6* o-*** ^ • o " • +*o« •■ i - - "W V «5°< 4 •' ^ ^ **o« L> - « • o .•' .o* ^'^^T*'.^ ^ ' • • • *V V V * ^* «T *+ ^Rp** ** * •• ^••\o° ** 'Trs^v^ 1 > • •••* ^ aT ••VL'* *> 9s , & ** •: :. ° J.H* Vi J& THE BUILDER AND THE PLAN A TEXT-BOOK OF THE SCIENCE OF BEING BY V URSULA N. GESTEFELD AUTHOR OF "HOW WE MASTER OUR FATE," "THE BREATH OF LIFE," "REINCARNATION OR IMMORTALITY?" ETC. V > > j > > , ' ■ • i i > PELHAM, N. Y. THE GESTEFELD PUBLISHING CO. 1901 THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Cow es Received APR. 17 1901 Copyright ewTry CLASSAyxXc. N«. COPY B. ,\ k ^ $ \o COPTKIGHT, 1901, BY URSULA N. GESTEFELD All rights reserved • • • •• • • • • • • • ... .•• • • • • • • • . < • • • < t • • • • • • • • • • ••• i • • • • • < : ••• : •: • • . • j • • ••• • • •• • • ■ • • • • • • . • . • • • • • • ... . • ••• . . ••• •.• •••" "Science of Being — Knowledge of Being, verified by correct thinking, reduced to law, and embodied in system." (Co MY PUPILS, WHO HAVE LEARNED THE WAY OF SELF-MASTERY AND ARE ENDEAVORING TO WALK THEREIN ; WHO PROVE THEIR LOYALTY TO BOTH TEACHER AND TEACHING BY EFFORTS TO LIVE IN CONFORMITY TO THE STANDARD HEREIN SET FORTH J WHO GRANT TO ALL THE RIGHT TO INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM AND REFRAIN FROM DENUNCIATION OF THOSE WHO DO NOT AGREE WITH THEM ; WHO SEE THE DIVINE IMAGE IN EVERY MAN AND BUILD NO WALL OF DIVISION, BUT CULTIVATE A SPIRIT, CHARITY, AND HELPFULNESS FOR ALL, WITH A LOVE THAT FINDS ITS BEST EXPRESSION IN UNFAILING SERVICE. MAT WE "ALL COME IN THE UNITY OF THE FAITH AND OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD, UNTO A PERFECT MAN." PREFACE. In presenting the system of thought named " The Science of Being " I ask that it be considered an argument only, by those to whom it is not a revelation. To be sound as an argu- ment it must be a logically consistent whole. To have prac- tical value it must afford room for known facts. As an argument the vulnerability of its conclusions to criticism must depend upon true logical relation, or lack of it, to the premise from which they are drawn. The results of its use as a guide to daily living can be known only by the recipient, will be valued according to the measure of benefit received. Used as a working hypothesis by one who seeks knowledge, it may lead to more satisfying views of life and its meanings, or it may not. Decision rests with the seeker, with the student rather than the reader. Let those who cavil or protest do what is pointed out as to be done, and then say whether or no the declared results are possible. It is easy to criticise, to deny, to look for vulnerable places; it is not so easy to follow directions implicitly before rendering judgment, but it is the only fair method of pro- cedure, more than that, it is the only method of more than intellectual proof. It were idle to expect or desire that this teaching will cause, in any case, immediate abandonment of denominational doc- trines, but proof abounds that it will accelerate inevitable growth beyond their limitations. All real reform is the re- sult of growth, not belief. Growth is the attainment of an ideal. Change in an ideal is the result of experience. Though experience is the destroying angel in human life it is also the 7 8 PREFACE. angel of revelation. In both cases the angel's office is minis- tration. If this book stimulates willing readers to become seekers, inspires them with confidence that they may know " the mys- teries of the kingdom," places before their willing vision the ideal of God and Man that draws them steadily from material- ity to spirituality, impels them to do their own part toward the coming of the kingdom of God, it will fulfil its mission though no new sect with an array of costly temples challenge the wonder of the world. Only a small portion of what is included in the Science of Being is given here. I have aimed at broad outlines, rather than at multiplicity of detail, wearying and confusing till the order and intent of the outlines are grasped. As a building is according to plan and the plan is evidenced in the foundation, the succeeding stories, vary from each other as they may, must conform to the plan and rest secure on the foundation. So far as my present perception extends, the vital questions affecting human existence and experience have their answers in this foundation and plan. To the workman are these answers given, and the measure of his ability to see and hear them, of his willingness to use and prove them, will determine the quality of his work. Building and builder ascend to- gether. If the plan and foundation be eternal, the building stands for always, and the workman is inseparable from his work. The old question still unanswered by Theology, for which Science unwittingly seeks an answer — How is the Son of God begotten in the Son of Man? — is answered by a life that is this begetting, by the building reared on this foundation. Law, not miracle, governs from beginning to end. Greater than any man-made miracle imposed as law upon the un- thinking, is the Infinite Naturalness that transforms Humanity into Divinity. ANOTHER FOREWORD. Some of the fundamental propositions of " The Science of Being " are not original with myself. I first read of them in 1884 in the book " Science and Health.'' The following month I entered one of Mrs. Eddy's classes and received her personal instruction. I make glad and grateful acknowledg- ment to her for the teaching that was then bread to my hungry soul, that has proved itself spiritual food for many hungry souls since that time, that will continue to feed multitudes in the future. Whatever the mistakes or shortcomings of " Christian Science " or " Christian Scientists," or even of Mrs. Eddy herself, this teaching has wrought a mighty work in the world that can neither be ignored, nor sneered nor legislated out of existence. It came as supply to a demand created by soul-famine, a demand which no human opposition ever has or ever will destroy. All honor to " Christian Science " for the good it has done, all charity for the mistakes that have attended the doing. While a member of the class instructed by Mrs. Eddy, not- withstanding the benefit received and the gratitude felt, I saw the lack in her teaching. Though " a light shining in the darkness " it removed but a measure of the darkness. Earnest and honest questioning legitimate to the declarations made failed to elicit answers that reconciled contradictories. This failure to present a science while using that term for the 9 10 ANOTHER FOREWORD. teaching compelled further seeking on the part of one who would know rather than believe. For seventeen years I have prosecuted the search for what was lacking, impelled by the sentiment " Truth for authority, not authority for truth/' with results that have made me doubly thankful it was my privilege to have been taught by Mrs. Eddy as a preparation for the exploration of a previously unknown country. This exploration has led to the formulated system of thought named " The Science of Being " that is legitimate and necessary successor to " Christian Science "; for the fun- damental propositions of that teaching lead directly to what is herein set forth and the conclusions are positively essential to the integrity of the propositions. If they do not appear necessary to Christian Scientists it must be because they fail to see either logical continuity, or the need for it in order to establish a science. The sometimes unsparing criticism that Christian Science and its text book have met has been due, largely, to the lack of logic and submergence of cause -and effect. This hiatus between fundamentals and ultimates has been bridged by the chain of " direct revelation " from God to the author of the book as His specially chosen instrument; a momentous fact that renders so small a thing as logical coherence unnecessary. But when the fanatical fervor due to this claim begins to abate, and the still unmet needs of the reasoning soul are re- leased from the stupor in which they are rigidly kept through desire and effort to be faithful to both revelation and revelator, the feeling of need for such coherence will become strong enough to overcome the fear that now prevents most Chris- tian Scientists from admitting this hiatus. Then they will be ready for the normal and natural bridge that belongs to both fundamentals and ultimates, welcoming it in place of the abnormal and unnatural claim that is directly contrary ANOTHER FOREWORD. 11 to the basic proposition of Christian Science — God is Prin- ciple. This being the admitted basic truth of Christian Science, how can Principle choose ? How can God as Principle choose ^ the author of " Science and Health " or any one member of the human race above all others as the one and only medium of revelation of truth to mankind? Is not choice on the part of the seeker, rather? He who seeks may find. I found Mrs. Eddy's basic proposition " God is Principle " to be logically sound and capable of logical proof. Seeing the necessity of working out, by adherence to logic, the conclusions compelled by this premise, rather than believing any personal opinions contrary to it, even though these opinions were in- corporated as part of the teaching, I followed it as a clue to explanations not given in " Christian Science." Finding these conclusions to be in logical agreement with the basic proposi- tion, and, therefore, satisfactory, believing then, in my sim- plicity, that many who accepted " Christian Science " in the main would be glad to know of and welcome them, I tried to impart them only to be met with stern rebuke for my " pre- sumption and blasphemy." Eealizing at last, though with a shock, that such effort could not be understood, that if my utterances as a teacher did not accord with the views of " Christian Scientists," or meet the approval of Mrs. Eddy, even though they were in full accord with the principles that are the real strength of " Chris- tian Science," strict justice required I should use another name. After a few years of work under that head, during which I published " A Statement of Christian Science " call- ing it " An Explanation of Science and Health," I dropped the term and substituted instead " The Science of Being." With this designation for my work I have been teaching for many years with both tongue and pen the views herein set forth. As 12 ANOTHER FOREWORD. a public work I have presented them to thousands; as a more responsible private work I have instructed but few who can justly claim to speak of my teaching with authority. This work of seeking and teaching has been carried on under the greatest possible difficulties imposed by fanatical, therefore ignorant, efforts to destroy and prevent it. If I refer to these now it is because of a desire to enlighten, not to condemn any one. The true seeker for wisdom, the faithful helper of his fellow-men, must give himself to his work and prosecute it for the work's sake, regardless of either approba- tion or condemnation. Only by the earnestness due to his deep conviction and abiding faith that truth must triumph at last no matter what the immediate obstacles in the way, can he calmly continue his efforts in the face of all threatenings and denunciation, feeling not resentment and desire for retalia- tion, but " Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." The efforts, open and concealed, made by leading Christian Scientists to nullify teachings, to brea'k down and destroy teach- ers of which and of whom they do not approve, is due, mainly, to their hoRest belief that all such teaching is error which it is their bounden duty to destroy if possible. This effort is also the accompaniment of the belief that Mrs. Eddy is the Christ, is a higher manifestation of God than was Jesus of Nazareth. To honestly believe this is to pursue relentlessly, as a di- vinely imposed necessity, anything and any one that contra- dicts it. As in past ages so to-day ignorance is the persecutor and enlightenment the savior, while mistaken self-interest prompts the answer to the question " Whom will ye that I release unto you "? And it is too often the robber that is set free while the savior is held in bonds. History repeats itself. The burning of books required of / ANOTHER FOREWORD. 13 those who shall be admitted into fellowship with Christian Scientists, because there is and can be but one that teaches truth, is but repetition in the present day of the acts of past ages and is prompted by the same spirit. It is an effort to destroy error, to save the people from being inoculated by it, but the past has proved that the light of the conflagration has revealed truth instead, and been the means of spreading it throughout the world. The Christian Science body is one of the most powerful batteries in the world to-day, with, consequently, a mighty influence for good so far as its teachings are sound and true, but also with, unfortunately, a corresponding influence for blinding and holding in bonds those who do not think far enough to discriminate between principles and opinions. Wisely directed, this influence tends to uplift and save; mis- directed it enslaves. It enslaves those, who from present incapacity, or from motives of policy and expediency, can not, or will not think for themselves ; it opens a door to the glories of the infinite for those who can stand as individuals claiming and using their God-given birthright. Nothing is so subtle as self-deception. The more one really knows the less his inclination and effort to destroy any- thing, for he sees that error in inevitably self-destroyed, car- ries in it the seeds of its own death, and he had best devote all his thought and work to the upbuilding that is sure to stand if it rests upon a rock foundation. To all such workers I would say, " Keep a stout heart though you stand alone, for the force of the Infinite is with you to sustain you. Be content with doing what you can, do it faithfully, earnestly, persistently, leave the results to the Most High, they are not your concern. Do not pattern your life and effort on what is demanded of you by men, but on what your discernment compels. Be true to the truth un- 14 ANOTHER FOREWORD. veiled to you though all men call you a liar and blasphemer. So shall you follow the Great Example and, though it be long years after you have joined the unseen, your message shall win the world." The right to a teaching, the claim that may be made, seems for many a vexed question that may be best answered, perhaps, by illustration. 'No one can claim proprietary right to truth.N It is a common inheritance for all men, but a means by which they are brought face to face with it and helped to take pos- session of it may originate with one man. When a company of people go to a new country to populate it their needs de- mand water. It is a common need to be met by a common supply. The water is there, was there before their arrival, but it is deep under ground. How are the need and the supply to be brought together? Some one of the number digs a well, a way to the water is found, the water fills the well, the needs of the people are met. The water is for all alike, the well as a means for ob- taining water is for all alike, but as the work of the workman it is his alone. All may drink from the well, but all did not dig the well. The well and the water are found together by those who have need. Seeing only that this is the common need, the supply the common supply, they may overlook what stood between the need and the supply. The digger of the well worked hard and long before the water filled it, and it is possi- ble his efforts may have been spurred by his knowledge of the needs of others. How could he fail to know their need by his own? The enlightened worker will never claim the water of truth as his own. Truth is never created by man, never bought or sold. It is uncovered by understanding. In his thankfulness that he has been able to minister to ANOTHER FOREWORD. 15 the needs of others the workman may not even claim the well, may yield his own work as freely as the waiting water is yielded. Those who drink from the well may never ask for the workman, may not even recognize that a work has been done for them without which they could not at that time have had water. In his joy at giving, this, too, will not matter. If some there be who, besides drinking the water, claim also the well as their own work, he may not contend with them because he knows that soon or late they, not he, must experi- ence the consequence of their own injustice. They have not yet drank of the deep water, they are intoxicated with the joy of a supply for the common thirst, the privilege of handing it from the well. They forget the slow laying of one stone on another, the days and nights of toil and sweat, the bent back and bleeding hands, the loneliness and pain in which the way has been opened for them; but the Eternal never forgets and the regenerated human forgives. Ursula !N~. Gestefeld. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. The Builder and the Plan 21 II. The Steadfastness of Nature .... 23 III. The Nature of Principle 25 IV. Creator and Creation 28 V. Factors in the Eternal Order . . 30 VI. Illustration 32 VII. The Onlooker and the Possible Discoverer . 34 VIII. Genus and Species ...*.... 39 IX. Creation is Logical Necessity .... 40 X. Expression 44 XI. Active and Passive Aspects of First Cause . 49 XII. Further Consequence of Primal Motion . . 52 XIII. Consequence of Derived Motion .... 55 XIV. The Nature of the Compound Factor . . 59 XV. Variety in Unity 63 XVI. Distinct but not Separate 66 XVII. The Forming Power 70 XVIII. Recapitulation 75 17 18 CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XIX. The Onlooker in Nature 84 XX. Existence 92 XXI. The Composition of a Man .... 96 XXII. Body 98 XXIII. Environment 103 XXIV. The Influence of Environment . . .106 XXV. Susceptibility to Impression . . . .110 XXVI. The Composite Nature of Derived Being . 113 \ XXVII. Mortal Sense 119 XXVIII. Mortality and Immortality . . . .123 XXIX. The Initial Impulse and its Persistence . 127 XXX. The End from the Beginning. . . .129 XXXI. Individuality and Personality . . .132 XXXII. Fundamental Rules 136 XXXIII. The Major and Minor Purpose . . .139 XXXIV. Natural Tendency . . . . . . .143 XXXV. Original Sin 146 XXXVI. The Self-idea 149 XXXVII. To Create and to Form 153 XXXVIII. The Immaculate Conception . . . .158 XXXIX. The Origin of Evil 163 XL. Choice 169 XLI. The Personal Order 173 XL1I. The Soul Stages or States of Existence . 177 CONTENTS. 19 CHAPTEB PAGE XLIIL Duration of the Human Person . . .181 XLIV. The Relation of Person to Embodiment . 185 XLV. Integration and Disintegration . . .189 XLVI. Indestructibility of Matter .... 193 XL VII. Sin, Sickness and Death 197 XLVIII. Therapeutics 203 XLIX. Curing and Healing 208 L. Use of Auto-Suggestion for Healing . . 212 LI. The Limitations of Hypnotic Suggestion . 219 LII. Experience 229 LIII. The Common Mental Atmosphere . . . 232 LIV. Heredity 239 LV. Locality 242 LVI. .The Lost Word 244 t LVII. The Responsibility of a Healer . . . 246 LVIII. The Use of Material Remedies . . . 252 LIX. Freedom and License 259 LX. What Demonstration Includes J ..... . 261 LXI. Science and Religion 263 LXII. From Dust to Divinity 267 LXIII. The Relation of the Bible to the Science of Being 270 LXIV. The Difference between Christian Science and the Science of Being .... 273 CHAPTER I. The Buildek and the Plan. All accomplishment is preceded by a plan. An enduring work, one that can withstand the shocks of time, depends upon completeness of plan, its adaptation to needs, and strict conformity to plan in all efforts to bring it to actualization. The importance of the plan can not be overestimated, con- formity in effort should not be underestimated. If this is true in human affairs should it not be true in the Original Affairs that antedate time and human effort? And if true of Original Affairs, faithful conformity to the Plan is the only way by which the Plan can be actualized. This compels a Science of Being and Existence, the ab- stract truth that is without human origin, which, when found, permits a human formulation that presents the abstract truth to those who can receive it. On coming into existence we are confronted by a world in which is found order and relatedness. What is the nature and origin of this world, and what am I, the Onlooker? This is the question of past, present and future days, the riddle to be solved by whatever is capable of reaching such solution. The human being is the questioner. Is he also the reader of the riddle? As the questioner he is the seeker who gains knowledge along two lines — Science and Religion. As the seeker he is also the verifier of the knowledge gained on either or both 21 22 THE BUILDER AND THE PLAN. lines. This knowledge is verified as experience. The experi- ence that unites the knowledge gained from Science with the knowledge gained from Religion, verifying both as two faces of one Truth, enables the seeker to say " I have found. For me, the questions are answered, the riddle solved." He who feels that he has found becomes the helper of those who are still seeking, the mediator between the un- known and the known, the revelator, for those who are grop- ing without finding, who must point to the Plan underlying Nature and awaiting discovery. The Plan discerned, build- ing according to it follows. If the revelator be building for himself, his example and work become the accompanying verification of his words, and the helpful stimulus for others in their attempts at conformity to Plan. We are told that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of a carpenter. A carpenter is a builder, and his work of building must be according to prior plan. The Son of the carpenter was the builder of the divine character, hence the helper, mediator, revelator, and example for others; a needed stimulus in their efforts to conform to the Original Design, unfolded to their vision by both his precept and his example. That Original Design is, and must be, to-day what it was in the days of the Nazarene, changeless throughout all future days. Every child born into the world is the Onlooker that is the possible discoverer of the Plan, the Original Design ante- dating all he sees. He is to be a builder, carrying out that Design in Ms own person. He is to build character till the Original Design is incarnated in him as the Living Plan. This destiny awaits each new member of the human race. It follows, then, that discovery of the Original Design is the first step toward the fulfilment of that destiny. CHAPTER n. The Steadfastness of Nature. "We say that Nature is steadfast. Her processes can be anticipated because she is steadfast. Sunset is followed by sunrise, summer succeeds spring and is followed by autumn and winter. This steadfast order can be counted upon, and the harvest confidently expected after seed-sowing. There can be no Science of Being and Existence except there be a compelling Principle. The steadfastness of Nature must be due to a compelling Principle. No one, past or pres- ent, makes an apple-tree grow from apple-seed though such , growth can be confidently relied upon. This reliance would be misplaced did any one possessing the power of choice cause a seed to produce after its own kind; for then it could be made to produce after another kind. Because principle and not choice determines result, the result can be anticipated, known before its arrival. For one who can choose there is more than one way in which to act. For principle there is only one way. How principle will act, therefore, can be accurately determined. How the possessor of the power of choice will act is always open to conjecture, and certainty is impossible. It is the difference between the personal and the imper- sonal. Nature is impersonal, her governing Principle is im- personal, and the personal delver into her mysteries must find the impersonal if he would be successful. The variety in Nature must be the relativity of parts in a continuous whole. 23 24 THE STEADFASTNESS OF NATURE. Where there is relativity there is order; where there is order there is design; where there is design there is that which compels it. To follow the order and understand the design it is necessary to trace it from the basis of governing prin- ciple, working deductively. The proposition, then, upon which the formulation in statement of the Science of Being and Existence is based, is — The origin of creation is without power of choice; hence is impersonal. CHAPTER III. The Nature of Principle. Principle. — Beginning ; commencement. Cause in the widest sense ; that by which anything is in any way ultimately regulated or determined. — (Dictionary. ) It is said that God is the author of Creation, hence the^ question " What is God " becomes of first interest. For the stability of Creation, the Creator must be without power of choice as to what it shall be, must be stable in nature and action, while of infinite resource. If God is one who chooses to create, then before that in- tention was formed there could have been no""Creation. Moreover, the Creation resulting from such intention would be entirely dependent upon the next intention of the Creator for its continuance, for it could be perpetuated or annihilated according to choice. / Such a Creation could not be stable, governed by law, presenting a steadfast continuity. There would be no law, only the wish of the Creator. This wish, intention, choice, would be either the sustenance or destruction of Creation, and therefore Creation would be capable of change. Again, if the Creator produced Creation from choice, this human nature of the Creator would compel a substance other than that Creator, out of which to make the Creation. But if the Creator be Principle, out of Principle itself must come its consequence; must, because Principle does not possess and exercise the human power of choice. 25 v 26 THE NATURE OF PRINCIPLE. Principle is that which stands forever beyond the limita- tions of desire or intention. Its product is that which is com- pelled by the nature of Principle. Its product would be, therefore, the creation of which it was the creator, and this product would be steadfast and changeless because the nature of Principle, not any desire, wish, or intention, compelled. REMARKS. Try to put from you for the moment, so that you may be able to reason clearly, your inherited view of God. Do not, first, make effort to reconcile this inherited view with the statement " God is Principle." In order to understand what this premise involves and compels, it is necessary to concentrate the attention upon it. Do not divide the atten- tion with previous opinions in the effort to make the premise confirm your opinion. Truth, rather than such confirmation, should be the de- sire. Give yourself wholly to the consideration of what this statement means and compels. As the order unfolds to you a reconciliation may be found that is not seen at first. Shut out all traditional teaching for the moment and endeavor to answer these questions from the basis of logic. The only standard of comparison for you, if you as a stu- dent seek to understand the statements of the Science of Being, is the premise from which they are deduced as con- clusions. Observe carefully and see if they are in logical agreement with the premise, following carefully step by step as they are reached one after another, taking care not to jump forward in your own thought beyond the stage of the argu- ment that is for immediate consideration. Discipline your attention and mental activity, postponing final judgment till the argument is concluded. THE NATURE OF PRINCIPLE. 27 QUESTIONS. Has Principle length, breadth and thickness? Can we define Principle in terms of matter? Does Principle occupy space? Has Principle an origin in time? Does Principle hear or speak as we hear and speak? Can Principle plan from intention to plan? Can any one create Principle? Can any one or any thing be pre-existent to Principle? Can Principle be seen as an object in space? If not, how is it seen? Can Principle change its own nature? Can Principle act contrary to its nature? Can Principle choose to act or to refrain from action? Can Principle punish because of intent to punish? Can Principle love because of intent to love? Can time change Principle? CHAPTEE IV. Creatok and Cbeation. Fundamental. — Pertaining to the foundation ; serving as a founda- tion or basis, essential ; original ; elementary. — (Dictionary.) M The law of nature is the only law of laws truly and properly to all mankind fundamental." — Milton, Free Commonwealth. Because the Creator, or the source of Creation, is Prin- ciple, and not a being exercising the power of choice, the pronoun " He " applied to the Creator is not adequately descriptive of the nature of the Creator. " He " can choose between two courses of action, Principle can not choose. Creation is the orderly sequence from the Creator which is its governing Principle that is compelled by what the Prin- ciple is, in itself and in its operation. This order or design must be fundamental, and therefore eternal because no choice can change it. Creation is natural, and in Nature there is eternal design. Creation, as this sequential order, is finished and complete. If there be in Creation an onlooker, this onlooker must be the discoverer of that which is eternally natural; and the discovery must be according to the ability to find and follow the fundamental order. Whatever the theories of Being and Creation, there must be the Science of Being this order compels. 28 CREATOR AND CREATION. 29 REMARKS. Try to see what is imperative, the must that compels. Where there is choice there is no " must." There is a " may be," a " perhaps " instead. There can be stability only with the imperative. Do not fear that if you forsake your old view of Creator and Creation you will get into a wilderness which has no outlet, where you will be lost. You are only laying it aside for a time in order to consider another proposition. You can always go back to it if you find nothing better. Look for what is compelled rather than for what is optional with the Creator, and do not make the mistake of thinking that this compelling limits God. QUESTIONS. If the Creator is Principle does the personal pronoun " He " describe the nature of the Creator? Is there other beginning for Creation than the Creator? Is Creation according to chance or law? If according to law what is the lawgiver? Is Creation compelled or permitted? Is Creation eternal or temporal? Is Creation according to the nature of the Creator, or contrary to it? Can the nature of Creation be changed by the Creator? What do you understand by " fundamental " ? CHAPTER V. Factors in the Eternal Order. A sequential order compels factors having an undeviating relation to each other. Nature's factors must have each its own place, and be incapable of transposition or change. Each fundamental factor must be a supreme genus, under which may belong its variety or species, over which can be no higher genus in its own domain. These factors, each, in its domain, a supreme genus, may be considered, first, as three in number, viz., Expression, Rep- resentation and Manifestation. To express — To put forth. To represent — To put forth anew, or a second time. To manifest — To make plain, clear, visible, obvious to understanding. — (Dictionary.) Expression is what is first put forth. Representation is what is subsequently put forth. Manifestation is the visibility of that which precedes it. To be full and complete, Mani- festation must include the visibility of Representation, Ex- pression and the governing Principle that puts forth. The enumeration compelled by the nature of causative Principle, is, first, the Expression of the Principle, then Re-presentation, and last the Manifestation of all. Creation, considered as the unity of these fundamental factors, is a trinity in unity, eternal and unvarying, each factor 30 FACTORS IN THE ETERNAL ORDER. 31 equally eternal and unvarying in nature and order. Creation must be, therefore, stable, its governing Principle always the same. KEMARKS. Study carefully the meaning of the terms used in this chapter, as it is given in the Dictionary. This meaning will be adhered to throughout the argument, will be carried along as the argument develops, and you will see more and more its application at subsequent stages. Never confound one of these factors with another. Never think it does not matter if you use either of the three terms indiscriminately. Loose thinking leads to inaccurate speech. With inaccurate speech there can be no statement of a science. Never say " manifestation " when you mean " expression " or " representation. " Think clearly, grasping the meaning of each term, and seeing the difference, yet relatedness, be- tween the three factors. Insecurity in a foundation leads to the insecurity of what is built upon it. QUESTIONS. "What do you understand by " undeviating " ? What do you understand by " order " ? What is the order that constitutes Creation? Why are the factors enumerated placed in such order? Can the nature of one, or all, of them be changed? Can their relation to each other be changed? What compels that they are as they are? Why is this order eternal? Why can not God change it? /v. CHAPTEE VI. Illustkation. The nature of the unit is the governing principle of the Science of Numbers. "Without this principle there would be no such science; with it, this science is the result that is com- pelled, not by choice, but by logical necessity. The nature of the unit cannot change, for the unit can not exercise the power of choice. It is impersonal in nature and is therefore always to be depended upon. Hence the Science of Numbers is exact science, positive truth. The unit always has been, and always will be, the sum of its parts. No one ever made it so, no one will ever unmake it. The unit is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. The nature of the unit is the governing principle that holds together the whole Science of Numbers, and affords the differing fundamentals, with their relativity and order, that are therein contained. This order is constant because of its changeless governing principle; and the discovery of this principle is necessary to the making of a mathematician. In connection with the Science of Numbers we may find Expression, Representation and Manifestation. Abstract Number is the expression of the unit ; objective Figure is the representation of the expression — of Number; and the nature of Number, its manifold possibilities, its relation to its gov- erning principle, made visible, become obvious, is the mani- festation. The Science of Numbers is a parallel to the Science of 32 ILLUSTRATION. 33 Being. As abstract truth it is dead, so far as practical value is concerned. Only a discoverer can bring it to light, resur- recting it from the dead. By means of discovery and appli- cation the nature and possibilities of Number have a practical value not before existent. The discoverer, therefore, stands between Representation and Manifestation. Without a recognizer there can be no recognition, no obviousness. An onlooker is a logical neces- sity. To the onlooker manifestation is made. The beginner in the study of mathematics is the possible discoverer of all pertaining to mathematics, the possible master of all mathematical problems. Only as discoverer of that which persistently, therefore eternally, is, can he become master of what is presented to him by that order. He changes, can change, nothing that is fundamental; but all that is fundamental he can find and follow into and through -all possible combinations. This possibility is latent in him as the beginner. Its de- velopment is his growth from beginner to expert mathema- tician. This growth is the bringing forth of what is inherent. All change is to him. The unit and what it compels is unchanged through all. The fundamental order, each factor in that order, the prin- ciple that compels and governs it, are the same, whether he be beginner or expert; therefore, given inherent capacity, it is possible for him to become the expert, as would not be the case were that order capable of change; were its factors sus- ceptible of alteration. CHAPTEK VII. The Onlooker and the Possible Discoverer. If there be a questioner there must be an onlooker for Creation who sees something that stimulates questioning. I am, I see what I call the world, what to me is Nature. What is it and what am I? Here is the onlooker, the questioner, the seeker, the be- ginner. All is resolved into "I" and the "not-I"; the looker-on and that which is seen. Following the parallelism of the Science of Numbers, this beginner stands before Representation awaiting Manifesta- tion. He looks upon Figure and' awaits the manifestation of Number and its governing Principle.) As beginner the capacity to become an expert is latent in him. This capacity is to develop, and the development will constitute his growth. This growth will be change to him, but not change in the fundamental order and its factors that constitutes Creation. This logical necessity that is the truth of Creation is dead to him, but his own development is to resurrect it from the dead, bringing it to light. What Creation is in itself, because of its governing Prin- ciple, is unknown to him and has no practical value. It will have practical value only to the discoverer who finds and applies its truth. The beginner precedes the discoverer. As the human 34 THE ONLOOKER AND THE POSSIBLE DISCOVERER. 35 soul he stands before the World that is Representation or Figure. Figure, as a genus, has many kinds, many figures as species; but as genus Figure is always Figure. No matter what the variety of species it never becomes any thing else. There is figure 2, figure 3, figure 4, etc.; these figures differ from each other but the genus is fundamental and can not change. The human soul as the Onlooker sees the World and the various shapes — figures — it contains, mountains, rocks, rivers, trees, plants and numberless moving creatures. The natural shapes, those whose aggregate makes up vis- ible Nature, engage the attention of the Onlooker. What are they? is the question that naturally arises. " Whatever they are, this is all there is," would be the natural reply, for this aggregate is all that is visible to the beginner. The beginner in the Science of Numbers looks upon a blackboard with figures. He stands before this Representa- tion awaiting possible Manifestation. He is to find that which is represented and also its gov- erning principle, but to Mm, as he stands, making his begin- ning, the blackboard and its numerous shapes is all there is. He is told of Numbers, but he does not yet see Number; he sees only blackboard and figures. What he would call the evidence of his senses contradicts what he is told. He is on- looker without being discoverer. Discovery is to come.' Experience follows upon the evidence of his senses and in time he discerns what, as the beginner, he did not see; and because Figure was the veil hiding Number. Looking at Figure and discerning Number he makes the discovery that Figure is representative of Number; and that, as Representa- tion, it is proof of the existence of Number; for if there be a representative there must be something to be represented. 36 THE ONLOOKER AND THE POSSIBLE DISCOVERER. Discovery multiplies and lie is on the way to become the expert mathematician, for this way leads in, deeper and deeper into that fundamental changeless order compelled by governing principle. As he follows it leads him in, away from what he first naturally looked upon. It leads him from mere shapes to what is represented by those shapes; to num- bers, their values, their possible combinations and applications. From the without to the within he follows on, change to him all the way, but no change in that which he discovers. The human soul stands before that great blackboard, the World, and sees the various figures upon it, some stationary, some moving about. " This is all there is " is his verdict, for this is sense evidence and true to him. Representation is all he sees, for it constitutes the visible World. He has experience, and through experience his inherent capacity to discern is quickened. It is this capacity that makes of the onlooker, the discoverer. When he discerns that Ex- pression of Principle is as Number, and he sees the visible World as its Representation, or as the Figure containing all figures, he is on the way to become an expert in the Science of Being; the way that leads in, deeper and deeper into that fundamental changeless order compelled by what God is. EEMARKS. Try to trace the parallel between the Science of Numbers and the Science of Being. Each is abstract truth, the eternal. Neither can become more than it eternally is, both can be- come more and more to you. Each has its fixed fundamentals, fixed because compelled by the nature of their governing principle. To discern, understand and use these fundamentals is the necessity for you. The nature, changelessness and THE ONLOOKER AND THE POSSIBLE DISCOVERER. 37 power of the impersonal must be sought and followed if you would gain the manifestation that gives power and authority. Discriminate clearly between the seen and the unseen, the Eepresentation and the Expression. Never confuse, or seek to mingle the two. Stand, as it were, with your back to the Expression and, naturally, Representation will be before your face. You will look upon it, but there are two ways to see what is behind you. You may turn your back upon Representation and then Expression will confront you, but to see also the relation of one to the other is a necessity. To turn first in one direction and then the other is to have the eye upon one at a time, never upon both at the same time, and this leads to perplexity and confusion. But if, instead, while your face is toward Representation, the natural position, you become able to see through your- self, you will always have both factors within range at the same time. You will see both what stands in front of you and what stands behind you. Then the relation of one to the other will be more apparent, and the principle governing the relation more readily found. At the same time you will be both looker-on and discoverer, seeing both visible and invisible. QUESTIONS. What is the difference between an onlooker and a dis- coverer? What is the seen? What is to be discovered? Where does change take place? Why are fundamentals changeless or unalterable? 38 THE ONLOOKER AND THE POSSIBLE DISCOVERER. Between which fundamentals does the onlooker belong? Are looking upon, and seeing through, identical? If not, which is first in order, and which is subsequent? Can Principle be seen as a shape or an object? Is the natural range of the senses limited or unlimited? Of what is Kepresentation the proof? What do you understand by " the great blackboard " ? Is it a help or a hindrance to the onlooker? What is the onlooker to accomplish? CHAPTEE VIII. Genus and Species. Genus. Expression of Principle. The unit. Representation — Shape. The unit. Manifestation. The unit. Species. Differing expressions of Principle. Fractions of the unit. Differing shapes. Fractions of the unit. Differing manifestations or degrees of manifestation. Fractions of the unit. In passing from fundamental factors to what they in- clude, we pass from the simple to the complex. Fractions of the unit of Expression compel variety of representative fig- ures, and variety of manifestation. Hence manifestation to the onlooker must be varied, gradual, part by part till it be- comes complete as One. 39 CHAPTER IX. Creation is Logical Necessity. Absolute. — Free from every restriction, unconditional ; fixed, deter- mined, irrevocable ; not comparative ; opposed to relative ; certain, in- fallible ; ultimate ; not derived from anything else. Relative. — Not absolute or existing by itself; considered as be- longing to or respecting something else ; depending on or incident to relation. (Dictionary.) Creation is compelled by what God is as Principle. It is not permitted to be by a power that could destroy as well as originate it. Back of any and all relative or immediate causes is the remote Cause of these causes, itself causeless as ever- operative Principle. From this Principle must come the sequence that is logi- cal necessity and this sequence will constitute the Creation of the Creator. When we have formed our highest idea of God this con- ception will fall short unless we have ascended, or penetrated, to the impersonal; for back of every thing must be that which is no thing, the impersonal Principle whose nature compels Expression, Representation and Manifestation. In order to give a definite nature to each of these factors, terms that give a definite nature to Principle are necessary. We define the impersonal First Cause as Spirit, Life, Love, 40 CREATION IS LOGICAL NECESSITY. 41 Intelligence, Substance, Mind. These terms are synonymous in meaning. Each is the one impersonal Principle that is the First Cause of Creation and all it contains. God is Spirit, or Life, or Love, or Intelligence, or Substance, or Mind. With "or " read also " and." God is all these, and yet there is but one God, one Absolute. There is but one abso- lute Spirit, one absolute life, one absolute Love, one absolute Intelligence, one absolute Substance, one absolute Mind; but Creation must include the variety that is consequent upon the nature of the one Absolute. God is the absolute Substance, for the First Cause as gov- erning Principle is that which stands under and supports Creation and all it contains. " Sub — stands under." This Substance that is God is not measurable by our human standards of weight or extent, but is measurable only by Ex- pression, Representation and Manifestation; is known only by knowing these eternal three. Wherever one is, whatever one sees, however great, even stupendous, the variety out- spread, however overawing its immensity, all is resolvable into these three fundamental factors, back of which is the Sub- 42 CREATION IS LOGICAL NECESSITY. stance-Principle that holds them forever in their relative order. Three in one, three in that unity which is the one Crea- tion — analysis brings us face to face with this trinity at last, and compels us to recognize its Principle. There is but one God, one Absolute; of this truth we must never lose sight, or depart from it in deduction. The nature of the unit is one whole, it must be followed in the attempt to solve all problems. In the Science of Being, God is not " a " any thing what- ever; God is the only One. From this premise logical de- duction brings us to conclusions that agree with and confirm it. If these conclusions are verified by modern science and human experience, they become actually, as well as logically, true. REMARKS. In tracing the nature of, and relation between, Creator* and Creation, also the nature of, and relation between, the three fundamental factors constituting Creation, do not forget or overlook the definition of the terms " absolute " and " rela- tive." The definition must be maintained and followed throughout the argument for the remote conclusions to be found in harmony with the premise. Ponder well the meaning and application of each term. Mastery of the terminology is essential to grasp of the con- clusions, to decision as to their logical or illogical character. The argument must be built step by step, each step depend- ing upon its predecessor for its place and truth. You will see that the Absolute is dependent upon nothing for what it is. Were it dependent it could not be absolute. Apply this definition to God and you will see that God is dependent upon nothing for what God is as First Cause; that - CREATION IS LOGICAL NECESSITY. 43 all idea of relativity on trie part of God is a mistaken idea. That which is not God is relative to God, necessarily, and, as necessarily, God is absolute to all. Were there no Expression, Representation, or Manifesta- tion, God would remain the same absolute One; but without those factors the absolute One would remain forever unknown. QUESTIONS. Is there more than one God, as Origin of Creation? Name the terms used to define this One. Are differing aspects of the Origin incompatible with the nature of this One? Is there a plural for any of the terms used to define the nature of First Cause? Can you call God " an Intelligence " ? If not, why not? Can Substance, as the term is here used, be ponderable? Is there more than one Mind? Is God a loving being, or Love itself? What do you understand by " absolute " % What by " relative " ? Can unity that is logical necessity, be destroyed? How is the Absolute to be made known? CHAPTEK X. Expression. Cause involves Effect. In the nature of the cause its own effect or product lies hidden. There is nothing outside First Cause. It is the circumference that bounds all. Out- side it is nothing, in it is every thing; not as a small thing is contained in a larger thing, but as the potentiality without ,. which nothing would be existent. The essence of every living thing, however many intervening causes we may think we trace, is in First Cause. Whatever is put forth by this Cause, expresses it. How- ever much may be put forth, the Expression will be the sum of what is put forth. An expression will be far less than the Expression. The Expression constitutes the head or Genus under which belongs all expressions, all the variety that is put forth. As the unit contains its own fractions, so this supreme Genus contains a variety of lesser expressions of the same Cause. These must be related to the Expression as fractions are related to their sum, the unit. We consider, first, the Genus, reaching classification un- der this head farther on. As it will be readily seen that Effect is involved in Cause and is put forth by it, and as put forth it is the Expression of its producing Cause, it remains to define the nature of the Expression. Likeness, with difference, between Cause and Effect is a 44 EXPRESSION. 45 logical necessity. Cause and Effect must be like unto, and yet different from, each other. Were there not difference be- tween them they would be identical. Then there would be more than one God, more than one Absolute. Like, and yet different. This must always be remembered in considering the nature of, and relation between, Cause and Effect. The nature of the Effect must be according to, or like, the nature of the Cause, with that difference that keeps it distinct from its Cause, preserving its identity. According to this logical necessity we define the nature of the Expression as follows: Cause. Effect Principle, Expression. Spirit, Spiritual. Life, Living. Love, Loving. Intelligence, Intelligent. Substance, Substantial. The expression of Spirit is the Spiritual. The expression of Life is the Living. The expression of Love is the Loving. The expression of Intelligence is the Intelligent. The ex- pression of Substance is the Substantial. If God, as Eirst Cause, the governing Principle of Crea- tion, be what is here defined, then the direct Effect or full Expression of God is also what is here defined. The Effect is Substantial and Intelligent, Living and Loving, because the nature, not the wish, of its Cause compels. Man is " the image of God " because Man, as the Effect of his Cause, is the Expression of God ; and, as this Effect or Expression, Man must be like unto, yet different from, God. Man's relation to God is a logical relation and not one that is permitted and could be changed. Because it is the 46 EXPRESSION. logical relation inherent in the nature of Cause and Effect, it is an eternal relation. On this point the Science of Being gives certainty where other teachings have given a hope. Man's difference from God will compel certain results; his likeness to God will compel certain other results. Man, the Expression, one of the fundamental factors in Creation, is the Supreme Genus that never can change as long as his Cause remains changeless. And as Principle can not change but is that which, by the necessity of its own nat- ure, is incapable of change, this Supreme Genus is forever the same; always the spiritual, living, loving, intelligent, substantial unit that " images " God. Think always of the word " image " as meaning " ex- pression," and not an outlined shape or form. This is its meaning as it is used in Genesis. The supreme Genus, Man, is the substantial being, be- cause changeless. His relation to his source compels his substantiality that is not weighed or measured according to common standards, but is discerned through logic. The supreme Genus, Man, is the changeless, eternal Expression of God, like unto, yet different from his Cause. The article " the " alone, not "a " or " an," is applicable to him. He has no plural, for he is the sum of what is put forth by Cause — the one full and complete Expression, the first factor in the trinity that constitutes Creation. EEMABKS. Try to see that a difference in nature between Cause and Effect does not mean that the Effect is in any wise foreign to the Cause; that the Effect is antagonistic to the Cause. This is a mistake easily made when one thinks of " difference." EXPRESSION. 47 Difference prevents identicalness and Man's difference from God preserves Man's identity and God's absoluteness, while -Man's likeness to God gives definiteness to his nature and preserves his unity with God. Were there no difference God and Man would be just the same. Were there no like- ness there could be no unity between them. As we go on we shall see that though the difference be eternal, the unity that is also eternal gives possibilities mighty in their results. If the argument seems but cold dry reason- ing, remember that truth is impersonal whatever your par- ticular bias or trend; and the more you can get away from that bias, standing outside your feelings as it were, the more clearly you will be able to see the everlasting foundation that supports the structure of your daily life. QUESTIONS. What do you understand by the statement " All is in God " ? What is meant by the words " involved " and " po- tential " ? Can anything be evolved, or put forth from a cause that is not already involved in it? Can an effect be contrary, or opposed to, the nature of its cause ? Is the relation between cause and effect permitted or compelled ? Can an effect be other than an expression of its cause? What is the difference between an expression, and the Expression? What is the supreme Genus? Is there likeness between cause and effect? If so why? 48 EXPRESSION. Is there any difference between cause and effect? If so, why? Is it logical to make cause and effect identical, either by direct statement or by implication? Is " the Spiritual " identical with " Spirit " ? Is " the Spiritual " a part of " Spirit " ? Is " the Intelligent " identical with " Intelligence " ? If not, why not? Are " Life " and " the Living " the same? What is the difference between " a living thing or being " and " the Living thing or being " ? Is there a difference between " an intelligent thing or being " and " the Intelligent thing or being " ? Can an effect change its own nature? If not, why not? What do you understand by " the image of God " ? CHAPTER XI. Active and Passive Aspects of First Cause. If Cause puts forth its Effect or Expression, the putting forth, the Action, must have place in the sequence compelled by the nature of First Cause. Having considered what this Cause is, and what its Expression in consequence, we must next consider what this Cause does. First, the passive aspect — what God is; then the active aspect — what God does. In the Science of Being both aspects have place, and re- sults, differing in kind, can be traced to them. "What First Cause is, compels one result. What First Cause does, com- pels another result; and logic shows that these results must be like unto, yet different from, each other, and in unity with each other. Cause must act, or be operative. The nature of Cause compels. The action of First Cause must be the Primal Energy, the first Force or Motion; first in the order of enumeration that is compelled by logical sequence from Principle. The putting forth, the Motion, Primal Energy, Force, must be the link connecting Effect with its Cause. A chain of sequence is composed of links. If these links become separated from each other there is no chain, even though the links are the same in themselves, either when connected or apart. Though the links do not change, the existence of the chain depends upon their connection. The Science of Being must show the chain of mutually 49 50 ACTIVE AND PASSIVE ASPECTS OF FIRST CAUSE. dependent links, compelled by the nature of the beginning of the chain — First Cause. The chain begins at First Cause; the first link is the Motion of that Cause, the putting forth that gives the second link as that which is put forth. Substance and Motion precede all things. All things — Creation and all it contains — are the consequence of Sub- stance and Motion, and are compelled, not permitted. Beginning. Original sub- stance. That which puts forth. Cause. Principle. Spirit. Life. Love. Intelligence. Substance. Mind. Effect. Expression. Spiritual. Living. Loving. Intelligent. Substantial. Idea. Supreme. Genus. That which is put forth. Motion. - Primal Energy. The Putting Forth. Force. Clear discrimination between Substance and Motion, the passive and active aspects of the Beginning which is God, will find each link in the chain of sequence that is compelled by the nature of its Beginning, and reveal the impersonal Science of Being hidden behind our limited personal con- sciousness. In itself, or impersonally, the chain is perfect and complete; to our personal consciousness there are a few links but no chain. Togic, therefore, not personal sense, must be the guide to discovery. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE ASPECTS OF FIRST CAUSE. 51 EEMAEKS. Clear perception of the active aspect of Cause, as well as of the difference between the active and the passive aspects, is essential to the understanding of future conclusions. It is the difference between being, and doing; a difference that obtains throughout Creation, and especially with the worker of the problems of existence. It is a difference all-important when the principles of the Science of Being are practically applied, especially in the direction of what is called " Heal- / ing." As you desire, probably, to heal and be healed, seek to understand the principles that yield this result when they are intelligently and faithfully applied. To do, is as necessary as to be. QUESTIONS. Why should you look to see what God does, as well as what God is? What do you understand by " Primal " ? Is it, or is it not, the nature of cause, to act? What do you understand by " sequence " ? Is there connection between cause and effect? If so why? and what is the connecting link? Can a chain that is logical necessity disconnect its own links? Can what is involved in a cause come forth from it unless there is a putting forth by the cause? Can you see any method of creation by the impersonal Creator other than the putting forth of what is involved in the Creator? Does the Absolute remain the same, notwithstanding the putting forth, or does First Cause change by creating? What is the difference between " compelled " and " per- mitted " ? CHAPTEE XII. Further Consequence of Primal Motion. Cause acts. It is the nature of Cause to act. It could not do otherwise, it has no choice in the matter. Because Cause inevitably acts, Effect is the inevitable consequence. Because Cause acts ceaselessly, there is additional conse- quence. Because God is impersonal Principle, Cod, as First Cause, must continue active, even though the Expression is complete. The putting forth does not, can not, cease with the Su- preme Genus. The Action of Cause must still continue, be- cause it is nature, not choice, that compels. The conclusion is obvious — 'Primal Energy, or Force, must work through/ the Expression, continuing its onward career; and by working through the Supreme Genus compel further product. This Genus must be active because it expresses Motion. Place yourself before a mirror and remain perfectly quiet. In the mirror will appear the expression — reflection — of that which stands before the mirror. What you are out- wardly, or your passive aspect, will appear in the mirror. But this is not the full expression of what you are, for you are capable of motion. What you are actively, as well as out- wardly, must appear before your expression in the mirror is complete. Move an arm back and forth, and what is in the mirror becomes active. It, also, is moving. Your expression in the 62 FURTHER CONSEQUENCE OF PRIMAL MOTION. 53 mirror is like you, but there is also a difference between you, an important difference. Both you and it are active. There you are alike. But your activity is original, or first, and its activity is secondary, or derived. Is not this difference important? The Motion of First Cause is original, it is in and of it- self, having no producing cause back of it. The action of the Expression is not in this sense original, it has a cause back of it; it is communicated or derived. Endeavor to see this distinction, to grasp this fact; for future conclusions, other links in the chain, are dependent upon it. Man, the Supreme Genus, the image and likeness of God, because the Expression of that Absolute Principle that is God, is derived from God; and though like his source is also un- like, or different from it. He — the personal pronoun is used for convenience — does not first act volitionally but is acted upon; does not originate, but carries along and perpetuates. As derived being, derived from that Absolute Being that is Eirst Cause, he is active because his activity is compelled through relation to Primal Energy. Cause. Effect. Passive and ( Absolute Being, Derived being. \ Passive and Active As- -< Original Motion, Derived motion. >- Active As- pects. (Primal Energy, Transferred energy. ; pects. In itself, Compelled by relation. / It is important to see that the action compelled by re- / lation is not volitional. Whatever is compelled can not be v volitional. The* Genus, Man, is active by nature and not from choice. His activity, the activity of Derived being, is natural because the relation of the Derived to the Primal compels. Volition can neither cause nor destroy it. 54 FURTHER CONSEQUENCE OF PRIMAL MOTION. QUESTIONS. Does the Motion of First Cause cease with its direct product? If not, having produced Effect where is its future field of action? Can you see a cause for a derived activity, or motion? If so where does the derived motion belong? Can you discriminate between an action that originates something, and one that continues something? What do you understand by " volitional " ? What by " compelled " ? What by " natural " ? What is the difference between an impersonal consequence, and one for which conscious effort is made? What is the difference between logical necessity and per- sonal desire? CHAPTER XIII. Consequence of Derived Motion. As there can be no motion or action without result, it follows that a compound result must take its place as the next factor in Creation, the next link in the chain; compound, because we have now to consider the persistence of Original Motion through Derived being, and the activity of Derived being itself; an activity not volitional, but natural. This next, and compound, factor, the unity of two con- sequences, is a logical necessity, is another putting forth; or is that which is put forth anew; and, as such, is the Re- production and Re-presentation that is compelled, first, by the persistence of Original Motion through Derived being, and, second, by the compelled activity of Derived being. They are not first and second in the sense of time, for in that sense they are simultaneous. Every link in the chain so fa?- is simultaneous with the others. / When dealing with the Beginning, the Absolute, we had v but one factor to consider — Cause. When dealing with Cause and Effect we had two factors to consider; then the two aspects of each of these factors, passive and active. In addi- tion we consider the persistence of Primal Action through Derived being, which addition brings us to a result that must be compound because many factors are concerned in it; but which, though complex, can be clearly seen and under- stood if we keep these several factors distinct from each other while preserving their relatedness. 55 56 CONSEQUENCE OF DERIVED MOTION. The order stands thus: 1. What First Cause is. 2. What First Cause does. 3. What Expression is. 4. What Expression does. 5. What First Cause does through its Expression. 6. The Compound Consequence. This consequence must be the united result of 4 and 5. One part must be directly related to 4, the other part to 5. The whole must be a factor in Creation, and related to all that precedes it in the chain of sequence. As the Expression is what is put forth directly by First Cause, is the Production and Presentation of what is involved in that Cause, so the Re-production and Re-presentation is that which is " put forth anew " as involved in the Expression. The order may be again stated thus: First Cause. Absolute Being. Principle. God. 3 Expression. Derived being. Supreme Genus. Man. Re-production. ) Re-presentation, \ Motion or Primal Energy. 4. Activity of Derived being. 5. Continuance of Motion. The link between the Supreme Genus and Re-presentation is the action of that Genus, the activity that is not volitional, but natural, because compelled by relation to the Absolute. By the activity of Derived being Representation is compelled ; and this activity is itself compelled because Effect is inevitably according to Cause. Its nature is not self-bestowed but is, and must be, the expression of its Cause. CONSEQUENCE OF DERIVED MOTION. 57 The link between the Supreme Genus and Reproduction is the continuance of Primal Energy through the Genus. Through-ness and From-ness give the compound result. All along the line of sequence from First Cause is the compelling that produces each factor, each link in the chain. It is Nature, the eternally impersonal. REMARKS. Do not allow yourself to lose sight for one moment of this important distinction — Through and From. Much de- pends upon it later on. Ability to trace each line gives ability to perceive results on each without danger of confounding one with the other. Avoid the belief, " Oh ! such hair-splitting is altogether unnecessary." The reason why we are confused when we attempt to get satisfactory explanation of phenomena is be- cause we do not reason clearly from principle to logical result. We take too much for granted and, at the same time, not enough for granted, rendering ourselves unable to see self- evident truth. Holding our attention to a statement till its meaning and relation to previous statements are mastered is a self -discipline that quickens and develops our powers. QUESTIONS. In following the order of the impersonal as enumeration, are you tracing a process in time? Were it a process in time, would it be an eternal or a temporal order? Are " from something " and " through something " the same? Can that which is directly from something be identical 58 CONSEQUENCE OF DERIVED MOTION. with that which is indirectly from something because it is through it? Are immediate, and remote, cause, identical? If Presentation is direct from First Cause, can Ke-presen- tation be direct from it also? What is the link between First Cause and direct Effect? What is the link between this Effect and its effect? Is there any consequence subsequent, in enumeration, to direct Effect that is not directly from that Effect? CHAPTER XIY. The Natube of the Compound Factor. Having found this factor — Reproduction-Representation — and its place as a link in the chain, we will pass to a con- sideration of its nature. To this end we must go back to our definition of First Cause as Spirit, Life, etc. The Expression is, logically, the Spiritual, Living, etc. If the Production is the Spiritual, the Reproduction can not be the same but must be the consequence of the Spiritual. The product of Derived energy can not be identical with the product of Primal Energy. The product of Primal Energy — Expression — stands be- tween Original Motion and Reproduction-Representation. Only that which directly expresses Spirit can be the Spiritual. The consequence of the Spiritual must have a distinguish- ing name. This consequence is that which is related to the Spiritual, as the Spiritual is related to Spirit. It is a question of relatedness, of sequence, in which each factor preserves its own distinctive nature and place; and such names or defining terms as will reveal and preserve this distinctive relatedness must be used. Cause. Effect. Consequent compound effect. Spirit."^ ^Spiritual . \-*~ -""" Reproduction — Matter. , Representation — Shape. Primal Energy. Derived Energy. 59 60 THE NATURE OF TEE COMPOUND FACTOR. The word " Matter " is used as a defining term for Re- production. Reproduction is the effect, through the Spiritual, of persistence of Primal Energy. Matter, then, is the exten- sion of Original Motion qualified by passing through an intervening medium — the Spiritual. This sequence of relatedness, this chain of distinct links, not only reveals Matter as having fundamental place in Creation but also its office — as will be seen further on. Matter is neither Spirit nor the Spiritual. It is the con- sequence of both Spirit and the Spiritual, in that it is the result of Original Motion through an intervening medium. Matter is neither a part of Spirit nor a part of the Spiritual. It is a part of Creation, a distinctive part of the Whole, as Representation, when contrasted with Reproduction, is a distinctive part of the same Whole. Matter, therefore, stands in direct or immediate relation to the Spiritual as sequential in order, but not as directly caused by the Spiritual. Whereas Representation not only stands in immediate relation to the Spiritual as sequential in order, but also as directly caused by the Spiritual; for it is the effect of Derived action. As this effect it is Shape or Limitation. Two powers, distinct but not separate, operating simul- taneously or in unison, must bring results in unison, distinct but not separate from each other. These powers being naturally operative, and outside the domain of volition or choice, the joint result must belong outside the domain of volition Or choice as a natural or com- pelled result. If the two powers are eternally operative the joint result is an eternal natural consequence. This argument makes Matter and Shape — as Matter is here defined — the eternal natural phenomenon in which one THE NATURE OF THE COMPOUND FACTOR. 61 can not be separated from the other, though one may be dis- tinguished from the other. As Original Motion is absolute, and Derived motion is relative, one result is, by comparison, more limited than the other. This limitation must appear in the joint result. Shape or Outline is the limitation, due to the lesser power, which is in conjunction with the result of the greater power. If Matter and Shape belong together fundamentally, they will be seen together by the Onlooker in Creation who must learn to distinguish between them. Matter, because of its nature, can be resolved into Mo- tion; but as natural consequence having place in the eternal order it constitutes the background or blackboard upon which Shape or Figure appears. It is that which makes Shape or Figure visible to the Onlooker. 4 QUESTIONS. Is the product of Derived energy identical with the prod- uct of Primal Motion? If not, why not? Can the product of the Derived energy bear the name belonging to the product of Primal Motion? Why is there necessity for distinguishing terms? What is the difference between Reproduction and Rep- resentation? To what factor in the enumeration is the term " Matter " applied? Is Matter a part of Spirit? Is Matter the absence of Spirit? Is Matter " the Spiritual " in Creation? Is the consequence of something an integral part of that something? 62 THE NATURE OF THE COMPOUND FACTOB. Is Matter intentionally created by God? Is Matter a lie or an error? Which is the compound factor in Creation? As the two parts of this compound factor stand to each other, is one of them limited and the other universal? If so, which is the limited, and which the universal? CHAPTER XV. Vaeiety in Unity. We have, now, the unit Man, the Spiritual Whole, and the unit that may be called the Material Whole. As the unit contains, and is the sum of, its own fractions or parts, the Spiritual Whole must include its fractions or parts. Equally is this true of the Material Whole. Though the Spiritual Whole, as a fundamental factor in Creation, is related to the Absolute Spirit, and though the Material Whole is related to the Spiritual Whole, the rela- tions included in this relation must be considered. The fractions or parts of each whole must be related to each other, and to that whole Creation in which they belong. Each of these links, the Spiritual Whole and the Material Whole, is itself a chain of many links, and complete in itself as such. The Spiritual Whole must contain all expressions of Ab- solute Spirit, great and small; the Material Whole must contain all objects or shapes, great and small. Each shape in the Material Whole must represent some corresponding portion of the Spiritual Whole; and harmony between Nou- menon and Phenomenon must be fundamental. The expressions of Spirit, Life, etc., must be many and varied, ranging from least to greater and greatest. However many they may be, their sum will be the unit, the Whole. The variety in that Whole compels as great variety in Repre- 63 64 VARIETY IN UNITY. sentation, the Material Whole. The spiritual thing must have its material representative. The range of Noumena and the range of Phenomena must run parallel with each other; and if fundamentally parallel, they do not blend with each other. The Spiritual Whole, as the Spiritual or invisible Uni- verse, and the Material Whole, as the representative or visible Universe, are necessarily distinct from each other; yet through their relatedness, knowledge of one must lead to knowledge of the other. Both being fundamental factors in Creation, as such they are equally eternal; but, also as such, they can never mingle or change places. As Genus, the Noumenon includes and compels variety of noumena or species, the Phenomenon includes and compels equal variety of phenomena. To whatever extent phenomena may be carried, always, now and forever, the noumena are higher than the phenomena, distinct by nature though re- lated to them; and however dazzling, even bewildering, the variety, all may be collected into one. QUESTIONS. What is classed under the head " The Spiritual Whole " ? What under the head " The Material Whole " ? How are these related to each other? If they are related as wholes, have their parts correspond- ing relations? What do you understand by " Noumenon " ? What by " Phenomenon " ? What by " Noumena " ? What by « Phenomena " ? How are these related to each other? VARIETY IN UNITY. 65 Do parallel lines meet? What is the relation of the Material universe to the Spir- itual universe? Will the Material universe become, ever, the Spiritual universe ? Will the Material and the Spiritual ever change places with each other in the order compelled by the nature of First Cause ? Which of the two is directly related to First Cause? Can any of the parts of the Spiritual universe become separated from the whole? Can any parts of the Material universe become separated from the whole? Is the relation between the two wholes temporal or eternal? Does the relation precede time, or is it created in time? Are " spiritual " and " material " " just the same " ? CHAPTER XVI. Distinct but not Separate. Distinct. — Not identical; not the same; discretely dif- ferent from another or others; well defined; clearly distin- guishable by the mind. Identical. — Being the same; absolutely indistinguishable. Separable. — Capable of being disjoined, or disunited. Separate. — Disjoined, disunited, unconnected. United. — Joined or combined; allied; harmonious. Unity. — That interconnection of parts which constitutes a complex whole; a systematic whole as distinguished from its constituent parts. Unit. — That which is counted, and has no reference to multiplication. — (Dictionary.) Let us apply these definitions to the factors, the links in the chain, so far wrought out. They stand thus: 1. First Cause. 2. Original Motion. 3. Effect or Expression. 4. Derived Motion. 5 and 6. The Compound Consequence \ ~> x ,. ( Kepresentation. These factors constitute a unity, a systematic whole, whose constituent parts must be distinguished from each other. They must be seen as distinct but not separate from 66 DISTINCT BUT NOT SEPARATE. 67 each other, each compelling the others through logical ne- cessity. First Cause is the Absolute Unit to which all units sub- sequent in enumeration are relative. No. 3 is the unit of direct Effect that is relative to First Cause and absolute to the Compound Consequence. First Cause and the Expression are forever distinct from each other, but never separate, for they are not separable. Original Motion is absolute to Derived Motion and De- rived Motion is relative to Original Motion. They are for- ever distinct, but never separate, for they are not separable. All these factors are forever distinct from each other, but never separate, for they are not separable. No two of them are or can be identical, no two of them being the same, or absolutely indistinguishable. Each is " clearly distinguishable by the mind " if not by the senses. They are united to each other, are joined, combined, allied and harmonious. The variety involved in this unity affords the whole pos- sible range of both Noumena and Phenomena. Phenomena must be translated into Noumena, Noumena into fundamental factors and their unity, these factors and their unity traced to the Absolute First Cause. If the road from First Cause to Phenomena is an open one, from Phenomena to First Cause is an equally open road. If the road from First Cause to Phenomena is an open road through, or by means of, logical necessity, the road from Phenomena to First Cause will be found only by seeing and following the logical necessity. It will not be followed successfully if any one factor in the sequence is separated — for the seeker — from its companion links in the chain, or if any two of them are made identical. If the unity is disrupted, the road is closed, for the seeker 68 DISTINCT BUT NOT SEPARATE. comes to an impassable gulf. If any two factors are made identical the road ends in a blind alley. REMARKS. Another serious, but often found, mistake to be avoided, due to lack of careful discrimination, is the confounding and misapplication of the two words " distinct " and " separate." Look at the fingers of your hand, covering all below the fin- gers. They appear separate from each other because they are distinct from each other. They have this appearance be- cause their unity is out of sight. The unity not seen would lead to the conclusion " They are all apart from each other, are separated." But they are apart because they are not identical. The unity that is out of sight preserves identity even though the appearance is separateness, and while pre- serving identity maintains difference. Uncover the hand and with the seeming separateness is seen unity. The nature of the hand compels distinctness without separation between the fingers. QUESTIONS. Why are not First Cause and Expression separate from each other? Are Original Motion and Derived Motion separate from each other? If not, why not? Is one part of the Compound Consequence separate from the other? Is this Consequence separate from First Cause? If so, why? If not, why not? Is there separation between Limitation and the Absolute? DISTINCT BUT NOT SEPARATE. 69 Is there separation between Spirit and Matter? Is there separation between the parts of the Spiritual whole, or between the parts of the Material whole? Is there separation between God and phenomena? Is there separation between phenomena and the Onlooker? Is there separation between Creator and Creation? CHAPTEE XVII. The Forming Power. Original Motion is the action of Original Substance. f Original Substance is that which can not be analyzed. No concept of this Substance as having length, breadth or weight should be formed. As the changeless and unalterable, IT is Substance, because it is changeless. But the Derived Motion or Transferred Energy, as the activity of Derived being, is not the activity of Original Sub- stance. It is the Forming power, while the other is the Creative, or life-bestowing, power. To create, to form, and to make, are the logical essentials involved in the relation between Creator and Creation, essen- tials operative in the order enumerated. Creating is first, is followed by forming, and then by making. The ideal is created, its representative, or the object, is formed, the ideal is made perfect in form or in incarnation. The Forming power, therefore, is intermediary between creating and making. Creating is first, making is last, form- ing is between the two. Place yourself before a mirror and move your arm. The y reflection or expression in the mirror is also active, because its activity is compelled. Yet its activity is its own, belongs to it, and not to you; though it is compelled by your activity. It is not even a part of your activity for your own loses nothing whatever by the action in the mirror. The action in the mirror is not a part of the action before the mirror; if it 70 THE FORMING POWER. 71 were, your action would be lessened by as much as was re- quired to constitute the action in the mirror. Were there a consequence, or product, of the action in the mirror it would not appear therein. You must look elsewhere for it, for the consequence or product can not be a part of the producer, or the producing. It is a subsequent, and third, factor in this enumeration, it is the produced. The action in the mirror illustrates the Forming power; forms of Matter, or Shapes, are its consequence. Matter and its varying shapes or objects though distinct from each other are not separate. Matter is the remote product of Original Substance through its direct product — Expression. Shapes are the direct product of the activity of the Expression. Conse- quently, to the Onlooker, Matter will be seen in form, or in Shape. A material object is resolvable into Matter and Shape, both Matter and Shape are resolvable into Motion, Motion is the active aspect of both God and Man. The relation stands thus: Derived being Matter The Spiritual Whole Reproduction. Product through Derived being. Persistence of Energy. Derived being Representation The Spiritual Whole. \ The Material Whole Product from Derived being. The activity of Derived being. The Forming power. 72 THE FORMING POWER. Variety in Spiritual Whole Variety in Material Whole All expressions of First \ / The Representatives of Cause less than the \ / those expressions. Whole. \ / Differing Shapes. Fractions of the Whole. \ / Fractions of the Whole, \ / appearing against the V common background. The Forming power. Coining words, we say, Matter is the " throughness " of Derived being; and its Shape is the "fromness " of Derived being; the "throughness" and " f romness " in conjunction constituting the Material Whole, in which is distinctiveness without separation; distinction between the Matter, or Re- production, that is the tangibility of Shapes, and the variety of Shapes that is the Representation of the composite nature of Derived being. First Cause creates, Derived being forms. All forms of Matter, or all material shapes, are in the Material Whole, and all expressions of Spirit, Life, Love, Intelligence, Substance, Mind, are in the Spiritual Whole. The Supreme Genus, Man, in- cludes all that is directly from First Cause. Representation includes all that variety that is representative of the composite nature of Man. Matter is qualified motion, and every material shape is a mode of that motion. Original Motion is pure, or unqualified. Between pure Motion, or Force, and qualified motion, or Matter, stands Derived being, the Supreme Genus. Derived being, therefore, is the intervening medium between Spirit THE FORMING POWER. 73 and Matter that puts its own impression upon Matter; and this, not volitionally but naturally. REMARKS. Unity being fundamental, therefore eternal, he who seeks hidden mysteries can never find if he fails to discern and follow it. To examine and pronounce upon any one factor out of its relation to the Whole Creation is to limit both knowl- edge and attainment, to make departments of knowledge which appear to lead in contrary directions to diverse ends. Good for a time, as expedient for the moment, any and all departments may be, if the relation of one to the other, and of all to the fundamental Unity, is not seen, the explana- tion of Creation that makes wise self -adaptation possible, can not be reached, and men will live and die as they need not live and die did they seek wisdom rather than departmental knowledge or denominational doctrine. As a student you desire to know truth rather than to vindicate opinion. Seek, therefore, to see and grasp the Unity here outlined. See how one factor compels another, how all are joined together as a series of consequences from First Cause, a unity that is unassailable if this Cause be as defined. Discerning it, turn where you will you will see it. In every direction it will be manifest to you. As beads upon a common thread all things now visible and all that later become visible, all ologies and sciences, yes, even all religions, will stand side by side together as belonging to that unity that is more than any one of them. QUESTIONS. What are the logical essentials involved in the relation between Creator and Creation? What is the difference between forming and creating? 74 THE FORMING POWER. Which is first in order of enumeration? Is there any difference between creating and making? If so, which is first, and which is subsequent? Which of the two powers is the life-bestowing power? Can the other power create a living being? If not, why not? What is the relation of the formed to the created? What the relation of the made to the created? Is there a power that lessens the Creative power in order to sustain itself? What is the difference between Matter and Shape? What is the active aspect of the Genus, Man? What does this Genus include? What effect has this Genus upon Matter? Is this effect volitional or natural? CHAPTEK XVIH. Kecapitulation. The factors so far enumerated, with what they involve, produce, in their combinations, all the problems of existence. As links in a chain, no one link is capable of accomplishing what their unity leads to and compels. This order is Nature, or that which is natural; that which is compelled, not per- mitted, by its Origin. Nature, as this order, is, and must always remain, imper- sonal. Well for us if we can " look from Nature up to Nature's God." The impersonal order that is Nature is Divine Necessity, the necessity by which the Onlooker is bound. This necessity compels the road in which he must travel as a seeker. Before passing to the consideration of this Onlooker we will reconsider these links in the chain of sequence, a recapitu- lation that may be helpful to some and can be omitted by those for whom it is unnecessary. 1. Substance. Mind. 2. Motion (not volitional). Action of Mind. 3. The being. The Ideal of Mind (with its variety). 4. Activity of being (not volitional). The Forming Power. 5. Cosmic Matter. Common Background for, and universal in, 6. The Formed. The World— Shape (with its variety). 7. Purpose to which this unity tends. Incarnation. 75 REGAPITULA TION. 1. The impersonal God is the fixed point from which all undamental factors follow in orderly sequence. God, to be God, must be more than a being who feels conflicting emo- tions and acts accordingly. The God of Theology is a personal, a human-like being, who feels both love and hate, who intentionally blesses and curses, who exalts those whom He loves and casts down and destroys those whom He hates; and He hates those who do not see and obey Him as He wishes to be seen and obeyed. He is a despot, a tyrant, executing his changeable will upon mankind. No one can be sure that he is in favor with God, sure that he is one of the elect who shall be saved from the divine wrath. Think a moment of what that means — divine wrath. Can you see anything divine in wrath? Is there anything God- like in it? Is not wrath a distinctively human characteristic, seen in yourself and in your fellow-men? Is there any certainty for you, for any one, any stability in the universe, if its cause and sustainer is a being who can, and at any moment may, change his mind, change his plans, purposes, intentions, wishes? This kind of a being is not and can not be absolute; for a God who wishes for anything what- ever has not that for which he wishes; if he had he would not wish. This is a limited, not the absolute, God. Equally is this true if God forms any plan or intention, making up His mind to do something, or produce something which did not and could not exist till He made up His mind to make it. In this view there is no room for co-existence, for simultaneousness; and consequently no explanation of Nature. It divorces God from Nature, making all things subject to His caprice and permitting no stability. Hence the age-long conflict between Science and Religion — what has been called Eeligion. Science deals with Nature, RECAPITULATION. 77 makes discoveries from the basis of facts. What has been called Religion is offered as a divine revelation and a substi- tute for facts. It too often contradicts them. Scientists say " This is true, for we have discovered and verified it." Religionists — theologians — say " That can not be true, for divinely revealed Religion declares to the con- trary." And the scientists are nearer to the discovery of the real God than are the theological religionists, for they are delving into Nature while the others stand afar off from her. A revelation that can not reconcile Religion and Science, Truth and Facts, is worth little. The impersonal God as the governing Principle that com- pels an orderly sequence of fundamental, therefore eternal, factors, is to be found and known " by His works "; by find- ing and knowing those factors and their consequences, and their orderly relation to each other. Which is the higher conception of God ? God as a mighty and powerful being who loves and saves some, and hates and destroys others; or, God as Love, as Principle that omnipo- tent, unvarying Love that is alike for all men, the sun that shines equally upon the just and the unjust? With the theological conception of God no Science of Being is possible. God's will determines everything and that will may change at any moment. With the higher concep- tion, God as Principle, the Science of Being is an accompany- ing necessity, for it is the eternal certainty that the impersonal compels by its nature. As impersonal Principle, God is the same yesterday, to- day, and forever. God is " without variation " or " shadow of turning." Creation is according to the nature of God and is, therefore, stable and sure. Discovery is all that is necessary for ourselves, and we can make effort to this end, confident 78 RECAPITULATION. that while we are seeking nothing will change and our time, in consequence, be wasted. This higher conception of God eliminates chance. There is no chance. " If God should chance " to do thus and so, or " If Nature should chance " to produce this or that, are expressions of ignorance, not of knowledge. All that belongs in the order that is the logical sequence of what God is as Principle, is absolutely sure. The differing aspects of God but help to reveal the allness of the Absolute One. Because God is Spirit, Life, Love, Intelligence, Substance, Mind, the rest follows. There can be no change in the sequence that ensues. 2. The inseparability of Cause and its Action, of Sub- stance and Motion, and also the distinction between them, help, when discerned, to perception of what Creation is and includes. This compelling Action is the Initial Impulse for all that follows. It is God at work; jiot at work according to His pleasure at the moment, but at work according to the nature of God, and persistently. The Original Motion is the " going forth to the outermost ends of the earth." It is Force, the Force that compels and impels all that lives and moves. The Force of Nature is God at work, and is resistless. Nothing can stay it, everything must eventually let it work onward. God's will is the nature of God in operation, or active; and that will is being done throughout Nature. God's will never alters or varies, it is always the same; and God's pro- ductions are equally changeless, as could not be the case if the First Cause were other than impersonal Principle. Pure Motion, that Action of Substance that is the opera- tion of Cause, as the link between Cause and Effect is the link between God and Man; a connection not permitted but compelled. RECAPITULATION. 79 3. The direct and all-inclusive Effect of that First Cause that is God, is, in nature, according to, but not identical with, the nature of God; and is relative or Derived. This Derived being, Man, the Supreme Genus, or Ideal, is not a part of God, but is the consequence of what God is and does; of Substance and Motion. This Man has no plural, there is but one Man as there is but one God. This " image of God," as the full Expression of all that God is and does, is all he can be. He can in no way be bettered. In what he is, or in his nature, he can be no more than he is primarily. All that is greater than he, is the Absolute, or God. If he is all he can be, if he can not be bettered, he is perfect and complete. As the Expression of God, therefore, he is perfect, com- plete, and contains within his own circumference all that in any degree expresses First Cause. As the unit of Expression all that is directly from that source must be in him. In him is everything spiritual, outside him is nothing that is primarily spiritual. If everything in him is spiritual, what is from him must have another name. What is from him can not be a part of him, but a consequence, instead. This Supreme Genus, Man, the Derived being, is not to be created, for he already is. He is co-existent with God. He is the eternal Ideal awaiting discovery and manifestation. He is what God's nature compels and he does not exist by permission. 4. Because Original Motion must be ceaseless as the operation of Cause, the Supreme Genus can be no bar to its further activity. Because this Force is impersonal it can not cease of itself. There is no intention to act, there can be no intention to cease acting. 80 RECAPITULATION. As the Initial Impulse that brings, first, Derived being, it must move on through this being to further production. It must also communicate motion to this being, making it active; an activity that is not, and can not be, volitional with the Derived being, but is compelled by the relation between Cause and Effect. 5. Matter is the qualified motion resulting from Motion through Derived being. The difference between the Action of Mind, or Spirit, and Matter is the difference between pure Force and qualified motion, the Derived being constituting the intervening or qualifying medium. Hence in the orderly sequence that constitutes Nature, Matter is relative to De- rived being, and Derived being is absolute to Matter; Derived being is relative to God, and God is absolute to Derived being. This order stands as follows: God Derived being Matter The Absolute Relative to God and Relative to Derived absolute to Matter ' being. This Ideal, or Supreme Genus, is not an integral part of Matter, is not in Matter, but is veiled by Matter, hidden be- hind it, beyond the possibility of destruction or even danger, because of relation to Origin, or God. Matter as the Reproduction in the order that constitutes Nature, follows after the Production that is Expression of God. It is not the living, substantial and intelligent in Nat- ure; it stands before and hides that which is living, substan- tial and intelligent. The Spiritual is the real and Matter is the phenomenal. The real and the phenomenal never mingle, each is perpetually distinct in Nature. 6. Because Motion through Derived being communicates motion to that being, making it active, this activity, in con- RECAPITULATION. 81 junction with Motion through the being, brings conjunctive result. Conjunctive activities with conjunctive results, though distinct, are inseparable, for if the one is, the other is also. The Creative Power and the Forming Power are the greater and the lesser in Creation. The greater is the Initial Impulse, and the lesser is the communicated impulse. Neither is volitional, both are natural because compelled by Cause and Effect. The Creative Power produces living things and living being, but the Forming Power can not produce them. It can produce only the phenomenal, or Representation. Re- production, or Cosmic Matter is but the universal background for all shapes, it makes them visible. A piece of glass is transparent. Looking in it you see nothing. But when one side is covered by a metallic coating shapes are seen. The coating is a background. Nature fur- nishes, because it includes, the background which makes shapes visible. Reproduction is the background and Repre- sentation is what is seen by means of it. The Material Whole, or unit, contains wide variety be- cause the Spiritual Whole, or unit of Expression, contains wide variety. All natures, all faculties, all powers, all that expresses God even in the least degree, must be in, not out of, the Expression or unit. Many differing natures, all that pertain to the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, are in the composite nature of the unit. Every faculty, capacity and power that is from Mind, has place there also. As expressions of First Cause they are all good and can not be bettered. The Material Whole contains each and every shape repre- sentative of those natures and of their quota of capacities and powers. 82 RECAPITULATION. The Spiritual Whole and the Material Whole are the Number and Figure, the Noumenon and the Phenomenon. But value belongs to Number, not to Figure. Figure only rep- resents Number. The Spiritual is the real, or has value. The Material represents value because it represents the Spiritual. Hence the Figure indicates what it is not. It is only a means for the finding of Number; the Phenomenon is but a means by which the Onlooker in Nature may discover the Noumenon. The simultaneousness, or togetherativeness of these funda- mental factors makes them coexistent with each other and with First Cause, a necessity that makes a unity of God and Nature. In this unity God is the governing Principle of the orderly sequence of fixed and relative factors that constitutes Nature, and is, in consequence, the Immanent God. / Between God and Nature no separation is possible — in fact, whatever the theory — and separation between any of the factors is equally impossible. Logical necessity keeps them connected, the one with the other, but keeps each distinct from the others, as well. God and Nature always were. They constitute the abstract truth that always was and ever will be. God's will is done in the heaven that is Nature's inherent harmony. " Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." If God and Nature are in everlasting unity, if Nature is fixed and changeless, what is to come of it all? Manifestation is to come. This " heaven " is to be made " plain, visible, obvious to understanding." The abstract truth is to become understood; the hidden real is to be made plainly visible. The veil is to be lifted and the eternal is to appear in all its power and majesty. The third in the trinity — Expression, Representation and Manifestation — is to follow the other two. But something RECAPITULATION. 83 stands between. Before there can be recognition and under- standing there must be a recognizer. /Before Manifestation can follow, there must be something to receive it, something to which the hidden real can appear; and our next step is to pass to a consideration of the Onlooker in Nature. CHAPTEK XIX. The Onlooker in Nature. It is self-evident that Manifestation is, and must be, a matter of consciousness. " Obvious to understanding " im- plies something capable of understanding; " plain, visible " compels something capable of seeing, of recognition. The one compels the other. Although the Science of Numbers is exact and orderly as abstract truth, and contains wide possibilities, this truth is practically dead till brought to life by a seeker for it. It has no established practical possibilities till it has been sought and found; found both in theory and demonstration. This truth is, in itself, but till it is manifested its nature and possibilities are not proved. This proof, or manifestation, is impossible except to something capable of recognition and understanding. A seeker is necessary. He stands between the invisible real and its manifestation. The manifestation of the abstract truth, the true in itself, is to him. This manifestation is not the creating of anything new, it is the appearing of that which always was ; but his impression will be " This is new " and because what he sees is new to him. The fixed order that constitutes Nature, though eternal in itself because of its governing Principle, will be new to its discoverer as it is first, and by successive steps, made manifest to him; and manifestation must be, necessarily, a process to 84 THE ONLOOKER IN NATURE. 85 him, though what is manifested is a complete whole in itself, all together " in the beginning " as eternal unity. Seeing the necessity for another factor not yet enumerated and defined, we must go back to our premise to discover it. Being, or God Derived being Absolute Consciousness Relative Conscious being Non-entity Entity Abstract Concrete Universal or Omnipresent Individualized, as compared with the Absolute. Universal, as compared with the Material Whole. The Supreme Genus, Man, as the Expression of God is the Entity of which God is the governing Principle. With- out entity the Absolute could have no manifestation. With- out the concrete the abstract could not appear. The Entity, Derived being, the One as the Expression, is relative to the Absolute, and absolute to the rest of the sequence. As individualized conscious being, God alone, as compelling Principle, greater than it, this entity is the " image " of God. As " image " or Expression, it differs from God, and yet it must have " likeness " to God. As conscious being it must involve in its nature, self -con- sciousness. Given conscious being, the power of self -recogni- tion, or self -consciousness, is a logical necessity. To be, is one thing; to know that you are, is another and subsequent thing; and yet the second hinges upon the first. Without the first the second could not be. Without a being, no self is possible. Without individuality there could be no recognition of individual being. There could be no " I am " without being, for from being this self -recognition springs. 86 TEE ONLOOKER IN NATURE. One of the most important distinctions — and, for many, the most difficult and obscure — to be made, for it is com- pelled by the Science of Being, is this distinction, without separation, between the being and the Soul. It constitute? the difference between the " I " and its " Self." Conscious being Soul, or self-consciousnesf? ^ Image of God Likeness of God I I am Self -recognition > An illustration will serve to make the meaning clearer. An acorn is a complete and perfect whole, we will say. Be- cause all that is requisite to the nature of the acorn is there, it is perfect and complete and could not be bettered. Not the most infinitesimal portion is lacking; if it were the acorn could not be complete and perfect. What does this perfection and completeness compel? It compels that its " seed is in itself "; compels that a germ tree is within it. Without this germ the acorn would not be com- plete. Something necessary to perfection, as an acorn, would be lacking. All the possibilities of the oak tree are enfolded in the acorn. What the oak tree is abstractly, or by nature, is contained in the acorn which is perfect as such. But what is contained in the acorn are potentialities, not actualities. These potentialities are realities, in that they are exact and true according to the nature of the oak tree; but while in the acorn only, they are not actualities. They must come forth from the acorn, come into manifestation, before the realities can become actualities. This necessity is met by the nature of the acorn and soil for planting. It holds within it the living germ that will come forth as the actual tree. That which is in it belongs to its nature. That which comes forth from it is the mani- festation of its nature. The last is sequential to the first. The THE ONLOOKER IN NATURE. 87 acorn is the " image " of the oak tree, the vital germ in it is the " likeness " of the oak tree; and image and likeness con- stitute a perfect whole. Yet, something is lacking till that likeness has come forth to manifestation. The actual tree must follow the ideal tree, and the way from the ideal to the actual lies through the potential. This is a perfect order in which the perfect acorn has its own place. The acorn is not the order, it is an essential factor in the order, and were the acorn not perfect, as such, the order could not be fulfilled. Conscious being is the acorn in which is involved, as potentialities, all that God is. Derived conscious being is the " image of God," the perfect entity in which are enfolded all God-like possibilities. Because it is perfect and complete the " likeness of God " pertains to its nature. Something would be lacking were this not so. In the image is the likeness; in conscious being is self- consciousness or Soul; but this vital germ must come forth from the acorn of being if this being's potentialities shall be- come actualities. From the being shall come the actual; and every factor in the order that constitutes Nature is necessary to that end. The Self of the I is the likeness of the Absolute. The I is the image of the Absolute. The two are one, and that one is the Expression of the Absolute, or God; the entity of the Abstract or Principle. Observe how we use the possessive pronoun in connection with the word, "self." "Myself" we say. The possessive pronoun denotes possession. If there is a possession there must be the possessor. If the self is the possession, the in- dividual possessor is " I." This possessor says " myself." This factor in Nature, the Expression that is hidden be- hind Reproduction and Representation, contains in its own 88 THE ONLOOKER IN NATURE. nature God-potentialities and the germ of the Actual God. Its seed is in itself. In the order that constitutes Nature the Absolute God is its beginning and governing Principle, the Potential God is the immediate consequence of that Principle, and the Actual God is the ultimate product. The Supreme Genus, Man, the acorn, is the Entity involving the Potential God. The Actual God is to come from that Entity and its begin- nings are there as the germ in the acorn, the Self in the I. This inherent " likeness " is to come forth from that which is veiled by Matter till it stands complete in Incarnation, as the Manifestation that completes Creation. The inherent is to become the actual, and from the basis of Nature, not by miracle; a becoming, or making, according to law and order that is the fulfilment of the law and order. Having discovered inherent Soul our next step is existent soul. " Ex — out of, or from." The germ tree in the acorn must become ex-istent, must come forth from the acorn. Here is the growth that may be called change. Eorce, Derived being, the Forming power, Reproduction and Representation, all the fundamental factors, are fixed and changeless. They never become, because originally they are all they can be. The stability of Nature is assured. Equally is this true of Soul. As it is, it is all it can be. As Soul, the likeness of the Absolute, it can be no more; but in manifestation, or existent, it becomes more and more till the manifestation is all it can be. And there can be no mani- festation except the inherent become the existent. The existent soul is the Onlooker in Nature, the Onlooker with capacity for discovery of all that Nature includes. Though the acorn includes the vital germ, there must be THE ONLOOKER IN NATURE. 89 germination before the potential can become the actual; be- fore the complete oak tree can stand forth as manifestation of the nature of the acorn. Though Derived being includes Soul, there must be germination before Creation is finished, for Manifestation is necessary to the completion. From the Absolute, through the Potential, to the Actual, is the inevitable order compelled by the nature of the gov- erning Principle; and germination is a logical necessity. This germination and growth is human existence, that which is " ex — out of, or from" the changeless and eternal; and human existence is the evolution of self-consciousness. Evo- lution is change, not change in what is fundamental, but change in its manifestation. As a help toward understanding this argument the capital letter will be used when inherent Soul is mentioned, and the small letter when existent soul is meant. Inherent Soul, as the Likeness of the Absolute, is change- less, and all it can be. Existent soul becomes more and more till it has become all it can be. Holding fast to this distinction between " image " and " likeness," or between Derived being and Soul, and also to the distinction between inherent Soul and existent soul, we may find the place of the existent soul in the order that con- stitutes Nature. Reproduction Derived being— Soul Representation Manifestation I, and its Self Matter Existent soul Image and Likeness Shape I am Man Person A man A man, is what we call a human being. Subjectively he is a living, or an existent soul; objectively he is an outlined shape or person. Subjectively he is from being, objectively he is of Matter. He is the conjunction of existent soul, 90 THE ONLOOKER IN NATURE. Matter and Shape. Outwardly lie is Nature's phenomenon, inwardly he is the first fruit of germination, the first shoot from the acorn of being. A man is living in soul, and phenomenal in appearance or Person. As the first shoot from the acorn, as a living soul, he is connected with being. He is in conjunction with Matter but is not vitally connected with it. His vital connection is with Derived being and its governing Principle. A man lives from being and from God, not from Matter, but looks upon and sees Matter and its various Shapes because in con- junction with them. The soul of a man is the Onlooker. The person of a man, the matter of a man, can be, neither of them, the Onlooker. QUESTIONS. Is manifestation independent of consciousness? Can anything be old and new at the same time? Is manifestation at once complete, or is it progressive? Why? What is the difference between " abstract " and " con- crete " ? What is the difference between " universal " and " indi- vidualized " ? Has the abstract a need for the concrete? If so, what is the need? What is necessarily included in conscious being? - What is the " I " ? f What is the " Self " ? ,' What is the relation of one to the other? Are they separate from each other? What is the difference between being and Soul? THE ONLOOKER IN NATURE. 91 Which is first, to be, or to know that we are? If the Actual is the end of an order, what must precede the Actual? Are the Ideal and the Actual, the same? What is inherent in the acorn of Derived being? Is existence from Derived being logically compelled? Where must we look for the Likeness of the Absolute? What is the difference, if any, between " the image of God " and " the likeness of God " ? If there is difference between them, is there any sepa- ration? What is the " seed " in Derived being? What is the difference between " potential " and " actual " ? Do any of Nature's fundamental factors, change? Where, in any one of them, do you find something to be- come existent? Will the existent soul naturally increase and multiply, or remain stationary? Is there need for a becoming, except in existence? What is necessary to complete Creation? What is human existence? What is evolution? What is the composition of " a man " ? What is the relation of " a man " to Derived being? What the relation to Matter? What is the destiny of " a man " ? CHAPTEE XX. Existence. Having traced the Plan and discovered the Builder it re- mains to follow the building. " For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid." The eternal foundation, the one that is already laid, is the sequence and relativity of the fixed factors compelled by the nature of their governing Principle. No one can change it or substitute for it, another. Any and all can build upon it, and human existence is the process of building upon the eternal foundation; a process interfered with for a time by attempts to build upon other than the eternal. The existent soul as the Builder finds in its own existence the material for building, has the power to discard one ma- terial for another and a better. Existence is within, not outside of, eternity. It begins with the first shoot from the acorn of being and ends only with the full-grown tree. It is a line within a circle, the temporal bounded by the eternal. That which is out of or from the eternal is to find the eternal, find both its own foundation and height. Existence is in time, for time is but the work of building. That which is out of or from the eternal perfect acorn will increase, or grow in time, till it has become all the nature of the acorn compels. We measure time according to a commonly accepted standard of measurement, but time is the measure of existence itself, and the true standard is the nature of Derived being. 92 EXISTENCE. 93 If the factors enumerated constitute the eternal founda- tion, if Manifestation, full and complete, is the ultimate consequence, the beginning of Manifestation is the first step to that end, the first stage of time. If the existent soul is the Onlooker that is also the Builder, the first stage in Manifestation is a state of self -consciousness, and subsequent stages must be subsequent states of self- consciousness. The first shoot from the acorn is the first stage of a process that must include other and subsequent stages before it can be complete, all of them consequent upon the nature of the acorn. All states of the existent soul subsequent to and following upon the first, must be consequent upon the nature of Derived being — the Genus, Man. Variety is compelled, the states will differ from each other; but the unity of the factors constituting the eternal foundation will compel between these states the unity that is their logical relatedness. Any one state of existence must be related to what pre- cedes and succeeds it, a relativity compelled, not permitted. As beads upon a thread, these states from least to greatest must be penetrated by the thread of law and order upon which they are strung. Existence has a definite purpose, therefore, that tends ever to fulfilment, and if the Builder have a contrary purpose it can be but the temporal which is eventually overruled by the Great Purpose. As existence, because of its nature, can not cease till the Great Purpose is fulfilled, if the Builder work according to another and contrary purpose there must be " turning and overturning " till it is abandoned and the true one found and followed. Incarnation being the aim of existence, and incarnation of God the Great Purpose, each state in the process that is 94 EXISTENCE. Existence will have its own incarnation, and the first stage of Manifestation will be the incarnation of the first shoot from the acorn of being — a man. A man is not and can not be The Man, they stand to each other as a species to the Genus. For the Genus there is no plural, the indefinite article " a " or " an " is not applicable. A man is one of a number, more than one species is not only possible but com- pelled by the nature of The Man. A species is a kind after and according to the Genus, and many kinds are necessary to the orderly manifestation of the full possibilities of the Genus. Hence mankind is legitimate successor to The Man, and the means by which the nature of Derived being is manifested. Between The Man as Ideal, and The Man as Actual, stand all kinds of men, these kinds belonging in time and having orderly relation to each other, each and all manifest- ing the potentialities of Derived being. JSTo one of these kinds is, or can be, either the Ideal or the Actual. The Ideal precedes Existence, the Actual is the crown of Existence. Existence is from the Ideal to the Actual, from the unin- carnated to the incarnated. Between the two stretches the Existence that brings the one from the other. Existence therefore is natural, not volitional. Existence in time is con- sequent upon the eternal order that constitutes Nature. Ex- istence and time are relative to the eternal, and the eternal is absolute to Existence and time. The eternal foundation, when discovered, answers the question " What am I, and why am I here? " Till it is dis- covered the question is not answered truly, even if answered satisfactorily to the questioner. The questioner is a man, the. incarnation in Person of a state of self -consciousness; a state consequent upon the nature of Derived being. EXISTENCE. 95 QUESTIONS. What is the eternal Plan? What is the Builder? What is the building, or the work to be done? What is the Builded, or finished work? Is existence within, or outside of, eternity? What is the true standard of time? What constitutes the eternal foundation? What is the ultimate consequence of existence? Is self -consciousness one state, or many? If it has many states, are these separate from each other? Does Nature provide for Incarnation? Is Incarnation a consequence logically traceable from First Cause? Is variety in Incarnation compelled by fundamental factors ? Is an incarnation necessarily the fullest possible, and most complete, Incarnation? Can a man, as the first shoot from Derived being, be more than the incarnation of some of the potentialities of being? If not, does a man become more and more, or less and less? Is a first, or a natural, man, the full Manifestation? If not, is he necessarv to the full Manifestation? What is the difference between a man and the Man? Are varying species legitimate to a Genus? Does a man exist in time and space because he chose to so exist? Is he a natural, or a volitionally intended, product? Can a personal choice usurp, ever, the place of impersonal law and order? CHAPTEK XXI. The Composition of a Man. A man is a compound. "Objectively he is Person and Matter, subjectively he is a living soul. As the first shoot from the acorn he is neither the acorn nor the full-grown tree. He is neither the Ideal that forever is, nor the Actual that shall be. He is the promise, the evidence that the eternal Ideal is and the complete Actual shall be, he is a link be- tween the two. He is a kind according to Man, a species to be followed by a higher species, this higher by a still higher till the highest species possible appears. He belongs to time, not to eternity. As a whole he is mortal. The composition that is a man can not last forever because of the necessity for further growth from the acorn of being. He is the consequence of, and is related to, all the factors that in their unity constitute Nature and its governing Principle. But he is not the greatest possible consequence. A greater than he must come after him. He is an incarnation of the possibilities of the Genus, he is not the Incarnation of the full nature and possibilities of the Genus. As the consequence of Nature and its governing Principle he is furnished with all that Nature includes. All is laid at his feet for his use. What will he do with it ? As a compound of existent soul, Shape and Matter, the personal pronoun " he " applies more properly to the greatest of the three. As Shape or Person is but the limited result 96 THE COMPOSITION OF A MAN. 97 of the activity of Derived being, and as Matter is but the qualified motion that affords a background for Shape, the ex- istent soul connected with them must be the factor in this compound most entitled to the pronoun. He, therefore, is more than his Person or the material in it, for he grows from Derived being and has a destiny to fulfil. He is a soul having a body, this body outlined by Shape and consisting of Cosmic Matter, till something more has been added to it. QUESTIONS. What is the difference between " a man " and " the Man " ? Of what is " a man " composed? What is " a man's " relation to Derived being? Is " a man " capable of improvement? If so, why? Does the perpetuity of a natural composition constitute immortality? What is the difference between " an incarnation " and " the Incarnation " ? What belongs to " a man " through his relation to Nature? Which of the factors composing " a man " is dominant, by right, over the others? Are the factors composing " a man " eternal or temporal? CHAPTER XXII. Body. If Cosmic Matter is the background for Shape, as much Cosmic Matter as is included within outline constitutes the Nature-Body, and the Nature-Body must be simultaneous with all the factors of the eternal order. In consequence, this Nature-Body awaits the existent soul, it is not made in time, is not the consequence of experience. It is compelled by the order which the soul is to find and follow, is for the soul's use in existence. Body must be considered under- the head of genus and species. Body is fundamental in Creation. Argument from the premise given brings us to Body as a logical consequence of the factors preceding it in the order of enumeration. The seventh factor — Incarnation — is Body, original genus. Each genus must have its own species, and bodies of vary- ing kinds will follow the original genus. From impersonal Principle to Person with Body is an un- broken continuity; and this Nature-Body constitutes the natural means for Embodiment. The Nature-Body is the receptacle in which is embodied whatever is contained in the soul connected with it. A species — a kind of man, will have embodiment in the Nature-Body. Hence if progress of the existent soul is the process compelled by governing Principle, this progress must be registered in embodiment. Change in embodiment is thus 98 BODY. 99 compelled, and without change in the Nature-Body that is its receptacle. In our attempt to follow the Science of Being we must never lose sight of genus and species, the original and the subsequent, at any stage of the argument, otherwise we can not work to a logical conclusion; and without logical deduc- tions leading to logical conclusion we can have no science capable of proof through demonstration. The solution of all problems is obtained by following their principle. Once more let us follow the order: 1. Substance. Mind. 2. Motion (not volitional). Action of Mind. 3. The Derived being. The Ideal of Mind. 4. Activity of being (not volitional). The Forming Power. 5. Cosmic Matter. Common Background for and universal in 6. The Formed. The World or Shape (with its variety). 7. Body. Incarnation. Kesult — Full Manifestation. The Absolute, Embodied ; or the Actual God. The Divine Incarnation. Existence begins at Incarnation and the existent soul is incarnated or provided by Nature with the Body in which it makes its own body. The Nature-Body being fundamental or original can not change, therefore all change must be in embodiment. All change in embodiment will depend upon change in soul or self-consciousness. Each state of self-consciousness, each ad- vance of soul, will have embodiment. As one state or stage follows another, embodiment must change, and by displace- ment, this change bringing, finally, the perfected embodiment of the Actual Man. To existence belong, then, differing bodies, all of them L.ofC. 100 BODY. embodiments in the Nature-Body, with quality according to the status of the existent soul. Hence existence can end only with the highest possible embodiment, which oversteps the line between the temporal and the eternal, time and eternity, becoming perpetual. " There is a natural body and a spiritual body. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural." At the beginning of the enumeration of eternal factors stands the Absolute; at the end, Incarnation. Existence beginning, therefore, with Incarnation, it is a soul that is incarnated and embodied. But, as the continuation of Crea- tion, this soul incarnates and embodies. The work of Creation as a whole does not cease at the beginning of Existence. The impersonal part of it has brought the stage where the personal part begins, and the personal part is necessary to the completion of Creation, to the finishing that is the highest embodiment. For the crown of Creation is the Divine In- carnation and Embodiment, the Personal God. REMARKS. At this stage of the argument you are wondering, doubt- less, about the flesh-body you have at present, whether it be the ISFature-body or no. If you are not thus wondering, pardon the implication; if you are, endeavor to discern be- tween what lies at the threshold of existence ready waiting for the existent soul, and what is made in existence. Imagine a circle within which, at every point, because universally diffused, Cosmic Matter belongs. Then see an outlined shape drawn in the circle. Within this outline Cosmic Matter must be found because it is universal, or omnipresent within the circumference of the circle. The Cosmic Matter within the outline is but a portion of the same BODY. m Cosmic Matter that is outside the outline, but that which is within the shape is the Body defined by outline. The flesh-body you have now is not this Nature-Body, it is an embodiment in that Body; but to understand varying embodiments and the necessity for them you must grasp, first, the idea set forth in this chapter. There can be no embodiments without a receptacle for them. The Impersonal Order that constitutes Nature pro- vides the receptacle and works for embodiment, a work shared by the existent soul that ignorantly or wisely makes its own body, the body that is made in the receptacle provided. QUESTIONS. What is the difference between " Body " and " a body " ? What is the difference between " Body " and " Embodi- ment " ? What is the difference between " at the foundation of existence " and " in existence " ? Has the Nature-Body, quality? Can the Nature-Body be estimated according to our standards of weight and measurement? Is what you see when you look in a mirror, the Nature- Body? What office in Creation is filled by the Nature-Body? Is the Nature-Body temporal or eternal? Is an embodiment temporal or eternal? What is the relation of the Nature-Body to the existent soul? Is the Nature-Body the product of the existent soul's vo- litional action? Is any kind of a body the product of such action? 102 BODY. Is there separation between a soul and its body? What is the relation of a soul's Person to its body? Can a soul have more than one body? Is one body dropped, and another taken on? If so, whence comes the body taken on? If the principle of continuity obtains in Creation, does it not apply to Embodiment? If so, what does this principle compel? CHAPTER XXIH. Envikonment. An existent soul is surrounded by a world of shapes. The composite nature of Derived being compels variety of repre- sentatives or shapes. Because each unit contains its own fractions — Expression and Representation — each fraction in Representation will be allied to its corresponding fraction in Expression. A nature that is an expression of First Cause will have its appropriate person or shape in the "World. These shapes must range from least to greatest according to the natures they represent. One expression of First Cause can be greater or less than another, but all belong in the Unit and are less than the Unit. Not only must each fraction in Expression have its representative person or shape, but the Unit must have its Person or Shape. There must be the one above all others, the Human, that stands for and represents the Unit, the one-ness of parts. The existent soul having this highest shape, the Human Person, will look upon, therefore will seem surrounded by, the whole range of lesser shapes as an environing World. Each shape belonging to an environing World is the out- line of the Nature-body belonging to the fraction of Expres- sion represented. A nature in the Genus has its person and body, all natures less than the whole have their persons and bodies — their incarnations. The law for the whole must be equally the law for the part. 103 104 ENVIRONMENT. The existent soul, having its Person and Nature-Body, is surrounded by the differing natures belonging to the com- posite Genus, all of them incarnated as it is incarnated. It is the Onlooker, they are the things seen. The number and variety of incarnated things must depend upon the variety in the primal Genus. Whatever the variety there must be unity, the relation of the part to the whole compels. Existence and Environment belong together and are mu- tually dependent. For an Onlooker there is something to see, and Nature produces natural environment for the existent soul — a garden of Eden. But what it sees in its environment is a subsequent matter, quite " another story " indeed. Eirst, environment as it is in itself, afterward what is seen in en- vironment by the existent soul. Variety is seen because it is fundamental and natural. Variety rouses in the soul a sense of contrast, which distin- guishes between shapes and leads to a conclusion about them. QUESTIONS. Of what is "Environment" composed? What is it that is environed? Why is there variety in Environment? Is anything beside the existent soul, incarnated? If so, what and why? Has anything beside the existent soul, body? If so, why? If there are many objects in Environment is there con- nection or separation between them? In either case, why? In the World, which is the Onlooker, and which the things seen? ENVIRONMENT. 105 What is the relation between that which sees, and the seen? To which must the fundamental power of dominion be- long? To the things seen or to the Onlooker? Is this power granted as a favor by the Almighty, or is it according to Nature? CHAPTER XXIV. The Influence of Envieonment. The environed soul is to distinguish and conclude. As the Onlooker it sees, or looks upon, objects, and afterward renders judgment upon what it sees. To the Onlooker per- tains a possibility found nowhere else — it may mistake. No factor in the impersonal order can make a mistake, the governing Principle can not mistake, neither Matter nor Shape can mistake. To the chief factor in the personal order, the existent soul, pertains this possibility. As no mistake or irregularity is possible in the eternal foundation, the Builder alone can do that which has not previously been done, make that which has no existence till he makes it. Environed by a world that offers variety and provokes contrast, his judgment of what he sees may be contrary to the true nature of the environment. If so, he will embody his mistake and not the truth of his being. He will build his error and its consequences into the natural incarnation. Only the factor capable of discernment, of seeing through the phenomenal as well as looking upon it, can mis-take and believe that its judgment is true while it is contrary to the truth. This can occur while the faculty of discernment is in abeyance. Only such capability admits of falling short of it and " missing the mark " in conclusion. There can be no belief without a believer. The believer must be the On- looker, not the thing seen, and before the Onlooker has be- come the Discerner. 106 THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT. 10? Environment makes impression upon the soul, the soul concludes according to impression. Impression from environ- ment is natural, not volitional, conclusion is first natural, not intentional. Impression is the action followed by the reaction of conclusion, and this give and take must continue through existence, preceding the embodiment of the conclusion, and constituting the building material. Soul-embodiment according to soul-quality must proceed according to law and order. Soul-quality must be according to dominant impression and conclusion, and natural impres- sion and natural conclusion must rule till a subsequent and higher takes their place. , Existence for the soul is its growth from natural to per- fected incarnation and embodiment. Existence to the soul is a series of experiences whereby it discovers its natural mis- take, the hidden truth, and demonstrates the power of the truth by victory over the consequences of the error. In this process the error first embodied must become disembodied, and the truth of being embodied in its place. REMARKS. " But how can the existent soul make a mistake if it is of God? " do you ask? Here is the stumbling block for many, because of the old idea of God. This idea has been foundation for the conclusion " If the soul is the likeness of God it can not do wrong"; and "wrong" in the ethical sense is what is meant. Whereas mis-taking, as here defined, is not wrong in the ethical, only in the natural, sense. It is consequence of un- development in existence of the capacity that, when developed, will prevent it; that is all. There is nothing wicked or immoral about this mis-taking. It is natural consequence, 108 THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT. nothing else. Not till the soul through attained knowledge discovers what it is at first ignorant of, and then chooses to continue to mis-take, is its act wrong in the ethical sense. Hold fast to the difference between natural consequence and intentional doing. QUESTIONS. Enumerate the impersonal order and name its last factor; then name the first factor of the personal order. Which of these can mis-take? To which belongs the power of judging the rest? What is error and where does it originate? Does a mis-taking change the fundamental nature of the mis-taker? Will the mistake or error affect embodiment? Will it affect, or change, the Nature-Body? To what is impression upon the Onlooker, due? Is there any error in natural Environment — in the World as it is by Nature? Is it wrong, or natural, that the existent soul is im- pressible? If natural, can the existent soul destroy its own im- pressibility? What is necessary in order to remove a mistake? Can the Onlooker become the Discoverer? What are the action and reaction in the personal order? What is the building material used by the Builder in the making of embodiment? Is this material necessary for the Nature-Body? THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT. 109 If living soul is self-consciousness, what gives quality to self -consciousness ? Which is first in Creation, the unqualified self-conscious- ness or the qualified? Does a quality of soul precede, or belong to, Existence and Environment ? What is Existence for the soul? What is Existence to the soul? CHAPTER XXV. Susceptibility to Impbession. Consequence of The being ^^^^s^^^-^ Existent Soul The World impression I am Person I am this Person I see The shoot from the acorn of being looks out from the being, consequently away from it. The existent soul looking away from the being naturally, looks upon its environment as naturally. This is no mistake or error. Like a mirror the soul reflects impression. This susceptibility is due to its nat- ure. Without it there would be no subsequent Divine In- carnation, no previous embodiment in the natural incarnation. While the Soul, because of its origin and subjective rela- tions, can never change to something different, while it will always be Soul, as a kind of soul its quality will be according to the ruling impression; or, self -consciousness is qualified by impression. If the impression is " I am this object I see," then, ac- cording to this sense of self a man is a material object in space. This sense, with all it includes and engenders, is built into the natural incarnation, or Nature-Body, and gives em- bodiment. The soul, though heir "of all the ages," heir to eternal life, has fallen, through its sense-impression, into a temporal life and will need a resurrection; for as this sense is not truth but is contrary to truth, it can not be eternal. As the soul becomes, or is qualified, according to its ruling 110 SUSCEPTIBILITY TO IMPRESSION. Ill sense — is that sense, practically — it must experience death to know life. Its mistaken, therefore temporal, sense of self must die, another and higher sense of self must take its place, and the soul be thus brought forward in its career. The process of Creation thus far is natural at every step, the " fall " of a man is natural and not intentional. He is not to blame, morally, for his sense of self and its conse- quences. The law of Cause and Effect brings all. Is a man therefore helpless? Is he so bound by natural results of naturally operative causes that he can not help but passively reflect and embody a mistaken sense of self? This question must be answered from a further consideration of the nature of the Derived being with which the soul is in connection all the while it looks upon environment. So far there has been no conscious exercise of volition, yet if there be none the existent soul can have no control over impressions and must remain what it is according to its natural sense of self. A poor outlook, truly, if this is all. QUESTIONS. Why does not the existent soul at once see its true being? Is any one, or any thing, to blame because it does not see, at the threshold of existence, its real eternal being? Would you change, if you could, what is natural ? what is according to the sequence of cause and effect? Do you think you could improve upon Nature if you had your way? To what is the soul related, subjectively and objectively? What is the living or existent soul? Can it change itself, or be changed, to something that is not soul? 112 SUSCEPTIBILITY TO IMPRESSION. Can it be qualified? If so, how? Is a sense of self natural to " a man " ? If so, why? What becomes of the sense of self? Is a sense of self temporal or eternal? Can a sense of self, change? Can there be a better than the natural sense of self? What do you understand by " the fall of man " ? Is one to blame, morally, for a mistaken conclusion as to what one is? Is one worthy of " everlasting torment " because of what he does naturally, or without intention? Which is first in the eternal order? The natural or the spiritual? CHAPTER XXVI. The Composite Nature of Derived Being. As the Spiritual Living Loving Intelligent Substantial Idea of Infinite Mind, all God-likeness pertains to this Derived being. Its faculties must be expressions of Mind, the varying natures within it must be living, not dead. Every nature, capacity and power must be not only living, but perpetual, because they are the effects of First Cause, expressing it and sustained by it. But though living subjectively, the faculties and powers are not existent in time and space except by means of the existent soul. They must flow down, as it were, into the ex- istent soul, thereby becoming actively existent, before they can be incarnated and embodied. By means of the existent soul they come to incarnation and embodiment, a coming which must be orderly and gradual. Hence, the existent soul must be the user of the faculties and powers of being. It follows that there must be some- thing to call forth their use, to draw them into existence, and through active existence to incarnation and embodiment. Demand upon them is essential and the consequences of natu- ral impression lead to this demand. 113 114 THE COMPOSITE NATURE OF DERIVED BEING. Existence and the experiences of existence consist in the educing, the drawing forth to manifestation, all that is con- tained in and belongs to Derived being — the Image and Likeness of God. Without existence there can be no mani- festation. Development of the soul, of self-consciousness, as the purpose to be carried out, compels the activity in existence of all that pertains to the being; a necessity compelling order in existence. One by one the natures contained in the unit — Expression — appear, each through its representative person, until the whole in turn appears through its Person. One by one the faculties of being are brought to bear upon what is offered by Nature and governing Principle. All is first looked upon, then seen through, then understood; then realization of the nature of phenomena and noumena, their relation and principle, leads to the positive knowing that is perpetual. Assuming that Mind is the beginning of all things, itself no thing, let us trace the composite nature of the Expression. Mind' To look upon To see through ^ To understand >^» To know >^ The Unit— Man. Mineral ^"V^ Vegetable ^s^ Animal ^^ Hui nan We will classify the natures in the Genus, Man, as 1. The Mineral. 2. The Vegetable. 3. The Animal. THE COMPOSITE NATURE OF DERIVED BEING. 115 4. The Human. And the faculties as 1. The Power to Know. 2. The Power to Understand. 3. The Power to See through. 4. The Power to Look upon. The sum of these natures and faculties is Man, the Expression, the Ideal that is to be made Actual through Ex- istence, Incarnation, and Embodiment. In this Man is Soul, or Self, the Likeness of God. The Actual Man is to follow the Ideal Man by the existence, incarnation and embodiment of the Soul. All these natures and faculties contained in composite changeless being are eternal. Each, and all, is sustained by and from the Absolute Source through the relation between Cause and Effect. Eternal in being, existent in time, em- bodied in time, and brought by embodiment out of time as the eternal incarnation, is the order compelled by governing Principle; is the Great Purpose to be fulfilled. Species upon species incarnating and embodying the dif- fering natures and faculties is the consequence, ascending species from lowest to highest. They are to be looked upon, seen through, understood, and truly known by the one species capable of knowing that he knows — the human species. They are to be seen and known by each other according to capacity for knowing. Not only must the differing natures and faculties belong to being but the senses also. All is there, all is to come from thence into existence. With the existent soul at the begin- ning of Existence is found the senses. It says " I see," " I hear," " I taste," " I smell," " I touch." Subsistent in being, existent in time and space with a soul, they are the avenues through which a soul receives impression. What is seen, 116 THE COMPOSITE NATURE OF DERIVED BEING. heard, tasted, smelled, and touched by the soul is stored up as its experiences, for they are the sum of its impressions. What is sensed constitutes the existent soul's first knowledge, a natural knowledge. All natures, faculties, powers and senses belonging to being, becoming existent with the soul are operative in the soul in the order from least to highest. The descent from being and the ascent of the soul are equal. The one regulates the other. Their operation in the existent soul brings this soul from the infancy of existence to its manhood or maturity, and by a gradation according to the nature of being. What existence is in itself, is, from beginning to end, numerically exact. Its beginning, end, and intervening stages, can be counted upon with certainty. " Order is heaven's first law." To a soul, existence is necessarily com- posite, and bewildering when seen only through the senses. To see, hear, etc., is a natural beginning, but only as the faculties are brought to bear upon what is sensed, can true knowledge follow and the soul ascend. From the natural level of the senses, up the mountains of the faculties to the higher levels of realization of the eternal, must the soul travel to its Origin. The nature of being compels the nature and order of Ex- istence. Derived being is what it is through the relation of Effect to Cause. What First Cause is, as governing Prin- ciple, determines all the rest. From beginning to end all is Good. At no point is there room for evil, for Good is omni- present. From impersonal Principle through natural sequence and order to the fulfilment of Law, all is Good, and Good only. THE COMPOSITE NATURE OF DERIVED BEING. 117 QUESTIONS. Why is Derived being composite in nature? What is the source of the faculties and powers of being? Are the parts of that Whole — Derived being — temporal or eternal? How do the faculties of being become active in time and space ? How do the faculties and powers of being become ex- istent ? Can they have embodiment without first becoming ex- istent? What is it that uses the powers belonging to being? How is their activity in existence stimulated? In what does the soul's education consist? Upon what is Manifestation dependent? Why is Manifestation dependent upon anything? Why is Manifestation orderly? Can you name the faculties of being in their order from least to highest? Can you name the differing natures in being in their order from least to highest? How will you name the Sum, or entity, of the natures, faculties and powers of being? What is the difference between the Ideal Man and the Actual Man? How is the Actual Man, made? Beside natures, faculties and powers, what belongs to the Ideal Man? What is the " Likeness of God " ? 118 THE COMPOSITE NATURE OF DERIVED BEING. Why are there differing species in existence? What is to deal with these species, and how? Where do the five senses naturally belong? Where are they naturally active? What is their relation to the soul? What is the result to the soul of their activity? How does the existent soul first gain knowledge? What constitutes the ascent of the soul? Is this ascent governed by law? If so, is it good, or evil? CHAPTEE XXVn. Mortal Sense. According to the argument the term " material senses " is a misnomer. Matter can have no senses, Person can have no senses or faculties. Derived being has all, and all precede existence. Derived being, as the Created, is and has all that is directly from First Cause. Existence is only the appearing that is the gradual manifestation of the eternal. We will call this being the Lord of Existence, because nothing that the soul sees as change during existence can alter or affect the changeless being. We can imagine this being as saying " I am the Lord that changeth not." All that be- longs to it, as naturally inherent, must be eternal. The senses belong to it and are perpetual. But there may pertain to the existent soul that which, though natural, is not eternal but temporal; that which per- tains to its infancy and will be, therefore, outgrown and left behind in its further progress. The infant soul, the infancy of existence, may have — will have, its own sense about what it is; and its own sense of what it is will be opposite to the truth of its being. Its own sense however will be natural and not intentional; neither can it be one of the five senses belonging to being. The intentional presupposes a choice as to what is done and what left undone. There is no practical choice for the soul as to how it first views itself, existence, and environment, though there is potential power of choice. 119 120 MORTAL SENSE. Because the senses of being are operative in the soul, be- cause they are the avenues through which impression is re- ceived, because a soul sees, hears and touches, that which Nature has placed with it, before it, and around it as its own Person and Environment is what it sees and touches; and its response to the impression is " This is I and I am a material being, part of the material world in which I am." This sense of self, naturally, not intentionally opposed to the truth of being, is a mortal sense, one that can come to an end; whereas all that constitutes being is eternal. The Truth of being A Sense of being What being is as the Unit How a man seems to himself Eternal The first sense, Natural and Mortal The subsequent sense, Possible and Eternal Between the natural mortal sense, and the subsequent eternal sense of being, stand the faculties with their orderly operation. This operation displaces the 'mortal ignorant sense with the true enlightened sense. The first shoot from the acorn of being, looking out from, therefore away from, the acorn, sees only what it looks upon; and this looking upon what belongs under the head of Repre- sentation is natural. It is the sequence of cause and effect. The shoot forms its own idea of what it is, and according to the way it sees itself. Back in the acorn are the faculties that will enable it to form the true idea, but it is not natural that the true idea shall be formed till they operate in their order. Previous to the true idea of self that is possible, is the first that is natural, and in accord with the limited sense that accompanies the little shoot. This first sense is mortal be- cause it can come to an end ; will come to an end as further MORTAL SENSE. 121 growth from the acorn brings forth more and more the tree that shall be. The existent soul's natural, but mortal, sense of existence and environment is a sense about the phenomenal that will be outgrown, overcome, because it will be come over by the soul as its growth in existence goes on. In existence mortal sense plays an important part. Though mortal, this sense first colors everything for the soul. The soul's conclusions about its impressions will accord with this sense naturally, till it learns better. And as a soul's continued existence is its continued education, an educing or drawing to incarnation and embodiment the faculties and powers of being, its natural sense and conclusion will be corrected only as this process moves on. In time belongs, therefore, first, the natural and its con- sequences; afterward the eternally true and its consequences. The first is brought by Nature, with the second volition is concerned. QUESTIONS. Are there " material senses " ? If not, why not? If the five senses belong to being, how would you name them? Can any change in existence cause a change in being? If not, why not? Can any change in existence make the soul anything but soul? Is Nature altered, or vindicated, by the working of the law of cause and effect? May there be in existence a sense that is not one of the ixve senses of being? 122 MORTAL SENSE. If there be such a sense does it precede, or accompany, the existent soul? If it accompanies the soul at the beginning of existence does it necessarily continue throughout existence? If it does not exist till the Soul is existent is it temporal or eternal? What is meant by " the infant soul " ? Are the limitations of infancy natural or unnatural? Can the infancy of existent soul be perpetual? Can the existent soul choose not to have an infancy? Can it stand in the world full-grown, without the growth from infancy to maturity? Can volition destrov the order of Nature? «/ What is the difference between the natural sense of the existent soul, and the five senses belonging to being? What is the natural conclusion of the natural sense? What leads to this conclusion? Is the natural conclusion in accord with the truth of being? If not, what stands between it and the true conclusion? What is overcome and left behind in the growth of the soul? CHAPTEK XXYin. Mortality and Immortality. Mortality is the consequence of mortal sense, immortality is the consequence of the true sense, as either is the controlling sense in the soul's existence. Mortality, therefore, precedes immortality for the existent soul. Mortality is for all unlike- ness to the Absolute, immortality is for all likeness. All unlikeness must consist in such conclusions, and their manifestation, as are contrary to the eternal truth of being; likeness consists in such conclusions and their manifestation, as are in accord with the truth of being. Both manifestations, the unlike that is first and the like that is last, must be through Person, Nature's means to that end; a means totally unchanged by either manifestation from what it is as a factor in the eternal order. Mortality, and what it includes, has place in existence, is experienced by a living soul. Immortality is mortality's legitimate successor, to be afterward experienced by a living soul; and both mortality and immortality must be qualities of self -consciousness or they could not be experienced by a soul. An existent soul can know only that which it includes. As self-consciousness, it knows what is included in self-con- sciousness. An existent soul knows, or experiences, first, what is sensed through the senses of being naturally operative in the soul at the threshold of existence; then follows the judgment ren- 123 124 MORTALITY AND IMMORTALITY. dered by the soul's own sense, the mortal sense, which, neces- sarily, gives quality to self-consciousness. Quality is changed as faculties of being become operative, correcting the natural judgment or feeling. The natural judgment, and what it begets, dies as the true conception of being and existence displaces it. The quality of self-con- sciousness that is mortality, comes to an end as it is displaced by a different quality. From mortality to immortality, from the beginning to the end of existence, a soul is soul, self-consciousness is self- consciousness, and never becomes Matter or Shape or anything else; but the quality stamped, impressed, upon a soul, changes; changes from unlikeness to Origin to Likeness to the Absolute. In Existence Likeness overcomes unlikeness because the soul comes over from the first that is natural to the subsequent that is possible. The soul puts off the one by putting on the other. From shoot to matured tree a putting off and putting on is steadily going forward, the process an orderly manifesta- tion of the nature and possibilities of the acorn. For illustration, suppose a clear colorless glass filled by a red liquid. The glass appears red. Filled successively by yellow, green, blue and violet liquids the glass appears yellow, green, blue and violet in turn, yet all the while is the same colorless glass. Were the glass refilled by displacement the red would be mixed with the yellow till it was entirely dis- placed by the yellow which in turn would be mixed with the green till the green had entirely displaced the yellow; and so on till, if the glass were filled by a colorless liquid, all traces of color would disappear. So the existent soul, because of its nature and the factors to which it is related, reflects what is in it, what comes into it, and embodies what it includes. Change by displacement in the soul must become change by displacement in the body — MORTALITY AND IMMORTALITY. 125 in what is bodied forth in the Nature-Body, this fundamental Body remaining the same even as soul is always soul. QUESTIONS. What is mortality? To what does mortality pertain? To Person, Matter, the Nature-Body, the existent soul, or all of them? Is mortality a direct consequence from the Absolute? Can Derived being be mortal? Can a soul's possible existence be bounded by and limited to, mortality? What is immortality? To what does it belong? Which is first, mortality or immortality? Can a soul know anything self-consciousness does not include? Does immortality mean " to forever be/' or, " to be fully conscious of eternal being " ? By what means is self -consciousness qualified? Is a quality of self -consciousness capable of change? What has a quality of self-consciousness to do with the progress of the soul? Which of the two, mortality and immortality, is to be put off and which put on? What is to put off and put on? If a soul be qualified in aspect and manifestation by what it contains, is it thereby changed in nature? What will a soul embody? ? What gives quality to embodiment? Can there be a mortal embodiment? 126 MORTALITY AND IMMORTALITY. Can there be an immortal embodiment? If so, which is first? Does an embodiment make itself? If not, what is the maker? Is the Nature-Body changed by any quality of em- bodiment? CHAPTEK XXIX. The Initial Impulse and its Persistence. If Primal Energy is called " Thought," then Thought is the Creative Power. Because First Cause has no origin but is eternally subsistent; because the activity of Cause is the necessity of its nature, the Creative Power is the Initial Im- pulse for all that follows in the sequence constituting Creation. Without it none of the other factors could be, no existent soul would be related to them. In it, ceaselessly active as it must be, is seen the dynamic Force that pushes the Soul to existence and eventually brings the existent soul to Origin. Working in a circle that is Creation, producing first the Expression that is followed by the compound factor, it pushes out from being what is in being, bringing to existence eventu- ally all that is contained therein; but, first, the shoot that gradually embodies all the potencies of the acorn of being. Conservation of energy is an eternal necessity. None is wasted or lost, and through the differing " modes of motion " original Motion returns to itself and ceaselessly completes its circuit. But in its return it tends to bring with it the ex- istent soul. Brought by this Energy to Existence, pushed by it through Existence, the existent soul finally emerges from Existence to the realm of eternal God-like being, bringing with it the In- carnation and Embodiment of God-Likeness as its own in- carnation and embodiment. This is the order from the Impersonal God that is the 127 128 THE INITIAL IMPULSE AND ITS PERSISTENCE. beginning, to the Personal God that is the end of Creation^ for the Incarnation and Embodiment of God by means of Incarnation and Embodiment of God-Likeness is the end sought from the beginning; sought, not by a personal Being who works according to his intention, but by the Impersonal that fulfils the necessity of its nature. The beginning and the end are one, or are united, but the first is last and the last is first. QUESTIONS. What is the Initial Impulse of Creation? What is its Origin? Is it a motion that is begun in time? Is it causative, or otherwise? What brings a soul to existence? What impels a soul toward its Origin? Why is Eorce dynamic? Has the Initial Impulse aught to do with bringing the faculties of being into existence? Is it with, or apart from, the existent soul? Is it original, or derived? Is any Force lost? If the course of the Initial Impulse and the course of a soul are in the same direction, will not a soul be helped by the tendency? If a soul ascends to Origin what will it bring with it? What is the End of Creation destined from the Beginning? CHAPTER XXX. The End from the Beginning. Parts of Derived being Impersonal Ood Derived being The Forming Power Existent soul with its stages 5 1 — The Beginning 2 — Expressions of the Beginning that, together, constitute 3 — The Unit — The Derived being that includes Soul. Its compelled activity is the Forming Power. 4 — The Formed. With its variety constituting the Great World, and, as a unit, the little World or representative Person. Seen by 5 — The Existent Soul, which has its stages of existence or progress according to the activity in it of the natures, faculties, and powers of being. After it has looked upon the World through the Human Person its progress is human progress. 129 130 THE END FROM TEE BEGINNING. The beginning of the circle must be also its end. The end is not, till the beginning is reached. The only growing factor in Creation is the existent soul. All else is fixed, for- ever keeping position relative to the other factors and their governing Principle. Existence from the Derived being can find an end only at the Beginning of that being. Existence lies, therefore, be- tween 3 and 1, the lower half of the circle. In existence the Formed is the naturally visible to the existent soul, and through the senses which are active at the beginning of existence. All else in being is to be found, used, and brought to embodiment. When all that constitutes being is incarnated and embodied, the circle is complete, Creation is finished. The Plan is with the Beginning, it is what the nature of First Cause compels. The work of Building is done in Ex- istence, and the existent soul is the Builder. The Builded is the work complete according to the Plan, the End that is from the Beginning. QUESTIONS. If Creation is illustrated by a circle, where will you look for its end? Why must Beginning and End be at one? What is the Plan in Creation? What is the Builder according to Plan? Can the Plan be changed? If so what or who can change it? Is the Builder a builder from choice, or by nature? Can there be a Building without a Builder? Can there be a Building without a prior Plan? TEE END FROM THE BEGINNING. 131 Can God change the Plan and thereby compel a change in the Building? Can God prevent the Builder from working? Can Creation cease to be? Can its End be defeated? CHAPTEE XXXI. Individuality and Peesonality. As the existent soul is the only growing factor, all others being fixed in their nature and relation to each other; as it is immediately connected with Person, this unity constituting Personality, it follows that a personality can become more and more, while its individual identity is stable. This distinction between the being preceding human ex- istence, which is eternal Individuality, and an existing per- sonality, is important. Distinctiveness without separation obtains from Beginning to End of Creation. Personality is distinct from Individuality, but not sepa- rate from it. They are united, but are not identical. Indi- viduality is the Lord of a personality as that which is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. A personality is not the same yesterday, to-day and forever, for existence has its first and last stage, its infancy and maturity, and all intervening stages, which a personality encounters and experiences as its own becoming. A personality becomes more and more till it has become all it can be. Personality, as existent soul and Person, grows subjectively, rather than objectively. Person is the objective of Personality, existent soul is the subjective. Person never can become more than it is naturally — Figure, representing the Number. The existent soul using Person will become more, or greater in quantity; more and more till the Soul inherent in 132 INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY. 133 being as the Likeness of God becomes fully existent, fully incarnated and embodied. Individuality has no— can have no, family name. It is the Lord. A personality can have, does have, a family name. A personality is a living or existent soul, with a body that is Person in shape, with Matter and materiality within the outline of shape. Between all that constitutes Personality and the Absolute that is the Beginning of Creation stands Individuality or Derived being. Consequently all that constitutes Personality is related more directly to Individuality than to the Absolute. Personality is related directly to Individuality and indi- rectly to the Absolute. All that constitutes Personality — Reproduction, Representation and existent soul — is from In- dividuality as the growing tree is from the acorn; not voli- tionally, but by necessity, due to the law of cause and effect. The ascent of Personality is the onward course of Existence. The first shoot from the acorn is the first stage of the existence of the germ-tree in the acorn. Only the fully matured tree can be the end of logical existence. The ascent of Personality must continue till Personality has been given, or is attached, to the Impersonal Absolute, till Beginning and End are united in Incarnation and Em- bodiment. Personality is affected by time, in the sense that it changes in time. No amount of time can change the Individuality. Existent soul, as self -consciousness, may include what to it is present and palpable reality, but which is foreign to the changeless nature of Individuality, the only permanent Reality. Nothing seen and felt by the existent soul can alter for one moment of time the nature and possibilities of De- rived being. Time is registration of growth. Individuality never grows, 134 INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY. it becomes manifest. Existent soul grows, and registers its growth in embodiment. Change in self-consciousness constitutes the whole of ex- istence and time, Though the first shoot becomes a tiny stem, which becomes a stronger stem sending forth leaves, this stronger becoming a sapling with twigs, which is followed by a trunk putting forth branches, which, in their turn, produce branches, twigs and leaves, the nature of the prior acorn re- mains unchanged. Its manifestation is gradual, and this gradual appearing constitutes the necessary change that results in the perfected tree. In the order that constitutes Creation, then, Personality follows Individuality, is consequent upon it. Time and Ex- istence are concerned with Personality, one part of which — the existent soul — becomes in time and existence more than it is at the beginning of time and existence. Person is the same throughout time, Matter is the same, self-consciousness becomes all it can become — equal to the re- quirements of the Absolute. QUESTIONS. Why is the existent soul the only growing factor? To which factor in the eternal order is the term " Indi- viduality " applied? Can the nature of Individuality change? If not, why not? Does Individuality grow? If not, why not? What is the composition of Personality? Are Individuality and Personality fundamentally separate from each other? If not, can time, or any processes of time, separate them? What is meant by " the growth of Personality " ? INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY. 135 If Personality becomes more, or higher in quality, then it is at the beginning of existence, what part of Personality attains this result? Can Person become in time more than it is as antecedent to time? If not, why not? Where do personal names belong? To existence, or to the eternal? Is a soul existent by its own choice? What is the difference between " volition " and " Nat- ure " ? Is the growth of Personality a progressive or a retrograde movement? What is the end of this growth? Is the end of this growth involved in its beginning? What is the difference between " reality to the existent soul " and " permanent Reality " ? What is the relation of embodiment to existence? Is change in embodiment a change in Reality? Can the permanent be changed by time? CHAPTER XXXn. Fundamental Rules. An Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication is funda- mental in the Science of Being, and enters, therefore, into all problems. The problems of existence are manifold, their solution impossible without perception of their governing principle. As in mathematics all depends upon the nature of the unit and perception of that nature, so, in the Science of Being, all depends upon the nature of First Cause, and perception of what it compels. ADDITION. First Cause + Motion + Derived being + the Forming Power + the Compound Factor + Existent Soul, leads to Personality, Existence and Environment, a trinity in unity. Add this unity to the rest and we have 7 as the number of completion. First Cause, Motion, Derived being, The Forming Power, The Compound Factor, Existent Soul, The Unity, 136 FUNDAMENTAL RULES. 137 SUBTRACTION. Subtract a consequence from the nature of which it is a result, and that nature is in nowise lessened or impaired. Subtract Derived being from First Cause and that Cause still stands inviolate as the Absolute. Subtract the Forming Power from Primal Energy, and that Energy remains the same in itself. Subtract Matter from Spirit and Spirit remains the one Substance. Subtract Person from being, and Individuality still stands complete in itself. Of course this subtraction, in the sense of disconnection and destruction, is impossible, for all these factors are indis- solubly bound together; but as showing no impairment of value, or change in the nature of each factor, it is theoretically possible and helpful. MULTIPLICATION. Multiply self-consciousness, or existent soul, by the re- sources of its being, and Perfected Soul is the result. The first shoot from the acorn multiplied by the resources of the acorn and surroundings will bring, at last, the full- grown tree. As the existent soul draws upon the nature of Derived being, bringing to incarnation and embodiment all that per- tains to the nature of the Expression of God, it is multiplied or increased till it is all it can be — the Personal God. QUESTIONS. What factors by their mutual relation bring as their united consequence Personality and its Environment? 138 FUNDAMENTAL RULES. Could this consequence be forthcoming were any of the preceding factors lacking? If Person could be annihilated would the Derived being be lessened thereby? If Person could be annihilated would the being be mani- fested? Is multiplication — as the term is here applied — possible for anything that can not be increased? Can you see that multiplication for the existent soul does not mean many more such souls, but the increase of the same individual self -consciousness? How, then, is the existent soul multiplied? CHAPTER XXXIII. The Major and Minor Purpose. Existence, without a purpose, as a matter of chance, is inconceivable. Existence with a purpose, for a purpose, to be carried out, is reasonable. If existence is the natural con- sequence of factors changeless in themselves and in their orderly relation, the purpose carried out by, and in, existence is compelled by the nature of those factors and their relation; hence it is a purpose that can not be changed. It is natural, not volitional, compelled, not permitted. This purpose must be the Manifestation of the Absolute — manifestation full and complete; therefore it must be gradual, or in time. The Will of God that is constantly being done, must be the nature of God pushing ceaselessly to manifestation. Remembering the definition of " To manifest " we see that to make First Cause " visible, plain, clear, obvious to understanding " is the purpose to be carried out in existence; to be carried out by a personality, by the existent soul, the only growing factor. A possibility is next to be considered. Can the existent soul have a purpose of its own? If so, it will be the minor purpose in existence, for the Absolute is the greater of the two. If there be another purpose may it be contrary to the major purpose? Or may it be in accord with the major purpose? 139 140 TEE MAJOR AND MINOR PURPOSE. It is self -evidently true that where there are two purposes at work at the same time, the end sought must be the same or discord instead of accord is the result. If the two efforts are in the same direction, and for the same result, the one will help the other. If they are in opposite directions to dif- fering results they may temporarily hinder each other, but the stronger will win in the end. The major purpose must overrule, eventually, the minor purpose, meanwhile there will be conflict between them. Conflict in existence is sure if the existent soul has a pur- pose of its own that is not in accord with the Great Purpose. In this case, however long the conflict may be, eventually the minor must yield to the major purpose. No moral responsibility for this conflict can attach to the soul unless its conflicting purpose has been intentionally formed, unless there is intent to contend with the major pur- pose; yet responsibility, in the sense of cause and effect, for conflict and discord, must belong to the -soul; for, from the Beginning all the way to Personality and Existence, all is harmony; the same harmony attending the major purpose carried out through Existence. Creation from Beginning to End is harmonious because, in what it is, all is in accord with its governing Principle; but what it is to the existent soul that looks out upon Environ- ment, will depend upon how it appears to the soul. Upon its appearance to the soul, upon impression made by Environment upon the soul through the senses, upon the conclusion formed by the soul with its own natural or mortal sense, will depend what Environment is to the soul. If the conclusion, though according to impression, is con- trary to the true nature of Environment and of being, it is a false conclusion, one not in accord with governing Principle. Conflict will be the inevitable consequence, conflict be- THE MAJOR AND MINOR PURPOSE. 141 tween what is true to the existent soul and what is eternally true in itself — Environment, or the World, as a factor in the order constituting Creation. If natural immediate tendency for the existent soul be contrary to the underlying remote tendency in Creation, the soul will act in accordance with the natural and immediate, and some time, in some way, find itself in conflict with the remote tendency. Meanwhile, though not morally to blame for the conflict, and what it includes, it has caused it and must experience what it includes. The sequence of cause and effect compels. If the major purpose is the overruling purpose, soon or late the minor purpose must be abandoned. The conflict, with attendant experiences for the soul, will show it the mis- take it has made. As the soul sees and learns it will give up what it has ignorantly made for itself, make a new purpose, one in accord with the Great Purpose, and work in harmony with it. It will lay down its own will, to work with the great Will that is being done. QUESTIONS. As you look upon visible Nature can you not see evidence of design or purpose? Tracing the fixed factors in their order, can you see the purpose? Is this purpose capable of change? What would change in this purpose imply? Is this purpose carried out at once, or in time? Why is Manifestation cumulative? Which factor is essential to the carrying out of the purpose? If " to manifest " is to make visible, can there be any manifestation without something capable of seeing: it? 142 THE MAJOR AND MINOR PURPOSE. Is the Onlooker capable of forming a purpose of his own? If so, why and how? Given two purposes, when is there harmony, and when discord, between them? If two purposes conflict with each other, what must be the final result, and on what will it depend? If a purpose contrary to the Almighty purpose is formed ignorantly by the existent soul, is it morally to blame? If not, will the lack of moral responsibility enable it to escape the consequences? To what will the consequences be due? Is there tendency with the existent soul to a contrary pur- pose? If so, why? Can anything originating in Existence overthrow or de- stroy aught that precedes Existence? What do you understand by " my will " and " thy Will " ? CHAPTEK XXXIY. Natural Tendency. As a help toward perception of the present application of the term " natural tendency " consider the following illus- tration. A human face is perfect when none of its features is lack- ing. When all that enters into the composition of a human face is there, the face is perfect; perfect in nature, for it has all. Differing features compose the human face. One of them fills an office none of the others can fill. The eyes — for the purpose of the illustration — see, they look out. Did they turn in, the face would not be perfect, the eyes would not be as they should be. Because they are as they should be they look out, therefore upon environment instead of upon the face. This is their natural tendency. Is it wrong that they do not look upon the face in which they belong? Is it not right that they look upon environment instead? This is natural, and the purely natural is never ethically wrong. Because the face is perfect the eyes look from, instead of upon, the face in which they belong. The existent soul looks out from being, naturally, there- fore does not look upon it, but upon Environment instead. Environment includes Reproduction and Representation, or Matter and its Shapes. The existent soul sees naturally only what is objective to it, not its real being that is subjective to it. This is natural tendency, due to the relativity of fixed factors, the sequence of cause and effect. 143 144 NATURAL TENDENCY. Because Derived being is complete, all it can be, self -con- sciousness, inherent in, and existent from, being, looks out upon, not being itself, but Representation — the non-being. Looking away from being, upon the non-being, it must later look through what it first looks upon, if it would find its own perfect being. To look upon the World and what it contains, upon the human Person and the persons of all species in all kingdoms, is natural for the existent soul. Nature brings it to existence and confronts it with the phenomenal, places it in the Kinder- garten where the infant soul is to receive its first lessons as object lessons. Environment is the soul's " here." It exists, " here," not by its own choice but as the consequence brought by Nature and the governing Principle. Looking upon the phenomenal, not seeing its own being from which it exists, it may reach a conclusion about what it sees that is contrary to the truth of being — will surely be contrary to the truth of its being, through ignorance of that being. And this is natural tendency, to be experienced and reckoned with by every soul born to the World; a conse- quence due to the order compelled by the sequence of cause and effect. A sense that the objects looked upon are the realities of existence will be natural to the existent soul because it, at first, sees no more; and this mortal sense will rule till it learns more. QUESTIONS. Why is the human face — in the illustration — perfect? What do you understand by the term " perfect " as ap- plied to Derived being? If the acorn is said to be " perfect," does this imply there can be no growth from it? NATURAL TENDENCY. 145 Does the term " perfect " applied to fundamentals imply there can be no consequence from them? What do you mean if you say " Man is perfect " ? When you thus speak do you refer to the Genus or a species? When you say " the spiritual is perfect " do you mean there can be no Environment and Existence? When you pronounce anything " perfect " had you not better take care that you do not set up a limitation that is contrary to Nature? If the word " perfect " is used as meaning that which is, in nature, all it can be, therefore is incapable of betterment, does this imply that as the " perfect " is made manifest there can be no betterment to us? Why does the existent soul look from, instead of upon, being? If not upon being, what does it look upon? Is it capable of more than merely looking upon? If so, why? To what does the word " phenomenal " apply? Which is the wiser course, to ignore a natural tendency, or deal with it according to the causes back of it? Can a natural tendency forever dominate the existent soul? 10 CHAPTEE XXXV. Original Sin. To mis-take, is to sin. The existent sonl is beguiled by appearance. Every one called a man, a woman, has sinned the original sin, has been beguiled by the appearance of en- vironment. Existence includes this beguiling. To be born into the world whether in palace or hovel, is to look out from, away from, eternal Reality and upon the phenomenal; to mistake the phenomenal for the real; to live according to this mortal sense; to experience the consequence it compels; to learn, gradually, by means of the consequence the mistake that has been made; to make effort to destroy its progeny; to learn more and more the resources of eternal being and use them in existence; to " fight the good fight " till all error is cast out of the soul and its embodiment, and the eternal truth of being has been incarnated and embodied instead. Existence for the soul is according to the eternal order. Existence to the soul is according to its own order. It is first according to natural tendency, and afterward according to the faculties of being. The " sin " due to the sequence of effect from Origin, and that may be called, therefore, " original sin," is the soul's mistake consequent upon natural tendency. It brings with it a penalty, not purposely inflicted by some power that could withhold it, but as effect of cause. 146 ORIGINAL SIN 147 Truly " in Adam's fall we sinned all," for each soul is Adam whatever the name by which he is called by his friends; and we, too, are in the Garden of Eden, for, as existent souls looking out upon a World that is harmoniously related to the unseen, we are in harmony with all, past and present, and with the Great Purpose that is to be wrought out. But as we view what we look upon, seeing Environment through the mortal sense conclusion about it, mistaking it for what it is not, we are out of harmony with both Environment and being. Through the Onlooker discord enters into the Garden of Eden. For him, the harmony is not, it waits to be discovered. Through natural ignorance a purpose con- trary to the Great Purpose is held by the existent soul, and conflict ensues. To live to the things of sense, instead of to the reality of being, is the effect of the cause that brings it. As the visible constitutes the only reality to the soul, it lives on and from that basis, making for itself what had no previous existence. The infant soul is the sinner, its natural conclusion is the sin, the sin is the consequence of natural tendency and igno- rance, the ignorance is the limitation of a state of consciousness, or is the natural infancy of the existent soul. • QUESTIONS. Can you divest yourself of the ecclesiastical idea of " orig- inal sin " and see it as " mis-taking " ? Are you morally to blame for doing what others judge to be wrong, if you know no better? Were you born possessing full knowledge of what and whence you are, or only with capacity for such knowledge? If not, was either your ignorance or your birth a mistake ? Can there be a mis-taking without a taker — one to take? 148 ORIGINAL SIN. Have you not taken the phenomenal world, your phe- nomenal body, for the real World and the real you ? Was this taking of the visible for what it is not, wilful on your part? Can you see how you unintentionally formed a purpose of your own that was contrary to the Great Purpose? What has, or will, the law of cause and effect compel for you? Is there a difference between what existence is for the soul, and what it is to the soul? If so, why is it not to the soul what it is for the soul? Why have we " all sinned in Adam " ? Is it in our power to get back to the original harmony? Can all possible existence be bounded by one state of consciousness? Name the factor that is the sinner. Who or what can be blamed for natural ignorance? From what basis, according to what standard, do we live, naturally? From what possible basis, or standard, may we live, possibly? Is there a better remedy for sin and its consequences than to abandon the fundamental mistake? CHAPTER XXXVI. The Self-idea. The self -idea, or an idea of self, is the accompaniment of existence. The conception of self, in response to the ques- tion What am I?, is inevitable. First, " I am," then " What am I? " Nature and its governing Principle bring the decla- ration of being and compel the question. The existent soul having its own Person, looking upon it and upon Environment, is the questioner. The Onlooker as the questioner forms the self-conception that is the answer to the question. The conceiver is brought to existence, the con- ception is formed in existence, and according to the concep- tion existence becomes to the conceiver. Self -conception, or the self -idea, becomes the standard ac- cording to which all things are judged by the existent soul. The self -conception or self -idea is, first, the one that is natural, and afterward the one that is possible, the possible being legitimate successor to the natural. Looking upon its own Person and Environment, seeing no more because looking away from being, the existent soul forms for itself that which is contrary to the positive change- less truth of its being; the self -conception " I am what I see" All the soul sees naturally as a consequence of its own existence is what is called " the material." Consequently the self -conception is " I am material in substance. I have length, breadth and thickness. I weigh so many pounds, I occupy so much space. This that I see and feel is I, myself." But this self-conception is sin, a mis-taking. Though 149 150 TEE SELF-IDEA. error, it is true to the soul and constitutes its self -idea. The self -idea, therefore, is erroneous and as the standard of judg- ment leads to further mis-taking. Error instead of truth becomes the guide for the existent soul. Living according to the error, because the truth is not yet discerned, the soul is led away from instead of to the Great Purpose. As Manifestation is the aim and end of Creation, all that is contained in Creation must be manifested before Manifesta- tion can be full and complete. Through the mis-taking of the existent soul something has entered into the order that was not there before — could not be there as it is the creation of the existent soul. The soul's self -idea must be manifested. Only as it is manifested, or becomes visible to the soul, can its nature be known. It is contrary to the positive abstract truth of being. Its contrariness must be manifested in order to be made " plain, clear, visible," to the soul. The soul must see its own error. This is compelled by the course of Nature — by what Nature is. The Great Purpose is beneficent, not vindictive. Manifestation to the soul is good for the soul, for by it the soul sees the nature of its own self-idea. What the existent soul is as inherent in being, is to be manifested. What it first thinks it is, is to be first manifested. If its self -idea is con- trary to the nature of its real being, this contrariness will be manifested. This manifestation of its own belief will be good for the soul, however it may be felt by the soul. The need for Manifestation, a logical need compelled by the nature of the Beginning, provides the way by which the existent soul has its own error revealed to it. The Great Pur- pose is first carried out by revelation of a contrary purpose. A contrary purpose is not abandoned till it is seen to be con- trary. To be seen it must be manifested. The existent soul is innocent of all intent to form a mis- THE SELF-IDEA. 151 conception. Its innocence is its natural ignorance. It is pure before it falls into the knowledge gained in existence, the knowledge that is error, not truth, that is its own conception of self. It is defiled by the error, it must be redeemed from both error and defilement. To be redeemed both must be manifested to it. Consequently experience for the existent soul will consist in the gradual manifestation to it of its own self-idea and the consequences. This natural self-idea that is contrary to the soul's true, yet invisible, being, is unlikeness to First Cause. Unlikeness is manifested in existence before Likeness is manifested. Before complete Likeness to First Cause can be manifested and the Great Purpose fulfilled, contrariness must be done away with. Contrariness has its root in error, the error originates in self-conception. The destroying ax must be laid at the root of the tree bearing this fruit, for its fruit is not good. Conflict in human existence is inevitable, conflict between the self-made error and the eternal truth that waits for mani- festation. Self-consciousness is the battle-ground where the conflict rages. The soul's purpose, ignorantly formed, to make itself a thing of Matter, is steadily contested by the Great Purpose to make it the existent Likeness of God. QUESTIONS. What is the natural consequence of existence as a living soul? What is, and whence comes, the questioner in existence? Is answer for the questioner, possible? Whence comes the answer to the question of the ques- tioner? Is there a questioner before existence begins? Before there is an existent soul? 152 THE SELF-IDEA, If not, why not? What is the standard of judgment for the questioner? Does existence and environment appear according to, or contrary to, the standard of judgment? What do you understand by " self-conception " ? To what is the term " the material " applied? What is a materialistic self -idea? Is there any natural foundation for a materialistic self- conception? How, by what means, is the existent soul led away from the Great Purpose? How is it led back to the Great Purpose? What part does Manifestation play in the education of the existent soul? Would the soul lose or gain were there no Manifestation in Creation? Is Manifestation imperative or volitional? Is a hind of Manifestation inevitable or volitional? What gives quality to a manifestation? To what must a manifestation conform? Is anything that belongs to the sequence of cause and effect, vindictive? Does any of the factors preceding the existent soul store up and pour out vengeance upon the soul? When will a purpose contrary to the Great Purpose be abandoned by the soul? What is the natural purity of the existent soul? What is its defilement? By what means is it redeemed from defilement? Does conflict belong to existence? If so, why? CHAPTEK XXXVII. To Create and to Form. We have seen that the Creative power and the Forming power precede Existence. The action of First Cause being the Creative power, and the activity of Derived being the Forming power, not only both these powers, but their direct, or impersonal, results, precede human existence. In the order of enumeration, Derived being, as the direct product of the Creative power, and Representation, as the direct product of the Forming power, are antecedent to the existent soul that looks out upon Environment. But these powers must persist because they are not volitional, therefore their activity can not be suspended at will. They must con- tinue to operate, therefore they operate in Existence. To operate in Existence they must operate in what be- longs to Existence. Hence they operate in and through the existent soul, and their operation will be made manifest because Manifestation is the purpose of Existence. Their operation in Existence will not be volitional, but imperative; as imperative as all that precedes Existence. Active in the existent soul, their activity is compelled by the sequence of cause and effect. These powers, therefore, use the existent soul for their own manifestation. The soul naturally, ignorantly, forms its self-idea and creates Error. The self -idea and its error are pushed to mani- festation by the Primal Energy that completes a circuit. But there is no Life, Substance or Intelligence in Error. All that 153 154 TO CREATE AND TO FORM. expresses or reflects them is directly related to them as effect of cause. Error is the expression of ignorance, the consequence of the existent soul's natural ignorance of the unseen. There- fore it is not Reality, for the eternal and changeless is Reality. It is only the seeming, only what seems real to the existent soul while it is believed to be truth. By means of what Nature offers, Incarnation and Embodi- ment, the soul will see what it forms and creates, for what it thus produces is incarnated and embodied in the Nature-Body. Nature provides the means by which, not only what being is, is eventually made manifest, but also what the existent soul believes it to be ; for all that the soul makes for itself appears in time, evidence of the falsity as well as evidence of the truth. The Forming power, active in the existent soul, enables the soul to form its self -idea; the Creative power that, work- ing through being, has pushed the Soul to existence, working in the existent soul pushes its self-idea to manifestation in incarnation and embodiment. Consequently before the soul, as it looks out from being, stands, not only the phenomenal, Representation, but also what is embodied in the phenomenal. The soul's inwardness, what it holds within, becomes objective to the soul; becomes the without. From First Cause down to the embodiment, or objectiviza- tion, of natural mis-taking, the sequence of cause and effect makes a natural open road from one to the other. It follows that whatever the soul holds within will eventually become the without; and that quality of incarnation and embodiment will depend upon the quality of self -consciousness; while the quality of self-consciousness will depend upon what the soul holds within. If the soul has power to determine what it will hold TO CREATE AND TO FORM. 155 within; power to choose what its self -idea shall be; power to reject the first natural self -idea and to form another that is in accord with true being, then the true being will stand forth in incarnation and embodiment when the true self -idea is formed in and held by the soul. And between the incarna- tion of the mis-taking that is natural or involuntary, and the highest possible incarnation and embodiment, stands volition, and a work voluntarily undertaken and fostered to comple- tion by the soul. As user of the senses, faculties and powers of being, while also possessor of the differing natures in being, the soul makes continually that which is embodied in the Nature-Body; that which gives quality to embodiment. As giver of quality the soul is a king in its own domain, doing what Nature unaided can not do. The quality imparted to embodiment by the soul's igno- rant mis-taking may be corrected by the conscious use of the Forming power. Used according to the faculties of being, according to Insight and Understanding, quality in an as- cending scale is the consequence until the highest of all qualities is given to embodiment — Likeness to God. Not till then can the Impersonal become incarnated and the Personal God stand forth as the End of Creation. Briefly, the power to Create and the power to Form attend an existent soul. This soul naturally and inevitably forms its own self -idea. It forms its self -idea, first, according to mortal sense, and creates thereby, though ignorantly, a kind of a man that is contrary to the true nature of being; one that is from the dust and which must therefore return to the dust, for the circle of Creation compels return to Origin. The soul generates for itself what did not previously exist, what has no place among the fixed factors. It must re-gen- erate, and the same powers will be concerned in the re- 156 TO CREATE AND TO FORM. generation, for they, being eternal and eternally operative, attend a soul throughout existence. All is for the existent soul, but this soul must generate for itself. The process of generation, which becomes a process of re-generation, is ex- istence in time. QUESTIONS. Whence come the power to Create and the power to Form? What is the difference between these two powers? Do they originate in, or accompany, Existence? What is the relation of Derived being to the Creative Power? What to the Forming Power? Does the activity of these powers depend upon volition? How far does the activity of these powers extend? Can they cease at any point in Creation? If they are operative in Existence, where shall we look for their operation? If they operate in Existence, what is the consequence? If they operate in Existence can the soul suspend their operation at will? What is the difference between Keality and Actuality? Does the existent soul make for itself? If so, by what means? If so, what is made? If so, what becomes of what is made? If the existent soul makes for itself, what does it see as it looks out from being? Does the existent soul, with what it makes, become ob- jective to itself? If so, by what means? TO CREATE AND TO FORM. 157 Upon what does quality of embodiment depend? Upon what does the highest quality of embodiment depend? Can Nature alone, without the existent soul, bring the highest incarnation and embodiment? Is the existent soul helplessly subject to the two powers, or can it use them? If these impersonal powers can be used by the soul, what may be accomplished? What do you understand by " to generate " ? What is the relation of re-generation to generation? What is the work in Existence that must be done over again? What, and why, is it necessary for the soul to remake? How does the abstract and obscure, become personal and apparent? CHAPTEK XXXVIII. The Immaculate Conception. Self-conception is the inevitable result of Existence and the factors concerned. The first self-conception is corrupt, or untrue, though natural. Not till self-conception is im- maculate, or free from all error, all mis-taking, can Likeness to God be incarnated and embodied in existence; for as it is the self-idea that is pushed to manifestation, is embodied in the Nature-Body, not till the soul's self-idea is like the true being can such Likeness appear in manifestation. Hence immaculate conception during existence must be successor to the natural, though corrupt^ conception at the beginning of existence; and volition standing between the two compels that the immaculate conception shall be volitional. In forming its first self-idea the soul acts according to natural tendency; in forming the true self -idea, the one in accord with being and its relation to the Absolute, the soul acts in resistance to natural tendency. Resistance requires perception that there is this tendency. Though the power to perceive, or see through, as a faculty of being is for the soul, perception is gained only in existence and after natural ten- dency has determined the self-idea of the soul. Enlightened use of the Forming power in resistance to what is involuntary, is the way of salvation for the soul from all that is corrupt and corrupting, the way of appropriation and attainment of all that is possible; for whatever the soul forms, the Creative power creates and brings to manifestation. 158 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 159 First, the natural, afterward the spiritual is the order in which incarnation and embodiment proceeds. The point of change from the one to the other is when the soul, from hav- ing been the used, becomes the user; where " I can and I will " is opposed to natural tendency. Not till this point i9 reached can the conflict between the Great Purpose and a contrary purpose cease, for not till then will the one ignorantly encouraged be laid down and abandoned. The overcoming of self, the natural self, through concep- tion of the highest self, is a work that, accomplished first in the soul, is brought to pass in embodiment because the within becomes the without. Nature and the governing Principle bring the existent soul, equip it with the resources of being, provide the means for impression that make demand upon, or stimulate these resources, and give them material for work. The quality of the result depends upon the soul, upon whether it is the natu- rally used or the intentional user. Nature supplies Incarnation for the soul and makes its embodiment the natural consequence. The existent soul sup- plies what is embodied. The self -idea, with its consequences, is embodied. Embodiment takes quality from the self-idea for the self-idea qualifies self-consciousness. A natural em- bodiment precedes a spiritual embodiment for a natural self- idea precedes the true self-idea. Immaculate conception is not the first that is natural, but the subsequent that is possible through enlightenment and resistance to natural tendency. Immaculate conception pre- cedes a soul's permanent embodiment. It is a possibility in Existence encountered and accomplished in accordance with law, instead of an exceptional occurrence contrary to law. 160 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. REMARKS. If you have been a devout believer in the dogma of Im- maculate Conception as held by the Christian Church, you may be shocked by the view here advanced. If so, remember that we are seeking truth as above all, rather than vindication of dogma. Try to lay aside for the moment that belief and give yourself to a candid examination of logical sequence. If it brings you to the unforeseen, do not fear. Nothing can really hurt you but yourself, but the misplaced confidence that leads you to accept as infallible truth what has no foun- dation other than human belief. Do not be afraid to be individual, for only as you become so can the Great Purpose be fulfilled in you. Do not be afraid to admit that a religious teaching may be a mistake; that you may have been looking away from the eternally true when you thought you were looking at it. Do not be afraid to ex- plore, and as an explorer to set your foot upon land when you come to it, fearing not to penetrate to the interior in further- ance of your mission. Even the God taught by Christian dogma could not fail to respect you when you are fearless through sincerity of pur- pose, even though your eye rest upon what has been kept secret and what seems to detract from His glory. Neither shall this fearlessness become recklessness and make you overbold and egotistical. Keep close to true humil- ity, many have seen with unveiled eye before you, many will see after you; the more you see, because you are willing to see, the more you will feel the awe inspired by revelation and count yourself as only one who serves, not as one who rules, his fellow-men. Everywhere, on every hand are hearts hungry for the bread of life that have tried to feed on the stones offered them TEE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 1G1 instead. They have looked to a far off immaculate concep- tion nineteen hundred years ago when the immaculate con- ception of themselves would have given them that bread in ever-increasing and abundant measure, would have wiped the tears from their eyes, the pain from their hearts, the misery from their lives and lifted them God-ward. Count it all gain when you lose that whose only strength is uncorroborated tradition, when you find that which exalts Man instead of degrading him, when you discover that no one who ever lived in the flesh bore a closer fundamental relation to the Most High than is your own, made no attain- ment that is not possible for you to make. If a tree is known by its fruits ages of Christian dogma have failed to rid the world of the miseries and sufferings of mankind. Immaculate conception for all is the way of rid- dance for all if it be the way of riddance for one. Take heart, be patient, stand firm, keep all bandages from the eyes and it will open before you. QUESTIONS. Can there be an existent soul without a self -conception? Can not a self-conception be corrupt, in the sense of un- true, without being a moral fault? What is the meaning of the term " immaculate " as ap- plied to self -conception? What depends upon immaculate conception? By what means is Likeness to Origin made manifest? Is this means subject to, or independent of, the soul's volition? What is it necessary for the soul to resist? How does the soul discover that there is anything to resist? 11 162 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. What is the qualitative order of incarnation and em- bodiment? What determines change from one quality to another? Can there be change in the quality of embodiment without change in the embodying soul? Whence has the existent soul its resources? What is the stimuli for these resources? CHAPTEE XXXIX. The Origin of Evil. " Evil — The noun evil is applicable to anything bad, whether morally, or physically. The antithesis of both evil and bad is good. Effecting mischief, trouble, or pain." — Dictionary. If the Great Purpose to be carried out in existence is, the bringing to full incarnation and embodiment the primal Like- ness to the Absolute, this Purpose can be nothing but good. The differing factors concerned therein, both in their fundamental relation and their manifestation, can be noth- ing but good. Existence itself as the means to the end, must be good. The existent soul, as the product of Nature and governing Principle, must be good, only, not bad. In Nature and in Existence all is good, for all is consequence of law and order. Good in itself, according to law and order, how does ex- istence, or the experiences of existence, seem to the Onlooker who experiences them? He judges and pronounces, according to his sense of them; and as they differ, rousing in him the feeling of pleasure or of pain, he classifies them as good and bad. For the existent soul, good is relative, not positive. All is a matter of comparison, and the first standard of comparison, is sensation. But the good that is positive, that rules in, and overrules, Creation, is absolute, not relative; and all it brings to the existent soul is positively good for it, however relatively evil some of the experiences may seem. For the soul is to grow, 163 164 THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. expand to the circumference of being, and whatever stimu- lates this growth is good because of the end to be attained. Pain is remedial, for it is the consequence of the minor purpose in existence. It leads the soul to look for its cause, prevents it from being content with insufficiency. There can be no pain, no evil, without something to experience what it pronounces to be pain and evil; and there could be no such condition were there not two purposes in conflict with each other. Pain for the existent soul, which is evil to the ex- istent soul, is remedial if it leads the soul to find the discord between its involuntary purpose and the Great Purpose, and stimulates its volitional work of conformity to the Great Purpose. Discovery of the sequence of cause and effect is not made without something to inspire and stimulate a search for it. Whatever assists revelation is beneficent for it opens the way for what is needed by the existent soul. Growing pains will inevitably be classified as evil and this evil will as inevitably be left behind when growth has brought the existent soul out of the limitations where they belong. The mistaken self -conception is a knowledge gained in ex- istence, but as this conception is contrary to truth it is error, and knowledge that is error is an evil or bad knowledge that brings consequences. Knowledge of existence is a good knowl- edge, but a hind of knowledge in existence may be, by com- parison, the antithesis of good. Knowledge of good and evil, experience classified as good and bad, lies at the threshold of existence and finds by means of the existent soul incarnation and embodiment. But during those phases of existence and stages of time wherein evil seems the dominant quality, the absolute, positive good is steadily pushing to ultimate manifestation. Involuntary error bringing the consequence felt as evil, THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. 165 and the intentional working to do evil, are two different things. Original sin is not a moral evil, for it is involuntary. An intent and effort to do evil while able to see and do the contrary, gives moral evil, and at the beginning of its first stage of existence a soul is incapable of moral evil. It acts involuntarily according to natural tendency, according to its own limited, or mortal, sense; and this sense is the father of its conception of self. As a soul becomes according to its ideal, and experiences what pertains to its ideal, its feeling is the manifestation of its self-idea, for thought is creative. As the natural self -idea is " This that I see is I, myself " the feeling has location or is in what is seen as the body, and in the Nature-Body is an em- bodiment that gives to pain and discord a habitation. Through Person is manifest what is included in embodi- ment, discord and pain or dominant good. All forms of dis- ease, dis-order, whether appearing physically or morally, as forms of evil are temporary in nature. They are but condi- tions, consequent upon the soul's ignorant mis-taking, to be outgrown and brought to naught by the soul's conscious and voluntary taking of that which belongs to it as its birthright. Evil belongs to time, the dominant overruling good is eternal. The existent soul knows, first, its own comparative good by knowing the comparative evil. It knows at last that all is good and there is no evil; that the eternal good is abso- lute and has no comparative good or bad. REMARKS. No greater mistake has been handed on from generation to generation than the misconception of the meaning of the book of Genesis that attributes to Adam a moral fault, a wil- ful disobedience of God's command; a disobedience entail- ing disastrous consequences upon the whole human race. 166 THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. % Theology fails to discriminate between natural tendency and intention, turns from Nature to see only a denominational God. When the consequences of this mistake are consid- ered, when one realizes the misery and despair of thousands who have believed themselves under God's curse, unable to extricate themselves because they could not believe what was offered as the only way of salvation, he may well consider the effort to show a different meaning to the account in Genesis as worth making. The origin of evil is a problem of the ages indeed, but its solution is given in this first book of the Bible. " Our eyes are holden that we can not see " when we look for a God ex- traneous to Nature, occurrences that are a violation of her established processes, arbitrarily instituted by a God that could be offended by the eating of the fruit of a tree. On the other hand the eyes of many who have expressed allegiance to the " New Thought " are equally holden when it* comes to dealing with this problem. They say " But if God created Man perfect in the beginning, and if no change is possible to God's creation, how is a sinner possible and how can there be any evil? " There is no sinner if is meant " one who intends to do evil.' 9 There is no evil except as " that which effects mis- chief, trouble or pain." Neither of the three belong in the order that is eternal as a factor of that order. All of them belong in the experience of the Onlooker, only. A possibility in existence to the soul that is the experiencer of all possibili- ties can not possibly be a part of the real Man. A passing sensation is a temporary fact to the one who feels it, without being any part of his permanent self. Were there no existence there would be no evil, there would be no manifested good. Were there nothing to exist there would be no existence. If there be the existent soul THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. 167 there must be those experiences including contrast whose sum constitutes the existence of the soul. The little green shoot from the acorn, the existent soul that is to grow as far as growth can be carried, has its own experiences as the shoot; they can pertain to nothing else for they belong to it only, and in no wise affect the nature of the acorn which is fixed and stable. Neither can they prevent the ultimate result for the shoot, if it is pushed to maturity by a force that nothing merely incidental to a stage of growth can overcome. The origin of evil is found in the nature of Man, the necessity for existence, the incidentals of existence, and the relation to them of the soul; and without believing in an impossible God or a creation that is a flat contradiction of what scientific research has discovered and established. QUESTIONS. Can there be any evil except as the opposite of what is seen and felt as good? Can any of the fundamental factors be evil in themselves? Can their relation to each other be an evil relation? As the impersonal consequence, is Existence good or evil? Can any impersonal consequence be evil in itself? Can anything be evil that is not felt as evil? What is the difference between a relative good, and the absolute good? To which of these does a comparative evil belong? Is pain vindictive ? If so, who or what purposely inflicts it ? Can there be pain without feeling? "What is it that feels? What, in Existence, is the natural standard of comparison? 168 THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. Can the development of the existent soul be helpfully stimulated? How is the soul stimulated to look for the causes of effects? Can evil permanently overrule good? Is original sin a moral evil? Why is pain located in the body? How are evil conditions brought to an end? Does any evil appear in last analysis? CHAPTER XL. Choice. It has been seen that with First Cause there can be no power of choice, no occasion when First Cause could have need to use such power, that the Absolute is beyond such possibility. Primal Energy can not choose, for it is Eirst Cause in action. Derived being as Effect of First Cause must be, both like unto, and different from, the Absolute; otherwise cause and effect would be identical — a logical impossibility. The dif- ference can not be that which is in opposition to the Cause, it must be in harmony with the Cause. The Effect, though like unto, and yet different from, the producing Cause, must be, nevertheless, in harmony with its Source at all points. Derived being, as the individualization of the Absolute, transmits to the existent soul all that pertains to it; or, as said before, all that belongs to Derived being becomes opera- tive in the soul. The Power of the Whole, the power of choice, the power of volitional action, belongs to the existent soul through its relation to Derived being. If we call the aspect of Derived being that constitutes its difference from the Absolute, its Humanity, and the aspect that is its Likeness to the Absolute its Divinity, we shall see that the power of choice must pertain, not only to the Derived being, but to its Humanity; to that aspect of the supreme Genus that distinguishes it from its Source and Cause. This power is not in opposition to the Cause but in har- mony with it, in the sense that difference between Cause and 169 170 CHOICE. Effect is logical necessity and harmony. As the varying capacities of being are brought to existence by becoming operative in the soul, this power must act in the Human soul and be made manifest in consequence. Though the power of choice belongs to Derived being, the Chooser is the existent soul. The Human soul must precede the Divine soul. The existent soul is one whole, but the Human is its lesser aspect and the Divine its highest aspect. It follows that self- consciousness is Human in quality and characteristics before it is Divine. As all parts are in the whole, such quota of Soul as belongs to the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal natures are in Human nature, and Human nature is the Human soul, or whole, that is to find and appropriate the Divine. This work of finding and putting on the Divine can be done by no part, by nothing less than the whole, and through the Power of the Whole. No fraction can, by any possibility, make itself the unit. The whole can help to make manifest its own highest possible aspect. The Human soul stands to the Mineral, Vegetable and Animal kingdoms, with all belonging to them 3 as a whole to its parts. It stands to Divinity as a whole to its own highest potentiality. No exercise of the power of choice can alter or suspend the relation between it and its parts. Exercise of the power of choice can help, or retard, the development of its highest potentiality, the appropriation of Divinity. Because the self-idea gives quality to the soul's incarna- tion and embodiment, because the soul can think, or form, contrary to natural tendency and mortal sense, if it chooses, and thereby form a self-idea according to, instead of contrary to, the truth of being, what the soul forms and embodies volitionally can overcome what has been formed and embodied unintentionally. CHOICE. 171 Between the natural self-idea and embodiment, and the Divine self-idea and embodiment stands the volitional work of the soul, consequent upon its choice of what it will do; this choosing consequent upon the power of choice becoming active in the soul; this activity stimulated by the consequences of the natural self-idea felt by the soul as something undesir- able, of which it wishes to be rid. This power of choice, the mightiest power in its conse- quences for the existent soul, consequences impossible for the creatures governed by instinct, puts Divinity within reach of Humanity when what Personality is not has been learned. From the Beginning to the End of Creation there can be no break in the continuity compelled by the nature of First Cause; but in the Existence that belongs between the Be- ginning and the End must be a turning point, the place where the existent soul turns from its own ignorant way to the eternal way, abandons, its natural self -conception and forms the immaculate conception, ceases to descend into the depths of misbegot conditions and begins to rise into the eternal har- mony with the Absolute that is both its right and privilege. At this turning point begins the putting off of mortality and the putting on of immortality, a work preceded by putting away the false self-conception and intentionally forming and holding the true one in its place. Exercise of the power of choice makes of the existent soul an individual. questions. What is the first factor in the Impersonal order to which belongs the power of choice? What prevents Cause and Effect from being identical? If Effect has likeness to its Cause, how can it be different from the Cause? 172 CHOICE. Are likeness and difference incompatible with each other? Can the nature of the Effect be in any way contrary to the nature of the producing Cause? If the power of choice belongs to the nature of Derived being, why does it not also belong to the Cause of that being, if there is likeness between them? Whence does the existent soul derive its powers? Why is the existent soul the user of the powers of being? Why has Derived being two sides, or aspects? As compared with each other, which is the higher? To which side belongs the power of choice? With what nature in Existence will this power be manifest? In Existence, who or what is it that chooses? Why are there two aspects to the existent soul? If Manifestation is the purpose of Existence which aspect will first be manifest? Is the Human soul the whole soul, or only a part? Can any fraction attain to the possibilities of the whole? What is the highest aspect of the existent soul? Can the power of choice enable an animal to become a human being? Can the Human soul help, or retard, the fulfilment of the Great Purpose? If capable of co-operation with the Great Purpose how is this co-operation given? By what means is Divinity attainable by Humanity? How are mortality and immortality related to Humanity and Divinity? Why are both descent and ascent natural to Existence? Which naturally precedes the other? CHAPTEE XLI. The Personal Order. An individual frees himself from dependence upon ex- ternals and works out his own redemption from all evil by co-operation with the Great Purpose, using his powers of being to that end. His choice, and enlightened use of the Forming power, set the Creative Power to work for him in- stead of against him. In place of the undesirable they bring to him what he intelligently desires, for what he desires he thinks and thus forms. What is undesirable he does not harbor mentally and hence does not form, and what is not formed by him is not created for him. In the impersonal order the Creative Power is first and the Forming power is second. In the personal order, the Formed is first and the Created is second. The Forming power, as the activity of Derived being, is the power to Think, but the existent soul as user of the power is the active thinker, the active Former of all it experiences. Consequently what it ceases to form ceases to be created for it. As the Impersonal Order consists of the consecutively related factors compelled by First Cause, the Personal Order must be the reverse of the Impersonal Order. It must begin at Existence, and follow on to First Cause along the line of these factors. First Cause *°»****i °tde f .Existent soul. 174 THE PERSONAL ORDER. The Impersonal Order is the logical descent to Incarna- tion and Existence. The Personal Order is the as logical ascent of Self-consciousness and Embodiment. Cumulative recognition of all contained in the Impersonal Order leads finally to recognition of First Cause — seeing God face to face. Recognition is first natural, and then spiritual; is first through mortal sense, then through the faculties of being, the spiritual recognition being corrective of the natural recognition. The Impersonal Order is both universal and individual; the Personal Order is individual before it is universal. The eternally Created and the eternally Formed have place in the Impersonal Order; the temporarily formed and created have place in the Personal Order and precede its per- manently formed and created. The mistaken self-idea and its embodiment, though hav- ing place in the Personal Order, are temporal in nature be- cause contrary to the truth pushing to manifestation. They are succeeded by the true self -idea and its embodiment which must be perpetual because like unto the eternal. In the Personal Order the soul re-presents the Original Idea of Infinite Mind when it presents that Idea to itself; when it forms the true concept of being. After forming or presenting it to itself, this Idea is created for the soul as the Reality to the soul. The Personal Order is in strict conformity with the Im- personal Order though moving in the reverse direction. All that the Impersonal Order includes is for the soul as its inheritance. All that the Personal Order includes is for the soul as the Actuality. Not till the Actuality becomes the eternal Reality is the Personal Order complete. The making of the Individual belongs to the Personal THE PERSONAL ORDER. 175 Order. Enlightened use of the power to Think is necessary to the making of the Individual. The perfected Individual is the end of the Personal Order. By the Personal Order the perfected Individual stands at-one with the Impersonal God, the Beginning of Creation, this at-one-ment constituting the Personal God. QUESTIONS. What pertains to an individual as his work to be done? What constitutes the Impersonal order? What is the Personal order? What is the relation of one to the other? Which is first, the Impersonal or the Personal? How do " Created " and " Formed " stand to each other in the Impersonal order? How in the Personal order? Which is first, and which second? In which order is found individual recognition? Can the Impersonal be a living truth except it be recognized ? Can anything of which you are not conscious exist for you? Can you know the things of God till you are able to recog- nize them? Can there be a God for you till you can recognize a God? Can the Beginning appear to you till you are able to dis- cern the Beginning? Can you see what the End shall be before you are able to recognize the Beginning? Can you understand the nature of Existence till you are able to recognize the Great Purpose? 176 THE PERSONAL ORDER. Can this Purpose appear to you till you are able to discern Impersonal Principle as Beginning? May there be a temporarily created in the Personal order? If so, how? When will there be, in the Personal order, a permanently formed and created? In which order is found Reality? What is the difference between Reality and Actuality? Can Actuality become Reality? If so, how? What is the difference between a human being at the be- ginning of Existence, and the perfected Individual at the end of Existence? What is the final at-one-ment? Is the Personal God possible without at-one-ment? Is the existent soul able to work both for and against this at-one-ment? When will it work for it? > of the Existent Soul. CHAPTER XLII. The Soul Stages or States op Existence. Though Existence, as the Personal Order, is an unbroken whole, it may be divided into seven stages — into less or more, logically, but into seven for convenience. These stages may be named as follows: The Infancy The Childhood The Boyhood The Youth The Early Manhood The Middle Age The Matured Manhood . These stages are analogous to the orderly growth of the oak tree from the acorn, which growth is by successive stages to maturity. As they apply to the whole of Existence, and as the law of the whole must be the law of the part, each stage will have its seven stages, its infancy and maturity with what lies between. This division and subdivision may have infinite extension, theoretically, yet its law and order remain the same. Though extended to a multiplicity beyond the grasp of present human realization the law and order may remain within human ap- prehension. It is sufficient for our purpose to follow the seven stages of the existent soul as they succeed each other, the " seven ages of man " that manifest the nature and possibili- ties of the Primal Genus. 12 177 178 TEE SOUL STAGES OR STATES OF EXISTENCE. These stages of Existence may be called states of self- consciousness, each of which has its infancy and manhood. The second state can not follow the first state till the first has matured; not till the second has matured can the third follow. This necessity must apply to all the states. The maturity, the coming to an end of any one state, is not evidence that Existence has come to an end. On the con- trary, because of the governing Principle, it is evidence that another, and subsequent, state is in connection with the one that ends. The maturity of the first state must lead to, be conjoined to, the infancy of the next state, and so on through- out the continuity of Existence. Observation of infancy and childhood shows a continuity from one to the other, no gap or break between them; which fact compels that childhood grows or develops within infancy, coming forth from it at the right time. Kowhere is growth seen as something exterior which finally attaches itself to the thing needing growth. All growth, all succession of higher capabilities and possibilities is from within — is first within, supplanting gradually the lesser in which it developed. Youth follows childhood, and manhood, youth, in the same way. So Existence, as made up of varying states, must be an unbroken continuous whole, with no gaps or breaks between infancy and maturity; but all the states must be involved in and developed from the first one — infancy; one supplanting the other as time goes on. This view does not compel many different souls in one individual existence, but varying phases of one existent soul, instead. If these seven stages are com- pelled by the need for Manifestation, if they are natural rather than permitted by a power that could prevent them, their relation and continuity does not depend upon the On- looker, and with his five senses alone he will not see and know THE SOUL STAGES OR STATES OF EXISTENCE. 179 them. If the faculties of being are to follow the senses, if sense-impressions are first and perceptions come afterward, the range of the sensuous is limited as compared to the range of perception, and all these states cannot come within the range of the limited, for as, in their ascent, they manifest the higher spiritual they must pass beyond it. " Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of heaven." It follows, then, that although existence is a continuity including variety, only such portion of this variety as belongs normally within the range of the sensuous can be known as the sensuous. All the rest must be known by other means, and as complete self-knowl- edge is to be attained by existence it can be gained but in a limited degree on the plane of the sensuous. As the World, and what belongs to it as its own variety, constitutes the Rep- resentation in Creation, the human Person will represent by its changes this succession of states of self -consciousness. The human Person will have its infancy and growth to maturity, showing the seven stages of one state of self -consciousness, the natural or first state that is the infancy of the soul ; and these seven stages of one state will be contained within the range of sensuous recognition. But this range can not include the subsequent states that must stretch far beyond its boundaries. QUESTIONS. Can a state of existence be the whole of Existence? Is a state of existence governed by the law that governs the whole of Existence, or by a different law? If so, what is it and what is its origin? Is growth orderly and progressive? If so, why? Is the human Person fixed, or changeable? As an outline, or shape, is it changed in outline by ex- tension? 180 THE SOUL STAGES OB STATES OF EXISTENCE. Is there any difference between an infant Person and a man Person except in size? As the limit of human Representation, is it changed when the marks of old age succeed the marks of infancy? Does human Person ever change to something that is not human Person, whatever is written upon it? If Existence is a series of states of self-consciousness, are they exterior or interior to each other? If they are interior to each other, when do they appear, or become objective? Is the end, or maturity, of a state of self -consciousness, the end of Existence ? What is the difference between the beginning and end of a state of self -consciousness? What is the difference between the beginning and end of Existence ? Is the beginning and end of Existence, the Beginning and End of Creation? What compels the continuity of the states of self -conscious- ness constituting Existence, and prevents any break between them? Does a man die, or cease to be, and then again begin to be? Does not this view compel disconnected states of existence? If states of existence are disconnected what determines the beginning of a second state when the first is terminated? If through all states the Soul persists and appears at the end of Existence, is not the Great Purpose fulfilled? CHAPTER XLIIL Duration of the Human Person. The question arises, How far in these successive stages of Existence is the Human Person carried? Or, Does the human Person which, in connection with the existent soul, constitutes Personality, continue to be thus connected all through the stages of Existence? If not, at what point is it dropped? If the human Person as a natural phenomenon belongs to a stage of Existence, a state of self -consciousness only, then it will be left behind when the soul emerges from this state to a successive state. If it belongs to Existence as a whole then it will be carried by the soul through all states. As a factor in the Impersonal Order, Re-presentation has eternal place. In the reverse, or Personal Order it must also belong, but, owing to the nature of the soul and its use of the faculties and powers of being, there will be change from a sensuous to a mental representation. In other words, what is seen as a physical shape will be- long to the first stage of Existence, but will not belong to all stages of Existence because the faculties of being becoming active in the soul will provide a substitute and render it un- necessary. Environment being the means for natural impression upon the soul, and impression being the stimulus for the reaction that is the soul's conclusion about the impression, the Personal Order that begins with the objective in space and leads to and beyond a mental re-presentation, is begun; consequently the 181 182 DURATION OF THE HUMAN PERSON. natural object in space will not outlast the state of self -con- sciousness to which it naturally belongs. Necessary at the beginning of Existence, becoming unnecessary when a substi- tute is provided, it will constitute the " remains " of the state of self-consciousness to which it has normal relation. Response to impression becomes response to the self -idea, the mental representation that takes the place for the existent soul of the sensuous representation. The naturally objective part of Personality will represent however, before it is cast off normally, the successive changes from infancy to maturity that belong to a part because they pertain to the whole. There is seen, therefore, by the On- looker, what it calls infancy, childhood, boyhood, youth, early manhood, middle age and old age, for this successive change is normal to the state of sense-existence; yet what is thus seen does not necessarily constitute the like successive change for Existence as a whole. The infancy and growth to maturity of a state of self-consciousness can be but as a vestibule to what lies beyond. The forsaking of the sensuous object — usually called the body — by the soul is not evidence of the cessation of Existence but rather of its continuity; for it is but the abandonment of the no longer essential. Sensuous existence becoming mental existence leads on to spiritual existence and Divine existence, as the self-idea due to natural impression is abandoned for the true self-idea due to action of the faculties of being — to perception and under- standing of what governing Principle compels. To sum up : Because Person is a factor in the Impersonal Order it is eternal and will accompany the progress of the existent soul to the End. What is seen as the human person in the first state of existence, the sensuous state, will come to an end with that state. DURATION OF THE HUMAN PERSON. 183 QUESTIONS. In which order is Person first found as a legitimate factor ? As this factor, is it eternal or temporal? If the Personal order is the reverse of the Impersonal order, will this factor be created, or found, in the Personal order? What constitutes Personality? What part of Personality changes? If the existent soul grows, or develops, where is its growth first registered ? Which re-presentation will remain with the soul as it de- velops? The sensuous, or the mental? Does the object belonging to the soul's Kindergarten neces- sarily accompany the soul in its higher states? Must the blackboard and chalk forever abide with the student of mathematics because they served a purpose when he was a beginner? Does the student who has sufficient understanding to work his problems mentally, require the exterior stimuli? How is a mental re-presentation seen? With the senses, or with the faculties? Is it of no consequence because it is interior instead of appearing as exterior? Which is of most use to the soul? The idea it forms, or the object which was the stimulus for the idea? For the mathematician may not the blackboard and chalk, at first useful, constitute a " remains " to be left behind? What constitutes the " remains " to be left behind by the soul? 184 DURATION OF THE HUMAN PERSON. Can the disintegration of the remains prevent or affect the further progress of the soul? What is the naturally objective part of Personality? Why is the successive change from infancy to old age seen in one state of self -consciousness ? Is leaving the remains behind when the old age of a state is reached, abnormal or normal? Name the four qualifications of Existence. Which is first in order? CHAPTEE XLIV. The Eelation of Person to Embodiment. It will be seen that the stages of Existence or states of self- consciousness are necessarily interior to, or are potential in, the first — the natural state. Constituting the ascent that is the Personal Order they follow each other as the interior rather than the exterior life, and are measured, not by fixed periods of time but by order of development. If the Nature-Body is the receptacle for Embodiment, the formation within the Nature-Body of a body is the necessary consequence; a body which must be, in quality, according to the self -consciousness embodied. It will be seen, then, that the Human Person, or the Shape enclosing Cosmic Matter, together constituting the Nature- Body, is the mold for the formation of a body for the ex- istent soul, one that is made in existence. This body, of course, conforms to the outline of the mold and if taken from the! mold retains its impress. In the mold for formation of body, Nature provides the existent soul with what is requisite for an embodiment. As the self -idea gives quality to self -consciousness the kind of body formed within the mold will be according to the self -idea. As the quality of the self -idea is optional with the soul, after the nature of its natural self-idea has become manifest to it, it follows that the making of a higher quality of body is optional; that " as a man thinketh so is he." This formation within the mold will have its exterior and 185 186 THE RELATION OF PERSON TO EMBODIMENT. interior, its objective and subjective, its normally seen and unseen in the first stage of existence. The mold itself as the Nature-body is the receptacle first for the integration or embodiment of mortal sense-conscious- ness and afterward for the true or spiritual self -consciousness. As the last is interior rather than exterior to the first, the higher embodiment will be interior rather than exterior to the other; an order that compels the disintegration, rather than the perpetuity, of the first body formed in the mold. The normally seen or objective aspect of the first embodi- ment will be the " dust of the ground " or physical body that accords with sense standards of weight and measurement; the unseen, and subjective aspect, will be the less tangible quality of self -consciousness, or kind of soul, embodied. The objective or physical body as fixed formation will be incapable of change to another quality though presenting in miniature the successive stages that belong to Existence as a whole. It will have its infancy and maturity with all that lies between, these followed by its disintegration. The subjective or psychic body will have its infancy and maturity with all that lies between, will put off and put on quality by quality till it has risen to the requirements of the true self -idea, till it is the embodiment of the Likeness of God. This embodied Likeness will retain the pattern according to which it has been formed — Human Person — without re- taining any quality capable of disintegration; and, as the Body of the Personal God, it will be eternal. QUESTIONS. What determines how long a state of self -consciousness endures ? What is the difference between Body and a body? THE RELATION OF PERSON TO EMBODIMENT. 187 Which belongs to the Impersonal order, or is fundamental? Can there be a species except there be, first, a genus? May there be kinds of Embodiment? If so, why? What determines the quality of a body? What is the difference between bodies? Where is a body formed? What determines its shape or outline? What is the origin of the mold for formation of body? Is it natural or unnatural for the formation to conform to the mold? Is a kind, or quality, of body optional with the soul? If so, how? Is the mold visible or invisible in the state of sense- consciousness ? Is the body for that state formed in the mold, visible or invisible, or both? What is the difference between the physical body and the psychic body? Which survives the other? Which can be weighed and measured as the tangible? Is the other unreal and non-existent because intangible to the senses? What compels that there be a psychic body? Can the disintegration of the physical body necessarily de- stroy the intangible body? If disintegration of the physical body does not destroy the psychic body, what sustains that body? Can the psychic body change in quality? If so, how? ; What is the highest kind of a body? What determines the highest quality of embodiment? 188 TEE RELATION OF PERSON TO EMBODIMENT. If the mold for formation of body is fundamental in Creation, will any kind of body differ from the mold in outline? What quality of body can alone be perpetual? If but one quality of body can be perpetual must not all lesser qualities, without exception, eventually disintegrate? Has the Personal God, body? If so, how is this body obtained? CHAPTEK XLV. Integration and Disintegration. As Formation is the necessary precedent for Creation in the Personal Order, Integration precedes Disintegration, though they go hand in hand through Existence. The Primal Energy which, through Existence, completes its circuit is, in Existence, both preserver and destroyer. It preserves by integration and destroys by disintegration through the direct worker in Ex- istence, the existent soul. All that is merely natural is first integrated, all that is possible is finally integrated. This higher integration compels a disintegration, emptying the mold of what has first been formed in it. This dropping from Formation through bring- ing more into Formation, a putting off by putting on, belongs to the Personal Order and is volitional with the soul which works out thereby its salvation from error and its consequences. To make the eternal body, the Individual Embodiment of the Absolute, the natural body must die. Though the inte- gration constituting the natural body has been ignorantly and unintentionally made it is nevertheless the body of sin whose end is death, a death belonging to both its objective and sub- jective aspects, a death that is the disintegration of both. If the formation of the highest kind of body is the pos- sibility for the existent soul, if volitional use of the Creative Energy is necessary to that end, by this volitional use in the higher direction it will be withdrawn from activity in the lower direction. This withdrawal will be followed by the 189 190 INTEGRATION AND DISINTEGRATION. disintegration of previous embodiment because its kind or quality will be no longer created, the self-idea bestowing the quality being abandoned. The simultaneous integration and disintegration accom- panying the states of existence may go on behind the veil of ■ 4 the flesh as a change in the subjective body, while the outer aspect, that which meets the senses, remains, to all appearance unchanged; and this outer, or sense-body, may disintegrate only when the old age or maturity of the first state has natu- rally arrived. Through the putting on and putting off carried on by the existent soul, and that is the work belonging to the Personal Order, all belonging to the Impersonal order is brought to embodiment. This is a practical gathering to itself by the existent soul of all that Creation includes, the bringing of the universal into the individual and particular, the Infinite into the Finite; for the highest Soul-Embodiment is the Finite as compared with the Infinite Principle that is Absolute, though it is infinite as compared with the preceding qualities of body. Throughout the soul-stages constituting states of existence the death that is disintegration of the temporal must go on through the higher and higher integration of the eternal till the Body of the Personal God is reached as the End of Crea- tion. This Body will wear the impress of the Human Person, the impress of the mold in which it was formed, though it is destitute, through disintegration, of all qualities belonging only to sense-existence. The original Nature-Body, bounded still by its natural outline, Person, purified of all unlikeness to the Beginning that has been previously integrated in it, containing the Like- ness that has been afterward integrated by the help of the volitional work of the existent soul, will accompany the ma- tured soul that is the End of Creation. INTEGRATION AND DISINTEGRATION. 191 QUESTIONS. In the Personal order which is first, Integration or Dis- integration? And why? Do Integration and Disintegration belong to the Imper- sonal order? If not, why not? What power compels both Integration and Disintegration? What is the worker directly concerned with Integration and Disintegration? What is to be integrated? What is to be disintegrated? What is the natural body? What gives this body its quality? In the way of integration, what is the possibility for the existent soul? What is necessary to the accomplishment of this possi- bility? Is there both involuntary and voluntary integration? If so, why? If there be voluntary integration what will be its effect upon the previous involuntary integration? May integration and disintegration be simultaneous? If so, why? If voluntary integration is accompanied by disintegration of what has been involuntarily integrated, will this disinte- grating be visible to the outer senses? What is the difference between the sense-body and the inner body? Can all contained in the Impersonal order be brought to Embodiment? 192 INTEGRATION AND DISINTEGRATION. What stands between the Impersonal order and Embodi- ment, as the worker for Embodiment? Why does all that constitutes Being, belong to the Im- personal order? Why does all that constitutes Manifestation belong to the Personal order? Can the Infinite be brought into the Finite? If so, how? Comparing God, and the Embodiment of Grod, with each other, which is the Infinite and which the Finite? Which is the Absolute, and which the Relative? Comparing the highest embodiment with an approximate embodiment, which is absolute and which relative? Can a state of self-consciousness once matured, fall back to a previous lesser state? Can an embodiment once accomplished fall back to, or become, a lower quality of embodiment? Is retrogression or progression the order of Creation? Will, or will not, the highest embodiment wear the im- press of the mold provided for Embodiment? Will the mortal sense quality pertaining to natural em* bodiment be found in the highest embodiment? If not, why not? What constitutes purification of soul and body? CHAPTEK XLVL Indestkuctibility of Mattee. If the Impersonal Order contains sequential factors that are fixed, or changeless, in nature, nothing occurring in the Personal Order can change or destroy one of them. The ascent of the existent soul to the Beginning, must be, first, a coming to, and then a coming over, each and all of them, that leaves them behind. As the Impersonal Order is the order of the eternal, and the Personal Order is the order of the temporal, through the relation of the temporal to the eternal there are possibilities to and for the existent soul that do not pertain to any of the factors in the eternal order. It may experience what is im- mediately connected with one factor, pass beyond it to a sub- sequent experience and leave it behind. It is necessary to distinguish between Matter and mate- riality. Cosmic Matter as a factor in the eternal order must be eternal. Its amount — the word is a term of accommoda- tion, rather than a descriptive term — can be neither added to nor diminished. As contained within the circumference of Derived being it must be always the same. But as the basic material within Shape, having place at the threshold of Existence, it contains the embodiment made by the existent soul; which embodiment, in its first stage or degree, gives materiality to Matter. It follows that while Matter is indestructible, materiality is destructible, capable of disintegration; and through, the continuous process of in- 13 193 194 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. tegration and disintegration materiality for the soul will eventually cease. Modern science affirms the indestructibility of matter without distinguishing between Matter and materiality, an all- important difference. Materiality is what is ignorantly, there- fore unconsciously, made by the existent soul for itself and is experienced by itself. It is to be unmade as the soul ascends to Origin. It can not be carried all the way through to the Beginning, even though Matter is eternal. A sense of self as material, resulting in a material em- bodiment within Cosmic Matter, must sometime give way to a spiritual sense of self which will result in a spiritual em- bodiment, also within Cosmic Matter; this Matter remaining the same in the one case as in the other. It follows that the highest embodiment, or the highest possible quality of body, will be within the same Cosmic Matter that awaited the soul at the beginning of Existence; a body accomplished through the elimination of the unfit and the integration of all necessary to such body. Environment, as the phenomenal World visible to the ex- istent soul, takes quality from the soul-quality that is On- looker, and corresponds to the sense of self. While materiality is the dominant quality of the sense of self Environment will remain material. When spirituality has become the dominant quality Environment will have become spiritual also. Continuous embodiment, though with changing quality, in changeless Cosmic Matter belongs to the Personal Order. Thus, is " the Word made flesh." Materiality is mortal sense made flesh. It is the veil that hides from the senses subse- quent integration and disintegration. A material world is seen by the existent soul. The Matter- World is not seen objectively by the infant existent soul; only what is embodied in the Matter- World appears, until, INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 195 through the exercise of the faculties of being, the true Matter- World in contrast to Materiality, is revealed. The true Matter- World — Kepresentation — is eternal. What is first involuntarily embodied in Representation is temporal. Ponderability and density belong to Materiality, not to Matter. QUESTIONS. What are the possibilities of the existent soul? Is the traveler found in the Impersonal or in the Per- sonal order? What does the traveler encounter? Is Cosmic Matter eternal, or temporal, and why? What is the circumference of Cosmic Matter? Does Cosmic Matter precede Existence, or is it created in Existence? What is the difference between Cosmic Matter and ma- teriality? Is materiality created in Existence, or does it precede Existence? What is the origin of materiality? Has the soul power over materiality? If so, how, and to what end? Can the soul alter or destroy Cosmic Matter? How does a sense of self become fixed? Or, how is it registered? What gives quality to Environment? How is brought about a change in the quality of En- vironment? Is embodying a series of interruptions, or is it continuous ? 196 INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. What do you understand by " And the Word was made flesh " ? Is there more than one kind of " flesh " or body? If so, why? Is Cosmic Matter dense and visible, or transparent and invisible to our present sense of sight? Is materiality an inherent quality of Matter, or a sense of our own? CHAPTEE XLVII. Sin, Sickness and Death. If sin be the cause of sickness and if sickness be the cause of death, death is removable by the destruction of its cause, sickness is removable by the same means. If these three " foes of mankind " constitute a trinity in unity successful attack upon them is made at one point, upon the first in the trinity. If sickness be dis-ease, that which is against ease, or that which is contrary to harmony and order, its cause is some- thing which does not belong to the harmony of Impersonal order. If something is brought into existence that did not exist till it was brought in, the existent soul must be con- cerned with it. We have seen that original sin is departure from the truth of being in the soul's conception of self, this original sin begetting, through the law of cause and effect, its legitimate consequences — sickness and death, or dis-ease and destruction. Disease as a genus may have wide variety of species — many kinds of disease; but however any or all kinds may appear to, and be named by, the sense-consciousness, it has its natural limitations and can not continue throughout Existence, ap- pearing at the End of Creation. Each and every disorder must be self -limited, limited by and according to its nature and origin. As the Human qual- ity is first in the order of existence, these disorders or diseases are encountered in the early stages of human existence and 197 198 8IN, 8ICKNESS AND DEATH. are limited to those stages, being overcome and left behind as the Divine quality is brought into existence. They are included in the putting off that accompanies the putting on of Likeness to the Absolute. From having been integrated they are disintegrated; brought to embodi- ment they become disembodied as the volitional work of the existent soul is carried forward. What is brought into Ex- istence, as foreign to the Great Purpose, is put out of Ex- istence when the soul's purpose is brought into conformity to the Great Purpose. "When the mistaken self-idea is abandoned, when disease and death are no longer formed by the existent soul, they will no longer be created for the soul. If natural to the infancy of the existent soul as the con- sequence of its conception of self, how far will they be carried along in subsequent states of self -consciousness? They will endure as long as they are formed and created, they can be carried no farther. The true self-idea and the conditions it engenders will displace the earlier conditions be- cause the new ones will be formed and created. The change from the natural to the spiritual that is a thorough re-generation of conditions in Existence is not ac- complished in a day, but the change in self-conception that leads to this re-generation may take place in a moment, though the experience that has led to it may have continued for years. It follows that if dis-ease in all its forms is removable through extermination of its root cause, the death resulting from disease will cease, while the death that is the limitation of a state continues. To die of a fever will become obsolete, but the natural limitation of the state of sense-consciousness will continue, without having, however, power to deceive the soul. The objective aspect of natural embodiment that is called SIN, SICKNESS AND DEATH. 199 the physical body will continue to be left where it belongs as " the remains "; but the occasion of the soul's detachment from it will not always be named as an illness or disease. Because the Impersonal Order compels there will be, always, for each existent soul a time for detachment from the physical body, or, a time to die; but there will be, also, a time for the soul, because the Personal Order compels, when it knows it does not die, though it leave " remains " in its onward journey; when it knows that it leaves "remains" not only on the physical but on the psychic plane, as it jour- neys toward the spiritual and Divine. Fear of sickness and death will lessen and die out as knowledge of true being and the Great Purpose is gained by the existent soul. Victory over them will be established as this knowledge is applied by the soul to the circumstances and conditions of daily life. Every form of dis-ease is named by the Onlooker. Names originate in Existence, in its first state. According to what the names mean to the soul is their power over the soul. They make impression which begets consequences after its kind. Its seed is in itself. All forms of dis-ease are manifestations of what Man is not, of what a mistaken self -idea is, whether they be classified as physical, mental, or moral. All are in the soul, however their manifestation may be named, before they appear in embodiment. Whatever may be temporarily in the soul can not change the nature of the soul, for this is due to First Cause. What- ever may be temporarily included in self -consciousness, giving it quality, can not permanently remain when the soul by higher knowledge supplants it with something better. Diseases must be destroyed from the within out, if their disappearance shall be an extermination. This course is com- 200 SIN, SICKNESS AND DEATH. pelled by the relation of the Personal Order to the Imper- sonal Order. It follows that dis-ease can be carried beyond " the remains " though the name belonging to the first state be left behind with them; will be carried farther and cause disquiet in " the next world " if the work of disintegration has not been begun in this one. For the universal tendency to create, as reality for the soul, that which it first forms for itself, compels such result. The trinity, sin, sickness and the death that belongs to them, injected into the first state of self -consciousness, should constitute part of the remains left behind by the soul as it moves on. In their sensuous aspect they are left behind. The one who dies of dyspepsia has left dyspepsia behind, so far as it is a physical condition, but not, necessarily, the psychic substance of the name and condition. This must remain in the self -consciousness, or in the soul and its subjective body, until it is disintegrated and cast out. If this work has not been done during the time of the physical body it still waits to be done, for embodiment must be purged of all that defiles before the Likeness can be em- bodied. Because the root from which grows the- tree of disease bearing the fruit of death is sin, because sin is natural, they are natural; but because sin can be abandoned by the soul once it is found to be sin, the tree and its fruit can " be hewn down and cast into the fire "; a work which has two aspects, the physical and the metaphysical or psychical. QUESTIONS. What is the remote, or fundamental, cause of sickness? Why do sin, sickness, and death, constitute a trinity in unity? SIN, SICKNESS AND DEATH. 201 Where is this trinity found? In the Impersonal order, or in the Personal order? Can any one of the factors in the Impersonal order, sin, sicken, and die? If sin, sickness, and death can come to an end, are they mortal, or immortal? Are they in accord with, or contrary to, the harmony of being? Is the Great Purpose to be carried out in Existence in accord with, or contrary to, the harmony of being? Is dis-ease in accord with, or contrary to, the Great Purpose? What is the origin of dis-ease? If dis-ease is a genus, are its species, or forms of disease, limited in number? Whence come the names given to forms of disease? Who is responsible for their classification? Are any diseases self -named? What gives names to all things? Is dis-ease infinite in power, extent, and duration, or is it self -limited ? If dis-ease, in any form, is an interloper in human affairs, what determines how long it shall remain? Has the existent soul aught to do with the removal of this interloper? Why do diseases appear in embodiment? How are they removed from the body? Are diseases formed before they are created, or are they created before they are formed? Is dis-ease limited to one state of consciousness? 202 SIN, SICKNESS AND DEATH. Even though names of forms of disease be confined to one state, does this prevent any and all discomfort and discord in subsequent states? How are conditions in Existence brought to an end? Is re-generation of conditions possible? If so, how? Can the death resulting from disease be overcome? Is death from disease normal, or abnormal? Is death as the natural termination of a phase of con- sciousness, normal or abnormal? Is there need to fear death? Is normal death an end to living, or a door to wider living? Will " the remains " from normal or abnormal death be the same? Does the progress of the existent soul necessitate other than physical remains? Has every object its subjective side or aspect? What is the best preparation for the avoidable death? What for the inevitable death? Is dis-ease confined to the physical plane? Is its manifestation, when understood, a help or a hin- drance ? Can dis-ease in any form alter the fundamental nature of the soul? If not, why not? What does dominion over all things, include? CHAPTEE XLYIII. Theeapeutics. Lack of harmony in Existence, discord and strife, disease and pain instead of harmony, create a demand for healing. Temporary loss of health through misconception of being and Existence, leads to desire and demand for health, which, when gained, is but restoration; for health is the birthright of the soul, is the soul's right in consequence of its nature and Origin. Health belongs to the Personal Order. It is the realiza- tion by the soul of the nature and harmony of the Impersonal Order. This realization brought to embodiment is health, manifest. Between the eternal truth that is the Impersonal Order, and the attained and embodied truth that is the end of the Personal Order, is the temporary loss of health that consti- tutes the pain-ful experience of the existent soul. Though the soul is unchanged in itself by whatever is formed and created for it, and endows it with a quality, it needs to be healed of its dis-eases, needs help to expel the cause of its troubles, be purged of its disorders. Healing is for the soul first and for the body afterward, but owing to self-deception it is demanded for the body first and for the soul afterward, if at all. For the same reason the help is first sought in the with- out and only after failure to find it, usually, is it sought in the within. The mistaken self-idea — " This that I see is I, myself " 203 204 THERAPEUTICS. — leads to search in, and dependence upon, externals, the things pertaining to Environment. The effort is legitimate to the concept that induces it. Corrective medicine is found in things before it is found in thoughts; effort is made to cure the body before it is made to medicine the soul. But the therapeutic art must follow, necessarily, an as- cending scale, from grossest possible means of cure to the subtlest and most intangible, passing from administration by another to administration by one's self. Effort to empty the self-consciousness of what has been brought into it through self-deception, to disintegrate the body of error that has been made in the mold, is the preliminary essential to restoration of what has been lost sight of — Health. But trial of all methods and means of cure allied with the natural self -idea, precede the higher method that is in accord with the Great Purpose. As impression from Environment awaits the human soul at the beginning of Existence, and its reaction to impression follows, it will respond to impression made by externals when they are used as a means of cure r none of these means being sufficient always to prevent death. When experience has brought the soul to enlightenment, when the higher faculties of being become active in the soul and it turns from externals to the within, using the Forming power as a means to impress Health upon itself, it will re- spond also to this impression. But though response to this impression will eventually exterminate the death resulting from disease because it will exterminate all forms of disease, it will not exterminate the death that is the natural accom- paniment of a state of consciousness. This death will be destroyed by no system of therapeutics for it would mean the overthrow of Nature. Destruction of the other kind of death through extermination of its root cause is the vindication of Nature. THERAPEUTICS. 205 Progress for the Human soul means progress from bondage to externals induced by self-deception, to the freedom of other and higher states of self-consciousness through development and realization of the resources of Derived being. The healing art belongs to this progress, the means em- ployed, to the status of the soul. None are ethically wrong, all are right or natural in their own day, in the period of time when the soul is most responsive to the impression made by each. All but one, the highest and best, are needless, and unwise when the soul is responsive to this best. The History of Medicine confirms this order. Years ago the coarsest and most revolting means were used, means be- longing entirely to the material plane except as they were supplemented by the superstition that lives in the darkness of ignorance and is killed by the light of truth. "With the progress of time the gross quality of remedies has gradually lessened and the light has become strong enough to reveal remedies so subtle and intangible as to be invisible and known by their effects rather than by sensuous observation. Whatever the means employed both cure and death have followed, and recovery from sickness, avoidance of death, have been attributed to either good luck or God's mercy. ISTot till a means of prevention as well as a means of cure is discov- ered will either the luck or the mercy be dismissed from hu- man thought as the refuge of an ignorance no longer excusable. The best possible remedy is the one that prevents while it cures, a combination that produces healing. Eventually the soul must be master where it has been servant, otherwise the Great Purpose can not be fulfilled. From being subject to impression only it must be master of impression as well; able to use it even while being used by it. 206 THERAPEUTICS. QUESTIONS. Is health for mankind the normal possibility, or the ab- normal incident? How is health lost and restored? What is the soul's birthright, and why? What is the difference between health in the abstract, and manifested health? What is Healing? What needs Healing? What is the right order of Healing? Is dependence upon externals natural or foreign to our conception of self? Where shall truly corrective medicine be found? Is it possible for one to be his own physician? If so, why and how? Why is the therapeutic art necessarily a progressive one? To what end must effort for Healing be directed? Does progress in Existence mean knowledge of the high- est and best means of betterment, first? If this were the case, could there be progress in knowl- edge and experience? Why may the use of any remedy, gross or intangible, be followed by result? Is the soul's natural response to impression a benefit or a detriment? If the soul can exercise the power of choice, choice of impression, what follows? What is the difference between using a power, and being used by it? THERAPEUTICS. 207 What will be the difference in results? Can any system of therapeutics succeed in overthrowing Mature ? Which system must be the most satisfactory and endur- ing? The one that works against the Great Purpose, or the one that works with it? What is the standard by which all systems, as wise or unwise, must be judged? Which is first in Existence, servitude or mastery? CHAPTER XLIX. Cubing and Healing. The disappearance of a physical condition is not always proof of the extermination of its cause. If it is possible to cover one condition with another, the one covered remaining in abeyance meanwhile, this kind of disappearance may be easily mistaken for healing while it is only a temporary curing. Healing must be based upon removal of cause; curing may come from the concealment of cause — overlaying it with something else. Curing will be first in the Personal Order and Healing last. Response to impression from without results in Curing, response to the truth of being, in Healing. A state or condition called health through misconception of the nature of health, one that satisfies for the time being the ignorant soul, hides true health while it satisfies, and strengthens confidence in the means by which it has been gained. As true health can not be established for the soul by use of external means only, as a change in the self-idea is a primary essential, curing may be a temporary stumbling block in the way of true healing. Any means employed for the establishment of health which does not penetrate to the root of dis-ease and prevent it must inevitably fail to accomplish healing; for such means can not lessen liability to dis-ease. As the soul is impressed continuously by its own self-idea, results must be according 208 < CURING AND HEALING. 209 to the nature or quality of the self-idea, and the strength of the impression. So long as the mistaken self-conception dominates the soul, so long must the soul's susceptibility to the consequences begotten of it, continue. If a change can be made in a physi- cal condition by making an impression of health upon the soul, this change will be permanent only if there be within the soul itself a sure foundation for the impression. If it is made by an extraneous influence alone, the impression can not be permanent, therefore the physical change can not be permanent. Not till volition is concerned in the work of making the impression — a work based upon a true conception of being and existence begun and persistently continued by the soul itself through its enlightened use of the Forming power — ■ can the true impression be made continuously; and only this continuous impression can establish health by overcoming sus- ceptibility to sense-impressions. Though susceptibility to sense-impressions is natural to the soul, mastery of them is also possible for the soul. Curing falls short of this mastery, healing is its development. Prevention can be accomplished only by the soul for it- self. A subjective condition can be temporarily checked in its manifestation by the influence of one over another. No one can make a master of another, one can help another to make himself a master. The hand of control must be laid upon susceptibility to impression, the natural must be fol- lowed by the possible before the preventive work that leads to mastery of all that afflicts can be accomplished. Hence, while at any time curers may abound, healers may be few. 14 210 CURING AND HEALING. QUESTIONS. What is the difference between Curing and Healing? Is no feeling of illness and pain, proof of no liability to illness and pain? Is disease temporarily concealed, disease removed? Is disease removed from experience till its hidden cause is exterminated? In human experience which is first, Curing or Healing? Why? Which is first seen by the existent soul? Environment or Derived being? Which does the soul know first? What is the difference between true health and what the soul may ignorantly call health? May Curing sometimes stand as an obstacle to Healing? If the soul is naturally susceptible to impression is there any way of healing except by control of this susceptibility? If change in condition can be made, what determines whether this change shall be temporal or permanent? What has individual volition to do with the work of Healing? What part is played by the Forming power in the work of Healing? Is sustained impression possible to the soul? If so, how? Is sustained impression of health necessary to the estab- lishment of health? Will sustained impression of dis-ease maintain forms of disease? Is temporary relief worth the price of future pain? CURING AND HEALING. 211 What determines the duration of suffering? Does to " get well " always mean to " be in health " ? Why does progress in Existence mean growth from de- pendence to mastery? Illustration of Natural Order. Mind The being — Existent soul Person — body \y \ v / Thought \ /\ / \ / \ / \y \ / The power to think \/ The thoughts one thinks. Mind Thought V Trinity in unity. Idea — The being ) The being "^ The Forming power V Trinity in unity. The Formed — Person ) Existent soul — the Thinker ~\ The thoughts of the Thinker V Trinity in unity. Embodiment of the thoughts ) Three unities, containing, each, a trinity, in one Unity. Creation is this inclusive Unity. Manifestation is the end of Creation. Manifestation is to the Thinker — the Recog- nizer — by means of embodiment. CHAPTEE L. Use of Auto-Suggestion for Healing. If the soul is naturally susceptible to impression it is sure to be ruled by the strongest impression. An impression may be strengthened by repetition — must thus be strengthened. Repeated impression becomes tendency, persistent tendency becomes habit, habit is involuntary repetition of thought and act, and it molds life. If this order is naturally sequential, impression volitionally made and repeated can become a fixed habit molding life for good or ill according to the kind of impression. In this way our concept of self becomes the practical or manifested self. If this be true, self-healing is possible from the basis of a change in the concept of self. To suggest the true concept of being to ourselves is to impress it upon ourselves; to re- peat the suggestion persistently till it becomes tendency, is to form the habit of looking mentally upon true being and its harmonious nature, which habit brings eventually realiza- tion of the harmony as our quality of self -consciousness. Because the thinking power is the Forming power, by suggestion to ourselves of the true pattern, we form, accord- ing to the pattern, what is subsequently created. Because of this law and order what is suggested to us by another may also be effective in proportion to our susceptibility to the kind of impression, the persistence of its repetition, and our lack of resistance to it. But because we are continually using auto-suggestion, 212 USE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION FOB HEALING. 213 making constant impression upon ourselves, whether or no the impression made by the suggestion of another becomes a permanent habit depends upon our like, or contrary, self- impression. If our self -impression agrees with the impression made by another's suggestion, that other is strengthened and has tendency toward perpetuity; if our self -impression con- tradict it persistently impression from the other suggestion must in time fade away. Suggestion from another, though meant for Healing, can give us Curing only, when it is not supported and strength- ened by like self-suggestion; for persistent contrary self- suggestion must eventually efface it. Moreover, suggestion from another, meant for Healing, can result only in Curing if it does not carry with it the truth of being that must be impressed upon the soul before this truth can show forth through embodiment in health and harmony of life. Consequently the results of hypnotic sug- gestion are self -limited. The operator may make impression upon his subject, who will respond to it. The strength of the impression will de- pend upon susceptibility to the kind. The permanency of the impression will depend upon the habitual auto-suggestion of the subject. He can, and will, though unconsciously if he does not understand, increase and strengthen, or counteract it. JSTo operator can make the necessary suggestion for Heal- ing unless he knows the difference between Healing and Cur- ing. This knowledge is gained from an understanding of the principles of being, the nature of the soul, Existence, Environ- ment and Embodiment, and of the Great Purpose. Without this understanding he is as a rudderless ship at sea. Without it he can not co-operate with the Great Pur- pose in his work for his subject, he can not impress the God- Ideal upon the susceptible soul; but, on the contrary, if his 214 USE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION FOB HEALING. own views and secret thoughts are contrary to the meaning of the words he speaks to his subject, whether audibly or mentally, they, too, will reach and impress the subject in proportion to the leaning of the subject in the same direction. And instances are not uncommon where the response from a hypnotized subject to the unintentional suggestion of the operator has been as spontaneous as to the intentional sug- gestion. It follows, therefore, that what one is within, or in char- acter, is of great importance where the work of Healing is concerned. What the operator is as a man or woman is of quite as much importance as what he does in the way of voluntary suggestion; for he always, even though involun- tarily, suggests himself to his subject. Auto-suggestion is at once the curse and the blessing for the human race. It is both a devastating devil and a redeem- ing angel for the human soul. It is involuntary, as an idea and habit of thought that have become fixed. It is voluntary, as an idea and trend of thought begun and maintained in- tentionally. Whether involuntary or voluntary result fol- lows auto-suggestion. The kind, or quality, of result must be eventually according to the dominant suggestion. If one is dominated by another, becomes the passive sub- ject of an operator, makes a mental surrender in order to be passive, he is susceptible to both the intentional and unin- tentional suggestion of the operator. His resistance to the undesirable suggestion is proportioned to the strength of his own involuntary auto-suggestion; this strength depends upon the character he has already developed. Because Forming is followed by Creating every one may become his own physician. The power that heals is always at hand. Use, by the enlightened soul, of the power that creates, redeems this soul from the bondage of inherited and USE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION FOB HEALING. 215 involuntary tendencies, heals it of its disorders, brings it into conscious harmonious relation to both Environment and God- derived being; enables it to cast out its possessing devils. Devils are cast out by bringing in angels. They can not dwell together. Devils dwell in darkness, angels in light. The difference between the darkened soul and the enlightened soul is the difference between disease and health. Nature and her governing Principle provide for the ex- istent soul what it needs in its transformation from the natural human to the possible divine. Utilization is the secret of success. All is utilized in the steadfast employment of self- suggestion according to the divine ideal. The End will be like the Beginning. REMARKS. The fact that we think is due to Nature; what we think is volitional. You must see that whether we think impulsively or with enlightened discrimination, by thinking we form, what we form is created unto us. To tell one's self the truth of being — auto-suggestion — is to medicine this self, or soul, purge it of the legion of possessing devils, bring it to its " right mind." Auto, or self, suggestion is the means native to every soul whereby it is redeemed from all evil, a means unknown till consequences incurred through ignorance impel the sufferer to seek a way of escape; a means mighty in redemptive power when found and used in the light of knowledge of being. No intention on the part of the Infinite brings affliction or removes it. The natural ignorance of the existent soul — the infancy of the soiil — brings it; use by the enlightened soul of foreordained means, removes it. Responsibility for human woe has been placed for cen- turies where it does not belong. God has been believed to 216 USE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION FOB HEALING. be the intentional author who must be placated if it shall disappear, a view that has made cowards of mankind. Sacri- fices and offerings have been relied upon to the exclusion of self-effort. Uprightness before God has meant prostration in the dust, an exterior humility impelled by fear, manifested most when we were threatened by disaster. To place responsibility where it belongs, to bear it instead of shirking it, is necessary for salvation. It is more neces- sary to save the true God from the ignorance of man than to save man from the wrath of God. The ascent of the Al- mighty in human conception is an essential preliminary to the ascent of man. Destruction of the characteristics ascribed in human thought to God must precede destruction of suffering and disease. Not till man raises himself from the dust by recognition of his birthright can he look upon God and live. Not till he uses the birthright that is his power to make himself what he will, can he put all enemies under his feet; and not till he himself puts them there can he triumph over them. God works with him or against him as he works for his own mis- taken purpose or for the Great Purpose; and always God is Love. Stand erect, strong in the perception of your original God-Likeness, in the resolve to do your part to bring it to manifestation. Use your own Forming power to form for yourself the immaculate conception. This Son of God shall be begotten in you for the Creative Energy will create him. He will save you from your former sins and their conse- quences if you are faithful to him. Trust him, love him, follow him, for he is your Saviour. " God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." USE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION FOR HEALING. 217 QUESTIONS. What ensues when impression is made upon the soul? How are habits formed? Why are we — as natural existent souls — " creatures of habit " ? Are we morally responsible for our early habits? If it be true that " as we think so we are," why is this so? Why do we grow to be like our concept of self? Is self-healing a possibility? If so, how? Can we voluntarily form a desirable habit of thought? What do you understand by auto-suggestion? If we are susceptible to impression, can we, both wisely and unwisely, impress ourselves? Can the same possibility be for us both an enemy and a friend? If so, why? Can another's suggestion become our own habit of thought? If so, why? Can another's suggestion fail to become our habit of thought? If so, why? Can another's suggestion result in healing? If not, why not? Must we be dominated by others, or is there a way to avoid such domination? What effect has self-suggestion upon the impression made by another's suggestion? Is suggestion sufficient for healing, or does what is sug- gested play an important part to that end? What determines permanency of impression? What is the necessary equipment for one who would heal? 218 USE OF AUTO-SUGGESTION FOR HEALING. Does the impression made upon a passive subject by the operator include more than his words convey? If so, why? What value has character, in the relation between subject and operator? Is there both intentional and unintentional suggestion? If so, why? Is the truth of being an element that enters into healing? If so, why? How is it brought into the limited human consciousness? Can this truth of being become permanently embodied without persistent auto-suggestion to that end? CHAPTEE LI. The Limitations of Hypnotic Suggestion. Students of the Science of Being who make practical ap- plication of its principles will be sure to be asked of the dif- ference between their " treatment " and hypnotic suggestion. A true treatment for all disorder consists in speaking the word of truth to the soul. One who knows the fact of response to suggestion, without understanding why there is response, with no knowledge of the nature of existence and destiny, can not speak this word, for it is unknown to him. He can make the suggestion, " You are not ill, you are not unhappy; you are happy and well," and there will be some measure of re- sponse to it, probably; but he can not impart by suggestion the reason why, or teach his subject what he must know in order to wisely use auto-suggestion for himself. Suggestion of the opposite of an undesirable condition to an impressible subject, can never result in more than a tem- porary curing, because of the subject's continued auto- suggestion according to habits of thought. The one who knows, who has found " the Lost Word," needs not to use, and does not use, the force of his own will to impress what he says. The operator with Hypnotism re- quires, first, as complete as possible passivity on the part of his subject, which passivity makes him truly a subject; for this mental surrender increases natural susceptibility to impression. The operator needs also to concentrate his own attention, thought and will upon his subject, making himself positive 219 220 THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION. and authoritative, while his subject becomes, through his sur- render, less and less so. By gaining ascendancy over the sub- ject, the subject becomes practically an automaton for the time being, an automaton up to the point where the habitual self-suggestion offers resistance. Much depends, therefore, upon the habitual self-suggestion of the subject, for if it be contrary to the suggestion of the operator the subject will cease to be the subject beyond this point. A crime suggested to a subject in the hypnotic state will not be acted upon, if he, by his habit of thought, has builded the character that offers resistance to such kind of suggestion. The one who gives another a treatment according to the principles of the Science of Being, effaces rather than inten- sifies himself. He never exerts his will to gain ascendancy over his patient — he deals with patients, those who seek help, not with subjects. He sees a fellow-man suffering through lack of knowledge. He has the knowledge the sufferer lacks. He knows what that sufferer is, what his relation to Nature and Governing Principle, what and whence his suffering, and he speaks what he knows, speaks the word of truth quietly, with no employment of personal force or energy, but with confidence, because he understands why his word is true. Every soul is a seeker for truth, seeks it as naturally as rivers run to the sea. This seeking is at first an involuntary im- pulse, for it is the soul's attraction to its Origin. Even though one has not yet made much conscious voluntary effort in this direction, the tendency is there, and when the word of truth is spoken to the soul by one who knows, this involuntary tendency helps to bring response, whose measure is according to the resistance or non-resistance offered by the habitual trend of thought. Moreover, the patient is never asked to make a mental sur- THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION. 221 render. He is left in full possession of his own mental equip- ment. The one who gives the treatment makes no war upon anything belonging to him, fights no battle whatever. He simply brings a light into the darkness, leaving the light to do its own work. He is a mediator instead of an operator. He is not using hypnotism, he is emancipating himself from its influence, and helping his patient to do the sama Light in the darkness is his one sole aim, without regard to the consequences. Whether the patient recovers at once or not is no concern of his, he has no responsibility for results. Filling the office of mediator by speaking the word of truth, meeting both the involuntary and voluntary demand of the soul by explaining why it is the truth — for patients should always be instructed audibly — he moves on when he has spoken and leaves the work to be accomplished to the Creative Energy that brings all to pass. Concentration on the truth of being withdraws the atten- tion from disease, all forms of evil, and their names. The less the attention the less they are formed. The true healer forms the deathless, because true, concept of being, holds it before the soul that is dominated by the false concept by speaking it, suggesting it to that soul. Unless the old thought habit is so strong as to deaden all response there will be re- sponse to this spoken word, in some measure. The true healer deals with his patient as an individual, not as a thing, recog- nizing his right to health and wholeness, to all spiritual pos- sessions. He sees him as one who has missed the way and is to be set right. The last thing he desires or attempts is to exer- cise even a temporary dominion over him. His spoken word declares against submission to aught but the Absolute, and calls upon the soul to recognize its birthright as the individual. Only the true healer knows how little he has to do with the results gained by his patient, and yet he feels a great re- 222 THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION. sponsibility because, for the moment, the light reaches the darkened soul through him. He is as the glass that is trans- parent. The patient is as the opaque wall. While the light, always shining, can not penetrate the wall, it can pass through the glass without hindrance. Hence, character as well as knowledge, is essential for a true healer. The cleaner the glass, the purer the light. An operator with hypnotism may be what he will in char- acter and achieve remarkable — to the uninitiated — results; but however desirable they may appear to be, the result invol- untary on the part of the operator, and unsought by the sub- ject, goes with them; a result proportioned to the developed, or undeveloped character of the subject. Teaching and healing belong together, they walk hand in hand along the pathway of the journeying soul, and there is no permanent healing without the teaching that reveals the root of disorders. It is claimed by many of the advocates of hypnotic sug- gestion that moral transformation can be accomplished by its use. A man is not moral in conduct who acts under influence, who would act otherwise if another's influence were with- drawn. Such influence is prohibition, and prohibition checks, but can not remove, the impulse to action. There is no truly moral conduct till one acts morally voluntarily, all prohibition but such as he imposes upon himself, withdrawn. The impulse to the acts the operator seeks to prevent, is rendered temporarily quiescent by his suggestion and influ- ence, but it is not exterminated till the actor has cast it out of himself. The necessities of individuality compel that he do his own work to that end, and without instruction that reveals to him his own powers and resources he can not do it. Without it he will indulge in thought habits that strengthen the im- pulse till it again breaks forth into action. His auto-suggestion THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION. 223 will continue to form that which others seek to remove, and whatever the sonl persistently forms the Creative Energy will create. The question whether it is wise to submit to hypnotic suggestion is to be answered according to what is desired by the questioner. As a temporal restraint, a temporary expe- dient, it will be, often, effectual. As an exterminator of the root cause of the undesired condition it will never be effectual. To submit to it is to increase passivity to impression, and de- crease self-reliance. Choice of impressions, increased suscep- tibility to the chosen, and increased resistance to the rejected, is the positive essential for transformation of character or bodily conditions. To abrogate the power of choice and become, instead, a passive thing, for the sake of a temporary relief, is optional with all, and each must decide for himself what it is wise to do. Enlightened reason would seem to dictate the course that accords with the Great Purpose. When the truth is the thought of the healer, the word is spoken, though, as compared with audible speech, silently. When it is the habitual thought of the healer " virtue " goes out from him continually and, to a limited extent, he heals by his presence. His habitual thought will be given direction whenever evil and suffering present themselves, his mental word will contradict what the sense of sight looks upon. He will not " treat " every one indiscriminately, he will respect the rights of others as he wishes his own respected. He will not speak in the second person, addressing himself directly to another, un- less that other seeks his mediatorship, but speaking for himself of others, he will think of them, in the third person, and his thought, his silent word, will go forth as a blessing and a bene- diction. 224 THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION. People will feel in him more than they see, and as he is " lifted up " he will draw them in the same direction; in th@ direction of dominion over, rather than subjection to, all things. REMARKS. You have a child, or a friend, who is very dear to you and who is under the dominion of a bad habit, is a drunkard or a thief. Of course you will welcome anything that will reform him, his reformation is what you pray and work for morning, noon and night. What is reformation? Is it not re-formation? Hypnotism has reformed many drunkards and made men of them; many moral transformations have been wrought, it is said. Can there be a truly moral transformation till the man's own re- forming is done? If another, by hypnotic suggestion, forms and impresses upon him an idea, which does not become by his own enlightened co-operation his voluntary idea also, is he really transformed or only influenced? If he does not per- sistently impress himself in the same way, does he walk on his own feet, or is he carried by another? Transformation to an observer is not necessarily a moral transformation. The man who was formerly more or less in- toxicated every day and who now drinks no intoxicating liquor is transformed, it is true. There is change in the man from slavery to abstention, but this change is possible without any moral transformation. Held by a dominating influence he does not drink, because the impulse to drink is held in check. He is being ruled, he does not rule himself. Not till he rules himself is there moral transformation. His own will, uninflu- enced by another, must act for him before the moral quality can enter into his transformation. If the process of Creation is the making of the individual and the Great Purpose must win in the end, the transforma- THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION. 223 tion lacking this great essential but delays the inevitable result, and the longer a dominating influence over one by another is maintained the farther off it is. A sedative is not a tonic, a soporific does not stir to action. It is all a matter of comparison. Immediate results to the man and his family are mighty as compared to their former conditions. They are comfortable and happy where before they were in poverty and misery. Surely this is better. But if — the importance of that if — he is a living soul that must reach a certain altitude; if the only way to reach it is by vol- untary use for himself of what is being used by another for him; if he is depending upon the other to save him from his own impulses and their consequences, he is not giving the co- operation necessary to his moral regeneration, even though his condition as compared with the former one is far better. If his own will and self effort are deadened through his reli- ance upon the one who is working for him, is he working out his own salvation? Better though his condition may be, there is a best which he has not yet reached. But because of immediate results this imperfect transformation is eagerly accepted without question of any remote result. It is no wonder this is so. A happy family in place of a suffering wife and hungry children is a strong argument in favor of the means used to bring the result. Only the clearer vision that sees the inevitable must, can refuse to be beguiled by appearances, can point to the greater result that includes the lesser. The abstention resulting from prohibition is not moral re-formation because the man does not prohibit himself, and thereby re-form himself because he can and will. If appetite is put to sleep it will waken from its rest with renewed vigor when the prohibition is removed, and it is sure to be removed unless it is self-imposed. 15 226 THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION. If " this life " is to be alone considered, then whatever makes it most comfortable and enjoyable is to be used to the full. Why not ? We are born and we die, and between birth and death we live our little lives, to fill them with that which shall meet your desires if you are selfish, and with that which shall meet the desires of others if you are unselfish. What more can one do ? And if hypnotic influence can make a man a better husband and father, son and brother, make him bet- ter able to provide for his family and add to the happiness of others, why not have all of it one can get % If a liar becomes a truthful man, a thief an honest man, a drunkard a temperate man, surely that is enough. But if one does not so consider " this life," sees it, instead, as but one grade of the school he attends and from which he must graduate, all done in this grade is in view of its relation to the others, and immediate result is considered in its relation to remote result. To do evil that good may come is a policy abandoned when the well-meant act, by its effect on future results, is seen to be not as good as was first believed. Enlight- enment and the volitional exercise of individuality, as a result greater to be desired than relief from the unwelcome through suspension of such exercise, will be the policy encouraged by the one who wishes to reach the end. If it is the soul that desires, that feels and yields to, or conquers, impulses and appetites, then the check to these im- pulses and appetites afforded by hypnotic suggestion must be permanent to make permanent the honest temperate man. If this check alone is what works the transformation it must sus- tain the transformation. If the personal influence of the operator is of infinite duration and extension such permanency may be secured, not otherwise. The influence of the one Mind is alone capable of such permanency. What shall you do if one of your dear ones is a slave to THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION 227 desire? Do the best you know how at the time. No one can do more. But if you can see that the real of him is not the objective personality but is the perfect Ideal that is to be begotten in him as his true self, hold to that Ideal in your own thought of him, let it radiate through you and he will feel the warmth of its rays. As far as he will allow you and listen, tell him audibly of this Ideal and why it is so, helping him to make impression upon himself while you seek to make impression upon him. Unity of effort is better than passivity on the one hand, and push on the other. Have perfect confidence in this Ideal and in the power of the Creative Energy to beget it in him. ISTo matter how many stumbles and falls are his as the work goes on, know that the result is absolutely sure, for it is the Infinite ruling over the finite. He will rise from grade to grade of the school of existence, he will graduate therefrom some day, he will eventually stand as master of the grades through which he has passed. Have no doubt, doubt is fatal to your helpful- ness, for doubt prompts in you an underlying suggestion that contradicts your intentional suggestion. Your steadfastness shall lead him to the way of eternal life. QUESTIONS. In what does a " treatment " consist? What is necessary to enable one to be a healer? What is the " Lost Word "? What is the difference in the requirements of a hypnotic operator and a true healer? In healing, what part is played by the personal will? What determines receptivity to suggestion? Is a hypnotic subject likely to commit a crime he would not commit in his normal state? If not, why not? 228 THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION. Does a true healer dominate his patient, or does he help the patient to dominate his lesser self? Is there an instinctive seeking for truth? If so, why? On what does the measure of response to the spoken word depend? What is the difference between a hypnotic operator and a true healer? Why must a true healer be a teacher? Why is teaching necessary for the soul? Are the rights of individuality to be respected? If so, why? What part does character play in the work of healing? How much is accomplished for one by another's prohib- itive influence? Do you think it wise to renounce your power of choice? Can you fulfil your destiny except by the exercise of that power? Is it necessary to use audible speech in speaking the word? When is treatment of others by direct address, lawful, and when unlawful? Is it not always lawful to do good? Is it not also necessary to choose wisely the way of do- ing it? Does a good motive always prevent an unwise effort? Will not effort from the basis of understanding accomplish more in the end than an effort made without it? Which is wisest? To show the way and walk in it your- self, leaving others to follow or not as they choose, or fasten them to yourself and strive to drag them along? What do you understand by the force of example? CHAPTER LIL Experience. Clearly there can be no experience till there is one capable of experiencing. Experience therefore can not belong to the Impersonal Order, it must belong to the Personal Order. Ex- perience does not pertain to the science of numbers, it pertains to the student of the science. Experience is the portion of the existent soul as it follows the Impersonal Order in its ascent to Beginning, and may be considered under the head of genus and species. Experience unqualified is inseparable from the Personal Order, kinds or qualifications belong at different stages of this Order. The soul existent, environed, embodied, meets little by little all the Impersonal Order makes possible, discovers, feels, judges, and either retains or eliminates what it experiences. Stored up in or rejected from the self-consciousness is all the knowledge gained in the ascent of the Impersonal Order. To exist and to experience are synonymous. But a kind of experience, a species, need not continue all through the ascent. All kinds are possible to the existent soul, all kinds need not remain with and accompany the soul till it has reached the Beginning. The power of choice used by the soul is effective to this end. As manifestation of the self -idea is in accord with the nature of Creation, when the consequences of the mistaken self -idea have been thus experienced and the soul has learned what not to do, by choosing to do, and by doing 229 230 EXPERIENCE. that which is possible instead of that which is merely natural, the old kind of experience is finally eliminated. All forms of dis-ease, all sorrow and pain, all moral ob- liquity and spiritual darkness are driven out of the human consciousness to be known no more because overcome. Exter- mination of the root producing them must result in their de- struction. "No one and no thing, human or divine, can lift experience from the individual or the race. The beginner in the science of numbers can become the expert mathematician only by his experience which calls out his powers and capa- bilities, setting them to work upon that which confronts him. But as the painful toil and struggle consequent upon nat- ural blindness and mistakes can be eliminated from his expe- rience, and in proportion to his discovery and use of the prin- ciples winch at first he did not see, so in the soul-experience there is the change from ignorance to wisdom which conquers, when the wisdom is put to use, the old kind of experience. All the enemies of the soul — the possible consequences of its own possible mistaking — are to be put to death as the expe- rience that proves to the soul its dominion in its own domain. Because Primal Energy is Creative Power, because it creates for the soul whatever it forms for itself, the process by which this is accomplished is the inevitable experience of the soul. From knowing the natural and all the natural com- pels, it will come to know the spiritual and the divine with all they compel; a knowing that begins at Environment and ends at the Absolute. In the passage from one to the other, sin, sickness and death are encountered and left behind. All evil is passed over and left for ever by the soul as it ascends to Origin. EXPERIENCE. 231 QUESTIONS. What is the difference, if any, between Existence and Ex- perience ? Does a kind of experience constitute the whole that is Ex- perience? If the power of choice is used by the soul must there not be room for its exercise? Must there not be room for its experience? Without contrast is there room for choice? Need a kind of experience be continued if it is not desired ? What power can be used by the soul to change the kind of experience? When will the soul attempt to alter its experiences? Can you reckon with certainty on the disappearance of evil and the appearance of good? CHAPTEE LIIL The Common Mental Atmosphere. Illustration : The physical atmosphere that all inhale and exhale is common to this planet, consequently it is common to all men. All who breathe draw it into themselves and expel it from themselves. Through the action of the breather it circulates in the physical organism, with the result that personal emana- tions are added to the common atmosphere. Through the multiplicity of breathers the common atmosphere is laden with what is no part of it fundamentally, and yet these emana- tions, because they are additions to the common whole, enter into other individual organisms through individual inhalation. Each breather, therefore, is brought in contact, direct or remote, with all the personal emanations that have been added to the common whole. They enter into him through his own natural act of breathing. The process is one of law and order, but the. result to him depends upon his susceptibility or re- sistance to what he inhales with the atmosphere. Inhaling the atmosphere is a condition of existence. In- haling what goes with the atmosphere makes a condition in existence proportioned to susceptibility or resistance. Calling these emanations germs, it follows that they are rendered in- nocuous when the system can resist them, are dangerous only when this resistance is absent. The natural act of breathing serves as a means of inoculation, a natural act with a natural result. 233 THE COMMON MENTAL ATMOSPHERE. 233 The consequence to the individual, however, depends upon himself, is of two kinds, desirable and undesirable. Which- ever follows the act of breathing nature is not violated, but in the one case power over a result possible from a natural process is manifested. Through the natural act of breathing contact with emana- tions from the remotest bounds of the world is theoretically possible, and each member of the human family is heir to all the universal atmosphere contains. Nothing can alter this natural fact, nature is no respecter of persons, but admitting the possibility of cultivation of resistance to what it contains, the individual can determine the consequences to himself. Transfer this illustration to the metaphysical plane where is a common mental atmosphere inhaled and exhaled by all living souls, and filled with their thought-emanations, and what does analogy reveal? The thinking power is common to all men, all living souls are thinkers because the existent soul is user of the powers of being. Generations of thinkers, ages of thinking, have im- pregnated the soul-atmosphere with personal emanations. If souls are individual, each having its own identity, the distinction between them compels an invisible atmosphere in which they belong, even as physical bodies are immersed in a common ocean of air. If the term " atmosphere " is objectionable, call it " be- tweenness." The fact that two visible personages are not identical, com- pels a between — something between them. "We say " some- thing " when referring to the between, and we call it " space." There is space between two personages because the two are not the same, and this space is filled with atmosphere. No two souls are the same. Each has its own identity, there is a 234 THE COMMON MENTAL ATMOSPHERE. between, this between is the mental space — we will say — filled with mental atmosphere. Carrying the analogy further, the act of thinking is the breathing of the soul whereby it inhales and exhales this at- mosphere. It follows that the atmosphere must be laden with soul-emanations, filled with the thoughts of all breathers which they have added to the common whole. What each soul forms for itself has place in this space that is without length, breadth and thickness, and all these living souls, through the individual act of inhalation, are brought in con- tact, direct and remote, with the thought-emanations of others. What is formed is afterward created by the Creative En- ergy. Each thought of the existent soul is the forerunner of a created result, a result not only to the thinker of the thought as that which is created for him, but to others as what is cre- ated for them if it enters into them and dwells there. Because each human thought goes beyond the individual thinker of it into the common mental atmosphere, because other souls in- hale it through their relation to the whole, results are more than the individual result to the one who first formed it. Re- sults to all who inhale it must be according to the degree of susceptibility to the kind, or according to the power of resist- ance to the kind. THOUGHTS AUE THINGS. A thought sent out into the common mental atmosphere will find lodgement in other souls, will be held or cast out according to the dominant idea of the soul it enters. If the habitual trend of thought is according to the kind, the thought first formed and sent out into the mental atmosphere by some one else will be held within the soul in which it has found lodgement, will germinate there and bring forth its fruit. THE COMMON MENTAL ATMOSPHERE. 235 So " the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children." " Like attracts like." According to the dominant mental trend every soul at- tracts from the common mental atmosphere the " germs " that are like to that trend in kind or quality. It is thereby strength- ened and possible results to the soul are increased beyond what belong to its own immediate thinking. A soul is partaker of the woes of humanity while it experiences its own individual woes. Likewise is it the sharer of the joys of the world if it have joy of its own. " j^o man liveth to himself alone." "While each soul must reap after its owm sowing it also reaps after the sowing of others, reaps good or ill according to what it inhales from the mental atmosphere and holds, instead of expels. Every thought is a seed, each seed produces after its own, not a foreign, kind. Each seed is sure to produce if conditions for germination are afforded. Floating in the mental atmosphere they do not bring forth; entering into a soul, and remaining there through attraction of the kind, they have the condition for germination. Good or evil must be the result to the soul according to the kind of seed. Is each soul, then, at the mercy of mental germs? As all names of diseases, physical and moral, have a mental origin, all these conditions, in germ, are afloat in the mental atmos- phere. Liability to disease and suffering must be increased by a dominant mental trend in kind, or lessened by an op- posite trend; liability to evil-doing must be increased or les- sened in the same way. As on the physical plane resistance to the action of germs — it is said — prevents them from breeding their conse- quence in the system, so on the mental plane resistance to mental germs will bring like result. If it is possible for the soul to resist such action, if the 236 THE COMMON MENTAL ATMOSPHERE. soul-organism can offer sufficient resistance, all undesired mental germs can be rendered innocuous; but without resist- ance natural susceptibility must offer a fertile field for inocu- lation. What, then, saves one from suffering not only the conse- quences of his own mis-taking but the consequences of the " sins of the fathers," as well? Through one's natural igno- rance and misconception of being the door is open for the entrance of all the same kind in the mental atmosphere; all the beliefs of past generations, all forms of suffering. Sus- ceptibility to these germs is natural, resistance to them is pos- sible through correction of the self-idea and dominant trend of thought that acts as the attraction. Through such cor- rection and cultivation of a spiritual conception of being and trend of thought, not only is resistance offered to the unde- sirable, but the door is open through which may come all that uplifts and encourages the soul, instead of that which con- firms its ignorance and helplessness. The existent soul is heir not only to all the resources of being, to all that is God-derived, but also to all that is man- derived; to all that has been formed in thought by the whole human race. There is much for it to be saved from, much for it to be saved unto. Natural susceptibility to impression from environment, physical and mental, ensnares it, cultivated re- sistance to such susceptibility redeems it from bondage, and law and order obtain all the while. Because the Creative Energy brings to manifestation what the existent soul forms, to form the idea of resistance to the action of mental germs, to hold it persistently as the present possibility, never to let it go, is to have successful resistance brought to pass at last. Clearly, then, redemption for the soul from suffering is in its own hands, for the power to choose what it will think and thus form, belongs to it. Until expe- THE COMMON MENTAL ATMOSPHERE. 237 rience has brought more knowledge and awakened the soul to this necessity it is sure to suffer in proportion to the suscep- tibility that is not opposed by resistance. Both the natural result and the spiritual result are for the soul, the road from the natural that is first to the spiritual that is last stretches before it, for it is the road that is continuity of existence. As the physical atmosphere is set in motion by the exhala- tion of a breather, so is the mental atmosphere set in motion by the exhalation of a thinker. A wave is formed that moves onward, touching and carrying along whatever lies in its path. If this wave is given conscious direction what it carries along will be directed to a recipient. The result to the recipient will depend upon whether he attracts or repels what it contains. The consequences of original sin, all manner of dis-ease will visit him if he attracts them through his fixed belief in them as unavoidable necessity. If he believes this error to be truth he will offer a centre of attraction for its results, a centre in the common mental atmosphere toward which will surge currents filled with disease-laden germs. If through enlightenment, and individual action of his own according to it, he has set up another and higher attrac- tion, one that draws to himself as a focus the truth that per- sistently seeks manifestation, he becomes a centre of the truth of being that repels the lower currents, while it grows steadily stronger in attraction of all that pertains to Divinity and its mastery of Humanity. All that is, has been and will be. The common mental atmosphere is the great storehouse where are preserved all human woe and misery. Each living soul adds its quota to the whole and experiences what he attracts from it. Passing through him by means of his mental inhalations and exhala- tions the deposits, what remains with him, become his experi- ences, his inheritance as the son of man. His own effort for 238 THE COMMON MENTAL ATMOSPHERE. redemption from this inheritance, through perception of his divine birthright and what it ensures him, must put him in possession of the inheritance that is his as Son of God. One must individualize his own soul, prevent it from being swayed or tossed about by the currents of the mental atmos- phere, from being impregnated by diseased mental germs; must do the work that accords with the Great Purpose — the making of the Individual that is the Personal God. CHAPTEE LIV. Heredity. Though the existent soul has the whole Impersonal Order as its inheritance, a soul, at birth, inherits also all that has been experienced by all souls preceding it in time. All the human race has thought and felt is added to the inheritance of an existent soul. It is the plus of human existence and expe- rience added to the plus that brings Existence, Environment and Embodiment. " The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children," and this persistence of tendencies set up in Ex- istence is heredity from progenitors. But the possibilities of the Impersonal Order constitute heredity from the Absolute, the higher heredity. Both are consequent upon the law of cause and effect. With the in- dividual rests the power to check and finally overcome for him- self the lesser heredity, a work to be done by cultivation of the higher heredity; by taking possession of all that is for the soul according to the Impersonal Order. The " sins of the world," the errors and pains of human- ity confront the existent soul and, in some form, have place in its experience. Its own sin and consequences are added to and strengthened by this heredity, but, equally, its effort at mastery is added to and strengthened by every such effort that has ever been made. Though by its own natural mistaking it carries along the " sins of the world " in its own person, as the individual it can eventually triumph over them through the Power of the Whole. 239 240 HEREDITY. When the ability to conceive the true self -idea is developed, and choice is made as to which shall be cultivated and strength- ened and which abandoned, the generation of the higher self- consciousness is the possibility brought finally to actuality. The relation of an individual to the family entails for him results that are also common to the family and to the race; the relation of the individual to the Absolute entails results that are, first, for the individual. Subjection to the fleshly heredity is natural, belongs to the ignorance of Nature and destiny that is the infancy of the existent soul. Mastery of it, through generated consciousness of the individual relation to the Absolute, is the as natural accompaniment of the maturity of the soul. Between the subjection and the mastery, the infancy and the maturity, belongs the work performed in the intervening states, the overcoming of the natural self-idea and its conse- quences with the spiritual self -idea and its consequences. The heredity due to membership in the human race is the temporal, the heredity due to individual relation to the Abso- lute is the eternal. When the soul's purpose conforms to the Great Purpose, Existence includes the triumph of the eternal over the temporal. QUESTIONS. What is the plus that is added to Existence by the human race? What does the existent soul inherit from its relation to the race? Can the soul be permanently afflicted by this heredity? To what is the soul heir by its relation to the Absolute ? Which heredity is the stronger and more permanent? What law determines either heredity? HEREDITY. 241 Are we to blame if we inherit " the sins of the fathers " ? Are we to blame if we carry them indefinitely? Are we entitled to any credit for our higher heredity? Is our use of the higher against the lower optional? If oo, why? Which does the soul experience first? The results of the lower or of the higher heredity? Which results are to be permanent for the soul ? Are you obliged to yield to sense conditions and say, " I can not help it, I was born so " ? Have you power to change your natural self? Is heredity after the flesh any excuse for not trying to overcome? Are you excusing yourself, on the ground of heredity, for not trying, or are you striving for mastery? Which of your two relations is eternal? The one to the race, or the one to the Absolute? Will not your eternal relation compel more from you than the other can compel? Which heredity are you aiding by co-operation? Because gout is hereditary in your family must you always have gout? 16 CHAPTEK LV. Locality. " Here " and " there " are relative terms, the one indicat- ing the other, belonging to the Personal Order. Speaking according to its dominant sense, the existent soul is " here." Speaking according to a discerned possibility it is " there." The fact is " here," the contingent is " there." When the contingent possibility has become the palpable fact, " there " has become " here." This is change within, rather than without, and shows locality to be but condition; condition either attained or prospective. " Life in this world " is a condition present as the expe- rienced. " Life in the next world " is a condition not yet, but to be, experienced. As relative to each other " here " and " there " must accompany the soul all the way in its expe- rience of the Personal Order; and yet it is possible for the soul to resolve both " here " and " there " into the everlasting Now by discerning and understanding the Impersonal Order. Infancy is " here," childhood is " there." Childhood be- comes " here " and boyhood is " there," and this displacement of " here " by " there " goes on till the far-off maturity, or manhood, of the existent soul has become " here " ; till the Great Purpose and the like human purpose are accomplished. " Now " displaces " here " and " there " when the sense of materiality is displaced by the sense of eternal and change- less order and harmony. It is all " Now," for existence is con- 242 LOCALITY. 243 tinuous and it is its states that furnish a basis for the relative " here " and " there." This state of consciousness, whether environment is named America or Africa, is " here." To die and go from " here " to " there " is not possible, if by dying is meant, leaving the physical body; for " here " as a natural state of consciousness has both its objective and subjective aspects, and this kind of dying is but turning from the objective to the subjective. It is not a going to another locality, except as a sense of the soul constitutes locality. QUESTIONS. Is locality a place with geographical boundaries, inde- pendent of your consciousness? When you say " here " or " there " what are you ex- pressing? Are you independent of, and separate from, your environ- ment? What do you understand by the " next world " ? What is the difference between " present " and " future "? What may they be to you? Do you believe that when you die you go away from the world to another locality? What evidence that there is another world can you find? If locality is condition, can dropping a fleshly garment change your condition, or put you in a different locality? CHAPTEE LVL The Lost Word. " Speak the word only and I shall be healed." If successful treatment of any disease must be by employ- ment of a remedy that reaches to the root cause of disease itself, this is a remedy that has been lost and must be found to be used. If a misconception of being is natural to the existent soul, and it lives and experiences according to the misconception, the truth of being is lost to it. As a wanderer the soul must deal with what confronts and surrounds it — till the faculties of being, quickened to action by suffering, begin to lead it in the direction of the lost truth. Nothing in the Impersonal Order can cease to be, nothing in it can be fact for the existent soul till the soul discovers. Till then each and all factors but one are lost. This one, the phenomenal World, is visible; all others are to be found. Conception according to mortal sense is a word spoken by the soul continually, for it is the mental speech of the soul. Not till perception contradicts mortal sense, and understand- ing sustains the contradiction, can the lost truth of being be conceived, spoken as the mental speech of the soul. This abstract truth, discovered, becomes the spoken word that can heal the soul of all its disorders. It follows that any perceiv- ing and understanding soul can speak, for itself or another, the previously lost word. Speaking the lost word is a necessity, believing it is not 244 THE LOST WORD. 245 enough. Belief is passive, action is necessary to result. To tell one's self or another the truth is to speak the lost word, speak the truth; it is the action necessary for result, and the result is a healing of the soul that finds its way to manifesta- tion as a healing of the body. Soul first, body afterward, is the order that is the reversal of the old order — body first and soul afterward. All accomplishment, all high attainment, in whatever department, depends upon discovery of, and use of, the lost word. Truth is abstract, it can become concrete only by expression, for expression action is a necessity. Ideals are abstract, they become concrete by expression, they are ex- pressed when they are carried out in action. The Divine Ideal, to appear, must be carried out in action. To appear in the individual life, each soul must carry it out in its own action. To speak the lost word is to carry on the action that brings forth the Divine Ideal as the Actual Man; an action that disposes of the first natural man by displace- ment, finishing Creation. "Wilt thou be made whole?" Willingness to be made whole, to be healed, is essential for effectual work. The practical application of the principles set forth can be summed up as " Speak the lost word! " to yourself, to any who desire such help; the simplest thing possible, yet with mighty results. To speak the lost word is to bring the truth of being into the self-consciousness and displace what for- merly had possession. The seed will bring forth after its kind, a kind that will destroy the fruits of the old seed. CHAPTER LYII. The Responsibility of a Healer. You wish to do good in the world? to follow the example of early apostolic times, and help to heal those who suffer, who are in " the valley of the shadow of death " ? The " signs following " were once a proof of apostleship, of a converted one, a Christian. If they were the legitimate result of principles understood and applied, of fixed laws that make no exceptions with persons, they must be as possible now as ever, when the conditions are afforded under which they appear. You recognize this and you want to be a healer, a fol- lower of the Great Healer who always worked for the soul as the way to betterment of bodily conditions. What then are the essentials? Meekness is one of them, the true meekness that comes from possession of wisdom, not the assumed humility that comes from lack of it. Having the wisdom you know that you can not heal anyone, that the truth itself, heals, and you are but the speaker of the truth, the necessary mediator between it and the soul that has it not. You know what the one who needs your help does not know. You know the lost word, he does not. You can speak what he can not yet speak because he does not know it. As speaker of the truth you meet a condition by which the truth can work in him if he will receive it. Good de- stroys evil, truth destroys error, but the good must be brought 246 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A HEALER. 247 to bear upon the evil. Doing what he does not know how to do for himself, or what a severe sense of suffering prevents him from doing thoroughly and persistently, you are filling the office of mediator; you are not healing, and you can not heal, him. Because this is your only office, and the truth itself, not you, does the work, you have no responsibility for the results whatever they may be. If requested to bring a light into a dark room you are not responsible for what the light re- veals. If the patient recovers, you are not entitled to credit; if he dies, you are not to blame. If you would be a true healer you will not work for the sake of the results, but for the work's sake. Poise is another essential. Without self-poise you will be alternately exalted, and beaten down and discouraged. You must find the still place where the voice of your own human vanity, apprehension, conceit, is not heard. To speak the word is your only work, all you are capable of doing in the case, the results do not depend upon you. Let a great silence surround you, " be still and know " ; the Creative Energy will do its work through you; when, in how long a time, is no concern of yours. If you never overstep the boundaries of your own prov- ince, never allow desire for appreciation, love of applause, eagerness for results, to draw you over them, you will have the essential poise that helps you to feel that the Force of forces is working with you to the best result, whatever that may be. To stipulate the kind of results, to question when they appear is not for you, for you wish to be a healer, not a hypnotizer. To be a healer is to speak the truth to the soul. Your work begins and ends there. To carry it into a domain where it does not belong is to interfere with the Great Purpose instead of co-operate with it. Get a large idea 248 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A HEALER. of your own importance, pride yourself on your reputation as a healer, roll approbation and applause as a sweet morsel under your tongue, and as sure as two and two are four you will descend to the plane of personal influence in your work and cease to be a true spiritual healer. Another essential — eliminate for yourself the old thought and feeling that what you see with your natural sight is what you must work to save. The natural objective side of per- sonality is temporal. You have no concern with it. It is the hidden soul that needs the help. The phenomenon is transient, but there is no death. The soul is to come out of the shadow of death into the light of eternal day. For you, death must be the unreality and continued existence beyond the plane of phenomena, the reality; otherwise you will be possessed by fear, and the true healer must be free from fear. But this freedom does not mean recklessness or usur- pation of authority. - Another essential is recognition of the rights of the in- dividual. Every one has his individual right to choose what he will or will not do, will or will not receive, will or will not think. As you have become able to act as a mediator through your choice, your rejection of the common mistake and alliance with the discovered truth, so is his the same privilege. As your own experiences brought you to this po- sition, as you would have resisted any attempt to force your action had you known of such attempt, grant to another what you feel to be your own right and do not, under the pleia " If he understood he would be willing," usurp his preroga- tive and do his thinking for him when he is ignorant of your doing and therefore has not opportunity to assent to, or reject it. For this is what you are doing for the time being, when you speak the word to him; you are speaking it for him, THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A HEALER. 249 speaking in his place; therefore you should have his consent for what you do. Without his consent you " do evil that good may come," for whatever militates against the free ex- ercise of the power of choice in individual matters militates against the making of the Individual, the fulfillment of the Great Purpose. When he consents that you shall speak the word for him, he consents that for the moment you shall, practically, do his thinking for him, and he is able to withhold his consent if he chooses. If he refuses to allow you to " treat " him, to speak the word for him — for this is what a " treatment " is — does it follow that you can do nothing for him? If every thought you think goes out into the common mental atmos- phere which all souls inhale, watchfulness of how you think, the habitual thinking of truth, will add to the common whole a healing element. If from you comes no erroneous thought you have lessened the disease germs and increased the health germs that other souls will inhale, and if you never work for others in any other way you are still a benefactor, a redeemer. But you think of a certain one and you set up a wave in tne common atmosphere that has direction. It will bear to him what you think of him, the same word of truth you would speak to him were you doing his thinking for him instead of your own thinking about him. You are doing what you have every right to do, you are interfering with no right of his, your spoken word will reach and help him in proportion to his susceptibility to it. You have exercised your own right, you have not infringed upon his right, you have done well, he will receive good. Do not make the mistake of believing that no good re- sults can come to him unless you speak directly to him, call- ing him by name. God and Nature have provided the means by which every word of yours is preserved. Your every 250 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A HEALER. thought, your every mental word, lives in the common mental atmosphere; and your every mental word of truth, given direction by your thought of some particular one, will gravi- tate toward that one. People are helpers or hinderers by the same law. Desire to be a helper, enforced by knowledge of how to help and wisdom in the choice of the way, will make you a healer pro- vided you do your best to live the life that makes God mani- fest in you. One may be a hypnotizer, and by his mental suggestion induce marvelous results with his patient, without spiritual perception, conception, or aspiration; without effort to attain to God-Likeness; but not so the healer. Without such perception, conception and aspiration that looses the hold of mortal sense and mistaken self-interest, one will surely use mental force in the direction of self-interest; a work often disguised by the name of " for their good." The hypnotizer assumes and maintains authority over his subject, a healer has no subjects, seeks and uses no personal authority, aims to set his patient free from all human author- ity, even such as might be yielded as his own. The healer places his patient in the open plain of individual freedom and responsibility, places him upon his feet, shows him that he has feet and how to use them. He does not make the man " impotent in his feet " still more impotent by transference of his dependence from the physical to the psychical. He points and leads him to the spiritual as the only sure de- pendence, the only force sufficient to produce the regenerated self-consciousness that gives a regenerated life. To be a true healer you must set the patient's lasting good before an immediate gratification, if it comes to a choice be- tween the two; and you must be strong enough to refuse what he asks, and even what others ask for him, at the cost of misjudgment and denunciation of yourself, when his best THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A HEALER. 351 good demands this of you. You must minister to the sick soul as the way to minister most effectually to the sick body. This requires a clear eye and firm hand, a heart so filled with love to God and love to man as to accept, without a murmur, crucifixion at their hands in return for your work for them; the reward always offered by the ignorant to the one who proffers wisdom. You must be strong enough to refuse to place in new bonds those who are seeking escape from their old ones, to abstain from taking advantage of their weakness to build a kingdom for yourself in which you shall be the ruler and they your willing subjects. When Jesus saw that the people would take him by force to make him a king, he withdrew from them ; a good example for you to follow, a necessary example if you shall teach " Call no man your Master." To you, all bodily conditions are related to antecedent mental conditions, therefore there is one root-cause for all, whether the patient be child or man. Your work lies with this cause, you bear witness unto the truth, regardless of what your testimony brings to yourself. Then your word will be with power because you seek not your own glory. It will go whereunto it is sent, space will be no impediment, it shall come to pass. CHAPTER LVIIL The Use of Material Remedies. One of the perplexing questions assailing those who aim to live according to the truth of being instead of according to the natural self-idea, is, " Is it right for me to use any material means whatever, when I am ill? Do I do wrong if I make use of other than mental remedies ?" Here is where many stumble and fall, some on one side of the divid- ing line between the spiritual and the material and some on the other. What constitutes right and wrong? What is right to one is wrong to another because standards vary, because the nature and destiny of the human soul are such that standards of thought and action must always be adjustable. Right and wrong pertain to the progress of the soul, only. Every thing that is natural is right as pertaining to the sequence of cause and effect. Here there can be no wrong. But for the Onlooker there must some time be selection. He is to choose what he will take, what he will leave of that which is all natural. For him there is progress; for the fundamental factors in Creation there is none, they are fixed and changeless. He is to deal with the problems of existence, the right answers are the correct answers. He is to give the correct answers, he may have given, first, incorrect answers. In this sense he is to do right where before he did wrong, but this is not an ethical right and wrong. He is to work according to fixed principle, not contrary to it. 252 THE USE OF MATERIAL REMEDIES. 253 If there is more than one means for use in his work, he has the power and the right to choose which he will at a given time employ, and all means are naturally right means, though some may be better than others at a given period of the work. When a beginner in Mathematics uses a slate and pencil he is using a right means. When he turns to a lead-pencil and paper, or blackboard and chalk, these are equally right means. When by his progress any one of them has become unnecessary to him he no longer selects it from the rest. Did he believe that the power to give him the answer to the prob- lem he is attempting belonged to any one of these means he would be using wrong means when he employed it, for this belief would prevent the understanding that could prove the truth or untruth of the answer reached. The means employed, while all good in themselves, would become right or wrong for him according to his ignorance or understanding of their nature. They would be right or wrong to him according to his sense of moral responsibility. Did he think, " Now I see that the slate and pencil have not the power I thought they had. They have not the least power to produce any result for me. Matter has no power, all is Mind. I see, now, that without mental action I can never get the answer to the problem, therefore I will no more em- ploy the material means, it would not be right," then to use the slate and pencil would be, for him, ethically wrong. Right doing and wrong doing in the ethical sense are a doing according to, or contrary to, a conviction of what is right and what is wrong. In the non-ethical sense they are a doing according to, or contrary to, the Great Purpose. Dependence upon material things as health bringers, as restorers of the original birthright, is a misplaced dependence due to ignorance. Their use as such means to such end is a doing that is contrary to the Purpose to be carried out, and 254 THE USE OF MATERIAL REMEDIES, that puts obstacles in the way. The power that heals is not in them, no more than is the power to give a correct answer to a mathematical problem resident in the slate and pencil employed. The all-important question to be put to one's self is "Where do I place my dependence?" The answer will be according to enlightenment and understanding. Believing that the power to give the answer belongs to the slate and pencil, the worker of the problem will concentrate his atten- tion unwisely, increase his misdirected effort after each failure, be held in bondage to his own belief, try, in consequence, to get the best slate and pencil obtainable. He will be used by them to manifest his own ignorance and its consequences, he will bow down to them and serve them so long as they thus use him. Not till he uses them instead, does he take his place of right relation to them. The existent soul has to learn right relation to environ- ment and all things material, to the real being and all things spiritual, making in itself reconciliation between the above and the below. To ignore either is unwise, to place depend- ence upon that which will prove insufficient is equally so. Only he who understands can reconcile, those who do not understand will be extremists in one or the other direction. Neither extreme position is the sound or safe position. Those who are troubled over what is right and what is wrong to do, have no compunctions of conscience when eat- ing breakfast or dinner, and yet they are employing material means to allay hunger, to warm their houses, to clothe their bodies, to go from one side of the city to another. They who believe it wrong — and, so believing, it is wrong — for them not to drop all material means and depend entirely upon mental means or " upon Truth," to be consistent should never do any of these things, should never throw their arms around THE USE OF MATERIAL REMEDIES. 255 their dear ones and say " I love you," for the arms and vocal organs are material. They should rely on mental action alone. The difference between the Spiritual and the Material is fixed by God and Nature, and it is eternal. Of themselves the two will never meet and mingle. Right adjustment of the one to the other is the great necessity^ a necessity that compels eventually the right adjustment of Science and Re- ligion, the divinely wedded pair that have been humanly divorced. This adjustment takes place in the human soul, in our consciousness, not outside of it. We are to make it, it will never make itself; we are to bring both kingdoms into one as our own kingdom where we rule by divine right. We are to bring the above to the below, we are to lift the below to the above. The Spiritual The Material The living soul As parallel lines do not meet of themselves, they can not reconcile themselves one with the other if they are opposites. But if both meet in a third, within this third a reconciliation between them to the soul that is the third, is possible. It is the adapter of one to the other, a work done in itself for itself; an individual work necessarily. Connected with both, one must see both and decide for himself on which he will place his dependence. Understanding that the Spiritual possesses all potencies, and the Material does not, the choice is quickly made. But the soul sees the Material first and finds the Spiritual after- ward. " First the natural, afterward the spiritual " is the order, but " first the Spiritual, afterward the Natural " be- comes the order for him who sees and understands; and he 256 THE USE OF MATERIAL REMEDIES. will not misplace his dependence, even though, because still connected with the Material by the physical body, he eats, drinks and uses material things at his discretion. When this stage is reached he can use without being used and as he chooses. He is the judge whose ruling determines the verdict. Without being for one moment deceived by appearance, he can " suffer it to be so now " as he uses what he chooses, understanding " for thus it becometh us to fulfill all right- eousness." We must be righteous to the Material as well as to the Spiritual, otherwise we can make in ourselves no reconcilia- tion between them. Now this does not mean that we are to fill ourselves with the contents of the drug shop on the plea that we may do this with impunity " for all things are ours," when the real reason is that we are afraid we can not get help if we do not. That is self-deception still. Percep- tion that both the Spiritual and Material have place in Creation, that we are related to one -as well as to the other, is not to be used as an excuse for not trying to do what We ought to do, what eventually we must do — depend on Mind alone. We must never lose sight of this necessity, this mighty truth, or relax our efforts to live to the eternal instead of to the temporal; but we need not scourge or despise ourselves if, after having made faithful effort to do the best we can day by day, we still use to some extent material things. Not to be deceived by them is the main thing; not to grant to them what does not belong to them, is to keep out of bondage to them. The wise man is never a fanatic, never an extremist. The truly strong man is he who is so poised, has such fine ground under his feet, that he can reach above and below and bring all unto himself. He will be neither a visionary ecstatic, THE USE OF MATERIAL REMEDIES. 257 nor a materialistic dogmatist. Lack of adaptation to environ- ment makes the ecstatic, lack of spiritual illumination, the dogmatist. Both are weak, not strong; blended together they might make a man. Before the understanding that reveals the Spiritual is gained, the soul does not choose between the Spiritual and the Material. The Material is all there is, and choice is lim- ited to the best of it. But afterward one chooses for himself according to his conviction of right and wrong. This is our prerogative, freedom of choice, it makes the individual. Therefore if another chooses differently from ourselves let us not condemn him, he is exercising his prerogative as he has a right to do. If we see that he is deceiving himself, that it is with him " First the natural, and afterward the spiritual " let us warn him and enlighten him if he will be enlightened, remembering that the final decision rests with himself. Let us refrain from exercising authority over others by trying to compel them to follow our conviction of right in- stead of their own. ISTo one can adjust the Spiritual and Material to each other for any one but himself, for it is the life we live that makes this adjustment. We can help others to find and see what they have not before found and seen, stimulate them to effort, warn them of new possible mistakes, life up before them the eternal standard, Truth; but we are not to compel them to accept in this matter our right and wrong as their right and wrong. Use, not abuse, enlightened mastery, not ignorant servitude, is the crying need, and as every one has capacity for reaching this result he must be left free to develop it in himself according to his own con- viction of what he may or may not do. To make use of material means in case of illness a test of sincerity while permitting such use in normal every-day 17 258 THE USE OF MATERIAL REMEDIES. life as quite proper, while the amount of material possessions one can meanwhile accumulate is regarded as "demonstra- tion of truth," seems absurd to the clear thinker who can trace the relation between the Spiritual and the Natural, and unnecessary to the earnest soul that seeks first the " kingdom of God and his righteousness." Stand by essentials unswervingly, but see to it first that an unclouded vision reveals what are the essentials. Do not be influenced by party-spirit, sectarian clamor, but follow in purity of thought and all sincerity of purpose the right as you see it. Then let the judgment of others be what it may you have done right. But see well to it that you do not fail of constant mental watchfulness and self-discipline through the permission to use that you grant to yourself; for then the last state will be worse than the first. CHAPTEE LIX. Freedom and License. To displace servitude by mastery, to attain to freedom, ruling where one has been ruled, is the summit to be attained, but it must be reached by wise methods. Limited perception may mistake license for freedom and create a new bondage, unseen until revealed by its consequences. There is no true freedom except by obedience to the Great Purpose, an obedi- ence the reverse of submission. Only the enlightened obey, the ignorant submit. If the law of cause and effect rules over all and is imperative, obedience to it will remove the necessity for submission to its consequences. But one must not permit perception of the strength of this law and of the power to use it, of the great truth of being and the comparative nothingness of all evil, to lead him to the conviction " I can do what I please, there is no sin, sick- ness or death." This is a recklessness often due to intellectual intoxication where the moral sense is not keen and strong. Such self-permitted license overthrows moral standards when they should be raised even higher than before. In- stances of this overthrow, thus permitted, have been not in- frequent in the development of the metaphysical movement in the last twenty years, and they will continue till earnest and thoughtful investigation of principles and what they compel takes the place of the enthusiastic and emotional fervor that has failed, and will continue to fail, to lay the founda- tion of a true science of self-help. No search for soul-affini- 259 260 FREEDOM AND LICENSE. ties, no ruptures of families, no disregard for strict moral obligation can follow from application of the principles of the Science of Being. When one has made in himself the reconciliation between the Natural and the Spiritual, he will be able to make the consequent reconciliation between every obligation natural relations impose upon him and the spiritual needs of his in- dividual self. He will not mistake licensed indulgence of the sensuous nature for spiritual freedom, or the normal en- lightened use of all material things as dangerous to spiritual development. Such use will never permit one to relax a single effort for mastery, to excuse deficiency and remain content with that which falls short of complete victory. To see and know what one is doing and the consequences of the doing, unde- ceived by appearances because of knowledge attained, candid and fearless for the same reason, undeterred by either the fear or the misplaced sympathy of those who do not see, is to develop the mastery of human existence that is possible through obedience to the principles that govern such result. When one steps into and lives in this realm of true freedom, breathes its invigorating air while he looks out over the expanse of his rightful domain, he will pursue serenely his way in the world of affairs, brought into bondage to none of them, rejoicing in all of them as opportunities for demon- strating the power of the Son of God over the Son of Man. CHAPTEK LX. What Demonstration Includes. As human nature is composite, is variety in unity, there ,must be variety of demonstration, but all leading up to a unity that is the perfection of demonstration. The physical variety is most attractive at first for most people. The dis- appearance of a condition of bodily suffering — what is called such — is hailed with joy as a wonderful demonstration of what can be accomplished; but the too evident tendency in many directions is to overlook other and more subtle demon- strations and overvalue the physical result. When this result is accompanied by increase of wordly prosperity many consider their cup of blessing full to over- flowing; and too many of the leaders in this modern move- ment point to these two results as the incontrovertible proof that they " are in the truth " and what they teach is " the truth " ; meaning that those who do not see and teach as they do, or manifest this kind of result in the same degree are not " in the truth " and therefore can not demonstrate it. Satisfaction with " the loaves and fishes " is a deadener of spiritual activity if it lead to such comparisons and judg- ments, if it accept a kind of demonstration for completeness of demonstration. Demonstration is not and can not be com- plete except as the result of regeneration, the making over of a man. All that belongs to this making over gives oppor- tunity for demonstration, and increased thoughtfulness for others in place of selfish self-absorption is quite as necessary and important demonstration as the disappearance of dyspep- sia. Unfortunately with many it is not so ranked and uncon- 261 262 WHAT DEMONSTRATION INCLUDES. seiously a selfish and uncharitable egotism is unintentionally bred and fostered by those whose only standard of compari- son and judgment is the immediate physical result. Change within is necessary to change without that is worth having, a change that must never be allowed to stand still if its results are to become permanent. The eradication of unworthy impulses and desires, of faults of character, is quite as important as removal of physical (?) pain or acquisi- tion of property. Whatever the measure in which this kind of health be obtained, how it is obtained governs its perma- nence. If due to a positive dominant mental influence that is not rooted in an awakened spiritual nature and need, and so directed to a complete regeneration of the soul, as com- pared to what must still be accomplished its time is short. There are other things to think of beside riddance from suffering and plenty of money. " Whatsoever things are lovely" "think on these things"; the divine character can not be built completely till all necessary material is brought into the work. When one restrains the impulse to anger, the hasty word, holds it with a strong hand while he with- draws its strength and sees it die, turns with increased love and gentleness, thereby, to do a kindly act instead, he is demonstrating the truth of being. The " Sermon on the Mount " is one long record of pos- sible demonstration. To make our best effort to live to it, to its spiritual significance — and effort is not our best till enlightenment of the Great Purpose reveals this significance — is to keep the conditions under which demonstration stead- ily increases and includes more and more of the proved pos- sibilities of God-derived being. To move steadily from theory to demonstrated fact is to become master, is to attain an all- round mastery that is true spiritual development in place of an excrescence that is attached to the old man. CHAPTER LXI. Science and Religion. Science and Religion are but two faces of the same Truth. If being is dual in nature, male and female in one, truth will wear differing aspects to the soul and be sought through dif- fering channels; and yet the unity of being will sometime compel the recognition that truth is one. The male or reasoning nature seeks truth through Sci- ence, using the stepping stones of discovered facts; to the female or intuitional nature truth announces itself without the medium of previously discovered facts. Science as the masculine and Religion as the feminine are to be married in human existence, they are already one. The two natures in ourselves seek satisfaction, each in its own way, and when found it is the same truth that satisfies. But, in their effort to gain knowledge, how many hobble along for years on one foot instead of walking firmly on two. The physicist is careful not to enter the domain of specula- tion, the religionist equally careful to guard " sacred science " from the consequences of modern, discoveries. The physicist stifles the side of his nature that calls for Religion, the relig- ionist smothers the nature that demands intellectual sat- isfaction. If workmen are engaged in tunneling a mountain from opposite sides they will come face to face some day if they work long enough, if they do not cease effort because of in- sufficient tools. Whether they begin work on the east or on 263 264 SCIENCE AND RELIGION. the west side of the mountain does not matter provided they get through it, and with two sets of workmen the work from one side is bound to meet and supplement some day the work from the other side. If physicists and religionists seek long enough each will let daylight in upon the other; a day- light in which they will meet and embrace rapturously if they are sincere in their desire for knowledge. But at present the religionist is hampered by his belief that what he has been taught as revealed religion is the in- fallible truth, and the physicist by his belief that speculation is fatal to discovery of truth. Neither is free to select such tools as he chooses, his free choice and use of whatever offers is hampered by conservatism; and so the slow process of dis- integration of human opinion, of which one is scarcely con- scious it is so slow, must effect gradually what might be more speedily and thoroughly accomplished. If Truth is what Principle compels then both its mascu- line and feminine aspect are necessary in and belong to hu- man existence. The widespread and marvelous variety per- taining to its masculine or scientific aspect is brought into oneness as " the end of the law " for the one who feels its unity. For him religion contains all, though from the physi- cist's point of view he disregards facts. As the Science of Being reveals the nature of the genus, Man, and its Principle, the meaning of Existence and the Purpose wrought out, it points the way of reconciliation be- tween these two great magnets for the human soul; magnets that draw after them the whole human race. This recon- ciliation accomplished first in the individual, a reconciliation that moves him to give glad welcome to all scientific dis- covery while he loses no whit of his adoration for the Most High, will tend to become universal as one after another makes this marriage in himself; and the offspring of the SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 265 marriage will be a new species in the world, he who has " made in himself of twain one new man." Opposing views of existence become united views accord- ing to the measure of understanding of its plan. As under- standing is gained there will be no more religious man than the truly scientific man, and no man more scientific in his methods and conclusions than the religious man. The all- compelling Push brings, in the course of time, this marriage, for the soul's destiny is not fulfilled till it is accomplished, demonstration is not complete till each half of our dual being seeks and finds unity with its mate, and till the highest species is produced from the original Genus. What mankind may be it will be when it is mothered by Religion and fathered by Science; when the spiritual nourishment drawn from the mother is strengthened by the support of the rational nature. Through the lack of assimila- tion of spiritual and mental food caused by conflict and dis- pute the race is puny as compared to what it may be, stunted in growth though the full stature of self-consciousness is its possibility. He who can find the male and female in him- self and wed them for himself will grow and strengthen, receiving and assimilating the soul food that comes through both channels till he is built up into the " begotten Son " who knows, not believes, the Truth because he is of the Truth. This man, the living incarnation of what all are more or less blindly seeking, must ever be a puzzle and a wonder to both secular and religious devotees when they can find no common ground for unity. He is a standing contradiction to the claims of each, though he is also their confirmation, rejected of them while he saves them from loss and destruction. As Pilate's question " What is Truth ? " was answered by its incarnate presence, an answer neither heard nor seen, so to-day the offspring of this mystic marriage has the witness 266 80IEN0E AND RELIGION. in himself and bears witness unto the world, though the world as then so often fails to see and hear. Both Science and Religion are abstractions till they be- come living through apprehension, comprehension and feel- ing. All possible knowledge belongs under one or the other head. Walking in both roads in pursuit of knowledge the soul finds sometime that the two ways meet in him, that he, himself, is the end of all. CHAPTEK LXII. Fbom Dust to Divinity. "Without making the text-book too large for convenience the solution of many of the complicated problems of Existence can not be included. But as in all mathematical problems unvarying fundamentals are involved, must be adhered to if correct answers be obtained, so in these problems the funda- mentals herein set forth are involved. If they are under- stood, applied, and followed unswervingly, enlightenment follows, the answers are gained. As Man is prior to evolution he can not be the product of evolution; but the existent soul is in that process of evo- lution that is its ascent from seeming powerlessness to con- scious dominion. From dust to Divinity is an open road that begins and ends with the eternal, a road in which all species are found for it runs through all kingdoms. Or it is a chain in which are no missing links for the inner eye that can distinguish between real and phenomenal. A simple illustration is given as aid to those who wish to follow the subject of " Evolution." It is the existent soul, one soul, that climbs this Scale of Being, animating each kingdom and all it includes as it passes through each on its way to ultimate accomplishment. All things, animate and inanimate, have " souls," because the Soul in being is moving out from being on and up to full manifestation. In being, Soul is one, in existence living soul is one whole whatever the aspect afforded by the differing 267 268 FROM DUST TO DIVINITY. THE SCALE OF BEING. Divinity Spiritual Kingdom Moral " Mental " Human Kingdom Animal " Vegetable " Mineral " Dust natures back of the differing shapes that are animated by it. Conquering each kingdom as it climbs, exceeding the limits of each kingdom in turn because of the Great Push that com- pels, passing thus through each and all it reaches at last the sublime height that is the Likeness of God — the Personal God. Not till the Human Kingdom is reached is the species provided by Nature that can find the Plan and Purpose and co-operate with them, adding its own volitional doing to what is being done. At this kingdom in the Scale of Being the road traveled becomes invisible to senses that nave traced continuity of physical structure, for here psychical structure is successor to physical. The building has a more subtle quality, goes on behind the material veil as the soul-structure that is to reach on and up to Divinity. For this to be accomplished the soul must inhabit the Men- tal, Moral and Spiritual kingdoms as their Master, not as a FROM DUST TO DIVINITY. 269 suppliant. Here volition plays its part, and the individual doing is added to what is being done by God and Nature. Physical structure, Psychical structure, and Spiritual structure must follow each other for Divine Embodiment to be. Behind the veil of the Physical the rest is builded as " the temple of the Living God," a veil that at last shall be rent from top to bottom, its uses past, the glories it has hidden revealed as the permanent and unchanging. REMARKS. Of course you understand that " from dust " does not mean that the ascending soul is of the dust. Remember that Principle and the Derived being in which is Soul, the Like- ness of God, are back of what is called " dust," that with "dust" begins the traceableness of ascent or evolution; its registration as it were. Study faithfully what is herein set forth and you will be prepared later to deal with the more abstruse and vexing problems that modern thought is wrestling with. " Evolu- tion," " Reincarnation," " Psychic Phenomena " and many others challenge the attention of the thinker. Whatever the opinions of them one thing is sure, " the principle of things must interpret them." Stick to principles, now and always, and the way of solu- ^tion must open to you. CHAPTEE LXIII. The Eelation of the Bible to the Science of Being. The system of thought named " the Science of Being " does not rest upon the Bible as its authority. If true, its truth is independent of the Bible as of all other authority and must be self-evident to be seen and known. But the Bible affords confirmation of the argument, for its meaning as illustrated by the history and imagery employed is the same deductive continuity. The premise of this system, is identical with the first chapter of Genesis, the conclusions step by step are the same even to the ultimate, for the Bible is an orderly presentation of abstract truth, of what Prin- ciple compels. The teaching can be given from beginning to end as argu- ment solely, or it can be accompanied by a constant paral- lelism in the Bible. It does not view the Bible as something too sacred to be critically examined, or so old-fashioned as to be obsolete, but as an illustration of the nature of the human soul and the order of its development according to the law governing the development. It looks upon the Bible as an Arithmetic, presenting prob- lems for solution, problems to be solved by the reader as he discovers their principle, unsolvable without such discovery. Allegory, imagery and history are the material used for this formulation, a letter that " gendereth to bondage " if it is mistaken for the truth of the book, but is only a dissolving veil when its meaning is discerned. 270 RELATION OF BIBLE TO SCIENCE OF BEING. 271 As the Science of Numbers is pure science the date at which an Arithmetic is written has nothing to do with its nature, and the fact that only a mathematician can write an Arithmetic is a more necessary clue to its meaning than the personal name of the author. The " Higher Criticism " of to-day is wasting time over the needless except as by its efforts it lessens the superstitious fear with which the book has been regarded. Time and place of writing and name of writer, the accuracy of History, are of small moment as compared with " What does the Bible teach? " From Genesis to Bev- elation it is a logically consistent whole, as is not Theology. Both classes of minds can be reached by the Science of Being, those who are suffering a violent reaction from the Bible and can be held only by cold reasoning, and those to whom it is still sacred and dear. Emancipation from super- stition and prejudice, reverence for all in the Bible that ap- peals to our nobler nature, willingness to suspend judgment as to the claims made for it till its nature is proved, rather than asserted, is all that is necessary. It is a mystical book, its meaning, like the meaning of an Arithmetic, is told in the only way it can be told, by illustration. It is as truly a scientific as a religious book, it appeals to the reason as well as the heart, contains scientific facts welcomed throughout the world as recent discoveries, is a gold-mine of treasure for the physicist as well as for the religionist. The Old Testament presents the positive Science of Being analogous to the Science of Numbers, the New Testament the teaching, preaching and demonstration of the Science of Being; the theoretical and the practical. And yet, be it remembered, the argument named " The Science of Being " does not offer the Bible as its authority. Each student must find, know and prove for himself. The 272 RELATION OF BIBLE TO SCIENCE OF BEING. way is pointed out, it remains for him to walk in it till he gains what may be found. ILLUSTRATION. ■' ^eu>~Tkt~t~imtri£~ * Possible. Hesu.lt 7T5« Tcreena 2 Gtoot tmf*~ivso~ta.l (foci. Old Tustamtnt tcma n Sxtst~nc£, Each member of the human race, irrespective of nation- ality, is an individual instance of the Old Testament; and may be a like instance of the New Testament. The nine stages of the soul are analogous to the nine months of physical gestation from conception to birth. CHAPTER LXIY. The Difference between Christian Science and the Science of Being. As the teaching known as " Christian Science," and its demonstrations also, have attained prominence, a prominence that in large measure is well-deserved, the question is likely to be asked, " What is the difference between this teaching and the Science of Being? " It is best answered by parallel- ing some of the main propositions and conclusions. Christian Science. The Science of Being. Premise — God is Principle. Premise — The same. Principle is the beginning" of The same. Creation. God is Spirit, Life, Love, Intelli- The same. gence, Substance, Mind. Man is the image and likeness of The same. God forever. Man is spiritual, not material. The same. Man expresses God. The same. Man is the idea of Infinite Mind. The same. Man is changelessly whole and The same. perfect. Man never sickens nor dies. The same. Sin sickness and death are na The same. part of Man. There is no evil in Man. The same. Man is always in unity with God The same. and expresses nothing con- trary to God. 18 273 274 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE OF BEING. Chkistian Science. There is no matter. There is no World. There is no body. There is no Time. There is no sin. There is no evil. Good is omnipotent. There is no sickness or disease. There is no mortal man. Mortals must grow up and into immortals. The Science of Being. Matter is a natural factor in Creation. The World is the Phenomenon relative to the Noumenon. Body, as soul -embodiment, be- longs to Creation. Time is the order of manifesta- tion, as sensed by the existent soul. Original sin is an unintentional mistaking by the existent soul. Evil exists only in human con- sciousness. The same. Disease is that which is contrary to harmony. It is in human consciousness as a discord — lack of accord with the har- mony of true being. Forms of sickness are expressions of this lack of accord. They are sensed by the soul and are finally conquered by victory over susceptibility to them. Applied knowledge of the truth of being gives the victory. Man is the Genus, perfect and eternal as the Idea of Infinite Mind. A man is the human personality, a species of the Genus. This personality is eternal subjectively and mortal objectively. The body of a man will come to an end. The living soul is des- tined to immortality. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE OB 1 BEING. 275 Christian Science. Mortal existence is a dream with- out a dreamer. Suffering is a claim without a claimant. There is no sensation in matter. All sickness is mortal mind. The body is mortal mind. Matter is mortal mind. The Science of Being. A state of consciousness has its natural limitations. The state of sense - consciousness is a dream as compared to the reality of being". The existent soul, in its first, or infant, state, is the dreamer. Suffering is a quality of sensa- tion. Sensation is in the existent soul and is qualified or classified ac- cording to the sense of it. All sense of suffering is the re- sult of misconception of being, is the effect of its cause— er- roneous thinking. The not- yet-developed soul is the think- er. It thinks according to mortal sense, is beguiled by ap- pearance. The materiality of the phenom- enal body is the integration of mortal sense. Body is a funda- mental factor in Creation. Its qualities are the varying in- tegrations in the natural mold. Matter is original in Creation as a part of the order that con- stitutes Creation. Materiality is the objective aspect of mor- tal sense. Matter and materi- ality are not identical. Ma- teriality belongs to existence, not to Creation. 276 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE OF BEING. Christian Science. The fading forms of matter are the fleeting thoughts of mortal mind that have their day be- fore the permanent perfection of Spirit shall appear. Mortal mind improves until error disappears and nothing is left that deserves to perish. There is no mortal mind. The Science of Being. The materiality of objects will dissolve and disappear as mor- tal sense is conquered by the spiritual sense of being and existence. Mortal sense can not penetrate to and grasp the eternal realities, back of all objects. The figures themselves are perpetual in their relation to spiritual verities, their ma- teriality is temporal. A man learns through experience to put off the false and mis- leading sense and to cultivate the true sense of being and ex- istence, growing thereby to the spiritual and eternal realiza- tion of all that is God-derived. There is but one Mind, and neither Man nor a man can have another separate mind. This one Mind is fully ex- pressed in the being, and facul- ties of being operate in the soul. Mortal sense believes those faculties to be a separate mind belonging to the human per- sonality. Therefore, though there is no mortal mind, no such cause for anything what- ever, there is a mortal sense, the sense natural to the exist- ent soul and leading to con- clusions that are afterward to be corrected by the faculties of being. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE OF BEING. 277 Christian Science. The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin. What is termed disease is formed unconsciously. We think we are healed when a disease disappears * * * we are never thoroughly healed until liability is removed. Matter is made up of forces and force is reduced to Mind. To be made whole we have only to forsake the mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of be- lief to Truth and gain the facts of being from Immortal Mind. Adam ought to be thought of as a dam, an obstruction, as error opposed to truth — as standing for that which is accursed, spoiled, or undone. The Science of Being. The same. The same. The same. The same The same. Adam represents the natural ex- istent soul, the natural human personality, the product of God and Nature, primarily innocent of knowledge, but capable of gaining it. His " fall " is the misconception of self, the nat- ural self-idea which, as error, stands in the way of further progress in self-knowledge and demonstration of true being. His " sin " is not ethical but natural. Salvation from sin, redemption from its conse- quences, victory over mortal sense, are the growth of the soul from its Adam-infancy to its Christ-maturity. 278 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE OF BEING. Christian Science. The verdict of the so-called five material senses victimizes mor- tals, taught as they are * * * to revere those five personal lies. Knowledge is a mortal, finite sense of things that Spirit dis- claims. Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man that drops the mortal for the immortal. Universal salvation rests on pro- The same, gression and is unattainable without it. Christian Science draws its sup- port from the Bible. The Science of Being. The five senses are not lies. They belong to the real being, to in- dividuality, and are spiritual in nature. They operate in the soul and the range of their operation is the capacity of self-consciousness according to its degree of existence or devel- opment. They are avenues for impression and they never lie. The conclusion of mortal sense is the lie. Existence is a persistent process of gaining knowledge that in- cludes the elimination from the soul of the unfit, the errone- ous; a process by which knowl- edge becomes wisdom. The same. The Divine Science taught in the original language of the Bible came by inspiration and needs inspiration to be understood. Spiritual sense is a conscious The same, capacity to understand God. As immortal, we have a perfect, The same indestructible form. The Science of Being supports it- self. It interprets the Bible and the Bible confirms it. The same. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE OF BEING. 279 Christian Science. It requires a higher understand- ing to teach this subject prop- erly and correctly, than to heal the most difficult case. Entire immunity from suffering cannot be expected at this period of time, only some abatement of suffering and sin. Man is more than an individual form with a mind inside of it. He reflects Infinity, and in- cludes in this reflection the en- tire universe of God's creating. To deny the existence of Evil, or to flee before it, will involve you in hopeless error. The Science of Being. The same. The same. The same. Whoever practices this Science through which the Divine Mind pours light "md healing upon this generation, cannot pursue malpractice or harm his pa- tient. God has endowed man with in- The same, alienable rights among which are self-government and rea- son. Man has individual right of self-government. To understand evil as a quality of human thought and con- sciousness is to lose all fear of it and become able to overcome it with good. The same. 280 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE OF BEING. The Scientific Statement of Being. There is no Life, Substance or Intelligence in matter. All is Mind. Spirit is immortal truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God and man is his image and likeness; hence man is spiritual and not material. The Scientific Statement of Being and Existence. There is no Life, Substance or Intelligence in Matter. As First Cause or Origin, Mind is all, is the governing Principle of Creation. Spirit is the eternal Substance, Matter is but qualified motion. Matter is eternal as compelled by the governing Principle, but ma- teriality is temporal. A man is temporal in his physical presentation, but eternal in his being. Spirit is God, and the Man, or the being, is God's image and likeness; hence Man is spiritual and not material. Christian Science is, practically,- more a religion than a science, satisfying as a religion to thousands notwithstanding its disconnected and fragmentary statement as a science. As a religion it has a dogma, disproved as truth by the very principles it enunciates as a science, but accepted as truth by the thousands who call it a science without being able, ap- parently, to supply the missing links needed to make the chain complete. It is regarded as too holy to be added to or taken away from, because it is a special revelation to one per- son who is the highest manifestation of God the world has ever known; one chosen out of all mankind to receive it. The Science of Being as a chain of deductive reasoning is first a science, and afterward, when seen as such by the individual, the basis of his religion; the foundation whereon he stands in his individual relation to God while he does what he may do to know and prove his possibilities from God. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE OF BEING. 281 It places all the resources of infinity in the hands of any one man, and bids him see, use, and prove for himself as the equal of all men, equally endowed. It teaches him to look for and find his God by use of the divine birthright that is his as much as it is any other man's; to come into conscious communion with this Supreme Intelli- gence that will instruct always its own Son. It saves alive all in differing religions that accords with undeviating principle, and destroys only the human dogmas interwoven in their web and woof of truth. It helps him to " the healthful development and right life of the spiritual nature " that enables him to reach out to and join hands with all mankind in all well-meant efforts for righteousness without losing from under his feet the firm and sure foundation. It leads him to love his neighbor as himself because it shows his neighbor to be as himself, possessing the same Grod- endowments, having the same race to run in consequence; and inspires him to live and love with his brother instead of as one apart from the rest. It shows, every utterance of truth a revelation, and every speaker of it a revelator. It is abstract truth, impersonal from beginning to end. It compels a Knower, not a believer. It imposes, in the name of freedom, no new bondage in place of an old. It liberates the soul, tends to individualize it, helps it to find and appropriate to itself all truth, to demonstrate the truth found. It prevents one from being contented with the mere change of physical condition so often called " Healing " and inspires him to fresh endeavor for the higher results without which this kind of Healing is a pitfall and a snare. 282 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE OF BEING. / Affirmation of Being. "With reverent recognition of my birthright, I claim my sonship with the Almighty. I am free from disease and disorder. I am in harmony with my Source. The Infinite Health is made manifest in me. The Infinite Substance is my constant supply. The Infinite Life fills and strengthens me. The Infinite Intelligence illumines and directs me. The Infinite Love surrounds and protects me. The Infinite Power upholds and supports me. I am out of bondage. I have the freedom of the Sons of God. With all that is in me I rejoice and give thanks. God and man are all in all, now and f orevermore. HOW WE MASTER OUR FATE, By URSULA N. GESTEFELD. A series of articles, descriptive and explanatory of human experience and what we can do to make it satisfactory. Appearing originally in The Exodus, they are now published in book form with a preface by the author. Table of Contents. The Inventor and the Invention. Words as Storage Batteries. ^ Law or Chance? The Origin of Evil. Ascension of Ideas. Letting the Dead Bury its Dead. Eelation of the Visible to the In- What is Within the " Here." visible. The Hidden Body. The Common Ground of Oriental The Way to Happiness. and Occidental Philosophy. The Voice that is Heard in Loneli- Living by Insight or by Outsight. ness. Destiny and Fate. The Language of Suggestion. Where the Senses Belong. The Ingrafted Word and what Servant or Master? Comes of it. The Man and the Woman in our The Law of Liberty. Dream-consciousness. Constructive Imagination. How to Care for the Body. Incarnation — The Purpose of Nat- The Germs of Disease. ure Fulfilled. The Power and Powerlessness of Heredity. Some Comments of the Press. The book ought to be read especially by those whose self-reliance and concentration of energy may have been wanting in the attempt to conquer the tyranny of circumstance. — The Outlook. It is full, complete, and it is our conviction that no greater book has ever been written. It deals with abstractions to the absolutely practi- cal extent that it compels the reader's thought inward by reason of its living, essential power. Judged from any standpoint, the book is an artistic piece of work; judged merely by the fair intellect, it is a superb exposition of Truth. — Boston Ideas. Happy the man who will obtain this book and read and reflect, till its ideas live and work in him the fate-mastering power of its title. The work is simply invaluable to those that " seek power on high." — Morrison's Cyclops. This book will be especially helpful to those whose reliance and power of concentration are weak: whose energy has not been wakened to an effort to free themselves from the tyranny of circumstance. Simple and plain as these truths seem to be, they need to be uttered again and again. — Our, Bible Teacher. Size 6% x 8% inches, 109 pages. Printed on antique laid paper, with wide margins and bound in Holliston linen cloth, stamped in ink with original design. Price, 75 cents, net, postpaid. THE GESTEFELD PUBLISHING CO., Pelham, N. Y. THE BREATH OF LIFE, A Series of Self-Treatments. By URSULA N. GESTEFELD. Table of Contents. For the Morning'. When there is Difficulty in Letting For the Evening. go the Past. For High Noon. When there is the Sense named When there is a Sense of Injury. " Insomnia." When there is Fear of Accident. When there is Dissatisfaction with When there is Fear of Heredity. Environment. When there is Fear of Death. When there is Need for Patience. When there is Fear of Failure in When the Sense of Sight Dimin- Business. ishes with Advancing Age. When there is Dread of the Fut- When one Begins to see the Neces- ure. sity for a Higher than Natural When there is Proneness to Anger. Affection. When there is Tendency to Self- When it is Desired to Lose Fond- depreciation, ness for Money. When there is Lack of Confidence and Trust. Some Comments of the Press. " The Breath of Life," is a remarkable work of self-helpfulness and is a great masterpiece in the expression of that for which it stands. It may always be relied upon for counsel, with the surety that, when the truths it contains are absorbed into the soul and thence have spread their vast vitalities into the ultimates of being, its individual possessor will be a truly happy person and one whose destiny is in his own hands. — Boston Ideas. There has long been a demand for such a work, suggestive in both ideas and text, by which the reader should be enabled to help himself. The book is certainly true to its title, every thought being a life-giving inspiration and a ready aid to spiritual development. Simple and direct in presentation, it is a capital work to put into the hands of earnest truth-seekers of every class. Eminently practical in contents, it is also neat and attractive in appearance. — Mind. It meets you with help in every case where help is needed, and presents an infallible suggestion enabling you to overcome all dif- ficulties in all relations. The little book is a very arsenal of spiritual force and should be the companion of every human being on earth. It is the philosophy of Jesus Christ redeemed from the swamp of tradition and dogmatic inutility and presented in its glorious living practicality to the enjoyment of the faithful. — Morrison's Cyclops. Size, 6% x 4% inches. 64 pages. Daintily bound in light green cloth and stamped in purple and gold. Price, 50 cents, net, postpaid. THE GESTEFELD PUBLISHING CO., Pelham, N. Y. REINCARNATION OR IMMORTALITY? By URSULA N. GESTEFELD. A valuable and timely book. The failure of dogmatic Theology to answer satisfactorily the universal query, "Whence come I? Whither do I go? " has awakened a new interest in the Eastern teach- ing of Reincarnation and has caused a strong tendency to apply its principles to Western life and ideals. In this the gifted author's latest work, the truths of this teaching are clearly and vividly portrayed — its errors, both in teaching and application, plainly shown. It is the first work to offer valid and consistent objections to the strong arguments advanced by Reincarnationists in support of that theory. Void of assertion, all arguments presented are logical deductions from a stated premise. To the many looking for " more light," who accept the theory of Reincarnation in lieu of a better as explaining many of the problems of human existence, this book will be welcome — will prove a valuable guide and counselor. Some Comments of the Pkess. This book is not written from an orthodox Christian standpoint, but it is for that reason likely to be more effective with those who have gone into Oriental theosophy. Yet the fundamental Christian ideas are here — the immanence of the transcendent Spirit, the con- tinual incarnation of the divine in the human, the salvation of the soul through an earnest laying hold of that which is eternal, and to-day as the time to seek salvation. Theosophists may find this book easier reading than the average Christian. The latter will profit by it, if having the capacity to recognize thought akin to his own in modes of expression somewhat dissimilar. — The Outlook. This book is devoted to a refutation of the doctrine of reincarna- tion, as preached by the Theosophists and believed by a large number of students of new scientific religions. Mrs. Gestefeld makes the point that Karma does not account for a first incarnation, although it may for subsequent ones, and the doctrine is therefore imperfect. She also claims that in the popular view of reincarnation no allowance is made for a man's will, his individuality, or for the higher law, which allows each incarnated soul to choose the manner in which he will accept the experiences he is forced to live through. — Brooklyn Daily Eagle. I have recently derived great pleasure in hurriedly scanning the rugged diction of a work on "Reincarnation or Immortality?" by Ursula N. Gestefeld. In my busy life I cannot more than jump through books — never read them. I was quite surprised to find some of my own oft-cherished arguments in refutation of reincarnation lurking in these pages. I advise everybody — especially all who have been intellectually seduced by the blandishments of Oriental fancies — to read this book carefully and studiously.— Rev. Henry Frank, in The Independent Thinker. Size, 6% x S% inches. 165 pages. Beautifully printed from new plates on antique laid paper, with wide margins. Bound in Holliston linen cloth, stamped in ink, with original cover design. Price, $1.00 net, postpaid. THE GESTEFELD PUBLISHING CO., Pelham, N. Y. THE METAPHYSICS OF BALZAC, As found in '* The Magic Skin," " Louis Lambert/' and " Seraphita." By URSULA N. GESTEFELD. As is generally known, the fiction of Balzac covers his philosophy, and is the result of individual efforts to find the hidden meaning of existence. He has formulated what he found in a certain system, illustrated by the characters and incidents in the three famous books — beginning with " The Magic Skin " and ending with " Seraphita." A thread of continuity holds them together as a whole — a thread of meaning that richly repays the seeker for it. For those looking for a soul behind the seal of the letter, these essays will be found both interesting and helpful. Some Comments of the Press. While some consider Balzac the greatest of authors, and others can see no special merit in his writings, it remains true that what he wrote is to-day receiving even greater attention than when he was at the height of his success half a century ago. Hence there would seem to be good reason for an able and careful commentary upon his literary work, in part or in whole. The author of " The Metaphysics of Balzac " is heartily in sympathy with the subject, and is to be congratulated upon her manner of handling it. Lovers of Balzac will enjoy and appreciate every page, while those who have held aloof from this French master can in no better way, than by reading this little volume, get an insight into his grasp of human life and action, and the incisiveness of his analytical power. — Boston Times. A book which any admirer of the great novelist ought to enjoy read ig; the comment is always interesting and inspiring. — The Ouuoolc. This is a late work of a popular author— a volume that affords new scope for the presenting of an old subject. If to criticise Balzac is to criticise life itself, as Trent suggests, analogy would indicate that to interpret Balzac is to interpret Life itself. Ever reeking " to determine the actual relations between man and God," the . , ■ v novelist in his trilogy of " The Magic Skin," " Louis L utaV and '* Seraphita," has given to the world an outline of the human soul in its various stages of development. And with consummate skill, Mrs. Gestefeld has detected and unwound the underlying thread of con- tinuity that holds these works together as a harmonious whole. The struggles and sufferings of Raphael, the ravings of Louis Lambert, and the sublime philosophy of Seraphita are portrayed in a light that is full of meaning and rich in thought-food for the seeker after truth. The author's interpretation fills the reader with wonder at the deep spirituality of the inspired seer and his marvellous insight into the operations of the human mind and soul. — Mind. Size, 5% x 7% inches, 112 pages. Printed on antique laid paper, with wide margins. Bound in purple cloth and richly stamped in gold. Price, $1.00 net, postpaid. THE GESTEFELD PUBLISHING CO., Pelham, N. Y. H 244 83 i?~* ^ /dfe'-, \/ SM£ m % f ^ % a? ^ •■ O > a*^ .V o • » i0^ -^^yi ^o^ . i?^ V ' • m • 1 * A VV ^ - ^ 5 ■v<» • 5 ^ 4 o W JOT* AV ^ » i A 4> ... 4< .4> "^ ^ r° ••til* °, *> v ••"••"^ V - <**'""•' ^ \3L -*., t < « •fc. Pn * ^ r +6 & ■ >-. •: v# 4 "J^m^* * «a» 4»* ^%. ^ —- "" •"'^^X'' , V^.;v*-\o *\-•• *» •°^ ,1°,, <» *'7V o A * ; ^"'' A o 9 "^ *^T«* ^ ,H°^ ^"" i ^ 1 ^' % °o J? Sl£i% V ^ ^Ul% % k JUL 83 4T ^0 :♦ ^n 1 ^vv