J* Glass ___^... Boole ferigMlSf?- COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/psychocraftOOemer BEING THE ART OF FOLLOWING THE LEAD OF INSTINCT WHICH USES HUMAN ORGANIC MECHANISMS WITH GIANT STRENGTH OR ARIEL TOUCH TO AVERT DISASTER, CREATE GENIUS, PROPHETIC IN- SIGHT, OR VERIFY FAITH WITH SUPERORGANIC I IS! X U I T I O SM S INCIDENTALLY INTRODUCING A NEW IDEA OF THE PRINCIPLE OF ONWARDNE3S INHERENT IN THE RACE EXPERIENCE OF MANKIND IN PLACE OF THE HUXLEY MEASURE OF PROGRESS, INDIVIDUAL SPORADIC GENIUS, AND THE PAGAN FUTILITY OF ETERNAL RETURN OF ENDLESS CYCLES OF PURPOSELESS EXISTENCE WITH ILLUSTRA TIONS BY THE A UTHOR GIVING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER TWO THOUSAND YEARS A DEFINITE OPERATIVE SOLUTION OF THE GREATEST MYSTERY OF ANCIENT HEBREW LITERATURE ®lj? Gtarie of Aaron's Breastplate CAREFULLY WORKED OUT AND PRACTICALLY APPLIED AS HEREIN PRESENTED IN THE ELEGANT AND INFALLIBLE ORACLE OF ELLU BY C. H. EMERSON "IS THERE ANYTHING WHEREOF IT MAY BE SAID, SEE THIS IS NEW? It HATH BEEN ALREADY OF OLD TIME WHICH WAS BEFORE US." — Eccl. I, 10. COPYRIGHT, 191 1, BY C. H. EMERSON LC Control Number tmp96 026015 Press of South-worth Printing Company, Portland, Maine >CI.A295926 'TWERE A SMALL THING TO SEE WRITTEN HERE THIS LITTLE TOKEN OF MY GRATEFUL LOVE, TO MY BROTHER EDWIN RUTHVEN EMERSON. Unless, perchance, you be one of the favored, when the gentle power of memory, stirred by the name will glow again to the heart's instinctive tribute, "The rarest spirit i ever knew." (Entrants PAGE Motto, 8-12 The Oracle and the Wheel, 15 - 28 General Outlines, 29 - 37 The Allegory of the Cover Design, 40 - 54 Charting the Human Life Faculties, 57 - 65 Memory, 66 - 74 Onwardness, 75 - 89 Basting Threads, 90 - 119 The Tabulation of Faculties, 120 - 122 The Oracle of Aaron's Breastplate, 123 - 131 Modern Research, 132 - 136 Gems and the Gliptic Art, 137 - 140 Name and Alphabet, 141 - 153 Light and Number, 154 - 164 Face the Light, 165 - 171 Conclusion of Oracle, 172 - 184 The Oracle of Ellu, 185 - 189 Directions for Using, 190 - 194 Table of Questions, 196 - 197 Chart, Key to Answers, 200 - 201 Codex Ellu, 205-206 Answers or Tablets of Destiny, 209 - 263 Autopsychic Alphabet, 271 - 279 Abstraction, My'st'ery of Mental Groupings, 280 - 297 Cultivation of, 298 - 308 Memory and Attention, 309 - 334 Psychic Symbolism, 335 - 349 Three Ways of Divination, 350 - 379 The Kindly Power of Ellu, 380 4 3Uu0tratt0tt0 PAGE Allegory of Cover Design, 40 Chart of Human Life Faculties, 56 Onwardness, Cycloidal, 74 Loop of Dark Ages — Birth and Death, 80 Tabulation of Faculties, 120 Melancholia, Symbolisms, 147 Amulet for Plague, 149 Hebrew Tables of Divine Names, 177 - 180 Oracle Pouch, Three Pockets, 181 Section of Chart of Motor Centre, 268 Sympathies of Numbers and Centre, 327 Symmetries of Forms Resulting, 328 - 331 Pendulum of Sleep, 362 V*" tftttf: BACK TO PRIMITIVE INSTINCT. a Hottentot's theory of mind should be a HI « ||| subject of interest to science. As this is a tre- Hl l"™ 8 HI mendously scientific age, I may get a popular !vl5 ^t hearing. In my philosophy are two separate and I^^Sl distinct energies that constitute "Life." This is not the old theory of vitalism, because the superior of these two energies, is a force which not only produces chemical changes — therefore motion — but it does something more; it vitalizes that substance through which it acts, thus originating the or- ganic conditions necessary for the generation of mind, and is therefore superior to both chemical force and mind. Nor is it modern spiritualism ; but it will help make the recent prophetic utterance of that arch materialist, Ernst Haeckel, "Materialism is an ambiguous party word; spiritualism could quite easily be substituted for it," easier of comprehension. While the two energies are distinct, they join in the "structural unity" which constitutes humanity — God, instinct, mind. The grossest of these is mind — even the potentialities of chemical force, (innate affinities of matter), being of a superior order to mind, because that force never errs. Why and how mind errs, then, becomes a burning question, the answer to which cannot fail to help reconcile material science and religion. Though this is not theological, and so called "occultism" I abhor. Each of the two energies is capable of generating and ap- plying "specific energies" of its own kind. It is by co-operation of these that divination becomes a scientific possibility, by virtue of Free Will, which, along with Abstraction and Imagination, are joint products of these two energies. Their orderly cere- bration produces science. While, on the other hand, intuition is a specific product of one of the two energies alone, as judg- ment is of the other. (See Tabulation, page 120.) 7 One of these two energies I call Biologic, the highest pro- duct of which is mind — intellect. But this specific energy- can operate only through organisms. Something has first to con- trive the organism. So, it is clear, this biologic energy must be directed, played upon, by an energy of higher intelligence, — that is, superior to mind. The other of the two, I call Superorganic Energy, the highest product of which is intuition. Let us judge these energies by their fruits. Among the specific products of mind (which are not all bad), are evil, fear, doubt, disease, insanity, death, and among the products of intuition are faith, health, happiness, immortality. So we see that mind is a poor subject for worship. The insubordination of intellectuality is a menace. Telepathy is a delusion, "subliminal" mind is a myth ; and even "faith" cures are not of the mind. 'Tis Ellu makes divination possible. Ellu might be called the god of intuitions and dreams ; but that would be pagan and unscientific. Ellu, in reality, is but the unfolding of your own primitive instinct — (which has forever possessed the most amazing powers), into your own Individual Independent Intel- ligence, which strangely enough some famous modern writers have endowed with the slatternly habit of dodging "under the threshold of consciousness," at the first shadow of an appearance of her lordly braggart-kitchen-master-mind, but which God him- self saw fit to make immortal, compared with which, mind is in- ferior temporal and perishable. When a nobody says a good thing, the cute listener seeks immediately to confront it with what "authorities" have said on that subject before him. Which is all very well, but the nobody can reply "He that hath ears to hear let him hear" for himself aright! Let him beware of mental illusions and halluci- nations, proceeding from distorted sense perceptions; for there is a deep truth in the bard's epigram, "A joke's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it." However, the nobody will pro- ceed to humor the cute one with a few authorities. tyat &$mv "AtttljoritteB" Iptie &atfr. "To the eyes of a philosopher that attempts to re-absorb intellect in intuition, many difficulties vanish or become light." — Henri Bergson, Professor of the College of France. "The story of the subconscious mind can be told in three words, there is none." — Hugo Munsterberg. Professor of Psychology at Harvard College. "Physiological experiment and simple self observation teach us that such an organ ('organ of representation' for intuitional mediation) has its own adaptive habits, its own peculiar memory, one might almost say its own intellgence. — Dr. Ernst Mach. Professor of inductive science, University of Vienna, in "Analysis of the Sensations." p. 86. (Note — The italics are mine. The point is profoundly significant — "Intellectuality alone can never grasp how life makes itself go") "For me, spiritual content .... springs from the spiritual fact that there is something higher in man than the mind, and that that something can control the mind." — Arnold Bennett. Note. — The italics are mine. That "something" not only can "con- trol" the mind's slow operations, but, on occasion, it can set the mind entirely aside, and use the brain and muscle mechanisms directly and independently, for purposes beyond the mind's grasp, in critical mo- ments, as in rescues from imminent disaster by instinctive acts involving the most astonishing display of prodigious muscular power, applied instantaneously, where resort to the reflections of reason would have meant sure death; proved a dozen times in my own experience. "To give it ('Life') beautiful and human proportions, it must be prolonged into the past and into the future. Into the past by study, into the future by intuition and dream Let us understand how to build our dreams, let us understand how to give them a scientific structure. For with this condition it is useful and good to be a dreamer." — Anatole France. 9 "Abstraction is the sceptre with which man rules nature." — Dr. Paul Carus. "If some one would make it his special study to find out how children can be assisted in cultivating the power of abstrac- tion, he would perform a great service for the science and prac- tice of education." — C. H. Judd, Ph. D., Professor of Psychology, Yale University. "A mind to which were given for a single instant all the forces of nature and the mutual positions of all its masses, if it were otherwise powerful enough to subject these problems to analysis, could grasp, with a single formula, the motions of the largest masses, as well as of the smallest atoms ; nothing would be uncertain for it; the future and the past would lie revealed before its eyes." — Laplace. "In writing these words (above), Laplace, as we know, had also in mind the atoms of the brain. . . . It is not too much to say that Laplace's ideal is substantially that of the great ma- jority of modern scientists." — Professor Ernst Mach, (in Popular Science Lectures, p. 188.) "It has always seemed to me incredible that we should not be able to know the future." — Maurice Maeterlinck. "All who admit of the existence of Destiny will see nothing more than natural in the fact that she indicates the way at each turning of the road." — Dr. Arnaldo Cervesato. "Who can say if some day . . . intuition may not take the place of observation, experiment, logic and calculation? ■ — Laura I. Finch, (Editor-in-chief London Annals of Psychical Science.) "And Abiathar brought thither the ephod. And David in- quired at the Lord, saying, shall I pursue after this troop ? Shall I overtake them ? And he answered him, Pursue : for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all." — I Samuel xxx : 7, 8. 10 "The Urim and the Thummim (The Oracle of Aaron's Breastplate) are implied, . . wherever in the earlier history of Israel, mention is made of asking counsel of the Lord by means of the ephod." — W. Muss-Arnolt, (In the American Jrnl. of Semitic Languages and Literatures. Vol. xvi, p. 198.) WHEN I say that to repeat the threadbare adage about the superiority of mind over matter, is to foster one of the most monstrous of the mind's own delusions, and when I say that the over adulation of mind (intellectuality), is a muddle and a men- ace, I would disclaim emphatically that it is in any sense a covert attack upon so-called Christian Science, or any other form of religious belief, for it is not. On the contrary, if there is any element of good in such a belief, what is here outlined would tend to put it upon the only truly "scientific" foundation it can hope to build upon for the future. For instance, one may take the book Science and Health and substitute therein the words Instinct and Intuition, for the words mind and Christian Science, wherever those words are used as synonymous with di- vine power, and thus begin the clearing up of an otherwise hope- less muddle of psychophysiological contradictions. To say "Mind is God," is not a clear discernment of apparent facts. Instinct, however, being of the superorganic energy, and intuition being of the soul, are really somewhat kin to our conception of God. Mind, the product of the amazingly fine skull mill mech- anisms, fashioned by instinct, for the transformations of sensa- tions and supersensual vibrations into human knowledge, is an astoundingly marvelous product surely, but compared with Pure Intelligence, or God, or even with instinct, it is a head made in a tin shop. Mind is almost sure to exert a baneful influence whenever it attempts to meddle with the province of Instinct. Mind was the necessary product of the highest forms of organisms. This made it a necessary evil, since its nature to meddle is inherent and ineradicable. I consider it, therefore, the original source of all the evil there is in the world. The "problem" of evil is solved. It is a redundancy to speak of "mortal" mind since there is no other kind in existence. From the very nature of things there can be no "divine mind." The nearest possible human approach ll to Divine Intelligence is through human instinct and intuition. But this book is anything but theological. It must not be forgotten, when reading what Jesus and the scriptures say about the source of all evil being in the heart, and that it is not only inherently wicked, but "desperately wicked above all things," that in old Jewish psychology the heart zvas the seat of the mind. Intellect, love, the feelings and emotions, were all one thing. For they had not yet discriminated between the noble and transcendant powers of the red element of life, over the diletante and cringing Gray, so they quite naturally lumped them all in the most evident of the two powers. Which also goes to show the subtle cunning of mind's ambition to usurp the real initiative and throne of Life. The misfortunes of any form of religious worship will not be in what I, or any other outsider may say about it, but only in that its corner stone is gray instead of red. However, this is a digression which gives unintentional prominence to a form of religious belief. The subject matter of this book deals with the question of the possibility of practical Divination. It is psychophysiological and not theological. It does not discuss, and is not intended to affect or influence, one way or another, any form of religious belief whatsoever. "With charity for all and malice towards none," it declares that there has never been but one real obstacle to divination, and to possess the faith that moves mountains, and that one obstacle is the meddling mind itself. The power to accomplish it exists in human life, but it does not reside in mind. How Child- ish then to deify mind ! Mind bungled along stupidly for un- known millions of years before a Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood ; mind has not even yet discerned the secrets of the liver or the parathyroids ; mind, after unknown millions of years of "life" experience on this thunder riven earth, only now begins to discover a few of the commercial uses of electricity and nothing of its nature. Call such stuff as that which mind is made of immortal? Let us back to our primitive Instincts, Prudence. c. H. E. Portland, Maine, July, igu. 12 jpBgrlforrafi In Two Parts. PART I. 3% (§mth mb ff?e W^nl PPIffMpHERE exists in human life a very remarkable and H| fi f ||| mysterious something — faculty, property, power, H| force or what not, which the genius of language HI has thus far quite failed to grasp and embody ^M?M%$MM%?M in a word or phrase. It is not soul. It is not spirit. It is not mind. It is not reason. It is not intellect. It is not subconsciousness. It is not the budding of a needless "sixth sense." It is not "subliminal" mind — (that ridiculous "ego" that dodges under the "threshold" of subjectivity, whose normal attitude resembles the mental state of the bulky bird that achieves insensibility by thrusting its silly diminutive head in the sand). And yet that mysterious something partakes somewhat of all the evasive properties and qualities, which most people attribute, more or less vaguely, to those much used terms — and has a something more, which is wanting in any one of them. To seize upon this naked and slippery vagabond of psycho-mentality, hold and clothe it in a phrase or word would seem an almost hopeless task. Yet it is very simple. Whether the result will be any more effective, or any less ludicrous as an exposure of parts, depends wholly upon your point of view, Prudence. For me it dispelled a dense fog. (Allow me to add here this personal parenthesis: not being a professional or experienced writer of books — this being the first, I trust I may be excused the above undue familiarity with the time honored "Gentle Reader" of other authors. It cannot be said that it is not equally androgynous, for it fits a him or a her equally well. Besides it brings your presence nearer, and is therefore more inspiring than the colder impersonality of "Gentle 15 Reader," in whom is merged the disconcerting masses of the "intelligent and discerning public") If you try to fit my right glove to your left hand, both fail- ure and the reason for it are very quickly evident. Figuratively speaking, that very thing happens when two people discuss psy- chic phenomena. No matter how learned they may be, they walk off, each with the others mismated ideas. Only they never discover the difference. Now; this is not due, as might be sup- posed, to the impenetrable psychophysiological mysteries of rights and lefts in the mechanisms of the sense organs and brain — (be- cause there is an independent intelligence in their "organs," that takes care of that for them). But rather to the different and confusing meanings given to words in common use by dif- ferent people, and by the same people at different times, and in different connections. The opposing words soul and instinct, for instance ; one generally construed as defining something spiritual in its nature as partaking of the divine, pure, — the other as inextricably anchored in, and contaminated with the grossest passions of flesh, are used interchangeably, and often indiscrim- inately by very learned authors. But the most common mistake of all is to confound mind and soul as the same attribute in life. The prime purpose of the book is to help remove that subtle source of confused thinking. The words subconsciousness and subliminal mind are the most popular modern terms by which attempts are made to isolate and designate this nameless something that has an undoubted separate existence from the conscious reasoning faculty. But eminent psychological authorities say these terms are inaccurate, inapt, misleading, in that there cannot be any such thing as "sub" consciousness ; the very ideas are contradicting. And as for a "threshold" dodging mind, that idea is also absurd. Others have written more circuitously about a great "mother reservoir" of pure intelligence, as something outside of "life," which the mind in certain states could tap. It cannot be that, any more than it is Luck or Destiny, because it is that which can apply the laws of natural forces to specific ends — on occasion, as history proves and I shall show. 16 The reason it cannot be covered by the words reason, intel- lect, mind, either separately or compounded, is because it is immeasurably superior to those particular attributes of life. Perhaps the word instinct, in its highest sense, comes nearer conveying an idea of this nameless something, than any of the terms in ordinary use. Anyway, Instinct is one of its chiefest instruments in shaping the affairs of life and destiny. I always have a feeling of profound gratification, whenever in the writings of great scientists, I come across such unconscious admissions of the existence of an Independent Intelligence superior to in- tellect, as appear in the assertion, repeatedly put forward, that some things they know "instinctively." It emphasizes the fact that there is not an iota of scientific evidence that any new "sixth sense" of a telepathic nature, is evolving, for the perception of obscure knowledge, too fine for the old fashioned senses. The power already possessed is enough. It is older than the race. It was in ectoderm and endoderm. Note this most important fact : whatever else it may be, it is intensely personal and individualistic. -o o o- T HERE'S always a cosy corner for superstition in every mind. The more cocksure learned the owner, the more elaborately will room be made for it. It's a bold and brassy thing to say, I know, Prudence, but for good cause as I will show. I believe that now, in this age of "wizard" science and invention, not only the popular, but the scientific mind is more superstitious than that of a savage, and just in that degree in which the scientist encounters more inexplicable things than the savage ever dreamed of. They are both human. "The world," says Current Literature, referring to the brilliant Frenchman, Gustave Le Bon and Sir Oliver Lodge as authorities, "is on the eve of a revival of super- stition on a grand scale." Referring to the delusion of the N ray, and the turmoil it produced in the scientific world, Le Bon, who is called by the Paris Cosmos, the greatest of modern phy- sicists affirms that "mere superstition had dominated the minds 17 of scientists to an extent that seems incredible to the person not familiar with the tendency of the worker in physics and chem- istry." So it is not the characteristic of ignorance. Quite the con- trary. It is an expression of faith in the existence of illimitable possibilities. I remember when I was a child, — (born in Maine, under puritanical influences), that we boys used to vie with one another in enumerating the infinitesimal dwelling places of God. "God is in that little stone" — "In that teenty grain of sand" — "In that nail in the fence" — and so on. There was no wonder or curiosity over the way of it or the fact of it. It was all taken on a natural faith, both in the inexplicable itself, — such as God, thunder and lightning, the budding of trees and crops, — and in any specialist in any of those lines, — preacher, farmer, sailor. The scientist is just such a child ; he places his implicit confi- dence in the statements of specialists in the scientific field. If there is any more superstition in the one case than in the other, it's likely to be with the scientist. Is there any difference in principle between the savage's belief that the skin of an animal he has dreamed of, will give him super- natural powers, (as certain colors will) ? and the idea of Josephus that when the magnificent sapphire connected with the Oracle of Aaron's Breastplate, changed to red it gave victory in war, and when to black, it meant disaster ? and the materialists' scien- entific theory of atomistic hylozoism, which carried to a logical conclusion, would make the little colored crystals in the box responsive on occasion? Which of these three propositions is the more deeply tainted with superstition, think you? This is no co- vert slur on science. It is rather avering that this new age of science, which is the new light of the world, is fast becoming more purely idealistic than ever before. The undreamed of pow- ers of the Independent Intelligence of man will help his mind apply the laws of the universe to ever higher ends, — but never impart that fantastic free willing which were the same as a child's pulling down the sun, as Emerson put it. 18 BEYOND all compare, the two most momentous ideas ever achieved by the inspired power of mind, and embodied in material inventions, were the wheel and the Oracle of Aaron's Breastplate. One was ensouled, if I may so express it, by the subtle mechanical principles that rule in the physical inorganic world, the other by superorganic forces belonging to the psychical organic world; both, therefore equally and inherently subser- vient to the principles of law and order that rule throughout the universe. There is not a particle more necessity for assuming the presence of anything mystic or occult in one than in the other. But strange to say, the one commonly considered the more ma- terial in its nature has led into depths not less profound than the immaterial. Science is today reaching across the unfathomable abysses of its own unverifiable hypotheses to clasp the helping hand of Psychology. Of these two visible emblems, as it were, of the two worlds, organic and inorganic, the wheel and the oracle, the wheel has gone forward in an uninterrupted progress of triumphant devel- opment, adding achievement to achievement, with results of such amazingly life like complexities, that the ordinary mind stands stupefied and bewildered in any attempt to comprehend the fur- ther subtle possibilities of mechanics. While stranger yet, the other, involving more obscure but more subtly powerful phases of energy, suffering from the lost art of practical application, its principles misapprehended and despised, has fallen into the utter obloquy that covers the disreputable arts of black magic. But according to the prognostication of scientists, its new day is at hand. The story of the wheel is an epic of intense interest. It has grown in its endless uses from the most humble beginnings up to the most multiplex applications of the mechanical powers. It has developed to such an extent that not only its applicability but itself, seems endowed with a miraculous power of pseudo intelli- gence, as we see it embodied for instance, in calculating machines, in linotype, and the modern printing press that can almost correct its own "proof." A sort of consciousness of the vast importance of the in- vention of the wheel, lingered for centuries upon centuries in the 19 minds of men, indeed, the results of it are still visible. In some great nations, it has never lost a sort of reflex spiritual dominion over mind. For to this day, according to the translator of Pro- fessor Ernst Mach's lecture on the velocity of light, in India and Japan, and other Buddhistic countries the symbol of the wheel is held in the highest regard as the emblem of the invisible prin- ciple of law and order, and of the superiority of mind over mat- ter. Mach himself, says, (Velocity of Light pp. 61, 62), "The wheel of a wagon appears to us a very simple and insignificant creation. But its inventor was certainly a man of genius. The round trunk of a tree perhaps first accidentally, led to the ob- servation of the ease with which a load can be moved on a roller. Now, the step from a simple supporting roller to a fixed roller, or wheel, appears a very easy one. At least it appears very easy to us who are accustomed from childhood up to the action of the wheel. But if we put ourselves vividly into the position of a man who never saw a wheel, but had to invent one, we shall begin to have some idea of its difficulties. Indeed, it is even doubtful whether a single man could have accomplished this feat, whether perhaps centuries were not necessary to form the first wheel from the primitive roller. "History does not name the progressive minds who construct- ed the first wheel ; their time lies far back of the historic period. No scientific academy crowned their efforts, no society of engi- neers elected them honorary members. They still live only in the stupendous results which they called forth. Take from us the wheel, and little will remain of the arts and industries of modern life. All disappears. From the spinning-wheel to the spinning- mill, from the turning lathe to the rolling mill, from the wheel- barrow to the railway train, all vanishes." Now if it has taken all the unnumbered centuries of physical life up to the present hour to write the engrossing story of the wheel, which is still incomplete, each new age closing with an expectant situation and "to be continued in our next," — how can it be so much wondered at that the application of the principles of superorganic energy has been so long delayed, and the Oracle fallen into desuetude? But the mind of man is surely ready for a new installment of this other continued story. -o o o- 20 IF the story of the wheel is an epic near its close, the story of the Oracle is but the preface to a parable — to an apologue in which men are just learning their A B C's in Nature's tongue. It is a most tremendously significant fact that the unrecognized Independent Intelligence of organisms, (some are inclined to confound this with Instinct), is that mysterious something which has absolute dominion over all the unconscious processes of life, thereby signifying that it must be familiar with all the require- ments of Nature's laws, (which science is so laboriously probing for). Nay more, it is able to instantly apply them to the organ- isms' needs. In the course of its constant mediations between the needs of organisms and the superorganic energy which it embodies, natural phenomena are produced, which have never failed to be more or less awe inspiring and bewildering to the intellect. So that from this source, superstitions and creeds without number have multiplied and thrived. The unconscious effort, more or less groping in the operation of all oracular devices was to reach the Independent Intelligence of the superorganic energy of life. This is the force which has remained unidentified and nameless, and utterly repudiated by science, (as a force to be reckoned with), down to the present day. But in the year 1871, Sir William Crookes named a supposititious phase of it, Psychic Force. It was not a happy term, rather unfortunate. It is misleading. Psyche was the name of the soul, personified as a deified spirit, in classic Grecian mythology. But psychic phenomena and psy- chic force, such as the learned researchers were investigating, namely movements of objects without contact, so-called "material- izations," levitations, table tippings and the like, have about as much applicability to the soul as the hands and figures on the face of a clock have to the ear. But even had the legitimate force concerned in such phe- nomena been fitly named, it could not have helped matters any, because such phenomena and the "force" that elicits them are utterly beside the question of prescience. In the true story of the oracle such visible phenomena possesses no special interest. They belong to the province of biologic energy or mind. 21 Where almost everybody else is hazy, Prudence, you and I will try to make some sharp distinctions concerning the various applications of "energy" in the realms of the organic and the in- organic worlds. The wheel it is clear, revolves only in the prov- ince of the inorganic world; impelled by the application of natural forces belonging to that world — (having very little to do with superstitions or spiritualism). Now while the general idea of energy is one of the absolutely unverifiable hypotheses of science — taken on faith — in the province of the wheel, the laws of its application are quite well apprehended, and so far, support the hypothesis. (I merely mention this fact to remind a possible scientific reader that there is no occasion to feel bump- tious over assumptions concerning energy.) The wheel belongs to the inorganic world. But the mind, almost everybody believes, does not belong to that province at all, but revolves only under the laws of a separate province. That belief is wrong. That belief is the main source of all the obscuring haze that prevents clear thinking on the sub- ject of the Oracle. The mind pertains essentially to the same province as the wheel! Here is where the materialist smiles a broad and gracious approval. But wait till we make the whole significance of the distinction clear. What the wheel is to the mind of man in the province of the inorganic world, the mind itself is to the independent intelligence of man in the pro- vince of the organic world, with all that that implies. That is to say, they are both powerful instruments, one a little more exquisitely organized than the other, but both in the hands of a superior something that knows how to apply the various forms and degrees of the "specific energies" of science. (There is not herein the slightest leaning to theology.) So much is clear. Now for the further significance of the distinction, let us assume that the two provinces of the organic and the inorganic are distinct; — that there are different energies that rule therein; that in one there is the "energy" of the science of mechanics, in which conservation rules supreme, through all its manifold and multiplex transformations to "power," light, heat, electricity, radio-activities, transmutations, "wireless," — until the mind stag- 22 gers and faints as the finer and finer transformations seem to lead up to and across the "borders of shadowland" into the im- material: That in the other there is the energy that rules and directs the mind through all its varied transformations — (for the principle of conservation must be universal and eternal) — through all its transformations to irritability, to consciousness, to percep- tion, to idea, to reason, to intellect, until its vast egoistic audacity would mount the throne of God Himself. Through it all, we as- sume that the distinction inheres, and we say there must be two energies if only after the manner in which there are two elec- tricities, — and I call them, for the sake of the distinction, the inorganic energy of the wheel and mind, and the superorganic energy of "life" and "spirit." (And right here is where the ma- terialist changes his smile to a frown, while his bold charger, sniffing the battle from afar, paws the earth and snorts aloud, but do not be disconcerted Prudence, there will be no charge.) But the imperative necessity of logic here steps forward and says, surely Nature, in the interests of universal conservation ought to have looked out for some medium of connection for the transformations of one energy to the forms of the other. Well, my dear Prudence, that is exactly what she did do when she ad- mitted sensation into the organic realm. From that instant began the superorganic energy transformations, which have re- sulted in the inexpressibly marvelous mechanisms of the organs of sense, each endowed with an intelligence essentially its own. The vital point in this whole distinction is that the deeper sen- sations are still due to the direct impressions of the superorganic energy of that, which for the want of a better name, men have called a primal instinct. But oh the majesty of the amazing truth Prudence ! From out that germ of Instinct has unfolded and evolved the truly psychic elements of our lives, sensations, feelings, emotions, with love and its godlike intuitions, all be- tokening the unmistakable presence in human life of an indi- vidual Independent Intelligence of transcendant powers, prac- tical prescience a possibility. There is nothing more "scientifically" certain in all expe- rience than the facts of sensation impressions, as the only primal facts, — these being the original source of all knowledge, reason, 23 intellect, and the fact of the existence of an individual something, {not a vague impersonal spirit or divinity), superior to reason and intellect, which, for the want of a better name, is commonly called Instinct, so that in the face of the overwhelming evidence of a mysterious, powerful force operative in daily life, (sometimes vaguely called Destiny or Luck), it is all the more surprising that there still remains such complete indifference to it and of course, consequent confusion of meanings in the minds of learned men, as cling to the use of the words, mind, soul and instinct, — es- pecially when used indiscriminately as names of the ever present mysterious something, the third party — the Individual Indepen- dent Intelligence. Undoubtedly the original Greek idea of the Psyche was some- thing spiritual, — ideal, indeed the soul in that word was a per- sonified deity, and so far unknowable. Any idea of the soul, it seems to me, is at least one remove further from "life" than instinct is. So when Emerson said "the soul knows all things," he could with equal precision and fidelity to known facts have said, instinct knows all things. Indeed, as matter of fact that is practically, the very way he put it, unconsciously perhaps, when at another time he said, "follow your instinct to the end." At least it goes to show that as profound a thinker as Emerson, used the words instinct and soul, somewhat indiscriminately. But under it all the main point comes out clear and distinct. Under- lying the use of indiscriminate terms, one idea is perceivable, namely consciousness of the presence of a mysterious third party which has not yet been blessed with a distinctive name of its own, — this something, which I have referred to as the Indi- vidual Independent Intelligence. Not necessarily implying direct connection with spirituality or divinity as the soul does ; and not so fleshy mechanical as instinct, but at the same time possessing powers very superior to mind — (as embodied in the words rea- son and intellect). Now, as it is plainly desirable to avoid the confusions that cluster about the old terms, let us therefore, leave the word soul as naming something which pertains essentially to the spiritual kingdom, which I in no wise intend to invade in this little book. And as for instinct, that specific word has been so long consigned, by habitual use, to the province of flesh and blood 24 in its grosser lineaments we will let that stand also as it is — not but that there are nobler lineaments in blood and muscles and its instincts than ever dreamed of in the old litanies and philos- ophies, Prudence, but on the score of clearness. The name In- dividual Independent Intelligence is so formidable for size, a better will presently be found. For me, I would sooner say the Three I's (III) than resort to the term, "subliminal ego," which only rouses my ire. Whatever word is adopted it should suggest the nature of the power it signifies, which is absolutely the great- est force operating in the world today. Once get a clear idea of it and you see in it the arbiter of science. For it is itself the embodiment of that superorganic energy whose antecedent im- pacts — "impressions," — are the first cause not only of all sense perceptions, but of those more obscure intuitions which first start up the organic machinery of the most powerful scientific imagi- nation. As I have elsewhere said, science without imagination is a brain without blood. It is therefore the only limit science has in its grasp of laws for a true interpretation of Nature. It is superior to the natural laws of the inorganic world, only in that it knows "instinctively," as the saying is, how to apply any law instantaneously to any special case in hand, even including the almost incomprehensible law of Probabilities. What that leads to staggers the most powerful imagination to portray. He who seeks a way to stand sponser for the miracles of the Bible, has here his strongest argument. If God told Moses how to make the Oracle, He did not subvert or supplant any part of a single one of His immutable laws. It was more economical — (and the law of least effort is the very law of all laws), to give Moses an intuition by which he saw a new way to apply existing forces. Intuitions from the three I's (III) will lead infinitely fur- ther with the Oracle, than intellect has led with the wheel, stupendous as that achievement has been. What the wheel has been to practical mechanics ; what elec- tricity is to time and space; what the telescope, the microscope, the camera, — in a word, what the lens has been to the whole body of physical science, the Oracle may be to your province of prescient Intelligence, Prudence. And when the universal code 25 is hit upon which shall bring man into working touch with his own Individual Independent Intelligence, (as sleep and abstrac- tion do in their unconscious moments where the symbols are wordless impressions), happiness, prosperity and knozvledge of immortality are assured. I DESIRE to make my claim of originality, in the construction of the wonderful numerical square of the alphabet, which is the key to the Oracle and which illustrates in a most remarkable way, the so-called magic power of numbers, very explicit, be- cause it happens that the Pythagorean idea of the number 365, referred to by Plato, was very beautifully illustrated in an article contributed to the "Monist," I think in 1896, under the title "Magic Squares," by Mr. C. A. Browne, Jr., in which this "mys- tic" number occupied the center cell. More particularly because in my arrangement of the square of the English Alphabet, 365 also occupies the center cell. My reason for being explicit and emphatic is in the fact that Mr. Browne's article has a prior pub- lication. None the less, my arrangement is an absolutely original conception, and not in any sense or particular, a copy. I never came across the publication until long after my square was com- pleted. Not in another single instance in the whole 729 cells, does a duplication of his numbers happen. Besides the two points of view are totally different ; and my method of arrangement different. The inherent principles under discussion are radically different. This is shown in my chapter discussing the secret meaning of the enigmatical number plate so prominent in Durer's famous engraving "Melancolia." Also, inherent evidences of purpose are unmistakable. One appears as a remarkable cu- riosity of mathematics, aimless. The other has a definite, prac- tical application to a distinct purpose= Finally all followers of the Pythagorean idea seem to have founded their notions upon the too obvious but fallacious fact that there happens to be, as we say, 365 days in a year. But that is only approximate. It is inexact. It is not a mathematical 26 fact at all as everybody knows and as the necessary institution of leap year proves. From which simple fact my inference is that the origin of that mystic and significant number, was not a time idea at all. -o o o- IMAGINE two fine old gentlemen of the most unlimited wealth and power of the day, suddenly turned into a pair of old tat- tered, homeless and aimless derelicts, kicked out of gilded board rooms to wander unrecognized down Wall Street, or over the breezy links ? You would thus get only a dim glimmer of what is actually happening to the two most illustrious vagabonds of mod- ern science, — Luminiferous Ether and Molecular Theory. But sci- ence cannot go backward. Its fiat has gone forth, and the places that knew them shall know them no more forever. There is scarcely a doubt of that — at least in the mind of the devotees of the new views. Do you ask what has worked this amazing change, Prudence ? What could have caused this tremendous fall' from power and glory? O just a few new discoveries of fact, — radio activities and the psycho-physiological sensations of Time and Space did it all. They demanded "Relativity." To attempt explanations in detail, even were I able to do so, would lead too far afield. The fact is all that concerns us to consider just now ; the fact that we are standing on the threshold of tremendous revolutions in the scientific interpretation of nature; mainly by reason of new discoveries in biology and psychology. And yet with such an unbridled license to run wild, it is not to be claimed that the fascinating little crystals in the Oracle are responsively "sentient" to the compelling influence of your Individual Independent Intelligence, Prudence. But simply that they certainly do obey laws which that superior intelligence may have the power to invoke on occasion. However, I want to re- peat emphatically as disclaimer of any leaning towards mysticism, and as for occultism in the popular interpretation of that word, the very idea of it is hateful to me. May I not therefore reason- 27 ably hope that in expressing a belief that prescience and divina- tion is a scientific possibility, it will not appear to your calm and sober judgment to be altogether void of sense and logic? That this little book will not appear the fantastic fabrication of a long-eared imagination, iean, thirsty, frisky and irresponsibly free from the halter of reason, turned loose, as it were, in the rich and boundless pasturage of "shadowland" where the lush- juiced loco springs indigenous? 'Tis Time and Space glamour the pen That would 'lucidate things for the children of men. 28 (Umrai tiDutltttra. far as I know, this little book approaches lp ^ PI the tantalizing subject of so called psychical com- |p ^^ pp munications, from an entirely new point of view, ^ fH namely from the realm of individual sensations. U&^M%M£zM Heretofore the class of psychic phenomena which societies for psychical research, and independently, such noted scientists as Sir Wm. Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, Caesar Lomb- roso, Professor Hyslop of Columbia College, and scores of other illustrious men of science, have investigated, have been what I would term briefly for purposes of comparison, exterior facts (provided they are facts — / don't know. I never investigated them. I never attended a seance in my life — and even if they are facts they are immaterial to the present point of view — except negatively), such as movements of objects without contact, in the usual sense, so called materializations, rappings and table tippings, levitation and all such mediumistic performances, inexplicable enough surely, for the motive power of which Sir Wm. Crookes, in the year 1871, invented the term psychic force. It is to be noted that almost invariably the source of this motive power has been finally tracked down into the lair of ghosts — to in- fluences from disembodied spirits. There is another class of psychic phenomena, a little less gross and vulgar, that is to say, not so deeply tainted with fraud and pretense, such as those so ably and splendidly investigated by the late William James of Harvard University, to which he gave the appellation "seership." I mean clairvoyant visions and communi- cations ; clairvoyant automatic writings and the like. But even here again, one of the strongest, if not the prime motive in the interpretation of the facts crops out, and the search is for any 29 possible direct or indirect evidence there may be in it, of the per- sistence, or survival of a personality after death. There is one striking characteristic which may be found in all these exhibitions of an inexplicable power, namely they are phenomena which are sensibly shared in common by a number of people at the time ; as in a "circle" at a seance, or in clairvoyant sittings and trances in presence of company. Now there is still another class of psychic phenomena, by far more subtle and significant of possibilities of more tremendous import to human life, than any of the foregoing, and which are entirely distinct from them in the simple characteristic that they are not shared by others, any more than one shares his own secret acts of memory with another. And, it is to be noted, that this characteristic is not abated by the amazing fact that the most secret act of memory leaves a door wide open to its detection, over the portal of which, modern medical science has inscribed its new word of white magic, Psychanalysis. The class of facts to which I thus refer as distinctly individ- ualistic and personal, is made up of the astounding mental acts in states of abstraction, prophetic dreams and visions, presenti- ments and intuitions, and specially those incontrovertible experi- ences of life as facts, namely acts performed in an incompre- hensible way under the stress of sudden great emergencies, as when one says — and what is more common? — "I had no time to think, I acted instinctively." And this in a way that at the time appeared against reason and common sense, and which never could have been done in one's right senses, but strange as it may seem, it turns out that it was the only possible way the threatened life could have been saved from a horrible death. On several occasions I myself have had exactly such experi- ences, one of which occurs to me now : I was working in a mine in Colorado, the old "Pewabic." I was in the "sump," at the extreme bottom of a deep and narrow shaft. I had rung the signal to hoist, and the heavy steel bucket loaded with rocks and ore had gone up the shaft, when suddenly without any physical warning and without any premonition of danger, (I had been long accustomed to such conditions,) I was seized with a perfect paroxysm of uncontrollable desire to get out 30 of the shaft. Something mechanically compelled me to raise my hands like a flash to the bottom edge of the "drift" above the sump, and give a sudden and prodigious display of strength and agility by which I sprung upward and into the drift, putting my candle out in the act. At that moment a puff of rushing wind and a piece of flying rock struck me, and something with a crashing blow struck the bottom of the shaft, with terrific force, exactly where an instant before, I had been standing. I relighted my candle and peered into the hole. There lay the big bucket I had just sent up. its load scattered all over the bottom of the shaft, the strong sides of the steel bucket bulged and split open and crumpled, showing that the great force of the blow would have reduced me to pulp had I remained there an instant longer. Repairs were made and the work continued. Afterwards, after the wreck was cleared out, I had occasion to climb out of the sump to the drift, under normal circumstances. Then for the first time I realized the amazing nature and effectiveness of the power that had literally seized and thrown me bodily, in an instant, out of that death trap. For I found it a difficult and slow struggle clambering up the rough sides, with slips and fail- ures and fresh starts before I succeeded in reaching the drift. This experience I place in that class of psychic phenomena which are distinctly and essentially personal sensations. The facts of this class are far less open to doubt, as facts, than the grosser ones of the other classes of compounded psychic phe- nomena. For one reason, they are first hand, not complicated with outside personalities, and not shared or influenced by others. On the other hand, they are not of course open to experimentation by repetition. Is it not then perfectly and legitimately conceivable that this Genius of a Superior Independant Intelligence latent in human life, but distinctly personal, call it psychic force, instinct or what you will, can, on occasions, in extreme perils of death and disaster, instantly seize control of all the machinery of memory, thought, and action, and the "vast intrinsic stores of lasting energies" stored in muscle cells, and direct that individual movement with superhuman skill, swiftness and power, to a foreseen result ? Is there any other conception that fits the facts so well? 31 From this position it is but a single logical step to conceive, that this same kindly unknown, Intelligence, zvorking within the individual, can on occasion, cause an unconscious tremor of the wrist which holds the book, a twitch of a muscle here or there, which shall modify the operation of the laws of gravitation, attrac- tion and repulsion, centrifugal and centripetal forces which you invoke when you set the little invisible balls in the box to rolling about, that they should be thus compelled to obey a guiding force in their resulting combinations within the visible luminous space, so that out of a large variety of classified answers to specific ques- tions, that particular answer which is foreseen by the Independent Intelligence to be the one most nearly corresponding to the des- tined events, would be the one to be indicated by the appropriate combination thus unconsciously controlled. So from a distinctly practical point of view this little book attacks two beautifully entrancing but more or less bewildering problems : I. First, the Oracle of Aaron's Breastplate ; that unsolved mys- tery of ancient Hebrew literature, which has beckoned and baf- fled the scholars of all ages, of which Renan wrote, "It has never been ascertained by what mechanism the oracle was rendered;" and of which the general purport of what the encyclopedias say is that no satisfactory explanation of the mysterious Urim and Thummim of the Bible has yet been furnished. II. And second, the still more bafflingly elusive problem involved in the simple question, is practical prevision or divination a scien- tific possibility? Not that I would make a pretense of being able to qualify in learning and logic to reach a scientific finality in either one or the other of the two problems. But I do claim to have shown con- clusively herein, the most probable, beautiful, and only practical solution of the first one of the two, ever reached since the days of Moses and Aaron. The demonstration is convincing. But as for the more subtle problem involved in the operation of forces of a prescient nature, it is only fair to impose a condition, 32 namely, whoever does not believe in dreams or intuitions must pay one dollar extra, it being a clear case of contributory obtuseness, on his or her part, to things psychic, which in their nature are more real and convincing, or ought to be, than "things" themselves. I find my excuse for speaking of myself in the following lines, in the fact that whoever attempts any popular explanation of cer- tain classes of psychic phenomena, is almost invariably suspected of being in possession of a spiritualistic bias. In view of which it is only fair to my work to say at once, distinctly, that I am neither a "spiritualist," nor partisan adherent of any particular religious or philosophic creed, theory, or dogma whatsoever; (which is not saying that I am irreligious, for quite the contrary is the fact.) I am entitled to no "degree" and my name is without a "handle" at either end, (which by the way, I never spell in the middle, except when my dear old "Uncle" requires it on official documents, such as patents and the like.) I am not even a "professor" in any branch of "science," occult or otherwise, and never preached a sermon. Yet lacking all these customary qualifications for "holding forth" upon such problems as prophetic dreams, visions, and prescience in general, I must confess, somewhat shamefacedly, that I feel perfectly assured that I shall not be left blushing, unseen any more, when the world begins beating its path to my door, for the very best supersensible-iw/>r£.M«m-mouse-trap which the mod- ern world has yet seen. Any old rattle trap of a brain can "catch" sense perceptions. But I expect to show you that that is a very different thing. It is not so easy to lay hold of those impalpable impressions that are forever flirting with the superorganic energy of "life" and giving birth simultaneously to well formed impulses and intuitions of future events. To drop all irrelevant levity of thought and unseemly flip- pancy of speech, it must be noted in all seriousness, that the un- derlying principles of the two problems are inextricably involved, enmeshed as it were, one within the other, even as the amazingly intricate and complex physical mechanisms within the various organs of sense, uniting in one organic whole in man, is one prob- lem, — essentially for the biologist, — and the Love, dreams, and 33 aspirations shining through and irradiating the character of the individual is another, for the idealist and moralist. So in regard to both, I say frankly that I do not claim that what I herein advance, is so: But that in reference to the Oracle particularly, / saw plainly exactly how I could put myself in Aaron's place, and do the thing that he did. In other words, I saw how it might have been done, and did it. The supreme merit of my doing, if it has any merit, lies in the fact that it conforms to, and exactly fits the Bible narrative, as well also kabalistic traditions and records, and the new "finds" in the field of phil- ological science, rescued from the dust of the buried cities of the past. And this in the place of idle guesses, and vague and fan- tastic theories of the mysterious loss of all knowledge of the method or way, by which that most wonderful and effective oracle the world has ever seen, was worked. Surely, to see the way to restore such a lost gem of ancient Psychocraft, at the very beginning of a new age of idealism, which according to Dr. Munsterberg, is already upon us, is well worth while ; but to "tell about it in a plain way !" That is harder yet ; for how can a delving miner with a bent for me- chanical problems, be expected to sling the good English that "literary fellers" put in books? Evidently the best way for me out of this second dilemma was to adopt the way of the primitive savage, namely the ideographic; which is not only the plainest way possible, but happily is the very language of the prescient power in life that shapes prophetic dreams and visions of future events. Therefore in discussing these things, symbols, diagrams, personifications, and the mysterious ratios and relations of num- bers may well play a large part. Often times a few tangible picturesque lines is something for the mind addressed to lay hold of, in the quick apprehension of a new idea; something it can grasp and refer back to, when an abstruse point gets foggy. A result which one, not a genius in phraseology, may labor in vain to accomplish with words alone. All the more when the true significance of the words in use have become lost in the mists of vagueness, or so overgrown with the mould of indifference, that they do not convey any sharp or dis- tinct meaning at all, only a shapeless haze in the place of a clear idea. Mind, Instinct and Soul are such words. 34 Therein is my excuse for inventing the new personification of that Individual Independent Intelligence which surely accom- panies, and on occasion displays its master hand in the critical affairs of life. This Individual Independent Intelligence is that mysterious evasive something, which for the want of a better term is some- times called Inistinct. Its intensely human faculties and super- human powers, have long been known to be more marvelous in every day realities than anything that has ever had a fancied existence in the wildest of fiction or fairy lore. The best of it is this mysterious somebody, "Faculty," Good Angel or what not, is invariably man's nearest and dearest and truest friend. Whenever dire emergencies come, he it is who is the unfailing and unselfish hero. If you had the magic power to make a wish come true, he is in reality already in perfection of attributes, form and feature, all and more than your highest ideal and wildest hopes could in fancy picture yourself to be. For he is the immediate well spring of your best aspirations. But he is often driven to despair, mingled with disgust at the sheer stupidity of mind, which perforce must stop to argue and test every idea presented, or failing that, becomes in the face of any sudden emergency demanding instant action, a rattled and collapsing coward. This magnificent hero rarely ever bothers with words, though he knows all you ever knew and never forgets a single one. He has two languages of his own, both symbolic and both entirely wordless. One is like the silent pictures in a scroll-like panorama; the other is expressed more directly yet, through sensations, feelings, impulse and emotions. I have personified this incomparable Friend of man under the name of ELLU, which in the most ancient form of writing known is written thus : YT YT It will be vain to search Webster's or the Century Dictionary for the meaning of the beautiful and musical name ELLU. Ac- cording to the "Assyrian Dictionary," by Edwin Norris, Ph. D., Honorary Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, 35 Ireland, etc., etc., also "Concise Dictionary of the Assyrian Lan- guage," by W. Muss — Arnolt, of the University of Chicago, the word means clear, clean, pure shining, bright; exalted, noble, etc. As matter of curiosity some might be interested to know how this word would be expressed in the very latest visible phonetics of a new subtile unspoken language. Such may refer to Francis Galton's "Human Faculty." By principles there laid down, ELLU would be expressed by light pink shading through warm rose to a deep red. Precision in the meaning of words is all the more important, since formerly the provinces of feelings, emotions, quality, were utterly ignored as lying entirely outside the pale of science. But in this day — now note the strange fact well — human sensations have turned the most powerful and penetrating light that science has yet been able to avail herself of, in her efforts at making a true interpretation of physical nature. The former dogmatic prejudice and intolerance of purely psychological questions no longer "sullies the calm and noble lustre of unprepossession by which we so gladly discover the true inquirer." The new attitude has already brought on convulsions among the older theories, but the new child of science "Relativity," is well born and lusty and will doubtless hold its own. Science did not fail to see her opportunity, and now psychology and phy- sical science are traveling harmoniously, hand in hand together, in pursuit of the same common object, neither ashamed of the other's company. Formerly, interpretations of all psychic phenomena were rel- egated either to the priestly province, or to sorcery and magic. In later days, the far seeing sage of Concord wrote the pregnant lines, — "Magic, and all that it implies, is but a presentiment of the powers of science." ooo I REALIZE that it was comparatively easy to work out a prob- able solution of the oracle problem, and apply the principles involved to a practical result, and even improve upon the original. 36 But I realize also, that in the more subtle matter of prescience as a scientific possibility, how utterly inadequate are my meagre endowments for coping with a problem which no one mind can ever hope to solve, any more than the present state of science could have been the work of any one mind. All I can possibly hope to do is to render help, if only relatively infinitesimal. I am here reminded of what Carlyle once said concerning production. I do not recall the exact words but it was to the effect that if one could produce only the infinitesimal fraction of a product, let him "in the name of God produce." As magic and all that it implies, was but a presentiment of the powers of science, so science with all that it implies, (including its newest implication Relativity), — is but a presentiment of the unsuspected powers of mind. And there, in that word mind, is the very first thwarting of any plan of approach, in the inevitable fog that rolls in from the sea of tumultuous meanings of words. Tell me, Prudence, do you always mean just the same thing when you use that word ? Or does the idea it conveys get all mixed up with instinct, intellect and divinity, for instance? Therefore, in my use of the word mind herein, I define it as a product of biologic energy. I shall try to show the com- pelling importance of the difference that exists between sense impressions and sense perceptions; and that the origin of the human mind, (not instinct or divinity), was in the birth of sense perception. While an impression, (out of which a percep- tion is made), most certainly does arise in the supersensual prov- ince of the superorganic energy of life — (and may originate — so far as anybody knows — in Divinity), but I stop short at the first suggestion of theology, and turn square about in order to keep in direct touch with the mediating organ of impressions ; which surely must exist and which psychophysiological investigation is sure to explain sooner or later. At present we have only the inexplicable facts of psychic phenomena. 37 J&\\t Albgory of % (Ent^r i^tgn. uHje AUegnrg cf ttj? (Earner Imgtt -ooo- ISKSSS^ a g eneral principle, the inestimable help to the lH a HI m i n( ^ which visible lines, picturesque forms and HI r\ HI diagrams give, enabling one to convey an idea of H| Ip his own to another mind's quick grasp and appre- lllllBlStf hension, is well known, and is here availed of, with what aptness and success you alone must be the judge. The probable origin of successful .intercommunication of ideas between man and man was the ideographic method. That method, and its successors, "Letters," have built up a vast mass of re- corded and traditional "kenlore," the refinement or sublimated product of which is Philosophy and Science. In a most general way then, what the allegory would picture is : The body of acquired knowledge ; The source of "light," itself emblematic of the medium of revelation of knowledge, (but not in any sense theological). Sensation Impressions, Reason, formed of conscious per- ceptions. Instinct, founded on unconscious or intuitional perceptions. (Intuition is the mother of scientific imagination; science without imagination is a brain without blood.) The human's methods or means of acquiring knowledge. The end and aim of science and philosophy is the interpre- tation of nature. In trying to interpret nature, science is led to believe that all its infinitely varied and complex phenomena are resolvable to the transformations of one ultimate principle. In the 41 course of its magnificently brilliant career it was finally led, in its pursuit of Nature, into the realm of psychophysiological in- vestigations, and thereby finally succeeded in resolving itself into its own ultimate element, whatever Nature's might be. Its own ultimate element, beyond which it cannot go, is a sensation. For me, one of the most profoundly impressive and exqui- sitely fine achievements in all science, was the subtle discovery that even the source of its own idea of space, that intangible, indefin- able and incomprehensible principle in nature, was traced home to an independent sensation in the muscle mechanism of the eye. (The above display of adjectives, and this shouting the fact at you Prudence, with capitals and italics, may be pardoned to the overjoyed exhuberance of feelings that take possession of me when I see the ancient nobility of blood and muscle thus coming to its own again, and the usurped prerogative of initiative by the so- called "noble element" of the Gray matter, being partially at least restored to the red and rightful heir to the throne of "life"). So it has happened that the stupendous and bewilderingly complex phenomena of both lifeless nature and "life," organic and inorganic nature, has compelled at last, the universal acknowledg- ment of the existence of that power which ELLU personifies. The nature of the Independent Intelligence thus personified, is not vague and misty, is not diffuse, indefinite and general, but is intensely personal and individualistic. In the allegory this Independent Intelligence is represented by the six pointed star in the upper left hand corner of the page. Its flame shaped rays typify the reflecting power of that "primal light" which streams upon the field of thought, either under the intellectual effort of concentrated attention, or the more power- fully effective unconscious abstraction. This is the intelligent force which first endowed ectoderm and endoderm with the In- stinct to vary incessantly, new combinations of units, in the build- ing up of its countless millions of organic forms, through which their culmination is reached in the mind of man. The reasons for adopting a six pointed star is beside the present purpose, suffice it to say that these reasons are in no sense astrological, occult, or mystic. But simply and plainly typical of a certain inherent nature of perfect adaptability, which 42 don't require "reason." What light for instance revealed to the bee the perfection of the hexagon, for its purpose? It was not her purpose to reflect on the, to her unknowable, but beautiful fact that the icosahedron which is compacted of a score of tetrahedral units, reveals through its own complex out- lines the inherent hexagon. So for me, when the far seeing philosopher announces the extremely important part played by form in the abstract, in the creating of ideas in the mind, and incidentally that within a perfect crystal sphere his mind's eye can also detect the beautiful outlines of a perfect rhombicasid- odecahedron, I am inclined to accept the fact without controversy, being reminded of the sagacious conclusion of our dear old friend Artemus Ward, of blessed memory, who, when told by a burly fighter that he could "lick him with one hand tied behind him," quickly replied, "But my dear friend, there is no occasion to go for the rope." By form then, or otherwise, ELLU illuminates an original impression from the impact of some operation of a law of nature, or some hidden truth, for intuitional perception, which is the force that gives the first cue to scientific imagination, which in turn lights the further way to the reasoning faculty. In the allegory, science occupies the background and its law and order characteristic is aptly represented by form, num- bers, letters, which are the exterior symbols by which the great body of its acquired knowledge is recorded and transmitted from age to age. This background is composed of detached glimpses of the two "Tablets of Destiny" for the Oracle of ELLU, which taken together as a whole, or single unit, form the wonderful chart that illustrates the operation of a "motor setting centre" of the brain, in acts of memory, described in the book with illustrations drawn by the author. As the magic power of the "primal light," in the ancient idea, strangely foreshadowed the yet more wonderful and tri- umphant conquests of nature by the lens of science, so those rays in the allegory, streaming from the Independent Intelligence of ELLU, symbolize the source of intuition and the scientific possibility of divination. 43 ®tme. WHEN the human mind tries to swell itself up big enough to enclose boundless space, in its search for a symbol of Time, it but betrays its own kinship with bubbles. So let us think of time as a breath proceeding from the infinite point of the Pre- sent Moment, creating a never ending series of ever expanding bubbles ; a new one forever incessantly budding from the very centre of the one which was new but the instant before. Thus the whole series for all time constitutes an unfolding flow of pure du- ration. Thus it may be conceived how the oldest, ever-flowing further away, may still forever remain in contact with the newest ; while echo-like influences from the remotest, unconsciously co- ordinate with the generating breath out of the future, to shape the "event" of the Present Moment. Directly under the flaming star is a diagrammatic symbol of Time. That mysterious indefinable element in human life which we arbitrarily divide into past, present and future, so the central idea in the diagram, expressed briefly, is that co-ordinating in- fluences which are forever flowing from past (remembered) events, and from future events, (indicated by the featherless ar- rows from opposite directions), incessantly meet in a flux that comprises the complex events of the present moment, — here in- dicated by the tiny bubble, being pricked as it were, by the oppos- ing arrow points. This little bubble of the present moment is thus shown as if forever in the act of breaking and yet forever being renewed. But such a bubble preconceives the necessary presence of a continuous, generating breath. The co-ordinating influences from past and future, are continuous, and the bubble may be likened to the resultant of two opposite forces, — that of 44 cohesion and expansion; cohesion of the exterior filmy shell and expansion of the generating breath. But it is always the breath that is the stronger, and though the bubble forever breaks, the breath is forever expanding into the past, as we say. But now we must tread warily, for surely there is trouble ahead for our symbol. Two separate influences from opposite directions would seem to be best represented by two opposing breaths and two op- posing bubbles, for if the future is forever expanding into the past, as we reason, then there must come a time when there would be no future. So in very truth that cannot be the way of it. We reason that these unfelt influences must be reciprocal, that the future can expand no more into the past, than the past can ex- pand into the future, — so that the present moment would best be represented by the line of contact between two vast bubbles, so inconceivably vast that the contact of their peripheries would be represented by a straight line, yet with all our efforts we are still left perplexed, bewildered and disconcerted by this element of Time. There is only one way out of the difficulty. If we could rid ourselves of this thraldom of absoluteness — yoked as we are to sensations and sense perception, reasoning, and by the power of abstraction, enter the "field of anyness," as Dr. Paul Carus calls it, (as we surely do in deep sleep, and some- times in the half waking state), we should see in truth that Time is only one big bubble after all, and the whole of it is now. So the idea in our straight line in this symbol of Time, (ap- pearing as two arrows approaching a point from opposite di- rections), the invisible influences flowing in from past and future events, cannot so well be symbolized by a line of contact between two infinitely large spheres, and may be more appropriately represented by imagining this line to be the impalpably thin edge of a transparent reflecting surface, (like that of still water where- in life and relative time began), which is forever cutting through the centre of the bubble of every succeeding present moment, at the instant of its simultaneous birth and death. . . . "Of the borealis race, gone ere you can point their place." So in the symbol, the bubble's half reflection, completes the sphere of the present moment; half in the past, half in the future. 45 There is thus beautifully typified at the same time the in- eradicable principle of rights and lefts in nature — ineradicable for us, with our hemispherical mechanisms of perception in a double lobed brain, with its half guessed and amazing powers of prophetic reflection in states of abstraction. When impressions began with the origin of life in the ocean, it was destined that perceptions should expand in a rarer medium. It is not therefore amiss for the spiritualists to imagine that the present life is but the ocean to another yet rarer medium into which the further expansion of the breath of the bubble of the present moment may go, to weave fairer forms. But when we mentally try to enter the labyrinthian realm of endless Time, with our double lobed brain, we must tread warily lest we drop inadvertantly the cue of a safe return to the rights and lefts of skull bound perceptions. There was graven over the portal of the temple of Isis in old Egypt these words : "I am all that hath been, is, or ever shall be, and my veil hath no man yet lifted." That strange enigma of the ancients, which has so awed the succeeding ages, is answered in the single word, Time. In this new day we see how modern science accepted the challenge of antiquity. How in solving some of the confounding mysteries wrapped up in the velocity of light, and its other manifold phe- nomena, science boldly lifted that inscrutible veil of Time, and thereby laid the foundation of the new science of "Relativity." With all the tremendous consequences to old theories, which the new word of science implies, we are, after all, but brought around again to another pregnant saying of antiquity. "Man is the measure of all things." That is to say, it is all a question of sensation. Psgrljtr interpretation. IN the allegory, Light from the symbol of ELLU pierces the bubble emblem of Time, as if co-ordinating the influences of past and future, to shine directly with concentrated power, upon the small spheres in the aperture, which with their diverging rays constitute tha symbol of intercommunication between conscious 46 will, and the unconscious power of the Independent Intelligence, (ELLU), which shapes impulses, intuitions, dreams and visions. These transparent colored spheres are most beautifully and logically adapted to furnish the psycho-physical means of a pos- sible communication because the nearly frictionless units, in- visible while in their little chamber, are absolutely free to inter- mingle into combinaton for the luminous aperture, uncontrolled by any possible physical act of the conscious will. Each combi- nation of three out of a given number of units, all exactly alike, except as to color, has a certain meaning. For while they are free to fall into any possible combination of three, no combination can be made which will not stand for one of the twenty-seven characters of the English alphabet, (including the indefinite &). It is impossible for anyone to willfully determine beforehand, which particular one of the possible combinations shall appear in the luminous aperture. It is as near an illustration of pure chance or "destiny" as anything well can be, and yet the combina- tions are formed under the operations of infallible laws. There is no such thing as purposeless chance in the world. IT is now desirable to symbolize crudely with a few simple lines, an idea of the senses relatively to the provinces of In- stinct and soul. As I said in the beginning, I am not a learned professor, but so far as I have read, the weakness of all modern philosophy seems to me to be in a rather sloppy apprehension, and application of its own distinctions between Instinct and Rea- son. I will give an example presently — (though of course, I know that if this falls under the eye of the Professor who wrote it, that he can easily make "pulp" of me and my notions, — which is not admitting that I am a block head either). Philosophers say, truly of course, that sense perception is the source of all positive knowledge. It is shown that the birth of mind was in perception. Before that, all intelligence was merely brute instinct. Then arguments and deductions based up- on sense perceptions begat Reason. And, as the tale goes, though 47 they ever after lived happily and begat a large family of "fac- ulties," Reason remained supreme, the lordly, domineering, ever arrogant and testy head of the family — while instinct modestly hides away in the dark, (oh the shame of ingratitude) ! But here is the promised example : "Instinct is the more primitive and essential," says the Professor in discussing the de- velopment of mind and reason, "It is also the more narrow, con- densed and specialized. Bound close to the preservative and perpetuative activities, and so restricted by the peculiar forms and needs of the organism it lacks adaptability and elasticity." Whereas, if evolution and biology prove anything at all con- clusively it is that reason is the faculty which is "bound" head and heels to sense perceptions, which in turn is bound and shackled to its own machinery for interpreting impressions. However, that is slightly aside from the present point. "The emergence," says the Professor, "of a human from the multitude of brute species is the most wonderful fact of biological history. . . Man's humanness rests its case on the fact of his human mind. What above all is peculiar to that mind is its foresight ; its faculty of abstracting the fixed and constant elements from the general evanescence of experience, and, by service of such ab- stractions, its power to predict the future. . ... It (instinct) is anchored so snugly to the concrete case that abstraction is impossible, and without abstraction there can be no freedom, no ideality. "Thus the hugeness of the gap separating man as the reason- ing animal is warranted by the nature of reason itself ; for be- tween instinct and reason is all the difference between blindness and seeing, between servile subjection to ephemeral events and spiritual freedom in the realm of ideas." Now it is not only easy to show that the power of abstrac- tion belongs more essentially to the province of Instinct, rather than to that of Reason, but that the Philosopher himself un- consciously admits this fact in a dozen places in the very same article from which I have quoted. For instance, "Of all the myriad idols which men have shaped them of their imaginings none stands forth so austere, so august, and so transcendantly elusive as truth." (The italics are mine.) Then out of this 48 fact the author shows how religions, the "long pageant of by-gone worships," sprung; how creed gave way to creed, symbol to symbol, pantheon to pantheon, "with kaleidoscopic ease of mu- tation," but how the motive remained unabated and unabashed through all change. "Surely this motive — able to withstand so oft-repeated overthrow of its dearest idols — must spring from an instinct deep-wrought in the human fibre ; it must have a source in some perennial prepotency of man's disposition and its final reason in the laws of life and mind — aye, in the very essence of that Nature which has brought into being life and mind. "And obviously there is, through all the change, a constant factor. It is the factor without which the development of a su- per-brute intelligence must have been forever impossible, for it is the key and support of the building human mind. This factor is belief in truth." Where did he get that belief if not through Instinct? To show that that is exactly what the writer himself meant I quote again, — "But the philosopher has at least in his favor that he judges in accordance with instincts to which nature has indu- bitably given rise." Finally, this masterly summing up, — "Our measure of the world is human science, and the measure of science is human in- telligence, — in the last resort the power of imagination. For im- agination is not alone the solace of life; it is also and above all else the faculty which has lifted man above the time-serving brute, making possible his insight into the natural history of what lies behind the screen of sensation. Imagination is the power whereby we discover truth ; it is the instrument by means of which we rear the wonderful structure of human knowledge, our parable of reality. Its potency measures possible science; its flexibility determines mental evolution." Now what I claim, and what I would labor to show is, that abstraction is made possible, and imagination gets its cue to a supersensible and hidden truth, only by coming directly in touch with what we call an intuition. And what is an intuition but a pregnant symbol in the superorganic code of that Independent Intelligence, which, to avoid the confusions of thought that 49 hang about the old word Instinct, I have herein personified as ELLU? With this in mind it is at once seen how logical it is to give to Instinct in the allegory a wider realm than any, or all of the reason-building — senses. Sty? gambol of % BttiBtB. IN the series of concentric circles in the lower left hand corner of the cover design, is symbolized the five senses, and other faculties, the interrelations of which, are more fully described in the scheme of the human faculties in the following chapter. But I would here repeat the warning that the source of much looseness of thought concerning psychic phenomena, arises from the indefinite and indiscriminate use of the terms sense impression, and sense perception; as well also the careless habit of using the words mental and psychical as always synony- mous ; which even the dictionaries seem to sanction. But this should be guarded against with what care is possible, in order that the fine and vital distinctions that exist, can be clearly appre- hended. For instance, no one really thinks of his soul as the same thing as his mind, with which he secretly plots and plans and schemes to outdo or overreach his neighbor. Then why treat the words that stand for them as synonymous? The vital distinction that exists may be made quickly applicable by the following simple formula: Impressions are psychical in their nature ; Perceptions are mental in their nature. Impressions come from impacts of events and things in the outside world, and existed before "mind" was born, according to the science of biology. A sense impression is as infallible in its nature, as the law of gravitation. A sense perception is the more or less faulty interpretation of an impres- sion, to the mind. In every step of the organic process of the transformation of an antecedent superorganic energy impression, (which is psychical), to a sense perception in the brain, (which is mental), lurks the constant liability to a wrong interpretation of the ante- cedent impression and a consequent possible illusion or hallu- 50 cination. This vitiating taint of the judgments of reason is, therefore, never absolutely and wholly absent, though for all practical purposes, and for the uses of science a sense perception is fairly reliable. Subtle as this distinction is, the bubble idea in the allegory lends itself beautifully to a symbolic representation of it, thus : The circle outline, as a whole, represents one of the "senses" as a concrete something. The convexity or outside of its curve represents Impressions and consciousness, while the concavity or inside of the curve, represents perception and memory. For further explanation of the idea see the scheme of the life fac- ulties in the following chapter. MttBtmtt, THE first six or smaller circles, are concentrically poised with- in the province of the Independent Intelligence of that su- perorganic energy, which we commonly call Instinct, which is here symbolized in the circle next to the outermost one of the soul or "spirit." Instinct has absolute dominion over all the un- conscious processes of life. Over assimilation, nutrition, glan- dular secretions, circulation — in short over metabolism ; as well also over those conditions which produce impulses ; and is that which leads imagination into touch with intuition of future events and hidden truths. When the interplay of waking life and consciousness, and their inseparable adjunct, memory, with their joint product, intellect, demanded the "specific results" of sleep, sleep came ; but only for those faculties which are not under the direct and special care of the Independent Intelligence of Instinct, which never sleeps. Sip ffett&itlmn of Bittp. SLEEP is an organic function, unknown to the structureless germ and its instincts. The rythmic and diurnal swing of this pendulum of sleep symbolizes a purposive design back of the phenomenon of sleep as a physical necessity. It is conceivable that the psychic purpose of sleep, (whatever physical needs it 51 may supply), is the conservation, within the organic mechanisms, of the godlike powers of that Independent Intelligence which were bestowed upon the original life germ ; to keep that divine spark alive as it were, within the excessively perishable gray el- ement of sense and intellect; which element as a physiological fact, dies instantly without blood, as well as being the first to succumb at somatic death from any cause. It is also conceivable that the powers of the Independent Intelligence of sleepless Instinct, is most likely to be conserved in the blood, or other secretions. We know from experience and history that those powers may be reached, tapped as it were, by those able to assume the state of mental abstraction. The more perfectly that state approaches the natural abstraction of deep sleep, where consciousness of sense perceptions is shut off, the keener and surer will be the perception of hidden truths. It is one of the most amazing facts of race experience, that men remain so stupidly and wilfully blind when by effort they might see. It is as Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram, said to Job in his indignation, — "For God speaketh once yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon man, in slumberings upon the bed, then He openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction." Practically, the powers of abstraction, acquired or natural, enter the state in which an impression is interpreted direct, first hand, as it were, or as we say "instinctively," or by virtue of an intuition, regardless of the slower workings and faulty processes of sense perception interpretation to the brain mechanisms used in reasoning. Dr. Paul Carus well says "Abstraction is the sceptre with which man rules nature." Then, if ever, is reached that state of perfect receptivity which shuts out all preconceived notions, and the "void of anyness" entered for the swift impress of new ideas, from the deft touch of your higher self, your own ELLU. 52 §>lnp mb firauna. THE most perfect state of mental abstraction known to the human mind is represented by the figure in the Pendulum of Sleep. The main stumbling blocks to reason namely, time and space, do not exist in that state. Their emblems, the hour glass and dividers are seen falling from the relaxed grasp of conscious- ness. But there are other stumbling blocks to the conveyance to "mortal" mind of conceptions of abstruse and obscure truths, namely Reason and Speech ; so their emblem also, the pen, has slipped from senseless grasp. In their place ELLU has tossed receptivity into the lap of the sleeper. — This quality of receptiv- ity is what Dr. Carus has aptly named the field or void of "any- ness ;" which has been emptied by abstraction of all precon- ceived ideas and prejudices, and upon which play the impacts from without, — direct impressions from the province of super- organic energy. The automatic attempts by brain mechanisms of perception produce the symbolisms of visions and dreams, — these form the wordless language of intuitions and premonitions. Human experience has piled up mountains of evidence that such symbolisms are often indubitably purposive, and are there- fore susceptible of interpretation, could only the right prear- rangement of a reciprocal code between language and impression, be hit upon. Whether or not man ever finds a practical way to do it, makes no sort of difference to the principle of its con- ceivableness as a scientific possibility. / cannot explain how and why the X ray enables my eye to "see," and my brain to "perceive," that which without the X ray, would remain absolutely hidden from my sight, in any other kind of light known to science. But the fact of it is not a whit more scientifically certain than the facts of prophetic dreams and intuitions which make use of the language of psychic symbolism. For Reason and Speech to a spirit free, Are sandals of lead on a swimmer at sea. And Time and Space glamour the pen That would 'lucidate things for the children of men. 53 SO far as the allegory goes, it only remains to note the simple fact that the shadow letters in the word, which gives a title to the book, very prettily symbolize the art of Psycho craft, as belonging essentially to the realm of law and order, and not to the province of mysticism. The letters though incomplete to ap- pearance, are formed strictly according to the laws of vision ; according to point of view, perspective, direction or source of light, etc. For instance if a tombstone is photographed, the pic- ture would not show the letters cut upon it, in complete outline. Only the high lights print, yet the mind finds no difficulty in reading at once the whole inscription. Indeed, according to physiological authorities, no problem as to the identity of letter thus formed ever reaches the mind at all. The process is not mental but psychical. It is settled unerringly by the Independent Intelligence which has imparted to the organ of vision itself, a power of judgment of its own. See Mach's Analysis of the sensations. Everywhere, evidence of the activities of superior Individual Independent Intelligence is simply overwhelming when once the mind is opened to receive it. 54 Bttym? nf Ifuman %\U Jffarultt^js. grljemr of ij^man Htfr 3Far«ltt^H. Present Moment. > o < Past. Future. ('mo? astrological) (parting Ifuman Htft SfarultteBL f9MSS$M S a g eneral rule > the purpose of charts, maps, di- Hl A sit a grammatic tabulations, and the like, by giv- ||| /\ HI in S graphically a bird's-eye view, as it were, of lis iii a concrete thing as a whole, is to help the mind vis- ^fMiyiyi^ll ualize and hold the relative connections of the parts thereof. But this is far from being the whole of the present matter. While it is important for the clear apprehension of a thing as a concrete whole, to apprehend also the interrelations of its parts, as a general fact, without going into details, the vital necessity is to present clearly, in the same general way, the fact of their differences. Because back of these differences may lie hidden the ultimate purpose of the thing as a whole. The direct purpose of a part (a sense), may be quite another thing. It is likely that the question, "Is life worth living" would not arise in those cases where the purpose of life is clearly present to the mind. For myself, I was seeking a basis for a reasonable belief in a detail of the purpose, viz., the scientific possibility of pre- science as a human faculty. I do not know what particular cir- cumstances led the great scientist, Ernst Haeckel, to the logic of immortality, (spiritual persistence or indestructibility of per- sonality), but when I had succeeded in locating to my own satisfaction, the knozvn "faculties" each in its own, or right subdivision of the two provinces of life (mental and psychical), that simple little circumstance of logical classification made im- mortality apparent as an inevitable certainty. And this without necessarily involving any particular theological theory. Best of all, my tabulated arrangement, above referred to and shown in another chapter, was the only classification I have ever seen 57 that brings about harmonious agreement among all the otherwise "inexplicable" phenomena we hear so much about. Now mind, considered as the reasoning faculty, or intellect, it must be remembered, is herein regarded as something absolute- ly different and separate from the "psychic" or intuitive faculties. These two widely different faculties, as hereafter shown, stand at the head of two distinct provinces of life. The mind, as rea- son, is necessarily conditioned in time and space — (as the two phases of physical motion) ; while the psychic, or intuitional faculty is not in the least so conditioned, (not on its own account), but is absolutely independent of those conditions, which are so necessary to the orderly cerebration, or proper working of the mechanisms of the brain organisms of the mind. Being inde- pendent of, and superior to the laws of those mechanisms of mind, it can, and indubitably does help the mind in its use of them, — on occasion. Thus it became necessary to consider "life" experience as divided into two distinct provinces, separate one from the other, but at the same time possessing potentialities of interrelational products. In this scheme the dominion of the mind does not extend beyond the circles of the senses, because strictly considered, mind is entirely dependent upon sensation for its perceptions, .and is therefore conditioned in Time and Space. While the two outer circles in the diagram indicate faculties superior to sensa- tions and so are not thus conditioned. But these superior fac- ulties are in no wise precluded from influencing the sensation mechanisms of the mind, whenever they are left free by the mind to be influenced. The very best proof that they are thus left free a good part of the time, is furnished in the com- monest phenomena of life, namely in sleep and dreams. In sleep the mind is quiescent. A perfect state of abstraction from sense perceptions exists. Even memory then plays only an incidental and unimportant part. Because it is then that the "void of any- ness" is produced. It is then that the higher powers of life, (the III), can use the mind mechanisms for producing impres- sions in their own zuay; and their own way is not the mind's way, which is conditioned in time and space. But sleep removes the conditions, temporarily, and mind and the higher intelligence 58 may then meet. Dreams prove this. Mind is further conditioned by language, so the impression made by the higher intelligence, which is free from all these conditions, is symbolic. It is known that a dream embracing events extending over long periods (as the mind interprets it), occupies in reality, in producing that astonishingly complex panorama in its play upon the brain mechanism, an incredible short flash of time. Addison relates a typical instance in the Spectator : "The angel Gabriel took Mohammed out of his bed one morning to give him a sight of all things in the seven heavens, in paradise and in hell, which the prophet took a distant view of, and after having held ninety thousand conferences with God, was brought back again to his bed. All this was transacted in so small a space of time that Mohammed on his return, found his bed still warm and snatched up an earthern pitcher, which was thrown over at the very in- stant that the angel Gabriel carried him away, before the zvater was all spilt." The two great Scotch physicians, Abercrombie and Gregory recorded many similar instances, one of which is quoted by Dr. Dendy as follows: (Philosophy of Mystery, p. 239). "A gentle- man dreamed that he had enlisted as a soldier ; that he had joined his regiment; that he had deserted; was apprehended and carried back to his regiment ; that he was tried by a court-martial, condemned to be shot and was led out for execution. At the mo- ment of the completion of these ceremonies, the guns of the platoon were fired, and at the report he awoke. It was clear that a loud noise in the adjoining room, (a slamming door), had both produced the dream, and almost the same instant, awoke the dreamer." Although the actual operation of the mind in ratiocination, — (as a process not as a product of reasoning), are comparatively slow, yet the prodigality of nature here as elsewhere, has ren- dered its possible scope altogether incomprehensible, by the enor- mous number of its "soul cell" units in the brain, (which a German biologist has estimated at six hundred million). The possible thought combinations thus provided for, are beyond all human thinking. Any effort to compass this fact is benumbing to the sense bound intellect. But when the higher Independent Intelli- 59 gence of the other self (the III), finds its opportunity in sleep, the mind being then quiescent and the machinery at rest, it may play upon that waiting organism and with deft fingers, through new combinations of its cells, produce the first impression of a truth, which never had existed in memory, and which the mind had sought in vain to grasp. The result is always the same, whether it is the revival of an old impression, lost from memory, or an entirely new combination, namely, it is a symbolic repre- sentation — a dream picture. But it is often enough to give the reasoning mind its cue, which it may take up and work out in its own way, whenever it is wise enough to take the hint. A most beautiful illustration of the truth of this is related in another place, the dream of Professor Agassiz, as related by his widow, which is only one among untold thousands of sim- ilar instances in the experience of mankind. Subtle proof that the mind has nothing to do in the pro- duction of a certain class of impression, is not wanting. It may be found in the innumerable instances known to medical history, where after long suspension of the mind faculties, in catelepsy, and after shocks, injuries and the like, the machinery of life functions goes on uninterruptedly; and when the faculties are finally awakened, they begin exactly where they left off when the shock came. Again, under normal conditions, to illustrate the idea that the mind has no power of reflection or judgment in a dream, Dr. Samuel Johnson relates that he once had a contest of wit with an antagonist in a dream, and found himself confounded, de- pressed and mortified that his antagonist always got the better of him. But when he reflected upon the matter on waking, he said, "Had not my judgment failed me, I should have seen that the wit of this supposed antagonist, by whose superiority I felt depressed, was as much furnished by me, as that which I thought I had been uttering in my own (conscious) character." (The italics are mine. The wise doctor did not seem to catch the cue of his dream, that this was a revelation to him of the existence of his own ELLU, as one in his composite human trinity — III. It is not contemplated, however, to portray this separation of the mental and psychical in the present diagram, or chart of 60 life faculties. This chart is more particularly designed to show mutual relations of the faculties of one of the two provinces only, namely those faculties which are essentially organic, as the senses for instance, and faculties directly dependent upon them. This chart therefore indicates, incidentally only, the presence of the faculties or properties of the other province, instinct and intuitions, but even here, as outside the province of the senses, and the soul outside of all. In this way, the various diagrams used herein, have certain interrelations, and in a way harmonize with the general idea. Thus, while the present diagram is intended to fix symbolically an idea of the general interrelations of the senses, consciousness and memory, in the individual, by a series of bubble spheres poised with infinite delicacy of adjustment about a common cen- tre, (as in life), — another diagram, (in the next chapter), will illustrate, (by means of the path traced by a sphere con- ceived as rolling), the general idea of the principle of onwardness in the totality of the life experience of the race, as offsetting the horrible monotony of a purposeless repetition of endless "cycles" of existence. While a final chart or tabulated arrangement of the specific results of the individual faculties of the two separate provinces of life, placed side by side, reveals the tremendous im- port and significance of the presence of that instinctive faith in the persistence of a personality, (which is well nigh universal), such as I could obtain in no other way. In short, it was by the aid of these diagrams that I worked out, to my own satisfaction at least, the most convincing proof of a scientific basis for a belief in the human faculty of prescience and consequently for immortality — (or rather the converse of this way of putting it). lExpltmatum rxi % (Eljart TERRESTRIAL life had its beginning. The symbol of the environment, that is, the symbol of the epoch of a lifeless material world, may well be the symbol of water, which is usually' a wavy line. Life began in the ocean, says science. Whatever or wherever its real or ultimate origin may have been, it is doubtless true that in after ages of evolution every creature that ever 61 lived and tried to think, looked upward, — to the sky for its source, as we do, instinctively, even to this day. Imagine then a lifeless expanse of water. Thunder, lightning and a drop of rain ! Behold a tiny half bubble for one little instant riding lightly on the face of the deep where the rain drop fell. What symbol possesses more fitness in representing the evanescence of that individual life which was so mysteriously shaping itself down below, in the salty depths of the warm virgin sea, — than a bubble does ? Oh symbol of earth life, iridescent you tell, On the face of the deep where the raindrops fell. Born of the ocean's own spirit and dew, By the hymen of sky when the world was new. So for the foundation of our chart of life faculties, in place of the conventional wavy line a dotted horizontal line represents the locus of the origin of life. On this line then we make a dot, representing the spot where the bubble spent its energy, which as the centre of the chart will also symbolize the centre of all life's activities, as well as the starting of the germ of life, that mysterious something which defies all analysis. According to Wiesmann's theory, the life germ itself was never endowed with the property of death. The substance in which that germ first exhibits the phenomenon of "life," is colorless and structureless, (sarcode or protoplasm.) "For the whole living world, then," says Huxley, "it results that the morphological unit — the primary and fundamental form of life — is merely an individual mass of protoplasm in which no further structure is discernible." And Herbert Spencer says, "the germ out of which a human being is evolved, differs in no visible respect from the germ out of which every animal and every plant is evolved." So the original "life" cell was a mere speck of protoplasm, which in the course of time, obeying its inherent Instinct, pro- duced certain variations within itself and thus evolved that wonder working pair which science so happily named, ectoderm and endoderm. The story is one of transcendent interest. It relates how that immortal pair produced by their united labors, every living thing 62 under the sun. All the myriad form in endless variety of results in specialization and individualization : Their simple tools a series of infinitesimal bubbles filled wth explosive secretions formed within themselves. It relates how the identical process now in use, and, at this moment going on within your own body is called by the physiologists, metabolism. How each successive step in their insignificant labors, taken as a whole form a general progress upward as grand in its nature as the stately sweep of comets or the onward march of westward going stars — never once de- viating a hair breadth from the laws of their activities, or losing for the fraction of a second through untold millions of years, their identity. It relates how as they pushed their pet enterprise of animal building out into wider and ever branching intricacies of dif- ferenced structures, it became necessary to connect distant mem- bers of the same structure in order to insure harmonious and correlated action. How a special tissue system was slowly but surely built up to secure that end. Then it was that nerves began. For there is not the slightest trace discernable of any- thing like a nerve in the structure of the protoplasm cell. By differencing their own cells the busy ambitious pair worked out the structure of the special connective tissue required. Ganglionic centres followed. The brain was an afterthought. Life began without nerves or brain. How utterly impossible, and how futile the attempt even, to grasp a comprehension of the full sweep of that upward progress through ascending animal series from the protoplasmic germ, up through untold millions of years to the majestic beauty of the tree of human thought in the full bloom of this twentieth century's lordly and arrogant intellectuality ! In the wonder of all this, let us not miss the point, as matter of physical fact, to this very day, and deeply significant it is, the cell of human muscle substance partakes so largely of the specific properties of the original cell of protoplasm, that the latest physiologies refer to muscle substance as "muscle pro- toplasm." In this present scheme of life faculties, for the sake of brevity and convenience, I symbolize the two great forces in life, brawn 63 and brain, in the simple words red and gray. With these rapid general considerations, we can now proceed with the details of the chart. With the germ dot on the horizontal (water symbol) line for a centre, I draw a small half circle over it. This repre- sents the bubble symbol of life's start. The burnished surface of still water reflects like a mirror, — the half bubble is repeated under the line and a perfect sphere results. So this first circle about the germ life centre, may stand as the symbol of personality, identity, or individuality. If shown in colors, all above the line would be gray, but with red rays shooting up through it, and all below the line red, with gray rays similarly through it. Also the first little circle symbolizes the life principle. But with life came Instinct and "consciousness in some shape must have been present at the very origin of things," said James. And with it its well nigh inseparable mate, memory. Whether a soul was there then we do not know. But we do know Instinct — as an instrument of the Independent Intelligence of superorganic energy, must have been there. But the soul in potentiality was somewhere, so to represent it in the scheme I draw a large outer circle, which has for its prototype the dome of the sky. Then next within that another circle for Instinct. To represent the five senses in the scheme, I draw a series of five circles between the circle of Instinct and the circle of personality, using the germ dot for a common centre. These are marked in the order of their probable occurrence, — touch smell, taste, hearing, sight. These circles are all to be imagined as the transparent outlines of so many bubbles, all poised con- centrically within the imperishable outermost sphere of the soul. It will be noticed that this reverses, as it should reverse the curious persistence of the fallacious and misleading idea ex- pressed by the words inner life as applied to the soul's ac- tivities. It seems to have been an unquestioned dictum, origi- nating, I know not where, that the soul is the inner and the body the outer aspect of human life. A dictum that humanity in general, and even modern psychologists continue to follow blindly, thoughtlessly. Nothing could possibly be more mislead- ing psychologically. You must rid your mind of that fallacy 64 before its eye will perceive the inherent aptness and beauty of the Bubble Chart. If the body is merely the temporarily compressed, solidified aspect of a life immeasurably more expansive and wider in its destinies, then why in the name of common sense call the body its outer aspect? The soul itself has no delusions. It knows all things. Everybody knows, down in his heart of hearts that the actually inner (hidden) life is a pack of foul lies, of which the spotless and unsoilable soul would sicken in shame, (were that possible). The faculties of consciousness and memory, as well as impres- sion and perception, cannot well be represented by separate lines or symbols of their own in the diagram, for reasons which will presently appear. Yet the presence of these faculties, as inherent properties of that "experience" which constitutes the fund of human knowledge, is most aptly and beautifully represented in the nature of the curved line that forms the circles of the senses ; namely its inner and its outer aspect. Its convexity and its con- cavity. The outer side or aspect of every circle in the scheme repre- sents, therefore, both Impressions — (as impact from the outer world), and Consciousness (as "awareness" of the outside world). While similarly the inner side of every circle drawn represents sense perceptions, — (as interpretations of the impressions) and memory, — (as a record of states of consciousness). To avoid confusing repetitions of the four long words, impression, con- sciousness, perception, memory, they are omitted from the dia- gram but to fix these in the mind, the two first words must be sup- plied mentally to the convexity of every circle: And likewise the two last, to the concavity of every circle, thus, — «&&£- 2^5?^ #^* ^%* If so rigid a thing as a great telescope with solid lens cen- tered immovably in metal, mounted in a solitary house on the top of a distant mountain of primitive rock will still tremble so 65 in sympathy with its earth relations, that a star seen through it will appear to dance about in the sky, how inconceivably and perpetually more out of focus would be a set of elastic lenses (the bubble symbols of the senses), hanging as free pendants within the very heart and brain of the teeming city of life, upon the elastic lien of time forever trembling and dancing with the jars of specific results — the eventuations of the swift changing Present Moment! Is it any wonder that a perfect mental equilibrium is the rarest of all human virtues and could impart Christ-like powers of prescience? Is it any wonder that the great modern scholar should say, even of mathematics, we never know whether its deductions are true? The appropriateness of bubbles thus clus- tered about a common circle to illustrate the relations of the senses to consciousness, is at once apparent. No words can well exaggerate the wondrous elasticity and reciprocal inter- conformability of the various faculties represented by bubbles thus poised. And nothing else visible to all alike as actual sub- stance, is so delicately responsive, so incessantly vibrant and elastic — trembling in agitation at every little jar, till it breaks, as a bubble. Your consciousness is the eye of your universe. But it is poised so gently, hung on its invisible liens so lightly and so delicately moored at the common center of those flexible and responsively vibrant bubble spheres of the senses, that a little tap on the head, a wink of sleep, a little alcohol or chloral or poppy — and almost instantly that eye of consciousness is tight shut : Reason is temporarily lost, dazzled and confused by the ex- quisite confusion of vibrations set up in the concentric spheres of the senses. AS previously hinted, for that familiar but marvelous faculty of memory there is no single representation possible. Sim- ply because, as Ribot says in Les maladies de la memoir e, 1901, p. 11, "There is not one memory, but memories ; there is not one seat of memory, but particular seats for each particular memory." 66 And even if we were to confine ourselves to the conclusions of the champions of the Gray alone, there would be over six hundred million seats possible as that is the estimated number of cells in the brain. But according to the very latest theories of biological science — see Eugenio Rignano's book, 1907, so co- piously quoted by Professor Francis Darwin in his presidential address, to the British Associations for the advancement of Science, August, 1908, as noted in a recent issue of the Monist, there are thousands of millions of organic cells in the human body, each capable of becoming the seat of a specific memory. Nevertheless, representation in the diagram, perplexing and impracticable as it may seem at superficial glance, is really feas- ible, simple and logical; when we consider that every act of memory, (I refer now only to the period of conscious life without reference to that bewildering likeness that exists between on- togeny — something a little broader than heredity, and memory, in conscious life at least), was stimulated by some impression of some one or more of the senses ; so we may say broadly, since every curve although a distinct and separate actuality of itself, has two sides, two opposite aspects whose natures are totally different one from the other, — so we may say figuratively, that Memory is appropriately represented in the diagram by the con- cavity of each and every convexity therein. It is among the very latest ideas in biological science, that the "memory trace" is at last located in a specific substance that is deposited by vital processes in an organic cell, especially in that of the brain : That this substance has the property of giving back upon proper stimulation, as an electric accumulator does by reaction, the exact "specific current" that just produced it, and thus illuminate for consciousness the precise picture first impressed. And that as a natural consequence, the deposit of a memory substance anywhere in an organism being dependent upon nutri- tion, the oftener you stimulate the current of any particular memory image, the brighter and clearer it becomes. At all events, this theory fits more of the puzzling phenomena of mem- ory than any other heretofore devised by human ingenuity. 67 It is assumed that any vital current, i. e., one not necessarily confined to a brain cell, or any other strictly nervous current, but even a cytoplasmic impulse, is capable of depositing the spe- cific substance whose reaction produces the mnemonic faculty. "The mechanism necessary," says Basil C. H. Harvey, of the University of Chicago, in reviewing Rignano's book, in the Monist for July, 1909 — "for the general exercise of a mnemonic faculty being present throughout the organism, it is interesting to note that Hering finds the mnemonic faculty itself present, as shown in his book — . . "Ribot also states that 'memory is essentially a biological fact, accidentally a psychological one.' The possession by liv- ing matter in general of a mnemonic faculty should throw some light upon many of its activities and especially upon those which resemble memory. ' 'The germ,' wrote Claude Bernard, 'seems to preserve the memory of the organism from which it proceeds. Haeckel at- tributes development to the mnemonic quality of his plastidules. . . Cope held that ontogeny is called forth by the unconscious memory of phylogeny. Naegeli and, in some places, Hertwig himself, attributes to the idioplasm the faculty of remembering, so to speak, the successive phylogenetic stages through which it had gradually passed." As Rignano says, "The phenomenon of memory can serve neither as an explanation of the phenomenon of development nor of the vital phenomena in general, because it constitutes itself a phenomenon more special and complex than those it was sum- moned to explain." This new theory of memory based upon the deposit of a specific memory substance within a cell, is all the more plausible because the close dependence of memory upon the nutritive processes, is a universally accepted scientific fact. Nutrition alone can provide the substance, and the more a memory is re- called, the stronger and clearer it becomes, because exercise brings nutrition in its train. In a word, science itself places memory under the dominion of tvhatever unconscious faculty it is that governs assimilation and nutrition. 68 But it would be a very insiduous mistake to consider mem- ory, on that account, as belonging exclusively to the psychical side of life, as nutrition does. It is, as Ribot says, essentially a biolog- ical fact. Memory is therefore listed among the "specific results" of biologic energy, in the province with mind, and not among those of the superorganic energy. (See Tabulation.) Having located Identity, Consciousness, Memory, Instinct, the five senses and the soul, by a simple series of eight concen- tric circles, and denoted the respective dominions of the Red and the Gray elements of life, it now remains to locate and sys- bolize with curves and straight lines, certain other activities and co-ordinating forces, or influences, or sympathies, that flow re- spectively from heart and brain — (appropriate symbols of Red or Gray), through a common center. And then to divide the whole into three distinct zones of activities, viz. : The zone of the Intellect ; the zone of Science (specific results) ; and the zone of the Instinct. These zones on the cut are numbered 1, 2, 3, and signify, — 1. This is the zone of intellectuality, involving unknown but knowable laws. The zone of illusions and hallucinations ; of materializations, ghosts, levitations, etc., etc. 2. This is the zone of science; of the known laws of se- quential causation; of materialism and the utilities of natural forces. 3. This is the zone of the INTUITIONS: of prescience, involving both known and unknown but knowable laws of vi- tality, nutrition, love, generation, heredity, etc., etc. There is much confusion of thought resulting from attribut- ing in a vague way, all "psychic phenomena" to one and the same source or "force" — as if all were governed by the same law. This is misleading in the extreme. There is not one "border line" and one "shadow land" between commonplace every-day life ex- periences and the extraordinary occurrences of psychic phe- nomena, but four, at least. Across the border line of one zone may be the shadow land of the other. The zone of materializations, ghosts, raps, levita- tions, etc., is as far removed as possible from the zone of in- tuitional prescience. 69 It is to be supposed that the beautiful imperishable outer bubble of all, representing the Soul, which contains all the other bubble faculties nested successively within, is itself enveloped, submerged, bathed on all sides by the illimitable ocean of pure Intelligence; the region of the Ultimate Cause, the Great Un- conscious, the Unknowable. As Aristotle said yesterday, "The five senses just enumer- ated — sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch — would seem to com- prise all our perceptive faculties and to leave no further sense to be explained." (de Anima.) Poised above the outer circle, the mind's eye discerns a single luminous point which represents the Present Moment or Opportunity. It twinkles like a spark that is incessantly put out and as incessantly relighted. In the next chapter, it is supposed to accompany the rolling sphere of life in its onward progress, as if affixed thereto, as indeed it is, by its invisible lien. I say rolling, because thereby it illustrates an onward progress. That is to say, life is not to be supposed as either floating aimlessly like a bubble in space, or as whirling in a dizzy monotony of never ending cycles of rebirth to no ultimate purpose. Further, it is to be supposed that the course of this onward rolling sphere is denoted by the horizontal arrow just below it in the diagram. The old horizon wave line of the primodial sea is shrunken to a faint dotted line — vestigeal as it were. It will doubtless be noted that the groupings of the phe- nomena appropriate to the respective zones of Intellect and In- stinct, seem to do violence to some popular notions, regarding the relative activities of these opposed zones, the extremes of which it has been so long the fashion to denominate as spiritual and natural. Indeed, I hope my arrangements will elicit consid- erable criticism for it is a subject which will profitably bear much study. In the zone of Positive Science, governed by known laws, the co-ordinating forces ever interchanging between heart and brain through a common center, as lines of force in the field of two magnets, are most appropriately symbolized by the curve S which science has already adopted as a symbol to express the 70 idea of an activity or a re-action, which is most intense or swift- est at its center and gradually slackens or weakens towards its extremities, capable of exact mathematical expression in time function terms. A pair of these curves makes a form similar to the figure 8 ? which surrounds and unites heart and brain. Gen. stands for the generative principle as represented in the chart, in the realm of the Red. 71 (§nmnvhmBB. t3 ^ o § -o 5 W u o o q IMPENETRABLE MISTS OF AN UNKNOWN ANTIQUITY (§twxwcbtvtBB< "May I not kiss you now in superstition? For you appear a thing that I would kneel to." Fletcher : Love's Progress. I^IHIIilH^^ portraying the idea of onwardness as a dis- IfP * IP cernible feature in the psychical life of the race, HI sit ^ € m i n( i i s at fi fSt assailed with grave doubts. Hll HI ^ there any such thing as psychic progress? Is 1111B111!! there a particle of scientific evidence that either thought transmission or prescience, as a practical human accom- plishment is any further advanced today than it was ten thousand years ago? Whatever calm conclusions science may arrive at later, on that point, the chances are that any one who, at the first blush, should aver faith in the affirmative of the proposition, would be called superstitious, (if not something harsher), by the average contemporary mind, infatuated as it is with the char- acteristic passion of the present age for science. But let us proceed calmly. In the first place, any attempt to answer such a question should be preceded by an analysis of the term psychic progress. In this process there is immediately evident the necessity for that sharp distinction which I have else- where outlined as existing between the mental and the psychical. Psychic progress need not necessarily imply mental progress, any more than mental progress implies psychic progress. They can get on separately, though they naturally lend each other a certain amount of mutual support, especially as in this present day, physical science and psychology are at last traveling that bewildering way harmoniously, hand in hand, like the babes in 75 the wood, whom the intelligent forces of nature treat kindly, — when they draw near to her in fearless faith. It is not so easy to depict these separate lines of progress, as it is to lump them and let them go at that. For instance it is vastly more difficult, if not quite impossible to demonstrate prog- ress in the province of the oracle than in the province of the wheel: but easy to go off into a glittering general rhapsody over the wonderful things this tremendous fellow, man, is up to now, and what he will do when he sprouts his new "sixth sense." But the idea that superstition as commonly understood is the peculiar fabrication of the psychical life, is what I am ready to combat. The very opposite is most startlingly portrayed in the tabulation of "specific results" in the two provinces, at the end of the next chapter. I would only say briefly here in passing, that the question with which we started, may be answered in the affirmative — and the one strongest evidence of that progress is, that science in joining hands with psychology, has admitted to her realm the fact of supersensible impressions. But more of this later : To return to the idea of progress, — An editorial in a recent number of a great metropolitan newspaper, The New York World, referring to the seething mixtures of modern New Thought Occultism, Oriental Mysti- cisms, and Jewish and Christian theology ; where "a new pa- ganism challenges the growth of a revealed religion," perti- nently asks, "What will this ferment produce? Will another neo-Platonic philosophy be generated from the diverse beliefs in the great metropolis of the New World?" In another issue, the same journal says in a leading edi- torial under the caption "The Message of the New Literature" — "Is the new literary note one of paganism with respect to the dominion of desire?" Referring to the latest works of such masters of modern literature as Tolstoy, Gerhardt Hauptmann, Anatole France, and others. Perhaps they think a new lapse into a certain phase of the sensualities of a "new paganism," introductory to a com- ing "dark age" is already foreshadowed, as inevitable ; but prob- ably of a very much less degree of brute grossness than that 76 which characterized former lapses, where, as in Babylonia draining the "golden cup which made the whole world drunk," was an act of religious devotion, in honor of Our Lady of the Loosened Girdles. But probably never again will it occur that images of the "groves" will be set up in the household, or in public places — not as visible signs of worship, at least. Nor will a gilded phallus three hundred feet long, ever again be carried in public procession. There is no call to get anxious over that fear, however certain it may seem that a new looping of the loop of a new dark age is threatened. It is easier to believe that such is only an inevitable incident in a predestined higher mount- ing in the next upward sweep in the Path of Progress. Ancient history and tradition, both sacred and profane, explorations of the ruins of buried cities and the miraculous recovery therefrom of a lost language, whose cuneiform in- scriptions, revealing, not the work of worms, but the lore of a vast civilization of incomputable antiquity, indicate that the progress of the race has been in ups and downs, the inscrutible purpose of whose tidal waves are not yet discovered. We see plainly enough that the race has toiled painfully, and at the most terrific cost of blood and treasure to eminences of great spirit- ual and intellectual development and material achievement, only to gradually let go again and glide easily down the opposite course into intervening abysses of the so-called dark ages. Is there room for the thought, that perhaps these were not dark ages at all, but as a whole, only necessary periods of spirit- ual recuperation, of which diurnal sleep is the epitome in the individual ? These curious facts are worth noting, namely, that what modern history calls dark ages, is not that which is accompanied by the free play of unbridled passions, but rather that it was marked by a mistaken religious bigotry that out of all reason suppressed passion as inherently base in itself, and was distin- guished for a supine stupidity and ignorance that exhibited no evidences of progress of any kind whatever. And on the other hand, that the ages of the ancient world which did exhibit the greatest intellectual activities and material achievement, were accompanied by a free and even unbridled play of the primal 77 passions. Can these strangely incongruous facts and their "intention" be explained? Can they be symbolized in a simple diagram, where their seeming contradictions may be harmo- nized ? If one can only utterly suppress the old idea of cycles of existence, and set up in its place the idea of a cycloidal progress, a dark age at its worst would only appear as a momentary ret- rograde movement, inseparable from the nature of the new idea, and, of course, from the irrepressible insistence of thwarted primal passions of the human organism. The trouble with the old idea of "cycles" of existence is that it does not involve the idea of an onward course. Therefore the effort should be to picture ideographically a truly philosophical progress where such an onward course is supposed to prevail. It should be an effort to break away from the benumbing futility inherent in the idea of life in ever recurring cycles, devoid of ultimate progress. The trouble with the old pagan philosophy is as Saltus says, that it "rolls man ceaselessly through all forms of existence, from the elementary to the divine;" and then flinging him out and back into another primeval chaos, where "atoms shall re- assemble and forms unite, dis-unite and re-appear, depart and return, endlessly in recurring cycles," paralyzes the mind as in a horrible nightmare which has taken hold of the "monotony of hell." As for me, here again my own mind found relief in re- course to the diagrammatic method where progress was visualized symbolically as cycloidal rather than cyclical. But the word alone I fear, may not clearly impart to the lay reader — for whom this is written, — the inherent idea of onwardness which the word itself implies. The cycle implies a path in gyration only; the cycloidal a path of translation onward as for instance, that of a nail in the rim of a carriage wheel. We began by rep- resenting human life in the abstract with a bubble as a symbol to which we attached by an invisible lien the star of the Present Moment, at a fixed point, outside the Bubble of Life. It will be a mild surprise to many who have never thought on the matter critically, that a nail head protruding from a wagon 78 wheel, or a fixed point standing out from the surface of a globe as it rolls along in space, would not trace a figure anything like a circle or a spiral, but only that curious series of curves which are shown in the diagram (see page 74). Observe the three loops extending below the line which represents the plane of prog- ress, or movement of translation, connected by the sweep of long- er curves above the base, marked Babylon, Egypt, Rome, — forming a continuous series of curves. But curious as it may seem such is the actual figure that would be impressed upon the mental vision, imagining the emblem of the Present Moment to be a visible spark, following the movement of the symbolic sphere of life, as it rolls along on its imaginary course through space; somewhat as a live coal on the end of a stick swung in the air, traces visible shapes of fire. In this case the line of light is a series of curtate cycloids. Among some of the remarkable features of this curve, are the loops below the generating plane. Though the movement of the sphere is steadily onward, the spark accompanying it as af- fixed thereto, actually turns backward on its course, momentarily plunging into the abysmal depths below, before it emerges again for another upward and onward sweep. This curve has such a mysterious connection with the element of Time, that it is some- times referred to as the isochronous, (time) curve. It is equally important, perhaps indispensible, in working out the dynamics of wave motion. It is related of Pascal, that prodigy of genius who invented geometry anew at the age of twelve years, that he had himself firmly strapped in his chair, while working on the problems of this curve, to prevent his falling into the bottomless gulf, on the edge of which he seemed to be. Crudely amplified in one of the details of this hypothetical new course in the onward progress of the race, the cycloidal loop of the dark age may be likened to the simultaneous death of the old and birth of the New Ideal, typified in the actuality of human life by the living child from the dead placenta: 79 To pass in swift review the general course of human events we might say then, poetically and figuratively, that during cy- cloidals (not cycles), of forgotten ages in the ancient pagan world, myriads of magic idols were fashioned with which to "conjure" or propitiate the endless swarms of lesser gods and goddesses — "the demoniac and the divine ;" countless temples and altars were reared by the inspired dreamers, — to an Ideality — to an intellectuality vast, cold, outside spirit of almighty and dreadful power, which produced finally the greatest of all the old Lords of the Old Ghostland, Brahma, Bel Marduk, Jehovah, (Y H W H, Yahweh, Adonai). So the centuries pass, temples, altars, ancient and holy things, crumble, dissolve and fade away into shapeless clouds of dust. Vagrant winds playing about in desert wastes, hum in the gentle swish of sand tinkling across dry leaves, year after year for millenia of time, nature's low lullaby over the dust mounded graves of her darlings, whose skulls profoundly silent lie deep in the dusts of a buried past. So the centuries pass, so yet again the death loop of the old becomes the birth loop of a New Age ; but this time, over the edge of the new ascent breaks the bright beams of the star over Bethlehem — the new "Light of the World," with its portent of a new and grander upward sweep of the cycloidal Path of Progress. In the light of this new idea of progress it is a superficial mind and a shallow judgment of the broad field of facts, that 80 blames Christianity for the thousand years of material impo- tence through which we have at last emerged. It was but the inevitable darkness of an Age's immaturity, yet too near the night of the shadow of death and dawn of a new birth ; it was but the feeble creeping and stumbling of the race of man that had again entered, and emerged from its mother's womb, for spiritual regeneration. So new centuries passed while the black and bloody pall of the last dark age still hung over all Christ- endom. Again the reign of a blind fear of an unknown and vengeful power was on. Magic, witchcraft, bigotry, fire and rope and sword, ruled all lives. But all this was destined to become at last a forgotten night horror, a bad dream dissolved in the searchlight beams of yet another New Day. Under the law of progress, again a new eminence is pain- fully and laboriously gained. The first scientists of the new age suffered ignominy, prison, and death. The present day apostles of psychic science suffer only the sneers and jibes and ridicule of those skeptics who follow blindly the dogmas of orthodox materialism. But what care the new heroes? For look! as we emerge from the last so-called dark age, who are these majestic forms that tower above the horizon plane? Enter the New Lords of a New Ghostland. Enter the stern browed scientists. For again the turn is safely made ; but sure as fate the curtain has rung up again on the same old background of shad- owland. The new actors, trooping into the lime light bear new banners, and orthodox science is not a whit less intolerant and dogmatic than religion with its Bible texts was wont to be. Some of the newest banners read, Relativity, Radio Activities, Unexplored Biology, Soul-cells, Pangens, Pragmatism, Monism. How pitifully their vain transparencies glimmer ; veritably like so many pathetic little tallow dips held up to the sun of Nature's deeper revelations, flashing through the chinks of the commonest of her mysteries that forever have attended us, forever old and forever new — and forever beckoning on — Aspira- tions, Intuitions, Sleep and Dreams. I have everywhere emphasized the necessity of recognizing the sharp distinctions existing between the mental and the psy- 81 chical, and the corresponding terms expressing them. Thus, mental progress depends wholly upon properly co-ordinated sense perceptions: while psychic progress depends upon an alert "aware- ness" of direct impressions proceeding from the superorganic energy of "life." So also I have drawn distinctions elsewhere between the terms sense perception and sense impression, which it is well to be reminded of in this connection. These distinctions are vital. But all progress of every nature, as well as all human knowledge, are, in the end, questions of sensation. Only the test which science ever seeks to keep rigidly applied is, "Is it a sane sense perception? And yet in the very application of that test, it is almost immediately halted by the question, "How about the signal triumphs of genius?" Are they always sane? As a general proposition all will admit that the more direct the proof by practical achievement, in the province of the wheel, — (which includes radium and 'wireless'), which the inventive geniuses of science furnish, the more readily does the public mind accept as gospel, the precepts of the physicist. But none so readily as the scientist himself. Now superstition is best defined as faith in a precept. The exact original meaning of the word is unknown, or very un- certain. But the Century Dictionary says it is supposed to mean a standing over something in amazement and awe. So an un- reasoning fear of the unknown, which is the derived meaning as commonly used, does not define it, because in the minds of the great majority of people, its first and best synonym, is credulity. A proneness to gullibility and belief in power as attaching to all that passes understanding. Sir Matthew Hale was presiding in his court, relates Dr. Dendy, on the trial of a witch. She had cured many diseases by a charm in her possession, and the evidence was conclusive of her guilt. But when the judge him- self looked on this charm, behold, it was a scrap of paper, in- scribed with a Latin sentence, which in default of money, he himself, had given many years before, in a merry mood to mine host by way of reckoning. Hitherto science has rather scorned the idea that feelings, emotions, intuitions, could possibly weigh anything at all in the 82 investigations of physical fact. But now it no longer scorns the idea of the III {the Individual Independent Intelligence.) Heav- en bless us, Prudence, the whole camel will soon be in the tent of science. Science and Psychology are already holding hands in mutual admiration. The superstition of the scientist — his implicit faith in the triumphs of its geniuses, and in the precepts of brother scientists — , is but his own presentiment of the unguessed power of the III, It is a great mistake to regard superstition as something wholly unworthy or degrading, or characteristic of ignorance. On the contrary, I believe that psychic progress and the growth of superstition are mutual measures one of the other, inseparable. The more superstition the more psychic progress. In the end, superstition is the brightest jewel in the crown of science. Be- cause, as I said before, superstition rightly regarded, is only a presentiment of the powers of III, the human faculty which is many degrees nearer God than mind or intellect alone can ever reach. If, as Solomon says in Proverbs, "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing," all the more must it be to the honor of science to find it out. And this is not impiously flying in the face of the reproof "canst thou by searching find out God?" for it would be a superficial way of looking at the matter, to construe the searching for the thing He has hidden as an effort to find out God Himself. But even there, the searching for the thing leads to such fathomless depths that the distinction, if any exists, is easily lost. Indeed, even that magnificent figure in science, Ernst Haeckel, the arch materialist, has quickened the pulse of the thinking world in his latest utterances in "Scientific Confession of Faith." He says, "God is everywhere. As Giordano Bruno has it, 'There is one spirit in all things, and no body is so small that it does not contain a part of the divine substance whereby it is animated.' Every atom is thus animated, and so is the ether ; we might therefore represent God as the infinite sum of all natural forces, the sum of all atomic forces and all ether — vibrations." So it is seen that even the most emotionless of all the great hard headed scientists come honestly by their superstition. And perhaps, after all the most convincing evidence of a psychic prog- 83 ress for the race is in the fact that the more a man knows the more deeply and truly superstitious he is. In regard to a public diffusion of superstition as it is common- ly understood, can any one tell whether a single one of the so-called old deep seated superstitions of the race has ever been abolished by science? Is it not true that science has intensified them all? Perhaps it may occur to someone to suggest that witchcraft is an example of an abolished superstition. Such a one would be woe- fully ignorant of the facts. It is true we no longer hang prac- titioners, or banish participants and believers ; but how about the astonishing fact of that inaudible, invisible but blasting and withering lightning force of evil which so many good people believe in? — the M. A. M. whose fearful bolts were launched by silent, absent treatment, against the prosecuting attorney in the Eddy will case? And how about the invoking of materialized "spirits" under the auspices of a more material and rigid "science?" How about Sir William Crooke's Katy King? Is it not true that a list of believers in that and similar miscalled "psychic" phenomena, would contain the names of scores of the most brilliant and suc- cessful men of science the world has ever known? Did not Caesar Lombroso, the great Italian, only last year declare that he had conversed with his dead mother? And did not Professor Charles Richet, the greatest living French physiologist, honestly believe and assert that he saw with his own eyes, a helmetted warrior arise out of the body of a girl in a trance? And again, how about that "bewitching" of almost the whole Academy of Science, the highest seat of scientific learning in France, which caused sincere belief in the authenticity of letters dictated by the ghosts of Galileo, Newton, and Pascal, which were printed in its own periodical — letters which were the work of a forger, who afterwards confessed? No one could show the tendency of the scientific mind to su- perstition, more effectively than has the brilliant French physicist Gustave le Bon, in his communications to the London "Westminster Gazette," reviewed in "Current Literature." Again the great Becquerel, whose father and grandfather before him were noted scientists, in sustaining scientific belief in certain metallic "emanations," declared that he himself had chloroformed Blondlets' famous N rays, which were then supposed as heralding the advent of a new age of science, and gave chemistry such a shaking up as it had not known in ages. Becquerel's treatment seems to have been fatally successful, — at least the famous rays soon after "went out" for good. I am tempted to add a brief, crude arrangement of only a few of the so-called ancient superstitious beliefs in one column, offset by a bare hint of their modern equivalent in an opposite column. The result is both surprising and edifying, and can be extended much further if one cares to do so : ANCIENT. The account of creation (scoffed at by science as contrary to the principle of the indestructibility of matter), as embodying belief in the principle of something out of nothing, by an unknown, Omnipo- tent Intelligence. "In the begin- ning .... the earth was without form and void." MODERN. Destruction of the "law" of in- destructibility of matter, demon- strated by Gustave le Bon in "Evolution of Matter," where he relates making matter disappear absolutely, into the imponderable ether, which he describes as "a solid without density or weight." Now what can a solid without density or weight be but a nothing without form and void? The four mystic elements earth, air, fire, water. The four elements of proto- plasm O. H. N. C. "Devils and witches," wrote Paracelsus, "raise storms by throwing up alum and saltpetre into the air which come down as rain drops." Experiments have been made by U. S. Government experts, in rain making, by shooting gun powder bombs into the air, which were more or less successful. In the Golden Legend it was written, "The air is full of sprites as the sonnebeams ben full of small motes, which is small dust or poudre." And Baxter wrote that "Fairies and goblins One of the grandest figures in science today is Dr. Alfred Rus- sell Wallace, co-discoverer with Darwin in the theory of evolution. His latest work, "The World of Life," shows that he believes the 85 might be as common in the air as fishes in the sea." Pagan systems had innumerable gods of varying degrees. In the Gnostic system was the Demiurge, and subordinate graded "domina- tions, princedoms, thrones, vir- tues, powers." enormous distance between God and man is occupied by demigods, angels, elf-gods controlling the electrons of atoms; "soul-cells," little gods "presiding over the Struggle for existence among the determinants of ultimate units of germplasm in the physiological cell," as one reviewer puts it. It has been impossible to ac- count for the amazing fact of heredity without assuming the ex- istence of countless millions of cell-souls composing every body. The great Darwin himself said in a letter to Prof. Asa Gray, — "The chapter on what I call Pan- genesis will be called a mad dream. . . . but at the bottom of my own mind I think it con- tains a great truth." Now comes Hugo de Vries with his Pang ens — little soul-cells, "the bearers of individual hereditary characters." Alchemy : 1. Belief in only four primal elements, and in the transmuta- tion of baser metals into gold, — specifically by the touch of the "philosopher's stone," (a com- pound of salt, sulphur and mer- cury) . 2. Belief in an "elixir of life." Roger Bacon sent some to Pope Nicholas IV. A solution of gold. As one account goes, an old man plowing turned up a golden phial of it, drank it off, and was there- upon turned into a robust and highly accomplished youth. 3. Belief in the existence of a single elemental substance — no- body knows what, but which was believed to be the "quintessence" Chemistry : 1. Compare the theory of al- lotropy> under which more and more "elements," are being re- duced to few. Also, latest ac- counts of wonderful metallic transmutations, actually accom- plished since the discovery of ra- dium. 2. Compan published accounts of one of the world's greatest living scientists, Metchnikoff, dai- ly sipping the elixir of sour milk, for an indefinite prolonging of life, by exhilarating the blood to kill off the phagocytes of "old age disease." 3. Belief in the scientific hy- pothesis of a luminiferous ether, absolutely unverifiable, but nec- 86 of the four known "elements," and common to all, called alcahest. All alchemists were in search of this — at its touch everything would "blush into virgin gold." It was the mother of the elements and grandmother of the stars, etc. essary to account for observed facts ; without it many chemical theories would share the fate of alchemy. Lemurs and lars — little angels and demons of good and evil. Microbes, bacteria, bacilli, both protective and destructive. Ancient belief in the marvelous powers of the "Primal Light" by which one could see through all solids, and down into the earth, and to the ends of the earth. The X ray of science that re- veals hidden things invisible other- wise : the microscope that lays bare the heart of things, and the telescope that reaches far — all by the power of LIGHT. Under Miracles may be men- tioned that mysterious instance of a supernatural warning of an im- pending disaster, which came to Belshazzar in strange characters of fire, from out the shadowy background of his lofty chamber walls, which only one knowing the code could interpret. Compare that ancient miracle with the one wrought by science, and the courage of Jack Binns, whose hand flung abroad from the fated ship Republic, the magic C Q D of Maconi's code; which invisible signal of disaster was "picked up" out of the darkness of night by a distant ship, was interpreted and "located," thereby saving 700 souls from imminent death. Thus the comparisons may be multiplied astonishingly; and one may well ask which of these last is the greater miracle? But it is in such significant comparison of superstition breed- ing events, that one detects the unmistakable element of quality, which denotes the fact of onwardness in the higher purposive progress of the race. A recent book which has achieved considerable popularity, "Is Mankind Advancing," reaches a rather hopeless and forlorn conclusion in its answer to the question of progress, which I 87 would fain offset. The trouble with the argument advanced is that it proceeds from several decidedly irrelevant and inadequate assumptions. For instance, in unwarrantably substituting the test of a narrow individualism in the place of a broad racial principle: as when the author holds that any epoch must be judged by the number and calibre of its men of genius. This, very clearly, is the same narrow point of view of Huxley that "The advance of mankind has everywhere depended upon the production of men of genius." I say the criteria applied is inadequate in several re- spects. First, intellectuality, as the power of reasoning, is thus applied as the sole test as to whether mankind is advancing. It is cited as adverse evidence that no subsequent epoch has ever produced such prodigies of intellect as ancient Greece furnished in the person of Aristotle and Plato, and some others. This, of course, would all be quite impressive evidence if intellectuality could be accepted as the criteria of progress, which it cannot be. Rather in the place of such individualistic specimen selecting, must be put a principle which the race may be developing. Suppose that principle were philanthropy for instance, and we should turn the matching of genuises about, by asking what genius of antiquity can be named to match the glory of the George Peabodys of a later age ? Or we might name this purposive racial principle, Humanism, not in its narrow theological sense of the middle ages, but in the broader spirit that builds modern free hospitals and the like. Now the intellectuality of antiquity was high, but it never freed its slaves : or devised model prisons for the reform of criminals. Intellectuality and justice are alike cold blooded. I never read that Hammurabi allowed his subjects any voice in the making of his laws. It takes something finer than intellectuality to constitute the advance of mankind. No one ever saw this truth more clearly or taught it more consistently than the gentle Christ. He warned the race against the worship of false gods. But the most insidious of all false worships is the worship of mind. And as for the very slow development of a racial principle, did you ever catch nature in a hurry about anything? "It is very difficult to be everything," as Anatole France said in excusing the "terrible heavy handedness and awkwardness" of nature. What are the little brief intervals of time that constitute so-called epochs between genuises of history — nay what is all history com- pared with the hundred million years of "life" on the globe? They are futile, wholly and utterly inadequate as tests in the question of the racial progress of mankind. If we apply the subtle principle of human sympathy and love as a test, in the place of intellectuality surely the evidence of progress, even in the "epochs" since Christ, is overwhelming. So in the symbolisms of epochs, what in all antiquity is there to match the C Q D of twentieth century advance, as an instance of the principle of brotherly love practically applied? This is the ripening fruit of that ineffable principle of "fellow-feeling" which is so unique — so unlike anything else the world has ever produced. Surely the best interests of that wonderful coming race, seem to demand that intellect — magnificent a product of biologic energy as it is — should be made to realize its inherent inferiority to in- stinct and intuition as the products of the more primitive super- organic energy of "life." lasting SJIyreains 3fn tlj? Kx^nmtnt far •prratettr?. "This is a question which after five thousand years, is still undecided. One of the most important which can come before the human understanding." Dr. Samuel Johnson. l^fllfilfilfI|ANY °* ^ e confounding contradictions which mod- |H ir w HI ern ma terialists encounter in considering the scien- ^ l\r I HI t ^ c P oss it)ility of the survival of a personality §j!p ^ after death, would vanish if they did not make the !^y|yt^?!^?l mistake of considering mind as constituting the personality. As it is this survival idea that furnishes the sup- posititious human "spirit" source of prescience, the assumed de- struction of the mind, at dissolution of the brain, destroys both survival and prescience. But there is the mistake, for if it is admitted that mind constitutes the personality, then it may be nec- essary to admit that there is no survival. Now while immortality is not directly the question at issue, prescience as a human faculty is ; but neither prescience nor immortality are properties of mind at all, but they are properties of something else which pertains more intimately to "life" than mind ever does or ever can. No headway whatever can be made in solving this question of pre- science and all that it implies, until the above distinction is recognized as vital. What that something else may be it is the purpose of the following threads of evidence to outline. Plato and other great philosophers, have made much of the strangely persistent idea of a principle of duality running through- out the universe. But in human life there is clearly a trinity in- volved. This is not at all theological. The trinity in humanity 90 is composed of the soul, the individual independent intelligence, (III, ELLU), and the mind. Nobody ever says of an insane person, "he has lost his soul," but "he has lost his mind." Thus there is given a subtle unconscious expression to the above truth. While my effort thus far has been to point the wide distinction that surely exists between mind and soul, and to emphasize the fact that mind is inferior to the faculty of intuition in the hier- archy of life powers ; or in other words, while I can see no reason for deifying mind, as partaking of or synonymous with spirit, as many good people are doing, mind still has glory enough of its own, in its own limited organic sphere of biologic energy, which may not be withheld. The others of the trinity pertain to the superorganic energy of life. So, if in giving due credit to the powers of mind, I were to tell you that some of the most advanced practical conclusions, based with rigorous exactness upon the marvelous discoveries and methods of modern science, could have been reached by mind alone, without the aid of any of the exquisite appliances or dis- coveries of modern science, you would be likely to set me down as crazy. But you would admit that the best test as to whether a thing can be done, is the fact that it has been done. We have all read how Professor Loeb, the great biologist of California, has caused organisms to form ; actuated only by the manipulation of inorganic substances. But listen to this astounding announce- ment of a practical conclusion reached by the refinement of mod- ern scientific appliances as recorded in a recent magazine pub- lication, — namely that animal tissue, cut from and entirely re- moved and disconnected from the live body in which it was formed by the life principle of that body, is not only made to remain alive indefinitely in a plasma medium, but to grow, "as if still endowed with some of the life principle of their living owner, though severed from him," as Dr. Ledoux expresses it. Now it is inconceivable, you say, that the mind, unaided by the powerful equipments of modern science, or their equivalents, could have reached by any possibility such a practical conclusion as that, by the mere logical process of abstract thought. But listen to this : Fourteen hundred years before Christ, Gutami, the author of Agricultura Nabat, (of the thousands of volumes 91 unearthed at ancient Babylon), published a long article on the artificial production of plants, metals, and living animal tissue. And in "Remnants of the Ancient Babylonian literature in Arabic Translations," Dr. Chowlson of Petersburg shows that the ancient scholar had laid it down as a maxim, "that if a man were to minutely and carefully observe the process of nature, he would be able to imitate nature, and produce sundry creatures. He would not only be able to create plants, and metals, but even living beings." The ancient sage saw the prime necessity of observing nature minutely. So if science is ever to find out anything definite concerning the nature of that mysterious and almost boundless force which we call mind — a necessary first step would seem to be to learn all about the nature of the earth relation substance through which mind manifests itself. The ancients halted only at the nature of matter. They could not observe minutely. But it was legitimately and perfectly conceivable that intellect could devise a way to do artificially what the vital principle did nat- urally, namely, construct live animal tissue, could it but make the necessary observations. Well, where has modern science halted? Modern science halts at the same vexed question of the nature of substance, and whether or not there is such a thing as an ultimate "atom." On that question hangs the present imminent up- heaval and threatened revolution in hitherto accepted scientific theories. ooo THE LIMIT which science quickly reached in its investigations into the nature of substance, was the limit of the microscope. It could not observe the processes of nature "minutely" enough. Yet the lens had opened to deeper conviction, knowledge of the fact of the utter incomprehensibility and power of the infinitely little in nature. Substance was divided into two grand classes, which it was thought, must forever remain separate and distinc- tive. The limit of the microscope was found to be in the nature of light rather than in the want of power in the lens. When that fact was realized the "ultra microscope searchlight" attachment 92 soon followed. A minute electric ray was provided. Dr. Ledoux beautifully assists the reader's comprehension of the vast power of this new attachment to penetrate a little further into the mar- vels of that world of mysterious secrets hidden in the infinitely little of nature by an apt illustration. For instance, the common divisions of the inch into eighths and sixteenths, and the French millemetre, which is about one-twenty-fifth of an inch, are men- tioned. He then simply notes the fact that the new ultra micro- scope searchlight makes an object visible which is a million times smaller than a millemetre in length. Yet its vast power is very far short of reaching the still smaller atom. And beyond the atom in attenuation of minuteness, is the substance of the stream from the cathode ray, which Sir William Crookes says is sub- stance broken into still smaller divisions than the atom, "a sub- stance which is neither solid, nor gaseous, nor liquid." This is the substance which has compelled the erection of a new science, the science of radio activities. But further and still further down the scale of the infinitely little in nature, in tenuity far beyond the new substance of the new science of radio activities must be the "life" germ, that from, or with these substances, fabricates animal tissue in a "natural" way. How hopeless then seems the task of making that tissue artificially, if done with a view thereby of ascertaining the nature of the life principle. Here indeed Zophar's question may be urged, "Canst thou by searching find out God?" How much more hopeless when we consider that still again beyond the or- ganic conscious mind principle is the independent intelligence that builds tissue in metabolism — the superorganic energy which ensouls and dominates the purposive activities of the tissues, without which there could be no organic process of thinking. The worst mistake of modern science in this matter, as well as of philosophy, is in underrating the almost infinite scope of the Independent Intelligence — the power that actuates imagina- tion by shaping intuitions, — that thus plays upon the machinery of mind, causing it to dream dreams when half awake, or in ab- straction, as well as in deep sleep. Ben Jonson told Drummond that he lay awake one whole night regarding in mute admiration and amazement a great mul- 93 titude of little people from all parts of the world, surrounding his great toe, like an endless procession in fantastic garb, passing a giant in review. Jonson stated explicitly that he was not dream- ing, that, on the contrary, he was wide awake. This far incident is selected out of available thousands nearer our own times, be- cause the whole world knows upon mature reflection, that Ben Jonson was anything but that which would nowadays be flippant- ly referred to as "bug house." He was not a visionary. He had the finest library in England. As proof that he was what is generally considered eminently practical, I cite his concluding remark to Drummond, — "of course I knew it was all illusion." But as matter of fact that remark shows that he was not as practical as he might have been. If this little book has any special purpose it is to point the sad mistake of humanity in ig- noring as necessarily illusions, the symbolic visions of its rarest moments. Perhaps Jonson's vision had no special significance any- way. But to me it is conceivable, especially as the vision was in the conscious, waking state, that it was the orderly cerebration of that most powerful property of the human mind, which we call abstraction. So it is easily conceivable that his vision was truly prophetic of that world wide fame that was to be his, as the intellectual giant that he was. Once, while lying awake, I saw a man with a magnifying eye, step forth from the midst of a host of tumultuous fancies, and stand quietly regarding me. He had three eyes in the place of two. When the centre one of the three focused on any part of me, it made that part of my flesh creep, as if the conscious muscle cells were dodging its ray. I enquired of him what it meant. Whereupon he told me that his third central eye not only magni- fied beyond the power of any microscope known to science, by virtue of a certain ultra ray that it had the power of filtering, but that with it he could see into and through anything; that he could therefore contemplate an object from all sides at once, exactly as it was, and not in false perspective ; that therefore it was, in a certain sense, a fourth dimensional organ. Then he proceeded to tell me some very amazing things about the nature of the "Primal Light" of ancient Jewish literature, which, he said, with a slow wink of the third eye — the most 94 grotesque performance I ever witnessed, — was as well known to him as if he had actually lived in that remote age, which, indeed, with the wink seemed like a confession that he had lived then. But the story of the man with the magnifying eye is a tale by itself. I need only speak here of the prophetic and sym- bolic character of the apparition for the present purpose. The third eye of humanity of the present age, is the lens of science, as it is used in telescope, microscope and camera. Its limit is the nature of prismatic light. Now if the powers of the natural eye augmented by the lens, were great enough and quick enough to behold the movements of the infinitely little, the substance within the cell and atom — we should know much more. But as it is we are only very slowly learning mighty little at a time. Still we have learned this : — that some of the lazvs of nature are absolutely inexpressible in words. Great geniuses have handed down their discoveries, only through the formulas and symbols of the higher mathematics, which are meaningless to most of us. This power is reached through abstraction, which produces symbolic visions, and is to the eye of the mind what the X-ray and the lens are to science. So the presence of that third eye in the vision was simply symbolic of the eye of ELLU. That is to say, denoting the presence of the individual independent intelligence. Some scientists believe that an "organ of representation" actually ex- ists and will be found within the brain machinery of sight sensa- tion or elsewhere in time. Now do not imagine, Prudence, that this is merely my far fetched and fantastic fancy, dragged in to support my argument, wholly unsanctioned by the authority of scientific thinkers. Speaking of percepts of peculiar qualities in great diversity, which at present it is impossible to account for, the great scientist Prof. Ernst Mach of Vienna comments thus : "But whence is psychology to derive all these qualities? Have no fear, they will all be found, as were the sensations of muscles for the theory of space." (The italics are mine.) Analysis of the Sensations, p. 392. Referring to the possible presence of an "organ of represen- tation," Mach says in the same work, pp. 85,86, "Physiological ex- periment, and simple self-observation teach us that such an organ 95 has its own adaptive habits, its own peculiar memory, one might almost say its own intelligence." And again this, on page 89 . . . "We may now turn to the consideration of a few physiologico-optical phenomena, the full explanation of which, it is true, is still distant, but which are best understood as the expressions of an independent life on the part of the sense-organs." -ooo- THE brain is popularly regarded as the specific organ of the mind. "Brains" may be picturesquely defined as a machine of an incomprehensible complexity of design, composed of some six hundred million cells, arranged in departmental subdivisions, each division presided over by appropriate centres ; each cell having many tree-like fibres possessing in some unknown way an exquisitely delicate sensitiveness to various kinds of vibra- tions. Now the primary purpose of this machine is to transform sense impressions, resulting from the on rushing flow of incoming vibrations, into sense perceptions, and also, for working over that subtile dual product of the transformations, known as conscious- ness and memory, into knowledge ; and then to co-ordinate the whole into the finished product which is intellect. The highest refined product of intellect is science. But let no one therefore imagine that intellect is the highest product. Far from it. Or that science is a pure brain product. Far from it. For there is instinct and intuition with its offspring imagination, and what were science without that? Intellect is brain born, but elemental affinities and their product love and the feelings and emotions, and intuitions, are not brain born. If biology speaks the truth they existed before brains. Intellect, which by common consent is universally symbolized in the Gray matter, is, in fact, if we reason from physical analogy, the most ephemeral and least important in the trinity of humanity. "The brain and nerves die first," says physiology. "We are born red and die gray," said the seer poet Emerson. The fact that the most enduring part of physical life is scientifically and logically symbolized as resident in the Red 96 element of life, is just now, the thread I am giving prominence to. The ultimum moriens of the great Harvey, (the heart), en- dures longer, is the last element to succumb to somatic death. This is a subtle and mighty significant psychic fact. But to come back to the cold and emotionless fact of In- tellect, it is impossible not to recognize the fact of design, in the biologic history of that sublime product which ectoderm and endoderm have reared through the inconceivably long ages of a preparatory (red) plasmic existence in the evolution of human life. If design then a Designer. But it is not necessary here to plunge headlong into a fog of theology, or fly in the face of Divinity, as the only adequate fact for the inexplicable, as a dear little fellow once did when I offered a prize to anyone who could tell correctly what made the boomerang come back, who wrote, — "I am a little boy nine years old, God makes the boomerang come back." A designer uses instruments, so the logical question is not so much the nature of the Designer, as the question, with what instrument did the unknown Designer fashion the human facts of love and its aspirations, of the emotions and feelings of the Red — and instinct and intuitions, if not the indisputable fact of an independent intelligence that accompanies and is a part of human life? By independent, I mean an intelligence that is purposive in itself, and may act, (as I believe it does in great emergencies), absolutely independent of, and irrespective of the initiative of the slower acting intellect or reason, whose mechan- isms it seizes with masterful hands, and impels action. Nothing is surer in life than the fact that instinct is independent of in- tellect. THERE is yet another thread of evidence furnished in the class of significant facts, upon which the brand new theory of medical science is based, that of Dual Personalities. It is a well known fact that there has been in operation in Europe for a few years past, a new treatment for diseases of the gray el- ement of life, that is to say, nervous diseases, known as Psycha- nalysis. It is reported that at this writing, the treatment is 97 being adopted in this country by the Johns Hopkins Hospital. This treatment is based upon the general theory, originated by Doctors Freud and Jung of Zurich, Switzerland, and adopted by some of the most advanced institutes of medical science, that all men and women possess dual personalities, and that all nervous diseases are a product of the discords which these personalities may fall into. It is well nigh universal to regard these personalities as the legitimate product of the gray element of life, which culminates in the marvelous organ, the purpose of which, we have seen, is the transformation of vibrations. It is pertinent to enquire whether these different personalities apprehend vibrations of totally different natures. One of these personalities we know, the conscious one for instance, cannot perceive the phenomena of color produced by the vibrations of the "ultra" rays, nor "hear" certain sounds — But how about the other ? One can read in any good medical library, recent books on dual personalities, notably Dr. Morton Prince's "Dissociation of a Personality," and there meet the vagrant and incomprehensible "Sally," who takes such a deep hold on the sympathies, that one can say it seems almost a scandalous shame to read how the Doctor deliberately discusses ways and means of killing her. Also in the "Annals" and "Proceedings" of scientific societies for psychical research in all parts of the world, there will be found accounts of that mysterious and strangely puzzling phe- nomenon, the changing of a personality in the life of the same in- dividual, where each personality has a complete set of memories unknown to the other. But there is another class that exhibits a feature of greater significance, a case of which was developed in the life of the late William Sharp — (Fiona MacLeod), which in a recent number of Current Literature is mentioned as "The strangest case of dual personality on record." The significant feature in this case is that a "Central Self," is conscious of both sets of memories, and struggles to co-ordinate the moods and reasonings of the two widely differing personalities. ooo 98 IN basting into the argument a few of the facts of every day- experience which are more directly prescient in their nature, I purposely avoid that vast mass of psychic phenomena which seem to have no other explanation than spiritualistic, such as communications supposed to be actuated by spirits of the dead. That would be going beyond the present enquiry. So I gather up from the mountains of legitimate evidence that exist, only representative cases of prescient dreams, clairvoyant sight, "seer- ship," and states of involuntary abstraction of mind wherein com- munications have occured between subjects, both living, and more or less widely separated in space. Science may very properly have a horror of drawing upon its most powerful asset, imagina- tion, to solve the problem of spiritualism, but it cannot if it would, avoid these others, because the best scientific test as to whether a certain thing can happen, is the fact that it does happen. It is therefore the duty of science to discover the conditions under which the thing happens rather than to dogmatically assume those conditions. Now I claim that that last is exactly what a great authority in psycho-medical science did when he pronounced the following dictum concerning dreams. "The data upon which we must depend for the determination of the mechanism and inter- pretation of dreams are the memories of subjects upon whom the observations are made. The memories are first those of the dream itself, and second, those of psychologically related past experiences of the subject. The problem is to determine the relation, if any, between the dream and such antecedent mental and physio- logical experiences and co-active sensory stimuli." (The italics are mine as I refer to that vital point later). There is altogether too large a class of the most respectable cases of credible record, to say nothing of millions of individual experiences that are never published, which that theory will not fit, for it to be accepted as final. The most illustrious example of such recorded cases that I know of, is the remarkable dream of the great naturalist, Professor Agassiz, which I refer to more at length on another page, by means of which he was shown directly the solution of a scientific problem which could not have been by any possibility, the result of any memory experience whatever. 99 Nor can that theory be made to fit the vast class of cases where dreams, heeded as warnings have saved innumerable lives from death or disaster. So, too, it is too utterly unscientific to dump these cases with a contemptuous shrug into the already overcrowded lumber room, "coincidence." Likewise no scien- tific theory has yet been made to fit that class of cases of "seer- ship," an example of which I reprint elsewhere by permission of the late Professor James. Nor yet the case of direct com- munication related in the autobiography of Henry M. Stanley. I believe that the kindly superior intelligence that guides dreams will always come to the help of the struggling mind, and well for that mind if it "senses" the offered help. It is almost al- ways the question of the correct rendering of symbols. As in the case of Elias Howe, who had met disheartening failure year after year in his vain struggles to grasp the elusive me- chanical principle that should complete his invention of the sewing machine. At last, one night in a dream, he saw a long line of mounted warriors with leveled lances, making a charge. He was thrilled by the inspiring sight, but what thrilled him most was the singular detail that every spear point was pierced with a small hole, through which he saw light. Instantly the thought flashed into his mind, "I must thread my needle at the point" — and the whole civilized world paid that farmer boy trib- ute for correctly interpreting the symbol of a dream. To recapitulate, — briefly then, these are the bold facts of both science and nature, which like glittering beads stand out, as it were, upon the outlined seams of the argument. First the fundamental fact of energy and vibrations through an unknown and perhaps unknowable substance; then the evolving of an almost incomprehensibly marvelous mechanism for the trans- formation of these vibrations into the general fact of sensation impressions — into "awareness," through "awareness" into sense perceptions, — consciousness and memory ; through these into reflection and judgments ; through co-ordination of these into knowledge ; through knowledge into intellect ; through intellect into its own highest products, science and philosophy. But all the while the above procedure was working out, and previously, something, God knows what, an unknown some- 100 thing, worked out another succession of facts, prescient in their nature, namely, intuitions, emotions, feelings, aspirations, pro- phetic dreams, clairvoyant sight, and direct communication be- tween minds whose bodies may be widely separated in space. Now logic, regardless of the attitude of science, compels me to stitch these facts into the fashioning of my argument. Still that missing, intermediate, unknown something, (which I am pre- cluded from blindly vaulting, to reach the ultimate Divinity pre- maturely), leaves a gaping seam. But I did not hesitate to close that gap firmly with a golden thread, on which are strung the twin beads marked individual independent intelligence and abstraction. They produce no discord with any other known fact of either material, biologic or psychic science. And now finally, to fasten the basting thread as it were, here is this subtle and deeply significant fact, the fact of the re- luctance of science itself to admit intuitions and the rest, as facts to the realm of positive science. This is the tacit unconscious admission of science that it fears, nay, "knows instinctively," that brain made intellect cannot alone account even for the ex- istence of these outward facts, let alone explain them. That is the real, unspoken reason, but the ostensible reason given is, that prescient psychic phenomena are not subject to sense per- ception experimentation, which will convict scientists at least, of being extremely illogical, since I am now about to show the vital difference that exists between sense impressions and sense per- ceptions, as well as the existence in the very foundation of science itself, of several props composed of absolutely unverifiable hy- potheses. ooo SUDDENLY an old lady screams and jumps from her chair as she sees a mouse running towards her on the floor ; then quite as abruptly smiles somewhat confusedly, but serenely as she discovers a tiny insect on her glasses. A hunter sees a deer on the hillside and brings his rifle to bear, and suddenly gives vent to an exclamation of disgust, when he discovers by a little telltale glint from a shimmering piece of 101 web, that his stag is nothing but a small spider hanging from his hat rim above, close to his eyes. Many years ago when steam trains first crossed the great plains of Eastern Colorado, I used to see herds of buffalo from the car windows — animals now quite extinct. Yet only the other day I saw another very distinctly in the far distance. There was no mistaking that grotesque shape, with its ponderously big shaggy head, abnormally high shoulders and diminuitive hinder parts, and the little pantalettes as it were, flapping like a sailor's trousers on his two front legs, as he galloped away. But imagine my sudden surprise when the glint of a transparent wing betrayed to my slower reasoning faculty the all important fact that buf- faloes do not have wings, and that consequently, upon reflection, that my sense perception was entirely wrong. There on the car window was the external cause of the involuntary mistake, a little speck of a black gnat running across its smooth surface ! Whoever has observed the big high shoulders of that powerful little biter, can fully appreciate the completeness of the decep- tion. A gnat is a buffalo in miniature. The probable subtle cause of all this class of hallucinations, is one of the most intensely interesting facts in science. The laws of perspective, and an automatic measuring sense are in- volved. It is now an accepted dictum of science, that such a "sense" resides in the wonderful muscle machinery of the eye, and is the sense referred to by Professor Mach, as the factor deciding the theory of space. That it is a red independent intel- ligence which works with such lightning like precision. Yes, precision, for it is the mind which has blundered. The impres- sion reported to the brain by the muscle sense was true. But the mind rushes in with a memory image, aroused by association, so that the true impression was distorted into an illusory sense perception, and a mental mistake was the result. But these serve to illustrate also, in a general way, the inherent liability of all sense perceptions to cause serious mental mistakes. I purposely selected these illustrations, because they are comparatively more rare. As matter of fact, hallucinations arising from the wrong interpretation of sound impressions upon the sense of hearing, are vastly more common. There is not a single sense which is not subject to hallucination. 102 There are also other causes — internal causes. Hallucina- tions are produced by internal disturbances of the sense organs, by something within the ear itself; or by a disturbance within the eye itself, as by some foreign substance floating in the circulat- ing fluid of the retina ; and finally by the wrong or abnormal stimulus given to the brain centres of the various organs of sense. Or again by a combination of these various causes of which the following will serve as an example : One fine day I was gathering apples in my orchard. I had a white cloth bag fastened to a small hoop, which in turn was fastened to the end of a pole. There was one apple I had left behind, a big bright red fellow nodding on a high limb at the very top of the tree. It seemed to be beckoning to go with its fellows. Though already quite tired, I climbed into the tree, and even then had to strain and stretch to reach it. Then, just as I had it clearly outlined against the white background in the bright sunshine ; before it fell into the bag, the limb on which I stood, broke. I saved myself — and the apple — and was not hurt, and being now quite fatigued, I went into the house and lay down in a cool place. The moment I lay down I saw again distinctly the last act repeated, — the tree, the big apple high up, framed within the hoop of the bag against the sky — but the apple was a decided blue. Everything seemed as real and perfect to the sensation of vision as the original impres- sion had been. But of course that blue apple was an hallucination. It was the phenomenon which is explained in the science of optics as the "after-image" of a sense impression. Now see how subtle the cause of error may be : that after- image sensation of blue, as a sensation, was just as real as the original impression of red. To me the perception of it as blue was a deceitful illusion of some sort, but to the physiologist it is not an hallucination at all, only the legitimate "after-image" of an original impression made by a real object, and his mind counteracts the deception. But so far as direct sense percep- tion alone is concerned, regardless of the science of optics, which may explain why the sense organ machinery may sometimes under certain conditions, lead the mind into false conclusions, the fact shows the nature of the error that sense perception 103 is constantly liable to. The error is mental. It is the mind every time that goes wrong, and not the original sense impression. So that it has come about that physiology asserts that sense im- pressions never err, while sense perceptions must be constantly watched and checked up by corroborating tests. When thus checked and tested perception is fairly reliable as the source of knowledge. Since the source of all human knowledge is attributed to sense perception, with its liability to error, and since the skeptic as a rule professes to be unable to give credence to anything what- ever which is not susceptible of being tested by sense perception experimentation, or by legitimate arguments and deduction based thereon, it becomes all the more desirable to enquire further into the nature of the original impression which never errs, as well as by way of mild reprisal to dangle before the eyes of the skeptic one of the various fundamental hypotheses of science itself, which are absolutely unverifiable by the test of sense perception experimentation or deductions based thereon. According to science the nature of sense impression is invar- iably a question of vibration of some sort, propagated in or through substance mediums of one kind or another, in various ways. To account for observed phenomena of nature, science was obliged to assume the existence of an imperceptible substance extending throughout the universe, enveloping, permeating and connecting everything by contact. General theories of energy and conservation of energy were formulated. The phenomena of light and heat and electrical attraction and repulsion, and mag- netism were to be accounted for. The theory which seemed to best fit the facts was the theory of vibrations, of wave-like un- dulations propagated in the assumed invisible connecting sub- stance. This medium for the propagation of the vibrations of all forms of energy must be incomparably thinner than air, so thin as to penetrate even the densest objects without hindrance. This substance is the luminiferous ether of science. But being substance it must have the properties of density and rigidity in some measure, comparable to other substances in their known forms. The standard of comparison was water. But beware, 104 Prudence, lest you confound density with rigidity, for science is a terrible stickler for the precise meaning of its chosen zvords. For instance, while Clerk Maxwell calculated that water was 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times more dense than ether, steel was only 1,000,000,000 times more rigid. Yet this utterly incompre- hensible jelly essence of tremulosity, which satisfied all the re- quirements of science — for a while, is supposed to penetrate other forms of substance only to the extent of flowing freely through the peculiar groups of molecules that distinguish the various forms of substance. That is to say, it was not supposed to penetrate the atom itself, but only between the members of a group. This elaborate theory of a luminiferous ether is not only absolutely unverifiable by the test of sense perception, but the new science of radio activities and phenomena of the cathode ray have cracked the hitherto invulnerable atom, and together with the exceeding velocity of light, they have played such havoc with theories that a tremendous revolution in the interpretation of na- ture is imminent. Now comes the famous physicist Gustave le Bon, whose dictum leaves Clerk Maxwell far behind; ether is a substance absolutely without any density or weight whatever. If this is true then we have found the substance that is all the more suited to transmitting the supersensible vibrations of the superorganic energy of "life;" whose impalpable impacts may make the im- pressions which we term intuitions, presentiments and the like. Science has demonstrated that there are supersensible impressions in the existence of the vibrations of imperceptible "ultra" rays of light, and of inaudible tone vibrations. It is thus warranted in assuming, paradoxical as it is, a supersensible perception of the existence of an ether, though it be a substance which has neither weight nor density. It is interesting to note in passing, that the theory of vibrations itself is founded upon the theory of wave motions, which it was quite impossible to formulate without bringing into play the curious properties of the cycloid curve, which I have used to pictorially illustrate progress. The main point, however, was to point out that science itself legitimatizes a supersensible sense perception. Even the theory of gravitation 105 has been affected to such an extent by new discoveries, that now the new laws of attraction and repulsion have to be taken into the account for the sake of precision. But it was necessary to assume the existence of some medium for propagating the various transformations of energy, to accord with the observed phenomena of nature. I may here remind the skeptic that the general theory of energy itself is similarly un- verifiable. Anyway, they said, first of all there must have been energy present as well as an "ultimate" substance. It is obvious that this energy must have played for ages and ages with the little atoms of inorganic substance, tossing them into all manner of forms by molecular groupings, before organisms and organic substances made an appearance. So there we have it, it was the pounding away of the vibration impacts of energy transformations upon the door of "life," that at last made an impression on the inmate. I sup- pose that pounding of the inorganic elemental changes was con- tinued for ages before it was finally noticed, and the state of "awareness" ensued. It was only then that sense perception began its erring interpretations of the confused tumult of im- pressions. THE end and aim of science is doubtless a true interpretation of nature. Some say it is for knowledge for the sake of knowledge ; for the pure love of it, with an ineradicable horror of touching its commercial aspect ; like the old mathematician, who, as a writer in the Monist narrates, — emerging from a most beautiful demonstration, covered with chalk, exclaimed, "and the beauty of it is, gentleman, the beauty of it is, it is of no earthly use to anybody." Such is not the real attitude of science. Some good people other than the purists however, prob- ably will feel a gentle shock, when it is put bluntly as so much evidence of the scientific possibility of divination, that the prime purpose of science has always been, to predict coming events, ostensibly of course, for the betterment of human conditions. It is persistently asking questions of the future. It was the most natural thing in the world that it should be betrayed into 106 the extremely illogical and parodoxical attitude of making super- sensible perceptions the corner stone of the foundation upon which its superstructure of "kinlore" is erected. While it is sternly calling for nothing but facts, facts, facts, it admits and accepts the existence of luminiferous ether and "energy." While denying feelings, emotions and intuitions, ad- mission to the realm of sensible facts, it only too gladly accepts and uses the powerful tool, imagination. But feelings and emotions are more realistic facts than ether or energy, and intuition is the mother of imagination. Without such a nurse as imagination, science, though well born of law and order, could never have survived its infancy. Nothing is clearer than that conclusion. One of the greatest of living bacteriologists, the world renowned Professor Ehrlich of Berlin, says that his "chem- ical imagination" has always been his "most powerful asset." In view of a prevailing gross skepticism as to the finer facts of life, it is perfectly astonishing, when we come to realize what a mass of evidence there is to support the assumption that pre- science is a natural faculty of the Independent Intelligence of the human being. How it can function to consciousness is the burn- ing question. We touch the live wire of prescience and get a spark when we ask the companion question, how does Instinct function ? There was "energy" of some sort ages before "life," or biologic energy embodied the "vital principle" in organisms. Nothing is more certain than the fact that instinct antedates "rea- son" — (of course here, I mean our human reason). Under the scientific theory of the conservation of energy nothing can be lost or destroyed, only transformed. Biologic energy therefore, was only one form of the transformations of the pre-existing uni- versal energy. Dr. Haffkine has beautifully shown that very far down in the order of organic life so low an organism as a sponge will instinctively shun disease. Though we know not the details of that way, the mind cannot escape the conclusion that the original "energy" must have been superior to simple biologic energy which through its own organism — and indeed before any trace of an organism was perceptible — could receive and inter- im pret impressions. In other words the conclusion is forced upon us that there was, and is, a superorganic energy. It is a far cry from the "chemical imagination" of Professor Ehrlich to the instinct of a sponge, and yet the instinct of sponge and bug is far superior in the fineness, certainty, and infallible nature of its functioning process, than the imagination of the greatest scientist that ever lived. I wonder why. Is it because they can interpret an impression "first hand?" Once, while far away from civilization, in the forests of cen- tral Idaho, I beheld a very significant exhibition of the powers of instinct. I was standing upon the edge of a large opening in the forest, at least half a mile across. My eye caught a move- ment on the trunk of tree near me. In a shallow opening, appar- ently made by a woodpecker, I discovered a huge beetle standing and in the act of raising its shell-like wing covers as if preparatory to flight. But it was not for that purpose. For after spreading wide its filmy whitish inner wings with a tremulous motion, it slowly folded them back under their brown covers. This sin- gular movement was repeated several times, when the beetle settled down as if to rest. Happening to turn towards the op- posite side of the wide opening in the woods, my eye caught a slight flash of something far away in the sunlight. I watched in- tently and presently saw in the direction of the flash, a tiny black speck. It grew larger and larger and was evidently something coming in a "bee line" towards me. Presently I saw that it was a big beetle on the wing. He directed his flight straight to the hole in the tree. He had received the love message of the lady beetle waiting there. But here is a finer illustration of the penetrating power of instinct; confined within a glass case, within an interior room of one of the big buildings of Harvard University, was a female butterfly. Between that room and the trees and flowers and verdure of a little park where other butterflies disported in the sun, was a long wing of the big building, completely cutting off the park. But a male of the same species as the one in the glass box, who knew more than the Professor ever dreamed of, re- ceived the captive's message and was soon pounding his head against the window of that room in his vain efforts to make an 108 entrance. I wonder if there is a bug telepathy ! Or is it that bug odours can penetrate glass like light. Either assumption is suffi- ciently significant. Perhaps that strange power functions through the oldest of the so-called "senses," the sense of smell, which is perhaps the nearest allied to the despised Instinct. But the sense perception of odours I believe is not assumed to be produced by etheric vibrations, like the sense perceptions of light and sound, but are actual projections of some impalpable essence or form of the odour-giving substance itself, over considerable distance. So it would seem that that faculty which can interpret an impression direct, first hand, so to speak, (into an intuition or presentiment, without the more or less imperfect operation of the brain mechan- ism of sense perception), from the superorganic energy, must be a far superior, finer, more penetrating process than the sense- perception-clogged reasoning of intellect. But if imagination could take its cue direct from intuition, which undoubtedly is a first hand interpretation of superorganic impressions, then it is conceivable that we may get as much finer results from intuition as the purpose of human love and aspi- ration is finer than the inexplicable phenomena produced by the instincts of organic sexual attraction. As the idea of Platonic love succeeded the "golden cup of Babylon that made the whole world drunk," and some old Greek poet personified the pure soul under the name of Psyche, so from the wonders of sexuality I pass to the personifying of that independent intelligence which is back of all instincts and intuitions, and superior to them as well as to intellect. (It is to make this thought vivid and graphic that I attempt to personify that majestic and unknown force in life, under the name of ELLU). To suggest in the briefest and most general way, the probable physical source, as well as bent of mental characteristics in one's differing personalities — (other than the independent, con- scious, co-ordinating, central self), let us say that one is pre-emi- nently female, and another pre-eminently male, I mean in methods of thought. To man of woman born, nothing could seem simpler or more logical. And in verity it has for its support the funda- mental psychophysiological facts that no man is one hundred points masculine and no woman one hundred points feminine. 109 That is to say, every man possesses a latent female streak in his personality, and similarly every woman has a latent male streak in her mental make up. This is a perfectly legitimte biologic conclusion since in the science of embryology it is seen, that at a certain period in the beginning of individual life, the two sex principles are at an exact balance, which splits on a hair line, as it were, when that mysterious force which decides the question of sex in the embryo has not yet made its purpose apparent. When we find in the same individual, on one occasion a ten- dency to assume a mood of cold and critical intellectual analysis, and on another, an exalted emotional mood possessing the keenest and swiftest kind of intuitional power, we know that these widely different moods can be traced to a legitimate physical basis. In all ages intuitional insight, as a special power of the mind of the female, has been remarked. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, there is a blind acceptance of the changed mood as a commonplace event, not meaning anything in particular, and a consequent forlorn stupidity that misses entirely the tremendous significance in the bare fact of a mood that reaches such inex- plicable powers of lightning-like perception of truth, as are known to come sometimes, to most anybody, in a state of ab- straction, and especially to great genuises, women, and idiot prod- ogies in mathematics, amazing examples of which I quote in another place. Happily, on the other hand, the "great spiritual unrest," which we hear so much about as characteristic of this age, may be taken as evidence that increasing numbers of the human race are beginning to "find themselves," but without, as yet, quite suspect- ing that it is the potentiality of a mood that is doing it. But to indulge, as some do, in speculations and wild guesses that certain inexplicable psychic phenomena, may mean the slow evolution of a sixth sense, is entirely beyond the warrant of science. There is no evidence of any such evolution. There is, however, good evidence that prevision is an attainable scientific possibility, with sensation conditions just as we find them now, with no taint of "occultism" in it, however, "Magic," as a great philosopher said, "and all that pertains to it, is but a presentiment of the powers of science." 110 It is a very significant fact that it is a force proceeding from the emotional side of life, and never from a premeditated intel- lectual effort, that gives rise to most if not all of the inexplicable phenomena of prevision and clairvoyance, and those mysterious impressions which provoke mental pictures of true conditions at great distances, of which last the Stanley incident is an example. So there are reasons for believing that this powerful faculty functions in or gives its stimulus through the red element rather than through that which is typical of the intellect — the grey. It is known as a physiological fact that the feelings and the emotions influence strongly, if they do not absolutely govern the nature of the secretions of the glands. So the human "home" of this mysterious unknown force which I have personified, is notably in the circulatory system. The tint of ELLU is red. His symbol is the heart. It is conceivable that it is the province of this un- conscious co-ordinating intelligence to open the way to hidden knowledge through intuition : That it must be the superorganic intuition which gives to scientific imagination its starting clue, and thus makes that noble faculty of the mind the powerfully intermediate instrument of intellect and science that it is. Emerson expressed this thought somewhat differently in his famous dicta about the soul knowing all things, and about trusting your instinct to the end. Desiring to avoid the mental stumbling blocks of the old terminology of transcendentalism, and the op- probrium that attaches to instinct as a "low" faculty, (out- rageously inappropriate and wrong), I preferred to adopt the simple term, Independent Intelligence, to designate those unknown obscure, but marvelous powers latent in human life. IN his conclusions to a recent book on the Oracle of Yahveh, Dr. Paul Carus says, "All divination of primitive mankind is based upon the supposition that the world is regulated by law and that all existence forms a system that can be represented in symbols." After all it is to the "fabric of nature herself," to quote the noble words of Harvey, that we must resort for any hint of specific ways and means that nature may have provided in the organic mechanisms of mankind, for applying an operative ill psychic code of symbols, as a mechanical intervention between the intuitional powers and the sensation machinery of con- sciousness. For as Professor Mach says, "the province of psy- chology can be reached from the facts of the physical world — especially the adjacent province of sense perception." (The italics are mine.) The most significant hints possible seem to be easily found in the fabric of nature herself, for instance, within the mechanism of the eye, where hundreds of thousands — yea to out with the whole truth — where in fact millions of fibres, rods and cones, — little fingers, as it were, feel out colors. Certain ones of these deft little fingers can each feel out a certain shade of color from amidst an infinite variety, while for other shades it has no responsive "touch" whatever. So also certain others feel out those infinitely small, inexpressible differences of configura- tion, that makes personality in the faces of our friends, as well as the endless variety of objects, near and far. Other sensitive fingers figure out with lightning calculation, distances, relative sizes, depths, — for they literally have the laws of perspective "at their finger ends." Every finger of that innumerable host faithfully reports its "find" to the appropriate cell of consciousness, and the bewilderingly complicated mechanism of sense perception there records it, on an assigned spot as it were, on the memory chart of the brain ; where also it has been provided that "associa- tion" is the magic key which shall at any moment light the way again to that particular spot. This is exactly the method followed in the Oracle of ELLU. Again, another hint is found in the more profoundly mys- terious mechanism of the ear, certain parts of which provide for a corresponding psychic code or tone sensation arrangement, on the great memory chart machinery of the brain. Imagine a miniature harp in the ear and you get a symbolic idea of the probable purpose of the fibres of Corti. Everybody knows that certain piano strings will respond with vibrations, to certain noises outside the piano. A well known fact in physics. We have all heard of a "harp of a thousand strings," as an extravagant flight of imagination, but everyone is carrying around in the ear, a veritable harp with three thousand strings, all nicely ar- ranged, short and long, for high and low, attuned to respond to 112 all sorts of noises in pitch and tone. And yet with three thousand strings, we know there are actual sound vibrations in nature that never succeed in getting reported by that wonderfully responsive harp in the ear, to brain or conscious sensation. So however great the capacity of the ear may be, there is at least a limit to the corresponding responsive psychic code arrangement in the brain. Likewise we know that there are "ultra" rays, the mys- terious and astounding powers of which science is only now be- ginning to guess at, which even the millions of color feeling fingers in the eye cannot single out for brain sensation percep- tion — There are rays therefore to which we are utterly blind. But the rays exist. The ear has to do with more profoundly psychic mysteries than the eye. The keenest intellects of all history had sought in vain for thousands of years for the causes of consonance and harmony, which are even now but imperfectly understood. The nearest approach to a scientific explanation was made by Helmholtz ; a popular idea of which is obtained by assuming that the fibres of Corti are veritable musical strings which have the property of responding to certain tones and overtones, while remaining absolutely deaf at will as it were, to every other sound. In this province of consonance and apparently mysterious "sym- pathies" with numbers — (twelfths, octaves, fifths, thirds), the bewitching mysticisms of Pythagoras was most strongly in- trenched. A mysticism which has never ceased to find responsive chords in the human breast, even down to and through this present materialistic age, so entrancing has always been, and perhaps will forever remain, the spell in the magic power of numbers. There is another subtle principle in nature, which next to numbers has been most prolific in the working of spells and mirac- ulous wonders. This is the principle of light. Even modern science succumbs to the seductions of these combined powers, when, testing its long honored theories by the velocity of light, and sensation measurements of motion in Time and Space it startles the world with a new theory of "Relativity." A theory which demolishes the old molecular, mechanical interpretation of nature, and which is denounced as "monstrous" by the depart- mental advocates of the old ideas. o o o- 113 Now in regard to the scientific possibility of direct psychic communications, it is clearly and logically a question of a working code. We are compelled to admit that humanity can scarcely feel proud of its modern achievements in that direction. Negative results are, as I apprehend it, due to the fact that in the great majority of premeditated experimentations, one party to the com- munication is almost always a dead one, physically at least. One of the parties only being alive and alert. So our ghosts con- tinue to wear, sadly but resignedly, such ludicrous shackles as "raps" and planchette, automatic writings and "cross correspon- dence." In this vain effort no one has yet in the least succeeded in suppressing the fatally preponderating element of the personal equation of the brain mechanism intellect of the "recipient," or live operator, however sincere the effort, or free from conscious fraud the result may be. The problem then is to invent an automatic code, as it were, which shall not only absolutely shut out the meddling personal equation and will of the living operator (in case it should be after all a disembodied spirit that is seeking to communicate), but also allow at the same time the independent intelligence of the living recipient, free and full swing, (in case it should turn out that the surmise in that direction touches the source of either superior or spiritual wisdom). The problem of stopping "leaks" in a wireless system is no comparison. And though the word im- possible is no longer to be found in the glossary of biology, and communication with spirits of the departed may be a plausible expectation, for some minds, that expectation is entirely beside the present question. So also is supposititious thought transmis- mission from one individual brain mechanism to another, as is supposed to happen in the theory of telepathy. The present idea is the possibility of a working psychic code, based essentially upon the acknowledged existence of that unknown obscure power of the human mind, that Independent Intelligence which "knows all things," and which I have sought to personify under the name of ELLU, which at times of great peril and sudden emergencies, has been known to seize complete control of the motor activities and to avert death and disaster thereby, — The application of the code to be between one's own Independent Intelligence and one's own conscious reason. 114 It may well be claimed that the greatest thing in the world today, at the dawning of a new age of idealism, would be to es- tablish a scientifically operative psychic code, for communication between one's own personalities. And perhaps the most strik- ing proposition possible to formulate in language connected with that idea, is expressed in the following nine words : There was once such a code known on earth. Whatever its origin, the operation of the powerful oracle of Aaron's breastplate, probably the most perfect and scientific oracle the world has ever seen, depended upon the mystic, yet practically applicable principles of light and numbers, which, likewise, are the principles by which the Independent Intelligence operates the ORACLE OF ELLU. AFTER all is said and done, we are compelled to admit that there is some amazing and mysterious power in human life that plays upon the wonderful organic mechanism of the mind in abstraction and dreams, as a master musician plays upon the keys of a piano. But in a way as utterly unknown to consciousness, as the way of a great musician would be unknown to a possible listening savage. Nothing can be more sure than that this marvel- ous power does not proceed from the mind ; because the mind it- self is as much the product of the brain organism as the music the savage heard was the product of the piano. That power must reside in the Intelligence which first constructed the organism that gave birth to the human reasoning mind. It is a well known biological fact that the intellect of the child develops only with increasing numbers of nerve cell connec- tions. But it is also as well known to common sense observation, that the veriest child reaches conclusions without reasoning at all, that confound science in their astuteness. It is not enough to dismiss that fact as coincidence, or to say, "oh the child just happens to say wise things instinctively," — the trouble being that when that excuse is given, instinct is merely considered as an outgrown and obscure faculty of the mind. Now that is the very fallacy I would expose. Only the other day, while on a railroad train, a little child with its mother occupied the seat just across the aisle from me. 115 Presently the train passed along a mountain side, down which a foaming stream was plunging. The child was not over two and a half or three years old. It had greatly amused me with an in- cessant fire of questions. When the little mountain stream came into view, this followed : "Mama, where does water come from?" "I don't think anybody quite knows, yet, my dear ; but per- haps you will when you grow up." "Huh ! / know now : it just comes right out of nossin at all." Just then a train man lighted some lamps in the car, which, soon after the train had passed through a tunnel, were extin- guished, when the little voice piped up : — "Mama, where did that light go to when he put it out?" "I am sure I cannot tell you that my darling, for I do not know." "But / know, mama, 'twas some fin just stopped going any- where awful quick." (with a strong accent on "somefin" and "anywhere.") Probably the scientist is not yet born who can improve upon those two answers. Certainly the answers of modern science concerning HH O, ultimate substance, and velocity of light, are astonishingly parallel. Presently another self answered question gave something of a clue to the manner of operation of the child's instinctive power of divination — since this one approached nearer to a process of reasoning: A pasture with cows came in sight. "Mama, do oo know 'er name of 'at cow way over 'ere?" "I am sure I do not know, deary." (The child, decidedly vexed) — "What is er meson oo don't know her name, mama ? She's got a name, ain't she ? an' I know it." ' "Do you ? well what is her name ?" "It's belly cow. Don't oo see er bell wound her neck?" By this time it was perfectly evident that the mother's ma- ture intellect could not match, or keep pace with the child's swift and unerring readings of inherent symbolic signs. The child's imagination, which is most decidedly not an exclusive faculty of mind, (as I shall presently attempt to show in the annexed tab- 116 illation scheme), but is equally akin to intuition, a faculty of the other province of life, was, in fact, playing upon the child's un- connected and undeveloped brain mechanism of mind — but in its own way. By way of antithesis, it will be admitted that Bernard Shaw is probably one of the most brilliant writers of this generation; and yet, with his ripe intellect, cultivated to the very highest notch of fecundity, he is not so keenly exact and close to the truth in his studied phraseology, or so deep in his philosophy, as the baby we have just heard. In proof, listen to this from the Review of Revievus, which I had been reading while listening to the prattle of the child. (Apr. No., 1911, pp. 427 - 8) : "The pleasures of the senses I can sympathize with and share" (says Shaw) ; "but the substitution of sensuous ecstacy for intellectual activity and honesty, is the very devil." Which goes to show that so astute a thinker as Shaw himself, did not see the inherent fallacy in that beautiful piece of fine phrasing. It is the same fallacy which ever attends all thinking upon that subject, which fails to take account of the fact that intellectual honesty itself compels recognition of the truth that mind and intellect are them- selves but products of the senses: that the greatest joy of a great writer's life is sensual ecstasy in the most literal sense of the words. The proverbial "supremacy of mind over matter" is one of the most monstrous of the mind's own delusions. The very reverse of this is nearer the truth. To confound the mental with the psychical, or to regard imagination as essentially or peculiarly a mental product, is to befog all philosophies, and render all conclusions concerning "life" and psychic phenomena, confused and indefinite, or worse. The three angles of a triangle, however similar they may be, are essentially separate identities in space ; else there could be no such figure as a triangle. Without this principle of sep- aration of boundary points, a triangle is inconceivable. Now these three angles are no more distinctly individualistic in their mutual relationships, than are soul, intuition and intellect, in out- lining human "life." So there can be no definite personality con- ceived of until the three essentials, soul, intuition, intellect, stand 117 apart, each in its own proper place. Yet strangely enough, the most common mistake even among noted thinkers, is to merge and blend these three essentially separate things into a shapeless and misty something which is vaguely labelled mind. If I draw a triangle and write under it this outlined area is rectangular, it is instantly perceived that the label is false on the face of it. But if I rub that false label out and write at the apex angle the word soul, and at the lower angle on the left, intuition, and at the angle on the right, the word intellect, and then in large bold let- ters mark the whole figure mind, how many would as quickly perceive that this label also would be as inherently false as the other? This, in effect is exactly the common practice today. For me, a clearer apprehension of the essential differences that must exist between these three, and other human faculties — as classified in the annexed tabulation, as well as a better under- standing of the independent and superior nature of soul and in- tuition, as compared with mind, intellect and judgment, is given in this tabulation, than can be obtained in any other way. For instance, if Professor Freud's conception of the operations of the "unconscious" as composed of the activities of two "layers," both below the "threshold of consciousness" the lower of which is now being heralded in popular print, as his "discovery of the lowest chamber of the soul," be confined wholly and strict- ly to the province of the mind, and not be used as in any sense applicable to the soul or any "chamber" of it, very much less confusion and contradictory vagueness would result. To me this queer confounding of the mental and the psychical, as if they were all the time the same impossible thing playing hide and seek with itself, above and below an impossible "threshold," is meaningless and absurd. Perhaps I may be very wrong and obtuse. But having found so much satisfaction in considering intellect and intuition, as belonging to two very dis- tinct and separate provinces of "life," I herewith present my scheme of tabulation with the following comment: The foregoing crude "basting threads," bungling as they are, and the following tabulation of faculties, are intended to illu- minate the obscure fact, that the province of the mind comprises very little more than the province of the wheel; and that ad- 118 ditional little, is furnished by the powers of that faculty which we call imagination. While the province of instinct — which draws imagination over into touch with a still higher power, is the province of the oracle. The wheel and the oracle being here merely symbolic of the mind, and the individual independent intelligence, respectively. Also, that even as the mind is superior to that particular application of energy to an arrangement of wheels which we call a clock (which strikes the hours of the day and the night while the mind may be busy or asleep), so is instinct superior to that peculiar application of specific energies, to countless cells and fibres which we call "brains," whose amazing mechanisms make thinking possible and constitute the phenomenon which we call mind. Mergenthaler's mind made the linotype, that marvelous ma- chine that can almost talk, as we say : but primeval instinct first made Mergenthaler's mind possible. The limit of the human mind is the limit of those me- chanical principles which were applied in the construction of a material brain mechanism — with this saving clause, — plus im- agination. Edison's mind was such a master of the resources of me- chanical principles, that he transcended others and made a ma- chine that actually did talk: but primeval instinct first built the brain machine that made Edison's mind possible. So, in considering the possibility of divination, we are but considering the possibilities that exist in those subtle principles of mechanics which Instinct used in constructing the bewilderingly delicate mechanisms of the sense organs of the brain. Imagination, which is probably the direct product of that "organ of interpretation" which Professor Mach finds evidence of as existing, is the mind's connecting link to higher forms of energy. It is probably this which makes the human mind itself superior to sense organ perceptions, inasmuch as it has dis- covered the existence of such things as "ultra" rays, which are imperceptible to the senses. 119 1 O 1> !5 fe ° *-< S •> »H o H 3 e •J „, o « < o - 1 -* i-h j_> en i_l the acul tion iRTA „■+; n! 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