way to pursue thisstudy is for each of us to endeavor to know himself. Metaphysical speculation is not a study ofwhat is outside of our nature, but rather of that which is superior to nature - the mind or spiritby which it is animated.

I remember that even in earlier boyhood I was of a serious, thoughtful turn. I was thusled to contemplate my personality as a two-fold entity composed of the body and the livingprinciple. Naturally I considered the body as the principal object, but early teaching assuredme that there was a soul that would continue after the body had perished. I was also told thataccording as I was good or bad, this soul of mine would enjoy delight in heaven or sufferexcruciating torment in hell after its separation from the body. All this impressed me that thesoul was a something distinct from me and not that it was my actual self. That I had to learnafterward.

Yet in this period of imperfect knowing there came forth many thoughts spontaneously,that did not harmonize well with these cruder notions. I could sit and contemplate my limbs asthings that were distinct from my real self. When by some accident, a leg or an arm wastemporarily benumbed, I noticed that it was apparently dead, and that though I myself was aliveand in full possession of my faculties, no impulse of my will could move the paralyzed organ. This showed that the selfhood was myself from which the body was essentially

--- 486.

distinct. This self was the being that thought, reasoned, willed, and impelled to action; andhowever closely the corporeal structure was allied to it, yet it was nothing more than itsinstrument. Speaking in more explicit terms: I am soul, and this body of mine is only myshadow, my objective manifestation. It may therefore be declared without further evidence orargument, that this soul, this ego, myself, has its being substantially distinct from the body, andaccordingly, that it is superior to the body, and older.

Following this exploration into the subjective nature, I perceive that in the soul there arevarieties of faculty and function that can be distinguished from one another. Thus I love,desire, feel and enjoy, and also experience the reverse of these in one department of my being; but think, observe and reason, in another. Designating these two departments after the fashionof the time, we term the one, soul, and the other, the understanding or reasoning faculty. It maybe remarked, however, that these are so intimately close to the corporeal structure andfunctions, that it is not altogether clear from what has been here set forth that both soul andmind are not participant with it, rather than coordinate. By an instinctive consciousness Iassociate the thinking faculties with my head, and the affectional, sensitive and appetitivequalities, with the central ganglionic region of the body. If now, I push the investigation nofurther, I may be ready to say that life and existence itself can be no more than an illusion ofthe senses, and therefore, that death, ending it all, is the only thing genuine and real. Animalsseem to possess all the traits to which reference has been made, in a less or greater degree; andfrom this analogy I can be little more than they.

Not so. My thought is not circumscribed by their limitations. This reasoning facultywhich I am able to perceive and contemplate in myself is really itself two-fold, and perhapsmanifold. It certainly is a receptacle of something else than the facts that have been observed,lessons that have been learned, and the various deductions and conclusions. It is far more thana storehouse or encyclopedia of former thoughts and observations that may be classified,labeled and put away as in pigeon-holes. There is a faculty of apperception transcending allthis sort of thing. This is the faculty

--- 487.

that renders us conscious of our selfhood, of our moral and reflective nature, and of all that is inus, of us, and about us. We are by no means hurrying too fast with the argument when wesummarize the description of this faculty with the apothegm attributed to Elihu in the book ofJob: "Certainly, there is a spirit in mankind, and the inspiration of the Almighty maketh themintelligent." Superior to the soul and understanding, and yet both surrounding and permeatingthem is this inspiration or influx, and it makes human beings intelligent because it is itself anextension and projecting of the divine Intelligence. Our minds are made luminant by theapperception which has been thus established. We have the earth at our feet, and God at ourhead.

The Apostle Paul defines man as being an entirety, made up of "spirit and soul andbody." Plato had already described him as triune, consisting of body, soul and the mind orsuperior intellect. In the Timaeus he assigns the mind, the noetic and absolutely immortal partof the soul, to a seat in the summit of the head; while the mortal part is placed in the body - thebetter portion above and the lower part below the diaphragm.

"With the mind (noos) I myself serve the law of God," Paul writes, using the philosophicterm.

The late Angus Dallas, of Toronto, made a diagram of the human head to illustrate itsthreefold function. The lower part, embracing the base of the brain with what phrenologistscall the perceptive region, he termed the aesthetic, as denoting the department of sensuousperception. The mass of brain above this, including the forehead, and sides, and parts behind,requisite to complete the arch, he demonstrated the geometric. In common parlance this wouldbe considered the scientific region, the part of the cerebral organism employed in accumulatingvaried knowledge, but often ignoring and excluding anything better and higher. The third orepistemetic region is the topmost part of the head. Here phrenologists place the nobler anddiviner faculties, veneration, benevolence, hope, wonder, conscientiousness. The division iscertainly plausible and ingenious, and seems to be philosophic.

The concept of the "double," or "astral" body, has been

--- 488.

universally entertained. The Egyptian sages used to teach that there was a corporeal structureand an aetherial body that was like and yet distinct from the soul. After the death of the body,the soul was supposed to go directly to the gods, but the double remained on the earth and wasnourished from the aetherial principle that was in the offerings of food made to it by friends. Itwas believed that food after this principle had been thus partaken, had no further nourishingquality. The manes of the dead, that we read of in Roman literature, was a similarpersonification, and its peculiar rites are described by Virgil in the fifth book of the Aeneid.

But the Egyptian diviners held that man was really a complex personality. There was thekhat or body; also the ba or soul, the khu or reasoning faculty, ka or eidolon, the khakit orshade, the ren or name, the ab or heart, and the sahu or corporeal framework. Of this last,divested of the entrails, the mummies were made. All these parts were supposed to sustain anintimate vital relation to one another; and it was believed that there could be no perfect lifeultimately, except these were again joined. The eidolon or double, the ka being of divineorigin, survived the body, and hence was subject to innumerable vicissitudes. It needed thefuneral offerings to relive hunger and sufferings. If the sahu or mummy chanced to bedestroyed, this astral form would unite itself with some image or simulacrum of the deceased

person. In this way phallicism was integral in the Egyptian rites; and the serpent asrepresenting the soul and intelligence was borne aloft at festivals, and worn on the sacerdotaltiara.

These notions undoubtedly came from older peoples. Bunsen conjectured that Egyptderived her learning from the country of the Euphrates and Lamartine declared his fullconviction that that country received it from India. We may expect accordingly to find therethe whole dogma of component principles, in the human form. The Sankhya philosophy isaccordingly thus explicit. We are told of the body, the atma or soul, the buddhi or intelligentprinciple, the consciousness, the understanding, the senses, the manas or passional nature, etc. The whole theory is there. We conceive of these principles as separate entities and describethem as such. Yet,

--- 489.

to borrow the words of Pope for the purpose:"All are but parts of one stupendous whole."In conclusion, I am certain that the troublesome bedfellows which have been described as

causing me so much annoyance were only so many constituents of my individual self, whichthe excitement of fever had brought into consciousness as so many personalities. That theywere not mere phantoms created by hallucination is almost demonstrated by the fact that Iseemed to feel in myself that what I was suffering at the time they were suffering along withme. I suppose that they were those principles of soul that are more commonly described asqualities and sentiments. Perhaps they are capable of being brought into consciousness so as tobe recognized by the external sensibility, as living beings, because they are actually endowedwith life. "Every thought is a soul," the philosophic Mejnour declares to his pupil in Bulwer'sfamous novel Zanoni. What we denominate qualities and principles are animate realities,which may be apprehended as such; not, however, as things apart from us, but as constituentelements of our being.

(Metaphysical Magazine, July, 1907)

------------------------- 490.

PSYCHOLOGY

I. MENTAL DISEASEII. HUMAN CHARACTERIII. RELATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEXES

I. Mental Disease

The disorders of the nervous system may be structural or functional. Bennett considers

their pathological causes as being of four kinds: (1) congestive; (2) structural; (3) diastaltic; (4) toxic. In all of these cases, there is a general debility behind, which, of course, denotes thatthe ganglionic system is at fault. Dr. Bennett himself explicitly asserts that congestion in hisopinion is "the chief cause of functional nervous disorders originating in the great cerebro-spinal center." As congestion is the result of impaired action of the arteries and arterialcapillaries, and that action is controlled by the organic or ganglionic nerves, it follows that theganglionic system is first at fault; and the cerebro-spinal disturbance follows as a consequence.

Dr. J. C. Davey remarks: "Apoplexy and epilepsy pass by insensible gradations into eachother; and the latter may be, I think, considered as an apoplexy, in which the excito-motory ortrue spinal functions are more palpably affected. Hydrophobia, tetanus, delirium tremens,hysteria, chorea, including some forms of paralysis, and particularly that common to the insane,are doubtless more nearly allied than has been hitherto considered. That the external signs orsymptoms of the several disordered conditions are very properly referred to the cerebro-spinalorganism, is most true; but the integrity of this structure is, without doubt, dependent on thenormal condition

--- 491.

of the organic nervous system; and if so, it must follow that the various diseased conditions ofthe same structure, call them by whatever names we may, are to a very great extent referable toit; that is, the organic nervous system."

When an individual who has been magnetized is restored to the normal condition, heoften exhibits symptoms of nervous derangement, resembling chorea, tetanus, neuralgia,showing that the ganglionic system is vitally concerned in the matter.

We are disposed, as has been already observed, to extend this hypothesis through thegreat collection of nervous disorders from the mildest hypochondria to the maddest insanity. Itrust this will not be taken as a hobby. I am not aware of having any hobby in medicine excepta lifelong hatred and detestation of the drugs and treatment by which many of my own kindredand friends have perished. I believe that they cannot be wisely used; and I mean to preventthem from ever being used on me. I am willing to give my body to be burned, but not to bemercurialized.

We will now present a brief summary of the principal nervous disorders. I hope to beable to comment on them more definitely. Today, however, I will be content with shortexplanations.

Hypochondriasis and hysteria appear to constitute the most common forms of nervousaffection. It is plain, as palpable almost as sunshine at noonday, that the first of these is anabnormal condition of the ganglionic system. We hear much about the delusions ofhypochondriacs but they are too utterly real for jest or contempt. At the outset, the delicatetissue of the entire nerve-structure is disordered; and there are painful sensations in differentparts of the body. The stomach is affected, and indigestion ensues in one form or another. Thepainful sensations give rise to a general lowness of spirit; the energy of the solar ganglia isimpaired; and presently the brain and stomach alike are found to be unable to perform theirnormal functions. A morbid sensibility is set up, followed by morbid fancies, and finally thedisorder will pass to the confirmed form of melancholia, or perhaps illusional insanity.

The term hysteria does duty for 1,001 derangements. It is an old acquaintance, appearingas the beginning of Semitic and Grecian

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civilization. The worship of Bacchus which came into Greece somewhere between the time ofHomer and Solon was principally performed by women. Processions and songs in chorusconstituted a great part of its ritual. The abnormal excitement, the passionate cries and noises,the night-watches and mourning, were admirably calculated to produce the hystericalcondition; and did produce it. In Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and the countries of the Euphrates,the like causes were in operation, and the same result. All the symptoms of hysteria have theirprototype in those vital actions by which grief, terror, disappointment, and other painfulemotions and affections are manifested under ordinary circumstances, and which becomehysteria as soon as they attain a certain degree of intensity.

Nevertheless, we have a host of other disorders, or at least a prodigious nosologicalvocabulary of ailments, which flow from a like source, such as convulsive attacks, fainting fits,pain, cough, difficulty of swallowing, vomiting, asthma, palpitation of the heart, tenesmus ofthe bladder, loss of physical strength, catalepsy, coma, delirium, which are usually classed asfunctional spasms, paralysis, anesthesia and hyperesthesia.

Hippokrates declared that lymphatic women and those of pale complexion were mostpredisposed to hysteria; Galen, that the strong, fleshy and sanguine women were most liable. Some imagine that intellectual women are predisposed; other that non-intellectual women are. All these are in error; but I apprehend that Galen is nearest right. It is usual to denominate it afemale complaint; and so the designation implies. Even Plato argues that it is a disturbance ofthe womb demanding to be impregnated. Somewhat true, perhaps; for childless women aremost frequently hysterical. But little girls who are much teased, or maltreated, or haveinherited unusual sensitiveness, are very prone to attack. Headache, pain in the epigastriumand vomiting, also numbness on one side, are somewhat often experienced by children that aremuch scolded. Whatever occasions painful emotions is liable to develop hysteria. The theorywhich makes it eventually a uterine disorder is therefore not supported. It exists in old andyoung; the Russians, Swedes, Swiss, Icelanders, Greenlanders and Eskimos have it. Womenin the towns

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are more liable than those in the country. Men, too, have it, occasionally at least. The peculiarfits to which Mohammed was subject were of this character; and I suspect that we mightimpute much of the demoniacal suffering to like influences.

The starting point of hysteria is at the epigastrium; it is often hard to distinguish fromother complaints and certainly hard to cure. Indeed, faith-treatment is about as certain as any. Nevertheless, it is perhaps as well to obviate the painful emotions and relieve the symptoms: also to arouse the moral energy of the patient.

Epilepsy, or the holy disease, was observed by Hippokrates as very common among theworshipers of Bacchus. It has been familiar all through the ages, and generally chronic if notincurable. "This kind goeth not out," says Jesus, "save by prayer and fasting." The attackbegins at the medulla oblongata. Irritation of the vaso-motor or ganglionic nerves at that pointcontracts the arteries of the menninges, and so cuts off the supply of blood to the brain. Thisoccasions loss of consciousness and convulsion. It is a functional disorder, due to changes inthe nutrition of the brain, not easy to ascertain. It sometimes results in insanity, mania, and

idiocy. Yet Cromwell, the first Napoleon, and Julius Cesar, if not Mohammed, are examples tothe contrary. The causes are heredity, emotional disturbances, fatigue, sexual excess andcachexia generally.

Catalepsy is a sudden seizure attended with loss of sensibility, muscular rigidity, andeven apparent death. Magnetism may produce such a condition. I am not certain that it isalways morbid. Animals hibernate, exhibiting the peculiar phenomena; and some humantribes seem to become cataleptic at will. Hysterical individuals are most liable to it, we aretold. Despite the assurances of many physicians, I must be permitted to express the belief thatcatalepsy is more common than is supposed, and that cataleptics are sometimes buried. Ouranesthetics and sedative drugs all tend to produce this affection.

Chorea belongs to the same category. It is an emotional disease. The name is derivedfrom chorus, or chois, and originally denoted the religious dance around the altar or coffer inwhich the symbol of the god was deposited. Hence David danced round the ark

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of the Lord to his wife's great disgust, and the prophets of Baal leaped round the altar on MountCarmel. It betrays itself in the head, face, hands or feet, all or part; various parts of the bodyrotate or are convulsed; and the muscles are but partially under control of the will. Childrenare more liable to it than adults; girls than boys. Mental excitement appears to be a principalcause and, in the majority of cases, the patient is pretty certain to recover - outgrowing it as thephrase goes.

Individuals afflicted with nervous disorders or liable to them should be isolated fromeach other. An hysterical person will make every susceptible individual hysterical in someform, by contiguity and sympathy; epileptic seizures pass through a crowd of children; andchorea infects those around. The tendencies of whole peoples or assemblies to pursue one bentis of the same character. The crusades of the Middle Ages were the outcrop of an epidemic, ascertainly as the Black Death. Children as well as adults left their homes in multitudes and setout for the Holy Land.

The Anabaptists of Germany, the Jacquens of France, the Jumpers and Ranters ofEngland, the Shakers of America, were more or less the outcome of gangliasthenic disorder. But it will never do to come too close home. "Great wit to madness nearly is allied," saysPope. Aristotle says so, too. To be mad or crazy, to be ecstatic, and to be a prophet, meantpretty much the same thing.

Insanity means unsoundness. To define it intelligently and exactly is no easy matter. Ifwe are very critical in our definition, we will find the great majority insane; if we are free withexceptions, about everybody is sane and responsible. Webster's dictionary classifies thecondition thus: Insanity is the generic term for all such diseases, meaning lunacy, madness,derangement, alienation, aberration, mania, delirium, frenzy, monomania, dementia. Lunacyhas now an equal extent of meaning to insanity, though formerly used to denote periodicalinsanity; madness has the same extent, though originally referring to the rage created by thedisease. Derangement, aberration, alienation, are popular terms for insanity; delirium, maniaand frenzy denote excited states of the disease. Dementia denotes the loss of mental power bythis means; monomania is insanity upon

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a single subject. These definitions seem to be quite enough; and, as has been alreadyremarked, they do not amount to what we need.

The German universities recognize Psychiatry, or the treatment of mental disorder, as alegitimate branch of medical education. The matter is not left to experts and specialists, as it ishere; although skillful psychiatrists occupy a very high rank. In that country, mental disordersare classed under four general heads: mania, melancholia, dementia and illusional insanity. AnInternational Congress of Alienists, however, met at Paris in 1867 and made a more thoroughclassification. They gave seven forms: (1) simple insanity; (2) epileptic insanity; (3)paralytic insanity; (4) senile dementia; (5) organic dementia; (6) idiocy; (7) cretinism. I amnot well pleased with this arrangement. Like all endeavors to put every disorder on its ownshelf, where it can be labeled, it fails to account for the various complications. People do notalways exhibit their insanity in the way the books say.

It is pretty certain that the great body of deranged persons are in debilitated physicalconditions. There is imperfect and deranged action of the digestive organisms. The vitalcenters and organic nervous systems are impaired in function. So generally is this the case thatit is necessary to direct medical treatment to that part of the structure, if we want to cure thepatient.

Moral treatment is pre-eminently necessary in all cases of mental aberration. I am notpartial to restraint, except as it may be necessary to prevent violence. It is better, so far as weare able, to place the individual upon his own responsibility. Let him have an abundance ofemployment and keep his attention at it. The idle man's head is the devil's headquarters. Allcauses that are likely to create emotional disturbance should be removed. He should beinduced to forego the exercise of such passions as envy, jealousy, rage, hatred, and inordinatedesire of every kind. "Everything in moderation," was the golden maxim of Pythagoras.

Aware that bodily disorder is a factor in the case, I would direct that the tone of thewhole organism be carefully improved, constipation, torpor of the liver, imperfect action of thekidneys, and and particularly the inactivity of the glands of the skin, should be

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assiduously corrected. The warm bath, massage, magnetic treatment, a wholesome dietary,good society, and especially the care and companionship of one individual of strong will, well-balanced temper, kind disposition, gentle and firm, without seeming to exercise muchauthority, are means which would remove the major part of the insanity that afflicts mankind. Treat patients like human beings and make them conscious that they are such.

II. Human Character

Prof. Tyndall says: "It was found that the mind of man has the power of penetrating farbeyond the boundaries of his free senses; that the things which are seen in the material worlddepend for their action upon things unseen; in short, that besides the phenomena which addressthe senses, there are laws and principles and processes which do not address the senses at all,but which need be and can be spiritually discerned."

In saying this, the learned empirical teacher necessarily set aside with one swoop thewhole dogmatism of agnostic metaphysics and placed himself for the moment beside the

philosophers who recognize man as a being subsisting beyond his body organism. The laws,principles and processes which are infinitely beyond the province of the senses are those towhich the world of sense must be forever subordinate. Sir William Hamilton affirms the samething more positively than Tyndall: "The infinitely greater part of our spiritual nature, liesalways beyond the sphere of our own consciousness, hid in the obscure recesses of the mind."

Taking the same yogi view, Socrates, as he was holding his last discourse with hisfriends, uses the following language: "When the soul endeavors to consider anything inconjunction with the body it is led astray by it. It reasons, but then, when none of these things -hearing, sight, pain or pleasure of any kind harass it - it retires as much as possible within itself,taking leave of the body, and so far as is possible, having no communication with it, it aims atthe discovery of real truth - of that which is."

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The process here contemplated is one far away from that of committing to memory anddigesting it. Professor Carpenter has named it "unconscious cerebration." The name, however,is a misnomer. Cerebration is the activity of the brain; and the activity of the brain is theevolving of sensation. When, therefore, no sensation exists in any matter, there is no action ofthe brain; consequently no consciousness. There is therefore no such thing as an unconsciouscerebration. We may as well talk about dry moisture or a fire without caloric.

There is a knowledge which pertains to the physical senses, and we call it empirical; there is a knowledge which transcends the senses, and this is philosophical. One is apparent,the other real; one is a mere collection of phenomena and things which are witnessed by thesenses, while the other belongs to the higher region of causes and motive.

Mr. W. H. Matlock has propounded what he considers a missing science, a department ofknowledge which has not been formulated and so brought within the scope of textbooks. As itcomes under the head of Psychology, though perhaps on the ethical side, I am justified inconsidering it.

This so called "missing science" he gives the designation of "the science of humancharacter." It involves the whole mainspring of human action. It recognizes the fact that notwo men have the same history or character, and yet that many, even hundreds and thousands,will often act in concurrence, as though moved by one single will. We witness such unanimityin uprisings of the people, in mobs, and other demonstrations. The conduct of the whole is theexact resultant of the motives of all the individuals combined, each supplying his part of theforce and swayed in his turn by the united force of the others. As logic is the science of thelaws of reasoning, so this is the science of the laws of action.

It is well, however, to begin by defining what character means. I would consider it as thesum of an individual's qualities, that which marks him. It differs essentially therefore fromreputation. That means what the public think of a person; character, what he actually is. Onemay possess a poor reputation and yet have an excellent

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character, or the reverse. Mr. Mattock seems to amplify a little: "We may say," he remarks,"that we mean by it susceptibility to motive, or we may say that we mean by it the developmentand the organization of impulse." The structure of society is the outcome of the structure of

human character. A man's life is the expression of his motive. Desire, will and action make upeverything. So, in its last analysis, civilization is the organization of motive.

Man without a motive is a mere lifeless mass. I remember well when a certain individualwas attempting to lay out for me a course of action. I replied: "What I need in all this ismotive." He said: "Heaven." At once I replied: "Heaven seems to me as a myth." It was toointangible, in the way presented, to be more than a word. I knew neither what heaven meant, orwhat he meant by it, and to be dogmatized over upon vital questions is like giving a stone to achild hungry for bread.

The fact is that through motive only are actions influenced. Hence every individual hashis own incentive, his own reason for action. There is no fusion of motives when two or moreindividuals act together. A million persons have a million wills. Yet every motive is the resultof antecedent facts, and in order to understand these we need a knowledge of biography. Whenmen have distinguished themselves in some extraordinary manner we seek for the ordinarymanifestations. We learn the substance of patriotism from the biography of the patriot; ofsanctity from the biographies of saints. In order to understand democracy, we must know thelives of the men who lead the people. When a man preaches unselfishness, we look to ascertainhow he practices it; if he advocates equality, we want to know whether he does not reallydesire inequality. We remember that Napoleon and Julius Cusar were democrats, andMaximilian Robespierre the inflexible adversary of the death penalty. It is well to rememberthe apt words of Bulwer Lytton, "Our thoughts are the divine part of us, our actions thehuman."

I would not reject the diamond for its flaw. Nor would I, because a man's motives weretarnished by personal considerations, reject all the good which he sought to do, as not beingreally good. I expect our humanity to be mingled with all that we behold of divinity.

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In most reforms we find personal spite, and sense of individual wrong, envy or jealousy, adisguised effort at self-aggrandizement. There is danger; therefore, that the success of thereformer will be a new form of the old abuse. Political reform is too generally to get you outand me in. Religious reform is a change of priesthoods. Yet out of all fluctuations the worldmoves on. While we asperse reformers for their flaws of character, their energy oftenaccomplishes reform more radical than they had contemplated. The combined action ofdifferent individuals with motives a world apart, often accomplishes a good which few orperhaps none of them had contemplated.

Then, again, as our natures are complex, our motives are likely to be. I protest againstthe cant and stale declaration that every individual is led and controlled solely by selfishness, inthe baser sense of the term. I lecture here, not as giving my labor, for this is justice to myselfand a wrong to others. I am influenced by the compensation which I hope to receive and whichI greatly need. I must pay my debts; he who neglects to do this is immoral and a thief. Yetwhile I insist upon this consideration, I recognize the higher obligation to do my workpromptly, cheerfully and efficiently - and to the best of my ability. In this I am governed by ahigher motive, that of justice, moral obligation, and a desire to do what is right.

The great teacher whose doctrines constitute the belief of a third of the human race,Buddha-Gautama-Siddarta, taught that "truth is to be spoken, self to be sacrificed, benevolenceto be exercised, not for the sake of the good thus done to others, but solely for the effect of this

conduct on the soul of the actor." It is a deeper principle than is imagined and not so destituteof a rational basis as many would suppose. The highest idea to which the Judaic and Christianreligions have attained is to love one's neighbor as himself; that it is of no benefit for a man togain the whole world and lose himself. The foundation of all motive and moral action is dutyto self. I may wrong you, and then keeping away from your presence, avert a quick sense ofreproach; but I cannot escape myself and the injury which I have there inflicted. My integrity,my wholesomeness, my health, is impaired by my wrongdoing. I cannot be entirely pure andhappy when doing wrong. Even my countenance will reveal that I am sunk

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beneath my proper level; that I am degraded. No amount of apparent advantage can make megood for that. Hence, there is no reward for doing right; it is itself the reward. Nor need wehound a man much for wrongdoing. His tainted nature is the greatest punishment that can beinflicted.

Selfishness is laudable in the infant. It is all that he can do to eat, keep comfortable andgrow. If he omits these, he is certain to be fit for nothing. Even the adult who does not provideduly for his own wants disqualifies himself for proper service to his fellow-man. The Yankeeis not so far aside from the mark in regarding shiftlessness as the sum of depravity. It is in thisvery soil of selfishness, all black and full of foul sediment as it seems to be, that all highermotive is planted and rooted, like the beautiful pond lily in the slime of the stagnant pond. Allmoral ideas are the outcome of the instinct of self-preservation. They are implanted in man anddeveloped, as they are in no animal, because man is eternal and the animal is not. Withoutimmortality there is no morality. The obligations which I sustain to my neighbor are foundedupon our common life. If they terminated at the grave, all the incentives we could cherishwould be those of the brute, to conquer and devour. There being no higher motive thanselfishness in its grosser form, rapacity and cruelty would be laudable. Paul, the great ChristianApostle, has taught better than all others - that charity, or love to the neighbor, transcendedeverything else and was man's highest motive, most sacred obligation to himself.

No action is possible except it be prompted by some form of self-interest. If theindividual is circumscribed by his individuality, then his motive is selfishness in its completest,basest form. If he includes others, if the welfare of many is embraced in his circle, the greaterbreadth relieves it of that characteristic. If the whole world be included, then it is charity,benevolence, good will to man, which is the one pole of human motive circling round to theother.

The desire for progress, to advance, illustrate what has been propounded. We form theconcept with the imagination, which is itself inspired by desire. The reasoning faculty thendecides the means to accomplish, and the will sets the matter into operation. Yet howdifferently each man acts. One man desires wealth, labors and

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saves, in order to obtain it. Another will steal, lie and defraud. Our delights are conditioned byour imagination. What pleases one is odious to another. This is owing to psychic differences.

Curious as it may seem, corporeal needs are first in point of time. We must have food,raiment and shelter. Where these are not supplied in a commonwealth, there is a volcano liable

to burst out at every man's feet. The average man will always work for food. If he wants ahouse he will work to build one. So far motive is limited to inevitable appetite, which beingsatisfied we must have higher intellectual development or there will be no more labor. To thislimit the word practical applies.

The imagination now comes in to widen the field of desires. Taste requires moreelaborate furniture and adornment; but that taste is incited by a desire to please or rival others. It recognizes the presence, the influence of others; and affords more incentives for labor, aswell as the exercise of skill. The conjugal, parental, filial and neighborly relationships, developthe sense of delight in giving pleasure to others and aiding in their enjoyment. We becomebroader, more intellectual, nobler, as we are more kind, more generous, more well-wishing toeach other. The highest intellect is developed in company with the highest morality andbenevolence.

Whatever we may think of the religious and the visionary, both these classes are wider intheir scope of view and imagination. The world, since history, has known no moral, social orintellectual advance, except where one or both took the lead. Wherever the medical professionhas neglected these motives, it has become crystallized, selfish, servile and base. A code ofethics in which morality and the other principles of human advancement are overlooked, is abarbarism.

By morality we mean that which is intrinsically right. It is action which is everlastinglyfit and worthy and useful. It is a hot enthusiasm for doing well. It is emotion, passion, desire,all aglow to add their contribution to the welfare and happiness of human beings. It is living inperfect conformity with conscience, that conscience being a lively conviction of what is justand a thorough knowledge of the reality of things. Kant explains it as "acting in such a mannerthat the ruling

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principle of your action might become an universal law." Herbert Spencer defines it as "themode of conduct, which, under the conditions arising from social union, must be pursued toachieve the greatest welfare of each and all." In short, it is the highest evolution of the psychicessence in man.

III. Relative Characteristics of the Sexes

An humorous writer in the Atlantic Monthly, in 1859, discusses the question: "Oughtwomen to learn the alphabet?" Sylvain Marechal, in the reign of the first Napoleon, proposedthe question in 1800, in a tract full of humor. He cited the Encyclopedia and Moliere for hisauthorities and argued at length against female authors, Madame Guion, Sappho, and deMaintenon. Finally we are brought to the Chinese proverb: "For men to cultivate virtue isknowledge; for women, to renounce knowledge is virtue." By English law, "the wife is onlythe servant of her husband," which is backed up by the old Hindu code of Manu: "A man, bothby day and night, must keep his wife much in subjection that she by no means be mistress ofher own actions."

Prior to 1789 the girls of Boston never were allowed to go to school. A large number ofthe women of Massachusetts could not sign their own names. A certain deed of settlement

once executed to my own father, was signed by the aunt of Dr. Nathan Allen of Lowell, by hermark. It was found in Boston that the summer attendance was but about half of winter. So, inorder that the schoolmaster should earn his money, a resolution was adopted to let the girlsattend. Behold, the first year that the United States ever had a President, the first school girl ofYankee land made her advent. The alphabet was turned loose like a roaring lion among thegirls, seeking whom it might devour. It was a good while later before they had a chance in theHigh schools.

Yet we are not to suppose that these obstacles were created for any special selfishpurpose. Laws grow as well as nations. They can hardly be said to be made. There has beenno serious fear in

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regard to feminine delicacy, destroying the domesticity of women, nor of confounding thedistinction between the sexes. To utter such reasoning seriously is absurd. I know thatChanning, Fenelon, Lessing, and Niebuhr so talked; and that Theophilus Parsons and Froissartlaid it down gravely as maxim. Voltaire of old and many of our modern rational writers havetaken like views. Paul with the Korinthean women is fully supplemented by others of thepresent day. The actual reason which has lain at the bottom, has been a contempt for theinferiority of women as intellectual beings. They were not to be taught, because they were notworth the teaching. From Aristotle to Dr. Edward H. Clarke, this has been the foundation fact.

Now, Plato thought differently; so did old Pythagoras; so did Louis Agassiz, thescientist, and Cornelius Agrippa, the alchemist; and so wrote Mrs. H. Mather Crocker, thegranddaughter of Cotton Mather, and Abigail Adams, the daughter of old Parson Smith. Threecenturies ago a French lady wished to establish a girls' school in France; for which she washooted in the streets, and her father called in four learned doctors in the law to decide whethershe was not possessed by devils. To think of instructing women might be a work of the devil. To be as beautiful as an angel and as silly as a goose, was the old-time standard of excellence.

Later still, in this country of ours, there have been other utterances. Jean Paul Richtersays: "A woman is a human being, and neither the maternal nor the conjugal relations cansupersede the human responsibility, but must become its means and instrument." The son ofAbigail Adams also said: "The correct principle is, that women are not only justified, butexhibit the most exalted virtue, when they do depart from the domestic circle, and enter on theconcerns of their country, of humanity, and of their God."

Buffon says: "Les races se feminiscent" - the people of the world are becoming morewomanlike. Does this mean that our civilization is improving us and making us better, as itmakes us more like women? Or the converse, that we deteriorate as we become more cultured? It is considered that a greater vitality is the evidence of improved conditions. Women havealways as a sex had the greater vital, and I almost believe, physical power. In the prolonging

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of average human life in civilized countries, from seventeen to thirty-six years or thereabouts,and the increasing of comforts, the approximation of female conditions would seem to beindicated.

I believe that what is logically right is right in practice - that every principle of natural

right ought to be carried out in governmental and social conditions. What any human being isable to do well, it is his or her right to do, against the whole world.

Much argument has been expended on the fact that men and women are not alike. It doesadd largely to the attractiveness of this world of ours, and I guess of every other world, thatthey are not. Herbert Spencer has made a curious declaration, that women, especially duringthe child bearing age, exhale a smaller proportional amount of carbonic acid than men, and soevolve less energy. Hence they fall short in the intellectual and emotional faculties, the powerof abstract reasoning and that most abstract of the emotions, the love of justice.

We will not, however, follow the great sociological apostle further. Our business is withanother department of the subject - the relative characteristics of the sexes. We want principlesto think by. No common consent of any body of individuals, however fortified by power,custom or authority, can always override.

In physical nature, men have large brains and comparatively a less amount of ganglionicnerve-structure to support it. This does not, however, seem to have been the fact in ancientEgypt. The great use of brain, by itself considered, is to make a noise with. Human history isthe noise that mankind have made. The male sex has principally made it. Perhaps that is onereason that we know so little about the other sex. Yet history is a very sorry achievement. It isa record of wars and crimes, not of peace and virtue. The nation that never had a history towrite is essentially the happiest and most fortunate.

Women are more emotional and less practical, is the flippant remark uttered on everyhand. I do not like this word practical. I doubt a man's honesty who uses it much. The hardlogic of practical facts has always enslaved men, robbed labor, and made a hell of life. Onegreat reason why modern religion has romanced so much about

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heaven, as old religions never did, is because men had made such a hell, a home of devils, aden of everything foul and obscene, of this world. Perhaps this is one reason why so manywomen build all their hopes on a future life.

As for the emotional nature, we find it at the substructure of all character. Except it islaid broad and deep we cannot hope for much that may be built upon it. There can be but anindifferent quality of intellect, where there exists not strong affection, passion, earnestness. The perception of what is right demands a love for the right; perseverance in any cause ofaction demands first that it is the right and the best. There can really be such thing as asuperior mind, where regard for truth, for right, for the best in policy and action, do notminister to its incentives. If then, women are really more emotional than men, they have thestronger basis for an evolution of the higher, diviner intellect. Either it is destined, accordingly,in the higher development that the human race is to attain, the female sex is to be foremost inits culture and social structure, or the males are to become a something higher and diviner,because of a genuine alliance and cooperation with the other in the great work of the world.

In such discussions, we may disregard the foibles and follies of the present period oftransition. We are flowing, not crystallizing. It is certain that the church is full of women. Allreligions are. Men make the forms of religion and women accept them. The physician, too,makes his harvest on women's weaknesses. If he is not very scrupulous, he even seeks toincrease their number and extent in order to promote his own thrift. We know from this, whythe intruding of women into the medical circles, has been deprecated. Women cannot make

surgeons, says one; they cannot be depended upon in extreme cases of obstetric trouble, saysanother; we all know better. I know what "bluffing" means, and how sensitive persons arecowed by it. But it proves nothing. Having been myself largely instrumental in the opening ofthe American medical schools to women, - more so than any man now alive in this country - Ihave watched this matter, its failures and successes, with deep interest.* I have no romanticfaith in women. Their shortcomings, their petty jealousies, their little envy, their readiness tomalign and beat down one another, their

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great incapacity to forgive, their want of self-reliance, I have observed and believe. I know notwhether they are to be remedied. Certainly not very soon. I do not expect any change ofnature. I look for a fuller knowledge of the purposes for which that nature has been soproduced; and suspect that the very faults we complain of are distorted and misplaced virtueswhich we have never understood. At any rate, I am not disposed to straight-jacket them,because I do not know by what they have been so constituted. Let them take the field, qualifyfor it, fill it as they best are able, and abide the results.

For the more active sex that have carried on the labor and conflicts of the world, weaccord the usual male characteristics. The masculine head is higher and broader; the musclesfirmer; in physical strength the males surpass the other for immediate energetic effect, but areinferior in dynamic persistent force. In psychic endowments, they are more aggressive,revolutionary, penetrating. All innovators are men. The epic poems, the constitution of states,the devices for instruction, forethought, are rather male than female. Social order, protectivelaw, everything that tends to the idea of sacred, is female. Liberty, however, is more thandissatisfaction with that which is: it is a principle.

(The Word, Vol. 18, pp. 132-37, 147-53, 218-22)

-----------[* This article, never before published was written by Dr. Wilder nearly forty years ago.

[[circa 1875]] But Dr. Wilder did not write for the day only. - (The Word Editor)]------------------ 507.

THE CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY

Early in the year 1893, a correspondent of the Chicago Daily News made the followingstatement:

"When I write of any particular person whom I have ever met in the past, be he aprominent public personage or the most humble of private individuals, I see his or her featuresand his or her mental form as plainly as I see any one whom I may happen to meet in my home,or in a public place, or in the street. Thus when I read of the death of General Benjamin F.Butler, his personal image was presented to my mental vision as clearly as if he were himselfpresented to my material vision."

The same writer declared further that the figures which he was in the habit of seeing inthis way were "creations more perfect and potent than the material forms with which he dailyand hourly came in contact."

This peculiar faculty, the "seeing with the mind's eye," is possessed by all. We picture toourselves the object about which we are thinking. It appears before us in aspect and figure. Ifwe have actually seen it at any time, it will now appear in a form which we recollect; but incase that we have not seen it we create for it a figure or aspect of our own imagining. Verygenerally of course, if we learn accurately respecting the individual or object, we are obliged tochange our conceptions.

The scenes and figures which are seen in dreams are chiefly of the same nature andcharacter as these figments of imagination which are contemplated when we are awake. Thecorporeal senses are silent, and the psychic being is to a great degree free to project its visionand receive impressions by itself. Dreams in which the entrancement is more complete, have been regarded upon this

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account as being prophetic. Others, however belong without question to the corporealdepartment of our nature.

We all know that objects which have imprinted their forms vividly upon the apparatus ofsight, as for example the sun or the flame of a lamp, leave the impression distinctly, and whenthe eyes are closed the image is still to be seen. There are likewise conditions of the humanconstitution, which are sometimes regarded as abnormal, in which such images abide for anindefinite period, and even seem to be before the eyes continually.

The faculty for receiving impressions and reproducing them as objective scenes andimages, is explained by scientists as a function of the optic structures of the encephalon. Whatever object has impressed itself there is likewise infixed in our deeper substance, and eventhough it be seemingly overlapped and even obliterated it is capable of becoming againmanifest. The memory itself appears to be of this nature. As we advance in years therecollections of occurrences of former years seem to be incessantly reproducing themselves,even when nothing apparently has occurred to arouse them. They often relate to trivial matters,and are sometimes of a disagreeable character. Happily, however, our delightful experiencesare likewise lived over again in the remembering. Indeed, it may reasonably be doubtedwhether we ever really forget anything. It is a property of our nature that whatever isimplanted in our consciousness is always likely to come forth vividly to our attention; and it isnotable also that the physical sense may exhibit a similar power of manifesting impressions.

Doctor Gorini relates in La Francea Medicale that having fallen asleep one night whilehe was reading a book, he presently awoke and looked upon the wall opposite his bed wherethe light was shining from the lamp. It appeared to him to be covered with printed charactersof large size which formed words regularly disposed and separated by lines like those in thebook which he had been reading. He not only saw the text, but also the annotations which werein smaller characters. This appearance lasted some twenty seconds, and was reproduced everytime that he opened his eyes.

William Blake, the poet and artist, would sometimes place his

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sitters, and contemplate them in various attitudes, after which he would dismiss them. At alater time when the impulse for working was active, he would go to his easel, bring the figuresand postures afresh into conscious vision, and paint the pictures.

In fact, when we seem to ourselves to be taking notice with our eyes, we are actuallycontemplating impressions which external objects have made upon the visual organism afterthe mind has taken cognizance of them and passed them over to the consciousness in the formof perceptions. But what is still more wonderful is the fact that the mind itself, apart from suchexternal impression, will develop the concept of an image in the sensorium, and it will appearto the individual as an object before the eyes. Or the influence may be exerted upon the senseof hearing and cause us to hear or have the sensation of hearing sounds and voices. Thefaculties of imagination and memory induce such manifestations, and a susceptible nervoussystem will give their operations full scope.

Such phenomena occur with persons laboring under some form of mental disturbance,and are numerous likewise with individuals who are rightly accounted as normal. Manyapparitions of which we hear, are undoubtedly to be thus explained, and many voices orutterances which are reckoned to be from the invisible world, belong to the same category.

By no means, however, may this explanation be set down as complete in relation tounusual or extraordinary phenomena. There are images manifested to the sense of vision, andvoices to the hearing, which the candid and truly intelligent will not dismiss with a sneer, oraccount as only unreal phantasm. They belong to another department of being, and it may beadded, beyond the realm of common occurrings.

We are not only influenced by our sympathies with others, but there is often what seemslike an actual commingling of thoughts and emotions. When in company with others, or inrapport with an individual, we sometimes find ourselves inspired as though spontaneously withlike sentiments, even thinking the same thoughts, and in rarer cases, beholding as it wouldseem, the very objects which were vivid in the mind of the other. Sometimes, also, even our

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judgment and faculties of thinking are thus taken captive. Orators and religious revivalistsexercise the power to induce this condition, but any extrinsic agency of suitable quality may besufficient for the purpose.

Many years ago there was printed a story in Harper's Magazine, in which the supposednarrator, a lady, was represented as having been compelled by a shower to seek shelter in theunfinished abode of a recluse. He tells her of important events of his earlier life, his plans andwoeful disappointments. As she listens, her visual sense become entranced, and she behold asthough it was an actual scene and landscape before her the house and its surroundings which hehad contemplated for his promised bride.

Many of us can tell of analogous occurrences. I have myself received vivid impressionsof what was going on in the mind of another individual many miles away, which had come asby the telegraph. Nor was it an intentional transmitting of thought. It must be that the etherealatmosphere of our planet has telephonic qualities of which we have only a faint conception.

At another time, in the spring of 1845, I was engaged one morning at felling a dead pinein a wood near Orange, Massachusetts. The limbs and the topmost part of the trunk haddecayed and fallen off, leaving only the stem of the tree, standing like the mast of a ship.

Being inexpert in woodcraft I felled the tree against another that was standing near. It wasnecessary to do all the work over again. As I was thus engaged, an impression like a commandforcibly spoken seemed to come into my ears and dart with electric suddenness to the seat ofconsciousness at the pit of the stomach: "Stand back!" Instantly without looking or waiting, Istepped backward some six or seven feet. The very moment the broken top of the tree, aboutsix feet long and several inches in diameter, fell to the ground, right along my steps, with acrushing force that almost buried it in the earth. If I had taken but one step less, it would havebeaten me down.

This was neither a case of presentiment nor excited recollection. There was no alarm orapprehension of possible danger, and there had been no thought of such a thing. Evenafterward the

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fact that my life had been preserved in a wonderful manner, created no excitement orperturbation of mind. It seemed as a matter of course, and I went on with work as thoughnothing had occurred out of the common course of things. Indeed, I do not think a matter ofsuch a nature a theme for blazoning abroad everywhere.

An instance of analogous character is given by Jung-Stilling in his treatise onPneumatology. Professor Boehm of Marburg was visiting one afternoon, when he perceived animpulse to go home. Being in pleasant company he resisted it till finally it became strongerand more urgent. He went home, but on going to his room found nothing to demand attention. A new impulse, however, prompted him to move his bed to another spot. He reasoned againstthis, but got no rest till he obeyed. He then went back to the house where he had been a guest,took supper with the company, returned home at ten o'clock, and went to bed. At midnight hewas awakened by the falling of a heavy beam with a part of the ceiling of the room exactly overthe place where the bed had stood.

The late Professor Toluck relates a similar account of his colleague Professor De Wette,who saw from the street a spectral image of himself in his apartments, and remained out of thehouse all night. Upon going in, the next morning, he found that the ceiling over his bed hadfallen, crushing it to the floor.

Professor George Bush also has told of a young kinsman of his, who was at work for amaker of cabinet furniture. One day while he was engaged at a model he obeyed a suddenimpulse to go to the other end of the room. He was reproaching himself for so foolish anaction, and was about to go back, when the ceiling above the model fell upon it, crushing it topieces.

Such occurrences it is common with some to denominate coincidences. It would be aswell to apply the term to the fate of a culprit in the hands of the officers of the law. Othersascribe these peculiar impulses and presentiments to vagary or phantasm resulting fromdisorders of digestion, or disturbed nervous conditions, pleading that they often take place withindividuals when there is no such danger of injury.

But the hypothesis that such impulses come by chance, the

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mind instinctively rejects. We know, or have it to learn if we do not, that with all our

conjectures and endeavors to explain differently, a strict necessity exists at the foundation ofthings; that Must govern the universe. We may resist, and even seem to succeed in evading itsrequirements, but they are not eluded and we eventually obey, though it may be as in the caseof the prophet Jonah when commanded to go to Nineveh. But the requirements, howeverimperative, are not blind or arbitrary, for wisdom and our highest welfare are blended with thebehests. It is a law inscribed in our own being, a potency generated in our own souls.

The various spectacles which are presented in dreams are not always to be accounted forby easy modes of solution. Although perhaps relating more frequently to matters of commoneveryday experience, they sometimes go beyond that sphere. In June, 1895, the writer paid avisit to Dr. Hiram K. Jones, then living in Jacksonville, Illinois. One morning while the doctorwas absent at professional calls, I took a seat on the front porch of the house, and was reading. Presently I became drowsy and fell asleep. It was but a brief moment, and I awoke. The firstobject noticed was at the rear of the Female Institute, some rods away, in Fayette street. Ibeheld two sunflowers in full bloom, each with a full dark-colored core. As I wascontemplating them and admiring their beauty they vanished. There had been no sunflowersthere, but all was an illusion of sight. I had not been reading or thinking of anything that mightsuggest such an apparition.

A similar experience of more impressive character, took place with me in 1872. It was inMarch, and I was suffering from an attack of illness. I was resting upon the bed at night, aloneand gazing upon the wall in revery. Presently the room seemed to change in appearance, andbecame a veritable "chamber of imagery." On the walls there appeared symbolic figures likethose peculiar to the ancient Egyptian structures. They seemed to be expressive, with none ofthe monotony which makes so many modern decorations insipid and tiresome. One picture inparticular attracted my attention. It was upon the middle of the wall near the top of the room,almost triangular in form, and appearing somewhat like the head of an

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elephant, but without trunk, ear or tusk; perhaps a symbol of wisdom.Then there came into view a company of about twenty persons, all of them individuals of

rank. They wore robes of a peculiar fashion; and the women of whom there were several, weredistinguished by a head-dress which masked or veiled the face. There was a spirited discoursein which each who chose freely took part, and after spending some time in this manner, theytook their leave. With them all during this interview and at the separating an ease and grace ofmanner characterized every remark and gesture, far transcending the artificial politeness whichis so often encountered at the present time. One guest happening to linger, and being invited toremain, bowed respectfully and made a courteous but inaudible reply to the compliment. Atthis moment the images portrayed upon the wall began to grow faint, the drapery and otheradornment faded from view, and everything in the room now came into sight as before thisspectacle had appeared.

Although I was familiar with such publications as Moore's Epicurean, Mrs. Lydia MariaChild's Progress of Religious Ideas, Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind, and others ofsimilar character, there had never been so far as I can recollect, any impression of such aspectacle made upon my imagination, that might be reproduced in this manner. An interviewlike that of Joseph and his brethren might perhaps have been depicted in some way, but I amnot able, from any of my reading, to state whether the whole spectacle was merely a dream-

play or a reproducing of some occurrence of the far-off antiquity. The "stuff that dreams aremade on" is as abundant as the material that contributes our facts, as well as thephantasmagoria of the imagination.

Within our being are stored all the impressions that have been made upon ourconsciousness. Every thought, every emotion, every passion and affection is stampedindelibly. What we have learned is never forgotten, but only laid away, and may be broughtinto conscious remembrance at a future moment. Persons drowning or undergoing capitalpunishment are said to recall all the past in an instant of time. This seem hardly credible; yetexperiences and occurrences that possess some analogy to what has before taken

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place, or been learned, will bring to recollection the former events, often with much of thefreshness and vividness of being recent. In short, what we learn, what we do or undergo, willalways remain a part of our being, and never totally leave the domain of consciousness. Fromthe first event in our career till the last thing that happens, our selfhood is marked by everyimpression that has been made. Like veteran soldiers, we are scarred over by wounds receivedin conflicts.

Dreams frequently bring to notice what had long been out of conscious thought. Weoften thus visit again the scenes in which we have participated or read about, till sometimes theideal transcends the everyday routine. What, however, is more noteworthy, individuals in astate of ecstasy or clairvoyant perception, have, in numerous instances, witnessed events orlearned of matters which were not known before, or had not yet taken place.

The father of the writer, at the beginning of the War of 1812 was taken with intermittentfever, which was accompanied with delirium and mental hallucination. He was then living inNorthern Vermont, but was contemplating removal to Western New York. While confined tohis bed by the illness he had several dreams in which he seemed to himself to be traversing thevillages of Utica, Whitesborough, and other places in that region, where he had never been. After his recovery, he carried into effect the purpose of removing; and on passing throughthose localities which he had thus visited in his mental vision, he perceived to his surprise thatthey appeared familiar, as he had seen them before.

Incredible as it may seem to superficial things, numerous instances of this kind arerelated by individuals whose words may not be disputed. It is recorded by biographers thatafter the death of Dante, the last thirteen Cantos of Divina Comedia could not be found. Anxious search was made, but without success. The two sons of the great poet wereimportuned to finish the work. Finally, one night, Jacopo Alighieri, the elder, who had beenmore zealous in the matter, dreamed that he saw his father and was told by him that the poemhad been completed, and where the missing cantos were to be found. This information provedto be strictly correct. The lost manuscript was found in the wall of the house, beneath awindow, mildewed, but with

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the writing still visible.It may be asked whether the young man did not, and indeed where we all do not retain, as

by an umbilical connection, a continuity with the spiritual entity of our parents and other

ancestors, so that their recollections and mental qualities extend to their progeny as being partand constituent of the interior nature. Or is it a peculiar form of the faculty of presentiment,which here and there displays itself though on purpose to awaken enquiry? Decide the matteras we may, the belief in presentiment is well nigh universal and may confidently be affirmed toconstitute an article in the religion of all mankind. Most men shudder and discard from theirinmost souls the conception suggested by the vision of Lucretius "of the homeless universefalling, falling forever, from nowhence to nowhither through the succeeding ages, by causelessand unceasing gravitation, while the changes and efforts of all mortal things were but thejostlings of the dust-atoms amid the everlasting storm." Instead of this gloomy, parentlessnotion, we eagerly believe that Purpose underlies all the phenomena of existence, and likewisethat the Purpose is all-potent, and its operations directed by Intelligence and inspired by InfiniteLove.

Another step is to imagine that our faculties are at times somehow enable to knowsomewhat of the future that impends over us. Men who deride and condemn those who cherishsuch beliefs, achieve but a pitiful triumph. They do not thereby shake or overturn the faithwhich indeed is founded upon a deeper conviction. They only bruise and wound the spirit asthe sacerdotal persecutors of old would have crushed the bones and muscles of the body, andtortured the sensitive nerves by thumb-screws and other hideous devices. The deridedindividuals will leave their torture-chamber as unconvinced as Galileo, and return to the formerbelief confident in the assurance that whether it can or cannot be scientifically demonstrated,the Superior Wisdom has somehow provided the agencies by which to mirror impending eventsupon the consciousness of human beings.

Our old British forefathers and Alruna progenitresses often possessed the faculty known as "second sight"; and we,

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notwithstanding the ages and events that have intervened to separate us from them, can feelsomewhat of their life tingling along our own arteries. Many an individual, now as formerly,has learned through the agency of a dream, or perhaps of a presentiment, concerning matterswhich he wished to know. The case of the sonet of Dante is in no way exceptional. In otherinstances not only have occurrences in the personal history of the individual been thus calledback to recollection, but events have been made vivid to the mind, which had actually takenplace at other periods, and even before the dreamer was born. It would seem conclusive,therefore, that not only are the occurrences of our own life inscribed upon our interiorsubstance, but likewise that we inherit from our ancestors a like impression of their thoughtsand experiences. It is possible accordingly that our dreams may bring to our consciousness theacts of those who have lived here before us, as well as those in which we have ourselves takenpart.

Many of our apparent reminiscences seem to have their origin in this way. It is verylikely that they suggested the doctrines of preexistence and metempsychosis. Every thoughtfulperson must admit that there is something plausible in the concept of a former experience. There are often thoughts springing up in the mind which seem to be recollections, and we havesudden impressions that we have been in the same places and similar circumstances at one ormore periods, as at the present time. A feeling of loneliness often lingers about us, as thoughwe were exiled from a distant and almost-forgotten home.

We are too prone to venture upon the solving of such facts by physiological orpathological explanations. But these fall short of accounting for them to satisfaction. Indeed, itis a species of credulity to be always expecting ample demonstration in any such matter. Platowas far more reasonable when he affirmed that the human soul is itself intuitive. He set forththat such perceptions had their origin in a faculty of mind distinct from the one by which weform opinions and judgment in relation to sensible objects. This faculty of intuition or realknowing, he taught, was "generated by the Divine Father," and also that during our corporeallife it is not amenable to the conditions of time and space, but in a peculiar manner "dwells ineternity."

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Thus it is superior to the other powers of conjecture, believing and reasoning. Itspossession and development accord satisfactorily for the possibility of perceptions in anothermode and form than those which are usually considered as the normal functions of the mindthrough the agency of the brain. Such perceptions may come in dreams, or they may beimpressed upon us as presentiments, or even in ways that are more tangible.

The Judean Kabbalists declared it possible for a human will to affect others and inducethem to obey its behests. Passavant also asserts that individuals at a distance from the subjectcan compel thoughts and dreams. Doubtless, many occurrences which are often considered assupernatural, may be explained in this way. Nevertheless, if we really desire to know thecauses at the beginning, we should look further.

Distinguished authors have propounded the theory that there is a subtle fluid in the brainand nervous structures, which is the source of vitality and sensation, and is likewise themedium between the visible and invisible worlds. It is with the soul itself and surrounds thebody with a psychic aura or atmosphere. This often enable the individual to perceive thepresence of surrounding objects, even in the dark, before coming into actual contact with them.

It is also assumed, and even admitted by scientists, that there is everywhere presentthrough space the imponderable agent denominated ether, somewhat analogous in characterand perhaps identical with what we call electricity. This ether is supposed by many astutethinkers to be the medium or connecting link between the realm of nature and the spiritualworld, and to convey the emanations and influences of individuals from one point to another.

These hypotheses seem to account for the coincidences which everyone has sometimesobserved, that two persons have the same thoughts at the same time, and that one person willoften be moved to think of another as the latter is approaching from a distance. We may alsobelieve confidently that there are living beings present in our atmosphere, who are conscious ofour thoughts, motives and conditions, and often exercise a species of protection andguardianship over us. We have no need to stop here in our

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speculations. This invisible realm about us is no chaotic region destitute of inhabitant, and awaste of desolation. We may think of it and confidently believe it to be peopled with "men andwomen and gods," alike to essence but diverse in powers. The human mind is no mere productor flowering of the corporeal nature, begotten with it and dying with it, but is a livingintelligence with functions and energies of its own. Time itself is a projection of the eternal,

and this intuitional, thinking entity belongs to that realm of being. There are living essence ofvarious discrete degrees constantly in rapport with the minds of those who are living in theconfines of time and space. From this intimate association and contact they apprehend thethought and governing purpose, and are able to further these, or to arrest them, or to divertthem into other channels. This may be done so imperceptibly as to impel the individual toimagine it to be all of his own accord. Indeed, consciousness may be altogether, and certainlyis often the result of disturbance of the mental element, an actual abnormity. We may seevisions, perceive voices, and have impressions which are from the world beyond, and seem tobe supernatural.

Whether the Supreme Being speaks in a manner that our senses and faculties wouldperceive, or whether he inspires directly, are questions not to be lightly asked or answered. Sofar as we can well comprehend the matter, communications from the superior world are byintermediaries. Of this much we may be sure: that we are dwelling in a region of mind inwhich we constantly interchange moral and mental conditions, and even thought and life itselfwith a myriad of beings analogous to us in their nature and inspired betimes by the kindest andbest of purposes in regard to us; but often, however, it would also seem, some of them byworse ones. We may not live apart from them, nor they from us. In them, as in ourselves, theInfinite One is ever present, never apart from that which is of him and from him.

Indeed, I am closely in sympathy with the affirmation of Angelus Silesius - that we arenecessary to God, as God is to us. Certainly all who live endowed with faculties of mind andheart, whether bodied, disbodied or unbodied, are necessary to one

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another. God is good, the philosophers declared: God is love, say the writers of the NewTestament. Love, even though infinite, requires an object to permeate, encompass and bless; else it would not have being. We subsist in God before our entrance into this world, and thehighest essence of our being still abides in him.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Nov., 1906)

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THE IMAGINATION

Our village postmaster was a man of very positive opinions, and in those days, what wascalled a Free-Thinker. I had been sent to his shop one forenoon, where he employed severalworkmen, and found him engaged in warm discourse with a neighbor. These words caught myattention: "The Christian imagines a God, carves an image to represent the idea, and worshipsthat."

It was not hard to comprehend the full meaning of this assertion, and the assumptionupon which it was based. It is the habit with many reasoners to rank that which is imagined asbeing essentially unreal. These fabrics of the mind, they do not hesitate to declare, are dreams

and vagaries, things which have no substantial existence. Individuals of this class often claimfor themselves the distinction of being practical, and set such matters contemptuously aside asnot enabling the accumulating of wealth, or affording enjoyment. With them these thingsseem to constitute all that is worthy of regard. This sloth of mind is morally enervating, and isliable to degenerate into lack of probity and an impervious insensibility to right dealing.

There is also a second group of individuals who occupy virtually a similar plane ofthought though apparently transcending it. Their notion is that only what can be demonstratedby logical or mathematical process may be accepted as truth. They often weary us by theirdiscourse. They are generally talkative, drawing their utterances to an inordinate length, likethe "wounded snake" of the poem. I have listened to them till I suffered from fatigue. I haveread their argument, and tired utterly of their pictured universe so full of shapes, but destitute ofsouls.

It often seems curious that individuals professing scientific

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attainment, will pertinaciously maintain that the atmosphere and world about us are denselypopulated with living spores and animalcules that propagate disease and putrefaction; and, inthe same breath, will contend the idea that spiritual essences are occupying the same region. Yet this is as plausible, if not as palpable as their own hypothesis. They insist that we shallaccept the evidence of their microscopes, but are not willing to receive the testimony ofphilosophic perception. They talk fluently about Nature and Force, but zealously overlook theprofounder view that thought and idea are real energies, and God the actual Intelligence withinand beyond all, ubiquitous and supreme. Thus do human beings, the only race on earth that isable to form and entertain the concept of spiritual being and its essential immortality, often taskthat mental faculty to demonstrate that we can never know the truth of these matters. Yet aworld of phenomena with no acknowledged noumena; of effects that have no recognizedcauses; of changes with nothing permanent to which they relate; of natural events without anyefficient origin, thus ignoring the fountain of all evolution and the possible object or utility ofthat which occurs - such a world would constitute a very Babel of chaos; a dreary void; anomnipotent death; a hell in which faith, hope, love and everything divine or desirable, areconsigned to utter darkness.

The "way of holiness," the redemption of human nature, the exaltation of humancharacter to its ideal, must be found in the direction away from this. We will realize our ownsalvation in this very province of actual reality, which it is the office of the Imagination to opento our view and occupation. We shall find here no mere groupings of vagary or uncertainty,but the foundation-facts of our own being.

Ideality has been explained as vision of the mind.* This definition is an affirming of thefact that the mind has vision - that it

-----------* Plutarch: Sentiments of the Philosopher, xii - "Phantasia or imagination is denominated

from Näl - phos, which denotes light; for as light discloses itself and other things which it illuminates, so this -------------- 522.

can see. Being able to see, it can likewise give shape to what it sees. It creates. It can see onlythat which has being. It can by no possibility perceive or conceive of a nonentity. If the humansoul imagines an immortal life, if it conceives of a Supreme Being who is essentially life,intelligence and goodness, then God and immortality are everlasting facts. Imagination hasperceived them and given form to the conception. No matter, though what is real to one personseems unreal and even dogmatic to another; this is true alike of a toothache or a voice from theinterior world.

Such imagination we find in Shakespeare, such vision and such power; and we have, asthe result, that rare collection of dramas that will outlast the centuries. His figures of men andwomen, the scenery of the stage, the various everyday objects which accompany hisrepresentations are but temporary matters, not specially to be named or thought of; but theideas which each drama expresses, and which it shadows forth and represents, are themselvesthe actual realities which have made Shakespear's name immortal. It is of small accountwhether he himself appeared on the stage, or whether it was his vocation to till the ground, orto buy and sell in the market. His faculty to discern the inner heart of things, to learn its secretand to utter it in just the words that most forcibly express it, was the transcendent power. Weare conscious while we are contemplating it that it was no chance development from a humanbrain; that it was no accidental concurrence of functions, but a mighty spiritual energy - a vitalforce, one and indivisible, which constituted Shakespear himself, and which evolved thatinsight and creative power which have been and continue to be the wonder of the world.

Imagination is the faculty to create something which we can contemplate; to develop aperceptible object in the mind; to recall a state of mind which has been experienced; to takesuch material as our experience or direct apprehension furnishes and construct it into

-------------imagination discloses itself and that which is its cause, .....for to the imagination there is alwayssome real imaginable thing presented which is its efficient cause."---------------- 523.

new forms and images. It is the ability and disposition to form ideals for mental creations. Thearchitect who plans a house does this very thing. He produces a design. In due time the houseis built. Which is the veritable reality - the form of that house which had its being in his mind,or the pile of stone, brick or wood which was copied from it? We can quickly perceive theproper reply. The house is the shape which was copied from the form or ideal of the architect. It may be destroyed by fire or storms, so as to exist no more; but the design which the architecthad created in his imagination, and which has also become depicted in the minds of individualswho have seen the structure itself, does not thus perish. It remains permanent. Any othernotion is sophistic and absurd. If that which is made, which is an imitation, can be more realthat the thought which gave it its origin, then the things which are created may be nobler andsuperior to their creator.

Ideas, then, are the original models and patterns from which everything is fashioned. They constitute the eternal laws by means of which everything is formed. Science, which isproperly so called, the knowledge of things that are as well as of those which appear, is thecognition of these laws.

Phrenologists have endeavored to assign a region of the brain to the province of the

imagination. There is an organ or department of ideality on each side of the forehead, they tellus, which embraces and exercises the sentiment of the perfect and beautiful, the noeticinspiration. It embodies, as they assert, a disposition to embellish facts, to become dissatisfiedwith plain reality, to dwell in the realm of fancy. Indeed, in the popular and general conceptionthe imagination is regarded as embodying real things - whatever is visionary. Thus we arerelegated to the world of ghost and goblin, the region of vagary and hallucination, and in shortto everything that is considered frivolous, deceptive and illusory.

Without a reasonable doubt, many of the sights, voices and other phenomena, both of ourdreams and fancy, are derived from our mental and bodily conditions. If an individual did notbelieve in such things he would not often be likely to see or hear them. We have no record before the discovery of America of the appearing or

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manifestation of any ghost or double of an American native. So, also, the likeness of strangebirds and animals would hardly appear in dreams if the races had never been discovered. TheDevil of the Middle Ages would never have been seen, with his peculiar decorations of horns,hoofs and tail, if the artists of ancient Greece and Assyria had not so depicted their cherub-sphinxes and the god Bacchus. Emanuel Swedenborg explained to Queen Ulrika that he wasnot able to hold discourse with deceased individuals, except he had already known thempersonally or from their acts and writings, so that he could form an adequate idea of them. According to this rule, many seers, ecstatics and inspired teachers would come under thedenomination of prophets speaking a vision of their own heart.

Individuals affected by nervous disorders are more liable than others to behold thesepeculiar spectacles. The initiators at the ancient Mysteries administered beverages to thecandidates on purpose to create an abnormal condition of the bodily senses. Mohammed, theArabian apostle, was a sufferer from hysteria. We may not suppose, however, that the disordercreated the visions. A person of acute or preternatural sensitiveness will perceive many thingswhich others do not. Doctor Samuel Warren has described, in Blackwood's Magazine, anepileptic patient who told everything precisely which was taking place in another room at thevery time that it was occurring, just as though he was present there, seeing and hearing it all. Did his epilepsy create these occurrences, or did it enlarge the field of his consciousness so thathe was able to perceive them? Through my window or a break in the wall of my apartment Imay be able to behold the sky, the sun and stars. Does the window or other opening createthese objects, or simply leave no obstruction to my sense of vision? In like manner may not adisorder affecting the nervous system, like hysteria or epilepsy, an agency like animalmagnetism, or some other operation equally mysterious, remove the impediments to the actionof the senses, or exalt the perception and so enable us to see what is within us or beyond, and tohear things of which the auditory apparatus is not usually cognizant?

The sensorial organism is undoubtedly adapted to this purpose. We learn from theobservations of physiologists that our

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special senses of seeing, hearing and smelling are by no means functions of the eyes, ears andnostrils simply, but pertain to the group of nervous ganglia within the head from which those

organs grow as roots and branches from a common point. These little ganglia or masses ofnerve-substance receive the impressions from without and register them. Sometimes thepresiding genius of the brain will make use of such impressions in the forming of thoughts orthe beginning of voluntary action, and at other times its seems that these little ganglia operatedwithout any perceptible direction of that kind. These things commonly take place on theinstant. The seeing apparatus projects the sensation to an image and we seem to ourselves to becontemplating it at a greater or less distance in front of us. This, however, is an illusion; weare only beholding the reflection of our own optic organism inside of our heads. We hear,likewise, on an analogous principle.

We do not, however, complete the matter with a single manifestation which is thusproduced. The impressions which are made upon these registering ganglia, like those on thesensitive plate of the photograph, are fixed there to remain permanent. They become vividagain in dreams, and are contemplated like actual occurrences. A similar manifestation mayalso take place in our waking hours. Sir Isaac Newton beheld the spectrum or visible image ofthe sun at midnight, and William Blake, the artist, made pictures of individuals who had sat forhim on previous occasions, having, by an effort of his mind and will, placed their figures in thevery seat and posture that he required. I have been told that an artist in the city of New Yorkhad the same power.

The imagination may also, through this peculiar forming energy, change these objectivemanifestations and vary the spectacles to an indefinite series. Nor do these transformationsconstitute everything of this character that may be observed. Ideas and thoughts framed in themind are also inscribed upon these same sensorial ganglia, and are often produced objectivelyas part of the dreams and visions. Everybody is familiar with the phrase: "Seeing with themind's eye." A dream or vision is this mode of beholding - a scene pictured as though it wasoutside of us.

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It may be, likewise, that events, views and ideas belonging in the life and experience ofancestors are conveyed into our sensibility in some occult manner, and so influence ourthinking and imagination. Heredity plays some queer pranks with every one of us. We lookupon scenes and even recall the remembrance of events which we have an impression of havingbeheld at some former time, while yet we are aware that we have not. Is this an ancestorimpressing upon us the sense of his experiences, or is it our own memory from some other termor form of existence?

The universe about us is populous in some arcane way, no doubt, with living beings thatare not circumscribed like ourselves with corporeal matter. It may not be reasonably supposedthat there are infinite numbers of races in range from man down to the monads while the regionbeyond him is a void. Even the masters of Unknowing acknowledge this. Herbert Spencer,pausing at the threshold of the Temple of Life, confesses the presence of an Infinite Something,the source of energy and its outcomes. Baruch Spinosa tells us of lower and higher faculties ofmind through which we perceive truth in various orders. He treats of knowledge of the firstdegree which consists of notions from single things apprehended through the senses, withoutrelation to the higher intellect; of knowledge of the second degree, which embraces adequateideas of the properties of things; and of knowledge of the third degree, which proceeds fromthe adequate idea of the formal essence of certain attributes of God to an adequate conception

of the essence of things. This is entheasm.With these two sublime possessions - faith in the Infinite One, and that knowing which

proceeds from a certain adequate knowledge of His attributes to a proper conception of theessence of things - we are at liberty, also, to believe that there are living intelligences in theethereal atmosphere. It is neither impossible nor improbable that they impress themselves andtheir thoughts upon our consciousness. We may thus experience emotions and sensations, andmay think, see and hear from their agency, when it seems to us all the while as being of ourown motion. If, too, there is an all-pervading living essence in an about us which issubstantially one and the same, our relations to

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it are analogous to those of branches from a common stem; and it will impart to us betimesmore or less of a simultaneous consciousness, so that we may perceive persons and events,perhaps, at a great distance away, whether the distance be in space or in the time of actualoccurring. Persons afar off can thus be audible or visible to us; and we may read as in a bookof things now taking place or that occurred long ago,

"Coming events cast their shadows before."

It is the province of the Imagination to gather up such matters, to shape them and thusadapt them for intelligent comprehension and consequent use. Another function is to preserveour experiences. Nothing that we have done, witnessed or endured will ever cease to be. Every Macbeth will see the ghost of his murdered Banquo; every Marcus Brutus the shade ofthe slaughtered Caesar. The wrongs that we have suffered are present with us. With evengreater vividness the better, happier, nobler acts and occurrences abide permanently in ourconsciousness. All these things are elements of our constitution, and we can no more escapethem than we can become separate and distinct from our own selfhood.

To speak of these matters as unreal and unsubstantial would be to talk idly. They are farremoved, it is true, from all the temporary and shadowy appearances that so many denominatepractical everyday life. Let no one boast, however, of such practicality. It is shared in commonwith the mouse and beaver and subserves as high uses with them as with the human being.

Our aspiration to an ideal excellence of conduct, our efforts to acquire more thoroughknowledge, our eagerness to achieve any kind of eminent distinction, each in its way, is anendeavor to attain an exaltation which is nobler and permanent. Any moral force which impelsin this way is as real, and must be so acknowledged, as the blow that makes us recoil or fells usto the ground. What we call morality is that idea about Right which the imagination hasframed into a rule of action for us to embody in our lives as our very nature. It is an entityformed of the immortal substance - "the stuff that

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dreams are made on." Of this morality all our real knowing is born. In order to know anythingit is first necessary to love it, to desire it and to be in sympathy with it. The truth which natureand the universe contain is but a sealed book to him who loves it not. His knowledge, or ratherhis conception of knowledge, whatever pretension it may have to being scientific, is mean,

superficial, small and serving only for the uses of the day. The man who does not love theeternal truth will never know it; and, as knowing is possessing, he will remain poor, ignorant,blind and naked.

The fact that the idea of truth, of order, of right doing exists in every person's mind isevidence that he is immortal, a partaker of the infinite and eternal. It is the office of theimagination to shape that idea, to make it perceptible to the mind, and to introduce it into theheart, the daily action and all the life.

Sir Humphrey Davy once breathed the nitrous oxide for experiment, and becameinsensible of the objects around him. When he had recovered from the trance he exclaimed,with emphasis: "There is nothing real but thought!" He had, indeed, come close to the eternalfoundations of things. For it is upon thought, the living rock, that we build our permanentsuperstructure. We thus abide in the substantial, everlasting truth that there is God within andabove all, an ever-present perpetual Life, and, of course, an eternity for human beings - not indens or palaces of selfishness and its consequent misery, but in the very bosom of the InfiniteOne.

Thus Imagination is among the most important of our psychic endowments. It "bodiesforth the form of things unknown," constructing thoughts into principles and originating theachievements of intellect. It enable the accomplishing of all that is great and useful in theworld, and allies man to the holier Self beyond.

(Metaphysical Magazine, June 1901)

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INVERSE OR INNER VISION

Attention has already been directed to the occurring of inverse as well as direct vision. Draper says: "Inverse vision depends primarily on the condition that former impressions whichare enclosed in the optic thalami or registering ganglia at the base of the brain, assume such adegree of relative intensity that they can arrest the attention of the mind. The moment that anequality is established between the intensity of these vestiges and sensationscontemporaneously received from the outer world, or that the latter are wholly extinguished, orin sleep, inverse vision occurs, presenting itself as the conditions may vary, under differentforms, apparitions, visions, dreams."

Dr. Hilbert is more concise and definite, telling the matter still more plainly: "There areground for suspicion," says he, "that when ideas of vision are vivified to the height ofsensation, a corresponding affection of the optic nerve accompanies the illusion." In otherwords, when the idea of a person or object is very vivid in the mind, it is possible and oftenactually occurs, that we see the very individual or thing that we are thinking about. Everyoneof us has had such experiences.

Sir David Brewster explains the matter further. "In examining these mentalimpressions," says he, "I have found that they follow the motion of the eyeball exactly like thespectral impressions of luminous objects, and that they resemble them in their apparent

immobility when the eye is displaced by an external force. If this result," he continued, "whichI state with much diffidence, from having only my own experience in its favor, shall be foundgenerally true by others, it will follow, that the objects of mental contemplation may be seen asdistinctly as external objects, and will occupy the same local position

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in the axis of vision, as if they had been formed by the agency of light."This is not so very fanciful. This much is certain, that the figure, whether considered as

real or phantastic, has impressed itself on the sensorium; and no matter how this was done it isthere ready to be reproduced. If a dream can do it, thought can; and when thought has done it,the act, the objective form, can be recognized by the bodily sense. Do not marvel; this is trueof hearing as well as of seeing.

Children of a vivid imagination are fond of playing at this form of vision. They close theeyes firmly, pressing the eyelids somewhat closely against them, and presently behold the mostlively and diversified spectacles. Whatever has impressed them deeply is most likely to beproduced as an actual view. It does not require to have been seen; it is enough that it has beenthought out, and the idea given form by the mind. These views are more or less fantastic,moving like curtains or the pictures in a panorama, but they are none the less real. I haveplayed at this sport myself, and can say that it far surpasses dreaming. The varied experiencesof later life have either weakened this faculty or led more or less to its disuse; indeed, Ipresume that such is the case with most of us. The more extensive the range of one's ideas, thegreater diversity can be obtained in these apparitions.

We see what we believe to exist, more readily than what is regarded as purely a phantasy. Martin Luther saw the Devil, in about the same shape that he in those days was generallysupposed to have. Our New England forefathers, in the seventeenth century occasionally had apeep at a Black Man with a book taking the names of those who were willing to make war onthe Christian religion. We do not see him in that shape now-a-days. We have changed all that. Our satan is both male and female. As a masculine demon he is poverty and destitutionembodied; as a female, he is Mrs. Grundy.

The case of Nikolai, the Prussian bookseller, has done duty for all the disbelievers of thepresent century, till indeed it is about threadbare. In the year 1790 he had omitted hiscustomary bleeding and suffering from various melancholy occurrences. The next

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February after a violent dispute with a person, he saw an apparition. The physician ascribed itto violent mental excitement. It appeared again and again; others finally coming with it. Presently the figures were those of individuals whom he knew, but who generally lived at adistance, and some were dead. They did not come at will, however, but appeared when he leastthought of them. Nikolai could distinguish them from persons actually present. After fourweeks they began to speak sometimes to him and sometimes to each other. They would utterabrupt phrases, or cumulated discourses. On the 20th on April 1791 the physician appliedleeches to him at 11 a.m. The room was crowded with the figures; but at half past four theybegan to fade out, and at seven were perfectly white. An hour later the room was entirelycleared.

Draper pronounces that "in such a case there can be no doubt that the disease affected thecorpora quadrigemina and the optic thalamus as well as the retina." Let it not be understoodfrom this that the disease created the spectres.

However, we will take our lessons from an old mystic of 300 years ago, who standsproperly at the head of all visionaries. We have read Draper and Hilbert, looked at the visionsof the Prussian bookseller, and taken the word of the great Swede. Now for the father of allthese abnormal creatures - Mr. William Shakespeare of Stratford in England.

In his drama, "The Tempest," he puts us all down as being not much else than "thin air."

"These own actors,As I foretold you, were all spirits, andAre melted into air, into thin air;And like the baseless fabric of this vision,The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,The solemn temples, the great globe itself,Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;And like this insubstantial pageant faded,Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

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As dreams are made of, and our little lifeIs rounded with a sleep."

By this logic, sleeping and dreaming are about as real as we ourselves are. Wm.Shakespeare had learned from Aristotle that mind and the thing thought are one. We are madeof dream-stuff and of course are at one with our dreams and visions.

Accordingly, when Richard III sleeps the night before the battle of Bosworth, in 1688,the ghosts are made to rise up, of Prince Edward of Lancaster, Henry VI, George of Clarence,Rivers, Gray, Vaughan, Hastings, Edward V and his brother, Queen Anne and Buckingham. They all dwell in the conscious mind of Richard who had compassed their deaths; and he seesand hears their execration. The king awaking cries:

"I did but dream.O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me.The lights burn blue."

Henry, too, awakes, with the same vision:

"The sweetest sleep and fairest-boding dreamsNot even entered in a drowsy headHave I since your departure had, my lords,Methought their souls, whose bodies Richard murder'dCame to my tent."

Again, Marcus Brutus is sitting in his tent near Sardis, at night, when the Ghost of Julius

Caesar enters. His boy-musician is asleep.

"Ho! who comes there?I think it is the weakness of mine eyesThat shapes this monstrous apparition,It comes upon me. Art thou anything?

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Art thou some god, some angel, or some devilThat mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare?"

The ghost announced himself in reply to the Karma, or his evil spirit. But neither the boynor the men at the entrance saw him come or go. Brutus alone witnessed it.

The appearance of Banquo's ghost is equally pertinent. The guilty Macbeth has bid thenobles of Scotland to a feast; when going to take his seat, he sees Banquo in his seat. Lenoxpoints to it as a place reserved; but the king sees the unwelcome visitor and addresses him. The queen cries to him:

"This is the very painting of your fear:Why do you make such faces? If when all's done,You look but on a stool."

The king asserts that he saw him.

"The times have beenThat, when the brains were out, the man would die,And there an end; but now, they rise againAnd push us from our stools."

Addressing his guests he adds:

"You can behold such sights,And keep the natural ruby of your cheeksWhen mine are balanced with fear."

Ross demands:

"What sights, my lad?"

He has seen nothing. Only the king beheld the terrible apparition, and not then till he hadlearned of the murder.

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has not hesitated to give us an

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hypothesis. "Perhaps," says he, "we have co-tenants in this house we live in. No less thaneight distinct personalities are said to have co-existed in a single female mentioned by anancient physician of unimpeachable authority. In this light we may perhaps see the meaning ofa sentence from a work which will be repeatedly referred to in this narrative, viz, 'This body inwhich we journey across the isthmus between the two oceans is not a private carriage but anomnibus.'"

I do not know how far Dr. Holmes would be followed. He has said enough to show whathe is willing to suggest. Inside of every human being's consciousness is each individual withwhom he has been in any way concerned. In certain events and conditions, the idea of thatindividual will be impressed upon the mind and so carried into the physical sensibility as tobecome an apparition. Brutus sees the dead Caesar, Richard his murdered victims, andMacbeth the form of his assassinated cousin. No one else sees, because they have not had anypart in the matter. Lady Macbeth could see the blood of Duncan on her hands, but it was all inher eyes. Nobody else could see it, because except in the interior consciousness and projectedfrom it, the blood was not there.

"Perhaps," says the philosopher Immanuel Kant, "it will yet be proved that the humansoul, even in this life, is, by indissoluble communion connected with all the immaterial naturesof the spirit-world, acting upon these and receiving impressions from them."

Such natures by impressing the sensorium and consciousness could, of course, by thisprocess of inverse vision, be represented as before the eyes. The person himself will be thewitness, but, usually, no one else. Brutus and Macbeth saw their ghosts, but nobody else did,so, too, the prophet Daniel tells a similar story:

"I, Daniel, alone saw the vision; for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but agreat quaking fell upon them."

The ghost of Hamlet, however, came within the cognizance of several. Horatio assertedit was but a phantasy, when Bernardo and Marcellus declared they saw it; but when he, too,had seen the vision he hastened to bring his young master thither. He, too, sees the ghost andspeaks with it. At the end he swears the others to silence

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and remarks:

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

This carries us, however, into another field and we leave it for the present. I have nodisposition to doubt where millions of mankind believe. I demand, however, reason forbelieving.

I have a brief word to say of these ghostly exhibitions. Very generally the spectraldisplays are of the same fashion as the seers are accustomed to. Even the ghost of old Hamletappeared as he was in life. The Roman saw his spectres in the Roman dress; and so it usuallyis. Nobody seems ever to have seen the ghost of an American Indian till after the discovery ofthe western continent. Now, we have an abundance of them; and in some regions theymonopolize the market. I sometimes imagine it is because they are not obliged to use the whiteman's grammar. Illiterate seers hear the language of the unlettered and untaught; scholars hear

the learned. But they use the dialect of the seer. Swedenborg's interlocutors all Swedenborgisesays Emerson. "King George II, and Isaac Newton, all speak alike." There is a law ofexistence, I apprehend, which occasions this.

(The Word, Vol. 15, pp. 346-51)

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PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

"I marvel that in their booksThey know not, with certainty,What the properties of the Soul;Of what form are its members,What region is its abode,What breath, inflowing, sustains it."

- Taliesin: Elements of Knowledge

We read in classic story of a famous story of a famous sculptor who carved the statue of abeautiful woman so perfectly that he became enamored of it, and by the energy of his loveprocured it to be endowed with life, the faculty of speech, and all human qualities. In this talewe may find more than the lively conceit of a myth-maker, and we shall do well, accordingly,to give it our thoughtful consideration, and to seek for its profounder meaning. It is plainly thesuggestion of inherent ability in the human being to effect what is earnestly desired and willed,even to the bringing of energy and the imparting of life and soul to what is relatively inert andmoribund. We may find in it some explanation of the problem of our own existence. Tocomprehend this intelligently we must also grasp and understand what may be learned of theessential characteristics of mind and soul, and the relations of these to all things else. This kindof knowledge is appropriately ranked under the head of Psychology. It includes within itspurview all that pertains to the soul, its faculties and functions, and to its connections andrelations with the body and corporeal conditions.

There are different interpretations, however, given this term by authors and lecturers, thatare more or less variant and confusing. In

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some scientific circles it is chiefly employed to embrace the several types of insanity which arecharacterized by nervous derangement and mental aberration, overlooking entirely the higherspiritual nature. Sir William Hamilton explains it more critically, and denoting "the scienceconversant about the phenomena of the mind, or conscious subject, or self, or ego." Heyse,however, gives a more explicit definition. He distinguishes between the soul as the livingprinciple, and the spirit as the rational or spiritual quality. He accordingly regards the termspsychic, psychal, and psychical as describing the relations of the human soul to sense, appetite,

and the outer visible world, in contradistinction to those superior faculties which have to dowith the super-sensible region.

We are frequently compelled, nevertheless, to accept everyday usage at the expense ofcritical accuracy of expression. The word mind, as employed by the older philosophic writers,denotes the spiritual element, whereas many consider it to mean the soul, and it is morecommonly regarded as signifying the understanding or reasoning faculty. We may, however,avoid misconception to some degree by contemplating the nature of the soul itself. Ascontrasted with the body, it may very properly be described as a spiritual substance orcorporeity. In this sense the Apostle Paul actually denominates it a spiritual body, asdistinguished from the psychic (I. Cor. xv, 44). More definitely, however, it is theindividuality, including, and yet in a manner distinct from, the superior, diviner element of ourbeing. "In other words," as the eminent Professor George Bush declares, "The Soul is thatprinciple in man that constitutes his personality; and this is but another form of saying that thesoul is the man himself, as a living, thinking, feeling, active being." This may be further shownvery forcibly by comparing the passages in the three synoptic Gospels, in which the phrase,"lose his own soul," is interchanged with the expression, "lose himself."

The philosophic thinker will recognize the fact of the different qualities andcharacteristics of the psychic nature. In the higher department it is intellective, and knows; inthe lower plane it is moral and sensitive, and feels. The latter is more closely incorporated withthe physical life; the former pertains to the noetic and spiritual. They

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are by no means always concurrent in impulsion. We may feel and desire in one direction atthe same time that our convictions move us in another. "So, then," says Paul, when noting thisinternal conflict, "with the mind [or noetic faculty], I myself serve the law of God, but with theflesh the law of sin." The Apostle, it will be perceived, is careful in his use of terms. Herepresents our nature as consisting of "spirit and soul and body," and the Epistle to the Hebrewsspeaks of "the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." This distinction is often neglected incommon speech, but we find no room left here for such indefiniteness. The spirit, orintellective principle, is plainly represented as the nobler element of our being. "The naturalman" is an expression indicating unequivocally the person in whom the psychal quality ispredominant. "He receiveth not the things of the spirit," says Paul, "and cannot know them; but he that is spiritual exploreth everything." The one may be learned, but the other only iswise.

The philosophers, it is proper to remark, while they made like distinctions, employedother terms. They regarded the spirit as simply the "breath of life," having no important qualityof superior character. In their descriptions it appears to have been similar to the nervengeist ofthe "Seeress of Prevorst," the principle imparting life and energy to the corporeal system. Thesoul was represented as being the entire personality, having the body for a temporal investiture; the sensuous part being intimately allied to the mortal nature, even perishing with it,* and themind or intellect to the immortal.

The concept appears in the books of Genesis and Job. "The Lord God formed man - dustof the ground," the one record declares; "and he breatheth into his nostrils the breath [nasama] of life, and

-----------* "The junior divinities, receiving the immortal principle of the soul, next fashioned the

mortal body, making it entirely to be a vehicle thereto, and forming within it a separate mortalkind of soul, possessed of certain dire and necessary passions.... They lodged man's mortalportion separately from the divine, in a different receptacle of the body" [the thorax and trunk].- Plato: Timaos, xliv-------------- 539.

man is a living soul." Elihu is somewhat more explicit. "There is a spirit in man [or human-kind], and the inspiration [nasamat] of the Almighty maketh them intelligent." (Job xxxii, 8) Thus the understanding or intelligence is set forth as an outcome, projection, or descent fromthe superior intellect, the pure or intuitive reason, by an inflowing of the Eternal Mind.

At this point we digress in order to note the office and relations of the psychic to thecorporeal nature:

Psychologic Physiology

"For of the soul the body form doth take;For soul is form, and doth the body make."

- Spencer

It is almost superfluous to remark that the whole mental and psychic portion of our beingis by general consent recognized as pertaining to the nervous system. We must, however,repudiate the opinion that emotion, thought, and intellection are merely products of that part ofour constitution. The higher intellect has not grown out of the physical nature, like amushroom out of sordid earth. It made the external nature and is not made by it. Possessingthe faculty of intellection, signified by thought, speech, and act, the spirit of man "goethupward," while that of the beast "goeth downward to the earth." This faculty is the patent ofnobility from the eternal world. Because that such is his nature, man has a brain and outlyingnervous structure, superadded to the vital and organic system, and fashioned by the creativeenergy of the mind, surpassing all that any animal has. The form of the body follows and isshaped by the directing power of the soul. Hence, as bramble-bushes do not bear grapes norare produced from the seeds of grapes, so the human soul is never found in association with abody other than human.

The nervous system, corresponding to the psychic nature, is therefore twofold. There isthe cerebro-spinal axis, consisting of the brain with its commissures, the sensorium beneath, thecerebellum to

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supplement and perfect the action of the brain, the spinal cord and nerves - all radiating andproceeding from that centre of force, the medulla oblongata; likewise the ganglial orsympathetic system, including the various ganglia of the viscera and outlying regions, with theprolongations and nerve-cords which unite them to one another and to the other parts of the

organism. The origin of the sympathetic nervous system is in the solar or semilunar ganglion atthe epigastric region of the body. From this point all its branches and kindred structuresproceed, and to it every emotion refers itself as to a common centre. The instinct of the childand the observation of the intelligent adult abundantly confirm this. We all know the sickeningfeeling of fear, the exhilarating effect of joy, the morbific and restorative influences of thevarious emotions, according as the will is itself enfeebled or aroused into energetic activity.

A ganglion is a collection of minute nervous vesicles and molecules, and its principaloffice is to elaborate and disseminate nerve-force. They sympathetic system is termedganglionic, because it consists chiefly of nerve-structures of that character. The structure of theganglia of that system is essentially different from that of the ganglia of the cerebro-spinal axis,thus significantly indicating a corresponding diversity of functions.

The medulla oblongata, at the summit of the spinal cord, is formed at a very early periodof antenatal existence. It is the germ from which the entire cerebro-spinal nervous system isdeveloped, and has been defined as the equator of the cerebro-spinal axis and the seat of energyof all the organs within the skull. From the little bulb at the upper extremity of the spinal cordare produced the striate bodies, the optic thalami, the corpora quadrigemina and other ganglialbodies of the sensorium, the cerebellum, and finally (the highest and noblest of all) thecerebrum itself. It has been aptly suggested that these various organs are the roots of theHuman Tree, and that the spinal cord with the innumerable nerves issuing from it are thebranches.

With such a comparison, it will be pertinent to contemplate the ganglionic system asauxiliary, affording the physical energy for its support. The countless ganglia of which thatsystem is composed are

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so many centres and sources of nervous and vital force. The great central ganglion at the pit ofthe stomach has its name of semilunar from its peculiar shape. It is sometimes denominatedsolar because that region of the body was anciently believed to be under the special control andvivifying influences of the sun.

These ganglia abound through the entire interior of the body, and are named from theirrespective situations - cephalic, thoracic, and abdominal. There is also a double chain of them,more than fifty in number, extending all the way beside the spinal column, which are likewisedesignated by their localization - cervical, dorsal, lumbar. They give off fibres to the spinalnerves as these issue from the vertebral cavity, and thus constitute an important part of thenerve-trunks from their origin to their extremities.

There are also plexuses, or networks made up of nerve-cords from ganglia of thesympathetic system and filaments from certain of the spinal nerves. In this way the whole arecombined in one complex nerve.

It is not in our power to define the extent or amount of the aggregate mass of theganglionic nervous system, but one writer declares that it constitutes a great part of the volumeand weight of the whole body. This will seem plausible enough when we bear in mind that itextends over the internal organs, where the spinal nerves have but a limited distribution; that itlines the blood-vessels with its fibres, permeates every gland, and has fibrils in the same trunkwith every nerve of the other systems. The innumerable glandular structures are thus suppliedas well as the thoracic and abdominal viscera. The internal organs are more abundantly

furnished that external ones; hence the female body, by virtue of its peculiar conformation, hasa much larger quantity; and accordingly, from this richer endowment, women and the femalesof the animal races are generally longer-lived and more able to endure. If this nervousconnection should be broken off from any of these organs or viscera, the effect would be likean actual removal. Its specific vitality would cease, and its contribution is the sum total of thebodily life would be withheld.

Descartes taught that the soul and corporeal nature

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interpenetrated in every part of the body, "really one, and in a sense indivisible." He insisted,however, that one point, midway in the head, may be called in a special sense the seat of themind. In the conarion, or pineal gland, thought and the vital forces meet and communicate. Alater writer, adopting this hypothesis, designated this gland as the central ganglion, "worthy ofbeing styled the president of the organic system." This is certainly plausible; for the pinealgland is connected by "peduncles," or bands of white fibre, to the optic thalami, and injuries ofit will produce ophthalmic disturbances, and these in turn will extend to other organs of thecranium and over the body, producing death if carried to a sufficient extent.

In short, the cerebral and spinal systems acting together perform the several functions ofsense, thought, and decision. Impressions are conveyed to the brain, reflected upon, passedover to the cerebellum in order to complete the work (sometimes denominated "unconsciouscerebration"), and returned to the consciousness for final decision and action. The philosophershave but expressed the universal experience and conviction, when they declare the head to bethe temple and abode of the rational soul or intellective principles, "our most divine and sacredportion."

The ganglionic system is directly employed with the vital and organic functions: respiration, nutrition, secretion, absorption, calorification. These being under its immediateinfluence and control, it must operate equally at the brain as at the stomach, at the spinal cordas at the liver. The entire system operates consentaneously, and in direct harmony with themental and psychic impulses upon the thought and emotional impressions.

It is evident, therefore, that the germinal principle of the body is nerve-substance, andthat all the parts, tissues, membranes, and histologic structures are outgrowths or evolutionsfrom the ganglial system, if not simply that system extended and differentiated. Ackermaninsisted upon the hypothesis declaring the ganglionic nervous system to be the part first formedand the germ of everything that is afterward to be developed. It is fully formed, Blumenbachaffirmed, while the brain appears still a pulpy mass. "The first effect of the vital properties,whatever they may be," says Lawrence, "are

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directed toward he development of a Central Organ, the solar ganglion predestined to hold arelation to the dull and unmoving organism precisely as that of the vital fire to the animatedstatue of Prometheus."

It is the foundation which is laid before the superstructure is built. While the brain andspinal marrow constitute this organism by which man sustains relations with the externalworld, the ganglionic system is the organ of subjectivity. He feels with it, and from this

instinctive feeling in joint action with the reflective faculties he forms his purposes. "We willfind," as Dr. Kerner remarks, "that this external life is the dominion of the brain - the intellectwhich belongs to the world; while the inner life dwells in the region of the heart, within thesphere of sensitive life, in the sympathetic and ganglionic system. You will further feel that, byvirtue of this inner life, mankind is bound up in an internal connection with nature." Dr.Richardson is equally positive. "The organic nervous centres," he declares, "are the centresalso of those mental acts which are not conditioned, but are instinctive, impulsive, or, as theyare most commonly termed, emotion."

Hence, instinct is essentially a portion of the ganglionic system. The infant manifests itin common with the various tribes of animals; it is alike in both, and is not amenable to thereasoning faculty. The emotions are exhibited through this part of the physical structure. Every new phase of life, every occurrence or experience which we encounter, immediatelyreflects its influence upon the central organism of the body and upon the glandular system. Emotional disturbance affects every vital function. We lose our appetite for food, we aredepressed and languid, or cheerful and buoyant, at the gratification or disappointment of ourhopes, or at some affectional excitement. These influences, if prolonged and carried to anundue extent, will bring about permanent disorder. Such manifestations as the impairment ofnervous force, weakness and vacillation of will, lack of decision, depressing emotions, andirregular action of the muscles are directly resultant. They are by no means to be referredprimarily to lesions or morbid conditions of the brain or spinal system, but belong to theorganic centre itself. The whole range of disorders

--- 544. characterized as nervous have their beginning there. Persons afflicted with such complaintsgenerally exhibit more or less of something amiss with the liver or stomach, or the partsaccessory or subordinate to these organs. This is true of epilepsy, hydrophobia, tetanus,delirium tremens, hysteria, chorea, and paralysis in its several forms. Insanity is not anexception; it is chiefly a functional disorder, and really a disease of debility.

Dr Kreysig carries this hypothesis to the entire category of bodily disorders. He declaresin so many words that "the elements of general and internal disease, or the morbidpredispositions which form the most important objects of treatment, may all be reduced tovitiated states of the blood and lymph, or to derangements of the nervous system." Thesymptoms manifest in the various complaints confirm this statement. Fever exhibits resultsanalogous to those produced by blows at the pit of the stomach. Cholera exhibits likeevidences of impairment. Violent exertion which exhausts the vital force at the physiologicalcentre, the solar nerve-tissue, the shock of surgical operations, the passions, fear, grief, anger,even sudden joy, will attack the citadel of life, paralyze the sympathetic system, suspend thevarious functions, even produce death when sufficiently intense.

Microscopic observation, in its present stage of completeness, has not affordedconclusive evidence to the contrary. Changes sufficient to produce the most acute diseases,and even to subvert life itself, may take place in the nervous system without beingdemonstrable to the senses. It is evident that a power or influence is operative whichtranscends the province of common scientific explorations. We are thus brought again to ourstarting-point -

The Higher Psychology

It is apparent that the psychic entity, which has the closer relations to the natural worldand to the corporeal structure, is more directly accountable for the accidents and disorders ofour every-day life, whether physical, moral, or social. That it pertains to the

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ganglionic rather than to the cerebral system as its informing principle is undoubted. Throughit we love and hate, hope and fear, trust and doubt, become disordered in body, are restored tohealth, and are preserved without scathe although the pestilence walk at noonday. This is aknowledge pertaining to the higher medical art, and of inestimable value.

By no means need we suppose that the methods now in vogue, consisting as they do oftemporary expedients, unphilosophic opinion, inability to investigate causes, and anunscientific medication which often conflicts with the native healing forces of the body, canalways predominate. There must be an aim to recruit as well as sustain the vital forces. Thedreams of sages and prophets were not altogether visionary. It is true that virtue can pass fromone person to another to heal the sick and cheer the despondent. We may not even scorn ordisregard as irrational or fanciful the belief that these things may be done by energy derivedfrom a superior source. More things are possible than some incredulous individuals are willingto acknowledge.

That mental shock and despondency, even imagination, can produce disease and causedeath is a familiar fact. Cancer and consumption are thus occasioned. Certainly it isreasonable that there is an equal and even a superior vivifying energy of mind, spirit, and will,to overcome morbific influence and restore to soundness. Macbeth's demand was by no meanswithout warrant:

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased;Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;Rase out the written troubles of the brain;And with some sweet oblivious antidote,Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuffWhich weighs upon the heart?"

"Of all truths we know," says Dugald Stewart, "the existence of mind is the most certain." We feel conscious that that something of us that thinks and wills and reasons is permanent andenduring. While the body is in a state of constant change, and every particle of

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it is wasted and replaced within a certain period, the being that we recognize as self, as our ownactual personality, remains essentially the same. There is an eternal life, a life of the eternalworld, which was before our birth upon this earth, which still is, and will be after our existencehere shall cease; and of that life and that eternity we are essentially a part. Plato has explainedthis as one who knows. "With respect to the highest and most leading part of our soul," sayshe, "the Deity assigned this to each individual as a demon, or superior intelligence. It resides at

the summit of the body, and raises us from the earth to our cognate place in heaven."In conclusion, Psychology as a science includes in its purview the higher elements of

human physiology, the more genuine methods of the healing art, and whatever relates to theinterior mental and moral nature of man. Well understood, it realizes an expertness in all thesedepartments of knowledge. It transcends empirical science by a nobler philosophy. It takesaccount of all which we need to know about man and his necessities, his relations to his fellowsand to the world beyond. It is exalted in its scope without being visionary; intuitive, withoutbeing irrational or illogical. It has in its province all that is to be desired, believed, or known. Sublime as the highest vision can render it, it pertains to the thought and every-day life of thefeeblest and humblest. It is the wisdom of means as well as ends. It overlooks nothing. It isthe real art of accomplishing. Sage and scientist have no monopoly of it that can excludeothers less favored of circumstance or fortune. It is the knowing of the right and true in theright way and with the right purpose.

(Metaphysical Magazine, March, 1896)

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WORLD-MENDING

"The time is out of joint: - O cursed spiteThat ever I was born to set it right."

- Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4

It has been, from time immemorial, the ambition of individuals with more or less ofgenerous impulse and disinterested motive, to repair the defects and right the wrongs whichseem to predominate in human society. From heroes like Curtius, statesmen like Confucius,and sages like Buddha, down to the seedy politician of the ward, and Mrs. Jellyby with herimmense correspondence, the civilized world has been in all ages overrun with benefactors. One time a nation has been delivered from actual or impending calamity; at another, the peaceof a family, neighborhood, or social circle, has been invaded and even completely upset bysome individual or group of individuals, resolutely determined to set things right, which quieteror more stolid persons had not supposed to be going wrong.

Doubtless, we ourselves have, at some period of our lives, had an attack of this peculiarenthusiasm. As we are bred or constituted, every one looks in his own direction for a remedy. The average American expects it in the exaltation of his political party to power, or in theelection of his favorite candidate to office; as though human nature was not essentially alike inmen, however they might be factitiously arranged, classified and ticketed by order. Thecountry is "ruined" periodically, at every general election, according to somebody's view of thematter; the people, nevertheless, the majority of them, really appear to enjoy the unfortunatecondition. We are led to conjecture that they possess blunted sensibilities, or else that thecalamity which they experience is not as serious as had been

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depicted. The election of the candidates whom we oppose does not blight industry, prostrateour liberties, or inflict upon us the horrors of war. Steadily, but not in the way that partisansexpect it, the country moves forward to accomplish its career. A mightier force than thepassions and caprices of the hour is at work in public affairs. Voting will hardly make orunmake commonwealths; a moral power exists behind them all, and the several parties seldomdo more than play in puppet-show.

Others endeavor to solve the problem by religious methods. The Bible has beenransacked from end to end to find rules, lessons and examples for our direction. "Righteousness exalteth a nation," we are everywhere assured; "happy is the people whoseGod is the Lord." These are convictions which we should treat with respect. Besides, weshould regard the right of private judgment as equally sacred. Indeed, it would seem that theMoslem is more earnest and even sincere in his faith than the average Christian. The latter hasstated recurrences of religious periods, such as Sabbath-worship, set times of fast and festivaland revivals of religion. The Turk and the Arab on the other hand, though duly observant ofhours of prayer and other rites, nevertheless repose everything in the keeping of the Almighty. Whether they go to battle, pursue the daily calling, dally at home or engage in some lawlessenterprise, it is all the same: Allah hu akhbar - God is great! The stage, the world, all, belongsto the infinite wisdom and not to finite sagacity; and all must move as it is propelled. Hence atthe present time, Islam seems to have in it more faith, and hence more of moral force than itsChristian rival. It is accordingly making more headway. Siberia and Africa appear to bebecoming Mohammedanized, while Christianity makes little perceptible inroad upon Buddhismor Brahmanism, or is able to counteract the disintegrating influence within its own bosom.

A third class comprising individuals of Sadducean proclivities, little regarding anyopinion higher than the world of sense, would propose culture and civilization as the surestremedy for human troubles. In their view, religions do not differ essentially, and politicalaffairs in all countries tend to become substantially alike in the principles of administration. Men change, but the facts at the bottom

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are the same. I am vividly away to these considerations. I have myself been somewhat of aworld-mender after my own ideal; yet it appears plain that institutions, free or otherwise, willhardly go far toward an improving of the condition of mankind. Nor do opinions go muchfurther. The several religious bodies are as eager for ruling as the veriest tyrant, only theyoften lack the organization by which to make them dangerous to freedom of thought and action. The leader of a sect is generally a despot in temper and if he is not, he is followed by someonethat is. We find as much intolerance with those who profess liberal sentiments, as in the morearbitrary sects. Reformers, whether political or religious, are often malignant as fiends towardthose who do not subscribe to their notions without reservation and at the sacrifice ofindividual conviction. The imperial palace and the democratic platform, the Vatican and theconventicle, exhibit alike the satanic love of ruling. All religions, all modes of government, allinstitutions, however divergent tin their inception are very sure to meet eventually in a similarchannel. The Unitarian and Trinitarian, the Jew and Pagan, the Reformer and Conservative, theMoslem and Christian have a like disposition to tyrannize over their fellows.

What plea can be made in the behalf of culture? For civilization has moved with steadyprogress from older to newer realms, from China and from India, Babylon and Egypt over AsiaMinor, Northern Africa, Greece and Italy to the other regions of Europe and to the Americancontinent. It gives costly houses, gaudy clothing and the servile homage of multitudes to therich and powerful. But always the diamond betrays its speck. Close at the palace-gate, beforethe church-door, within the temple itself where the glories of this civilization are displayed, thepoverty-stricken Lazarus comes with his sores. In metropolitan New York with its palatialabodes, its churches, its schools and libraries, a vast number of the population lives inmiserable abodes. Other places are little better. English cities are worse. Europe, Catholic andProtestant alike, has a damnable record. The miseries as well as the pleasures and enjoymentof human beings seem to have been vastly enhanced. The men who build gorgeous temples donot go to them to worship, and the laborer that constructs the palace does it for another. Thevery culture than

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makes men skillful is often attended with conditions that render their talents virtuallymisfortunes to them. Millionaires, like mountains, may crush down millions. The state ofsociety is faulty from dome to foundation. What was true in ancient times in respect tooppression and profligacy continues still true, except, perhaps, somewhat in form. Acivilization which subsists by the degradation and destruction of human beings is, at best, onlya qualified good.

What have the world-menders done? Mohammed, failing to make the mountain come tohim, went over to the mountain. Christianity, not succeeding in the endeavor to eradicate thePagan worship, adopted its rites, its divinities and its philosophies, naming them anew. Theman who fails to lift the sheep from mire, too often turns his attention to plucking out the wool. Many who find the time out of joint are apt to substitute personal advantage in place of effort toset it right. Large bodies are hard to move, and enthusiastic endeavor is liable to become wearyand disheartened.

The beginning of a remedy for these conditions is to be sought in more careful attentionto little things. Our individual strength may not be much, but it will do all that it can byperforming what comes in its way. No man ever did a great thing well who was not attentiveand accomplished in regard to the details. In the parable it was the one who was diligent andfaithful in a few things that became ruler over many things. The little things which are so oftendepreciated constitute the elements of the greater ones. Thus Paracelsus said that the body of aman was composed of the same material as the planets, and was therefore allied to them. Half-taught men derided his assertion, but the spectroscope verified it. The physical man and thenoblest luminary are from the same origin.

What if the magniloquent beginning of this paper appears at first seeming to have aninsignificant ending? What, though the mountains in the fable produced only a mouse, or asthe witty John Phillips Phoenix parodied it - "a ridiculous muss?" That mouse had a history byno means contemptible. The lion found himself in toils from which with all his prodigiousstrength he was unable to extricate himself, but the mouse gnawed them asunder one by oneand set him free.

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The story has likewise another moral. The prospect of good fortune turned the littleanimal's head. He rushed on to his own destruction by demanding the lion's daughter inmarriage. By a careless step the regal bride crushed her plebeian consort to a jelly.

Here, then, is our lesson. History teems with illustrations. We fail by attempting what isbeyond us, but are likely to succeed by resolutely doing what we can. Pope wrote with asagacity almost divine:

"Honor and fame from no condition rise;Act well your part - there all the honor lies."

Too much stress can hardly be laid upon the performing of the little things. Neglect hereis often fatal. Every enterprise, for example, however magnificent, will be inevitably ruinedthat does not have a ledger faithfully kept. Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, enforces thesentiment which we are maintaining: "This word is not hidden nor far off; it is not necessaryfor thee to ascend into the sky nor to journey beyond the sea to bring it; but it is very nigh tothee, in thy mouth and in thy heart."

Let the world-mender let go his endeavor to do his wonders outside of his own field ofaction. He can do great things in it by doing the small things well. Earthquakes may not be athis command, yet as a simple miner he may overturn mountains from their roots. His namemay not live in history where the deeds of Alexander occupy but few pages and those ofNapoleon are dwindling to smaller dimensions; but he will live perennially in what he does; and the future, by virtue of what he has achieved will be evolved with a hundred-fold greatersplendor from that cause than by any emblazoning of his name. All great things areaccomplished, not by individuals simply, but by hearty concert of action, every one doing hispart. It is not necessary to seek from others the order of command; every one may hear forhimself. Happy for him, happier for the world if he will do that which is heard!

(Metaphysical Magazine, Feb., 1902)

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HISTORY

HOW "ISIS UNVEILED" WAS WRITTEN *

One morning in the autumn of 1876, I saw in the New York "Tribune" the mention of awork in process of publication styled "Art-Magic," which would treat of recondite subjects. Having from earlier years been interested in such matters, I wrote to the address there givenand received a reply from Mrs. Hardinge-Britton. Besides answering my inquiry, she told meof the forming of a Theosophical Society, then taking place. But I did not pursue this clue. Ihad become disgusted with individual pretensions to superior powers, and unusual names have

for me no attraction. Some weeks later, however, learning that the book had been printed, Icalled upon Mrs. Britton and received a copy. She stated that the author did not give his name,and that he would not require the payment which I was to make, paying a compliment to myintellectual qualifications as something unusual in this field. The book was very interesting tome,

------------* The authorship at "Isis Unveiled" has sometimes been questioned. Some persons have

claimed it for themselves. The one individual best able to bear witness, from all who hadpersonal knowledge of the authorship is Alexander Wilder, physician and scholar, the mostable of the Platonists. Today, at 85 years, he has the buoyancy of youth, the mental virility ofmanhood, and all with his Platonic "enthusiasm." - H.W.P. [[Harold W. Percival, editor of TheWord.]--------------- 554.

and contained many valuable nuggets in relation to arcane matters. Unfortunately, there wasno index, and the omission of an index takes away half the usefulness of a book to a student. There was no allusion in the book to the Theosophical Society, and I had no curiosity to knowabout the organization.

At that time I had been editing several publications for Mr. J. W. Bouton, a bookseller inNew York, and was lecturing and contributing papers for one or two periodicals. Otherengagements and associations had been laid aside. I had barely heard of Madame Blavatsky,but in no connection with anything relating to Theosophy, or other subject that I knew anythingabout. She had been described as having introduced herself to an acquaintance as a "rushingRussian," and her manner had attracted attention. Nothing more was elicited at that time.

On a pleasant afternoon, in early autumn, some months later, I was atone in the house. The bell was rung, and I answered at the door. Colonel Henry S. Olcott was there with anerrand to myself. I did not recognize him, as I had never had any occasion to make hisacquaintance, but he having had some governmental business with one of my employersseveral years before, had known me ever since. He had never suspected, however, that I tookany interest whatever in unusual subjects; so completely successful had I been in keepingmyself unknown even to those who from daily association imagined that they knew me verythoroughly. A long service in journalism, familiar relations with public men, and activeparticipation in political matters, seemed to have shut out from notice an ardent passion formystic speculation, and the transcendental philosophy. I think that Colonel Olcott had himselfbeen taken somewhat by surprise.

He had been referred to me by Mr. Bouton. Madam Blavatsky had compiled a workupon occult and philosophic subjects, and Mr. Bouton had been asked in relation toundertaking its publication. Why it had been referred to me I could never well understand. Mr.Bouton had taken passage for England a few days before, and I had visited him several times,even going over from Newark to bid him farewell the morning that he left. Yet he had not saida word to me about the manuscript. Did he really expect me to read it, or was he merely

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endeavoring to shirk having anything to do with it without actually refusing outright? I amnow inclined to the opinion that he referred Colonel Olcott to me to evade saying "No." At thetime, however, I supposed that, although the mode of proceeding was not that of a man ofbusiness, Mr. Bouton really meant that I should examine the work, and I agreed to undertakethe task.

It was truly a ponderous document and displayed research in a very extended field,requiring diligence, familiarity with the various topics, as well as a purpose to be fair to thewriter. Regarding myself as morally obligated to act for the advantage of Mr. Bouton, Ishowed no favor beyond what I believed justice to demand. I regarded it a duty to be severe. In my report to him, I stated that the manuscript was the product of great research, and that sofar as related to current thinking, there was a revolution in it, but I added that I deemed it toolong for remunerative publishing.

Mr. Bouton, however, presently agreed to publish the work. I never learned the terms,but subsequent occurrences led me to presume that they were not carefully considered. Heprocured the copyright in his own name, which enabled him to control the price, and he refusedevery proposition afterward to transfer the ownership to the author, or to cheapen the cost. Heplaced the manuscript again in my hands, with instructions to shorten it as much as it wouldbear. This was a discretionary power that was far from agreeable. It can hardly be fair that aperson acting solely in behalf of the publisher should have such authority over the work of anauthor. Nevertheless, I undertook the task. While abridging the work, I endeavored in everyinstance to preserve the thought of the author in plain language, removing only such terms andmatter as might be regarded as superfluous, and not necessary to the main purpose. In thisway, enough was taken out to fill a volume of respectable dimensions. In doing all this, Iconsulted only what I supposed to be Mr. Bouton's advantage, and believed that he so regardedit, as I had only his instructions. But it proved to be only a "labor of love."

Colonel Olcott was very desirous that I should become acquainted with Madam Blavatsky. He appeared to hold her in high regard closely approaching to veneration, and to consider the

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opportunity to know her a rare favor for any one. I was hardly able to share his enthusiasm. Having a natural diffidence about making new acquaintances, and acting as a critic upon hermanuscript, I hesitated for a long time. Finally, however, these considerations were passedover and I accompanied him to their establishment in Forty-seventh Street.

It was a "flat," that unhomelike fashion of abode that now extends over populous cities,superseding the household and family relationship wherever it prevails. The building wherethey lived had been "transmogrified" for such purposes, and they occupied a suite ofapartments on an upper floor. The household in this case comprised several individuals, withseparate employments. They generally met at meal-time, together with such guests fromelsewhere as might happen to be making a visit.

The dining room was furnished in simple style with no affectation of anything unusual orextraordinary. Perhaps, I ought to add that later in the year following, this condition was quiteconsiderably modified. The autumn of 1879 was characterized, as I have never since observedit, by the richness of color in the foliage. Numerous parties visited the woods around to gatherthe tinted leaves for ornamental purposes. One of the inmates of the flat, a foreigner who was

in rapport with the Theosophical fraternity, had in this way procured a large quantity and setherself to use them to decorate the dining room. She made several emblematic figures, thedouble triangle being the principal one of these. Then she followed with an Oriental landscapeextending the length of the apartment. There were to be seen the figures of an elephant, amonkey and other creatures, and a man standing as if contemplating the scene. Thisdecoration remained through the winter till the household had broken up. I then brought itaway to Newark and set it up in a hall. Here it remained several years. It was there when Mr.G. R. S. Mead visited me. I sent it afterward to Miss Caroline Hancock at Sacramento, and shein turn presented it to the Theosophical Society at San Francisco. Doubtless it has long sincemet the fate of worn out furniture. But it had notoriety in its earlier days, from the admirationof visitors for its ingenuity and oddness of conception, and

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descriptions of it were published in several newspapers.The study in which Madam Blavatsky lived and worked was arranged after a quaint and

very primitive manner. It was a large front room, and being on the side next the street, waswell lighted. In the midst of this was her "den," a spot fenced off on three sides by temporarypartitions, writing desk and shelves for books. She had it as convenient as it was unique. Shehad but to reach out an arm to get a book, paper or other article that she might desire, that waswithin the enclosure. The place could not accord with a vivid sense of beauty, except after theancient Greek conception that beauty is fitness for its purpose, everything certainly beingconvenient and handy. In this place Madam Blavatsky reigned supreme, gave her orders,issued her judgments, conducted her correspondence, received her visitors and produced themanuscript of her book.

She did not resemble in manner or figure what I had been led to expect. She was tall, butnot strapping; her countenance bore the marks and exhibited the characteristics of one who hadseen much, thought much, traveled much, and experienced much. Her figure reminded me ofthe description which Hippokrates has given to the Scyths, the race from which she probablydescended. Her dress I do not feel competent to describe, and in fact never noticed so as to beable to remember. I am a man and seldom observant of a woman's attire. My attention is givento the individual, and unless the clothing should be strikingly different from the current style, Iwould be unable to speak of it intelligently or intelligibly. All that I have to say is that she wascompletely dressed. Her appearance was certainly impressive, but in no respect was shecoarse, awkward, or ill-bred. On the other hand she exhibited culture, familiarity with themanners of the most courtly society and genuine courtesy itself. She expressed her opinionswith boldness and decision, but not obtrusively. It was easy to perceive that she had not beenkept within the circumscribed limitations of a common female education; she knew a vastvariety of topics and could discourse freely upon them.

In several particulars, I presume that I never fairly or fully understood her. Perhaps thismay have extended further than I am willing to admit. I have heard tell of her profession of superhuman

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powers and of extraordinary occurrences that would be termed miraculous. I, too, believe, like

Hamlet, that there are more things in heaven and earth than our wise men of this age are willingto believe. But Madam Blavatsky never made any such claim to me. We always discoursed oftopics which were familiar to both, as individuals on a common plane. Colonel Olcott oftenspoke to me as one who enjoyed a grand opportunity, but she herself made no affectation ofsuperiority. Nor did I ever see or know of any such thing occurring with anyone else.

She professed, however, to have communicated with personages whom she called "theBrothers," and intimated that this, at times, was by the agency, or some means analogous towhat is termed "telepathy." It is not necessary to show or insist that this mode ofcommunication has been known and even carried on from antiquity. The Khabar is well knownin the Orient. I have supposed that an important condition for ability to hold such intercoursewas abstinence from artificial stimulation such as comes from the use of flesh as food,alcoholic drink and other narcotic substances. I do not attach any specific immorality to thesethings, but I have conjectured that such abstemiousness was essential in order to give themental powers full play, and to the noetic faculty free course without impediment orcontamination from lower influence. But Madam Blavatsky displayed no such asceticism. Hertable was well furnished, but without profusion, and after a manner not differing from that ofother housekeepers. Besides, she indulged freely in the smoking of cigarettes, which she madeas she had occasion. I never saw any evidence that these things disturbed, or in any wayinterfered with her mental acuteness or activity.

At my first visit, her reception was courteous and even friendly. She seemed to becomeacquainted at once. She spoke of the abridgements which I had made of her manuscript,extolling what I had done far beyond what it deserved. "What had been taken out was'flapdoodle,'" she declared. My judgment, certainly, had not been so severe as that. I had notlooked for defects, or found them, but only to ascertain how the manuscript might be "boileddown," without affecting the general purpose. In other cases, it has been my rule to

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scrutinize unprinted manuscript in quest of faults, but to look when it has been printed, to findout its meaning and merits. In this instance, however, I had aimed only to shorten withoutmarring the work. It should be stated, however, as a fact in the publication of this work, thatMadam Blavatsky continued to add matter, after Mr. Bouton began the undertaking, and I thinkthat much of the second volume was then written. I have no recollection of much of it exceptin proof sheets at a later period.

It was no easy matter to give the publication a fitting title. I do not remember that myservices were asked in this matter, and certainly they would not have been worth the asking. Itis a department in which I am particularly weak. Nor do I think the name unexceptionablewhich was adopted.

Mr. Bouton is entitled to that distinction. He was a skillful caterer in the book-sellingworld to which he belonged, but he had business ability rather than a sense of fitness. He oncepublished the treatise of R. Payne Knight on Ancient Art and added pictures relating solely toHindu mythology, entirely foreign to the subject. This work of Madam Blavatsky is largelybased upon the hypothesis of a prehistoric period of the Aryan people in India, and in such aperiod the veil or the unveiling of Isis can hardly be said to constitute any part. On thecontrary, it is a dramatic representation peculiar to the religion and wisdom of Egypt andperhaps is allied to the Syrian Hyksos enormities. Certainly the problems of Egyptian lore are

to be considered with other pens than those with which "Isis Unveiled" was written.After the work had been printed and placed on sale, there was discussion in regard to the

actual authorship. Many were unwilling to acknowledge that Madam Blavatsky could besufficiently well informed or intellectually capable of such a production. True that women likeFrances Burney had composed romances of high merit. Miss Farley had conductedsuccessfully the "Lowell Offering." Mary Somerville had written on Physical Science, andHarriet Martineau on Political Economy.

A clergyman in New York, a member of the Russian Greek Church, I have been told,affirmed that I was the actual author. That

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report, however, can hardly have gone far. It would be refuted after the manner that the lateHenry Ward Beecher put a stop to a similar one. He tells us that when Uncle Tom's Cabin waspublished there were many who insisted that he, and not Mrs. Stowe was the author. "Then,"says Mr. Beecher, "I wrote Norwood," which entirely disposed of the matter. So, too, nobodyfamiliar with my style of writing would ever impute to me the authorship of Isis Unveiled.

I would hesitate, likewise, to be considered in any noteworthy sense as an editor of thework. It is true that after Mr. Bouton had agreed to become the publisher, I was asked to readthe proofsheets and make sure that the Hebrew words and terms belonging to other languageswere correctly given by the printer, but I added nothing, and do not remember that I ventured tocontrol anything that was contributed to the work. Without her knowledge and approval, suchaction would have been reprehensible.

While she was engaged in the work, she had many books relating to the various topics,evidently for consultation. There were Jacolliot's work on India, Bunsen's Egypt, Ennemoser'sHistory of Magic and others. I had myself written papers upon a variety of subjects for thePhrenological Journal and other periodicals, and she had procured many of them. We oftendiscussed the topics, and their various characteristics, for she was a superior conversationalistand at home on every matter about which we discoursed. She spoke the English language withthe fluency of one perfectly familiar with it, and who thought in it. It was the same to me asthough talking with any man of my acquaintance. She was ready to take the idea as it wasexpressed, and uttered her own thoughts clearly, concisely and often forcibly. Some of thewords which she employed had characteristics which indicated their source. Any thing whichshe did not approve or hold in respect she promptly disposed of as "flapdoodle." I have neverheard or encountered the term else where. Not even the acts or projects of Colonel Olcottescaped such scathing, and in fact he not infrequently came under her scorching criticism. Hewrithed under it, but, except for making some brief expression at the time, he did not appear tocherish resentment.

In regard to the genuineness of her authorship, a story was

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once told me, which has been imagined by some to have a direct relation to the matter. Isuppose this to be the occasion of several letters addressed to me upon the subject. Myinformant was the late Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson of Boston. Mrs. Thompson was a woman ofwealth, abounding with benevolent purposes, but eager for novelties that were more or less

visionary, shifting from one pursuit to another, and accessible to flattery. For example, shegave the money which enabled a medical college to hold several lecture terms, and then let theenterprise die out; she paid for building a chapel for the sessions of the Summer School ofPhilosophy at Concord, and then tired of the enterprise; she aided Dr. Newbrough with moneyto print his new bible Oahspe, and employed the artist, Mr. Frank Carpenter, to paint thepicture of president Lincoln and his cabinet, which she presented to Congress. The wealthwhich her husband had bequeathed to her became a bait for all manner of parasites to seek her,and flattery artfully bestowed was often hike the magical words: "Open, sesame," sure to findthe way to her purse. But she quickly dropped one for another.

For a little time she was attracted to Madam Blavatsky. This was somewhat to bewondered at, for it is hard to conceive that Madam Blavatsky flattered anybody. She did nothesitate to tell Henry Ward Beecher when he was at the height of his popularity, that he was notan honest public teacher.

It might be questioned whether Mrs. Thompson herself was quite sincere. I remembermeeting her one day at dinner at the flat. A statement which I made was imputed by ColonelOlcott to the "Astral light."

Some days later, I saw Mrs. Thompson at her own premises, and she asked me myopinion in a manner that impressed me that she was hardly straightforward in her relations withthe Theosophical household.

A year or so afterward, they had left New York for India. Mrs. Thompson bad becomean inmate of the family of Dr. Newbrough on West 34th Street. He was endeavoring to pushthe "new Bible" into circulation. I called there one day by invitation, and learning that she hadrooms in the house, paid her my respects. In our conversation,

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Madam Blavatsky was mentioned, and Mrs. Thompson spoke of her in these terms:"If Madam Blavatsky should come in at that door I should kiss her affectionately. At the

same time I believe her to be a perfect humbug."She then related the following story: Baron de Palm, a German gentleman, who spent

some time in this country, had died in Roosevelt Hospital. He had devoted much attention toarcane subjects, and had written upon them. He was intimate with the party on 47th Street, andmade them recipients of his property, but with the assurance that his body should be cremated. There was a woman in the household who seems to have become unfriendly and ready to talkat random. She told Mrs. Thompson that after the death of the Baron she was with MadamBlavatsky while examining the contents of his trunks. One of these, the woman said, was fullof manuscripts. Madam Blavatsky looked at a few of the pages, and then hastily closed thetrunk, making an effort to divert attention in another direction.

Mrs. Thompson apparently believed that this manuscript was the material of the work IsisUnveiled. Certainly she endeavored to give me that impression. But I am not apt at takinghints, and do not like others to suppose that I imply what I do not explicitly say. The giving ofhints is hardly an honorable practice; it is an evasion, and often simply the affectation ofknowing something beyond which is directly communicated. I never made use of this story,and repeated it only to Dr. R. B. Westbrook, of Philadelphia, and to Colonel Olcott when I nextmet him in New York.

Several individuals have written letters, as though I knew something that would discredit

the sincerity of Madam Blavatsky and the genuineness of the originality of Isis Unveiled. Myreply was that she had always dealt justly with me, and I had no disposition to speak unkindlyof her. I mean always to avoid being sycophantic or credulous, but I will not recompense fairtreatment by evil or unfriendly speaking.

It will readily be perceived that there was really no evidence sufficient to warrant theimputing of the authorship of Isis Unveiled to

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Baron de Palm. I do not know whether, being of foreign birth, he could write fluently in theEnglish language. It is not known that the manuscript in the trunk was written for publication,or was in any proper book form. Indeed, I have never been informed whether he contemplatedsuch a work, or even that he had sufficient capacity. All this would require to be taken forgranted, before it would be permissible to presume any imposture in the authorship.

The manuscript which I handled I am very sure was in the handwriting of MadamBlavatsky herself. Anybody who was familiar with her, would, upon reading the first volumeof Isis Unveiled, not have any difficulty in recognizing her as the author. Nor was themanuscript, voluminous as it was, sufficiently extensive to include a large trunk full of writtenpaper. Besides, a full third, or even more, of what was published, was written by MadamBlavatsky after Mr. Bouton had set about putting the work in type. She was by no meansexpert in preparing her material. She patched and changed, making a very large bill for"alterations." Indeed, she never actually finished the work, the publisher declared to me, till hetold her that she must stop.

It had been desired of me that I should read the proofsheets. It was not my province todictate or even suggest what should be included in the work, and I do not remember takingexception but once. She had described certain medical treatment, with apparent approval, inwhich mercury was a factor. To this drug I entertain a lifelong antipathy. I have seenindividuals "railroaded" out of life by its use as medicine, and others crippled hopelessly. Myprotestations may have induced her to qualify her eulogy.

She always treated me with courtesy. When her work was most urgent, or she had beenwearied with visitors, she commanded the woman at the door to turn off all callers. Thatprohibition was repeatedly spoken to me, but as she heard my voice, she would call out toadmit me. This occurred when the call was not a matter of business. She was ready inconversation, and was at home on any topic, however abstruse. Few persons in any walk of lifeare as well supplied with material for discourse. Even Colonel Olcott, who was by no meansinferior or commonplace, was not her equal except in his

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own profession.Believing that the main body of the work would not be sufficiently attractive to

purchasers, I urged her to include in it accounts of the marvelous things which she hadobserved in India. But this she invariably declined to do, saying that it was not permitted by"the Brothers." That was a tribunal that I could not question; my wisdom in the matter wasthat of the market-place. But she was always ready to hear what I had to say, whether inrelation to her work, or to philosophic questions, or to subjects of everyday life. When the

printer had placed everything in type, I was employed to prepare the index. Others must judgewhether this was done with fidelity. As the author paid for this, and the publisher refrainedfrom advancing a cent for all that I had done in the matter, though careful to make sure of allthe proceeds from the sales, it is but just to render the acknowledgment where it is due.

The work was finally completed, and Isis Unveiled was duly issued. The householdbegan at once to make arrangements for leaving New York. Madam Blavatsky visited theBureau of Naturalization and there became a citizen of the United States. This astonished me,partly because I knew her to be contemplating to leave the country permanently, and partlybecause she had freely criticized our ways of doing and our politics. She explained that theAmerican nation had the best government. There were probably matters of law involved that Idid not know about. Colonel Olcott was a skillful lawyer, and had been employed by theadministration at Washington to ferret out alleged violations of law, he knew what would benecessary abroad for a safeguard. As the party after their arrival in India became objects ofsuspicion as possible spies of the Russian Government, it is not unlikely that the precautionwas wise.

Madam Blavatsky wrote to me several times after their arrival at Bombay. She told of many matters of interest to a student in comparative religions, such as I am, and her letters were entertaining as well as instructive. But as time passed, new duties took the placeof old recollections. Such events occurred as the break with Dayananda, the leader of the AryaSamaj, an alliance unnatural for Americans of Protestant antecedents, who do not like

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any one to exercise dominion over their religious beliefs. The Theosophist, however, cameregularly to me and was preserved from its first number. This enabled me to keep track of theparty, and their doings - till the closing of their present earthly career.

(The Word, vol. 7, pp. 77-87)

------------------------ 566.

THE NEW ORDER OF AGES

All human progress is in circles, and never directly in straight lines. Such is the course ofevents, the order of the seasons, the career of the stars in the sky. After all advancing there isan apparent going backward all growth has its periods of retardation, all ascent its descendingslikewise. We find this abundantly confirmed by example in the brief space of human activityof which we have been able to obtain historic records. Where it has been imagined otherwise,we can find it only apparently so. Where there is evolution and manifestation, there has alwaysbeen a prolific seed to set the development in motion. The fragrant Nymphaea, the creamypond-lily, or the sacred lotus, may have sordid mud for its birthplace and maintenance, but itbegan with a rudimentary plant. The like is always engendered from its like.

We may be content, therefore, to contemplate ourselves as having a human ancestry all

the way to remote ages. We are perfectly safe in relegating the simian races to their own, withthe assurance of the Creed - "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, worldwithout end." The origin of human beings may be counted as from the source to which theirnobler aspirations tend. The oak and the pine grow toward the sky, because the effort isinstinctive in the seed. We have good reason to presume as much in regard to ourselves. Inregard, however, to conjectures about dates and periods we do not care to speculate. The pointin the past is yet to be found at which a memorial of human beginnings may be set. Indeed, itis a matter entirely beyond our power of thinking. We do well to rest content with deducingwhat we may from the facts at our hand, and from the intuitions with which we are endowed.

There is innate in us all a desire and aptitude to learn what is

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beyond the scope of our present knowing. Our animal wants come first, and are peremptory,but the gratifying of them does not set us free from unrest. We are conscious that we aresomething else than brute animals, and it is manifest in the passion to know, and possess. Theinfant child will cry for the moon, explore the flame of the candle with his fingers, and pull thedoll to pieces in order to find out the mystery of its construction. He even becomes curiousabout existence. I have heard a child that had attained to vocal speech discourse extensivelyand as from actual memory, of his residence and employments in the years before he was born. When, likewise, the phenomenon of dying is beheld, children become inquisitive about it, eagerto know what has actually occurred, whether it is all or there is still living and being in somemode and form not plain to them. They are not willing to admit that the person is no more.

In this eager passion for more perfect knowing, and in these curious conjectures, aremanifested the instinct of that life which is beyond time, and scintillations of the grander truth. The mind seems to exhibit the reflection of some concept, some memory of the Aforetime, andto have caught with it as by refraction from the other direction, an impression of the lifecontinuing. From views like these the poet Wordsworth was prompted to write his memorableverse: "Heaven hangs about us in our infancy."

There has been in every people having as such a worship and literature, the memory orconception of a primitive period of felicity. "The races of men were wont to live as gods," saysHesiod. "Their life was devoid of care, labor and trouble; no wretched old age hung imminentover them, but with hands and feet always vigorous as in youth they enjoyed themselveswithout any illness, and when at last they died it was as though they had been overcome bysleep. They are now benignant demons hovering about the earth, and guardian spirits overhuman beings."

In the Aryan records of India are similar traditions of the Hiranya or Golden Age ofrighteousness, in which was no labor or sorrow, no priests or sacrifices, and but one God andone Veda. The Yasna, or Book of Worship of the Parsis, also describes the happy reign ofYima, in which there was neither cold nor heat, neither decay

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nor wasting disease, nor malice inspired by the devas;* father and son walked forth each likethe other in the freshness of fifteen years. "Men enjoyed the greatest bliss in the Garden whichYima made."

Akin to this legend is that of the Garden or Park of Eden depicted in the Book of theGenesis in Hebrew story, copied apparently from that of the Grove or Park of the Gods inBabylonia. We may perceive a striking resemblance in the outcome. The serpent came; Yimabeginning to desire the wrong, the celestial light withdrew. Long ages of evil followed, ages ofsilver and copper and iron, full of trial and calamity. Yet the Divine One has by no meanswholly abandoned the children of the Earth. Here and there along the succession of ages, the"kingly majesty," or radiance unites itself with heroic men and gifted sages, till the circuit shallbe completed. "That which hath been is that which shall be," and not absolutely new. TheGolden Age, the Treta Yug, that preceded all, comes again as the cycle returns upon itself. "Now comes again the Virgin Astraea, the Divine Justice," sings the poet Vergil; "the reign ofSaturn returns, and there is now sent down a new-born child from on high." The "kinglysplendor," the light of the ages, now attaches itself to the new prophet Sosianto, the greatest ofthe sages and to all who are with him, in order to accomplish the restoration of all things. "Theworld will now continue in a state of righteousness; the powers of evil will disappear and allits seed pass away." (Zamyad Yasht)

A very similar culmination is set forth by early Christian teachers. It is related thatthe Apostle Paul was brought before the court of the Areopagos at Athens, by several Stoic andEpikurean philosophers, to explain certain of his doctrines which they accounted

-------------* Deva, which in Sanskrit signifies a divine being, here means a devil. The ancient

schism between the two great Aryan peoples is indicated in these conflicting definitions ofcharacteristic words. Thus Yima, who is described in the Avesta as the ruler set by Ahurmazdaover living men in the Garden of Bliss, is changed in India into Yama, the first man andsovereign in the region of the dead. There are many other of these counterparts.---------------- 569.

strange and alien, He protested that he was simply describing a Divinity whom they wereworshiping without due intelligence of his character. He is the Creator and Disposer of allthings, the apostle declared; and does not dwell in temples or depend upon offerings from hisworshipers. Nor, is he far from any one of us, for in him we live and move and are, as severalof the poets have affirmed: "We likewise are children of God." The former want ofintelligence, however, is not regarded, but now a superior way of life and truth* is announcedto all mankind everywhere: inasmuch as he has set a day or period in which the habitable earthwill be ruled with justice and the Right hold sway thereafter.

This expectation has been a significant feature in subsequent history. It was not confinedto any single religion. Not only was it general in the Eastern world, but it was also current inthe new Continent of the West. The natives of Mexico greeted the coming of Cortes as thepromised return of the "Fair God," Quetzalcohuatl, which would be followed by theestablishment of a new reign of peace. The Mayas of Yucatan exhibited a similar confidence. These illusions were speedily dispelled when the Spaniards began to manifest their insatiablerapacity and merciless cruelty, but the belief is still cherished in many parts of that country thatMotzuma himself, who was in some unknown way, adopted in place of the other, as theprimitive hero of the people, is now living in a celestial abode, and will yet come and restorethe Golden Era. The Peruvians had also a tradition that Viracocha will come from the region of

the Dawn and set up his kingdom. Other cities and tribes have similar beliefs.Christianity began with a like conception of a happier era for mankind. The epistles of

the Apostle Paul mention it as an event near at hand, and even in the Evangelic writings aremany sentences

-------------* Greek, :,J"<@,4<, metanoein. This term is translated "to repent," in the authorized

version of the New Testament, but I have taken the liberty to render it as a noun, by the phrasehere given, considering it as meaning etymologically, to go forward to a higher moral altitude,or plane of thought.---------------- 570.

affirming the same thing. The prediction is recorded in them that "this gospel of the reign ofheaven shall be proclaimed in the whole world for a testimony to all the various nations, andthen the end will come." The Apostle supplements this by the emphatic statement that it hadbeen proclaimed in all the created world beneath the sky, and thus gives his sanction to thegeneral expectation. The unknown author of the Apocalypse seems to have been somewhat lesscatholic than Paul and covertly denounces him. He sets forth the concept of a new Jerusalem,which he describes as the holy city, complete in every respect, with the names of the tribes ofIsrael inscribed on its foundations and of twelve apostles on its gates, descending out of the skyfrom God, and illuminating the Gentile nations with its light.

The beatific vision failed of being realized but the expectation remained all through theMiddle Ages as an important element of Christian doctrine. At the beginning of the TenthCentury this appeared in conspicuous form. This was a period of calamity almost unparalleled,war unceasing, years of famine, frequent earthquakes, and pestilence rapidly supervening uponpestilence, as though the human race was doomed.

The belief was general throughout Europe that the present order of the world was aboutto be dissolved. The augurs of ancient Etruria had predicted that the time of national existencefor their country would be a thousand years and it had been verified. The duration ofChristendom it was supposed would be for a like period. The coming judgment was at once thehope and the terror of that time. Under this conviction the Crusades and wars of exterminationagainst heretics and unconverted peoples, were undertaken in rapid succession. The Pontiff atRome claimed divine authority over the nations. The Emperor of Germany followed byassuming to be Prince of the Holy Empire to whom all kings and rulers owed allegiance, andthe attempt was made by force of arms to plant peace perpetually in the world. FrederickBarbarossa perished in a crusade, but his faithful people continued for hundreds of years firmin their belief that he was only sleeping in the tomb, and would yet awake to realize the hope ofthe nations.

In these days of repression and violence it did not seem

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possible to divest men's minds of the persuasion that the expected reign of justice would be adominion of external state and magnificence, and to show them instead that it was to be abrotherhood of charity, in which the pure thought, pure word and pure deed are prominent.

Yet several writers in the New Testament appear to have declared this very distinctly. Paul affirms that the reign of God consists in justice, peace and joyfulness in a holy spirit. It isalso recorded that Jesus himself described it as not of this world to be supported by war andviolence, or to make its advent with external manifestation, "Lo, the reign of heaven is withinyou" - such is the explicit statement. But men looked for the star, not in the sky over theirheads, but rather in the pools that were beneath.

Some juster conception, however, was possessed by clear-seeing Mystics who flourishedduring the Middle Ages. There were gifted men, devoted to the profounder knowledge, whosought to escape persecution by the use of a secret speech with a covert meaning intelligibleonly to one another. Perhaps they were a fraternity like other sodalities. Some thought themilluminated from above; others, that they were dabbling in forbidden arts. What was not easilyunderstood was accounted as magic. When the Renaissance came, the dense cloud began todissipate, and men began to apprehend more clearly. The early Reformers had some distincterperception, but the obscurity was still too dense for open vision.

And thus the centuries passed.It is said to be darkest just before daylight. This figure is employed to indicate the

woeful period that often precedes a happier one. The Sixteenth Century was characterized bycrime and calamity. From that time has been a steady bettering. It was as the slow coming ofmorning. There were no changes to be considered marvelous, no miracles except as everyevent about us, if we might but see more deeply, is a miracle. There was, however, a gradualunfolding of higher principles of action, and a broadening dissemination of knowledge. Forthose whose eyes were open there was much to be descried; and those who had ears to hearcaught the

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sounds of the harbingers of the new day. Emanuel Swedenborg, the Swedish Illuminate,looking into heaven like the Martyr Stephen, beheld it opening to reveal the winding up of theformer order of things, and the evolution of the new. We may interpret him as we are best able,but the intrinsic verity of his revelation may not he denied.

The world of thought is enlarging itself as never before during the historic period. Thereis no Holy Office or Star Chamber with its tortures to repress and punish dissenting beliefs. There is greater freedom in regard to religious faith, and a wholesome increasing independenceof formal creeds and dominating teachers. Yet while perhaps drifting more widely apart inspeculative opinion, there is evidently an approximating to a closer unity of sentiment and ahigher standard of duty.

We are nearing the end of the period when conquest, slaughter and rapine are honored asglorious war. There is a public opinion maturing among the "plain people" that allcontroversies can be determined justly without such recourse. In this the self-interest of theselfish and the conscience of the conscientious concur as one. The reign of God is the reign ofjustice, and the reign of justice is the reign of peace.

Nevertheless, we may not expect any speedy developing of Eutopia, or an idealcommonwealth of nations. There is an infinitude of preparation necessary, not merely inteaching, but in doing. The mills of the gods grind slowly, and there are hundreds of millionsthat people the earth that are not in condition to realize a very hopeful development. Theyrequire other discipline than that described by the Zulu chief: "First a missionary, then a

consul, and then an army." The century that is about to open has in store for us, we trust, betterthings than have marked the long array of ages in the historic past.

It is not enough that scientific learning is widely extended, and mechanic arts developedto greater perfection. Civilization, properly understood, means something more vital andessential. It embraces life as a whole, a knowing how to live. In it the strong uphold the weak,the greatest serve the humblest, the wisest are those who dispense the most benefits. It impliesa moral development, aiming to realize a perfect society.

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The century now about to close, despite its shortcomings, made a long advance in thatdirection. In many respects it has also retrograded toward the former estate, both in ethics andlegislation; but the Twentieth Century taking up its work will doubtless set out anew towardthe ideal civilization.

(Universal Brotherhood, June, 1898)

---------------------- 574.

THE CHILDREN OF CAIN

A Generous but eccentric Scotch clergyman, when naming the subjects of prayer for oneSunday morning, added: "And now, let us pray for the De'il; naebody prays for the puir De'il."

The character whom we are about to consider is in like predicament, hopelessly alienedfrom every one's sympathy. Cain, the reputed first-born son* of Adam, lies under the reproachof thousands of years as having introduced murder and rapine into the world, and led the wayin the general perverting of mankind. So deeply rooted is this notion that many would regardthe attempt to remove the imputation as almost a sacrilege. Even to venture to lighten theburden of obloquy which rests upon his name would be accounted by them as preposterous. Nevertheless this would be feeble as an excuse for neglect to take a rational, impartial andintelligent view of the matter. There is, for candid and reasonable persons, a wider field tooccupy than the narrow domain of thinking which is hedged about on every side by prejudice,or servile fear. There may be good reason for some other judgment.

In fact it is hardly possible to regard the account of Cain as a simple historic narrativesetting forth events literally as they occurred. This would raise questions for which there is noadequate satisfactory explanation. The Supreme Being himself is described as havingcharacteristics not consistent with our more enlightened apprehension. He shows onlydispleasure, and neither charity nor mercy. We are forcibly reminded of the bitter sarcasmwhich Byron has put in the mouth of Faliero in response to the pleading of his wife:

------------* The Assyrian term here signifies the first-born.

------------

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"Angiolina. - Heaven bids us forgive our enemies."Doge. - Doth Heaven forgive her own? Is Satan savedFrom wrath eternal?"

Nevertheless, we are by no means disposed to consider the story as merely an archaiclegend, or some fugitive piece of folk-lore, deserving of no further attention. These fables andmythic narratives have a deeper meaning than the mere child or unlettered person mayapprehend. We will, therefore, examine the matter and endeavor to learn whether it does notcontain profounder knowledge. We have a precedent for so doing in the writings of theApostle Paul. He cites the account of the two sons of Abraham and their respective mothers,and declares it an allegory. He also affirms that the exodus, adventures, and experiences of theIsraelites in the Arabian Desert were types or figures, and written for admonition. It iscertainly as rational and reasonable to interpret the story of the sons of Adam according to thesame principles. It is evidently a kind of parable, which symbolizes in a concrete form someimportant period in history.

The mode of telling the story is one that seems to have been common in ancient times. We may, therefore, consider it as a kind of parable setting forth in an enigmatic form aparticular period in development. Thus it may represent a condition, such as is described in theAvesta, when the region indicated in the account was occupied by two classes of inhabitants,the one pastoral and the other consisting of cultivators of the soil. There would inevitably becollisions between them, and eventually, as has always been the result, the agriculturistovercomes and destroys the shepherd. When this has been accomplished, the way is opened forthe introduction of the arts of civilized life. This is signified by the record that Cain built acity.

With this explanation, there is no occasion for idle and curious questions, as in regard tothe wife of Cain or where the inhabitants of the new city were obtained. The legend is whollyisolated from such problems. It relates to peoples and social conditions rather than toindividuals. The concept actually involved is nothing less than that of transition from nomadic and isolated life to civic and neighborly

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relations. Civilization signifies the condition of living in society, and hence implies providentforesight, mutual dependence, refinement of manners and mental culture. Accordingly we readof the posterity of Cain, that one was the father or eponymic patron of herdsmen, and anotherof those who handle the harp and the organ, while another is described as "the instructor ofevery artificer in brass and iron."

Thus in the account of Cain and his children, it is very plain that we have an archaictradition of a developing civilization. It presents analogies to the legend of Prometheus. Thefamous Titan, we are told, being impelled by pity and affection, gave fire and enlightenment tomankind, teaching to build houses, to employ the labor of cattle, to mine and smelt the metallicores, to make use of writing, to master the sciences, to treat diseases, and to exercise eachuseful art. Like Cain, he likewise fell under the anger of Divinity. Zeus, who had then butrecently come to supreme power in the universe, regarded these acts as nothing less than

defiance of his authority. He caused the offender to be expelled from the inhabited earth todistant Skythic land, there to be pinioned to a rock for ages, suffering incredible torments, andsubject to universal hatred and scorn. May we not guess that the story of Cain and hispunishment have been derived from parallel sources?

The Kenites

We find repeated mentions elsewhere in the Hebrew writings of a tribe or people whosename and characteristics are strikingly suggestive of affiliation to the personages of the book ofGenesis. The Kenites, or Cainites, as the term correctly would read, are represented aspossessing many characteristics, like Jabal and Jubal, of the progeny of Cain; dwelling in tents,and being endowed with superior learning and skill. Moses, the Hebrew lawgiver is recordedas marrying the daughter of Reuel or Jethro, a Kenite priest, and living with him forty yearsprior to the exodus from Egypt. It is further declared that Jethro visited the Israelitishencampment in the Sinaitic peninsula, and celebrated sacrificial rites with him and with theElders

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of Israel. This indicates that there were initiations and occult observances of a kindred natureon that occasion. It is only stated, however, that Jethro gave counsel and that Moses "did allthat he said." But it is very evident that in this connection, and indeed in other parts of theBible, there is much to be "read between the lines."

The intimate association between the Kenites and Israelites appears to have continued forseveral centuries. A son of Jethro is mentioned as being the guide of the tribes whilejourneying in the desert, and as residing for a season with his clan at Jericho. They afterwardremoved into the Southern district of the territory of Judah. They appear to have had a greatinfluence upon the Mosaic institutions. The Rechabites, or Scribes, who constituted a learnedclass, belonged to them, and from their adoption of tent-life and abstinence from wine, theNazarites would seem to be in some way related to that people.

A memorandum in the first book of Chronicles seems to afford some light upon thesematters. The writer enumerates the various clans and families of Kirjath-Jearim, Bethlehem,and "Scribes which dwelt at Jabez," and includes them in the summary: "These are the Kenitesthat came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab." *

We will here remark by way of digression that during the earlier centuries of the presentera the genesis and character of Cain were themes of much curious speculation. A party in theChristian world, now generally designated the Gnostics, held the Jewish Oracles in ------------

* This term "Rechab" is probably a title rather than the name of a person. It is translated"chariot," and evidently denotes the merchaba or vehicle of wisdom. It is applied by Elisha toElijah, and by King Joash to Elisha: "the rechab of Israel and its guide or pharisi. In thisconnection it may be not amiss to notice also the term pharisi. It would seem no strainedassumption that the Pharisees derived from it their appellation as guides or interpreters of thelaw. They were students of occult rabbinical learning. The pun in the denunciation of Jesus

may be readily perceived: "Ye blind guides, who strain out the gnat but swallow the camel." --------------- 578.

low esteem, placing higher value on philosophic learning and Oriental wisdom. One group, the"Cainites," boldly declared that Cain was a personage superior to other men, and that he wasilluminated by the superior knowledge. They found some pretext for their belief in thedeclaration of Eve that he was "a man from the Lord," while Seth, who is represented assuperseding him, was begotten after the image and likeness of Adam only, and significantlybore the name of the Satan or Typhon of Egypt.

It is certain, as has been already shown, that the compilers of the Hebrew SacredWritings conceded to Cain and his descendants all the profounder culture and proficiency in thearts. Why they so generally represent the younger persons in a family as being superior inmoral and physical excellence, and supplanting the elder, may have been for the sake ofassigning honorable rank to their own people, one of the latest that had appeared among thenations. They were compelled, however, to acknowledge, however reluctantly, that theirIdumaean adversaries excelled in wisdom, and that the Promethean gifts which had enabled the world to attain its eminence of culture and enlightenment were derived from thesources which they decried.

The Kayanian Kings

It is very probable, however, that the legend of Cain came from a different source, andthat it should, in many of its particulars, have a somewhat different interpretation. Doctor Oortdeclares it quite conceivable that it is from a Persian origin. We may, in such case, seek ourclews in the farther East, for an elucidation of the problem which shall be plausible andreasonable. The Persian records and traditions inform us that prior to the Achaemeniandynasty, the Medes and Persians were governed by monarchs of a race which they denominateKayan,* or Sacred. It was during the period of their rule that the great Schism took placebetween the Eranians and their Aryan congeners.

By reference to the Avesta and other accounts it appears that

--- 579.

the Aryans of the "prehistoric period" were pastoral and nomadic like the present inhabitants ofTurkestan. After a time, a part of their number, the Eranians, becoming cultivators of the soiland dwellers in villages, formed separate communities. All evolutions in human society areprimarily religious in character. A new religious system was accordingly developed in Eran. Itappears to have attained a matured form in the reign of Vistaspa, one of the most illustriousmonarchs of the Kayanian dynasty. Zoroaster, the first who bore the designation, flourished atthis period, and with the approval of the king, succeeded in molding the new Mazdean religioninto a concrete body of forms and dogmas, with a well-defined form of initiation.

After a prolonged period of contention, the "Deva-worshiping" Aryans had made theirway to the Punjab, and the dominion of the Eranians had become extended over Persia and intoMedia and beyond. The first chapters of the Hebrew Scriptures appear to relate to events of

this time and it appears plausible and probable that such was the fact. The story of the Gardenof Eden is almost undeniably a contribution from Eastern literature; and the killing of Abelseems to represent the overthrow of the worship and worshippers of Bel by the Eranians. Thename of Cain would then be derived from the Kayan dynasty that had given shape to thePersian nationality. It is not necessary in propounding this hypothesis, to make the otherdetails harmonize literally with historic events. We must note, however, in this connection,that such names as Silent, Nimrod and Cush, which are found in the book of Genesis, havetheir counterparts in this region, - in Khusistan the country of the Kossaians, the Nimri tribes ofMount Zagros, and Shamas the sun-god. These verbal resemblances can not well beconsidered as accidental.

------------* The probability here intimated is greatly assured by this similarity of names. It is a

common practice which has been carried to an extreme, to add letters to Oriental words whentransferring them to a European language. In the case now before us, the term KIN has beenvocalized in the Bible as Cain; and KAYAN is the same word in which this practice has beencarried a little further.--------------- 580.

It is by no means wonderful or unusual, that history and personal reputation are oftenmarred by vilifying writers. Books of history and even of drama are often written with partisanends and calumny. Neither Macbeth nor Richard III. deserved the imputations that have beencast upon them. With every event there is a shade which enables misrepresentation to seem thetrue picture.

The Bahman-Yasht is a book of the later Parsism, and contains a compendium of thetrials and conflicts of the "true religion" from the time of Zoroaster to the end. It delineates thesufferings endured from the Mussulmans, who sought to exterminate the Mazdean faith bymassacre, and finally drove thousands from their country.

The writer of this Apocalypse, following in the wake of other prophets, foretellsdeliverance at the last. A prince of the Kayan race will arise, he declares, who having attainedthe age of thirty years, the age of man's maturity, will take up arms against the oppressor of thepeople of Ahurmazda. All India and China, he affirms, will rally to his standard as did theEranians when Gava raised the banner of the blacksmith's apron against the ferocious serpent-king Zahak. Then the Mazda-yasnian religion - "the pure thought, pure word and pure deed" -will be triumphant, and a reign of blessedness will be established.

Whichever theory we may accept, this legend of Cain affords us an interesting concept ofhuman evolution. Harsh as the necessity appears, the process of development has always beencharacterized by conflict, which was often analogous to the slaying of a brother. We have thepicture before us of Conservatism like the easy-going shepherd with his flocks, idle but readyto slaughter its lambs for sacrifice, and casting aspersions upon the laborious worker who offersthe fruits of his own industry, and pollutes no altar-hearth with blood. There is no need,however, for fear that the ulterior result will be other than right. The Divine is divine in so faras it is just.

(Universal Brotherhood, March, 1898)

-------------------------- 581.

THE TWO GALILEOS

Galileo Galilei had won the title of the "Archimedes of his Time." Having establishedthe first principles of Dynamic Science, he won the bitter enmity of the Aristoteleans of theSixteenth Century. He even lost the favor of the Medici rulers at Florence for condemning amachine that one of the family had invented. He became distinguished at Padua by inventingthe proportional compasses still in use in drawing, and constructing the first thermometer. Hislectures in the Chair of Mathematics at the university, for eighteen years, drew large audiences,and it was necessary to have a hall capable of holding 2,000 persons set apart for them.

The theory of the Solar System, having the sun for its center, had been taught in thecrypts of Egyptian temples and in the School at Krotona in Italy. It was afterward denouncedby a stoic philosopher at Athens, who insisted that a Pythagorean teacher who had promulgatedit ought to be arrested and punished, like Sokrates, for impiety. For centuries the knowledgewas held in abeyance till the monk Kopernik ventured to put it forth anew. Then it met withdenunciation. Luther himself spoke of it with derision. It was, however, again taken up byKepler, whose sacred fury had inspired him to "think God's thoughts after him." Brunofollowed, and expiated his boldness at the stake at Rome in the year 1600.

Galileo also adopted the theory, but for fear of being ridiculed, kept silence except in hisletters. But a Dutch optician, Lipper Shey, invented the telescope, and Galileo, takingadvantage of this new opportunity, constructed instruments for himself with excellentmagnifying power. With these he explored the sky, solving conjectures which had beenentertained, unfolding the secrets of the galaxy, and showing conclusively that the sun was thegreat star of the solar cosmos, having the earth for one of its dependencies. He

--- 582.

was called to account in February, 1616, and officially admonished, by the authority of Paul V,not henceforward to hold, touch or defend the doctrine.

A new Pope treated him with personal favor, but would not remove the prohibition. In1632 his book appeared, the Dialogo dei duo Maximi Sistemi del Mondo. It was placed on theProhibited Index, and Galileo cited by the Inquisition to appear at Rome to answer for hisoffending. On the 22nd of June, 1633, under the menace of torture, he delivered a recantationof the doctrine. The judgment of the Holy Office was pronounced in these words:

"Invoking the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ and that of His most glorious motherMary ever Virgin, by this our definite sentence, we say, pronounce, judge and declare that you,the said Galileo, on account of the things proved against you by documentary evidence, andwhich have been confessed by you as aforesaid, have rendered yourself to this Holy Officevehemently suspected of Heresy - that is, of having believed and held a doctrine which is falseand contrary to the sacred and divine Scriptures: to wit, that the sun is the center of the world,and that it does not move from East to West, and that the earth moves and is not the center ofthe universe."

Galileo was in his seventieth year, the age of Sokrates when he drank the hemlock toappease the rage of Athenian orthodoxy. Whether he had been put on the rack or otherwisemaltreated, we are not definitely informed. But Rome had not got through with the practice ofburning men alive, and many men would deny much in order to escape such a doom. So didGalileo. He was sentenced to imprisonment at the pleasure of the Holy Office, and to recite theseven penitential songs once a week for three years. Some months later he was permitted to gohome to Florence, on condition of spending his life in retirement.

He was born on the day that Michael Angelo died, and he died the year that Isaac Newtonwas born. The decree of the Inquisition might silence him, but it was unavailing to arrest themotion of the earth or depose the sun from its place in the sky.

Three centuries have passed since Galileo first uttered his belief. Another witness hasarisen, and again the attempt has been

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put forth to silence him. The day of the stake and the torture-chamber has passed, and only theanathema is left, as bootless in its force as the effort of Mrs. Partington with her broom to driveback the ocean. St. George Mivart, the English scientist and scholar, has ventured upon theliberty of speech and interpretation, which has been denied for so many centuries. Some yearsago he published an article in The Nineteenth Century, entitled "Happiness in Hell," in whichhe set forth that there was nothing in the Catholic faith to prevent one from believing that Hellis not a place of torment, but rather a place of "natural beatitude," in which souls are merelyseparated forever from the final "beatific vision" of the Godhead. The Curia lost no time inplacing the article and several others upon the Index. Dr. Mivart submitted like a sincereCatholic, but requested a specific condemnation which should indicate the utterances that weredisapproved. To this no reply was given. He accordingly withdrew his submission, and in twoarticles, one in the Fortnightly Review of January, 1900, and another in the Nineteenth Centuryfor the same month, affirms his sentiments anew. "I still regard," he declares, "therepresentations as to Hell which have been commonly promulgated in sermons and meditationsas so horrible and revolting that a Deity capable of instituting such a place of torture would be abad God, and therefore, in the words of the late Dr. W. G. Ward, a God 'we should be under theindefensible obligation of disobeying, defying and abhorring.'"

He follows up the subject by criticizing the antagonistic attitude of the Roman Church tothe revelations of natural science. He considers this aversion to scientific truth to be a greatperil, and affirms that enormous changes have already taken place in religious belief amongCatholics. He enumerates among these changes the assertion in its most literal meaning that"out of the church there is no salvation." Now, he adds, it is admitted by the most rigid Romantheologians, that men who do not accept any form of Christianity, if only they are theists andlead good lives, may have an assured hope for the future, similar to that of a virtuous Christianbeliever.

In regard to the lawfulness of taking interest for money, twenty-eight Councils andeleven Popes have condemned the practice, but

--- 584.

their decisions have been explained away so completely that no Pope, priest or ecclesiastical

body now hesitates to accept the best interest for any capital that may be at their disposal.He also affirms that the Bible contains a multitude of statements which are scientifically

false. He knows "devout Catholics of both sexes, well-known and highly esteemed, weeklycommunicants and leading lives devoted to charity and religion, who believe Joseph to havebeen the real and natural father of Jesus." They do not think it necessary to alter a word of thecreeds or the devotions now in use, but merely to alter the sense of the words.

Little time was lost in calling the bold writer to account. One might imagine that hisassailants were watching for an opportunity, they sprang upon him so suddenly. EveryRomanist periodical had an article upbraiding him. The Tablet, the mouthpiece of the CardinalArchbishop Vaughan, declared that sameness of principle in the Catholic faith is essentially inmeaning and not merely in wording. It also taunts Dr. Mivart with saying nothing original, butcarefully refrains from any attempt to dispute his statement in regard to the Scriptures or thebeliefs of Catholics. Being itself an oracle, it seems to regard any attempt at such refutationunnecessary. Indeed, it has been usual with the Roman clergy not to interrogate individualswith regard to their beliefs, so long as they do not speak out loud. To believe as the churchbelieves is satisfactory, even when there is no intelligent conception in the matter.

The Guardian, an organ of the Church of England, admits the truth of Dr. Mivart'sstatement. It declares that "there is no doubt much truth in his statement of the modifications ofbelief which have become current among Roman Catholics as to the fate of those outside theirchurch, and among educated Christians generally as to the nature and scope of the inspirationof the Scriptures."

The Cardinal, as was foreshadowed, hastened to impose his requirements upon therecusant professor. He demanded of Dr. Mivart that he should sign a formula or profession offaith which affirmed without qualification the various dogmas of Roman orthodoxy, and tocondemn and revoke his utterances in the two articles recently published and in other of hiswritings contrary to the

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teaching of the church according to the determination of the Apostolic See: In all such matterssubmitting himself to the judgment of the said See, receiving all that it receives andcondemning all that it condemns.

Dr. Mivart shows in his reply that he is not terrified. He had professed the creed of PiusIX, he explains, but he had no recollection of ever having made or having been asked to makethe profession required in respect to the books of the Old and New Testament with all theirparts. "In my judgment," says he, "an acceptance and profession of the above-cited portion ofthe document sent me would be equivalent to an assertion that there are no errors or altogetherfalse statements, or fabulous narratives, in the Old and New Testaments, and that I should notbe free to hold and teach, without blame, that the world was not created in any six periods oftime; that the story of the Serpent and the Tree is altogether false; that the history of theTower of Babel is mere fiction, devoid of any particle of truth; that the story of Noah's Ark isalso quite erroneous, or again that of the Plagues of Egypt; that neither Joshua nor Hezekiahinterfered with the regularity of solar time; that Jonah did not live within any kind of marineanimal; that Lot's wife never turned into a pillar of salt; and that Balaam's ass never spoke. Ionly put these forward as a few examples of statements which it seems to me any one whoholds that 'the books of the Old and the New Testaments, with all their parts, were written by

the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and have God for their author,' ought not and could notlogically or rationally make.

"If, however, your Eminence can authoritatively tell me that divine inspiration orauthorship does not (clerical errors, faults of translation, etc., apart) guarantee the truth andinerrancy of the statement so inspired, it will in one sense be a great relief to my mind, andgreatly facilitate the signing of the document; your Eminency's decision being publicly knownand also the conditions under which I sign it."

The Cardinal, however, refused any answer to this stipulation. He passed judgmentwithout delay, issuing his inhibition of the distinguished scientist, denying to him thesacraments of the church

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till he should recant the opinions he had sent forth.Dr. Mivart, in reply, lamented that the Cardinal had said neither yes nor no. He then

states the issue unequivocally."It is now evident," says he, "that a vast and impassable abyss yawns between science

and Catholic dogma, and no man with ordinary knowledge can henceforth join the communionof the Roman Catholic Church if he correctly understands what its principles and its teachingreally are, unless they are radically changed. For who could profess to believe the narrativeabout the Tower of Babel, or that all species of animals came up to Adam to be named by him? Moreover, among the writings esteemed 'canonical' by the Catholic Church are the Book ofTobit and the Second Book of Maccabees, and also the story which relates how, when Danielwas thrown a second time into the lion's den, an angel seized Habakkuk of Judea by the hair ofhis head and carried him, with his bowl of pottage, to give it to Daniel for his dinner. To ask areasonable man to believe such puerile tales would be to insult him. Plainly the Councils ofFlorence, Trent, and the Vatican have fallen successively into greater and greater errors, andthus all rational trust in either Popes or Councils is at an end."

Nevertheless, Dr. Mivart, while refusing to sign the profession of faith, declares himselfattached to Catholicity, and regarding religious worship as the highest privilege of a rationalnature, continues to attend at the rites.

To an American reader the action of the Cardinal indicates clearly that modern scienceand the church are in direct conflict, and cannot make terms till one party or the other givesway. But English readers do not see such absolute incompatibility. They perceive only thatwith Catholics the liberty of speech is limited, and that there is a possibility that only a questionof expediency is involved.

To Galileo the peril of his course was torture and the stake; to Mivart, exclusion from thesacraments and a possible anathema. As a writer in the London Times remarks: "The threat ofexcommunication, terrible in the tenth century, has a touch of the ridiculous in the twentieth; and ridicule kills."

Formerly the recusant had no right to receive shelter, food, fire, or any rite of hospitality; now he only suffers the withholding of a few

--- 587.

rites that he can do very well without.

"But," says the great apostle, "I show unto you a more excellent way."

(Universal Brotherhood, October, 1900)

------------------- 588.

THE AMERICAN SOKRATES

A writer in a recent number of a monthly periodical has endeavored to showresemblances of Doctor Franklin to Sokrates. He has made out a very good case, and even themost captious will admit that the matter is well worth considering. Nevertheless, a person whoshould regard it from a superficial point of view may find the analogy not so easy to trace. Themode of life of the two men was so unlike that the apparent resemblances may appearfarfetched and often very faint. For example, Sokrates eschewed a political life; but Franklin,after he had accumulated what he considered a competency, was almost constantly called uponto take part in public affairs and was among the foremost in effort to develop and shape theGovernment of the American Republic. Sokrates adhered tenaciously to the establishedworship of Athens and accounted the pursuits of physical science as an intruding into thecounsels of the gods; Franklin took delight in exploring into the secrets of the natural world,and was a zealous advocate of religious freedom, whatever the sect or form. Sokrates madehimself disliked by his countrymen by his persistent practice of dialectic, which often revealedto them their own opinions as absurd; Franklin was esteemed for his useful inventions and hisprolific resources of mind, which made his public service invaluable. He invented manyarticles which added to the conveniences of housekeeping, never seeking a patent for them, andsupplemented them all by his Promethean achievement - the bringing of lightning from the sky,so that it might be bound in harness and made to carry messages, propel machinery and do thework of men. No wonder that the Athenian died by the penal sentence of a court, while theAmerican was honored at home and in other countries. It is probable, however, that many ofthese diversities may be

--- 589.

explained by the difference of conditions and the periods at which the men lived. More thantwenty-two centuries intervened between the time when Sokrates walked in the streets ofAthens and Franklin set type in Philadelphia. The populations were diverse in customs, habitsof thought and mode of living. What might be wise, what would be approved by one people,would not be tolerated by the other. We must look deeper and form our judgment from themen themselves by a comparing of their profounder thought and their utterances.

The maxims of "Poor Richard" have been long accepted as part of our literature. ThomasPaine esteemed them as superior to the "Proverbs of Solomon." They range favorably besidethe sayings of Epiktetos and Publius Syrus. True, they conform very closely to the Silver Rule- to do according as one is done by. This method seems to be of most service to the worldly-wise, although it is often opposed to that diviner charity which is the loving of the neighbor and

not a supreme seeking of own advantage. We will find in Franklin's autobiography, however,the material which will fit us for juster judgment.

He tells at the outset of an uncle whom he resembled closely in person and modes ofthought. This uncle died some four years before the birth of the nephew. But for this period oftime intervening, it was remarked that there might have been a transmigration of soul from theone to the other. An Oriental pundit, or a modern believer in reincarnation, however, wouldmake no such account of the interval thus occurring.

Franklin himself informs us that he had sought to acquire the Socratic mode of dialectic. He procured a copy of the works of Xenophon and made it his study.

He makes this remark in support of the method: "As the chief ends of conversation are toinform or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish that well-meaning and sensible menwould not lessen their power of doing good by a positive and assuming manner that seldomfails to disgust, tends to create opposition and to defeat most of those purposes for whichspeech was given to us. In fact, if you wish to instruct others, a positive, dogmatical manner in

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advancing your sentiments may occasion opposition and prevent a candid attention." *This reminds us of a familiar practice of Sokrates. He generally began his discourses by

asking the judgment of others, on the pretext that he was himself totally ignorant of the subject.After Franklin had become a man of business in Philadelphia as a printer and stationer, as

well as head of a family, he conceived the project of attaining a state of moral excellence. Hehad been a deist till he perceived that those whom he had persuaded by his reasonings wereready to wrong him without the least compunction. This convinced him that the doctrine,however true, was not useful. He was not ready to accept "revelation" as especially impartedfrom Divinity. He was of opinion that certain actions were not bad because they had beenforbidden, or good because they were commanded. But he surmised that the bad actions wereforbidden because of being bad for us, and good ones enjoined because they were intrinsicallybeneficial. "This persuasion," he remarks, "with the kindhand of Providence, or some guardian angel, or accidental favorable circumstances andsituations, preserved me."

------------* Xenophon: Memorable Accounts, I. "Now it seemeth to me, that whoever applieth

himself to the study of wisdom in hopes of becoming one day capable of directing his fellow-citizens, will not indulge, but rather take pains to subdue whatever he finds in his temperturbulent and impetuous; knowing that enmity and danger are the attendants of force; whilethe path of persuasion is all security and good will; for they who are compelled hate whomevercompels them, supposing that they have been injured; whereas we conciliate the affection ofthose whom we gain by persuasion; while they consider it as a kindness to be applied to insuch a Manner. Those, therefore, who employ force are they who possess strength withoutjudgment; but the well-advised have recourse to other means. Besides, he who pretends tocarry his points by force hath need of many associates; but the man who can persuade, knowsthat he is of himself sufficient for the purpose.------------

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He devoted Sundays to study, seldom attending any public worship. The Calvinistic dogmas of Eternal Decrees, Election, Reprobation, etc., appeared to him unintelligible anddoubtful. But, he declares, "I never doubted the existence of a Deity; that He made the worldand governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable worship of God was the doinggood to man; that our souls are immortal, and all crimes will be punished, and virtue rewarded,either here or hereafter. These I esteemed the essentials of every religion, and being to befound in all the religions we had in our country, I respected them all, though with differentdegrees of respect, as I found them more or less mixed with other articles, which, without anytendency to inspire, promote or confirm morality, seemed principally to divide us and make usunfriendly to one another."

Conscious that a mere speculative conviction that it is to our profit to be completelyvirtuous is by no means sufficient to prevent us from slipping, but that, on the contrary, illhabits must be broken and good ones acquired and established, he devised a catalogue of thevirtues the practice of which would be the measure of rectitude. This list included twelvewhich he considered as necessary and desirable. He tabulated them, giving to each anappropriate definition. They were arranged in the following order: 1. Temperance. 2. Silence. 3. Order. 4. Resolution. 5. Frugality. 6. Industry. 7. Sincerity. 8. Justice. 9. Moderation. 10.Cheerfulness. 11. Tranquillity. 12. Chastity.

A Quaker friend informed him that he was generally regarded as proud, and sometimes aseven overbearing and rather insolent. This led him to add Humility to his list as thirteenth, andhe enforced it by the words: "Imitate Jesus and Sokrates."

He now arranged them in a little book, and set out by devoting a week in turn to eachvirtue. Day by day he made a memorandum of how well or ill he had succeeded in theendeavor, marking the failures. When he had made his way through the thirteen in as manyweeks he began anew and went on as before. He afterward changed this mode of proceeding.

He remarks that his greatest trouble was in regard to Order - that every part of hisbusiness should have its allotted time. He had

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not been in earlier life accustomed to method, and, as he had an exceedingly good memory, hehad not been sensible of his faultiness. He struggled for years to correct this, but found himselfincorrigible. "But on the whole," says he, "though I never arrived at the perfection I had beenso ambitious of attaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and happierman than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfectwriting by imitating the engraved copies, though they never reach the wished-for excellence ofthose copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor and is tolerable while it continues fair andlegible."

In conformity with these views Franklin planned the compiling of a book to be entitled"The Art of Virtue." It was designed to set forth and enforce his cardinal doctrine: Thatvicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they arehurtful, the nature of man alone considered." His endeavor was to convince young men that noqualities are so likely to assure a poor man's fortune as probity and integrity. But Franklin'stime was so occupied by public business that the book was never published.

He also projected a great association upon the basis which comprises the essentials ofevery known religion. It was to be begun and extended first among young and single men only. Each candidate for membership was to be initiated after assenting to the creed and an exerciseof thirteen weeks in the virtues as prescribed. The existence of the society should be keptsecret, the members looking up youths suitable for initiation. They were also pledged to affordto each other their advice, assistance and support in promoting one another's interest. But afterhaving proposed the scheme to two others, who accepted it, Franklin found himself too muchengaged to go further, till he became too old to undertake the matter.

"I am still of opinion," says he, "that it was a practicable scheme, and might have beenvery useful by forming a great number of good citizens; and I was not discouraged by theseeming magnitude of the undertaking, as I have always thought that one man of tolerableabilities may work great changes and accomplish great affairs among mankind if he first formsa good plan, and, cutting off

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all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, makes the execution ofthe same plan his sole study and business."

Becoming a candidate for re-election as Clerk to the General Assembly of the Provinceof Pennsylvania, Franklin was warmly opposed by one of the principal members. Instead ofresenting this, he took occasion to ask of the man the loan of a rare book. This was granted,and a warm and permanent friendship was the result. From this occurrence he deduced themaxim: "He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whomyou yourself have obliged."

Franklin adds: "It shows how much more profitable it is prudently to remove than toresent and continue inimical proceedings."

He remarks of the Rev. George Whitefield, whom he greatly admired: "If he had neverwritten anything, he would have left behind him a much more numerous and important sect."

Franklin composed and published numerous maxims upon a variety of subjects. Wepresent a few:

"After getting the first hundred pounds it is more easy to get the second.""As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an

opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely andgenerously."

"The best public measures are seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by theoccasion."

"When men are employed they are best contented." Sokrates was best adapted to his time, as the American sage was to the early days of the

new Republic. Xenophon describes him as "the most sober and chaste of mankind," sustainingall vicissitudes with equal complacency, persistent in self-control, and influencing thosefamiliar with him to the love of virtue. While he conformed to the religious usages of thecommonwealth of which he was a citizen, his conceptions were lofty and philosophic. Thesoul, the intellectible part of us, he declared to have come from he knows not whence, and by itman is as a god in the midst of creation. As it governs the body, does not the soul of theuniverse govern it in like manner? And does

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not the providence of God extend in like manner? So, likewise, he exhorted, to render oneself"deserving of the communication of some of the divine secrets which may not be penetrated byman, but are imparted to those alone who consult, who adore, who obey the Deity."

Being remonstrated with because of his plain habits and teaching without pay, he replied: "Though I am not over-delicate in regard to food, though I sleep but little, and do not once tastethose infamous delights in which others indulge, there may no other cause be assigned than thatI have pleasures far more choice in their quality, which delight not only for the moment inwhich they are enjoyed, but gladden with the hope of perpetual satisfaction."

"When we see a woman bartering her beauty for gold, we look upon her as base, butwhen she consorts with a worthy young man she gains our approbation and esteem. It is thesame with philosophy; he who sets it forth for public sale, to be disposed of to the best bidder,is a public prostitute.... My pleasure is in the company of my friends. When we are together weemploy ourselves in searching into those treasures of knowledge which the ancients have leftus; we draw from the same fountain, and, running over what these sages have left behind them,wherever we find any thing excellent we remark it for our own use; and when we see mutuallove begin to flourish among us we think that we have profited not a little."

Chaerokrates, being on ill terms with his brother, Sokrates advised him to make overturesof good will. "Are you afraid of making the first advances to your brother, lest it should loweryou in the opinion of those who hear it?" he demanded. "Surely it ought not to be less gloriousfor a man ro anticipate his friends in courtesy and kind offices, than to get the start of hisenemies in injuries and annoyances."

"It behooves us not a little," he says to Antisthenes, "to consider of how much worth wereally are to our friends, and that we are diligent at the same time to raise our value with themas much as we can, in order that they may not lay us aside like useless lumber."

To the young Kritobulos he gives counsel: "The shortest way to make yourself belovedand honored is to be indeed the very man that you wish to appear. Set yourself diligently to the attaining of

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every virtue, and you will find on experience that no one of them but will flourish and gainstrength when properly exercised."

Notwithstanding what we might regard as idleness or shiftlessness, he was as positive asFranklin in his exhortations to thrift and industry. He counseled Eutheros to seek out someemployment which would enable him to lay up something for old age.

"Keep clear of those persons who seem to be glad to find fault," says he, "and seek outonly such as are more candid. Which done, pursue with steadiness and alacrity whatever youundertake, but beware how you undertake anything beyond your power. Thus will you findrelief for your indigence, without the hazard of incurring much blame. Certainty will take theplace of a precarious subsistence and leave you to the full enjoyment of all the peacefulpleasures of old age."

He professed to know few that were wholly idle. The man who spent his time at dice orin playing the buffoon to make others laugh may be said to do something, he admitted. Butsuch were no better than idlers, since they might employ themselves so much more usefully.

No one would quit a good occupation for one that was otherwise, and if he did so it would beless excusable, for he could not plead being without employment.

Justice, together with every other virtue, he declared to be wisdom itself. "Whatsoever isjust and fair must be the result of sound wisdom," said he; "and as nothing can be fair and justwhere virtue is wanting, therefore justice and the other virtues are wisdom."

Sokrates also discoursed much with Euthedemos on matters of duty and our relations tothe Deity. "The Supreme God holds Himself invisible," said he, "and it is only in His worksthat we are capable of admiring Him. And if there is anything in man that partakes of thedivine nature it must surely be the soul which governs and directs him; yet no one considersthis as an object of his sight. Learn, therefore, not to despise those things which you cannotsee; judge of the greatness of the power by the effects that are produced, and reverence theDeity."

The general tone of these sayings, it will be perceived, discloses a certain vraisemblance,and seems to indicate that the

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American in many respects followed the same course of thought and ways of reasoning as the Athenian. Both were alike in their theological notions, and there is great similarity intheir practical methods. Their unlikenesses were incident to the different circumstances, but inessential purpose and other characteristics they were identical. They sought, after the mannerbest suited to their times, to serve their fellowmen to the best of their ability, and it is not for usto measure their success. Indeed, it may not be estimated after the rule by which mencommonly judge.

(The Word, September, 1906)

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APPENDIX

FOUR LETTERS FROM BLAVATSKY TO WILDER

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LETTERS FROM H. P. BLAVATSKY To Alexander Wilder, M. D.

The understanding had been reached that Mr. Bouton should publish MadameBlavatsky's manuscript of Isis Unveiled. It was placed in my hands by him with instruction to

abridge it all that I thought best. It was an undesirable task, but I did it with scrupulous regardto the interest of the publisher, and to what I esteemed to be just to the author. I was introducedto her about this time. She spoke of what I had done, with great courtesy, employing herfavorite term to characterize what I had thrown out. She was about to begin a revision of thework, and asked me to indicate freely wherever I considered it at fault or not well expressed. Itis hardly necessary to say that this was a delicate matter. Authors are sensitive even tomorbidness, and prone to feel a criticism to be an exhibition of unfriendliness. Nevertheless, Ifaced the issue, and pointed out frankly what I considered fault of style, and also theimportance of explaining her sources of information. She was frank to acknowledge her ownshortcomings, but pleaded that she was not permitted to divulge the matters which I urged. Wecompared views, ethnic and

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historic, often not agreeing. I took the pains to embody many of these points in a letter, towhich she made the following reply:

August.

Dr. A. Wilder,My dear Sir: -Your kind favor at hand only today, for my friend Mr. Marquette has proved an

inaccurate postman, having some sun-struck patients to attend.There are many parts in my Book that I do not like either, but the trouble is I do not know

how to get rid of them without touching facts which are important, as arguments. You say thatwhen I prove something, I prove it too much. There again you are right, but in such a work -(and the first one of some importance that I ever wrote, having limited myself to articles) insuch a work when facts crowd and elbow each other in my brains, really one does not knowsometimes where to stop. Your head is fresh, for your read it for the first time. Therefore yousee all the faults and shortcomings, while my overworked brains and memory are all in a sadmuddle, having read the manuscripts over and over again. I am really very, very thankful toyou for your suggestions. I wish you made more of them.

Do you think the Phenicians were an Ethiopian race? Why? They have certainlymingled much with them, but I do not see well how it can be. The Phenicians were the ancientJews I think, whatever they have been before. Josephus admits as much, unless it is a hoax toescape other accusations. The biblical mode of worship and the bloody sacrifices in which thePatriarchs and other "chosen ones" delighted are of a Phenician origin, as they belonged in daysof old to the Bacchic and Adonis Phenician worship. The Adonis is certainly the JewishAdonai. All the Phenician deities can be found in Joshua as well as their temples. xxiii, 7. Herodotus traces the circumcision to them. The little bulls of the Jews - the Osiris-Bacchus-Adonis - is a Phenician custom. I think the Phenicians were the Canaanites. When settled inJerusalem they appear to have become friends. The Sidonian Baal-Adonis-Bal is closely related to their

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Sabean worship of the "Queen of Heaven." Herodotus shows that the Syrians - the Jews ofPalestine - lived earlier on the Red Sea and he calls them Phenicians. But what puzzles me isto reconcile the type. The Jews appear to have never intermarried among other nations - atleast not to the extent to change their type. They have nothing Ethiopian about them. Will youtell me your reasons and oblige?

You told me in a previous letter that the Ethiopians have anciently dwelt in India. InWestern India there is in a temple the statue of Chrishna and he is a splendid black Ethiopianwith woolly hair, black lips and flat nose. I trace every or nearly every ancient religion to Indiabecause of the Sanscrit names of the gods of every other nation. If you trace themetymologically you are sure to find the root of every god (of the Aryan family) in Sanscrit, andmany of the Semitic gods also, and that before the Aryans broke up towards the South andNorth. Every Slavonian Deity can be traced back to India, and yet the word Bog, the Russianword for God, a derivation from Gosped, gosped in Hospodar or gospodar, "the Lord" seems tocome right from the Babylonian Bel, Baal, or Bal. In Slavonian and Russian Bjeloybog meansliterally White God, or the God of the Day, - Good. Deity, as Teherno-bog is Black God - theEvil, Night-Deity. The Tyrian god was Belus - Babylonian Bel, and Bok means Light andBoga the sun. I derive Bacchus from this - as a Sun god. I suppose we ought in the derivationof the names of all these gods, take in consideration the aspiration. The Semitic S generallysoftens to Ah in the Sanscrit. The Assyrian San becomes in Sanscrit Ahan; their Asuria isAhura. As is the son-god and Ar is a sun-god. Assur is a Syrian and Assyrian sun-god; Assurya is one of the names of the Sun, and Surya in Sanscrit is the Sun (see M. Miller). It wasthe rule of Bunsen to soften the S to u. Now As means life and Asu Spirit, and in India, even inThibet, the life principle, the great agent of Magic, the Astral light by which the Lamas andSiamese priests produce their wonders is written Akasa, pronounced Ahaha. It is the life-principle, for it is the direct magnetism, the electric current proceeding from the Sun, which iscertainly a great Magnet as the ancients said, and not as our modern scientists will have it.

I have studied some of the old Turanian words (beg pardon of

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philology and Science) in Samarkand with an old scholar, and he told me that he tracedsomehow the deities of every subsequent nation a great deal further back than the Aryan rootsbefore the split of the nations. Now Max Muller does not concede, it seems to me, anythingpositive or exact as roots beyond the old Sanscrit, and dares not go further back. How do youaccount for that? You say that the Chaldeans were a tribe of the Akkadians, come fromArmenia. This is Rawlinson's views. But did you trace the primitive Akkadians back? I havebeen living for a long time at the very foot of Mount Ararat, in Erivan, where my husband wasgovernor for twenty-five years, and we have profound scholars among some Armenian Monksin the Monastery of Etchmiadjene, the dwelling-place or See of the Armenian Patriarch (theGregorian). It is but a few verstes from Erivan. Abieh, the well-known geologist andarcheologist of the Russian government, used to say that he got his most precious informationfrom Nerses, the late Patriarch. In the garden of the very house we lived in was an enormouscolumn, a ruin from the palace of Tyridates, all covered with inscriptions, about which theRussian government did not care much. I had them all explained by a monk of Nerses. I havereasons to think the Akkadians came from India. The Bible mandrakes were never understoodin their Cabbalistic meaning. There is a Kabbala older than the Chaldean. Oannes has never

been traced to his origin; but, of course, I cannot, at least I must not, give to the world itsmeaning. Your article on the Androgynes is splendid. I did not dare write it in my book. Ithink the Amazons were Androgynes and belong to one of the primitive cycles. You do notprove them historically, do you?

I will certainly admit your suggestion as to Job. I see you have more of Cabbalisticintuition than I thought possible in one not initiated. As to the chapter of explanation about theHierophants, the Florsedim and others, please suggest where it ought to come in and what itshould cover. It seems to me that it will he difficult for me to explain what I am not allowed to,or say anything about the exoteric part what intelligent people do not already know. I am aThibetian Buddhist, you know, and pledged myself to keep certain things secret. They have the original Book of Yasher and some of the lost

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manuscripts mentioned in the Bible, such as the Book of War, as you knew, perhaps, in the oldplace. I will write to General Kauffman one of these days to Teschkeut, where he is GeneralGovernor for the last ten years, and he can get me all the copies and translations from the oldmanuscripts I want. Isn't it extraordinary that the government (Russian) does not care moreabout them than it does? Whereto do you trace the lost tribes of Israel?

I suppose I gave you the headache by this time, so I close; I will forward you Saturdaythe last chapters of the Second Part if I can, but this part is not finished yet and I want youradvice as to how to wind it up.

Truly and respectfully yours, H. P. Blavatsky

Note - Perhaps there should be some reply made here to these inquiries, though it seemshardly in keeping. It is true that Herodotus states that the Phoenicians came from the countryof the Red or Erythrean Sea, which washes Arabia.

Mr. J. D. Baldwin classifies them as "Cushites," in which race he includes the Arabiansand the dominant dark people of India, but not the African tribes. The Cushites of Asia are theEthiopians of classic times. Although the Phoenicians were styled Kaphts by the Egyptians,and the Philostians are said to have migrated from Kaphta, it has been quite common to identifythe Phoenicians with the Canaanites of the Bible. Whether anciently the Jews were of the samepeople, there must have been a close relation, and we find in the Bible that no exception wastaken to intermarriage till the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Probably the type was establishedsubsequent to that period. "Ephraim is a Canaanite," says the prophet; "deceitful balances arein his hand, and he loveth to oppress."

I think that Godfrey Higgins and Moor in the "Pantheon" denominated the figure a"Buddha" and negro, that Mme. Blavatsky describes as Krishna. True, Krishna had anothername, and this term signifies black. But when India is named, it is not definitely certain howfar it extended, or differed from the Asiatic Ethiopia. The Akkadians may have come from thatpart of Asia; the term signifies

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Highlands. But the Chaldeans, their supposed successors, are called Kasdim. In the Bible

Xenophon wrote of Chaldeans, natives of Armenia.------------

The ensuing autumn and winter I delivered a course of lectures in a medical college inNew York. This brought me from Newark several times each week and gave me anopportunity to call at the place on West Forty-seventh Street if there was occasion.

During the season previous Baron de Palm had died in Roosevelt Hospital. He was onintimate terms with the family group in West Forty-seventh Street, and had received necessaryattentions from them during his illness. Whatever he possessed of value he bestowed uponthem, but with the pledge or condition that his body should be cremated. This was a novel, notto say a shocking idea, to people generally. There was but one place for such a purpose in theUnited States. Dr. Francis Le Moyne had constructed it at Washington, in WesternPennsylvania. He was an old-time abolitionist, when this meant social proscription, and in1844 was the candidate for the Liberty Party for Vice-President. He had advanced views on thedisposal of the dead and had built the crematory for himself and family. The arrangementswere made for the cremation of the body of the deceased Baron, as soon as winter had come topermit its transportation from New York. Colonel Olcott had charge of the matter. Being a"newspaper man" and rather fond of display, he induced a large party to go with him to see thefirst cremation in America. This was the introduction of this practice into this country.

During his absence I called at the house on Forty-seventh Street, but my ringing was notanswered. I then wrote a note stating my errand. Madame Blavatsky answered at once asfollows:

My Dear Doctor:Now, that's too bad, but I really think you must have rung the wrong bell. I did not go

out of the house for the last two months, and the servant is always in the kitchen until half-pastnine or ten. Why did you not pull all the bells one after the other? Well, you must come

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Monday - as you have to come to town, and stop over till Tuesday. You can attend yourCollege and sleep here the same, can't you? And Olcott will be back to talk your law businesswith you; but if you want something particular, or have some law affairs which are pressing,why don't you go to Judge, to 71 Broadway, Olcott's and Judge's office. Judge will attend toanything you want. He is a smart lawyer, and a faithful true friend to all of us. But of courseyou know better yourself how to act in your own business. Olcott will be home by Friday nightI think. I could not go, though they expect me there today. To tell you the truth, I do not seethe fun of spending $40.00 or $50.00 for the pleasure of seeing a man burnt. I have seenburnings of dead and living bodies in India sufficiently.

Bouton is an extraordinary man. He says to Olcott that it is for you to decide whether itwill be one or two volumes, etc., and you tell me he needs no estimate of yours! He told you"how to go to work." Can't you tell us what he told you? It is no curiosity, but business. As Iam adding all kind of esoteric and other matter in Part II, I would like to know what I can write,and on what subjects I am to shut my mouth. It is useless for me to labor if it is all to be cutout. Will you please, dear doctor, tell me what I have to do? I am of your opinion aboutInman; but facts are facts. I do not go against Christianity, neither against Jesus of Nazareth.

I simply go for the skulls of theologians. Theology is neither Christianity nor religion. It ishuman and blasphemous flapdoodle. I suppose any one understands it. But how can I make aparallel between heathen or pagan worship and the Christian unless I give facts? It is facts andscientific discovery which kills exoteric and fetish-worshiping Christianity, not what Inman orI can say. But laying Inman aside, read "Supernatural Religion" which had in less than 18months six editions in England. The book is written by a Bishop, one of the most learnedTheologians of the Church of England. Why he kills divine Revelation and dogmas andGospels and all that.

Believe me, Dr. Wilder, a little and cowardly abuse will kill a book; a courageous andsincere criticism of this hypocritical, lying, dirty crew - Catholic Clergy - will help to sell thebook. I leave the Protestants and other Christian religions nearly out of question. I only

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go for Catholics. A pope who calls himself the Viceregent of God on earth, and openlysympathizes with the Turks against the unfortunate Bulgarian Christians, is a Cain - a fiend; and if the French Liberal papers themselves publicly abuse him, Bouton must not fear that thebook will be prevented in its sale because I advise the old Antichrist, who has comparedhimself for the last two years with all the Prophets of the Bible and with the "slain Lamb"himself - if I advise him moreover, to compare himself, while he is at work, to Saul; theTurkish Bashi-Bazook to David; and the Bulgarians to the Philistines. Let him, the old cruelDevil promise the Bashi-Bazook (David) his daughter the Popish Church (Michal) in marriageif he brings him 100 foreskins of the Bulgarians.

I have received letters from home. My aunt sends me a piece of poetry by the famousRussian author and poet - J. Tourgeneff. It was printed in all the Russian papers, and theEmperor has forbidden its publication from consideration (and politics I suppose) for oldVictoria. My aunt wants me to translate it and have it published here in the Americannewspapers, and most earnestly she appeals for that I cannot write poetry. God knows thetrouble I have with my prose. But I have translated every line word for word (eleven quatrainsin all). Can you put them in verses so as to preserve the rhyme and rhythm, too? It is asplendid and thrilling thing entitled "Crocket at Windsor," the idea being a vision of the Queen,who looks upon a crocket game and sees the balls chased by the mallet, transformed intorolling heads of women, girls and children tortured by the Turks. Goes home; sees her dressall covered with gore, calls on the British rivers and waters for help to wash out the stain, andhears a voice answered, "No, Majesty no, this innocent blood," - "You can never wash out -nevermore," etc.

My dear Doctor, can you do me a favor to write me half a page or so of a "Profession offaith," to insert in the first page or pages of Part II? Just to say briefly and eloquently that it isnot against Christ or the Christ-religion that I battle. Neither do I battle against any sincere,true religion, but against theology and Pagan Catholicism. If you write me this I will knowhow to make variations on this theme without becoming guilty of false notes in your eyes andthe sight of

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Bouton. Please do; you can do it in three minutes. I see that none of your symbologists,

neither Payne Knight, King, Dunlap, Inman, nor Higgins, knew anything about the truths ofinitiation. All is exoteric superficial guess work with them. 'Pon my word, without anycompliment, there's Taylor alone and yourself, who seem to grasp truth intuitionally. I haveread with the greatest pleasure your edition of the "Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries!" Youare right. Others know Greek better, but Taylor knew Plato thousand times better; and I havefound in your short fragments much matter which for the life of me I do not know where youcould have learned it. Your guesses are so many hits right on the true spot. Well, you ought togo East and get initiated.

Please come on Monday. I will have a bed ready for you Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday,and I will be expecting you to dinner all these days. If you cannot come until Monday, do tellme what instructions Bouton gave you, and what are the precise orders for mutilations, willyou?

Esoterically yours in true Platonism,

H. P. Blavatsky

(The Word, vol. 7, June, 1908, pp. 148-55)

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MADAME BLAVATSKY IN INDIA LETTER FROM AGRA To Alexander Wilder, M.D.

The little company of emigrants from New York became established at Bombay andbegan the promulgation of their doctrines. At this period they were en rapport with the SwamiDayananda, and

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allied their movement with the Arya Samaj; a step which they were compelled later to retrace. Whatever the merits of either, it could not be accordant with the nature of things, that twoenterprises, begun with individuals of different social and educational experiences shouldaffiliate and interflow harmoniously. Hence the two leaders failed to unite permanently, andtheir associates drifted apart. The aim of the Swami was evidently to restore the properunderstanding of the Vedas, and it would be no marvel that he should regard himself as thesuperior to all others and require deference accordingly. The Theosophical movement wasmore catholic and assumed to permit a broad latitude in personal opinions, as well as freedomfrom everything like the yoke of a religious autocrat. "Not that we have dominion over yourfaith," wrote the Christian Apostle, "but are helpers of your joy."

It was in April, while this alliance was still in operation and the Theosophical party hadgot at work, that Madame Blavatsky and her companions set out on a succession of visits tovarious shrines and consecrated places, in western Hindustan. They journeyed first to the cave-temple of Karli, and afterward, returning to Bombay, made a second tour northerly into thecountry of the Rajpoots. Some particulars of these jaunts were given me, in private letters, of

which I regret to say only the first appears to have remained. I notice that she has given a moreelaborate account in Letters to a Russian periodical; perhaps restricting me to what I couldbear. It cannot be disputed that her descriptive powers were most excellent. She hasembellished the Russian letters to a degree quite beyond what she did to me. But for this therewere good reasons. She was writing in a more familiar language to a larger audience where hereffort would be appreciated.

The following was the first letter that I received directly from her after her arrival in Indiafrom New York. I have taken the liberty to annotate it in several places, to enable it to bebetter understood.

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Visits to Sacred Places

Agra, April 28, 1879

My dear Doctor, my very dear friend:

How I do regret that you are not with us! How often I think of you, and wonder whetherthe whole of your archeological and poetical soul would not jump out in fits of rapture wereyou but to travel with us now, instead of squatting with your legs upon the ceiling, no doubt, inyour cold room of Orange street! Here we are traveling for this last month by rail, bullock-cart,elephant, camel and bunder boat, stopping from one to three days in every town, village andport; seeing subterranean India, not the upper one, and - part and parcel in the archaic ages ofManu, Kapilas and Aryanism.

True, ever since the beginning of March we are being toasted, baked and roasted. Thesun is fierce, and the slightest breeze sends waves of red hot air, puffs like from a bakingfurnace, full into your face and throat, and suffocates you at every step. But oh! for theineffable coolness and glory of the mornings and after sunset here. The moon of America, is atbest, when compared with that of India, like a smoky olive-oil lamp.

We get up at four and go to bed at nine. We travel more by night and in the morning andafternoons. But I want to tell you something of our traveling. I will skip the landscape parts ofit, and stop only at the ruins of old cities and spots, deemed ancient already, during theMacedonian invasion - if there ever was one - by the historians in Alexander's suite.

First of all, we went to Randallat (Dekkan Plateau) to the Karli caves, cut in the heart ofthe living rock on the brow of the mountain, and, as the English archeologists generallyconcede - the chief cave - the largest as well as the most complete hitherto discovered in India"was excavated at a time when the style was in its greatest purity." The English want us tobelieve that it was excavated not earlier than the era of Salivahana, about A.D. 75; and theBrahmans tell us that it was the first temple dedicated to Devaki; the Virgin in India.1 It ishewn upon the face of the precipice, about eight hundred feet above the plain on which are scattered the most ancient Buddhist

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temples (of the first period of Buddhism about the age of Asoka). This alone would prove that

the Karli temple is more ancient than 75 A.D.; for in their hatred toward the Buddhists, theBrahmans would have never selected for their Temple a spot in such close proximity to thoseof their enemies. "Never," says one of their Purans, "never build a holy shrine without firstascertaining that for twenty kosses (two miles) around, there is no place belonging to theNosties (atheists)." 2

The first temple, after having passed a large entrance-portico, fifty-two feet wide withsculptured figures and three colossal elephants barring the way, is dedicated to Siva, and mustbe of later date. It is of oblong form and reminds strikingly of a Catholic cathedral. 3

-----------1. The "authorities" are not altogether clear, and the matter is by no means beyond

controversy. One legend describes the Emperor of India, Vikramaditya, as having learned ofthe infant Salivahana, born of a virgin, simultaneously with Jesus at Bethlehem, and as beingslain by him when on an expedition to destroy the young child, then in his fifth year. Salivahana was immediately crowned at Oujein. This was the time of the beginning of thepresent era; and Salivahana is said to have left the earth in the year 79. Major Wilfordexplains that this name signifies "borne upon a tree."

The account generally accepted relates that when Kali was about to destroy the world,Vishnu made an avatar or descent for its salvation. He became the son of Vasudeva andDevaki. The King, Kansa, having commanded to destroy all male infants born at that time, hewas carried away and placed with a foster-mother in another country. Hence Devaki is reveredas Mother of the God. - A.W.

2. The government of Magadha or Northern India had fallen into the possession of theMaurya monarchs, belonging to the Sudra caste. King Chandragupta was allied to seleukos,and his successor Piyadarsi was the prince known to us as Asoka. Having embracedBuddhism, this prince labored zealously to disseminate the doctrines, not only over India, butto other countries, clean to Asia Minor and Egypt. The cave-temples, however, were constructed by older-------------- 610.

It is one hundred and twenty-six feet long and forty-six broad, with a circular apse. Theroof, dome-like, rests on forty-one gigantic pillars with rich and magnificent sculptured figures. As you can see in Fergusson's Cave-Temples, the linga is a dome surmounted by a woodenchattar or umbrella, under which used to sit the Maharaj-Hierophant, and judge his people. Thelinga is evidently empty inside, and used to be illuminated from within during the initiationmysteries (this is esoteric, not historical), and must have presented an imposing sight.

I know that it has a secret passage inside leading to immense subterranean chambers, butno one as yet has been able to find out the outward entrance. Tradition says that theMussulmans, looking out for the pagoda-treasures, had once upon a time destroyed somemasonry around the linga in order to penetrate into it. But lo! therebegan creeping out of it gigantic ants and snakes by the million, who

---------------sovereigns, but the Brahmans often seized the sanctuaries of other worships and made themtheir own. - A.W.

3. Fergusson agrees with this description. In his treatise on "Architecture" he remarks: "The building resembles to a very great extent an early Christian Church in its arrangements,consisting of a nave and side aisles terminating in an apse of side-dome round which the aisle iscarried; its arrangements and dimensions are very similar to those of the choir of Norwichcathedral."

General Furlong, while accepting the theory of the later origin of the structure, considersthe temples at Karli as at the first Buddhistic, adding the significant fact that Buddhism itselfappropriated the shrines and symbology of earlier worships. In confirmation of this the Rev.Dr. Stevenson, writing for the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," insists that the worship ofSiva was "an aboriginal superstition," which Brahmanism had adopted, but imperfectlyassimilated. The rock-temples appear to have belonged to this worship, but there is no accountor tradition of their construction, and Mr. J.D. Baldwin ascribes them to an earlier population. - A.W.------------------ 611.

attacked the invaders, and, having killed many of them, who died in fearful tortures, theMussulmans hurried to repair the damage done and retired.

A Shrine of the SaktiRight above this temple are two stories more of temples to which one has to climb

acrobat-like, or be dragged upward. All the face of the ghaut 4 (mountain) is excavated, and theneighboring temple is dedicated to Devaki. Passing on: after having passed a subterraneantank full of water, and mounted four dilapidated steps to a balcony with interior rock benchesand four pillars, one enters into a large room full of echoes because surrounded by eleven smallcells, all sculptured.

In this first hall is the cut-out image of Devaki. The goddess sits with legs apart and veryindecently, according to profane persons who are unable to understand the symbol. A thinstream of water from the rock threads down from between the legs of the lady, - representingthe female principle. 5 The water dropping down into a small crevice in the stone floor, is heldsacred. Pilgrims - I have watched them for hours, for we passed two days and slept in thistemple - came, and with folded hands having prostrated themselves before the Devaki, plungetheir fingers into this water, and then touch with it their forehead, eyes, mouth and breast. Tellme what difference can we perceive between this and the R. Catholic worshiping their Virginand crossing themselves with holy water.

------------4. A ghaut is a "bluff" near a body of water, rather than a mountain. - A.W.5. This description indicates that, not Devaki, the mother of Krishna, but Uma, Maya or

Prakriti, the Sakti or consort of Siva, was the divinity here honored. It may be that theBrahmans, appropriating an archaic sanctuary to their own religion, named the divinity anew,but it was the Sakti plainly enough. It is stated by Mr. Keane that a similar figure, known asthe Sheelah-na-gig is found in the Tara cemetery, and other sacred places in Ireland.--------------- 612.

I cannot say that we felt very secure while sleeping on that balcony, without windows ordoors, with nothing between us and the tigers who roam there at night. Fortunately, we werevisited that night only by a wild cat which climbed the steep rock to have a look at us, or ratherat our chickens, perhaps.

Northward to AllahabadReturning through Bombay, we went to Allalhabad, eight hundred and forty-five miles

from Bombay the ancient Pragayana of the Hindus, and held sacred by them, as it is built at theconfluence of the Ganges and Jumna rivers. One of Asoka's columns is yet in the centre ofAkbar's Fort. 6 But it was so hot - one hundred and forty-four degrees in the sum - that we ranaway to Benares, five hours distant from there.

Benares, The Holy CityThere's much to see in ancient Kasika, the sacred. It is the Rome of Hindu pilgrims, as

you know. According to the latest statistics there are five thousand temples and shrines in it. Conspicuous among all is the great Durga Temple, with its celebrated tanks. Amid temples andpalaces and private buildings, all the roofs and walls and cornices are strung round and coveredwith sacred monkeys. Thousands of them infest the city. They grin at one from the roofs,jump through one's legs, upset passers-by, throw dirt at one's face, carry away your hats andumbrellas, and make one's life miserable. They are enough to make you strike yourgrandmother. Olcott's spectacles were snatched from his nose and carried away into a precinctwhich was too sacred for a European to get into. And so, good-bye eyeglasses.

--------------6. Akbar was a Moghul monarch who came to the throne of Mahommedan India, about

three centuries ago. Disgusted with the cruelties and arbitrary requirements of the Koran, hemade himself familiar with other beliefs, finally adopting a mystic theism. His long reign waspeaceful and prosperous, and he is gratefully remembered.---------------- 613.

Cawnpur and the MassacreFrom thence to Cawnpur, the city of Nana Sahib, the place where seventy-eight English

people were murdered during the Mutiny, and thrown by him into a well. Now a magnificentmarble monument, a winged angel, presumably a female, stands over it; and no Hindu isallowed inside!! The garden around is lovely, and the inscription on the tombs of theslaughtered ones admirable. "Thou will not, O Lord," says one of them from Joel (I don'tremember verbatim) "allow the heathen to prevail over thy people," - or something to thateffect.7 The heathen are termed "criminal rebels" on every tomb!

Had the "heathen" got rid of their brutal invaders in 1857, I wonder how they would havetermed them. The sweet Christians, the followers of the "meek and lowly Jesus" made at thattime Hindus innocent of this particular Cawnpur murder, to wash the blood-soaked floors of thebarracks by licking the blood with their tongues, (historical). But people insolent enough toprefer freedom to slavery will be always treated as rebels by their captors. O vile humanity,and still viler civilization!

I will not stop to tell you of the beautiful avenues of centenarian trees full of monkeys

above and fakirs below, neither of the Ganges with its blue waters and crocodiles. But I remindyou of the ancient city mentioned in the Mahabarata near which took place all the fightsbetween the Solar race and the Lunar. 8 The ruins of that city are four miles from Cawnpur,whole miles of fortresses and temples and palaces with virgin forests growing out of the rooms,and monkeys again on the top of every stone. We went there on a she-elephant called "activePeri" (Tchamchoala Pari). Can't say that the ride on its back gives you any foretaste of the joysof heaven. There was no howda on it, and I for one, sitting on her tail, which she lovinglytwirled

-----------7. Probably Joel, ii., 19: "I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen."8. The Solar and Lunar races were Aryan alike. The Lunar peoples repudiated the Solar

divinities or relegated them to a subordinate rank.-------------- 614.

around my legs, felt every moment a sensation something between sea-sickness and a fallduring a nightmare. Olcott was perched on her left ear; Scott, a fellow of ours, a new convert,on the other; and Moolja Thecheray on her back. But the elephant was the securest vehicle andguide in such a journey. With her trunk she broke all the boughs before us, drove away themonkeys, and supported us when one of us was going to fall. We were half smashed, yetarrived safely to the ruins and landed near the cave of a holy sannyasi, called Lucky Brema, anastrologer, theurgist, thaumaturgist, etc., etc., another fakir just exhumed and resuscitated aftera few months' sojourn in his grave, where he hibernated for lack of anything better to do. Isuppose he prophesied all manner of evils to us for not believing in his idols, and so wedeparted. But the ruins must be five thousand years old, and they are pretty well historical.

The Taj MahalAt Agra we saw Taj Mahal, that "poem in marble," as this tomb is called; and really it is

the wonder of the age. The builder of it boasted that there was not one inch of either stone,wood or metal in this construction, which is truly gigantic - all pure marble and carved into anopen fret-work like a piece of lace. It is enormous in size; sublime as an architecturalconception grand and appalling. In Agra, this dirtiest of all towns, with its half-ruined huts ofdried cow-dung, it looks like a magnificent pearl on a heap of manure.

Honors Bestowed by MaharajasWe visited in Rajpootana, Bhurtpur and Jeypur, two independent States. The Maharajas

sent us their carriages, runners, horsemen with banners, and elephants. I imagined myself theEmpress of Delhi. We went to Deeg, near Bhurtpur - something like the garden of Semiramis,9 with six hundred and sixty-three fountains and jets, and the marble palace, four halls, pavilions,

----------9. Probably the hanging gardens of the Median queen of Nebuchadnezzar.

------------- 615.

temples, etc., the palace, covering an area of two square miles, and with the garden, four. Itwas built by Suraj Mull Sing, three hundred and fifty years ago. But the old palace is twohundred years old. It is the place where a Rani (queen), seeing the Mussulmans ready to enterthe fortress, assembled ten thousand women and children, and all her treasures, and burnedherself and the rest in the sight of the invading army.

Jeypur, the Paris of India - The BhutsFrom there we went to Jeypur, the "Paris of India" it is called. It is indeed a Paris, as to

the beauty and magnificent symmetry of its squares and streets, but it looks like a Paris of redsugar candy. Every house and building is of a dark pink color with white marble cornices andornaments. All is built in the Eastern style of architecture. It was built by Jey Sing, the adeptand astrologer; and his observatory, occupying an enormous palace with immense court-yardsand towers, is full of machinery, the name and use of which is entirely forgotten.

People are afraid to approach the building. They say it is the abode of Bhuts, or spirits,and that they descend every night from Bhutisvara (a temple of Siva, called the "Lord of theBhuts" or "spirits" or demons, as the Christians translate, overlooks the town from the top of amountain thirty-eight hundred feet high), and play at astronomers there.

A magnificent collection of over forty tigers is right on a square, a public thoroughfare inthe middle of the town. Their roaring is heard miles off.

Ambair and Archaic RuinsWe went on the Raja's elephants to Ambair, the ancient city and fortress taken by the

Rajpoots from the Minas, 500 years, B.C. The first view of Ambair brings the traveler into anew world. Nothing can surpass its gloomy grandeur, solidity, the seeming impregnability ofthe Fort circumscribing the town for twelve miles round and extending over seven hills. It isdeserted now for over twelve generations; centenarian trees grow in its streets and squares; its

--- 616.

tanks and lees are full of alligators. But there is an indescribable charm about the beautiful,forsaken town, alone, like a forgotten sentry in the midst of wilderness, high above thepicturesque valley below. Hills covered with thick brushwood, the abode of tigers, arecrowned with ramparts, and towers and castles all around the ruined city.

The ruined heap of Kuntalgart is considered to be three thousand years old. Higher stillis the shrine and temple of Bhutisvara (of "unknown age," as the English prudently say). ReadBishop Heber's enthusiastic narrative of Ambair or Amberi.

The palace of Dilaram Bagh is another miracle in marble, preserved because keptrestored. Its innumerable halls, private apartments, terraces, towers, etc., are all built ofmarble. Some rooms have ceilings and walls inlaid with mosaic work, and lots of looking-glasses and vari-colored marbles. Some walls are completely carved lace-work-like againthrough and through; and the beauty of the design is unparalleled. Long passages, three andfour hundred yards long, descend and ascend sloping without steps, and are marble also, thoughentirely dark. The bath-halls, inlaid with colored marble, remind one of the best baths of oldRome, but are vaster and higher. There are curious nooks and corners and secret passages and old armor and old furniture, which can set crazy an antiquarian.

The RajpootsRemember, Todd 10 assures us that the Rajpoots trace their lineage backward without one

single break for over two thousand and eighty years; that they knew the use of fire-arms in thethird century, if I mistake not. 11 It is a grand people, Doctor; and their history is one of themost sublime poems of humanity; nay, by its virtues and heroic deeds it is one of the fewredeeming ones in this world of dirt.

-----------10. In his great work on Rajasthan.11. This statement is confirmed by several ancient classic writers.

-------------- 617.

The Rajpoots 12 are the only Indian race whom the English have not yet disarmed: they darenot. When you see a Rajpoot nobleman, he reminds you of the Italian, or rather the Provencalmedieval Barons or troubadours. With his long hair, whiskers and mustaches brushed upward,his little white or colored toga, long white garments, and his array of pistols, guns, bow andarrows, long pike, and two or three swords and daggers, and especially the shield of rhinocerosskin on which their forefather, the Sun, shines adorned with all his rays, he does lookpicturesque, though he does look at the same time as a perambulating store of arms of everyepoch and age.

No foreigner is allowed to live in Jeypur. The few that are settled there live out of townbut permission is obtained to pass whole days in examining the curiosities of the town. Wehave several "Fellows" of the Theosophical Society among Rajpoots, and they do takeseriously to Theosophy. They make a religion of it. Your signature on the diplomas is nowscattered all over Rajpootana.

And now I guess you have enough of my letter. I must have wearied you to death. Dowrite and address Bombay, 108 Girgam Back Road. I hope this letter will find you in goodhealth. Give my cordial salutations to Bouton and ask him whether he would publish a smallpamphlet or book "Voyage" or "Bird's Eye View of India," or something to this effect. I couldpublish curious facts about some religious sects here.

Missionaries do nothing here. In order to obtain converts they are obliged to offerpremiums and salaries for the lifetime of one who would accept the "great truths ofChristianity." They are nuisances and off color here. My love to Mrs. Thompson if you seeher. Olcott's love to you, Yours ever sincerely,

H. P. Blavatsky

We are going Northward to Lahore and Amritsir.

-------------12. The term Rajpoot signifies man of royal descent. The

---------------- 618.

The next place of destination was Lahore. I received a letteras interesting and unique as this. Mme. B. next became engaged in the publication of TheTheosophist and her letters took a different turn. They have not been preserved.

(The Word, vol. 7, pp. 203-13.)

-----------other designations of this caste, are Kshathriya, Rajauya and Rajbausi, all denoting royalassociation. After the Aryan invaders of India had begun to devote themselves to husbandryand the arts of civilized life, the military class remained apart and became a distinct caste andpeople. Like the princes of Assyria they are altogether kings and kingly.-----------

[There is a facsimile included here of a previous letter of Blavatsky to Wilder. The WordEditor Harold Percival writes: "We intended to reproduce in facsimile the first and last pagesof Madame Blavatsky's letter from Agra and printed in this number. The reproduction wasmade impossible because the letter is written with violet ink on green paper and could,therefore, not be photographed. This was not considered until too late. We therefore present afacsimile of the letter published in the last number of 'The Word.'"]

-------------------- 619.

ALEXANDER WILDER by Harold. W. Percival

The autobiographical notes of Alexander Wilder, which ended in the last issue of "TheWord," place before us many of the important events of his life. True to Dr. Wilder’s nature,the notes are straightforward and bear the stamp of sincerity and honesty. They give the factsas they were, without any attempt at exaggeration or embellishment. Throughout the notesthere is a quaint charm and beauty in the Doctor's natural sincerity and simple honesty. Theyremind those who knew him, of many of the incidents of his life, of the charm of his simplicityof nature and directness of expression. Dr. Wilder's life is an example of the ability of man tolive through difficulties, endure hardships and overcome obstacles. His life is another evidencethat however environment, circumstances and position, together with human influences maytend to suppress or hold back the mind from its expression and development, the mind willnevertheless not be suppressed but will according to its capacity find a way to extricate itselffrom such conditions and grow into an atmosphere which will allow it more freedom for itsinherent inclinations, ambitions and aspirations. The present age has produced numerousexamples of men who would not be suppressed by circumstance and environment, who wouldnot be held back from their natural bent nor forced into channels which they themselves did notselect, but who, feeling an impulse to pursue paths different from those which were customary,cut out new paths for themselves, engaged in new fields of endeavor, established records ofprogress and won new victories in various fields of work and thought. Such men were those

who made civilization what it is, who changed the rating of time, shortened distances, broughtpeople closer together and established a nearer relationship between mankind. Each man

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with inherent power pursues his own path and gives expression to what is within him. It isbecause of the power of expression and the ability to express, that we have in the world todaythe printing press, and the applied sciences.

Dr. Wilder had inherent power which caused him to grow out of his limited environmentinto a wider and loftier atmosphere of thought. His inclinations were not along commerciallines. He possessed neither the shrewdness of mind nor the instinct to show him how to get thebest of a bargain. The lack of these unfitted him for commercial pursuits. Had he possessedthem, Dr. Wilder, with his clearness of thought, power of expression, and with his range ofknowledge and acquaintance with the sciences, might have been one of the directing powers ofmodern times. This is an intensely practical age, an age of success, which builds, reduces,weaves, grinds everything into dollars. One to be successful in this age must fulfill the demandof the age, that, in addition to ability and accomplishments, he must know what a dollar isworth, must know how to work a dollar, and, must have a working knowledge of human natureand of the applied science of human nature. That is to say, a man must be a worker of men anda worker of money. If he has these talents he is chosen and inspired by the spirit of the age asits representative or one of its captains, and he is beloved by those who are in love with orpossessed by the spirit of the age.

The Doctor did not have these talents. The successful priest or preacher is not the mostlearned nor religious man, but the one who can attract the largest audience, stir them up, makethem fill the contribution boxes, donate large sums to and remember the church in their wills. The successful physician is the one who can patch and fix-em-quick by a hurry cure, or leadthem along carefully and fearfully through a difficult and dangerous illness, with the drugs andassistants and consultations made necessary by the dignity of the occasion and the nature anddesire of the patient. The doctor who says that little medicine is needed and who will only letnature repair the damages done, is likely to lose his patient because the patient cannot see whathe is getting for his money. The successful traders, speculators, journalists, artists, authors, are so many industrial

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captains of finance who, by their strategy, marshal their knowledge and their wares into thefield and win in the battle for dollars.

Dr. Wilder either did not understand or would not play the game of dollars. He knewwhat a dollar was worth - if he didn't have it. He knew how to work for a dollar, but did notknow how to make a dollar work. He did not know how to turn one dollar into two. He had anintimate knowledge of human nature - he worked with men and for men - but he either couldnot or would not work human nature for gain. Dr. Wilder did not possess the modern talents ofsuccess. He was not possessed nor inspired by the spirit of the commercial age. So he livedthrough it without being envied by those who worship success, though his place among menfound for him the admiration and esteem of men in public affairs, the regard of men of lettersand of science, and the love of those who knew him intimately. His wide learning and

readiness to put it to the service of others, his sincerity of purpose and honesty in thought andaction, together with his unflagging energy, interest in affairs and his lofty ideals, commandedthe honor and respect of all and endeared him to most men who knew him.

We have learned that Dr. Wilder was born eighty-six years ago, in Western New York,that his father was a farmer, who had a large family, and that his opportunities were restricted. Most people forget their first memory in life; some never consider it worth while to think offirst memories. Yet much may be learned from them. "My earliest recollection," says theDoctor, "is that of being seated in a little arm chair before the fire, and sadly gazing into it." Astrange awakening to physical life. The birth of one's body into the world is not the birth of themind. The first years of the child are like a sleep to the mind. There must come an awakening,when the mind first becomes aware of the outside or inside physical world, even though by soawakening it may forget the other world from which it came and where it was conscious. Eachone may ask himself the question: "How far back do I remember?" His age in this worldbegins from that time. Dr. Wilder was older than most people who die at his age. Fire was thething that waked him. And he was sad. Anyone may experience somewhat of how the Doctorfelt, by looking into a log fire after twilight

--- 622.

some November evening and he, too, will feel - though he may not see what the Doctor saw. The Doctor had a good deal to do with fire in his life. He wrote many articles about it andlived in it part of the time, as many people do. But unlike most people, the Doctor often knewwhat it meant and did not scream when it burned. In fact, the world did not know when he wasburned because he did not scream, as most people do, though he was almost always better forhaving passed through the fire.

In 1826, some time after the fire incident and about three years after little AlexanderWilder was born, he relates, he was taken to the Sunday school in his village, Verona, wherethe superintendent distributed books to the other children, but, as he could not read and was sosmall, the superintendent gave him "a card on which were printed the alphabet and simplelessons in spelling. I kept hold of that card tenaciously," writes the Doctor, and, "with somehelp from brothers and sisters, learned the letters and how to sound them." He continues: "Having no further use of the card, I then destroyed it." This must have been a markedcharacteristic of the Doctor throughout his life. He repeatedly told me that a thing was good tothe degree that it was useful. If a thing was not useful, it was an encumbrance. This did notmean that he would ruthlessly destroy a thing which he did not need, or that he had no regardfor that which another had. Money, food, books, ornaments, works of art, were useful andgood if they were of benefit to the body, or would aid in educating, developing and elevatingthe mind, otherwise they were worthless, useless.

In 1828, when he was four and a half years old, young Alexander began his school life. But "Alick was smart," so they said, and three years later, at seven, his teacher demanded thatanother book be procured for him because he had learned "Willett's Geography" by heart. Sothey gave him "Lindley Murray's English Grammar" as a substitute. He thrived well on it. Thestyle of that old grammar may be found here and there through the Doctor's writings.

Those who dwell in large cities and who are acquainted with the present school system,can hardly appreciate what the "Deestrik Skool" was - and still is in some parts - in a littlevillage "up state." In

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the city, the child walks a few blocks to an imposing, up-to-date structure, enters an elevatorand is taken to the particular class room of its grade, provided with all the latest approvedbooks and appliances. In the country after doing "housework" or "chores" the scholars oftenwalk miles to the district school, which is a little box-like affair of a house of one or two rooms. One teacher holds school and the children sit through their "hours." Then they walk homeagain over the dusty or snowy roads and go to "doin' chores" again, if they are boys, or theregulation "housework" if they are girls. Young Alexander inherited the few school bookswhich each of his brothers and sisters had in turn inherited from the eldest. Perhaps it isbecause of the abundance of books and opportunities for learning in large cities that children donot appear to value them as they might if these were not so available. The old family schoolbooks to which he became heir were taken at their full value by Alexander.

The early years of Alexander Wilder possessed little of interest. His father wished tomake a farmer of him. The boy yearned to know. Farming was not disagreeable to him, but hisfather's insistence made it so and it became objectionable. The boy was willing to be lead, butwould not be driven. He desired to grow and to know. This shows another trait in hischaracter, known to all his friends or acquaintances. They might induce him to do a thing bygentle persuasion, but an attempt at forcing him would be met with stubborn resistance. Hewould not be dominated, nor would he himself domineer over others nor dictate their actions.

He became a teacher at fifteen. "The work of instruction was to my liking and I had raresuccess in communicating what I knew," writes the Doctor, "but the governing was beyondme," he adds. "Every parent passed judgment on methods, and the children behaved in schoolaccording as they were managed at home. Every district was in factions, and it required moretact than a boy in his teens possessed to steer a clear course amid the breakers." People in littlecountry towns have strong prejudices. This boy teacher was sensitive and conscientious andwould not resort to any of the artifices to curry party favor. He was unsuited to the work. Heliked to impart and could impart what he knew, "but the governing was beyond me,"

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he declared. The maxim: Govern others or they will govern you was unheeded by the Doctor.Before Alexander was quite fifteen, the minister of the village, the advisory committee,

and his own parents "converted" him. It seems that their church needed recruits, and somethinghad to be done to get them, so they decided on what in those days was called a "protractedmeeting." This meant not one, but a set of continuous "revival" meetings which often extendedover many weeks. These "revivals" were protracted until the press service recruiting officerssaved enough of the unsaved, or until the "spirit moved them" to stop, or until their fervor ranout. This sounds a little odd today, but in those days most parents insisted on holdingthemselves responsible for their children's souls, even though they were not too particular abouttheir bodies. And if the parents forgot their duty, the minister did not forget his, to remindthem of it. They had their way of doing things in those days, truly, but human nature haschanged little since then, though we may not hold so many of those protracted meetings nor bequite so sure of saving a boy's soul. The boy had just gotten over some unpleasant occurrencein school. "It had," the Doctor writes, "been wisely adjusted and studies resumed, when thisreligious interruption occurred. It was most distasteful to me. I had formed a set of opinions

for myself and desired not to be bothered. But our parents believed that opportunities forreligious impression should not be neglected, or themselves made accountable for the future oftheir children after death. Conversion, in their conception would both straighten out their ownmistakes, and be of everlasting benefit to us. So against my vehement protest, I was taken fromschool and perforce made attend the meetings. It took days to overcome my stubbornness, butthe endeavor was successful. I became a Presbyterian of the New School." Poor boy, he hadbeen preparing for the study of medicine, but now that he had been "converted," and inasmuchas he must have an "education," he should be educated for the ministry. The pleading of hisbrother succeeded where other methods would have failed. Two years later his studies wereinterrupted by the disagreement of his brothers, which resulted in his leaving the church. Hisnatural inclinations and tendencies had been

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so checked and suppressed by his father - who rigorously tried to fit him into the farm andattend to his spiritual growth - that at twenty he lacked the knowledge of how to direct andmanage things, that some boys have. He says: "I was with all my experience, at twenty-one,more simple and artless than most lads at fifteen. I excelled all my equals in book learning, butI was far behind them in savoir faire."

Too often has a strong character been blunted or turned from its natural growth by thewell-meaning but ignorant or stupid notion of parents that the future of the child depends onwhat they select for it and not on any preference of the child's. Parents may choose thevocation for some children. Some children have no preferences other than play. A positionmay be selected for such as these. But the stronger the individuality of the mind, the more itwill insist on choosing its own work in the world. The attempt of the parent to thwart thechoice of work - when the child has a choice - may result in dwarfing but not in preventinggrowth.

A strong individuality brings with it into life a forgotten knowledge of its work. As soonas the individuality shows self in the child, its effort is to find and grow into or make its ownatmosphere. The parent who has the welfare of a child at heart should try to find out what thework of its individuality is and then to help it into its work. If a child has no preference theparents should guide it. But parents often make sad mistakes. Sometimes they make a doctorout of a natural butcher, turn a potential auctioneer into a statesman, a drum-major into ageneral, a politician into a philosopher, a romancer into a lawyer, a hawker into an orator, aland agent into a preacher. This may tickle the vanity of the parent, but it bodes no good to thepublic.

(The Word, Vol. 9, pp. 219-25)

[The article ends "To be concluded" but was not in following issues.]

-------------------- 626.

WILDER BIOGRAPHY

(The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. IX, James T White & Co.,1899)

Wilder, Alexander, physician and author, was born at Verona, Oneida co., N.Y., May 14,1823, sixth son of Abel and Asenath (Smith) Wilder. His father (1783-1869), a native ofPetersham, Mass., was a farmer, first at St. Albans, Vt., and later at Verona, N.Y.; his motherwas a daughter of William Smith, a farmer and millwright of Barre, Mass., and a soldier in therevolution. The Wilder genealogy may be traced in England as far back as 1490, beginningwith Nicholas Wilder, supposedly of German origin, and still has seats at Purely Hall andSulham Manor, Berkshire. The original American representative was Thomas Wilder, who,with his mother, Martha, and brother, Edward Wilder, came from Lancaster, in England, toMassachusets Bay colony in 1638. He settled first at Charlestown, where he took the freeman'soath in 1640; and in 1652 at Lancaster (formerly Nashua), where he was a farmer andmanufacturer of potash. From him the descent runs through his son, Nathaniel Wilder, afounder of Leominster, who was killed by the Indians in 1704; through his son, Nathaniel, afarmer of Sterling and an early settler of Petersham; through his son, Jerahmeel, also a farmerof Petersham; through his son, Abel, a farmer and drover of Barre, Mass., and grandfather ofDr. Wilder. Through his mother, he is descended from Robert Smith, of Londonderry, an IrishPresbyterian, who settled in Massachusetts shortly before the revolution; and from WilliamWilliams, of Yarmouth, England, who settled at Salem in 1638; and is collaterally related tothe Brecks, Fullers, Boardmans, and other noted Massachusetts families. Alexander Wilderattended the common schools until his fifteenth year, when he began teaching school andeducating himself in the higher branches of mathematics

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and the classics, to which he added the study of French and Hebrew and political science. Thecircumstances of the deaths of several of his father's family demolished his confidence incurrent medical methods, and he accordingly began studies in medicine, in order to renderhimself as far as possible independent of physicians. Meantime, he worked at farming andtype-setting, reading medicine with local physicians, and in 1850 was awarded a diploma bythe Syracuse Medical College. He then became a general practitioner, and for two yearslectured on anatomy and chemistry in the college. In 1852 he was employed as assistant editorof the Syracuse "Star," and in 1853 of the "Journal"; and when, next year, the department ofpublic instruction was created by the legislature, he was appointed clerk. In 1856 he becameeditor, first of the New York "Teacher," afterward of the "College Review"; and sojourning inSpringfield, Ill., in the winter of 1857, displayed his activity in education by preparing thecharter, still in force, of the Illinois Normal University. He located in New York city in 1857,and became, in 1858, a member of the editorial staff of the "Evening Post," with which he wasconnected for thirteen years, establishing a reputation as an expert on political and financialmatters. In 1871 he was elected alderman on the "anti-Tweed" ticket by a majority exceeding26,000. It was his last political experience; and, on account of failing health, he, in 1873,removed to Roseville, then a suburb of Newark, N.J., where he has since continued to reside,engaged in educational and literary pursuits. He was president of the Eclectic Medical Societyof New York (1870-71); professor of physiology in the Eclectic Medical College (1873-77),and professor of psychology in the U.S. Medical College (1878-83), until it went out of

existence by a decision of the courts. Dr. Wilder became, in 1876, secretary of the NationalEclectic Medical Association, and held the office until 1895, by annual re-election, meantimeediting and publishing nineteen volumes of its "Transactions," besides contributing extensivelyto its literature. Loving knowledge for its own sake, he has always been a diligent student andan almost omnivorous reader. In 1882 he attended the School of Philosophy at Concord, Mass,and a year later took part in the organization of the American Akademe, a philosophic society,

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holding meetings at Jacksonville, Ill. He edited its journal for four years, contributingmonographs, entitled: "The Soul," "Philosophy of the Zoroasters," "Life Eternal," "Creationand Evolution," and others. He also made a translation from the Greek of the "Dissertation ofIamblichus on the Mysteries of the Egyptians," etc., which was printed in "The Platonist." Among his pamphlets and books are: "Later Platonists," "Paul and Plato," "The Resurrection,""New Platonism and Alchemy," "Mind, Thought and Cerebration, "Plea for the CollegiateEducation of Women," "The Ganglionic Nervous System," "Vaccination, a Medical Fallacy,""Prophetic Intuition, or the Daemon of Socrates," "History of Medicine," and "AncientSymbolism and Serpent Worship."

--------------------- 629.

"FACES OF FRIENDS"

ALEXANDER WILDER, M. D.

Dr. Alexander Wilder's name is very familiar to our readers through his interestingarticles. He come from Puritan ancestry, and though he had but little education except commonschool, through his own efforts he acquired a knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Latin and French,and is one of the best Greek scholars and writers on Platonic and Neo-platonic philosophy inthe country. In 1854-5 he was a clerk in the State Department of Public Institutions at Albany,then he became editor of the New York Teacher, also of the College Journal. He was on thestaff of the N. Y. Evening Post from 1858-71, and from 1878-84 was Professor of Physiology,Psychologic Science and Magnetic Therapeutics in the U. S. Medical College.

In 1876, at the instance of the publisher, Col. Olcott placed in Dr. Wilder's hands themanuscript, then without a name, of "Isis Unveiled." He read it critically and withoutpartiality, and counselled its publication as certain to make a commotion among curious andthinking persons.

Dr. Wilder later met Madam Blavatsky. She was then living in New York City. Dr.Wilder describes her as follows:

"She had what I considered a Kalmuk physique, a lively expression, always something tosay that was worth hearing, and, I think, was generous with money. She was, however, veryintense in arguing. Personally I found her entertaining. She appeared to have a wide fund of

knowledge on philosophic and religious subjects, acute powers of discerning, and original waysof thinking. One could discourse of races, ethics, opinions, discoveries and individuals, ancientand modern, and she seemed at home in them all. To me

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she was always courteous and obliging. She did, unasked and unwitting to me, two favors ofgreat importance to me which relieved me of much embarrassment. That, if there was nothingelse, would make me careful not to injure her in reputation or otherwise.

"The second season that I knew her, a curious decoration was placed in the dining-room. It consisted of the figures of several tropical animals, wrought ingeniously with the gayly-colored leaves of trees gathered in autumn. I remember some of them - birds, a lion, I think, anelephant, a man and the Sivaic triangle. Col. Olcott called my attention to the circumstancethat the creatures were placed all in procession, one after the other, and no two facing. Weused to have amusement at this. I do not know but it was the procession of the Book ofGenesis, all solemnly marching toward the Ark. But I will not venture that opinion. When the'Lamasery,' as some of the profane called it, was broken up, these were all cast out in therubbish. I rescued the elephant and the triangle, and have them in Newark. The wind,however, has disfigured them.

"Madame Blavatsky did me the honor of procuring from publishers of periodicalseverything I had ventured to write and to ask me to write out my views on a variety of topics. Ifound some of these things in 'Isis.' I did not write them for that purpose, but of course theywere at her service."

Dr. Wilder is the author of several brochures, e.g., "Later Platonists," "The Soul," "Mind,Thought, Cerebration," "Life Eternal," "Ganglionic Nervous System," etc., etc,

(Universal Brotherhood, Aug., 1898)

----------------------- 631.

DR. ALEXANDER WILDER - Boris De Zirkoff

Wilder, Dr. Alexander. Distinguished physician, author and Platonic scholar, b. atVerona, Oneida Co., N.Y., May 14, 1823; d. at Newark, N.J., September 8, 1908. Descendantof a New England family which came from Lancaster, England, to Massachusetts Bay in 1638. Sixth son of Abel and Asenath (Smith) Wilder, and the eighth child of a family of ten. Educated at first in the common schools of New York state. Being precocious beyond years,started teaching school at fifteen, studying by himself the higher branches of mathematics andthe classics, to which were added later French, Hebrew and political science. Thecircumstances of the deaths of several of his father's family demolished his confidence incurrent medical methods, and he began studies in medicine, in order to render himself as far aspossible independent of physicians. Meantime, he worked at farming and type-setting, reading

medicine with local physicians, and was awarded in 1850 a diploma by the Syracuse MedicalCollege. Became then a general practitioner, lecturing for about two years on anatomy andchemistry in the college. After several assignments as Editor of various dailies, he settled inNew York City and became, 1858, a member of the editorial staff of the Evening Post withwhich he remained connected for thirteen years. Despite his repeated refusals, Dr. Wilder wasmade to accept in 1873 a professorship of physiology in the Eclectic Medical College of NewYork, but left there in 1877 on account of internal dissensions and dishonest practices beyondhis control. From 1878-83, he taught psychology at the U.S. Medical College, until it went outof existence by a decision of the courts. In 1876, he became secretary of the National EclecticMedical Association, and held the office until 1895,

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meantime editing and publishing nineteen volumes of its Transactions, besides contributingextensively to its literature. However, to quote Dr. Wilder's own words: ".... my observation ofmedical colleges is not favorable to them as schools of morals or as promoters of financialprobity. The more there is professed, the less it seems to be believed.... physicians boastedloudly then, as now, of being a learned body and invoked special legislation to protect themfrom competitors...." He allowed himself to become for a while a subject in suchexperimentations, and had abundant reasons, as he says himself, to regret this. He wasinfluenced to a very considerable extent by the study of Swedenborg, and later by the writingsof General Hitchcock on Alchemy and Hermetic Philosophy. He experienced a number ofradical changes in his religious views, identified himself for a time, together with his brothers,with several religious movements of a revivalist kind, but finally grew out of them and into asphere of spiritual freedom, and became an outstanding - yet, unfortunately, not wellrecognized - exponent of Platonism and the Hermetic Philosophy. A strong individualitybrings with it into life a forgotten knowledge of its real work, but it takes often many years tobring it out into the open.

In 1882, Dr. Wilder attended the School of Philosophy at Concord, Mass., and a yearlater took part in the organization of the American Akademe, a philosophic society holdingmeetings at Jacksonville, Ill. He edited its journal for four years, contributing manymonographs on such subjects as: "The Soul," "Philosophy of the Zoroasters," "Life Eternal,""Creation and Evolution," and others. He also made a translation from the Greek of theDissertation of Iamblichus On the Mysteries of the Egyptians (orig. publ. in The Platonist; issued in book form in 1911 by The Metaphysical Publ. Co., New York).

Dr. Wilder wrote a number of most scholarly and illuminating articles in The Evolution, aJournal published in New York, on such subjects as: "Bacchus the Prophet-God" (June, 1877),"Paul, the Founder of Christianity" (Sept., 1877), "Paul and Plato," and others. He contributedphilosophical essays to The Metaphysical Magazine of New York around 1894-95, and wrote extensively on various

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metaphysical and Platonic subjects for The Word, from 1904 on. One of the most valuablepamphlets issued by him is entitled New Platonism and Alchemy: A Sketch of the Doctrinesand Principal Teachers of the Eclectic or Alexandrian School; also an Outline of the Interior

Doctrines of the Alchemists of the Middle Ages (Albany, N.Y., 1869). H.P.B. quoted manypassages from the various writings mentioned above, and expressed her delight over theattitude of Dr. Wilder towards the subjects of which they treat.

In addition to various essays on medical subjects, such as Thought, Cerebration, theGanglionic Nervous System, Vaccination as a medical fallacy, and others, Dr. Wilder wrote aHistory of Medicine (New Sharon, Maine: New England Eclectic Publ. Co., 1901. 946 pp.Index), and contributed invaluable Notes and Comments to special editions of the works ofother scholars, such as: Ancient Symbol-Worship by Westropp and Wake (Boston, 1874); Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology by R. Payne Knight (New York, 1876).

Dr. Wilder contributed a good deal of material to the section of Isis Unveiled entitled"Before the Veil," the circumstances of which are fully explained in the Introductory chapter tothe edition of that work forming an integral part of the present Series. He was a staunch friendof both H.P.B. and Col. H.S. Olcott, and had a very high regard for their work. Dr. Wilder wasa tall man, spare of person, with a massive head and piercing eyes; he spoke fluently, was anomnivorous reader, and possessed a remarkable memory. His many-sided writings shouldsome day be compiled into a uniform edition and published for the benefit of present-dayscholars who are quite unaware of his intuitive insight into so many different regions ofthought.

(Bibliography, H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, Vol. I, compiled and edited byBoris De Zirkoff, 15 volumes.)

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ALEXANDER WILDER LETTER TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN

[Someone with more experience at transcribing old faded letters could probably do abetter job on this. The Letter is found in the Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, and isonline. Wilder was probably known to Lincoln from his work on the Evening Post in NewYork. - Ed.]

(Confidential)

No. 222 So. 34th St.New York, Oct. 20, 1864

Hon. Abraham Lincoln, President

Sir,I make bold to call your attention to a subject of vital importance at the present crisis -

that of the safety of one community. I am no alarmist, but I think that the occasion demandsyour earnest and careful attention. It appears to be the purpose of the political adversaries ofyour administration to attempt once more the inauguration of riot and civil war here among us.

We hear it talked by them on cars, in ferry boats, and when walking in the streets. It does notsound like "bluffing," but as the enunciation of a decided purpose.

.....? instilled the riot of 1863 and he ...? it to have been an act of preconcerted treason onthe part of "democratic" leaders, I am ready to believe that the same men are ready to repeattheir infamous conduct. The German democratic newspapers boldly declare that if you areelected, you might not to be permitted to take your seat, and that armed revolt ought to preventit. We have all the premonitions of

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trouble which were apparent last year. If mischief is contemplated, it will extend further thanthis city and vicinity. And Heaven knows that is ....? secessionists and lawless men here asnumerous as in a Southern city.

I am sanguine(?) of your election by almost a unanimous electoral vote. Our State willgive you a handsome majority on the home vote if the rebel party does not deluge the ballotboxes with specious votes as in 1862. Even New Jersey will with good luck, cast you her vote. But the very fact that this is the last chance for the secessionists, is likely to deepen theirmalignity and fix their purpose.

The Military commandant should be placed on his guard, and made to understand that"business is meant." We want a positive ....? on watch, Gen. S's(?) I fear, is too easy. If a mobarises it should be treated Napoleonically. .....? ....? and peaceful generally are hardly the thingunless a M'Clellan should head them ....?. The leaders of the inflammable element are ....?: itis your duty, sir, to cause vigilance to be observed, and decisive measures taken formaintenance of order.

Your Second term may be more harassing than this one. The men who applaud and votefor you will denounce your policy of finance and reorganisation. The rebel element will be fedby them. But you have no right to shirk. I shall vote for you, support you afterward if I canhonorably do so, and I trust that you will introduce a new Era in our Country and humanity.

....? .....? at Washington are - Gen. Hitchcock, Gen. Bebb, ....? .....?, the N.Y. Sectors,C.T. Helh.. Fenton, ....? ....?, A. C. Wilder, etc.

I think I carry a cool head and fixed purpose. What I have written I have written becauseI apprehend it true.

Very truly yours,

Alexander Wilder

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INDEX

Aesculapius (Asklepios) - 397-400, 407-9Alchemy - 282-3, 286-310; is symbolic 293-7, 303-4

Alexandria - 356-7Alexandrian school - 13-16, 26-7Ammonius Sakkas - 2-3, 10-12; and Alexandrian school 26-7; first Neo-Platonist 67-8Appollonius - 17-18Asceticism - 18, 20, 23Asoka - 66; displaced Jainism 158-9Athanaeos - 403Atlantis - Plato's parable of 53-65Avesta - 119-20, 127, 131, 132-34

Bacon, Francis - on preternatural bond between people 321-2Blavatsky, H.P. - i-iv, viii, x, 554-65; letters to Wilder 598-618Buddhism - 158-9; teachings in Middle East 92Bulwer-Lytton 20-21

Cain - history behind Biblical legend 575-80Catholic Church - persecutions by 360, 363, of Galileo 582, of Mivart 583Chandragupta - 158Character - 497-9Child, Lydia Maria - 184ffChina - 136-7Christianity - origins of Trinity doctrine 33, adopting of Egyptian customs 37-8Chuang-tse - 142-5Colds - 474-9Confucius - 137-8Cycles - of history 160-1, 177; 394, 566

Death - 251, 265Details - attention to 550-1Devil, Christian - in theology 219; 530Dionysius the Areopagate - 358Disease - 464-75; and imagination 464-8; and removal from familiar surroundings 468-71; and usefulness 471-2; and mental attitude 472-3, 475-7; and music 478Dreams - 90-1; problem solving in 336Du Potet - 425

Eclectic School - against drugs 403Ekhart - 359-60Electricity - as principle of universe 383Entheasm - 91-2, 256-66Erigena - 359Ethiopians - 180-1Evil - problem of 219-30; personification of 220; in Zoroastrianism 221; Sokrates on 227-8Eye - physiology 44-52, 456-7, 459; and color 454-6; and light 455

Flagellants - 205-6

Franklin, Benjamin - 588-93

Galileo - 581-83; church persecution of 582-6Ganglionic Nervous System - 431-47, 539-44; seat of psychic nature 438-41, 447Gathas - 126Geber (Giafar, Jaffar) - founder of Arabian alchemy 291-2, 297Ghosts - 388-93; Dante's 393Gnosis - origin of word 26fnGnosticism - 225God - human creation of 263Golden Age - 567-72

Hermes - 290Hierokles (Herakles) - 7-8Hindu - symbolism 185-6Hippokrates - 401-3, 407Hitchcock, Gen. E.A. - friend of Wilder's and alchemical writer 286-7, 289Hypatia - 6-7, 21, 28-33; her philosophy 32, murder by Christians 6-7, 34-8

Iamblichos - 6, 17, 19-20, 85-97; student of Porphyry; Wilder Translation 87fn; wrote Life ofPythagoras 86Ideas - most real 523Imagination - 520-28; visual 5-709Insanity - 441, 445, 494-6Intuition - 249-50, 351; and divination 329-40; and temperance 338Invention - 329Invisible Beings - 517-18, 521, 526Isis Unveiled - 553-65; edited by Wilder 555, 558-60, 563-4Islam - 548; origin of word 165-6; center of learning 172-3

Jainism - 147-59; ancient 147, 157; temples 149-52; and Buddhism 153-4; and Hinduism154-6; no God in 155; doctrines 155-57; non-violent 157Jung-Stilling - mystic 267-8

Kingsley - 29-30; on Hypatia's murder 35-6Know Thyself - Greek maxim 257Koran - 170-3; word meaning 170fnKritias - 53

Lao-tse - 142-6Lincoln, Abraham - Wilder letter to 634-5Love - 231-37Lucky Days - 37-79; and Astrology 372, 377; and days of month 373-6Luther - 361

Magnesia - 409

Magnetism (Animal) - 396-7, 405-30; Jesus and 406; definition 411-12; Mesmer 412-13; dangers of 416-22; 430; history 417-18; persecuted by church 418; effects of 419-20; continence in operator 428; method 426-30Matter - nature of 235-45; Plato on 241; theories of 382-3Maypole Ceremony - 200Mencius - 139-41Mesmer - 412-13Mithraism - 8-9, 128-9Mivart, George - persecution by church 583-87Mohammed - 163-70; pupil of Zaid 166, 168Mosheim - 10-11, 15Moslem - 125Mozart - 316Multiple Personality - 481-9, 533-4Mysteries - 177-78fn, 391; Cabeirian 191-2; Greek 93-113, 353-5; origin of 104-5fnMysticism - 352-69; European history 356-63

Neo-Platonism - 9ffNervous Disorders - 491-6Nestorians - 161, 163, 173

Olympiodorus - 7, 41Origen - 4-5

Papyrus - types of 41-2Paracelsus - 300-3, 362Percival, H.W. - on Wilder 619-25Petroleum - ancient altar fires 253-5Phallicism - 174-208; in ancient worship 189-208; prohibition of 201-3Plato - 295, 538, 546; platonic ideas 106, 352, 367; basic ideas of 45-52; on love 51; parableof Atlantis 53-65Plotinus - 3-4, 18, 66-73; student of Ammonios Sakkas 68Porphyry (Porphyrios) - 5-6, 76-84; student of Plotinos 68, 70; his philosophy 79-84Prevorst, Seeress of - 421Proklos - 7, 21-2, 42-44Psychology - 490-506, 536-39; science of the soul 536; and physiology 539-44, 544-46

Rabia - 365-6Religious sects - 549Resurrection - of Jesus 212-3Rosicrucians - 267-85, 299-300; history 269-70, 279; and Bacon 272-6

Seership - 341-51; drugs and 343; in dreams 344-5; Prof Tholuck, experience 345-6; Goethe346; hallucinations and 350Serpent - symbol of healing art 394-5Sexes - character of 504-6; sexual attraction 235-7

Shakespeare - 531-5, 545Shey, Lipper - inventor of telescope 581Sokrates - 356, 588-90, 593-5; inner guide of 332-3; being absent from body 71Sopator - 6Soul - 536-7; nature of 311-28; leaving body 322-3, 337Staff, physician's - 395Sufi - 365-6Sun - and heat 383-4Superstition - 370-1Swedenborg - 344, 382Synesios - disciple of Hypatia 29-31, 33Syrianus - 7, 40-1

Tao - 142Taylor, Thomas - 98, 106-7Theosophical Society - 556, 564-5

Vaughan, Thomas - 289-91fnVirginity - among Israelites 197Vision - 458-63; inner - 529-35Voices - inner 510-11

Wilder, Alexander - editing Isis Unveiled 555, 558-60, 563-4; warned of danger 345-6, 510-11; visual experience 512-13; father's dream 514; biography - see Introduction and Appendix; experiences when ill 482-5, 489; on drugs 491; women and medical schools 505

Yasna - 122, 126-7, 131, 134-5

Zirkoff - Wilder bio 631-33Zoroaster (Zarathustra) - 115-135Zoroastrianism - 115-35, 250-1, 380-1; teachings 123; main ancient religion 127-8; fromChaldea 129-30; brotherhood in 135

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