{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_76949/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_76949","id":"gutenberg_76949","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76949","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Spirit writings","Spiritualism","World War, 1914-1918 -- Miscellanea"],"text":"WAR LETTERS\n FROM THE\n LIVING DEAD MAN\n\n\n\n\n _BY ELSA BARKER_\n\n THE SON OF MARY BETHEL\n THE FROZEN GRAIL\n THE BOOK OF LOVE\n THE SONG OF SAVITRI\n STORIES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT FOR\n CHILDREN\n THE SCAB\n LETTERS FROM A LIVING DEAD MAN\n WAR LETTERS FROM THE LIVING DEAD\n MAN\n\n\n\n\n WAR LETTERS\n FROM THE\n LIVING DEAD MAN\n\n\n WRITTEN DOWN\n BY\n ELSA BARKER\n\n\n _WITH AN INTRODUCTION_\n\n\n\n\n NEW YORK\n MITCHELL KENNERLEY\n 1915\n\n\n COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY\n MITCHELL KENNERLEY\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n\n LETTER PAGE\n\n I. THE RETURN OF \u201cX\u201d 17\n\n II. A DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD 22\n\n III. AN ASSURANCE 27\n\n IV. THE WAY OF UNDERSTANDING 28\n\n V. ASTRAL MONSTERS 32\n\n VI. THE ARCHDUKE 38\n\n VII. THE \u201cCHOSEN PEOPLE\u201d 43\n\n VIII. SPECTRES OF THE CONGO 49\n\n IX. UNSEEN GUARDIANS 54\n\n X. ONE DAY AS A THOUSAND YEARS 60\n\n XI. MANY TONGUES 66\n\n XII. THE BEAUTIFUL BEING 67\n\n XIII. THE BODY OF HUMANITY 71\n\n XIV. THE FOEMAN WITHIN 76\n\n XV. LISTENING IN BRUSSELS 82\n\n XVI. THE SIXTH RACE 88\n\n XVII. AN AMERICAN ON GUARD 95\n\n XVIII. A MASTER OF COMPASSION 100\n\n XIX. THE ROSE-VEILED STRANGER 108\n\n XX. ABOVE THE BATTLEFIELDS 118\n\n XXI. A SOUL IN PURGATORY 125\n\n XXII. PEACE PROPAGANDA 139\n\n XXIII. THE MYSTERY OF DESIRE 143\n\n XXIV. THE SCALES OF JUSTICE 148\n\n XXV. FOR LOVE\u2019S SAKE 155\n\n XXVI. A MASTER OF MIND 164\n\n XXVII. INVISIBLE ENEMIES 172\n\n XXVIII. THE GLORY OF WAR 178\n\n XXIX. A FRIEND OF \u201cX\u201d 181\n\n XXX. THE ROSE AND THE CROSS 189\n\n XXXI. A SERBIAN MAGICIAN 196\n\n XXXII. JUDAS AND TYPHON 202\n\n XXXIII. CROWNS OF STRAW 207\n\n XXXIV. THE SYLPH AND THE FATHER 216\n\n XXXV. BEHIND THE DARK VEIL 223\n\n XXXVI. THE \u201cLUSITANIA\u201d 232\n\n XXXVII. VEILED PROPHECIES 237\n\n XXXVIII. ADVICE TO A SCRIBE 239\n\n XXXIX. ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES 245\n\n XL. THE HEIGHT AND THE DEPTH 255\n\n XLI. A CONCLAVE OF MASTERS 256\n\n XLII. A LESSON IN THE KABALA 260\n\n XLIII. THE SECOND COMING 263\n\n XLIV. POISON GASES 269\n\n XLV. THE SUPERMAN 274\n\n XLVI. THE ENTERING WEDGE 283\n\n XLVII. THE NEW BROTHERHOOD 296\n\n XLVIII. IN THE CRUCIBLE 301\n\n XLIX. BLACK MAGIC IN AMERICA 303\n\n L. THINGS TO REMEMBER 311\n\n\n\n\n INTRODUCTION\n\n\nIN the Spring of 1914 there was published in London and New York a\nbook of mine called \u201cLetters From a Living Dead Man,\u201d being automatic\nwritings from an American Judge and teacher of philosophy who had been\nknown to his intimate friends as \u201cX.\u201d\n\nThere were circumstances connected with the writing of that book,\nexplained in some detail in the Introduction, which made any other\nhypothesis than that of genuine communication from the other world seem\nuntenable to me. It began, for instance, some days before I knew in\nParis that my friend had died on the Pacific coast of America.\n\nIn that first book of \u201cX\u201d I did not state who the writer was, not\nfeeling at liberty to do so without the consent of his family; but\nin the Summer of 1914, while I was still living in Europe, a long\ninterview with Mr. Bruce Hatch appeared in the _New York Sunday\nWorld_, in which he expressed the conviction that the \u201cLetters\u201d were\ngenuine communications from his father, the late Judge David P. Hatch,\nof Los Angeles, California.\n\nFor the benefit of those who have not read the former book, I wish to\nsay that \u201cX\u201d was not an ordinary man. He came nearer than any other\nOccidental of my acquaintance to that mastery of self and of life which\nhas been called Adeptship.\n\nAfter the \u201cLetters\u201d were finished in 1913, during a period of about\ntwo years I was conscious of the presence of \u201cX\u201d only on two or three\noccasions, when he wrote some brief advice in regard to my personal\naffairs.\n\nOn the fourth of February, 1915, in New York, I was suddenly made aware\none day that \u201cX\u201d stood in the room and wished to write; but as always\nbefore, with one or two exceptions, I had not the remotest idea what he\nwas going to say. He wrote as follows:\n\n \u201cWhen I come back and tell you the story of this war, as seen from\n the other side, you will know more than all the Chancelleries of the\n nations.\u201d\n\nThis letter I confided to two friends who had been much interested in\nthe former book, Mr. and Mrs. Vance Thompson; and it was arranged, with\nthe cordial consent of \u201cX,\u201d that they should sit with me about once a\nweek, to make a better \u201cfocus.\u201d Their loyal faith was a great support\nto me during the first half of a trying labor.\n\nThe writing was not confined to the days when we three sat together;\nbut about a third of the first half of the book was written in the\npresence and in the house of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson. Then they went to\nCalifornia, and I continued the work alone.\n\nIt may be of interest to some readers if I describe the process of this\nwriting, which has changed gradually from a violent and mechanical\nseizure of the hand from the outside, as in the beginning of the first\nbook, to a quiet impression on the mind within.\n\nIf the reader will imagine a well-known friend of vivid personality\npresent with him, then subtract from that impression the seeing of the\nphysical eye, leaving only the subtle vibration of the actual thinking\nand feeling presence, then add the indescribable \u201cinner sight,\u201d he may\nbegin to realize how I know that \u201cX\u201d is in the room.\n\nIt is probable that Helen Keller knows when her friends are near her,\nand can tell one from the other, though she is deaf and blind.\n\nWhen made aware of the presence of \u201cX,\u201d I take a pencil and a notebook,\nas any other amanuensis would, and by an effort of will, now easy from\nlong practice, I still the activity of my objective mind, until there\nis no thought or shadow of a thought in it. Then into _the brain\nitself_ come the words, which flow out without conscious effort at\nthe point of the pencil. It is exactly as if I heard the dictation with\na single auditory instrument, like a small and very sensitive sphere,\nin the centre of the brain.\n\nI never know at the beginning of a sentence how it will end. I never\nknow whether the sentence I am writing will be the last or if two\nthousand words will follow it. I simply write on, in a state of\nvoluntary negativity, until the impression of personality described\nabove leaves suddenly. Then no more words come. The writing is at an\nend for that time.\n\nThe question will naturally arise in the mind of the skeptical reader\n(it has in mine), whether my own subconscious mind has not itself\ndictated the following \u201cWar Letters from the Living Dead Man,\u201d in the\nattempt to explain a world tragedy which would have seemed impossible\ntwo years ago.\n\nBut from my long experience in writing for \u201cX,\u201d and from the fact that\nduring two years I had not written for him except on two or three\nunimportant occasions, though often thinking of him, and from my\nacquired habit of minute observation of supernormal phenomena, I now\nfeel safe in assuming that I _know the difference_ between the\nactual presence of \u201cX\u201d and my own imagination of him, my reminiscence\nof him, or even the suggestion of his presence from another\u2019s mind.\n\nNo person who had had even a minute fraction of my occult experience\ncould be more coldly critical of that experience than I am. I freely\nwelcome every logical argument against the belief that these letters\nare what they purport to be; but placing those arguments in opposition\nto the evidence which I have of the genuineness of them, the\naffirmations outweigh the denials, and I accept them.\n\nThis evidence is too complex and much of it too personal to be even\noutlined here; but the Letter XXXVI, written one hour after the sinking\nof the _Lusitania_ and nine hours before I knew of it, is merely\none incident out of dozens. Also it may be considered at least an\ninteresting coincidence that at the very time I began writing this\nsecond book, three occult students, in different countries, wrote me\nthat _they_ felt that \u201cX\u201d had come back and would write again\nthrough my hand. Since then several other persons have so expressed\nthemselves by word or pen.\n\nMany of the events of this war I myself have seen \u201castrally\u201d at the\ntime of their occurrence. I was a wide-awake astral participant in the\nfirst action in which the British army was engaged on the Continent,\nand related the experience to a British officer in England before it\nwas reported there, my narrative being verified the following day by a\nFrench newspaper brought over from Paris by a friend.\n\nI saw in New York the shelling of Scarborough at the hour when it\noccurred, and related the incident to a friend some hours before it\nwas reported in the newspapers; though I did not know the name of the\nEnglish coast town where I had seen the assault.\n\nNevertheless, I cannot read what is in the mind of \u201cX\u201d even when I am\nconscious that he is actually present in the room. I know only what\nhe dictates, and have no idea how much or how little he knows. He has\nstated in one of the letters that he should tell me only what his\njudgment approved from time to time.\n\nThere is one point where I myself do not quite follow \u201cX.\u201d Sometimes\nwhen he says that the German people are so and so, had I been writing\nI should have said the Prussians. I have many German friends, and I\ncannot hold them individually accountable for the awful conditions into\nwhich their government has plunged the world.\n\nI must emphasize that I do not assume personal responsibility for what\n\u201cX\u201d writes, but merely record his words.\n\nIt did not occur to me until several days after his last letter was\nwritten, on July 28th, that he had finished the war book exactly one\nyear from the date of the first declaration of war, that of Austria\nagainst Serbia, and on the very day when the Pope sent out his great\nappeal for peace.\n\n\nIn his former writing, which began more than three years ago, \u201cX\u201d\nrequested that I should never summon him, and later advised me not to\nask questions. I have therefore generally refrained from doing either;\nthough the temptation has often been great to ask him as to the final\nissue of this war by which I have been so profoundly affected. But\nI knew that such questioning might stimulate the action of my own\nobjective mind and becloud my receptivity. I have recently shrunk from\nseeking for such answers even in my hypnogogic visions, lest I should\nsee something which would make me less negative in the reception of\nthese letters.\n\nThis situation seems to have cured me forever of curiosity; it has made\nme feel detached as a comet and almost as lonely, and strong enough\nto be willing to remain so. But, by a strange paradox, as my hatred\nfor the brutalities of this war grew deeper and deeper, my love for\nall those struggling human souls _in every camp_ grew with it,\nuntil I came to feel that each one of all those millions who died and\nsuffered on those battlefields was my brother and my friend. Love is a\nmiracle that touches the brutal facts of life and makes them divine.\n\n\nIn the third letter of this book, dated March 10th, \u201cX\u201d said that the\nforces of good had overpowered the forces of evil and that peace would\nreturn to the world--though he did not say when. Before I learned of\nthe _Lusitania_ sinking, but one hour after it had actually taken\nplace, he wrote that the demons whom the workers out there had driven\nback had rallied and returned to the assault, and that he ought to have\nknown that the very Law of Rhythm would drive them forward again after\nthey had generated another supply of energy.\n\nIn the light of rhythmic law, that letter is to me the most interesting\npart of the book. It illustrates what he has said so often, that even\nthe \u201cliving dead\u201d do not know everything, and that the reason why they\nknow so much more than we do is because they have a wider vision and a\ngreater fund of data on which to base their conclusions.\n\nIn regard to that second onslaught of the powers of darkness, it is\nperhaps significant that the letter describing his first conversation\nwith the \u201cdark-veiled one\u201d was written next before the _Lusitania_\nletter.\n\n\nAside from his narrative, two major ideas seem to dominate \u201cX\u201d in\nthis writing: the mystery of good and evil (love and hate), and the\nbrotherhood of man.\n\nThrough his soul-challenging exposition of the conflict between good\nand evil, both in the human heart and in the universe, a man might\nlearn to protect himself against his own evil as well as against the\nevil outside him.\n\nIn pursuit of this end \u201cX\u201d has revealed certain mysteries to which the\nattention of the common man has not heretofore been effectively called.\n\nThat there is an \u201castral world\u201d permeating and extending beyond the\nworld of dense matter has been stated in Theosophical and other\nliterature; \u201cX\u201d makes his readers realize the fact. The astral world\nis said to be the world of feeling and desire; and it is through man\u2019s\nastral, feeling or desire body, made of a tenuous kind of matter\ninvisible to untrained eyes, that he connects with and functions in\nthat world.\n\nWithin and beyond this again is said to be the thought world, and the\ntheory is that man has also a thought body through which he contacts\nwith and functions in it. And so on, plane after plane, till man\nreaches the formless and the universal, in other words pure divinity.\n\nThe evil astral beings described by \u201cX\u201d are beings dwelling in the\nastral world. Some of them have no physical bodies in the material\nworld; others are the more or less independent astral selves of men,\nwhich during sleep go here and there in the world invisible to our open\neyes. They have been active in this war.\n\nThere are also said to be beings of the elements, earth, air, fire and\nwater, who are evolving along a line different from that of man. Some\nof these are amiable, some are malicious. Much information about these\nelementals can be found in the writings of Paracelsus. They also have\nbeen active in this war.\n\nOther and superior beings work on all three planes, physical, astral\nand mental, and in still higher worlds beyond our cognizance. But for\nthe beneficent activity of some of these, mankind would destroy itself\nor be destroyed.\n\n\u201cX\u201d says that the feelings of hatred and the sufferings engendered by\nthe great war have made the astral world at this time a very unpleasant\nplace of sojourn. The purgatory of the Roman Catholics is the same\nthing as the place of post-mortem trial described by \u201cX\u201d. The Church\nhas great knowledge.\n\nGood and evil may be called opposite and complementary forces, one\nworking in harmony with the Law of the Universe (otherwise called the\nwill of God), the other working disharmoniously with that Law.\n\nSome readers may be shocked by what \u201cX\u201d says of black magic. He is not\nwriting to shock them, but to protect and instruct them. Superstition\nhas been called the dark side of religion; but superstition is to be\nunderstood, not dismissed with the lifting of superior eyebrows. All\nthings are to be understood. The great psychologists, scientists, do\nnot now consider these subjects beneath their investigation. Refer\nto Professor William James, to Sir Oliver Lodge, to Dr. Baraduc.\nThe names of recognized scientists who are now investigating occult\nphenomena would fill a small directory. When I admit that I am seeking\nto chart the unseen world, I am modestly enrolling myself in good\ncompany.\n\n\u201cX\u201d speaks of the \u201cdark-veiled one\u201d who inspired Nietzsche in the\nmisleading of young Germany. Perhaps behind every powerful man or woman\nwhose work has told in the world there has been an invisible one,\neither light or dark-veiled. The question is not without interest, both\npractical and theoretical. Inspiration, like magic, may be either black\nor white.\n\nThe \u201cvoices\u201d of Jeanne d\u2019Arc would in our day be called clairaudient\nphenomena. History declares that they rendered her more, not less,\nefficient as the saviour of France. Martin Luther threw his ink-pot at\n\u201cthe devil\u201d; but the Reformation was no less ably engineered because\nLuther had visions. Saul of Tarsus also had a vision, if we may credit\nthe reporters.\n\n\u201cX\u201d speaks of his own Teacher, a \u201cMaster.\u201d When I compare the\nCalifornia Judge whom I knew with most of the men and women with whom\nI prattle about commonplaces, I do not find it difficult to admit the\npossibility that man may progress even further than \u201cX,\u201d given the\nresolution so to do. If \u201cX\u201d became what he was in a little less than\nseventy years, there is hope for us who look forward to eternity.\n\n\nThe second major idea of these \u201cWar Letters\u201d seems to be the\nbrotherhood of man.\n\nThe world has progressed thus far through a series of well-marked\nperiods, and by means of a series of predominant races which stamped\ntheir time with their own peculiar color. \u201cX\u201d says that a new race, the\nSixth Race so-called, is about to arise now in the United States.\n\nIf America would accept this idea as a working hypothesis--not another\n\u201c_Deutschland \u00fcber Alles_,\u201d but say \u201cAmerica _for_ (not\nover) all\u201d--she might build a peace-machine as Germany has built a\nwar-machine. If she should go about it with the same thoroughness,\npostulating the ideal brotherhood as Germany has postulated\nworld-dominion, she might make a demonstration in the next generation.\nIn the mixture of races in America she has all the materials for\nany kind of spiritual experiment. Asia and Europe would look on with\ninterest. England, Germany, and France, even Japan who is spiritual\nunderneath and material only on the surface, perhaps Russia above all,\nwould respect such an avowed purpose. It may be that the world will\nhave suffered enough by the end of this war to be ready to welcome\nuniversal brotherhood.\n\nAlready there are movements in America which would gladly fall into\nline. \u201cX\u201d speaks of the Woodcraft movement, a loosely organized body of\nperhaps a hundred thousand men and boys and a few women, who in their\nplaytime have gone back to Nature and the camp-fire for that fraternity\nwhich cities do not give.\n\n\u201cX\u201d says that he has another service to perform in the future. I do\nnot know what that service is, nor whether I have any part in it; but\nif he should one day declare to me that it was in connection with the\nWoodcraft purpose, I should not be surprised.\n\n\nBut after living for months with this war book, I cannot yet see it in\nperspective nor gauge its value. I give it to the world because it\nseems to belong to the world, and because among the thousand letters\nwhich I have received from the readers of \u201cLetters From a Living\nDead Man,\u201d so many have asked for further writings of \u201cX.\u201d The first\nbook is now being translated into four European languages, and other\ntranslations have been offered.\n\nI want to thank all those persons in many countries who have written\nme so kindly about the book. It was more for them than for myself that\nI embraced the offered opportunity to hear what \u201cX\u201d had to say about\nthe Great War. To receive genuine communications from the other world\n(assuming as I must that such communication is possible) involves\nsacrifice on the part of the amanuensis, even in the protected quiet of\na country home. To do it in a great rushing city like New York, amidst\nthe distractions of a complex social life, and during a war like this\nby whose horrors the \u201csensitive\u201d is especially buffetted, and in a\nclashing pro-German pro-Allies environment, has been an education in\nself-control.\n\nBut the war cannot last forever, and some day joy will come back to the\nworld.\n\n_New York, Sept., 1915_. ELSA BARKER.\n\n\n[Illustration: DAVID PATTERSON HATCH\n\n_Born Dresden, Maine, November 22, 1846_\n\n_Died Los Angeles, California, February 21, 1912_]\n\n\n\n\n WAR LETTERS FROM THE LIVING DEAD MAN\n\n\n\n\n LETTER I\n\n THE RETURN OF \u201cX\u201d\n\n\nIN a far away star I heard the command: \u201cGo back to the earth, and\nlearn the mysteries of love and hate.\u201d\n\nI did not know to what I was going, but went as commanded.\n\nAs I neared the earth an army of angry beings sought to bar my way.\n\u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d they cried. \u201cThis is our field, and we brook\nno interference.\u201d\n\nI called to the Teacher, and he stood beside me. Even he was grave at\nthe power of the forces before us.\n\n\u201cIt has come,\u201d the Teacher said; \u201cit has come suddenly, after a long\npreparation.\u201d\n\n\nWrath is a cosmic force, and hate is a cosmic force, and love is a\ncosmic force, and fear is a cosmic force. Did you think that love was\na pretty sentiment? Did you think that hate was a mere annoyance? I\nhave seen the sources of wrath and hate and love and fear, and that\nmy experience may be of use in helping men to understand the forces\nworking in and behind the race, I have made the effort to write for the\nworld again.\n\nThis war is more than a war of men; it is more than a war of angels.\nIts roots are in Necessity itself.\n\nA new race has to be born, and races like men are born in the pain and\nthe blood of their predecessors. But as \u201cthe curse of Eve\u201d came through\nher listening to the envious serpent of evil, so this curse has come\nupon the world through mankind\u2019s listening to the suggestions of envy\nand hate from the forces of evil within and around the world.\n\nI have seen those forces in forms, I have faced them and wrestled with\nthem. I am strong because I have struggled.\n\nI came back to the world nearly five weeks before war was declared on\nearth, but war was already declared in the spaces above the earth. As\nthe nations had long been getting ready their forces, so the entities\noutside were ready and in arms. The demons who met me--for they were\ndemons--had triumph in their eyes.\n\nA beginning had been made, a seed of anger sown in the heart of\nAustria. And the seed was watered in the ground by those who felt that\ntheir harvest was approaching.\n\nYou must understand that evil is co-existent with good so long as the\negos of men evolve. The forces of good and the forces of evil are\ncomplementary. They are in actual forms, they have acquired egos; their\nconcentration on their work would shame the greatest geniuses among men.\n\nBut they too are consciously or unconsciously servants of that Cosmic\nWill whose designs we call the will of God.\n\n\nI have learned much since the days when I entertained you with stories\nof the newly-dead who had died serenely in their beds and had gone out\ninto the astral world as into an adjoining room. A million souls have\ngone out recently, shocked, torn, mangled, buffetted by their own hate\nand the hate of those who sought to destroy them.\n\nPity those who have died even tranquilly during the last eight\nmonths. They have passed through a region of torment--those who have\npassed through. Many have remained below, spun round and round in the\nwhirlpool with those who died by war.\n\nHad I not a great purpose, and the conviction of a great mission, in\nthus revealing the secrets of the other world _at this time_, I\nshould not harrow your feelings by a recital of what I have seen and\nsometimes taken part in since my return from that journey among the\nstars.\n\nComfort yourself--if you need comfort--by my assurance that the race\nis passing through a rite of initiation. Those who have died in the\nservice of an unselfish enthusiasm will in time rebody themselves and\nreap on the earth the fruits of their service. But not all who have\ndied have been filled with this enthusiasm. Many have hated for hate\u2019s\nown sake. They are the ones who have failed.\n\nPity them if you must, but it is better not to think about them. They\nare the willing victims of the demons who sought to bar my way, when I\nwas commanded to return to the world and learn the mysteries of love\nand hate.\n\nLove! Yes, there has been more love born of this war than the earth has\nknown in all the two thousand years of Christianity. For the human race\nis awake at last, and that it may not go to sleep again is my purpose\nin once more breaking through the wall that separates me from you.\n\n _March 5, 1915._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER II\n\n A DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD\n\n\nTHERE was one demon who seemed to be a leader of demons. He was unlike\nmany of the others--more personal, more egocentric.\n\nAs we stood opposite each other I entered into conversation with him,\npartly to satisfy my curiosity, partly to throw him off his guard.\n\n\u201cWho are you?\u201d I asked. \u201cYou seem to be a ruler among your kind.\u201d\n\nHe straightened himself with pride.\n\n\u201cI am indeed a ruler,\u201d he said, \u201ca ruler on earth and up here.\u201d\n\n\u201cOn earth also?\u201d I queried.\n\n\u201cYes, also on earth,\u201d he answered, \u201cfor I am the deeper self of a man\nwho is great among men, a man who will follow my will as others follow\nhis will.\u201d Then he made a claim which startled me, and I forbear to\nrepeat it.\n\n\u201cIf you are the evil self of a man still living,\u201d I demanded, \u201chow do\nyou stand as a separate entity up here? How are you apart from him?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are somewhat ignorant,\u201d he said to me.\n\n\u201cI am ignorant of many things,\u201d I admitted. \u201cInstruct me in any way you\ncan. I have a thirst for knowledge.\u201d\n\n\u201cKnow then,\u201d he said pompously, \u201cthat I broke away from the earthly\nform that had enchained me when he acknowledged my ruler-ship and\nworshipped me as his genius.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe set you free?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cHe set me free by acknowledging me as his Master. His knowledge is\neven less than yours, and he called me by a name that I despise; but\nso long as I rule I care not the name I rule by. Or I care little,\u201d he\ncorrected himself. \u201cBut such things as these are too deep for you!\u201d\n\n\u201cI am deeper than you think,\u201d I asserted, \u201cand I have met your kind\nbefore.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy kind maybe, but not my equals. I am a King among spirits.\u201d\n\n\u201cI had observed your crown,\u201d I said, \u201cit has a familiar look.\u201d\n\nDuring this colloquy the Teacher had stood silently by, but now I\nturned to him with an unspoken question. He led me aside a little way,\nand said:\n\n\u201cWhen a man exalts himself too much, he sets free the demon within\nhim. He often thinks that he rules the demon, and sends him on errands\nthrough the Invisible; but it is really the demon who commands, and the\ncommands of the man are only echoes.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd it took this vision of hell to teach me that!\u201d I exclaimed.\n\n\u201cWhat you would have learned in due time by reason or by precept, you\nnow learn by example,\u201d the Teacher said. \u201cYou have truly beheld the\nevil self of a great ruler.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is very powerful,\u201d I admitted.\n\n\u201cIt will grow in power for a time,\u201d the Teacher said, \u201cand then it will\ngo to Gehenna.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd when will it go to Gehenna?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen peace returns to the world, after the war is exhausted up here.\nBut the war will be exhausted up here before peace returns to the\nworld.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat war is about to be fought?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cThe greatest war of all time,\u201d the Teacher said, \u201cthe greatest war of\nall time up here, and also on the earth.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd when will it begin?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is already begun here, as you have seen. Had you not been far away\nyou would have known it before.\u201d\n\n\u201cI have indeed been far away,\u201d I said. \u201cAn angel has shown me many\nstars, and I have learned much.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe angel kept you away from the world until you should be strong\nenough, and rested enough, to work as well as learn.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd where does my work lie?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cIn many fields,\u201d he answered. \u201cBut first you must fight your way\nthrough the astral world above Europe and save your friends who are in\ndanger.\u201d\n\nSwimming the Hellespont was a minor feat compared to swimming that sea\nof devils, but I got through. A year before I could not have done it,\nperhaps, for the forces of good were overpowered. There is a tide in\ngood and evil, as well as a tide in the sea. Evil was at the flood.\n\nI saved one friend in danger, and saw that another was safe.\n\nBack in the sea of hate, when I was nearly exhausted, the Beautiful\nBeing, that angel who had been my guide so long, came and whispered\nsomething in my ear. It was a spur to ambition.\n\n\u201cYou may be the historian of this great struggle,\u201d it said, \u201cif you do\nnot fail in your tasks.\u201d\n\nDo not be startled by the word \u201cambition.\u201d There are many kinds of\nambition, and a sincere wish to be personally of service may as well be\ncalled by that name as by any other, if there is love behind it.\n\n _March 6._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER III\n\n AN ASSURANCE\n\n\nTAKE it from me at this early stage of our writing: The forces of good\noverpowered the forces of evil a month ago, and the issue is settled\nhere. The power set in motion will spend itself, and peace will return\nto the world.\n\n _March 10._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER IV\n\n THE WAY OF UNDERSTANDING\n\n\nBEFORE I tell you any more horrors, I want to assure you now that out\nof those horrors will come a beauty such as the world has not known\nduring this cycle of existence.\n\nIt will not come at once, for many adjustments will have to be made;\nbut the way is open already for those who choose to walk in it.\n\nIt is a curious commentary on unregenerate humanity, this war in which\neach side declares loudly its own righteousness and execrates its\nopponent. As in all quarrels, there is more wrong on one side than on\nthe other; but the side which triumphs--and it will be the side that\nhas least wrong--will have to understand and to forgive its enemy\nbefore it can go forward to its own great future.\n\nThough international organizations have failed for the time being, I am\nnot discouraged about international organizations. They were merely\nshocked into failure, the peace people, the socialists, and others who\nmake far higher claims to the ideal of universal brotherhood.\n\nEven now, during the stress of the conflict, go out yourself in thought\nand in love to that nation which you feel to be your enemy. Try to\nunderstand it. And do not try to understand it by telling yourself that\nit is evil. That is not understanding. There is evil in all men. Try to\nunderstand it by becoming it, for the time. Put yourself in its place;\nfeel as you would feel if you stood alone--even though by your own\nfault--with the whole world against you.\n\nYou draw back a little with the thought that you could not have placed\nyourself in a position where the world for its own protection would be\nobliged to range itself against you. But are you sure?\n\nBy entering the consciousness of that nation you _are_ placing\nyourself in such a position, and I tell you to do it temporarily, in\norder that you may be a centre, a beginning, an infinitesimal part\nof that international comprehension and pardon which must become\ngeneral to a degree before the long-heralded and always misunderstood\nUniversal Brotherhood can even begin to find room for itself in this\nunbrotherly world.\n\nIf all those aggregations of people who have long believed that they\nstood for this ideal would now try to make peace with one another, if\nthey would acknowledge the ideals of one another, however much the\nworking-plans of those ideals may differ, a force could even now be set\nin motion that would shorten this war and lessen the number of those\nwho must die for their conflicting ideals of national honor and loyalty.\n\nIn the reaction from hate to love, in the reaction from criticism to\nunderstanding that will follow a formal declaration of peace, all these\nquarrelling spiritual organizations _may_ if they will, begin to\nwork harmoniously. If their members cannot bring themselves, because\nof their narrow pride and the memory of all the harsh things which\nthey have said against one another in the past--if they are too meanly\nafraid of eating their words, publicly to acknowledge one another as\nbrethren, let them begin to feel thus in their hearts. Perhaps in\ntime the greater courage will come, and some daring leader will say to\nhis flock that those with whom they once worked, with trust and the\nprofession of love, _may_ be trying, according to their lights, to\nserve the ideal.\n\nI do not know that any further elaboration of this idea would make it\nany clearer to you, and these remarks are only an interlude, a relief,\nin the tension of the story which I have to tell.\n\n _March 13._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER V\n\n ASTRAL MONSTERS\n\n\nDID you know that I was near you when you crossed the North Sea more\nthan two weeks before war was declared, crossed to England under an\nirresistible, an overwhelming impulse to _get away_ from the\ncontinent of Europe and back to the people of your own blood? I was\nnear you.\n\nBut I did not remain when you were safe with your friends. I returned\nto the centre of war determinism, went back to that land which, despite\nall protestations to the contrary, hatched out the egg which an\nirresponsible bird had laid in the region farther south.\n\nDid I say irresponsible? Only a madman is irresponsible for his acts.\nLet me say rather deluded, for not all deluded souls are mad. The hand\nthat slew the Austrian Archduke was used, as others have been used,\nby the forces working against progress. Pity that man also, and let\nthe law of cause and effect deal with him as it must, for there is no\nfavoritism in that court and no appeal to a higher jurisdiction.\n\n\nI returned to Germany. It will be necessary in this writing to call\nspades, spades. If I hurt anybody\u2019s feelings, I am not writing to hurt\nanybody\u2019s feelings. Facts are facts, and no specious pleading can\nchange them.\n\nI returned to Germany. I listened to war counsels. I _heard_\norders given, for by a special hardening of my astral ears I can hear\nwhat is spoken in the world of men and hear very distinctly. My astral\nbody is a well-lubricated though tenuous machine that answers to the\nlightest touch of my will.\n\nBut do not jump to the conclusion that all astral bodies are like mine.\nRemember that I am the pupil of a great Master, and that his purposes\nare not _his_ purposes but those of the law of progress which he\nserves.\n\n\nI saw again the monster of which I wrote you in my second letter. They\nspeak truth who say that the German Emperor _did_ hesitate to\ntouch the spring which should open the doors of hell. The War Lord had\na certain pride in his record as a Peace Lord, and he shivered at the\nresponsibility that faced him while gloating in that responsibility,\nwhich further exalted his already self-exalted ego.\n\nPity him too, but do not sentimentalize over him. Will is free. In\nyielding his will to the evil genius he was exercising free will. But\nthose eyes of his were wet in the night and he _did_ pray to the\nForce he calls his God. The name of God was not only on his lips but\nin his inner thoughts. God is a word that means many things to many\npersons.\n\nThere were also in that conclave of evil spirits many who were not\nattached to individual men. There were vast elemental beings. When\nLytton wrote, in one of his occult novels, of a gigantic foot which\nstepped through a gap in the magic circle drawn by a black magician in\nthe primeval wilderness, he referred to a fact in Nature.\n\nNature! You with your narrow sight have no idea of the meaning of the\nterm. All your studies have not taught you even the alphabet that\nNature uses. Learn that alphabet. Begin to study that language. Study\nchemistry, biology, electricity, and study the mysteries of the\nvibrations of matter on as many planes as you can consciously reach.\nThe knowledge of the future lies there. Man has only begun the conquest\nof Nature.\n\nAny expression of hate which you ever beheld in the material world\nwas only a weak replica of the hate that was let loose upon the earth\nwhen the hour struck last year, the hour when the orbits of certain\nplanetary bodies blended their influences and allowed a free passage\nfor beings who are generally more limited in their freedom of movement.\n\nThe giant foot! I saw the great being to whom such a foot belonged.\nIt was a being of the air, but earth beings were allied with it and\nmonsters from the deeper circles of matter where the light of the sun\nnever shines.\n\nWill you let me describe one of those beings? You need not fear it now\nfor it has been driven back to its lair in the bowels of the planet. A\ngross bluish bag-like body, with a long fat tail covered with bristles,\narms and legs like elongated bags, and a head that was a larger and\nhalf-submerged bag in the rolls of its monstrous neck. But the eyes!\nThere was no fat-like substance in them. They were wide and round and\nglaring with a thousand years of malignity concentrated in a moment.\nPale eyes they were. If you dread an evil dark eye, dread more an evil\npale eye. Suffering unimaginable and hate of everything above it were\nexpressed in the eyes of that entity from the deep of things which\nfrom the lowest astral plane spat and drooled its venom toward the\nsurface of the planet. Immense it was in size, toothless and shapeless\nits mouth. What the nourishment might be which had kept it together I\nrefrain from telling you.\n\nAgain I say, do not dread it. It cannot reach toward the surface\nof the earth now. Its existence is near its term. But the germs of\nastral disease which were spewed from its shapeless mouth have been\nmultiplying in spite of all the efforts of those who know how to cope\nwith such things.\n\nThe beings of the air are not filthy, however evil they may be, and few\nof them are really evil--few in proportion to those who are amiable or\nindifferent to man.\n\nThe more revengeful of the beings of fire may yet make themselves felt;\nfor sporadic efforts will still be made, though the great struggle is\nwon in the invisible regions.\n\nStay where you are for the time. A danger still threatens Europe beyond\nthe danger of armies. Wait--and pray. For prayer is an astral force and\nits effects, being in the higher astral, are far-reaching.\n\nWait--and pray.\n\n _March 15._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER VI\n\n THE ARCHDUKE\n\n\nHAVE you ever thought of the posthumous feelings of him whose murder\nprecipitated this war? No, you have not; but I have, and I sought for\nhim and found him.\n\nOthers were seeking him too, the souls of the dead and the astral souls\nof those who slept on earth.\n\nTruly his was not a peaceful passing, either in flesh or in spirit.\n\nThe dread of assassination which had long hung over him like a dark\ncloud predisposed him to a dark and stormy period after death, even if\nhe had not been shocked out by the murderous assault. This was another\nillustration of that law by which the thing we fear attacks us sooner\nor later.\n\nAt first he passed into darkness and a period of somnolence, like\na vague nightmare; then as he gradually awoke to a more vivid\nconsciousness he awoke with pain and anxiety and wailing of soul. The\ndreaded thing had come at last, and he knew that he was outside his\nbody and searched for it.\n\nThe customary funeral was even more dismal for him than it is for most\nsouls, because the slight opening of vision which his passing had given\nmade him realize that far more than his personal death was bound up\nwith this change.\n\nHe was not attacked by the evil things which had brought about his\ndeath. What more could they want with him? He had served their purposes.\n\nHad there been anyone else round whose murder so much obscurity and\nso complex a series of misunderstandings and suspicions could have\ngathered, probably that other man would have suffered in his stead.\nBut whose murder could have served that purpose so well as this man\u2019s?\nWhose relations placed him in such a focus of rays? His relations with\nthe German Emperor, the relations of his family with those for whom he\nhad no sympathy, the relations of the present heir with Russia--all\nthese and many other sources of error and doubt and confusion formed\nan ideal centre of tumult.\n\nAnd the soul felt this tumult in addition to his anger and\ndisappointment at being driven from the world. His anxiety for his\nchildren was not small, for they stood in a peculiar position regarding\nthe families around them.\n\nImagine the thought of every man, woman and child capable of following\nan event like that, centred on one soul, in anger, love, grief,\ncuriosity, doubt, uncertainty--every mind in almost every country of\nthe world! It was enough to shatter his astral body altogether.\n\nGenerally when a ruler dies he is followed by loving thoughts, or\nthoughts of dislike, but not by confusing thoughts. His race is run.\nThe King is dead, long live the King!\n\nFor some time this heir to a great throne was even driven away from the\ncompanion whom he loved. He had nothing to lean on. He was drawn upon\nand victimized by thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, from all directions and\nin all stages of intensity.\n\nEven the prayers offered for the repose of his soul in purgatory had\nnot the effect which such prayers of love generally have. They were\nonly a drop in the river of thoughts which rushed in his direction.\nYes, I say in his direction; for he remained a long time in that\nstorm-centre of thoughts.\n\nEven the band of helpers, of whom I told you when I wrote for the\nworld before, were not able to assist him very much; for they too were\nattacked by the beings of evil who made war in the astral regions.\n\nAs a rule the death of one man makes little difference to the world.\nThose who love him grieve, and those who dislike him or who profit by\nhis death are glad. This man went out with the flaming torch of war in\nhis vapory hand.\n\nAfter a time he sought and found his friend, the ruler of Germany; but\nthat ruler could not see him, though he sensed a presence in the room.\nHe was half afraid. What was the presence? he wondered. Was it his own\ngenius? Did it come to remind him that the hour of his \u201cgreat destiny\u201d\nwas at hand? The hesitation of his weakness was rather shameful to see;\nbut the determination of his strength, of his evil self, set its heel\nupon the weakness and the preparations for war went on.\n\nThe soul of the Archduke was too confused to play a part in those\ncounsels. He had been a strong man, and will be strong again; but\nduring the time when he might have exercised an invisible influence, he\nexercised none; he strove to make himself visible, and in one instance\nat least succeeded.\n\nYes, I spoke with him and advised him; but I had other things to do\njust then and left him with a priest of his own church, a gentle and\nstrong soul who stood like a rock in the tumult.\n\nI only mention my seeing the Archduke because of one who will some day\nread these lines. I cannot offer much comfort, but she will be glad to\nknow of the strong and quiet priest, and I shall have kept a promise\nwhich I made but have so far been unable to keep in any way save this.\n\n _March 17._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER VII\n\n \u201cTHE CHOSEN PEOPLE\u201d\n\n\nTHE nations began to declare war on one another. I stood with twenty\nothers for hours in the palace at Potsdam, trying by the silent\npressure of will to reduce the pressure of the war-will which surged in\nthe German nation towards its Emperor. And they say that Germany did\nnot want war!\n\n\u201cDer Tag\u201d seemed near, and war seemed to mean triumph.\n\nIt is a commonplace to say now that Germany believed that England\n_could not_ go to war. And had England not gone to war, the issue\nwould have been settled before the date of this writing. The German\nnavy would have met the French in battle and would have worsted it.\n\nIt would be well for you to cease shrinking when I say what does not\nplease you. I state what I know; you merely write down what I say.\n\nI and twenty others centred the force of our will in Potsdam and in the\nWilhelmstrasse. Not that we did not know what the issue would be. We\nknew. This war was written in the stars. But as the soldier does his\nduty though he knows that he will lose the day, so we stood our ground\nagainst the war devils.\n\nThe greatest of the Masters did not stand there with us, and I do not\nknow where he was. Probably on some business that we might not have\nunderstood. Perhaps holding back worse forces from the outer stars.\n\nNo, that is not a dream, though it is only a supposition. There is evil\nas well as good in the outer stars.\n\nHad it not been for the restraining influence of those who watched up\nhere, many of the foreigners in Germany at that time would have been\ntorn limb from limb.\n\nWhat do you know of war-madness, hate-madness? Were you capable of\nfeeling it in your present personality, you could not write for me\nnow, while those whom you love and respect are nearly all on one side\nof a war not yet finished. You may grasp hate intellectually, you may\ndramatize it; but you do not feel it, though you have suffered from\nits effects.\n\nThe worst in the German heart is very bad--though I tell you not to\nhate them. The worst in all people is very bad, but the German is the\ngreatest bully on the planet. The cruel Oriental races have a restraint\nwhich has grown in them through ages of culture; the German knows only\nthe restraint of the German law, he respects only the restraint of the\nGerman law.\n\nHe has no sense of right and wrong in the abstract, though he is often\nextremely sensitive as to what is right and wrong for him in his\nrelation to those near him, his kinsmen and fellow-citizens. But those\noutside the race-group are outside his code of honor, however polished\nhe may be.\n\nI am speaking now of the race, not of the few who have by long\nresidence abroad absorbed somewhat of world-brotherhood and the more\ndelicate sensibilities of international relations.\n\nAnd mark this also: The German can love as thoroughly as he can hate;\nbut he can love only his own, something which is an extension of\nhimself, a secondary ego, the _me_ in another form. A German\nmay love a foreign wife, if he can Germanize her. A German may love a\nforeign friend, if that friend does not stand in the way of something\nhe wants for himself.\n\nI am not referring to those sudden outpourings of emotion to which\nthose emotional people are subject. I am not referring to their surface\nkindliness, which is the overflow of emotion.\n\nAnd still I say, love these unlovable people, love them so much that\nthey will be detached from their race-centre and will flow out in\nmelting response to everything that is not German. The world can never\nreally soften the German shell by throwing stones against it. When they\nbreak down in this war, they will not be any more essentially lovable\nbecause they are weaker. Love them by trying to understand them.\n\nIt will take decades for the arrogant and self-exalting German to see\nthat there is anything outside that may be superior to what is inside\nhis shell.\n\nHe respects only might. He must be conquered by might. From his\nenforced respect of a superior might he may be led gradually to see\nthe superior right of that gentleness which does not use its might to\ncoerce him when further coercion is unnecessary.\n\nI have stood in German households since this war began, I have entered\ninto and for the time being have _become_ German men and German\nwomen, and I understand them and love them. I even admire them, for\ntheir devotion to their own is immense. Once let that strength go out\nin real brotherhood to all mankind, and these people would be truly\ngreat. Is it possible? All things are possible to the human soul, and\nthese people are very human.\n\nThe defect is in their vaunted education. They teach themselves that\nthey are the chosen people. When they learn that they are not the\nchosen people in war, the very force of the shock may upset the pillar\nof egotism that stands upright in the centre of the German soul. The\nworld should not let that pillar fall with a crash, but softly ease the\nblow--not too softly, lest mercy be mistaken for war-weariness.\n\nThe World-Mother has a hard and erring child. It has to be punished,\nbut not refused a seat at the family table.\n\nI have said these things to you because, if you do not shrink, I have\nthings to tell you in my next letter which will need fortitude for you\nto receive, fortitude and charity, whose other name is love.\n\n _March 24._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER VIII\n\n SPECTRES OF THE CONGO\n\n\nI HAVE been in Poland and I have been in Serbia; but now I want to\nwrite of Belgium and of karma,[1] race karma, karma old and new.\n\nWith and behind the invading Germans, urging them on to murder, pillage\nand destruction, rape and burning, were not only the devils from the\nouter vast, whose time for activity had come; but with and behind the\nGerman army was a horde of undeveloped and earth-bound spirits who had\nsuffered in the Congo. Karma, always karma!\n\nThe world knows something of what has been done in Belgium, something\nof what Germans have done there.\n\nI have seen men, women, and little children murdered in cold blood.\nI have witnessed the soul of a murdered man tearing at a soldier who\nwas violating the murdered man\u2019s wife. I have seen the soul of a\nmother wringing her hands as she would have wrung them on earth when\nher little daughter was being maltreated by brutes who were blind with\nmadness. An old man out here followed a soldier for days until he saw\nrevenge accomplished by means of a Belgian bayonet; then as the German\nsoul came out he grappled with it again, and the two were torn by each\nother, the soldier not knowing he had left the body and feeling that he\nwas at grips with an enemy still on earth.\n\nThere was much of what is called Voodoo in the Congo. Its practitioners\ndo not go to sleep for a long time. They go on and on in the invisible\nworld, making their evil preparations and weaving their spells. They\ngather round spilled blood, they absorb vitality from it, and that\nvitality they use to bring evil and death upon anything toward which\nthey direct their will.\n\nDid you fancy that will was weakened when man lays aside the brain?\nIt is weakened in the sense that there is less freedom of choice; but\nthere is tremendous will in following a choice already set up when the\nphysical base of the brain was attached to the will.\n\nBut now all the evil karma of Belgium is lived out, and she stands like\na new soul in the face of time.\n\nAnother race has taken up the load that she laid down. Will that too\nbe expended soon, or late? Germany has woven round herself a shirt of\nevil causes that will cling to her and chafe her flesh for generations.\n\u201cIt must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the\noffence cometh.\u201d\n\nThe karma of nations is known to the Masters and Adepts.\n\nThe karma of England! Have you ever thought about the karma of England?\nGranting that she has done much wrong, as all old nations have, yet\nshe has allowed herself to be used by the world-will. She, more than\nall the other old races, has been an instrument in the unifying of the\nraces. Did you fancy that the British Empire was a fortuitous concourse\nof atoms? Did you think the British Empire merely happened?\n\nAnd now the British Empire _may_ be used further. She may be used\nin Belgium. And I do not mean the mere presence of her army in Belgium.\n\nIt is said that the Masters, the world\u2019s teachers, hold back the awful\nkarma of the world. I am trying to do a little toward holding back the\nawful karma of Germany.\n\nShe has disgraced the human race in Belgium. Everything that has been\nbelieved about German outrages in Belgium is true except one thing.\nSo far as I know, and I have enquired of those who know more than I,\nGerman soldiers have not cut off the hands of living Belgian children.\nBut they have murdered women, and outraged women, and mocked and\ninsulted pregnant women, and maltreated the new-made mothers of babes\nthat they have murdered. They have burned men alive, and they have\nburied men still alive.\n\nI say that Germans have done these things. Should I say that the forces\nof evil, the beings of evil, the superhuman and the once-human forces\nof evil, have done these things, using as their instruments the forms\nof German soldiers from which they had thrust for the moment the moral\nsoul?\n\nTake it whichever way you please, for both ways are true. The men who\nravaged and destroyed Belgium were not all obsessed, save that evil\nmay be always an obsession.\n\nHelp to hold back the awful karma that Germany has made in Belgium.\n\n\u201cYe have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and\nhate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them\nthat curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that\ndespitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of\nyour Father who is in heaven.\u201d\n\n _March 27._\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 1: The law of ethical causation.]\n\n\n\n\n LETTER IX\n\n UNSEEN GUARDIANS\n\n\nIN the devastated region of Belgium--and most of Belgium is\ndevastated--there stands a little house unharmed and tranquil as before\nthe war. Round about it are ruined walls, standing black with smoke or\ngrey with the powder of shell-fire.\n\nTwo women live there, middle-aged women. They did not flee their home\nwhen the war-tide rushed over them. They were frightened--yes, but they\ndid not flee. They saw neighboring houses in flames, they heard the\ndetonation of shells bursting; but they remained between their four\nthin walls, and waited and prayed. Four gods they prayed to, God the\nFather and God the Son, and two others--their father and mother, who\nhad passed on some years before into the other world, their Belgian\nfather and their German mother!\n\nSo great was their faith that they believed they would be unharmed, and\nthey were not harmed. Incredible as it may seem, that little house\nstands there secure in the midst of desolation.\n\nLove is a protective force. The father and mother of those two\nmiddle-aged women had loved each other tenderly. Race was no barrier\nto their love. The German woman and the Belgian man had taught their\nchildren that Germany was their mother and Belgium was their father.\n\nTheir bones lie together in the village churchyard, and their souls\nkept watch when the armies passed over. They guarded the children they\nloved.\n\nDoes this seem an impossible story? I know it to be a fact. I have\nspoken with that father and mother, and I shall speak with them again.\nTheir faith is rare, and their love is rare, and their reward has been\nrare.\n\nIt is easier to guard a little house than to move a mountain, and it\nhas been said that faith like a grain of mustard-seed could move a\nmountain.\n\nThose two souls had not yet passed away from the neighborhood of the\nearth; they waited for their children. When the war-tide rolled over,\nthey stood guard at the doorstone of their home. The spirits of the\npeaceful dead do not like the sound of shells, but those two did not\nfly away. Had they been frightened from their vigil, the little house\nmight now be like its neighbors.\n\nAm I over-credulous? Do you remember my telling you one day years ago\nthat you were not credulous enough? I see that you remember. These\ntwo--the Belgian father and the German mother--were also credulous, as\nthe world uses the word, and their children were credulous, too. Had\nthe nations been equally credulous of the power of love, there would\nhave been no war; for there would have been no armies to make war.\n\nI am not preaching against armies. I am only preaching love and faith.\nWhen love and faith grow greater, armies will grow smaller, and war\nwill be at an end.\n\nI asked the Belgian father how he felt about the war, and he looked\ntoward his German wife; I asked the German mother how she felt about\nthe war, and she looked toward her Belgian husband. Neither would speak\nfor fear of wounding the other.\n\nHow should I feel now if my nation were at war, you wonder? But since\nthe eyes of my memory opened and I saw my past lives, I realize that I\nhave had so many nations, have fought in so many armies, have lain in\nthe lap of so many mothers of mine in so many lands, that my spirit is\nuprooted.\n\nI have joined the great White Brotherhood, to which all men are\nbrothers and all women sisters. It would be difficult for you to see\nwith my eyes. I watch and wait, like the parents of the two old maids\nin Belgium, and so far the house of my faith stands untouched by the\nfires of war.\n\nIn the great White Brotherhood there are members from many races, there\nare members from the races now at war. Do you fancy that they looked\naskance at one another when the world went mad? They did not look\naskance at one another. Each stood guard where he could do the most\ngood. Each sought to soften the blow for the brethren of his brother,\neach sought to soften the hearts of his own blood-brethren. But as\nthis war was written in the stars, the Teachers of the world could not\nprevent it when the hour struck.\n\nDo you know what it means to be a member of the great White\nBrotherhood? It means to work for the welfare of the human race, for\nthe good of the planet as a whole.\n\nAnd there is another thing I want to tell you. You have heard of a\nBlack Brotherhood. It is a misnomer. Brotherhood is never black. There\nis no Black _Brotherhood_. There are many Black Masters, for\nMastership, like a garment, may be either white or black. In this war\nthe black forces who have inspired hatred in men have worked for one\nend, and that very fact will weaken their power to do evil for a long\ntime, when the results of their present labors are over.\n\nDo you get my meaning? A combination of evil forces, in the very act\nof combining, weakens the individual power of its members; for evil is\nstrongest when individual.\n\nTwo who are full of love may work together with the power of four; but\ntwo who work together for evil have only the power of--shall I say one\nand a half? And one and a half against four! If you love power, use\npower for good and increase it.\n\nIt is because of the _multitude_ of elementary evil forces, all\nhurling their malice at the world, not because of their combination,\nthat this madness was made possible.\n\nHate is a disintegrating force. Those who hate after this war will\ndisintegrate themselves. Those who love after this war will grow\nstrong. France especially will grow strong, because there is more love\nthan hate in France. France loves so much that even her enemies do not\nhate her. It is not merely because she is not so brutally strong as her\ngreat enemy.\n\nLove your enemies. That is the surest way to overcome them.\n\n _March 29._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER X\n\n ONE DAY AS A THOUSAND YEARS\n\n\nAS I am writing about war, I wish to talk to those who have lost their\nloved ones in this war.\n\nYou who grieve for the untimely dead, have you not read that one day\nshall be as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day?\n\nWe must start on the basis of rebirth, whose other name is rhythm, and\nwhose course is immortality. Immortality presupposes no beginning and\nlooks forward to no end. The spirit always was and always will be. In\nthe life of the spirit one day is as a thousand years and a thousand\nyears are as one day.\n\nBirth is the morning of a new day, and death is the evening of that\nday, and the period between lives is the period of sleeping and\ndreaming. Or you may turn it the other way and say that life is a dream\nand death the awakening to reality. But the rhythm is sure.\n\nFalling asleep is a passing through the astral world, much as the soul\npasses through it after death. You who write for me, and a few others,\npass through it in full consciousness. Some day all men will pass\nthrough it consciously and will bring back the memory.\n\nYou who grieve for the dead, remember that a lifetime is but a day to\nthe immortal spirit. Often have you parted from a loved one for a day\nand felt no grief thereat. The loved one left home to perform a duty\nand you felt sure that the next day you would see him again. Can you\nnot feel that in the next day of the soul, the next lifetime (it is all\nthe same in eternity), you will greet your loved one again?\n\nFriends do not meet in every life unless they are very intimate. As\nyou do not see one friend or another oftener than once a week, so in\nthe greater days of the soul you may not meet all your friends every\nday. You part from one on Monday with a definite engagement to meet on\nFriday. Four days, four lifetimes, it is all the same in eternity.\n\nBut from some you only part for a few hours, from noon to sunset, and\nmeet again in the evening in the intimacy of home. Those who have left\nyou now at the midday of life will perhaps come home to you at the\nsunset; which is only another way of saying that they may meet you at\nthe end of this day of the soul, the end of this life, and be with you\nin the twilight period of the astral life and in the sweet dream of\nheaven beyond. Do not grieve. Love waits for its own.\n\nSome friends you may meet again two, four or seven lifetimes away; but\nthose who are really your intimates, your lovers, your own, you will\nmeet again at the sunset, or at the latest tomorrow--the next day of\nthe soul on earth.\n\nHow will you prepare for the meeting? Will you not work cheerfully\nall day, knowing that at dusk Love will come back to you? As sunset\napproaches, will you not robe yourself in the white garment of faith,\nthe evening garment, and watch for Love at the window? Love will come.\nCan you not in anticipation hear his footstep on the gravel? Can you\nnot hear the click of the lifted latch? Will you not go forward with a\nsmile to greet Love? Surely, one day shall be as a thousand years and a\nthousand years as one day.\n\nI took counsel with the soul of an English officer who died in leading\na charge. His death was quick and painless. A shot through the heart\nand he found himself--after a period of unconsciousness--still, as he\nsupposed, leading a charge.\n\nBut there was no enemy before him, nothing but the tranquil fields\nabove the tumult; for so great was his exaltation of spirit--he had\ndied with the thought of his Love in his heart--that he had gone up and\nup to the region where Love may have room.\n\nSeeing nothing before him he paused, looked round and saw me.\n\n\u201cBrother,\u201d I said, \u201cyou have left the war behind you.\u201d\n\nHe understood. Those who have lived for weeks in the tents of Death are\nnot slow in recognizing Death when he lifts the curtain.\n\n\u201cAnd what of the charge?\u201d he asked eagerly. \u201cWas the charge won?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d I replied, \u201cthe force of your spirit won it.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen all is well,\u201d was his answer.\n\n\u201cRest a little,\u201d I said. \u201cRest and talk with me.\u201d\n\n\u201cHave we met before?\u201d he asked. \u201cFor your face is familiar to me.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy face is familiar to many on the battlefields,\u201d I said.\n\n\u201cWhen did you come----out here?\u201d\n\n\u201cThree years ago.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen you can teach me much.\u201d\n\n\u201cPerhaps I can teach you something. What do you want to know?\u201d\n\n\u201cI would know how to comfort one to whom my death will bring great\ngrief.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere is she?\u201d I asked.\n\nHe named the place.\n\n\u201cThen come,\u201d I said, \u201cI will go with you.\u201d\n\nWe found a beautiful woman in a little room in England, a little room\nwhich contained a little bed. And in the bed was a boy four or five\nyears old. We could hear the voices of the mother and child as they\ntalked together.\n\n\u201cAnd when will father come home?\u201d the little one asked.\n\n\u201cI do not know,\u201d said the mother.\n\n\u201cFather _will_ come home, won\u2019t he? Are you sure that he will come\nhome?\u201d\n\n\u201cI pray that he comes home soon,\u201d was all the mother said.\n\nThe eyes of children, as they pass into the twilight world, the world\nbetween waking and sleeping, are sometimes very clear.\n\n\u201cWhy, father has come home!\u201d the child cried, and he stretched out his\narms to the father with a glad cry.\n\nAnd the mother knew and was very still.\n\nBut her grief was softened by knowing that he whom she loved had come\nhome and that her child had seen him. I think he will remain with her\nuntil she can join him here. The delay will not retard the progress of\nhis soul. Love is the fulfilling of the law. There is time in eternity\nfor love and the delays of love. In love a thousand years are as one\nday.\n\n _March 29._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XI\n\n MANY TONGUES\n\n\nLEARN languages. My work in this war has been hampered by my knowing so\nlittle of German.\n\nWith the souls of those long here I can hold converse by pure thought;\nbut the souls of the newly-come speak the language they spoke on earth\nand often that language is but a _patois_. That is one reason why\nI have had best success among the English armies.\n\nI can read the thoughts of the Germans and the French, but they cannot\nalways understand me. The father and mother of the two women in Belgium\nhad been so long out here that we could understand each other\u2019s\nthoughts.\n\nLearn languages. When you come to work in this world you may want them\neven more than on earth, for distances here are short as thought, and\none goes from place to place in the twinkling of an eye.\n\n _March 30._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XII\n\n THE BEAUTIFUL BEING\n\n\nTHE angel we call the Beautiful Being, who guided me on my journey\namong the planets, would like to insert here a few words on Love and\nHate. They seem to be an expression of the mortal and the Immortal\nSelf, in the early days of the war.\n\n\n LOVE AND HATE\n\n_One whom I loved made war on me, and the nations of the earth made\nwar on one another. The green fields were stained with blood and the\nhum of the harvest crickets was drowned in cries of pain and rage, as\nmen rushed on to wreak their hate upon their human kindred. My heart\nwas sadder than the skies of the London winter. No joy there seemed\nin all the earth; for love was dying and peace was dead, and men were\ngoing everywhere to death._ MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN\n_was written on the walls of the human temple_.\n\n_And I said to my heart_:\n\n\u201c_Where have we drifted in the midday of our life? And why do we wait\nfor the sunset? For love has failed, and the world has failed, and have\nwe not failed, too?_\u201d\n\n_Then as I sat gazing into the nothingness of my own faith, I heard a\nvoice that seemed to come from the centre of all things and the voice\nsaid_:\n\n\u201c_Take your pen and write, for to him who has lost everything the\ntreasures of the Self are opened._\n\n\u201c_I am that Self that you had forgotten when you looked outside for\nlove. I am the Self that the nations had forgotten when they went out\nto destroy one another. I am the One Self, and my house is in all these\nhearts that throb with hate and love. When they wound each other they\nwound me; when they doubt each other they doubt me; when they love each\nother they love me. There is no other way of realizing me save by love\nand hate and faith and doubt. For love and hate are two poles of the\none magnet, and doubt and faith are my twin-born children._\n\n\u201c_He who has never doubted all, knows not the meaning of faith; and\nhe who has never been hated, knows not the meaning of love._\n\n\u201c_When the heart is empty of joy I fill it with myself. When my own\ndestroy each other on earth they rush together in heaven. Freed from\nthe blindness of the body they see each other true._\n\n\u201c_Two soldiers went forth to war, and the bullet of each pierced the\nheart of the other. Their hate was hot as love. Then in the sudden\ndarkness of death they reached for each other\u2019s hand; their hate had\nfound its other pole and they melted together in love._\n\n\u201c_Two friends went forth to war against each other, and with\nevery wound they drew nearer together--the soul of each grieved for\nthe other\u2019s pain, and neither in death nor life can one escape the\nother._\n\n\u201c_Would you avoid a loved one, then never dare to hate him. The soul\nhas pity when the brain is pitiless; the faith of the soul may be\nstrongest when the mind is weak with doubt._\n\n\u201c_The soul of the brain that hates you keeps watch when the brain is\nstill, it wipes with its vapory hand the tear-drops from your eyes._\n\n\u201c_When you weep in dreams, know that your soul is weeping for the\ntears you have caused your enemy. When you wake with wet eyes, you are\npaying the debt of love._\n\n\u201c_Be kind to him who loves you, for love is a helpless waif; if you\ndrive it from the heart it can only wander alone._\n\n\u201c_Be kind to him who hates you, for his waif is wandering alone._\n\n\u201c_When you go to sleep, send love to the one who wounds you by day.\nIf you go to sleep in hate you will wake with wet eyes._\n\n\u201c_I am the go-between. I am the Self whose house is in every heart.\nI take messages in the darkness. I am too great to be proud. I run\nerrands for my own._\n\n\u201c_How well you have tried to hate I know by your heart\u2019s sadness.\nThat you have failed to hate is because your soul is sleepless._\n\n\u201c_I am the go-between and I keep my lantern lit._\u201d\n\n _April 1._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XIII\n\n THE BODY OF HUMANITY\n\n\nI HAVE said that as twenty of us stood in the palace at Potsdam and in\nthe Wilhelmstrasse, the greatest of the Teachers was not with us.\n\nYou do not know the name by which we know him, nor do you need to know.\nHe is one who has left so far behind him the personal limitations of\nlife as you know it that he can look upon that life somewhat as the\nPlanetary Logos may look upon it. He can look at the restless and\nwarring beings on earth as you would look at micro-organisms through a\nlens. Am\u0153ba, fat-cell, pus-cell, he sees them all as parts of the great\nWhole, and their wars do not make him partisan.\n\nThe assertions, the reiterations, the bombastic prayers of the German\nEmperor, who goes on the assumption that God must be on his side\nbecause it _is_ his side, do not move this Master even to smiles.\nAbsurdity and tragedy are one to him, except as they further or retard\nthe growth of the organism of Humanity.\n\nIf you get into your consciousness a _realization_, not a mere\nphilosophic theory, of the One and the many, you will understand that\nthe One is in all the many, whether some of them be your friends or\nyour enemies.\n\nAnother thing remember: To posit is to create. Posit and thus create\nbrotherhood. But do not posit it too violently, lest you climax your\nrhythm too soon and produce by reaction the opposite of brotherhood.[2]\n\nThe greatest of the Masters seemed to us to posit no new thing when the\nwar-cloud gathered.\n\nWe whose knowledge is not infinite tried to serve as physicians,\ntried to cool the fever that was burning the cells of the Great Man,\nHumanity. We may be said to have given him mental treatment, to have\nurged on the curative process.\n\nThe astral forces with which we struggled were like germs of disease in\nthe air. From the view-point of the great Master they were no more than\ninfusoria which you could see through a lens.\n\nAdjust your view to eternity as well as to time, if you would\nunderstand him and help him in his work. But do not regard your own\nwork as unimportant because it is in time, because from the greater\npoint of view you fancy that it may appear small.\n\nHow does a man become a Master save by doing his work as if the health\nof the whole planetary organism depended on it? The perfect health of\nthe organism does depend on the work of every cell.\n\nNow let me tell you why this war had to be. The time had come\nwhen humanity must realize brotherhood in preparation for the new\nrace that had to be born. Instead of that, there was greater and\ngreater separation in feeling, though the material discoveries and\norganizations of the last hundred years were making brotherhood\npossible in the material world.\n\nThe rhythm of separateness was climaxed by this war of separation.\nWithout it the brotherhood of man would have been retarded by man\u2019s\nrefusal to work emotionally with the law that had already been\ndemonstrated to him in the physical world.\n\nIn other words, the body had grown faster than the soul and the soul\nhad to suffer with the body; the soul had to be torn in order that it\nmight heal itself by its own power, the power of love.\n\nI spoke of not climaxing too violently the rhythm of brotherhood. That\napplies to all rhythmic waves. The Germans desired to be the ruling\nrace of the world. They posited their own superiority so violently that\nthey are producing the opposite of superiority. Posit with calmness.\n\nThey might have been the leaders in the new spirit of unity. They\nhave failed and have lost their opportunity. The mass of Germans in\nthe United States might have been a unifying force between the United\nStates and Germany. See what they are now!\n\nThe reason why Germany was not permitted by the Masters to have large\ncolonies of her own was so that her surplus population might scatter\nover the earth and mix with other races. The German blood needed\nmixing. Her efficiency in material ways might thus have leavened the\nworld.\n\nInstead, she became drunk with her own greatness. She climaxed the\nrhythm that might have carried her steadily forward. It is a karmic\nfailure she has made.\n\nThe races are like organs in the body of Humanity. If one race refuses\nto work with and for the body of Humanity as well as for itself, it\nbecomes diseased.\n\nIf Germany would even now turn to the Supreme Unity and worship the One\nof the System instead of her little racial god, she could recover the\nground she has lost, after a time of suffering and initiation. Will she\ndo it? That remains to be seen. Help with the Masters to hold back the\nbad karma of that race.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 2: I have been somewhat troubled by the unusual expression,\n\u201cclimax a rhythm.\u201d But as there are many rhythmic ripples in every\ngreat wave, and as the highest reach of a wave may be said to be\nits climax, I assume that \u201cX\u201d is using words with the same judicial\nprecision which he used on earth, and that the climax of a rhythmic\nwave may be called the climax of a rhythm.--_Editor._]\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XIV\n\n THE FOEMAN WITHIN\n\n\nYOU have something more to do than simply to write down what I say\nabout brotherhood. With selfless devotion you must help the world to\nrealize it, pointing out the way to individuals and aggregates of\nindividuals.\n\nUniversal Brotherhood! It has a pretty sound, and mouths have repeated\nit for the sake of its music, when the meaning of it was neither in the\nheart nor in the brain.\n\nUniversal Brotherhood is not only the brotherly relation between the\nunits of the Many, but Universal Brotherhood is also their unity,\nconscious and real, in the One Self. Universal Brotherhood is the\nreturn of the Many to the One, as well as their enjoyment of the\njourney itself.\n\nYou have repeated the old Hindoo word, formula, mantra, AUM, repeated\nit like a parrot; but if you had realized AUM I should not have to\npreach brotherhood to you, and by \u201cyou\u201d I mean all men and women who\nhave prattled of Universal Brotherhood.\n\nA-U-M--the One, the Many, and the Union between them: the Self, the\nNot-Self, and the Negation of separateness. AUM, the seed, the plant\nand the perfume.\n\nWhat do you fancy that you are in the world for?\n\nYou have heard of Mulaprakriti, you Theosophists: Mulaprakriti,\nroot-nature. You have heard of the three gunas, or qualities of\nMulaprakriti, satwa, rajas, tamas: _satwa_, light, being, peace;\n_rajas_, action, passion, assertion; _tamas_, darkness,\ninertia, denial.\n\nSome of you have also heard of Christ, Lucifer, Ahriman.--Satwa, rajas\nand tamas, again, under other names.\n\nYou Kabalists have heard of Neshamah, Ruach, Nephesh: aspiration,\nindividual intelligence, materiality.\n\nYou have all heard of Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva: the Preserver, the\nCreator, the Destroyer.--Yes, that is the proper order, for Vishnu\npreserves from kalpa to kalpa, and Brahma recreates.\n\nKrishna (Vishnu) says in the Bhagavat-Gita, \u201cI am the Self that is\nseated in the hearts of all beings.\u201d\n\nHe is the One _and_ the Many, for He is in the many and the many\nare in Him. You _cannot_ realize Krishna save as you realize Him\nas the Self that is seated in the hearts of all beings. You cannot\nrealize the Christ until you can see Him in the hearts of all beings.\n\nYes, you may struggle with one another and call it hate, or war; that\nis separateness.\n\nSeparateness is necessary as a stage of evolution, that the ego may\nrealize itself as distinct; but the time has come when the race should\nturn back toward its Source, to Unity, to the Atma that is the same in\neveryone.\n\nI have learned much since I last left you two years ago. On earth I did\nnot talk incessantly of Universal Brotherhood. I wanted to achieve a\n\u201cpeerless individuality.\u201d Well, I have achieved it. On my two years\u2019\njourney among the planets and elsewhere, I found the power I sought;\nbut I found something else--love, the greatest power of all.\n\nBrotherhood is love and that is why I preach brotherhood. You may\nacquire individuality by hating, but not a \u201cpeerless individuality.\u201d\n\nDo not be afraid of losing your identity. So long as you can love\nsomething other than yourself you will not lose your individuality. For\nto love something _other_ is to posit your individuality.\n\nTo love only your separate self is to lose your hold on individuality,\nfor you are only an individual in relation to other selves. Alone in\nthe universe, you would have to be nothing or everything, and you\ncannot be everything--not just yet, save as you are everything through\nunity with everything, and that is love.\n\nRebel as you will, by that very rebellion against others you assert\ntheir equality with you, you assert their co-existence, and behind\nco-existence is Unity, Krishna, \u201cthe Self that is seated in the hearts\nof all beings.\u201d\n\nDo not be shocked when I say that from our point of view this war seems\nvery childish, very ignorant.\n\nWar was noble a long time ago when mankind was on its way out and\nneeded to realize separateness; but in course of time war will become\nnot only unnecessary, but banal.\n\nI am not jesting with serious things. I know far better than you can\nknow how very serious this war is, for I have watched it on both planes.\n\nThe war between the forces of good and evil was not banal. _In the\nhuman heart_ that war will go on for a long time yet, aeons on\naeons; but the day has come when men should war with the evil _in\nthemselves_, and let other men war with the evil in themselves. The\nsword of Mars, the war-god, will not rust so long as the Mars in man\nwields it against the powers of darkness in himself.\n\nI have seen the powers of darkness in men exteriorized, have seen them\nin objective form, and I assure you they are foemen worthy of your\nsteel. Each of you has within a foeman worthy of his steel.\n\nEach man has also the Self, the divine, the Christ, the Krishna that is\nseated in the hearts of all beings.\n\n\nI want to tell you something which I saw with my own eyes.\n\nOn a battlefield in France, two soldiers killed each other with the\nbayonet. The devil in each escaped with the soul. They were not\nordinary men. I saw these two devils, these two \u201cdwellers on the\nthreshold,\u201d these two \u201cdesire-elementals,\u201d call them what you will. Do\nyou think they fell upon each other to destroy each other? Not at all.\nEach fell upon the soul it belonged to. They had no interest in each\nother; they had nothing to give or to take away from each other, these\ndevils, dwellers, elementals.\n\nDo you see what I mean?\n\nYour enemy is within you.\n\nThe one you fight outside is your brother. Love him with brotherly love\nand your devil will grow weaker as your angel grows stronger.\n\nYour angel is descended from the Atma, the Christ, the Krishna _in\nyou_. It is similar to the Atma, the Christ, the Krishna in your\nbrother.\n\nThe devils are all very individual. The angels are all very much alike,\nthough some are stronger than others and older in experience.\n\nSeek the Christ in yourself, that it may arise, with tidings of great\njoy unto all men.\n\nThat is what I wish to say to the world on this evening before Easter\nDay.\n\n _April 3._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XV\n\n LISTENING IN BRUSSELS\n\n\nNO, do not expect me to write essays. I am writing letters. Let me be\nas discursive as I please. But you will see at the end of my labors\nthat the building has a frame, and that all the parts are in place.\n\nHaving philosophized the last time, I will now tell you a story.\n\n\nWhen the German army passed through unresisting Brussels (three\ndays, if I remember rightly, it was passing through, a long, moving\ngrey-green river of men, on whose helmetted ripples the sunlight or the\nlamplight glittered), I stood for an hour unnoticed upon a balcony,\nreading the thoughts of man after man as he passed before my place.\n\nAs I have explained to you before, I have no difficulty in reading the\nthoughts of the Germans; it is only in trying to make them understand\nme that I often fail.\n\nThe river of men and the river of thoughts, each man a ripple, each\nthought a ripple!\n\nHere are a few ripples of thought which caught the light of my\nattention:\n\n\u201cWhat a beautiful city Brussels is!\u201d\n\n\u201cMy feet are tired. My shoes hurt me.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat tree yonder is like the one beside the door at home.\u201d\n\n\u201cMother will be making coffee at this hour.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat a pretty girl--the one with the bread in her basket!\u201d\n\n\u201cI wonder if Gretchen will talk much with Hans now I am gone.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat gate on the left is the one that Marie sent me on a picture\npostcard last year.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy feet are tired. My shoes hurt me.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo this is Brussels! I always wanted to see it.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy head aches.\u201d\n\n\u201cDeutschland \u00fcber Alles! Deutschland \u00fcber Alles!\u201d\n\n\u201cI wonder if the Lieutenant paid his tailor.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow warm it is!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is father doing now?\u201d\n\n\u201cI wish I had a glass of beer!\u201d\n\n\u201cI am glad we don\u2019t destroy Brussels!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is all this war about, anyway?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Fatherland! The Fatherland!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat will they give us for supper?\u201d\n\n\u201cI wonder where we are going?\u201d\n\n\u201cThis isn\u2019t so fine as the Unter dem Linden.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen we get to Paris I must see the Venus of Milo.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy head aches.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur baby has a tooth!\u201d\n\n\u201cWill it ever be supper-time!\u201d\n\nAnd so on and on and on, as the long grey-green river flowed through\nthe city of Brussels.\n\nAnd these were the men that in a little while would murder and rob and\nburn and rape, and murder and rob and burn! Many of them had done so\nalready--these tired men with their aimless, unwarlike thoughts, their\ncommonplace soldier thoughts, of home and food and aching feet and of\npostcards Marie sent last year and the hour for mother\u2019s coffee!\n\nWhat power transformed them into devils? What demon dehumanized them\ntill they forgot their weariness? Was it the raucous cry of the\nwar-trumpet? Was it the devil behind the devil who blew the trumpet?\nWas it the evil spirit of a nation, or merely the spirit of war?\n\nIt was all of these things.\n\nPerhaps when they began their marching they thought of glory and hate\nand life and death and honor; but they had been marching long and their\nthoughts had become simple as the thoughts of weary old men.\n\nWhat was it all about? What power was driving them on?\n\nSome of these men killed unresisting civilians, struck down helpless\nchildren, maltreated nuns and other virgins, drove old men and women\nbefore them as a shield against the fire of the opposing forces.\n\nWhat roused the devil in them? Your friend is right in saying that\nthe war-trumpet is an instrument that can rouse the demon that sleeps\nin the human breast. He says that the demonic forces outside can make\ntheir entry into our world and our personalities riding on the tones of\nthe trumpet-horn. He is right.\n\nHe says that it brings the element of fire into the soul. Profoundly\ntrue! Fire, the element of destruction, that purifies by destroying\nwhat cannot resist it. Fire in the soul and fire in the nerves and fire\nat the end of the rifle--and death by fire to all that gets in its way!\n\nI have listened for days to the ear-splitting noise by which Germany\nseeks to put hell into the hearts of her soldiers. My ears rang with it\nyesterday.\n\nWhy do you start? Have you not yet accustomed yourself to the thought\nthat I can go back and forth, from the hell of Europe to the purgatory\nof New York? Yes, the Germans in New York are in purgatory, for they\nknow that their cause is lost. Purgatory is for purgation. Let us hope\nthat it may accomplish its purpose in their hearts. And I do not say\nthis to be unkind, but rather as a blessing. I love the Germans, and\nall other races. So also do you--in your heart of hearts.\n\nYes, it was I who, through an easy instrument, directed you to the\nGerman doctor. I wanted you to see how good a German can be. There are\nmany such in that hell-racked nation.\n\nYou should understand that hell comes into a man--he does not go into\nhell. Have you not heard that man is the Microcosm of the Macrocosm?\nThose tired grey-green soldiers that I watched in their march through\nBrussels were each of them large enough to contain hell and heaven and\na world of spirits. All of them had contained heaven many a time, when\nlistening to the strains of their master-musicians. It was when the\nwar-trumpet sounded, and the war-hate and the war-lust awoke in them,\nthat they contained hell.\n\nMany a time have I clutched with my too-tenuous hands a German soldier\nwho was about to disgrace himself.\n\nOnce, at Namur, I kept a young man from doing something that would have\ndarkened his judgment of himself while his life lasted--and it lasted\nonly twenty-one days thereafter. He was a good boy; but the devil awoke\nin him as it awoke in others. It was because he was more sensitive than\nsome others that I could make him feel my restraining hands. He thought\nthey were the hands of his dead grandfather, who had left him only a\nyear before. What matter? He let his victim escape.\n\n(Yes, look up Namur on the map, if you wish to! You will find it in the\nright place. Your uncertainty as to Belgian geography does not trouble\nme; but your return to the world of your own thoughts has broken the\nthread of mine.)\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XVI\n\n THE SIXTH RACE\n\n\nHAVE you thought about the United States after this war? A new race is\nbeing prepared for in the United States. That is why you had to be born\nthere--you through whom I write. That is why I am trying to use you in\nmy work for Universal Brotherhood.\n\nNo, you need not remain in the United States. It is better that you\nshould continue to mingle with other races in their old habitations.\n\nThe Theosophical Society could not have been born anywhere else.\nSpiritualism could not have been born anywhere else. In the United\nStates is a readiness for new things, a reaching out for the untried, a\nwelcome for things because they are new.\n\nOf course this tendency may be and is abused. Almost any faker can find\nfollowers in the United States; but without that hospitable spirit\ntowards the New, the great new race could not come into existence there.\n\nThis race is not made of new souls, but of the oldest and most\nexperienced souls, experienced in other lives of the past. The\ningenuousness and the childlike quality of Americans are the results of\nspiritual maturity. The race, as a race, is in its youth; but the souls\nare old as time.\n\nAfter they have taken a much needed rest, many or most of the souls\nthat go out by death in this war will find rebirth in the United\nStates. Oh, that land will be a very wonderful place in seventy-five or\na hundred years!\n\nYou will not be here then, unless you discover the fountain of immortal\nyouth, or unless you come back soon, renouncing the rest in heaven.\n\nPonce de Leon was inspired when he sought the fountain in the New\nWorld. It is there if anywhere; but Australia and Russia will run you a\nkeen race for the future.\n\nNo, I shall not tell you about the Seventh Race. It will come in good\ntime; but now I want to talk to you about the Sixth, one of whose\npioneers you are.\n\nDo not cut this out of my book because an enemy once said that you were\negotistical. Our enemies always see and hate their own qualities in\nus. Develop some quality an enemy has not, and he (or she) will love\nyou for it. The horseman is not jealous of the musician in his quality\nas musician. It is the musician who is jealous of the musician, the\negotist who sees and hates another\u2019s egotism. If Germany were a weak\nnation she could not so hate England for her greater power.\n\nWhen the Sixth Race is fully incarnate, all men and women of real\ndevelopment will be able to see in the astral world, and to hear\nunspoken words, and to read the thoughts of others. Of course there\nwill be people of all grades of development in that new race. Equality\nof development is a pretty dream, you Socialists. Have you not also\nyour superior ones, your leaders? The less developed souls who come\ninto incarnation with the Sixth Race are those who have earned in the\npast the right to be open to the quickening influences of that race.\nHow have they earned that right? By their willingness to change and to\ngrow.\n\nGo out on the hillside and watch the growing things. Take a leaf from\nthe book of Nature.\n\nYou wonder about the future of England. Old England is provided for.\nHas she not given birth to the civilization you enjoy? Other races were\npresent, of course; but language tells the story.\n\nAs I said before, England has been an instrument in the hands of these\nGreat Ones who wished to make possible the fraternity of races. She has\ncarried the torch round the world. She has tied continents together,\nand woven the chain which will bind men to each other in days that are\nto come. Honor her, for she deserves honor.\n\nHonor all nations, as aggregates of souls, your brother-souls; but\nhonor most those nations that have worked with the Law and not against\nit.\n\nThose who aspired to see Germany the cradle of the new race should\nhave made less noise in the birth-chamber. They have scared the angel\nvisitor away.\n\nThere are four races in Europe that are cruel races. They cannot rock\nthe cradle of the divine infant. They would not remove the pin that\nstuck in its back, lest if it did not suffer and cry its lungs would\nlack air. I need not name these races.\n\nThe Sixth Race is a sensitive infant and learns more through love than\nthrough discipline. The Sixth Race will apply the discipline to itself\nwhen it feels the need of it. Its schoolmaster will be curiosity, and\nits play will be the sciences and arts of peace. Its cradle-song will\nbe a chant of brotherhood. No, it could not be rocked in a German\ncradle; but many a German-American will help to rock it. They make\nlovely cradle-songs, the Germans, when they forget the superiority\nof being grown-ups and go back to the fancies of childhood, the\nmyth-making fancies.\n\nWe want to see more and more Frenchmen in the United States, for France\nhas more to teach the new race than has any other nation--France, the\ninspired prophet, and most of all France the critic. Americans are not\ncritical enough, not analytical enough, not subtle enough. America\nneeds France, and the men and women of France. You have heard the old\nsaying, \u201cEvery man has two countries, his own and France.\u201d I may be\nmisquoting, but the idea is there.\n\nYou wonder how anyone born to the glory and charm of France should ever\ncome to the New World? But many will come, and more will follow, both\nby the path of the ocean and by the path of rebirth. You came that way\nyourself, if you but knew it.\n\nRecover the memory of past births, you pioneers of the Sixth Race! You\ncan do it. It is part of the heritage of that race.\n\nAmerica, the \u201cmelting-pot\u201d of nations! You were not made to rule an\noutside empire. When the time comes make over the Philippine Islands\nto a nation that can be trusted with them. Your empire is within your\nown body, you race of a score of races, you inheritor of a score of\nfathers, you mother of the one new race!\n\nIncrease your army and navy so long as you are nervous. Put\nlightning-rods on your house and burglar-alarms on the doors and\nwindows. Feel secure. Then dream about brotherhood--when you can trust\nin it.\n\nSit by the fire of your own coal dug from the ground by Dutchmen, as it\nburns in a chimney of your own bricks made by the hands of Irishmen,\nread your own newspaper printed in the language of Englishmen, by the\nlight of your own lamp made by a German, on your own hearth-rug made\nby a Turk or an Armenian, enjoy the feel of your own muscles trained\nby a Swede, in your own linen washed by a Chinaman, listen to your\ndaughter playing on your own piano the music of a Russian, an Italian,\na Pole or a Frenchman, see all over your own room things made by the\nsons of a dozen other races, your neighbors, your fellow-citizens, your\nfellow-Americans, then tell me whether you dare _not_ to believe\nin Universal Brotherhood, and in the new race, the synthesis of all\nraces!\n\n _April 8._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XVII\n\n AN AMERICAN ON GUARD\n\n\nI WANT to speak more of France, and of what she can do for America, the\nland of the coming new race.\n\nI have spoken before of her love, which is so great that even her\nenemies cannot hate her. I have praised her critical genius, which\nanalyses all things and compares one with another. But now I want to\nspeak of her charm and her courtesy.\n\nYou have said yourself that good-manners are the imitation of\nkind-heartedness. To imitate is to emulate. A race that has charming\nmanners has a heart. A race that is brusque needs to cultivate heart.\n\nEmploy French teachers in your schools, you Americans. A French teacher\nor a French mother tells her children not to do a certain thing because\nit is not pretty, another word for charming, for kind-hearted. If you\nimitate kind-heartedness in this way, perhaps you will some day feel\nit, you American children.\n\nBy setting up the standard of beauty in deportment you need have no\nfear of forgetting the ethical. You all drank Puritan ethics with your\nmother\u2019s milk; there is no danger that those precepts will be lost if\nyou practise charm a little by way of variety.\n\nEvery face in France was once a smiling face. It was not so this\nafternoon when I passed through France on my way to you. But the faces\nare still brave, because it is not pretty to make a parade of sorrow. I\nknow the excess of French mourning-apparel might be called a parade of\nsorrow, but the black is worn as a mark of respect for all the dead of\nFrance.\n\nTaste! There is a race which has it. And in advising America to learn\nfrom the French, I am naturally selecting the good qualities of that\nnation. We all have faults of our own.\n\nThe taste of the French in the United States at this time! Do they\nprint journals in English attacking their enemy? Do they support a\nlobby in Washington and a press-bureau in New York? If so I have not\nheard of them, and we hear of most things out here--we who keep our\nears to the ground. If they grieve for their stricken country, they\ndo not drop their tears on America\u2019s freshly ironed shirt-bosom. If\nthey hate their enemy, they hate him with a quiet, well-bred hate. If\nFrance wins a victory in the field, they do not bluster about it. If\nFrance loses in the field, they do not call their enemy a rattlesnake\nor some other kind of reptile. It would not be pretty. It might not be\nunethical, but it would be bad taste.\n\nAmericans bluster too much. I said that when I was myself an American,\nbefore I was uprooted and became a citizen of the world invisible and\nuniversal, and I have not changed my mind by association with angels,\nadepts and masters. They never bluster, but the devils often do.\n\nIn advising America to learn from France those things in which France\nis supreme, I am not depreciating other races. Each nation can learn\nsomething from every other nation. The Chinese and the Japanese have\npoints where they rise above their neighbors. So have the Americans.\n\nThis war has brought out the dominant traits in all the warring\npeoples, and their complementary traits. Have you ever thought of\nthe \u201cturbaned Turk\u201d (or, to be less Shakespearean, the fezzed Turk)\nas being gullible? Treacherous races are always gullible, as cruel\nraces are apt to be sentimental--in all that touches themselves.\n\u201cFree America\u201d must beware of too many laws. England, too conscious\nof her virtue, will one day yield to temptation. Germany, \u201cover all,\u201d\nhas got the whole world on top of her. Italy, the excitable, is now\ndeliberating to a degree that would be dangerous for any other land.\n\u201cNeutral America\u201d is so unneutral that her right hand threatens her\nleft, and both the whole body.\n\nDo not be impatient with President Wilson. He is dealing with the\nproblems of the present war as if they were dated 500 B.C., and the\nlong view is apt to be the clear view. The professor in him is safer\nthan the politician in him. He is not happy just now. Why? Oh, that is\nan affair of State, and I am writing for publication! I know so many\nsecrets that I am discreet as the family doctor.\n\nBut there is an \u201cAmerican on guard to-night.\u201d Who is he? Old Abraham\nLincoln, who renounced heaven that he might watch over the land he\nlived and died for.\n\nNo, I shall not tell you any more about him. There is something sacred\nin a soul\u2019s renouncing rest. He will not go too far away _until\nAmerica passes through her next great trial_. When will that be? As\nthe Beautiful Being says, \u201cNay, Child, you ask too much.\u201d\n\nAnd still you are eager to know about Abraham Lincoln! I was eager to\nknow about him myself a few short years ago; but I did not ask too many\nquestions. It would not have been pretty, as the French mothers say.\n\n _April 8._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XVIII\n\n A MASTER OF COMPASSION\n\n\nIN my former book I reminded you that your friends who had passed\ninto the astral world did not know everything; that though their\nsight was longer than before and their eyes less clouded by matter,\nthey yet could not always prophesy as glibly as fortune-tellers--or\nat least that they were wiser not to attempt it. Now I have in mind\nan illustration of that very point, only the subjects are much more\nexalted than the ordinary dwellers on the astral plane.\n\nThere is, for instance, not perfect unanimity in our minds as to all\nthe details of the end of this war. There are two of us who often\ndiscuss ways and means, who, while desiring the same result of peace,\nhave slightly varying views as to the best possible way to bring that\nresult to pass.\n\nOne of our Brothers, who is still occupying his physical body most of\nthe time, has a great desire to soften so far as possible the blow\nthat is to fall upon one of the nations in this war. We all want to\nsoften so far as possible the blow for that nation; but he has in his\nmind a plan which would, if put into effect, very materially soften it.\nHe knows that he could perhaps bring it about in the way he wishes; yet\nhe is far too wise to force the issue. He will not force the issue. He\ntries softly to inspire those who have it in their power to suggest the\nbeginnings of peace according to his ideas. We do nothing to deflect\nthe current of his loving thoughts, for he is the only one among\nus--and by us I mean the Brothers of a certain development--he is the\nonly one among us who has a greater tenderness for one race than for\nall the others. He is not so old as some of us, but he is one of the\ngreatest.\n\nHe may be able to do what he wishes, but I personally am not sure. In\none way he is wiser than I am; but my judgment is not at all influenced\nby tenderness for my own native land, which is not yet directly\nconcerned, and so I may be a safer judge than he.\n\nDo not take this as an admission of weakness in my Brother. Love is not\na weakness.\n\nThis Brother wrote a prediction through the hand of a pupil of his not\nlong ago. Perhaps it will be verified. Nothing will be thrown by any of\nus in the way of its verification. In fact, if it is the best way it\nwill have the support of all.\n\nEven a Master does not know everything, though to the blind eyes of\nlesser men he seems to know everything. And a Master is too wise to\nattempt to force his individual will upon the world. The black magician\nis willing to bring things to pass by the power of his will, and often\nhe can do it; but he does not always count on the reaction. The White\nMaster always counts on the reaction. He works _with_ the Law.\n\nThere is arising now in America a school of magic, for it is a form\nof magic that they practise, and the teachers of this school instruct\ntheir followers how to bring events to pass, how to demonstrate in\nthe material world the material desires of their hearts. They can do\nit, the strong ones can, if their desires are not against the great\nstream of desire that carries the race forward. But often these\nmaterial desires are not in strict accord with the karma of the person\ndesiring; that is, the balance of karma being worked out now may be\nso violently drawn upon in one direction, that for the following life\nthere will be left only a lot of unhappy karma, weak karma, which has\nnot been wisely distributed over that time in which they have been\noperating with this new plaything, this magic power which they are\nusing to make their present lives one glad sweet song.\n\nThe way to get what you want is to will what the great Law decides.\nThat is what the Masters do. And I am not denying the greatness of my\nBrother whom I mentioned a few pages back. He wills the will of the\ngreat Law, the same as all of us do; and if his tenderness for his\nnative land has inspired him to devise a plan which seems in harmony\nwith the great Law, he would not put the plan into effect if he could,\nshould he realize that it was not in accordance with that law.\n\nThere is always danger for the man who is not a Master in pitting his\njudgment against the law of karma. If a poor man wants to be rich, and\nif he wills hard enough, he can become rich; but he may miss by the way\nother things that his soul needs far more than it needs riches.\n\nOne of the greatest dangers that face America in the future is the\ndanger of black magic. Among a hundred men or women who take up New\nThought, Christian Science, ceremonial magic, and certain philosophies\nwith even loftier verbal aims, there may be _one_ whose desire is\nperfectly pure and unselfish.\n\nThere is great power in America. The untrodden hills and mountains\nare full of fresh new forces that man may draw upon. Also the astral\nworld above America--that layer of the astral which lies immediately\noutside the physical continent, as the aura of man extends beyond his\nbody--that layer of the astral world above America is full of forces,\nelemental and astral forces, which can be used consciously by those who\nknow how to use them, and which are used unconsciously by those whose\npersonal desires are so strong that the more or less impersonal forces\nare obliged to follow them--swung into line by the power of desire or\nwill.\n\nGreat danger lies that way for those who use such forces for evil, and\nbetween selfish desire and evil the veil is very thin.\n\nThere are seeking incarnation in this new race many of those whose\nmagical work along dark lines was interrupted in the old days of\nAtlantis. Yes, that story of Atlantis is true. Many of these souls are\nnow coming in, some here and some in other countries; but their main\ncourse is in the direction of the New World. More and more the forces\nof magic will be used in the New World. It is for you and for others\nwho know that magic used for selfish purposes is always black magic, to\nwarn those who are too much fascinated by the idea that they can be the\nmakers of their own fortunes at the expense of others.\n\nThis warning is much needed. And I want to say to those whose only\ndesire for occult knowledge is that they may use it for their own\nselfish ends, that if they stand in the way of the Law that works for\nunselfishness in the new race, _they will be destroyed again_ as\nthey were destroyed in ancient Atlantis. And I do not mean that their\nsouls will be destroyed, but that their lives will be cut short and\ntheir influence for evil nullified.\n\nDo not be shocked when I tell you that there have been working in\nEurope during and before the present war \u201cartificial elementals\u201d that\nwere created in the time of Atlantis. Those beings, for they have a\nforce and a pseudo-individuality, have been used in this war by those\n(now reincarnated) who created them ages ago. They have drifted to\ntheir creators by the power of attraction.\n\nOne such creature was destroyed last July, and I assisted in its\ndestruction.\n\n\nAt the time of the birth of a new race, will has great dynamics. Use\nyour will _with_ the Law, not against it.\n\nDo you realize, you who put your desires above all things, that each of\nyou is but a drop in the stream of souls? The drop that would isolate\nitself from the stream may be sucked up by the sun in the form of vapor\nand wait a long time before entering the stream again.\n\nNow do not take any of this as applying to my Brother who wants to\nsoften the blow for his native land. I want to soften the future of my\nnative land, and that is why I am writing about the new race that is\ngoing to be born in America. But if I should learn, through counsel\nwith my Brothers or through individual inspiration, that it was best\nthat the new race should be born elsewhere, I would work with the same\ndevotion to bring it into being in that other place. And so would my\nBrother. We who work with the Law put the welfare of the human race\nabove our own individual loves. All races are one race--the human\nrace--and we work together as one.\n\n _April 10._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XIX\n\n THE ROSE-VEILED STRANGER\n\n\nONE day the angel whom we call the Beautiful Being came to me leading\nanother angel by the hand. Long association with this extraordinary\nbeing has taught me never to be surprised by anything it does. I accept\nits vagaries as expressions of a state of consciousness above and\nbeyond my own, and much that I have learned during the last three years\nI owe to its whimsical but tender friendship for me.\n\nAs I explained in my former writing, the Beautiful Being--whom we call\nan angel for want of a better term--has never shared the physical life\nof earth. It is a being of another evolution than the human, and for\nthat reason its views of human life are uniquely valuable.\n\nIt smiled as it came to me, leading by the hand another similar to\nitself but far less like mankind.\n\nIntroductions in the celestial regions are often very unconventional;\nbut the Beautiful Being, who has observed the life of men, sometimes\namuses me by delicious mimicry of the ways of mortals.\n\n\u201cRose-veiled one,\u201d it now said to its angelic companion, \u201cpermit me\nto present to you my friend \u2018X\u2019, a Judge recently arrived from the\nplanet Earth, who will consent I am sure to act as your cicerone over a\nsection of territory where history is in the making. Ask him anything\nyou will and he will answer you--if he can. He is still unlearned in\nthe language of your distant star; but he can converse in thoughts with\nyou whose coarsest vesture is a body of thought.\u201d\n\nI expressed my pleasure at meeting the stranger, and asked if I should\nshow it a battlefield.\n\n\u201cI do not understand the idea--battlefield,\u201d it answered; \u201cbut I should\nlike to see it.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou will understand far less when you have seen it,\u201d smiled the\nBeautiful Being.\n\nIt chanced that day that the opposing forces in France and Belgium were\nunusually active in the beginning of the Spring campaign, and I led my\ntwo friends to a point where they could watch the combat.\n\n\u201cWhat are those beings down there sending back and forth?\u201d asked the\nrose-veiled stranger.\n\n\u201cThose objects are known as shells,\u201d I replied.\n\n\u201cShells?\u201d the stranger returned in bewilderment.\n\nThe Beautiful Being answered for me.\n\n\u201cShells are elaborately convoluted houses in which our brothers of the\ngreat deep live and disport themselves.\u201d\n\nThe look of bewilderment increased on the face of the stranger.\n\n\u201cMy friend forgets,\u201d I said, \u201cthat you know not the language of earth,\nwhere a word, an arbitrary symbol for an idea, may stand for two ideas\nvery dissimilar.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat are those objects that the beings down there are sending back and\nforth?\u201d the stranger repeated.\n\nI have to translate its form of speech into ordinary English to make it\nintelligible. Literally, its communication would stand like this: \u201c?\nObjects beings sending reciprocally?\u201d\n\nFrom my long association with angels, both those with astral bodies\nand those without, such a form of speech is intelligible to me; and\nI answered, translating my cumbrous native idiom into the simpler\nlanguage of ideas:\n\n\u201cThe objects that are hurled back and forth between those beings on the\nplain below us are explosive shells, with a marvelous power to shatter\nthe forms of other objects and to scatter them in all directions.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs it a form of play?\u201d asked the rose-veiled stranger.\n\n\u201cIt is not,\u201d I answered. \u201cIt is war.\u201d\n\n\u201cWar?\u201d\n\nAll the horror that in my mind is associated with the word war was\nconveyed by my thought to the mind of the angelic visitor, and its rosy\nveil grew pale with pain.\n\n\u201cWhat is this strange emotion that I feel?\u201d it asked. \u201cTruly, were it\nnot for your presence here, my friends, I should desire to go away.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe emotion that you feel,\u201d I said, \u201cis a sympathetic reflection of\nthe emotions of war.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what is war?\u201d\n\n\u201cA horrible passion felt mutually and indulged by two opposing\naggregates of souls, by which they are enabled to overcome their\nnatural pity and to destroy each other\u2019s bodies in vast numbers.\u201d\n\nThe veil of the stranger grew almost white.\n\n\u201cAnd does God permit this horror?\u201d it asked.\n\n\u201cHe permits it on the planet Earth.\u201d\n\nNow the word God is not an adequate translation of the idea\nexpressed in the angel\u2019s question, but let it stand. The real idea\nis untranslatable by any one word in any language of earth. It was a\ncomposite of Love and Time and Purpose, raised to the highest power, an\nidea for which I can find no other word than God.\n\n\u201cEarth is a strange star!\u201d the angel said.\n\n\u201cThe inhabitants of this world have a common saying to that effect,\u201d\nI answered. \u201cIt is a fragment of race wisdom, handed down from their\nremote ancestors, who, when they first tried to adjust their celestial\nconsciousness to the baffling conditions of this star on which they had\nbeen placed for their education, observed to one another, \u2018This is a\nstrange world.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd are they obliged to perpetrate this horror before us by the\nconditions of this planet?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen why do they do it?\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom force of habit.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen was it ever necessary?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn far away times,\u201d I said, \u201cmen were more isolated than at present,\nthere were fewer of them in incarnation, and a brilliant archangel\nwho had their training in charge taught them to develop courage and\nresource, and to accentuate their egos, by struggling with each other,\ntwo by two.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut there are millions of beings down there!\u201d the angel exclaimed.\n\u201cAnd I see bodies fall by thousands!\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is what they call a great victory,\u201d I said, \u201cand one of their\ncommanders gives to those who have slaughtered a vast number a little\niron cross.\u201d\n\n\u201cAn iron cross? Why iron?\u201d\n\n\u201cIron is the metal of Mars,\u201d I said, \u201cMars, their war-god.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd why a cross?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is the symbol of their Christ.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe one who died down here to make men love one another?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe same,\u201d I admitted.\n\n\u201cTruly, I agree with the remote ancestors of these people, from whom\nthey have inherited the saying, \u2018This is a strange world.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cWould you like to approach nearer?\u201d I asked.\n\nThe stranger hesitated, then said, with a patient smile:\n\n\u201cMy friend,\u201d glancing at the Beautiful Being, \u201cwishes me to learn\nsomething of this star. I will approach nearer.\u201d\n\nWe descended to perhaps a hundred feet above the lane which separated\nthe enemies.\n\n\u201cLook!\u201d exclaimed the stranger. \u201cThe souls are leaving their bodies! Is\nthat the purpose of this business, to free souls from bondage?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot directly,\u201d I answered. \u201cEach would like to hold the other in\nbondage; but being unable to do that to any great extent, they take the\nopposite way.\u201d\n\nThe stranger looked more confused.\n\n\u201cMy friend,\u201d explained the Beautiful Being to me, \u201ccame from a region\nwhere the Law of Opposites does not apply.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou have never taken me there in our wanderings!\u201d I exclaimed.\n\n\u201cNo, you are so attached to the Law of Opposites.\u201d\n\nThis was an old jest between me and the Beautiful Being.\n\n\u201cLook!\u201d the stranger interrupted me. \u201cThere is a soul coming toward us\nnow.\u201d\n\nI went forward to greet the newcomer. He was a German officer.\n\n\u201cWelcome,\u201d I said, but he seemed not to understand me. The face of his\nastral body was contorted, as if he had died in pain.\n\nNow the Beautiful Being seems to know all the languages of earth;\nand though the purity of its nature is such that few on earth can\nunderstand it, yet when a soul leaves its body it can understand the\nspeech of the Beautiful Being if there is anything in its nature that\nresponds to the higher vibration which makes the life of that angel so\nintense and wonderful.\n\n\u201cWelcome,\u201d said the Beautiful Being to the soul, in the accents of his\nnative land.\n\n\u201cWhere am I?\u201d asked the bewildered soul.\n\n\u201cYou are in the region above the world,\u201d the Beautiful Being answered.\n\n\u201cYou mean----\u201d\n\n\u201cI mean that your name will be in the list of the dead.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen it has come!\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut I always feared death.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou see it is nothing to fear.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere is the Kaiser?\u201d\n\n\u201cAt his headquarters.\u201d\n\n\u201cCan I not report to him?\u201d\n\n\u201cIf you wish.\u201d\n\nWe moved farther east--slowly, for the newly freed soul had not yet\nlearned that distance is nothing.\n\nWe found the War-Lord seated beside a table looking at a map. His face\nwas drawn and haggard.\n\n\u201cThere,\u201d I said to the stranger, \u201cis the man who is believed, by the\nwhole world outside his own country, to have caused this vast war.\u201d\n\nThe stranger (and also the soul) approached and read the thoughts in\nthe brain of the War-Lord. I give them as they were, disconnected,\ntragic in their import:\n\n\u201cThe slaughter of our forces! God punish England! I am the Lord\u2019s\nchosen! I cannot make a mistake! My generals have blundered. I will\ndegrade--(the name of our newly-arrived charge). This defeat is his\nfault. I ordered him to take those trenches. He has lost our own\ninstead. I cannot make a mistake! I am the Lord\u2019s chosen!\u201d\n\nThe Beautiful Being turned to the soul who had been a General.\n\n\u201cDo you wish to report yourself to the Kaiser?\u201d\n\nThe eyes he turned to us were sad.\n\n\u201cI will not trouble the Kaiser,\u201d he said.\n\n\nA silence had fallen between us. After a little, the Beautiful Being\nturned to the General again, and its face was soft with pity.\n\n\u201cCan I not do something for you?\u201d it asked.\n\n\u201cWill you take me to my mother, who died of grief for my only brother\u2019s\ndeath, in the early days of the war? I am very tired. I want to see my\nold mother.\u201d\n\nThe eyes of the rose-veiled stranger were luminous with wonder.\n\n\u201cWhy, there is even love in this strange star!\u201d it said.\n\n _April 11._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XX\n\n ABOVE THE BATTLEFIELDS\n\n\nPICTURE to yourself a battlefield, a long-stretching irregular double\nline of men and guns and horses and all the paraphernalia of war.\n\nIn the old days on earth I once gave some study to the theory and\npractice of war, but that labor had little value in preparing me to\nstudy this war. Not only did it take for granted conditions that no\nlonger exist, but my point of observation then was an imaginary station\non one side or the other of an imaginary field; now I am really here,\nthere and everywhere. I read the thoughts of the commanders on both\nsides, I am with the men in the trenches sometimes half-buried in\nmud and water, I am riding with the cavalry, I go forward with the\nguns of the artillery, I go out and up with the escaping spirits of\nthe dead--go with them into the hell of confusion that almost always\nswallows them for a time after they are violently thrust from their\nbodies.\n\nTruly, \u201cWar is hell!\u201d Have no glorious delusions to the contrary, you\nwho dwell in the haunts of peace and babble of what you know not.\n\nThe horrors do not end when the guns cease firing. The dark and silent\nnight of rain is full of souls in bewilderment and torment. Often one\nwill grope his way hither and thither, seeking to find a trench-mate\nto whom he had become attached in the _camaraderie_ of war--that\nsweet flower which grows upon an ugly stem. Often they live over and\nover again the rage and madness of the attack; they plunge an imaginary\nbayonet into the form of an imaginary foe; or, if a mass of them are\ntogether, and they generally are, they strike recklessly at anything\nbefore them, conscious always of an _opposing_ force.\n\nThe General of whom I wrote in my last letter was a man of marked\nspiritual development; he soon broke away from the entanglements of\nmatter; he was a devotee to whom his country was a god and his Emperor\na hero to be followed with aspiration. But most men who die on the\nbattlefields are common soldiers who fight because it is the will\nof the mass behind them. They generally go out into darkness for a\ntime, and most of them wander in darkness and bewilderment for varying\nperiods.\n\nSome, on the contrary, are vividly conscious almost from the hour of\ndeath. These may attack the men of the opposing army while they sleep.\nThe dreams of the battlefields are terrible in their intensity.\n\nSometimes again, for in the general confusion distinctions may be\nquite lost, souls that had believed themselves enemies cling together\nin the tragic yearning of the dark that separates the worlds of the\n\u201cinvisible.\u201d In their great need they do not know their former friends\nfrom their former enemies. Another pale flower that grows from the ugly\nstem of war!\n\nThe astral forms of men of low development are often found here in\nshocking distortion, their consciousness only a glimmer, and with\nno power of feeling anything but pain. No wonder the dreams of the\nunselfish lovers of humanity are full of horror during these dark\nnights of the world, for there are many noncombatants in all lands\nwhose hours of sleep are given to a devoted labor for the souls that\nneed help so horribly. There is one man whom you know who bears at this\ntime a burden almost superhuman, and speaks of it to no one.\n\nIt is needless for me to say how you yourself spent the nights of many\nmonths, and when we bade you cease that labor it was only that you\nmight have more strength for the labor of writing these pages at my\ndictation. A soul still held in the flesh cannot work all day and all\nnight. That is burning the astral candle at both ends.\n\nWhen you return to the countries now devastated by war, some of your\nfriends will relate to you experiences similar to your own during these\nterrible months. They who can be used are called upon when the need is\ngreatest, and the need is immense at this time.\n\nRealize that those souls in the lower regions of the astral world are\nactually in space near the ground of the physical planet. Those who\nhang over the battlefields where they met their fate are still thrilled\nor horrified by the noise of the battle horns, they can still hear the\nshriek of shells and feel the shattering force of the explosions. Day\nin, day out these unfortunate earth-bound ones live over and over again\nthe emotions of war, night after night they dread the morning when the\nsounds will begin again. They cannot get away. They are not free merely\nbecause their bodies are buried under a few feet of earth, or worse\nstill left unburied.\n\nI advise you to avoid for some years at least the actual scenes of\nthese battles. You can go to Switzerland or to the more southern\nregions of France, but do not stay long in Northern France or Belgium,\nor in any other place that may be thus affected.\n\nThe thought world of England is just now troubled, but the layer of\nastral matter immediately above the earth is not full of the awful\nemanations of death. Astral forms go there from the more terrible\nregion, but in order to go they must have themselves broken away from\nthe immediate scene of their worst suffering.\n\nIt is easier to protect oneself from sad thought-forms than from the\ndistracted astral entities and the \u201cboiling\u201d astral matter that lie\nabove those battlefields.\n\nWhy, even the field of Waterloo before this war was not a pleasant\nplace to spend the night. After a lapse of time you may briefly visit\nthe scenes of these recent battles, for the sake of the practical\nexperience; but do not go there just yet. The best place in Europe for\na long period will be the mountains of Switzerland. You should spend\nmuch time there.\n\nDo you remember telling me how, when a child, you used to see the forms\nof American Indians on the hills and in the valleys of your native\nState? They were those who many years before had walked those hills and\nvalleys in the sunlight, and who were still held in the tenuous matter\nabove that region. The eyes of childhood are sometimes very clear.\nAbove those battlefields of Europe the sensitive eye may see for many\nyears the forms of those who will not be able to make their escape. And\nI do not mean akashic records. War is hell, and the hell does not end\nwith the signing of peace papers.\n\nThat is one reason why we want you, and those others who believe in\nbrotherhood, to carry that spirit of brotherhood among the nations\nthat have been at war. You have no conception of the power of a quiet\nfaith in a great and true idea. The man who really loves his fellows\nhas a wider influence than his own immediate circle of friends. The\natmosphere around him is permeated with that brotherly love, and\nsensitive souls can feel it.\n\nSome day sail up the Rhine with that sentiment in your heart.\n\n _April 12._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXI\n\n A SOUL IN PURGATORY\n\n\nDARE I talk to you of the purgatory to which the rage of battle\nconducts so many souls that only a little while before walked the earth\nas men, and went their daily round from house to office, loving their\nwives and children and exchanging worldly commonplaces in the intervals\nof work, all unmindful that they were hourly drifting toward the Great\nEvent? Yes, I dare.\n\nWe will follow one soul that I myself followed. His story I can\nreconstruct from memory, for every act of it is stamped upon my mind.\nNo, I do not need brain-cells to remember with. Neither will you--when\nyou have escaped the prison of your brain-cells.\n\nThe man was an officer in an English regiment and he was a bachelor.\nOutwardly he was much like other men, but his consciousness was\ndifferent. He lived in a world of his own, for he was a reader and a\nthinker. He was not a very good man. Not _all_ Englishmen are\ngood even now when England is at war, you who bristle at any criticism\nof your beloved maternal island--you who write for me!\n\nThis man was not very good because there was so little love in his\nheart. He was not incapable of love, yet he was unable to awaken love\nin others, and so was soul-starved. But sometimes he was conscious of a\ngreat yearning, and when the yearning came he was impatient, and took\na drink, or cursed his servant, or both. Sometimes when he was most\nimpatient with the world and with himself, he went on a \u201cspree.\u201d\n\nThe war began.\n\nHis natural impatience found something congenial in the hurry and noise\nof the expedition. He was glad to go.\n\nHe had known a German in London and had disliked him thoroughly. The\nGerman talked too much, and his loud tones jarred on the sensitive\nears of the refined officer. As he led his men into battle he thought\nof this German. He felt that he was battling with him at last face to\nface, and the feeling gave him a thrill of satisfaction.\n\nHate had become an almost sensual luxury. The German had fascinated\nby his blustering personality a woman of rather coarse type to whom\nthe officer had been impatiently attracted. He hated himself for the\nattraction, and he hated the German for frustrating it. We always hate\nthose who frustrate the emotions we hate.\n\nThe officer was killed by a German bullet, in the early days of the\nwar. Where? Oh, no matter where! There are those who might recognize\nthe man, and I am not a betrayer of unwilling confidences. When I\nlisten at the keyhole of life I never report too much of what I hear. I\nuse my discretion.\n\nI shall call this man my friend, for I was so much his friend that I\nhave a right to claim him.\n\nBefore the battle in which my friend met death I had lingered near him,\nwith a desire to soften the hard feelings in his heart. Those feelings\nare not usual among the soldiers of a particular section of the\nnorthern battle-line. To them fighting is a sort of glorified sport--or\nit was so last September.\n\nMy friend was an exception, and that is why I choose to write about\nhim, that my assertion of his exceptional qualities may keep the reader\nfrom shuddering too much. I should not like my readers to feel that\ntheir friends went through a similar experience. You who hang above\nthis page, my friend was not your friend. The experiences of your\nfriends were less terrible. They were all better men than he, because\nyou loved them, and this man was not good because he was not loved\nenough.\n\nHe met death by a rifle bullet. Then all became dark before him, and he\nwas unconscious for a time.\n\nHe was awakened by the noise of a bursting shell.\n\n\u201cThe battle has begun,\u201d he thought. \u201cDamn that man! He should have\nawakened me at dawn.\u201d\n\nHe was among the men of his regiment. They seemed larger than usual,\nand blurred in outline. He rubbed his eyes.\n\n\u201cHell and damnation! Who have they put in my place?\u201d For he saw a minor\nofficer who commanded where he had commanded.\n\nHe turned away, then came back again. He would demand to know! He\nstarted toward the place where his superior officer should have been,\nsome distance away, and found himself _instantly_ there.\n\n\u201cWhat is the matter with me?\u201d he thought. \u201cHave I lost my mind?\u201d\n\nHe saluted the officer, who paid no attention to him.\n\n\u201cAm I asleep?\u201d he wondered.\n\nHe went up to a soldier who was loading a rifle and touched him on the\narm. The soldier also paid no attention. He gripped the man\u2019s arm.\nStill he paid no attention, but raised his rifle and fired.\n\nMy friend went toward two men who were talking together.\n\n\u201cPoor old ------!\u201d he heard one of them say. \u201cShot through the heart!\nHe was a good officer, though a surly fellow. I\u2019m sorry he\u2019s dead.\u201d\n\nThe ------ they spoke of was himself.\n\n\u201cShot through the heart--a good officer--a surly fellow--dead!\u201d\n\nHe knew. Knowledge sometimes comes more slowly. He was \u201cdead.\u201d\n\n\u201cJust my luck!\u201d was his instinctive thought.\n\nAnother shell burst behind him with a shattering report.\n\nSuddenly he saw before him a face that riveted his attention. It was\na malignant, an insolent face. Then it changed into the face of his\nenemy, the German back in England whom he hated.\n\n\u201cSo it\u2019s you, is it?\u201d he asked.\n\nThe spectre made no answer, but changed its shape again. This time it\nwas like the woman whom my friend had hated himself for liking.\n\n\u201cYou, too!\u201d he said, impatiently.\n\nAgain the spectre changed countenance. It was like a servant whom my\nfriend had cursed once too often, and who had left him the year before.\n\n\u201cAre you, too, dead?\u201d he asked; but the face before him had now resumed\nits original appearance. It was merely a malignant, insolent face,\nresembling nobody in particular.\n\n\u201cWhat are you, anyway?\u201d my friend demanded; but still there was no\nanswer.\n\nThe eye of the spectre interested him--the left eye. As he gazed at it,\nthe eye gradually enlarged until it seemed the size of a target in a\nshooting-gallery. The iris, of a peculiar greenish-blue, was in the\nvery middle of the eye, so that the white showed all round. The black\npupil stared at him with its concentrated malice--a pupil large as a\nsaucer.\n\n\u201cWhy do you do that?\u201d demanded my friend; but the eye still made no\nanswer.\n\nThen it vanished.\n\nA troop of hateful shades came in its place, ugly shades, some human,\nsome subhuman. Another shell burst nearby, and the shades began to\ndance. They caught at him and whirled him around with them, around and\naround until he was dizzy. Then suddenly they stopped, and each and\nall of them changed into the form of the German back in England whom\nmy friend had hated. Then another group of mad beings mingled with\nthem. They also changed suddenly--there were a dozen duplicates of the\nwoman whom my friend had hated himself for liking, and they and the\nduplicates of his enemy caught one another\u2019s hands and kissed each\nother.\n\nSick, revolted, my friend wished himself away, and he was away. He was\nover among the soldiers of the German army across the plain. He heard\nthe sounds of the language he disliked.\n\n\u201cWhat the devil!\u201d he thought, and the devil stood before him, hoofs,\nhorns and tail complete.\n\n\u201cHadn\u2019t thought of me before, had you?\u201d sneered the evil being.\n\nMy friend was hurt and bewildered by the appearance, for it looked,\nwith all its unlovely accessories, so like himself.\n\n\u201cWill you, too, change form in a moment?\u201d he asked.\n\n\u201cOh, no! I change slowly. I only change as you change.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou only can change me.\u201d\n\n\u201cChange, then!\u201d said my friend. But the demon remained as before.\n\n\u201cChange!\u201d repeated my friend; but still the figure before him changed\nnot at all.\n\n\u201cThen you lied when you said I could change you!\u201d\n\n\u201cI said that I change slowly.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\n\n\u201cI only change as you change.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd I have not changed, then?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is my business to keep you from changing.\u201d\n\nIn company with his devil my friend now went through scenes which I\nrefrain from describing, Goethe in the Walpurgis Night having done it\nso well before me. Reckless, desperate, he followed his leader until he\nwas weary and exhausted. Days, weeks passed away, like a nightmare.\n\n\u201cCan I never get rid of you?\u201d he asked his companion.\n\n\u201cYes, you can get rid of me.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow?\u201d\n\n\u201cBy getting rid of yourself.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s easier said than done.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, that\u2019s easier said than done.\u201d\n\nOften they found themselves on the battlefield in the fighting line,\nor at the mess of the soldiers. The smell of the coffee and of cooking\nmeats brought temporary satisfaction to my friend. He tried to drink\nfrom brandy flasks tilted to the mouths of men who could not see him\nor protest; he steeped himself in hungers and despairs. His companions\nwere always changing themselves into the forms of the man he hated and\nthe woman he loved. He witnessed their coarse love-making. Sometimes\nthe simulacrum of the woman turned to him with a friendly word. He\ncursed her, but clung to her hand. But always she vanished when his\nmouth yearned to hers.\n\nSometimes in a great battle the rage of war awoke in him. He hurled\nhimself at the men of the opposing army, as if he would take revenge\nupon them for all he was suffering. He struggled to tear the rifles\nfrom their hands, and when one of them passed out of the body he tried\nto awake him from the darkness and the sleep into which he was sinking;\nbut never could he succeed in doing this. Never could he succeed\nin doing anything. His very existence was failure and futility and\ndiscouragement.\n\n\nOne day I came to him and touched him on the forehead.\n\n\u201cYou are not like these others,\u201d he said, dully. \u201cWhere do you come\nfrom?\u201d\n\n\u201cI came from a distance,\u201d I said. \u201cWould you like to go with me?\u201d\n\n\u201cAnywhere away from here,\u201d he assented.\n\n\u201cDo you want to be alone?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo. It is worst when I am alone.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe worst is over,\u201d I said.\n\n\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\n\n\u201cI mean that you have exhausted for the time the springs of your lower\ndesires. You are weary and disgusted with the life you have led since\nyou escaped from your body.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is a strange expression--escaped! It is only now that I long to\nescape.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd it is I who will help you to escape from another layer of your\nprison, another skin of the onion that shuts you in.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd why do you do this?\u201d\n\n\u201cTo spare you unnecessary fumbling to break the skin,\u201d I said. \u201cWould\nyou like to go to sleep?\u201d\n\n\u201cI should like to rest a little.\u201d\n\nWhile he slept I helped to loosen him further, and when he awoke into\nanother and a freer world I was still with him.\n\n\u201cWhat would you like to see?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cSomething beautiful,\u201d he answered, \u201csomething beautiful and pure.\u201d\n\n\u201cWould you care to witness a dance of elves?\u201d I asked, smiling.\n\n\u201cA dance of elves? Are there really such things?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe universe contains innumerable forms of life and consciousness,\u201d I\nsaid. \u201cAnd you who believe in devils from experience can surely believe\nin elves.\u201d\n\nThey came toward us as I spoke, lithe, tenuous forms, dancing with\njoy across the flowery spaces of the Elysian Fields. They swayed and\ncircled around us, those beings pure as the air in which they moved,\nlight as the happiness they exhaled, enduring as hope and lovelier than\nmortal dreams.\n\nThe shadows had all gone from my friend\u2019s face, and he too seemed to\ntaste joy, he too was light as air, and pure. He joined their dance and\ncircled with them around me.\n\nI tell you in a burst of confidence that I also have danced with elves.\nThis companion and friend of the Beautiful Being has swum in the sea\nof universal life and floated on the wings of irresponsibility. He who\nknows too much of the world\u2019s sorrow must sometimes lighten the load by\nknowing nothing but joy.\n\nWhen the sylphs had gone to their more inviolable retreat, another\nshape came toward us.\n\n\u201cWhat would you like to see now?\u201d I asked him.\n\n\u201cCan I see a person who still lives in England?\u201d he asked, half\nshyly, yet with the winning confidence of souls who trust their own\ndesires--the higher wisdom which comes with the purification of desire.\n\n\u201cPerhaps,\u201d I said.\n\nThe form that came toward us was unfamiliar to me, but my friend\nrecognized and welcomed it. A woman of intense and vital personality,\nyet with that purity of atmosphere without which no communion is\npossible in the region where we then were, was standing beside my\nfriend.\n\n\u201cLet us sit together a little,\u201d I said. \u201cIt will seem more homelike.\u201d\n\nThe two beside me seemed happy in each other\u2019s presence.\n\u201cSisterly-sweet hand in hand,\u201d they sat together; and though I knew\nthat one of them was only the simulacrum of a living woman, yet she\nalso seemed real to me for the moment, for the kind sentiments of the\nheart are real, and in the region to which I had conducted my friend\nall sentiments are kind. No enemies are found there, and the woman he\nliked also liked him, or she could not have been there.\n\nSoon I left them in each other\u2019s company and went back to the labors of\nthe battlefield; for there were others who needed me, and my friend was\nsafe for the time.\n\nAfter a while I shall help him onward to an experience still less\nrestricted. We take an interest in those whom we have helped, and wish\nto help them further.\n\nWhy did I choose this man for my friendly ministrations, you are\nwondering; for as I described him in the beginning of this letter he\nwas not an attractive character.\n\nI tell you a little secret: It was because he was unattractive that I\nchose him. No one had ever loved him enough, and so he needed help more\nthan others. Those who are loved are already helped by that love. As\nthe Beautiful Being says, \u201cDo you get my meaning, daughter of earth?\u201d\n\nJust now I live to serve mankind through the horrors of this war. Serve\nalso by loving those who least attract your love. So shall you learn\nthe way to the Path where walk the Masters of Compassion.\n\n _April 14._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXII\n\n PEACE PROPAGANDA\n\n\nWERE you shocked and grieved by what I told you of the futile struggle\nin that intermediate world between the bondage of dense matter and the\nfreedom of purer regions? It is nothing to grieve about; it is nothing\nbut the necessary transition stage. It lasts but a little while, a few\ndays, a few years--what matter, in the endless leisure of eternity?\nYou yourself have passed through it many times. All pass through it in\ngoing out to a freer life, though all do not suffer it consciously and\nlingeringly as my friend did. It is a nightmare, yes; but no nightmare\nlasts forever. Think of the joy and the freedom beyond! They are worth\nthe boatman\u2019s penny.\n\nIt is true that I have not told you the most terrible things that are\npossible in this transition, have not told you the most terrible things\nthat I have seen in my journeys round the battlefields. Those unwritten\nchapters are not necessary for the book which I dictate to teach\nbrotherhood in place of separation, peace in place of war.\n\nWould you know how you may do something to shorten this war, to hasten\nthe coming of peace? Then listen!\n\nYou can personally hasten the coming of peace! Is the idea startling?\nWhen I say \u201cyou,\u201d I mean others, too, all those who are weary of war,\nand of hate, the mother of war.\n\nHas anyone injured you in the struggle of life?--for life is a kind of\nwar.\n\nGo out in thought to those whose desires have clashed with your\ndesires, those who have hurt you or hated you. Go to them one by\none--not several at a time in this exercise, and one by one try to\nunderstand them. See yourself with their eyes, feel toward yourself\nwith their hearts. If they still hate you, you may hate yourself at\nfirst in sympathy with them. But remaining there in sympathy with them,\nyou will gradually feel their hard thoughts of you change, gradually\nbegin to be friends with yourself through them.\n\nThis I am advising you to do is not a form of \u201cblack magic,\u201d because\nthe object is unselfish. You are making a beginning toward softening\nthe enmities of the world. But I warn you against using this practice\nto win the regard of anyone whom you love selfishly or with passion,\nbecause the reaction would bring about a very undesirable condition of\ndisharmony.\n\nWhen you have thus understood and forgiven all your personal enemies,\nenter the souls of the warring nations. Understand them also by\nsympathy, and soften their hearts. Though this is a much easier thing\nto _attempt_ than the other, the results may seem incommensurable\nwith the effort. But, small and great, you are all part of the Whole.\n\nAnd this brings me to the idea of race spirits, race entities,\nfor every race has its guardian being--a composite being, yet\nself-conscious as separate, in a way you could hardly understand.\n\nHave you not noticed the effect on yourself of passing from country to\ncountry? Have your feelings--has your consciousness not changed almost\nat the frontier? Do you remember the shock you once had on setting foot\nfor the first time in a certain foreign land?\n\nThe race spirits seem no larger to themselves and among themselves\nthan you humans do among your friends and acquaintances. Size is\nrelative. Heretofore I have spoken of the races as organs in the\nbody of humanity. In speaking of them now as separate beings I am\nnot contradicting myself. What reason have you for assuming that the\norgans of your body may not each be animated by a more or less separate\nconsciousness? Your cells exist in your organs, your organs exist in\nyour body, you exist in your race, your race exists in the body of\nhumanity on earth, the entity of the earth exists in the democracy of\nplanetary spirits in the solar system, the solar system exists as one\nin the company of its fellows in the greater democracy of the Cosmos.\n\nA small blood-clot on the brain could seriously hamper the working of\nyour cosmos.\n\nSo you see there is nothing preposterous in my saying that you can\nhasten _infinitesimally_ the peace between the race spirits by\nforgiving and making peace with your personal enemies, especially if\nthey belong to races on the other side of this war.\n\nThe small is not so unimportant and the great is not so important\nas you have the habit of supposing. Yes, you personally--and all of\nyou--can hasten the coming of peace.\n\n _April 16._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXIII\n\n THE MYSTERY OF DESIRE\n\n\nI HAVE written about the hunger and thirst of disembodied men in the\nastral world, and I have written about the evil astral beings who\nbrought about this war to satisfy their malice. They too are hungry\nbeings and the war has given them food. Do you know what they live on?\nThey _may_ live long on blood and the exhalations of slaughter.\nI have seen them by myriads hovering over a battlefield, gorging\nthemselves on the blood that dripped from the wounds of suffering men\nand from dead men.\n\nThe leaving of the dead unburied has also satisfied their hunger.\nVampire entities came up from Hungary and from other countries and fed\non the living. The awful weariness of war opened a door through which\nthey might pass to the life forces they craved.\n\n\u201cBlood is a peculiar fluid,\u201d as Goethe said. The life of an evil entity\nmay be renewed for another long period of existence if he can have\nblood enough.\n\nIf you stop eating the carcases of dead animals, you will cease to feed\ncertain evil entities in yourselves. It is not merely for reasons of\nsentiment that the pupils of the great Masters are advised to refrain\nfrom animal food. You are told that meat-eating feeds the passional\nnature. What is the passional nature but the hungry nature that longs\nto feed on something not itself? So long as you eat meat habitually you\nwill never be quite free from the influence of entities who live on the\nblood and the other properties of meat. Eat purely, and by and by you\nwill find yourselves thinking purely and desiring purely.\n\nI do not tell you to kill out all desire this afternoon, for desire\nis the dynamics with which you work for even the ideal; but kill out\ndesire for blood and for the flesh of dead animals, and all sorts of\nother desires which serve no necessary purpose in your evolution will\nexpire.\n\nA lot of nonsense is talked about desire. You desire to develop\nspiritually, you desire to do the work of the Masters; you are not\nmerely led along like a lamb to do the work of the Masters. There is\ndesire and desire. If it seems \u201cdesirable\u201d that you shorten the road to\nconscious union with the All, you will desire that union probably; you\nare not likely to drift into it.\n\nI am not talking about the violent desires of ambition. You need not be\nambitious for occult development. In fact, if you are too ambitious for\noccult development you will be in danger of becoming a black magician.\nBut you can quietly \u201cdesire\u201d even union with God.\n\nAll action on this plane springs from desire of some sort, and it has\nbeen said that desire and will are the same. Perhaps they are. It has\nalso been said that desire relates to the temporary, and that will is\nsome kind of superior motive force; but I should be inclined to say\nthat will in its more dignified phases was merely desire for a higher\nthing--that is, if I wanted to separate the two.\n\nMusic may be sublime and music may be rag-time; it is still music. The\nforce of the wind may fan the flame that burns your house, or it may\nfill the sails of the boat that takes you across the sea to your soul\u2019s\ndesire. It is still the same wind.\n\nYou may even desire to desire the higher things. You may will to will\n_with_ the Law instead of against it. Is that not desire, too?\n\nIn advising you not to feed by blood sacrifices the elemental forces\nin yourself which crave that impure food, I am not inviting you to\nkill out desire. You will have to desire to purify your system from\nthe material of dead animals before you will wilfully cease to feed\non them. The evil in you, the hungry fiery selfish nature, sucks up\nthe blood that passes your lips somewhat as the evil beings above\nthe battlefields suck up the blood that flows from the wounds of the\nfallen. If you have no further use for these creatures, you can cease\nto feed them with blood.\n\nYou will never kill out your emotional nature by ceasing to eat meat.\nYou will merely purify it. The whole soul-world is a world of emotion,\nand the pure beings of the elements are very emotional, but they do not\nfeed on blood.\n\nYes, mind is higher than emotion, it is beyond emotion. You can have\nmind without emotion, and you can have emotion without mind to any\ngreat degree, as in the animals; but man is made of both. He is\ndependent on his middle register, his soul-desire nature, in order to\nwork in the soul world as a growing entity there. When you reach the\nhighest heaven you will be living in thought with only so much of the\ndesire nature as you have raised with you by memory and assimilation.\nYou can raise more of soul-dynamics into the highest region if you do\nnot clog your feet on the road by desire for bloody food. Leave that to\nthe demons who gorge themselves on the battlefields.\n\nDuring the reign of brotherhood which I am trying to help in bringing\nabout, the race will subsist on a pure diet. Even now there is a\ntendency toward the elimination of dead animals from the dietary.\n\nThe desires of the new race will have to be purified, their emotions\nraised and intensified. The emotions of a man are much more intense\nthan the emotions of a lion. The emotions of a god are cosmic.\n\n _April 16._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXIV\n\n THE SCALES OF JUSTICE\n\n\nLEST anyone should think that in working for brotherhood I am either\nknowingly or inadvertently striving to bring about a state of lax\nacquiescence in the wrongs committed by my fellowmen, by my brothers, I\nwant to talk about justice.\n\nAs one who has been a so-called Judge in a court of justice, I have\nhad some little experience in the practical working out of a balance\nbetween mercy and severity. Justice is one of the gods that I have\nalways placed high in my personal pantheon, and never in handing down\na decision did I, through weakness or sentimentality, hamper the right\nof the good in order to pander to the wrong of evil. I have given mild\njudgments when most good seemed to be promised that way; I have given\nsevere judgments when it seemed to me that evil would be best curbed\nthat way.\n\nMuch nonsense has been talked and written about universal brotherhood,\nas about most of the other ideals of mankind. Universal brotherhood is\nnot universal acquiescence in evil; it is universal acceptance of the\nideal of good. And you will never have a brotherhood worthy of the name\nuntil you raise, not lower, the standard of justice.\n\nJustice is balance, justice is equilibrium between forces, justice is\npoise. It is because I hope to see a more poised humanity that I am\nurging men to concentrate upon love instead of upon hate.\n\nSince I have been stationed in Europe and in the immediate neighborhood\nof the western battlefields, I have helped hundreds of souls to help\nthemselves through the terrible astral conditions into which a sudden\nand premature dropping of their physical bodies has precipitated them;\nbut in no case have I tried to upset the balance between cause and\neffect by helping a soul to a freedom for which it was not prepared. I\nhave let men suffer when I _could_ have shortened their suffering;\nI have let many souls work out in the astral world the slow battle\nwith their lower desires, because I knew that if they were plucked\nfrom the tree of pain before they were ripe, they would have to go\nthrough it all anyway and battle harder in another life with those very\nforces which now by their suffering they were severing in the region\nwhere--from the very limitation of satisfactions--elementary desires\nare more easily starved out than on the earth.\n\nThere was in one of the armies a very cruel officer who was hated by\nhis men. He came out here and many of the men came out here, and I made\nno attempt to protect him from their reproaches, because he _needed\nto learn_ that injustice deserves reproach. On earth their mouths\nhad been stopped by army discipline, but out here he had to realize\nhow much he had wronged them. He could never have realized it in any\nother way. Had I preached to him he would have told me to mind my own\nbusiness. The law of justice does not preach. It demonstrates. He had\nto endure the demonstration of his own injustice through the dark and\nreproachful shadows by which he was long surrounded. And I may say in\npassing that he is still surrounded by them. I have made no effort to\nhelp him. Perhaps I could have done so; but such determined opposition\non my part to the law of justice might have let him go forward into\nhis own selfish heaven with such a load of injustice on his soul\nthat in his next earthly life he would have been crushed by it. The\nresentment of these men was very deep, and while I might have softened\nit for their sake--not his--I let it work itself out.\n\nHad there been no one else needing my help and deserving it more,\nI might have spent a long time with these men and yet made little\nimpression. I did exactly as I should have done on earth had such a\ncase come before me, and I believe that I did right.\n\nWhenever I see a soul afflicted by the unjust judgments of others I\nseek to set the balance true, as I should have done on earth; but I am\nnot here to upset the law of cause and effect. When I can help, I help;\nbut I am more useful in preventing the setting up of evil causes than I\ncould ever be in deflecting the legitimate course of effects.\n\nWhen I urge men to help the Masters in holding back the awful karma\nof Germany, I am not talking sentimentally. I am talking as a just\njudge. The German people have been deceived by their leaders and have\nfollowed blindly a course they have not understood. Collectively they\nare responsible to the other races, but individually they are not\nresponsible in the same degree; for they have been themselves deceived,\nand they do not know that their cause of national aggression is unjust\nand of satanic origin.\n\nIt is the hope of those Teachers who can watch from the outside and\nabove, that the docile German people should not be forever hated by\nthe world because the arrogant war-party has hurled them at their\nneighbors. I am not condoning the unlovely traits in the German\ncharacter, or in the character of any other people; but of all the\nraces engaged in this gigantic struggle, the German race knows least\nabout the causes that hurled it forward. A spoon-fed press and the\npenalties of _l\u00e8se majest\u00e9_ have kept them from knowing anything\nwhich could have made them less flexible instruments in the hands of\ntheir leaders.\n\nThe karma of those whose headstrong and arrogant policy precipitated\nthis war is an individual karma, and it will have to be worked out\nby individual suffering and so-called punishment; but the karma of\nthe great mass of the German people is a race karma. They have let\nthemselves be led on to their own defeat. Think how the very law of\nreaction will throw the light of popular and democratic investigation\ninto the darkest nooks and crannies of the German nation and government\n_after_ this war. Those who have been deceived to their hurt will\ndemand to be deceived no more. In twenty years the life of the German\ngovernment will be as open as that of the United States. The so-called\n\u201cmuck-raker\u201d will arise with a lantern on his hat.\n\nAlso by the law of reaction England will be shaken out of her\nsluggishness that has filled her shops with the wares of other\ncountries because she was too slack to make her own.\n\nBy that same law a demand will arise for an uncorrupt political machine\nin France. One or two things have happened in France which she prefers\nfor the moment to keep to herself.\n\nThe great shock of this war will cause each nation to examine itself\nmore closely, to look into its own motives, to see wherein it fails to\ncome up to the very exigeant standard demanded by the New Time.\n\nLook also for changes in Russia, and Austria will be but another name\nfor change.\n\nJustice will advance many paces by reason of the great injustice of\nthis war. The Law of Opposites again! Most things can be explained by\nthat law.\n\nIn writing about the reign of brotherhood which I hope to see\nestablished in the world, I am not laboring under the delusion that an\nimpossible Utopia is about to be ushered in with a blare of trumpets. I\nam not recording a prophecy that the Kingdom of Heaven is immediately\nat hand. The human race is not ready for the Kingdom of Heaven, and\nwill not be ready for a long time; but if one person in ten can be\nmade to realize that brotherhood is an ideal to be striven for, they\ncan leaven the other nine-tenths and make the loaf of human society\nmuch lighter and more palatable than it is at present. The loaf will\nnot become fruit-cake all at once. That is too much to expect of the\n_next_ race; but if you can carry the memory of this prophecy\nthrough a sufficient number of births and deaths, you may see a very\nsweet loaf come from the planetary oven when the second race following,\nthe Seventh, is brought forth into the light of the sun.\n\n _April 17._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXV\n\n FOR LOVE\u2019S SAKE\n\n\nSO serious and philosophical have been my last few letters, that I\nshould like to revel in romance.\n\nHave you thought of the hard life of the war-nurses and wondered from\nwhence they gather the strength for their daily and nightly labors?\nLove is the source of the almost superhuman endurance of many of the\nwomen who seem to their charges like angels of light and healing.\n\nOne nurse whom we will call Mary, for she is a type of the\nvirgin-mother of hearts, has gone out into heaven a hundred times in\nthe souls of those she has tended. Will that love not guard her on\nearth through the whole course of her life and follow her also into the\nheaven world beyond? Be sure it will.\n\nMary is neither a scholar nor a poet. You would not have dreamed of\ninviting her to a reception had her path ever crossed yours; but Mary\nis not unfit for the society of angels and gods would not scorn to\nhave her in their company.\n\nShe was just an ordinary nurse before she became a war-nurse, and\nbefore the white fire of love touched her personality and burned it up\nas a sacrifice on the altar of her country\u2019s need.\n\nShe was a very pretty nurse and in her hours of leisure once wore\nstylish hats and revelled in laces and furbelows; for the love of\nbeauty and daintiness often nests in a heart that is capable of heroism.\n\nWhen the war broke out Mary was engaged to be married to a soldier.\nMary went to the front and he also went to the front; but neither of\nthem knew where the other was for many, many days.\n\nEvery man who was brought to her severely wounded Mary nursed as if he\nhad been the absent friend of her heart, and many a life she saved by\nher tender care and by the atmosphere of hope which radiated from her\nas fragrance from a rose.\n\n\u201cIf _he_ should be wounded,\u201d she said to herself, \u201csome of the\ngirls will care for him as I care for these men.\u201d\n\nMary was not jealous lest another should have the privilege of nursing\nthe man she loved, and lest in his heart should blossom the flower of\nthankfulness for another than herself. Mary had not much time to think\nabout herself; her thoughts were too busy with others.\n\nIt may have been because she was not jealous nor over-watchful for her\nproperty in her lover, that when he was wounded he was really brought\nto the hospital where she served so faithfully. Of course he was\ngiven to Mary to nurse--it could not have been otherwise, and he was\nvery seriously wounded. When the operation was performed by which the\ndoctors hoped to save his life, it was Mary who stood by and assisted.\nShe did not faint nor cry out even when they cut his broken arm away,\nthe arm on which she had dreamed she might lean for the rest of her\nearthly life. Mary was thinking about his mother and was glad that she\nwas not there to see what she herself saw. During many of the hours\nwhen Mary might have slept, she was writing to the mother--writing\nbrave letters wherein she sought to veil the fear that was in her own\nheart.\n\nTom--we will call him Tom because that was not his name--Tom had never\nbeen able to believe in any life beyond the earth life, and as Mary\nwatched his strength grow less she prayed all day and most of the night\nthat something might happen to make Tom believe in heaven and angels.\nThe exigencies of war had left him long on the battlefield after the\nshell had shattered his right arm, and his wound had been infected\nbefore the operation by which the doctors sought to save him for\nEngland and for Mary.\n\nTom knew that he might have to leave the world. Mary would not keep the\noverwhelming possibility from him, though she still kept it from his\nmother; for she hoped that in the hours or days which might be all that\nremained for him in the sunshine of the upper world something might\nhappen, some miracle of thought or of love, which should open his eyes\nto what she called the Truth.\n\nEach day I spent a little time in the long white room in which Tom lay;\nbut even if he could have seen me, I might not have been much comfort\nto him, and I cannot speak to any ears except those trained to listen\nfor unusual sounds.\n\nI sympathized with Mary. Having convinced so many souls of the truth of\nimmortality through a former writing of mine, I wanted to convince one\nmore--for Mary\u2019s sake; because I knew that if Tom should go out of life\nfirmly believing that death was the end of him, it might really be the\nend of him for a long time.\n\nIn my perplexity I sought the Beautiful Being for advice. That angel\u2019s\nknowledge compared to mine is like an arc-light beside a tallow dip.\n\nTogether we went back to the hospital where Mary sat talking with\nTom about the future life, about God and Christ and angels. She had\nmany soldiers under her charge; but the other nurses worked a little\nharder to give her more time with Tom, for all the world loves a\nlover--especially in the horrors of war-time.\n\n\u201cIt isn\u2019t that I do not want to believe,\u201d he was saying to Mary, \u201cit\u2019s\nthat I just can\u2019t. If I could see with my own eyes an angel, or someone\nthat I knew was dead, it would be different. But how could I see such a\nthing?\u201d\n\nThe Beautiful Being drew nearer, smiling, and waved its gauzy veil\nbefore the eyes of the dying man; but he could not see.\n\nThe Beautiful Being wove a glamor of light around him, and sang as only\nangels can; but Tom could still neither see nor hear.\n\n\u201cI think you will have to \u2018materialize\u2019,\u201d the Beautiful Being said to\nme, with a whimsical smile. \u201cThose eyes are stopped with matter, and\ncannot see anything finer than matter.\u201d\n\nI was not attracted by the suggestion, but my incomprehensible friend\nfollowed it up.\n\n\u201cIn that bed yonder,\u201d it said, \u201cis one of those mortals who are called\nnatural mediums, natural materializing mediums, because their tenuous\nbodies are so loosely held by the physical that they are easily\ndetached and borrowed from. Now materialize yourself and let Tom see\nsomething which he will take for an angel.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am no angel,\u201d I said, \u201cand the eyes of a dying atheist would never\nmistake me for one.\u201d\n\n\u201cTry it, and see,\u201d said the Beautiful Being, pointing to a man in a\nneighboring bed, who was the \u201cmedium\u201d in question.\n\nI looked at the man and read around him the story of his life. He was\na coarse fellow, a saloon-keeper, and another familiar compound-word\nwould have fitted him like a glove.\n\n\u201cClothe myself in that man\u2019s etheric body!\u201d I said in disgust. \u201cI would\nnot touch him with a ten-foot pole!\u201d\n\n\u201cHow dainty-fingered you are!\u201d said the Beautiful Being. \u201cDid I not\nknow you so well, I could almost believe you self-righteous.\u201d\n\n\u201cCall me what you like,\u201d I replied, \u201cbut I will not do phenomena with\nthat body.\u201d\n\nThe Beautiful Being laughed.\n\n\u201cIt would be so easy,\u201d it said, as if to itself, \u201cso easy and so\nconvincing.\u201d\n\nThe angel moved toward the sleeping saloon-keeper (I had almost written\nthe harsher compound), and gradually from his side there issued a\nvaporous stream. From force of earthly habit I rubbed my eyes, for I\ncould not believe that I saw aright. The pure and exquisite angel was\nclothing itself in the unhealthy emanations of the sleeping medium, and\nin the space of twenty ticks of the clock on the wall it passed, fully\nmaterialized, with a speaking throat, to the foot of Tom\u2019s bed.\n\nHe sat up, in the surprise and shock of the vision.\n\n\u201cWhat are you?\u201d he asked, hoarsely.\n\n\u201cI am an angel,\u201d said the Beautiful Being, truly, \u201cand I have come to\nprove to you that miracles can happen, and to assure you that when you\nleave your body behind on the morrow I shall meet you on the other side\nof the change.\u201d\n\nMary could also hear and see, and she fell on her knees with a little\nsob of joy and wonder; for she had never seen an angel, though her\nfaith was strong enough to remove mountains.\n\n\u201cThen it is really true!\u201d Tom gasped. \u201cI shall not die with my body.\nAnd how wonderful you are!\u201d\n\nFor the Beautiful Being had performed the transformation so well that\nit preserved in its borrowed body all the glory and amazing loveliness\nof that form which charms the hosts of the unseen world.\n\n\u201cI no longer doubt,\u201d said Tom. \u201cI believe, and I die happy.\u201d\n\n\u201cI shall not forget to meet you when you come out,\u201d smiled my friend.\n\u201cGood-bye now, for a little while. I leave you with Mary, who is also a\nkind of angel.\u201d\n\nSlowly the borrowed shape retreated towards the body of the sleeping\nsaloon-keeper, and after a moment my friend stood beside me, clothed in\nits own pure form; but on its shoulders and feet were dark stains that\nlooked like mud.\n\n\u201cThey will soon blow away in the fresh air outside,\u201d smiled the\nBeautiful Being. \u201cAnd was it not worth while to convince that soul of\nits own immortality?\u201d\n\nWe passed out under the stars, but the scene left an indelible\nimpression on my consciousness. And I shall often remember when I\nfeel self-righteous, how the purest being I ever knew wore the soiled\ngarment of a vulgar saloon-keeper, which left stains on its dainty\nshoulders and its shining feet--how it dipped itself for the first time\nin the filth of the world, for love\u2019s sake.\n\n _April 17._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXVI\n\n A MASTER OF MIND\n\n\nTO-NIGHT, the seventeenth of April, nineteen hundred and fifteen, there\npassed along the battle line of one of the nations at war a great\nspiritual being, a being whose body is mind and who works through the\nmind alone.\n\nThe hour had come when a certain number of those who had fought\nbravely for their ill-starred country might know that their cause was\nhopelessly lost. A few only might know to-night; but their knowledge\nwill spread, and with spreading knowledge will come a change of spirit.\nIt is disheartening to fight on for a lost cause. It takes a peculiar\nquality of devotion, a rare quality of devotion.\n\nWhat will come from the visit of that celestial being, you wonder? Wait\nand see. I rarely permit myself to prophesy. I only figure out the\nprobable result of causes known to me. You can do the same, if you let\nreason take the place of predilection. To judge clearly of the effects\nof a given cause, the mind must be unbiased by desire; it must be as\ncold as a mathematical calculation. It is by this celestial algebra\nthat Masters look ahead.\n\nWhen you get in symbols or pictures the answers to questions propounded\nto your Higher Self, it is by this profounder mathematics that the\ninterior one prepares its answer. It knows causes that are unknown\nto you, and from these causes can foretell effects with a degree of\naccuracy almost as great as that of an astronomer foretelling an\neclipse. _Almost_, I say, not quite; for in dealing with human\naffairs even the greatest Masters must take into consideration an\nerratic element, the free will in human beings. That, too, may be\nguessed; but it is guessing, nevertheless. A sudden uprush of free and\nerratic will, and a new cause is set up, and the calculation must be\nmade afresh.\n\nThere is a certain charm in dealing with the erratic element of will.\nPerhaps that is why some persons find cats more fascinating than dogs.\nA cat is a wilful erratic animal; so are many men.\n\nThe great being who passed this night along the battle line has been\nwatching the course of earthly events for a considerable time. He is\none of those who serve the planetary spirit of the earth by carrying\ncertain ideas around the earth when the time has come for them to play\ntheir part in history. I cannot tell you many details about the life of\nthis being, for I know only a few facts concerning him. He is so far\nsuperior to me that my possible comprehension of him is limited. He may\nonce have been man, I think so; but of that I am not even sure.\n\nI have been told that it was he who first impressed upon a small but\ncourageous section of the American people the conviction that the time\nhad come when human slavery in America should cease; that it was he\nwho inspired Columbus with the idea that he could find land by sailing\nwest, though in the latter case he was not able to force through\ninto the mind of his instrument the great fact that an immense and\nindependent continent lay off there beyond the western sea, and between\nit and another sea whose waters washed the eastern shores of Asia.\nAgain, I have been told that it was this being who was instrumental in\nrevealing the knowledge of electricity to mankind.\n\nCan you imagine the life of such a being? Can you extend your\nconsciousness so as to touch his? I am frank enough to say that it is\ndifficult even for me, who have been able to remember so much of my\nown long past, and to work out so many of the probable effects of the\ncauses which I myself set up in the far past, effects which will shape\nmy future lives on earth.\n\nImagine an independent entity of vivid life, yet without a physical\nor even an astral body, a being of thought whose lowest medium is\nthought, who influences his chosen instruments by contact with their\nnaked minds. What _personal_ wishes can such a being have? What\nambitions can he have? The lower and limiting word ambition seems\ngrotesque as characterizing the motive force of such a being.\n\nHe has a name among us, but I am not permitted to tell you the name.\nIt has a great mantramic value, that name, and if you should repeat\nit too often it might raise your own consciousness, and the vibration\nof yourself, to a height which would make it extremely difficult for\nyou to keep your hold on that physical body, without which you cannot\ndo certain work that it is your privilege and duty to perform at this\nstage of your evolution.\n\nThere is a certain initiation which the pupils of the great Masters\ntake under the guidance of this being; but those who take that\ninitiation retire permanently from the everyday life of men. They get\ninto the centre of causes, which makes them so dynamic--which makes\ntheir personality and their thoughts so forceful--that for the sake of\nthe world itself they must not come too close to it; because all things\nwork by cyclic law, and to hasten too much the evolution of humanity\nwould be dangerous to humanity. It can only go safely at a certain rate\nof speed. Above that speed it is likely to meet with accident.\n\nI know exactly the stage that I myself must reach before I can take the\ninitiation which is presided over by this being. When I have reached\nthat stage I shall not be able to come and write through your hand,\nunless you raise yourself a corresponding degree above your present\nconsciousness, because to do so might dangerously accelerate your own\nrate of growth.\n\nSince coming out here I have learned much about those beings who have\nin charge the higher evolution of mankind. Their development would\nbe quite incomprehensible to the mass of even enlightened men at the\npresent time.\n\nThey are and must be very lonely beings, though they too have their\npeers and fellow-workers. Can you imagine remaining alone a hundred or\na thousand or ten thousand years, yet all the time extremely active\nin mind, following with your thought the course of an evolution which\nyou yourself have long left behind in your own growth, following it\nwith the mind alone, because the emotional nature you have also left\nbehind, and doing all this not for any personal reward but because it\nis a labor in accordance with the great law of a Being still above and\nbeyond yourself?\n\nObedience is taught in certain schools, not in an effort to control\nthe pupil in the interest of the Master, but that the pupil may thus\ntake his first steps on the path which leads to obedience to the Cosmic\nWill. On that path he will have to go an immense distance before\nhe can be trusted to do such work as is being done by the being who\npassed this night along the battle-line of one of the opposing armies,\nshedding the light of his thought and the certainty of his purpose into\na few minds whose receptivity made possible their grasping what he gave.\n\nDo not weary on the path, you who are taking the first and easiest\nsteps of the journey that shall one day lead you to the Masters! The\npath is indeed steep, and as one inspired writer said, it leads uphill\nall the way; but there are stages at which the traveller may pause and\nenjoy the prospect. I seem to have reached such a stage myself, and\nthough I am always working now, yet I enjoy my work.\n\nThe awful battle that some of us fought with the elemental beings\nis now over. The worst calamity that could have befallen mankind is\nhappily averted. The labor of the present is light compared with the\nlabor of _that_ struggle. If the world could realize what it owes\nto the Masters whom most men regard as myths! But such Teachers do not\nwork for gratitude nor for reward.\n\nFollow you in their footsteps, for it is the only road that can lead\nmankind above the awful calamities that threatened recently to engulf\nmankind. (_I am not referring to a mere German victory._)\n\nIt is wise to keep from the knowledge of men in general the great\nevolutionary facts which govern the life of the planet. A mind must be\nlifted above the small circle of everyday interests before it could\nendure such knowledge.\n\nYou all use words without realizing their meaning. You talk of guardian\nangels; you talk of hell and purgatory, and of vicarious atonement,\nand of sacraments. Sacraments! I could tell you of a sacrament that is\nverily an eating of the body and a drinking of the blood of God; but\nI refrain lest you should tell the world, and if you should tell the\nworld the evil forces of the world would destroy you.\n\nBut I am coming now perilously near the things that may not be spoken,\nso I will wish you a good-night--a good-night indeed--and go back to\nmy labors, in the rear of that being of light who passed along the\nbattlefields this evening.\n\n _April 17._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXVII\n\n INVISIBLE ENEMIES\n\n\nYOU may have wondered why the elemental beings that as I have told you\nprecipitated the great war were so malicious at this time, why they\nhurled themselves upon mankind with such overwhelming force. There is\nno reason why you should not know something of these causes, having\nseen so much of their effects.\n\nThe saying that man has made more material progress in the last hundred\nyears than in the preceding two thousand, has become a mere newspaper\ncommonplace. It is because he has not made a corresponding moral\nprogress that the evil elemental beings, who fear for their rule in\ntheir own kingdom, _could_ come so near to succeeding in their\nattacks upon the human race.\n\nIt is not merely in material ways that man has progressed with such\namazing rapidity, for some of his inventions and discoveries touch\nthe invisible regions. The doors of man\u2019s mind are opening on the\nuntracked spaces of aether in which these beings live. Man is chaining\nthe elements, and to chain the elements _may_ be to chain the\nelementals. One man in America has come so near to a great and\ndangerous secret that his eyes have had to be veiled by those who fear\nfor man\u2019s too rapid progress.\n\nOccult societies dot the world. In other days these societies were\nreally secret, and no one had access to their knowledge until after\ntests were passed which proved fitness for further study and further\nsecrets. But the doors of the unseen have been besieged by an army of\nintellectual enthusiasts who have not passed those tests. Curiosity\ndemands to know that which only the nobility of the spirit was once\ntrusted with. Democracy has spread even into the occult orders, and\nsacred mysteries have been published broadcast by those who put no\ncurb upon their personal ambitions. The hosts of the unseen world have\nthemselves suffered invasion.\n\nNow the hosts of the unseen will obey a great soul that they know to be\nmore powerful than themselves. They run like docile children at his\ncall, and they go at his command as a dog goes. But the unseen hosts\nare very jealous of their freedom, and they will yield it only to one\nwhose superiority is manifest to them. Many--yes, most--of those who\nare now seeking to open the doors of that region are unfit to command\nthere; because he only can command the unseen forces outside who can\ncommand the unseen forces _inside_ himself.\n\nIn a former letter I spoke of the danger of black magic in America; but\nthe danger is everywhere. And what is black magic? It may be briefly\ndefined as a use for selfish purposes of those very forces of the\nunseen world. Not until a man has advanced beyond himself will the\ninvisible forces serve him long without rebellion.\n\nPick up a common newspaper, and you will see the advertisements of men\nand women who promise _for a fee_ to bring about results which\ncan only be brought about by using those invisibles. What blasphemy!\nWhat presumption! If these advertisers could make good their claims,\nthey would be more dangerous than typhus fever. Such advertisements\narouse all the curiosity and ambition and fiery selfishness latent in\nthe heart of the ignorant. These untrained dabblers in the mysteries\nattempt to do things which an Adept would never dream of doing, for\nmost of their efforts have for purpose some attack upon the free will\nof others; they seek to influence the desires and the judgment of\nothers in the narrow and personal interest of those who pay them to set\nthe forces in operation. Would you let a child loose in a gunpowder\nfactory with a box of matches in his hand? That is what has been done\nin the last few years all over the western world.\n\nNo wonder the invisible beings have rebelled. They will follow a\nMaster, but they resent the interference of a fool.\n\nIt is not the fools they fear, however. The men they fear are the great\nscientists. Man\u2019s progress in science has been such that he _must_\npurify his motives, or he will be destroyed.\n\nThat is one reason why I am preaching brotherhood, in an attempt to\nsave men from their own folly. Once let the feeling for brotherhood\nbecome general, and these experiments with unknown forces would be\nless dangerous. Mankind as a mass might work with the power of a White\nMaster, whose motives are always unselfish.\n\nThe great scientists come nearer than anybody else to that pure working\nwith mind for mind\u2019s own sake, which I recently described in writing of\na great being, a great Initiator, who serves the world by influencing\n_along the line of evolutionary law_ the thoughts of certain men\nwho are the chosen instruments of evolution.\n\nHow little men know of the unseen world surrounding them!\n\nI recently followed you into a lecture room in New York that was even\nmore crowded with invisible beings than with men and women. Your\nrestlessness there had cause, as you well knew. The purpose of that\nmeeting was to form a nucleus of a society of curiosity-seekers for\ninvestigating the unseen, for necromancy and ceremonial magic. Madness\nof madness! I heard one man express the determination that the proposed\nsociety should not, like the Society for Psychical Research, close\nits doors to the outside world; but that the society should invite\n_all_ who were interested in the investigation of the unseen,\nincluding the newspaper reporters. A press agent for the occult!\n\nLet me describe a few of the auditors who were invisible to any in the\nroom except one person:\n\nA long lean hungry being with the face of a gargoyle and the stomach of\nan unfed leech yearned over the gathering. He was almost affectionate\nin his interest in one of the speakers.\n\nAnother, bloated and lethargic, had already fed himself since entering\nthe room.\n\nAnother, frightened and tortured, was seeking an exit; but could not\nget outside the desire-aura of one of the participants in that orgy of\ncuriosity.\n\nAnother, powerful and malignant, moved from place to place, selecting\nhis future victims. _He_ will be present at the meetings of the\nsociety. He will try to keep it alive, for he knows of a fascinating\npossibility which I shall not record here.\n\nWhy do you go to such places?\n\n _April 18._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXVIII\n\n THE GLORY OF WAR\n\n\nI HAVE written of the beauty of peace; but I now want to write of the\nglory of war, for war has its glories. Anything that arouses man to\nthe highest pitch of enthusiasm is glorious; for what is glory but a\nradiation of light, a burst of that life which is the Sun in man?\n\nI regret this war. The suffering, the agony, the torment that I have\nseen and have felt through sympathy, have left their marks upon me; but\nhad I remained in the safety of the neutral stars I should have missed\nthe glory of the fight.\n\nMan had grown too tame, without acquiring the virtues of tameness; but\nthis war has served the purpose of the gods by hurling man into the\nprimitive, the savage, where life had its roots, but from which the sap\nflows that will blossom later in such a faith as the world has never\nseen.\n\nSuffering and joy are forever opposite and equal. Man may rest for a\ntime in the neutral condition of a well-fed half-consciousness; but\nwhen the extremes of suffering and joy come to him, he is no longer\nhalf-conscious, but awake and alive, and glory shines round him.\n\nCould the Masters have prevented this war? They could have retarded\nit; but the _causes_ were present in the hearts of men, in the\ninvisible forces within them as well as outside them, and to have\nfurther delayed the explosion would have served no planetary purpose.\n\nThe men who are not dead are more alive than they were twelve months\nago, and even the so-called dead are living-dead.\n\nWe pushed back the forces of evil, yes; but that was a part of the\nstruggle, that was the struggle in our world.\n\nLet me tell you the story of one man whom I knew in the days of peace.\nHe was well-fed and half-asleep with prosperity, he prattled mild\ncommonplaces about life, and ethics, and the duties of a citizen; but\nwhat did he really know of life, or of ethics, or of the duties of a\ncitizen?\n\nWe will call him Johnson. He has been in this war some months, a\nfighter for England, and the integrity of England; and now when he\nspeaks of life his speech has meaning, because life to him now is the\nopposite and mate of death. He feels enthusiasm for it, the glory of it\nshines round him.\n\nJohnson had a son, an only child. Fathers will know what I mean.\n\nIn the great retreat in which Johnson was one of the leaders his son\nfell before his eyes--wounded but not dead. For one swift heart-beat\nthe father turned to his boy ... then he went on with his command that\notherwise would have been leaderless, leaving his only child to the\ntender mercies of an army drunk with the pitiless glory of conquerors.\n\nJohnson will never again prattle commonplaces about life. He has\nlearned the meaning of death, and of tortured uncertainty far worse\nthan death.\n\n _April 20._\n\n(This letter was left unfinished--for no reason apparent to\nme.--Editor.)\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXIX\n\n A FRIEND OF \u201cX\u201d\n\n\nA MAN died yesterday with your name in his thoughts.\n\nNo, he was not a friend of yours, but someone you have never seen. Back\nin England last year he read the former book which I wrote through your\nhand, and was intensely interested in it. For months he wanted to meet\nyou, but being a modest man he waited.\n\nThen the war broke out, and he went with the army to Belgium.\n\nDay and night since the first fighting he has been meditating the facts\nand possibilities of that book. Is there a future life continuous with\nthat of earth? Can a man return as I claimed to return, and can he give\nto a woman still in the land of the living a record of his experiences\namong the dead? Had I really seen the things I reported, and did I go\nto the pattern world and the heaven world, where I saw the Saviour of\nmen with a lamb on his arm, etc., etc.?\n\nOne thing this man never questioned, and that was the sincerity of\nthe scribe. Of that he was convinced by instinct and by a kind of\nAnglo-Saxon chivalry difficult for the men of some races to understand.\n\nHe was always talking to his trench-mates about the future life. He\nwould sit smoking his pipe in silence and gazing off into space, and\nwhen other soldiers asked him what he was thinking of so busily, he\nwould often say: \u201cI am thinking of a book I read last summer, and\nwondering if it was true.\u201d When they asked him what book he referred\nto, he would tell them about the Letters of a Living Dead Man, and\nquote to them whole sentences from it, and give them the outlines\nof its stories, and explain to them the philosophical propositions\nscattered through the book. Whole evenings have been taken up with\nthese discussions.\n\nYou have not been to the wars, either as a soldier or as a nurse; but\nyou have been to the wars.\n\nIt was a curious coincidence that that book should have been published\nonly a few months before the greatest taking-off of human souls in the\nhistory of the world. Had you thought of that? I had not, until the\nTeacher pointed it out to me.\n\nThere was one question which particularly interested our friend who\ndied yesterday with your name in his thoughts: the question whether, if\nhe should go out of life at the hands of the enemy, he could prepare\nsuch a \u201clittle home in heaven\u201d as we wrote about, for a girl whom he\nloved back in England; and if he should prepare it and wait for her,\nwhether she would be true to him after his death, and meet him there in\na few years, and dwell with him in the little home.\n\nThis young man had read certain writings of an American mystic on the\ntheory of counterpartal souls, and he believed that in the girl back in\nEngland he had found his counterpartal soul, as I hinted of the man in\nmy story who built the little home in heaven.\n\nBut no word of this did he speak to his trench-mates. To them he\nspoke about the other stories in the book, not about that one. It is\ncurious that we never mention to others the favorite subject of our\nthoughts--that is, most of us do not.\n\nAnother thing in the book which interested our friend was the story\nof the woman in the invisible who made a journey into Egypt with her\nstill-living husband. He used to wonder whether, if he should die, he\ncould go in the spirit, as he said, to the little place in North Wales\nwhich he had once visited with his sweet-heart, and which they had\nselected as the future scene of their wedding journey.\n\nOne night he wrote her a long letter asking her, in case of his death,\nto go there this summer, and saying he would try to meet her there.\nThen after reflection he destroyed the letter, fearing it might make\nher sad.\n\nWhen I saw about him a peculiar light which the indwelling spirit\nthrows round its vehicle when that vehicle is about to be destroyed, I\nwaited, knowing there would soon be work to do.\n\nSuddenly I saw his body fall to the ground, and saw the tenuous bodies\nexuding themselves. I waited but a moment, then went forward and\nlifted the spirit out of the sleep into which it would have drifted. I\nbreathed on the forehead of the astral--for astrals have foreheads,\nmake no mistake about that--I breathed on the astral forehead of the\nman who had paid our book the compliment of thinking about it and about\nus in the last moment of his life.\n\nHe opened his eyes on my face.\n\n\u201cHello, \u2018X\u2019!\u201d he said. \u201cI hoped you would meet me here. You\u2019re a good\nfellow not to disappoint me.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, I was always a good fellow!\u201d I answered. \u201cHow did you know so\nquickly that you had come out?\u201d\n\n\u201cBecause I saw you.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd how did you know me?\u201d\n\n\u201cBy your photograph, which I saw in a magazine.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut do I still look like that old hulk?\u201d I asked; for I rather pride\nmyself on the recovery of a certain part of my original youth and\nbeauty.\n\n\u201cWhy,\u201d he said, \u201cyou _do_ look like the photograph.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is strange,\u201d I replied. Then I remembered that my very knowledge\nof the man\u2019s thoughts of me, as being the old Judge of the story,\nmight have made my body transform itself to meet the demands of his\nrecognition, even without the intervention of my will.\n\n\u201cDo you want to take a nap?\u201d I asked, though there was no sleepiness in\nhis eyes.\n\n\u201cNo, thank you, \u2018X.\u2019 I should like to go to England. But perhaps you\nhave something to do besides indulging my wants and wishes.\u201d\n\nI laughed.\n\n\u201cYour wants and wishes are just as important as mine,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019ll go\nto England with you.\u201d\n\nWe went.\n\nCrossing the Channel we passed a transport laden with troops.\n\n\u201cI wish all those fellows knew as much as I do,\u201d my friend said. \u201cMaybe\nthey would fight with renewed vigor if they could see what a good\ncompanion I have found out here.\u201d\n\nDo not be startled, you clergymen who say, \u201cAshes to ashes, dust\nto dust,\u201d and draw solemn faces as you preside over the passing of\nsouls! Do not be startled or shocked by the jolly conversation of my\nnewly-arrived soldier-boy. He knew that he was with an old friend, and\nhe knew also that death is no more sacred than life, and need not be\nany more solemn.\n\nWe went to call on a girl. I often went courting in my youth, but never\ndid I feel more interest in such a visit than when I went with this\nsoldier to see _his_ girl. The fact that she could not see us made\nno difference. I am used to that now.\n\nShe was combing her hair when we arrived, beautiful long hair, and\non the mantel before her and under the mirror was a photograph of my\nfriend. As her eyes rested on it lovingly, suddenly he passed between\nher and the photograph, and she cried out:\n\n\u201cWhy, the eyes are alive!\u201d and dropped the comb on the floor.\n\nThen, as the truth flashed through her mind, she said, very solemnly:\n\n\u201cMy dear, if it is really you, and if you have come to me in this\nstrange way, know that I love you and shall always love you, and that I\nwill meet you in heaven.\u201d\n\nThen she sat down in a little chair and began to cry.\n\nI left him with her; but I shall return occasionally to see how my\ncharge is getting along, and by and by I shall teach him some of the\nlessons on which his future welfare depends. I do not wish him to\nreturn to the neighborhood of the battlefields. Why should he? He has\nserved, and has earned his reward.\n\nPerhaps later I may tell you something more about the man who died with\nyour name--and mine--in his thoughts.\n\n _April 24._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXX\n\n THE ROSE AND THE CROSS\n\n\nMORE and more I am charmed and amazed by that one whom we call the\nBeautiful Being. I shall never understand it, for its ways are not our\nways.\n\nYesterday it passed over the battlefield again, and I should have\nwritten when I came to you a few hours afterward had I not pitied your\nweariness. Do not be discouraged. Sometimes the Masters of Compassion\nmay seem to their servants to have no compassion; but they know, as\nthe servants cannot know, that the hardest road leads up the highest\nmountain, and that there is rest at the top.\n\nThe Beautiful Being passed over the battlefield. Imagine a rose in a\ncannon\u2019s mouth, a bird singing in the heart of an earthquake, a pearl\nin a landslide, an angel in hell.\n\nYou know not the meaning of the word battlefield. Yesterday thousands\ndied in the awful uproar. Noise! noise! noise!--till the nerves\nshrieked with pain and despair seized the soul. To go out of life in\nthat seething maelstrom is generally to pass into another seething\nmaelstrom, hotter and noisier than the one left behind.\n\nHow can I write of war so as to spare your feelings? The great Teachers\nare not trying to spare your feelings. They want you to feel and feel,\ntill the very force of the wave of feeling carries you high on the\nshore of Adeptship. And they want you to think and think, till the\nirresistible cold of logic freezes _self_ out of you. Ice and fire!\n\nIf you shrink from knowing what the soldiers of the nations have\nsuffered that you may be free, you are unworthy of that freedom. Do not\nshrink from suffering. The husk of the seed must be broken before the\nsprout can appear.\n\nIn dying for their country, those souls in the hell of battle are\ngiving birth to the new time. In suffering with them, your souls are\ngiving birth to the new in yourselves. Do not look for joy while\nhumanity is in travail, unless you can find the joy in suffering. Yes,\nI know the time when first, and through whom, that grand idea found\nlodgment in your consciousness. It is the secret of great souls in this\nhour of the world\u2019s pain.\n\nIf you suffer till you can suffer no more--then the poles shift, and\nthe _joy_ of suffering illuminates the soul. Then the beautiful\nbeing in yourself hovers over the battlefield where the lesser self has\nbeen slain.\n\nThere is a beautiful being in every one of you, the bird that sings in\nthe heart of the earthquake, the rose that nestles in the hot mouth\nof the cannon, the pearl that cannot be crushed by the landslide, the\nangel that illumines hell.\n\nAll the normal feelings of the human heart are intensified at this\ntime. No one is the same as before the war burst--no one, anywhere\nin the world. The soul of humanity is in travail. This incarnation\nof humanity is turned against itself, and rends itself. The heart of\nhumanity is an abyss, into which humanity had grown too blind to look,\nso the blazing torches of the guardians of good and evil have been\nthrust into the abyss, and all the drowsing dwellers therein have been\nsuddenly, rudely awakened.\n\nOh, hearts of earth, do not fall asleep again! Pity and love one\nanother, for the pain of one is the pain of each, and over the\nbattlefield of the suffering race the Beautiful Being hovers.\n\nHumanity is the One, and humanity is the many, and all together you may\ncome into the inheritance of your Father which is in heaven.\n\nYou are familiar with the symbol of the Rose-Cross. Not until the hard\nwood is driven through your four limbs, in the pain of your shocked\nand wounded nerves, can the great red rose of love unfold its perfumed\npetals upon your breast, between the arms of the cross.\n\nThe human in you is the pain of the cross, the divine in you is the\nperfume of the rose, and you yourself, you human _and_ divine, are\nthe Rose-Cross.\n\nIf you shrink from the splintering pain of the wood as it claims you\nfor its own, you cannot smell the perfume of the rose which also claims\nyou for its own.\n\nDo not refuse the great initiation, O humanity of the races! Do not\nhide yourself in the dungeon of fear when the great Initiator comes!\n\nOn the awful cross of war shall blossom the red rose of the new race.\nOn the cross of each mortal form _may_ blossom _its_ red\nrose.\n\nThe rose marks the balance between the East and the West, between the\nrising and the setting sun, between the human and the divine. The arms\nof the cross extend to infinity, its feet are buried in the substance\nof eternity, its head is among the angels and the gods, and the heart\nof the rose is everywhere. It is in every heart of all these myriads\nwho shrink at the touch of the hard wood.\n\nI hear every day the shrieks of those who are making the vicarious\natonement for the race. When they lie mangled on the battlefield, the\narms of the cross are being driven through their quivering flesh, and\nthe petals of the rose are unfolding in their hearts.\n\nThey are dying for love at the hands of hate, for love and hate are\nopposite and omnipresent. Their love for their country is their call to\nthe atonement, their at-one-ment with the God who established the law\nof the East and the West, the Height and the Depth, the opposing forces\nof Love and Hate. They have accepted the sacrifice. For them shall be\nthe resurrection and the life, after their sojourn among the dead,\ntheir sojourn in hell.\n\nThey shall appear to the Magdalen at the door of the sepulchre, the one\nwhose sins were forgiven because she loved much, and who shall call the\ndisciples to give them the tidings of great joy.\n\nThe soul of the world is the risen Christ, and the disciples rejoice at\nthe tidings.\n\nHow can I withhold from you the great event which Time has ushered in?\n\nFor thirty pieces of silver the soul of the world was sold, and the\nJudas of the world has given the kiss of betrayal with the name of God\non his lips, and the Roman soldiers are already dividing the garments.\n\nPontius Pilate has washed his hands of the issue, and his wife weeps\nin her chamber at the disregarding of her dream. The priests of the\nSanhedrim are wagging their heads with satisfaction, but the veil of\nthe Temple of Humanity is rent from top to bottom.\n\nHow could you receive the message if you had not suffered, O listener\nat the door of Time? Who would believe you, had you not grasped the\ntruth of the atonement? Until the wood of the cross had been driven\nthrough your limbs, the rose could not blossom, O world in travail at\nthis hour!\n\nBe still, and know that God is God. In the stillness of perception the\npetals begin to open, and joy steals over the heart, and the heart\nswells with the expanding joy, till every fibre of the cross is alive\nand tingling with the joy at the heart of the rose, and the fragrance\nsweetens the world.\n\nAnd the Beautiful Being, a ray of the Holy Spirit, hovers over the\nCalvary of the battlefield.\n\n _April 25._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXXI\n\n A SERBIAN MAGICIAN\n\n\nIT is a long road from the sacrifice of the Rose-Cross to\nplague-stricken Serbia, but that is the road you take with me this\nmorning.\n\nThere is a reason why that country has been most susceptible to the\nastral germs of disease, that a loathesome being of which I wrote you\nin a former letter spewed forth into the upper world.\n\nLong ago in the mountains of Serbia there dwelt an evil magician, a\nman whose studies in the deeper sciences were undertaken solely for\nthe intellectual and selfish pleasure which he found in them. He had\nprogressed so far beyond the normal human consciousness that he had\nno worldly ambitions. To him the world was but a despicable place to\nescape from, and the people of the world were insects beneath his\nnotice, save only as he could use them for his purposes.\n\nHe considered himself a kind of god, and so diligent were his selfish\nlabors that had he devoted his knowledge to the good of the human race\nfrom which he sprang, he might really have become a kind of god. But\nselfish and evil beings need never aspire to godship. At most they can\ntake but a step beyond the human. The grub may become a butterfly, but\nif it hates the sunlight and the air of the higher regions, its wings\nhad better not have grown.\n\nThis man, this selfish magician, had learned that by certain magical\nformul\u00e6 he could call to himself beings of the elements, and that by\nthe aid of these invisibles he could create astral beings which, while\nthemselves soulless, he could energize with his own force.\n\nNow the turn for real and active evil which marked a certain stage in\nhis life, came about in this way:\n\nHe had found what seemed to him a secure retreat among the mountains,\nhe had prepared and magnetized the neighborhood of his hut so that it\nwas a centre of astral force, and his right to the undivided possession\nof that spot was one of the ideas which he energized for his own\nprotection.\n\nNow the owner of the mountain where the magician lived discovered that\nthe neighborhood of his hut was a good place for hunting the wild\nanimals of that region, and soon the quiet of the magician\u2019s studies\nwas broken by the reports of the guns of the hunters, who even crossed\nwith their despised bodies the very circle which the magician had\nprepared for his own use.\n\nThis proved that he was not a very high magician, for had he made that\ncentre for a work having as object the benefit of humanity, members of\nthat humanity could not have profaned it. The retreats of the Masters\nof Compassion are secure against intrusion.\n\nIn his rage and disappointment he called down curses upon the hunters\nand upon all the region roundabout, and by his evil magic he created\nbeings who should execute his curses. He created them upon the earth\nand in the air above and in the region below the surface of the earth,\nand to each he allotted a task with fearful penalties for disobedience.\nHis use of the power he had gained was a use _positively\nforbidden_ by the Law under which the real Masters work.\n\nIt really caused the hunters to go away from that neighborhood, but the\nbeings he had called and the beings he had created remained there; for\nhe had not sufficient knowledge, or maybe not a sufficient sense of\nresponsibility for his nefarious work, to make him destroy or banish\nthem himself.\n\nAnd when he died, at the ripe age of one hundred and twelve years,\nand his will was removed from them, they still remained in a state of\nsemi-animation in the lower regions of the astral world.\n\nThen, a century or more afterwards, when the great war wave broke over\nEurope, and the evil hosts of the unseen came clamoring for their\nprey and their satisfaction, these old astral monsters awoke out of\ntheir sleep and joined themselves to them, and the whole neighborhood\nwhich the evil magician had cursed became an infected place, from the\nexhalations of those beings whose _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ had been a man\u2019s\nhatred of the people who had disturbed him in his selfish labors.\n\nI am not going to describe the process by which he had created them and\nlaid an evil spell upon a whole neighborhood, for I am determined not\nto bestow upon a selfish world any knowledge that it can use to make\nmore trouble in future. But I want you to realize that Serbia is really\na dangerous place. That is why it was chosen as the focusing point for\nthe evil onslaught of war.\n\nThe people of Serbia are brave and innocent of all this astral evil\nwhich has come upon them. They were used because the evil forces\n_could get at them_ through this region already under a curse from\nof old.\n\nThe time has come when the men of the new race must know that there are\nthings to be avoided in the astral world. If certain teachers had told\nless, this warning might not be necessary; but the world has acquired\nalready so clear a perception that there is another world within and\noutside their own, that their natural curiosity must be protected by\nwarnings not to fool with the unseen, until they have acquired such\na selfless devotion to their fellow-beings that they may explore it\nwithout being themselves infected by the poison of the snake that\nnestles there among the flowers.\n\nThe old magician has passed on into that sphere where selfish scholars\npursue their investigations unhampered by the limitations of gross\nmatter; but the full responsibility for his actions in those Serbian\nhills when he was last on earth will wait for him at the door of\nrebirth. When he comes to the world again it will be in a body which\nis itself a victim of all the plagues which he let loose there, in the\ndetermined effort to protect _himself_ against others who had as\ngood a right there as he had.\n\nStay out of Serbia till it has been cleansed of plague, you whose work\nis not connected with the specialty of plague-destruction. But those\ndoctors and other scientists who are devotedly going thither to save\nthe race from the horror that threatens it--to them shall be accorded\nall the honors and glories of war _and_ of peace, for they have\nconsented, their higher selves have consented, that they be used in the\nservice of the world.\n\nI have said before that the evil elemental beings fear the scientist;\nand though the scientists fight this plague with material means, yet\nthe force of their will and of their unselfish purpose acts beyond the\nmaterial base of their operations, extending its influence even into\nthe invisible world of which their objective minds have no knowledge,\npurifying it with vital air.\n\nYes, all honor to the scientists!\n\n _April 26._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXXII\n\n JUDAS AND TYPHON\n\n\nI HAVE spoken of the crucifixion through which the soul of the race is\npassing. Now I want to speak of the Judas who betrayed that race for\nthirty pieces of silver.\n\nReader of this book, whether you are a Jew, a Christian, a Hindoo or\na Mahometan, if you know anything at all about the initiatory process\nof the soul, you must know that the gospel drama--be it historical\nor legendary, whichever way you choose to take it--is a faithful\ndramatization of the process of initiation.\n\nAnd in that process the betrayal of Judas is an inevitable part.\nWithout it, the cup of bitterness would not be full, and the cup of\nbitterness must be full for the soul of the race, the soul of the\nindividual, the soul of the Christ.\n\n\u201cMy Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?\u201d has been on the lips of many a\nmangled soldier on this awful Calvary of the race.\n\nThe heavy cross has been borne all through the toilsome months of the\njourney from Autumn to Spring, and now in the April time the race has\nbeen nailed to the cross for the agony. The crown of thorns is on the\nbleeding brows, the nails have pierced the hands and feet, the cup of\nvinegar has been offered, and now on a million lips is the cry, \u201cEloi,\nEloi, lama Sabachthani!\u201d\n\nThe betrayal of Judas was inevitable, as the deed of Typhon was\ninevitable. Had it not been for Judas, the story would not be complete.\nHad it not been for the act of Typhon in slaying Osiris, Horus the Son\ncould not have arisen.\n\nAnd yet in the face of this I stand here--safe behind the veil of the\ninvisible, as some objectors will say--and advise the world to soften\nthe awful punishment of Judas, so far as lies in its power. For did not\nthat One himself say upon the cross, \u201c_Father, forgive them, for they\nknow not what they do_\u201d?\n\nNothing in the Sermon on the Mount, nothing in the sacred records of\nthe East, nothing in the archives of the whole world can compare with\nthose ten words for grandeur and spiritual significance: \u201cFather,\nforgive them, for they know not what they do!\u201d\n\nThey who now sin against the race, indeed know not _what_ they\ndo. They are drunk with the rage of destruction, maddened by the\nsub-consciousness of their own guilt; but _what_ they do they\ncannot know. Only the initiate souls among the Germans even vaguely\nknow what Germany has done.\n\nAnd yet I say, forgive and pity them; for their office is a terrible\none, and their suffering will be great.\n\nFear not, when your blood relations are slain by thousands, and when\nyou feel yourself also slain by spiritual participation, _the good\nmust triumph in the end_, because the race is on its upward journey.\nIts blood is not spilled in vain.\n\nDid the human race not know, when it gave the sop to Germany in the\nlast conclave, that it was Germany who would betray it? The race knew.\n\nAnd in that awful July the subconscious selves of men knew in their\nsleep that the terrible trial was at hand. Do you remember? In many a\nsensitive soul that drama was pre-enacted, before it was enacted on\nthis Calvary of the nations.\n\nThat Germany would betray the world was written in the soul of Germany;\nbut if the world should hate her with a continuing hate for that\nbetrayal, it would be a sore in the heart of the human race which would\nache for a thousand years. \u201cFather, forgive them; for they know not\nwhat they do.\u201d\n\nTo admit the necessity of evil in the cosmic scheme is not to condone\nevil. To forgive the sinner is not to minimize the sin. It is because\nof the inability of the undeveloped mind to grasp the awful law of the\n_balance of forces_ that the Guardians of the sacred knowledge\nhave been so reticent in their public utterances.\n\n\u201cIt must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the\noffense cometh,\u201d has been repeated in thousands of churches; but the\nlatter half of the sentence has been understood far better than the\nfirst half, \u201cIt _must_ needs be that offenses come.\u201d\n\nBeing what she is, Germany could not help betraying the race to this\ncrucifixion. It was written that the human race would be betrayed, and\nno nation could have done it but Germany.\n\nTyphon was obliged to slay Osiris, by the very law of his being. And\nnow Isis, the great Mother, the Womanhood of the world, wanders\nwailing up and down seeking for the fragments of the body of her\nhusband.\n\nOn the battle line for a thousand miles those fragments are scattered.\nIsis is indeed widowed.\n\nAnd as man is the type of the great Archetype, so one man stands\nthis day as the type of the Betrayer, and that man is _Wilhelm of\nGermany_.\n\nThe disease which long has eaten at his brain, a contributory cause\nof his ego-mania, was the vulnerable spot, the spot unguarded between\nthe lamps of the magic circle of Europe, where the evil forces found\nentrance. Verily, it shall be woe to him by whom this offense has come!\n\nAnd in saying that the world must not hate the nation which Evil has\nused as its servant, I am not advising sentimental weakness in the\nfinal closing of this account. The world for its own protection must\nmake it impossible that Germany should ever repeat this betrayal. The\ndetails I leave to the specialists, being a modest ghost, and speaking\nfrom my safe retreat behind the veil of the invisible.\n\n _April 27._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXXIII\n\n CROWNS OF STRAW\n\n\nIN seeking to hold back the karma of Germany, I am not seeking to upset\nthe law of justice, the law of cause and effect. On the contrary.\n\nYour studies in the law of karma have been but superficial if you have\nnot learned that time is a factor. Many a solvent firm would be thrown\ninto bankruptcy should all its creditors demand _at once_ full\npayment of their accounts. The moral and financial indebtedness of\nGermany is its awful karma. Give it a little time in which to adjust\nitself to an entirely new way of thinking.\n\nI listened to a discussion which you had with a friend the other\nday[3] in regard to the hypothesis that Germany\u2019s false assertion of\n\u201c_Deutschland \u00fcber Alles_,\u201d being so powerfully postulated, could\novercome facts; that the human race might be evolving into the era\nof mind, and that a powerful concept, however false, might make facts\nconform to it.\n\nLet us see.\n\n\nThe idea that Germany and the Germans are superior to everything else\nin the world lies so deep in the minds of that race that it will be\ndifficult to eliminate it.\n\nAs you yourself observed, there is another race known to history which\ndeclared itself to be the chosen people of God, and for that arrogant\nassumption is now scattered over the face of the earth, a homeless\npeople, no longer even a nation.\n\nThe attempt to create a thing by postulating it as already existent\nis not new. Affirmation and denial are used with telling effect by a\nmodern school of thinkers, who disregard utterly the facts of nature.\n\nNow when we disregard and deny the facts of nature, we may suspend\nthe operations of nature in ourselves to a certain degree and for\na certain time, or we may fail in so doing, and by reason of our\n_consciousness_ of our failure become more than ever the puppets\nof nature.\n\nThe Christian Science healer who fails to heal and honestly\nacknowledges his failure, may go on asserting his power in the face\nof that demonstrated failure, or he may become a complete doubter of\nhimself and of the claims of his science, or he may re-examine both in\nthe light of facts and become a real student of the mysteries of nature\nand of mind.\n\nGermany may take any one of these three courses when she has\ndemonstrated the old saying of the wisest of men, that they that take\nthe sword shall perish with the sword.\n\nDid you ever try to convince a German of a fact which he denied? I see\nthat you have. Did your proof of his mistake convince him that he could\nbe mistaken? Probably not.\n\nNow Germany has really made herself into a great nation by postulating\nher greatness and superiority in all things. Her mistake consisted in\ntrying to prove it. In trying to prove a statement you tacitly admit\nfor the time that the opposite assumption may have some base, and if\nyou are not able to demonstrate your contention you are lost--unless\nyou are a German. A German convinced against his will is of the same\nopinion still.\n\nIf facts do not bear him out, then facts are false. Now facts are not\nfalse, and Germany is not superior in all things to every other nation\non earth. She may have more guns and more soldiers than two or three\nof the other nations, that is a _fact_ which we gladly admit;\nbut superiority in guns and soldiers is only superiority in guns and\nsoldiers. It is not superiority in all things.\n\nGermany has said in effect that might is right. Well, let her prove her\nmight, and we will then discuss the right of might.\n\nSome years before I left the earth I was stronger than most men of my\nacquaintance; but if I had on that ground knocked them down and taken\ntheir watches, my own superior strength might have been useless to me\nexcept to propel my six-foot body up and down a cell in the county\njail. I might have taken the watches, but I could not have kept them,\nfor my individual might would have been out-classed by the might of the\nsociety in which I dwelt. So with Germany.\n\nMost men consider themselves superior to their friends and\nacquaintances, and are secretly annoyed that their friends and\nacquaintances do not acknowledge it. But on the strength of that\nsupposed superiority they do not generally knock their neighbors down.\n\nMy assertion of my superiority to all other men and angels does not\nmake me superior to them in anything but fatuous conceit.\n\nIf a Christian Scientist with a broken leg asserts that he has not a\nbroken leg, it does not change the fact. The strength of his assertion\nmay work in the direction of curing the defect--granted. It often does.\n\nThe conceit of Germany has called out her energy and made her material\npresent superior to her material past; but that cannot place her \u201cover\nall,\u201d unless she convinces the world of it, and the world accepts an\ninferior place. Germans are not convincing advocates, because they\nalways arouse opposition by overstating the facts in their favor, and\nin disputing the facts against them.\n\nSo little do they understand the critical minds of the more critical\nraces, that they try to convince by mere assertion, and so prejudice\ntheir case from the start.\n\nOne service Germany will have done the world; she will have hardened\nit. It is a tragic service, and one that will turn against herself.\nMany a parent by his blind brutality has made his son a greater brute\nthan he. Many a man by wounding a friend has been stabbed to the soul\nin return. The friend may be harder than before, but has he profited?\nPerhaps. Experience is an asset. Man grows by pain as well as by\npleasure. If the brutality of Germany makes the races of Europe more\nvigorous, they are the gainers--not Germany. The Doctor who gives too\nbitter medicine is sent about his business, sometimes without his fee.\n\nThere was once a \u201cmental\u201d scientist who declared that it was not\nnecessary for his daughter to practice the piano; that all she needed\nto do was to affirm that she was a pianist, and she would be one.\n\nGermany is in the position of the daughter who had acted on that\nteaching, and has become the horror of the neighborhood. She is in\ndanger of being dispossessed as a public nuisance.\n\n\nAlso an aggregation of individuals making one assertion do not\nnecessarily have an effect in proportion to their numbers.\n\nDo you remember what I wrote you about white and black magicians, that\ntwo who worked together for good had the power of four, and that two\nwho worked _together_ for evil had only the power of one and a\nhalf? Now what is Germany working for in this combined effort? Solely\nfor _herself_--exactly like the black magician.\n\nSo deep has the German conceit sunk into the German soul, that they\nreally believe that in occupying and enslaving other countries they\nwould be doing them a favor. No, I am not exaggerating. I have heard\nGermans make that humorless statement.\n\n\nLunatic asylums are full of men who assert that they are kings, and an\noccasional inmate declares himself the King of kings. These patients\nare even more fully convinced than are the Germans, who assert their\nkingship. If assertion alone can transcend fact, these men are kings.\nAre they? To themselves they are, and the Germans are just as surely\n\u201cover all\u201d as are the straw-crowned kings in the asylums.\n\nIt is useless to argue with a king in a straw crown. He has an\nirresistible argument--his crown. Can you not see it? If you do not\nsalute, he turns his back and walks away.\n\nBut even a king in a lunatic asylum may be cured and restored to a\nsane equality with his peers. That is what I hope for Germany. That is\nwhat the Masters hope--for Germany stands high in the record-book of\nthe Masters. A king in a straw crown has not lost his soul through his\nfalse assertion of kingship. He is an immortal son of God. His spirit\nis as genuine as yours or mine. His error is only temporary, and is\ngenerally caused by brooding too long over imagined wrongs and slights.\nNot unlike Germany.\n\nWhen this idea of superiority began to fester in the minds of that\nnoble people, they were not a great nation. They felt their wrongs and\nthe slights put upon them. The only escape for their wounded egoism was\ninto the world of the mind, where assertion has free play. They turned\ntheir backs and plaited their straw crowns. They were kings, and anyone\nwho did not see it was unworthy of the honor of their friendship.\n\nThen, their madness having taken a violent form, came the great doctor,\nWar, and confined them in a relatively narrow space; but the small\npeople they knocked down in their first attack of violence still lie\nprostrate from the blow. The heirs of these kings will have to pay\ndamages. The law of nations is even more just than the laws of men.\n\nWho dares to say that a State has no morals? Is a State spiritually\ninferior to a man? No more than a Planetary Spirit is inferior to a\nState. There is a cosmic morality, and whoever goes against it--whether\na State or a man--will meet the day of reckoning. Karma is a law.\n\n _April 29._\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 3: The following clauses of this paragraph, not being clear\nin the original, were rewritten by me.--_Editor._]\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXXIV\n\n THE SYLPH AND THE FATHER\n\n\nPASSING yesterday along the line where the great French army stands\nbefore its powerful opponent, and marking the spirit of courage and\naspiration which makes it seem like a long line of living light, I saw\na familiar face in the regions outside the physical.\n\nI paused, highly pleased at the encounter, and the sylph--for it was a\nsylph whom I met--paused also with a little smile of recognition.\n\nDo you recall in my former book the story of a sylph, Meriline, who\nwas the companion and familiar of a student of magic who lived in the\n_rue de Vaugirard_ in Paris?\n\nIt was Meriline that I met above the line of light which shows to\nwanderers in the astral regions where the soldiers of _la belle\nFrance_ fight and die for the same ideal which inspired _Jeanne\nd\u2019Arc_--to drive the foreigner out of France.\n\n\u201cWhere is your friend and master?\u201d I asked the sylph, and she pointed\nbelow to a trench which spoke loud its determination to conquer.\n\n\u201cI am here, to be still with him,\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cAnd can you speak to him here?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cI can always speak with him,\u201d she answered. \u201cI have been very useful\nto him--and to France.\u201d\n\n\u201cTo France?\u201d I enquired, with growing interest.\n\n\u201cOh, yes! When his commanding officer wants to know what is being\nplotted over there, he often asks my friend, and my friend asks me.\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly,\u201d I thought, \u201cthe French are an inspired people, when the\nofficers of armies ask guidance from the realm of the invisible! But\nhad not _Jeanne_ her visions?\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd how do you gain the information desired?\u201d I asked, drawing nearer\nto Meriline, who seemed more serious than when we met some years before\nin Paris.\n\n\u201cWhy,\u201d she answered, \u201cI go over there and look around me. I have\nlearned what to look for, he has taught me, and when I bring him news\nhe rewards me with more love.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd do you love him still, as of old?\u201d\n\n\u201cAs of old?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, as you did back there in Paris.\u201d\n\n\u201cTime must have passed slowly with you,\u201d said the sylph, \u201cif you call a\nfew years ago \u2018as of old\u2019.\u201d\n\n\u201cAre a few years, then, as nothing?\u201d\n\n\u201cA few years are as nothing to me,\u201d she replied. \u201cI have lived a long\ntime.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd do you know the future of your friend?\u201d I asked.\n\nA puzzled look came over the face of Meriline, and she said, slowly:\n\n\u201cI used to know everything that would happen to him, because I could\nread his will, and whatever he willed came to pass; but since we have\nbeen out here he seems to have lost his will.\u201d\n\n\u201cLost his will!\u201d I exclaimed, in surprise.\n\n\u201cYes, lost his will; for he prays continually to a great Being whom he\nloves far more than me, and he always prays one prayer, \u2018Thy will be\ndone!\u2019 It used to be his will which was always done; but now, as I say,\nhe seems to have lost his will.\u201d\n\n\u201cPerhaps,\u201d I said, \u201cit is true of the will as was once said of the\nlife, and he that loses his will shall find it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI hope he will find it soon,\u201d she answered, \u201cfor in the old days he\nwas always giving me interesting things to do, to help him achieve the\npurposes of his will, and now he only sends me over there. I don\u2019t like\n_over there_!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy not?\u201d\n\n\u201cBecause my friend is menaced by something over there.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what has his will to do with that?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy, even about that, he says all day to the great Being that he loves\nso much more than me, \u2018Thy will be done\u2019.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you think you could learn to say it, too?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cI say it after him sometimes; but I don\u2019t know what it means.\u201d\n\n\u201cHave you never heard of God?\u201d\n\n\u201cI have heard of many gods, of Isis and Osiris and Set, and of Horus,\nthe son of Osiris.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd is it to one of these that he says, \u2018Thy will be done\u2019?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, no! It is not to any of the gods that he used to call upon in his\nmagical working. This is some new god that he has found.\u201d\n\n\u201cOr the oldest of all gods that he has returned to,\u201d I suggested. \u201cWhat\ndoes he call Him?\u201d\n\n\u201cOur Father who art in heaven.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf you also should learn to say \u2018Thy will be done\u2019 to our Father who\nis in heaven,\u201d I said, \u201cit might help you toward the attainment of that\nsoul you were wanting and waiting for, when last we met in Paris.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow could our Father help me?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt was He who gave souls to men,\u201d I said.\n\nThe eyes of the sylph were brilliant with something almost human.\n\n\u201cAnd could He give a soul to me?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is said that He _can_ do anything.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen I will ask Him for a soul.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut to ask Him for a soul,\u201d I said, \u201cis not to pray the prayer your\nfriend prays.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe only says----\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, I know. Suppose you say it after him.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will, if you will tell me what it means. I like to do what my friend\ndoes.\u201d\n\n\u201cThy will be done,\u201d I said, \u201cwhen addressed to the Father in heaven,\nmeans that we give up all our desires, whether for pleasure or love or\nhappiness, or anything else, and lay all those desires at His feet,\nsacrificing all we have or hope for to Him, because we love Him more\nthan ourselves.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is a strange way to get what one desires,\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cIt is not done to get what one desires,\u201d I answered.\n\n\u201cBut what is it done for?\u201d\n\n\u201cFor love of the Father in heaven.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut I do not know the Father in heaven. What is He?\u201d\n\n\u201cHe is the Source and the Goal of the being of your friend. He is the\nOne that your friend will re-become some day, if he can forever say to\nHim, Thy will be done.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe One he will re-become?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, for when he blends his will with that of the Father in heaven,\nthe Father in heaven dwells in his heart and the two become one.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen is the Father in heaven really the Self of my friend?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe greatest philosopher could not have expressed it more truly,\u201d I\nsaid.\n\n\u201cThen indeed do I love the Father in heaven,\u201d breathed the sylph, \u201cand\nI will say now every day and all day, \u2018Thy will be done\u2019 to Him.\u201d\n\n\u201cEven if it separates you from your friend?\u201d\n\n\u201cHow can it separate me from my friend, if the Father is the Self of\nhim?\u201d\n\n\u201cI would that all angels were your equal in learning,\u201d I said.\n\nBut Meriline had turned from me in utter forgetfulness, and was saying\nover and over, with joy in her uplifted face, \u201cThy will be done! Thy\nwill be done!\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly,\u201d I said to myself, as I passed along the line, \u201che who worships\nthe Father as the Self of the beloved has already acquired a soul.\u201d\n\n _April 29._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXXV\n\n BEHIND THE DARK VEIL\n\n\nONE night, when the roar of battle was still, and the rays of the full\nmoon shone down upon trampled mud, and man-filled trench, and tender\nspring-green growing things and soft-hued flowers, I met face to face a\npowerful being in a dark mantle who passed along the line of war with\nslow, majestic steps.\n\nSeeing me he paused, and I paused also, struck by the grace of his tall\nform and the royal air of him. His face was veiled.\n\n\u201cWho are you,\u201d he said, \u201cwho walk here at this hour as if in\nmeditation?\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a man much given to meditation,\u201d I replied, \u201cand this hour seems\nfit for it.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what was the subject of your meditation?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe war below us.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what was the course of your thoughts, which my appearance\ninterrupted?\u201d\n\n\u201cMy thoughts were of peace,\u201d I said, \u201cand they were full of questions\nas to how the carnage of this war might be made to cease.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour questions were in order,\u201d the majestic being answered. \u201cPerhaps I\ncan be of help to you.\u201d\n\n\u201cWill you not unveil?\u201d I suggested, \u201cfor I like to see the faces of\nthose with whom I hold converse.\u201d\n\nHe threw back a fold of the dark covering of his head, revealing a face\nwhich I know not how to describe. Power and evil were blent in it, and\na strange beauty, both superhuman and subhuman. The face was marked as\nif by an eternity of pain and struggle; but in the eyes was a light of\nwill which startled me by its force.\n\n\u201cWho are _you_?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cWhat matter who I am?\u201d he replied. \u201cI am one who can solve the problem\nof your meditations.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou do not look like an angel of peace,\u201d I said, \u201cbut rather like one\nwho has seen much war of his own making.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is for that reason that I am competent to speak of peace. What do\nthe peaceful know of peace? Only the warrior knows the meaning of that\nword.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will listen,\u201d I said, \u201cto whatever you have to say; for I recognize\nthat you know something of the Law.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am one of the executors of the Law,\u201d he answered, \u201cand I have a plan\nfor bringing peace to the world.\u201d\n\n\u201cWill you state that plan?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is for that I came out here to meet you,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cAnd how did you learn of me?\u201d\n\n\u201cI know all the strong workers and many of the weak ones. You are a\npowerful worker.\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly you do me too much honor,\u201d I said, \u201cfor I am only a humble\nsoldier in the army of the Law\u2019s executants.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe modesty of the great,\u201d he observed, while he eyed me closely to\nsee the effect of his words.\n\n\u201cWhoever you are,\u201d I said, \u201cand I perceive that you are something\nunusual, know that my interest in my own stature is no longer paramount\nwith me.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is for that reason that you may be used in the interest of peace.\u201d\n\n\u201cContinue,\u201d I requested.\n\nHe regarded me for a time with brilliant, questioning eyes, and then he\nasked:\n\n\u201cYou are weary of war, of the labor of war?\u201d\n\n\u201cI am weary with my sympathy for those who suffer.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you would like to end their suffering?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt seems to me at times,\u201d I said, more to myself than to him, \u201cthat I\nwould gladly give my life, if by so doing I could shorten the horrors\ndown here.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour life? And what do you mean by your life!\u201d\n\n\u201cI mean my consciousness of freedom, my freedom of consciousness.\u201d\n\n\u201cA good definition of the life of such as you,\u201d he observed. \u201cAnd would\nyou really sacrifice that life for the world?\u201d\n\n\u201cMost gladly, if by so doing I could save the world.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt might be possible,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cWill you speak more plainly?\u201d I demanded. \u201cYou seem to me to be\nfeeling your way to some statement of importance.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat can be more important,\u201d he returned, \u201cthan the sacrifice of such\na life as yours for the world?\u201d\n\n\u201cGo on.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is a way,\u201d he said, \u201cby which your sacrifice of what you call\n\u2018the consciousness of freedom and the freedom of consciousness\u2019 might\nsave those men down there from further pain.\u201d\n\n\u201cAgain I repeat, go on.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt lies in my power,\u201d he said, coming nearer and regarding me fixedly\nwith his glowing eyes, \u201cit lies in my power so to work upon the minds\nof the opposing armies, the armies on both sides, that they will refuse\nto fight any longer.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd betray their countries?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cAnd bring peace,\u201d he corrected me.\n\n\u201cAnd what have I to do with it?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou might have much to do with it.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour words are still dark to me,\u201d I said.\n\n\u201cThen I will make them clearer,\u201d he replied. \u201cIn order for you to\nunderstand my meaning, it is necessary that I explain myself. I am one\nof those who serve the good by opposing the good, and thus giving it\ngreater activity.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo I had observed. Will you now state in clear words what purpose you\nhave with me?\u201d\n\n\u201cMy purpose is to make you a proposition. If you wish this carnage to\ncease--and already it has gone on long enough to serve the purpose\nwhich I serve, to soak the world with blood, to destroy that which a\ndecade of labor will be too brief to rebuild, to awaken all the hatred\nand other evil passions which nest in the hearts of men--if you wish\nthis carnage to cease, I have the means by which it can be made to\ncease.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd where do I come in?\u201d\n\n\u201cI have long observed you,\u201d he said, \u201cobserved your diligence in\napplying the principles given you by your Teacher.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen why did you ask me who I was, a little while ago?\u201d\n\n\u201cOnly as a preliminary to further conversation.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh!\u201d I said.\n\n\u201cI have observed you,\u201d he repeated, \u201cand realized that with your power\nand attainments you might be of greater service if you should shift\nyour allegiance and join us. Your consciousness of freedom would be\neven greater.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut that consciousness of freedom was my definition of life! I suppose\nyou would say, in adjusting your argument to the limitations of my\nmind, that in losing my life I should find it.\u201d\n\nA slight smile curved the lined features of the being before me.\n\n\u201cYou would be always an entertaining companion,\u201d he said. \u201cThink twice\nbefore you decline my proposition.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn your proposed agreement,\u201d I replied, \u201cyou do not state clearly the\nconsideration. I am an old lawyer, and a stickler for forms.\u201d\n\nThere was no smile now on his face, as he said to me:\n\n\u201cIf you will transfer your allegiance to us, I will bring this war to\nan end.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd could you?\u201d\n\n\u201cI could.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow?\u201d\n\n\u201cI have already stated how.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut the medicine you propose would be worse than the disease, even\nassuming, which I deny, that the patient would swallow it.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut would you not make the sacrifice, if I proved to you that I could\nmake good my end of the bargain?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen surely you care little for the world!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou argue like a German propagandist,\u201d I said.\n\n\u201cYou mean that they argue like me,\u201d he corrected.\n\n\u201cI have wondered,\u201d I said, \u201cin what school of logic they were trained.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you refuse my proposition?\u201d\n\n\u201cI wonder you should take the trouble to make it.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy call that a trouble which gives me the pleasure of your society?\u201d\n\n\u201cI have already heard,\u201d I said, \u201cthat the devil was a great flatterer.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe devil has great tact.\u201d\n\nWe stood looking at each other, measuring each other. He was an\ninteresting study.\n\n\u201cDropping for the moment,\u201d I said, \u201cour differences of purpose and\nideal, and speaking merely as two minds--\u201d\n\n\u201cEqual in brilliancy,\u201d he interrupted.\n\n\u201cSpeaking as two minds,\u201d I continued, \u201cwill you not tell me why you\nplayed upon my love for the world, my willingness to sacrifice myself\nfor the world, in your attempt to win me to your standard?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat else could I play upon?\u201d\n\n\u201cSurely I must have some fault, some hidden sin, through which your\nsubtle mind could have thought to reach me.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh,\u201d he said, \u201cI am too wise to tempt you through your hidden faults,\nfor you are determined to conquer them! You could not be thrown off\nthe track that way. Only those young on your path are easily conquered\nthrough their faults. The greater souls we attack through their\nvirtues.\u201d\n\n\u201cContinue,\u201d I said, \u201cfor truly you interest me.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is said in the world,\u201d he went on, \u201cthat there is more than one way\nto skin a cat. There is also more than one way to get rid of a worker\nfor the Teachers whom you follow. When we cannot deflect a worker\nthrough his evil passions, his hatred, anger, avarice, lust, jealousy\nor fear, we are sometimes able to weaken him through his good passions,\nhis love, his loyalty, or his self-sacrifice.\u201d\n\n\u201cThank you for your confidence,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd now I will wish you good\nevening.\u201d\n\nAs I passed along the line I murmured to myself:\n\n\u201cTruly is the serpent more subtle than any beast of the field, and man\nneeds all his wisdom to stand against him.\u201d\n\n _May 1._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXXVI\n\n THE \u201cLUSITANIA\u201d\n\n (_This letter was written on the 7th of May, at 10.30 A.M., New\n York time, one hour after the sinking of the Lusitania, and nine hours\n before the writer knew of it._)\n\n\nAND still they press forward against us--the menacing powers of\ndarkness and evil, seeking to vent their rage against the world and to\nglut themselves on the blood of the slain.\n\nI have not been near you for a few days because I have had no time.\nDid you fancy that I had escaped time? Not yet. Had I escaped time,\nI could not speak thus to the world in the grip of time. Had I quite\ntranscended space, your room could not hold me.\n\nDuring the six days that you have not seen me I have been here, there\nand everywhere in Europe--even in Asia have I been, for the attack is\nworld-wide.\n\nA little while ago I told you that we had driven back the forces of\nevil. They have rallied and come forward again, not quite as strong,\nbut more desperate and more frenzied.\n\nThey seek now to embroil the United States, and the whole continent of\nthe old dead race that fed them on blood by magical rites ages ago,\nthat continent where the new race has to be born when this prolonged\nlabor is over.\n\nHad I remembered the Law of Rhythm I should have known that the tide of\nevil would flow back again, and that we should have to struggle with it\na second time. It may even now gather fresh force and renew the attack,\na little weaker still.\n\nThe evil beings whom we have slain are slain, they can trouble us no\nmore for a time; but the slain are few beside the many still active.\nHelp us with your thoughts.\n\nMany of our friends in the world have staggered and grown weary during\nthe last few days. Do not you!\n\nAs thy day, so shall thy strength be, O World that we struggle for, and\nfor which we shall win in the end the crown of peace and brotherhood!\n\nAs I have said before, the world is in the throes of an initiatory\nceremony. The trial by water, the trial by air, the trial by fire--all\nthese must the world go through before it can take its place among the\ninitiates of the stellar hierarchies. There is no drawing back now, and\nthe world must not fail. Should it fail there would soon be a vacant\nplace in the circles of the Zodiac. But the world will not fail.\n\nAgain have I met with the evil being of whom I wrote at the beginning\nof these letters. He is lashing himself in fury now, drunk with the\npower of his place. Ere his hour draws near, he is hot to assert\nhimself.\n\nThe climax is approaching, and if I visit you less often than before,\nit is because I cannot leave my place so often.\n\nNever falter in courage. Your faith shall be the evidence of things\nstill unseen--as it has been before.\n\nThis second struggle with the powers of darkness will leave us stronger\nand leave them weaker.\n\n_I know many things which I cannot tell you_, for you are not\nstrong enough to receive them; but remember this--the Law of Rhythm\nholds, it is the Law of laws, and after this storm will come a\ncorresponding calm, after this agony a rest in the quiet of love. When\nhate has spent itself, then love can have its way.\n\nDo you not hate, but stand steady, merely withstanding attacks. Do\nnot waste your strength. It will be needed by and by. If we use you\nsometimes as a material base on which to plant our etheric feet for a\ngreater spring into space, remember that you offered yourself for the\nservice of the world, and the service has been accepted.\n\nThis is no time to talk of reward, but the law of justice is behind the\nworld.\n\nSo far as possible, strengthen those who suffer too much, and we will\nstrengthen you. The angels you saw last night are the bodyguard of the\nMasters\u2019 servants. As thy day, so shall thy strength be.\n\nI will give you a formula for use in time of stress and storm: Reach\nup to the indwelling Spirit and repeat, \u201cFor her ways are ways of\npleasantness, and all her paths are peace.\u201d\n\nIt is only in contact with mind, with desire and with matter, that the\nSpirit struggles and suffers. In its own home all is peaceful and\npleasant. Reach up to that home when the storms are too loud, and you\nwill find a place of silence.\n\nDo not let go your hold upon the body. You could no longer be used as\na material base should you loosen your hold on the material, and those\nwho come to live altogether in the astral world just now have a hard\ntime at first.\n\nBe calm and poised and sure. Be not a quicksand but a rock.\n\nThat is all for the present.\n\nThis little time of writing has rested me as well as you, and I will\nreturn.\n\n _May 7._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXXVII\n\n VEILED PROPHECIES\n\n\nIF you were less easily startled, less easily thrown out of the\nnegative condition in which only you can take down my words, less\neasily thrown back by shock into your normal objective consciousness, I\ncould have told you yesterday that the _Lusitania_ had gone down,\ninstead of merely hinting at disaster.\n\nYou are quite right always to stop the writing the moment your own\nbrain begins to work; but you can see that it limits us in the giving\nof definite news.\n\nWe were near that ship when it went down, several of us, including the\none whom we call the Beautiful Being.\n\nHold steady now. That is the only advice I am offering you, save only\nto remain in America for the present. The good you could do in England\nnow is outweighed by something else which you will understand before\nthe middle of August.[4]\n\nIf you look up the letter in which I told you that a great Being of\nThought had passed along the German line telling those who could\nunderstand that their cause was lost, you will see that I said to\nwatch for the result. The result is this desperate and frenzied attack\neverywhere by that nation.\n\nMay 15th is a significant date.[5] No, I tell you no more than that.\n\nThe powers of good will not fail.\n\nYou will have disturbing news from Europe before long. Hold quiet\nthrough everything. We have done and are doing our best.\n\nThank you for what you have done for my friend and pupil. * * * Also\nthere is another thing you can do for us. * * *\n\nThere is much that you do not understand, but that we understand. The\nroad of initiation is a hard road for all. Love one another, you who\ntry to tread it. It makes the way easier.\n\n _May 8._\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 4: Extraordinarily verified on the fourteenth of\nAugust.--_Editor._]\n\n[Footnote 5: Date of the reception by Germany of the United States note\non the sinking of the _Lusitania_, and also of the demonstrations\nin Italy which precipitated the entry of that country into the\nwar.--_Editor._]\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXXVIII\n\n ADVICE TO A SCRIBE\n\n\nYOU can be of more use to us if you do not allow yourself to be crushed\nby the sadness of the world at this crisis through which the world is\npassing.\n\nEach day rise to the plane of the spirit, above the physical world,\nbeyond the desires of the astral world, beyond the lower stratum of\nmind, up and up to the Source of all life and all wisdom.\n\nSet apart some time every day for this exercise. Use the Hebrew formula\nwhich you have used before, and use it with power, in connection\nwith the yoga practice in which you are versed. This combining of\ntwo systems makes for strength, because it avoids the limitation of\ntoo closely identifying the Self with one race or one period. Occult\ndevelopment, occult power, is of all times and all races. The knowledge\nof the new race about to be ushered in will include all the systems of\nthe past, taking from each the special thing in which it surpasses the\nothers.\n\nDo not sink again into that slough of depression from which I called\nyou this day. It is not necessary for you to die a thousand times in\norder to know death. It seems to me that you have gone deep enough into\nthe woe of the world. Now rise to a corresponding height.\n\nYour sympathy will be no less tender if you do not die of sympathy\nevery day.\n\nYour real work comes after the war, when the world can and will listen\nto the teaching of brotherhood. Do not perish beforehand is my advice,\nand the advice of my Teacher through me.\n\nThe Teachers are very grave in this crisis, but they are not crushed to\nearth. They know that after the storm comes the calm and their faith\nhas survived.\n\nIn the awful depression in which you have been sunk for the last few\ndays, how could you help anyone? It is not for you to ask help from\nothers, but only from us. You know where we are. It is for you to\nrevive the drooping spirits and the drooping faith of those who have\nnot received the assurances which you have received.\n\nThis letter is not a reproof, but a lesson. I would not have you retire\nto a selfish peace above the tumult and stay there, forgetting the\nworld. I do not forget the world. I work by day and by night. But what\nhelp could I be to these war-shocked souls that come out here should I\nweep when I encounter them? No help at all should I be. Instead, I seek\nto strengthen them with my strength, to encourage them with my hope.\n\nI do not mean, when I say that your work begins after the war, that\nyou can do nothing now. Far from it. You can do much, in both worlds.\nBut if you die of the wounds you behold out here, if you are caught\nyourself in the whirlpool of despair, how can you draw others out of it?\n\nI cannot repeat too often that this war is the world\u2019s initiation. It\nwill be a new and an enlightened world which will rise from the ashes\nof the old one--a ph\u0153nix of a world, and I want you to rise with it.\n\nThe agony cannot endure forever. It is too intense just now, which\nmeans that the climax is approaching.\n\nWhen I told you that the issue was settled here, I did not mean that\nthe war would end in a day or two. Study cause and effect. Study the\nrise and fall of everything according to cyclic law. The tidal wave\nmust spend itself on the shore before it subsides again into the sea.\n\nBe calm. Keep faith with those whose task it is to uphold the faith of\nmankind.\n\nWhen you say that you want to suffer as long as the world suffers, you\nare speaking as our pupil, and we would not have it otherwise. But\nremember that one may be strong in suffering. We would not have you\nshirk the experience; but master and use the experience, instead of\nletting it master and use you.\n\nIn regard to America, did I not tell you some time ago that there was\n\u201can American on guard to-night,\u201d old Abraham Lincoln, who renounced\nheaven that he might watch over and guard the land he died for? Rest in\nconfidence on that assurance.\n\nThe other countries that you love are watched over also. And another\ncountry which you do not love is watched over, lest it wander so far\nthat it cannot find its way back into the fold of human brotherhood.\nThere are souls in that country who are keenly aware that she has gone\nas far as she safely may without becoming an outlaw among the nations.\nThere are even Germans in America who know it. If I named a few of\nthem, you might be surprised.\n\nIt is well that Germans in America should _feel_ the American\nrepudiation of this latest piracy on the high seas. Let them feel it to\nthe quick. They can learn in no other way.\n\nDo you fancy that in writing through your hand this book to be\npublished after the war, I am impressing my thought only upon you? I am\nimpressing others besides you.\n\nA few days after I wrote you that Abraham Lincoln was on guard, a\nnewspaper cartoonist published a drawing of the ghost of the great\nLincoln standing behind President Wilson. Did you think it was a mere\ncoincidence? It was not a mere coincidence. I impress my thought, and\nthe thought of the Masters behind me, on other minds than yours. I am a\n_worker_ in the astral world. To impress the minds of men is one\nof the duties assigned me. I go here and there where I am needed; but\nI have not written anywhere else as I have written through you. I have\ntried to, but with very indifferent success. An accurate amanuensis\nbetween the worlds is rare. They have to be trained to distinguish\nbetween the thoughts of the dictator and the thoughts of their own\nminds, objective and subjective, also between these and the thoughts of\nirresponsible entities who like to have a finger in the earthly pie.\n\nYou wonder why I do not tell you more stories? I will tell you a story\non my next visit.\n\n _May 11._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XXXIX\n\n ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES\n\n\nTHE story I have to tell you is a sad one, but we are writing of war.\n\nIt was three days after the _Lusitania_ went down. Leaving the\nplains and hills of war-harried France, I had come out across the\nwaters to serve where service was most needed at the moment.\n\nDrawing near to the scene of the disaster, I met a child-soul who\nwandered up and down looking for something which it could not find--a\ngirl-child of maybe a dozen years, with troubled and bewildered eyes.\n\n\u201cCan I help you?\u201d I asked, taking her by the hand, so that she ceased\nher restless moving to and fro and paused with me.\n\n\u201cI have lost my mother,\u201d she said. \u201cWhere is my mother?\u201d\n\n\u201cI do not know,\u201d I answered, \u201cbut we will look for her.\u201d\n\nIt is not always easy for a bewildered soul to find in the astral\nworld another soul whom it seeks, though it is sometimes very easy\nfor a calm soul to find another. As on earth, the one we look for with\nturmoil in our hearts seems to be held away from us by invisible hands.\n\nPassing along with the child, I met many others equally bewildered. All\nwere looking for someone or for something.\n\n\u201cWhy are we here?\u201d asked the child. \u201cI thought we were going to London.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you not know that you have been drowned?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cDid I really drown when I was in the water?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cI thought it was a dream, for I have been asleep.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, you have been asleep, but the drowning was no dream.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen where am I?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are in the other world.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe other world! But I thought the other world was heaven.\u201d\n\n\u201cHeaven is also in the other world.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou do not mean that I have gone to the bad place?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, you have not gone to the darkest place,\u201d I said, \u201cand you will\nfind your way to heaven by and by.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut why was I drowned? Why did the ship go down? It was such a\nbeautiful ship, and we were so happy playing about the decks!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou were drowned because Germany is at war with England.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut why should they drown me?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn an attempt to prove that England does not hold the seas.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut what has that to do with me?\u201d\n\n\u201cNothing, my child. It has nothing to do with you. You are only a\nhelpless victim.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut _who_ drowned us?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe commander of a submarine.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs he a very bad man?\u201d\n\n\u201cI cannot imagine a good man doing it.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd why can\u2019t I find my mother? Was she drowned, too?\u201d\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know yet.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen you don\u2019t know everything?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, I don\u2019t know everything.\u201d\n\n\u201cAre you an angel?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, I am not an angel.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat are you, then?\u201d\n\n\u201cA man.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd were you drowned, also?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, I came to the other world more than three years ago.\u201d\n\nThe child began to cry. Did you suppose that children never cried after\ndeath? Dead children often cry. Would you not cry at the thought of\nbeing drowned, if you woke and could not find your mother?\n\nI too could have cried with the child, for I have had children of my\nown, and one of them died young.\n\n\u201cHave I been very bad without knowing it, that I should be drowned like\nthis?\u201d asked the little girl.\n\n\u201cNo, I do not think that you have been very bad.\u201d\n\nAs we passed across the rough waters we saw the corpse of a woman\nfloating face upwards in the pale light. The child could see it dimly,\nthough not so well as I.\n\nHave you ever seen a living child weeping over the soulless corpse of\nits mother? If that seemed sad to you, would it not seem sadder to see\nthe living _soul_ of a child weeping over the corpse of a mother\nwhose soul was absent? To me it was the most pitiful of all sad sights.\n\n\u201cCome away, little one,\u201d I said, \u201cyour mother is not here.\u201d\n\nA little farther on we saw the body of a child also floating face\nupwards in the pale light. I knew whose body it was, and so did the\nchild.\n\n\u201cWhy, it isn\u2019t pretty any more!\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cCome away, little one,\u201d I repeated, \u201ccome and look for the mother.\u201d\n\nBut she seemed held fast near the floating thing in the water. No, it\nwas not pretty; but the soul beside me was very beautiful for all its\nsadness.\n\n\u201cWhat will become of _it_?\u201d she asked, awestruck.\n\n\u201cI do not know.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you think they will bury it somewhere?\u201d\n\n\u201cIf they find it they will bury it.\u201d\n\n\u201cCould you not tell them where it is?\u201d\n\n\u201cIf we wait to look for them, we may not find the mother.\u201d\n\nWe met many women passing to and fro over the water, mothers looking\nfor their children, wives seeking their husbands, some seeking their\nown lost forms, others merely passing to and fro in bewilderment and\ngrief.\n\n\u201cIt is very sad to die,\u201d said the child.\n\n\u201cIt is not always sad to die,\u201d I answered. \u201cIt is sometimes beautiful\nto die.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere is the man who drowned us?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy, do you want to see him?\u201d\n\n\u201cI want him to see me.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe will see you his life-long in dreams,\u201d I said, \u201cwhether he lives to\nbe old, or dies tomorrow.\u201d\n\nComing toward us across the sea was the form of a woman wringing vapory\nhands.\n\n\u201cWhere is my child? Where is my child?\u201d she was saying over and over.\n\n\u201cMother, I am here!\u201d cried the little girl, and the two forms melted in\na close embrace.\n\n\u201cI have found you! I have found you!\u201d the mother and child repeated\nover and over, as they clung together.\n\nI remained near them a little while, for I wanted to help them to free\nthemselves from the sadness of their fate.\n\n\u201cWill you not come with me?\u201d I asked them, when they could listen.\n\n\u201cBut where shall we go?\u201d\n\n\u201cAway from here.\u201d\n\n\u201cI want to go home,\u201d said the child.\n\n\u201cWe are homeless now,\u201d the mother answered; \u201cwe are in the other world.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen you also know what has happened?\u201d I asked her.\n\n\u201cOh, yes, I know, I know!\u201d\n\n\u201cWill you not come away with me?\u201d I repeated.\n\n\u201cAre you an angel?\u201d asked the mother, even as the child had asked.\n\nI told her who I was and what I was doing there.\n\n\u201cIs there no help for us?\u201d she asked.\n\n\u201cIt is to help you that I have come.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut where shall we go?\u201d\n\n\u201cAnywhere, away from here.\u201d\n\nAs we stood talking together, another woman came toward us looking for\na lost child; another child--not hers--came toward us looking for a\nlost mother.\n\nI am willing to tell you that I did not well know what to do with\nall these stricken souls. Where _could_ I take them for rest or\ncomfort?\n\nThe whole astral region around the earth is full of sadness and crying.\nOnly the strongest and most resolute souls can get far enough away\nto escape the gloom and the horror. And these newly arrived ones have\nnot the strength; for you must know that in this world we go where our\ndesires and our thoughts go, and we go with our fears and our griefs.\n\nI led the mother and child to another part of the world, and left\nthem with others in the care of two ministering older souls who have\ngiven themselves to this sad work. But as one cannot teach a child the\ndifferential calculus, so we cannot take to the lofty regions of peace\nthose beings in whose hearts there is no peace.\n\nI shall ask the advice of the Teacher as to how much I should tell the\nworld of the awful conditions around us.\n\nEven the restoration of peace on earth will not immediately purge the\nastral world of the sores of war. You think that you suffer--and I\nknow better than anyone else how much; but you can escape into the\nmaterial world, you can walk on the green hills in the sunshine, you\ncan rise occasionally to the place of spiritual calm above the conflict\nastral and material. These millions of grieving ones cannot go back to\nthe physical, and few of them can yet rise to the spiritual. Their\nimmediate future is a problem for the greatest of the Masters, a\nproblem that taxes the wisdom of the Masters of wisdom.\n\nHold steady, you for whom there is another day of anxiety not far off.\nHold steady; for though you may not realize it, I to whom you look for\nstrength find also strength in you. That is a mystery which I may or\nmay not explain by and by. You are a solid platform from which I can\nspring, when I need the force of a material base. I shall not over-use\nit.\n\nIf you are unable to stand the strain, alone as you are now, you may\ncommunicate with my son; but do that only as a last resort. You must\nlearn to stand alone.\n\nIn my other writing the strain on you was far less, the demand on you\nfar less, the need of your strength far less. You could not have done\nthen what you are doing now, nor could I have done then what I am doing\nnow.\n\nAgain I say, hold steady.\n\nThe wounds, the tortured faces which you see at night, the pitiful\nappeals for help which you try to answer, are only typical of what we\nsee and try to help, nightly, daily and hourly.\n\nI have used the actual substance of your etheric body to build myself\nan optical instrument, through which I can see into the sun-lighted\nworld--your world. You will suffer no injury in the long run for this\nloan that you have made me. Have you not pledged yourself to the\nservice of mankind? Mankind are out here as well as in there, and the\neyes I have built of your substance have enabled me to do service which\notherwise I could not have done.\n\nCount that with your good karma.\n\n _May 13._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XL\n\n THE HEIGHT AND THE DEPTH\n\n\nDO not lose faith in the future of the world.\n\nHave you not studied the Law of Rhythm? Do you not know that the height\nis equal to the depth, and that when things are at their worst they are\ngetting ready to improve?\n\nLife moves rapidly in these Twentieth Century days. A thousand years\nago it would have taken a decade to accomplish the horrors of the last\nten months. Perhaps the reconstruction will be equally rapid.\n\nDo not lose faith in the future of the world.\n\nThere are even Germans who repudiate the sinking of the\n_Lusitania_! All is not well in that Empire, from the standpoint\nof the Empire.\n\nBe poised, and await the issue.\n\n _May 14._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XLI\n\n A CONCLAVE OF MASTERS\n\n\nSOME day the races of men will return to the love which they have now\nforgotten. Some day German and English, Italian and Austrian, French\nand Turkish, will all sit together at the banquet table of life and\ndrink to the health, not to the death, of one another.\n\nAnd that day is not so far distant as the present hate and slaughter\nwould indicate.\n\nThere is peace after strife, and love after hate, and sunshine after\nthe storm.\n\nLove and hate! To know the one you must have seen the other. Surely I\nneed not tell _you_ this! What did you know of love till you had\nbeen hated?\n\nLove and hate are the twin-born children of emotion.\n\nSome day men will look for their enemies _within themselves_; some\nday men will fight the evil in themselves, and then they will not need\nto slay their brothers. Some day love will re-establish itself upon\nthe pedestal of the world, and hate will return to the shades.\n\nI have told you of the evil beings who brought about this war. There\nare also loving beings who long to do away with war between brother and\nbrother.\n\nTo-night in the spaces above the world there is a strange quiet. Is it\nthe quiet before the storm, or the quiet after the storm? It is all\nrhythmic. Be poised and wait, trusting in God.\n\nSome storms clear the air. The present thunder and lightning will clear\nthe air. Yes, the world has been too sultry, and the atmosphere had to\nbe broken.\n\nDo not cry out, do not weep, do not laugh. Be quiet, and trust in God.\n\nWhat do I mean by God? Look deep in your heart and see I AM THAT I AM.\n\nIn the childhood of the world men believed in a Power beyond\nthemselves. Now in the maturity of the world men believe in a Power\n_within_ and beyond themselves. That is God, I AM THAT I AM!\n\nSeek the high place of the Spirit and prepare yourself for the service\nof the world. The Spirit is crucified on the cross of the world.\nChrist clothes himself in matter that he may raise it. Love wears the\ngarment of hate, that love and hate may become one.\n\nWhat do I mean? Do you not know that love and hate are One Thing--the\neternal opposites that complete each other?\n\nWhen hate rests, love comes into its own. When love rested, hate came\ninto its own. This night do hate and love unite. Find out my meaning if\nyou can. Look in the glass of visions and find the picture there.\n\nThe uniting of love and hate! There is a _neutral_ point where the\ntwo join hands.\n\nThere is a council held this night among those who serve the world--a\nconclave of Masters. At what hour, you ask? Go to sleep, and learn the\nhour. If you are still enough, you may listen at the keyhole. If you\nare not still enough, you will hear nothing.\n\nDo I seem to write strangely to-night? All things are strange to-night,\nif by strange you mean unusual.\n\nBe still, and know that God dwells in the hearts of all men, though in\nsome He lies asleep. For the God in you will sleep until you awake Him.\n\n\u201cThis is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.\u201d\n\nLove your enemies, even when they smite you; for the God is asleep in\nthose who smite with hate.\n\nYou will never understand your enemy by hating him. You will never\nunderstand the Masters until the love and hate in you unite.\n\nOn the declaration of peace your love will flow out again to your\nenemy. Can you not anticipate the event, and love your enemy to-night?\nThe enemy needs love when he shows least of it. Be still, and know that\nthe world is the footstool of the Spirit.\n\nHate will not serve you. Hate never serves willingly. Remember the\nwords of the Man-God, \u201cForgive them; for they know not what they do.\u201d\n\nGo to sleep now, and listen at the keyhole of the Masters\u2019\ncouncil-room. You may hear things that you cannot tell the world.\n\n _May 14._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XLII\n\n A LESSON IN THE KABALA\n\n\nSHALL I repeat to you what you saw in your vision of last night--the\nraces of earth as the Sephiroth on the Kabalistic Tree of Life?\n\nYou know more of the Kabala than I do; but you would never have known\nthe Kabalistic correspondences of the nations had they not been pointed\nout to you by the Teacher.\n\nIt is true that Germany (_Geburah_, _Mars_, _Severity_,\n_Pachad_) has become so extremely severe and Martian that the\nwelfare of the whole Tree is threatened, the balance is upset; and\nit is through the strength of the United States, shown by a certain\nYetziratic Path, and through the prudence of the United States in\nrelation to another Sephira which represents the British Empire, that\njustice may be reestablished between Britain and Germany.\n\nThe Teacher has been instructing me in the Kabala.\n\nAnd you also see by that vision the part which the United States has\nto take in the future of the world--that of _Chesed_, Mercy. That\nis the keynote of the Sixth Race, and Germany thought to establish\nit--the Sixth Race--in herself by blood and iron! What folly and\nshort-sightedness!\n\nYou need not tell the world where the other races were on the Tree of\nLife in your vision, save that the Three Supernals are not represented\nby races on this material plane. That much you may state, on my\nauthority, lest some German Kabalist should claim for the Teutonic race\nthe place of _Kether_. No, the Three Supernals are not represented\non the material plane.\n\n\nWatch and pray that America may be guided aright. So far, she has\nbeen so guided. The great soul of Abraham Lincoln was with President\nWilson during those days of retirement. Did I not tell you that he had\nrenounced rest that he might watch over the land he died for, _when\nthe day of her own great trial came_?\n\nI shall tell you no more than my judgment dictates, day by day.\n\nIt is well that you were able to rise to the plane of that vision, lest\nyou should become too warlike.\n\nNow pray that the hands of the President may be upheld, and that his\nsoul may be strengthened by the living soul of America\u2019s greatest son,\nAbraham Lincoln.\n\nThe future is on the laps of the gods.\n\n _May 15._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XLIII\n\n THE SECOND COMING\n\n\nTO those who have suffered in this war, either from wounds of the body\nor wounds of the soul, it has sometimes seemed that the Christ of the\nChristian world had turned His back and gone away, perhaps to some\nother star where His teaching could be understood and His law of love\nbecome a real influence in the lives and hearts of men.\n\nBut the Christ who died to teach men how to live has not left the world\nin this its hour of trial.\n\nHe is the same Christ of love and compassion; and whoever attempts to\nput in His place a Christ of hate and pitilessness, blasphemes His\nsacred name, and will one day pay the awful penalty of that blasphemy.\n\nI have seen face to face the Christ who walked the world in Galilee.\nAre you startled, you Christians who hope to see Christ when _you_\ndie? Why should I not see Him? Have I not served, in life and in\ndeath? Am I not serving now, to the best of my individual power? Yes, I\nhave seen the Christ.\n\nLook for Him to come again \u201cin the clouds of heaven with power and\ngreat glory,\u201d though He may not walk the earth again in material form.\nWhat need is there for Him to walk the earth now in a mortal body, when\nmore and more men and women are opening their spiritual sight, so that\nthey can see Him while still held in their robes of flesh?\n\nI have told you of the Beautiful Being on the battlefields, and now I\nwant to tell you of the Christ on the Battlefields.\n\nHe was never afraid of pain, that son of Light, who showed the way of\npain to the shrinking souls of men. The cross of Christ is a living\nthing, and its power will be felt more and more as the tired world\nrecovers itself after its baptism of blood.\n\nWhen the half-gods go the gods arrive. When Mars, the half-god, the\nwar-god, is sent back to his place, the god of love and pity can make\nHimself seen in the hearts of men and women.\n\nThey are wise who hope for the Christian faith a renaissance of life.\nIt had grown old and indifferent. Thinking itself saved, it had\nforgotten to save the world. Feeling itself secure, it let its security\nbe surprised by Mars, the war-god.\n\nMany a soul in its last hour of agony has seen the Christ; many a\nsoul in France, in Belgium, in Poland, and on the war-rocked sea has\nrecognized the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.\n\nMany a mother has seen in true vision her dying son held up by the\nChrist. Catholic, Protestant, \u201cfree-thinker,\u201d they all have called on\nthe Son of Mary to comfort their sons in the last dread moment and\nbeyond.\n\nFrom the shrieking hell in Belgium I yesterday saw a man, a common\nsoldier, go straight from death into the high place beyond even astral\nturmoil, because in dying he called on the Christ of his mother\u2019s faith\nto take him away from strife to the heaven of peace above the world.\nMany have gone that way since this trial by fire began, but more have\nremained below. Few have faith enough for the great flight.\n\nWhatever religion you work with, let it include the Christ and the\ncross of Christ! What other comfort is there for the soul that\n_feels_ its pain and feels the awful sum of the world\u2019s pain at\nthis time? Philosophy is good, I have called myself a philosopher; but\nlove is the highest reach of philosophy, and Christ is the highest\nreach of love.\n\nThey talk of a new religion, as if the love of Christ were an old and\nworn-out love. The love of Christ is reborn whenever a soul in a flash\nof illumination beholds that mystery in his heart.\n\nWorship the Christ in your own heart, for He is there. Worship Him in\nthe heart of your friend, for He is there. Worship Him in the heart of\nyour enemy, for He is also there. Then slay if you can, when you know\n_whom_ you seek to slay.\n\nA new spirit has entered the hearts of the soldiers. They fight on, but\nthey have been told in dreams that they fight their brethren.\n\nMurderers on the high seas, pirates under the eagle, they too are your\nbrothers. \u201cForgive them; for they know not what they do.\u201d Conquer them,\nbecause you must; but do not forget that they are your brothers.\n\nThe Christ who hovers over the battlefields carries no flag. He is the\nfirst of the neutrals, because he loves all, even the pirates under\nthe eagle and the murderers on the high seas. The Roman soldiers on\nGolgotha were not execrated by Him.\n\nWhen He took upon himself the limitations of the flesh, He understood\nlimitation by transcending it. We can never understand any limitation\nuntil we transcend it.\n\nWho should know better than He the agony of torn flesh and broken bones\nand mangled nerves? Can the wounded soldiers teach Him anything? Can\nthe betrayed world give Him advice in settling with its Judas? \u201cThat\nthou doest, do quickly.\u201d\n\nThe betrayer of the world has hanged himself already in his excess of\nzeal. When his effigy was burned in Rome, do not think that he did not\nfeel the fire. He felt it. The supreme War Lord has had one moment of\nsanity. Yesterday I saw his demon go snarling along the battle line. He\ndid not snarl when I met him first, now many months ago.\n\nIf I could only make you understand that I speak of facts, not fancies!\nI have seen what I describe, as clearly as you see the table before\nyou, or the pencil in your hand. When I say that I have talked with\ndemons, I mean that I have talked with demons. When I say that I have\nseen the Christ, I mean that I have seen the Christ. I am not weaving\nromances, nor have I come back from my journey among the stars to\ncompete with the spinners of tales. I write to reveal what otherwise\nwould be unrevealed, to show to the world the causes lest the world go\nwrong with the effects. I want to help even the race that all other\nraces, including its ally the Turk, now execrate.\n\nOnly the charity of Christ is wide enough to cover this world-betrayal.\nAnd I tell you the betrayers were egged on, inspired and themselves\nbetrayed by the _personal_ forces of evil, in their supreme effort\nto put back the clock of civilization.\n\nBut the Christ cast out devils and raised the dead. Can He not cast\nout these devils behind the purpose of war? Can He not raise the dead\nto the region of peace in the end? Can He not raise _you_ to the\nlevel of His charity?\n\n _May 16._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XLIV\n\n POISON GASES\n\n\nTO-NIGHT I shall not prate to you of charity. Instead, we will speak of\neast winds and poison gases, and the demons that ride on poison gases.\n\nAll hell is again let loose upon the world. It is worse out here than\nduring the month before the war.\n\nFor eleven days I have not been with you. I have had no time for eleven\ndays to spend even an hour with you.\n\nWere you strong enough to hear what I _could_ tell, you would\nnever publish it for the world; but I can tell you much which you are\nstrong enough to hear and which the world is worthy to know.\n\nEast winds and poison gases! The very idea seems infernal, for men die\nin indescribable agony from the gases borne on those winds from the\nGerman camps over to those camps where rational human beings wage war\nby human means. But poison gases are demonic, and demons ride on them.\n\nI have seen them come rolling forward in droves, their eyes aflame with\nhate, their mouths horrible with rancor and triumph.\n\nOh, you safe there as yet in your native land! could you see behind the\ntrenches of the enemy, could you see what lurks in the air above the\ncamps of the enemy, you would even pity the enemy. I may tell you that\nmany out there are stark raving mad.\n\nWhen human beings, invoking the powers of hate, send such hell-fumes\nto choke and torture their fellow-beings, they have ceased to be quite\nhuman.\n\nI, who see their souls, am sick with horror. It is perhaps well that\nyou are alone now, for I may tell you things which you can best endure\nalone.\n\nWere it not for the work which you have to do in future, were it not\nfor this work and that which is to follow, I should take you out and\naway from the world for good, as far as this life is concerned. * * *\n\nBut you must endure to the end, as I shall endure to the end; for you\nhave work to do.\n\nThose who say that all is well in Germany lie in their throats, or they\nare hypnotized by the lie that holds Germany to the belief that she can\nconquer.\n\nCould hell conquer heaven all souls would be destroyed. Should hate\nconquer now the world would be broken asunder.\n\nHate! You know not the meaning of the word. Hate of England, hate of\nAmerica, hate of Italy! The race that inspired this war is poisoned\nto the last molecule with hate. Babes imbibe it with their mothers\u2019\nmilk and their stomachs turn sour. Children see it in their parents\u2019\neyes, and shrink away in fear of their own source. No, you know not the\nmeaning of hate.\n\nOn the poison gases borne by the east wind there came across to me a\ndemon with no eyes. Where did he come from? From some subterranean hell\nwhere no light is, and therefore no need for eyes. Could I draw, I\ncould make you see him; but words were devised to express those things\nwhich are known in the experience of the race, and no one who has seen\nsuch things has used language to describe them. Groping his way, that\nastral monster fastened himself upon a human victim, a prisoner in the\nhands of the French--one who had spit at his keepers in the madness of\nhate.\n\nNo, I must not tell you what followed; but the astral soul of the\nprisoner went out of his body and remained out.\n\nThis attempt to tell the world what I know now is like trying to play\nBeethoven on a penny whistle. I feel as a mathematician would feel\nshould he set himself down to teach addition to small children. I dare\nnot tell you more than I do, for you could not contain it.\n\nThe world is old, and the world deemed itself wise, and the world has\ncome to this!\n\nThere are many earnest souls who desire experience in the astral world.\nI have heard one say in your presence that a certain attack was \u201conly\nastral.\u201d I listened, and said no word.\n\nDo you know what the astral world is, you who seek knowledge of it?\nThe astral world is the world of _feeling_, the world of emotion,\nthe world of love and hate. The astral world at this time is so thick\nwith evil passions that one could cut it with a knife. It is often cut\nwith knives now, with bayonets, and the crowding demons suffer from\ncontact with the steel. \u201cOnly astral!\u201d The astral world above New\nYork, awful as you know it to be, is nothing to the astral world above\nthose battlefields. Keep away! You can do no good there. If possible,\ngo up among the mountains and seek in the pure breath of the pine-trees\nhealing from the poison of the astral world above New York. Go there\nand stay there until the pressure is exhausted. You can do no good\neither where you are.\n\nI can write better in the pure air of the pine woods. Get away from the\npoison fumes of unneutral New York, for devils ride on the winds of\nhate, and you are not to be destroyed by them.\n\nYou have work to do in the future.\n\n _May 27._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XLV\n\n THE SUPERMAN\n\n\nIN one of the upper regions of the astral world--not in the region of\npure mind but near it--I met a man last night who passed to and fro\nwith his head bowed in thought.\n\n\u201cWhat troubles you, friend?\u201d I asked, as I stood before him.\n\nHe paused in his restless walk and gazed at me.\n\n\u201cWho are you?\u201d he enquired, listlessly.\n\n\u201cI am a Judge,\u201d I answered.\n\nHis eyes brightened with interest.\n\n\u201cYou must have come at the call of my thought,\u201d he said, \u201cfor I have\nneed of a Judge.\u201d\n\n\u201cOn whom do you wish me to pass judgment?\u201d I asked, half smiling at his\nstrange words.\n\n\u201cI would like you to pass judgment on me.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd your offence?\u201d\n\n\u201cMy offence--if it is an offence, and on that you shall give your\nopinion--is having led a nation to its undoing.\u201d\n\n\u201cWith malice aforethought?\u201d I queried.\n\n\u201cWith malice, perhaps,\u201d he answered, \u201cbut not in the sense of your\nquestion. I never believed they had spirit enough to believe me.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou pique my curiosity,\u201d I said. \u201cWho are \u2018they?\u2019 and in what did they\nbelieve you?\u201d\n\n\u201cThey are the Germans,\u201d he answered, \u201cthe Germans whom I despised, and\nthey believed my theory that man becomes supreme by doing what he wills\nto do.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd the devil take the hindmost?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, and the devil take the hindmost.\u201d\n\nHe bent on me his sombre eyes, and I waited for his words.\n\n\u201cWhat a folk those Germans are!\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever they do, they do\n_too_ thoroughly. One cannot trust them with a great truth.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey do seem to have systematized you into the ground,\u201d I answered.\n\n\u201cI wanted to make them gods,\u201d he complained, \u201cand I have made them\ndevils.\u201d\n\n\u201cGod only can make gods,\u201d I said. \u201cPerhaps you were too ambitious.\u201d\n\n\u201cHumph! Perhaps I was too confiding.\u201d\n\n\u201cHermeticism is safer,\u201d I suggested. \u201cYou told them far too much.\u201d\n\n\u201cOr far too little, maybe.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn how many volumes?\u201d\n\n\u201cGo ask the librarians. Not the foreign ones--they bind my works in\npackages of salable size.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd how can I help you?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cJudge me.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhile you prosecute and defend yourself?\u201d\n\n\u201cWho else is fit, either to prosecute or defend me?\u201d\n\n\u201cGo on with the prosecution.\u201d\n\n\u201cI have corrupted a whole people, and led them to their ruin.\u201d\n\n\u201cElaborate the charge.\u201d\n\n\u201cI thought to remedy their spinelessness, and following me with\ncharacteristic thoroughness, they have become _all spine_; they\nhave neither heart nor bowels.\u201d\n\n\u201cContinue,\u201d I said.\n\n\u201cI preached Beyond Man. They have practised below man.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo far,\u201d I interrupted, \u201cyou have prosecuted them, not yourself.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow can I charge myself without charging them?\u201d he demanded.\n\n\u201cThen I will step down from the bench,\u201d I said, \u201cand talk with you man\nto man.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am glad you didn\u2019t say soul to soul.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, man is good enough for me! As I said before, you were too\nambitious.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, too ambitious for man, too sick of man, too much in love with\nwhat man might become!\u201d\n\n\u201cWe have come already to the defence,\u201d I said.\n\n\u201cThe smell of the court is still about you,\u201d he growled.\n\n\u201cYou asked me to be your judge.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, that is true.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am sorry for you,\u201d I said.\n\nHe smiled a sad and searching smile.\n\n\u201cYou seem to have both heart and bowels,\u201d he observed.\n\n\u201cAnd you have been too long alone,\u201d I replied. \u201cYou have lost your\ngift of words. Shall I prosecute, defend _and_ judge you? You can\ninterrupt me whenever you like.\u201d\n\n\u201cGo on,\u201d he assented.\n\n\u201cYou were born under a restless star,\u201d I began. \u201cYou followed heroes;\nthey disappointed you by being men. Then you made self your hero, and\nthat disappointed you most of all.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou seem to know all about me.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is the glory and the shame of your greatness, that one knows all\nabout you.\u201d\n\n\u201cI deny it! You do _not_ know all about me.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is it that we do not know?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou do not know how I loved man!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou spoke of him with contempt.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat he might rise to Beyond Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh! And drown the children on the _Lusitania_, and hack his way\nthrough Belgium, and turn every friend against him, and be the curse of\nthe planet!\u201d\n\nHe raised an arresting finger.\n\n\u201cYou are speaking of the Germans,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cThey are the only ones who have followed your philosophy to its\nlogical conclusion.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you taunt me with that?\u201d\n\n\u201cI taunt you with nothing. I am stating facts. It was you who taunted\nthem--to their undoing.\u201d\n\n\u201cI only preached Beyond Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo far beyond man that man misunderstood you.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs that my fault?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhose else?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot theirs?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot altogether theirs. You hated too much. You taught them to hate\nman.\u201d\n\n\u201cI taught them to hate all that was not Beyond Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut man is not Beyond Man, and so you taught them to hate man.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut they themselves are not Beyond Man!\u201d\n\n\u201cThey aspire to be. You taught them to aspire to be. They believed\nthemselves Beyond Man, beyond good and evil. You taught chemistry to\nbabes and sucklings, and they have blown up the nursery of the world.\u201d\n\n\u201cI wanted only to teach them.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou should have begun with the a-b-c.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what do you think is the a-b-c of Beyond Man?\u201d he asked.\n\n\u201cThe a is love, the b is humility, the c is truth,\u201d I answered.\n\n\u201cAnd why did I not teach them love, humility and truth?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou knew not love, humility and truth.\u201d\n\n\u201cI knew not love?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou knew not love.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd I knew not humility?\u201d\n\n\u201cYour arrogance is a by-word.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd I knew not truth?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou knew but half the truth, and half the truth is not truth, as half\nan apple is not an apple.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you think I taught them falsehood?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe supreme falsehood, that _they_ could be Beyond Man. They are\nnot ready for Beyond Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut man must be surpassed!\u201d\n\n\u201cMan must surpass himself,\u201d I answered. \u201cYou see, there is a\ndifference.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat should I have taught them?\u201d\n\n\u201cThat Beyond Man is the servant of man, not the bully and the tyrant.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut they would not have understood.\u201d\n\n\u201cBe not too sure of that. Some few have understood the Son of Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, him!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhom you repudiated.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut he taught men to be slaves!\u201d\n\n\u201cA good servant maketh a good master, and he that is greatest among you\nlet him be the servant of all.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, if you are going to quote Scripture--\u201d\n\n\u201cI quote _the_ Beyond Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you believe----\u201d\n\n\u201cI believe that you repudiated the only _well-known_ example of\nyour own ideal.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you also believe----\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, I also believe that you went mad because you saw too late that\nall your teaching was a lie. I believe that you had not the courage to\nrepudiate yourself, and so surpass yourself; so surpass yourself and\nbecome yourself Beyond Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen you think I knew?\u201d\n\n\u201cI know that you knew. I know that you had a vision of Him, that you\nsaw where you yourself had failed to understand, and that you would not\nacknowledge your own new understanding--which came too late.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou know too much,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cYou asked me to be your judge,\u201d I retorted.\n\n\u201cBut not my executioner.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou have been your own executioner, and the executioner of your\npeople.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy people!\u201d His tone was scornful.\n\n\u201cDid I not say that you had no love?\u201d I demanded.\n\n\u201cAnd what do you now bid me do?\u201d\n\n\u201cGo back to the earth, and teach mankind how man can surpass himself.\nGo back to the earth, and teach men to follow the carpenter\u2019s Son whom\nyou taught them to despise. Go back to Germany, and repudiate yourself.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd how shall I go back?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn another body, of course, a clean and wholesome body, which you are\nto keep clean.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou know very well what I mean! I have told you that you had no\nlove. You had only fastidiousness, and arrogance, and the desire for\nsensation.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou have set me a hard task,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cEternity is long,\u201d I replied, \u201cand the new Germany will have need of\nyour new teaching.\u201d\n\n\u201cShall I thank you?\u201d he asked.\n\n\u201cThere is no need. It is I who thank you for not appealing from my\ndecision.\u201d\n\n\u201cGood night,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cGood night,\u201d I repeated.\n\nAnd the soul of Friedrich Nietzsche passed on. Was it toward the gate\nof rebirth?\n\n _June 1._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XLVI\n\n THE ENTERING WEDGE\n\n\nAFTER our writing of last night, in which I told you of the tortured\nsoul who asked my judgment on a course of teaching which had corrupted\na nation, I went back to the battle line in France. (The Germans cannot\nsink me with their torpedoes.)\n\nPassing slowly along on the German side, I saw again the tall majestic\nform, dark-veiled about the head, which I described to you in a\nprevious letter.\n\nThis time I hailed him, without waiting for him to hail me.\n\n\u201cHow goes your work?\u201d I asked.\n\nHe threw back the veil which covered him, and I saw the dark and\nsplendid face, marked deep by thought and evil.\n\n\u201cMy work goes as it goes,\u201d he answered. \u201cAnd what have you been doing?\u201d\n\n\u201cWriting to the world this evening,\u201d I replied.\n\nHe laughed.\n\n\u201cHave you been writing about peace?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot this time. I have been writing about a conversation I had with a\ngreat and troubled soul.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, I know.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou know, do you? Were you listening?\u201d\n\n\u201cThrough my long-distance telephone.\u201d\n\n\u201cBrilliant invention, the telephone,\u201d I observed. \u201cDid you inspire the\ninvention?\u201d\n\n\u201cI? Oh, no! I worked against it.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd why?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is not well that man should know too much.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut when man makes discoveries, notwithstanding your efforts to hinder\nhim, you attempt to use those discoveries against him, do you not?\u201d\n\n\u201cOf course.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou interest me,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd were you interested by my conversation\nwith the soul of Friedrich Nietzsche?\u201d\n\n\u201cMore interested than you can imagine, until I tell you why.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you will tell me why?\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is no reason for my not telling you. I am frank with those who\nsee through me.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy don\u2019t you teach that to the Germans?\u201d\n\n\u201cBecause it would spoil my game. I want to destroy them after I have\nused them, and if they should turn frank, they would be so thorough in\ntheir frankness that they would disarm the indignant world.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey are frank enough in their brutality,\u201d I said.\n\n\u201cOh, yes! But that is another matter. Should they be frank in their\nrepentance, the world would forgive them.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut what of Nietzsche?\u201d I questioned.\n\n\u201cOnly this, that it was I who inspired him.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou did your work thoroughly.\u201d\n\n\u201cI do my work as thoroughly as it can be done.\u201d\n\n\u201cTell me more,\u201d I urged.\n\n\u201cWhat a worker was lost in you,\u201d he exclaimed, \u201cwhen you chose good for\nyour standard!\u201d\n\n\u201cBut I am an excellent worker,\u201d I insisted. \u201cI have even balked some of\nyour work.\u201d\n\nHe laughed, a quick, sharp laugh.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t think that I care too much for that,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is more\nthan one road for me. If you block the door, I can go in by the window.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd how did you go in to Nietzsche?\u201d\n\n\u201cSometimes by one way, sometimes by another. He only locked his door\nagainst man, and you see I also am Beyond Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cI perceived that at our first meeting. He who goes beyond man must\nmake the choice between good and evil.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is no fooling you,\u201d he said, \u201cand so I no longer try. Yes, it\nwas I who inspired Nietzsche to preach Beyond Man to the Germans, who\ncould only choose evil when they believed themselves strong.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what do you get out of it?\u201d\n\nFor answer, he asked a question:\n\n\u201cDid you ever play chess?\u201d\n\n\u201cOften, in many lives,\u201d I answered.\n\n\u201cDid you have an interest in the game?\u201d\n\n\u201cA great interest.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid you play for stakes?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen what interested you?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy, the game.\u201d\n\n\u201cOf course,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is how I enjoy my game. I play to win, if I\ncan. When I do not win, I have had the pleasure of the game.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you played with that great man\u2019s soul?\u201d\n\n\u201cAs a cat plays with a mouse. I found in him an earnest spirit, with a\nsore spot in his head and in his heart. He was an easy one.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow did you go about it?\u201d\n\n\u201cBy the usual method.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd that is?\u201d\n\n\u201cFlattery.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd he did not smell a rat?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe rats were perfumed. He is an aesthete.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you always perfume the rats?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt isn\u2019t always necessary. I perfumed yours.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d I said, \u201cwith the patchouli of peace. But I have a keen scent.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, the Others have taught you too well.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid Nietzsche ever see you as I see you?\u201d\n\n\u201cHe saw my distinguished face, and he felt the thrill of my power, and\nhe envied and desired to be like me. It is great sport when these\nearnest mortals are ambitious to emulate me!\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd so you taught him Beyond Man?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, and I taught him to despise the One who was really Beyond Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen you are not really Beyond Man yourself?\u201d\n\n\u201cMy head is. My other members are nearer the earth.\u201d\n\n\u201cNotwithstanding the dignity of your presence?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, there is a dignity in the earth and in what belongs to the earth!\u201d\n\n\u201cDid the German philosopher ever know you for what you are?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, toward the end, but then it was too late to undo my work.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen also at the end,\u201d I exclaimed, \u201che saw the two forms of Beyond\nMan, you and the Christ!\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, he saw. The seeing drove him mad.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you have no remorse for your work?\u201d\n\n\u201cRemorse? What is that?\u201d\n\n\u201cRemorse is an emotion which men feel when they are conscious of having\ndone evil.\u201d\n\n\u201cAn emotion that _men_ feel,\u201d he repeated. \u201cBut I only feel those\nemotions of men which give me pleasure in the feeling.\u201d\n\n\u201cSuch as----\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are really too curious and inquisitive!\u201d\n\n\u201cGranted, my curiosity and my inquisitiveness,\u201d I said. \u201cBut it\ninterests me, this labor of a lifetime, a man\u2019s lifetime, to make him\nan instrument through which _all this_ could be produced,\u201d and I\nindicated by a gesture the battle line beneath us.\n\nHis eyes were brilliant with fire as he answered:\n\n\u201cWhat is the lifetime of a man in comparison to the glory of all this?\nOne might labor a thousand years and produce nothing in comparison with\nthis!\u201d\n\n\u201cIt pleases you then, this slaughter?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat a trifling question! It gratifies me, glorifies me, exalts\nme--all this carnage of battle brought forth by me and my kind.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd did you have all this in mind while you were preparing one man to\ncorrupt a nation by his writings?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes. He was the one perfect instrument. None other could have served\nour purpose so well--ambitious, dissatisfied, aristocratic, arrogant,\nunloving in the broader sense, capable of infatuation and hence of\ndisenchantment, and last but not least, with eyes open to the vision.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe vision of you?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes. He saw me first in dreams, and admired me, and desired to emulate\nme.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd then you spoke to him of Beyond Man?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, and I used the old arguments that women were of small account;\nthat the love of woman stood in man\u2019s way; that woman enslaved man\nunless he enslaved her; that Nature was the devil, not the Great\nMother, and so was to be combatted as far as possible; that man rose to\nBeyond Man by denying all that could influence him, including Nature,\nand by asserting whatever gave him freedom, such as his own superiority\nto all other beings, his mastery of them, his mastery of his own\nthought, his mastery of good and evil, of fact and falsehood.\u201d\n\n\u201cA fine _combination_ of fact and falsehood, that teaching of\nyours,\u201d I said.\n\n\u201cOf course,\u201d he answered; \u201cbut what would you? Truth alone could never\nhave produced this.\u201d And he swept with his long arm the line of battle\nbeneath us.\n\n\u201cAnd what else did you teach your chosen disciple?\u201d I asked.\n\n\u201cI taught him all that he taught the world. Whenever he drove a woman\u2019s\nface from his heart, I scored a point and he thought himself nearer\nBeyond Man. Whenever he swelled with pride and superiority, I scored\na point and he felt himself nearer Beyond Man. Whenever he read the\nGospels and sneered to himself at the humility of the so-called Son of\nMan, I scored two points--one against him and one against your Christ.\u201d\n\n\u201cThank you,\u201d I said, \u201cfor enrolling me with the followers of the\nCrucified One. I am such a follower.\u201d\n\nHe ignored my last remark, and proceeded:\n\n\u201cI encouraged his wish to produce a new ideal of a leader, a new\nChrist, an Antichrist, a hard-faced German Christ, who should not win\nmen by love and compassion, but by cruelty and hardening. Oh, I have\ndone that work well! Many a German has exalted my ideal to the place of\nthe Son of Mary. Many a German has put me in place of the Sun-God, and\nhailed me as Beyond Man, though he was too cowardly to hail me frankly\n_as_ Antichrist. Instead, he added my attributes to Christ and\ncalled us by one name, and by that name he sought to destroy all pity\nand compassion, both in himself and in others, sought to destroy all\nlove that stood in the way of his becoming like me. It was I who taught\nhim to exalt the cross as a symbol of cruelty, of sacrifice _to_\nhimself, and not _of_ himself for the love of man.\u201d\n\nHe paused, and gazed out toward the stars that shone serenely above us.\n\n\u201cYou seem to me,\u201d I said, \u201cto be yourself conscious of the superiority\nof Christ to Antichrist.\u201d\n\nAgain he ignored my remark, and continued the line of his own thought.\n\n\u201cWhat intellectual pleasure it has given me, this transforming of a\nChristian nation into monsters of egotism and cruelty to all things\n_not their own_! The foreigner was to be hated, despised, used,\nridiculed, and whenever possible insulted. I taught them that such were\nthe ways of Beyond Man, that so was man surpassed.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut why do you tell all this to me?\u201d I asked. \u201cWhy do you thus lay\nyour cards upon the table, when you know that I hold a better hand?\u201d\n\nThe eyes he turned to me were smouldering lakes of flame.\n\n\u201cBecause I envy you,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cIs that some new and more subtle attack upon me and the principles I\nstand for?\u201d\n\nThe dark one laughed again, his sharp and mirthless laughter.\n\n\u201cFrankly, no,\u201d he said. \u201cYou no longer amuse me as an opponent.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhich means----\u201d\n\n\u201cThat I throw up the game in weariness--this is, for the present.\nAlready the souls I deluded are weary of me and my teaching. They have\nseen a new light--some of them.\u201d\n\n\u201cPerhaps,\u201d I said, \u201cthey have seen the light of the Christ, the true\nBeyond Man.\u201d\n\n\u201cPerhaps,\u201d he repeated.\n\n\u201cAnd have you seen it, too?\u201d\n\n\u201cFaugh!\u201d he said. \u201cAre you ambitious to convert the devil?\u201d\n\n\u201cAh, no!\u201d\n\nSuddenly he turned to me:\n\n\u201cWill you take me for a pupil?\u201d\n\n\u201cAgain, no,\u201d I answered. \u201cYou will make that request of some good\nwoman, with a better chance of deceiving her.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo you know all the tricks?\u201d\n\n\u201cMy Teacher has taught me much regarding the ways of your kind.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen I bid you good evening,\u201d he said, and disappeared in the darkness.\n\n\nWorld for which I write, I am telling you these things that you may\nbe armored with knowledge. When Satan asks you to convert him, beware\nlest he convert you. When Satan points to Beyond Man, even to Christ,\nbe sure that his Christ is not Antichrist; be sure He is full of\ncompassion, that His heart bleeds for the woes and _weakness_ of\nthe world, that His crown of thorns is the mark of His sacrifice for\nman, and not merely a becoming ornament. For, as He said:\n\n\u201cBy this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love\none to another.\u201d\n\nAnd also:\n\n\u201cTake heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name,\nsaying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many, * * * for there shall\narise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and\nwonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the\nvery elect.\u201d\n\n _June 2._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XLVII\n\n THE NEW BROTHERHOOD\n\n\nI WANT to speak of the new race, the coming race. The world is big with\nchild, and the present generation will look with wonder into the clear\neyes of the infant that shall redeem its parent.\n\nPin your faith to the standard of the new race, work for it, make the\ngarments that it shall wear, and be ready for its coming.\n\nAlready you are in touch with those who will help in its training, who\nwill be its teachers and guides. Give yourself also to the Great Work\nthat is planned for America in the coming days. No, you need not spend\nall your time there; but do not remain away too long. Come and go, that\ngoing away you may receive new impressions, and that coming back you\nmay bring the romance of older lands to entertain and inspire the new\nland.\n\nBut be ever loyal to the new.\n\nIn the untrodden wilderness of America there is strength that shall\nrenew you from time to time. The cities of America will be redeemed by\nthe wilderness. The cities are too worldly. They have forgotten God. In\nthe open air, under the open sky, the message may be received by the\nawakened soul.\n\nSend the children out to the wilderness to drink from the\nuncontaminated springs. The water that flows through lead pipes may\nrefresh the body; but the water of mountain springs refreshes the soul.\n\nBehind the veil of Nature is the face of the Great Mother, and\nthough she does not always smile, yet her eyes are full of dreams\nand mysteries. Nature is _not_ the devil. The devil is ever at\nwar with Nature. Nature is Isis, the Mother. Do not listen to the\nblasphemers. They have confused the offices of Isis and of Typhon. It\nis Isis, Nature, which shall bring forth Horus. Go back to Nature and\nask her for her message. She waits in the silence of the woods, and the\nvoice of the brook is her whisper; when the wind stirs in the trees it\nis the rustling of her garments. The Mother is coming, O children of\nthe new race! In her arms you shall know refreshing rest, and in her\neyes shall you read the love that knows no selfishness, the bliss of\nself-giving.\n\nToo long have you dwelt in cities, forgetting the Mother who bore you.\nToo long have you lived without the magnetism of the kind earth in\ncontact with your naked feet. Too long have you trodden the dead, stony\nand unmagnetic streets, that take from you but give nothing. Go back to\nthe woods and the streams. Read your destiny in the eyes of the stars\nthemselves--not merely on a printed chart. Jupiter has a message for\nyou which he will give only face to face, and so has the gentle Venus\nand the eager Mars. Go to them for your lessons, in the quiet of the\nhill-top alone with the Mother.\n\nDo not set up your temple in the market-place. Let your cathedral be\nthe aisles of the forest.\n\nGo to the city when you must, for it is always well to know the\nopposite. The cathedral is stiller after the voice of the mart.\n\nGive honor where honor is due, to those who have led the children\nforth to learn the mysteries of the primeval life. You grown-ups are\nonly taller children. Dance in a ring round the mulberry bush or round\nthe camp-fire. In the smell of burning wood the visions may come, as\nI wrote you once before of your wood-fires in Paris. But what is a\nwood-fire in a Paris grate compared with a camp-fire in the woods? Yes,\nI was there the other night, on the outskirts of the gathering, and I\nenjoyed it, too.\n\nMy greetings to the Chief!\n\nThe salvation of America lies in this wild-wood movement. Movement!\nWell may you call it that. It is stirred by the very forces of the\nearth herself; it is inspired by the race-spirit; it will go on and on,\nin ever-widening circles.\n\nWhoever puts a stone in the way of this work will stumble over it\nhimself. Whoever brings Satanism into this movement will be devoured by\nthe demonic forces. There will not be enough left of him to grease two\nsticks for the camp-fire.\n\nRest you in peace. _We_ watch, and with us the souls of all the\nthousands and tens of thousands and millions of native Americans, who\ncannot go on to their rest until they have passed on the torch of the\nNature mysteries that were their heritage from their remote ancestors.\n\nThey may be despised by those who despoiled them; but their forgiveness\nshall redeem you, O America of the new race!\n\nDo you not know that many of those who made their escape into the rest\nof the \u201chappy hunting ground\u201d are already coming back to incarnation in\nthe land they loved before? Look at the high cheek-bones of many of the\nchildren, look at the eagle eyes and the straight taut forms.\n\nO America, you did a great wrong once in the pursuit of your destiny!\nYes, you did. Now strive to atone. Let the reincarnated red children\nplay in the wild woods, teach them the old code of honor and courage,\nand they will work hand in hand with the reincarnated souls that\ncame by way of Europe, hand in hand shall they stand together in the\n_Woodcraft Brotherhood_.\n\nMy salutations to the Chief!\n\n _July 9._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XLVIII\n\n IN THE CRUCIBLE\n\n\nI AM still profoundly interested in the land that gave me birth. There\nare dark days ahead for her, and the great soul of Abraham Lincoln is\nvery near to the helm of State at this moment, when peace and war hang\nin the balance and the action of a day may decide the question.\n\nNo irreparable injury must overtake this land. It is the great pioneer\nof race freedom. As I told you months ago, one of America\u2019s hands\nthreatens the other, and both threaten the whole body.\n\nMay she keep peace so long as she can have peace with honor! But if the\ndark day comes, may she face it with squared shoulders; and if her foes\nbe also those of her own household, it will not be the first time. A\nman once prayed to be saved from his friends, declaring that he could\ndeal with his enemies himself.\n\nThe stillness of the Germans in America at this moment is potent with\ndanger. If the hour comes when drastic action is necessary, they should\nbe invited to return into the fold of their naturalization, and those\nwho refuse should be dealt with severely, even to deportation. There\nyet remains one country which might receive them for transportation to\nthat Fatherland they left--in quest of the freedom which they have now\nabused and betrayed.\n\nThe world is in the crucible, and Satan is in the laboratory with all\nhis cohorts. Our labor is to stand. It is not always easy to stand\nsteady.\n\nBe calm, and trust in the Motherland that shall yet give birth to the\nnew race, the synthesis of races.\n\n\n\n\n LETTER XLIX\n\n BLACK MAGIC IN AMERICA\n\n\nYOU have seen pretty clearly the methods employed by the evil forces to\nbalk progress, to destroy the work of centuries, to destroy the workers\nfor the future, and to frighten away those who seek to interfere with\nthis maliciousness.\n\nNotice that none of this is constructive work. It is all destructive,\nall tearing down. Wars of construction have been engineered by angels;\nbut this is not a war of construction.\n\nNow let me tell you a few of the things against which the new race\nin America will have to guard itself. As always where the forces of\nprogress are strong, the opposition is strong. I have written enough\nabout the good influences of this new birth; but I want to give a\nfew warnings, to analyze a few influences which are of a destructive\ncharacter.\n\nThere is developing in America a great group of people who seek to gain\ncontrol of the desire-nature and the will of others, that they may use\nthem for their own purposes. These people are not all in one place,\nthey are not organized into one body but into many bodies, and some of\nthem are working quite independently. But in the astral world, and in\nthe language of us who work in that world, they are known as a \u201cgroup.\u201d\n\nThey teach to those who will pay them, either in money or in service,\ncertain rules for controlling the mind of self and of others. They\nteach the rudiments of astral knowledge to the many, and they teach\nmore advanced principles to the few. Some of their teachings are true,\nsome of their teachings are false; but there are few among them who\nundertake any real discipline of character with their students. As one\nprofound teacher has said, for every step in psychic development, three\nsteps should be taken in the development of character.\n\nI need not name those who are most criminally active in teaching the\nformulas of black magic to men and women who are utterly unfit to be\ntrusted with that knowledge.\n\nThe question will naturally arise in the mind of the reader, What\n_is_ black magic? I think I have given a similar definition\nbefore, but you may restate it thus:\n\nBlack magic is an attempt to gain control over the will or the astral\nor the mind of one\u2019s fellows, through means other than the normal\nphysical or the legitimate mental influence by word or pen; be it\nthrough the use of the elementals of nature, artificial elementals, or\none\u2019s own mental or elemental nature.\n\nBlack magic may be deliberately used to influence, or black magic\nmay be deliberately used to injure; and its votaries often employ\n_the substances of the body of the victim_, through which to gain\nsympathetic control of his astral and etheric nature.\n\nI want to say to those who think it smart or amusing to fool with\nthese things: Beware of any man or of any woman who by _normal or\nabnormal means_ seeks to get possession of the fluids of your body,\nespecially the blood and the other vital fluids.\n\nI shall not go into detail here. Those who accept my warning owe me no\nthanks; those who disregard my warning do so at their own peril.\n\nIt gives me no amusement thus to thrust myself between the evil forces\nand their victims. By so doing I draw down upon myself the rage of\nthose forces that I thwart so far as I can.\n\nBe it so! I am competent to deal with them. And I want here to notify\nanyone who thinks to destroy my work, or to destroy those who with\nself-abnegation and selfless courage are helping me in the work of\ntrying to save my country from the forces of hell which are now\nravaging Europe--I want to notify any evil magician who is interested\nin this matter, that if he gets in the way of my resolve it will be he\nwho will suffer and not I.\n\nThe ring which I and the Masters behind me draw round our workers can\nbe passed with evil intent only at the peril of the one who passes.\n\nThis is no threat to use evil magic. We do not use evil magic. But we\nknow how to deflect a malicious current from its chosen victim, so that\nit returns with overwhelming force upon its own source.\n\nAnd I also want to say to those who in their ignorance or wantonness\nallow themselves to be used as catspaws to draw the devil\u2019s chestnuts\nfrom the fire, that fire will burn, and that the devil\u2019s hot chestnuts\nstick to the fingers.\n\nThis is an unpleasant subject. I will now leave it.\n\n\nLet me talk to those who are ignorant of these matters, and most people\nare ignorant--even those who have \u201cstudied psychism.\u201d\n\nMany an innocent (or half-innocent) soul has been driven nearly insane\nby the pressure of the evil thoughts of others, by the will-driven\nthoughts of others.\n\nLet me advise such not further to weaken themselves by fear, but to\nstrengthen themselves by prayer.\n\nI have said that there is a god and a devil in every one of you. Turn\nto the god for protection from the devil. If there were no devil in\nyou, the devils of others could not harm you. Remember that.\n\nSet your own devil to serve your own god.\n\nIf you want to use signs and symbols, meditate on the cross of Christ.\nThe cross of Christ is profound enough for a lifetime\u2019s meditation.\n\nDo not use evil magic to protect yourself against evil magic. Call on\nthe god within to send evil back to its source.\n\nProtect yourself before sleep by prayer to your god for protection. The\nevil workers can sometimes reach your soul in sleep when they cannot\nreach you while awake. The child\u2019s prayer, \u201cNow I lay me down to sleep,\nI pray the Lord my soul to keep,\u201d is more potent than a magician\u2019s\nspells.\n\nChildish, you say? Yes, but I am writing now for those who are children\nin these things, be they seven or seventy.\n\nOf all countries on earth, America is the most abysmally ignorant of\nthe dangers of evil magic. Be willing to be children until you acquire\nadult knowledge of these subjects.\n\n\u201cI am in no danger, for I understand these things,\u201d is often said with\nself-gratulation by these who are in the very grip of the evil forces.\nTruly, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.\n\n\nIf you want an added protection, my children, guard your own evil\npassions and resentful thoughts, your jealous emotions and unkind\ncriticism of others. The devils ride on waves of anger and resentment.\n\nBeware also of temptations, remembering that young souls are tempted\nthrough their faults, greater souls through their virtues.\n\nBe not deceived into saying there is no evil. Evil is--so long as good\nis.\n\n\u201cBeyond good and evil\u201d is a state to which few of you can aspire, and\nyou have no conception of it. But \u201cbeyond good and evil\u201d is a mighty\nslogan for the temptation and bewilderment of vain souls.\n\nWhen you are really beyond good and evil you will not gossip about your\nneighbors, nor envy them their charm or their possessions, nor try to\nuse them for your own ends, nor worry lest some evil person shall do\nyou harm, nor twist your faults till they seem virtues, nor deceive\nyourself as to your motives.\n\nExamine yourselves, my children. Look for your faults. If you can find\nno fault in yourself, hang your harp on the nearest willow, for your\nprogress is at an end.\n\nMan progresses through recognizing his faults, through transmuting them\nand transcending them. If you are perfect, this world is no place for\nyou.\n\n\u201cBeyond good and evil,\u201d indeed!\n\nJudge not, that ye be not judged. But do not flirt with the devil to\nprove that you judge him not.\n\nYes, all men are your brothers, even bad men. Attend to your own\naffairs, and leave the issue with God.\n\nThis much to you, dear children of the world, from my vantage place\nabove your passions.\n\n _July 25._\n\n\n\n\n LETTER L\n\n THINGS TO REMEMBER\n\n\nTHAT the contents of this book may become the possession of those who\nwant it, I will now bring it to a close.\n\nOne might go on writing forever about the astral incidents of this war,\nand not exhaust the subject. What I have been able to give is a mere\nsketch, a few incidents, a few suggestions.\n\nThese things, however, bear in mind:\n\nThat there are angels as well as devils in the neighborhood of the\nbattlefields.\n\nThat those who see the war from above see causes as well as effects,\nand from those causes can draw sane conclusions based on a richer fund\nof data than that available to the men of earth.\n\nThat war, like everything else, has its rhythms. Do not be discouraged\nwhen the pressure of battle bears heavily on the side that you call\nyours. If your side went forward too quickly, you would need to look\nfor a violent reaction, as in the retreat from the outskirts of Paris.\n\nThat though evil is a necessity so long as good exists, though evil is\nthe other pole of the magnet, yet it is the duty of those who desire\nto walk the White Road ever to do battle for the right. And this is no\nrepudiation of the saying of the Christ, \u201cResist not evil.\u201d A paradox,\nyou say? Great wisdom is locked in paradoxes, for those who have the\nkey. The existence of evil gives greater strength to good. This is the\nKali Yuga, as the Hindoos say.\n\nThat this war is an attempt of the personal evil forces to destroy\nmankind. A former attempt was made in Europe before the so-called Dark\nAges, but the Renaissance followed and restored the balance.\n\nThat man has in himself both the Christ principle and the demonic\nprinciple; that will is free, and that man can make his choice between\nthem.\n\nThat new races are born of revolutions and wars. He that hath ears to\nhear, let him hear.\n\nThat though I may have a wider sight than you, I do not know\neverything. I draw conclusions from premises, the same as you do.\nI predict the probable effects of causes known to me; but a sudden\nirruption of free and erratic will sets up a new cause, and my\ncalculation has to be made afresh. My predictions are not the result of\ndivine omniscience. I see further than you, that is all. My logic may\nbe no better than yours. For instance, when we drove back the forces\nof evil during the early months of the war, I forgot the Law of Rhythm\nthat would enable them to roll forward again when they had generated\nanother supply of strength. Even devils generate their own strength.\nYes, they too are Units of Force, and must be figured on as such. I\nshall not make that mistake again.\n\n\nMy Teacher, who stands beside me at this moment, directs me to say\nthat even the Masters do not know everything. As my vision is wider\nthan yours, so their vision is wider than mine; but they cannot always\nsee what goes on in the farthest stars. They invite you to become like\nthem; but they know that you are held by rhythmic law, and that for\nevery two steps you take toward them, you will fall back at least\none step. That you do not fall back two steps is because of your free\nwill, and because of that greater rhythm which urges mankind to the\nflood-tide. Each achievement is a ripple in a larger wave which you\ncannot always see.\n\nI have been requested to write further of my Teacher, but my Teacher\nwishes to remain in the background. I may tell you this, however, O\nworld! my Teacher still has a physical body and walks the earth as a\nman. He works in both the material and the astral worlds, and in higher\nworlds beyond them, and the purposes of his life are outside your\ncomprehension. He is a servant of the Law, and his joy is in working\n_with_ the Law. The Black Masters, for there are Black Masters,\nwork against the Law. I have told you of my conversations with one of\nthem, and have given you a hint as to his methods.\n\nWhen you are strong, you need not fear the Black Masters. You may pass\nthe time of day with them, as I do. They are far more afraid of me than\nI am of them. I do not go out of my way if I see one coming. I find\nthem rather diverting, though I recognize the tragedy of their lot.\nThey fill a terrible office, which must be filled, and their sufferings\nare great. They are the erring brothers of the White Masters. In the\nbeginning they were trained in the same school; but the great \u201cmoment\nof choice\u201d came, and the evil ones _separated themselves_ from\ntheir source. The White Masters do not seek to destroy them, knowing\nthat in the end they will destroy themselves. Why waste effort in\nstriving to hurry the sunset?\n\nDo not let the black Masters and their servants mislead you, and avoid\nthem if you can until you are stronger than they. But when you are\nstronger than they, you have nothing to fear from them.\n\nWhen they cannot affect you directly, they strive to affect you through\nthose you love. Be at peace. You are not your brother\u2019s keeper. If\nyour brother delights in the devil, let him have the pleasure of his\npreference. Will is free.\n\nGive testimony of the truth that is in you; but do not attempt to\nmuzzle the hounds that bay the summons to the witches\u2019 sabbath.\n\nEnter the Holy Temple and shut the door; then invoke the angels. The\nbaying of the hounds cannot drown the music of the angel voices.\n\nBe still, and know that God is God.\n\n\nA great day is dawning for America--after a time of trial. The sun\nwill rise from behind a bank of clouds; but in the freshness of the\ndawn much labor will be done for the new race, and for the Brotherhood\nof races. All over America movements will be started for the training\nand perfecting of mankind. Give them your help, for thus you will be\nworking with the Law. Thus you will be learning the first lessons in\nthe school of the White Masters, whose watchword is Service.\n\n\nThough I am not going far away this time, yet I leave you my blessing,\nO world that I have labored and suffered for--far more than you know\nduring the last hard year.\n\nAnd I want to thank the world for its great interest in my former book,\n\u201cLetters from a Living Dead Man.\u201d Yes, I am living still, and am far\nmore alive than when I wrote for you before. Little by little I am\ngrowing into an intensity of life which I could not have imagined when\nI walked the earth as a man among men.\n\nIn these War Letters from the other world I have tried to give you\nglimpses of that intenser life which I lead now, after my return from\nthe journey among the stars. I had thought to tell you of that journey\nwhen I should return again; but the story would not have been so\ninstructive at the present time as this story of the war in the astral\nworld. For you are nearer the astral world than you are to the stars,\nand until you learn the a-b-c you cannot read and understand romances.\n\nI am only a humble servant of the Law, a learner in the school of those\nwho are wiser than I. To get, I must give. To learn, I must teach. To\ngo forward, I must try to bring you forward with me.\n\nIt has seemed to me that what the world needed most at the present time\nwas a knowledge of the mysteries behind this war. I have been an unseen\nsoldier in this war, in which I have received many a wound. I have\nhad my nights of vigil and my days of labor; but they have given me a\nstrength that I could not otherwise have gained. I am strong because I\nhave served.\n\nServe you, and the reward will come in due season!\n\nI am going to rest now for a little while, because I have another\nservice to perform in the near future.\n\nI shall not go far away.\n\n\u201cX.\u201d\n\n _July 28, 1915._\n\n\n THE END.\n\n\n\n\n =TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES=\n\nSimple typographical errors have been silently corrected; unbalanced\nquotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and\notherwise left unbalanced.\n\nPunctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a\npredominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they\nwere not changed.","title":"War letters from the living dead man","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":56686}