{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_56761/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_56761","id":"gutenberg_56761","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56761","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Theosophy -- Periodicals"],"text":"Produced by Larry B. Harrison, Chris Pinfield and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n(This book was produced from images made available by the\nHathiTrust Digital Library.)\n\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note.\n\nApparent typographical errors have been corrected.\n\nItalics are indicated by _underscores_ and bold font by +plus signs+.\nSmall capitals have been replaced by full capitals. Paragraphs in\nsmaller font have been indented.\n\n\n\n\nJANUARY, 1899.\n\n[Illustration:\n UNIVERSAL\n BROTHERHOOD\n \u00b7A\u00b7MAGAZINE\n DEVOTED TO THE\n BR\u014cTHERH\u014c\u014cD\u00b7OF\u00b7HUMANITY\n THE\u00b7THE\u014cS\u014cPHICAL\u00b7M\u014cVEMENT\n PHIL\u014cS\u014cPHY\u00b7SCIENCE\u00b7AND\u00b7ART\n FOUNDED\u00b7IN\u00b71886\u00b7UNDER\u00b7THE\u00b7TITLE\u00b7OF\u00b7THE\u00b7PATH\u00b7BY\n \u00b7W\u1d50\u00b7Q\u00b7JUDGE]\n\n\n\n\nVOLUME XIII. No. 10. CONTENTS.\n\n\n Frontispiece: William Q. Judge.\n\n A Happy New Year,                           Katherine A. Tingley.    527\n\n Comrades; Greeting!                          E. Aug. Neresheimer.    528\n\n Alphonse de Lamartine,                     Alexander Wilder, M.D.    529\n\n Point Loma and its Legend,                       Frank M. Pierce.    541\n\n Evolution and Involution,                          H.\u00a0A. Freeman.    542\n\n The Cycle of Life,\n   _Translated from the Polish by V.\u00a0A.\u00a0H._      Mary Konopnitsky.    549\n\n Gods, Heroes and Men,                            Amos J. Johnson.    551\n\n The Philosophy of Suicide,                          T.\u00a0B. Wilson.    554\n\n The Ethics of Sex,                                 Grace G. Bohn.    558\n\n The Sokratic Club,                                         Solon.    562\n\n Fragment\u2014Omniscience,                                 Adhiratha.    566\n\n Form or Matter,                                      W.\u00a0E. Gates.    568\n\n Students' Column,                     Conducted by J.\u00a0H. Fussell.    572\n\n Young Folks' Department:\n   A Christmas Story,                                     M.\u00a0S.\u00a0L.    575\n\n Brotherhood Activities,                                              579\n\n\n Mrs. Katherine A. Tingley, Mr. E.\u00a0A. Neresheimer, Editors.\n $ 2.00 PER YEAR.\n ISSUED MONTHLY.\n PER COPY 20 CENTS\n Entered as second class matter at New York Post-office.\n\n\n\"Universal Brotherhood\"\n\nDEVOTED TO\n\n_The Brotherhood of Humanity, the Theosophical Movement, Philosophy,\nScience and Art._\n\nFOUNDED IN 1886 UNDER THE TITLE OF \"THE PATH,\" BY\n\n+WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.+\n\n KATHERINE A. TINGLEY  } EDITORS.\n E.\u00a0A. NERESHEIMER     }\n\n\nBUSINESS NOTICE.\n\n+Universal Brotherhood+ is published on the twenty-fifth day of the\nmonth preceding date of issue.\n\n+Main Office+: Theosophical Publishing Co., 144 Madison Avenue, New York\nCity.\n\n+London+: Theosophical Book Company, 8 Vernon Place, Bloomsbury Square,\nW.\u00a0C.\n\n+Dublin+: 18, Eustace Street.\n\n+Cable Address+: \"Judge,\" New York.\n\n+Annual Subscription+ for the United States, Canada and Mexico, $2.00; 6\nmonths $1.00; 3 months 50 cents; single copy, 20 cents. Foreign\ncountries in the Postal Union, 9_s._ per annum; six months 4_s._ 6_d._;\nsingle copy, 1_s._ Payable in advance.\n\n+Remittances+ should be made by draft, check, post office order or\nregistered letter. All remittances should be made payable and sent to\nTheosophical Publishing Company.\n\n+Change of Address.+ No change of address will be made within ten days\nprevious to mailing day.\n\n+Manuscripts+ must be accompanied by postage for return if found\nunavailable.\n\n+Advertising Rates+, which are moderate, may be obtained on application\nto the publishers.\n\n+Agents.+\u2014Active Agents are desired in every part of the world, to whom\nliberal inducements will be offered.\n\n+Communications+ intended for the Editorial Department should be\naddressed \"Editor, Universal Brotherhood, 144 Madison Avenue, New York\nCity,\" and should include no other matter. Those intended for the\nBusiness and Publishing Department should be addressed to \"Theosophical\nPublishing Co., 144 Madison Avenue, New York City\". _It is particularly\nrequested that this notice be complied with._\n\n\n+The Editors are not responsible for signed or unsigned articles in\nthis Magazine, to which neither of their names are attached.+\n\n\nANNOUNCEMENT.\n\nUNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD is a Magazine devoted to the promulgation of the\nprinciples of the Brotherhood of Humanity in the widest sense. It is an\norgan whose aim is to show that the Unity or Brotherhood of Mankind it\nan actual fact in nature. If this principle were better understood by\nthe multitude or even by certain classes of Society there would be less\nstrife and competition and more sympathy and co-operation.\n\nThe demonstration of these broad ideas from the Ethical, Scientific and\nPractical points of view will prove that there is much agreement between\nthese systems on this topic, and that it is an underlying ground-work by\nmeans of which all Religions and all Philosophies agree also.\n\nThis magazine will endeavor to show the great similarity between the\nReligions of the world, in their fundamental beliefs and doctrines as\nalso the value of studying other systems than our own.\n\nA sound basis for ethics should be found.\n\nThose who would assist the cause of Brotherhood should realize that it\nis of the first importance to discover as much as possible concerning\nthe nature of man and man's relation to the world around him. The laws\nthat govern his physical, mental, moral and spiritual being should be\nstudied and investigated.\n\nIt is hoped that every sympathizer with the cause of brotherhood will\nendeavor to assist us in enlarging the circulation of this magazine.\nSubscribers will greatly oblige by sending us the names and addresses of\nindividuals known to them as willing to investigate liberal ideas.\n\nAll writers who are interested in the above objects are invited to\ncontribute articles.\n\nIt is in the hands of our readers to push the circulation of UNIVERSAL\nBROTHERHOOD to an almost unlimited extent. +All profits arising from\nthe publication of this magazine, or from the business conducted by the\nTheosophical Publishing Co., are devoted to propaganda of Brotherhood.\nAll who assist us in this work are directly helping the great cause of\nhumanity.+\n\n_Please mention_ UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD _when you write advertisers_.\n\n\n [Illustration:\n (illegible signature)\n A HAPPY NEW YEAR.]\n\n\n AUM\n\n \"Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death\n stands at your elbow. Be good for something, while you live, and it is\n in your power.\"\n\n \"The first duty taught in Theosophy, is to do one's duty unflinchingly\n by every duty.\"\u2014_Gems from the East._\n\n\n UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD\n\n VOL. XIV.\n JANUARY, 1899.\n No. 10.\n\n\n\n\nA HAPPY NEW YEAR.\n\n\nOnce more we enter upon a new year, and the Greetings of our hearts rise\nspontaneously and go out to our loved ones and comrades throughout the\nworld, to all the people of the earth, and to all creatures. We look\nback through twenty-three years and we see that lion-hearted pioneer H.\u00a0P.\nBlavatsky standing alone, proclaiming her message to the world. Then\na few gather around her and among them is our beloved Chief, William Q.\nJudge. A little later, H.\u00a0P.\u00a0B. leaves America for Europe and India, and\nthe picture comes before us of W.\u00a0Q. Judge meeting in New York, night\nafter night, often alone, sometimes with but one or two. We know now\nwhat he was doing. We can see now how faithfully he tended the seed that\nhas grown to a tree which is for the healing of the nations, and how he\nwatched the spark that is now bursting into flame, a beacon of Truth,\nLight and Liberation for discouraged humanity.\n\nHow small a beginning! How glorious the result even now! But could I\nshow you the picture of a few years hence you would say it is beyond\nbelief. But it is not. The tide has turned. The sorrow and suffering\nwhich have oppressed Humanity for ages are nearing their end, the day of\nhope has already dawned, the new age and the new year of Universal\nBrotherhood has begun.\n\nHow glorious then is the opportunity of all to-day, and how great the\nresponsibility of each one to help and not obstruct or hinder this work\nfor humanity. Success cannot be attained without effort. The evil in the\nworld and in man's own nature cannot be overcome without a struggle. But\nis it not a glorious thing to fight on and still fight? Some, perhaps,\nmay fall, some have fallen in the struggle, but the victory is certain,\nand if all, when they are sore-pressed, would but remember the words of\nH.\u00a0P.\u00a0B., they would take new courage and new strength to go ever\nforward.\n\n\"Trials you must pass through or you will not be purified.\"\n\n\"Twenty failures are not irremediable if followed by as many undaunted\nstruggles upward! Is it not so that mountains are climbed?\"\n\nAnd can we not see already how glorious is the work that has been\naccomplished. But two short years to the end of the Century and we shall\nsee the Sun shining gloriously. The battle is already won, the darkness\nis already fast disappearing before the light of day. The work of H.\u00a0P.\u00a0B.\nand W.\u00a0Q.\u00a0J. has spread around the world and with each New Year the\nnote of Brotherhood resounds more clearly and the Happy New Year shall\nbe realized.\n\nWhat a Greeting the Chief would, and I know, does send to all. This\nUNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD Magazine is the outgrowth of _The Path_ in which\nyear after year he sent out his Greetings to the members and once again\nthat our new members and friends may become as familiar with him as\nthose of us who knew him personally and worked with and loved him we\nsend his portrait as a New Year's Greeting.\n\nKATHERINE A. TINGLEY.\n\n\n\n\nCOMRADES; GREETING!\n\n\nUniversal Brotherhood, the keynote of the coming cycle! Let its melody\nbe diffused to the four points of the compass from the very depths of\nour hearts at this important hour at the closing of the year 1898, that\nit may reach the hearts of other men and women. The time is opportune\nand propitious, for the whole race has already been touched by the\nvirtue of compassion.\n\nOur organization, firmly founded on this high ideal, has sent its\ntendrils from the bosom of love and sympathy to discouraged humanity\nthrough its many channels of dissemination of the sublime philosophy of\nsolace and happiness.\n\nThis greatest movement for the redemption of all mankind has been led\nthrough the initial stages of development with great success by the\nMaster-hand of Wisdom; all brethren in the work may now take heart and\nstrength from the certainty that the possibility of accomplishment is in\nsight. Signs are not wanting that the truths of our ideals are breaking\nthrough the strong crust of conventionality, and that the world has\nalready been brought nearer to the realization of it by the efforts of\nthis organization. Love to all workers!\n\nE. AUG. NERESHEIMER.\n\n\n \"Ring out the old, ring in the new,\n   Ring, happy bells, across the snow.\n   The year is going, let him go;\n Ring out the false, ring in the true.\n\n \"Ring out the grief that saps the mind,\n   For those that here we see no more;\n   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,\n Ring in redress to all mankind.\"\n\n TENNYSON, _In Memoriam_.\n\n\n\n\nALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE.\n\nBY ALEXANDER WILDER, M.\u00a0D.\n\n\nIII. EARLY MANHOOD.\n\nGoethe has pictured Faust as having first acquired the learning of the\nschools, philosophy, medicine, jurisprudence and theology; then as going\nforth with Mephisto in quest of excitement, to which comes a tragic\nending. The shock of this paralyzes him for a time from further\nendeavor. In the Second Book of the drama, he again rises up with strong\nresolve to begin an active career in the busy world.\n\nSomewhat in analogy with this is the history of every one who leaves\nadolescence behind and attempts without the discipline of experience, to\nfind a place and engage in the future work of life. Too often, however,\nit is more the varied wanderings of a Jung-Stilling, requiring the\nvicissitudes of years of preparation.\n\nLamartine desired to enter upon a military life, but it was repugnant to\nthe wishes of his family that he should take service, either in the army\nof Bonaparte, or of any country that might be opposed to France. His\nfather retained his royalist sentiments with characteristic\nstubbornness, and his older uncle, the recognized head of the family,\nthough a former friend of Mirabeau, had refused the office of Senator\nwhen offered to him by the Emperor. Young Lamartine was thus handicapped\nand forced to idleness.\n\nHe spent some winters in Paris, and mingled with the gaieties and\ndissipations which young men encountered at the metropolis. The result\nwas self-abasement. He incurred debts at the gaming table, which his\nlimited allowance though eked out by secret contributions from his\nmother, were insufficient to meet; and he formed acquaintances that were\na serious drawback to him in later years.\n\nPerhaps he, like Bunyan, depicted himself in darker colors than there\nwas really occasion. \"There was not,\" says he, \"air enough in the sky,\nfire enough in the sun, or space enough on the earth for the want of\nbreath, excitement and burning that consumed me. I was a living fever; I\nhad the delirium and inquietude of it in every part. The sober habits of\nmy years of study, and the tranquil piety of my mother and our teachers,\nhave been put far away from me. My friendships were as unworthy as my\nfeelings. I had become intimate with the most giddy and turbulent young\nmen of my country and period.\"\n\nNevertheless while he was going forward so readily in disorderly ways he\nwas actually repelled by them. Indeed, he was only imitating others, and\nnot really following his own natural disposition. When he came to be\nalone, the solitude purified him.\n\nIn 1813 he again visited Italy. His first opportunity for activity now\ncame.\n\nParis having surrendered and Napoleon having abdicated, the Allied\nPowers of Europe placed Louis XVIII. on the throne of France. This\nprince had always been liberal in his views, and he now proclaimed a\nconstitutional government. This conciliated all parties, royalists and\nrepublicans alike. Lamartine was enrolled in the Royal Guard, and was of\nthe force that marched against Bonaparte upon his return from Elba.\n\nThe statement has been generally accepted and believed that the\nreception of the Emperor on this occasion was of the nature of a\ntriumph. Lamartine declares that this was unqualifiedly untrue. The\nenthusiasm, he affirms, was confined entirely to the soldiers and to the\ndregs of the population. France, itself, the real France, had become\nutterly weary of this fighting for the aggrandizement of this one man. It\nhad welcomed Louis XVIII., but not as the king of a counter-revolution.\nIt did not contemplate any going back to former conditions. The king was\nreceived as the king of the Liberal Constitution.\n\n\"All the movement of the Revolution of 1789 which had been interrupted\nwas commenced anew by us after the fall of the Imperial Government. The\nentire France,\u2014the France that thought and not the France that\nclamored\u2014was perfectly conscious that the return of Bonaparte meant the\nreturn of the military r\u00e9gime and tyranny. Of this it stood in dread.\nThe Twentieth of March [1815] was a conspiracy of the army and not a\nmovement of the nation. If there had not been an army organized in\nFrance that was ready to fly under the eagles of its Emperor, the\nEmperor would never have reached Paris.\"\n\nNevertheless Lamartine was confounded by what took place. In the brief\nspace of eight days apart, he saw one France ready to rise up in mass\nagainst Bonaparte, and then another France prostrate at his feet. From\nthat day he despaired of the omnipotence of opinion and believed even\nmore than he ought in the power of bayonets.\n\nLouis XVIII., the Count d'Artois and son, with Marshal Marmont and the\nroyal forces left Paris the night before Bonaparte made his entry. As\nthey passed the cities on their retreat, the citizens brought them food,\nexecrating the \"Pretorians\" who had overturned the institutions and\npeace of the country. Royalists and Republicans alike participated in\nthis denunciation of the treason of the army.\n\nAt Arras the king left the troops and went on by himself to Belgium. The\nCount d'Artois and Marshal Marmont, the commander of the forces,\nfollowed soon afterward, after having issued a proclamation absolving\nthe men from their oath. Thus abandoned, the question arose, what was\nnext to be done. After a desultory discussion, a musketeer declared that\nthe true and safe course was to leave France and take service abroad.\n\nLamartine opposed this proposition. Though but twenty-four years of age,\nhe had won the respect of his comrades. Stepping on the wheel of a wagon\nhe addressed them. It was his first attempt to speak in public. He\nreferred to the significant fact that his family had been loyal to the\nmonarchy, but had not emigrated during the Revolution. He had been\nnurtured in such sentiments. Louis XVIII. had now given France a\nrepresentative government. The cause of Republican Liberty and the cause\nof the Bourbons had thus become united. If now the two parties should\ncontinue to act together, the reign of Bonaparte would be short and his\nfall complete. But if the royalists should now emigrate, they would, by\nso doing abandon the Republicans to the army. The blood of the\nRepublicans would smother all resistance to the Empire. The duty,\ntherefore, of those now present, both to their country and to their\nfamilies, forbade that they should follow the king out of the French\nterritory.\n\nMost of the men voted to remain; a few rode away. Being now without\nofficers, a temporary organization was effected, posts established\naround Bethune and a patrol provided. Four days later a capitulation\ntook place, by which they were permitted to go to their families, but\nexcluded from Paris.\n\nLamartine, however, put on the dress of a citizen and went in a\ncabriolet to Paris. A few days later he was present at a review of the\ntroops.\n\nThe Emperor, he observed, exhibited none of that ideal of intellectual\nbeauty and innate royalty, which writers had so often depicted. He\nseemed to be conscious that the ground was not solid under his feet. His\nmovements indicated distrust and hesitation. As the troops defiled\nbefore him they cheered with \"a concentrated accent of hopelessness.\"\n\nLamartine went home with renewed confidence.\n\nThe Imperial conscription filled the Chevalier, his father, with dismay.\nLamartine declared to him that he would in no case enter the ranks\nhimself or procure a substitute. He would sooner be shot to death.\nLeaving home, he put on the dress of a peasant laborer, and eluding the\nvidettes on the frontier, crossed into Switzerland.\n\nFor some weeks he was the guest of the Baron de Vincy, an emigrant\nnobleman whose property had been confiscated. Himself almost without\nmoney and his entertainers impoverished, he could not bring himself to\nburden them longer. Leaving them abruptly, he made his way to Geneva. He\nwas actually considering the project of applying to be a tutor in a\nRussian family and travelling to the Crimea, Circassia and Persia, when\nthe final overthrow of Bonaparte called him back to France.\n\nHe became again a member of the military household of the king. Here he\nfound his oldest and most beloved of friends, the Count Aymon de Virieu.\nThey had been in college together, had travelled in Italy, their fathers\nhad shared danger together in the Royal Guard on the fatal Tenth of\nAugust. They were ever after as two brothers, one in thought, one in\nsoul, one in purse. They continued members of the Guard till it was\ndisbanded.\n\nSome years afterward Virieu made Lamartine acquainted with several\npersons of distinction whose good offices indirectly facilitated\nLamartine's entry into public life.\n\nVirieu was boisterous, full of jest, and a skeptic in religion. He was\nthrough his mother, descended from Montaigne, and he had inherited that\nauthor's disposition. He quoted him incessantly.\n\nLamartine, on the contrary, had inherited from his mother, a melancholic\ntemperament, quiet, serious and religious. He could not bear Montaigne's\nskepticism, nor his salacious utterances. \"Man is born to believe,\" he\ndeclared. \"To believe in nothing is the way to accomplish nothing, and\nimpurity in speech is a soiling of the soul.\"\n\nHe spent a summer with Virieu and his family in Dauphin\u00e9. Their way of\nliving was a reflection of his boyhood life at home, and brought calm\nand repose to his mind.\n\nVirieu afterward became serious like his mother and withdrawing from\npublic life on account of his health, died some years later. \"In him,\"\nsays Lamartine, \"I lost the living witness of the first half of my own\nlife. I felt that death had torn out the dearest page of my history, and\nthat it was enshrouded with him.\"\n\nAnother fellow-student whom Lamartine repeatedly mentions, was the baron\nLouis de Vignet, of Chambery, in Savoy. They were often competitors for\nthe prizes. Vignet gave up the profession of law and accepted a life of\npoverty for the sake of his mother and sister. He had been a skeptic and\nscoffer in religion and repulsive in temper, but watching with his dying\nmother, he became changed and was modest, pensive, gentle and melancholy.\n\nHe had hesitated to renew his acquaintance with Lamartine during the\nlatter's wild career in Paris, but now, meeting accidentally, the two\nwere drawn together at once. Vignet greeted Lamartine more as a father\nthan as a comrade, and they quickly formed a compact of friendship. As\nif to seal it they went together to Charmettes to visit the house where\nRousseau had lived, and afterward went to Servolex together.\n\nVignet was a nephew of the Counts de Maistre, two of whom were\ndistinguished in the political arena and world of letters. Lamartine was\nreceived by the elders as a son, and the younger members of the family\nas a brother. He remained with them during the summer. The wholesome\ninfluence took his mind away from the philosophy of the guardhouse and\nthe effeminate literature then current in France. It was indeed an\nimportant epoch in his history. Time, death, difference of country and\nopinion afterward separated them, but he always vividly remembered that\nsummer at the house of Colonel de Maistre and Louis de Vignet.\n\nA diversion of the household consisted of recitations of verse. Vignet\nhad collected a large number of effusions which were current among the\nSavoyards. Lamartine also ventured to recite his own verses before\nColonel de Maistre and his daughters. The old man admired his pure\nFrench diction and predicted to his nephew that Lamartine would become\ndistinguished.\n\nAnother summer found Lamartine at home in Milly. The family had gone\naway; the father and uncles to a hunting party in Burgundy, the mother\non a journey, and the sisters on visits to friends, or to the convent.\nHe was left alone with no companionship but an old servant-woman, his\nhorse and his dog. The silence, the loneliness of the garden, and the\nempty rooms reminded him of the tomb. It was in keeping with his state\nof mind. He felt himself, or rather he desired to feel himself dead.\n\nIn this mood he again resumed familiar relations with the Abb\u00e9 Dumont,\nhis former schoolmaster at Bussi\u00e8res. The abb\u00e9 had himself become the\nparish priest. There had been a tragedy in his life before he gave up\nhis place in the world to take orders. He was the original of Jocelyn in\nLamartine's little poem.\n\nLamartine rode daily to the parsonage. The two discoursed on topics more\nor less abstruse, such as the state of man on the earth, the vanity of\nambition, the religions, philosophies and literature of different\npeoples, the esteem bestowed on one great man over another, the\nsuperiority of certain authors to their rivals, the greatness of spirit\nin some and littleness in others. To set forth their views they quoted\nauthors of every age, like Plato, Cicero, Seneca, F\u00e9n\u00e9lon, Bossuet,\nVoltaire, Rousseau.\n\nPoetry was more severely handled. Dumont appreciated only the sense of\nlanguage, and did not care for the musicalness of what was uttered. They\nboth agreed that in the study of rhythm and the mechanic consonance of\nrhyme there was a puerile attempt to associate a sensual delight of\nsound to some grand thought or manly sentiment. Versifying pertains to\nthe speech of a people's infancy, prose to that of its maturity.\n\nLamartine conceived that poetry does not consist in the mere\nsensuousness of verse, but in the ideas, the sentiment, the image. \"To\nchange an utterance into music does not perfect it, but materializes it.\nThe simple sentence justly and forcibly expressing the pure thought or\nnaked sentiment without a dream as to the sound or form of phrase, is\nthe genuine style, the expression, the WORD.\"\n\nThese conversations naturally drifted to the supreme questions of the\ntime\u2014to politics, philosophy and religion. Dumont was that\ncontradictory character, found so often in many countries\u2014a royalist\nalthough a democrat, and opposed to the Revolution, although he detested\nthe ancient r\u00e9gime and actually accepted the very aims and doctrines\nwhich the Revolution contemplated. Both he and Lamartine had been \"fed\nwith the marrow of Greek and Roman literature.\" They adored Liberty as a\nwell-sounding term before they came to consider it as a holy thing and\nas the moral quality in every free man.\n\nDumont was philosophic, like the century in which he was born. In his\nhouse there was no token to show that he was a priest\u2014neither breviary,\nnor crucifix, nor image of a saint, nor priestly garment. All these he\nrelegated to the sacristy. He considered the mystic rites of\nChristianity which he performed as belonging to the routine of his\nprofession, to be little else than a ritual of no importance, a code of\nmorals illustrated by symbolic dogmas and traditional practices, that\ndid not encroach on his mental independence and reason. He spoke of God\nto an infantile people, using the dialect of the sanctuary. But when he\nreturned home he discoursed in the language of Plato, Cicero and\nRousseau. His mind was incredulous, but his soul, softened by his sad\nfortune, was religious. His great goodness of heart enabled him to give\nto this vague piety the form and reality of a precise faith. He\nconstrained his intelligence to bow under the yoke of Catholicism and\nthe dogmas of religion. He read and admired the writings of\nChateaubriand and others of the time, but he was not convinced; he did\nnot believe what they taught.\n\nLamartine, on the other hand, was influenced by the religion of his\ninfancy. Piety always came back to him when he was alone; it made him\nbetter, as though the thought of man when he is isolated from others was\nhis best counsellor. It was not so much a matter of conviction, as a\nwish that it should be true. The poetry and affectionateness of religion\nswayed his will. He could contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation as\nfilling, or at least bridging over, the unmeasurable space between\nhumanity and God. If he did not quite admit this as actual fact, he\nrevered it as a wonderful poem of the soul. He embellished it with the\ncharms of his imagination, he embalmed it with his desires, he colored\nit with the tints of his thought and enthusiasm; in short,\u2014he\nsubordinated his rebellious reason to this earnest desire to believe, so\nthat he might be able to love and pray. He put away from him, as by\nforce, every shadow of doubt and repugnance, and almost succeeded in\nproducing the illusions for which he was so eager, and in conforming the\nhabit of his soul to the current sentiment of the epoch. If he did not\nreally worship his mother's God as his own God, he at least carried him\nin his heart as an idol.\n\nThe cordial relations of the two friends were maintained for years. The\npriest continued to minister in his little church and gave much\nassistance to the mother of Lamartine in her charities. Above his grave\nin the cemetery is a stone with a brief epitaph, and beneath it the\nwords: \"Alphonse de Lamartine \u00e0 son ami.\"\n\nThe mental depression under which Lamartine labored, seriously affected\nhis health. The family physician was alarmed. Plainly enough it was from\ncauses outside of the province of medicine and so instead of prescribing\nmedicines he ordered the young man to go to Aix in Savoy, to the hot\nsulphur springs. He borrowed money from a friend of the family and went.\nVignet procured a room for him, and paid him several visits during his\nsojourn. It was early Autumn. October had just begun, and the leaves on\nthe trees had put on their colors. The bathing season was over, and the\nusual guests had gone away, leaving the place solitary.\n\nThere was another patient in the house. This was a lady from Paris. She\nwas in a decline and had been at Aix several months. Lamartine, however,\nhad no inclination to see her.\n\nAn accident on the lake brought them together in which he rescued her\nfrom imminent peril of life. The acquaintance thus begun became at once\nan ardent attachment. Lamartine describes it as \"repose of the heart,\nafter having met with the long-sought and till then unfound object of\nits restless adoration; the long-desired idol of that vague, unquiet\nadoration of supreme beauty which agitates the soul till the divinity\nhas been discovered.\"\n\nThis lady, the \"Julie\" of his story, was the wife of an old man, a\nfriend of the Emperor Napoleon. He had first seen her at the convent\nwhere she was receiving her education. She was a native of the island\nwhere the _Virginia_ of the romance was said to have been born, and had\nbeen brought to France. She was without friends to protect her or the\nnecessary dowry to attract proposals of marriage. The old gentleman in\npity for her friendless condition, had married her, receiving her as a\ndaughter and not as a wife. Her health had given way, and he sent her to\nAix in hope that the mountain air and bathing might restore her.\n\nShe had no liking for gallantry. Yet she did not affect prudery or\nreserve. She declared her understanding of their peculiar relations in\nterms the most forceful: \"Eternity in one instant and the Infinite in\none sensation.\" Then she said further: \"I do not know whether this is\nwhat is called love; nor do I wish to know; but it is the most supreme\nand entire happiness that the soul of one created being can draw from\nthe soul, eyes and voice of another being like herself\u2014a being who,\ntill now, was wanting to her happiness, and whose existence she\ncompletes.\"\n\nShe had lived among philosophers of the French school, and did not have\nviews like those of the women of Europe who bowed before another\ncriterion than their conscience. \"I believe,\" said she, \"in the God who\nhas engraved his symbol in Nature, his law in our hearts, his morality\nin our reason. Reason, feeling and conscience are the only revelation in\nwhich I believe.\" She then asked that this their mutual affection should\nremain \"like a pure thought\" and so be in no way blended with any other\nrelations.\n\nIn this way six weeks passed by. They adhered strictly to their line of\naction, yet she fretted jealously at the thought that Lamartine would\nlove another after her death, and even attempted suicide; but presently\nyielded the point, and even predicted that he would yet find another\nlike and as dear as herself.\n\nWinter drew near and they left Savoy for their respective homes. Unknown\nto her, Lamartine followed her travelling coach to Paris, and then went\nto Milly where Vignet was awaiting him.\n\nHe remained at home till January. He had exhausted his allowance of\nmoney. His mother observed his restlessness and attributed it to want of\ndiversion. She presented him with a diamond, the last jewel which she\nhad retained from her young girlhood, and bade him go to Paris. \"It is\nthe last token of my love,\" said she,\u2014\"and I stake it in the lottery of\nProvidence.\"\n\nThis gift had a wholesome influence. He became thenceforth more prudent\nin the expending of money, and never parted with the gem till his other\nresources were exhausted. He no more affected to be engaged in study\nwhile actually spending his time in dissipation. He directed his days to\nreading in history, science, political economy and diplomacy. The Count\nde Virieu was in Paris and received him to share his modest lodgings.\n\nNevertheless, his money though now carefully managed, was finally\nexhausted. He was called upon by old creditors to pay the \"debts of\nhonor\" that he had incurred in former years. He had renewed his intimacy\nwith Julie, and her husband gave him the warmest of welcomes. Her health\nwas failing fast, and he took frequent excursions with her about Paris\nin the hope of benefit. At the end of the winter the alternative was\npresented to support himself or go back to Milly.\n\nWhen in college he had written verses which his friends there greatly\nadmired. He continued to do so at different times, and had brought a\ncollection of them to Paris. He now offered them to publishers but\nwithout success. He was obliged to submit. He made a farewell excursion\nwith Julie to St. Cloud, and left Paris the next morning.\n\nThat summer was for him more terrible than ever. He saw no hope of\nemerging from poverty and obscurity. Crops failed that year and the\nresources of the family were straitened to actual penury. His health\nsuffered and serious results were apprehended. He was again ordered to\ngo to Aix. His mother procured the money for him by surreptitiously\nselling trees that were growing on their little farm.\n\nA note from Julie informed him that her husband was ill, but told him to\ngo to Aix and wait for her. When he arrived there, there came a package\nforwarded from Chambery enclosing letters from Paris. One of these was\nfrom Julie[1] containing a lock of hair and bidding him farewell. It had\nbeen herself and not her husband, that was ill and dying. She had given\nup her former disbelief. \"God will send you another sister,\" she wrote,\n\"and she will be the pious helpmate of your life. I will ask it of him.\"\n\nA letter from the husband asked Lamartine to continue to him as a son.\n\nThe shock almost bereft him of reason. He wandered for months over the\nmountains of Savoy and Switzerland, as he describes, \"like a darkened\nsoul that had lost the light of heaven and had no mind for that of\nearth.\" His mother secretly procured money for him in the hope that\ntravel would alleviate his condition, the cause of which she did not\nimagine. Autumn was passing, however, and she could no longer frame\nexcuses for his absence. He must return home.\n\nAs he was returning in the boat from Lyons, he contemplated the\nprospects before him. He had chafed for an active life, and destiny was\ncompelling him to fold his wings in the nest from which he had been\neager to escape. Now, in his exhaustion, he was willing to give up,\nhoping soon to die. \"I was convinced,\" says he, \"that in those months of\nlove, of delirium and of grief, my heart had exhausted all the delights\nand bitternesses of a long life; that I had nothing more than for some\nmonths more to bury the memory of Julie under the ashes of my heart; and\nthat the angel whose steps I had followed in thought into another life\nwould soon call me to shorten my absence and begin the eternal love. The\nfeeling that this was sure, now gave me comfort and enabled me to accept\nwith patience the interval which I believed would be a short one between\nthe parting and the reunion.\"\n\nWhen the boat arrived at M\u00e2con, Lamartine saw nobody at the landing to\nwelcome him. But as he picked up his valise he found himself suddenly\nembraced and almost smothered by the caresses of a dog. It was Azor, the\nsame that had so abruptly broken up his Ossianic interview, seven years\nbefore, with Lucy, on the terrace. It was necessary to give him a strap\nof the valise to hold to keep him from getting under the feet of other\ntravellers.\n\nThe Chevalier, his father, however, was only a little way off. He was\nwatching with an opera-glass to see whether the dog had found his son.\nHe now conducted him home by the most frequented streets, as if to show\nhim to those whom he met. The dog had already gone to announce him, and\nLamartine found his mother and sisters at the door.\n\nThe house had been recently purchased for a winter residence. The mother\nhad besought this outlay for the sake of her five daughters, to be able\nto provide them with tutors and governesses and to introduce them\nadvantageously into society. The Chevalier lost no time in showing his\nson the various rooms and conveniences and bringing him to the apartment\nfor himself.\n\nLamartine had retired for the evening when his mother came into the\nroom. She had noted his profound depression and now silently caressed\nhim.\n\n\"Who would have told me,\" said she, \"that in twenty-two years I would\nsee my child blighted in the vigor of his soul and heart, and his\ncountenance enshrouded in a secret grief?\"\n\nThen, forbearing to enquire further, she explained the embarrassed\ncondition of the family. Their property, always small, had been greatly\nreduced by the expenses of his education, travels, and wayward\nadventures. \"I do not mention this to reproach you,\" said she; \"you know\nthat if my tears could have been changed into gold for you, I would have\nput it into your hands.\"\n\nThe purchase of the house, the saving of money to furnish dowries for\nhis sisters, and bad harvests had narrowed their circumstances. His\nfather had worried at the thought of leaving his children without a\npatrimony; and though he had taken great delight in them in their tender\nyears, he reproached himself now for their existence.\n\nWhat she could do to help, she had done. In their various exigencies she\nhad been generously helped by Madame Paradis, their neighbor. This lady\nhad done this from affection, only stipulating that their father should\nnot know. She had furnished the money for Lamartine's expenses.\n\n\"I had hoped,\" she continued, \"that your father's family would perceive\nthe craving for activity which is wasting your youth, and be prompted to\nthe outlay necessary to enable you to enter and go through with the\npreparatory course for an administrative or diplomatic career. I have\nreasoned with them, prayed, conjured, wept, humbled myself before them\nas it is glorious and agreeable for a mother to humiliate herself for\nher son. It is in vain.\"\n\nAs he was to be the heir to their estates, they saw no necessity for him\nto desire or be ambitious for an active career beyond their sphere of\nlife. Hence her pleading had only brought harsh words and unkind feeling\ntoward herself without doing him any service.\n\nIf Providence had granted her wish she would have made use of every\nopportunity to open for him a larger horizon, and a career worthy of\nhim. But he must wait. She also asked him to make her his only\nconfidant. A complaint to his father would drive him to despair, because\nhe could not help. \"Accept this obscure and unoccupied life for a few\nyears,\" she pleaded. \"I will pray God to move the hearts of your uncles\nand aunts, and to open for my son that field of activity, extent, glory\nand happy fortune, which he has permitted a mother to desire for such a\nson as you.\"\n\nTo such an appeal Lamartine could only acquiesce. The life upon which he\nthus entered has had many counterparts. The older uncle gave law to the\nwhole family as its recognized head. He and his nephew had many angry\nencounters. The mother would endeavor anxiously to reconcile them. The\nChevalier, bearing in mind the interest of all his children, remained\nneutral.\n\nThe uncle, regarding Alphonse as his prospective successor, desired him\nto remain quietly at home, cultivate science, apply himself to\nagriculture and domestic economy, and in time become the head of a\nfamily in the province. Lamartine acknowledged that such a career would\nhave been the most natural and happy. \"But,\" he adds, \"everyone when\ncoming into the world has his allotment marked out in his nature. This\ncareer was not for me, and my uncle had not been able to read the fact\nin my eyes.\"\n\nHis life at M\u00e2con that winter was as monotonous as that of monks in a\ncloister. He spent the forenoons in his room with his books and dog.\nDinner was at noon; and after that all assembled at the mansion of the\nuncle. This was a season to be dreaded. His mother was then subjected to\nreproaches and remonstrances from every one for every trifling fault of\nher children. The aunts seemed to regard them as their own, and actually\nloved their brother's wife; but they desired to exercise the rights of\nmotherhood without the burdens. Sometimes she would repel their attacks,\nbut oftener she only wept. Then would follow explanations, excuses and\ncaresses; and so it would go, only to be resumed the next day.\n\nShe was a woman superior to them all, high-spirited and dignified; but\nthe future interest of her children depended on their good-will, and for\nthis reason she was submissive. \"We called this the Hour of Martyrdom,\"\nsays Lamartine, \"and we sought to make it up to her by redoubling our\ntenderness after we came out.\"\n\nIn the afternoon, she helped the tutors with her daughters, or herself\nreceived visitors. Her house and discourse were to her neighbors an\nattraction far exceeding that of the majestic austerity at the great\nhouse, the Hotel de Lamartine. The Chevalier would go out to visit some\nformer comrade, or one of the older inhabitants, when they would amuse\nthemselves with playing at checkers, backgammon or \"Boston.\"\n\nLamartine himself would repair to his room, or walk out with his dog in\nthe paths that intersected the fields behind the Alms House. There were\ngrand views in the distance, but he only gazed on the Alps as the\nprisoner looks on the wall beyond which he has tasted of sunshine, love\nand freedom.\n\nHe also visited a comrade of his father's at the place. The man was\nunable to use his limbs, and kept himself cheerful by working as a\njeweler and repairer of watches. Lamartine helped him and became daily a\nwelcome visitor.\n\nThe leading families of M\u00e2con cultivated social relations, and there was\na drawing-room party somewhere every night. Lamartine accompanied his\nmother and sisters, but made his escape before diversions began.\n\nAt his uncle's, however, it was different. The visitors included the\nmost eminent men of the district, diplomats, scholars and others of\ndistinction. Ten of these, with his uncle, organized the Academy of\nM\u00e2con. It held meetings in the library which were usually attended by\nthirty or forty members. Papers were presented on subjects of\nimportance, social, industrial or scientific.\n\nLamartine was admitted to membership despite his youth at the\nproposition of his uncle. He delivered his first discourse upon the\n_Advantages Derived from Interchange of Ideas between Peoples by Means\nof Literature_. Years after he burned this paper in disgust at its\ncommonplace character.\n\nOne of the most interesting members of this Academy, M. de Larnaud, he\ndescribes as \"a Universal Dictionary in a human form, all the ashes of\nthe Alexandrian Library contained in the skull of a living man.\" M. de\nLarnaud, he declares, \"knew everything and impassioned everything.\" He\nhad engaged in the Revolution in 1789 with the ardor of a delirium, but\nafter the massacre of the Tenth of August, he turned his sympathies to\nthe victims. He was intimate with the Girondins,\u2014above all with Madame\nRoland and Vergniaud\u2014and he accepted heartily their doctrine of a free\nRepublic which should be wise and pure. He did not mourn their fate on\nthe scaffold which was their pedestal for history, but he mourned that\nvote which they gave \"for the death of the king to save the people.\"\nAlthough a nation is often saved by a martyrdom, he knew that it is\nnever saved by a crime.\n\nM. de Larnaud had no less enthusiasm for poetry and literature than for\npolitics. He was a comrade of Rouget de Lisle, the author of the\n_Marsellaise Hymn_; he had taken part at sittings of the Academies; he\nwas a member of all the _Cercles_; he followed all the Courts, visited\nall the _Sal\u00f4ns_, attended all the theatres, absorbing all that was\nknowable, all that pertained to the two orders of things. He remembered\neverything and would tell it with a manner and gesture that made the\nhearer understand and behold it all. Everything\u2014antiquity, past history\nand present\u2014was to be learned from him.\n\nHe was quick to perceive the bent of Lamartine. He visited the young man\nin his chamber and discoursed familiarly with him, as though both were\nof the same age and plane of intelligence. He did not venture, however,\nto speak with like freedom in the drawing-room in presence of the uncle,\nthe pious aunts, and the various classes of visitors. But in young\nLamartine's chamber he would display his old-time enthusiasm for the\ngreat men and great achievements at the beginning of the Revolution\nbefore the period of the ascendancy of the populace, the Commune of\nParis, and the Terror. The philosopher was again manifest in him under\nthe simulacrum of the man of the world, and he denounced the Imperial\nr\u00e9gime of Bonaparte with fierceness.\n\nFrom him Lamartine derived the conception of the scenes, the men and\ncharacters which he set forth so admirably in the _History of the\nGirondists_. His friendship remained constant till his death.\n\nOne day as Lamartine was walking in the street his dog made the\nacquaintance of another dog belonging to a physician of the place. The\nowner was M. de Ronot, who had been a fellow-student at College. Warm\nfriendship now sprang up between them. Lamartine pays him this tribute:\n\"I was often absent from the land of my birth, especially after death\nhad blighted all the roots of my family; but I knew that there was one\nwho watched for my return, who followed with his eye my adverse\nfortunes, who fought against the envies, hatreds and calumnies that\ngrovelled on the soil of our homestead\u2014alas, about our gravestones, and\nwho received with delight everything in my life that was good fortune,\nand with grief everything that was sad.\"\n\nHe died many years afterward with the name of Lamartine on his lips. It\nwas at the period when Lamartine was in deepest adversity, and abandoned\nby the many who in brighter times had ardently professed their\nfriendship.\n\nWhen the time came in spring for the family to go back to Milly, the\nwhole family welcomed this modest abode as an asylum. The mother resumed\nthe instructing of her daughters, and her visits to the sick and poor.\nLamartine often went with her. He always found living in a city to be\nintolerable, but he brought his melancholy with him. He renewed his\nintimacy with the Abb\u00e9 Dumont at the garden of the parsonage, and\ngradually recovered health and spirits.\n\nTranslations of Byron's poems appeared that season in French journals.\nLamartine was prompted to endeavors of similar character. That autumn he\nwrote several of his _Meditations_, and read portions of them to his\nfather. The old Chevalier, who knew nothing of the new school of poetry,\nwas deeply affected, but feared to utter praise, lest it should be from\nparental partiality.\n\nThe second winter at the new house in M\u00e2con was passed like the first.\nLamartine had no liking for the social entertainments. When Lent came,\nhe left home and spent the spring and summer with his other uncle, the\nAbb\u00e9 Lamartine, at D'Urcy in Upper Burgundy.\n\nThis uncle had been compelled, by the accident of having been a second\nson, to take priest's orders. Thus interdicted from having a family of\nhis own he bestowed his affection richly upon his younger brother and\nchildren. He considered them as his own, and Lamartine was recognized as\nhis heir. They spent the summer and autumn in their younger years, at\nhis patriarchal mansion, and he took an actual part in their education.\nIt was here that Lamartine acquired his passion for life in the country.\n\nThe abb\u00e9 had spent his noviciate at Paris, and mingled in society in the\ntime of Louis XV. He was a man of the world rather than of the Church.\nRelinquishing the priestly functions at the Revolution, he now lived by\nhimself on his share of the paternal estate, a Homeric life,\nhermit-like, as a philosopher and cultivator of the soil.\n\nHis housekeeper, herself formerly a nun, persuaded him to purchase dogs\nand a horse for his nephew. Lamartine had always been beloved by all the\ndomestics, and his uncle, who was the most affectionate of men, treated\nhim as a personal friend rather than as a kinsman.\n\nOne afternoon in the latter part of July, he was riding back from a\njaunt in the neighboring forest when a letter-carrier delivered him a\nnote from two Roman ladies at an inn at Pont-de-Pany. His uncle, in whom\nhumor was a prominent quality, demanded at once to know the mystery.\n\n\"There must be no mystery with me,\" said he. \"The heroes of a romance\nalways need a confidant, and I have known both parts in my time.\"\n\nHe continued his badinage, promising to be discreet as well as faithful;\nbut Lamartine, unable to endure it, protested that he could not form any\nnew attachment.\n\n\"That linden-tree is older than you,\" the uncle replied. \"I have cut it\nfive times in twenty years, and it has more sap and branches now than\nwhen I came here.\"\n\n\"Burn it at the root,\" Lamartine retorted in desperation, \"and then see\nwhether it will spring up again.\"\n\nIt was an adventure of a new character. The two ladies, the princess\nRegina di \u2014\u2014 and her aunt, had been commended to his good offices by\nthe Count Saluce de \u2014\u2014, a Breton nobleman belonging to an emigrant\nfamily, then living at Rome. He had come temporarily to France and took\nservice in the Royal Guard, there forming an intimate friendship with\nLamartine. The princess was a maiden wife of sixteen who had been forced\nagainst her will into a marriage ceremony with an elderly kinsman, and\nhad fled with her aunt to France. The count was her lover, and had been\narrested as he was about to accompany her. Lamartine had been apprised\nof all this before by letters from his friend, and now complied\nfaithfully with his wishes by finding the two fugitives a residence at\nNoyon near Geneva. Meanwhile a suit was in progress for an annulment of\nthe marriage.\n\nSome days afterward a letter came from the count apprising Lamartine\nthat this would not take place. The princess was liable, therefore, to\nforfeit her property, and upon her return to Italy, to be imprisoned in\na convent. The prince, her husband, who was old and infirm, had desired\nthe marriage only for the purpose of assuring her estate to his heirs.\nHe now offered, if Count Saluce would not press the suit, that he would\ncast a veil over what had passed, and let her live with her grandmother\nin future. This would spare her reputation and social position. But\nSaluce must go far away.\n\nHe decided to comply with the conditions, and had already left Italy for\nSpain to join his uncle's regiment and embark for the Philippine Islands.\n\nLamartine deplored the fatal necessity but felt himself obliged to\napprove the course taken by his friend. Yet Regina had not been\nconsulted, and perhaps she would have chosen exile with him before\nfreedom and fortune elsewhere. Certainly, the count had constituted\nhimself judge and sacrificing priest without consulting the victim, but\nthe sacrifice was commended by delicacy of sentiment, by honor, virtue,\neven by love itself.\n\nWhen Lamartine met Regina she read all in his face. As she perused the\nletter she was seized with fury. She denounced her lover as savage and\ncowardly, not worthy of the least token of regard. Hurrying to her room,\nshe threw his letters and keepsakes out of the window and commanded her\nnurse to go and sink them in the lake; that thus six months of love and\ndelirium might be swallowed up. The nurse fully reciprocated the\nsentiments of her mistress. She saw no merit in such generosity as\nSaluce had exhibited. A Roman would have gone to every extreme, knowing\nlove and nothing else.\n\nThree days passed before the young princess made her appearance. She had\nbecome more calm. She told Lamartine that she was now undeceived; what\nshe had thought she loved was a phantom that had vanished.\n\nShe was turning her regard upon him. His unflagging kindness and\nassiduity had affected her. But susceptible as he might be, the memory\nof his own lost one, and his friendship for Saluce, were intervening.\nFinally, however, upon learning that Lamartine would be in Paris the\ncoming winter, she declared her purpose to be there likewise.\n\nHer uncles had come for her, and she returned with them to Rome. One of\nthem afterward accompanied her and her grandmother to Paris, and\nLamartine met them there the coming winter.\n\nHe had now resolved to try his fortune once more. It was declared by\nCharles Fourier, that when God implanted a desire in a human soul it was\nhis promise of its fruition. Lamartine was now to realize its verity.\n\n[1] In the _Meditations_, Lamartine names an _Elvire_ who has\nbeen conjectured to have been the same person.\n\n\n \"If you examine a man that has been well-disciplined and purified by\n philosophy, you will find nothing that is unsound, false, or foul in\n him.\"\n\n \"The noble delight in the noble; the base do not; the bee goes to the\n lotus from the wood; not so the frog, though living in the same lake.\"\n\n \u2014_Gems from the East._\n\n\n\n\nPOINT LOMA AND ITS LEGEND.\n\nBY FRANK M. PIERCE.\n\n\nHow describe its indescribable beauties: the broad expanse of ocean;\nland-locked bay, with craft of war and commerce riding on its peaceful\nbosom; nestling city; sunlit, fruitful valleys, cut by sparkling,\nsnow-fed streams; majestic mountain range with snow-capped peaks, like\ngiant fingers heavenward pointing\u2014all touched by soft and vitalizing\nbreezes\u2014one vast Titanic picture, overwhelming self, while \"Soul,\" in\nfitting raiment stands visible, a God.\n\nIn retrospective thought, seated on its rock-ribbed, element-defying\nbattlements, I muse upon the Legend:\n\nThat here the wise ones of Lemuria\u2014now ocean-covered\u2014reared a stately\nedifice, a temple dedicated to the Gods of Light, wherein they taught\nher worthy youth the simple laws of life eternal:\n\nThat here the gods touched hands with men and gave to them rich stores\nof knowledge and of wisdom in such measure as they could use unselfishly:\n\nThat here men living for the soul of things made earth a heaven,\nthemselves gods, conscious of their oneness with the Father (like their\nmodern prototype, the fearless Nazarene):\n\nThat from the temple-dome-crowned Point, standing like mystic virgin,\nold yet ever young\u2014never yielding to the dark waters' fond embrace when\nall to Westward sank in one vast cataclysm\u2014shone to all the world a\nquenchless, pure, white flame to light the way for mariners on ocean's\nwaters, and on the sea of thought, that all might see and live:\n\nThat once, when darkness filled the earth and men went blindly searching\nfor the light and found it not, then the great Teacher from the\ntemple\u2014filled with pity and compassion\u2014went forth to save the\nlost,\u2014leaving the temple and its sacred light in care of trusted ones,\ncharged on their lives to keep and hold its precincts inviolate till her\nreturn; their inspiration gone\u2014careless and faithless to their sacred\ntrust\u2014the light went out and they in darkness perished; the\ntemple\u2014refuge for the good and wise\u2014was sacked and leveled to the\nearth from sight of men:\n\nBut caverned underneath (the Legend runs) stand guarding genii, giants\ngrim, fairies, gnomes and sprites, to hold the portals closed by\npitfalls, ocean tides, dire calamities and death, 'gainst venturous ones\nand the faithless guardians lingering near the whispering, moaning\ncaverns by the sea\u2014till their Queen returns to their release:\n\nThat in some coming age when men, grown weary, heartsick, hopeless,\nwandering in the trackless waste, shall face again the rising Sun in\nsearch of ancient Wisdom and the Truth, then the great Teacher will\nagain appear in human guise, among her own\u2014welcomed by the wise-grown,\nfaithful watchers, rejected and reviled by those who faithless in the\npast have been\u2014to rear upon the ruins of the old, a new and grander\nTemple, dedicated to all that lives; and in its pure white marble dome\nto fix a light\u2014symbolic of regenerate man\u2014whose penetrating rays shall\nreach to lowest depths to light the ceaseless upward march of evolution\nto the Heaven on Earth\u2014the Universal Brotherhood of Peace and\nGood-Will, made perfect through the travail, agony and blood of man,\nredeemed from SELF.\n\n\n\n\nEVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION.\n\nBY H.\u00a0A. FREEMAN.\n\n\nMetaphysically considered, evolution is Nature's process of unfolding\nand bringing about her changes and developments. It goes on its way\nirresistibly and taken as a whole moves in orderly routine. This is not\nalways obvious, but the exceptions are only apparently such. The fault\nlies in our lack of ability to observe all the facts and conditions. If\nwe could investigate fully we should find that all apparent hitches are\nbalanced or offset by an advance in some other direction and that there\nhas been and can be no check or disorder in the process of evolution.\n\nWhatever deflects the course or changes the character of an evolution\ndoes not necessarily hinder it, and if it seems to stop still that is\nonly a question of the point of view.\n\nThe people of a race, or nation, or a community may deteriorate\nphysically, intellectually, or in their commercial activity, but that\ndoes not prove that their development has come to an end. It only marks\na cessation of progress along certain special lines. The American\nIndians are practically extinct, and it may appear that their race\nevolution has stopped. But that would be taking note of only one aspect\nof their condition. If we observe that they have decreased in ferocity,\ndiminished in numbers and sunk to the commonplace grade of hard working\nfarmers we must agree that their evolution does not proceed along\nromantic lines as it did in the days of Fenimore Cooper. But the few\nthat remain may be more useful for the world's upbuilding than were all\nthe savage hordes that ever started out on the war path to exterminate\neach other.\n\nNumbers are not essential to a healthy evolution. China with its\nstarving myriads is not a high example of progress.\n\nThe variations and fluctuations that make themselves visible in\nevolution are like ripples. We should never notice them if we took a\nbroader view.\n\nEvolution does not go stiffly and solidly forward like a self-propelled\nwall of masonry. It is more like the resistless ebb and flow of the\nincoming tide.\n\nOne ripple overwhelms or effaces another and a curling breaker leaps up\nfrom behind them and sprays the shore far in advance of the main body of\ninvading waters.\n\nEvolution reaches out similarly, now advancing, now retreating in\nunconsidered wavelets, always gaining, always effacing the old with the\nnew, and inevitably dominating the entire situation at last.\n\nThe ebb tide affords a symbol of _Involution_ which lays bare the way\nfor another era of flood, so that every drop in the ocean taking its\nturn may ultimately rise to its highest mark of attainment.\n\nInvolution is usually described as a sort of compensatory process,\nco\u00f6rdinate with evolution, though not co-incident with it. It is\nregarded as a return swing of the pendulum of evolution and is sometimes\ncrudely illustrated by comparing the two to the corresponding halves of\na circle matched together so as to form a completed ring or hoop. But\nthis symbol though impressive is misleading, for involution matched with\nevolution can not bring about any condition of finality.\n\nIf that were possible evolution would end in extinction\u2014and extinction\nis unthinkable.\n\nThe pairing of the two processes does not complete a circle. One does\nnot match the other and neither can undo the other's work. If there\n_could_ be a counter-action between them, each would efface the results\nof the other, as soon as its hour of activity began.\n\nFor illustration one may consider the progress of a bud which in due\ncourse of evolution unfolds into a rose fully expanded. That rose does\nnot refold and become again a bud.\n\nAnd if it did, that would not be involution. It would be only\nretrogression. Involution does not follow upon the heels of evolution to\nmatch its movements with opposing influences. It doesn't interfere at\nall. If it did there would be no unfolding of Nature's plans, for all\nher efforts would cancel each other.\n\nDoubtless the two processes work towards the same result in obedience to\na systematic divine idea and purpose, and, not leading up to any\nfinality, they form a cycle rather than a circle and may be best\npictured as a continuous spiral and not as a completed hoop.\n\nIt would then be seen that involution and evolution succeed each other\nin rotation as the night follows day and the day gives place to night.\nEach period of one followed by the other forms a coil in the spiral. And\nthe spiral is continuous, being itself only one coil in a greater cycle\nwhich, in its turn, forms part of a still more extensive series of\ncoils. And thus they go on to infinity, for they can never reach a\nlimit. And the processes of our involution and evolution are only coils\nof a cycle that has gone on forever and they will continue to form new\ncoils to all eternity.\n\nBut the contemplation of the present coil in which we find ourselves\ninvolved is quite confusing enough for it extends back farther than our\ncomprehension can grasp and is still very far from finished. It will\nnever be complete until we have all reached our limit of attainment, and\nthat is yet a long way ahead of us.\n\nIt is obvious that these mighty processes lead to some ultimate object,\nand that they could never have been started into operation without a\nreason.\n\nThe ultimate object is easily found. It is quite evidently progress. And\nthe reason seems by analogy to be similar to that which dominates every\nliving thing in the Universe\u2014the desire to expand, to create, to\nperpetuate. This desire seems to have impelled that incomprehensible\nPower which is back of all life and expression to make itself manifest.\nA Breath of itself took the form of matter and in obedience to the\nimmutable law of compensation sought at once to return to its original\nexalted condition.\n\nThat descent into matter was Involution. The regeneration, the re-ascent\nto the original purity is Evolution.\n\nThe creative Consciousness awoke to a desire for manifestation and\nproduced from its thought, substance. Then were set in motion the forces\nthrough whose operations substance took on form and living organisms\nappeared.\n\nThe degradation of that Spiritual Essence into a condition of matter was\nInvolution. It was a degradation or descent because it was a change. No\nchange could have exalted it, so the altered condition was a descent.\nThe process of regeneration, the work of purification from the stain of\nmaterial existence began at once and still goes on. And that is\nevolution.\n\nWhen man began to assume domination over the other products of evolution\nand became a reasoning, responsible creature, that was evidence that he\nis the medium through which matter is to be uplifted to its former\nspiritual condition. In other words, it is a certainty that matter\nreaches its highest development in man and that the next step beyond the\nphysical man is the divine man\u2014the man of pure spirituality practically\nunsullied by matter. All the processes of evolution lead to the\nsupremacy of the physical man over all other material development, and\nas he continues to advance he will inevitably reach a condition so\nexalted as to be virtually divine while still living in the flesh. Such\nmen exist even to-day and have been known in all ages.\n\nThey are those who occasionally appear as Saviours and Messiahs. They\nare the pioneer wavelets which spray the shore in advance of the\nincoming tide.\n\nWhen man reaches that point of perfection that will free him from the\nmaterial or physical life forever, his evolution is complete and\ninvolution may begin again upon a new world as it has done countless\nmillions of times before and will continue to do to all eternity.\n\nWe cannot of course comprehend why the Divine Consciousness has arranged\nall this stupendous machinery for the mere sake of becoming manifest. We\ncannot assume that it is for any reason that we could understand even\nthough it were revealed to us. But we may wonder less perhaps when we\nconsider that time and space are nothing in actual fact, and the\nimmensity of our universe and the tremendous stretches of time that\nparalyze all thought of reckoning are but trifles not to be considered\nin contemplating the Infinite.\n\nOur entire solar system doesn't make a speck in space and the age of the\nworld cannot be reckoned, for time has no value, no existence in the\nsuper-material world.\n\nIt is frequently urged by sceptics that to an all powerful consciousness\nit should be easy to assume a personal character without employing the\ncomplicated process of producing mankind and awaiting humanity's slow\ngrowth to a divine perfection. But when it comes to preparing plans and\nspecifications for a better and simpler method they have never shown\nability superior to the divine thought.\n\nLeaving out the consideration of time and the immensity of the finite\nworld, which are of no importance to the Supreme Architect, the plan\nseems simple enough. There was a divine desire for expression. The\nSupreme was alone and unmanifest. There was consciousness but no\nknowledge, for there was nothing to know. The impulse to Be, produced\nthe world, every atom of which is part of the Creator that produced it.\nThe world is synthesized in man, for man holds in his physical body the\nessence of everything that is in the world. There is nothing, mineral,\nvegetable, animal, solid, fluid or gaseous that has not its place in\nman's organization. Man is pressing forward, evolving to a condition of\npurity that shall make him perfect and divine, a God enriched with the\nknowledge gained from numberless lives on earth. He becomes again a\nspark of the Supreme, but individualized and omniscient. And thus is the\ndivine purpose accomplished and the divine impersonal self made divinely\nmanifest.\n\nWhether this be the true theory or not cannot be determined by any\nprocess of reasoning. The Finite mind is unable to comprehend the\nInfinite. We cannot analyze the act of the super-mundane power or find a\nreason that we can understand and prove by mental progress.\n\nSo therefore we can not trace involution even as we can evolution, for\nit is not of this plane. Whatever we note that seems to us to be\ninvolution is only some variation of the other. It has to do with our\nmaterial progress while involution is a product of the impulse of a\nconsciousness beyond our comprehension.\n\nWe may then consider involution briefly as the descent of spirit into a\nmaterial condition and evolution as the refinement of matter into\nspirit. We may safely believe that under this stupendous plan the\npresent is not the first and will not be the last cycle, but that they\nstretch their never ending spirals in both directions without limit.\nWhether or not there _ever_ was a beginning to this endless coil of\ncycles of involution and evolution is beyond our feeble comprehension.\n\nLogic and reason are but the dull weapons of conquest over problems of\nthe Finite, and are entirely too crude to be used with confidence in\ngiving battle to the mysteries of the Infinite.\n\nOnly the intuitions can help us beyond the boundaries of the\nsuper-material world and they tell us that there never was a beginning\nto the things which are and that there will never be an end. This\ncondition of Being, without ever a time of actual commencing, is\nparadoxical and confusing to the mind and we cannot easily realize that\nalthough apparently impossible it is true. But it is only one of many\nsimilar contradictions that attend upon the Contemplation of Infinity.\n\nWe cannot even comprehend a beginning to the present cycle of our\nexistence. The birth of this world is lost in the misty obscurity of the\ninfinite Past and is as hopelessly beyond us as is the record of the\ncountless myriads of similar creations which preceded it. It is\ntherefore of little value to attempt to fix an era from which to begin\ntracing the evolution of man from the irresponsible, mindless monster\nthat archaic teachings describe him to have been before he assumed\nconscious domination over the other creatures of this world. And it is\nequally vain to seek for information regarding the various changes\nthrough which he arrived at even that primitive condition of being only\na mass of inert semi-conscious matter. Perhaps in this as in the other\naspects of the transmigration of the Divine into the Finite, there never\nwas any beginning.\n\nThe Vedanta, which is that phase of Indian Philosophy that treats\nspecially on this subject, says that the world proceeded from an\ninscrutable principle, darkness, neither existent nor non-existent and\nfrom \"one that breathed without afflation, other than which there was\nnothing, beyond it nothing.\"\n\nAccording to the Vedanta there is but one substance or reality immutable\nand eternal, the supreme spirit, _the impersonal Self_, the spiritual\nabsolute _atman_\u2014and that of course is summed up in the idea of Deity.\n\nScience, which professes to reject all theories that cannot be proven,\nsuggests tentatively that all of nature's innumerable products have\nevolved from the result of a fortuitous combination of unconscious\ncauses that produced a beginning.\n\nBut there should be something beyond mere accident in the movements of\nnon-intelligent forces. There must always be a first cause even for a\nbeginning and that first cause cannot be an accident.\n\nThat should be an uncomfortable theory for those who are scientific\nenough to believe it, for they have no guarantee against other accidents\nof Nature. They can never feel secure against some awkward occurrence\nthat might counteract that initial commingling of forces and restore\nthis world to its original condition of nothingness.\n\nWe read of various vibrations that shiver into the production of light,\ncolor, heat, sound, power, electricity and even the life principle, but\nthese vibrations are not even said to be self-produced. There has never\nbeen a theory satisfactory to the intuitions\u2014which are the most\naccurate of all our truth finders, except that of an universal,\nConscious Self, impersonal but all pervasive, that is the Cause, the\nBeginning and the ultimate Attainment of everything.\n\nThe only theory that agrees with the intuitions without offending the\nreasoning perceptions should offer the safest foundation upon which to\nbuild a philosophy. It is therefore not remarkable that ages ago the\nsages of the Orient, men who were fitted by training and inherited\nfaculties for metaphysical contemplation, elaborated a philosophy based\nupon the belief in an impersonal First Cause that seeks personality only\nthrough involving Spirit in matter and evolving back to Spirit. Tinted\nwith the results of that experience, Spirit, they believe, becomes\nself-conscious and individualized by its contact with a life or lives of\nmanifestation. Evidently it can never be absolutely stainless again. It\nhas exchanged entire purity for knowledge and self-consciousness.\nTherefore, man, who is the highest attainment of this evolution, can\nnever be infinitely perfect, but can ever more and more approximate to\nperfection. He can never again be absorbed and swallowed up and engulfed\nin absolute divinity. He will never become entirely Divine in the sense\nof being re-absorbed into the unrecognizable All-consciousness, for that\nwould extinguish all the effects of his earth experiences and his long\npilgrimage would be a profitless waste of time and toil. He has become\nan individualized conscious being, less than Deity, but by reason of his\ncompleted evolution he is relatively a God to us.\n\nHe may therefore reach up to the Infinite even now, and can also extend\na hand down to Earth to help us on our upward climb. Innumerable divine\nmen have been reborn and have dwelt among us to teach us how to live.\nEven in comparatively modern times we have a line of such whose example\nand teachings have helped forward our evolution and made it easier for\nus.\n\nFrom Zoroaster and Buddha and Jesus and others have come revelations\nthat justify the theory of man's perfectibility through evolution and as\nwe can trace the growth of all matter up to its culmination in humanity,\nthe divine plan seems to stand revealed, and our ultimate destiny is\nplainly outlined. The method of evolution, like everything else in\nNature, seems entirely a process of compensations. We gain and renounce;\nwe take on higher qualities and drop the meaner characteristics. We\nadvance by such methods as we can command as we go along. Higher ideals\nbeing reached, we look upward for still loftier points of attainment.\n\nIn the prehistoric stages of our development, while pure physicality\ndominated us, we asserted our supremacy by superior strength or speed.\nFurther along a cunning mentality gave us a wider range of power. Still\nlater we have grown into wisdom, and as we near the end we shall discard\nall the physical desires, the tastes and appetites, the hopes and\nambitions, the affections and passions that tie us to the earth life,\nand take on instead the finer spiritual attributes that are inseparable\nfrom the higher planes of existence.\n\nThe severing of the earth desires marks the end of the process of\nevolution of spirit from matter. What follows that we may infer from\nanalogy. The process of unfolding doubtless continues on planes of which\nwe have no conception, but obviously need not dread to encounter.\n\nOf course we have moved slowly forward in our various stages of\ndevelopment from whatever we were before we took on human qualities up\nto our present degree of attainment. It is not hard to believe that we\nhave developed superior understanding and the other higher attributes of\nhumanity only as our growing needs and opening opportunities have called\nfor them.\n\nThe evolution of species and the laws governing the development of\nphysical organs as they became necessary for the growth and preservation\nof the infinite variety of living things have been a favorite study for\nmaterialistic scientists for the past century. More than that, long ago\nthe learned Jean Baptiste Lamarck formulated four propositions that are\nnow accepted as self-evident.\n\nFirst. Life, by its proper forces, tends continually to increase the\nvolume of every body possessing it, and to enlarge its parts up to a\nlimit which it brings about. This covers the phenomenon of growth to\nmaturity.\n\nSecond. The production of a new organ in an animal body results from the\nsupervention of a new want continuing to make itself felt, and a new\nmovement which this want gives birth to and encourages.\n\nThis is shown in the long neck of the giraffe, which enables him to feed\non the tender top leaves of tall tropical plants, and in the camel's\nhump which supplies him with vigor during long intervals without\nfeeding, and the receptacle for water, which enables him to traverse\nlong stretches of barren and streamless lands.\n\nThird. The development of organs and their force of action are\nconstantly in ratio to the employment of those organs.\n\nThe kangaroo, a large animal carrying its young for safety in a natural\npouch, stands erect and never uses its fore legs in walking. It leaps\nforward in prodigious bounds, propelled by the muscular power of its\ntail, which has grown and developed beyond even the hind legs in\nstrength; while the fore legs have dwindled to insignificant size and\nimportance.\n\nFourth. All which has been laid down or changed in the organization of\nindividuals in the course of their life, is conserved by generation and\ntransmitted to the new individuals which proceed from those which have\nundergone these changes.\n\nThis is because evolution carries us constantly beyond certain needs and\nprogress does not let us go back to those needs, neither in our own\npersons nor in those of our posterity. Man and beast alike have only and\nalways such organs as they require and no others. The laws of heredity\nare not whimsical or recalcitrant, and the changes brought about by\nevolution are carried forward by them in strict obedience to its\ndemands. Recognizing this fact, but building from a false premise, the\nfollowers of Darwin search for a link to connect humanity with the\ntailless apes of earlier periods, assuming that man was developed from\nthem, and that the ape is the link between mankind and the next lower\norder of being. There is absolutely nothing in support of this theory\nbeyond a resemblance in the physical conformation. And that is far more\nlikely to result from the ape being a descendant of prehistoric man.\n\nAll these speculators stop short at any valuable foundation on which to\nbuild theories. They see in evolution only the generation and\ndevelopment of living organisms and the reason or cause of the infinite\nvariety of form, color and habits.\n\nKant and Laplace theorized vaguely on the formation of the solar system\nfrom a gaseous condition to its present character, but they shared the\nperplexity of all biological thinkers when they endeavored to peer\nbehind the mechanical beginning in search of a First Cause. It is\nprobable that even the mechanical beginning had never a first hour or\nday or year or era. And so Science, bound and boxed up in materialism,\nobserves the growth and development of species and placidly stops at\nthat, having begun with a guess and ended with\u2014a bundle of axiomatic\nconclusions.\n\nBut the philosophy of the ancients, backed up by the teachings of the\ndivine men who from time to time have come back to us, and endorsed by\nour own inner convictions, tells us that evolution is the concerted\neffort of all the atoms that comprise the Universe to return to a\ncondition not recognized by science\u2014the condition of spirit which is\nthe ultimate aim of everything.\n\nAnd every infinitesimal atom is alive and has a consciousness of its\nown. They cluster together and form living organisms, developing and\nprogressing in even pace with those organisms, flying off into space as\ntheir work goes on and rushing together to build up some other organism.\nHad we ultra-microscopic vision we could see them streaming from us\ncontinually and being replaced by corresponding streams of new atoms.\nAnd each one of these has its own divine spark. It is a living entity.\n\nThey abide with us according to our attraction, some shunning us, others\npreferring us. Evil people attract such atoms as have just come from\nothers of like disposition and leave their impress upon them and gain\nnothing good from them. Every evil thought taints every atom of the\nstream that we contact with at the time. They advance in their\nevolutions no faster than does humanity and reach spirituality when we\ndo and not sooner or later. Man arrives finally at this condition\nclothed in the \"spiritual body\" of which theologians speak without any\nidea or comprehension of its true nature.\n\nAll who would shun contact with the particles that emanate from vile\npeople must live the life that repels such atoms. Those who live a life\nof pure thought and fraternal consideration draw towards them atoms of\nsuch quality as makes their personality pleasant and attractive and\ntheir bearing gracious. No pure life builds up a vile personality. There\nare other ways to recognize traits of character besides the mere facial\nexpression. Even scientists know that.\n\nIt is therefore evident that every one should shun evil thought just as\nhe would any other deadly and destructive infection. It rests with every\nman to carry forward with him on his upward journey all the material\nthat goes toward his own physical composition.\n\nThere is no one who has not attracted all grades of atoms to him, and it\nis well to bear in mind that they are the very same that have formed the\nbodies of all the population of the world, man and beast, since life\nfirst was. There has been no addition, no diminution. Nothing in nature\nis ever destroyed. Nothing ever ceases to be. There is no place to\nbanish material. It must be spiritualized and we must be the medium.\n\nAnd, therefore, it is no poetic fancy to say that we are of one common\nclay and that humanity is all one. Every man, at every moment, is\nbuilding and rebuilding himself of the same materials, particle for\nparticle as have built up every other man. Prince or pauper, saint or\ndemon, society flower or foul tramp, we are all of the very same dust\nand we can determine which sort we shall use for our own bodies. It is\nnot a question of proximity. It is entirely one of sympathy and\ncharacter and affinity. We evolve as fast as our thoughts and conduct\npermit, and we purify our souls and our bodies alike and together.\n\nIf we recognize the brotherhood of humanity we need no reminding to see\nthat it is our duty to ourselves\u2014to our personal selves as well as to\nour spiritual selves, to help to make cleaner and sweeter the whole\nworld through our own mental, moral and the resultant spiritual\ncleanness. That will not hurry evolution much in each separate instance,\nbut by the contagion of sympathy and the dynamic power of thought these\nbeneficent, physical atoms can be attracted to us and we can carry about\nwith us their gentle influence for good.\n\nThat is the secret of the curative influence of sweetsouled people upon\nthose who are sick in mind or body, and if people could understand these\ninfluences as they are and value them justly we should soon see a\nhappier world with less sorrow, less injustice, less sickness and a far\nwider recognition of the material as well as spiritual truth that\nbrotherhood is an universal fact in Nature, and that our evolution can\nnever be complete until all realize it and live accordingly.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CYCLE OF LIFE.\n\nBY MARY KONOPNITSKY.\n\nTRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH BY V.\u00a0A.\u00a0H.\n\n\nPRELUDE.\n\nIn the new morn, that dawns above the world, I put aside the black and\nsombre harp, that plays and sings so sadly. For, from the ocean's\nfarthest shore, with the first daybreak blushes, with the golden arrows\nof the sun, there comes on rosy wings, all radiant with fiery auroras, a\nnew song, a bird of the arriving spring.\n\nIn the new morn, that dawns above the world, I stretch the golden\nstrings, I weave them from the day-beams, I paint them with the iris\ndew. For through the mould of sorrows, there breaks the music of\nmountain waterfalls; their vernal voice and chime now reach me from\nevery rock and rill, and a new flowery raiment is again woven for the\nearth.\n\nIn the new morn, that dawns above the world, I tie fresh golden cords of\nsound,\u2014not for the pain, not for the longing in the gloom, not for the\nold complaint of the lonely heart. I send them into the blue infinitudes\nunrestrained, I launch them from globe to globe, into the farthest\nspace. From star to star there glistens of my strings the golden grate.\n\n\nI.\n\nI am a ray. The fount of Light I cannot circumscribe. And yet I fly.\nThrough the dark nights I fly, through stars and pallid moons; I kindle\nephemeral scintillations, I send out my trembling light towards\ninfinity's eternal flame, from which shines forth the sun of all the\nsuns. And now I darken, totter, pale; I lose my breath, my hope, I\nsmoulder like a spark.\n\nAnd lo! again I energize my rays, cast into endless skies; again I\nillume myself and burn; I reach forth, I fly in space as a fiery ribbon\nfrom the spindle of the spirit. Now my tiny ray approaches the great\nsun; it is already burning with eternity's first blush. As an arrow I\nsling myself into the bright path, illuminated by the rosy dawn. I am a\nray\u2014the fount of Light I cannot circumscribe. Let me, then, be\nencompassed by its dome.\n\n\nII.\n\nI am a spark of eternity; and I am a pilgrim. Even to-day shall I pass\naway, after a while, after an hour's stroke, together with the smoke of\nthe shepherd's fire, which writhes in blue strands over the forest in\nthe eve, and disappears in the tears of dew before the night. Even\nto-day shall I be divorced from that power, which holds me here from the\ntwilight to the twilight, and the sun shall not see me more with his\ngolden eyes.\n\nI am a spark of eternity. Beyond the cold ashes I shall exist even to\nthe dawn, ... And then in my own embers shall I wax in brightness, glow\nas gold and burn as ruby; I shall pass through the grayness of the dust\nof this my bed, and before the rosy dawn shall have bathed herself in\ndew, before the sun shall have lifted his golden gaze from beyond the\nsea, I shall strike into the flames of life.\n\n\nIII.\n\nHow many dawns, how many twilights have I passed? Do I know it myself?\nThrough how many gates of body and of soul have I entered into life, as\nan eternal voyager, who is born daily, now here, now there, from the\nsleep of death, in the earliest morn.\n\nAnd then, exhausted, I departed to the West, through the great twilight\ndusk, which, all blazing with gold and red as blood, led me into the\nsilent fields of blue, upon the dreamy meadows of the moon, all heaving\nwith the beating of the wings of Psyche-butterflies, where I sought my\nsleep, and my head leaning on eternity's great bosom, I rested after a\nlife and before a life.\n\n\nIV.\n\nMyself\u2014the gate, and myself\u2014the path, once only in this cycle have I\nissued from the Divine Light. Once only blew its breath for all bodies\nand souls, once only has it in the morning of Day opened its bosom of\nluminous archetypal thought,\u2014and all subsequent myriads of forms,\nbefore and now, were sculptured by myself.\n\nLo! I emerge from the conflagration of blood; I come in the likeness of\na child, I who am a lion, crouching for the powers of the heavens and of\nthe earth. And I depart into the night, through the blood and through\nthe pain, crouching as a shadow, for the dawn and for the day. After a\ntime, after a moment I increase in strength, I spring up in the dust. My\ngerm of existence now feels hunger of life; it attracts life's forces\nand lifts green blades above the grave. The sun now warms it for a new\nday of its immortal labor.\n\n\nV.\n\nWith no gift am I favored in my early hour. All my radiance have I spun\nmyself through many nights and shadows. And all my powers upon the earth\nand in the heavens have I obtained from my own mystic depths. Every form\nI have, it is of ages' toil, it is an effort of many births, a battle of\nmany darkling deaths.\n\nWhat light have I, by a promethean labor, through thousand lives, spark\nby spark have I stolen it from the sun, spark by spark have I seized it\nfrom the blushes of the morning. The rosy coral of the dawns, and\nlilies' whiteness have I plucked unseen in the gardens of the night from\nthe silvery stars. There is no color and no sound upon the waving\nmeadows, among the nests of eagles or of nightingales, which through the\nages, in ruins' coldness and scorching heat of life I have not worked\nout from a laughter to a groan,\u2014alive by my own self.\n\n\nVI.\n\nAnd my right is to upwards grow through all the worlds. And my right is\nto expand my heart through all the worlds. In storms, in silence I burst\nthe bars of death's prisons, and strike the metal of the all-awakening\nbell!\n\nLightning of life, and thunderbolt of life I let into the dark camera of\ndeath, into the house of dust. And touched by a spark of the spirit the\ndust explodes with life, the soil opens, waving the flowers of new\nspring, and again breathes joyous in the splendor of the day.\n\n\nVII.\n\nThe soul-bird builds her cage herself,\u2014with songs and flapping of her\nwings,\u2014and enters then its gates all fascinated with the life.\n\nBut soon the winged guest, from the infinity, newcomer, striking her\nprison's trellis-wall, reddens her golden pinions with the ruby blood.\n\nShe hushes then in the dusky shadows of her house; a longing eats her\nheart away for the freedom of the dawn.\n\nTill overcome with pain she strikes her breast against the walls and\nbreaks the cage herself.\n\nWith songs and flapping of her wings, from the dusk, called life, she\nflies away near to the gates of the eternal light.\n\n\nVIII.\n\nUpon the dark and stormy roads I walk, bare-footed, poor; I onward pass,\nnaked and hungry, through life's cold and night; only one light can\nbrighten there my way and feed my strength,\u2014the light of daring,\nburning in my breast; it helps me more than stars and more than moons.\nNo sun in heaven can kindle it in me, but I must get it from myself,\nstriking my spirit against the hard experiences of life, that the breast\nmight catch the spark as does dry tinder when the steel strikes the\nflint.\n\n\nIX.\n\nWith me do I carry the enemy, whether I leave my threshold, or return\nback to my home.\n\nWith me do I bring the traitor, and he is my heart's shadow,\u2014the\nthunderbolt striking me.\n\nWith its storm it will scatter the roof of my dwelling, set fire to my\nhouse.\n\nAnd then suddenly stopping, the sails of my boat will be folded, and\ndown will it sink.\n\n\n(_To be continued._)\n\n\n\n\nGODS, HEROES AND MEN.\n\nBY AMOS J. JOHNSON.\n\n\nAccording to Theosophy every man is a God incarnate. In his real nature,\neach man is a spark from the Divine Flame, which descends from the\nInfinite Fountain of Life and courses through Eternity on a pilgrimage,\nthe purpose of which we can but faintly conceive.\n\nGreat mystics have said that \"the universe exists for the sake of the\nsoul's experience,\" and that the purpose of life is that the soul may\nreach perfection. The term embraces infinity, perfect virtue, wisdom,\npower, perfect altruism. Each department of Nature must be carried on to\na full completeness and the soul may not rest content with achieving\nmerely its own perfection, but must labor for the perfection of the\ngreat Whole.\n\nReaching from the One White Light of Absolute Being down to the tiniest\natom of matter, each plane of existence is governed by Divine\nIntelligences. All one can say is that after reaching to the highest\nconception possible to us of the Divine Intelligences that rise above us\nand to the highest knowledge attainable of the Divine Worlds, still\nstretching far beyond the highest, beyond the utmost reach of human\nthought, there exists: What? \"An omnipresent, eternal, boundless and\nimmutable Principle, on which all speculation is impossible, since it\ntranscends the power of human conception and can only be dwarfed by any\nhuman expression or similitude. It is beyond the reach and power of\nthought, unthinkable and unspeakable.\"\n\nThis is the postulate of sublime and everlasting Deity. As far as we may\ngo in endless Eternity, yet above and beyond all there reigneth absolute\nLaw.\n\nRecognizing then, that the great unknowable Deity is beyond our ken, our\nstudy must be confined to the lesser Deities, though some of these seem\nunknowable; but we may partially learn the relation they bear to men.\n\nAll the great religions present a series of divine Presences, and\ngenerally a triune Godhead stands as the primal object of all adoration.\nThe Hebrew Bible traces three Deities, the highest of these being the\nMost High God, supreme ruler over all, and synonymous with Law; the\nsecond Deity is God, the Elohim, a great hierarchy, or rather a series\nof hierarchies of Gods, who formed the earth and filled it with living\ncreatures and endowed man with his human nature; while the third in rank\namong the ancient Hebrews was Jehovah, who stands as their tribal Deity.\nThe distinction between the Most High God and Jehovah is clearly shown\nin Deuteronomy (32: 8-9), where it says: \"When the Most High divided the\nnations, their inheritance, when He separated the Sons of Adam, He set\nthe bounds of the people.... The Lord's [Jehovah's] portion is his\npeople, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.\"\n\nThe New Testament also gives a triple Godhead in the Father, Son and\nHoly Spirit. Among the Brahmins, Brahma is the Creator, Vishnu the\nPreserver and Siva the Destroyer; with the Greeks it was Uranos, Kronos\nand Zeus; and with the Egyptians, Osiris, Isis and Horus. These were not\nnecessarily the most powerful Gods in the Pantheon, but those most\npopularly known. The Hindus, for instance, are said to call their chief\nDeity, Zyaus\u2014which bears a close resemblance to the Greek Zeus; and the\nEgyptians called their Unknown God, Amen or Ammon. All religions tell\nalso of lesser divinities, as archangels and angels.\n\nTheosophy, the Wisdom Religion, shows the three Logoi which have\nproceeded from the Unknowable Principle; these Logoi are respectively\nthe First Cause, the Spirit of the Universe, and the Universal\nWorld-Soul. From the Manifested Logos, the Universal Oversoul, spring\nhundreds of classes of divine beings, and these in their turn are the\nprogenitors of the lower classes of beings. From God down to the lowest\nmineral monad, there is a direct chain of heredity, binding all of\nexistence into one great universal whole. Humanity is the child of the\nGods and traces its heredity through all the divine hierarchies to the\nUnknowable Root of all.\n\nThe traditions of all old nations tell of a Golden Age when Gods and\nDemigods lived among men. Greek mythology gives the following account of\nthe formation of the Earth and heavens: \"Before earth and sea and heaven\nwere created, all things wore one aspect, to which we give the name\nChaos\u2014a confused and shapeless mass, in which, however, slumbered the\nseeds of things. Earth, sea and air were all mixed up together; so the\nearth was not solid, the sea was not fluid, and the air was not\ntransparent. God and Nature at last interposed and put an end to this\ndiscord, separating earth from sea, and heaven from both. Then one of\nthe Gods gave His services in arranging the Earth. The air being\ncleared, the stars began to appear, fishes took possession of the sea,\nbirds of the air and beasts of the land. But a nobler race was wanted,\nand Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus made man in the image of the\nGods. Then Prometheus went to heaven and lit his torch at the chariot of\nthe Sun, and brought down fire to man. He taught him to make weapons to\nsubdue the animals, tools to cultivate the ground, and introduced arts\nand commerce.\"\n\nThe \"fire\" which Prometheus brought, refers not to a physical flame, but\nto \"mind.\" Prometheus stands for the hierarchy which endowed physical\nman with his mental faculties, and it is related that when mankind was\nsupplied with the \"divine fire\" the Gods became jealous of the new race,\nand in revenge they chained Prometheus to a rock where a vulture feasted\non his liver, which was renewed as fast as devoured. He thus stands\nforth as the first Saviour of humanity, and his sufferings represent the\nfirst crucifixion.\n\nMythology is written in glyph and symbol, but if one stops to analyze\nthese mystic tales, volumes may be found hidden beneath the outer husk.\nPerhaps it was not revenge\u2014but Law\u2014which caused Prometheus to be\nchained to the rock. He assumed the task of raising man to Godhood and\nincarnated in the animal form that the lower entity might be better\naided. Thus the rock to which he was chained becomes humanity itself,\nand the vulture represents the desires and passions of the lower man.\n\nHumanity has always had divine Teachers. Schools of Magi or Wise Ones\nwere established on the old Lemurian continent, and were open to all who\nwere worthy. These schools or temples were known to the public down to a\nperiod as late as 2000 years ago, when they closed to the world at\nlarge. But the light has been kept burning in hidden places even to the\npresent day. The Great Lodge has maintained a continuous existence ever\nsince its establishment millions of years ago, and it is from this Lodge\nthat all the great Teachers of the world have come\u2014Krishna, Buddha,\nJesus, and all others. A recent Messenger from the Lodge was H.\u00a0P.\nBlavatsky, who founded the Theosophical Society and Universal\nBrotherhood. Through this channel the archaic teachings are again being\npresented to the world at large. All who desire to learn the mysteries\nof life, all who desire to advance along the Path which leads from\nmanhood to Godhood are welcome to the archaic wisdom.\n\nIf the applicant for divine knowledge will purify his nature and be\nbrotherly to his neighbor, then he may gain the greatest profit by a\nstudy of Theosophy, for then its teachings will be illuminated by a\ngreater light than intellect itself can ever shed. The true men of\nto-day are those who are able to subdue their lower nature and make it\nobedient to the behests of the spiritual man. It is a heavy task, but in\nthe end will lead to a higher life.\n\nThe course of training at first is very simple, being concerned with the\ncommonest of daily duties. If one is irritable, quick-tempered,\ncensorious, lazy, selfish or unjust, his first steps upon the Path will\nconsist in correcting these faults. One must make a persistent struggle\nto become industrious, self-controlled and sweet tempered, and not until\nthese qualities are developed need one be anxious for anything beyond.\nIf one fails in some respects or in all respects he need not be\ndiscouraged, but should try again, and keep on trying until he does\nsucceed.\n\nThe evolution from man to Hero or Seer, and from Seer to Perfection can\nnot take place in a single life, for one life is not sufficient to\nfurnish either time or environment for the many lines of development\nthat are required. Before the man can become one of the company of the\ngreat Helpers of Humanity, he must be purged of every weakness and\ndefilement. He does not need Their learning, but he must have Their\npurity.\n\n\n \"What good is soap to a negro, and advice to a fool?\"\n\n \"Do not make a wicked man thy companion, nor act on the advice of a\n fool.\"\u2014_Gems from the East._\n\n\n\n\nTHE PHILOSOPHY OF SUICIDE.\n\nBY T.\u00a0B. WILSON.\n\n\nThere is a very much deeper meaning than some people suppose, to what\nPaul said to the Romans, \"None liveth to himself, and no man dieth to\nhimself.\" In inflicting a wound upon himself, the suicide wounds all\nthere is, and his death shocks every living thing. That is so because of\nthe oneness, the solidarity, the interdependence of all that is. Hence\nit is that the atom is as necessary to the universe as a world. It is a\nvery old philosophy, but it is a demonstrable cosmological and\npsychological fact, for we know that man necessarily lives and moves and\nhas his being under the same law of growth and maintenance that supports\nand sustains every other entity, even from the atom subdivided into a\nmillion parts away to the mightiest god. It is just as incumbent upon\nthe bowlder that it fulfill its destiny as it is that man should fulfill\nhis. Hence, it is a violation of the law of being to purposely or\nunnecessarily retard the unfoldment of one's self or any other thing.\nThe wrong done to the thing hindered reflects back upon the doer in\nforce, in addition to the injury done to that which was wronged.\n\nThe divinity which shapes the course of a man's journey through the\nworlds of existence is his own thoughts and acts, and, furthermore,\nevery thought and act exerts an influence for good or for evil\neverywhere. It is true, altogether true, that every man is more or less\nhis brother's keeper, and that no one can escape the consequences of his\nacts and thoughts upon his own life, nor of the influence they exert\nupon the lives of others. The interdependence of all things and the\nuniversality of being is seen in all things. This is a principle of\nexistence which to know the full meaning of, one must know one's self.\n\nExistence as a personality and individuality, with power to reason and\nunderstand, is at once the most sublime and most fearful stage of\nunfoldment. It is sublime when considered as evidence of individual\npossibilities, and fearful when, in the presence of God in\nmanifestation, the responsibility which the realization of the\nuniversality of being and the interdependence of all things imposed upon\nthe individual is felt. The law of being makes a relationship to exist\nbetween individuals as a whole which transcends the ties of\nconsanguinity. You may call it universal brotherhood, if you like, but\nany way, the relationship imposes tasks of toil and burdens of duty upon\neveryone, and to wilfully make the burden of duty or the task of toil\nharder for one's self or for another is to defy the power of the\nuniverse and invite the wrath of the source and maintainer of being.\n\nBut somehow or some way the average man and woman finds in the so-called\nphilosophy of suicide a most bewitching theme for conversation and\ndiscussion, and it is just possible that not a few are persuaded to try\nthe realities of it by letting their minds dwell upon the subject too\nmuch. That there is a certain fascination in the problem of life and\ndeath, no one will deny, but the thoughtful person would not seek its\nsolution in self-destruction. The better a man understands the law of\nhis being the clearer he sees that in ratio to his obedience to the laws\nof nature is he in harmonious relation with all things, and that when in\nsuch harmony, existence in the body is altogether desirable, whether he\nbe sick or well, rich or poor.\n\nBut what constitutes suicide or self-murder? We are accustomed to call\nthat an act of suicide which hurls one into death at once, when death\nfollows the act instantly. Now, as a matter of fact, we all are almost\nsure to occupy a suicide's grave. There is a difference between the man\nwho burns out his stomach in twenty seconds with prussic acid and the\nman who burns out his stomach in twenty years with whisky, but can you\ntell me just what the difference is? That thought might be carried into\nthe conduct of our life throughout. The natural end of a man's\npilgrimage in each incarnation is when the spiritual man has so\nspiritualized his physical body that the spirit can no longer function\nin it.\n\nDeath, then, is surely the spirit walking out of the body by its own\nfree will, just as we lay aside a garment when it is worn out. All other\ndeaths come of violation of nature's laws, and they are premature. It is\nbecause we indirectly, at least, commit what is almost the equivalent of\nwhat we are wont to call suicide that, in my opinion, we have to come\nback so often. It is impossible for disease and death, as we understand\nand feel them, to lay hold upon one who lives in harmony with nature's\nlaws. So as a matter of fact, practically all deaths are the penalty for\nwrong living. We come back time and again because we need certain other\nexperiences, but the purpose of experience is to teach us to live right,\nand the reason why we need new experiences is because we have not\nhitherto, or are not now, living in harmony with nature's laws. Karma\nmakes us go to school until we have mastered the lesson. It is for us to\nsay how many lives we will devote to it, but every moment we turn away\nfrom the lesson we drink down poison which kills.\n\nTo seek death by one's own hand is not a new method to overcome the ills\nthat relentlessly chase their victims through briar patch and over flint\nhill. It is a right that has been claimed by very many in all ages, and\nsome of the world's most distinguished personages committed self-murder\nto escape impending trouble. The crime\u2014for it is a crime\u2014has been\ndefended by such famous writers as Gibbon, Hume, Von Hartman and\nSchopenhauer. Strangely enough, as civilization advances and\nuniversities multiply, the roll of self-murderers seems to increase. It\ncan not be said, therefore, that the spread of culture and knowledge, of\ndiscoveries in the field of science, and the adoption of higher codes of\ncommercial and social ethics, educate or influence the world away from\nthe old-time philosophy that a man's highest right is to quit living by\nhis own hand when he is tired of life. Indeed, it would seem that the\nwider the range of personal liberty, and the more extended the\nopportunities for intellectual expansion and experiment, the incentive\nto self-destruction is intensified.\n\nAt a recent meeting of the American Medico-Legal congress it was held by\nnot a few members that not only was suicide justifiable in cases where\nthere appeared to be no other way for one to relieve one's misery, but\nthat a physician would be justifiable in ending the life of his patient\nunder certain circumstances. I think we all will agree that such a\nsentiment is unworthy of a manly man.\n\nWhen a man assumes to be a law unto himself he is certain to come in\ncontact with forces which will sweep him out of the current of the river\nof individual progress into whirls and eddies, which agitate the waters\nfearfully but do not move onward. He will realize, too, that God, the\nuniverse and himself are one stupendous whole\u2014absolutely\ninseparable\u2014and that when he quits any sphere of existence by his own\nact in violation of the law of his being he is still a necessary part of\nthe whole, and that in severing the cord of earthly life he not only\nfails of his purpose, but he himself will feel the jar more severely\nthan any other entity in all the worlds of God, and not only so, but he\nshall continue to live amid distracting discord until he voluntarily\nreadjusts himself to that system of law and harmony from which he\nessayed unlawfully to break away. Certainly he will find pain and sorrow\nin returning, but not to return is to be without rest eternally.\nNevertheless, all men appoint their time to die by their conduct of\nlife, which in nearly all cases is a form of suicide.\n\nThere are those who advocate suicide as a proper means of escape from\ntiresome environment who deny that any unpleasant consequences could\nfollow, because there is no consciousness after death, but it is\nincumbent upon them to prove that there is such a state as \"death\" in\nthe sense they speak of it. It would seem that if there is no\nconsciousness in what is called the state of the dead\u2014if the memory of\nman is annihilated by what is called death\u2014it should be annihilated by\nsleep or trance, for they are states in which the body is dead for the\ntime. Of course, the advocate of suicide fortifies his position by\ndenying that there is memory where there is no brain life and action,\nand that when the brain ceases to be active, memory perishes, but that\ntheory is untenable, because the brain is entirely renewed every seven\nyears or such a matter. A man remembers incidents in his childhood,\nalthough meanwhile his brain has changed completely a dozen times. It\nmust be, therefore, that there is something in man which is impervious\nto the influences which time exerts over the physical body. The \"tablets\nof the memory\" continue throughout. There is a natural body and there is\na spiritual body.\n\nThe advocate of suicide as the better way to rid one's self of trials\nand tribulations is necessarily a materialist. He preaches the doctrine\nof immortality of matter and the mortality of spirit, which is a\nridiculous absurdity. But he will discourse learnedly about the\nmilliards of bacilli\u2014separate, distinct, individual, living\nentities\u2014which float about, live, move and have their being nearly\neverywhere, but if he were asked to catch a few that they might be seen\nand handled he would promptly say they were altogether invisible to the\nnaked eye, that they are almost sub-microscopic. He would admit that\nthese invisible creatures have existence under the same law that peoples\nthe forest with trees, the earth with animals, and the channels of\ncommerce with men, but he would not admit that any living thing could\nhave life separate from its visible organism; hence, when the physical\norganism becomes ill, or is subjected to any other uncomfortable\nconditions of existence, it is its right to escape by quitting life.\n\nBut materialists are too few and far between to bother with; besides,\nthere never was a materialist who did not hope that his philosophy was\nin error, and that he should continue to live as an individual,\nretaining memory and affections after what he calls death. Having that\nhope he is deprived of the right to advocate suicide, because if he is\nto live after the death of the body he must admit that he will be a\nsubstantial, thinking being, for it is impossible to think of substance\nwithout form, and of either without ascribing power to it.\n\nBut there is a phase of the philosophy of suicide which can be seen only\nfrom the occult or metaphysical side of life. It has been said that it\nis the cowardly and unmanly man who wilfully destroys his own life, but\nfor all that a great deal of mental strength and bravery may be required\nto become too great a coward to combat even little annoyances. And\nagain, the psychological influences which gradually prepare a man during\nthe long days of a protracted illness to calmly, gladly no doubt,\nwelcome death as a friend come in the hour of need, may come with such\nforce upon the man contemplating self-slaughter that he is as much\nnerved to meet death as he whose mental acquiescence came after weeks or\nmonths of bodily pain and wasting away. The stoics knew of this occult\nforce which nerves a man to destroy his life, and they called it a\n\"sympathetic friend,\" but science has never been able to analyze or\ndefine it, and hence we can know nothing of it except what we gather\nfrom the lesson its effects upon the soul of man teaches. It is not\ntrue, though, that the suicide leaps from darkness of despair here into\nthe bright light of peace and joy \"over there.\"\n\nThe occult force which nerves a man to murder himself, the would-be\nsuicides should bear in mind, is not spent when the man dies. It is a\nforce which is also an immutable law, albeit the influence of its\noperation is confined to the spiritual man. If it nerves a man to deal\nwith himself harshly it is because the free will of the man cannot be\ndisputed. Were it to paralyze his mind and cripple his purpose the man\nwould be little more than a human machine subject to the whims or\ncaprice of a force or power higher than he. It is the recognition of his\nfree agency by the eternal cause that makes a man a free moral agent,\nbut the same force that sustains him in the exercise of his rights as a\nfree agent follows him beyond the grave and all through the process of\nunfoldment if he elects to progress, or through the process of\nretrogression if he inclines to travel to the left.\n\nIn quitting this sphere or plane of existence the suicide by no means\nescapes duty. The environment from which he fled must be met and\novercome, and in trying to escape he only strengthens the opposing\nforces and weakens his own powers of resistance. Nevertheless, the\nbattle must be fought and the victory must be won if he would be free\nfrom the hurtful influences which prompted him to avoid learning the\nlesson of life, and whatever the environment is, it is to be overcome\nfor the good to him there is in the victory. This is the law of\ncompensation, and it is the law of all laws, for it commands that\nwhatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.\n\nThe suicide, therefore, not only fails to escape the ills he flees\nfrom\u2014but he intensifies the distress which burdens him. Moreover, no\noccult or spiritual force ever influenced him to burden himself with the\nconsequences of hateful environment, but it aided in the exercise of his\nfree will. And, again, whatever a man's burden may be it is the harvest\nof his own sowing. If it be of love and sweet memories it is his by\nnatural right, so also it is his by natural right if it be greed and\ncowardice. The suicide runs from the presence of trouble to the arms of\nmany troubles, and the occult force that aids him in the exercise of his\nfree will holds him to account for committing self-murder with the same\nfirm hand of justice that it would had he murdered his neighbor instead\nof himself. There is no escape from the consequences of one's acts. The\ngrave is no hiding place. It is the door rather which opens into a court\nof justice beyond\u2014into a place where the ethical debits and credits of\nthe individual await him that a balance may be struck. Those things\nwhich he planted in the field of life will be there as debits and\ncredits. Nothing will be omitted, be they the fruit of omission or of\ncommission, and that which he owes he must come again into the field of\nthe activities of physical environment and pay to the uttermost\nfarthing. This, too, the law of Karma demands, and this it exacts.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ETHICS OF SEX.\n\nBY GRACE G. BOHN.\n\n \"Simple? Why this is the old woe o' the world:\n   Tune to whose rise and fall we live and die.\n Rise with it then! Rejoice that man is hurled\n   From change to change unceasingly,\n   His soul's wings never furled.\"\n\n \u2014_Robert Browning._\n\n\nThe destiny of each soul is reunion with the Absolute from which it\nemanated. But this reunion may be accomplished only through yielding the\nclaims of the personal self to the greater Self, the Christos which\nexists within each personality. A single word gives us the key to the\nprocess,\u2014brotherhood.\n\nTo this goal there is one royal road and many that are long and\nterrible. But the royal road may be travelled only by those who are\nimmune from temptation because their consciousness is not centred in the\nself which may be tempted. Understanding the law, they obey it, for only\nby obedience may the law be transcended and the soul become free. That\nis a royal road, indeed. But it is only for the few.\n\nThe other, cyclic and steep as the pathway that winds to the summit of\nthe Purgatorio mountain, must for ages be travelled by the multitudes;\nfor it is they who cannot as yet answer the questions, \"Whence came I?\nwherefore do I exist, and whither do I go?\"\n\nSpirit, when first differentiated from the Absolute, is simple, not\ncomplex, undifferentiated, pure and good because it has not become\nconscious of evil. To gain the experiences by which alone it may expand\nits consciousness to infinity and become inclusive of all\ndifferentiation, it becomes individualized and embodied. And this earth\nis the scene of the experiences which the spirit needs and which it can\ngain only by means of an embodiment of personality.\n\nCycle after cycle, life after life, the soul tests all the conditions of\nearthly pleasure and pain by its own standard and measure. If that\nstandard be self, alienation will be swift and certain, and slow and\nterrible will be the return to the divine. If the measure be\nbrotherhood, service, ministry to others, the soul remains one with God\nand spiritual consciousness is by so much expanded.\n\nSince brotherhood is the ideal, our very institutions, church, state,\nand particularly the home, exist for no higher purpose than to develop\nwithin the soul of humanity a conscious desire to live for others. It is\nonly because the soul manifests itself as two forces, in two sexes, man\nand woman, that the institution of the home, as we know it, is made\npossible. We fancy that these dual forces, incomplete and fluctuating,\nbecome completed and stable only through marriage. The novelists have\nthreshed over this old straw for many weary years, for the view commonly\ntaken is superficial and untrue.\n\nMarriage, in its deeper aspect, is a means by which the soul prepares\nitself, through the joys of limited service, for that wider ministry\nwhich includes the world. Emerson expresses it better when he says \"the\nlover ascends to the highest beauty, to the love and knowledge of\nDivinity, by steps on this ladder of created souls.\" Marriage opens the\nshortest way by which men and women, self-centred and egotistical, may\nbe compelled, against their will if need be, to become conscious of the\njoy of sacrifice and the beauty of service.\n\nThe child, like the childish race, is, in some respects, very much of a\nsavage. He has neither intellectual nor ethical ideas and, as Froebel\nexpresses it, \"the first circle of a child's life is physical nature\nbound by necessity.\" The baby cares only to be kept physically\ncomfortable, and he proposes to be kept so at the expense of others as\nfar as possible. He is a little egotist. The world is his oyster.\nSelfishness, if he be not guided, is far more native to him during the\nearliest period of his life, than altruism. And it is significant that a\nlarge proportion of children grow into manhood and womanhood,\nparticularly in these days of ferment and individualism, with the firm\nbelief that, first of all, they must look out for themselves. They do\nnot voluntarily accept the path of brotherhood, but the law, the wise\nlaw, forces them, by few or many hard experiences, to finally see the\nwisdom of choosing it. By refusing to obey the law they place themselves\nwithin the sweep of its mighty arm and are struck down.\n\nWe are all one; we minister to ourselves only as we minister to others.\nWe must first sacrifice self, else all the rest will not be added unto\nus and even that which we have will be taken away. But before we are\ncapable of the wider ministry, we must prove ourselves by the narrower\nservice, and nature, with her wise economy, leads us into a field\nwherein service and sacrifice are inevitable, and its gateway is\nmarriage.\n\nEmerson gives us the key to this mystery when he says: \"The man is only\nhalf himself; his other half is his expression.\" The true expression is\nservice, the ideal which leads us to accept it is brotherhood, and to\nthat expression the other sex is only the embodied opportunity. To that\nexpression marriage is the guardian and the gateway only as husband and\nwife accept all its culture and all its sacrifices, patiently, joyfully,\ncompletely. That signifies, ordinarily, that both husband and wife must\nlose their personal selves in their children, and if, for selfish\nreasons, they refuse this service, they are missing the culture of this\nincarnation. If they refuse it for reasons that are unselfish, for the\nopportunities of a wider ministry, that is, as Kipling would say,\n\"another story.\" That is the supreme sacrifice.\n\nIt is, in most cases, wiser for husband and wife to fill their home with\nlittle children for two reasons. In the first place, through the care of\nchildren (the care of their minds and souls not less than of their\nbodies), each forgets self and learns the A B C of that great lesson in\nministry which alone will make universal brotherhood possible upon the\nface of the earth. Because these sacrifices are more inevitable to the\nmother than to the father, she is likely to learn this lesson more\nspeedily, and perhaps that is one reason why the Ego clothes itself now\nin one sex and now in another in the course of its earthly experiences.\nPerhaps it is that we may learn this lesson of sacrifice well that the\nnewly embodied soul inflicts upon the builders of its physical body such\nagonies, sacrifices, and anxieties, that their souls seem to be torn up\nby the very roots, only to be planted, when quiet comes again, upon a\nhigher plateau and in an atmosphere less dense. Emerson has said truly,\n\"Infancy conforms to nobody; all conform to it.\"\n\nUnder existing conditions the lesson of selflessness will have to be\nlearned by most of us through this very differentiation of sex, and we\nmay make as much ado about it as we please. We may learn it through the\nagony and the terror of a Hetty Sorrel or a Margaret, both of whom were\nexamples of extreme selfishness; we may accept it gracefully, as do the\naverage man and woman, with a very faint comprehension of what it all\nmeans; or we may welcome and glorify parenthood as the Madonna glorified\nit, prophesy of that future time when every child shall be the child of\nan immaculate conception. \"Help nature and work on with her, and nature\nshall regard thee as one of her creators and make obeisance.\"[2]\n\nThe second reason why the selfish person is delaying his own advancement\nby refusing to fulfill the duties that he tacitly accepts by marriage is\nvery prosaic. We all like to assure ourselves that we are rays of the\nInfinite, channels through which alone the God-message may be brought to\nmankind. That is very inspiring. But it is not so inspiring to reflect\nthat we are also the gateways, self-appointed by the very estate of\nmarriage, through which other souls, more advanced than ourselves\nperhaps, may come into the physical embodiment which they need for\nfuture experience. That is quite another thing, and all the old self\nwhich binds our souls rebels. For this means, to a great degree, the\nsacrifice of our social pleasures, our recreations, time, money,\nphysical ease, perhaps health; it means broken rest, disorderly rooms,\nthe washing of bedaubed little hands, and the kissing of, oh, such dirty\nlittle mouths. It means that we have to shut our \u00c6schylus and shelve our\nFaust and our Homer for a few years at least, and many a father and\nmother look back with something like longing upon the old days when they\nlived with these great souls and when their cherished books were not\nsmeared as to bindings and torn as to leaves.\n\nWas it an accident that Froebel called the system of education that he\ngave to the world \"the science of motherhood\"? Was it accidental that he\nshould dedicate the deepest and truest philosophy of which I have any\nconception to the end that the father and the mother, and through them,\nthe child, might become able to look beneath the visible for the\ninvisible which conditions it; beneath the outer phenomena to the spirit\nwhich gives it birth; beyond the transitory to the permanent. Such a\nphilosophy makes one very patient with physical duties and sacrifices\nwhen they are regarded as only a means to an end that is higher than\nphysical. Such a philosophy makes it somewhat easier to \"step out from\nsunlight into shade to make more room for others.\"\n\nThat is, to me, the ethical side of the now-existing relationship of the\nsexes about which the reformers are making so much ado. It is these who\nlament with such vigor the large families of the very poor. Looked at\nfrom the standpoint of the eternal, the growing number of childless\nfamilies among the better classes is a much more serious state of\naffairs. Large and half-cared for families of children prove nothing\nmore than ignorance on the part of the parents, of both spiritual and\nphysical laws. And the suffering that this ignorance entails will\ninevitably lead the soul to a higher consciousness. But the other state\nof affairs is\u2014with exceptions\u2014the result of selfishness; and the more\nconscious the soul, the greater the alienation resulting from a selfish\ncourse of action. Says H.\u00a0P.\u00a0B., \"The selfish devotee lives to no\npurpose. The man who does not go through his appointed work in life has\nlived in vain.\"\n\nIt is very noble to slay the appetites but that may occasionally be only\na more subtle phase of selfishness. Besides that, desires that are slain\nfor selfish comfort's sake do not free us from the law. That is why it\nis such nonsense to seek the solution of this old problem by placing the\ncaprice or whim of the individual man or woman above the law of the\nuniverse. As long as men and women are selfish, as long as marriages are\nmade from selfish motives, I bow before the rampant desires that shall\nforce the soul into sacrifices until the self has disappeared. But when\nthe law is obeyed, and when old Karmic debts are paid, woman and man\nwill rise superior to it, the will of the individual become one with the\nuniversal will, and the spirit have gained her freedom.\n\nPlease do not mistake me. I do not believe that marriage is the only\ncircumstance through which the sexes can become self-poised, completed\nand stable. I do not believe that those who marry should always accept\nthe limited service that little children demand of them. I do not\nbelieve that the sacrifices of fatherhood and motherhood are the highest\nsacrifices. Nothing of the kind. Marriage is simply a means by which the\nless advanced souls, the feeble, the selfish, may rise out of feebleness\ninto strength, out of self into God. Susan E. Blow, in her \"Study of\nDante,\" has defined the Inferno as the soul filled with self, the\nPurgatorio as the soul emptied of self, and the Paradiso as the soul\nfilled with God. Dante himself, with his divine insight into the nature\nof sin, places the jealous souls (become so through selfishness extreme)\nin icebound Cocytus, at the very pit of the Inferno. To most of us\nmarriage is indeed the gateway leading out of an Inferno of selfishness,\nand it is marriage that places upon our backs the precious burdens which\nwe must carry up the Purgatorio mountain. \"The more we climb the less it\nhurts until we seem to fly.\"[3] But climb we must until the burdens have\nall fallen and the self has disappeared. By the light of \"the dim star\nthat burns within\" the cyclic path must be ascended. But when the top\nhas been reached \"its light will suddenly become the infinite light.\" We\nshall have entered the Paradiso.\n\nAdvanced souls, those who are capable of wider and better service, need\nnot to complete themselves in marriage nor to find their expression in\nthe opportunities it gives them. They are strong enough to find it\nvoluntarily in a cause. They do not marry on the physical plane, but\ntruly wedded are they on the spiritual plane and in that marriage to the\nneeds of the world they find the other half, their expression. They\ncease their hovering between opposites and are stable.\n\nSuch souls were Michael Angelo and Raphael, who found complete\nexpression in art. Socrates needed no wife. He found his expression in\nloafing on the street-corners and plying his mystic questions. Xantippe\nwas clearly a superfluity and we do not blame her for scolding him when\nwe remember that she had none of his philosophic insight to carry her\nover the desert of his neglect. Dorothea Dix, Florence Nightingale and\nhundreds of other souls have found their appropriate expression in\nministry to physical suffering. H.\u00a0P.\u00a0B., great loving heart, forgot\nself in a sublime service of the mind and of the spirit. Such souls do\nnot drift nor waver; they need none of the experiences of physical\nfatherhood or motherhood; they are wedded to the needs of the world,\nthey become spiritual fathers and mothers to its children, they find\ntheir expression in brotherhood, they are self-poised, completed, and at\nrest.\n\n[2] Voice of the Silence.\n\n[3] Dante.\n\n\n \"Whoever, not being a sanctified person, pretends to be a Saint, he is\n indeed the lowest of all men, the thief in all worlds, including that\n of Brahma.\"\n\n \"Like a beautiful flower, full of color, but without scent, are the\n fine but fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly.\"\u2014_Gems\n from the East._\n\n\n\n\nTHE SOKRATIC CLUB.\n\nBY SOLON.\n\n(_Continued._)\n\n\nAt our next gathering an address was given by Mr. Knowlton on Art as an\nEducational Factor, with special reference to the Drama. After the\nformal address a very interesting conversation arose on the subject in\nwhich the Professor, Mr. Knowlton, and Dr. Roberts took part, and which\nI will relate here as far as I am able to remember it. The other members\ntook the part of listeners.\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"I can well understand, Mr. Knowlton, that Art plays an\nimportant part in life and should be cultivated, and that no one's\nnature is complete who lacks appreciation of the artistic and beautiful,\nbut even granting this, I do not agree with you that the training of the\nartistic faculties should be given so much prominence, but should be\nsecondary to that training which fits a man for work in the world. To\nput it in another way; for the man of the world, art is all very well\nfor his leisure hours and for his relaxation and enjoyment but can have\nno place in his active everyday life.\"\n\n_Mr. Knowlton._\u2014\"I take an entirely opposite view, Doctor, as you know\nfrom what I have said, and I maintain that it is just because we have\nput Art in a secondary place that our civilization is characterized by\nso much unrest and skepticism; the finer, inner side of man's nature has\nbeen subordinated to the grosser and external. What is the criterion of\nsuccess in the world to-day? That should be sufficient argument in\nsupport of my claim. And the man who has achieved success, acquired\nwealth, position, fame, has not thereby attained to happiness but in\nnearly every case is still the victim of the unrest of the age. He may\nuse his wealth in the patronage of art, in collections of paintings and\nsculpture, in support of Grand Opera and what not, but tell me, do you\nhonestly think that he truly appreciates these?\"\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"No, I think not. Indeed, in nine cases out of ten, he\naffects a patronage of art, has his private picture gallery and a box at\nthe opera because it is the fashion. No doubt by doing so he is useful\nin a way to the Art world, but I must confess that if I wanted a true\nappreciation of a work of Art, I would not go to such a one.\"\n\n_Mr. Knowlton._\u2014\"No, the enthusiasm and the true love of art which is\nthe great incentive in making all life beautiful and harmonious would be\nlacking. Well, what is the reason of this? I should say it is because\nArt was made entirely subordinate if not almost neglected in his\neducation, and because it has held a subordinate place throughout his\nlife.\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"I do not think we can rightly say what position Art\nshould occupy in education and life unless we can first determine what\nis truly man's work in the world and what is the object of life.\"\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"That is just the position I take. Life is a serious\nmatter and a man cannot afford to spend his time and energy on what\nafter all is more a matter of the imagination than anything else.\nAlthough I certainly think the \u00e6sthetic faculties should not be\nneglected but that they should receive a certain amount of training;\nyet, at the same time, except in the case of those who follow art as a\nprofession, they play very little part in a man's life work. In fact, I\nhave known of more than one case where \u00e6sthetic sensitiveness has\npositively unfitted men for the keen competition of life. After all, the\nbeautiful must give place to the useful, and, for my part, I say, give\nme the cold facts of science and I will make life successful, whereas\nthe man whose artistic faculties have been trained as Mr. Knowlton says\nthey should be, would have his life made miserable by the discords and\ninharmonies that he must inevitably meet. But put science and the\nappreciation of facts as a basis, then a little \u00e6sthetic training is all\nvery well as an embellishment.\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"Doctor, I fear you have completely backslided to your\nold materialistic position which you formerly used to hold.\"\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"If I have I certainly think I have reason and fact on\nmy side this time. Let us get to the bottom of this question. Mr.\nKnowlton proposes to make education of the \u00e6sthetic and artistic\nfaculties of the first importance, but what would be the effect among\nthe masses of the people? I fully agree with providing high class\nentertainments for the masses\u2014picture-galleries, good music, etc. But\nto give an education such as suggested would but make them more\ndiscontented with their lot and increase their unhappiness. What they\nneed is plain scientific teaching and trade schools where they can be\ntrained to become more useful members of society and more competent to\nearn a livelihood, but not music or art save as a recreation and which I\nthink ought to be provided for them in the shape of public concerts and\nart galleries by the cities. With the exception of a little singing and\ndrawing when at school to enable them to appreciate this recreation when\nthey grow up, it would be waste of time for them to develop an\nappreciation of the artistic. Their lot is too hard and all their\nenergies are needed for the stern realities of life.\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"That is all very well, and very well put from your\nstandpoint in regard to man's work in the world, but possibly there is\nanother standpoint from which the matter may be viewed.\"\n\n_Mr. Knowlton._\u2014\"And perhaps the very discontent which you fear,\nDoctor, would be just what is needed to lift the masses from their\npresent almost hopeless condition. The discontent from which they suffer\nnow will never cease through mere material means or scientific\neducation, or the making and enforcing of new laws.\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"They don't know the cause of their discontent. They\nthink that if they could have money and material comforts they would be\nhappy, but we know very well that these things do not bring happiness.\nIt is the insanity of the age, this pursuit of the phantom of material\nprosperity, it is this that breeds all the selfishness, all the greed\nand lust of possession. By regarding physical life as all important,\nhumanity has got off the track, has lost the way that leads to\nhappiness. Material happiness, physical existence, as an end, is a\nveritable bottomless pit\u2014the more it is sacrificed to, the more\ninsatiable it becomes, the more it demands. The physical life and\nphysical needs must not be neglected, but so long as these are regarded\nas an end and their gratification as the _summum bonum_, just so long\nwill ever new needs arise, new forms of poverty, new distress.\"\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"Professor, you startle me! I hardly know what to say. I\ncannot conceive how social reform can take place on any other lines than\nthe material.\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"It certainly requires courage, it requires first of\nall philosophy as a basis, to deliberately turn around and put physical\nexistence and material comfort in a secondary place while aiming to\ndevelop man's inner faculties. Yet I maintain that this is the only way\nto bring hope and happiness to humanity. It will, as you say, make them\ndiscontented with their lot, but this will be but temporary. It will\nopen for them a door to a higher life which alone through its reaction\non the collective mind of humanity will make possible and bring about\nthat active brotherliness which will ultimately remove poverty and\ndistress wherever found.\"\n\n_Mr. Knowlton._\u2014\"Isn't it a law of Nature that the problems of one\nplane can ultimately only be solved by rising to the next higher plane?\nAnd it seems to me that this is one of Nature's methods in evolution, to\ncreate discontent with the lower by awakening that which is higher, thus\ncreating a craving for the higher and a consequent output of energy to\nattain it.\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"And, it should be added, ultimately making the lower\nof greater service and a more useful instrument.\"\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"Granting all this for the sake of argument, how will\nyou proceed to bring it about, for as I have said, this artistic\nappreciation is more a matter of the imagination than anything else and\napplies to a realm of which there is, so far as I know, no scientific\nknowledge and concerning which, consequently, there will be as many\nopinions and methods of procedure as there are teachers? Look for\ninstance, at the many methods of voice training and all the schools of\nArt. Where is there any recognized starting point?\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"These are all very pertinent questions, Doctor. But\nbefore discussing them let me refer to your remark about imagination.\nIsn't it worth while to cultivate the imagination? Where would have been\nall the great discoveries in Science had not our scientific men used\ntheir imaginations? The pity is that there has been no training of this\nfaculty, it is almost a _terra incognita_. But to come to your questions\nproper. How shall we proceed to awaken and train the love of the\nbeautiful that it may work this miracle of regenerating the human race,\nfor such I believe it will accomplish.\"\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"One moment, Professor, let me interrupt you here. A\nlittle time ago we spoke of the lack of true appreciation of art among\nmany of the so-called patrons of art, but surely that must to some\nextent be passing away, for nearly all the wealthy and even those of\nmoderate means provide that their children shall have some education in\nart or music. Even in the public schools an important feature is made of\ndrawing and class singing. Surely all this ought to bring about what you\ndesire if your theory is correct, but for my part I cannot see that it\nwill cause any appreciable change, or in any great degree affect the\ncondition of the masses. I simply wanted to say this before you go\nfurther, in order that we might not overlook what is already being done\nand because I think this supports my position that art and music are all\nvery well for recreation and pleasure but that the main thing to help\nthe people is along what I call practical, material and scientific\nlines. Only in this way can they be fitted for their work in the world.\"\n\n_Mr. Knowlton._\u2014\"You have stated your position very clearly, Doctor,\nand I now see there were many points I did not cover in my address\nthough some of your objections I certainly did anticipate. However, in\nthe first place it comes down to this. What answer is to be given to the\nquestion which the Professor asked and which you have again raised? What\nis a man's work in the world? What is man? What is his nature? In what\ndoes education consist? We have often discussed these questions, Doctor,\nso now we needn't go into them at any length, for you know very well my\nposition in regard to them, but they come up in a slightly different\naspect in relation to the subject in hand. Let us for the moment, then,\ngrant the existence of the inner man, the real man, the man of high\nimaginations, high feelings, with keen appreciation of harmony and\nbeauty, that _something_ within us which prompts to a deed of\nself-sacrifice, which feels the joy of helping another and relieving\ndistress. The outer man lives on material food, but for health needs\nalso pure air and sunshine\u2014all these are necessary to animal existence.\nBut the inner man needs something more. There are other states of\nfeeling besides that of physical well-being. There are other powers\nbesides the physical or even the mental. It is no mere effect of the\nimagination that beautiful music or harmony of form and color awaken in\nresponse certain harmonies in the soul and it is just in this way that\ntrue art may be made a vital educative factor.\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"A man's true work in the world is the soul's work,\nand true education is that which enables the soul to fulfil its destiny\nand make manifest its own nature. True education is therefore that which\nwill draw out the soul's own powers. If this were done the rest of our\nlife would all fall into its proper place.\"\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"But as I have said, even granting that, it is all\nvague. Where and how will you begin? Have you any science of the soul's\npowers and how to awaken them? What more would you have than is already\nbeing done in the way of art education?\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"It is just because there is a science of the soul's\npowers that more should be done, and lovers of art have sought and\nstriven for this for centuries. But the time had not come. It has come\nnow and this renaissance of the soul's powers is already heralded by the\nRevival of the Lost Mysteries of Antiquity.\"\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"What! do we have to go to the ancients for this? I\nacknowledge all the culture and art of the Greeks, but I am not one of\nthose who puts Greek civilization above ours.\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"It is not a question of giving the palm to either\nancient or modern civilization. Our civilization marks one stage of\ndevelopment but in it we have lost something that the ancients had.\nThere is something lacking from our lives. We have developed our\nphysical senses and physical and mental powers to a marvellous degree\nbut there are not that harmony and serenity in our lives which alone can\ngive true happiness. The key to these was in the Mysteries whereby man\nwas brought face to face with the essences of things and his own inner\nnature.\"\n\n_Dr. Roberts._\u2014\"How can these Mysteries be revived\u2014so little is known\nof them and you yourself speak of them as lost.\"\n\n_The Professor._\u2014\"Lost only to the world at large, but they have never\nbeen wholly lost. There have always been some in the world to whom has\nbeen entrusted the sacred wisdom and through whom it has been handed\ndown from age to age.\"\n\nHere some of the members began to make a move towards departure and as\nit was quite late it was decided to resume the discussion at the next\nmeeting when it was expected Madam Purple would be present.\n\n\n \"A chariot cannot go on one wheel alone; so destiny fails unless men's\n acts co\u00f6perate.\"\u2014_Gems from the East._\n\n\n\n\nFRAGMENT\u2014OMNISCIENCE.\n\nBY ADHIRATHA.\n\n\nIn the \"Key to Theosophy\" of H.\u00a0P.\u00a0B. there are some allusions to the\nomniscience of the real man within everybody. Not grasping the meaning,\nI once had a conversation with Madame Blavatsky on the subject, and I\nmust confess that at the time I was not any wiser for it. I thought what\na good thing it would be if instead of passing hours and hours on the\nsolution of a problem, one might simply ask the real man, who knowing\nall, would tell you at once all about it. I must confess that I had some\ndoubt about the real man knowing all, and I asked Madame Blavatsky to\nexplain. I am sure that she tried to awake my understanding, but at that\ntime it was all a beginning, and young Theosophists felt then (as they\ndo sometimes even now) proud, when they knew the Sanskrit names of the\nseven principles and a few more strange sounding words.\n\nI thought: Omniscience is knowing all, which of course must comprise\neverything and every problem, and the hardest mathematical nut will be\nchild's play for the real man to crack\u2014_if_ H.\u00a0P.\u00a0B. is right!\n\nNow if we but change intonation and instead of knowing _all_, say\n_knowing_ all, we shall get a little step nearer the standpoint from\nwhich the question looks more attackable. The question turns first about\nthat much abused word \"knowledge.\" We generally think it to mean the\nconviction or even certainty, that under given conditions of things some\nunavoidable result took place, and will take place anew when those\nconditions will re-occur. A doctor knows that for a certain illness, the\nname of which implies a certain condition of the human body, a certain\nremedy will re\u00ebstablish other conditions called health. An engineer\nknows by experiment and calculation, that a certain form of structure\nunder given loads will have to resist such and such forces in its divers\nparts, and then he lodges his material in such a way, that no part gets\ntoo much and no material gets too little anywhere, which he can only do\napproximately. But all this is not real knowledge and neither the doctor\nnor the engineer knows what that thing is he is dealing with and how its\nmolecules feel.\n\nReal knowledge has nothing to do with apparent knowledge, and it is\nuseless to ask the real man within to write out the development of a\nmathematical problem for you. But when it comes to the application of\nsuch a mathematical solution whereby one tries to get a certain insight\ninto nature, then it may be said that the real man has that insight into\nnature without passing by the tedious way of a mathematical\ninvestigation.\n\nWhat science tries to find out, that the real man is already, and he\nknows without a shade of doubt that which science strives at but never\nreaches. That essence which constitutes the real man, which has passed\nthrough all the kingdoms below man, which we find specified in every\nhuman being as the monad, clothed in different garbs so as to appear\ndistinct, that essence knows all about everything we can think of, and\nthat part of the Universe which we can think of constitutes the _omnia_\nfor man. Having had the experience of all the kingdoms below us, the\nmonad knows them, and our all, as far as human nature is concerned, is\nthat of which we are able to think; therefore it is right to say, that\nthe real man knows that which the ordinary man comprises under the term\n\"all,\" and even more, because the all for the man of the present day is\nless than the all of those who served to clothe the monad at some\nearlier periods. It thus seems to me that the object of the development\nof the thinking principle is not to arrive at a better knowledge of\nnature, but to arrive at some knowledge in a certain way, which way has\nto be learnt during certain periods of evolution. Discrimination has to\nbe learnt, and if one will learn how to avoid a wrong way, he must pass\nit first, or else it would remain unknown to him. It seems a strange\nthing that man has to incarnate so many times during millions of years\nin order to develop the thinking principle, and after having developed\nit, abandon it as a wrong way. But is it not the same with the evolution\nof all the principles in Cosmos? Has not all to be gone through? Has not\nevery plane of consciousness to give way to another? We call them higher\nor lower\u2014but what about such terms? This is no loss, it is a momentary\nnecessity for a certain purpose of divine law, and although less in one\nsense we gain and go forward in another, and pass where we have to pass.\nThis must not be misunderstood, and we must not say: Very well, I have\nto develop intellect, and I shall do it, and shall not care for real\nknowledge which will all come in time. This is sophistry. Through our\nwill and endowed with the thinking principle we have to regain that\nknowledge which gradually has become latent while Manas had to be\ndeveloped, or else we shall never regain it. Thus we have to work with\nardent aspiration towards our highest ideals along the lines of nature\nand divine law; thus we keep balanced, and while doing every one of our\ndaily duties, we inwardly live a life of spirituality and in\nconsciousness divine.\n\n\n \"Men who have not observed proper discipline, and have not gained\n treasure in their youth, perish like old herons in a lake without fish.\"\n\n \"Daily practical wisdom consists of four things:\u2014To know the root of\n Truth, the branches of Truth, the limit of Truth, and the opposite of\n Truth.\"\n\n \"When trust is gone, misfortune comes in; when confidence is dead,\n revenge is born; and when treachery appears, all blessings fly away.\"\n\n _Gems from the East._\n\n\n\n\nFORM OR MATTER.\n\nBY W.\u00a0E. GATES.\n\n\nFrom the old darky who preferred a railway wreck to one at sea, because\nin the former \"you'se thar,\" to the leaders of science, the earth has\nbeen the symbol and type of permanence and solidity. Science has yielded\none of these characteristics to force, in positing the conservation of\nenergy, but it has never felt quite sure just where to place force in\nthe ultimate analysis of things. Of matter however it has always felt\nsure\u2014matter was a fact, there has always been just so much in the\nuniverse, and always will be just that much and no more or less. Of this\nmatter, to whatever extent its mechanical subdivision or chemical\ndissociation might be carried, certain fundamental characteristics have\nbeen ever alleged\u2014it occupies space and has weight. Weight is a general\nterm, used to denote the attractive force between two bodies of matter,\ncommonly called gravitation. These two may be regarded as primary,\ncertain other familiar properties being only expressions of these under\nvarying conditions. We thus speak of matter as solid and impenetrable,\nand say that two bodies cannot occupy the same place at one time. We\nalso speak of the chemical affinities of different atoms and of the\ncohesiveness of masses of matter, both forms of attractive force.\n\nWe also say that this matter possesses, or more strictly is,\nsubstance\u2014that is, it is self-caused and self-sustaining. That it is\nobjectively real\u2014indeed the most real conception we have.\n\nWe have finally one very important concept, that of form, whose relation\nto matter is most clearly expressed by the statement, matter displays\nform. Form is a limitation of, or in, space, and may be conceived of\napart from matter, but the latter is required for its manifestation to\nthe senses, by, in the little boy's words, \"drawing a line around your\nthinks.\" We thus, since all aggregations of matter are perpetually\nchanging as to their forms, do not attribute reality to form, but for\nthis so-called impermanence, think of it as the least real thing we\nknow, the very opposite of matter, an incident only of the latter and a\nvery non-entity.\n\nIt is worthy however of remark that of these two, matter and form, both\nabsolutely dependent on space for their existence (although not an\nattribute of this in any way), matter cannot be thought of without form,\nbut form can be thought of apart from matter, as a mere limitation of\nemptiness. In other words, the idea of form must come before that of\nmatter, and is pre-essential to this. By a purely deductive process this\nshould lead us to question whether essential reality does not lie rather\nin the concept \"form\" than in the concept \"matter.\" And a notable\nconfirmation of this is given when we consider a common error of speech.\nWe say \"all forms change,\" and naturally therefore attribute\nnon-essentiality to form; but we really mean to say \"matter is\ncontinually changing in form\"\u2014leaving one form and entering into\nanother. This statement is a correct one, and fully accords with the\nlast word of physics to-day.\n\nEvolution has made it abundantly clear that the most lasting,\nchangeless, adamantine thing in the manifested world is form. Nature\ngrinds the rocks to powder and turns metals to gases in infinitely\nquicker time and with less effort than she modifies ever so little the\nforms of manifestation. Form ever recurs and matter\u2014as we know\nit\u2014again and again obediently fills the outlines.\n\nBut as if the deductive argument for the superiority of form over matter\nin its eternal existence were not enough, inductive science as well is\nday by day dissolving so-called matter to nothingness, or more strictly,\nto a mere incident of form, produced to meet the conditions of\nsense-perception. A physical universe is daily becoming a less proven\nfact. Gravitation is laid down as a universal material law,\nnotwithstanding that certain facts attendant on cometary bodies had to\nbe thereby incidentally slurred over, but from the Lick telescope we now\nhear that late observations indicate some other force than gravitation\nas the dominating one in certain nebul\u00e6. But a blow at the nebular\nhypothesis rocks the very citadel of the physical theory.\n\nScientists some time ago postulated and have since by sheer necessity\nregarded the ether of space as proven to exist. Yet so difficult is it\nfor us to modify the method or form of our apprehension of the world\naround us that the majority still prefer to work on through the paradox\nof a material universe, which includes an ether lacking in the\nfundamental characteristics ascribed to matter. All known matter has\nweight and obeys gravitation; the ether, by the very theory on which it\nrests, does neither. The transmission of material phenomena requires a\nmaterial vehicle, as is not only demonstrated by every day experience,\nbut is necessarily involved in a system holding that all phenomena are\nbut incidents of matter, the one only reality. Nevertheless any material\nvehicle, however rarified, gives rise to some friction when bodies pass\nthrough it, retarding them; the ether does nothing of this. The relative\ndistances between the molecules in the rarest gas are enormous; the\nether of science is said to fill all space homogeneously. Science indeed\nseems to have restored the worship of \"Pater Aither,\" a god outside the\nmaterial universe, yet within every part of it and supporting it. But\nthey have new names for it all, and in view of the peculiar opaqueness,\nmateriality, which the expressions and forms wherein we do our so-called\nthinking seem to possess before the Perceiver, they may be forgiven for\nnot recognizing their teaching in Hesiod and Lucian and the Vedas.\n\nThe most illuminating suggestion in this whole matter we owe, among\nphysicists, to Lord Kelvin, in his vortex-ring theory of matter. Taking\nthe rings of smoke puffed by a locomotive or a pipe, and making\nallowances for the friction of the medium in which they revolve, Lord\nKelvin found a complete identity in behavior, at every point of\ncomparison he was able to institute, between these rings and the\nindividual atoms into which all matter is held to be divisible. One most\nsignificant fact so demonstrated is that such a vortex-ring, once\nbrought into existence, and being free from frictional or any other\noutside interference to break up its circuit of motion, is eternal and\nindestructible, an entity in itself. The theory then is that an atom of\nmatter is a vortex-ring in or of ether, set up by some underlying force,\nand that all the attributes displayed by material atoms are incidents of\nthis vortex mode of motion. Its hardness is the same as the\nimpenetrability of a whirlpool through which a swimmer cannot pass. Its\nstability is of the same sort as that of the tops, held contrary to\ngravity by a cord on one end of the axis, so long as they revolve\nrapidly\u2014a principle utilized to give absolute rigidity to the steering\ngear of torpedoes. And it is the simplest explanation of atomic\naffinities to suggest that it is the rate, or coefficient, of vibration\n(vibration being another name for circuit of activity) which determines\nthe attractive or repellant force we see manifested.\n\nAnd there is a most curious resemblance in all this to John Worrell\nKeeley's last theory\u2014that each individual has a dominant coefficient of\nvibration, which gives rise to and explains all our happy and unhappy\nassociations in life, so that as the newspapers hastened to say, if we\nonly knew how to find this note, scientific inquests beforehand would\ndrive the divorce courts out of business.\n\nThe music of the spheres, the thought of individuals as notes in a\nuniversal concord are very poetic, but inasmuch as music is the art of\nharmonic expressive vibrations manifested to sense as sound, there is,\nif Lord Kelvin, and some others, are right, at least as much hard\nscientific fact in it all as imagery.\n\nIn short, the leading fact of science to-day is plainly, that Nature\ndraws forms which outline and illustrate the underlying realities of\nevolutionary progress, and these forms are grasped by our\nsense-perceptions as endowed (by virtue of the self-persistent and\ndestruction-resisting nature given to them by the force that causes\nthem) with the attributes of hardness or impenetrability and mutual\nattraction. Differently stated, what we call matter is in no sense\nsubstance, and the attributes by which we describe it are only the\neffects produced upon our senses by contact with force-forms,\nmanifesting the life in nature. So that the really substantial thing in\nlife is seen to be form, of which so-called matter is but an incident,\napparitional only, and of little reality and no substantiality\nwhatever\u2014a term to express the condition of manifestation.\n\nAnd what of all this, some one may say. The nature of atoms has only a\nremote interest to the problems of daily life, save as medicine may be\naided by chemical research or stronger ship armor invented by the\nmetallurgist. And as for music and poetry, they are for our\nentertainment when serious affairs are laid aside. To such there are two\nanswers.\n\nFirst of all, a world made up of small, hard, ponderable atoms, by some\nunshown causes arranged in an infinite variety of forms, is a rather\nhopeless and uninspiring subject of research. It meets admirably the\ntype of mind which delights in dissection, classification and labeling,\nbut if one should be interested to know what it is all about, he might\nbe readily pardoned for the conclusion that it is probably not about\nanything, and has achieved the purpose of its being in the world when it\nhas been properly catalogued.\n\nBut once the substance of things physical is found to consist in units\nof force, conditioning space\u2014force-forms as we have called them\u2014of\ndiverse characters, the whole universe of matter becomes a wonderful\nstudy, radiant with inspiration, for its solution and meaning are\nenfolded in its every atom, and in the very attributes by which they are\nmanifested to our sense perceptions they hold and declare their message\nto the Perceiver within. And if each atom is the expression of a unit of\nforce, then so must every composite form be the expression of a harmony\nof forces, else it could not stand, and so must every event, every scene\nin our lives and in the history of peoples, every record of the earth,\nevery alphabet, be a harmonic formula, eloquent of the underlying truth,\nthe cause and meaning of life on earth.\n\nForm is the essentiality, reality within gross matter, so-called,\nmanifesting the divine thought, which it sub-serves, while the\npseudo-matter of science is left to the place which that, at last\napproaching the occult teaching, assigns it\u2014but sense illusion.\n\nOne other deeply important lesson lies in this recognition of Form as\nthe real of Matter. The bondage of the Soul in matter, its prison-house,\ntakes on a new meaning, and the true nature of the great foe is\nrevealed. For if Form is the great Manifester, so is it also, once we\nforget that truth, the great Deluder. Just how the soul might get\nentangled in a world of small hard, material atoms could never be quite\nclear to us, nor could we see any relation between matter such as this\nand Soul, which we understood as Consciousness, Wisdom, Thought. The\nfact of the entanglement was too evident to be denied, but why the soul\nshould _fiat_ itself such a prison house was another inscrutable bit of\nProvidence.\n\nBut if the real nature of material substance is seen to be form, the\nmanifester of ideas, it is very clear wherein our bondage lies, for the\nimages produced by our lower minds, the vehicles of the Soul, unless\nseen in their true light, in very fact bind us tighter than any\nconceivable matter could do. The children of our thoughts and of the\nthoughts of the race, in this as in past lives, the formulated ideas,\nthe mental habits, are our prisons, and the only prisons the soul knows.\nBut once this thought-form is given birth to, invested with force from\nourselves, it persists a veritable material wall, harder far than one of\nrocks and iron. We are educated to the use of a certain phraseology, and\nit is the hardest thing in the world for us to recognize the identical\nideas, differently clothed. The idea of separateness, crystallized into\na form, a habit (garment, clothing) of thinking, is what stands between\nus and an actual direct perception of an existing brotherhood and unity.\nForms of mental activity are all that prevent our recognizing the\nmeaning of facts when we see them. Scientific discoveries come by\nnothing in the world but the momentary freeing of the observer's mind\nfrom his preconceived views concerning the fact before him, and\nevents are happening in the world every day attention to which\nwould make prophets and gods of every one, if we did not know so\nmuch\u2014superannuated rubbish\u2014already.\n\n\n \"It is excellent to impede an unjust man; but if this be not possible, it\n is excellent not to act in conjunction with him.\"\n\n \"Be not a friend to the wicked\u2014charcoal when hot, burns; when cold\n it blackens the fingers.\"\n\n _Gems from the East._\n\n\n\n\nSTUDENTS' COLUMN.\n\nCONDUCTED BY J.\u00a0H. FUSSELL.\n\n Does Universal Brotherhood imply condoning the faults of others, or, on\n the other hand, condemning them?\n\n\n\"No one can intelligently pursue the path of Brotherhood without\nfrequent and heavy condemnation of acts, and of persons as revealed in\ntheir acts.\"\n\n\"Judge no man.\"\n\n\"Judge the act, not the person.\"\n\nIs there a reconciliation between the three policies thus indicated? In\ntrying to follow the path of Brotherhood and promote the best interests\nof our fellows, we make a series of critical judgments. Seeing a cause\nabout to come into operation, we make a judgment as to whether its\neffects will promote Brotherhood. The usual \"causes\" are the acts of\npersons; we judge whether their effects will be satisfactory; deciding\nNo, we condemn such acts, saying, \"I regard Smith as acting against the\ninterests of Brotherhood.\" That is not to say \"The motive of Smith in\nthose acts is self-interest.\" The chief point to be observed in my\nattitude is that I shall not injure Smith's evolution. Our final\njudgment concerning most things is compound, and the factors that enter\ninto it are two. These are (1) MY self-originated judgment, (2) the\njudgment of others, expressed in words, or, more potently, silently, and\nin the last case subtly infusing itself into my mind and blending with\nmy own proper judgment. The resultant of these two factors is my final\njudgment. The judgment that Smith arrives at respecting his acts is,\ntherefore, a blend of _his_ opinion and of _my_ opinion respecting their\ntendency, and it is none the less true even if after consideration of my\nopinion he rejects it and leaves his own, as he thinks, unmodified. But\nsuppose I strongly think that Smith acts from motives of self-interest.\nI have made a judgment respecting _Smith_ as well as his _acts_. Am I\nwrong? Not necessarily. My mind will become a mirror wherein Smith may\nsee himself and reform. It will induce a self-examination that must be\nbeneficial in tendency. But if my judgment to that effect respecting\nSmith is consciously or unconsciously colored with personal feeling,\nthat is, if I consciously or unconsciously feel that Smith's\nself-interestedly based actions may interfere with _my_ personal\ninterests or comfort, then that feeling of potential or actual anger or\nirritation will tend, not only to darken my judgment but that of Smith,\nand to excite similar detrimental emotions in him.\n\nNo human being can avoid making such judgments as to another. The right\ncounsel of perfection would be, not to avoid them, for the higher we go\nthe more numerous are the people we have to _help_, and, therefore,\npreliminarily to _judge_ that intelligent help may be given; but to aim\nat the exclusion of the personal self from the judgment, making it as\nlofty as possible. To judge should be to sympathize, that is, to _feel\nlike_. To judge Smith is to understand him, that is, for a moment to\nfeel as he feels. _To compare what I have thus sympathetically\nascertained to be his feeling with my ideal of the highest feeling of a\njudgment on Smith._\n\nLet us throw away fear; learn to know _ourselves and others_, and\nunhesitatingly compare with an ideal. That men act wrongly is always\nfrom ignorance of even their own _real_ welfare. No judgment should,\ntherefore, contain anger, irritation, or any similar feeling. Bearing\nthat in mind as an ideal, criticism and judgment become duties.\n\nT.\u00a0N.\n\n\nUniversal Brotherhood does not necessarily imply either of these. For\nthe purposes of this question we may define Brotherhood as acting\ntowards others in such a way as to help them in their life and\ndevelopment, at the same time regarding them as inseparable units of\nhumanity. Now there may be and are times in the lives of all of us when\nthe condoning of a fault, _i. e._, the pardon or overlooking of a fault,\nmay be the greatest help. Then again there are times when the outspoken\ncondemnation of a fault\u2014not of a person\u2014may be the one thing needed to\nhelp that person.\n\nBut Brotherhood is not sentimentality, it is justice as well as\ncompassion, it is that love for the real inner man that is not afraid of\nhurting the personal man when this is for the sake of principle and\nactuated by true love. The sentimental condoning of a fault does not\nhelp and those who follow a sentimental idea of Brotherhood too often\nswing to the other extreme and indulge in wholesale and unfounded\ncondemnation, not simply of a fault, but of persons.\n\nBrotherhood is not extreme in either direction. The middle path is the\npath of Brotherhood, this above all is the path of principle\u2014the path\nof the principle of love and the principle of justice. If we apply to\nour conduct the injunction: \"do unto others as ye would they should do\nunto you,\" we shall not go far wrong.\n\nTrue it is that our responsibility increases as our knowledge increases\nand as the knowledge of the physician and surgeon may require him to\namputate a limb or give temporary pain in order to save the patient's\nlife, so every true man is a physician and surgeon, first in his own\nlife and then in the lives of others. On the other hand, the true\nphysician will often draw away the mind of the patient from his sickness\nor disease, and how often can we not help a failing brother by\napparently ignoring a fault and calling out the nobler side of the\nnature!\n\nIf we are true to the better side of our own natures we shall soon learn\nin what true Brotherhood consists. But no one can be a true Brother to\nanother who is afraid to apply the knife to his own failings, or who is\nnot honest in his own endeavors. We students may make mistakes in our\nacts of Brotherhood, but if we keep in the light of the soul and keep\nour motives pure the realization of Brotherhood will not be far distant.\n\nJ.\u00a0H. FUSSELL.\n\n\n Whence arises the sense of duty? In what does it originate?\n\nIt is above all things requisite that the expression of great ethical or\nmoral or religious principles should be universally applicable. That is\nto say, they should take the simplest form. Most of our religious\ndivisions are the result of an endeavour to make a local or special\ncondition a standard to which all must conform. Great moral principles\nare as adaptable and as elastic (and no more) in their own sphere, as\ngreat physical principles. The laws of gravitation, cohesion, and the\nother great forces set duties for material objects to which the\nperfection of their evolution enables them to respond. But circumstances\nalter cases. A piece of ice will fall to the ground if dropped; if\nreleased at the bottom of a pail of water it will rise to the top; no\nfurther. The duty of the ice in one case is to fall; in the other, to\nrise.\n\nIn the region of the soul duty is understood usually to be the sense of\nmoral obligation.\n\nWe are told that duty is what we owe. It is to be remembered that when\nwe have done all we are unprofitable servants. The talent hid in a\nnapkin was duteously safe. But there is a higher duty to Him who gathers\nwhere He has not scattered. What is due is, in fact, greater than what\nwe owe. The educative and evolutionary quality of our experience depends\nupon this. And it is here that the distinction between the higher and\nlower duty may be found. It is a principle in chancery law that he who\nseeks equity must do equity. Similarly those who desire to ascend or\nprogress must fulfil all the lower stages of growth and be free of what\nthey owe before they can undertake the rendering of their due.\nRenunciation also begins here. The old story of the servant, forgiven a\nlarge debt, and turning on his fellow and debtor illustrates this. The\nceremonial law of the Jews for example, was an educative force in the\ndirection of insuring the recognition of those in authority, crude\nsymbols of the divine. Our modern taxes and tariffs have precisely the\nsame educative effect as the tithes and offerings of old, the modern\nmethod reaching a more practical result.\n\nThere is a Principle or Power in the Universe which provides for all\ncreatures. It is generally known as Providence. It is called God and\nKarma and the Law. When men consciously ally themselves with this Power\nthey also become Providers. They learn that it is more blessed to give\nthan to receive. They also learn which is the river, the water or the\nbanks that confine the water. The promptings of evolution, of the\nKumara, the immortal One that ensouls a man and makes him divine, carry\nhim forward along the line of least resistance. It is the business of\nthe river to reach the ocean, not to break down the banks. All this\nimplies action, and the formation of character. While Fohat is in\nmanifestation, duty means to act, to do. To do justice, to love mercy,\nto walk humbly before the inner god. To love that Holy One with all the\nheart and mind and strength, and to see in one's brothers the same\nobject of devotion is to conform to the will of the Higher Self. Duty on\nthe lower levels of life is a means for the development of the lower\nmanas or brain mind.\n\nBEN MADIGHAN.\n\n\nLet us dissect away certain overgrowths which obscure this point.\nObedience to duty is often only conscious, half conscious, or\nunconscious fear of the consequences of neglect. A child who has burned\nhis finger thereafter dreads the flame, and the dread persists when the\nmemory of the burn has died out of his practical consciousness. Many\nhonest people do not steal because they retain an unconscious memory of\nthe disgrace attending a revealed theft in childhood or in a previous\nincarnation. Fear, hope of reward or commendation, these two, whether\nconscious or existing in their effects as the fixed habit of\nperformance, must be eliminated as inspirers of action before we can see\nhow much remains. It is possible that with most of us not much of the\npure golden sense of duty would remain in the bottom of the crucible.\n\nActions whose performance is a duty are not always unpleasant. For\ninstance, to eat is a duty, because at a proper time the Law,\nmanifesting as hunger, demands it.\n\nThe Law arises twofold; outwardly it manifests as circumstance,\npresenting at every moment a tangled maze of paths of which any one may\nbe selected; internally as the impulsion to select one particular path\nof these many. In his spiritual thought, the inner man has already\ntraversed that path. In outer fact it remains for the terrestrial man to\nimitate in the concrete. The sense of duty is the reflection in the\nouter consciousness of this picture of action existing in the inner,\nwhich picture, in the inner world, _is_ action. It may be dimly or\nbrightly mirrored, the sense of duty weak or strong; its concrete\nimitation may be effected or not, duty done or not.\n\nHERBERT CORYN.\n\n\n\n\nYOUNG FOLKS' DEPARTMENT.\n\nA CHRISTMAS STORY.\n\nBY M.\u00a0S.\u00a0L.\n\n\nIt was a big toy shop in West Twenty-third Street. There were crowds of\npeople hurrying by, for to-morrow would be Christmas Day and all those\nwho had children to love were busy buying presents. The shop windows\nlooked very gay indeed.\n\nThere were all sorts of toys you could imagine. Lots of new mechanical\ntoys, steam engines that ran on a real track, dancing bears and a cat\nwhich played the fiddle. In the middle of the window was a tiny fir tree\nall lit up with colored lights and its boughs covered with gay\nornaments. Santa Claus was there, too, and on his back he carried a pack\nfrom which came a stream of candy and toys.\n\nAll these things pleased the little boys and girls very much. There were\na number of them out shopping with their parents. The boys admired the\nmechanical toys, but the little girls went straight to the other shop\nwindow where there were oh, such a lot of dolls! China dolls and wax\ndolls; dolls from Germany and dolls from France; dolls that could say\n\"Mamma,\" \"Papa,\" and others that could even sing a little song and say\n\"Now I lay me.\" The finest doll was a young lady who had just arrived\nfrom Paris. Mademoiselle Fifine had brought with her a trunk of fine\ncostumes and some of these were spread out beside her in the window, to\nthe great admiration of the other dolls. There were pink silk frocks and\nblue satin ones; hats and bonnets trimmed with real lace and ostrich\nfeathers, and, in fact, all sorts of nice clothes for evening wear and\nmorning wear, and all occasions.\n\nAway down in a corner of the big window were two little dolls that\nnobody noticed at all, and this was strange, for they were really very\npretty; but I suppose they were unnoticed in such a crowd of fashionable\ndolls. One of these two was a little lady straight from Japan, and the\nother was a New York District Messenger Boy. The Japanese doll was\ndressed in a lovely gown of purple silk all covered with yellow\nbutterflies. Her hair was done up in a shining black coil on the back of\nher head and was all stuck through with tiny jewelled pins. In her tiny\nhand she carried a paper fan. The little messenger boy stood very\nproudly beside her. He wore a suit of dark blue clothes and on his head\nwas a little cap such as the New York boys wear; he carried a black book\nin his hand and looked very alert, as though he were just about to\ndeliver a telegram to you.\n\nThese two from the corner of the window all day had watched the people\npassing up and down the busy street. That is, the Japanese doll had\nwatched the passers by, but the Messenger Boy had watched her more than\nanything else. He thought she was the oddest and prettiest little lady\nhe had ever seen; her eyes were so black and shiny, her cheeks so rosy\nand her tiny mouth just like a round red cherry. And then she sat up so\ngracefully and held her fan with such an air! \"She isn't a bit stiff,\"\nthought the Messenger Boy, \"I believe I will try to make friends with\nher.\" So he cleared his throat and said \"ahem!\" The Japanese Lady gave a\ntiny jump. You see, she was so surprised! Then she gave a shy look at\nthe Messenger Boy and twirled her little fan. She saw that the Messenger\nBoy was about to speak to her and this pleased her very much, for the\nother dolls in the window had treated her with contempt and snubbed her\nbecause she was a foreigner. Even the French Doll had refused to be\nfriendly, and this was rather odd, because she was also a foreigner. But\nshe said the Japanese Doll was outlandish and had no style about her.\nThe Japanese Lady was too polite to make any rude remarks in answer, so\nshe had just remained silent.\n\nShe now began talking to the Messenger Boy and they soon became fast\nfriends. So satisfied were they with each other's society that they\nquite forgot the rude dolls.\n\nIt began to grow late in the afternoon and now very few children passed\nby. But there were more big people than before; they passed into the\nshop and soon the dolls began to go from the window. Mademoiselle Fifine\nwent and most of the pretty dolls followed. Nobody seemed to want the\nJapanese Lady or the Messenger Boy, but they did not mind that at all,\nfor they were quite content to be together. The Japanese Lady had\ndescribed to the Boy all the beautiful things she had seen in far away\nJapan, while the Boy had told her in return of some of the wonderful\nsights to be seen in the big city. They grew very confidential, and at\nlength their affection became so firm that they vowed to remain true\nfriends as long as they were dolls, which was another way of saying as\nlong as they lived.\n\nI have said that almost all the children had gone home because it was\ngetting late, and now the electric lamps were lighted, but there were\nstill four little girls who were looking in the gay window on\nTwenty-third Street. Two of them were nicely dressed and their bright\nfaces peeped out from warm furs. They looked so full of joy that it made\nyour own face beam in return. Their nurse was with them and they were\nout doing their Christmas shopping.\n\n\"We've bought most all the presents we mean to give to-morrow, and now\nwe can each spend our very own two dollars,\" said Bessie.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered her sister Alice, \"Wasn't it nice in Uncle Frank to give\nus each two dollars to spend. It's much nicer to buy your own present, I\nthink.\"\n\nThey were looking in the window of the toy shop as they spoke and both\nlittle girls at once spied our two friends in the comer of the window.\n\n\"I am going to buy that dear little Japanese doll,\" said Bessie.\n\n\"And I want that cute little Messenger Boy,\" said Alice.\n\nThe Japanese Lady and the Messenger Boy looked very happy at this, for\nthey thought it would be very nice to go to live with two such dear\nlittle sisters. So they smiled and nodded at Bessie and Alice, but the\nlittle girls never saw it. This was not strange, for they had never\nheard that all the dolls come to life on Christmas Eve.\n\nNow all the time the two small sisters had been admiring the dolls,\nthere were two other children who were looking at them just as eagerly,\nbut who were very different in appearance from Bessie and Alice. For\nthese children were very poor indeed and did not expect to have any doll\nat all on Christmas morning. They lived away down in East Fourteenth\nStreet with their big sister. Their mother and father were dead and the\nonly one they had to take care of them was this good big sister who\nloved her two little sisters very dearly and did all she could for them.\nThey all lived together in two little rooms, and Maggie, who was ten,\ndid all the housekeeping, while Annie, who was eight, helped her as much\nas she could. They had just been to the great department store where the\nbig sister worked and had left some supper for her, because this night\nshe would have to work until half-past eleven.\n\nThey were now on their way home, but although they were very cold and\nshivered through the thin garments they wore, they had to stop to see\nthe beautiful dolls.\n\n\"Oh, jest look at this little doll in the purple dress, ain't she grand!\nSee the little yeller butterflies all over her! I wisht I could have her\nfor Chrissmus,\" said Maggie.\n\n\"I'd ruther have the little boy in the blue suit,\" answered Annie. \"He\nlooks jest like a fair messenger boy. Ain't he cute?\"\n\nAnd the two children pressed their faces against the window in profound\nadmiration of the wonderful dolls. After a while they moved away.\n\nIn the meanwhile Bessie and Alice with their nurse had entered the toy\nshop. After admiring the various things each purchased the doll she\nliked best. These were carefully done up by the salesman and the two\nchildren started for home.\n\nThey were at the corner of Broadway and about to cross for a cable car\nwhen Bessie caught sight of our two little Fourteenth Street children.\n\n\"Oh, nursie, do let us see those two poor little girls. They don't look\nas though they were going to have any Christmas at all!\"\n\n\"Never mind them, Miss Bessie, it's time you were home.\"\n\nBut Bessie would not be persuaded and Alice seconded her. \"Mother likes\nto have us kind to our poor little brothers and sisters,\" said she,\n\"please nurse, let us speak to those little girls.\" So the nurse rather\nreluctantly consented and the two children hurried and soon caught up\nwith Annie and Maggie.\n\n\"How do you do,\" said Bessie, all out of breath. \"Please, wouldn't you\nlike to have a Christmas present? We are going to have a whole lot of\npresents to-morrow and we bought these with our very own money. Please\ntake mine,\" and she thrust her package into surprised little Maggie's\narms.\n\n\"And please do take my present,\" said Alice, going to Annie. \"Indeed, I\nwill have a lot more,\" and she handed her package to the astonished\nlittle girl.\n\n\"We wish you a happy Christmas,\" said the little girls in one voice, and\nbefore Maggie and Annie could speak, they had both hurried away.\n\nTo say that our children were astonished, hardly expresses it. They\nhugged their bundles and stood on the sidewalk staring after the two\nlittle girls as though bewildered. Maggie was the first to recover.\n\n\"Oh, aint it too good to be true, we'll have a real Chrissmus, now,\nwon't we?\" What kind little girls them was, wasn't they? They wasn't a\nbit stuck up!\"\n\n\"No, indeed!\" answered Annie. \"I'm so s'prised I don't know what to do.\"\n\nBut it was growing cold and the two children were forced to hurry along.\nThey did not say much as they hastened through the crowded streets but\ntheir hearts were dancing with joy. When they at last reached home they\nrushed up the long tenement stairs and stopped in the hall before their\ndoor. \"Let's go to bed right now without opening our bundles,\" said\nMaggie, \"and then to-morrow morning we can wake up and have a s'prise\njest like we wuz rich children!\" Annie agreed to this and the two\nchildren were soon fast asleep in their small bed in the cold dark room.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn Christmas morning two children in a beautiful home on Madison Avenue\nwere dancing around their nursery full of happiness over the lovely\npresents that had been made ready for them during the night. They had so\nmany gifts that they never missed the two presents they had given to the\npoor little sisters the night previous, until suddenly Bessie clasped\nMademoiselle Fifine in her arms and said:\n\n\"Oh, you dear French dollie, you are very beautiful, but I do not think\nyou are nicer than the sweet little Japanese doll I saw in the shop\nwindow last night!\" How Mademoiselle Fifine would have liked to turn up\nher tiny aristocratic nose at this, but she couldn't.\n\nAnd Alice said, \"Do you know, sister, it seems to me that this is the\nloveliest Christmas we have ever had.\"\n\n\"I think it must be because we know that somewhere in this city there\nare two little girls who are having a Christmas treat because of us.\"\n\n\"It is quite true what mother taught us, that 'It is more blessed to\ngive than to receive.'\"\n\nDown in East Fourteenth Street two little sisters had slept all night\ncuddled close together for warmth. Bright and early they waked up on\nChristmas morning and Maggie's first words were:\n\n\"Annie, do you know I dremt that the little Japanese doll we saw in the\ntoy store wus in my bundle.\"\n\n\"That's queer, for I dremt that the messenger boy was in my package!\"\n\nThen Maggie got her package and sat up in bed, carefully undoing the\nwrappings of paper, until, at last, smiling before her lay the little\nJapanese Lady!\n\nAnd Alice opened her parcel, and, when the last paper had carefully been\nremoved, there was the Messenger Boy all ready to say \"How do you do!\"\n\nHow very happy our two little girls were! They got out of bed very\nsoftly, so as not to disturb big sister, who was very tired from her\nnight's work, and they danced around the cold room, hugging their\ndollies and kissing each other and the dollies indiscriminately.\n\n\"This is the very bestest Chrissmus I ever had,\" said Maggie, at last.\n\n\"I only hope the two little rich girls have as nice a one,\" added Annie.\n\n\"I'm very glad we came here, aren't you?\" softly called out the\nMessenger Boy to the Japanese Lady.\n\n\"Yes, indeed,\" replied she. \"I'm sure these dear little girls will love\nus very much.\"\n\n\"And we are not separated,\" said the Messenger Boy.\n\nThe Japanese Lady did not reply to this, but she smiled very sweetly and\ntwirled her little fan.\n\n\n\n\nBROTHERHOOD ACTIVITIES.\n\nUNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD ORGANIZATION.\n\n \"Slowly the Bible of the race is writ,\n Each age, each kindred adds a verse to it.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nUniversal Brotherhood or the Brotherhood of Humanity is an organization\nestablished for the benefit of the people of the earth and all creatures.\n\nThis organization declares that Brotherhood is a fact in nature.\n\nThe principal purpose of this organization is to teach Brotherhood,\ndemonstrate that it is a fact in nature and make it a living power in\nthe life of humanity.\n\nThe subsidiary purpose of this organization is to study ancient and\nmodern religion, science, philosophy and art; to investigate the laws of\nnature and the divine powers in man.\n\nThis Brotherhood is a part of a great and universal movement which has\nbeen active in all ages.\n\nEvery member has the right to believe or disbelieve in any religious\nsystem or philosophy, each being required to show that tolerance for the\nopinions of others which he expects for his own.\n\nThe Theosophical Society in America is the Literary Department of\nUniversal Brotherhood.\n\nThe International Brotherhood League is the department of the\nBrotherhood for practical humanitarian work.\n\nThe Central Office of the Universal Brotherhood Organization is at 144\nMadison Avenue, New York City.[4]\n\n\nTHE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD\nLEAGUE.[5]\n\n(_Unsectarian._)\n\n \"Helping and sharing is what Brotherhood means.\"\n\n[Illustration: I.B.L.]\n\n\nThis organization affirms and declares that Brotherhood is a fact in\nNature, and its objects are:\n\n1. To help men and women to realize the nobility of their calling and\ntheir true position in life.\n\n2. To educate children of all nations on the broadest lines of Universal\nBrotherhood and to prepare destitute and homeless children to become\nworkers for humanity.\n\n3. To ameliorate the condition of unfortunate women, and assist them to\na higher life.\n\n4. To assist those who are, or have been, in prison, to establish\nthemselves in honorable positions in life.\n\n5. To endeavor to abolish capital punishment.\n\n6. To bring about a better understanding between so-called savage and\ncivilized races, by promoting a closer and more sympathetic relationship\nbetween them.\n\n7. To relieve human suffering resulting from flood, famine, war, and\nother calamities; and generally to extend aid, help, and comfort to\nsuffering humanity throughout the world.\n\nIt should be noted that the officers and workers of the International\nBrotherhood League are unsalaried and receive no remuneration, and this,\nas one of the most binding rules of the organization, _effectually\nexcludes those who would otherwise enter from motives of self-interest_.\n\nNone of the officers hold any political office, the League is not\nconnected with any political party or organization, nor has it any\npolitical character, it is wholly humanitarian and unsectarian.\n\n\nThe alterations referred to in last issue of UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD as\nabout to be made in Headquarters are now nearly completed. The offices\nof the different departments have all been renovated presenting a very\nbright and cheerful appearance.\n\nThe rooms formerly used by the Theosophical Publishing Company have been\nfitted up for the private office of our Leader and for the Reference\nLibrary and Reading Room and for the office of the Literary Department\nof the Universal Brotherhood Organization.\n\nThe Theosophical Publishing Company has moved downstairs to the front\nbasement and to the front office on the main floor (in the front part of\nAryan Hall) which hitherto was used by our Leader for her private office.\n\nIn every way the new arrangements will greatly facilitate the work of\nthe various departments.\n\nWe are all delighted to have with us now as Mother of the household,\nMrs. L.\u00a0E. Kramer, who with her husband, J.\u00a0O.\u00a0K. Kramer, and her son\nErnest Kramer have brought such a home feeling into Headquarters that we\nare like a happy, united family.\n\nOn December 15, 16, 17, the H.\u00a0P.\u00a0B. Lodge, U.\u00a0B. No. 10, held a bazaar\nin Aryan Hall. It was throughout very successful and the entertainments\non Thursday and Saturday evenings were much enjoyed. The members of\nAryan Lodge united with the H.\u00a0P.\u00a0B. members in helping with the\npreparations and during the Bazaar. A large hamper of goods was sent\nfrom Meriden, Conn., which had been contributed by members in Meriden,\nHartford and New Britain; a contribution of articles was also sent from\nBuffalo; these were very much appreciated.\n\nThe H.\u00a0P.\u00a0B. Lodge is now entirely free from debt and enters upon the\nNew Year with fine prospects of success. Lately several new members have\njoined the Lodge; these are active young workers and are enthusiastic to\nhelp the Cause.\n\nSeveral of the small articles left over from the Bazaar were sent down\nto the East Side Mission where a Christmas Tree is to be given to the\nchildren. Mrs. Kramer, Mrs. Deen Hunt, and Bros. Leonard and Hecht are\nbusy making preparations for this, and it is being looked for to with\ngreat expectations by the children.\n\nA Bazaar was also held December 15 and 16 by the U.\u00a0B. Lodges in Boston\nin one of the largest and best halls, centrally located on Tremont\nStreet, the main business street of the city. It was one of the most\nsuccessful events of the kind held this year in Boston and has brought\nexcellent financial results.\n\nIn accordance with suggestions made some months ago by our Leader in\nthis magazine, the Sioux City Lodge of U.\u00a0B. held a Bazaar with\nexcellent results. Part of the proceeds were taken for local work and\npart sent to the Central Office for the general work of the\norganization. If all Lodges would carry out work of this kind, how they\ncould build up their local work and also help the Centre! Some of the\nother Lodges have reported work in this direction, but we have not yet\nreceived details.\n\nA concert was recently given in Providence, R.\u00a0I., for the benefit of\nthe War Relief Fund of the I.\u00a0B.\u00a0L. It was well attended and successful.\n\nFrank C. Berridge of Victoria Lodge, B.\u00a0C., writes Dec. 13th:\n\n\"We are having a Brotherhood concert here to-night and think it will be\na great success. We have started a Lotus Circle here at last and have\nten children already. We are to give them a Christmas Tree on New Year's\nDay. The Sunday evening public lectures are well attended and we are\ngetting along nicely in Victoria.\"\n\nLodge 70, U.\u00a0B. (Chicago), held an entertainment Dec. 14th and realized\na good sum for the War Relief Fund. Bro. A.\u00a0M. Smith writes: \"Everything\nmoves along well here. Our members are very united and have fullest\nconfidence in and sympathy with the Leader. Our meetings are very well\nattended.\"\n\nLetters from Dr. J.\u00a0A. Anderson and Bros. Griffiths and Johnson give\nfavorable accounts of Lodge work in San Francisco, and of both the U.\u00a0B.\nand the I.\u00a0B.\u00a0L. meetings. Several new members have recently joined. The\nwhole coast is looking forward to the U.\u00a0B. Congress at Point Loma.\n\nBro. Beckett sends good news from Toronto. All the members are active\nand desire to still further aid the work and add to the success and\nsolidarity of the movement.\n\nThe members of Universal Brotherhood will remember that soon after the\nlast Convention of February 18th some of the members of the Narada\nBranch of the Theosophical Society in America, Tacoma, Wash., who did\nnot accept the Universal Brotherhood Constitution brought suit against\nthe Tacoma U.\u00a0B. Lodge to obtain possession of the property of the\nLodge. The case was non-suited and dismissed. They then carried the case\nto the Supreme Court of Washington, and we have just received copy of\nthe judgment as follows:\n\n\n Virginia Herman _et al_, Appellants,\n _vs._\n Fred G. Plummer _et al_, Respondents.\n\n PER CURIAM:\u2014\n\n\"The parties to this action were all, prior to March 3, 1898, members of\nthe Narada Theosophical Society of Tacoma, a branch of a national\norganization known as the Theosophical Society in America. This local\nbranch was an independent body, controlling its own property and\ngoverning itself subject to the right of appeal to the executive\ncommittee of the national body upon any disputed questions arising\nbetween the members. The object of the present suit was to recover\npossession of certain property of the local society, the appointment of\na receiver and other relief, the action being mainly based upon an\nalleged interference with the property rights of the plaintiffs as\nmembers of that Branch, and their rights as members in various respects.\nAt the close of plaintiffs' case, on the evidence, a judgment of\nnon-suit and dismissal was granted and the present appeal is from that\norder and judgment.\n\nWe think the order was properly made. Section 18 of the By-Laws of the\nNational Society is as follows: \"The Executive Committee shall be the\nCourt of final appeal in disputed questions arising between members or\nin and _between branches_.\" It is not pretended that any effort was made\nby the plaintiffs to have the questions involved in the present dispute\ndetermined by the committee mentioned in that section, and it is a\nwell-established principle applicable to controversies like the present\nthat until the members have exhausted their remedy within the society\nthe Courts will not assume jurisdiction of the controversy.\n\n Oliver v. Hopkins, 10 N.\u00a0E., 776;\n Lafond v. Deems, 81 N.\u00a0Y., 507;\n Chamberlain v. Lincoln, 129 Mass., 70;\n Watson v. Jones, 13 Wall, 679.\n\nAppellants seek to justify their failure to resort to the committee\ncontemplated by section 18, supra, upon the ground that that section was\nin effect abolished by the action of the national convention at a\nmeeting in Chicago in February, 1898, which practically adopted a new\nconstitution. We think the argument advanced does not meet the\nobjection. Plaintiffs are contending that the action of the national\nconvention was invalid, and if they are right in that respect the\nconstitution and by-laws of the old body are still in force. They have\nno standing if such is not the fact, and if it is, then the remedy\nprovided by section 18 would appear to be ample. But it does not appear\nthat any effort has been made to obtain within the Society a\ndetermination of the grievances, and even were it admitted that the\neffect of the action of the national convention was to abolish the old\nconstitution, it in nowise follows that the by-laws theretofore adopted\nwould also become ineffectual. Section 18, supra, having been adopted\nfor the government of the national body and its branches, must be given\neffect until it is repealed either expressly or by necessary\nimplication. So that we think the learned trial judge was right in\nconcluding that the Court should not take jurisdiction of the case.\n\nWe think that we are right, too, in concluding that plaintiffs' evidence\nwas insufficient to establish any interference with their rights as\nmembers to the enjoyment of the property, books, records, etc., of the\nlocal branch. In other words, plaintiffs failed to show that their\nrights as members had been invaded. There was evidence by the officers\nof the local branch tending to show that a conclusion had been reached\nby them not to enforce the obnoxious resolutions previously passed, and\nthat they construed them to be invalid. For these reasons we must\nconclude that the judgment was right and we do not deem it proper to\nattempt at this time to determine whether the action of the national\nconvention was in effect an amendment of the old constitution and\ninvalid because adopted without previous notice to the local branches,\nor the adoption of a new constitution which retained the spirit and\nessence of the old and included no new provisions inconsistent with it\nand therefore within the right of the convention. At present an opinion\nupon that important question would be at most mere dictum.\"\n\n\nOn December 23d we were very glad to welcome back to America Brother\nA.\u00a0E.\u00a0S. Smythe, of Toronto. Brother Smythe has been for some time in\nIreland and brings excellent and most encouraging reports of the work\nthere and in England. Arrangements have been made for him to take a\nlecturing tour and visit the Universal Brotherhood Lodges, reaching\nPoint Loma at the time of the annual Universal Brotherhood Congress. He\nwill be in New York about January 1st and will stay at Headquarters for\na week or so and then start on his tour. Brother Smythe is so well known\nthroughout the country as Editor of the _Lamp_ and by his work in\nToronto that he needs no introduction to the members. Many have already\nheard him lecture and will remember him at the annual conventions. Those\nLodges who desire him to visit them should write at once to the central\noffice, so that the route can be laid out and all arrangements made.\n\nIt was originally intended and hoped that Bro. D.\u00a0N. Dunlop would have\nmade a lecture tour, but as he would not be able to start until later,\nother arrangements had to be made.\n\nLetters from Liverpool report a very large Bazaar being held there by\nthe members. It is confidently expected that it will meet with much\nsuccess and much interest has been aroused in it. Bro. Herbert Crooke\nhas been indefatigable in pushing forward the preparations and Mrs. A.\u00a0L.\nCleather and Bro. Basil Crump who have just completed their Home\nCrusade visit to Dublin will be there to help. A very beautiful and\nattractive programme has been arranged.\n\nBro. Parsons in Vancouver, B.\u00a0C., writes that the members are expecting\na big step forward for the work as a result of the U.\u00a0B. Congress at\nPoint Loma next April.\n\nAt Buffalo on the occasion of the performance of \"Eumenides,\" some of\nthe Headquarters Staff had the pleasure recently of meeting Dr. and Mrs.\nMcAlpin of Warren, Pa. Their energies and interest in the work are\nunabated, and on his way back Bro. McAlpin lectured in several places.\n\nThe Greek Play \"Eumenides\" was given in Buffalo in the Music Hall, Dec.\n3d, in the afternoon and evening. Both performances were very\nsuccessful. There were large and very appreciative audiences, many\nwell-known educationalists being present and afterwards expressing their\nappreciation. After the performance our Leader was waited upon by\nseveral prominent people and congratulated on the work of the Isis\nLeague of Music and Drama. Since returning to New York our Leader has\nreceived a personal letter from one of the Ministers of Buffalo\nexpressing his pleasure at witnessing the performance which he said was\ncharacterized by moral uplifting force and of more value than a sermon.\n\nA very interesting letter has been received from Bro. St. Clair of New\nZealand in regard to work among the Maories. These people have made a\ngreat advance during the past two years. The different tribes have\nunited under their king and are reviving the ancient customs of the\nrace. Many are becoming interested in Brotherhood work and evidence on\nevery hand is perceived that the race is awakening to a new life.\n\nJ.\u00a0H. FUSSELL.\n\n[4] For further information address F.\u00a0M. Pierce,\nSecretary, 144 Madison Avenue, New York.\n\n[5] Address all inquiries to H.\u00a0T. Patterson, General\nSuperintendent, 144 Madison Avenue, New York.\n\n\n\n\nSTANDARD THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE.\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine.\n\nThe Synthesis of +Science, Religion+ and +Philosophy+. By H.\u00a0P.\nBLAVATSKY. New and revised edition with Index bound as a supplementary\nvolume. Three volumes, royal octavo, cloth. Price, complete, $12.50,\ncarriage paid.\n\n\u2014Volume I, Cosmogenesis. Part 1, Cosmic Evolution: Seven Stanzas from\nthe _Book of Dzyan_; The Builders; The Awakening of Cosmos; The\nSeptenary Hierarchies: Fohat; Our World, its Growth and Development; The\nParents of Man on Earth. Part 2. The Evolution of Symbolism: Symbolism\nand Ideographs; The Mystery Language and its Keys; Primordial Substance\nand Divine Thought; Chaos, Theos, Kosmos; On the Hidden Deity; The\nMundane Egg; etc. Volume II, Anthropogenesis: Twelve Stanzas from the\n_Book of Dzyan_; Nature Unaided Fails; Attempts to Create Man; Creation\nof the First Races; The Evolution of the Second Race; The Evolution of\nthe Sweat-born; From the Semi-Divine down to the First Human Races; The\nFinal Creation of Man; The History of the Fourth Race; The Civilization\nand Destruction of the Fourth and Fifth Races; etc.\n\n\nIsis Unveiled.\n\nA Master Key to the +Mysteries+ of Ancient and Modern Science and\nTheology. By H.\u00a0P. BLAVATSKY. Royal 8vo, 2 volumes, about 1500 pages.\n$7.50.\n\n\u2014A marvellous book both in matter and manner of treatment. The index\nalone comprises about 50 pages, and such a list of subjects was probably\nnever before compiled.\n\n\nKey to Theosophy.\n\nBy H.\u00a0P. BLAVATSKY. A clear exposition in the form of question and\nanswer of the +Ethics+, +Science+ and +Philosophy+, for the study of\nwhich the Theosophical Society was founded. With a Glossary of general\nTheosophical terms and an Index. Cloth, 12mo, gilt top, uncut edges,\n$1.50.\n\n\nLight on the Path.\n\nA treatise written for the personal use of those who are ignorant of the\nEastern Wisdom, and who desire to enter within its influence. Written\ndown by M.\u00a0C., Fellow of the Theosophical Society. With notes and\ncomments by the author. Paper, embossed cover, 25 cents; cloth, gilt\nside stamp, 40 cents; red leather, red edges, round corners, 75 cents;\nblack morocco, gilt edges, round corners, $1.00; soft brown morocco,\ngilt top, uncut edges, wide margins, $1.50.\n\nThis work is a classic and has gone through several editions.\n\n\nKarma.\n\nA study of the Law of Cause and Effect in relation to Rebirth or\nReincarnation, Post-mortem states of Consciousness, Cycles, Vicarious\nAtonement, Fate, Predestination, Free Will, Forgiveness, Animals,\nSuicides, etc. By JEROME A. ANDERSON, M.D., F.T.S.\n\n8vo, pp. viii-126. Price, in paper\n50 cents; cloth $1.00.\n\n\u2014This new work by the well-known and forceful writer of \"Septenary\nMan,\" and \"Reincarnation,\" completes a triad of volumes covering, in a\nscientific and logical manner, the problems most often presented to\nstudents and inquirers in the Theosophical world. The title sufficiently\nindicates the scope of the work, and the name of the author is guarantee\nof its value.\n\n\nThe Ocean of Theosophy.\n\nBy WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. Giving a clear and connected idea of the\nfundamental principles of the Wisdom Religion. Contents: Chapter I,\nTheosophy and the Master; Chapter II, General Principles; Chapter III,\nThe Earth Chain; Chapter IV, Septenary Constitution of Man; Chapter V,\nBody and Astral Body; Chapter VI, Kama-Desire; Chapter VII, Manas;\nChapter VIII, Of Reincarnation: Chapter IX, Reincarnation\u2014continued;\nChapter X, Arguments supporting Reincarnation; Chapter XI, Karma;\nChapter XII, Kama Loka; Chapter XIII, Devachan; Chapter XIV, Cycles;\nChapter XV, Differentiation of Species\u2014Missing Links; Chapter XVI.\nPsychic Laws, Forces, and Phenomena; Chapter XVII, Psychic Phenomena and\nSpiritualism. Eighth thousand. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.\n\n\nEchoes from the Orient.\n\nA broad outline of Theosophical Doctrines. By\nWILLIAM Q. JUDGE. Attractively bound in light\ncloth with colored side stamp. Fifth edition, 50 cents.\n\n\nThe Bhagavad Gita.\n\nSixth American Edition, revised by WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. Printed on\nantique paper, bound in flexible morocco with gilt edges and round\ncorners, $1.00. Flexible red leather, round corners and red edges, 75\ncents.\n\n\nLetters that have Helped Me.\n\nCompiled by JASPER NIEMAND. Printed on handsome super-calendered\npaper, same size page as the _Ocean of Theosophy_. Light cloth with\nolive-green side stamp, 50 cents.\n\n\nPatanjali's Yoga Aphorisms.\n\nAn interpretation by WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. Printed on antique paper,\nuniform in size with _Bhagavad-Git\u00e2_. In flexible morocco, gilt edges\nand round corners, $1.00. Flexible red leather, round corners and red\nedges, 75 cents.\n\n\nEtidorhpa;\n\nOr, The End of Earth. By JOHN URI LLOYD. Royal 8vo, illustrated, pp.\nxvi-362; cloth, $2.00, by mail or express, charges paid. An intensely\ninteresting work which every person interested in Occultism should read.\nIt is full of wonderful suggestions and is a prophecy and a promise for\ntime to come.\n\n\nSeptenary Man;\n\nOr, The Microcosm of the Macrocosm. A Study of the Human Soul in\nrelation to the various Vehicles or Avenues of Consciousness; including\na brief examination of Dreams and the problems of Heredity. By JEROME\nA. ANDERSON, M.D. pp. xxv-122; paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.\n\n\nReincarnation.\n\nA study of the Human Soul, in its relation to re-birth, evolution,\npost-mortem states, the compound nature of man, hypnotism, etc. Proving\nthe existence of the Soul, its re-birth upon earth, its state during the\nintervals of its earth-lives, etc. By JEROME A. ANDERSON, M.D. Paper,\n50 cents; cloth, $1.00.\n\nFrom a scientific standpoint, this is the most important contribution to\nthe literature of Reincarnation ever printed. It is clear, logical, and\nconclusive, and will go far toward breaking down the prejudice, in\nWestern minds, against the doctrine it advocates.\n\n\n Published and for sale by the Theosophical Publishing Co.\n 144 Madison Ave., N.\u00a0Y.\n\n \u261b _Any of the above works sent by mail or express, charges prepaid,\n to any part of the world, on receipt of price._\n\n _Please mention_ UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD _when you write advertisers_.\n\n\n BROTHERHOOD\n NATURE'S LAW.\n BY\n BURCHAM HARDING.\n\nThick paper cover, 20 cts. Purple Cloth, 40 cts.\n\nA clear and concise exposition that Brotherhood is a fact in nature, and\nthat true Religion and true Science are identical.\n\nSpecially adapted for introducing theosophical thought and ideas without\ncreating antagonism. Arranged as a manual for class work in social and\nreligious reform movements. Each chapter is followed by a series of\nquestions.\n\nMRS.\u00a0K.\u00a0A. TINGLEY says of it:\n\n\"A book which should be in the hands of all, old and young. Brotherhood\nis one of the dominant aims of the age. Mr. Harding treats the subject\nin simple language, but shows clearly and concisely that morality is\nNature's law.\"\n\nThe most popular and successful book for teaching Brotherhood. 7000\ncopies already circulated. Special prices for propaganda as follows.\n\n PAPER COVER: 7 copies, $1.00; 12 copies, $1.50; 25 copies, $3.00.\n CLOTH: 6 copies, $1.50; 12 copies, $3.00.\n\n All prices include delivery.\n\n Address orders and remittances to\n BURCHAM HARDING.\n 144 Madison Ave., New York.\n\n\n Tell your Friend This\u2014\n that he can find a good keynote for the\n New Year\n\nin the UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD MAGAZINE. It is published in the cause of\nHuman Brotherhood, and reading it will do him good. It will benefit and\nelevate him; awaken new ideas of life and better ideals to live for. The\n\n Universal Brotherhood Magazine\n\nwill start afresh, too, and promises its readers that they may hope for\nmuch from it this year.\n\nIt will improve with each number.\n\nSubscription, $2 a year: $1, 6 months. Sample copies, 10c.\n\n\n\n\nDIRECTORY OF UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD LODGES.\n\nPUBLIC MEETINGS ARE HELD AS FOLLOWS:\n\n\nARKANSAS.\n\nHot Springs. 202 Reserve Ave. Sunday, 3 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nCALIFORNIA.\n\nSan Francisco. 819 Market St. Sunday and Tuesday, 8 P.\u00a0M. Class, Friday,\n8 P.\u00a0M. Lotus Group, Sunday, 11 A.\u00a0M.\n\nStockton. Masonic Temple, Room 12. Sunday and Tuesday, 8 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nCOLORADO.\n\nDenver. Enterprise Block, Champa and 15th, Room 214. Wednesday, 8 P.\u00a0M.\nLotus Group, Sunday, 2 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nILLINOIS.\n\nChicago. 511 Masonic Temple. Sunday and Thursday, 8 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nINDIANA.\n\nFort Wayne. Tri-State Building. Friday, 8 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nIOWA.\n\nSioux City. Cor. 4th & Nebraska. Sunday, Lotus Group, 11 A.\u00a0M. Bible\nClass, 11.45. Lecture, 8 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nMINNESOTA.\n\nJackson. Hanson's Hall. Sunday, 8 P.\u00a0M. Class at Dr. Tryon's, Wednesday,\n8 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nNEW YORK.\n\nBuffalo. Bryant Stratton B'ld'g., 95 W. Genesee St. Sunday & Tuesday,\n8 P.\u00a0M.\n\nNew York. 144 Madison Ave. Sunday, 8.15 P.\u00a0M. Lotus Group, Sunday,\n3 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nOHIO.\n\nToledo. 61 Currier Hall, Madison St. Tuesday, 8 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nOREGON.\n\nPortland. 228 Sixth St. Tues., Frid. and Sun., 8 P.\u00a0M. Lotus Group,\nSun., 11 A.\u00a0M.\n\n\nPENNSYLVANIA.\n\nPhiladelphia. 10 So. 18th St., Room 201. Sun. and Wednes., 8 P.\u00a0M.\n\nPittsburg. 216 Sixth St. Sun. and Thurs., 8 P.\u00a0M. Lotus Group, Sun., 3\nP.\u00a0M. Class, 4.30 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nRHODE ISLAND.\n\nProvidence. 206 Weybosset St. Sun. and Fri., 8 P.\u00a0M. Lotus Group, Sun.,\n3 P.\u00a0M. Rooms open daily, 3 to 5 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nDIST. OF COLUMBIA.\n\nWashington. 509 G Street, N.\u00a0W. Sun., 8 P.\u00a0M. Lotus Group, Sun., 3 P.\u00a0M.\n\n\nWASHINGTON.\n\nTacoma. 1004 Tacoma Avenue. Wed., Thurs., Sun., 8 P.\u00a0M. Lotus Group,\nSun., 10.30 A.\u00a0M.\n\n\nWISCONSIN.\n\nMilwaukee. Hathaway Building. Sun., 11 A.\u00a0M. Lotus Group, Sun., 9.45 A.\u00a0M.\n\n\n _Please mention_ UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD _when you write advertisers_.","title":"Universal Brotherhood, Volume XIII, No. 10, January 1899: A Magazine Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, the Theosophical Movement, Philosophy, Science and Art","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":35748}